Alec's War

By Shikasta

Spoilers: Anything's fair game in my view although this is an
AU

Disclaimer: The characters of Dark Angel are owned by Twentieth
Century Fox Television and Cameron Eglee productions. In laymen's
terms: Don't own them but by god I wish I did.

A/N well here's a long one for you all and keep your comments coming. I've been finding it rathe rhard to get back into teh swing after three whole days off from writing but with this chapter complete I think I'm back on form.

Italics = flashback

Chapter Eleven – The Broken Link

The sun was just beginning to peak above the horizon, the air cold as a person's breathe billowed out like smoke. Mole stood, his teeth clenching over his stogie, his arms briskly patting across his chest trying to keep warm. He wasn't designed for cold and often cursed Seattle weather but his macho tendencies didn't allow him to be too disgruntled. He had an hour of rounds before he could go back to command and the warmth.

He had just seen off Max and Thaddeus and as he stood by the entrance of the backdoor was getting an update from its guards. They were as far south of the city as they could go and the human army beyond the city was sparse but vigilance was still demanded.

"So anything unusual happen?" Mole huffed while blowing air into his hands.

"Nah, they have a peak from time to time but other than that it's been rather dull."

"Good, well I'm off to do my rounds, give me a holler if anything happens."

Picking up his shotgun Mole departed trekking north towards the next guard patrol. They had a massive territory to watch over and although their numbers were large Mole still felt they were too thinly spread.

"Bloody cold" he muttered to himself "bloody war."

Remaining ever wary Mole arrived at the next sentry and made his way over to the guards warming themselves at a steel drum fire.

"Hey boys, anything to report?"

"All quiet."

"Its too bloody quiet."

"Maybe their deciding to retreat?"

"Not bloody likely" he spat "I'll just reclaim my bike now and move on."

"Sure thing."

Mole jumped on the bike securing his shotgun and started the engine then moved on reasonably weaving his way through the rubble. He had lost some of his roughness present in the early days of freedom, he was still rather scary but could often be caught out playing tag with the children that some of the older transgenics found amusing. Of course Mole would always make up some excuse but playing with the kids always brought a smile on his face. Hope had taught him to play and whenever she saw him now would demand an aeroplane ride which he was all to willing to give. He liked the idea of being Uncle Mole he also liked the idea of being a part of something that was greater than his mere survival although he still cursed the weather.

"Why couldn't it have been Miami" he gritted 'only four more guard posts and then command.' His favourite place cause in his view it was the warmest place in this whole god forsaken city.

Mole had finally finished his morning rounds with everyone commenting on the quiet and he couldn't help but think that one day the humans would just march in and sometimes he wondered why they hadn't done it yet. He parked the bike outside command, knowing his ride had been a rather frivolous use of much needed fuel but 'hey' he thought 'I'm no good if I freeze to death'. Heading into command he approached Luke to report in "well the south side's pretty quiet."

"Why don't you just use comms?"

"Hey it doesn't hurt to see the situation for yourself."

"I suppose not, but after your rounds you complain about the cold."

"Have I complained yet, have I?" he huffed chomping on his stogie.

"Nah, but give it ten minutes" Luke quipped.

Mole gave him a death glare then added "Is Alec around, wanna let him know that Max got off okay."

"He's in the back."

Mole left Luke to find Alec relishing in even more coffee "They call it rationing for a reason pretty boy."

"I'm banking on Max bringing some more back."

"She's going to be a little preoccupied getting your daughter."

"She can multi-task," Alec took another sip "did she get off alright?"

"I reckon she'll be back in 24 hours, that's if they don't run into any opposition."

"Maxie knows how to take care of herself."

Alec rose and passed the remainder of his coffee to Mole "here have the rest, I've got a sector head meeting, don't think it'd go down too well being seen with this."


Alec was surrounded by the sector heads all giving him a blow by blow account of what they didn't have, he yawned subtly, once a week they met and once a week they said the same things. Today water was the big issue, ever since the water supply had been permanently cut off they had too keep coming up with ingenious ideas to get fresh water. Fresh water was like gold and only used for drinking, seawater of which they had an exhaustive supply was used for everything else.

"Okay thinking caps on people" Alec shouted, "So rain water's not bringing in enough?"

"Not as much as we would like" Misha commented "and the fire hydrants are all but dry bar a handful, it's starting to look rather serious."

"We could always hijack another couple of water tankers travelling through the state." Felix suggested.

"I don't think we'll be able to pull that stunt off twice, I mean last time we got away with it cause it was so unexpected." Alec chuckled at the memory of driving three tankers through the blockade and into Seattle, it was definitely up there with his other favourite exploits.

"We could try distilling the seawater?" Mac suggested.

"Come on Mac you know we don't have the power to pull that off." Felix chagrined.

"Wouldn't hurt to try though" Mac retorted.

Alec sighed they were all highly intelligent super beings but organising something as basic as water would always result in some small tiff, 'the problem is egos' he thought jovially.

"Okay crazy idea, but how about we trying digging some wells." Mint offered.

"Wells uh," Alec pondered liking the idea "Not a bad idea, now the question is why didn't we come up with this two years ago" chuckling at the simplicity of it.

The group sat embarrassed sure it might not be successful but it was a hell of a lot safer than the time they hijacked water tankers and they thought in unison all smiling at the memory.

"Well we're going to need some diggers," Mint said.

"I'll get Fizz on it" Alec responded "are there any other urgent matters?"

"Other than the obvious?" Felix joked.

"Has Luke mentioned the sparring contest to you guys?" Alec asked.

"Yeah, good idea we've already added it to our ever growing list of things to do" Alec ignored Misha's mirth and closed the meeting heading out to find Fizz, who guaranteed was loitering around command.

"Hey Fizz" Alec greeted.

"Hey"

"Need you to run and find me Spin asap"

"Sure thing boss" and Fizz rushed out the door in his usual hyperactive state.


Fizz still hadn't found Spin, representative for the digger contingent in Seattle. There was a ridiculous amount of hierarchy and as Fizz would joke they were more like a united nations rather than just a nation. All the different breeds had representatives, all the sectors had heads, and then the departments had heads, command had heads 'way too many heads' Fizz thought as he zoomed through the streets on his bicycle.

He was now in sector five, having heard on the grape vine that Spin was patching up some of the underground shelters. Of course this wasn't the first rumour he had followed regarding Spin's location. 20 minutes ago he was in sector four shouting the guys name down a tunnel with no response. He stopped abruptly outside the location he had been given.

Fizz looked up to Alec like a big brother, he had ever since he had first arrived in TC having a rather unhealthy craving for the leader's attention. That's how he had become Alec's lackey, he spent so much time loitering around command that the big guy thought it high time he earned the privilege. Fizz was more than happy and now 7 years on the X7 was still running errands for command and still being mocked by his friends for it. The red headed 20 year old didn't care, cause every time Alec praised him or ruffled his hair he felt needed.

Fizz finally found Spin in one of the shelters in the area and patiently waited for the digger to finish his repairs before bothering him.

"Hey Spin" Fizz waved.

"Hey kid, whadaya want?"

"Alec sent me out to find ya."

"I don't have time to go to command."

"I didn't say that's what he wanted."

"Well that fact that you're here instead of him tells me he wants to see me at command."

"Oh."

"For a supposedly highly intelligent X7 you're lacking in common sense" Spin joked knocking Fizz's skull "how long it take ya to find me?"

"An hour why."

"Need some ammo to hit Alec with a comms link request" the digger mused "you go back to Alec and tell him to I'll be there in an hour, if its really important he'll just have to come to me, ya hear?"

"Sure" Fizz responded than made a dash back to his bike.


Spin stood back and admired the handiwork on his repairs to the last shelter on his list in sector five "that should do it," he muttered to himself as he exited. The sun was now high in the sky and he figured he should probably head to command. As he got on his bicycle he heard the first explosion off in the distance and looked in its direction with the others standing in the daylight. "Looks like sector eight" he heard someone say before he pushed off heading hard and fast to command, he really wasn't up for getting stuck during the bombing.

Spin was a digger who loved to dig it was his hobby and passion, he was doing a job he enjoyed and he felt useful doing it. He was from the Genco facility and at first didn't adapt to well to freedom, now he generally scoffed at orders and the hierarchy in a respectful manner. He heard another explosion and quickly looked behind him "looks like I got outta sector five just in time" he muttered as he pushed harder.

Dawdling into command Spin made his way over to Alec to find out what the guy wanted him for, he thoughts went back to the shelters he had just repaired and hoped they were holding.

"So what's so urgent Alec?"

"Need some wells dug, your team up for it."

"Need you ask? So where do you want us to dig."

"To be honest we actually hadn't thought that far ahead."

"Hoping we'd do did ya?" Spin rolled his eyes sometimes the X-series really bugged him.

"See Mint, it was her suggestion" Alec decided. "Sure thing, what sector's she from again?"

"Eight"

"Well they're being bombed at the moment so its gonna hafta wait."

Alec put his arm around Spin grinning "good, let you in on a secret, we've got coffee in the side room help ya self."

"Coffee you say" Spin said as he made his way to the contraband. As he entered he spied Lucas coveting a mug of the black gold.

"Hey Spin"

"Hey Lucas, how's requisitions?"

"Same old, same old."

"Still getting creative?"

"As always."

"How's the north tunnel holding up?"

"No problems yet."

"Good to hear" Spin said as he poured himself a cup.

"Got a shipment coming in at the dock, good to see you" and Lucas departed leaving Spin to enjoy his treat.


"Their bombing six sectors" Luke informed Alec concerned.

"That's excessive even for them."

"I know."

"Any pattern?"

"Not that I can see."

"Keep an eye on it."

On his way out of command Lucas waved to Alec to let him know he was going and Alec nodded back. Lucas was responsible for requisitions and between Alec and himself they had enough black market contacts to ensure that Seattle wasn't entirely devoid of everything. Today he would be receiving some much need luxuries for the residents including shampoo, he felt his hair the grease sticking to his fingers "come on rain" he muttered. When it rained and there was no bombings the residents of Seattle would stand outside in full force washing their hair and bodies, it was like one huge communal shower.

Lucas jumped on his bicycle and peddled off towards to the dock, hoping the small boat that would be bringing the supplies hadn't run into any trouble. He met the rest of his crew on the beach and waited for a distant light to inform them of the boats approach.

"So what's coming in today?" Jez asked.

"Shampoo among other things"

"Thank god my hair's looking a tad tatty" Aiden moaned "now all we need's some rain."

They saw a light flash in the distance with the predetermined signal and Lucas flashed back a response with the flashlight in his hand. Now all they had to do is wait until the boat reached shore. Aiden was suddenly distracted and looked off to the left.

"What is it?" Jez asked.

"Thought I saw something"

"Probably just the jitters, you know they're bombing six sectors."

"Yeah wonder why?"

"Because they got bored perhaps" Lucas joked as Aiden's head whipped round again.

"Okay I definitely saw something."

"Then go check it out" Jez proposed just as the boat was pulling up to the shore.

"Too late for that, if it is something one of the guards will pick it up."

"Come on boys shampoo's awaiting" Lucas hollered while jogging towards the surf.

As they unloaded the cargo and paid the captain of the boat, Aiden still remained distracted.

"Sorry Lucas, it's really bugging me now."

"Go and check it out then, Jez and I can handle taking this up to the warehouse."

"Thanks" Aiden muttered as he jogged off into the direction that had distracted him earlier.


Aiden was standing outside what use to be a boathouse, the footprints he had seen in the sand had led him here and he was crouched using his eyes to see if he could pick up any movement. For a brief second he debated whether or not to get back up but in the end decided to check it out himself, bombings were the only real danger around here anyway.

He cautiously walked up to the building trying to hear any out of place sounds, but there was nothing. He paused at the door his hand clutching the handle, his instinct screaming at him that something was wrong but he chose to ignore it as he opened the door and walked in to see a huge boat sitting on planks of wood.

"Nothing" he muttered "May as well have a quick look round while I here." He started to walk into the room and then he looked down, noticed the red laser dot positioned over his heart, heard the bullet whiz through the air and then collapsed dead on the ground, his eyes frozen with a look of shock.

A black figure moved from his hiding place followed by three others he whispered into his comms link "Sir we're in, one dead, stashing the body now then heading for the target." Then he nodded to his companions who moved towards the dead body of Aiden lifted him up and threw him into the boat. Once that was done the leader of the intruders signalled his team to move out.

TBC