The day was an unusually quiet one for post-invasion New York. No actinic flashes of plasma lit up the cloudless skies. There were no dark rocket contrails streaking down to earth or spearing into the heavens. Only the thrumming sound of advanced technology and the muted echoes of thousands of Covenant soldiers marred the silence of the city on this day. The reason would have been clear to even the least observant spectator.

The Flame of Justice had come to roost five hundred meters above the streets of the Bronx. By modern Hegemony standards the Flame of Justice was a medium cruiser with obsolete weaponry. When compared to the technology of the Hegemony's enemies in this galaxy it was more than adequate. The StarSpawn forces struggling to pacify this area of the city had forcibly been rendered assistance in the form of the cruiser. After the ships powerful plasma projectors had incinerated an entire human strike force, as well as four city blocks, there had not been a single TechCom soldier sighted in the area. StarSpawn Firebases had immediately been rebuilt, twice as many as before, and the hunt for humans was ready to go into full gear.

The Hegemony was so preoccupied with their preparations that they failed to notice anomalous energy spikes in half a dozen different locations on the outskirts of the Bronx. At each of those locations machinery was quietly exposed to the surface. Very large, very lethal looking weapons rose up from underground parking garages, warehouses, and even the top of an abandoned apartment building. The weapons had barrels three times as long as their round bases once they fully extended. Each was mounted on top of a fully pivotal anti-gravity platform. One by one the guns acquired their target and waited for their brethren to get their own locks. At some unseen signal the six weapons powered up and prepared for firing. The fusion plants in their bases increased their power outputs to fifty percent and the barrels widened to twice their former circumference. Then the weapons fired with an almost silent report and nearly no recoil for the platforms to compensate. Specially designed ammunition, based on the high-caliber, uranium-depleted slugs TechCom sidearms used, was accelerated to hypervelocity towards the Flame of Justice. It only took two hits for the shield to come down and then the four remaining rounds found their marks. The shells themselves did considerable damage, passing through several levels of hull before disintegrating, but the kinetic energy each had carried with it did even more damage.

The Flame of Justice almost immediately listed to one side and dropped a dozen meters. A full squadron of Covenant Seraph fighters and two squadrons of Banshees swarmed from their fighter bays. As the Hegemony cruiser slowly began its descent the scrambled aerospace defenders zeroed in on the locations of the weapons that had hulled their ship. Suddenly the flash of AA-plasma and rocket batteries again seared the skies as SkyNet sprang its trap. Squadrons of redesigned and upgraded Aerial H/K's rose from hidden hangars scattered throughout the Bronx. These new H/K's were shaped similarly to the previous models with the exception of sleek looking wings covered in weaponry that had replaced the vulnerable turbines. Banks of anti-gravity generators on the undersides of the fuselage and tail allowed the machines to glide effortlessly through the air. Within thirty seconds all aerial defenders had been terminated and the Aerial H/K's were circling for attack runs on the smoking Flame of Justice. More flights of fighters erupted but were speedily dealt with by the fearless, well-coordinated assaults of the Machine fighters. Another round from the SkyNet-manufactured Anti-Orbital Rail Cannons caused secondary explosions throughout the cruiser. The orderly, unhurried descent quickly turned into a crash landing only half a block from one of the largest Firebases in the Bronx.

The AORC defenses switched to their primary operating mode, increased their power output to two hundred percent, and oriented themselves to cover a broad expanse of the orbital trajectories that would allow planetary bombardment. The Hegemony ships in orbit were leaking so much energy that it was child's play for even planetside sensors to locate them. One Covenant heavy cruiser edged into the extreme range for an orbital bombardment and was destroyed by three simultaneous rail blasts.

Legions of StarSpawn and Corps. soldiers began to mobilize from the Firebases scattered throughout the Bronx and were met by the bombing runs of Aerial H/K's. Newly redesigned H/K Tanks hovered onto the battlefield from their own hidden hangars escorted by squads of T-850 endoskeletons. The T-850's looked very different than their T-800 predecessors. Each unit was matte-black and wore additional body armor on their torsos, heads, shoulders, and legs. Their arms were covered in huge gauntlets that were directly tied into the huge weapon the T-850's carried with one hand. Soon the Firebases were embroiled in the midst of their own battles for survival.

Hundreds of Covenant dropships, Phantoms, and commando drop-pods began descending towards the city. For every hundred that entered into the twenty kilometer range of the AA batteries only ten made it to landfall. They were quickly directed to coordinates inside the Hegemony secured territory in Manhattan but that meant a long, dangerous journey for the Hegemony counterattack.

Almost before the dust settled a perimeter was being established around the cruiser. Every remaining fighter and vehicle that was still functioning was launched. Ground emplacements were hardened with Shade emplacements as well as Tau rocket batteries. The only thing the perimeter lacked was the numbers to effectively command the area the cruiser was covering. Being outnumbered was something not even the newest members of the Hegemony had experienced since becoming a part of it.

The point of a broad spear of SkyNet forces converged on the thinnest section of the perimeter and many of the troops from the opposite side of the ship were used as reinforcements. That was the exact moment that John Conner and his TechCom forces decided to join the fray from that Sector.

Conner watched through his favorite pair of binoculars as his heavy assault company tore through the ranks of Hegemony defenders like tissue paper. The skies above them were filled with SkyNet and Hegemony forces vying for air superiority. It made Conner wistful for even the possibility of aerial superiority. He had to settle for making sure no one was superior over him. With that in mind the local Sci/Tech branch, now under the command of fresh-from-Alaska Snog, had devised a way to produce workable semi-automated chainguns that fired searing balls of Hegemony-type plasma at sixty rounds a second. The best thing was that several could be auto-linked to a manned position. Conner felt confident that no one would be strafing his soldiers with thirty-three of the chainguns covering their sky.

Mobilization of his forces had happened very quickly only because Conner himself had been planning an operation akin to SkyNet's. Only Conner's plan had been far riskier because he didn't have those massive cannons that SkyNet did. The 132nd was supposed to have stolen a Covenant Phantom, infiltrated the cruiser, and planted a bomb. Once it had been forced to land Conner had planned on salvaging as much material and data as he could. One thing Judgement Day had taught humanity was how to scavenge. The plan had been very chancy but a gift from the proverbial blue had dropped into their laps.

Conner's wrist-com beeped and the visage of Captain Lucas flickered to life, "We should be through in less than five, General."

"Good. Carry on, Captain. The commando's are getting a little antsy to try out some of their new toys."

Lucas grinned as the still unfamiliar sound of a particle cannon washed over him, "I know we like ours."

Lucas signed out and Conner turned back to observing the battlefield. He and HellBorn squad were holed up on the third floor of an aboveground parking garage with an almost totally unobstructed view of the battle. It would have been nice to be able to see the entire battle for the cruiser but Conner had long ago given up wishing for tactical advantages.

"Sir," Bruno growled, and Conner turned to watch as Luna sauntered her way towards them from the far side of the parking garage.

"Luna, what are you doing here? I thought you were with Perry's men getting ready to infil- Shoot it!"

Conner was a little too slow in his order as 'Luna' managed to close within a meter of one of his team. She moved faster than Conner had ever seen anything, including the single T-1000 that had tried to terminate him, and within seconds had a strong, brown hand wrapped around Corporal Stein's throat. A ripple seemed to pass through the Terminator's skin then and wherever it passed its appearance changed. Soon, much to Conner's surprise, a smallish teenage girl that looked like a damn cheerleader was manhandling Stein. It even had the damnable cheerful countenance down to a science.

"Boy, you really are as paranoid as father said. Almost as paranoid as father himself," she said with a small grin.

"Father?" Conner couldn't help himself even though he knew he should have ordered his men to fire.

"SkyNet of course," the Terminator looked at Conner as if it really wanted to say 'duh'.

"Just shoot it, sir-!" Stein's voice was choked off as the Terminator tightened its grip.

"Now none of that, pretty boy, we've got speechifying to do."

Sergeant Bruno gave his commander a look that was just as mystified as Conner felt. He had never heard a Terminator so good at acting human. It terrified him on so many levels it was almost funny.

"Tell my one good reason why I shouldn't listen to the corporal, fakie?"

The Terminator actually rolled its eyes, "I hate that name. It sounds so… prepubescent. I'd prefer endo to that but my name is X2 and I'd prefer that most of all."

Every time the machine opened its mouth Conner was thrown for a total loop but he somehow managed to keep his wits enough about him to reply," Okay, X2, so what do you want?"

The Terminator gave another of those small, unbelievable grins, "Well, General, it's simple really. That's a big ship out there and there's more than enough material for either of our sides to take before we blow it. We want a temporary cease-fire between our Machine forces and your TechCom fighters. You will be responsible for maintaining your perimeter and we will maintain ours as well as air superiority. Your forces are welcome to whatever plunder you can salvage provided they get there first. The mission clock is at two hours, seven minutes, and thirty seconds."

It took Conner a full ten seconds to actually process what the Terminator was proposing. Could the Machines really be trusted? They had never tried to offer Conner any kind of deal before and SkyNet had a tendency to be brutally straightforward.

"Why are you going to blow the ship?" he found himself asking to buy time to think.

"Those AORC's that are keeping the Covenant from orbital bombardment can not maintain their power levels forever. Once they are unable to sustain those levels we will blow the ship. Actually it will be more of an implosion. If we overloaded the engines it would wipe out the entire city quite easily."

The return to a Terminator's precise articulation did much to restore Conner's senses and he nodded.

"It's a deal then. Are you going to let the Corporal go?"

Again that tiny grin, "Sure."

It released Stein and then disappeared with a full body ripple.

"Shit," Bruno whispered, and Conner silently seconded that motion.

"Get my captains on the wire. I need to speak to Luna first. And somebody pick Stein's jaw off the floor before he trips over it."

"I don't believe I'm hearing this, Boomer," Yuri grumbled, shoulder bumping into his again as they were ferried to the opening Captain Lucas' heavy assault company had punched in the Hegemony perimeter.

The entire squad, with Lieutenant Luna having been replaced by Lieutenant Brians, was in the back of a retrofitted U-haul truck. Captain Perry was still having a conference call with the other Captains and the General over the comm.-gear they had access to in the truck.

"Well, I can't believe a lot of things. I can't believe no one thought to put good shocks in this piece of crap. I can't believe there was a nuclear war. And I most assuredly can't believe there are aliens even uglier than me."

"What are you even talking about, damnit!" Yuri practically yelled into his face to be heard over the groaning of the dilapidated, oft-repaired engine.

"Hey, Boomer!" Valentine shouted across the compartment, "I can't believe you two haven't gone at it like bunnies yet!"

Boomer could practically feel Yuri's blush under the grime that covered her exposed skin.

"Screw you, Valentine!" Yuri barked.

"Save me a place in line!" everybody except for Perry and Yuri burst into laughter then.

Yuri elbowed Boomer in the side, "You don't have to laugh, you know."

Boomer's brow furrowed, "But it was funny."

Yuri glared at Boomer, lowered her combat visor, and slumped down in her seat. Now she was giving him the silent treatment and he had no idea why.

"Cut the chatter people and listen up!" Perry barked into the squad-net. "Time for a mission update. Luna reports that the endo's have taken the main bridge but the sci/tech boys thinks there's an auxiliary bridge not very far from our entry point. It will be our job to secure the location for a sci/tech squad and their security squad. Then we're going to hustle our asses to the engine room. Command thinks that the Sector Commander might authorize them to overload the engine core. We are not allowed to let that happen. Am I understood?"

"Understood, sir!" the squad barked as one.

"All right. We'll be there in another minute. Check your gear one more time. You all know how iffy the new tech-junk can be."

Boomer chuckled to himself and checked over his weapons. The plasma carbine had been in development for a long time and rumors about it had been circulating through the ranks for years. It was shorter than the plasma rifle but thicker from scope to clip. There was a pump-action underneath that could fire armor-piercing, HE rounds that were as large as shotgun shells. His shotgun had been replaced by a sleeker, more angular version that had strange, glowing lines through the middle. The shotgun shells had also changed and they were covered in glowing lines from back to front. A kinetic energy enhancer module could attach near the grip and that would increase the damage from a blast nearly a hundredfold. Supposedly there was some kind of generator inside the weapon itself and that was why it could fire as long as a soldier had shells. The sci/tech soldier had also showed him how to detach the complex electronics so it could fire from purely mechanical means just in case he was exposed to an EMP burst. Their sidearms were new as well. The new sidearms, designated as KE-10's, fired ten-millimeter, caseless rounds and had kinetic enhancer modules attached. Surprisingly the KE-10 was only slightly smaller than the AP-50 but the benefit was that the KE-10 clips could hold three times as much ammunition. Rumor had it that the only new technology that wasn't alien influenced was the plasma carbine.

The truck stopped and Perry stood from his place near the comm.-gear, "Let's move it, people, we're not getting paid by the hour."

"I ain't getting paid at all," Boomer whispered to Yuri but she just frowned and stood.

The doors were opened and everyone hustled out of the U-haul. None of them liked being helpless inside of a vehicle when a vicious aerial battle was going on over their heads. Boomer jumped down from the interior and was immediately assaulted by the sights and sounds of war. A Covenant fighter, shaped like a teardrop, careened through the sky being hit from two sides by streams of orange-red light. The longer he looked the more he got the impression that the streams weren't continuous but that his eyes just couldn't keep up with the individual blasts. The Covenant fighter exploded in mid-air and then the streams stopped only to reappear all over the sky seconds later. Explosions shook the earth beneath them and fiery displays competed with the sun for attention above them. All around Boomer were the scattered remains of the perimeter force the cruiser had dispatched. There were few recognizable pieces among the wreckage, most of them in huge craters, but more than a few wore the ragged uniform of TechCom. It made Boomer look down at his own experimental armor and wonder when all of TechCom would be wearing it. The segmented, glossy black body armor was comfortable and was supposed to be able to take several direct blasts from Hegemony plasma rifles before being slagged.

Boomer moved with the rest of the squad around the back of the U-haul and as one they stopped in shock. Seeing the cruiser up close was intimidating to say the least. It soared above them higher than many of the structures even the most experienced of them had seen. The top curved gently away from them so they didn't even have any way of accurately judging how tall it was. None of the soldiers, technicians, and civilian volunteers around them was paying much attention though. Everyone was hard at work cutting away large segments of the hull to be transported for analysis. The U-haul they had been brought in was quickly converted to haul what looked like armory stations away. A private ran up, quickly said something to Perry, and then the squad was being led along the haul to where Captain Lucas was waiting beside an exterior access hatch. The ground had turned into mud somewhere along the way and it was then that Boomer realized they were walking through a fine drizzle.

"Where's the rain coming from, Lucas?" he heard Perry shout to be heard over the roar of battle.

"Hell if I know. We think a coolant tank or something got ruptured. I ordered our men to keep their visors down and not to ingest much until the analysis comes back. It was a hell of an explosion that caused it and it came after we got secure. We think the fakies are inside already."

"Well, we can't let them have all the fun. You ready to blow the door?"

Lucas grinned, showing several missing teeth, "Fusion charge is in place. I wonder if it'll really work. "

Perry frowned, "If it doesn't we'll probably all be dead before we know it."

Lucas grin only seemed to widen, "Exciting, isn't it?"

"Standard breech!" Perry barked to his squad.

Brians and Boomer flanked the open outer hatch. There was a space of about six meters before the closed inner hatch. Boomer could see the blinking indicator light on the fusion charge. The team arrayed themselves along the sides of the hull. Lucas was at the far end of the line with the detonator. The sci/tech squad and their security team had camped out a short distance away. Some of them looked like they were taking a nap. Normally that would have pissed Boomer off but the last few months had shown him how overworked the techs truly were.

"Fire in the hole!" Lucas shouted, the manic glee making his voice crack.

There was no explosion, only a quickly growing source of brilliant white light followed by a flash. Boomer twisted the top half of the redesigned canister bomb, which was more of a tube bomb now, and tossed it through the jagged, melted hole in the inner hatch. Brians did the same and seconds later there were two thunderous explosions. Brians and Boomer turned into the hatch at the same time and fanned out to the right and left while keeping their weapons trained on the inner hatch. Brians had his carbine and Boomer had his shotgun. The rest of the squad filtered into the airlock just as Brians and Boomer were darting through the inner hatch.

There was nothing to be found on the other side. Not one defender or automated system had been left to fight them off. Something strange was definitely going on.

"Hold this position," Perry growled and immediately began having a whispered, urgent conversation over a private channel. It was over quickly and Perry was back to business, "Okay, the Hegemony is ditching the ship and they're going to set it for self-destruct. Luna's leading her squad to the engine core, that's her duty now, ours is to get to the auxiliary bridge as quickly as possible and secure it. We've been authorized to leave the sci/tech team behind. Let's double-time it people. Xan, you've got point, find us a way. Boomer, you watch his back. "

"Yes, sir," Xan said, consulting the sensor package that had proven invaluable so many times before, and in less than thirty seconds he was pointing the direction they should take.

Boomer led the way and tried not to let the strange alien architecture bother him. Everything around him made him think he had drank contaminated water before the mission. The weird light fixtures combined with the blue-purple hue of the walls didn't help much. When the strange figure carved into the walls gave off the occasional glow that threatened to really freak him out. But Boomer was a veteran TechCom soldier and it would take more than ambience to make him lose his cool.

Boomer paused at every intersection and waited for Xan to show him the way. They were in the middle of a series of ramps leading to a higher deck when the sounds of a furious firefight reached their ears.

"Cover!" Boomer hissed, and promptly took cover behind a pylon's light fixture.

Boomer was behind the fixture and was astounded by what he saw. A squad of Split-Chins, Wraiths, and Trolls were staging a fighting retreat and looked on the verge of panic. The Trolls stayed in the intersection and laid down suppressive fire with their Brute grenade launchers while the Split-Chins and Wraiths backed towards them. Huge plasma bolts lit the intersection up as the attackers opened fire. The Trolls crumpled under the fire but the shields of the Splities and Wraith's held up. A huge energy shield was set up to block off the intersection but a ripple on the ceiling caught Boomer's attention. A Terminator, its skull-like face covered in a featureless black helmet, appeared clinging to the ceiling. It dropped silently to the ground and was among the Splities and Wraith's before they were aware. The Terminator opened up on full auto with the massive weapon clutched in one hand and in the other hand held a short-barreled weapon that it leveled at the Wraith. The weapon fired, making the Terminator buck slightly from the recoil and that was an impressive feat alone, and the Wraith literally disintegrated in a blast of blue-white energy. Within seconds the Terminator had taken them all out and retracted the energy shield. Four more Terminators met it in the intersection and a fifth one with the chevrons of a sergeant on its faceplate gestured for them to move out. So unbelievable was the sight that Boomer was still standing there gaping when Captain Perry clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll probably see more of that before the day is out, sergeant. Let's move out."

The squad double-timed it once more towards the auxiliary bridge. Xan said they were only one level below the control room when Boomer turned a corner and was suddenly face-to-blank face with a Terminator. Instincts overrode orders then and Boomer fired a single round from his shotgun. There was almost no recoil or noise only a faint zapping sound as a plume of blue-white light erupted from the barrel. The Terminator was caught full in the chest by the blast and was rocketed up into the ceiling several meters away before slamming to the ground. A blur of motion was crushing Boomer up against the wall before he could even blink. He looked down, struggling to breathe, and couldn't believe his eyes. A slim girl, only slightly taller than he was, was holding him off the ground with one hand. Lieutenant's bars looked as though they had been burned into her cheek and she glared at him with cold, lifeless blue-green eyes.

"Let him go! Now!" Perry barked, the muzzle of his sidearm held close to her head.

Boomer turned and grimaced as a squad of Terminators leveled their weapons at his squad.

"Diagnostic," the dirty-blonde girl said in a clipped, slightly accented voice.

The Terminator sat up quite suddenly and was on its feet in seconds, "Shielding is down to ten percent. Minor structural damage to endoskeleton. Torso armor will have to be repaired or replaced."

"Lower your weapons, Captain Perry," the girl said, her voice cold and commanding, "My units will do the same."

The Terminators all lowered their weapons and several heartbeats later Perry did the same. Boomer was suddenly let down and fell to his knees as he sucked in long breaths. He didn't notice that the Terminators had marched right past the squad without a second glance. Brians helped Boomer to his feet and Boomer thanked him with a nod.

"How come we don't have energy shields?" Yuri asked quietly, as she watched the Terminators march away far more silently than they usually did.

"Yet, Sergeant, yet. You ready to move, Boomer?" the captain asked, to which Boomer gave him a thumbs-up. "Switch places with Lee."

Boomer did that and found himself near the middle of the squad with Valentine. He switched his shotgun for his plasma carbine and vowed to be more mindful of orders.

The squad moved more cautiously up the next set of ramps but Lee was not cautious enough. The scythe-like butt of a Brute grenade launcher sliced into Lee's side just as she slid around the corner at the top of the last ramp. Lee fired her dual sidearms on full auto, the rounds emerging as streaks of blue-white light, and a bestial roar of pain was her reward.

"Brutes! Grenades!" she yelled, tumbling back down the ramp in a semi-controlled fashion with blood streaming from her side.

"Fire in the hole!" Brians yelled, and tossed a boom-stick into the intersection just as a fired grenade impacted a few feet in front of him.

Brians had already half turned to take cover and the force of the explosion catapulted him through the air. A series of crystalline needles streaked into and bounced off of most of his armor without harming him but one managed to lodge into his knee where it exploded messily. The explosion from the boom-stick shook the room a second later.

"Contact! One of those cloaked shits!"

"Clear the path!" Perry barked and barely waited before fired he two HE mini-rockets down the corridor.

The barely discernible ripple from which the needles were emanating from tried to dive out of the way but only managed to dive headlong into the path of the second missile. The Splities body was readily visible covered in its own fluids. Then the only sound was Brians' suppressed screams and Lee's restrained gasps.

"Valentine, get on them! Dots, Yuri, Sans, you watch their backs. The rest of you with me."

Boomer stood from his position on the floor with his back against the arch-like protrusions that dotted the corridors of the ship. He gave Yuri a squeeze on the shoulder as he passed her. There were three Brute bodies, stinking so bad that even TechCom fighters wrinkled their noses, scattered by the force of the explosion. Xan pointed at an inconspicuous set of double doors.

"Boomer, rig a charge. Arn, set up a flash-bang trap."

Boomer retrieved a fusion charge from his equipment belt and approached the door with it. Then the damned thing slid open to reveal the ugly, snotty mug of a Brute. Without thinking Boomer slapped the fusion charge into its face and hit the emergency activation stud. The Brute took a swipe a Boomer with its reversed-bayonet but the TechCom sergeant had already dropped to his back. One shotgun blast to the chest propelled the Brute back into the room, somersaulting and flailing, before the fusion charge went off. Boomer rolled away but was caught in the shoulder by what felt like the world's biggest mule. He didn't think his shoulder was dislocated but it hurt a lot.

"In, in, in!" Perry shrieked as the sounds of alien curses filtered through the room.

Boomer could only lie there struggling to master his pain in the ten seconds or so it took for the remaining squad to enter the room and cleanse it with plasma. Perry came back out just as Boomer was getting to his feet.

"How bad is it?" Perry asked.

Boomer worked his shoulder around a little before answering, "Wrenched it but I'm okay."

"Good because that should be textbook from now on. Good job, Boomer."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now let's go see what else the General might have us do."

Approximately one hour, forty-six minutes, thirty-five seconds later the Flame of Justice erupted in a thousand relatively small explosions. The result was that the outer hull collapsed into the inner hulls in a cascading effect that left the cruiser like a hollowed peach. The only inner hull spaces that were unaffected were the engine cores, which had been quickly removed by both TechCom and SkyNet. The Elite Sector Commander was not worried at all despite the minor Prophet who was his overseer having grave misgivings. The Sector Commander felt it would be a simple matter to track such large energy sources being moved from the area. Several minutes after making this pronouncement SkyNet detonated a dozen specially designed EMP-missiles in geosynchronous orbit with the northeastern seaboard. The resultant EMP burst not only knocked out many of the Covenant active sensor systems but also masked the entire eastern seaboard under a cloud of electromagnetically charged residuals. Several minutes after that the Sector Commander was executed for gross incompetence and a Brute was promoted to his place.

Conner sat in his office and looked at the stack of reports Snog and his scientists had delivered in just the last few minutes. The prospect of all this alien technology had snapped Snog back from his increasingly drug-induced stupor. Now with the return to the old, hyperkinetic Snog Conner almost wished he was laid back once again.

Almost.

Bruno entered the room, "Excuse me, General, but Corporal Stein found this in his vest pocket. I've had it checked and re-checked. It's safe, sir."

The sergeant handed Conner a note with his name written on it in a clear, precise hand. There was no doubt who had left the note, especially after Conner read it over and over again.

"Can I ask, sir?"

"No, sergeant, that will be all," Bruno left with a crisp salute but only one thing was on Conner's mind.

Was the enemy of an enemy really a friend?