Chapter 35: Old Friends New Allies.
Millar sat on the ground with his head in his hands looking at his long lost friend in total disbelief, Jack had just finished explaining what had happened to him over the last fourteen years, the whole thing made his head spin out of control, it was like some sort of weird acid trip and a nightmare combined all into one. Millar remembered the first time he'd met Jack Mason with such vivid clarity it could have happened just yesterday and not all those years ago.
Back then Frank Millar had been a young fresh faced Marine, he'd been fast tracked by his superiors to the USMC sniper school because of his exceptional marksmanship, all the way through boot camp his instructors had been impressed with his performance and had told him that he would go far, of course this had given him a rather cocky attitude thinking he was real hot shit, then he met him and everything changed.
Millar had been sat with the other recruits attending one of the tediously long lectures , this one had been on the importance of effective camouflage and how a good sniper blends into their surroundings and learns to adapt their camouflage on the fly, he remembered looking down the line of other recruits at the other equally bored faces and feeling kinda weirded out by the fact that there were fifteen of them sat there in the line, there had only been fourteen the day before, the instructor had literally just finished saying that the best snipers could blend into any environment and you'd never even know that they were there, then he pointed his long board pointer at the new guy, "Isn't that right Dan?" he said and at that point Dan's head exploded.
Every single one of the recruits dove for cover under their foldaway chairs, they were all screaming various things, some called for medics although it was pretty clear that Dan was well beyond any type of help given that his head no longer existed, others were screaming 'Sniper' at the tops of their lungs, all Miller remembered properly about that exact moment was the look of amusement on his instructors face, he was positively pissing himself despite the face one of his student's head's had literally just been blown off, then he turned and spoke into a concealed mic in his sleeve, it was at that point that everyone realized that they'd been set up, Dan was a dummy.
"I hope you were all paying attention here, I don't want Lieutenant Dan's sacrifice here to be in vain" the instructor said pointing at the headless dummy still sat in its chair, the trainees were slowly picking themselves up off the floor when a jeep pulled up with a figure sat in the passenger seat in a full ghille suit, he was holding a Accuracy International AU Magnum against his shoulder as he stepped out of the passenger seat, the instructor walked up to the figure with his hand outstretched, "Damn fine work as always Jack, how far this time?" he said as she shook the ghille suited figure's hand,
"Ahh just a mile today didn't feel like climbing all the way up that damn hill" the figure said in a British accent, then the instructor turned to face his confused trainees,
"Let me introduce Sargent Jack Mason of the British Special Air Service and one of the best shooters on this fucking planet even if he does come from the wrong side of the pond" the instructor said with a sly grin, the figure lifted up the light green veil of his ghille suit to reveal his face and the first thing that caught Millar's attention was the he had the brightest blue eyes that he'd ever seen in his life, in fact he noticed both of the female trainee's jaw's drop open as they got a look at the man beneath the camo, it was obvious they liked what they saw,
"If it's so wrong how come I always have to get my arse on a plane and fly five thousand miles just to show you fuckers how to shoot a gun?" Jack replied in a playful tone, the instructor roared with laughter before clapping the sniper on the back, then he turned back to his trainees,
"I hope you all now realize the importance of concealment and I hope this gives you a glimpse into the power of a sniper on the battlefield, one person and one bullet can make a world of difference in a fight, not only does it mean you can limit collateral damage, where the chairforce would have you believe you need five hundred pounds of ordinance to take out one man, this man right here just proved that all it takes is one man and one bullet, an invisible enemy that can take you out at any second has a crippling effect on enemy's morale, not one of you knew he was there or could see him, but he could see all of you and at one mile away he was able to put a single bullet through the head of one man leaving everyone else unaffected physically, mentally is quite another thing" the instructor said.
Millar remembered looking at this man and feeling a determination like he'd never known, he wanted to be just like him no matter what, after that he ran into him in a bar and the two of them struck up a fast friendship which resulted in Jack taking him under his wing and giving him pointers and tips as well as additional training, but the crowning achievement was that Jack chose him to be his spotter on a mission, this was his first live combat mission and the feeling he got while creeping through the jungle with this living legend among snipers was an indescribable one, but to add to that once they were in positon over watching a Taliban training camp Jack had let him take the shot that had taken out a major Taliban threat.
That was his first kill as a professional sniper and it was all because of his friend and mentor, it was also Jack's recommendation that had spring boarded him from the USMC first recon sniper team and into the Navy seals, he still remembered the day that he'd heard that his friend had gone missing in South America after taking out a cartel boss, his first instinct was to jump on a plane and go looking for his friend and with a few phone calls he and a team of three other snipers from across the world had gone into the jungle looking for their friend, it turned out that Jack had touched more than a few hearts in militaries across the world, with him on this little unauthorized incursion was a Russian Spetsnaz sniper, an Israeli and a Fin, all with close connections to Jack, after they'd found out that Millar was looking for their mutual friend they'd decided to team up and head into the jungle to bring their friend home, but after weeks of searching they found nothing and each came out with a sense of loss that they couldn't put into words.
But for Millar that sense of loss had now been replaced with a mixture of joy and confusion, he'd been finally reunited with his long lost friend here on this alien world, only to find out that he was some sort of alien Knight with special powers and was married and had kids with one of the Alien race that had taken him and the others as prey, this was a lot to take in.
"And so while I'm here to get my daughter back my life mate Tik eleth and Shena Black Crest have gone to recover Ryan from the Arbiter" Jack said looking at his old friend across the candles which lit their little parlay circle, sat around them were Angel who had finally recovered from being hit with a paralyzing dart from Jack's wrist launcher, a fact that she'd been real sore about till Jack had explained that he could have just as easily put a real bullet through her head, this had quieted her down somewhat, Cortez who still had a bit of a sore head from Jack striking him at the base of the skull with his armored fist but having seen the sheer amount of weapons that he was carrying was infinitely glad that he'd used his hand, then finally there was Sela eleth Jack's hybrid daughter who was cuddled into her father's side, he had his arm around the young girl's shoulders and was gently stroking her hair in an affectionate way as he talked.
After he finished talking silence descended over the group as Jack waited for their reactions, Angel was the first and it was more of an explosion than a reaction, "You have got to be fucking kidding me! This is bullshit!" she all but yelled jumping up from the group to begin pacing around them, Jack watched her closely and he felt his daughter's grip tighten on him a bit, he knew the unpredictable woman made her nervous,
"You're a fucking race traitor! These fucking monsters abducted you for amusement, for fucking sport, so they can mount your head on the fucking wall for all to see and laugh at how pathetic you are and what do you do? Fucking shack up with one and raise fucking mutant hybrid kids and play happy families!" she yelled as she marched around, Jack sighed and he felt his daughter twitch with anger at being called a mutant hybrid, he patted his daughter's shoulder and she looked up at him, with a slight movement of his head she released him and he slowly got to his feet, Angel watched him with a mask of anger painted over her face,
"You can say what you like about me I really don't give a flying fuck, but when you start insulting my kids you're rapidly heading for a line that you really don't want to cross" Jack said in a calm and collected voice, this made Millar nervous because he remembered what his friend's temper was like, he'd once watched Jack beat the shit out of five massive Marines because they'd insulted Sandy, when Jack was shouting you were safe as that was his way of venting, but when he was calm and quiet, fucking run.
"Oh yeah and what are you going to do about it? I mean how the fuck could you even bring yourself to do it? I mean fucking look at them they look like someone jammed a fucking unturned crab into their mouths and attached skin to its fucking legs! How the fuck can you bring yourself to love something that looks like that, let alone fuck one of them and produce kids!" Angel yelled pointing at Sela eleth who's eyes flashed with raw anger at the insult not only aimed at her but at her beloved Matriach, but before she could even blink her father had moved, he moved so fast across the room that if anyone had blinked they'd have missed it, he seized Angel by the throat and lifted her off her feet,
"You really want to know how? Then why don't I show you?" he said in a dark voice, then with a flash his bright blue eyes changed and Angel's mind was flooded with imagery and memories, before the others could grab Jack and pull him off her the transfer was complete and Jack dropped her, Angel kneeled coughing at his feet from his grip on her throat, Cortez was the first to reach them,
"What the fuck man!? She's been through enough she's lost everything, she was just angry and spouting, she didn't mean it!" he said looking at Jack who just regarded him with a cool gaze,
"I know" he said walking back to his daughter's side and sitting back down, Cortez turned back to the coughing Angel and was amazed by what he saw, she was on her knees with tears streaming down her face,
"I saw it, oh my god I saw all of it!" she said through choked tears,
"Saw what Angel?" Cortez asked looking at the crying woman,
"His life his whole damn life, I can still feel the pain and oh God the loss" Angel said wrapping her arms around herself and pulling herself into a hug,
"What the fuck did you do to her man!?" Cortez yelled as he turned to look at Jack who just shrugged,
"She wanted to know how I could love one of their kind, so I showed her" he said coolly, Cortez looked back at Angel who was now looking at Jack and Sela eleth with tears streaming down her face,
"I'm so so so sorry, I never meant what I said, I was just angry, oh my god these feelings, they're so strong, I can't stop them, they feel like they're going to consume me, how do you cope?" she asked,
"Because I don't give up when shit gets hard, my love for those I care for drives me on and I don't stop till they're safe" Jack said,
"This love, it's so strong, it's burning me like fire" Angel said looking at her hands to make sure she wasn't actually on fire.
Cortez looked confused as hell now, then Sela eleth caught his attention with a wave of her hand, "You just saw Dream Warrior memory transference, he literally just showed her his life and made her live it, every feeling, every thought, every fear, every love, she just got it all raw and unfiltered" she said to the confused man, Cortez's eyes widened and he glanced back at Angel again, the tears were still flowing down her cheeks, then he looked back to Jack who was just sitting there quietly,
"That's not possible" Cortez said, Sela eleth nodded,
"It is for a Dream Warrior, they can reach right into the mind of another and see them for who they truly are, their hopes, their fears, their loves, they can reach into your mind and see them all, but they can also show you things and make you live them, like my father just made her live his life through his eyes" she said, as she finished Jack got back to his feet and walked over to where Angel was knelt, then he dropped down onto his haunches and placed a hand onto her shoulder, she looked up at him with her tear streaked face and instantly recoiled as she realized who's hand was on her shoulder,
"Please no more! Don't show me anymore! I can't take it" she said in a rather pitiful voice, Jack smiled at her softly,
"As you saw my pains and my joys know that I have seen and felt yours too, so you are not alone any more" he said in a soft voice, then Angel's face crumpled again and she threw her arms around his shoulders and sobbed into his shoulder.
After she had finished crying Jack released Angel and returned to his space in the group, he looked at his daughter to find her smiling at him, she'd always admired his compassion and his empathy, then Jack turned back to Millar, "So when were you going to tell me that are more of you?" he asked, both of Millar's eyebrows shot up in surprise, Jack tapped the side of his head,
"Dream Warrior remember, I saw Angel's memories as clear as if they were my own" he said, Millar sighed,
"Even after all these years you still have that damn flair for surprise" he said with a soft chuckle, Jack grinned,
"What's life without a little drama eh?" he said, Millar laughed and then it turned into a full on belly laugh, which felt really good because it had been so long since he'd had any reason to laugh, then he looked up at his grinning friend and his eyes flitted to his daughter who was also smiling at him and he could see the brightness in both their eyes,
"I'm sorry for what we did to you Sela eleth, if I'd have known for a second that you were Jack's flesh and blood….." he started to say before she held up a hand,
"It wasn't something you could have known and after the horrors that have been perpetrated on you by my bad blooded kin I can sympathize and understand what you did" she said, Millar let out a soft chuckle again,
"You definitely are your father's daughter" he said, she smiled brightly,
"I like to thinks so too" she said, then Millar took a deep breath and looked up at them, then he began to explain their full story more for Sela's benefit than Jack's as he already knew it thanks to Angel.
"So there are fifty oomans here!?" Sela eleth said flaring her mandibles and sounding shocked, Millar nodded somberly,
"The bad bloods as you call them have been doing this for a rather long time, the survivors of each hunt if there are any tend to find their way to us, or we find them and bring them to our camp, we have all ages and professions there, our youngest is just six and is a child prodigy our eldest is a sixty-year-old British Marine" he said,
"But how do you keep that many hidden from their scans?" Sela eleth asked,
"It's in a cave deep underground, my guess is that the rocks are laden with minerals that disrupt the scanners" Jack answered for him, Millar looked at him and nodded,
"Yeah I discovered a while ago that certain minerals on this planet play merry fuck with their sensors and scanners, makes us invisible to them" Millar said, then he took off his body armor and held it out to Jack who took it, "Took out the ballistic plates and replaced them with pieces of this mineral which we all call invisibelum" he said, Jack looked it over and then took out one of the new plates, it was made of a dark metal like rock that kinda reminded him of volcanic glass, then he placed his own hunting mask back on his face and looked at the rock, as he did the visor began to glitch and wouldn't show him a reading at all, he could see everything around it in a large arc, but where the plate was there was a hole in his vision.
Jack handed the plate and armor back to Millar, "Clever" he said, Millar shrugged,
"Thanks, it's saved our arses more than once, gives us an advantage when moving out in the open, but it doesn't take them long to figure out what's happening but by the time they do it's already too late for em" he said,
"So you've killed some of them then?" Jack asked, Millar nodded,
"they are damn hard to take down fully, but yeah we've taken out a few, it doesn't help that the only way we can get weapons and ammo out here is to scavenge what we can from the dead when they inevitably fall to the bad bloods or when they die during the free fall, which happens a hell of a lot" Millar said, Jack nodded solemnly,
"Most of the people I was dropped in with were killed by the fall" he said, suddenly a voice to their left snapped them all out of their contemplations,
"Hey boss we'd better get a move on and head back to the camp or it's gonna get dark and we'll be stuck here for another night" Cortez said, Millar nodded at this, then he looked at Jack and Sela eleth,
"Time you guys met the others, think they could do with a little joy as well" Millar said as he stood up, Jack nodded and both head Sela eleth got to their feet, "Oh before I forget, I think this belongs to you and now I know who taught you how to use it I feel a lot better about you having it" Millar said turning and picking up something from the floor and holding it out to Sela eleth, it was her AS50,
"Just be glad she's got my temper and not her mother's otherwise no fucker in a two-mile radius would be safe" Jack said with a grin at his daughter who punched his arm playfully,
"Father!" Sela eleth exclaimed with mock indignity,
"What? It's true, you remember the time your mother hit her hand with my anvil hammer?" he asked and immediately Sela eleth's face cracked into a huge smile before she started laughing,
"The three of us ended up sitting on the roof of the house for the entire day watching her destroy half the forest with that sword you made her" Sela eleth said between giggles,
"That and she threw my anvil hammer into fucking orbit, I wouldn't have minded but that was my favorite hammer" Jack said in a mildly pissed sounding voice which only made his daughter laugh even harder, Millar looked at the giggling father and daughter and his mind was flooded with images of a pissed off female Yaujta going crazy and smashing up his house while Jack and his kids sat up on the roof and he found himself laughing along with them, then he looked at Jack as he dried his eyes,
"I bet that certain time of the month is fun in your house" he said, Jack looked at him,
"Don't even pauking go there" he said darkly.
It turned out that the camp wasn't too far from the cave that they had been in, just a three mile walk, Millar felt really happy to have his old friend watching his back again just like the old days, finally the group reached a large cliff set into the side of a large mountain, Millar walked over to a huge set or rather nasty looking thorny vines that were climbing up the side of the rocks, with a large stick he inserted it between the vines and moved them to one side, this movement revealed a small hidden entrance behind them, "Watch you head's it's pretty narrow at first" he said, Jack nodded and so did Sela eleth, "Angel you take point it'll be better if you head in first, I think our new friends might scare everyone if they walk in first" Millar said, Angel nodded and she stooped and headed into the cave followed by Cortez then Jack, then Sela eleth and finally Millar himself.
The cave's twisted and turned and branched off in all different directions as Jack followed behind Cortez, "Really easy to get lost down here if you don't know where you're going" Millar said from behind them,
"Yeah I can see that" Jack relied as he followed close behind Cortez, then the cave opened up and both Jack's and Sela's mouths dropped open, Jack had seen Angel's memories but even those didn't do this place the justice seeing it with your own eyes did it, they were in a huge cave that was although it was a few hundred feet down was open to the sky right in the middle, the whole place was like a huge dome with a hole right in the middle which sent a giant god ray of sunlight down to the middle of it, in the middle of that god ray seemed to be a rather large statue of a Yaujta woman holding a spear and what appeared to be a skull.
Using some sort of polished mirrors, the residents had managed to send the light around the cave lighting most of it up with real sunlight, it was an amazing sight, as all around this shaft of light were little huts which were surrounded by trees and even an underground waterfall, "Holy shit this place is incredible" Jack said, Millar and the other smiled,
"You ain't seen anything yet, come on the others are going to want to meet you" Millar said and he led the way down to the village, as they walked into the what could be called the town square Jack saw people starting to emerge from their homes to stare at them, he could feel the fear coming from them as they saw both himself dressed in his armor and his daughter, "Friends don't be afraid we have new friends to help us with our fight" Millar yelled at the top of his voice, then slowly but surely a crowd began to form around them as the curiosity overcame the fear and people came down to see their newest additions, Jack removed his mask so that people could see his face and this instantly caused quite the stir but fear was still keeping them at arm's length from the newcomers, most sets of eyes were locked onto Sela eleth who was feeling rather self-conscious right now, Sela eleth became aware of someone to her right and she looked down and noticed a young black skinned girl looking up at her, so she crouched down so that she was at eye level with her, "Hello, my name is Amy" the young girl said, Sela eleth smiled she found it wonderful and odd that the bravest one out of the whole group was also the youngest,
"Mine's Sela eleth Mason but you can call me Sela" she said, the girl stepped closer to her and reached out to touch her head,
"Your hair is funny but you have really pretty eyes" Amy said running her hand over Sela's dreadlocks while looking into her eyes,
"Why thank you" Sela eleth said smiling, then she became aware of someone standing behind Amy and she glanced up and instantly her breath caught in her throat, stood behind her was a tall ooman male of about fifteen, as her eyes took all of him in she instantly realized that he was the most beautiful thing that Sela eleth had ever seen in her life, he had long ice white hair down to his shoulders that shone like fresh snow in the reflected sunlight, his skin was fair and rosy, his face was almost delicate looking but his bright green eyes showed deep intelligence and boundless curiosity as he regarded her intently, but there was more there, there was a fire and what she perceived to be anger that shone through like a bright fire and instantly she felt her heart began to pound in her chest like an anvil hammer and she swallowed hard,
"Errrr hi" she said nervously as she looked at him, without saying a word he placed a hand on Amy's shoulder and pulled her back from Sela eleth, he never spoke a word as he guided the young girl away from Sela eleth and back towards a hut just past the crowd,
"But I want to talk to the pretty alien girl Robert!" Amy protested as he led her away, Sela eleth felt her heart ache as the boy guided the young girl inside and out of sight, she must have done something to offend him but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what, but suddenly she understood her brother a hell of a lot better.
A tall man in his sixties with the look of a grizzled veteran soldier approached Jack, he had a round face covered in scars and a massive bushy grey mustache "Odd choice of armor you got there" he said in a heavy Scottish accent,
"Bit flash I know but it does the job and keeps the wankers off" Jack replied, the Scottish man guffawed with a laugh that sounded like someone trying to bump start a V8, then he clapped him on the shoulder and held out a hand like a shovel head to be shook,
"Major Montgomery Duffy Royal Marines retired, but you can call me Monty" he said Jack took the massive hand and shook it,
"Sargent Jack Mason twenty-two also retired" Jack said with a grin, Monty's big bushy eyebrows shot up,
"A Sass boy eh? Good to have one of you fellas along for the ride" he said, then he glanced over Jack's shoulder at Sela eleth who was staring at the huts,
"Is she with you?" he asked curiously, Jack nodded,
"She's my daughter" he said, this caused Monty's eyebrows to shoot up so high they nearly popped off the top of his head,
"Well I get the feeling that there's a hell of a story about how that came about" he said, Jack grinned,
"You don't know the half of it" Jack said, Monty laughed like a V8 again and clapped Jack on the shoulder,
"Well any friend of young Millar there is a friend of ours so come on let's grab us a drink and you can tell me all about it" Monty said and the he steered Jack towards a large hut, Sela eleth followed along behind her father but she kept looking towards the huts with a mixture of curiosity and despair written across her young face.