Chapter Six

Over the next few weeks Alicia settled back into a routine, paperwork, training her unit and spending time with the slashers. The babies had hit a growth spurt and were nearly taller than her now, not that it stopped Gunner from trying to play or River from invading her space for attention. Sarge and Ivy were a little more independent, though Sarge seemed to like Nathaniel.

However, when she ran the perimeter in the evening, now beyond the fence, five slashers trotted with her. Whenever she ran ops off colony they were around, seeming to understand that should keep their distance from her team while surprising her at will. But they were handy, Whiskey had taught her babies to hunt and together the little family was a formidable pack, they hadn't had a predator incident since the slashers took up residence.

Slowly the colony was adjusting, though still fearful of the dinosaurs that had claimed a section of their perimeter; that section was strictly off limits. It wasn't something she had thought to specify until an idiot had tried to pet River, the gentlest of the slashers who loved it when she stroked her had snapped her jaws and hissed; cornering the fool against the fence. It could have been much worse had she not been on her way out there.

It had served as a message, the slashers were still predators, they might be as gentle as they could with her, but they could and would kill. Had it been Sarge or Whiskey that idiot would not be around to tell his story. The slashers could be gentle, but they had to pick their people, she had introduced her husband and Sarge had gradually warmed to him; looking for him when she came alone.

Whisky and River were tightly bonded to her, but she had been introducing the slashers to her team, she fully understood their reservations about approaching the dinosaurs. But they needed to know the slashers, well enough to identify them by their markings and she wanted the slashers to know their scents; to associate them with her.

This afternoon she had Reilly with her, the Corporal was her friend and had been out several times before; but today Ivy and River burst from the jungle together. River came racing up to her in greeting and she saw Whiskey shifting in the nest, Sarge and Gunner were more interested in their nap, Ivy circled them; eyeing the woman who stood a pace behind her.

As Ivy came forward to give her a sniff Alicia glanced to the explosives expert. "Hold your ground, she is just curious."

"Its different when its you she wants to look at." Reilly murmured, but didn't flinch as the dinosaur sniffed her carefully, easing closer.

Alicia nodded, but her train of thought was interrupted as River headbutted her hard, demanding her attention. She rubbed the dinosaur's forehead and moved a little way away to sit before River knocked her over; the slasher did not fully understand how much she had grown.

"Walk away from her." Alicia instructed, her eyes still on the soldier who Ivy was watching.

The soldier turned and slowly walked away, showing the dinosaur her back and waiting for a reaction, Ivy followed. The dinosaur followed, at first giving a little space and then moving closer, studying the way the woman moved and sniffing her some more; finally, the slasher reached out and nudged Reilly.

…

For the colony the first war of this world was beginning to become a memory, repairs were made, and their community pushed on. The agricultural sector was replanted, and harvest began in the sections that survived as new construction was developed. The security force remained acutely aware of the threat on their borders, but the civilians continued living.

Nathaniel did not want to see them fear again, he coordinated regular patrols out to the badlands with Guzman's unit and far too often they ran into raiding parties headed south. He knew his wife was reading the same reports he was; they both knew something was coming.

The harshness of this world had reduced their enemies' numbers somewhat, but they had not found what they were looking for; they did not have the resources to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. He had seen too much war, but the consequences of this one were different and lasting.

He suspected one of the reasons his wife enjoyed spending the time she did with the slashers was that they were new. She could work with them without being reminded of the past, there were still moments when he knew it was hard for her to face the colony, to look to him and grit her teeth as someone asked a question about her, about something she had known. Civilians would ask how she was or kids who she had trained to survive here would come running up and he saw the blank, angry look flash through her eyes; he knew she could not remember their names or what pilgrimage they had come on.

Nathaniel had learned to be careful in how he prompted her, she needed the chance to recall it for herself, and sometimes she surprised them both; but otherwise he offered her tools rather than answering for her. It was a technique the doctor had taught him; they both had upset her more than once trying to help; but his wife feared being helpless more than she did a gap in her memory.

Physically she was back, training and working, she was happier being out of the Command Center, even off colony. He let her do it, she did more than her share of the paperwork; what was left was his problem. But he couldn't deny being a little envious at how she could process hers in the morning, today she had taken off to run drills with her unit.

He was trying to process the requests from the science division, he rejected several flat out; Malcolm wanted to research the ship's prow left in their storage pods. That was not going to happen, he did not have the security members to spare for such an operation; not to mention the scientists infuriated his lieutenants.

As Shannon entered and crossed to the cam screen, calling up a side gate Nathaniel glanced up at the man's cough. "Did you authorize a science expedition today?"

"No." He growled; he had spent most of his day reading through the science divisions requests. He'd approved only a handful and none for today.

"They left three hours ago during shift change." Shannon rubbed his forehead as he paused the playback; Nathaniel saw the towers were empty.

"Where the hell is Malcolm Wallace?" Nathaniel snarled, watching a rhino roll through the gates; Science Division was clearly stamped on the rear panel.

"They haven't checked in." The man murmured and he turned to look at him; Maddie Shannon worked in the lab. "Maddie told me; she is worried. He's got apprentices on that team."

It was his turn to pinch the bridge of his nose, that idiot had taken kids OTG without a security detail; without a route map. As Shannon pulled up perimeter cams, he got on the radio, calling Wash back to Command and asking for Guzman's location. With one hand he flipped through the stack of plexes he had been working on, looking at the subject lines and the dates.

He was almost to the bottom of the pile before he came up with one that had been submitted on Monday; it was for today. Growling he opened the file, there was supposed to be a two-week window; nothing should have proceeded without his approval.

Wash stood in the doorway, two of her corporals hovered on the porch as she strode towards him; the question in her eyes. "Malcolm's taken a team OTG without an escort, we don't have a known location yet."

She frowned, reaching for the plex and quickly clicking through it, showing him the expedition brief and the submission date; they'd had this request for two days. The science division had gone out to collect specimens of a plant they wanted to investigate, as well as collect another used in various applications throughout the colony; neither project was particularly urgent.

Moving to the map they eyed the area they knew the plants grew and based on the fact they had taken the agricultural gate, a gate that civilians passed through hundreds of time a day Malcolm was aware that he did not have permission. Nathaniel tracked the easiest route with his fingers and saw Wash frown next to him.

"That's two, two and half hours out on a good day." She muttered, the thick jungle meant even the road through there was rough, transports moved at a crawl once they cleared the colony's fields.

"We've got a bigger problem." Shannon cut in, there was dread in his voice.

They turned to watch the screen, a perimeter cam had picked up the rhino and they watched it roll by; an hour later two motorcycles followed, stopping to examine the tracks; a rover came after that. Nathaniel only clenched his jaw; those weren't their transports.

The head of the science division's pigheaded stubbornness may have just killed civilians. His wife was already in motion behind him, taking down her rifle from lock up and extra rounds. "Shannon we each take a transport, pick your team; Wash with me; I need your eyes."

"I've got Reynolds and Reilly on standby." Wash said, slinging the strap of her rifle across her back and hooking the weapon to her hip.

Guzman was off colony, but they needed the best teams they had out there, but they needed some coordination here. He nodded to Wash, they would leave Reilly in charge; the woman could handle the pressure and run logistics for them.

"Let's move." Nathaniel ordered, there was no time to debate it.

He took her to fill two slots, Wash was a damn good medic and sniper, she preferred to ride shotgun in a convoy, watching through her scope as they moved. But as they paused, waiting as the gate rose, he saw colonists in the fields shifting and a pack of slashers came trotting through the fields; stopping short of the gates.

"Uh Wash, want to call off your dinosaurs?" Shannon asked over the com, the slashers peered curiously at the transports.

She swung down from the back of their transport; she'd been lining up her sights through a rear window. Approaching the slasher, she frowned, the creature chattered at her as two others crowded close to her; it no longer alarmed him as much as it once had.

Suddenly she shifted, placing a hand on the creature's shoulder and stepping onto the curve of its hind leg; swinging onto its back. They stared as the slasher spun and Wash shifted onto its back, using her legs to hold on and leaning into its shoulder before it took off.

And he watched in amazement as the slasher took off, the four younger ones fell in and quickly disappeared, they followed but he did not spot the slashers again. Time ticked on, they covered ground as fast as possible, but he knew they had a distinct disadvantage; they were hours behind.

Yet as they heard distant gunfire he frowned, there was only one person who had gone ahead of them; but his wife had five slashers with her. And he'd seen Wash make some incredible shots, but now she had slashers, she might not need a miracle shot; just a good one.

They knew how effective slashers were as predators, they'd lost plenty of good people to the vicious dinosaurs. Yet today a few fought for them, and as they rolled into the clearing, he stared at the carnage of a battle lost before it began.

The slashers circled the clearing, and the transports they had destroyed; Wash still sat on a slasher's back. The Phoenix soldiers who had attempted to abduct their people had died quickly and violently; one was now a young slasher's snack.

Their soldiers moved hesitantly to take formation and make a perimeter, the scientists sat mercifully silent as Nathaniel crossed to his wife. Brown eyes were flat and cool as she watched the situation unfold. "You alright?"

"One of the scientists is injured, its not critical and we have one prisoner; the driver has not left the vehicle." She reported, keeping her weapon trained on the driver.

"Good work." He murmured and patted the slasher's shoulder before squeezing her knee for a moment; then turning back to the job in front of them.

Epilogue

Alicia shifted herself on Whiskey's back, she had climbed onto the slasher's back more than once before that day they raced through the jungle to retrieve their civilians; but it was as if the slasher had known how to carry her. Two months later she was not the only one bonded to a slasher and the day had come to launch their assault against the Phoenix force marching south.

Today they had to turn them back, they claimed the lands south of the Badlands for Terra Nova, for the world they had come back here to build. The one they had already fought to protect, today they rode with an advantage the Phoenix had never considered; one they had never considered.

Looking to her right as they raced through the jungle she still shivered in awe, the slasher beneath her raised it voice in a call that had once been chilling. Today it was the battle call, Whiskey was a dominant slasher, and relatively domesticated; but her instincts remained. She hunted her prey and called others to her side, spread through the jungle a pack of slashers ran with them.

She caught glimpses of other riders as they closed on their enemy's march, Nathaniel rode Sarge, Reilly rode Ivy, Reynolds rode River and Shannon was trying to ride Gunner. The slashers ran with them by choice, if they had rolled a convoy out to face this threat Whiskey and her young would have come too and attacked, trying to help.

So they hit that convoy with full force. Alicia sat up; a leather strap wrapped around Whisky's chest gave her grip as she used her legs to hold herself in place; lifting her pistol. The slashers tore through the convoy, tails smashing windows and throwing men from motorcycles; others grabbed and pulled through windows and out of rovers. The Terra Novans raised their weapons and did all they could to protect their mounts and the slashers Whiskey had called to fight with them; fighting even though this war was between men.

Yet the dinosaurs had every reason to fight with them, it was not only the colony that would be destroyed if the Phoenix won this war; this place would be strip mined. Instead they fought in a way never seen before, one only possible in this new world man and dinosaur finally fought together, they fought for a different way of life.

End

Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story; and to Nick for the request.