Crisis, Intervention, Resolution

Once this thing it 4k, I had to pull the pin. So here it is.

Ch 5

D-Boy was flying as fast as he could when Milly's answer came over the radio. He was so shocked by what Milly said that he forgot about his posture. The air caught his leg and he flailed for a moment before he could right himself. "Say that again?"

There was the sound of jostling for the microphone then Rebin came on. "The Ring is still in the sky so you stopped the missile. Noel, your sister and the new guys sent the Radam packing. Even the Spidercrabs ran off! I'm calling this a win. Now get out of that armor and join the party. There's always time to brood later."

Time! His time limit! How long had he been transformed? He waited until he was over the Space Command launch center. Arguing with Colbert took maybe five minutes. Climbing to intercept the missile took another three. Then the trip back took almost twenty minutes! That meant he only had another two or three minutes before he exceeded his time limit!

"Milly, I need you to target all remaining weapons on me." It was only Milly's resemblance to Miyuki that had pulled him from the madness the last time. Even with Miyuki, Sho, and Masaki, he couldn't take that risk. A mindless, rampaging Tekkaman was every bit as dangerous as a Radam Tekkaman.

"No we don't. Everything is fine."

"I've only got two minutes left, Milly. You have to take me out while you still can!"

Gordon's calm, measured, voice answered D-Boy's increasingly frantic one. "Do you really think that I could heal your sister, give her a transfusion of life force, stabilize your cellular decay, repair your crystal and not fix that pesky time limit?" D-Boy didn't have an answer to that. "Now stop pacing around up there and come inside. Your sister is justifiably proud of herself and wants to share."

***

Ten Minutes Earlier:

Noel, Miyuki, and Sho landed in one of the hangars that was set back into the side of a cliff. "I don't know what you guys did to my armor but I could get used to this. I definitely got Evil's attention that time. Bastard usually just ignores me."

Sho concentrated for a moment and released his armor. It must have been a bit odd see Sho, all of 167cm tall, wearing a business suit, standing next to Noel's Sol Tekkaman and Miyuki's armor, 230 and 197 cm respectively.

"That was amazing!" Miyuki hovered around them, about ten centimeters off the ground. "I've never felt anything like this before!" She did a little pirouette in the air.

A thud from the still open door spun all three around. Masaki was standing up from a three-point landing. "For the record, not everyone can fly."

Noel stepped down, out of his armor, after shutting it down. "Are you okay?" He pointed to the slashes on Masaki's forearms, dripping black blood.

"Yeah, I'll be okay." There was something odd about the way Masaki's hands were limp when he held his arms out to be tapped. "I just need to stay in my battleform until the bleeding stops. Do you have any duct tape?"

Noel and Sho each grabbed a roll and took an arm. "These look pretty deep. Are you sure you don't need more than tape?" Noel asked

Masaki hissed as Sho bound his wounds. "I'll heal up fine. Your doctors couldn't do any more than you're doing." Sho held up a cordless drill and Masaki nodded. "Go ahead." Sho squeezed the trigger and jammed the spinning bit into Masaki's stomach. It chattered off his abs, until it rode into a crevice between two muscles. The bit caught and snapped.

Miyuki floated over and landed with a dancer's grace. She reached out and poked Masaki's abs with her armored finger. "Wow. You are strong." The same skin that just snapped a drill bit flex under her probing. "And that's your skin?" Her touch lingered for a minute, almost becoming a caress, before she hopped back several steps.

"You want to power down before you forget that everyone else in the room is human?" Noel asked.

"Oh, right!" She concentrated a moment and a violet crystal formed around her body. In a flash, her armor returned to where ever it went when she wasn't using it, leaving her holding a smaller version the same arrow shaped crystal. "Better?" She wandered over and threw a playful shoulder in Noel, who almost jumped out of his skin. "I can't wait to do that again. Flying was incredible. The other times I transformed were nothing like that. There was so much pain it was all I could do to keep passing out. And I was always so tired after… I could feel the air moving over my armor. All I had to do to bank was hold one arm out to the… What." The two men and one monster were very obviously looking anywhere but at her, and Sho was holding his jacket out to her. She looked down and realized she was naked. "EEEP!" She snatched the jacket and wrapped herself up as quickly as she could.

Noel made eye contact again, now that she was at least decent. "She bumped me, and you two are my witnesses."

Sho chuckled. "Worried that her brother is going to blame you?"

"Her superhumanly powerful, short tempered brother?" Masaki added.

Miyuki stepped between Noel and his two hecklers, put her hands on her hips and scowled at them. It would have been more impressive is she had been properly dressed. "Stop teasing him." Miyuki spun on her heel and walked away. Honda met her half way to the door, carrying a set of coveralls and a pair of work boots. She took the offered clothes, bowed and skipped off to the rest room. In the process she managed to flash about half the people working in the hangar.

"Hey!" Honda shouted. "Show some respect. That's a fellow Space Knight's sister you're ogling!" Several of the techs studiously went back to work but a few still stared at the restroom door.

"Lemme put it this way," Noel yelled. "That's Tekkaman Blade's little sister!" Everyone suddenly found something that needed their attention.

***

D-Boy flew into the hangar, releasing his armor before he ever touched the ground. Moving to fast to stop, he went into a shoulder roll after two steps. Popping up from the roll, he sprinted for the door to the hangar. "Break room, second door on the right!" a mechanic called.

"Thanks," he answered without even looking to see who said it. The hearty laughter of men mixed with Miyuki's soprano greeted him at the door to the breakroom. "I could have taken him!" Miyuki insisted. She was standing in the middle of the room, dressed in slightly oversized coveralls, noticeably oversized boots were off to one side. All that fell away when she saw him in the doorway. She dropped the mug she'd been gesturing with, on the table and leapt into his arms. He returned her rib cracking hug.

"I was so worried, Miyuki."

"It's okay, Takaya. I'm okay."

"I know. You were always tougher than you looked." D-Boy didn't care if anyone saw his tears. For the first time in what felt like forever, there was something genuinely good in his life. There was a twinge of guilt when he realized that he didn't care about the Radam, or the world, or the Space Knights, or even Gordon's promise to bring back his brothers. Here, now, in this moment, none of that mattered. His baby sister hale and hearty and at his side.

"You should have seen me, Big Brother!" D-Boy wasn't quite ready for the embrace to end but the smile on her face was worth it. "It was amazing!" She snatched the mugs from Sho and Noel, keeping one for herself, giving the other to D-Boy. "I was so strong. Strong and fast. Not just the flying, either. It felt like everyone was moving in slow motion! And the flying! I've flown before but never like that. I wonder that reentry would be like? Have you done that, Takaya?"

"Uh, only once." A whiff of the drink in the mug gave him a good guess what it was. "A Spidercrab damaged my engines and Dagger put his lance through my shoulder, so I was a little more focused on not dying." He took a ginger sip and the moonshine burned all the way down.

"That sounds horrible." Miyuki paused in thought before taking a drink. "We should go try it together. Hitting the atmosphere at just under Mach 25 and ridding the shockwaves down must be a rush. If the subsonic stuff I did today is any indication… Remember when I dragged Gunter Sterling under the bleachers in seventh grade? This will be better than that!"

He took her mug away from her. "How much of this stuff have you had?"

She thought for a moment. "None." Noel answered for her. "She's been bouncing off the walls ever since we got back."

"Don't worry too much. Between not dying any more, the transfusion from Gordon, and a pretty clean win, she's riding a serious buzz right now." Masaki said. "She's going to crash in an hour or so. She'll sleep for a day or so, then she'll be back to normal."

It was only then that D-Boy realized that Masaki was still in his battleform, or that his forearms were wrapped with duct tape. Masaki glanced down at his arms and smiled back. "In case you were wondering, that axe is sharp. I'll be okay in a few hours. But I'll warn you, between regenerating tissue and staying transformed for so long, I'm going to put a pretty big dent in your food stocks."

Aki came into the room before anyone else said anything. She walked in slowly, but she was breathing heavily. "D-Boy."

"Aki," he returned the simple greeting.

Aki pulled a small tablet from her tunic pocket and cleared her throat. "How was your mission?"

"Save the debriefing for later, Aki," Noel chided. "This is the first clean win we've had who knows how long."

She slide the tablet back into its pocket and nervously brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. The meter of air between them crackled with nervous energy. Honda walked behind Aki and started miming that D-Boy should offer her a drink. It took a moment but D-Boy eventually caught on.

Sho and Masaki shared a glance between them, then looked to Noel. "Really?" Sho mouthed silently. Noel rolled his eyes and nodded at them.

"Hey Miyuki, What was D-Boy like in school?" Sho asked. The only answer came in the form of a light snore. Miyuki was sprawled out on the break room couch, sound asleep.

***

The air lock hatch sealed behind Evil, Sword, Axe, and Lance. Air filled the chamber and the inner door opened. Beyond was a small section of the Space ring that was kept in good condition for use by the Radam Tekkamen. Good condition was a relative term. The area was still air tight, and life support still worked, broken lights and damaged furniture were still evidence of the war. Luckily for everyone, Tekkaman Dagger had been a neat freak who cleaned up most of the mess before the faced Blade for the last time. Sword powered down and Evil helped her sit in an overstuffed chair before powering down himself. Axe, also now in human form came over with table lamp and a first aid kit.

Lance was the last to resume human form. "Well, that was basically an unmitigated failure."

Sword winced as Axe cut away the sleeve of her shirt. "No sign burns or laceration, but judging by the swelling and pain, you are looking at multiple fractures in the wrist and forearm," he pronounced after a few moments. Sword acknowledged him with a nod. Her pale lips pressed into a tight line.

"She took one of those energy balls to the chest, too." Evil offered.

Axe grunted and started to cut away Sword's blouse. "Give us a little privacy." Evil grabbed Lance's shoulder and dragged him into the next room, heedless of the other man's wounded leg.

"I fought your sister today, Evil. She was… fiery." Lance limped over to minibar and poured himself a drink.

"Yes." Evil's answer was noncommittal.

"You had lead us to believe that she was rejected by the pod."

"I did."

"You said she was incomplete, weak, near death."

"I did."

Lance turned to face Evil. "She didn't look anywhere near death's door, and she certainly wasn't weak."

Evil squared up with Lance. "There is a point somewhere."

"Either the humans and their new friends understand the Tekka-system in a way that even we don't, or your estimates were wildly inaccurate." Lance took a slow drink from his glass, never taking his eyes off Evil. "I highly doubt the former, so that leaves the latter. The only question is why you were so wrong?"

Evil snorted and went into the next room where the ration packs were stored. He selected a meal and tossed it to Lance. The throw was intentionally wide enough to force Lance to lunge on his bad leg.

"Skip to the part where you make some idiotic accusation, Lance. I'll tell you that you're an idiot, then we can compare notes on the stranger we fought."

Lance ground his teeth. Evil had managed to neutralize his accusations, at least for the moment. "He's good. I came at him from behind at full speed, but he dodged me. I saw him, his head never turned my way, but one of the silver spheres on the side of his head moved. Lance gestured to the crown of his skull.

"Interesting." Evil mused. "Sword was able to blind side him later…"

Lance got a second tumbler, poured Evil two fingers and slid the glass down the bar to Evil. "Did she hurt him?"

Evil accepted the peace offering but shook his head at the question. "My blades were stood up to his without a problem but he was able to hurt you."

Lance looked down at his bloodstained trouser leg and the crude bandage. "He managed to tag me and Sword at the same time…" There was a glimmer of inspiration when he looked back up at Evil. "He wasn't trying to beat Sword and I. He was just injecting chaos, buying time. He was either too focused on fighting you to notice her, or was willing to accept the hit from Sword if it meant hurting you."

Evil stepped away from the bar. From the center of the room he recreated the fight in slow motion, alternating his part with the intruder's. "I think it's the former. That last energy ball was bigger than the one he was preparing for me. It took two hands to use."

"If that's attack has variable power, then we have to assume the laser attack also has variable intensity…."

"Then didn't he use it when my face was twenty centimeters away?"

"Good question. Can we even be sure it's a man?"

Evil snorted. "With a flat chest like that?"

***

"…And the last weapon I have is called the Mega Smasher." Sho concluded his explanation of the Guyver to the small assembly of Space Knights. The only notable absence was Gordon Palmer.

"Mega Smasher?" Honda asked. "Named that yourself, did you."

"Nipples of Doom." Masaki offered. Sho scowled and pitched a sheet of crumped paper at his friend.

"The Guyver has a set of emitters for a high energy weapon, probably on par with a Voltekka. They are mounted under the pectoral armor." Sho mimed opening the panels, a gesture very similar to tearing his shirt open.

Masaki tossed the wadded up paper back at Sho with a grin. "So the Guyver's most powerful attack is to flash the room."

"This from the guy who runs around the battlefield toppless?" Rebin pointed out. "Not complaining, mind you!"

"But that's such a good look for me!" Masaki's honest laugh joined in with the rest of the Space Knights.

D-Boy sat back down after checking on Miyuki. Unwilling to leave her alone, he'd carried her from the mechanic's break room to the small conference room and set her still sleeping form on the small couch along the back wall. She rolled over and curled up, just like she used to when they were children. Someone produced a blanket that he'd spread over her. Aki had a fresh cup of coffee waiting for him. "Those 'magic pants' don't seem to stretch. They are just as baggy when you transform as they are when you're human." Masaki nodded before D-Boy continued. "Some kind of molecular compression?" He arched his eyebrow in suspicion. "If you can make a fabric that actually grows and shrinks on demand, why are the pants so ratty looking?"

Sho took a seat after tossing the laser pointer to Masaki. Masaki went to the head of the conference table and adjusted the rolled up sleeves of his borrowed Space Knight uniform. "I gain thirty centimeters, almost seventy kilos, shoot point singularities from my knuckles and you want to quibble about something like fashion?"

"Point singularities?" Aki perked up when she heard that. "But effects from a gravitic point source will fall off at 1/r2​. For that to be a useful weapon, the collateral damage would have to be pretty catastrophic."

"They aren't point singularities, in the strictest sense." Masaki wiggled his hand in acknowledgement. "A graviton cloud, a couple microns in diameter, in the middle of anti-graviton shell, maybe two or three centimeters across that protects the outside world. The part of an object that passes through the shell will experience a shear stress somewhere in tens of gigaPascals."

The Space Knights looked at each other for a moment, their faces a mix of confusion and disbelief. Then they all burst out laughing. "Anti-Gravitons?" they finally managed to get out, between laughs.

Even D-Boy got a good laugh out of it. "Seriously? Anti-Gravitons? That sounds like something a comic book writer from two hundred and fifty years ago might say."

"Sorry, that's the best I have," Masaki answered with a chagrined look. "The mad scientists who kidnapped and experimented on me didn't give me a user's guide to my new body before I escaped."

Something about his cavalier tone made the admission all the more horrific. Milly was the first one to find her voice. "So you weren't born this way?"

Masaki replied with a solemn shake of his head. "An ancient conspiracy turned evil corporation was looking to create a battleform for a new member to their ruling council, so they grabbed me and three other people and used us as guinea pigs." Masaki's easy demeanor darkened for the first time any of the Space Knights saw. "We tried to escape and kill that guy. Even four of us were no match against him. The others didn't make it. I woke up next to my friends, in a refuse pit."

Noel topped off Masaki's coffee. Masaki appreciated the gesture. It gave him a moment to compose himself. When he was ready, he gestured for Noel to continue. "What happened to that guy?"

"We fought two more times, and I wouldn't have survived the last fight if not for Gordon. Guyot crossed someone a lot higher up on the food chain. He never fully recovered from those injuries and Gordon was able to help me the way he helped Miyuki. I settled accounts when we met a fourth time."

The story had a special resonance for D-Boy and Miyuki. They watched their friends and shipmates die, one by one, while they struggled to survive the transformation into Tekkamen.

Reading the room, Sho spoke up before anyone asked if he was also the subject of an experiment. "I tripped." The Space Knights were not expecting a glib story and not one as simple as that.

"You tripped?"

Grateful for the help, Masaki answered Honda's question for Sho. "He tripped." He illustrated with a dramatic pratfall.

"A friend and I were in the woods one day and we found the Guyver unit in its standby mode." Sho gestured to illustrate a round objet about the size of a dinner plate. "I tripped, landed face first on top of it. It activated and bonded with me." Sho's eyes seemed to focus on a spot a thousand meters away. "Then the rest happened."

D-Boy sat up straighter.

"I wasn't ready. My father worked in an office. I was a high school student. One day I was worrying about girls and history exams. The next, I'm fighting armies of Zoanoids. Just trying to keep my family and friends safe. Then somehow that, turned into 'saving the world,' when I wasn't looking."

D-Boy took a slow sip of coffee. As horrific as his life had become, it was almost easier than Sho's. He'd lost his entire family, either to death or darkness. Any friends he left behind had died in the early invasion of the Space Ring. That left him free to fight without fear of failing those he loved. At least at first. Miyuki was back now, and his brothers could be saved. His little sister was back. He still had trouble wrapping his mind around how good that felt. Even the Space Knights started as a resource he could use but became friends somewhere along the way. Maybe more… But they weren't helpless. They built Pegas when Dagger had shattered his crystal. Noel threw himself into the fray, first in the Blue Earth, then in the Sol Tekkaman. When Evil unleased his Psy-Voltekka, the Space Knights countered by upgrading Pegas to enhance his own Voltekka. D-Boy had access to virtually any resource on the planet. Sho had none of that. Yet they were the same in one way. When the horn sounded and battle was joined, they fought alone. "People talk about 'carrying the weight of the world,' but how many people really understand?"

"We can't." Noel said without looking up from the table. "We never will. Because at the end of the day, there's someone else to step up."

Aki reached out and squeezed D-Boy's hand. "We watched you D-Boy. We watched to go into battle over and over again. As powerful as you are, we knew that one day you wouldn't come back. I wanted to ask you to stay back, so many times, but…"

"There were a lot of times I wanted to stay here. I was tired of getting hurt. Tired of losing, even when we 'won,' we still lost."

Silence claimed the room for several long minutes. Masaki finally broke the spell. "You aren't alone anymore."

***

Axe was mildly surprised and more than a little pleased when he walked in and saw Evil and Lance working together. Evil was putting the finishing touches on a chart that covered half of one wall when Axe sat down. He noticed a nearly full bottle of whiskey sitting on the bar, next to a pair of empty glasses, but both the room smelled more of coffee than liquor.

Lance looked up from his notes first. "How is she?"

Axe helped himself to a bowl of chips before answering. "Sleeping. Almost every bone in her hand is broken. Some bruised ribs, but I'm more worried about her hand. Even with our accelerated healing, there's no way to set all those fragments in the right place. What's all this?" He gestured to the charts on the walls and papers spread across the tables.

Evil capped the last pen and sat down. "We were comparing notes on Blade's new friends." One wall was broken into columns for Blade, Rapier, Blue, and White. Another wall had a table the same names along the top, and Evil, Sword, Axe and Lance's names down one side. "This is a matrix that will help us figure out who's the best match for who."

Axe was considering the charts when his forehead tingled and a voice echoed in his ears. "Hear me, my warriors!"

"Yes, Lord Omega!" they snapped in unison.

"Lance, as soon as she is fit to travel, escort Sword to my ship. Your wounds will heal faster here."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Evil prepare a series of diversionary attacks. We must keep our new enemies off balance."

Evil grinned at the thought of causing destruction for its own sake. "Yes, my lord!"

"Finally, Axe, your task is the most critical. The humans launched a missile at the Space Ring. If it had hit, the ring would have been destroyed and debris from the elevators would have rained down on Earth. Blade was able to intercept the missile but my Spidercrabs report that the missile appears to be intact. Blade was only able to cripple the booster. Go. Find the missile, disarm and recover that warhead. The humans may have taken away our ability to use their own orbital lasers against them but then they gave us this warhead."

Ch 6
Tekkaman Axe slouched, or tried to. There was something profoundly unsatisfying about slouching while floating in space. And he couldn't cross his arms properly either. His armor protected him from the almost any environment or threat, and allowed him to fight with near total freedom of movement yet bound up just enough that he couldn't cross his arms naturally. Being deprived of his favorite thinking pose wasn't helping him tackle the problem in front of him.

The Fermion missile the humans had fired was floating in space, a little bit less than 200 kilometers above the earth. Blade managed to clip the booster with a voltekka, preventing the warhead from reaching the Ring, 35,000 kilometers high. The missile never reached its target, so it never detonated. The problem Axe grappled with was one of design philosophy. Was the warhead designed to failsafe or failsecure?

If it was designed to failsafe, then the warhead would disable itself once it determined that it can't reach its target. That was standard engineering practice. If a system couldn't do its job, it was designed to fail in a way that would present the least danger. On the other hand, this was a weapon, so it could be built to failsecure. That could mean anything from sensitive electronics melting themselves down, self destruct charges, partial yield detonation, or even a full yield detonation. It was the last two options that worried him. But that begged another question. If this warhead was going to self destruct, why hadn't it?

Spider crabs made several passes close to the missile and determined that there weren't any proximity triggers. Then he commanded them to nudge the missile, moving it into a safer orbit where it wouldn't come any closer than 1,000 kilometers to one of the orbital elevators. Now he had to open it up and disarm the warhead. A task made all too interesting for Axe's like by the security features undoubtedly built into a bomb like this. Features that could be anything from shorting out the control system to a high order detonation. Even a Tekkaman couldn't survive that kind of explosion, especially if he was standing right next to it!

He needed coffee. Lots of coffee.

***

Gordon sipped his coffee and considered Commander Freeman's office. "This is excellent. A custom blend?" His tweed jacket was hanging on a hook by the door.

"A little bit of cocco powder. Something I learned in the army." Commander Freeman saluted with his own cup. They were both sitting at a small coffee table, rather than at the tidy desk on the other side of the room. "I reviewed the briefing yoru associates gave. Considering that I work with a man who literally fell from the stars and lived to tell the tale, I can't really protest the frankly incredible powers that they claim."

Gordon grinned and added a piece to the go board between them. "What I can't reconcile is your human appearance with descriptions of events and organizations that must have left traces. Typically, when one receives aid from Avalon, it comes in the form of a brave king, a magic sword, and a powerful wizard. Perhaps 'king' is close enough to 'emperor,' in this case."

Commander Freeman hadn't actually asked a question, but he his statements revealed a very careful analysis of the situation. Gordon decided to try giving Commander Freeman a clue, rather than an answer. "The answer is a bit like go, moments to learn, lifetimes to master. Here's a hint, Hugh Everett."

Commander Freeman squinted for a moment, until he recognized the name. "A physicist, if I recall. The originator of what became the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics." Gordon was pleased that Commander Freeman had recognized the name. Now how would he apply that datum to what he already knew? "You are human, or were. You've found a way to travel from one dimension to the next. Events that Sho and Masaki described happened as they say, but it happened on another Earth, which is why we have no evidence. Quantum Brane Theory implies that such temporal travel is equally possible. If that is the case then why would you wait… There are factors that limit where along a worldline you can enter or exit. Enhanced Relativity implies that such a restriction necessarily include limits on your spatial travel."

Now it was Gordon's turn to salute. "Very good. How much of what you just said are you certain of?"

"Certain? Maybe ten percent." Commander Freeman blushed slightly. "A dozen physicists could spend a lifetime proving what I just outlined."

"I suspect that you used a few assumptions that aren't entirely correct, but you hit all the high points. I am a Ranger First Class, in service to my Lord the Emperor of Avalon. A shining realm that offers shelter to the homeless, aid to the injured, safety to the imperiled, friendship to the curious, strength to the brave, and annihilation to the wicked."

Commander Freeman's eyes narrowed sharply. "And in exchange for that beneficence? Alliance? Fealty?" His accusatory tone was a harsh change from the musings of a scientist, playing with a new idea.

"Sho and Masaki aren't here under duress, if that's what you're asking." As much as Gordon had enjoyed watching Commander Freeman grappling with the physics of interdimensional travel, they were quickly coming to a point in the conversation that Gordon never liked. "Avalon doesn't do what we do for profit or expansion or power. We don't even do it because we can. We do it because it's right and good."

"Then why are they here with you? They've both bled enough for two worlds."

"That says more about them than it does about me." Gordon chuckled, thinking back to the dinner party hosted by Sho's wife, where both men volunteered to take up another world's war. "I accepted their help because they understand despair in a way that I never will. They were ripped from their lives and thrown into an impossible war where defeat was a foregone conclusion. It was just a matter of how long could they hold out. They went into battle, knowing that even if they won today, they would lose tomorrow or the next day.

"I do what I do, with the knowledge that I serve something righteous and just. That even death cannot stop me from bringing light and hope to some of the darkest corners of the multiverse. And if I am not equal to the task, I can summon more resources than you can fathom. I serve a God-Emperor who would and has lead armadas and armies against the forces of Hell itself, all to save a single soul.

"And once that soul was under Emperor's protection, the Empress arrived and made her feelings about those who would harm children very clear. With lightning."

If Gordon was any judge of men, Commander Freeman was about to draw a conclusion that would make him angry. Very angry. "You speak of summoning fleets and armies." The albino set his drink on the table, laced his fingers together, and took a deep breath. The slight tremble in his shoulders was all that betrayed his rage.

"How can you claim righteousness when you could end this war with a single call?" Commander Freeman was on his feet, towering over Gordon. He was shaking in anger. "Colbert is a monster whose incompetence and ambition have cost hundreds of lives. But you? I don't have the words to describe what that makes you!" Go pieces clattered off the window.

Gordon didn't flinch at Freeman's outburst. "The difference between me and Colbert is that he would build a throne on the corpses of his victims. I will carry the weight of their souls for the rest of my days."

"That's not an answer."

"I don't call for reinforcements because they are needed elsewhere." Commander Freeman was about answer but Gordon wasn't done yet. "You think are standing on the precipice, staring into the maw of oblivion and you are terrified, but has horrible as this world is, this is far from the worst I've seen." Gordon's words carried their own anger, though not directed at any external target. This anger was at himself, at his own limitations.

"I could call for help. I could end this war in hours, sweep the Radam from your skies and save billions. But it would cost trillions of others. Would you ask me to make that choice?" Gordon pulled an old style flare gun from inside his waistcoat, cocked the hammer and tossed it on the table . "Would you like to make it? It's easy, just aim for the stars, pull the trigger, save this world, doom another." He took several breaths to calm himself. "I promise you this, Commander. Earth shall stand victorious. She will carry the scars of this war for generations, but she will emerge from the fires stronger than you can imagine. In the mean time," Gordon picked up the flare gun, decocked it and offered it to Commander Freeman, grip first. "Why don't you hang onto this?"

Commander Freeman took the flare gun, considered what he was holding. This simple device looked much like any other flare gun from the past five hundred years, but it was more than that. It was more than a transdimensional beacon. It was a choice, it was power. Gordon was giving Commander Freeman the power to end the invasion, knowing that it would cost another world dearly. He felt no small relief when Commander Freeman tucked the flare gun into his jacket. The pale man seemed to understand the great weight carried by all Avaloni. They can save anyone, but they can't save everyone.

Gordon pulled on his jacket and straightened his tie. "Thank you for the coffee and the rest. I think I'll go back to wandering around the medical wards..."

Commander Freeman cocked an eyebrow. "Yes. I've received some interesting reports from the doctors and nurses. They've had shockingly few fatalities, no complications to speak of and patients are recovering with startling speed..."

"Is that so? I'll get right over there and see if I can get to the bottom of this strangeness."

***

Miyuki strolled down the hall at her brother's side. There was a bounce in his step that wasn't there yesterday. There was a little bit of the man he was before the nightmare. She still wore a jumpsuit, borrowed from an equipment locker. The legs and sleeves were both rolled up and she had an improvised belt made of wire. Someone had dropped off better fitting boots some time in the night, which was a relief but she still needed clothes, including underwear. Especially underwear!

Takaya turned and led her into a large store room or warehouse. Wide aisles alternated with tall shelves, packed with boxes, barrels, crates and every other conceivable container. Some of those boxes has been pulled into the aisles and turned into tables and chairs. A long table near the door was laden with military style combat rations and bottles of water. They collected their meal and wandered until they saw Noel, Aki and Milly sitting around a spool of cable-cum-table.

There were no chairs, only piles of cold weather gear, folded into cushions. Following her brother's lead, she sat down. Takaya sat next to Aki, and Miyuki next to Noel. Takaya and Aki were sitting closer than any other pair at the table, but they were both sat with their eyes forward and backs stiff. It was just like when they were in school together. It was comforting to know there was someone in her brother's life, even if he hadn't figured it out yet. She shook her head and followed his lead, tearing open her field ration, took the entree, and dumped the rest out on the table. Everything was quickly sorted into like piles, deserts, drink powder, candy, etc. She didn't give much more thought before digging into her own meal, something that made the dubious claim to be "chicken with dumplings."

"Has anyone had a chance to look at the damage to the residential blocks?"

"Not yet." Milly grimaced after taking a sip of coffee from a collapsible mug. "Though the priority should be getting the commissary fixed up."

"So good food ranks higher than the Blue Earth launch bay or the early warning arrays?" Noel teased.

"You're depending on ground based early warning arrays?" Miyuki swallowed another sporkfull of her questionable meal. "Does that mean the Radam have cut off all orbital scanning capabilities? And do you really need the ship? Takaya and I can be anywhere in the world in hours."

"We have a few satellites left but not many and those that actively transmit don't last long." Aki explained. "You two are the only ones who can get anywhere in the world in two hours, without help."

Miyuki scrapped the last bits of meat out of the entree pouch and tore into a pack of crackers. "Probably less than an hour if we use a Brachistochrone burn profile on a high sub-orbital trajectory." She paused to take a drink and grab a package of fruit and nuts. "The ascent profile and gravity turn should be pretty normal but the deorbit burn will be interesting." She cleared a small space on the table. A large round pastry became the Earth and a hot sauce bottle became a Tekkaman. "I would stay at altitude until I was about three thousand kilometers from the destination, then burn a combo of retrograde and anti-radial, to dump orbital velocity and slew the periapsis around. Once aerobraking kicks in, transition to a pure lateral thrust to bleed off extra horizontal velocity and if you time it right, you'll basically drop right out of the sky on top of the destination." She finished off the last of the pastry when she realized everyone was staring at her. "What? I know 28,000 kph seems like a lot of delta-v to kill, but I did a Hohmann transfer orbit from the Moon. That's something like 54,000 kph and I was dying at the time. Besides, with the anti-radial vector, aerobreaking does a lot of the heavy lifting."

Noel pointed to the mound of wrappers in front of her. Miyuki's eyes bugged out when she realized how much she'd eaten in one sitting. "Being a Tekkaman is intense and that energy has to come from somewhere," Takaya said, pointing out to his own large pile of wrappers.

Noel stroked his chin a moment. "All this talk of flying gives me an idea..."

***

Aki looked up at the remains of the residential block where they all lived. "This is your idea, Noel?" The five story building was more of less intact, but the parts containing the elevators and stairwells had collapsed. The collapsed sections left huge, ragged wounds, exposing all the floors inside. "I promise, Miyuki, his ideas are usually better than this."

Milly picked her way around the rubble. "I kind of like it. General stores doesn't carry utilities or shoes small enough for me, so it's either this, or we wait a month for the engineers to decide the building is safe. Anyway, Miyuki and I are about the same size, so she can borrow some of my clothes."

Miyuki glanced down at the borrowed jumpsuit, which fit her like a tent. "Deal!" She transformed in a flash of violet energy, disintegrating the jumpsuit, and wrapping her body in layers of alien alloy.

"Wai..." D-Boy called a heartbeat too late.

"What's wrong, big brother?"

He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "If you concentrate on the feeling of your clothes on your skin before you transform, you won't be naked when you change back," he explained.

"Also," Noel added. "You won't give everyone a free show during the transformation."

D-Boy glared at his friend for a moment then smiled. "I would make some dire threats in the name of defending my baby sister's honor, but she is the strongest woman on the planet." To make the point, Miyuki picked up a watermelon sized hunk of concrete in one taloned hand and started carving designs in it with the other.

"D-Boy!" Aki chided. "Stop using your sister to threaten Noel so we can go get some fresh clothes from our rooms." Miyuki dropped the concrete, scooped Milly into her arms and boosted up the to the third floor in search of the brunette's room.

D-Boy transformed as well and picked her up. He felt very awkward holding her in his arms. It wasn't just the awareness that he could accidentally hurt her. It was the intimacy of the situation. "Ready?" She nodded and D-Boy took off, albeit more gently than he normally did.

"Hey!" Noel called. "What about me? This was my idea!"

The landing on the fourth floor was equally soft. D-Boy told himself that it was because he didn't want to risk disturbing the structure any more than necessary, and it had nothing to do with holding Aki in his arms.

Aki swiped her keycard in the slot next to the door of her room but nothing happened. Not even the sour tones indicating a rejected card. "Either the power lines were cut or base engineers turned them off because they were worried." She jerked her head at the unresponsive door. "Do you think you could?"

D-Boy carefully dug his armored fingers in between the door and frame. The thin metal warped and wrinkled like tin foil. There was no way the twisted door would ever slide into it's recess now. "Huh." He stepped back, summoned half of his lance, and neatly cut the door out of the frame before folding the metal panel like a piece of cardboard, and tossing it aside.

Aki smiled and stepped past him. He moved to follow but his broad epaulets banged into the door frame. It took a couple of tries before he found the right combination of bending and twisting to duck through. "You could have just powered down."

He shook his head. "If the building starts to shift, I can protect you this way." Looking around, he saw that her room was virtually identical to his. A short hallway with a door to the bathroom opened up into the main room. There was a large window on the far wall, over the same narrow bed with two rows of built-in drawers that he had. But that was where things started to diverge. He used the standard issue sheets and blanket. She had comforter with a geometric pattern over lavender sheets. She had also added curtains to the window. Where he had a large desk and chair with a work station, she had a small couch, a blanket folded and draped over one arm. Her laptop was still sitting on the coffee table, with the same thin layer of dust as everything else in the room.

Aki went gently pulled the comforter away, revealing clean sheets. She set about grabbing items from various drawers and laying them on the bed. "Can you grab the duffel bag in the bottom of the closet?"

Everything was different now. Yesterday, he was Earth's only weapon in a hopeless war. There was no room in his soul for anything but hatred of the Radam. It didn't even really matter if he saved the Earth. If he could kill the monsters that killed his family, that would be enough. With that kind of rage, it was easy to focus, to ignore everything else, everyone else.

But everything was different now. Better, brighter, but also confusing. Free of his time limit, he could fight Radam Tekkamen on an even field. He had allies, enough allies to actually outnumber the Radam Tekkamen. Miyuki was alive. D-Boy felt hope for the first time since stepping aboard that alien ship so long ago. He caught himself pondering what he would do after the war. He wondered how he could spend their next furlough. And without realizing it, he was wondering who he could spend it with. Aki was usually the first name that went through his mind.

Without the overwhelming pressure of the war, one thing became painfully clear. Somewhere along the way, he had fallen for his tall, dark haired teammate, and that scared him as much as any battle ever did. And now he was digging through her closet.

He had to bend down, grabbed a strap on the bag and stood up. He turned to face her only to find that Aki was trying to hid a smile behind her hand. As much as she tried to stay quiet, she started giggling after a few seconds.

"What?" D-Boy whipped his head left and right, trying to look behind him. There was a flash of white at one corner of his vision. He pawed at it and found a piece of fabric. It must have gotten hooked on his antenna when the stood up from getting the duffel bag. He tried to unhook it but ended up tearing the fabric. Once it was free, he held the, garment in both hands and realized what he was holding. It was a silky camisole, with a tears from his antenna and fingers. He dropped the camisole like it was a hot coal and stepped back. "Uh... I... Um... Sorry."

"No worries." She picked up the garment, and tossed it into the trash bin. "It uh, it was a gift. From an ex-boyfriend." Aki tried to sound nonchalant but her face turned bright red. "He was disappointed he never got to see me wear it."

The thought of Aki wearing the slinky, skimpy lingerie made D-Boy profoundly glad that he had chosen to keep his armor on. "Uh... Let's hurry up. I'm sure Noel is getting impatient." A chirp came from the PDA in her pocket. Aki rolled her eyes "And that's probably him..."

How had he worked with this woman for months, and not noticed any of a dozen beautiful details?

"Well, crap."

"What's wrong, Aki?" She showed him the message on the screen.

Gen. Colbert inbound. Heard we have 3 new Tekkamen. Wants 2 c. ETA 25m. Bring D-Boy & sis to CR
Rebin

Thoughts of the psychotic general drove any images of Aki from his mind and brought him back into the moment. "Oh, Frabjous day!"

Not quite abandoned!

Milly picked her way through the rubble strewn hallway. There were a couple places where the floor seemed to buckle and sag. Miyuki flew her across those spots rather than risk it. They broke open a janitorial closet and took a couple trash bags to carry Milly's clothes and personal effects. Miyuki forced the door open, revealing Milly's quarters. Grey concrete dust covered everything except near the broken window. Rust-red dust blew in and coated the bed and desk. Judging by the glass and rocks spread across the room, a nearby explosion had shattered the window.

"Well, I had been thinking about redecorating." Milly frowned at the mess. "I'm going to grab a few things from the bathroom. See if anything in the closet looks like it would fit you."

After fetching some toiletries, Milly found Miyuki had already bagged a couple of her spare uniforms, before looking at her civilian clothes. She pulled out a orange top with cutouts at the shoulders and down the sleeves. "What do you think?" She held it up to her body and struck a pose.

The absurdity of woman in alien armor trying to model clubwear was too much. Milly started giggling. "No? How about this?" Miyuki strutted across the room, holding an electric blue dress with a plunging neckline.

Milly wrinkled her nose. "Not with your palette." She flipped through the closet and selected a long, grey, cheongsam with maroon highlights and strappy back. "It goes with the color of your armor."

Miyuki held the dress up for a moment. "Good idea about the color, but how do you dance in a dress this long?" Milly pointed out that the slits on the side came up higher than it first seemed. "Okay," Miyuki nodded. "I'm pretty sure I could give Noel an aneurysm with this outfit."

"Why Noel and not D-Boy?"

"After the battle yesterday, I was a kinda wired and gave him a little shoulder bump." Milly squinted at Miyuki, waiting for her to elaborate. Miyuki slouched a little bit, looked down, shuffled her feet and mumbled something.

Milly recognized that her body language was exaggerated because her face was hidden. "What did you say?"

"I said that sort of naked at the time. And you can't see my face but my cheeks are glowing right now!"

The air filled with dust when Milly fell onto the bed, laughing. "Oh, he must have freaked out! He can be such a prude sometimes. A bunch of us went out dancing just before the war started, and Noel nominated himself to 'chaperone' some of the younger Space Knights. If he was going to follow us around all night, we decided to have fun with it. So we spread out and started dancing with different people. He spent the night running around the dance floor trying to break couples up that were dancing too close."

"I wouldn't have figured him to be so parochial. He did make that comment about flashing the room every time I transform."

Milly was quiet a moment. Noel was certainly a macho jackass at times, but he had a couple soft spots. His teammates were one of them. It wasn't a gender thing, it was more about mentorship and camaraderie. "It was the first furlough for a lot of us and he was just making sure that nobody missed the bus back to base and got written up. What about D-Boy? How would he react to some of these outfits?"

Miyuki selected some tamer outfits to her own bag, along with the cheongsam. "Takaya was always really laid back about that stuff. Shinya, on the other hand was always glowering at the guys I went out with. I may or may not have brought home a few 'bad boys' just to drive him crazy."

It took Milly a moment to remember who Shinya was. To her, he had always been Tekkaman Evil, but for Miyuki, he was family. To Miyuki and to D-Boy too. D-Boy made no secret that Evil was his brother, but to her he had always been an implacable Radaam warrior. D-Boy never shared anything about growing up together, so she didn't have any other context. But now hearing stories of an overprotective big brother made it much more real. She was so wrapped up in that realization that she didn't realize Miyuki had asked a question.

"I asked why do you call my brother D-Boy?"

"He couldn't remember his name at first. Noel came up it. Short for Dangerous Boy and it just stuck." Milly took a moment to pack some socks and consider her next words. "I think he kept the name because it didn't hurt as much to be someone else." She didn't need to see her face to know that it broke Miyuki's heart to think about what her brother had gone through.

The awkward silence was broken by her PDA chirping from her belt. Milly groaned when she read the message. Miyuki looked up at the sound, but waited for Milly. "The bastard who tried to destroy the Orbital Ring is visiting the base." Milly didn't try to hide her disgust. D-Boy never talked about what happened when Colbert had him arrested, but from what Aki and Noel had said, it was bad. Somehow hurting her friend when he was already suffering made Milly angrier than nearly killing millions of people by destroying the ring. "He wants to meet you and the new guys."


***
Sho and Masaki were waiting outside the Control Room by the time D-Boy, Aki, Noel, Milly and Miyuki got there. Sho was still wearing the same black suit and tie from the day before, but Masaki had borrowed a set of utilities. "No more ripped pants?" Noel quipped.

"I'm not that lucky." Masaki snorted. "How bad is this meeting going to get?"

The Space Knights exchanged looks. D-Boy recalled his first encounter with the bald officer. It was shortly after returning to Earth. Colbert had demanded that D-Boy place himself under his command. When he refused, the general's forces attacked the base and held Space Knights hostage. Had Commander Freeman not anticipated the move and reached out to the President, things would have gone very differently.

While most of his subsequent encounters with the general were at least professional, others weren't. Colbert had him arrested in the aftermath of the incident when Evil had pushed him past his time limit and allowed the inherent evil of the Tekka-system to take control. Guilt and fear had turned D-Boy's hatred of the Radam inward for a time. The nightmares, the drugs and the tests Colbert's men performed combined into some particularly horrific hallucinations. Things he hadn't spoken about yet. Things he didn't want to remember.

A feather light touch against the back of a fist he hadn't even realized that he was clenching snapped D-Boy out of his reverie. It had been Aki who cut through the haze and reached him.
The way she had touched his face, and admitted her feelings. Somehow hearing her speak those words was as terrifying as nightmarish visions plaguing him since Evil had pushed him past his limit. How could she have feelings for him? He was a monster, an animal who had tried to kill his friends and family. Who turned on the people he was trying to protect. Yet she cared for him. He took her hand, gave a gentle squeeze, and she squeezed back.Everyone else fell away for a brief moment.

Honda's voice broke the spell. "I watched him murder one of his subordinates yesterday, then he launched that damn missile."

Sho's eyes widened at Honda's revelation. He was about to say something when a group of Allied Military officers exited the Control Room.

Commander Freeman looked very calm, standing near the center of the room, despite a very agitated General Colbert standing closer than was polite. There was a retinue of uniformed army personnel clustered off to one side. Most wore holstered sidearms, but some held carbines at the ready. And wandering through the middle of it all was Gordon, sipping tea. He set the teacup down in mid air, as if there was an invisible table, and took a moment to wave at the newcomers. An army lieutenant seemed completely oblivious to the Gordon's hand, passing centimeters from his face. "These fine folks can't see or hear me," he offered.

"For the last time! I demand you turn over the three new Tekkamen you've created!" Colbert bellowed, flecks of spittle hitting Commander Freeman in the face.

Commander Freeman took a long, measured breath before he moved. He removed and cleaned his dark glasses in slow, deliberate manner before he spoke. "We have not 'created' any Tekkamen, General"

"Don't play games with me, Freeman." Colbert took a half step, coming far closer to Commander Freeman than was polite. He held a hand out to one of his aids who produced a stack of photographs, showing Miyuki, Sho, and Masaki in the previous day's battle. "Do you deny what is in these images?"

"Why are you playing games, Commander?" Gordon asked. "You have enough evidence to have this clown shot."

"The Space Knights have not created any Tekkamen, General." Commander Freeman's tone was just neutral enough to not be condescending. "A second Tekkaman has joined us, as have two powerful, new allies."

"Details. Inform them that they will be transferred to my command." Colbert waited a beat before resting a hand on his holstered pistol. "And I wouldn't hold my breath, waiting for a last minute call from the President this time."

The thought of Miyuki being placed in Colbert's care made D-Boy's stomach turn. Only Aki's hand in his kept D-Boy's fist from clenching again.

"Yeah… that's going to happen." Gordon snorted. "May as well introduce yourselves, lads. Oh, and don't use Miyuki's real name."

Sho and Masaki strode into the room, ignoring all the newcomers and walked right up to Commander Freeman. Everyone else fell into step with them. "You asked to see us, Commander?"

Commander Freeman quickly glanced from Gordon to Sho, and back to Colbert. Gordon very deliberately spilled some of his tea on the floor before sipped the rest, as he watched the scene play out. Something in the strange man's demeanor helped D-Boy relax.

Sho and Masaki didn't even look Colbert's way. "This may be a civilian organization but courtesy to rank is still expected, Freeman," he growled. "You should teach your people to show respect."

Masaki finally acknowledged Colbert's presence. He slowly turned to face the bald man. They stared for a moment before Masaki put his hands in his pockets and turned back to Commander Freeman.

Colbert clamped a meaty hand on Masaki's shoulder and tried to spin him around but the younger man shrugged him off.

D-Boy watched Colbert's face contort with rage. He also noticed several soldiers start reaching for their weapons. One soldier started moving behind Masaki. Gordon gestured for the Space Knights to not intervene. She brought her carbine around in a classic horizontal buttstroke that clipped Maskaki behind the ear. Masaki didn't fall. He didn't even move. The rifle stroke may as well have been being hit with a towel.

The soldiers were stunned. Even the Space Knights, who knew that Masaki retained a portion of his strength while in human form were a bit surprised. Gordon was actually smiling. "Now, let's see if you can can defuse the situation before one of these idiots starts shooting."

Masaki kept his eyes fixed on Commander Freeman. "I'm going to pretend that didn't happen and whoever did it won't do it again."

Sho turned to Colbert while the soldier slunk back to her place in the crowd. "We've already offered our services to the Space Knights. I'm afraid we'll have to decline your offer."

Colbert took a silent moment to evaluate Sho. "Which one are you?" Colbert was many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. Anything they said now could come back to haunt them. D-Boy gave Aki's hand a reassuring squeeze before releasing it. No good could come from Colbert realizing that he cared for someone.

"I am the Guyver." After Colbert waited for a further explanation, Sho added, "The blue one."

"Ah… You drove off two Tekkamen yesterday." He glanced at the assembled Space Knights, trying to identify the new faces. "Your friend seemed to be having trouble dealing with a single Tekkaman."

"Axe is the most skilled fighter the Radaam have," Miyuki offed. Colbert fixed his gaze on her and D-Boy had to fight impulse to step in front of her.

"And you must be the new Tekkaman." Something about the way he was looking at Miyuki made D-Boy's skin crawl, but Miyuki stood her ground and held his gaze. "Again, so much power, controlled by one so… young. What is your name, child?"

"Rapier."

"A strong name…"

Colbert's manner was really starting to bother D-Boy. Miyuki has always been able to take care of herself and he had always let her, but he had limits and Colbert was quickly moving past "creepy" and into "threat." And the best response to a threat was a permanent one. He hadn't even realized that he summoned his crystal when Gordon grabbed his wrist.

"I know you want to hurt the skeevy bastard, but take a breath, son."

"The only two Tekkamen loyal to Earth are standing around in this room, General." Miyuki's voice held a familiar tone from their childhood. It was the voice she used when she was setting someone up to be embarrassed. She gestured to Sho and Masaki. "These two men are every bit as powerful and have promised to help defeat the Radaam. Wouldn't your time be better spent convincing us you are worth following and not staring at an underage girl's breasts?"

The Space Knights managed to keep their chuckles to a minimum but Colbert's face turned purple with rage. He started raising his hand to slap Miyuki and Gordon tightened his grip on D-Boy's wrist. "She's got this, lad. Trust her."

Miyuki didn't blink, didn't back down. She actually stepped closer to Colbert, forcing him to step back to maintain distance. "I kill spider-crabs and fight other Tekkamen. Do you really think you can intimidate me with a slap?"

The tension in the room was palpable. D-Boy doubted Colbert could back down, now that he had made the threat. If he struck her, he became a bully in the eyes of his subordinates but that would hardly be news. Yet if he did hit her and Miyuki remained defiant he risked looking impotent. There were few good options left to the bald general. All that was left was seeing if he would choose one.

Ever the diplomat, Commander Freeman interceded before the situation got out of hand. "It may take some time to settle this issue. Perhaps we should get the paperwork for transferring the Sol Tekkaman out of the way now?" Commander Freeman held out a table, presumably with the requisite forms already open. Colbert growled at Miyuki before he recognized the opening for a graceful retreat. He spun on his heel and stomped across the Control Room. He snatched the tablet out of Commander Freeman's hands and stalked back to the cluster of officers. At least that was his intention, until his foot landed in the puddle of tea Gordon had spilled, and slipped out from under him. D-Boy couldn't fully contain his chuckle when Colbert landed flat on his back. The situation was quite serious yet there was a small, petty part of his soul that enjoyed seeing Colbert embarrassed.

Soldiers rushed to help him up, one major grabbing the tablet. His face turned pale when he glanced down at the screen. One by one, other officers clustered around and they too grew pale when they saw whatever was on the screen. The voice of a panicked young man rang out from the small device. "The Orbital Ring! Please, you have to find a way to stop hi…" The sound of a gunshot, followed by Colbert's voice was unmistakable.
"Give me that!" Colbert demanded, trying to snatch the device, but the major turned away. "This is a set up. You're setting me up, Freeman!"

"Lieutenant Clark was found murdered, General." The soldiers were looking at their leader but the deference to rank was quickly being replaced by disgust. They all knew General Colbert favored bold, aggressive strategies, that often brought with them heavy casualties. But Napoleon said that fortune favored the bold. This was different.

"He was committing treason!" Colbert sensed the change in the room. "I was about to…"

The major silenced Colbert by crossing the room to stand a respectful distance from Commander Freeman. "I would like to discuss this new information with the Judge Advocate, Commander. Can I keep this?"

"Of course, Major." Commander Freeman took a step and turned his body to exclude Colbert from his conversation with the Major. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

The Major glanced over his shoulder at Colbert, who seemed smaller somehow. "No, I think we have everything we need." They were gentle about it but there was no mistaking the firm manner as Colbert was escorted from the room. "There will be a planning session at AMC headquarters in a couple days, we would appreciate your insight."

Commander Freeman accepted the handshake with a smile.

The room was silent for several moments after the military officials left the room. Milly finally broke the silence. "I hope they fry the bastard."