Operation Might Of Outer Haven
Date: XX, XX, 1984
Time: XX:XX
Mother Base was a hub of activity as all combat forces scrambled to face threat encroaching on Kandahar, and then humanity. In the Motor Pool, Sleeping Bear oversaw the frantic preparation of Diamond Dogs limited assets for air transportation and defense of the city against… a zombie horde. Sleeping Bear still couldn't shake the disbelief at that. He'd been around for Peace Walker, and gotten the need-to-know rundown of Quiet and the parasites, but this still felt like something out of a cheap horror movie.
"How're things shaping up?" Bear was interrupted by the arrival of his commander for the defense of Kandahar: Adam, 'Revolver Ocelot'.
"I figure we're 'bout ready to kick off," The Texan replied. "just loading up the last of the ammo."
"Good to hear." The Russian cowboy pulled out his iDroid and flicked it open to a map. "There's been a minor shuffle: You're going in with the second wave. The enemy numbers estimate went up again." Bear shared Ocelot's grimace at that. They were already focusing much of their limited manpower on maximizing the killing power of each line. "I'm putting more focus on the first line. You're still on the second as a reserve."
"You mean 'backstop', more like." Bear drawled.
Ocelot grinned morbidly. "Something like tha-Wait." He interrupted. "What's she- oh. Was wondering if she'd go."
Bear turned to see a somewhat familiar face walking up towards him and Ocelot. Snow Leopardess looked prim and proper as a woman could be. A woman who lived half her life in a cramped, smelly, greasy tank. She saluted rigidly, which Ocelot returned somewhat nonchalantly. Bear also saluted. 'Madre Bear' always raised him to be a good southern gentleman, which meant respecting women. And given many of the women on base could kick his ass, that went double.
Snow Leopardess had become a staple of the base's new faces, running her end of the supply company with an iron will and no tolerance for errors. Her setting up the Diamond Dogs armor school had been the only time he'd gotten any kind of time around her. And that was… not much. So she was still someone he didn't know personally.
"Commander Ocelot, Major Bear. I have a request." Brunhild had practiced in her head what she'd say very rigorously, and she wouldn't be denied this chance.
"And what would that be?" Ocelot was grinning, something Bear took mild offense at. He didn't like being jerked around.
"I wish to be assigned to one of the outgoing tanks as a TC." Not ask for a command, Brunhild reminded herself, that'd be imposing.
Ocelot can't hide his grin. "Didn't you say you'd never ride one of these.. What did you call them again?"
"Under armored, underpowered, poorly designed toys that don't even do the enemy's doctrine right." Brunhild replied flatly. "And they still are."
"But?" Bear asked, pointedly. Her file clearly showed she could command a tank, but he needed to know if Snow Leopardess could fight for others.
"But," Brunhild turned to meet Bear's gaze. "I cannot in good conscience stay here. Aside from you, who else here has a long and decorated career as a tank commander?" Brunhild immediately chastised herself internally for how she described herself. That was presumptuous.
"What about the Leopards?" Bear asked. He wanted to get directly to the heart of the matter.
Brunhild perked up, glad her little faux pas had seemingly not damaged her chances. "The students are either buttoned up in the tank with personal defense weapons, or on the shift rotation. They have their place. And mine," Brunhild pointed at one of the Sheridans. "Is in that hatch."
Ocelot smiled, remembering watching the security video of Snake and her's earlier conversation at the feet of Strangelove's tomb. "Wanted to be a hero, eh?"
"It's…" Brunhild paused, and glanced down sheepishly. "It's not entirely related to that. An honest-to-god zombie invasion? Stopping that's not just heroic. It's the right thing to do."
Bear nodded. He felt the same way as Ocelot, that Brunhild would look out for her comrades and the people around her. "Alright then, you want to be my XO, I'll have you. Let's get you introduced to one of the crews." He grinned, knowing just the bunch of men to stick her with.
**********
"Eeey, it's the Form Girl!" A short, darkly-tanned man called from aside one of the Sheridans.
"Alright Bruno, settle down. Snow Leopardess is going to be your new commander while Red Monitor's still in sickbay."
The three of them saluted her, which Brunhild returned.
The balding, unassuming looking man then stepped forward to offer his hand. "Glad to have you Ma'am. I'm the loader, name's John Banner. USMC, Korea." Brunhild shook it firmly, getting a smile from the Marine in response.
Bear spoke up. "Banner's one of the old breed from MSF. He'll take care of you, no mistake."
The thin man in the Stetson tipped his hat. "Johnny Marston. Gunner, US Army, Vietnam."
Brunhild nodded in return.
Bear chuckled. "You can probably guess how Johnny-boy and I met." Marston shrugged.
"Who'd a thunk that Adam wasn't the only guy who went to cowboy shooting competitions?"
"We Cav boys love our spurs, don't we?" Bear chuckled back, to Martson's whooping confirmation.
The African-American waved nonchalantly. "Bruno Mattias. I'm yo chauffeur, straight out of Saigon!"
Brunhild frowned at the man's casualness, but then sighed. "I suppose you're not all talk if you're here."
Bear let out a large belly laugh. "That's probably the nicest way I've seen any of his COs greet him. Every TC in the 82nd I knew hated his guts for the first five days, but after the first time they went into combat would buy him dinner." Mattias merely shrugged his shoulders, as if to imply 'what can I say?'
Brunhild inhaled, repeated her mantra internally, then exhaled. She assumed a parade rest posture. "Snow Leopardess. I have not served in any war, but I look forward to adding your knowledge to my own."
Bruno grinned. "Oh-ho-ho Lady, just wait till I show you how to make this thing cut a rug like it's '72!"
**********
"Well, are all about finished?"
Banner nodded. "Sure. Just a few more gun rounds, and we can roll out to the helipad."
Brunhild nodded, but then froze for a moment. "What kind of rounds do you have loaded?"
Banner coked his head. "Uh… so far ten high explosive, three HEAT rounds, and two Willie Pete. What've you got in mind?"
Brunhild pulled out a paper form and handed it to Banner. "We have M625A1 canister rounds in stock. As the TC, I am ordering you to fill the remaining ammunition racks with these, instead of the mission-proscribed M675."
"You want us to fire canister?" Marston cocked an eyebrow. "We ain't jungle-bustin', I don't think there's a tree for miles where we're going."
"But we will be dealing with massed infantry at close range." Brunhild promptly replied.
"Close range…" Marston scratched his chin for a moment. Then his eyes bugged out and he made a new evaluation of the person leading them into battle. "You sayin' we're going to be dealing with tangos close enough to touch?"
"I am not going to lie to you gentlemen." Snow Leopardess stated. "We're not a reserve to support the first line. We're the ones who'll be covering their retreat, then be the new line." She made sure to look each of them in the eye. "I've discussed this with Sleeping Bear, and he's concurred. We're punching above our weight class."
Brunhild's crew was silent for a moment before they all nodded.
"I'll get those beehives." Banner quickly grabbed Brunhild's form and dashed off to the Motor Pool arsenal.
Marston wiped his brow with his hat, then replaced it. "Forget that, I'm getting us some guns." He then jumped down from the turret and
rushed after Banner.
Mattias just shook his head. "Those two don't know how good they had it. Here," he grinned evilly. "Lemme show you a lil' trick some of my airborne buddies came up with. Here's how you turn those smoke launchers into frags…"
**********
Brunhild's iDroid beeped, signaling a new message. It was from Miller.
"Snow Leopardess, we got your request based on some of Soldier Ant's… ideas. He thought having something to cut through multiple targets might be a good idea, although it'd be no substitute for a headshot. Quiet should be delivering it on the way to her objective."
Brunhild turned, retrieving her rifle. She still couldn't pick up the faint rustling-crackle of Quiet's phasing, so the woman's appearance as she nonchalantly strolled past startled her. Without sparing her a glance, Quiet tossed an ammo belt at her. Brunhild caught it, then turned it over. Two of the ammo pockets had a white star in a circle on them. Miller's voice continued.
"Those are the newest in armor-piercing ammunition. It's the same principle of a tank's tungsten sabot round, miniaturized to a rifle bullet. We're spreading the few we have out to our snipers. You'll only have a small amount of our 'Silver Bullets'. Use them only for emergencies."
Brunhild opened one of the pouches and took out the clip. She'd had the Enfield bored out to 7.62mm to ease the acquisition and increase the potency available, but this was a world of its own. Where a normal bullet would sit in the cartridge, Brunhild could see the soft sabot cradling a shining, almost silver, needle-like dart. She gripped it tightly.
She'd not let the trust Diamond Dogs had put in her be a waste.
**********
The three Tyrannosaur-machines lay smoldering behind the second line. They'd punched through, and both Bear and Snow had maneuvered their platoons swiftly to bring them down before they could perform the role tanks performed since they were first introduced in the fields of France: Turn around and sweep trenches of infantry.
"Shit! We're swamped!"
Which now left them with the following tide that swept up behind them. Despite the steroidal 'Tanks' and the agile 'Leapers', the true danger to the tanks was the seemingly infinite normal zombies. Snow Leopardess looked to the right through her cupola as Marston cut another small opening in the tide with a beehive round.
Tank 2-1, commanded by one Mercurial Bat, was almost invisible under a writhing mountain of bodies. She'd had her platoon focus on supporting the line over covering each other, but now the cost of that could be four dead men and women if she didn't act fast.
"Banner, hose them down with the coax." She then flipped the frequency.
"Tank 2-2, support 2-1, then get back to it."
Snow Leopardess couldn't help but overhear Banner's next words on the crew net.
"It's Chosin all over again."
Nobody in the tank said anything as the submerged tank was steadily washed clean of bodies by machine gun fire.
As soon as 2-1's crew radioed they were operational, they saw the wave of Special Infected bounding towards their position. But none of them noticed a single odd man out among the shamblers. Its head was like a massive mushroom, and it grumbled and burbled like a roiling stomach. As the wave crashed over the second defensive line, it perked up at the sight of the six clustered armored vehicles. It lined up at the nearest one, and started to pick up speed, growling lowly. The bulbous-headed zombie went unnoticed until it slammed into Bear's Sheridan at a dead sprint. A corona of crimson energy engulfed it before exploding into crackling flames.
Snow Leopardess switched frequency to tank 1-3, still visibly chugging its engine despite metal and meat jamming its tracks.
"Bear! Damn you, Segura, respond!" All she heard was static. Snow Leopardess switched the net to all recon units.
"Get the fuck out of there!"
The four remaining tanks, even the one from Bear's platoon, began reversing immediately. With the last of the second line support gone, the tide of undead swarmed over the position. Those too slow to run or unwilling to leave vanished under claws, teeth, and feet.
As Snow guided her unit back through part of what had once been an outlying village, she spotted a zombie crawling up the engine block. A short burst from the M2 Browning blew its head to paste, only for three more to take its place. Hearing a rapid scrabbling to her left, she dared a quick glance to the right side of the tank. A small wave of shambling corpses had streamed out of a side-street, and were already beginning to climb the sides of the small vehicle.
"Button up!" Snow slammed the cupola shut and locked it just as the zombies reached the turret roof. The Sheridan's engine reached a feverish while before Bruno shut it down. "She won't go Lady. We try to force it, the engine'll tear itself apart!"
Banner and Marston both looked to her. "What's the plan, Snow?" The New Orleans gunner asked, only a hint of nerves in his calm drawl.
Brunhild sat still for a few moments, trying to collect her thoughts despite the cacophony of ghastly roars and the shaking of the vehicle. The other tanks wouldn't be coming to help them. She had made it clear to her platoon that when the withdrawal order was given, all deliberate speed was to be made. Don't stop to pick people up. She then turned to Banner. "We'll do like you said. Break out the hand weapons and grenades. We'll clear enough of them off us for Bruno to get the engine going and make a break for the third line."
"Hell yeah! Fucking zombie fucks won't know what hit 'em!" Bruno crowed as he fished out his two prized Mac-10s. Banner pulled out his weather-beaten M2 carbine, while Marston passed around grenades for the other crew members to easily reach. Brunhild herself spared a long glance at her mk III Enfield before picking up the Uzi she'd been assigned at the armory and slotting in a magazine. The unusual mouse-ear shaped magazine she'd found mysteriously inserted into her bag remained on the turret side. The entire crew tensed as they waited for Snow to give the order.
"Three… two… one… NOW!"
"Get some motherfuckers!" Bruno kicked open the driver's hatch and sprayed both his weapons at the mass of bodies atop the hull.
Brunhild slammed the button for the smoke dischargers, sending the converted fragmentation rounds out of their launchers before detonating amidst the horde. Banner shoved a concussion grenade out the loader's hatch. After the thump of the detonation, he and Snow Leopardess popped their hatches. Snow Leopardess let loose a full-auto burst into one zombie who'd remained sprawled on the engine deck. Turning to the front, she briefly saw a tide of bodies in front of their tank, before the pressure wave and another beehive round tore a hole down to the blood-soaked dirt. As the turret traversed right, main gun and coax blazing away, Snow grabbed the .50 cal and turned it counterclockwise to clear off the zombies behind them.
As she spotted a second wave of rushing zombies to their left and rear, Snow barked over the throat mike. "WP, seven o'clock!" The Sheridan finished traversing and barked an incendiary round into the charging horde. Bodies flew and even the strange metal began to warp and melt."Keep up the heat, fire again!" Twice more the Sheridan belched burning death. The runner's change had lost all cohesion, and with their exposed muscles sloughing off and popping, their momentum slowed to a crawl. "That's right, you animals. Burn in hell."
Swinging her machinegun back to the front to take more zombies, Snow Leopardess did not feel cool, calm, or collected. All she felt was a fiery, explosive rage.
And then her last belt ran dry.
"Damn it! M2's out!"
Banner dryly remarked from inside. "That's a shame. We're out of coax."
Snow grimaced. "Marston, how many main gun rounds left?"
"Two HE ma'am, one's chambered." With grim reminder, Snow reached down to grip her submachine gun. She knew if they stayed still long enough, they'd send the T-rexes or the Fast Attack Bots to clean them up. They needed to get moving... and hope they could fend off what was coming.
"So-ers of Saladin, soldiers of Sal--din, Diamond Dogs in the tank, do you read us?"
At the crackling open broadcast, Snow was extremely confused. She reflexively hit the call button. "This is Snow Leopardess, who is this and why haven't you fallen back to the third line?"
The voice came back over the radio, now much clearer.
"My name is Atal. My brothers and I are the last defenders in the town. We have ammunition and fuel in a supply dump, we can help you."
"I'm not one to turn down free help, where do we go to meet you?" Snow pushed the concern that these Afghanis would all be dead in very short order, and focused on getting her crew out of the combat zone. That'd be the least payment for their sacrifice.
"I am standing on the roof and can directly see you. I am to your left." Brunhild turned, and saw a man on a tall building standing next to a man carrying a bulky radio, waving an AK-74.
"I have eyes on you Atal. We're coming to you." Snow dipped her head into the turret. "Bruno, point this thing hard left and floor it. The locals are giving us one last top-off, let's make it quick."
"Alrighty, boss lady!" Bruno wasted no time in opening the throttle and heaving the light vehicle around towards their saviors.
**********
"Thanks for the resupply. Can we take anybody back with us?"
As soon as Brunhild and her tank had pulled into the courtyard where the supply dump was, several mujahideen fighters raced over, lugging boxes of ammo and shells, some of which were for weapons they didn't have. Through their leader, she politely waved off the ones that didn't have anything the crew needed. The 152mm shells and missiles had been loaded, and currently they were looking for 7.62mm and .50 cal belts.
"Not anymore. We have all agreed to die defending our homes. Everyone else has left. Thank you for your kind offer, Soldier of Saladin. " The young, rather handsome man spoke in only mildly accented english. "I am surprised to meet the woman my grandfather spoke so highly of. It is good to make such a meeting on this black day." Brunhild blushed at Atal's casual praise. She felt more than a little embarrassed about taking the rifle, sitting atop the turret beside her, but Atal had waved it off. "He would have given it to you anyway, I think. He liked you. He could see you were spirited, yet respectful." As he finished, a younger boy climbed up to the tank with a satchel, and eagerly talked to Brunhild, clearly offering them to her. She opened the package to see it holding several anti-tank grenades, demolition charges, and mortar shells. She was about to hand it back to the boy when Atal spoke again. "I would advise taking that."
She looked askance at him. "Why? We have plenty of grenades, and all the mortars were up at the second line."
Atal's face took on a very mournful smile. "Should you not make it back, better to die by your own hand than be turned into one of them."
"Oh." Brunhild could only reply just that as she mutely placed the satchel behind her in the cupola.
Outside the courtyard, a metal-tinged howl started echoing, seemingly coming from all sides.
Atal barked orders at the men around him, and they all scrambled to positions at the walls or within the courtyard.
"What was that?" Bruno asked nervously.
Atal only answered one word. "Jackals."
A grinding roar was the harbinger of a now-familiar Fast Attack"Wolf" Bot leaping over the wall and skewering a man on its tail. Atal leapt off the vehicle and ran into the combat zone, Ak-74 up and blazing.
Snow Leopardess snatched for her throat mike. "Guns up!"
As he crew went for their hand weapons, Brunhild grabbed for the smoke grenades that they'd recently taken on. One by one, she quickly threw them out the hatch. As the crew popped their hatches and looked around, the concealing smoke make the screams of men and machine all the more eerie.
They tensely scanned the fog, looking for an opening. A swirl here, a drifting thick patch there, a dark spo- "NOW!" Snow's order and stream of bullets led to the rest of the crew pouring fire into whatever glimpses of Wolves they could see.
"Eat lead, eat it, eat it!" Bruno's twin Mac-10s rapid burping and screamed bravado mixed with Banner's short, sharp bursts from his M2 carbine atop the turret. Snow kept a firm grip on her Uzi as she crawled out of the cupola, leapt off the back of the tank, and rushed for the boxes of machine gun ammunition stored next to the tank. Once she reached them, she grabbed the first two cans for the M240 and dashed back to the tank where Marston was waiting. He gripped an M1911 in one hand and held out the other.
"Take it Marston!"
He caught the tossed cans, dropped them down the cupola, then the two repeated the process again. A Wolf launched itself at the front of the tank, but seemingly misjudged the distance as Bruno yanked his head back inside at the last moment. "Fuck you too bitch!" A burping mag-dump from one gun saw the torso of the robot shredded, causing it to reel and pitch off the tank. Bruno leapt back up, cursing and scowling. He fired the other gun wildly at another Wolf prowling around to the right, causing it to leap back. For the third trip Snow managed to wrap her arm around three .50 cal boxes and hustle back to the tank. As she hauled herself up with one hand on the assist ladder, she saw some of the Wolves were starting to circle in a group, rather than picking individual targets. She could immediately tell what that meant: They were about to attack in force.
"Button up!"
The two outside crew members immediately dove back into the tank, but Snow was just a few seconds behind getting into the cupola. An electronically distorted howl preceded the Wolf that bounded up the front of the tank and tried to get at her. She didn't even realize her Enfield was in hand and shouldered before an armor-piercing SLAP round smashed through the front of the machine. A rapid cocking saw a second round put through a Wolf, then another. Then the fourth landed atop her, and knocked her to the bottom of the turret.
"Shit! John, shoot it! Shoot it now!" Brunhild, in her dazed and concussed state, could only gather her wits enough to remark that this was the only time she'd heard Marston lose his cool.
The snapping and snarling machine stared down at her, then two muffled shots caused it to make an electrically-distorted yelp of pain. It then slackened, drooling bluish fluid from its maw. The body was dragged from the turret by an unseen individual, who promptly revealed themselves as Atal when he stuck his head in the tank, holding Brunhild's dropped rifle.
"Friends, we must go now." He dropped the rifle down to her, which she caught. "We cannot hold the rest back."
His words proved prophetic, as Bruno screamed, "Three-o-clock, kill 'em!"
Atal and Marston were immediately on the targets, the assault rifle and coax chattered hundreds of rounds at the pack circling around to their right. Snow clambered back up to the cupola to man the .50 cal, only to see the enemies they'd missed to the left.
"Eight o-" Her words were too late. One of the pack flicked its tail, almost lazily, and the tank was filled with the sound of shrieking metal and whining engines.
"Johnny…" Snow could barely hear Marston's voice, so small and despairing now, over the intercom. "... I can't feel my legs."
"NO! MARS!" Banner's voice was flashing between rage and grief. "MARS! Come on, don't do this! We're almost home!"
Home. Mother Base. The final evac point, less than a mile away. Seemed like a lifetime now. As Snow swung the cupola around, Atal joining her in hosing down most of the left hand group with machine gun fire, she could see the massive gash torn in the side of the Sheridan. Marston had probably been torn almost in half.
"YOU FUCKING ANIMALS!" The main gun fired the loaded round, killing the few Wolves left in the right group. The loader's hatch slammed open, followed by a grenade to the tank's right. It exploded under a Wolf unit, hobbling the machine. Banner lunged from the hatch and emptied his carbine's magazine into the crippled Wolf. He then leapt down off the left side of the tank, carbine in one hand and grenade in the other.
"They're in front!" Bruno's panicked yells drew Snow Leopardess' attention to the front of the tank, where a third pack was almost on top of them. Atal and Snow quickly switched to the front, leaving Brunhild to see Banner out of the corner of her eye.
"You bunch of animals, I'll kill you all!" As her loader threw the grenade and aimed at another Wolf, the one he'd previously downed suddenly thrashed to life and sunk its metal teeth into his ankle. The marine roared in pain and anger, jammed his carbine against the unit's head, and tore it to shreds. Before he could pull his leg free, the last leftmost Wolf tackled him to the ground, savaging his throat. Atal turned his attention from the front to put a shot through the head of the Wolf, but the killing blow was too late. Johnson lay dead.
As Snow forced her attention back to the front of the tank, she saw one Wolf had gotten under her gun's arc of fire and crawled up to the driver's hatch. It was staring down at the man inside, as the driver kept his guns trained on the enemy. "COME AND GET IT! COME AND GET IIIIEEEEEAHHGH!" Bruno's bloody howls died down to bloody gurgles as the Wolf unit withdrew its chainsaw from the remains of the driver's hatch. Atal stepped onto the turret, then past her, and emptied his magazine into it. The Wolf crumpled to the ground, sparking and twitching.
Snow Leopardess looked around, scanning for more enemies. Surprisingly, none still moved.
"How many more bullets do you have?" Atal asked quietly.
"Half a belt for the fifty, one HE for the cannon, and three magazines for the submachine gun. You?" She replied tonelessly. Atal shook his head in response. As Snow Leopard slumped against the rear of the cupola, Atal crouched and heaving breathlessly behind her, she still felt a sense of relief amidst her shock. She was fueled up, unharmed, and would make it ba-
"Jackal! above!"
Atal's pointed finger over her head led to a Wolf clinging to the room above them, concealed by smoke and flames. It revved its chainsaw-tail, and flicked it back and forth like a whip. Was it toying with them? Brunhild gripped her Uzi tight, but then slackened. Nine mil rounds wouldn't stop it from killing her. "Atal, I think this is the end." She stated. It was almost painful how, at the end, the cold and emotionless face she'd discarded when she arrived at Diamond Dogs now had control one final time.
"Do not worry," Atal calmly replied, "I have a plan!" He slung the satchel of remaining grenades and mortar shells over one shoulder. He then pulled out one of the shells and slapped the bottom of it against his palm. Brunhild turned around to see the man about to leap at the creature. "If I see my grandfather, I will tell him he made a good choice." Atal yelled, before jumping. Brunhild was just a hair slow on grabbing his shirt. The monstrous machine twisted in mid-air, changing its angle to slam him to the ground with its chainsaw.
"NO!"
"ALLAH AKBAAAAAAG-" A massive explosion engulfed the impaled man and the canid machine that was ripping him apart.
Brunhild watched as the smoke cleared. Of monster or man, there was no sign but scattered parts and a smokey stain on the ground. Choking back a sob, she descended into the tank, crawled past the other failures she'd carry to her grave, and hit the ignition on the driver's controls. The engine roared to life, and she promptly shifted the tank to reverse.
As Brunhild backed the tank away, she could see another of the wolf-like machines slink out from a nearby trench. From the damaged 'ear', she could tell it was the one she had winged. It looked right at her, then back at something in the opposite direction. She followed its gaze, and saw a Sheridan out in the open field. She couldn't tell if it was one of hers or one of Bear's, but it was completely buttoned up and bogged down, mobbed by zombies clawing uselessly at the hull. The Bladewolf could have easily run at her and skewered her through the open driver's hatch, and she couldn't do a thing about it. It looked back at her for a moment, then another, then turned and languidly loped over to the disabled vehicle. Brunhild watched as the Sheridan's top armor was cut away in a flurry of sparks, the Bladewolf paying no heed to the zombies atop it. The robot's jaws casually ripped the roof up and flung it away. The obstacle gone, a tide of flesh and metal surged over the sides to get at the people within.
Brunhild wondered if this was what it meant to be hero. Or perhaps, to just simply survive. Either way, she was sure there would be plenty of time to debate that in her nightmares of sand and steel.
. Was planning on releasing last night, but it'll be today.
