Published: 12 Apr 2018

The afternoon debriefing was pretty straightforward. Christina took the lead in laying out everything that had happened during the attack. Major Gulipo reported on what they experienced on the Rock Island Arsenal base and Colonel Zolotov spoke on his part, including what had happened in the attack on the armored column from the south that they had taken out.

Near the end of the meeting there was a knock on the door and Logan entered the room. Everyone greeted him and they could see that he was obviously much happier than he had been when he thought Adam was lost. “Eve, Adam sent me to ask if you would come and see him. They will be taking him in for his next surgery soon and he wanted to talk to you before he went in for that.” Eve looked at the team leaders in the meeting. “Is there anything else we need to discuss?” Her question was met with the leaders shaking their heads. “Very well then, since we currently have no assignments, make sure your gear is cleaned and stored, then relax and get some rest. Also remind everyone we are still technically at war, so I want the Red Dragons to be under arms at all times, at least side arms Christina. Those orders will be the same for all UNIT members. We don’t know if there are anymore AoG bastards around here, they may want to try and attack and/or capture one of our team members. If any people on the base have a problem with it, refer them to me and I will make sure that they understand that what they think is of no consequence to me. I have informed the base commander of this order and he said he would make sure his men know about it.” She gave them one last nod and turned to Logan. “Let’s go see Adam.” The two walked out.

Christina shook hands with both Major Gulipo and Colonel Zolotov. “It was good working with you two. I look forward to doing so again.” They split up and went to brief their teams.

Christina walked to the hangar area where the team was working on their weapons and gear. They had headed out to the hangar right after they got a good meal in them, got cleaned up and into clean uniforms. As she entered the hangar, she could see that it looked like they were almost finished with the team’s gear. Mac’s people were working around Dragon, checking it over and performing any needed maintenance. Her entrance got everyone’s attention. She waved the team over to join her.

“Hey guys. It looks like you are almost finished here. When you are done we are to stand down and get some R and R, Eve’s orders.” There were a lot of smiles at that statement. “She also said that we are to remain armed, at least side arms. If anyone on the base gives you trouble about it, tell them to contact Eve. She said she’d straighten them out. Also Adam is going to have further surgery today, so keep him in your thoughts. It’s good to have him back. Chase, I’m not going to have you go around in your armor and helmet, so keep yourself hidden as much as you can from the squishies. You need to relax as well. However, try to remain as unobtrusive as possible. That doesn’t mean go hide in your room, but try not to draw too much attention to yourself. There already will be enough attention on all of us, because to most of them, we’re a bunch of armed kids. So just do the best you can.” Chase smiled. “No problem Chrissy. They will not see me if I do not want them to.” Christina smiled at him. “I know Chase.” She looked at the rest of the team. “Okay, let’s finish this up so we can start our little vacation.”

The team headed back to what they had been working on. Ian walked over to Christina. “Chris, I thought I’d go over to the hospital and help with Adam’s surgery, if that’s okay.” She smiled at him. “I think that’s a good idea. Go ahead, I’m sure they could use your help. Go find Doctor Hayes, she’ll be the one in charge, but I think they also brought this Navy doc in from the Reagan to help her with it as well.” Ian nodded and walked over to Doc McGee and asked him if he would give him a ride to the medical clinic.

Doc parked the truck near the base medical clinic and the two of them walked inside. Ian led the way to the front desk of the clinic. The airman sitting at the desk, looked up at their entrance. “Hi, can you tell me where Doctor Hayes is doing her surgery?” The man looked at the young teen. “She’s busy prepping for surgery. If this is an emergency, I will have someone get her?” Ian shook his head. “No emergency, I’m going to be assisting her. Just point me in the right direction, and I’ll get going.” The airman snorted. “Assisting her? With what?” Ian glared at him and then looked at Doc. “Doc, I’m going to go find them. Will you talk to this guy? As soon as I talk to Doctor Hayes, I’ll have someone call back here and let you know how long it will be. If it’s not too long, could you wait? If it will take too long, I’ll get a ride with Doctor Hayes when we finish up.”

Doc nodded as Ian headed toward the door. The airman stood up and reached out to stop him. “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” Ian ignored him and walked through the door. “Airman, sit back down.’ The airman looked at Doc and noted his rank, realizing that this soldier outranked him. “But Sergeant. That kid can’t be back there unless he’s a patient.” Doc shook his head. “No, he is a fully trained medic, a lot better than I am in fact, and I’ve been a medic for over 20 years. So let it go. If she doesn’t need his help, he’ll be back out. If she does ask him to stay, then they’ll let us know. Don’t worry, she knows who he is. If you get in trouble, you can have them talk to Doctor Hayes.” The airman was skeptical but Doc calmly stood there with his arms crossed and just looked at him. The airman glanced at the door and then accepted what he was told. “Yes, Sergeant.” He sat back down while Doc went to take a seat in one of the chairs nearby, calmly picked up last month’s Sports Illustrated and began reading.

Ian walked down the hall, getting more than one glance from the men and women working there. He was armed as he had been ordered to be and that got more than one surprised look. Finally an older man in a white coat looked up from the computer he was working on and saw Ian. He walked over to him. “Young man, what are you doing in here and armed?” Ian stopped and noted the man’s name and rank on his coat. He smiled. “Hi, Doctor Vickers or should I say Major Vickers?” The man gave him a faint smile. “Doctor is fine.” Ian nodded. “Sir, I’m looking for Doctor Janet Hayes. I was told she was here getting ready for surgery.” The man nodded. Ian thought for a moment, he figured he’d get more flack if he told the Major he was here to assist so he took a different tack. “I have some information that she asked for pertaining to her surgery.” The man regarded Ian for a moment and knowing that there were some similarly armed older teens or young men guarding one of the procedure rooms, nodded and pointed down the hall. “Go right at the next hall and you will see soldiers, guarding the procedure room.” Ian smiled and saluted. “Thank you Sir.” The doctor nodded and Ian headed for the hall. The doctor called after him. “And young man, I’m not comfortable with a bunch of armed people in my clinic, especially teenagers.” Ian stopped and turned around. He was about to say something but the man held up his hand. “I said only that I’m not comfortable with it, but we have been told by command, not to hinder you. However, I would appreciate it if you would relay my disquiet to Doctor Hayes.” Ian nodded and continued on his way.

When he turned the corner it was easy enough to see which room was the procedure room since there were two armed and capable looking soldiers standing in front of the door. They noticed Ian walk up, and tensed slightly. “Hi, I’m Ian. I’m supposed to be helping Doctor Hayes, can you tell me where I can find some scrubs.” The two exchanged questioning looks and one of them shrugged and pointed at a nearby room. “Doctor McCray went in there to change.” He smiled and went to the door and entered. Inside he saw a small dressing room. At the other end of the room were a couple of doors labeled restroom, one door was closed and the other open. He looked around the room and saw a small cabinet labeled scrubs. He opened it and searched through it until he found some scrubs that looked like they would fit. He searched the lockers until he found an empty one and started to undress. He had just gotten the scrub pants on, when he heard a toilet flush, followed by the sound of the water running in the sink. He pulled the scrub top over his head just as the restroom door opened.

“Good afternoon, I’m…” The man who was speaking stopped when Ian’s head appeared out of the scrub top. “Uh, excuse me, but, who are you?” Ian glanced at the man. “Oh hi. I’m Ian, I came to help Doctor Hayes with Adam’s surgery.” The man looked him over and noted the holstered pistol on the bench. “Ah, you’re part of the UNIT. Okay then, I’m Doctor McCray. Janet asked me to come and help with the surgery as well, so I suppose I will see you in there.” Ian nodded as he hid his pistol beneath his uniform in the locker. He left the room and headed over to the procedure room. When he opened the door, he saw a small room where Doctor McCray was scrubbing his hands and arms at a sink. Doctor Hayes was standing next to him. She was showing him something on the PADD in her hand and they were discussing something. They both turned to the door as Ian walked in.

She looked a little surprised at seeing Ian standing here in scrubs. “Ian? What are you doing here? Is there a problem?”

“No Ma’am. Chris told us that you were going to do Adam’s surgery and I thought I could help with healing Adam during the surgery, to help him get better faster. Like I did with Carson’s surgery.” She looked at him for a moment before walking over to him with a slight smile. “Thanks Ian.” He smiled. “However, I’m afraid that if you used your ability with Adam, you may make it worse.” Ian gave her a confused look. “I don’t understand.” She nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll be inside Leo.” Leo nodded as he started rinsing off the soap. She then guided Ian through another door that led into the brightly lit procedure room. He saw Adam lying on his stomach on the surgery table and Doctor Ziegler standing nearby checking a monitor, his eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep. Ian also saw that there were a couple of other people in scrubs as well, checking instrument trays and other supplies. He could tell by their haircuts, that they were military, probably Navy Corpsmen or Nurses. He guessed they must have come with Doctor McCray.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here, Doctor Ziegler.” She looked at Ian and smiled. Janet gave Ian’s shoulder a squeeze. “Now, I know Chang gave you a medical dump of everything, including what we know about Genesis kids.” Ian nodded. “Okay then, I want you to search through that knowledge and think about your ability and how it works. Then match it to what you know about how Adam’s innate healing works.” Ian nodded and closed his eyes for a moment as he did what she asked. He opened his eyes moments later and looked at her. She smiled as Doctor McCray walked up to join them. One of the men came up to him and helped him get his gown and gloves on.

“Now you see. Because of Adam’s very high healing ability. If you used your ability, which harnesses, boosts and speeds up a person’s own natural healing. You’re ability speeds it up a lot of course, but in essence that is what it does. So if you added your ability to his already very powerful self-healing ability, the strain on his body, might cause Adam to go into shock. His body going into shock would harm him more than it would help. You understand that now?” Ian nodded. “Yes Ma’am. That makes sense. You’re already having to fight against his healing ability to remove all the fragments that are in him as it is. If I helped, at the least I would delay that.” He shrugged. “Okay. Can I watch? I promise I won’t interfere.” She looked at him for a moment and smiled. “Sure, just keep your ability to yourself. In fact, maybe we can have you help us. You can be our circulating nurse. You could help get things we may need out of the cabinets so the rest of us can stay sterile.” He smiled. “Sure, but I gotta go tell Doc not to wait for me.” Ian, turned to leave but she stopped him. “If Doc’s here, why don’t you have him join us? He might be able to assist as well. That is if he wouldn’t mind.” Ian smiled and quickly left the room.

Five minutes later Ian and Doc appeared at the door of the prep room. Doc was now in scrubs as well. Janet looked up from the sink where she was scrubbing up. She motioned with her head for them to join her. “Doc, thanks for joining us. Could you help Ian with circulating nurse duties?”

“I would be happy to assist you, Doc.” She smiled at Doc. “Happy to have your assist, Doc.” The two adults chuckled a little. She glanced at Ian. “Why don’t you go in and see if Leo or Sabrina needs anything. I’ll be in shortly and then we can get to work.” The two of them nodded and hurried into the room, while putting a mask on. They stepped out of the way and waited to be asked to get anything the surgical team needed. The team stepped up to start work. Janet glanced at the man assisting them and held out her hand. “Let’s start. Scalpel.” The man placed one in her hand and the surgery started.

At oh dark thirty on November 30^th , as Colonel Wigfall was just getting ready to send out orders to get his forces up and moving, he received word that an enemy force was advancing toward their position. He ordered everyone to saddle up and prepare to meet the enemy.

The night before, the Colonel had been in contact with General Rose who told him of the reinforcements on the way. Colonel Wigfall had requested more air support since his only air support were the helicopter units attached to his column. The General assured him he would do what he could to get him more air support. After he was notified of the oncoming enemy attack, he contacted command.

“Dragonfire, this is Dreadnaught one.”

“Dreadnaught, this is Dragonfire.”

“Dragonfire, this is Dreadnaught. We have enemy forces advancing on our position, east of Joliet. We are advancing to meet them, anticipate we will meet them on the line of I-355. Request air support.”

“Dreadnaught, air support request understood, we will send you support as soon as we can. Keep us informed of your disposition. Also the commanders of the defense of Chicago have been notified of your advance. They say they will keep the enemy busy. When close to the inner siege line contact them under callsign, Capo. ”

“Roger Dragonfire. Understood, friendlies’ callsign is Capo.”

He looked at his exec. “Okay, let’s get them up and moving. Call Joliet Airport and let them know what’s going on. Have them send some Kiowas forward, so we can see what we’re facing.” The man nodded and made the call as the Colonel headed to his command vehicle. Within a short amount of time, the column was up and advancing toward I-355.

As they neared the interstate, the Colonel was contacted. “Dreadnaught, this is Spotlight two. We see a mixed force of Bradleys and Humvees advancing ahead of a small force of Abrams Tanks.”

“Roger Spotlight, relay targets to the Firebirds, target the tanks then Bradley’s.”

“Roger Dreadnaught.”

As the interstate came into view, the Apaches and Cobras flew overhead and within moments they were firing dozens of Hellfire missiles. The colonel saw what looked like multiple hits on the enemy line just beyond the interstate by the smoke and explosions climbing into the air. His column spread out into a line of battle as they advanced under and over the interstate. His vehicles began firing as soon as they came into range.

The open area east of the interstate became a swirling armored furball as the two armored forces clashed. The air was filled with the sound of the Abrams’ 120mm main gun when a round was sent toward an enemy .50 caliber machine gun and the 25mm Bushmaster guns chattering or the TOW missiles leaving their launch tubes on the Bradleys’ as they sought out targets. Overhead missile and chain gun fire was directed at Ashwood’s attacking force. Because of the attacks on local air assets at the beginning of the attack, Ashwood’s forces had no air cover. There was little they could do in the face of the local air superiority that Bryce’s forces had on their side. Half an hour into the battle everyone looked up as they heard the sounds of powerful jet engines.

“Dreadnaught, this is Darklance. Where do you need us?”

“Darklance, send some of your planes forward of our position, attack any concentrations of the enemy. Also send units north and south to look for any enemy unit concentrations and take them out.”

“Roger Dreadnaught.”

Looking up, Colonel Wigfall saw several different groups of jets moving in the directions he requested. There were F-16s, F-15s, and A-10s. Some of the A-10s began hitting the forces in front of his men and it tore the vehicles up, leaving a line of destroyed vehicles. That seemed to be the tipping point. The enemy vehicles still intact stopped and their crews climbed out of their vehicles. The colonel got on the radio. “All units cease fire, they are surrendering.” He had his driver stop and he got out and watched as his men moved forward and took the enemy soldiers prisoner. His medics began looking for wounded among the defeated force and their own. He contacted Colonel Stretz of the 7^th Infantry. “Widow this is Dreadnaught”

“This is Widow.”

“Widow, request you leave some of your force here to take care of the prisoners. We must continue to advance toward Chicago and contact the besieged forces.”

“Understood Dreadnaught. Will do.”

Colonel Wigfall signaled for his vehicle to advance and gave the order for the column to move out. His force advanced along I-80. From reports coming in from the helicopters moving in advance of his vehicles, there was very little opposition and what opposition they found was quickly dealt with. It was a little over 15 miles to where their intelligence told them was the inner siege line. At the junction of I-80 and I-57, he ordered them to turn on I-57 as it was a more direct route to the center of Chicago. When he was about 2 miles from the inner siege line, he had his communications specialist start calling to the defenders.

“Capo, this is Dreadnaught, do you read? Capo, this is Dreadnaught do you read?” The specialist looked at the colonel. “Let’s get a little closer and try again.” As they advanced, they soon heard. “Dreadnaught this is Capo.” The specialist quickly answered the call. “Capo, this is Dreadnaught, we read you loud and clear.”

“Capo what is your position?

“Keep on in the direction you’re going, we’ll meet you.”

“Roger Capo.”

As they advanced, they saw where some enemy forces had been located along the interstate, because their location was still burning from an air attack against them. As they neared the junction of the I-57 and I-294, they saw a couple of police cars driving toward them with flashing lights. Colonel Wigfall halted the column and slowly got out of his vehicle, followed closely by his men who positioned themselves in front of him, rifles at the ready in case this was not Capo. The cars stopped and a police officer in vest and helmet climbed out of the car. He looked at the colonel. “Dreadnaught?” Colonel Wigfall nodded and the man broke out with a relieved smile. “Man, are we glad to see you.” He started forward with his hand out. The Colonel stepped forward and shook the man’s hand. “The Boss told us you were coming. Thank God you got here.” As they shook hands, the other men in the cars climbed out.

“Glad we could finally make it. Colonel Louis Wigfall, 1^st Armored Brigade Combat Team.”

“Captain Keith Daniels. 22^nd District.”

Colonel Wigfall turned to one of his men. “Sergeant bring that map out here.” He waited for the sergeant to bring the map to him, before walking toward the police car. Colonel Wigfall saw another command vehicle pull up and Colonel Stretz exited and joined them. Colonel Wigfall pointed at him. “Captain Daniels, this is Colonel Stretz, 7^th Infantry.” The two men shook hands. The map was spread out on the hood of the police car. “Captain what can you tell me about the enemy lines?” Captain Daniels looked at one of his men. “Fiqueroa, grab the map.” The officer went to the open door of the car and pulled out a map that he handed to the Captain. Captain Daniels opened his map and the three men compared the two maps. Colonel Wigfall made marks on his map as each position was pointed out to him by Daniels. He handed his map to the sergeant. “Thank you Captain. We’ll follow you in. Do you have a place that I can send my helos to land in the city?” The Captain nodded. “We have a firm hold on Chicago Midway.” Colonel Wigfall nodded. “I need to call this new info in and then we’ll follow you.” Captain Daniels saluted and motioned for his officers to get in their cars, while they walked back to the command vehicle. “Get me Dragonfire.”

The specialist contacted command and handed the radio to him. “Dragonfire, this is Dreadnaught One. Have made contact with Capo. With their help I have some deployment suggestions. I suggest sending the incoming reinforcements on two lines of attack. One on I-55 and the other on I-88. I will move my forces north toward I-55 and support the defenders in attacking the enemy forces located there. We have broken through the inner siege line near Posen. We appear to have local air superiority and perhaps air supremacy. No enemy air assets appear to be left in the area.”

“Dreadnaught, this is Dragonfire. We concur with assessment of enemy air assets. We have our eyes on you via drone. First reinforcements should reach you at –those points tomorrow, with more to follow. Good job Colonel. Keep us updated on the situation.”

“Roger Dragonfire, will do.”

He handed the mic back to the specialist and looked at Captain Daniels. “Okay time to go.” He glanced at Stretz. “We’ll make Midway our headquarters.” Stretz and Daniels nodded. When everyone was in the vehicles the column moved out.

Within an hour they had their headquarters set up at Chicago Midway airport. Colonel Wigfall contacted command and let them know their situation. General Rose got on the radio.

“Colonel is your position secure?”

“Yes sir. I am confident that with our forces and the defenders’ forces, plus the air cover we have at our disposal, we can hold off anything they throw at us. We will start our attack on the enemy when the reinforcements are ready for our support. We need resupply so we can be ready to attack when it is time.”

“I will send you what you need right away. Well done. Rose out.”

Later that afternoon, several C-17s, and C-130s began landing at Midway loaded with ordnance and supplies for the units in place, so that they would be ready to continue the fight to completely free Chicago from Ashwood’s grip.

Chase had been staying in their building, the O’Malley Inn, one of the Air Force Inns on the base used for visitors, VIP’s, and other guests when visiting the base, since they had returned to Offutt. He was starting to get a bit of cabin fever and knowing that his existence was still Top Secret, decided to wait until it was in the afternoon before going outside. He didn’t take any guns with him and left his swords behind as well. He had plenty of other weapons hidden on his body, so he considered himself well armed even though he wasn’t carrying a gun. He wasn’t planning on letting anyone see him anyway, unless he wanted them to. He was wearing his UNIT uniform and pulled his cap down low to hide his features the best that he could.

So he went exploring. His first stop was the main runway. He climbed onto a building near the runway and sat down on the roof for a little while to watch the planes taking off and landing.

He had heard there was a lake, east of the runway and decided to go see that next. He had to hop a fence and walk in some trees that were around a railroad track to keep hidden. He still had to be careful because since it was almost winter, most of the trees were devoid of leaves, so he didn’t have the cover that he would usually like to have, especially when he went up into the trees to hide or just scamper from tree to tree, something he always liked to do. It was a good way to sneak up on the enemy or lay an ambush, because a lot of people focused more on the ground and didn’t always think to look up. These trees gave him some cover for about half the trip to the lake.

When he got to the lake and wandered along the shore line, keeping out of sight of the few buildings that were located on the west side of the lake. It was cool outside so there was almost no one at the lake, at least on this side of the lake. He saw a couple of people fishing, but kept his distance. When he had seen enough of the lake, he turned around and headed back to the main part of the base. This time he was north of the runway.

There wasn’t a lot of cover so after he hopped the fence, he moved pretty fast. He saw a big fire start up ahead and hurried toward it. When he got there he saw that it was an area where they trained the Air Force personnel on putting out plane fires. He got there just in time to watch them work on putting out a fire on a simulated plane. He couldn’t get too close because the ground was open all around the area, but he was able to watch a couple of teams attack the fire using water to put it out. It was fun to watch. Once the fire was out it was time to move on.

He circled around to the old Fort Crook Parade grounds and buildings where the high ranking officer’s and NCO’s quarters were located. He stayed in the trees along the edge of the area and looked at the old buildings that were there. The parade ground was now a park and he watched some kids playing on it and having a good time for a little while before heading back to the inn. The entire time, he was able to keep himself from being seen.

When he got back to the O’Malley Inn, the sun was almost down and he didn’t want to go inside yet, so he climbed up into a tree behind the building to watch the sunset. He heard someone coming and looked as two teenagers in BDUs were walking over to the picnic shelter that was nearby. One of them was on crutches with a brace on his lower leg and ankle. Chase didn’t say anything, just watched them go to the shelter and sit down. Like all of those from the Genesis program, he had mental abilities, although his had never been very powerful, but he never cared about that. The speed, agility and strength that he had been given was of more use to him. His empathic ability was stronger than his telepathic ability. In this universe, the telepathic ability was almost nonexistent, instead of just being kind of weak, as it had been in the universe he came from. His empathic ability had always been his stronger ability. In his home universe it was fairly strong, but he knew that others had a stronger empathy than him. In this universe although it was weakened like everyone else in the UNIT, it was still strong enough for him to pick up the feelings from these two boys. The one not on crutches seemed to be very worried about something or someone. What he felt from the one on crutches were a lot of different emotions; sadness, anger, hate, guilt, worry, and fear. He was pretty sure that he now knew what the other boy was worrying about. He was worried about the boy on crutches.

Chase quietly climbed down from the tree and crept closer to the two boys. He saw they were sitting at a picnic table, next to each other facing away from him. He stayed behind one of the pillars of the picnic shelter and peeked around to watch and listen to them. He was concerned about what he felt from the one boy.

“I still think you shouldn’t go out there again, at least not yet. I mean, will your ankle be healed up by then? What if you have to run, but your ankle is still weak and it gives out? That might be the difference between life and death. I think you should take some time to rest first, and let it heal up, until you’re one hundred percent, not just mostly okay.”

Chase looked at the injured boy who sat there looking away, not at the boy sitting next to him.

“C’mon Shel. Be reasonable. Let the army do it. That’s their job, not yours. Now that we’re here and safe, there’s no reason you have to go back out there.” The injured boy looked at his friend. “Yeah, I do Terry. I have to go. I told Pat that I was going back out there when they do and he nodded. So I’m going. You don’t have to though. I know you don’t like it. I don’t really like it either, but I have to make it up to….”

Chase saw Terry frown. “Shel, have you talked to that Army Doc yet?” Shel shook his head. “I don’t need to talk to him. I know what I need to do and I’m going to do it.”

“But what if something happens to you? What am I supposed to do if you get hurt or worse?” Shel shrugged. Now that he was closer Chase could really feel how strong the emotions were in both boys. Along with the emotions he had felt earlier, there was also another one, a shiny one that should be nurtured. He knew Chrissy had told him to keep hidden as much as he could but he thought that here was a time when he should help, so he spoke up. “That is not the Shiny way.”

The two teens were startled and looked behind them when they heard the squeaky voice. Terry almost fell off the bench and stumbled to his feet and Shel reached for the gun he wasn’t carrying but instead grabbed a crutch.

Terry stood there with his mouth hanging open. “A talking weasel?” Chase jumped up on the table they had been leaning back against and put his hands on his hips in indignation. “I am not a weasel. I am Chase. I am a ferret.” Both boys could only stare at him. Shel had lowered the one crutch and used it to get to his feet. They both looked him up and down with their eyes wide and mouths hanging open in shock. Before them stood a creature they had never seen, dressed in the same as them, standing a little more than three feet tall. They exchanged glances, then blinked their eyes a couple of times, to see if the creature was a hallucination, before focusing on Chase. “That young General guy told me that we might see some strange things once we got here, but aliens. I had no…”

“What young General guy are you talking about?”

“He said his name is Adam, but he was pretending to be a pilot with a different name. He was hurt pretty bad when we stopped the soldiers chasing him and the others.” Chase smiled and jumped off the table and walked over to them. “Oh, you are the ones who saved Adam. Thank you.” He hugged each of them before returning to the other table and benches. “And I am not an alien. I am Chase Casey, Adam is my brother and our leader. I am a ferret hybrid. All of us, including Adam, were part of an experiment where we came from. Please sit down, we should talk.” The two backed up to the opposite bench and sat. Chase nodded and then sat down on the table with his feet on the bench below him.

He looked at the injured boy. “Your name is Shel?” The boy nodded. “Well Sheldon actually, but my friends and family call me Shel.” Chase nodded. “And you are Terry?” Terry nodded. Chase looked at the two of them for a few moments before hopping down and jumping up onto Sheldon’s lap. When he did that, Sheldon flinched a moment as he looked at this three foot ferret in a uniform that was now standing on his legs and looking at him.

“You are full of feelings. I can tell you are sad and angry and worried and scared and a lot of other things. I heard your friend saying that you should talk to a doctor.” Chase glanced at Terry and turned back to look at Sheldon, placing his hands on Sheldon’s shoulders. “He is very worried about you. You are making him feel less shiny and you are making yourself less shiny. It is important to keep your shininess bright, or the dull lovers win. You have seen things that have made your shininess dim. I understand. The dull lovers want to erase all the shiny in this world. If they do that, then there will be no happiness, only sadness. We have to stop them from doing that. You cannot let your shiny be dulled by the bad feelings. I have lost family and friends to these dull lovers. When any of my family feels their shiny getting dull, they talk to someone. Maybe it is a brother or sister or your family or a friend and even a doctor who can help you feel your own shiny again.”

Chase put one hand on Sheldon’s chest. “Sometimes you have to do things that make you feel bad. I think that you have had to kill people and that makes you sad, but the people you killed were dull lovers and you are glad that you did, but because you are glad, that makes you sad too, because you have been told it is bad to kill. But do you enjoy killing people, even dull lovers?”

Sheldon lowered his head and shook it. “No. I don’t. It makes me sick, I nearly puked the first time I had to shoot someone.” Chase put one furry hand under Sheldon’s chin and lifted it up. “See, that is what makes you different. You do not enjoy it. Dull lovers enjoy anything that makes them feel strong and better than others. They do not care if they hurt or kill someone to do that. For a lot of them, the more helpless a shiny person is, the better they like to make them become dull…,” Chase pointed to Sheldon’s chest “…inside. We have to stop them from wiping out all the shiny in the world. If that means we have to kill them to stop them, then that is what we have to do. I have never killed someone just because I could and I do not enjoy it. I have never enjoyed it. Every one that I have had to kill, was a dull lover who could not be redeemed. You are not a dull lover. I can see the shininess in you and in Terry. You both are shiny lovers, not dull lovers. You need to get rid of all those dull feelings or your shiny may turn dull and then you could turn Terry’s shiny dull too. If your friends and family say that you should see this doctor, then you should see him. You must do everything to polish your shiny and make it gleam brightly so the dull lovers will know that you are their enemy and will not let their dullness win.”

Chase jumped off Sheldon’s lap and stood before the two boys for a few moments before continuing. “Because I know you are shiny people. I want to give you the Shiny Pledge. It will help you remember what it means to be shiny. Please stand up, raise your right hand and repeat after me.” They looked at Chase a moment, exchanged glances and then hesitantly stood and raised their hands. Chase smiled as he raised his.

“I pledge allegiance to the Shiny of the Shiny Nation,”

They hesitated a moment, again exchanging looks, before they repeated what Chase said.

“I…I pledge allegiance to the Shiny of the Shiny Nation,”

“And to the Gleam for which it stands,”

“A..and to the Gleam for which it stands.”

“One Nation under Shiny,”

“One Nation under Shiny,”

“Sparkling, with incandescence and radiance for all.”

“Sparkling, with incandescence and radiance for all.”

Chase gave them a big smile and dropped his hand. “Good now you are a Shiny Brother to everyone who has taken the Shiny Pledge. We of the Shiny Brotherhood vow to stop the dull lovers from destroying all the shininess in the land.” The two boys sat back down and Chase went over to Terry and jumped up into his lap to give him a hug. “Welcome Shiny Brother.” He then went over to Sheldon and hugged him, holding on a little longer. “Let your shiny glow forth, Shiny Brother. Don’t let the dull lovers win.” Sheldon put his arms around Chase and hugged him back. Chase gave him a kiss on the cheek when he let go. He jumped off of Sheldon’s lap and started to skip away. He turned back once and waved before disappearing around the corner of the building.

The two teens looked at each other. “What just happened?” They shrugged and Terry scooted over next to Sheldon reaching for his hand.

Early in the morning on December 1^st. Colonels Wigfall and Stretz were sitting in a large office at Midway Airport enjoying a morning cup of coffee when a communications specialist entered and handed them a message. Colonel Wigfall quickly read it and handed it to Colonel Stretz. “Time to go bite those bastards in the ass.” He looked at the specialist. “Send the message to all units to get ready to attack. Contact Capo and let him know what’s happening.” The soldier saluted and quickly left the room. The two officers shook hands. “See you out there.”

As they walked to their vehicles, they could see the men loading up and beginning to form up. He stood by and watched as everyone mounted up, ready to go. He climbed into his vehicle and nodded to the driver. Moments later the column was once again on the move, heading east. The helos led the way and within a short time, they could hear explosions and see smoke and fire climbing into the sky a few short miles ahead of them.

They followed Highway 171 to I-55. The two forces split up with the 7^th Infantry crossing the Des Plaines River and turning southwest along Joliet Road, while the 1^st Armored took I-55 in the same direction.

The 7^th Infantry was the first unit to make contact with the enemy forces, they were slowly withdrawing from the advancing forces of Bryce’s army, and led by their helos, opened fire on them in the vicinity of a large commercial district of shopping centers and car dealerships. “Dreadnaught this is Widow. We have made contact with the enemy. Joliet and South LaGrange.” Colonel Wigfall picked up the radio mic. “Widow this is Dreadnaught, heading to your support. Leave a few of them for us.” The Colonel saw the off ramp to South LaGrange coming up and had the specialist contact the column to take the off ramp.

Two of his tanks led the way north from I-55 to where the 7^th Infantry was engaged. Half a mile later, his column ran into some fleeing elements of the enemy force. The oncoming enemy forces screeched to a halt when they saw the armored force coming toward them. When the first 120mm round from an Abrams slammed into the lead Humvee, their fate was sealed. They advanced, pushing the destroyed Humvee off the road and out of the way. There were trees on either side of the road and the enemy had little room to turn around. Some tried to go around in either the Arie Crown Forest or Theodore Stone Forest, but they were quickly cut off by units directed by Colonel Wigfall to stop them.

With no escape in sight, the enemy began to surrender. Vehicles were halted and men climbed out of them. Colonel Wigfall and Colonel Stretz joined up with elements of the 35^th and 1^st Infantry Divisions who had started the attack from the west. Leaving behind a large enough force to take charge of the surrendering units, the combined forces headed north to roll up the enemy flank and completely break the siege of Chicago. They were cheered on by the police officers and civilians of Chicago and its surrounding cities, who had been holding the line since Ashwood’s attack began.

If you are enjoying this story, please write and let the author know: Eric at CastleRoland dot Net