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Jan had simply faded into the background after Julian got up communications. The new info on the fire was even worse. Hovering in the back she caught enough of the emotion and language to figure out what was going on. Atrocities! It made her blood mad crazy. It was bad enough that she’d had to kill in battle. That was in the past. Back when she’d come upon the corpses of the innocents. Perhaps she’d even caused the deaths of children. Who could tell? All she knew was that war sucked. Was it being thrust on her this time or had she caused this? This was no remote jungle or desert plain. This was Troy, her Mother’s birth place, her own birth place!

Thoughts roiling she turned away from the group hiding her red faced anger. It wouldn’t do to show that sort of emotion here or anywhere. Unprepared for any kind of action she stood her ground. That might not be all true but her talents were wildly untested and unreliable. This command needed her but then all of Troy did as well. As a scout she’d been top notch. As a Ranger she’d been deadly. They didn’t know that and she wasn’t going to volunteer, not without a full load out. Back at the house she had an old 9mm with some ammo and that was it.?

She sighed deeply and turned to watch them go. Doing nothing didn’t calm the fire in her veins that seemed to make her teeth sizzle.? She could feel the heart in her chest bang away like a crazed hydraulic pump. What the hell was going on with her?

Lucia raised her hand.? “Mind if I grab a few extra drones?? I can effectively control up to three and widen our field.”

“Make it quick,” Julian said.? “They can’t wait.”

“On it.”

She went back to her bike, and broke out an extra pair of drones.? She didn’t stop there, though. She got out an extra trio of drones and an extra controller.? Then, as soon as she launched and linked up the new pair, she hurried over to Janet.

“Hey…you wanna help?” Lucia asked her.? “You can keep an eye on our six and beyond.”

“I’d be happy to help, I’m Jan.” She raised her hand palm outward in a gesture of greeting.?

She accepted the controller. The controls were basic enough. She flipped on the display and rotated the view. Several small displays indicated altitude, speed and direction. Another smaller display showed the power remaining and the distance available on the remaining battery. They weren’t armed as they were much too small but they could get into tiny places that even a small human couldn’t.

The drones launched almost immediately and the two women compared thoughts on deployment and distance.

As she got used to the operation her Neuropsychic abilities kicked in. She explored the array and flited between each of the drones checking for any problems and enhancing any latent efficiencies. Jan felt exuberant with the freedom of movement. It felt as if she were a bird.??

They scouted the area in front of the advancing Nomads careful to check any places where scouts or small forces could hide and attack from surprise.?

As they grew close to the smoking cabin they caught sight of the raiders. They kept their distance not wanting to spook them into flight before the Nomads took them out.

“尝耻肠颈补, pleased to meet you,” the latina girl (she couldn’t have been more than 17) said with a grin.? She got on her comm. “Comm check, do you read, jefe?”

“Five by five,” Julian said, well inside the forest.? “Looks like that interference is nearly gone. What’s up in the hot zone?”

“No change,” she made a grimace. “They’re still…you know.”

“Copy,” he said.? “Keep me updated, we’re closing now.”

Indeed, he was close enough to hear it.? The crack of the whip…the screaming of a young girl, followed by fitful sobs.? The ragged cries of a father. The hoarse moans of an older woman. And all around, the sounds of sadistic laughter, and crueler taunts and barbs.

This ends now, he thought.? His voice just above a whisper to his people.? “Okay…let’s keep it simple as I said. If they’re wearing one of those uniforms, shoot to kill.? If they’re surrendering…

“Use the woods as cover.? We don’t know how many more of these guys there are, got it?”

Everyone nodded, and began to creep forward.

For Julian, it had been a toss-up.? Did he start with the rapists or the guys whipping a girl?? They both turned his stomach. In the end, the decision had been made for him.? Alma, Eva and Maria, all sisters to Lucia, decided to focus on the rapists. So he took aim at the man holding the whip, and…

The man who had been laughing at his buddy’s work with the whip was suddenly screaming as his buddy’s head exploded.? Nothing subtle about a 9mm round. A moment later, the woods lit up with the sound of gunfire unlike anything the mercenaries had ever heard before.? It wasn’t the thunderous “叠翱翱惭” of black powder weapons.? Instead, it was an alien, repetitive “Krak! Krak! Krak!” of weapons with an amazing rate of fire, and worse, high accuracy.? One by one, the mercenaries were cut down.

Laughing boy stopped screaming and went for his sword, only to get hit twice in the gut.? He was screaming again.

The two who were questioning and beating the father?? One ran toward the barn and the obvious stack of matchlock guns, only to take three slugs in the back.? The other hesitated too long and caught one in the throat and two more in the chest.

As for the rapists.? The one who was holding down the woman’s arms took a shot in the head, the back of his skull opening up.? He fell to the side. The guy waiting his turn was peppered by an assault rifle on full auto. As for the man caught in the act, he tried disengaging and running for cover, only to trip on his lowered trousers.? He hauled himself up to his knees…and took a round in his lower guts (that wasn’t where Alma had wanted to hit, but she’d take it for now). He doubled over, screaming his lungs out.

All around, the remaining mercenaries tried to fight back, firing into the woods, but their shots went wild, the closest coming to McCoy, as a large round whizzed to the right of his head.? Three more of the mercenaries went down, before they retreated to the barn, and hopeful cover.

“翱办补测, pistoleros like me,” he said, gesturing to his own pistol, “let’s move in.? The rest of you keep us covered.”

Back on the highway, Lucia and Jan kept an eye on the battle, when Jan’s #3 drone signalled movement in the barn.? Unarmed though they were, the drones were superbly equipped. Millimeter wave radar cut through the wooden structure of the barn, showing not only a trio of three running into the barn, but it also showed six more up on the second level, and it looked like they were getting ready to engage!

“Multiple contacts in the barn,” Jan buzzed on the com. “Upper and lower.”

Jan broke away checking the parameter further to the west and north. Back on com she reported.

?“All clear a klick west checking north,” Jan said casually. Easy to do when you were on the other side of a joystick. An error cost lives and for that there was no fix.

Sweeping north, the drones spotted a dust cloud, about 5 klicks away.? It probably wouldn’t have been much to make note of except for two factors…

The first factor was that it was coming from what was obviously a well worn? trail. It might’ve been called a road if you were being polite, but definitely not by modern standards.? It wasn’t even covered in gravel. It was a well worn rut in the dirt cut out through the forest and its breaks that you couldn’t really call it anything else.? It was clear that heavy conveyances and people had travelled along said road/rut for years, perhaps even decades.

Second factor?? It was moving, and their appeared to be one even more distant behind it—call it two klicks behind the first, or six klicks.? It was currently too far away to get a good bead on either, but given the current signal strength, it’d be possible to get a closer look.

In the meantime, back at? the farm…

“Break!” Julian barked.? He diverted right with some of his people—four in all, while the remaining five broke left.

One of them—Marco, wasn’t exactly fast enough.? There was the thunderous “BOOM” of those matchlock rifles.? All of them missed, save for one.? Marco was clipped in the ribs and went down, but not completely out.

“FUCK THAT HURT!” he yelled.? He seemed more angry than aggrieved.? Julian was thankful for that.

“翱办补测, let’s go!” he ordered as he went toward the door of the barn.? He yelled back over his shoulder. “COVERING FIRE!”

Rifles, semi-auto, full auto and lever action (nomads loved the old reliables), barked back as Julian and his group rushed the open barn doors.? He discovered two people on the ground floor doing the stupid thing: Reloading their matchlocks. The third however was smart; he had thrown aside his matchlock and drawn a short sword.

Julian didn’t waste time.? He drew his combat knife, which was almost a short sword, and got into a classic fighting stance.? The soldier in front of him, a little puzzled, got an angry look on his face and charged, sword first…like Julian had been hoping.

He used the combat knife to brush aside the sword lunge, and followed up with a fist to the soldier’s face.? He felt the crunch of nose, and watched his opponent stagger, before following up, delivering a painful knee to the soldier’s crotch.

The soldier dropped the sword and started to go down, but not before Julian finished him off with a savage left, which clearly broke the guy’s jaw.? He went down in a heap.

The lot of men up in the hayloft, having decided that the rifle fire was too thick, decided to try and support their buddies downstairs…only to be gunned down by the rest of Julian’s crew.? It was over.

翱惫别谤…测别补丑…别虫肠别辫迟…

“We need a medic,” he called out to the forest line.? “Come on, let’s go!”

There was the matter of the peasant farmer and his family.? The girl had lapsed into unconsciousness, and Elian was worried she might go into shock.? The farmer was on his knees, kneeling and crying, probably not sure what Julian and his band of “toughs” were going to do.? The farmer’s wife had done the most movement, having rolled herself into a fetal position.

Wherever we are, it seems like hell, Julian thought.? He scowled. Hell, yeah…I’m just witnessing it. These people are living it.

Jan half listened to the coms while following the path of the drone. She’d had her own loss. She’d had her own self-serving moments of pain, loss and sorrow. On retrospect it pained her how she’d let her own self-pity drive her emotions. Loss is loss, get over it or face the consequences. In this new time saving the world was a real opportunity not wishful thinking.

The drone moved ahead of the dust cloud and settled in the mix of pine and broadleaf trees. She took note of the color. The leaves were changing. Winter was coming. But it was only, had been spring. Jan turned the drone to face north. At least that was the perspective based on the new sun’s position. Telling weather just became a real test of guess work. No more sats to follow jet streams or swirling hurricanes. She faced the road again and felt a lump of something get caught in her throat. What the hell was that??

Something large and lumbering was moving down the road in long strides.?

“Eh, Julian, we got dragons.”

She turned to Lucia, held up her vid screen, “Tell me I’m not going fucking bananas.”