Nightshade

Remember how I mentioned an egg of a story recently?  Here it is, and it may have more coming as the story is still expanding in my head.

"Colonel, Sun Tzu is ready for you in their office."

"Office? Usually my assignments are given in conference room three with the joint chiefs."

"I know, and I have no idea why the change of protocol for this one."

Eve never adjusted to Sun Tzu's office, but how could she? The highest ranking military official over the entirety of Gian forces regardless of where they are in this or potentially other universes. Their real name was seldom used so long as they were in this appointment. The title is their name much like the Pope, or a Prime minister. She had no problem with them, just their office was absolutely silent, had no windows, and was surrounded by so much reinforced concrete that it had no data signals getting in or out—everything had to be wired in and even those items were air-gapped. She knocked on the solid wood door and heard Sun Tzu say "Come in." She opened the door, stepped inside, closed the door, and bowed to Sun Tzu.

"Colonel, how many times do I have to remind you that you need not bow or Salute to me."

"Apparently some more."

"Come, sit down, this won't take long."

"Won't take long" words no career military person ever wants to hear and hopes the subject is not defined with "intelligence says."

"Your next assignment is on the planet Reticulus, this is not a drop, hit, and run assignment, we need infrastructure destroyed; bridges, roads, landing/launching pads, docks, power generation plants, anything that is serving to ease the assembling of their military forces or can be used to create vehicles or devices with military applications."

"You're asking me to be a terrorist on another planet? Ma'am, you do remember that I am primarily an assassin, right?"

"And a damn good one at that, but this isn't a galactic genocide group, or a single rouge leader we are dealing with, but too large a number of individuals to just hunt down and solve the issue. Intelligence is telling us—and there it is—that due to continuous propaganda from their state media over thirty percent of their population are in agreement to wage war with Gia in an effort to reduce our influence in the Galactic Deliberative."

"Now I know why this briefing is in your office so no one knows you are sending me on a one way mission because in front of the Joint Chiefs Mom and Grandma would be present. You don't expect me to return and you know they would literally fight you on this. I'll go. I will do the mission as always, but when I get back you will not see what kills you and that is a promise, so start watching your back and before you threaten me in return, remember I swore an oath to the Constitution of Gia, not to you and sending me on a suicide mission means you are sending others on the same and that is murder in the first degree and is punishable by execution."

Colonel Simineaux stood and walked out closing the door behind her. As door latched she placed a capsule in the jamb that when it crushed released a super strong, fast setting adhesive that would require breaking the door down for anyone to enter. She also flipped the emergency release lever severing Sun Tzu's connection to the outside world as well as all power to the office trapping her inside, in essentially a dark tomb until she missed a meeting and someone came to look for her—and due to Eve's clearance built into her security badge the alarms did not sound. Eve didn't care about Sun Tzu at this moment though as the mission was already set in motion and she knew she had to follow it through, but was already planning how to assassinate the most heavily guarded person in all of Gia on her return in such a way that no one could pin it to any one person.

"How did the meting go Colonel?"

"I'm on my way to Reticulus to blow stuff up."

"I thought the Joint Chiefs nixed that idea? General and Admiral Simineaux both swore it was a suicide mission and refused to send anyone under their command."

"Well guess what, I am not technically under either of their commands."

"This is wrong on so many levels."

"I agree, but it can be dealt with when I get back. In the meantime hold all calls and visitors to Sun Tzu for the rest of the day."

The front desk guardian gives Eve a puzzled look.

"Let's just say she is meditating on something I told her as I left."

"Understood Colonel, I hope to see you return safely."

"Me too, me too. Sun Tzu probably should hope Mom and Grandma don't hear about this."

"If they do I hope I am not here when they come in...to be honest, if they show up I am going to lunch, if I’m not here I have legit reasoning to not be a witness."

Eve heads to her shuttle drops her pack, then heads to the quartermaster. She leaves the quartermaster's with enough munitions, weapons, and meals ready to eat, to fill a skid enough that it required the quartermaster to bring it to her shuttle bay with a forklift. All he knew is Eve's orders were sealed but "authorized to acquire any and all munitions, weapons, and supplies, Colonel Simineaux feels she needs for her assignment with no questions asked" and they were signed with the official raised stamp of Sun Tzu so for Colonel Simineaux just a normal Monday. Though he did ask her one question, how much toilet paper did she plan to take with her? Eve laughed but was glad he asked as she had forgotten it and the plan involved being off world for at least three months, beyond that she would have to get creative. Eve strapped a hover bike to the front of her shuttle and gets her departure clearances from Barb in Stellar Traffic Control and is very quickly leaving Earth and heading toward Zeta Reticuli all within three hours of leaving Sun Tzu's office and knowing that no one should find Sun Tzu before the next morning and by then she would be long out of the ability to recall her and Sun Tzu would have to explain to grandma why she was being sent to retrieve her.

Once Eve was past the orbit of Luna she kicked the speed up to point seven of C (light speed) due to passing the orbit of Mars before she could engage the Fold Drive due to the proximity of the orbits of Earth and Mars she engaged the Fold Drive twenty-five minutes after leaving Earth, set the cruise control, and tried to let her anger subside as she knew it would cloud her judgment on the mission otherwise. A week or thirty-nine light years later she was exiting fold-space slow enough to not create a gravity wake and scanning Reticulus for a decent landing spot that would offer her concealment, yet also allow her to hit her targets.

Reticulus had some huge issues, such as much like Earth, it's surface was primarily covered in water at about eighty percent though it fit what seemed to be the normal for planets with higher intelligence life forms and was roughly the same size as Mars. It has two main continents one roughly the size of Australia and the other the size of Antarctica, with the rest being islands scattered across the rest. Eve picked the smaller of the continents as that is where their capitol is located as well as much of the military infrastructure.

She came in over open ocean at a speed equal to an incoming meteor, setting the cruise control to bring her to a stop just high enough above the water that if her approach was spotted the air burst from the built up energy on her shields would cause a massive splash on the ocean's surface legitimately masking her arrival as a meteor. From the "splash down" she skimmed the surface of the ocean and approached the coast under cover of darkness. She maintained a low flight as her research on Reticulons had suggested most all of them followed the same sleep cycle—unlike humans who's sleep cycle is kind of random. It would be slower, but she followed their equivalent of highways staying just a meter off the ground so as to stay below their military sensors. Based on her sensor scans she found a tiny clearing about forty kilometers outside of the capitol and with a limited amount of time above the tree canopy she set down in the clearing about two kilometers off the road. She had been listening to their military channels via a translator as she drove and all was quiet, mostly just sensor watchers talking to each other in an attempt to stay awake—some things are the same regardless of your culture. Once her shuttle was settled into camp position she sat down with her map and began plotting her first assaults.

Eve prepared her equipment, had everything ready to go and finally took a nap late in the day. Toward evening her alarm woke her and she began monitoring military and civilian broadcasts. Military was what she expected, just general chatter as groups did drills, a few references to the pending Gian invasion and how they should be at there best for the glory or their kind—typical brainwashed rhetoric you find anywhere if you look. The civilian channel—yep just one—was a game show, then a slapstick comedy, followed by the news that would have made her propaganda 301 professor proud. After the news the screen went to an anthem and a rotating picture of Reticulus then static.

With her hover bike it didn't take Eve long to make her way up close to the capital where she hid her bike activated her camouflage suite and began slipping from shadow to shadow. Her first stop was the national broadcast building where she attached small quantum reality mines (QM-67) to the satellite dishes and the base of the broadcast array. These were new to being used in the field, and much smaller than the ones DN-63 could use in battle being only the size of an M-67 grenade, but just as effective. The mines had no explosive charge so anything used to detect explosives will never see them. They could be armed either remotely or on a timer. These were set up to be remote detonated once Eve chose when and even then she hoped to be in her shuttle when she threw the switch. The really neat thing with them though is they did and did not exist in current space much like Schrodinger's cat they exist and do not exist once they are placed or are quantum shifted from one place to another.

She begins moving again, and an hour of carefully finding her way along later she was finally at the capital building itself and she begins setting more mines at it's corners. She made her way toward the rulers residence but opted out when she could easily see it was well lit and guarded. Instead she headed back to her bike and returned to camp. The day night cycle here is short with a day only being twenty hours long and she does not want to be out too late not knowing for sure how long Reticulons sleep and she does not trust intelligence reports.

The next several weeks follow the same pattern, prepare, listen to military chatter, listen to civilian news, get better at understanding the local language from hearing it through the translator so much, plant mines in the darkness, return to camp, sleep, repeat. Three weeks in and every landing pad, every launch bay, bridge, communications tower, and power plant, had all been mined, the problem is when you basically do the same job over and over every-night eventually you get sloppy and that happened to Eve.

She slipped into a military base and without thinking walked into the path of a sentry. He grabbed her and she hit the detonate switch on all the mines she had been placing for the last three weeks, lighting up the capital continent and began fighting to get free. The problem is the sentry had already called for back up and though Eve was able to fight her way free, and shoot until she ran out of ammo in every weapon then draw her katana eventually you just can't fight your way out of a military base regardless of your taking out a hundred soldiers. Tired and facing too many enemies they overpowered her and knocked her out.

Eve woke up strapped to a chair that resembled a dentists chair, naked, alone, bleeding from dozens of places, and disoriented. She lay there for some time before someone entered, it was a female Reticulon, fair skinned, like most Reticulons she had no hair, and was of average height for their people being about 1.7 meters tall.

The Reticulon asked in English "Can you understand me?"

Eve answered "yes" in Reticulon which surprised the woman.

"You speak our language?"

"Some"

"How many of you are on our planet?"

"Just me."

"That's impossible, too much blew up at once."

"I've been busy."

"What are you called?"

"Sakujo Nightshade."

"What is the meaning of this attack?"

"Self preservation, your government is planning to invade Earth, I was sent to slow you down as apparently you don't know the history of the Lucian's."

"They are a chattel people to you're people after you destroyed their planet."

"Yeah, after they killed several billion Gians. Hence why I am here doing...constructive rearranging of your infrastructure so your people don't go down that path too."

"You're full of...excrement! I believe that is the right word."

"Nope, and be glad it is me and not Admiral Simineaux that is here."

"She's retired and of no consequence to us."

Eve laughs even though her broken ribs regret it. "Oh, I know she is not retired as she has jurisdiction over me."

"Guards, put her in maximum holding."

The woman leaves and heads to an interstellar transmission station that had been set up while Eve had been knocked out. In the station she broadcast on an open channel to the galaxy.

"Greetings, I am Commander Veshton of Reticulus. Today we caught a Gian saboteur who has done many billions of credits worth of damage to our infrastructure in what we assume is a prelude to war." She plays a recording of Eve saying her name and an already edited version of her answers.

Unbeknownst to her though three people scattered across the galaxy hear this at the same time and instantly the entire might of the Gian military screams to a halt as plans are being shifted in two of the threes heads, but the third grabs a duffle bag and heads out the door of her apartment at Fort Bragg as she pulls out her phone.

"Reaper, voice print authorization, load out, and max the fuel we are going out hot at full-burn."

A semi robotic voice answers back, "On it Sargent, load out should be done by your arrival."

It doesn't take long to cross to the airfield and soon she is in the command chair of her ship.

"Stellar command this is Nightshade in Lima Hotel Alfa Charlie one three zero Zulu Reaper, requesting immediate launch clearance."

"Oh hi there Nightshade, heading out to save your sister?"

"Ya Barb."

"Hang in there, should have a clear launch in two."

Nightshade, begins her prelaunch sequence and engine warm up when her twelve member crew come up to the ship armed to the teeth and carrying duffle bags, creates of meals ready to eat, a large can of coffee that the quartermaster definitely did not issue, and a box of cigars.

"Hey Sarge! You think you're going alone? We all know you can fly this beast without us, but you need more eyes."

"I wasn't going to put you on the spot, and besides command isn't cleared yet."

"General Willow told us and I quote 'get your slow, lazy assess down there before she goes alone and General Simineaux has two dead daughters!' So I think we are good with command."

"Hey there Nightshade, you are clear for launch and might I suggest to punch it! Give those bastards Hell!"

"Punching it! See ya on my next R and R Barb, I owe you a couple of burgers."

"Just get back in one piece now, ya hear?"

"Will do."

Nightshade pushes the throttle to full and Reaper shoots through the sky and into space in a flash of light. Where Eve had a preprogramed flight plan for her shuttle Nightshade is busy making the jump calculations, double checking them with an abacus, and entering them literally on the fly. With all the calculations entered she calls back to her crew.

"Y'all best be buckled up or tied down because we're about to hit fold-space hard!"

She sees there acknowledging lights flip on and she does hit fold-space hard at triple the normal speed. With the ship running on cruise control she hops down out of her command chair. She laughs as she always does because Eve's shuttle is only 1.97 meters tall on the outside and she has to fold herself up to move around inside whereas Nightshade is only 1.37 meters, tall four foot six to her sister's six foot nine and her ship is big enough to put Eve's shuttle in as cargo and still have room for a full load out of munitions.

She steps back to the crew area where all eyes are upon her.

"Sarge, I know we are cleared with our commander, but what about high command?"

"Oh, I doubt that will be a problem; you really think my mom and grandma are going to let this shit slide? I happen to know they refused to send anyone to do this mission as they considered it suicide. I fear there is going to be a mutiny before we even get to Reticulus, that reminds me, I better let them know I'm on the way."

She pulls out her phone and types a message to her mom and grandma, "Nightshade has left the planet, eta 23 hours 47 minutes, send the cavalry and a mop, when you can, but I'm not waiting on you." She hit send then put away her phone.

"Okay, we've all made our bad decisions for the day, so now do we start drinking, smoking, sleeping, or plotting how to take over a world?"

Much to everyone's dismay they overwhelmingly opted for "take over a world." Twenty-three hours and thirty minutes after sending the message to her mom and grandma she had their response and was again in her command chair.

"Nightshade, stay alive, good hunting, all force authorized, and may God have mercy on their souls. Mom, Dad, & Grandma."

Fifteen minutes later Reaper flew out of fold-space like the proverbial bat out of Hell, pushing a fold-space wake ahead of him. The air blast leveled a city and a forest the size of the Tunguska event of 1908. As Reaper became visible Nightshade took over planetary communications and forced Earl Scruggs Foggy Mountain Breakdown to play on a loop over the planetary emergency broadcast channels.

Eve still tied down in a cell, still in pain, suddenly hears banjos over the speakers and smiles. Shortly after Commander Veshton's voice can be heard from down the hallway. "Someone turn this noise off!" Then she appears at Eve's cell.

"What is this? This noise, is it psychological torture?"

"It's Gian music, to be exact Bluegrass music and a particular NCO's calling card. To put this simply for you, you are about to be dead. There is no reasoning with her, there is no surrender, she has a habit of mowing down everything in her path then thinking 'was that too much?"

"Anyone can be reasoned with."

"I've been trying to reason with her for twenty-five years, trust me it doesn't work."

"You are not that old so quit lying about how long."

"Nope, no lie, that's my little sister and trust me she has a bad attitude."

"Commander?"

"WHAT!"

"We have reports that whatever that is making the noise leveled between two and three thousand square kilometers on first sighting, and we cannot identify the weapon used just some massive wave of radiation."

Commander Veshton's face went limp then looked at Eve, "How is this possible?"

"I told you, I was the nice option."

Eve can see her pendant and chain on a table outside of her cell and it is now blazing with bright blue light—Nightshade has a target lock now.

Another soldier runs up, "Commander, the war-bird is heading directly for us and nothing military is surviving along it's path it takes out fighters in single shots like we are just target practice!

Meanwhile in Reaper.

"Jones, you got those Dragons programmed?"

"Just, but they are ready to launch just say when."

"When!"

The rear hatch of Reaper opens and a rack of nine Dragon Missiles drop out and instantly takeoff in nine different directions, in five minutes the ruler's residence will be a crater, as will their command and control for their military, the remaining launch pads Eve had not gotten too, and several military bases.

Nightshade was altering course toward Eve's necklace hoping the two weren't separated.

"Rollo! Punch me an entrance hole into that fortress."

How big?"

"Big enough for me, but don't drop the building on my sister."

Rollo fires the 120mm cannon and a massive cloud of debris and dust fills the sky and as the dust settles an opening large enough to drive a city bus through shows up.

"Ricardo, take the con and make sure nothing comes in behind me. Rollo can you handle gunnery duty for him?"

"I'm on it Sarge, come back in one piece."

Nightshade walks to the rear of the gunship where the ramp is still down from dropping the missals.

"Reaper, keep these two safe the three of you have to watch each others backs while I'm out."

The gunships robotic voice fills the hold, "Yes Sargent."

"Okay ladies and gentlemen its showtime!"

Ricardo brings Reaper in low and hovers in place as Nightshade grabs a grenade launcher then she and her crew hop out of the rear of Reaper.

Reaper lifted to fifty meters off the ground. As Reaper lifted Nightshade loaded several grenades into the launcher and fired a sugar smoke grenade into the opening Rollo had made in the structure. White smoke that smelled like toasting marshmallows began billowing out of the fortress followed by personnel with their hands hanging loose at their sides in Reticulon surrender.
"Masks up! This may just be sugar smoke but I don’t think anyone wants to be hacking up caramel for the next three weeks. You’ll also want your thermal imaging on because this is going to be thick."

The ten of them calmly walked into the fortress, periodically Nightshade would launch another smoke grenade down a passage or into a room. Their uniforms were already getting sticky from the vaporized sugar in the air. Every so often a Reticulon would appear in their thermal scan, some would try to shoot and fire was returned, others were coughing and just trying to get out of the fortress those they let pass. Deeper and deeper they passed through the fortress and always Nightshade was watching her guidance system as she got closer and closer to Eve’s necklace and she had to keep hoping Eve and her necklace weren’t far apart.

Commander Veshton was pacing and coughing, the sugar smoke already making it’s way down to her. She couldn’t free herself of the banjos, and now she was being choked, she was quickly regretting making an example of her prisoner. She grabbed a knife and moved toward Eve her intentions clear, and that is when the roar of a forty-five caliber Peacemaker filled the room and in the same instant Commander Veshton fell to the floor. Nightshade walked up to the table where Eve was still strapped down, the table coming to chest height on her.

"So, got yourself in a pickle this time?"

Nightshade’s radio crackled to life: "Sarge! We have incoming stellar."

"Friend of foe?"

"Beacons are telling me its the seventy fifth, looks like the rest of the company followed us. Wait a minute, we have another marker, holy shit! Its the Yamato!"

"Great! I am in for it now!"

"See the trouble you got us into this time? My boss is here and dad is here, we are so grounded!"

Nightshade cut the straps that were holding Eve to the bed.

"Can you walk?"

"Think so, just broken ribs I think."

Eve found a rag to hold over her mouth as they walked back up through the smoke and already there was Brigadier General Willow talking to Rollo and Ricardo. Rollo saw Nightshade emerge from the smoke and General Willow turned to see all ten soldiers plus Eve walking out of the fortress. Nightshade stopped ten paces from the General and saluted, he returned the salute.

"Sargent Toyoda, do yo know the penalty for leaving base without leave and taking a gunship without authorization?"

"Yes sir, fifteen to life in Leavenworth sir."

"Well it is damn sure a good thing you had authorization to do an extraction run, to be exact it is a standing order from General Simineaux herself if Colonel Simineaux ever used both of your code names together that you are cleared to use whatever means necessary to extract her.

Now as you for you Colonel, you are out of uniform."
"Yes sir, sorry sir, I seem to have left my change of clothes in my transport. I think it is about fifty kilometers form here, if I am where I think I am."

"Corporal Ricardo, you have a raincoat or even a blanket for the Colonel to wear until we can get the Colonel to her shuttle or the quartermaster to find her a set of BDUs (battle dress uniform)?"

"On it General."

A few awkward minutes later Ricardo returns with a long raincoat and Eve slips it on.

"At least now you’re decent, and before Commander Toyoda arrives. Reaper crew, hit the showers, you all smell like burnt marshmallows instead of Doughboys. Sargent, once you are cleaned up report to my station for debrief."

"General, a question?"

"Yes Colonel?"

"What is the current status of Sun Tzu?"

"With everything that has gone down and the explicit rejection of this operation by all generals, and the joint chiefs, let’s just say no one is entirely sure what happened during the closed door meeting between Sun Tzu, Admiral Simineaux, and General Simineaux, it was very strange that her assistant had gone to lunch just as soon as they arrived. But she left her office in critical condition and is hence forth in full retirement.
Also apparently someone trapped her in her office with a high tension adhesive a few weeks ago. Turns out she was trapped in that Godawful office for three days before anyone even realized she was in there. Something went wrong with the switch gear to her office as well and cut the entire thing off...about time someone had the balls to put her in her place." General Willow winked at Eve and walked away.

"Eve, did you really?"

"Did I what? You know I’m forbidden to talk about my work."

General Willow turned around. "Yeah, about your work Colonel. You are hereby retired from covert operations. You are still Memento Moire, but your cover has been blown to the whole galaxy, so it is no longer safe for you in the field. We can find you a nice job in combat training or mix you in with groups, but no more solo trips. And no I am not putting you and Sargent Toyoda in the same group." The General returns to walking away.

Eve hears the distinctive drone of the Yamato slowly descending through the atmosphere to take her place in the planets ocean. A medic walks up to Eve.

"Colonel, we need to get you to the medical unit I can see you’re in pain."

Eve, goes with the medic almost on autopilot. She was taken to the MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit 4077 UESS Henry Morgan, where she was immediately scanned then taken to wait for the doctor. As she expected eight broken ribs, fractured right upper arm, cracked patella, cracked dorsal ridge of her ilium running toward her sacral promontory, and an infection. The doctor gives her pain killers, antibiotics, and braces her knee, but even with all their advances in medicine ribs and hairline fractures still have to heal on their own in their own time, then he handed her a full set of BDUs from the quartermaster her Memento Moire insignia already affixed to the left upper arm, her rank insignia, her name all already in place, the quartermaster had worked fast. She was shown to a shower took her three minutes, and was showered out and dressed in six minutes. The Doctor released her, free of duty beyond desk work until she had healed. With doctor Klinger’s orders printed out she headed to General Willow’s Transport.

As she walked across the grounds of the fortress she noticed that MB-10896 units or mobile barracks were being moved from their cargo ship to be placed in the neat methodical rows that only the Army can make. They form lines like the print of a book, line after line, double row, then one and a half spacing between double line. The sight perplexed her, why bring the entire 75^th Ranger Corp here to Reticulus?

Military Police were already at intersections, directing the increasingly heavy traffic as M1-A21 Abrams tanks began rolling along the road that was obviously not built for them. Following and sometimes zooming past the A1s were G-503s commonly called "Jeeps" with a line of M35s or deuce and halfs following as they depart from their C-130SFs. Eve wasn’t sure if she was looking at a mop up crew or an invasion force, but this much equipment, munitions, and manpower could be either. She made it to the general’s transport and walked up the ramp the crew already affixing canvas walls along the massive wings of his shuttle to protect the entry from whatever weather this garden world could possibly throw at it. Inside an entire office of personnel are busy, reports being typed, a holo-map being assembled with the new temporary fort depicted and other landing craft showing their landings in real time on the other main continent of the planet, she walks through all of this noting the position of the Yamato and her fleet sitting just off shore, when she reaches the general’s office she makes to knock but he calls her in.

"Well Colonel, I see you are back in uniform."

"Sorry about that Sir."

He cuts her off, "Colonel, I’m just teasing you. Let an old man have a little fun will ya? Like your mom and grandma I am not all serious all the time—ask your sister about some of the jokes I’ve pulled on her sometime."

"You mean like the self reinflating woopie cushion you added to my command chair when I was on a training mission knowing I would be in and out of that chair a dozen times a day with no time to find it?"

"Sargent Toyoda, glad to see you made it, surprisingly your sister went to the doctor, got checked out, and walked here quicker than you could shower and make it here."
"Sir, we have one shower in Reaper and as you know regulations state command showers last. Now would you like to go through the cricket nightmare all over again?"

Eve giggles as she had heard of the cricket nightmare.

"Okay, okay, I won’t push it any further, as we don’t need another prank war between us. Let’s get down to business here, since the former Sun Tzu didn’t think this whole fiasco through we have been sent to fill the interim gap in the Reticulon governing structure. The entire 75^th will be here for a minimum of a year but let’s face facts it could be a lot longer. Considering it has been twenty-five years since the Lucian invasion force landed and we are still somewhat involved, though full involvement officially ended fifteen years ago. The corp of engineers should be arriving in the next two days as we are going to have to put a lot infrastructure back together due to the quantum displacement mines that were distributed here. We also have to establish actual good will with a lot of people on this planet that fell for a lot of malarkey from their leaders.

Colonel, you have counter insurgency training and a marketing degree, right?"

"Yes sir, with a minor in propaganda management."

"I’m putting you in with the legal team to assist them in assembling this planet some new guiding documents and de-malarking the citizenry.

I see Commander Toyoda is here."

Sanji Toyoda grabbed and hugged Eve and Tomoe.

"I am so glad you two are alive, I got here as fast as I could."

Sanji looked up, saw the General and suddenly remembered where he is, snapped to attention and into a salute.
"Sorry sir."

General Willow laughed then returned the salute.

"At ease Commander, I would trust you less if you could ignore your children. Mine went into safer fields of work, Daughter is a jeweler, son makes a fortune as an Artificial Intelligence Psychologist...thought he was a bit daft getting a computer science and psychology degree at the same time but turns out he’s the smart one. Now your girls here both chose the warrior’s path and one is apparently an adrenaline junkie who just got her adrenaline supply cut off."

Sanji looks at Tomoe.

"Why do you always look at me in these cases? I’m not the one grounded...as far as I know."

"You have a reputation, and besides your brother isn’t here to look at."

"Commander, you have a son? What branch is he in?"

"He is a master black-smith and weapons designer for the Skunk Works. He took the civilian path and he also teaches with my dad."

"How is Haruto doing these days?"

Eve and Tomoe both turn at the sound of their grandfather’s name.

"I see these two are a bit surprised. (the General laughs) I went to West Point with your grandpa, I could tell you two some tales, but I don’t dare share Haruto’s past without his saying I can."

"Dad is doing well, He was able to retire from the service young, and just runs his Dojo now. You have his three most highly trained students in-front of you right now, though Two is probably his best student."

"Two?"

"Mom hates the name Junior, so we call our brother Two otherwise it gets confusing with him and dad sharing a name Sanji Haruto Toyoda-Simineaux.

Now sir, I believe we have a debriefing and the remainder of our status briefing?"

"Yes, you are correct Sargent. Let’s start with did you intend to level an entire military production complex as soon as you arrived?"

"Well sir the math said I should, my longhand and abacus backed it up, but let’s be honest that was one Hell of a shot. A tiny bit off and it would have been over open ocean."

"How much ordinance did you use?"

"None Sir, that was the air burst from coming out of fold-space hot."

"You do realize there is a reason we don’t come out of fold-space that close to a planet don’t you?"

Several Sir, air-burst events, not being able to stop in time, knocking small planets out of orbit. My orders were clear "all force authorized" and a fold-space radiation boom is a force Sir."

"I tend to forget you’re a Nuclear Physics major. Who let you off your chain?"
"General Simineaux, Admiral Simineaux, and Commander Toyoda, Sir, all senior officers to myself. As for the physics Sir remember you are supposed to attend my Doctoral graduation in June."

"How much ordinance did you release and how much infrastructure was destroyed before you arrived?"

"Infrastructure was most all down upon my arrival Sir, everything my crew shot at were attacking hostiles. We only shot if we were being fired upon except for breaching the fortress. I think my crew and myself showed considerable restraint upon arrival and up until you arrived. Though I must admit this is a massive mop up crew."

"Sadly that is the Fault of the former Sun Tzu as I noted earlier. I fear we are just the beginning of the clean up crews. Command when I left was talking about fifty thousand personnel being stationed here for the next year then start decreasing if things are going smoothly."

An aid knocks at the door. "General, we found the Colonel’s shuttle and hover bike, should we have them brought here?"

"Yes, have them parked away from other transport vehicles under guard until we can have the motor pool inspect them for any potential enemy modifications during the Colonel’s absence from them. For now the Colonel will be bunking with us here since I have jurisdiction over her until Memento Moire can be contacted to ensure her safe transport home."

The aid leaves and Eve looks to the General.

"Yes, like your sister you are under my command for now and that is on orders from General...oh Hell, your mom said to keep you out of trouble for a bit, and I am not about to tick off an angry five star mother. Your unit is next to your sister’s, corner of First and Main Streets. Sargent Toyoda should have the map in her tablet by now and in the morning you can see the Quartermaster for replacement of gear lost and presumed destroyed in action. Now if you two will excuse me, I need to meet with Rear Admiral Naruta so we can coordinate fleet movements and supply deliveries, then we have a visit from the Galactic Deliberative in two days. With any luck High Admiral Simineaux will be here by then and she can handle this diplomatic disaster I was handed. I’ll catch up with you three tomorrow at zero six hundred Zulu, they’re supposed to have the mess up and running by then."

"Girls, I’ll see you in the morning, I too have to meet with Admiral Naruta before I can head off to bed. Tomoe, you need to get to bed too."

"I’ve only been awake for forty hours."

"Yeah, and neither of us want to hear your mom complaining about how beat you look when she gets here in a few hours."

"Mom is coming here too?"

"Yes Eve, she will be in charge of law and order here for a while, and is arriving in the same transport group as your grandma. Olivera will be handling the Galactic Deliberative issues, apparently she has unique diplomatic credentials with the Deliberative."

The two sisters say good by, and start walking off toward the rows of barracks as they reviewed Tomoe’s map. By the time they arrived street signs were already being hung and they found their units, Eve’s closer to Main street and Tomoe’s one in from hers. It had been a long time since Eve stayed a field barrack and these were the newer models her last stay in one it was shared with three other bunk mates. She walked up to her door and Tomoe had to unlock it with her tablet since Eve had no tablet.

Inside the MB-10896 was the same size as her last stay but now instead of a basic three meter long shipping container this one had a bunk bed, a small refrigerator, microwave over the two burner cook-top, a small closet with a set of drawers below it, a small folding table and chair tucked in between the bunk and front wall. The door at the back leading into a room no wider than the standing shower on the right and it had a desiccating toilet on her left. A short look around and she found that not only did it have two large windows set opposite each other but independent heating and cooling controls—they definitely planned on being here quite a while. She was brought back to reality when there was a knock on the door.

"Hello Colonel, I have a box for your unit and I was informed to let you know the rain awnings will be installed tomorrow."

"Thank you Corporal, I hope you can get some rest soon."

"I slept on the troop transport, so I’ll be delivering supplies to barracks for a while yet, good-night Colonel."

His hands now free he snaps a salute that Eve returns, he steps up to the trailer behind his Jeep grabs a box and walks to Tomoe’s barracks. Eve opens the box on the floor as she is not supposed to lift anything over two kilos until her ribs heal. Inside she finds about three days worth of battle rations and one makes her wince­—meatballs in barbecue sauce but at least it wasn’t the historic failure ham and lima beans. She pulls out the bedding for her bunk tan sheets, coyote brown blanket, typical Army pillow, coyote brown blackout curtains, half a dozen bottles of water, half a dozen bottles of soda and tea, a bottle of hot sauce, and a single bottle of Saki that she knows had to be thought of by General Willow, a mess kit, a canteen with cup, and a hygiene kit. All the comforts of home that she is used to when not on assignment or at home. She hung her curtains, made her bed, set up her table and chair outside her door while her dinner heated, set a bottle of soda on the table, and sits down to eat. A few minutes later Tomoe walks up, sets her own chair down, opens a can of Martian beer, and just starts eating. They sit in quiet, neither really having to say anything as they ate for some time.

"Eve, you ever wonder if Two was the smart one of us?"

"Frequently, but you are way smarter than he is, a doctorate in nuclear physics? I mean that is wicked smart."

"No, I mean not following mom and dad into the military."

"I knew what you meant. The answer is the same though, frequently. I was contemplating as I put my room together if I should finish this tour and head to the private sector. I just reenlisted so when this tour is up I could draw retirement. Maybe I should use this tour and just teach, West Point has been after me to teach for a while."

Tomoe laughs. "They’ve been trying to get you to teach, and the brass has been trying to get me to go. Once I hit E9 the next rank up requires officer’s training. They keep saying I’ll come out a Captain or maybe a Major but most likely a second lieutenant or a warrant officer. I’m like you, considering not reenlisting this next time. Two says he could get me in the Skunk Works with him. Hell even Grandma is getting ready to retire, something’s changed in the service, it just isn’t the same anymore."

"That would put you out in a year. I can’t blame you. I think when I get back I’ll take that position at West Point, at least that takes me out of active combat unless we go to war again."

"I wonder if they would let you teach at Okinawa? Be a lot closer to your home."

"They might. Guess I am so used to taking orders that I hadn’t thought to ask. Its been travel across the galaxy, assassinate these people or steal this item for so long...I’m tired of killing people."

"I get it, I get sent to in to level things, destroy cities, make sure nothing is left moving, or train new recruits. At least you can sneak in and steal stuff now and then."

"I stole an entire Dreadnought once."

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah, thing was a bitch to fly on my own, bad steering, rough ride, thought I’d never get it to the rendezvous. You know who met me at the rendezvous?"

"I assume grandma as she’s your usual ride home."

"Nope dad, and he had no idea I was the one sent on the mission! This mission has shown me it is time to hang up the crossbow and the poison bottles. There was a time I could trust my orders, but not after this."

"Eve, Tome? What are you two doing sitting in the dark?"

"Hey mom, just talking."

"Well either of you got a spare bunk for the night? My quarters won’t be offloaded and ready until noon tomorrow."

"Whichever top bunk you like."

"Top bunk? You two know I outrank you?"

"Regulations state bunk assignments are first come first choose. Can’t help if your ride was too slow, maybe don’t let a little old grandma drive you out here next time." Tome laughs at her own joke.

"I know better than to question a drill Sargent on regulations. How are you feeling Eve?"

"Better with the meds kicking in, but still feel like I was hit by a truck."

"Not again?"

"No, figure of speech, not literal this time, but bad enough I’m taking the teaching position when I get back to Earth."

"And I am going to finish this tour and go to work with Two."

"Well, I guess I should let you know that Mom’s retirement will begin once this mess the former Sun Tzu made is cleaned up, and I will be retiring with her...apparently the joint chiefs felt it would be better after what happened to Sun Tzu the other day. Do you want me to let the Joint Chiefs know you are accepting the position then Eve?"

"Yes, but I’d like to teach at Okinawa if I could. It’s closer to home."

General Simineaux pulls out her secure tablet and quickly types out a message then sends it.

"Message sent, we should have an answer in the morning. Tome, if you don’t mind I’ll take Eve’s top bunk tonight since she seems more injured than you."

"That’s fine mom, I’m heading to bed, I’ve been up close to fort-three hours now and we have a meting at the mess at zero six hundred with General Willow."

"Typical no rest for the weary."

General Simineaux steps into Eve’s barracks, and sets her field pack down, opens it, rummages about and tosses a blanket over the bear mattress hangs her current battle uniform in the closet and climbs into bed. Eve follows soon after, brushes her teeth then climbs into her own bed.

Zero five hundred has a way of rushing up on you when you are solidly sound asleep and for Eve this morning was no different. She was up, and getting dressed as her mom was staring at her and internally wincing and crying at the scars and bruises across her daughter’s body.

"Mom, you better get moving, staring at battle scars won’t have you in the mess on time."

"How did you know I was watching?"

"Training for what I do has you notice everything. Your breathing changed, picked up speed, several sharp inhales you tried to suppress too."

"You’re scary."

"Only to those who can’t see me."

Scarlet climbs down, and gets dressed, as Eve takes her morning meds, then checks the mirror to make sure her braid is still in place and regulation. At zero five thirty a Jeep pulls up outside and then a knock at the door. Eve opens the door to find her Grandma and suddenly there are three people that look like the same person at different ages all standing outside Eve’s barrack as Tome steps out of hers.
"Thought you three may want a ride to the mess this morning so I strategically transferred this piece of equipment to use in an alternate location."

The four of them entered the mess at the same time and got in the chow line. They were all sitting at a trestle table by zero six hundred when General Willow walked in, he acknowledged them then got his own tray before joining them with Sanji Toyoda right behind him taking the seat next to Scarlet and followed by Admiral Haruta. Most of the mess had their eyes on the table as none there had ever seen so much brass in one place before.

"Scarlet, have you seen the communique from the Joint Chiefs this morning?"

"No, I haven’t opened my tablet yet. Well you may want to."

Admiral Simineaux, slides a box across to her daughter. "You’ll need this after you read it."

Perplexed she opens the tablet, her eyes go wide and everyone is staring at her but General Willow is smiling and so are the Admirals.

Scarlet stands up, and walks around the table to Eve and nods at her. Eve stands up and looks at her mom puzzled.

"By the authority granted to me by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I am hereby authorized to inform you that your position at the Okinawa School of Advanced Tactical Training has been secured. As of the opening of the next training you are the new Headmaster."

She opens the box from the Admiral and affixes a single silver star to each of her epaulets and removes the silver eagles.

"Welcome to your new appointment Brigadier General Toyoda-Simineaux."

Scarlet salutes Eve, Eve returns the salute, and Scarlet returns to her seat as the entire mess hall applauds. Eve Salutes the hall, the soldiers return the salute and all return to eating.

"Well Eve I guess that ups your retirement package."

"Yeah Tomoe I would say so. I just thought I’d teach advance insurgency tactics or something boring like the history of Howitzers through the ages."

"Well Generals, Admirals, Commander, and Sargent, on to other news; the Joint Chiefs will be here about noon tomorrow and intend to discuss the after action report with Sargent Tomoe in person, one of those further things in the morning reports that my superior hasn’t read yet."

"That is why I have support staff such as lower ranked Generals"

"Mom, he’s joking with you and whatever you do, don’t get him gong on a prank war with you! Trust me on that."

"Well whatever, they’re walking into an active deployment area and sadly a military occupation so no spit shine for them and they get either battle rations or the same chow everyone else gets no special treatment.

Willow, has intelligence found the remaining leaders or their potential replacements yet?"

"We have identified several of them and a platoon will be going out to bring them to base at zero seven hundred. There are eight we can positively identify so a squad for every two. They should be back here by zero nine hundred.

Overnight we have gathered the remaining forces from this base, we have M.P.s stationed in their barracks to keep order, but they should be coming in to the mess anytime and hopefully we have something they will eat.

We have located Commander Veshton’s family and will transfer her remains to them once we can bring them in. It is very clear in the Sargent’s body cam footage that she was intending to knife General Simineaux so we have a clearly justified use of lethal force. I am also seeing why Eve and Tomoe call their brother Two, as having two Generals and an Admiral all named Simineaux at the table could get confusing. Now if y’all will excuse me, I’m going to grab a hot carafe of coffee for the office as I have a busy morning. Scarlet, your quarters was set up this morning and should be ready by now."

"Now why would the Joint Chiefs have me appoint Eve when they are arriving here anyways?"

"Scarlet, the time stamp for Eve was at 21:15 and the time stamp on their in-transit memo is 22:30 so they made the decision to arrive after the decision about Eve.

Tomoe, did you do anything really bad before we got here?"

"No Grandma, and you can ask my crew or check the flight recorders, or even my body cam, to be exact I expect you and mom to go through those."

"Well until the Joint Chiefs arrive I’m giving you and your squad the day off because you still look beat so I imagine they are too."

"Yeah, but if someone gave us an order to "go to Hell and bring back the Devil" they’d be right there with me. I couldn’t ask for a better a squad than them."

Not quite thirty hours later the sleek diplomatic transport arrived and the Joint Chiefs met in Scarlet’s office as it was significantly larger than General Willow’s. Tomoe sat outside feeling like she was waiting for her own execution. A command alert sounded on her communicator "All on base personnel report to the parade ground." Tomoe sat there a moment before her mom came out.
"That means you as well. Don’t worry, I’ll bring the Joint Chiefs in my Jeep."

Tomoe darts off to the grounds and her drill instructor instinct starts kicking in lining up the troops Squad by squad, platoon by platoon, she had never mustered so many people at once before but seeing as many of the officers had been under her in basic they automatically followed her orders out of habit. Her mom and the Joint Chiefs were off to one side watching as she stepped aside for General Willow with a salute and took her place with her own squad. He called the 3^rd Army to attention and the Joint Chiefs stepped up. General Volkov leader of the Joint Chiefs picked a megaphone so everyone could hopefully hear her.
"As you are all aware we are here because the former Sun Tzu made a huge and costly mistake. She chose to go against our wishes and the wishes of other senior command staff and had a Memento Moire dispatched here to be a saboteur. If not for the very fast reaction time to a man down scenario the operative would be dead and we would be looking at things being a lot different. The response was fast enough they were on ground here in twenty-four hours and their ship single-handedly took out a major military city and the fortress here where we are standing. Sergeant Major of the Army Toyoda, please come forward."

Tomoe marches forward keenly aware she is in battle fatigues and not dress uniform like the Joint Chiefs, reaches them and salutes, General Volkov returns the salute.

"Sergeant Major of the Army Tomoe Gozen Simineaux-Toyoda by unanimous decision of the Joint Chiefs of staff of the United Earth Government it is my privilege to offer you the rank of Sun Tzu. Our predecessors made mistakes with the last two Sun Tzu appointments by appointing people who had never seen combat, and did not know the cost of battle let alone war. People who campaigned for the title as opposed to earning it. Much like a Pope can be chosen from any of the church we have the option to choose from any amongst the ranks of the military. You have a distinguished and honorable record, after this incident we knew who should be next. Do you accept this appointment?"

"May I keep my squad as my staff? We have been together for sometime, we come as a unit."

"You may."

"Then I accept."

General Volkov bowed to Tomoe then affixed the insignia of Sun Tzu on her epaulets and Tomoe felt like she would faint.

“Your field office should be arriving in the next few days once it has been refitted.”

“No, dismantle it. I am a soldier. I live as a soldier. I sleep as a soldier. I eat the same food as a soldier. I have the same complaints about the food as any other soldier. My office is already here, Reaper is my office. My quarters are an MB-10896 same as every soldier here. My ground transport is a G-503 it was good enough for General Patton, and it is good enough for me.

Any soldier with a redress they feel has not been heard may knock upon my office door, they may come to my barracks, they shall not be turned away, they shall always be welcome. I do not command from a concrete tower, nor from a walled off garrison, or from behind guards and sycophants. After being a drill Sargent for twenty-five years I feel enough of the military knows how I am. I shall be honest to my post and to the soldiers in the field.

General Volkov smiled as did General Xi, and Generals Simineaux as she faced them.

“Consider it dismantled then, and I think I speak for all of us here when I say I know for sure now that we made the right choice.

What is your first order of business then?”

“Line up the heads of the Reticulan military behind Reaper, I shall speak to each in turn as I need to know how we got here and how we are getting out. As I am now also over them as we are the occupying force I should hear from all my generals. Once I have heard from them my staff and myself shall begin interviewing each of their subordinates. I need to know a lot of things in short order to clean this mess up. And while I wait I shall be informing the quartermasters of a few MREs we need to discontinue.”

Tome turned to face the assembled third army.

Unlike my forbearers in this post my door is open to all. That said I am sure y’all have a lot you are chomping at the bit to get done so on that note:

REAPER TEAM TO THE BIRD!

THIRD ARMY, DISMISSED!

Tome’s crew headed toward Reaper and the rest began to quickly scatter to the tasks they were drug away from and General Willow approached.

“I’m glad you’re in charge now Sun Tzu.”

He saluted her, then turned and walked to his office as well.

“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”

—Anonymous Vietnam War Era