Tempore, Beginnings: Chapter 1

Ten years pass,
Jennifer Ghiest had grown into a beautiful woman, she sunk her life into her corporation, she had become a ruthless business woman, taking out entire companies with a stroke of her pen. She had made a lot of enemies, step on many people to get where was.

Even the vast wealth ,and ruthless tactics could hide how much pain she was in, the nightmares never stopped , she would awake up alone in bed , in cold sweat. She convinced herself she had driven her husband into the arms of another woman, even though she knew she was much better lover.

In the downtown run down block , her sleek black Lincoln, turn down the street where the rows of buildings and apartments had just become her property. Her mind was adrift as the warm sun , made her feel sleepy and kinda of happy, she reaches down to the car phone.

“Call Quint Ghiest,” The phone auto-dial the number of her husband’s mobile phone. It rang six times before she heard her husband’s rough voice , answer, “Hello Jen,” Jennifer asks, “Can we meet at the west mall for dinner tonight?”

Quint replies, “Maybe , I might be busy, ” Then he adds , “With work stuff,” Jennifer nods, “ok , bye,”

“Incoming call Mistress,” the phone spoke softly. Jennifer looks down at the caller ID , the Nightshade Corporation, she groans as they are beginning to annoy her. She reaches down, “Hi Kurt, what can I do for you this time?” They were both bidding on the defense contract to develop the next generation weapon, her design was genetically engineering and splicing humans with the chemical called Evacska Eztli, while the Nightshade Corporation was designing warmachines, mechanical humanoid and beasts , with modern weapons and state of the art weapons mounted on them

Kurt states, “Let us buy you out, don’t get in overhead.” Jennifer smiles, then counters, “Let me buy you out before you get any deeper in debt.” Kurt growls , “Jenner , you will lose that contract,” Jennifer hangs up on him, she hates being called Jenner.

“Where are you going baby?” The girl was beyond gorgeous, every inch of her was beautiful, her breasts were just a cup shy of being called huge, and her face was angel like, Quint Ghiest, pulled on his jeans , turn to her, “I am going to meet my wife.” He said bluntly, the girl , whispers in a pouting voice , “You don’t wanna play wit me,” she sat at the edge of the bed , sucking her index finger, giving her best pouting look.

Quint Ghiest sighs , “Just a bit longer,” the girl let out a yelp , as Quint pounced on her.

As the Lincoln stopped at a light, a dark ugly brown car out of an alley, as it begin to speed up, a sleek black SUV pulled out of alley behind the Lincoln, it begin to speed up. Another ugly brown car pulled out from the opposite alley and begin to speed up.

“Driver , move your ass,” The Lincoln driver , slammed the accelerator , causing the big car to lurch forward, suddenly there was a sound, and the Lincoln stopped dead in the middle of the street, the door magnetically locked.

Jennifer Ghiest turn quickly kicking at the window only to be shocked by some kind of field. Dazed she watched as the cars and SUV seem to impact at the same time. Jennifer was aware of the driver , pulling his service revolter from his hostler , and then he shot himself.

The heat begin to rise , Jennifer Ghiest struggled to breathe , her heart raced , she slid down to the floor to avoid the hot air and smoke. Her eyes begin to water , she closed her eyes, as the first explosion went off , then a second , then a third , and finally a fourth.

“Baby?” Quint Ghiest rubs his head , “Gwen, are you here?!” Quint sits up, he instantly has a headache, he looks down at his arm, as it throbs with pain, he pulls the needle free, swearing, “Goddamn it girl I told you not to be sticking me with needles.”

Quint walks the room, looking for the girl, “Gwen? I’m not that pissed. Come on , I got a headache…” He turns to the remote on the bed, he picks it up , and flips on the TV.

“Quint Ghiest is being sought for questioning , for the allege attack on his wife’s Lincoln , as well the brutal rape of a fourteen year old minor,” The tv reporter speaks to the audience , the woman on the right , whispers, “Poor girl, you can send your cards and letters to…” Quint sat down, the rest of the report , becoming nothing more than background noise.

Six months later, in late October ,

Ghiest Inc.’s space station , named the Locust, it hangs in space , invisible to machine and man’s eyes. The Evacska Eztli has many properties , all of which involving altering an organism’s immune and defense into a refined state. As the physiologists, biologists, doctors, zoologists, and others had learn they could grow different species of the Evacska Eztli, by exposing it to different conditions, and splicing it into other gene pools.

The Locust was a self sustaining colony of individuals , doing hundreds of different research projects. Everything within the Locust was controlled , e-mails , letters , web surfing , reading material , and their very lives.

When the word had come that Jennifer Ghiest had been murdered , the colony grew nervous , for only a handful of Jennifer’s closest friends knew of the colony. They worried that they would be cut off from the world.

“Sir.. Sir , there is a problem,” A scientist, named Jacob Vandel, rolled out of bed, as the fat soldier in a green tights, begin to speak softly, “We have an incoming shuttle, they wearing the US government logo, but..” The scientist nods, “I know , the US government has bigger fish to fry than come look for a space colony. Those new ‘Sylph’ are causing all the governments in the world a major headache.”

As Jacob , enter the main control deck of the Locust , he was instantly surrounded by a dozen soldiers in black armor , and carrying heavy rifles. Jacob begins to reach for his call box , a device that would set the space station on auto-destruct.

“I wouldn’t bother Jacob, we took control of the space station last night,” The man speaking is called the Fly, a spineless slime , that never showered, was eager to please. Jacob tries to remember his real name, but fails. “How much did they offer you , Fly?” The Fly growls, “Its always Fly this , and Fly that!” He watches Jacob, “It wasn’t about money, I wanted Mcdavis’s daughter,” Jacob glares at him, “She is elven you sicko,” The Fly lashes his tongue , “I know,” He licks his lips.

“Rick, there is a problem, you better come quick,” Jacob watches two men whisper , The Fly , also known as Rick Greycobble, “Lock him up, and make sure to search this one,” Jacob is slugged in the back , then prodded forward.

In the area of the Locust which is commonly called the Gothic Era, the research being done was with bats , and other night creatures. The physiologists here were known to play with dead ‘Sylph’, they also were some of the greatest mind around, as they often produced the best results, with little mistakes.

The Fly walks through the darken hall way, green light sources allowing them to see. The soldiers quietly make spooky noises , the Fly growls , as he knows they won’t listen to him, he walks into a hallway that widens.

Before the Fly is a huge pit , in the darkness below , he can make out the broken body of Mcdavis’s daughter, he kneels down. He always liked her , she wasn’t very smart , and was several aces shy of a full deck of cards. But she was pretty , her father had trained her since she could walk to obey adults, in other words she was perfect for him.

“What happen!” The Fly demands, a soldier in dark gold armor , whispers, “She was running , tripped and fell over the edge,” The Fly watches him, the soldier is lying he can tell instantly , he would have to wait until that odd Zinerva arrived to get the real story. The Fly reach over and snapped the light source from the soldier’s dark gold armor, and pointed down into the hole.

He smiled, her fingers twitched, and her eyes opened a bit. The Fly hit his radio , “I need a medic unit to the Goth Era , ” He searched for the name of the area , it read , ‘Caution Disposal Area’, he read the sign to the radio “Disposal Area in the Goth Era”

The Fly watched as the body of Mcdavis’s daughter, was wheeled in the creation room, the only safe place for her to sleep, since he could control the robots in this zone.

The creation room was a huge chamber , with silos containing various bodies which were being exposed to Evacska Eztli , then the genetic martial , is spliced with Evacska Eztli. The genetic martial was normally one of the millions of runaways that came up missing every year, sometimes they pulled problem students from classes.

Mcdavis’s daughter was in a small case , that was sealed , with air pumping in and out , tubes adjusting and monitoring her vital signs. There was no telling what she had fallen into or on, she had hundreds of puncture wounds , and soak to the bone with varies fluids.

“Uh gu k!” The soldier wasn’t able to get out a single word, as the blade flashed across his throat. The man standing over the soldier was heavy set , with hair blonde , he sighed , saying to himself, “She was a sweet kid too,”

“Selections 4 , and 6 are clear,” Jason whispers into his radio, “Section 3 is clear as well,” Behind Jason was his twelve year old son, he turns to the boy, “Ok get the kids and get ready to use the pods, it looks like we are only going to get three sections.” The boy watches his father, then nods and darts away.

By all rights , Jason Yestervai , a doctor that was so in-adept at even the most basic of medical skills , should be dead. He had been a heavy drinker since he lobbied for a prisoner to be released , only to the rapist turn out to be a one of France’s most brutal serial killer , Jennifer had saved his life and reattached his son’s heart and liver deemed un-repairable by the best surgeons.

“Yeah we have control of the space station , there is no one un-accounted for , I have pictures of all the scientist , doctors and their families aboard.” He grins , thinking about he had hacked into the database to watch his co-workers shower and everything else.

“You are doing really good Commander Rick, I told you smooth as a baby’s butt,” The man is known as Zinerva, he is a pale blue skin humanoid , with snake like eyes and small spines down his face. He what is known as a ‘early Sylph’ the splicing then was with human to animal genes.

“How is..”

Suddenly the space station goes dead , the lights shut out completely, the space station shakes and then turns on its side , causing the soldiers , and the Fly to crash to the wall. The Fly stands up, “Ship reactive my Worm file,” The ship states, “Can’t comply with that order” The Fly whispers, “What the hell!?” The ship states, “Only staff members may use my commands.”

The Fly tries to claw his way to the control panel, but he slides down , he screams , “Give me a push , or a boost!”

The creation room of the Goth Era, like all the silos, the auto-destruction begins to pour a legal combination of drugs into the silo’s fluid , to ensure that nobody gets their hands on the research subjects.

As the mixture begin to churn, one of the silo, a big glass tube with a steel back with dozens of hoses attached to it, two hands appear on the silo’s glass. The hands begin to push , as the body , and legs begin to thrash about, then the hands begins to pound on the glass , the pounding becomes a hammering , then a desperate struggle.

The glass suddenly gives way , the figure pulls herself free, wiping her eyes, and blowing the junk out of her nose. She is dressed in a single wrap of white and orange cloth, with purple goo hanging on her, she watches the other silos around her go still she steps out of the silo , and jumps to the next silo , her head swims, as she gets use to moving again.

The word to describe her would be plain , but pretty , with long blue hair , dark grey-green eyes, small pouty lips , and maybe five feet six inches tall.

The teenage male looking at her , begins to hammer harder , seeing the girl, the girl rips a heavy plastic tube from the silo and begin to hammer, cracking the glass , then she is moving, jumping to the next silo.

A beautiful Native American girl breaks out of the glass with no effort , she comes up coughing and spitting, she shakes her head. The girl is moving to the next silo, she begins to bang away at the silo, the boy that looks at her , doesn’t try to break free, the chemicals begin to seep into his body , she rears back and shatters it, dragging the boy into her arms.

The teenage male is holding the Native American girl up , she looks tired. The teenage male is , easily inches over six feet tall, very dark purple hair, streaked by silver , grey-purple eyes , tone muscles, and very pale skin tone. He watches her , he whispers, “Thanks,”

The Native American girl is beautiful , she is tone like a athletic, deep tan skin, her hair is black, and her eyes , are nearly a perfect mixture of blues , browns and greens. She coughs , spitting up some purple fluid.

The first girl looks down at the boy in her arms, his golden hair is a wild mess, she uses her finger to clean his mouth, she is happy to see him breathing. She is about to speak when an explosion rocks the space station.

The teenage male , says, “Follow me,” She watches him, as he jumps pass her , she turns back to the silos , most of them were unborn , or too young to survive. She searches the room, then sees , another , thing in the upper corner.

The teenage male watches, “Come this way , first,”He says after following where she was looking, she turns away and follows the teenage male. She watches him pull a vent away, then hops down a bit.

“Here give me the boy , I will come help you with..” He trails , he couldn’t tell what it was , but she was going to look whether he liked it or not. He took the boy from the girl, and jumped down, he sat them in a small groove in the venting system.

She moved from silo to silo, trying not to look at the bodies within , the space station would shudder , and lurch , pieces would crash down on the silos. She had to jump clear , many times , sometimes nearly falling into the darkness below , she clawed her way upward.

Below the room , which now was a ledge, that held the creature, the girl stopped , she jumped , and couldn’t reach the ledge. She nearly fell into the darkness below , several times, turn around to find the teenage male standing near her she let out a gasp of surprise.

He watched her ,”I am gonna lend on the wall, that should give you enough height to jump up there, just don’t jump too hard,” She kinda of smile, she watched him lend over the wall, she climbed on his back , and then stood on his shoulders.

She jumped with just enough room , to grab the edge of the ledge , haul herself up. She was quick to move to the case. She froze in terror , she exhales deeply , the creature stirs.

It is a mixture of many animals , its back from the neck down is cover by bone plates, along the side the bone plates are quills , its arm are long , with small talons on fingers and elbow. Its face is a that of a small female child and bat, with long canine teeth, her hair is a turf of mane , that runs down her head.

“Its ‘k baby ,” The girl cooed to the creature, the only name the girl could remember was,”Agnessa, is here.. Shhhh” The girl named Agnessa begin to pull at the latch , as the space station begin to rock and dance, with explosions.

The case fell open , Agnessa pulled the small body into her arms, she noticed the creature has small wings like a bat hidden under her arms. Her body is a soft mess of fine hair, Agnessa strokes the creature , whispering to it softly.

The teenage male lends against the wall , as Agnessa slides down to his shoulders, she then slides down to the silo. She waits for the teenage male to push himself back, then she begins to jump from silo to silo.

At the vent opening , the teenage male , says, “Drop down just a bit , there an area , that I reckon will be safe to ride while we reenter the atmosphere.” She watch him jump from silo to silo, wonders what he is up to, when the space station shudders again.

In the darkness , she hears the teenage male , return , she feels him cover her with a thick tarp, and blanket , he hands her several small tubes, with masks, “Oxygen , I couldn’t find anything else, useful just a medical kit , and a flare gun.” She whispers, “My name is Agnessa,” The teenage male whispers, “well met, I reckon Vartan, will do” She hears him settle down, as he piles up vent parts , and blankets against the openings. She whispers, “You don’t remember your name either,” In the darkness he said, “I remember a lot but no names,” she nods into the darkness, “Same here,”

In the lead spaceship, a oval with two bars at the top and single bar slicing down at a 45 degree angle through the oval. The all bars are cut forward slant at the edges, and the oval is slightly covered by two big engines. This spaceship is one of three spaceships, which are similar save that they have cluster of ovals instead of a single oval, heading to the Locust.

The area of the cockpit , has a single lone seat , with Zinerva sitting in the middle, the room is totally black , without any kind of light source. Zinerva ghostly pale skin causes him to be an outline.

Zinerva curses Rick “the Fly”Greycobble, as the space station begins to slide towards the earth, its built in gravity that allowed it to hover in space , begins to rocket it towards the earth. Tiny explosions rock the Locust , causing it to shift from side to side.

“Zinerva, don’t worry,” A voice whispers, it continues, “Cut the space station in half , turn it about, and then board it,” Zinerva nods, “As you wish, my master.” Zinerva reaches out to the darkness, metal bonds wrap themselves around the Zinerva’s arms, and hands, “No worries, Zinerva,”

A blast of energy slices through the darkness from Zinerva’s spaceship oval cockpit, striking the Locust sections 4, 6 and 3. The other spaceships begin to fire as well, Zinerva watches though a trance like state , as the energy blast cut , as if a surgeon with a knife, he feels the ship controlling and guiding his hands.

Sections of the Locust begin to slip away, they begin to pick up speed, Zinerva , shivers as the ship gives him back control of his body, “Very good Zinerva, now bring your ships around and prevent the rest of Jen’s legacy from falling to the earth.”

The spaceships circle around , firing cords to the Locust, they struggle for several minutes , slowly turning the space station about. Then Zinerva, throttles his ship towards the Locust.

“UUUUuuuuuuu HA!” Agnessa breath is suddenly sucked away , she struggles to hang on to the creature , and boy, she fumbles with her oxygen, then pulls the mask over her face. She watches in slow motion as Vartan holds a mask over the boy’s face , Agnessa reaches over to pull the mask over the boy’s face and the bands to hold the mask in place. The boy is pushed into her, as the air is drawn out , replaced by cold.

Agnessa, puts a mask over the creatures face , as best as she can, she watches Vartan struggling with the Native American girl, who is struggling and gasping for air. Vartan grabs her hair , and shoves the mask on her face , holds her against the boy, her hand covers up knocks Vartan’s mask free.

The girl begins to slow her struggling, Agnessa watches Vartan, she is helplessly pinned , to the cool metal. She watches the teenager’s eyes grey-purple go wide, his arms are pinned by blanket, and his mask has been knocked. She watches him, struggle, and twist , but he can’t get his arms free.

Agnessa lends forward but there is too many bodies and too much space. She watches the teenager begin to close his eyes, she struggles harder, suddenly the Native American girl, pulls her mask puts over his face, she counts to ten, then replaces the mask on her face. For next few minutes the Native American girl shares her oxygen with the teenager, until he get his arm free.

As the sections of the Locust hit the Earth’s protective atmosphere, tiny explosion erupt in the hull , causing the Locust to slow a bit, the explosions continue to causes slow down. As they come down across the Russian continent, many of the sections are fired on by ballistic missiles, and Mig fighters are sent into the air.

A section of the space station headed towards a war torn section of Russia , and Chinese border , were rebels have been fighting for a few years. Neither Russian nor Chinese governments launch any kind of defense.

“Look momma!” The section passes within inches of striking a village, the bottom of the section takes down trees , as it comes rumbling by. The after shock of hot air , and gas causes many on the ground to become violently ill.

The rebels on horse back , watching from a distant , watch the section impact the earth burying it self several feet into the ground, and causing a massive fire to explode around the section’s area of impact. The trees , and forest are instantly consumed in fire and heat.

The rebels , sixteen in total begin towards the area , riding at a fast trot.

The Native American girl, sinks her finger into the teenage boy’s chest and thigh, as he press her , into the wall, and against the boy. She holds on to him with an amazing grip, as the section slams into the ground, she hears him grunt , then there is silence.

“Ride’s over, get off me, now,” She growls, pushing him aside, Agnessa pulls her mask down, “Everyone ok?” Vartan looks at Agnessa then watches the Native American girl, he rubs his chest and thigh, “I reckon so, girl got a grip like snapping turtle,” The Native American girl, pushes herself away from the wall, she watches Vartan, “You grab me like a whore again, you’ll be eating your teeth,” Vartan watches her, “Was tryin’ to give you oxygen,” The Native American girl , watches him , “Just watch yourself , I don’t let anyone handle me like that, understood.” A statement, Vartan turns to Agnessa, “You ok?”

Agnessa just nods, the boy stirs , whispering, “Voices… Voices.. In my head,” His eyes are wide, and his face ashen. Agnessa puts a hand on his shoulder, “Shh,” The Native American girl lifts her hands to her neck , pulls a tag from her wrap of white and orange cloth, she reads it “Talutah,”, Agnessa notices the target is broken, she whispers, “What is Talutah?” The Native American girl doesn’t answer for a bit, remembering or , thinking , she finally whispers, “Sioux for Blood-Red,”

Vartan crawls up the venting system, “Agnessa hand me the boy and..” Agnessa whispers, “Rhan, I think her name is Rhan,” Vartan nods, then whispers, “Pass her and him to , then Talutah, climb up here,” Talutah watches him before growling, “Who decided to put you in control?!” Vartan watches , then explains, “I am not in charge, I just want to leave, there is air floating in this direction, if you know a way out we will follow you , ok?” Talutah shrugs, “Just asking is all,”

“Open your mouth , baby.. Please open your mouth,” Agnessa held the pill in her hands, using her other hand to force open Rhan’s mouth, but they girl was fighting. Finally Rhan’s mouth opens, Agnessa whispers, “Good girl, swallow this,” Slowly as the pill slipped past her lips , and down her throat, Rhan begins to wake up.

Talutah watches Vartan, she asks “You sure it’s a good idea to force them to be awake?” Vartan shakes his head, “I reckon its not, I figure wherever we landed, dead weight will get us killed.” Vartan hands her a flare gun , “Click the safety cap off, load a shell , lock and point pull the trigger.” Talutah takes the flare gun, we watches him , “What weapon did you take?” Vartan smiles, showing her an ice pick, “Want to trade?”

Agnessa, trailed after Rhan, the boy, Talutah and Vartan , chasing after the wind, using lighter to guide them in the right direction. The vent system was cold , dark , and she could hear the boy mumbling softly about voices.

Outside,

The rebels on horseback, held their AK-47 assault rifles against their bodies, as their commander , is speaking to them, “Sent private Yager to yonder village to fetch a truck, we gonna take as much as we can hold , then get out of here.” The commander just barely twenty eight paces his horse in front of them, as he had seen in Braveheart.

For what seem like a life time, they wander through the darkness, until they hear voices, chatting about , their favorite Mel Gibson movie, their favorite American food, and something about a girl. The voices then become silent for the longest time.

Agnessa sits with Rhan, the boy, Talutah and Vartan in a small space, straining to listen.

“What language is that?” Agnessa whispers, Talutah, replies, “Russian I think,” They sit quietly for a few minutes longer , as the sound of truck pulls up to the Locust section

The commander , hooks up a chain, with big hook, up to the space station’s hull, a section which has been eaten away by friction, leaving a cracked plate that exposes a hallway. The rebel group didn’t have the tools to pry the plate off, so they decided to use a truck.

The chain with a hook , is set into the plate , the truck is ordered to pull. The horses dance in place , as the rebels cheer the young driver on. The commander watches as the plate begins to buckle, then there is a snapping sound, causing the plate fly through the air, just barely missing the truck.

The commander watches the group dismount, he begins quietly, “I want two volunteers to check to see if its safe to enter.” The group shuffles their feet, the excitement drown out by the suddenly realization it could be dangerous , even deadly.

“I guess I will go sir,” The commander watches the boy, maybe twelve , step forward, his brother , also steps up , the commander watching them, sighs, “Ok, don’t open or touch anything, just look for defenses , and put down beacons ok?” both boys nod, “Yes sir” The commander turns to his second in command , “Go with them, you can read the most languages, it might be important,” The second in command, shrugs, “I guess so,”

Vartan cups a hand over the boy’s mouth, as the Russians pass their position , they are moving with two soldiers in the front with large spotlights, and one soldier facing the rear, all of them have their weapons raised.

“Scavengers..,” Talutah breathes, she looks at Vartan, she looks at him with a questionable look, “Can you fight?” Vartan smiles a bit, Talutah turns to Agnessa, “Stay put girl,” Agnessa doesn’t get a chance to response , the Native American girl slips from their hiding place , followed by Vartan.

“We don’t see anything yet sir,” The youngest soldier spoken softly, his hand pulled so tight around the grip of his rifle , he could never have hit the trigger in time if anything happen. The second in command , was watching the rear , he touched his radio, ” Lukasha, remember that smell after taking down that Russian cargo plane with Nightshade warmachine models Moyolehuani,” The commander named Lukasha , replies over the radio , ” I do, acid burn system, that ate everything.” The second in command , whispers, “It feels like a graveyard here.”

Talutah move out of the darkness, the second in command feels a hand cover his mouth, and his rifle shoved against his body. His body is slammed into the soldier in front and to the left of him.

The soldier feels himself being spun about, as the second in command , slams into him, he turns to find a open palm blow that hits him in the chest, his rifle is ripped from his hands. He suddenly sees Vartan holding the rifle on him.

During the commotion, the youngest soldier watches his brother get disarmed, and his commander for this mission , gets knocked to the floor. He watches the short fight with wild eyes, he lifts his AK-47 assault rifle, and levels it at Vartan.

“No, Peter,” The youngest soldier listens, as his commander , tells him, “Just drop it, kid,” The soldier’s hand open and closes on the grip, he raises a finger to trigger, he shouts in Russian , “Get away from my brother,” The second in command, watches , as youngest soldier begins to pull the trigger, as he does , a shape comes soaring through the air, tackling him to the ground.

The rifle sprays the wall next to his brother, who closes his eyes, Vartan watches as Rhan appears out of the darkness, her face cover in blood. Talutah steps back from the commander, whisper, “Come here, Rhan,” Rhan just watches Talutah, Vartan whispers, “Get behind us, Rhan,”

The second in command slowly gets up his arms , raised , he says in English, “Can I check on the boy,” Vartan nods, “I reckon so.” The second in command kneels over the boy, who is shaking like a iron bar struck with a hammer, the second in command asks in Russian , “Are you hurt?” The boy raises his hands, cover in thick quills, the quills are dug into his face , and body as well.

The second in command , turns around slowly saying in Russian to the boy’s brother, “Just some minor wounds, he will be fine.” Then the commander turns to the group before him, “What are you doing here?” Vartan smiles , “Tourist , how abot you?” The commander watches, “Americans?” Talutah , whispers, “I am Sioux,” The second in command, smiles, “Indian?” Talutah whispers, “Sioux,”

The second in command watches them, then asks, “What do you want with us?” Vartan , replies, “Nothing but I reckon you are looking for something and I reckon someone will be looking for us,”

With Vartan and Talutah, behind them, the Russian soldiers lead the group into daylight. Lukasha watches his childhood friend come out with his arms, raised high, he notes the condition of the youngest soldier , carried in his brother’s arms.

Rhan appearance behind Vartan and Talutah , causes most of the soldiers to lower their weapons. Their past dealings with ‘early Sylphs’ killing any kind of idea of fighting it out with these strangers.

Vartan greets them, “Evening folks,” Lukasha watches the teenage boy, then whispers, “Is it ok if we take the injured boy from you?” Talutah nods, “Go ahead, he’s not hurt too bad though,” Lukasha eyes traces the body of the girl who is speaking , he hears the sound of her cocking the AK-47 , she whispers, “My eyes are up here.” Lukasha clears his throat, “Sorry,” he turns back to two soldiers, in Russian , “Carefully set your rifles down and take the injured boy,”

Two soldiers gently set their weapons down, then cross to the injured boy, and take him to the truck. Lukasha , watches Vartan, “What is next,” Talutah says, “We want five horses,” The second in command , whispers, “They had gold , Lukasha,” Lukasha raises an eyebrow, he says, “Can I see it?” Agnessa holds out a hand, she holds three large coins , she found in the vent system, Lukasha offers , “two horses,”

Talutah counters, “Four horses,” Lukasha counters her offer, “Three horses, and we will throw in a bag of food stuff and some extra clothing,” Talutah sighs, “Deal”

The Russian soldiers , quickly load the big work horses, with soft gray fur, up with gear, it takes maybe twenty minutes then Agnessa, Rhan, the boy, Talutah and Vartan are on their way. Vartan and Talutah trail behind the others, they hear someone approaching them, Lukasha has his lithe brown pony halt, as Vartan turns to him.

“Why didn’t you just kill us and take the horses?” Lukasha asks, Talutah, watches, “Complaining are we?” Lukasha glares at her, “I inspected the hallway and opening you could have gotten at least half of us with just a few shots.” Talutah smiles at him, “I would have gotten half of you on my own,” Lukasha turns to face Vartan, as he replies , “I reckon cause we anit hunting trouble,” Lukasha drops a case on the ground, “Look we got incoming Chinese and Russian helicopters , I suspect full of troops , they will be here before night fall.” Lukasha turns away , he calls back , “Be well,”

Talutah slides down from her saddle, she kneels down and picks up the case, and pops it open. Inside is a hand held rocket luncher and three small rockets. She climbs back on her horse, the winter wind making her hair dance.

“Sure you aren’t freezing?” Vartan asks, as Talutah spurs her horse forward, she shakes her head, “Not even chilled, how about you?” Vartan shrugs, “Cold but not freezing like the kids , or Agnessa,” Talutah whispers, “Back there in space, well,” She trails off , and hangs her head in silence.