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Prologue Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Time: CY 9787 January
Location: overlooking a Nietzschean recreation camp on the planet Tizona

"I don't see anyone moving around the compound. What do you think, Gunny?"

"What I think, sir," said the gunnery sergeant as he took the binoculars from the officer standing beside him and pulled him back behind the crest of hillock they were using as an observation post, "is that if there's anyone in the compound with a sniper weapon looking this way you're making a target of yourself."

"But intelligence reports that the Ubers have abandoned the compound," objected the other man as he retrieved his binoculars and resumed studying the cluster of buildings in the distance before them, but this time exposing considerably less of his body.

"With all due respect, Signifer," said the gunnery sergeant as he hunkered down to get into a more comfortable position out of the bitterly cold early morning wind, "intelligence said no such thing. They said that the Odin drone that passed overhead night before last detected heat sources comparable with cook fires and with humans or Nietzscheans and that they surmised that the Ubers had departed the camp during their counteroffensive leaving the comfort girls behind. The operative word here is surmised. Other than the one drone overflight the only other intelligence we have on the camp is rumors carried by refugees. Those heat sources could be Uber soldiers and the girls could all be lying in shallow graves somewhere nearby.

You can get killed just as dead on a moping up mission as you can in a major battle, sir. I'll be damned if after getting you through that furball at the slippoint, a drop into a hot landing zone, the Nietzs' counterattack at Hauteclere, and the recapture of the supply depot, that I'm going to have to explain to Major Korgar that you got yourself killed because you mistook a Uber for one of their slaves."

"Well you know what the major always says, Gunny You can't outrun death forever but you can make the bony bastard work for it. Sometimes you have to take a risk in this business."

"It's not death I'm afraid of sir. It's the major, if he finds out I let you get killed."

A touch of a smile crossed the officer's face. "I'll take that under consideration, Gunny," he said as he placed the binoculars back in their pouch on his belt and retrieved his gauss rifle. "Now lets get back to the rest of the unit."

"What's your plan, sir?" asked the gunnery sergeant an the two men began walking back towards the armoured infantry unit the signifer was in command of.

"We'll have the Ung Tae unlimber its 150," said the officer, "then you, Ibrim, and I will bring our Gremlins in towards the compound. We'll halt just outside effective range of man portable anti armour weapons and have the men dismount and advance on foot. If it's a trap the Gremlins and the Ung Tae can provide suppression fire as we either beat a retreat or call in the other Gremlins. On the other hand if the only inhabitants of the compound are the comfort girls I don't want to scare them to death by bringing in the entire unit."

"It might be better if you stay behind, sir. Just in case things go south," argued the gunnery sergeant. "If it does there'll be someone in charge of the reserve units."

"Staff Sergeant Muller is perfectly capable, Gunny," responded the signifer as he blew on his hands to warm them. "And I am going forward. I've heard some of the men muttering that the only good Nietzschean is a dead one. The women in the compound may be Nietzscheans, but they're on our side. When the Ubers took Tizona they treated the loyalists even worse than they treated our people. Those girls have male relatives they'll never see again. Relatives that died fighting their own kin. Every woman in there has probably been raped more times than she can count. They've paid a higher price for being loyal to the Commonwealth than either you or I have and I will not have them harmed by any of the men under my command." His hand slapped against the force lance holstered at his side. "When we get back you let the men know that if any one of them mistreats any of the women in that compound I wont bother with a court martial. I'll execute him myself."

Ninety minutes later the signifer and his men were advancing slowly towards the compound, their weapons at the ready just in case the intelligence briefing was wrong. The short, dry, greenish black vegetation that was Tizona's equivalent of grass crunched under their feet as they walked while their breaths appeared as puffs of steam. At the latitudes the camp was located the watery light from the planet's sun produced more illumination than warmth and even though there was no snow on the ground it was still bone chilling cold. The compound itself looked normal consisting of two large buildings and perhaps two dozen smaller buildings surrounding it. It could have been a village on the desolate prairie, if the local villages were surrounded by razor wire fences and had guard towers at the four corners of the fences.

Standing just outside the fence near the entry gate were three women. One was standing slightly in front of and flanked by the other two. Her hands were empty but the other two were carrying poles which as far as the signifer could tell could be anything from quarterstaves to forcelances in their fully extended position. He raised up his hand signaling his men to stop their advance. As he did so he heard a whisper from behind him. He recognized the voice it was Lancer Wootan's.

"Gunny," said Wootan. "I thought we were rescuing Nietzscheans. But those women don't have bone blades."

"The Ubers probably removed them," replied the gunnery sergeant. "To a Nietzschean that would be like if someone cut off your balls. Now shut up and let the signifer do the talking."

The signifer walked forward until he was about three paces from the lead woman. He began to raise the visor of his helmet so the women could see his face, then stopped. Instead of raising his visor he completely removed his helmet. "First Signifer Donald Lawford, System Commonwealth High Guard," he said. "We're here to take you home."

"At least you didn't say you were her to rescue us," said the woman. "It's way to late for that."

Lawford looked at the woman standing before him. She appeared to be close to his age but with Nietzscheans it was hard to tell. They lived somewhat longer than normal humans and didn't start to show the effects of aging until comparatively late in their lives. The woman was tall, perhaps 1.7 meters with a slim frame though there was a gauntness about her face that suggested part of the slimness might have been because she hadn't been eating well lately. Her right arm was in a crude sling, and as Wootan had commented on earlier her bone blades and those of the two women flanking her were missing. There was also a fading bruise on her left cheek. Her hair was shoulder length and badly in need of washing, as were the clothes she and the other women were wearing. Judging from her aroma the rest of her body was in need of washing as well. Her eyes however were alert and challenging. The Ubers may have broken her body but they hadn't broken her spirit.

"Do I pass inspection?" she asked.

Realizing that he had been staring Lawford flushed slightly. "Are you in charge here?" he asked in an effort to cover up his embarrassment.

"As much as anyone is," was the reply.

"Good, then tell your women to assemble here outside the gate. How many of you are there and how long will it take you to to get ready to leave?"

"There are 62 of us and we'll be ready in the length of time it takes to walk out the gate."

"Is there any thing you want to take with you?" asked Lawford "I can have some of my men assist if it will speed up the evacuation."

"Take something from here?" asked the woman looking at Lawford as if she was wondering if he was sane. "When we leave here we're going to spend the rest of our lives trying to forget this place."

It took much longer than the promised time to move out of course. Several of the woman refused to leave the compound apparently being as much afraid of mistreatment by their rescuers as they were of their former captors. It wasn't until their leader assured the women that the Lancers were an off world unit and not local troops and Lawford gave his personal promise that the women would be able to stay with the Lancers until they felt safe that they agreed to leave. Then his medical team insisted on examining the women before they departed. Instead of leaving in the early morning the unit didn't get moving until late afternoon.

Deciding that there was no compelling reason to travel through the night with the women packed like sardines aboard the Ung Tae, Lawford had the unit stop shortly before dusk to establish camp for the night. While in theory it was possible to live for several days aboard a Ung Tae, Lawford knew from personal experience that in practice it was a form of slow torture and ordered that the Lancers' portable shelters be set up for the women. He and the rest of the Lancers could spend a night or two under the stars. Then after ensuring that everyone had been fed and that the women had been issued clean clothes from the Lancers' personal gear he removed his cuirass, sat down on an ammo crate, and using his Gremlin's running lights for illumination, began studying the reports his medical team had given him. The report read as he had expected. The women had been repeatedly raped and beaten. Their bone blades had been forcibly removed in such a way that they would not grow back and their protective nanobots had been removed as well. Some of the women, like their leader, had broken bones that were in the process of healing and all were suffering from malnutrition He had just finished the report when his gunnery sergeant approached him.

"Hippolyte Cetewayo here to see you, sir"

"Who?" asked Lawford still concentrating more on the report's recommendations than on the gunnery sergeant.

"The leader of the women we rescued today," answered the gunnery sergeant

Lawford looked up from the report and then scrambled to his feet. Standing beside his senior enlisted man was the woman he had talked to earlier. She was cleaner than the last time he saw her. Her soiled clothing, had been replaced with donated items of Lancer uniforms. On the left sleeve of the shirt she was wearing was the rank badge of a Lancer Gunnery Sergeant. Her hair was combed and her arm was in a sling provided by his medical team.

"Hippolyte Cetewayo of Atreus Pride out of Clete by Theodric to be formal" said the woman giving Lawford an appraising look as he stood before her

"Please sit down Miss? Mrs? Cetewayo," said Lawford indicating the ammunition crate he had been sitting on. "Gunny, find me another seat," he told his gunnery sergeant.

The woman sat down on the indicated seat and continued her appraisal of the signifer.

"Do I pass inspection?" he asked deliberately using the words she had used earlier.

"About 1.9 meters tall, weight appropriate for your height, well muscled but not overly so, symmetrical features, all indicative of good genes. Have you reproduced? If not you should."

Lawford was spared from having to answer the question by the arrival of the gunnery sergeant and another of his men carrying a crate of Lancer flat rats.

"Are you and the others comfortable?" asked Lawford as he sat down on the crate of rations glad to change the subject from his reproductive potential

"As well as could be expected," answered the woman "You saved us a long walk. We were planning to leave the compound the day after tomorrow and make for Lobera. We had rested and recovered as much as we could but we needed to leave before the snows arrived in earnest. That's a 300 click walk. A lot of us wouldn't have made it. But for the moment we're clean and have had our first decent meal in a long time. It's as good as what we had in the internment camps and a lot better than where we were when you found us."

"Internment camps?" asked Lawford. "There were no reports of internment camps in our pre-mission briefings."

"I expect that was because your briefer didn't consider them of any military significance," said Hippolyte.

She squirmed around on the ammo crate. Lawford wasn't sure if it was the crate that was uncomfortable or the subject matter. "Tell me about them" he said. "What happened?"

"Not counting the High Guard garrisons Tizona has ... had a population of about 12 million mostly concentrated on the main continent. Approximately 200,000 of which were my people. When the rebellion broke out we were as surprised and appalled as anyone else. We weren't surprised that there was anti Nietzschean resentment, but we had been living, working and on not so rare occasions marrying with unmodified humans for nearly 100 years so we expected that it would die down. What we didn't expect was the anti Nietzschean rioting. Hundreds were killed and not all of them my people. In response to the riots the government set up what they called 'protective settlement camps'. Though the guns surrounding the camps were pointing inwards not outwards. Once we were there the government offered our men the opportunity," she stressed opportunity in a way to make it clear that the men involved had little choice in the matter, "to demonstrate their loyalty to the Commonwealth by voluntarily joining the Home Guard expeditionary units. They were used in the counteroffensive at Acheron Delta. My husband was among the volunteers."

"Acheron Delta," said Lawford slowly, remembering the highly classified reports he had read on the battle. "It was a military catastrophe. The counteroffensive nearly lost us the war."

Hippolyte voice abruptly became flat devoid off all emotion, as if someone else was speaking in her place. "We guessed as much when the letters from our mates stopped coming but the government refused to tell us anything. Then the rebels arrived, and our government had us all packaged up for them like a name day present. We were rounded up again. Some of us escaped into the hills but not many. They killed the elderly, the children and what few men were still on planet leaving only the younger more attractive women. They recorded it all so they could show the Nietzschean populations on unconquered worlds the fate of traitors."

Lawford reached out to touch her comfortingly then stopped not sure how she would react to being touched. "I can't change what happened to you Mrs. Cetewayo, but I can assure you of this, Major Korgar will not allow such a thing to happen again."

"That's what I came here to talk to you about," said Hippolyte coming back to the here and now. "The other girls and I have been talking. We have no desire to go back to our old lives. We're going to take you up on your offer."

"I'm not sure I understand," said Lawford. "What offer?"

"You told us we could stay with your Lancers until we felt safe. That offer. After what happened to us we'll never feel comfortable around other Tizonians or feel that any more children we might have would be safe with them. So we want to stay with your Lancers."

Prologue Chapter 2