Memories, ..more stories Options

[old Andy]

Here's some new stuff, I hope you guys like it




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My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then



“That's it?” The youth asked frantically, as he paced the interior of the small bedroom.

“That's what it says.” The other replied, indicating the 'End of File' cursor that blinked with an irrefutable logic at the bottom of the small screen. “See?”

“But that, that, that blows Brahmin!” As the first youth gazed in denial at the sceen. “I mean.. this really sucks, Aaron.” Looking over the object again. “Are you sure there aren't anymore files in here somewhere.” Turning the device over in his hands “A secret button or something somewhere?”

Aaron grabbed it back. “[censored]'s sake Tom, you'll break it further. I only just got the audio to playback.” As he checked for any harm done. “It was my dad's, remember?” He added, in a softer tone.

“Yeah, sorry 'bout that.” Tom apologized, “But I mean, we still don't know anything! We don't know what happened to your mom -except of course that she survived since we just saw her an hour ago, we don't know what happened to your dad later on, with your uncle Carl..” Tom took Aaron dramatically by the arms, “Dude, we don't know anything!” Aaron grabbed his friend back and together they yelled in well rehearsed form “Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, we're guuurlz!!”

A radio on a bed stand stopped in the middle of the song and the dj broke through; “Zow-wee, my cool cats and all my home dawgs out there in radio land, this is your Blitzener, the bizzer, the man who can, knows it like a radar scan.. from waay up top in my caddy shack, sending out the vibe.. we are now passing what once was the fabu-phalliscious golden Gate bridge -which isn't golden, it's painted red, so none of you mother [censored]ers go jumping over board in the hope that it's real gold, it ain't!”

A large shuttered window opened out onto a narrow balcony past the bed. The balcony ran for ten meters or so along the outside of the tower, crude but effectively welded to the side. Aaron had the window open and was already half way out. “C'mon Tom, we're higher up than Blitzener,” indicating that the twin towers that rose out of the Flying Dutchman's cargo holds were taller than the Cryslus Memorial tower that we should be able to have a great view.” Tom looked out onto the balcony with a look of trepidation creeping over his face.

“I dunno Aaron.. you sure it's safe?”

Aaron jumped up and down a few times, they balcony swaying slightly downward. “Yes, it safe. It's always safe. It was safe the last time you were out here, and it's safe now, see?” Cautiously, his friend climbed halfway out, Aaron withholding the urge to grab Tom and scare him, once had been enough.

“You're not going to freak me out, are you?”

Aaron held his hands up in defense “I'm cool, I promise.” as his friend climbed out further onto the balcony. While Tom seated himself, Aaron dived back inside to retrieve their snacks -left over from his birthday three days earlier. “Well..?” Aaron asked once they were finally sitting, soda's and chips at the ready.

“It's an okay view.” Tom muttered.

“What??” Aaron cupped his ear like an elderly person, “Wazzat sonny. Ya gots to speak up into my hearin' thingy, cuz I'm deaf like..”

Tom was grinning at Aaron's antics; “IT”S BLOODY BEAUTIFUL UP HERE!!”

A window opened and a female face in her twenties stuck out, looking for the source of the noise. Her gaze quickly fell upon the two youths.

“Ah, there you are. Get in here and wash up -oh, hello Thomas, I didn't know you were still here.”

“Rather here than my place, ma'am.” Tom replied “I think my mum hates me.”

“Well you're welcome to stay as long as you wish, I'll get word down to the Hunger Donner and let them know.” She wagged a finger at him quasi seriously. “But if I get any Wanderers or Warriors knocking at the door, I'm sending them straight to you.” Her head disappearing before it popped back out. “And wash up too. Honestly, where you kids find dirt and grim in those quantities on a steel ship is beyond me.”

“It's a talent.” Aaron retorted.


My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then


“Mom?”

“Yes dear, what is it.” Knowing that tone of voice she set set her fork down and looked over the finishing bits of birthday cake that had served as desert, again. “you can have the last piece of cake if our guest doesn't want it.” Tom looked at Aaron, head bobbing.

“I'm having it.” He stated. Aaron waved it off, shaking his head.

“No, that's not it. And sure, he can have it.” Winking at his mom, “You know how they only eat seaweed and crab cakes once a week.” referring to the mutated horseshoe crabs called mirelurks that were cultivated on board in captivity as a renewable food source.

His mother brushed away her son's joke, but Tom chimed in through mouthfuls of birthday cake. “It's the truth Mrs. A., all my mum makes is seaweed stew for my dad, who loves it for some odd reason.” He shuddered, “Actually, almost everyone in our house hate my mums cooking, except my dad.” She was laughing now as he continued, “That's why we can always be found at either the Hungry Donner or M'here.”

“Anyway” Aaron finally continued, “I was wondering..”

“Yes?”

“Well, you know dad's old pip unit you gave me for my birthday?”

“She was there, remember?” Tom made face palm gestures in between bites. Aaron shot daggers at him.

“Right, thanks Tom, eat your cake.” And to his mother again, “Well uhh.., as it turns out I could get some of it working again.” His mom looked up.

“Really?”

“Yeah, old stuff from you and dad, nothing gross or anything.” He put in quickly, “But uhh, enough to wonder what happened back then, you know, where uncle Carl might be.” And after a quick glace at his friend, “and uhh, maybe what happened to dad.” he added quietly. His mother, finished with her plate, wiped her mouth and stood to put it with the rest of the dishes. Aaron looked at his friend as she walked the few feet to the kitchen, Tom only shrugged in mid munch.

As Celeste walked back from the kitchen she thought carefully about what she wanted to say. She knew this could happen -he had his fathers gift for tinkering with stuff, and so she knew what she wanted to say.

“Your father left five years ago,” she looked at him as she stood by the table, “and uncle Carl has been out there searching for him all this time.” They never really talked about it before, but Aaron was fast becoming a person old enough to have these questions, so she took a deep breath, “And he hasn't found a trace of your father, nor has anyone seen him, or heard from him.”

Aaron was shaking his head. This wasn't what he wanted to hear. This wasn't what he wanted to ask his mother about.

“As much as I love your father, I'm afraid he's probably-”

“Noooo! You lying!!” Aaron was in tears. What the hell, could she just listen for a second? “He's not dead! He's not!! He's out there, and these tapes, these tapes say so!” Grabbing the pip unit from the table, Aaron stormed up the stairs where the door to his room slammed shut, loudly.

Tom sat at the table still, wondering if he could ask for another soda.

+++

Excusing himself from the kitchen, Tom ventured back up stair where sounds from the radio floated through the open door to his friends room. He could hear Blitzener giving the weather report for the bay area -sunny with a chance of showers of acid rain, and the UV-B count was a whopping 52 for today, so remember that sunblock, kiddies!

“Hey...” Edging it slightly further ajar, Tom poked his head inside cautiously. “It's the cavalry, don't shoot.” He eyed Aaron who lay sprawled out on his bed, slowly turning the pip unit over on the bed.

“Sorry 'bout that.” Aaron was still toying with the pip unit in his hands.

“Yeah well, I just talked to your mom, and convinced her to let you stay at my place this week while she's gone.”

“Seaweed stew all week? No thanks.” Although they both knew Aaron enjoyed staying with tom's family. There were always so many people about, not dulls ville like up here in the towers. Of course, extra prodding never hurt.

“It's either that or Princess Stomper. She's looking after the place while your mom's gone.” Tom commented as he pretended to be looking at some unnoticed detail in a poster hanging on the wall.

“Seaweed stew.. love it, it's my favorite, yum. And your family aren't the worst on board to be with by the way.” Aaron jumped up, comically over dramatizing his grabbing a bag and looking for stuff to pack.

“That's because you can escape, lucky sod. I'm serving a life sentence, remember? And Jenny's acting mental again..”

“I'll live.”

“With any luck, my mum will be so busy spoiling you, she'll completely forget about abusing me.”

“Great, we both win.”

“Soo.., you really think the answer to what happened to your dad is on that thing?”

“Gotta be.. or at least tell me something about what happened to him.”

“Well, what I said earlier about not knowing anything-”

“The truth hurts, huh?”

“Ha ha, dork. No, what I meant was.. we do know something! Lots actually.”

“How so?”

“Don't you see?” Tom walked over reaching for the pip unit. Aaron handed it to him cautiously with Tom making reassuring gestures. “Here look.” Pushing the replay button and skimming to the end. “Listen, your dad talks about everyone he knew back then, many of whom live either here on board, or on the Minnow.”

“And we can find 'em..” Aaron clued in.

“Yeah..” Tom nodded.

“And get them to tell about my dad..” Aaron continued. “By any means possible.”

“I can do irritating very well.” Tom ventured happily, knowing things would start happening soon. With Aaron, things usually did.

“We'll need that.” Aaron mentioned towards Tom's self acknowledged social skills while throwing some things into a duffle bag for the stay.

“What we need, is to get outta here before princess Stomper gets here.. honestly, as mutants go, she scares me.”

Aaron, having grown up a while on the farm with his uncle Archie -a nine foot, 800 pnd mutant followed everywhere by a pack of wasteland dogs he called his family, wasn't too phased by mutants as Tom was. But the princess was a ok, if somewhat over protective.

“She's okay, as long as you don't have to share a room with her, she snores like a chainsaw and a bullhorn had a love child together, and then beat it to death.

Back down stairs, Celeste was finishing up with the dishes, rinsing them with rain water from a bucket Aaron had drawn from the reservoir earlier. Rinsing with the semi salt water from the taps was vile, and left a the dishes tasting salty. Putting the plates away, she heard the boy laughing up stairs, she stopped and catching a glimpse of herself reflected in the plates surface, realized the time that had passed.

Five years.


Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

+++ five years earlier +++

“Then what, uncle Acky?”

“Uhh.., lemme sees 'ere.. uhh... errr.. 'ang on, der's some big wordy bits 'ere..”

The stairs to the attic were dark, the door shut. Inside, light came from the window at the far end, as well as small shafts of light from a structure at the other end, in the corner, behind some boxes was a crude barricade built from planks and cardboard, with a sign written in crayon over a tiny doorway,

'timothy's fort'
'No Gurls!!'

Next to it was a taped note that read

'& Aaron to!'

sticking out of the fort's doorway were a set of massively over sized feet trailing two hugely muscled legs, that both disappeared into the fort, the beam from a flashlight struggling to fit though the occupied doorway, and escape further into the attic proper.

Looking closer inside the fort, the rest of the muscled body was crammed into the fort as much as it would fit -which wasn't much considering the other occupant, a much smaller occupant, who was currently badgering his uncle for the rest of the story.

“And den Grognak says to da dragun 'Aaaaaarrrrhggggllll!!!' and den stomps it in 'is 'ead. See? 'ere on dis page, see?”

“Then what?”

“Uhhm..., err.. it sayz and den Grognak took da trr-eyeble guurl to 'is place and uhh, did fings wit her.”

“What things?” Inquisitively he asked. Archie wasn't sure himself, but the suggestions scratched at something deep within him, something nearly forgotten with time.

Uhhmm, it don't say” Looking at the last page, “But prolly she gets swanky new cloths an' stuff cuz 'ere at the end he's takin' her old stuff off of her, and den it ends.” he put the comic down. “Guurlz likes dem swanky stuff.”

“Pfft.. guurls.. blech!”

“And what, exactly, do you to gentlemen have against girls? I'm a girl to ya know?” Came a voice from out in the attic.

“Hey mom! You're not allowed in here!!” A trap door in the roof of the fort opened up, and an irritated six year old's face popped out. “No guurlz!”

“Well, this girl is telling the two of you to wash up for dinner, and Archie, Lunk was in the vegetable garden again. Do whatever it is you do with them, and please keep that dog out of there.”

A muffled “yes ma'am” emitted from the fort. Aaron's head ducked back in, and then popped back out again, all smiles.

“Sokay mom, we'll take care of it!” Then disappeared again.

Well okay.. dinner in five minutes.” Leaving the attic unsure whether this could be classified as a success, or failure in parenting..

As she came down the stairs, she heard the dogs bark outside in excitement, and a voice from outside as well amidst the tumult.

“Okay, okay.. here, here.. Hi ya big guy, how ya doin' then? Yeesss, good boy.., geez how many of you does Archie have? Yes, yes, I have some snacks.. here guys have fun.. I smell real food anyway.”

Outside in front of the porch, surrounded by dogs of all sizes, each trying harder to greet the newcomer, who was obviously a friend.

“Carl!?”

“Hey there sweet cheeks, hubby home yet?” As he tried in vain to dislodge himself from the pack.

Celeste now looked concerned. “I thought he was with you.”


I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

This post has been edited by old Andy: Aug 21 2011, 01:02 AM

[old Andy]

thx malx I'm glad you're one of the readers.. but yeah, the whole preggo thing might need to be re-addressed in the original with a few more hints.

thx as well Destri I'll get on those goofs and fix 'em.., and uhhm, of course I did that on purpose!

did what on purpose?




enjoy.. hope this doesn't get confus- err.. ferget I said anything
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+++ flying Dutchman, present day +++

“You have it with you?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, in my bag.” Patting his duffel, grinning. “Mom thinks I broke it and was thrown out last year.” Tom nodded. Knowledge of the sonic repulsor was on a need to know basis -meaning keeping it away from the adults, probably a good idea to keep Jenny out of the loop, the way she blabbed everything. Hmm, also..

“Better not tell Lydia 'bout it either then. You know how she gets.” Mentioning Jasmine's daughter sparked an idea in Aaron. One that his friend noted with trepidation. “Oh.., you're not thinking of..”

But Aaron was already nodding, “We gotta see where Lyd's at.” Tom was face palming himself for mentioning her,

“Oh god why? She so annoying!”

“You said it yourself, there might be secret playback function or files I haven't found yet.” Guessing he hadn't won his friend over yet. “In which case she'll find 'em way faster than we ever could.”

“I know, but she is *so* annoying!” Aaron knew he had Tom won over, the last prod was for saving face purposes only.

“But she's a genius.”

“Yeah.., annoyingly so!” As Aaron's friend finally caved in, his expression set to continued annoyance.

“Glad you're on board,” Aaron beamed, clasping an arm around his buddy, “We'll ask her mom down in CJ's where she is.” as they marched down another flight. Tom picked up the conversation again.

“So, you weren't actually there when it happened then?” Trying to picture the events in his mind.

“Nope.” Aaron shook his head, then explained further. “There was a brook that ran close by the farm house, and I was hoping to find some baby scorpions or something to try out the repulsor on.”

“Then what?”

“Well, gunfire first. Lots of it, all coming from the direction of the house. I had maybe twenty of my uncles dogs with me, half of which ran straight back towards where the shooting was.”

“You didn't?”

“Nuh-uh.. mom and dad always said if there was trouble at the house, to hunker down andwait it out until someone came calling for me.”

“Is that what you did?”

“I kind of sort of did, but the shooting and then the explosions kept getting louder, so I kept moving down the stream, away from the house, until I was further than I had ever been before, but I could still hear the shooting going on, only less of it.” Aaron stopped a second as he told the rest. “Until a bunch of really loud explosions, like uhh.., like if the ship were to explode -that loud, and I hauled out of there with some of the dogs chasing me. When I stopped, I didn't know where I was anymore.”

“Wow.”

+++

Not wanting to catch up to the boys -nosy mom implied all over that notion, but on the clock to get to the flight deck none the less, Celeste took the less traveled 'back' stairs down the tower, that ran for the most part down along the outside of the building to the top of CJ's, from where she'd take the elevator the rest of the way. Having instructed princess Stomper on things for while she was away -best damn home defense on board, and with Jasmine notified to bring food from the club up to her every night, since the princess's idea of food preparation consisted of; kill the food, eat the food, and pick out the bits of fur from ones teeth after.

And she'd sleep down stairs on the roll out futon they had. Celeste smiled at being on top of her game, especially when rush flights like these really pushed the envelope of parental planning. Thank god Tom had offered for Aaron to stay the week -mental note to thank the Beasley's with something nice when she got back. Chuckling at the forlorn reaction of Thomas to her not-entirely-PG13 exposure she presented to him, it obviously wouldn't do for Mags and Arthur.. or at least Mags.

Laughing at herself Celeste took in the spectacular view that the back stairs provided as she descended further, as it made it's own way over roofs and around corners downward. Having passed the remains of the once majestic Golden Gate Bridge, she could now clearly see the ruins that were once the San Francisco skyline.

Smaller buildings that ran from the docks up Colt hill, giving way to ruined tenant apartments further on. As they rounded Alcatraz island she saw were the smaller buildings gave way to the larger ruins of the old business district, empty shells of an industry no longer practiced on a global scale.

With the sun setting west of the Presidio, lights were coming on here and there among the ruins of the city. From Blitzener's radio updates and news reports he had started broadcasting specifically about the bay area while they were still sailing up the coast, she was aware that there were different villages and communities scattered through out the ruins. There were the 'Chi', or 'She', or something living in what used to be the Chinese district of the city, and were supposedly descendants from either the district itself, or invaders from the war. Whatever the story, they probably had great chow mien.

Passing by Alcatraz island from what seemed only a few meters, she could see various individuals running about along the old jail wall and in the guard towers. Instinctively she froze against the wall, realizing how exposed she was on the outer stairway, and that those guard towers were only a couple hundred meters away at most, that if anyone decided to take a potshot at her, they'd probably hit her as well with any luck.

And all she had was a holstered Sig 226 ED, and even though it was chambered for the heftier forty caliber round as apposed to the standard nine millimeter, there was no way she would be doing anything but wasting ammo if she tried shooting back. Not to mention the 'ED' stood for elite dark, and having a tactical light would only make it easier to be seen.

“Waaahh!! Look out lady!”

“Last on down is a barge dweller!”

“Gang way!”

“Comin' through! Oh hi, Mrs. Anderson, s'cuse us.”

The four youths scampered on past Celeste and further down the stairs out of sight, whooping it up as they went past. One was definitely the Vious boy, Mitch, who's family had the entire top of the tower, and what had to be his entourage with him. She recognized Oliver Verdraai -the one who had taken the time to notice her, a boy of Aaron's age who lived somewhere a few floor up. As for the other three, they were like Yoko on Lennon -a bad influence that couldn't end right.

Leaving her to recover from her might heart attack she stood slightly swaying on the stairs. 'You ain't no teenager no more, sweetie.' came the thought, followed closely by 'Damn kids.'

Cornering the tower and again in relative safety, Celeste re-holstered her sidearm that she had drawn without thinking during the ruckus. It was said that the old island penitentiary was home to a less than reputable savaging crew who's business practices bordered on that of the blatantly illegitimate.

Crossing the sky bridge connecting the two part of CJ's in the middle of both towers, Celeste saw her son and his friend sitting at the night club's bar, talking with Jasmine. Aaron was toying with his father's old personal information processor, while Tom was eating again. Smiling at his appetite, she turned and headed back to tower one, deciding to leave the boys further alone with their freedom and take that elevator down to the Newark docks located directly beneath it in the cargo hold.

“He's probably asking where Lydia is.” She spoke to herself out loud with waiting for the elevator to arrive. It was a no-brainer considering how bright Jasmine's daughter was, especially in matters technical. Who knows, maybe she could get something useful out of the broken unit which would help clarify things, but Celeste had conditioned herself against hope, knowing it was easier to deal with, and thus survive the routine of day to day living without thinking too much.

Waiting for the elevator car, she had time to think.

+++ Vanderkamp farmhouse +++

“Now that my son is safely out of earshot,” Celeste began, wiping her mouth and carefully refolding the linen napkin before placing back on the porch table and looking Carl dead on. “Where the hell is his father?” Archie thought now a good time to clean off the table, and then maybe run out the back kitchen door, and hide. Miss Celeste had a way of looking really, really cross at you which made anything feel small, guilty and morbidly ashamed at whatever it was she was angry about. Even his brother -who was way smarter than him, and married to her, admitted that; 'When she gets mad, I goes fishin'. Archie was wondering as he took the dishes in where he'd seen his fishingpole and tackle box lately.

“Uhm.., not here?” Carl however, seemed impervious to all manner of woman's wrath, as long as physical pain wasn't involved. Seeing he was immanently close to that very experience judging by Celeste's gaze, he added quickly, “We kinda got split up.”

“Where 'split up' did you kinda get?” Her irritation and anxiety barely contained.

“Just outside of Pittsburg. Thing got a little confusing so we split up to cover more ground, and agreed that if we missed each other to meet back here.”

“Pittsburg?!” Celeste was trying to catch up to current events, having not spoken to Andy since he left for Megaton. “What the hamster were the two of you doing gallivanting through hamster cave Pittsburg?!?!” While losing her cool about it in the process.

Carl's eyebrow went up at the word 'gallivanting', but now was not the time for humorous interjection, nor would it have likely been appreciated. “Uhh, we were following up on a lead? Which led us to looking in, uhh...” Carl looked away for a second. This wasn't easy to discuss around Celeste. “We first traced Marcus back to Baltimore, and found that the church was up and running again. Only now it was led by that freak Marcus.” This was where Celeste started going white. “There we found out initially that 'you-know-who' had upped and moved his shop to New York -except that turned out to be a dead end in more ways than one,” Carl paused a moment, then added; “But did lead us to Pittsburg finally.”

“Is *he* still alive?” Was all she could muster hoarsely. The emphasis on 'he' left no doubt to whom she was referring. Carl debated the question visibly.

“Uuh, maybe.., kinda doubtful actually. I mean, if he is, then 'not much' would fit best I think. We pretty much leveled the place.” Carl ended with a weak grin. Celeste had her arms folded over her chest like she did with Aaron when he lost a shoe.

“Start at the beginning and tell me what happened.” Carl leaned back and re-lit his stogie, not sure where the beginning was anymore.

“Err.., you mean start with us getting to Baltimore?” Wondering whether that was a good place to jump in with the re-cap.

“Is it long?” Her face said patience wasn't on the menu anymore.

“A bit.” Carl confessed, going over the events of the past few weeks.

“Then start at the end and work your way to the beginning.”

+++ eighty kliks outside of Pittsburg and eight kliks up +++

Rain and hail stones plastered against Serenity's cockpit windshield, reducing the Doppler read out to near nothing. Lightening split across the sky, making it for a brief moment also easier to just look out of the window instead of watching the instruments. Maria sat behind Serenity's controls, debating with the ship AI in Spanish the various actions they could take as turbulence buffeted the craft.

A red indicator flashed briefly, Maria pointed and Danny nodded that he'd seen it as well.

“First marker.” He mentioned to his wife. “I'll go tell the boys.” Maria looked over as Daniel stood out of his seat, grabbing his cuff briefly.

“Tell them; Vaya con dios, amigos.” He heard his wife say as he made his way rear.

Go with God, friends.

Daniel stuck his head out pilots area and held a thumbs up and a hand at full stop. We were six minutes from our drop in point and finalizing our gear and the institute power armour we'd be jumping in. Over the headset I clearly heard his distinct south African drawl as he looked at us for conformation. We both nodded that we had.

“How fast are we moving?” I asked back over the intercom.

“A tad under mach one.” And after asking our altitude, 'a hair over eight thousand meters' he looked at me. “You sure you want to do this?” He looked worried.

“No.” Exiting a perfectly well functioning aircraft during flight went against every instinct of self preservation. That unfortunately didn't change the fact that this was the best way in. “What about you Carl, you want to do this?”

“Hell no! I want pie!”

“Sorry Danny, Carl wants pie so I guess we're going back”

Daniel shook his head at the nonsense, “If you need us, don't call this time!” And added. “We'll set down outside of-” Checking the readout on his own wrist unit, “Right here.” Pushing a button next to the screen, my pip unit buzzed briefly, “I've uploaded the map markers” I nodded. So did Carl. “Good luck, mate.” I winked as I fastened the suits faceplate and donned my helmet, securing it snugly in place.

Last recheck of my gear, then double checking Carl's, then Carl finally double checking me. Making sure everything we needed or wanted was on us or with us, because once out the door, there was no; 'Oops, I forget something... mind if just go back and ge- oh dear, I'm falling through the air, there goes the day..'

With our helmets on, I used the internal comm system while giving him a last once over, “So, waddaya thinks, bro?” Moving my hand back and forth before his face “Tracking.” He followed my hand with his head, and suddenly the shoulder mount began to follow the head -and my hand, in tandem.

“I think I'd rather have pie.” He mentioned glum as I checked both lateral and vertical movement, which was fine. “Also, and I'm only saying this in the spirit of being absolutely honest with you, I'm not sure the suits were ever built with this in mind.”

“We'll soon find out, won't we? Arms up.” In no time I was satisfied that he had everything with him that was suppose to be there.

“Yeah, but look Andy, -tracking, we are talking about what says in the user manual 'limited and above all temporary glide capabilities' quote / unquote.”

“You actually read that thing.. geez. I skimmed.”

“I'm serious man, they were made for assaulting off of buildings, rooftops, low flying aircraft. Not this jazz.”

“it also says 'tactical atmospheric vertical enveloping capable'.., uhh somewhere in the middle.”

“I thought you said you skimmed it?”

“I did, the middle bit.” And then reassuring. “We'll be fine. We drop in, he won't know what hit him -literally, and basically we keep hitting him- the place- and anything else until it's all dead.”

Honestly, when plans are this simple, I can't help but be upbeat. Sure, in New york we took one in the gut hard. But the whole facility had been nothing but an elaborate trap from the start, and we could count our stars that we only took so few casualties as we did. Still, I didn't blame anyone for not wanting to continue aside from us two Carl and me. And Danny of course, who was willing to provide the necessary transport and all too often needed close-air ground support, or medi-evac, or both.

“One minute boys, going black out and opening rear ramp now.” Which indeed began sliding downward and open, as the cabin lights were extinguished and replaced by a red tactical light above the rear ramp. Wind rushed in whipping around straps and assorted cargo netting while we took our places facing the stormy night sky.

“I still can't swim.” Carl noted dryly.

“Sokay, we're not landing in water.” I retorted cheerfully.

The light went from red to green, Carl mentioned something about being scammed again, and seemingly in slow motion, I let myself fall forward out of the screaming craft flying through the night sky, and into the pelting rain.