It doesn't feel any different

Sabrina and I have been living as a married couple for a while now, though it wasn't official until the other day. And now that it is official? It doesn't actually feel any different. I think my mindset changed the day Sabrina and I exchanged jewelry. Symbols to show on the outside what we felt inside. Not that either of us were wearing jewelry that showed. Still, we both knew it was there even if we didn't need any symbols to know, where it mattered, how we felt.

The flight from Hale's Moon to Ariel was direct and fast. We didn't worry about fuel since our first stop would be the orbital facility to drop Belize off while Sabrina and I went surface side to make preparations. I really hoped Bel enjoyed her time in the medical center while she was here. While they were all formally trained, most of the staff understood well that Rim Worlders managed to get a lot of knowledge without a lot of formal training. I'd vouched for her abilities as a Healer. They'd figure out where to add the formal knowledge.

I expected to have a real ordeal sneaking past Uncle Elsoph. I loved my crazy uncle, but he was easily distracted and he just adored Sabrina. To my surprise though, he was the one making a point to tell us not to dawdle on the platform because we had far far too much to get done and nowhere close to the time needed to do it all. In fact, since none of Sabrina's biological family was able to come coreward on such short notice, he surprised us both by offering to stand in as Father of the (other) Bride for her.

We left Wave Equation on the platform so Elsoph's techs could give her a once over. Sabrina had been keeping her maintained between jobs, so there really wasn't much that needed to be done except restock the galley, top off the fuel tanks and atmo supplies, and maybe wash some of Hale's dust out of the gear wells. Personally, I think Elsoph wanted to see if his team could find the little tweaks 'Brina had been doing to our flying home. She'd been breathed upon before ever leaving the platform, but that hadn't stopped Sabrina from eeking out even more performance.

Belieze would get most of two days to take advantage of the medical center at the yard while Sabrina and I went down to deal with our parts in the wedding planning. Mother, and her staff, had taken care of most of the planning already. They'd arranged the venue, the invitations to mostly family, friends, and a few members of the family's social circles who'd be expected at such an event.

The bright spot was Lady Sonja.

When I was little, Mother had been heavily involved in the company's operations in the outer worlds. While she'd never been gone long, and had always had time for me when she was home, there were quite a number of occasions when reisetsu required Father to appear with an appropriate escort. When Mother was off on business, Lady Sonja had filled that need.

A registered Companion, now retired, she was still radiantly beautiful even in her fifties. I didn't know, or care, whether she'd ever served in anything but a purely social capacity for Father, but I remembered her as the beautiful woman who'd always been willing to steal a few minutes from her duties to console the feisty little girl who missed her mother. I'd had good nannies, but none of them were Lady Sonja. She was as much a companion to me during those times as she had been to my father. Now she'd come to attend the wedding. But, more important, she was going to help Sabrina and I pick out dresses, prepare for the ceremony, and keep either of us from being overwhelmed.

We'd all attended various weddings over the years, including the more common traditional Chinese and Western ones people saw on the Cortex. Not to mention a host of frontier traditions from the Rim worlds. For us, now, it was something different. While I was still part of a mostly traditional Japanese family, this wouldn't quite be a traditional Japanese wedding. Where traditions had changed over the years, incorporating more Western themes into the ancient Shinto ceremony, we had the added fact that Sabrina and I were from different cultures and were both women.

That put a twist on tradition.

The rehearsal, the night before the wedding, went . . . comically. It was probably a good thing that between us we didn't really have a wedding party, otherwise it would have been far worse. Most of our friends were mutual, making 'which side are you on?' questions moot, and some of them would have drawn in the Feds if it was known they were here. Mistakes during practice were inevitable, but I was sure uncle Elsoph wouldn't snicker if we made any during the actual ceremony. He was smart about that. He didn't want Mother to kick his ass.

While it wasn't really part of Japanese tradition, it was part of enough Western traditions that Sabrina and I spent the night before the wedding apart. Belize stopped by to see each of us after she got down to the surface, and we didn't find out until after the ceremony that she wasn't the only one who'd made the trip to Ariel to be part of the event. Her presence helped, though I think the night apart was harder on Sabrina than it was on me.

I was getting ready for one of the happiest days of my life, but the techniques I used to prepare myself for a combat drop were just as effective at calming my nerves. I wished I could have shared them with 'Brina, but I knew she'd be able to deal with it in her own way. Even if that meant taking apart a set of lift motors in the middle of the night.

Dawn brought the start of the final preparations, mostly involving the elaborate wedding gowns and precisely applied makeup. Both things Sabrina and I would never have done on our own, though I would be the first to admit she does know how to make herself look good. The ceremony itself took less time than putting on the makeup did, but that wasn't really the point. We were playing to traditions that traced back to Earth That Was before the exodus. While they were adapted to fit an evolved culture, and even more so to adapt to the lack of an actual "groom," the traditions served to link us with our past. Our ancestors. Our history.

Walking to the small shrine on Father's arm, nestled in a lovely wooded glade, I looked over the crowd. Most of the faces were at least passingly familiar, but some were truly welcome. Sobi and Miss Jade off to one side, both in formal attire. Probably Jade's doing, that. Belize, in a stunning new dress, in the row directly behind Mother. Cousins I hadn't seen for years. Grandfather, looking quietly proud. General, who'd somehow managed to make it to the ceremony on his own, dressed in a formal Great Kilt, but somehow trying not to stand out. Over a hundred people, here to see Sabrina and I formalize something that we'd been living for months. The only regret that others of our surrogate Rim family couldn't be here with us.

Sabrina, radiant as Uncle Elsoph walked her up to join me at the shrine.

As I'd hoped, the ceremony went without a single hitch. The old Shinto priest spoke through the ceremony in both Japanese and English, the languages mixing as much as the traditions that brought us here.

But I didn't really care about the ceremony. I was happy. Truly happy. I saw the other folks in the crowd, but my eyes were really only for the woman I loved.

Destiny comes clear
Fortunate circumstances
You have made me whole

The reception, once the ceremony ended, was something of a blur. I remember our first dance as a married couple, then a dance with Father while Elsoph danced with Sabrina. Grandfather taking us both aside to tell us, in his quiet stoic way, that we had made him proud. The obligatory socializing. The food. The music. The people. All a happy blur. Then the chauffeured ride to the family's beach villa for our first night as a couple. A truly blissful night as a couple.

Ultimately, though, it was all over much too soon. We only had a few days at the villa before we had to claw sky to get back to Hale's Moon, Wave Equation's cargo hold loaded with light supplies. Belize would be coming on a followup transport a few days behind us, while the rest of our friends from Hale's would catch their own rides home.

But for all of the whirlwind preperations and the honestly spectacular ceremony, I didn't feel any different. It didn't change how I felt about Sabrina. I didn't love her more just because we'd shared a wedding ritual. I loved her a little more every day. My anchor in the chaos that is life on the Rim.

But now, at least, it's all legal...

Finally

After far too many weeks of waiting, Sabrina and I are finally going to get married. We've been acting like a married couple for months. More or less since Grandfather gave his approval, we've been living as if we were already married. But finally, finally, we really will be.

Genni's going to deal with my Mayorial duties while we're gone, which isn't a stretch since I couldn't actually run the town without her help in the first place. Belize will be coming along to attend the wedding, get some time in at our medical facility at the yard, and then get some vacation time to herself. We've extended the offer to General as well, though he's still undecided.

I'm just excited. Genuinely excited. With everything that's been going on out here, I want to get away from Hale's for a few days. I want even more to finally make my marriage to Sabrina all official and legal like. It won't change anything between us. Not really. But it'll give some legal standing to what we've already got.

Finally.

Now. Just need to deal with the last day or so's worth of colony and personal business, then it's full burn for Ariel.

Can't wait.

I'd almost prefer Loyalists...

What the gorram hell is it with the Reavers? Every time we do something to smack them down, more of the Govniuks show up out of the Black. Near as anyone can tell, there were never more than about thirty thousand of them even at their peak. Considering how often we've seen them out here on the Rim, it feels like we've killed that many.

But here they were again, a small raiding party raising hell in town between the newly opened Firefly's and the town proper near Fook Yoo's. By the time I'd returned from my errand out to one of the remote Navtrak relays, there were only a few Reavers left. Unfortunately, or maybe not, most of the townsfolk had decided to hunker down and shelter in place rather than waste ammunition killing them.

Inbound, I'd gotten word from Bel that one of her contacts was in Fook's with his boat up on the main pad. He was here to make a delivery, but not real interested in confronting a slavering Reaver or three when he could stay safe in our bar.

For me, it wasn't so much an option of killing them or not. I was tired of them. Sure, they were victims of a botched Alliance program to make tame colonists. But the fact was you could only put up with Palavos cannibals for so long before you stopped caring about them being innocent victims, and got tired of them trying to eat you. Not in the pleasant way.

There were only a few left in town by the time I'd checked in with Belize and decided to go back out and end it.

There were already a fair number of Reaver bodies scattered around town with various caliber bullet holes in them. Noticed one with a nice tight cluster in its chest, which probably meant Bel or Sobi with a scattergun at close range. Probably Bel, since Speaker wasn't apt to leave the bar during a fight. But I didn't really care about the dead ones just yet. That'd come later, when we lit the pyre. No. I was after the living.

I found three of them, clustered together trying to tear down the blast doors that locked up the gun shop. It took them a moment to realize I was there, before I glared at them and said, clearly: "Get the hell off my moon. Stop trying to eat my citizens. And tell Aurora to come home."

Should have known they wouldn't listen.

Sad thing is a dead Reaver can't relay a message to his kin or their Queen. Sadder thing is I was going to have to burn my top, since there'd be no way to get the Reaver blood out of it. But that could wait until I was done helping Bel off load her contact's cargo and had taken myself a long, hot, bath.

Dreams and Diversions

I dream like everyone else, but I've never been accused of being a dreamer. Still, sometimes, I do daydream. I let my mind wander to things that are possible, or could be possible, if things were different.

Our lives here are complicated. More so now that Blackburne's fallen to the Reavers and a slice of their population's ended up here on Hale's Moon. But sometimes I have to wonder how things could be different. What would happen, for example, if Sabrina and I took Grandfather's offer.

There was little chance we'd join the Children of Earth project, but it would be a grand adventure. At least a grand adventure for someone, if not for us.

But that's ok. When I day dream it's usually about much less grand adventures and about more enjoyable encounters with the woman I love.

Thirty one souls

Wave Equation III is a good little boat. Breathed upon by her designer she is fast, agile, long ranged, and capable. She is also desperately small for a rescue mission. Designed as a cargo lighter or intermediate courier, the KHI Matagi also made a decent live aboard for two, maybe three, people. But even in shuttle configuration, they didn't carry a lot of people.

When the call went up from Blackburne that the Reavers were attacking in force, I feared the worst. They had been acting aggressive - even by Reaver standards. The idea of a mass attack on a colony as well defended as Blackburne would have been unthinkable even a month ago, but there was the call over the Cortex, desperate for reinforcements against the largest Reaver attack anyone had ever seen.

I burned over to Blackburne at full boost, relying on good EW and better maneuverability to slip by the Reaver boats to set down in a barely large enough clearing near the Bar. I ran into a few folk I knew in the bar, but no one seemed to know exactly what was happening. A massive Reaver attack. A lot of shooting. Town militia trying to coordinate defenses. Talk of a quick evacuation of as many people as could be gotten out.

With as little as I knew, and could surmise from a quick look outside, it seemed an evacuation was good idea. The Blackburne Militia was one of the best citizen fighting forces in the Rim sectors, but there were a lot of non-combatants on Blackburne too. They were the ones who would need help most.

They were the ones I could help.

Thirty one souls.

As many people as I could find and get into Wave Equation's too small cargo bay before clearing off and clawing sky. Dodgning Reaver landing craft on the way out, slipping past the larger transports in orbit. There had to be dozens of them. More than we'd chased out of the Baily weeks ago. Two or three times the numbers ever seen before. Hundreds of Reavers.

By the time I was able to drop off the folks I'd managed to load into Wave Eq and get back to Blackburne, it was over. Osprey II was breaking orbit as I was decelerating back into an aborted final: the last ship out. Nack and his own burning a hole in the Black to get away from what had been their home.

It hurt to think about, but from what I could gather it could have been a lot worse. I'd been one of the first boats out, out of dozens. Most of the Downport's colonists, three or four times as many people as lived on Hale's, had already scattered to other nearby worlds. Including a number en-route, or already landed, on Hale's Moon.

I did one fast pass, letting Wave Equation's sensors get what information they could on the disposition of the Downport and the number of Reavers, before setting course for home. There'd be a lot of logistics to deal with given folk coming our way. But, more important, those were my friends who'd had to evacuate their homes. There was a lot of hurt that'd need healing. Not my forte, but it was what friends did.

You saved who you could. You mourned who you lost. You helped the survivors get on.

What, exactly, do Reavers reave?

I never thought I would be wanting to have the Loyalists or Raiders trying to steal our shit again. But, then, I never thought I'd have to be dealing with semi-regular Reaver attacks either. Hales Moon, historically, was never on the usual raiding routes the Reavers used. While Kalidaza is one star in from Blue Dragon, and Miranda, Hale's itself wasn't near a major trade lane or one of the better raiding targets.

So why were they here so much more now?

We'd cracked their nest out in Beetle's Baily and the small Reaver squadron that had been lurking out there had dispersed. Probably not widely, but enough that the random Alliance patrols weren't getting many contacts. But they were still attacking Hale's on a regular basis. Their last attack hadn't been very successful. At least we had to assume it hadn't, based on what little we knew of their motivations. But why here?

Could it have something to do with Lily, or maybe Aurora? There was a vast amount we didn't know still about why Lily's been designed the way she'd been. Lily was a Blue Sun creation, but near as I could find out, Paxilin Hydrochlorate was a product of Prescott Pharmacuticals, not Blue Sun. Didn't mean Blue Sun wasn't involved, or that they hadn't simply run with someone else's creation, but it made the whole Cured Reaver project that much more complex.

Why would Lily have been designed to relay population and resource density data back to her 'Daddy' - one of the handful of surviving cured Reavers? With all of her creation being wrapped up with Blue, and the ultimate creation of Aurora, how did the Reavers fit into all this?

Was Mindo, for all his genius, just a freaking idiot?

Blue Sun was like most major, heavily diversified, corporations. They had their fingers in almost every market, so it was no surprise they did everything from mass market food stuffs, to (moderately poor) spacecraft components, to biowarfare technologies. It wouldn't surprise me if someone saw the Reavers as a potential resource and spawned the Cure Reaver project to entice some extra coin from Alliance Black Ops. That would give Mindo a budget and resources for his own effort to play god. All he'd have to do was incorporate some "Reaver friendly" programming into Lily's design and he'd have an easy sell.

It was just supposition, but was at least possible. Didn't really explain though why the Reavers were coming to Hale's. Worse, it implied that some of Lily's deepest design aspects were there to make her more effective for the Reavers, rather than against them. Given little Aurora's ability to not only talk to the Reavers, but to walk among them like royalty, I had to wonder how it all fit together.

Where were they, anyway? I hadn't seen much of Lily or Aurora of late. You don't realize how much you care about someone until they're not around, and their absence was just bringing that home.

The last time I spoke to little Aurora she asked me if I loved her. I do. She doesn't scare me, though she probably should, but being around her can be vaguely unsettling. The tiniest dragon. Like a dragon, like her mother, a creature of mystery, beauty, and profound danger. The little girl who calls me Mei Mei. Or is that Blue's influence? Did she actually absorb the AI's consciousness into herself? Was she, like her mother, part of the key to a peaceful future between Man and Machine? Was I reading too much potential into what I saw in that little girl's eyes?

Yes, Little One. I love you. As I love your mother.

The sister, the daughter, I would never have myself.

Not that I really needed children of my own. My life with Sabrina didn't really include the time to raise a family, even if we'd wanted to either work a medical miracle or adopt. We had Lily, and Aurora, and Jin, and the other colony kids who treated us as parents. For us, I think, that's enough.

We don't need to worry about raising a kid when there's Loyalists lurking in the desert, crazy people dropping out of the sky, and clouds of war on the horizon.

Life's not a cabaret. It's more of a side show at the faire

It's hard sometimes to keep track of all the things that are going on out here on the Rim. Proportionally, lifes a lot more interesting out here than people in the Core ever realize. Go to some place like Sihnon, or Ariel, or Londinium, and you've got everything civilization can offer, even the bad sides. But per-capita, you're a lot more likely to encounter something "interesting" out on the Rim than you ever will on a core world. Oh, sure, the capital city of Sihnon sees more murders in a night than we've got citizens. But they've got more citizens on their northern continent than we have people living on the worlds around Kalidaza. Your chances of getting murdered there are a lot less than your chances of having to run from a Reaver are out here.

Still, I've tried to keep track of all that's going on, even when things get a little quiet like they are now. Blessedly, fleetingly, quiet.

So much in life comes down to priorities. If it was just me and mine, we'd have clawed sky for Ariel weeks ago to finally get married and then taken some time to just be together. Me and Sabrina. But it wasn't just me and mine. Or, rather, "mine" wasn't just Sabrina and Lily and Aurora and Kren and Bel and the handful of other people who made up the unconventional family I had out here. No, "mine" consisted of family and three hundred off colonists who'd elected me leader. Unfortunately, sometimes, what mattered to them was more important than what mattered to me.

What mattered to them, beyond the daily concerns of day to day life on Hale's, still boiled down to three things. Surviving raides by Reavers or Warbots. Surviving raids by Raiders or Loyalists. And how to deal with the political turmoil everyone knew was coming, but no one knew enough about to deal with.

The Reavers and Warbots were a fairly straightforward issues from what I could tell. From the prespective of a colonist, they were a predictible enemy. The Reavers would try and eat everyone they could find. The Warbots would try and kill everyone they could find. There might have been deeper motivations in both cases, but when one or the other was bearing down on you like some maniakku, you didn't really care about the motivations.

Raiders and Loyalists were different animals. They might just kill you, but they were usually more interested in stealing your shit than just killing you. You could reason with a hidan. Safer to deal with. In both cases, we could see a solution. We were working on tracking down the Raiders to their home. The Loyalists had received an ultimatum - lay down arms and accept amnesty, or become on with Hale's deserts.

Both problems with obvious and near term solutions.

The Hardliner problem was harder to get a handle on. The Loyalists we'd been fighting here were just a tiny fraction of a much larger problem. Like the garrison who'd had control of Shadow and an entire company of the 1st Marine Raiders who's company commander was a Loyalist plant, there were elements of the Hardliner faction spread throughout the entire Alliance command structure. It was only by sheer luck Colonel Silvermane was as devoted to the principals of the Alliance rather than the hardline interpretation.

Most of the folk here only had a glimmer of an idea of what was actually going on behind the scenes, which was probably a blessing. What they did know, was that the Loyalists had managed to stir up anti-Alliance sentiment on at least a dozen rim worlds and Shadow wasn't the only one ready to declare independence.

Had we already seen the opening salvo in the Second Indenepdence War fired on Shadow? While I honestly sympathized with them, I had to hope we weren't about to plunge into another ugly war out on the Rim. I knoew, for their part, the folks here were an independent minded lot, but they weren't about to go off half cocked and call down the wrath of a regiment of Alliance regulars. No, Hale's would stay officially Neutral. While our sympathies may lay with the Indendents, we know, as a group, that openly taking up arms against the Alliance would lead to the kind of hurt we didn't want to feel.

We'd stay neutral to both sides. Provide humanatarian aid where we could to the Indies, and at the same time not antagonize the Alliance Regulars. We could play nice to both sides. We had our own worries to deal with. No reason for us to take on other people's problems when we didn't have to. We could help without making their issues our own.

That, I guess, was about all I could hope for.

The final offer

Lily can take care of herself. She is, in fact, one of the most dangerous people I know. For all of her innocence she can be lethal in combat. But that doesn't stop me from being protective of my little Mei Mei when someone does her wrong, as more than one person has found that out to their pain.

I should have known the news of war on Shadow and the strange device the 1st Marines had recovered from the Reavers would bring them out. We should probably have kept it under guard, but who in their right mind would try and steal a hunk of random machinery on skids in the hangar?

Sometimes it's a little maddening that I can't stay on top of everything that's happening in town. It's not that complicated a job. But with everything that's going on off Hale's, it's hard to keep track of it all. Especially playing liaison, meeting with that Alliance Colonel, and trying to sort out a neutral territory meeting between her and the Browncoat leadership from Shadow.

That being said, I didn't hear about Lily being kidnapped and released by the local Loyalist faction until well into the evening. Details were a little vague. No surprise, really, but evidently Lily was somewhere away from town with her little skiff when they ambushed her. They took her prisoner, tried to beat information on Duncan out of her, stole her skiff, released her, then used the stolen skiff to steal the odd contraption the Alliance had recovered from the Reavers. Somewhere in there a "nice one" told the "mean one" who hit her to let her go, which was all the more confusing.

Still. We'd left them out in the desert too damn long. We'd offered them amnesty and had actually refrained from hunting them down. But we needed to make the point that they could come in from the cold, or we'd let the desert claim them. We'd been civilized with them. But even civilized folk had their limits, and the Loyalists had pushed ours one too many times.

With all the upgrades we'd put into navtrak over the last six months, figuring out where they'd taken Lily's skiff was just a matter of picking data out of the traces. Once that was done, it would simply be a matter of taking Lily's very accurate description of her tormentor and delivering a message.

After making sure her physical injuries weren't actually as bad as they appeared - which made sense, since she was again mostly synthetic and configured to simulate fully organic processes - I went back to the boat to get changed and ready for something I honestly didn't want to do. Lily had said "Don't make them suffer," and I wouldn't. Little Aurora had called it well. I desperately wanted peace and abhorred unnecessary violence, but I was still a trained warrior and professional soldier. When the situation required it I could, and would, kill. Cleanly. Efficiently. Coldly.

But not without remorse.

I suited up and took one of the little skimmers out into the desert, briefly thankful that Sabrina was working overnight off world and couldn't chide me for risking myself until after I got back. With passive optics, starlight was more than enough to light my way through the canyons and around the myriad low hills that made up much of Hale's Moon's landscape. I actually felt a touch of pride at the little patches of low scrub that had found footholds in little patches across the landscape. Hale's Moon was still desperately dry, but the humidity was finally up to the point where the hardiest of plants could take hold. They were a bright spot in an otherwise bleak mission.

Parking the skimmer a couple kilometers from their latest encampment, I worked my way inward to their nest. Like others they'd favored, it was in one of the abandoned mines that had been opened and quickly cleared out decades ago. There were dozens of them scattered within a hundred kilometers of the colony, which was part of the reason we'd had so much difficulty tracking them down and eliminating the threat.

Skirting their perimeter sensors wasn't especially difficult. They'd been hastily set, and the coverage was a bit spotty. Something they'd inevitably tend to given time. Not that I intended to give them any more time.

From what I could tell, they had split their encampments into at least two or three sites, spreading out their limited resources to prevent being eliminated in a single surgical strike. Probably a wise move, given their kokorobosoi situation. But it made it easier for me to slip past their perimiter and deal with their lone senty at the entrance to the mine.

In the darkness I could move swiftly, silently, but even I couldn't move completely silently on the scrabble of rock and mine tailings scattered near th entrance. He must have heard something, turning to face me in the darkness, a look of curiosity quicky replaced by one of surprised shock as my boot slammed into his gut just below the armor. Moving in quickly, a knocked him unconscious with a quick elbow to the back of the head, thankfull they had largely abandoned their full helmets for the lighter visors.

Not the one.

I quietly moved the Loyalist trooper's unconscious body out of sight, carrying him, rather than dragging him. They would figure out he was out of action soon enough, but by then I would have delivered my message and been gone. This one was part of the message. I could have killed him easily, but chose not to. All he'd be able to describe was a small figure head to toe in black who'd gotten the drop on him. Surely, they would suspect who'd done it. I didn't care to hide that any more.

I'd offered them amnesty before. They had failed to heed the offer. I had come to them in the night and delivered the message before. They had ignored it. This would be the final message. Take it or leave it.

Moving past the mine entrance, I knew I wouldn't have much time to locate the soldier, deliver my message then get out. But through the icy calm, I still felt the same carefully controlled excitement of being on a solo Op.

Five minutes of searching and I'd found him. The shoes. Cloth with soft soles rather than boots, as Lily described. Alone and awake in an alcove not far from where his companions slept, sitting on packing crate, using another as a makeshift table to clean his assault weapon . So intent on his task he didn't notice me until I was right in front of him. By then, far, far, too late.

It took him a moment to realize I wasn't one of his own. When he did, he simultaneously tried to reach for his sidearm and raise the alarm, a sound shut down before it started by my fingers jabbed straight on into his windpipe. Before he could clutch at his throat, or his weapon, I'd caught his hand and locked the arm, moving almost silently behind him, wrenching his arm up behind his back as he tried to suck air past his broken larynx.

"There is no dishonor in succumbing to a superior opponant." I said next to his ear, my voice barely above a whisper. "There is in harming the innocent," I finished, before shifting quickly to slam my armored knuckles into the back of his neck at the junction of skull and spine. The blow knocked him unconscious instantly and a moment later he breathed his last, neck cleanly broken.

"I promised her you wouldn't suffer."

As quickly and silently as I'd come I evacuated, leaving a calling card behind. A warning. A message. An offer.

Left alone too long
Civilized behavior lost
It need not be so

Amnesty remains
I will not offer again
Come in from the cold

Would they understand the message? Would they accept the offer if they did? Could we trust them? All questions running through my mind as I extracted from the Loyalist encampment and made my way to Lily's skiff, hidden in the mouth of a nearby shaft. Fortunately, she'd cobbled it together from standard enough components that I could set the autopilot to take it home as I made my way back to the skimmer.

The noise of the skiff taking off would certainly wake the camp, but it would also provide a distraction for my own escape.

I'd delivered the message. How they reacted would be up to them, but with one specific exception I'd spared their lives. We had been civilized. Now it was their turn.