//------------------------------// // Abomination // Story: Fire & Rain: Applejack and the Queen of Knives // by Limbo Theorem //------------------------------// CRADLE MOUNTAIN, TASMANIA 240246KJUL30: The snow was beautiful, admittedly. Seated on a rock, catching her breath and watching the steady fall of the powdery white as the winter weather blanketed all, the Queen of Knives took a moment of simple joy in the pure nature of Earth. After all, this world was her home. Maybe it hadn’t been, once upon a time, but that had long changed and now she was as much a part of things as those who had always lived here. She made a mental note to visit this place when summer visited the southern hemisphere; if it was beautiful now, it would probably be absolutely breathtaking during the warmer time of year. However, that peaceful, pristine visit would probably have to wait a while: unfortunately, the scars of war currently ravaged this place. A quarter kilometer down the mountain and in the valley below, loomed a crashed Other starship, still burning and ruining this pristine land with its wreckage. The Australian military, with apparently some assistance from the New Zealand armed forces, had expended quite a bit of effort to bring the massive vessel down. Even then, it had cost lives, countless souls that could never be replaced, and the Queen grieved for their loss even as she was glad they were able to bring the beast to heel. Above, fighting still took place in the air as Other cuttlefish and RAAF F-35A and RNZAF FA-50NZ fighters traded fire. While the ground forces of the ARA had not encountered much of a challenge, there were still potentially thousands of Other soldiers onboard that vessel, as standard operating procedure for the Others was to ground their ships and turn them into bases from which they could build successor ships to launch a continued fight from. So in the end, it would be a war of attrition and even if the good guys won the day here, there was still the greater conflict to consider. Who knew how many troops the Others had left, while humanity teetered at 800 million people, a tenth of what had existed five years ago, and even then, maybe a fraction of that were active military personnel. That galled the Queen more than anything: when she was a teenager, her life had been filled with malls, boys, and friends. People that age now were either in uniform or eking out a miserable existence. Still, she could enjoy the moment, just a few minutes with her helmet off and her breath crystalizing in the air. She couldn’t remember the last time she wore anything other than her battle armor, and even with all the adjustments, repairs and updates she’d made to it, it still felt more like she’d never taken it off. She longed for the day when she would just sit on the couch and luxuriate in normal clothing, but those times were long gone, so far in the past it almost felt like another person had done it instead of her. She heard a click behind her and on practiced habit, she crouched and spun at the same time, letting the energy beams from Other raysticks blast over her head and through her cloak. She chided herself for having turned off her suit’s LIDAR feed – a result of having removed her helmet – but there was no time to worry about that. Her hands going to her sides, she summoned black guns to her hand, the weapons appearing as if to be made from nothing but black smoke. Without aiming, she fired from her hips, hoping that her familiarity with her weapons would let her survive her own stupidity. Ebon blasts of energy tore away from her guns, slamming into the Others, dropping them as fast as she could. They returned fire, but not before she could dive behind a rock outcropping. As she did, she could hear the whistle of bullets fly by, and less than a second later, rounds from above hammered into the ground, followed a few seconds later by the telltale BRRRRRT of an autocannon. A second after that, the roar of an aircraft blasted above; either the pilot had seen her plight or had just chosen targets of opportunity. Either way, she had been saved by her own ill-timed relaxation. She couldn’t afford that again; too many people were counting on her to save the day. With a groan of resignation, she slipped on her helmet once more and pulled the cloak over it. Tapping a hidden button on her armor, she activated the hermetic seals, which would let her get back to work. The Others were still out there, still ceaselessly hammering Earth for reasons that were still unclear and known only to them. Likewise, she would in turn continue to assault them until they relented, because to do anything less would be to doom her adopted species. MARS JUNCTION, COLORADO 240551TJUL30: Still holding onto her coffee mug as though it was a sacred talisman, a sleepy-eyed Fluttershy surveyed the two JLTVs and the equipment that was being brought onboard. She was bringing all but one of her most senior medics with her for the trip into Canterlot proper, and the one that remained behind would make sure that everything was ready to go for surgery and any other contingencies. “Are you sure you need to be the one to go, Major?” the sergeant being left behind asked. A grizzled first sergeant who had first enlisted way back during the 9/11 crisis, he’d even retired and came back to active duty after Decimation. Despite his gruff demeanor, he truly cared about both his patients and the soldiers under his charge and so Fluttershy had come to respect the man; the fact that he reminded her more than a bit of a rougher part of her father also helped, admittedly. So, when this mission was announced, he was a natural choice for second-in-command of the medical part of the mission, having chosen him over more senior warrant and commissioned officers. She nodded. “Yes, I do, Top. This is my hometown, and it turns out I know one of the militia leaders. If I can get them on our side, it will change things for the better.” “Yeah, well, you’d better take care of yourself, ma’am.” Top told her. “I really don’t want to have to patch up any of our boys and girls, and that goes double for you, got that?” “Don’t worry, I’ll be in good hands. For starters, we have a company of infantry here with us—” “Yeah, and I don’t trust that wet-behind-the-ears captain. No disrespect to him, ma’am, but he doesn’t look like the type that would keep an eye out for you.” You have no idea how wrong you are, Fluttershy thought. One of the conditions that Col. Spearhead had required of her and Flash was that while they were out here, no one was to know of their marital ties except for those already in the know. Fortunately, that was limited to Applejack, Tempest and Bolt. “Well,” Fluttershy commented, “if it makes you feel better, Cmdr. Apple is also a local and an old friend of mine. I’m sure she’ll keep me safe.” “Yeah, well, as wrong as I think it is for the Navy to pretend playing at being soldiers, I can’t argue that SEALs aren’t effective,” Top commented. “Still, Major, you’d better take care of yourself and my troops, got it?” “Got it, Top.” On the unused platform, Applejack, Tempest, Flash and their senior NCOs and chiefs went over the whole protective detail. “You don’t have a problem if I take lead on this, do you, Flash?” “You outrank me, AJ. Even if I do know about mass movements a little better than you do,” he snarked. Tempest tried not to laugh as she drank from her coffee cup. “Aww, Army guys are so cute when they try to act like they know what they’re doing, right, Shippy?” Chief Shipshape, having been former Army, opted to say nothing. “Seriously though, folks, all joking aside, we need to make sure that we’re working together. We don’t know the lay of the land, we don’t know what’s out there and we’re not entirely sure that the militia is on our side – and we damn well know that the Octos aren’t,” Applejack noted. “We have some of the data that was sent to us by the drones and spy satellites, but that’s not going to be enough.” She looked at another one of her troops. “Landrunner?” Landrunner, a bulky, swarthy woman who looked as though she could bench press an aircraft carrier, strode forward with a large map – a chart, in military parlance. “This is where we are,” she said, pointing to one part of the chart, “and the Blue Line runs through Southvale, Silverload, Bayriver and Terraceview neighborhoods, before meeting in Central Station, here. Based on the information that the militia themselves gave us, they’re using Central Station as one of the main refugee camps and an operating base.” “Furthermore,” one of Flash’s sergeants commented, “if we take control of Central, then we’ll have access to the Green Line, which is where the majority of the Octo infestation is. If they haven’t covered the underground parts, we may be able to catch them by surprise.” “Well, I’m more concerned about this part,” Applejack noted, tracing a finger along a part of the chart that headed eastwards. “The Red Line, which heads out to Easterbrook. Most of that is above ground, which means we’ll be sitting ducks.” “And why do we have to go to Easterbrook?” one of the sergeants noted. “Easterbrook is one of the vital points of the operation, but that’s not our job to handle,” Flash told his subordinate. “Basically, both teams will be meeting up with the militia to trade intel and figure out some plans, but then afterwards, while we’ll be busy escorting those who need to be evacuated to the safe zone here and working to try to deal with the Octo problem in town, the SEALs will be headed to Easterbrook.” “It’s a need-to-know situation,” Tempest added. “If the situation gets so dogfucked that we need help, then we’ll call you guys for backup, but chances are, if we get to that point, even backup might not save us. As it is, we’re already going to be relying on you to keep the majority of the Octos off our back.” “Any other questions?” Applejack asked. One of the SEALs raised her hand. “Obviously, we’ll follow you wherever you go, Commander, but I think we’d like to know what we’re getting into,” she voiced. “If the data we don’t have is recent, then how do we know how much things have changed?” “Don’t worry, we’re taking care of that right now,” Tempest told her. CANTERLOT, COLORADO 240603TJUL30: As they stepped out of Meadowglade Station, Chrysalis checked her black bandanna that she’d tied around her head to keep her hair in place. She probably should have cut it long ago, but when Shining had told her that he liked her long hair, she’d decided that it wasn’t going to see a hair salon anytime soon. She tapped her radio, signaling Bolt and the operations team on the other side. Unfortunately, that operations team now included Ocellus, who had not been happy in the least about being left behind. But while Chrysalis needed Pharynx out here in the field, she wasn’t about to risk the life of a child…even one as ingratiating and childish as Ocellus. So Chrysalis gave him an ultimatum: leave her behind for her safety, or…well, there really wasn’t an “or” involved, truth be told. Given that she was risking her own life out here when she would rather be back on the Mountain making babies with Shining, she wasn’t going to let Pharynx know the loss of a child. Even if she doesn’t appreciate it, Chrysalis had smirked. She remembered her teenage years, after all. She hadn’t been the ideal girl next door either. Out of the radio, she heard three quick bursts of static, indicating that Pharynx had moved his fireteam to the checkpoint. With that, she pushed all else out of her mind: right now, she was back in the field, back doing what she did best. Granted, she was typically used to going against human opponents – the Constitution did state that part about “all enemies, foreign or domestic”, after all – but when push came to shove, the Octos were as foreign as foreign got. She watched for Yona’s signal to cross the deserted, cracked street. Pharynx was right: the big Mongolian woman was built like a yak but was also surprisingly fast and nimble. If she wasn’t so dead set on retiring once the war was over, she might have made for a great leader of her own team within the Special Activities Division. And, of course, Chrysalis had no issues about Sandbar; even though he was SWCC rather than a SEAL, he was still a born and bred special operator and knew exactly how to get things done. Chrysalis moved over. “Okay, what have we got?” she asked as they moved into a broken storefront. “Just heard from CH’s group,” Sandbar replied. “They’re already three blocks away and what they’ve reported isn’t very good.” “We’re in the middle of a war – I’ve come to expect not very good as the standard mode for news.” There was a guttural bark of laughter from Yona. “Perhaps. But what they’re reporting is bad even by those terms.” She then handed Chrysalis the small combat tablet that was standard issue in the field. “This is a live feed from one of Dragonfire’s drones,” she commented, using Smolder’s codename. As the “twidget” – the electronic warfare specialist – in their group, Smolder was good at what she did. She had been the one that had introduced the use of drones into the Changeling’s operations and while the other SAD teams were not comfortable about it, Chrysalis saw the value of the change and ran with it. Chrysalis watched the video coming from the drones. “This is live?” she asked, just to doublecheck. “As true as my native Yakyakistan is colder than a whore’s morals,” she commented affably. “You call your hometown Yakyakistan?” Chrysalis filed a mental note to look it up in the CIA’s World Factbook database later; she hadn’t recalled any locale by that name. “No – that’s what we call the province. I don’t even think my village is large enough to have a name,” she drolled. “The town Pharynx found me in was one of the larger regional towns the army frequented.” Mentally shrugging, Chrysalis went back to the feed, finding it both fascinating and horrifying at the same time. The screen showed severely deformed humans that moved like apes. With their scrunched, rat-like faces, the bodies looked like a complete mockery of a human being; given that they wore no clothing, this went straight down to the biological morphology. What made it worse, however, was the fact that each of them looked like they’d been bathed in food dye, as their skin coloration looked nothing like what humans had. Granted, human hair coloration ran the gamut, but there was a difference between Chrysalis’ teal hair and the teal skin of the male creature currently rutting with the slightly smaller lavender-skinned female creature. “What the fuck are those things?” Chrysalis asked. “I’d be more worried about what they’re eating,” Yona pointed out. Chrysalis turned back to the video, then a second later narrowed her eyes in hatred. It was clear what they were eating and if so, in her mind they had just been turned from things to be curious about to creatures that needed to be put under at all costs. She cued her mic. “All Changelings, this is Queen Bee. I don’t know if you’ve seen the live feed—” “Merde – what the fuck are those things?” Gallus called over his line. A second later, the remainder of the Changelings called out their own comments of surprise. Chrysalis let the comments die down before she continued. “As I was saying, as of now, we are designating those things…” She mentally rifled through the CIA’s designation codebook for an unused phrasing, but couldn’t immediately recall, so she made one up. “…Extranormal Quadrupedal Guerillas.” Behind her, Yona sniggered. “That’s a horrible name.” “That’s a mouthful,” Smolder stated. “Sounds like some NASA bullshit. What about EQGs for short?” “You can call them Candy-Colored Murder Machines, for all I care. But you are to shoot on sight and make sure that they are very dead.” “Queen Bee, this is CH. We can easily move around them,” Pharynx suggested over his line. “We don’t have to waste ammo on them.” Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed. “No. We put the fuckers down and we do it hard. We don’t know what they’re capable of, and we don’t want them sneaking up on us from behind.” “Fine, but I don’t like it,” Pharynx stated. Chrysalis let her silence answer for her; instead, she changed channels. “Stationmaster, Queen Bee. You live there, Bolt? Over.” “Stationmaster Actual. I’m here. And before you ask, yes, we’re watching your feed – a few of my people are wincing at that. I take it you want us to pass this to the others before they head out? Over.” “Yes. They’re going to need the info. We’ll send more data after we find out whether they make good containers for depleted uranium, over.” “They’re still briefing. You Changelings about to do something stupid?” Despite the situation, the spymaster chuckled, then pointed towards an abandoned, crumbling building two blocks down. “Can’t let Jackie have all the fun. We’ll update you soon. Queen Bee, out.” As Yona and Sandbar began to move, Chrysalis switched back to the main Changeling channel. “Everyone, get topside – let’s see if raining rounds on our new finds will put a few holes in spots they don’t normally go.” “Okay, that’s it!” Applejack called out as the troops gathered around the two JLTVs. “From this point, we are River City unless necessary. Our job is to meet up with the militia at Central Station. I want a defensive ring around the two vehicles. The girls and I are going to take point, understood?” There were nods of assent and some murmurs, but no arguments otherwise. “Cpt. Sentry, can you watch the middle? Also, assign one of your best folks for rear.” “That works for me,” Flash added. “I’ve got it covered.” “Temp, send your team ahead to start scouting around. I know the Changelings went through earlier, but I want to make sure nothing’s moved into the area since.” Tempest nodded, signaling to her fireteam. “Okay, ladies, you heard the boss.” Applejack then turned to Fluttershy. “Your folks ready to roll?” “As much as they can be. Top will make sure everything’s good to go here.” “Okay, get in the car and let’s get going.” But the pink-haired woman shook her head. “No. If it’s all the same, I’d rather walk with you.” “Flutters, I really hate to break this to you, but this isn’t a Sunday afternoon stroll we’re going on. You’re not prepared for this kind of shit.” Applejack hooked a thumb over to the JLTV. “Get in the car.” “AJ…I think it’s best I go along with you. I’m…getting a feeling.” Applejack blinked. Every instinct she had told her to throw the doctor into the JLTV, strap her down with enough 550 cord to make sure she made for a bondage fetish convention. But at the same time, something from the back of her mind, something that had remained from the days when she was a teenager, told her to listen. Not just hear Fluttershy’s words, but listen. The blonde sighed. “Fine. You ride in the JLTV…but the moment you get that feeling again, let me know and we’ll stop so you can get out.” She then held a stern finger at her. “But the moment shit gets hot, you get back in and you don’t fucking argue, got me?” Fluttershy gave an awkward smile. “If you say so, Commander.” Applejack just grinned and shook her head in disbelief. “You’re not the same girl you used to be.” “Nope – that Fluttershy would’ve probably been too shy to speak up about it.” “Major!” One of Bolt’s soldiers came running up. “I’m glad I got you before you got going!” She handed a tablet to Fluttershy. “Look at this!” Fluttershy took the tablet and looked at it…and her mouth screwed tightly. Her eyes, however, revealed something going on. Wordlessly, she signaled to both Flash and Applejack. It only took Applejack a few seconds of watching the grisly scene to go from astonished to horrified to a cold, murderous anger. “Where’s the Changelings?” she asked the sergeant. “According to Agent Chrysalis, they’re planning to engage,” the sergeant replied. Fluttershy gasped and looked at Applejack. “Are you sure?” the naval officer asked, and Fluttershy nodded. Applejack sighed. “Fuck me ragged,” she grunted before calling out, “Okay, change in plans! All SEALs, get to the JLTVs! We’ve got a rescue to get to! Cpt. Sentry – move ahead on to the rendezvous without us and take the medics with you. Major, you’re with us!” She turned back to the sergeant. “Get a hold of Chrysalis and tell her we’re on the way to provide backup.” “Yes, ma’am!” he replied, double-timing back to where his unit was. “AJ….” Flash called out. He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. “The Major will be fine, Captain – I’ll make sure of it,” Applejack assured him as her forces started to get into position. “You just do what you’ve been assigned, and we’ll pull the Changelings’ asses out of the fire.” It was clear he didn’t like it, but he had to admit, there was a war going on. “Fine. Okay, you heard the Commander – Company, we’re moving out! We’ve got a job to do!” He didn’t say anything further, nor did he look back. From what he saw on that tablet, it was taking every ounce of his willpower to prevent his wife from going on what he was sure was going to be a death sentence. The muzzle of Pharynx’s CZ-805 BREN A2 roared and spat flame as it belched 5.56x45mm NATO rounds towards the boiling throngs below. A weapon he’d picked up during his early days with the Agency, he’d found it to be far more comfortable than even the more recent weapons that had been made by the various weapons manufacturers around the world. It was a small miracle that he’d kept a hold of it during all his capers throughout the years, and it had served him well. However, as wonderful a weapon as it was, one thing it was not was a holy talisman against all evil. And he was finding that out right now and he emptied the rest of his magazine into the creatures that roiled and screamed from below. It was like a massive orgy of blood down there, with some of the “squats” (as Stygian had coined them) rushing into the buildings for cover; some trying to scale the outside only to be picked off; and a few trying in vain to hurtle various items, from pieces of concrete and asphalt to the skulls of their victims at those that would harm them. A few even, much to his disgust, continued to be uninterested in the whole process, choosing instead to rut with the females of their type or even eat a few of their own dead. If this was the Octos way of insulting humanity – by coming up with sickening parodies of it – then it was certainly a method that was working all too well. “Well, this was a fucking great idea you got, Chryssie!” he shouted back at his commander. “Let’s just piss off the inhuman freaks down there with no escape route for us!” “Shut the hell up and keep shooting!” From her point on the other side of the building, Chrysalis slapped another magazine into her own M110 CSASS and continued to fire down into the crowd. Unlike the others, and befitting her own talent as a marksman, she took careful aim before firing. The 7.62x51mm round lanced away from the top of the building, hammering into and through the head of one of the squats, nearly taking off most of the creature’s cranium. The body jiggled and quivered slightly before falling silent and as its dead, beady orange eyes looked at through the tuft of remaining electric blue hair, the thick, viscous muddy-red blood flowing onto the creature’s light-yellow skin, she shuddered. For a second, she thought she saw gratitude in the thing’s eyes, but that was impossible, wasn’t it? The silence from her people was deafening, and it was enough to make her think a bit more. “Okay, okay, there were a lot more than I expected! Not one of my better ideas!” she admitted. “As it is, we should be glad that they’re stupid enough not to figure out how to get up here!” “You’d better hope so, boss,” Smolder replied, going weapons free with her own M6A2B. “I can’t exactly fly us out of here on my drones!” “Maybe we should call for backup?” Yona suggested. At the moment, her M249 Mk46 roared like a lion, hammering everything in range downstairs. Fountains of the strange blood spurted from below, a deadly sign that she’d found her mark. “That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Gallus shouted in a typical French, arrogant tone. He and Stygian were both using AK-9s; when Chrysalis had seen them, she had wondered where they obtained them, as those guns, even now, were still hard to get. However, right now, they were very effective, so she couldn’t argue their use or their owners’ decisions. As for Stygian, he said nothing, but the look of glee on his face from slaughtering the monsters down below was more than enough to speak for him. “We do that, and with the numbers that are down there, anyone coming to rescue us is going to fall into a trap,” Chrysalis told them. “We’re going to have to get ourselves out of this one and—” “SONUVABITCH!” The shout had come from Smolder. They all turned in her direction. “The fuckers are scaling the building!” she cried, pointing at the ground. Chrysalis raced over and looked down; sure enough, despite the amount of ammunition being rained down on their heads, the squats were starting to slowly make their way up the sides of the building. Thankfully, the glass on the outside had held throughout all these years, or else they’d have the issue of the creatures slowly making their way up the inside of the building. “You sure that you barricaded the way down for us?” Chrysalis asked the others. “Yeah. I set things so that the elevators are halfway down their shafts, so they can’t climb up that way,” Stygian said with a mirthless grin. “I’m not going to breathe my fucking dying breath until I make sure that I take a lot of these motherfuckers with me. And as for the stairs, we made sure those are blocked. Those fuckers are going to have to make their way through a shitload of crap in order to get to us.” “Are you fucking kidding? These things are literally punching handholds in the side of the building in order to make their way to us!” Sandbar cried out, pulling the pin on a grenade and letting it fall over the side. The olive-green metal oval fell into the throng of monsters below and with a muffled CRUMP a spray of blood, bone and offal went in all directions, painting the side of the building with splashes of auburn. “Well, that did exactly jack shit, Sandy,” Smolder told him. “Took out maybe a dozen, tops?” Sandbar began firing down again. “Got a better fucking idea?” She shook her head. “Not really, no,” then joined him. “Chrys, I think you’d better call for backup,” Pharynx told her. “I don’t get a bad feeling about things often, but I have a really bad one about this go-around.” The line suddenly erupted with static. “Queen Bee, Sierra Six Delta. You there? Over.” Chrysalis cued her mic. “Yeah. Hate to say it, but we could use a little help here!” “We’ll do what we can,” Applejack promised. “We’re inbound, not sure what the ETA is, but we’re hauling ass!” “You know what we’re up against, right?” “Yeah, I saw. Just means we’ll have to do things the fun way.” “I owe you one! First girl Shining and I have is named after you!” the woman insisted. A laugh came over the line. “Let’s just start with you buying the next round of beers and we’ll call it that, okay?” “Deal! Queen Bee, out!” She turned to her folks. “Weapons free! Cavalry’s coming!” At that point they began to hear the screeching of metal. All eyes turned towards the entrance to the roof, which was a solid metal door. Said door was now starting to show blisters as something was punching at it. The Changelings took aim at the door. “I thought you said they weren’t going to get through that shit?” Chrysalis argued. “Hey, I’m a mafia assassin, not a fucking mathmetician!” Stygian argued. “Mathematician,” Yona stated. “Who the fuck cares?” “If we’re going to die, may as well get it right,” Yona argued. She hustled to the far side of the building, where the squats had congregated the least. “That building over there is smaller. If you run and jump, you can make it.” Chrysalis went over and looked as well, doing quick mental calculations. “And if we don’t, we’re squat chow – probably literally,” she drolled. “Better to die as a thinking human than to just surrender,” she said. “Everyone give me your grenades. Someone also give me sidearms, too.” “Why?” Yona laughed as she walked back to a position just before the damaged door. “Why not? I’m too big and bulky of a bitch. I would never make that jump.” Thick muscles hefted her SAW once more. “Better that someone stay behind to make sure they don’t get the same idea – they seem to be smarter than just dumb animals. And since I’m the bitch with the big gun, who better?” She pointed to the other building. “Go, while you still can.” As if to make her point, the hammering on the door started to get louder, and the frame began to warp visibly. Chrysalis reluctantly held out her pistol. “You better damn not die on me, am I clear?” “In my home country, there’s a saying: ‘A man falls seven times but rises eight.’ I have survived worse. I will survive this, too.” Pharynx withdrew his sidearm, looked at it, then looked at her. “I should be the one to do this, not you.” “No. You have Ocellus to look after. Go.” She then looked at the rest of them. “This will suffice.” “Yona….” She patted him on the shoulder. “If I make it out of this, I am going to break your legs. Now go!” With that, the remaining Changelings jumped for all they were worth, in an action that would be either suicide or salvation. As the last one cleared, the door tore away and out of the entrance boiled dozens of squats like a murderous swarm of wolves, all teeth and sinew. Yona, however, raised her rifle and began to fire with abandon, screaming, “ZA, GICHII KHÖVGÜÜD EE! CHI YAG L AMITAD SHIG ÜKHEKH TSAG BOLLOO!” Chrysalis took one last look at the giantess of a woman before running as far and fast as her legs could carry her. Way back when she was younger, in her high school days, she’d briefly played basketball on the JV team but had never been good enough to make it to the varsity team, much less college hoops. But she did remember all the times her coach made her and her teammates hustle up and down the court. As she rushed to the edge of the building and jumped, her last thought as she had air around her and nothing but 110 feet of air below her, was that she’d never been good enough to make a hook shot – she was too short for that. And yet here she was, clearing more air than she had ever done in her life. Before she could comment any further, however, she came in for a hard landing, crashing against and through a galvanized steel cupola-shaped air vent on the next building. She vaguely felt something inside her crack, and then she felt nothing more. By the time the two JLTVs roared out of Meadowglade Station, ramming the fence to the accessway so they could hit the street, they drove over the bones of the fallen and the corpses of the squats. “What the fuck is that?” one of the SEALs asked. “Doesn’t fucking matter!” Applejack shouted. “Stop the fucking car!” The driver immediately hit the brakes, and as she did, the SEAL commander hopped out of the vehicle and with the effortless ease of someone who was long used to drawing her weapon, brought it to firing position, pulled the trigger and sent a round straight through the head of a big squat with deep red skin and thatched orange hair. “LADIES, YOU HAVE YOUR ORDERS!” she shouted. “WEAPONS FREE! ROCK AND ROLL – OPEN SEASON ON THE TANGOS!”