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And here is the second part of the odds against, rewritten as was the first. Again, I hope you enjoy it. Comments are always appreciated.

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Continued from 'The Battle for Arc, revised edition...'

09-06-3015

*Chronological anomaly detected; time index unknown*

Fourth moon of the planet Arc

Noid system, Contested space

Katy limped rapidly through the trees of the moon, looking around for any sign of danger. She had managed to guide her disabled fighter to a safe, if very rough, landing, but part of the cockpit had slammed into her legs on impact, hence her limp. She felt sure that her right leg wasn't broken but she also knew that staying on it would be a problem as soon as her adrenalin wore off. Slumping to the soft earth in a defile not too far from her crashed fighter, she carefully stretched the leg and winced. 'Yes, not broken, but strained.' She thought, gently touching it with her fingertips. She fervently wished that her psychic powers included the healing touch, but she knew they didn't. The survival pack was so heavy on her back, and she wanted nothing more than to take it off and lay down in the soft earth, but she knew that was sign of her adrenlin high fading and she prepared to climb back up to her feet. She hadn't been shot down for more than year, not since she earned her blood stripes. Her grudging respect for the human pilot had grown into open admiration. He had been an excellent flyer and she briefly wondered if he could have been the legendary Knight, the best pilot the Terrans had. It was the dearest ambition of every Merxian pilot to shoot him down and be forever immortalized as the pilot who beat the best.

Suddenly, her ears perked up and she looked back over the edge of the defile. She could not see what had made the sound, but she knew something was out there. Shaking her head, she raised the plasma carbine that she carried and suddenly turned around on instinct to find herself face to face with a massive reptile. She fired and the bolts hit its armor, absorbing into the strangely iridescent surface without damage. Quickly adjusting her aim, she fought down the sudden fear she felt and aimed to take a shot at the creature's head, but she was thrown back against the bank with a vicious kick. She saw a sudden flash and then she heard the familiar tearing sound of an automatic weapon set to full auto, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Then a heavy weight landed on her chest and she felt great pain and the sensation of liquid flowing across her before she passed out...

***

Coming to the edge of a defile, I saw an armored reptile warrior that looked like an earth dinosaur known as a Raptor standing over the enemy pilot. It lashed out with a kick, knocking the pilot against the defile's edge, and inadvertently out of my line of fire. I pressed a small button on the carbine's side, removing the inhibitor and doubling the firing rate of the weapon as I squeezed the trigger. The weapon utilized an advanced electromagnetic firing system capable of firing more than two thousand rounds a minute, but it had a tendency to heat up so quickly that it actually started to melt. So the weapon had had an inhibitor installed in it, to slow down the fire and keep the weapon operating. But the engineer in charge of developing the weapon had been smart enough to make the inhibitor removable. My rounds cut through the creature's torso, armor and all and it fell forward onto the downed pilot.

However, I heard the unearthly scream of an angry raptor behind me and jumped forward into the defile, twisting as I did so and sighting on the second warrior that was sprinting at me. I fired a burst and dropped the creature before landing against the opposite bank of the defile and waited for a moment before catching the sound of another set of heavy footsteps at the top of the bank behind me. Not waiting for it to attack, I leapt up and sighted on a third raptor. I squeezed the trigger just as it lashed out with a claw and knocked it backward with a sustained burst. Its claw narrowly missed my head and I whirled in a circle suddenly, firing a burst at a fourth and fifth before coming to a stop. The ammo counter on the HUD on my visor read zero and I sensed something behind me. I dropped the weapon and spun around, just in time to catch the killing claw on the foot of my enemy with an open handed slap and passing it to side.

The large raptor's body hit me on the chest and I fell against the floor of the defile. Before I could react, the jaws of the creature closed on my helmet, its teeth digging into the composite around the visor. But, since the armor was designed to withstand much more force than that, the creature made no headway against the plating. I smiled slightly as it scrabbled for purchase with its teeth and punched the underside of its jaw as hard as I could, the knuckles of my hand breaking something there. The creature released me and I grabbed its jaws with my hands. Muscles straining with effort, I squeezed both jaws together and held them closed with one hand before drawing my sidearm with the other. Pressing the pistol against its gut, I fired, once, twice, three times and the creature stopped struggling. I shoved the dying reptile off me and re-holstered the pistol. Looking around and finding the area clear, I hauled the slain raptor off the pilot and checked it. It had a pulse in the same place as a human and I found that it was still alive, and it looked like it would be for a while yet, despite the wounds. Its eyes opened beneath its visor and I saw a sudden fear in its eyes.

"Its alright." I said, hoping for a moment that she spoke galactic common, my voice emerging slightly altered from the filter in the helmet's front. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"No, look out!!!" she shouted, speaking in the same language, and for the first time I realized she was a woman.

Even as I heard her warning, my psychic senses pulsed, and I spun around, my hand not going for the pistol this time. Instead it sought out the hilt of the sword I carried at my side and drew the laser sharpened blade. Steel flashed in the sunlight as I struck the soaring warrior, the single molecule-thick edge slicing right through the warrior's armor and into its flesh. Placing both hands on the hilt, I continued the spin and slashed to the right, catching yet another in the neck and cutting right through. Acting on instinct only, I stabbed straight back and felt the blade spear another warrior before he could strike my back. My sword struck the warrior in the heart and it fell. Looking around once more and sensing with my psychic powers, I made sure there were no more of the creatures about. Now, fully assured that we were alone, I flicked the blade down, shedding blood from the sword and returning it to the scabbard. Then, slinging the carbine once more, I put an arm under the shoulder of the pilot and hauled her to her feet. She obligingly laid an arm across my shoulders as she shuddered with pain and her leg almost gave out, but I supported her and started helping her up the bank. To my surprise, she didn't argue or make any sort of protest...

***

Katy stirred, and realized the weight on her chest was gone. Opening her eyes she found herself looking into the polarized visor of a human soldier in Special Ops armor. A bolt of fear lanced through her, for such soldiers had the fiercest reputation. But then, she recognized the winged globe and anchor insignia on the breast armor as that of the human Marine's fighter corps. But there was something else strange. Beneath the globe and anchor, there was a familiar symbol, one that made her hope that this warrior would spare her life. It was the Caduceus symbol, the symbol of the Terran Medical units, and they were usually far more merciful than other soldiers. But the two symbols shouldn't have been on the same suit of armor; in her experience, doctors did not become combat soldiers. And then she gasped, for beneath the contradictory symbols, where the pilots name was usually stenciled, was a famous coat of arms. It WAS Knight, the enemy's top ace. The only reason he would be here on this moon was that he had been shot down, which meant that the pilot who had downed her had been him. And then it came to her that she had shot him down. She also realized that he had already saved her life. Why, she didn't know, but she appreciated it greatly. But then, she saw a reptile standing on the bank behind him. She felt a sudden irrational fear for her savior well up inside and she heard his voice, speaking in the joined language of galactic common, altered from the equipment he wore, say "Its alright, I'm not going to hurt you."

Realizing exactly what he was saying, she shook her head and shouted "No, Look out!!!"

The pilot reacted in an instant, almost before she had finished the statement. She saw him spin faster than she would have thought it was possible to do and grip something at his side. Bright steel flashed in the sun and blood sprayed the bank alongside her. The warrior continued to turn and a second warrior fell, then a third and the human stood perfectly still. The curved sword clasped in his hands was reminiscent in shape to an ancient earth weapon called a Katana. But, there the similarities ended, the sword was forged of titanium and had hollow sections in it that made it perfectly light and nimble. If she tried, she could probably recall the data on the weapons that intelligence had provided, but she didn't think now was the time. She had only ever seen swords like those once before and, as before, she found the simple elegance of the weapon to be strangely beautiful as it glinted in the sunlight. She couldn't quite place where she had seen that type of blade before, but before she could figure it out, the soldier sheathed the blade.

She watched him warily for a moment when the warrior picked up an all black assault carbine, then, her wary suspicion turned to a wonder when he slung the weapon. She was even more surprised when he moved over and put an arm under her shoulder. As he hauled her to her feet, she felt her psychic intuition tell her to trust this human. They had never steered her wrong before, so she decided to go with it, putting an arm around his shoulders. She bit her lip to keep from crying out when her leg gave out, but the soldier did not let her fall, instead keeping her on her feet and helping her up the slope and out of the defile. He was stronger than she had expected a pilot to be, and she truly wondered about this warrior. He was, after all, an enemy. Not just any enemy either, THE enemy of all Merxian pilots. And yet, she felt a strange, psychic attraction to him. It was totally irrational, but she could not deny the feeling that he was somehow connected to her...

***

Carefully looking among the trees for a new enemy, I supported the bloody pilot all the way to the base of the cliff I had spotted before. I knew that I was committing an act that every other Terran soldier would not have done. It was bordering on treason to help any foe, even a prisoner. We had just reached the stone wall of the cliff when my companion at last spoke up once again. Her voice was labored and strained from the pain of her injury, but she seemed to be controlling it for the moment.

"So, am I your prisoner or what?" She asked and I smiled inside my helmet.

"Good question." I stated. "I am not sure taking you prisoner is the best idea right now. Surviving here is going to be hard enough without us being at odds. Perhaps the best idea would be to call a temporary truce until we get rescued. We can figure out the whole prisoner bit sometime after that."

"That works for me." She answered. "As the one without a position from which to argue," She began, her words broken by a gasp of pain as I set her down against the cliff for a moment. "I feel compelled to ask where we might be going."

"I am looking for a cave to make camp in." I said. If anyone found out about our agreement, we would probably be arrested for treason, but that didn't matter for some reason to me. Again, my psychic senses were guiding me. Somehow, I needed to help this pilot, enemy though she was. "And once I find it, I should be able to treat your wounds. After that, it is anybody's guess."

"You are really willing to do this, aren't you?" she asked, seemingly surprised.

"Of course. I have great respect for you. No one in six years has given me that good of a fight." I said, carefully feeling on her leg to determine the damage. It didn't seem that bad and I continued. "For that reason alone, I would ask you for a truce. However, I have never met or spoken with one of your kind before and I would like to talk to you for a while. And..." I trailed off and she regarded me with a questioning look.

"And what?" she asked.

"And, there is something about you. My psychic intuition is telling me to help you, so I intend to do so." I finished and got to my feet again. "Well, the leg doesn't feel too bad. Do you think you can make it to the cave when I find it?"

"Well, I will certainly try." She said, allowing me to help her up again. She winced when the pain returned, but she gave me a nod.

Making our way along the cliff's edge, we found a cave in the stone that looked like it would work well. It extended back into the stone for about twenty meters, before curving into a solid stone wall. Carrying my companion inside, I laid her down against the wall and walked out of the cave again.

Gathering some dead wood from the surrounding forest, I kept a sharp eye out and carried my load back into the cave, making a pile of it against the back wall. Then, stacking a few logs in the middle of the cave, I activated the low powered welder on my wrist armor to light the fire and we soon had a nice blaze going. After I had the fire going, I took the medical pack from my survival kit and walked over to where my companion lay against the wall. The medical kit was much more extensive than was standard for pilots to carry, but I was allowed such a kit because, in addition to being a pilot, I was also a qualified surgeon. Carefully removing the armor on her injured leg, I took a pack of quick hardening cement from the kit and spread it over her flight suit's leg, quickly immobilizing the injury. I would do more if it still was bothering her in the morning. For now, I was too tired to make a proper diagnosis, not to mention that my head was still a little unsettled from hitting the cockpit's canopy.

"There, it should be able to heal now." I stated, taking a dose of pain killer from the medical kit and holding it out to her. She nodded, baring one arm. I pressed the injector into her arm, waiting until it read empty. "This will help with the pain, and you, should be horizontal when it takes effect."

She nodded gratefully, removing her helmet and lying down beside the fire, her face relaxing as the painkiller took effect. Her breathing became more and more regular and soon, I could see that she was indeed asleep. Taking off my own helmet and setting it aside for a moment, I took up my carbine and field-stripped it for cleaning. As I cleaned the mud and dirt from the weapon's internal components, I listened carefully to the sounds of the night outside the cave and thought about my companion. The dim light of the fire wasn't enough to get a good view of my companions face, but she definitely looked familiar to me. It was strange, my psychic instincts were forcing the wary barriers to lower, opening myself to the enemy that shared this cave with me. I knew that our arrangement was dangerous, but, there were some things that made me think it would be alright. First, was that this sort of thing was treason. There was no other word for it. Neither of us would admit that we had done this to our superiors for that reason. Not to mention my psionic senses were practically ordering me to trust her.

I shook my head and looked back out the cave entrance, my hands continuing the ritual of cleaning my weapon without my input. I had resolved to keep a careful watch on the surrounding terrain; addled head or no, we were in a great deal of danger, and with my companion knocked out by the painkillers, I had to be on watch. Reattaching the pieces of the carbine together quietly so as to not disturb the sleeping pilot, I reassembled the weapon. Leaning the newly cleaned weapon up against the stone beside me, I took out my side arm and cleaned it in the same fashion. Once that task was done, I slid the clip back into it and holstered the powerful weapon. Lastly I took the Starwolf battle sword from its sheath and cleaned it with a cleanser cloth. Once its surface was clean, I took a sharpening device from my pack and passed it up the blade's edge once, leaving it glowing slightly as the laser contained within the device returned it to its sharp state. I examined the blade once more and thought back to when I first had held the weapon.

The Starwolf battalion had been specially trained and equipped for close combat, often using stealth to sneak up on the enemy and kill them in silence. It had been after my second campaign with the battalion when command had finally acquiesced to our request for a better hand to hand weapon then just combat knives. Command had dug up designs of old weapons, improved them where they could, and thus the battle sword was born. We were the only unit to use such a weapon, and at first, both sides had laughed at us, calling us foolish for carrying such a 'useless' weapon. All of that stopped after we used them in battle for the first time. It was still a common reoccurring nightmare of many Merxian soldiers to one day come up against the 'wolves of the night' and their terrible swords. I smiled at the memory and set aside the sharpening device, sitting back against the stone wall to keep watch. It had been an interesting evening...

***

Hours later, I saw the light of the sun shining through the cave entrance. My companion continued to sleep peacefully as the sun rose and I stretched, ignoring my body's demand for sleep. I was exhausted, but I could not very well go without someone on watch, so I reached into the backpack, taking a stim pack from its place at the bottom of the pack. The stim pack was one thing in my survival kit that I wished I didn't need, and for good reason. Stim packs were a controversial piece of equipment containing syringes of pure epinephrine, pain killers, and a variety of pills designed to give energy and sharpen focus. But, being a doctor, I knew how harmful every one of those things could be. I knew that because a few soldiers got addicted to the chemicals contained within the kits and they often spiraled into madness and berserk fury on the battlefield, usually causing a lot of deaths among both friends and enemies before they themselves were killed. I hated using the kits, but I also knew that I needed one to survive being shot down on a hostile world. Sighing to myself, I took one of the syringes of adrenalin from the kit and pressed a switch on my glove. With a hiss, the armor depressurized, allowing me to remove it. Then, I rolled up the sleeve on my arm and placed the needle against my skin. I shook my head slightly and gritted my teeth in preparation before pushing the needle into my arm. Once it was in, I pressed the activation button, injecting a single dose into my bloodstream. Pulling the needle back out, I put the injector back into the stim pack, then removed a blister pack of the pills that sharpened concentration, taking two and then sealing the kit back up again.

"That really isn't healthy, you know." My companion stated. I looked up to find the pilot sitting up, her green eyes open, the grey of her flight suit and armor blending in with the stone behind her.

"I know." I said, grimacing as I felt my heart speed up a little when the adrenalin took effect. "I can't afford to sleep right now. How's the leg this morning?"

"Feels a little better," she said, looking down at the cast. "At least it doesn't hurt as bad as it did."

I got to my feet and walked over to where she sat, then broke the cast of cement with my fingers. Once it had been removed, I gently felt along the leg, testing where it hurt. She only winced when I touched the part above her knee. I took off her combat boot, which looked virtually identical to those I wore, and then set it aside. Then, I rolled up the leg of her flight suit as gently as I could. Then, I explored the injured place with a very delicate touch. I felt around the injured place and felt the distinctive weakness of a torn ACL, the only serious injury her leg seemed to have sustained.

"I think you tore your ACL." I said, opening the medical kit once more. I dug around within it for a few seconds, looking for a specific piece of equipment. When I found it, I smiled, closing my hand around a small metal device.

"What is that thing?" She asked, examining it with a curious eye. She probably had never seen one before, and I wasn't surprised, they were a new piece of equipment that had only been given to medics and doctors this last year.

"This is a Robotic Field Surgeon Kit." I said, activating the device. "Using nano technology, the Terrans created nanobot surgeons that will fix just about anything. They are incredibly useful, and they make jobs like this easier." With that, I pushed the device against her knee and pressed a button that injected a group of six nanobots into her body. She winced a little when the injector pierced her skin, but she remained silent. "These devices carry two injections of bots. The bots can only remain active for an hour, so we have to inject it into the problem area, but these things are a life saver. They should be able to fix your knee pretty quickly."

"Amazing. We don't have anything like that." She said, an odd look appearing on her face. "That feels really funny."

"I know. The feeling passes after they deactivate." I explained, returning the surgeon pack to the medical kit. "It will start to itch in a minute or so, but try not to scratch it, you might damage the bots."

"What's your name?" She suddenly asked, looking at the insignia on my armor.

"Colonel Devin Cramer, but everyone always calls me Knight." I said, then turned back to her. "What's yours?"

"My name is Colonel Katy Jes'ic, but everyone calls me Falcon." She said, "You are THE Knight, of Samurai squadron, aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged." I said, holding out a hand to her. She took it and we shook hands.

The faint sunlight that crept in through the cave opening illuminated her features for the first time at that moment and I took that chance to examine her face for the first time. I could not keep the amazement from my face as I looked at her. She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her emerald green eyes shone in the light and I found myself drawn into their depths. The white and orange fur that covered her only added to the beauty of her well proportioned face. I quickly sized up her curvy body under the flight suit and I knew that she was every bit as beautiful everywhere on her body. But the thing that made my jaw drop open, was that she was so familiar to me. It was her, the woman I had been dreaming about for so many years. She was unmistakable. Looking back into her eyes, I was surprised to see that they almost mirrored my own look, for as I had moved closer, she had gotten a good look at me for the first time as well. We stared at each other for a few moments more I finally found my voice.

"Its you..." I said and she looked taken aback. "I have been having dreams about you since before the war started."

"Really?!" She asked, putting a hand to her head. "Me too. I have been seeing you in my dreams for so long, I feel like I've known you my whole life."

"Me too." I replied. We were silent for a while, staring into each other's familiar face, then I shook my head. "Well, I will let our little robotic friends do their thing and I will be back in about an hour." I removed my sidearm from its shoulder holster and offered it to her butt first. She tentatively reached out and took it, looking at me with a strange look on her face.

"You would trust me with this?" She asked, looking at the side arm. I smiled and nodded slightly.

"I do." I answered. "As strange as it seems, I feel as though I can trust you with my life." I opened a pouch on my belt and plucked a pair of spare clips from it and handed them to her. "Keep these close until I get back. I am going to go and have a look around."

She nodded as I walked out of the cave. I hefted my carbine and donned my helmet, sealing the armor once more. I really didn't mind the cold conditions of the moon. It always hovered right around freezing on the moons of Arc due to their orbital path around the planet, but having grown up on Silvermoon, a planet with rather severe seasons, I was used to the cold. The only reason I took my helmet with me was to make use of its IR and low light sensors. Activating the IR system, I looked around, seeking a vantage point. I was disappointed to find that there wasn't one in sight. Shaking my head, I decided to head back to the defile where I had met Falcon. As I walked, flitting from tree to tree to keep out of sight, I thought about Falcon. I had been dreaming about this woman for many years, watching her life unfold while I slept and now I had finally met her. I felt as though I knew everything about her, every detail of her life. The only instinct I felt was to trust her. I had been in close proximity to enemies in situations like this before, when in the Starwolf battalion. I had personally captured dozens of prisoners and always I had felt a wary sense of unease around them, and I had never relaxed my guard even for an instant. But with her, there was no such feeling, only trust. The familiarity I felt for her was disarming in the extreme. It was like being in the company of an old friend again.

I clambered down into the gully once more, sighing slightly. I couldn't think about it right now and survive. Returning my attention to the forest stream I stood ankle deep in, I picked up Falcon's plasma rifle and found that it was too badly broken to fix. Apparently, it had caught the raptor's kick, for it's side had a large gash in the metal, rupturing the power cell and wreaking havoc with the internal components. Discarding the weapon, I looked around at the Raptoid corpses and got an idea. Expertly removing the armor of one, I skinned it, then took the skin back towards the cave, rolled up easily under one arm. I swiftly mapped out the region in my head and then walked back to the cave, well inside the mark I set.

I found my companion sitting placidly against the cave wall, starring into the fire. I greeted her and she smiled upon seeing me. She looked at me questioningly when I took the skin of the creature from where I had stowed it and began to work its hide with a combat knife, scraping the remaining flesh off of it.

"One of your assailants." I stated, "The battle is still raging out in space and I gather that SAR missions are rather low priority at the moment. We need something to cover the opening while we are here, so I figured that we should use what is available."

"Works for me." She said, and I continued to clean it. "How did you learn how to do that?"

"A friend of mine from the Silvermoon academy was a full blooded Navajo from Terra." I commented, then amended the statement after I realized that she wouldn't know what that was, "The Navajo are a tribe of people that live according to the old ways no one remembers anymore. Anyway, we would often go on hunting trips in our spare time, and he taught me how to tan hides." I chuckled to myself lightly and half smiled as I remembered him. "I remember coming back from one real long one into the wilderness. We were supposed to be back at the school after three days, but we got snowed in for two weeks. We got back to school well enough, but the instructors of the academy gave us some funny looks when we came back. Thank you." I interrupted myself with a thank you because she handed back my sidearm and ammunition without me asking. "We were dressed in deer skins, and we looked like we were Navajo warriors from another time."

"I think I remember that." She said, then amended her statement when I raised an eyebrow at her. "Or at least a dream about that. I pulled some similar stunts at Regulos. A good friend of mine taught me to spear fish and we got in trouble because the commandant caught us sneaking off together in the middle of the night to catch Kolcose."

"There are Kolcose on Regulos?" I asked in surprise. The Kolcose was a species of fish that grow to be about a half meter in length that were considered delicacies. Their scales were also colorful enough to be used as jewelry. However, they were tough to catch. It took a sharp weapon hitting them at just the right spot to catch them. "I thought they were only indigenous to Athos."

"There are Kolcose all over the Merxian sector." She said, then she chuckled. "I remember that the only reason we got away with it unpunished was that we made a gift of the largest of our catch to him. I wish Gald had survived, I think I would have liked being so far away from home if she was here with me."

"I know what you mean; I miss Mingan as well." I said, continuing on with my work. "It gets really lonely out here. Actually, this morning was the first time I have seen my homeworld in many years."

"You were born on Arc!?" She asked, seeming to be greatly surprised.

I nodded and she shook her head. "What are the odds of that?"

"What were the odds of what?" I asked her.

"I was born on Arc as well." She said, and when I gave her a skeptical look, she nodded. "No really, I was born on Corusca island."

"You can't have been born on Arc, it's a Terran colony world." I stated. "And believe me, I would know if there were Merxians on Corusca Island. We spent our summers at the villa my dad owned there before I went off to Silvermoon."

"I was and I can prove it." She said, then she reached under her flight suit and took a necklace from around her neck, handing it over to me. I took it in hand and looked at it with wonder. The charm on it was crafted of a single piece of red jade and carved exquisitely into the image of a diving falcon. I reached under my own armor and drew out a necklace very similar to hers. Again crafted of red jade, my necklace was a wolf, seemingly staring at the person looking at it. I could tell that the one she wore was indeed an Archen necklace. They were given as a gift to every person born on Arc, to mark them as an Archen. Those of us from Arc never removed the necklaces, and we used them to recognize each other. Since only those born on planet were given them, we kept their meaning secret from off-worlders and I looked at her with amazement, for she knew what they were.

"How in the name of everything sacred in the universe were you born on Arc?" I asked, looking at her incredulously.

"My parents came to Arc as political refugees from some sort of upheaval in the government, and the colonial governor granted them sanctuary, rather unilaterally I understand. Most of the refugees returned when the council took over, but my parents stayed there, mainly because my mother was pregnant with me." She explained, accepting the necklace back from my outstretched hand and placing it around her neck once more.

"What happened?" I asked, putting my necklace back on as well.

"Well, as you might or might not know," She began, stretching her leg. "Prior to the war, the Merxian alliance was rife with political turmoil. The ruling party changed almost every year. Due to the fact that some of the power shifts were violent ones, groups of political refugees wandered the alliance territory. My parents met with the governor and he set up Arc as a haven for refugees of any race. Pretty soon, Arc had thousands of refugees there."

"Wait a moment." I said, looking at her with curiosity, my knife pausing in its path along the skin. "If Arc was a refugee planet with Merxians on it, then why did your military attack it?"

"We didn't." She said and continued quickly before I could speak again. "Believe me, I thought for the longest time that we had, but I can't find any record of an operation on Arc before the Arc campaign four years ago."

"Well then who did?" I asked rhetorically, "Our history indicates that the Merxian alliance slaughtered over two million colonists, including my entire family, and it was because of that that we declared war."

"I don't know who did, but it wasn't a sanctioned operation by our military." She replied, "And believe me, there isn't much I haven't accessed. I have top secret clearance."

"So do I, but I haven't had a reason to look into it." I said, continuing to scrape the knife around on the skin. "I will when I get back though." She experimentally stretched the leg and nodded when she hugged it to her chest

"Good as new." She said and looked at me again as I scraped the knife across the interior of the scaly hide. After a moment more, she spoke. "So. What's your plan?"

"My plan?" I asked, continuing to scrape the knife around on it.

"For our time here." She said.

"Well, originally, it was simply to survive until a rescue operation came." I stated, shifting the hide in my lap and scraping a new portion of it. "But, since you are here, I was going to wait until I heard what you were planning to do before I made a new plan."

"I don't know," she said, straightening out her leg once more. "Since I lost my rifle, I don't have a very effective way to survive here until I am rescued, so," she paused a moment and then continued tentatively, "I was hoping to stay here with you, that way we can watch each other's back until we are rescued by one side or the other."

"Sounds good to me." I said and started work on the last piece of hide. "Though, if I get a chance to let you get rescued by your side and to get rescued by my side at the same time, I would let you go and I would never tell that we collaborated here."

"I won't either." She said, a faint twinkle in her eyes. We fell silent as I finished tanning the lizard hide and then hung it across the doorway. The creature's grey hide would blend in with stone, keeping us safe on the inside of it from the creatures outside. Even as I finished, I yawned deeply, the adrenalin fading from my system. I could have used a second dose and kept myself active, but I made a fateful decision.

"Well," I said as I returned to the fireside. "I think I am going to get some rest. If you would be so kind as to keep watch."

"You would trust me to keep watch?" She asked, looking at me in a questioning way.

"I would trust any Archen to keep watch." I stated, laying down. "Besides, what choice do I have? I can't keep popping adrenalin, and you trusted me, so I will do the same."

"You are right." She said, hefting the carbine and laying back against the cave wall. I smiled and closed my eyes...

***

The next morning dawned clear and bright. I had awoken before the sun rose and had claimed my carbine back from Falcon before going out into the world. It was a very cold morning, with the air filled with a hanging mist. I didn't know what had awoken me, but I knew better than to question my instincts. I followed my feelings and they led me to the edge of the defile where we had fought the other day. I crouched, using my commando training to remain hidden as I walked forward. My psychic sense was going haywire, a definite warning of something wrong, a feeling I had felt several times before in my life. I decided to go further down the defile from the spot where I had met my companion before coming out to see what was going on. I dropped down into the defile and there, further up the defile, standing around the corpses of the raptors, I found a group of people that shouldn't have been there. Six people stood around there, each of them armed, but wearing no uniforms or insignia.

"You see, here." One of them said, pointing to the soft earth. By his shape I guessed he was a human. "They helped each other."

"But why?" said another human, looking about him in the mist. "They should be trying to kill each other, not helping each other."

"I don't know..." Another said before trailing off. His voice seemed vaguely familiar and it took me a moment to trace it. It was Jack MacArthur's voice. I was about to speak up, but a trio of other beings walked into the defile from the other direction. This halted me from continuing. By their shapes, they were Merxians, but clothed and equipped like the humans. I shook my head, trying to clear it from hallucinations. It didn't work. The first man who had spoken hailed the group and I listened carefully.

"What did you find?" Said he.

"Not much, just their crashed fighters." The lead Merxian answered. "Not much left of either of them. How about you?"

"The two of them seem to be working together." He replied. "We can't tell why, but they seem to be fighting to save each other."

"Odd." Said the Merxian, "The Conclave will want to hear about this I wager. Lets get going." The humans and Merxians left together, heading away into the wilderness. I remained motionless, stunned at what I had just heard. A few minutes later, the sound of engines firing up told me that they had left. My instincts told me that I had just witnessed something that was supposed to be a secret, something that no one was supposed to have seen. I practically ran back to the cave in my haste, and found Falcon waiting for me.

"What is it?" She asked, looking concerned. I quickly explained it to her and she looked as disturbed as I had. "But, that doesn't make sense. Why would our people be working together like that?"

"I don't know for sure, but something tells me that this "Conclave" that they were talking about is the reason that this war has lasted so long." I stated and she nodded.

"I agree." She said, then continued. "But there doesn't look like much we can do about it right now."

"I know. Let's concentrate on getting out of here." I said and she agreed.

***

09-14-3015

*Chronological anomaly detected; time index unknown*

Fourth moon of the planet Arc

Noid system, Contested space

I stepped out from the foliage slowly, making slow, cautious movements. The deer-like animal in the clearing ahead bent its head to the ground, oblivious of my presence. It took a bite of grass, grinding the stalks in its jaws and I sighted the bow on its neck. Smiling to myself, I drew the bow back to my eye, the hand made stone arrowhead pointed at the sweet spot, the tiny spot on all mammals that immobilized without pain. A breeze stirred the leaves and I froze as the creature looked up. I knew that it couldn't see me, the improvised ghillie suit good enough camouflage to avoid detection from any enemy. It also couldn't likely smell me, for I had rubbed my skin with wild herbs. But it might see my movement, so I held still as it looked around, not even blinking. And then, as it went back to eating, I continued to draw the bow. A twang and the arrow hit its target perfectly, bringing down the creature with ease. I moved quickly to its side, and knelt, drawing out my combat knife.

"Easy, my brother," I said, speaking the words in Navajo, as my friend had taught me, way back at the academy on Silvermoon. The creature's eyes were full of fear and it quivered as it tried to move, but my arrow had done its work well. I laid a hand gently to its neck, just below its skull. "I honor your spirit and your endurance, and I thank you for giving your life so that I might live. I promise that you will feel no pain." The creature quieted and I stabbed with the knife, ending its life in a heartbeat. Being careful to keep a good watch on my surroundings, I hefted the body and carried it back towards the cave, pleased with my success. The skill to make a bow and arrows and to hunt had not left me. It was a walk of less than a half mile to the cave entrance and when I reached it, I swept back the skin covering, bringing the smell of wood smoke and of fish to my nose.

I smiled at Falcon as she sat beside the fire, a hand carved spear against the wall beside her.

"How was fishing?" I asked and she pulled the broad, waxy leaf coverings off a rack over the fire, revealing six filleted fish, smoking over the fire.

"Good." She replied, letting the broad leaf fall. "I see hunting was good too."

"Indeed." I replied. "We will probably eat your fish tonight, the meat won't be ready until tomorrow." I sat down and began to skin and dress my kill for smoking. We had finished our survival rations the day before, and, as the battle didn't seem to be ending any time soon, we had gone hunting and fishing to get food for the time we would down here. I smiled to myself as I worked, thinking back over the last week. Ever since I had lost my friends in battle before I had become a pilot, I had been a void. I hadn't felt a true emotion for many years.

I had figured out that it came from the pain of loosing so many friends. Friends died, so I didn't let any emotion touch me, so I couldn't care about anyone and have them die on me as well. I had become a cold-blooded killer of the enemy, taking on every challenge I could so that those members of the military that still had family could go back to them alive. But it had been different that day, the day we had shot each other down. Somehow, the cold, emotionless shell around my heart had been broken when I had gotten to know Falcon. In the week since we had started collaborating, I had felt emotions. Happiness, joy and sorrow had come to me for the first time in a very long time. And I had to admit that in the short time I had known her, Falcon had become my friend. No longer did I think of her as an enemy, though that was what she was still. But we had spent hours telling stories about our friends, sharing in their mirth and the sorrow of lost friends. The dreams we had been having of each other made the experience like reminiscing about shared events. We were so alike it was almost frightening. Our shared homeworld had given us a link, and through it, we had forged a friendship. She and I had both lost most of our old friends, and neither of us had wanted to make new ones, but in each other, we had found one.

"What are you smiling about?" Falcon asked, tending the fish with a forked stick. It looked to be nearly done, which was a good thing because I was starving.

"I was just thinking about how odd it is that we became friends." I said and she nodded.

"I was just thinking the same thing." She replied, sliding the fish from the rack onto plates we had made and handing two whole fish over to me. I smiled and took the fish, setting it aside to cool, then spearing the dressed carcass with a wooden pole and then suspended it above the fire, allowing the smoke to penetrate the flesh. Then, I started to eat. The fish was delicious and I told her so. She nodded her thanks and we fell silent, listening to the crackling flames. I didn't say it just then, but camping out like this with my new friend was better than all the R and R I had had in the past seven years combined. I smiled slightly to myself and then sat back again, eating the fish quietly...

***

So it went, two warriors who had started as enemies helped each other survive, keeping each other safe. Two more weeks passed in a pleasant blur. The days were spent chatting, exploring and gathering food. The nights we often spent out of the cave, looking up at the familiar constellations of stars above our home. We tried to ignore the darting lights and bright twinkling explosions of the battle that still carried on above us. We could sense that this battle, as had often happened in this war, had become a stalemate. Neither side could gain an advantage for long, and while the battle raged, dropships were in short supply, and none could be spared to look for pilots that had gone down outside the main battle zone. During the weeks we had been here, we had fought off the Raptors on three more occasions, and we trusted each other implicitly while we had fought. The raptors had finally seemed to accept that our camp was not a place where they could find food.

Every couple of days, for decency's sake, we would leave our campsite and bathe. I bathed in a spring I had found about a half mile from the camp. My companion bathed in a river in another part of the woods to preserve her modesty. Our system of living was a very old one, but it worked well. Working together, we were surviving here on this inhospitable moon. However, there was one thing that we had forgotten about in our concentration on survival. A tiny detail about the Merxian races that none of the human scientists studying our foe had discovered, largely because it had nothing to do with their combat abilities. It was something that the Merxians themselves had forgotten to mention when our societies had made contact for the first time. This tiny quirk of biology happened to come into play on a bath day...