Kadance

12

Tommy motions to Jayse and holds a low voiced conversation. He reports about the nightmare and Kadance's orders. Jayse's face grows thoughtful.

"She's right. The uniforms will be good. Similar but enough different we won't be mistaken as active service. She wants, no she's making a small army to hold off shifters. A hundred seasoned soldiers-redliners. We could, given enough time hold off anything except a full force invasion-or at least hold it off long enough for the companies to show up." Jayse smiles and even Tommy's face lightens.

"Redliners will like that. As will Command. I better get on that call to Rueton. She's expecting you and Dest," Tommy reminds Jayse.

At the reminder Jayse's face clouds over. "You're right." Jayse motions for Dest and Tommy gets Rackem to call the general.

"I'm calling on behalf of Kadance. If you don't put the general on now she's going to go ballistic. The general left her with a time bomb that's she's trying to diffuse. She needs clarification on her orders. Now get him on the line!" Tommy's voice is hard and angry. "Or do I have to get Kadance to do it?" Tommy threatens and that's all it takes.

"Kadance they finally put the general on. You're set," Tommy sends over.

"Thank you Tommy, patch him through please." Kadance says pleasantly enough.

"Kadance, I didn't expect to hear from you again quite so soon," the general is cautious.

"Would've been sooner, but my body took exception and made me sleep. Now at the shuttle port you left me in a bit of a bind. Corporal Dest is still a time bomb I need to diffuse. Yet it seems that what happened is so classified that it's not even in his files. I need to know if my clearance extends to that classification level or not," Kadance says looking him straight in the eyes.

The general pauses, "Yes, but there are some conditions. You can't make 'home movies' or recordings about anything he says about his mission. You and your team are cleared to hear it though. I repeat no recording of any kind are to be made about anything he says about his missions."

"Thank you general," Kadance says as she cuts the transmission. "Okay, Tommy you catch that?"

"Yes, we can listen but not record." Tommy says more than a bit chagrined that Kadance caught him listening to a private chat with Rueton. "I'll send it out to the other team members so they can listen in."

Kadance keeps the smile she feels hidden. She was fairly certain that Tommy wouldn't be able to resist eavesdropping on her chat with the general. She turns to Dest.

"Now then Dest, I need you to tell me what happened. I won't be able to help you if you don't." Kadance says softly.

Dest breathes deep and closes his eyes. "It haunts me, what I've seen. Their eyes follow me and implore me to save them. To kill them. To put them out of their agony. I did what I could, but I couldn't save them all." Dest's voice breaks and tears start falling. "You see I was sent...." Dest goes into his mission. He was supposed to do recon of the enemy base. There he found they had taken prisoners. But what the shifters had done to them made him sick. He did what he could. He gave as many as he could the final grace but there were too many and he couldn't help them all.

"Finally I did the only thing I could do. I painted their camp and called in for the missile strike. The missiles struck soon after that. They were finally gone, but their eyes still follow me, accuse me of betraying them."

Dest's voice is as haunted and broken as any mans could be. "We failed them. The warriors failed them."

Kadance's slap echoes through the room. Her voice is hard as she demands, "How did you fail them? You gave them honor when you gave them the final grace. They found peace, you ended their agony. How did you fail them? You sent missiles to destroy the enemy and to release those you couldn't give the final grace to. HOW DID YOU FAIL THEM?"

"I failed by not saving them!" Dest replies shouting back.

Kadance softens her voice and kneels in front of him and takes his hands in hers, "But you did save them Dest. The final grace and the missiles striking saved them from a lifetime of nightmares and horror. They would never get over the living horror that they'd been through. You brought them peace. Those eyes were never accusing you they're thanking you. You saw what was being done and it's giving you nightmares. Do you really think they'd want to live with that memory for the rest of their lives? It haunts you and you weren't even subjected to what they were."

"It was us that allowed them to be captured in the first place. We failed to keep them safe." Dest continues in his broken voice snot and tears running unchecked and uncaring down his face. "We weren't there. We should have been there. We should have been!"

Kadance stills, "What do you mean? Did you disobey orders and abandon your post?"

Dest is openly crying, "We received intel that the shifters were preparing a major strike in the southeast quadrant. We were short manned there having taken heavy casualties. We were sent to help, leaving only one unit behind. It didn't feel right but I didn't say anything. By the time we knew it was bad intel it was too late. The unit was wiped out. They took down as many as they could I don't know maybe five hundred or so but they couldn't stop them. It was a raid. They wanted the people to eat them and do other things.

"I was sent to find and save them if I could and destroy the base camp, I and a few others. The camp was destroyed but we were able to track down and destroy the other shifters but it was too late for the civvies," Dest chokes out.

Kadance gently wipes his face then holds him as he cries. "You didn't fail them. If you hadn't gone it might have been the people in that other quadrant that would've been captured. Your actions released the captives. Maybe not the way we'd prefer but it's the only way they would have wanted."

Kadance nods to Jayse who stands down from battle readiness. "Dest, we all know that the shifters are inhumane creatures. They desire our destruction. Are you now going to allow them that ultimate victory over you? Or will you have the victory over them and not only survive but thrive?"

Dest stiffens, "Ma'am?" He sits up straight.

Kadance goes back to her own seat. "I mean, are you willing to live or are you going to give up. The way I see it, you have three options:" she holds out a tablet, "Option one. You take this tablet and you find your final peace. Option two. You reject the tablet and start your life over again," she says.

Dest eyes the tablet offered and asks, "And the third option?"

Kadance smiles and waits for him to look up at her before she answers, "You join my team. You help me give back the lives that shifters have stolen. So Dest which do you choose? Peace, life, or suicidal maniacs/ baby sitting?"

That last bit makes him laugh. He reaches out to Kadance's hand and closes it over the tablet. "Put that away. How could I refuse option three?" Kadance silently lets out the breath she'd been holding.

"Welcome Dest. Welcome." Kadance says smiling. The other team members send out their welcome as well via com.

Jayse pulls him off to the side and starts talking to him. Kadance just lays back limply in her chair. That one she hadn't been sure of. He'd almost taken the tablet. She saw his look of hunger for it.

She found herself drifting off to sleep and was too tired to fight it. But it annoys her at how easy it is to become exhausted now.

Jayse picks her up and carries her to the bed. She sighs contentedly as Jayse stays next to her working quietly while she sleeps.

Jayse still needs to find two more people for his core team and so continues working going over the different personnel files to find someone worthy of joining their team. Next to him Kadance sighs and snuggles closer to him. Jayse smiles at her tenderly.