by Jessie Wolf
As I sit eating my breakfast I ponder over the fact that maybe more than one of these girls may not be returning to the school. I wonder how many of them will stay here as first initiates, then novices, and finally nuns. The Reverend Mother Katsumi said that she would let me know which ones could stay last night. I wonder if she like mama saw more than I did when it came to these girls. I put this thought aside for now. Right now I need to get set to pound on some grunts.
Standing up and clapping my hands to gain everyone’s attention. “Good morning ladies, I hope you all had an enjoyable night with your respective hosts. Now last night I told you of how my family and I were going to show you a few things here at the estate. Well, there will be a slight change in the time table. From here you will be taken to our House troops practice range, where you will be given a demonstration of the new second generation Death Dealers. I have two reasons for showing you all these demonstrations. The first is to show you the power of belonging to something greater then yourself, and the second is to show you that you all have choices as to who and what you want to be. As you watch I want you all to think about what kind of citizen you want to be. Afterwards me and my family will take you all to the Temple and then later to a very special place here. I hope you enjoy this day.”
I turned and led my family outside where we waited for our guests to arrive. Professor Recco was one of the first to come out and he headed straight over to me. The smile on his face let me know that he had pinged my family’s AIs at breakfast. “I take it, Lady Maiha that you plan to smash a certain high score for your House training range?”
I just have to giggle at his excitement. “Yes sir that is exactly what we plan to do. It seems mama is a little upset at the bragging by certain members of our House military.”
‘I will not tolerate such behavior by the defenders of this House. There is a long and proud military tradition in this House. One that my daughter has gone to great lengths to return us to. I will not let that tradition be disrespected or tarnished again by outsiders. I don’t care if they are now members of this House or not.” Mama must be really pissed at this team. They must have said or done something more than brag about beating our old high score to get her this worked up.
“So tell me Professor, how much of the pot are you in for?” the blush that came to his face say it all. “I hope you’re not betting against us?”
“What? You’re the Storm Dancers? No one said they were your family. I am so sorry my Lady, but I placed my bet on the Land Warrior unit retaining their place at the top of the score board. If I had known I would have placed my bet on you to overtake them.” he was truly upset over finding out his supposed mistake.
“What were you told sir?” leave it to Nanami to give him an out and save face.
“I was told that they were members of the family and that they haven’t made a practice run in over a month and a half.”
“All that is true, Professor. If I only had that to go off of I too would have placed my money on the Land Warrior units. However I believe that they and you will be surprised by today’s outcome.” With that I smiled up at him and opened a clear channel to our network. Once he had that there was a look of pure shock to cross his face.
“My God! You are the second generations that will be making the run this morning. No wonder you’re not worried about taking back the top stop. Oh well, at least MR. Lenard and Doctor Brim will make some money on you five today.”
“Um… sir, that is six. Our mama is also a member of the Storm Dancers; she just has her link turned off for now. But enough talk for now, we have to be heading over to the range.” Looking around I see that everyone has rejoined us outside and head for the practice range. I have my sisters mingle with the other students to answer any questions they may have as we head for the range through the compound. Even mama, Alice, and I answer a few, about the way that the people of our estate work and live. Many of these young ladies have never seen how much work goes into running and maintaining an estate. The fact that they are truly interested in learning about the way our people live and work is a pleasant surprise.
As we approach the training range we are met by papa and Colonel Fujiyama. Papa walks up and gives me and all my family a hug before stepping back to address everyone else. He gives me a wink before beginning. This should be good. “Good morning ladies, I am First Sergeant James Baily, and this is my range. If you do not follow the rules that are posted I will personally put my boot up your ass. I have absolutely no tolerance for stupidity. I have not had an accident on my range in over ten years, and you will not break that record. Now if you’ll please step over to the area that is marked off for you. We’ll get this show on the road. Storm Dancers move into position, and prepare for your run.”
I almost laugh at how my new father can go from being a big teddy bear to total hard ass in the blink of an eye. However he has run this range for longer than the ten years he stated and only had one accident in all that time. I see no reason in interfering with the way he runs his range. Besides I know for a fact that if he really had to scare one of those girls it would break his heart. The man had a weak spot when it came to little girls, no matter their age.
I step over with my family and quickly remove my robes handing them to a pair of novices from the Temple. They are new here as I have not seen them around the Temple before. Once again I wonder how many of the girls here might be staying at the Temple, and how many will be returning with us to JES.
I put the thought out of my head as mama joins our combat link. It is time to go to work.
Chapter 14
I look around at my family and see that they are ready for action. Opening up a link to the tower. “Wave Dancer to tower range control, over”
“Go for tower one, Wave Dancer, over.”
“Storm Dancers are set and ready to commence our run, over.”
“Copy that Wave Dancer, we still need five mikes to finish the set program set up, over.”
Looking around at my family I get an idea to have some fun. “Tower one; we can give you ten mikes if you needed it, over”
“What are you up to Wave Dancer?” I can hear the grin in papa voice. He knows that I’m up to something.
“Oh, I figured we could take a quick stroll around the estates before starting our run, over.”
The chuckle that precedes pap’s answer lets me know that he is all for my little plan for some fun. “You’re cleared to commence operations Storm Dancers. Be back at the starting line in ten mikes, starting now. Go! Go! Go!”
At papa’s urging we take off at half of our normal speed. None of us want to push ourselves too quickly. Mama moves up on my right, while Alice takes up a flank position five meters behind and to my left, with Nanase the same distance and position behind her. Fuyuko does the same as Alice only she is to mama’s right with Nanami behind her. We form a classic wedge formation as we move out to sweep the estate. Once again I feel the power of my Death dealer enhancements, I feel the rush as I know that my family is right there with me.
Slowly we push our speed upward toward what has become our normal operating range of ninety mph. someone must have sounded an alarm of some kind as the people of the estate look up and get out of our way as we speed through the area. I notice that there is more than one with a smile on their faces. I even hear some cheers as we pass. This only encourages me and my family to push ourselves even harder. Soon we break the hundred mile an hour mark. At this rate, by the time we hit the range papa will have to recalibrate the range to compensate for our speed.
“Tower one; we just passed the one hundred mark and are holding steady, over.” I figure that if I warn papa now he’ll have to make the changes. His reply surprises me thou.
“Storm Dancers, you’re going to have to pick up the pace if you want to last on the range, over”
“Tower one; are you saying we need more speed, over.”
“That is a big time roger, Wave Dancer. We had to reset the range to ha
ndle your speeds so get a move on kitten. You have three minutes to run time, over”
“Copy that Tower one; pushing our speed to one ten, and heading for the attack line in T-minus two and counting, over”
“Good hunting, Storm Dancers. My money is on you, so don’t let me down, girls, over.”
There is a round of yes sirs over the combat link as we set up our speed and get ready to hit the range. As we pass the main gate I see that today’s APS guards are a pair of Vulture scout class units. A truly nasty APS for that class. They are fast, maneuverable and pack a punch well above their weight class. I see by their markings that they are from one of the mercenary units that have joined my House Military. Dee De flashes a warning on my HUD to let me know it is almost time to head for the range.
“Dee De, how integrated are my families Death Dealer systems?”
They have the same amount of integration as we do, kiddo. (Dee De)
“Do you see any signs of their personalities splitting? I don’t want to have to ‘decommission one of them.”
Commander, there is no need to worry. I have pulled a complete diagnostic on all of your family and their AIs. None of them have the triggers for a splitting. (Charlie)
“Thank you, Charlie. I don’t think that I could stand losing one of them to that.”
Charlie’s words had put to rest something that had been plaguing me since they had awakened their AIs. It doesn’t happen as often as it used to, but it is still a real threat to all Death Dealers. Even after hundreds of years the scientists still don’t know why some people develop a split personality when their AIs awaken. I personally think it is the fact that they now share their minds with a separate living entity that is not under their total control.
Ten seconds to attack, Maiha. (Dee De)
Her warning brings me back to the task at hand. I key up the link for my family.
“Time to show them what we’re made of, Storm Dancers. Leave nothing standing in your wake, over”
“You heard Wave Dancer, ladies; I am tired of the Land Warriors thinking they can outperform the command lance for this House. This is about more than bragging rights, this is about honor.” Oh boy mama is pissed. I don’t know who the commanding officer is for the Land Warriors, but he sure stepped on his dick. Mama may not confront him head on like I would, but she will grind him into the dirt, by outperforming him and his men.
I look up and see that we are almost on top of the attack line. I hear from the tower papa calling out the count down. “Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. GO! GO! Good hunting Storm Dancers.”
We cross the line at our top speed of one hundred and twenty- eight miles per hour. We fan out to cover more area and engage more targets. We can still cover each other if one of us gets into trouble or can’t handle something on their own. I feel the COBRA o.s take over before I even know it is happening. Then it happens. Across our combat link the COBRA o.s jumps to each member of my family. We don’t slow down, or drop a step. However I know that from this moment on they will all have the exact same control problem that I will, and there is nothing I can do to stop.
“Charlie! Shut down the COBRA system now!”
“I am sorry commander, but I can’t, and neither can Dee De. That system is totally independent from us.” I can almost see the distress Charlie is feeling about this.
“Dee De scan that gods be damned program. This maybe the only chance we ever have to analyze it before it gets so deep that we can’t get a handle on it.”
On it, commander. I may not be able to stop it but I can get a read on it. (Dee De)
It has been a long time since she has called me by rank, so I know she will give it her all. Charlie may not be able to do anything because of it, but Dee De is separate from him and has just as much computing power. I go back to concentrating on the run, and let Dee De worry about the COBRA o.s. I may have to deal with it, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before I let my family deal with it. We pass into the APS portion of the exercise before running into our first problem. Two lances of scout APS’ where normally there is only one. Now for most eight to six odds would seem a little lopsided. Well in this case it still is; only they are the ones who are out gunned.
Mama nails two at the same time. Alice rips through her target and turns to give Fuyuko a hand with hers. Nanami and Nanase both team up on theirs by cris crossing their attack paths. This leaves me with the last two. I let go and quit fighting for control over the COBRA. In short order the scouts are smoking piles of scrap. We move on from there to the next set of targets. The medium and heavies fall just as fast as the scouts. Papa must have been expecting this as the next thing we knew there was a lance of fire support APS’ bearing down on us. This could have been a problem for most units, for us it was more fuel to the fire. We split them up and ripped them apart. It wasn’t until the assault class came into play that Dee De gave me some great news.
Commander I have the solution to the COBRA o.s. (Dee De)
“Then put it into use. Don’t tell me about it. I am tired of that damn thing taking me over.” I hear a heavy sigh from her that doesn’t sound good. “Ok, what is the problem, Dee De?”
Commander, I am sorry, but the solution will only work for your family. (Dee De)
“Do it Dee De. So long as they don’t have to deal with it I can live with that.”
Consider it done, commander. I am truly sorry James; I know how much you want to get rid of the COBRA. (Dee De)
I can tell that this has upset her. In all our years together she has failed me only three times and this is the third. “Don’t worry about it Dee De. You didn’t fail me; you saved my family from that thing. I only want to know how it did it this time.”
I have that answer commander. When your family activated your combat link the COBRA system pick up their emotional state through the link. It was their heightened sense of excitement along with your own that caused a bridge for it to cross. I have taken steps to prevent this in the future, it won’t happen again. (Charlie)
“Hold on to that cure until we finish the run Dee De. I don’t want any of my family dropping over if it resets their AIs on the range.”
Understand commander. Oh by the way honey, you have a Dire Wolf targeting you. Move left NOW! (Dee De)
Good old Dee De no matter what she always has my back. I move left as twin beams of thunder and lightning from the Dire Wolf’s Twin PPC’s pass through the area I was just in. I keep moving until I cross into its rear arc. No way was I going to let this monster get a hard target lock on my ass. If I did, I was dead. Of all the assault class APS’ out there the Dire Wolf is one of the deadliest. At one hundred ton and supporting more fire power than a twentieth century tank company the damn things were a walking nightmare. I use my jump asset to get on its back. I climb up until I have a clear shot at its cockpit and fire my PPC. At this range I can’t miss and there is nothing to slow down its punch. In short I just blasted its head off.
As the APS start to fall I jump clear. When I land I find that there are no more targets to engage. My family has performed a clean sweep of the range. The smile that comes to my face is mirrored on theirs. We rush together for a group hug. As we embrace each other Dee De delivers the COBRA cure. Nanami and Nanase both stagger a little, but they are the only ones to show any sign of something happening.
“Hey you ok baby sisters? That run didn’t take too much out of you did it?” Alice was quick to pick up on their staggering there for a minute. When they shake their heads no she still isn’t satisfied. “Are you sure? We can do the second run without you. It won’t hurt our score one bit.”
I watch as the twins get this indignant look on their faces at hearing this. However every now and then they like to pull that twin speak thing some twins do, but they don’t do it often. Thank the Goddess for small favors. However they do tend to do it when they get mad like now.
“We’ll have you know….”
“that we can handle our…”
/>
“end just fine. Besides…”
“you’re the one who…”
“missed that King Snake…”
“not us! So you need…”
“to watch your own six and….”
“quite worrying about us!”
Watching Alice’s head snap back and forth as the twins go off on her has all of us laughing in no time. “Come on Storm Dancers. Last one back buys the next time we come home. Besides I want to see where we scored.” My smile let everyone know that we had most likely reclaimed the top spot on the training score board. We had crossed the range at almost full speed but we took our time getting back. Ten minutes later we were at the base of the control tower waiting for papa to come down.
As we wait for him Professor Recco walks over to us. There is a smile on his face that tells me we may have just screwed up. “Lady Maiha, may I have a word with you, please?” of course I see this for what it is. Nodding my head I step over to the side away from my family. “I know your secret, Lord Owens.” The man damned near gave me a heart attack with that statement. “Do not worry, I had my suspicions the first time we met.”
“Sir, I do not know what you are referring to, but if you think that I am my grandfather you’re in need of a Doctor.” I figure I might as will see what he thinks before letting out the truth.
“Maybe, I shouldn’t have said Lord Owens. I am sorry to say this but Lady Maiha you are so much like your grandfather and the way you ran that practice run. Everything you and your family did was right out of the field manual. Everything I saw said First High Lord James J. Owens. This leaves me with only one answer to how a young girl like you can have that kind of knowledge. He somehow downloaded his AI into yours or transplanted his along with your own. The second way would explain why I receive a double ping from your AI. You have two of them.”
I giggle at his reasoning because he is way too close to the truth. However flawed it is. However I do have two Death Dealer AIs. I need to redirect his suspicions. “Very well, sir, yes I do have what would be considered two AIs, however in truth it is a single AI with a twin or dual processor. As for how I came by that, I am afraid that you will have to have a much higher security clearance than you currently have.”
