Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (3 page)

              “You know she has a thing for you?” Leah said.

              “Alyssa? Yeah right!” Liam scoffed.

              “She does! Boy, you truly are oblivious sometimes.”

              Liam laughed at this and pulled Leah towards him. She half heartedly pushed at him for a few seconds before relenting and letting him enfold her in his arms. Nuzzling her face against his chest she breathed in deeply.

              “I wish we didn't have to hide this,” she said into his chest.

              “Yeah, me too. But if we don't then we will start hearing accusations of unfair treatment.....especially from your little rival.” Liam said, the latter part said in jest.

              Leah punched him softly in the arm but didn't pull away from him.

              “I still don't see why, Frank doesn't have a problem with us being together.” said Leah.

              “That’s Admiral Kelvin to you, Miss Aecrin.” said Liam, not bothering to hide the amusement in his voice.

              Leah gave him another soft punch but otherwise did nothing.

              “It's only for another two months and then you graduate.”

              “Oh? So does that mean I can move into those cushy quarters of yours?”

              Liam laughed and tightened his arms around her, leaning down to kiss her on top of her head. Leah pulled back a bit to look up into his face.

              “You didn't answer me. Does that mean you don't want me moving in?” Leah asked.

              Liam sighed as he looked down at her.

              “Leah, when you graduate you won't necessarily be stationed here. All new graduates are supposed to spend their first tours aboard one of the new Battlecruisers.”

              Leah's face fell slightly at this news.

              “There is nothing you can do? I mean you do know the President of the United States and that has to count for something,” Leah asked hopefully.

              Liam looked down at Leah but didn't say anything, a forlorn look upon his face. Leah pulled back from Liam, letting her arms fall to her sides, and sighed.

              “I'm sorry Liam, that wasn't fair for me to ask. I know you are in a tricky situation. I know if I hadn't joined up to be a
Templar
knight then we wouldn't be having this conversation and we would be living in your quarters together without the drama we go through now.”

Sighing Leah turned and picked up her bag.

“Well we should get going before Alyssa starts wondering why I haven't returned to the dormitory and comes looking for me,” said Leah, surrender in her voice.

Turning she headed towards the door. She had taken about five steps before she realized Liam wasn't following. Turning back she looked over to Liam who stood seemingly deep in thought.

              “Oh Liam, don't let it bother you, we will figure something out. If I have to serve a tour then so be it, we will just make the most of the time we do get together.” Leah said, the last part said with a mischievous smile on her face.

              Still Liam didn't smile or say anything. He thought of how Leah came to join up to become a knight. At first when he had manipulated his own nanites to repair her wounds he hadn't expected them to change Leah. After he had repaired the wound he simply broke the connection with the nanites thinking they would simply go inert. However, under the last command given, the nanites continued their repairing of Leah's body, no matter how slight a defect. In time the nanites completely integrated throughout her body, in numbers almost equal to Liam's. She now had the strength and reflexes equal to all the other knights if not better. The scientists and the Meshtrell were dumbfounded as to how Liam had accomplished this. So far she hadn't displayed any of the extraordinary abilities like Liam's.

              As for Liam, while very few knew of his capture by the Shenkar, the ones that did were relentless in their requests for him to allow them to run a battery of tests. They were hoping to unlock what exactly the Shenkar had done that had modified Liam's nanites. The few tests he had let them perform had resulted in nothing out of the ordinary. The Meshtrell, who had invented the technology, were at a loss to how Liam could do what he does.

              Finally sick of the tests and all the requests, Liam had made in clear he would not submit to anymore tests and therefore would not be their guinea pig. However in his own time he had been practicing with his gift, testing his limits. He now could move items at will with little to no focusing. The intensity of his electrical attack had also grown beyond even anything he had thought possible. During one private episode of practice he had accidentally overloaded a nearby transformer, blanketing the entire base in darkness. After that he paid more attention to where he unleashed the electrical assaults. Lately he had been attempting to manipulate the field directly around him to be able to levitate. He had little success so far although he had managed to levitate about a foot off the ground with some heavy concentration.

              The sound of Leah's voice broke his thoughts and he looked up.

              “Liam? I am serious, don't let it bother you, we will figure it all out. All that matters is I love you and you love me. Come on, let's get going.”

              Leah turned and once again started to head for the door.

              “How about you marry me?” he asked quietly.

              Leah stopped dead in her tracks, turned about, a look of surprise on her face.

              “W-w-what?” she stammered.

              “Marry me! If we are married you wouldn't have to serve a tour and would be stationed here with me.” Liam mumbled then realizing what he was saying, quickly added “Well, it was just a thought, I mean only if you wanted to that is, I would understand if you weren't ready to.”

              Leah stood there for a second, dumbfounded, before suddenly dropping her bag and launching herself at Liam. Liam caught her in midair as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, as she kissed him deeply. The passionate kiss seemed to last forever in Liam's mind before Leah broke the kiss and hugged him fiercely.

              “So I take it that's a yes?” he asked, his voice strained from the choke hold Leah had on his throat.

              Leah let up on her hug slash choke hold to lean back, tears running down her face but a huge shining smile showing.

              “Of course it is, you chowderhead! Do you know how long I have been thinking of that?”

              Liam smiled at this news and kissed her. After another long kiss he let go of her legs and she slid down to stand before him.

              “When we have more time I will show you just how much I am excited about the thought of marrying you.” she said, the mischievous smile returning.

              Liam suddenly found himself counting the moments to when they would be able to next spend some alone time together.

              “Come on, I will walk you to your barracks.” he said.

              Together they walked towards Leah's barracks, enjoying each other’s company in silence. The sound of helicopters made Liam look up. Above them flew four Blackhawk helicopters, heading in towards the helicopter pads.

              “That will be the new recruits coming in. They will be the third group to undergo the new procedure.” explained Liam.

              “Explain to me again why they changed the enhancement process.”

              “Well, as you know for the process to be a success, and not kill the subject, the person needs to be receptive to the nanites and what they do.”

              “You mean suicidal?” interrupted Leah.

              “I wasn’t suicidal,” Leah stated matter-of-factly.

              “That is because I was the one who changed you. This resulted in a different process which in turn protected you from the negative effects one would incur as a result of not being suicidal,” Liam explained.

              “Ah, that makes sense,” Leah said.

              “So, anyways as I was saying people need to be receptive. Problem is, people like that are becoming harder and harder to find. With the defeat of the Dread fleet and the prospect of expeditions into space, people have had their feelings of loss replaced with hope. Luckily our scientists, with the help of Steve and Tim, have been able to modify the process to allow a much broader group of candidates. From what I understand the new process doesn't have the dangers the previous one did. There is no memory loss, either, from what I have heard. The new recruits will have enhanced speed, reflexes, and accelerated healing but it will be nowhere near the scale we have. They also believe the newly enhanced won't have the kinetic shield we do nor will they be able to wield the plasma sword like we do. They will still be trained in the use of the weapon and will carry one but their primary weapons will be the new energy rifles. They will also not be known as
Templar knights
, they will be called
Paladins
.”

              “
Paladins
? Well, that is different, how will they rate against the Shenkar pilots? In space and on the ground?”

              “In space they should still be superior but from what is projected for personal ground combat they will only have half the edge we do, hence the reason for the new energy rifles. They will be the new special forces of the EDF. Other men and woman are being trained as the backbone of the defense force that will make up most of the army although I don’t know what they will be called yet. From what I have heard they will primarily be made up of men and woman from the countries of the
Council of Earth
. It's a whole new branch of military that needs to be built with men,woman and new equipment. Speaking of which, have you seen the new X-21
Spartan
battle tank? It is quite the sight to see from what I have heard.”

              They continued to walk in silence for the next few minutes until they reached Leah's barracks. Leah turned and looked up into Liam's eyes.

              “Do you think they will be back?”

              “The Shenkar? Yeah probably, the higher ups and the Meshtrell think they will be back. The Meshtrell especially think so as they said the Shenkar will want their heads for giving technology to a race that handed them their first major defeat....and a monstrous one at that. Does it worry you they will be back?”

              “It doesn't worry you?” Leah asked doubtfully.

              “Well to a degree it does but worrying about it won't change whether they return or not. When they come then we will meet them head on, until then all we can do is continue preparing.”

              “Yeah, well, they better not show up before we get married, otherwise they are going to have one seriously pissed off bitch on their hands,” said Leah as she struck what she felt was her angry look upon her face.

              Laughing, Liam gave Leah a playful punch.

              “Yeah, you are oh so fearsome.”

              Leah smiled, turned, looked at her barracks and sighed.

              “Well I suppose I should get going. I am sure Alyssa thinks I got reprimanded by you and she will want to rub it in. Honestly, I don't see how she made a knight, she is pretty oblivious.”

              Leah gave Liam a quick hug and then hurried off towards her dormitory. Liam watched her until she entered the building then turned and headed off towards his own quarters.

November 20
th
, 2013 4:58pm

White House, Washington D.C.

              Adam Sheehan leafed through the pile of never-ending reports for the fourth time this hour. Reports ranging from construction updates of the fleet and their support craft to updates of the formation of the new space marine division, as people were calling it at the moment, littered his desk. He remembered when the new branch had been first conceived and how he thought calling the men and woman “space marines” just didn’t seem right and they would need to find a new title. It had been his teenage son who had come up with an interesting title for them. Adam had recently brought this recommendation to the council and they all agreed by a majority vote. The result being the title the
Praetorian Guard
, in memory of the hardened warriors that were the elite guard of ancient Rome. You would think with the new branch finalized it would have alleviated some of the paperwork but this never seemed to be the case. Sighing he sat back and rubbed his eyes.

              “Tired?” asked a familiar voice.

              Startled, he looked up to see the owner of the voice. Frank Kelvin stood just inside the door smiling as he leaned against the door jam.

              “Damn it, how do you do that? It's spooky how someone so big can move so silently.” he chided.

              Smiling he stood and walked around his desk, hand proffered. Frank met him halfway, their hands coming together in a firm hand shake.