Chapter 1

The following characters return from the previous story:

Cleveland Jensen

Captain, Team Leader of Tiger Team, 6’-5’’ tall, 240 pounds, 35 years old, blue eyes, sandy blond hair and a number of enhancements

Patrisha Ferguson (Trish)

Lieutenant Colonel, former Special Operations Representative to Addison III, now Commander of Special Operations First Mobile Headquarters Team, 6’-1’’ tall, around 180 pounds, 38D-25-38, 33 or 34 years old, flaming red hair, emerald eyes and a number of enhancements

Joel Luther

Senior Lieutenant, second in command of the Team, 6’-0’’ tall, 195 pounds, 32 years of age, black hair and brown eyes, also a number of enhancements

Lucy Miranda

Senior Lieutenant, handles the Magic for the Team, 5’-6’’ tall, 140 pounds, 36D-24-36, 30 years old, long black hair, gray eyes, Asian descent and also a number of enhancements

Bob

Male Siberian Tiger, 140 inches long with a 40 inch tail, 44 inches tall at the shoulder, 700 pounds, Cleve’s Partner

Susie

Female Siberian Tiger, 113 inches long with a 36 inch tail, 39 inches tall at the shoulder, 400pounds, Cleve’s Partner

Samson

Male Bald Eagle, 40 inches body length, wing span over 7’-6’’ and weighs 14 pounds, Luther’s Partner

Sara

Female Bald Eagle, 42 inches body length, wing span 8’-0’’ and weighs 15 pounds, Trish’s Partner

Major Kanisha Ollennu

Major, Executive Officer, 5’-8’’ tall, 149 lb, 34C-22-34, 29 years old, black hair, brown eyes

SGT Natalie Maharaj

MSG, Team Leader of Team A-31, Clare’s Partner, 5’-11’’ tall. 175 pounds, 36C-25-36, 39 years old, long black hair worn in a bun, brown eyes

Clare

Female Tiger, Natalie’s Partner, 111 inches long with a 34 inch tail, 38 inches tall at the shoulder, 350 pounds, not quite 5 years old

SGT Max Dixon

SFC, S-3, now a member of Team A-23, 6’-1’’ tall, 210 lb, 36 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Colonel Royal

Special Operations S-3, Full Colonel, 6’-0’’ tall, 190 pounds, 45 years old, brown hair, gray eyes, fully enhanced

The following new character appears:

SGM Abigail O’Cionaoith

Sergeant Major, Commander of the Magic School, 5’-8’’ tall, 150 pounds, 36C-25-35, 42 years old, short light red hair, gray eyes, fully enhanced with a strong Talent

It required six days of hard work to load and move all of our equipment and the remaining supplies up to the Baltic. Again, Tiger Team and our Partners were the last ones to be loaded. Our former employees at the hotel drove us to the airfield to catch the last shuttle.

While waiting for the shuttle to be prepared for the return flight, a six foot tall Pillar had appeared beside us.

“Remember, you will always be welcome here,” the voice of the Entity told us, before the Pillar disappeared.

On boarding the Baltic, we were met by the Captain, who had a message for us.

“There is an encoded message waiting for you on the computer outlet in your cabin, Colonel. You need to check on it as soon as you can. We will be departing in six hours, once all of the Partners and other things have been secured. All personnel are to remain in their bunks during departure until we are well away from the planet,” he informed us.

After checking on our Partners, and finding them happy with the arrangement of their traveling homes, we went to our cabins. We four all had cabins in the officer’s area now.

“Cleve, you had better come with me, while I see what this message is about,” Trish told me. “We’ll let you know what it’s about once we find out,” she assured Joel and Lucy. In her cabin, Trish activated the computer terminal there.

“Place your hands on the keyboard area,” was the first instruction from the computer before the screen even lit-up. She did and a light passed across her hands.

“Now look at the upper right corner of the screen,” was next. When Trish did, a light came on and scanned her face. The screen lit up then after several seconds. It showed a picture of Colonel Royal.

“Colonel Ferguson, when you arrive on Ainalhai III, you will send your unit to its building under the command of your Executive Officer. You and Tiger Team, less your Partners, will report directly to my office. You had better have a really excellent explanation for why you and Tiger Team should not be court-martialed for Treason against the Unity when you arrive,” the message finished, much to our shock.

“It would appear that we really pissed off someone in the Unity Government,” the Colonel said after hearing and reading the message.

“I guess we should have expected it. It wasn’t just the Government. Those in the Navy are probably pretty pissed that they didn’t get to wipe out the Navies of any of those unaligned Planets. Bet their three star Admiral is still pretty upset with us too,” I told her.

“There is that,” she admitted with a sigh, but soon revived. “We need to inform Lucy and Joel about this and have a strategy session. Later, we’ll need to bring Kanisha in on this, and eventually the rest of the unit,” she told me. I went to get Lucy and Joel, and we played the message again for them. They were also shocked. Following that, we started the strategy session. There wasn’t much new that came out of it, but we went over everything that we had agreed on earlier. Each of us made sure that we had our story down pat. No flubs or changes. It was the best that we could do.

The following day, we brought Kanisha in and covered the message and her role in what she would do when we landed on Ainalhai III. Later we went to the Partners’ hold and explained things to our Partners individually. They were upset at the thought that we were in danger, and they couldn’t help us. They were also unhappy that they would need to be transported back to our headquarters without us once we landed. This did not sit well with the Eagles especially.

“No, we will not go in a cage,” Sara sent to Trish. “Release us when we land, and we will fly to the building and await you there in the trees,” she insisted. Bob and Susie were also unhappy.

“Who will guard your back or go ahead to look for an ambush?” Susie asked.

“We will need to do that ourselves, but we have strong Magic now and can cast wards to protect ourselves,” I reminded her.

Lucy had spent a part of the time while we waited for transportation on Parthas teaching us Magic. Even Eachna and Eavan had spent some time teaching us some of their Magic spells. Additionally while on the return trip, Lucy went over more Magic spells with us.

All of this was squeezed in between the mandatory classes and some additional cross-training while on the trip. There was also PT three days a week.

It wasn’t until we were a week from arriving in the Ainalhai III system, that we informed the remainder of the unit about our problem. They too were shocked. We arranged to have MSG Maharaj take Susie to our headquarters along with her Partner Clare. SFC Max Dixon agreed to take Bob with him. He had cross-trained with both Bob and Susie on the return voyage. Susie liked him better than Bob did, but Bob had agreed to go with him.

On 29 October 2596, we arrived in the Ainalhai system. Again, it required four days to reach the vicinity of the heavily armed space station above the planet. Since we were an entire unit returning from a mission, we didn’t need to go through the space station. The customs inspectors boarded the Baltic and went over our unit and individual declarations. There had been no additions this time, and things went rather smoothly. I did notice that the individual we had trouble with arriving here previously was not with those who boarded the ship.

Naturally, Tiger Team along with our Partners plus Dixon and Team A-31 and their Partners were on the first shuttle to leave for the planet. Kanisha and Team A-23 would follow us while part of the S-4 section and several volunteers would see to the unloading of the unit’s equipment, and the remainder of the S-4 section would see its storage at our headquarters. The remainder of our personnel would come down with the equipment and our vehicles.

When our shuttle landed, we were met by a Major from the S-3 section along with two MPs. There were two buses there also. After releasing our Partners, the four of us plus the Major and the two MPs loaded on the smaller bus. The others, who had come down with us, loaded the other bus, which was outfitted for Partners. Joel and the Colonel had released Samson and Sara, and they flew off to our building, much to the Major’s surprise and disappointment.

“Do you have any weapons with you?” the Major demanded before we could board the bus.

“No, we left them in our gear to be taken to the unit,” the Colonel informed him. “All we have with us is a change of clothes and some toiletries,” she added. The MPs searched our bags as if we were criminals but found nothing.

Arriving at the headquarters building, we were required to pass through a scanner after removing our watches and PDUs. This was new, and I observed that not everyone entering the building was required to do this. The Major and the MPs hadn’t.

Following that, we loaded on an elevator and were taken up to what we thought was Colonel Royal’s office. The Major knocked on the door and someone inside said to enter.

“Report to the Colonel,” the Major told us with a smirk and opened the door. I noticed that Trish took particular notice of his name tag before moving. The open door revealed not an office, but a small conference room. Across the width of the room was a table with Colonel Royal sitting in the middle of the table and two Lieutenant Colonels sitting on either side of him. There were a number of chairs in front of the table and facing it. There were several people sitting there. I didn’t recognize anyone in there but Colonel Royal. The other officers were not from Special Operations. There was also a large heavy chair sitting at a right angle to the table.

“Follow me,” the Colonel told us and moved into the room with the three of us behind her.

“Tiger Team reporting, sir,” she said on stopping three feet from the table and saluting. Colonel Royal returned the salute but held it for a number of seconds before he dropped it. He didn’t seem happy to see any of us. Trish dropped her salute after he did.

“Colonel, what the hell went on, on that planet?” he demanded in an angry voice, while leaving us at attention.

“Didn’t you receive our report, sir?” Trish asked the Colonel.

“WHAT? That piece of made-up excuses and fantasy? Did you actually expect anyone to believe that?” he demanded in an angry voice.

“Excuses and Fantasy?” she demanded in an indignant voice. “That report is as accurate and factual as it is possible to be. Everything in it is the absolute truth. If you or others choose not to believe it, that is your problem,” she finished.

“You actually expect me to believe that a planet can be alive or sentient?” he demanded in a harsh voice.

“It wasn’t the planet that was sentient. It was the Entity that controls the planet that was, if not alive, at least aware of what was going on and directing the responses to it,” she told him.

“How were your relations with the Parthas Armed Forces?” one of the Lieutenant Colonels asked.

“It varied. At first, they were anxious for us to go to work, but they were not prepared to give us any information about the military situation, the enemy’s location, the weather, or anything else. After we were contacted by representatives of the original colonists, they became hostile and actually attacked us, or at least tried to. Their fighter aircraft were shot down by Admiral Stanfield’s destroyers. Following that, they blockaded us, stopping all traffic in the area and closing all of the affected businesses. That all stopped when the Entity caused the earthquakes and the windstorms,” Trish explained. “All of that was in the report,” she added