December 30, 2023

During the latter part of what would become known as The Late Great Bombardment, around 3.9 billion years ago, the inner planets and earth’s moon were being subjected to unprecedented numbers of asteroid strikes. The source of these asteroids is debatable, some think a planet V, which had an eccentric orbit, finally impacted with a large planetoid, breaking them both into small to large chunks. Others postulate that orbital migrations occurred amongst the gas giants causing disruptions in the asteroid belt and/or the Kuiper Belt. These then became the source of the impactors that rained down on the inner planets. This period lasted for several million years, it is thought that the earth’s crust was beginning to solidify at this time. The first life, extremophiles, were beginning to produce gasses that would eventually become an atmosphere. Water, while abundant, was mostly in the form of steam, having been delivered through comet impacts. These impactors were rich in heavy metals, gold, platinum, silver, and others but because the crust was cooling, these metals did not migrate into the depths of the earth but remained close to the surface. But these are the most well known rare metals, their rarity makes them valuable and much sought after. As the atmosphere began to get thicker, asteroids entering it began to encounter more and more resistance to their passage. These asteroids then became meteors, their fiery passages adding to the gasses accumulating and forming a rather caustic atmosphere. Our particular asteroid was large, weighing in at about nine hundred twenty three thousand tons, its passage blazing a path across the sky before landing in a very large splash ejecting materials back into space, which eventually fell back to earth due to the gravity exerted on the many pieces. It then settled in, sinking a few feet, but for the most part remaining intact. It moved over the eons due to crustal displacement, but eventually came to rest in what became the North American Continent. More specifically in a place known as West Texas. It rested under a thousand feet of water when the Western Interior Seaway formed one hundred million years ago. The inland sea stretched from the Gulf of Mexico two thousand miles, through Canada to the Arctic Ocean. Six hundred miles wide and up to 2,500 feet deep, this sea received the erosion of mountains, which buried the meteor under one hundred feet of sand. Eventually crustal forces caused the land to rise up from the depths, eroding the sand from what had transformed into sandstone and leaving the meteor only thirty feet from the surface.

Our meteor was not rich in rare earth metals, instead it contained elements that would become valuable due to advances in technology by the predominant species Homo Sapien, also known as “Man”. Primarily it consisted of several types of lithium carbonate ore, and wasn’t valuable at all until the year 1960 when various rechargeable batteries began to be developed using lithium as its basic component. Then based on little evidence, a thing called Global Warming was invented, and fossil fuel was deemed suicidal, and everyone was urged to move to electric, never minding that the electrical grid would not be able to support them, and that 70% of electrical generation occurs by using fossil fuels, electric cars were touted as the way to sustain life on planet Earth. That’s when our meteor became valuable. Valued at half a million dollars a ton, and relatively close to the surface meant less development costs and a much higher return on investment. A LiDAR equipped satellite was able to find the hidden meteor for a group of investors, of the twenty five other similar meteors found across the world, this one held all the advantages. Close to the surface, close to rail junction, semi-arid location, dry most of the year, the only drawback was that the land, and its mineral rights were held by one man. And he didn’t want to sell!

John Whitewing was an 93.75% genuine descendant of Comanche Indians that used to inhabit the headwaters of the Arkansas, Canadian, Red, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers, its western habitat extended to the Pecos River, eastern border was almost to Austin, the northern was in Kansas, and the southern deep inside Northern Mexico. They were a fierce tribe and qualified as the best light cavalry in the world before the repeating rifles of Mr. Henry, Mr. Winchester, and Mr. Sharps evened the playing field. Also known for their brutality, they were feared by other Indian tribes, Mexicans and Texicans, and westward bound settlers on the Santa Fe Trail. John still owned just over a thousand acres smack in the middle of the territory, outside of Carlsbad, Texas, an unincorporated area with a population of 719 people. The population density in the area was about one person per square mile. It was not a tourist hot spot. The ranch was twenty miles north of town, with the eastern border of it on the East fork of Chauk Creek.

The ranch had been homesteaded by John’s great grandfather Joseph Breslin in 1878 and was attacked several times by Comanche warriors. When he stopped the fight in order to provide medical care to one of the warriors, they decided that bringing him into the tribe was less costly in lives than continuing to try and kill him. He was married to a Comanche princess by the name of White Dove. They had eight children. Because there was no love lost on Comanches by whites, all but one of the children grew up to marry within the tribe. John’s parents, Joe Whitewing, and Caroline Winged Eagle were married and lived on the ranch for fifty five happy years, John was the last of five children. When his parents died he was the only sibling to profess wanting the ranch. He gradually over the years paid his siblings for it.

John was a big man, 6’3” tall, slender at the hips, broad shoulders, and weighed right at 200 pounds. He loved his Comanche heritage and learned the old ways from as many of the tribal elders as possible. He could run for miles and miles without stopping. He could sneak up on a mule deer buck and touch it without making it panic and run away. When he turned twelve he was sent on his Spirit Walk. After being given a knife, a water bag, and two days worth of pemiccan, he was sent into the wilderness surrounding their ranch for two weeks. His challenge besides the obvious one of staying alive, was to find his Spirit Guide. To communicate and learn from what would be his lifelong advisor and mentor. In so doing John, after finding a cave by watching bats, found Big Bear, the Comanche warrior who had been saved from death by his Great Grandfather. Big Bear explained that he had to repay the gift of his life by making John a great warrior. In keeping that promise, Big Bear taught John everything he knew about the ancient art of war. He never knew about SunTzu, much less the book The Art of War. But he taught John everything learned and accumulated by the Comanche Tribe over the course of a thousand years.

When John had not returned at the end of two weeks, his parents weren’t worried, sometimes these things take longer. But after a month a certain amount of concern began creeping in. It was with great relief and excitement then, when John appeared at the end of an unprecedented five weeks of Spirit Walking. He was taller, he weighed more than when he left, but the biggest change of all, was that he was most definitely not a child any longer. He exuded an air of confidence, and maturity that most men never achieve. Always in the background complete strangers would recognize that there lay an undercurrent of danger, like a rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike!

While John didn’t like being cooped up in a classroom, Big Bear had insisted that the true warrior had to learn everything that they could in order to be successful. So unlike most of his classmates he studied hard and made A’s and a very few B’s. He discovered the Japanese arts of self defense, rather than playing football he would be found at his Dojo in San Angelo, practicing his Kata’s and training his body to become a finely edged sword. By the time he was eighteen he held a black belt in the third Dan, and had moved into blade work. On graduating from the Dojo the Renshi awarded John a two hundred year old Katana made using the seven layer Soshu Kitae method. This was a great honor, the Sensei stated that he had never had a more devoted and apt student.

After graduating with honors from High School, John went to Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University in Bryan/College Station. While there he joined the Corps of Cadets and the requisite ROTC. Going into his fourth year with expectations of graduating with a degree in Agribusiness when plans and life dreams were suddenly and irrevocably changed when the United States of America was shamelessly attacked using commercial aircraft on September 11, 2001. John along with hundreds of his fellow students dropped everything and joined the military branch of their choice. For John, that meant joining the Marine Corps. After boot camp at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, he joined Force Reconnaissance as a Key Hole and Sting Ray Deep reconnaissance and Direct Action operative, in other words Black Ops. He felt that with his background and experience, much less his ancestry, that being alone leading the way was the best fit. Because of his ROTC experiences he was listed as a Corporal at the start of training.

After orientation their training was divided into sections, Stealthy egress and exfil, weapons, explosives, intelligence gathering, hand to hand combat, and Communications. His first experience at jumping out of a perfectly good airplane was exhilarating. As a graduation exercise he was given almost exactly what he had been given for his Spirit Walk. He completed his assigned tasks without anyone catching him, and was back on base almost before his Training Sergeant arrived himself. Already rated as an expert in small arms, he excelled when introduced to a Barrett M82A2 50 caliber sniper rifle. The titanium construction was light, strong and above all extremely accurate. John recorded the longest target bullseye in Marine Corps history, with a shot from 2,000 meters, using iron sights. The Hand to Hand combat section had him teaching the teachers. Communication and intelligence gathering was not a problem. He broke several records and graduated at the top of his class. As a result he was asked to volunteer for a new program that would have him paired with a War Dog.

This training occurred at Quantico, Virginia. On his first day, going to report in, he heard some yelling, as he turned a furry bundle of slobber weighing at least eighty pounds was in the process of leaping on him. Noticing the pure unadulterated joy on the dog’s face, and no malice, John caught the dog, both of them hitting the ground and rolling as the dog licked his face like they were best friends.

Laughing, something John doesn’t do often, he responded to a female voice, “What do you think you are doing, don’t you know that beast could rip your throat out? Why did you call him? He is in training and unless he straightens up he’s going to be gone!”

Finally regaining his feet, towering over the Corporal addressing him, he responded, “First you should be calling me Sargent, corporal!, second I didn’t call him at all! And third, why wash him out? He looks to be perfectly capable of licking anyone to death!”

Pulling up short, the diminutive Corporal regrouped, noticing the stripes on his sleeve, and the many honor ribbons on his blouse, “Sorry Sergeant, this dog just doesn’t want to cooperate!”

“Do you mind if I try? What commands are you giving him?” After receiving instructions on hand signals used by the Marine trading cadre. He ran the dog through them, the dog produced each command instantly and correctly. The Corporal watched in amazement, the dog had evidently been paying attention to what he was taught, he just didn’t want to do them, at least until now. John looked into the dog’s eyes and gave him several commands in Comanche. Waving his hand in a “Go!” motion the dog took off and did precisely what he had been told to do.

“Corporal Jennings, let’s save us both a lot of trouble, this is my dog! I will train him, and take care of him!” Taking off the dogs harness and leash and handing them to her.

“But Sargent, dogs have to remain on a leash at all times, and they are assigned, not adopted!”

“I’ll take care of everything, Corporal! Let me get checked in.”

Saying nothing to the dog, John turned and continued his walk to the main building that the gate guard had pointed out to him earlier.

Arriving he looked at the dog and once again in Comanche told him to stay by his side and sit when he stopped. Opening the door with the dog in lock step with him, they approach a rather nervous acting E2 sitting at the receptionist desk. Handing her his orders, she asked him to have a seat, that Lieutenant Wilks would be right with him.

It was very apparent that the good Lieutenant Wilks was not happy that a dog was in the lobby of his facility. John attempted to explain, but the officious officer wouldn’t hear any excuses. Ranting loud enough that the actual Commander of the base Lieutenant Colonel Franks came into the lobby to find out what was going on. Of course opinions of a Colonel trumps those of a mere Lieutenant. Once the Lieutenant wound down the Colonel spoke directly to Whitewing who had quickly stood when the Lieutenant first approached him. Snapping off a sharp salute to the Colonel, and having it returned, the Colonel listened to John’s explanation of the events leading up to him sitting with a rather large dog, in the Headquarters Lobby. Once the Colonel understood what was going on, Lieutenant Wilks was dismissed and John was invited to the Colonel’s office. Once in his office John was told to stand at ease, making note of the interplay between the dog and the Sergeant. He was impressed with the apparent bond that already existed between the two. Having read John’s file and noting his abilities and his Comanche heritage he asked, “Sergeant, to what do you attribute this instant bond that developed between the two of you?”

Without any thought about his answer, John said, “Sir, it is my belief that this dog is the embodiment of my Spirit Guide in corporeal form, he understands directions when I give them in Comanche. I discovered my Spirit Guide on my Spirit Walk when I was twelve years old. His name is Running Bear!”

Nodding the Colonel replied, “I have read a great deal about the Indian wars in the 1860’s through the 1880’s, and have even written a treatise about the Comanche people and their warriors. I would be honored to have you read and make comments on it from your unique perspective. In your spare time of course!” Laughing.

Recognizing that it was not an order, John agreed to look it over and discuss any possible problems with the Colonel, at his convenience of course.

The officer then proceeded to write out an order giving the dog to John whereby they would train together and live together as the inseparable partners they already were. Much later the Colonel made it known that that had been the best decision he had made in his entire forty five year Marine Corps career. And one of the easiest!

Dismissed, John went to find the E-9 Master Gunnery Sergeant who was the noncom in charge of this experimental deployment of War Dogs with Force Reconnaissance operatives. Because of the dog he was billited in a larger single quarters with no roommates.

The training primarily covered the interaction and coordination between the dog and its master. John disagreed with that saying it should be a partnership instead. He didn’t get any support for that notion. Routines and patterns were discussed and tried. Some of the four other men involved in the project felt that the dog should stay by their side to warn them of approaching enemy combatants. Others like John, wanted to use the dog as an extension of their own limited abilities in running the dog stealthily around the partner seeking danger and informing the soldier of the danger and finding better paths to avoid contact. Not sure which was best, each of the five developed their own ways and each method was tried by everyone. Working in partnership with another one or more teams were tried and ultimately rejected. After six months of work, all five teams graduated and were ready to implement what they had learned in the field. Each was responsible for an evaluation to be completed monthly.

As to the Colonel’s paper, John read and studied it. He found some outright untruths, and some wishful thinking, but overall agreed that it was accurate and a truthful account of the life of the Comanche Indians. They met several times and the Colonel was always impressed with the insights and information that John shared with him. So much so that he included John’s name as a Coauthor.

The teams were all sent to a language school and learned Modern Standard Arabic and some Persian, at least enough to recognize it as Iranian. Meanwhile the political rhetoric was failing to reach the goal of removing Weapons of Mass Destruction from Sadam Husain’s grasp. He continued to boast and threaten coalition forces with destruction. Finally after finishing the language school the teams were sent to Iraq to practice and improve their speaking and listening skills. The Second Iraq war began on March 20th, 2003with “Shock and Awe” precision bombing of infrastructural targets, such as bridges, communications centers etc. The teams were sent in to lase targets for the laser guided bombs, and assess bomb damage. Gathering intelligence was always wanted of course.

John and Dog, the name was derived from John Wayne’s movie “Hondo” but was mostly spoken in the Comanche language. Were sent to Baghdad, where he rarely saw anyone, and talked with even fewer. Dog or Sarii in Comanche, was a large help in discouraging people from approaching John’ location. A deep throaty growl would instantly turn around even the most stupid people. Keeping to the rooftops, moving mostly at night he and Sarii traversed the city and helped bring down ten bridges and twenty three buildings, including the Republican Guard’s control center. But soon they were recalled for a break and some training in spotting IEDs or Improvised Explosive Devices. They didn’t want him to disarm them but to eliminate the trigger man if possible. For those units that were on tripwires or pressure switches, a well placed 50 caliber round placed in the correct spot would do the job. With the suppressor on his Barrett the noise from the shot would mostly blend in with the background noises of the street.

After two weeks they were sent back out, this time to Falusiah, a Baathist Party enclave, that was about to experience a cleansing by coalition forces including six Marine regiments. Intelligence was required, so John and Sarii were delivered outside the city on a MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft. Things went wrong from the start. They had been spotted getting out of the Osprey, a group of insurgents were assigned to monitor his activities while maintaining their own anonymity. After observing him gathering intelligence on the disposition of armories, weapons caches, ammo dumps and people, it was decided to kill the dog and capture the man alive.

John saw Sarii shot in the head yet the feeling of his Spirit Guides presence remained. He thought that while injured he was still alive. He knew they would come for him next, taking his time he led them through the city while surreptitiously making small caches of ammunition and weapons as he went. Never in a panic, when he was cornered he made them pay, killing two with rounds from his 45 caliber 1911 handgun. Then three more with his hands before being knocked cold.

He woke up tied naked and spread eagle on a mortician’s stainless steel table. His head was in the blocks used to hold cadavers heads in place. Testing his restraints he found that they were unfortunately adequate for the job, but by testing his limited movement he found that his right hand had just a little bit of slack in the leather strap. An imposing figure appeared in front of the bright light, his face in shadow.

The man bellowed, “You will tell me everything you know, and things that you didn’t know that you knew before you beg me to kill you!”

John laughed! He continued to laugh as the man became madder and madder, froth began running down his chin and was shaken off to land on John’s legs. This made John laugh even harder! The man then screamed, “You cannot laugh at me, I’m Colonel Gastrade Hussian, head of Internal Security for this region. You will regret making me angry!”

John brought himself under control and quipped, “I regret meeting you at all!” But he had gotten what he was after, the man’s name, rank and position. He also suspected that this guy had no idea who he was or that he understood Modern Standard Arabic. That was four points in his favor! If he could keep the man off balance, and if Sarii was still alive, there was a small chance that he could get out of this.

The Colonel started to ask questions, “Who are you? What is your rank? What branch of Service are you in? Why have you come to Falusia?”

“I’m the guy who’s going to watch your balls eaten by a dog while you are still alive! I will delight at the painful screams you utter as your manhood is ripped from your body making you a eunuch and worthless to your seventy two Virgins! I am the Comanche warrior that will end your life and rid the world of your pestilence! “I am The Ghost Who Kills! The collector of the souls of Allah’s unworthy. The Harbinger of death for those who subvert the way of Islam for their own gains. Yes Colonial, I’ve come for you!”

The man laughed, but John could detect an undercurrent of intense fear cross his eyes. Keeping him off balance could be the edge he needed to stay alive. The Colonel had no idea what to do to him, he didn’t think torturing him would work. So rather than subject him to physical pain, he would use more indirect means. He ordered a prisoner to be dragged in. A girl, blond, blue eyes, short and slim was delivered, she struggled as they stripped off her clothes then tied her spread ankles to the bottoms of the legs at the end of a second table, then her arms were tied to the other end of the table, she was spread Eagle and bent over. Her panties were cut off. She looked into John’s eyes, which are even bluer than her own. Her panties were stuffed in her mouth and taped. Her eyes pleaded with John to make them stop.

Two large men came in and stripped, they were large everywhere. Thrusting into the girl elicited a muffled scream! No lubricant, but blood can be used as a lubricant. For eight minutes the animal thrust into the girl, then the other guy took over. The screaming became gasps, you can only scream for so long, then your vocal cords develop lesions and shut down. She was crying, and sometimes choking on the snot pouring from her nose.

Suddenly, having not heard a sound or detected him in any way, a wet nose nudged John’s right hand, a tongue licked it. Then the dog began to chew on the leather strap. He occasionally nipped some flesh, but John didn’t mind. The second animal raping the girl lasted even longer, over ten minutes. About halfway through Sarii cut through the strap and moved to his left hand. The second animal finished and the Colonel stripped and began his rape of the girl, his equipment was somewhat lacking, but his enthusiasm was unmatched. Looking at John he said “You can save her, tell me what I want to know and we’ll stop.”

John stared back into his eyes and smiled. “Fifteen to twenty Comanche warriors would take a woman over and over until she died or went crazy! I am a Comanche warrior!”

Dog cut through the remaining strap, he felt him leaving, soon a knife was placed in his right hand. Then a brand new source of a scream echoed in the room, a male voice! The Colonel was the source, Sarii had walked behind him. I imagine his cold nose hitting his butt was the start of the scream but when his balls were ripped from his scrotum a new intensity was achieved!

As this was happening John cut the bonds on his ankles and immediately went into attack mode. Killing both of the big rapists by cutting their throats. The Colonel had collapsed onto the floor, bleeding profusely from his crotch, smiling at him and John waved goodbye just as Sarii’s mouth clamped down on his carotid arteries. Dog didn’t rip out the man’s throat, choosing to just clamp down until the lack of oxygen to the brain killed him.

Finding a towel John covered the girl and cut her bindings, then he removed her gag but indicated for her to stay quiet. He told her to get dressed and did the same. He introduced himself to her and she to him. She was Corporal Amy Jones from Emporia, Kansas and had been captured a week before, when the LMTV 2 ½ ton truck was surrounded and she and her co-driver were captured. Her partner had been raped to death the day before. He asked if she could walk, her response was “Hell Sargent, I could run to get out of here!”

“First find your partner, she’s probably in one of the drawers along the wall. We’ll find a body bag for her, everybody goes home!”

“There are several soldiers being held in a detention cage two doors down the hall. Do we take them too?”

“Everybody!”

There’s another guy on an operating table inside the first door down the hall!”

“I’ll check on those guys, take care of your partner, slide her onto a gurney and then we’ll go from there.”

He sent Sarii on a search and destroy mission, killing all of the bad guys and then reporting back. John went into the hall and checked in the first door. There on an operating table was a man he knew, Sergeant Chuck Westerbook was one of the guys he trained with. His dog partner lay dead at his feet. The Sergeant was in bad shape with a large bullet or shrapnel wound in his left shoulder. He was alive, they had stopped the bleeding but had not gone to any lengths other than to keep him alive. A noise to his right had him turning to find a woman holding a Makarov 9 mm semiautomatic pistol in his general direction.

She introduced herself as Dr. Eva Masternak, she had been working on Chuck and had him stabilized. When she asked who he was, he pointed to Chuck and told her he was with him. When asked to carefully place the pistol on a table, she smiled and compiled. She asked if she could go with them, he told her that everybody goes! No promises were made, if she wanted to seek asylum she would have to go through the Department of State. She could help keep Chuck alive, therefore she goes.

He left her getting Chuck ready for transport, as he slid down the hall to the next door, peeking in the reinforced glass at two guards and six prisoners. Both guards held AK 47 rifles at port on slings. Any shooting and the entire town of Fallujah would descend on them. Getting his special dog whistle out of his pants pocket, he blew three short blasts. It wasn’t long before the blood flecked jowls of the big dog appeared in the morgue door window. Opening it he showed the dog the bad guys, signaling that he was to take the second one. When Sarii indicated understanding, John knocked on the door. One of the guards came to open the door, the window was blocked by John’s subdued head, like he was being supported by another guard. As soon as the door began to open Sarii hit it, forcing the door into the startled man. Dodging the man he put on full speed and crashed into the second guard crushing the man’s hand before it could find the trigger. The follow-up was a killing bite and hold to the upper neck. John had slipped his knife blade under the ribs then thrust into the first guard’s heart. Grabbing the keys he let all of the prisoners out. Two Australians, two British, and two Kurds all thanked him, everyone grabbed AK’s and ammunition from wherever they could find them. An Armory was found farther down the hall. Using another of the guards keys he got the doors open and found some stocking carts then loaded them up with all kinds of weapons and explosive devices. Next was finding a vehicle capable of carrying all eleven of them. A sizable reward was posted for the Colonel, so John cut off his right hand and head placing them in a trash bag and a box along with a note asking the reward be paid to Amy and the dead girl’s family. While he was cutting he cut a finger, penis and testicals off the other two rapists and sent them too.

As the others looked for a vehicle, John searched the Colonel’s office finding two locked safes, one was a vault built into a wall. He sat in the desk chair and looked around, the Colonel was brutal, that didn’t mean he was smart. He most likely hid the combinations and computer passwords somewhere close. The desk was an old white oak model, on the right side was a flat arm rest that slid out eighteen inches or so. Sliding it out all the way revealed an index card with several lines of numbers and letters. The numbers opened both safes, the writing opened up the computer. He unplugged the CPU and placed it on the cart. Two boxes of storage media were collected. Several more boxes of what appeared to be important documents also were boxed. Then there were the diamonds, silver, and gold. For these he went back in the armory and emptied several ammo boxes. These were then filled with those valuables. Before shutting the doors he sat and thought, something didn’t look right, after five minutes he noticed the back of the vault was slightly skewed. Looking closer he found a catch that caused a door to open. Inside were the rolled up paintings of some of the masters, Rembrandt, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Anton van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens. Some of them had been missing since World War II. At the bottom were gold bars with swastikas embossed in each bar. There were thirty bars along with a map and a letter. Scrambling the combinations then locking the doors would help delay discovery of the missing files. It seemed like the vault was a good place to hide the Colonel’s body also.