And the Suns Never Rise: A Story of Alpha Centauri

Tragedy

'This is great!' Haruhi thought with a smile as she used the helo's onboard sensors to identify and locate enemy forces hidden in the rocky landscape below.

While they had advanced military simulators back on Old Earth, there was nothing like that here on Cooper's World.

Instead, Haruhi had been on two training flights during the past month as she and her matSister prepared for this last test. This one exercise was all that stood between the womb-mates and their graduation from the police academy and their SWAT certification.

A three-woman team usually executed this examination. However, they did not have a third member of their team. Thus, Chris-imouto was running double duty on the ground while she acted as the spotter from above. With Chris-imouto's 'sixth sense' things were moving extremely well.

Besides, the womb-mates spent so much time competing against one another that they rarely worked together. Therefore, this was a rare treat for the duo... and they were crushing it.

Haruhi's only concern was a thunderstorm forming to their west and heading towards the practice field. Since it popped up out of nowhere, there were some concerns, but at the rate the duo was wiping out the enemy the helo' would be on the ground well before the approaching storm arrived.

Then things quickly went downhill. "I've got a jam," Chris-imouto reported. To make up for the lack of a third party member, the higher-ups had provided Christiana with a semi-automatic rifle. The SWAT teams did not use this model since it used additional rounds. Here, that wasn't a concern since Chris-imouto carried the ammunition of two SWAT members.

The other downside of this model was its tendency to jam. Not only that, but the trank rounds used were hard to remove once they jammed without an accidental discharge of the tranquilizers. In other words, if an individual wasn't very careful they could knock themselves out. That was a very embarrassing way to fail the mission.

"Still working to clear the jam," Chris-imouto reported a few minutes later. Then, a few more minutes passed, and she reported, "Damn! I had to strip the rifle and replace the action with my spare one. Looks like sabotage..."

"Sounds like it, but we are still ahead of schedule," Haruhi responded. "Now I need you to go five hundred emms north northwest to avoid a group of three defenders."

Just within ten minutes, the duo successfully completed the mission with twenty-three minutes to Mainday sunrise.

"Way to go Chris-imouto, we're heading to the barn. See you in ten."

"See you then," Christiana replied.

---

Cooper's World was colonized from Old Earth and the Founding took place in the Earth / Terran year 2116. The same starships made the return trip filled with colonists again in 2203. That meant that the highest level of technology was from 2179 and they had a finite amount of equipment from that period. That meant that the colonies actually functioned as if it was in the late 1900s to early 2000s.

That was how the tragedy took place. Since they only used this airport for testing SWAT trainees, it did not have a Doppler radar installation. Nor did the helicopter, since the Doppler added weight to the aircraft and would usually be unnecessary during an actual SWAT operation. After all, 99% of SWAT missions either occurred in or near Planetfall and Cooper's Landing, both of which had ground-based Doppler radar.

All of this went through Haruhi's mind when her aircraft suddenly lost altitude. "Microburst," Haruhi tried to explain to the pilot sitting in the seat in front of her, but the alarms were probably too loud for her to be heard. 'We are far too low to pull out,' she thought as she checked her restraints and the pilot frantically flipped switches in an effort to regain altitude.

Then, suddenly, there was a loud noise, then everything went quiet and black.

---

Duflot was barking orders into the com' "Get her to the Planetfall Spaceport NOW! I don't care if you have to kill the humans involved. Just get her up here with all of her parts so we can treat her."

"Yes, sir!" Cooper responded. If she had had time to stop and analyze Duflot's actions, then she would have been happy. The only time that the Crown Prince acted this way was when members of Stellae Sanguine hurt themselves. Thus, his actions proved he already accepted Haruhi into their little family.

The thing was that Cooper was too busy making another com' call to think about such things.

"Christy! What's your ETA?" Cooper asked, almost frantically. In more ways than one, this was one of her granddaughters, and she was a little rattled.

"I will be at the hospital in five minutes, but how will I get to her and then get her to a shuttle?" Christy asked.

"Get to the roof. I will have a helo' waiting for you in order to get to the shuttle. Just so you know Duflot has authorized the use of deadly force."

"That will be my last resort. I wish I had picked up Christiana's rifle now."

"Knock out a security officer with a sleeper hold and use their sidearm," Cooper suggested.

"Great idea!"

"Keiko just identified the operating theater she is scheduled to use on the fifth floor of building A. I will forward the floor plan to you. Let me know when you arrive on the proper floor and I will turn the call over to Keiko. Oh, be sure to take all of her parts that they may have salvaged for possible reattachment."

"I just arrived and am in the parking garage. Please guide me to a security office so that I can take out a sentry or two."

---