Sigma/Star

Chapter 65: Plans and Training

McCormack and Irina emerged from their chambers on board Marian's warship. They were both feeling a bit tired, though they were still fit for combat. They were generals, and of such a level that the last fight hardly registered on their stamina. But it was nice to be back on their feet and not stuck seated in a cockpit driving one of the battlesuits.

They had been recalled from the battlefield as part of the mass retreat that both sides had undergone. It wasn't incredibly unusual for a retreat to be called in the middle of one of the long-standing wars that constantly occurred across Earth's surface. Often it signaled the arrival of a new army or ally, or the departure of one, and sometimes was over a treaty or ceasefire.

In this case, none of those seemed to be true. There had been no reports on what was occurring or what had caused the recall; the armies had just gone back to their strongholds and that was that. None of the other generals had been able to explain the situation to Irina or McCormack and had shrugged it off when asked.

Finally, Marian summoned the group together once more, bringing them to the special room within the ship. The Brigadier General swept his gaze over the group, as if he were sizing them up for some grand task. "Obviously you are all wondering why I would order a retreat in the middle of a war like that." There were nods of agreement all around. "To be honest, I'm not quite sure myself why I did it, but commands are commands, and I suppose I will have to explain them to you next."

There were looks of confusion exchanged amongst the different generals. Marian didn't know why he had called a retreat? What was going on then? When your leader had no idea what they were doing, wasn't that when the seeds of mutiny were usually planted?

"It seems that, for now, the war is temporarily over, or at least at a standstill. Before you ask," Marian said, raising his hand and cutting off a couple of the people with their mouths open, "there is no treaty or ceasefire signed. There just happens to be a greater threat to both sides of the fight than each other."

"That being?" McCormack asked, slouching in his seat in boredom.

Cross shot the gunslinger a dirty look, unimpressed as always by his attitude. "Jahari." As soon as the word was out, every general in the room sat bolt upright, including the sly McCormack.

"The Jahari?"

"Jahari? You mean that old wives' tale?"

"Aren't those the mole people?"

"They were people people, stupid. They got banished or exiled or something."

"That's just a legend though, that never happened."

"Enough!" Marian bellowed, instantly bringing silence back to the room. "Listen, I understand the Jahari are a piece of folklore to all of us, and ordinarily I would agree with you on that. But there was an incident most of you might have heard of involving a prisoner of war a little while back that was dealt with which makes things a little more..." Marian struggled to come up with the right phrase before sighing. "Believable I suppose."

"Sir, you can't seriously expect us to believe we're calling off a war because a myth has appeared can you?" McCormack was out of his seat now, trying to gain the attention and affection of the room of Marian. "I mean, things that are well-known to be legends don't just spring up like that."

Marian pressed a button on the central console in the room and it shot up a satellite image. In front of everyone's suddenly enormous eyes was an overhead view of the former Artisan camp outside Easley, one that was now a massive pit swarming with tiny people, the crowd punctured by the towering biological Bahari that strode in between. More holes were opening up in the surrounding area, tearing through the earth and opening up more rents through which the Jahari poured through.