War Machines

19

     The Deltas were, I learned, able to alter the pigmentation in their skin, chameleon-like, allowing them to hide in almost any surrounding. Their armor was designed to accommodate this. They also apparently had little to no scent, and they were actually cold-blooded. Not even thermal imaging would reveal them when they were in full stealth. Everything about them was designed to make them the perfect stealth infiltrators, just like the Enhanced we'd last fought. That was troubling enough, given the things Zeke had said.

     But their reports were even worse. Apparently, we were about to also face something brand spanking new. The Deltas who had gone out late were reporting about some sort of hairless ape, complete with various forms of armor and even advanced weaponry. Wonderful. We didn't have exact numbers yet, but what we had already indicated a significant force. Well, bring it on. The order had already gone out to hold back on overdrive for as long as we could, keeping our biggest attacks in reserve until we had a better idea of where they could be best deployed. These new ape creepers were a wildcard no one knew how to deal with. The fact that a certain creeper ally recently demoted to regular creeper asshole had mentioned absolutely nothing about hairless apes at any time was a huge source of irritation to me as well. But he'd told us next to nothing about the Enhanced, either. It was yet another red flag that he couldn't be trusted, one I'd still managed to miss. The Pilgrim had told us how to deal with the other creepers, but we knew next to nothing about the Enhanced. Every new variety of his own kind that we'd met so far had been a surprise. This would be the first time anyone had ever seen these new creepers. We knew now that we were facing a lot more Enhanced than we'd anticipated. Things were bound to be interesting. Little wonder the Pilgrim, whose record against his own kind had been less than stellar so far, had decided to cut and run. The outcome of this battle was anything but clear.

     Matthews had come up and kissed me just before we'd rolled out. That had produced a great deal of stares and assorted wolf-whistling. Even I was surprised. It was the first time Matthews had publicly acknowledged that he was interested in me. "What?" he'd called as he'd sneered at everyone. "Can't a guy kiss his girl goodbye before she goes into battle?"

     "You just released classified information without permission," I informed him, noting the shocked expressions and exclamations all around us. "No one knows yet about what happened with the Pilgrim, and the truth of my gender was not yet authorized to be released. Also, I'm not your girl yet. You got permission to file your papers, but they haven't been signed or even printed out yet. Therefore..."

     "Shut up, J," he laughed, kissing me again. "You be careful, alright, baby?" He lowered his voice, his expression serious. "I hate to bring him up again, but listen. You said Zeke was teaching you something about keeping your rift energy in check?" When I nodded, he said, "That guy's an asshole in the extreme, but it's obvious he really cared about you. If he taught you that, there must have been a damned good reason for it. So I want you do that as much as you can, ok? Don't get killed doing it, but just keep whatever he was teaching you in mind."

     I nodded.

     He rolled his eyes. "You can talk, J."

     "Thank you, sir."

     He gave me a playful slap on the rear. "Kick some ass, girl, you hear me? Die well, but try not to. I kind of like having you around."

     I felt warm all over. I dared to place my hand against his chest and looked shyly up at him. "Thank you."

     He chucked me under my chin and headed back to rejoin the squad. I noticed the twins making moon eyes and Miller making kissy faces and blushed. Even Olsen was smiling softly. This was not the way the squad should have found out about us. I still felt bad about Olsen, but what could I do? It was Matthews's choice who to court, right? Besides, Matthews was finally used to the idea of my gender and being attracted to me and was treating me like a soldier again. It was a definite improvement. But now it was time to move out.