Date: Wed, 04 Feb 1998 09:17:47 -0800 From: Ruth Skiba-Otway Subject: When the Stars Cry 1/4 Sender: owner-tales@stargame.org To: Tales list X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I; 16bit) X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by stargame.org id LAB05276 X-Authentication-warning: vortex.nrgtech.net: bin set sender to owner-tales@stargame.org using -f TALES -- where everything goes. But remember, people, "bannerment" is not a word. By...Ruth Skiba-Otway copyright 1997 When the Stars Cry 1/4 Guns went off in all directions, the screaming of the dying becoming almost overpowering. She felt her heart stop when someone called her name. It was familiar.... Damian??? She couldn’t see anything, the world kept swinging in and out of focus. “Damian!!!!!” She screamed. She suddenly found a staggering figure amongst the smoke and blood. He began to run. He was yelling at her something about..... Col. Damian Kenny was tired and worried sick about his sister, he hadn’t seen her since the shooting started. He scanned the scene and saw her kneeling at the edge of the bluff still holding the radio but no gun. ”Rossi!!!!!!” he screamed. She was trying to get to get her k-bar back in it’s sheath. Suddenly a new figure appeared off to her right. He felt his blood turn to ice as the Chig approached her from behind. “Nooooooo!!!!” He screamed and ran straight for the approaching enemy. He stopped five feet from it and threw his k-bar with deadly accuracy. The knife struck it in the shoulder but it just kept coming. Shit! Damian sprinted towards it. Dr. Rosalind Kenny gathered her strength and turned to see a Chig approaching her, a knife jutting out of its shoulder. She began to pull her K-bar out of it’s sheath when she heard a blood curdling scream. Damian made contact with the chig as if he where a quarter back running to make the pass before..... He felt himself flying, endlessly dropping. On and on forever into blackness.... She watched in horror as Damian fell over the edge. No, Damian, No she whispered to herself. She crawled to the edge of a rocky hill, and peered over the edge. Oh god. Damian lay at the bottom the chig a few feet away, covered in a green froth. She started to cry when she heard her name called. Ajan Binx saw Rosalind peering over the lip of a hill. He ran towards her calling to her but receiving no response. “Hey, Rossi, we got them on.... the... run...” His greeting fell short when he saw what she was staring at. “Oh my God!” Ajan started to punch in the Morris code on the com. hoping it was not too late. Rosalind felt the lump in her throat growing larger and larger. She heard Jinx’ come up behind her. He started to talk to her but the words were jumbled and fell into ashes when they touched her. She felt strong arms gasp her and pull her into an embrace as people rushed by hoping to save Damian. Hoping.... She let Jinx lead her to where the rest of the 10th squadron was resting. She walked blindly past them. She felt their eyes upon her, scared eyes. The eyes of children, eyes that echoed hers. “What the hell am I doing here....” she thought. Jinx knelt beside her and began to patch her head up. “C’mon Rossi, snap out of it. We need you” Jinx was worried he’d seen her like this before, when she found out about her father. “Rossi, try to focus okay, He’ll be fine. They’ve taken him out. We’ll be getting reinforcements soon, don’t worry” Jinx sat down beside her. She looked like a teenager who got in trouble for staying at school shooting hoops when she should have been doing her homework, not a marine out in the middle of hell fighting for a her freedom. He looked at her, the normally light brown hair and pale skin was covered in dirt and blood. Her ice blue eyes were red rimmed and full with tears. He could almost feel the pain radiating off from her. The whole group sat silently trying to force out the horror of the war. A strange quiet had fallen over the entire group, only interrupted only by the wind and the occasional crack of gunfire from the distance. The soft, warm glow of dawn looked strange in such a desolate, death-filled place. Rosalind looked at the people who lay scattered around her, some with tears glistening in their eyes. She had to hold together,0 for them. She closed her eyes, trying to remember home and the green fields and the moors covered in heather. She looked up again staring at the faces of the men and women around her feeling the tense atmosphere and pain as if it were a blanket trying to smother her. She gathered her strength, wiped her eyes and stood up. She was in charge now that Damian was gone. “We have to find better cover. We’re sitting ducks out here.’ She said trying to force the weariness and fear out of her voice. “Johnson, Remmy get up and scout out to the west. If you run into any Chigs turn tail and run like hell. The rest of you grab your gear. We’ve got 8 clicks to cover till we rendezvous with the other team” She gathered up what was left of her gear and started to walk. The rest wearily trailed after her. “Yes” Jinx smiled to himself and followed, “I knew she’d pull through it”. He picked up his gun and started to walk. “Hey Jinx, do you know who’s coming for us?” Rosalind yelled. He grimaced at the memory of the last time they someone came for them. “Don’t worry, they won’t get blown out of the sky like the last ones.” He said trying to avoid the glare he go. “Ha ha. C’mon, who is it?” She stopped waiting for him to catch up. “Saratoga says they’re sending down the 5-8, and trust me I’ve heard these guys have more than nine lives” He smiled and strode past her. ********* onboard USS Saratoga 0800 hr.. Commodore Ross stood in front of 7 of the most courageous young men and women he had ever met. As Colonel McQueen put it, when they’re in a knife fight they always came out on top. He sure loved his kids. But this time it wouldn’t be that easy. He’d just learned the real objective of the mission this morning. At 0600 he received a message from the Secretary General of the U.N. herself stating that if a Lt. Kenny did not get out of there alive there would be hell to pay. He didn’t recognize anything important about the name and had never encountered such a harsh order that basically stated get him or her out and the hell with the rest. He frowned and looked again at the men and women before him. He couldn’t tell them the whole truth. He couldn’t even tell McQueen for that matter. He hated politicians. He knoded for McQueen to begin... He really hated politicians. McQueen hated to do this to his kids - he knew how tired they were and how easily mistakes are made when you’re tired. He remembered what Ross had hinted about getting all of them out alive. He kept flipping it over in his head, he’d run through all the names of the 10th and 43rd squadron and had found no important people listed. He swore to himself and started the briefing. “Okay, we’re going in and we’re going’ in hot. We have to stick together and get our people, then get the hell out of there. Our rendezvous coordinates will be given to us on the ride down. I repeat stick together and try not to get killed. Get them all out.” He looked at them hard trying to grind the last words into their minds. He hoped it stuck, but had a bad feeling about it. ****** “I really wish they’d get more comfortable seats” Lt. Nathan West thought to himself. He looked around the small ship. Shane was arguing with Cooper about how to stab a Chig the correct way. Paul and ‘Phoose were talking about pizza and the newbies were looking at their feet nervously. He finally rested his eyes on Col. McQueen who was staring at their orders, a frown on his face and some kind of uneasiness in his eyes. Nathan had a bad feeling about this mission. T.C. McQueen was almost sick to his stomach with fear, not for himself but for his kids - all the kids - on planet. What about their families?. He ran his eyes over the instructions, the orders were almost to simple. And a small note was scrawled at the top of the sheet and stood up. Everyone turned to face him as he began. “This is it. When we land we will meet up with the 10th and the 43rd. They have lost over half their forces down there, so we will help them recover wounded and then proceed to the extraction site. Got it?” He looked around at the nodding heads “Good. Get your gear ready - we’ll be there in5 mikes” Cooper Hawkes felt the adrenaline course through his veins in the last few seconds before landing, but the rush turned into a tilde wave as soon as his feet hit the dirt. the landscape looked as though it had been torn up by a nuclear explosion. The dirt was turned up into a muddy soup the tree’s blasted apart by stray fire. He looked around for the squadrons but they were no where in sight. “looks like the chigs needed a break.” Nathan said noticing the quiet almost serene air. “Where the hell are they?” Cooper asked Paul Wang who was also surveying the land. “ I have no idea.” He replied. -------------------------------- Date: Wed, 04 Feb 1998 09:19:15 -0800 From: Ruth Skiba-Otway Subject: When the Stars Cry 2/4 Sender: owner-tales@stargame.org To: Tales list X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I; 16bit) X-Authentication-warning: vortex.nrgtech.net: bin set sender to owner-tales@stargame.org using -f TALES -- where everything goes. But remember, people, "bannerment" is not a word. By...Ruth Skiba-Otway Copyright 1997 P.S tell me what ya think :) When the Stars Cry 2/4 “ Okay this is what we’re going to do. We’ll wait here for a few hours and if they don’t show up, we’ll head out and try to find them.” Col. McQueen slug his gun over his shoulder and started to walk towards the east where, hopefully the squadrons were waiting. He hadn’t expected this when they landed. He thought there’d at least be a welcoming party of chiggies to blast. But nothing, weird. ‘Eyes of a hawk Rosiland’ it had a nice ring to it. Jinx smiled to himself and trotted to catch up with her. She had been watching their surrounding cautiously for the past two hours, they had not heard from Remmy or Johnson and she was worried. He watched her as she passed her binocs to someone and ran back to him. “ Hey, Jinx heard anything from Remmy?” she asked. “ No sorry, Rossi, I haven’t heard from them since they left.” He looked down at her and saw a mask of worry cross her face. She and Remmy had just been engaged and were extremely watchful of each other. He had never told her but the first time he met her, back when he met her back in 2046 onboard the U.S.S. TITANIC 2, he had a major crush on her. He remembered that day as if it were yesterday *********** Sanfransico, 2049 I hate this, I hate this. Ajan Binx had been sitting on the deck for three hours listening to his drill officer lecturing on how to tie a correct sheep shank when he saw her. She must have been about 16 at the time. Her hair was throw together and she wore the leaves of an colonel. She was presently beating the shit out of a fellow officer and doing a damn good job. The was out cold before she stopped. She turned and took her hat from a young officer who he’d heard was an invitro. She strode across the deck with her hat holding friend with her and stopped right in front of Jinx her friend behind and started to talk to us in a quiet calm voice laced with a English accent, this surprised him because most of the officers Jinx knew only yelled. “At-tion!!” my instructor yelled us, she gave him a icy glance for the interruption. “ Can someone tell who I am!” she asked. “ Col. Kenny Ma’am!!!!” they yelled. “ What species am I???!!” she asked us. “Ma’am, HUMAN, Ma’am” they yelled. “MY GOD SIR YOUR MEN ARE BRIGHT!” she yelled striding over to the instructor. “ TELL ME WHO THIS MAN IS!!” She said pointing to the man behind her. “MA’AM, LT. MCQUEEN, MA’AM!!!” we responded. “ WHAT SPECIES IS HE???” she yelled. “INVITRO MA’AM!!” He yelled along with others. Jinx saw the Lt. face tense for a moment as he watched her next move. “WRONG!! 20PUSHUPS NOW!!!!” she yelled and we a dropped. “ THIS MAN IS HUMAN, AND IF I EVER CATCH YOU ORDERING MOCKING OR SWEARING AT HIM I MYSELF WILL BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!!!!!” She yelled, turned on her heel and left the lt. following her. And from that moment on he knew he was in love. He would do anything for her, later on that summer the crush had developed into a close friendship. But the next summer He heard she had disappeared, and was pronouced dead..... ***** 2063 “Hello, Jinx? You in there, focus.” Rossi asked. He smiled “ Sorry I’m just a little tired.” She looked up at him and for the first time in a few days smiled. “I know but don’t worry we’ll be outta here soon. I was thinking about what we should do about Remmy and Johnson” She took a breath and continued. “ The rest of the squadron is very tired, so I thought we could patrol out there and see if we can find the other group.” She looked at him for his opinion. “Yah, that’s a good idea and maybe we can meet up with the 5-8 on the way.” He looked at the landscape in front of them and found a perfect spot to hide the rest of the squadron. “ Okay lets take the rest of the squadron over there.” He pointed to a small out cropping in a cliff that was standing to the east. “ All right then you and I can head out, JEFFREY, YOUR IN CHARGE TILL WE GET BACK, come Jinx it’ll be fun.” She placed her cap carefully over her head injury and started to walk, Jinx followed. ********** 5 miles west of the 10th Lt. Shane marched onward, swiping the stray hairs of her face, it was sweltering out. She stopped to look at her watch, 13:30. Still early afternoon it seemed as though they had been marching forever. She glanced up to see Cooper growling to himself about the ‘Stupid’ judge who had sentenced him to a fiery hell in the middle of nowhere. She then turned her attention to the colonel, he was trudging up a hill muttering under his breath. He looked extremely pissed about something, but if the rumors were true... It had been going around that they were going in for one person and that the rest were irrelevant. It really pained her to see ‘politics’ come first then before fellowship and loyalty. She looked at her watch again, 13:35. It was going to be a long day. ************ ‘Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch.’ Rossi had been walking for the past hour with a rock in her shoe. ‘I’ll have son of b**ch blister in the morning she thought to her self.’ Rossi looked up, Jinx was about a hundred yards away walking’ up a storm. Always in a hurry. She remembered him when he was a kid, always wanted to get there first, and be the best. She looked to the north the sun was starting to set and the twin moons had already slithered across the dusty battle worn skies, she could make out smoke rising from somewhere far from the north. She glanced at her watch, 15:20. She took one more step and winced. “Hey Jinx you go ahead I’ve got to fix something!” She watched him wave and disappear in the foliage of a small wooded area, and that’s when it happened a huge boom sounded off to the east, she stood up, thinking for Jinx. A huge mushroom cloud of smoke was blooming in the sky. Her heart caught in her throat. “JINX!!!!!” she screamed. Not again she thought. ********** Col. McQueen heard it first and then saw it, a huge cloud of smoke rising above the tree line about 2klicks away. He looked back, worried glances flooded the faces of the team. He turned and jogged towards the blast the rest of the 5-8 behind him. ********** Rosiland looked in horror at the scene that laid before her. The chigs had done it this time. She scanned the mess for Jinx and found him lying about 15ft from the blast motionless. She ran to his side, feeling the tears stream down her face. “No, Jinx you can’t do this to me!!!! I swear if you die I’m going to kill you!” She knelt and looked him over. He had a huge gash above his head and a bruise that covered the left side of his face, she moved her hands down his body but stopped when he groaned, broken ribs, but a strong pulse. “ Well Jinx I guess you won’t be flying’ for a while.” she sniffed and whipped her face. She looked around her surroundings, they were in the thicket now, well the part that hadn’t been leveled. She looked over the contents of their packs and started to patch him up. Rossi gently braced his head and gently pulled him farther into the thicket. She did not want to be here when the chigs came back to find what they caught in their mouse trap. She placed his head in her lap and started on a Italian MIR, (yuck). Trying to take her mind off the horror of the war and back to a place called home. ******** 1.5km east Col. McQeen looked at his watch, they had about 15min till dark and he wanted to get there soon. They had just received a daily communication from the Saratoga that on the other side of the planet 4 more squadrons had come in to support the ground forces, and that more enemy forces had joined in the fun. He let a sigh of relief, the last thing they needed was a bunch of five foot bugs breathing down there necks. He looked back to see if the others were coming, they were really tired and he hated to push them but they had to get there before it got to late and dark out. ******** 1km west of 58th squadron Rosiland picked up her gun and started to load it , she had one clip left. The quiet of the night had begun to settle accompanied by a really bad feeling about the situation they were in. “ Well Jinx I hate to tell you but.... I think we’re gonna’ die out here.” She looked down at him. He wasn’t that old he, she punched the ground, damn war. The war had taken so much already she was not going to let it take Ajan from her. “ Listen Jinx I have, um, something I want to tell you about me. I’ ve actually been meaning to tell you for sometime but, well, I never got around to it.” She sighed feeling the guilt that throbbed in her soul swell to an unbearable mass. “ You must have thought something was wrong when I just showed up after being gone for 13 years as ah.. as ah lieutenant. Well... Do you remember when you first met me, I was the youngest Colonel on the TITANIC. You also might have of heard that my father pushed big boys into it because of the loss of high ranking officers during the AI wars and that I am pretty damn smart. That was what got me in trouble. During the course of the year my father and I came in contact with a communication from a different civilization past the farthest reaches of our colonies.” Rosiland sighed and took his hand trying to keep her voice from wavering. “ We reported it to Areotech, and they said we were crazy, we gave them proof and they said nothing. A few weeks later someone tried to kill me, but thanks to Tyrus it was not a fatal attack. I never told Tyrus the real reason for the attack just that people didn’t like me supporting the Invitro’s. My father decided it would be best to hide the evidence and hide me away, but after a few months in hiding I was discovered and injured seriously. My father said enough was enough and had me Cryogenically frozen for 20yrs.” She stopped and smiled. “I remember the last day Tyrus and I spent together we went for a walk up in the forest around my house in England, he said he’d never forget me and that he really cared for me and handed me this huge piece of black rock, I never got around to asking why he gave it to me.” She smiled, sniffed and started again. “ I was released from cryo freeze 7 years earlier than I was supposed, on my brothers wishes because of the war. We changed Kinny to Kennny and rewrote my whole life, the only ones to know were about me, Damian, the Secretary General, and some of the big boys at the top of the military. They say I can renounce who I am at any time but I may not survive the repicutions of my choice. I don’t think I could ever go back to the way it was. Besides I’m totally different I’m the girl genius next door or the decorated Colonel. I’m just some lonely Lieutenant who will die in some war I could of helped prevent 13 years ago.” Rosiland felt the tears spill out of her eyes. “ I’m almost happy to die...I didn’t even tell Tyrus that I was alive.” She felt it a small squeeze. She looked down to see Jinx staring up at her his hazel eyes also glistening with tears. “ I forgive you Rossi.” He said and closed his eyes. She smiled and pulled her tags out, there were two sets, one from her service in the core 13 years ago and two from her service now. She ripped them from her neck and placed them in his hand. “ Thank you Jinx, you’ll never know how much I really cared.” She sniffed and looked to the silver moons rising into the dusty blue skies. 1/2 hour later HHMMMM.... ‘If I put this over here it should blow them over there...’ Rosiland had been working in the dark of night for two hours setting up a small trap just in case a band of bugs came in for lunch. She set a few trigger bombs about ten feet out into the clearing. Then she set a trip wire in a ring around the outside them. She then placed her empty MIR container in the center. It wouldn’t be a big blast just enough to distract them (and maybe kill a few of them) while she got off a few shots and threw a k-bar of two. Rosiland then went over to Jinx (who was still out of it) and dragged him farther back into the trees, and then preceded to cover him in leaves, hoping it would be enough. She then settled herself about ten feet to the left of Jinx and put on her night vision goggles and scarf, she hated the smell of spooge, especially after a meal. She sat for about ten minutes when she heard it. A small ‘CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH’. She shifted her gun and cautiously looked out from behind a tree. ‘Oh Crap!’ -------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 11:29:53 -0800 From: Ruth Skiba-Otway Subject: When the Stars Cry 3/4 Sender: owner-tales@stargame.org To: Tales list X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I; 16bit) X-Authentication-warning: vortex.nrgtech.net: bin set sender to owner-tales@stargame.org using -f TALES -- where everything goes. But remember, people, "bannerment" is not a word. By...Ruth Skiba-Otway copyright 1997 When the Stars Cry 2/2 Nathan West stepped cautiously into the clearing, scanning the view in front of him, nothing, just light and dark spots where the blast had been. He looked for what could of set it off. His eyes then caught a small shiny object glistening in the moonlight. “ Sir, over there.” He turned his head and watched as the Colonel approached it waving the others back. ‘ Oh my god what kind of idiot is this guy!’ Rosiland thought. She watched as the leader of the group waved the others off to his right, one of them, a tall man that looked like he belonged on a football team, stopped five feet in front Jinx and crouched. The Leader began to crouch/walk towards the container, not even thinking there could be another trap. She watched in horror as he came closer and closer to the trip wire, when something inside her snapped. She couldn’t let this happen, he was a marine not some Chig, she had to do something. She sighed and placed her gun silently on the ground. “ Today’s a good day to die. ‘ She silently whispered and let the hell inside her break loose. She charged. ‘What the.......’ McQueen had no time to think or raise any kind of defense, as a black figure raced towards him screaming at the top of it’s lungs. It hit him hard and the world exploded. Lt. Shane Vansen watched in horror as what looked to be a fellow marine charged at McQueen, screaming at the top of it’s lungs. And suddenly the world exploded, she felt herself being hurled back into the woods. ‘Idiot.’ Rosiland Kenny thought weakly as she felt the the dirt fall on her. He set off the bombs. She could feel him shift under her, and she started to pick herself up. It looked like they had been blasted about 10ft back into the woods. Her head hurt and the world seemed to sway back and forth. She sat down beside him, he was still wearing his goggles, and his helmet was still in place on his head. She bent and made sure he was at least semi-awake, and the she exploded. She pulled back in hit him as hard as she could in the left side of his jaw. “ YOU IDIOT YOU COULD OF GOTTEN US BOTH KILLED!!!!!! DON’T YOU KNOW TO CHECK A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS AREA WHEN YOU SEE ONE IDIOT IDIOT IDIOT!!!!!!!” she screamed at him and shook him. She sucked in a sob and pulled herself to her feet just as seven other people came rushing at her. They then pushed right by her and knelt beside their Colonel. “Sir? Sir? are you all right?” Hawkes looked down at him with worry in his eyes. “Hawkes shut the hell up I have the worst headache in the world!” McQueen said woozy. Hawkes let out a sigh of relief and turned to see where the kid that had pushed McQueen out of the way had gone, but was greeted by the soft whisper of leaves. “ Hey Shane, I’m going to see where that kid went, kay?” He looked at her face for a response. “ All right, but West you go with him.” She said and went back to helping the Colonel sit upright. Cooper started walking and Heard Nathan Come up behind him. They walked into the pocket of charred soil where the MIR had been. “ Come out, come out where ever you are.” he whispered. Nothing but silence. “ How could he of gotten away, when we saw him by McQueen he could hardly stand up and now he’s gone!!??” Nathan whispered and Cooper averted his eyes to the ground and push his goggles on a trail of unsteady foot prints appeared. He followed them to the other side of the clearing. His eyes then came upon bare ground as if someone had been lying there, Nathan saw it too. “ What should we say?” he asked Nathan who was staring at the ground. “ Ask a question something a human could answer.” Nathan said “ I wonder why he’s hiding?” He asked Cooper. “ Maybe he’s a spy or something like in that movie you showed me about the that Cruise guy the one Shane liked.” Cooper said. “ Hey what about this Nate..... Hey kid if your out there.....2+2.....” he waited in silence.... “ 4” The voice was a light soprano with a English accent and very unsteady. “ Hey you can come out we’re the good guys.” he said. “ Are you injured? We’re coming to get you...” Nathan said, “ Somewhat.” ‘she’ said. They looked at each other and started towards the voice. Rosiland sat quietly in the bushes hoping the people would hurry up they had to get out of here before the chigs got back. She looked at Jinx who was muttering something unintelligent about baseball. They had to be the 58th squadron, Jinx was right they did have more than 9 lives . She heard the footsteps growing closer she started to lift Jinx up but stopped ... she listened, yes there were foot steps but something else.. it was of to her right. A weezing sound, a Chig patrol unit. She gulped and stood up and quietly and trotted through the bushes towards the sounds. She looked up and saw them there were only three of them and they looked like they were mighty pissed about their trap being destroyed. She breathed in a sigh there were only three, she could handle it. She un-sheathed her k-bar and flipped it, blade on her palm she drew her arm back. Three’s a charm she thought and threw it at the approaching enemy.... it flew straight and true...... -------------------------------- Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 11:32:14 -0800 From: Ruth Skiba-Otway Subject: When the Stars Cry 4/4 Sender: owner-tales@stargame.org To: Tales list X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I; 16bit) X-Authentication-warning: vortex.nrgtech.net: bin set sender to owner-tales@stargame.org using -f TALES -- where everything goes. But remember, people, "bannerment" is not a word. By...Ruth Skiba-Otway Copyright 1997 When the Stars Cry 4/4 Nathan walked cautiously forward and tripped he looked down to see a young man lying on his back with some leaves covering him. “ Hey Coop’ over here!” He whispered. “ Whoa, I don’t think this is the guy who saved McQueen, he looks pretty banged up.” Cooper said. Nathan looked at him again, his face was covered in bruises and he had a nasty gash above his left eye. “Well lets see who you are” Nathan leaned down and pulled his tags out. “Ajan Binx, nice name” he said. Suddenly the man’s eyes popped open and he stared strait at Nathan and then at his surroundings his eyes widened and he turned his head to Nathan. “ Who the hell are you? And where’s Rossi?” He tried to sit up but stopped and fell back. “ I’m Lt. Nathan West and this is Lt. Cooper Hawkes we’re from the 58th squadron, we were sent here to get you.”. “Who’s Rossi?” Cooper asked. He looked past them. “ You took your time getting’ here, and Rossi is the Marine I was with, Lt. Rosiland Kenny, tall, English accent....” Cooper interrupted him “ He must be talking’ about the kid who saved McQueen’s life and then ran off...” “ McQueen? McQueen is with you? Oh my God....” Nathan looked at Lt. Binx in confusion. “ Could you pull me up I have to find her.” Binx said and Nathan bent to help him when the heard shots fire off the their left. “ Oh crap, looks like we have company!” Binx said. ‘What the...’ McQueen looked to the west where the shots had come from. “ Where’s West and Hawkes?” he looked at Vansen and she pulled him to his feet. “ They went to find the guy who pushed you out of the way before the bombs exploded.” Shane looked at him. He looked around and started to limp towards the clearing. ‘ You mean the guy who hit me.” ‘Oh God’ Rosiland threw another knife at her , now two. attackers she’d already gotten one and another Chig fell as the knife hit it. where was her gun when she needed it. The last Chig had her in it’s sites, she pulled out another K-bar and threw it... damn a miss. She charged it and knocked it’s gun away, but it kept coming, with no knives it was hand to hand to the death. She hit it and it fell, but got up before she had a chance to hit it again. The Chig kicked her sending searing bolts of pain through her ribs, she fell hard on her side. She jumped to her feet and ran at it again but again it had the upper hand and the Chig hit her so hard that she landed in the clearing. She thought if he’d just get it over with it wouldn’t be that bad.... then she heard a familiar voice call her name. She looked to her left and saw Jinx coming out of the bushes, followed by two marines, to his right 4 other Marines ran into the clearing. He looked at her and smiled he pulled his knife out and threw it to her as the other marines struggled to get there weapons up. She caught it and threw it as hard as she could, it struck home followed by 7 other shots. Rosiland felt the world fall silent as if waiting for this nightmare to end. She sat up and five days of hell came rushing back in a mixture of blood and tears. Her voice caught in her throat and she sobbed. her voice echoing as the first streaks of dawn fell upon her. Cooper looked at her. He had never seen a marine cry before. He watched her sob and curse in what must of been 5 different languages. “ Sir?” Binx had moved to the side of McQueen who was watching the girl with a faraway look. Cooper watched as McQueen looked and he stared at Ajan with what looked to be recognition. “Jinx?!” He said. McQueen looked at the Girl again. “Sir, I think you should know that the girl who saved your life was... was..... sir, I think you should know understand before you reprimand” Binx said and placed two sets of dog tags in McQueen’s hand. Cooper watched as McQueen’s eyes grow wide as he looked at the name on the dog tags and then back at the girl. Cooper sighed and set his gun down and walked towards her, her back was facing him and I shook with sobs. He knelt down and looked and her she was in the middle of pulling off her goggles. The side of her face that was exposed to him was covered with dust and a trickle of new blood flowed out of rough looking bandage. She then turned to face him, and he stared she was beautiful she had the same color of eyes as the colonel and her face,( even with all the dust and blood) was lovely, it gently curved from the top of her head to the bottom where it ended in a perfect chin but what surprised him most was her age she looked no more than 17 or 18, barley out of school, too young to be in this damn war. He watched as her eyes flooded again and she started to cry. He looked up at the rest of the group who were whispering and staring at the ground. He carefully put his arm around her and she immediately she leaned into him and sobbed. McQueen looked at Hawkes and the girl at Rosiland. His mind suddenly drifted back to a dance a long time ago..... He sat in the huge gym at the base. Everyone was up dancing except him he looked around meeting the glares and laughs of all the natural born Marines. He closed his eyes and sighed. “Exscuse me, but I saw you from across the room and you looked so lonlely. Well I was wondering, would you like to dance?” He thought he was dreaming but opened his eyes just to check, a pair of feet stood in front of him. He looked up to see a girl not much younger than him smiling at him curiously. “ I ah...sure..” She held out her hand to help him up. “By the way my name’s Rosiland but you can call me Rossi.” ...... Rossi???? He found himself walking towards her, he felt the new day grow warm around him. He touched Hawkes shoulder and he moved away from her. She snuffed out the last of the tears and wiped her eyes. “ Good morning Rosiland.” She looked up, her Blue eyes widened and they stared at each other. He let a small smile squeeze past his lips and he held out his hand. She smiled..... The End (Don't know whether to continue this or not:)) -------------------------------- Date: Wed, 04 Feb 1998 09:16:21 -0800 From: Ruth Skiba-Otway Subject: When the Stars Cry notes and disclaimer Sender: owner-tales@stargame.org To: Tales list X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.03 [en] (Win95; I; 16bit) X-Authentication-warning: vortex.nrgtech.net: bin set sender to owner-tales@stargame.org using -f TALES -- where everything goes. But remember, people, "bannerment" is not a word. By Ruth Skiba-Otway Copyright 1997 (P.S. First story i've ever written 4 people other than my teacher) When the Stars Cry Disclaimer (and stuff) :) ******************** The characters and situations of the TV program "SPACE: Above and Beyond" are the creations of Glen Morgan and James Wong, FOX Broadcasting and Hard Eight Productions, and have been used without permission. No copyright infringements are intended. (please don’t sue!) Please do not copy without my permission :) Lt.Ajan Binx and Lt. Rosiland Kenny are mine as well as any other people and squadrons that are mentioned and you do not reconize! Okay this is my first try at fanfic so bear with me! This is the first story in a series, the next part will be comming out in a week or two! It seems as though some of the characters names change but they don’ttheir like, nicknames ie. Binx = Jinx, Rosiland = Rossi. Bada bing Bada boom! There may be some spelling and grammer mistakes but hey I’m only a kid!I appreciate any comments or critisisim can be sent to erindale.farm@sympatico.ca OR mekaboo@hotmail.com. Speacial thanx to Maz Smith and my Mother, Halina Skiba And of course to Morgan and Wong for ‘Space: Above and Beyond! ENJOY! --------------------------------