Six

It had only served to make their hunger of each other more so. Having taken her several more times with an intensity that bordered on desperation, she'd fallen asleep cosied up next to him and woke sometime later to find him asleep. Watching him for a while, he was literally dead to the world. His systems shut down. It didn't happen often. And she moved slowly off the bed so as not to wake him. She needed answers.

What he'd told her upset her. She didn't want him to see it.

Grabbing a robe, she threw it on and stepped out and went to the hub. She needed information and found Tane sitting there monitoring systems.

"Can we talk?" She asked seeing him.

"Always." She took a seat. They were used to her roaming about in the middle of the night. Coming and going. "The Commander?" He asked.

"Sleeping," she smiled. "That's rare." And got lost for a moment in him. Then realised that Tane was waiting. "He err said something, a couple of things actually, that upset him. He hid it well, but I saw it before his mask was back in place. I'd like to talk about it."

"If I can."

She nodded. "He said that your owners might come looking for you. Want to take you back. Do you all think that?" She asked scared for what the answer would mean.

He gave a nod. "It was a multi-trillion credit industry back on Old Earth. Or was. You don't just leave that. If Earth Corp is gone, someone likely picked it up. We were, are, their property. It's logical."

"Property." She sneered. "I'll kill anyone who tries to take him from me or any of you."

Tane smiled at her. "We think the same of both you and Jacqs but we also know we might not have a choice. The programming no longer works here but, they'll come with upgrades. Will likely infiltrate our systems remotely and turn us back on. And we'll do exactly what they tell us."

"Then we need to stop that happening."

"We don't know how. We've been looking for answers to it for years but don't have the access or resources here to work on."

"What does Aquarius say? Have you asked?"

He gave a nod. "Not part of her mission, so no data."

"Shit, there has to be something. What about the cryo tubes?"

"They are cryo tubes."

"Yes, but they were made for you right? They could help repair you if damaged in stasis right? They would need your schematics, how you work for that. Or they wouldn't be able to do it. They'd need to know how you function to fix you."

He turned his head and studied her for a moment. "You are a remarkable woman Helena. I love your sister in my way as Blad loves you in his. You should know that. And no, we have not looked at that possibility."

"Okay. It's a start. I'll get the Autobots to take one apart and have Aquarius log in to its systems and devour it. Then look at the blueprint log, see if we have one for the cryo tubes which would make sense if they needed to fix anything that went wrong with them or have to make more if some was damaged and while we're at it, its sick but we need to see if they have a blue print for you too."

She saw the surprise on his face. "You think they'd load a Cyborg programme?" He asked.

"Who the hell knows what they'd load. Let's pull everything. Every scan we've ever done. We might be lucky, or we ask for volunteers to undergo study of the computers in your brains, have Aquarius and the Autobots make a schematic of your electronic systems, I don't know, I'm grasping at straws but I'm reluctant to do that, its invasive and I know the experimentations you endured under slavery. I don't want to revisit that." She sighed. "Maybe Aquarius can cobble something together that works before we have to deal with anyone coming that would try to take you from us. I need something that works Tane. I'll not lose him or a man to this. Or see my sister devastated to lose the man she loves." She gave him a pointed look. He gave her a slow nod in recognition. "If they do that, reprogramme you, you won't remember who we are will you?" She asked sadly.

He shook his head. "No. There is only the programming. Memories of our time here will be just that, memories stored in cold unemotional data files and never retrieved again unless we need them to complete a mission. If we are reprogrammed and they tell us to kill everyone, we will Helena. They'll be no stopping it. Our emotions and pain receptors will be turned off again. We'll be aware but will stop feeling and only follow orders. That time comes, you hide, find somewhere we do not know of, somewhere we would not think to look for you and you stay hidden until we leave this world. If the Commander or any of us find you with a kill order, we'll recognise you but be unable to save you, even from us. Do not think of us emotionally if that happens, of what you shared with us, think logic to complete a mission. That will be all that's left. The people that controlled us were not kind. Many were cruel. Would experiment on us, do things to make us react. Try to break the programming. If they instructed us to rape you, hurt you, make you suffer, we would. If they took you and made us watch, we would, with no way to stop it." She nodded feeling sick.

Yeah, she'd be looking for that place as soon as…..

"And the second thing he said?" He asked drawing her out of her thoughts again.

"He told me he couldn't give me children."

Tane nodded. "He's right. We can't. Being free seems we can't have everything." He smiled sadly. "Fertility for us wasn't really an option once the nanos to keep us going were introduced to our systems. In keeping us healthy, in optimum performance, in the face of the damage we suffered and the requirement to be 100% all the time, they use everything else in us that isn't vital. That includes viable sperm. We no longer make it. The energy it takes is a waste in the light of staying alive. And we are grateful for that. Had Earth Corp found a way to have us as breeders, they would have systematically raped our seed, drugged us or programmed us to take females and impregnate them. That would not be something a woman would wish and with free will, we wouldn't either. But it would have been cheaper for them than building us from scratch. Luckily, no woman got pregnant that way, or very few, and even fewer children survived. The production not viable, it was abandoned for the birthing pods."

She swallowed. Never hearing this before.

"We were given growth hormones and stimulants in gestation. Anything to accelerate growth. They birthed us at the physical age of 18, but it only took 5 years. We were like any newborn, looking for comfort, to belong, sponges for learning. Fixing our ages for what they needed, we continued to mature as we were trained. There was no comfort there and the experiments started. The mechanics added, cut up, they gave us what they wanted. Computers in our brains, data storage embedded, they programmed us to be the soldiers they needed. Allowing us to recover before the training started again. If we survived. Part human we looked for that familiar, family connection, of being cared for, wanted and only found pain and our brothers. Then they shut the pain and emotional sensors off because we couldn't function with the knowledge of what we'd been ordered to do. You should also know, given the chance, we won't go back to that Helena, we'll terminate all of us."

She had no idea that had happened and no idea what to do about what he'd just told her. They'd rather be dead and gone than allow them to be taken again. They'd kill themselves.

She wanted to cry and defy it.

Her heart hurt and she felt sick.

She'd lose him and Jacqs might never know the male she loved. She knew Jacqs. She might deny it, it might be puppy love, but she cared for this man. With everything that had happened to them, it was likely a deep love for someone so young.

It would devastate Jacqs to lose Tane as much as it would her to lose Blad.

She made a decision. "If that looks likely Tane, you need to have this conversation with Jacqs. I know she's 15 now, 16 in two months but she's more mature than most 15-year-olds. And let's hope if that looks likely, she'll be older than 18, more like 21 and she can know the love of a good male before there's a chance it's taken from her. But if she's not, you will need to be the adult."

He looked a little lost. She guessed the waiting would be hard on him as well as Jacqs. With a comforting hand on his, she left Tane, and headed for the communal showers, replicating more clothing and showered readying for the day.

She couldn't go back to him now. She had work to do. With her mind reeling. It wasn't just her people that needed saving.

How had he survived that at all?...

She didn't know but she needed to help them.

"Computer, take a Cyborg cryo tube apart, find the programming, dissect it, I want to know what it can and cannot do. Go through all the blueprints on file, see if we have one on the cyro tubes and the Cyborgs themselves. If we do, see if we have enough information to reprogramme them or break the old programming for good. Use the scans of any medical we have. The same with the cryo tubes. Cobble it all together. I want their programming unable to be turned back on, never to be reprogrammed again."

"Affirmative. Do you wish me to revisit the colony and old ships logs for anything that will help?"

"Yes I do."

"Instructing Autobots now. Accessing historic records."

He found her working in his office on a strategy to blow up the transport ships the pirates were using to get around on this world. She'd never wanted her own and in the last couple of years, she'd started to use his. She wanted to hit all of them at the same time. It was time they kicked them in the balls and made it hurt. She was out of patience.

Without hearing him, his heat was always the first thing she sensed before his head was in her neck breathing her in, this time over his bite. He kissed it.

"You left me sleeping."

"You needed it."

"Needed my wife more when I woke but she wasn't there."

"Busy. Work to do."

Moving around her he kneeled next to her. His head still taller than hers. "I waited a long time to find you. No matter what is happening," he took her hand and held it. "We find time for us, okay?"

Pulling his head down she kissed him. "Okay. I'm sorry I missed my good morning." He kissed her back taking it deeper and heating her body. Pulling back at last lingering on her lips, she gave him that knowing look, he was playing with fire. He gave her a wink knowing exactly the effect he was having.

She shook her head at him. "I think it's time we upped our game. Target their ships again only this time, a co-ordinated attack on as many as we can find. I want it to hurt so much they keep them off world from then on. Giving us the chance to move around freely." He pulled her notes towards him. Read what she'd written and nodded.

"If we do this. We could do with some of those ships. Take them, hide them, use them against them." He told her.

"Can you do that?"

"With enough men. We'll have to keep this off the books with our suspicions of the other tunnels. Tell no one."

She nodded. "So not blow them all?"

"If we can keep and hide 3, it would be good. We have the new dug out hangers. The rest can go on timed explosions in a uniformed attack. Get in and out unseen and blow the lot at once. It's a good plan." He pulled the map of the area up on the desk vid looking at the places she'd marked. "It's risky. We'll have to go in several teams, you know they don't keep them together and they're under surveillance. It's going to take a lot of planning but that's not a problem as you know, we can infiltrate any electrical system if its near enough and download anything else on those ships too. They might have intel and tech we can use. They might have updates on other worlds and Earth Corp we do not know about. The difficulty will be having enough men in teams to make it happen and getting near enough without being seen."

"True. But can you do it?"

"Might have to go slow. Needs to be well planned. Use camo where we can. Stay hidden sneaking up. We'll have to do recon. A lot of it. Find out when they'll all be on world and the same time. And we'll need those extra men."

"I'm really loving you right now." He smirked. "Good. Give me a plan. But first we need to deal with tunnel 3."

"You know the leaders of tunnel 2 well Helena. Can they weed out their own people?"

She shook her head. "Don't know. I doubt it and you can read lies. We're going to need Cyborgs skills to be sure. I'm thinking we need a first meeting away from the tunnels to discuss it and you can have another go at them. Check the leadership is solid or it's a bust from the off. It's the only way to be sure. Set up a location and you scan them again. After that, maybe set up meet and greets with everyone else in there in small pockets, with our men testing them all again. Making sure. At the same time, we'll have to set up tunnel 3 again. See if anyone else turns up but either way, we'll have to do something about tunnel 3 and have everyone that knew about that fake raid brought out for you to read too, then start on the rest." She shook her head. "We're going to need more housing. For those that betray us and have no qualms about doing it and those that are threatened into it."

"Do you think our cover holds?" He asked concerned. No one else on this world knew they were Cyborg.

She shrugged. "We told them you crash landed here opposed to the raiders plans and decided to side with us but wanted your own space so wouldn't directly engage with us but would support any action. You know we never talk Cyborg. Of course, they've noticed your bigger than your average raider, but no one has queried it and you all keep your distance from them. You don't act anything but human now and I'm not sure any of our people would remember about you anyway. I certainly didn't have a clue. And you all changed a lot in those first years. By the time we were extracting people, you couldn't really tell you were anything other than full human unless you were up close and personal."

He gave a nod. "We kept a low profile with the humans for that reason and killed any raiders that saw us just in case they knew of us. So we should still be good."

"Okay, I'll communicate with tunnel 2 have them meet us. Set up another false meet with tunnel 3. Target the leaders, need to know and see what we catch."

He gave her a nod. "We'll set up surveillance of the chosen area for tunnel 2 as well. Make sure it's clear for several miles before giving the location."

She rubbed her head. "I hate we have to do this."

"It happened all the time. Humans are fragile and break." She looked at him. It was the first time he'd told her humans were less than Cyborg. "I won't ever be anything but honest with you Helena. You know this."

He was right. It was just hard to hear it. "I love you you know that?" she told him again recalling everything Tane had told her.

"You say that and I can see you mean it but I don't know what that is. But I sense your need of me and my own. I crave you. Want to keep you safe from harm, want to see you sleep peacefully, be happy, larger than life itself and give you everything you want. Take your pain away and comfort you and in return, you give me something I've never known. You calm me. Give me peace. You feel like the home I never had."

She smiled, tears in her eyes and kissed him. "That's love, my love."

They held each other for a long time before she let him go. And even then didn't want to.

Putting their own emotions on hold, they got on with the job, concerned that time was not on their side, that a raid could be imminent. They set up the two meets with the tunnel's leaders. Their councils that ran everything in them. Tane was put in charge of dealing with tunnel 3. And recon was sent out for 24 hours before setting the meets for both. The slightest concern and they would be aborted. Other missions were on-going, supplying fresh food from out laying farms under the radar. Keeping tabs on raider leaders and what they were doing. A strike here or there, keeping things normal for them. Using Aquarius to record all community cameras and feed them to their hub.

Someone was always watching and recording.

Bringing the guns, they'd taken from the downed raiders ready to hand out, they were hiding waiting for the council to arrival from tunnel 2 some way out from that location. Their instructions had been clear to them. Make the meet point. Need to know only, not to discuss it with any other and not to involve tunnel 3.

Blad pointed out the humans making their way to them handing her the field glasses. He didn't need them but knew she did. They were being followed by their Cyborgs keeping watch for anything that looked wrong. Not that they'd know they were being followed by Cyborgs, they were too good for that but Blads glazed over look told her he was in constant contact with them all.

Watching their approach through the binoculars. The six people she knew well over the past 9 years for some moved slowly and carefully through the landscape until they reached the meeting point and stayed low.

Blad still glazed over. She waited. "No one following in any direction. Move in."

Crouching she moved.

Slowly making her approach, they saw her coming and waited until she was amongst them. "Sandy, Cass, Danny, Kurt, Anna, Esther. Thank you for meeting me. We have a problem. There have been whispers for a while now around how the raiders know we're coming." There were protests and she put her hand up. "Tunnel 3 has a problem; we know that and hoping that's isolated." They quietened down. "I'm not saying that there may not be a problem in tunnel 2 as well, but this council were only given certain information prior to this meeting and we were not intercepted at the location we gave. So we are hopeful that tunnel 2 is not compromised and most definitely not by this group." They started to relax. "To be sure, our soldiers will interview every one of you again. Passing is expected. But we need to be sure."

Tunnel 2 council looked at each other, then turned to her and gave varying acceptances.

"Right." She turned to look behind her. "You're up."

She watched her husband come out of the grass. Unseen, his camo hiding him so well she could hardly make him out before he moved, only the grasses telling his movement because he wanted it to. Slowly he stood and walked towards them. Glancing at the people before her, she saw their reactions to seeing him up close once his camo disengaged. His size, the way he walked, the way he commanded everything around him and that handsome face she loved so much. Knelling next to her, he pulled her neck into him and kissed her. "Wife, you called?"

"You're married Helena?" Esther asked quietly.

Turning to her she smiled. "I am. This is Blad. One of the soldiers that crash landed."

"Congratulations." The others smiling now, their fear of seeing him gone.

"Thank you."

"We don't have much time." He reminded her.

"Right. I will ask a series of questions and one at a time, you will answer them. My husband has a special gift, he can tell lies. So please keep your answers direct."

They looked at him curiously and he winked at them. The women smiling. He'd won them over ready. She refrained from rolling her eyes. He was good eye candy. She knew that only too well and could hardly blame them, she started the questions.

"1. You are leaders of your community." They answered yes in turn.

"Truth." He repeated each time they did.

"2. Are you committed to keeping our people alive." They answered yes again.

"Truth."

"3. Are you committed to retaking this world from the pirates?" Another round of yes'.

"Truth."

"4. You are working for our freedom." A round of yeses.

"Truth."

"5. You are compromised by the pirates. They are using persons under their control for you to betray us." There was a round of No's this time.

Blad didn't give her a come back. He remained quiet for a moment. She looked at him. His face shut down as he looked at her. "I'm sorry baby." She felt crushed as he turned back to the council. "Anna. You want to explain why you're not being honest here." There was a collective gasp.

"We're compromised? Are we safe here?" She started to get up reaching for her weapons and saw him glaze over, then clear.

"Nothing incoming. Whatever she's doing, she didn't betray us here."

"They have my sister and niece." Anna blurted tears in her eyes.

"Fuck. Are you working alone?" She gave a nod.

"Truth." Blad told her. Anna started crying.

"What have you told them?" she asked her gently knowing what she must have lived through.

Anna started to rock. Esther, reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "You don't know what it's like in there." She whispered. "They take you, rape you and laugh while they do it. They killed our men. Took our children. I know my boy is dead. I saw his body dumped on a pile and set alight with all the others. My sister's girl…. She's 13. They took her. Her screams went on for hours, getting weaker until she was whimpering and then, the silence was worse. She's alive but I'm not sure there's anything left. My sister is broken by it. She doesn't eat or drink unless she's made to. They let me go saying if I didn't report back what was happening with the rebels, my sister and niece would face more."

Shit. … She turned to look at him. "Can we get them out?"

"If they set this up, they'll be waiting for that to happen if Anna was found out. They'd expect it and her family are likely under guard."

She gave a nod and turned back to Anna. "How do you communicate with them?"

"I have a communicator. Hidden out here. I have to report in once a week. Give an update. Let them know what is going on."

"What have you told them? You've been with us for 6 years. How the hell are we still living?"

"I know. I'm sorry. I don't think they can track the communicator. You don't know how bad I feel but I've had to give them something. Had to try and save them." Anna shuddered. "At first, I gave them small stuff. I said we were wandering, and I didn't know where I was. That we were blind folded. No one trusted from the community. I said I was put on cooking duty, but food was short. That we had a couple of guards and I only saw two others. I would talk about getting water, doing cleaning, anything to be able to make a report but not give much away. They think we are on the other side of the lakes."

"And you're still giving those types of reports?" she asked. Anna nodded.

"Truth."

She looked at him. "We can use this. Have Anna give false information to draw them out."

"Have to be careful, she's giving mundane information, if that escalates, it will look odd. Have to be slow."

"Agreed. And match any others we find. We can start by having her tell them she"s being moved." She thought about it. "Anna, are you working with anyone else against us?"

She answered no, her tears running steadily now. "Truth."

"Why wasn't she picked up on the interview before joining us? You were listening right?"

"Yes." He glazed over. She guessed linking with whoever was in the background on duty scanning them when Anna was first brought out. "She showed no signs of working for the enemy. It's possible her fears being so strong masked it then and she hadn't actually betrayed anyone at that point."

"I hadn't honestly, just taken the communicator they'd gave me, too scared to use it."

"In that case, what she was doing probably didn't register." He told her.

"Shit. Do we need to recheck everyone in the tunnels?" He gave a nod. "And there was me thinking this was gonna be easy."

He smiled at her. "We don't do easy beautiful."

"Okay we need to start scanning now, everyone in tunnel 2 out in small groups the council asks the questions, us looking on and we get the answers. Hopefully, no one else slipped through the net." She looked sadly at Anna. "I'm sorry for your loss, the pain you have, are experiencing but you're off this council. You did well to tell them nothing of worth and we want you working with us. From this point on, we'll feed you the information you'll tell them and if we get a chance to save your sister and niece, we will I promise you." Anna nodded, silently crying. Another Cyborg stepped up. "Anna this is Trac. He's going to take you to wait for us." Anna got up shakily, herself broken and Trac moved slowly encouraging her to walk back the way she'd come.

Blowing out a breath she looked at the others. They were all showing signs of shock. "We're giving you weapons. Only keep them to yourself for now until we know everyone is okay for sure. If you were ever in any doubt this needs to end, that was it. Now, we're planning to put an attack force together. I need every man and woman who can carry a weapon to train. Every morning one of my men will meet you here and training begins. To get fit, to be able to run a marathon and fight at the end of it. Our retaking of this world starts today. Get your people ready, we'll be in touch. But first, get them up to speed and fast. Time is not on our side."

****

Slowly, one by one, they eliminated those that were working for the raiders. And the training intensified. Most had good reasons for the betrayal, family or friends threatened. Others, shockingly to her, not so much. As she'd thought. Self-interest was playing a large part. Something that was really unheard of before the raiders came. But she couldn't blame them for wanting to survive.

Taken to another tunnel and locked down, no longer able to leave, communicators were taken. And the tunnel was guarded by Blads men. The rest remained in their tunnels and were only too happy to feed false information to their oppressors. Anna leading on that.

The days rolled by, their people working on training up there new army. Months of planning and training hard and each night she took comfort in the arms of her husband. Knowing they were getting closer to ending this.

They'd put together a step by step plan of false communications. Leading the pirates in the eventual directions they wanted them to go.

And together, they both reached an understanding. They had now. They didn't know about tomorrow. And every day she worked with Aquarius trying to break their programming and it was making headway, before joining him and his men and working on their plans. She had hope.

Once they'd dealt with tunnel 2, it didn't take long to realised tunnel 3 was a rat hole.

It was riddled with people reporting back to the pirates. The only reason they'd not been raided was because her people had no idea where they were and luckily for them, their communicators couldn't be triangulated. Aquarius was blocking all signals apart from their own. Those working for themselves were placed with the others in the new tunnel under guard. Those who couldn't be relied on not to pass vital intel were also isolated and kept separate in the new tunnel with the others, those that could work with them, they kept as they had in tunnel 2 active. With new leadership scanned and rescanned, they suddenly had a network of people who could feed misinformation in a uniformed manner misleading the pirates.

They used their own system against them.

It felt damn good. Like they were finally getting somewhere.

And when the time was right, started a synchronised attack.

Giving nothing vital away but just enough to make the pirates think things were normal. All communicators were now held by them. And as a precaution, the decision was made that no new releases were taken to 2 or 3 but a new one much further out created by the Cyborgs, the 4D printers replicating all the parts to give Aquarius another linked in system. All the mechanics needed to make it work. Moving the mining equipment had been a challenge but they'd got it done, fitted them out and brought any newly freed to that location and kept them there under wraps.

With her and Jacqs leading on the medical and help, putting others in place when they could, Autobots were replicated doing the bulk of the work. And all the while they looked for leaders amongst them that they could trust to take over.

The scanning with a system was now in place. They were finally confident that they'd got everyone in tunnel 2 and 3. Tunnel 4 was full of those they couldn't trust at all, tunnel 5 the newbies and she wondered when things would get back to normal, if their normal was ever possible again with no idea how that was going to play out she held her hope close.

She knew from conversations she'd had with the leaders of both tunnels 2 and 3, how shocked and disappointed they all were. Some had been leaders in the structure of the communities before the raiders came. But there was no longer an elder council. They were all gone. The marauders had systematically drawn them out and killed them.

Blad had told her it was a proven tactic that worked. People were in disarray without good leadership. Easier to conquer.

She hated the reminder of the reality of their situation. They would have to start again. If, they ever made it.

For months, they'd been training. And every night Blad came to her, loved her and insisted she take his blood and shared his with her. She was stronger. Her muscle mass had increased, and she felt amazing, like they could take on the world in those hours together.

In the reality of the day, it was a military operation.

Placing the people in fighting groups. 20 Man and woman teams with half that number added in with Cyborg muscle. 30 In total they were nearly half a platoon. With 6 working groups, they were out there training day after day. Getting to know each other, the humans learning what would be expected of them and every day, those humans were scanned for betrayal.

The Cyborgs that were left, were mostly spread out on single or double covert missions targeting the takeout of the raiders leadership, again using their own tactics against them. A couple others were hers and Jacqs guards. Blad and Tane in and out doing their job but mainly with them. And they went nowhere alone.

Jacqs birthday came around and she was determined to make it memorable no matter what else was going on.

Making a cake or rather asking the replicator to do it, it came out great and Jacqs finally got her party. They made bunting and decorations. The day full of laughter and joy, the presents from most of the Cyborgs in several ‘joint' gifts were practical things she would need as a medic and Jacqs had loved each one giving hugs all over the place busting with happiness.

And from her and Blad, some that wouldn't but could be fun. Tane gave her his gift on the quiet and withdrew. She knew he'd made it himself, drawing up the schematics and having the 4D prints do their thing. Tane had a flare for art and design. Buried deep under the programming, without it, it had started to come through.

She wasn't sure what he'd given her but on opening it away from everyone else, there were tears in Jacqs eyes and she'd hugged him long and hard the pair of them whispering together.

Having forgiven Blad for telling her to go to bed that night months ago, they danced until dawn. Tane staying in the background until Jacqs went looking for him demanding a dance towards the end and taking his hand leading him to the dance area. Aquarius pumping out the music.

Blad hovering like an overbearing father, glaring at Tane, she told him to stop it, linking his arm and dragging him off to bed. Tane would not break the lines Blad had set in place but knowing what was coming, she wanted her sister to experience the joy of spending time with the man she loved.

She wasn't sure what had happened between Jacqs and Tane that night but next morning Jacqs had grown up a great deal, been subdued and had come out and hugged her.

They never spoke of it, but she had the impression that Tane had told her what might come to be. Likely sharing a little pleasure. The days thereafter, held a strained atmosphere.

Everyone knew what was at stake it if all went wrong.

The work and determination took over. Failure was not an option. They buried themselves in it until they were ready. And even then, Blad checked and double checked before he'd give the go.

"Are you ready beautiful?" Blad there kissing her neck. Drawing her from her thoughts.

She nodded, grabbing his face and kissing him hard before pulling back and gazing into those beautiful eyes of his. "Ready. Lets do this."

He glazed over and they watched the vid screens come alive all at once. From their Hub, they saw each of the teams start to move in simultaneously on their targets. Months in the making, checking and rechecking, running simulations after simulations to get it right. Doing recon over and over again. Checking and rechecking schedules. She had her fingers crossed they had it right.

The various groups held position, until Blad called out the ‘Go' over his neuro net. His men taking point in camo, they all moved in. One after the other they were up from their hiding places charging each of the positions as quietly as possible. Those that had to go in stealthily, you could barely see move. Bad guys on patrol and guard were going down silently. And suddenly those pirates on guard were down, explosive charges were being placed on the vehicles and off-worlders, and those ships that were to be captured by those going in stealth, charged inside each of them.

They switched to the snipers and watched each of the leaders and their main men go down all at the same time causing chaos.

Back at the ships the fighting fierce and decisive, only small crews doing maintenance repairs or going through systems on them, there was hardly a defensive action at all. It appeared they'd been lucky.

The operation had remained convert.

No one had given them away and she held her breath every step of the way.

Until she saw the three ships they were capturing lift off, and the other ships were all blown. Their people quickly moving back into the wilderness unseen.

She grinned. Part 1 completed.

Aquarius connected to the community hub, showed them the chaos the downed leaders, noise and explosions had created. Men were running everywhere. Those that were on guard left to source the explosions. Having blown them remotely, the plan was for those teams to hit the communities the minute they went up. They wanted to get as many people out of there as possible, clear them if they could and bring them all to the new tunnels they"ve been digging.

Jacqs came in and joined her.

Taking her hand, they both watched the screens as Blads eyes continued to be glazed over, Tane joining him in directing the action. They watch their teams move in on the communities. The Cyborgs taking the fight to the pirates that were left, her people systematically going from house to house, grabbing vehicles loading people up and quickly leaving. The Cyborgs doing a final check, sweeping the entire area, picking up any human stragglers and disappearing back into the wild.

The communities they'd targeted now empty, only dead marauders were left. Part 2 a success.

She could hardly believe it had happened. They'd done it. So many years of waiting of freeing her people and they finally taken the war to them. Or made a good start. She wasn"t stupid enough to think that was the end of this war. The pirates had bigger ships in orbit with more men on them. They'd come looking and things were going to get hot.

She watched as strategic landmines were deployed in several areas. Traps set for pursuers.

She knew it, they all did. This was only the beginning. Things were likely to get worse before they got better. They'd be coming at them hard now. They'd just placed a huge target on their backs. There was no doubt they would be coming. And they needed to be ready for that. But for now, they'd take the win and celebrate their victory.

Jacqs hugged her crying.

The emotion too much. Tears rolled down her face too. Blad's hand coming to her shoulder in support.

"We are all clear." He told her. "Mission successful."

With her free arm she grabbed and held him too.

She didn"t know what the future held. But with him by her side she had no doubt they would make it.

"Thank you," she told him. "We would never have got here without you." She told him honestly, emotionally.

"You freed us first Helena. It was only a matter of time before we helped to free you too. This was a huge blow to them, but I doubt they will give up easily. We need to remove their food sources next. Make it too difficult to stay and when we're ready, we'll strike back again."

"Yes we will." She told him knowing it to be true.

He kissed her. "And when our people find us, we'll win that war too. Our lives are here, with you and nothing will ever change that my love."

Clinging to him she smiled through her tears, she believed him.

The end……