Tarifa sat with Endith in the hanger bay as they shared one of the rations that Julie had provided to them. They had been speaking for close to six hours now, Tarifa filling her most trusted aide and friend in on everything that had happen since they had parted.
"…Council must hear of this Tarifa!" Endith spoke. "You must return and tell them."
Tarifa shook her head quickly. "No!" She said. "I have already accepted this Admiral Wallace's invitation. I will not back out of that now."
"Tarifa the Council will think you have been captured or killed. They will begin the process to select a new Queen within a week's time." Endith told her. "You must know that it will give them no greater joy then to have someone they can control as Queen. You must return!"
"Endith… Martin… these people can help us in ways we can not begin to imagine." Tarifa told her. "This is an opportunity I can not allow to slip by."
Endith looked at her without speaking, her eyes lingering on Tarifa. "You… you are taken by him?" She exclaimed.
Tarifa's eyes widened. "What? What do you mean? No I'm not."
"I have served you for nearly forty years Tarifa, and never once have I seen you gaze upon a man as you looked at him earlier." Endith spoke.
Tarifa looked away from her friend quickly. "He is… he is intriguing Endith" She said softly. "There is… there is something wild about him that draws me like no other."
"What did he do? Did he force himself on you my Queen?" Endith asked beginning to get to her feet.
"NO!" Tarifa exclaimed. She looked at Endith, grabbing her arm before she got too far. "No! Endith… he saved my life!"
Endith nodded. "As you have already told me, I know. And according to our laws you must submit to him as a reward, which I know you will not do because you think the law is just as ridiculous as I do. Now what else happened Tarifa?"
"He… Endith… he kissed me." Tarifa said looking at her.
Endith's eyes went wide at this knowledge. "He kissed you?" She gasped. "You mean with… with his lips?"
Tarifa looked at her sternly. "Do you know of any other way?" She asked
"He kissed you with his lips!" Endith exclaimed.
Tarifa grabbed her hands. "Endith please! Be quiet!"
Endith looked around quickly, embarrassed that she had spoken so loudly. She turned back to her Queen and friend. "He kissed you?"
Tarifa nodded. "I… I have never been kissed before Endith." She said softly. "It was… it was divine. It was almost too much. I could not stop the sensations that ripped through me. I became so wet he had to have smelled my excitement if his senses are as acute as the others tell me."
"What happen?"
Tarifa looked at her. "I… I don't know. He just stopped and rushed away."
"He… he just stopped?" Endith asked amazed. "Tarifa… no human is able to resist female elves."
"He is not entirely human." Tarifa told her. "He has incredible control over his emotions. I could feel the animal within him bursting to get out, to take me right here on the floor of this hanger bay. And I wanted him too. Oh… did I want him too Endith. The… I feel pulled to him sexually like no one before in my life. I've never felt this way for any man."
"You hardly know him Tarifa!" Endith spoke.
Tarifa nodded slowly. "I know, and that is the only thing holding me back." She replied honestly. "It is the only thing keeping me from throwing myself into his arms and submitting to him in any way he desires. I can't explain it Endith."
"Tarifa… the Holy One said… he said you would meet the one you were meant for." Endith spoke.
Tarifa looked at her and shook her head. "This is not him." She answered softly. "I feel drawn to him sexually yes, but he is very different Endith, and that is why I must go." She said. "I must go to discover who and what these people are and to see if Martin… if Martin is the one the Holy One said." Tarifa looked at her. "You must return and tell the Council what is happening."
Endith's eyes went wide. "I will do no such thing!" She exclaimed. "I am not going to leave your side. What would I tell the Council? That you are trying to discover if these non-humans are going to be allies? They would laugh me out of the chambers. I can send Domac. He can be trusted completely, and we need only tell him what the Council needs to know. Is there some way we could contact him if the Council proceeds without consulting you?"
Tarifa looked at her. "I will ask Martin." She spoke softly. "With their technology, I'm sure they have a transmitter that can reach the moon."
"Is it wise to trust this man Tarifa?" Endith asked. "This could all be an elaborate plot to capture you. To enslave you and parade you before our people in chains like some harem girl."
Tarifa looked at her for a long moment. Those very thoughts had gone through her mind quite a bit, right up until the time Martin had kissed her. That one breath stealing kiss had changed her outlook considerably. "I… I can trust him Endith. It's… it's almost as if I can feel him inside me. He would never harm me, and I sense he would never allow harm to come to me. It is very strange Endith, as if…"
Tarifa's words were drowned out by an alarm that began ringing in the hanger bay. She and Tarifa came to their feet quickly, ready for action.
"We must go this way, quickly!" Tarifa spoke taking Endith's hand.
Tarifa led Endith into the Command Center where they found Julie in the chair working the controls, while Martin and the others were gathered around.
"… three hundred meters and closing," Julie announced.
Martin picked up Tarifa's peach scent as she entered the Command Center and he turned to look at her. "I thought this was an acid rain storm." He spoke.
"It is." Tarifa replied.
"Does anything normally move in large numbers during these storms?" Martin asked.
"Only…" Tarifa's eyes widened. "By the Gods no, it must be Nomads!"
Martin's eyes narrowed. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like what you are about to tell me."
"Acid Nomads," Tarifa explained to him. "They are beasts that the Alliance discarded as failed experiments. Their genetic structure allows them to resist the rain. They are the only beings that can traverse these storms without having their flesh stripped from their bones."
"And why exactly did the Alliance attempt to create them?" Anja asked.
Tarifa met her eyes. "At one point last century, my people discovered a secret way into a lush valley in The Wastes."
"What a minute, The Wastes?" Julie asked. "What the hell is that?"
"It is an area that was made up of the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and the lower half of Colorado before the Great Fire." Tarifa told them. "Due to the many nuclear weapons and power plants in those six states, when the Great Fire began, it literally saturated this entire area with poisonous radiation. My people found a very fertile valley within The Wastes, but the only way they knew to reach it was to cross The Wastes, and it is filled with Acid Storms that make the one above us pale in comparison. They attempted to create a monster that could survive the storms. They created the Acid Nomads."
"Why did the Alliance discard them?" Dan asked.
"We left this valley after a decade." Tarifa told them.
"Why?"
"The scientists among our people determined that the valley would surrender to the influence of The Wastes in a matter of months." Tarifa explained. "Six months after we departed, the storms began, and in a matter of weeks, the entire valley was gone."
"And these Nomad characters can travel around in this stuff?" Martin asked.
"They are impervious to the rain and the storms." Endith spoke now. "They are horribly deformed and some have said they are cannibals, and they eat the flesh of the dead."
"Gee… they sound like pleasant enough folk." Pablo spoke from the chair he occupied.
"They're moving into the vacant buildings on the southwest end of the base Skipper." Julie told them. "I have limited camera feeds from that section because it was mostly base housing and training rooms; nothing sensitive at all."
"How far does that put them from us?" Martin asked.
"There's an emergency escape tunnel a hundred and twenty meters from where they are setting up." Julie replied. "According to the databanks, it's listed as a five ton statue of a horse that sits in a covered courtyard. It puts them three klicks from the main tunnel, but it's a direct line shot."
"Have you or Tina been able to analyze this acid rain?" Martin asked turning to Ben where he stood next to Tina.
"It's composed mainly of sulfuric acid vapor." Tina answered quickly. "The Raptor's armor plating may or may not be able to withstand the vapor long enough for us to make the upper atmosphere, but unless we are in a pickle, I wouldn't want to try."
"And if we try and the vapor melts the armor?" Master Chief Brown asked.
Tina shrugged. "That depends on how high the storm is. If we are above ten thousand feet, we'll decompress and freeze to death. If we're below ten thousand feet we'll basically come apart at the seams and burn in."
"That's comforting." Danny spoke from where he sat on the edge of the table munching on the power bar.
"What are our odds?" Martin asked.
Tina looked at Ben and then shrugged. "My best guess is thirty/seventy." She answered. "It depends on how concentrated the vapor is."
"Jules… how many are you picking up?" Martin asked.
"I don't know if it's accurate Skipper, but sensors say at least a hundred, possibly more." Julie replied.
Martin nodded, his mind going over options in his head. "That gives them the advantage. Ok… everyone stay sharp. I want someone on the grid all the time monitoring the sensors. If they so much as get close to the tunnel entrance I want to know about it." He turned to where Trina and Cody were sitting. "Trina, you and Cody get down to that intersection and booby trap the shit out of it with whatever we have."
The young female and male nodded, picked up their weapons and headed out. Martin looked at the others. "Pablo, take one of the weapons I reworked for the Elf soldiers and do the same for the others. If push comes to shove I want them to be able to knock the bastards down, not piss them off with the weapons they have."
Pablo nodded and got to his feet heading for the armory.
"And if they get in boss?" Tony asked. "Then what do we do?"
"Then we load everyone into the Raptor and start praying." Martin answered with a grin.