Boom! It was a big boom It came from outside Bubs our pup got scared I did too But not mom And not dad Not tia or tio They weren’t scared They smiled We were… We were excited We were going outside! It was nighttime, but we were going outside So loud i felt it So bright i had to look away Everyone cheered All those colors in the black sky Tio brought Bubs and we got to watch together! All those colors All the fun

“I’ll be right back, I’m gonna check this voicemail,” Emmi announced in her peppy tone as she whipped around to excuse herself out the door.

Bella and Dean nodded and waved her off. The both of them made sure she was out of earshot.

“We can’t let this get out. It could burn the crap out of her whole campaign,” Dean grumbled through his teeth.

“But it’s going to get out. We either get her ahead of it, or we decide how we survive the firestorm,” Bella said as she nervously tugged at her rich brown lockes. Her retort transferred her worry to Dean, making him grimace and pace.

“OK, okay, let’s say we get ahead of it. We need a way we can spin this into a positive,” Dean said as he pulled out his smartphone to start taking notes. Bella walked over to get Dean to focus on her.

“No, stop. We need to tell her. We are supposed to be on the front lines for her, we need to be the one’s who break the news,” Bella corrected him. Dean stopped and looked her in the eye. He nodded, putting away the article.

It followed a lot of hard swallows. The two budding agents had to sit Emmi down and reveal an emerging smear campaign from a tabloid. Emmi’s past wasn’t going to stay buried forever and it was going to come out with a bang.

Emmi got real quiet as she combed through the details. Bella and Dean guided her to a secluded booth table. When Emmi finished reading, two glasses of water later, she set the phone down on the table in front of her. Her hands shook, her shoulders shook and Bella could see the inner seething boiling over.

Emmi’s jaw clenched tightly. She drew a sharp breath in and brought out the most serious tone she had. “Everything in this was said in confidence.”

“I believe you, we believe you,” Dean told her.

“Can we go over this with you?” Bella asked her.

“Yes,” Emmi stated flatly.

“Great, wine or cocktail?”

Emmi thought to herself, rubbing her temple to push the stress down and keep herself from crying. “Double vodka,” she answered. Every new detail made her shudder. Combing through response strategies brought out her rude teenage years highlighted in the article. What started as stunned shock was quickly fanned into flames of righteous anger.

“No, making a late night call would NOT be a good idea,” Bella agreed to one of Emmi’s more conservative approaches.

“Then how else can I throw this back in their faces?” Emmi asked loudly, desperately wanting to even the tables.

“You wanna own up to it? Play the responsible woman acknowledging her past blah blah blah?” Dean asked, simplifying the follow through of the response.

“As long as it works,” Emmi said with a scowl.

“Darlin’, you got the reputation and popularity swell to ride. You attack this with an honest apology tour and we’ll see you come out even more wholesome. Kill them with kindness,” Bella said with a sweetly sinister grin.

Emmi raised her shot of vodka to announce, “It’s gonna be a slaughter.”

They shouldn't le here. We should have been ready. They needed more training, they Needed more battle that didn't include training pads or helmets.

Jeremy has a hole through his forearm. The bleeding is under control. The hysteria is still building, though I can see he’s trying to be brave. He’s doing his best to keep Jamie and Erin from assuming the fetal position and shifting to a liability.

Gina, holy shit, Gina. The wallflower came alive in the panic. She took control of five others and mounted a real defense once the line broke. A whole new girl looked me in the eye and told me to stop bleeding everywhere.

Liam didn’t stop her. The rising L.T. Didn’t argue about the help. He kept his cool when the chaos hit the fan. He kept everyone’s heads down. He took the help and kept as many alive and uninjured as he could.

When the news broke about the peace accords failing in spectacular fashion, we were knee deep in our typical afternoon training. The kids, these kids I wouldn’t admit I’ve got a soft spot for, were complaining about gnats and mosquitoes. The sun was high, hopes were riding the promise of lunch in the mess hall.

“Sir? Sir?!” Hector called to me, quickly crouching to look me over. My injured arm reached up to console him by the shoulder. The kid always looked at me for confirmation, probably a bit neurodiverse, ‘cause he didn’t wanna do the wrong thing.

“Get me a rifle, cadet!” I ordered with practiced authority. His face lit up, he just needed a task for that hamster in his head to start running on. Hector helped me to my feet, and I instantly pulled him down to crouch with me.

Rounds zipped overhead before a canister spewing gas landed between us. Hector didn’t think, he just grabbed the canister and threw it back. He looked back at me with an expecting smile. I lifted my hand to give him a thumbs up and shouted “Rifle,” and pointed a direction over his shoulder.

Hector ducked into another handful of kids huddled behind rubble. Our training facility looked like fresh dropped shit in Cleveland. The Zah’durs had been stationed a days flight outside our atmosphere. Refueling, resupplying, they told us. It proved to be a damned forward deployment position, and we were the first victims.

Kids. Under armed, under prepared and under strict supervision to NOT have a full contingent of proper ordinance. They came after kids that only had a small chance of mounting a viable defense. A lot of colorful things had been said about the Zah’durs given their slimy, amorphous appearance. I liked to stay out of it.

C.O.’s needed to stay above the petty squawking but these slug-looking sacks of shit were coming after kids. They were coming after MY kids!

A whole line of them popped up over cover to return fire. No spraying, those kids took five shots each before ducking down to deny returning shots any targets to aim at. The Zah’dur rounds flew past with trails of green.

“Andie! Attack that right flank!” I called to the group of them. It’s been weeks of getting this group used to calling each other by their last names. I just noticed I had reverted to calling out their first names. I was worried, I was scared.

Before I knew it, I was huddled with Jeremy, Jamie and Erin. Toby and Zack were hit with a boom, Jamie and Erin pulled from rubble and got them safe. The boys were breathing, bleeding from the ears and lucky to have all their limbs. I tapped Jeremy.

“How’s the arm?”

He looked back at me and held back most of his sarcasm with that pretty boy smile. “I got another one.”

Good, the adrenaline was kicking in. Hector slid into us like a baseball player desperate to get second base. He quickly scurried and handed me one of the rifles cradled in his arms. Jeremy pulled him behind cover as I primed the bolt and switched the safety off. Hector followed as I peaked over cover, got sights up and fired off five shots, two being successful deliveries to slug 1 and slug 5.

Booms erupted with spires of dirt and smoke just behind the group I engaged. None of my kids had that kind of ordinance… unless…

I turned to see Amie, the trouble half between her and Andie, execute a beautiful hook shot to deliver another explosive down range. It WOULD come down to the pyromaniac to be the first to use the ‘fun’ equipment. I had already scolded her twice for trying to persuade me to skip a few lessons and allow her, and the class, to get their hands on them. When that didn’t work, she tried to sneak them. Now I had a smile plastered on my face just glad she wasn’t afraid to go find them.

I ducked down and pulled Jamie close. The poor girl was blubbering, she was back to being ten push-up deep convinced she couldn’t go on. I switched the safety on, opened up Jamie’s arms and shoved the rifle into them for her to use.

“Cadet Algala!” I called to her. Her face jumped up to mine. All her freckles on a background of red said was hyperventilating. “Breathe dumbass!”

Her hand found the pistol grip as she forced her lungs to pull air deep in her. The damn green shit could keep flying, we were here breathing dammit.

“Algala reporting, sir!” She barked back at me with a steeled gaze. I motioned for Hector to come close. I was making a move, the two were gonna give me cover fire in three… two… go!

Andie was holding the line and doing the whole platoon proud, but her little group was growing roots. I made it to them and looked over my shoulder to see Jamie and Hector already ducked

It got quiet around the four at us as we stared at the new directions. Enter your employee code to get free coffee. None of as said it out loud. None of us said it might be a way for the boss to keep track of the more productive members.

I we could all make stand now and start bringing in coffee from home. But one of us is going to fold. The thought has us all feeling like we have alligator arms. Most o us call feign resistance, right? Most of us are convinced with self control? We are stronger than the machine!

This is already a job, this is work. And I want coffee.

Fine. There will be scoffs and plenty of gossip.

There's always one, and I'm going to setup my free-99 just the way I like it. Treat myself.

“you know they're gonna start seeing how much coffee they're going through, right?” some one scoffs at me. The disapproval is obvious.

I shrug my shoulders and enjoy a long sip. “They made it free.”