[b]A story of the past [/b]

"Who are you?" Vee asked.

"I'm Commander Susan Rodriguez."

RSM whispered. "Commander?"

El echoed her puzzlement, there was no 'commander' rank in the army.

"Which army division are you from?"

"What does that matter? I'm the person in charge here."

"Which military college did you graduate from, Ma'am?" this time there was a lot less respect in the 'Ma'am.'

"The Texas one. Are you questioning my authority? Leon, take this soldier and throw him in the brig."

One of the bear took a step forward, but stopped when DHC growled.

"Fuck this, I didn't survive hell just to be kept from going home by a woman with delusions of grandeur leading a bunch of green playing at being soldiers. I say we take them."

"At ease, soldier," Vee said, his tone calm. "You're a civilian, are you, Susan?"

"I am the commander of this base."

"Susan, I am a US soldier. I only take orders from US command or one of their appointed representative."

"I am-"

"No, you're not. Command hasn't appointed a civilian since that debacle in the Congo United Territories seventy-two years ago."

"Well, maybe you've missed the memo, but there hasn't been a US command for a while now, so I'm in charge. If you don't obey me, I'm going to have you executed."

Vee looked at the bear. "Leon, correct?"

"Yes, Sir."

"You know the regulations?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good, then I'm assuming command."

Relief flooded the room.

"You can't do that!" Susan yelled. "I'm the commander!"

"No, Susan, you're not. Believe it or not, US command actually planned from something like this. Regulations 43-8 paragraph 12. 'In case of a complete loss of communication between a unit, or a base, the role of US command will fall open the highest ranked officer on site, this will apply that the officer be human or Anthro.' I'm the highest ranking officer here."

"No, you're just an animal. You aren't fit to lead. Leon, kill him."

El felt the tension behind him. But they didn't have to worry. The bear was looking at Vee, not Susan.

She looked at the bear in dismay. "I gave you an order, Soldier!"

"Sir?" the bear asked Vee.

"I'm in charge! One of you, kill them!" she ordered the other six. No one moved. She headed for the door.

"Keep her from leaving."

The tiger grabbed her by the arm.

She glared at him. "Samuel, let go of me this instant."

"I'm sorry, Susan. I can't." He sounded genuinely apologetic.

"How many soldiers are here?"

"Forty-six, Sir," The chipmunk said. "We were doing exercises at Fort Hickton when everything stopped working."

Vee nodded. "Leon, go assemble them, I'm going to want to talk to all of them."

"Sir, there might be some problem. A few of them are unreasonably loyal to her. Until you explain things to them, they will resist."

"Take these five." Vee indicated the others who had entered with Susan. "But I don't want any bloodshed."

"Samuel, can I trust not to let her go?"

"Yes, Sir. I ca-it's complicated, but yes I will follow your orders, Sir, not hers."

"Good." He motioned for the bear to get moving.

"I'll assemble everyone in the courtyard."

"I'll show you where it is," the chipmunk said.

"First, tell me where are all the commanding officers. I can understand that they were some loss of life when it happened, but they can't all have died."

"No Sir, none of them died, or if they did, it wasn't at the base. They just left."

Anthros were entering the room. Eight of them.

"What do you mean, just left?"

"Just that, Sir. They ordered us to hold the base and left us there. There was seventy of us then and we did our best to follow our orders, but within a week civilians were forcing their way in. We're not supposed to attack US citizens, but they had no problems attacking us. Then she showed up, stopped the fighting and took controls of things. But..."

Vee waited, and when the chipmunk didn't continue, he growled to prompt him.

"She had us hoard all the weapons and food."

Vee glared at her, and El felt his anger rising if she'd been keeping the food to herself...

"How much?" Vee asked.

"All of it, Sir."

El's hands clenched. How could she?

"Has she been feeding them?"

"Barely. There's been at least two attempts to break in already. She had us kill those we captured."

If El's powers had been working, she would have burst into flames right there. As it was, if his anger was stoking the fires, there was no evidence of it.

"Throw her in a cell," Vee growled.

"Don't you dare," she told the tiger. "I'm in charge. Not that bull."

"Susan," the tiger replied, his voice tight, pleading. "He's my commanding officer. I have to do what he says."

She placed a hand on his cheek. "But I'm so much more to you, aren't I?"

"Samuel?" Vee's voice wasn't loud, but the tiger reacted as if he'd been yelled at. He jerked and pushed the human into the arms of a ram.

"Take her to a cell," he said.

"Samuel!" she yelled, surprise and outrage mixed together. "Samuel! I'm going to make you pay, do you hear me?" He wrenched herself out of the ram's grip and took a step toward the tiger.

She staggered with a gasp. Samuel caught her before she fell, concern on his face.

"I stopped your heart for one beat," Vee said, pulling her attention to him. "If you cause me anymore problem, I'll stop it permanently."

The horror El expected to see in her face was in Samuel's. She was just angry.

"What are you?"

"I'm a Specialist. I said that initially. If you don't know what that is, then you have even less business leading these soldiers." He motioned to the ram. "Take her away."

When she was gone, Vee looked at the tiger who was still looking at the open door. "Is this going to be a problem for you?"
Tiranis