The war on A\x92Blam had been going on for some time. It wasn\x92t an official war until now. There had always been fighting between the two races on A\x92Blam, but it had never escalated to war until now. There had been over a millennia of peace, what could have triggered it? All I knew was that I would have to be careful now. I heard that the surrounding planets had already chosen sides and troops had been deployed offworld. There was already much fighting on A\x92Blam as it was. Now there would be more on other planets.

There had been a number of riots now. Many caused by the Chattans. They were, by nature, a hostile race. The main reason that they haven\x92t attacked yet was because the humans had managed to keep them from doing anything major with their weapons. Projectile weaponry had become an unpopular weapon to use because modern armor had rendered bullets useless unless they were of a heavy caliber. With the advent of force shields (personal shields), they had all but become useless against most infantry. The invention of laser rifles and other weapons like that had become popular for some time except they had a tendency to use up their power supplies quickly and could be dangerous at close ranges with a person using a personal shield. The energy from a shield would reflect the beam at some ranges or at close ranges, or the shield would cause an explosion. The sword had become more useful. Rifles of any kind were given to snipers and becoming a sniper was difficult.

I had become quite skilled with a Spatha and dagger. It had saved me many times during riots. The war was causing total chaos on almost any planet inhabited by any two races. It was almost as though our races had hatred toward each other encoded in our DNA. Perhaps it was because the two gods had been diametrically opposed that the races they each created could not find anything in common and could not make friends. It was a difficult time.

The war hadn\x92t effected us too much. We were declared neutral and only served as a port for others. The planet was far from most of the fighting, some 50 light-years away. With the advent of temporal warp engines, travelling that space took about a month. If any attackers were to try to invade, the planetary defense forces would be well prepared. Aurora was a defensive planet. It never attacked and always defended. The only real problem we faced caused by the war were a few extremists who caused some disturbances. They were dealt with quickly.

I was on a routine patrol when I noticed something strange. A government building was that was still in construction had some of the crew still there. At least that\x92s how it appeared. They dressed the same as the normal construction crews, but everyone was supposed to be gone. I knew because I patrolled this area a lot, it was my main sector. Something had to be going on. I called in for some backup on my patrol vehicle. I should be receiving some backup soon. I got out with my partner, Ash. He was a Lupine with fur that was black, pure black with a white around his eyes. He was fifteen years older than me and was fairly built. You wouldn\x92t want to be cornered by Ash.

We got to the building, sidearms drawn. Despite the unpopularity of any type of energy weapon, they were standard issue to Ranger forces. Military forces got shields and they too had sidearms but preferred to fight with swords and knives. We entered the building quietly and turned on our visors. We could see the pawprints our intruders left behind and quickly found where they were. They had gone to the garage where there was still some construction going on to reinforce the supports. Recently, a storm had cause some damage to them and they were being reinforced for safety reasons.

I could also smell them easily and I knew that they could probably smell us too. Lupines had extremely good senses of smell, better than Chattans did anyway. We found them and burst in with weapons drawn.

"Hands up! Drop anything you have and turn slowly!" Yelled Ash.

"No sudden moves or we will fire!" I bellowed.

There were five of them, four Chattans and one human. They did as they were ordered. The human had something in his hand and slowly put it down. He was fairly tall for a human, six feet four inches. The four Chattans were pretty average, all armed with pulse rifles. I knew backup would definitely be needed should there be a firefight. I hoped they would arrive soon. One of the Chattans moved their hand to get a better grip on their rifle.

"Hold it!" I yelled.

He froze and grinned. He had the look of a person who saw his entire family killed in front of him. I sensed trouble. Suddenly, a scene of total hell flashed in front of me. I saw the four Chattans firing at Ash and me. The human was doing something with the package he had and then it ended. The Chattan I yelled at made a quick move and pulled up his rifle. I fired and yelled for Ash to take cover.

The Chattan was dead and the others immediately returned fire. It was total chaos. I returned fire and dropped another Chattan. I saw the human doing something with the package he had put down and I realized it was a bomb. I yelled for ash to get the human and I would provide cover fire. He agreed.

I jumped out of my spot and fired off a burst of cover fire. The two Chattans shooting at me ducked for some safety. Ash sprinted out for the human. I leaped aside and drew my Spatha. The two Chattans drew knives and we fought. The first one was a Jaguar. He lunged at me and I parried, countering his attack with a solid punch to the throat and a knee to the stomach. He went down just as the second Chattan attacked, this one was a bobcat. He knew how to fight well. He was nimble and fast. I thrusted and he dodged, countering with a slash. He missed me and got my shoulder instead. He cut deep. He tried to thrust the knife into my chest; I sidestepped and let him hit the air. I instantly grabbed his hand and pulled him toward me. I turned, and threw him over my hip where I then stabbed him in the chest. He wasn\x92t getting back up. Then I heard a loud crack and a scream of pain. It was Ash.

I went over to see what had happened. He was alive, he was shot in the shoulder. He had his knife drawn, teeth bared, growling with a flash in his eyes. He had the human\x92s gun in his hand and crushed it. The human sunk back at this.

"Ash, calm down." I said, softly.

He growled.

"You! Get down on the ground now, or I will shoot you." I said as I picked up a gun lying on the ground. It was one of the Chattans\x92.

"Why, so he can jump me and tear me apart!" He yelled.

"Just do it! I killed your friends, I will kill you if I have to!"

He looked at Ash. "Just keep him back."

Backup arrived. They took the human away for interrogation. Ash was lucky. Had the human aimed any lower he would have been hit in the heart.

"You\x92re a lucky bastard." I told him

"Hell yeah! I need a vacation." He said, smiling.

"Get better, man."

"Will do."

I got into my vehicle and headed for the station to fill out the report. Then, I wanted to see the interrogation video. The new system allowed a three-dimensional viewing from a small projector the size of a pen. The recording was put in a small disk that was hooked up to the projector by a wire. It was interesting to see what the engineers could put together.

It was fairly late when I got home to Shieta. I found her asleep in her room. I decided not to disturb her. I got into the shower and turned it on. I heard the door open and I looked to see who it was. It was Shieta.

"Umm\x85" I tried to find words but couldn\x92t. She was wearing nothing.

"You kept me waiting." She said, with a sly look in her eyes.

"I had some\x85 trouble."

"Right." She got in and noticed the cut on my shoulder. "Oh, Guardian!"

"It\x92s nothing." Damn it, why did she have to notice.

I finished my shower and she started to bandage my wound. I felt some guilt, I had forgotten I was supposed to take her out to dinner tonight after I got back in. Damned paperwork.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Don\x92t worry about it." I never wanted to tell her if I hurt anyone. I knew she had already seen me kill a person, and she didn\x92t like it. I didn\x92t want her to have to know that I killed another person, three of them for that matter.

"Think you\x92ll be alright?"

"Need you ask?"

She smiled and hugged me. "I don\x92t want to lose you."

"I\x92ll always be there for you. Someday, I swear I\x92ll marry you." If I had the funds, I\x92d marry her right away. But I didn\x92t have the money for the wedding I wanted.

She was asleep by now. Poor thing, I got her worried. I carried her off to her room and tucked her in under the silk sheets I had gotten her. Silk was a fairly expensive material; I had saved up a bonus for it. She was really happy when I showed her. She loved silk, she said it felt good against her fur. As long as it kept her happy, I\x92d get it. I almost had enough money for a good wedding. I had made plenty of friends in my department at the station. She had made some good friends around the neighborhood too. I knew that making the last be of money would be hard. It would all be worth it though.

The next day I got up with her next to me in my bed. I was a little startled when I felt her head in my chest. I didn\x92t expect her to be in my room, let alone my bed. I woke her up. She smiled at me and I smiled at her. I just gazed into her eyes before I kissed her. I got out and showered, she prepared breakfast. I put on my uniform, a new one, and kissed her on my way out.

It had been a pretty boring day at work. Nothing had happened all day. I went out for lunch and then came back. I finished filling out the paperwork for what happened last night at the government office. It had been an attempted bombing. Had the bomb gone off it would have taken out over ten city blocks. It was a miniature nuclear bomb. Small, but lethal. Then there was a fairly large commotion in the coffee room. A crowd had built up there. I went to see what was going on. A hostage crisis had occurred. It took place at the commercial center downtown. I looked at the hologram and saw a familiar face. I looked closer and knew who it was. It was Shieta.