Chapter 23:
Bleu Mesa

	They all piled onto the transport in the middle of the night. 
According to Law, it was time for Leo's bi-weekly sector scan, and they had 
a 20 minute launch window. "We're cutting it too close," Law said. "We 
shouldn't even bother with this." He sat down next to the pilot.
	"Think of it this way," Tobias said, leaning on the back of his chair. 
"If we miss this opportunity, they will never trust us."
	"You raise a valid point." Tobias smiled and sat down with Samantha 
and Kailtyn. "Pilot, forward."
	"Aye sir." The pilot quickly started up the transport and they rolled 
away.

****************************************************************************

	Deep within the deserts of the Raider Territory, one can easily find 
the peculiar Bleu Mesa. This 15 mile long, 5 mile wide messa looks like your 
everyday mesa, and it pretty much is, except for two facts. The first fact 
it has a blue top, which is peculiar since most of the rocks in the area are 
red. And the second fact is that it was the home to the Viper Sting. The 
small band of rebels had dug out a small cavern for themselves inside the 
mesa and set up a small town to live in. D and his rebels were waiting 
patiently at the small observation deck above the enterance, watching the 
night sky. "I hope you know what you're doing," Mink told him.
	D laughed and sat on the little ledge of the glassless hole of a 
window. "I trust the kid. I'm sure he wouldn't double cross us."
	"Yeah," a female voice added. "Now sit down and calm yourself." A 
lean little tigress grabbed Mink's arm and pulled him into a chair.
	"D, will you tell you fricken concubines to lay off!" The tigress 
smiled wickedly. "Um...I mean back off. I have my own women, you know."
	D chuckled. "Sandra, leave Mink alone. Go find Xuon or something. He 
usually doesn't mind that sort of treatment." The tigress nodded, bowed, 
and headed off.
	Mink shook his head. "D, what's up with you?"
	"Hmm? What do you mean?"
	"You have a handful of women at your beck and call. Why haven't 
you....ya know..."
	"I already told you Mink. Stop asking the same qu-" He caught eye of 
something and climbed back into the observation deck.
	Mink came to his side. "What's wrong?" D pointed to a mound of ground. 
It upheaved and a transport came out. "I'll go warn the troops."
	"Wait. Watch." The door opened and out piled 10 people. Seven of them 
were armed, one with the most peculiar weapon. They looked around and, happy 
that there was no danger, took their helmets off. There were two arctic 
wolves, one timber wolf, a jaguar, a rat, a skunkette, two foxes.... 
"There's Tobias!" D shouted, pointing. He raced to the door. "Mink, I want 
you, Terry, and Myst down at the main enterance in 5 minutes." He dashed 
down to meet the new arrivals.

****************************************************************************

	The transport disappeared under the surface, leaving the ten to the 
harsh night of the desert. "Well," Crash said. "Where the hell are these 
contacts?"
	"They told me that we should wait here."
	"We're sitting ducks out here! What the hell do they mean wait?"
	"He's right," Law said. "Raiders are doing sweeps today." He looked to 
the mesa. "I say we head over to there and wait it out. Tobias, mind giving 
it a scan to see if we can find any caves to hide out in?"
	"Sure." He summoned up the scanner and gave it a once over. "Odd. I'm 
picking up nothing on the scanner except some sort of energy field." He 
tinkered with a few button. "There is some sort of energy field surrounding 
the entire mesa. I can't penetrate it. Swift-"
	"On it." She shut her eyes. "I can detect life inside the mesa." Her 
eyes snapped open. "There's an enterance in the base of the small dent in 
the wall. Let's head that way."
	"Hold it," Tobias said, tapping the headset. "Someone's approaching."
	"Not for long," Psycho growled, grabbing his gun.
	"Don't even think of it Psycho. I think I know who it is." He stepped 
forward and waited. They all watched in amazement as a panther ran up to 
him. He gave a peace sign while the panther gave a thumbs up. They smiled, 
shook hands, and exchanged a few words. He brought him over to the rest of 
the group. "Guys, this is D. D, here's my crew."
	"Great to meet you all. We can get to the formal introductions later. 
Right now, we need to get inside before the Raiders get to their sweeps." He 
started for the mesa. "C'mon!"

	Using the mesa as a base and a place to live was an old tech idea. But 
it was the only low tech thing about the base. The second they reached the 
little crevice Swift told them about, the wall disappeared, revealing a 
steel door set into the rockface. It opened mechanically and allowed them 
in. They passed the rows of guards, both in the wall with gun turrets 
pointing down at them and on the ground, and came to a general meeting area. 
All sorts of people walked to and from different places. Three people, 
however, stood at the center of the chaos, near a giant, stone fountain: 
Mink, the bear Tobias had met before, and two others. The first one was a 
Kimodo Dragon, garbed in a lab coat, a clip board in hand. He stood to 
Mink's left, and watched the group carefully. To Mink's right, however, was 
one hell of a sight. The vixen probably stood Samantha's height. She wasn't 
busty as one would hope, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The hedgehog 
spines that popped out of her tail and out of the top of her head would 
draw anyone's attention away. Tobias leaned closer to D. "Who....sorry, 
what, is that vixen standing next to your second?"
	D growled. "She's a hedgevixen. And not who I wanted down here." He 
went over to Mink. "Mink, I thought I told you to bring Terry and Myst 
along."
	"Sorry D," Mink replied. "But Myst is in weapons testing and Terry....
well....we can't find Terry."
	He shook his head. "I'll have to have a long talk with Terry. I doubt 
that won't even do the trick."
	The group of visitors approached the rebels. "Um...Dane," Tobias said. 
"You gonna introduce us or what?"
	"Oh, I'm sorry. You've met my second, Mink, right Tobias?" He nodded. 
"The lizard in the lab coat is Xuon. He's our resident technician, expert at 
all things mechanical, and owner of the lowest self-esteem in this base."
	"Hey," Xuon said. "I'm a Kimodo Dragon. Get it right!"
	"I'm sorry. He's a 'Dragon.' " He shook his head. "And this little 
hedgevix is-"
	"Mallory." She went directly for Tobias and extended a hand. "It's a 
pleasure."
	He smiled weakly and shook her head. "Indeed." He let go and turned to 
Dane. "Now, let me introduce my crew." He pointed out each individual. 
"Crash, Psycho, Hack, Wrench, Bomber, Swift, Kaitlyn, my girl Samantha 
and...." He looked around. "Guys? Where's the boss?"
	"Right here," Law said, stepping forward. "Dane, how've you been?"
	Dane laughed. "Boss? Explain."
	"You didn't hear? I got a promotion. I run the base now."
	"Well, congrats old man!" He shook his hand. "Now, come on. I'll show 
you guys to your quarters so you can settle in."

	They were led to two rooms. D took out 2 sets of keys. "I'm sorry," he 
told them. "But we have a slight space problem. We're currently digging out 
more space for living quarters. Until then, which will probably be long 
after you guys leave, you have to share quarters. These rooms are pretty 
cramped, so I advise that you go girls in one room, guys in the other."
	Samantha quickly snatched up a set of keys. "No. I think Tobias won't 
mind sharing a room with three women. Do you?" He shook his head. "See?"
	"Okay. I see that you two have something, so let me lay down some 
house rules. The bedrolls are small, maybe one person per. You may push them 
together if you wish. No hanky panky. Loud noises like screams of joy can 
easily reveal our location. Besides, it annoys the few techies we have 
here."
	"Okay," Tobias said. "We won't screw around."
	"Good. We'll let you settle in." He nodded and started off. "Oh, and 
before I forget, you may want to get in a few hours of sleep. We don't start 
true operations until 10."

	He was not joking. The rooms were small. A small window had been 
chisled out to allow for the ventilation of the small room. They looked at 
each other silently before Tobias smiled. He took his bedroll and unrolled 
it near the window. Samantha caught on and rolled her bedroll out next to 
his. Kaitlyn and Swift soon followed in suit. After a little rearranging, 
they found that they had a wall-to-wall bed. They shared glances and smirks. 
"I don't know how he expects us to avoid the hanky panky," Samantha said, 
breaking the silence.
	"I know," Swift said. "Well, we have two days here. What do we do?" 
Kaitlyn let out a brief yawn.
	"Yeah," Tobias said. "We did leave kinda early." He looked out the 
window. "It's nowhere near dawn." Samantha nodded and rested her head on his 
shoulder. He took her in his arms. "Girls. Let's get some sleep." He knelt 
down on the bedding and layed Samantha down. She smiled and curled up. He 
caressed her cheek and layed down next to her. He looked up at the other 
two. Kaitlyn smiled and sat down next to him. Swift quirked a brow. 
"Kaitlyn, can I ask you a favor?" She looked at him, then at Swift, then at 
him again. "You had me for two weeks in the prison camp. Please, let Swift 
stay with me for two days." She nodded and moved aside.
	Swift smiled. "Thank you Kaitlyn." She sat down next to Tobias and 
hugged him. "And thank you." He smiled and hugged back. Samantha and Swift 
pulled themselves closer to him.
	"Why didn't I allow this earlier?" he muttered, embrasing them both.
	"Becasue you're a fool," Swift responded. She chose his shoulder as 
her pillow. "And you know it."
	He smiled. "I know." The two suddenly felt and arm drape over them - 
Kaitlyn's. She obviously didn't want to be left out. He looked at her and 
smiled. She did the same.

****************************************************************************

	Morning approached. D was again in his observation deck, watching over 
the harsh desertscape. He did this too often, he told himself. It was like 
he was holding a vigil for something. What exactly that was, he didn't know. 
But he kept it. The harsh red sun peeked over the horizon. He smiled. "Good 
morning," he whispered.
	"D." Mink's voice shattered his peace. "What are you doing?"
	He looked at him and smiled. "Watching. Waiting. For what, I don't 
know."
	"Well, come out of there. The Raider force scanning this sector is 
approaching."
	Instantly, D was out of the observation deck and into the stairwell. 
"When the hell were you going to tell me this?"
	"We just found out."
	"Has the base been rigged for silent run?"
	"We're prepping everything. All personel have been moved into the 
command center."
	"Good. And our guests?"
	"We are awaiting your command to introduce the sleep gas to their 
systems."
	He sighed. "Why are we doing this again?"
	"They don't know what the silent run is. Besides, they're all asleep 
anyway. Mallory and Myst have checked."
	He nodded. "Do it quickly. We cannot have any compromises." Mink 
nodded and took off. "I'm sorry, Tobias."

****************************************************************************

	Tobias woke up suddenly. He didn't know why, but he did. He slid out 
of Samantha's grasp and sat up. This, of course, woke Swift up. "Tobias," 
she whispered. "Why the sudden start?"
	"I...I don't know." He rubbed his head. "I just had a feeling s-" A 
canister was thrown into the door. It spun to a stop at his feet. "What is 
that?" As an answer, the canister starting to spray a purple mist into the 
room.
	"Sleep gas!" Swift said. "Cover your mouth and let's get out of here." 
He did as he was told. He helped her to his feet and they exited. The gas 
filled the room and Kaitlyn and Samantha were going to be out for a lot 
longer than expected. The two looked at each other. "Why would they do 
that?"
	He let out a low growl. "I don't know. But I'm going to go find D and 
get an answer. Come with me, Swift. You'll most likely be needed."
	"But what about Samantha and Kaitlyn."
	"They'll be fine. I don't think D and his boys would be that stupid." 
She nodded. "Let's go find him. He will feel my wrath."

****************************************************************************

	Mallory waited patiently for D to arrive. She was down at the 
fountain, a little fearful for her safety. She was the one who threw the 
canister in. She knew that if Tobias found out, she would be harmed badly. 
She knew what he had done at the Raider outpost. She didn't want the same 
thing to happen to her. Mercifly, D arrived. "Was it done?" he asked.
	"Y-yes. They're all out cold." She held onto herself.
	"What's wrong?"
	"I don't want to think of what Tobias will do if he finds out-"
	D put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. He won't. I've 
made sure of that." She smiled and put one of her small, delicate hands on 
his larger, stronger hand. "Now, let's get into the safe zone so we-"
	"So you don't what?" Mallory turned white and looked at D. He looked 
at her and swallowed hard. "So you don't what D? Get caught by me?"
	"Tobias, you can kick my ass later. We need to get into the safe area. 
The Raider patrols are due in five minutes. They'll know we're here if we 
stay here."
	Tobias looked at him for a few moments. "I can't take the chance of 
not believing you. Where is this safe area?"
	Mallory pointed at a set of giant double doors. "In there. We should 
move." Tobias nodded and grabbed Swift's hand. She smiled and they all 
dashed into the safety of the doors. The sounds of grinding metal and the 
creaks of rusty machinery sounded as the doors shut.

	They all braced themselves on the door. For what reason, none of them 
knew. They waited patiently as the red lights that were in the area turned 
yellow, then white. a collective sigh of relief was released. "Good," D 
said. "We're safe. Now, Tobias, I suspect you-" His sentence was cut off. 
Tobias had him by the collar and lifted him into the air.
	"You have five seconds to explain yourself. Otherwise I kick your ass 
clear across this mesa."
	"We have a specific silent run protocal. You are not familiar with it. 
We didn't want to take that chance. We decided to put you to sleep."
	"Why didn't you take that risk and explain it to us off the bat?"
	"We didn't know."
	"Of course not, I don't think you thought about it either."
	"Your girl and the others are going to be safe. I assure you that."
	"But won't the Raiders detect them?"
	"The Raiders can only detect living things. The gas we used makes them 
seem like their dead."
	"WHAT?!" He growled and threw him across the hall. D plowed into a 
wall. "I thought you said Samantha was all right!"
	"She is. The gas keep them in suspended animation. When we get out of 
silent run, we will administer another gas that will put them back into our 
time stream." The human hand grabbed him by the collar again. "I'm not 
lying. I wouldn't be cruel like that."
	"If Samantha or any of my friends get hurt because of your gas, your 
little band of rebels will be looking for a new commander." He smirked. "I 
hope you've trained Mink well, ya know, just in case." He let him go.
	Mallory approached him. "Tobias?" He turned to her, his expression 
softer. She sighed and bowed her head. "I'm sorry."
	"What for?" She didn't answer. He nodded. "It wasn't your fault. You 
were acting under orders. I am not mad."
	"Serious?" He nodded. She smiled. "Shall we head into headquarters?"
	"Might as well," D said. "We need to know what the hell is going on, 
don't we?" He got up. "Follow me." Hesitantly, they complied.

	D led them to a small command center. If he didn't know better, Tobias 
would have sworn they had just walked onto the bridge of any ship on any 
sci-fi series. Someone brought D a clipboard, which he promptly went over. 
He nodded and handed it back. "Deploy the thread," he told him. "We need to 
see what the hell is going on out there." The grunt nodded and went off to 
do so. Tobias didn't bother to ask what was going on. He was far too amazed. 
He leaned on a piece of railing he was sure wouldn't set anything off. D 
looked at him and smiled. "You like what you see?"
	"Yeah. You run a nice operation here."
	"We like to keep on top of our current Raider problem. But then again, 
we couldn't do this without them." He waved his hand. "All of this 
technology is stolen.We used to be a band of petty nomads, fighting with 
very little. Then we came upon the mesa and dug in. We stole what we needed 
and came up with this little war room." He chuckled. "It brings back such 
memories."
	"Well, congrats on that D. You probably earned all this."
	"Thread deployed sir," Xuon, who was sitting at a control panel, said.
	"Show me what we've got. Main screen." A large screen at the top of 
the far wall lit up, showing a map of the area. Raider units were all over 
the place, scanning for something suspicious. "Good. They have yet to reach 
us. What's the estimated time to their arrival?"
	"Five, maybe ten minutes."
	"Great." He grabbed a small microphone. "All rebels, prepare for 
silent run in 3 minutes. Repeat, silent run in three." He shook his head and 
put the mike down. "This is the part of the job I hate."
	"Why is that?" Tobias asked.
	"Watch." He pushed a button on the railing. A small screen appeared 
out of nowhere. He looked at it. "Powering down unimportant sectors." He 
touched a few yellow spots on the screen. They turned red, then black.
	"Rec facilities, mess hall, and showers powered down," Xuon reported.
	"Minimizing of weapons arrays." He touched a few more spots. They 
turned red.
	"Laser arrays at 15% power."
	"That's good enough. Final stage begin." He touched the remaining 
yellow spots. They turned red. As soon as they did, the lights in the room 
turned off. A few seconds passed before the emergency red lights turned on. 
	"Power down complete," Xuon said. "We're all but dead in the water and 
blind."
	D looked up at the screen. "The thread is still working. Good." He 
lowered his head and muttered something. "May we survive this scan."
	"Now what?" Tobias asked.
	"We watch. We wait. We pray."
	"Pray?" D waved his hand. Nearly everyone was on their knees or had 
their hands folded in prayer. All eyes were trailed on the ground. "We don't 
believe in much. But we do believe in a god." He took a deep breath. "I 
suppose you do too." Tobias didn't reply. "Well? Do you?"
	"God does not exist in my heart. If it did, it would have to deal 
with a lot of hatred I have for it." He turned away and looked at the 
screen. 

	The Raiders were piling onto a small area. "D, what's going on with 
the Raiders?"
	He grew a little worried. "They found something. Xuon, get me thread 
view of that area."
	"Aye sir." He banged away at his controls. The screen switched views. 
The Raiders had a small group surrounded.
	"Damn it!"
	"What?" Tobias asked.
	"That's a fellow group of Rebels. They've been caught! Xuon, which 
group is that?"
	"The Raiders' Folley."
	"They weren't to good at what they did, but I don't think they deserve 
that." He lowered his head. "Good luck, comrads."
	"Dont' give up on them yet, D," Tobias said.
	"Why?"
	"Have your thread thingie keep an eye on them. As soon as we get out 
of silent run, we can make a raid on the camp where they're gonna be held."
	"That's a good idea, except for the fact they all end up in the same 
camp."
	"Which camp?" D pushed a few buttons. A picture of a prison camp 
appeared on the screen. Swift gasped. "What's wrong Swift?"
	"Don't you recognize it Tobias? We escaped from there."
	D looked at her. "What?!"
	"We were being held in that camp. Tobias got us out of there."
	"But...but that's impossible!"
	"Not so. It was rather easy once I used this." He pulled out the gold 
computer chip. "This little puppy can turn me into something worse than 
Psycho. It got us out. It can get us back in."
	D looked at him weirdly. "I want you to show me this after silent run. 
If what you say is true, then we will proceed with the mission."
	"We've got movement," Xuon exclaimed. Their attention was drawn to the 
screen. A second force had suddenly appeared and was moving in on the 
Raiders. "It's a second group of rebels."
	"What are they doing?" Tobias asked. "They don't stand a chance 
against a Raider force of that magnitude."
	"Wait, there's something else. There is an energy signature in Gray 
Sector 3."
	"Isn't that where Terry was supposed to be patrolling?" Mallory asked. 
"Xuon, try to ID that signature."
	"We don't have to. A thread just arrived in that sector. Punching it 
up." The screen split. The new image showed the single wolf, holding his 
hands out, radiating some sort of energy field. "It's Terry. Tracing 
energy." The map re-appeared. A yellow line flowed from Terry's position to 
the approaching rebel force. "He's protecting them? Or powering them up?"
	"Knowing Terry, both. Let's watch." The force surrounded the Raider 
group. Something happened and the sector went blank. "What the hell?"
	"We've lost contact with the thread portion in that sector. Attempting 
to re-establish." He hacked away feverishly. "Unable to establish a 
connection. Too much static. There's an energy mass that's blocking our 
thread."
	"Damn," D said. "Keep working at it." As soon as he said that, the 
sector lit up again. "That was quick." The rebel force was diminished. But 
the Raider force was down to a quarter of what it originally was. "What the 
hell?!"
	"Terry's moving back towards us."
	"What about the Raider sweeps?"
	"They've been too damaged to continue. Knowing them, they won't bother 
around here since there was too much activity over there. They're going to 
go through it with a fine tooth comb."
	"Good. Once the Raider force is gone, I want everything out of silent 
run." He turned for the door. "Tobias, Mallory, Swift, come with me. Let's 
go wake up the others."