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The First Guardian's eyes narrowed and Mathews was very glad that he didn't seem to be the<br />
target of that anger.<br />
"They are not to be allowed to cross the five kilometer mark, understood Falcon One? You stop<br />
them before they get there, or we force them to land."<br />
"Yes, Ma'am. Are you authorizing me to use force?"<br />
There was a slight pause at that, and Mathews nearly sagged in relief as she finally answered.<br />
"I don't want any fatalities Falcon One. Try to disable their aircraft if necessary, but no<br />
fatalities."<br />
"Understood, Ma'am."<br />
Former Air Force pilot Erik Mathews sighed and flipped channels, to address the rest of his<br />
daggers worth of fighters. It still amused him how the Tiri counted military units in terms of<br />
weapons, a dagger's worth was ten, a sword was ten daggers or a hundred, and a lance was a<br />
thousand, or ten swords worth. Still, his amusement vanished as he glanced out his cockpit at the<br />
dimly visible Hercules.<br />
He had no intention of shooting at what a large part of him still considered his people's aircraft.<br />
Still, he had a new duty now, and he was beginning to understand how much it meant.<br />
Slowly, day-<strong>by</strong>-day perhaps, humans were starting to understand what was going on. Not only<br />
with their intellect, but also with their hearts. The torn loyalties were still there, but he was<br />
seeing less of that these days. People knew what was at stake, or were starting to anyway.<br />
He only hoped that the pilots in the Hercules wouldn't force him to make them land their planes.<br />
There were, he reflected as he started giving orders to the other pilots, always a few stupid ones.<br />
----------------<br />
"Always have to be a few stupid ones."<br />
"What's that, Sir?"<br />
Captain Kilgore ignored the slightly confused special operations man besides him and continued<br />
to forge his way through the surprisingly high grass. His men were spread out around him, and<br />
he made a note to continue his cursing about this stupid plan mentally.<br />
Unfortunately, however stupid it was, it was up to him to come up with a way to make it work.<br />
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