A Campaign of Distraction

It is fatal for one to go to war without the will to win it. That is, it you're on a side that's been pushed into the middle of one. Markus grabbed his mug and gingerly picked the boiling pot of chocolate up.

He was one of the few fortunate ones to get into an Evacuation Transport back to New Antioch during the recall. Forward based establishments that trained soldiers in the country ran out of luck when the Protectorate failed to keep it's promise. They didn't even believe that there was a threat in New Antioch, so the establishments were pretty much dead meat.

They were literally crying hostile aliens, for heaven's sakes.

Markus carefully sipped the chocolate and laid it down on the table again. Sitting across the wooden round table were three people; Mira - a girl with dark complexion and shoulder-length hair in her teens, Amanda - a pale, silvery-haired, red-eyed woman in her 20s, and Kyra - another teenager with long dark hair and a tanned complexion.

Markus studied the scene outside the inn. The snow was slowly piling up on the walkways, and people were brisk when the greeted each other in the open because of the cold. Most were in a hurry in their early morning job rush. It was five in the morning - and it was still dark.

He sighed and looked back at the trio in front of him. Kyra was lying against the wall seat, her head against the corner. She was sleeping. Mira was on the table, her shoulders moving in a slow rhythm as she slumbered in her arms. Only Amanda was wide awake with Markus. Her eyes were literally twinkling, her red iris giving her pale face an eerie outlook.

'Crazed zealot much?' Markus thought.

"Crazed zealot not, Mark," Amanda said. "In case you don't remember, you have a red eye too,"

Markus' hand unconsciously flew up to his left eye. That eye, though normally brown, would turn red whenever Markus sensed danger. It enabled him to detect stealth in it's purest form - the disruption method that caused the user to fizzle out of sight until he/she could not be detected with the naked eye.

Well, it activated only when Markus sensed impending danger. Now, it was active because Amanda was there. Since Amanda had natural eyes with the same ability, she could not deactivate them. So instead of suppressing the ability, she let it flow out of her - and that's what caused Markus' eye to activate as well.

Markus sighed and sipped his chocolate again. "These two here are who again?"

"The one on the table is Mira from Jein-Tol. The other one's Kyra, Old Earth warp-drive accident, ended up in Qu-Chebia."

"And what makes you think Arshad's hunting them?"

"Mira has always been in his hitlist - he just needed her alive for most of his operations to take place. Kyra however," Amanda glanced at the girl. "Kyra has a psionic index of 37."

Markus nearly spat the chocolate out. "37!?"

Amanda nodded.

Markus tried to calm down. He looked around at the empty inn and whispered to Amanda even though, yeah, the inn was empty. "I've never seen anyone with a P.I. of more than 8!"

"That's why he wants her down," Amanda said, waving her hand at Markus. "It's a number he has never seen before either."

A sick expression came across Markus' face. Amanda saw it. "It's nothing like that. She's in his book, thats all,"

Markus groaned. More prophecies. He hoped another Kane wouldn't show himself.