UN Dropship

North Dallas Texas

The dropship that used to belong to the Galactic Federation First Strike Group has twenty four-seat capacity plus pilot and navigator.

All the seats were full. McLean had eight people in his party. The Canadian contingent consisted of Wilder and Ae'url. Petersen and Henderson plus Wade Jackson a technical warrant officer. Laura Blair and Janet Lambert. Two of his special forces troopers.

Lieutenant Andrew Price brought eight of his seals along and Lady Eleanore had eight of her SAS commandos. McLean had trained with most of them over the years. NATO special forces units were a tight-knit community.

McLean sat behind Ae'url as she flew the ship. Wilder sat in the navigator's seat he somehow downloaded the skills to pilot, navigate and fix the dropship.

McLean had a copy of the dropship plans and as a pilot himself, he had a good idea of the skills needed to master this ship. Across the aisle, Lady El sat behind Wilder while he gave her a running commentary on everything he was doing.

The two Omega class individuals were taking lessons. McLean wanted to try and master the necessary skills without gaining them from the Xerys System. He didn't know what, or if there were a limit on the number of skills awarded by the system. He wanted to try and learn the old fashioned way.

"Just a quick check Mr. Wilder but what class are you?" McLean asked.

"I'm at Alpha level." Joe can copy Ae'url powers when they merged. "It's basically Flight, Force Field, and Telemechanics." Joe decided to add one more thing, "I also have a copy of Ae'url power armor."

"Yeah, I saw you remove it from the snakey dragon trooper. How did you get it to fit you? I mean your not snake shaped after all." McLean was wondering how that happened.

"Mostly it was luck. Telemechanics works really well with molecular bots." Joe explained.

"That means you can build another power armor if you had some molecular bots to work with. Right?" McLean hoped.

"Where are you going with this Ritchie?" Joe asked.

"Half this dropship is made of those bots." McLean dropped into the info-bomb.

"That's an interesting piece of info. Did you know that the dropship was built by the lowest bidder?" Joe asked.

"No. I didn't, but what does that, have to do with this?" He asked the Wilder AI.

"Simple really. Every bot on this ship has a job to do. There's no waste in the construction. To make credit on this deal the manufacturer cut every corner they could think of and still deliver a product that met the specification of the Galactic Federation Police Force." Joe explained in detail.

"So that means you can, but it might damage the ship to do it." McLean understood the concept of min-max. Every gamer did. He just needed to figure out what wasn't needed.

He tabled the subject for later. "How long before we land?" He asked.

"We're a few minutes from the crash site." Ae'url brought up the area on the dropship's sensors.

"That's a lot of people." Joe whistled.

McLean checked his sensors skill knowledge and agreed. "A lot of heat. That's not all people though."

"Andy you're up. From here on out you take lead." McLean passed the leadership of the group to Lieutenant Andrew Price.

"About time. Andy smiled. "Move aside son. Let me show you how it's done."

McLean laughed. He trusted Andy. They both went through the same training course and both of them saw action at the same time in Afghanistan and Iraq. American and Canadian forces have had a long history of integration.

Whoever got lead usually depended on the theatre of operation. On US soil there was absolutely no doubt about who took lead.

"Sitrep please." He asked seriously. It was time to go to work.

"Joe, can you increase the resolution so we can see what we're flying into?" McLean could read the instruments, but he didn't think Andy had a skill like that.

"Gotcha." Joe was smiling. Andy looked at him funny, but he didn't say anything. Patience was its own reward.

"Are those cows?" McLean asked.

"Yep. Texas Longhorns to be exact." Joe had a big smile on his face.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Lieutenant Price asked.

Joe laughed. "Because the Galactic Police got blocked from retrieving the fragment by the Fort Worth Dallas Cattle Drive." McLean and Price laughed as well.

"Beaten by cows. How humiliating." Clive and Yuri laughed as well. Lady Eleanore was simply amused.

"Those aren't just any cows Ritchie. Those are Texas steers." As a Texan Price took pride in his state's many accomplishments. "There's also a lot of tourists and law enforcement. See those guys there?" He pointed at the officers in the Stetson hats.

"Texas Rangers?" McLean guessed. The other LEOS was wearing regular uniforms.

"Got that right. Still, that fragment has been there since this morning. Why haven't they cleared the crash site yet?" Price wondered.

"I guess that will be your first order of inquiry." McLean turned to Joe, "Do we have eyes on the other dropship?"

"Oh yeah. They think no one can see them, but once they hit the atmosphere they can't hide from me." Joe explained.

"You can detect them through the stealth field?" Ae'url was surprised.

"I'm using Xerys. The system on the planet is able to see everything. And the Galactic system can barely push its way through. Didn't you find it sluggish when you entered the atmosphere?" He asked her.

"It's always sluggish. More sluggish? Maybe?" She replied, "where do you want to land the dropship?"

Langevin Block

Ottawa, Canada

The Wilder Party left the PMO the Prime Minister's office from the Elgin Street exit.

Pierre saw that his brother was more grumpy than usual. "Why are you so grumpy now?"

"I just got used as a prostitute." Rene was not happy.

"What happened?" Pierre, JP, Jack, and Kieran were in a conference room. The Chief was debriefing the unit about the Bertona Park situation.

Rene was with the PM and his Secretary attending a meeting, "You remember last year during the New NAFTA negotiations. Trump slammed us with a tariff on Steel and Aluminum."

"Yeah. It was all over the news. Something about national security? Right?" Pierre asked.

"Yeppers. It didn't make sense then, and it still doesn't make sense now. The only one who got hurt by it was the Americans. They were already at capacity, and it would have cost too much to expand their production rather than pay the extra on the taxes." Rene explained the background of the tax.

"What does that have to do with your mood?" Pierre asked again.

"Instead of waiting for a change of administration, and maybe remove the taxes or not the PM used my AI as leverage to remove the tax. So now I work for the Trump administration as a sys-admin." Rene felt as used as a wet napkin.

"But it's not you Rene. It's your AI. Come on forget. Go home. Take a shower and kiss Marie for me. I'll pick you up in the morning. Don't let JP sleep in." Pierre looked at JP and asked, "You need a lift?"

"No thanks uncle Pierre. I'm going to fly home." Paul activated his ability and flew home.

"How about you?" He asked Rene.

"I'm going to walk. I have some thinking to do." Rene said goodbye to his brother and the RCMP guys and started walking in the snow. The house was only five kilometers away. Not far.

"Alright see you in the morning." Pierre waved at Rene and turned to his officers. "I'll see you guys in the morning. Don't be late."

"Aw come on Pete. Don't be like that. The PM said it was a snow day." Jack complained.

"Yeah. I heard. It's a snow day for everyone else except us. Get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning." The officers got in their cruisers and Pierre got into his F-150 and went home. He would have flown home, but then he would have to leave his pickup behind. The snow removal guys would have buried his baby under a ton of hard packed ice.

Rene walked down Elgin Street past the NAC the National Arts Center building and turned left on Laurier going east.

He could see the ice sculptures buried in the snow in confederation park.

The walk was easy and the cold no longer had the bite it used to.

He walked past the National Defense Building and quickly made his way past the Ottawa University campus.

He had a destination in mind. At the corner of Laurier and Nelson was his favorite Pizzeria.

The steps to Johnny's Pizza were snow covered. Rene jumped up past the stairs with ease. "At least they put salt in front of the doors." He said as he opened the double doors and went in.

"Hi, Rene." Marie's cousin Robbie greeted him from the kitchen. "How come you're still in uniform?" He asked.

"Long story. Gimme a fresh slice of pep and I'll tell you." Rene took off his parka and hanged it up on a chair. The place was empty, but the cooks were still busy. 'I guess people will always want pizza. Even during an apocalypse.'