Kadance: Another Tale

30

All the members of Sigma are silent as they form up to give honor one last time to their fallen comrades from Beta Company. Jade and Jax are unusually somber as Commander Kellan's coffin is placed on the ground. 

There is no sound, not even the shuffle of feet or a whisper of wind. One by one the coffins are opened and the occupants removed and placed with the lost ones as they requested before they died. All of Beta had made that request, every single one that had been stationed on Dayla. Only the newer members hadn't, they figured they hadn't earned the right. They were correct.

Jayse and Tommy refused to allow any of Sigma be the ones to lift Kellan out of his coffin, instead they did it. They carefully lift him up and carry him much like Kellan and his LC had carried Jenk more than a decade earlier when they brought him out here to die.

There is once more a profound silence once the placing of the soldiers is complete, then a whirlwind of dust comes before them all. But this time, instead of one form there is two.

"Thank you, all of you, for bringing my friend back here. I know that he's been hurting for some time and now, perhaps he'll be able to find the peace he's looked for." The stranger says then looks past Kadance and her husbands to the men standing respectfully in their dress uniforms in parade rest.

The unfamiliar figure smiles, "Ah, the infamous Sigma company. The doers of the impossible. The creators of the impossible, Kadance and her team. We, Dayla, Sareen and I are honored that you accepted our invitation."

Kadance gives him a wavery smile. The devastation of the war was hard for her to see on her children. This is perhaps the hardest trip she's ever taken. "Thank you for inviting us. I know that I and my husbands aren't really needed and I know that you don't like having outsiders here."

Sareen and Jenk both give her sad but warm smiles. Kadance still hasn't figured out how dust and sand can make emotional faces, but they do. It is Sareen that answers this time, "You are wrong, Kadance. You and yours are as much needed as Sigma to return the lost and fallen. As you must have surmised by now, this is my son, Jenk." Jenk nods in greeting.

"I thank you for bringing back my friends. I didn't know them long, but I did miss them."

"It truly was an honor to do so." Kadance says softly, still trying to hold in her emotions. She's never gotten as good as the warriors at hiding her pain from losing friends and family.

Sareen looks like she'd like to hug Kadance but her fluid form wouldn't allow it. "Kadance bring your family forward. I would heal what we can."

Kadance distracted from her initial grief turns to Sigma. "You heard the lady, Jax and Jade bring them forward."

Slowly by rank Sigma comes forward, they'd all already touched  the flint knives. The LC had survived and will become the new commander and had all the survivors do so as soon as he could. But this time there is something about Sareen that works on them, even more than Kadance's soothing aura that helps them. Some collapse in relief.

The first time that happens Sareen soothes the worried parents. "It's just relief from the emotional pain. Allow the medics to take care of them, they will be fine." With worried glances at the shuttles that they are carried onto the parents get back to the healing of Sigma.

After some time the last private of Sigma is finished and they are all feeling the effects of the strain. Kadance wants to collapse herself, but does her best to not embarrass her husbands at this time.

"I have done what we can, Kadance. I am sorry, some emotional scars are too deep even for Dayla to heal."

"They had to kill children, Sareen. That leaves deep emotional impact on all involved, unless they are damaged mentally. Thank you for all that you did do." Kadance shakes her head, "Many would have been too scarred to continue their work."

Jenk replies this time, "We know, that is why help was offered. With out the help of Sigma, the war will falter and the tide will turn once more. The shifter scourge must end or all life will perish, well all animal life with sentience will perish. We cannot fight the war, but this is how we could help you fight for us and all others. Others you might never see and will never know the sacrifice you have made. We do this in thanks for saving our people as well as yours."

"Once we found you, we would protect you as well," Tommy is the first to speak up.

Jenk smiles at the now sober Tommy, "Yes, Dayla is also aware of this. That is why she rewarded you with the coordinates to Earth."

There are confused looks between them now. The Sigma company that remained as well as Kadance and her husbands. "We don't have Earth's coordinates." Tommy says voicing their confusion. They've gone over all the planets given and they are all in the sector for the shifters.

"The information is there and will become clear to you only as the war draws to a close. Thank you for bringing the lost and fallen once more, but I'm afraid your time is up. Dayla is becoming edgy now and wishes for the strangers to leave." Sareen says before giving them one last thanks and they both whirl away. They never expect to see either of them again.

There is excited murmuring among the Sigma warriors even as they head up the ramps and take their places in the shuttles. They know better than to take their time in hostile locations, and Dayla is about to become very hostile.

One by one the shuttles take off from the lonely plateau that the lost and fallen reside for eternity and they never expect to return.

In the years to come the lost that man the space station are sent down to the plateau and once the last of Beta Company and the lost are returned the plateau seems to disappear.  It doesn't fall due to erosion or earthquakes, it just disappears. But since it was a forbidden location for the dead there was no one to witness this disappearance. All traces of the lost and the outsiders is gone. Soon only stories remain among the true bloods about the time when outsiders came and many of their people were lost. It is a story told as a cautionary tale.  

The children make sure to listen to Dayla and do their best to remain true to her. To them, the greatest of horrors would be to be cut off from her for forever.