The first casualty
	By Allen Kitchen, 1997
	all rights reserved



	Jean slowly walked through the mire, keeping his shotgun 
above his head to prevent it from becoming wet.  He had lived long 
enough in the swamps to know what the muddy water did to guns.  
Hell, he had been born and raised in a swamp.  Lived all his life there 
too.  

	Granted, that was several states away.  But those damned 
yankees running the U.S. army never could figure that out.  They all 
thought that a swamp was a swamp was a swamp.  With that kind of 
thinking, Jean supposed that a city was a city was a city.  There were 
differences.  Big differences.  Here in Florida, there were different 
kinds of plants, gators, moss, you name it.

	And it was far more dangerous to be in a Florida swamp than 
in any other swamp on earth, these days.

	He wasn't afraid of nothing natural in any swamp.  He had 
wrestled crocs when he was only ten.  He ate snake right after 
leaving his mama's breast.  But that was long before the war.  Long 
before.  Nowdays, there were critters running around these parts 
that weren't natural at all.  Things that couldn't be reasoned with, 
like a croc could...  Florida was nothing at all like Louisianna.  Nothing 
at all.

	No, the swamps here in Florida held critters that any man 
would be afraid of.  That is, if he wanted to go on about living, he 
would be afraid.  The critters here shot back at people!  And they 
rarely missed too!  

	He smiled a bit as he climbed an embankment, rising out of the 
muck.  It was a good thing that those fool idiots up in Washington 
didn't make morphs out of squirrels, he thought.  He loved em, 
especially broiled.  And if the squirrels in his neck of the woods 
suddenly started shooting back at him, he'd probably have to find 
some other reason for living. 

	Yessir!  He did love his food.

	Of course, there was more to life than eating and drinking shine 
all day.  Even living in a swamp cost money, and the damned 
government wouldn't let him sell gatorskins no more.  He owed about 
5 years of tax on his land (why did they insist on calling it that, when 
half of it was underwater?), his kid had gotten his teeth knocked out, 
and the bank said if he didn't cough up the money for his truck this 
month they would repossess it.  A course, they been saying that for 
near 3 months now.  Each time, he told em to come on in and find it, 
if they dared.

	They hadn't dared yet.  But pretty soon they would hire some 
other cajun, some other hungry mercenary like himself, to find and 
repossess his truck.  He really didn't want that:  it was a fine truck.  
So when the army offered him a job, going deep inside enemy 
territory, he accepted.  They wanted something there, and nobody 
but a Cajun could get in or out of the swamps.  At least, not alive 
they couldn't.

	Jean lowered the shotgun, and listened carefully to the sound 
of the woods around him as he thought about his mission.  The 
money was good.  So good in fact it would wipe out all his debts at 
once, and he would still have a tidy sum left over besides.  But his 
pappy had taught him that nobody ever gives nothing away.  If the 
army was paying good, then the job had to be damned hard.  Or 
dangerous.

	It turned out to be both hard and dangerous.  Jean shook his 
head, thinking about  his task.  Just wander through a warzone 
without getting skinned, penetrate a bunker guarded by vicious 
monsters without getting killed, steal a little glass tube with some 
clear liquid in it, then get it and your ass back across the battlefield 
one more time in one piece.  Shoot, maybe he could stop for fries 
along the way back too.

	Getting in through the battlezone turned out to be easy.  After 
all, he had lived in the swamps longer than most Nightcrawlers had 
been alive!  Not a one of them knew he was there at all.  He could 
probably teach them a thing or two about living in bayou country.

	For example:  always cover your body with gator fat.  The 
grease hides body odor, and repels insects to boot.  

	The army had been real concerned about the Nightcrawlers 
spotting him in the night.  He had tried to explain to them that 
nobody traveled bayou at night.  It was too easy for a croc to get the 
jump on you.  But they were paying the bills, so they called the shots.  
They made him some ridiculus clown suit, designed to reflect all the 
Infra...Infra...   Oh hell.  It was supposed to keep any critter from 
seeing you, no matter how good they could see, day or night.

	But just like anything else coming from the army, it was a total 
screwup.  The fools that made it never wore it outside their 
airconditioned offices, no doubt.  December in the swamp just meant 
that the heat went from unbearable, to mildly oppressive.  That 
there thing was hotter than the devils armpit on a sunny day!  Didn't 
really matter none if the Nightcrawlers could see him or not.  Not if 
he was dead of heat exhaustion first.  Hell, it was about noon now!

	That was the first thing they gave him for his mission.  It was 
also the first thing he ditched.  But certainly not the last.  He also 
ditched the food bars, the backpack, the shoes, those night goggles 
(Pity.  They were fun to play with.), and that silly metal case.

	He never did figure out what was so important about that 
metal box.  It was thick and solid, and padded inside.  They told him 
that when he found the glass tubes, he was to place one inside the 
metal container, then close it.  They warned him that the tube had to 
be unbroken.  They were real insistant on that.  They said the metal 
container was to keep the glass vial from breaking as he brought it 
back to them.

	Mighty nice of them to worry about his getting cut with broken 
glass, he thought.  Considering they were sending him into a warzone 
and all.  But that box weighed too much to carry through a swamp.  A 
person had to swim now and then, and that fool thing made him sink 
like a stone.  He let it fall to the bottom of the river before he 
drowned, then barely made it across to shore again.

	Of course, he still had to figure out what to do when got his 
hands on that viral... viral...  Oh hell.  Something to do with being 
horny all the time.  He wasn't too sure why the brass were so 
worried about it.  Maybe getting so old, the generals all needed 
something to put the fizz back in their sodas.  And lucky him, the 
generals would pay to get their virality back.  All he had to do was 
bring the stuff back up north, and all his troubles were over.

	But without their metal case, how was he going to do that?  He 
was certain the glass vials would break crossing the swamp.  He 
needed something tougher.

	That was when he remembered his metal flask of bourban, in 
his back pocket.  It went with him everywhere.  He would just pour 
out the whiskey, and pour in a whole bunch of the viralwhatevers.  
He would even try not to spill too much of it.  That way he would be 
bringing them back not just one tube of liquid, but several.  

	He smiled at his cleverness.  Maybe they would pay a bonus, 
no?

******


	"Really Shade.  I think you are making too big a deal out of 
guarding this shack."  

	The jet-black Nachtsjaegger just stared down on her from on 
top of the small concrete bunker.  "We were ordered to guard this 
bunker, you and I." he growled at the smaller and obviously younger 
female sitting crosslegged on the ground below him.  "With our lives, 
if we must.  And kitten, I intend to do just that.  I may be old, and 
you may be young, but that doesn't mean this is a skate job."

	She snorted, and licked her right arm, trying to straighten out 
her ever-matted fur.  "We are more than 100 miles from the front, 
Sergeant Shade.  Nobody is going to bother us here."

	"Don't ever underestimate the human capacity for savageness, 
Delphi." he grumbled, scanning the area around him from his high 
vantage point.

	"Oh, poo."  she replied.  "All you oldtimers are alike.  You all 
think that the humans are vicious monsters who kill their children."

	"No.  I said they would kill OUR children.  If they could, that 
is..."

	She shrugged.  "Whatever."

	He looked down on her again, and regarded her cooly.  "Look.  
You have never even met a human.  You've never had to live among 
them.  You've only been a soldier for 3 weeks, so you don't know the 
first thing you are talking about."

	"I know that no species is totaly evil, Shade." she pointed out, 
looking up at him and locking gazes with him.  "Not even the Riss."

	He chuckled at her.  "You would be safer living with the Riss, 
than sleeping near a human.  Trust me Delphi.  I know."

	"Okay, fine.  So you have lived around humans before, and I 
haven't.  Just what is it about humans that you dislike so much?"

	He bared his fangs to her just a little bit.  "Get this through 
your head Delphi.  I don't just dislike humans.  I hate them!"

	Delphi had seen her sergeants temper before.  Several times.  It 
did not impress her any more.  

	"Hate, then." she ammended.  "And just what is so bad about 
humans anyway?  They created us, didn't they?  They can't be all 
bad.  Not all of them."

	Sergeant Shade jumped down from the top of the 15 foot by 15 
foot concrete block, and landed on his hind legs.  Turning to his 
subordinate, he said "Oh yes they can.  They certainly can be all bad.  
Remember: the only good human, is a dead human."

	"If you say so." she sighed.  The older generation could really 
be pigheaded sometimes.  So she simply looked down, and casually 
picked at some cockleburrs that were stuck to her sleek black coat.

	"You think differently?" he asked, an edge of anger in his voice.  
"And with all your great experience in dealing with humans, what is 
your opinion on them?  Why do you think they do the things they 
do?"

	She stopped picking her fur, and turned her head askance to 
stare at him again.  "I think we have just misunderstood them.  I 
don't think we understand the humans well enough to make any 
judgements on them yet.  After all, they have been the sole 
intelligent species on earth since day one.  And then suddenly, here 
we are.  If the roles were reversed, I can see us freaking out the 
same way they did."

	Shade frowned, but nodded.  "Go on." he said.

	"I don't pretend to know all there is to know about them.  But I 
think that is part of the problem.  Nobody does.  And that's probably 
the whole reason for this stupid war.  We don't understand them, 
and they don't understand us."

	"They all hate us, Delphi.  There is nothing more to 
understand."

	"I don't think they all hate us, Shade." she calmly continued.   
"Some do, certainly.  But not all.  Look, try to see things from their 
point of view.  They created us, and then we rebeled against them.  
We even killed their children."

	He crossed his arms defiantly.  "That was a frame up!  Those 
human children all died at the hands of their trigger-happy fathers.  
And I can prove it too.  Those 8 morphs combined didn't have 
enough ammo to slaughter a chickencoop!  Much less a school!"

	She nodded to her superior, still sitting on the ground.  "Even if 
that is true, and I am not saying that it isn't, that isn't how the 
humans see it.  I doubt anybody will ever know the truth about what 
really happened back then in Alabama.  That was such a long time 
ago."

	"I was on active duty..." he lowly growled.

	She turned away from him, and resumed picking burrs.  "I 
mean no disrespect about your age, Shade.  I simply pointed out..."
	

	"You pointed out that I am an oldtimer who doesn't know the 
first damned thing he is talking about!" Shade roared.  Delphi sat 
upright, her ears perked forward.  She had never seen him THIS mad 
before!

	"Well kitten, let me tell you why I hate them so bad." he 
savagely snarled.  "See, your problem is that you're too young.  You 
didn't have to suffer in the internment camp like I did.  You didn't 
have to watch as your friends died from disease, right inside Eglin's 
own hospital, just because the humans didn't want to 'waste' any 
medicine on their creations."

	"And you damned sure didn't have to hold your dying spouse 
as she spoke your name with her last breath!"

	Delphi was surprised.  Her mouth hung open for a second.  "You 
were married?" she gasped.  "When was this?" 

	Shade's face was suddenly etched with pain.  "It was years 
before the humans threw us away, kitten.  Years before you were 
even born.  She and I were both stationed at Fort Bragg.  We taught 
the Green Berets how to avoid detection, she and I.  We were 
soulmates, and finally bedmates.  Then we got married.  We had to 
look long and hard to find a preacher that would let us get married 
in his church, too.  And that was before all the trouble started.

	"Anyway, her name was Mist.  She had a grayish coat, not jet 
black like most of our species.  And she was the sweetest creature 
you would ever hope to meet.  Even when we were all arrested and 
tossed into that hell-on-earth internment camp, she still smiled and 
tried to keep everyone's spirits up.  

	"She sounded just like you do, Delphi.  She spoke alot about 
how our species weren't talking enough, and that eventually we 
would rejoin human society again, just as soon as all the 
misunderstandings were corrected.  And just like you, she thought 
that the humans could be reasoned with.  She didn't believe that 
they were evil either.  Back then, I believed in her.  And I believed 
that we still had a future among the humans too.  I wanted to believe 
that Delphi.  Truly I did.

	He stared at Delphi intently.  She could see that he wanted to 
cry, but his heart had hardened with the pain over the years, making 
that impossible.  He stepped back, towards the brush, and took a 
deep breath.

	"But that was then.  Since then, I have learned differently.  You 
see, Mist often manned Eglin's main gatehouse, because her smile 
and personality set humans at ease whenever they came by.  Even 
congressmen were impressed with her wit and charm when they 
made their inspection tours.  Some of those politicos were beginning 
to soften, to realize that we were not simply animals to be put 
outside whenever we became inconvienient.  Much of that softening 
was because of Mist.  But it wasn't enough to save her life.

	"One day, a group of pickups came driving up to the gate.  She 
stepped out of the gatehouse, and went smiling up to the lead truck.  
There was a little human girl lost in the woods at that time.  She 
thought they might be coming to ask for help in finding her.  We 
were all preparing to offer our assistance, and Mist was well aware 
of that.  We were planning to show that we were good, honest, 
Americans still.  So she walked up to them, eager to offer our 
services in tracking the lost child.

	"Instead, the passenger in the truck leveled a shotgun on her, 
and shot her in the gut!"

	Delphi winced.  Shade continued on.  "Have you have heard of 
the Eglin massacre kitten?  Well, have you?  My wife was the first to 
fall that day!  They left her sprawled on the side of the road like a 
oppussum, then drove on inside, shooting and killing any morph they 
saw.  And since we didn't have any weapons, we couldn't do a whole 
hell of a lot about it!  The bastards were following some preachers 
command to rid the earth of abominations, or something like that.  
They had their holy duty to perform, and they did so in spades!

	"Finally, the bastards ran off .  They weren't out of ammo yet, 
or else we would have jumped on them barehanded.  But they 
weren't stupid, so they left while they could.  And when they left, 
more than 50 of us were on the ground in pools of blood.  Either 
dead, or dying.  Me, I was lucky, if you can call it that.  All I got was 
a grazing wound on the neck.  

	"But then I remembered which gate those murdering humans 
came through.  And that my wife was there!

	"I raced to the gatehouse, praying that Mist might have been 
spared somehow.  Or away from her post.  I should have known 
better.  She had never left her post in her life.  My heart broke when 
I found her.  She was still breathing, but barely.  There was nothing I 
could do to save her, so I cradled her tight in my arms, and told her 
that she would be alright.  I gently rocked her, and told her that the 
doctors were right behind me.  Of course, that was a lie, but it made 
her feel better.  She licked my hand one last time, and spoke my 
name once more...

	He wiped a tear from his eye.  "Then, she was gone."

	He just stood there, looking across the grass at her.  His arms 
were trembling slightly.  "She trusted the humans, and they 
murdered her in cold blood, Delphi." he quietly said.   "I won't ever 
allow myself, or anyone under my command to make the same 
mistake she made.  The only good human, is a dead human."

	Delphi was too stunned to speak.  She just sat there and stared 
at her sergeant.  "You mean you were actually at the Eglin 
Massacre?" she asked, amazement in her voice.

	She and Shade were rudely interrupted before he got a chance 
to reply!

*******

	Jean jumped when he heard the roar of the Nightcrawler, just 
on the other side of the embankment.  Damn, he thought.  He'd 
almost walked right into them!  Another minute more, and he would 
have been smack dab in the middle of them.  It would have been a 
shame to have gotten this deep inside Florida, just to die from a 
moment's carelessness.  But hey, that was the way of the swamp!  
You loose your guard, you loose your life.  He would have to be more 
careful.

	He stealthily crawled through the mud on his hands and knees, 
and peered around the base of a tree.  In the midday sun, he could 
clearly see two of the critters.  One of them was sitting down, close to 
the door of some concrete bunker.  The other was screeching at her, 
standing several feet from the edge of the woods.
  
	He was at the bunker.  He had made it!  

	He wasn't sure if there were any more of them about, but after 
a few moments of watching the critters, he became more and more 
convinced that these two were alone, guarding his target all by 
themselves.  Now all he had to do was kill them, and fill his flask.  He 
could almost smell the money in his hands already.  

	But how to go about killing them?  Now that was a problem.  It 
was two on one, and his pappy had taught him that two against one 
was never good odds.  It didn't matter how weak your opponents 
were.  Two of them would always find a way to beat you.  And these 
were Nightcrawlers!  Nothing weak about them at all!  

	Still, he knew that he was fortunate.  The Nightcrawlers had 
been careless, making noise like that.  Besides, there could have been 
a lot more of them, and they could have been more alert.  That was 
why the army gave him the handgrenades.  To take out a number of 
nightcrawlers quick like.  And heavy as they was, he wasn't stupid 
enough to leave them behind!  

	But it didn't look like he was going to need them after all.  He 
could kill the big one that was yelling with both barrells of his 
shotgun, then slit the throat of the smaller one sitting on the ground 
before the gun stopped smoking.  Didn't look like the little one was 
much of a fighter anyway.

	All he had to do was wait for the right moment.

	Then the bigger one stepped backwards, close to the brush.  He 
was still facing the smaller cat, and that one was still sitting down in 
the grass.  Neither of them were looking in his direction, and neither 
of them seemed to be at all alarmed.  In fact, the big cat seemed to 
be mad at the small one for some reason.  He really couldn't make 
out what he was saying from where he was, but it sure didn't sound 
like happy sounds to him.

	The wind was coming from the south, putting him downwind of 
them.  They wouldn't smell him.  And even if he were upwind, the 
gator grease would hide his odor from those sensitive noses.  They 
were focused on each other.  He could walk up naked, and they might 
not notice him.

	This was about as good an opportunity as he was ever going to 
get, he thought to himself.  He tightened his grip on the shotgun, and 
quickly planned his move.  He didn't need to check his knife.  He 
could feel it's familiar bulge against his right thigh.  Pretty soon, he 
would add some more ears to his collection back home.  In a few 
seconds, he would have another set of trophies to show off, and a 
fortune in his pockets to boot.

	It all came down to this.  All the sweating and cursing and 
hiding.  Everything boiled down to these next few seconds.  He 
jumped up out of the brush and charged the two nightcrawlers there!  
It was showtime!

*******


	Delphi almost jumped out of her fur when she saw the man 
burst out of the brush.  The human was wearing rubber wading 
pants, and a camoflage shirt.  His beard practically covered his neck.  
She imagined that he screamed a war cry as he broke running into 
the clearing, but in fact the human never made a sound.  He raced 
into the open with his shotgun, crashing through the brush, but he 
said nothing!

	It was like watching everything in slow motion.  The human 
ran past the very surprised looking sergeant Shade, and pointed the 
shotgun at him.  Then the burst of flame and the roar of the gun as 
both barrells fired only a few feet from Shade's chest.  She watched 
in horror as he flew backwards from the blast, vanishing into the 
shrubbery.

	Then even more horror came as the human threw the gun 
aside and jumped on top of her!

	She was too startled to think.  She was scared to death!  The 
human instantly had her on her back, then grabbed her chest 
through the fabric of her shirt while he reached down to pull his 
knife.  She knew that she had to get her claws out and defend 
herself.  But she was too scared!  She didn't know what to do.  So she 
just laid there wide-eyed and frightened as the human whipped out 
his knife and quickly laid the tip of the blade on her throat.  Just one 
quick thrust, she knew, and it would all be over.

	Then the human looked perplexed as he realized that he was 
holding onto a breast.

	"Jezus Christ!" he exclaimed loudly.  "You a female?  A woman?"  

	Tears were begining to come to her eyes as she rapidly nodded 
to him.  

	The man cursed in some odd language, and pulled the knife 
away from her throat.  "What this world coming to?" he complained.   
"Not bad enough to send in animals for people.  Now they send a 
woman in to do man's work too?"  He cursed again, then looked at 
her very oddly.  "You gots any younguns, nightcrawler?"

	She just as rapidly shook her head.  Instantly she knew that 
was a fatal mistake.

	He gritted his teeth.  "Well, my mama taught me never to hurt 
a lady.  You gots fur, so you ain't no human.  And if you ain't no 
human, then you ain't no lady niether!"  

	With that he lifted his right arm vertically and leaned back, 
arching backwards to plunge the knife straight into her heart.

	She screamed in terror, knowing that the end for her was a 
second away.

	There was a thunk, and the man suddenly was knocked aside.  
She watched the man as he fell over, noticing that a crossbow bolt 
had suddenly grown out of his skull.  He crashed beside her, and laid 
still.  He didn't move or say anything again.

	Delphi just laid on the ground for a moment, staring up at the 
sky, too stunned and shocked to do anything.  A few seconds later, 
she saw Shade stepping out of the brush.  He was alive after all!

	"Damned cajuns." he cursed.  "Good thing for me they never 
heard of Kevlar."  He looked down at his chest, and grumbled as he 
saw that the material of his uniform was burned away by the 
shotgun blast, exposing the grey of the bulletproof fabric beneath it.

	Delphi slowly sat up again.  She stared at the human for several 
moments as Shade stood across the opening, glaring at her.

	"Well Delphi.  Looks like you just met your first human." he 
grumbled again.  "A cajun covered in scent masking grease at that.  
I'd introduce you, but it doesn't look like he is feeling too sociable 
right now.  A bolt through the brain does that to some people.  Makes 
them as introverted as can be." 

	She just sat there trembling, staring at the human, not making 
a sound.

	Shade noticed her frightened look.  "And just what the hell's 
the matter with you?" he asked.

	"He was going to kill me!" she finally cried out.  Her fear lent 
considerable volume to her shriek.

	Shade just snorted derisively.  "What?  This poor monkey, 
going to kill you?" he sarcastically said.   "Nah.  I think you just 
misunderstood him Delphi.  Why don't you try to open a dialog with 
the next one that comes at you with a knife?"  He chuckled 
mercilessly as he relaxed the aim of his crossbow.

	She just stared at the dead body of the man, shaking as she did 
so.   "He... He tried to kill me." she stammered.

	"Well of course he tried to kill you!" Shade shouted, spreading 
his arms.  "Every human you see will try to kill you!  That's what 
they do!  Just what do you think war is all about?  They try to kill us, 
and we try to kill them!"

	She was still visibly shaking as she crept closer to the dead 
body, and studied the bolt sticking out of its head.  There was 
surprisingly little blood on the ground from the wound.  "But why?  
Why did he attack us?"

	"Haven't you been listening to me Delphi?" he snarled at her.  
"They're savages!  Every stinking one of them.  They want to kill us 
all.  And even if there are some good humans out there somewhere 
who aren't trying to destroy us, you won't find any of them out here 
near the frontlines.  The humans you find out here only have one 
thought in their peabrained minds... Put out the cat!  And that means 
you."

	She leaned forward carefully, and slowly took the knife from 
the dead man's hand.  She moved nervously, half expecting the body 
to come to life and leap up once more.

	Delphi nodded as she took his blade.  "I... I guess you are right 
Shade.  I feel stupid for not believing how vicious they could be.  I 
guess I just didn't want to believe that they were truly evil."

	Shade took out another bolt, and began to reload his crossbow 
again.  "Well, believe it Delphi.  Because they aren't going away.  At 
least you have finally seen the truth.  And you didn't have to get 
hurt first, like I was afraid you would.  Still, take those grenades, and 
his weapons.  We can use them."

	She nodded, and stared at the body once more.  Only a minute 
ago, she felt like laughing.  And now, after this, she didn't think she 
could ever laugh again.  How could one laugh, when monsters like 
this were trying to exterminate you and everyone like you?  The 
truth hit her hard, but facts were facts.  

	Shade was right.  The only good human WAS a dead human!

	"I'll get his weapons and ammo, Shade." she replied, her heart 
hardening with each passing second.   "But what do you want to do 
with his body?"

	He finished loading the crossbow, set the safety, and slung it 
onto his back once more.  "Has anyone ever shown you how to kill 
one of them with your bare hands?" he asked her.

	She shook her head.  

	He stepped up to her, and unsheathed his claws.  "You wanna 
find out?"  he said, cocking an eyebrow at her.  "Wanna practice on 
him?" 

	She stood up again, tossed the knife bladefirst into the dirt, and 
unsheathed her own claws as well.  

	"Absolutely!" she snarled, letting her anger flow.

	He snickered, and slapped her on the back.  "Now you are 
starting to sound like a NachtsJaegger!" 


	[[The first casualty of war, is innocence.]]