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Description
When we were children we didn't know what war was.

Kaed slowly opened her eyes. Had she been day dreaming, or was she hallucinating in the desert heat? She had been trapped in a vision of her past, the past where she was but a child sweet in her ignorance of the hate of the world. She had gone blueberry picking with her best friend - a human. Kaed's hand shook a bit as she peeled back the loose strands of hair that had stuck to her sweating brow. The heat of this place was oppressive. Given the choice she would had never lived here. Kaed had parked her rugged and well used relic of a Jeep underneath the scraggly barren branches of a bleached white tree atop a rocky plateau that showed a large view of the red valley below. Kaed blink a few more times and sat up in the back seat of the Jeep, the ancient creature moaning and creaking as she did so. Perhaps she had been asleep after all. A muffled voice bleating from a hand held radio in the front seat woke her from the fog that was crowding her mind.

"Sentry 8 report. Sentry 8, do you copy?"

Kaed passed her body through the gaps between the front seats, straddling carefully over the stick shift until she slid down into the rickety driver's seat. She automatically reached her hand over to the passenger seat to find the radio and was not entirely surprised to find a soft furry creature. Kaed clucked her tongue. "Star, off the radio." The lanky fox like creature yawned revealing its sharp needle like teeth as it, albeit slowly, complied with its companion's command. Stretching out one long foreleg and then the other it yawned again, arching its back all the way throughout its poofy white tipped tail. It rose from the passenger seat. Standing on spindly legs tipped in a dark chocolately color the otherwise tan-orange fox creature jumped up and perched on the edge of the jeep's door, its white tipped tail grasping for balance in the air.
 Kaedi smiled lightly at her foxy friend as she grasped the hand radio from where Star had been sleeping. Kaed kicked her combat booted feet up unit the dash of the Jeep and casually pressed the talk button on the radio. "This is sentry 8, over."

Silence for a moment, and then the response came. "You were sleeping again."

Kaed's orange fur colored ears with dark tips, much in the shape like her fox friend's flicked backwards defensively against the side of her head. She found her lips curling back in an reflexive snarl, her small incisor fangs clearly bared. "…no." She lied aggressively through her teeth. With her left hand she picked up the pair of binoculars that were dangling from a hook where the rearview mirror should have been. Kicking her feet off the dash she leaned forward in her seat and focused the lenses on the valley blow where admits helicopters and a scattering of jeeps and other pieces of vehicles people, that is her people, the kat people, were lowering some piece of machinery into a dry river bed. "To be fair you've put me up here in the heat of the day and ask me to do nothing but sit still for hours on end." Kaed was scanning the kats below trying to make out her squadron leader whose voice was on the other end of the radio. "Over." She hastily added.

"You're not there to sit, you're there to watch." The woman's voice was growing in anger. Kaed knew she was in for a stern talking to upon return to base, but what was Sonceri going to do - sentence Kaed to more sentry duty? Kaed chuckled as she finally spotted her commanding officer in the valley below. The woman was hard to miss. Sonceri was positively gargantuan in size, a full head and a half taller than anyone else Kaed had ever met. With bulging muscles to match her incredible size her brute strength was legendary. It was no indulgence that her nickname around the base was 'Strongarm'. Kaed spotted Sonceri whose skin which was the same reddish-brown as a coconut shell standing in stark contrast in the middle of the science team that was heading today's operation, milling about in their white coats that were blinding in the sunlight. "Report, sentry 8. Over." Sonceri's voice broke through Kaed's distracted spying. Even from a distance Kaedi could see the woman's impatience was growing.

Kaed stood up on her seat and did a quick spin with the binoculars, balancing with one hand against the windshield of the open jeep. "Sentry 8. Airplane, 2'o'clock." She reported, her keen good eye spotting the shimmer in the sky over the valley. "Nothing else. Over."

"That's our plane, moron. Pay attention." Sonceri scolded. "Moving on…sentry 9 report. Over."

"Sentry 9 - all clear, over."

Kaed slid back into the driver's seat her eyes unmoving from the shimmering silver streak in the sky. Her tan face flushed scarlet from embarrassment. Of course had she been paying attention she could had recognized the shimmer of the cloaking device as one of their scouting places. Her tail, a matching orange to her ears settled into the space in the seat beside her, its white tip flipping back and forth displaying her annoyance. She dropped the binoculars and radio into the passenger seat and pulled a pair of goggles from the gaping hole of a glove compartment. Kaed pulled her dark hair which was almost black in the same way grackles are all black and all colors at the same time, into a loose high pony tail and secured it there with a rubber band she pulled from her wrist. In the right light Kaed's hair appeared as an iridescent blue. Kaed fastened the band of her goggles just below the rubber band and settled the grimy plastic lenses with their metal frames against her face. Kaed raised her hand against the blistering sun as she continued to gaze skyward.

Kaed was not the best solider, she wasn't even sure she was a solider. If she was it wasn't by choice. Kaed had been raised beyond the war in a small mountain village of tolerant rebels where kats and humans cohabited in isolated secrecy. Kaed had not even known that there was a war until the day the war had come to her. Kaed's mind began to drift back into the fog of memories that had lulled her to sleep earlier. She was mesmerized by the white sun that danced between her fingers as she wiggled them one by one. It reminded her of the shining leaves that made the sunlight flit about in the forest of her homeland, small patches of a windy waltz. Kaed's fingers stopped moving and the sunlight burst bright through and glared straight into her face. Kaed closed her eyes against the blinding light and turned her head away. The burning light reminded her of a different kind of light she had also encountered the day she left her home. For a brief moment the panic that was always at the edge of her mind flooded in like the sun, a white searing light that made her scars itch. In the madness she scratched at her bad eye, the one that was a piercing ice blue with the white tendrils of the scar that snaked down the right side of her face intersecting it all the way through the pupil. Her fingers clawed at the goggles trying to rip them off, she felt the fire in her eye.

A cold, wet sensation on the back of her hand snapped Kaed out of the panic attack. Slowly she forced herself to take a deep breath. Closing her eyes she sighed deeply letting all of the air out. Reopening her eyes she gazed kindly at Star who continued to lick his master's hand. "Thank you." Kaed whispered quietly to the fox who now sat on her lap and began to excitedly lick her cheek. Kaed rested her head against the back of the seat, her fingers running through Star's fine fur. Star nestled his dark little nose under Kaed's chin and accepted the affection. The dark mark on Star's nose extended in drops around his narrow muzzle to his lips. Streaks also branched out over his eyes like a raccoon's mask. A final stripe went all the way from the tip of his nose to a tapering point on his forehead between the two large, perky chocolate ears. From straight on his markings resembled a six pointed star. Kaed had named him when she was a small child, thus the creativity with the name.

The peaceful moment was interrupted by the roar of helicopters starting their rotors and vehicles moving out of the valley floor scattering very hastily. "T-5 minutes to test. Evac beyond safety perimeter to stand by. Over." The radio crackled to life again. This voice was small but commanding, less emotional than the squadron leader's. Kaed recognized the voice as Kitty, the leader of the science and engineering department. The wunderkin genius had developed their current stealth technology, including the very stealth plane that was still barely visible as a blur in the blue sky above. Kitty had developed the breakthrough tech at the tender age of seven. The kid genius was now twice that age and had invented a great many new things in the time since then. The kats were always eager for new weapon technologies and other inventions that would increase their chances of survival.

Today was to be a test of a new technology. Kaed did not have the slightest idea of what the box, about the size of a semi trailer, was supposed to do. Kaed hadn't exactly payed attention to the mission briefing yesterday. Leaning forward she pushed the goggles up to her forehead and grabbed the binoculars again. As the cloud from the helicopters settled she focused her gaze on the box that had been left on the valley floor. A sudden fear settled in her stomach. Kaed couldn't remember if the device below was for an offensive or defensive measure, and she suddenly wondered if she was far enough out of range, she hadn't check her compass bearings or map coordinates when she chose her look out spot.

As all other kats and their vehicles passed out of range an unsettling silence spread valley below Kaed. Only the wind blew. Kaed rested her elbow on the dash and focused the binoculars on the box below. A series of coils and cords were looped all around the box which appeared to be anchored to the ground with giant screws bolted through a steel plate into a concrete slab. Marked in what appeared to be meter increments on the ground before the box was a series of dummies, mannequins and other human stand ins. Offensive then. Trying to understand the mystery box's function Kaed lost track of time.

"T-minus 30 to test 1. Over."

A curse word on her lips Kaed tossed the binoculars into the glove box and pulled the goggles back over her eyes. Star whine quizzically as Kaed tossed him to the floor of the back seat of the jeep. Star attempted to jump back up front but Kaed pushed him back with a firm "No." Heart racing with uncertainty she twisted the keys in the ignition of the Jeep. The beast shuttered them rumbled and roared to life. Kaed clasped her hands on the wheel until her knuckles ached. "10-9-8…" Came the countdown. Kaed kept her eyes peeled on the box in the valley below waiting to see what would happen. "3-2-1."

Kaed squeezed her eyes shut at the last moment, expecting a blinding explosion. After a few moments though she relaxed her grip on the steering wheel and cautiously opened one eye, the bad eye first, just in case, followed by her good eye that was still the natural ocean blue she had been born with. Her eyes confirmed that nothing had happened yet, but something still felt off. In the back seat Star began to cry, a high pitched piercing wail, his ears pinned back against his body. Kaed began to feel a small tremble in her feet which slowly increased in intensity. She felt her teeth clatter then then clamp shut unwillingly. She felt heavy as though she was being sucked down into her seat. A steady hum filled her eyes and she felt a urge to cry out in pain like Star. By sheer will Kaed kept her eyes forced opened, determined to witness the power that had overtook her entire body.
 Kaed could no longer make out the box on the valley floor. There was a gray blur on the valley floor that appeared to be vibrating at a rate which her eyes could not comprehend. One by one the dummies in front of the device shook, then cracked. The cracks spread across the mannequins and began to multiply until the human forms shattered to dust, imploding in on themselves. Kaed wondered with horror if she was going to disintegrate next. Her eyes flicked to the radio still on the passenger seat beside her. She tried to peel her fingers one by one from the steering wheel but either from fear or the device's grip her body would not obey her commands. Kaed could feel the contents of her stomach working their way back up her throat and found that she lacked the muscle control to stop it. The humming throbbed in her sensitive ears until it became a deafening ring. Kaed's vision began to pulsate with red flares, white spots snapped and dazzled like fireworks before her eyes.

A loud crack, the sound of metal snapping, overtook the hum. The sound ricocheted off of the cliff faces surrounding the valley resonating into a giant clap. Kaed could feel the pressure on her body slightly subsiding. It was only a small change but to Kaed it was the difference between drowning and breathing. Her vision began to clear enough to see that the box had sheared through the giant bolts that had anchored it to the ground. The box was now on its side its powers directed downward into the ground beneath it which began to heave and crack and swallow the device in a fissure in the rock. A lone helicopter bravely reentered the test a zone. A command must have been given because without any hesitation the helicopter launched a full salvo of missles into the hole in the earth. A ball of fire rose from the valley, the terrible weapon had been put out of commission.

For a moment Kaed's vision blanked white and all of her existence was pain and static, and then in a blink of an eye the whole ordeal was over. The sky was blue, the dessert was red, and Kaed's face was green. Kaed had an immediate need to relieve herself of the contents that had worked their way up her throat. Her hands were trembling too much to the find the door handle of the jeep, and her fingers, white around the knuckles, were too numb to feel it anyways. Kaed made a great effort and swung her entire body to the edge of the jeep. Most of the vomit made it over the side of the jeep. Gasping for air between the violent retchings Kaed rid herself of any traces of lunch or breakfast.

Breathless and exhausted Kaed slumped back into her seat. Her arms hung limply in her lap as her gaze fixed out over the distance, mesmerized by the flames in the valley. Her chest felt like it was experiencing a similar explosion. Every breath she took was like trying to lift a 20 pound wight with her lungs and fire filled her throat. Kaed was conscious of a sharp pain in her head, made worse by the singular ringing in her ears. Kaed sat very still for a long minute trying to let her body readjust after the trauma she had just been induced to. The sun felt nice and warm on her skin. A small hot breeze rolled across her face. Kaed allowed her eyes to creep shut. If it was not for the discomfort of her entire body it would had been a pleasant afternoon.

Description
When we were children we didn't know what war was.

Kaed slowly opened her eyes. Had she been day dreaming, or was she hallucinating in the desert heat? She had been trapped in a vision of her past, the past where she was but a child sweet in her ignorance of the hate of the world. She had gone blueberry picking with her best friend - a human. Kaed's hand shook a bit as she peeled back the loose strands of hair that had stuck to her sweating brow. The heat of this place was oppressive. Given the choice she would had never lived here. Kaed had parked her rugged and well used relic of a Jeep underneath the scraggly barren branches of a bleached white tree atop a rocky plateau that showed a large view of the red valley below. Kaed blink a few more times and sat up in the back seat of the Jeep, the ancient creature moaning and creaking as she did so. Perhaps she had been asleep after all. A muffled voice bleating from a hand held radio in the front seat woke her from the fog that was crowding her mind.

"Sentry 8 report. Sentry 8, do you copy?"

Kaed passed her body through the gaps between the front seats, straddling carefully over the stick shift until she slid down into the rickety driver's seat. She automatically reached her hand over to the passenger seat to find the radio and was not entirely surprised to find a soft furry creature. Kaed clucked her tongue. "Star, off the radio." The lanky fox like creature yawned revealing its sharp needle like teeth as it, albeit slowly, complied with its companion's command. Stretching out one long foreleg and then the other it yawned again, arching its back all the way throughout its poofy white tipped tail. It rose from the passenger seat. Standing on spindly legs tipped in a dark chocolately color the otherwise tan-orange fox creature jumped up and perched on the edge of the jeep's door, its white tipped tail grasping for balance in the air.
 Kaedi smiled lightly at her foxy friend as she grasped the hand radio from where Star had been sleeping. Kaed kicked her combat booted feet up unit the dash of the Jeep and casually pressed the talk button on the radio. "This is sentry 8, over."

Silence for a moment, and then the response came. "You were sleeping again."

Kaed's orange fur colored ears with dark tips, much in the shape like her fox friend's flicked backwards defensively against the side of her head. She found her lips curling back in an reflexive snarl, her small incisor fangs clearly bared. "…no." She lied aggressively through her teeth. With her left hand she picked up the pair of binoculars that were dangling from a hook where the rearview mirror should have been. Kicking her feet off the dash she leaned forward in her seat and focused the lenses on the valley blow where admits helicopters and a scattering of jeeps and other pieces of vehicles people, that is her people, the kat people, were lowering some piece of machinery into a dry river bed. "To be fair you've put me up here in the heat of the day and ask me to do nothing but sit still for hours on end." Kaed was scanning the kats below trying to make out her squadron leader whose voice was on the other end of the radio. "Over." She hastily added.

"You're not there to sit, you're there to watch." The woman's voice was growing in anger. Kaed knew she was in for a stern talking to upon return to base, but what was Sonceri going to do - sentence Kaed to more sentry duty? Kaed chuckled as she finally spotted her commanding officer in the valley below. The woman was hard to miss. Sonceri was positively gargantuan in size, a full head and a half taller than anyone else Kaed had ever met. With bulging muscles to match her incredible size her brute strength was legendary. It was no indulgence that her nickname around the base was 'Strongarm'. Kaed spotted Sonceri whose skin which was the same reddish-brown as a coconut shell standing in stark contrast in the middle of the science team that was heading today's operation, milling about in their white coats that were blinding in the sunlight. "Report, sentry 8. Over." Sonceri's voice broke through Kaed's distracted spying. Even from a distance Kaedi could see the woman's impatience was growing.

Kaed stood up on her seat and did a quick spin with the binoculars, balancing with one hand against the windshield of the open jeep. "Sentry 8. Airplane, 2'o'clock." She reported, her keen good eye spotting the shimmer in the sky over the valley. "Nothing else. Over."

"That's our plane, moron. Pay attention." Sonceri scolded. "Moving on…sentry 9 report. Over."

"Sentry 9 - all clear, over."

Kaed slid back into the driver's seat her eyes unmoving from the shimmering silver streak in the sky. Her tan face flushed scarlet from embarrassment. Of course had she been paying attention she could had recognized the shimmer of the cloaking device as one of their scouting places. Her tail, a matching orange to her ears settled into the space in the seat beside her, its white tip flipping back and forth displaying her annoyance. She dropped the binoculars and radio into the passenger seat and pulled a pair of goggles from the gaping hole of a glove compartment. Kaed pulled her dark hair which was almost black in the same way grackles are all black and all colors at the same time, into a loose high pony tail and secured it there with a rubber band she pulled from her wrist. In the right light Kaed's hair appeared as an iridescent blue. Kaed fastened the band of her goggles just below the rubber band and settled the grimy plastic lenses with their metal frames against her face. Kaed raised her hand against the blistering sun as she continued to gaze skyward.

Kaed was not the best solider, she wasn't even sure she was a solider. If she was it wasn't by choice. Kaed had been raised beyond the war in a small mountain village of tolerant rebels where kats and humans cohabited in isolated secrecy. Kaed had not even known that there was a war until the day the war had come to her. Kaed's mind began to drift back into the fog of memories that had lulled her to sleep earlier. She was mesmerized by the white sun that danced between her fingers as she wiggled them one by one. It reminded her of the shining leaves that made the sunlight flit about in the forest of her homeland, small patches of a windy waltz. Kaed's fingers stopped moving and the sunlight burst bright through and glared straight into her face. Kaed closed her eyes against the blinding light and turned her head away. The burning light reminded her of a different kind of light she had also encountered the day she left her home. For a brief moment the panic that was always at the edge of her mind flooded in like the sun, a white searing light that made her scars itch. In the madness she scratched at her bad eye, the one that was a piercing ice blue with the white tendrils of the scar that snaked down the right side of her face intersecting it all the way through the pupil. Her fingers clawed at the goggles trying to rip them off, she felt the fire in her eye.

A cold, wet sensation on the back of her hand snapped Kaed out of the panic attack. Slowly she forced herself to take a deep breath. Closing her eyes she sighed deeply letting all of the air out. Reopening her eyes she gazed kindly at Star who continued to lick his master's hand. "Thank you." Kaed whispered quietly to the fox who now sat on her lap and began to excitedly lick her cheek. Kaed rested her head against the back of the seat, her fingers running through Star's fine fur. Star nestled his dark little nose under Kaed's chin and accepted the affection. The dark mark on Star's nose extended in drops around his narrow muzzle to his lips. Streaks also branched out over his eyes like a raccoon's mask. A final stripe went all the way from the tip of his nose to a tapering point on his forehead between the two large, perky chocolate ears. From straight on his markings resembled a six pointed star. Kaed had named him when she was a small child, thus the creativity with the name.

The peaceful moment was interrupted by the roar of helicopters starting their rotors and vehicles moving out of the valley floor scattering very hastily. "T-5 minutes to test. Evac beyond safety perimeter to stand by. Over." The radio crackled to life again. This voice was small but commanding, less emotional than the squadron leader's. Kaed recognized the voice as Kitty, the leader of the science and engineering department. The wunderkin genius had developed their current stealth technology, including the very stealth plane that was still barely visible as a blur in the blue sky above. Kitty had developed the breakthrough tech at the tender age of seven. The kid genius was now twice that age and had invented a great many new things in the time since then. The kats were always eager for new weapon technologies and other inventions that would increase their chances of survival.

Today was to be a test of a new technology. Kaed did not have the slightest idea of what the box, about the size of a semi trailer, was supposed to do. Kaed hadn't exactly payed attention to the mission briefing yesterday. Leaning forward she pushed the goggles up to her forehead and grabbed the binoculars again. As the cloud from the helicopters settled she focused her gaze on the box that had been left on the valley floor. A sudden fear settled in her stomach. Kaed couldn't remember if the device below was for an offensive or defensive measure, and she suddenly wondered if she was far enough out of range, she hadn't check her compass bearings or map coordinates when she chose her look out spot.

As all other kats and their vehicles passed out of range an unsettling silence spread valley below Kaed. Only the wind blew. Kaed rested her elbow on the dash and focused the binoculars on the box below. A series of coils and cords were looped all around the box which appeared to be anchored to the ground with giant screws bolted through a steel plate into a concrete slab. Marked in what appeared to be meter increments on the ground before the box was a series of dummies, mannequins and other human stand ins. Offensive then. Trying to understand the mystery box's function Kaed lost track of time.

"T-minus 30 to test 1. Over."

A curse word on her lips Kaed tossed the binoculars into the glove box and pulled the goggles back over her eyes. Star whine quizzically as Kaed tossed him to the floor of the back seat of the jeep. Star attempted to jump back up front but Kaed pushed him back with a firm "No." Heart racing with uncertainty she twisted the keys in the ignition of the Jeep. The beast shuttered them rumbled and roared to life. Kaed clasped her hands on the wheel until her knuckles ached. "10-9-8…" Came the countdown. Kaed kept her eyes peeled on the box in the valley below waiting to see what would happen. "3-2-1."

Kaed squeezed her eyes shut at the last moment, expecting a blinding explosion. After a few moments though she relaxed her grip on the steering wheel and cautiously opened one eye, the bad eye first, just in case, followed by her good eye that was still the natural ocean blue she had been born with. Her eyes confirmed that nothing had happened yet, but something still felt off. In the back seat Star began to cry, a high pitched piercing wail, his ears pinned back against his body. Kaed began to feel a small tremble in her feet which slowly increased in intensity. She felt her teeth clatter then then clamp shut unwillingly. She felt heavy as though she was being sucked down into her seat. A steady hum filled her eyes and she felt a urge to cry out in pain like Star. By sheer will Kaed kept her eyes forced opened, determined to witness the power that had overtook her entire body.
 Kaed could no longer make out the box on the valley floor. There was a gray blur on the valley floor that appeared to be vibrating at a rate which her eyes could not comprehend. One by one the dummies in front of the device shook, then cracked. The cracks spread across the mannequins and began to multiply until the human forms shattered to dust, imploding in on themselves. Kaed wondered with horror if she was going to disintegrate next. Her eyes flicked to the radio still on the passenger seat beside her. She tried to peel her fingers one by one from the steering wheel but either from fear or the device's grip her body would not obey her commands. Kaed could feel the contents of her stomach working their way back up her throat and found that she lacked the muscle control to stop it. The humming throbbed in her sensitive ears until it became a deafening ring. Kaed's vision began to pulsate with red flares, white spots snapped and dazzled like fireworks before her eyes.

A loud crack, the sound of metal snapping, overtook the hum. The sound ricocheted off of the cliff faces surrounding the valley resonating into a giant clap. Kaed could feel the pressure on her body slightly subsiding. It was only a small change but to Kaed it was the difference between drowning and breathing. Her vision began to clear enough to see that the box had sheared through the giant bolts that had anchored it to the ground. The box was now on its side its powers directed downward into the ground beneath it which began to heave and crack and swallow the device in a fissure in the rock. A lone helicopter bravely reentered the test a zone. A command must have been given because without any hesitation the helicopter launched a full salvo of missles into the hole in the earth. A ball of fire rose from the valley, the terrible weapon had been put out of commission.

For a moment Kaed's vision blanked white and all of her existence was pain and static, and then in a blink of an eye the whole ordeal was over. The sky was blue, the dessert was red, and Kaed's face was green. Kaed had an immediate need to relieve herself of the contents that had worked their way up her throat. Her hands were trembling too much to the find the door handle of the jeep, and her fingers, white around the knuckles, were too numb to feel it anyways. Kaed made a great effort and swung her entire body to the edge of the jeep. Most of the vomit made it over the side of the jeep. Gasping for air between the violent retchings Kaed rid herself of any traces of lunch or breakfast.

Breathless and exhausted Kaed slumped back into her seat. Her arms hung limply in her lap as her gaze fixed out over the distance, mesmerized by the flames in the valley. Her chest felt like it was experiencing a similar explosion. Every breath she took was like trying to lift a 20 pound wight with her lungs and fire filled her throat. Kaed was conscious of a sharp pain in her head, made worse by the singular ringing in her ears. Kaed sat very still for a long minute trying to let her body readjust after the trauma she had just been induced to. The sun felt nice and warm on her skin. A small hot breeze rolled across her face. Kaed allowed her eyes to creep shut. If it was not for the discomfort of her entire body it would had been a pleasant afternoon.