"You can say that again, Marco," Polomo said.

I looked at Polomo and Stratton.

"You didn't think we hadn't heard of your little nicknames for us, had you?" Marco asked.

"It just seemed a little disrespectful to call you Marco and Polo," I said with a short chuckle.

"First time I've heard a laugh from you since the battle, Colin," Polo said. "I know some serious shit happened out there, but you know we stand right behind you don't you? If you need someone to talk to, either of us will be there."

"I thank you both," I said, "and perhaps, I can talk about it later. Right now there is too much to get done and not a great deal of time to do it in."

Polo nodded, "That's a damn fact. We're still sifting through the ashes, so to speak."

"I do have one question, Colin," Marco said. "Were you aware that the names you were calling off were heard in the minds of everyone within five miles of here?"

I shook my head. I had known they were slamming outward telepathically, but I wasn't aware of how much power I was throwing behind those names. It seems that the link I made to their Source boosted my telepathy much more than it had been before.

"I learned I could use this telepathy on other humans some time back, but I never realized it was so strong. It didn't hurt anyone, did it?" I was worried about the effects of my telepathy on others since the forced Mark of my Romanians.

"No, it didn't hurt anyone," Marco said, "but who were they?"

"All of the people who have died for me in my thirty three years, or because of me. That list grew quite a bit Monday."

He nodded, "I thought as much. You know we are here because this is what soldiers do, don't you? This isn't your fault, they invaded our world and we'll fight them tooth and nail. This isn't because they want you alone. If you only listen to one thing I'm saying, listen to this."

"If not for you we would have lost the battle today. There would be a radioactive wasteland where we now sit and none of us would have survived. There isn't another person who could have done what you did out there. The fact is, we all expected to have to call down the bombs long before this even started."

"After the horde spewed out of that gate, we almost knew it would take nukes to stop them. We've never faced anything like those bastards. What they sent to the cities were just the 'attack dogs' you were describing to us. We thought we had a handle on the situation until Monday."

"But your Soulguards are amazing," Polo interjected, "just straight up amazing. It's hard to believe that a normal human can become what you have made of them."

"None of which was anywhere near what you did, personally," Marco said. "It was unbelievable, and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it at all."

"There's film of it from fairly close up. Mostly from behind you. That camera man who was out there shot your run from the moment you left that shield to the Code Alpha. They tried to get him to leave the shield and go to safety, but he and the reporter refused to budge, and the engineers said the safest place they could think of was that shield they were inside of so the whole group stayed till the battle was over."

That sounded like Alstead, all right. She would walk through Hell if she could get the story she sought. I wasn't too happy with the fact that they had been focused on me. They had to have seen things I would prefer not to have ever been seen by another human being. Things I don't even like to think of myself.

"But back to the work at hand," Polo said. "The forts are not usable anymore. We need facilities farther out. No one realized how fast our lines would be pushed back. And we need more planes."

"I can get those," Marco said, "so if we can get enough Mages to work the guns we can get as many planes as we want."

I nodded, "And we need to work as fast as we can. I don't know if they'll come back here, but we need to be prepared for it. My fear is that they will just start opening Gates all over the world. So far, they focused on the US because, if I'm guessing right, I am here. If they decide to just pour their numbers through in other countries, we're looking at a long bitter fight."

"Casualties will be catastrophic," Polo agreed. "We don't have any ideas where these other Gates are?"

"There was the one in Romania, but we buried it under about a hundred thousand tons of mountain. We don't know where the others are. I've spoken with my Shak'Tar, and they don't know where the others are either. They all came here through the Romanian Gate."

"The future looks bleak," Marco said, "but we'll face it as it comes. It's what we do, we Humans, we survive."

Chapter 49.

I was looking for my mom. She hadn't been with Kharl when I went to the barracks. He was pretty shaken. She was blaming herself for the loss of eighty-seven Trainees. She had been very distant for the last two days, and I wanted to talk with her.

I left the barracks and opened my inner eye, my Sight. I found her Soul and headed toward the remains of the battlefield. I know how she feels, but her actions saved more lives than I could count.

I passed several Soulguards as I headed for her.

"That's him," I heard whispered.

"You see what he did?"

"Ripped that things Soul apart."

"Saved our asses, he did."

They were unaware of the sensitivity of a Mages hearing. I hated that what some remember is what I did to the Farrara'Ti's Soul. I hated to even think I could torture another living being as I had done the Kresh. It's one thing to kill them. It's another thing altogether to torture one as I had done. The Soul is a living thing until it is absorbed back into the Source and it had been aware of all that I had done to it.

I got far enough that I didn't hear the whispers. They were always present now, every time I was near anyone. Both Soulguard and National Guard, all of them had seen what I had done and they felt the hammer blows of my telepathy as I recited the list of my dead. They all know I am not just human now. Some don't understand what it is that they know exactly. But some understand much more than I would like anyone to know about me.

I found her out at a spot that I had visited several times already. The spot where Rictor had died. It still doesn't completely compute in my mind, I can't quite believe that my friend is gone. I've come out here and sat, just as she was sitting and tried to figure out what the Hell is going on in my head.

I walked up beside her and sat down.

"Why did he do it?" she whispered.

"It's what we do, Mom," I answered. "We do whatever it takes to save our brothers and sisters. We do whatever it takes to save our race. You think it would be easier if he hadn't saved you? Not to those of us who love you. I would be mourning the loss of my mother instead of my friend."

"But I brought them out into this," she said softly. "It was my place to die for them. Not them for me. They were children."

"They were Soulguard," I said, "And they were soldiers, and they saved more lives than they even knew when they joined the fight. The next line of defense was the National Guardsmen. How many of them would have died without the Trainees actions?"

"Hundreds, maybe thousands," I said, "but your actions are the same as I would have done in your place. And I would feel the same as you feel. But the action was still the right one. Your forces held the lines. Without them we would have failed. They learn their dedication from you, Mom. They need you back and teaching them just as before. We need you back and teaching them. Don't give up on me, now."

She took a deep breath, "I won't give up, Son. It just makes me feel so damn old. I've lost friends before but this is so different than anything the Soulguard has faced in my lifetime. No one except maybe Dietrich has seen anything like this."

"I know," I said, "And I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"Me too," she said and stood up, "Thanks, Son."

She placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. Then she turned and walked back toward the base. I don't know if anything I said helped her. It helped me to take those same words, and apply them to myself. She blamed herself for the loss of eighty-seven trainees. I feel the loss of those Trainees just as well. And the thirteen hundred and twenty three other lives lost in the Second Battle of Kansas.

Out of the six thousand three hundred and thirty Soulguards who participated in the battle, we lost fourteen hundred and ten men and women. They were still running the figures from the Gate. There had been drones high in the air, observing the Gate. The consensus was somewhere around six hundred thousand Kresh came through the gate. It's unknown how many escaped back through the Gate. The maelstrom in the sky had blocked the drones from seeing anything after the Code Alpha.

The casualties had still been too high. We needed more defenses, and we needed more planes. We needed Howitzers, and we needed so many weapons that they couldn't see the lines for the guns. And we needed Mages. We needed so many Mages. That, I could provide. The tests were going quite well with the new Mages, and I intended to start making more immediately.

"Perhaps you're the lucky one, Buddy," I muttered, "You get to stop now. I'm just beginning. I'll see you soon enough, Ric-maybe not today, but soon enough."

The rage was still dangerously close to the surface. I'd spent some time trying to erect the walls back around the rage in my mind, but it wouldn't stay caged. It was right below the surface all the time now and ready to erupt at a moment's notice.

I looked out at the crowd of people looking at me. The number of Soulguards had grown to well over ten thousand for the last rites of the fellow warriors who fell at Second Kansas.

My Company was right out in the front of the crowd. I could see Andrea Prada, standing straight. She had been wounded a few times in the fight, but Mages heal faster even than Guards and she was back on her feet. I saw Lyrica, with Trent and Mattie, ever at her side. I hated that I couldn't spend as much time the two of them as I wanted. There never seemed to be enough time.

Not only were there thousands of people watching, but there were several news crews, including Jennifer Alstead.

"Today we mourn the loss of many of our brothers and sisters. Each and every one of them died while performing the duty of protecting the Human race. This is what we do. This is what we are."

"I am saddened by the loss of so many of our friends and family--family. This is what the Guard is to me. You are the only family I have ever known. Kyra Nightwing and Kharl Jaegher raised me from the day I was born, my mother and father in every way but blood-- Soulguard--family. I look out at you, and I see my brothers and I see my sisters--my family."

"Today we mourn the loss of one thousand four hundred and ten of our brothers and our sisters. It leaves a great hole in my heart when I think about them. But they gave us victory. They bought that victory with blood and they will never be forgotten!"

With that word, the huge structure behind me was unveiled. It was the beginning of a monument that would hold the names of all of our dead. It was the first huge block of a marble wall and on the front of it were the gold plaques of fourteen hundred and ten names.

"Behind us is a great victory, but before us looms a desperate future. More will come and we will stand and fight, just as the Human race has always done. I was asked once if this was Armageddon, the End of Days. I was asked if these Kresh were the armies of Hell come to devour the world."

My rage was touching the surface, and I was seeing through heat waves as my eyes burned with Soulfire.

"I say no they aren't from Hell. They haven't seen Hell. I am going to show it to them! They call me Rash'Tor'Ri, Life Ender. That's not really accurate, alone, I am just a Mage. But as long as you are with me, we are Rash'Tor'Ri! And together, you and I, we are going to show each and every one of those bastards who set foot on our world what Hell truly is!"

I'm not sure if I was projecting the emotions I was feeling but the Soulguards facing me stood and raised fists in the air. The ground seemed to shake with the roar that erupted from the throats of ten thousand Soulguards. I joined them with my own yell of fury.

The rage was barely under the surface after my touching of the Kresh Source, but I managed to sit down and observe the rest of the Memorial service.

The Guard had never been much on medals and awards. We were born in secrecy and our triumphs were largely unsung. But all of that changed when they invaded our world in numbers that couldn't be hidden. The Council had begun the crafting of medals for those who go above and beyond the call of duty, much like the Congressional Medal of Honor. It would be awarded to those who had done just that. Trainees had no business in the battlefield, but those very Trainees were the reason the lines held. They had truly gone beyond the call of duty and each of them was awarded the Medal of Valor.

Eighty seven Trainees received this medal posthumously, including Cordell Fortraine, Julius Samson, and Malcolm Kenner. These three were gang members in New York a few months before Second Kansas, and they showed me what the human race is capable of. Thugs and criminals became heroes when our world needed them.

They had tried to award me with the same medal. I refused. I just did my duty, nothing more. It was argued that First Kansas was definitely beyond the call of duty. My response was simple.

"If we start awarding past actions, the whole Soulguard will need the damn things. Every damn one of them has done no less at some point in their past."

I got my way on the subject.

But we did receive dress uniforms with campaign ribbons. The Military has inspired us to show what we are proudly. Before, we used secrecy. Now, we wear our Soulguard uniforms proudly and wear our Campaign Patches with pride as well.

My uniform held ,both, First Kansas and Second Kansas, The Battles of New York and Chicago. I had a suspicion there would be more of those campaigns in the future, many more.

Chapter 50.

I saw Pelin moving down the hallway with another Shak'Tar I didn't recognize. I was watching with my Sight. I sat in my office looking at the massive list of the fallen. I need to remember them. I need to remember them all.

"Come in, Pelin," I said as she neared the door.

Unlike most, the Shak'Tar aren't made nervous by my extraordinary skills, both from my Soullord heritage and my Kresh blood. She entered the office with a man who I didn't remember, but the moment he saw me I knew him.

He carried the Mark I had put on Gorvelis and the others, but it was just a bit different. He was one that the Mark had spread to. His name was Fero Jintera, and he was from another world than Earth or Kresh. He was from a world called Cerres, a world under the yoke of the Kresh. I knew all of this the second I saw him, and I could tell by his aura and by the feelings I was feeling from the man that he was in utter awe of the only human to ever Mark another being.

"Master," he said as he knelt, "I have news for you from Gorvelis."

I shouldn't have been able to understand him. His language was totally alien to me but my link seemed to translate as he spoke.

I nodded, "There's no need to kneel to me, Fero."

He looked confused and he stayed on his knee, "You are the Master."

I sighed, "Ok, what's Touran been up to?"

"He approached us on Cerres and the Mark spread across us. Immediately we began to pull people out of the villages and hiding them."

"Just remember," I said, "You only have to remember, Fero."

He was silent for a second and nodded. I concentrated and watched/lived a memory.

I rode the memories of Fero as he watched the approach of Gorvelis and a large group of the Clan. In moments the Mark slammed through Fero and the others around him. He was on his knees holding his head as the Mark ripped apart the Mark of his former Master. This new Mark was utterly amazing. Never had he felt anything of the sort from any of the Kresh.

His mouth fell open as he realized that the Mark was from a Human! And what a Human it was. In the moment of the Mark, Fero knew this man. He knew him to his core and as he learned his new Master, tears streamed down his face. For so long he had hated his Masters, but this one didn't instill hatred. It was truly amazing.

He turned to his left to see Sureta Golin down on her knees as well. Her face was pale and her eyes wide in amazement.

"He is Human?!" she exclaimed.

"Very much so," answered Gorvelis.

I followed memories through some time and watched as the Night Clan, which is what Shak'Tar translates as, began hiding people from the Kresh. This went on for months as Gorvelis and his men worked their way through Cerres spreading my Mark.

It all culminated in one final memory. Gorvelis stood in front of nearly five hundred Shak'Tar. He was facing a giant of a Kresh. It had to be a Farrara'Ti. They were surrounded by thousands and thousands of Kresh.

"I could rip you apart and eat you," rumbled the voice of the Farrara'Ti, "But I will not. I will destroy this new Master's Mark and take you as my own, slave."

Touran Gorvelis smiled.

"You are welcome to try," he said, "but you will fail. Better to kill us all than face my Master. Better to run to the farthest corner of Cerres than make war on the Clans of Rash'Tor'Ri!"