Jane prowled around her friend, who had gone remarkably still. She kept her gaze aimed at her, sensing the woman's uncertainty and no small amount of worry. Jane might not match Leonne's skills in psychology, but that gap was easily bridged by how long they had known one another. Leonne's body language held little secrets to her.

Combine that with the woman's habit of being ridiculously blind when it came to her own flaws and Jane's tendency to point them out, it was a small wonder that Leonne was unnerved.

'So. Leonne. My dearest friend.'

'Listen Jane, could you hear me out first? I'd rather not be out of Mentuc's sight for too long. He gets rather antsy that way.' A feeble interjection but it confirmed Jane's worst fears.

'Oh, he gets antsy, does he?' she asked, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. She came to a full stop in front of her and held her tongue for one brief moment, enhancing the silence.

'WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!'

Leonne recoiled as if struck. 'What do you mean?'

'Oh please, this isn't the first time you've made a collosal fuck up like this girl! Every time I'm not around you keep getting yourself in shit like this! I'm not sure if you were fucking cursed to end up in these situations or whether it's just a total lack of situational awareness on your part!'

'Now hang on—!'

'No! You listen to me this time! Can't you see that this is an exact repeat of the last situation? Even when we were still students, you went out, got drunk, ended up with guys bigger than stronger than you and you played social experiment with them! Then, when they somehow don't take kindly to being lead on and you find yourself losing control of the situation, you lie to yourself and claim you still have a handle on it! That's how you got yourself kidnapped the first time!'

'Don't you—!'

'And now this marriage! Not only did you utterly fail to contact me in the past three years, but you're also married to a fucked up control freak who doesn't like it when you're not around!'

This time Leonne stood her ground. 'He's mentally different! I'm helping him!'

'Oh, so he's a test case then!'

The sound of the slap that her friend dealt out rang through the house and Jane found herself shakily touching her reddening cheek, looking up at an absolutely livid Leonne from the ground.

'Don't you DARE!' she screamed. 'Don't you dare repeat those words ever again!'

Leonne walked over to the downed Jane and grabbed her by her shirt, roughly pulling her to her feet and not caring about the tears she ripped in the cloth. Fear crawled into Jane's heart as she realised that her friend had grown frighteningly strong in the past three years and that she had crossed a line. The woman was furious. 'You know nothing about him,' she whispered, her voice cold as ice but Leonne's emotional outburst had passed and the woman was now in perfect control of herself, if still very angry. 'I love him. He loves me. I defended you against him. I told him he could trust you! Do you have any idea how much trust means to him?'

'Do you even see what he—'

A violent shove ended her sentence before she began and Jane fell down again.

'You will listen.' It wasn't said as a suggestion, it was said as a fact.

'What happened to you? You never were the violent sort?'

'Shut up and maybe I'll tell you.' The icy glare held her captive for a bit longer before Leonne sighed and her anger left her. 'Stars, I'm sorry Jane. I never intended to hurt you. It's just… Let me explain from the start.'

'I think that might be best.' Jane offered, carefully, wary of setting off her friend again. She climbed back to her feet and took a chair.

Her friend was visibly in turmoil. Her own outburst had shocked her and she was clearly regretting her employ of violence. Jane saw Leonne's lips move as she formed words, a clear sign she was mentally debating with herself. Jane waited. There was really little else she could do. She had never seen such a side of her friend and to say it was worrying her would be a grave understatement.

'Mentuc has a past. A violent past. It has left him emotionally scarred and devoid of most emotions.' Now that she started, the words came out in a flood. 'He struggles with dealing with people he doesn't know, with strangers. He lives here because he is aware of his flaws and doesn't want to inconvenience others. I stay with him at all times because, aside from loving him, I am his cornerstone. He relies on me as he's slowly learning what it is to be human. Let me make clear, Jane, he's not controlling, not demanding and does not ever force me to do what I don't want. He cares for me in a way that supercedes words and I am safe with him. He is simply… Strange.'

Jane kept quiet. She had her own thoughts about it and wasn't about to believe a girl who had a track record with mentally justifying stupid relations.

'How do your parents feel about this?' she eventually ventured, opening another avenue of thought.

Leonne leaned back and snorted. 'Very subtle. You still think I'm out of my mind. No Jane, I've grown a lot and three years with Mentuc have taught me a lot. Including that I know a lot less than I thought I did. But to answer your question; my parents approve of him. They think he is weird, but they also believe he cares for me.' She sighed. 'They do believe he's mentally stunted, especially my mom. He's not. He's the smartest man I've ever met, he simply thinks differently.'

'You're not making a lot of sense.'

'Oh, I know. Trying to make sense of my husband is beyond my set of skills, so attempting it with yours is a lost cause.'

Jane ignored the attempt at humour and opened her mouth, but Leonne cut her off.

'I am planning on asking you to stay, for a while, if you're up for it. It'd be nice to have you around. You're a good friend.' A bright smile broke through on Leonne's face. 'It would be really nice. You'd get the chance to get to know Mentuc as well. He has a lot to offer you given your major.'

That piqued her interests. And made her worried. 'What do you mean with that?'

Leonne stood up and walked over to her friend, a misschievous twinkle in her eyes. 'Prove to him that my trust in you is justified. Prove to him that you can hold a secret. Show him who you are. He is learning what it means to be a normal human. To have emotions, to laugh, cry, sing, what it means to be happy or to be sad. Help me with this. And in return I can promise you that he will, for starters, prove to you that he's not a kidnapper.' Her friend gave her a strange smile. 'All things considered he's surprisingly docile.'

Jane recognised irony when she heard it, but had no clue what it was about. Then she blinked when Leonne leaned down and their faces barely had an inch of space in between them.

'And believe me Jane, if you earn his trust...' She pulled back, her face contorting as she struggled internally. 'Stars... dammit! I want to tell you! But I promised him I wouldn't. It's his story to tell. Please stay Jane! I'll beg you if I have to.'

That was a genuine plea. Jane broke out in a sad smile and threw her arms around her friend, pulling her into a tight hug. 'I'll stay,' she promised, reducing Leonne to tears with those simple words. 'For a while at least. My rent won't go away and my income isn't so stable that I can afford more than the odd week of holiday.'

Leonne broke out of her friend's hug. 'Irrelevant!' she laughed, wiping away the tears running down her face. 'Just tell us how much you need, we'll gladly cover it. When Mentuc married me he shared an account with me.'

Alarm bells flashed to life in Jane's head, on more than one level. 'I don't want you paying me for this! I'm your friend! And I don't think he would approve of you throwing his money away.'

'You'd be quite wrong about the latter! Besides, he has enough' Leonne cheerfully responded. 'And about the former, you'd be assisting me with my work, so to speak. I could draw you up a contract as my assistant if you'd like. Sort all of those problems in one go.'

'But—'

'No buts. I'll ask Mentuc to build a guest house. He'll have it done in a few weeks at most, less if I can convince him to use some modern technology for a change.'

Jane held up her hand, adapting a stern look on her face and stopping her friend's tirade. 'Leonne, you sound utterly, utterly insane right now.'

Normally such an accusation was enough to pull her friend out of whatever mad train of thought she had embarked on, but this time it completely bounced off her. 'Oh, you'd think so, wouldn't you?' Leonne's grin was downright unnerving.

'Just wait until you have to deal with my husband.'

Sheepdog and his men watched the arrival of the 16th Genesis platoon in silence as the freaks went to town on the bugs. Each of the members of Grey Platoon were veterans, accustomed to conflict and trained to the very best of their abilities. They were, by any standards set by any army, the best of the best.

Clearly someone hadn't bothered to inform him that those standards had been completely overwritten when they had created the freaks.

Now that he had a moment to breath with the reinforcements cutting through the remaining bugs with a cold, controlled fury, he recapped on just what had happened in the past few minutes. He mutely ordered his men to check the corpses of the fallen for dog tags, not believing they'd find many. Plasma didn't leave a lot in one piece. The ones slaughtered by the bugs were at least somewhat solid and their tags would probably be retrieved. A small piece of consolation given that his platoon was down to a mere ten men, half of them wounded. No, he amended himself. Still ten men. Because of Testy. He had seen the freaks dodge shots at lightning pace at the beginning, but when third squad had begun to fall back that had changed. Testy, or at least he assumed it was him given that the supersoldiers were neigh indistinguishable from one another in their armour, had started taking hits. He hadn't realised it at first when it happened but now it made sense. The impossible fucker had deliberately taken those shots. He had played human shield and kept them alive until his shields ran out, then still refused to go in cover and kept up the barrage of suppressive fire. Only after he was hit did he go down, heavily wounded, and then something had happened and he had roared. Before anyone could process what was going on he had charged the bugs like a lunatic, running across the ceiling and jumped into the middle of them. Rather than being overwhelmed he had torn them apart for longer than he had thought possible before the freak succumbed to their sheer numbers.

With the new platoon of freaks violently tearing the bugs a new one and pushing them back deep into the ship's bowels, Sheepdog got up and numbly walked to where Testy had fallen. The least he could do for the poor guy was to collect his dog tags and drag him back onto the bridge. He motioned Gutsy to follow him.

'Damn impossible bastard. He kept us alive Gutsy. He did.'

'Sir?'

'He stood in front of the shots. He took those blows. He didn't need to, but he did.'

He could feel Gutsy's disbelief as the soldier looked at the battlefield. It was an impossible thought. You didn't do that. Not against plasma fire. That just went against all common sense. Then the man ran through the battle in his head and slowed down. 'Sir, I think you might be right,' the soldier said, struggling to come to terms with it.

Sheepdog nodded. 'Let's drag him onto the bridge, keep the bugs from eating what's left of him. Least we can do.'

'Aye sir.'

The three remaining freaks were congregating in front of him, carrying Testy's carbine.

'What are you up to?' he asked, but in their typical fashion they completely ignored him.

They seemed to be talking with one another on an enclosed channel when a decision was reached and two of them turned around and sprinted back to the bridge, no doubt to join the battle there. He checked his HUD again and saw that more green dots were converging on the bridge. Red dots rose to meet them but quickly blinked out, along with a few green ones from time to time. He grimaced when he realised that were the men and women from his battalion that were dying. People he knew and cared for. He let the two freaks charge past, ignoring them, instead focusing on the last one who was running over to where Testy's corpse lay. Was he going to give the man his carbine? Reunite weapon and warrior even in the afterlife? Did they hold such traditions?

The supersoldier knelt down next to his fallen comrade, placed the carbine on his own back where mag locks held it in place and grabbed Testy, pulling him up. Moving carefully but definitely not gently, he propped him up against a nearby bulkhead where he was in cover, then handed him his carbine before running off towards the bridge once again.

What the hell is he—

The carbine slowly went up, pointing down the corpse-filled hallway.

'Sir!' shouted Gutsy. Sheepdog's mouth fell open. The guy had been fucking disembowelled! He was supposed to be dead! He saw him flatline!

'Evans! Get your ass over here!' he shouted at the medic.

'Sir I'm dealing with—'

'NOW Evans!'

'Sir!'

Sheepdog and Gutsy ran at the somehow still living Testy while behind them the platoon's aidman picked up his stuff before rushing over as well. 'Testy! Speak to me buddy! You still kicking in that tin can?'

A very broken and ragged voice came in through the coms. 'My lower body has ceased all function,' the freak said, every word loaden with pain. 'I cannot kick.'

'Gods above, you're alive! You're alive! How!? I saw you go down! I saw you flatline!'

Evans roughly pushed his Lt out of the way as his medical computer overrode security protocols to give him access to the wounded soldier in front of him. The aidman was a good soldier, but he was a medic first and the only reason he was officially listed as an aidman was that he had refused to leave his friends in the platoon behind. Sheepdog knew that the man was qualified enough to work as a surgeon and could earn a lot more that way, but loyalty had kept him in the army. Even now the man looked past that his patient was an inhuman freak. To him, the person in front of him was a wounded man who needed his help.

A sharp beep cut through Sheepdog's coms as it informed him that a newcomer had forced his way into them, meaning that Evans was using his medical authority, something that trumped rank in times of emergency since ages past, to gain entry.

'I know nothing of your biology so you'll have to help me through it. The blade pierced your abdomen, right?'

An affirmative click.

Evans nodded, his helmet visibly bobbing up and down. 'Right, I am going to put you down on your back, then open up your armour. I'd try to put you under anaesthetics but I don't know your tolerance. Do you know it?'

Three rapid negative clicks.

'If I don't open your armour I can't sew you back together.'

'Leave it. I will live,' came the raspy voice.

'Sir, you will not,' insisted Evans, authority creeping into his voice. This wasn't the first time he had dealt with a soldier who knew better.

'I will.'

'Sir, Gutsy, help me with this? I'll have to operate without anaesthetics.'

The voice that came out of the speakers was tired, in pain, but crystal clear. 'If you do that, you will kill me. And I will kill you if you try.'

'Testy, listen,' Sheepdog said. 'Your intestines are pressing against your armour and most of your blood is probably out of your body at this point and pooling around your feet.'

Another beep that signalled a document was just transmitted. He opened it up and saw that it was the specs of the Svalinn. Testy clearly did not want to speak any more than he had to. He looked over the mass of information until he spotted a part that was highlighted. It was about the armour being skin tight. He didn't understand that.

'Evans, our friend just send something. Does skin tight armour mean anything to you?'

The aidman pondered that for a moment before nodding. 'Of course. It means his blood can't leave his body. The armour hugs him too tightly for that. Dammit, if that's the case he's right sir. If I had to speculate, this also means that your armour seals itself when a breach occurs, am I right?'

Another affirmative click.

'God dammit. Right, operating is out of the question then. If I cut him open he dies, if I don't I can't operate and he dies slowly. Internal bleeding is still going to get him. Did your armour inject you with anything? I have some stuff that will slow the bleeding, might keep you alive for long enough to find an actual operating room on this ship where I can actually do something. Until then I can only numb the pain and try to slow down the bleeding. Putting you to sleep would help as well.'

Evans' coms beeped as another document was uploaded, showing a list of substances that made the aidman blanch. 'Everything on that list is more potent than what I have at my disposal,' he whispered in shock, before his professionalism kicked back in and he moved on to the other major wound, even if the massive cut through the man's armour and the disembowelment it hid rendered the other one minor in comparison.

'Right, let's focus on the fact that you have a chunk of your side missing.' He gestured Sheepdog to assist him and together they managed to push the wounded supersoldier onto his side. 'Cauterised, as expected. Possible blood poisoning by the materials of your armour if they got into your bloodstream. Otherwise the plasma sealed off the wound pretty thoroughly. Fourth degree burn though, naturally. You could still move, so clearly your constitution is made of sterner stuff than ours. I can't give you anything, so you'll have to deal with the pain for now.' He turned to the Lt. 'Sir, if a sickbay or medical room is found, let me know. If I can operate there with proper equipment I can start dealing with the wounded properly. Otherwise they'll have to wait until we finish the mission. Some of them won't live that long and those that will are going to be off bad.'

Sheepdog nodded and they carefully put Testy back against the bulkhead, only to watch in consternation as his carbine went up again. Evans shook his head. The man should be screaming in pain. Given the wounds he had, shock should have kicked in a long time ago and he should be out cold, not holding up his carbine with barely shaking hands.

Sheepdog rallied what was left of his platoon and moved back to the bridge, broadcasting the Priority Information Request in regards to a medbay. He was at a loss of what to do. Compared to the Genesis soldiers he and his men were damn near useless. Their load outs weren't suited for dealing with the melee bugs and only worked reasonably well on the other ones. The supersoldiers on the other hand were made for this type of combat. Literally so.

'Be advised, both reactors and bridge are under our control. Engines are located and an assault is being prepped. Genesis platoons are free to engage in kill sweeps, 74th Boarder platoons are to reinforce the taken locations. Priority two and three targets are now active. Medical rooms are now added as a priority two target.'

Well at least that gave him something to do. He entered the bridge and froze. Corpses were everywhere! The assault that had crippled his platoon had been but a fraction of the bugs' total number and they had pushed back the Genesis forces onto the bridge itself, but had paid a horrible loss in the process. His mind couldn't process the sheer number of dead bugs. There were hundreds of them, green ichor coating the walls and dripping from bulkheads and consoles. Moving around with bustling efficiency were the Genesis troopers, shoving corpses aside and building makeshift barricades with them, preparing for another counterattack. A number of them sported wounds, chunks of their body missing where plasma had torn through their shields and armour alike. He didn't spot any dead ones though. Evans held pace beside him, coming to the same impossible conclusion.

'Sir,' he whispered, afraid to be overheard. 'I don't think anything short of an artillery shell can kill them,' the aidman confided.

'No,' Sheepdog agreed. 'Thank fuck they're on our side though.'

The battle for the bridge had ended. The battle for the dreadnought was all but decided. The Genesis battalion had proven themselves to be everything Dr. Eisel had made them out to be. For the first time since the beginning of the war the Empire had scored a total, overwhelming victory.

Onoelle spotted the wreckage of the plough before she spotted her sulking husband. He had managed to get through most of the field before he had crashed into another rock. Given the hole in the ground, the amount of earth covering him, the trail between the hole and where he was sitting now, on top of a massive boulder, she understood why the plough was in such a totalled state. Jane, however, could not connect the dots and just stared at it, wondering what the hell had happened.

She knew that he had heard her. That he kept sitting still meant that his mood had taken a turn for the worse. He hated breaking equipment. He had probably also not worked off nearly enough energy to get the rest of his frustrations out of his system either and now she was dragging Jane with him, another thing that pushed his patience to the very limits. Onoelle knew that when he was in such a state, he became volatile. Irrationally angry and tended to break younger trees in half from sheer frustration. That didn't bother her, though. She simply walked up to him and gave him a hug, not minding the grime he was covered in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

'You're cute when you're pouting.'

She felt Jane being uncomfortable with the situation. She still saw Mentuc as a threat. As someone who was violent and had Stockholm-syndrome'd her. Good. She knew that Jane only wanted to protect her, but she had long since graduated from the idiot that she was back when she was studying. Meeting Mentuc had changed her for the better. She still felt bad about hitting Jane though. That had been uncalled for. And had worsened Jane's view on the situation.

She felt his muscles tense underneath her touch as Jane came closer, hesitantly and shushed him. He didn't react to it, which was unusual. He slowly stood up, freeing himself from Onoelle's hug and turned to face Jane, pausing when he saw the red imprint of where she had hit her friend.

'Why did you hit her?' he asked. There was no accusation in his voice, but it was far from peaceful. Well, at least he didn't lash out and started throttling her friend so she called that a win.

'A disagreement. My emotions got the better of me. I feel sorry about hitting her. I did not mean to.'

'What was the disagreement about?'

Silence.

'Ah. It was about me,' he deduced. He took several steps forward, moving far too fast for Onoelle's liking and she rushed over to him, worried. He stopped right in front of Jane, the woman huddling in a defensive posture and fear visible on her face. Onoelle's newfound strength had frightened her and she rightfully assumed Mentuc dwarfed her in that aspect.

'Mentuc...' Onoelle warned.

'I understand. You did not want to say so because you were worried I would misunderstand. That I would get angry. That is reasonable. Jane. I will be honest with you. Onoelle says to trust you and I will respect her wish unless you prove so otherwise. I am not normal. I am not like you. You being here makes me profoundly uncomfortable and I do not like it. She, however, says it is good for me. That it will help me. I trust her and she knows more of this than me. So I will accept your presence here.'

Jane blanched but Onoelle let out a loud sigh of relief. Stars above, he could stress her to no end at times with his insane rationality, but at the same time it also made him easy to understand when he voiced his thoughts.

'Right,' she said, a nervous giggle sneaking into her voice. 'Love, she'll be staying here. You'll have to build a guest room for her. And I've offered to pay her while she's staying here, so she doesn't lose her house in the city.'

Jane, who was still facing Mentuc from up close, paled even further. She threw her friend a look that quite clearly signified 'Are you mad?', but Onoelle just laughed and gestured towards Mentuc, who backed off and moved to pick up the wreckage of the plough, picking up the heavy equipment with ridiculous ease, still too thrown off to realise that he wasn't supposed to do that.

'Do you have any preference in how I build it?' he asked.

'Good!' Onoelle laughed at seeing Jane's confused face. 'Efficiency isn't everything Mentuc.'

'I remember.'

'Anything is fine,' stuttered Jane. Facing her friend was one thing. Facing Mentuc was a very, very big other. The man just radiated something that screamed at her instincts to run, despite Leonne seeming perfectly at ease around him.

'No, it's not!' interjected her friend, grabbing her hands. 'He's great with these things Jane. You can make specific demands. He'll build it.'

She leaned in close and put her mouth next to Jane's ear. 'I warned you,' she smiled. 'I am perfectly sane compared to him.'