From
Intersexed
: Major Tenerife was tasked with gathering more 'humans' to conduct trials on and to ask for volunteers amongst the ship's population to test if Genet's changes were a one-off fluke for her alone or if her improvements would be common amongst all Providians. Lieutenant Genet was promoted to Captain and ordered to work with Tank Zaffra to build a platoon of successfully altered 'super soldiers' from the human and Providian recruits.
Lieutenant Margraine was brought before a military tribunal and charged with 'behaviour unbecoming an officer'. She was stripped of her military rank and limited to her lab and other areas civilian Providians could access. In another place or time, she may have been jailed or even executed for her crimes, but being a Breeder guaranteed her survival. She, of course, blamed Tank and Genet for her downfall, refusing to acknowledge that her actions alone had exposed Lieutenant Genet and, indeed, the whole ship to the effects of Major Tenerife's mutagen chemicals. The side effects of which were still unknown. Her relationship with Genet didn't survive the scandal.
Providian starship orbiting Earth.
Newly commissioned officer, Lieutenant Tank Zaffra, walked beside his commanding officer, Captain Genet, toward General Zaha's briefing room. Tank smiled as he listened to the calm, relaxed, in-control officer, remembering how arrogant and wilful she had been when they first met. When first encountering the humans, Tank Zaffra and Julie Angelina, Genet believed herself superior not only to them but to everyone else. During her early encounters with Tank and Julie, Genet had been smugly arrogant and condescending, with her temper barely controlled—six months of training with Tank had knocked that out of her.
Genet came to realise that Tank was subordinate to her in rank only. He was more intelligent, faster, stronger, and better at unarmed combat than she, and although Genet was a better marksman, Tank was swiftly closing even that gap.
General Zaha had sent Tank through an accelerated officer training regime, and although many of the officer corps protested and complained about having a 'devolved human Providian' amongst them, Tank almost immediately quelled any objections when he beat those 'superior Providians' at every discipline.
Tank excelled at the war games they'd practised. On the first exercise that Tank and his teammates attempted, infiltrating an enemy camp undetected and placing explosives to destroy it, Tank's teammates refused to follow his suggestions. So, slipping away from them, Tank completed the task as they still lay outside the 'enemy camp', arguing about how to proceed. Running past their position, Tank called, "Time to beat feet, boys. This area is about to get hot!"
Of course, his teammates refused to acknowledge him, and when the enemy's fuel dump 'exploded' (firecrackers went off), they were found by the enemy soldiers sweeping from the camp looking for the infiltrators who had 'blown up' their fuel supplies. From that first experience, and after the senior officers had roundly ridiculed Tank's squad mates, Tank became the squad's unofficial leader.
Upon completing this first stage of training, each officer was assigned to a squad of eleven soldiers, including a sergeant. Then, over the ensuing six months, Tank turned unwilling, disbelieving squad mates into a cohesive, viable expeditionary force. At the end of officer training, Tank's team remained undefeated. Whether attacking or defending a base, Tank's squad emerged victorious. However, despite pressure from General Zaha and others from the military's upper echelon, Tank remained steadfast in his belief in and support of Genet's leadership and refused to be promoted above her.
His and Genet's earlier treatments with the mutagen gas in the regeneration chambers gave them insights that helped the other volunteers cope with the changes to their bodies. Fraternisation between squad mates was frowned on, but Tank and Genet knew that a massively increased libido was a side effect of the gas and turned a blind eye to the after-lights-out activities the other soldiers indulged in.
Tenerife's mutagen chemicals were almost uniformly effective in transforming the Providian volunteers' bodies and physiology. Consistent improvements of twenty per cent or more in reflexes, speed, and strength were commonly achieved. However, about one in one hundred volunteers suffered a severe allergic reaction. Those poor souls' bodies experienced a hyper-reaction to the drugs that caused them to mutate disproportionally. The volunteers who sustained this overreaction were swiftly executed before they turned into monsters or, worse, infected others with their mutation. The failures were not hidden or denied at Tank's and Tenerife's insistence.
Despite this, there was no shortage of volunteers, especially from within the military. Tank's summary dismissal of the Providian Army's four best fighters had been recorded and broadcast on the military channel, and it seemed that virtually all military personnel wanted a chance to join Tank as a 'super soldier'. Plus, many women joined the volunteers when Genet's enhancements were demonstrated by her easily accounting for the five next-best fighters in a staged exhibition.
Of course, it has to be remembered that Providians can present as male or female depending on their current self-image, so it would be more accurate to say, 'many Providians who present as what humans would call women joined the volunteers'.
Stepping into General Zaha's briefing room, Tank and Genet came to attention and saluted. "At ease," Zaha said. "Major Tenerife says it's time to test the genetic improvements against a real enemy. What say you, Captain?"
"I believe the first and third squads are ready to face an enemy, General," Genet replied. "Second and fourth need another round of Lieutenant Zaffra's men handing them their combined asses to drill their final lessons into place."
"We've discovered an Aridian base in Northern Ireland," the general stated. "Colonel Tangran has the briefing details. Plan an attack against this base and bring it to me. Dismissed."
Genet saluted and turned to leave. However, Tank stood his ground.
"Problem, lieutenant?" Zaha snapped.
"You don't send a team of rookies against The All Blacks first up, General," Tank answered.
The All Blacks are the winningest team in any sport on planet Earth. With a win/loss ratio of eight and two, the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Union team wins four times as many games as they lose. Considering that The All Blacks are a national team, they face the best of the best from every other country they play against and win an unprecedented eight out of every ten games. To compare, The Chicago Bulls basketball team had a seven and four win/loss ratio during Michael Jordan's era.
"Meaning?" General Zaha growled.
"Meaning, the Aridians have beaten you and forced you to flee for 60,000 years. Let's go up against an opposition we can easily defeat while we work the kinks out of our strategy and not be pantsed by any enemy that has defeated us consistently."
General Zaha didn't fully understand Tank's references to things like 'pantsed', but he understood the sentiment. "What do you suggest?" He asked.
"Planet Earth is beset with terrorists," Tank explained. "They're a scourge that needs eradicating, but no government has the balls to try to eliminate the infestation lest they inadvertently trigger an end-of-world war. I suggest we raid a couple of terrorist camps and then announce we're a radical new independent anti-terrorist organisation. That means the various world governments can unanimously decry us and truthfully deny they're involved."
"Explain why," Zaha demanded.
