The Fight For The Pass

“It’s not fair! Nobody told me I was supposed to wear socks with my new combat boots!”
- Montana Hernandez, age 15, 2nd year student, New Hope Academy, New Hope Colony, USA

“At least she was wearing a bra with her girlie panties unlike some of them! We’re supposed to train them to fight demon wolves. Please, just kill me now!”
- Sergeant Miruku Nakamura, comm tech, cargo transport lander Cairo, New Hope Colony, Tau Ceti 4, Japan

It’s time to begin training the students and teachers from the New Hope Academy who survived the crash of the transport Cairo to fight like Colonial Rangers. They have just two months to get ready before the lake and river in their mountain valley freezes and the deadly predators of New Hope come down to eat them and the aliens may come before that.
Not all are prepared for what they are in for.
Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford has designed a special ‘hell week’ for the trainees who will begin their first day of training while the valley has to be checked to see if it’s safe to go outside.
The first casualty lists come in.
The Rift commander reviews the progress of his campaign to take back the planet with his senior officers and what they have learned from the battles for Southport and New Cancun.
The Rift and their primitive but powerful mercenary troops move on the passage through the mountains east of Winter Haven known as McKinley Pass while Major Claudia Stairs organizes the defense.
On the inbound Asia, Rick Cassidy’s daughter Ciara is working with some of the female officers among the Rangers onboard to improve their marksmanship in the Virtual Reality trainer where she now holds the highest scores on the ship.
An attack on the North America starts playing havoc with the ship’s systems.