Exosquad: Act 2, Part 1


	Part 1: Integration In the city of Chicago walked a man who stared at what was around him in utter amazement. Having never been in a city like Chicago before, he walked the streets for hours looking at the most common of things with involved interest. He had no money and needed food. He looked at a banner posted above what looked like a community shelter. It read, "Register for Active Duty with the Exofleet Here." If there was one thing he was good at, it was fighting, and this world needed all the help it could get with a war on. Plus, he needed to make a deposit of sorts. He wandered inside the building and approached the front desk. The attendant sized him up. He was six feet tall with brown eyes and brown hair. He wore what looked like an old flight suit consisting of knee high boots, blue pants, and a black shirt with a blue coat. He also wore a tan sidearm belt with the weapon in its case and some odd looking device hanging from his left hip. His hands were covered with brown gloves, which matched the boots, and had small armor plates built into the forearm sections. The gloves stopped just before the elbow. In his hand was a small suit case. "Can I help you?" asked the attendant. "I would like to register for duty," he said. "Good for you, right this way, sir." the attendant motioned him to follow. As the attendant lead him down the corridor he spoke, "We'll need you to fill out a few things first, but once that's done we can ship you out right away for training." "So soon?" asked the man surprised. "Well yes, in case you forgot, there is a war on." the attendant answered. "Of course" said the man. They continued through a door into a room of booths. The attendant lead him to a vacant one and gave him instructions, "Just answer the computer's questions and your file will be completed before you leave for training. Any problems, don't hesitate to ask for help, Mister..." the attendant prompted. "Sterling" the man answered. "Good luck with it" he said and walked back to the front desk leaving Sterling alone. He sat down in the booth and closed the curtain behind him. He opened his case and removed a data storage unit. He placed it on the computer console and set to work. "History, huh? I'll have to invent one before I take care of other business." he said. When he had finished, he picked up his data storage unit and melted it to slag. Now unidentifiable, he dumped it in the trash as he exited the booth. The attendant was waiting for him as he exited the room. "I have some questions concerning your history, Sterling." he said. "What questions?" asked Sterling. "Well it says here that you were born in deep space aboard an alien slave ship and that during the battle last month in which the planet Chaos was returned to this solar system you escaped and came here." he eyed him skeptically. "Yes, that's what happened. You don't believe me?" Sterling asked. The attendant was silent for a moment and spoke, "Yes, of course, I was...uh...just verifying the information, that's all." This guy is nuts, thought the attendant, Its not my job to play the shrink, let the psych-techs figure his problem out. He's their problem now. The attendant put Sterling's file into an envelope and handed it to him. "You're all set to go, the next transport leaves in five minutes. It departs from the landing pad at the rear of the building. That's down the hall, 2 lefts and right, OK?" Sterling nodded his head and left. The attendant watched him go and shook his head, Maybe the military can get his head screwed on straight. Sterling knew his cover story wouldn't last, actually he counted on it. What with the eventual discovery of his data deposit in the Exofleet mainframe (which he found to be a lot easier to pull off than he thought) and his fabricated history, someone would eventually put two and two together. He just wanted to get some time for himself, to experience the 'home worlds' like everyone else does, to be normal...just for a little while. He boarded the transport to be greeted by a rather large screaming man. "Welcome to the Exofleet son! As of this moment you are in my world and you will not leave until you are a lean, mean, fighting machine! Is that understood!?" Sterling wanted to laugh, it reminded him a little of his training for the guard. Instead he noted his rank insignia and answered with a brisk, "Yes sir, drill Sgt.!" The man eyed him for a few moments, in the meantime Sterling noted his features. He had black hair with an equally black goatee, his eyes were an unrelenting steel gray. The man's expression softened a little with surprise, "Well how about that? You're the first recruit that managed to recognize a working man when he sees one. I'm Sgt. Murry Coleman, take a seat grunt." He motioned to the seats lining an otherwise empty cargo bay. Sterling let lose another "Yes sir, drill Sgt." and took a seat with the other recruits. Sgt. Coleman then proceeded to 'greet' the next recruit. * * * Nara Burns brought her Reconnaissance E-frame in for a landing outside the city of Chicago. She stepped out of her E-frame and noticed the somewhat run-down condition of the base she was at. It still retained its war-like look, built for function not appearance. Some flight techs came out to greet her. She asked them to give her frame a once over and charge it up because she intended to leave that night. With that squared away she made her way to the base's motor pool and signed out a hover car. As she drove into the city, she had a chance to reflect on the last month's events. She had dealt with the Ketzer situation. After a week in his so-called care, Nara had allowed her alteration to complete itself. She felt fine and looked as human as anyone else. As a matter of fact, Nara felt better than she had in her whole life. So she decided to take some time off and get used to her new condition. So she spent a little time on Earth. It was then that Nara found out that while she was off in the jungle with Ketzer, the Exofleet had driven the Aliens from Mars, and Chaos was back in its orbit. In order to catch up on other current events, and see an old friend, Nara had come to Chicago. She still wasn't sure this was a good idea. The last time she had seen him, well, they didn't exactly part under the best of circumstances. * * * This is ridiculous, I've been waiting for over an hour. thought Nara. She put down the magazine she had been thumbing through and walked across the waiting room of the office building she was in. The walls were an odd shade of red and the furniture was an interesting shade of blue. The Neosapien secretary looked up at her as she approached. Nara spoke calmly, trying not to be rude. "Look, I'm due back at the fleet in another few hours, tell your boss that I'll have to take a rain check on that appointment." she said. "Actually Miss Burns, he is ready to see you now." the secretary answered, "go into the last door on the left." "Um, thanks." said Nara dismissively. Suddenly her pulse quickened and her hands trembled, she was nervous. Get a hold on yourself, he's not going to try to kill you or anything. Nara thought. She steadied herself and walked down the hall. Along the way she ran into a rather neatly dressed man. "Your a long way from Venus, Burns." he said. "I almost didn't recognize you without the face paint, Napier. Your looking respectable these days." Nara replied. Sean gave her a half cocked smile, "Yeah, the Homeworld Senate put me in charge of overseeing our 'Neosapien recruitment program'" he said in mocking tone. "You don't think its worth the effort?" Nara asked. "For Neos like Thrax or Shiva, yeah, I think its worth it. But when you get Neos like Typhonus and Draconis trying to get out, then it seems like its waste of time and resources. But the Homeworld Senate seems to think that we should let them try anyway." he said. "You're not going let those guys lose, are you?" asked Nara half seriously. Sean took on a hurt look, "You wound me Burns, you think I'd let those maniacs out after all the trouble we went through to put them there in the first place?" "Well, no, but I just wanted to make sure." said Nara. "Uh-huh. Well, duty calls, and he's waiting for you, so..." Napier began to leave in hurry. "Hope your next meeting works out for you." said Nara. "What meeting, I've gotta use the bathroom!" he said as he walked briskly down the hall to the men's room. Nara smiled. Since when does he have a sense of humor? She walked up to the last door on the left and knocked on it. A muffled voice told her to come in. "Hello Marsala." she said. He sat behind a desk piled high with various papers, on his left was his computer terminal and on his right was a plush couch. He got up from behind the desk when she entered. Nara noticed the rather plain clothing he wore. Purple boots and jacket, with a blue pants and a collared shirt. He shook her hand warmly as he greeted her, "It is good to see you again, NarAAAHHH!" Marsala's normally calm face twisted slightly indicating his pain. Nara, coming to her senses and released her grip on him. He looked at her with a little uncertainty. "You have developed quite a handshake." he said. "Sorry", she said, "Mind if I sit?" she asked gesturing towards the couch. "Certainly, please do." he took a seat next to her on the couch. "So, what brings you to see me." he asked. "I was in the neighborhood. So I just thought I'd make sure you were doing alright and maybe you could fill me in on what happened after Mars." she said. "Of course. You probably heard about the unexpected events that lead to our victory there." he said. "Yes, I have." Nara answered. "Well after the aliens were routed at Mars, they attempted to leave the Solar system only to be cut off by unexpected reinforcements from Chaos at Neptune. The remaining alien ship then went into full retreat back into the system's core. The fleet chased them to just past Saturn, but their vessel's superior speed allowed them to escape. The latest intelligence has the ship in hiding somewhere between Saturn and Mars, most likely in the asteroid belt." Marsala said. "That makes sense, lots of places to hide in that belt." added Nara. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" asked Marsala. "Go ahead" replied Nara. "Are you well?" started Marsala, "After what happened with Ketzer I..." Nara interrupted him, "I've dealt with it, it's no longer a problem." "That's good to hear." remarked Marsala. Nara stood and eyed him in an almost predatory manner, "What is still a problem is that you abandoned me on Venus because you didn't want to deal with my emotional baggage." Marsala sat back, shocked that Nara would say such a thing. He tried to speak, but he couldn't seem to find his voice. He noticed Nara's eyes glowing green. "Your sudden speech impediment? That's my doing. One of Ketzer's little improvements. But let's not get sidetracked, we were going to discuss how I was about to pour my heart out to you on Venus, but you decided to ripe it out and step on it instead. That made me feel bad. But you know what my dad always said? 'Don't get mad get even.'" She grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him off the couch. Nara then slammed him hard into a couple of walls and threw him across the room. Marsala slowly got to his feet. Nara casually walked over to him and delivered a round house to his stomach. The kick sent him flying across the room to land back on the couch again. She rushed over to him and picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Before I really start to hurt you, I have to know one thing." She pulled him close, pressing her lips to his. She pulled back and smiled oddly, "A lousy kisser to boot, I can't believe I had a crush on you." She cocked her arm back ready to deliver the first of many vicious hits. "Nara?" Silence. "Nara, are you alright?" asked Marsala. He was sitting on the couch with her. Nara snapped out of her reverie, "Uh, yeah, of course." she said. "Then what happened?" asked Marsala. "Happened where?" asked Nara. "You said Ketzer's virus was no longer a problem, why?" persisted Marsala. "Oh, better get comfy, that's a long story." 30 minutes passed as Marsala listened. "Well, that explains your rather hearty handshake." commented Marsala. "Will you tell the squad when you get back?" "I have to", replied Nara, "Medical won't let me fly otherwise." "How do you think they will react to your new found abilities?" asked Marsala. "They accepted me before, I see no reason why they wouldn't now." Nara checked the time. "Speaking of the squad, I should go. I'm expected back in a few hours." she said as she stood up. Marsala rose to speak to her. "I understand," said Marsala, "I must confess, when I heard you were coming I had the odd notion that you were going to try to talk me into going back to Able Squad." "No, your place is here Marsala, take care of yourself." Nara leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She smiled and then left his office. Marsala watched her go, his mind filled with thoughts of what might have been, "Travel safely, Nara Burns." * * * Colleen O'Reilly knocked on Captain Avery Butler's door. A muffled response told her to enter. "Lt. O'Reilly reporting as ordered." she said. Butler turned from what he was doing, which was packing his things. "You can be a little less formal, Colleen." he said. "Sorry Avery, I'm used to seeing you as the friendly sort." joked Colleen. "Don't tell anyone, OK?" he said with a smile creeping onto his face. "What's with the suitcase?" she asked. "I'm going back to the academy. Now that you're back, Charlie Five is under your command." he said. "What about the new officer's you commissioned?" Colleen inquired. "Before I leave I'll call meeting and name who gets what position. In the meantime, the new Charlie Five will be returning from a training mission." Avery announced. "Not to sound offensive, Avery, but why not just put the old officers back in place?" Colleen asked. "I thought of that, but the current officers earned their place just like you did. It would be wasteful to just replace them, so I sat down last night and integrated the two rosters. There are some officers from both the old and new Charlie Five." mentioned Avery. "Any chance I can get a peek at the new roster?" asked Colleen. "No." said Butler curtly. Colleen smiled, "Just thought I'd ask." "I informed you of your command out of courtesy, don't push your luck." he said. "No problem Avery, take care of yourself, okay?" she said excusing herself. "Always, Colleen, close the door on your way out." said Avery, returning to his packing. Colleen stepped into the hall and found J.T. waiting for her. She expected that. Once the planet Chaos was returned, he was on the surface looking for her within 24 hours. Ever since then, he followed her around like a lost puppy. She found his behavior to be very sweet, and for the first time in their relationship she truly believed that he loved her. "You following me again?" she said half serious. "I just want to make sure you don't disappear on me again." J.T. said with a smile. "Buy you some diner?" he asked. "Its free in the mess hall." Colleen pointed out. "I was being coy. Are you going to give me the pleasure of your company or not?" J.T. reached out to take her hand. "Well, since you asked nice." answered Colleen as she took hold of his arm. As they walked to the mess they talked. "What did Avery want?" asked J.T. "I'm getting command of Charlie Five again. Avery is going back to the academy." answered Colleen. "Really?" said J.T. with a skeptical tone. "And what about the new Charlie Five?" "He's announcing who keeps what job before he leaves." said Colleen. J.T.'s face took on an odd look, like he wanted to say something but was unsure if he should. "What's a matter J.T.?" she asked. "I was wondering. What was it like, you know, on Chaos?" J.T. asked. "Is that it? You had me worried for a while there. It was different, I'll say that much. I don't know exactly how to explain it. Try to picture a place of pure disorder." started Colleen. "You mean like Bronski's quarters?" joked J.T. Colleen gave him a playful hit in the arm. "No, not like that! It was like that dimension we were in caused Chaos to undergo one disaster after another. First it was meteor showers, then earthquakes, in what seemed like days half the planet was pretty messed up. If we stayed any longer then all our ships, equipment and personnel would have been destroyed." said Colleen. "I think that was the idea." added J.T. dryly. "Speaking of which, how did you guys get us out of there?" Colleen asked. "We didn't, the aliens seemed to have released you on their own. Winfield told me it looked like it was some type of sabotage. Seeing as how after their weapon returned the planet it destroyed one ship and self destructed inside another, I tend to agree with the Admiral." Explained J.T. "So it looks like we've got a friend on the other side then?" prompted Colleen. J.T. eyed her a moment, "This is just between you and me okay?" "Of course." replied Colleen. "It seems that 2 weeks after the battle at Mars, an alien craft was found on the planet. Intelligence says it was probably an escape pod. A week after that, someone on earth hacked their way into the Exofleet computer banks." J.T. said. "What did they do? Steal files or something?" asked Colleen. "Just the opposite actually, they dropped a huge wade of data files into the banks." "What was on them?" asked Colleen. "They were written in English, and included the name of the alien race, most of their history, and a number of weapons schematics. They even included a complete translation guide to the alien language. Anyway, the exofleet has been hard at work making use of the info. Algernon has been working around the clock on the graph shields." "Graph shields? Why?" asked Colleen. "The files gave plans for a shield type device that can be used to counter that thing from Chaos. Algernon is modifying the graph shields on Venus and Earth while they construct the shields from scratch on Chaos and Mars. Once they're done the home worlds should be safe." concluded J.T. "Once we find that last ship you mean" added Colleen. * * * The shuttle landed smoothly on the deck of the Resolute II. Its hanger doors opened and the new Charlie Five platoon began to disembark. Wright walked along side Poedowski and Mathison. They were discussing the training mission they had just returned from. "I'm telling ya, I could have had that last guy" persisted Poedowski. "Its Ok Dave, everyone makes mistakes. He just slipped past you. Besides, Ellen took care of him." said Mathison. Poedowski continued, "I know Jared, its just I made a mistake and..." "You're beating yourself up over it. Its a training mission, Dave, that's what they're for. Now let it go." interrupted Ellen. "I guess you're right. Hey, who are these guys?" Poedowski had noticed another squad stowing their gear in their hanger. Upon hearing his question a number of the troops turned to face them. Two troops walked up them. One was rather large with black hair and dark eyes. The other was smaller, also with dark eyes, and long hair with a pony tail. The smaller one spoke, "We're the original Charlie Five and we're just taking back our spot on the Resolute." Wright responded, "We weren't told about this." "Well now you know, I'm Pellegrino and that's Longfeather. We'll be your new ranking officer's." The smaller one announced. "On who's authority?" questioned Mathison. "We don't need anyone's authority, we were with this squad longer. You do the math." Pellegrino seemed offended. Longfeather sensed his agitation and tried to cool the situation off, "Now lets not get off on the wrong foot. I'm sure Captain Butler will clear everything up. In the meantime, it looks like we are going to be working together. So lets make an attempt to get along, okay?" Wright immediately knew she would like Longfeather. She stuck out her hand and introduced herself to him, "I'm Lance Corporal Ellen Wright, its nice to meet you Mr. Longfeather." He smiled warmly at her, "Actually its Sgt. Longfeather, but you can call me Ramon." Ellen found herself somewhat captivated by his smile. She stared dumbly at him for a second and snapped out of it, "This is Poedowski and Mathison. Poedowski is our demolition expert and Mathison does our communications." Ramon's smile widened, "Well a few of us are heading toward the bar, you fellows want to come?" Jared eyed Pellegrino skeptically, "Are you sure we'll be welcome?" Longfeather gave Pellegrino an elbow, "Yeah sure, whatever. You can come." he said. All three agreed and after they stowed their gear they made their way to the bar. * * * Kaz Takagi entered the Resolute's lounge and immediately spotted Jared Mathison sipping a drink by the bar. He wandered over to him. "Hey Jared, what's up?" he asked. "The original Charlie Five, that's what." he replied dryly. "Oh, you guys worried about getting the boot?" inquired Kaz. "No, word has it that the squads are going to be combined. The big question is who stays in command." stated Mathison. Kaz placed a box he carried with him on the bar and ordered a soda, "When are you gonna find out?" "Tomorrow" answered Mathison. His face took on a sly smile as he spoke, "I'd be a little worried if I were you." Kaz put his drink down, "What do you mean?" Mathison motioned to the table where Ellen and Longfeather sat. They were having a rather lively conversation. "She seems quite taken with him." he pointed out. "Yeah so I notice, excuse me." Kaz got up form the bar and went over to Ellen's table. He caught the tale end of their conversation. "Three alien ground units, all by yourself?" asked Ramon. "No word of a lie." Ellen shot back. "You are some kind of woman, Wright." he said. "And she's all mine!" added Kaz as he put his arms around her from behind. "Hey you." said Ellen as she planted a kiss on his cheek. Kaz took a seat at the table. Longfeather took the hint and excused himself, "Well, I guess I'll leave the two of you alone." He smiled again and went to the bar. Kaz knew about Longfeather. So he knew that he didn't mean anything by talking to Ellen. He just likes to play big brother to the troops in his squad. Some people, like Mathison, can mistake that for something else. "I brought you something" Kaz announced. "Oh? Is that it?" she asked pointing at the box he had with him. "Yup, open it." he said as he handed it to her. Ellen carefully opened the box to find an ivory chess set inside. "Oh Kaz! Its beautiful. Where'd you get this?" "Better that you don't ask." he replied. "Kaz?" Ellen stared at him with an accusing look on her face. Kaz thought the look was adorable, which is why he answered her that way. "Relax Ellen, I won it off a guy from the Nautilus in a card game, I thought you'd like it." "I do, lets play." she said as she started to set up the pieces. "Any preference as to color?" she asked. "I like black" responded Kaz. "How good are you at this?" she asked. "I'm not one to brag, but I'll try to take it easy on you." EIGHT MOVES LATER... "Um, I guess I'm a bit rusty" noted Kaz. SIX MOVES LATER... "I really haven't played in a while." he protested. THREE MOVES LATER... "Ok, I suck! I admit it! The only experience I've had with this game is reading the instructions. There. Fine. Are you happy?" Kaz threw his arms in the air in disgust and buried his face in his hands. To her credit, Ellen managed not to laugh...until this moment. * * * "Everything is in its place, now this feels like home." Nara looked about her quarters, trying to notice if anything needed unpacking. Nothing did. She hadn't taken much with her, and she wasn't quite tired enough to sleep. She looked at the clock. It read 2:00 am. No one is up at this hour, I should have come back earlier. But I wanted to see Marsala. She signed to herself. There's nothing else to do and no one knows I'm back yet. I might as well try to sleep. She went to the mirror and began to undo her head piece. She removed her uniform and put on her white pajamas. As she walked to her bed her bare foot nudged something, a stuffed rabbit. "Hey floppy." she said as she scooped him up. He was a little worse for wear and torn in a few places, but Nara could never find it in her heart to get rid of him. Her father gave floppy to her when she was 15 and he had stuck with Nara ever since. Now floppy was all she had left of her family. Nara turned off the light and crawled into bed. As she drew the covers over herself, she snuggled up to floppy. Holding him tight in the darkness, she whispered in its ear, "At least I know you'll always be here for me."
	On to Part 2