Storm' Fury: The Shenkar War (20 page)

              “Two dead, four missing although teams are currently searching. I don’t have any numbers as of yet for the losses the
Paladins
incurred.”

              “How is Leah? Is she okay?”

              As soon as the words had left her mouth Liam could see she regretted asking. The relationship between Liam and Leah wasn’t public knowledge. Luckily, Liam had prepared for such an event.

              “I know you two have become good friends so rest your mind knowing she is more than okay. In fact she is credited with five kills which she taking great pleasure in lofting that over Miss Birchette who is only credited with three kills. You can find her at
Olympus
base with the other trainees.”

              Taking Liam’s cue Crystal quickly recovered.

              “Ah thank you, I have become rather found of the young lady.”

              Then spotting Liam’s smirk she realized what she had said.

              “Before you say anything I know we are roughly around the same age physically but technically I am thirty three years old so yes I can still refer to her as a young lady.”

              Both Liam and Evan didn’t say anything; instead they just smiled and nodded their heads. Crystal stood before them; hand on one hip as she pointed to the two of them.

              “You two better not be making fun of my age, I would hate to have to do something you will regret.”

              Evan smiled and enfolded Crystal in his arms.

              “We would never do any such thing; you are much too evil to run the risk of your wrath.”

              “Just you remember that, mister.”

              Liam smiled at the sight of his friend’s affection for each other. Remembering how almost two years ago both he and Evan suffered from severe depression. Pretty much everyone throughout the world had suffered a loss to the avian flu. Government’s had become suspicious of other countries, fearing a neighbor might use this opportunity to invade. Travel between countries had become non-existent; most countries had closed their borders to prevent full spread of the avian flu. Then the Meshtrell came and everything changed. How in so little a time a world could reform to become something greater. There were still minor problems between some religious zealots but for the most part everyone looked to the future and that future was beyond the stars. It did not matter that to attain such a feat they would need to defeat another race hell bent on war; it was simply the fascination of space travel and the unknown. Liam had to admit to himself that he too found a certain thrill in seeing what is out there but not if they stood around all day.

              “Sorry to break up your little love fest but I need to borrow Evan.”

              Without breaking their embrace, Crystal looked over at Liam and smiled.

              “Oh I suppose you can borrow him for awhile.”

              “Gee, thanks, ma’am,” Liam said sarcastically.

              “Oh, there isn’t any need for such formalities, you are our commanding officer after all,” she said with a smile.

              Liam rolled his eyes and turned to make his way over to his awaiting fighter. He was nearly to his fighter when Evan caught up to him.

              “Well that went a whole lot better than I expected. I thought I was a dead man for sure; guess she couldn’t resist my charms.”

              Liam rolled his eyes again at his friends comment.

              “Yeah, you are just so irresistible.”

              Evan laughed.

              “So where are we off too?
              “
Olympus
, I figured I should probably go check out those “recruits” the admiral had mentioned.”

              “Yeah, nothing like getting right to the middle of the headache I anticipate this to be.”

                Liam laughed and turned to climb the ladder to the cockpit of his fighter.

              “Have faith, maybe it won’t be so bad, maybe the admiral was exaggerating.”

              “Uh-huh, we don’t have that kind of luck,” muttered Evan as he turned to make his way over to his fighter.

December 26
th
, 2013 4:13pm

                                                            
Olympus

                            
    Texas,
EDF training facility, mess hall

              Anthony Caprenni isn’t what anyone would call a “nice guy”. If anything he would be defined as a troublemaker or bully. Growing up in Detroit, he joined a gang at a young age, he had his hands in most things illegal. From extortion to drug dealing, he was a part of it all. Gang life had been great until it all came crashing down. Due to their high nature of violence and drugs they were targeted by a Federal task force assembled specifically to deal with the rising violence and drug dealing from gangs. In the end the results were fifteen members dead and thirty received various prison terms. Fortunately, Anthony had ears everywhere and he had received some advanced warning of the pending raid. Knowing no way around it, he cut a deal with the Feds. He was given a choice: join the Marines or serve a lesser prison term. Knowing that word of his deal was bound to get out he knew he wouldn’t survive even a short prison term so he joined the Marines.

              Marine life hadn’t been so bad; he was used to being ordered around anyway from his gang life time. Truth be told he actually enjoyed it for the most part except for when he had been stationed in Iraq. Luckily, he hadn’t seen much action as he was part of engineering/construction crews.               Mainly his job entailed the repairing and construction of various military buildings and equipment. At least that had been his job until the avian flu outbreak. All hell broke loose all over the world and all US military had been recalled home to secure the borders. He had been at the
Battle of Brownsville
, in which thousands of Mexican immigrants attempted to cross into the United States. By all accounts it was far from any real battle, it had been more like a slaughter. Unarmed men, women and children had simply run at the hastily erected border wall that separated Mexico from the United States. Loudspeakers shouted warnings in several languages but it did not matter. Finally the order had been given and all military present then opened fire. Anthony witnessed an entire Mexican family obliterated by the shell from a M1-Abrams tank. Within twenty minutes, thousands lay dead or dying….a truly horrific scene. But this had been the standing order, no immigrants were to be allowed entrance. All of this had been done to stem the spread of the avian flu virus. Anthony later heard that the commander that had given the order to open fire had committed suicide. This had been Anthony’s one and only battle, no more tried to cross the border…at least not in Brownsville. He had heard that there had been several other incidents in other areas of the country and some were told to be far worse.

              It was during this time Anthony had found his gold mine. With thousands dead from the virus there had been homes and stores left vacant. So with a few trusted men and women he “patrolled the area for looters” and together they pulled in tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise as well as money. Jewelry was one of the best finds as it tended to be worth a lot yet easy to hide. He figured who was going to miss their diamond engagement ring when they were dead. Things were going quite well for him; days were spent drinking beers with his “crew” or “patrolling” with none the wiser. Unfortunately, all things had to come to an end and his didn’t end well.

              A private who learned of the looting didn’t take kindly to such matters. So during one particular patrolling session, he and his crew had been looting a house when military police arrived and arrested them all. Next thing Anthony knew was he was locked up and looking at twenty years in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Then once again fate intervened in the form of the Shenkar.

              A need to form a new branch of military arose. Plans were made to recruit men and woman from around the world for the new
Praetorian Guard
. In regards to Anthony’s “recruitment” he was given the choice of join or serve his sentence. So once again here he was, training, this time to fight aliens. While the thought of dying horribly to a Shenkar plasma sword wasn’t to appealing he did see a silver lining. He would one of the first men and woman to land upon an alien planet. The chance to recover alien artifacts would be too good a chance to pass up as they would hold a considerably high monetary value.

              Everything looked to be okay except for one minor snag in his plan. He recently learned that the private that had informed on him was also part of the
Praetorian Guard
. It had taken some time but he had managed to bribe an officer to obtain the identity of the soldier that had turned him in.

              “Hey, are you in there?”

              Anthony looked up at the familiar voice addressing him. Across from his sat one of his squad mates, Dave Reuban. The short muscular black man was a former Marine that had also served with him at the
Battle of Brownsville
. Fortunately for Dave, he had contracted a severe stomach virus so he had been in the infirmary during the time they had been arrested. Anthony may have been a criminal but he was loyal to his men, unlike the time when he was in a gang and thus never gave up Dave. Upon hearing Anthony was “recruited” into the guard, Dave immediately joined and bribed his way to be station with his friend.

              “Huh?”

              “I have been talking to you for five minutes and you haven’t commented once.”

              “Sorry, I was just thinking about how we both ended up here.”

              Dave shrugged as he spoke.

              “It’s in the past, nothing we can do about it now. When you going to find out who that informant is anyways?”

              “Today, in fact I am waiting on him now.”

              Dave looked around the mess hall as if looking for someone that looked suspicious.

              “I wonder if it is someone we know? What do you plan to do once you find out?”

              Anthony had thought long on this very subject and had come to one conclusion. Originally he had planned to kill the man but now he figured a good beat down would be fitting. Killing the man would only get himself shot or best case scenario back in prison. Either way he would be out of the guard and he would lose out on his opportunity to obtain alien artifacts. So he decided him and his boys would give this snitch a good old fashion beating. Maybe they could break a few ribs on him, put a fear in him that would make him think twice about snitching on fellow soldiers again.

              “We are going to give him an ass kicking he will never forget.”

              “Hey, looks like your man might have some information,” Dave said as he nodded towards one of the mess hall entrances behind him.

              Anthony looked over his shoulder to see the shifty officer he had bribed heading towards them. The man didn’t sit down upon reaching Anthony’s table, instead he looked around the mess hall. As if finally finding what he was looking for he sat down next to Anthony and leaned forward to whisper.

              “It took some time but I found the identity of the man you were inquiring about. His name is James Robinson…that man sitting over there next to the vending machines,” explained the officer, nodding his head in a direction over Dave’s shoulder.

              Anthony looked to where the officer had indicated and found the subject to his curiosity. A very VERY large bald man sat by himself eating from a plate of food that could easily feed a family of three.

              “Are you freakin kidding me?!?” Dave said disbelievingly.

              “Sorry, but that is the man you had asked about.”

              “How the hell are we supposed to beat down someone the size of a semi truck?” asked Dave.

              “That’s a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?”

              “Did you not see the size of his arms? My legs are smaller than his arms.”

              Anthony looked again at the man across the mess hall and he had to admit they could have some problems with this man.

              “Gather the guys; we are going to deal with him now.”

              “Aren’t you worried about the MPs showing up?” Dave asked.