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Death for Beauty
Nathan wakes with a shock. He has been having the same nightmare every night for the past three weeks. He has been able to get back into working status and has been handling Melissa's death pretty well. He no longer has the attacks he had been having and he has actually started flirting with the girls again, it seems like he has learned to go on. He often takes his private Panther off of the base and rides it around aimlessly it seems. As he wakes up he notices the electronic message waiting to be seen by him, "Read mail." He says plainly and the mail file opens up, and starts the first and only message. It's a text based message and the computer reads it out for him, "Commander Nathan Mcat, We have been handed information from an anonymous source that leads us to believe that there is an Alliance base on the planet of Neptune, we are initializing a team of seven Spartan Knights to find and destroy the rumored base. Report to the flight deck in two hours, there you shall meet your team." The computer stopped reading and the message left the screen. He slowly gets out of bed, puts his armor on, and eats breakfast. He then leaves the room with his helmet under his arm. He walks to the flight deck taking the swiftest route he knows. As he arrives he sees equipment being loaded into a Havoc. He walks up to the computer and accesses the mission log. So far all it has is information about the stats and equipment the team has. The team chosen was obviously not meant to be a group of experts. As far as Nathan could tell by the stats and history records of the team, he had been stuck with three rookies, a plebe, a hotshot, and one serious man he had heard of before but couldn't place. He decides to study the stats and history until the team shows up. It's fifteen minutes before the designated time and a young girl walks on to the flight deck. It was the plebe, Nathan could tell because he had been studying the team for an hour now. "Good morning Madi." Nathan says in a tone that suggest a previous encounter, the truth is however that this is there first meeting. She looks at him for a second but realizes then how he knew her name. "Good morning Sir." She says in a military fashion. Nathan cringes at the sound of it and says, "Please don't do that, I hate that robot answer that people always give me." She's the same age as Nathan, had long brown hair in a ponytail, and it could be seen that she hadn't seen much action yet. The rest of the team has come in together now, and are five minutes late. I silence them and ask them if they've been informed of our mission. They all responded with a node, and so I ordered them to load into the Havoc waiting for us. As Nathan sits down the door closes and the Havoc leaves the fleet heading for the planet Neptune.
Which one's a dream?
As the seven members load off the last of the equipment, Nathan notices Madi struggling with a weapons container. He walked over and gave her a hand. "We'll be stuck here tonight so start getting comfortable." Nathan says as he presses the button on one of the crates. As soon as he presses the button, it folds out into a sort of cabin. The others started doing the same thing by Nathan's command. After setting up camp, and scouting the area, they team meets up in the cabin, where Nathan is about to give an explanation of what they're doing here. "OK guys let's start, I'll start this by introducing everyone, then I'll explain our mission. First of all, I'm sure you know who I am, but just in case, I'm Commander Nathan Mcat, I've been through lots of combat and have an outstanding service record. To my left is Ricardo Feli, he's been in two combat missions, and is our vehicle specialist, so if we need it, he can steer the thing. Next to him we have Liz, she's our insider, she has good stealth skills and as anyone can see she has the body to go with it, don't judge her by her size, I know what she's capable of, and don't get any ideas guys, Liz here is my little sister. Next to her we have Sharon, and Timothy, two excellent snipers we have in our group, unfortunately neither of them have seen real combat before. Here we have Felix, an experienced man that has been in service for a long time. And Finally there's Madi, who just reported in from the academy two weeks ago, she was top of her class so I think she'll fit in just fine. Ok now that we know each other we can get on with business. We were originally sent here to find and destroy a rumored base somewhere in the vicinity. Well things have changed. Around noon the fleet located a small facility that fit the description of the base in question. It seems that it's a small base and it is believed that we can take it out with just the seven members present. This mission has been coded as 'The Creek.' Our team has been designated 'The coral reef.' Tomorrow night we're going in to do our job. I'll see you around noon tomorrow, until then you're free, but please don't make our presence known, it could make it much more difficult." As the members of the team dismiss themselves, he notices that none of the members are paying attention to Madi, they're locking her out. "Madi, have anything to do?" Nathan says. Madi shakes her head no. "I'm going for a walk want to come?" He continues. Madi smiles "I'd like that." She says. Nathan stands there for a while staring into oblivion, then walks out of the cabin, Madi follows him completely confused, what could have caused him to freeze like that.
Our First Walk
"You mean to tell me that the captain just let you walk up and punch him?" Madi says laughing, as she and Nathan walk along a sandy beach on Neptune. They have been exchanging stories throughout the day and the sun is already setting. Though Nathan has been talking the most, Madi has been telling Nathan of the academy and how it's changed since he had graduated there only two years ago. "It seems like an eternity." Nathan says to Madi, who is still laughing about the stories Nathan has been telling. "What's that." She answers. Nathan hesitates for a moment, as if he were pondering on how to say it. "Nothing, sorry, it's just I miss it. The academy was fun, all my friends were there." there is a short pause and then Nathan continues with his head pointed at the and beneath him, "Nobody died." "Is that how it happened?" Madi says in return, no longer laughing, but with a voice with understanding. "How did you know?" Nathan asks, it seems obvious that Madi has heard the story of Melissa and him. "It was a story that they told us at graduation. Nobody wanted to leave after that, afraid of what could happen." Madi tells him. "So, how did your brother die?" Nathan asks as he lifts his head. Madi looks at him and starts to answer the question, "He was charging an enemy base under the command of a well known Spartan. They attacked quick and unexpected, though it was a crazy attack the Spartan continued, the enemy base was annihilated, and few of our men died, but my brother was ripped to shreds by a Whorthog's gunner." Nathan feels sorry, now that he knows the answer he would never have asked. "Which battle was it that he died on?" Nathan asks. "He died on a tech installation that was being taken by enemy forces. They where doing good now that reinforcements had arrived and were driving the enemy away. The enemy only held one hill with a small base of operations. The attack was code named 'Crazy mad dash." Madi stopped there and Nathan looked away. He knew that attack and he now knows that he was the Spartan mentioned. The attack he had staged after receiving the news that Melissa had died was the attack that caused Madi's brother's death. "I'm sorry, I didn't know." Nathan says. "You couldn't have, it's ok, you were in rage, it could have happen to anyone. I would have been the same way if I heard my soul mate had died." Madi replies with not a hint of sadness. The two sat on a rock and looked at the sunset. "I've got something to confess, I think I love you." Madi says out of the blue. "I'm not sure but I've never felt this way about anyone." She continues. "I, I don't know." Nathan says. "I've loved before and it didn't feel like this, this is a larger feeling. It makes what I've felt before feel like a dream, and this the truth. But if that was a dream and it ended like it did, then I'm afraid of how this will end. How will I react?" Nathan continues. As the sun's last light creeps over the horizon, Nathan and Madeline end the day with a long kiss, a kiss that would bring back a famous hero.
Stakeout
"Ricardo from now on you're Blowfish. Liz you'll be Flounder. Sharon, Eel. Timothy, Salmon. Felix, Cat-food. Madi, Dolphin. And I'll be Piranha. Those names will be ours only until we get off of this planet and back in the fleet. Flounder, you'll have to get inside before the attack, get inside and make your way to the archives as soon as possible, as soon as the attack starts you need to be blasting away, you'll have about half an hour to get into position. Blowfish, you'll drive the Hedgehog to this spot in the forest right outside the gate. Cat-food, and Dolphin will be in the Hedgehog with you, before the alarm is raised, I want you inside the base. Eel, you'll take a sniper position on this shelf of a pillar that sits in the sea, it looks directly over the base. Salmon, I want you to take this tower quietly with Flounder before she attempts entry. I'll be in there as soon as the alarm has been raised. Let's go, get loaded up." The members leave chatting with one another as they head out to the weapons and each take a pistol. Sharon and Timothy both grab sniper riffles as Nathan walks up and nods at them. "Flounder, take a plasma riffle, and an Assault riffle. Eel Salmon, along with that take rocket launchers. Blowfish, Cat-food, and Madi take whatever guns you want, but no sniper riffle, or rocket launchers." As soon as Nathan finishes his sentence, Ricardo and Felix grab shotguns and an Assault riffles. Madi follows their example and grabs an Assault riffle, but as she reaches for a shotgun Nathan grabs her wrist and says no. He then grabs a plasma riffle from the box and hands it to her. "This is what you want, trust me." Nathan says as he lets go of her wrist. Each of them grabs eight grenades, four plasma, and four fragmentation grenades. They then run off in different directions. Felix jumps in the side seat of the hedgehog, and Ricardo jumps in the driver's seat. Madi comes later than the rest and wonders if she should be the one in the gunner's seat. It really was a seat now, they actually took Nathan's design plans and had put a kind of rest extending from one side of the gun and going around for a semi-comfortable rest. Finally Felix speaks to Madi and tells her that even though she thinks she wont be very efficient in the gunner's seat, she'd be even less of a use as a passenger. Timothy and Sharon both started walking towards their spots, fortunately they where close to the base and so they could get there within an hour on foot. Nathan jumped on his Panther and let Liz get on back. The only thing that stopped Nathan from flirting was the fact that it was his sister. As it was Sharon and Timothy would get to their positions last but still would make it there before eighteen hundred hours.
What's easier getting a date or getting inside this place?
"I'm in." Says Liz as she silently slips in-between the air conditioning system and onto a platform. "Better hurry up, you've got twenty minutes till bodies start to drop." Nathan says over the intercom. "I'm well aware of that bro, no need to remind me." Liz says in return as she uses a rope to repel above a group of three inept guards. Liz lets herself fall quickly and knocks two of the three to the floor. The third begins a mad dash for the alarm, but is tripped by Liz. As he hits the floor she comes down on his head with a quick smack in the neck. She ties the three to the Repelling cord that dangles above them and lifts them up high to avoid them being seen. She then continues down the hall to get to an opening were she can slip into the weapons locker. She finds it. Luckily she's small and can just slip in through a duct meant for air. She makes a soft landing and climbs up on top of a tall gun rack. Making sure to stay low and time her jumps she makes her way to a back door that leads outside, in the restricted area. As she opens the door she finds a guard taking a cigarette break and knocks him unconscious with a high kick. "Flounder is in site." Comes over the intercom from Sharon. Liz stops for a second but then continues her journey. She uses a series of jumps and lifts to get up to the second floor. Unfortunately she needs to be higher than this to reach the window on the second floor. She looks around then fires a silent grappling hook at the flag post above the window. The cord is strong enough to hold her, but not for long. She starts to climb up the wall, and up above the window until she reaches the flag post. She sits on the flag post to rest a moment. As she starts to move but then checks the clock, six minutes left. She then swings down to the window, holding on to the flag post with one hand, with the other she cuts a hole in the window. As she completes the hole she swings herself over and jumps through the hole, making a role as she lands to avoid unnecessary noise. She runs quietly to the other side of the room and opens the door slightly, slips into the hallway and closes the door softly. The hallway is small and has lots of lights. If a guard comes around then she'd be seen without a doubt. She walks over to the door marked Archives, designated personnel only. As she starts to pick the lock she hears a voice coming from right behind the door, rips the key-pick out and walks up the wall quickly using the opposite wall as something to lean against. Sure enough the door opens three men walk out and head towards the break room for a cup of coffee, or at least that's what Liz got out of the chatter between the three men. As the men round the corner she slowly makes her way down. When they men were walking down the hallway she had checked her timer again and now had two minutes left. She then started to unlock the door again. "One minute till strike." comes over the intercom. "Piranha I'm going to hurt you if you keep this up." Liz says in return to the update. "Get in there already or I'll be forced to poke you till you pee your pants sis." Nathan says in defense and the com goes quiet. Liz knows he can and will do what he says. "Got it." Liz says to nobody in particular as she hears the door unlock. She opens the door quietly and jumps onto a pipe connected to the ceiling. "I'm in position." Liz says with a sigh.
The Butcher ran out of meat.
"This is Eel I have my target, Say bye to the century guns." Says Sharon as she pulls the trigger on her sniper riffle and sends a bullet flying towards a pile of flammable materials next to the main gate. Sure enough the whole thing goes up in flames as the pile explodes and sends canisters and junk flying into the gate and the century guns. "The door is open." Felix says as the gate is blasted to bits. The Whorthog flies through the piles of ruble and straight into the base as Madi fires tones of ammunition into the confused troops that have been taken by surprise. Already the two snipers have taken down many random targets that wouldn't be seen by the patrolling troops, then the main defense systems were blown to bits. The troops inside were obviously not ready for an attack of this sort, then again who would be. Nathan thinks as he comes screeching through the base after the Whorthog in his Panther, taking down anyone left standing. "This is Salmon, taking down my target." Says Timothy as he uses the last bullet he has left for his sniper riffle into the long-range transmitter preventing the alliance from sending for help. As the Whorthog gets to the center of the base it starts circling. As people run for their lives all around them the Whorthog and Panther continue to make circles around the troops trapping them and taking them down in large scale. "Salmon get inside and find Flounder." Nathan orders Timothy. Timothy immediately gets out of the tower and runs for the nearest door leading into the base. As he closes the door he hears a noise. The alarm has finally started ringing. As he runs he sees few enemies, those he does see are already wounded or dead. There are few exceptions but after he gets past they have joined the rest. He runs up the stairs and through the corridors till he comes to a flame engulfed area near to where Liz is meant to be. He then climbs the walls in a similar way Liz had. He got past the flames and jumped down. Taking a quick look around he finds the door, he runs to inside the room and sees bodies all over the place. There she is, she's fine. She's downloading all the archive information onto a disk. "Flounder, how much longer!" Tim screams at her, she looks over and sees him standing by the door. "Not much longer, hold off the troops would you!" She screams back. He pulls out his pistol and aims for the end of the hall. Sure enough there they come, a load of alliance troops come around the corner just as Tim starts to lower his weapon. He quickly pulls it back up, zooms and fires multiple rounds into the troops advancing on his position. The way things are going it looks good for the team, but will they survive, or is it just starting.
Secure the Base
"This is Flounder, weapons rooms are secure. Nothing interesting though." Whispers Liz, so that it would be noted as secure, so nobody will waist their time checking it again. So far the operation has going fine. Felix had shot in the shoulder during the raid and Timothy had been shot in the leg. As they had already taken out all the attacking forces they now found themselves searching the compound for any survivors. They had split up to make life easier. Liz and Ricardo were securing the east side of the base, most of which had already been secured when Liz was getting Tim out of the building. Madi and I found ourselves securing the West side of the base. Luckily there wasn't much to it, no difficult winding passageways or anything, just large halls and narrow corridors. Sharon kept a look out from her sniper position as we continued to give the base a full cavity search. "We're nearing the archives." Comes another whisper. Apparently Liz had spotted an extra computer that she couldn't get to earlier and so she was going to check it out now. "We're entering the last barracks, after this only one more room." I whisper in response. As I get to the door it opens and there standing in front of me are a dozen troops in full gear. My eyes go wide as I twirl my plasma riffle into firing position, then watch the troops fly as I unload an array of beautiful but lethal blue plasma into them. I jump aside as I fire and Madi to has been caught by surprise, she to grabs her plasma riffle and fires into the crowd of troops, then jumps to the other side. As she lands she kneels and braces her gun with her left hand, ready to fire more when she sees the least bit of Allied flesh. I see her sitting there unmoved by the display of five dead and burned corpses not more than four meters away. I then see that the companions of the dead five have returned, and soon afterwards I notice the bullets flying past my armor, I to kneel and brace myself as the allied forces come storming out of the barracks. Madi screams and fires as she sees the men hoarding out the door, I to fire as soon as I see the scum running to me. As we continue to fire plasma into the hoard of screaming men, I notice that there are a lot more than twelve, at least twenty seven are spread out on the floor and they're still coming, Madi has switched to her assault riffle by my command, she was constantly overheating the thing as she had never been tat how to use one before. Besides there would be plenty of AR ammo to regain pick-up once this was over. The hoard is defiantly decreasing in size there aren't that many anymore. All of a sudden the forces stop. All of the shooting stops. I stand up and walk into the room. Madi reloads her Assault riffle as I walk over the threshold of the door. Two men jump at me as I walk in. I was expecting a trap so I was not caught by surprise. I jump up while spreading my legs. Unfortunately the two soldiers aren't as dumb as the comic book villains and quickly get out of my way. I then come down and do a quick roll to the nearest man, as I get up I smack him with plasma riffle, and then again. Amazingly he's still standing, and so I finish him off with a flying kick. I turn around and find the other man aiming at me. "Madi, I could use some help." I scream right before he pulls the trigger. Realizing that Madi isn't coming I make a low but fast jump in the man's direction and punch him in the face. His head goes back and his arms fly to his sides. I then kick his gun out of his hand, and hit him away. The soldier recovers at a descend speed and draws his pistol. As he does I step on the fallen weapon making it fly up and forward in a spiral movement. The gun hits the soldier in the face, and as it does he falls to the ground. From behind me I hear a scream and turn around. A third soldier was madly running towards me. He caught me off guard and I could not draw my weapon in time. I suddenly hear a burst of ammo from the entry way and the third man falls to the floor. "It's about time you finished picking up ammo Madi." I say calmly. "Yeah well I knew you could take care of yourself." She responds. "Nathan, get your butt over here now, you need to see this." Liz says in what seems like a frightened tone. I look at Madi, she understands my face and starts running through the door. I follow her. We run down through the base to the nearest exit we know of. As we get outside we run to the other building, the entrance nearest to the archive room has been secured and so we head for that door. As we get in we're ready to meet head on with Allied forces but there weren't any. "What's wrong Liz!" I scream as I enter the archives. She was silent; all she did was push a button on the computer she had been checking. As soon as she did however a file was being displayed on a screen that appeared in the middle of the room. As I look at it, everything is explained, and as the transmission continues my eyes go wide with fear.
Attack on Sol
" Ground team this is Havoc five, touching down, and ready for extraction," says the pilot of the Havoc landing right outside the captured base for the extraction of the ground team. I'm standing with my team still trying to think this through. The message that I so desperately had to see was breath taking. The Alliance somehow has been able to get their hands on the defense plans in case of an attack on Sol. And now have devised a plan to take Sol itself. It couldn't have been an accident. Someone had to give them those documents. There must be an insider. So as I have been taught I copied the files and gave two to each member of the team, and called for a transport to pick us up immediately. And here it is, my team is rushing all the captured goods into the five Havocs. I decide to lend a hand. "Let's move people, on the double this data can't wait!" I scream as I load a crate of ammunition into one of the Havocs. "Ricardo, get the Whorthog. Liz, get my Panther. Sharon, get in Havoc-1 and go home. Timothy Havoc-2, same as Sharon. Madi, help Felix into Havoc-4 and drive that Scorpion tank over to the Havoc-1." I say as I load the last of the loot into Havoc-5. "Havoc-1, departing." says a pilot as I lift the last of the crates into the back of Havoc-5. The message is quickly followed by another phrase said by the pilot of Havoc-2 and the departure of the ship with the Whorthog attached. " Ricardo, get in Havoc-4. Havoc-4 you're clear, depart." I say to keep things moving. My order is responded by the voice of a female pilot saying, "Yes sir, understood, departing now." I realize that Liz isn't back yet, and start looking around me, when just at that moment a Panther comes zooming by, it is quickly followed by the sound of loud breaking. "Liz, what did I tell you about that, don't ware out my breaks I might need them one day." I say a little irritated with my sister. But eventually continue, "Madi, get in Havoc-5, Liz you too." They jump in as I take my Panther and drive it over to Hvoc-3. "Havoc-5 departing." I hear the sound of the engines flying by as I walk into the Havoc along side my Panther, which is being hauled in by a belt specifically designed for loading such vehicles. I sit down at the back and tell the pilot to leave, but to keep the back open till we reach a high altitude. By now Havoc-1 should be docking and the data we recovered at the base will soon be seen by high-ranking officials. This probably means we'll be heading to Sol a.s.a.p. And the war will be far to close to earth. The next few weeks will be filled with stress on my part and so I'm going to enjoy peace and beauty for a little bit, before being hurtled into battle again.

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