Mr. Aleron...
The sound of heavy boots marching could be heard all the way to the bridge, something that Fire-Team Captain "Reaper" Grevanian had counted on. Grevanian was a monster of a man, his armored bulk filling the hallway, his large bore pistol holstered at his hip and his assault-rifle across his back. To his sides and behind him marched the rest of Fire-Team Mobius, each of them armored the same as their Captain, and each of them bringing their own specialist weapons and unique armor to the team. They all bore the colors of their fire-team, but each wore their own personalized helms, with the Captain wearing the iconic skull mask for which he was named. Jurgen "Cinder" Aleron walked behind them, his heavy-flamethrower held close to his chest, the pilot light flickering in the light of the halls. The mission was a relatively easy one, a way of thanking the team with easy money for bringing a dangerous mercenary group to heel several months ago. Because of this the mood was light, even the Captain had joked a bit before they boarded the ship, of course his humour was rather dead-pan, but it was there nonetheless...
Mr. Aleron...
Cinder stood idly by the enginarium console, "Judge" and "Hawk" had taken to playing a card-game while the Captain spoke with the engineering crew. They had apparently been dealing with some rogue elements, and Fire-Team Mobius was here as a show of force, a way of showing that the Council was everywhere and could come down on them at any moment. Cinder's attention was arrested by the sudden appearance of the blank silver mask of "Ghost", their specialist technician. Ghost was a savant with computer systems, apparently he had created a fully-aware AI as a thesis for his academy exams, something that while it was destroyed and never heard from again, earned Ghost a good deal of sway with Council. He had been earmarked for great things, but chose to go into the field instead, feeling he could do more from the front. Ghost also had a habit of being a Precog. "Something isn't right" He said, his voice a whisper and barely carrying to him. Cinder immediately felt uncomfortable with the Precog, as Ghost was seldom wrong, and readied his weapon silently. Judge and Hawk stilled played their card-game, but he could see that under the table their weapons had been switched to "Active" status...
Mr. Aleron... Awaken...
He felt his boot crush down on the face of the crewman, a wet crunch as gore streaked outwards. He continued moving, shooting a jet of flame down a hallway to keep heads down, allowing Judge and Hawk to execute those who had taken cover. Reaper was dead, his helm with all of the mission data clipped to Cinder's belt. Ghost was likely dead as well, having fallen down a shaft in the enginarium during the firefight that left Reaper steaming on the deck. The three of them were angry, angry with the crew who had dared to attack them, angry with that damn mercenary who had somehow survived their last mission, and most of all angry with the Council for knowing this was a trap. That was perhaps the most appalling of the various elements that came together to form this clusterfrak of a mission. Cinder clutched Reaper's tag in one hand as he swore vengeance upon that void-damned councilor, roasting a group of crew members that had taken cover behind some crates. Judge suddenly went down, his visor replaced by a smoking hole in the center of his face. Hawk screamed as Judge feel to his knees, the body now succumbing to the lack of a brain controlling it. Hawk ripped her helmet from her head, shouting obscenities at the coward who had killed Judge and firing full-auto into everything that was not Cinder or herself. Her face was twisted into a snarl of rage and sorrow, Judge and her had been known amongst the team to have shared a bond deeper than just team-members. Her rage came to an end though, as another bullet streaked out of the darkness to strike her full in the chest. Cinder turned just in time to see her flung back, her eyes suddenly gone cold as she hit the floor. He knelt by her side as the hallway burned with the fury of the Fire-Teams vengeance. She turned her head to him, her blood-flecked lips parting to speak to him, "Kill that bastard, brother, kill him for Father, and for Judge." She lay still as Cinder screamed into the burning corridor for the loss of his sister and his father...
Mr Aleron!
Cinder awoke to the half-light of his cell, a man in a suit displaying his allegiance to the Fire-Teams stood at the door. The door was open, a strange occurrence for even an in-cell visit, and the man did not wear the same smug look of all the other Council liaisons who came to visit hoping to gain a confession from him. "Get up and let's go, you've been cleared and assigned a team." The Liaison said this with some bit of relief evident in his voice, and as his vision came into clearer focus and his memory found where the man had come from. This had been the same officer who had stood up for Cinder during the "Trials of Mobius" a series of proceedings by Councilor Yndregan of Mars declaring the fire-team renegade and of massacring an entire ship full of people. The trials were of course, a sham, brought on by the councilor to boost his own reputation by bringing low an otherwise loyal fire-team that had worked flawlessly together for 15 years. Cinder stood and stretched, gathering what little possessions he had been allowed. As he placed the tags around his neck he found the Liaison's eyes drawn to the collection of tags. The tags were of each of his team-mates, the names Grevanian "Reaper" Aleron, Isabell "Hawk" Aleron, and Gregory "Judge" Valinova joining his own tags. As they walked down the long corridor the Liaison allowed him to know which Fire-Team he would be joining, and gave him the mission details of where the Fire-Team had been assigned. They came at last to the doors to the shuttle bay, where Jurgen would take his first steps from the prison since his imprisonment three years ago.
Reply With Quote
