Fan Fiction ❯ umm... submit a name? ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Only ten minutes after Alpha reached the building, he was greeted with an immediate demand that he report to the 'Boss' Office,' by a rather large and masculine officer. Alpha sighed begrudgingly and trudged towards the elevator lift that he knew would only take him to two floors below the very top floor, the two above the last elevator stop contained mostly the top executives and, at the very top floor, the commander's office itself. Shortly after the lift began its ascent, a cool voice called through the intercom system that the 'code orange situation has been resolved; please return to your posts.' Alpha just looked up at the system and muttered under his breath, "I'll be damned if that was just code orange."
A soft 'ding' signaled that the elevator had reached its limit top floor, and the doors slid open noiselessly. Alpha stepped out, looking around for the rusty metal door clearly marked, 'Executives Only' and reached for the equally-rusty handle. It moved loudly enough, a security camera turning to fix itself on him, and then beginning its slow sweep of the corridor again. He forced the door open, its old-style hinges swinging squeakily, the scratched bottom of the under-maintained door scraping the floor as it moved. Once one was inside the cramped hall hidden by the bulky door, it made the entire building seem as if it were in such disrepair as the door was. It actually seemed as if you could, in fact, see a reflection of yourself in the shining marble walls. The floor was made of individually-placed blocks of painstakingly cut bronze, only a thin layer of transparent stone protected the blocks. The ceiling had the most articulate panels one could hope to find placed in it, they seemed to give off more light alone than all the lights in the building, the lights in this hall were the only thing not different than the rest of the StarCorp building.
Alpha noted each different articulation to the otherwise bare hall as he walked by, ever closer to the one reason it seemed that a person wouldn't go blind in the bright hall. An immeasurably dark door, covered in black leather, with a golden handle, at the end of the hall. As he reached the door, he noted, as he always did, how it seemed that there were never smudges on the perfect gold. It was with this thought that he turned the gleaming handle, stepping into a larger room with only the necessary furniture inside it. Richly dressed men sat to one side, discussing the budget. To the other side sat StarCorp's elites, the best the mercs had to offer.
Alpha paid them no mind as he walked casually past, his eyes set on the door at the other end of the room. A gray, opaque sign next to the door stated clearly, 'Up'. He smirked slightly at the bluntness of this sign, stepping to the door and opening it, the carefully oiled hinges almost opening the door on their own, swinging the black door open silently. Alpha looked up the stairs, sighing to himself and walking up them, just now thinking of what he was going to give to his superior in his report.
No black door awaited him at the top, this time. For the best in StarCorp, there could only be the sharpest contrast in a door. The door was simply a block of discarded wood, hooked onto hinges and set into a door frame. Most rookies found this amusing, and stepped into the office laughing to themselves. After the first day, no rookies found it funny.
He pushed the wood block open, pushing it back into place behind him and looking at the figure that sat in front of him, in a dark chair made out of only the richest leather. The man sat, finishing a slip of paperwork, not yet noticing the soldier standing in his office. Alpha made a quiet coughing noise, and the man looked up, furrowing his brow, "What do you want?"
Alpha looked down to the desk in front of the man, bowing slightly, "Sir, you summoned me I am here to deliver my report on the battle today"
The man looked confused for a second, then nodded in recognition.
"Ah, yes, I remember now. I must be getting short-minded in my old age So, you came here to give a report, soreport."
Alpha nodded, closing his eyes to gather the facts for a moment.
"Yes, sir. I was sent to protect the quadrant occupied by Snake Team. We lost two of our members, I don't currently recall their ID's"
The commander cut him short, "365, and 421. Good soldiers."
"Yes, sir, very good. Well, after 365 and 421 fell, I requested a single assistance soldier. We were given two, so when I saw an opening, I told the squad, and took it. What appeared to be a yellow Phoenix model attacked and defeated my Angel, leaving me prone to attack on the ground. That was when the enemy was apparently called to retreat. I was picked up by a remaining soldier of Snake Team, and on the way back, the Angel we were traveling in was destroyed by"
He closed his eyes again, trying to recall what they were.
"Yes, by what?"
" They were Floating laser cannons, sir. The pilot that was helping me was killed in the attack, but I survived. I jettisoned the cockpit, and walked the remainder of the way to base"
The man nodded, looking up at Alpha, " Well, sounds like there were quite a few casualties due to you 'seeing an opening'"
Alpha blinked in surprise, "What do you mean, 'quite a few'? I only recall one casualty"
" The remainder of Snake Team was lost when you went on the offensive. The only one to survive was the back-up demolitions unit, whom, you have just told me, died helping you. You caused quite a few problems out there today, so I am officially declaring you inactive for as long as I deem necessary. You will not go out on any missions until I tell you myself, do I make myself clear?"
"Sir!" Alpha almost snapped, catching himself, "I don't understand why I am being declared inactive, I only meant to take out what appeared to be the greatest threat. It was proven that it was too much for me alone, but still--"
The man stood suddenly, glaring at Alpha.
"I am declaring you inactive, not only because of this, but also because of previous incidents! You are a threat, not only to yourself, but to everyone around you! Do you recall why you were demoted from the elites? The Dark Wing incident? And what about all the innocents you killed when you were sent off to Crostier! Only so much can be considered collateral damage until it's just brutality!"
The burly man sat back down, pulling a sheaf of papers from within his desk, tossing them on top.
"These are your contracts with StarCorp. I want you to look them over. Also, within this, are the reports of the Dark Wing incident and the Crostier incident. I want you to look over both reports, while you are inactive. If I hear that you so much as move yours, or any other Angel, from its location in the hangar, I will have your contracts burned, and you thrown into the streets. Do you understand me?"
Alpha looked at the floor, muttering a quiet, 'yes, sir.' He grabbed the papers and turned, stepping out of the room, anger burning inside him. He walked through the 'door' taking careful consideration to close it, walking coldly down the steps and through the executive room, paying no attention to all the adornments in the room. His thoughts swirled around what had been said in the commander's room, silently wishing he could have spoken up and came up with some sort of plausible excuse for each of the missions the commander had used. In the back of his mind, he knew that there had been more then the commander had bothered mentioning, but it wasn't his fault
He snapped back into reality when he found himself entering the code to his quarters, the door sliding open quietly and closing soon after he'd stepped in. He threw the papers onto his bed, looking around the plain room. Alpha sighed, looking down at his battered, bruised, and altogether filthy clothes. He glanced over at the clock and smirked coldly, realizing that he had all the time in the world to get cleaned up. He stripped of his ruined clothes, and stepped into the shower room, allowing the warm water to remove all his aches and pains, trying to forget about what had been yelled at him inside the commander's office.
After he was done with his shower, Alpha grabbed some of his regular clothes. A dark blue short-sleeved shirt, underneath a thin, leather tank top. His pants consisted of simple white pants. He looked in the mirror, running a hand through his slightly wet, short blue hair. His own light blue eyes looked over himself in the mirror, deciding he passed off as casual, if nothing else. The white shirt seemed like a nice contrast to his tanned skin, the leather darker than it, but only a slight shade.
He turned from the mirror, looking around his room and sighing, his eyes locking on the sheaf of papers. He picked them up, leafing through them and finding what he was looking for, the report on the Crostier incident. He looked over the first line of the report, shaking his head.
"No it wasn't like that The village was hardly visible through the fog" He closed his eyes, the report forgotten as he recalled what had been only his third mission, and his first failure

It had been dark out, that much he remembered. There was a slight fog, and as they traveled in the transport, the air had been thick with tension. The details on the mission had been sketchy, at best. They had been told to simply, 'find out what was being researched inside a supposedly deserted hangar, destroy it if it proved to be near completion, and dangerous.' Everybody wondered what was going to happen, and Alpha and the other elite that had been assigned to the mission remained outwardly calm, but inwardly, a storm raged. Alpha had never been through this kind of a mission before, it hadn't even been covered in training. In training, all the details on what he had to do had been crystal-clear, but now, he had no idea.
They had been told to specifically not bring their Angels, commandeer some if necessary to escape, but try your best not to get caught. This was a stealth mission. Alpha had clenched his rifle to his chest as they neared the drop-off and rendezvous point. A door had seemed to fall to the ground, hinges attached to the bottom of the black transport, signaling that they move out. Alpha had gone first, his rifle held in front of him in case there were guards posted around the village. He had waved to the rest that it was clear, keeping his eyes peeled for signs of movement and counting the other soldiers as the clambered out of the transport. Ten soldiers. Eleven, if he included himself in the count.
Alpha had been the first one to move forward, the entire group moving through the village to the entrance of the hangar without being found out. The doors had been lacking a pass code, simply opening when anything was pressed in. A soft click signified this, Alpha allowing the group to move ahead of him while he covered the back, moving in and closing the door behind him, locking it. The top floor had been deserted, as was expected, and the elevators were locked up. The only visible way down was a flight of stairs that seemed to have footprints in the thick dust. He pointed the stairs out, and was the first to go down them.
A security camera had seen him as he was going down, and his eyes widened almost impossibly when he saw the camera swinging towards him. When it seemed to focus straight onto him, he finally noticed that the camera was missing a lens, making it completely useless. He figured that it must be a sort of 'scare-away' tactic, to make would-be saboteurs lose their nerve. He let out his breath, waving for the rest of the soldiers to come down.
They met the first obstacle at the bottom of the stairwell, a door with a keypad lock. Alpha tried the door, turning around and saying that it was locked. The other elite stepped forward, taking out a rather large knife and sliding it between the door and the lock, shoving all his weight into pressing it up, against the lock. A dull crack was heard, and he pulled out the knife, tossing the remains onto the ground and tugging at the door, which, surprisingly, opened easily enough. A piece of the lock remained wedged between the door and the keypad, but it was nothing that would stop their progress.
They met no opposition on the way down, until the reached another electronically locked door marked, 'R&D'. It was the only door that remained in good enough condition, and the lock was extremely complex. The door itself was also electronic, so cutting the lock wouldn't work again. What one of the rookies, instead, had done, was take a small taser and press it against the keypad, sending a short flow of energy into it. The door started opening, opened fully, and right when the same soldier had stepped to it, slid half-closed. The door remained in that state, not moving an inch, even when it was attempted to be lifted.
The soldier had turned to Alpha, who nodded towards the bottom of the door. The soldier understood, dropping to the ground and rolling underneath the door. He had snapped into a standing position, surveying the room before he dropped into a crouch and waved them all through. They had all gone through the same way that the first soldier had, making no noise. Alpha waited until all of the rest were through before he himself went. He slid his gun under the door, and dropped into a crouch. A loud grating stopped him before he slid under.
A soft click, followed by a loud snap, and the door began to plummet. Alpha, seeing no other way, dove under the door. His leg clipped the door, almost getting smashed. If he had dove a second later, he wouldn't have survived. Alpha had stood as calmly as he could, grabbing his rifle and wiping the sweat off his brow with a muttered, 'let's go.'
As they marched silently through the hallway, they were surprised at the lack of security. Each camera they passed had either been cut from the video feed, had the lens removed, or was simply de-activated. It never crossed their minds that they weren't being used because all possible power was being diverted.
Alpha had frequently checked the small, hand-written, map he had been given. It gave him almost no clue as to where he was, but he knew that each door was correctly marked. All he had to do was wait until he reached the door marked, 'Red Flag.' Ironically, they were all facing it seconds after he checked the map for the second time.
They tried the door, and were surprised again by how it was unlocked. The door was loud when it was forced open, and this time, there were guards. When it had once been quiet, alarms blared in their ears, and immensely bright lights shined in their eyes. They were disoriented beyond belief, but the first shots hit one of the guards, and the alarm. It was quiet, but they were all seeing spots. Footsteps rang from behind them, and bullets slammed into the walls around them. Luckily enough, they had stumbled into the only skeleton crew in the building. Only two guards.
One of Alpha's team went down while the lights shined in his eyes, but no more fell, as Alpha himself shot the second guard, spraying blood and brains on the wall behind him. He had debated flipping off the light, but instead he shrugged and muttered, "Screw it"
They had charged through the room, firing aimlessly behind them and avoiding bullets. All they had to do was destroy whatever was being researched, and find the real hangar. A stray bullet was lucky enough to destroy a keypad and unlock the door in front of them, which they all barreled into and slammed behind them.
When they turned around, they had wished that they were facing the men outside the room instead