Prologue
He sat in a plain waiting room going over things in his head. Two days ago he received a letter. It looked official, he thought it was his acceptance into Ranger school. Instead it told him to report to the Fort Detrick in Maryland to meet with a special committee. He couldn’t think of anything that he did wrong that would call for such a need. Nothing that would have him head to another state for at least. “Lieutenant?”, someone by the now open door said. “They’ll see you know.”
He stood, adjusted his dress jacket and placed his hat under his arm and marched in. Three men were sitting behind a table, the African American man he recognized immediately, Major Henry Pierce. He was slightly surprised to see him there, he heard a leg injury knocked him out of the Army. The other two, a balding colonel and a general who looked really strict, he didn’t know. He walked in front of them and stood at attention, “Lt. Daniel Stevens reporting as ordered Sirs.”
“At ease,” the colonel said. He set his feet apart and tried not to hyperventilate. “You’re not in any kind of trouble so relax.” Then why the hell was he called up here then, but he kept that thought to himself. The general reached under the desk and pulled out some kind of futuristic looking rifle and placed it on the table.
“Do you know what this is Lieutenant?”
He picked it up and examined it a little closer. “It looks like one of these weapons those Alienizers are supposed to carry.”
“Your close,” Pierce told him. “It’s an Alienizer design alright, but the parts used to make come from here.”
“Were we able to copy there technology sir?”
“No. This, and several like it, was confiscated in a raid in the Middle East. We’re not sure who made it or how it was distributed. Or how many are out there already.”
“Then shouldn’t this go to one of those SPD units sir?”
“We were brought in soon enough,” a tinny voice said. A walking scorpion came through a side door. It made several clicking noises with its’ claw and mouth, a few moments later a device attached to his long black coat replied in that tinny voice. “Pardon me for my rudeness, but I felt it was time to introduce myself.”
“Of course,” The General replied, somewhat restrained. “Lieutenant, this is Commander Scorp of SPD High Command.”
“A nickname, my actual name cannot be spoken by mammal tongue.”
“Sir,” he nodded sharply. He kept his face neutral. There were a lot of people in the Armed Services who didn’t care for this whole SPD mess, he was one of them.
“Outside of discovering a few warehouses and sellers,” Scorp continued,” our investigation turned up very little.”
“I thought SPD was supposed to be the best at this sort of thing”, Stevens said.
“They are,” the General said. “But each unit is assigned a limited area to cover. There are a ton of places not covered these aliens can use to hide from them.”
“And we could not search those areas without causing problem,” the commander added. “Do to the unique nature of the political set up on this planet, we do not go where we are not asked.”
“I should add,” the Colonel spoke up, “that most of the parts in this thing come from the good ol’ USA. Plus there some parts from Russia, Iran and God knows where else. Can you imagine the uproar in the Middle East if they’re spotted there unannounced.”
“We have run into similar problem elsewhere,” Scorp said. “Fortunately SPD command has approved a plan to help in these matters. Seeing how most of the parts of this weapon came from this country I approached this government for help in setting things in motion.”
“Is this that rumored SPD unit that’s supposed to be setting up in Texas?”
“Not exactly,” Pierce stood up and walked around the table. For the first time he saw the cane he was using. “That unit is being set up as we speak as is another one. What we’re discussing here is a covert ops type of unit.”
“This unit will go were the others cannot”, Scorp said.
“With all due respect sirs, but what does this have to do with me?” Dan had an idea, he just needed to hear it.
Scorp supplied the answer, “I am told that you will be a perfect fit for this unit.
“Again with all due respect sirs, I don’t do spandex.”
“The armor is made of a highly flexible metal that enhances you natural abilities,” Scorp informed him.
“General,” Pierce leaned in, “I know this is unusual but may I speak with the Lieutenant alone?”
“Yes Major,” Pierce lead him into the side room Scorp came from.
“Are all your soldier that disrespectful”, he heard him asking before the door was closed.
“Still know how to make friends don’t you Danny?”, Pierce chuckled.
“Is this a joke Major?”
“This is totally serious Dan.” Pierce looked him right in the eyes, “This is very bad. It’s bad enough these Alienizers find this planet so fascinating, now they’re selling low grade version of their own weapons to the highest bidder.”
“But why me? There has to be somebody else out there more qualified than I am.”
“Now I doubt that. I trained you in basic and I been keeping tabs on you over the past couple of years. You are the quickest study I’ve ever meet. You’re one of the tops in the field in recon and a shoe in to become one of the best Army Rangers in history. You also don’t take any crap from anyone under you. That’s why you were chosen, we need someone like you in this.”
“So the units being composed of people in the military?” That he could live with, probably.
“Not exactly. You will be placed with a unit of trained SPD operatives who specialize in field needed for this.”
“If they have guys trained in this sort of thing why ask for me?”
“It’s a covert unit. SPD authorized it with no problem and we agreed that this was needed. The unit will answer directly to SPD but the government wanted a say in the unit personal if it was going to be headquartered here in the States. You were part of a compromise.”
“What was the other part?”
“There will be an alien in the unit as well.”
“Perfect,” Dan looked out the turned and looked out the window. “So I’d be taking order from that thing in there for now on?”
“Not directly, Commander Scorp is the divisional Commander of the covert unit. From what I understand there are going to be at least four other unit like this on somewhere out there in the Galaxy.” He twirled his cane in his hand,” I’ll be in control of things planet side.”
He looked at the Major in surprise,” You’ll be in control?”
“I like to feel useful, can’t do that behind the desk.”
“More like you love barking out orders, which you can do behind a desk Major,” he smirked.
“I’ll keep that off the record. Dan, I was the one who recommended you for this position, I’m asking you to take it.”
He looked out the window. People on the other side of that wall were going on with their business, no clue on what was going on in this room. God he really wanted to be one of those people right now. An SPD unit, who in the hell did he piss off. But an assignment was an assignment, no matter how you felt about it. “So where do I report for this thing?”
Pierce smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, “I knew you’d take it, but you’re not in yet. Scorp is worried about you, he’s not sure you can keep up with trained SPD officers. So you’re being sent to the planet Nagaus 7 for additional training. You make it past that, you’re in like Flynn.”
“Additional training? Off planet???”
“Think of it as really intense ranger training, with a whole lot of cool toys at your disposal.”
“If it doesn’t kill me first.”
“I hear the mortality rate is pretty low,” Pierce joked. He didn’t find it funny. “You leave in three days.”
“Not a whole lot of time to prepare.”
“We don’t have much time to mess around. The unit should be up and running by the time you get back. I’ll update you on things here then.”
“I’m going to get you back for this, you know that?”
“I’ll be waiting for it.” Pierce saluted him, he returned it. They went back to the other room were Pierce told him he accepted. The colonel and general nodded in approval, the alien he couldn’t read. They dismissed him and he left the room. He would have felt better if they brought him in to charge with something.
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