by Hugo Ferreira
A storyline featuring the past of Donald "Ironsides" Bane & General Edward Kyroswolf on their times serving in the Elite 7, a task-force team within the ranks of the United Front, a galaxy-wide anti-terrorism unit.
NOW
Ironsides’ team had just won a match against Lillith’s team and they were leaving the Liberty Center to their homes when a figure approaches the team leader…
“Ironsides” shouted the figure.
“Ed? Is that you?” replied Ironsides.
“I need to talk to you!”
“Come with me, we will talk on my way.”
And both men entered a private transportation vehicle.
“Don, is it safe to speak here?”
“Yes it is Edward, and congrats on your promotion to General.”
“Never mind about that, I’m here because we are in danger.”
“Ed, in our life duty we are always in danger.”
“No, you do not understand me. The reason why I’m here is to warn you that someone is trying to eliminate the Elites.”
“Are you sure? How do you know that?”
“As you might know, I retired myself from the covert operations sometime ago to become a training instructor in the Ophidian Academy in Tigbar. But yesterday when I returned to the Academy from my leave, my quarters were destroyed. Everything was wrecked, even the walls had fallen. But get this, someone had painted our old signature on the walls (the ones that had remained).”
“Our old signature?”
“Yes the Elite 7 signature, E7. That made me reactivate my operational status. I left Tigbar to come here to let you know what’s happening.”
“Thanks for your concern my friend, but my house here is the safest place on this system.”
While they recollect their times as a team and talk about Ironsides’ current mission, their transportation vehicle arrives at Ironsides’ place.
* * * *
THEN
**United Front E7 Mission Log 2335.08.06 – Bane’s Report:
Our team, Elite 7, was sent to the Outworlds to catch a Bio-Geneticist Portal Hunter called Krun Kros. He was getting more and more power in that zone of space. In less than a month, he had surpassed all the Outworlds’ native powers.
His military army was turning into a force to be reckoned with, so it was our job to put an end on that. It’s strange, but at our briefing it looked like it would be a quick mission.
We all gathered on an United Front asteroid facility near the Outworlds border. The first to arrive was our field medic Christopher Essex, the next one to show up was out team leader and strategist Sargent Edward Kyroswolf. Then I showed up fifteen minutes late as usual. Being the field agent makes me want to make a good entry, and the fact that I think showing up on time is boring.
* * * *
NOW
As soon as they prepare to enter the house a strange noise was heard…
In the following seconds, Edward Kyroswolf only had time to say “INCOMING” and jumped against Ironsides, knocking him into the floor. A missile came through the house.
Apparently the missile failed and both men were still alive, but the house front was destroyed, and on a wall some nanites formed the word E7.
Ironsides, astonished, looked to Kyroswolf and said, “Are you alright old friend? I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“It’s ok, you had reasons to not believe me, and after all I’ve showed up after years without a word.”
Kyroswolf looked outside and said, “They are gone, whoever they are.”
“Have you contacted Essex?”
“Well I couldn’t reach Christopher at his known contacts, so I presume that he is MIA.”
“So it is up to us to reinstate our Elite 7 operation.”
“Yes it is, after all this time we are regrouped once more.”
And both of them started to walk into one safe house that was placed in a bunker on Ironsides’ property.
* * * *
THEN
We didn’t know who runs the Elites, as we only see a shadow in a screen, but his Intel is always secure, we trust his info, but as always this was a suicide mission. If any of us were caught or killed, we were alone in the dark, nothing but shadows.
But of course if that had happened our team loyalty wouldn’t leave it at that. We are one for the team, looking out for each other. Individually, we are the best of the best, but together we are more… we are the Elite.
* * * *
NOW
When they arrived at the safe-house Ironsides started to make some adjustments on what would come next. At that moment, Kyroswolf discovered that the place wasn’t a bunker, but instead it was a spaceship.
“But?” asked Kyroswolf.
“We have to go to our old headquarters. There we still probably have all we need to find Essex.”
* * * *
THEN
Three hours later we were flying to Krun Kros headquarters on the planet Northek but when we got there we were surprised by an ambush party.
They accomplished in separating us, and that usually was a bad thing. But this time it was different as we managed ourselves really well.
* * * *
NOW
When fully ready, the ship headed to the Outworlds, a minor system outside the known galaxy. Their entrance was protected by a field of spatial vortex knows as the Badlands.
There wasn’t another way to enter the Outworlds system unless your ship has some kind of hyper-portal system big enough to portal a spaceship from one place into another.
That wasn’t the case of Ironsides’ ship, so they actually had to pass through the Badlands.
They knew that region of space was filled with space pirates and all kinds of aliens that would shoot first and ask later at any human ship that they sighted. But to die on a mission of team loyalty was a risk that they knew very well.
* * * *
THEN
As I out-passed some guards I entered the central command room, and there I saw Essex grabbing the neck of Krun Kros and in an instant killing him by turning his head around. I stood there without reaction. I did not understood the reason of Essex’s actions, but I presumed that it was in anger. Essex claimed it was self-defense as soon as Kyroswolf entered the room.
Our next step was to gather all of Krun’s data from his files and take down the whole facility. Even through Essex didn’t want to destroy the genetic files we stuck with the plan.
* * * *
NOW
As the ship entered the Badlands...
“Don, look out!” shouted Edward.
“Relax my friend, this ship has a vortex detector, so when one of those bastards show up, the ship will automatically change our course.”
As soon as the ship dodged a vortex all the ship’s systems started to beep, in a Red Alert. Looking at the console Edward spotted two pirate crafts in a collision course with their ship.
Ironsides activated the weapons system and as soon as the pirates were in visual range he sent a message to the ships.
They did not reply, so Ironsides presumed that they were hostile. That soon was proven to be right as the crafts started to fire. They dodged, but the crafts continued on their tale.
Suddenly one of the crafts was hit by a vortex and vanished. The other one stopped the chase for a moment. Ironsides then fired a pair of torpedoes and annihilated it.
Without anymore company, they continued their route to their old Outworlds headquarters.
Within hours, they arrived. The first thing that Edward did was start collecting information through the United Front network to see if someone in the Elites knew what was going on.
Hours later, he found that Elite 1 to 6 had been eliminated, and Elite 9 were MIA. All the clues were pointing to someone who knew the Elite’s MO, so it must have been a rogue element from within the organization.
Meanwhile, Ironsides was getting unofficial info from his contacts, and all had one thing in common. It all covered around the planet Northek, one planet that they knew very well from a mission that they had fifteen years ago.
* * * *
THEN
Essex was enraged with the situation, as he was constantly arguing what a waste it was to destroy all the genetic data. Kyroswolf wanted to stick with the plan.
And that was what I did. I started to place explosives around the complex. Moments later we blew up the whole facility.
Even through that minor conflict with Essex, we succeeded in our mission and placed away one more villain out of the game. Next we went to our outpost and here I am, debriefing our mission. So that’s all.
**United Front E7 Mission Log 2335.08.06 – End of Bane´s Report.
* * * *
NOW
“Ed, could it be possible that someone had reactivated Krun Kros’ work and army?”
“It’s quit possible, but with the advancement in Bio-Engineering in the last fifteen years, I really don’t see the logic in that.”
“I think that it’s better we went down to the planet and saw what’s going on.”
“Don, we’re too old for suicide missions, and you can’t risk your Gladiator cover.”
“I won’t risk it, but we really need to go.”
As soon as they gear up some equipment and weapons, lots and lots of weapons, they headed down to the planet.
Two hours later...
On the planet Nothrek.
“It looks well Don, as I don’t scan any possible treats.”
“It’s too calm for my taste Ed.” And before Ironsides could say anything more, their ship was attacked by a horde of robots armed with firepower capable of destroying a small moon.
They tried to take them down with the ship’s weapons. It was hopeless, though, for each time they destroyed one robot, two more showed up into the place of the fallen one.
Edward Kyroswolf decided to take extreme measures. He got up the ship landing safeties and landed the ship right on the top of the robot horde, crushing most of them and ramming the rest. That gave them clear ground to get off the ship.
In moments they entered the now restored facility that they had destroyed years ago...
On their way through the primary chamber, they found new adversaries, but this time it wasn’t robots, it was two mutated humanoids. Ironsides as usual drew his guns. But even with 20 close-range shots on one of the creatures it didn’t go down.
“Ed, this is going to take more time than we expected,” Ironsides informed Kyroswolf as both men prepared to go one-on-one with those creatures.
For Ironsides it was pure joy as this was what he liked to do as a Gladiator, but for Kyroswolf was a little different. Even though he was a War training instructor in the Ophidian Academy in Tigbar, he was feeling too old for this. So he decided to end this in an Elite style... He placed two hand grenades on each side of the hall and ordered Don Bane to retreat, seconds later the grenades exploded killing the two creatures.
After that their path was clear, so their only obstacle was only a metal door blocking their way.
They entered the room. In front of them was a large screen with the E7 symbol. Moments later a face materialized on it...
“ESSEX?” shouted both men in astonishment.
«Greetings Edward and Donald, I was hoping to see you face to face, but as you might know, I’ve a busy schedule.»
“Why all this Christopher?” inquired Kyroswolf.
«Well my friends, you see, the Elites had become compromised, and in this new era controlled by the Ophidian Lords, the service of the Elite’s isn’t needed any more, so I’m shutting down this operation.»
“Ophidian Lords?” asked Ironsides.
«Yes my friend, there’s much, much more than the matches that you fight for the Ophidians. But I’m afraid that neither of you will have time to find it out.» and the large screen shut down, the image of Christopher Essex disappeared turning into the E7 symbol, then into a time count down.
“RUN!” shouted Ironsides to Kyroswolf.
And the entire complex exploded for the second time in fifteen years...
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