Starcraft

-This has become a little too long to be squeezed into two parts so im changing it into a three part story instead my my original two. I've just started writing again and will, hopefully, have the rest up soon along with the next pat of A Marine's Story.-

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Deadly Tide II

“You have reached your destination.” Came the computer’s monotone voice, the doors dinged and opened, “Enjoy your stay here on Moon base Alpha.”
Jennings and Ken disembarked from the tram without a word to one another. They hadn’t walked 10 feet from the car when they heard a panicked voice calling out, “Captain Jennings! Captain Jennings!”
Jennings turned to see who was calling to him, and his mouth curled into a faint smile once he caught sight of the man. A short, slightly overweight man with short black hair and horn-rimmed glasses sprinted up to the duo and placed his hands on his knees. “Easy, Scales.” Jennings laughed as the pilot tried to talk, “Catch your breath, boy.”
Scales nodded in between deep breaths, “Yes sir.” Jennings and Ken waited until Scales’ breathing returned to normal, “Sir, Colonel Matthews is waiting for you at the top of the tower, sir.”
Jennings couldn’t help but smile, “Thank you, Scales. I’ll head right up there. Thank you for informing me.”
“Not a problem, sir” Scales saluted and boarded their empty tram.

Jennings started back off towards the elevator, Ken following soon after. Scales was another one of Jennings pilots. He was fairly decent but whenever he was at the base, he had a nasty habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time… all the time. Plus, the man ate like there was no tomorrow and since Jennings relied on the honor system to keep his pilots in the gym and in shape, Scales used that to his advantage to become a lazy, fat ass when not in his cockpit. Matthews disapproved of Jennings method, but, since Scales was the only problem, he devised a brilliant plan to get him to exercise. Whenever he needed to summon someone to him he would tell Scales that it was urgent and then have him run off and fetch them as quickly as he could. When he would ask the Colonel, “Why not call them on your personal communicator?” he would give a lame excuse such as “It’s not working right now” or “I left it in my other uniform”. Unable to argue, Scales would begin his long run through the many corridors of the base in search of the summonie.

Meanwhile, Matthews would pull out his personal communicator and call whoever he needed to talk to, leaving Scales jogging around the base in search of someone who was already in the Colonel’s presence. On the rare occasion Scales intercepted the person before they made it to the Colonel; they would play along with the plan and then send Scales on his way. Amazingly, it seemed to be working. Scales was too busy to continually stuff his face with food and what ever other body fat he had accumulated seemed to be disappearing due to his unintentional exercising.

Jennings and Ken boarded an elevator full of people, one of which was a young mother trying to control five small children. After hitting the button for their floor, Jennings rested up against the wall. The children were acting up, screaming, and hitting each other, being kids. If Jennings and Ken were on speaking terms he would have looked over at him and rolled his eyes. But he didn’t and kept his eyes forward. As soon as the doors shut the smallest of the children rushed out of the mother’s line of sight and pressed every single floor button on the elevator. The mother quickly grabbed the child by the shirt collar and pulled him back to her, apologizing to the other occupants of the tiny cubical.

Once they made it to the next floor, Jennings motioned to Ken and mumbled, “Stairs.” They both disembarked from the elevator. They could hear the mother begin to discipline the child as the doors closed. As they walked away Jennings couldn’t help thinking, “Is that really what I have to look forward to?”
“Kids, huh?” Ken laughed awkwardly. Jennings nodded without breaking stride. Without warning, Ken jumped in front of Jennings, blocking his path. “Sam, promise me something.” Jennings looked Ken directly in the eye, when he didn’t reply, Ken continued, “Promise me that you’ll go home the next chance you get, please. You need it more than anyone here. Please, go home, meet your son, spend sometime with your wife. You miss her, and I’m pretty sure she misses you too. “
Jennings put his hand on Ken’s shoulder and smiled, “Don’t worry Ken, in two weeks I’m going home, and you’re coming with me. I want my son to meet his father and Uncle Ken at the same time.”
Jennings let go of Ken and continued the long walk up to the top of tower 4.

Jennings felt a bead of sweat drip down the side of his head just as he reached the top of the stairs. Both he and Ken sprinted up enormous flight of steps and were breathing heavily. Swallowing hard, Jennings opened the door to the hall. A very deep voice greeted them as they entered the hall, “Captain.” Jennings turned and looked directly into an extremely muscular chest. Looking up, he saw a very large, black, bald head. Jennings smiled, “Ah, so there’s my number one in kills. How you doing War?”
“The Colonel is waiting for you inside, sir.” War stepped aside and folded his arms, presenting the door to the control room. “Oh, my bad. Sorry, War.” Jennings said as he walked past him, “I forgot you were never one for small talk.” War gave a faint smile before turning back to the hall. He looked a lot more like an oversized security guard than a pilot.

Jennings walked into the overcrowded control room. Swarms of flight controllers typed madly into hundreds of computers. Four large screens sat in the center of the room, each showing the status of a different Wraith squadron. Jennings peered out of the enormous rectangular panes of glass that ran all around the control tower. He stared intently at his homeworld; the blue, green orb captivated him. Suddenly a hand slapped him on the back very hard, sending him forward a few steps. “Ah, Captain Jennings, you’ve finally arrived.” A cheerful voice laughed, “It sure took you long enough, did Scales end up telling you?”
Jennings smiled and chuckled slightly. He turned and faced his Commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Matthews. “Well come, come now. I have to talk to you about something. Quickly, to my office.” Matthews lead the way.
“Yes, sir.” Jennings responded and followed.

Lieutenant Colonel Matthews was an extremely cheerful man. His personality brightened the mood of any room he entered instantly. He was a gifted tactical as well. Nearly every victory they won came from Colonel Matthews’ leadership. He’d taken command of Jennings’ squadron during several major battles, but, for the most part, he let Jennings run things his way. But still Jennings disliked this man for two reasons. One: he tried to become a “father figure” to Jennings. He’d go out of his way to give him special treatment that Jennings would always turn down. He’d even attempted to send Jennings home on one of his own personal leaves on four separate occasions. He could barely stand his own father, what would make him think he’d want another one?

But the big thing that Jennings hated was his view on the battlefield. There was no “retreat” in his dictionary, no “surrender” or “mercy”. During each and every encounter he would, utterly, crush his opponents. He would not be satisfied unless every enemy ship was turned into space debris. His methods for acquiring this victory were borderline brutal. Jennings would watch, helplessly, as Matthews sent in squads of fresh recruits into the center of pirate battle formations to split them up and scatter so that the rest of the squadron would pick them off in one on one fights. While this method worked in our favor, the pilots who flew into the center of the formations rarely made it out alive. Jennings recalled the first time Matthews used this tactic with his squadron. He watched in horror as Matthews sent his newest recruits to their doom. After that battle, Jennings made sure he would never again use that tactic with men again, and forced him to use other, safer battle plans.

All in all he was a good leader. They had never suffered any major casualties under his command. Jennings just could never forget how he sent so many young kids to their deaths like that. It seemed that the man had no heart when it came to human lives in war. Matthews took his seat at the desk and motioned for Jennings to do the same. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important by calling you up here today.” Matthews propped his feet up on his desk.
Jennings gave a fake smile and said, “Nothing really, sir.”
“Good, cause I have some good news for you, son.” Jennings pretended to look interested as he went on, “I don’t have to tell you that the Apocalypse squadron has the highest number of kills that any other here at Moon Base Alpha, and all thanks to you, and lieutenant Valletti,” he added quickly seeing Ken in the corner, “Your efforts against the pirate scum have sent them fleeing back to their last Stronghold with their tales between their legs.” Jennings couldn’t help but grin slightly, “And I myself have observed what a talented leader you really are. Your men seem to like you a lot Captain, and, if I’m not mistaken, I think they’ve taken a shine to me as well.” Matthews smiled, “Is it true that your men came up with your call sign?”
“Yes sir, it is. And my flight leaders’ as well.” Jennings informed him.
“Ooh, I hope they give me one of the Four Horsemen’s names. I sure do like those.”
Jennings smiled politely, “I’m sorry sir, but those names are reserved and belong to the squadrons’ top aces.”
“Oh, no matter then. Anyway,” he went on, “The brass has made the decision to speed up your leave, captain.” He finished with a huge smile on his face.
Jennings was shocked, “Why…thank you sir, but I don’t think that would be fair to-“
Matthews cut him off, “Ah, no excuses this time, Sam, your going home in two days and that’s the end of it. You’ve been up here longer than anyone else. If you came here trying to set some kind of record, you did it a long time ago and nothing is going to stop you from getting on the transport. I’ll pack your bags, tie you up, and throw you on that Dropship myself if it comes down to it, do you understand?”
Jennings let out a long sigh, there was no way out of it this time.

Just as Jennings was about to respond, an alarm sounded behind him. They quickly looked at one another and ran out to see what was wrong. Matthews got there first, “Private, what’s the situation?”
“An unidentified group of ships was just picked up by our scanners.” The private said hitting a series of buttons.
“Try hailing them on radio.”
“I tried sir, nothing. And we can’t visibly identify them yet.”
“Contact me as soon as you can. That looks too large to be a pirate fleet.”
“Could the convoy from Mars have left early?” Ken asked.
“Not likely,” Matthews stated, “Mars is under the strict command of General Taylor, the sumbitchs over there wouldn’t so much as sneeze with out his approval.” Mathews sighed heavily and looked Jennings in the eye.
Jennings nodded, “I’m on it.” He said as he ran out.
“Sam!” Matthews stopped him, “Be careful.”
Jennings smiled, “You know me, sir.”
“That’s why I said something.” He turned and faced the four screens.

Jennings and Ken burst out of the control tower door. War stood on the opposite side of the hallway, as if he was waiting for them. “Let’s go War, we got us a problem.”
“Roger that, sir.” came the man’s deep, rough voice.
“What’s the plan, Sam?” Ken asked as War joined stride with them.
“Reconnaissance. We need to find out what the fuck has decided to drop in on us.” Jennings threw open the door and began jumping down the stairs, taking the steps three or four at a time.
“Hostilities, sir?”
“Unknown, but since it’s not an earth fleet and not a pirate fleet, I’m guessing we might have to light a few fires.” Ken and War looked at one another, smiles quickly formed.

Jennings was in such a rush to get out there that he only had one arm through his flight suits armholes before he began zipping it up. “Let’s go people; we needed to be out there five minutes ago!” Jennings shouted to his pilots, “Roll call: War…”
“Here.”
“Pest…”
“Here.”
“Famine…”
“Here.”
“Scythe…” no answer, Jennings yelled louder, “SCYTHE!”

The locker room door hissed open and in the doorway stood a slender, sexy female body, “Don’t think you’re going out there without me, Death.” came the woman’s icy voice.
Jennings prepped his suits pressure gauges and grabbed his gloves all while not taking an eye off the woman in the doorway, “Alex, get your hot ass into your suit and start acting like a professional.”
She calmly strolled over to her locker and began undressing, “Oh, like you’re one to talk. What would your wife do if she found out about you and me? Huh?”
Jennings laughed, “You must be confusing me with every other man in this squadron, Scythe. You and me have never hooked up, I’ve always be faithful to Sara.”

It was true, he never touched her. Although he was tempted to every once and a while, Jennings knew how to control his urges. Alex, on the other hand, couldn’t. Her sexual desires knew no bonds. She’d slept with every male pilot in his squadron and he was pretty sure she sunk her claws into some of the other base personal as well. Her most recent “boyfriend” happened to be Ken. But it wasn’t his place or his nature to pry; all he wanted to do was make sure everyone got the story straight, lest it get back to Sara. “Oh yeah,” she laughed coldly and removed her top, she wasn’t wearing underwear, and rarely ever did, “But you can’t say that you’ve never thought about it.”
Jennings grabbed his helmet and started off to his Wraith, “No I can’t say that I haven’t, but that’s not the point, is it? There’s a big difference between thoughts and actions, babe. Actions are what make us who we are.” He locked on his helmet and ran off to the hangar bay.
“Aint that the truth.” Alex smiled.

Over all, Jennings liked her. She was an excellent pilot, calm under pressure, she demanded nothing lower than perfection from her flight element. Her leadership abilities had surprised Jennings since her first day with his squadron. To the average pilot that encountered her, she seemed like a cold, heartless bitch, but if you were lucky enough to get her alone and pierce through her thick coat of armor you’d see that she was warm hearted, kind woman. She was funny, smart, and seductive. Her soft, tan skin complimented her long, chestnut brown hair. She wore just the right amount of make-up so that she could turn every head in the hallway she walked down and when she looked at you, you could almost feel those dark eyes pierce right down to your core.

Jennings had almost fallen for her once. It was the end of her fourth week at the base and Jennings had just finished running her through some tough, one-on-one maneuvers against him. The base was in the shadow of the planet and most of the base was asleep. It was just the two of them in the locker room as they changed. It was almost completely dark save the slim beam of light that ran down the middle of the room.

He turned off the water, wrapped a towel around himself and walked out of the showers. “You did well today, Alex.” He told her, “I had my doubts but you proved me wrong.” Jennings opened up his locker door when he heard a muffed sob come from the opposite bench. He paused and turned around. Alex was sitting on the bench, in nothing but a towel, head in hands, crying her eyes out. “Alex, what’s wrong?” he asked and began making his way towards her. When she first spoke he almost didn’t recognize her, she’d lost the icy edge her voice had from day one, “I shouldn’t be here.” She sobbed.
“What are you talking about?”
“I shouldn’t be here. I-I thought I’d be able to forget about it once I was stationed somewhere else but I can’t forget.”
“Can’t forget what?”
She lifted her head up, her eyes sparkled with tears, “I lied, Sam. I lied so I could become a pilot.” her head fell back into her hands and she continued to cry.
Jennings wasn’t really sure what was going on, part of him wanted to just leave her be and let her work this out on her own, but something else told him that she wouldn’t be able to. So he took a seat next to her and put his arm around her bare shoulders.

“A few years ago, I was involved with some really bad people. My parents tried to warn me about them but I didn’t want to hear it. I eventually ran away from home cause I was sick of there crap. Little did I know that they were right and that they only wanted what was best for me. Anyways one day we decided that we were tired of living like poor people so we went to rob a bank.”

At this point she wrapped her arms around him and held on tight, like he might run away, “They were all killed, the police shot and killed all my friends, and I had just barely escaped. They caught up with me a few days later but I had hid the money that we had managed to steal in a safe location. I did three years in a federal prison and an extra six months for not giving up the location of the cash. When I was released, I didn’t know where to go; all my friends were dead so they couldn’t offer me shelter. For a while I considered going back home but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. So I sat down and thought real hard on what it is I could still do with my pathetic life.”

She stopped crying and smiled, “I’d wanted to be a pilot ever since I was a little girl, and I loved the feel of being up in the air, with no restrictions, no rules. So I decided to enlist and become a fighter pilot. I retrieved the money and changed my name and appearance.” She chuckled, “I’ve never been so nervous in my life. When the officer asked me if I had major law violations I felt as though my heart was going to burst out of my chest. I calmly replied “no” and he signed my papers. So you see, I don’t belong here, I’m nothing but a lying thief. I don’t deserve this!” she buried her head back into his chest and started crying again.

Jennings was at a loss for words. She had lied about committing a major crime to a military officer, who, in turn, allowed her into a very exclusive area of the military. He pondered over whether or not he should report her. If he did, she would probably be sent to prison for the rest of her life. If not she could endanger him and the rest of his squadron. Jennings took a deep breath and looked deep inside his heart for the right answer. “Alex, look at me.” He said, she lifted her head up once more and looked him in the eye, “You do belong here. You’re an exceptional pilot, one of the best I’ve seen up here. I’m absolutely certain that you’ll be an indispensable part of this squadron.”
She sniffed, “You mean it?”
“Yes, in fact, based on what I saw out there today I was thinking about offering you a promotion. I want you to be a flight leader.”
Her eyes grew wide with shock, she tried to move her mouth but no words came out. She quickly buried her head back into him and cried. But these were tears of joy, joy that she had finally found somewhere she belonged.

If there was a perfect time to kiss here it would have been right then. When she regained her composer, she sat up and they just looked at each other for the longest time. He wanted to do it, she wanted him to do it, but he just couldn’t. So they just sat there, in the darkness of the locker room. She finally smiled and hugged him, “Thank you so much, Sam. I love you.”

Jennings returned the hug but remained silent, very aware of how heavy his wedding ring was.

Ever since then she’d offered to scout out any location that Jennings asked for. He guessed she felt like she still owed him for what he did for her. Because of the passion she put into her assignments, her subordinates quickly gave her the call sign of Scythe, Death’s weapon of choice.

“All systems go, Captain Jennings.” The computer’s, monotone voice informed him. Jennings double checked the readings and tapped the fuel gauge twice to make sure he was getting an accurate reading, “Alright then, begin launch sequence.”
The machine rumbled to life beneath him. The cockpit vibrated as the engines started up, Jennings gripped the stick and prepared to lift off. “Sam, come in.” came Colonel Matthews’ voice threw his radio.
“Go ahead, sir. Any clues as to what might be out there?”
“Not yet, but what ever these things are they’re moving in a formation I’ve never seen before. No human fleet could ever configure their ships like this.”
“That’s cheerful news.” Jennings replied sarcastically, he was airborne and moving out of the hangar bay behind some of his quicker squadron mates.
“Smart-ass.” Matthews growled, “I’ve authorized the use of nuclear weaponry for this mission, seeing as how no one knows what you’ll encounter out there. And I don’t have to tell you about the rules of engagement.”
“Do not fire, unless fired upon. Roger that, sir.”
“And you are only to deploy those nukes if-“
“-if we lose complete control of the situation.” Jennings finished for him. Even if the need did arise, Jennings would try his best to find an alternate way to regain control. Only once has he had to deploy nuclear weapons before and he’s regretted that day ever since. “You know it better than anyone. Godspeed son.”
“Thank you, sir. Jennings out.” He pulled back on the stick so he could get a clearer look at the hangar bay as he switched channels, “Alright boys and girls form up. Flight leaders get your men in order. Standard formation, War your flight will be on my right, Pest, you’ll be on my left, Scythe, you’ll be on his left, and Famine, you’re on my wing.”
A series of ‘Roger that’s came through his headset. Jennings took his place at the front of the pack and took in a deep breath. Jennings looked over his right shoulder to see Ken falling into position. “We’re in formation, sir.” came Pest’s voice over the channel.
“So are we.” War’s voice echoed in his ear.
“As are we.” Scythe informed him.

Jennings’ heart began racing, “Listen up. As most of you already know, an unidentified group of ships has appeared in our sector. They’re not in any formation that we’ve ever seen so that means they aren’t the pirate scum we’re used to mopping up.” A few soft laughs came through the radio, “They are outside of our senor range and no ships can visibly identify them yet. We are, truly going up against an unknown enemy. I want everyone to stay sharp and listen to your flight leaders. Our last engagements have been flawless, and I want to continue our streak just as badly as you do.” He smiled somewhat, “We don’t want to put a black mark on our reputations do we?”
“Hell no!”
“No one can stand up to us!”
“We’re the strongest squadron there is!” battle cries and cheers of the sort filled the comm. channel. When all the fuss quieted down, an unknown voice came through, “Don’t worry sir, we’ll send these fucks back to wherever it is they came from. No one messes with the Apocalypse Squadron or Captain Jennings!”
The man’s short, little speech was complimented by a massive roar of agreement. Jennings couldn’t help laughing. “Alright, alright quite down.” Jennings ordered, “Let’s make good on that statement and show these bastards whose boss!”