Azy's Origin Story

Azy 1402 hours

Twelve imaginary dog tags left. I had a burning anger in my guts that had nothing to do with the Elites. Already blood in the dark. I had my orders. My lousy orders. I had twelve soldiers left, a big-stinking ship to clean out, and no support of any kind.

I'll give you "spectacular"

They stood around me, around Rabbit's remains, around the dead Elite, silent and waiting. "You heard," I said, looking into each of their faces in turn. Shadowed, murky faces in the flashlight beams, but still those of my soldiers, those of my friends, those of my comrades. "Change of plan, boys and girls. We got Elites on board, so the good captain has invoked the cole protocol. We need to kill the nav system and the backup nav system, that's our primary goal. Ascertaining what the hell is going on here is now our secondary objective. Orlav, you got that rough schematic? See the engine room?"

"Yeah." she didn't sound too enthusiastic.

"All right, Benti, you take CLarence, Orlav, Gersten, and Tsardikos. Your going after the backup down in the engine room. You take care of it, then you get your pretty little butts back u[ here. You see any Elites along the way, you kill the Elites. I don't care if they're happy to see you or not. None of them get off this ship, got it?" I thought that Benti, with Clarence, would be more effective heading things up on that team than Orlav. Orlav did good recon, but she couldn't improvise.

"Yes sir! Benti said already out of the door and slinking down the corridor, the others following her.

"I mean it private! I called out after them, not looking at the thing hidden in Rabbit's body. "You shoot anything you see. Dont let anything get close. Nothing you hear me? And I want your camera drone on, start it up NOW you understand?"

"Saaaaaarge, you know me," Benti called back." I dont let anybody get close." her voice didn't say that at all.

"No gear," Percy said, nudging the Elite with his boot, ripples spreading in the bloodied water. "Not one of these pieces of crap has any gear at all."

"All the batter for us."

"How'd they get on board this ship, commander?" MacCraw asked. "How? Just landed here with no weapons and no gear?"

"Maybe they're prisoners," Rakesh said.

I snorted. "Right because we take so many Elite prisoners." then stopped, a dog tag glinting in my mind. "Where the hell is Ayad?"

We had no good answer.

Now there is one other person whose story is important in your understanding of what we found on this ship, and that is Benti's little exploration on this ship, now Benti is somebody who I became friends with straight away, she helped me fit in, and was also somebody who I cared a lot about, but also somebody who I know can hold her own. And if you want to split hairs, Benti was also my crush on the Maple death, and she knew that, which is one of the reasons we were so close, but now you must learn about her part in this mission, so watch carefully.