G.I. Joe: Doomsday Protocol

Chapter 1: Rumors

What played out on the monitor was clearly a one-sided firefight. A small skirmish that consisted of several against one, their muzzle flashes the only thing visibly registering on the recorded satellite feed. The side of the several seemed to be firing uncontrollably in one direction, while the side of one was patiently firing, choosing its targets.

"There were two TICs like this," said Stalker, standing between the monitor and rows of chairs where seven fellow soldiers sat as his audience. He was older with many in the higher levels of the Pentagon saying his better days were behind him. His eyes, once full of optimism and high morale, were now replaced with guilt and an overwhelming sense of failure. "Then," he continued, pointing to another location on the map, "about thirty minutes later, this happened..." The satellite image zoomed out from the position of the first conflict and zoomed back into where Stalker was now pointing on the map, just half a mile north of the first TIC. "This is where a second TIC took place, which is where I believe the same invisible army of one took another four soldiers out." He took a deep, audible breath, allowing his audience to absorb what he was saying. "We count four soldiers based only on the number and location of muzzle flashes, and we count them dead only due to the lack of further muzzle flashes. We are not sure how many were at the first TIC, meaning we do not know the total number of dead."

Firewall sat in the middle of the rows of chairs. When it came to a fish out of water she fit the bill, her body pulled in tight to herself, mentally confined to a small space of her making. Her short hair pulled back sloppily like a child, held with a rubber band as she tried to make sense out of what Stalker was showing them. Sitting in the room around her was Beach Head and five other members of G.I. Joe, most of them recent green shirt grads that Stalker personally recruited several years after G.I. Joe went into retrograde; Switchback, Chemtrail, Speakeasy, and Stronghold. All were wearing civvies and drinking coffee out of Styrofoam cups. Firewall was a substantial step up of experience from them, but barely.

The seventh member, silently sitting as far from the rest as possible, was Shooter. She had a long history with G.I. Joe, many believing her to be dead many times. What she did during those years of absence was unknown to all but General Hawk.

Shooter quietly watched the others, taking in all of Stalker's verbal information and seemingly absorbing how the other Joes were reacting to it. And while what was once only rumor that Stalker and Shooter once had a thing, their inability to hold eye contact during the briefing was starting to imply truths to those behind-the-back whispers.

"You say they were all invisible, sir?" Beach Head asked in his southern drawl. "Both the attacker and the attacked?" Beach Head was Stalker's choice to lead the team on the ground. Unbeknownst to Beach Head, he was Stalker's second choice, behind Duke. But Stalker knew the top Brass would never allow a Joe zealot like Duke on a mission like this. It would ground it in too much validity, and for now, murmurs were the only truth surrounding this mission. Besides, he knew Beach Head would keep everyone marching forward, including Stalker, and he needed that more and more these days. The doubts and fears were taking hold with ease recently, making it clear to Stalker that his time in the field was almost over. Besides, he was bad luck, and he knew that the higher-ups in G.I Joe felt it. So, he needed a soldier who didn't believe in luck, and Beach Head was that soldier.

"Are we talking Vipers, sir?" added Switchback, his face concealed behind a beard so thick there were rumors that underneath all of that hair was someone uglier than Snake-eyes. He was also a military junky, a fourth generation Ranger who wanted to be one since he was old enough to walk (at least that's what his father told him).

"We most likely are talking Vipers," replied Stalker. "Their body armor does cloak heat signatures."

"Vipers fighting one another? Red on red?" asked Stronghold.