Marching Fleet

Episode 7: Final Preparations

[Calm fanfare. Slow pan across Bass Clef station. Into window of space station tavern. Music lowers to silence. Through window loud noise of glasses clanging and officers and civilians talking. Camera stops at a table with a man with a dark cloak. Shots of different people talking to each other. From marines to officers, and men and friend chattering about the fleet and the order and the ships and the people. The cloaked man swirls his drink and glances around sharply from person to person, side to side. A man in officer's clothing sits down in front of the cloaked man]

Parra: it's been a long time.

Man: Sssh.

[Man tilts head back signalling to the men at the table behind him. Commander Parra leans his head and looks at the men behind them.]

Parra: I haven't seen you in this station since the start of the rebellion.

Man: Which one?

Parra: This rebellion.

Man: Sorry... it's been too long to remember.

Parra: In a war, three years is not long... General Haley.

[Man un cloaks himself and leans in. Curious theme plays]

Haley: I am no longer a General, and for a rebellion, three years is everything Commander.

Parra: You may no longer be General of the Brass rebellion. But you may still help your allies.

Haley: You want a man that lost to help you win?

Parra: Not just me. But the entire new rebellion, everyone in this bar, everyone in this station. Not just that, but another friend of yours.

Haley: Wolf? I heard he's the General. The man that started the new rebellion from the ashes of the old.

Parra: The man has a deep respect for the old. Especially someone as ancient as yourse-

[The suspicious men behind them suddenly stand with rifle ready. Haley stands and turns with a special pistol in hand and shoots both in chest and then head before both can fire.]

Haley: Ancient, Commander?

Parra: Ancient but still kicking.

Haley: Damn right.

Parra: So what do you say?

Haley: I say I need to talk to the General.

[Cut to bridge of the SS Mongrel.]

K: The High Brass General is here.

Wolf: I know.

K: Are you sure he's the man?

Wolf: I'm sure he's the man we need. If he is the General or not, we need him for this campaign K4.

K: Understood General, but careful, he's dangerous.

Wolf: I know. But so am I.

[Haley steps through bridge door alone.]

Wolf: General.

Haley: No sir, you're the General now.

Wolf: I grew accustomed to the name back in the battle of New Russia. Do you remember?

Haley: The memory is hazy but yes. For three days you and myself held out continuous fire from heavy infantry in a frozen cave.

Wolf: If Brass know how to do anything, it's survive.

Haley: I've heard from the Commander that you wish to offer me a role in the new campaign.

Wolf: Yes.

Haley: What role would that be General.

Wolf: You'd be the Commander of a planetary assault force made up of enough troops to conquer a capital planet.

Haley: What capital planet would that be General?

Wolf: Earth, Commander.

Haley: Huh. Sounds like an impossible task only imagined by an insane son of a bitch with suicidal tendencies.

Wolf: I have been known to being an insane son of a bitch.

Haley: It's been years since I've commanded a force as great as this.

Wolf: Then you must be starving for some action Commander.

Haley: You know me well.

Wolf: I know myself.

Haley: Then you know us.

[Both shake hands]

Wolf: You shall be assigned a specialized ship for the campaign. Dismissed.

[Commander Haley leaves]

K: He seems nice.

Wolf: He's me.

K: He's not my General.

Wolf: He was once my General in the rebellion.

K: Is this not the rebellion?

Wolf: There was once another. The High Brass rebellion inspired this fleet to rise up as it's successors when the old failed.

K: How did it end?

Wolf: At the planet of New Alaska, a frozen white wasteland with no noticeable day or night cycle only little more or a little less light. Our orbital defense fleet was crumbled by the full force of the Woodwind concentrated fleet. Our forces were located in a base on the surface. While most officers and civilians were located deep underground. We held out orbital bombardment for no more than a week. Millions of our forces on the surface were obliterated. Commander Haley; at the time General Haley, rallied our civilian forces, promising them a warrior's death to all, a martyr, an example, a spark that would light the fire to burn the house of cards of the Woodwind order. Our friends died, by the thousands, we fought with every weapon we had till the end. Our guns emptied, our blades were dull, our fists bled, and our minds crippled, our bodies gave up. But still few of us survived, I snuck between the bodies of my fallen friends and loved ones into an assault drop ship and found my way through the Woodwind blockade. I scuttled my barely living body through the star system onto a small settlement station, people there helped me. After sometime people heard of what the brass had done at New Alaska, and who I was. The civilians were inspired... and so ended the Old Rebellion, and so began the new.

K: You weren't destined to die there.

Wolf: I should've died with the rest of them.

K: You lived to lead the flame to the order.

Wolf: No, I lived to keep the flame alive, long enough for it to reach the order. It's time to burn some cards down.

[Somber fanfare. Credits. End]