Prologue

Inside the Universal Propulsions head office building on Earth it was business as usual for the multi billion credit company that provided the booster engines for roughly seventy percent of the space faring vehicles across humanity's vast colonies for the last fifty or so years since the company's creation by its late CEO Jackson Cowry. From the smaller shuttles to largest military grade battleships UP had its reach in almost every bit of space territory.

But that wasn't all the UP had in its pockets, it had a number of secretive projects known only to its top suits. With the company being handed down to CEO Jackson's son, Jameson Cowry. Jameson quickly saw the potential for a private security force, known as SAT, Security Assault Team for the various Company buildings that were placed across the colonies in space. This proved to be a very successful idea since the security kept the employees safe while providing excellent protection of their company's internal secrets while avoiding general suspicion from the law.

However, as inter-Company tactics and espionage grew more aggressive and advanced, Jameson saw the need for an even more advanced force of militaristic forces to further secure his family's company position as one of the greats. He quickly and discreetly began to fund the UPSMF on a remote moon in a system that had been deemed "unfit" for habitation and too low on minerals for even mining.

The Universal Propulsions Special Military Force base Echelon on the moon of Theta XII was where over two thousand personal, military and scientist alike, lived and worked for extended periods extending the UPSMF's arsenal of tools. This lead to the creation of the Special Assault Squad or SAS program, this expensive program took hand chosen individuals from the SAT and gave them further, more rigorous training regime to perfect their combat skills.

With that, no SAS was ever "rookie" in the sense they had never seen combat, most candidates had seen a firefight or two, death and all that nice stuff that gave people nightmares. Jameson had to tread lightly with this however, since the training broke several laws on brutality and other things he didn't wish to mention to anyone he didn't think needed to know.

That was why Michelle Santiago sat in her office inside UP Earth Headquarters, her nicely decorated office was furbished for both comfort and professionalism with a cold air that her position demanded, at forty-three she was well aged with a red hair, nicely tanned skin and sharp green eyes that showed knowledge beyond her years. She had been in the company for nineteen years, starting off as a secretary, working her way up to office manager of the economic branch and now, after three years of training and briefing into the more secret side of the company. Manager of the UPSMF branch.

On her real mahogany desk was her console, a cup of coffee and other documents and devices for her office life. Grabbing said coffee she lifted it to her lips and sipped at it, it had gone cold, but it still gave her the energy she needed after her sixteen hour shift of filing through the various SAS files.

So many people, all former SAT officers, she thought as her eyes moved over each line of data detailing the thirty some operatives names, rank and other basic information. It was tedious as more of the teams were either "Deployed" or "On Leave", it didn't surprise her, the SAS were often called to other UP buildings on special assignments for the various branch managers.

"Ma'am, we have received an encrypted message from agent Watts, it's marked as Red urgent," her personal secretary's voice came through the small intercom on her desk. "Shall I patch it through?"

Michelle blinked. Red urgent? She quickly straightened herself out and nodded. "yes, please." she waited.

"This Watts! UPSMF base Echelon, this is a Code Red alert message! Please send Sterilization team to USG-Ishimura! I repeat! Send sterilization team to-" There was a burst of pulse rifle fire, an inhuman screech and sounds of struggle as Michelle listened. "-Uck! No! No! Pleas-" she closed the message. She didn't need to hear the rest to figure out his fate.

She turned back to her screen, typed a command and quickly found a single team that was marked "Inactive", Sabre team was currently on standby on Echelon base and that was good, it was commanded by Lieutenant Micheal Wallcott, a personal friend of Michelle from their short time as pencil pushers.

She brought up the teams files on her screen. Micheal Wallcott, First Lieutenant, forty-two and SAT officer for nine years, SAS Squad leader for seven years, Sabre Team leader, she was impressed with the record of the man as more of his information scrolled across her screen. His deployments, achievements and background information.

Next was Yuri Ackerson. The Second-In-Command of Sabre team and former SAT drill sergeant. Currently Gunnery Sergeant, joined the Company as hired drill instructor, left the military in favor of UP and joined the SAS program as one of the first candidates, was out once, then passed second attempt two years later with flying colors, Michelle didn't comment on his more rugged appearance that appealed to her. Instead she shuffled past the file and moved onto the others.

Noah Inuwa, second newest addition to the team. Former SAT officer for five years and SAS for eight months, passed exam after second attempt and was placed with Sabre, Lance Corporal, shows extreme aptitude for computer expertise, current tech. Michelle scanned the rest of the file, nothing out of the ordinary, until something caught her eye. "Former unitologist, huh." the man didn't strike her as religious.

John Henderson, young, smart and an excellent shot. Lance Corporal, been with SAS for two years, SAT for seven, newest addition to Sabre and second in standing with Inuwa on tech skills, demoted once for fraternization with Echo Team's marksman, Michelle rolled her eyes. The young man had the look of a womanizer alright.

Michelle sipped more of her coffee while oddhandedly tapping a key on her console, bringing up the profile for Carter Varone, a liaison between the corporate and military branches of the United Propulsion. She quickly opened a com to his personal room, it beeped once, twice…

"Hello, ma'am," he sounded slightly groggy, she guessed he must have been sleeping. "Need something?"

"Yes, I need you to go to Echelon and brief a team on the mission file I am sending you, this is to remain discreet as usual, tell no one but the pilot, the team and Colonel Cartwright, understood?" she didn't need to ask, but it made her feel powerful, a guilty pleasure.

"Ma'am, understood," the com closed and she resumed looking over the files of the other two, finishing her coffee and quickly preparing the mission file, encrypting it and then sending it to Varone. She suddenly felt drained once all her work was done and she pressed her intercom.

"I am not to be bothered for the next eight hours," she didn't even wait for the reply before she leaned back on her leather chair, closed her eyes and drifted off into a light, dreamless sleep.

Varone had checked over the mission file once he received it, he had been a liaison to the Military branch of UP for little over three years now and the pay was good for just talking, giving a briefing and travelling, easy money for him and he liked it that way. This mission however sounded like something out of a horror film, he somewhat pitied the team who had to take it on. Even as he boarded the shuttle to Echelon he couldn't shake the feeling that something big was coming.

End of Prologue