Hello everyone, this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction, or fiction in general outside of school projects. Reviews would be appreciated to tell me what I'm doing wrong and what I'm doing right. My goal with this story (and all my future fanfics) is to try and tell an interesting story in an established fiction universe while using minimal amounts of characters from the original works that established the universe. Thanks in advance for reading and I hope you enjoy.
Ryan West felt the cool breeze blow against his face as he watched from his vantage point. In the dark of night he was keeping watch over the road that passed by the hiding place of the 5th Missouri Militia Division. It was a boring task, the 5th MO had found their current base of operations in an abandoned Wal-Mart that was a couple hundred yards from a major roadway, but any aliens that passed down the roadway never even entered the parking lot. Ryan passed the time in a variety of ways, but this night, none of them interested him, so he sat alone in the quiet night, thinking about things, trying to make sense of his life and all that had happened in the last few months.
Life was so normal the day they arrived, he could never have known that by the end of that day, life would be more of struggle than he could ever have imagined. He kept thinking of what he could've done differently. He started the day as he would any other, wake up, shower, breakfast, drive to high school with his brother and sister. But on their way to school, that's when it all started. The alien ships entered the atmosphere and EMPed the planet. No one really knew what was happening at first, unless they were able to directly observe the alien ships. All the cars had stopped, so Ryan and his siblings decide to try walking home, but total chaos had broken out within minutes. The aliens were bombing strategic targets and had unleashed their ground forces, what the resistance had taken to calling skitters and mechs. By the time they had gotten home their parents were gone, Ryan didn't know what had happened to them, but their gun safe was untouched, so while Ryan and his brother Tyler cleaned out the safe, their sister Sarah kept watch outside. But when they got outside, she was gone and-
"Hey Ryan!" A voice said, loudly, into his ear. Startled, Ryan saw it was just his friend, Mark. Mark had been his best friend for most of his life, they were as close as brothers, though Mark always found ways to get himself into trouble, Ryan stuck with his through thick and thin.
"What do you want?" Ryan replied
"Just checking up on you." Mark replied, "but aren't sentries supposed to be a bit more alert, I got right next to you and you didn't even notice till I made you shit your pants."
"I was thinking about some things."
"Like what?"
"None of your business, really."
"Alright, harsh, so, any activity out there tonight?"
"Nothing so far, luckily" Ryan picked up his M24 Sniper Rifle and took a closer look at the road "But it's still early, so who knows who will happen."
"I still think it was a bad idea to pick a place so close to a high traffic area for the aliens."
"It's worked so far, we've been safer than any of the other divisions."
"Fair enough, but-" Mark paused "Did you hear that?"
Ryan heard it, the sounds that haunted him, the sound of the mechs. He quickly scanned the terrain for the location of the sounds and found it, a group of mechs and skitters, moving along the road.
"What do you see? Are they coming towards us?"
"I don't think they are going to attack us, they don't send scouting parties this big, and if they were going to attack us, it wouldn't be from the road." Ryan kept an eye on the group moving along the road, and he spotted the harnessed kids that the aliens were escorting. His heart raced as he looked at the harnessed kids and then he let out quietly "My sister is down there."
Mark started speaking frantically "Well we should do something!"
"I know, I know! But we can't just run in guns blazing. We'll need a plan."
"Well, the way they're going, there can't be too many places they're taking those kids, so tracking her down against should be easy."
"But what are we going to do about the harness?"
"We can figure that out later, but at the very least we can track her down for when we do find a way to remove it."
"We'll need to talk to Captain Fisher about this."
Ryan and Mark spent the rest of the night on the roof, waiting impatiently for morning, bouncing ideas back and forth about how they could pull off a rescue. When morning came and Ryan was relieved from his post, they found their way inside as soon as possible and made a beeline for Captain Fisher's office, formerly the store manager's office, but he didn't really need it anymore. When they got there, Captain Fisher was busy talking to his second in command, Lieutenant Davis. So Ryan and Mark waited outside.
"Mark, do you mind going and finding Tyler, he should know about what I saw."
"Sure Ryan, I'll be back as soon as possible."
And so, Ryan was left alone outside the Captain's office, and he couldn't help but eavesdrop on what was close to becoming a shouting match.
"Captain, I know you have concerns about the safety of your soldiers, but no one in this building is here because they want to hide, they want to fight."
"Davis, we've been through this time and time again, we don't do anything without orders from command. Anything else is a waste of resources."
"We haven't been in contact with command for over a month now, They are probably all dead by this point."
"Well, until we have confirmation of that probably, we are going to continue following our orders, understand?"
"Yes, sir." Davis sighed.
"Good, Lieutenant, you're dismissed." Fisher said, with a tone that made it clear the conversation was over.
Ryan watched Lieutenant Davis pass by him as he left. Ryan could see the frustration in his face. After waiting a few second, Ryan knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Ryan approached Captain Fisher, a man of average height, bald and clean shaven, with a hard, intimidating face, he wore an Army uniform that seem a bit too clean when considering what the rest of the world looked like and he had a sternness about him, from his posture to his facial expression. He knew the Captain was in his sixties as well, and it must've been part of the reason he hardly ever left his desk.
"What do you need, boy?" Captain Fisher said, with more than a bit of condescension.
"I was hoping for your permission to go on a scouting mission, I saw my sister while I was on watch duty last night, she was part of a group of harnessed kids being moved somewhere. I want to find out where they are taking her, sir."
"No." Fisher said sternly.
"But sir-"
"Listen, boy, I can't risk exposing our location just so you can "rescue" your sister. Remember, we can't even remove those harnessed without killing the person who was harnessed."
"So you expect me to just abandon her?"
"Not abandon, just understand that we are fighting a war and we have to put our emotions aside until the war is won." Fisher got up from behind his desk and walked over to Ryan and put a hand on his shoulder. "I understand this will be hard for you and your brother, I'll let you both take a couple of days to rest and clear your heads."
Ryan tried to think of a way to argue with Fisher, but nothing came to mind, so he simply said "Yes, sir."
"Good, remember, we have a war to win, boy. Plenty of time to rescue the harnessed kids after we drive the skitters from our planet. Now go get some rest."
"Yes, sir." Ryan said, resentfully. He walked out of the office and found Mark and Tyler approaching.
"When are we leaving, Ryan?" he heard Tyler ask.
"Fisher said it was too risky and that we wouldn't be able to help her anyway."
"I didn't ask what Fisher said, I asked when we are leaving."
"Well, in that case, the answer is midnight."
The trio went and got their breakfast after the decision had been made that they were going to sneak out. Afterwards, they spent the rest of the day trying to make preparations without being too obvious about their intentions. Ryan took the time to stop by the heavily improvised medical center to speak to the closest thing the 5th MO had to a doctor, which was a former SWAT medic.
"Hey Doctor Warren, you have a minute to talk?"
"You know I hate it when people call me that, Ryan."
"That's why I do it, Mike."
"Anything you need Ryan or did you just feel the need to grace me with your presence?"
"I wanted to ask you about something, the harnesses, what do you know about removing them?"
"I know that just yanking on them will kill the victim, I heard about some other groups trying to remove the harness by cutting the spikes but the victim never survived long, they might've made some more progress by now, but we haven't had any news from the outside for a while now, why are you asking about this?"
"Just curious."
"Are you up to something, Ryan?"
"Nope, honestly, nothing planned."
Mike shook his head, "Whatever you do or don't have planned, just don't get yourself hurt, I don't want to have to stitch your whiny ass up again."
"Will do, Doctor Warren."
Ryan left, knowing that even if Mike had some suspicion of what he was planning to do, he wouldn't go to Captain Fisher about it. Ryan had one more stop before he tried to get some rest. He found his way to the closest thing they had to an armory and sat himself down on a table next to someone cleaning their weapon.
"So how do you manage to get your weapon dirty when we haven't had anything to shoot at for over a month?"
"Shut up Ryan."
"Oh come on, it was only a joke, Alaina."
"I know, and I was only joking when I told you to shut up."
"Very funny of you."
"So what do you need, Ryan?"
"Damn, why does everyone think I need something today."
"Well, do you need something?"
"Yes…"
"Well then spit it out."
"You're on sentry duty tonight, right? Well I need you to… let's say turn a blind eye to something, I'm going out with Mark and Tyler and I don't want anyone knowing about it."
"Why are you going out?"
"I can't really tell you."
"Fine, but you owe me big time, Ryan West."
"Fine, Alaina Thompson."
"I'm going to be on the east side of the perimeter. Near the trees."
"We're leaving at midnight, we should be back before your shift is over, so don't go sounding the alarm on us by accident."
"I won't."
"Thanks Alaina, I'll see you later." Ryan got up and left to find his bed and get whatever rest he could.
Ryan did not sleep well that evening, but that was the rule rather than the exception at this point. He woke up at about half an hour before midnight and he quickly gathered his equipment, consisting mainly of his M24 sniper rifle and his 1911 handgun. He met up with his brother and friend on the eastern side of the building, in the loading dock.
"Everyone ready?"
"Yes Ryan, we're ready, now let's go." Mark replied.
"Alright, here's the plan, we'll head east through the trees for a couple hundred yards, then head up to the road and follow that until we find Sarah."
"Let go already." Tyler said, looking anxious to get moving.
The group proceeded out of the loading docks, past the damaged semi where Ryan knew Alaina was stationed that night, acknowledging her with a wave. They continued into the forest, but as soon as they well out of sight of the building, Ryan, who was in front, stopped, and signaled for the other two to halt. He heard the all too familiar sound of the alien mechs somewhere off in the distance in front of him.
He turned and faced the other two and whispered "Mech." followed by "I'm going ahead to take a look, you two stay here, if you hear gunfire, run like hell and alert everyone else." and before they had a chance to protest, Ryan was moving swiftly and quietly, thanks to his father's constant insistence on taking him hunting, towards the sound of the mech.
Ryan eventually found himself on the edge of a small clearing, he could see the silhouettes of a skitter, mech and harnessed kid at the far side of the clearing, he managed to quickly find a spot to conceal himself before they could notice him, and he waited to see what they were doing.
And his wait wasn't long, as an adult man stepped into the clearing from roughly the same direction as he had come. He walked to the middle and ended up face to face with the skitter and the harnessed child. Ryan's only thought was that there must be a traitor in the 5th MO. Ryan waited patiently in the brush, hoping he would get some hint as to who the traitor was. But all he could see was that the man was talking to the harnessed child and he couldn't hear them. Ryan wanted to get closer, but there was no way he could move any closer without being seen.
After what seemed like hours but was probably just a few minutes, the meeting ended. The aliens headed back into the forest from the way they came, and the man started heading back towards base, and just as he was about to leave his line of site, he stepped into the moonlight and Ryan saw the last man he expected.
Captain Fisher was a traitor.
Thanks again for reading, and remember to review and give me feedback to tell me what you liked and what you didn't like, so I can improve as a writer. Goodbye for now.
