The Syndicate
Chapter 1
I awoke with a jolt. Abnormally fast breathing accompanied the long, deep pants I was experiencing. Why did this always have to happen in the middle of a good dream? It seemed like every good thing I dreamt about suddenly erupted into flames, or was abruptly covered by pools of blood. I took it as an obvious sign....a frustrated sign slapping me in the face after being ignored too much. It's not all I was ignoring. Recent ...problems in the group were complicating everything, it seemed. The others said that they had it handled, but I had my doubts. Being 2nd in squad command wasn't so bad....it's exactly what I was aiming for. I've never wanted to be the head-man, and get blamed for 50,000 troops at the battle of Gettysburg, or for 15 Rangers in a raid aimed at Somalia. I was good at being in command, but honestly...I didn't really need the responsibility of coming up with the ideas. It was always better when someone else was giving you the orders. The steady beat of the song "Perhance to Dream" got me going. It was about....5 a.m., and I was already ready to get out of my bed....at least for a few moments. I needed something inspirational. I yawned deeply. "Michelle." I mumbled. A slight techno-sweep sound was made before a flickering image of a young girl with bunny ears and a tail came into view on the table in front of me.
"~yawn~ Awaiting your command, master Ran." The forearm-sized hologram asked with a slight rub to her head. "Have trouble sleeping again?" I sighed and glanced at her....my glowing red eyes shined through the shadows almost as well as the holo-image did. (They had been changed due to a small 'accident' inside a testing lab at night) How did she figure---- "I guess it's quite obvious these days, huh?" "Yes, master. It's 5:14 a.m., and you're usually asleep until at least 10:00 a.m. on usual mornings..." Michelle cocked her head to the side and raised a virtual eyebrow to me in a concerned look. Her human-like emotions were almost perfect. She talked on the technological side of things quite often, making it hard to have a convo with her, but if there was a holo-person highschool, then she'd be considered a dumb-blonde. "Will you tell me what's wrong?" She added, a bit pleadingly. ".....It's.....my dreams. Every time I begin to dream about something beautiful, (at least most of the time), then it's abruptly clouded by fire or blood. I'm beginning to realize that something might happen soon..." "So you think it may be a warning?" She giggled slightly, her logic coming into play. "That's impossible, a mere cooincidance...However, something in reality may be pressuring you. Your subconscious mind might not be able to handle it in any way except to force it into disturbing dream-like images for you, to try and get you over this fear or pressure." I heard only about 70% of her words. I was busy replaying the images over and over, trying my best to figure them out....but I could not. "Yes, thank you Michelle." I smiled slightly to her....my voice was mellow, and calm. No trace of hostility could be detected from it by most people. Nor did it change very often, unless under extreme circumstances. "Yes, Master." She winked and giggled a bit under her breath. I liked Michelle due to her compact-ed-ness, and for her ability to change her image to any size that she liked throughout the complex. But mostly I admired her human-like characteristics and traits; Her realistic-ness. She was as close to human as they come, making her a great everyday partner. I smiled at the flickering of her tail. "I think I'll have a glass of water..." Before I finished the sentence, a small robot wheeled over to me and handed me a glass. I smiles again to Michelle before drinking all of it in a few gulps. I decided it was time to take a shower. "I'll be in the shower, alright...." I yawned again and stood up, walking to the bathroom. "Aye, Aye Cpt..." Michelle's eyes followed me to the door before she began to stand up. I wonder if he's okay...she thought to herself, and laid onto the counter, basking in the lamp-light. -----Hours Later------
The sun arose. However, it was unknown to all in the region due to the heavy black rain clouds covering the sky. It'd been like this for some time now. We've been having some weird weather lately. No one cared, much...maybe except Michelle. She looked outside and examined the courtyards every day, loving the light and plants. She was sad to see the sun go away these last couple of days. I was standing on the balcony, watching the lightning flicker, and the walls of rain coming closer and closer every second. My parents said I didn't use my imagination enough...but I disagree. I think I used it more than they did.....I blinked at the thought. Did. My parents had been ....casualties...on a day long ago. It took place in our home, where we were all having breakfast one morning. I remembered.....my father's alarm going off while we were having a normal meal, and then....I shut my eyes tightly for a brief moment or two, cutting the memories out of my mind. Gotta get to the group. I'm already late, it seems. I thought to myself. Walking to the basement, I opened the door to my Hummer, and sat down on the soft leather seats. I sighed slightly as I turned the ignition key, resulting in the engine rumbling a bit. The song "A walk in the Woods" turned on as well, providing me with the mellow beat I needed to calm myself down again. It was an incredibly boring morning. In fact, this had been one of the most boring mornings I'd ever been through. I was sure of it. A familiar beeping noise was once again heard, and Michelle's image appeared on my dashboard. "Howdy there, master. I wasn't sure where you were. I thought maybe you were going to stay at home today since you were feeling so strange?.." I made no attempt to reply. She shrugged. "Any way I can help you feel better, sir?" She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Nothing you could do would make me feel b---" I looked at her. She winked and raised an eyebrow to me. "Umm, no...I'm fine." I knew she didn't mean to make it so obvious to me, but accidents happen. She quickly took note that she had been a bit too hasty and pulled at her rabbit ears. "I mean! I've got some headache medicine, and some other pain-killers around here....some...where..." She quickly hid her image from sight. We eventually arrived at our destination. I glanced outside. Nothing was there. Nothing but a long, long field of nothing. Emptiness would be an understatement, 'cause it was incredibly rare to have an area this empty during this day-and-age. To the normal eye. I rolled the window down and leaned outside a bit. A spot of grass popped up in front of my face and quickly did a retinal scan on me. "Identification Verified. Allow Access. Welcome, Ran...sir." A cloaking device was turned off for a brief moment, allowing me to slip downwards into a long, extending tunnel with a few parked vehicles and check-points scattered here and there. Michelle's image popped up again, leaning against the side window. She reappeared on my thigh, climbing up to my knee to look out my window. (She was supposed to be 17, and she continued to be child-like in some ways, but most of the time she was abnormally mature for her age.) She was alwas in awe of this place...the possibilities, and the 'action' that goes on here is astounding to her. "Sheesh, you'd think I was keeping you hostage at the house or something. I guess I'm more boring than I thought..." I smirked a little. "No, master! I love spending time with y-----at the house! But err, I like it here alot....yea..." She glanced at me suspiciously before looking back outside again.
"Yea, okay..." I replied. Just then, my comm went off:
"Finally...we've been waitin' for your damn vehicle to get here for a while. We've got some news, dude!" I recognized the voice. I replied out loud. "Sorry Zen, I've had some mental complications lately, and trouble sleeping.....anyway, whatcha got for me?" "Well, I'll explain it to you when you come in...over and out." The comm message became a click and switched off. Michelle was sitting on my head, wrapping herself in my hair, and looking outside, still. "Wow, you're hair is comfy, master Ran...." She giggled as her ears poked out of my bangs. "Weee....." "Having fun, Michelle?" A slight sweatdrop went down the side of my head. She nodded and continued to play. We got to my parking area, and got out of the Humvey. Protocol in this place allowed Machelle to go anywhere in the complex, as fast as she wanted to, allowing her hologram to be as large as a human. I made my way into a long, dark hallway towards the usual briefing area, when I heard someone call my name from the dead end to my right.....I shook my head at the two known as Austin and Zen.
Austin was just a very good friend, one of the guys who busted into places with us, and gave us backup. However, Zen was one of the Harasaki brothers. The Harasaki brothers were well known for their dark ways of getting people back for revenge, and for their cruel tactics in any kind of battle. There were only 3 brothers: Lan, Zen, and Ran....(me). We had made a name for ourselves in this kind of profession. People knew more about the C.I.A. than they did about us and our Syndicate. All any commoner on the streets could say to you if you asked them would be: "Harasaki?...I can't say that name here..." and then they'd run off most of the time. This happened quite often on the news. We found it...amusing. I glanced at them again, my glowing red eyes fixed on their frustrated looks.
Stepping towards them, I asked: "Why are you two in this hallway? What's the deal here?...I heard you two had some news for me." Zen was the 1st to reply. "We do. Something incredible appeared on our scanners this morning." Austin was next. "Yea man, we got all kinds of weird signals coming in to our radios and televisions. The damned PORN channels don't even work anymore!" He stomped his foot sarcastically. "Heh, well...I think I'll need to see these things on radar. What about our satellite monitors?" Zen shook his head a bit. "Dude, they've been fried. Something, whatever it is, is inside our solar system, and is sending signals so advanced that it's frying our satellites." I didn't know what to say. A couple guards passed behind us on patrol, and I got the idea. "Let's just get into the briefing room, alright?" Turning, I walked quickly to the briefing room, Austin and Zen were close behind, as well as a few other Syndicate officials. Who knew what to expect from this briefing.
Chapter 2
Everyone was in a horrible mood. Bad timing on our part, and on whatever was intruding in our solar system. Mars' colonies had been sending urgent signals to us, telling us the same thing. They had about 3 large objects on radar, passing Pluto at a relatively slow pace. They would actually reach Earth by tomorrow morning at about 04:00 hours. We'd be ready. Earth's sensors and communications were also missing something. Something very disturbing. All communications from Reach had been lost about 5 hours ago. However, it takes these transmissions weeks to get to Earth. I do not know why they decided to not tell us until...well, 5 hours later, but there was nothing I could do to bring back Reach's signals. "We don't even know what happened, and the Marines Corp's dispatching everything they have into our skies and atmosphere!" "This is an outrage!" "I say we help them out!" "Are you crazy?! That would be giving away our locations and secrets...without the proof that these things are actually hostile!" Everyone was going hay-wire around me and the others. We had been sitting in a corner, up high, against a railing, watching everyone. The officials and officers were trying their best to get everyone under control, but this was worse than Jerry Springer. Worse than a stock market crash. And just to think, these men who woouldn't shut up were supposed to be keeping everything they did down here a secret...we found it disturbing and unlikely. Our squad had been dubbed 'The Bouncers' a couple years ago when we had 1st joined the Syndicate. Who knows where the name came from, but it suited us well enough for the time being. To our dismay, we weren't allowed to carry firearms in the briefing room, to prevent assination attempts. Frankly, I didn't really care. I always kept my combat knife under my jacket. I didn't need anyone to tell me what to do. I was 2nd in command of the Bouncers, putting Austin in 1st. We didn't need these kind of limits. Michelle popped her holographic head out of her my jacket pocket, whispering to me: "What do we do now? I feel kind of helpless.....I heard that Cortanna was on Reach. We didn't need to lose her, she was one of our best!" "No worries...knowing what I've heard about the Spartans, and Capt Keyes is assurance enough that they didn't go out without a fight." "Ran!!!! I mean, Master....I thought you were going to give me some good, comforting thoughts..." she sighed and pulled on her ears again. "Sorry....hey, Lan..." Lan turned his head to the side and looked at me, taking a brake from typing on his holo-top. "What." "What do you think of all this?" "I think it's a load of bullshit. Probably some kind of meteor or som----" A large slam of the doors was heard, as well as an intercom screeching to silence everyone. A large man with a black suit walked in. He was fit, yet pretty tall, and wore the most formal of clothing. (this kind of clothing was the usual trademark of the Syndicate.) He looked up after taking a seat. ".....I was awoken early this morning by the ringing of my emergency phone...I was TIRED. It would have at least been nice to have everyone here in a calm, organized mood today, but I guess that just didn't work out." Everyone remained completely silent as the man spoke. He was the leader of the Syndicate, and he was known as General Furgeson. It wasn't just a name. He had founded this place after dropping out of the UNSC shortly after becoming a General. His name was feared among our enemies, which were few, yet powerful. "Now, can someone please...in GOD's name, tell me what the hell we're planning to do about this shit?!!?!" "....." "........." ".............." Silence. "Well then, It looks as if I'm the one who's giving the orders now. Men! This is the plan! So listen up! We are going to team up temporarilly with the UNSC Marines for the operation to save Earth. With or without sufficient evidence, it has come to everyone's awareness that this is the Covenant we've been hearing about from other colonies. The time has come for us to make our last defensive charge. WE ARE IN A FUCKING CORNER, MEN!! WE CAN'T LET THIS ALIEN ENEMY TAKE US ON OUR OWN TURF LIKE THEY HAVE SO MANY TIMES! Are you with me?!" Everyone in the room chanted at the same time: "YES SIR!" General Fergeson showed us the blueprints of the plan: "Air force technology secrets will have to be shared with the UNSC and their pilots, so get all the scematics together. Special Op's teams will move in with the Marine Corp onto Mars, and make defensive positions at the colonies, undetected. We must have the element of surprise this time people, or our attack is going to be futile." "Sir, what makes everyone think that this will be normal warfare? What stops them from nuking our planet?" The General replied. "Well, sir that would be an easy question. They don't want to nuke these particular planets...at least not too much, or they'd suffer losing the planet as a habitable place. However they might still nuke our cities, seeing as how we've already ruined the wildlife around us. We think that's why they're here." Everyone nodded in agreement. The squad and I still remained silent in our little corner while everyone scrambled to get everything in our huge arsenal together. We listened as engines roared, and un-tested technology was being packed up and attached to carrying vehicles. It was obvious that Chinooks were being used as the carriers. No one could miss the noise. "Bouncers!" We heard a request from the General. "Yes sir." Austin replied. "You and your team will be doing something....a little different. You will be moving your men to a safe position on the moon. From there, you will launch in a stealth ship towards one of the carriers. Don't worry, our fighters will distract them. Even if they DID catch you on their scanners, they would think your ship only to be a floating chunk of rock." We all looked at each other, after listening to every single word. I spoke. "...Sir, will we be the only ones doing this?" "Not quite. I am sending some of our....'spare' units with you." Michelle's head popped out of my pocket again and reappeared in front of the General, to his surprise. "Hello General." "Well, hello Michelle245. Are you still giving master Ran trouble?" A sweatdrop slid down the side of my face as I listened to their badly-timed conversation. Just then, the General remembered something. "I just remembered something! Ran. Austin, get your team and their A.I. partners together. I have something we've been working on for you." We stood up. The Bouncers had been saved many times by each of their A.I. partners, each like Michelle, yet....completely different. It was their tactical plans that got us out of the majority of our bad 'cases'. The team followed the General into the armory, and on past a janitor's door. He opened a hidden door in the wall, revealing one of our secret laboratories, and all of its occupants. We glanced around at the small, dinky men in labcoats. Austin and Lan snickered a little bit at some of their appearances. Those two had always liked to point that kind of stuff out. "Austin. You and your men will now activate all your A.I. partners please." Everyone hit a few buttons on their own forearm, causing a few holo- girls pop onto their shoulders. It was only a preference to have young girls as our conscripts.
Austin's conscript / name-Alia
Zen's conscript / name-Mouse
Lan's conscript / name-Valentine
They all yawned and stretched at different paces, mumbling to themselves. The General motioned all 4 of our A.I.'s to download themselves into a computer in front of him. They all hesitantly agreed, and one by one, disappeared from our shoulders and were downloaded onto the lap-top's hard- drive. We all watched and waited. "This here, boys, might make you pretty happy. We've been working on some cybornetic bodies for A.I. conscripts such as your own. These bodies have the ability to be almost identical in emotional and physical ways to that of a normal human being. They have all been designed to look exactly like your holograms do. We couldn't allow them to float around like they normally do on missions like these. Covanent might've got a-hold of 'em and used 'em to their advantage. At least this way, they can defend themselves, and die fighting."
Chapter 1
I awoke with a jolt. Abnormally fast breathing accompanied the long, deep pants I was experiencing. Why did this always have to happen in the middle of a good dream? It seemed like every good thing I dreamt about suddenly erupted into flames, or was abruptly covered by pools of blood. I took it as an obvious sign....a frustrated sign slapping me in the face after being ignored too much. It's not all I was ignoring. Recent ...problems in the group were complicating everything, it seemed. The others said that they had it handled, but I had my doubts. Being 2nd in squad command wasn't so bad....it's exactly what I was aiming for. I've never wanted to be the head-man, and get blamed for 50,000 troops at the battle of Gettysburg, or for 15 Rangers in a raid aimed at Somalia. I was good at being in command, but honestly...I didn't really need the responsibility of coming up with the ideas. It was always better when someone else was giving you the orders. The steady beat of the song "Perhance to Dream" got me going. It was about....5 a.m., and I was already ready to get out of my bed....at least for a few moments. I needed something inspirational. I yawned deeply. "Michelle." I mumbled. A slight techno-sweep sound was made before a flickering image of a young girl with bunny ears and a tail came into view on the table in front of me.
"~yawn~ Awaiting your command, master Ran." The forearm-sized hologram asked with a slight rub to her head. "Have trouble sleeping again?" I sighed and glanced at her....my glowing red eyes shined through the shadows almost as well as the holo-image did. (They had been changed due to a small 'accident' inside a testing lab at night) How did she figure---- "I guess it's quite obvious these days, huh?" "Yes, master. It's 5:14 a.m., and you're usually asleep until at least 10:00 a.m. on usual mornings..." Michelle cocked her head to the side and raised a virtual eyebrow to me in a concerned look. Her human-like emotions were almost perfect. She talked on the technological side of things quite often, making it hard to have a convo with her, but if there was a holo-person highschool, then she'd be considered a dumb-blonde. "Will you tell me what's wrong?" She added, a bit pleadingly. ".....It's.....my dreams. Every time I begin to dream about something beautiful, (at least most of the time), then it's abruptly clouded by fire or blood. I'm beginning to realize that something might happen soon..." "So you think it may be a warning?" She giggled slightly, her logic coming into play. "That's impossible, a mere cooincidance...However, something in reality may be pressuring you. Your subconscious mind might not be able to handle it in any way except to force it into disturbing dream-like images for you, to try and get you over this fear or pressure." I heard only about 70% of her words. I was busy replaying the images over and over, trying my best to figure them out....but I could not. "Yes, thank you Michelle." I smiled slightly to her....my voice was mellow, and calm. No trace of hostility could be detected from it by most people. Nor did it change very often, unless under extreme circumstances. "Yes, Master." She winked and giggled a bit under her breath. I liked Michelle due to her compact-ed-ness, and for her ability to change her image to any size that she liked throughout the complex. But mostly I admired her human-like characteristics and traits; Her realistic-ness. She was as close to human as they come, making her a great everyday partner. I smiled at the flickering of her tail. "I think I'll have a glass of water..." Before I finished the sentence, a small robot wheeled over to me and handed me a glass. I smiles again to Michelle before drinking all of it in a few gulps. I decided it was time to take a shower. "I'll be in the shower, alright...." I yawned again and stood up, walking to the bathroom. "Aye, Aye Cpt..." Michelle's eyes followed me to the door before she began to stand up. I wonder if he's okay...she thought to herself, and laid onto the counter, basking in the lamp-light. -----Hours Later------
The sun arose. However, it was unknown to all in the region due to the heavy black rain clouds covering the sky. It'd been like this for some time now. We've been having some weird weather lately. No one cared, much...maybe except Michelle. She looked outside and examined the courtyards every day, loving the light and plants. She was sad to see the sun go away these last couple of days. I was standing on the balcony, watching the lightning flicker, and the walls of rain coming closer and closer every second. My parents said I didn't use my imagination enough...but I disagree. I think I used it more than they did.....I blinked at the thought. Did. My parents had been ....casualties...on a day long ago. It took place in our home, where we were all having breakfast one morning. I remembered.....my father's alarm going off while we were having a normal meal, and then....I shut my eyes tightly for a brief moment or two, cutting the memories out of my mind. Gotta get to the group. I'm already late, it seems. I thought to myself. Walking to the basement, I opened the door to my Hummer, and sat down on the soft leather seats. I sighed slightly as I turned the ignition key, resulting in the engine rumbling a bit. The song "A walk in the Woods" turned on as well, providing me with the mellow beat I needed to calm myself down again. It was an incredibly boring morning. In fact, this had been one of the most boring mornings I'd ever been through. I was sure of it. A familiar beeping noise was once again heard, and Michelle's image appeared on my dashboard. "Howdy there, master. I wasn't sure where you were. I thought maybe you were going to stay at home today since you were feeling so strange?.." I made no attempt to reply. She shrugged. "Any way I can help you feel better, sir?" She smiled and tilted her head to the side. "Nothing you could do would make me feel b---" I looked at her. She winked and raised an eyebrow to me. "Umm, no...I'm fine." I knew she didn't mean to make it so obvious to me, but accidents happen. She quickly took note that she had been a bit too hasty and pulled at her rabbit ears. "I mean! I've got some headache medicine, and some other pain-killers around here....some...where..." She quickly hid her image from sight. We eventually arrived at our destination. I glanced outside. Nothing was there. Nothing but a long, long field of nothing. Emptiness would be an understatement, 'cause it was incredibly rare to have an area this empty during this day-and-age. To the normal eye. I rolled the window down and leaned outside a bit. A spot of grass popped up in front of my face and quickly did a retinal scan on me. "Identification Verified. Allow Access. Welcome, Ran...sir." A cloaking device was turned off for a brief moment, allowing me to slip downwards into a long, extending tunnel with a few parked vehicles and check-points scattered here and there. Michelle's image popped up again, leaning against the side window. She reappeared on my thigh, climbing up to my knee to look out my window. (She was supposed to be 17, and she continued to be child-like in some ways, but most of the time she was abnormally mature for her age.) She was alwas in awe of this place...the possibilities, and the 'action' that goes on here is astounding to her. "Sheesh, you'd think I was keeping you hostage at the house or something. I guess I'm more boring than I thought..." I smirked a little. "No, master! I love spending time with y-----at the house! But err, I like it here alot....yea..." She glanced at me suspiciously before looking back outside again.
"Yea, okay..." I replied. Just then, my comm went off:
"Finally...we've been waitin' for your damn vehicle to get here for a while. We've got some news, dude!" I recognized the voice. I replied out loud. "Sorry Zen, I've had some mental complications lately, and trouble sleeping.....anyway, whatcha got for me?" "Well, I'll explain it to you when you come in...over and out." The comm message became a click and switched off. Michelle was sitting on my head, wrapping herself in my hair, and looking outside, still. "Wow, you're hair is comfy, master Ran...." She giggled as her ears poked out of my bangs. "Weee....." "Having fun, Michelle?" A slight sweatdrop went down the side of my head. She nodded and continued to play. We got to my parking area, and got out of the Humvey. Protocol in this place allowed Machelle to go anywhere in the complex, as fast as she wanted to, allowing her hologram to be as large as a human. I made my way into a long, dark hallway towards the usual briefing area, when I heard someone call my name from the dead end to my right.....I shook my head at the two known as Austin and Zen.
Austin was just a very good friend, one of the guys who busted into places with us, and gave us backup. However, Zen was one of the Harasaki brothers. The Harasaki brothers were well known for their dark ways of getting people back for revenge, and for their cruel tactics in any kind of battle. There were only 3 brothers: Lan, Zen, and Ran....(me). We had made a name for ourselves in this kind of profession. People knew more about the C.I.A. than they did about us and our Syndicate. All any commoner on the streets could say to you if you asked them would be: "Harasaki?...I can't say that name here..." and then they'd run off most of the time. This happened quite often on the news. We found it...amusing. I glanced at them again, my glowing red eyes fixed on their frustrated looks.
Stepping towards them, I asked: "Why are you two in this hallway? What's the deal here?...I heard you two had some news for me." Zen was the 1st to reply. "We do. Something incredible appeared on our scanners this morning." Austin was next. "Yea man, we got all kinds of weird signals coming in to our radios and televisions. The damned PORN channels don't even work anymore!" He stomped his foot sarcastically. "Heh, well...I think I'll need to see these things on radar. What about our satellite monitors?" Zen shook his head a bit. "Dude, they've been fried. Something, whatever it is, is inside our solar system, and is sending signals so advanced that it's frying our satellites." I didn't know what to say. A couple guards passed behind us on patrol, and I got the idea. "Let's just get into the briefing room, alright?" Turning, I walked quickly to the briefing room, Austin and Zen were close behind, as well as a few other Syndicate officials. Who knew what to expect from this briefing.
Chapter 2
Everyone was in a horrible mood. Bad timing on our part, and on whatever was intruding in our solar system. Mars' colonies had been sending urgent signals to us, telling us the same thing. They had about 3 large objects on radar, passing Pluto at a relatively slow pace. They would actually reach Earth by tomorrow morning at about 04:00 hours. We'd be ready. Earth's sensors and communications were also missing something. Something very disturbing. All communications from Reach had been lost about 5 hours ago. However, it takes these transmissions weeks to get to Earth. I do not know why they decided to not tell us until...well, 5 hours later, but there was nothing I could do to bring back Reach's signals. "We don't even know what happened, and the Marines Corp's dispatching everything they have into our skies and atmosphere!" "This is an outrage!" "I say we help them out!" "Are you crazy?! That would be giving away our locations and secrets...without the proof that these things are actually hostile!" Everyone was going hay-wire around me and the others. We had been sitting in a corner, up high, against a railing, watching everyone. The officials and officers were trying their best to get everyone under control, but this was worse than Jerry Springer. Worse than a stock market crash. And just to think, these men who woouldn't shut up were supposed to be keeping everything they did down here a secret...we found it disturbing and unlikely. Our squad had been dubbed 'The Bouncers' a couple years ago when we had 1st joined the Syndicate. Who knows where the name came from, but it suited us well enough for the time being. To our dismay, we weren't allowed to carry firearms in the briefing room, to prevent assination attempts. Frankly, I didn't really care. I always kept my combat knife under my jacket. I didn't need anyone to tell me what to do. I was 2nd in command of the Bouncers, putting Austin in 1st. We didn't need these kind of limits. Michelle popped her holographic head out of her my jacket pocket, whispering to me: "What do we do now? I feel kind of helpless.....I heard that Cortanna was on Reach. We didn't need to lose her, she was one of our best!" "No worries...knowing what I've heard about the Spartans, and Capt Keyes is assurance enough that they didn't go out without a fight." "Ran!!!! I mean, Master....I thought you were going to give me some good, comforting thoughts..." she sighed and pulled on her ears again. "Sorry....hey, Lan..." Lan turned his head to the side and looked at me, taking a brake from typing on his holo-top. "What." "What do you think of all this?" "I think it's a load of bullshit. Probably some kind of meteor or som----" A large slam of the doors was heard, as well as an intercom screeching to silence everyone. A large man with a black suit walked in. He was fit, yet pretty tall, and wore the most formal of clothing. (this kind of clothing was the usual trademark of the Syndicate.) He looked up after taking a seat. ".....I was awoken early this morning by the ringing of my emergency phone...I was TIRED. It would have at least been nice to have everyone here in a calm, organized mood today, but I guess that just didn't work out." Everyone remained completely silent as the man spoke. He was the leader of the Syndicate, and he was known as General Furgeson. It wasn't just a name. He had founded this place after dropping out of the UNSC shortly after becoming a General. His name was feared among our enemies, which were few, yet powerful. "Now, can someone please...in GOD's name, tell me what the hell we're planning to do about this shit?!!?!" "....." "........." ".............." Silence. "Well then, It looks as if I'm the one who's giving the orders now. Men! This is the plan! So listen up! We are going to team up temporarilly with the UNSC Marines for the operation to save Earth. With or without sufficient evidence, it has come to everyone's awareness that this is the Covenant we've been hearing about from other colonies. The time has come for us to make our last defensive charge. WE ARE IN A FUCKING CORNER, MEN!! WE CAN'T LET THIS ALIEN ENEMY TAKE US ON OUR OWN TURF LIKE THEY HAVE SO MANY TIMES! Are you with me?!" Everyone in the room chanted at the same time: "YES SIR!" General Fergeson showed us the blueprints of the plan: "Air force technology secrets will have to be shared with the UNSC and their pilots, so get all the scematics together. Special Op's teams will move in with the Marine Corp onto Mars, and make defensive positions at the colonies, undetected. We must have the element of surprise this time people, or our attack is going to be futile." "Sir, what makes everyone think that this will be normal warfare? What stops them from nuking our planet?" The General replied. "Well, sir that would be an easy question. They don't want to nuke these particular planets...at least not too much, or they'd suffer losing the planet as a habitable place. However they might still nuke our cities, seeing as how we've already ruined the wildlife around us. We think that's why they're here." Everyone nodded in agreement. The squad and I still remained silent in our little corner while everyone scrambled to get everything in our huge arsenal together. We listened as engines roared, and un-tested technology was being packed up and attached to carrying vehicles. It was obvious that Chinooks were being used as the carriers. No one could miss the noise. "Bouncers!" We heard a request from the General. "Yes sir." Austin replied. "You and your team will be doing something....a little different. You will be moving your men to a safe position on the moon. From there, you will launch in a stealth ship towards one of the carriers. Don't worry, our fighters will distract them. Even if they DID catch you on their scanners, they would think your ship only to be a floating chunk of rock." We all looked at each other, after listening to every single word. I spoke. "...Sir, will we be the only ones doing this?" "Not quite. I am sending some of our....'spare' units with you." Michelle's head popped out of my pocket again and reappeared in front of the General, to his surprise. "Hello General." "Well, hello Michelle245. Are you still giving master Ran trouble?" A sweatdrop slid down the side of my face as I listened to their badly-timed conversation. Just then, the General remembered something. "I just remembered something! Ran. Austin, get your team and their A.I. partners together. I have something we've been working on for you." We stood up. The Bouncers had been saved many times by each of their A.I. partners, each like Michelle, yet....completely different. It was their tactical plans that got us out of the majority of our bad 'cases'. The team followed the General into the armory, and on past a janitor's door. He opened a hidden door in the wall, revealing one of our secret laboratories, and all of its occupants. We glanced around at the small, dinky men in labcoats. Austin and Lan snickered a little bit at some of their appearances. Those two had always liked to point that kind of stuff out. "Austin. You and your men will now activate all your A.I. partners please." Everyone hit a few buttons on their own forearm, causing a few holo- girls pop onto their shoulders. It was only a preference to have young girls as our conscripts.
Austin's conscript / name-Alia
Zen's conscript / name-Mouse
Lan's conscript / name-Valentine
They all yawned and stretched at different paces, mumbling to themselves. The General motioned all 4 of our A.I.'s to download themselves into a computer in front of him. They all hesitantly agreed, and one by one, disappeared from our shoulders and were downloaded onto the lap-top's hard- drive. We all watched and waited. "This here, boys, might make you pretty happy. We've been working on some cybornetic bodies for A.I. conscripts such as your own. These bodies have the ability to be almost identical in emotional and physical ways to that of a normal human being. They have all been designed to look exactly like your holograms do. We couldn't allow them to float around like they normally do on missions like these. Covanent might've got a-hold of 'em and used 'em to their advantage. At least this way, they can defend themselves, and die fighting."