Star System Elites Chapter 1
Prologue
Wicked Enterprise's Moon Base
2:00 a.m.
The door to the conference room burst open as a young blonde exited out into the hall with a tall brunette following quickly behind him.
"Mr. Jensen! Come on…Newt! Seriously you can't be this upset about finally receiving some orders!"
The brunette called from behind making him roll his eyes as he quickened his pace.
"Mr. Paige, you seem to be forgetting that I've received orders many times but nothing this bloody bad!"
He gritted out as he stalked into his office leaving the door open a crack.
Collapsing down into his leather chair, he swiveled away from his best friend and cochairmen of the Men In Black Star System Elites Program.
Thomas slammed his hands down onto Newt's desk and sighed when he realized that he was being ignored.
"Newt…Come on man. You know we've been waiting for these briefings since we left. You can't possibly say that it's bad news."
There was no denying that it was good news, Newt would give him that.
But he shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face as memories of leaving the desecrated Earth behind flashed before his honey brown eyes.
It had been years since the Earth was scorched beyond recognition by solar flares and knowing that he'd have to follow orders and return to the volatile planet made his stomach sick with nausea.
"The Arquillian army is moving eastward. This would be the perfect time for us to infiltrate the city and bring back any known survivors."
Thomas said as he took a seat down in the metal chair across from the desk.
Newt sighed and closed his eyes wishing that the meeting he had just come from was just a bad dream.
Years ago when the solar flares hit the Earth, everyone thought they were caused by the sun but they discovered that they were very, very wrong.
The flares were just a distraction for something much worse.
An alien race called the Arquillian's had invaded the Earth and intended to kill off the entire human race.
Almost all of the human race had been eliminated by the Arquillian's injecting a mind altering disease into the flares which became known as the Flare virus.
Its symptoms looked much like the flu in the beginning stages and then progressed into a total body fatal disease that caused humans to lose their minds and become zombie like creatures that served the Arquillian Royal Family.
A small group of humans survived the attack and started Wicked Enterprises for the purpose of waging war on the Arquillian's and claiming the Earth back.
But they had immediately found that they were outnumbered on Earth so they abandoned their mission and headed the only way they could.
Up.
The League of Nations had created a Space Station Compound on the moon right before the attack hit which Wicked had now claimed as their own.
In time, the humans of Wicked discovered that there were other races of aliens that they could ally themselves with and eventually the Star System was formed in the name of peace and harmony between aliens and humans.
There were regular council meetings between the alien races and the members of Wicked to decide how they could best deal with problems that arise in the daily life on each planet.
It was at one of those meetings that 12 year olds, Newt and Thomas were instructed to create a program where the young people of Wicked could be trained to handle alien emergencies and one day go back to Earth and reclaim the land as their own.
So that was how Newt found himself staring out at the stars from his office window while Thomas finally sat in silence.
Deciding to give his friend the benefit of the doubt, Newt slowly turned and faced Thomas whose eyes were scanning over the meeting's document's in a manila folder.
Looking up, Thomas met Newt's eyes before pulling out a grainy photograph and placing it in front of him.
Newt's eyes flickered to the photograph for a moment before he pushed it back towards Thomas.
"There are survivors Newt. This is proof that there are others down there that have survived and didn't fall ill with the Flare. Don't you think they deserve to come home?"
Newt rolled his eyes and growled making Thomas's eyes widen in shock.
"But at what cost, Thomas? Who's to say when we get down there our team won't be killed by the same virus and that those "survivors" are long dead? I don't want to fucking risk it. The lives of our team is too high of a price to pay."
Thomas's jaw clenched as he took in his best friend's harsh words.
They had just come from an emergency briefing about one of their exploratory rovers that was traveling the Earth's surface spotted a group of what looked like human survivors in a city near what used to be Denver.
The Director, who was also Thomas's mom had given orders to the Men In Black that they were going to take a shuttle down to Earth and retrieve any known survivors while fighting off the Arquillian army at the same time.
If anything, he thought Newt should be overjoyed to go back down into the city where he had been found.
Because to Newt, it wasn't just a mission. It was personal.
"What about Casey, Newt? What if there's a chance that she's among that group of survivors? I know you would never leave her there. It was an accident that she was left there in the first place. Don't you think she belongs here with us?"
Newt jumped to his feet and grabbed Thomas's collar hoisting the young man into the air.
"Don't you DARE speak her name! You know as well as I do that leaving her there was no accident. Your own mother thought she had the Flare and ordered for her to be left behind to die! Don't you DARE say that there's a chance to find her. We will NEVER find her! She's gone and probably among the fucking ashes of that Godforsaken city!"
He screamed before he dropped Thomas onto the floor and covered his face with his hand to keep his tears at bay.
Thomas knew that bringing up Newt's first love was a low blow but he had to try and get him to see reason.
Picking himself off the floor and dusting off his lab coat, he went over and took the upset blonde into his arms and held him close as he cried.
"I'm sorry Newt. I didn't want to go there but you know it's a strong possibility. You know Casey was always tough as nails and there's a really good chance that she survived. The pictures were too grainy to know for sure but we have to have faith."
Newt's sobs slowed after a few moments but the painful memories of his love were freshly burned into his mind.
Pulling back from their embrace, he nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeve before stalking back over to the grainy photograph and holding it up in the dim lit.
"As much as I hate to admit it you're right, Tom. There's always a possibility. You have no idea how happy it would make me to see her again. I want nothing more than to wrap my arms around her and tell her that I'm sorry for leaving. And orders are orders. I don't really have a choice but to accept them and do the best I can to make this mission a success."
Thomas nodded and gave him a small smile before they both heard their names being called over the loud speaker.
"Mr. Paige and Mr. Jensen please report to the medical wing for subject evaluation and clearance procedure."
Thomas and Newt shared an unreadable look as they stood in the dimly lit office.
"It's time. It's time to go."
Thomas said as Newt took one last look around his office and nodded before following his friend out the door.
The stars and moonlight glistened down onto the desk where a grainy photograph of what looked to be a boy and a girl stood out against the dark wood.
Maybe. Just maybe he would find her.
