Phantoms From The Past

by TishayesMcGillies

New life, new beginnings, from the return to the earth, old ghosts come back to attack integrity with terrifying secrets of the past, truths hidden behind the false flag of lies, break the trust of the united earth, our heroes of war along with new allies, and others unintended must keep the peace, the security and the confidence of the population in them again

14. PLUMB

14. PLUMB

The vfs were ready in the takeoff position on the platform, the plan was made, thanks to Roy Hunter it was possible to locate the exact place where Lisa Hayes is and therefore Edwards and his strange army, Archer leads the first reconnaissance team and Miriya Parino the one of attack, Max Sterling is preparing to go in the flagship, the eyes of all are on them the United Earth has not yet forgiven their abandonment and leaving them to their fate while their "supposed war heroes" preferred fighting in another world they will think of destroying their own planet instead of fighting for it, not the entire population is on their side, and that includes the military and leaders of this new government, but they have an enemy in common, until now.

Meanwhile all the pilots of both bases will prepare to leave, Max approaches his flagship but before boarding Miriya stops him, something is not right and has to do with Admiral Hunter

- What the hell is wrong with you? - Max approaches Rick who has two pilots on the floor, one with a broken nose and the other unconscious

- I will go with you, I will not stay here - just take a step Max stops him placing his hand on his shoulder

- No, you will not, I need you here I will not take you to the mission because you are not yourself right now - Max says to one and he knows that he is winning a good blow

- Sorry? I've saved Lisa and other people before and I've never failed and you know, you've gone with me - annoying claims

- I know, in the past you said Rick, in the past Lisa Hayes was not your wife, she was your commander in chief, in the past you did not love Lisa as you do now and in the past you rescued Minmey who only you Uniting on a whim, I'm sorry Rick, but you can't go, I need you here, your relationship with her will endanger not only the mission, your life and Lisa's, I will not let you go Hunter - Max replied challenging Rick

- Stop me - says a certain Hunter walking towards the exit ignoring the pleas of Miriya but stops by a dry blow after him

- You will not go Hunter, do not force me to shoot you, - Max points him with his weapon and before he asks or claims something Max continues - At this moment I am not seeing the Admiral of a fleet that always speaks to me with a cold mind and feet lead, I see a capricious rookie who is about to endanger a mission, I remember what you said to Grant when I hurt Lisa, that if you had Edwards in front of you, you would kill him in cold blood if that time you stopped, you will do it for her now, if you want her alive again - A shot to Rick's right leg stops everything he was trying to do.

Risks of being degraded or that his enmity is won Max rushes out to the platform, the curious few who knew and saw that moment remain silent and wait for the orders, giving the last instructions and Rick only stayed to look through the window how the ships moved away in search of his wife, the mission was clear the main objective was to rescue Lisa Hayes, place the place where Edwards was, send Lisa back to the base and send reinforcements to attack but things They do not always go as planned, no matter how experienced they will be, there will always be a surprise, like the one they would encounter when they reached the agreed point.

Max furious and frustrated, he kept hitting the cabin of his VF, the eyes of the other pilots did not give credit to what they were seeing in the coordinates that were given to them, Miriya simply kept silent to avoid shouting and letting her tears run, this it was not what they expected to find, just landing they were greeted by a huge explosion that managed to knock down three ships instantly calcining them, they looked up in the bunker they managed to find but what they found only frustrated them one more, and thus, defeated and empty they return to the base after six hours of their mission. Rick's leg had only presented a slight laser nipple that Max had shot at him preventing him from boarding a vf, now it was the most difficult, to give the news to Admiral Hunter.

- So? Lisa, Where is she? - Rick stares at Max as soon as he enters the nursing wing but the silent look gives him the answer he doesn't want to hear

- Sorry, there was an explosion we lost some men but when checking, there was no one there was empty, not even the bunker that was underneath - replies an upset Max trying to contain the tears

Rick takes a deep breath before he is completely invaded by terror and only manages to articulate a few words in terror and hysteria

- Do not! This is not happening, this is not happening - he starts hitting with his fists everything in his path, he pounces on Max but before his fist touches his friend's face he drops to his knees held in a hug from Max. - I can't lose her, not her, please not her, I can't, I can't lose her - and that stifled cry manages to get out.

The crushed heart of those who knew Lisa now uncertainty prevails, may they never see her again? Adding the fact that almost the population of the earth does not trust them, the GDTU also has reservations with them, the pilots who died for recognition and their families may never forgive them, to those false war heroes who now they are strangers and even strangers to all of them. How to win that trust again? If it was broken

- and now, What? Max - Miriya asks looking at nothing

- I don't know, Rick, they had to sedate him, he was too upset and, if we lose Lisa- Miriya interrupts him

- No, that won't happen, we shouldn't think about that- Miriya hugging herself

- But if it will happen, Rick's entire humanity will go away and we will lose him completely, not even Roy will keep him sane, for him, his life is Lisa Hayes - he gives a blow with violence uttering a curse

- Max What is that? - Miriya suddenly observes something, is someone clumsily walking on the platform, they give the alarm to intercept it

He is a semi-naked man with torture marks, tied his hands with tape and his lips cooked with wire but before approaching him, they keep him in perimeter since he carries several loads of C4 in his hands in his hands there is a chip.

- Please, please help me, he, he will kill me, he said that you would save me and my family please do it, I don't want to die - said the terrified man

- Who sent you? - Question Archer pointing at the head

He, that thing that looked like a monster of nightmares and a girl with reddish hair, did this to me, and they sent me this chip for Admiral Hunter - delivering Archer and this in turn passes it to Max, immediately enters together Miriya to Rick to show the content

- We will call an anti bomb, you will be fine, alone, do not get upset - Archer said giving instructions to keep it as far away from them in case they fail to deactivate the C4 charges.

Inside the base they immediately use one of the pilots' laptops to view the content, the images are somewhat blurred but are gradually sharper, Lisa appears tied in front of a camera behind her Reggie is pointing her head with a gun , then it turns dark and when the image comes back Lisa is again on an operating table face down and Edwards appears

- Did you really think it would be so stupid Hunter? I expected more from you, it was the first thing I thought, about that tracker that his wife had on his neck, so I took him out - showing the small device and destroying it in front of them - I'm not that naive Hunter, I told him I wanted to see him suffer and this is just beginning, when the moment comes I will go for you and once and for all we will define who is better, you or me? And it will show all mankind if he really is a war hero and not an opportunist who was at the right time and time, don't worry Admiral I will call him, let's go - and the image is left alone as Lisa is introduced to a tube of transport and see how the ships move away and then again it is dark finishing the message

Again an explosion over jumps and shudders the entire base 26 of San Diego, the charges of C4 have exploded, Archer gives the report, the countdown reached zero when the messenger arrived at the base, but they were detonated from a remote location and thanks to the fact that all the equipment surrounding that man was not lost, they will be able to track with the help of staff intelligence. Miriya stays with the computer team to determine the location of where the signal was sent while Max watches Rick who is silently holding a photograph of them, on their wedding day where they were dancing embraced, spends saliva trying to find the words adequate and give hope to Rick but he knows very well that if he opens his mouth he could face the repressed fury of his friend, of his brother.

- I'm going to kill you Edwards this is personal, not military, I will kill you slowly and painfully even if it costs me my life I will take you ahead - the words fill Max with chills, Rick is no longer the same, he has lost all his humanity, they got with Lisa and her heart went with her. Now it only remains, will I let him do what I hear? Or will he try to stop it? And if he succeeds, to stop him ... he must kill Edwards..

AUTHOR'S NOTES: C4 explosives, is a variety of plastic explosive, based on RDX is malleable, powerful chemical elements are used to make explosions, released a toxic gas