Chapter 3

It was late afternoon, and Lieutenant Mason was standing
outside and watching the sun begin to dip below the horizon.
The scene put his mind at peace, something it had needed for a
long time. He was glad to forget the past, about the wars,
the pain, about...her...

"Um, Lieutenant, sir?" He could already tell it was
Paco without looking behind him. He didn't like Paco much,
thought the man was a prick, always questioning orders all the
time. I guess that's why not many people liked him. "Yes,
Private?"

"Sir, I've just been wondering, why are we out here?
Why us? I mean, if we're setting up an outpost or something,
that'd explain much, but, why so little supplies? Why only one
squad? Wouldn't they send a construction team with us, build
something more permanent? Wouldn't..."

Mason already had enough of Paco's complaining, and
turned around, meeting the worm face to face. "Private, I have
had enough of your bitching and moaning about every mission
we go on. It's a wonder why you even joined the Marine Corps.
I had hoped you'd get it through that damn skull of yours, but
obviously, you haven't. When the brass tells us to do something,
we do it, without question. If they tell us to stay on this
planet for a month, we will stay for a month. If they told us
to stay for the rest of our lives, we will stay for the rest of
our lives. Right now, I'm waiting for them to tell me to
shove my foot up your ass till it comes out of your fucking
mouth, cause that is what I'd like to do to you right now!
You are dismissed, Private!"

With that, Mason turned around and walked off, trying
to clear his mind of anger, and return to the peace that was
interrupted. Paco simply stood there, and slowly clenched his
fist. You damn son of a bitch he thought. It's people like you
that make my life miserable. You'll get yours, Lieutenant,
just like everyone else who disrespects me.

It was dark in the living quarters, dark enough that
you almost couldn't see your hands. Which wouldn't be good,
thought Elizabeth, because then how could I drink my whiskey?
She was sitting on her bunk and had waited long enough, while
everyone else was busy doing something, to "kick back a few." Well,
of course, she could never have just a few, and she was 3/4 through
the bottle when Maria walked in from her shower, still drying off.

"Your not drinking again, are you, Lizzy?" Lizzy was
Elizabeth's childhood name, and only a few privileged people
could ever call her that. "Why, of course not, Maria. I'm just
having a little contest to see who could drink more, and right now,
I'm winning..." "Come on Lizzy, why do you do this to yourself..."
"You know damn well why, Maria!"

Maria stood there in silence, remembering the night
Elizabeth told her about her family. She had a pretty screwed-up
family, her mom was a prostitute, her dad a vet who could never
keep a job for long. What little money he had he used on drugs
and alcohol, so the family depended on money from relatives and
mom's job. One day, her dad was working at a construction site,
when there was an accident...he died three days later, and
Elizabeth had been in a depression ever since.

Maria took a seat next to her friend, laying a hand on
her shoulder. "Elizabeth, when are you going to get help? This
is a serious problem you have." Elizabeth opened her mouth to
say something, but was interrupted by the PA. "Elizabeth, this
is Big Joe, I need your help with something."

Slowly, Elizabeth stood up, sliding the bottle under
her sheets, and walk to the door. She looked back at Maria
before opening it and walking out, leaving Maria sitting there
in the dark.

Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since the squad had set up their
encampment, and nothing interesting had happened. This was
especially murderous for Alex. He had long hoped for something
to blow up, some excitement to get the adrenaline pumping.
He even asked Mason if he could burn something, get a campfire
going, anything that had to do with fire. But the lieutenant
had forbid him, said he didn't want Alex starting a forest
fire. So Alex would spend most of the day in the compound,
tuning his Firebat suit and smoking a stogie. Except for today.

"Damn it, where are they? That couldn't have been the
last one." He was in the storage locker, looking for his emergency
package of cigars. He had already looked everywhere else for most
of the day and really needed to light up right now. Most of the
equipment was scattered on the floor, and to no avail, the cigars
were not to be found. It was then that a small package caught
Alex's eye. It was hidden behind some other boxes, and though Alex
didn't remember packing his cigars in a that package, it looked the
right size to him. Shoving the rest of the crap out of the way,
he quickly pulled out his knife and cut the package open.
What he found inside was not his cigars.

"What do you suppose it is, Lieutenant?" It was an hour later,
and the entire squad was gathered around the mess table. "I'm not
sure, Private, but it's not on the equipment record."

The device had been placed in the middle of the table, and
seemed to be made up of two parts. What they considered the base of
the device had no buttons, no dials, not even an ON/OFF switch.
The top half branched out from the base to form four limbs of equal
distance from each other. The top half rotated 90° around, stop, and
continued the process. It looked to be some sort of transmitter or
homing beacon, but sensors picked up nothing coming from it.

"Private," Mason turned his attention to Shawn. "Do we
have any communication ability with the main ship?" "Sorry, sir.
We're still getting interference." Mason looked long and hard at
the device, then back up to the rest of the squad. "All right,
everyone, back to your stations. Joe, I need a word with you."

As everyone else went off in their own direction,
Big Joe and Mason walked over to the opposite side of the room.
"Joe, what do you think about all of this?" "I'm not sure, sir.
Do you think it's a bomb?" "It might be, sensors couldn't get
through that armor. If it is a bomb....." "Could one of them
have placed it, sir?" "I don't want to jump to conclusions, Joe,
but I think it'd be better if we both stayed on alert." "Right,
sir." As Mason walked off, Joe looked back at the device.
Everything is going as planned he thought.........