Corporal Flynn R. Taggart, serial #4687, was "enjoying" another fun-filled day at Fort Riley. He didn't have much of a choice, though, so he kept on smiling. Why he was smiling, he had no idea, but his answer to all his superior officers had been "Because I love my job, SIR!" His job (in case you were wondering) was to make an attempt to grow some flowers. Some idealist General had decided that the base wasn't diverse enough so he gave an order to the nearest soldier to "plant some flowers or someone'll plant them for you in a very undesirable location," and never mind that it was a military base.
As Flynn was kneeling in the dirt of his "garden" he had started, he got the feeling that this had all happened before. Yesterday, as a matter of fact. It had to mean something, but what? Maybe "someone" decided that things should happen a little different this time… Flynn decided to take advantage of the situation. This time, I plan not to be in that hallway. He thought to himself. This time… I'm going to find out what's going on.
"Now, I don't want everyone getting excited about nothing. We could be wrong about this…" the General's speech continued. About at this point, Flynn stopped paying attention. He decided that a prudent course of action would be to exit the building quietly. After all, he had to find some answers. He seemed to remember that Colonel Potter would be in his office, so he headed there.
On his way there, he noticed things that he hadn't the day before. Certain people were missing that had not been missing before. Certain buildings were seemingly out of place. Something is very wrong here, he thought.
Finally he arrived at the building where Colonel Potter's office was. As he walked down the long, tiled hallways, he noticed that it wasn't quite as echo-insulated as it used to be. It was almost as if someone had designed it so he wouldn't be able to get in without them knowing he was there. Things just kept getting fishier and fishier, and Flynn didn't like it one bit, but he had to change things somehow. Of course, it didn't matter if someone had already done so.
As he casually marched up to the door of Potter's office, he heard scuffling noises come from inside. He decided it would not be a good idea to announce his presence, so he opened the door a crack to see what was going on inside. When he looked inside, however, it was definitely not was he was expecting.
A brown, humanoid creature with spikes all over its body was literally crawling into Colonel Potter's skin. Flynn shut the door quietly and tried hard to keep down his C-Rations after what he'd just seen. They didn't train him for anything like this at boot camp, but it was obvious what it was. Majors had spoken of extra-terrestrials; Well, here one was, and soon to be running amok in its new disguise.
Flynn decided what he had to do. It was his sworn duty as a Marine to expose the creature for what it was; an alien.
He ran back to the building where the announcement was being made, but everyone had already begun filtering outside. It was too late. But Flynn was the kind of person who would take a shot in the head and keep moving, despite the near-fatal wound, even if it was only to nurse his "scratch."
He climbed up on a statue sitting outside the building and shouted, "Wait! There's something General Majors didn't tell you!" The crowd of fellow Marines stopped and turned to look at him, but they looked somehow out of place. They looked almost like something out of those horror movies. Each person's eyes he saw had a glazed look to them and none of the people blinked. He half-expected them to raise their arms in comic-fashion and start moving towards him.
"Ah, Corporal Taggart. I see you've discovered our little secret." He knew that voice. That was General Majors, but his speech had taken on a slight accent that was unknown to him. The zombie-marines moved out of the way, and Flynn saw the general moving slowly towards the statue.
"Yes, Bill," he practically spat the name. "I know your secret. Now, answer one last question for me: What in the name of the Creator is going on here!?" Majors stared at him for a moment, then took a deep breath as if he was going to launch into a long explanation; an act that Flynn would've appreciated but did not happen.
"I'll tell you one thing. You're not on Earth anymore. You're on the Martian moon of Deimos. However, you're not going to be seeing Mars anytime soon. We—" Flynn cut him off.
"—Who's 'we?' Huh?"
General Majors composed himself, then continued. "'We' is none of your concern right now. When it becomes your concern, you will be long dead. I, personally, will make sure of that when the time comes." Flynn suddenly realized he had forgotten to wear his side arm. But it was too late for regrets.
Majors started winding up his arm like a pitcher for the Seattle Mariners and for a moment, it looked like he was going to throw something. Abruptly, he stopped and his jaw dropped to the ground. He pulled a long, thin cord out from his throat and suddenly his human disguise dropped to the ground.
He looked exactly like Potter.
Flynn knew he was going to have to get out of this alive, but he didn't know how. First, he had to find out what the aliens had against him, and why he was so dangerous as to warrant moving him to another planet. Flynn could tell this was just going to be one of those days…