Lights danced around the dark room from the holo-display as Captain Deckard was slumped over his bunk, fast-forwarding through the news. He would occasionally stop if something looked interesting and if he felt he wanted the accompanied audio.
"The Directorate Council, today, has informed the People for the Ethical Tre…"
The hand never strayed far from the dial as Deckard was usually wrong about what interested him. He set the remote down and rubbed his eyes. Although the option was there, he was warned about checking the Earth news archive only available to certain officers. There was decades worth of news for every few months and it was like watching the future that has already happened. One can only be haplessly sucked in to toying with this archive without being able to stop. Curiosity, coupled with boredom, has gotten the best of Deckard and grief was the only result for no journey sent outside Earth's present interstellar system has ever came back.
Screw it, thought Deckard as he closed the archive and tossed the remote towards the display. The boredom began when the fleet surrounded the planet Moria and docked. Most operations have come to a standstill since then and it has been several days. He lied back in his bunk and closed his eyes. What exactly are they keeping us in the dark from?
(Doom)
Deckard's eyes immediately reopened. He didn't know what just happened nor did he want to know because he was willing to conclude that he's become delirious from watching the display all day long. Sleep was now out of the question because he was now afraid to close his eyes again in contemplation. As Deckard stood up to grab the remote, the time in the bottom corner of the display caught his attention. It read 1520. He stood frozen in motion of grabbing the remote as he pondered why the time was bothering him.
"Oh, shit!" He shouted as he gunned for his jumpsuit.
Deckard's breathing has become a little labored by the time he's reached the final door before the round table. The round table was just a room frequently used for conferences or briefings and nicknamed for a large round table with a center holo-display.As soon as the door slid open, four men sitting around the table has put their full attention on Deckard coming in. He quickly scanned the room to see that the Colonel has not arrived yet and let out a big breath as he sat down. The four men still stared at him, all of them smiling.
"Ho Deckard," Card said.
"Ho Card, Sanford, Clancy, Clarke." They all nodded in greeting.
"I was beginning to think Easy wasn't going to be included," Sanford said and the men chuckled.
"How are them Easies, Dec?" Card asked. Deckard hated that nickname. Echo has been somewhat of an auxiliary company ever since the great Directorate-Coalition War being part of a battalion that seemed to have been over fitted. They would hardly see action if any at all and its past was riddled with notoriously lazy commanders, who were there for any number of reasons except being able to lead and hence the nickname, Easy Echo.
Deckard himself was once in Charlie Company fighting along side Clancy since conscription. They have both reached the commissioned rank of Captain along with the rest of the men who were sitting at the round table and Deckard's de corps was at its peak until the unit was given orders to accompany the fleet that was headed to the Koprulu sector. With the orders came the announcement of the reformation of the once disbanded Echo Company with a large batch of fresh recruits, naming Deckard as the commander.
"Oh they're fine," replied Deckard. "How are them assholes, Card?"
Card didn't respond and the chuckling had dimmed back down to smiles. Deckard could only assume that the alliteration with Alpha was not lost with them.
"Hey Dec, have you heard of anything 'bout what's going on in the Darwin?" Clancy asked inquisitively.
"Nope… Why? Did you?"
"Only rumors, the Darwin's been a busy bee these past few days. Clarke saw shuttles going back and forth Moria and the Darwin like crazy. People think…"
The door slid open and in speed walked a short bulky Colonel Leonard. Card bolted up and loudly announced, "Attention on deck!" Then the rest of the men bolted up as the Colonel was already motioning them to sit down.
"At ease, sit down." The Colonel had a scratchy voice which was easily mimicked but nobody with half a brain would do it in his presence.
"Greetings, Sir," said Card.
"Ho. I'm going to have to make this quick, we don't have much time. You'll be briefed on SoP later by the battalion XO." Leonard has always cut right to the chase. He didn't even have to tell them they were going to be deployed for it was implied by the Standards of Procedure briefing. "I just came back from a briefing with Admiral DuGalle in the S.V Darwin. I have bad news, and I have even worse news. The bad news is the Terrans we've come here for is gone. All attempts of contact have failed and both scouts and every reading we have confirms the Terran bases are uninhabited. Now, moving on to the worse news, Zerg presence has been discovered. They may be the reason for the lack of Terran contact on Moria but we don't know that for sure. They can be wild for all we know but some highly doubts it."
Leonard walked over to a podium and toggled its panel. A full color holo-vid of a zergling appeared before the display in the middle of the round table. Most soldiers and even officers including Deckard were told the overall mission was to quell renegade Terran but the possibility of conflict with the two alien races was made aware to them. Deckard knew the possibility was more of a probability when they were forced to watch countless hours of vids documenting the many aspects of Protoss and Zerg. None of it has prepared him for the gut wrenching feeling he got just staring at a lifelike display of a zergling.
"This little baby here was found dead on Moria. When or how it's died is undetermined. But thank god we found it in one piece. The joints of the hind legs are hinged differently and the white coats believe it allows them to move much faster then normal. The carapace armor shows extreme resistance to thorium based ammunition,an ancientstandard. Attributes like that are supposed to be classic signs of Zerg that have evolved to fight Terrans specifically. Besides one dead zergling, no other evidence of zerg infestation around Moria has been found."
The image of the zergling has changed into a hilly terrain being rendered.
"Our orders are to gain a foothold on the surface of Moria. What you're looking at is the site our entire battalion will be deployed". Clarke, who is sitting next to Deckard, glanced over to him with a raised brow. What an asshole, thought Deckard. "There are abandoned tactical structures there and each company will be placed in the different firebases and bunkers situated in key places of the hill, who goes where will be determined in SoP. You'll be getting additional support from tenth armor. Get your men ready for launch, keep your comlinks active, and direct all questions comments to the XO." Leonard, being true to his word, speed walked right out the sliding door.
Deckard looked around the table. The captains looked baffled. They were trying to grasp the gravity of the situation. The Colonel whisked the briefing off to them in order to compromise their thinking. It's the way they all are, including Deckard and the other captains. Clarke had his eyes closed, but after a brief moment of silence, he opened them and squinted in confusion. Deckard can hear him muttering to himself, "Doom?"