Chapter 3 - Mission Briefings

"General Mikar, please report to the debriefing room" droned the P.A. system aboard the command ship. Mikar complied and walked silently to the big oval room. When he stepped inside, he could see the five other Psi Corps. generals were already there.
"Hello Sapphira, Freyalise, Aurora, Aldeer, Balan." said Mikar, greeting the others "I'm glad to see you're all still alive and well" he finished with a smirk
"Oh, you know us. No wussy alien's gonna even touch us. We're glad to see you're alive too though" replied Balan with the same smirk on his face that Mikar wore.

"Alright guys, enough small talk" boomed the Sky Marshall Terimandas. "I'm very glad to see all six of you were successful in your respective missions. I'll go through what we've accomplished from all this"
"First, Mikar and his squadron successfully took down the alien infestation in our Tanith research facility. We've restored the defenses, and stationed a fleet of ships to overlook it. It will be our main research facility for our new secret weapons"
"Second, Aldeer, Freyalise, and Aurora have infiltrated Secret Station 003 and managed to set off the distress beacon, bringing in our whole fleet to bombard the censored out of the planet. We're restoring the facility as we speak, and all traces of Kharaa life have been exterminated. This will be our main energy source to fuel our experiments and research. As you all know, there is a tremendous amount of resources in the Station, as well as around it. We suspect that's why the aliens tried so hard to get it. But we've got it back, and we're resuming the mining operations faster than ever."
"Last, but of course not least, Balan and Sapphira have lead the army to a total rout of the aliens at the outlying planet of Tetranopolis. We've captured the planet, exterminated the Kharaa, and have started to make the planet a industrial sector to build ships and weapons."
"Now, i'm gonna tell you about the secret research operation we have going on. As you know, our armament consists of Light and Heavy Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, and Shotguns for close quarters combat, the Kharaa are starting to evolve to be more resistant to those weapons. As of the last encounter we had with the Kharaa, it took 30 marines, all with Heavy Machine Guns, fully upgraded, to take down 3 onos. That's 10 marines to take down a single onos boys. This cannot go on; our population is not infinite. So, we captured an Onos, and our top scientists have begun experimenting on it to see what makes it tick, and what it's most vulnerable to. How we figured it out was, actually, an accident. One of the assistants cut himself on a scalpel, and he bled on the Onos. At the same time, a chemical, which for now we will call Chemical X, was spilled on the onos. As the two liquids combined, the onos shrieked in pain, and the liquids tore a hole clean through the onos. The scientists have been working their asses off and have managed to reproduce the liquid in massive amounts. All that's left to do now is to make weapons out of them, which is what we're using Tanith for. As you know, creating new weapons takes tremendous amounts of energy and resources, so that's why we needed to capture Secret Station 003."
"Well, that's all i'm allowed to tell you all right now, but i'm sure we'll find out more as more is discovered. I have the utmost faith in our scientists...Almost as much faith as I have in you guys" finished the Sky Marshall with a grin. "I'm very proud of you guys. Job well done, mission accomplished. Now, go and take a well deserved break. I'll call you if anything arises. Oh wait...there's one more thing. You guys have a damned press conference. Stupid CNN and FOX News wants a special with the Elite Psi Corps. Won't last long, I promise. Just grit your teeth and get through with it. I'll see you later Generals."

As the six friends walked out of the room, they started smiling and embracing each other.
"It's been a long, long six weeks guys. I really am glad to see you're all alright." said Sapphira
"Yea, so am I" said Freyalise
"Me too" replied Aurora
"Awww...who would have thought the girls would get mushy at our reunion...haha" grinned Aldeer.
"Haha, yea, just like the girls to get mushy." replied Balan.
"Of course, that's what they're for" Mikar interjected. "But you know we care, we're like family." Mikar caught himself stealing a glance at Sapphira, a very quick one. He glanced away and pretended to be looking at something before she could catch him.

"Oh censored, we've got the press conference. Lets go guys, then we can do whatever the hell we want. Party time! WOOOO!" shouted Aldeer
"Heh, heh, OH RIGHT" said Balan
"Giggity giggity giggity" laughed Mikar
"Boys..." laughed the three girls together, as they all headed into the press conference room.

"General Mikar, Brick Tamland from FOX News. What exactly is this Elite Psi Corps. How many soldiers, what makes you guys so special?"
"Well" started Mikar "we are, as the name suggests, an elite group of specially selected soldiers who possess potent psychic powers. We're usually the ninjas, the assasins, but we are also the commanders. We consist of 6 generals right now, and about 20 troopers. We are a very small portion of the standing Armed Forces. We're special because we can take down a Fade or an Onos by ourselves, with out psi powers"

"General Freyalise, Will Ferrel from CNN. How are the Psi Corps. selected, and what special training do they receive?"
"Only the children with the most potent psychic powers are even considered for the Psi Corps. We have to train them before age 12, to develop them. The training is done by the six of us, we were the first of the Psi Corps. An apprentice needs to go through nearly 10 years of training before they are to even set foot into combat. At the most, there are 5 Psi Corps agents at every major battle, as that is all that is needed."

"General Balan, Peter Jennings from NBC News. How is the war going. Are we winning? Is there any chance that the Kharaa will get close enough to attack the HomeWorlds?"
"At the moment, we are in a stalemate. Both the Kharaa and us are winning a losing major battles, but rest assured, we are working on a new techonology that will make Onos and Fade obsolete. There is absolutely no chance of the Kharaa attacking our civilian areas and worlds. The outer rim defenses are strong enough to detect and destroy and Kharaa lifeform or projectile that gets within range of our civilian planets"

"General, General! One more question please! General! Just one!'
"I'm sorry folks, but that's all the time we have. The Generals have very important matters to attend to, and i'm sure they want to rest after the battle. That is all, you're all dismissed."

Hah, important matters like PARTYING BABY! said Mikar to the others telepathically
Haha, you know it! It's time to get down and get funky! Oh yea! replied Sapphira
Last one to the ship is a rotten Fade Hunter! Shouted Aurora, as the six comrades dashed to the ship to get away from the war for an evening, and have fun; something they had not done for the last 10 years, ever since they were first inducted into the Psi Corps. It was times like these that they fought to preserve. The whole Kharaa War was just a huge battle to preserve the little things in life. Mikar took a last look at the command ship as the shuttle he and the five others were in took off for the nearest civilian planet.

A glint of happiness was in his eyes, and it started to wet, but he wouldn't let the others see it. He was supposed to be the fearless leader, the one who would never cry or appear anything less than perfect. The one the others looked up to. As he dried his eyes, thankful for such friends as these and for the oppurtunity to have a normal life, even if it was for a little while, he began to get hyper and excited like the others, and all hint of sentimentality was gone, replaced by giddiness and excitement.

End of chapter 3. I hope you guys are getting all the subtle little jokes and stuff I put in there. More to come later! Hope you all enjoy it!