Chapter 3

Soales was big, much bigger then it seemed at first sight. Yet it was also small enough to be overlooked from far away, and it didn't look like anyone would want to be there anyway. There was atmosphere, but the planet was more or less one gigantic rock. Kelly and Chris spent most of their first day on the planet going from command ship to command ship organizing marines and getting everyone settled in, they'd be here for a while. Chris had a good feeling that even though humans were now trying to stay out of the war, there'd be more then enough fighting on this overgrown rock.

Chris fell into an uneasy rest, his thoughts were on John, Fred and Linda. Were they still even alive? He didn't know what to think anymore. He gave up and let the wave of sleep overtake him falling into dreams. In what must have been less then an hour Kelly was shaking him awake.

"Elites." It was all she needed to say for Chris to understand. The marines had all been taught hand signals so that the group could operate with stealth. He gave a hand movement to ten marines to follow him. He signaled for one to get a number on the Elites. The marine held up seven fingers. Chris signaled for Kelly to assassinate two of the Elites. She did so with easy success. Now the other Elite were looking around wondering where the first two had gone.

"FIRE!" Chris shouted braking the silence of the night. The marines ran forward rifles cracking through the night. Chris bashed one of the Elite's head into the armored chest a little too hard, he bruised his right hand. In a few more seconds it was over, not one marine was dead, though three had to be treated for plasma burns. Chris saw then that several Marines came out of their ships. Chris told them all to get back into the ships.

"It's all under control. Go back now this will be easy." Said Chris to one annoying sergeant. He and Kelly spent about an hour looking for a ship but found nothing.

"I guess they were drop in scouts." Said Kelly.

"I guess your right, all the same we should still keep watch."

"Agreed. I'll take the first one." Chris walked over to his bags which held a battle rifle, a shotgun, extra ammo, and food. He sat leaning back against the wall of a ship and fell asleep, he didn't get much. In another half hour Kelly was shaking him awake.

"A ship one of ours, don't grab marines but bring a gun just in case." Chris nodded and picked up the battle rifle running to where Kelly pointed, she go there a little ahead of him and kneeled pointing her gun pointed at the door of the ship which had by now landed. The door opened and one figure stepped out.

"FREEZE! Who are you? What do you want?" Asked Chris.

"I want to re-join my crew. My name is John." Then two more people walked up from behind him.

"That planet is overrun with the enemy." Said Fred.

"I told you." Said Chris.

"Just shut up would you." Said John.

"You were right, this isn't humanity's fight, not yet anyway." Said Linda. The three took off the helmets, John's face was bloody and Linda had a large bruise on her right cheek. Fred had a plasma mark on his arm that looked pretty bad.

"Come on lets get you guys into medical." Said Kelly. John nodded at Linda and Fred but made no move towards Kelly himself.

"We would've won if you'd given us marines and if you'd helped us." Said John.

"John please just let it go!" Said Fred. "He didn't mean it." John didn't answer Fred, but turned and swung at Chris's head. Chris caught the blow on his gun but he underestimated how hard John had punched and the battle rifle went flying out of his hands. Chris dropped in a ready position.

"John come on!" Said Linda.

"Yeah, come John, anytime you want. I'll take you down." Said Chris. John leapt and tried to plant a kick on Chris's head. Chris moved and the blow went wide. Chris threw and punch and John's back, but John jumped so the Chris hit nothing but air. John landed and threw his elbow forward to hit Chris in the face. Chris allowed the blow to land so he could get a solid kick on 117's chest. John backed away holding his chest. Chris held the side of his head. Both stumbled but Chris regained his ground faster. He ran hard at John and made as though to kick so he could change it to a punch at the last second. John took the bait and Chris punch his green helmet off his head. Then he grabbed John's shoulders and bashed his own helmet into John's head, causing it to leak even more blood. John then tackled him and the pair ended up with John ripping off Chris's helmet and slamming his elbow into Chris's neck while Chris was trying to choke John because both hands were around his neck.

"Stop it!" Linda and Fred pulled John off Chris and Kelly pulled him up and then held him back, he was still trying to get back at John. Meanwhile Fred and Linda were holding John still.

"I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THAT!" Said John.

"WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY!" Responded Chris. He was really ticked off, why couldn't John get it through his thick head that Chris had only been trying to help him? Help humanity survive? Did he only care about the orders he got? Did any of them have the ability to think? Kelly did, she followed him. He didn't know about Fred or Linda but John, he didn't use his head. Or was this something else? Had he gone for another reason? Maybe he hadn't gone because of the orders at all. Chris lay down and closed his eyes. But no sleep came to him that night.