A demolition charge goes on in the nearest Wall, in come 4 men, all in black and wearing body armor, I instantly begin calling orders. Two of you in morph, spread out and find him. The other two, stay here and cover any possible escape routes they don´t answer, simply follow the orders. A puma and a wolf stand were once men stood. Litefoot you ready? I call out to the sniper on top of the mall. Yes sir, one shot one kill
Not today, aim for his feet I answer Do you have visual?
Yes sir, infrared confirmation of target, 50 meters east
Move out people!
We do Stay tight, no more than 15 meters between each of us we reach a fork in the road.
Which way litefoot?
I…no…sir
We´re out of thought speak range.
Puma, wolf, take the left, I´ll take the right
We separate; I push my keen tiger senses as far as they can go. Trying to hear the slightest hush that gives away his position. No such luck. I walk on, when suddenly Contact! I run towards the source of thought speak, Puma.
No more than 5 seconds pass, 5 seconds to late.
When I arrive, both puma and wolf are on the floor. Puma doesn´t move, doesn´t breath.
The bastard snapped his neck, and broke my spine call wolf as he drags himself towards me, his lower halve is limp.
Demorph I order, we don´t mourn wolf, we´ll do it later, now we must concentrate.
He does and remains a human, in his morphing outfit, awaiting orders –I´ll kill that son of a…-
I let out a roar that shakes the very earth Silence! That man saved my life and those of my friends more times that I can count, he is a friend, I curse the moment I was assigned to this mission
I try to calm down Let´s regroup at the exit
We move, in less than a minute we arrive. But what we found is terrible, both my men are dead too, one of them has a snapped neck, the other a bullet between his eyes. How we didn´t hear the shot, I have no idea.
Litefoot did you saw him?
The man doubts a moment before answering Yes sir, I tried to go for a foot shot as you told me, he was too dam fast. Kept moving in and out of my sights
Gunshot! I turn around; wolf is down, blood spilling from his stomach. Obviously Sam didn´t went for the kill. –No one else has to die Jake- He appears from the shadows, in front of me. –Just take your men and leave, please-
Sir I´ve got a clear shot. Assured lethality
Hold your fire
Sam aims a 9mm at my partner, this time for the kill. –Demorph Jake, or he dies- Many times innocent lives have depended on me, many times I had made the wrong choice and my friends and family suffered dearly. I demorph.
Wolf drags towards the bodies of the two other men. Outside my field of vision.
After smiling Sam walks towards me and gives me the gun –Shoot me Jake. I promise the world will be a better place without me- I don´t move.
-You bastard! - yells someone behind us. Two gunshots. –Watch out!-Sam pushes me out of the way .I fall to my back. The first bullet, fired by wolf, hits him in the chest, the andalite mail is bullet proof, he isn´t so lucky the second time, and a .50 cal is much bigger than a 9mm. Blood spurts from his neck. He holds it, as if trying to prevent the vital fluid from escaping, but it flows through his fingers too. He falls, I rush towards him. –No!-
He smiles –It´s OK Jake- He says while bubbles of blood form around him. -You know, we were never so different you and I. I g…guess that I always had some problem with orders- Hi tries to draw breath. –Just… don´t… let ´em take it-
Tears flow from my eyes –I promise- I whisper. –And I´ll see Rach…Rachel again- The light in his eyes dims, and goes off.
I don´t know how much time I kneeled there, I don´t care. When I finally stormed of the building Litefoot was there.
-I´m sorry sir. I thought he was attacking you-
That night I returned home to Washington. The next day I was called to give a report on my mission.
-Congratulations Berenson- the Colonel greets me once in his office.
-For what sir if I may ask?-
He laughs –Why my boy, you gave us the Holy Grail. Let´s face it, with all those andalites running amok, we needed to be prepared. And you know the saying "Guns win battles but men win wars". Now we have the best men possible.-
It hits me like a ton of bricks –You mean that…-
-I do! Project SPARTAN is already under way; the first 200 will be ready for tomorrow-
As you know, blood contains DNA, and there was plenty of Sam´s blood in the construction site.