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Captain “Havoc” Parker
Thursday, 22, 2006
0445 hours local
14 kilometres south of Bear Valley
I woke up in the tree and checked myself over. No bug bites, no other animal bites, okay. I was good to go. I started to make
my way towards the nearby town. I saw that wolf again, this time, asleep. I started to creep by it, when a branch snapped.
The wolf was up in a flash. It started to growl at me, and I drew my K2 Impactor. The K2 was a stun gun that fired two electrodes
into the target, and then zapped the hell out of it with over 20,000 volts of electricity. The drawback was that the electrodes
could not go very far from the gun, about 21 feet away. Making it a short-range weapon, but it dropped the target instantly
with no sound, AND gives temporary amnesia so you’re impossible to identify.
I aimed the K2 at the wolf, waiting for it to come within range-it was about 23 feet away-and it seemed to just stay there,
alert, fur raised, and growling, but doing nothing to attack. I kept my arm steady, aiming right for the head. For the next
few minuets, this continued, me with my arm raised, ready to fire, the wolf staying out of range and growling. Eventually,
it was the wolf that backed down first.
“Havoc, what was that?” Locke asked.
“Just some dumb wolf, nothing to get excited about, Locke.” I said.
“Copy that, Havoc. What’s your ETA?”
“At this pace, I give it about another two hours.”
“Okay, I’ll contact you when you get there. Over and Out.”
Eventually, I made my way to the outskirts of the forest, changed into my civilian cloths, packed away my uniform, weapons
and everything else military and made my way into the town.
“Havoc, I see you’ve entered the town, good job. I trust you still remember the extraction point?”
“That’s a roger Locke,” I said. “What’s SpySat saying about this location? Have you got any
IDs yet?”
“Actually, yes,” he said. “I’m sending you the file now.”
I checked my EVA as the video link came in. I read the profiles.
Elena Michaels
Age 28
Current Residence: Toronto, Canada
Occupation: Journalist
I skipped to the photo.
“Hey, Locke, that’s the same girl that helped 13 outta his plane!”
“Yes, we noticed that to.” He said, sounding slightly annoyed.
“Any ideas on what she’s doing here?”
“Her official reason for visit is that she’s staying with some relatives, however if you’ll look at the
next IDs…” he prompted.
I went to the next profile,
Name: Clayton Danvers
Age: 32
Current Residence: Bear Valley, USA
Occupation: N/A
“Umm… Locke, this guy’s got no job. What gives?”
“We couldn’t find one, but from various Universities, we’ve got reports of him giving lectures.”
“So this guy’s a proff, huh? Sure doesn’t look like one.”
“Keep reading, Havoc…”
I went to the next one,
Jeremy Danvers
Age: 51
Current Residence: Bear Valley, USA
Occupation: Painter
“Okay, if that guys fifty one, I’m celebrating a bicentennial today!” I said.
“We saw that to, Havoc. If you want my guess, I’d say that he’s just remarkably well-preserved.”
“And what’s this about him being a painter?”
“We’ve looked into that, apparently, he doesn’t often make sales, but when he does, they usually bring in
a lot of money.”
“She’s got one weird family… “And this doesn’t explain what she was doing naked in a forest!”
“I quite agree, but then stranger things have happened.”
“Like how we’re the only universe with a Chronosphere?”
“Exactly.”
Elena Michaels
Thursday, 22, 2006
0445 hours local
14 kilometres south of Bear Valley
I woke up to the sound of a branch breaking. I looked around, and saw that the Commando-Guy as I’d come to know him
by, stood up, and pointed some kind of weapon at me. I got up, and stood motionless. I didn’t know what that gun could
do, and I didn’t want to find out. I turned and walked away, not looking back.
After I got back to Stonehaven, I Changed back, had breakfast, and went to check on Bird Dog.
“How’s he doing?” I asked
“Not well, but getting better from all the injuries he sustained during the crash.” Jeremy said, while making
sure the restraints where still okay.
“Maybe when he wakes up and is lucid, we can ask him about what he was doing over us before he got shot down, plus,
there was this commando guy in the forest. I heard him talking about Bird Dog while I was out on my run.”
“A commando?”
“Or some kind of soviet operative,” I then explained everything I knew about that guy, height, an accurate description,
and what info I had on that gun he almost shot me with. I went on the internet to find out more about the New Soviet Union.
It was one of those things that just seemed to pop up overnight, what was even weirder was that the US was taken down as the
world’s number one superpower.
Now, seeing as that I was a journalist on politics, I decided to take a step up from Canadian to International. I started
digging, calling, and generally trying to talk to anyone that would answer me.
I eventually got a line to the KGB Commander, one Commander Volgin.
“Da, Commander Volgin here.” There was only a thin trace of an accent to his words.
“Hello Commander Volgin, my name is Elena Michaels. I’ve wanted to talk with you for some time.”
“I see, well what is it you want to talk about?”
“There was an air battle over US airspace above the city of Bear Valley. What was that about?”
“I’m sorry, I cannot answer that. You’ll have to either talk to the missing Squadron Leader, the Supreme
Commander of the Soviet Union, or the Air Force General Malcolm Granger. I believe he’s stationed in Huston, Texas.”
“Ah,” I said. “Thank you for your time.” And then I hung up.
Supreme Commander Romanov
Thursday, 22, 2006
1230 hours local
The Kremlin Moscow
The red phone on my desk started ringing. I frowned, and answered it, wondering who would dare incur my wrath while I was
doing the paperwork that was accumulating in my Inbox.
“Da?” I asked, with a note of frustration in my voice.
“Commander Romanov, this is Commander Volgin.”
Commander Volgin? This must be important. I thought.
“What is this concerning?” I asked.
“Go to a scrambler. This line could be tapped.”
Scrambling? This IS important… I set the scrambler channel, and waited for Volgin to do the same.
“So, what is this about?” I asked.
“My people have just traced a call that came into my office. A person named Elena Michaels is trying to reach you about
the air strike against Bear Valley a few days ago. Also, satellite reconnaissance has picked up Yellow 13. He is being held
in a city in the United States called “Bear Valley”.
The news struck me like a physical blow,
“WHAT!”
“Da, Confirmed about ten minuets ago, sir. My Ocelot unit is ready to move in and bring 13 back to base; all I need
is a go.”
“Not just yet. Where they civilians or controllers?”
“Our PSISAT didn’t detect any yeerks in the area, but there was concern, sir.”
“About what?”
“The PSISAT didn’t detect yeerks, but it DID detect something… irregular in its wide-scan. I think it could
be-“
“It does not matter what the satellite picked up on wide-scan. We both know it’s notoriously erratic on wide-scan.”
“Da, sir.”
Chapter 5
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