SWARM

The Elite Fireteam

Chapter 12

07:23 a.m. April 5, ad 29269.

A shuttle is bubbling towards the surface of the ocean; coming from the deep abyss, and leaving behind their city that is covered in one massive thick transparent dome. The sizable bright colony is shaped like the Star of David as it lays on the ocean floor, and sea creatures big and small swim around the underwater metropolis. The shuttle has made it on the surface and the dock opens. One astronaut then comes out the small ship, and a very tall person pulls him out of the vessel to a big rock where he stands. The seven feet tall man remains standing as wild splashes of the ocean waves crashes on the boulders where he is standing. His people are also tall and have long blonde hair tied together; they are dark and have slant eyes with bright eye colors: green, blue, brown, or hazel. The leather reddish-brown loincloth and pendant around his neck made of whalebone can easily judge by the astronaut; the tall man lives primitively in the wild. The explorer has never been to the surface of the earth before. Just simulations training from his city below the ocean; three more astronauts to help out from the shuttle. The same astronaut continues to stare at the tall tribesmen, holding a big laser gun strapped around his shoulder. It's an ancient weapon compared to the astronaut's modern firearms, but it's very strong modified to fit his stature. A regular person would be thrown thirty feet away when he pulls the trigger, but for the tall man, he remains standing. He is an Akwaherran and has lived on the surface of the ocean for thousands of years. Through natural mutation, people like him have developed gills behind their ears. The last astronaut is now out and onto the rocky face of the sea. The shuttle then closes and returns to the city at the bottom of the ocean.

There are four of the astronauts, and they are the selected special elite soldiers. They are set in a group called the Fireteam. The group aboard onshore and passing through a mass of giant iguanas on the beach, then to a cliff wall. The Elite Fireteam climbs the steep high rock, and again passing through giant birds while on their nests with eggs the size of an ostrich's eggs. The team have a jet suit that makes them hover above the cliff, but at this point, they want to keep it discreet to climb the high treacherous cliff. Their suits are designed ten times of an excellent mountain climber, and it didn't take much time when the soldiers had made it on the ridge.

Their corporal checks all their gears. "Looks everything is intact men, nothing could have had falling," Timothy says.

"Thanks, corporal," his men respond."

The corporal's uncle is also with him. His name is Moran; the only veteran in the group and the only survivor from the recent war; Moran speaks in Akwaherran language. "It's been a long time brother," he says to Zirk, "thanks for showing up." To Moran, the surface is nothing new, and he is happy to reunite with his good friend Zirk. They hit each other's elbows, then hugged each other. Moran, with his opened helmet, greets Zirk touching forehead to forehead. This time, the veteran has a red mohawk and a full beard to show his status he earned as a soldier. Moran is now forty-four years of age. The recent war he survives from was to minimize the number of griffins. It was an extermination job that cost his men their lives. There were far too many griffins, and they are getting in the way of their livelihood, between Akwaherrans and the people under the ocean called the Whites. Minerals from the surface are essential elements to the Whites, and the Akwaherrans provides; likewise in exchange for sophisticated gadgets, even scraps from the much more modern world, to donations of older models of any electronics where they are still new to the Akwaherrans.

"Alright men, I know you're transmitter can able to read your full status... but double check one another suits, before advancing forward to our exhibition..." Timothy orders once again.