Transmissions || Dustin Bates

Telescope 2.0

I sat waiting in the missions room, quietly monitoring the mission via the camera system of the city of Conroos, a quarter of the planet away. Alexi was a large planet, housing 6.7 billion people. It was a little bigger than Earth, with more fresh water than there was on the old planet. It had a slightly higher composition of oxygen than Earth did as well. It was a beautiful planet with many cities, but still so much rolling free lands. The animals were a combination of animals brought from earth, many of which we grew in test tubes, set to the wild, and they reproduced naturally, and the few animals that had inhabited the planet before us. It was a wonderful place, especially when you compared it to the shithole Earth was.

"Report," I sighed into my headset, still looking at the feed, not truly watching. I noticed they all had been quiet for a while. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary for a typical quiet mission. They would get chattier after they started inflitration, but if they were together, Shay would use hand signals primarily. I started to observe the feed closer. It had been busy the entire time, not too odd for such a large city. I turned around, looking at the clocks on the back wall, observing the times of all the large cities.

Canroos clock read seven fifty-six. Canroos gets dark at seven. In the video, it still showed it was as bright as day. The feed was on a loop and I hadn't noticed for six hours. I had fucked up. Shaylee was going to kill me. I went over to the computer, typing in a few keys, trying to get any sort of signal or get it out of the loop. A moment later, I got it. The streets were dark, and I couldn't get the camera to switch anywhere closer to the target point.

"Team! Come in! Team!" Static. Nothing. I groaned, getting up. I ran to my lab and put on some of the body armor I had made before grabbing a few more weapons and sprinting to the jump ship. I managed to get on and fly it. It only took me an hour to get there, making me more than thankful for the power of a jump ship. On the way, I reported what had happened, The Senate assuring me that they would send backup, but to be there for my team.

I kept wondering how the enemy had made it onto the planet. I figured that they snuck in in small numbers, using false identities. It seemed to have worked because they were here. They got past planet security as well as every team of Astro-fighters. With everyone still being technically human, despite some variants that had found other species to mix with, it was difficult to tell planetary citizens apart.

I arrived above the point, getting closer and landing on top of the building. I went down, taking the stairs to the basement of the building. There, I was met with team 3406, quickly showing them my identification. They nodded to me, ushering me to follow them. The four of them had their guns ready, where I just had the sonic staff Ron had taught me to use. I was lucky enough to know that my armor would be a useful weapon all the same. We silently moved, quickly searching for the team. Suddenly, we heard voices. We got closer, peaking in the archway to see my four team members waiting to be loaded onto a version of a jump ship, more built for space travel than for planetary jumps.

Each of them were in upright pods, completely unconscious. The Captain of the team 3406 nodded to us, sending us into the charge. They shot at the enemy, hitting the one protecting three of the pods, while the one who was loading the first one onto the ship managed to close the port of the ship, yelling at the pilot to forget the others and get out. The other team chased the ship, trying to get them. I ran to my team, getting the pods to open, each one of the remaining three crumpled to the floor. Brock, Adam, and Shaylee. Ron was missing. Brock and Adam slowly woke up, as where Shaylee didn't. The two of them sat up as I knelt down next to Shay, scooping her up to keep her off the floor in case we had to quickly move.

"What happened?" Adam asked, looking around as the other team came back to help the two up. He placed a hand to his head, showing there was clearly some discomfort lingering from being out so long.

"We were ambushed, Adam," Brock reminded him, holding tightly to the member of the other team that kept him from falling backward.

"We need to get you all out of here in case there are more hostiles." The captain told us, starting to move from the room. He led us out, me following directly behind him, the other two behind me, then one of the other cadets from 3406 taking up the rear. We quickly made it out and onto the jump ship I had arrived in. Brock and Adam took a seat and I set Shay down in one.

"Thank you, Captain." I nodded to the other man. He nodded back.

"My job, sir. Get them home. We'll track the ship and get Cadet DeChant back. Rest assured." With that, he turned and walked off the ship, going to his own team and ship. I shut the port and went to the pilot seat. After we got in the air, I looked at the other two men.

"What happened back there? They hacked the system and shut me out." Adam sighed, turning to me from where he sat.

"We were ambushed. We got halfway in before they surrounded us. Shay was confident we could take them, but we were still pretty tired from this morning, so we were off our game. She must have put up more of a fight because she was still fighting when I was knocked out. I don't know what happened from that point on, that was until you came with backup." He didn't have much, but it was enough. We couldn't do anything more. Ron was taken, and we were not a complete team.

I sat in the infirmary, head down on one of the beds. I sat a couple away from Shaylee, swipetech open to the information on who they were supposedly going after. She still had not woken up, and I was getting concerned. I still didn't understand why The Senate sent them into that situation after they had just gotten back. Frustrated, concerned, and confused. That was my life. I sighed and went to sit back up when I heard Shaylee groan.

"Damn, they got me good." I looked up to see her trying to sit up. I walked over, gently pushing her back down on the bed.

"Hey, lay down. You've been out for a long while." I spoke to her softly, standing above her.

"Yeah? Tough shit. Where's everybody else?" She pushed my hands away, sitting up.

"Brock and Adam are resting," I reported, sitting on the bed next to her.

"And Ron?" When I didn't give her an answer, she asked again. "Bates, where is Ron?" I still didn't answer. She got up and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, glaring at me.

"He isn't here." I trying to not meet her gaze.

"Bates, is my best friend dead?" She growled, her grip tightening on me. I noticed her knuckles turning white.

"No, not that we know of. When we rescued you, they were trying to load you all onto a jump ship. They got Ron on the ship before we showed up. Team 3406 is tracking them." I met her eyes again. They were about to spill over with tears. Suddenly, I didn't feel afraid of her. I felt bad for her.

Shaylee Diaz was given her title at age 28, the youngest age a female had ever been given the title. I had heard that she had never been all warm and cuddly, but being in charge meant you had to toughen up. She kept her emotion hidden to most, matching with her trust issues. The one she trusted the most wasn't here. At age 34, she was alone.

I made up my mind and decided to do something that could potentially get me thrown across the room. I slowly wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer, hugging her tightly. She fought me for a second before giving in, surrendering to my hug. It wasn't like she hugged me back or cuddled up to me, but she didn't fight me. I let her go slowly.

"They will find him," I assured her. She nodded, wiping the tears off of her face.

"As for those fuckers who took him. I will find them." I looked into her eyes, traveling their depth and distance. Those blue eyes reminded me more of the night sky than the ocean. They were like the stars, bright and blazing. She was something else.

"We will find them."