Chapter one
Fiesta in South America
Chetumal, Mexico December 1999
The helicopter blades belligerent beat numbed Rex Morningstar to his core. Each revolution of the blades batted away mental distractions, and forced him to be in the here and now. The mission was simple, go in, grab the hostage, and get the fuck out. Easy day… but maybe that was yesterday? Focus. Focus. Focus… sang the helo as it defied gravity. He exhaled and slowly opened his eyes. The steely blue orbs shone, clear and confident. Rex checked his combat vest pouches for the twentieth time. Better safe than sorry. It takes massive amounts of diligence to be among the one percent, and the passenger load was nothing but.
"Oh man this is great. I can't wait to nail these SOBs." A Giddy female voice flowed over the headset. It came from a latina woman of five feet five inches, toned and perky. Beautiful straight black hair tied into a ponytail that stuck out of the black snapback hat she wore. Chestnut brown irises speckled with hazel exuded excitement. Her perfect teeth and bountiful lips formed a breathtakingly devilish smile. She sat forward, muscles tensed ready to pounce like a panther, she was feline in her mannerisms so Rex dubbed her Kitty. The United Americas government liked to hire pretty people as spies, and Kitty was painfully pretty. She had been trained in espionage,stealth, and seduction. She was used to cloak and dagger missions, solitary work as a spy / assassin, yet she had adapted easily to the team game during their expedited mission orientation, training and briefing.
"Just sit tight, no need to get ramped up yet." Major Rontetum spoke loudly into his microphone. During their short time together Rex had learned
the Major hailed from the Services Intelligence Assault unit Alpha Corps. Better known as the A Corps, or just Alpha Corps.
Alpha Core did world changing counterinsurgency work in countries of interest to the government. Alpha Core also equipped and trained rebels to usurp governments and local regimes. There was no real combat record for their squad, most of the information given to the world was thought to be fabricated by Alpha themselves as disinformation. There was no paper trail to prove or deny the stories uttered by civilians and regular detachment personnel. He was a living, breathing, ghost. Standing at six foot six, he looked like a champion body builder, yet his movements were graceful and elegant. The Major didn't talk much but when he did everyone listened, as his voice had a natural command quality to it. Rex and the Major sitting side by side could pass as relatives, as their physique were closely matched.
"Ooh, but I can just feel it, we're going to kick some ass!" Kitty retorted. She held her gun up, kissed the barrel, and held it out gazing at it as if it were a cherished lover.
"You know it!" The woman beside her cheered her and tapped the barrel of her rifle onto Kitty's like they were toasting champagne glasses.The woman went by the code name Paige.
Paige worked as a Combat Communications Commando part of an elite unit in the Aviation and Aeronautics division of the Service. Rex thought all three C's were supposed to be male, but was gladly disappointed that they were not. She wasn't wildly attractive like Kitty but attractive nonetheless. She looked like the typical American nerdy girl, matte black birth control glasses adorned her face. Rex smiled, she kind of looked like Velma from a cartoon series he enjoyed as a kid.
The metronome beat of the copter blades kept playing focus, as the trees whipped by below skid rails. Rex sighed. This was his last mission for the Service, he wished it was with his unit in the Service, but the Government had hand picked him for this particular mission. He felt it was an honor to be selected as the lone Orca member. He had been in the Service for twelve years. Rex loved his job in the Naval realm of the Service, but he felt it was time to get out. He decided to become a contract team member. A long-time friend and former Orca had opened his own contracting company and asked Rex to join. Rex accepted and the pay increase was going to be substantial. The transition from the military world to the civilian sector would be easy as it was basically the same job, so he was told.
"Oorah!" Boomer's deep baritone voice rumbled in everyone's headset. Boomer was a Armor Force Recon Sniper. AFR Snipers worked independently and occasionally along side the Alpha Core. Boomer was the shortest of the males standing five eight, lean and lanky. His blonde hair cut as high and tight as it could go. He had emerald green eyes and a savage aura about him.
The major glared deep into Boomer's eyes, said nothing, yet Boomer nodded in agreement like they just had a secret conversation. The kind of conversation only one percenters could understand.
"Six seconds!" The pilot signaled to the crew.
The helicopter slowed, the torrent of air beat the forest canopy below, turning the it into a raging sea of green. Rex glanced over and noticed the Major staring at him. The older man's eyes burned fiercely.
"Why is he always staring at me?" Rex thought.
This was not the first time he had met the Major in a spooky stare down. Rex noticed the Major's haunting eyes at the brief before the helo took off then, again when he was checking his gear for the thirteenth time. At this point he told the major that staring was a bad habit. The Major had reacted to this comment with more staring. Rex thought the Major was fucking with him or possibly he was gay? It didn't matter, it was creepy, but as long as the mission was successful Rex could deal with the meat gazing. Rex chuckled to himself, indeed the Naval side was the most coveted side. Who wouldn't be gay over an ORCA like himself? Rex decided to fuck with the major and shot him a smile and a wink of his left eye. The major broke eye contact and grabbed the fast rope, and Rex felt like he had just won a small battle.
Rex felt the helo go into its hover, realising that the Major had dropped the rope and then had gone down first like a mad man. Not by the book deployment of ground troops at all. The victorious feeling was replaced with the hunger for the hunt. Rex grabbed the rope and repelled into the unknown.
South America welcomed the team into it's searing heat, humidity, and silence. All animal life nearby had stopped making noise upon their arrival. The team crouched in place, surveying the area, weapons at the ready. Rex held his breath, and let it out as the slow crescendo of jungle noises notified the team that they were alone.
The team moves over the wet soggy jungle floor quickly, everyone blending in thanks to the state of the art jungle camouflage and face paint. Years of training made them calm, silent and lethal. All gear that would click, jingle, jangle, bop or knock was silent secured with tape. The team moved as wisps in the wind. As the team moved in a north eastern route, strong branches of fauna created impassable walls that had to be cut through with silent efficiency. The jungle added more misery with ankle twisting rocks that littered the ground under the dense foliage. Every step had to be measured and precise, as vines and plant life seemed intent on hindering the teams progress. Further ahead the terrain changed into angry thorny bushes, sharp grass, and gnarly roots. The jungle entity was alive and very aware, it tried its best to elicit painful sounds from the advancing commandos by poking and prodding them, but team remained silent as a mime. Everything was slowed down to an agonizing pace. After hours of navigating horrendous torrain, Rex pushed a huge leaf aside and finally saw the target. Below him was what looked like an Aztec ruin, concealed from the sky by the jungle canopy, vines grew over the stone, moss and flowers invaded the crevices between each block.
"Is this it?" Kitty said very softly.
"Checking coordinates." Boomer replied as he looked down at the green rectangle block that displayed his longitude and latitude. The device glowed dull green with black digital numbers.
"Yes this is it." Page said as leaned over Boomer's shoulder, eyes peering vibrantly at the little screen. Boomer in turn shrugged her off his shoulder , and gave her a no shit, and don't do that again look. Paige adjusted her glasses, and crossed her arms over her breasts with a harumph. Paige had a habit of infringing on other people's personal space, to gather information, and it caused awkward situations, like this one.
"What the fuck?" Kitty grumbled.
"Doesn't look like any drug manufacturing facility I have ever seen." Rex commented.
"No, this is it. We are right on target and in time i can feel it." The Major stated.
"Feel it?" Kitty mouthed to Page with a look of disbelief.
"Men" Paige mouthed back rolling her eyes. Kitty choked back her laughter and then chased it down with a pull from her canteen of water as the major fixed his gaze on the team. As the Commanding Officer of this mission, the major put his plan in motion. The team went about securing the perimeter and as they advanced further into the ruin complex Rex encountered six skeletal remains of occupants past. The bodies wore garments from all over the ancient world and each one from a different era it seemed.
They encircled the ruin, and checked six outer chambers before they converged on the centerpiece, a six story ancient pyramid. Rex wasn't a geologist, so he did not recognize who made the structures, nor did he care. His focus was on the mission, to take out those who were poisoning the youth of his country as well as high powered officials, but his search found nothing out of place. Human trace was minimal, and those that were obvious were very old.No one was making drugs or anything at all. Rex felt disappointed, at how wasteful this mission was turning out. He coulda been having a great farewell party instead. Seeing the guys one last time before civilian life would have been great, but Focus…. Here… Now… Rex cleared these thoughts the microsecond they crept into his mind. Mission first.
Boomer notified the major that the last structure was clear and they were good to proceed. Short bright green grass formed heavenly soft walkways,that all lead to the front of the pyramid.
" Morningstar, your on point. You know what to do." The Major ordered as he deftly navigated the terrain. The soft grass muffled their footsteps, so they went in at a quick pace. Finally they reached be base of the pyramid in the center of the ruin. Looters must have found this place long ago as the antechamber doors were a mangled wreck.
"Going Forward." Rex said as he snuck into the antechamber, The others quickly followed navigating the grass and stone obstacle easily.
The chamber ahead was dark and musty. In the distance a ball of orange glowed. The sound of torches burning could be heard as the team approached the final inner chamber.
"It looks abandoned." Paige whispered.
"No, see the traces of inhabitants? Like the lit torches and boot marks." Kitty whispered as a spider crawled from her shoulder to her chest then onto her ammo pouch. The spider turned seemed to eyeball her and then with the slightest effort hopped onto the floor and scurried away. The spider startled her. It was a big ass spider, creepy and foreign, she sighed glad it had gone on its way.
"Freaky shit." Boomer chuckled softly as he moved deeper into the hallway.
Kitty burned a stare into the back of Boomers head. She was slightly embarrassed that he may think she was scared of spiders. She wasn't. It had just out ninja'd her. With the critter gone Kitty focused back on the task at hand. She moved into position with Boomer.
They snaked down the side of each wall one behind the other. The cool darkness of the ruin aided in their clandestine movement.
The team came to a massive archway that opened into a main room. The room had several load-bearing columns that were in a square. There were torches burning on each of the columns facing inward illuminating the middle. In the middle there was an altar and man in a deep dark red cloak standing over it. A woman lay on the altar half naked, her ankles and wrist bound by iron clasps. The white robe she wore did little for her dignity as she let out a gasp of pain. Her stomach was the size of a basketball as she was in the latter parts of pregnancy.
"What kind of cluster fuck is this?" Boomer murmured. The microphones along the team's neck allowed them to just mumble to each other to make sound, using bone conduction. Just talk inside of your mouth and it comes out clear on the other end.
Page gave him a nudge with her gun, and then Rex gave the signal for them to move into the room. They entered the doorway, Rex turning hard left, Boomer hard right, their guns at the ready sweeping the area for possible targets, they were followed by Kitty and Page who focused on opposite corners of the wall securing the immediate area for the squad targeted the opposite corners of the wall, and the major focused on the middle as he came into the room. The team silently rolled around the walls like a cobra encircling the madman and woman. The Major had not moved from the doorway, he simply walked forward and gave away his position.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Rex blurted out a harsh whisper.
"No need to be sneaky, I know where you are." A raspy and malevolent voice came from the man in the dark robes.
The group kept their sites pointed at man in the red robes, the woman sat up violently groaning in a long coo. Through the dim light Rex and the team could see that she was indeed pregnant and there was blood pooling under her bottom.
"What in the fuck is this?" Kitty demanded. Kitty turned her gun on to the Major. The Major walked slowly toward the altar and dropped his weapon.
"It's been a long time." The Major spoke, but his voice had changed tone. It was now completely different from the familiar husky tone the team had grown to know. It was higher pitched and almost musical now.
"Ah, yes it has been a long time." The evil voice screeched through the air like fingernails moving across a chalkboard.
"This time it ends, now, forever!" The air quivered at the Major's proclamation
"Well then let us see shall we?" the smell of sulfur permeated the air as the cloaked man took off his hood and gazed at Boomer, Kitty, Paige, and then Rex. The sight of the robed man was ghastly. His face was that of a burned corpse, his eyes were ablaze with flame. He said nothing yet his wretched gaze bore into the minds of the stunned commandos'. He pushed his thoughts into their mind and unlocked all of their hidden secrets, their most terrible and forgotten trespasses against mankind. Visions, smells, even taste and feelings were recalled by the evil intrusion of the mind. Telepathy is a wicked talent, and this monster was very adept in its use.
"Ahh, no!" Kitty yelled as her past evil deeds spilled before her eyes, her wicked ways that had gone tarnished her soul now confronted her.
It was the same for Boomer and Paige; they grabbed the side of their head, letting out anguished notes of torment.
"No!" was the only word their helpless brains could muster. The pain of regret and remorse racked their mind.