It had been exactly eight weeks since U.S. Navy Lieutenant Travis Burners regained his consciousness again on an elite public military hospital in Ontario, Canada. Meanwhile, back in the United States, a senior high ranking military officer was sitting quietly and peacefully in his luxury office desk, slowly sipping his personal favorite red coffee in his brown porcelain cup.
The military officer, a rather elderly man with various decorations in his uniform, currently holding the position of Vice Admiral in the U.S. Navy, was about to open various documents stored in three different folders, all labeled 'U.S. Military personnel information'. Right after he opened up the folders first and began to read them almost altogether, he straightened his sitting position as soon as he read the first pages of the documents inside each folder.
The content of the first pages of the documents inside the three folders were as followed, respectively:
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PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE PERSONNEL
Name: Zonatyan Xenov
D.O.B: December 31st 2008, Zabaikalsk, Russia.
Height: 6'3.2" (191 cm)
Weight: 183lbs (83 kg)
Blood type: AB (-)
Spoken Language(s): English, Russian, Indonesian, Japanese, Polish
Rank: Major (2033 – present), 1st Lieutenant (2032 – 2033), 2nd Lieutenant (2029 – 2032).
Notable Military services: Extraterrestrial Defense of Chicago (2032 – 2033), Gdynia Kidnappings Incident (2030).
Awards: Air Force Cross (2033), Air Force Distinguished Service Medal (2029), Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2029).
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PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY PERSONNEL
Name: Travis Verelli Burners
D.O.B: July 26th 2011, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A
Height: 5'8.5" (174 cm)
Weight: 141lbs (64 kg)
Blood type: A (+)
Spoken Language(s): English, Italian, Mandarin, German
Rank: Lieutenant (2033 – present), Ensign (2032 – 2033).
Notable Military services: Extraterrestrial Defense of Chicago (2032 – 2033), Gulf of Mexico Smuggling Incident (2032).
Awards: Navy Cross (2033), Silver Star (2032).
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PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY PERSONNEL
Name: Ryan Ming
D.O.B: June 24th 2013, Chinatown, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.A
Height: 5'5.8" (167 cm)
Weight: 120lbs (55 kg)
Blood type: O (+)
Spoken Language(s): English, Mandarin, Cantonese
Rank: 1st Lieutenant (2033 – present)
Notable Military services: Extraterrestrial Defense of Chicago (2032 – 2033)
Awards: Distinguished Service Cross (2033)
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By the time he had finished reading all of the first pages, he realized that he had squinted his eyes while reading them. He closed his eyes for a little moment before he opened it up again and leaned back at his chair as he stared at the ceiling. He continued to glance at the sights of his office, which was dominated by various fancy furniture made from teak woods.
He took a deep breath, and released it as he straightened up his sitting position again while looking down to both of his hands, which he usually did whenever he completely remembered about something very important. Just then, a sound of door knocking was heard from his right side, a sign that his expected guest had just arrived.
"Yes, please come in." the admiral said, in his aged but still clean voice.
"Sorry if I had… kept you waiting, sir…" the figure came in, as he apologized in his unique hoarse voice.
The vice admiral's expected guest was none other than Commodore Gabe Quentin, who had his neck wrapped in bandages due to the severe injuries he had sustained during his last deadly battle. Nevertheless, he still wore his formal navy uniform to come and meet with the senior high ranking military officer.
"So how does it feel to constantly switch between the Navy and Marine Corps branch, up until this time, Gabe?" the senior officer asked him, smiling rather with a grin as he did.
"Frankly speaking, sir…" Commodore Quentin answered, "This time it was rather, extremely life-threatening…" as he gave out a literally displeased look.
"Ha… indeed…" the vice admiral chuckled, "One that restored your Captain rank in the Navy, or rather Colonel rank in the Marine Corps, before you switched back to Navy and got promoted…"
"Well… the call of my duty, sir…" Commodore Quentin replied, as he clenched his teeth twice behind his closed mouth.
The vice admiral then continued by congratulating Commodore Quentin on his recent achievement and heroic acts in Chicago, praising him as a hero for both the Navy and Marine Corps of the country. However, Commodore Quentin did not give any respond to the senior officer's praise and just gave out a straight, and rather irritated face, without looking straight at the senior officer's eyes.
"Well, I suppose that you are not here for any small talks at all, eh?" the senior officer stopped, "Okay, let us just get straight to our points then." as he suddenly changed his clear voice to an intimidating one.
"I believe that last year, I gave you a specific direct order as a Navy Captain, did not I?" the vice admiral asked him.
"That I was to be responsible for any damages on our newest weapon prototype." Commodore Quentin answered, still not looking straight at the senior officer's eyes.
"I gave you one, specific order. Only one…" the vice admiral continued as he began to inhale deeply.
"Now look at what is left of the very object that you should protect from the start… What the hell were you thinking and doing, Gabe?!!" the senior officer yelled at him.
Commodore Quentin only fell silent, not budged at all by the next insults and verbal abuses that came out straight from the senior officer's mouth. By the time the senior officer finished, he turned back to his cup of red coffee, and drank it almost until it was empty, and spilled the remaining towards Commodore Quentin's uniform.
"You are a disgrace! Both to the Navy, AND the Marine Corps!!" the vice admiral yelled again as he pointed his finger to him.
"Were it not for you and those damn children defending Chicago, I will have you begged for your rank right under my foot at this very moment!!" he continued.
When the vice admiral had stopped yelling, he took a deep breath as he held his forehead with his right hand. Commodore Quentin's face expression was still not budge, but he slowly moved his eyes straight towards the senior officer's eyes.
"I will give you one more chance. One, more. You screw it up, do not expect to be able to wake up the next day." the vice admiral said his last sentence, in a calmer tone, "Until then, do your best on not seeing my face."
The senior officer turned around and sat back on his chair as he leaned back just when he landed on it. Commodore Quentin did not give any salutation before he turned around. However, just as he seemed to be about to walk outside the vice admiral's office, he mentioned a name that made the senior officer shocked.
"Fiora Mallory…" Commodore Quentin said, very slowly since he had to make sure that the vice admiral heard him perfectly.
In an instant, the senior officer had his eyes bugged out and straightened his sitting position so fast that it made a creaking sound, which was something that he very rarely did unless something extremely unpleasant came straight to his ears.
"She was a spy, was not she?" Commodore Quentin asked him, as he slowly turned back with a little grin on his face.
The vice admiral gulped hard as soon as he heard the name. If anything, he considered that the revelation about the truth on that information to the other high ranking officers, be it senior officer or flag officer to be far more fatal than the failure in protecting the Direct Energy Weapon prototype, stored inside the advanced laboratory of the Chicago Military Academy Base.
"You sent her to sabotage the whole base, right when I was about to lead the last maintenance and checking procedure on the DEW technology, so that in the end you would be able to frame it solely as my mistake." Commodore Quentin continued, as he squinted his eyes.
Commodore Quentin told the vice admiral, that he was able to find out that someone did sneak inside the base to sabotage the electrical and network panel center, but did not have enough time since the saboteur realized he was heading there of all other places to check first. Even though there was nothing inside sabotaged, there was a couple of matchsticks scattered at the floor, and the door was already opened by force, indicating that someone from outside did try to enter.
Commodore Quentin could confirm it for sure when he caught up with her when it was only the two of them, and he found the very same match stick from her nurse uniform pocket. He realized it right away since the matchstick manufacturer company was not from any places in the U.S., ensuring him that only one or very few specific people who had it.
"If you want to know at all, sir…" Commodore Quentin continued, as he approached the senior officer's table and put both of his hands on its edges.
"The Direct Energy Weapon prototype was a success all along. The last preparation, which was to go online, was in fact a decision to find out if only our military power was the only one who had the new technology." Commodore Quentin proceeded along, staring his superior officer with his intimidating expression.
"Well yes, I have to admit that the sudden extraterrestrial attack was completely unexpected. But looking at the aftermath, now we get to know which countries possess similar technologies as those guests from out there seemed to only attack certain areas that had a technology rivaling theirs." he continued as he noticed that the vice admiral had then began to sweat.
"Oh, of course… that 'damn children' you mentioned just now," he said, then with a tone filled with anger, "You should really be careful against them, especially the one with the Russian name."
The then half terrified vice admiral quickly glanced at Zonatyan Xenov's profile with his face and neck then already sweating. Zonatyan Xenov was also known as Jonathan Xavier by his colleagues, a name that he had to adopt in order to enter the service of the U.S. military. However, with several of his gallantry and services to the country, he had his real name then restored.
"Exactly, sir…" Commodore Quentin said, still with a tone full of anger and his eyes squinting, "He is technically the product of your own generation's greed."
By that time, the senior officer became more terrified of his own subordinate officer that he had to look away from his eyes for a moment and turned away from Major Xenov's profile document. He had not expected at the very least that his attempts on affirming his superiority over his subordinate officer would turn against him.
"If you think in the very slightest that you can also somehow take the aliens' technologies for your own power and greed from the bottom of the great lake then I suggest that you do it yourself." Commodore Quentin continued, with his grin back on his face, "Although I suppose that you will only find the burnt remains of them…"
The vice admiral could only think that he had lost, and fell into his own plot as he tried to look back at Commodore Quentin's eyes again. With one more thing that he believed he would still be able to utilize, he braved himself to counter his own dominating subordinate.
"You should really learn on how to respect your direct commanding officer, Commodore." the vice admiral said to him, with a little shaky voice.
"Said the 'upstanding navy flag officer', who purposely spilled his coffee to his subordinate's respectable uniform just because he crushed down his one in a kind 'toy', and attempted to send him on a suicide task. " Commodore Quentin responded to him, as he chuckled.
"Are you going to sue me for it in Martial Law?" the vice admiral replied to him, still attempting to affirm himself to his subordinate.
"No. It is not worth my time." Commodore Quentin answered as he shook his head with his face full of disgust towards his superior officer, "However, Fiora Mallory might, if you tried to contact her in any way again. Perhaps, together with few other cases that you might have done to her during your… recess times…"
The vice admiral then looked away from his eyes, not even glanced at him anymore as he turned away his chair and showed his dejected face. Just then, Commodore Quentin also released his grip from his superior officer's table and went outside his room.
The senior officer smiled widely as his annoying subordinate officer was no longer inside his room. He turned his chair towards his desk again immediately, and opened up one of his four desk drawers, revealing some sort of a hidden audio recording machine. He grinned with full satisfaction as he had recorded the conversation that he just had with his subordinate officer. He had planned to blackmail him all along, by modifying the recordings to his own advantages so that his subordinate will keep on obeying his orders.
'RECORDINGS NOT FOUND, REMAINING FILES ARE CORRUPTED'
In an instant, he was drenched in sweat again as his countless modified recordings that he had made during the past few years had suddenly gone. He quickly plugged it into the portable data recovery machine stored inside the other drawer, but to no avail. His last trump card on forcing other subordinate officers to play his dirty games had suddenly been stolen from him.
As there was nothing that could be done to recover even any single piece of them, he held his head tightly with his hands, before he groaned in anger and threw his favorite cup down to the floor, shattering it to broken pieces.
Meanwhile, just in front of the same military base, Commodore Quentin went inside the vehicle that would take him to a port, where he would go to Canada from there to check up on his colleagues and also best friends, U.S.A.F. Major Zonatyan Xenov, and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Travis Verelli Burners. As the vehicle had departed completely from the military base, he peeked inside both of his uniform pockets where he had kept his portable audio recording device, as well as portable computerized virus distributor.
Realizing that he had outsmarted his own completely corrupted direct commanding officer, he grinned with satisfaction before he looked away from them and focused back on the road. Shortly after, he closed his eyes with his hat and drifted off as the vehicle continued the journey…