{6:35pm, 22/03/2024}
{Greny Burns pov}
The ringing of the alarm clock kept on getting louder and louder making it harder to go back to sleep. There was no point in getting up early, I just spent each passing day doing nothing worthwhile, my pension pretty much covered all my expenses and I was in no form to work.
Three years.
It had been three years since I was discharged from the army and in that period of time I had led two special ops and ever since then it has been silent. My body was itching for some action, I couldn't just sit by idly all day, it was driving me insane.
I dragged myself from the bed and did a few jumps before getting ready for my daily routine. My daily run, push ups, sit ups, some weightlifting and then coffee break.
By the time I got back from my coffee run I was already maxed out and took a bath, letting the cold water run down my face and offer a little bit of comfort.
I stepped out of the shower drying my self with the towel I had prepared in advance, a faint knock echoed from the living room but I paid it no heed until I lt grew into a land bang. I moved towards the door wondering who would want to pay me a visit at such an unholy hour, grabbing a pair of brown pants and hopping to get them on.
'The Matthew's show was already freaking on!'
I pulled the door open, vexed by the fact that I had missed the opening of my favourite show of the day.
Another wasted Friday.
"What do you want" I yelled, staring down at the middle aged man in a well tailored tuxedo. He had a pair of dark shades on and he was constantly scouting his surroundings while he spoke.
"Agent burns, the president wants to meet" he responded quietly, sliding out a white envelope from his pockets, just enough for me to see the presidential imprint from the cover.
"Without faxing first?" I questioned, disregarding the fact that he had just mentioned the most important man in the country.
This was strange, usually whenever there was supposed to be a special ops task I was to undertake I would receive a fax the previous day but today was unusually different and to think the president himself would set up a formal meeting with a veteran soldier.
This had to be of national security.
I picked up a shirt, shut the door and headed into the SUV parked directly opposite my apartment, finally some action!.
We arrived at the airport and headed to the private jet that had been cleared in preparation for our departure. We took off almost immediately, gaining altitude by the second amidst a mild turbulence.
I readjusted my seat, pulling out the envelope that the agent handed out to me in my apartment.
It contained details of a briefing that I was headed to, regarding the appearance of the anomaly and some other gibberish I didn't bother to ache my head over.
The air hostess came out from the cockpit, pushing a trail of wine and poured a glass for me, mouthing some words that I had somehow forgotten, before heading towards the back to do the same for the other passengers.
I nodded slimly staring at the glass in my hand, my thoughts trailing towards the events that occured a week ago in Orion; the appearance of the exotic gate and the rumors of some object in the president's possession that may have instigated it. If that was really the cause for this emergency meet up the president had arranged personally, then it was definitely going to be a long couple of weeks.
We arrived at Oxlor in about an hour and moved to an undisclosed location where I was told details of the mission would be revealed and I just followed the two agents without as much as questioning them until we arrived at the conference room.
Two figures
were already seated there waiting patiently and I saluted them as soon as I walked into the room. They were the chief of defense staff; Roger mills and the president's spokesperson; Gilbert which I had guessed would only be available for public hearings and meetings that the president couldn't personally attend rather that top secret reconnaissance hold ups.
"Lieutenant burns, it's a pleasure" Gilbert chimed gleefully stretching forward his mitt for a hand shake and I hesitated for a while before returning the gesture.
"I no longer hold that position spokesman, it's ex serviceman for me" I replied, withdrawing my hands from his sweaty grasp.
He was an overly sensitive individual so I refrained from sharing further details as to how life after retirement works and the titles people held after service.
And even from my few encounters with him I could tell that he would get worked up over the fact that I lectured him over something that insignificant.
I could tell that he was scared of me and not just because his palms were sweating but because it was the usual reaction from every scraggy 5"8 individual whenever they were faced with a 6"2 beefy ex military personnel exchanging pleasantries.
My appearance spoke much of me but it wasn't as good as it seemed especially when everyone was actively intimidated by my compact frame.
"Shall we?" General Mills insisted, pointing towards the documents placed on the table.
Mills was a familiar face from my years in the military and although he was just a major back then he always held a tight relationship with the president, hence the reason he always spearheaded every special ops run by the government.
"So?, What's the run down, Gilbert." I inquired flipping through a few of the documents.
"It's a recon mission to gather Intel about the enemies base of operation" Gilbert responded, shifting his tie in order to ease his mild anxiety.
'Enemies?'
Judging by how carelessly he used the word it could only mean that alien life had been somehow identified and only the people in this building where aware of it- excluding some exceptions.
"And the location?" I countered, scaling through the important texts.
"The world beyond the rift" Milis stated abruptly. He was staring at me in expectance of my amazement but I just stared back at him sternly before questioning Gilbert.
"So who am I going to be working with on this?" I said, finally filling out some interesting pointers from the rundown I held.
"I already put together your team, their expected to be here in about fifteen minutes so sit tight burns." Milis responded, rising from his seat and heading towards a shelf at the end of the room
"They've received orientation regarding the details of the mission so it won't be a hassle" Gilbert accompanied calmly, wiping his face with a handkerchief.
Mills handed me another document containing all the details and rundown of the task and I read through it cautiously absorbing every detail as I waited calmly, thinkly deeply of my next course of action. Even details of the omega seed and some 'black box' was written on it and it all seemed out of context and hard to believe.
Although I had led several special ops team before, this was going to be the first which would involve interactions with an otherworldly race entirely and it was going to be tough.
The situation we found ourselves in was really shitty and although at the moment our country was the only one with this occurrence it didn't mean the world was safe. We had to deal with the problem before it developed into something world ending.
The rest of the team had arrived and we were signaled about their arrival and proceeded to join them in the main hall.
As I walked towards the main hall I started piecing together tiny details which helped me uncover where we were at the moment. This was the unavowed research facility where the rumored project z was situated.
It took me a while to decipher, but after deep thinking it just seemed like the more plausible location for this particular event.
"Don't worry burns, it's not here anymore" Mills whispered, chuckling lightly while shaking his head as he walked ahead of me.
What I found annoying wasn't the fact that mills had whispered into my ear but that he was able to read me and tell what I had been thinking the whole time.
And just like he had stated, project Z had been moved to another black site due to reasons that remained unknown to me.
The main hall was colossal and everything inside was either top-secret or not supposed to be on display for anyone to view or account for.
There were ten people standing with the head scientist and I knew instinctively that they were my team.
He seemed to be giving them some kind of orientation about something I couldn't hear about because I was still very distant from them, but as I got closer the one statement that spiked my attention was what the scientist spoke about before turning to address us.
"What you all are about to beta test is going to revolutionize the course humanity has been on!".