I was going through mom's necklaces when I noticed a symbol scratched on it. It was a badly scratched cat's eye. I did it when I was ten. I saw a cartoon. I liked it so much that I came up with my own. I drew the symbol on the underside of the jewelry box out of impulse. I had come up with a story where humanity was spread throughout space. I didn't come up with a name though. I remember the names I gave them. Conquistador is the general. He is the mistro. He would be a brilliant chess composer. He thinks ten moves a head. His only job to make sure everyone comes home safely. The bad guys would set all sorts of traps to get him only to fall into one of his. He is the one of the great strategist. He is lonely because he lost his family. His troops became his family. He would sometimes drive people up the wall. He is very stubborn and won't take no for answer. There are days when people want to kick him out. While others would gladly take a few hits for him.
I got dressed and got inside the dumb waiter. I pressed the ground floor and closed the door. I recalled the different people who were a part of this cool army. They would consists of different types of people. The first were Ninja who are the deadliest assassins all of them hand picked for being cool under pressure. Being able to blend in and attack without warning. They don't need specialty tools. Anything can be a weapon. Spooks are the spies. The Buzz are in charge of public relations. Their job is to make sure they are recognized as the good guys. Red guard is the lieutenant of the army. Escudo are the Marines. Katana are like the Navy Seals. Lanza are the ones who pilot Fighter Jets. They fight slavers, pirates and terrorists. The longest I have imagined was when a few kids were kidnapped. The galactic Senate chose to call it an unfortunate incident and turn the other page. Conquistador took it as a personal insult. He dragged people out of vacation.
The first layer of problems were the bureaucratic politicians who told him to stand down. One of them chased after him, "Alonso. The Senate has already given it's verdict. Respect it and go home. You are making problems. Stand down. Soldier that is an order." He faced her with obvious rage, "I will tell you where you can stick that order." Diana walks in, "This is restricted zone. Who let you in?" The woman stutters, "I am here to deliver a message." The old man rolled up his sleeves, "You have delivered it. So deliver mine. I am not coming home till those kids are returned." The woman spoke through gritted teeth, "A planetary lockdown is being implemented to make sure you don't go anywhere." He started laughing, "You think my men are going to block me? You are born yesterday" he laughed as he got on his bike. Diana told her to run along and hopped on hers and followed him. The woman kept yelling at them as they disappeared from view.
They arrived at the base. A young cadet was waiting with a steaming mug of coffee. He held out a clipboard and the mug. He spoke nervously, "We received orders from high command. We have chosen to pretend we didn't hear the order. We will implement the lockdown once you left for your mission." A young man gave a salute, "Sir we have dark matter ready for action. What are our coordinates." Diana grinned, "I have sent a message to Tristan. He will send let us know where we supposed to go." The old man sipped his coffee and walked over to see which weapons he would be taking. His men were already wearing power suits. This was designed to take hits and enhanced their speed and strength. They were blind with rage. You can take hurt someone but taking their kids is asking for trouble. He slammed Cortez on back of his head, "You get your head in the game. Don't spiral. You will get a heart attack. I need you to lead the men."
He flashed his white teeth, "Don't worry brother. I am not the one who going to get a heart attack. That happy fate is for the idiots who are complicit in this heinous crime." The others murmured in agreement. He stood tall he is explained, "Men. We are going against orders. So expect court martial or jail when we get home." Sebastian grinned as his steel blue eyes twinkled, "We are not worried. I have a cousin who owns a private company for ex military. He promised to send everyone." Trigger walks in with a microchip. He was fuming. The space station could see the fumes coming out of his ears. He growled, "I removed the chip so they can't deactivate our ships once we are in the air." Jasmine walks in with a tablet, "I am tracking everyone." Ortiz threw his shoe, "These lowlives took kids. You seriously believe there is someone in this base would actually obey command and block us?"
She shrugged, "No one here would do it. But we are not the only soldiers. There are others who obey orders even if it means they won't sleep better. The golden boy." Alonso grinned,"You are going to disable them in case they try to stop us" she gave him a candy bar. Ted took it instead. Sebastian yelled, "You're diabetic. That stuff will put you to sleep." He yelled back, "I skipped breakfast." Karl shook his head, "You're making me lose my lunch" Conquistador stomped his foot and everyone put their game faces on. They put on their helmets. And just like that they turned into the monsters that the Galaxy was warned to avoid. He puts on his suit and walks in. He boards the ship and takes his seat. A man yells, "Captain on the bridge." Everyone stands up to respect. Then takes their seat. She turned to face Alonso, "Save your speech. We know we are jumping into lava. Just orchestrate a way to get those kids out of there. Until we get there shut up and think"
He just grunts which was all they needed to start the engine. He pulled out a knife and started shaving a stick. With each stroke he tried to push away the image of their tear streaked faces. The tremors on their faces. How they would be huddled together. The more he tried the harder the image hit his face. Sebastian pat him on the back, "Don't breath fire yet Dragon. We need that energy when we get there." Comms distracted them with shocking news. A pirate ship messaged them. They had found the ship. Everyone one of them were humans. They chose piracy after they were wronged in so many ways. They lived by a code. They don't hurt women and kids. They would loot and plunder but only government supply ships and aristocratic cruisers. He promised that his men were help them breach the ship. A private ferry was on the way too. They didn't like the status quo either.
As they reached the atmosphere the comms went berserk. Orders upon orders to stand down. Ortiz coughed and Karl pat him on the back. Ortiz swat his hand away. "O Jasmine. Disable the ships." She snarled, "I would if they are actually up in the air. Right now they are docile. The moment they fire the engines I will hit the off switch remotely." The screen came on. A man in a suit snarled, "Alonso Castillo. Turn that crate back or I will shoot you down." He just turned his head and the man took several steps back. He gulped, "We have orders. You know the consequences." Sebastian got up and punched the button with his fist, "Eat this" Alonso asked Jasmine what happened. She explained she was denied access so she just started to push buttons frantically. Peter yelled, "Yelena hit light speed now" the captain yelled, "You know I can't open a star bridge in the lower atmosphere. This will kill everyone down there. I will open it once I reach the safe zone. Now shut up and let me drive my ship. You worry about how you are going to get those kids out"
They were about to reach the safe zone when someone started to open fire. The ship had to duck satellites and plasma shots as it tried to ascend. She opened the bridge and got out. The entire time the comms were going nuts. Orders to stand down while simultaneously giving orders to shoot down the ship. Yelena opened the star bridge and they give them the slip. They get a call from a spy. They meet mercenaries behind a moon. The pirates gave the coordinates. It was a science facility. They want to cut the kids to find out how we operate so they can make better killing machine. You could hear a pin drop. They reached the planet and was met with a blockade. They were told that this experiment was legitimate. Alonso was out of line. The pirates interrupted the conversation. They used the stolen fighter ships and took out the surface cannons. Then they took out a tower which meant they couldn't call for help.
The Conquistador order them to punch it. Yelena zipped past as the distraction was too busy to stop them. The ship stopped at the lower orbit and launched the escape pods. They landed with a thud. The security outside laughed till they saw the pods were empty. They turned to call it in. They heard, "Time to bleed." They were pulverized as Jesse used his advanced computer skills to open the door. He and Electra glided to the security booth to find the kids. It was patched over to the troops. They used special devices to translate the monster's words to legible words. What they heard made them want to turn them inside out. The first two floors were unremarkable. They met the security on the next floor. They split into two groups. They threw grenades to distract them. As Alonso left he smiled as he heard the enemy describe his men as they were the angel of death.
He smile vanished when he reached the floor where the kids were. The others were such a problem that they cleared the floor. The sterile room might as well have been a torture chamber. A quarter of the kids were here. They were all unconscious and strapped to beds. All of them had tubes in very inappropriate places. Some were bleeding from the corners of their mouths and ears. His throat dried as Sabrina worked the machines to wake them up. It felt like forever but slowly but surely their eyes fluttered open. They saw the soldiers and screamed. The helmets came off with a hiss. Their scream froze in their throats as shock took over. One of them yelled, "Uncle Tom. I knew you would come. We were told no one was coming." They hugged and the moment was interrupted when the wall came crashing down. An ugly humanoid walked in with one of the kids as hostage.
He held a gun to his head. He didn't get to say a word before someone shot him from the back. The kid screamed as he ran to Sabrina's arm. She gave the soldier a look. He stared at her innocently, "I missed one. I miscalculated. My bad" she just stared as Cade did a cursory exam. He gave the all clear and the kids were moved out. As they were making it out a shot came out of nowhere and disabled the suit. Alonso got out without a batting an eyelash. The humanoid was wearing red. Alonso grinned, "I will make you see red before we are through." The creep snarled and opened fire. He jumped up and stepped on the pillar. He kicked off and over the bad guy. He had the grace of the Spanish matador fighting bulls as he punched and ducked. A spin kick later the gun was flying. He pulled a knife from behind and drove it into the bad guy's chin. He pulled the knife out and the bad guy fell to the floor like a marionette whose strings were cut off. I came to and saw Jesse, Roland and Oleg staring with amused expression. Søren ordered the engineering to put chips on all ships so they can be disable remotely. I blushed as I walked out with what little dignity I could manage.