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Chapter 2: The Team

Yema hummed a tune as he peeled an apple with a combat knife. "Damnit Miaan, can't you stop that infernal noise?" Yema turned his attention to Wally who sat on a nearby tank, then went back to the tedious task of peeling. "No can do Corporal," He stated matter-of-factly, "I was a Lieutenant, I outrank you." Wally had to fight the urge to plug the smug feline right there. "You weren't even in the Arnelian military!" A human leaning against the wall near the door spoke up. "He's right you know Lieutenant." Yema stared at the human, he hadn't even noticed he was there until he spoke, especially surprising since the man wore an eyepatch, which made him stick out like a sore thumb

The human took off his hat and let his ponytail down. "Vale, Sargeant First Class Lannet Vale at your service. I'm your heavy weapons specialist." Yema had to admit to being slightly creeped out by his appearance, to his knowledge, men with ponytails and eyepatches were reserved for movie villians. Then there was Lannet's uniform, the sleeves were ripped off, there was definitely something cliche about this guy, Yema made a note to keep an eye on him. "Ignorant furball..." Did he just say what I thought he said!? Lannet thought he was being quiet with his insult, but Yema heard it pretty clearly and was ready to take a swing at him when Kaddie came in followed by Melody.

He decided it wouldn't be a good idea to get in a fight in front of Kaddie, he'd already noted that she had certain submissive tendencies when frightened, he didn't want to scare her more. Hmmm... from the looks of things, Mimic seems to have her tamed, at least until someone else intimidates her into submission... or puts a gun in her hand. Yema put on his usual smug smile and hopped off the crate he sat on. "Well, Shiinaarii, Kaletzi, look who decided to join the party." Melody shot him an angry look. Heh, she's probably pissed that I left her back there. "Yeah yeah uh Yema... where are we?" A girl of indeterminate species ran into the room. "Kalen Beach Naval Facility on San Arina, you know, in the Carinda Islands."

Everyone turned their attention to her, with emotions ranging from shock to disinterest about the strange sight across the room. There standing before them was a girl with red fur with spots of blue mixed in, notably on her arms, which apparently were uncovered due to the fact that she, like Lannet, had turned her uniform top into a vest. Her medium-length, fuzzy, but also pointy tail also had the splotches of blue on it. But the most notable feature about her was that she had four pointed, almost rabbit-like ears, two sticking at slight angles out of the sides of her head, and two lower, almost in an X shape. Her lower ears sat coiled around in spirals to the sides of her face mixed in with her long purple hair that went down to her waist, but they could be seen, albeit barely, by a close observer. Of all the people in the room, the only ones not to notice were Kaddie, who was rather clueless and dense, and Lannet, who seemed to lose interest in the girl after a minute or so.

"What the hell... she has four ears..." Wally shook his head at Yema's statement of the obvious. "This is probably just her furry form, but at night..." He changed his posture and raised his arms as if telling a cheesy campfire story meant to scare children. "She changes into a writhing mass of tentacles and goes out to rape unsuspecting women." By now Lannet had noticed the second pair of ears and tuned into the conversation. "She could be from outer space, y'know, their men are dying out and they need our sperm." The girl watched slightly horrified as the three males debated her origins. "Actually, I think she's a rynka." All eyes were on Melody now. "A rynka?"

"Yeah, a rynka... a sand rynka if I'm not mistaken. I've never actually met one before, but I've heard from people who have that they have four ears. Apparently rynkas tend to avoid crowded places." The rynka started to take an interest in Melody. "Hmmm... who are you?" Melody backed away slightly, not even noticing that Kaddie had already scooted halfway across the room to get away from her. "Melody Kaletzi." The rynka smiled. "OMG what a coincidence, my name's Melanie Kalensie." The names are too similiar for it to really be hers. She opened her mouth to scold her but no words came out. Melanie or whatever her name was, was having a definite "creepy girl" moment and it was definitely affecting her. "And fyi I'm not a sand rynka, tee hee."

Yema looked away disinterested in the events going around. "We're all here for a reason, let's try and figure it out. Everyone state your specialty... starting with Wally." The wolf recoiled in shock. "What!? Why me..." Then after sitting a moment, he shrugged and began. "Corporal Wally Dallon, demolitions." Yema turned his eyes to Melody and pointed. "Your turn." "Melody Kaletzi, tactical sharpshooter." His focus then went to the human. "Heh, I stated it alredy, sorry." Kaddie gathered enough courage to speak up once the gaze was on her. 'Kaddie Shiinaarii, comms specialist, independant contractor." Melanie requiring little prompting from the others, jumped onto a table. "Warrant Officer Melanie Kalensie, electronics." Yema looked around at the others now that they were all looking at him. "I see..." He put a slice of apple in his mouth and gave an insincere smile. "Yema Miaan, cannon fodder." Wait a second... something is incredibly wrong with this picture.

"Am I the only one who notices that we have no medic?" Melody's eyes were instantly on Yema, her face displaying a mixture of anger and curiosity. "You know, now that you mention it..." Wally threw his hands in the air. "What if one of us gets shot!? What then?" Lannet moved away from the wall and strode towards them. "Bah, injuries are for the weak, if you get shot, you're better off dead." Kaddie looked at the others in their panic. "Am I the only one sees that we're Team Echo? What happened to Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta? And besides, one of the Sennokese personnel is probably a medic." Sennokese personnel? I'm getting some really bad vibes from this. Melanie's lower ears twitched slightly at the faint sound of shoes scraping against the floor. "You know, the Captain's been in here with us for awhile."

Melody took a look at the Captain, it was that shifty human from before, she trusted Lannet more than she trusted Kylern. "Fuck the Captain. Just introduce us to the rest of the guys in our squad." Yema smacked his face with his palm, but Kylern laughed as if Melody's insubbordination was funny. "Come on, it's briefing time." Yema waited until everyone else started following Kylern before he joined in, speeding up enough to catch up with Melody. "That wasn't smart Mimic." Melody shrugged. "I'm already AWOL, what harm could it do? 'Sides, the bastards abducted me from my home while I was stark naked, they even dressed me." She shuddered at the thought. "I hope it wasn't a male."

After several minutes, the group found themselves in a conference room of sorts with a screen on the far wall. A young hedgehog female stood, arms crossed, in front of a bookshelf. Although her fur was an annoying neon magenta, her hair was a mixture of blue and black, with a reddish hue in places, it was hard to tell which one was the natural color or if both were, although the red spots were likely where her quills stuck out from underneath her hair.. Unlike the other soldiers, her uniform was neither camoflauge, but grey instead, nor was it of determinate origin. That's not to menton the strange patch she wore on her shoulder on the left sleeve, to Yema it appeared to be a northeast arrow of some sort, with a line through the center line. There's something about it, I can't quite put my finger on it... He also noted that she was a bit on the short side, not short like Kaddie, but shorter than him. She noticed him staring at her and smiled, her hazel eyes sparkling as she did so.

As he took a seat, along with the others, Yema noticed a red-haired human reclining with his legs on the table. His hair was a mess, hanging in his green eyes, over which sat a pair of square glasses which were kept neat and clean. Unlike the hedgehog, his uniform was definitely Sennokese, as discreetly indicated by a strange jungle color set not found in Arnelia. Melanie's nervous reaction to them caught his eye, apparently the rynka too knew something was wrong with the two staff members assigned to the team... that's when the raccoon entered into the room.

His fur was of a light blue shade and seemingly burnt black in several places on his right arm, particularly on his right hand, which like his tail, hung limp while his left hand seemed to move quite flexibly. His greyish-black hair was kept neatly combed, so much that Yema believed it to be a wig. He didn't wear combat fatigues, instead he wore more formal attire; neatly ironed pants and a short sleved shirt with the nametag Wakiinda... then there was the matter of the four stars on his shoulder...He looks a bit young to be a general... He looked over to Melanie and her suspicions and mouthed "wig", to which she nodded. Wally who caught sight of the gesture, mouthed "company man". Company man? Like the company? Like the CIA company? Nah... Wally's just paranoid.

The general walked to the head of the table and stood in front of the screen. "Morning soldiers..." His gaze turned to Kaddie. "and mercenaries, my name is Narcinani Wakiinda." He gestured at himself. "You've all been chosen for an assignment." He clicked a few keys on a small laptop computer and an map appeared on the screen. "This is Zie Ralera, an abandoned tropical island, home to a research facility known as Satrenne." Yema could tell from Melody's reaction that the name seemed to stir something within mind, but she relaxed, apparently forgetting what she had remembered. "As you may or may not be aware, Zie Ralera lies in the Carinda Islands, but within territorial waters of Chachartha, someone from there may be involved, although the odds are unlikely as they tend to keep to themselves."

"Nine days ago at 0300 hours, all contact with the facility was lost, we do not know the reason if any, but it is presumable that a violent test subject has escaped confinement. Your orders are twofold, investigate the facility and terminate any subject that may have escaped... Miss Wind Blossom will explain your other objective." He stepped to the side and the hedgehog walked to the front of the room, her hands brushing a red quill out of her eye. "Morning, my name is Tennarie Wind Blossom, Millitary Intelligence, I prefer Tenny. My associate is Miekel Moraine, any questions." Lannet raised his hand quickly. "Millitary Intelligence for where, and what's your rank?" The hedgie ignored him and continued on. "No questions? Good. One of our operatives is a computer techie at the Satrenne facility. She was still inside when they lost contact, last we heard from her was seven days ago when she got a message out to us."

Tenny inserted a small tape into a player placed near the compuer and pressed play. Static slowly faded into a voice. "SOS SOS, this is Scorpia Scyers... bzzzsssht... something bad happening... bzzzsssht... so uncannily weird... bzzzsssht... They're... oh my god! bzzzsssht... Don't rape me!" Then the the recording faded into static, at which point Tenny clicked the stop button. "The recording isn't in very good condition, I assume the recording equipment was damaged before..." The sound of a wooden chair slamming against the wall and smashing into several pieces interrupted her. "What the hell!" All eyes in the room turned to Melody. "No. Nuh uh, no way. I'm not doing this. I didn't sign up for this to get raped."

Narcinani just stared at her and reached for his sidearm. "If I recall, you didn't sign up, you were drafted. This isn't a choice, you've been AWOL for five years, either go or spend the rest of your waking life in prison... the decision's up to you." He drew his sidearm and aimed it at her. "Or there's the alternative...." The fight momentarily went out of her eyes, bur then in an act of defiance, she reached into her jacket pocket and quickly fished out her asprin bottle. What the hell is she... Before anyone could stop her, she had taken an small handful of Pymorene in her hand and swallowed them. "Howwww you liiiii" The world around her began to spin like a top and turned to bright color before Melody fell backwards, crashing down on a small wooden table behind her.

Yema noted the reactions of each of the room's occupants wth mild curiosity as he reached for the Pymorene bottle and examined it carefully before stashing it in his pocket. 600 mg? Where did she get this? Wally backed up so hard that he fell out of his chair. "Whoa what the!!!" Lannet smiled and looked to the General. "She's down, where's our new sharpshooter." Kaddie looked at him with pity in her eyes and then at Melody. "That's not funny, we need to call a doctor." Yema felt a cold sweat when he realized that neither the two CO's nor the Sennokese personnel cared, something was really wrong with this picture. Narcinani sighed, and  "No doctors, that's only 5 or 6 grams of  Pymorene, she'll be fine." Melanie stood up, reaching for her own sidearm and slightly upset, it was right about then that she had become sure that Narcinani was not a General. "Five or six grams of Pymorene, general? We should be calling a coroner, not a doctor. 400mg can kill someone her size."

Narcinani banged his left fist on a table, unable to move his right one. "Damnit people, we'll continue the briefing now or someone's gonna get hurt." As he pounded the table a second time, he accidently pulled the trigger and shattered a vase next to where Kaddie was sitting. "Watch it! You nearly killed me!" Kaddie became the second person in the room to reach for their sidearm in response to Narcinani's treatment of the situation. Narcinani looked down at the pistol, "Oops, safety's off." then he carefully flicked it back on. Yema, not believing it to be an accident, reached for his own sidearm whle he sat, only he actually unholstered his pistol. Wally caught sight of the act under the table while he stood up and discreetly shook his head.

The raccoon, having regained his composure, stood up straight and adjusted his shirt slightly. "Now as I was saying, I saw people prepare to shoot me. I won't give names, but I won't stand for this insubbordination." Kaddie looked toward the book shelf shyly from her position on the decorative table, Melanie, in contrast, glared at him as if he were drinking and using his cellphone while he drove. Yema replaced his pistol in his holster and passed it off as if he hadn't prepared to shoot the general. Tenny took her place briefing the group again. "As I was saying, one of our operatives is a computer techie at the Satrenne Research Facility..." She clicked a few buttons and a picture of a feline girl appeared on the screen.

"This black cat you see is Scorpia." Wow... she's kinda cute... Although all that could really be determined from the picture was that she had jet black fur like an abyssmal chasm, with hair that matched it. Looking at her face, Yema noted that her eyes had a this shining green shade to them, but it clearly wasn't a good picture. "Scorpia isn't exactly a photo person, so we don't really have a good photo of her. And in reguards to her age," Her eyes settled on Yema. "keep your dick in your pants, Miaan." Yema definitely felt her accusuatory stare. "And now back to the General." Narcinani rudely shoved the hedgehog out of the way.

"Okay, about ingress into the facility. To be honest, you're not the only squad being sent as part of Echo Team, you're just being given the honor of taking care of the two Sennokese personnel and extracting Scorpia." He paused, unsure how exactly to break this next part to the team. "The facility is defended by anti-aircraft guns and SAM sites, each Condor dropship will be piloted by the best pilots available. Yema, your job is to get your group to the base without getting shot down. Given your skill as a pilot, it shouldn't be too hard. By the way, you'll need to disable them in order to leave, the only way to do so is from somewhere in facility Satrenne. Gear up, you leave ASAP! And don't forget to bring Kaletzi with you." While everyone filed out of the room, Wally being the one to have to carry Melody out, Yema noted that Melanie wasn't with them, and as he got further away, he just barely made out the rynka taking a rather confrontational voice with the General. "Okay General, what aren't you telling us about Kaletzi?" Should I even ask what's tripped her suspicions? He thought about going back to eavesdrop, but decided better of it, since the General seemed not to tolerate such things and Melanie seemed to have a heightened sense of awareness.