Chapter 1

                                    

                                          
Dead bodies surrounded a crashed Pelican Dropship. One soldier stood above them as dozens of other soldiers and vehicles moved throughout the Valhalla Outpost. 
                          
Chairman: To the director of Project Freelancer, from the Oversight Sub-committee Chairman. Dear Director, I want to thank you in advance for you openness in response to our sub-committee's request for more information. 
                          
The soldiers found someone in Red armor hiding in a cave. 
                          
Chairman: We were. . . disappointed that your Recovery Force reported a total loss at Outpost 17B. We had hope that there would be at least one soldier left that could shed some light on the situation. 
                          
A camera followed the Red soldier and his escort through a different base. 
                          
Chairman: I know your agency has enjoyed a high degree of freedom with very little scrutiny in the past few years. . . It is not our intention to disrupt such a. . . "progressive military program," but instead to find a way that we can work together in a manner that befits ALL our responsibilities. I am certain you will agree, and we look forward to making this review process as painless as we possibly can.
                          
The Red soldier found himself in front of a screen, a man with dark skin projected on it.
                          
Counselor: Thank you gentlemen, would you please excuse us? 
                          
The escort left, leaving the Red alone in the room. 
                          
Counselor: You are Private Walter Henderson, correct? 
                          
Henderson: Yes sir.
                          
Counselor: You can dispense with the formalities, Walter. Please feel comfortable to speak as candidly as you wish. Can you tell us what happened at your outpost, Walter? 
                          
Henderson: Yes sir, uh. . . yes. Uh, I had been there for about six months. Everything was pretty much like normal and. . . one day this. . . ship. . . crashed. 
                          
Counselor: Is this the ship to which you are referring to?
                          
A hologram of the crashed pelican appeared. 
                          
Henderson: Yeah. . . yeah that's it. 
                          
Counselor: Please. . . tell me what was on the ship, Walter. 
                          
Henderson: I don't know. The Blues got there first. They fought us off while they cleared it out. . . took the stuff back to base. By the time we got a hold of it, it just seemed like a regular old transport. Our engineer said some of the wiring had been mess with, but didn't seem, you know, worried about it or nothin' like that.
                          
Counselor: I see, thank you for that. 
                          
Henderson: But whatever was on the ship. . . must have been what started the whole thing. 
                          
Counselor: Please Walter. . . Define "thing." 
                          
Henderson: The infection. The Blues just stopped fighting us. . . Some of them set up camp outside their base and trapped the rest of their team inside. . . They blew up their comm tower for some reason. Their own comm tower! Then they blew up ours. That's why we couldn't radio for help, we couldn't figure out why they would do that! After that. . . nothing. No word from them at all. The CO sent a squad over. . . all the Blues were dead. . . they'd killed each other.
                          
Counselor: Why do you think they did that? 
                          
Henderson: I don't know. They'd torn their radios out of their helmets and dismantled their computers. The CO said they were trying to build something. . . but I SAW the stuff, no way! They were thing to break it. . . And there was another body in there too. . . Not a Blue. Somebody else, actually she looked like him.