A World United: Rise of the Rebellion

“He will never know. Let’s get this over once and for all. He is their only hope. Without him, their entire rebellion shall be destroyed. Gone forever from the face of our planet.” The voice of Natlus Sultan broke through the silence surrounding Donahue in his cockpit.

The new weapons and equipment was said to be the most dangerous weapon known to man, and Donahue had always figured it was, but recently he had begun to doubt. Was the rumor true that there were more powerful weapons owned by a secret group against the government called the Rebel Underground Network? Did they even exist, or was it all a hoax set in the hopes of luring in groups of enemies to the world’s greatest empire, A World United? One could never be entirely sure about those things, especially a bounty hunter like himself who was only interested in finding his bounty and reaping in his costly rewards. And these bounty hunters never found out the news, they were the news.

Eltren checked his scope once again as he aimed for the red lighted satellite, a decoy, or unmanned pod that was useful in intercepting the signals being sent from real satellites spread throughout space, just barely out of his range. He pulled in on the throttle a little more and jiggled the yolk trying to go in closer for a better and more accurate shot. They both were jammed. Maybe the coolant had frozen from his engine being off for much of the time he had spent in space. Eltren pulled out his wrist chat to make an emergency contact to base as a flash of white light directly in front of him blinded him for several seconds.

His mouth opened in a screaming cry of pain as his module shook and red flared in his vision. His communications shot warning signals and loud beeps all over the large cockpit as his whole body began to burn. His last thought, as he finally grasped the final realization of the reality of what was happening was, I’ve been shot, and Amanda, along with the rest of the rebellion, will never find it out as no trace is left, thus no trace is found. He began to struggle for life once again, but realized it was over as a warm radiance washed over him.

Abraham had been looking under the filing applications for nearly three hours as new reports began to filter into his network. He was on guard duty in ten minutes, and still had reports to file. It seemed no one here ever got a break as the world was constantly writing history relevant to their movements.

He was quiet as he clicked through reports and filed them under the proper labels. There had been so many losses recently. It was a surprise no one had given away their head position, but there was more than that involved in the cost. Many of the covers given as information given to the agents had been blown. If someone higher was caught it could mean total collapse of the rebellion.

As Abraham had been searching through his files, he came across one from nearly two hours ago. It was filed as follows; Filing code: 0006 Action, A LOSS. He had naturally clicked on it halfheartedly expecting a patrol group would not be making it back that day, as was gradually becoming more common in breached communications and security networks, but was shocked even more by what he had found instead. Words written in glowing red letters stood out on the screen reading;

Lunar Orbit, time, 05:23:30, Date, The third month, fifth day of the year 3060, sixty years since all government collapse around the globe and the founding of A World United. Filing code as follows: 0006 Action, A LOSS. In the figurative, Agent 1 is the only known victim. Headquarters red-light, level 7. SEND TO NEW PRESIDENT OF THE REBEL UNDERGROUND NETWORK. If this is not the current reader, contact the president and tell them. Red-light positive 6574. This does not pass this screen, except to the Junior. Everyone whose eyes that happen to be glancing over this must keep the secret of what has been discovered. Any information that is spread cannot be quenched easily and can lead to the spread of it to A World United.

Abraham had to contact Amanda. Eltren was the only one with the right to go up that high without a command, but from the message, he was either in trouble, or dead. Both outcomes were not outcomes Abraham wanted to be thinking about. Abraham could not get a message through to Amanda over her wrist chat or her screen, so he sent one of the many assistants, Jenkins. He guessed the freckled boy had enough of the office and wanted something important to do, so the broad man sent him on an errand with the message not to return until Amanda had called Abraham back. The only thing Abraham could do was sit and wait, and what other place was there to do it than on his silent watch duty in front of the presidents’ office doors?

He went on his way, using a metal security chip implanted in his hand to sign out of the technology lab. Feeling a slight buzz as his silenced chat went off on his shoulder, Abraham connected it to his wireless transmitter and the many sound wave sensors in his helmet. “Hello? Can I help you with anything? If it is tech support, killing giants, or re-docking and logging into a module, I’m your man, but for your information, I am on my way to my current guard duties and doing any of those things will have to wait for another two hours before I can get to you personally, so I apologize for making you sit in a metal egg for two hours right outside of our magnetic field due to the constant security and surveillance of our docking ports, but I have a call of duty to answer to as well. However, if you would like to land sooner I can connect you with one of the support staff agents and see if they can’t get you back into your assigned port.”

“Jenkins told me to call you. Is something wrong?”

“Yes, Amanda, something is wrong. A Big kind of wrong. Can you be at the President’s office soon enough? It is of the sensitivity I cannot share it over the com links.”

“Heading over. Do you want to gather the officers?”

“Already done. Automatic setting with RL positives.”

“Be there soon.”

Silence over the communications. Abraham could only wait now.

Amanda could not believe her eyes in what she was seeing, written there in those glowing red words, AGENT 1, LOST. Red action. If one besides new president has received this message, find new leader and keep confidential. REPEAT: KEEP CONFIDENTIAL.

Amanda clenched her helmet tightly under her arm as she held her gloves in one hand. She had a choice here, go after the truth, or stay and never discover the pieces to the whole story. There was something she needed to do about it and she refused to stay in one place.

She looked up at the four remaining commanders of the rebel army, all veterans and all men, but then again, so were most of the rebelling agents. After having existed for so long in their mission to fight against the world’s government for a better tomorrow there was hardly an agent alive that had not seen at least a small amount of action.

These were perilous times. Soon there would never be a boy in the Rebellion again. Everyone had to grow up at some point, some just experience that earlier than others.

Amanda looked down at the ghostly red outline of where the holographic map had marked where her father’s pod had disappeared those few hours ago. What had brought the small groups attention to it was the flickering green outline of a pod that hovered around the area in different places and belonged to one of the bounty hunters working for Natlus Sultan and the rest of A World United, the ruthless government in charge of running the universe, or at least, as much as they could of it. They were also who RUN was up against.

Amanda began to speak to try to turn the tides of what was obviously against them. “Do we have any other open options, or are we just going to sit here, doing nothing as they continue to go against us? The attacker could still be there in space. We could capture him without any serious problems!” Amanda met each set of wise eyes defiantly as each man silently stood their own ground, refusing to budge into the whims of their young president Pro Tempore.

She refused to acknowledge that each one was likely to have more knowledge in this area than she did. They each stared back, equally unfazed and defiant. Could they not see this one act could collapse the rebellion? Amanda refused to face a world she did not understand.

One finally spoke. “Yes Greene, there are other options, but we choose not to use them. If the hunter is still out there we could end up losing another agent. In times like these, when we have already begun to lose an ever-increasing number of agents daily, we only go after them if they are injured or crippled themselves, at a low chance of dying before reaching home. We cannot risk giving away our position.”

Amanda looked confused. She had never heard this from anyone who worked for the rebellion. Amanda turned suddenly and rushed out of the room refusing to hear any more than what she had already heard, surprising all her guards and shocking a few of the people passing by outside of the small meeting room.

Abraham and agent Ross tried to follow her, calling her back as she ran. “Is this smart Agent? Is there an alternative? Must you risk yourself as the only hope for the rebellion to chase after one lost?”

Amanda paused in her flight. She hated questions when she had already decided the outcome she wanted. “Yes, but I refuse to live by the alternative given. It keeps me entrapped by rules and regulations that prevent me from going anywhere anytime soon. I’m taking the emergency module. I need to find out the truth.”

“But Amanda, it’s not safe! The Emergency modules are not invincible. They are just as weak and prone to damage as the regular pods are, if not more so because of their light-weightiness!” Abraham tried to plea with her.

She turned around and faced him. “Let’s get something straight. I. Do. Not. Care. I never have. I do not care about being the leader of the rebellion agent program and soon to be president and leader of whatever is left of the world’s government. I never have cared for this people or have seen how my father could! Leaders are easily corrupted by the whisperings of the devils and their own minds, blinded by their greediness for power. All I care about is my father.”

Abraham wanted to plead with her. Say anything that would perhaps change her mind, but he knew she was set on a decision. “He could still be out there, the hunter, I mean. Just be careful. It could end up being you in his scopes the next time.”

Amanda turned back. “And Eltren could still be alive out there as well.” She paused, then added in a calmer tone, “Don’t worry. He will not have both of us.” Amanda glanced upwards. “He will oversee to that.”

Abraham wanted to yell at her foolishness, but he knew her anger and fear and shock would prevent anything he said from penetrating her mental defenses. He could only hope and pray that she would be okay. He exhaled a huge sigh of surrender. “Alright, but if your light disappears from the holoscreens, I’m sending an Emer Gen C pod after you directly.”

But Abraham knew Amanda had chosen not hear him as she continued to walk away.

Amanda pulled on her helmet and gloves and stepped into the airlock allowing her module to take her into the borders of space. She paid no attention to her surroundings or the direction she was headed. All she wanted to do was discover the truth. Please, let me find out. Let me find him. Amanda talked quietly to herself in her mind.

Turbulence in the cockpit pulled her from her thoughts and Amanda seemed to see things for the first time, but in a new light. Something was wrong. Her controls were no longer working and it felt as if the temperature in the module was rising. She checked her scopes again as a hollow sigh began to fill her ears through her helmet and everything began to go dark. The pressure lock had broken and her lifeline was frozen

Amanda screamed as flames leapt towards her from the control panel. She could see enough to push the melting eject button, praying it would be left working after engine failure. She felt herself being flung from the cockpit just as all the air around her collapsed and exploded in a huge ball of flame, melting metal, shrapnel and heat.

Abraham, Ross and the other three commanders watched the progress of Amanda’s space venture on one of the glowing, mint green colored holoscreens, as Amanda’s floating blue pod suddenly turned white, indicating a direct hit and then red, indicating its destruction, and the whole time the same flickering image of the World United battle pod hovered in the background, the only difference was a red flash from its current direction as a shot turned Amanda’s own pod white.

Abraham jerked his head up, meeting Ross’s eyes. He signaled backward with his thumb and brought it down suddenly, signaling that they needed to leave immediately for Amanda. “Get an Emer Gen ready for departure!” Abraham shouted into his headset as he flung himself towards the open door that Ross had just exited through.

“Which pod will it be, sir?”

“Charlie, a Charlie pod! Closest dock to my position! Now!”

Three other black clad agents on emergency duty call began running after them, pulling their own headsets out to call for preparations in the infirmary wing of the complex as they fell into line behind the two.

“Coordinates, sir?”

“Alpha sector 2-0”

“The command sector, sir?”

“Yes, now get me offline.”

Abraham began to run knowing time was of the essence in this case of life or death. Please keep her alive! We need her to lead this rebellion the way no else has been able to in the past. Abraham cried out with his whole being, hoping that someone would hear his thoughts. Abraham only wanted the best for the rebellion, and knew Amanda was the one who could do it better than everyone else. He did not know if he believed in any omniscient being, but if there was one, now would be a good time for help.