Planet: Kestra, Elite Training Ground

First Insurgency War

MAIA

Months after the disastrous training simulation, their teamwork suffered.

James refused to work with her and continued to ignore her since. Maia braced herself for the incoming lecture when General Falae called her to her office, and when she entered, her superior officer wasn't alone. Commander Beckett, another superior officer she met at the end of specialised training, stood at her side, hair greying at the roots, an uneasy expression curled over his face. I'm guessing there's trouble... I usually see him with a smile on his face...

It had to be about her failure at teamwork. It was her responsibility, but she struggled to get James to communicate — not that he made it easy. In fact, he made it damn near impossible.

But... Can I blame him after what I said? He did open up, and I just threw it right back at him.

"General Falae." Maia stood at attention and brought her hand to her brow. "You wished to see me?"

"I wanted to talk to you about James Ranier and the lack of cooperation you two have shown," General Falae said without a greeting.

Maia bowed and headed to the desk, and shuffled without a valuable reason. "I don't know what's going on with him, Ma'am." Harder to admit, but worse to acknowledge.

"I did notice the drop after the flag session," General Falae pointed out. "Did something happen during your exercise afterwards?"

Maia frowned and refused to hide the truth. "We got into a small spat after you smoked us," she admitted. "His attitude got to me, and he shot back that I'm not his mother." Shame filled her heart, and no amount of justification made what she said anymore right. "I said I wouldn't want to be considering his stubborn ass."

Commander Beckett and General Falae glanced at each other, and Maia frowned at their reaction. "What is it?"

"May I ask you a question, Urtanes?" General Falae asked.

"Yes, Ma'am."

General Falae got out of her chair and pressed a tab on her datapad. "What do you know of the Eastpoint Massacre?"

Icy pinpricks swept down her spine at the haggard reporters on the edge of the condemned scene. Coverage from Roxton while flames lit through the stars. Unreal and a nightmare from the other side of an I-Screen. Each loss splattered across the screen in blood with endless numbers, until there was nothing left of a little town out in the middle of nowhere. "How could I not know?" Maia whispered. "It's all everyone would talk about. It was the worst pirate raid in Sanctum history. Eastpoint, a small town on the edges of Roxton county... wiped out in a single night." Maia pressed a hand against her chest while the noise and screams from across the screen dug into her heart. "And no one survived."

General Falae shook her head. "You have to take caution with the news, because there were survivors. We've kept their identities private for their own sake." She unhooked the datapad then handed it to her. "I want you to look over these documents."

Her heart dropped at the complete list of every confirmed casualty within Eastpoint and the few missing. Ice filled her heart at the R section of names.

Ranier.

Maia flicked through the three names which perished in the attack.

General Falae tented her fingers and knitted her brow. "James Ranier is one of three survivors of the Eastpoint Massacre. He lost his entire family in that raid — including his mother. He had a poor reaction to what you said... because he doesn't have her anymore."

Maia bit on her tongue and flicked through the rest of the list.

Each life, a star once shining brightly, gone.

Another name caught her attention.

Rayan Falae — Missing.

Maia pressed the alert and jumped at the uncanny similarity between General Falae and Rayan. Same pitch black hair. Same authorative features, though shaped with youth and undamaged by conflict. Maia placed it back on the desk. "Rayan Falae, Ma'am?"

Beckett kept his silence in the corner while General Falae sighed. "He is my son, and he's been missing since the attack," she admitted. "I have a couple of experienced Elites on the hunt for him. I have hope that he is out there, alive, and I am going to find him." She stood up. "For now — you will assume your post underneath Commander Beckett. I have nothing left to teach you at this point. I have other Elites I need to see."

"General, I—" Maia choked. "I'm sorry."

"I'm not done." Ignoring her apology, General Falae went on, "I've expressed concern that if James Ranier goes into an emotionally induced edevic charge. His heart will fail if this happens." She rested her hands on her desk. "He feels alone, Urtanes, and that is dangerous. You're more than his Guardian Anchor, Maia, I know this may be too much to ask... but I want you to be his friend."

"I don't think he wants me to be."

"Try." General Falae nodded at Beckett. "I know it's a lot to ask of a newly made Guardian, but I trust your ability. He is capable of listening, as you saw with the flag exercise."

Maia brought her fist to her chest. "Understood, loud and clear, Ma'am."

"Good." General Falae took the corner of the dome. "Beckett, you have the floor."

"General Falae and I discussed several important matters. From the intel we've received, the First Insurgency is about to make a move." He tossed an infopod to her, and she caught it. "You, James, and other teams will handle these ongoing pirate raids on the outskirts." He breathed deep. "Until we know more, we won't send you to the First Insurgency — not without the full scope."

"Yes, Sir."

"Excellent." Beckett clapped his hands together. "We need all the help we can get. We need to suppress the pirates and get them out of this solar system for good. After you've achieved that directive, your next task will be to find Rayan Falae."

Maia jumped. "Really? He'd be about James' age, right?"

"He turned eighteen a couple months ago, in Novin," General Falae said from her corner. "I want to find him before someone else does. I can only hope they haven't found him already."

Maia bowed her head, and, dismissed from the conversation, left the Overseer's office. Another wave of shame settled on her shoulders at the click of the door and swirled into her stomach. Maia raced to the elevator and clicked the A button. Infopod tucked into her chest, a flash of homesickness strangled her.

Her own mother, who waved her off from their small house on the Kestran plains.

But to lose all of that at his age... Maia clenched her jaw. This is what pushed me to choose this path.

Free from the elevator, she raced back to the bunk pod and swiped her prismkey through the slot.

James stood in front of his door with a towel around his neck, donned in his civilian clothes. He pressed his palm against it with a twist of his lips while droplets scattered off his dirty-blonde hair.

"James," she called. "Hold on." Maia headed to him. "I want to apologize."

"Why?" he asked, disinterested.

"I know what happened."

Confusion replaced the emptiness. "What happened?"

"I shouldn't have said what I did." Maia took another cautious step for him, and he let go of the panel to face her. "I know about Eastpoint."

James raised an eyebrow, but panic swallowed the hazel as he dropped it to her knees. "Everyone knows," he said, dissonant from the uncertainty on his cheeks. "I'd be more concerned if you didn't know." He set his hand back on the panel.

"You can call me Mouse," she said before he closed her out. "I'll do better next time. I won't say something like that."

He groaned and gave her a stoney expression. "It's no fun if you want to be called Mouse."

Maia ignored his jab. "We play Starcross on our off-times," she said when he drew his attention back to her in full and released his escape. "You should join us. I'm sure it'd help. I bet you could find a frontliner who could keep pace with you."

James twitched. "If you find him, let me know."

What did I say now?

"Wait," she insisted before he retreated, and he scowled at her. "We have our directive."

He folded his arms and nodded at her to continue.

Maia inserted the infopod into her datapad to show him. "We're being sent with a couple other Elite teams to push the pirate influence out of this solar system," she said with caution, but he tipped his head. "We'll be handling that while the rest of the Corps tries to find more intel on the Insurgency's movements. Are you okay?"

"Why are you asking if I'm okay?" he questioned. He sniffed. "Is it because of the pirates? Why would I not be okay? I want them out of here more than anybody, and if the Sanctum has finally decided to do something about it then all the better," he said with a shake of his hand. "Is that it? Can I go to bed?"

"No, that's not it." Maia switched to the next tab with the missing person alert. "Afterwards we're being sent out to find this person." She lifted the poster of Rayan Falae. "Do you know Rayan Falae? Any information could... help..." she drifted off when James' expression sank.

His lips folded into a thin line while he glared at the poster. "He went missing during the attack," he muttered.

"Yes, General Falae said as much... but that's not what I want to know."

James folded his arms and scowled deeper, and full of shifting hatred. Hatred which shielded pain. "I'm assuming General Falae mentioned this as the next directive because she has concrete proof he's alive?" he said with a hiss, and Maia frowned at his trembling body. "Is that what you're telling me?"

"I... I guess?"

His nostrils flared. "I have no information to give you. I'm going to bed."

The door slammed on her face.

Right... that told me all I needed to know, James. You didn't just have a passing interaction with Rayan Falae... something tells me you two were friends or something by that reaction. I've got a lot of work to do. Maia facepalmed. How am I going to do this? I know he must've lost friends in that attack... and now it's just... it's too hard, isn't it?

Each day blurred into the next.

Every time she reached out to support her partner, James rushed away. It got to the point where she had to kick his door to grab his attention. By the last day before their new post with Commander Beckett to the primary base on the outskirts by Pero to be deployed into a pirate area, she hadn't seen James leave his room to eat.

"James," she said. "We have to go."

Ignored.

"And I know you're in there," she pointed out. "I know you're not dead. Can you talk to me? We're a team."

Ignored.

She groaned, but jumped when the front door to the bunk pod opened to reveal Commander Beckett. "What's the hold up?" he asked with a patient smile. "Our ship won't wait for us."

Maia motioned at James' door, but stepped back when her partner left it with a scowl, donned in the Elite's synthetic uniform. "I'm ready, Commander," he said with the cold and refused to acknowledge her. "Let's get to the ship."

"Excellent." Commander Beckett took the lead out of the pod.

Maia walked in stride with James and down the elevator. It was a silent trip save for Beckett's attempts to lighten the heavy atmosphere. Outside on the arrival docks, Elites crawled into transports, loaded with weaponry. General Falae stood at the head transport.

Maia shifted with the button attached to her collar, and the mask protected her face from the blast of wind. Software hummed to life in her ears, where her facial recognition scanned everyone and sent her information. In one corner of her visor, the temperature reading, planet, and her own vitals and shield levels.

"Urtanes, Beckett, Ranier." General Falae nodded to each before waving them onto the transport.

Maia sat down near the ramp while the ship rumbled to life beneath her. James took a seat beside her and ignored her.

Soldiers rushed past the transports with flashing alerts. General Falae gave the nearest one a silent nod, and Maia gripped her chair when their transport launched off the pad. Magnetic systems kept them locked in place within the transport. General Falae edged back into the transport and pushed the console on the side of the ramp exit. It lifted up and the air sucked out of her ears with a pop.

"Once we reach the Odaport base you'll be briefed on the current operation," she said. "Half of you will act as recon to watch the movements of the First Insurgency. The other half will be sent to Pero to deal with the upsurge of pirates." Her hand gripped the overhand railing when the transport banked. "I'll explain further once we're at the HQ."

Maia glanced at James, who refused to look at her past his mask.

Another attempt to support.

Maia rested her hand on his shoulder, though nothing she had to say to ease what weighed in his mind. He raised his head to her, but no words passed between them.

Other Elites spoke quietly to their partners, and Maia released him.

He lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Mouse."

Maia jumped at the sudden apology in her ears through their personal com devices within their helmet.

"What for?"

He clasped his hands together and brought his tented fingers against his brow with a sigh. Maia echoed it, then shrugged. "We're stuck together. We can't hold grudges," she joked. "Let's focus on our job. We'll get these pirates out of this solar system so they can't hurt anyone else anymore... and then we'll take care of the First Insurgency."

James straightened himself out with a heavy nod. "Yes. Thanks, Mouse."

Maia stretched her hand to him. "I have your back, Black Wolf, I promise."

James raised his hand to hers with a spark of hesitation, but he gripped her fingers.

Maia shook his hand, and let him go.