"We need to be fit and ready for anything that might come our way."
― Aaron B. Powell
"He's gone! Dead! Dead to save an innocent child! We've lost the only man capable of leading us against these rioters!" I yelled at the others.
"Are you going to just give up? Is that what he would have wanted? Would he want us to sit here and cry over his death? Or would he want us to stand up, and fight back against these rioters?" Alyx yelled back.
"Both of you shut up! Jax we know Chief would want us to fight back, the thing us we can't do it alone. We need to gather whoever is left and mount a counter attack" Troy cut us both off.
"Chief said to get Jameson, where is he?" I looked at Troy.
"He's in Analytical, it's still secure at this very moment, if we need him we should probably get over there as fast as possible" Troy looked over at me.
"Then I'll go, you and Alyx should stay here with Las and my family, I'll send a couple Riot Specs your way when I get to Analytical" I said walking to the door.
"Jax, wait! You'll need this if you want to make it to Analytical" Troy said, handing me his sidearm.
"But I'm not trained to use these, it'll be useless" I tried giving him back the pistol.
"Jax, it's a EM pulse gun, for specifics, it's a Model MK IV: Sarien Class Hand Gun. All you have to do is point it at them and pull the trigger, it'll knock them out cold, non-lethal rounds to spare your conscience." Troy said forcing the gun into my hand.
"Fine, just.....keep them safe ok?" I said taking the gun and walking to the door.
"I will, trust me" He said as I walked out the door, sealing it behind me. I was off, to meet whatever lay between me and the Security Center, "No time to waste....I won't let your death be meaningless.....I promise that Chief....I promise" I thought to myself as I took off down a corridor. It wasn't long before I saw a group of rioters preparing to execute a couple Riot Specialists, I knew I should help but helping would mean risking my own life and with that the lives of everyone I cared about. But I couldn't just leave them, I knew what I would have to do, not just to honor Chief and his sacrifice, but to honor Las. Las would never leave someone behind like this, I raised the EM gun and fired at the nearest rioter. The blast caught the rioter in the chest and sent him flying into a wall, the Riot Specs saw the rioter go down and took their chance. The Riot Specs tackled the nearest rioters to them, I saw a rioter aim in my direction, everything started moving in slow motion, I tried to aim my gun but wasn't fast enough. I heard a gunshot and then the rioter dropped, a burst of red erupting from the side of his head as a round impacted and exited his cranium. As the rioter fell I saw the person step into view, it was the Captain of the Arcadian, he shot the remaining rioters and turned to me.
"Hey there kid, hope you don't mind a little help eh?" The Captain said as he walked over to me.
"No I don't mind, I would've been dead if you hadn't shown up" I could feel my hand shaking as the adrenaline faded away.
"I'd say we've lost to many people as of late, I lost my ship, we can't lose another Ark, especially not one of the 7" he said looking at the dead rioters.
"Sir! Were here to help!" The two Riot Specs said running up to us with the weapons they'd salvaged from the rioters.
"Good, I need you two to go back to the medical wing, look for room 316, protect everyone inside with your life's got it? We'll send and evac team as soon as possible, got it?" I gave the two orders.
"Yes sir!" They said in unison as they ran off.
"So....Captain, I never got your name....mind sharing? You already know mine.." I inquired.
"My names Alvar Carias" the Captain replied as we moved through the halls.
"Nice, it's good to know the name of my savior" I said with a hint of sarcasm. I knew this was the beginning, "This is it, this us the first of our fights, the first fight of our war" I thought to myself as we neared the Analytical Department.