Region Six City is built like every wealthy City that ever existed; however, it is surrounded by a hundred feet tall walls. Inside the City is where some VIPs and regional government personnel lived if they were not stationed in any of the zones or restricted zones. Also, within the City is where the Region Control Center(RCC) for the entire Region Six is located. The RCC controls supply zones in its Region with food and other resources. They also transport weapons and ammunition to the region keepers stationed outside the City in different zones.
A helicopter landed on the heliport on top of the main RCC building.
The main building was designed of glass and was as high as the empire state building, surrounded by five annex buildings half its size.
Jason stepped out of the helicopter wearing civilian attire. He wondered what could be so important to drag him away from training the special operation units (SOU) candidates at Region one.
He walked through the doors of the control center located on the second floor inside the RCC main building. The room looked like a glass bubble with the control station in the center.
General Fagans stood off to the side of the Region keepers sitting behind a control desk.
Jason stood on the opposite side of the General.
"Sir, could you tell me what's going on?"
"Show him." General Fagans said.
One of the Region keepers sitting behind the control desk started typing commands on the holo-keyboard before him. A video from inside a truck appeared in front of them on a big screen. It showed Aidan, Chloe, and Jason getting in. The Region keeper froze the screen.
Jason stared in disbelief and wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him. "Is this some kind of special effect?"
General Fagans, shook his head no, "no, this is real."
"Who is the guy that looks like me?" He asked, squinting his eyes at the screen. "And how...Aid—Aidan and Chloe are dead."
General Fagans blew a hard breath. "They're not dead."
"Sir...you were there—there's no way they could've survived ."
"I m still trying to make sense of this myself," he folded his arm and stared intently at Jason, "so you have a twin brother we don't know about?"
"I have a brother—but not a twin. That would be news to me; also, my father would have told me."
"Where are your parents now?"
"Decease, sir."
"Hmm... that's unfortunate. Due to the circumstances, you are temporarily assigned to Region Six as the Commanding Officer of the SOU." He walked over to Jason and grabbed him by the arm. "I want you to find Aidan and Chloe...kill them—this time, I want their heads."
"Do we not have them in custody?"
"No...we don't, your look a like pretended to be you and got them released."
"I'll get right on it, sir."
He shook his head up and down, "I know you will. Your squadron awaits you in the squad bay."
Jason nodded and exited the room.
Jason entered the SOU squad bay through the back, which led him directly to the locker room. He changed into his SOU Region Keeper uniform; it's similar to the regular Region Keeper uniform, but instead of gray and black, it was black with gold stripes..
The squad bay was the SOU clubhouse, and they just sat around joking until they were called.
Jason walked into the main room, a big lounge that looked like a cafeteria with large transparent screens hanging from the wall to watch entertainment or the news.
The SOU Region Keepers were sitting around talking amongst themselves. "Okay, everyone, listen up. I am Captain Detrich, your new CO. We're moving out in ten minutes. Grab whatever it is that you need. I expect you all to be in the motor pool in five minutes."
The team scattered, putting on their uniforms; they checked their rifles, grabbed their packs, and left. One of the stragglers walked up to Jason. "Sir, I'm not sure if you know, but one of our own is undercover."
"Who?"
"Sergeant, Nina Grazier."
Jason smiled—he had trained Nina, who was his good friend. "Thanks, I didn't know."
He nodded, "see you in the motor pool."
They assembled at the motor pull directly across from their squad bay. Looking at the squad bay from outside, it looked like a campanile.
Jason met his team at their section of the motor pool. Their trucks were black with tinted windows. A total of sixty-six SOU Region Keepers got inside twenty of their seven-ton trucks; they only needed to take eleven but took some extra just in case they detained some rebels.
* * * * * *
The rebels that survived from lay low three walked in. Aria was glad to see them. Sasha smiled, knowing Aria had no excuse to help her look for Aidan.
Aria couldn't quite understand why Sasha was so interested in finding him. She remembered that Sasha had abandoned the Risers after Aidan was murdered, and then she formed the Outlaws group. In conclusion, Sasha played a role in dividing the rebellion when she started her group. Soon after, other members of the Risers began forming their groups.
"Why the interest in Aidan?" Aria asked.
"He was like a brother to me."
"That's why you left after he died."
"No. I was angry —I wanted revenge, and the Risers had gone soft the moment everyone found out Aidan was gone. How long has it been? Three months? When was the last time the Riser attacked the Region Keepers?"
Aria couldn't answer the question because she knew what Sasha said was true. The only thing they had accomplished since Aidan's death was stockpiling weapons, and they used that as an excuse not to attack the Region Keepers.
"Devon took charge of the Risers, but he was never built to lead," Sasha said.
"Well, Devon's not with us anymore."
"Good! We can only win this war if Aidan brings us back together. You and I will never have as many followers as he had."
"Sasha, you don't get it. He's not alive."
"Either he's alive, or someone looks exactly like him. The Region Government is spooked. They're not kicking down doors for fun. They're scared and want to contain whatever this is before it spreads like wildfire that Aidan's alive."
"You m..."
Aria was cut off by an explosion that ripped through the side of the building, making a loud boom! Sound. The impact sent Aria flying backward, landing very hard on her back. Her ears were ringing, and all she saw was blackness.
She slowly regained her awareness and heard gunfire inside and outside the building. Slowly she moved her arms, searching for her rifle. She grabbed the gun by the barrel and realized it was still slung over her shoulder.
Myles, a member of the Riser, checked to see if she was okay. He helps her to her feet. She looked around at the other rebels returning fire from the front of the building and the side where the explosion hit.
"We have to help them." She said.
"Yeah, and find a way for all of us to get out of here safely."
"I'm with you. Let's clear away." She said, giving a stern nod and tapping her rifle.
Myles ran before her; she took off behind him and stopped because she heard groaning over the gunfire. She checked it out and saw Sasha lying on the ground with a big concrete slab over her left leg. Aria tried moving it by herself, but it was too heavy. She called for Myles to come back, and he tried helping her.
The two of them struggled to remove the concrete. Eventually, someone from Sasha's group saw them and helped lend them a hand.
After removing the concrete, they noticed it was propped up on other debris. Fortunately for Sasha, it stopped her leg from being crushed.
"Can you walk?"
"I can feel my leg," she said, moving it around, "yeah, I think."
All the while, the gunfire between the rebels and the Region Keepers continued.
Aria helped her to her feet, "we have to move."
Sasha quickly pulled her handgun from her side holster and shot five times at one of the Region Keepers that breached the building.
Aria turned and looked at the Region Keeper that Sasha killed. "Thanks"
Sasha nodded and saw five more Region Keepers coming through the breach. They blew open, and they were taking out the rebels that were trying to guard it.
"There's more," Sasha said, pointing toward the Region Keepers.
Aria and Sasha took cover behind two of the steel beams, while Myles and a few members of Sasha's group took cover behind a pile of rocks. Quickly, Aria popped from around the beam and shot one of the Region Keepers; Myles and the other guys immediately followed suit, taking out a few more of them. The last Region Keeper inside the building tried running for cover but was met by a few of Sasha's bullets.
Aria made it to a window at the front of the building and saw tons of Region Keepers covering and shooting into it. She slid down the wall, sat on the floor, and wondered how they would escape this hostile situation. She knew they couldn't win at this moment, and the only way out was to go through the tunnel from which she came. Nonetheless, some of the members in her group had too much pride to flee. She decided to try and convince them to retreat and regroup. That way, they'll live to fight another day.