There was trouble along the galaxy, but the federation didn't know what it was. Jaelen and her team were put on a mission to investigate this. Sadly, it took the federation three Earth days to find out the problem before they could save the residents and the planet's inhabitants. A planet burnt of life, the federation believe who did this were the leeches years ago when Ashley and her sister, Talya.
The team's first steps on the planet as their carrier floats off orbit were frightening to almost the entire team. They were standing where what used to be a city. Z-list grasped the mouthpiece of his helmet as he observed the area.
"It looks whoever did this, left," Exber said quietly. There was no trace of any attacker, no footsteps, no weapon marks anywhere. Just the burnt ground and the ashes of the dead in the air.
"What do you think it was, Jaelen?" Z-List said. "A bomb? I mean, it would take days to scorch an entire planet like this." Jaelen was silent as she stared quietly into the ground.
They were sent with weapons, which was meaningless since there was no threat, yet protocols had to be followed. The team searched the ruined city as they split up. As Jaelen stood waiting for a new sign of who was responsible, she finds scorched bodies and skeletons on the floor. The faces of dead families, looking as if they were grasping for one another. Jaelen tried to look away, but the bodies were everywhere. "Why would someone do this?" she whispered as she came across a female body holding a child in her hands. Her helmet was being fogged from her heavy breathing. She had been through hard times, but the sight of countless bodies overwhelmed her.
She tried looking for survivors or any signs of life, but all she found were ash piles and clouds of smoke emitting from ground. Trees slanted near the ground as most of which still had the embers burning inside of them and others with clouds of smoke floating off of them. She looked towards the motherly body again and saw the child with an untouched stuffed bear in her hands. She couldn't hold herself any longer. The weight of her emotions, having her plunge her knee against the ground of ash
She took her helm off as she pulled her necklace to reveal her cross. She grabbed it and prayed for her and the lives of which passed. She was shortly interrupted by Ralph's call.
"Jell. Come in Jell?"
"What is it, Pi?" She quietly said.
"I believe I found something." He sounded as if he was concerned. Jaelen could tell that he was serious about his findings.
She stood despite the heavy emotions she carried. "Where are you?"
"To the right of you, 30,000 feet."
She sprinted towards him as she held her cross necklace the entire way. She was still concerned for the dead she came across, her feet stomping on the ashes of what use to be homes, floated in the air as it wept in her face. Ash filled her lung during her departure to Ralph. The ash smelled as if it was still burning, causing her lungs to burn and harsh coughs escaped her throat. The dead stared at her, the soulless and eyeless heads turned towards her."What did you find?" she said as she came to a halt, panting from exhaustion.
"I found this shard of a weapon," he held up a golden barrel that seemed to have broken off.
"What do you think it is?" Jaelen said. Ralph had no helmet, but a mask that only revealed his brown eyes as they were watering while the ashes made them bloodshot. He was shaking in fear. Turning his head left to right as he went into thought.
"Possibly an unregistered race, but the weapon this barrel is from looks too ancient to be used today. It is too obsolete to be used by any form of military or government."
"What ammunition did it use?"
"Flammable rounds. But to do this type of destruction, the fire would have to be massive."
The barrel seemed to be fragile. The gold plating wasn't scarred from the fiery attack, but the breaking point on it looked like it was caused by force. Jaelen noticed a bullet stuck in the barrel end of the weapon. She grabs the weapon and finds the engravings, Noigel. "Jell," Ralph whispered. "Look over there. Life!"
In confusion, Jaelen looked and saw a broken wall of a building with an untouched tree surrounded by green grass behind it. This amazed her. The only beauty amongst the city of ruin. The sight almost gave some light in Jaelen's heart.
"Jaelen! Jaelen, come in!" Z-List shouted in the comms. He almost made Ralph and
"What is it this time?"
"We found a body!"
"I think we've seen them all, Z-List"
"This isn't any of the species on this planet." Jaelen's eyes widened as she and Ralph had to rush to the unidentified body.
***
The federation set up a press meeting to explain the happened on the planet. The people of the galaxy are afraid that the federation's protection is false. The leader of the federation military forces, Admiral Silas, must speak to the press and calm the people in their horror on their planet.
"How do I look, Ashley?" Admiral Silas said as he was making sure he dressed properly. He constantly straightened and unstraighten his tie.
"You look handsome, Admiral." Ashley said as she wore her armor and helmet.
"You sure?" he said. "Is the color proper? I hope the other races don't take the color offensively." He seemed panic, but at the same time confident to speak to the people.
"There is no need to panic, Admiral." He interrupted her as she spoke.
"Please don't call me Admiral. You can call me Joseph."
"I thought your name was SIlas."
"Middle name. What time is it, Ashley Dear?"
"It's 10 minutes until the meeting. As I was saying, there is no reason to panic. You are a powerful and respectful man, Joseph."
"Thank you for the kind words, but I just wish not to offend the people out there. Have you seen what happened when I wore red? The Sentrafelli went mad when I talked about their people's intel retrieval." He began to fix his hair as he look longingly at it in the mirror.
"Why are you fixing your hair, Joseph, when you're going to put your helmet on?" His fingers began to slowly stroke between each strand of hair.
"It's to keep my hair away from my face while in the helm." He began to lick his palm and slide it against his hair to keep his hair how he wanted it. He began to take a small look at Ashley to see her emotions, but showed only the helm that covered her face. Although covered, he could still tell her emotions. "What's the matter, Darling?"
"What was that sir?"
"Darling, your face may be covered, but I could see what's under your mask." Ashley began to look away from the Admiral.
"I just worry, that's all."
"About what?" the Admiral said.
"I rather not talk about it, sir," an alien woman peaked through the door to tell the Admiral "Your press conference is in 2 minutes, sir." The Admiral grabs his helm and puts on gently.
Ashley picked up her rifle resting in a corner and placed in the holster on her back. Her mission is to protect the Admiral. A mission she hasn't done since her training. She followed the Admiral as he speed walked to the halls which led to the podium on stage.
As the Admiral walked to the podium, the crowd there roared with questions and camera drones flashing their lights as they took pictures of him. Ashley stood by to make sure no one tries to abuse the Admiral on stage. One of the camera drones flew too close to the Admiral almost blinding him as it took pictures. Ashley walked towards it and grabbed it as she ripped the flash off the drone and threw it in the air only for to float in the same spot near the Admiral, but without the blinding flash.
The Admiral raised his hand to quiet the crowd and began to speak. "We have seen the havoc of the planets these past years.," he said in a powerful voice. "Riots, bombings, even militia attacks. Any questions on these topics will be ignored for they are being investigated as we speak, and we hope they will be dealt with." The crowd in front of him started to ask questions again in a loud uproar. Each had one hand raised as their other carried a recorder or notepad.
The Admiral points to one of the reporters in the crowd to have him say what needs to be answered. "The most recent act was the scorched planet," the reporter said. "From what we hear, the people believe it was an act of the Heltic Federation." The Admiral, although with a helmet on, he seemed disturbed by what this man said. "Do you have anything to say about this?"
"What I can say is that we are not trying to hurt our people, we are trying to protect them. We swore an oath to protect anyone who decided to join the Heltic Federation," the Admiral's voice sounded angry. "We were terrified as much as the people are. One of our task forces are on the job to investigate what caused the planet's instant destruction." More began to yell in a mirmir of questions. The Admiral was scanning for person to ask another appropriate question. He points at the humanoid alien with the drone by his side.
"With the recent destruction, we all had to deal and fear what might come next, do you have an idea or a theory of who or what race is doing this?" The Admiral looked down for a second to think about what he should say.
"I am not allowed to accuse anyone of this or even an entire race. When we find out who did this, we shall share that information to the public." The crowd started the loud mirmir of questions again, with the Admiral looking for another person to ask a question. He points to Mobarian alien twins.
"Rumors say that the poison used during the Karian Riot was an attack from the federation," the twin nodded as he spoke.
"What is your point, sir?" His voice sounded a bit annoyed as he listened to these two reporters.
The other twin stepped up with a baggy and began to speak. "Our 'point,' Admiral, is that the chemicals from the poison was of federation grade, as shown in these documents." He handed the Admiral the documents.
"Where did you find these?"
"That is none of your concern, sir. What I'd like to ask is, what is your purpose in this riot and why are you causing these attacks?"
The Admiral stared longingly into the documents that were handed to him. He pulled up his hand and held out one finger to signal them to wait.
"These are fake." The entire crowd turned to the twins.
"What do you mean, Admiral?"
"These aren't real documents. The element shown isn't even a poison. It's a healing component used in the medkits we supply our soldiers and task force members." The twins faces began to look frightened as the entire crowd stared them down. "If you wish to frame me or my men, then get something real or do some research." The Admiral begins to take off his helmet to show his face to them. "This meeting is over. I hope for the best of all of you." he signals to Ashley to get guards to arrest the twins for falsely accusing a higher man.
As she began to walk to the guards outside the room, a gunfire sounded. The guards tried to see where the gunfire came from as Ashley looked where it hit. The reporters ran outside the building as everyone saw the Admiral laying on the floor with a red pool around his head.