Heroes pt. 3
by Elan Morin

	It was a beautiful spring day, the man thought as he walked along the
rocky shores near his home in the southeastern part of Ireland, in Europe on
earth. However, in this part of the world, a beautiful day didn't necessarily
mean that it was warm. But the man loved it, anyway. He was an elderly man,
in his mid sixties, but that didn't mean he was senile, or feeble. His body
was very fit, and very strong for his age. If it wasn't for the fact that his
face betrayed his age, one could have mistaken him or a man half his age.

	He was born in the town of Bally na Graa on the other side of Ireland
He loved his home town, but ever since the incident which cost him the life
of his wife about five years ago, he knew that he had to leave, and never
return. He could not leave Ireland, though, nothing could make him leave the
land of his birth.

	As he was walking along, he noticed something green sticking out
above the rocks near some cliffs. While something green in Ireland wasn't
unexpected, something green that was sticking out above the rocks with a
shape like that, was. Normally, the man would have passed it by, not wanting
to concern himself with it, as well as keeping attention away from him. He
got enough of that five years ago.

	As the man rushed over there, he saw that it was an e-frame. A
terran, e-frame. *Who ever was in there is probably dead,* the man thought.
But when he got over there, he saw that the e-frame was empty. *I wonder what
happened to whoever was in here,* he thought. He knew that this e-frame
hasn't been here for more than a day, because he walked this way every day,
and it wasn't here yesterday.

	"Uhhhhhhnnnnnnn...........," came from some nearby rocks. When the
man went over there, he saw an Exo-trooper, half lying, half clinging, and
nearly unconscious, to some rocks. The trooper was also half in the water,
where it was splashing against him every few moments. The pilot's uniform
consisted of a purple coat that was split down the middle, where it came
together, and he had loose black pants and boots. He had a belt on that
wrapped around his coat at the waist. The coat had the ExoFleet emblem on the
upper left part of his chest. *For an Exo-trooper, his uniform is remarkably,
plain,* the man thought. He also seemed to have a bag over his shoulder,
straps wrapped around his right arm. *This is probably the man whose e-frame
this is,* the man thought.

	*There must be something in there that he doesn't want to lose,* the
man thought, as he went over to help the e-frame pilot. *His right arm
appears to be broken,* the man saw. The pilot also had a really bad gash on
his side, and a bump on his forehead. He pulled the pilot completely out of
the water and to gentler terrain, where he removed the bag from his arm and
promptly began treating the pilot's wounds as best he could. "Well, my
friend, you certainly have made my day interesting," the man said, when he
was finished patching up the wound on his side. "I am going to need to get
you to my house, where I can help you properly," the man said.

	The pilot, although still mostly unconscious, heard the man and
started to stand up, when he nearly fell over, the man caught him and said,
"careful there, son, you can't heal instantaneously." The pilot only nodded
slightly as the man wrapped the pilot's good left arm around his shoulders
and lead him to his house.

	*********************

	The fire crackled and provided a little light in the night, here in
this wooded region, and a little warmth. The builder of the fire sat near the
fire, warming herself. Across from her sat her squad mate, Trooper Nicole
Montgomery.

	Kristin O'Conner certainly wasn't upset with the situation, but she
wasn't exactly pleased about it either. *For some reason,* she thought to
herself, *I don't think this was part of the mission.* She wasn't worried
about the situation as a whole, but did worry about some things, like what
happened to the others, what do we do when we run out of emergency field
rations. Even though she despised the notion, they might have to resort to
hunting in order to eat. She was no naturalist, she only had a basic
knowledge of wilderness survival. She did have enough knowledge, though.
Enough to tell which plants were safe to eat, and what ones aren't. *But
plants won't be enough, and that's assuming I can find some,* she thought.

	"Lieutenant?" Nicole said, breaking Kristin's train of thought,
"what's going to happen to us?" Nicole had been taking this hard. Kristin may
have only been two years older, but having been raised in a military family,
she was able to handle a lot more stress than most. Nicole wasn't on the
verge of a breakdown, far from it, actually, but the suddenness in which
everything happened, and the end result, plus worry for their friends really
took their toll on her. She could handle herself in a battle, but she didn't
have much experience in dealing with a situation of near hopelessness.

	*Once the impact of the events of the last day sink in, I think
she'll be her old self, again,* Kristin thought, then aloud, "We'll be fine,
and I am sure the others are fine too, in fact, they are probably out looking
for us now. Knowing Elan, he'll probably burst out from the trees any minute,
bowing and saying how much of an honor it is to rescue such beautiful
maidens, like the knight he thinks he is," Kristin said dramatically, moving
her arms in such a way as to make it look like she was acting out a play. At
that, they both burst out laughing. *Getting better already,* she thought.
"Just try and get some sleep. We'll figure out what to do tomorrow."

	"Yes, lieutenant, and thank you," Nicole said before she lied down
and closed her eyes. "And be sure to wake me when it's my turn to lookout."

	"I will," Kristin said, poking the fire. Kristin got so lost in
thought, her turn to sleep came before she knew it. And she wasted no time
getting to sleep.

	*****************

	Kristin looked at her e-frame and decided that it might be
salvageable. *It didn't get damaged too bad. Fortunately, there is enough
room in the cockpit for two, even though it will be a really tight squeeze,*
she thought. Nicole's e-frame was completely unsalvageable. The fact that she
managed only a few scratches proves someone was watching over her.

	*Better take a look at the fusion pack,* Kristin thought, *Make sure
it isn't damaged. Could be bad if it is.* She went around to the back of her
e-frame where the fusion pack was. She removed it from her e-frame and
examined it. *It appears to be ok, but with a crash like that, anything
could've happened. I better rig up some kind of monitor, in case it becomes
unstable. It wouldn't do to have it blow up while I'm in the e-frame, after
all. That would certainly set me back.*

	While Kristin was doing this, Nicole was taking care of their
campsite, making sure the fire was out, and not a threat to the forest. When
she was done, she went over and joined Kristin. "So what do we do now?" she
asked.

	"The first thing that we should probably do, is look for the wreckage
of the pirate ship. If the others aren't there, or if they were and left
already, they will probably have left some kind of message for us, and even
if they rest of the squad hasn't been to the wreckage, there will at least be
supplies that we can use," Kristin explained. Nicole nodded thoughtfully.

	"Yeah, you're right. I saw the wreckage coming down as I was
crashing. It was in a northwesterly direction," Nicole said, pointing in the
direction she mentioned.

	"Great!" Kristin said, "grab your belongings and an extra blaster or
two if there is any spares in your e-frame, while put the finishing touches
on my e-frame, and get it ready for flight."

	"Right," Nicole said as she ran over to the wreckage.

	*********************

	"Two days we've been in here," mutters Lt. Ratislav O'Muirdagh,
wandering around in the sealed room, where he was out along with Lt. Cmdr. B.
Hobbes, and Midshipman Jason Morris.

	"Don't worry," Cmdr. Hobbes said, "I am working on a plan to get out
of here." The two other officers looked at him.

	"What is it you plan?" O'Muirdagh asked.

	"When they come to interrogate us, because they will, we make a break
for it. When they were bringing us in here, I noticed a boarded up hole in
the wall. It wasn't boarded up too well, one good swift kick should break it
open. This normally wouldn't be significant, this hole in the wall, but it is
too small for the Neos to get through, but just the right size for us. With
luck, we should be able to buy enough time to escape before they come after
us in force. Understand?" Cmdr. Hobbes asked.

	"Yes, sir," the other two said.

	"But what if they have patched it up completely? With more than just
boards?" Jason asked.

	"Then we'll just try to fight our way out of here. This is a low
security facility. It shouldn't be too difficult," Hobbes explained.

	"E-frames. What about our e-frames?" O'Muirdagh asked.

	"We can try to get them back, but then we also risk losing time to
escape quickly, before they come after us. The sooner we can get out of here,
the longer it will take them to find us because we can hide in the wilderness
surrounding this place," Hobbes said. Hobbes sighed. "I know it isn't much of
a plan, but it's the best we can do under the circumstances."

	"Don't worry about it, sir. A plan of escape is a plan of escape, and
no plan is perfect," Jason said. After a moment, he said, "I wonder what
happened to the others."

	"I hope they're alright. I would hate to see anything happen to
them," O'Muirdagh mumbled.

	"I am sure they are," Hobbes said. "They are all tough individuals."

	"Yeah, they are at that. How long do you think it will be before we
can put your plan into action?" O'Muirdagh asked, changing the subject.
Hobbes frowned.

	"I don't know. It could be weeks before they decide to interrogate
us. I do know that they will feed us until we are interrogated though. Livia
was never cruel to captives like Draconis, and to a lesser extent, Shiva,"
Hobbes said.

	"I guess all we can do now, then, is wait," Jason said, sitting down.

	*******************

	When he first opened his eyes, he thought he was dreaming. After all,
he wasn't expecting to wake up in a very old looking house. It wasn't too big
and not too small. There wasn't any electronic, or technology in the house
that he could see, not even an artificial light. There were several candles
lit, as well as the fireplace. Even though it was dark in the room, the
candles and fireplace managed to light the room surprisingly well.

	He could feel how weak he was, which was a testament to how close he
was to death. He tried to sit up, and felt a searing pain in his side, as
well as realizing that his right arm was in a sling. *Must be broken,* he
thought. He let himself fall back onto his back. It was then that he noticed
that he wasn't wearing his Exofleet uniform anymore, but instead a loose
white button down shirt, and some real loose fitting pants. *Must belong to
whomever lives here,* Elan thought.

	Elan finally managed to sit himself up, it got easier every time he
tried. Moving around was still painful, but he could take it. He has taken
pain before.

	He stood up and started walking around, looking at the room. It
wasn't plain, but it wasn't overdecorated. There was a picture over on the
desk. It was of three people. A man, a woman, and a little girl, about five
years old. The little girl looked very familiar to him, it was almost as if
he knew her. The man and woman were wearing Exofleet uniforms. *Must be him
and his family,* Elan thought. The desk was made of wood, oak, probably, and
had a good finish to it. It was the work of a master. There was also a couple
bookshelves in the room, full of books of all sorts. Non-fiction, fiction,
fantasy, sci-fi. He also looked in a mirror on the wall, and saw that he was
very pale. One could almost mistake him for a ghost.

	Elan went back over to the bed, which was also made of wood, with
what looked like a very old mattress, like he couldn't get a new one, so he
had to keep using this one. Elan sat down, and started thinking about what
happened, and what to do about it.

	----

	*All systems down! I can't do a thing!* Elan thought as he saw the
earth heading towards him. Falling at a very fast rate, he didn't think he
was going to live if he hit the ground. *If I can manage to land in water,
then I have a chance.* He had a hard time seeing where he was going to land,
because he was spinning at a slow rate as he was falling, but fast enough to
make it difficult to predict where he was going to land. He did see, but only
barely, Kristin and Nicole's e-frames, as well as the pirate ship, falling as
well. *They are going to land far from me, but not opposite ends of the
globe.*

	Elan finally managed to get a look at where they would be landing,
they were that close now. *Europe, it looks like. Almost opposite ends. I
hope we can find each other when the time comes,* Elan thought as they went
over the horizon (yes, they have fallen that far now). The next time Elan saw
the ground, he was relived to see that he was, in fact, going to be landing
in water. Near Ireland, in fact.

	Elan braced himself for the impact.

	"AAAAAGHHHH!!!" Elan yelled when he hit the water. The e-frame landed
on the right side. Because of the speed at which he was falling, the inertia
caused him to throw him violently down, breaking his right arm, and hitting
his head.

	*Got....to....make it.....to the......shore......," Elan thought to
himself, trying as best he could to catch the bottom of the sea floor and
walk to shore.

	After what seemed like an eternity, he finally made the surface, but
saw that the shore was isolated and rocky. Even so, he managed to open up the
e-frame and crawl out, cutting himself real bad on a piece of jagged metal
from his frame. He grabbed his bag, and wrapped it around his arm so he
wouldn't lose it.

	He tried as much as he could to get to the softer ground, but
collapsed after a few steps, and nearly lost consciousness. With his last bit
of strength, he held onto the rocks as best he could. Hoping that this isn't
the end.

------

	*Well, I am alive. And no worse for wear,* Elan thought to himself.
He sat there for a few minutes more thinking when the man who owned this
place walked into the room.

	"Well, awake at last, I see. You've been asleep for the last two
days," the man said.

	"TWO DAYS?!?" Elan exclaimed. Eyes widening slightly.

	"Yes, two days. I hope you don't plan on leaving soon. That wound on
your side needs to be watched, or it could break open. And you can't
overexert yourself either. You have a lot more strength that you did a couple
of days ago, but if you are not careful, you could still end up killing
yourself, lad," the man told Elan.

	There was a strange familiarity to the man, one that told him to do
as he was told, so Elan merely lied back down for his answer, and went to
sleep.

	******************

	"Well, this certainly puts a dampener on things," Kristin said,
looking out from a beach. "Two days of travel and stopped by this. I don't
think that the e-frame can go across an entire ocean. Not in the condition it
is."

	"So now what do we do?" Nicole asked. Looking out at the ocean,
standing next to Kristin.

	*****************

	End of part three.