Odd Man In



Even before the funeral of Maxwell Creed, or before his body had even been allowed to get cold, the director of field operations for Project Threshold had already found a replacement body for Samantha Bliss’s Team Alpha. He walks into Brainstorm to find all of the members of it waiting there, sitting around a long black table, the walls are bright white with maps covering one entire wall. His Name is Milo Tripper. And he has been in the field for most of his career at Threshold. He immediately draws the attention of the man called “Cowboy” he looks the new recruit up and down with outward criticism.
“So you’re the new guy huh?” he asks with a thick Texas drawl.
He extends his hand to cowboy.
“Milo Tripper, How do you do?”
“I’m Cowboy, that feller over there with the eye patch is Klinger, them two longhairs is Twitch and Thump. That sassy little lady is Roxanne, but we call her Roxx, because she does. The Boss lady ain’t here yet youngun so have a seat, but don’t get comfortable, you won’t be sittin long.”
The room grows cold and awkwardly silent, as Young Milo Tripper can feel the eyes studying him closely. He just gets settled into his seat when Samantha Bliss enters the room. She takes notice of him right away. He hands her his dossier, and she silently sits as she opens the folder and begins to make the professional acquaintance of Milo Tripper. For a man who looks so young he has made his mark in the war with the reds. She raises her eyes to look at him.
“You’ve been around the block a few times I see.”
“Yes Ma’am”
“Three Years in the cape?.. Is that right?”
“Cape Nazareth.. Yes ma’am, three years in blood alley”
“ Seen a few good men fall then haven’t you Mr. Tripper?”
She extends her hand to him, and he takes it as a good sign.
“Welcome to Team Alpha, Milo.”
She lays down Milo Trippers dossier, and stands at the end of the table looking over the best field team in Threshold.
“Well gang, it looks like we’re going back into the Canns Landing corridor, it would appear as though that first team of reds that we took out had some back up.”
She pulls some photos from a manila envelope and passes them to each team member.
“This is senator Aaron Bradley and his daughter Jessica, it would appear as though the reds were out to snatch the girl to give them leverage in their dealings with the good senator. They want information that he is privy to about sensitive ongoing operations here at Threshold, we have a pretty good idea where he was last and Lifeguard is gathering intel for us to go on as we speak. We won’t be going in blind, but we will be going in alone. Its simple, we get to the senator and get him out of that vicinity before the reds find him and the girl. Any Questions? Good then we muster on dock twelve and leave for the extraction point at 0100. Get some rest people.. You’re going to need it.”

Bridges falling



Thursday, November 20th, 2069.
It is I:30 am, they are twenty minutes from Canns Landing when Samantha Bliss receives disturbing news from Threshold headquarters. In the middle of the night a team of reds had located the senator and his daughter, he tried to stop them from taking her and during a struggle he was shot and killed by one of the reds. His body was found three hours ago, and from eye witness accounts the shooting appeared to be an accident. He was no good to them dead, so it seemed logical that they hadn’t intended to kill him. They took the girl. Alpha teams mission just became a rescue operation. They are rolling up to piedmont street on the north end of the Broad street bridge heading south, when Samantha feels the vehicle roll to a slow stop.
“Why are we stopping? we aren’t at the extraction point yet.. Its still six blocks in. what’s going on up there?”
The driver nervously answers..
“There’s heavy debris blocking the end of the bridge agent Bliss, we can’t drive any further in. we’ll have to go back.”
A sinking feeling hits her in the stomach like a rock as she kicks open the back doors of the transport vehicle. The faint flickers of fire at the north end of the bridge confirm her suspicions.
“EVERYBODY OUT NOW!!!!”
The entire team bails out of the Vehicle, but the driver hesitates as he sees them make their way past him towards east Canns Landing. They are fifty feet out in front before he realizes there is any danger, and Samantha Bliss suddenly appears at the drivers side door and yanks him from his seat.
“Agent Bliss? What’s happening?”
“Get up to the rear of Alpha!.. NOW !!”
They get twenty two feet from the vehicle when the first round from the Red’s rocket launcher slams into the side of it. It explodes immediately shooting a ball of flame up into the morning air fifty feet off of the surface. The concussion from the blast knocks everyone within one hundred feet away to the ground. They are one block away from the entrance of the deserted section of Harrisburg called the Canns Landing Corridor. Or as civilians call it.. New Hell.. Agent Klinger has his loaded weapon at his side and is on the floor of the east end of the Broad Street bridge. And as he stares intently through the flames and smoke, the cold misty morning draws eerily quiet, thirty feet from the burning vehicle, he sees two people laying on the ground.. They do not appear to be moving. One of them he recognizes as Samantha Bliss.

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