OOC: PRIVATE RP between myself and Breena, but feel free to read and enjoy.
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2nd Earth


The ancient record player was a prized possession of his father's, he stared at it with the awe only a child can produce ernestly, it crackled and warped slightly, but the song was captivating, "I don't want to set the world on fire..."
"James...?" He heard his mother call in the next room. "James, turn it down, honey."
He sighed to himself and licked his lips, reaching across the sofa to change the volume as best he knew how. The tune was so cheery it filled him with happiness even though he didn't really understand what the man was singing about, but he was pretty sure it was a girl. "I just want to start a flame in your heart..."

He closed his eyes and smiled, "In my heart i have but one desire..." He hummed as he heard his mother cooking something in the kitchen, "James, get your father please!! Dinner's almost ready."
"Okay mom!!" He called back and left the record player running as he sprinted across the living room and upstairs to his father's study. He could still hear faintly in the distance the sound of the record player, "And that one is you, no other will do." He carefully knocked on the door and flinched instantly. Nothing happened, no shouting or yelling, he frowned and opened the door a creak to see his father stood infront of the grand window at the far side of the room.
"S-sir..." He said quietly, "M-mommy said dinner is ready..."
"JAMES!!" His father's brisk, deep and serious tone echoed across the study and he almost jumped, as his father turned from the window and started walking towards him slowly.
"Get your mother, now. They were wrong, they were all wrong, it's too late..." He muttered, and as his father slowly passed him, he looked to the window his father had been staring at and saw a terrible shadow looming over the building. A huge tree trunk-sized appendage smashed into the garden a few metres away and he let out the longest scream he had ever done in his life, he was terrified beyond belief. He ran from the study as quickly as he could, turned the corner and ran for the stairs as another armoured limb smashed into the study and he was hit by flying debris, and stumbled down the stairs. He ran into the kitchen to see his mother running towards him already, his father was at the front door and all three of them were outside in seconds.

The record player was skipping faintly in the distance as they ran for their car in desperation, "I don't want to set the world on fire... I don't want to set the world on fire... I don't want to set the world on fire..."
"PETER, THE DOOR'S STUCK!!!" His mother screamed at his father, who immediately smashed the window and opened the door from the inside and they piled into the car one after another. His father started the car's engine with a hum and it pulled out of the drive and onto the main road but as it turned the corner the creature caught the back end of the vehicle and it span out of control. It was a terrible flash, and then darkness. When James finally came to he looked around, blinking back the dizziness. What was going on, there was a terrible cracking noise.

He carefully pulled himself out of the car wreck and stumbled across the road, empty cars had been abandoned for as far as his eyes could see, the moment they'd seen 'them' coming, they had tried to get away on foot. He shook his head and wobbled on his feet, his shoulder was bleeding from a light but clean wound, on any normal day he would have burst out crying for his mother but he wasn't sure it would do much good now, he had to be a grown up. He turned around to face the car wreck he'd pulled himself from with the intention of helping his mother and father out, when he saw the giant insectoid monster looming over the metal skeleton. His father was dangling in bloody mulched pieces from it's mandible claws and was being sucked into it's lacerating inner mouths. He looked down to see his mother had a piece of the car's bodywork clean through her side, from left to right. She was coughing and breathing blood bubbles out of the side of her mouth, her head turned to look at her young child.
"J-J-J..." She mouthed, barely making a noise, her eyes wide in pain and shock, her hand reached out for him while he stood there frozen in disbelief, "Mom?" He said nervously holding the buttons on his shirt. She stopped moving and her stare looked deep into him, the great monstrous insect ripped the car open and lifted what was left of his mother free from the wreckage, slicing her in two from her waist, blood rained down and covered James, he fell to his knees and stared at the ground when his mother's top half hit the ground with a loud crack just in front of him.

He screamed again and ran straight for it, "No, no mom! It's..." He tried to lift her up, "It's... it's okay." He said desperately looking at the two seperate parts of his mother, he reached into his pocket and pulled the roll of bandage and the safety scissors that he'd been playing 'doctor' to his mother's 'nurse' earlier that day.
His lips wobbled and tears streamed down his face as he tried again and again to bandage his mother back together again, the insect behemoth turned to see the child beside it's other meal. It let out a low moan like that of a whale and picked up the first half of his mother, then the second half and at last it roared and crouched back down to pick him up, he let out a final scream.

As he woke he found himself drenched, sweating and boiling hot. He was shivering and clutching at his face and it took several seconds for him to calm himself enough to let his hands fall to his lap. He had been 9 then, 21 years on this '2nd Earth' and he was still having nightmares of that day. He swept back the mop of shaggy black hair out of his eyes and rubbed them, reaching over to pick up a packet of cigarettes and putting one in his mouth.
"Lights." He said quietly, a cheerful yet monotone female voice responded to his as the bright artificial lights came on in his room.
"Good morning, James. The date is 2363, February 14th. Happy Birthday, Lieutenant Frost."
"Yeah," he muttered, "Happy fucking birthday to me." He lit up the cigarette and took a long drag, resting his head in his hands before getting up off the bed in his plain shorts and crossing the heated but virtually featureless, sterile white room. He dropped the cigarette into the bin before stepping into shower, it came on automatically and he put his head underneath it, just standing there rubbing his eyes.

Suddenly a screen to his right came on, "Happy Birthday, Lieutenant!" There was a man in a dark blue jacket who nodded to him and smiled, but quickly lost the expression for one a little more serious, "When you're done there, Lieutenant i want you to report to the ESOS briefing room, we've got a mission that requires your skills, meet your team there in 15 minutes." The man in the blue military jacket, who happened to be one Major Fawkes frowned, "You know, Lieutenant, you might want to think about those ocular implants we talked about."
James opened his eyes and wiped his face, looking at the view screen. He was born with dark brown eyes, but since his encounter with the Adrammelech, they had turned a light silver. Confusing every doctor who had ever given him a physical thereafter. In fact, it had become such a disruption on 2nd Earth that he had been requested more than once to have ocular implants to change the colour back to what they were, but he'd refused.
"We're not going to have the same damned conversation over again, Major." He said moving to turn off the view screen, though as he did the Major smirked, "They've got a name for you around D-sector, and it's spreading. Did you know that, James?" The Major crossed his arms and leant back in his seat, but as he opened his mouth to speak he turned the view screen off. 15 minutes, he'd enjoy what he could before the briefing.

It was one of the very few nights that Susan Strathmore was actually home. Karen had been used to having Sissy her sitter around the majority of the time.

She sat and played with the tiny green army men that her father had given her last Christmas, and remembered him telling her that’s what he did for a living and that he was like one of those little men. Karen had laughed wondering what that could possibly mean. Her father had explained that it was a dangerous job, but he did it because he loved her.

Love was good enough explanation for Karen.

Her mother rocked back in forth in her chair watching her play on the plush carpet in front of the television. It was on, but neither of them paid attention to it.

“Karen honey, why don’t you bring down that doll I got you for your birthday?” Karen wrinkled her nose in distaste and shook her head silently. She didn’t want to hurt her mother’s feelings and tell her that she didn’t like the doll. She just wanted to play with her little army men.

“Maybe later Ma,” She said shooting a pretty smile her mother’s way. No matter what mood her mother was in all Karen had to do was smile at her and she would smile happily back.

Just then the phone began to ring in the kitchen and her mother pulled herself from her chair and briskly moved into the kitchen.

Karen watched her mother leave the den and answer the phone before turning her attention to the picture they had of her father sitting on the mantle. He was smiling and holding Karen in his arms and she was laughing. She felt the emptiness when she looked at the picture, because Ma had explained that he was never coming back.

She watched as her mother came running into the room. “Karen get up now, we’re leaving.” She looked stressed and frantic, but most of all scared.

“Why Ma?”

“Some men your father worked with are coming to get us because it’s not safe here anymore”.

She saw her mother dart in and out of rooms throwing clothing into a large duffle bag that she had. Karen was confused, why was their home no longer safe, she couldn’t wrap her mind around it.

Karen quickly looked towards the window when a loud screeching noise filled the streets outside, she wrinkled her nose and covered her ears and made her way towards the window. Her mother was still scurrying about and gathering what things she could. Finally stopping and picking up the picture of Karen and her father on the mantle.

Karen heard the screams, screams that made her shrink back from the window and run to her mother. Her mother picked her up into her arms and brushed her hair back with her fingers.

“It’s okay baby.”

The door burst open making Karen scream and she stopped when she recognized the men in uniform. It was the same uniform her dad had worn when he was still around. They muttered quick things to Susan and grabbed their lone bag of belongings and headed out of the door.

They had a large, strong looking vehicle waiting for them. And the men helped her and her mother into it before taking off down the street.

She remembered looking from the back window of the vehicle at the chaos that was left behind her and the large insect like creatures that began to invade her neighborhood left behind to fend for themselves.

Karen came out of her reverie and concentrated on the sound of her feet hitting the exercise equipment beneath her. The small exercise room in her condo had all that she required; her favorites were the treadmill and punching bag.

A large television was mounted in front of her and she watched the anchors talk about the most recent events on 2nd Earth and latest news stories to come on the program, although it was really just something to look at. She preferred listening to her music, loudly; even though most times it failed to drown out the past thoughts in her head.

She just hit the stop button and grabbed a nearby towel to wipe the sweat from her face when the music suddenly stopped and her television screen flashed. A picture of Major Fawkes face appeared before her eyes.

“Good morning Strathmore, I see you’re up bright and early and getting a good start on your day.” The Major quipped.

She gave a small smirk before replying. “Yes sir”, although she doubted that her day was going to get any better from this early morning call from the Major.

He continued, “Meet here in 15 Strathmore, we have a mission for you.”

“I’ll be there sir”, her voice was velvety and firm. The screen went black as she left the room, running her hands through her short, blond waves, and headed straight to the shower to clean up. She had a feeling that there was a lot in store for her when she reached base.

The heavy duty boots echoed with his brisk, disciplined walk down the long, sterile metal corridors, lined with doors. Lights were illuminating the floor and simple bulbs lit overhead but the corridors were still very dim, and the overhead lights were red, which gave the corridors and everything in them an amber-red glow. He rounded yet another corner and continued down with the cigarette dangling in his mouth. He was dressed in a plain black, tight-fitting uniform with his rank insignia on his chest, it was the uniform for the members of ESOS, though they would be wearing battle armour on away missions to the planet's surface. At last he came to end of the last corridor, turned it's corner and saw a pair of guards standing infront of a wide set of glass doors. Major Fawkes was talking to a group of ESOS uniformed individuals.

One last puff, he grabbed the cigarette and scruffed it into the wall beside him, before putting the extinguished remains into his pocket for later use. He walked towards the guards who both saluted him, "Please enter, Lieutenant, the meeting has barely begun." They opened the doors for him and he stepped inside, the Mayor and 3 ESOS soldiers turned to face him, all saluted and he returned it swiftly. The ESOS soldiers sat and the Mayor motioned for him to join them, he had never seen these people before, though they were members of the same military faction there was still over 50 ESOS soldiers, and he was a known recluse. James was not a fan of socialising and outside of his work he preferred his private time.

"Good morning, Lieutenant." Major Fawkes walked across the room as the guards stepped out, closing the glass doors behind them. "Sleep well?" He asked with a slightly exaggerated tone of curiousity.
He hesitated for only a moment, but it was enough to make his following comment seem hollow, "Yes, thank you, Major." He said, and crossed his arms, leaning back in the chair.
"Well, let's get right down to it then, we've only made a few recon attempts to Earth in the past 5 years, we didn't really think we'd find anything, but last week we sent a small team down, mostly scientists and two ESOS accompanied them." The Major paused and licked the inside of his cheek, "They haven't made contact in 48 hours, and are officially considered AWOL. You have a two part mission."

The Major turned and pressed a button on the console in front of him, the clear table they were sat at suddenly lit up with numbers and diagnostic information, a layout of a city came up, it looked like a post-apocalyptic nightmare even in the most basic detail. James had been expecting something like this however, he had never managed to picture the world he had left behind after the Lech had made it their home.
"The first part of the mission; to identify the status of the recon team, alive or dead. Any living members are to be evacuated, that is your priority, and they must be evac'd if it is within your powers. We have heard seen small signs of human life spotted across the planet's surface, this might be nothing but it could be a signal that there are people down there, living amongst the Lech or have even found a way to repel them, or the like..." He looked across the soldiers and cleared his throat, "... anyway..." he continued, "To ensure the safety of these survivors and evac them would be good, naturally, however, you have 4 launch pods. One for each of you down to the surface, each pod takes 2 people, at best. If the entire recon team is still alive that leaves no room for anybody else, so bare that in mind. The recon team are priority, anything else can be considered disposible."

He pressed another button on the console and the diagnostic three-dimensional images disappeared, "Now," he said, as though just remembering, "This is also going to be your first mission down to the planet's surface for each and every one of you, Lieutenant Frost, marksman and sniper. He will be leading this mission," the Major pointed at him and then to the other three, "This is Private Jenkins," he pointed at a man with short scruffy brown hair and a slim figure. He looked more like a scientist than a soldier with those glasses, he thought to himself. James nodded to the man as the Major pointed to a much larger man beside him, "Private Diaz," this guy was built like an ox, with tanned skin and bleached hair, he was mexican or spanish or something along those lines, he guessed, then at last the Major pointed at a woman. "Private Strathmore," James followed the pointed finger to this woman, she had long blonde hair a surprising beauty for a soldier. He knew some soldiers would refer to her as a 'Bouncing Betty' a term that had developed in the military for a beautiful but deadly woman, taken from the original nickname for the jumping shrapnel mines often employed by the vietcong in the Korean war that would maim and disfigure soldiers, but leave them alive to demoralise other soldiers. He suppressed a smile at this thought, he could see a level of truth in it from what he saw of her.

"That's it then, pleasantries over." The Major said, "I want you all to grab your battle armour from your respective lockers," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of small keys, "These are your individual locker keys," he handed them out, each one with the surname of the soldier on it, it felt very official. "Frost," the Major said, handing him the key which he took and turned it over in his hand. The standard 'Mark 2 Raptor Suit' was it's name but most just called it an 'Exosuit'. It was a heavy duty but form fitting suit of black armour, that could stop heavy artillery at close range, but only offered temporary protection from an Adrammelech's powerful strikes. He had heard stories of an ESOS soldier pinned under the weight of a Lech's giant apendage, and the suit withstood the crushing spike for almost 15 seconds before it broke and he was impaled. Still, 15 seconds eh? Time enough to call yourself a fucking idiot for the mistake you'd made in signing up.
"Dismissed." The Major said, saluting. They all saluted and left one by one, walking down the corridor to the first door on the right where there was a room full of lockers. They'd have to get changed here, gear up and get their exosuits on, do a gear check and that could all take half an hour or more, he guessed. But after that they would be boarding their individual flight pods destined for the planet's surface. Ooh-rah...

Karen walked through the corridors to where the debriefing was being held. Being a woman in the ESOS had its advantages and disadvantages, especially an attractive woman. She could usually persuade people in to giving her what she wanted, but then there was the unwanted attention from just walking down the halls in her fitted uniform. Normally she ignored the subtle whistles, but some days were more difficult than others. She had to put a soldier in his place on more than one occasion.

She approached the guarded room and the two guards let her through with no comment or questions.

They sat around waiting for the meeting to begin when a shaggy-haired man entered the room. Karen guessed he was probably a couple years older than herself, but the most intriguing thing about him were his silver eyes. She couldn’t seem to avert her eyes from him, his presence was strong and it was apparent that he would be in charge.

The pictures of Earth had been something expected for Karen, but nonetheless she was still shocked by the state her former planet was in. The Lech were destructive creatures, who seemed to only have murder on their minds, they killed everything in sight and were even known to fight amongst each other if hungry enough or provoked. Karen clenched her jaw at the thought of the parasites. It seemed she would get her opportunity to kill a few.

Introductions were made and she recognized only one of the men that would be on her team. Diaz and herself had gone through training together. Jenkins was new to her, and from what she could see it seemed he had a bit of a soft spine to be going on a mission like this. Then the Major introduced her to Lieutenant Frost. She had heard the name around base numerous times; everyone thought he was a little crazy. He seemed to be the right guy for the job to her. She nodded her head and gave him a small smirk.

Just like that they were soon to be on their way, she caught the key that was tossed to her easily and stood up to head out the door. There was no hesitation in her steps as she made her way to the locker room with the rest of her team close by her side.

“C’mon boys, Lechs are waiting and there’s no time to waste!” she teased and quickly opened her locker where the best in protective armor was waiting for her. She began to pull the lightweight but incredibly strong equipment over her tight bodysuit. She quickly tied back her hair and slid the sleek, black helmet over her head.

She couldn’t wait to get into the flight pod; flying had to be one of the more liberating things she had ever experienced besides shooting a gun. What she wasn’t quite looking forward to was the destination. She was very aware of what would be waiting for them, and also highly doubted that there would be any recons left by the time they arrived.