The Republic Rangers - The Beginning - Act Three, Scene One

[Winters 0]

?So, they?re terrorists...? Tom said.

?Not exactly,? the mayor corrected. ?They're a basic extremist political movement that has gone too far.? The entire time, the mayor; with his large belly, handle-bar mustache, and beady eyes, figited and sweated.

?Something wrong?? I asked.

"Oh! No! I just get nervous easily," the mayor replied.

"Strange career choice." Tom added.

"This city is only really a small, sleepy port town." At this, Tom and I exchanged concerned glances. "Crime is never really a problem, mainly your occasional drunken smuggler, disgruntled teenager, or petty thievery despite the size of the city. We're a docile people; we usually don't have to worry about intense politics or terrorist..." He paused for a moment. "Which is why a simple business man like myself can be elected mayor."

"Very well then." I said. "Just tell us who these people are."

"The Fondorian Liberation Front. Their plan is to, and I quote, 'lift off the yoke of intergalactic oppression and become a single system that looks out for itself rather than random strangers that do not deserve our help in the first place.'"

"A basic isolationist movement basically," Tom said.

"Yes! Now, I don't support these people-"

"Otherwise you'd be over at that lonely office building and holding those poor people hostage."

"But I can't level the building and our police force isn't trained for building assault and capture, let alone a hostage rescue."

"Well," Tom hesitated. "We can talk to--"

"I'll make sure that we'll save your people." I stood up and looked at the mayor. "I'll just need a few things."

"Sure! What do you need?" The mayor fumbled with some datacards on his desk.

"A square block closed, building holoprints, any information concerning any changes to any floor plans, and any intel you were given." I counted along with my fingers.

"Sure, sure..." The mayor fumbled around his desk, reading small data chips and sorting them out. He found a chip and handed it to me. "Floor plans and renovations." He shifted more data chips and handed me another. "And," he let out a deep breath. "This is the intel."

"Don't you need a copy?" Tom pointed out.

"I don't want this bad juju... I want to be rid of this... and you guys are the ones to take this." Tom and I nodded, shook hands, and left the mayor?s office.

"Ok, ready for this?" I asked Tom, walking into the lift, making a perfect about-face, looking at the door.

"How are we going to do this? We're a mil-" Tom stammered.

"Did the mayor say juju?" I asked Tom

"Yes, but we have a superior officer to answer to!" The lift became bright from the view of the so called 'sleepy port town', with masses of speeders flashing past the City Hall building.

"Fine, I'll talk to Kre'fey once we get to the HQ, but I want to start to start thinking this out now."

"And I, as your trusting XO and good, might I add your only, friend-" Tom shot at me.

"I have other friends!" I interjected.

"Whatever, anyway, I'm going to be your sounding board." Tom sighed.

"This is why your here, serving as my XO." I smiled and saw the doors of the lift open. We walked out it and into the atrium. "We need to think this through." We continued to a parking lot of private speeders. Tom got into our speeder, taking the driver?s side while I took the passenger?s side, thinking a basic building storming.

"Ok," I paused, holding my hands out, as if trying to mold a building from air and thought. "What do we do first?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"This is one of those things where you ask me a question just to see what I say?" I grunted in agreement. "Well," Tom paused. "You put you, our 'squad' sniper, Claire, and our best marksman that isn't one of the above, and snipe the hell out of them." I laughed. "Yeah, I know." He started to fly toward the Ranger headquarters. "Ok, I'm serious now." Tom laughed again.

"Stop laughing, it's scaring me." I recoiled.

Tom smiled. "Very well; as for what needs to be done, scouting the area: you isolate the area to allow for ease of observation and precise note taking."

"Bene, give a gold star to yourself. Now, why do we observe the enemy?"

"Why are you doing this?" Tom sighed.

"Because I think that I should teach you and such, so, answer the question."

"You have a total of two years of fighting over me. I have just as much experience."

"And yet you keep on forgetting my four years at the Academy." I smiled. "I learned more than just anti-rebel prop." I exhaled. "So, why do we keep strong observation on the enemy?"

Tom sighed. "To learn the basic movements of the enemy as well to figure out the weaknesses of the chosen place of the enemies of the so that we may exploit those weaknesses."

"You continue to make me proud." I closed my eyes. "This is more than just testing you, this also helps formulate a plan, as well to figure out what not to do, so, let's move on."

"Yes, let's." I heard Tom say.

"Um, building assault, problems?" I said into the darkness of my eyes.

"Traps, an enemy knowing the terrain better than wedo, as well as offices being used as ambush areas and hard points." Tom replied.

"Yes, good, and because this is a hostage situation, you have to be careful of the enemy doing harm to those people." I started to rub my head.

We flew into the landing bay of the Republic Army base at the edge of the city. "So you have an idea of how we're going to do this?" Tom said landing the speeder.

"Kindaish." I said waving my hands.

"Kindaish? Is that even in any dictionary of any planet or anything?" Tom said with a questioning expression on his face.

"Check the Agmarian dictionary, I think it's in there." I simply countered. We got out of the speeder and walked to our office. "Ok, now, if you have a building to capture, how do you make it in the building?"

"Um, infiltrate through unknown or lesser known areas, storm the front, which would cause massive death on both sides, or find a way to sneak to the top." Tom said, making sure not to run into me while we walked side by side.

"And I think that is what we're going to do." I said, trying to avoid him.

"We're going to do what?" Tom questioned.

"Get on top of the building and assault the ground floor; the building itself is small, only thirty or so floors, small by most standards, but average height for this city. We get a sniper on a building and clear the top, as well as give support to us when possible, just... we just have to watch for now." I answered.

At this moment, we arrived at the small section of the base where Ranger headquarters was located. Then a dark-haired head popped of an office that was dedicated to the other three officers of the Rangers. "Ah! Good, Major!" It was Nix?n. "Uh, General Kre'fey left a message, I think he has a mission for us, but Ricard, being who he so famously is, refused to let us open it up..." At that moment, another dark-haired head popped out to hand me the datacard.

"And here is the data." This time it was Claire. "According to Kre'fey, everything that is necessary to the mission."

"Is it good Ricard?" I asked.

"Shows if we're good or not." Said a red-haired man whose head popped out the door.

"This is almost funny..." I said, pointing at the three junior officers. "Well, thank you lieutenants." The two men instantly left, but Claire held back.

"Is it good?" She asked.

"We'll see..." I simply replied. As I walked away, I winked at her, and saw her smile before I turned away.

We walked into our office and slumped into our desks. "Ready?" I asked Tom, to which he nodded. I popped the datacard into the holoprojector and turned it on.

A small, half sized version of General Layrn Kre'fey. "Greetings gentlemen, I know that you appreciate candor over politics, so I'll get to the point. The extremist political party known as the Fondorian Liberation Front." I paused it.

"Seems like we're a step ahead of the general... interesting." Tom said. He looked at me and I skipped to the intel that was provided.

"This should be easy; FLO," I laughed. "Flow, anyway, FLO is a political movement, not a military movement. They're in no way able to hold ground against us, let alone raw recruits."

I made a copy of the report and sent it to Tom's datapad.

"It says here that we were given this because it is to 'prove our worth'. This means-" Tom said, looking through the file.

"We have to call in the shaaks?" I added to mess with Tom

"Ok... I don't know what that is and I don't want to know." I opened my mouth to answer Tom. "No, I said no. Anyway, we have a mission." Tom looked through the mission profile and sifting through the intel. I pulled out the files the mayor gave me and started to look at them.

"This will be an interesting mission." Tom sighed.

"More interesting than that time we were on that moon?" I questioned.

"What was that?" Tom said, rubbing his eyes in remembering.

"Giant bugs that exploded when light was shined upon them." I reminded.

"Oh yeah! No, more interesting than that." Tom remembered. "Think it?ll be more interesting than the time we on guard at Bakura, when those women were hitting on us in the middle of combat?"

"The girl that was hitting on me was blonde, so, unless a brunette or some other form of dark-haired woman, then, no, not more interesting than that." I finished.