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Echoes II: Elaria

Prologue:

He quickly made his way over to the console in front of him, frantically hitting several buttons and bringing the screen to life. Sweat trickled down his brow as he heard the distant screams of the Infected getting closer.

"Come on damn it!" He hissed through his teeth. "Come on, Come on!" The screen on the console flickered and the face of a Female Ferret Pelzigan appeared on-screen.

"Ugh..." She said as she rubbed her eyes, and she examined the face on her screen. "Eric?" She asked.

Eric nodded to her, "Miss Osman," He said, "You were right about the third moon on Elaria. The facility here is being used for research on the Parasite. At Zero Two hundred hours, they experienced a containment failure. The Infected are making their way through the facility getting bodies."

Osman's eyes widened, "Were you able to get the information we need?" She asked.

Eric quickly nodded in response, "I do, enough to convict Doctor Henry Levin and Admiral Charles Whitcomb." He said to her. "But you need to hurry, security has been dispatched to try and contain the outbreak but I fear they won't succeed."

Osman tapped in a few commands to her console, then looked back at Eric. "Alright, I'll relay the info needed to STAT. Can you relay the info to me right now?" She asked.

"Negative, I was lucky to get a hold of you but the last known location of the Infected was in the communications room. According to reports they're tearing it up and I could lose your signal at any moment. Listen, I have the data on a crystal. You need to send STAT here quickly to retrieve me and the crystal. I'll find a place to hide until then." Eric responded.

Osman sighed and nodded, "Very well, expect a tactical response within the next two hours. Let's hope Doctor Levin's security detail can keep those monsters back until they arrive. Keep that data safe Eric!" She ordered.

Eric nodded and the screen began to flicker with static, "Miss Osman?" He asked. There was a garbled response from her. "Miss Osman?!" He screamed at the console, but her image was completely gone and the facility was cut off. "God damn it!" He said aloud. He glanced around the room, and almost jumped out of his skin when he heard something slam against the large metal door to his left. He whimpered as he stood up and began to back away towards the other door, hearing the Infected screams of anguish as they slammed against the door over and over again, denting it. "Oh shit....oh shit!" He said as he bolted towards the door, opening it, and rushing through it and sealing it behind himself as the other door finally fell to the Infected. God, he hoped that STAT would respond faster than two hours, otherwise this would be the end of him, he'd be used to incubate younger parasites and possibly even feasted on while he was alive. But then there was the planet Elaria with it's two billion residents who were at risk due to that stupid bitch's decision to try and save the kid! God, everything was going to hell, and Eric was not liking his chances within this facility.

Location: Epsilon Eridani System, Aegis. Onboard the UGSM Elizabeth, briefing room.

Jack fought the urge to yawn as he watched the Human Captain of the UGSM Elizabeth give a brief detail on current events around the UGSM's territory. Once again, the Lothians had broken through the defense perimeters of the Epsilon Indi System and were beginning to strike multiple depots throughout the system but were quickly met by UGSM Warships. Food shortages were occuring in that same system leading to martial law being implemented on several planet's, while Elaria, the main planet of the system with it's two billion inhabitants was experiencing an influx of refugees causing issues for the local governing body there. It had become the same thing day in and day out to him. Lothians break through, they cause general chaos, maybe take a planet, but then get kicked out of the system they got into by UGSM forces. Of course, that was also because of the Guardians that were deployed in those areas taking immediate responses towards the incursions and then the rest of the UGSM would react to the attack and quickly push the Lothians out of the system. Things weren't looking all the best for the UGSM with food shortages occurring on multiple worlds. He continued to pretend to listen when he saw a Wolf Pelzigan, male, wearing the standard Navy Blue Uniform bearing an officer's insignia on the collar of his uniform and his left shoulder walked into the room and quickly whispered something into the Captains ear and placed a datapad on the pedestal in front of him.

The Captain nodded to the Officer and then looked down at the pad and began to read it. Jack could tell that something had happened by the way the Captain stiffened. The Captain looked up at a room full of people that had become a part of the Special Tactics and Assault Teams unit, or STAT for short, and cleared his throat. "Well...." He said, his voice deep and firm, "We have had a development on the third moon of Elaria." The Captain tapped in several commands into a keypad on the pedestal and behind him, a screen came to life showing the face of a Human with brown hair and a brown beard to match. His facial features looked like a person who had relied upon coffee to keep him going with the lack of sleep he had. "This is Doctor Eric Coroner, an agent of our wonderful employer Miss Osman who was sent to the facility on the third moon of Elaria. There was a confirmation that the facility was experimenting with the Parasite that had caused the destruction of Aura Station two years ago. It seems that an outbreak has occurred there and we are now being dispatched to contain the outbreak and retrieve Doctor Coroner and the intel he has which he claims will be enough for us to finally nail Doctor Levin and even Admiral Whitcomb himself." Jack straightened up in his chair, now paying full attention. "We have orders to bring the fleet there immediately, all other objectives are secondary. Everyone, prepare for departure and be at combat stations." He ordered. With that, he walked out of the room quickly, following the Officer out leaving the occupants in the room to talk to themselves. Jack snarled as he stood up. Remembering what Henry Levin had done on Aura Station, how he had abandoned the group to save his own skin and also experimenting with the Parasite. He made his way out of the Briefing Room and headed towards the Hanger bay. The Elizabeth was a rather small vessel, she was approximately nine hundred meters in length, outfitted with standard weapons except for the enhanced Mass Driver underneath which was outfitted to practically turn the surface of a planet into glass in the event that there was an outbreak they couldn't contain. Jack had only seen it once. The Elizabeth only had two hangar bays, one on either side, with Hanger Bay A was used to house small vessels like the Avius and B was used for fighter deployment.

Jack walked into the hanger bay and saw Kyle pulling off a few panels and then pulling out a few wires and examining them, then replacing the ones that were fried. "Hey hon." He said to Kyle as he walked up to him.

"Hey babe, what's going on?" Kyle asked.

"Well, we got a lead on Levin." Jack said, "And a confirmed outbreak on the third moon of Elaria. Captain is going to have the fleet meet us over there." Kyle's ears went back and Jack could tell that Kyle wasn't exactly keen on going into another outbreak situation. First there was Aura Station, and then Ishera incident where they boarded a transport that was suspected of carrying parasite's to a facility, only to find the crew was already being used as incubators for the parasite young. "How is the Avius?" Jack asked.

Kyle gave a half smile and said "Well, couplers will stop burning out and stabilizers are good to go. Anti-Grav is still messing up so you'll be fighting her when it comes to landing."

Jack gave a tch sound and placed his left paw on Kyle's shoulder, the Golden wedding ring shining in the hangar bays lighting. "Well, it's better than nothing. Let's get her fueled up and continue working on her until we're deployed." Jack said and with that, Jack and Kyle returned to work on the Avius.

Location: UGSM Elizabeth's science lab

Terra Brooks watched the video recordings from the transport Ishera's black box. There was still unanswered questions about the parasite. How does the hive mind communicate with the rest of the Infected? Why exactly do they need living Humans to act as incubators for them? What causes the weird mutations within certain hosts? She cursed under her breath and froze the recording of the Captain of the Ishera screaming out in agony as the egg sacks in his chest burst and the larva began to pool out of the open wound. In many ways they functioned like the Aliens from that old Earth movie from several thousand years ago, yet acted entirely different.

"Terra?" Came a soft male voice. Terra turned to see a male Ferret Pelzigan, dressed up in a black T-Shirt, blue jeans, and a white lab coat walking towards her, his ears down in a nervous way. "You've been up for almost twenty-four hours investigating the footage. Perhaps you should go get some sleep."

Terra smiled at the Ferret, his orange and red fur shining in the lighting of the lab. He had always taken good care of his fur and, she had to admit, it made him look handsome. "Well Tyler," She said, "We need to try to figure out how they communicate, figure out more on their behavior, and also just understand them more." She sighed and placed her paws on the desk in front of her, and shook her head. The room itself was a large square box with a few viewports that she could look out of, but other than that it had an assortment of lab equipment. "If only I had access to Henry Levin's research, we could figure out more about these things." She said to Tyler.

Tyler smiled at her and wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. "Hey," He said, "We will figure this thing out together ok?" He nuzzled her forehead and kissed it gently. "We do have some good and or bad news." Terra looked up at Tyler, her eyes narrowed. He grinned at her and placed his paws up in a defensive gesture. "We have a report of a facility that was experimenting with the parasite is experiencing an outbreak. Levin's research is supposedly there as well as our friend Eric. The Captain is going to perform a Jump to Elaria. He already sent the government officials of the planet notice that they should start screening and evacuation protocols. They don't know fully what is going on yet but the Captain gave them what they needed to search for in individuals and they are beginning to load up transports. The Epsilon Indi Seventh Fleet is en route to assist with transportation and defending the planet. As far as they know, the Lothians may have deployed a viral agent and may be on their way to Elaria. At least that's the official story."

Terra scoffed at that, "It's amazing how we've covered up the Aura incident from the public and most of the governing bodies of the colonies, I find it hard that the Elaria Governing Body hasn't asked more questions." she said.

Tyler shrugged, "It's war time, people are scared and so they are turning towards the military to keep peace and protect them." He responded.

"Yeah," She replied, "Up until they finally figure out what we are really fighting against this fleet."

Tyler gave her a half smile and lifted her chin up gently with his right and kissed her on the lips. "Well, when they do we will need all the info we can get on the parasite and reassure the public that we can stop it." He told her.

Terra hoped so, if the public found out about the Parasite right now, with the war with the Lothian's raging on, it could disrupt so many critical things within the UGSM and cause it to collapse. Hell, the UGSM was on the verge of collapsing with the Humans and Pelzigan council fighting continuously on how the war should be fought. The Human Government wanting Super Weapons to be deployed against the Lothians while the Pelzigan Government remained firm on the outlawed use of super weapons. Then again, the Pelzigans had catastrophic events occur shortly after they had developed multiple super weapons against the Draconic Empire and, from what she could get using Overwatch Section 3's access to documents, the Pelzigan Government was keen on keeping those weapons under secrecy. She had thought about it and could somewhat understand the 'out of site, out of mind' the Government was going for however she also knew that Super Weapons would be needed to halt the Lothian's movement's sooner or later.

The hull of the ship began to curve and she closed her eyes, feeling herself being pulled apart as the ship began to enter Jump Sequence. She always hated this feeling, but then felt like she had gotten flung forward and snapped back together and immediately, a large blue green planet appeared in the viewports. "Well," She said as she saw two of it's moon's come into view, "Time to get work."