On the next day, Seth found himself moving some mechanical parts with Kong and a member of the training group, Sergent Charles Doyler. Sergent Charles Doyler was cheerful man of medium build. He was a head taller than Seth. He didn’t look strong, but he could follow along Captain Steward’s training regime without rest. Seth had spoken to him a few times when training with the group. His position was a senior mechanic and could usually be found in one the hangars. On this day, Jacks had assigned the Seth to help Sergent Doyler with moving vehicle parts

“Thanks for the help,” Sgt Doyler said. “There was a sudden rush order for maintenance, and I didn’t want to make more than one trip in transporting the parts.”

“Sure, happy to help,” Seth answered. “ Do you know why they sudden rush order?”

“Who can say? It happens time to time. Sometimes there are sudden need to fix up the transport for immediate sortie. Sometimes they need me to do a quick inspection on the vehicle and make fixes for quick in and out at the base. There’s not enough mechanics around here so I have to be the one who does most of the fixing.”

“What was the most difficult order you had to take?” Seth asked out of curiosity.

“Hmmmm..let me think about that. The toughest job I had was when they had me fix up a twelve year old armored transport. Let me tell you that was a wreck on wheels. Took me a good couple of weeks to get it to proper working condition. And then as soon I sign off that job was finish, it was taken out for a test drive and destroyed almost immediately.”

“...How did that even happen?”

“Can’t really blame them. Blame the Federation base here. Our budget isn’t the largest and we have to make do with what we have. They do that a lot here. Acquire old military vehicles and have me fix them up. It’s cheaper than buying the latest modelss. It was just bad luck that they needed wheels at that time and the one I fixed up was the only one available.”

“Who’s ‘they’?”

“Jackson’s old squad.”

“...Wait a minute, what do you mean by Jackson’s old squad? How come I never heard of them till now?”

“They’re out on a mission right now. Trust me, you’ll know if they’re back. They can be quite... loud. Jack’s probably the only one who can control them.”

“How come’s he not part of the squad anymore? Did he get kicked out?”

“No, nothing like that. He got promoted and now he is mostly stuck at base. They might be what you call “problem children” of the squad. They usually leave behind a lot of destruction when they finish a mission. When Jacks was still on it, there was at least some damage control. Now that he off it, there’s really no one controlling them.”

“They can’t be that bad....can they?” Seth asked.

“They're both famous and infamous at the same time. Famous being one of the best squads around. Infamous for the damage they leave behind. They’re part of the reason why the budget is so tight. Part of it goes into damage reparations. If I were to give an example, there was the one time they were assigned to escort a VIP. By the time the mission was done, they had knocked down several buildings. That was the last time they were assigned as escort. Now the squad is assigned missions beyond the walls such as rift closure or beast extermination. ”

When Dolyer mentioned rifts, Seth knew that instant that Jack’s old squad were serious business. Only the best were allowed to handle rift closure. Rifts appear when dimensional space weakens and opening forms due to the weakening. Rifts can be as small as an nail or become large enough to cover a city block. They can last for a few a seconds to a few days. No one has been able to figure out the reason rifts appear, only that violent and unidentified creatures can break through them and they needed to be put down. The Federation always sent troops to close the rifts because when left unattended, it can cause severe damage to the ecosystem or become a huge threat that can wipe out cities. Whenever a rift appears, the Federation would send troops to closely monitor it.

Beast were the animals that naturally lived on earth. However evolution, whether it was natural or it was energy from the rifts, caused the animals to evolve into deadly creatures that could pose a threat to humanity if left unchecked. Therefore, beast extermination was a necessity, if only to keep the population of dangerous animals down. The only problem was that there was always another dangerous animal being discovered everyday and that no matter how many species were exterminated, the population would always bounce right back. Sometimes the new creature that appears would be worse than what was originally there.

“...I’m kind of afraid to meet them now.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. They’re not bad people. It’s just that they have the tendency to overdo it is what I'm saying.”

At this point, the group had reached the hanger. Military transport of different types were all parked in orderly fashion. One particular vehicle stood out. It was covered in dust with various part dented in. Several gashes could be seen all over the transport. This was the first time Seth had seen a vehicle in such horrid condition.

“Speak of the devil. They’re back. That explains all the parts.” Doyler said.

“Who’s back and what happened to this car for it to end up like this?”

“Oh, I guess it is because I'm use to it to seeing their transport in this state whenever they return. Jack's old squad. They're back.”