Chapter I

January 1st-7:30 am

"Hey Steph! Stephanie!" I heard as I awoke from my deep sleep to see me squadmate Nathan. His brown hair and green eyes looked nice in the light of the military base we were established in.

"Yeah?" I answered in a sleepy voice.

I often slept in the base when there was little going on. Ever since humanity fought off the Hybrids, and the Klaxians returned to their home world of Klax V, things had been quiet for the most part. Other than the occasion insurgency uprising.

However, I knew from the look in Nathan's eyes that something new was going on, the question was...what?

"We're wanted in the briefing room" he replied in a blank tone of voice.

As I got out of the military cot, I brushed my short hair to the side as I did all the time. As I did this, I noticed Nathan giving me a stare with a small smirk on his face, a look he gave me often. I couldn't tell if he was into or what, he was always so off to the side and distant. So I left him that way. I figured if he was into me, he would say it himself.

As we walked into the briefing room together, I noticed the rest of my squad there as well.

There was Trinity, a tall woman, in her mid 20s that was our sniper and 2nd in command. She was always a little to herself and kept quiet about the things that bothered her. The few times she did lead the squad, she would often disobey orders to get the job done. Honestly, she could be a bit a bitch sometimes, but who was I to judge? Her long black bangs that hung from her face completed her bitchey look.

Next to her stood our squad leader, Christopher. He was almost a little short to be a Spec Ops marine. But despite his petite size, he was a capable soldier who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. On a few missions, he even beat a few guys to death. Even though he could beat the living crap out of you, he's a decent guy. He just has that comfortable feeling when your around him. His curly black hair and hazel eyes make him even easier to get along with.

"Hey, what's happening guys?" Chris said as he walked over to the galaxy map and brought it up. The question kind of caught me off guard.

"Nothing much." Nathan replied lightly.

All Trinity did was look at us with the same dull look she always gave us. God was she hard to read.

"Stephanie?" I heard Chris say as his voice interrupted my thoughts toward Trinity.

"Huh? Oh I'm good." I said finally.

"Good to hear. Well, from command, we got a mission earlier that they want done." Chris said.

"And this mission is...?" Trinity said giving Chris a glance.

"Well, a recent mining station has went dark on Venus." Chris replied.

"Well that's...uneventful." Was all I could say.

"It's better than being shot at." Nathan said giving me a nudge. "So, how are we getting there?" He asked, directing his question to Chris.

"Well that's the interesting part," Chis began. "We're going to tag along on the

"Winter Heart" for a couple weeks.

Nathan and I both had the same look of shock on our when we heard this.

"You mean the Winter Rose war frigate?" Trinity said as she glared at Chris from behind her bangs.

"The one being commanded by General Greek?" Nathan said before Chris could answer.

"Yes. THAT Winter Rose." Chris replied. Amused by our reactions.

"When are we heading out?" Was all I wanted to know.

"One hour."Chris said. "So pack what you want and be ready in the hangar."

We all turned and went to our rooms

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Chapter II

January 1st-11:37 am

The 4 hour ride from our base on earth to the Winter Rose in space was horrendously boring. As Chris and Nathan idly chatted about basketball and argued over who was better: Kobe Bryant's son Karim Bryant or LeBron James' son LeBron Jr. was interesting for the first 20 minutes, but quickly became boring after it was clear that neither one of them was going to win the argument. I tried to turn my attention to Trinity who was busy writing in her journal. What was she writing? When I tried to be friendly and ask her, all she did was give me a look that might as well been saying "piss off". When I saw this look, all I did was reply "oh...ok. Sorry". Even though I really wanted to ask her what was her problem. But seeing as I didn't want to start something, I left the subject alone. As I always did with my free time, I decided to lean back in my seat and sleep the rest of the time.

I knew we had landed in the Winter Rose's hangar when I felt our shuttle shake due to the engines being cut off. As I opened my eyes, I noticed the rest of the squad getting their bags am walking out the shuttle onto the hangar of the frigate. As we all got out, a Templar marine approached us. Out of our military training, we all saluted the higher ranked soldier in unity.

"Good soldiers..." He mumbled. "At ease. Welcome to the Winter Rose. Your rooms are the second floor of the bridge. Your mission to the mining colony will be ready later on today." He said as he began to walk away.

"We're going at night?" Chris asked.

"Yeah. There's nothing down there. Just go and restore the power." The Templar replied.

_________

As we all made it to our rooms and unpacked, I decided to do what I do best and take a nap. I was asleep for the rest of the day and was interrupted from my slumber by a knock at my door. As I pushed the button and the door slid open, I was surprised to see Trinity standing there, arms crossed.

"We're heading out. Let's go." Was all she said as she began to walk away.

As I took the long walk to the hangar with Trinity by my side, I tried to think of something to say...something to break the deadly silence. The silence that Trinity LOVED. I opened my mouth to say something once or twice, but all that came out was a yawn. Finally, Trinity spoke:

"If you have something to say, say it." She said bluntly as i felt her looking at me through the side of her bangs.

"Oh...I um..."

"Look Stephanie, there's obviously something you have to say to me, so say it before I change my mind." She interrupted.

As crazy as it sounds, this is actually her way if being nice. So I figured that I'd try my luck while the door was open.

"I didn't really have anything to say or ask Trinity...I just wonder sometimes why you're always to yourself all the time." I said softly. I didn't believe she heard me at first.

Finally, she brushed her bangs down a little bit and spoke:

"I keep to myself because..." She trailed off. Her eyes went to the floor for a few seconds. "Because my problems aren't anyone else's business." She finally said as she regained her strong attitude.

That was the first time I'd ever seen Trinity lower her guard and show the slightest bit of emotion.

"Oh..." Was all I managed to say

The rest of the walk was quiet.

_____

As we finally made it to the hangar, I saw Nathan and Chris waiting, helmets in hand.

"Glad to see you two didn't pull each others hair out" Nathan joked.

I have him a light punch on the armor on his shoulder and told him to shut up. He smirked like a child.

"Humph." Was all that Trinity mumbled as she put her MarkIV commander/Scout helmet on. Followed by Nathan putting his on, then me, then Chris.

We then clambered into our shuttle and prepared to head to the planet below.

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Chapter III

January 1st-7:58 pm

The ride to the Venus surface was short as we landed in the middle of the mining colony.

Something was weird as we stepped onto the think air of the Venus surface. Usually, if a shuttle from earth landed in a colony, everyone would surround it. Not this time. It was not a soul around. We exchanged glances at each other through our helmet visors. Even though we couldn't see each others eyes, we knew what the other one was thinking.

"Well...this is..." Nathan started.

"Unusal?" Trinity finished.

"It is." Chris began. "Steph, get a scanner up."

"Okay." I said as I took out a small portable thermal movement scanner from my belt and places it on the ground. As it opened the small computer came to life on my left wrist.

At first, the only heat signatures where me and my squad. As if that wasn't weird enough. Then, another came up. Almost a mile away.

"I have signature pointing to the east." I pointed out to my squad.

"Shouldn't this place be packed?" Chris said as he gave me a questioning look.

"I dunno. I guess" I said as I shrugged.

"Well, lets go there." Chris said dreading the long walk. "It's in the direction of the power station anyway."

We all prepared for the long walk.

_______

As we finally approached the power station, Trinity noticed something on the door.

"Sir, I think you should check this out." Trinity said as she pointed to several scratch marks on the door.

"What the..." Was all Chris said before Nathan interrupted his next sentence.

"It's probably nothing."

"Yeah. You're right." Chris said.

He opened the door of the power station and we walked inside the dimly lit hallway.

As we continued our search for the central fuse box as well as the mystery heat signature, I heard a small yelp come from my left. I turned to face the sound instinctively with my my hand on my holster that help my desert eagle handgun.

"Help me..." A woman with messy black hair said as she crawled out of a corner and reached out a hand to me.

"Are you okay?" I asked gently.

Chris and the others began to walk toward me and the woman.

"There were....." Was all she said as we all noticed movement behind us.

A huge figure about 8 feet tall leaped out at us. It took a while for me to realize that this "figure" was a hybrid.

However, this was no ordinary hybrid. The armor was damaged and punctured. And the eyes were hollowed out, showing no emotion.

The hybrid leaped past me and grabbed the woman and retreated toward an open door. Startled, I fell back.

Trinity and Nathan had there assault rifles trained in the abomination. But Chris ordered them to stand down due to the fact that they might hit the woman.

"STEPHANIE! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Chris shouted as he aimed at the now empty door.

"...I'm good." I said calmly as I pulled out my handgun.

"You and Nathan go get the hostage! Me and Trinity will search the rest of the station!" Chris continued.

"Right!" Nathan said, clearly disturbed at what just happened.

As Nathan and I rushed into the door, we noticed the woman already dead on the ground. And the monstrous hybrid hovering over her body. We fired off serval rounds and hit the creature a few times.

As the hybrid fell dead on the ground, Nathan and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Just ten, the lights turned on. Trinity and Chris must have found the fuse box.

"What the fuck?!" Nathan shouted.

"I dunno..." I said trying to calm Nathan down.

"Let's just head back to those two." He suggested.

"Good idea..."

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T/C:

So that's the end of the first part of the book. How did you like it? Please comment and maybe vote. Lol. If you don't know what the hybrids or Klaxians are, it's because you've never read my defiance comic. Maybe I should do a book about that? Comment and tell me.

So what's Trinity's problem?

Why does Stephanie sleep so much?

Why are these hybrids back but in an almost zombie like form?( they do talk)

If you tell your friends to read this, I'll update the book some more. I promise the action (as well as the over all story will get better). Just wait til the next part.

-ProCrow