Set the Stage

Operation School battles over whether to plug in Alpha-Bias, while senator Boyd deals with his own stresses.

Slosheey and Andrew ran into the school. Nicole, Brutus, Payay, and Alex had stayed behind to continue participating in the battle. The two of them ran into the garage, planning to cut across it and find the Command Center. However inside Mrs. Phillips, Mactavish, and Zatooma were loading up a Phoenix with unknown materials. 
"I still think it's a stupid idea." Mrs. Phillips said.
"Oh what do you know!" Mactavish said throwing another handful of the materials into the Phoenix.
"I know enough to- Andrew!"
Andrew and Slosheey walked up to the two adults. Zatooma came out of the Phoenix and looked at Slosheey. "Slosheey, I see you've made a new friend!"
Slosheey looked over at Andrew, "You could say that yes."
Andrew then spoke up "What’ss the plan you’re talking about?"
Mrs. Phillips answered "Zatooma has taken several of the small crystals that power the lightning guns and made them into powerful Lightning Bombs. Which I find stupid. There is no way that the bombs can generate a big enough explosion to destroy the Special Operations rocket army!"
"It's a damn good plan and you know it!" Mactavish said "And you, Andrew, your lack of a mask might have given away the entire Operation School programs secrecy. The most important thing we told you to do, simply wear a mask, and you couldn't even do that!"
"Sam don't yell at the boy he is 11." She then turned to Andrew "Don't mind him, he is just stressed about this whole thing."
Mactavish then spoke with anger in his voice, he spoke through gritted teeth "During the war I fought tirelessly. I killed people, destroyed villages, and blew up vehicles. But never once have I harmed a child. Now in this past month I have seen children not only die but they are torn to pieces by Aliens, mutated into freaks, burned by flying lightning projectiles, or killed by friendly fire. And all under my command. So excuse me if I f#%$& get pissed off when one of the children, who according to you may be the most talented of them all, refuses to wear his mask and jeopardizes the entire Operation!"
"Sam you-"
"And what have I said about calling me Sam! Sam died in the war-"
"Enough!" Slosheey shouted "This fighting is distracting us from the real goal."
He tossed Mrs. Phillips the storage device containing Alpha-Bias. "Inside that device, is one of them most powerful A.I's in the galaxy, as well as information on him and Kirovium that could be vital to our victory in this battle. Upload it to the schools computers. It will take care of the rest. Mactavish and Zatooma proceed with your original plan, I have a feeling it will work."
Slosheey then turned to Andrew, "Andrew, me and you have a different mission."
"What is it?"
"What is the most powerful city on this planet?"
"I don't know about that but the most powerful one in this country is probably Washington D.C."
"Then that is where we must go."
"Why?"
"If what your Captain, Mactavish is it, says is correct than Operation School, the organization Nicole told me you work for, is in danger. Not physically in this case, but politically. We need to stop them from, if worst comes to worst, shutting it down."

"John you better realize what you’re up against tomorrow."
John Boyd climbed into bed with his wife. He had just gotten a call that because he had originally written the bill for Operation School, he would have to make a press conference revealing how it worked and if the public felt the system should remain intact. "I do. It's going to be tough. All I can hope for is that the public doesn't go on a maniacal anger rampage and try to kill me."
The two sat in silence for a minute than Mrs. Boyd looked at her husband, "John when you first told me about Operation School, you asked me if I would have chosen to be a part of it or not. I told you yes, I gladly, even at a young age, would want to serve for my country. But you never told me what you would have done."
"I believe I would choose to join. But there's that coward inside me, wanting me to back out of everything I do."
"Just a word of advice, don't let that coward come out tomorrow."
Then they heard there door open. In walked there five-year old daughter Natalie. "Mommy, Daddy I can't sleep."
Mrs. Boyd looked at her husband then stood up "I'll do it."
She led Natalie back to her room. Soon she returned to bed.
"John before we go to bed, one last question."
"Yes honey?"
"If it was our kids, would you want them to fight?"
"I... don't... know..." And before Mrs. Boyd could offer a rebottle, John leaned over and shut off the lights.

December 9th, 2006
it was midnight. It was cold. And the battle continued as normal. Operation School had realized that the Patriarchs men were trying to enter the ship and leave, try to fly to a different part of the planet. The ship couldn't make it into space, nor could it really get anywhere since it was unable to jump out of the system. Operation School had decided to try and stop as many of the Patriarchs men from boarding as possible. A maneuver which required them to control the Grav lifts location. 

Alex and Brutus were fending off a large attack force of enemies from behind cover. "Brutus! We need to push them back!" Alex yelled over the roar of gunfire coming from.
"Understood!" Brutus removed a small device from his belt. It had to large spikes protruding from it and a big red button on the side. Brutus pressed the button and threw it. One of the spikes hit an enemy Lackey square in the face. After making contact with the skin the object began to beep faster and faster. Suddenly the two spikes turned red, red hot, and shot off in two different directions hitting several enemies in a row. "Alright!" Alex said, and then Nicole came on over the radio "Not really, we were being overrun! We had to retreat!"
"What?" Alex turned to where Nicole and Payay had been standing and saw a huge invasion force heading towards the grav lift. 
"We have to go!" Alex said.
Unexpectedly, Brutus grabbed Alex and ran with him to safety, protecting the boy that he considered a friend.

After hours of pounding with rockets, a part of the school building was just ready to collapse and the Special Operations were about ready to make their advance into the battlefield. Zatooma flew the Phoenix through the air and towards the Special Operations. "Mactavish, open the back!"
Phoenixes were designed for exit In two ways. The first was the lowering floor which was meant for large scale troop deployment, vehicle deployment, and supply pickup. The second was the back could be opened for quick battle ready deployment but required the unlocking of four locks manually by hand. Mactavish just barely got the last one opened. He watched as the back flapped down and the improvised bombs fell and destroyed the invading Special Operations.

Andrew and Slosheey were just about ready to leave. They had everything packed into the Phoenix and Slosheey was waiting in the c#%$& pit. As Andrew walked towards it he looked up through the open roof of the garage. He saw the ship beginning to pull away and he realized that there was one final act that he had to pull off. "Slosheey, get me up close to the ships engines!"
"What?"
"Andrew grabbed a incendiary grenade from the inside armory that was the Phoenix and then went back outside and held on to an exterior ladder of the Phoenix. Slosheey brought the Phoenix up into the air and rode along the ship. Andrew took his assault rifle and began firing into the ship’s hull, after that failed he cooked a grenade and threw it at the ship. The explosion made a big enough hole for the fire grenade to be thrown through. Andrew tossed it and could see the fire spreading quickly from inside the ship. Andrew then climbed into the Phoenix and flew away from the now burning ship.

Mrs. Phillips returned to the command center. She looked at the main computer and began uploading the files into it. As she waited she watched the battle and smiled as Mactavishs plan was a success. The Patriarchs men were leaving, the Special Operations were beaten for a second time, and Kirovium had been reduced to almost nothing. It was a success. The first real big battle for Operation School was a success.

Then the Files finished uploading. Mrs. Phillips looked up and saw a figure that looked like nothing more than a blue, mechanical, eye. The figure on the screen then spoke in a very calm voice "Hello, I am Alpha-Bias."