The ground shook from the force of the explosions. Such was a common occurrence over the last 40 minutes or so, and the damage across the base was evident. Cracks spread across the walls as Emilia ran away from the flames. The base was under siege, which was quite abnormal. Artillery from rained down on the base and enemy forces began to invade just as the bombardment stopped.

Emilia turned a corner and drew her pistol, peeking quickly and firing at the enemy. She quickly game up on the idea after realizing that her four pursuers all had fully automatic weapons. She quickly continued running, catching up to Michelle at some point.

“These fuckers really got us good. More than half of the vehicle depots have been destroyed. A majority of the personnel can’t even be deployed to fight. We’re fucked, and not even in the good way”. Michelle shouted as she can alongside Emilia. She turned and flung a knife backwards, which struck one of the men following as they turned the corner. He fell to the ground, but they were still outnumbered, and kept running.

Mark’s voice could be heard over the comm-link. “The block to the north of you is completely destroyed. There is a way out if you take the next left, but there are more enemies there. It’s either fight while trapped or fight with ways to escape… maybe”.

“We’re just having a shitty day aren’t we”? Emilia commented as she threw her last grenade behind her. The explosion took out the remaining enemies behind them, and also destroyed the hallway along the path they had just come from.

“Yeah, no shit. Looks like we can only go forward now. We might be safe for a while if we can make it to one of the underground portions of the base” Michelle replied.

“Well no shit! I was hoping one of you smart ones from team Psi would have a plan for stuff like this. You guys didn’t notice”?

“Those bastards call me ‘little brained’ and don’t share info with me. I wasn’t able to counterplan shit! Anyways, you’re from rho. You don’t have some kinda wacky ass invention for stuff like this”?

Emilia groaned. “The lab got destroyed already. The experimental vehicles were all out in hangars and vehicle depots for the most part, and those are destroyed. Anything else is too big to launch on short notice”.

“So we’re both just short of useless…” Michelle muttered. The pair took the next turn as Mark instructed, and as expected, enemies were there, yet not paying attention.

“Well, the digital tech team really do have their eyes on everything around here don’t they? Got a grenade”? Emilia asked Michelle.

“I did, I just threw it…” Michelle replied as the grenade made impact, wiping out the enemies before them. “Let’s get a move on before more show up”. Michelle ran off and Emilia followed. They weaved through burning vehicles and piles of debris, grabbing anything useful they could find from bodies of fallen enemies and allies.

“We need to get underground. There should be an entrance around building 2” Michelle turned north and pointed in the direction of one of the lesser damaged structures. Seconds later, it was hit by a shell of some sort, and large explosion occurred. They turned away from the blast as the shockwave assaulted them. They turned around moments later to see a pile of blazing rubble where a building once stood. “Well shit…” Michelle muttered and turned to look for another way underground.

“We have a problem…”Emilia pulled Michelle’s sleeve and pointed. Michelle’s gaze followed the finger. A tank of unknown origin was slowly turning its gun at them. Someone peeked their head out from the top and readied the machine gun mounted atop the tank.

“Aww fuck…” Michelle could do little more than give such a reply. Time slowed as they both watched the tank, knowing that there last moments were at hand. They stood there, waiting for the inevitable shots that would end their lives, yet all they heard was another explosion.

The pair opened their eyes and looked in shock as the tank was now a pile of scrap metal. “What the fuck did that”? Emilia gasped.

“You ladies are lucky I showed up, but I’m blaming you if I get in trouble. I’m not supposed to use these on base…”

They glanced at the man who spoke off to the side. “Who the fuck are you”? Michelle growled with knives drawn.

“Name’s Jesse, Jesse Owens. That’s not much of a way to greet someone who just saved your lives”.

“You’re from team omega aren’t you? You can actually blow up stuff like that so easily? What the actual fuck”?! Emilia shouted.

“Well, you two cuties were in trouble, I had to do something awesome… I mean, drastic”.

“Anyways, thanks… Jesse. I’m Michelle, and this is… wait… who the fuck are you”?

“We can handle introductions later, like when we’re hidden or something. The name’s Emilia. Now lets get the fuck outta here”!

Mark’s voice came over the comm-link again “The base is about 60% infiltrated and/or destroyed on all above ground sections. The three of you who I’m picking up in the courtyard, head southeast 200 meters. There’s a way underground from there”.

“Thanks anonymous voice, but unless we do something about the guys above ground, I think we’re all pretty much fucked” Jesse replied to the voice.

“My name is Mark, not anonymous. You do have a point. Defenses don’t look like they’ll hold out for long”

“Fuck this”! Emilia ran and ducked behind a pile of debris. She activated her comm-link. “You guys have no sense of urgency do you. We’re in the middle of a battle field and you’re here chatting”!

“Mark’s the one probably underground right now. He’s only watching through screens and monitors I’m sure” Michelle replied.

“We can all worry about that later. I can take out a few of the larger enemy units, but there’s still too much for me to handle, and a lot of the rest of my squad is either dead or underground, and they ain’t coming back out” Jesse informed them.

“Well, we got lots of debris, and I’m assuming you have some type of heavy explosive. Think you can make giant shrapnel bombs out of this stuff”? Michelle gave a semi reasonable suggestion as she followed Emilia behind the debris.

“Oh, the little cute one gas a good idea” Jesse said with a laugh as he ducked behind the pile as well.

“If you hadn’t just saved me, I’d have killed you right there for calling me little” Michelle spoke as she glared at him.

Emilia jumped between them “Whoa, we have enough problems without us trying to kill each other. Let’s focus people”!

“Fine. Anyways, I’m pretty sure pieces of tank that get sent flying could be dangerous, but that’s all I got” Michelle conceded.

“Since you guys forgot to turn off the comm-links, I heard all that. Building structures are mostly compromised, Enemies are kinda everywhere. I can manually take over what’s left of the defense system to try and cover you. Make you choices quick” Mark informed them,

“Oh, I can work with this. Mark, do you have any idea where the demolition nodes are on the base? I think I can use those along with my equipment to…” Jesse spoke.

“That’s fucking crazy, you’ll risk killing every ally above ground”! Emilia screamed.

“And if he doesn’t, everyone who managed to make it to safety would probably die…” Michelle replied solemnly.

“This is some shit that team Lambda would do! It’s insane, risky, and completely dangerous”! Emilia shouted.

“Oh, c’mon, team lambda doesn’t even exist. That’s just a silly rumor about the one unused letter in this agency” Michelle laughed.

Mark interrupted “I got points on all the destruction nodes for the base. I hope you’re not planning on using all of them…”

“Nah, I wanna live too ya know” Jesse replied. “You point us in the right direction and cover us. I’ll handle the rest”.

“Roger that. Start by heading east to what’s left of building 8”. Mark gave instructions and used what was left of the base defense system to do his best at covering their movements. Occasionally, enemies would just drop dead as they approached. They trio glanced back to see a tall dark man waving at them from atop a large pile of rubble. A voice followed moments later over the comm-link. “I’m Javon. I heard what you guys got planned. I’ll tag along and cover you too”.

[Present]

“So, you guys argued when you met each other, in the thick of battle, while your lives were at stake” Allison questioned.

“Yeah, pretty much” Javon replied. “It’s always been a thing, even before we knew each other. The different departments often had disagreements. Most just usually didn’t result in fire fights”.

“I see…” Allison nodded in understanding. “So, about the rest of the story”

“Well, I’ll take over from here” Jesse said as he turned towards Allison.

[Back to about 2 and a half years ago]

The party of four continued and reached their first objective. After dealing with the few scattered enemies inside, the group set their own explosive charges around the base’s own and moved on.

They ran into 2 more people fighting it out with a group of invaders when they reached the next building. The combat ended quickly when the pair received the reinforcements of four more people, and the pair, who identified themselves as Jessica and David, joined their ranks.

After 30 more minutes of random combat, setting explosive charges, and arguing with each other, they deemed that their mission was complete.

“Ok, I’m activating the timer for detonation” Jesse warned. “We’ve got 3 minutes to get off base or underground”.

“The closes entry is about 2 and a half minutes away. You guys don’t have long” Mark notified them over the comm-link.

The party of six made their way through the ruins of a building, and finally stumbled upon a heavy door in the floor, their passage to safety. Jesse and David lifted the heavy latch and sent Michelle and Jessica down. Emilia was about to head down when gunfire broke out extremely close by.

An unknown agency member was in combat with the enemy. Emilia rushed over to help, completely forgetting about the time limit they were under. Her aid was to no avail as the ally died just as she arrived.

“Emilia, we gotta move now”! Javon shouted as he jumped onto the ladder and started climbing down. David followed, leaving Jesse and Emilia. Jesse grabbed Emilia and pulled her back to the hatch. Emilia flung off his hand as they arrived as explosions could be heard spreading across the base. She quickly kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down the hatch as the explosions reached her.

As Jesse fell, he could see and feel the heat of flames burning above ground as well as Emilia’s figure disappearing in them. As soon as he landed. He forced himself to stand and quickly climbed the ladder back up to the raging inferno. He reached the top and saw Emilia, somehow still alive and in 1 piece. She was partially shielded by the heavy latched door. He grabbed her and pulled her inside, sending Javon up to close the hatch afterwards.

Emilia’s badly burned arms and legs were a horrible sight, but she paid them no heed as she spoke to Jesse while he carried her to the infirmary on his back. Her weak voice trembled slightly “I can hear anything. The blast must’ve busted my eardrums. I can feel anything either… I’m blaming you for this…” she said with a weak laugh.

Amidst the stares of those who made it underground safely, Jesse walked on, carrying Emilia, while being escorted by Michelle, David, Jessica, and Javon. The looks on the faces of those individuals left no room for questions, comments or thoughts. Aside from Emilia and Jesse, the glares that the rest gave spoke “those who question shall be killed”.

As Jesse arrived at the infirmary, the shock across the faces of the medical teams was apparent. Jesse laid Emilia down on a bed and let the medical teams get to work. Before Emilia lost consciousness, he heard her mutter the words “You’re responsible for whatever injuries I have. It’ll be your job to take care of it”.

The last thing Emilia saw before passing out was Jesse nodding as she read his lips saying “yes”.

~~~

Emilia woke up nine days later. She tried to get up but couldn’t lift body. Her arms and legs wouldn’t respond to her will. Her first thoughts and words as she confirmed her surroundings were “I’m not paralyzed right”?

She turned to her left to see Jesse and Michelle sitting beside the bed. They both had bags under their eyes as if they had not been sleeping properly.

“Looks like she’s come to” Michelle spoke. “In regards to your question, no, you aren’t paralyzed, technically. However…”

“Jesse, whatever happened to me, I’m totally blaming you… I’ll shoot you if it’s bad…”! Emilia shouted.

Jesse glanced for a moment, then turned his head away, as if he couldn’t stand to look.

“What? Don’t look away from me when I’m threatening you”! Emilia roared.

Michelle lightly shook her head “Hun… about that…”

Emilia froze “I heard about you. The girl who never treats anyone with a shred of decency… and you just called me ‘hun’. I don’t like where this is going. I’m not gonna die am I”?

“No, that danger is past, but your future is still quite uncertain in many ways” Michelle replied.

“What do you mean”?

Michelle sighed and kicked Jesse’s shin. “She said you’re responsible. You show her”.

Jesse nodded and moved to the bed. He nervously picked up Emilia then moved over to a mirror in the room. They were both in completely visible in the full body sized mirror. Emilia turned her head to look.

She remained speechless at the sight. Jesse was holding not a full person, but a person containing all off the essential sections. That is to say, she had no legs below the knees, half of a left arm, and no right arm at all. What remained of her appendages were all heavily wrapped in slightly bloody bandages.

Jesse set her back down on the bed as she began to cry. With that, he took his leave of the room.

Michelle spoke before Emilia had a chance to collect any thoughts. “He’s probably going back to the remnants of team upsilon. He, Mark, and I are all working on a project. We hope to do something about…” She could not bring herself to finish speaking. Moments later, she too broke down in tears, crying over Emilia’s bed. Jesse could hear their sobbing as he walked down the hallway. As if their tears were the trigger, he too began to cry as he headed towards team Pi’s current base of operations.

It was there that he met Mark, who he’d become accustomed to seeing over the past few days. Mark turned around from his desk and greeted him with a solemn expression.

“Why are you giving me that look? I didn’t even tell you that she woke up yet…” Jesse sighed.

“You didn’t have to. The traces of tears on your face tell a not so pleasant story. I can also check her vital signs from here. I knew she woke up before you did most likely. Either way, things like this will take time to comprehend. She may hate you…” Mark replied.

“it wouldn’t be right if she felt anything other than hatred towards me…”

“Maybe. She had to have some kind of positive feeling to have saved you in the first place. In any case, I’m sorry, but I have some not so good news, I’ve already talked to Aaron and set up the team channel”.

Jesse tilted his head. “Who the hell is Aaron, and what are you talking about”?

“Well, it’ll be easier to let you read this yourself”. Mark stepped aside and pointed at his monitor. Jesse gazed at the message which arrived about 2 hours prior. It read:

[To: Jesse Owens, Emilia Jenovall, Jessica Long, Mark Stonewall, David Henderson, Aaron Dixon, Javon Harris, and Michelle Mason.

Subject: Reassignment

Body:
In light of the events of 10 days ago, discussion was started on how to best deal with the incidents. The 7 individuals listed in the subject line displayed skills and abilities above and beyond what was expected or called for. Their actions exemplified what it meant to be members of the agency, and therefore, should be awarded with the ‘golden crest’ award.

However, the actions of those same individuals endangered many lives, and while managing to repel the attack, cost numerous casualties on our side as well as destroyed the entirety of the base above ground. This grotesque act of friendly fire would ordinarily be punished by execution.

In light of the exemplary actions displayed, the punishment and rewards shall be forgone and replaced with a reassignment for all of the above listed parties.

As of this moment, each of you receiving this notice are hereby reassigned from your current respective squadrons to the newly formed “Squad Lambda”.

~Management

P.S.: We are fully aware of the jokes and rumors associated with that letter which was previously unassigned. Have fun dealing with that you surprisingly competent idiots.