S1, 01 Character Intro - Dargon Leary (February 4, 2014)

A massive Galactic Imperium arms shipment had been rerouted, thanks to the efforts of an undercover Aurelian squad. In the process, the team had lost two of its members; the third was in hiding, and had managed to transmit his general location before severing all contact, lest any communication be traced. But although the squad was effectively dead, they had at least achieved half their goal: though the weapons were never transferred to the Aurelian military, Earth, capital planet of the Galactic Imperium, was short 60% on armament. For the first time, it was open to invasion. If Aurelia would initiate a full-scale assault, Earth could be taken. The Imperium would fall soon after.

So what happened? A second three-man team was sent in to pull out the one missing member of the previous squad.

It was, Lieutenant Dargon Leary reflected, one of the dumbest decisions his superiors had made. If Earth was taken, there would be no need to pull out the missing squad leader. By sending in yet another squad, Aurelia risked losing even more men. But Dargon had prepared. On a whim (and against his explicit orders), he had had his third member, his explosives expert, break away from the squad. Should anything happen, he was their backup. Dargon and his second, Jodo Cowler, were going in.

The two of Squad 7 crossed the street, heading towards the building on the other side.

Jodo flipped on his luminescent red holomap and studied it.

"The entrance his here," he said. "Dead ahead, on the ground."

As Jodo leaned down to inspect the small handle, Dargon whipped his head around, hearing footsteps. A citizen of the Galactic Imperium walked by. He ignored the two. Dargon berated himself for being so tense and jittery. If an agent of the GI were to walk past, a quick, nervous glance would send up a red flag immediately.

Jodo heaved. With a rasping groan, the metal and concrete panel slid over the sidewalk.

Instantly, a cloud of chemical fumes wafted up, caused Dargon to step back hastily. He strapped on a breathe filter, looked behind him one last time, and began his descent.

.

The underground was almost too dark to see in, with his current main source of light coming from the streetlight on the sidewalk above. Dargon squinted.

There was tunnel of some sort ahead, and from the other side came a loud gurgling noise. Broken pipes. Toxic waste. No wonder those fumes had been so strong.

As Dargon came to the end of the tunnel, he realized this was a much more dangerous place than he'd thought; there were but two pipes still operational, and they were hanging far too low. All others were bent and broken, rusted over and caked with the chemicals that had once run through them. A deep red fluid dripped out of one. Dargon's eyes began to sting.

Crawling to avoid the broken pipes, Dargon soon pinpointed the source of the bubbling, gurgling noise. From out of a nozzle spewed a viscous, poison-green liquid. A small pool was already on the floor, seeping across the panels and sizzling as it went. This place was nasty, and possibly explosive.

Standing up, Dargon drew in a thankful breath of filtered air and called out,"L 362 of D2-S7 to L 295 of D2-S4!" That meant absolutely nothing to anyone but an Aurelian officer.

A minute passed in silence, but for the bubbling of the green goo.

Dargon was about to call again or proceed further into this repulsive subterranean complex when there was a small noise to his right. The muzzle of a four-barreled blaster was suddenly pressed against the side of his head. Dargon's helmet was blast-resistant, but not at point blank range and certainly not to *that* weapon. So he stood stock still.

An electronically distorted voice spoke a single word. "Acknowledged."

The gun was still pointed at his head. The other spoke again. "Dargon Leary, commander of Squad 7?"

"Yes," Leary said.

The blaster lowered and the voice distortion lessened a little, but still not to a recognizable point. "Lieutenant McAvry, Squad 4. Why have you been sent?"

"We're the extraction team, Lieutenant. We are to pull you out."

"I know that. I want to know why an extraction team was sent at all. Earth is short more than half its weapons supply. If Aurelia had attacked, there'd be no need--"

"I know," Dargon interrupted. "I wondered too. But orders are orders, and we've at least found you without incident."

McAvry shook his head. "No. I don't think you have."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that confirms my suspicions: there's an agent of the GI in the Aurelian ranks. It's why my team was killed. It's why the arms never reached Aurelia. You wait, Command's excuse for not seizing this opportunity will be the risk of attacking; without those arms, success of the invasion is not guaranteed."

As this sank in, Dargon remembered how fast the orders had come to send a rescue team in. It had been just hours after the report came in of Squad 4's incapacitation. Could it have been prepared beforehand?

"We have to go, then, now!"

"You go," McAvry said. "Scan the area. If it's safe, you come back down and signal me. But I'm the only one who knows the stolen arms' whereabouts, and I can't tell you lest you're captured and interrogated. I know these tunnels well; I've been hiding in them for weeks. Should anything happen, I know how to disappear."

Dargon nodded. "Right."

He turned and hurried off down the tunnel, worried about what might be happening above.

Dargon climbed out of the hole, noting as he did that things were as silent as when he'd arrived.

He stood up and looked around...and that's when the blinding floodlight came on.

At once, a full team of galactic Imperium soldiers and police materialized. Guns were leveled at Dargon and red lights flashed.

A little ways off, Jodo Cowler was kneeling against a wall, hands against his head. An Imperium soldier had him at gunpoint.

The Commander had his visor up. "Galactic Imperium," he announced in clear, cold tones. "You're under arrest."

As he and Jodo were lead away, electro-cuffs on, Dargon glanced behind him. he received a prod with a blaster for his insolence, but not before he'd glimpsed several pf the Imperium military entering the trapdoor that led to Lieutenant McAvry. Aurelia's one chance to deal a crippling blow to the Imperium may have just imploded.

### FOURTH WALL:

So there we are! My intro has finally been uploaded. I wasn't quite in the mood to write, so the story and the way it was written may not be as interesting as my previous ones, but I do hope it got across. :P

I apologize for the quality of some of the photos. My makeshift studio consisted of three boxes, several sheets of paper, two lamps (one yellowsish and one white-blue) and a few flashlights. It worked out pretty well for the most part, but some of the photos are a trifle grainy. You'll notice I didn't say I had a red light. I had to improvise to get that red police-light effect at the end. I ended up using my mom's red backpack; I unzipped it and covered one of my lamps with the flap; the effect was a red filter. :P

And now....

    The cast! Left to right: Alien Citizen, Police, GI Military, Jodo Cowler, Dargon Leary, and Lieutenant McAvry.

    Dargon Leary, my character, gets a picture of his own.

    ...as do the Imperium soldiers. Just because I love the shot. It looks like a promotional image of the military. :P

    The last-minute police vehicle. I quite like how it turned out, despite being a little simple.

    Rear view.

    That curvature!

    The whole build.

    Yes, the two levels split (although having a ceiling on the lower one is preferable lighting-wise). The underground level is intentionally messy on top and the outside.

    The top level. Not much here that you can't already see. A scuffed road, a sidewalk, a streetlight and the semi-greebled section of some building.

    The streetlight. Yes, those are the helmets of Ogel's drones. I know, I love it too. :P

    The underground's secret entrance. Pretty basic, but I really like how it blends in. The handle looks like a protruding part of the building (on purpose).

    The underground.

    The pipes were the first part I envisioned and so the first part assembled. I really like how they came out, especially the bent ones below.

    Said bent pipes. Like my use of the pistol pieces? The barrel end with that annoying little knob fits perfectly into a technic rod hole!

    The greebled floor. To the right you can see some red liquid dripping out of a pipe (made with a red tooth/spike/horn piece).

    The greebled wall. This was the most annoying and complicated part of the entire build. All the SNOT and such...

    And of course, the "viscous goo" pouring out of a nozzle! I love the effect. :P

    The corridor.

    Yup, the back and side sections can be removed for viewing and photography purposes. :P

And there you have it. Please rate and comment; feedback of any kind is appreciated!