The Lord Marshal had pursued the group for years, with countless lost battles and even more dead ends. He finally had the last few members of the group cornered in a small village named Lowell on planet Earth. Nowhere to go; no possibility of escape this time. This would be the win that Lord Marshal had needed for so long. This would be it.
As Lord Marshal's team arrived in the village, they were all ready to kick some ass and take that long needed vacation, which their superiors had postponed again and again due to the previous failed missions. This time it would be different. Planet Earth was classified as a level 1 planet, and there were no chance for Dodger and what was left of her group to get any help here on Earth; this would be a sure win for Lord Marshal.
The village streets were empty; and not the usual kind of empty as with the other level 1 planets, but utterly and completely empty. No sign of life at all. This was the clear sign of a trap, which instantly made Lord Marshal order his main forces back, and send out his scouts instead - Leni, Alenix, and Tetra.
Scouring neighborhood after neighborhood, the scouts kept reporting the same thing back - no sign of life, no sign of defences, and no sign of anywhere being anything but truly abandoned. People simply weren't there. Lord Marshal knew this could be nothing but a trick from Dodger's group, but he didn't know what or how. The group had only arrived on this prival planet a mere hour before Lord Marshal's undefeatable team, so how had the group managed to get the native population out of the way? Could the native population somehow have had the technology to be warned in advance? Could this whole big blue planet be one big trap? What was going on?
As the single sun, Sol, of planet Earth was setting, Lord Marshal sent out the signal to call the scouts back in order to reevalute the plan with the newly found knowledge of Earth and the village Lowell. Tetra was the first to get back, after having checking out the area to the North. She was the only one of the three scouts who had been able to keep in contact with the ship the whole time. After waiting for another hour without any other scouts returning, the consul, along with Lord Marshal and Tetra, gathered to evaluate the day's endeavours and then discuss the new plan of attack, with Tetra as the new Earth expert. After the consul decided that the day's mission should be reported back as a success, despite objections from Lord Marshal and Tetra on the mission still being ongoing, it was time to decide on the plan going forward. Without any initial discussion, the elders suggested that simply bombing the area of Lowell using the sponsored drones and then sending in sponsored scout robots to check if there were any survivors would be the prefered plan. Lord Marshal pointed out that this plan would require months, if not years, of scanning and analysing the area afterwards, and would potentially let the criminal group travel freely in the galaxy due to them being presumed dead, without any real confirmation.
As the discussion on how to fulfill the mission goals kept going, Leni had returned, after her scouring the West and South areas of the village. As Leni wasn't present at the beginning of the meeting, she didn't have a say in the decision process, but still she was able to give her input for the council, the Lord Marshal, and the local experts - in this case only Tetra - to take into account. Leni explained that it was her verdict that the native population had evacuated the area mere hours before Lord Marshal's team got there - and that, more importantly, they had left even before Dodger's group got there. The council didn't like what Leni was insinuating and Leni was asked to leave without giving her final report statement.
The debate kept going, with the council strongly insisting that the proposed solution from the sponsors was the best viable option, while Lord Marshal kept insisting on calling in ground reinforcements and launching an extensive ground sweep. As no obvious resolution was at hand, the moderator, Reid, who happened to be Lord Marshal's spouse, called for a vote. A vote involving a foreign planet had been called while on that planet itself, which incidentally opened up for a special clause in the law, that would allow the experts of the planet to single handedly decide on what to do. As Leni wasn't allowed to be included as anything but as a Wiki, Tetra took it upon herself to overrule both Lord Marshal and the council. The new plan was simple: stay put and scout the area - wait for the enemy to make their move. There were nothing neither Lord Marshal nor the council could do - this was now the plan they had to follow.
The council and Lord Marshal weren't pleased with Tetra’s decision, to say the least, but this was now the plan going forward, until leaving this forsaken planet. As a few of the elder council members tried to find causes for immediate evacuation, Lord Marshal kept straight, as always, and led according to the new plan. Since Leni and Tetra had returned, but not Alenix, it was decided (as instructed per the law) to have two younger, lighter soldiers promoted to scouts and sent out East, with Leni following suit after getting some rest, despite Leni wanting to head out right away. As Tetra had overruled the decision for the forward plan, Tetra was no longer allowed to act as an individual until the plan had either succeeded or failed, which forced Tetra to stay in the council chambers for the remaining of their time on Earth.
Reulek and Dirk, the two new scouts who just happened to be identical twins, were heading East throughout the night. They didn’t hear a single sound in the night, a phenomenon far less common here on Earth than on GY49 where the twins grew up. The night had only begun before it was over. Contrary to the other scouts, the twins knew nothing about the planet Earth, and were frankly kind of useless and helpless. This was the last time anyone from Lord Marshal’s ship would ever hear from them.
Leni was ready to travel faster than ever before. Sol had barely shown its first light before Leni as on her way. Alenix was out there - no reason to wait.
For for the first time in her short life, Leni had a mission she believed in - finding Alenix.
Leni had known Alenix for her whole life, and she was more than simply a fellow scout to her. Leni, Alenix, and Tetra had become a family. They were one. And no one of them would let anything bad happen to any of the others. This mission was about Leni’s family - and not some imaginary foreign evil force. Leni would bring back her fellow scout, her friend, her family member.
As the day went on, Leni kept traveling East without knowing whether she had passed the place where Alenix got stopped by some unknown force. She kept going without any hint of trace to indicate that she was on the right track. Alenix was too good - no one could track her; not even Leni. Then, all of a sudden, there is was - a small misplaced leaf, and another one mere meters away. This was it - I found her, and whomever took her.
Leni called in the discovery, as she was supposed to, and then continued on her quest to find Alenix, despite the lower-level commands to stay put. No reason to attempt to pretend to be disinvolved - Leni was fully involved in this - whatever this this was.
Leni kept going out and then back again. Except for the two broken branches, there were not a single trace of anyone here. This was not right; no one should be able to hide this well - no one. Electricity scanners say null; magnetic scanners say null; every single fucking scanner says null. Something is not right here - it is like there is no one else out here.
It is only Leni now - no one else is active at this hour. It is quiet in the forest. Everyone else has decided that their sleep is more important than finding Alenix. I really don’t care about the cooperation as long as Alenix and Tetra are safe. We are one and we will survive. Please, let Alenix live… please.
[...]