Per 
"Oh, common!" Commander William Kaska yelled as his second in command Jackson Conrad beat him in another round of poker.
"You cheat, I guarantee it," Will said, giving Jackson an evil stare.
"Whatever do you mean sir?" he said, showing a devilish grin.
"Or is it that you suck sir?" Brandon Graham, another member of STRIKE team Golden Falcon, said as he entered the team's barracks with the rest of Golden Falcon.
"That's your superior you're talking to," Jackson said with a grin.
"Sorry, respectfully, you suck sir," Brandon said. The rest of the team chuckled as they spread out across the room to their different bunks.
"Very funny," William said as he put the cards back in their holder, as Jackson was clearing the rest of the table. "Eventually, I will beat him."
"Sure you will," Jackson said with obvious sarcasm.
"Commander?" a voice said at the edge of the doorway. Will turned and saw a man in his older 50's with a patchy grey beard, as well as a man who looked like he was in his early 20's, with neat cut brown hair.
"That's me," William said as he stood up, walking over towards the two men. "And may I ask who you two are?"
"That's classified," the younger man said with a hint of subtle aggression.
"I'm Ghost, and that's Wolf," the older man said, shooting a glance at the younger man.
"And what exactly do you two fine gentlemen want with me?"
"We have a mission that could use your" Ghost paused. "Expertise"
"Okay then, I'll get my team ready."
"Not your team, just you" Wolf cut in. Will turned around and looked at Jackson.
"You have command until I get back," Will said.
"Yes, sir," Jackson said, nodding. Ghost motioned for them to start moving, and the three of them turned and began to walk down the hallway towards the White suit garage.
"So what exactly is the mission?" William said, coming up on Ghost's left side.
"You'll be briefed when we get into the white suits," Ghost said, as he scanned his eye on the retinal scanner.
"Welcome, Commander Nadine" the door in front of them slid open, as Ghost walked through, the door quickly closed behind him.
"Let's just hope he's up for it" Wolf muttered as he moved his eye away from the scanner.
"Welcome, Captain Oswald" He also moved through the door.
"This is going to be fun," Will muttered as he put his eye up to the scanner. The screen blinked a light green.
"Welcome, Commander Kaska," the door slid open, and he took a left and went to the showers. 5 Minutes later, he emerged with freshly cleaned skin and a tight skinsuit. He walked down the corridor and scanned his eye one final time. The screen flashed green, and two large blast doors in front of him opened as he grinned. The white suits always sent shivers down his spine when he saw them. Ghost and Wolf were already closing the chest plates over themselves and locking joints into place. He walked up to his suit and started to do the same. Within two minutes, the rest of the pins began to lock into place, and his helmet was lowered. The scrolling code went down the side of his HUD as he keyed into team comms.
"So, what's the mission?" Will asked the other two members of his new team were already getting their weapons.
"We have the opportunity of a lifetime; we caught Alpha 1 out in the open" Ghost voice crackled through the radio.
"What?" Will said with surprise as he took his first steps after the suit had booted up, not being snapped in half he started to walk towards the weapon table.
"We had an informant inside of the Foundation, and we know how they don't like spies, so they sent the big guns after him. We got a report from the agent and now we have the opportunity to capture one of the council's pets."
"so that's why you wanted me here, my run-ins with them?" Will said, picking up his rifle and loading a magazine in it, pulling the bolt back. He put the pistol in his holster and walked towards the grey-black triangle on one of the walls.
"Password?" a voice from inside of the wall said.
"Excalibur," William said. The wall whirred for a moment, but finally, a slot opened in the wall, and the hilt of a sword came out. He pulled it out of its charging sheath, and after taking a few test swings with it, he slotted it into his sheath. Wolf whistled through the comm.
"Damn, I've heard the rumors about that thing, where can I get me one of those?"
"Not for sale just yet, still a prototype, only one in the world," Will said as he walked up to the rest of the group. Wolf sighed in disappointment as he turned towards Ghost.
"So when does our plane leave?" Will asked
"Plane will be too slow; we are going to be using the faster method."
Will groaned. "You don't mean..?"
"Aporation" Wolf said.
Will shook his head, "Shit."
The sky broke with a cackle, and three white suits tumbled into their new existence. The suits quickly got into formation and started to move in the dark Nebraska sky.
"I don't know how the hell Dagger does this all the time," Will said, pulling up on the left of Ghost. "Feel like I'm going to puke in my damn suit."
"Cut the chatter" Wolf snapped.
"20,000 feet, deploy at 500." Ghost said as they fell into the dark abyss in front of them. Will could start to see the ground through the fog. His HUD was displaying the altitude. 15,000 feet, 10,000 feet, 5,000 feet, 1,000 feet.
As soon as the suits hit 500, all shoots deployed at the same time, and they began their drift to the ground. They all landed with a large thump and instantly went to one knee. One by one, all of them checked in no contacts.
"Alright, let's start moving out. The house that the informant is hiding out in is about two clicks east of us. Cloaks on." Ghost said as they all chinned the button to go invisible. They then started the long trek towards the house.
"So what's the game plan?" Will said, sweeping his rifle left.
"We're going to let them take the informant first; then when they start to move out, Wolf will turn off his cloak and draw their fire. As they are focused on him, you and I move around to their rear and reappear and try to take them by surprise."
"We going capture or kill?" Will said.
"Capture hopefully, but if you have to put one down, do it. We look for the squad leader specifically. Then we bag him."
"And the rest of the squad?" Will asked, looking at Ghost's faceplate. Ghost remained silent for a moment.
"You'll know when you know." Wolf butted in.
"Do we have a problem?" Will asked as he turned to Wolf.
"Cut it out, both of you." Ghost said. "Put your man pants on; we're almost there."
As they crested a small ridge, a dark house came into view. It was falling apart, with multiple boards falling off the front of the house, the porch stairs were missing a few steps, and a few of the windows either didn't have glass or were boarded up. There was no light emanating from the house, except for a small flicker in one of the upstairs rooms.
"Can you see anything from VERITAS?" Ghost asked. Will turned his vision from the normal mode to VERITAS and looked into the house. One grey blip was on the screen.
"Target confirmed in the house." Will chimed.
"Contact," Wolf said as he turned his rifle to the right. Will turned and saw eight signatures moving in formation to the house. He changed back to normal sight and saw that they were in full tactical gear, they moved swiftly towards the house and moved up the porch and stacked up on the door.
"Confirmed Alpha-1 Patch's" Wolf said.
"Got it, Command?" Ghost commed.
"This is command, go ahead."
"Alpha-1 confirmed, mission proceeding as planned."
"Rodger that, continue on the mission."
"Rodger, Ghost out."
The lead Alpha-1 member got a hand signal from the point man, the lead member then looked around, and then quickly swiped his hand downward. With a fluid-like motion, the point man wheeled around and kicked the old door off its hinges and into the dark house. As soon as the point man sidestepped to the left, the next man in line went in, and then the rest of the men did as well. Will turned on his VERITAS vision again and saw the men clearing the house, two waiting at the bottom of the stairs, while the rest of the team starts to clear the bottom floor of the house. As they finished their sweep, they met up with the two men at the base of the stairs. Will glanced up at the target in the upstairs room. He was starting to pace in the room he was situated in. He tried pushing something big over towards the door to barricade himself in. However, by the time he got the large object halfway across the room before an operative kicked down the door. The blips started to move downstairs, and Will turned off his sensor and switched back to normal vision. He saw the Alpha-1 operatives drag the man out of the house, his nose bloody from an apparent rifle butt to the face, his knees dragging on the dirt floor.
"That's our cue boys," Ghost said as he waved his hand. Will started to move with Ghost to the left of the central area where the operatives were, while Wolf began to move towards the right. They jogged to their spots and sat ready to strike.
"Wolf, ready?" Ghost asked, thumbing the rifle off safety.
"Rodger that, let's put em down," Wolf said, a few moments after Wolf had given the go-ahead, a shot rang out and the target that Alpha-1 had been sent to retrieve, was shot through the head. The Alpha-1 dropped to various levels of height as more fire started coming in from their left. All the while Ghost and Will were moving towards the preoccupied operatives. Another Alpha went down due to Wolf's spraying, and the men start to move backward. One of them turned around to begin to move when he ran straight into a white suit and was body-slammed 6 feet across the area.
"Drop them," Ghost said, now decloaking behind them. One of them looked around and tried to get a shot off against the STRIKE team; he was quickly filled with lead by all 3 GOC operatives. The rest of them looked around and slowly lowered their weapons. Ghost started to herd them into a line while Wolf and Will collected all their guns and put them in a pile. As the two started to walk over to Ghost, he had already gotten all remaining 6 Alpha members into a line on the ground.
"So, let's start slow" Ghost's voice boomed from the speaker on his suit. He started to walk up and down the line of men.
"Let's be simple; if you don't tell me who is squad leader here, you will be shot" A shiver went down Will's spine.
"Execute them?" Will said in comms. If Ghost had heard him, he had not paid any attention to him, as he continued to pace. Silence filled the warm summer night as no one started to talk, or even move.
"Nothing, alright. Wolf." Ghost said, and with that Wolf pulled out his pistol from his leg holster and popped a shot off into 1 of the Alphas. His body slumped backward as the blood started to pool. Will couldn't move or say anything; his body was frozen in disbelief.
"What the shit was that?" Will finally said, starting to walk over towards Ghost. As he got closer, Ghost snapped around to Will and got close.
"These orders came directly from high command, so we shut up and execute our orders, understood? Commander?" Will didn't respond and started to look over towards men lined up on their knees. Silence again filled the air.
"Wolf"
Another shot rang out, with another Alpha member falling to the ground dead.
"Fuck" Will muttered. One of the Alpha's operative looked around and finally stood. Their rifles immediately went up to greet the man.
"Okay okay, I'm the squad leader," He said, remaining to keep his hands up. Ghost walked over to him and swept his legs, putting the squad leader on the ground. He put his knee on the man and pulled his hand behind his back. Will sighed, he'd have to remove a lot of this from the report.
"Now, sir?" Wolf said. Will turned his head, his face turning in confusion.
"Now what?" Will chimed in.
"Do it," Ghost said as he stood up, putting his foot on the man's back, the man groaning beneath the weight. Wolf pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the head of one of the Alpha-1 member's heads.
"What in the fuck, Wolf?" Will yelled, he got no response as Wolf popped another shot off. He looked back towards Ghost, a wave of rage running through him. He tried to shove it down, trying to rationalize what his new squad mates had just done; but he couldn't.
"Fuck it," Will muttered. Will turned and started to walk toward Ghost and put his right hand on the hilt of his sword, keying the power switch. In one fluid movement, Will jerked the sword of its sheath and keyed the power switch for a second time while in the air. The outline of the blade lit in a bright purple, the plasma jerking around and then forming into a fine line around the edge as the magnetic containment field stabilized. The sword made its way through the air, and Will pulled it to his side. Ghost, hearing the crack, turned around and looked at Will.
"Why in the he- "before he could finish, the purple blade went through the chest plate of his White Suit, sparks hitting Will's suit. He could hear the man groaning from the pain, Will pulled back and slid the sword out of Ghost's chest. The now limp White Suit fell to the ground in a sprawled-out position. Will looked down at the man, but before he had time to think, a shot bounced off his amour. Will turned around just in time to catch a bullet in the shoulder. Will looked up through the pain and saw Wolf slowly advancing towards him, firing his rifle. Will sprinted towards him, bullets bouncing off his amour.
As he approached, he started a swing towards Wolf, but he ducked under the blade with superhuman speed. A boot found its way to Wills back as was flung several feet. He landed on his face, feeling a crack. He flipped himself over, seeing Wolf running towards him, combat knife in hand. Wolf jumped, holding the knife above his head. Will frantically grabbed the sword, which was lying by his side, and stuck the blade upward. With the loud hissing sound, the blade found its way through Wolf's chest, and he slit halfway down the blade, sparks flying. Will coiled his leg and kicked the now lifeless body off the sword, landing with a thunk a few feet away. Will laid on his back and coughed blood onto his HUD. He stood up, wincing from the pain of a gunshot in his shoulder, and something fractured in his other shoulder. He reached down and grabbed his sword; the plasma burnt the dirt around it to black smoldering remains. He looked to his left and saw the Alpha-1 members holding rifles at him. Will quickly pointed his sword in their direction.
"Stand down!" Will yelled through his speakers. They all took a few steps back, and a few put their fingers on the trigger.
"Lower your weapons" a voice called out from Will's left. He turned his head to see the commander that Ghost had started to cart away, limping towards them. The men in front of him hesitantly lowered their weapons. The commander began to walk over to Will, but he stopped when Will shifted his feet towards him.
"You MTF?" The commander asked. Will snorted,
"God no, STRIKE" The commander's face looked confused.
"Then why'd you kill your buddies?" he said, gesturing to the dead STRIKE members laying on the dirt around them. Will opened his mouth, but no words came out. He had no idea what to say. He killed them, but he was still loyal to the GOC. He'd take them back for questioning. Will shook his head, don't be stupid he thought, they'd execute him, he knew that for sure.
"Shit," he muttered.
"You still in there?" the commander yelled. Will looked up.
"Look. You got a name?" the commander said, annoyance running into his voice. Will sighed and took off his helmet. Surprise ran over the faces of the operatives.
"I'm Commander William Kaska, and I guess I'm defecting."
Will sat in a dimly lit room; his hands cuffed to the table. The room was all black except for a pane of one-way glass on one of the walls. He sighed; at this point, he lost track of time. He imagined he had been in here for at least four hours, though it could've been longer. He tried to look behind him, but the pain of the bullet wound still ached. A doctor on the plane that brought him back here had patched him up, or at least he thought it was a doctor. It could have been a fucking KTE for all he knew, as they threw a fucking bag over his head after he had gotten out of his suit. Just add it to the number of reasons he didn't like the Foundation. A door creaked open behind him, and he strained his neck to see who it was. An African American woman in a grey suit walked in and looked at Will. She seemed about 40 and walked with confidence, but also urgency.
"May I sit?" she said, gesturing towards the chair opposite to him.
"Not like I have much of a say in it," Will said. The woman nodded and walked over and pulled the chair out and sat down.
"So" she started, placing a folder that she had tucked under her arm out onto the table.
"Commander William Kaska, leader of the Global Occult Coalitions strike team, 'Golden Falcon.' Served with the United States Army from 2012 to 2015. Then in 2015, after an incident with an anomaly in the field, you were recruited into PHYSICS, very impressive." The woman said, closing the folder.
Will chuckled and smiled,
"So you know my record, very cool lady." The woman let out a smile, and Will retracted his. A shiver went up to his spine as he looked into her eyes; they were calculated. And cold.
"So, how about a deal commander."
"With the Foundation? No way, the GOC may have done some bad things, but you guys do much, much worse."
"So then do you want us to drop you off back with them then?" She said, locking eyes. Another shiver went up to his spine; he bit his lip as he locked eyes with her.
"What's this deal?" Will said. She let out a smirk.
"How would you like to join the foundation?" Will's face went to complete surprise as the woman continued.
"We've had a problem with the GOC trying to take a certain…" she paused. "Asset of ours. Luckily there it wasn't a strike team that tried the first time, but we fear it maybe next time. We need a team that can defend against that threat." Will laughed a bit.
"So you want one of your Task Forces to go toe to toe with a STRIKE team? Forget it, nothing anyone has can compete with STRIKE."
"Except for you commander" Will opened his mouth to respond but decided against it. He wanted to hear the whole thing before he decided. Will nodded.
"Hopefully, our scientists down in the lab will be able to reverse engineer at least some parts of your suit so we can level the playing field." She paused. "Another question."
"Shoot"
"What do you know about Alpha-9?" Will looked down at the table, thinking back to a rumor he heard from an assessment team member.
"Something having to do with a task force based around a KTE," Will said, as the woman shrugged from across the table.
"Close, it's a task force that's based around one SCP that has agreed to work with us on missions. Which now brings me to my main point. Alpha-12." Will looked puzzled.
"Never heard of it."
"That's good; it isn't even a thing yet. It's a task force that's official goal would be to act as a quick response task force to major breaches of Keter's and LSA's. Along with the task of defending key Foundation assets from STRIKE attack." Will raised his eyebrow.
"And the unofficial goal?"
"It would deploy with Alpha-9 and provide heavy fire support if needed, or if worse came to worse. Make sure a STRIKE team doesn't take away Alpha-9's centerpiece. And I'd like you to lead it."
"Excuse me?"
"I mean it makes sense commander. Who better to counter a STRIKE team than a former STRIKE member? You know how they operate and what protocols they use. We've never had this chance before, and it's not like you can go back." The woman said. Will looked down at the table.
"I can give you some time to think," she said as she stood up, buttoning her suit jacket back up. She started to walk towards the door,
"I'm in," Will said, looked up at her.
"Great to have you onboard, commander, one of the security officers will show you to your room. You will have a temporary guard on you, but once we get this rolling that can be revoked."
"One more question, well two."
"Go for it."
"One, who are you exactly, I never caught your name" She laughed.
"You can call me Ten. And the other?"
"This task force have a name yet?"
"Nothing official, we've thought of a few. STRIKE Begone, Paladins. But I think we have a winner now." Will moved his hand, motioning her to get on with it.
"We stuck with the name, 'Archangels.'"
