Chapter 1: Consequences

"Sir, we need oxygen." Sipes managed to sputter out.

"Coming to you!" Tee barely crawled from the floor before he was kicked back down onto the cold ice.

Dan 'Wolf' Lyall was lying on his back, staring emptily at the gigantic planet that was Jupiter, and Jupiter was staring right back at him. He tried to get up from the cracked, breaking ice from under him, but he simply could not. His lungs were burning, and he soon realised that his helmet was leaking oxygen. He quickly placed his hand over the cracked glass of his helmet, in a vain attempt to try and save his oxygen supply. Dan felt as if the oxygen were being tore right out from his lungs, and those organs felt like they had been set alight more and more as oxygen continued to leave him.

He looked around for his rifle, but he could not find it. If he had, he would have tried to take out as many of the SDF troops as he could. They were beating on his men, on Sipes and Tee. He was an officer, his job was to take care of his men, and he could not do that whilst he was groaning and moaning in pain on the floor. He tried to reach for his side-arm, patting down on his thigh as he tried to feel the cold metal of the gun. As soon as he felt the Titan's, he tore the gun out of it's holster, taking aim.

Click, click, click.

His gun was empty. Dan would have tried for his knife, if it weren't buried in one of the countless militants that had tried to cave his head in. He dropped the gun on to the ice, and one of the soldiers that stood above him kicked the gun away and picked Dan up from the floor.

The soldiers were all part of the SDF, or the Settlement Defence Front. They were all men or women of Mars, seceded from the iron grip of the United Nations Space Alliance. The man holding Dan was wearing a bulky set of armour, coloured in red and black paint, whilst being coated in every insulating material he could think of.

There was a loud crack that had erupted from the sky, and Dan just caught the bright light as the lightning made contact to the floor. As soon as he had noticed the lightning, a few feet away was a monstrous site.

The grey Titan's monstrosity hovered in the turbulent sky, lightning striking all around the massive aircraft as it hovered above Europa's surface. It was the largest ship that Dan Lyall had seen in his life, and it seemed that Sipes and Tee were of the same opinion as they glared angrily at the sight. The man that held Dan up seemed to smile with a grin of sadistic mirth.

"You like that, huh? That's the Olympus Mons, our own secret weapon..." The soldier had said.

"Don't talk to me, bastard." Dan tried to shoot back, and was thrown back down to the ice.

Dan tried to groan, but he realised that he couldn't even do that. He was completely silent as Sipes and Tee looked on in horror as Dan began to suffocate.

"Get him up." Somebody ordered, and the soldier that had threw him down and had suddenly picked him up again. "Get the man some air."

Dan looked up from the floor, and looked at whoever had decided to save his life.

The man wore the same uniform as his other soldiers, yet the way he walked echoed a sense of superiority and sovereignty. His face was not covered by a helmet, instead Dan could clearly see his face. He was young to be an officer, but he seemed to be more hardened and stone-faced than his men. One of the men handed him a cannister, and the younger man attached to Dan's helmet, allowing him to breathe freely once more.

As the man knelt down to Dan's level, and Dan finally got a good look at the man. As the snow began to catch around the man's helmet, Dan could see the stormy grey eyes and the massive scar that ran over the man's face. His jet black hair managed to barely fit in the mask, but it seemed to give the man no problem as he stared emptily into Dan's very soul.

"Where are the rest of your men? How many did you come with?" He asked.

Dan sighed. "We're it..." He had no chance of fighting back, and if he refused to speak, they'd kill him and his men.

The man nodded, his eyes closed before they refocused on Dan. "What about the ship we shot down?"

Dan had to sigh again, and he knew that the young officer had caught him out on his lie. It hadn't been Dan's best lie, but he knew it was better than nothing. He had usually been a better liar, but that was when he had been telling his mother that he hadn't been climbing in and out of girls' bedroom windows when he was a stupid teenager. No, now he was a soldier, and he could not lie to save his own life, or his fellow soldiers' lives.

His final method was to plead with the young officer. "Please, my men need medical. We'll do anything, no, I'll do anything. Just help them..."

The officer seemed to soften as Dan begged and pleaded with him to save the men just away from him. He seemed to reach a conclusion quickly. "You care for your men?" He asked.

Dan nodded, with a glum look on his face. As soon as he had responded, another trooper had marched over to the young officer and knelt beside him.

"Admiral Kotch, the data is retrieved. Operation: RIAH is now ready to begin."

The officer now known as Admiral Kotch nodded, and then stood up, letting Dan hold onto the cannister of oxygen as he stood. Kotch drew his pistol, and aimed it at Sipes and Tee as they lied on the cold ice, beaten and wounded. He raised his arm, and his pistol, and he was now aiming at one of his own troops.

For a second, the soldier was shocked, but the look of shock was soon replaced with an empty stare as Admiral Kotch shot him square in the chest. The man collapsed to the floor, and none of his comrades tried to help him as he began to lose his blood and oxygen. The trooper soon fell to the floor, dead.

Kotch holstered his pistol, and glared at Dan. "Care clouds judgement." He stated, before kneeling back down before Dan.

"That is why you cannot win." Kotch turned, and admired the gargantuan planet that was Jupiter.

"This place, it isn't yours any more."

As Kotch finished, he tore the cannister of oxygen from Dan's helmet. The oxygen display on Dan's helmet almost immediately dropped to zero, and he fell to the floor, grasping and clawing at his throat as his lungs began to burn viscously. He watched as the soldiers began to leave, replaced with emotionless robots as they stomped over to the dying soldiers on the ice.

"Kill them." Kotch ordered. "Don't waste the bullets."

The robots holstered their weapons, and almost immediately one of the bots raised it's leg and dropped it on Sipes' head, and grey matter and blood then splattered across the ice. The robot then did the same to Tee, although he tried to fight back. The robots then turned their attention to Lyall. He could not get up, he tried and tried but it did not matter. The robots held him down and flattened his skull before walking back onto the ship they had arrived on.

X-X-X

Commander Sebastian Lyall had boarded himself up in his office, just a few steps away from the bridge of his ship. The super-carrier class ship UNSA Titan had docked in Liverpool for it's usual review from Rear Admiral Mikhailovich, and Sebastian had to be the one to defend himself from the extremely cruel nitpicking of Mikhailovich.

The Titan was usually never recalled in for more than twice a year. It was busy patrolling the solar system on a yearly course, making sure there were going to be no surprise attacks from the Settlement Defence Front and to make sure they stuck to Mars and stayed there.

It was not just the Titan that patrolled the solar system. Always trailing behind the super-carrier was the Titan's Shield, a collection of frigates and destroyers that would travel down to a planet or moon if there was a problem. They were a classified operation, only known to the very crew that lived aboard the ships, the men and women who repaired it on Earth, Rear Admiral Mikhailovich and the very leader of the Navy, Admiral Raines.

"Do you believe that the Titan and the crew is diverse, with all members of the crew bringing aspects from their own walks of life?" Mikhailovich said, reading from his clipboard.

"Respectfully, Rear Admiral, diversity has no place aboard my ship. It doesn't matter to me if someone is white, black, Asian or bloody Irish. If they're signed on to join my crew, my fleet, then I don't care. I want them to do their job, and not get us all killed. I say that respectfully, sir."

Admiral Mikhailovich nodded and grunted as he wrote down a few notes. He then took one last look at the rest of the answers that Sebastian had given. Mikhailovich then stood up and in return, Sebastian stood to attention and saluted the Rear Admiral before the older man left the office, and then left the ship.

Sebastian let out a loud sigh, and unlocked the office door, so any of his crew could fill him on anything that was happening. He soon took off the overly-tight service uniform and let himself breathe freely in the black tank top and the cargo pants that he wore. He entered the bathroom that was connected to his office and looked at himself in the mirror.

He kept his hair longer, and it had been a long time since he had last had it cut, since it was long enough that it was now in a small pony tail that refused to wave around in the wind. The sides of his hair were short, and he had a slight beard beginning to grow.

He was the complete opposite to his brother, Daniel. Whilst Daniel Lyall was short and almost a bodybuilder, Sebastian Lyall was lanky, and had the same amount of muscle as a Russian gymnast. Daniel had signed up to become a trooper, and Sebastian had signed on to become a commissioned officer. Daniel Lyall was a rule-breaker, but Sebastian Lyall was a rule-maker.

Sebastian had not heard from Daniel for a while. When Sebastian had been made Commander of the Titan and the Titan's Shield, he had been told expressly by Admiral Raines that contact with uninformed members of the navy would result in a dishonourable discharge. He had been happy when Dan had been made a Petty Officer in the acclaimed SCAR teams. He had asked special permission to be there for his older brother.

Admiral Raines had allowed it, and in a few days before the ceremony. It was one of the best moments in Dan's life, and one of the very few times that Sebastian had seen Dan since they had joined the UNSA. The cold Titan's walls had became Sebastian's closest friends, they were where he felt the safest. Sebastian and his crew make sure the Titan doesn't crash and burn, and the Titan in turn keeps them safe in the cold and harsh atmosphere of space.

Sebastian heard a faint ringing sound from his office, and it would be coming from a communication directly from Admiral Raines, he was the only person that could call. He left the bathroom and quickly answered the call, and stood in front of the camera screen that would project his immediate area to Admiral Raines. The black screen in front of him was replaced with the leader of the Navy.

"Commander Lyall."

"Admiral Raines. I have a feeling this isn't a social call."

"As much as I wish it was, I wouldn't have time to make a call, it would be a very long call. Mikhailovich has just mailed me his review of the Titan and the Shield. It seems I still have a reason to give the security council to keep the fleet going for another year." Raines managed to let out a sigh of relief.

"With all due respect, if we didn't have a fleet week we would not have to worry about my ships patrolling the system. We also would not have to worry about the SDF trying to ambush us at every corner, Admiral."

"I didn't call you to dictate about a god damn Fleet Week parade. I've got some bad news, son." Raines announced, immediately silencing Sebastian's arguments against Fleet Week.

"SDF moving again?" Sebastian asked.

"No. We had a SCAR team on Europa to try and recover a special weapon and data that was under attack by SDF. The SDF managed to retrieve the data and destroy the weapon. The SCAR team never made it back. We suffered some casualties. Your brother..."

Sebastian had stopped listening as soon as Raines had mentioned his brother. He could hear Raines trying to explain the whole situation, but he did not want to hear it. His brother looked after him when he was younger. Whenever Sebastian had gotten into a fight, Dan had always pulled him out of it and solved it himself, taking the punishment for whatever Sebastian had gone and done.

Now he was dead.

"Admiral Raines, how many men were in on that operation?" Sebastian asked.

Admiral Raines had sighed. "Three, plus one pilot."

"So the head of the SCAR division thought it was smart to send a three man team into try and fight back against a full raiding party of SDF bastards, on an operation that required at least five squads plus support to try and recover a weapon that is now destroyed and data that has now been stolen."

"Believe me, the head of SCAR is being grilled about why he sent such a small team on such a large op." Raines tried to interrupt.

"Well, doing that isn't going to bring my brother back, is it? Who were the two men that were with him?" Sebastian shot back.

Raines groaned once more, as he was being grilled by the younger Lyall. "James Tee and Adam Sipes."

"The head of SCAR is not only responsible for the death of my brother, but for the death of two other SCAR operatives. Three names you are gonna have to add to the wall in Geneva." Sebastian managed to growl.

Sebastian had to try and hold himself back from turning off the screen. He wanted the man taken to the courts and ruined for murder of four lives. Yet he knew Raines would never go that far, but if he didn't, Sebastian knew that his parents would damn well try. The dog tags that hung around his neck began to jingle as Sebastian prowled around his office. He wanted to rage, he wanted to throw his desk through the window, although if he did that, he would be in the same position as his brother.

Dead.

"Commander, that is not it." Raines began again.

"What else, Raines?"

"The security council has been consulting about the classified status of your fleet. They have voted to reveal the knowledge of the fleet to Earth, Commander Lyall."

Sebastian kicked his desk. "Admiral, you told me if anyone ever found out about the Titan, the SDF would latch onto the info immediately and respond accordingly. When they find out that we have a super-carrier class ship and a fleet that patrols the system, how do you think they'll react?!"

"I know that, son. I tried to tell them, that when SDF finds out, they will threaten us, and when they threaten us, they always follow through. It's a mistake, and my own views are lined indelibly with your own. Take a different tact." Raines replied, without emotion.

"Admiral, we've had this drilled in our heads. The men and women of my crew are of the same mind, and I'm sure the men and women of the Shield are of the same mind too. Every man and woman in the UNSA would agree that a mistake is a hole in the head. Every marine, naval officer, pilot, SCAR operative and robot would agree that a mistake is a hole in the head. How can this happen?!"

"Because the politicians will throw anything and anyone into the fires to keep their smokestacks burning. Until we have utter confirmation that we are at war with the Settlement Defence Front, the warriors, you and I and every other soldier is not in charge. Sadly, today is not this day. Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir." Sebastian replied.

"Now, I'm giving full clearance for the Shield ships to go into drop. I don't want them at the Fleet Week parade, Commander. I've already had the Security Council on my ass to show as many ships at the parade as we can. We have the Second and Fourth Fleet on the parade, but the other fifteen are in the other colonies outside the Solar System. I want you to send the Shield outside the Solar System, everything except the Titan. Now, ready the Titan and get your ass to Geneva and let's show the Earth what the Titan can do."

"Yes, sir. Over and out."

"Over and out."

Raines cut the call first, and left Sebastian standing around in his office, in relative silence. He mourned for his lost brother, and he was going to kill the bastard who had killed him. Sebastian wasn't religious by any stretch, but he definitely subscribed to the idea of 'an eye for an eye'.

Sebastian took the bottle of whiskey and took a large swig of it, sitting in his office until his ship was cleared for flight.

X-X-X

This shall be the first chapter of a story for Infinite Warfare. Even though it was completely ignored by most people, I really liked it, and I thought alongside my other fics, I do this for funsies whenever I get the time.

Anyway, the updates to my stories now will either be for this one or for my Harry Potter fic, and I definitely would not mind if all of you reading this would favourite, follow and review.

For me? Pretty please?

~The Real Italian Stallion~