Arcadia Rising (Incomplete)

Prologue

Prologue

05/22/3032: Arcadia, United Teran Federation

"Order for Frank!" The barista shouted despite the cafe being mostly empty. She slid the coffee gently to the edge of the marble counter with the efficiency of a minimum-wage employee who had done it over a hundred times a day. A man in grey military fatigues stepped up just barely taller than the barista, a barista who could not have been no more than seventeen.

The man's unkempt hair fell into his face and he pushed it back in line with the mix of brown and silver strands. With an itch of his clean and well-kept beard, he reached down to grab his coffee with a large sigh and an uncomfortable twist of his cramped neck. Frank stepped away from the counter gently turning in his combat boots out into the hallway. Taking a sip of his coffee, he continued walking through the hallway grimacing at the taste.

The United Terran Federations coffee has never been very good and he always wondered why he kept ordering it. Accepting the fact that the coffee will never change he pressed a button and the communication center door slid open as he preemptively said "At ease!" Two soldiers stood up from their desks snapping from attention into parade rest. Captain Frank Ward looked at one of the men as he walked towards his desk. The man was barely a man, more so a boy. Nineteen years old, with short military buzzcut hair, glasses that were too large for his face, and not a single speck of hair to be seen on his pale face. "Private Miles, what's the schedule for today?"

Private Miles glanced at the other soldier standing up beside him, similarly dressed minus the glasses the soldier stood over Private Miles, with blonde hair swooped above his head and brown eyes that had the most dumbfounded look. Frank noticed this and with a raise of an eyebrow uttered, "Private Miles I asked you. Not Specialist Davis."

Miles shifted uncomfortably. "Captain...uh" he stuttered. "Well, we have the embassy security checked in already. Their next check-in isn't until 3:00. The radar center check-in is in an hour, and the security posts are scheduled to do check-ins periodically over the next four hours...nothing new Sir." Frank rubbed his forehead squinting his eyes shut from exhaustion and taking a deep sigh, "Ok, thank you. You can sit down. Don't talk to me unless something important happens."

Private Miles nodded, "Yes, sir." Quickly taking his seat and putting his communication headset on.

Sitting down Frank took in the communication room, a room he had been in hundreds of times since the Federation had moved him from Earth to Arcadia. A colony world in the outer region, their first attempt since discovering the technology that could get humanity off of Earth and into space. Leaning back he looked around taking in the humms of the large computer systems monitoring the airwaves. The bland carpet and empty green walls housed the room. While Private Miles and Specialist Davis were regulars genuinely assigned to his unit, a couple of other men would always be here, sent to learn how to do comms work for the military but never truly staying. As he took in the room he could only think about how boring this outpost position has been.

When the United Teran Federation formed he had been serving in the United States military for a couple of years and saw frontline combat. Now he just sits at a desk manning a communications center hoping that everyone meets their check-in so he doesn't have to call the entire chain of command and get everyone up in arms assuming an invasion was happening on Arcadia. He chuckled at the thought, Arcadia? Invaded? It doesn't even make sense to invade such an outer colony unless you just want to make the Federation angry. Continuing to think about how improbable the idea was he leaned back in his chair closing his eyes and slowly began drifting off.

"Captain!"

"Captain Ward!"

"Sir wake up!"

Frank jolted awake straight in his chair sending the chair backwards, the chair landing with a sharp thud causing everyone to jump. "What on earth do you need private?!" he exclaimed upset that he was disturbed from his rest.