Michael walked down the gunmetal corridor of the Intrepid, the clanging of his black combat boots echoing along with Kat's as she kept pace at his shoulder. The girls had long since decided what he wore each day and had designed him a special uniform to unveil at the ruins of the White House earlier. With the new recruits coming onboard and him needing to act in a professional capacity, it would become his standard daywear.
It was a black military outfit similar to what the other crew wore, but with some obvious differences. It had a knee-length overcoat with silver trimmings on the chest, sleeve cuffs, and raised collar. The jacket had a half mantle hanging over the left shoulder emblazoned with a silver eagle, wings splayed wide, grasping the world in an outstretched talon, and on the right shoulder there was a silver spiked epaulet.
The top half was buttoned and the bottom half retracted to only show the tails of his coat, leaving his legs free. There was even a silver chain for him to attach his katana. The boots were also only worn by those on the Intrepid in the infantry, who were in black fatigues.
Turning a corner, he thought back to how his day had unfolded.
* * * * *
The Intrepid hovered over what remained of the White House. President Whitmore and his staff had been rescued from the underground bunker and were standing on the lawn. Those members chosen to sit on the Council of Terra were arriving from around the world. Once everyone had assembled, Michael, Kat, Takeshi, and a six man security team led by Marcus went down to join the party.
There were loads of photos taken and speeches made. There was a contrast between the ruins, representing the devastation and loss of life the aliens had caused, and the Intrepid, representing humanities strength and future. Michael thought the 100 Furies flying overhead had been a nice touch...
Afterwards, his group, the council members, and their aides, all boarded shuttles and went up to the Intrepid. There, in his main conference room, they hammered out a constitution and defined the duties and powers of the council. It was decided that the flag for the Council of Terra would portray the same olive wreath depicted on the UN flag. In between the two branches would lie the globe and underneath the symbol the ruins of the White House would be displayed. When they'd finished they broke for lunch and then Michael left the room while they had their first meeting.
Coming back into the room, Michael was amused that their first resolution was for him to hand over all of his technology and capabilities, including the Intrepid and Pandora. They didn't seem to like it when he explained that the constitution they'd just signed defined him and all those under him as a completely separate entity and didn't abide by their rulings.
He'd help them along, of course; provide them with the language of the invaders that Pandora had deciphered so they could properly interrogate the prisoners and take apart their craft; give them the moon base he was building, once he'd extracted the necessary ore to build a space dock; he would do what he could to protect the planet from invasion using all of his resources and actively participate in its defense.
However, he wasn't just going to turn over all of his work. With the captured ships the council would have access to the alien's energy system, along with weapons and shields, and even their faster-than-light travel. What they did from there was on them. Michael and Pandora, as well as the scientists and engineers that had chosen to join them, would develop their own technologies and if, at a later date, they wished to share them they would. But Michael was not going to simply roll over and be a pawn for a government that wouldn't even exist if not for him.
Oh, they argued, they threatened, they accused him of a lack of patriotism, but in the end, there wasn't much they could do about it. So, they left, except for President- now Councilman Whitmore and Councilman Matsushita who stayed to visit their daughters and Michael ordered the Intrepid to the moon to oversee the construction bots while he and Aurora planned a route to take the ship for recruitment drives. On the moon there remained twelve of the invader's vessels of four different classes.
Pandora had access to their medical scans so they knew the physiologies of the aliens and what chemicals knocked them out. It was then a simple process to construct a hose which Pandora allowed to access each of the ship's air supply and pump in the agent. She was even able to disable their rebreather masks. Then, using armored suits that had their own air supply, they entered each ship and, guided by Pandora, found the highest ranking members of the crew, restrained them, put the masks on them, took some of their food stores, and brought them to the brig.
* * * * *
Michael and Kat reached the sectioned off portion of the brig. Michael had designed the holding cells with the idea that they would need a different mix of air for each species they interacted with and had them completely isolated. It was thus easy to modify the air to suit their needs. Though, he was curious why an alien race that used considerably less hydrogen to breathe would attack Earth.
Looking at the metal viewing screen that showed the 33 occupants inside the cell, he studied them. Without the gray plastoid armor, the beings were a gruesome sight. Yellowish brown bipedal creatures covered in wrinkles and bumps. They had four eyes that seemed to wrap around their head and a gaping maw.
Noticing the deference shown to one of them by the others, Michael pointed and said, "That one." One of Pandora's guard bots entered the cell from a side door. It was a 12ft tall block of ionized metal on treads with four arms and a fork that shot electricity. Grabbing the alien easily, despite the other occupants trying to intervene, it backed out of the room shooting a bolt of electricity behind it so the door could close again. Michael and Kat entered another door and found themselves on the opposite side of a window to the prisoner, still held tightly by the bot.
Michael asked questions and Pandora translated. He seemed stunned they knew his language. It was a 'he,' Pandora assured him. Unfortunately, he didn't have a much to say. Oh, a few well-placed shocks kept him talking and with Pandora accessing the history files on their ships, Michael was able to piece together who they were and what had happened. The alien however, didn't seem to understand why he 'shouldn't' have attack Earth.