UCC Barracks Sector, Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 14:22:03
Michael's eyes rapidly open up, he nervously sits upright from his bed. As he looks to his right he sees the sunlight shine into the bright room. He was sleeping on the lower mattress of a two-story bunk bed with a large chest next to it, wherein which Michael put away his Mikundrian Trooper Armor. He stands from the bed and notices he is alone in the room wearing his black fiber overalls, a low but constant hum vibrates throughout the room due to the amount of activity outside. He stretches his back and looks at both of his hands, though not as damaged as his dream, they are still pretty beat up due to last night's events. After this he walks towards a door next to the bunk bed he slept in, Michael opens the door, leading to a clean, light olive-colored bathroom with a large horizontal mirror. As he walks inside he closes the door behind him, the sounds of water hitting the ground emerge shortly after.
Several minutes pass and the water stops running, shortly after the door reopens. Michael walks out wearing his black fiber suit and an olive towel over his head for drying his hair. He approaches the large chest and removes the towel from his head. As he opens the chest, he begins to take out his armor, piece by piece.
He begins with the helmet, undoubtedly one of the most advanced pieces of technology systems they have developed.
The Mikundrian Trooper helmet comes in various models and designs, these models are designed to provide a tactical class-based advantage for the user, highlighting certain elements or environmental aspects that could provide an edge on the battlefield. However, one of the most important additions to the MT helmet and armor was the implementation of the TDA, allowing Troopers to catalog enemies and create data entries with the strengths and weaknesses of any encountered foe. This also applies to a scavenged or unknown technology.
He takes a good look at his helmet, remembering the first time he saw it.
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TRIALS Sector 4, Suburban Simulation.
10/Korona/2456. 8:22:50
A young Michael wearing light padded armor over regular clothing and no real headgear of any sort, dolphin dives into a small gray room without any consideration of hurting himself. He smashes against the concrete floor, and an explosion unleashes deadly flames that rush through the hallway behind him.
Combatants can be heard Shouting from outside; "That ought'a taught them a lesson!"
One says. While the other, taking the matter more seriously, replies with a more tactical point of view: "Let's confirm our kills.".
Upon hearing this, Michael quickly stands up and takes cover behind the nearby wall.
He wields a short, lever-action, vertical double-barreled shotgun. This compact prototype is a relic of the past, lost to the Trials.
Michael reaches into a small leather bag he carries on his left side and pulls out three buckshot shells. His hands shakingly insert the shells into the bottom of the Shotgun. The weapon can hold a maximum of four shells, meaning Michael already has one round inside ready to shoot. Flames begin to slowly take over the insides of the hallway and cinders dwindle to the ground.
"Should be in one of these rooms, the whole place got burnt." A male voice echoed from the hallway and into the gray room.
"Go, I'll keep watch on the door."
One of the Combatants tells the other as one of them goes to recover the "Kill Chip" found on every Combatant's non-dominant wrist.
This system was used as a kill confirmation, or death validation, as soon as your Chip is removed from your wrist-jack, you are marked as dead.
Footsteps commence their approach towards the hallway, checking through every doorway.
Michael aims the shotgun directly at the open door to his left, preparing his index finger to pull the trigger.
The footsteps get closer, heavy boots thumping on concrete alert Michael that the enemy is right next to him beyond the wall. In a decisive moment, Michael brings the shotgun to his waist and blasts a hole through the plywood wall, the chunks distract the enemy but does not hurt him.
Quickly, Michael pushes the Shotgun's lever forward, reloads the one expended shot, as he pulls back on the lever to chamber in the next round, the hostile opens automatic fire through the plywood in an attempt to eradicate the threat.
"They are alive! I repeat, contact is alive!"
The desperate male combatant yells as he fills the wall with bullet holes.
On the end of the hallway, a taller combatant, wearing dark clothes and a covered face is on standby, but it seems to be the time for him to intervene.
As he stands up from his kneeled position and lightly jogs to the hallway, the other combatant continues to fire through the wall. From inside, young Michael hugs a concrete section beside the large hole left behind by the shotgun blast, clutching his reloaded-shotgun, Michael awaits for the most opportune moment. The combatant mistakenly continued his unwarranted blind fire and his automatic weapon loudly clicks as a sign of depletion of ammunition.
He quickly looks down at the modified submachine gun and ejects the magazine, as he does this, the other tall partner arrives. As soon as he is about to aim back up towards the wall, Michael quickly peeks through the hole and shoots a devastating shotgun blast that completely obliterates the first combatant's lower face, the body slumps backward. The remaining combatant's eyes grow wide in shock, seeing blood spewing out of the man's ruptured mouth as he slowly slides off to the ground. Regardless of the sight he quickly attempts to get into a defensive position. Aiming down his HAR TS1. This rifle was known as "Trial Standard", the first iteration of the Heavy Assault Rifle line that is fully adopted and used in the present time by all of the Centralian Military branches.
From inside the gray room, light pierces through the multiple bullet holes. Michael, in a crouched position, pays close attention to the light rays, if one gets interrupted, the enemy is on the move.
Minutes of silence pass and they hold their defensive stances. Until the enemy combatant speaks. "You know you're not leaving alive, right?" he tells Michael to impose fear and doubt into his mind.
"You're all alone, and I have my team coming anytime soon."
He continues, to no result, as Michael instead of falling into his mind games, begins to search for an alternate way out of the room.
"You have nowhere to go!" he yells through the hallway, as he reaches into his tactical bag with his right hand in the search for a piece of throwable special equipment, he feels an octagonal tube and grabs onto it.
Here Michael notices that there are some bent metal windows on the opposite end of the room from the door. He quickly aims down the shotgun and presses on a button on the top of the receiver that opens both barrels at the same time, delivering a double shot. Though a short charging time is required, it is only a second and a half of waiting time. As he unleashes the double shot against the weak metal, it bends like clay as the buckshot melt through and blasts open the window frame.
Upon hearing this massive discharge, the combatant feels that he must act quickly!
So without hesitation, he runs to the hole in the wall, crossing through the rays of light and throwing the octagonal flash grenade into the room. Michael quickly sprints into the window frame and jumps out of the room and into an alley on the side of the house, the explosion deafens Michael as it is barely six feet away from him, but he successfully covered his eyes from the blinding flash. He quickly pushes and pulls the lever on his shotgun, but he begins to activate the charged shot once more. After this he sprints to the main entrance of the same house he just exited in an attempt to take the enemy from behind. Michael's survival instincts activate with great intensity as he gains incredible speeds, running toward the hallway.
The fire is slowly put out to embers, and the atmosphere goes from warm yellow, to cold gray, the change is noticeable to the combatant.
As Michael's footsteps become obvious to the hostile Combatant, it was too late.
Michael makes his way across the hallway and yells as he drives the shotgun close to the Combatant's right ribs before he could move away, Michael pulls the trigger, unleashing the last two buckshot blast within the man's torso. He expressed a sharp loud scream before splitting in half and falling to the ground.
Michael pushes the lever and drops the shotgun away from him and kneels next to the dead Combatants.
He puts his hands against his eyes and sobs.
His eyes turn red as tears drop from them, unbeknownst to him, the breaking point was all too close.
Years of non-stop training, undercover operations, and assassinations of multiple individuals from multiple factions.
He was promised a squadron, but every person he has encountered so far is out to get him. Two beeps emit from both of the males left wrists devices as they open and expose the Kill Chip, their color was a dark brown with a yellow stripe across the middle. Around the same time Michael notices them, a high pitched hum commences making its way through the sky above.
Michael gathers his composure and cleans his eyes, he reaches for his shotgun and loads in his three remaining shells before extracting the KillChips off the defeated Combatants. As he approaches he notices the duo have killed a couple of Combatants each, light blue and red on one, orange and red on the other. These are not to be tampered with, so Michael ignores them and extracts both of the Brown/yellow striped KillChips. With his right hand, he puts them near his left wrist, causing the mounted device to open up. Revealing the color of Michael's own Chip to be dark blue with a cyan stripe. Besides this, the amount of KillChips Michael has is also revealed, showing various colors and in some cases, repeated colors like the ones that are being inserted now.
The high pitched hum gets louder and louder, Combatants from all around notice the noise, until it crashes through the wooden roof of the house Michael is in and the sound is no more. A metal equipment drop pod crashes into the cement floor right in front of the hallway.
Michael walks towards the pod and it reacts to his proximity pushing outwards and opening in half, revealing hardened graphene-polymer body armor, and to crown it off, the "INCEPTION Type I" helmet. It is the first thing Michael reaches for, the sounds of gunshots and explosions can be heard all around the house. The moment Michael grabs onto the helmet, all his past altercations felt rewarded. "This is what I'm working towards." He told himself.
The sounds of war behind him, turn into muffled noises as he comes to this realization. He holds the helmet in the same position he does in the present, causing the flashback to fade away into a memory.
UCC Barracks Sector, Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 15:10:03
Now in the present.
The same beaten but fully functional helmet takes its place between his hands. The contrast is evident to Michael, regardless, he puts the helmet aside and begins to suit up.
He tightly straps on his metal greaves and notices that they are no longer level with each other, due to the amount of pressure and heat they endured on the highway.
Michael continues to armor up with his torso piece, his left pectoral plate was bent badly along with his almost non-existent left shoulder armor. This is the worst state any of Michael's Armor sets has ever been. As for his hands and gloves, they maintained their armor and appearance standard on the outside, but within the palm section, the damage is visible all the way through the full black fiber suit.
He walks to the opposite side of the room, where a shiny gray wall stands with no decorations and nothing leaning against it.
Michael approaches the right end of the wall, to a large green button.
He hits the button with his open right hand, causing the button to change its color to orange. The smooth reflective wall begins to slide into the ceiling, revealing two pairs of display cylinders, showing off Michael's past body armor iterations and modifications.
The first displays a bare minimum armor configuration, similar to the one collected from the airdrop in the flashback.
The second was the first of the MT armor systems to attempt to suit the Trooper with bulky metallic armor, this was the lesser used of the variants, causing Troopers to feel as if they were being held back by the weight. Which brings us to the third display, the third generation of Mikundrian Trooper armor offered a sleek, elegant take on Mikundrian Troopers, seeing them as shadow ops assassins instead of frontline tanks. This armor model introduced what became the staple Barrier technology.
The fourth cylinder lies empty, as Michael still bears the MT Gen.4 armor, this armor is arguably the best one ever designed by Apex Armaments, as the barrier system utilizes a capacitor to store unused energy from engagements to generate new particles for future use.
He sees himself inside every armor generation.
"What a life to remember..." Michael thinks to himself. As he walks back to his helmet and puts it on, its systems come online.
The orange heads up display inside the helmet shine on Michael's eyes while he looks around.
Not even a minute with the helmet on and he gets an incoming communication from Jacklyn. He enters the channel, noticing all three able Sigma Squad members inside.
"Michael, welcome back!"
Jacklyn sporadically says.
Michael walks toward the orange button and pushes it, returning it to its green-colored state. The wall closes back into place, hiding away the old armors.
"Needed the rest, where are you guys?"
Michael jokingly remarks and asks the Squad for their location.
"Vera and I are on our way to Ino, we got a bunch of Marines to ferry up to our complex, Dovyo is really moving things around and the war has officially begun. "
Jacklyn lets Michael know that they have been ordered to populate the Sigma/Lambda Barracks Complex for any future defense.
"As for me, I am on my way to check on Ankiros, Michael if you want to come over, I might get a better chance at explaining my discovery."
Jade adds and suggests as last time, Michael was busy carrying the Militant prisoner across the Base.
Michael thinks about it, as he opens the door out of his room and leaves with his black satchel around his torso. The change from a brightly lit room to a dark yellow hallway is noticeable from within Michael's helmet, but he continues to walk toward the staircase at the end of the hallway.
"I'll go, I didn't pay much attention to what you told me earlier, what does it have to do with all this?"
Michael affirms and asks Jade over the importance of the discovery, making his way down the stairs.
12: "It is directly correlated to everything that is happening, why would Militants go through so much trouble to hide the contents of this datapad?"
51: "And it contains the coords to a location, you said?"
12: "Something like that, looks like the coordinates where the data was last copied into a separate memory drive and said information is being broadcasted directly upwards."
51: "Into space?"
12: "Sounds weird, I know, which is why I want to go and investigate this, I'm not sure how'd it go with Dovyo, so if you could ask and maybe get us permission to enter the No Man's Land..."
51: "Hmm, I might be able to convince him, since I'm going to East Hollow later today."
12: "East Hollow, by yourself?"
51: "No, Phaeton is going to transport the Prisoner into Omega's interrogation Facilities."
12: "Well, I'm already at the Medical Wing, we'll continue our talk here, out."
Jade says as she leaves the private channel.
On the other hand, Michael finally leaves the tall building where his room is located in and walks towards the Medical Wing.
The bright blue sun shines on the huge semicircular dome structure, reflecting its great light throughout the Command Center.
Michael takes a look around, seeing plenty of movement and many Marines still without a shred of worry on their minds. As Michael continues to walk, he sees some other lone Troopers walking around, doing their own separate tasks. To be a Trooper is to give up every aspect of the average life you have unnoticingly grown into, social aspects, such as work, politics, love, friendship, hate, morals, ethics, all of the above and beyond.
It is to live a secret life, bound by repetitive assignments, constant loneliness, and unimaginable stress. Many Troopers that do find a way to see the good in the world, continue to fight their personal demons in the name of keeping the fragile society they cannot imagine even experiencing.
It is more than to wear a suit every day, or to exercise power upon those deemed a threat.
Mikundria is the earliest historic Civilization to ever exist on planet Galen-3.
The cradle of life, located on modern-day Mika, marked the first strides of Galean evolution toward a complex entity. They composed ancient stories of the mighty Mikundrians that protected their territory against the beasts of the untamed planet, eventually overcoming and becoming the dominant life form on Galen-3. However, as history is written the Mikundrian people were eventually exiled out of the mainland, pushed into the desert, and coastal mangroves. Various Tribes colonized the land that is now known as Iridian Crescent. The mainlanders embraced the name Mika for its capital, and as for the people living in it, a mixture of a Feudal and Caste system was swiftly implemented by a self-proclaimed King. This is the birth of the Royal Mikan Empire, along with it a reset to the year count, hence the R.S. next to the year, an acronym to Royal Supremacy. During the civil war, Mikundrians fought for their land and were used as an inspiration for the Troopers.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
History was one of the subjects Troopers had to become familiar with if they wanted to understand more of their past and reasons for existing.
Michael takes a deep breath as honor imbues him. Unlike the majority of MT's, Michael did learn about as much history as he could in the months prior to the Trials.
After a nice twenty minute walk, he arrives at the L shaped building Ankiros is being treated in, the hot sun beaming on his armor as he makes his way to the front door.
UCC NE Medical Wing, Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 15:33:21
Ankiros still lies on his treatment bed, next to all the medical equipment used to monitor and maintain him.
Sitting on top of Cargo Boxes, Jade continues to fiddle around with the Datapad.
Footsteps draw her attention as she tilts her helmet upwards, the opened door reflects on her blue visor. After a couple more footsteps are heard before it is seen on her visor that it is Michael that enters through the opened door.
Before he speaks to Jade he walks over to his Squad Leader, Ankiros.
Seeing him in this state saddens Michael.
But it also gives him a reason to put an end to the slowly escalating Militant threat.
"So they have weaponized a new substance, one that can destroy us from inside with a good enough shot by the looks of it."
Michael says, in regards to the amount of damage done to Ankiros's body.
"Yeah, I wonder if our Barriers would help anymore."
Jade says, doubting the effectiveness of current generation armor.
Michael shifts his attention towards her and she continues.
12: "Hey, I know this may seem like a lot to ask, but Omega's base isn't that far off from the No Man's Land, of you get permission, we can make it in a couple of hours if Phaeton would gladly do the honor and fly us there."
51: "Jade I'm not trying to be rude but we went from breaking an armistice to full-fledged war with the Republic, even if I get us permission to enter the No Man's Land, there's no guarantee Phaeton or Omega will lend us a hand, but I will give it a shot."
12: "I'll be going with you, to give us more legitimacy."
51: "That'll be a stretch, ever since you've been working that Datapad, Dovyo has you glued onto it, he won't risk losing it, or you."
Jade stands from the boxes and walks closer to Michael.
She proceeds to show him the satellite image of a structure seemingly buried by the sand, but with a noticeable antenna.
She turns her head toward Michael and says:
"This is the objective."
"What would we be doing, Jade?"
Michael sharply asks.
And she replies with a prepared statement.
"I'm glad you asked, you see, our satellites are able to pick up the signal if they are in range, however, there's encryption coming from the source.
In other words, we would be infiltrating this installation, and covering me while I manage to make our satellites pick up on the signal. "
Michael puts his right hand against his chin and thinks about it.
" I know what you're thinking, and yes, once our satellites pick up on the signal it'll be easier to know what the hell they're saying and to who."
She continued.
51: "I think I'm starting to understand, though, if it were that valuable why would it be abandoned?"
12: "It could be a cover, the structure is located inside a massive impact crater, I believe the real deal lies within."
51: "Hmm... Alright, I'll ask the General for permission."
12: "I'll be here, let me know via Satcom if we're going or not. Goodluck."
Michael looks at Jade and Ankiros before turning around and leaving the room.
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United Central Command, District Seven Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 16:22:07
Outside of General Dovyo's office, Michael sits with his arms crossed.
Phaeton Squadron Leader Fox discusses flight plans with their Pilot, Vultar.
They wait for the General to finish meeting up with one of his Assistant Generals, Dovyo has been assigning one to each theater of war, and this one is no exception.
While Michael waits, he begins to realize what his dream was about. After recalling the satellite imagery, seeing the crater's rim reminds him of the tall ridges visualized in the dream. Michael transitions into a paralyzed state. Thinking about the mission and how to ask the General for permission to traverse the desert, not only that but to put the only person able to decrypt the infamous Datapad under direct risk.
It is not going to be easy, the whole thing feels sketchy to Michael, but what Vera said is true, they are involved whether they like it or not.
The door to the General's office opens and Fox rapidly stands up. Followed by Vultar, they await the Assistant General's exit and authorization to enter.
A.G. Reiner steps out of the office, with a stark look on his face, and does not say a word as he walks out.
General Dovyo stands on the doorway and clears his throat. Yanking Michael back to reality as he quickly stands up and they look directly at each other.
"Michael, come inside, will you?"
The General asks, Michael.
Without hesitation, he complies and walks inside.
"Close the door behind you."
Michael slowly closes the door and stands next to it.
The General sits down behind his desk and offers Michael a seat as he prepares to listen to his request. Apparently, the secretary gave Dovyo a heads up on the topic, so he dives right to it.
"Go on, have a seat."
51: "No thank you, I rather stand, I hope this won't last long, I am asking your permission to cross the East Hollow border and enter the No Man's Land, I'll need air transport and I could use Phaeton or Omega for that.
Oh, and I'll need Jade to come along with me."
"Well, then I'll have you know that your Squadron right now is pulling in a lot of resources and the responsibility of which, is vital to continue upholding Centralian Military interests. The Militant Republic has formally declared war upon the Centralian Oligarchy, that includes you and I, why should I allow multiple of my best Troopers to break away from their strategic defense positions?"
The General reminds Michael of the current situation and asks to present a good enough reason to allow such traversal.
Michael remained silent while the General spoke, now that he is done talking, Michael takes a deep breath and prepares the offer.
"Sir, I fully understand your worries, and I ask forgiveness for the number of resources we might have used up, but-"
General Dovyo interrupts Michael, but only for a slight correction. A reaffirmation for Michael.
"Not "Might" have, you HAVE, continue."
"Yes, Sir sorry for the misinterpretation. While I do understand these terms and restrictions, I am asking for permission to uncover what that datapad is really hiding, General, Jade is doing this for all of us, for you, who gave her the order.
If not then I will also fully understand and respect your decision, Sir..."
"Then you must understand why I am denying permission to venture into the No Man's Land, it is called that for a reason, Xentenas. Your Mission stays the same, protect and ensure the valuable person gets to their destination safely, after that I'll try to schedule a transport to get you out of East Hollow."
General Dovyo flat out denies the permission, he may not express it but he does it with their safety in mind, for he does not want to lose any Troopers in this defense. A sentiment that will hopefully be respected by others.
Michael remains silent and swallows down his reply. Resorting to comply in order to avoid creating further altercations.
However he does not leave without replying.
"I understand, Sir, but this was Jade's initiative to finish what you ordered us to start."
Michael says as he turns around and puts his hand on the doorknob.
The General quickly stands up and orders Michael to return to the desk.
Dovyo's eyebrows skew inward as he grows angry with Michael for stating something obvious to him.
"I didn't give you permission to leave this room yet, do you think that I forgot about the Datapad? Jade is a smart woman, I don't doubt that she feels this is a good approach to uncovering that enigma, however, we are at war, we don't have the time or resources to fulfill this task. Not without shooting ourselves in the foot. "
Michael turns back and looks at the General before revealing the lengths he would go to finish the task.
"With all due respect, Sir, I am already one fifth of the Squad, if I have to do this on my own to minimize expenditures, I will."
"You will not cross country borders, Michael and that's final! Prepare for transport, I'm sending you and Phaeton away now to ensure no further complications with this mission, is that understood?"
Michael remains silent, looking down at this hands. The torn black fibers from his palms, the destroyed shoulder armor and bent chest plate, it is clear that he has pushed himself to the limits maybe a little too much.
However, in his mind, Jade's discovery cannot go unchecked, if what she said is correct, and the Militant Republic did start the war because of the Datapad, it is worth investigating.
"Is that understood, Fifty-one!?"
With a low voice Michael acknowledges.
"Yes, Sir."
For years Chancey Dovyo has handled Sigma Squadron, and before that, on an individual level. So much so that he sometimes knows what the Trooper is thinking due to past actions. And he is picking up on Michael's urge.
"I really hope you don't do anything stupid, dismissed."
Dovyo dismisses Michael but not without subtly letting him know that his first order still stands.
Michael turns around, proceeds to open the door and walk out of the office. Fox Leaden and Vultar both stand up as the door opens, they look at him as he makes his way out of the building. General Dovyo appears right on the doorframe, with a somewhat saddened appearance. Fox and Vultar salute, while Vultar wonders what the conversation was about.
"As you were, Troopers, go ahead and transport the Prisoner, I've instructed Xi squad to restrain the man as best they can, dismissed."
The General tells both Phaeton members, before closing the office door and locking it from inside.
Fox and Vultar then look at eachother with minor confusion.
UCC Northeastern Landing Zone, District Seven Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 17:00:01
The Amaranthine fluctuates its turbines, the bright cyan and magenta colors grow in intensity. It is ready to go.
Waiting on the opened back hatch, Michael stands with his arms crossed. Behind him, Arnes and Thorian sit down while preparing their own seperate bags.
Vultar and Ellindel have the Dropship set for take off.
Vultar notifies the time via satcom to everyone inside Phaeton's private channel, that includes Michael.
"Seventeen-hundred hours, you and Xi better get a move-on, Fox."
She says, reffering to Fox taking too long escorting the prisoner along with Xi Squad Leader and their Pilot.
Upon hearing this, Michael steps outside of the back hatch and stands on the landing pad, taking a look to his left side.
Seeing how both Xi Squad members restrained the Prisoned behind Fox, while they all made their way towards the Amaranthine.
Form the distance, a metalic device can be seen that restrains both of the prisoner's hands in place. Since the technology is unknown, there is no guarantee that the device will prevent any activation.
Fox and the others arrive at the Dropship.
"I'll get the prisoner locked in place, thanks for the escort, Xi."
Fox says as he takes the Prisoner from Xi Squad and enters the Dropship.
Meanwhile on the landing pad, Xi Squad Tactical Operator, Varen (224) points with his right index finger and teases Michael.
224: "Hey, haven't we met before?"
However, Michael remains silent, keeping his arms crossed and his diagonally inclined posture.
Xi Squad Leader, Dust (114) notices his body language and realizes that Michael is not enjoying any jokes.
So he steps in, and addresses Michael formally.
114: "Fifty-one! General Dovyo didn't tell me you were here, what gives?"
51: "I'm here to ensure that they do as they're supposed to, how you've been?"
114: "Been better, Michael. It's been a long time since we last seen eachother, how have you been?"
51: "I've been on a streak, haven't properly rested, but I have food, and I still have my squad, well for now."
114: "Yeah, I heard about Ankiros. I read the reports about the Highway on my way back from Katanaska... Your armor speaks for itself. "
51: "What can I say, last night was..."
06: "Hey! We're running on a timer, let's go!"
Dust and Michael's conversation is cut short by Thorian as he yells at them. However, they both would like to remain connected, since they still have much to talk about. Dust removes a small datachip from his vest and tosses it to Michael.
"Hey, I've still got something to show you, contact when you're done with the escort mission."
Dust says as he turns around and begins to walk away. Meanwhile Michael catches the datachip and holds it in his right hand.
224: "Good seeing you, Xentenas, stay strong!"
"Uh-huh, I'll get back to you guys."
Michael replies to Varen while he quickly catches up with Dust and walk away together. Arnes stands up and puts his left hand over the close hatch button. Sliding the datachip into his waist pouch, Michael walks inside the Amaranthine and sits down in the exact seat where Arnes sat, right next to the back hatch.
Arnes smacks the close hatch button and growls next to Michael before making his way to the other row, sitting down next to Thorian.
The back hatch closes, and the Dropship commences its ascension.
Vultar addresses the crew via satcom before fully accelerating the Amaranthine westbound, away from the UCC.
"Alright everybody, better grab onto somethin' cause we're gonna go full throttle!"
The strong impulse of the modified turbines shakes everyone inside the Dropship. Meanwhile Fox stands behind the prisoner, making sure they are set in place.
Vultar flies dangerously near District seven's glass skyscrapers and advertisement ridden metallic buildings. She continously dodges and steers out of danger's way until there is a large blockade of aerial vehicles waiting for a traffic light to change. She quickly pulls the dropship upwards into the sky and away from the dense urban traffic.
Everyone inside gets rocked around except for Fox and the Prisoner as they are restrained to the dropship itself.
Arnes grows angry with Vultar's flying method and speaks out about it.
06: "Damn it you're gonna get us killed one day!"
117: "I am going to have to agree, Vultar..."
417: "Calm down, we're already out of the city, now it is just a couple hours of smooth sailing."
Phaeton Squadron chat with themselves on the private channel. Meanwhile the Amaranthine blasts away from the city and towards the defunct Mining Capital of Hollow, specifically East Hollow.
The sky is pristine, beautiful cotton-like clouds dot the true blue background.
But Michael returns to his thoughtful state of mind, muting everything around him until he only hears muffled unintelligible words. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, relaxing the mental tensions that seem to be hindering him lately.
While in this relaxed state of mind, he remembers the moment in time when he found Sigma Squad members within the TRIALS, after the retrieval of the Gen. 1 Mikundrian Trooper Armor set.
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TRIALS Sector 4, Suburban Simulation.
19/Korona/2456 R.S. 19:10:31
We return to the fourth TRIALS Facility, where a large scale replica of a standard suburban town shares the land with a river. Since we see the landscape from a bird's-eye view, explosions and bright flashes from the tight alleys between homes can be seen. Settling near a mayor abundance of greenery split by a shallow river, as our perspective finally reaches the ground, we see a younger Fifty-one in a prone position. Covered by the greenery, he observes a duo of Combatants that are preparing a small fire. They did not have any body armor or helmet as Michael had.
The Inception Type I helmet featured improved auditory sensors, allowing Michael to hear in on their conversation.
A male voice is heard, followed by a female.
"We'll set up here for a couple hours, I'm starving."
"Let's cook this food and move as fast as possible..."
Michael reaches to his back and pulls out his shotgun, he slowly lays it to his right as he prepares a strategy.
The female takes off her backpack and reaches inside it, meanwhile the male prepares the small fire.
Michael sees a small path to his right that could lead behind the two, and looks back at the unbeknownst Combatants.
The female reaches inside the backpack, pulling out slabs of raw meat, covered by a thick white paper. Blood drips from under the paper wrap and unto her hands as she lays the meat on top of a nearby log. She stops and looks into the bushes in front of her, as if sensing that she is being observed.
She focuses on listening to her surroundings, as she does this she hears the flow of the nearby river, the chirping birds and the tall grass dancing with the wind. Until a loud clack emits from behind her, she is quickly startled and turns around only to see her ally smashing flint and steel together. Upon knowing the origin on the sound, she disregards the worry and continues to unpack the meat. The Combatant continues to smash the two items together to no avail, however, a distinct crack is heard and this time from inside the bush. She quickly reaches into her backpack and pulls out a bloody MTR prototype, fitted for compact carry. She stands and walks five feet towards the bushes in front of her and notices a shotgun caught between the greenery, before she could warn her ally to get ready, she turns around to see him used as a body shield by none other than Michael himself.
She quickly turns around and aims at the two men, while taking a strong stance.
"Give me a good reason why I shouldn't kill the both of you right now!
I'm better off without this guy, can't even start a proper fire, and you, you look like pure trouble."
She says while takes a look at the Inception Helmet, something never seen before by anyone.
Before speaking, Michael searches the woman's number on her suit, noticing a one (1) on half of her left shoulder.
"I'm your teammate y-you're gonna kill me?!"
Her teammate yells at her, seemingly disappointed.
51: "Open your fucking wrists right now, both of you!"
"You're in no position to make demands, you should open yours!"
He looks down and sees the man's number on his left shoulder as he lifts both of his hands up, it is thirty-four.
Michael leans close to the man and tells him once again but with a lower voice to open his wrist.
The brown haired man has fear in his eyes as his life is hanging by a thread.
51: "Listen, I won't kill you if you belong to another team I'll just disappear, show me your Chip."
34: "She'll shoot me, I've seen her kill others for less than this."
51: "She hasn't shot yet, she won't kill her own teammate."
The female chambers her gun in one last warning sign for Michael to release thirty-four or to reveal his Chip. She sees thirty-four's lips moving but cannot hear what he is saying, so she yells at them again.
"Speak the hell up or I'll shoot!"
34: "I'm going to open my wrist, don't shoot!"
As the man reaches with his right hand to his left wrist, to open the jack that contains the KillChips. Before he could do so, the female takes a kneeling position and aims directly at the Helmet's black glass.
"Get down!!"
She yells at her teammate before opening fire at the two Combatants, Thirty-four breaks free and jumps to his left towards a thick tree, protecting him from the gunshots.
However the fury of bullets catches Michael off guard, the light submachine gun rounds scratch Michaels right shoulder as he leans sideways trying to dodge. She shoots ten rounds down range but only landing three, one of which gets engrained into Michael's body armor. Her gun clicks as she runs out of ammo, her teammate quickly reacts and grabs Michael from his left arm and tackles him to the ground. Once they crash against the dirt, Thirty-four pulls Michael's left wrist to his back, his right knee immobilizes Michael's Right arm, and also holds his head against the ground facing left.
51: "Ah! - -"
34: "I've got him, Twelve!!"
Michael resists on the ground, while Thirty-four holds him down with almost equal force. Twelve begins walking to the two men as she reloads the small MTR Prototype. The magazine falls out of the grip, splattering blood on the green grass.
As she approaches, she loads in a fresh magazine into the weapon and orders Thirty-four to open Michael's wrist-jack.
12: "Go on, open up his wrist, let's see which squad is going to be down a Combatant."
Thirty-four proceeds to forcefully open Michael's wrist-jack revealing a variety of colors, some of which were already sets of squads eliminated. The man's eyes open wide with disbelief as he sees a lone Blue Chip with a cyan stripe. Instantly Thirty-four releases Michael and stands away from him.
Twelve does not understand why he would do such a thing and she chambers her weapon until Thirty-four speaks up.
34: "Wait! Don't shoot, he's with us!"
Fifty-one and Twelve go on to say the exact same thing at the same time: "What!?"
Twelve lowers her weapon and extends her left hand down. Michael sees this and grabs onto her hand, helping him stand up.
She sees the bullet stopped by his body armor, that would have gravely wounded him if not killed him.
12: "Wow, that armor really saved your life..."
51: "So, you're SIGMA?"
12: "That seems to be correct, yes, but try to use "we are" from now on. Thirty-four, get that fire going, I'll cut the meat into three servings, one for each. "
34: "I'll get on it!"
Thirty-four returns to the small accumulation of wood and dry leaves, as he retries to light them up with a flint and steel combination.
Meanwhile, Twelve walks toward the bush and grabs Michael's shotgun.
As she turns around, Michael goes to retrieve it from her hands.
She notices the hesitation to reunite with his weapon, and simply hands it back to him.
12: "Could'a killed you, y'know."
51: "Consider me a survivor."
He replies to her, grabbing his shotgun from her extended left hand.
12: "Where'd you get that armor? And what about that helmet?"
51: "It dropped from the sky. Like a reward, or something..."
Michael reveals to Twelve.
Thirty-four finally manages to get a small fire going, he quickly throws dry grass inside the flames and blows wind inside.
Twelve seems surprised by what Michael had said, she goes on to cut the meat into smaller pieces.
12: "I've avoided the urban areas, found him upstream this river last night, as you can see, I've been busy trying to get food for myself, I didn't know I'd be feeding three mouths."
51: "Relax, I have my rations, I've encountered a healthy amount of loot."
Thirty-four stands up as the fire now has its own life, he heard what Michael said and approached him.
He remembers all the KillChips Michael had collected, however, Twelve did not get to see them, as she took his word for it.
34: "Yeah, "Loot", from all those people you have killed. "
He says, Twelve stops what she is doing and looks back at Michael.
Fifty-one turns his head toward Thirty-four and holsters his shotgun.
51: "I said Loot for a reason, like you haven't killed your fair share of Combatants to survive."
34: "No, as a matter of fact, I haven't killed anyone in my time inside this... Place."
Thirty-four scoffs as he explains.
"I've been stealthy, avoided contact as much as possible, it's why I was in the river, I haven't come close to death, only by you two so called, "teammates"."
12: " I was scavenging, and for someone whose specialty is stealth, you make a bunch of noise."
She says, poking fun at Thirty-four. Meanwhile Michael looks around the landscape in search for any hostiles,
Twelve continues to cut the remainder of the raw meat. She holds it with her bare left hand, and uses a combat knife to cut the meat. Thirty-four chuckles, noticing Michael scanning his surroundings.
However her curiosity as to how many Combatants Michael has really killed gets the best of her.
As she finishes cutting up the raw meat, she passes the chunks to Thirty-four so he can cook them.
12: "I've cleared this area of the river, I think we're clear, Fifty-one."
51: "Something I learned the hard way in here, is that no place is ever fully cleared, there's always someone. "
12: "Well, aren't you a killer?"
51: "I've had to survive..."
12: "Show me how many KillChips you have inside that jack, then."
Fifty-one turns his head at her and says: "You will know more of me soon enough."
.
.
.
Hollow, East Hollow, Centralia.
21/Kryo/2467 R. S. 18:31:48
Michael comes back to the present time due to sounds of snapping fingers. As he opens his eyes, it is Arnes Calium. Around him, the Dropship' interior lights flash red, and sound slowly begins to come back.
"Hey, wake the hell up, it's gonna be a hot landing!"
He says, as Michael fully recovers his hearing, he shakes his head, accommodating his senses. Hearing the sounds of a lot of distant explosions, Michael stands up and walks towards the cockpit. Passing next to Fox, he quickly makes a snark comment.
"Did you get enough beauty sleep, Fifty-one? It's going to be fierce at Omega Complex, I suggest you prepare yourself."
Fifty-one stops right in front of the cockpit door and turns to his left, facing Fox, they see eachother eye to eye through the Black and Gold visors, a sign to their skill and concentration, however.
" I was recollecting my memory of a past moment in time. I am going to the cockpit to assess the situation."
Michael replies, Fox turned his head to the back of the Dropship, where Arnes and Thorian were both ready to enter the fray.
The cockpit door opens, revealing a large one-way glass and through it, lies Omega Complex with massive flames coming out of their airfield's control tower. The slate gravel landscape slowly turns into a pale ocean of sand, the friendly Structure lies on the gravel portion of the area. While on the sandy outskirts, Millitant MSUVs or "Hunters" secure their advance with a cover of anti aerial flak, accompanied by an array of mortar cannons behind the first dunes. Meanwhile on the Centralian side dozens of heavily armed RAB-1T All Terrain Vehicles launch a defensive strike. The enemy's flak fire draws near with every blast, and Michael is starting to notice.
51: "Hey Vultar, might wanna get us lower and onto ground fast!"
417: "How about you get your ass ready for a hot drop!?"
51: "What makes you think I'm not?"
Sudddnly the Amaranthine's ICC turns on and a bright orange light shines from it.
As static bursts through it grabs the attention of the Troopers inside.
Three specific tones emit from it, a "clack" , a "deet", and a low metalic hum. C-E-N, meaning this communication is a national alert. A female voice comes on through the speakers.
"Attention, all MT Squadrons alerted by this ICC transmission: we have recieved confirmation of a large scale attack from Militant forces on our East Hollow Border, the Caloris/Ino region, and in the Normean Highlands, we recommend deploying into your previously designated defensive positions.
As always, you will be rewarded for your efforts to maintain peace in the region.
Dispatch out."
The transmission finalizes, leaving it known to every Mikundrian Trooper that hell was about to break loose right on their homefront. Fox holds his strong stance as he watches the Prisoner, Thorian gets a good grip onto his seat, because of the velocity and force the Amaranthine is lowering its altitude. Arnes is prepared for what is to come, as the Trooper stands next to the closed hatch.
The War has begun!