My name is Max Regratov and I'm the leader of the southern rebellion. I'm looking out the window of an old office tower we have set up shop in after having to move out of our base. The city is in a state of constant battle, With the spider tanks and drones walking through the city and the artillery bombing our outposts... We are on the losing side of this war. I am tired, I remember when the first rocket landed on Mars and we found out that Mars had massive mineral deposits all over the planet. From there we sent more and more rockets over and we set up a settlement. That settlement sparked something amazing... Another space race. Every country raced to get a settlement running but in the confusion the U.S. military took over the government. The first thing they did was cut trading with other countries and stabilized the US economy. Then they started unifying earth. It took 15 years, 15 long years the hardest buffers were Europe and Russia. China couldn't even be compared, their people revolted and the country collapsed. We carpet bombed the middle east into submission and we had developed drop drones by the time we were going for south America, India, and Africa. Like how are you supposed to stop a 10 walking tanks that are programmed to kill anything that moves. Mars was easy each settlement was basically controlled by a corporation. Over 10 years Mars was turned into a mining planet to feed the machine that was humanity. We built spaceships that mine asteroids and orbital habitats. We also colonized the moon.

"Sir, we need to get rid of this artillery so we can stop civilian casualties," one of my higher ups tells me.

"I would agree with you but we don't have the resources to stop them" as I say this it seems that we are all puzzled as to how we are going to turn this around, if we can turn this around.

As if our questions where answer the artillery stops and it starts to rain. "Ok you guys know what to do" I had already given orders to start the evacs when it rains because that's when the artillery stops but the rate of U.S. drones increases. We don't exactly know why they stop the bombardment of shells but we like it.

"Max!" the radar operator yells across the room to me. "What is it?!" I don't like it when he yells because it usually means they're dropping spider tanks in the area. "They're dropping pods on our position" he has the expression of worry on his face. "Damn this is the third time this month they found us!" we have been having trouble hiding our headquarters lately do to them increasing priority of our front.

We all go on high alert as we hear crashing of drop pods. I look out of the window and see that one of the pods has crashed into a neighboring building and is latched to the side of it while the 2 others have landed in the street. The pods on the street open their 3 symmetrical side doors and 6 assault drones get out and start to search the area with their red eyes that act like searchlights. The last pod then has one of its doors blown off into one of the drones smashing it into the building we are in completely destroying the drone and the wall.

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I'm Operator#135 of the Operator project. Me and my fellow Operators are clones made to control experimental exo-suits through cybernetic implants. Many of us were defective but the few that survived were shown to be very effective. Some of the exo-suits are designed to be used for recon have advanced jump jets being able to scale buildings in one bound or designed to uplink to drones for strategic operations. My own exo-suit is fitted with recon devices such as a 50X optical zoom, short range radio, and heat/night visuals. The weapons it is equipped with are a set of plasma claws, and a XM556 Microgun that fires 5.56mm NATO attached to a third arm on the back. The suit also comes equipped with AI, advanced thrusters, air pump, magnetic clamps, and motors that increase my strength to the point of being able to lift a 2 ton car. To power all of the systems on the exo-suits they have a fusion reactor and oxygen tank. All exo-suits are stored in the hanger bay and Operators are all given the rank of Corporal though we don't take a leadership role when not on the battlefield because all space operations are held out by the navy and Operators are part of the army. When on break our lives consist of briefings, repairing, and training. We don't talk much and we have a bad reputation for being drones.

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Right now I am tuning my exo-suit, getting ready for the next operation. I have been at it for 2 hours now because if I am not careful I could easily mess something up. Sometimes others would come in and leave but I don't give any care to them.

"Um miss can I have a moment of your time?"

I hear someone trying to talk with me. I am not of any sex but I do look female so I am going to roll with it.

I look over at them and see a nervous Seaman. He has orange hair, brown eyes, and pale skin. "Continue," I say.

"miss may I get your name?" the Seaman asks me while scratching his neck.

I am starting to get annoyed. "My name is Operator#135," I tell him as i get back to work.

"Um miss... Operator do you think we could eat together in the mess together?" he asks

He must of not heard the rumors about Operators yet. "I have no problems with eating with you".

He puts on a smile and says "Cool, see you then," before leaving.

Damn I didn't get his name, I wonder what he wants to talk about.

I get back to work. Another hour passes and it's time for another briefing. I pack up my tools and put them away and walk back across the hanger into the maze of walkways that is the rest of the ship towards the briefing room.

I walk into the briefing room and sit down along with 7 other Operators. We wait a minute for the Staff Sergeant to enter.

"I just can't get used to you Operators" the Staff Sergeant says when he walks in. We all turn our heads to look at him.

"See that's what I mean. Moving all the same way, looking the same, the only thing different about you are your hair and whether your a man or not," he says this while looking at me. All most all Operators are abino and look male.

"Well we better start now. Your mission is to drop down to the surface and check the locations that you land at for the rebel HQ. The rebels will be using the normal weapons but their leader known as Max has been spotted piloting an exo-suit" the Staff Sergeant says.

"Sir. Isn't the exo-suit classified technology. How did they get their hands on it" on of the Operator#143 says.

"Yes it is classified but we suspect they have raided an old R&D lab in the past" the Staff Sergeant answers.

This makes the operation extremely dangerous if they have an old exo-suit. The old exo-suits were made for regular people but they were bigger and more dangerous but way more expensive. They were more in line with full on mechs than exo-suits.

"Your drop time is in t-minus one hour from the end of this briefing." He coughs. "Briefing over."

We all stand up and say "Yes Sir!"