***
29 Days Until Nova Arrival
***
I woke up to the sound of a door opening. I still remember taking shots, so I got up ready to defend myself.
“Whoa there Kyo relax it's just me.” It was Haichi, I saw him holding a tray with food on it. My stomach grumbled loudly, felt like I haven't eaten food in ages. He laughed and brought the food over to me. After he gave me my breakfast he sat in a chair that was next to the bed. That wasn't there when I went to sleep, was it brought in earlier? The food was disappearing by the minute and before I realized it everything was gone. I set the tray aside and faced Haichi. He seemed bothered and wanted to tell me something. He took a breath before he spoke “ A lot happened since the last two years. I want to tell you the details but Peyton wants to see you soon. So, for now, I will tell you this, the Novas have been advancing towards us steadily. They developed some sort of disintegration ray that bypasses shields and melts away the hull in the ships. We have been sending drones to fight them and slow them down in hopes of buying enough time to figure out a new tactic. I heard rumors from others that a new weapon is being developed but who knows if it will even work.” Weapon? Does he mean Project DS? I was going to ask him but something sealed my voice and prevented me from talking. Haichi continued “ We have had heavy casualties on our side compared to Novas. I have to thank you for saving my squad from that cosmic grenade. You jumped on it when it landed in our fort saving all of us, you looked like a speeder ran into you. The rest of them thought you were dead but I didn't, we managed to bring you back along with us in the transport back here. Thankfully they managed to restore your body but after that, it was up to you when you would wake up. Dr. Reginald is under confinement for attempted murder, luckily he failed. But I feel like it's my fault you were out for so long, they were giving you that shot since last year and it's because of my negligence that I didn't realize what was actually happening. It may take some time for you to regain your strength back but it should just be a few days.” I didn't care what else he had to say, I have a month to stop the Novas and prevent what happened with Project DS again. Even though I know this now what could I do to change the future. For now, I'll think of something but right now I need to stand up.I tried to move my legs off the bed to stand but they felt so numb it was impossible to move them even an inch. Haichi realized what I was trying to do and stopped me from trying to leave the bed.
“No, you should rest, like I said your legs will be functional in a few days.” I didn't listen to him I grabbed my legs and push them off the edge. Haichi got up and was still trying to tell me to rest and go back to bed. I ignored him and grabbed what looked like a white pole next to the bed and use it to help me stand. My legs felt like in going through a rain of bullets, I leaned on the pole to keep myself balanced. Haichi was in front of me and seemed a bit surprised I managed to stand, but he showed me a look that says he discovered a secret of some sort. He swiped the pole from me, and I was standing, I was confused I was just having a hard time a second ago what happened. Haichi had a big grin on his face “Well we have one tough trooper standing here, don't we. I got to give you credit to be able to stand without any rehabilitation is impressive.” I could feel the blood rushing throughout my whole body, something about me changed while I wasn't out. Haichi gave me a hard smack in my back that almost made me fall over. He took out the life support that was attached to my back. I felt a rush of adrenaline going through my head, I felt amazing like I'm at my peak. My senses were clearer, I recognized this feeling. This was a similar feeling I got when I was overcharged. Haichi told me to take a few steps to make sure it wasn't just adrenaline keeping me up, I listened and walked around the room a bit. Haichi seemed satisfied and proceeded on wanting me to follow him. I followed him outside the room and entered a junction in the hallways. He went to the right and proceeded past many rooms, then he entered a corridor to our left. I managed to keep up with him but, he continued through a series of turns I began to recognize where we were. He was going to make a right, and he did just as I thought, Haichi is taking me to the briefing room that I went into before. We stopped in front the door, surprisingly this time no one was guarding the door, there must always be someone guarding the door something must be off. Haichi entered a code into the padlock and the door opened. A chilling air escaped the room sending a shiver up my spine. We proceeded into the room only this time it wasn't Peyton I was seeing, it was the Chief Commander and a few others.
“Haichi you may now leave us, I need to speak with Kyo personally.” Haichi saluted and left us, the others beside the Chief seemed like engineers, they had yellow patches on their shoulders. The Chief ordered to me to take a seat, I listened and sat down. Immediately after I sat down straps held me down locking me on the chair. I really don't get why the hell everything has these surprise straps and restriction on everything we have. There were four engineers that had tools on them, two with a welder walked towards me. The chair transforms itself into a platform, it entombs me inside. At first, I felt extremely hot, parts were flying down strapping themselves on me then I realized what was going on. A suit was being created for me, but seriously? An Exo suit is going to be made out of a chair? might as well just wrap me in tissue paper if this is the type of special treatment I'm getting. I thought I was supposed to see Peyton. I don't see him anywhere, metal parts were strapping themselves on me pretty tightly. The two people with welder were welding away, fusing each part as it came flying at me. The other two just stood there watching, it didn't take long for the initial base of the suit to be done. The two in front of me backed off and the two further back stepped forward. I couldn't even recognize what they were even using, they stabbed me with a metal rod of some sort. Power was coursing through the suit, it started expanding to fit my body shape. They stopped to put on my helmet and a wave of information just fried my brain.
***
User Recognized
Kyo Kagamine
***
The suit connected itself to me, a neural hook wired itself to my spine. The suit felt like my body, finally, the transforming chair lets me go. Once back on my now elephant sized feet the suit depressurized itself and air blew out the back, the four engineers said a few words to the Chief and left us alone.
The Chief took a pause before he spoke “It has been decided you will be part of the war early, rehabilitation was the goal for you but you proved yourself it won't be necessary. Since you managed to stand without rehabilitation, you shall be sent to the hub range to re-learn what you may have forgotten.” He ordered a guard to come into the room, the door opened up and a big burly guy with a scar across his face walked in.
“This here is Faust, he shall escort you and get you prepared, there you will meet Peyton.” I saluted to the Chief and followed Faust. I've always wondered why there are so many bathrooms in every hallway but I never bothered asking before. Faust was leading me through another set of winding corridors, he doesn't seem to be much of a talker.
“Hey, Faust why are there so many bathrooms in this facility?” Faust continued walking, he really must not be much of a talker.
“These “Bathrooms” are simply guarding zones for when we get Attacks inside the base. But most newbies use them for fun to do paintball wars against each other.” Paintball wars? That sounds like fun how come that wasn't a thing when I was a private. We made a stop into an elevator, and make our way down. It opened up and let us in a large room with multiple drones and pieces of machinery everywhere. Faust opened the hub on the helmet, a prime rifle transported itself in front of me.
“This is target practice, we are not wasting time going through stupid tutorials so simply shoot those targets.” At least he trusts that I didn't forget how to shoot a gun, I walked into a gun section. A scoreboard appeared over the top of the gun wall, as usual, Peyton was on top, still, no one managed to beat his record of 4200 points. I bet Cruz must be pissed that Peyton beat him, I could feel Faust glaring at the back of my head. I faced the targets ahead of me, Faust initiated the target practice. For starters dummies came flying around, I managed to take them down easily but missed one of the dummies. Faust continued and activated the next part of the recoup, this time it live targets that could fire back at me. I had to time my shots and avoid the shots from the drones. I managed to get all of them successfully. Faust seemed a bit satisfied, he made the final adjustment and made more drones come out. The bunk I was in went down, this time I had to fight back and avoid getting shot as if on a battlefield.
I entered the battle arena and ran as fast as I could, I switched out my prime rifle and took out my dual pistols, these drones are really fast yet they have such great accuracy at the speeds the hover at. I never liked my prime rifle, I find it better being able to have dual pistols and have more firing options. I took a quick glance at the scoreboard 1550 points, 50 drones, and open field. I took a quick breath and ran toward a cluster of the drones on my right, bullets were flying past me as I charged forward. I aimed my dual pistols at the cluster and rapidly fired. As each shot fired drone after drone the cluster was falling apart, a couple of drones went down and others only received scratches. I side stepped to the left shoulder bashing one of the drones that were about to shoot at me. I dove under the cluster of the drones and spun myself around. I fired into the remaining cluster, most of them went down after this volley. I ran out of their shooting range and quickly reloaded my pistols, one of the drones bullets scratched my leg. I lost my balance but I finished loading fast enough, I rolled across the floor and shot my self up and shot more drones down. I landed on my right shoulder and rolled myself across the floor avoiding the bullet storm. I fired upon the drones in front of me, I pushed myself back up on my feet and kept running. I ran toward a few scattered drones near the wall and fired on them. they all went down incapable of fighting back, I turned around to face the remaining drones. I took a quick glance at the scoreboard, looked like there are 29 more drones remaining. The drones were able to shoot at me but they just stood still in front of me. My pistols were up and ready to take them down but neither of us fired. We paused for what felt like a year then the drones ran into each other, I never saw this before in a training room. The drones melted themselves apart and were, remodeling themselves into one giant machine. I’ve been in this training room multiple times and no way I would miss something like this. The drones fused themselves into one giant mecha, it had a machine gun for a left hand and what probably is a grenade launcher for the right. It had two drones that weren’t attached just floating beside its head. If we could do this with drones why don’t we use them in battle then? I had no time to dwell on that thought, there is a big mecha drone in front of me trying to blow me to pieces. I really hope that if that grenade launcher actually fires at me it won’t actually rip me apart. As many times as I have been here these drones always had a weakness they lacked firepower against you, they can't actually harm you, instead they deduct you of points or placed movement hijacks on the suit. But with something this large against me i'm sure one hit will do more then deduct me points. I rushed towards it and tried to fire at the two drones above it, the mecha raised its left arm and blocked the shot for them. The grenade launcher aimed towards me, adrenaline went on a full blast and I ran for my life. In short moment I was directly in front of the barrel, the grenade launcher did not fire yet. I ran and slid under it but some force just pulled me and threw me away like crumpled paper. Its machine gun spun and let loose a bullet hell on me. Ever seen fireworks before? Really nice and colorful isn't it? Would be great if said fireworks weren't bullets oddly colored and aiming for your head. The wall caught me and reset me back on the floor, I followed the wall down and ran trying to avoid the shots.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
I would have been dead if those bullets hit me i looked at Faust who appeared as if he was watching a coloseum. I screamed “Faust!? I thought this was a training to test my skills not to kill me!”
Faust glared at me as if i ruined his fun “If you have time to talk then get yourself together and destroy the Cyclops!”
Cyclops? Is that what they call this giant hunk of drone parts? But it has more than one eye on its head though. Well no use thinking about it I got up and stepped away from Cyclops. It slowly turned its gigantic body towards me, In the meantime I quickly tried to search for the two drones. Cyclops doesn't have eyes in the back of its head, the reason it could aim at me perfectly when i was behind it must be because the drones must be relaying what they see to the Cyclops. If I can destroy its eyes then it should limit its capabilities to fight me. Its armor is pretty thick in the front and probably the same at the back of it so its weakness must be the eyes. It faced me and I still could not find the other two drones that were around it, it’ll be impossible to defeat Cyclops without getting rid of its sight. It aimed the grenade launcher at me, I already saw the its power with just the machine gun i really don't want to find out what kind of a hole a grenade launcher can make. Running towards it won't work this time I will probably get blasted into scraps. I kept running alongside the wall, the grenade launcher followed my movements. I ran as fast as i could with the wall but the grenade launcher was heating up. I halted myself to a stop and turned around to run in the other direction. Still it wouldn't fire, but the machine gun moved to my position. A hail of bullets came flying following me close behind. It wouldn't fire the grenade launcher but it fires the machine gun without thinking. Something isn't right with that, I did what should have killed me but it didn't take the chance to. I took a dive and aimed toward the machine gun, I shot a volley of bullets toward the barrel of its gun. Cyclops stopped firing and moved the barrel out of harm's way, I took this chance and ran toward the wall again, Cyclops aimed at me again but this time it hesitated, it did not fire for a few seconds then it fired. I must have been near something important for it not to shoot, It must be the drones. It doesn't want to destroy its own eyes, and they probably can cloak themselves. The drones moved themselves to a different position, they must have been behind me. There! I could see the cloaking silhouette of the drowns, one shot is all I need. A round into the drown sends one sparking and burns down. Now if I can just repeat this process for the other one, but the grenade launcher lighted up and i'm a sitting duck to it. I was near the wall at this point and the flurry of bullets are still behind me, while the grenade launcher was getting ready to fire I blasted the wall. Chunks and pieces fell off creating a dust cloud around me. I managed to cut its vision off of me temporarily now so now is the time to find the other drone. The dust revealed its position right above me and one round and it's out of commission. Now Cyclops is all that's left to get, I ran down the wall and escaped the dust cloud and a grenade, it shot the grenade towards my last position at the wall. The explosion was made such strong winds i was blown forward. A huge dust filled the room blocking sight within it, I didn't even bother to look at the hole it probably made with that shot.
The dust cloud started to settle, and now it was a standoff with me against Cyclops before me. Now that it doesn't have its drones anymore once i get out of its vision i can have a chance to beat this jerk. I made the first move and fired my weapons at the eyes, it used its grenade launcher arm to defend itself and attempted to fire me with its machine gun. I ran around it and charged right at it this time instead of going under i tried to go up. I fired at its knee plates and dented them, i jumped and climbed up its leg to its knees. It pointed the grenade launcher at me, it lighted up, so Cyclops is willing to lose a limb just beat me huh. I jumped off its leg just as it fired on itself, the blast blew me away from Cyclops. I looked to see the results, half of its right leg was obliterated. Now Cyclops can’t move very easily anymore now, I got myself up and ran towards it again. It used the machine gun and fired on me again, I dodged to the right and aimed for its arm that it was using to keep itself up. I managed to get a few shots at its elbow plates, and made half of it hang off. My left pistol was out of ammo, i dropped it and continued towards Cyclops. It's on it's last breath now, i ran towards its hand and use it as a springboard to cling onto the hanging elbow plates. I swung around and landed on its forearm, it's only weapon now was the grenade launcher and at this range it can't use it otherwise it will destroy both of us. I ran down its forearm toward its head. It tried to smack me off with the grenade launcher but i managed to avoid its swings. I got to the ring around its head and jumped on, i climbed on up and looked down and saw eye protectors.
I used whatever ammo was left in my right pistol and fired off its eye protectors. Clicks sounds came out of my gun and i tossed it away, i took the prime gun off my belt and fired on its eyes. The bullets were able to pierce through and got into Cyclops. I emptied the clip and Cyclops remained still like a statue, I stood on Cyclop and faced Faust.
“So, Faust how did i do?”
He looked at a screen in front of him then faced me “ Not bad, but you sure took your sweet time trying to beat Cyclops.” I got myself down from Cyclops, I left my prime gun and just walked out of the battle room. I took a seat next to the door and laid myself like a mop on the seat.
“You took 6 hours to get through this, you passed in all of the categories but time, so next time beat Cyclops faster. Your total points was 4750, a new record congratulations.” Faust turned off the battle room and placed something next to me and left the room. I grabbed it, it was a holo-messenger, i turned it on and it was Peyton.
“Kyo, by the time you finish your regimen i'm guessing you're probably hungry and tired. A meal has been placed in your room, and don’t worry about trying to get there we already know you probably forgot where it is so this holo-messenger has a guide to lead you back. We have more to discuss but we can talk about that tomorrow so for now just rest up, Peyton Out.” I got myself up and grabbed a drink then left the room, a blue holographic arrow pointed towards my left. Probably the guide Peyton was telling me about, I followed it through what felt like miles of corridors and finally got to my room. It did an eye and fingerprint scan and the door opened and i walked in, i really do not remember having such a nice room. I could smell the aroma of the food on my bed, i ran to the bed and wolf down the food. Who would have guessed trying to beat a gigantic killer Cyclops drone would be so exhausting? I finished the meal pretty quickly and place the tray next to the door, i hopped in the shower and cleaned myself up. I hit the sink and got a look at my face, my face hasn’t changed from the Project’s black hole. I went to the window and took a look at the base outside, it's always busy there is no such thing as sleep time here you get it whenever you can. I sat on the bed and took a look at myself, nothing really changed when i went through the black hole. I can't believe that i'm perfectly fine after going through that, something beside me going back in time must have changed. I’ll have to figure this out later for now i’ll just go to sleep and wish for a better tomorrow.