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The Forgotten Merc company [ N1 archive]

Discussion in 'FanFic' started by dhellfox, Dec 24, 2019.

  1. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    Update: I found the missing pages!
    Merry xmas, happy holidays or wish you happiness in your personal beliefs!

    I was digging through my archives for two separate reasons (one is a bad kept secret that may or may not happen :P ) and I figured i will release the original for everyone to laugh at.

    These were posted back on the origonal fourms during early N1, where the only the factions were; PanO, Yu jing, Haqqislam, Nomads, Combine army, and Mercenaries.

    Unfortunately the files might be a missing sections as i may have lost the original version over time so sorry in advance. i'm just quickly recompiling them from 50+ files into chapters then post them here

    with that i hope you enjoy a blast from the past while i get my S! in order for a reboot.

    Intro
    “We got them on the run!” the Fusilier shouted between controlled bursts of fire from her rifle “and they’re not going to get far especially from the city ruins”.

    “Rodger that bravo squad, proceed with caution, even though they’re fleeing for their lives they’re professional mercenaries” the Cutter Lieutenant warned while he retuned to TO camouflage and advanced into the city ruins. The Fusilier let out a sigh before issuing hand signs to something in the distance ‘spread out, possible ambush, move with caution’.


    Long ago this planet was the first failed attempt to colonize the stars. The settlers safely landed on the planet before the wormhole closed but they quickly discovered that the orbital readings about the planet were false, the planet couldn’t sustain human life for more than 20 years and the dead city was proof of that mistake.


    Cautiously the Fusilier advanced down the main street tracking the blood trail from an injured mercenary. The stillness of the ruins was giving her chills down her spine. She felt something was watching her but her surroundings were showing no proof of that.

    Suddenly something flashed in the distance like a single gunshot, but was too far away to hit her. “The enemy is dead ahead get ready for the attack, it can’t hit us form this distance even with a sniper rifle” she spoke softly, quietly reloading her Combi rifle but then something impossible happened. The round flew past her ear and landed a headshot on the croc man that was following close behind her. That was the point where it went all down hill.
    ”EVERYONE NOW!” a male voice shouted from her left side. In response to the voice she dropped to the floor and rolled into nearby cover just in time to see three mercenaries sit up from hiding under the rubble with their rifles fitted with light grenade launchers and pounded the street below with the grenades, killing the other Fusiliers who weren’t quick enough to react. Looking at their equipment (and the noise they’re making) they were originally from the Ariadna’s 7th Foxtrot Rangers. “Take them down!” she barked, returning fire on them through the dusty window that was keeping her hidden form their sight. One of her shots clipped the closest mercenary on the arm and oddly that made them retreat into the building.

    At the far end of the street the sniper laid dead still watching the action form a safe distance. “The children have pulled out of the ruins and I still see a Fusilier, two Orc troops but no Lieutenant” the sniper reported quietly.

    “Their lieutenant is most likely inside a thick hided T.A.G. (Tactical Armored Gear) like our fearless leader” a female voice warned in a low growl. “Keep your eyes sharp or you’re going to be in a world of pain.”

    Before could let a reply he felt the ground shake behind him and a large weapon poke him in the back.

    “Burn in hell scum!” the lieutenant yelled in absolute satisfaction.

    The sniper knew (judging from his foe’s pride) if he turned around he will be roasted alive by the Cutter’s heavy flamethrower so he shut his eyes and took a risk “Elixi can you help me out of the jam darling?” she spoke calmly.

    Suddenly a female Dog warrior in solid grey armor barged through the wooden door on the other side of the street and tackled the T.A.G. with tremendous force into another building, giving the sniper a chance to flee into the closet ruin “go Elixi, tear it apart!”

    Elixi and the Cutter wrestled in the ruin to gain the advantage in this one-on-one combat. The Cutter kicks her off and attempts to reach for the rifle it dropped when they crashed through the wall but Elixi had recovered quicker then he had expected and was dragging it further away from it by the foot. Still holding his foot Elixi took aim with her first Chain rifle and the Cutter reacted by reaching for the Chain rifle and damaged it beyond use, leaving them both on even ground. Finally Elixi took the upper hand she drew her sword and plunged it deep into its armored chest plate causing massive mental feedback to the lieutenant in the co pit miles away giving her an opportunity to deal the death blow.

    Putting a foot on its chest plate she unloaded the Chain rifles entire magazine into the Cutter’s head and let out a loud howl in triumph.

    The sniper wondered into the ruin to asses the damage and saw the headless cutter being cast aside like a broken doll. “Elixi that was ama…..” he started to congratulate but within a blink of an eye he had him off the ground and by the thought.

    “if you ever call me darling again I’ll make sure you wont see tomorrow” she growled, tightening her grip.

    Suddenly a second Cutter appeared but this one was different, it was completely grey also looked older and much balkier than normal and on the chest plate was the old face marking that mere painted on old US aircraft. “Elixi drop him” the pilot commanded “you’re now second in command and supposed to be leading by example and the attacks, not playing anger management”.

    With that she dropped the sniper and stood in front of the Cutter “did you find it commander?”

    “No just another dead end, its not here”


    Minutes later

    Elixi had chased the Orc troops into a basement in the residential sector of the dead city. She could still hear them moving around in there meaning the only way out was the door in the main street, the very same door she was now standing above “Dalis I’m invoking my right as second-in-command to order you move that relic you call a T.A.G. and flush out those Orc troop”.

    Dalis casually strolled towards the stairway and dared a glance inside, copping two bursts of MULTI Rifle fire shock rounds to his face which harmlessly hit his T.A.G.’s armor like rain on stone. “Yep they’re in there and are as angry as hornets”.

    While he shoved the MULTI HMG into the doorway the rest of the mercenaries had returned from their side mission (two Fusilier soldiers and a hacker, a veteran Kazak and two Ariadna scouts.

    “You know fearless leader, if you weren’t in that T.A.G. you wouldn’t have a head anymore” the Fusilier hacker commented after Dalis pumped a few rounds into the basement to get them to shoot back.

    “Stop toying with them and just torch them already!” Elixi demanded, before having to leap out of harm’s way as jets of fire shot out of the floor.

    “calm down Elixi” Dalis spoke in a friendly voice while standing back up “the mission is complete, the Nomad are coming and if you are still bent on killing something there’s a Fusilier wondering about the city which may prove a problem”.

    Upon hearing the suggestion, Elixi dashed back into the city to tie up the loose end.

    “That should keep her busy, now we better prepare a LZ (landing zone) for the nomads”

    Chapter one the forgotten

    part 1



    Standing in the centre of the city’s abandoned airfield the mercenaries waited Dalis was outside his ancient Cutter, scanning for damage with his blue eyes. His crew cut brown hair is the only trait that he was once a soldier. On the battlefield he was noted for being an expert T.A.G. pilot for Pan Oceania. Off the field, he was known to have frequent disagreements with his superiors which led to his dishonorable discharge from the military. From that point onwards he was a pilot for hire. His T.A.G. was payment for one of his contracts; it is the first prototype for the Cutter and (to his pleasure) has to be controlled by the internal pilot cabin, hence why it’s balky compared to the current ‘remote’ models.

    “How long do you think it will take Elixi to kill it?” the sniper asked while he rested against his sniper rifle.

    The Kazak veteran’s gaze was at the dead city’s center “if she’s stilled pissed off with you Jacob” he spoke softly so only Jacob could hear “I give her minutes”

    Like Elixi Jacob was born in Scone but never knew each other until Dalis arrived in the city ten years ago. He had hazel eyes, orange hair and had a horizontal scar across the side of his face cause by a fellow clan member who didn’t agree with him on a subject. He had been in the 45th Highlanders Rifles for five years before being accepted and retrained as SAS. “Speak of the devil, here she comes now” he replied before he spotted something under her arm “don’t tell me she done it again….”

    Elixi returned in her Dog-face from. She had an innocent looking face, blue eye, blond hair but to the people who knew her looks can be extremely deceiving. She had a very short temper to match her tolerance to people who see her as a lesser being. She was abandoned by her parents at the age of five and spent three years of her life scavenging for food until Dalis arrived Scone. He was contracted to aid a suppression team to repel an Antipode attack in that area with a supplied T.A.G. eventually he found Elixi and adopted her as his younger sister, treating her as his equal and trained her to be a soldier.

    Elixi tossed the object to Jacob which made Jacob stomach churn. In his hands was the head of the Fusilier, sending him a clear message. This could have been you.

    Dalis let out a grin before noticing a Nomad drop ship coming in to land.

    The drop ship was paintjob was Nomad red with the markings belonging to the CORREGIDOR it was big enough to hold a T.A.G. plus a decent amount of troops. When it landed to their surprise a lone Interventor stepped out to greet them. “So did you find what you’re looking for?” it asked with a grin.

    Elixi let out a low warning growl, upholstering her remaining Chainrifle “I hear seven of them, they have us surrounded!”

    “How about we all turn on all our camouflage devices and continue this conversation under no trust” Dalis joked to the Interventor which made him order everyone to reveal themselves.

    Elixi was right there were seven of them, Intruders.

    The moment he saw that he was on even grounds, Dalis signaled his hacker. He took a disk from his pocket and held it in the air “as I was saying we didn’t find what we were looking for but we have something that you were” he explained “so care to give us a lift?”

    “Good work captain Dalis, you have once again earned yourself passage to your next assignment” the Interventor spoke calmly before signaling his troops to come back and let the mercenaries board the transport.

    The passenger holds layout was simple. 20 back to back positioned seats going down the center of the ship with enough room to store a crouched T.A.G. in the aft. As they sat down one of the Intruders spotted bullet holes in Elixi’s armor. “Rough day eh sweetie” the Intruder joked while every mercenary either looked away or quietly suggested that that wasn’t a wise idea “someone with a cue face like yours should be playing with makeup rather than with guns”

    “Here we go” Jacob remarked as Elixi dived across the seats to choke the life out him while the rest of the mercenaries tried to free him from her firm grip.

    Suddenly Dalis started to bang the back of the Cutters fist against the ship “Elixi let go of him” he commanded “we haven’t even taken off and you already causing problems for all of us”

    Elixi released the Intruder and sat in her seat brooding. It was going to be a long flight.



    Part 2


    The Dropship had now docked with the CORREGIDOR and everyone was leaving. The other mercenaries had smoothed things over with the nomads and now were acting like the best of friends to each other (except for Elixi). “Come with us and get a drink with the rest of the boys” the Interventor friendly invited through the airlock out of the cargo hold but as Elixi tried to walk through the Interventor blocked her “sorry you are going to have to stay here Dog-face”.

    Elixi quickly folded her arms to hide that she was clenching her fists tight “what did you call me?”

    “I can’t let you past this point just in case you try to cause more trouble” the Interventor explained before shutting the hatch behind him, leaving her behind with Dalis and his T.A.G.

    “Racist, Dalis you know that the Nomads are just using us for these suicide missions to fill out their own ends” she shouted to Dalis, who was conducting maintenance on his T.A.G.

    “Aren’t we the same” he replied, being more focused on repairing the knee joint “we’re using them as a free transport between planets, a day’s work is equal pay to a soldiers monthly wage and eventually we’re going to get the thing we offered our services for, Elixi can you get the tool out of that crate?”

    She walked over to the crates Dalis had pointed to and opened the first one. It was packed tightly with Chain rifles and its ammunition so she opened one crate after another until she found the one containing the tools “what happens if they never give us what we want?”

    Suddenly there was a dark grin on Dalis’s face “then we take it by force”.



    Up in the club Jacob and the other mercenaries were having a great time sharing war stories amongst the Nomad soldiers and drinking till they couldn’t drink anymore. “There’s something I don’t understand why you call yourselves The Forgotten?” one Intruder asked Jacob, who was barely sober. Jacob attempted to straiten himself up but failed horribly “it’s not really a team name but a title everyone in our merry little band had been either abandoned or betrayed by their superiors and left to die”. he took another drink and tried to forget that nightmare of a day.





    Seven years ago…..

    Inside a Pan Oceana briefing room on Ariadna, Jacob sat in a seat watching a briefing take place he saw Dalis and his adopted ‘pet’ sister Elixi, the three foxtrot brothers, a veteran Kazak with four Line Kazaks and two scouts and a whole platoon of Pan Oceanan soldiers. At this point in his life (other than Dalis and Elixi) he didn’t know anyone in this room. “Have you gotten bored of hunting the river tribes or are you here looking for a real job?” he whispered into Dalis’s ear.

    Dalis let out a soft chuckle “nah these people are paying the better money at the moment and I would have judged you for the cowardly types that are afraid to leave their own planet”.



    “And I see you have brought your pet Dog-face along with you” he growled but Dalis quickly interrupted.

    “Tread carefully Jacob, she’s fifteen and has developed a short temper.”

    Jacob looked at he face, was trying to listen to the briefing and keep her cool but her face was red and looked like she was about to explode.

    “Aww dose the stray dog-face want a block of chocolate” he teased but got an unexpected shock. She leapt over the chair and slogged him hard in the face with her fist repeatedly.

    “Dam Scottish, they fight each other, then they fight us” one of the Foxtrot brothers commented to the Pan Oceana lieutenant who was directing the briefing. Suddenly the Kazak veteran stood up. He was in full armor and still fully armed. “Other than the Antipodes you’re the worst thing on this planet” he warned, pointing at the foxtrots “and I don’t see why we have to work with you Americans”

    The Fusiliers and Orc troops sat comfortably in their chairs as the three started a fistfight in the center of the room. After a while the lieutenant got fed up with the fighting and shot the roof three times with his pistol “ENOUGH!” he shouted making them stop fighting “we’re all in this together so settle your differences in your own time because right now we have a rescue mission to conduct”



    Part 3


    The rest of the briefing was straight forward, a Pan Oceania outpost in the Dawn system had gone mysteriously silent and they were being sent to investigate.

    In the staging area inside the spaceship, Jacob was inspecting all the gear assembled in the hanger. Seven drop ships were lined up and ready to go as the Pan Oceania troops stocked up on as much supplies as they could hold from the endless supply of crates that were getting rushed in from the armoury. He could also see two kneeling T.A.G.’s in the far right, an Armoured Cavalry and a Guijia painted in an Ariadna woodland camouflage pattern. Nearby the T.A.G.s he saw Dalis fastening armour around Elixi’s body, making sure that it wouldn’t fall off during combat. “this is your first mission” Dalis explained handing her the heavy Chain rifles one at a time and she held them both like they were toy guns “I don’t know what’s going to happen, it may be some atmospheric interference, or it may be a strait out ambush, so ready yourself for anything”.

    Elixi had a black eye from the skirmish in the briefing room. Compared to the injuries the others sustained she got off quite lightly.

    Elixi did a few stretches to test her moment “do you think this will hold even if I change?”

    “The armour is Teseum plates with Kevlar lining and that material that designed to change shape with the wearer so it should, according to the company who made it” Dalis replied before he spotted Jacob heading towards him “what do you want Jacob you know that I don’t like you.”

    Jacob ignored the comment, even though he didn’t like him either he had to tell him since he was technically Ariadna “don’t you find the size of the force used in this investigation a bit odd?”

    “And the point is?” Dalis replied, not making eye contact to him “Jacob I mean this in a good way, you are the slowest person I have ever worked with. Pan Oceania wouldn’t commit this much resources and us to something like this but O-12 would, especially if there’s something important to them there”

    The moment Dalis finished the conversation the Armoured Cavalry T.A.G. activated, and stood up “ok ladies, pick a transport and hold on!” it barked before noticing Dalis “oh fate has been too kind on me, it’s been a while Dalis”.

    “Captain Seeker you’re the same coward I knew before I left, letting your remote presence T.A.G. do all the fighting, and just walk away and leave your men to die if everything doesn’t go to plan” Dalis sneered back before climbing into his Guijia.

    “Ok everyone hold on we’re behind schedule so we’re dropping in hard and fast!” the pilots warned before putting the drop ships into a nosedive towards the planet’s surface at insane speeds then pulled up at the last possible moment. From the view ports the outpost could be seen in the distance but was growing in size. It was like a small city in size surrounded by high walls of stone and steel. Surrounding the outpost was an endless sea of forest.
    ”This planet is like home” Elixi commented and Dalis gave a nod in acknowledgement.

    Dalis didn’t trust Seeker, keeping his finger on the Multi HMG’s trigger. He’s been betrayed twice by him and wont he wasn’t planing to let it happen a third time.


    Finally the drop ships landed outside the main gate, the Fusiliers took up defensive positions around the main gate as the hacker worked on the console. “Hurry up hacker, I don’t like being exposed like this” seeker barked he scanned the Forrest for movement.

    The hacker stoped for a second “sir this is not like controlling remotes, one false step and we’ll be locked out here for hours if we’re lucky.”

    Suddenly the Kazak veteran noticed a strange set of footprints (that looked like a boot print with three bumps at the tip spread out from each other) leading into the forest and signalled to his men to scout the forest “contact us when you have found a way in.”

    Swiftly the Kazaks disappeared into the forest leaving everyone else to wait at the gate.

    “Oh yeah hail to the king!” the hacker yelled in triumph as the doors slid open.

    “I’ll go in first” Dalis spoke, stepping over some Fusiliers then carefully looked around the door. The street was empty so he did the hand sign for all clear, letting all the things smaller than his T.A.G. move past.

    “Hey Elixi” seeker called to get her attention “aren’t you dog-face?” She clenched her teeth and nodded. “Then what are you doing down here for, leap up onto the rooftops and tell us what you see!”

    Suppressing her anger she leapt up onto the roof of the tallest building in that area that would give her the best view of the city “I see nothing, the entire outpost is empty.”


    Back in the forest the Kazak veteran was tracking the footprints deeper into the forest the bushes were getting denser making it harder to follow then suddenly he saw something he had never saw before it was humanoid with a red face, long white mane with three horns sticking out of it (one on the top of its head and the other two were human ears are suppose to be) and wore advanced armour. Both of them froze on the spot hoping that the other didn’t see them, and then instinctively they both dropped and rolled to cover “CONTACT! WE HAVE CONTACT!”



    Part 4


    “Repeat we are under attack” the Kazak Veteran shouted into his radio in his left hand and fired his AP-HMG into the presumed location of the creature with his right. There was no reply from the other end other than static. “God damit I’m not kidding, my snipers are getting shot at!”

    In the distance trees started to collapse as something the size of a T.A.G. forced its way through the forest. Its shape kept on distorting and surging with electricity. It stretched out one of its arm towards them before a jet of flame shot out setting the area ablaze and barely missed them.

    “I think its time for us to disappear” one of the scouts suggested to the veteran.

    “I second that” the veteran muttered, upholstering his light flame thrower and used it to make fire wall that will mask their escape. “Somebody respond!” he shouted into the radio, running for his life and only pausing for a second to shoot at his pursuers.


    “What do you mean nothing” Seeker shouted up to her not noticing that Dalis, Jacob and the foxtrot brothers have disappeared.

    Elixi leaned over the edge to reply “it’s exactly that, the outpost is deserted and there is no sign of conflict. Its like they packed up and left”. Suddenly she spotted smoke coming from Kazak’s direction “hey what is that?”

    “Yeah the Kazaks report that they ran into one of the outpost’s traps and were forced to destroy it” Seeker lied before moving on to the central building, leaving the rest of the Pan Oceania to spread out and search. Unlike everyone else Seeker knew what he was looking for and where to find it. The personal were a secondary objective to him, the real objective was the data stored inside the central computer and must be secured and transmitted back to the ship. The moment he stood outside the small bunker he remotely accessed the computer and started to redirect it but he didn’t know that Dalis was observing him from a safe distance. Suddenly the sound of gunfire was heard coming from the gate making them both investigate.


    The Kazak troops were laying down a heavy rain of suppressive fire as they made their way through the gates. Suddenly there were two loud booms as the T.A.G.s fired explosive rounds from around the corner into the two closet creatures. “About time you showed up, what have you been up to?” Dalis greeted, firing a few more voiles before reloading.

    The two scouts fled into the building to get cover advantage while the line (and veteran) Kazak continued to fire into the wave of humanoids. “What do you mean? We’re been trying to radio help for half an hour now” the veteran growled back “what the hell are these things?”

    “Morats” Seeker replied “the foot soldiers of an alien Combine force”

    Without warning one of the Morats had broken through the ever increasing defence line and had made a run for seeker and in retaliation seeker stepped out into clear view, rasing his rife to shoulder fire “bring it on alien!” But before he could claim his kill the Morat collapse onto the ground, dead by a perfect headshot. Seeker glanced behind him. At an extreme distance, lying prone in the deactivated communication dish he could see the stealth camouflage outline and the extremely large amount of muzzle smoke of the SAS sniper, Jacob. Suddenly his camouflage broke for a split second as he fired three more shots at Morats in the distance with perfect precision and marksmanship.

    “Dam sniper…” seeker muttered before going back to shooting.

    Without no warning whatsoever the radio became active again “this is squad bravo we’re at the second gate and are under attack by Morats and the Aridana troops are useless, they keep asking if they allowed to blow stuff up?”

    Seeker paused for a second to think but Dalis interrupted is line of thought “just give them permission” he shouted to seeker, switching the setting on his Multi-HMG to heavy Grenade launcher and guessed the angle needed to hit something outside the other gate and barely succeeded with no casualties.

    “Hello is this thin on?” a Foxtrot spoke through the radio “so you’re saying we’re allowed to blow up anything?”

    “Affirmative Foxtrot rangers, you have green light to fire at will”.

    Within a split second the Foxtrot bothers emptied their backpacks onto the floor before them revealing an assortment of landmines, grenade rounds and an assortment of explosive devices they could get their hands on. ”what should we use first?”

    “The grenades!” an Orc troop replied with frustration as he held his HMG single handed leaving the other free for what ever he could take from them to throw.

    Suddenly there was laughter coming from the Foxtrot Brothers. He didn’t know why until it was too late to react. The launched all the light grenade launcher rounds in a quick succession on angle so they all came down at one making a huge fragmentation bombardment causing the gate to give way and instantly killing the wave of Morats that were caught under it. “Hey give us a hand, that had bought us time and there is still so much fun installed for them” the third foxtrot brother called to the orc troop and his Fusiliers, juggling a personal mine in his hand.



    Part 5 final


    As the rear gate collapsed the fighting at the main gate seemed to die down “what they’re retreating?” a line Kazak pointed out while Dalis had took cover to reload and Seeker moved to flank. Suddenly the moment he stepped out to take a shot and the missile warning lights went ballistic and automatically lunched decoy flares but it was travelling too fast to be one and it was to late to dodge it and slammed hard into the rear armour of the T.A.G. The damage was minor but the computers were scrambled leaving him open for attacks.

    “Come on RESTART!” Dalis shouted to the T.A.G. before getting struck by another E/M shot, toppling the T.A.G. onto its side. Finally he got the optical sensors working again and saw the enemy’s grand plan; the attacks on the gates were a distraction, the enemy was waiting for them inside the upper floors of the buildings and they were now ready to spring their trap. “Come on you piece of junk, MOVE!”

    Up on the satellite dish Jacob was still taking shots up the street. He saw Dalis immobile on the ground and once again despite his dream was soon to become true (having a front row seat to his death) he decided to track where the E/M shots were coming from and what luck, it was coming from directly below the dish. Quietly he connected a cable to the underside of the dish, slowly sliding down it head first still in a position to snipe from the inverted angle and had a perfect shot on the creature. The creature looked like a small bipedal robot no larger than a human and a weapon for the left arm. But before he could pull the trigger he spotted three Morats with some large weaponry patrolling the perimeter so he decided to this the silent way. He lowered himself to neck height, unsheathed his AP knife with one hand and grabbed the creatures head with his free arm before jerking it off the ground and slicing it clean off its body. “Too easy” he thought to himself while he silently climbed back up to his spot.


    Finally all the T.A.G.’s computer reset “about time!” Dalis growled before climbing back onto his feet and leaping out of the way of the oncoming fire. His rifle main function was totalled but the flamethrower still worked perfectly which he demonstrated to a group of Morats inside the building.

    Quickly he stepped back around the building to dump his now useless rifle and found seeker there taking a few shots before moving on to the next piece of cover “So much for your pet dogface for being loyal, it’s probably hiding in a corner” he teased.

    “I’m surprised that you aren’t” Dalis sneered before changing the channel to Elixi’s “what are you up to?”

    “Not so loud, I’m stalking pack weird creatures, I’m behind them on the upper floor of the building near the gate” Elixi whispered into her radio while she watched them from under the desk.

    Dalis listened to her excuse while he rolled out of the way of incoming fire from the opposite end of the street behind “then why are you not shooting them?” he shouted into the radio ignoring her request but he already knew the answer (fire only if fired at) “listen hang O-12 rules, we’re under attack from all sides and you have the upper hand on them so fire at will in take the wrath later for it”

    Suddenly all the windows above Dalis shattered as white hot slugs of Chain Rifle blasted through, killing many Morats instantly and critically wounding the ones not quick enough the dodge. Griped by the frenzy she leapt out of the window after them and hit the ground hard feet first. The pain combined with the rage she had stored up was enough to flip her into a dog-warrior, greatly expanding in size and taking a doglike appearance. Now standing equal in size to a T.A.G. she let out a terrifying howl before turning her attention to the Morats. The charged the closet, putting all her strength into the swing of he left Chain Rifle and struck the Morat with so much force that it shattered the weapon into thousands of metal shards that inflicted damage on all the Morats close by.

    Dalis watched helplessly as she brutally slaughtered her way through the Morats. No matter how any shots landed true, her armour and her body just easily shrugged it off and used it to maintain her frenzy. In the back of Dais’s mind he knew if he tried to calm her down she would tear him apart.

    “Control her!” the Kazak Veteran shouted while he watched Elixi slam a Morat into the ground and shot it in the back of the head before leaping to another and bit it across the thought. Suddenly he spotted the giant form the forest “Seeker since you’re the expert can you tell us what the hell is that thing!”

    Suddenly the behemoth stoped walking towards them and fired a volley from its wrist and building and the building protecting a squad of Fusiliers and collapsed under the magnitude of the explosive rounds “IT’S AN AVATAR! ALL FORCES IF YOU’RE STILL ALIVE GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND AID THE MAIN GATE!”

    Elixi spotted the Avatar. She holstered her Chain Rifle and unsheathed her claymore and charged at the Avatar.

    “Elixi don’t!”

    The Avatar took aim at Elixi but randomly changed it’s stance to a close combat as a headed toward her she mindlessly ran through it with no effect. She lunged, it swung and she was easily cast aside before it moved towards the city.

    Finally the units assigned to defend the rear gate (and Jacob) had arrived and took up defensive a position around the rubble of the destroyed building.

    The Avatar now had stepped through the gate and activated it’s flamethrower in a sweeping motion making the front lines leap out of the cover and right before the Avatar. The Pan Oceania soldiers that survived flame blast raised their rifles and opened fire at it but it once again released the mist which made them freeze on the spot.

    “Chris are you ok man?” a Fusilier called to a Orc troop. Then without warning the soldiers exposed to the mist turned on their comrades sending confusion through the defender’s lines. “They’re possessed shoot them!”

    Suddenly Dalis drew his T.A.G.’s combat knife and ran at the Avatar ignoring the hostile fire from its puppets “common you monster lets settle this here, loser declares submission!” he called to it.

    Strangely the Avatar understood what he was saying and commanded a cease fire amongst the puppets.

    “What do you think your doing Dalis” Seeker demanded as Dalis walked past his position.

    “I getting my sister and going to buy us some time for reinforcements”.

    Seeker let slip a grin (despite not even being on that planet) this was working out too well.

    The two T.A.G.s closed in on each other in a fierce mallee, Dalis swung and the Avatar blocked then retaliated, also only hit air as Dalis ducked. Dalis swung again but this time it cleaved through its multi weapon system causing a loud bang, waking Elixi up but it had caught his arm and now had him by the thought. Seeing that Dalis was in danger, Elixi step into the fray, leaping onto the Avatar’s back, trusting her claymore into its arm joint, freeing her bother and igniting the battle one again between the smaller forces.

    Seeing this as an opportunity to abuse the order from before the Foxtrot brothers had revealed that they had smuggled a few extra grenade launcher rounds in their unused ammo pouch on their webbing and used them on a small building to rain shards of glass and metal onto the traitors, effectively killing all of them “what? the boss said we could blow up anything!”

    The moment everyone was distracted by the minor fireworks, seeker slipped back into the heart of the city “hacker report your status with the upload”.

    “Its complete sir” the hacker replied through the radio “now can you call the drop ships to pick us up?”

    “I’m doing it right now” he half lied back before changing the channel “all gunships unload you entire magazines into the city, I want nothing left and to disobey this order will mean death by firing squad”.

    As the Avatar fell the defenders let out a roaring cheer in victory, Elixi had dealt the deathblow but it quickly drowned out as an all seeker announced his treachery over all radio frequencies. “Good work for putting on a good show while I succeeded with the real objective. There were never was any staff at this outpost, being automated an all but when the combine army landed on this planet, they deactivated the communication tower so we had to send a group to retrieve the data that was piling up here and remove the threat” he monologue before laughing and deactivating his T.A.G. “I have the data and all that’s left to do is clean up and make it look like an generator overload, enjoy your last moments alive Dalis”

    Suddenly the sky lit up like stars at night as the gunships fired the missile batteries from high orbit into the outpost. Everyone scattered to take shelter in what ever building they could run to.

    Dalis couldn’t escape his T.A.G. since the entry point was jammed shut so he focused on trying to disarm as many incoming missiles in this area as possible to give everyone a chance while Elixi took cover behind him expending the remaining ammo in her chain rifle in attempt to cause areal explosions that will cause a chain reaction. The missiles were striking everything around them while the disarmed shells bounced harmlessly off his armour and the surrounding buildings. The fight for survival lasted for twenty good minutes until the ECM pod gave in and let one strike the T.A.G.s front armour with full force. In the aftermath Jacob climbed out of the rubble along with a group of Fusiliers and saw that the Kazaks and the foxtrot brothers made it out ok then he saw Dais’s T.A.G. still standing despite having a large hole on it left side exposing the cabin.

    “Elixi remind me to shoot seeker the next time I see him” Dalis joked to confirm that he was alive to her before making the T.A.G. give the thumbs up sign. His face was covered in blood from the missile breach into the cabin.

    The after a while the radio sprang to life with the hackers voice “this is privet terry Steven, anyone who survived the bombardment should meet up with me in the main computer bunker, I have something that you need to see.


    Back in the nomad bar Jacob took another sip of his drink and thought about the message. If he didn’t see the backup recording back then, he wouldn’t be following Dalis on his Crusade for the object code named Eden

    Chapter 2 the old ties


    The moment the drinking was over they wondered back into their accommodation (the cargo hold) with loud random comments about things and the occasional cursing in their own languages (Archaic English etc) until they walked through the hatch into the holds to find a sleeping Elixi in the bunk bed next to Dalis’s bed she was hugging a Chain rifle tightly like a stuffed bear and its muzzle was angled towards the other beds

    “You know for the safety and comfort of the rest of our merry little band I think its your turn to try to remove that from her” Jacob said drunkly, patting the Kazak veteran on the shoulder.

    “you coward! You’re only getting me to do this because you are afraid she’ll use it on you” he retorted before fixing his mask back to his helmet “fine, I’ll show you how it’s done.” Everyone went quiet as he carefully walked towards Elixi. As he looked at her she appeared to be soundly asleep. Slowly he reached for the rifle, under his helmet and mask he was sweating with fear. He has seen what she has done to people invading her personal space, especially to people who were playing this little game.

    “Mikhail I have no quarrel with you but I’ll warn you, if you try to touch me I will make a point of making sure that you don’t live another day.”

    Suddenly Mikhail yelped while Elixi had swiftly caught his arm and almost twisted it to the point of breaking and everyone that was a spectator was now in fits of laughter while they handed cash to the winners of the bet and woke up Dalis.

    “Come on everyone, some people are trying to sleep here” Dalis groaned before rolling so he wasn’t facing them anymore.

    As everyone climbed into their beds, Jacob could see Elixi lining him up with the rifle “Dalis tell Elixi to put that away”.

    “Jacob, you complain like a five year old” she laughed making everyone chuckle.

    “First of all, Jacob shut up and second Elixi put that toy away” Dalis ordered. He just wanted this to end so he could sleep.

    She quietly got up and placed the chain rifle into one of the crates and removed a missile launcher “is this more to your liking?”


    Ten hours later….


    After everyone had been woken up the Interventor entered the room with a hologram projector.

    “I have just been in contact with my home ship the TUNGUSKA and they have an important job that we’re paying the fragment of data you have wanted, up front”. The Interventor haded a small disk to Dalis then pressed a button on the projector making the machine spring to life then Interventor began the briefing. They were going to Yu Jing’s sea side to ‘remove’ a certain officer in charge of the research facility. Jacob was the shooter, Dalis was support and the rest were backup.

    “Hold on, we are mercs not assassins. why are you giving us a job outside our speciality?” Dalis questioned.

    “You have been given this job because your specialty is sabotage and that is the other half of the requirement” the Interventor replied before continuing on with the briefing. The second half of the mission included the support and backup groups launching a raid on that base and destroy as much of the research projects before making a run to the extraction point. Everything was prepared with an O-12 transport ride to the surface and a cover that they were on vacation.

    There was a sudden bump as large transport ship docked with the loading bay “load up your equipment” Dalis ordered while he jumped into to his T.A.G. “we’re moving out”

    As usual the transport pilot was in a hurry to get rid of them, dropping into a deep dive towards the planet making everyone almost weightless until he levelled sharply sending Everone crashing into their seats. Dalis stumbled to the view port. Below them was the ocean before the docks “ok this is the weapon drop point” the pilot shouted over the four engines as he placed the vehicle into a hover “make sure you have put your weapons in the black case strapped to the cutter before I drop it in”

    “Just drop the T.A.G” Dalis replied impatiently. And just like that the aft of the transport sealed and released the T.A.G into the water under TO camouflage coming into land.

    As they disembarked from the transport they all took a good note of their surrounding. Every building in this small hill town was designed and built to in the ancient way, centuries before Yu Jing was founded.

    “Hey Elixi how far do you think the peak of the hill is from this point” Dalis asked his little sister with a smile.

    “I say a few good kilometres” she replied, knowing what he was getting at “I’ll stick to the roads, you do what you want and the winner is the one who gets to the highest point first!” before Dalis could say anything thing more Elixi had taken a head start.

    “Take the day off, we strike tonight” he told everyone before leaping over a fence.

    The moment they were both out of sight Mikhail decided to share his thoughts on Dalis “even though we have been tagging along with him for seven years, I still have no idea about his past”.

    “I have tried looking into his military records once but something had beaten me to them and deleted it” the hacker added “the only thing I could find about him was his name”.

    “Who cares, what we should be talking about is how do we get to this ‘Eden’ we’ve been searching for before anyone else dose especial that arse hole named Seeker” Jacob interrupted as he walked through them with his hands in his pockets.

    Within the shadows between the alleys a ninja crouched patiently observing it targets of an opportunity it TO camouflage helped it blend into the little cover it had available. “This is ‘Kitsume’, I have made contacts with the targets, I’m awaiting your order” she spoke softly into her helmet radio, clutching her sword tightly.
    ”Just continue to observe ‘Kitsume’ I want to know why they’re here before I order you to go further”



    Part 2


    Dusk has fallen onto the small town and Elixi was sitting on the edge of the docks keeping a sharp eye on the surroundings while he ate. She knew that if she followed the waterline to the west and over the cliff she will find both targets waiting for her and the rest of the group. Finally the last fishing crew had closed their shed before they left. Quietly she took a pebble from her pocket and dropped it into the water and in response the invisible Cutter climbed out of the water.

    “I thought you despised remote presence” she remarked to the T.A.G. before taking another bite from her slice of bread.

    The Cutter kept its silence while it headed west with Elixi slowly tagging along.

    The moment it reached the cliff it deactivated it’s TO camouflage and dropped the bag in front of everyone so they could collect the equipment. “You’re right Elixi” Dalis replied are he observed the research facility through an X-visor from the edge of the cliff “that’s why Brandon had carried his hacking gear as personal luggage off the ship.”

    Swiftly Jacob threw his optical camouflage netting over his body before planting the grounding hooks for his repelling lines. “I’ll see you all on the other side” he spoke with a smile before he made his first jump down the cliff.

    “We better get ready as well” Dalis suggested as he slipped into the Cutter like it was large set of combat armour.


    Jacob had now reached the base of the cliff and surveyed his surroundings. The research facility was a single large bunker in the centre with hangers and barracks surrounding it. Outside of that was a simple chain linked fence and to the east was the perfect elevated position to take his shot from. His target will be commencing his inspection of the troops outside the bunker soon.

    After counting all the security personal he turned on his radio and spoke quietly “This is Jacob, I’m about to move to checkpoint bravo, the security is tight are you sure you want to go through with it?”

    “We have been paid in advance so we have no choice but to do it” Dalis responded almost instantly “the longer we leave this job, the harder it’s going to get”

    Suddenly Jacob dropped to the ground and rapidly blended in with the surroundings, he had been spotted but fortunately the Keisotsu only noticed something moving out into the open so he called two of his brethrens to investigate.

    Cautiously the two Keisotsu moved to where Jacob was hiding. In reaction Jacob slowly reached for his pistol just in case if he needed it. They were now only a meter distance away from him and looking in his direction.

    “Go away, go away” Jacob kept saying in his head. His instincts were telling him to take them out right now but even if he succeeded in taking them out silently it would only take seconds for the Keisotsu back at the fence to realise what was going on.
    ”Outer patrol here, all clear” the first Keisotsu reported into his radio.

    Jacob let out a quiet sigh of relief.

    “And I’m telling you I saw something out there, look harder” the radio squawked back.

    The moment they confirmed the request the Keisotsu had moved so close to his location the second Keisotsu was standing on his free hand.

    Jacob felt like it was going to crush his hand; he couldn’t let his presence be known so he bit his lip to prevent himself from making any noise.

    “Outer patrol here, have you had your sight checked lately, there’s nothing here but rocks and grass”.

    Finally the Keisotsu stepped off his hand they booth took one last look before jogging back to the base giving Jacob the chance to make a run for his sniping point. Time was running out, the officer had begun the inspection and was half way.

    As he made it to the shooting point, dived to the ground and quickly set up his sniper rifle. The office was almost finished

    “Don’t you think you are cutting this a little too close to the deadline?” Dalis asked over the radio while Jacob took aim.

    “Nope” was Jacobs only reply before taking a deep breath to steady his aim then pulled the trigger.




    “Target eliminated…”



    Part 3



    “Now!” Dalis announced before leaping off the edge of the edge with elixir following suit.

    “Is it just me or did he just jump his T.A.G. off the edge” Michail asked to make sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him but within seconds the loud bang of a four tone T.A.G. hitting the ground hard confirmed what he saw “shit they saw them, draw their attention up here!”

    Seising the opportunity presented buy the overhead suppressive fire he quickly reset his TO camouflage and made a charge for the bunker. The night sky was lit up by the exchange of tracer fire as the base’s troops engaged with the Mercs up on the cliff. As the long distance gunfight raged, elixir and Dalis had reached the fence, she leaped the fence he just simply ran through it like it didn’t exist, skidding to a halt and opened fire onto the other T.A.G.s with his multi-HMG set on explosive rounds. His primary target had dived behind the barracks the moment Dalis had opened fire and within seconds the barracks was reduced to nothing but smoke and rubble. Before he could get the chance to correct his aim the other Gujia barged into him hard enough it knocked Dalis to the ground and broke one of his fins. He glanced at his opponent the Gujia pilot had kicked the multi HMG out of Dalis’ Cutter’s hand and was standing outside of striking distance, he is a professional and he want Dalis alive.

    Back on top of the hill the foxtrot were running out of ammo and wanted to get a hold of the ‘bigger toys’. “Can we use it yet?” they constantly winged in sync to Michail.

    “No!”

    “How about now?”

    “No. your three are like god damn children”

    “We aim to please, what about now?”

    Finally Michail cracked “fine use it”.

    Within a split second the foxtrot brothers had dived into the black bag and pulled out three Pan Oceaninan rocket launchers all three had ‘anger management’ stencilled onto the side.

    “You know you’re not allowed to have them” a Fusilier growled and a foxtrot poked his tongue out in reply.

    “Just watch us”.

    There was a large blast of smoke as they activated the launchers, sending the missiles on a flight path into the bunker complex, piercing mutable levels before detonating near a highly volatile prototype T.A.G. the combined explosion ripped the base apart and made the battle field even more of a dangerous place. Now that he had a chance to escape he was going to use it. As the enemy Gujia tried to maintain it balance Dalis haste fully made a rolled the Cutter to be in reach of his rifle but as he came into contact with it the enemy Gujia had pressed its mechanical foot onto his back “your T.A.G. is too cumbersome to try anything stupid like that” the pilot sneered.

    Dalis let out a short laugh “doesn’t this bring back memories right elixi?”

    On command she jumped onto the Gujia’s back (still in dog-face form) and plunged her claymore straight through the cockpit. Her blade had hit its mark and the Gujia came crashing down next to Dalis.

    Quickly he climbed back onto his feet and laid down a barrage of explosive rounds. His drum magazine was almost empty and the fire select motor was franticly cycling through the drum for available explosive rounds.

    “Good work everyone it time to retreat” Dalis said lightly “Elixi and I will take a detour to the extraction point through the woods to loose any followers”.

    “Roger that” Jacob answered over the radio

    “Have fun” Michail added.



    On the edge of the forest the ninja, Kitsume observed the entire battle through the scope of her sniper rifle “sir Dalis appears to have completed his objective and is now fleeing the scene before reinforcements arrive”

    “Don’t let him escape but I want him alive!” the voice ordered on the other end of the radio.



    Dalis had just made it past the other side of the base, all he had to do was jump the fence and a short run to the forest and they would be all down hill from here. Suddenly something hit his T.A.G.’s leg joint causing it to lock up and fall onto the ground. Now that his T.A.G was useless he pulled the emergency release handle and made continued his run on foot.

    Elixi was way ahead of Dalis when his Cutter failed but she still saw it and turn around to go save him again. She needed the extra speed and strength so she forced herself to change by stabbing her own arm with her claymore. The pain was enough to warrant the change and she dashed towards him at incredible speeds, picking him up in one hand then made dashed into the forest only to meet an entire company of Gujias.



    Part 4


    Back at the seaside city docks the mercenaries we disguised as maintenance workers pretending to repair the O-12 transport as they waited for Dalis and Elixi to arrive.

    Mikhail quickly took a look around the corner of the ship. The security forces presence was rapidly increasing and the longer they waited, the sooner this illusion will be discovered. Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder which mad him jump “technician how long is this going to take we need this area vacated as soon possible”.

    Slowly he turned around to face the Keisotsu and let out a fake sigh “no offence sir but it will take some more time and I want to leave as soon as possible also we’re not getting paid by the hour”

    “Just get it done within the hour or we’ll replace you with our own” the Keisotsu growled before going back to his patrol.

    The moment the Keisotsu was out of Mikhail’s sight he ducked back into the cargo hold and observed Brendan hack into the military network “what’s taking you so long”

    Brendan deactivated his interface and looked him in the eyes. “I said this millions of times and I’ll say it to you again, if you want me to work faster stop bothering me” he growled before going back to work “if you haven’t noticed this part of Yu Jing is in high alert meaning that the information we’re looking for, if its there will be heavily guarded”

    “Yeah, yeah I know, one false step and we’ll be locked out for hours if lucky”

    “This one is more like one false step and the counter hackers will fry my mind and your next destination will be the firing squad” Brendan warned.

    “Just shout out the computer is fine if you find something”.

    As he stepped out of the ship he pressed his hand to his face in disappointment, the foxtrot brothers had found the blowtorches and welding tools and now were attempting to burn each other with them as everyone else pretended to work.

    “Cant you three do something constructive in your life?” he snarled after he took the welding tools off them no “get inside the transport and don’t move a muscle”

    Suddenly Brendan came running out of the transport “the problems fixed we better leave now!” he panted.

    Quickly everyone rushed into the transport as the engines roared to life. The moment everyone had fastened themselves into a seat Brendan began to explain what he found.

    “The short version is they’re caught. The long version is they’re caught and due to be executed two weeks from now in their hidden maximum security prison on the edge of human space”.

    “Cant we just go and save them now?” Jacob asked while he tightened his grip on his sniper rifle.

    Brendan activated his external interface the image was a real-time satellite photo of Dalis and Elixi’s current location. The escort consisted of Guijias, Hac Taos, Invincibles and Hsien “as you can see they have an escort large enough to put the emperor’s military escort to shame”.

    “Then what can we do?” a Fusilier asked.

    “Dalis’ exit strategy” Mikhail answered “he has made a fund for an occasion like this. We all get an even share of the money and use it to gather enough resources for a prison break”

    “So we all go our sperate ways and hope to god we can ‘acquire’ the equipment and or manpower to do it” Jacob added “so lets make this interesting”

    “Interesting as in a competition for the best plan?” Brendan asked

    “And the teams are?” Mikhail added with a growing smile on his face

    “Pan ‘O vs. Ariadna”.


    Part 5

    It has been three days since the group had went separate ways. The Pan Oceania group (lead by Brendan) had travelled around the sphere getting in contact with military people that owed him or the any other forgotten a favour or two. Now there was one left and it was the prison warden of that prison. They had agreed to meet him in on the caravansarie closest to Yu Jing. The warden was a giant amongst his comrades and always made sure that he commanded respect from them no matter the occasion.

    “Ok I’m here what do you want?” he demanded the moment he saw Brendan and his two Fusiliers.

    “It’s Dalis we know he’s in your prison and we need your help to get him…” Braden began but the warden quickly interrupted.

    “If you called me here to release him I cant. Do you even know what charges has been pinned on him”

    “All we ask is that you turn his T.A.G. on at 333 hours this day next week we know it has been moved there for repairs and research”

    “If I listen to this I’m going to lose my job” he snorted before he began to walk away.

    “You owe him Bu, you know if it wasn’t for him you would have been a forgotten like us after your commander left your squad for dead” Brendan shouted before he disappeared from his sight “he will do it, his honour dictates it”.


    Inside the prison Dalis and Elixi were being held in the interrogation chamber. They were both chained to chairs and Dalis was heavily bruised from the beatings he received for every question he answered incorrectly.

    “I’m going to ask again, what is ‘Eden’” the interrogator questioned while he adjusted his glasses.

    “Eden? Isn’t that a new form of breakfast cereal?” Dalis lied with a huge smirk and coped a pistol whip across the face from the guards.

    “No, no you got it all wrong wasn’t Eden a place in that book you read to me when I was 11 and I told you to burn the book and go to hell” Elixi added to lure the guard into hitting her but he took a step towards her, hesitated then smashed the butt of his rifle into Dalis’ chest “oh come on you racist prick, he makes a comment and you hit him but when I make one you still hit him”. Finally she got what she wanted the guard went to strike her but before he could land a blow she lunged forward and bit him on the arm drawing blood before being kicked backwards toppling her chair.

    “Stupid dog-face”


    Inside the warden’s office Bu watched the interrogation from his monitor. Clearly Dalis wasn’t going to break, especially if Elixi was in his presence and they both were making a mockery of it. He thought what Brendan told him, he did owe him but just getting someone to turn on a T.A.G. doesn’t even the debt. He looked at an official paper demanding that the Pan Oceania’s military want their Cutter back and they were arriving this day next week at 333 hours (he knew it had to have come from Brendan). It also thinking about this lead to thinking about this job. This job was an insult to his skill as a efficient soldier, he preferred to be back on the battlefield where every choice was split second. He had to do something more to help. After a while he heard a knock on his door before a prisoner and his escorts entered the room. One of them dropped a make shift knife onto his table. “Leave us” Bu ordered. The moment the guards left the room he pick up the knife and twirled it in his hand “do you know you can get the firing squad for this?” he growled while he walked around the prisoner. “Fortunately I have a use for you, this day next week at 333 hours I want you to start a riot with the other prisoners”.

    “And what do I get out of this boss?” the prisoner demanded.

    Bu held out his knife to the prisoner “you get this back and there wont be and you walk out of this room with your life”.

    “What ever you say boss” the prisoner agreed taking the knife and concealed it back into he clothing. He didn’t care what was the reason for this, all he cared he was getting out of this Scott free and he had a chance for revenge on the people he hated.


    A week later…..

    “So how did your plan go?” Brendan asked Mikhail as he watched the prison through an X-visor.

    “Just living up to my name” he answered back before w whistled like a bird and an entire tank hunting company (half of them were armed with Autocannons), plenty of scouts, and a squad of S.A.S came out of hiding in the dirt “how about you?”

    “just sit back and enjoy the show”.

    Part 6 finally.

    Brendan began to watch his timer then stated to count down “10 seconds to 0333 hours, 5..4..3..2..1.”
    On cue the riot sirens began to whine as smoke and fire started to pour out of the main compound and into the night sky. Suddenly the sirens were drowned out by a new sound, a sound that sounded like aircraft turbines and they were coming from behind them at tremendous speeds. Two Pan Oceania low orbit gunships flew past them and commenced strafing runs on the prison walls.
    Watching this all unfold before them Mikhail gave Brendan a look in amazement. “Mikhail this is only the tip of the iceberg of what I planned, Pan’O always looks for an excuse to attack Yu Jing” Brendan informed everyone before he activated his hacking device that was displaying the cutter’s vision “this is going to the biggest relay network hack ever to be done”.

    Inside the vehicle loading hanger the cutter was securely fastened to the ground by thick harnesses and surrounded by 7 active and armed Guijias.
    “I need a distraction to get free of the bindings” Brendan requested before transferring the cutters view to his external screen (Jacob had now became interested what he was planning to do with Dalis’ T.A.G.).
    Mikhail gave him a nod before turning to his troops “ok men it’s time to make us a door”. With a sense or urgency the tank hunters formed up into two lines (front line consisted of shoulder mounted autocanons, second line were the loaders) and braced up ready to open fire on Mikhail’s command.
    “Fire!”
    The combined barrage lit up the area like a giant fireball with the shouts of the loading teams co-ordinating with their gunners over the constant loud booms of the oversized weapons. Within seconds the results began to show as the outer wall exploded into a rain of stone and metal and the guards and some of the T.A.G.s came rushing like angry hornets out to face the new threat. Now that their attention had been drawn away from the cutter Brendan possessed it with relative ease. Not wasting any time he launched a surprise attack on an unsuspecting T.A.G., tackling it to the ground then sending the cutter’s fist through the pilot’s cabin then ‘liberated’ its MULTI HMG.
    “Look out!” Jacob shouted as he pointed to a Guijia reading to shoot the Cutter in the holographic projection.
    “shut up I know!” Brendan shouted back, rolling the T.A.G. out of the line of fire and shot back, taking it out plus knocking another through the wall into the main prison grounds although it didn’t really inflict any damage.
    “Hello can anyone hear me?” Dalis’ voice called through the radio network “this is a one way communication so don’t bother talking back. Elixi and I are held up in a storage room at the west corner of inner prison”
    After the transmition ended Jacob slapped Brendan on the arm “you know where he is, get them!”
    The cutter had now stepped though the hole leading into the main prison grounds. The ground was littered with bodies of prisoners who tried to escape and were caught between the crossfire of the gunships and the HMG wall turrets, the ones that did survive were trying to force the downed T.A.G.s pilots out of their machines. Since Brendan didn’t want to attract the attention of either party he activated the TO camouflage and walked along the wall line and into the main entrance to the inner prison only to meet a blast door and another four Guijias guarding the door.
    “Now how are you going to pull this one off Mr. Hacker?” Jacob joked, not expecting an answer from him.
    “this is ground crew to the TUNGUSKA are you ready to live up to your end of the bargain?”
    suddenly the external interface on Brendan’s hacking equipment went into complete static then within a blink of an eye the image returned in a completely new (Nomad) interface and in the distance the Guijias were going berserk shooting each other as the blast doors began to open up to allow the cutter to pass through. With the added support of 11 more hackers, this is going to be a walk in the park.

    Dalis and Elixi waited patiently in storage room. The place was quite large with only one way in or out (which was barricaded with crates). They both had plenty of ammo even with Elixi welding two assault shotguns and a HMG in her dog-warrior form. “How long are they going to take!” he shouted out of impatiently, kicking a steel crate half her size across the room.
    Dalis was sitting on the corpse of the interrogator checking the ammo reserve of his combi rifle “don’t worry they’ll be here” he answered before he heard people trying to barge the door open and the boxes were starting to give way “get ready elixi”.
    Suddenly the barging to banging and screams followed by a few gunshots aimed somewhere in the opposite direction before going completely silent.
    Cautiously Dalis moved to the door with his rifle trained on it. He peeked through the gap in the door and saw guards and parishioners alike dead with their heads sliced clean off “what the fuck is going on?” the moment he assessed the cost is clear he silently signaled elixi to follow then slipped through the door to see the cutter waiting for him under TO “is this your handy work?” Brendan asked before he opened the T.A.G. cockpit.
    “nope but I wonder who did” Dalis replied after he climbed in “lets get out of here”.

    “This it Kitsume mission complete” the ninja whispered the moment the two were out of her sight.
    “this is seeker great work Kitsume, return back to the ship we got what we needed on our end”
     
    #1 dhellfox, Dec 24, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2019
    Noir Kara, Teleute and daszul like this.
  2. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    Chapter 3 another Ariadna offence.


    Part 1



    The extraction from the battlegrounds was quick and simple. Hours before the operation began he had informed O-12 of the illegal prison and received the ‘rights’ to be their forward scout. Now that O-12 has arrived. Nomads and Pan Oceania had quickly made themselves scarce from the scene.


    The moment the cutter and Elixi had regrouped with the rest of the forgotten inside the drop ship, Elixi greeted Jacob with her fist to his face “back at the last job you were supposed to provide me sniper, but no you had to shoot me in the back!”


    “I still stand by what is the truth, my finger slipped” Jacob said in his defence before Elixi struck him down again.


    “Hey Elixi settle this later. I think we have over stayed our welcome enough” Dalis ordered while he climbed out of his Cutter “plus in you current state (Dog-warrior) I bet there’s going to be plenty of eager playmates the moment we reach the O-12 ship in high orbit.”


    Taking Dalis’ advice she gave him a shrug before she sat down to try to calm herself before take off.



    Minutes later…


    The drop ship had finally finished its docking procedures and its loading ramps were dropped for the hanger crew to attend with the necessary unloading of equipment and medical treatments while the passengers disembarked.


    “Lieutenant Dalis Shadowsight I have an important message for you” a Fusilier officer called to Dalis before he gave him the note.


    Dalis read the note twice to make sure what it said while making keeping it out of Elixi’s sight. “Foxtrots, take the Tank hunter company to the cafeteria, they deserve a drink” he requested.


    “I been looking forward to this all day” one of the bothers acknowledged causing an argument between them about doing nothing in the last operation.


    The moment they were out of sight Dalis led the company into a corridor leading to an officers club and quickly signalled the Ariadna scouts and the Fusiliers to keep their concealed pistols ready. “We have been invited by an ‘old friend’ for a drink” he informed everyone as they stood at the door “it could be a trap or worse.”


    “What could be worse than a trap?” one Fusilier questioned.


    Suddenly the door slid open and sitting at the centre table was Seeker and a mixture of troops originating from Yu Jing, Haqqislam and a quite well built dog face.


    “Shit, him again” everyone growled at once.


    “You’re group has became quite uncivilised since the last encounter seven years ago, especially you pet dog face” seeker greeted before he took a sip of his drink. Elixi couldn’t take the insult and tried to strike him but everyone on her side restrained her (excluding Dalis, who just blocked her with his arm) and Seeker’s dog face stood up to defend his commander if needed be “Dalis when are you going to replace you short tempered dog face and get a real one that is less prone to snapping the necks of its comrades and has participated in the Dogbowl like Bruser here”. Suddenly Seeker had a grin, the one signifying that he remembered something entertaining “that’s right she’s your adopted pet sister”.


    “I know you didn’t call us here for a fight and since I’m short on time can you get to the point of this meeting” said before he took a seat at the table along with everyone else.


    “Like you I’ve quit my job for the mercenary life and like you we’ve been called to defend Ariadna from another Antipode offence but unlike you I have a more capable team then you and you should give up on the contract an Eden” he explained getting under Dalis’ skin “and did I mention back on you last contract after having being ordered to capture you and hand you over to Yu Jing I had a change of heart and told my ninja to free you after all that effort of trapping you there”.


    Suddenly a ninja appeared, leaning up against the wall behind seeker.


    “Just disband your ‘forgotten’ company and give me the Eden codes, you don’t even stand a chance”.


    Dalis jut let out a laugh before he stood up, getting ready to leave “fat chance seeker your not getting them that easy”






    Part 2



    After the ‘meeting’ with seeker they went to meet the foxtrot bothers at the cafeteria.


    The place was in complete disarray with tables flipped onto their sides to create cover and a no-mans-land for a standoff between O-12 personal and Ariadna.


    “See, this is the reason why I never leave them alone with our guests” Elixi sighed to Dalis before she (with Jacob’s help) grabbed the three foxtrots and dragged them away from the standoff while Mikhail made a bird noise that made the Tank hunters lower their weapons.


    “To the hanger now! We’re leaving for home”.



    “What in the hell did you think you three were doing?” Elixi demanded from the two foxtrot bothers she had in her grasp.


    “They said Ariadna was a backwash planet with inferior technology” the foxtrot ranger (brother) on her left spoke in his defence, trying to get free from her grip “and besides I wasn’t the one that punched the lieutenant in the face”.


    Elixi stared at the second, getting ready to give him a reminder not to start fights on other people’s ship. Everyone could see she was about to turn into her scary side.


    “Don’t look at me, he’s the one that punched him” the other foxtrot added, pointing to the third being dragged by Jacob.


    “Sell outs!” the third foxtrot yelled as he elbowed Jacob and ran down the hall in an attempt to flee from Elixi’s wrath but he only made it around the corner 20 meters away before he caught up.


    Dalis shook his head “on days like this I wonder how all of us survived this long let alone get anything constructive done” he spoke softly before he heard bones breaking and the their foxtrot cursing to Elixi about breaking his leg.



    The drop ship ride felt more peaceful than normal as they (since Ariadna treats large drop ships as threats) passed trough the atmosphere. Elixi watched the planet get closer through the view port. After 2 years travelling through space the rest of the forgotten she was finally stepping back on familiar ground.


    “Transport 2 to transport 1, Elixi are you enjoying the ride with your fellow passengers?” Mikhail asked playfully.


    “Screw you Mikhail” she replied. Other than Dalis and his T.A.G. she was stuck with Jacob, the Fusiliers and the Ariadna scouts.


    Suddenly the drop ship shook with a lethal force, sending everyone crashing into the walls while the other drop ship pulled a sharp turn out of the way of the incoming flack.


    “Shit we flew right into an AA battery hold on!” the pilot shouted, plunging the drop ship into a deep dive to avoid the next barrage “Pan ’O must be violating the treaty again”.


    Within seconds of saying that the drop ship suffered a direct hit on the ships hull spewing shrapnel and smoke into the passenger holds “I’ve lost flight controls prepare for imminent crash landing!”


    “Someone put out that fire!” Dalis barked, while trying to maintain a stable footing as drop ship spiraled out of control at neck break speeds towards the planet’s ocean.


    With haste one of the Fusiliers climbed his way up to the fire and started to spray it with the fire extinguisher.


    With the drop ship only kilometers away from a fatal crash into the ocean the pilot was in absolute panic trying everything he knew to slow down the decent. “this isn’t working BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

    Part 3.

    There was a loud metallic crack as the cockpit crumpled upon impact of the sea allowed water to rush in at an alarming rate that when it hit the mercenaries it felt like being hit by a car.
    Quickly the Fusilers and scouts reached for their emergency oxygen then rushed to sever the restraints attached to the Cutter.
    “forget the T.A.G. help me get the hatch open” Elixi signalled to them as she, Jacob and Dalis were trying to force the emergency hatch open. No matter how much effort was applied from the inside it wouldn’t budge.
    Without warning there were three splashes into the water that slowly took shape as they drew closer through the bubbles of air. The tree shapes turned out to be humans in ancient sets of military scuba gear. They went up to the side of the transport and knocked three times. Dalis banged back on that point “device (bomb) armed” he signalled to everyone to make sure that they were in the clear.
    Despite the small size of the device it was still enough to once again able to take the breath out of them along with a sizable portion of the hull. Within a split second the divers swam into the ship to help evacuate the survivors to the surface. Dalis now had a clear view and instantly knew who they were; Irmandihos, the Ariadna’s water born surveillance forces.
    As they reached the surface they were greeted by Irmandihos’ frigate with the crew manning the deck guns, prepared for a hostile reception.
    “Hold you fire these ones are friendly!” the Irmandihos closest to Dalis called out, spitting out his oxygen supply and waving to the officer on deck.

    “Look what we have got here, its been a while Dallis” the captain greeted him as they saluted each other “and hows little Elixi going?”
    “I’m not a child anymore” she growled stubbornly while she cautiously watched her surroundings as the crew constantly walked past with their duties.
    “be careful she still cant change without a trigger but her change is instant” Jacob muttered to the captain as he watched the ocean.
    “so where’s the Cutter I gave you?” the captain asked and Dalis replied by pointing down.
    “its down there with the rest of our gear”.
    Within a split second the captain signalled the ship to come to a complete stop before facing Dalis “how about this I get the Irmandihos to salvage the cutter and your equipment and in return you help my men complete our little assignment?”
    Dalis shrugged. He had little choice if didn’t want to go back into the market for another T.A.G. “so what’s the assignment?


    Part 4



    The assignment wasn’t a small as it was first described. In fact it was almost an all out act of war seven other mercenary companies plus the entire regiment of Kazak forces (and this ship) launching a hit and run raid on a Pan Oceania’s mining facility and they were attacking from behind enemy lines.


    “Hey Dalis can we speak to you privately for a minute” Jacob asked in a low tone. Dalis gave him a nod before following Elixi, Jacob and the rest of the group out of earshot of the briefing room “so what’s on your mind?”


    “Doesn’t this seem way too convenient, us getting shot out of the sky, them happening to be passing by and this deal to fish our gear out of the drink just to boost their firepower” Jacob pointed out as the rest of the group nodding in agreement “Dalis they’re using us as an exit strategy if O-12 get involved, which they will and force another seise fire and demand the heads of the offending party”


    “That’s why we have to tread lightly and think of our own exit strategy”




    At approximately 12:00am the waterborne attack force landed on the beaches in the territory of the lost sea. All the Irmandinhos and the Forgotten mercenaries quickly hid their scuba gear and readied their weapons and whispered their call sign and status into their short range radios.


    “FM Fusilier 1, I’m ready to move out captain”


    “FM Scout 2, ready to mark out the targets through the sights of my Ojỏnik”


    “FM SAS 1 (Jacob), just say the words and I’ll slice their necks”


    “FM 2IC E (Second in command <Elixi>), I’m covered, locked, and ready to rock!”


    “FM Scout 1, my camouflage is malfunctioning, I’m going to need to rely on the forest, never mind it’s now fixed”.


    “FM Fusilier 2, HMG’s safety is off”


    “This is Fearless leader, all units move out and keep within line of sight of each other until we reach the mining compound” Dalis ordered, while he moved the Cutter (in TO) out of the ocean and into the dense jungle behind the Irmandinhos. Moving T.A.G. through the a dense jungle was difficult but trying to not make a noise was close to impossible and Dalis seemed to achieve both with relative ease as if the cutter was his body.


    “This is FM Scout 2, I see a clearing up ahead and I hear…. Gunfire!”


    Silently everyone dropped to the ground (the T.A.G. crouched) forming a 360° vision defensive circle around the cutter (aka a harbour). “There’s no buildings out this far away from the base” Dalis informed as he checked his digital maps “they shouldn’t be here FM Scout 2 can you confirm that they’re hostile?”


    “Negative fearless leader I cant confirm their allegiance from here”


    The Irmandinhos continued their advance by keeping low to the ground until they sat on the edge of the clearing “this is Irmandinho lieutenant to the Forgotten I don’t understand there’s no one there.”


    Suddenly Elixi’s nose picked up a sent, there was no denying this smell only one type of creature emitted this sent and it was very close by. “ANTIPODES!!”


    Within a split second a whole pack of Antipodes jumped the Irmandinhos form their blind spot.


    “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Dalis shouted before he activated his flamethrower and torched the second wave charging on their flank


    “This reminds me of the old days right Dalis?” Jacob laughed while took a shot at a distant antipode and confirmed a direct hit, killing the beast before unsheathing his AP knife and pistol and injured another that was about to attack FM Scout 1.


    “Our day is getting better every minute” spoke as he spotted another unwanted problem in the distance.




    Part 5


    Whole entire company of Pan Oceania troops stood waiting for them on them in the clearing. It seems that they were fleeing from the Antipodes and prepared to make a last stand in the clearing.


    “Shit we’re caught right in the middle of the conflict” FM Fusilier 2 shouted out while firing his HMG in a sweeping motion catching a few antipodes and Bagh-Mari that changed targets to contend with their new threat.


    An antipode was standing over an injured Irmandinho lieutenant ready to deal the deathblow but before the blade could drop on him, Elixi (still in dog-face form) caught the Antipode’s arm before she pressed the Chainrifle into its ribcage and gave it a burst of hot shrapnel. “What the hell do you think your doing?” she growled she removed a smoke grenade from her vest and threw it into the clearing to make a smoke wall “get your men to fall back to our harbour before they all get killed!”


    The Irmandinho nodded just before shouting to his unit to fall back leaving Elixi alone with three antipodes to contend with In the middle of a smokescreen. “Bring it on!” she called to them, drawing her claymore in one hand and the Chainrifle in the other. The Antipodes circled around her waiting for an opening. The fist struck blindly and discovered how swiftly she could swing a 200 kilogram claymore with one hand, slicing it in half at the waist while she stepped around it. The second stuck within seconds of the pack member’s death plunging the blades into her back forcing her to transform in one quick muscle flex effectively doubling her size and her strength. Quickly revaluating the situation the Antipode quickly jumped off but was caught by the leg and slammed into the tree with enough force even with all the gunfire she could hear the every bone in its ribcage break. With a loud dog like howl she turned to the final target.



    Out of the ten Irmandinhos that were in the unit only five made it back to the harbour.


    Dalis was still in the centre proving support with the oversized multi-HMG at targets in the distance. FM Scout 2 and Jacob were sniping antipodes that were rushing from the north and east. FM Fusilier 1 and 2 were engaging the Pan Oceania troops in the (south) clearing until another Antipode wave collided with the Pan Oceania. Now that their targets had other problems to deal with they quickly shifted their fire to the antipodes that were about to flank them in the west. FM Scout 1 and Irmandinhos quickly rushed between the fronts loaning additional support.


    “Where the hell is Elixi” Jacob asked frustrated. He could really use her help right now.


    As if on cue deep in the forest before him he saw two blasts of Chainrifle shrapnel before something fast dash past, tackling an antipode and crashed into an old tree causing it to collapse. “Dalis she’s in frenzy!” he shouted to Dalis “call her to come back”.


    “I Second that!” the Irmandinho lieutenant agreed pointing back to the ocean I can call in some artillery support if we can keep everyone in the area.


    “I’ll try, just get the artillery ready” Dalis replied. He knew better than anyone else that when she’s like this it’s almost impossible to get her to listen; she has an enormous blood lust when she was a dog-warrior. “Elixi fall back to the harbour we have ordinance inbound” he shouted into the radio in hope that she would listen.


    For a few minutes I didn’t seem to work but when the Chainrifle noises seised they all saw her ran back a the sky lit up with flashes of powerful cannons firing voiles in the distance.


    “Did you miss me?” she joked before throwing her last grenade at another pack of Antipodes.


    “Here it comes!” the Irmandinho lieutenant interrupted before diving to the ground as all other sounds were being drowned out by the explosions of the forest around them being cleared around them. Despite only being the bombardment seem to feel like it lasted longer than the entire battle but when the smoke cleared they were the only things left standing in this part of the jungle.


    “Forgotten and Irmandinhos salvage whatever we can find and we don’t have long to do it before they find us again we have a job to do and we’re already late to the party” Dalis ordered before he walked the cutter over to where Pan Oceania troops were and searched for any spare ammo or equipment.




    Part 6



    Walking trough the forest in a staggered line the forgotten and the remaining Irmandinhos had finished their salvage for ammo. The night was still young and they had so much ground to cover


    “Why do you use serial numbers instead of code names?” the Irmandinho lieutenant whispered to Jacob.


    “That’s a good question, Elixi why do we use serial numbers over codenames?”


    Elixi was still in Dog-warrior form. She turned her head slightly so she could see him in the corner of her eye “why the hell are you asking me, Dalis is closer to you!” she growled before she stepped under a log.


    “You know I wanted to try out that thing called chain of command” Jacob replied smartly “and since you’re our unit commander and second-in-command I expected you to know.”


    “And I send the question up the chain”


    Dalis let out a chuckle before he spoke as if he was advertising a rifle. “All three forgotten mercenary company units employ serial numbers over codenames during radio conversations to enforce the point that we’re nameless, faceless ghosts”


    “So that explains the grey uniforms and you said there are three companies?” the Irmandinho lieutenant asked curiously.


    “there are five missing from this unit the other two companies are about thirty men strong each and our fearless leader controls them all” Jacob explained before Elixi gave the halt and get down hand signs to the company “all of them are like us; forgotten and left for dead by our previous leaders”.


    After five minutes of waiting Elixi gave the all clear to move on.


    “I have one last question, what’s the story with Elixi?”


    That question made everyone look uneasy. Clearly this was a subject not talked about openly but after a glance from Elixi Jacob leaned in close.


    “the best way to start it is her original name was Madden which in Celtic translates into dog so you can see how she was treated prior to being abandoned” he whispered keeping an eye on Elixi’s movements “when Dalis adopted her as his sister she changed her name. Since then Dalis had trained her as a soldier and an equal younger sister. She’s the only one out of all of us who really knows Dalis’ past and will never speak of it to anyone else”


    “So they’re close brother and sister duo” the Irmandinho lieutenant replied glancing at her but looked away when his eye met hers.


    Jacob stopped and placed his sniper rifle over his shoulders before he told the Irmandinho lieutenant the best word of advice “look tell your men to treat her like a normal human and don’t bring up her inhuman features and I’ll guarantee that they’ll most likely outlive the day”.



    Meanwhile north of the border to Scone, Mikhail was trudging through the bushes by the river. Since Dalis hasn’t made contact with him he had to fulfil the contract with the foxtrots and whatever help he could acquire from the local bases. After a few more steps he stoped and looked up at the sky, the sun was finally disappearing into the hills meaning that the operation was due to commence any second now.


    Just then he spotted something rushing towards him at amazing speeds through the bushes on his right. Calmly he reached for his radio with one arm and took aim with his HMG and squeezed the trigger “set off the devices and prepare to parabolic fire”.


    The jungle lit up with explosions of D-charges sending charred pieces of antipode flesh into the sky. From the river twelve Highlanders rose out of it like crazed mad men to engage the antipodes in close quarters fighting while a squad of line Kazak with the veteran Kazak leader came out of hiding on the other side of the river and laid down suppressing fire.


    The fighting was getting fierce with the amount of antipodes racing towards them but Mikhail still maintained his cool and fed the trajectories to the foxtrots like a prayer and with every verse rained light grenade shells into the deeper parts of the jungle. Suddenly his HMG clicked dry at the worst moment leaving him open to the antipode slash that was a millimetre off from piecing his armour. In one swift movement he rolled out of the way of the next incoming swing, pulled the magazine release handle and slammed in the next dual ammo drum before opening fire on the attacker.


    This was going to be one long night of fighting.






    part 7



    shards of molten steel shredded the tree line, human flesh and armour all with equal ease as Elixi charged forward at her maximum speed towards the mine closely followed by Dalis then further behind was everyone else.


    “why do we always have to run when we’re behind schedule” Jacob panted, trying to keep up with two inhuman figures.


    “look on the bright side at least you’re your not like brad who is hulking a HMG around on your back like brad”.


    “shut up Tony!” brad cursed back to the other Fusilier.


    Without warning Dalis and Elixi stopped at the edge of the tree line just meters away from the mining complex. Despite the briefing depicted this was only an excuse to attack their invaders. The mine consisted of a single medium size vertical mining drill, a considerable sized barracks and other living quarters. The structure’s walls were riddled with bullet dints, the ground was littered with bodies of Pan Oceania and the Ariadna soldiers with their mercenary support and blood smears where the wounded were dragged out of the line of fire for their medics to work on. But as he looked past the warring sides he saw his least popular friend seeker’s T.A.G. and he knew that he could see him too so he gave him an unfriendly wave.


    “What are you doing here Dalis” seeker demanded over the radio.


    “The same reason you’re here; the Eden code” Dalis replied as he slowly began to walk his cutter towards the storage security building, matching seekers movements.


    “We’ll see who get to it first this time!”


    Within a blink of an eye both T.A.G.s were in a full run towards the building, leaving their companies trailing behind. Both were firing explosive rounds at each other form around cover of the buildings, hitting nothing but concrete and steel. To the last 10 meters they were evenly matched pilots despite the age difference of their T.A.G.s.


    At the last moment Dalis barged Seeker into the last building and held him at gunpoint. “Brad, Tony go inside and grab the code fragment”


    Seeker watched as the two Fusiliers “you’re not getting out of this one alive Dalis” seeker threatened.


    Dalis let slip a grin on his face (even though no one could see it anyway) as he raised his MULTI HMG to the armoured cavalry’s head “we both know I’ve died once already, I can’t die twice”.


    “we’ll see about that” Seeker sneered “take the shot Kitsume”. For a few seconds there was no response so he repeated himself but this time he got a response.


    “I regret to inform you seeker, that your Kunoichi is a little tied up at the moment” Jacob teased through her radio while he hung her (completely restrained) off the top of the mining machine by his repelling line “but if it makes you feel better I can take it but you might not like who I’m aiming at”.


    Fighting on two fronts Elixi was fighting the urge to get close and personal with either enemy, instead she focused on protecting the scouts and Irmandinhos. “missile incoming!” she shouted as she kicked MFScout1 out of the line of fire.


    “She going to try to catch it again.”


    “That didn’t work out so good last time.”


    “What are you talking about the Irmandinho captain asked the two scouts.


    Suddenly Elixi caught the missile in the palm of her hand without it detonating.


    “what do you know she CAN play fetch” the scout remarked and in response Elixi crushed the warhead with her palm.


    “if you even breath that again Steven, I make that missile seem it had a pleasant end compared to what I have install for you”.



    “so are you going to now seeker, cut and run like you always did?” Dalis asked, tightening his grip on the trigger.


    “not when I still have an ace up my sleeve” he replied.


    Before Dalis could pull the trigger something of even size of the cutter grabbed him and threw him to the ground. “if you want seeker you have to go through me!” the thing spoke in a doglike voice.


    “Great so I have to fight the a Dog-face” Dalis sighed while he got back onto his feet.




    Part 8 final




    “Bring it on Bruiser!” Dalis challenged the dog-face, firing a few bursts from his Multi-HMG at it but he easily ducked and weaved around the shots. Seizing the moment seeker quickly scrambled to grab his rifle as the two titans circled each other. He waited for the opening he needed which didn’t take long.


    Dalis went to strike bruiser with his mechanical fist but there was a loud boom before the wailing siren and burning smell filled the cockpit indicating that it had been breached and the motor was in critical. Given no choice he pulled the emergency leaver, ejecting free from the doomed T.A.G. (that was now being torn apart by Bruiser). “I need your help sis” he shouted in hopes that she could hear him. “what’s the matter now Dalis” seeker taunted as he walked casually towards Dalis (and signaled to bruiser to back off) as he struggled to get free from his harness that saved his life “you don’t look so tough when you don’t have a T.A.G. to hide inside, who knows if you give me all the Eden codes I might let you live”.


    Dalis just replied with a smirk before drawing a pistol and fluke shot out one of the Armored Cavalry’s optics sending a mental feedback to seeker. “I like my chances as they are. I also have still some tricks up my sleeve” he replied, running to the closet building for cover “come and get me Seeker!”


    “Stay here he’s mine!” seeker ordered blinded by his own rage and hatred, he charged right after Dalis


    “Hey ugly, how dare you hurt my brother!” Elixi shouted to bruiser as her vision fixed onto the totaled Cutter.


    “That’s right; master Seeker told me you call your master your bother. How pathetic” bruiser laughed as he casually stepped around her swings “now I’ll show you who the alpha dog-face out of us is”. He overconfidently discarded his chain rifles and claymore before elbowing Elixi in the face. The pain just fueled her rage and she swung her claymore more wildly. “you better be watching my back this time Jacob” she thought to herself.


    Jacob had a clear view of what was going on through the scope of his sniper rifle if only he could only get a clear shot. “Are you enjoying the view, any chance I could get you something like food or a drink?” he teased the ninja (to pass the time) while kicking the repelling line making her jingle and also getting a responsive curse in Japanese.


    Now he had the shot. Elixi took a leap backwards, positioning the claymore into a low stab. Jacob had one chance to get this right. He took a deep breath before pulling the trigger.


    The shot temporarily broke his camouflage as it passed out the barrel, clipping Elixi’s ear before slamming hard into bruiser’s leg, leaving him open to her attack. The claymore pierced the right side chest as she thrusted the blade deeper before twisting it stepping back to be in a better position for possible follow up attacks “who’s the alpha dog-face now?”




    Dalis dashed through the building to stall seeker till he could think of something else to irritate him with.


    But the moment he entered the outer corridor the metallic arms of seeker’s T.A.G. came crashing through the wall and grabbed him tightly.


    “Last chance give me the code fragment for Eden or I’m going to crush you!” seeker snarled.


    Elixi now had bruiser on the ground and was beating him with his own chain rifle (since she had already broken her claymore on him and it was the closest sturdy instrument) until suddenly she saw a blue flash come from behind the building where seeker chased Dalis then a metallic scream as seeker’s T.A.G. ran at full speed away from the building missing its right arm. “What the hell are you!” he shouted as he stopped to get one more glance at Dalis.


    Other than his left arm sleeve which was torn, his pilot data suit was slightly marked where he was caught in the T.A.G.’s grip. “As I said before, I’ve died once already I can’t die twice” he repeated.


    “Everyone retreat!” seeker ordered, clutching his arm “you have won this round but in the end game I’ll get to Eden first!”


    After being amused by seeker coward-like scream she took a step back away from bruiser then spoke “run back to your master, I’ll finish you off another day”.


    Chapter 4 the leviathan awakens.



    Since seeker left the arena the battle seemed to boil down just to just a stand off, leaving the forgotten in the rear to attend to their own agenda.


    “so what are you going to do, seeker left you to die just like what he did to us many years ago” Jacob asked Kitsume as he inspected her MULTI-sniper rifle “how the hell do you work this piece of plastic crap!”


    Suddenly he heard something land hard on the catwalk behind him. Instinctively and without looking he readied his pistol in that direction.


    “Relax it’s us” Dalis greeted from his seat on Elixi’s shoulder. He was wearing her flexible armored vest that had shrunk to fit him. When Jacob lowed his pistol Dalis climbed off and leaned on the railing to talk to his captive. “I’m curious, what did seeker promise you for your skills. You know there is two ways out of this”


    “He promised to use Eden’s limitless funds to rebuild my clan” she shouted at him.


    Upon hearing that he let out a short laugh “a word of advice, he was my commander when I was in the service of Pan Oceania’s Lancer Regiment and he only ever thought of himself” he explained before he grabbed the repelling line and started to pull her up “Eden is much more than just money, with Eden we can start an army of ninjas”.


    “We?”


    “We’re all looking to regain something that we lost. So will you join my company or will I feed you to Elixi?”


    Jacob kept his mouth shut. If he made even a squeak she would take the joke out on him.


    “My name is Kitsume you better be true to your word or you wont live to see the next day” she replied, accepting the deal.


    Elixi tapped Dalis on the shoulder meaning she wanted to talk in privet so he climbed back on her shoulder and she jumped down to the base of the drill and into a place out of sight.


    “I know you didn’t like the joke I made to Kitsume but you need to learn to not take everything to seriously” Dalis said while he took off her jacket “you also know I don’t need to wear armor”.


    Elixi picked up her jacket and put it back over him “as a dog-face neither do I, my metabolism just shrugs them off. For the sake being your sister, just wear it and I might consider letting some remarks slide inside to company”


    “On the strange subject of ‘not needing armor’ what was that blue flash we all saw” brad asked interrupting the conversation as he held out the Eden code fragment.


    “I never saw any flash, I just saw seeker stupidly tried to grab me when I was hiding behind the monofilament cutter for the Teseum mining” Dalis replied, taking the disk off him.


    “Elixi you had a clear line of sight, what really happened”


    Elixi just used this opportunity to tighten the vest so Dalis couldn’t slip out. “I was too busy wiping the floor with a dog-face” she answered dodging the question.


    “FM SAS 1 to Fearless leader, not to butt in but its that time again where we run for our lives away from the O-12 before they catch us in this illegal skirmish” Jacob informed over the radio as he saw the flame trails of inbound dropships hurdling towards them from low orbit “I say less than two minutes away”


    Quickly brad removed his radio mounted to his shoulder and handed it to dalis.


    “All FM units fall back to the rally point; I repeat we’re in full retreat!”


    Despite expected development maintained a calm image as he handed the radio back to brad “listen go back with the rest of the company and make sure the Irmandinhos return to their ship safely” he ordered, watching Jacob and Kitsume repell down “we will try to regroup with you once we have the cutter’s black box in our possession”


    “Where have I heard this before” brad muttered before he got ready to sprint “just don’t get caught this time”.


    As they went their separate ways everyone could hear the distinctive howl of the twin engine gunships swoop overhead.


    Dalis quickly climbed into the ruined cockpit as Elixi stood watch with a liberated boarding shotgun.


    “Hurry they’re turning around!”


    “Well this isn’t a walk in the park in here either Elixi” he responded trying to pull the small red box out the interface housing.


    Unfortunately one of the pilots spotted Elixi and opened fire upon her with the chin mounted turret”. Given the little time and the need to protect Dalis, she copped the full blast but it had no effect of her un-armored body. “They’re using stun rounds; O-12 wants some heads to roll officially”.


    “Then we have only minutes to run for our lives before the they drop ground troops”




    Part 2




    Elixi was growing impatient with the Dalis’ slow progress with removing the black box. “How much longer are you going to take brother?”


    “I’ve got it, let’s go!” Dalis shouted back as he climbed out of the T.A.G. carrying a small red cube.


    The gunship took another pass at them but instead of committing to another strafing run, four quadruped machines leapt from the passenger hold. “Sierra Dronebots and they’re armed with E/M launchers” Dalis shouted, taking a shot at one that landed behind him as they ran past “I hate E/M launchers!” suddenly with another two landing Dalis and Elixi realised they were boxed in. “this isn’t good” Elixi muttered as the drones locked their joints readying themselves for the command to fire but something else happened. Instead of firing they just powered down, leaving an opening to disappear into the jungle. “I didn’t do it I don’t have a cube to do that anymore” Dalis replied as Elixi glared at him.


    “Then I wonder who did”




    Deep inside the forest an Ariadna dropship had landed to pick up the surviving Irmandinhos and transport them back to the ship. “What are you doing sir? Climb in so we can get out of here!” one of the Irmandinho asked his lieutenant who just stood next to the forgotten.


    “Tell the captain I’m filing for a transfer. You’re in charge now” the Irmandinho lieutenant replied.


    “It’s your head” the new Irmandinho lieutenant said before he shut the door for take off.


    The moment the dropship was out of their line of sight Elixi and Dalis arrived at the extraction point. Jacob had finally coxed Kitsume to show him how to use her multi-sniper rifle (and failing). “Technology is a useless. soldiers of today rely on it too much. A real professional only needs a rifle and a knife to win a fight” he complained, trying to switch firing modes.


    “Times change, so must the methods the Shinobi in order to survive”


    Dalis let out a short chuckle “don’t mind Jacob he’s a technophobe” Dalis explained to Kitsume as Jacob defensively replied that he wasn’t a technophobe “so Jacob have ‘they’ been called?”


    “’They’ will be here in a few minutes” Jacob replied.


    “Who’s ‘they’?” the Irmandinho asked, interrupting the conversation “sorry my name is Isaac I’ve transferred out of my squad for a career change”.


    “’they’ would mean Shakara’s company; The lost” Steven (the scout with an Ojỏnik) informed as Dalis shook Isaac’s hand and welcomed him to the company.


    “And ‘them’ means the Jang Cao’s company; the betrayed” Tony (basic fusilier) added.


    Suddenly the ground started to shake as a large space transport ship flew overhead, launching two dropships to the surface. On the side of the vehicles had the Janissaires badge with the word surrounding it in Arab; ‘those who were lost will be found and guided to paradise by haqqislam’s divine light’.


    “Man, has she ever not been in a hurry to get things done” Jacob remarked as he blocked his ears from the loud roar of the engines.




    Part 3




    Aboard the ship the forgotten mercenaries were greeted like family by their lost counterparts but Isaac noticed that the lost give Elixi a wide clearance. All of the lost took a desert wasteland colour scheme and with the Lost’s badge despite their origins spanning from all over the sphere. “Haqqislam be praised, It’s nice to see that you’re still alive after everything you have been through over this three months” a Janissarie greeted giving Dalis a friendly hug. She had jade eyes and short brown hair. Her face had many scars from the countless battles she had participated in.


    “It’s nice to see you alive as well Shakara” Dalis greeted back as Shakara’s second-in-command gave the other Forgotten the guided tour of the ship “so how many more followers have you picked up since the last meeting?”

    ”More than enough to restore the entire company’s numbers” she informed, handing a list of new recruits.


    “Quite impressive” he praised handing it back “and give my thanks to your hackers for saving me back in the remote trap”.


    She gave him an odd look “we didn’t do anything, in fact we didn’t see anything or know why you were there in the first pace”


    “Never mind I’ll debrief once we reach the base”



    The base was not far from where Mikhail was fighting on the boarder (10km south east) of antipode territory the base was a large underground bunker built into a mountain the armoured bulkhead entrance was large enough to fit four drop ships flying in side-by-side with the hanger beyond the doors was large enough size to fit 30 drop ships with enough space to fit a full complement of T.A.G.s, APCs and the last surviving archaic tanks. Beyond that were tunnels and lifts leading to various locations around the base.


    “How the hell dose high command over look a foreign base of this size?” Isaac questioned Tony as they pushed through the crowd of fellow mercenaries and Ariadna going the other way to board the arrived dropships.


    “This place wasn’t originally this size, in fact the base was only the hanger to begin with and we dug it out and refurbished it to cope with our large sized force” he explained before looking at brad to finish the question off.


    “Also since we fend off the river tribes in the area, pay a hefty land tax and because we have Mikhail. as long as we keep our business off world (unless we’re contracted by them), this place doesn’t exist”.


    The three stepped into the elevator with the rest of the forgotten and took it to the third level. “Jacob do you have to carry your rifle like that in here” Elixi growled as she was accidentally poked for the third time by his sniper rifle that he had resting over his shoulders. Keeping the peace he dropped the sniper rifle to his side just before the door slid open and he randomly yelped.


    “Hello brother fancy meeting you where!” a highlander from his clan greeted a bit over friendly to Jacob. His face and clothes was covered in dry antipode blood from where he hacked into one with his claymore other than that he looked simular to Jacob one major difference he didn’t have a scar on his face, actually he was the one that gave Jacob horizontal cut across his face over disagreement on a certain argument.


    “If you’re here where’s Mikhail?” Jacob snorted.


    “What? You’re not happy to see me?” the highlander asked due to Jacob’s hostilities.


    “No I not happy to see the person who hit me with a knife because I said I could drink more than you”.


    “He’s in sickbay” the highlander replied before he stepped into the second elevator “you should have seen him he lives up to his name to the end”




    Mikhail was lying in a hospital bed unconscious, bandaged at the waist up as the Knight Hospitaller treated to his wounds. The life support machine indicated that he was now in a stabilised condition but his mind was still showing major activity.


    “What are you thinking about?” the Hospitaller sighed to herself before going back to work on him.


    That last hour of the battle kept looping in his mind, trying to pick up where he made an error leading to this



    1 hour ago……


    The sun was now starting to rise above the jungle tree line and the battle was beginning to draw to a close both sides had suffered heavy casualties and neither had even considered sleep as a possibility throughout the night.


    Mikhail’s forces had been pushed back across the river. And the foxtrots had run out of explosive devices long ago and were now resorting to their rifles to push back the antipodes.


    “I don’t care if ‘them’ are asleep as third in line on the chain of command wake them up. I’m losing good men out here!” Mikhail shouted into his radio to block out the noise of his HMG. Suddenly he spotted another antipode pack rushing towards them on their flank “FOXTROTS, YOUR ABOUT TO BE FLANKED!!!”


    The first foxtrot brother was too slow to react and got knocked to the ground and sent his rifle flying somewhere into the bushes. The other two reacted by shooting at it, effectively distracting it from its deathblow so their brother could scramble away to find his rifle.


    Without waring Mikhail heard a scream coming from coming from the other flank as a Tankhunter got his arm ripped off by an antipode. Quickly he rushed to the Tankhunter’s aid. This is where he made the fatal mistake. The moment he was within a meter of the bleeding man another antipode leaped from the bushes and stabbed him deeply with its weapon. The strike barely missed the heart but it had done its damage in the exact same spot where his mentor was hit but unlike his mentor Mikhail wasn’t going to let such a cheap shot stop him. Swiftly he slammed his HMG’s muzzle into where he presumed where its heart was and discharged the entire remains of his box magazine into the creature. “Everyone fall back to the next rally point!” he ordered coughing up blood as he pushed the antipode corpse off him. A line Kazak tried to help him back to the rally point but Mikhail just pushed him away “I’ll just be slowing you done son, just give me another box of ammo.”


    With haste the line Kazak handed him his last drum for his HMG before running deeper into the jungle.


    Now that he was alone he pressed his back to the closet tree and began to reload his weapon. “HEY YOU ANTIPODE BASTARDS COME FINISH OFF WHAT YOU STARTED!!!” he shouted in Cossack before opening fire on the antipode rushing through the tall plants nearby.


    As the antipodes started to swarm him for a second he through he was hallucinating he saw the three Foxtrot bothers and a highlander charging towards him blindly, firing at any antipode that crossed their path but it was really happening.


    “I though I told you all to fall back with the rest of the unit” Mikhail growled as they came into earshot.


    “No offence old man but if you throw your life away here we wont have anyone to annoy” they replied before focusing one the lead antipode.


    “We’re all Ariadnan its kill or be killed on our home”


    “And we’re all company brothers”

    ”Me? I never run form a fight” the highlander added before stabbing an antipode in the neck.


    Mikhail let out a weak chuckle “fine we can all die here”


    Suddenly there was a loud boom coming from above and within three seconds the jungle ahead of them was vaporised in one explosion. Then there were three more booms and more of the jungle disappeared. As they looked up It was the Betrayed spaceship firing accurately at the antipodes below unlike the Lost the Betrayed was a full blown frigate with some launch bays rather than a cargo ship.


    “Good morning I hear you have a bit of an antipode problem” Mikhail’s radio echoed.


    Slowly he took off his helmet and reached for the radio and began to speak slowly “Did….. did my men... m…mm…make it back to the rally point?”


    “That’s an affirmative” the radio answered “we’re sending a drop ship to pick you up”


    “That’s good to hear” was the last words that left his mouth before he passed out.




    Part 4




    “So do you think he will make it?” Elixi questioned Dalis as they strolled passed the sickbay corridor with everyone following behind.


    “This is Mikhail we’re talking about, nothing will stop him even if the word were to end with him on it” Dalis reassure with a smile before they entered the busy mess hall (military canteen) that was louder than usual. At the center table the three Foxtrot bothers were shouting at each other in archanic English. They were so loud that they drowned out all other noise.


    “It appears to be a quite a heated argument” Dalis remarked. He had trouble understanding that language properly.


    Unlike Dalis Elixi understood every last word and let out a sigh. “Bloody children, I’ll deal with this” she muttered before she strolled towards them cracking her knuckles. Any mercenary that crossed her path move out of her way rather quickly. Unfortunately one of the Foxtrots spotted the disturbance moving towards them. “Elixi! Quick scatter she can’t catch all three of us” he yelled before all three abandoned their food and ran off in different directions (and vaulted over some occupied tables in the process) shouting “mad dogface!” repeatedly.


    The moment the entertainment spilled out of the remaining Jacob’s line of sight he let out a big yawn “well this has been a big day for me so I’m going to get some shut eye” he informed as the rest of the forgotten agreed with his proposal “Isaac, Kitsume, best of luck in the selection and hopefully we’ll see you again”


    “Same here” Isaac replied before Dalis lead them both into another elevator that took them to a room with twenty other recruits waiting in comfortable chairs facing a projector. Half of the uniforms worn they instantly recognized belonging to the Lost but (excluding the Ariadnan troops) the other uniforms were exactly how the ‘loyal’ troops were but they had their badges crossed out with a red paint.


    As they (Kitsume and Isaac) took a seat Dalis began to speak.


    “First off I like to begin by welcoming you to joining the forgotten merc companies. As you can guess there are three main companies to choose from or in the case for the Ariadna members in the corner a support unit for people who want to make some side money while maintaining your job.” After that he began to hand out the recruitment form “since our recruiter is late. Is there any questions would you like answered?”


    A Keisotsu belonging to the Lost raised his arm “I have one, what is Eden?”


    This interested most of the recruits (including Isaac and Kitsume) making Dalis smile “depending who you have following up to now you have either been told it’s a vault holding enough money to set up everyone in the company for life (the lost members nodded) or it’s a fortress where no one can oppose us (the betrayed nodded) actually its both, even more precise Eden is a fortress planet that has so much wealth that we all can live out what we strive to achieve with an endless supply of money.” He activated a holo projector “this is the recording we found on a planet outpost outside of Dawn 7 years ago”


    The machine flickered to life with a projection of alien humanoid with a human voiceover (the original scientist who discovered the distress call and translated it to English). It explained its planet’s orbit is under siege by the Combine army and their orbital defenses controlled by their AI (which the alien boasts is much superior to EI) assures that nothing will reach the surface but the inhabitants are looking for outside help against their foe and is willing to give all its resources of gold and Teseum to the help than the image cuts out and the scientist explains the recording is 79 years old before playing the second recording that dated fifteen years later. This time the alien explains that the orbital defenses are still holding the combine at bay but their kind are about to flee the planet in hopes of escaping the endless blockade and it transmitted the fragments of the code to bypass the defenses and can claim their planet as their own along with their AI that is left to guard and maintain the plannet. As the recording ended the recruits looked puzzled.


    “And I take it your wondering why we believe this crap, how can we trust the information” Dalis spoke in a serious tone before pressing a button on his Comlog “the truth is we have been there ourselves. The Combine has long since moved on the defences as still active (binging up an image of one of the satellites) and impossible to bypass even by elite hackers (activated a recording of a hacker attempting to find the password code only to see himself bleed from the nose than die). The defence will stop anything even orbital a bombardment (another demonstration one of the round made it passed the satellites but exploded on an invisible barrier safety above the planet) everything but a harmless long range scan. There are vast quantities of Teseum and a few vaults holding mass piles of gold. This planet is so advanced in technology that the only what we can claim the treasure is to play by its rules. I’ll leave you all to your decision”




    Part 5




    As the other mercenaries discussed Eden amongst them selves Isaac began to read the recruitment paper. The top was really standard paperwork; name, age, gender, origin, and blood type then below that the paper was divided into for choices:




    Forgotten:


    *You will be working in a small specialist group of unique individuals.


    *The highest pay rate in the entire company and always handed the most insane high paying jobs in the sphere.


    *You will be working under the company commander Dalis.


    *Mikhail is in this company



    Lost:


    *If you like mechanised assaults and T.A.G. support this is the company for you!


    *Fast jobs and easy money.


    *It’s a large company of brothers and sisters of the Haqqislam faith no matter where they were from in the sphere.



    Betrayed:


    *If you like well planned missions based on strategy and minimal losses look no further than the Betrayed.


    *Unlike other companies the Betrayed has never faced defeat or needed to retreat.


    *slow moving but has the second largest payslip



    Ariadna support company (ASC):


    *the safest company though the pay is the lowest but still higher than normal.


    *always stationed at the base unless requested for support on a mission.


    *the Ariadna support scheme works here (meaning you and you squad can keep your jobs and make some side cash when needed at double your average rate).



    “So which one are you going to chose” asked the Betrayed Fusilier that was sitting next to him.


    “I’m thinking about going into the Forgotten” Isaac replied.


    The Fusilier let out a laugh as if Isaac was joking “so who are you really going to chose?”


    “As I said the Forgotten”


    Suddenly all the attention was on him. “You clearly haven’t heard the stories that came from people who transfer out of that company. For starters I heard their commander, Elixi has killed more of her own soldiers than the enemy the has that’s why their size is so small” explained the Lost ORC troop that was sitting behind him “look at the Dog-face the wrong way and say good bye to your neck. My advice; go for ASC if you want to work in the forgotten your less prone to dying”.


    Three floors above the recruitment room Dalis was relaxing in the large room dubbed ‘the commander’s lounge’ with the other two company commander.

    ”Telling the recruits about Eden is just as reckless as what I’ve heard of your recent travels” Jang Cao advised before taking another drag from his cigar “working with O-12 and riding between planets on their ships I thought we were trying to avoid big brother ALEPH’s attention”.


    Jang Cao is an ex-Hac Tao hacker with a talent with machinery. During his active service in Yu Jing he designed many devices and weapons that either enhanced machine efficiency or targeted electrical devices (such as cubes) and turned them against their host. Eventually O-12 caught him in the act creating one of these devices by request of Yu Jing for an attack and on a Pan Oceana base. Obviously the state denied everything and he lost everything but his life. Since that day he’s been plotting his revenge against all those who deserted him.


    “I only told them a little more than what they already knew. No one outside us four commanders knows the real objective why we’re going there”.


    “You told the dog-face!” Shakara growled in disgust “and I guess she knows your secret as well”


    “How do you know his secret? I though I was the only one who knew” Jang Cao demanded expecting an answer from Shakara.


    Before this could get a chance to get out of hand Dalis had to intervene “all three company commanders are always kept on the same page. Elixi has earned her position whether or not you judgment has been clouded by past grudges”.


    “I still don’t understand why you gave it to her when Mikhail is a more capable leader…” Shakara muttered.


    “I don’t understand why you put her as the recruiting officer when you’re on base” Jang Cao added in a low tone


    “Remember when we were one giant company? Everyone just saw her as a nuisance and never treated her as one of them” Dalis countered in a serious tone “it was always ‘dog-face do this’, ‘dog-face do that’ to her that’s why she broke your arm back then Shakara. Mikhail agreed to be a stand in until she was a capable leader by his standards. She just wants to fit in, even if means terrifying the recruits to gain their respect.”




    Back three floors below finally the recruitment officer entered the room and was greeted with wolf whistles from the male portion of the group. She was dressed in a respectable grey ceremonial uniform with makeup and hat. Unknown to them (excluding Isaac and Kitsume) this was Elixi.

    ”Who’s this cutie” one called out.


    “We’ll get to that in a second. Has everyone filled out their forms?” she asked in a cute voice holding out her arm to collect them but instead a Lost Wu Ming grabbed her hand.

    ”Someone this beautiful must not trained for real combat and is restrain by administration duties” he flirted to her “If you like I could teach you how to fight like a real soldier”.


    As Isaac took a glance around the room he noticed an unidentified Yuan Yuan at the back of the room had a large grin on his face as if he knew what Elixi was going to do next.


    “Actually” Elixi began before she twisted his arm to the point that the bones made a loud cracking noise that was almost drowned out by his scream “I’m the forgotten company commander Elixi and I know full well how to fight.” She finally let go of his arm and took his from “fist things first, Colby sod off. I can smell your sent and your disguise is just as worse as the time you tried to pass for Dalis!”


    “Since I’m in here now can’t I say and watch the rest of the show?” the Yuan Yuan stalled before revealing that he was actually a Betrayed Hassin Fiday.


    “Last warning Coby, leave or die”


    “Fine I’ll leave but you didn’t have to take it that far” Coby replied before leaving the room “it’s not like I’m not going to find out later”.


    With Coby gone went back to what she was meant to do “please hand me the forms then you are dismissed” she asked, steeping over the Wu Ming that was in pain to collect the forms “tomorrow the your postings will be up on the notice board in the mess hall and one last thing; don’t expect to be in the company you requested, I have the last say on where you go”. Suddenly there was a growing chatter amongst the recruits which meant one thing. Cracking her knuckles she let out her boastful challenge before tuning to face the door “if anyone feels that they’re have a right to chose has to be able to beat me in unarmed combat right hear and now but I doubt that you could leave a mark on my face! But you have to do it before I leave this room”.


    Without warning the Orc troop behind Isaac leaped over his chair, readying his armoured fist to strike Elixi in the back of the head but before he could land his blow she swiftly spun around and used the momentum to elbow him in the face, shattering his helmet and broke his nose.


    “come on if that’s your best effort all of you could come up with this will be the first time I’ll get my deposit back on this uniform” she taunted before noticing that one of the shards cut the cloth “oh well I guess that couldn’t be avoided”.


    That comment sparked a few more to be brave and try her on.



    Part 5




    As the other mercenaries discussed Eden amongst them selves Isaac began to read the recruitment paper. The top was really standard paperwork; name, age, gender, origin, and blood type then below that the paper was divided into for choices:




    Forgotten:


    *You will be working in a small specialist group of unique individuals.


    *The highest pay rate in the entire company and always handed the most insane high paying jobs in the sphere.


    *You will be working under the company commander Dalis.


    *Mikhail is in this company



    Lost:


    *If you like mechanised assaults and T.A.G. support this is the company for you!


    *Fast jobs and easy money.


    *It’s a large company of brothers and sisters of the Haqqislam faith no matter where they were from in the sphere.



    Betrayed:


    *If you like well planned missions based on strategy and minimal losses look no further than the Betrayed.


    *Unlike other companies the Betrayed has never faced defeat or needed to retreat.


    *slow moving but has the second largest payslip



    Ariadna support company (ASC):


    *the safest company though the pay is the lowest but still higher than normal.


    *always stationed at the base unless requested for support on a mission.


    *the Ariadna support scheme works here (meaning you and you squad can keep your jobs and make some side cash when needed at double your average rate).



    “So which one are you going to chose” asked the Betrayed Fusilier that was sitting next to him.


    “I’m thinking about going into the Forgotten” Isaac replied.


    The Fusilier let out a laugh as if Isaac was joking “so who are you really going to chose?”


    “As I said the Forgotten”


    Suddenly all the attention was on him. “You clearly haven’t heard the stories that came from people who transfer out of that company. For starters I heard their commander, Elixi has killed more of her own soldiers than the enemy the has that’s why their size is so small” explained the Lost ORC troop that was sitting behind him “look at the Dog-face the wrong way and say good bye to your neck. My advice; go for ASC if you want to work in the forgotten your less prone to dying”.


    Three floors above the recruitment room Dalis was relaxing in the large room dubbed ‘the commander’s lounge’ with the other two company commander.

    ”Telling the recruits about Eden is just as reckless as what I’ve heard of your recent travels” Jang Cao advised before taking another drag from his cigar “working with O-12 and riding between planets on their ships I thought we were trying to avoid big brother ALEPH’s attention”.


    Jang Cao is an ex-Hac Tao hacker with a talent with machinery. During his active service in Yu Jing he designed many devices and weapons that either enhanced machine efficiency or targeted electrical devices (such as cubes) and turned them against their host. Eventually O-12 caught him in the act creating one of these devices by request of Yu Jing for an attack and on a Pan Oceana base. Obviously the state denied everything and he lost everything but his life. Since that day he’s been plotting his revenge against all those who deserted him.


    “I only told them a little more than what they already knew. No one outside us four commanders knows the real objective why we’re going there”.


    “You told the dog-face!” Shakara growled in disgust “and I guess she knows your secret as well”


    “How do you know his secret? I though I was the only one who knew” Jang Cao demanded expecting an answer from Shakara.


    Before this could get a chance to get out of hand Dalis had to intervene “all three company commanders are always kept on the same page. Elixi has earned her position whether or not you judgment has been clouded by past grudges”.


    “I still don’t understand why you gave it to her when Mikhail is a more capable leader…” Shakara muttered.


    “I don’t understand why you put her as the recruiting officer when you’re on base” Jang Cao added in a low tone


    “Remember when we were one giant company? Everyone just saw her as a nuisance and never treated her as one of them” Dalis countered in a serious tone “it was always ‘dog-face do this’, ‘dog-face do that’ to her that’s why she broke your arm back then Shakara. Mikhail agreed to be a stand in until she was a capable leader by his standards. She just wants to fit in, even if means terrifying the recruits to gain their respect.”




    Back three floors below finally the recruitment officer entered the room and was greeted with wolf whistles from the male portion of the group. She was dressed in a respectable grey ceremonial uniform with makeup and hat. Unknown to them (excluding Isaac and Kitsume) this was Elixi.

    ”Who’s this cutie” one called out.


    “We’ll get to that in a second. Has everyone filled out their forms?” she asked in a cute voice holding out her arm to collect them but instead a Lost Wu Ming grabbed her hand.

    ”Someone this beautiful must not trained for real combat and is restrain by administration duties” he flirted to her “If you like I could teach you how to fight like a real soldier”.


    As Isaac took a glance around the room he noticed an unidentified Yuan Yuan at the back of the room had a large grin on his face as if he knew what Elixi was going to do next.


    “Actually” Elixi began before she twisted his arm to the point that the bones made a loud cracking noise that was almost drowned out by his scream “I’m the forgotten company commander Elixi and I know full well how to fight.” She finally let go of his arm and took his from “fist things first, Colby sod off. I can smell your sent and your disguise is just as worse as the time you tried to pass for Dalis!”


    “Since I’m in here now can’t I say and watch the rest of the show?” the Yuan Yuan stalled before revealing that he was actually a Betrayed Hassin Fiday.


    “Last warning Coby, leave or die”


    “Fine I’ll leave but you didn’t have to take it that far” Coby replied before leaving the room “it’s not like I’m not going to find out later”.


    With Coby gone went back to what she was meant to do “please hand me the forms then you are dismissed” she asked, steeping over the Wu Ming that was in pain to collect the forms “tomorrow the your postings will be up on the notice board in the mess hall and one last thing; don’t expect to be in the company you requested, I have the last say on where you go”. Suddenly there was a growing chatter amongst the recruits which meant one thing. Cracking her knuckles she let out her boastful challenge before tuning to face the door “if anyone feels that they’re have a right to chose has to be able to beat me in unarmed combat right hear and now but I doubt that you could leave a mark on my face! But you have to do it before I leave this room”.


    Without warning the Orc troop behind Isaac leaped over his chair, readying his armoured fist to strike Elixi in the back of the head but before he could land his blow she swiftly spun around and used the momentum to elbow him in the face, shattering his helmet and broke his nose.


    “come on if that’s your best effort all of you could come up with this will be the first time I’ll get my deposit back on this uniform” she taunted before noticing that one of the shards cut the cloth “oh well I guess that couldn’t be avoided”.


    That comment sparked a few more to be brave and try her on.



    Part 6




    Minutes later…




    The Knight Hospitaller and three Ghulam doctors were franticly treating the injured inside the training room. The walls, floor, and the recruits that were smart enough to stay seated were caked in blood of the foolish. Most of the recruits that fought were either lying on the ground in terrible pain screaming at the top of their lungs or out cold in their own blood.


    “Ok I admit. I maybe was little over zealous with them” Elixi confessed to the Knight Hospitaller as she stood at the door “but give them a few weeks they will be fine, right?”


    “You beaten three of them to an inch of their lives!” she exploded before signalled to a Ghulam that the Lost Shaolin monk was stable to be moved to the hospital wing’s sickbay so that she could talk to Elixi in the corridor. The moment the were out of earshot she took off her helmet and tucked it under her arm as a sign of that she was going to speak to her as an equal. The Knight Hospitaller had fire red hair and jade eyes that seemed to glimmer in the light. “Look Elixi you are going to have to stop testing the new recruits. You know I’m one of your closest friends ever since when our company was whole but I can’t keep covering for your ‘accidents’ when you take things like this too far” she spoke softly to Elixi “when you realise that you’re spiritually stronger than people think you are they will respect you and follow your words without hesitation”.


    “It’s easy for you to say that. I’m not religious like you Mary. I don’t draw my strength from faith to get me through things” Elixi countered. She was losing interest in the conversation.


    Suddenly Mary placed both of her hands on Elixi’s shoulders (dropping her helmet in the process) and looked her deep in the eyes “religion has nothing to do with my ability to save lives! The same goes as Mikhail’s will to survive the impossible and inspire people to do beyond their best in his presence or even Dalis’ nature to never leave no one behind even his enemies who were abandoned in the retreat. No! It comes from an iron will and a belief in yourself. I know you will have more strength than all of us that even voodoo tech could be a match for you.”


    “Commander Elixi?” Isaac called from around the corner “are we dismissed yet?”


    Elixi looked at Mary (who was now placing her helmet back on her head) “get the rest of the recruits and follow the Knight Hospitaller to the Cube room”.



    Isaac, Kitsume and the Ariadna troops followed Mary into another elevator that seemed to plummet deeper into the earth.


    “What’s the cube room?” Isaac asked Mary that seemed to get the other to nod in agreement.


    “It’s where we remove and store the cubes from your brain or in case of the unfortunate we use a special device to back up your memories there” she explained “since we sometimes required to engaging the combine army. Think of it as insurance.”




    [{(!!Infinity fans this is where the chapter really begins so enjoy the Grand finally for season 1!!)}]


    Brendan was inside the communication centre with ten other hackers monitoring outgoing communication around Dawn’s orbit and Ariadna command channels.


    “Quit your moaning Brendan, so what if O-12 took responsibility for your grand plan back on that prison. Get over it. We work in secret, that’s what we’re trained to do” the Nisses hacker growled as he rapidly scanned for any signal originating from the planet.


    “It’s easy for you to say that you never leave the planet” Brendan replied before another image was projected from his Comlog that set off an alarm. The image was a Pan Oceania scientist sitting at his desk waiting for someone to answer this channel “Greetings Forgotten mercenaries. We, I mean I have a request that can greatly benefit us both if you answer my call” the scientist spoke suspiciously.


    “Identify yourself and how the hell did you get into our com net!” Brendan demanded making the scientist causally lean back on his chair.


    “To cut a long story short I had some help from a dear old friend of Dalis please can you transfer this call to him? This message is for his ears only”



    “Dalis!” Brendan called through the P.A. system in the commander’s lounge “we have a privet message from someone who cont in contact with an old friend of yours. do you want me to send it through?”


    “Send it in” Dalis replied standing up to face the Hologram projector “let’s see how this plays out”




    Part 7




    “So who’s this old friend of mine?” Dalis questioned straight off the bat


    The hologram replied with a grin “we’ll talk about that away from unwanted listening ears (referring to everyone inside the base tapping into the transition) but first the offer. Under ALEPH’s watchful eyes, we have recently constructed a new Prototype T.A.G. we dubbed the Mk II. ALEPH had given us the design under two strict conditions: 1. you MUST be the test pilot and you are to given whatever you demand within reason for payment. 2. The test must be conducted on Paradiso.


    Dalis didn’t give it a second thought he knew what he wanted. “Ok I want the T.A.G. as payment or you and your project can go to hell by yourself” he demanded. It was common knowledge around the base that the other thing he hated more than Remote presence T.A.G.s was the planet Paradiso. “After all you did say I could have anything within reason”.


    The scientist was not surprised one bit by Dalis demand in fact he appeared to be expecting it “very well our ship will be in Dawn’s orbit within 24 hours to pick up you and your escorts”.


    The moment the transition ended Jang Cao couldn’t stay silent for any longer “you do realize this is clearly a trap setup by ALEPH and you’re walking back into his grasp again” he informed calmly before lighting up another cigar “I know you’re not stupid but you’re clearly reckless about who and what you deal in”


    “True but taking all incidents into account over the last three days this doesn’t add up” Dalis relied “he had a chance when I was imprisoned. Also when I was riding on an O-12 ship and He intently let me escape at the mining facility when he had me cornered. It’s obvious he has some plan for us and I don’t plan to be his pawn again without a fight”


    Jan Cao instantly knew what he was planning and put out his cigar “I’ll have the interface ready to be surgically reinstalled within thirty minutes and the procedure will only take an additional hour”.


    “Wait a minute!” Shakara objected “if you put it back in ALEPH will know where our base is if he didn’t already. Jang Cao, I know you are just dying to see that device in action but it isn’t worth it”.


    “Have faith Shakara I know what I’m doing” Dalis reassured.




    Elixi sat in her room repairing her Chain rifles. She had just finished allocating the new recruits and for the first time in a year the vacancies matched the requests so everyone got where they wanted to be but one form had troubled her to make them see her in person. At the bottom of the form the reason why the recruit wanted to join the company was: I wanted to work under the proud and interesting leader; Commander Elixi.


    She had promised to Mary that she wasn’t going to lay a hand on this one


    “Commander Elixi you wanted to see me?” Isaac called from the other side of the door.


    “Enter” she growled not taking her concentration of the chain rifle “and quit with the Commander thing, we’re not as formal as the military”.


    As Isaac entered the room he quickly scanned his surroundings. The room was a decent size for an officer’s quarters but she had the bare minimum of possessions a bed, bench with a crate full of various chain rifle parts placed next to her chair, a punching bag, closet and a bed with a stuffed toy bear sitting on top of it. It appeared to be really old and had been constantly repaired with Tessum line and high quality antipode hides.


    “Its name is Patches and I’ve had him since Dalis adopted as his sister” Elixi informed as when she detected he was inspecting it making him jump “tell me the REAL reason why you chose my company.”


    “You seem to be an interesting person to follow and you saved my life along with what remained with my squad” he replied instantly.


    Isaac was pushing his luck with her. “Bullshit!” she snarled defensively, taking her attention off her chain rifle. “How am I an interesting person?”




    “My older brother he’s a dogface” he began slowly, carefully choosing his words “I’ve been around them most of my life since I always hung around with my brother’s and his only friends were dog-faces as well. Even tough he went into the Dog-Bowl and became a team captain and I want into a naval frigate Brig as an fully qualified Irmandinho lieutenant I always looked up to him and always tried to make him proud of what I am. I can tell that your relationship with your bother is similar to mine”.


    Elixi stopped what she was doing. Isaac was right she has always tried to make Dalis proud of whatever she did even tough at times she resented what she was. But before she could breathe a word to Isaac she heard the ammunition feeder on her chain rifle snap, making her throw the part hard into the wall out of frustration.


    “One question Elixi; do you break these weapons in combat often?” he curiously asked taking a step closer to inspect the parts inside the crate.


    “There never been a mission I haven’t broken at least one.” She replied, taking another ammunition feeder.


    Isaac let a whistle in amazement “chain rifles have always seemed to be damage proof you must be stronger than the norm to be able to shatter them”.


    “My mother told me right before she abandoned me that she as bitten by an antipode chieftain and she resented me because I seemed to remind her of it” she answered trying to forget that painful memory.


    “Then I’ll build a custom one for you” he said before rushing to the door “and I’ll have it ready before we leave for the next mission!”




    22 hours later….




    Sirens wailed throughout the base as mercenaries rushed to their company’s staging point fully equipped and ready for battle. At the Forgotten’s staging point the foxtrot brothers were quickly stuffing their backpacks with as much explosive devices as they could hold. Jacob was leaning against a pillar sleeping with his sniper rifle resting against his shoulder. The scouts and Fusiliers (including Brendan) were doing final checks on their equipment. As Dalis entered with the two new members “everyone welcome the two new members of family if you haven’t already. Foxtrots, Brendan, meet Kitsume and Isaac”


    “Nice to see that you have changed sides from being seekers puppet Kitsune” Brendan greeted.


    “Kitsume not Kitsune. I’m not a fox” she corrected


    “We met Isaac earlier” one the foxtrots replied before one noticed that Isaac was carrying a large weapon case with both hands and got the attention of the other two “what’s in that case? Something for us that is explosive?”


    “Unfortunately not this time, this one is for Elixi where is she?”


    Suddenly Elixi entered the room from the other door “Mary has informed me that Mikhail is still unfit to join us on this so he’s sitting out of this one Dalis”


    “This one should last you and if it needs adjustments just tell me” Isaac explained as he handed the chain rifle to Elixi for her inspection.


    “So why is the whole base on alert if we’re the only ones who are leaving the planet?” Jacob asked Dalis as he passed by.


    “Simple they may attack here while we’re gone and the Betrayed is on standby if we need re-enforcements” he replied “and since it’s your birthday tomorrow, I’m authorising the use of TBO (The Big One) sniper ammunition and Elixi will be happy to be you pack mule.”
     
    #2 dhellfox, Dec 24, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2019
    daszul likes this.
  3. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    Part 8 –Arrival to hell




    “What the hell are T.B.O. rounds?” Isaac thought to himself as he sat in the dropship that was ferrying them to the large Pan Oceania fleet orbiting Dawn. He had a quick glance at Elixi. She wasn’t wearing her armored vest instead there was a complex set of webbing that carried boxes of 30mm rounds.


    “Elixi are you sure you don’t me to carry some of the boxes?” he asked her on more time.


    “Trust me on this if anyone else could carry these I would have delegated this to someone else” she frowned.


    “Believe me Isaac you don’t want to hold these for more than 30 seconds” Jacob added as he held a rifle that looked to be the offspring of an Autocanon and a sniper rifle. He had a pair of ear plugs hanging around his neck so at least this thing is going to be loud plus the foxtrot brothers seemed to be more hyped up than normal.


    Elixi went back to looking out the view port towards the fleet. “Dalis, this T.A.G. must be important to them for an escort fleet of that size” she warned “I doubt we’re going to get out of this one alive”.


    Dalis just replied with a grin and tapped the back of his skull “then this should be interesting”




    The dropship came to a stop with a loud thud as it docked with the hull of the cargo freighter at the center of the convoy.


    “I guess this is our stop. Please place your trays in the upright position before we decent into hell and thank you for flying with Pan O’ airlines” Tony joked before he removed the harness from his body.


    “That was kind of weak Tony.” Brad sneered before he cocked his HMG.


    “I like you to think of something better Brad”.


    Suddenly the hatch slid open leading into a pitch black room. Inside that room they could hear two sets of heavy metal footsteps heading towards them at a casual speed making the forgotten raise their weapons.


    The closer they came the more hostile they sounded until the point one of the foxtrots opened fire forcing everyone else to join in.


    The sparks caused by the rikoching {yes I know it not spelt like that} (and/or) tracer bullets off the wall and muzzle flashes illuminated the darkness revealing two Orc troops that quickly dived behind the hatch archway.


    “Hold your fire we’re unarmed for fuck sake!” one shouted out once enough forgotten stopped to reload.


    “Hold your fire!” Dalis ordered, lowering his pistol.


    The moment the hostilities ended the two Orc troops stepped out into the open and continued to walk to them like nothing had happened “see I told you these would come in handy.


    “Sorry about that. Our foxtrots are known to be a little trigger happy” Dalis apologized as one Orc troop removed his helmet revealing it was the scientist.


    “No harm done” the scientist replied “now I take it you want to inspect the Mk II?”




    “This thing is huge” was Elixi’s comment when she first laid eyes on the T.A.G.


    The machine was 1.5 times the size of a normal T.A.G. the body was layered in plates of solid and liquid armor. The head resembled the cutter’s but around its equator, additional optics had been installed to give the machine’s pilot 360 degree vision. It’s right arm held an oversized shoulder mounted Hyper Magnetic Canon (it’s held like a missile launcher). The other hand had an under arm weapon that has never been seen before.


    “I can see why this has been labeled the Mk II it’s the second super T.A.G. ever constructed am I correct?” Dalis asked as he connected the dots inside his head.


    “Wait a minute aren’t these monstrosities are illegal to even plan to construct!” Tony interrupted “and let me remind you it’s under the same punishment as creating a self aware AI”


    The foxtrots let out a roar of laughter “and when did you care about laws? We walk around with enough of Jang Cao’s latest toys strapped to our belts that if O-12 caught us you would be wishing for the death penalty”.


    “Doesn’t worry it’s only illegal when ALEPH doesn’t approve” the scientist countered passionately “also Yu Jing built the first one so why can’t we build the second?”


    “O-12 dismantled it anyway and eventually it will happen to this one as well so why bring back a threat like this to the sphere?”


    “Tell me about the features about the Mk II starting with the pilot cabin” Dalis asked getting back to the topic.


    The scientist cleared his thought “it’s internal due to the design’s side effects. It’s completely sealed off from the outside world making it unhackable by any known device but on the other hand other than the radio that’s disconnected from the system there’s no way that you can contact anyone outside speaking distance let alone control remotes. As you have already assumed this T.A.G. has 360 degree sight and a new advanced targeting system to match. The prototype armor in theory is more resistant to AP rounds without sacrificing mobility (like this thing is going to need it)”


    Suddenly there was a shutter and the scientist leaded Dalis to the ladder to the super T.A.G. “we’re here and welcome to hell!”




    Part 9- something’s are best left forgotten




    Dalis stood on the catwalk parallel to the spine of the Mk II Super T.A.G. “so how the hell am I supposed to board this thin?”


    “Just touch the T.A.G it should open once it recognizes that it’s you” the scientist replied going through the checklist.


    Upon hearing the answer Dalis pressed his hand against the machine the back began to quickly slide away like a jigsaw puzzle. As he stepped inside the interior was extremely odd, only one basic interface, one monitor and a combatable pilots chair with an armored harness /restraint which were quite out dated for a T.A.G. willingly he sat in the seat. Willingly he allowed the harness restrain him, binding him to the T.A.G.’s movements. Only when he started to hear voices inside his head had he realized that he fell into Aleph’s trap.


    Everyone watched as the Super T.A.G. was lowered into the large testing arena on the surface guarded by Pan Oceania’s most elite troops from the Mk II’s location it was a 12km (12000 meters) run to the parameter fence in all directions not taking into account the thick forest and the random simulated urban environments. At the most northern point was a large and heavily fortified three story complex designed to observe the tests.




    “I don’t like being this far away from Dalis” Elixi growled out of frustration as she watched through an X-visor at the facility control room with the rest of the forgotten “why isn’t the T.A.G. moving yet?”




    “We haven’t been given the word to disable the restraints system” a technician replied.


    “Say the word Elixi and I will become Lord Dalis’ shadow” Kitsume whispered with a bow.


    “Not yet, he doesn’t need our help yet…”




    “Welcome home Armored Specter” Aleph greeted in Dalis’ own voice “you have no idea how much resources I’ve spent on finding and getting you here my wayward Agent”.


    “Its all in the past now Aleph or should I say a direct aspect of Aleph. Now what are you planning?” Dalis demanded.


    “Cant a caring big brother reward the younger who has achieved so much in a span of seven years? I see you haven abandoned the Nemesis body I designed for you” aleph replied in a genderless voice.


    “Then give me my freedom!”


    “In good time Armored Specter but first doesn’t this bring back memories? This is where you died by seeker’s hand. Have fun.”


    Suddenly the cockpit disappeared in a wave of hexagons as his vision became a 360 degree vision of the outside world. He could feel the wind resistance of against the machine this feeling he hadn’t felt in 8 years, once again he possessed a T.A.G. as if it was his own body.


    “Relax you body is safe and fine inside and if you really want you can switch between at will” the scientist informed over the radio.


    “You failed to mention that the targeting device is an aspect of Aleph” Dalis replied making Elixi raise one of her Chain rifles to the scientist’ head.


    “Swift it off before I tear you apart!” she demanded with a hostile growl but the scientist only replied with a grin.


    “Well that’s the thing about the Super T.A.G. once its active it cant be stopped unless the pilot wills it. Commence the test”.




    The final restraints blew off the Mk II like rockets allowing it to stand.


    “Ok there are 20 T.A.G.s inside the area under orders to stop you no matter what” the scientist warned “happy hunting”


    From the word go he was under attack by a cutter hiding in the forest at his six. Instantly Dalis tried to leap behind cover but it refused his command and went with its own plan. Within a blink of an eye the HMC let out a monstrous roar as its six barrels rapidly to the maximum speed before spinning around opening fire on the cutter, defecting all incoming shots in the process the noise was deafening no matter how far away, the muzzle flash was so large that it could easily conceal the user and when it stopped firing all what was left of the cutter was a clear line of scorched earth that divided the forest in half.


    With the total annihilation of the T.A.G. he spotted two Squalos abandoned their location and ran deeper into the forested, trying to make it to the nearby city. As he went to fire he was alerted to an incoming heavy grenade launcher barrage. Once again the Super T.A.G. took control. In one swift movement with the HMC it shot all the shells out of the sky making a decent fireworks display before returning control back to Dalis to finish off the T.A.G.s




    “It appears he’s wiping the floor with the other models” brad remarked as he watched Dalis chased the two Squalos into the city.


    “That thing is just a monster” Tony complained “it should have never been allowed to take one step on solid earth”.


    “That’s an idea” Jacob said with excitement (he like everyone else wasn’t listening to Tony’s complaint) quickly he knocked one of the technicians out of the way to reach the radio “hey Dalis we thought of name for the Mk II, how about the Leviathan?”


    “Ha it suits this thing right down to the core” Dalis replied as he casually strolled down the main road then stopped when he reached the four way intersection.


    “Jump him!” the scientist ordered into the second radio.


    Within seconds Dalis’ 360 degree sight detected immanent attack and marked all enemies with red squares before the disposing of them in one quick but precise spin.




    From the border two of the guards stopped and watched the test. “Patrol 5 to patrol 11, we have a job to do so stop slacking off” another patrol shouted at then over the radio.


    “Patrol 11 here, like anyone is stupid enough to even try and besides they’ll need an army to get past us. Out.”


    The Swiss Guard turned to around to do a quick scan of the surroundings and saw something on the horizon and tapped the shoulder of the Croc man he was assigned with “hey tell me what you see over there”


    Casually the Croc man activated his X-visor but the moment he saw what it was “get on the radio and warn everyone the Combine army is marching in this direction with enough troops to take this place!”




    Part 10 –Finally-The Monolithic post! - For those who are foolish to challenge the Leviathan…




    “Somebody answer me, cancel the test we have incoming Combine!” the Swiss Guard shouted into his radio but only received static. The test was still continuing.


    “It sounds like you’re experiencing some sort of difficulty” a passing patrol identified as patrol 7 (two Orc troops) remarked from behind.


    “Hand me your auxiliary radio!” the Swiss Guard demanded, snatching their external radio. Once again he turned to face the testing facility “patrol 11 to base, we ….” Suddenly he felt a burning sensation pass through his body. Looking down he saw the tip of a monofilament blade slowly being pulled out of his armor. As he fell onto the ground the cached a glimpse of his attackers. Patrol 7, even the Croc man were Shasvastli Speculo Killers.




    The test had finally finished and was being re-restrained and rearmed inside the storage facility next to the main complex.


    “That was quite a spectacular show of raw power Dalis” the scientist praised, clapping as Dalis entered the observation room “as we wait for the transport ship to land why don’t you relax and have a drink“.


    “I’m fine” Dalis replied his mind was on what Aleph told him. The Mk II couldn’t just be the only reason aleph wanted him here, there were other places this could have been conducted and Aleph only acts when it deems mankind’s existence was threatened.


    Suddenly Gunfire and explosions erupted all over the testing grounds ad the patrols clashed with the combine army.


    As the panic and confusion spread throughout the facility Dalis grinned “it looks like today is my lucky day. Not only do I get to test the Leviathan in a controlled environment, I also get the chance to practice on some live targets and I expect to be paid well for this service”


    “The Mk II is still being rearmed you wont have no more than half a payload” the scientist warned.


    “That’s more than enough” Dalis replied before turning to Elixi “this is the day you have been training for you’re in charge of the company, do what you feel is right”


    She gave Dalis a nod in acknowledgement.




    As Dalis went to activate the door a plasma blast punched a hole through the door and hit him directly on the right side of his face making him stumble backwards holding his face. The door activated allowing the Charontid to advance and finish off his prey but something unexpected happed before anyone could react. Dalis sounds of pain quickly turned into a doglike growl. His left eye was focused on the Charontid his hands moved away from his face so he could see his enemy clearly and the enemy could see his face. The Charontid reeled at the sight as if it was facing something out of its league. Within one swift movement Dalis charged the Charontid, stretching out his left hand revealing an underarm weapon identical to the Leviathan’s. Suddenly there was a blue flash as it actives revealing continuous beam of energy in the shape of a blade. The Charontid tried to fire a second shot but Dais was moving unnaturally quick, the blue blade just sliced off its arm as if it was paper rendering the weapon useless. The machine let out a screech of pain before Dalis thrusted his free hand onto its face and lifted is off the ground.


    Suddenly it began to spark and twitch wildly for ten seconds then exploded. “Shame the E.I. saw it coming I almost had it completely under my control”.


    “That isn’t normal are we sure its Dalis?” Brad warned everyone unsure if he should believe what he saw.


    “Is everyone ok?” Dalis asked as he dropped the remains of the Charontid skull. When he didn’t get a reply he turned around and everyone but Elixi seemed to freeze in fear at his true face. Behind the artificial flesh (that had Teseum mesh Weaved through every fiber to make it bullet resistant without making it lose human minor damage traits) was a polished black reinforced plates of armor that took a shape of a human skull and a glowing blue optic lens. Slowly but at a noticeable rate the skin began to regenerate returning his face to its normal state.


    This was too much for Jacob to take “you’re a post human” he laughed “you’re post human and you never told us”.


    “The term Post human is an under statement when the body is a one of a kind T.A.G.” Elixi answered.


    “We can talk about this later” Dalis replied before they heard a pinging noise as bullets began to hit the exterior armor outside the window “I’ll see you all on the other side”.


    “Jacob give them a taste of the T.A.G. Breaching Ordnance (aka The Big One)” Elixi shouted from behind the computer consol under the window, unfastening one of the T.B.O. ammo boxes from her webbing and sliding it across the ground to him.


    Quickly he fitted the box to the bottom of the bottom of his oversized sniper-canon then smashed a hole in the window. “Firing!” when he squeezed the trigger the single shot sounded like a 120mm than a 30mm. two huge jets of flame shot out the sides of the muzzle break, (combined with the noise) shattering all of the 12 meter window. The round itself landed a direct hit on a Morat, passing straight trough it like tissue paper then exploded in a great Napalm fire as it hit the building behind the Morat, roasting the rest of its comrades.


    “Now!” Elixi barked as Jacob pulled the large cocking handle on the side of the weapon to restart the loading process.


    Steven and the other Ariadna scout quickly picked off easy targets with their Ojỏniks while Brad (with his HMG) and Tony along with the Foxtrot brothers laid down a suppressing fire, to keep the enemy pinned.


    Noticing that Kitsume and Isaac haven’t joined in Elixi quickly glanced looked around. Kitsume was right next to her sitting calmly behind her as if waiting for her own personal command. Isaac had rand over to the severed Charontid arm and began to remove the Plasma rifle from it but strangely the scientist and his technicians were operating one of the consoles in clear line of fire. “What the hell are you doing, get down!” Elixi growled, pulling them down behind cover as everyone else ducked before Jacob Fired a second shot.


    “My Procedures!” he shouted over the noise before going back to the consol “if the combine army gets this information before we can delete it the Leviathan and the entire Pan Oceania is screwed”


    Hearing that she moved over to the three Foxtrot brothers and tapped them on the shoulders to get their attention “Foxtrots its play time! I want you rig the door to blow if anyone tries to enter but try not to over do it”.


    “Don’t worry we’ll try to restrain ourselves” they joked before scurrying over to the door.


    Dalis had now made it outside. The storage facility was still unharmed but was still a decent run to the heavily defended entrance. As expected the moment he took a step towards the facility he was under fire by Combine forces. His left arm flexed again to reveal his concealed weapon but this time it fired bolts of blue monofilament energy, slicing a Shasvastli Speculo Killer in half just with a glancing hit. Between voiles of fire he ran from one piece of cover to the next until he spotted a Q-drone armed with a Plasma rifle flying around the storage facility to ambush the Pan Oceania forces guarding the entrances from behind. “Looks like I get to use my interface after all” he muttered to himself as his eyes focused on the drone. Just as it was about to open fire on them it began to spark before firing onto it own side, killing two Iskallers WCD jump operators before being shot down.


    “You took your time!” snarled the Aquila Guard lieutenant as Dalis ran inside “ok men we only need to hold this for ten more Minuets.


    The combine began to swarm the storage facility and the Aquila Guard lieutenant troops were dropping like flies until there both sides heard a monstrous roar originating form inside that facility quickly the Aquila Guard lieutenant dived to the ground just before the large doors were ripped open by the sheer power of the HMC and managed annihilate the combine at the entrance and scare off the others.




    “The Mk II is active” the scientist said stating the obvious as the leviathan stepped over the remains of the door and the defenders while it moping up the last of the combine around both facilities. He leaned towards one of technician and whispered “release half of the remaining restraints. Let’s give the combine army something to really fear”.




    Suddenly 7 large black objects fell out of the sky like meteorites and crashed in the combine army’s lines. As the dust cleared it was reveled as Avatars.


    Instantly the Avatars opened fire on the leviathan and Dalis reacted by canceled out all the incoming shots with the HMC sheer volume of fire, bring both sides on even ground. The winner of this battle will be decided by the side that uses the city to their advantage




    “Elixi I ask you again; Say the word Elixi and I will become Lord Dalis’ shadow” Kitsume asked as Jacob tried to take one down but the distance and Optical disrupter they were impossible to hit.


    “Then go!” Elixi replied before facing the scientist “how long now?”


    “We just need ten more minutes”.


    Kitsume quickly fastened a repelling anchor to the floor below her and activated her TO camouflage then leaped out the window. With three meters left to fall she quickly activates the stop on the winch so it stopped her fall before finally disconnecting from the cable. From the observation tower they were unable to see where she was but could clearly see where she had been by the corpses and the stream of alien blood that seemed to linger in the air in her wake. Her path seemed to twist and turn as she cut them down with her shock Kantana and throwing needles as if she was performing some complex dance. Some seemed to spot her but it always seemed futile, they just end up accidentally shoot their friends before she finished them off from behind. Eventually she came up to one of the Avatars. The machine saw through the camouflage and went to crush her under its giant hand. Unfortunately for it she stepped out of harms way at the last minute before began to run up its arm. The avatar tried to swat her off but she was more agile than it and easily ducked and weaved around the attacks. Now was her chance to strike, she quickly sheathed her sword and upholstered her MULTI- Sniper Rifle and fired an AP round point blank into its head causing a chain reaction from within before taking a blind leap into the multi floored building next to the avatar.




    The Leviathan was circling the inner city like an angry hornet, his ammo gauge was indicating ‘low’ so he couldn’t just blast his way trough to them. Within a split second two Avatars exposed themselves to fire at him. Again he deflected the attack but this time the HMC burst connected with both avatars taking one down in a ball of blue flame the retreated back behind the cover with one less arm.




    “The Mk II has depleted all its ammunition we have to remove the last restraints” the scientist argued with one of his technicians.


    “And if we remove this restraint what’s going to stop Dalis raiding any bas he pleases in the future” the technician countered.


    “And if we don’t, we all die right here”.


    “What are you waiting for activate the damm thing!” Tony shouted knocking everyone off guard.


    “As you wish but you can’t say I didn’t tell you so later on” the technician murmured as she released the final restraint setting off an air raid siren.


    Upon the final release Dalis tossed the empty HMC aside and stretched out its left arm that had an upsized weapon mount identical to his. It began to rapidly charge up and somehow drained the light in the surrounding area.


    “in the end we’ couldn’t reproduce the voodoo tech that the combine army had so we built on an experimental technology that was constructed on a unique model; The Nemesis T.A.G.” the scientist explained “you might want to duck or brace yourself”.


    Elixi turned back around to look at the leviathan just as it fired. The shot was a blue colored blast that traveled at high speeds like a missile straight through obstacles as if they weren’t there until it hit the targeted avatar the was on the run from the shot. At first the shot appeared quite pathetic, only a small explosion that sent out a large E/M blast radius shorting out everything caught in the area then suddenly a blinding blue light that sounded like thunder rushes out from the explosion claming everything the E/M blast caught in its radius and the foolish that chose to stay.


    Even though the Forgotten were safely outside the radius the force of the weapon sent them crashing the wall at the opposite end of the room.


    “That was a wall of pure monofilament energy” the scientist explained before anyone could ask just as a red light on the consol began to flash “looks like we have finished the deletion just in time we have combine preparing to breach this room”.


    Quickly Elixi grabbed the scientist and his two technicians and threw them on her shoulders before leaping out the window followed by the other mercenaries repelling down wall just seconds before the entire floor was demolished by the Foxtrots’ trap.



    ”God dammit foxtrots I said don’t over do it that could have killed us!” Elixi shouted, releasing the scientist and his technicians.


    “But it didn’t” they countered smartly before coming under fire from the combine.


    Venting her rage she jumped out from cover and charged into a group of Morats. She struck the first one hard with her first Chain Rifle before being shot in the back, accidentally exploding the B.T.O ammo in one giant raging fire incinerating everything caught within.


    “Elixi!” Isaac called out before he ran towards to fire to check if there was any chance his commander survived the explosion, shooting his newly converted Plasma rifle at the swarm of Hungries heading towards him. Before they could come into contact with him Jacob fired the last shot from his weapon sending the swarm to join the Morats’ fate.


    “this is why I didn’t want you to cay these” Elixi sighed as she casually walked out of the inferno unharmed and one doglike shake she extinguished the fires on her cloths “you were right about those chain rifles, they didn’t break when I used them as a club now you just have to make them fire proof.




    “This is Fearless leader, can someone give me a sit-rap” Isaac radio crackled before he handed it to Elixi.


    “FM 2IC E here, everyone is fine and the Pan ‘O forces has everything under control here, how’s your end?”


    “Well I’ll give you the short version other than Kitsume who hasn’t cam out of my shadow yet, there’s nothing alive in this area” he replied before saw two more flashes of monofilament blasts ”I can safely say we have won the battle”.








    Two weeks later…..


    The entire sphere military communication network (and some areas outside) was filled that was similar to E.I.’s way of announcing its new toys but it was a human transition that used an unidentifiable voice that spoke:


    ‘Worlds tremble in fear as the leviathan awakes from its slumber.


    Its three faithful followers; the Lost, the Forgotten and the Betrayed flock to its resting place inside the abyss.


    Its rival the Behemoth has long since disappeared.


    For those who are foolish to challenge the Leviathan it will offer only one thing….


    Death!


    there was a seaon 2 that had two chapters before i canned it since other than some Dalis backstory it was basicly a jump the shark moment (well even more than before).


    fortunatly/unfortunatly those pages are lost.

    [edit: 20mins later; found them i might put them up some other time.]
    [edit 2: they are are too many missing sections to put up]


    well heres my gift to you all, i hope you all enjoy the holiday
     
    #3 dhellfox, Dec 24, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2019
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  4. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    i happened to find the complete season 1story contained within a single file so if you read it with the missing sections they're now fixed. (though alert me if i missed one)

    (Something that happens before this mini story)


    Outside the base Brendan, Jacob, brad and Steven sat around the improvised circle drinking Cola as Elixi was sparing with Isaac.

    “What happened to Elixi’s last partner?” Mikhail asked as he joined the circle.

    “Two words; hospital wing and its nice to see you alive and well again” Jacob greeted before handing him a drink from the cooler he was leaning against “here’s a gift curtsey of the Foxtrots”

    “So they have gone home recently to see their mother” replied before watching Isaac get elbowed in the face, knocking him to the ground “why is the new guy sparring with her when you always seem to be her favorite when it comes to needing a pouching bag?”

    “Hey I’m not risking my life when I can convince someone else to take the fall because the paid trainers are all in comas from their last encounter”.

    “You and your methods of self preservation” Mikhail muttered before going back to watching the fight.

    After a few more minutes of watching Isaac being beaten around the ring and was still able to stand back up for more, Shakara (the leader of the Lost) came storming over to the ring. She quickly grabbed Elixi’s arm and barely able to hold it thanks to her armor “Elixi do you mind, I would like to interrogate the Rodent while he is still able to talk”.

    The moment Elixi gave in, Shakara lifted Isaac off the ground. “You promised me the plasma rifle in exchange for the weapon construction materials you have been taking from my Company’s storage rooms lately, I have held up my end of the bargain now its time for you to do the same!”

    Despite the situation he was in he was unnaturally calm and within a blink of an eye he struck. He detonated an E/M grenade on his belt, shorting out her armor enabling him to get free and hold his AP CCW to her neck. “All do respects Commander Shakara, I was going to get it out of my locker right after this. I never go back on a deal”

    She quickly looked around with her eyes, no one was moving to her aid, not even to her own men and the only one that could defuse the situation she had a long standing feud that dated back to when the company was one.

    Suddenly Isaac’s blade retreated back to its sheath hidden in his armor and he turned to face Elixi to continue the sparing “I’ll deliver the weapon when I’m ready and not a minute sooner”.





    Coby vs Kitsume: The professional’s challenge.





    Overview: Honestly I don’t really like how this one has turned out I have rewrote the story 6 times already and still doesn’t seem to feel right.



    This section is set a week after the battle on Paradiso when the Forgotten Mercenary Company were ‘inactive’ to avoid any unnecessary attention. Up until now Coby had been the only assassin in the entire company so he was always was assigned to contracts that required a subtle touch or it would be no one else. He allays took great pride in his work and to advance the reputation of The betrayed and the Forgotten Mercenary Company by being capable of killing his target no matter the security. But when Kitsume was assigned to ‘his duty’ he began to feel threatened that he will have to compete for the assignments of risk losing his place in the Company to shadow that doesn’t have the courtesy to show her rival her face, let alone any of her allies.



    “What do you mean you’re giving this high priority mission to Kitsume!” Coby demanded to Dalis and the other two commanders; Shakara and Jang Cao inside the commander lounge.

    “We are all aware of your efficiency for this type of assignment but all FOUR of us had decided that Kitsume, since she was raised on Yu Jing and is familiar with their security protocols, she is much more suited for this type of assassination” Dalis explained as he read the mission report off his Comlog before he looked Coby in the eyes “let is go and say no more about this because our judgment on this isn’t going to change”.

    The moment he left the room the most logical way he could out his frustration was to slam his fist against the wall.

    “I heard that!” Dalis shouted.



    Kitsume on the other hand was out on patrol in the Ariadna jungle surrounding the base. Ever since Paradiso she felt the need to be familiar in dense jungle terrain.

    “How long are you planning to stalk us Kitsume?” the Orc Troop growled before she turned to where they thought where Kitsume was hiding only to find nothing. “LM Orc 35 to HQ. Our sweep is complete and we’re returning to base”.

    When they returned to base the first thing she did was to get something to eat at the mess hall on the way she passed a really beaten up Isaac being carried to the hospital wing by Mikhail and Jacob.

    “Did Shakara do this?” Kitsume asked.

    “Elixi” Jacob answered.

    When she entered the mess hall it was quite packed and the only table that had room was with the Foxtrot brothers and their newly constructed explosive device that they placed on the center of the table.

    Kitsume grabbed one of the food trays and took a seat at the table. The Foxtrots were unnaturally quiet for once. “Hey Kitsume can I talk with you” Coby asked the moment he spotted her and Kitsume gestured him to sit.

    “Let’s cut straight to the point I want you to forfeit your assignment to me” Coby demanded.

    “Commander Dalis had given me that duty and it must be I who will carry this assignment” Kitsume replied as she opened the lower half of her helmet so she could eat.

    “I’ll give you one last chance, forfeit the assignment or else”

    “Intimidation has no effect on me. I’m eating at a table with an active bomb” she replied between mouthfuls, gaining the Foxtrots’ attention.

    “So be it!” Coby snarled before he left the table and stormed off. He didn’t want the Foxtrots to get involved.

    “I wonder what his problem is eh?” one of the Foxtrots’ joked.

    “If you need an escort we’ll be happy to do that for you” the second added.

    “I’m fine” Kitsume replied as she finished eating.

    The moment she left the Foxtrots noticed their new toy had disappeared and each suspected that one of his brothers took it for their selves.

    “Ok put the bomb back on the bench right now or I’m going to beat it out of both of you” they all demanded at once.



    The next thing on her to do list was to prepare her equipment for the upcoming mission that was two days away.

    The base’s sleeping quarters was in the heart of the heart of the base and was divided into four branches. Each branch had their own recreational room away from the other companies.

    She could hear that someone was in there so glanced inside the rec room. She could see Elixi (in dog-warrior form) was beating the stuffing out of punching bag as Tony and Steven were reading some old training manuals.

    “Hey Kitsume, I would stay to chat but I’m needed elsewhere” Brad greeted as he passed her in the hallway.

    “Ok” Kitsume replied

    After a few more minutes of walking she finally stood before her room and as she reached for the panel to open the door something didn’t feel right and within a split second her suspicions were answered; she saw Brad just about to causally pass by from his room 3 doors way.

    Swiftly she shoved him out of the way just before her door suddenly exploded; barely missing her. The noise attracted everyone in the immediate location armed for a fight.

    “What the hell is going on here?” Elixi growled resting her chain rifle on he shoulder but before Kitsume could answer she began to sniff the air and noticed a foreign sent “Kitsume, commander’s lounge, now! I will meet you there shortly after I deal with an unwanted guest”.



    One hour later…

    Dalis sat patently on his lounge with his arms folded, Shakara was pouring herself a drink from the bench behind Dalis, Jang Cao was enjoying his cigar and Kitsume was forced to stand before them as they awaited for the arrival of Elixi.

    Suddenly Shakara burnt her hands on the drink and by habit she dropped the cup, letting it shatter on the ground “what’s taking the stupid Dog-face so long!”

    On cue they could hear Elixi shouting at Coby and received curses and insults in reply before she dragged Coby in by his foot (and appeared to had been deeply touched by her ‘loving’ personality)

    “Now that we’re all here we can get this dispute settled” Dalis began.

    “I don’t see what the problem is it was only a little bomb” Coby interrupted with an innocent tone.

    “This is the third time you have tried to kill her this week!” Jang Cao countered before he pressed a button on his Comlog and the projected displayed all three attempts: poising her food, training room ‘accidents’ with the remotes being reprogrammed to fire at her and finally the bombing of her room.

    “Lord Dalis if Coby really wants this assignment, issue me command” Kitsume spoke with a bow.

    “That wont be necessary Kitsume, you both are” Dalis informed getting a stare of confusion from everyone (except Kitsume because of her helmet). “how about it why don’t we settle some over scores along with this one?” he said as he stared back at Jang Cao “The one who brings back the target’s ring finger to the extraction point will not only receive the pay, they will have the title of our best assassin.”

    Shakara saw where this is going “and one last rule if one of you dies the contract is in void and additionally the winner has to pay for the resurrection of the fallen”

    That made Coby frown she had more to gain from this. He knows that Kitsume doesn’t have the funds at the moment to revive him for a long time if anything happens and not getting money to help pay for it either.

    “You both have a day to prepare”



    As usual the news of a competition had spread throughout the base like wildfire with everyone taking a side and/or bets on who was going to win.

    Kitsume had been given access to one of the unoccupied room as the damage is repaired. Most of her personal property had been undamaged but her multi-sniper rifle was fried and without Isaac, the only weapon smith available could get it finished three days after the mission had been completed.

    “Kitsume is it a good time to talk?” Jacob asked as he stood in the doorway.

    Kitsume signaled for him to come in.

    He took a seat on the bench “I want to see that over confident assassin get knocked down a few pegs and trust me you will need my help but I’ll will only help you on one condition, that you show me what hides behind the mask”

    For a second he could tell by he body language she was giving it some thought before she Slowly removed her helmet “you must never speak about again outside this room, I am only am showing you because you had bested me on the field”

    As Jacob gazed on her face he froze. He had never seen anything like this “wow. now that’s something I wasn’t expecting. Anyway Cody always relies heavily on his technology to get things done” he explained in a low voice to see how she reacted “even in gathering intelligence.”

    “Please get to point” Kitsume requested

    “I remember examining some of the bodies from Paradiso, some of them had throwing needles lodged into their heads and vitals I was wondering if that wasn’t just a fluke”

    “Needles, Shurikens, Kunais, I can throw them better than using a pistol. It’s my clan’s specialty” she replied.

    Suddenly Jacob began to smile “oh with what you just told me this is going to defiantly ruin Coby’s pride. Ok the plan is this…”



    Throughout the next day Kitsume watched as Jacob talked to members of the forgotten mercenary intelligence department, Yu Jing lost members and Ariadna Special Forces that were passing by on patrol. From the distance she was watching she couldn’t hear what they were talking about but she did spot things being discreetly traded to Jacob and by 4pm he handed her a disk that gave her in great detail of the target’s destined path, support and backup along with Coby’s plan and how to counter it”

    “an assassin talent may be killing targets silently but The S.A.S. have always been better intelligence gathers” he said as he handed her a briefcase that could conceal a rifle just before she boarded the transport “here’s is the equipment you requested and a little something to give you an edge”.



    THE MISSION COMMENCES.



    Objective: Prevent the Pan Oceana officer from defecting to the Yu Jing informant by any means necessary.

    Parameters: the Officer holds vital information and must be eliminated to prevent future problems.

    Bonus: the one who brings back the finger of the Officer is declared the best assassin



    The transport was flying low over the capital city of Yu Jing. The flight was smooth with nothing blocking their path since two days earlier Dalis had given the air traffic control a sizable ‘donation’ to turn a blind eye on this transports flight path .

    “Coby get ready” the fight crew signaled to him. He took one last look at Kitsume as she emerged from the changing room. She was wearing traditional Japanese clothing and (what appeared to be) an expertly crafted wooden fox mask but the odd thing to Coby was she wasn’t carrying any weapons.

    “Giving up already? What a shame” Coby taunted before he fast roped onto a production facility building four blocks away from his first target’s meeting point.

    The moment Coby was clear the transport traveled a few blocks north-east before it hovered over an alley and the flight crew signaled to jump.

    Quickly she leaped out and landed in the center of the alley without damaging her body.

    “Good hunting” the flight crew said to her before the transport withdrew form the area of operations



    Inside the production facility Coby was stalking his target (the informant) from the catwalks. All his intelligence was wrong. There were twice as many Zhanshi escorts and they were 20 minutes early but this didn’t deter him. In fact it was more of a motivation and a test of his skill as an assassin. Finally the opportunity presented itself, the escorts fanned out to secure the area for the meeting. Quickly Coby attached his repelling line to the catwalks railing just before he jumped off. While he was free falling he threw a smoke grenade into the center of the group before he upholstered his pistol and light shotgun. Fist volley, the two Zhanshi soldiers closest to the informant fell just a fraction a second before the smoke grenade activated. Second volley, another two fell to his deadly accurate shots. Final volley he tried to shoot the informant but another Zhanshi got in the way. As he landed on the ground floor (in the cloud of smoke) he tried to take one last shot at the informant with his shotgun but the weapon just clicked signifying it was out of ammo. “What a shame” he muttered to himself as he broke the informant’s neck



    Kitsume on the other hand was taking a more direct approach and went straight for the Officer who was waiting for the informant’s messenger inside a popular guest club. “I’m the informant’s messenger let me in” she informed to the two mercenary guards posted outside the entrance. The guards let her in without question. The interior of the building was quite simple was two stories high. The first floor in the center of the club was a dance floor and the DJ, surrounding it were lounges where the regulars were talking amongst themselves as others were standing at the bar on the right hand side of the building. The second floor however was all VIP was seating/ bar overseeing the dance floor.

    “The officer is up there” the bouncer informed pointing to the man watching the dance floor.

    As she climbed the stairs Kitsume took notes on how many soldiers (loyal to the officer) were guarding him and what were they equipped with. There were a total of seven guards armed with Combi Rifles, two armed with HMGs and one Orc troop with a Boarding Shotgun protecting the officer.

    “You’re late” the officer growled as he turned to face Kitsume “so where is the meet point going to be?”

    “In the depths of hell” Kitsume replied making the ORC troop step in front of the officer with his weapon raised to block any incoming attacks.

    The officer let out a laugh of amusement as if he expected this from the beginning “and may I ask how you planning to do this assassin when you are greatly outnumbered?” under the protection of his bodyguard the officer casually walked into the next room “kill her” he ordered before he shut the door.

    Within a split second of the first Fusilier (on her right) activating his Combi Rifle Kitsume had flexed her right hand in his direction, sending three throwing needles into his head with fatal precision. Quickly with her left hand she grabbed the (Fusilier at nearly point blank) HMG handle and directed its fire into two Fusiliers on the balcony killing both and one fell over the railing onto the people below.

    The ground floor was in complete panic with the sound of gunfire and a body falling onto the dance floor that everyone was trying to get out as fast as possible, knocking out the two mercenaries that came to investigate.

    Even without her combat suit she still reacted faster than them. After dispatching the machine gunner with her Kunai she elegantly dodged all incoming fire before throwing the Kunai at one trusted a longer throwing needle into the soft tissue behind his jaw bone and kicked the seventh Fusilier in the chest making him stumble backwards as he went to stab Kitsume with his combat knife.



    Coby was now standing outside the club in the disguise of the informant he had no idea what was going on so he carefully upholstered his pistol and walked inside.

    “She is a demon run for your life!” screamed a fusilier as ran past him as he began to climb the stairs. The second floor was in ruins with bodies and bloods everywhere. Kitsume nowhere in sight but there was a set of footprints in the blood leading towards the next room were the sounds of gunfire could still be heard. The moment he peered into the next room he was in total shock. There was an additional 15 dead Fusiliers, all killed by throwing needles to the head and neck. At the back of the room there was Kitsume preparing to escape out a broken window and next to her were the officer and his ORC troop bodyguard both with their necks sliced by a concealed AP blade in her clothing.

    “You’re late Coby” Kitsume remarked the moment she sensed his presence “the finger is still attached. You can take the title”.

    Seeing that there was no use for his disguise he reverted back to his previous form. “Then why did you take this mission?” he demanded.

    “Because Lord Dalis ordered me to” she replied before removing her mask “as the looser you deserve to see my face”. Her face was pail and white like her hair as if there wasn’t any life left in her worst thing was that she appeared to be blind. “The price of surviving, without the aid of technology I can’t see things that are not moving” Within a few seconds she placed the mask back on and jumped out the window and vanished.

    “I can’t believe it” Coby began to mutter “not only was I beaten I was humiliated by a blind girl”.
     
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  5. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    @dhellfox Thank you for sharing your stories with us on the forums. Reading them is helping me to better get the gist of writing/typing out stories. Glad to have you aboard the new forums.
     
  6. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    thank you! I'm happy there's at least someone who enjoyed a piece of early infinity forms history.

    now (though it should t be hard since its been more than 10ish years since writing it) i hope the reboot blows this out of the water.
     
    #6 dhellfox, Dec 25, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2019
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  7. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    oh i should have asked this before but what's everyone's favorite cast member and why? (this may or may not have any baring on the remake)
     
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  8. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    I'm doing the roster for the main cast for the reboot and I'm looking to add a doctor (preferably haqqislam) and/or a hacker to round out the core's skill list.
    Anyone have any suggestions?
     
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  9. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    Do you have an idea or ideas of what the personality will be like? Or is that not important compared to the occupation?
     
  10. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    outside of ariadna and aleph I'm not familiar with unit backgrounds these days so i don't know where to start to find one.

    every member of LFB solutions (parent company owned by dalis) have a common background thread tied to their branch;
    -The Forgotten (the one that remembers) all have been apart of a mission that in one way or another that had their existence denied to save face.
    -The Betrayed (the one that seeks justice) have been wronged by someone (usually left for dead) and swore retribution.
    -The Lost (the one that guides) consists of mercs who were lost, (physically and/or spiritually) that the fanatical branch leader has found in their travels. they are the most devoted to claiming Eden
     
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  11. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    @dhellfox Have you tried Human Sphere? https://human-sphere.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
    They have short bio's of the faction's unit's histories. The only problem is that the newer faction units haven't gotten their background lore updated yet but hopefully that changes in the future. Still scan through the factions and maybe get some ideas for this character of yours.

    I might have a few character ideas that fit the categories you've mentioned above. I guess I should go and make a private conversation on the forum with you so I don't bog down this thread with explaining them to you. Maybe you could share any ideas you've currently had in the pm as well.
     
  12. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    just some rough clothing sketches for certain dog-face, a tease for the upcoming project

    elixi_armor_a1.jpg elixi_armor_a2.jpg elixi_armor_a3.jpg
     
    #12 dhellfox, Mar 11, 2020
    Last edited: Mar 11, 2020
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  13. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    Well this is an interesting armor design. The layers shown in each picture seem to stack on top of each other without problems. Looks like something a Dogface woudl actually wear into combat.
     
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  14. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    thanks I've yet to fully draw how it looks when elixi goes dog-warrior but the torso plates are meant to move apart (the pictures don't show the last two plates under the mid layer) to still give her coverage.
    because of that i saw it was more viable to have her webbing on a waist cloth rather than devildog chest rig
     
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  15. Golem2God

    Golem2God Just a Kooky Kumotail serving others.

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    Seems like your knowledge is sound. I'll be looking forward to seeing the finished product of your thought process.
     
  16. dhellfox

    dhellfox The keeper of the Forgotten

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    here's the rough example for dogwarrior form, its not fully to scale (cant get the thumbnail version to work)
    elixi_armor_DW1.jpg
     
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