No More Games
A "Life is a Game" Story
Disclaimer: I don't even own the idea(that's RebukeX7's), but I do own Lieutenant "Soulless".
-Jenny's Café, Bodhum Shopping District-
"I'm a soldier. From a family of soldiers. Every branch of the military has had a member of my family in it, hell, even in its command structure. My grandfather was a general in the Army, and his brother was an admiral. I enlisted right out of highschool. Spent five years in the US Army, two of those as a grunt, one in OCS and getting my bearings as an officer, and the rest in the Rangers. Made it to First Lieutenant."
Two people sat in an upscale café in Bodhum. One was a woman with pink hair and wore a Guardian Corps Dress Uniform, and the other looked like he came straight off a battlefield. He wore an olive drab hooded ensemble that had black rectangular patches on his shoulders, black coloring under his arms and on his sides, reinforced padding on his elbows and knees, olive drab cargo pants and a utility belt with a very large holstered handgun and a very long knife. His face was covered by a black balaclava and orange tac-goggles with an attached com unit hung around his neck. His half lidded green eyes stared lazily back at the aqua glare the GC woman was giving him.
The pinkette sitting across from him snorted, "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
"It means I outrank you, Sergeant, even if we're not in the same military. So at least show my rank the respect its due, even if you don't respect me. Now will you let me finish?"
There was an audible "clack" as the second person snapped her jaw shut, "Yes...Sir."
The Ranger sighed, "Just call me Soulless, Farron. Everyone else does. And before you ask, the reason I'm telling you this? So that you understand."
"Understand what?"
The man leaned forward, "That, when it comes right down to it, I'm just a man. I have a few tricks up my sleeves, sure. But I'm nowhere near as powerful as some of the others. I have to be more hands on than them. I have a rifle, a knife, a sidearm, some hand grenades,some basic intel, and that's it. On top of that, I have to rely on the others to get anywhere, because I can't do it myself. Rebuke and Jorn can pretty much do as they bloody well please. They have that kind of leeway. I, on the other hand, have to get in the proverbial trenches and risk my neck every time I want to do some good. To be honest, I prefer it this way. It makes it so that I can get my VIPs to trust me, which makes it easier when we have to call for your help."
"What the hell makes you think I'll trust you?"
Soulless chuckled, "Nothing. And you don't. But that's good. If you did trust someone who came out of nowhere and said not only that they'd help you save the world from the things you thought were protecting you, but also that you're not the only you? That there is another you out there, in the Multiverse, working towards our goals? I'd be worried if you believed it after our first conversation. It means you're a damn sight smarter than the average bear."
She rose one delicate pink eyebrow, "'Average bear'?"
He waved a hand dismissively, "You don't have those here, I don't think, so you wouldn't understand. My point is, that if you work with me, you can do what any good soldier aspires to do: save lives. Like your sister's."
Lightning snarled at him, "Leave Serah out of this."
If Soulless was intimidated, he didn't show it.
"Are you done?" he asked.
Lightning leaned back in her chair and fixed the interloper with a smoldering glare.
"Good. Now that you're done having a hissy fit, you can listen to me. Like I said, your fal'Cie are lying to you. All you are is a giant, mad plan to get the Maker, or whatever, to come back from the dead. Or something like that."
Lightning stiffened, "What you're saying is insane. Why would the fal'Cie do that?"
Soulless shrugged, "I don't pretend to understand the minds of Eldritch Abominations, Sergeant. I'm telling you what I know, that's all. I'm not even asking you to believe me. But, there will be a time when you will question everything you know, very soon. And you'll come looking for me."
Lightning looked around at the other patrons of the café. They looked completely oblivious to the soldier and herself.
"Why haven't they noticed you?" she asked, genuinely curious. The Guardian Corps should have been crawling all over this place.
"Perception filter. Gift from one of the others. Only you, and other important figures can see past it."
She blinked. What the hell was a perception filter?
"Go home, Sergeant. Be with your sister."
Lightning stood up, regarding the man with a cautious look.
"Why me?" was all she could muster.
He looked up at her, and she saw pain and sadness in his eyes the likes of which she could not fathom.
"You have, every incarnation of you, in fact, the potential to become more powerful than a god. I tried for that, but I couldn't. I'm just an above average mortal. People died because of that. But, you? I can help you reach your full potential. No one has to die, because I won't let you fail."
He looked her in the eyes, and she saw a will of iron in his own.
"The world you know and love is about to be turned on it's head. You're going to be right at the center, fighting to maintain the peace. And I'm going to be right there, making sure you, Claire Farron, survive to become the Warrior Goddess you need to be."
-Bodhum Guardian Corps Headquarters.-
"That's all? He just left you with some bad ideas rattling in your head? Did he make any threats?" Lieutenant Amodar inquired after he heard his best sergeant voice her concerns.
Sergeant Farron stopped a bit, "No, but... He knew my name, Sir. My real name. No one uses my name. Only Serah does. I'm even listed as Lightning in the GC Public Records."
Amodar grunted, "Well, I'll look into it. Was there anything else?"
"He had two patches on his shoulders. One was of a dog or something howling at a full moon, and the other was a red, white and blue flag. It had thirteen red and white stripes and a blue rectangle with at least fifty stars on it. Other than that, all he had was a silver lieutenant's bar on his collar and pair of dogtags that said he was part of the 'US Army'. Whatever that is. I couldn't see his name, it was scratched out. His blood type is O-Negative."
"O-Negative? That's exceedingly rare. Well, if it's some whack-job, finding him will be pretty easy. Could you guess how tall he was?"
The pinkette nodded, "Over two meters. Easy."
The GC Lieutenant leaned back in his chair, surprised, "Alright, are you sure it wasn't Snow Villiers?"
"Snow doesn't have green eyes, Sir. His voice was too deep, as well. He was too...worn. Tired. Snow is more like a hyperactive child. This man was a combat veteran, and if he's to be believed, an experienced one. When he reached for a cup of coffee he had waiting for me, his sleeve hiked up a bit; his skin was too dark and he had more scars then you and me put together. Bullets wounds, cuts, you name it. It wasn't pretty."
Amodar rose one eyebrow, "Self inflicted?"
She shrugged, "Not that I could tell."
"Like I said, I'll look into it. Not sure I'll find anything, but hell, it's worth a shot. But only on one condition: take a break. Your birthday's in a week, yeah? Well, you've got a week of paid vacation, staring on your birthday. Non-negotiable."
Lightning grimaced, "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."
Amodar chuckled, "Dismissed, Sergeant Farron."
-Empty Warehouse Building, Outside Bodhum-
Soulless keyed the com unit on his goggles, "Ma'am? It's me. I got the crates your boss sent me. The MA37s and modded MA5s will come in handy. I'm having a hard time figuring out how the M392's, M395s, BR55s and BR55HB SRs are going to come in, but they're not unwelcome."
He lifted the top off an olive drab metal crate, "That crate of standard and bullpup SRS99s is appreciated, as well. Yeah, I got the M7s and M6s. Look, Ma'am, I'm just a simple soldier. All this advanced hardware...I don't plan on getting civvies involved, not if I can help it. I mean, I'm just learning this stuff, I doubt I could teach a bunch of green as grass civvies to use them...I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, I'll contact NORA. I just hope they're quicker with this 26th Century tech than I was. No, I'm just having a hard time with all this. After a few months, you'd think I'd've gotten used to it. I still feel like a caveman playing with fire," he said as he moved a crate labeled "C12" from a crate labeled "8000 Count Soellkraft 8 Gauge Buckshot Shells".
"I said I'd try to help any way I could, but, sending me to the worlds that didn't require the others attention? I'm out of my depth, here. War is my specialty, but this isn't war. It's a goddamn revolution in the making," Soulless almost tripped over a crate at what she said next, "What the hell do you mean, 'Then I guess I should send in the heavy weapons'?!"
-3 Day's Later, Lebreau's Bar, Bodhum.-
Lebreau was in shock. Scratch that, she was damn near comatose. She goes to open her bar one morning, and what does she find? Enough weapons to arm the entirety of Bodhum thrice over and then some! Who the hell-?!
"You have a new message!" the computerized voice of her phone chimed. She scrambled for it and saw that there was a text message.
Hey,
I noticed that you and NORA are pretty ill-equiped. Consider this my way of saying,"Keep up the good work!" Plenty of hardware to help you whether the coming storm.
Signed,
The Timber Wolf
Lebreau stared at the message with a slack jaw.
"...Who the hell said we were ill-equiped!?"
-Same Day, NORA Headquarters, Under Lebreau's Bar-
"This is the mother load!" Snow shouted.
Maqui was over the moon, "This tech is unbelievable. These rifles, the ones with the ammo counters? They have a smart-link IF/F targeting system that connects to these glasses. They use infrared to communicate with each other. Target a person wearing these glasses, and the reticule turns green. Target someone unarmed, and it turns yellow. Target an armed combatant not transmitting this signal, and it turns red. The scoped rifles have a similar feature. And these hacking tools!"
Yuj held up a com unit, "These are pretty intense. The encryption unit on this communication network suite is nuts. I doubt even Sanctum's top could crack this."
Gadot held up an M247 LMG SAW, "Oh, I like this one. Dibs."
"Then I get this!" Snow hefted an M90 CAWS MK I, "Seems more my style, up close and personal."
Lebreau examined another rifle, this one an MA37 Assault Rifle. It was utilitarian, meant to work and keep working, not impress. Thirty-two rounds, fully automatic. Simple to use, simple to maintain.
"I'll take this. Not too pretty, but I get the feeling it'll serve my purposes more than adequately."
Yuj picked up a BR55HB SR, "Little big, but I think I can make it work," he then picked up an M7S and tossed it to Maqui, "This looks like a good choice for you, man. Nice and quiet."
"Glad you like it. Wasn't easy convincing the Powers that Be to ship all that here. Mind you, when I told them it was going to help in the long run, they were more than willing."
Suddenly, all the weapons in the room were pointed at one man.
Said man had to restrain himself from laughing. He held his sides as he curled over on himself.
"You forgot to load them." he managed through his his repressed fits of laughter.
Snow grabbed a shell, loaded it into the shotgun and wracked the pump.
The mystery man immediately sobered up, "Well, you're not incompetent, I'll give you that. But let me offer you some advice."
He walked up to Snow and grabbed the shotgun from him, "Next time, turn the safety off. And be sure you're ready to pull the trigger, because the next time you point a gun at me," he got right up in Snow's face, "I will break you."
Snow grimaced and pushed him off, "You're the wacko that's got Lightning spooked."
Lebreau thought she saw him raise an eyebrow, "'Wacko'? I thought I came across as rather sane."
"From what she told Serah, you said some pretty outlandish things."
"Didn't make it any less true. And if anything's going to be done about it, you need to know some things. Starting with the truth about the fal'Cie."
He told them. And they listened.
The Seeds of Doubt were Sown. The Revolution had begun.
A/N: So, I've started a companion story to RebukeX7's LIAG series, with his consent, and this is the first chapter. Let me know what you think.