Gaia Syndrome
Chapter 1
Three cliques out from base was my abandoned vehicle. Just how I left it. Safely hidden off the dirt road behind massive bushes. Even the dark rain clouds helped to cover my "home away from home." Food, water, ammo; all the necessary ingredients of a soldier's pantry stuffed in the trunk of my Harasser (land buggy). With my belongings reestablished, it was now time to re-gear for the hunt.
Just a mile north was my target. A lonesome security tower protecting the front border of Acan (ah-can), the last defense before Volton. If New Conglomerate (NC) could reach Volton, I could hack their base grids and shut off all defenses of the remaining Vanu bases. We'd have control of planet Hossin in no time. The only thing in my way, a possible rat.
I work alone. Pack sufficiently light and head out to the front lines. Some people would say that I'm the "pre-front" to NC's assaults. The "scout" that weakens the enemies defense line. Which is true. I've been trained in scouting, sniping and hacking. I carrying the heaviest rifle, best technician tools and the most proficient tracking gear. Probably the most diversely trained soldier on the field. I don't need a "sidekick" to get me into trouble. Which is where I get my codename, Wolf.
The only thing I'm not trained in, for solo-ops, is stealth gear. The kind of armor that Infiltrators use to go completely invisible. They act like scouts as well, hacking and assassinating, but they're cheap. Vanu has the most Infiltrators, we call them rats. Which is what got me last time and is the current reason for my splitting headache.
Last time I was out I parked the buggy and headed north. Got through the first layer of tripwires, only to be shot in the head by a rat. Woke up in base a second later by Gaia. Didn't go over well with the General, as you would imagine. Every second it takes to complete my mission, is another delay for the NC's army to conquer Hossin. Was launched back in the hot zone by crash shuttle and found my vehicle again. An all too familiar incident for me these days.
Gaia, as many know, is the core to this never ending war. If we didn't have it, all sides would have surrendered by lack of soldiers. But some stubborn scientist came up with a way to "reanimate" a dead soldier. Each person in the NC military is implanted with a chip that logs all of the persons "brain stuff." When they die on the field, the chip sends the computer generated "brain stuff" to a cloning machine on base. Where you wake up with an entirely new body. The machine is called Gaia. It is, like I said, the only support in keeping this war going. With the amount of deaths in this war, all sides would have been cleared of their forces ten times over already.
But for now, I'm back at my vehicle. Alone in the middle of the dark swampy land of Hossin. Assessing the situation.