Prologue: Rise of the Terror Guard
Chapter 1: Not today… Not ever…
'You're not coming, are you? I'm going to die here alone. I don't want to die with them...' Jin Sun-Kwon spoke with sorrow and a chill within her soft voice.
Hearing this made the Point Man narrow his eyes from behind his mask, tightening his grip on the G2A2 Assault Rifle that had carried him up to that point. Behind him was a trail of blood and destruction caused in mere hours. Behind him also laid what ever remained of Douglas Holiday, a friend to both Jin and the Point Man himself. The mute super-soldier was not about to let the same fate fall upon the medic who had always believed in him since the start of his career in F.E.A.R. Perhaps even before that career.
'I need to move...' He thought to himself as he opened the first door. He had just now entered a relatively barren room, with elevators to his right and three T.V.s just above a rectangular pot holding some type of plant. What kind, he did not care to acknowledge. He had to get to Jin before anyone else. He approached the next set of doors, opening them with the same violent manner he had the last pair.
He was greeted by an office with two desks, no doubt a security office as it was filled with metal crates containing grenades. Three assault rifles were placed, resting against the wall. Two medkits, and armour accompanied by repair kits should anyone have need of them were also there. Unfortunately, he did not need any of these items. He moved through the rather messy room that looked like someone had left it in a hurry, ignoring the phone that had a message. Usually he'd listen to see if he could find out any information, but Jin did not have that kind of time.
He approached the final set of doors, however stopped briefly as he heard voices outside. Replicas. More of them.
"Stack up, on me." The Point Man heard one of the loud clones command however many others there were.
He took a deep breath before kicking the door open, at first being greeted with nothing but the building's emptiness. Again, papers were scattered across the floor and even a chair was tipped over. All, including the Point Man, were behind a desk once used to take information from people seeking to use the subway. He then heard the Replicas again. This reassured him somewhat. Whilst the upper echelon of their troops, such as specialists and a lot of true Commanders spoke quietly, the lower ranks and cannon fodder did not care. They were needing more discipline in this regard, but he knew his mother did not care about the lives of those useless means to an end.
"Go! Go! Go!" One of them shouted, whilst a more quieter voice told everyone to stay alert.
These clone soldiers, well, they seemed to literally be pouring from any crack they could find. They were split into three groups. Two directly ahead, separated from the other group by a thin wall. The third was to the Point Man's right, behind another wall. 'Damn them...' He growled mentally before sliding to cover behind the long counter that acted as a desk. They had not yet spotted him, but with the open doors, he was not oblivious to the fact stealth would not be on his side for long.
He sat down his Assault Rifle and picked two grenades from his belt and primed them. When he heard the footsteps of the soldiers, he tossed them over the desk quickly. Then he grabbed his rifle again and awaited the boom.
"GRENADE! GET D-" A Replica shouted, but it was too late. Two whole squads were wiped out with a mere two fragmentation grenades.
He burst from his cover and looked around, seeing nothing but the dead bodies of approximately ten Replicas. It was quite the feat, as they were no doubt a part of a fifteen man assault group. Which would mean that the remaining five were on the other side of the wall. The ones that would be rather close to him right now…
Soon he saw a Recon peek his head from around the corner and fire. This forced the Point Man to enable his heightened reflexes, which seemed to make time for him slow down as he quickly did a flip to avoid the bullets. Once he landed he began firing on the Recon soldier, killing him immediately with precision shots aimed directly at the Replica's head.
Of course every action has an outcome and a consequence. The outcome of this action was, sure, he dispatched the Recon soldier. The consequence? His four allies poured from around the corner, lost without the leaders that were a part of the other groups, and began firing wildly at him. The Point Man knew it wouldn't be long until his reflexes lowered again, so he had to act quickly. Easy enough for the super soldier.
He used his reflexes to dodge the barrage of bullets and close in on the Replicas. When he was near, he fired a shot in one of the soldier's heads before throwing his own weapon in the air. Using this time, he quickly grabbed ahold of a Replica's neck and moved around so that the poor clone could absorb the bullets his comrade was firing.
Once the bullet-sponge had completed its job and the Replica had to reload, Point Man kicked it straight into the offending Replica and quickly grabbed his rifle which had finally fallen back down. He spun around with lightning fast speed and quickly delivered four bullets to the skull of the third victim, leaving the fourth who currently had the bullet-sponge on top of him for last. He walked up to the struggling clone, and placed a single bullet in the Replica's head.
"Are you there?" He heard Jin Sun-Kwon ask him through his earpiece. "Who are these p-"
"Ma'am, you're going to have to come with us to the rooftops for extraction. F.E.A.R. Coordinator Betters is on his way with a chopper for evac." A soldier was heard through the earpiece. By this time, the Point Man had doubled his speed, not knowing who the men were.
"Who are you and your friends, soldier?" Jin asked.
"We're with S.E.A.R." The man replied.
"S.E.A.R.?"
"We're the guys who either come after F.E.A.R., or we work in the shadows along with F.E.A.R. We usually mop up your guys' messes. Make sure nothing is left. Come on. This hospital is a no-go zone and we need to get you out of here, miss Kwon."
"Alright, but I'm not leaving without the Point Man." She said with a soft sigh.
"Sir! Replicas incoming! Get to cover!" Another soldier called out before all the Point Man could hear was static and gunfire.
"Get here quickly!" Jin said before cutting communications.
By then the Point Man was almost there, he had already entered the hospital. The next obstacle that stood in his way was getting to the sixth floor where Jin and those soldiers were. It was evident that this building had to be crawling with Replicas and God knew what else. Alma's presence, well, the Point Man could feel it rather strongly. She had to be close by. Where that red-dressed and raven haired girl was… all kinds of unholy things were not too far away as well. He absolutely hated that feeling he got when Alma was around. Something the Point Man wished he hadn't needed to say about his mother. It was unfortunate that where she walked, death and misery followed.
He walked the halls of the hospital, eventually making it to the sixth floor which was covered in Replica corpses. What was strange was, after the third Alma's presence seemingly vanished. He only ran into minimal resistance and what he liked to refer to as 'spooks' were not really there to begin with. Something wasn't right, that much he knew. However, he felt as if the rest of the time in the hospital was going to be a breeze. With that said, he knew the extraction was going to be a pain in the ass. The Replicas in the area and surrounding area would not let them leave without a fight. At this time, he accepted the fact that his mother had left. But the question was, for what? Something must have caught her attention if she left her son and forces in such a hurry. She hadn't even acquired Jin's life. It was a situation most queer.
The Point Man rounded a corner that led straight to the sixth floor staircase and he ran into six men in similar armor to him holding their weapons right at him. "Hold your fire! You the F.E.A.R. team's pointman?" One of the soldiers asked, and the super soldier recognized his voice as one of the soldiers in Jin's communicator.
He simply nodded in response. "Alright, Betters has landed on the roof and Miss Kwon is already on board the chopper. Only reason we're here is because we were ordered to wait for you. C'mon, time is of the essence. Extra Replica forces are inbound to our location, and know we've a chopper waiting for us up top." The soldier said before they all stood up and led the way up the stairs.
The Point Man wondered how they could have acquired a helicopter so soon after the Origin explosion. Sure, some time had passed, but he assumed all forms of air transport would be downed for at least a week due to the nuclear-sized explosion that killed off quite a bit of the city. As he and the S.E.A.R. team members made their way up the stairs, his mind drifted off to Holiday. He was a great man and did not deserve to die in the way he did. Looking back at it, the Point Man couldn't help but feel like he could have done something to save his friend's life. Then again, he knew all too well that this world was not all about the happy endings one might hear in a children's story.
"Sir, this is Griffon. We're comin' out of the staircase, do not fire. I repeat, do not fire." The S.E.A.R. team leader said in a Scottish accent, waiting for confirmation before opening the door.
"Copy that, Griffon. Your wings are ready, double time it soldier. We've Replicas pouring into the building as we speak." The pilot responded quickly.
"Roger. Come on men, let's get the hell out of here before our clone friends show up and shoot the hell out of us!" Griffon called before bursting through the doors.
He moved to the chopper and waited, waving his arm towards the chopper as his squad and the Point Man all hopped on board. When everyone was accounted for, Griffon himself hopped up into the helicopter.
"We're all good, Hornet. Get us the fuck out of here!" A soldier called up to the pilot, and having heard this, the pilot began takeoff.
Point Man then saw Jin sitting across from him, and couldn't help but smile. Unfortunately he had his mask on, or Miss Kwon would have seen his happy and relieved smile.
"Hey there, big guy." She said tiredly. She had been through a lot in the last twenty four hours and everyone, F.E.A.R. and S.E.A.R. alike needed rest.
Betters was sitting beside Kwon and decided to fill everyone else in on the situation. "We're headed to an underground bunker hidden within the forest surrounding Fairport. Only we know about it, so keep it a secret no matter what. All of our lives, including your own, depend upon that knowledge and whether or not it stays a secret. I've dispatched a second F.E.A.R. team to infiltrate the Armacham Secondary Facility here in town. Haven't heard from them in quite a while though, so prepare yourselves. I may be sending you veterans out there to investigate. The entire city is a damned warzone. You can't so much as throw a dead cat without hitting a Replica, insane looking nightmare-fuel, ATC or their Mercenary buddies, or even just civilians looking for blood amongst the chaos. Yeah, shit really has hit the fan."
Griffon nodded, "Aye. Just to make shit worse for you lot, Fairport is closed off as of right now. That means I wouldn't expect any military help. They labeled everyone in the city as hostile, an' there are also rumors about them sending 'reclamation' forces in 'ere to make sure we get our shit together. They're using their little blockade legally and under the excuse of 'protecting everyone until the situation is resolved.' They won't shoot us on sight, but we caught a glimpse of a small squad gunning down civies not too far from 'ere." The Scotsman informed them all.
Betters then continued, "We've intercepted some communications from Delta Force and Armacham. According to the information retrieved from that bitch you discovered earlier in this clusterfuck, Genevieve Aristide, Armacham has taken a wounded SFOD-D squad code named 'Dark Signal' captive. They're planning to make their way to the hospital we just left sometime within the next few weeks."
Griffon interrupted him, "Knowing Armacham, they are going to perform some experiments on the poor bastards. Luckily we know where to strike. Betters, on behalf of S.E.A.R. I'd like to participate in this mission, whenever it happens."
Betters nodded with a small smile, "Permission granted, Griffon. You will be sitting out the op to find my second F.E.A.R. team, if that's the case."
Then the Scotsman frowned, his blue eyes glaring at Betters. "How about I go both times, and my men just rest up during the reclamation of F.E.A.R. team number two?"
The coordinator smiled and nodded, "Alright. If you think you can handle it."
"I'm from Scotland, of course I can handle it. If I couldn't I think I'd be dead back in the water plant, mate." Griffon replied quickly, sounding somewhat offended.
And so the group flew off towards the forest. Point Man was relieved that Jin was saved from a fate similar to Holiday's. He just was not amused to hear that he was going to be placed back out onto the field soon. Sure, he was bred for war and was actually used to it. Didn't mean he had to like countless days on a battlefield where his closest people nearly die or do die and then a brief period of rest to tease him before he got sent out again. At least he wouldn't be completely alone this time, and Griffon seemed like a man who could hold himself up against all odds. In fact, just the man's posture reminded the Point Man of himself.
Hello everyone, and thank you for making it this far into the first chapter of F.E.A.R. Rise of Peace. I am sorry if this first chapter seems a bit... I don't really know the word for it. Not up to par? The only reason it is this short is because I felt putting in the journey to the rooftop, or even where Jin was would have been a bit long and drawn out. A run-on. I know it's awkward for me to be saying that, considering for DA:GoE I usually upload 6k word chapters (Good news, I will for this story once we're set on our way), but I really didn't feel it necessary for this chapter. So, with my apology should come the primary reason behind it. And that's simple. I really only wanted to introduce most of the people we will see pretty much every chapter. The Point Man, Griffon and the S.E.A.R. team, Betters, and Jin. I can't say when the next chapter will be posted, but it definitely will be what I like to call a "development chapter." Don't know what that is? I don't know how to explain it, but, who needs to when you will see it soon enough. Another note I should add for you lot is that it will mostly be seen through the eyes of the Point Man. Sometimes it will change as we go to a different part of the action, but, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. See you next time guys!