Chapter 1: The Start of Something
Sliver City, South Dakota, America 19:01 (PST) 13/01/2017
Things had a habit of going wrong for Connie straight off the bat on her first proper op. Connie perched herself on a low branch looking at the skies constantly searching in a figure of eight pattern, she found it. A C-130 was flying towards her position, as it flew over she noticed the bay open and watched as her heart pounded on her chest in horror, a horde of metallic robots hurtled out of the long plane dropping from the low altitude which is when she keyed the radio, "Command this is recon one, do you read me?" static flooded the radio and a weak reply came back over, "Ger…econ…one,…god…it, Connie…neut...bots" She clicked the radio off , her mission hadn't changed and the basis of the message; get rid of the bots and bug out...She had a rough estimate of seventy-eight or more of those military robots, but just wanted to know why they were here there was nothing out here as far as Connie knew. She hopped down from the low-branch and a heavy thump travelled through the sill air as her equipment and webbing hit the floor seconds after her. There was a loud whirring as one of the military bots on treads approached her, she didn't hesitate allowing her combat skills to kick in.
MILITARY SERVICE BOT 17MWC
LOCATION: SILVER CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, USA…
SCANNING…
MOVING TO SECT-…/ERROR ERROR…\
WARNING! WARNING! EXTERNAL HACK IN PROGRESS!
SYSTEM SHUTTING DOWN…
THANK YOU FOR USING THIS UNIT…
AND HAVE A NICE DAY…
A fist flew straight through the things face and ripped out circuits as well as a small ball like object that had wires coming out of it. She watched the green light in the bots eyes or what was left of them die slowly, Connie shrugged her shoulders and moved like a shadow to the nearby trees to avoid bots moving in on their fallen comrade. She held the MG close to her pounding chest. Finger on the trigger. She waited and held her breath. The bots just scanned the area, Connie breathed and fired but one bullet; a flare, into the sky, It burned a fierce ruby as it shot up into the ominous black sky, she re-slung the gun back over her shoulder and legged it. The bots were now hot on her heels, and as Connie sprinted the bots followed closely behind her. Small purple-blue blobs seared their way past Connie's face and she felt the heat bounce onto her face as the first bolt smashed into a tree. She dropped the webbing and even my machine gun on her back to get away from the unstoppable horde of bots as they hopped to gain a few more metres. Two more purple-blue blobs seared past her again burning through trees and making her feel hot even through the 2-inch thick armour and then boom! Connie felt her body spin and leave the air.
Charlie chewed on the end of her non-light cigar, she'd had it for four years now and never once had it been lit. She looked up at the sky and saw a huge flare, looking light a massive re star, she stood up from the empty oil drum she was sitting on ignoring the fowl weather conditions and climbed into her open cockpit flying machine; The V24 Osprey was a much better version than the '22; its blades unfolded manually and in less than seven seconds and Charlie could have more control over the grey beast she cued in the radio, ""Star is airborne, time to rock and leave your socks!" She let her team climb in, she Liked Li and Lunah while they worked well together when not doing missions she felt they socialized too much considering no one was meant to know they existed.
Connie strained to open her eyes, the blackness kept filling her vision but she pushed passed and saw things at a weird angle, Connie then realised she wasn't up right so decide to sit up, there was an intense pain shooting through her body but more son in her and with that she looked at her leg; armour completely sheared and a large chuck of her skin had been taken off. She moaned in pain as she tried running but it was hopeless, the bots had gone for now but knew It wouldn't last, not that she was going anywhere. The radio came on again only getting a week signal and she knew it would be of no use. Connie closed her eyes and waited, not wanting to see if anything happened, but instead the roar of the V24 osprey's engines filled the air and with that Connie decided to get up. She winced as the pain returned but the Osprey was her only way. It hovered at a clearing waiting for her, but the bots had appeared again, they caught right up to her but bullets started filling the air and the bots behind Connie slowly fell, she knew it was Li and Lunah, her friends, her family.
The osprey stopped at a clearing similar to the one it took off at and lowered but only slightly so Connie could jump in, Charlie saw and she lowered the hovering beast even more and watched Connie Jump, she leapt with all the strength left in her but it was too late. One of the purple-blue blobs caught her in the side and Connie fell like a rag doll back to the ground. Lunah screamed and almost jumped had it not been for Li who kept Lunah tightly between her arms, stopping her from being stupid and committing suicide. "Charlie, get us out of here!" he had to shout over Lunah's screaming.
"Roger that." She felt heavy but couldn't risk losing them all and she turned the osprey around and flew fast into the distance.
Connie's vision reddened immediately as she felt the blob hit her, pain seared through her body and the light armour fell away, it was a strange moment between air and land but Connie felt her whole body turn and fall back towards the ground with blood in her eyes. The bots surrounded her, guns aimed right at her head but a man in black suit approached her. She couldn't see his face past the blood, there was nothing left she could do, darkness swallowed her as the mans shoe hit her square in the face.