The Reaper's Apprentice
Part One:
I get up from the debris of the table I was smashed through, brushing off the dust and splinters off of my clothes and readjusting my shades as I do so. Almost as soon as I am up on my feet a wave of dizziness and pain nearly sends me to the floor again. My head is killing me, I reach up and feel the back of my head, relived when I see that my hand wasn't covered in blood. I guess getting thrown across the room and into a table isn't the best way to prevent a headache.
'I'm just an agent.' I thought to myself 'I'm lucky to be alive'
But as soon as I finish the thought a voice whispers from a corner of my mind:
'Is that all you want? To JUST be alive? What about your dreams? The power you crave? Are you sure you are going to get it from the AAHW?'
I shake my head to disperse the thought and I look at the bloodied remains of what once was my squad. My allies, once agents like me, but now body parts and gore smeared into the floors and the walls by the Rouge MAG. Luckily the MAG had already been killed a few rooms over by the ATP Soldats. The faint sounds of cheers and reloading weapons giving me this information. I step over the remains of my allies and as I reach the door it opens and an ATP Engineer steps through. I step to the side of the hall and the Engineer turns towards me, his HUD inside of his mask lighting up as he does so. After a few moments he says:
"Max Shockley, Agent, Identification Number 1671331"
I salute and stand at attention as he scans all of the data off of a chip that is embedded in my upper arm. As he is running his scan my thoughts wander. It would be great if I could join the ATP program. This attack has been the 5th one I have survived since I had joined the AAHW, yet not one person has offered to enlist me into ATP. Hell, not one person has asked about upgrading me, everyone in my squad was an upgraded agent but me. I still wear the black shades that every newbie agent wears. I wish I could just have the chance to become someone stronger. But as soon as that thought enters my mind the voice crawls out of the dark corner of my mind, whispering:
'But that is not what you want…you want to live as you want, you want to become strong as you want…..you should be able to kill who you want!'
Soon the Engineers HUD darkens and a slight electronic chirp is heard, indicating that the scan has finished. The Engineer says:
"Is everything alright? You have been scowling at me ever since I initiated the scan."
I shake my head, clearing my thoughts and submerging the dark voice once more. I say to the Engineer:
"I'm fine, my head is just killing me, that's all. I got tossed around pretty bad."
He nods and says: "I can understand that. In fact I can still remember the first time I had to fight a MAG. But I had my ATP training back when it happened."
He chuckles a little and continues: "You are pretty lucky to be alive, you know that?"
He reaches into his satchel hanging on his side and he pulls out a pack of cigarettes and hands them to me. He then reaches back into the bag again and pulls out a clip board and starts writing something on it saying as he does so:
"You can have these, I have a few more packs at the barracks that I am saving for later." He finishes writing the note and tears the sheet off, saying as he does so: "You can take the rest of the day off, we can clean up here." I nod and I put the pack of smokes into my jacket and I take the slip of paper that he had handed me.
He says "This is just a slip detailing this event. It's nothing major, but when you report in tomorrow you need to give this to your stations medic." He puts away the clipboard and he says "Also, before you go, you need to find your weapon and turn it back into the armory. Any blades you have on you, you can take with you if you want to keep them."
I nod and I salute one last time and the Engineer continues on his way to the next room in the building. As he leaves I move to a small stack of barrels in the room, the only thing to not be touch in the MAG's rampage. I remember that when I was picked up and thrown across the room my gun slipped from my hand and fell around here. And as I move one of the barrels I find the nice matte black finish of the butt my Five-SeveN. I squat down and pick up the gun, unloading the magazine, checking the action and the slide. Even though it took a few scrapes it is relatively undamaged; I reload it and I holster it in my jacket and I walk out the door into the courtyard of the complex that I am stationed at.
The Armory is in the building across from the one I just left. Surprisingly that building had been attacked as well, not by a MAG, but by a small horde of Abominations. Recently, attacks have been happening nearly three times a week, but we have been attacked for months now, ever since the nexus core went haywire, around the time I joined the AAHW.
As the door closes behind me I look to my right and an upgraded agent is sitting against the wall, the butt of a lit cigarette in between his two fingers. From the huge bandaged gash on his side I guess he must have been one of the first to be attacked and also one of the first ones to get any sort of medical treatment. He raises the near extinguished cigarette to his mouth, taking one last puff, his hand clenched and shaking as he does so.
I walk over to him, and I take the pack of cigarettes out of my pocket as I get near him. He looks up at me as he squashes the butt underneath his foot. I hand the whole pack to him. He glances at the pack and then back to me, pointing at his chest; the question stated but not said:
'For me?'
I nod and he takes the pack gratefully from my hand, but before I could turn and leave he stands up, reaches into his pocket and hands me 3 dollars in coins. I nod and I say "Thanks." He shrugs and sits back down and goes back to smoking his new pack of cigarettes.
Unlike most members of the AAHW, I had never really taken up the habit of smoking, mostly because of the scar on the left side of my face. Whenever I try to smoke, the scar starts to feel like it's being burned with a hot piece of metal. So I decided to drop smoking all together.
I start walking towards the Armory building, the blasted and ravaged remains of the abominations becoming regular landmarks on the ground as I get closer to the building. I got the scar when I first joined the AAHW, a little over 9 months ago. The scar starts just below my left eye and ends on my neck a few inches down from my ear. I can remember the day and the pain of those next few weeks just as well as when it first happened.
