-Unknown Underground Complex, Italian Red Zone-

Inside a large glass tank filled with a strange green and nearly see-through liquid a lone figure floated, his body covered by a strange black bodysuit while a bulky grey mask covered his mouth. only minutes after the generator came online the still body began to stir, first his fingers moved slightly, then his arm. Till he finally opened his eyes which glowed a bright amber yellow even in the murky 'waters' of the tank.

Suddenly and without warning, the liquid began to drain itself from the tank leaving the figure to sink to the bottom before finally gripping the mask and removing it from his face. After taking a few breaths the 'man' held a hand up to wipe traces of the liquid from his face, only to stop as he noticed that his skin was no longer skin, but a strange orange fur.

He shook his head, trying to think back to before he was taken as nausea threatened to force him to his knee's. He could remember a few things, a small settlement nestled in a valley, tiberium spires occasionally dotting the surrounding cracked terrain, a small modular house and someone, a stern faced man, his tanned skin glowing in the light of an illumination strip.. He seemed familiar. He knelt there as he fought the urge to empty his stomach, just thinking. The more he tried to remember, the worse he felt.. The sickening pit in his gut finally taking its toll as he slumped forward and vomited, a thick black mixture coating the grey colored floor below with a sickening 'slopping' sound as it hit the ground. Shuddering at the revolting sight, the man pulled himself back before finally collapsing on his side, panting as he tried to clear his mouth of the black slime.

He laid there for minutes, maybe even hours as his mind tried to process everything, and above all else, He thought. He thought of the man he'd seen, and the more he thought about it the more he remembered. the stern looking man was his father, a scavenger in the ruins of Austria. He remembered it, but.. It was all a blur. It didn't help that the rooms two lights, with little more then a hint of a click, activated. Blinking in the growing light he could just make out a shape a few feet from him, though as the lights grew brighter he found himself unsure of what the.. Thing, in front of him was.

It clearly wasn't human, oh of course it had the two arms and two legs you'd expect, it also looked more or less female in the skin-tight bodysuit. That aside though, it seemed similar to him. A mutant. It shared the same mutations that had apparently wracked his body from the pointed muzzle and re-positioned ears, to the fur running across most of its body. Or at least the visible parts of her body, the coloration of her fur even looked similar to his.

Narrowing his eyes, the mutated man struggled to his knee's again and this time managed to rise to his feet with a groan leaving his lips, the nausea was still there, but it wasn't as intense as it'd been earlier. Taking a moment to steady himself, the man took a few uncertain steps towards the.. I suppose its a vixen? He mentally shook his head as he looked her over from a distance before finally making a decision. Taking the last two steps forward he took a knee and gripped the woman by er shoulder, pushing her over on her side. He'd barely gotten her there when she finally started spasming, a series of ragged coughs escaping her muzzle alongside some of that black colored goo.

Not knowing what else to do, he held her there as she coughed her guts (and whatever that black gunk was) all over the floor, a feeling of pity running through him. This wasn't right.. It wasn't natural in any way. Still he knelt there and held her, if only to keep her from rolling into the goo. Though after a few minutes she stopped coughing it up, and she simply laid there. Similar to the way he had.

Carefully he laid her on her back and got to his feet, arms gripping around her shoulders as he pulled her away from the puddle and laid her down again, his right hand shifting up to her neck to check her vitals. The moment his hand reached it though, he felt a thick weight strike him in his chest, the force of it sending him across the room and into the concrete wall where he dropped to the ground in a heap.

Dazed and shocked, he shook his head and held his aching ribs as the pain ran through him, his amber gaze running up to the woman after a few moments as he shifted over on his side. The woman's eyes were wide in shock, either from the fact she'd kicked him across the room. Or from the fact that she'd kicked him hard enough to crack concrete.. something he noticed as his gaze ran from her to the wall he'd hit, where a large spider-web of cracks spread across the previously smooth surface. That kind of damage was almost unthinkable for a normal person, or at least. It was.

Groaning, he pulled himself to his feet and resisted the urge to cough up blood, the feeling of which was already fading quite quickly. Holding a hand to his aching ribs, he slowly pushed himself up to a crouch, letting right leg support him as he surveyed the room. It wasn't very large, maybe two or three meters wide. Most of that having been taken up by the now empty tanks, the glass casings having retracted into the floor. Their departure though did reveal something hidden in the darkness. Pulling himself to his feet, he winced as a loud pop echo'd through the room. Raising his head he found the shattered remains of one of the two lights sparking only a few feet above, covering the front half of the room, and the closed door beyond, in darkness.

Letting out a muffled curse, he took a few unsteady steps toward the object. The blocky shape and small illumination stripes set into its surface just barely making it noticeable among the shadow's of the room. A quartet of dark grey lockers, the kind you'd normally find in any factory or plant where uniforms aren't allowed to be taken off property. Stopping in front of the locker, he hesitated. Something about the red lighting, the dark atmosphere.. It was too familiar. shaking the uneasy feeling off he gripped the handle ad pulled open locker with a groan of un-oiled hinges. What he saw inside finally pulled the last strings into place.

It was a weapons locker. On one side of the small metal space was a GAU-3 Eliminator, a common weapon among the armed militants of the Brotherhood of Nod renowned for its incredible stopping power and decent fire-rate when compared to modern weapons of the Global Defense Initiative. Its familiar blocky design easily coming to the front of the mans mind. Next to it were a few magazine's, some folded white and grey clothing, and much to his surprise, hanging by a thin wire hanger was an armored vest. It wasn't as surprising that said vest had the black and red scorpion tail emblem of the brotherhood set into its matte black surface.

With hardly a thought against it, he let a low growl push its way between his lips as he looked over the vest, just barely giving the odd, almost instinctual feeling a second thought. It felt right to him, he wasn't sure why or for what reason, but it felt perfectly natural. With his mind as clouded as it was, he finally decided to put it off for later. In the meantime though, he turned the clothing over in his hands. It was a jacket with a rather distinct white and grey digital pattern, clearly a call-back to the older uniforms of the first tiberium war. Seeing no other reason aside from his rather.. 'revealing' clothing, he slipped the jacket on over the skin-tight body-glove, the pants following quickly after.

Letting his hands trail a path up the front of his jacket, he buttoned it up, one of his hands stopping on the last button. With a short glance at the vest he sighed, the short look slowly growing longer.. And longer, by the time a full minute had passed he'd finally decided. Leaning in, he picked up the vest and slid it on over his heads, pushing his arms through the armored arm slots before finally tugging it down into place. the vest adjusting to his measurements with the same cold efficiency Nod was famous for.

. .

. . .

. . . .

It wasn't really as uncomfortable as I expected. Patting it down I was.. Not pleasantly, but surprised to find it fitted perfectly to my torso, a short neck-guard keeping covering the area around my throat while several magnetic clips dotted the vests form, And a short glance over my shoulder revealed additional magnetic clamps. The largest of which took up a portion of the vests spine, likely for placing weapons or communications equipment without the need for complicated straps to hold it in place.

Turning back to the locker I gripped the rifle and pulled it off its rack with a flicker of memory. As far as rifles went, the GAU was rather odd and unwieldy by comparison to its GDI counterpart. It's geometric shape and distinct lack of a butt-stock gave the weapon a rather odd appearance, and its high fire-rate and power left many with the simple option of shooting from the hip, relying solely on their armors targeting software which thankfully interfaced seamlessly with the weapon, allowing the shooter to simply point his weapon at a target, adjust till the on-screen cross-hairs were over the target, then pull the trigger.

Without a helmet I'd have to fall back on what little skill I had with the weapon. Gripping the weapon by its barrel, I retrieved four of the sixty round magazines and attached the cube-like munitions containers to the right side of my vest as a second pair of feet reached my ears. Glancing over I found myself face to muzzle.. Or was it muzzle to muzzle? With the woman, dog.. Thing.

Silence dominated the room as I waited for her to say something, anything. . ..But she remained silent, looking over over with a cautious glare in her eyes. First seconds, then minutes seemed to pass as the we stood there, looking each other over before she finally broke the silence. "Move over.." Her tone wasn't exactly that of a fearful woman, or a shell-shocked victim. It was more of a command really. With hardly a nod I stepped to the side as she moved over to the next locker. Seemingly taking her time as she looked each and every article in it over before clothing herself, though surprisingly she left the vest behind as she equipped herself.

She checked over every part of her weapon, the magazine, the receiver, the trigger. All in a manner that hinted to a previous experience with the rifle, or at least a similar one. Glancing back at me, she narrowed her eyes faintly, the piercing golden orbs keeping me silent until finally, she nodded to the door. With a pause to double-check the receiver on my own rifle, I closed the distance with the door and clasped the handle. The sound of whirring machinery from beyond the door setting an uneasy sensation across my body.. The sort of tingling sensation that leaves you cold and weary.

with a short turn, I steeled myself pulled open the door, eyes adjusting to the dim red-lit hallway beyond.