Omega [REDUX]
Chapter 1
"We're pinned down over here!"
Anna ignored the incessant yelling blasting into her ear from the comm unit, moving up to the ridge instead with her ASR1. She hefted the rifle over the edge, aiming through the scope, pulling the trigger a fraction too late just as the target's head whizzed past her crosshairs. The figure darted behind cover, a flash of the object he carried just barely reached Anna's eyes.
Damn. Her sloppy aim was a burden to her team, but then again, her team was pretty sloppy too. She pulled back the bolt on the weapon, ejecting the round. "I have eyes on hostiles with the intel, need reinforcements at my position. Does anybody copy?"
Only garbled static reached her ears.
This is ludicrous, she thought. I can't legitimately be the only member in my squadron left alive! She pulled up the squad display on her HUD, only to serve as confirmation for her fears.
There were still three other squadrons fighting for the same intel.
Gunshots rang out near her position, forcing her to duck as she watched bullet trails whizz pass overhead; whoever she had just fired upon was now firing back. She waited for the weapon to run out of ammunition, then she swung the rifle back over the ridge to take another shot. She was a second too late; the figure had already bolted.
Frantically Anna slung the weapon over her shoulder, drawing her sidearm instead as she sprinted from her current location, still on the second floor of buildings surrounding the inner square of the compound. Her target was headed towards the center, the bloodbath of the area, only because it was the only route to his extraction. A risky but necessary move that he was forced to take, one that Anna was determined to exploit.
She vaulted over a stone slab in her way, using the temporary increase in elevation to pull off a few shots at the soldier beneath her. Sparks flew near him, forcing him to flinch and cover his head with his arms, but her shots failed to deter his speed. She landed back on her own feet moments later, continuing to run and track her target, only to be forced to duck to the floor as more gunfire rained down near her.
It's called "The Bloodbath" for a reason, you dimwit, she cursed to herself as she brought her pistol up to bear, pulling off a few shots at her aggressor who had appeared on the other building. The girl flinched and ducked, giving Anna precious seconds to recover and retrieve her rifle. Her target was now sprinting across the open.
Wordlessly she took aim, zeroed in on her target and pulled the trigger.
The round ripped through her target's chest, sending his corpse skidding to the ground, leaving a blood trail in its wake. But there was no time to celebrate; the intel was still in the open, and she had another soldier firing on her position. Anna ducked to avoid another deadly hail of lead, ducking into a stairwell to head downwards towards her objective—
A gloved fist caught her in the side of her cheek, knocking her backward. Before she could recover she felt a sharp metal violator stab straight into her gut, sending searing pain into her abdomen before she heard a loud gunshot.
Her HUD went static, faded to black, and then the red words of "Terminated: Entering spectator mode in 5" emerged on her screen. She felt her consciousness come rushing back to her; her eyes registered the darkness of her cramped surroundings, and the bright, almost glaring screen on the pod cover before her eyes. Anna's hands reached for the console controls upon the pod's backrest to navigate the remnants of the fight.
Secretly though, she was disappointed.
Her mind travelled back to her appointment in the academy's counselling department, sitting there in that somewhat pleasant room talking to Jeffrey, the counsellor assigned to her. Originally it was arranged solely because Anna had been placed there after the death of her parents. Those sessions were times Anna didn't bother remembering, or was grieving too much to remember. Now she couldn't tell. Gradually, she'd gone on to discuss other things.
Jeffrey's question to her was: "Something's bothering you, even after you've been much more cheery nowadays. What's up?"
She laid back in the creamy leather chair, tilted her head back just a little, and replied: "I don't feel like I'm… capable of doing anything."
Now she laid back against the pod's backrest as she waited for the match to end. Gunfire exchanges passed by the screen before her, unnoticed to her preoccupied brain. Her own performance flashed upon the screen, lines of depressing stats that Anna already knew. Her aim was pathetically poor, albeit marginally better compared to some of her teammates, but she was basically cannon fodder anyway. Combined with a lack of tactical sense and poor hand-to-hand combat skills, her overall proficiency as a soldier was poor.
And she knew the academy would inevitably expel poorly-performing recruits, orphans or not.
The match ended after a while of her lying back in the pod. With a hiss the lid managed a small jolt, then began the slow ascent to open the pod. Already she could hear the chatter of satisfied and excited fellow recruits from the other squadrons in the other sections of the room. Her section, containing her own teammates, was noticeably quiet, but she was used to it.
She slammed her hands upon the back of her pod as she pushed herself out, silently swearing as she did.
"What happened in there…" she heard Merida curse as she exited her own pod. "We had it, I fucking swear."
"Yeah well, we are one member short," Anna replied, leaning against her pod. "We are already disadvantaged." She gave a nod to Rapunzel and Belle as they joined the square they stood in, as per their routine after every terrible match.
Which, Anna noticed, was becoming every match.
"At least Ursula left," Belle remarked, "and that's a good thing, right?"
Anna's heart trembled just a little bit at the mention of Ursula's name; she didn't like Ursula in their team, especially after how she terrorized them with every single mistake they made. They'd moved her up to the higher divisions, but Ursula had made it a point to destroy their specific squadron during the routine evaluation tests, when the upper divisions were called in to do the dirty work.
"Yeah," Anna said. "I guess."
"Well we better get moving," said Rapunzel. "We still got Tactical class within the next hour; not that much of time to shower up and eat lunch."
Anna swung her braids back over her shoulder blades as she pushed herself off the pod she was leaning on, taking somewhat heavy steps towards the simulator exit, her heart sharing some of that weight.
They'd been sitting in Tactical midway during their lesson before the General had called them out.
"I trust you're aware of the situation regarding your squad manpower," he had said as he had closed the door behind them.
Anna nodded. She didn't bother checking her teammates' response.
"We're transferring a new recruit over to your squadron. She'll arrive sometime later in the day, and will report straight to your quarters, so don't be surprised if someone new pops by later on."
More nodding.
"And, Miss Anna, may I speak with you privately?"
She'd stood by silently as the rest of her teammates left the empty hallowed corridor that sat outside their tutorial room.
"Your recent records in the simulation have been… shall we say… not on form."
Anna cocked an eyebrow.
"It's a soccer reference."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Anyway, I came here to tell you that you're gonna have to buck up with whatever you're doing. The administration can accord some leeway given your…" the General paused to choose his next words carefully, "…situation. Note that I said leeway, not exemption."
She understood.
"With any luck, your new… recruit, should be able to provide you lessons in various other ways, despite your position as squadron leader."
"If I may sir, what might the background of my— I mean, our new recruit, be?"
The General paused again. She was surprised; he was only that way if he really had to think hard and long about something, and she didn't think such an innocent statement would elicit such a response.
"That won't be relevant to your training. You'll know her well enough when she comes."
"I doubt icebreakers would suffice."
The General actually let out a small laugh. "You'll figure something out," he said.
Anna awoke.
She was lucky, her alarm hadn't rung yet to wake her from her afternoon nap, else she would have woken to something much wor—
BEEP! BEEP!
"Goddammit," she muttered out loud, outstretching her arm to slam down upon her alarm as she pushed the blanket off her, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. The green holographic display glowed dim, giving an eerie gleam across her bedside table. Her room remained pitch black, no windows to look through, no light to enter. I have the worst sleep cycles.
She swung her feet off the bed, stretching her arms to relieve the ache that resided within her joints, reaching out towards the release button. One click. With a hiss, the front door of her room slid upwards, revealing the empty circle of their team's compound, the dim fading sunlight glinting off the marble floor.
Just that it wasn't empty, as it should have been. A single figure occupied the center, standing with a small duffel bag slung over her shoulder.
Anna cocked one eyebrow. "Hello?" she called out.
She watched as the figure turned her head. Something kicked within Anna as she saw the girl's platinum blonde curls swing with the same motion, her head's rational thought temporarily compromised. What was left of it quickly suppressed the distraction, and her eyes focused once more, no longer dilated.
"Did you take a wrong turn?" Anna ventured again.
"I was told to come here," her new companion replied, holding up what appeared to be an access card. "There's no way I could have gone to the wrong room with this."
Feisty, Anna thought to herself. "Are you our transfer?"
It was her new companion's turn to cock an eyebrow. "Transfer? They didn't really tell me anything. They said you would tell me what I had to do."
"Oh. Of course – Rapunzel! Merida! Belle! We just got our transfer!" Anna yelled out, not really bothering to moderate her volume. But then again, their team barracks were usually separated a decent distance away from the nearest team's. Two doors hissed a slid open, revealing two equally sleepy figures staggering to their feet.
"Oh hey." Merida brushed away her red hair. "You must be the new girl."
"Hello," Rapunzel began. "I don't suppose we've been formally introduced."
"No shit Rapunzel, she just got here." Belle managed to say.
"Shut up Belle, I'm trying to be nice." Anna noticed a small smile creeping up their new companion's face.
"Well then," Anna interjected, looking at the girl, "Did they give you any specific instructions aside from coming here?"
"Not really, except that I'm in room A."
"Oh."
There was a moment of awkward silence as they stood motionless in the open circle, watching their new companion walk over to the room, open the door, only to throw her duffel in and close the room again. "What's the procedure here?" she went on. "They told me you would fill me in."
"Who told you?" Merida asked, sounding a tad annoyed. "We're not here to babysit yo—"
"I am aware of that," came the curt reply. "I'm just asking."
The three of them shared a rather confused glance between each other before turning back to their new arrival. "So… are you formally a part of our team?" Rapunzel asked. "Not just someone tagging along?"
"You could say that."
"Well, I guess we'd better get going," Merida said. "Mess is at 1917. We still need to wash up and get down there ASAP." She turned specifically towards their newcomer. "Latecomers will be punished. Quite severely." She got a nod in reply.
"Let's get out of here." Rapunzel grabbed her things and headed towards their barracks bathroom. Anna moved to follow, but stopped in her tracks.
"You still haven't told us your name."
"My name?" Her new friend looked rather confused for a second, then recollected her thoughts and responded: "My name. It's Elsa."
Her eyes fluttered open.
Where am I? What just happened? I don't remember—
I'm trapped. Her head jerked forward, and slammed onto something hard directly front of her. Darkness engulfed her senses; she almost couldn't breathe from the claustrophobia. Her hands tried to lash out, frost crystalizing upon her snowy white skin that was invisible in the dark, her breath becoming more ragged by the second, panic surging across her being—
No. No no no no. Calm down. Calm the hell down.
She exhaled deeply. Breathe in…
Breathe out…
Breathe in…
She was startled by the loud, sudden hiss emerging from the pod she was constrained in. The cover lifted; the blinding light torrenting through the gaps the expanded ever further with time. What is this mysterious machine, she managed to think before a loud screeching sound penetrated her eardrums. Frantically she covered her ears, but it didn't stop, her sensory overload further constraining her mental processes.
From somewhere distant she heard small yelling:
"Are you okay?"
"She's going into shock."
"Someone stabilize her! We do not want to lose her!"
"Working on it!"
She felt hands grab her roughly by the side. Her reaction was to attempt to struggle, but an all-encompassing weight wrapped tendrils upon her limbs, paralyzing her. She could not move a muscle. The screeching got louder and louder, and her head lolled to one side, eyes rolling back into their sockets as she blacked out.
"Are you okay?"
She struggled to open her eyes again. Her head rested on a soft pillow, yet her arms were constrained by cloth straps that seemed surprisingly resilient. She didn't bother pulling on the straps anymore; she was way too tired for exertion by now.
Her parched lips felt painful to touch, so her mouth hung limply half-open. She didn't know what to say. She tried moving her body, but everything hurt, even though her mind was strangely clear.
Her eyeballs trailed across the room. The room walls were a creamy colour, soothingly so compared to the glaring lights on the ceiling, the window across from her bed transparent to the empty corridor outside. She heard the monotonous beeping of the machine she was hooked up to, her eyelids drooping from the effort, her body at rest yet at pain at the same time. She felt the metal sting of needles permeate her skin into her veins, leaving a sickening feeling in her stomach.
"Are you okay?"
She tilted her head ever so slightly, wincing as she did so. A red-haired man clothed in white robes sat on a wooden chair next to her bed, his face an expression on concern.
No. Not quite. She sensed the forced tension of muscles and the ounce of falseness upon his face, even as he looked her straight in the eye.
"I… guess," she managed to reply. Two can play at this game.
"Do you remember what happened?"
Now she definitely couldn't remember that. She'd have to be truthful about this one; she was after all, restrained to a bed in foreign territory that she could not recognize. She shook her head.
The red-haired man raised a similarly coloured eyebrow. "Okay… well, for the time being, you'll be staying with us. Do you know where you are?"
She shook her head again.
"We're in an academy— I mean, military academy in Arendelle. It was the closest medical facility to where we had originally found you, but I do suppose we can accommodate you here for the time being, or at least, until other arrangements can be made in the future." He sighed and tilted his head ever so slightly, but she couldn't recognize the expression. "Do you recall anything at all?"
Her head didn't move this time.
"Even your name?"
"My name?" Her head cocked to one side.
"My name.
"It's Elsa."