[Author's note: First of all I would like to apologise for how long it has taken for this next instalment to be delivered to you all. I hope that it hasn't been so long that people would have forgotten about or lost interest in this story, because I have big plans ahead. The bad news is that it's taken this long to get this chapter to you, the good news is that now that my thesis is finished, I will be able to get chapters done faster! A massive thank you to all those who have provided reviews for previous chapters! You're support and reviews are what let me know you are still interested in this story, and they are what fuel me! Thanks again!]
Chapter 3
The First Real Mission
Choices are strange things. Even the simplest of choices may see the most drastic of consequences. It is said that the choices people make are what define them. Adren would often look back in future times, wondering what would have happened had he chosen to stay on Mar Sara to live a simple life; but stay he did not. With the pain of his mother's capture reignited and those that took her still at large, he chose to follow Colonel Karrasar. When the colonel made his offer to Adren, Roland knew that he would not be able to stop the boy from leaving, nor did he try. Adren's choice was made. He would train to become a specialised soldier of awe-inspiring skill. He would train to become a powerful psionic; a true leader; a ruthless hunter. He would train to become a killer. The floor on which he walked would be paved with blood.
Adren's feet stepped soundlessly through the dark room, his visor providing enhanced lighting thus that he could see. The room in which he stood was a large supply room, crates strewn about the place. Every crate was a potential hiding place for his enemies. He looked back, seeing his five allied squad-members close behind, their guns shouldered and their gaze ever vigilant, scanning the room for any sign of movement. They wore the armour of a ghost operative, as did Adren.
"Looks clear," Adren whispered back to his squad leader. "But I can't tell with all these damned crates. There could be anyone hiding here," he hissed.
"Understood," murmured the squad leader. "Squad, return to wedge formation, Adren, you're on point. Stay on alert; we're oscar mike to objective marker three."
Adren muttered a quick "yes, sir" before proceeding through the maze of crates. Some of the crates were larger than others, and some were stacked in piles, making the amount of possible cover for enemies far greater.
Adren continued onwards cautiously, his rifle shouldered. He twisted left and right with extreme speed upon passing every set of stacked crates, making sure no foe was waiting in ambush. He was unable to psionically detect the presence of others due to a psychic dampener in close proximity. He relied instead on his acute hearing and excellent eyesight, scanning every nook and cranny for traps or soldiers and listening for any sign of an enemy presence. As he moved, his ears were met with naught but a cold and empty silence.
The squad proceeded towards their target – a door at the end of the room. Adren heard scuffling nearby. He stopped dead in his tracks and raised a fist, signalling the squad to freeze. The squad leader came up next to Adren. "What is it?" he hissed.
"Thought I heard something, boss," replied Adren in a soft voice.
The squad leader moved ahead of the group slowly and carefully, peering behind crates as he moved. Silence and darkness still yielded an eerie feel to the entire room, the only light coming from a series of dim globes hanging from the ceiling, some of which flickered every now and then.
The squad leader signalled the rest of the team to follow. He started moving onwards again when without warning a hostile soldier emerged from behind a set of stacked crates, his gun blasting shots directly into the squad leader. Gunfire erupted as more hostiles arose from their hiding places, using the crates as cover. Adren fired three shots of his rifle blindly into the enemy forces as he ran, hoping to deter them enough to buy the time required to reach shelter. "Get to cover!" he yelled to his allied soldiers while sprinting to a metal crate, off which projectiles impacted with a clang.
He looked back, noting that one of his squad mates had been taken down in the gunfire. He poked his head and his gun over the boxes and fired, taking down three enemies with precise shots to the heart. Another two foes fell by the hands of his three remaining squad members. "We need to move forward! The only way out of here is through that door! We can do this!" he barked.
He moved out from his position, his teammates following as they all fired. They pressed forward, taking down another handful of hostiles as they pushed onwards, but suffering yet another casualty.
They continued to push forward as Adren leapt over a stack of boxes, coming to a crouching position and letting off four shots, one of which found its mark on a target. "You!" he pointed at the team member to his left. "Suppressive fire on that flank!" he shot a hand out with two fingers pointing towards the hostiles amassing on the left side of the enemy line. "And you," he looked at the other soldier. "Give me some covering fire!"
He rushed forwards, the two soldiers carrying out their orders well. The team member to Adren's left had managed to scramble the group of soldiers and send chaos into their ranks, while his other squad member covered his advance. He rushed the forward line of the hostile soldiers, shooting anyone in sight with such speed and accuracy that they barely had time to react, let alone release a shot with any chance of hitting him. "Form up on me!" he roared, providing covering fire as they moved to his position.
The three ran forwards in search of shelter from the spray of incoming fire. They found cover behind a stacked pile of metal boxes, hiding there for a moment while they reloaded their rifles. The team member to his right darted his head over the boxes to let off a burst of fire, but was in turn shot, falling to the floor.
Adren and the last remaining squad member sat with their backs pressed firmly against the crates behind which they hid. "Well, just you and me eh, kid?" said the remaining squad mate.
"We can still do this, Jake," replied Adren.
"Don't suppose you could whip up another one of them psionic storms like ya did back home, could you?"
"No, the psychic dampener is too strong. I don't suppose you could shoot like you did when you were impressing Karrasar back home enough to get this position, could you?"
Jake laughed and slapped Adren's chest playfully before the two poked their heads above the crates and let off a burst of fire each. They felled four more enemies before returning to the safety of their cover. "We have to make a run for it," said Adren in a loud enough voice to compete with the incoming fire. "They're just getting more reinforcements! The only hope we have is trying to make a break for it!"
Jake nodded, his ghost operative helmet covering any expression on his face. "Agreed!"
They leapt over the crates and ran, firing as they did. The sounds of the world seemed to dampen and time itself seemed to slow as adrenaline coursed through Adren's body. The two shot numerous hostiles as they ran, managing to get within metres of the door. Adren heard a thud and looked back in time to see Jake fall.
Adren stopped cold in his tracks and ran back to Jake, grappling onto his team mate around the chest and moving backwards while firing, heading closer to the door.
He reached the door, putting Jake gently against the ground as he blasted suppressive fire into the enemy ranks. He opened the door with his back facing it, grabbing hold of his comrade who moaned before he started to move backwards slowly. It was then he felt something pressed up against the back of his torso. He dropped his friend and spun around to see two armed hostiles with their guns shouldered and aiming directly at Adren's chest. They fired and he stumbled back a few steps, falling to the floor before lights flickered on to illuminate the dark room. Sound filled the room as the crates slid away, clearing a path through the centre of the room. "Training session over. Scenario failed," the female voice of an adjudant announced, the last two words making Adren's eye twitch slightly. To him, it was as if the words served only to rub in the defeat.
Jake groaned loudly as he sat up, taking off his helmet. Adren stood back up, squinting as he removed his helmet, his blue eyes adjusting to the light, sweat beading his forehead and matting strands of his finger-length, blonde hair. He brushed the few strands spilling onto his brow back into their regularly slicked-back position.
With a sigh, he helped Jake up to his feet. "Damn it," Jake grunted. "I know those stun shots just immobilise you for a short time, but they still make my body feel all funny, y'know? I feel all tingly 'n shit now," he jumped up and down lazily a few times, jiggling his hands around before shaking his whole body as if a chill ran up his spine momentarily.
Adren watched as the rest of the soldiers, both those posing as allies and enemies alike, steadily and sluggishly got back up to their feet. He saw Colonel Karrasar speaking with a man who had a clipboard, a form of some sort attached to it. The colonel nodded and the man walked away, leaving Karrasar's attention to shift to Adren and Jake. He approached them with a warm smile. "You both did well indeed."
Adren snorted, a wry half-smile curving his lips. "Did well? We failed."
"Failed?" queried Karrasar. "Have you learnt from this scenario?"
"Well, of course," Adren shrugged. Jake raised his eyebrows and nodded in agreement.
"Then I'd call it no failure at all."
"But I don't understand," Adren started.
"I see," Karrasar's voice seemed somewhat more solemn as he cut in. "Then perhaps you did not do as well as I had originally thought," he nodded to himself and gave a sigh. "That'll be enough for today. Dismissed."
"Yes, sir," Adren and Jake said at roughly the same time, saluting the colonel.
The colonel saluted them back before giving them a nod and a smile. He turned around and walked back towards the way from which he had come.
Jake and Adren busied themselves with small errands for the rest of the day. As early afternoon came, Adren made his way to the private gym reserved for a select few. He walked into the relatively small room, seeing Jake already on an exercise bike. They exchanged a nod of greetings before Adren stepped onto a treadmill, setting it to a fast jogging pace. "Man, what do you think Karrasar meant?" Jake panted, turning his head towards Adren, his mouth open and his eyes asquint as the pain of his workout burned in his legs.
"I don't know if it really needs to be looked into," Adren's voice was somewhat jumpy from his jogging. "I've been thinking about it, and maybe it is just what he said. The fact that we still learnt from this thing means we didn't completely fail. I mean, come on, he's Karrasar. How many times has he told either of us we've failed? In fact, how many times has he given us a scolding in any way at all?"
"I guess you're right," Jake huffed. "And let's face it; we have screwed up big time in the past."
They both chuckled. "Oh yeah," Adren shook his head, a wide smile on his face. "Like that time you fell out of the tree and misfired that high power rifle," he started to laugh.
Jake laughed as he remembered. It had been half a year after they were both recruited by the colonel. They were engaged in a test whereby they had to shoot long distance targets which had been set up, long grass and dense bush partly blocked their vision of the targets. In order to combat the vision impairments, they climbed a nearby tree, both lying prone on two thick, parallel branches. The area being used for target practice belonged to a farmer. The farmer's tractor had been left a considerable distance to the right of the targets, the rest of the land was filled only with grass and trees. Adren took his shot, the high powered rifle making short work of the bag of grain, the bullet impacting dead centre on the painted red circle. "Watch this," Jake said in a cocky manner, his eyebrow raised as he gave Adren a nod.
Adren turned to look at his friend. "Dude," Adren pointed at Jake's hand. "There's a big-ass spider on your arm."
Jake darted his head towards his arm, his cocky smile vanishing instantly as he saw the spider poised for the attack. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed, flailing his arm around.
He lost his balance, sliding off the tree and, in panic, squeezing the trigger as he fell. The bullet hit the farmer's tractor in the fuel tank, blowing it up as Jake plummeted to the ground, Adren slapping the branch on which he lay as he laughed. Even then, Karrasar had not scolded Jake.
Remembering yet more incidences like this, Jake smiled as he eased the exercise bike into a slower, easier mode. "How about that time you'd been drinkin' heavily until five in the morning of the day we had training."
"Oh man," Adren shook his head at the memory. "That wasn't the best idea I've had."
The incident had occurred two years past. Adren had been invited to join a party the night before he and some fellow soldiers were to engage in a close quarters training operation whereby they would attempt to takeover a room controlled by an enemy team. Naturally, alcohol flowed as freely as the conversations at the party. Adren had forgotten about his training, remembering only an hour before he was due to begin. Being late, his team had assumed their positions for the initial door breach. He arrived at the scene, stumbling towards his position. He fidgeted due to the discomfort of his uniform, for unbeknownst to him in his state, he had put his tactical vest on back to front. His team members could not help but chuckle at the sight of him flailing his arms around, trying to figure out the problem. The team leader looked at Adren, his expression stern. "I'm sorry, Adren, did we disturb your partying?"
"Kind of, yeah," Adren nodded with a cheesy smile, to which the other team members gave a chuckle.
"Wha-" the team leader frowned, unable to think of what to say after the unexpected statement. "Damn it, soldier! You get there and you breach that door right now, y'hear me?"
"Yes, sir," Adren slurred, giving a sloppy salute.
His vision was blurred and he was barely able to stand without coming close to falling. He took a deep breath and, unable to concentrate or focus his vision, he charged towards the door. His steps took him off course, causing him to run straight into the wall. The wooden walls of the building were dilapidated enough that he fell straight through, leaving a gaping hole in his wake. One of the beams holding a section of the rickety room had been broken by Adren's charge, resulting in part of the ceiling collapsing. A loud crashing noise consumed the area as pieces of the ceiling fell away, powder flying in clouds. The dust stirred around the room and floated about Adren's unconscious body which was covered in rubble from the ceiling. The only two who weren't amused were Adren, who had passed out, and his team leader. Some of the soldiers had fallen to the floor in laughter.
Adren remembered the talk he had received from Karrasar after that unpleasant occurrence. Even then the talk had been more like a father showing signs of disappointment as well as concern towards the injuries Adren could have sustained.
Adren laughed, remembering the video footage he was later shown of the mishap. As he stopped the treadmill a man in his late twenties opened the door to the private gym, stepping through. His hair was short and a few shades darker than Adren's. His cheeks dipped in shallow depressions, but they were not deep enough for his face to be described as gaunt. His blue eyes emanated a happy tone to match his smile as he approached his two comrades.
"Hey, hey," Adren smiled. "How's it going?"
"Just got back from retrieving another artefact. Sounds like all the fun's here, though."
"Damn it, Marcus, you missed the reminiscing of our failures," Jake smiled.
Marcus turned to Adren. "Like the time you tried to do that door breach while you were still drunk?"
Adren nodded while chuckling. "Yeah, that definitely made the list."
Their conversation continued as they undertook their daily workout routines, the topic changing numerous times until it was late afternoon. Finishing up his exercises, Adren departed, making his way out of the gym and down a series of corridors. As he grew closer to the main section of the building, the flow of people moving throughout the corridors increased. He saw a familiar face approaching him as he walked. A woman with medium-long, dark brown hair which was almost black and grey-green eyes gave Adren a smile as she caught sight of him, a stack of papers held in her arms. "Hey, Sheena, how's it going?" Adren beamed a wide smile. Adren had developed a crush on Sheena which he told no one save for his closest friends. It was a foolish endeavour, yet his heart yearned for her nevertheless.
Sheena stopped in front of Adren. "Well, I have to take these papers to Major Pase and you know how he gets when he doesn't have his papers on time," she snorted. "But apart from that, everything is alright. Things could be better, though."
"Why, what's wrong? Things with Dan are alright, aren't they?"
"No," she sighed. "We broke up," as the words left her mouth, Adren concealed the happiness and hopefulness he felt. "I'm beginning to think it's impossible to find a good guy anymore."
His heart sank a little as she uttered the words. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."
She smiled. "It's okay. Anyway, I have to get a move on or I'm going to get my ears blasted off by Pase. A few of my friends are going out for drinks on the weekend, you should come along too."
His spirits rose once again and he could not help smiling. "Yeah, sure, it sounds good. I'll talk to you later."
She waved a goodbye as she started to walk the opposite way. He continued onward, suddenly realising he was simply walking without knowing where he was going. Considering for a moment, he decided that he would make his way to the roof to watch the sun set. It always calmed him down, and after the words spoken by Karrasar, his mind was a scramble of thoughts.
The way to the rooftop was one well known to Adren. He had spent many an afternoon there in deep thought. He traversed the final flight of stairs after having made his way to the rectangular spiral of concrete steps.
He pushed the door open and stepped onto the rooftop, wiping sweat from his brow and taking a deep breath while squinting against the afternoon sun's light. Chairs were set up at a table though they were almost never used by any of the building's members, save for Adren. The rooftop was not entirely flat, due to a room for the building's backup generator. There were plants and shrubbery in a low lying hollowed-out wall which surrounded the chairs and table, making that area the central part of the rooftop. A small flight of stairs led to a lower platform at the rooftop's edge. This created a balcony-like effect. Chairs were set up facing the city, their backings lined against the raised platform of the central rooftop. A low glass wall protruded from the very edges of the rooftop. Concrete columns separated the sheets of glass, all of them hollowed-out and containing self-sustaining shrubs.
Adren settled into a chair, looking at the city before him. The building Adren had called home for the past 4 years stood at 10 storeys tall. It was not small, but nestled just next to the central core of Tarsonis City, the capital of Tarsonis, it was dwarfed by the giant skyscrapers. The building lay in an area where the surrounding structures were of a similar height, the vast majority of which were smaller. Behind the structure there were numerous areas devoid of any tall buildings, creating the appearance of an open space. In front of the building, the closest skyscrapers lay a block away, after which they grew in size towards the city's core. Adren always thought the patch of smaller buildings seemed like a small paddock in a giant jungle of buildings made of metal and concrete and covered in glass. To the right of the building was what looked like a canyon paved in metal, along which a main road ran towards the core of the city.
Adren watched the stunning colours of the setting sun casting crimson and orange light over the city. The light shone in beams through the cracks between buildings and reflected off the glass from windows. Several aircraft soaring across the sky were soon joined by a flock of birds seeking a resting place for the night.
The air seemed warm, and in combination with the colours of the sunset, Adren found his zone of peace. He took a deep breath, thinking about the situation with Karrasar. He pondered in thought until the sun had passed over the horizon, casting darkness over the city. Buildings became mottled with bright lights from windows as the city lit up for yet another vibrant night at Tarsonis City. Finally, he came upon the answer to his question. It seemed so simple that he could not help but shake his head at his naivety.
He left the rooftop in search of the colonel, who he soon found in his office. He knocked on the door, and hearing a genial "come in" he pushed open the door, seeing the colonel sitting behind his desk, a pen in hand. Karrasar smiled. "Ah, Adren, how can I help you?"
"I was thinking about the training exercise earlier today and I think I finally understand the situation."
"Well then, take a seat and enlighten me," he nodded his head to a chair in front of his desk.
Adren sat down. "The mindset I couldn't get myself out of earlier was the fact that the whole situation would be completely different if it was a real scenario. I have psionic abilities that would help me, but in the test I wasn't allowed to use them. So thinking about the situation, it was easy to see that you were testing our raw abilities. You wanted to see how we reacted as humans rather than as 'super soldiers'. That was easy enough to figure out, but then I kept on thinking that the exercise was like all the other ones we've been training in, where the only form of victory lies in eliminating the enemy team or capturing the objective. That's why I couldn't work out why you seemed to think we did well. And that's when I realised our team leader hadn't exactly been acting according to standard procedure. He got taken down on purpose."
Karrasar's smile widened. "Indeed. Then you see: both you and Jake performed exceptionally under the circumstances. As you have correctly identified, the purpose of this test was not to see if you could simply destroy all your opponents and claim the objective. It was to challenge you and your fellow team members. The scenario was one in which you had to rely on your physical senses alone after having lost your squad leader."
Adren smiled as he realised he had pieced it together. "Then this wasn't a scenario we were ever meant to win. It was never a scenario that we could win. It was to push us to our limits and to see if we continued on or gave in. It was to see how we would react in the face of a hopeless situation."
The colonel nodded. "I already know full well that you can fight and that you can kill, but I need to know how your mind works. I've no doubts that were you to be in a real life situation akin to this, you and your fellow psionics would be able to make short work of your enemy, but I need to know you. The real you. The completely human side of you. As I have said to you many a time before; you must understand your weaknesses before you can understand your strengths."
"It all seems so simple now that it's pieced together. I don't know why I didn't pick up on this earlier."
"Every other scenario you've been placed in has been one where you had a chance at victory. You have had exercises to test your mind and exercises to test your abilities in combat, but they have never overlapped like this. Understanding the meaning of the test was simply another test in itself. One which you passed, as I expected you would. That is why I think you are ready for your first real mission. Collecting artefacts and entering naught but potentially hostile situations which never escalate into any threat are no longer fitting missions."
Adren's heart started to race with excitement. "Sir?"
"You will be briefed in the morning. Meet me in my office at zero nine hundred hours."
Adren stood and saluted the colonel. "Yes, sir. And thank you."
Karrasar smiled and returned the salute. "You've more than earned the chance, now grab something to eat then get some rest."
Although sleep was hard to come by at first due to the excitement, Adren rested well that night. When he awoke the following morning he sprung out of bed, eager to get started on the preparations for the mission. After eating a quick breakfast, he made his way to Karrasar's office. When he arrived, Karrasar was standing in front of his desk talking with two men. As he entered the room, their gaze turned to him. "Ah, there you are," Karrasar moved over to close the door. "This is Major Blackburne and this is Lieutenant Michaels. They will be providing you with all the information you will need for your mission."
Major Blackburne gave Adren a nod. He was in his late forties with short, dark blonde hair, his eyes a dark blue. Wrinkles had started to crease his forehead, and a thin scar ran along his left cheek. "I've heard good things about you, kid. This should be a good test. General Intel suggests that the mission won't be too hard, but you'll still need to keep your wits about you. Are you ready to get started on the briefing?"
"Yes, sir. Ready when you are."
"Good. The mission will involve several stages. Your target will be in a civilian hotel in Tordaan City."
"Tordaan City?" Adren queried. "That's here on Tarsonis."
"Correct," the major nodded. "Your target is planet-side. As you know, Tordaan City is four thousand miles south-west of Tarsonis City. You'll be taken there by air transport tomorrow morning, so use today to get prepped and ready. You'll leave in civilian clothes, but pack lightly; you won't be staying for long. Your first objective on landing will be to check in to your room which will be your team's rendezvous point. From there you will move out to track your target and make sure everything goes according to plan. He should return to his room by twenty hundred hours. You and your team will move in, get into his room, and assassinate him and any guards he may have. If the plans change, you'll have to improvise and find a suitable area to perform the assassination. If this happens, find somewhere quiet, we don't want to attract any unwanted attention. Once the mission is completed you will move to an extraction point. Unless you have any questions, I'll let Michaels take you over the finer points."
Lietenant Michaels, a relatively short and stocky man stepped forwards, giving the major a nod. His brown hair was shaved in a crew-cut, his brown eyes seeming to constantly bear a serious tone. "Including you, your team will consist of eight members and will be led by Corporal Darson. You will act as the third in command, should it be required."
"Sir?" Adren interrupted. "Is it such a good idea to be putting me in any command position in such an early mission?"
"Well given your current record, the colonel agrees with the decision made by Major Blackburne and myself."
Adren nodded and the lieutenant continued going over the detailed points. Adren was given a file with information and pictures of those he would be working with and the man he had to assassinate, as well as various pictures of the hotel and the general layout. The briefing continued as Adren absorbed all aspects of the information given to him.
When the briefing was complete, he decided to take all the notes and files he had been given to the rooftop to study them further. On his way there he ran into Sheena, who saw him carrying the files. She smiled. "Is this what I think it is?"
"Well, I doubt the colonel would want me talking about what this is."
"I promise I won't tell a soul," she said in a flirtatious manner and leaning in closer in an attempt to pry any information she could from him to sate her curiosity.
He was rendered defenceless against her charm. "It's a top secret assignment. It's my first real mission."
"Well done," she gave him a playful slap on the arm. "Well then you have to join us for drinks on the weekend."
"Then I'll be there," he grinned.
"I'll let you get on with studying up for it. How exciting! Good luck for it. Let me know all the details when you get back!"
He thanked her and moved on towards the rooftop. When he reached his area of tranquillity he was able to focus all his thoughts on the mission. He stayed there, studying every aspect until the sun started to set. The setting sun cast its deep orange haze on the city, and before long night had fallen. Adren looked up and watched the stars for a moment, a smile on his face. 'Tomorrow, this will be it,' he thought to himself. 'My first real mission.'
