Chris eventually found out the whole interface thing... It was, nice. If he had to describe it that was, it was like multitasking but, he only had so much attention to go around.

It also had built in instant messaging to whoever else was on the network. Why? Dunno, maybe whoever built it had a weird sense of humor. I mean why put that in there and not any other useful features?

Whatever. He was simultaneously looking at an overview of the area around the headquarters and in his office on his bed. It was hard to wrap his head around to be honest, he could only pay attention to one at a time but he was always 'in' both his view and the overview.

When he first got into the overview it actually gave him a fuckin' tutorial. This had to be some kind of cosmic joke... He just shrugged it off anyways and did as he was told.

It first told him about resources and how to get and use them. Turns out it was more like managing money than anything else. He had three resources, Material, Power, and Special. Material and Power were used to build units and structures, while Special was used to build units and buildings that were either entirely unique or just really powerful. The thing was units required ammo or power depending on what they were which was needed to be made and structures required power, each was automatically deducted from the gain of his resources, it told him his positive resource gain daily next to him resource counters.

It then gave him a 'basic' outlook on how units and structures worked. There was a set class to each unit, with no real hierarchy. The current classes went as follows, Builders, Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Vehicles, Heavy Vehicles, Super Vehicles, Transports, Scout Infantry, Scout Vehicles, Commanders, and Lieutenants, with additional classes being added as more units were unlocked and each class having a Elite, Veteran, Elite Veteran and Hero, variant. The Veteran variant of a unit was gained by it seeing combat and units could gain veterancy over extended combat. That... was a lot of unit combos especially when units could be two different classes and a variant.

Now structures, which all you had to do was build and maintain, each structure would cost a certain amount and that wouldn't change except through research and upgrades. All structures had to be built by some kind of builder, unless a building was transported some way. Okay, that made sense.

Of course for civilian structures he had to label which area was used for what and it would auto build and change based on materials and tech available. Pretty fuckin' cool, especially because it worked on its own and didn't have to be done manually.

Finally it told him to plan out his base and first build a few builders to get started on that plan, it gave him a few tips on how to build a base. Then a menu for the buildings he could build and finally told him to basically get ready to be eventually fucked over by something.

Shit that was a lot, and that wasn't even the full version just a basic run down. Also the whole 'Your going to go wrong somewhere at some point so be prepared' kind of soured him a little bit. Ah, fuck.

He flipped through the menu in his head of the buildings he could build. It was like only 10 things, HQ, Training Ground, Armory, Mine, Tech Lab, Plasma Generator, Gene Pool, Turret, Wall, Roads, Cover, and a Tank Trap. Jesus. One of these things wasn't like the others.

He went over to his command view and looked at his surrounding terrain. A small hill to the west and the rest was just forests, everywhere.

He sighed and picked up the large folder on his desk and flipped it open, skimming through it before setting it down.

He needed to get moving.

Getting up, he grabbed a uniform from under his bed and put it on. He paused and stared at his armor for a second and another before finally reaching the squirming thought in the back of his head. If technology was around ten years back than when he was taken from the army... Then his armor... Would, if given to a Tech Lab, buff his fledgling tech base.

He kept staring at the armor anyway. He didn't have a Tech Lab, he had to build one.

He sighed again and picked up the armor walking to the foot of the bed and setting it down again. He first had to requisition some things, like a dresser, and gun.

He would probably have to borrow something to shave also.

-Break-

He looked his face and remains of his, almost, beard. Heh, he could have been sad at losing that. Could.

He walked over to the dresser and trunk, he'd wrangled out of the requisition's Officer, guy was a dick, and pulled out his patches denoting rank and name. He put the patch for his name on the left of his chest and the patch's for rank on his shoulders, both stuck onto the Velcro with ease.

He looked into the mirror he'd been using to cut his hair and looked at just how alien he'd become. He didn't care much for his appearance but the light scars all over made him cringe as he'd peeled away the fur attached to his face.

Now, he looked... Proper, somewhat proper at least. He cut his dark hair short and he got rid of the hair on his face as well, he rubbed the smooth skin before pulling his hand away and continuing his observation. His uniform was brand new and to spec, he'd made sure to remember anything important about appearances.

There was something off about how he looked though... It was something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Hmm, wait what? He- He, looked fucking younger! He looked to be in his late 20's at most. The fuck is with this shit?

He forced himself to calm down, he peered closer at his reflection. He was a mirror image of his older self. Just younger as retarded as reiterating that to himself was.

He ignored the pieces of the past that threatened to break out into his mind and continued his inspection.

His brown eyes still shown their almost amber color in the locker room's dim light, that reminded him of- he stopped his train of thought, that line of thought wasn't needed, he didn't need the past, and without even a grunt picked up his things.

He could see himself. That was enough for him, it helped he was in regulation too. He wasn't much of a sight to behold though.

He didn't care, why would he?

-Break-

The newly acquired items were maneuvered into his room and set up. He sat down contemplating, well, everything.

He had been prepared to die, although fighting the already lost war against a more numerous and well equipped fighting force wasn't his preferred method of suicide, he couldn't just walk into a oncoming train.

That would mean he had completely lost and that everything he did would have been for nothing. That, wasn't going to happen then and taking as many of the fuckers that decided the East coast would look better turned into glass, was a great alternative.

That was his somewhat limited objective when he joined the Army.

Anyone left in the US Army after the East coast siege, was someone who had lost everything and either needed direction or someone who wanted revenge...

He'd seen too many soldiers break down crying after no word from command was heard and the enemy artillery decimated friendlies at an alarming rate, with the advancing enemy taking negligible losses.

It tore at him little by little as he would dive headfirst into battle and come out of it... slightly wounded, he was lucky really. He would watch younger guys fade out of life and eventually with his steady fighting retreat with what veterans survived each small firefight, it became normal.

He hated the shit out of it.

Until that final engagement of his and he was nearly killed by a sniper. Bleeding out as he was he had killed multiple squads with a variety of weapons he had found on his dead comrades.

But, he had survived, he had something to achieve, and every achievement he could aspire to gain was viable, and people could be united and completely at peace. That... Was something he could gladly give his life for.

-Break-

He eventually drug himself through the machine of his mind that was slowly grinding away to face, one, and only one of his problems. The nightmares... The link gave him enough perspective and knowledge that they would become an issue.

Not to mention the fact he was already a walking bundle of issues.

He could admit he couldn't face problems like a regular person would. Hell, he was surprised he was still functioning after all the shit he'd done. You don't slice open someone's skull with a melta knife and come out of it 'okay'. Civilian life, if he would ever involve himself in it, wasn't possible for him, ever.

He was getting off topic. Anyhow, he couldn't just snap his fingers and go 'Cool I'm good now.' that wasn't how anyone worked. Whenever his family... Came up at all, it scared him how he lost them, it made him afraid that they were just gone.

While his parents weren't the best or even really acted like parents, the people that were like family elevated him. Now that they're gone he didn't really have anything that made him want to gone.

Pushing himself further took more and more effort, day after day he would wake up and just shut down...

He was crumbling away slowly. His momentum in life gone and he was deathly afraid of things just being still.

That... Had been rectified and he felt rejuvenated, he had something that helped him march on and something that would advance endlessly...

He wouldn't retreat this time and there would only be an eternal offensive on all the problems that plagued his people.

His march wouldn't be halted and his nightmares would just have to be trampled underfoot.

Overview:

Current Structures Unlocked: HQ, Training Ground, Armory, Plasma Generator, Mine, 'Tech Lab, Gene Pool, Turret, Wall, Road, Tank Trap.

Author's Note:

So I haven't uploaded in a bit... I have a good reason as well, so I have been finishing up the flooring in my house as it's kinda been unfinished, like... So in the hallway the new flooring used to go halfway up the hallway and then it just stopped mostly because when I was putting it in before I basically ran out of free time. So, yeah?

I had this chapter finished but didn't really have time to upload it I guess? I'm done now so that's good. I don't really have much else to say.

Ah, so before Chris wasn't really someone I had put a lot of thought into, but now I feel like I can genuinely write him in a way that makes sense to me. I thought of him before as just a soldier like he did, but, I thought about who the character was and can now finally write him as a person.

So yeah shoot me a PM if you have a cool idea for the story and give a review, it's nice to get a bit of criticism about your work... as long as it's constructive anyway.