A/N: Well, another new chapter. I'm giving this story double priority since it's significantly more fun to write than my other stories in progress (But you should totally go check them out, they're pretty cool). So, I also listened to all the Specialist transmissions so at least I can pick out their relations and stuff a little better, and I'll do some more explanation in the closing note, so this is going to be a kinda short chapter. Anyway, let's get to it!
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
A few days later, intel came in.
They found a new Firebreak.
They sent us most of the information on the new guy. He was Austrian, which was new to all of us. His name was Krystof Hejek, 6'4, 195 pounds, all around, a fairly standard guy. Passed training, but only 18 years old, which would make him the youngest Specialist here, closely followed by me. He was being transferred straight from juvie to here after burning his house and a warehouse down, as well as killing his father and nearly killing his sister. What makes him the most qualified person of all the other tactical arsonists was beyond me, since his profile literally marked him as "mentally unstable".
Not six hours later, the ship arrived, and we made our ways out to see the new guy. He was led by two jailers, but was grinning as he was led in our direction. We followed the precession to the infirmary where they implanted his DNI and hooked him up to Respawn.
A day later, he was stable and we all watched as he was nervously led to the Respawn Room, where all of us had bitter and embarrassing memories of taking the dive for the first time in front of the team, as well as having recently being refreshed. He looked much less confident as Ruin volunteered to give him the first death of many to come. The boy was now almost visibly shaking as Ruin took as long as he could to comically line up the shot, which only made it funnier. Finally, one of the CO's told him to "get on with it" and, without warning, Ruin landed a perfect 3-round burst into the new Firebreak's head. It only took a few seconds for him to reappear, and the techs were sure to make his old body disappear as quickly as possible to prevent mental breakdown too early.
With that, Firebreak was officially assigned to active duty along with the rest of us, and the next battle was set up for two days from now. I showed the kid to his room (which was right next to mine) before deciding to hit the sack early. It was only 1930, but I was really tired from the last few days of constant training in the Simhouse, as well as still trying to wrap my head around the admittedly terrifying aspect of my body decaying beneath me. Back on the streets, at least I had the comfort and confidence of my own body being there when nothing else was, but here, there was nothing but my team. I glanced back up at the little paper clip family I made (Although I removed the commander long ago, plus, I needed something to hold my drawings together) and took ground in the fact that whatever happened, at least I had my team, my new "family".
A/N: Ok, so, now that I actually know what I'm doing, and since I'm about to actually get the game, I guess I'll explain a few things.
The old Firebreak was a placeholder character, and Krystof was not used twice.
Since Krystof is new to the battlefield, he will be a bit squeamish and inexperienced for a few chapters, as he spoke about in his Transmissions, although he'll be up to speed soon enough
"The Project" here is The Respawn Network, and there are no spies in the team, but they are being observed by the staff at Lazarus Base (The place where this all takes place) and the ultimate goal is to live forever, the holdup being the short lived bodies it produces.
The CDP base is also competing to create a better system to sell it to the army and public first, hence the battles and agreement between them. Also, CDP found very similar individuals to those at Lazarus, but they are not clones.
This isn't a simulation, because that's just kind of depressing to see these incredibly well-made characters reduced to killing AIs to be pawned off.
Prophet and Reaper suffer from Degradation as well, although it is a different form and is why they are also being studied.
You should totally go spam my friend Mason6856 and his Specialist story (called "The Ghost Assassin", featuring Spectre) with reviews telling him to make a part 2 because I really want him to keep working on it and it's pretty good. We also kinda traded a few ideas (I borrowed his Spectre and he borrowed my Simhouse) and it's pretty good so far.
Anyway, that's about it, but hey, double update! I mean, it's been pretty quiet in the reviews section lately, and those reviews are what really get me motivated to put hours upon hours into these chapters. I have finals coming up Wednesday and Thursday of next week, and then I'm out of school, so I hope to get another chapter put before they start and another when they're over. Until next time, I've been Pix, thanks for reading!