Chapter 2 Part 1 : Fallout and the Brand New World
USA Command Center, Tactical Operation Command.
The situation inside TOC could be described as controlled chaos. Officers and tech specialists conducted data analysis through out the operation in the nerve center. One officer commanded his specialists intercepting the SIGNIT on the live stream detected previously by them. The mission control specialists report any transmission provided in the field. Intelligence officers analyzed the data packet provided by the techies and began dissecting them into the vast libraries for future operation in Terra.
Combat footage provided by the field units gave much valuable data on their current adversaries. The arsenal, armor and even communication devices confiscated from the fallen OPFOR were recorded for future reference. Unsurprisingly the command servers immediately compared the collected HUMIT and SIGNIT data to the notorious Global Liberation Army.
GLA may be typical fictional game villain with the worst anti-West stereotypes, but with commanders familiar with stealth tactics and guerrilla warfare, these mobs of radicals are deadly for anyone dares to confront them.
Among the chaotic activities of the men inside the command center, there was a man right in the eye of the chaotic storm. With both hands on the Command and Control Deck, he controlled the interface on every information displayed before him. Swiping and removing any data displayed with controlled patience and selecting commands needed to be executed, he may be mistaken for one of the officers in the room.
Expressionless emotion on his face he did his job ignoring any distractions of his job. In his mind now was the mission conducted by the task force in the fallen city of Chernobog, a rescue mission authorized by the highest ranking officer in this faction, himself.
His eyes did not even stop focusing on the interface, he began to read latest reports from the intelligence. He was too absorbed on his job to even notice another officer standing right behind him.
His right hand moved to the radio transmission control, " This is Badger Actual to Bullseye, SITREP. Over."
The transmission then relayed back, " This is Bullseye, all unit accounted for and we are Oscar Mike to Point Hotel. ETA 30 Mike. Over"
" Acknowledged Bullseye, requesting casualty report and the assets. Over"
" Three KIA and five WIA, sir. We also got POWs with us. Medics still tending the wounded. Break. The assets are accounted for and no casualties received from the fight, over."
He nod his head on the report. The casualties may be small but they are still casualties. At least the survivors are safe for now.
He then respond back. " Copy that Bullseye, continue your approach to Point Hotel. The area already swept by Pathfinder teams. The road should be clear by now. Over."
" Roger that Badger actual. Interrogative, how about the drone operator? Over." Bullseye asked command regarding the unexpected live transmission from a media drone minutes ago.
Badger grimaced of the question. The presence of news drone nearly jeopardized the entire mission. The world has already watched the live stream and he was guaranteed that those footage would light up his ass faster than a Dragon tank. He had planned for the his own introduction, but these premature revelation messed up some of the plans made with his command staff.
He held his frustration and replied, " The variables has been tagged and bagged by the Pathfinders. At least they did not compromised the entire op. Over"
"Copy that Badger, Bullseye out" The transmission then ended.
Badger's shoulder sagged down a bit as he took a deep breath. " Should have known media presence in the potential variables even though this ops in literally on a mobile city. What are you thinking Alex." He muttered to himself.
Three men killed in action. Three lives lost in a mission.
The weight of their death made Badger, now known as Alex felt guilty for them. This is no longer a game, this is real. Regardless what he want to say about his newly acquired power, this world is real and its inhabitants alive, and all rely on their own necessity to survive what Terra would throw at them.
Necessity…
The mother of all inventions and innovations.
It may be a difference in ideologies and philosophies, eventually the needs of Man will always be the main push for mankind to strive in conflicts, both in peace and war.
He paused on his work and reminiscing on how all of this started.
For Alex, it may be different but all it started with a push of a button.
( Flashback Starts ) _
A door opened with a young man walked through while having a call with his loved one.
"Mom, my work is nearly done here….would you be just be happy for a minute?" He asked while carrying supplies brought from the market.
He closed the door and put his supplies on the table, preparing for his dinner tonight.
"I know Alex, but you has been working for months in that project of yours. Would it be that bad for you to take a breath and relax for a bit?" His mother countered back in his phone.
Alex took a deep breath.
"Mom, you know that this project is very important for me. It could be my golden ticket for my dream come true." Alex explained as he began to arrange the supplies into the cabinet of his kitchen.
Thanks to the creation of wireless earpods, Alex could communicate with his mother without even holding the phone. Thus ease his current task of preparing dinner.
"We are now preparing for the final stage of the project. With this, we may convince those upper ups to fund extra for future research."
A moment of silence for few seconds on his mother's side then she answered.
" Okay, but be careful there. There are many thing happening here and I want you to be extra careful." She said.
"After your project finished, then you call again, okay? " concerned tone flow from her words.
Alex knew of her distress and replied softly. "Yes, mom. After this I call back. Love you."
"Love you too, honey." the call then ended.
Alex continued his tasks and eventually moved to his room. While having a thought of how to continue his work at proper pace and not conflicting with his other needs, he moved to his computer.
He stretched his arms above "Yeesh, lets see what we have here tonight."
He sign in his password and browsed his desktop for any interesting notification in his email.
After a while checking his mails, he then surfed the internet and watched videos of his interest. There were some of interesting parts saved for his enjoyment, some saved for the relevance of his project.
Then, a single notification came to his mail.
"Huh, thats new." He alerted. "Lets see here. " He clicked the notice.
Instantaneously, his computer screen went blank. As if it died of battery.
Alex was stupefied, then he panicked.
"What the hell?!" he exasperated. "I got jobs to do and this shit happened?!"
"Don't tell me that I just clicked a virus…..Fuck Dammit!"
The sudden black screen of his desktop really pissed him off. He pressed every way he knows on the keypads and nothing happened. He became to loose his patience with such circumstance.
"Damn! I shouldn't press that damn button before checking it!"
When he lamenting himself, the screen began to light back up. It began to show something foreign yet similar to the young man.
"What?" he said with bewilderment.
The screen showed various symbols and logos that he know fondly of his childhood.
A blue and red shield with a proud white eagle bearing a star on its chest.
A stalwart dragon with its head on the top encircled the red background and a star in its inner area.
A full moon surrounded with two scimitars and a pointed down crescent.
A red star with a circular steel vault encompassing it.
A lion with wings, a griffin stared defiantly with its wing surrounded by 10 stars in the round background.
Alex knew these symbols. He remember them from one of the classic games he played in the past with the factions involved in its story. Astonished with the symbols, Alex then realized another symbol of his past games bearing before him.
A blazing white phoenix raised from the blazes with banner below it.
Finally, his vision blacked out.
"He's waking up."
Alex heard the vague voice trying to wake him up. His body was uncomfortably stiff with his muscles strained as he tried to move. He opened his eyes a bit as he need to adapt to the sudden lighting to his sight.
" Ugh, my head." He exclaimed.
" Are you okay now?" The voice asked him again.
"Yeah, a bit….." He realized of his surroundings. " Wait, where am I?."
Apparently his immediate vicinity was no longer familiar to him. Before, he was in his apartment's room and now suddenly woke up in a ward room?
Did someone found him and sent him to the hospital?
" Glad you're OK." the voice added.
Alex looked at the source of the voice and saw a slightly intimidating man. A soldier in this case.
The man Alex looked at front of him looked like a generic US Army infantryman. He is obviously armed, especially the pistol holstered in right side of his utility belt with his Multicam BDU and staunch expression. A career soldier if he want to be precise on his initial look on the man before him.
Puzzled with the presence of a soldier near him, he asked. "What in the world is going on here?"
The soldier looked at him for a while and then replied "Okay, first of all, take a deep breath. You need to take a time to settle in with this kind of information."
He paused for a moment, maybe thinking on how to explain the next sentence to the currently confused bed ridden man at front of him.
"Alright, hear me out. Our current situation right now is that we are not on Earth. Second, I am one of the constructs made to help you for your supposed mission in this world." The soldier said with a straight face.
Flabbergasted and confused of his outrageous claim, Alex asked again. " Wait, what you mean we're not on Earth. We're in a hospital right?" Then he realized one thing, " And what what you mean a Construct? You?"
" Slow down for a notch, we need to explain something to fill you up in this situation. So listen close and pay attention." The soldier expressed his strictness and imposed command on him before he spewing more questions.
Alex silenced and then nod his head.
"Lets start again. Introduction first, my name is Lt. Ron Wilson. Call me Lt. or just Ron."
" Alex, Alex Munroe. Assistant researcher in Zeta Electronics."
...
The small talks between the soldier became deeper as minutes of explanations and expositions to Alex became clear on current situation he involved in.
Typical Isekai series would made the character either strong like as if he or she is the prodigy or the opposite, where the individual weaken so he or she could grow up into stronger character. Throughout their journey, they will find friends, rivals and adversaries along the way. Memories and relationships build with trusts and dependence among each other. Finally, they will find somewhere to stay in the new world.
If there are groups of Isekaied individuals, there would always be characters with various traits in the said groups which complicates things up along the way. Same with the individuals, the good, the bad, the better or the worse. They will try to explore and enjoy this new world, regardless of the consequences.
Alex was none of that. Instead, he had to be the one to find these players free-roaming around the world with who knows what throughout Terra.
Now, Alex realized that he was not just thrown into one of the most popular mobile games, he also has little to no ideas on how to settle this without lighting the powder keg on his faction's ass. To make matter worse, he is not the main character of sorts. He is the emergency serviceman for messed up situation. Its surprising that he did not panic when exposed to the reality of the situation.
With the state of the Terran surfaces wrought with Catastrophes with destructions on apocalyptic scale, beasts and monstrosities lurking through the night and finally, the deep state real-politics of its ruling class towards its denizens, Terra is not a good place to live in comparison to Earth.
Yet Alex knows he ain't got any time for that and follow the flow he currently in.
Weather he likes it or not.
( Flashback Ends )
" Sir, are you okay?" his assistant asked of his condition.
Alex opened his eyes again and saw the very first man he met in this world. At least he is lucky to be with familiar environment. Lt. Wilson, one of the first NPCs he had met in this world. He is grateful with the assistance in helping him settle down and adapt to the new gameplay mechanics gifted by certain higher being.
" I'm fine Lt. Just pondering few stuff." Alex replied to his subordinate.
He had to adjust to the new interface of Command and Conquer Generals series, especially the notorious Rise of the Reds mod. The tech trees provided are various with RoTR faction buildings and even real life military assets are available for his disposal. From basic buildings to neutral tech buildings, he had it all.
Currently, he had to stick with US faction buildings, units upgrades and general powers. The other factions tech trees accesses are locked with unknown reasons and even some new neutral tech building added to the list. Unfortunately, the prices of the units also increased to the point Alex had to be conservative on his resources to not only produce them but also maintain them after an operation.
The common game resource credit even changed to the real life equivalent. There are money, essential perishables, oil and even various materials added into his credit interface. This gamer ability clearly wants him to be resourceful to survive in this new world.
The characters involved in Arknights are essentially a one-man army for some individuals. The power of Arts and Originum arsenal sometimes even outclassed his own faction. Gamers power be damned. This world is guaranteed to chew and spit him out if there is no support early on his presence in Terra. He is lucky that sneak attack slash rescue mission caught them off guard.
He looked back on the interface at front of him. The blue screen notified him with current situation of his rescue force moving out of the mobile city. 3D map shown before him clearly made his task easier.
Minutes later turned nearly half an hour, the convoy moved out of the fallen city without any interference of Reunion forces. Strange, the mobile city occupants would cut off any routes out of the city. The lone control tower of Chernobog is capable of monitoring the activities within its sprawl. They should know about the convoy movement in Chernoborg. Alex anticipated any retaliation strikes but then, there was none attacking them.
Not even one attack.
That alone either show them that it just waste of time and manpower to hunt the convoy down or there something else awaits them.
Its quite unnerving for Alex. The most likely character that would happily engage his forces would be W, the supposed double agent in Reunion and perhaps the most recognizable of operators in Arknights. Anyone that heard of the mobile game would know of her, her callsign and personalities of mad woman with bombs that put her in the spotlight for future chapters in the story. Especially her status of villain turned waifu for the fanbase.
Next in the list would be the big boss himself, Patriot. This old veteran is literally the epitome of Ursus might. Alex had read some of his feats in forums, players pissed and praised him at the same time for the difficulty to win in his stage. He regretted for not knowing the general's skills shared in the forums, now he had to at least predict possible encounter with the old man and possibly his adopted frost of an ice daughter and her band of Finnish Simon Hayas.
Man, he hate to be the one who get the short stick. At least he could build bases and units just like in game instead of real time consuming process of acquiring them. The production and build time is significant but he must maintain the provisions and supplies to sustain his forces in Terra.
He could produce infantries in the barracks by hundreds with his own whims, but after that? How he even able to feed and take care all of them over long period of time, let alone the mechanical assets he had to maintain for future operations.
The rule is simple. Survival is the game, Sustainability is the play.
Those wise words rung true in Alex's mind. Even with the Gamer skills this world is just vicious to anyone who underestimated mother nature herself, regardless of their skills and strengths. He must strive better for him to live in Terra.
" Please, by Lord's mercy. Please give me strength find them. Please let us live fair in your light, regardless of the worlds, You, The Almighty Creator." Alex internally prayed for the safety of players scattered through out the world.
Moments later, a notification appeared in his interface.
[Achievements Unlocked]
[Brand New World]
[Know Yourself]
[Faithful Prayers]
Alex smiled at the notifications given to him. Clearly, he was amused at his Admin's attempt to ease his concerns. The Admin really know right words for the right time.
He looked back on the command interface. The observation map now increased to the known world map of Terra. Nations marked with symbols and colors deemed necessary for security assessments and reliability of the information gathered for analysis. Apart from the mined data, images of known influential public figures also shown on the interface. Age, gender including positions of the individuals in the governments and organizations that exist in Terra. Their data were collected and kept for future references, should he need one.
Finally, pictures of exotic tropical biome of Sargon, vast deserts and canyons in the central regions, pure white snows of Kjerag mountain and finally, the epitome of Terran civilizations themselves, the bustling Nomadic Cities with spectacular light displays that pierce through the darkness of the night. Terra truly a worthy world to be explored and feed the thrills to uncover all of her secrets. She is just too tempting to not to be ignored.
He took one last look to the beauty before him and smiled at the vast opportunities before him. Thus, he utter the words that fueled up his determination for this new adventure.
" A brand new world indeed."