0900

SECRET

VVV INITIATIVE

3V00217LIBERATION

VVV-I

INDIA

(OMITTED)

(I)

a. The Center for Human Accelerated Evolution and CRADLE in the Dyson Sphere Habitat Module 77 will comprise the area of interest for this operation.

b. A complex underground tunnel system is the only viable avenue of approach to the CRADLE

(II)

a. Local DA conducting patrols in 2-3 man teams armed with small arms. MPCOA: enemy will attempt to break contact and request reinforcements. MDCOA: DA is reinforced with MAGIUS personnel.

b.

i. VVV-1 on standby within AOO.

ii. VVV-1-4 will secure the CRADLE and its inhabitants for immediate extraction. VVV-1-3 will secure and extract the HVT to the DOP.

c. Provided [REDACTED] are expendable. [REDACTED] are not.

(III) Upon VVV-1-2 being confirmed in possession of the CRADLE, VVV-1 will prevent opposition forces from mounting an effective counter response via destruction of AIC and other TGTOP. VVV-1 will additionally retrieve [REDACTED] at [REDACTED] prior to the departure of allied forces.

(IIII) Supporting MI elements provide information derivable fom SIGINT and ESM and will respond to specific tasking as described in separate instructions.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

He took a deep breath as the elevator rolled to a gentle stop on the command deck, walking forward through the crowded halls. Officers ran this way and that, tablets in hand or fingers pressed to their ears as they ran through their most recent orders. He ducked into another hallway, leading away from the main reception and into the action information center. If the halls outside had been full, this room itself seemed like the center of the hive. Men and women hurried from station to station, going over the data on their screens and planning accordingly, paying no mind to his presence. He brushed past the aisles of people, stumbling as a member of the staff bumped into him and fell over.

"I'm sorry, are you all right!? Here, let me help you up…" He glanced at the insignia adorned on her uniform, "Ensign Oshita." Placing a hand on the machinery to his left, he braced himself as he offered a hand to lift her up.

She looked up, dazed. "I—Ah.. uh. Thank you! Excuse me!" She grabbed the proffered hand, holding tight to a manila folder in the other. "I'll be more mindful of my step next time, sir!"

He only offered a smile in response, kindly stepping back to let her pass through.

Afterward, Haruto then made his way forward in a steady, slow pace, careful not to run into anyone again. The throng began to clear as he came to the door to the commander's stateroom, which slid open automatically for him. He snapped out a crisp salute.

"At ease, Tokishima. No need to be so formal here." He gestured to come in, "I was just finishing up, step inside."

Haruto lowered his hand and entered beneath the room, pausing for a moment to allow an ensign to hurry past him. He stepped up to the desk, hands coming to rest at the small of his back. A female officer cocked her head at him just so, arching an eyebrow. He flicked his eyes to her, then back to the commander. She and the commander exchanged a glance that made him wonder what they'd been speaking about before his arrival, but then the commander shook his head as if chastising himself.

Wha…—Everything was fine. Nothing to see here. It was none of his business.

"Commander," the female officer nodded as she turned around to leave. She hesitated; lingering at the door's precipice, watching him. "Lieutenant Tokishima, I look forward to having you join my crew." The door closed shortly thereafter.

Lieutenant?

"Sir?" He couldn't help it this time.

The commander sighed, "I was going to inform you later, but now will have to do. Congratulations Tokoshima Haruto, you've been promoted to Lieutenant and are to be re-assigned immediately." The lights in the room dimmed, as a holographic model of a ship appeared to hang above the commander's desk. "This is the first and only of its kind, the 'Liberator;' a super-carrier. This will be her maiden voyage. You'll find all the necessary documents and information packets delivered to your quarters upon your return, thereafter receipt you are to leave for docking berth three-fifty-seven and report to Captain Kriemhild."

He watched as the commander pointed at the door, "the woman you saw leaving earlier, Captain Kriemhild, will be your new commanding officer." Ah, a face to put the name too.

The commander paused, "she has a good head on her shoulders, much like yourself; you'll be taken care of there." He frowned, "no time to say good-bye though, I'm afraid. And—" The Commander leaned forward, "this doesn't leave the room. Understand?"

Haruto could only nod, stunned.

The commander seemingly took a moment to go over his thoughts before speaking again, breathing out deeply. "Between you and myself, this reeks of the Council. This is too far ahead of schedule, much too far. But there is a reason for this," he grudgingly admitted. "there have been… troubling reports coming out of Alpha Centauri. " His eyes narrowed, "Be careful, Haruto. I wouldn't want to see the only son of my friend returned in a casket—or not at all."

"I–… Thank you sir."

"You are dismissed, Lieutenant Tokishima." The commander stood up to give a salute, one which Tokishima Haruto returned in full.

He couldn't help but hear the commander's unintended parting words as he left, "what has the world come to, sending children to war?"

The door slid shut behind him. Haruto turned, walking down the hall that would take him back to his quarters and pondering the commander's words all the meanwhile.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

Landing on the surface without a hitch, she watched as her partner for this mission dropped down beside her. Standing up, she watched through her the visor of her helmet as he used a nearby console to open the airlock. Walking forward, she took a slow, deep breath to adjust as her suit's oxygen supply switched to an external source as soon as the airlock closed behind them with a gentle hiss.

"For once, you didn't land on your face," she whistled. "I'm impressed."

He only scoffed, knowing better than to retort; a smug grin wormed its way onto her face with that thought. Reaching back for his rifle, the man did a quick sweep of the area as the airlock opened to their front.

It was clear.

"Do we have any information on terrain?" He asked, "Scan data?"

"Didn't you read the briefing?"

"I, uhm… skimmed it?" He answered sheepishly.

"Idiot! I know you're new but the briefings are important if you want to…." she began scolding, only to end up shaking her head, "never mind. There isn't much," her frown was audible, "There's some data from one of the survey drones and earlier reconnaissance, but all the teams are sure of is that it connects to a network of maintenance tunnels and rooms that spread through all of Module 77's seventh and eighth layers. It's a maze down here. Best I can tell you is that it seems pretty empty, but at least it leads to where we need to go."

Wasting no more time, she started moving once more. A waypoint popped up on her HUD, guiding her through to the first checkpoint. She watched as the distance in her HUD rapidly counted down. Sixteen-hundred meters. Eight hundred. Four hundred. Two hundred. One hundred. Contact.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

Haruto opened the door to his small apartment, dropping his bag on the floor as he removed his uniform jacket. He hung it up and walked to the built in console sitting in the wall in the corner of his living area. He activated it, opening up the messages and files on display. One in particular caught his eye, the sender a curiosity.

Captain Kriemhild.

It was a brief welcoming message, attached with the necessary documents to board the ship.

That ship being the "Liberator." Haruto read through the packet. A full set of paperwork, detailed documentation of everything he needed to do, by when, and why. A sigh escaped the young man, as he sat on his couch, resting his chin on his hand. This was a lot… too much, honestly.

Haruto glanced around at his sparse belongings; the apartment felt empty with no one else home. There wasn't even a picture of anyone on the shelf. It was depressing, just how empty his life felt right then.

A knock at the front door caused Haruto to blink and return from his musings. He hesitated before moving towards the door, his hand reaching out to open it, only for his hand to stop short and slowly lower down. "Uh, who is it?"

A note slid under the door in response.

He heard the sound of footsteps shuffling away not too long after, evidently they weren't waiting for a response. Haruto rolled his eyes, "fine." He picked up the folded paper, unfolding it. Haruto clicked his tongue at the signature.

Please meet me at dock number two, level one, when ready.

— Kibukawa

Haruto blinked once. Twice. He glanced at the clock, 7:13PM. He got up and quickly made it to his room, grabbing an armful of clothes from his dresser. He shoved them into a dufflebag. He grabbed his wallet and some emergency funds as well, throwing those into the bag along with his other gear. Zipping it up, he hurried down the hallway of his apartment. Everything else was already packed, shipped, and delivered ahead of time—and whatever was left, they would take care of.

He closed the door to his apartment and headed back downstairs, to the high-speed maglev train station and from there, towards dock number two, deck three.

It was time to play his role.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

"Hostiles, dead ahead," She said as they approached a turn, readying her weapon. Putting her back to the cold metal, the woman carefully peered around the corner. Eight men, in no standard formation. Six of them hauling various materials and moving around the intersection, two keeping watch. Too spread out to hit at the same time. She'd have to get in closer, finish things personally. In short? Nothing they couldn't handle, but this was definitely their leader's forte and especially not hers. Red outlines surrounded all eight targets and she tensed her muscles, preparing to sprint.

One of the men stopped walking, tilting his head back in response to a joke cracked by a fellow. For half a second, everything stopped as they laughed at him.

The woman pounced on the opening. Darting out of cover she opened fire on the two keeping watch first, silenced bullets ripping through their body-armor. With the element of surprise on her side she was able to hit the first one dead on, sending him crashing to the ground, dead, before the man even realized that she was there; the second was merely grazed. The rest whirled around, yelling in panic and scrambling for their weapons.

The second watchman opened fire at her and stared in disbelief, then dawning horror and realization, as the bullets were deflected upon hitting a green shield around her body. He attempted to reload, before a bullet perforated and then exited his head, courtesy of her comrade.

A third, aware that there wasn't enough time to grab his weapon, charged at her with a wrench in hand. She side-stepped the charge, pivoting on one heel to slam the other foot into the enemy combatant's back. He was down, but not out. She removed him from the stage with a hard stomp to his head, a satisfying crunch was heard as her foot sunk through the back of his skull and stained in red. Leaving the body behind, she ducked behind a metal strut for cover as one of the quicker men started shooting at her. A rifle barked from behind her, three round bursts making quick work of him. She spotted one man reaching for a radio, and raised her rifle to cut him do—she hissed in pain as one shot slammed into her chest—she ducked back into cover as more bullets whizzed past her, tracers on full display. Counting the shots and taking the time to reload, she waited for three seconds before a lull came in the firing. As soon as it did, she twisted on one ankle and opened fire, a half magazine of rounds penetrating into two reloading hostiles. She looked past them, toward her original target, only to see that he had been taken care of already and shot dead. She ducked back into cover. Palming a grenade from her thigh mag-lock, she let it fly and waited for the explosion.

Thump

She kicked off the ground, leaving cover and advanced forward. Seeing one men on the ground still barely alive and struggling to reach his weapon with a mangled arm, she executed him with a shot to the back of his head. Silence fell upon the intersection.

"Eight kills confirmed. All targets eliminated," she reported, aware of the man walking up from behind her.

"Looks like two months of down-time dulled your edge after all," he laughed, making note of the wound on her front. "You already know what he's gonna say when we get back, right?"

"Shut up! We spent those two months training you, so if anyone is to blame then I'm looking right at them." She scowled, "it's already gone anyway, dumbass." Wiping her lower abdomen clear of blood, she showed him the unmarred skin.

"For the last fucking time. My name is—"

"Keep an eye out here, I'm going to call this in before we move up," she interrupted him.

He darkly glared at her, but complied.

Tittering as she walked back down the hall a couple of meters, she knelt on one knee and raised a hand up to her helmet, using the in-built radio.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

The train arrived at the station and he stepped off, entering the busy crowd that seemed to be a busy mixture of tourists, engineers, and crew. He scanned his surroundings quickly, looking for any sign of the person he knew was here.

He frowned, seeing nothing.

With a sigh, he began to walk further into the dock alongside the crowd. As he worked his way through the throng of people, his mind wandered. Alpha Centauri, the frontier of human expansion. The first foreign solar system humanity had colonized, over ten years ago; the same day the Magius revealed themselves to humanity. He shook his head, focusing. The commander had said something about troubling reports coming out of the system, but that was nothing new he thought. The occasional stories of ships and their crews vanishing in the interstellar void, of strange sights and even stranger signals heard in space… and rumors of military detachments returning to the lunar industrial facilities and orbital shipyards, damaged. Haruto had believed the majority to simply be hearsay and rumor-mongering, but with the commander's words lending credence to said rumors—well, he wasn't quite sure what to think.

He glanced around, spotting a few crew members milling about near one of the doors leading deeper into the cargo bay where a handful of people lingered. One person in particular caught his attention.

Standing at the end of the platform, wearing black pants and a white tank top, was a man staring directly at Haruto. Their gazes locked as the man shifted slightly, discretely waving him over. The man continued to stare, unmoving, for a moment longer before turning around and heading though a door hidden behind himself.

Haruto eyed the door for one long, hesitant moment. He looked away from the direction the man went, glancing quickly to his left and right to ensure no one was watching. Then, taking a deep breath, Haruto followed him through the door.

He was waiting for Haruto as soon as he passed through. Haruto found himself walking side by side with the man, a silence hanging between them. They soon walked through another doorway, Haruto following as the man led him inside, closing the door behind them. Still, they both remained silent as they passed several more doors before they stopped in the middle of a corridor leading to an airlock.

The man cleared his throat awkwardly, avoiding meeting Haruto's eyes again, "there's a shuttle waiting outside; leave your bag here. I'll take care of it and anything else you left behind. The shuttle will return here an hour after the operation is completed. Don't miss it because there won't be another."

He held out his hand. Haruto stared down at it, before unslinging his bag and handing it over.

The man nodded to himself. "That's it," he turned away from Haruto, starting back down the corridor from whence they came, before vanishing from sight as he passed through the door.

Haruto looked back at the airlock behind him, taking a steadying breath before stepping inside, closing the door behind him. His mouth went dry and he swallowed thickly, yet a small smile tugged at the edges of his mouth.

Now. This really shouldn't be too difficult.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

"Three-Victor-One, Three-Victor-One-Four, over."

"Go ahead Three-Victor-One-Four, over."

"Immediate. Relay to Lima-India-Bravo-Yankee-One-Actual: contact report. We are at grid Charlie-One-Four-Five-Four-Six-Eight, break."

"Requesting activation of Three-Victor-One-Actual in the next thirty minutes from time nineteen-fifteen hours Juliet time."

"Roger, wait, out."

…

…

…

"Send, over."

"We have set up a perimeter three kilometers from area of interest, eight times infantry walked into intersection north of our location one-hundred meters, and looked to be establishing a road block covering all directions, more to follow, over."

"Three-Victor-One, over"

"Contact report continues, hostiles eliminated and we are proceeding to the objectives, contact report ends, break."

"Silence. Silence. Silence. Authentication is November-Foxtrot-Two-Zero-Two, acknowledge."

"Wilco, out."

The woman got back onto her feet and walked back toward the intersection. She gave a look of faux-surprise to her expectant squad-mate, "it looks like the spooks got their information wrong again; that was a lot more than a patrol of just two-to-three people."

He shrugged, "more fun for us."

She shook her head, "we've got to move faster now, they're bound to get suspicious when no one checks in."

The pair of them fell into another companionable quiet as they made their way down the hallway to the left of the intersection at full speed. She kept an eye on the mission timer, as it read an hour and thirty minutes steadily counting down by the time they reached the next way-point; another intersection.

"This is where we part ways, don't screw this up muscles-for-brains."

He went straight.

She went left again.

Down empty and twisting tunnels. The perfect place for an ambush, she frowned. "And, for the record?" She spoke out loud to no one, "I'm not scared of the dark."

…

Oh, who was she kidding? She was totally unnerved.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

Awareness returned with a snap. He opened his eyes to stare at cold metal paneling in front of him, a chill pressure pushing against his entire left side. He blinked several times, un-tethered and unsure, before gathering his wits and slowly pushing himself up from the floor.

He turned his head quickly, only for the world to start spinning. The room swayed back and forth as his balance shifted, a sharp burst of vertigo almost knocking him right back down. He squeezed his eyes shut against it, planting one hand against the ground to keep himself upright. The other went to his forehead, pressing down against it as he assimilated the memories.

Switching bodies always threw him off.

There was no way to brace himself for the flood of information, and he wondered if this was what computers felt like? Suddenly he just knew things… seemingly random memories and skills.

They said he would get better at it with time, but… how much did they actually know?

He paused, reconsidering. How much did anyone know, really?

They might nominally look human, but on the inside… a shudder ran through him at those thoughts. But that wasn't important right now. What mattered was the rest of his team, and the mission. His head swiveled around once again, but this time there was no vertigo. His eyes had already adjusted to the darkness of the room, the soft light that filtered into the room from behind the lone closed door.

His gaze fell to the floor around him, searching for the rifle he knew was there. It wasn't far away; less than four feet, propped up against the wall. Walking over to his weapon, he picked it up. Holding it, he checked over its parts; all were working fine, no cracks or dents to speak of. The silencer was attached as well. Turning it around, he examined the grip and sight. Everything seemed in order. He let out a sigh, and attached it to his vest via the rifle sling.

As he approached the door he could hear voices coming from beyond. They sounded muffled and distant, as though he were hearing them through water. A moment later he heard footsteps approaching, coming closer. His eyes shot to the door, and he quickly moved forward, opening it slightly. He moved his arm, holding the rifle in place between the gap of the door and its frame, ready to fire.

The sound of the footsteps grew louder, as did the voices. He glanced past the cracked open door, revealing a trio of unarmed officers, hastily walking down the corridor. His heart rate increased; his finger squeezed on the trigger.

Bang

Bang

Bang

He gunned them down on the spot. The door swung open, and he moved out, stepping over their felled bodies.

"Oshita?" Someone called out.

He whirled around, raising his gun and moving into a crouch. He didn't see anyone standing nearby, but he couldn't exactly see around the corner of the intersection in the hallway either.

"Identify yourself!" He demanded.

Someone came into view, running around the corner. "Oshita, its me! I heard gunshots, are you alr—"

Bang

Bang

Another one down. He kept his aim steady for a brief moment, in-case any other company showed up, but none did. He raised himself from the crouched position he held and started moving forward again. He rounded the corner and continued to walk down the hall, toward his destination; the elevator. It only took mere minutes to arrive. He pressed the call button, waiting until the doors slid apart to allow access. He waited several moments, glancing around the area and keeping a lookout. Ding. The elevator doors opened, revealing a female officer with a tablet in hand. She looked up and he raised his rifle.

"Wait!" She called out to him, "Wait! What do you think you're doin—"

Bang

He walked into the elevator after reloading his weapon, and called for it to take him to the lower level. A few moments of waiting later, the elevator began to descend. He counted the seconds, and on the 14th, he pulled out a grenade, priming it. Soon after, the door opened to the sight of armed guards.

"Drop your weapon and get on your knees!"

He thinly-smiled, tossing the grenade through the open doors and diving through after it. The thud of an explosion filled the air in short time, sending debris and shrapnel flying throughout the room. He attempted to stand, only to fall back to the ground. His gaze fell to the floor, confused. He hadn't been able to hold himself up; He looked around. Now he saw why. A small, red stain spread out across the floor beneath his hands and he swallowed hard. Damn, that hurt.

He looked up, scanning the large room briefly for any threats. He found none. His gaze landed on the large man who lay dead beside him. He didn't seem to be injured at first glance, but his head was bleeding profusely and quickly pooling onto the floor. The man's eyes stared blankly at nothing.

Shaking his head slightly, he stood up, his legs shaking for a moment—and then good as new.

He looked about the main reception, searching for a certain hallway. Hmm. Ah, there it was; he moved forward, heading straight for it. He heard footsteps moving from his front. As he walked down the hallway, he spotted several guards in front of the door ahead. He stopped, cocking the rifle and firing two shots, both of which hit the closest guard square in the chest. He smiled, watching the body drop. Another shot and the next guard collapsed, before the rest caught on and opened fire on him.

One bullet grazed his shoulder, ripping skin to minced meat. More followed after, hitting targets all around him as he tried not to flinch too harshly. With each blow a searing pain coursed through him, and he stumbled slightly. He made it to an alcove in the hallway, taking cover behind a metal filing cabinet. He fired four shots in quick succession as retaliation. Three went down hard, the fourth threw himself into cover before returning fire. He pulled his body back down, using the overturned desk as improvised protection—an alarm began to blare—and peaked back up once the guard stopped shooting.

Was it time already?

Inching his head up to catch a glance, he was rewarded by the sight of a muzzle-flash and quickly ducked again. The sound of shuffling footsteps reach his ears, and he popped his head back up, only to see their body vanish back into the doorway from which they came from.

He couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret. Pulling forth a detonator from a pouch lined along his vest, he flipped the side open and pressed down. Wincing, he felt the heat wash over him as the explosion a room over thudded through the air and funneled fire through the hallway the man ran toward. He waited until the smoke had cleared and the noise died down before pulling himself back up.

Crouching low, he made his way forward again, down the ruined hallway and through the scorched doorway; said door blown clean off. The alarms still blared in the background. There was still a slight tremor in his limbs, so he leaned against the wall. His efforts left bloody smears on the surface, and he grimaced as he waited for his wounds to heal and the trembling to stop before attempting to continue.

Several moments later, he took a slow few steps forward before looking around again, taking note of every survivor; every staff personnel, guard, and junior officer—the precious few that survived. All of the equipment was rendered inoperable by the explosives he had placed here earlier in the day, so they were no longer a concern of his. No, he had a different target.

Not even bothering to look around him, he began to follow the next hallway past the control room. A short while later, he reached a stateroom. Putting his bare left hand on the pad next to the wall, the sealed door opened with a hiss.

A figure, clad in a white uniform, was sitting behind a desk. He was facing the screen of his monitor, staring at it; as if deep in thought. He was tall, nearly as tall as him. His hair, cut rather short and neatly combed back, was jet black. The same as his mustache and side-burns. The commander of the base, Manninger.

He stepped forward into the room, shutting the door behind him.

Commander Manninger's eyes snapped up, locking onto him. He sat up straight, looking over his screen and directly at the man in the room, his soon-to-be murderer—although, he preferred the term, 'assassination,' rather than something as crude as murder.

"Hello Commander Manninger." He stopped for a moment, "For what its worth I am sorry about this, and thank you for the warning earlier."

"H–Haruto!?"

Oh?

Did he make the connection, or was it just a lucky guess? What a surprise. Then again, on second thought perhaps it wasn't, considering both his involvement in the project and the words I spoke.

Bang

"Goodbye, commander."

Hmm. Now, how was he supposed to get out of here? He couldn't exactly go through the front door. He frowned, eyeing the body slumped over the desk.

Oh, wait. He could.

VVV-I VVV-II VVV-III VVV-IV VVV-V VVV-VI VVV-VII

Three-Victor is a play on the pronunciation of VVV; "Three-vee."

This is a complete Alternate Universe in regards to cannon. So there may be some stuff you don't expect. However, I may or may not borrow some aspects from it as I believe necessary. Onto a different matter, I am attempting quite a few new things within this story, that I am not used to (such as writing conventional and asymmetrical battles using futuristic weaponry, among other things) and as such I expect to get stuff wrong a couple of times as this is an ambitious endeavor. If any of you notice anything that may seem off, or doesn't otherwise quite fit, please feel free to say so. And on the other hand if you liked it, then by all means please do leave a review saying so. Your responses help me grow as a writer and continue to motivate me to write.

Thank you for reading.