The End Of One Story Is The Beginning Of Another.
Project Freelancer, was a Special Operations program created to study soldiers with A.I. implants during the war with the aliens. The main mission of Project Freelancer was to ensure the survival of humanity in a hostile galaxy. The Freelancers themselves had been highly trained in combat, and were picked for the program by being the most likely of being able to handle the experimental weaponry. And their mission was so secret, not even they knew what it really was. Despite this fact, they loyally followed their orders without question, all of them being convinced they were doing the right thing... but as time went on, and the missions became more and more questionable. One by one, the Freelancers began questioning their part in the project. Doubt which would turn in to something worse, as Freelancers began going rogue, and ended up fighting their old comrades... which would result in death. Leaving Project Freelancer was nearly impossible, but several major events all but destroyed the whole project, as several freelancers went rogue, and the The Mother of Invention was taken down.
At an small but nice planet, there was a field, which belonged to a small farm. It was beautiful day, and a light breeze was blowing through the farm. As it did, someone was walking through the fields, collecting some vegetables and was putting them in a basket. Once she was sure she had enough she began heading back to her house. The House wasn't anything special, rather typical for a house on a farm. But this house was her home now, and she preferred it over her previous home, as it was much nicer to start her day by breathing real air, and not just the oxygen on a boring ship. Besides, her new home did it's job, by giving her a roof over her head and a was an over all good place to live. Who was this woman? No other than Pyrrha of course.
She was older than the last time she was seen, and she didn't even know how long she's been living on this farm, not that she cared, as she stopped keeping track of time long ago. Her red hair had grown and was now halfway down her back, and she was wearing simple farming clothes. She entered her house and put the vegetables on her kitchen sink, where she would later wash them of and prepare them for dinner.
There was a device on her table, which Penny soon appeared on "Welcome back Pyrrha. I figured I should remind you that you need to water the field soon".
"Thank you Penny, I will do it after I've hunted something" Pyrrha said as she went to get her rifle, which she used for hunting, since she still needed meat in her diet.
Her rifle was in her bedroom and as she walked in to get it... she looked at her the table she had in her room. On the table was her damaged helmet from her Freelancer days, which Tex had brought for her after a brief return to the crashed Mother of Invention, to see if there was anything left to salvage. Pyrrha made it very clear that her fighting days were over, and she kept her helmet as a reminder of why she quit... not that she really needed it. The scar on her face was a constant reminder of the life she left behind. All those years she wasted on fighting for a man who didn't care about anyone anymore. All the crimes she committed without even knowing it. All the friends she either lost or turned on her... the family she tried to hold together, only for it to be torn apart without her being able to do anything about it.
"Never again..." She said silently.
She shook her head before grabbing her rifle and went out to hunt. A couple of hours later, she came back, while carrying an animal over her back, which resembled a boar. There was plenty of them, so Pyrrha was in no danger of running out of meat. She removed most of the meat before discarding what she wouldn't eat. One of the only drawbacks of her farm was that she didn't own a fridge, so she couldn't preserve the meat, and had to prepare and eat it right away.
As Pyrrha was cooking her food, Penny began to speak again "Pyrrha, you still haven't watered the field".
"The field will be fine, Penny, I will water it tomorrow" Pyrrha said, sounding tired.
"Are you alright?" Penny asked in concern.
"I'm fine... Just... Bored" Pyrrha admitted.
Penny tips her head to the side in an innocent gesture "Bored? How come?".
"This is the life I wanted. A life of peace and free from pointless violence... But now that I have it, I no longer know what else to do, other than simply live my life" Pyrrha explained.
"Do you... miss your old life?" Penny asked.
"No!" Pyrrha said angrily, which startled the A.I. and made Pyrrha calm down "Sorry... My old life was a lie, I never want to go back to it again".
"Understood..." Penny said.
Pyrrha sighed and finished preparing her food. Once she was done eating, she returned to her room for the night. She fell on her bed and closed her eyes... but she couldn't fall asleep so she took out something from under her bed. A screen device which had a lot of pictures on it. Pyrrha began looking through the pictures, one of them was her taking a piggyback on Maine. She knew it annoyed him, but he never forced her to get of. In another picture, she and Maine were outside of their armors and were working out together... where Pyrrha struggled with a weight that Maine could lift with one hand, he always was the strongest.
Pyrrha smiled sadly at the picture, still finding it hard to believe one of her best friends could've hurt her so much. She looked at some other picture of her and Wash. One was when she had to help Wash get out from under a car, which had trapped him under it. Pyrrha wondered if that was what made him gain such hatred towards cars. In another picture, Pyrrha and Wash was having a eating contest... Wash ended up in a food coma for days, while Pyrrha was fine. That little contest earned her the nickname Food Queen, which Pyrrha never liked.
Pyrrha chuckled, Wash was always good at lightening her mood. She scrolled to some more pictures, where she and York were having an armwrestling match out of their armors, which York won, only because he jokingly told Pyrrha her breasts were showing. She remember punching him for that, which made Carolina laugh. In another picture, York was ruffling Pyrrha's hair, like a brother would do to his sister. Since York had a crush on Carolina, he and Pyrrha naturally grew close. Pyrrha really miss him.
She moves on to more pictures, this time with her and the Dakota twins. In one, North had to awkwardly help Pyrrha adjust her chest plate, since she had recently had a... growth spurt, so her chest plate was a little tighter than before. It was really embarrassing. And in a picture with South, she jokingly groped Pyrrha to "Congratulate" her on finally having bigger breasts, which made Pyrrha wish her breasts just never grew any bigger. South was always a perv to her, but Pyrrha believed she was simply teasing her... but she would ultimately learn that South had different felling for her... feeling Pyrrha wasn't sure if she could ever return.
She moved on to the next set of pictures. This time it was of her and CT. They didn't spend to much time together, but when they did, they got along well. CT was always very distant, but she did tell Pyrrha that whatever happens, she should always hold on to what she believes in and always do the right thing, even when other tells her she's wrong. A lesson that Pyrrha was confused by at first, but later she would grow to hold that lesson very close to her heart. She was sad when CT was lost. She really would've liked to get to know her better... and had she known the truth earlier, maybe she could've helped her... CT deserved better than what she got... to bad Pyrrha only saw the truth when it was far to late.
Pyrrha sighed and continued scrolling through pictures... until she found a special one. It was a picture of her family before Project Freelancer... and before her mom died. Pyrrha was only a baby back then, and her mom was holding her in her arms, with her father having an arm around her mom's shoulders and he had a genuin smile on his face... And Carolina was sitting between them, holding baby Pyrrha's tiny hand with her own, and had a very happy smile on her face. Carolina once told Pyrrha that becoming a big sister was the happiest day of her life, and her love for Pyrrha was never going to end. No matter what happened in their future, Carolina would always love Pyrrha, more than her own life.
Tears ran down Pyrrha's face as she laid down and began to sob... She wondered where her life went so wrong... then she remembered... when her mom died, so did her chance at a better life. And now, she was stuck hiding on a random planet and was living on a farm in the middle of nowhere... She wanted a peaceful life, but she didn't want to isolate herself from everyone like this. But she had no choice, since she would be a wanted fugitive now. All because of war crimes committed by someone she used to love... and so many people she loved were now dead or missing. All while she was trapped in her lonely boring life, with only her trusty A.I. companion as company. Without Penny, Pyrrha would've given up on life long ago.
But little did she know, this new life of hers was not going to last much longer. And far away from her house, on top of a cliff, the foot of a familiar looking armor could be seen...
"Found you..." Came the voice of a woman.
Elsewhere, a several targets had been put in a perfect line. There was silence for a while before each target was hit by a bullet, knocking them down, each bullet hitting dead center, a perfect bullseye. The bullets came from two thousand yards away, showing they had been hit by a sniper. The sniper itself looked costumed made, whit a red and black look to it, and the owner of the sniper was a a fair-skinned young girl with silver eyes and neck-length black hair with red tips. She was wearing a standard red armor, made for her smaller size, and she even had a red hooded cloak fastened to her shoulders by cross-shaped pins.
She stood up and smiled in satisfaction of all her perfect bullseyes. She looked at her trusty sniper and gave it a kiss like she was congratulating her child.
Suddenly and older male voice was heard below her snipping position "Private Rose! Enough playing around and get down here! We need you to keep an eye on those dirty blues!".
"Coming Sarge!" The girl said before grabbing her helmet and began running back down.
From her earlier sniping position, one could see a view of a large canyon, with two seperate bases on each side. This canyon had a name: Blood Gluch.
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An short chapter to show that Pyrrha's time with Project Freelancer is finally over. And a new adventure is on it's way. One that will change her life forever.
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Tell me what you think.
