Authors note:
This is the first time I have ever written anything to such a degree, all comments are valued and appreciated! New chapters will be regularly updated!
Special thanks to my editor: Kurashi
Chapter 1:
[Field agent, Dante "Fox" Cooper 0300 UTC+7, Location: Northern Siberia, Arctic circle]
"Stealth mode engaged, visual on target drop zone, t-minus 2 minutes" the toneless, masculine, voice of our pilot called out from the cockpit, snapping me out of my thoughts. My comrades sat in the small seats of the cargo bay within the dropship we were traveling in. To my left sat the fit figure of a man. He had graying hair, his face adorned in battle scars, yet his eyes were bright green, young and confident as he finished toying with his blade.
"Alright kiddos, simple mission, get in, sabotage the Server room, get out and make it back to base for lunch" Coyote said, grinning as he slid his plasma sword into its sheath on his back.
"If we make it quick, we might even get a promotion" I chuckled in response to Coyote's brisk optimism.
"Why not take this slowly? We have a lot of money riding on this mission, and our benefactor wouldn't want us to screw anything up" hissed the only other occupant on the dropship, who was situated to my right. Across the aisle was the viper that had been chosen as my new partner for an indeterminate amount of time. Coiled up on the seemingly small chair, her scales were a very light grey, almost bordering on clean white, dressed in the normal military grade equipment that came for every soldier... well, her top half that is. While her tail was left bare to face the elements, her ocean blue eyes quickly looked at me and then at Coyote.
"Besides, this is our last mission for the week, might as well make it our best, since it's so easssy" Silver claimed matter-of-factly, stretching the last word. Slightly hissing the 's' as she did so, something that I found to be evidently common amongst many vipers, although I can never tell if they mean to do it on purpose, or if it's just something that happens naturally.
Ever since the victory of XCOM over ADVENT and the Elders 5 years ago, many aliens that were now released from their psionic control had nowhere to go, and were forced to settle in with the remaining human populace of the planet.
So far all seems well, but there is segregation and blatant racism going on against Human, Hybrid and Alien alike.
Sure, they may be intelligent, sentient and were no longer used as mere walking cannon fodder, but I have yet to put all of my trust into a Xeno.
"This is Ares-1 actual, fireteam Voltage radiocheck, over"
"Voltage 1, ready". Coyote's voice echoed in my ear piece first.
"Voltage 2, here" I said, trying to stifle the excitement bubbling up inside my chest.
"Voltage 3, Presssent". The low hiss permeated my eardrum.
"Alright, we will have to keep radio silence until fireteam Voltage makes it into the black site so as not to alert the guards, if there are any. Until then you are on your own. Ares-1 out". The gruff voice of Ares warned us before a red light situated inside the dropship switched on, indicating that we had reached our destination.
"Copy that" Coyote said to himself, as he jumped from the already opened ramp down below. Following him was Silver, giving me a quick nod before jumping out of view.
Stepping on to the ramp, I am greeted by the cold Siberian air, stinging my nostrils as I took in a deep breath. Any flesh that was not completely covered by my winter gear was caressed by a cold chill. I allowed this calm feeling to spread throughout my body, closing my eyes as I jumped into the clouds below.
My eyes reflexively opened as I felt my boots hit the soft, fresh snow. I looked around, seeing nothing but the stretch of pure white that seemed to go far off into the horizon, only breaking between the occasional hill, along with the deep black sky that was dotted with stars.
Off in the distance sat our objective, a lost ADVENT Blacksite. All records had stated that it was abandoned, out of use even during the ADVENT occupation of earth, but here we are, sent to wipe the drives of its servers for a mysterious benefactor. Since it was abandoned, this mission should be a piece of cake.
Both of my companions were already beginning to trek through the deep snow when I landed. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickened my pace to catch up to them.
The wind was picking up, howling as its freezing cold touch burned my face, yet both of my partners had kept their speed, unfazed by the blistering chill.
Both Coyote and myself were covered head to toe in heavy duty winter clothing, yet the viper was dressed as if she was on her way to the mediteranian.
"How are you not shivering?" I asked, perplexed by the fact that the viper was not frozen solid by now.
"It's the adrenaline, thermal wear, and whatever stimulants they put in our food" Coyote chuckled, unaware that the question wasn't directed at him.
"Having a genetically engineered resistance to extreme temperatures is a big plusss" Silver answered, with what I could only describe as a smirk in response to the confused look on my face.
The derelict building gave off an eerie feeling. Its walls were covered in black paint, now peeling away from the countless years of neglect. The large metal doors were closed, leaving a red-orange residue on the tip of my gloved fingers as I brushed my hand over them.
I lined up with the door, quickly taking a few steps back. Giving the doors a running kick, I exerted all the force in my body right into the middle of it, between the two pieces of metal.
Unfortunately, the doors weren't going to open that easily. A sharp pain shot up my leg, causing me to jump back and yelp in both surprise and agony as I landed in the snow. I nursed my leg to see if anything was broken. To my relief it didn't seem like it, but a dull aching pain now resided deep in the bone. Standing up I heard the repeating sound of a quick inhale followed by a quick hiss. Looking over at Silver, who had been up to this point calm and collected, was now slightly shaking while holding her sides. Was she... quietly... laughing?
Yep, laughing.
Coyote placed a hand on my shoulder. "Fantastically done, Mr. Supersolider!" He said, amused by my performance.
"What? I thought it would look cool, just like how the elite guys did it on high-intensity missions. Anyway the door is rusted shut". I sheepishly defended my case.
"Wow! I hadn't noticed, I'll be sure to tell Ares how cool you looked when you broke your leg against the door" he said as he released my shoulder, a cheeky grin plastered on his face
"Silver you done? I don't know about you but I would much rather get inside before Fox attempts another stunt"
Silver was wiping tears from her eyes, still laughing, albeit much less now, "Yeah, yeah, give me one sssecond. It's just the sssound he made when he kicked the doors'' her words hissed more prominently now, before she burst into that viperish laugh again.
Coyote had already begun cutting away at the doors using his plasma blade, slowly separating the two pieces of metal that had fused together over the many years.
By the time Silver had gathered her composure again, Coyote had finished cutting through the doors.
The large pieces of metal groaned under their own immense weight as we struggled to push them open.
Stepping into the dilapidated building was like stepping into a whole other world. The building seemed to shudder and sway under the force of the wind outside.
It reminded me of an abandoned hospital with its white tiles lining the floor, and the smell of dust hanging in the air.
It was dark, and after looking around, I found a small switch at the reception desk near the entrance of the building.
To my surprise the power still worked.
The old fluorescent lights flickered to life, revealing the sheer size of the room we were in.
Surrounded by misplaced metallic furniture and shattered debris.
I ran my finger across the surface of one of the tables, which left behind a clean streak where the heavy layer of dust had previously been.
It was as if we uncovered a piece of the old world, one that was left untouched by the invasion.
"Now then, where to find those servers" exclaimed Coyote, rubbing his hands together, seemingly unimpressed by this ancient relic we were standing in.
"Ares this is Voltage 2, we have entered the blacksite. There's a heavy layer of dust covering everything in the atrium, no living thing insight. Although the power is still on".
"That is weird... Nonetheless, very good fireteam Voltage, the server room should be on the first floor of the site. From your current position, take a right deeper into the facility, then continue all the way until you reach the end. Then take a left, wipe those servers clean and call in the VTOL. I'll stay on comms in case something happens. Ares-1 Out"
Something didn't feel right. If this complex was abandoned for almost 25 years, how would the power still be running? Yet somehow, the dust covering every inch of the room proved that this place hasn't been in use for quite some time.
I decided to speak my concerns to my team.
Coyote nods in agreement. "We don't know what might be hiding in here, keep your eyes open"
Our team started down the path following Ares' instructions, ready to shoot at anything that moved.
The walls of the corridor were lined with pipes flowing deeper into the facility, each with a word written on it.
Argon, Hydrogen, Boron.
I was intrigued by the concept of what these seemingly random elements were being used for... Perhaps to create something?
Nevertheless, we continued on, before reaching a T-Intersection and taking a left just as Ares had instructed, now making our way down the hallway until we reached a single door. Upon opening it, rows upon rows of servers fill my vision, each one flickering dimly with tiny blue and green lights, with their fans faintly whirring away to cool the seemingly dormant servers. As I surveyed the room, I noticed masses of cable and wire hooked up to each of the servers, resting haphazardly across the floor, all connected to a small computer that sat on top of a table in the far corner of the room
"Let's get this over with" hissed Silver as she made her way to the computer, turning it on and quickly plugging in a small USB drive that was given to us prior to departing for the mission. Supposedly, it's supposed to fry both the computer and the servers themselves.
Silver looked up at me.
No, she looked through me. Her eyes went wide as she opened her mouth to say something.
[Field Agent, Sylvasia "Silver" Kassav, 0400 UTC+7, Location: Northern Siberia, Arctic circle]
"Behind yo-"
My words were cut short by a deafening blast. The force of the shockwave threw my body against the wall behind me, causing me to curl up in pain.
Now that we were attacked, I knew I had to move fast. I positioned myself upright, forcing myself to move despite the pain.
I quickly dived for cover behind the table that had been standing upright only a moment prior. The electronics that were delicately set on it were now scattered across the floor. Shattered pieces of glass and concrete littered the room, all the while smoke and dust from the debris had obscured my vision of my comrades.
"This isss Voltage 3, We have been ambushed! I repeat this is an ambush!" my voice hushed as I spoke into my comms, urgently trying to contact Ares.
To my dismay, I was met with nothing but static, meaning that either the blast had broken my earpiece or the attackers had a signal jammer.
That means that I am also cut off from my squad.
We need to regroup.
As the dust settled, I peeked out from my cover to see three figures walking through the rubble, all of them wearing hooded black outfits, not giving me a clear view of their faces.
"Hah! Those VIMA fools didn't even expect it!" one of the hooded figures exclaimed.
"Well, I am pretty sure they did have some idea" responded the second figure.
"Shut it you two. Gregor, find the bodies and drag them out to the atrium, no way they could have survived that blast" Cut to the third attacker, his voice coarse, as if he had been coughing all day.
"You got it boss!" The man named Gregor made an exaggerated army salute as the other two left him alone in the room.
Gregor began looking around the room, I quickly hid behind the table to avoid giving away my position.
As I concentrated on listening to the sound of the footsteps the man was taking, I heard a loud grunt as he pulled away debris, followed by another from Fox.
"At least take me out to dinner before you grab me like that" The voice of Fox chimed in.
I think that was an idiom, or a joke perhaps?
That was followed by Gregor dumbfoundedly asking "How the hell are you still alive?"
The short exchange was followed by more grunting and pained groans from both sides, presumably struggling to fight each other off.
Peeking out from behind my cover for the second time, I was met with the sight of Fox trying to fight off Gregor. They were both in a struggle, with Fox's knife lying on the ground not too far away, indicating that both were fighting with their fists Fox appeared to be trying to punch his attacker's face, while Gregor seemed to be flailing wildly, clearly showing that there was not an ounce of thought present in his technique.
My heart sank down into my chest as I watched the hooded figure grab Fox by the throat, squeezing tighter as he struggled to gasp for air.
I pulled out my hand cannon, aiming for the head of the attacker.
Taking a deep breath, I cocked back the hammer.
As I lined up the shot, everything began to move in slow motion.
I exhaled as my finger slowly squeezed the trigger. The hammer instantly hits the chamber accompanied by a high-pitched ringing which proceeds to deafen my ears.
The man strangling Fox relaxes, dropping to the floor with a heavy thud.
Fox slid down against the wall, holding his throat with his left hand while taking deep breaths.
"Thanks" Fox said between laboured breaths. His topaz brown eyes were wild, looking at me as if he wanted to say more.
I nodded as I tried to think of a plan.
The situation was becoming worse by the minute: We were outnumbered, deep in enemy territory and cut off from outside help.
"So much for an easy mission…" Fox said, dropping his gaze down to the floor, his breathing returning to normal.
"We need to find Coyote and get to evac" I said, beginning to sift through the rubble, looking for our lost companion.
Fox quietly looked down at the body of his attacker, examining it before picking up his knife and cutting off a piece of the now corpse's uniform. He slid the piece into his pocket and walked over to a different side of the room to look for Coyote.
I had questions, but right now wasn't the best time to ask.
We didn't know how much time would have to pass for Gregor's accomplices to come back looking for him.
My train of thought was cut short by Fox calling me over to help him get Coyote, who was lying underneath a server rack that had come crashing down on him. He was unresponsive, but the faint pulse in his neck indicated he was still alive.
"Hold the debris up, I'll drag him out from under it" Fox instructed.
I quickly grabbed the heavy server rack, coiling myself tightly before pushing all of my body weight into lifting up the broken server. I was able to hold it up just long enough for Fox to drag Coyote out from underneath.
Our next challenge was getting to the rendezvous position.
I told Fox about the other two attackers who had left Gregor behind, and about them knowing we were from VIMA.
"So this Op was a setup then… We'll have to talk with Ares about this later. For now let's just get out of here" Fox said, looking down at Coyote.
"We need to move fast, I don't think we can fight the other two attackers in our current predicament. Not to mention, there might be more of them". I voiced my concerns to Fox, who nodded in agreement, before his face lit up.
"Silver, you remember those pipes lining the walls of the corridor we were walking in? Specifically the one with Hydrogen written on it?"
"Yeah, what of it?" I asked, not sure if I was following his idea.
"Well, if the power still works, then perhaps the hydrogen is still here?"
Considering the state of disrepair of this facility, it seemed like the personnel working here made a quick getaway, perhaps forgetting to drain the elements that still remained in here.
"To my knowledge, hydrogen does not decay so that is a possibility" I answered, starting to catch on.
"Then, all we have to do is attach this to the main tank and Kaboom" Fox said as he pulled out his X-4 charge, which was supposed to be used on the server room had the power not been working.
"We would be taking a very big risssk trying to do that. Why not use the charge to make a distraction while we run to extract?"
I was not about to destroy an entire facility and put my squad on the line.
"Yeah, that does sound like a better idea, but where should we place the charge?" Fox pondered.
"In thisss room, leave it on a 2 minute timer, while we run deeper into the facility, then after it explodes we can make a move to extraction".
Fox nodded, handing me the charge. "Alright, plant it, I'll grab Coyote".
He quickly picked Coyote up over his shoulder, while I set up the timer. Right as I finished, we ran back the way we came, hitting the T-intersection. This time, instead of going down to the atrium, we ran the other way, entering the first room we saw before quietly closing the door.
This room is extremely small... I think it was originally a maintenance closet.
We both crouch down in the dark room, breathing slowly in hushed breaths.
2 minutes… that's what I set the timer to. 2 minutes of waiting in this room.
The small maintenance closet had just enough room for all 3 of us to fit. Fox had leaned Coyote against the wall, while I attempted to fit my entire length into about 2/3rds of the room, leaving a tiny bit of space for Fox to crouch down between myself and the unconscious body of Coyote.
This is a weird experience, being able to hear Fox's ragged breathing. I was able to feel his pulse as he leaned against me. His heart was pounding many times faster than my own, which is seemingly one of the only differences between our biologies.
"I was expecting your heart to be racing, since you know, we almost died back there" Fox commented in a hushed voice.
"But it is racing... Not as fast as yours though" I jokingly whispered back.
This feeling was quite interesting. Perhaps we could analyse something like this on our break once we get back to the Op center, for research.
My thoughts were interrupted by the explosion.
It seemed that the whole building shuddered in its wake.
Only a few moments later, I could hear the voices of the other two attackers as well as the heavy foot falls of many more as they ran past us.
I waited only a few seconds before opening the door for Fox to bolt out of the room, quickly following him as we made our way into the atrium.
"Firete-Volta- get- xtraction, NOW" The fragmented voice of Ares spoke into my ear
as we finally made it back to the rusted metal doors. Luckily, they were still open.
Fox quickly made his way to the VTOL that was hovering not too far away, practically throwing Coyote before climbing in himself.
As I hastily jumped into the dropship, a new pain flourished in my hood, caused by a blaster bolt that had shot straight through. Turning around, I see one of the attackers from before, plasma blaster in hand. I could only see him as the ramp closed.
"Don't move too much" Fox said to me with a tired voice as he took the emergency medkit off of the wall.
Coyote was still unconscious, but stable. His body was strapped into one of the chairs.
The plasma wound on my hood was still bleeding, and the rather large hole it left didn't help the pain either.
"Hold still, this is going to sting" Fox warned me before he popped the cap off of the medi-kit. The application apparatus was shaped like that of a small handheld pistol, except the barrel was almost cubic in shape, ending on a tipped point that was previously capped.
As Fox applied the mix of chemicals to my open wound, the stinging sensation didn't hurt that much, what was more unpleasing was the feeling of my muscles and scales reforming.
It felt unsettling, unnatural.
I tried replaying the mission in my head as to distract myself from the feeling, going over the details we had missed. It now seemed so obvious and we walked right into it.
But something was still not making sense.
"When we were ambushed, why did you tell the attacker to buy you dinner firssst while he dragged you out from under the rubble?" I asked Fox. The pain was still there, but was fading away as fast as it had appeared.
The idea of that sounded preposterous, why would you treat your enemy to dinner if they were trying to kill you?
Fox looked at me as if I had asked him to explain why the planets were orientated as they were, but after realizing I was being honest with my question, he let out a sigh.
"It...It was a joke..." He seemed unsure how to approach this question.
"Could you explain the meaning behind it? Human language is still quite confusing, is it one of thessse Idioms?" I insisted.
Fox thought about my request for some time, probably trying to figure out how to articulate it in a way I could understand.
"Okay… Well, to answer the second question, no it's not an idiom. It's more of a… jest? Well at the time I was using it to frustrate the attacker" Fox explained.
"As for the meaning itself… like I said, it was a joke. Or more of a bastardization of the true meaning… In my culture, any type of physical contact is viewed as… indecent. That is if it happened before having dinner with the other person, usually with someone that does not share a familial bond with you"
"Any physical contact? I guess then we need to have dinner as well, so that we don't look indecent?" I questioned, remembering the experience in the cramped maintenance closet.
Fox's face turned red, blushing at my suggestion.
"W-well, it's not any physical contact... just the ones that are very intimate or close" Fox clarified.
"We were quite close in proximity during the mission, does that not facilitate such a… ceremony?" I persisted, I do not want to have a negative outlook on my squad members, perhaps this "dinner" will improve morale or relations?
Fox once again delved into deep thought, the heavy blush refusing to leave his face.
"S-sure why not?" Fox let out a deep breath, his face slowly returning to its normal color.
"A-anyways, we still have about 1 or 2 hours before we reach command, I might as well take a nap" Fox quickly said, changing the subject.
"You do that, I think I will ssstay awake for a bit" I notified Fox as I made my way to my seat, this time a little closer to him.
Strangely enough my heart rate was faster than usual, and a very warm feeling in the bottom of my stomach began spreading through my body. I felt quite happy with myself for no reason.
Maybe I will let this feeling last a little longer.