Chapter 1
A soldiers death
"Four from the north. " — I report through the radio as I was looking through the scope of my rifle at the enemies that jumped out from around the corner. I immediately open fire, shooting 3 to 4 rounds each burst.
The first burst digs into the head plate of the creature in front, leaving smoldering holes from the armor-piercing incendiary ammunition. As if it's strings were cut it drops down, due to its remaining inertia it ends up doing a somersault before crashing to the floor a couple of meters later.
The remaining three stop running in a straight line, starting to maneuver evasively. This results in them leaving my sight and having most of the bullets fly past them, hitting the rubble of the crumbling asphalt road instead. As for those that still hit leave smoking holes in their armored or damage their limbs, which however does not slow them down. Nimble bastards, it's hard to hit them even for people like me.
But where one cannot do it alone, several will cope. A couple of seconds later, our position explodes with a cacophony of gunshots and a dozen flashing barrels, including two machine guns.
Our enemies could no longer dodge the bullets as well as before, this becomes apparent immediately as two of them get riddled with wounds and planting their muzzles on the asphalt. The last one was killed by someone that graciously used a grenade launcher on it, tearing it to pieces.
"Clear. " — the soldier nearest to me reported.
"Let's go." — I gave the command and our small detachment begins to move.
A quick note on who we are; We were grown from test tubes and then genetically and cybernetically augmented. In other words super soldiers clone combat units.
I once lived the ordinary life of an ordinary man. Well, that's what I'm sure I can remember. Unfortunately, neither the memory of my family nor friends has been preserved, or maybe fortunately? It depends on how you look at it. I don't think it would be pleasant for me to miss them. By the way, I don't remember my name either.
So in summary; Once upon a time there was an ordinary guy, a student, and he died. He was electrocuted, something not really recommended for a living being. Just like that — I was running home in a downpour, my shoes landing in one of the puddles collecting water, and at the same time a power cable, that snapped due to the heavy winds, fell into that vary same puddle. The electrical current flashed right under my feet, then darkness came, the end.
Then the next thing I know, I woke up floating in a large capsule with an oxygen mask on my face and all sorts of wires and hoses attached all over my whole body. During those first few seconds I thought I was hallucinating because of the strange futuristic sight I saw as I opened my eyes. To the left and right of me there stood a row of the same tanks like mine, also containing people.
The room outside the tank was filled with a bunch of electronic devices and people in white lab coats going back and forth. As well as some important shit in military uniform accompanied by two soldiers in fancy gear.
I didn't really get any time to either get my bearings or get scared, as jolts of information suddenly began to flow into my head, causing a severe migraine.
How to handle weapons.
How to drive vehicles, starting from a bike, ending with a fighter jet.
All sorts of military tactics.
And much more…
Let's say, there was also an "educational" part to it, containing a message that my brothers and I were the best warriors in the service of humanity. We were created to protect humanity as its last hope and would have to fight against the aliens they were at war with.
And then there was a six-month training course, where my new colleagues and I learned how to put that uploaded knowledge into practice.
We are quite capable by the way. Being able to lift half a ton or run at a speed of 50 km/h isn't even the coolest thing. We had been incubated and modified using salvaged alien technologies obtained throughout the war.
We received quite a few interesting improvements with the package like;
Improved muscles and strengthened bones.
A resilient heart that can beat stronger and pump more blood even if only half of it remained.
Nanorobots that allow our already extremely sturdy organs to endure even greater damage and even recover from otherwise lethal injuries.
Our arms and legs of course could not grow back, but it was in other words very difficult to kill us. If I were to generalize it, we turned out to be a kind of cross between the Spartans from Halo and the clones from Star Wars.
In addition to the purely practical combat training, we were also educated on the ones whom we were going to fight.
It all started with the fact that 6 years before our creation, in the year 2051, one large and a dozen smaller spatial rifts opened up and appeared on each major continent. From which previously unknown lifeforms started exit and began to immediately and methodically exterminate every human in their path.
These creatures came in various shapes and sizes and looked like a mix of cybernetic organosilicon life form and an armored mollusks. Naturally due to the similarities with the creatures found on earth the they ended up being named as such.
Due to the suddenness of the attack combined with their technological superiority resulted in humanity not doing so well in the first round and had many losses. Then the long and arduous war began, humanity continuously suffered terrible loss after loss, losing battle after battle and had to constantly retreat. But they nevertheless learned. Studying the remains of our slain enemies allowed us to advance our science and technology by decades. Developing new materials, discovering new energy sources and eventually culminating these advances into the pinnacle of their achievements, 'us' — augmented humans.
My new brethren were both similar and different at the same time. We were similar not only due to the fact that everyone had the same face and appearance, including me, but also that we were in essence children. Yes children, we were dangerous with the ability to easily kill and didn't know the fear of death, but I nevertheless could clearly see the innocence and curiosity with which the others absorbed the propaganda sung to us by our would be instrumentalists.
I felt sorry for them. So I decided then and there that it wouldn't be so bad if I tried to make the life of those guys a little better, at least to the point that they would know something other than endless battles with only short rest periods in between.
It wasn't difficult to become the center of our squad. The stories of the life of an ordinary person were no less interesting for the guys as what the instructors taught us. And over time, I became the most authoritative guy in our group.
The other clones started respected and listened to my advice. Especially since during the combat exercises my prior life experience and ingenuity helped us showcase and obtain better results over other clone squads. The higher ups of course noticed this and soon appointed me as our groups commander, which was turned into a platoon after our training finished.
Three years have passed since then.
During that time we have turned into a real family and I have become something like a wise older brother figure who would help and give advice in difficult times.
Right now we are carrying out another crucial mission. The ruins of Beijing are currently teeming with aliens and in order to launch an all-out attack, to eradicate them, several defensive positions need to be taken out of the picture beforehand. This in turn would allow our aerial forces to bomb the city and allow the main force to launch their offensive after.
There are a total of eight such target locations and a clone unit has been allocated to each, my unit included.
My unit, a total of 13 men, including me, completed our task — disabling the mollusks clam cannon, but things didn't work out so well after that. We were spotted and are currently being pursued as we make our way to the evacuation point.
We are currently running single file, making our way through the ruins of some skyscrapers. We can hear the clucking and clicking of those clams behind us. They are not visible yet, but they are very close and are practically breathing down our necks.
"Center, this is Fenrir Leader, target destroyed, requesting evacuation, we are being pursued, over." — I said into the walkie-talkie built into my helmet as I run.
"Understood, Fenrir-leader, transport will be in 15 minutes, indicate your position. — " They answered me from the other side.
"Copy that. Have them fly to the red smoke." — having finished, I switch to the group channel. — "Okay, guys! A bird was dispatched for us. We will occupy that building over there," I pointed with my hand towards a dilapidated two-story house. Judging by the shabby signboard, it was once a restaurant. "we'll throw smoke and wait!"
The guys silently carry out my order and while covering each other, approach the building in short dashes. As we reach the building, we start taking up defensive positions. A quick check shows that the building is clear. One by one, we enter.
"13 minutes until the bird gets here. We put up a defense perimeter and wait. Archie!" — I call our sniper. — "Take Weasel, Joe, and the Rusty One, blow up smoke when the time comes."
"Yes, sir." — Archie nods curtly and heads up the stairs with the guys I just called out.
"Gray! Release all the 'frogs', they will be needed soon." — Our pyrotechnics expert is all too glad hearing this. Silent, as he always is, he nods and entered a couple of commands into his wrist computer. Several flat mines on four long and flexible legs jumped out of his backpack. Those are smart drones that will search out where to hide themselves and will jump out, when the enemy is in range, then firmly clamp on. Even if that fails, they will still detonate in midair.
"The rest! Don't be shy, get comfortable and wait for our guests." — I give the last instruction and take up a position for myself at a roughly boarded-up window. — "They'll be here any minute."
The clucking and clicking noise we could hear in the distance starts getting louder and louder every second, acting on our nerves. We waited, peering out into the ruins, until the enemies would finally appear.
And so, three minutes later, the first mollusk soldier appears around the corner, followed by another one and then another and another. They were everywhere; crawling towards us like a solid carpet covering the ground. I could see glimpses of them passing by the windows of the nearby buildings. They are even crawling on the walls and roofs. There were many of them, no less than two hundred.
"Oh, Fuck!" — Someone gave an accurate assessment of the situation over the com.
"10 minutes, guys." — I give the remark with a confident voice, but feel fear inwardly. As I'm their commander I can't show fear to the guys, especially since they are also afraid, I have to set an example.
I push back the fear and aim at the center of the nearest enemy's frontal plate. The bastards know we're here. And they know that we are not easy 'prey', therefore they encircle us within a distance of hundreds of meters without shortening said distance. New reinforcements arrive behind them. Their annoying chirping gets on our nerves.
I checked my watch. Two minutes have already passed, which means eight minutes left. We haven't shot yet to stall for time and to not provoke them. Suddenly, the mollusks quieted down for a moment. They stopped making any sounds or movement. It was dead silent, which in a second was suddenly replaced by the deafening roar of hundreds of throats.
— "Fire!"
A cacophony of gunfire burst from our position, sending a rain of bullets into the incoming wall of biomechanical mollusks bodies. It didn't take long for them to retaliate.
Each mollusk has two pairs of upper limbs; The lower pair, consisting of a long and wide serrated blade stating from the elbow, is used for close combat. And the upper pair for long range combat, from which they are able to shoot needles like projectiles, not to mention they are very accurate even while on the run. Those deadly spikes can crush concrete and bricks and not to mention turn any piece of wood into dust. Luckily none of them were able to reach my men, but that's only a matter of time. The closer they get, the more our shelter becomes unusable.
The distance had already been reduced to 50 meters so those that had an under-barrel started launching their grenades, quite the convenient thing to have by the way. A series of explosions mowed down the enemy's front ranks, bringing down their pace and giving us some time to prepare. But we don't have long; even before the dust cloud raised by the grenades settles, new clams start to jump out of it. Firing their spiked projectiles at us. A series of them hitting near me smashing the wooden window sill and part of the wall to bits, dousing me with the crumbling concrete. This forces me to hide behind the remnants of my shelter. I remained unharmed, it seems my armored suit is strong enough to ignore this.
I check the time — another five minutes. I look around, three of us are wounded.
Clumsy got off with a scrape on the arm and he didn't seem to really notice it, but the other two had it worse. One has two spikes sticking out of the hips, the other has the same thing but sticking out of his chest. Those wounds are serious, but not fatal for us. The guys will survive if we can get them to the base. Eddie, our medic, is working on them, which means they are in good hands. We need to slowly make our way to the roof. It's getting more and more dangerous down there by the second.
"Look out!" — Someone shouted a second before an enemy projectile flew through the wall. The two guys, whom stood next to the erupting wall, reacted in time and jumped aside. Seems they had some bad luck as another spike flew into the resulting gap, ending their lives.
An explosion went off somewhere outside, followed by several more — these were the frogs left by our pyrotechnics expert.
"Grab the wounded and head up, now!" — I shout over the com and I'm the first to pull the collar of a fighter with a shot leg. He still manages to fire while I drag him away. Covering each other, we move closer to the stairs that lead to the second floor.
There is practically nothing left of the ground floor. The wall from which the mollusks are now advancing ceased to exist. It's unclear how, but the ceiling was still intact. Our enemies are making their way inside after us, continuing their shelling all the while.
I hand the wounded man over to the soldiers and stay to cover the stairs with two more guys. A slightly wounded Clumsy and his best friend Glave, a lover of classical music and westerns.
Despite the fact that the area is filled with dust and smoke, I can clearly see how the enemies are gathering up ahead. This is possible thanks to the implants that were used to replace my eyes. About a year ago, we got into a messy situation similar to our current one, which resulted in me losing my sight. But hey, I was quickly given a new pair of artificial eyes to replace the old ones. They even have some extra functionality compared to just our helmets, like having thermal and infrared vision, a HUD display and much more. It took some time to get used to having that in my view all the time, but I got used to it. And to be fair I'm quite satisfied with it.
I take out a grenade and, after waiting two seconds, throw it into the passage way so that it explodes immediately upon landing. As a result, two less clams and a couple of seconds of respite for us. Raising my rifle, I fire a long burst to make the enemy linger a little longer.
I'm about to give the command to retreat after the others, when suddenly I notice enemy silhouettes right below us. They're in the basement! And the guys can't see them, because their helmet sensors don't have the extra functions my eyes have and consequently can't see through the walls.
— "Get out of there!"
Too late. Clumsy was standing right on the trapdoor to the basement. A sharp blow from below threw him up and slammed him straight into the ceiling. As he began to fall back down, he was immediately impaled on the blades of the creature that surfaced. The second one rammed into Glave with its body and a melee fight ensued between them. The third and last one jumped right at me. I dodge the swift swipe of the blade and then kick the clam away from me right into the wall. An ordinary person would only be able to push it away a little, but I kicked it away so hard that what remained of the plaster on the wall fell off from the collision, while a decent dent was left on the wall.
As the disoriented freak of nature falls to the floor, I give it an up close and personal serving of the remaining bullets in my magazine. Most of the bullets that strike bounce off its armor with sparks flying, but some of them still find their way in between its armored plates, ending its existence.
Whilst I was dealing with this one, Glave had to deal with two at once. And he didn't let me down, as I find him standing next to two dead mollusks. One of which has a high-frequency knife stuck in its head. The man himself however, is in a very shitty state himself.
His helmet was smashed. Exposing a young face, covered with dust and blood, identical to my own. His right hand missing and his left clutching his torn open stomach. His cut in half rifle lying near him.
I start moving to aid him, only to jerk back as spike projectiles cut off my path. The freaks outside don't seem to waste time. One hits my shoulder, causing me to hiss in pain and step back.
"Go... brother." — Seeing what I intend to do, Glave stops me.
'Eh? Glave..., what the hell?!' I realize what he wants, closing my eyes for a moment, then briefly nod to my brother as a sign that I accept his choice and turn around to the stairs. As I head upstairs, I hear something explode from below. Surely that was Glave who had prepared a parting gift.
I look around. The remainder of the unit was taking covered by a wall. We are down to six able soldiers. Oh no, make that five. Rusty had fallen dead on his back, arms outstretched, having caught a spike in the face while gawking around the wall.
Archie had done his job, a column of the red smoke already rising up into the air, indicating our location. There's only a minute left on the timer, we just need to hold out a little longer. Half of the squad is already dead and I don't want to lose anyone else.
But the mollusks aren't willing to leave us a chance, they have us surrounded on all sides and are putting us under a barrage of constant suppressive fire. We can already hear the clatter of the freaks coming up the stairs and several more have started crawling their way up the building's outer walls.
Suddenly, a tiltrotor appears from behind a high-rise, making its way towards us. It has two dozen missiles loaded onto its suspensions, which it immediately fires at the freaks surrounding us. The heavy onslaught of explosions blowing broken, battered and burned mollusks carcasses into the air, sharply decreasing the enemies suppressive fire.
— "Yoo-hoo!"
— "There she is!"
The guys started to cheer in delight and begin to pick up the wounded, preparing to embark. Meanwhile, the pilot started to swivel the tiltrotor in a circle as it hovered above us, combing the aera with its mounted turrets. After that its side door opened and two stretchers on slings were let down, which we loaded the wounded on to be hoisted up. Next it was our turn, the still abled soldiers started to jump up, clinging to the aircraft's side before climbing in. Jumping 2 meters up is not that difficult for us, even if we are equipped in full gear.
It was finally my turn as the last of my guys made his way in. I swing my arms and squat, readying myself to jump. I rejoice that we survived, just one more second and we'll be out of here, after that we can mourn our fallen brothers.
Unexpectedly, the aircrafts reactive protection flares up. The hull is coated with a special charge serving like an extra skin that will discharge a cloud of fragments, which in turn hinders the mollusk's projectile that was about to crash into it. The tiltrotor itself survived, but the resulting shock wave blew it a dozen meters to the side, as well as knocked me off my feet.
The pilot was miraculously able to keep the aircraft well balanced without crashing into the nearby buildings.
"Kay!" — Archie yells at me. — "Over here, quickly!"
I get up and briefly run before jumping. The distance I cover is a little too short, but Archie has already extended his hand to me, which I'm about to grab. But two spikes were shot into my back, preventing me from doing that and propelling me past Archie's hand. I plumet down from the second floor to the ground. Whilst in flight, out of the corner of my eye, I spot a group of flying mollusks appearing on the horizon. Which means that our pilot needs to get out of here ASAP or he along with his cargo will end up as corpses. He also understood this perfectly well, and so turns his craft around and starts to quickly gain speed, flying away towards our main force.
'Well, I'll... have to stay.'
It hurts to breathe, every breath makes me gurgle out the blood trapped in my lungs. My right leg also hurts, it's unclear if it's either dislocated or fractured and I frankly don't give a fuck.
I somehow get up, dragging my leg behind me. Looking around it seems the black clams have already surrounded me. They seem like a flock of flies attracted to shit. I seem to have lost my rifle, probably dropped it on the roof, but I still have my handgun and high frequency knife on me. Meaning I can dance a little longer.
I ready my weapons and take a fighting stance.
— "Well, c'mon, bitches!"
The mainland of Eostia. The lands of the Former Dark Elf Empire. The Dark Citadel.
The Dark Citadel origins can be traced back to a hundred years ago, appearing in the desert from right out of the ground. Containing huge amounts of concentrated magical energy, Olga of the Discordia Clan took interest in it.
She was a dark elf whose lifelong goal was to ensure the welfare of her people. Whilst she didn't think the glory of the former dark elven empire could ever be restored, she did dream of building a future were her brethren could once again live fulfilling lives and did not have to live in hiding from monsters and human slavers, nor fear what tomorrow may bring.
She had managed to get into the Citadel first and gain control over it. Using its power to then subdue numerous tribes of monsters and limiting their destructive actions. But many did not like this fact, they only obeyed her out of fear of her reprisals, secretly dreaming of overthrowing her.
And that day had come.
The dark elven queen Olga's magical abilities suddenly started to decline.
Sensing this the high elf known as the High Queen of the Continent and current ruler of the humans hired Vult, the leader of the mercenary group the Black Dog (Kuroinu), to fight Olga and her hordes of monsters. Yet instead he colluded with his enemies, convincing them to pick up arms and lead them in a revolt against their ruler.
Being caught off guard by this betrayal the small garrison of dark elven warriors, guarding the Dark Citadel, was quickly killed off in a short skirmish. Being unable to use her magic the queen and her right hand assistant were captured. It seemed that their fate had been sealed, but that was not quite the case yet. After all, no one knew what the Dark Citadel was really capable of.
ALERT!
An intrusion has been recorded.
The owner is in danger.
Launching defensive systems...
…
…
ERROR!
Defensive systems are not responding,
A violation of the control circuit has been recorded.
Autonomous combat platforms are malfunctioning.
Forcefields are faulty.
Finding a solution…
…
…
Solution found.
The "GUARDIAN" protocol.
Assessment of energy reserves...
Satisfactory.
Recipient search...
Recipient found.
Race: human.
Biological age: 4 years...
ATTENTION!
Biological age does not correspond to the actual level of development.
Analysis…
Artificial interference with the genetic code was detected.
Artificial augmentation of the body was detected.
Analysis...
The intervention is regarded as positive.
Optimization... 10... 20... 64... 85... 100%.
Improvements have been optimized.
Evaluation of efficiency gains: 281,241243511%
The possibility to introduce a small AI assistant has been discovered…
Complete.
Starting the process of recreating the physical body…
Complete.
Starting the process of transferring the spiritual body…
Completed.
The "GUARDIAN" protocol.
Status: active.
Somewhere in an unknown room near a stone staircase leading down.
A bright blue flash of light erupted, then dissipated after a few seconds, leaving a human body behind.
Nothing happened for a while.
Then suddenly, the prone man's chest twitched, indicating the presence of a breath.
The Dark Citadel had made its move and now the history of this world will flow in a completely different direction.
