Gavial survives the attack. I'm not kidding. The mech's cannon took out a good chunk of the temple, so realistically, Gavial should be nothing more than gator nuggets. As if waking up for a short nap, she picks herself up. No broken bones either. This place must operate on different laws of physics than the ones I'm vaguely familiar with from high school.
"Gavial, you're awake?" Tomimi squealed, giving her friend a hug. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine. Just a scratch."
I swear, that woman's practically invincible.
"More importantly, is that the machine Zumama's been tinkering with?"
"Yes, I heard them calling it the 'Big, Ugly Thing'. So gross..."
"It's pretty badass!" Gavial exclaimed, startling Tomimi. She's not much of a sore loser. Especially after grazing that artillery shell.
"But the big thing definitely beat you down..."
"I can tell it's really tough, even though it knocked my lights out before I got a good look at it." She notices the crowd of people surrounding me. "So that's the rest of the new guy's tribe?"
"He took on Zumama while you were out." Excitement filled her voice. "He got really angry and landed a good hit on Zumama's head! He almost her, but Zumama ran off with her tribe. Those guys want to join his tribe. It's called Sully's 'Jarheads'."
"Pretty lame for someone who nearly kicked her ass. How did he deal with Zumama's machine?"
"The monster didn't attack him. Zumama still became the Great Chief, but some were impressed by Sully's strength. They think he's the true Chief!"
Next time I checked, Gavial was smiling deviously at me. The rest of my newfound fans silence themselves. They move out of the way of their former Chief, who casually strolls over to me.
"Did you really beat Zumama?" She asked me, gushing like some sort of fangirl.
"She just left."
"Seriously?"
"Listen, I just did it because of the temple. Nobody else wanted to stand up."
Gavial's smile wavered for a bit. She turned around a saw that the whole top portion of the temple was blown off by Zumama's robot.
"I guess that means the ceremony is over." She sighed with disappointment.
I thought nothing could piss off that woman. Gather the troops, declare war on Zumama's tribe, and reclaim her coveted position. She only seemed mildly annoyed that the party ended without her. Gavial may be quick to fight, but it's typically a friendly brawl. Only one thing truly enrages her.
A Ticauh warrior collaspes to the ground. His mouth starts to foam like a bad cause of Rabies. It's worse. This shit was happening back on Earth ever since the RDA brought back the first batch of Orginium. They were covering it as an enhanced strain of rabies, but rumors floated around that the victims of the disease had black crystals sprout on their bodies.
Now I had direct proof, right before my eyes. Yota was his name. Right under his elbow was a patch of sharp, jagged crystals. They call it the "Stone Disease" in these parts, but the rest of the planet calls it Oripthay. It's goddamn rock cancer. Just having it is grounds for execution in certain nations.
Gavial... it was as if she flipped a switch. Gone was the carefree chieftain, and in her place was an uptight doctor who could give Grace a run for her money.
"Stand him up. He can't lay down. I'll give him oxygen."
"The Stone Disease did this? Ugh, I told him not to push it."
His brother, Yogi, stands up his sibling. Gavial notices something. Maybe it was with Yoga's tattoos, but she realizes he was with Zumama. She was treating Snake Girl as an old friend before. Now she practically wanted to murder her. I could see it in her eyes, and her scowl.
"Did Zumama send you into the mines to get ore for her big metal monster?" She asked, clearly agitated.
"Yes. Why?" Yogi responds casually. Gavial sighs, relaxing somewhat. Even still, if looks could kill, we would all be dead. The rest of the Ticuah were unfazed, but Tomini understood her rage. From what she told the Doctor, she caught the disease trying to rescue her friend from one of the mines. The rest of her tribemates didn't exile her or anything. But from the way they treated her, they might as well just kicked her out. It probably wasn't malicious, but they did everything for Gavial. So much, that there was nothing for her to do. Deadweight, pretty much. Her story was sounding eerily similar to mine. All I had was Tom since the incident, but after he was shipped off, weekly trips to the bar became the norm. If the alcohol didn't claim my soul, then the patronizing behavior from others would've done me in.
I wish I could've shed some light, but she already had a lot on her plate. Did she really need to know about an alien invasion in her backyard?
"Yo, Sully!" Gavial shattered my daydream. "Staring off into space?"
"Oh! Er.."
In a rush, I check my surroundings. Tomini and the brothers are gone. My followers also disappeared.
"Tomini dragged Yota off for treatment. You seemed really interested in my little tangent. The rest of your guys thought you were a statue and got all bored, heh."
"Sorry... You remind me of someone I know..."
"Did you lose this person to the Stone Disease?" She inquired in a more sympathetic tone.
"I don't want to talk about it." I quickly reply.
"I understand." Gavial perked up. "Want to help me knock some sense into Zumama? You sent her packing last time, even with her monster."
It was bad enough how the RDA was willing to ignore alien diseases to further line its pockets. If Zumama was doing it here, then the rest of Terra's modern world was guilty as well. Did Snake Girl take one look at the megacorps and thought to emulate them within her tribe?
"Gladly. I should've hit her harder." I respond.
"Whoa. Somebody has a strong sense of justice!" She laughed. "But seriously, Zumama just needs a talk. If she sends out her monster again, our numbers will be even."
"Got it."
As a Marine, I should've known better. Things didn't go to plan.
It was supposed to be a routine patrol. Instead, it was a reminder of why those limpdicks hired me in the first place.
I was on foot with several of my men. The rest were in MK-6 AMP suits. I figured out of the aliens in these parts, better than that bitch who's been kneecapping Sec-Ops every chance she gets. Well placed .50 MM is all I need to put anything the jungle can through at me.
We found one of them causing issues for our lumberjacks. Augustine calls it "Thanator", but to me, it's an overgrown house cat. The real threat was that we stumbled into one of the jungle's tribes fighting the thing. Those mutants were doing a shitty job. Several of them were slain by the time I spotted them. They've lived here for, what, billions of years, and have no idea on how to take on a damn cougar?
"Orders, Colonel?" Wainfleet asked. Quiet guy, but he's the only one besides me who has a pair. Not including Jake, but I'll get to him.
"Open fire."
The first volley was more than enough for the cat. We just had to make sure that the locals didn't escape and blow our entire operation. The last hostiles exchanged fire with crude javelins, which weren't enough for kevlar, let alone our mechs. Until I saw one of them bring down a suit with magic.
"Plasma, my boys! Find the shaman!"
"He's over there, sir."
They often had the longest hair and biggest sticks. With the rest of his friends dispatched, it gave up. Praying to some pagan gods, even after it took down one of our AMPs. Pathetic whelp.
I double-tapped that bastard. Snapped the staff in half for good measure.
"Carry the hostiles back to base for clean up. Make this place look presentable, ladies."
"YES SIR!"
Well, the trip over to Zumama's was something. We stopped by these utterly breathtaking waterfalls, and suddenly, things became a beach party. Reminded me of Niagara or that other one in Africa. Both were converted into hydroelectric plants a while back, so seeing one of these falls in its natural beauty was pretty sweet. The rest of Gavial's coworkers joined us by then. They had swimsuits, conveniently.
Sweet gig you got there, Doc. Surrounding yourself with all these women who are practically supermodels.
That lasted until the party was crashed. This catgirl came outta nowhere and was clearly high out of her mind. She must've ate the mushrooms Grace was talking about earlier because she was prancing around like an RPG character. She brought with her a whole arsenal of medieval weaponry too. Good call not eating it, because I don't think the magic stuff from Earth would make you that wasted. Either way, she was another Rhodes Island employee, named Ceobe. You would think that a pharmaceutical company would be more strict about their workers taking psychedelics on the job, but that's just her. Gavial's worlds, not mine.
She ran off, and naturally, we pursued her. Ceobe knew exactly where Zumama's hideout was, through her clouded mind. Or maybe she got lucky. Whatever. Gavial's treatment, involving percussive blows to the girl's head, brought her back to Terra, so it worked out in the end. All that was left to deal with was Snake Girl.
Apparently, she never sent any of her tribespeople to the mines willingly. Yogi volunteered to go deeper, but we know how that ended. Hell, even Zumama caught Oripathy from the mines. She stripped off her jacket to prove her point. They were thin, just like veins of ore. She was willing to get her hands dirty mining those rocks, unlike the RDA's CEOs who were several lightyears away, wiping their asses with the cash.
After that, Gavial and Zumama were chill again. She still wanted Gavial to beat her battlebot, even though it was running off parts her tribe stole from the Doctor's plane. It malfunctioned, the rest of the girls and I put it down, and all was good.
After that, everything went to hell.
Tomini came storming from the woods, completely winded. She just sorta disappeared ever since the ceremony, but I knew something was up with that from the start.
"Gavial! Ugly Things... temple..." She panted. Zumama tensed up.
"Take it easy, Tomini!" Gavial rushed to her aid, wiping away some tears. "What's the problem?"
"I-I was gathering the rest of y-your tribe. I-I didn't want you to l-leave..."
"Ah, I get it! You know I can always come back here for vacation? No need to get that worked up about me heading back to Rhodes."
"No! That's not the problem!" Tomini shouted, causing Gavial to recoil back.
"Tomini?" Oh God. For once, Gavial seemed to be confused. Her friend tried to say something but was cut off.
"Machines! That's the problem!"
Several Ticauh moved in on Zumama's camp. Unlike the rest I met, these guys were heavily armed. Their heads were completely encased in plate metal and brought with them club like swords. They were even bigger than the typical crocodile men. They were giants, and we were ants.
And who else would be accompanying them but the one and only, Dr Grace Augustine. She just stood off in the back with the smaller, less armored guys. One of the warriors, the biggest one, held a metallic object with an optical lens... shit.
"Tribe Eunecetes sent several of their Ugly Things to the Temple. They bulldozed our sacred grounds and consumed countless brothers, but our insider told us their weakness. Rip off their eyes" He raised the optics for dramatic effect. "And they die!"
I recalled seeing those cameras on the RDA's bulldozers. They were the biggest vehicles they had on Terra besides the excavator. I had no clue what caused the RDA to roll them and through their Temple.
I gave Grace a WTH look. She just shrugged, defeated. Even she was in the dark on this one.
"Our Big Ugly Thing is scrapped." Zumama gestured to the wreck. "It took the entire tribe to create it. More than one would be completely unfeasible."
"Oh yeah? I saw them with my own 2 eyes, snake! Everyone did!"
This was the first time I've seen one of them real pissed off, not including Gavial. The rage spread like wildfire.
"Nobody talks to Euncetes like that!" Yogi snapped, racing in with his fists clenched. Metalhead throws the hunk of metal square into his gut. He loses all his strength, trips over his legs, and collapses.
Yogi coughs up some blood.
It was damn close to a full-blown civil war. The rest of the Euncetes grabbed their weapons, hidden within the scrap lying around their base. Enough sawblades, drills, nailguns to open up a hardware store. Zumama didn't say or do anything to stop them. She just looked blankly at her men. Gavial's group charges in, which is also when I learn their name:
"For Gavial's Will!" They all cry.
"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP BEFORE I KICK YOUR ASSES AGAIN?!"
She let everyone know who's the boss in an instant. Like a freezeframe, both tribes cease their hostilities. Once more, everything was silent. Including all the tropical birds in the distance who set the ambiance.
When I heard the propeller blades, it made sense.
A Dragon. Not a fantasy one, but I don't doubt their existence on this planet. Instead, it was the RDA's flagship, the biggest, baddest VTOL Earth's engineers ever created. 8 50 mm guns. 14 missile pods. 16 auxiliary autocannons and a shit ton of other weapons. By itself, the Dragon is a real piece of work, but its wing included even more gunships. I knew Quaritch was behind it. No way he'd let it leave the ground without his orders.
Everyone just stared at them in awe, myself included. To the Ticauh, they were basically seeing UFOs. The RDA was not coming in peace, obviously.
"Flying... Things..." Metalhead muttered.
The gunships opened fire. The whole experience is still fuzzy. If I had to recite every last grisly detail, I would hurl. Seen enough of my friends blasted to bits back on Earth. Everyone ran for the trees. Gavial dragged Yogi to safety. Others weren't as lucky. They would've flushed us out with incinerate rounds. Dinosaurs flew in and scared them away.
"Grace!" I ended up with Ms Augustine in the confusion.
"Quaritch sent in the rigs ahead of schedule. He gave the science team 3 months to sort things over with the tribes, and he goes and does this behind my back!" She takes a breath. "They would've killed Tomini, Jake. She and the rest of the tribe were hanging out by the grounds even though the Great Chief Festival should have ended by now. I had to tell her."
"Tell her what?"
Gavial approached us, Tomini clutching her body. The Doctor and his entourage was also present, observing from the sidelines. While I couldn't read his face due to the one-way visor, Gavial made it absolutely clear.
"I don't know what crap you've been telling my people all these years, but I'm drawing a line starting a war."
Grace bowed down on her knees. "Great Chief Gavial..."
"Gimme a break." Gavial slapped Grace on the cheek, knocking her to the ground. "I did not return to my home to have you tear apart everything I love. Come clean, before I beat the everloving shit out of you."
I stepped in, shielding Grace with my arms. "Wait! I can explain!"
Gavial crossed her arms. "Then explain."
"We came from the sky. Or more accurately, a different planet." I had her attention, but would she believe me?
The Rhodes Island operators start murmuring to themselves.
"Us, Earth. You, Terra. The only thing between us is 4 lightyears of a pitch-black void we call space. We came here for your Originium. Made Uranium obsolete, they said. It never changed the fact that our place was a shithole, so we looked at our neighbors in the Alpha Centauri system."
The Doctor's girls really went off after that.
"Baws, isn't that supposed to be a unit o' time?" Croissant spoke. She worked for a company called Penguin Logistics that did, well, logistics. The old-fashioned way, on foot. Heh. The RDA put every other logistics company out of business with their worldwide monorail system.
"He sounds crazy. I guess that's why you have to watch the quiet ones... Oh, not you, Doctor!" Utage laughed. The locals ended up creating a fan club for her, just like me.
"Your right. No nation on Terra has modernized without Originum." Blaze responded. Pretty upbeat, and she had this smaller kid following her around. "But I don't know who else could field aircraft like that. Maybe the nobles have private models, but Sully's pals were packing an entire fleet! No run-of-the-mill mercenaries can field that many. They didn't come with flags or insignias either..."
The Doctor didn't respond to them. He simply watched us with intent.
"They sent us to remove your people by any means necessary. Then you changed everything. I knew everything they've been telling us back home was a complete and utter lie. Earth thinks you are a bunch of cannibals. Grace can't even change anything. The RDA has a monopoly on anything that comes here and leaves. She saved your friend, Gavial. I'm telling you all this just so can stand a chance, before this entire jungle is under their boot."
Tomini yanked on Gavial's body. "He's right! Grace did tell us how to beat those machines, but the rest of your tribe thought Zumama was behind it. They were painted the same.
Gavial heaves a heavy sigh. One of relief. She uses some of her healing Arts to mind Grace's bruises.
"Sorry about that." She heaves Grace to her then faces me with a concerned look. "Have any ideas on how to beat those aircraft? We can't wait for Rhodes Island's reinforcements, and our secret weapon is out of commission."
Zumama's place may have looked like a scrapyard, but at least it had some artistic merit. Now, it was a graveyard. She was looking at the wreck and didn't seem to care as we got close.
On top of the remnants was the High Priest. He had a new friend, some sort of Pterodactyl-looking creature, perched beside him.
"I always had my suspicions, but the presence of my old buddy confirms it." He told us. "No one else really cares parts about these parts besides your organization, Sully. Too much. The jungle won't stand for it. I believe that's the reason why the wildlife has gotten more proactive."
"An Immune response," Grace replied.
"Ah, that's the word! I'm an old bird, but I got never put my tongue on just why this is the case."
"So new creatures I haven't seen in my entire life are running around?" Gavial started. "They hate Sully's crew, so I think everything should be ok. I just came up with a kickass idea, Doctor! Listen to this..."
The fight for independence had begun.
We really need to figure out how to get robots to mine that Orginium, because it an't working for humans. More and more good men and women are leaving with the shit growing on their body, even with up to date safety standards.
Then, the crystals fell from the Sky. It started as hail, but the stones then grew in size into about mommy's SUV. We were the first base on Terra to suffer through what their locals call a Catastrophe. My ass. It was like Judgement Day, God spitting upon our efforts to tame this planet for the next generation.
Shell's Gate would become inoperable next with all the structural damages and people getting ill, so it was time to roll out. Mines were getting low on Orginium, but a large deposit was under some Temple. Grace had three months to evict the locals, but the possibility of another one of those monster storms 'ment that I couldn't take any chances.
To cut back time, we had the Venture Star drop off some D-22's in close. When they started going dark, I got real suspicious. Rewinded the tapes, and I caught Grace telling them how to shutdown our dozers.
So not only did I have a looming apocalypse, but also a traitorous bitch to deal with. I set off with the Dragon and a few other gunships to pound any trace of the mutants into the soil. I found them all by a junkyard. They were with Rhodes Islanders. Our allies warned us, that if they got one hint of our presence, they'd make it their mission to exterminate us from the face of Terra.
I had one option at this point. Blow them all to smithereens. Before I could do so, a swarm of Banshees, the largest one I've ever seen, forced us away. They broke off, so we could turn around and finish off the tribes.
The flock returned. This time, the locals figured out how to ride them. Leading the pack was a big red one, and guess who had the gall to pilot it?
"Jake, you son of a bitch."
I drop the Red Team in. Several AMPs, flamethrowers, and AKs under the direction of Lyle Wainfleet should be more than enough to squish the resistance.
The Banshees struck fast and hard. The numbers were bad. They just punched through the glass, tossed our pilots away, and that was the end of that. Assuming they weren't skewered or cooked alive by the plasma shooters.
I grab the comms. "Wainfleet! Ground report!"
"Too many shamen, sir! We have to fall back! One individual with cat ears is downing the suits with superheated throwing knives!"
"...Hold the line!"
There was a long pause on Wainfleet's end. "Did I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir. Over."
Jake thought it was an appropriate time to drop in. In each of his hands was a grenade. I threw the punk off, but a stray explosive punched a hole in the hull. No problem.
Unfortunately, Jake wasn't the only one willing to backstab the human race. A rogue Samson led a Kamikaze attack on the Dragon's bridge. Our greatest asset destroyed in an instant, ladies and gentlemen. She crashed down into the forest, and the rest of the crew didn't survive.
Cheap terrorist tactics like that aren't enough to slay Papa Dragon. I trudged out from the wreckage in my personal AMP suit, searching for any trace of Sully. I didn't care about the mission anymore. I just wanted to give the man I once trusted his just deserts.
Luckily, the lab Jake and the others keep their real bodies in was close. Spray it down with autocannon fire, and he's dead. Bingo.
It wasn't easy. One of the locals figured out how to replicate our AMP suits. It was falling apart at the seams, but it's very functional cannon rocked me off balance. More rats will need to be exterminated once I'm through with Jake.
The scrapheap charged my AMP before I could get the GAU-90 ready. It had a handsaw blade that sliced off one of my arms The pilot was a parrot. An honest to god, fucking blue parrot! And that's not all! Hanging off the side was one of the locals. The best looking, I'd admit, if it wasn't for that long ass snake tail growing out of its ass.
"Laughing like a Colombian." It spoke in a weak American accent. "Thought they left Acahulla long ago."
Grace must've been teaching them our language. "I'm an American! We will not be defeated by backwater pukes!"
I shove the machine off my mech. Pulverized the remains with my knife and feet. The Snake bitch and her parrot pal escaped, which gave me a clear route to my objective. All bark and no bite.
I smash up the lab to the best of my abilities. Pulled the plug on all their little games. It was the best I felt ever since I was transferred to Hell's Gate. So much so, I was ignorant of another assailant.
This one had a gator tail. Dressed in dark green body armor, so it wasn't a local. It crawled up from behind my mech and shattered the bulletproof glass. With fists.
"Yo." It mocked me with a shit-eating grin.
I draw my sidearm, but it moves faster. Before I knew it, the gun was out of my hands, and I was in it's clutches.
"Thought I never would never have to take a life as a Doctor. Plenty of ways to kill you painfully, but I'll make it quick. Consider this Dr Gavial's brand of euthanasia."
I was already feeling dizzy due to my strangled neck. The last thing I saw was it raising it's free fist in the air. At least Jake's coming with me to the Gates of Hell.
In a way, it felt like a bad dream. Next time I woke up, I was in a medbay, still in my Avatar body. I quickly realized that the circumstances were far different.
The room's design was off. I wasn't in the Hell's Gate medbay, but a fully fledged ER room. Grace and even Norm were off in adjacent beds.
The Doctor from before was watching over us. He had two assistants with him. One was this bunny girl who was definitely under-aged for this job, and the under was a cat girl like Blaze. She had pale hair and green, piercing eyes. She's a cat person in more ways than one.
"Ah, so you're awake! The procedure was a success!" The Doctor cheers.
I sit upright. "What procedure? Have you been experimenting on us?"
"We only brought Dr Augustine's research to its natural conclusion." The cat eared woman spoke plainly. "She created a very roundabout implementation of Sarkaz witchcraft. The kind often used to hijack bodies."
"Magic is real. Still can't believe it." Norm shook his head.
"You're direct evidence. Amiya tried to search through the memories of your Avatar bodies. All she found was a blank slate. A void of all consuming nothingness. You did not steal any beings ' body with these Arts, Dr Augustine?"
"I grew them in a lab."
"How so?"
"We've been doing it for years, raising babies inside test tubes. The groundwork was already there, so I just had to figure out how to mix human and Terran DNA. Nothing more than genetic modification"
Amiya gives the feline woman a disgusted look. The cat person ignored her.
"Intriguing ideas. We recovered more from your former allies in Acahulla."
"Hey, what happened to Gavial and the others?" I jump in.
"They routed the remaining RDA forces off the planet. For a spacefaring race, it really confuses me as to why they had no Arts defense." The Doctor shrugged. "Just had to round up as many calls casters as possible. You should've seen Ceobe! Ehem! Anyways, a Catastrophe struck their base, which paralyzed all their mining operations. Gavial let them go home after that. Either way, having them stay would attract attention from Sargon."
"For the interests of global stability, we have to keep everything regarding the incident in Acahulla under wraps" The Feline responded dryly. "Reunion tried to start a war, and another conflict is brewing in Victoria. The existence of another, Originium less world... Even I can't fathom it."
"So, what can we do in the meantime?" I ask.
"You can officially join Rhodes Island as Operators. When your former allies return, you will need all the protection you can get."
"Do I look like a med school student to you?"
"You have military blood. Saves us a lot with combat training."
Honestly, where else could we go? Trying to infiltrate the more modernized nations of Terra will fail the moment they ask us for an ID. The Feline, Doctor Kal'tsit, seemed shifty, and that's because she is. As of now, Rhodes was our only choice.
"Sure, sign me up. Any bonuses?"
Grace groans, clutching her forehead. Ultimately, we were safe from the clutches of the RDA for the time being. I really needed that time, because they weren't the only guys who wanted us dead.
We were sharing this rock with literal demons and gods.