Chapter 1
Second idea I had floating around in my mind! For the readers of my other story, a new chapter is also in the works don't worry!
Rhodes Island
Amiya was walking through the corridors of the landship that for so long had been her home. She had just returned from a medical checkup with Kal'tsit made in preparation for the upcoming operation in Chernobog when suddenly the whole ship came to a halt and the lights began to flicker.
Some of the operators looked up at the ceiling muttering that it was probably the engineering team doing something in the engine room.
Amiya grabbed her tablet and checked to see if there was any maintenance notice on the engine and found none. She was sure it was nothing too serious but might as well check it out and so she contacted Closure.
"Closure, this is Amiya, is something wrong?" The Leader of Rhodes Island asked.
"Oh no don't worry! I just pulled a prank on some of the new hires here at engineering!" The Head of Rhodes Island's Engineering Department replied with a chuckle.
"So that's why it's not on the schedule..." Amiya muttered chuckling as well "Isn't it a bit dangerous?"
"Naaaaah Isaac is with them!" The Sarkaz replied with a chuckle.
"You really like teasing him huh?" Amiya retorted amused.
"That's what he gets when he calls the tools I give him cheap!" She replied.
The Bunny girl chuckled "Well that's because you take his whenever he's not looking..."
"I don't know what you are talking about! Anyway, gotta go!" Closure replied before hanging up.
Amiya sighed with a small smile on her face, she decided to go and watch, it was always fun seeing Isaac riled up on the job...and also she wanted to see him scold Closure.
She took an elevator to the lower levels of the lands and was immediately greeted by a swarm of engineers working on various machines making sure that everything was running smoothly.
She walked into the engine's control room and saw that in the engine compartment, there were the newly hired engineers led by the Lead Engineer and former Babel operator, Isaac Clarke.
Everything seemed quite alright and some in the control room even waved at Amiya showing that they were pretty relaxed about the situation...that is until an alarm went off.
'Warning Originium Leak Detected! Evacuate Engine Room!'
Amiya looked back at the engineer and saw that one of them had opened the fuel compartment probably by mistake. The engineers quickly ran for the exit but the one who caused the leak was frozen in fear before getting pulled away by Isaac and shoved into the exit.
The Lead Engineer then walked back to the engine and closed the fuel compartment himself causing the alarm to stop blaring.
'Leak Contained'
Amiya ran for the intercom "We need immediate medical assistance at the engineering section!"
She then went down the elevator to where the engineers were and found the one responsible keeping his head in his hands in a state of panic before the decontamination champer opened once again letting Isaac in and much to everyone's shock, his hands were covered in orignium crystals.
The medics that Amiya called immediately rushed in and were about to check on him but he shook his head "Check the others, I'll go Kal'tsit."
Amiya was more than dumbfounded by those words and his calmness despite the seriousness of his condition but then she remembered something.
Doctor Kal'tsit was Isaac's doctor. According to Isaac's files, all medical procedures must be done under her strict supervision. She was the doctor who had diagnosed him with Schizophrenia and the one in charge of his therapy.
"Wait Isaac! I'll accompany you!" Amiya shouted getting to the elevator with him.
"Thank you I might need you to push the button for the medical bay." He joked as Amiya nodded and pushed the button.
"Does it hurt?" Amiya asked a bit worried.
Isaac looked at his hands and shrugged "No no, it's not in my hands, it just covered my suit, these things are stronger than you think."
Amiya sighed in relief hearing that "Thank Goodness...But still, you should have let the robots handle closing the leak."
"I know that engine like the back of my hand, I knew I could fix it without letting the leak infect someone by staying open for too long," He replied as the doors opened "I heard you are going to Chernobog to retrieve The Doctor..."
"Yes...some bad things are happening out there, I am convinced we'll need his help." She replied looking down at the ground.
Isaac slowly nodded as the doors opened "Well, you are the boss so it must be true, good luck."
With that said the man left the elevator and headed to Kal'tsit's office. Before he could knock using his helmet, the doctor opened the door and let him in without uttering a single word.
Isaac saw that Kal had prepared all the instruments she would have needed, she had probably heard of the incident.
"Let me see the damage" She spoke lightly as she put on the gloves and grabbed a pair of scissors as Isaac placed his hands on a plastic towel.
The woman cut his suit open revealing that the originium crystals had formed directly from the bones of his hands due to the intense exposures.
"We are going to have to cut them off..." She spoke grabbing a medical wand ready to sever the limbs using the limbs.
Isaac sighed but a chuckle escaped his lips "I am going to kill Closure I swear, this pair I liked quite a bit..."
"The crystals sprouted from the bones...must have taken a lot of self restrain not to scream your way here..." She spoke in her usual cold tone but her eyes showed worry.
"I could say the same thing for you about voting in favour of retrieving the Doctor from Chernobog..." He replied before hissing as the woman began to cut his hands off using the arts.
"I didn't vote...I abstained, Amiya was determined to rescue him and got everyone on board with it..." She retorted.
"Good thing I did not have a say on it because there was not going to be a way for me to not veto it, that man caused me to lose much more than a pair of hands. 'Isaac do this!' and 'Isaac go tackle the biggest and worst bad guy after all you can take a beating'...He is probably the reason why I no longer scream my heart out whenever this shit happens..." Isaac said seeing his hands falling into the plastic towel.
Kal had the smallest of smiles on her face but Isaac knew that would be the equivalent of a normal smile from anyone else. But that smile disappeared immediately "Chernobog is a warzone...Ursus lost the city...the communications are completely cut off...and Amiya is going there to retrieve that man."
"Just say the word and I'll go there," Isaac replied almost immediately.
"No, I don't want you to push yourself like you did last time...And your hallucinations lessened since you stopped being close to violence," Kal replied shaking her head.
Isaac leaned against his chair as something that would make anyone's skin crawl. From where the Kal had cut off his hands, flesh and bones started to regenerate at an impressive pace. In a few seconds, Isaac's hands were back as new.
"You found me wandering in a wasteland, I was a madman, you did not have an obligation to take me in nor to spend your time and resources to get me to speak like I am now. What happened last time was me using any means necessary to protect the people I cared about..." He replied taking Kal's hands "And I will do it again if needed, I will always be there for you, Amiya and Rhodes Island..."
Kal looked into Isaac's eyes, tormented, tired and yet still moving forward. She sighed and nodded "Fine but I don't want you to go alone..."
"Can I bring the squad back together?" Isaac asked.
"Lexine is pregnant and as her medic, I will not approve of her deployment, but..." Kal got up and walked to her library and grabbed a folder opened it and then put a stamp on it before handing a paper to Isaac.
"Team Aegis is officially reinstated, your first assignment is to aid Amiya's rescue mission from afar."
"You already had the paperwork at hand?" Isaac said amused.
"I knew that one day we would have had this talk..." she replied sitting back down handing Isaac the reports of the situation in Chernobog.
Isaac read through them and a sigh escaped his lips "The communication system of the city is disabled, and even short-range equipment had troubles...speaking about Deja Vu."
"If you were to repair that we would be able to make contact with the teams down there and help them," Kal clarified.
"The RIGs I made should be able to keep my squad covered but we will not be able to report to you until we get the comms back online...which are in the city's control tower...which is being used by the Reunion as command base." He replied putting the papers to the side.
"If you feel that's too much to accomplish then limit yourself on offering support to Amiya..." the Doctor said with a serious expression.
"No no, I wasn't complaining, we fought worse beings," He replied getting up "If you'll excuse me, I have to prepare with my team."
With that, Isaac smiled and placed his hand on Kal'tsit's shoulder before leaving the room and sending a message to the members of Team Aegis.
Chernobog
W and her mercenary company were patrolling the streets making sure that everything was in order while other reunion leaders moved to expand their offensive.
Everything was seemingly going smoothly when one of her Sarkatz mercs came with a report.
"We spot a group of unknown origin around Peterheim, they are gathering the bodies left by the riots and dumping them into the school..." They spoke causing their leader to raise an eyebrow at that.
"Well guess we'll have to check that out~!" She replied amused as she got her troops moving towards the reported location.
They were in the same district as the school. Mephisto had left it since his twisted mind was needed elsewhere and Patriot was with FrostNova.
Suddenly, in front of them, a woman appeared wearing a golden mask with a ruby on its forehead, an elegant black and golden outfit but most importantly a double-helix shaped black and white pendant which made W's blood run cold.
It was not the first time she had seen that symbol, that was when she took a peek in a madman's cell back at Babel before getting warned by the danger it posed.
W moved her fingers and her Sarkaz mercenaries raised their weapons ready to attack.
"Who are you and what business do you have here?" She spoke pointing her gun at the masked individuals.
"No need to feel threatened, W, we were waiting for you for we have a favour to ask of you..." The woman spoke keeping her hands together.
W smirked a bit "I do not do favours for those who don't answer my questions...nor I do them for those with that symbol."
"But of course, you have been in contact with that woman...The False Sheperd. Very well then guess I will have to speak your same language."
At those words, the sound of guns removing their safeties echoed across the street and the mercs soon saw that they were surrounded by heavily armed and armoured troops all bearing the same symbol of the masked woman's pendant.
"Are we supposed to be scared?" W said taking out one of her grenades and walking up to the masked woman.
The woman looked down at the grenade before removing the pin and looking back at W "No but if you do not do what we are asking then we are all going to die here...but unlike you we have proof that we will be back."
As she said this, she grabbed a crystal box made out of originium and opened it revealing a black cube-shaped stone with a red glowing glyph.
W felt a sharp pain coming from her head as instead of the woman she saw Theresa standing in front of her with a smile on her face. W realized that she had a live grenade in her hands so close to her queen. She immediately threw it away before feeling the woman's hands on her face caressing her.
"H-How...? Why...?" W muttered her previous confidence nowhere to be seen.
"I need you to deliver a message to Isaac...Tell him that the marker awaits in Peterheim." Theresa spoke to W's ear before backing away.
W tried to reach for her but a blinding light and sharp pain came from her head causing her to fall on her knees. When she opened her eyes again, the strangers had disappeared and her mercs were in a similar state as her.
Before she could notice, tears were streaming down her face and her expression twisted with anger before getting up.
The Masked Woman watched from inside the School the mercs leave before beginning to sing.
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky!" She sang escorted by her armed soldiers as she moved to the school's inner courtyard.
A helicopter was waiting for her to depart. She stepped on it along with her soldiers before opening the box once again and took out the crimson rock.
"When the blazing sun is gone, when the nothing shines upon, then you show your little light. Twinkle, twinkle, all the night."
She let the rock fall off the helicopter...right into the pile of bodies the soldiers had stacked together. She then saw a group of surviving students watch from the windows the helicopter and waved at them before leaving the city towards Lungmen.
Rhodes Island
Isaac watched as Amiya and the other squads left using the company aircraft. Once he was sure that they were far away enough he walked into the hangar and then waited for the rest of Team Aegis along with the replacement for Lexine.
Her name was Karrie Norton, her operator codename being Vandal. She was an engineer who worked with Isaac at Rhodes Island after the fall of Babel. She used to be a combat engineer in the Bolívar-Columbia war who joined Rhodes Island once she got infected. Her combat experience and engineering skills were compatible with the purpose of Team Aegis.
It didn't take long for them to arrive. The Team was composed by Nathan McNeill aka Extractor, Gabe Weller aka Severed, and John Carver aka Uxor. All of them were surprised to see Karrie's exception made for Gabe since he knew that Isaac was going to find a replacement for Lexine.
"We must be quick, by the time Amiya reaches the Sarcophagus we must have fixed Chernobog's communication systems so Vandal meet Extractor, Severed and Uxor," Isaac spoke as he gave everyone Kal'tsit's folders on the operation before he began to walk towards a big shutter that was on the left side of the hangar.
Karrie exchanged a few handshakes with the others as they all began to read through the documents.
"Fucking hell Isaac you are sending us into the hornet's nest!" Carver spoke shocked.
Gabe also frowned "You may overestimating our combat potential...especially in these rags"
Nathan on the other hand was calm "The Reunion is pushing to conquer the entirety of the city meaning that they will not be at their base."
"That's what I am counting on," Isaac spoke as he swiped his Rhodes Island badge on a card reader causing the shutters to open revealing a workshop.
The group entered the workshop seeing various machines and materials before noticing something big covered by a white blanket. Isaac grabbed the cloth and pulled it off revealing a big vehicle.
"What the hell is this?" Vandal said looking at the angular sleek vehicle.
Gabe whistled as he placed his hand on something else which looked like some sort of enclosed computer station "Oh I missed you so much, Isaac tell me it works."
To answer Gabe, Isaac pulled down a lever powering up the object allowing its computer to spring to life.
"What's that?" Carrie asked raising an eyebrow.
Isaac walked over to the thing and patted it with his hand as Gabe browsed the computer until it retracted and a door opened. Gabe crawled inside and leaned against the wall as the entire thing shut closed.
Karrie looked alarmed, especially when the entire contraption made a loud sound and a light slowly went from the top of it to the bottom. Then it opened once again revealing Gabe.
He was no longer wearing the typical Rhodes Island operator uniform but some sort of armour. He began checking himself out before various moving pieces rose from his neck and closed forming a helmet with two orange glowing eyes on his right side.
"Smells like new car in here Isaac," Gabe commented as he reached into the machine again pulling out two gun-looking weapons.
"Well, I changed the materials, self-sealing, air-tight with extra air supply and fuel. And of course, the visor has other modes such as thermal, night vision and FLIR." Isaac explained calmly.
"Alright, I need an explanation real quick because that is something I've never seen anywhere not even from Columbia," Karrie interjected raising her hands.
"You did not tell her?" Gabe asked looking at Isaac who shook his head.
"I was clear to put the band together 15 minutes ago, I didn't have the chance," Isaac replied looking at Karrie and crossing his arms.
Karrie waited patiently for him to speak.
"Before I came here, I was an engineer at a small mining company called CEC, we extracted originium like many others, and we had a landship called the Ishimura. During the extraction processes, they came across an unknown artefact they called the Marker before we lost contact with them. I was sent to check on them with a small security squad to see if they had a problem with the communication devices...Long story short, the artifact caused the entire crew to go crazy and turned them into monsters, I crawled my way to it and it imprinted knowledge inside my brain so I could make more of those artefacts..."
Karrie blinked a few times before sitting down "I..." She looked around to the others "And you guys were with him?"
"No, Gabe, Nate, and the person you are replacing were at the mining site before Isaac's arrival, they ran away and then Kal'tsit found them. The same thing happened to Isaac after he took care of the marker," Carver explained as he also browsed the computer "Someone sold a fragment of the Marker to a Columbian Corporation, I was a soldier stationed there to protect those who were studying it...The entire lab turned into monsters...Isaac and the others arrived with Kal destroyed the fragment and erased all traces of the operation for the better...I joined their squad back then."
"So all these things are built using the knowledge given by that thing...? Is it safe?" Karrie asked cautiously.
"Yes, so long I don't build a Marker myself, there is no danger," Isaac replied nodding.
Karrie slowly nodded before realizing something "I heard that you suffer from a mental disorder...you don't, do you?"
Isaac shook his head "It's what the marker did to me, all of us suffer from it a bit but I am the only one who confronted it personally and so I have it worse...but don't worry, I am not going to turn crazy, Kal took care of that."
"I wasn't even entertaining the idea, I felt bad for you...So since I'm in the squad, do I get one of those cool suits?" Karrie asked with a smirk lifting the mood.
Isaac chuckled and gestured to the machine as Carver came out of it wearing a black and red suit with red glowing eyes before also picking up two weapons out it. Karrie approached the computer and saw that it offered a wide variety of suits and even weapons.
"I don't know how to shoot guns..." She spoke looking at Isaac "I did not train for Originium Arts of that level."
"Those weapons are not powered by Originium..." Isaac replied calmly "The knowledge of the Marker offers an alternative to that..."
"Which is how it gets you, everyone described it as a miracle back when we discovered it. No more Originium kettles that could infect you, no Oripathy, no more infected...And then it turned everyone into abominations. Thankfully Kal found Isaac before anyone else could...they would have used him to build markers on every landship...and the world as we know it wouldn't exist," Nathan spoke solemnly as the other nodded in agreement.
Karrie felt a chill running down her back before choosing her suit and weapons. She was about to crawl into the machine when Isaac grabbed her arm.
"Before you enter, the machine will put a RIG on your back, it's a device that will monitor your vitals and show them to the rest of us along with giving you navigation intel and allowing us to communicate without interference. It will sting a bit though, it needs to connect to your spinal cord to monitor your health," He explained.
Karrie slowly nodded and finally crawled inside the machine taking a deep breath. The machine closed and she felt the machine keeping her still as it lined up the RIG on her back. She felt a stinging pain coming from the back of her neck as the thing connected itself to her nervous system. Then the machine wrapped her into a soft yet cold cloth before pressing various hard objects all over her body and finally, it opened its doors.
Karrie crawled out seeing her body covered in armour. She closed her eyes mimicking Gabe and Carver as she heard her helmet closing around her head and finally a purple glow suggested her to open her eyes. There was a HUD in front of her eyes, it showed the suit labelled as "Advanced Engineering suit" and checked all of its systems such as air supply and fuel for the thrusters. At that point she turned around and grabbed the weapons she had selected; a ripper, a line gun and a plasma saw.
Isaac went in next and came out wearing a black and dark blue suit that features the Rhodes Island logo on its chest and a light blue and white stripe on the right side of its chest and shoulder respectively. In a similar way to the vehicle he had built, the helmet he had a knightly look to it which paired well with the three glowing blue slits. He then grabbed his weapons and let Nathan step in after him.
Nathan came out wearing a black suit with a red checkered design on its neck guard and the word 'Rhodes Island' on his right arm. He grabbed a contact beam and a force gun before nodding to the others.
Isaac then went and grabbed a suitcase and opened it revealing what looked to be sword hilts with no blade.
"Oh, so you finally made them?" Nathan spoke grabbing one and checking it out "A step up from the old one if they work as intended."
"And those are?" Karrie asked raising an eyebrow.
Isaac walked to his vehicle opening one of its doors with his suit he commanded the shutters to open "Plasma blades, the plasma saw you have taken for yourself is the first successful attempt at making my first plasma saw handheld. The old version wrapped itself around the arm and needed to be held with two hands to function. The blades are the final product."
"Now I feel left out," Vandal joked as Isaac gestured for her to take a seat.
"I made one for each of us a while ago, they are named so it feels wrong to give you Lexine's," Isaac replied sitting on the pilot's seat as the others sat down in the passenger seats.
The door of the vehicle closed and immediately internal lights sprung to life. Karrie realized there were no windows inside the vehicle and then saw that in front of Isaac, the outside was being projected by a hologram.
"You still did not tell me what this is," She commented as the engine sprung to life.
"It's a dropship. I call it Overlord. This is the updated design though..." Isaac said doing various system checks before contacting Rhodes Island's command center "This is Maker, Dr Kal'tsit we are ready for departure."
"Alright Maker, you are clear to go, good luck." Kal'tsit's voice replied through the radio.
The dropship lifted itself off the ground and flew into the sky. Karrie was not expecting it and so held tight on her seat while the others seemed to be savouring the feeling.
"This baby is faster than Amiya's VTOL, we should be in Chernobog before them. If our readings are correct, a catastrophe is around the corner so I'll have to send the Overlord away before it gets hit," Isaac briefed the others as he piloted the aircraft.
Karrie sighed "We are marching into a riot and a catastrophe..."
"The catastrophe might work in our favour, the originium dust in the air will deter others from sticking their heads into our business," Gabe spoke going through Chernobog's maps "Isaac, here's a landing zone."
"Yes, the originium dust...which also would infect all of you and worsen my conditions..." Vandal commented.
"The suits will protect us, they are made for the job," Isaac replied as he saw Amiya's VTOL IFF and surpassing it.
The rest of the ride went quite smoothly, Vandal noted that Isaac's Overlord Dropship was basically silent compared to Rhodes Island's other VTOLs. Nathan taught her to use her HUD to see outside the ship which came in handy when they flew over Chernobog.
"Why are Ursus security forces so easily overwhelmed? It doesn't make sense, where is the army?" Karrie muttered in shock as the ship's cams zoomed onto the riots.
"Ursus is not Columbia, it's corrupt and the higher-ups care only for themselves and their goals, if Chernobog is like this then it means that Count Boris had no friends in the military or they were bought by those who wanted him dead," Gabe replied cynically as he checked his pulse rifle and seeker rifle.
"That along with the fact that the Infected are fighting without the fear of dying, if they don't riot they will be systematically killed, if they do they might be killed or could live free...fighting is overall better than being executed," Nathan added doing the same as Gabe.
"We are here, landing in 3...2...1...butter," Isaac spoke as the dropship landed and the doors opened.
"Butter? Really? Have been talking to Tyler?" Nathan joked as he got off
Isaac chuckled and also left the aircraft "What can I say? I am so used to rough landings that I want to enjoy a smooth one."
Carver extended his hand towards the ground and his suit projected a line on the floor pointing them towards the control tower "The Overlord might have attracted unwanted attention, let's get moving before anyone comes to check."
Isaac nodded and used his holoprojector on his chest to order the dropship to leave and return to Rhodes Island which it immediately did. The Team then began to move between the ruined buildings avoiding the main roads as much as possible.
Vandal saw the Reunion executing non-infected and infected alike...her heart broke in front of such brutality. The team kept moving through the buildings avoiding high trafficked areas.
Finally, they reached the feet of the control tower of Chernobog, and they found a viewing point to consider the various approaches to reach the control room and fix whatever communication issue was there.
Gabe looked through the scope of his seeker rifle spotting the various entrances and the people defending them.
"Hm we were right, there are many but they are just sitting down slacking off, these are either reserves or fresh blood, we could break through them but it's going to be a bloodbath to the top and they could call back the main forces as backup..."
Isaac used his holoprojector to show everyone the planimetry of the tower "Let's see..."
Karrie pointed out various tunnels going through the structure "The maintenance tunnels, if we can access them we should be able to avoid fighting our way in..."
Isaac nodded "The Ursus Nobles are not known to like seeing the working class, these tunnels don't even have windows, if we are smart about it, they will never know we've been here...but the access is on the back entrance of the tower...Let's find another observation point."
He and the others moved to a ruined police station and observed the back entrance noticing that the guards protecting it were few compared to the main entrances.
"Isaac, I suggest you go in while Carver and I clear the outside and offer overwatch, those tunnels are narrow and a smaller group will not attract as much attention and we will keep an eye on the outside," Gabe spoke setting up a table in front of a window to lay on.
Isaac nodded "Good idea, take care of the guards while we go in and get comms back online."
Gabe and Carver set their sniper positions, the latter acting as spotter and security in their nest. Isaac, Karrie and Nathan approached the tower and as they did, they heard Gabe's seeker rifle killing off the guards.
"Amiya wouldn't approve..." Karrie muttered as they walked past the bodies of the reunion guards.
Nathan sighed as he peeked inside the tower seeing no one, he then gestured for the others to follow him as he ran towards the maintenance door.
"We are a small squad sent behind enemy lines, we cannot secure any enemy combatant and if we just stun them they will alert the others when they wake up and at that point we would be swarmed and overwhelmed."
Isaac opened the control panel exposing the wires before placing his whole arm into the machine and sending sparks flying as he forcefully opened the door. As soon as it did, the three of them rushed inside.
The space was quite cramped, there were steaming hot pipes and exposed wiring, and there was barely any light which prompted them to turn on their visor flashlights. There were directions towards the various areas, in particular, the stairs and the elevators.
"The elevator could attract unwanted attention, let's take the stairs," Nathan explained as he began the climb soon followed by Karrie and then Isaac.
The climb was rather uneventful, they saw a few reunion guards but none of them posed a danger as they avoided them. The group stopped once Karrie spotted a control panel and opened it before running a diagnostic to all tower systems.
"We have a problem...The comms are not simply turned off, the antennas seem either misplaced or damaged..." Karrie spoke reading the report "I can recalibrate the instruments but I need someone to fix the antennas themselves at the same time...We came here for nothing."
"I can take care of the antennas, you and Nathan go to the control room, once you get there we will fix everything and leave..." Isaac told them getting a nod from Nathan.
Karrie was about to voice her doubt but couldn't as Nathan immediately resumed the climb until they reached the floor of the control room. At that point, Isaac went ahead of them.
The engineer kept rising floor after floor before finding his way blocked off by a makeshift barricade. He contacted Nathan and Karrie through the RIG.
"My way is cut off, I'll find another one, what's your Status?"
"We met a few guards and took care of them..." Karrie said as she reached the control console.
Their transmission was interrupted as Gabe also joined their conversation "Not to put pressure on you but our suit's sensors don't lie nor does the weather, the Catastrophe is about to start so I suggest you all hurry up because the Reunion in the area are about to pull back to the tower for cover."
"Shit, it came sooner than expected, I have an idea, Karrie be prepared!" Isaac said opening the door to the current floor he was on.
It seemed to be a server room of sorts but he did not care as he went to the nearest window aiming his plasma cutter at it before shattering it. He peeked at the edge of it seeing the massive drop and then to the side seeing the rooftop a couple of floors above him. He grabbed onto the ledge before lowering himself.
"Holy shit Isaac, I see you from down here..." Carver commented seeing Isaac in his sights.
"What? What is he doing?" Karrie asked worried.
Isaac placed his boots on the building activating them before standing upright on the wall. He slowly began to walk on the outside wall towards the roof. Once he reached it, he grabbed onto the ledge and turned off the boots. At that point, he used the thrusters of his rig suit to pull himself up.
"Alright I am on the roof..." He spoke looking around seeing the antennas and beginning to examine them.
The device itself was not broken but the wires that connected were severed. Due to the entire system being turned off, there was no electricity so Isaac got to work tying up the wires so that they made contact again.
"Alright Karrie, turn on the communication array!" He shouted through the comms due to the fact that the wind had begun blowing stronger and stronger.
"Isaac you have to get off the fucking roof or you'll be swooped into the sky!" Carver called
Isaac turned on his boots again anchoring himself to the ground as the wires came to life at first sending sparks all over the place but making the energy flow as needed.
"Karrie! How are the comms we are back online?!" Isaac shouted again turning towards the array.
"I am trying to stabilize the signal with my art but the antennas are not aligned I fear!" She replied.
Isaac cursed under his breath as he extended his arm towards the antennas and began using his telekinesis arts to begin to turn the devices around."
"I've got the signal! Comms back online! Ordering all comms stations to return back online! Even if the tower is hit by a catastrophe it should be fine!" Karrie shouted.
Isaac nodded as he began contacting Rhodes Island "Kal, the comms are back online, can you hear me?"
"Isaac..." Kal'tsit's voice spoke through the radio.
"Yes I hear you loud and clear, we are going to move to Amiya's position now, where is she? Did she recover the doctor?" The Engineer spoke walking towards the edge of the tower thinking about how to get back down.
"Isaac, your objective has changed, you will no longer aid Amiya's group," Kal spoke causing the man to frown beneath the helmet.
"Kal...what's going on? Cut to the chase..." he replied.
"Amiya was contacted by W...She told her that the Marker is in Chernobog."
Isaac looked around taken aback by what she had just said "What? How? It's not possible Kal! I destroyed it! I-I..."
As he spoke he froze in place as he saw sitting on the ledge someone. He took a few steps back as she turned her head around, her face bloody with an eerie light coming from her eyes and mouth. She pointed towards the city below, Isaac's HUD showed him the Peterheim Middle School.
"Isaac! ISAAC!" Kal's voice brought him back to his senses making her disappear.
"It's in Peterheim isn't it?" He spoke with a solemn tone
"How did you know?" Kal asked him cautiously.
Isaac took a deep breath and sighed "Nicole told me..."
There was a few moments of silence "Isaac, return to base immediately we'll deal with this later."
"I can't Kal and you know it, if there's a marker in chernobog then it's a ticking bomb, Amiya and the others are in danger, everyone is...There are too many bodies here because of the riots...We'll go and we'll come up with a way to take care of it." The Engineer replied shaking his head.
"Alright, Isaac...Do what you must."
Peterheim
Sonya, Lada, Anna and Natalaya had barricaded themselves in the principal's office, they thought that what happened until now was hell on earth...but they were wrong. After the Reunion soldiers left their school and every student began killing each other indiscriminately for no apparent reason, a group of soldiers entered the school. They weren't part of the Reunion nor of the Ursus Police Force, they were attacked by the crazed students and they killed them all with their guns before dragging their bodies into the courtyard thanking them for their contribution to something they called the 'Convergence'.
The students who didn't fight them were helped on the other hand, the woman who led the soldiers brought food for them among a few medicines. For a second, they thought that the nightmare had ended...
The woman said her name was Daina that she was a bishop of sorts and that she was following the will of the Divine Marker. She told Anna and Natalaya that she couldn't take them away because they had a holy task given to them by the marker. She asked them to carry out a message to a certain individual they called the Maker.
'The Maker shall go to Lungmen to fulfil his role to make us whole as it was meant to be'
None of them knew what the message meant but Daina told them it didn't matter as the Maker would understand. All of them were weirded out by the fact that Daina made sure that everyone was given this task and that before she left the school, she gave them all weapons. They watched her leave on the aircraft, some tried to get on board only to be promptly shot.
Anna watched Daina leaning towards the outside of her aircraft before dropping something into the courtyard...Letting a new nightmare commence. The corpses began to move again, in a sickening fashion their bodies mutated in new horrific ways as they growled and screamed. They all quickly began to roam the school finding the surviving students and killing them with their blades made out of bones only for their victims to rise once more.
Sonya was the first among them to come across one of those monsters...She had decapitated it using her axe but despite missing its head, the thing kept attacking slashing at her inflicting a terrific wound on her back. Taken by adrenaline Sonya cut it apart and finally, she was able to kill it for good...or so they thought. Anna inspected the monster only to find out that the body was still reacting to their presence, Sonya hadn't killed it, she just made it unable to harm them.
Anna used the medical supplies given to them by Daina to help Sonya's wound. They understood that they wouldn't be able to defend themselves inside the classroom they had occupied as their base. Despite her wound, Sonya defended them from the monsters with the help of Lada. They reached the principal's office and barricaded themselves in it with the food supplies they had and hadn't moved since.
Natalya had become almost completely unresponsive, they had to drag her along with them and now was refusing to eat. She had tried to end herself by stabbing a pen inside her neck but Sonya didn't allow her to. Speaking of Sonya, she had become way more dissociated and aggressive to the point that she reacted violently to almost any input such as when Lada begged Natalya to eat causing Sonya to force herself onto Natalya shoving food down her throat before going back to sit in front of the barricade staring at it while keeping her axes on her lap while muttering the message Daina gave them.
At first, Anna was keeping things in order but slowly she began to speak to Vika's teddy bear...as in having actual conversations with it. She had begun writing on the walls at first with a pen but when the ink ran out she began running her index finger on the walls until she drew out blood. Lada could not understand what Anna was writing with her blood, she had never seen such an alphabet but one thing was always present...Daina's pendant.
Lada was the only one who was relatively calm, only breaking down crying whenever they would eat. She spent the time staring at the cameras of the school using the principal's computer. She stared at those beings walking down the school's corridors looking for new victims or simply staying idle waiting for a sound or playing dead.
All of them were taken by deep stinging pain coming from their stomachs, it didn't matter if they just ate, the pain would never leave them. Anna and Sonya didn't seem to be bothered by it sometimes placing their hands on their stomachs. Natalya on the other hand would writhe on the floor in agony gasping for air whenever having a particularly strong episode. Lada would just curl up in the principal's chair whispering apologies to herself.
They did not know how much time had passed and honestly, they did not care. The only thing breaking their whispers were the sounds of those monsters getting closer to the barricade growling at it before going away...Or whenever they heard something big moving through the corridors. Lada had caught a glimpse of it but didn't speak about it...just like when she saw Vika's face on one of those monsters.
Lada's eyes then saw something out of the ordinary. A group of people, wearing strange armours with glowing visors had undone one of the barricades that kept the students in, alongside them there was an Ursus girl. Of course, the monsters were quick to try to attack them but they failed. The newcomers seemed to exactly know how to deal with them. She looked at the others seeing Anna staring at him.
"Are you sure Vika?... Alright, if you say so. The Maker is here...We must deliver the message..." She whispered.
Lada slowly nodded and used the Principal's intercom system to speak to their possible saviours.
"This is...Lada I am one of the few survivors of this school...We are currently trapped inside the principal's office...please...help us..."
Isaac looked at the camera and nodded before looking at Team Aegis who also nodded "We'll find the survivors first, then the source of the signal. They have access to the cameras and probably saw who did all of this. We can find where the marker signal originates from the cameras' recordings."
He then looked at the Urusus girl they had picked up on their way to Peterheim. They had found her fending off some necromorphs saving moments before she would have been overwhelmed.
"Zoya, stay outside and hide, if we don't come out in an hour go south you should be coming across Rhodes Island's operators."
The girl looked reluctant but quickly nodded and left looking for a hiding spot.
Karrie looked at the distorted bodies they had just put down...She felt her stomach twist. Isaac and the others went through a quick briefing on what the necromorphs were and the effect of the marker but seeing them in person was another thing. She felt like throwing up but the thought of removing her helmet terrified her.
"Alright, eyes wide open, report if you see ANYTHING that isn't a necromorph, if you see any loved ones or something similar DON'T follow them," Gabe told Karrie placing his hand on her shoulder "Stay away from the ventilation system and doors, if you must go near them point your weapon at them. Stay always with us."
With that said, the group ventured deeper into the halls of the schools. The walls were covered in blood, the floor was covered by the corruption, biomass used by the marker signal to convert an environment to fit the necromorph's needs. The group came to a halt as the cries of a guardian echoed across the halls.
Karrie widened her eyes as she saw what looked like a young woman being one with a wall of flesh. Her belly ripped open letting out her intestines now converted into tentacles, it moaned in pain as it also fired small chunks of biomass which also sprouted a single tentacle. The moans of pain caused a chain reaction as the group heard screams and grow coming from all directions.
Slashers and leapers immediately busted down the doors of the classrooms charging at the group while some lurkers and pukers launched their projectiles at them. Isaac immediately used his arts to launch a stasis projectile at the group of slashers slowing them down to a crawl before shooting their limbs apart with his plasma cutter.
Nathan used his force gun to shoot a gravity well that caught the leapers allowing Carver to shoot a grenade at them with his pulse rifle taking most of them out and severely injuring the others. Gabe used his seeker rifle to take out the guardian's appendages while Karrie used her ripper to keep the slashers away from him.
The guardian cried in pain as all of its tentacles were destroyed by Gabe who immediately turned around and began taking shots at the lurkers and pukers ripping them apart with his high-caliber rounds. Karrie joined him by switching to her line gun and firing its wide projectile at incoming groups of slashers.
Nathan placed his force gun on his back switching to his heavy-duty contact beam beginning to charge up a shot. When he released it he was able to take out multiple necros at once. Isaac used his telekinesis to rip the slasher's blades and used them to pin the other necromorphs to the walls taking out the remaining ones.
Karrie was breathing heavily and sighed in relief as they survived this encounter that was until a chirping sound reached Isaac's ears. He scanned his surroundings immediately seeing the ugly heads of the stalkers peeking around the corners and one of them charging at an unsuspecting Karrie. He tried to reach her but the other stalkers charged at them causing him to turn around to deal with them.
"KARRIE!BEHIND YOU" He shouted hoping to warn her in time.
Karrie turned around just in time for the necromorph to ram its head into her belly sending her to the ground. Immediately the monster began to hit her with its claws aiming at her neck trying to pierce at her armor. The woman let out a pained groan as she reached at her hip for her plasma saw. She let out a warcry as she slammed the saw at the monster's arms ripping them apart before kicking it off her, she then slammed the blade against its neck cutting through muscle and bones before decapitating it and killing it.
The others were able to halt the stalker's charge before turning around to see Karrie covered in blood and guts. Isaac immediately began to check on her.
"Are you alright?" He asked as he checked on her rig seeing that it was still blue.
Karrie touched her neck as she breathed heavily and nodded "Yes...It did not make it through the armour..."
'Karrie! we can't surrender! The columbians will kill us! Karrie don't open the door!' a haunting reached Karrie's ears causing her to stare at the corridor completely frozen in place as her eyes saw her Bolivarian squadmates standing there riddled with crossbow bolts.
Isaac immediately understood what was going on and grabbed the woman by the shoulders and shook her "Karrie! Whatever you are seeing, it's not real!"
Karrie looked at Isaac and then back to the corridor no longer seeing anything in the corridors "Isaac...I..."
He shook his head "I understand, it's not real, it's the marker, alright?"
Karrie nodded and looked at the others expecting them to consider her a sort of freak but despite their helmets, she could tell that they only had sympathy for her. They began to move again toward the principal's office using the indications on the walls.
Isaac grew worried as the survivors didn't contact them through the intercom. He could hear the necromorphs through the rooms shrieking and growling, some of them did in fact try to jump on them but they made short work of them. They finally reached the office, seeing that everything was wrecked and that a barricade kept the principal's office from the rest of the school.
"This is Rhodes Island Team Aegis, we are here to help!" Isaac shouted towards the barricade.
There was no reply, Isaac's heart sank thinking that he was not able to save the survivors in time and that perhaps they had been attacked while waiting for them. Gabe and Nathan sighed as they approached the barricade to begin dismantling it but before they could, they saw the barricade moving slowly coming apart. They all raised their weapons except that the survivors were turned but instead, they found themselves to a small blonde Ursus girl that was shaking like a leaf. She widened her eyes when she saw the laser sights on her and tears started crossing her cheeks as another girl rushed in front of the blonde one wielding an axe.
Isaac raised his hand in a friendly gesture as he lowered his plasma cutter and the others did the same. All of them see the conditions of the other survivors. The girl holding the axe showed clear signs of the marker's influence, her eyes wide open and shaking, her breath irregular and almost sounding like a growl. The other survivors didn't acknowledge their presence as they were either completely unresponsive or too busy writing with blood on the walls. It was clear that they couldn't be safely transported through the necromorph-infested school.
Isaac kept his hands raised as he walked over to the girls ready to use stasis if needed "My name is Isaac Clarke, but for now, call me Maker, what's your name?"
All survivors immediately looked at him with wide eyes prompting Gabe and Carver to raise their weapons. The girl who had been writing on the walls rushed to Isaac but he put her on Stasis before turning around seeing that the girl wielding the axes was doing the same and was put into Stasis by Gabe. The rest of the team rushed and tackled the two girls taking advantage of the stasis effect.
The girl who had been unresponsive until now stood up causing Nathan to prepare another stasis shot but she did not move.
"The Maker shall go to Lungmen to fulfil his role to make us whole as it was meant to be" She spoke with an eerie voice.
Isaac stared at her in disbelief as he approached her and put his hands on her shoulders "Who told you that?!"
The girl didn't reply instead she simply pointed her finger at the principal's desk. The Engineer immediately rushed to the desk where the computer was and started going through the camera recordings. He saw the insanity that the Reunion put the students through and then the unknown group of soldiers bringing in bodies inside the school and their leader talking to the students that survived up until that point and giving them some supplies. He watched as an aircraft landed in the courtyard picking up the soldiers and their leader and after a few seconds from take off, a single object fell down and all hell broke loose.
"Isaac? How fucked we are?" Carver asked keeping one of the girls down.
Isaac looked at them and sighed "It's a fragment, not a full marker..."
Nathan let out a sigh of relief "Well that's more manageable..."
Karrie raised an eyebrow underneath her helmet "How so? How is a fragment less dangerous?"
"Its range is way smaller, the school and a few blocks are under its influence and because of it the necromorphs can't go around all Chernobog and only the bodies in the area get turned..." Isaac explained as he moved away from the desk towards the disassembled barricade "And it can be contained and destroyed with a relatively small quantity of originium..."
Karrie nodded feeling a little bit more confident before looking at the girls "What do we do with them? We can't leave them here."
"The Overlord can't come here, the landing zone is too dangerous and unfortunately the RIG's sensors picked up all the warning signs of a catastrophe so even if I call it here, the catastrophe could hit us midair...But you are right, we can't leave them here, Gabe and Carver will stay here and protect them. The others with me, we'll take care of the fragment..." Isaac ordered getting a nod from the others.
Gabe and Carver placed the girls in the corner of the room, one kept watch on them while the other guarded the entrance for any necromorph. Isaac, Nathan and Karrie left the office and headed towards the courtyard, they noticed that the closer they got the more corruption was there. They had a few encounters with some slashers and leapers but they took care of it...although they noticed that many rooms were literally flattened...entire walls were torn down and some bodies were literally crushed.
They got to the courtyard which was literally covered by the corruption...except for a single spot. A black cube was sitting on the dead grass almost in a mocking manner.
"Alright...I pick it up, this is a big school, it must have a big originium generator to power up all the facilities, we find the generator and blow it up along with the fragment." Isaac spoke.
As soon as he began approaching the fragment, a roar shook the entire courtyard as a gigantic Necromorph with a long, slender body and highly elongated limbs smashed through one of the school's walls. Its body was covered by an armour made out of bone...and originium. It was composed of multiple bodies, too misshapen to count. At the end of a flexible neck was the Necromorph's head, which was formed from the head of a single human victim. The upper jaw expanded into a fanged maw and a pair of mandibles protruded from either side of the face.
It charged at Isaac who got away just in the nick of time making it crash and tear down another wall. Acting fast, Karrie went and grabbed onto the fragment to secure it but immediately her body became tense as if she was being shocked by electricity. She fell to the ground completely taken over by violent spasms. Isaac immediately tried to reach her but the massive necromorph began charging at him again.
Isaac fired his plasma gun to it seeing it had little to no effect. Nathan charged his contact beam and fired a shot which, while it did not pierce through its armour, was able to make it miss its charge. Isaac took the opportunity to rush to Nathan's side and picked up Karrie taking her to cover and taking away the fragment. As soon as he touched the thing the entire sky turned red and he saw Nicole waving at him while the whispers of thousands of voices told him the same thing...
'Make us whole'
He shook his head as if wiping those hallucinations away returning to the present and his horrible predictment. As if the universe was mocking the duo, the catastrophe had finally begun in the form of a furious storm of originium meteors.
The Monster let out another roar and the entire school seemed to spring up to life as the growls and screams of the other necromorphs seemed to answer. Soon after, both Nathan and Isaac got a call from Carver through their RIGs.
"SHIT ISAAC! THEY ARE SWARMING US! WE DON'T KNOW FOR HOW LONG WE CAN RESIST!"
Isaac cursed under his breath as he looked at the sky and an idea popped into his mind "Nathan, keep it busy!"
"HUH?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Nathan replied wielding his force gun and firing several gravity wells to keep the massive beast in check "ISAAC I HOPE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!"
Isaac used the thrusters of his RIG to launch himself on the school's rooftop before pointing his hand to the sky and reaching out using his telekinesis. As if reacting to his actions, the rooftop access busted open as groups of leapers and pregnants closed in on him. He aimed his plasma cutter at them and began taking shots at them taking out some of them but not enough to keep them from approaching.
He was about to get off the roof when Karrie reached him and with one hand used her ripper and with the other her plasma saw. She let out a warcry ripping and tearing the necromorphs defending Isaac to the best of her abilities.
"YOU WILL NOT HAVE MY SQUAD NOT THIS TIME!" She screamed her heart out.
Nathan on the other hand was running low on his force gun ammo and was forced to use his thrusters to perform dashes across the courtyard to avoid being trampled by the giant monster who was trying with all of its forces to kill him. His contact beam shots were slowly chipping away at the armor of his foe but not at a sustainable pace.
Finally, Isaac was able to catch what he was looking for. From the catastrophe itself, the engineer had been able to use his telekinesis on a falling originium meteor, he began directing it towards the courtyard as he pointed his hand at the beast attacking Nathan.
"NATE GET TO COVER!" He warned his teammate who upon seeing the meteor threw himself into the school.
The necromorph was about to follow him into the school but the meteor crushed it killing it instantly and causing a shockwave that knocked both Isaac and Karrie off their feet along with the other necros. A leaper bit Karrie's shoulder taking advantage of the crash but Isaac immediately shot it off her, he was about to check on her but she pointed at the meteor.
"The fragment!" She yelled hearing more necromorphs approaching their position.
Isaac looked at the sizeable meteor of active originium, he knew that it would have been enough to destroy the fragment if it was used as a bomb but the explosion would have been devastating...but he had no other choice, he grabbed the fragment and threw it at the meteor. He then grabbed Karrie and fired his thrusters jumping towards the streets, as he fell, he aimed his plasma gun and shot...As soon as the plasma made contact with the originium, a blinding light wrapped everything followed by an ear-shattering boom.
The Engineer came to his senses after a few moments due to a sharp pain coming from his chest. When he looked down at his chest, he saw a piece of rebar going through it. The rebar was a few inches away from Karrie's helmet, Isaac had used his body as a shield during the fall. He looked around to see if there were any necromorphs around them but that wasn't the case. He slowly raised himself before hearing a loud gasp.
He turned in the direction of the sound and saw Zoya standing a few meters away from him with her hands covering her mouth horrified by seeing his current state.
"Could you...turn around please?" He asked her before the girl immediately turned around.
Isaac grabbed onto the rebar piercing his chest and began pulling it out groaning, hissing and gritting his teeth in pain as he pulled out the piece of reinforced metal off his chest. His growls continued as his body regenerated the lost flesh and his suit resealed itself. He then checked on Karrie, turning her around to check on her RIG, the light was yellow. He connected his holoprojector to her RIG and saw that she had a few broken bones, quite severe head trauma and was bleeding from where the leaper had bit her.
The only good news was that the catastrophe seemed to be over and that his stunt had paid off as he could not feel the malignant presence of the fragment. He recalled the overlord and then contacted the other's RIGs.
"Nathan, Gabe, Carver can you hear me?" He spoke with a tired tone.
The first to respond was Nathan "Fucking hell Isaac, next time warn me about the massive fucking explosion..."
"Same here Isaac, we were lucky to be on the other side of the school or we would be under the debris..." Gabe added with a sigh.
"Either that, or we would have to look for the school's generator with all those things trying to kill us..." Isaac replied "Karrie is wounded, I recalled the Overlord, get the survivors out and let's leave this hellhole. What's your status?"
"I think I broke my leg so I might need someone to pick me up..." Nathan spoke hissing in pain soon after.
"Roger that, me and Carver had a few light wounds, we'll pick you up on the way to the extraction..." Gabe replied.
With that said Isaac did his best to support Karrie as the Overlord landed a few meters away from them. He grabbed a stretcher from it and with the help of Zoya he placed Karrie on the dropship. Soon after, Gabe, Carver and Nathan reached them followed by the Ursus girls they had found, they were all restrained, probably a safety measure to ensure they wouldn't be able to cause harm. As soon as they got onboard, Gabe injected them with sedatives as per protocol when dealing with individuals who have been exposed to the marker.
Once they were all on board, Isaac hopped on the pilot's seat and took off. He began contacting Kal'tsit to report the end of their mission.
"Kal...this is Isaac...We have destroyed a marker fragment, we also need immediate medical attention, we have 2 wounded, 2 with light injuries and 5 survivors who have been exposed to the fragment and seem to be in various stages of starvation, hydration and mental breakdown..."
The answer from Rhodes Island was immediate "Roger that Isaac, I'll have a fully equipped medical team waiting for you at the hangar..."
"Thank you...How did Amiya's mission go?" He asked as they flew over the area where the Sarcophagus was supposed to be.
There were a few seconds of hesitation on Kaltsit's end "Amiya was just extracted along with the doctor...unfortunately they had to leave Ace's team behind."
At that news, Isaac began scanning the area for Rhodes Island IFF signals to find one of them south of the Sarcophagus' location "Kal we're going to have a detour."
"Isaac no it is too-"
The engineer closed the transmission and looked back at Gabe and Carver "We are picking up Ace's team, they didn't make it to the extraction point and if we leave now they'll die. The area is filled with Reunion so we are going to land and fuck off as fast as possible!"
Gabe and Carver nodded preparing themselves for a rough ride. The overlord closed in on the IFF signal and saw a big reunion group being held off by Ace. Isaac armed the ship's weapons and fired explosives in the middle of the battlefield raising a dust cloud.
Ace looked confused at first but then saw the Overlord descending behind him and Gabe and Carver getting off to carry any Rhodes Island operator to the dropship. Even Zoya helped with the operation.
"ACE HURRY UP!" Isaac screamed into the radio prompting the man to run towards the ship.
The dust cloud was immediately dissipated by the arts of the Reunion's tyrant, who looked with disdain at the evacuation as she began casting her art. Gabe grabbed onto Ace's jacket and pulled him onto the ship closing its doors.
"GO!"
Isaac fired up the engine to the maximum just in time to avoid a wall of fire that would have surely shot down the dropship. He looked back at Ace seeing that he was missing an arm but was relatively okay. He then contacted Rhodes Island again.
"About that medical team Kal...send a bigger one, Ace and the other need them..."
PRTS Initialising...
Data processing...
Authorization level 1 granted...
Accessing files...
Teekaz and the Black Marker...Access Denied
Ishimura Incident...Access Denied
Eudora Incident...Access Denied
Babel Incident...Access Denied
Team Aegis...Access Granted
Opening log N°1
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.
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Role: Specialist
[Code Name] Maker (Real name: Isaac Clarke)
[Gender] Male
[Combat Experience] 10 years
[Place of Birth] Laterano
[Race] CLASSIFIED
[Height] 183cm
[Infection Status]
Medical Tests have confirmed that no infection is present...CLASSIFIED
[Physical Strength] Excellent
[Mobility] Outstanding
[Physical Resilience] Outstanding
[Tactical Acumen] Outstanding
[Combat Skill] Excellent
[Originium Arts Assimilation] Flawed
Author's notes: Aaaand that's for the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! I tried to merge both franchises together as much as possible while throwing a few sprinkles of other things like the Overlord dropship from Killzone, I thought the modular and angled design was a better fit for Isaac's looks. At the end of each chapter I will leave this small section dedicated to the operator files of Team Aegis so stay tuned for more :)