So, here is the second chapter focusing on Church's backstory and how he got into the plot at all. Also probably the last one at this point. Hopefully we'll never need intermission chapters again, eh?
Anyway, I remember an earlier sentiment from a reader about how these intermission chapters felt somewhat removed from the I.S. universe as a whole. I can't wholly disagree, but I do urge everyone to keep in mind that most things I.S. are removed from even their own world. The existence of I.S. in-universe is relevant to an extremely small percentage of the human population, and on top of that it is only relevant to sports and military affairs. That being said, people who are not part of those niches would lead lives with almost no connection to I.S. at all, other than maybe hearing about it on the news from time to time.
Church considered himself to be a fairly rational person overall. Not that he never made emotional decisions, but he didn't picture himself as the type of person to do recklessly stupid things with no chance for a positive outcome unless he had to. Right now though, he was rethinking that assessment of himself.
He was currently sitting in the back of one of those armored van things you saw in the movies every time a prisoner needed to be transported. He wasn't in cuffs, but he was sitting across from two men that were very intimidating. Black masks, dark goggles, tactical gear, and M4A1's, all included. In the movies, the hero would probably be able to take these guys on, or perhaps snark at them while awaiting a miraculous rescue from an outside party.
Church was not going to do anything like that. He wasn't stupid enough to think he could take on military types like these. Besides, he had entered this vehicle willingly after agreeing to the fifth and final test that Sasha had presented to him: a live fire exercise with armored exoskeletons. The now doubtful volunteer supposed it was logical for something this secretive to include scary, faceless armed guys, but it didn't do much to put him at ease. It didn't help that they hadn't spoken a single word.
Not for the first time since agreeing to this situation, Church wondered if he had made a terrible mistake. He had concluded that it would all be worth it considering what Sasha had told him, but that conclusion hinged on how trustworthy the woman was. Right now, it really felt like Church was getting into some seriously deep shit. Like, leave no witnesses cloak and dagger deep shit. He could only hope that he really was as potentially valuable to these people as Sasha had implied.
Needless to say, Church wondered if he could really call himself a smart person after willingly getting into an armored van with these shady people. But at the same time, he figured that one had to get into shady business somehow. Maybe the masked men across from him had started out like this too? Church wasn't sure if that was a comforting thought or not.
Ultimately, no words were spoken between the occupants of the van for more than an hour, making for one of the most awkward experiences Church had ever been forced to partake in. Thankfully, the trip didn't last any longer than that, as the vehicle finally came to a stop after an hour and a half of driving. The rear doors were swiftly opened upon arrival, at which point the armed men stepped out. Church had no choice but to follow them.
Now that he could lay eyes on the outside world again, Church was surprised to find that he wasn't in some secret bunker or hidden base. The vehicles had stopped in a large field of grass that was adjacent to thick woods with a lot of tall pines. It wasn't exactly the type of location he had been expecting for a live fire test. Was this really far enough removed from civilization to remain inconspicuous? Or was this organization just able to pull that many strings?
Aside from the one unmarked black van he had arrived in, there was another one that had parked ahead. Its rear doors were opened swiftly as well, which allowed Sasha to step out, that now unnerving smile on her face.
"Welcome to the location of your final test, Percival. A bit anti-climatic, I'm sure. If you'd just step over here..."
She motioned for him to approach her, which he did under the watchful eyes of the armed and masked men that were present. When Church got closer to the van Sasha had stepped out of, he was able to see inside of it, revealing an exoskeleton frame not unlike the one he had worn before, though this one was covered in armored plates. As best as Church could tell, there were no exposed points, though he could imagine the joints being a little weaker than elsewhere. The helmet was a simple, ugly thing: it looked like a sphere from the front, but it elongated towards the back like one of those cliche "alien" skulls people went on about all the time. The visor was just a black bar about where the eyes would be. The whole suit was a matte gray.
Sasha wasted no time in explaining the situation. "As you can see, this is the suit you will be wearing for this test. It functions nigh identically to the exoskeleton you operated a few days ago, with the only major difference being that your body will not be exposed. Rest assured, the armor plating will be impervious to the caliber of ammunition used in this exercise."
Church resisted the urge to narrow his eyes at the woman, mostly because he didn't believe her. If this suit was truly impervious to the bullets being used in this test, what was the point of using live ammunition at all? Live ammo exercises existed to drill the gravity of combat and the real risk of danger into people. But if there was no actual risk, it was no different than a simulation. Church couldn't imagine that everything was as it seemed here, but he also imagined that he was in no position to back out at this point. Admittedly, he was kind of worried that he'd disappear from the world if he tried to get out of this now.
The woman next to him seemed none the wiser to his concerns, continuing with her explanation of things without pause. "Naturally, you will be afforded a weapon and some magazines to carry out the exercise, which is quite simple."
Sasha motioned towards the thick woods that they were next to. "Traverse this forest and get to the other side. A Nav marker in your HUD will tell you where to go. All you must do is reach your destination."
Naturally, Church felt the need to ask for some clarification. "I thought people were going to be shooting at me in this scenario."
"Oh, they will. There will be obstacles on the way to your objective. But how you deal with them is up to you. You just have to get where you're going. Manage that, and everything we discussed earlier can be yours."
Church frowned as he recalled just what was allegedly at stake here. Not only a lot of money, but supposedly anything he could think to ask for, not to mention some sort of role in a presumably exciting and cutting-edge field. Of course, he was really only here for the money. In a way, he had always known that he would probably have to do something shady to get as much funding as he needed, but at the same time, Church had never really considered that such an opportunity would really arise.
For a brief moment, he couldn't help but wonder if it was really even worth it. On some level, he loved his mother just on principle alone. But at the same time, she had been comatose for so long that he barely remembered what she had been like. He had vague memories and recollections of being happy with her, but if he were held at gunpoint and asked to describe what type of woman she had been back then, Church didn't think he could do it.
That being the case, one could be forgiven for wondering if his motivation was stupid. In reality, he only vaguely knew the woman he was doing all of this for. She had been out of his life for years now, for more than a decade even. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that she could be saved regardless of how much money Church could accrue. Even the experiment he was trying to get money for now was just that: a chance, and one that wqs very likely to not work at all. He was going to awfully great lengths for someone he couldn't remember that well, and in pursuit of an outcome that may never happen.
But one thing Church could acknowledge was that he was the only option. If he didn't do this, no one else was going to help his mother, and she would just be left on government funded life support until Church pulled the plug. The idea of abandoning her when he was the only one who could help her didn't sit particularly well with him.
Although, perhaps there was a more selfish notion to it all. Sasha hadn't been mistaken when she had said that Church's life wasn't going anywhere good. He already wasn't even finishing high school because of this whole wretched situation, which wasn't a great place to start. On top of that, he'd been so focused on his mother's condition that Church didn't even really have some sort of concrete ambition for himself. He had no idea what he actually wanted to do with his life, professionally. And that was assuming that college was even in the cards for him with how things were going now.
So admittedly, the things this shadowy organization were offering him were very appealing. It would take care of most of his problems and also give him a sense of purpose, doing something that was presumably important and maybe even exciting. It was more than he probably ever could have hoped for in life otherwise. It was a miracle that guys got to do anything worthwhile with technology these days, considering how Infinite Stratos had skewed things in favor of females on the scientific front.
With all of that in mind, Church pushed down any trepidation he had about all of this. "Well, what are we waiting for? Suit me up."
Sasha seemed quite pleased that her test candidate was stepping up to the plate, motioning for him to step into the van with the exosuit. "By all means."
Church did as he was told and stepped into the vehicle, at which point Sasha pressed a button on a remote, causing the front of the armored exoskeleton to open up like an iron maiden. The invitation was obvious, so Church wasted no time in turning around and backing up into it, at which point it all closed back around him, plunging him into darkness.
Once everything was sealed up, the HUD lit up within a few seconds, revealing that the entire system was identical to the one Church had operated before. Superimposed over his vision of the world around him were measurements of operational efficiency, the status of different modules, rangefinder calculations and much more. Like last time, it wasn't all that different from the type of thing you'd see in a video game, albeit a lot more detailed.
"If everything is alright, go ahead and vacate the vehicle, Percival."
Like last time, Church wasn't able to actually move the exoskeleton with his own strength. But the machine nevertheless stepped forward as he mentally commanded his body to do so. It only took a few steps to make it out of the armored van.
Once he was outside, Sasha spoke again, though directly to the suit this time. "Unit AE-003, begin operational diagnostic."
Immediately, a computer generated voice emanated from the helmet, running through a list of systems and functions and determining whether or not they were all operating as intended. Church understood some of it of course: you didn't have to be a genius to know what a targeting computer or motorized servos were. But a lot of it went over his head once it got more complicated. What he did know is that the diagnostic didn't report a single issue, so that was good.
When all of that was done and Sasha was satisfied, she motioned for one of the masked soldiers to approach her. "Well, glad to see that all of that is working as intended. Now, for your weapon and ammunition."
The soldier she had called forward handed over his weapon, which Sasha promptly held out to Church. He wasted no time in grabbing hold of it, at which point a detailed schematic was brought up in his HUD, along with that synthetic voice from before.
"Weapon identified: Colt M4A1, 5.56x45mm NATO. No modifications present."
Church directed his attention to Sasha, though she couldn't see his cocked eyebrow, naturally. "All I get is a completely vanilla M4A1? I'm not exactly rifle qualified, so some helpful attachments would probably be nice."
The brunette woman didn't seem bothered by his assessment. "Modifications will not be necessary. The exoskeleton will compensate for recoil better than any attachment possibly could, and your HUD has magnification capabilities built-in. And it's hardly like you'll need a laser sight with a targeting computer, no? I suppose an under barrel grenade launcher never hurts anyone, but throwing explosives around in the woods might be a little much. Rest assured, this is all you will need: well, except for more ammo."
The same soldier who had offered up his weapon began unstrapping magazines from his kit and handing those over as well. Sasha handed them off to Church while offering some instruction.
"These magazines can be magnetically attached to any part of the exoskeleton you wish. Feel free to equip them as you see fit. All you have to do is will them to magnetize, just like your other actions."
Church held one magazine up to his armored chest, watching with interest as it stuck to him. Presumably, the magnetic connection would be strong enough to keep it attached to him, but weak enough to be easily removed with intentional force. Seeing that it would work just fine, Church attached three more magazines to his torso and two to each of his outer thighs. A total of nine magazines seemed like a lot for one guy to be carrying when there was no expectation of combat, and it did make Church wonder how much shooting they expected him to do in this test. Maybe they just didn't expect him to have particularly good trigger discipline.
Admittedly, Church found it a little weird that they were handing off a real gun to him, someone who had never been trained with a military weapon like this. Sure, he knew how firearms worked overall: general knowledge on firing mechanisms, safeties, how to reload and things like that. But if the thing had some sort of major malfunction, it wasn't like he knew how to field strip an M4. Maybe his suit computer could actually walk him through things like that? Seemed reasonable enough: Infinite Stratos apparently had artificial intelligence that could do things like that, so it should have been available to other technology by now as well, though Church didn't think this particular suit had an actual AI.
He said none of this to Sasha, who stepped away from him. She had procured one of those electronic datapads from somewhere as well.
"Well, everything appears to be in order. I'm activating the marker that will designate the location you need to reach."
As she said that, a semi-transparent orange diamond cropped up in Church's visor, situated on a compass bar at the top of the HUD. The approximate distance was apparently three miles.
"Quite the hike."
"Well, the suit is going to be doing all the physical work, so what is there to really complain about? If you're ready, feel free to get underway."
With all eyes on him, Church felt a little anxious, but he figured there was no point in standing around. Turning away from his peers and towards the direction he was being told to go, the wary test candidate shouldered the weapon that had been handed off to him and walked into the woods, his heavy mechanized footfalls crushing brush underfoot. He wasn't sure what kind of crap this actual test was going to throw at him, but he got the feeling that it wasn't going to be nearly as easy as it was being made to seem.
Thirty minutes later, Church was deep within the woods that separated himself from his objective. Physically, he had only covered about a third of the distance he needed to in order to reach his destination. That was mostly due to the level of caution he was employing with this entire situation: Church had yet to move faster than a brisk walk, and he had gone out of his way to take a a more winding path towards the objective instead of moving straight towards it. He had no idea what kind of obstacles were out here, but he imagined that they would be easier to avoid if he wasn't so predictable.
On top of even that, Church was consistently taking cover behind trees, boulders, logs and the like to scan his surroundings. His HUD had limited motion tracking abilities, and Church often used its magnification ability to peer deeper into the woods before moving again. Some people would probably consider him paranoid for being this careful when nothing bad had actually happened yet, but he had no idea what he needed to be on the lookout for. Traps? Snipers? Drones? Sasha hadn't provided any sort of time limit for this test, so there was no reason to rush right into the dangerous arms of the unknown.
He was currently leaning against a moss covered pine, peering around its trunk at the woods around him. The motion sensor picked up a squirrel and a bird flying away, but nothing else. Other than the types of noises you would expect of a forest, nothing seemed amiss at all, though that hardly did anything to reassure him.
Even so, he couldn't detect any sort of danger, so ultimately Church had no reason to stick around. He stepped out from behind his tree and continued walking, noting how difficult it was to be quiet when heavy metal steps crushed every branch, twig and leaf in his way.
Church had asked many questions about his situation over the past week or so, but now more than ever, he found himself questioning what the end goal of all this was. Did this really have anything to do with Infinite Stratos and the debacle that had cost America theirs? Or was it something else entirely? Church couldn't imagine how an armored exoskeleton for infantry could possibly compete with a giant flying mech.
Then again, maybe it wasn't supposed to? The Alaska Treaty pretty much stopped I.S. from ever being openly used in warfare, so a lot of fighting was still done with infantry and tanks and artillery. Maybe this had nothing to do with Infinite Stratos at all, and it was just a research and development program for conventional equipment. Of course, that still raised some questions as to why underage folks like him were being roped into the testing... didn't DARPA have people for this kind of thing?
While he would have dwelt on that a little longer, Church didn't get much of a chance to, since his head was snapped backwards from a huge impact accompanied by an ear-splitting ricochet of metal on metal. The armored boy was knocked flat into the the dirt by the strike, just as the echo of a gunshot reverberated throughout the forest, startling birds and rodents alike.
Naturally, the first thing Church did was reel in stunned shock: while he was quite obviously still alive, the impact of a rifle caliber round against the armor surrounding his skull left him rattled, to say the least. Shaking his head to try and dispel the fuzziness, his second instinct was to panic, considering that a sniper had just shot him in the face. But he was alive and seemingly unharmed, so he managed to push down that surge of fear, convinced for a moment at least that he wasn't truly in danger.
Still, as a second round kicked up a sizable amount of dirt next to his body, Church elected to play it safe and scrambled to his feet as best as his cumbersome armor would allow, swiftly maneuvering behind a tree that would presumably cut off line of sight for his attacker.
Now that he had a moment to breathe, Church tried to get a grip on his situation. He had kind of been expecting a more even playing field: maybe opponents that were outfitted similarly to him. But an M4A1 against a sniper who was presumably at significant range wasn't a great scenario. Even with the supposed benefits of this exoskeleton when it came to shooting, he didn't think he was going to win a shootout with a marksman rifle at long range.
His mind racing for solutions, Church's eyes swept over the various elements in his HUD, trying to see if there was any useful information there. Unfortunately, the information that he found was more alarming than anything else. In the bottom left corner was a little humanoid outline, and the head on this outline was filled in yellow. There was a small marker that said '62%' next to it.
Hey now, what the fuck does that mean?!
Unfortunately, the rudimentary AI this exoskeleton was equipped with couldn't read his mind, so Church had to request information in a bit more straightforward manner. He just hoped he didn't have to address the AI by the designation Sasha had used earlier, as he couldn't remember it.
"Hey, AI! Suit! Whatever you are: what the hell is this '62%' next to the head on this outline?"
A response wasn't immediately forthcoming, but it turned out the basic AI was going through the motions of determining what information he was really asking for.
"Processing... armor integrity in the vicinity of the 'HEAD' region is at 62%. Reduced armor integrity increases the likelihood of a lethal impact in the compromised region. Is this answer sufficient?"
Church was silent for a moment as he considered the implications of this response. It didn't take him long to reach a conclusion on the matter. "The hell it is! What do you mean it 'increases the likelihood of a lethal impact?! Sasha said this armor was impervious to the caliber of ammo used in this test!"
Naturally, the suit AI didn't share his indignation or alarm. "Processing... likely explanation: the organism known as 'Sasha' offered inaccurate information."
Both furious and scared now that things were a lot more dangerous than they had initially appeared, Church simply spoke his mind. "No fucking shit! That bitch... what the hell do I do now?!"
"Processing... recommendation: avoid getting shot."
Church didn't believe this simplistic AI had the capability to crack jokes, but it sure felt like he was being mocked, which definitely wasn't helping him much with his newfound situation. It was bad enough when this whole thing was just shady as hell, but now he was actually in mortal danger. He had expected from the start that this exercise would include some risk, but he certainly hadn't expected that he could actually die out here.
Needless to say, Church had never found himself in an immediate life or death situation, so this wasn't exactly something he was used to, made evident by that damned AI speaking in his ears.
"Processing... warning, heart rate is dangerously elevated. Controlled breathing is recommended. Do not panic."
"Real fucking easy for you to say..."
Not really able to do anything to calm himself right away, Church nevertheless mentally scrambled for some sort of solution to his situation. Could he surrender? Would his attacker cease fire if he threw his weapon away? Could he just contact Sasha and drop out of this contest altogether? It wasn't like this was a real battlefield, so they should have been happy to let him leave.
Unless, of course, this was a no witnesses kind of situation, and trying to back out was tantamount to suicide. Church had initially thought himself a little paranoid for worrying about that, but considering the surprise that was the not so insignificant potential for death out here, he was reconsidering the notion. Maybe he didn't have to even give up at all? He was armed with a weapon and this exoskeleton, so he could just flee the area altogether, right?
Of course, he wouldn't have been surprised if his overseers had some sort of fail-safe to prevent something like that.
With a few more moments to breathe since he couldn't be accosted by the sniper at this angle, Church managed to calm his nerves somewhat. Self-preservation and lack of experience said that he really didn't want to do this. He wasn't a soldier: he wasn't even legally an adult. He'd never had anyone try to kill him before, which had already shaped up to be a terrifying experience. It wasn't even like he had the benefits of training or something to fall back on in such a situation, so he was well and truly a civilian suddenly thrust into a life-threatening situation.
All of that being said, one would think the reasonable thing to do would be to get out of this situation by any means necessary, to simply call it quits and try to give up. It was theoretically the safest option for sure. But with a minute to think, Church wasn't sure if he wanted to do that. Yeah, he wanted to live of course: but with his current state of affairs, 'living' was really just more of surviving. His life wasn't a total nightmare or anything, but it wasn't great either. He didn't have much to look forward to in regards to prospects or just being happy, since he had already dug a nearly insurmountable hole. He couldn't take care of his mom's bills on his own, and he definitely wouldn't be scrounging together enough for college tuition anytime soon, so as things stood right now, he seemed to be on the fast track to an unfulfilling life of low-quality living.
Naturally, Church would have preferred even a lackluster life like that to being dead, but it wasn't like those were his only options. If he won here today, he could live and improve his station. He didn't know just how much this shadowy organization could provide to him, but it was certainly more than he could ever acquire himself, and all he had to do was finish this test... which involved risking his life, and possibly killing someone else.
Frankly, he didn't care about that last part too much. Whoever attacked him had shot first, so if they had no qualms about potentially killing him, he would simply pay them back in kind.
Part of Church acknowledged that this was all totally mental, and that it was a little concerning for him to have ultimately concluded that he should go through with all of this madness. This was not the type of situation that someone his age should have been shrugging his shoulders to.
But hey, there had to be crazy people out there that did all the movie shit that ordinary people thought was fake. With little to lose, there was no reason one of those crazy people couldn't be him, right?
Coming to his utterly asinine conclusion, Church managed to calm himself enough to really think about his situation and how he could overcome it.
One shot to the helmet had apparently weakened his protection by about a third. That meant he could only survive one more direct hit to the same area, because any successive shot would be too much for the remaining armor to sustain.
He wasn't exactly enthused with this assessment, especially since whoever was shooting at him probably had mechanical assistance as well, meaning their accuracy was probably pretty good. But it wasn't like Church had to make it easy for them. He had a few options available to him, though he doubted elimination of the enemy would actually be one of them considering his range disadvantage. Of course, figuring out the full extent of his options fell to what this exoskeleton could and couldn't do.
"Suit, is there a way to determine the position of the enemy sniper?"
"Processing... the enemy must fire their weapon again to determine their current general position."
"Is there any way for me to see around this tree without sticking my face out there?"
The dumb AI took a moment to run through possibilities. "Processing... a fiber optic cable located in the 'LEFT WRIST, UPPER SIDE' can be used to acquire visuals without exposing the 'HEAD' region."
"Activate it."
Within moments, a small window opened up in Church's HUD, giving him a visual feed coming from the position of his left wrist. Frankly, Church was a little nervous about sticking his hand out there, because it was definitely less armored than his head was, so who knew if it could deflect the round that had hit him earlier. But it was much less of a risk than sticking his head out there, which could cost him the one shot worth of armor he had left in that area.
Although, he figured there were ways to minimize his risk even further. Relinquishing his weapon for a moment, Church picked up a stick near him with his right hand, tossing it out into the open at the same time he stuck his left hand out to get a visual of the forest with his secondary pair of eyes.
Frankly, Church hadn't really expected this Hollywood style tactic to work, but as the branch he threw out was torn asunder by a bullet and the silence of the forest was broken once again, he realized that it had actually been successful. The enemy sniper had reacted to movement so quickly that he had targeted the harmless branch before even realizing what it was, and while Church hadn't been hit directly, the branch had been close enough for his dumb AI companion to calculate a rough direction for the enemy position.
Withdrawing his hand before the enemy could get another shot off, Church took hold of his M4 again, preparing for the next step in his plan, rudimentary though it may have been. Aiming in the general area of his foe with one hand and raising his forearm as a barrier between his head and any potential bullets, Church broke into a sprint towards his objective, firing his weapon on full auto towards the supposed location of his foe.
Despite moving at a surprisingly fast pace for an armored exoskeleton, the internal workings of the machine successfully negated almost all recoil from his M4, even though he was firing on full-auto and one-handing it. Unfortunately, he failed to stay completely on target when another sniper round bounced off of the forearm guarding his head, which staggered Church a little bit.
He managed to stay on his feet this time though, which prompted Church to mix up his movement strategy. After all, the exoskeleton was doing all of the work for him, so it wasn't like he was limited by his own physicality. Seeing a ravine of sorts a few dozen feet ahead, Church took a giant forward dive, soaring through the air for a moment and easily rolling back to his feet after impact. Instead of continuing his sprint from there, he decided to simply do it a second time: why not? It wasn't like he was exerting any real effort that could limit him.
The enemy sniper clearly did not expect this maneuver, as the next shot to come Church's way actually missed, zipping through the air where his head would have been if he had continued sprinting normally. With a second flying leap, Church crashed into the bottom of the ravine, cutting off line of sight from his enemy and giving him room to breathe.
With a second to look around the area, Church found that this dip in the land was home to a small creek, as well as lots of fallen leaves and other debris and a collapsed and hollow log. His first instinct was to use his new concealment to make a break for it, but ultimately, Church decided against it. After all, he would have to leave this ravine to make progress, and then he would feasibly be in sight of his foe once again. It was unlikely that he would be able to outrun the range of his opponent, and the last thing he needed was to worry about someone actively hunting him through the woods.
He had an opportunity here to turn the tables on his foe, which was fortuitous indeed since someone with his current capabilities would often have no means of countering a sniper at long-range. If Church simply laid a trap for his opponent instead, he could close the distance and potentially defeat him. Of course, that depended on how said foe actually behaved from this point forward. If the sniper couldn't detect Church for a significant amount of time, would he leave his nest and attempt to track him? Or would he do something else? After all, maybe the sniper was a competitor who was looking to complete this test, and he would just proceed towards the goal while Church was hiding.
Sasha hadn't mentioned that there were any other test candidates, though that didn't completely exclude the possibility. Maybe his opponent actually wanted him to waste time lying in wait, while he got ahead? That didn't seem particularly likely though: Church had been taking a very sub-optimal path towards the objective in the name of caution. If his opponent was only looking to reach the goal like Church was, it would be a little odd for him to be way out here in the same vicinity. Not to mention that Church had no idea where a theoretical competitor would have started for the test to be equally fair for both of them.
Taking all of that into consideration, Church decided he would bet on his opponent being an obstacle specifically for him. With that in mind, the armored teen stepped away from the site of his impact after reloading his weapon and towards some of the underbrush nearby, opting to lie down in it and cover himself with as much debris as possible, so long as it looked natural. He was admittedly not a camouflage expert, but he only needed to go unnoticed long enough to see his enemy before he himself was noticed.
Once he was content enough in the capability of his concealment to guarantee a first strike, Church settled down and proceeded to wait. The plan was simple: wait for the enemy sniper to track him to this location and jump him in close quarters. It was the only way Church was going to win, with the disparity in their weapons.
But as moments turned into minutes and those minutes stretched into the double digits, Church had to wonder if he was sitting in the mud and the dirt for no reason at all. He reconsidered his opponent's actions and wondered if he should keep moving after all, but ultimately, patience won out. His opponent was a sniper, so surely they were the slow and cautious type as well. It seemed likely that his opponent would move carefully.
Coming to that conclusion, Church continued to wait for his as of yet unidentified nemesis. He had all the time in the world to do so, presumably. After all, Sasha had said that there as no time limit for this test, so the only real limit to how long Church had to stay here was determined by his patience. Said patience was tested as Church sat under a pile of underbrush for another twenty minutes, but when the crunch of fallen leaves being crushed made itself known, Church knew that his patience had been well rewarded.
Mere moments after he was treated to this sound, a familiar figure slid down the side of the ravine and into the shallow creek. In Church's line of sight was a practically identical copy of himself, another figure outfitted in the same armored exoskeleton that he himself wore. The only notable difference was the weapon being carried, which, in the case of this particular enemy, was a particularly hefty looking sniper rifle. The simple AI in Church's own suit identified it without request.
"Processing... identified, Barrett M99, .50 caliber, single-shot feed system."
Church resisted the urge to shake his head since it could give away his position, even though his foe's back was turned.
Guess that explains the significant damage to my armor...
Unfortunately, identifying this large caliber weapon raised a different problem: Church's weapon seemed woefully under powered in comparison. If a .50 caliber projectile had 'only' done about 40% damage to some of his heaviest armor, then the 5.56 of his M4 wasn't going to be particularly effective. He'd have to dump an entire mag to deal real damage, assuming the caliber was potent enough to damage the thickest armor at all. It might be strong enough to damage some of the weaker areas, but that would require significant precision.
Maybe he didn't actually have to take down the opponent, though? If this sniper really was just an obstacle on Church's path, then presumably he was a member of the organization trying to recruit him. Surely they weren't trying to have their own personnel killed out here? If so, maybe Church had to get him in a lethal situation and it would count as a 'kill.' It was a gamble, but it definitely seemed logical. After all, if they actually wanted Church to kill anyone, it would be awfully strange to equip him with a weapon that didn't have the firepower to do it.
Taking all of that into consideration, Church pointed his weapon directly at his foe from the pile of leaves he was hiding in. "Freeze. I've got you in close quarters with an automatic weapon. You can't win with your current equipment."
The target ahead of him froze, clearly caught off guard by his situation. He did not, however, surrender immediately. Personally Church couldn't imagine him taking any other course of action. Yeah, a M99 was a much more powerful weapon than an M4, but a single shot feed rifle wasn't going to do much good at this close range. His opponent would be able to get one shot off at best, and Church's armor still had enough integrity to survive one shot, even to the head. Fighting would be pointless.
But apparently, his unnamed foe didn't reach the same conclusion. The armored combatant did indeed whirl in Church's direction, attempting to point his rifle at a target he hadn't even identified yet. But Church had at least considered this possibility as being likely, so he was already leaping forward out of his hiding spot, firing on full auto with the fresh magazine he had loaded earlier.
As expected, most of the rounds pinged off of his foe with seemingly little effect, but with the short distance between them, the surprise attack, and the hail of bullets, Church's foe was well and truly put on his back foot, firing his one shot at Church but missing by a significant margin. Thankfully, the helmets they both wore prevented anyone from having their eardrums blown out. There was no opportunity for the sniper to reload his weapon, as Church barrelled into him and knocked both combatants to the ground.
Now on top of his foe, Church leveled the barrel of his M4 right at his or her face. "Alright, you're practically unarmed now. You can't win, so surrender! There's no point in continuing this!"
This time, Church actually was expecting his foe to capitulate: his weapon was unloaded, so what could he possibly do to come out of this situation on top? Apparently his enemy had some idea though, because instead of surrendering or even speaking, he simply launched his right fist into Church's flank, flinging him into the dirt slope of the ravine with mechanically enhanced strength. The strike ultimately didn't do much damage, so Church recovered quickly enough to stand and unload what was left in his M4 at his determined opponent, but that only ended up being a measly handful of rounds.
He ejected the empty magazine as quickly as possible, but his armored opponent was upon him before Church could actually reload. With two armored fists coming at him, Church dropped the weapon entirely to hold off the incoming strikes.
Alright, this is getting a little ridiculous!
The suit AI apparently heard his sentiment. "Processing... your adversary does not seem likely to surrender."
"You think?!"
While Church had no real training in martial combat, he at least understood some of the basic concepts that would be useful. And like before, with the suit carrying most of the physical burden of his actions, Church was actually capable of some feats he wouldn't be under his own power. With both his arms and his opponent's locked together, he opted for a leaping knee strike. With the hydraulic power of the exoskeleton, he managed to plant that strike in his foe's face, breaking his grip on Church and knocking him back for a moment.
Seeing no reason to give up his advantage, Church stepped forward as soon as his feet were on solid ground again, this time going for a simple boot planted in the stomach, which staggered his opponent further and knocked him onto his back. This gave Church a moment to assess his situation.
The problem here was that melee strikes could hardly be expected to do any real damage if 5.56 rounds from an M4 weren't cutting it. So how exactly was Church supposed to win here? Keep pounding away until there was some sort of breakthrough? Grab the M99 from the ground and run? He didn't have the right ammo to use it himself, but he could at least keep it out of the hands of the enemy. That seemed to be a relatively good idea, but with his faceless foe recovering quite quickly, Church instead elected to scramble for his fallen M4.
With a quick dive and a roll, Church managed to reacquire his weapon and load a new magazine, but he only got off two shots, both of which missed, before being pinned against the ground again. This time, his foe simply opted for pinning down Church's gun hand with a knee as he started bashing his face in.
Alarmingly, the armor integrity indicator for Church's helmet did go down, albeit slightly, every time the punches connected. Maybe the fact that his helmet had already been significantly damaged played a part in that. Worse still, while there was significant padding in this exoskeleton, he was still being jostled to hell every time his head was smashed into the ground beneath him.
Some small part of Church wondered if his opponent would let up once his helmet was broken, but an even bigger part of him was just worried that he could hardly be so lucky. His opponent thus far had attacked him with seeming intent to kill. There was no reason to assume that his demise wasn't the end goal, especially with the assailant not saying a single word to the contrary. Sasha had likewise not said anything about life or death, so at this point, Church certainly wasn't going to make any assumptions about his situation.
"AI, how do I win here?! Give me a weak point to exploit or something!"
"Processing... based on current firepower, the best option is to completely expend your ammunition in the target's "NECK" region. That area is less armored and can be penetrated by concentrated fire from 5.56 caliber ammunition."
Part of Church acknowledged that the AI was laying out an attack plan that would kill someone else, presumably. Maybe his opponent was actually automated or something, but Church had no way of knowing that, so very much like Schrodinger's Cat, his opponent was effectively human for all the difference it made to Church's perception of things.
Naturally, Church had not lived a life prior to now that had required him to kill someone, or even to question whether or not he'd be willing to kill someone. Unfortunately, he only had a minute at best to contemplate it right here and now.
There were a lot of things to consider: did this guy have a family? Was he trying to improve his life just like Church was his? Was the quality of life improvement Church was pursuing worth taking a life? Was this guy scared of dying too?
Maybe Church would have sought to answer all of those questions, but as the armor integrity on his helmet dropped further, he zeroed in on the most important question of all: was this guy going to kill him? As best as Church could tell, his foe had every intention to, and Church himself wasn't the type of person to let someone kill him just because he had some qualms about defending himself. He wasn't going to sit here and die because the idea of killing someone else was a heavy one. Maybe he would have to deal with some trauma or something after this was all over, but in the moment, he could definitely justify killing someone if it meant protecting himself.
With this conclusion reached, Church struggled to force a leg between himself and the foe on top of him, creating a bit of needed leverage. That was enough for Church to take his free hand and smash it into the knee that had his gun arm pinned, knocking it off of him. With his enemy staggered for a moment, Church tackled him and turned the tables. Using both knees to pin down both arms, Church took his off hand and grabbed his opponent's face, yanking his whole head to the side as best he could so he would have enough space to jam the barrel of his M4 between the armor plates.
With everything in place to defeat his target, Church hesitated for a brief moment: maybe now, with death nearly unavoidable, his foe would surrender, and no one would have to die? But on the other hand, maybe his inability to follow through with the attack would put Church's own life back in danger. And it wasn't worth that.
Squeezing the trigger, Church unleashed a full-auto barrage of 5.56 caliber rounds at point blank range right into the jointed neck area of his foe. The whole time, he listened for something that would give him a reason to stop: a cry for mercy, a declaration of surrender, anything. But all he heard was the explosive crack of gunfire and the sound of spent shell casings landing in the creek. That was all Church heard until his ammunition was spent, and his weapon refused to fire any longer.
At that point, the whole forest was silent. If any wildlife were still around to make noise at this point, Church couldn't hear it. The only thing that still seemed to move was the waters of the creek, unperturbed by violence. As for Church's foe, he didn't move at all. Removing the barrel of his weapon from its target, Church identified a ragged hole where the bullets had ultimately managed to punch through the thinner neck armor. There was no blood as best as Church could tell from here, but that didn't really mean anything.
As he rose to his feet, peering down at the motionless armored body below him, the AI in Church's suit spoke to him again.
"Processing... target eliminated."
Church half expected to feel sick about that assessment, but for some reason, he didn't. Maybe it was easy to distance himself from the reality of his situation since the person he had just presumably killed was a faceless one. Maybe it would be more difficult if he actually had to look at someone's face. But as it was right now, his immediate thoughts went to his next step.
Obviously, he needed to get back on track with the objective, but before that, he figured it would be a good idea to take the M99 his opponent had, as well as any ammo that could be found on the person of the now defeated soldier. After all, there was no guarantee that there wouldn't be other threats separating him from his objective, and being in possession of a .50 caliber rifle might be helpful.
Wasting no time gathering what he needed, Church did his best to focus on the mission instead of what had just transpired. Telling himself that his fallen opponent had just been an automated drone or something also helped. After all, what kind of person, even a hardened soldier, would be completely silent in the face of death? It had probably been a drone, right?
Telling himself that, Church magnetically attached the M99 and its ammo to available space on his armor, before climbing out of the ravine and stalking towards his objective once more, a lot worse off than he had been an hour ago.
Surprisingly enough, even though Church found himself cautiously moving throughout the forest for another hour or so, nothing else bothered him on the way to the objective. He didn't know what he had been expecting: another enemy combatant, maybe some landmines or something. But his wary trek towards the place Sasha wanted him to reach was completely unmolested after his one encounter with an enemy. This reality only made him more suspicious of everything, so much that he was imagining all sorts of deadly threats by the time he was within fifty meters of the objective marker in his HUD.
Common sense dictated that the easiest place to intercept him would have been here at the destination, since it was the one place Church had to go to succeed in his mission. If more enemies were lying in wait, he'd be in deep shit. Getting assaulted by just one target had nearly been the end of him. So if his objective was covered by a machine gun nest or something, walking right into it was not a great idea.
Unfortunately, it wasn't like Church had any sort of reconnaissance ability available to him. There was no way for him to scout ahead without putting himself in danger. The best he could do was be as cautious and careful as possible. With that goal in mind, Church got down in the forest brush and dirt and started slowly crawling his way towards the objective, continuously stopping to survey the area around him every few meters. At least this way, he'd already be a harder target for any potential predators.
But as the distance to the objective grew shorter and shorter, none of the various sensors available to Church picked up anything dangerous. He didn't take that to mean the possibility of a foe was zero, but it did seem odd. By the time the distance had shortened down to twenty meters, the trees had given way to a clearing that Church was on the edge of. Still hiding among the trees, he was able to spot a small gray industrial crate that had some sort of object on it. Magnifying his view proved that it was a satellite phone. Presumably, this was the objective that he had to reach.
Still a bit wary about waltzing into the open, Church continued his slow, prone advance to the crate, soon finding himself without the benefits of tree cover. But no one shot at him along the way, and there were no mines exploding in his face. He made it all the way to the center of the clearing without obstruction. But now he was paranoid, so Church still tried to hide as much of his frame behind the crate as possible as he reached for the sat-phone.
"So... now what?"
Thankfully, his AI gave a simple answer. "Processing... please press the center button. Upon doing so the test will be over and you will be extracted."
With no reason to do otherwise, Church did as he was instructed, pressing the button that had been indicated. Other than the objective marker in his HUD going away, nothing else seemed to happen. Since he wasn't exactly trusting of the situation as of yet, Church continued to keep an eye on his surroundings, but he only had to do so for a few minutes before the beat of helicopter blades broke the relative silence of the forest. Glancing up at the sky he could see thanks to this rather large clearing, Church saw a UH-60 Black Hawk descending to him.
With enough space to land, the aircraft swiftly touched down, and Sasha soon stepped out, that now damnable smile on her face. By the time she walked towards him, the UH-60's rotor had slowed enough to avoid drowning out conversation.
"Congratulations, Percival. You completed the final test. I hope it wasn't too stressful for you?"
Frankly speaking, Church had never had a strong desire to punch a girl in the face, but right this moment he was strongly considering the notion. But it was better to exercise restraint for numerous reasons. Still, he couldn't refrain from accosting the woman regardless.
"So was English never your strong suit or did you just completely forget the definition of 'impervious?'"
Since it was obvious that he was referencing Sasha's comment before about the armor being impervious to damage in this test, the young woman didn't ask for clarification. Her smile didn't drop either.
"My superiors would have been quite displeased if I scared off such a promising individual just before the last test, so a bit of deceit was necessary. But come now, Percival: you suspected before the test even began that you would be in lethal danger, didn't you? Yet you still went through with it."
Unfortunately, Church couldn't really deny that. He had indeed suspected that things were going to be dire and possibly life-threatening. He had suspected as much before even agreeing to this final test. But he had weighed the potential risks with the potential rewards and concluded that it was worth it. Sasha may not have been completely frank with him, but he had known what he was getting into.
"...yeah. I guess. That must be why you look for desperate people like me for this crap, right?"
"Admittedly, the desperate tend to find themselves more willing to do unscrupulous things. But mere desperation is not what we were hoping to see out of you in this test. There are other traits you exemplified today that are very appealing to my organization."
"All of which you got from a test that included one enemy? I'm surprised I didn't have to fight a tank or something."
Sasha merely shrugged, brunette bangs waving. "There's hardly any need to waste that much money on a psychological test. One opponent was enough to get the data we need. And I must say, you handled your opposition quite well. I was honestly curious whether or not you'd have it in you to fight. On top of that, you haven't even asked about the encounter..."
Church thought back to his earlier contemplation about whether or not he had killed another human being and how he should feel about it. It was possible that his enemy in this test had just been a drone or something. But maybe it had been a person. He could ask Sasha that question now, if he wanted to: but the answer could have been something he really didn't want to hear. But maybe there was a more important question for Church to ask.
"About that enemy... would it have tried to kill me?"
Sasha didn't hesitate a moment to answer him. "Yes."
Church was silent for a moment as he contemplated that answer. Soon enough though, he shared how he felt. "Then it had to be that way."
It was hard to tell considering that she was always smiling a bit uncomfortably, but Sasha seemed pleased to hear this. It wasn't hard to imagine why: Church's sentiment that the identity of his foe, be it man or machine, was irrelevant in the face of his own life and goals was likely very desirable from her point of view.
"Quite so. Well then, Percival, it's time to make a decision. You've passed the final test: my organization, and all of its many benefits, are open to you. But this is the point of no return. Agree to come with me now and you will be bound by the restrictive nature of being in a shadow organization. You will not be able to speak of your new life to anyone outside of the organization. We will always be watching you, ensuring that you do not spread our secrets. If you become a security breach at any time, you'll be hunted down and killed. I hope you understand the gravity of what I'm saying."
Frankly, Church had some questions. How long did these people expect him to work for them? Would he be allowed to retire at some point? What even constituted being a security breach? But instead of asking these questions, he asked something else.
"The point of no return, huh... so what happens if I say no? You'd really let me walk away after all of this? Or would you just assassinate me or something after letting me go?"
Sasha giggled for a moment, and Church hated it. It was akin to the idea of a demon giggling. "No need to be so paranoid, Percival. Refuse our offer now and you'll be free to return to the droll life you had before. Think about it: you don't actually know anything compromising about us yet. There is no harmful information you could reveal to undesirables. Even if you told people about the test you took part in today, it's not like anyone would believe you. Admittedly, it wouldn't be hard to make you disappear, but that would be a waste of resources."
Church tried his best to ignore the discomfort that final statement brought him. "If I chose to leave, would I still get the money for doing this test?"
"You would."
Naturally, this response prompted Church to consider his options. He could presumably abandon all of this underworld cloak and dagger nonsense and wind up with tens of thousands of dollars. It wouldn't be enough money for all the medical crap he had to take care of, but it would be enough to really get on his feet and support himself. It would at least be enough to provide him with enough footing to start clawing his way to a normal life.
But Sasha wasn't wrong about that life being droll. He'd be lying if he said the idea of a mundane life of struggling to make ends meet with a nine to five job appealed to him. Not that being chained to a shadow organization necessarily appealed to him either, but at least it was possible for him to do something interesting with his life while also getting massive amounts of benefits. He could live a safe and boring life where he worked his ass off only to potentially never meet any of his goals, or he could live a potentially dangerous life where he managed to accomplish some or all of them. It really was the most basic definition of risk versus reward.
And taking everything at play into consideration, Church figured he had little to lose and a whole lot to gain. That was why he made the decision he did.
"Where do I sign?"
I thought about extending this chapter a bit to get into the details of Church being taken to Umbra Stratum, learning the ropes and being informed as to his purpose there, but honestly, most of that information is provided to the reader in the first few chapters of the story anyway, so I figured there was no reason to do it.
Anyway, I've started up a Discord server for readers of all my stories to hop onto, either to talk about those stories or the universes they are based in, or to get help and feedback with stories they themselves are writing. So far, it's proven a much better way to maintain frequent communication with readers than this site itself. So if you're interested in pressuring me to work faster or to discuss stories you're writing, you can find a link to that Discord on my profile page.