As Cole MacGrath reached the supposed meeting place he stopped using his static thrusters, cutting his momentum, allowing him to reach the ground safely. His body was tense and he assumed a combat ready stance, however, he was not outright aggressive. The reason for this alert state of his was because a couple hours ago Kuo contacted him with an intriguing piece of information. Someone from the Vermack 88 was willing to work with him to dismantle the PMC's operations. While he was intrigued as to why would one of their own would become a turncoat, he still was careful. He didn't rule out the possibility of this being a trap.
The surroundings he found himself in were desolate and devoid of life. In other words, nothing out of place for flood town. But there were no signs of the supposed turncoat. It made the possibility of this being a trap higher. And as he was starting to reach for his phone to contact Kuo, suddenly a figure appeared in front of him out of nowhere. The figure wore a white duster coat with yellow and black accents that seemed to resemble a hazmat suit, alongside a pair of black gloves and a futuristic helmet. A Vermack soldier.
Cole immediately brought his amp out, ready for a fight, but before he could do anything else, the figure brought his hands up in front of himself, and slightly backed up from Cole "Wait! Don't worry, I'm not like the others. I was coerced into becoming a lab rat. The rest of them are inhuman brutes." he was clearly not expecting a fight. Cole, seeing that the figure wasn't a threat to him, allowed himself to relax a bit and asked "So, are you Kuo's contact?" and the soldier wasted no breath in responding "Yes, I was the one who got into contact with her. I wish to ask for your help in taking Vermack down.". By now Cole's posture had eased. His eyes were still darting around a bit, scanning the environment, but he was not aggressive anymore. "So a victim of human experimentation turning his back on the ones responsible for the experimentation. Karma's a bitch, ain't it?" Cole chuckled, finding this turn of events darkly humorous. "While I would not be so crass, I do agree with the sentiment." The response was smooth, his posture straightening out, initial surprise and caution fading, and his training taking over.
"This chat may be nice but I believe we do have bigger things to worry about, right?" cutting straight to the chase, Cole switched the subject. "Yes, that's true. As I said I wish to acquire your help in stopping Vermack 88 from putting more innocent lives in danger. And as a peace offering I wanted to point you towards a Vermack blast shard cache. I believe that would be sufficient as a show of good will?" Cole, for his part, just nodded and said "If that cache turns out to be the real deal and not just a trap, it will."
"Follow me then." and so Cole and the Vermack soldier were on the move, jumping across the rooftops of the flooded apartments and houses. The two continued in silence for a while. Cole however turned out to be faster then the ice conduit, as he had already caught up to and went past the ice conduit several times. At this point it started getting ridiculous "Pick up the pace, you're too slow. I feel like I'm slamming the brakes every time I get close to you." Cole's left eye was slightly twitching, this was the sixth time in a row he had to wait for the ice conduit to catch up to him. It was starting to get annoying "What's the rush? The cache won't go anywhere." The ice soldier's imitated Cole's irritation, although it was more subdued. Whether the helmet was masking his tone better or he just had better control of his emotions wasn't clear. But he didn't like Cole's impatience, it made him seem rash, lacking in discipline. "It may not seem like it, but I don't fully trust you yet. For all I know this could be a ploy to stall for time while your friends set up an ambush up ahead." Cole was getting into a combat stance again, his patience with the supposed turncoat running thin. "Look, if i wanted to ambush you I would have done so all the way back at the meeting place" was the rebuttal from the ice conduit.
But before Cole could respond with a rebuttal of his own, suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of swamp monsters jumped onto the roof they were at and ambushed them. The two of them shared a quick look before Cole got into action. "Fight first, argue later" was the last thing Cole said before he lunged at one of the monsters.
The ice conduit preferred to keep his distance, keeping the monsters out of reach while hurling ice shards at them. And Cole, for his part, preferred close quarters combat, as he found out it was the best way to deal with this type of corrupted conduit. Despite their bickering, they worked well in combat. The ice conduit used his range to cut the swamp monster's options, routing them towards Cole. And Cole used that to his advantage, quickly dispatching each monster that came into his path. The encounter didn't last long, the two of them made quick work of the unwelcome guests.
And, as the fight was wrapping up, another swamp monster that managed to avoid being detected by both Cole and the ice conduit, made his way behind Cole's back and got ready to attack. But before the attack could connect, an ice pillar suddenly appeared in front of the corrupted, hitting him square in the jaw and sending him flying. Cole whistled, looking at the distance the swamp monster was thrown at "You ever thought about becoming a pro baseball player?, with an aim like that you could easily make it" with a chuckle, the ice conduit responded "Funny thing you say that, would have become one if-" but before he could continue, he caught himself "You know what, it doesn't matter. We still have an objective to complete. We should get a move on." his voice was devoid of emotion, sending a small chill down Cole's spine.
Cole didn't pry, he knew he touched a sore subject. He had enough experience with sore subjects from Trish's death. The rest of the way was quiet, no bickering or chatter, it seemed like things became cold between them again. The irritation was no longer present though, just an uneasy feeling remained for Cole. Thankfully it didn't last long, as they got to their destination. The location they reached was the rooftop of a shanty house with a power line leading to another rooftop, where ice soldiers could be spotted, on patrol it seemed. "Those men guard the stash. I would join the fight, but I am more useful if my identity remains a secret. I will contact you again" was the lasting thing the ice conduit said before he launched himself away from the location with an ice spike. Cole not even having time to speak or ask about anything else he should know.
Well, that didn't matter now. He was close to the stash, and it was time to see if the turncoat was genuine. Without wasting time, Cole hopped on the power grid, quickly reaching the other rooftop. And then he jumped, thunder dropping down on the rooftop, sending the ice soldiers off balance. Taking advantage of the surprise attack, Cole used his ice blast to send a couple of soldiers on his left into the water below, letting him score a few easy kills by electrocuting them in the water. But the other Vermack soldiers on the right side of the roof were quick to regain their footing and immediately got into formation, sending a storm of bullets and ice shards his way. In response, he quickly forms his ice shield, blocking the incoming attacks, and then quickly retaliates by throwing ice grenades out, incapacitating a large chunk of the remaining enemy force. And then he quickly goes in for the finishing blow on the surviving soldiers by bringing his amp out and engaging them in close quarters. Poor bastards didn't stand a chance.
The rest of the affair was easy enough. Cole found the blast shard cache quickly, as there were not too many places to hide the cache itself, the rooftop was out in the open, 'Well, I'll be damned, he was actually telling the truth' with a smirk, he took out the blast shard cache and contacted Kuo "Hey Kuo, that ice soldier you made contact with is the real deal. Tell him I'm willing to work with him from now on" Kuo in turn responded in an haughty tone "I told you we could trust him. We gained a valuable ally today. We should see to it that we keep him as such." clearly enjoying being proven right. Cole couldn't help himself but to respond with an "Yes moooooooooom" in mock whining.
"Ugh, seriously? Can't you just act your age for one moment?" irritation was clearly present in Kuo's voice. "Never." was what she got from Cole. By now Kuo had just given up and said "Whatever." in an exasperated tone before cutting contact, Cole chuckling all the while. Today was a good day for Cole MacGrath.
Author's note:
This is the first chapter of my first multi-chapter fic. Kind of a handful to say eh?, Decided it was time to test myself and go beyond one shots. I had no idea if i did anything right yet but i hope whoever finds this has fun reading it.
The plan is for this fanfic to be 5 chapters long(one chapter will be completely original, i need the extra wiggle room for a bit more character development. As it stands the side mission chain this fanfic is based upon doesn't expand too much on the turncoat's personality. While the idea was good it never reached it's full potential in game due to how short the missions themselves were. Coupled with the low number of them(which is four, four missions dedicated to the little subplot), it never had a chance to reach it's true potential. At least, that's what i think.