Author's note:

Chapter 3, here we go.

There's been a minute between uploads because I happened to contract food poisoning during a week in college, so expect my upload schedule to be just even more erratic than before because I suddenly have a lot more time sitting in bed trying to recover whilst also being in A LOT of pain.

This chapter will mainly cover the interaction between both Cerberus and Gray Raven before moving onto the hunt for both Nozzle and Iron Maiden. I'm introducing Cerberus much earlier as Vera does show up in the Iron Maiden chapter's cutscenes whilst I think that the interactions between Cerberus and Gray Raven could be fun and interesting.

As for combining Nozzle and Iron maiden? Both chapters are light on actual content (the only memorable parts being the boss fights) so it's mostly for time compression to get to the better stuff. I will introduce characters almost at random compared to the by-chapter style of PGR, but I'll try to keep it realistic on when they're introduced and keep to the narrative I want to write.

Now, on with the show!

Gray Raven: Team Cerberus

There is the best, most disciplined teams on Babylonia, then there's Cerberus

That pretty much describes them in a nutshell. Cerberus was the brainchild of Nikola who wanted a team for more "off the books" missions that didn't need or couldn't have a full, proper team assigned to them.

The first member was the Grim Reaper herself, Vera. She was a combat medic just before I graduated F.O.S but was known for everyone in her teams getting killed but her, could say she was a bad luck charm. She joined Cerberus after her third team was killed and took on the Rozen combat frame to turn herself into an angel of death, a job description that seems to have stuck with her.

Murray is their commandant, he's a good guy, not afraid to get his hands dirty and is damn good at tech and stealth ops compared to my tactical and CQC style. Also, way too joyful for his job, how the hell a pessimist like Vera hasn't killed him yet, I will never know.

Last member is a new one, called No.21. Don't know too much about her except she was apparently a lab experiment gone wrong or something and was saved by Vera, whether that's a blessing or curse, I don't know. Heard that they are meant to be getting a transfer soon enough from the Purifying Force so that'll be something. I pity the poor bastard who gets stuck between Happy-go-lucky Murray and Kill you in your sleep Vera.

Babylonia

2 days after the city 015 incident

Commandant David Forest

Whatever I expected from team Cerberus, it wasn't to see a small, white-haired girl getting a piggyback ride from the grim reaper whilst Murray looked both ways too amused and exasperated with them in the middle of the hanger.

Lee sighed beside me "I forgot she was on this team" He looked mildly annoyed, something that was a bit of a given with him.

I looked over to him "You know the Grim Reaper?" I whistled "What did you do to meet the most unfortunate or unluckiest construct on Babylonia?"

He looked over to me "The only unfortunate ones are the ones that have to work with her, Something I did before Gray Raven" I was surprised, Lee never talked to me about his time Pre-Gray Raven, Hell none of them did.

Liv nervously questioned "Is she a terrible teammate?"

Lee ran his hand down his face "No, but she is a bit…Much in the personality department, she takes the term 'Harmacist' to a whole new level compared to other medics".

Murray seemed to notice us "Forest! Now we can get a briefing going" He seemed almost desperate for us to take attention off Cerberus who were attracting a few eyes from the maintenance staff and pilots.

"Oh? And who might your work friend be Murray?" Asked the Redhead in a sultry voice, carrying the white-haired construct on her back

I mustered up some of my so-called charisma I'd been told I have "Commandant David Forest, Team Gray Raven, At your service"

She let a shark-like smile cross her face "At my service? If you keep this up, I might have to find a replacement for dear Murray here" She let her hand creep up Murray's shoulder and cup his jaw whilst Murray was doing his best impression of a statue and not moving in the slightest.

She finally seemed to notice my team "Oh Lee, have you finally admitted that without me, there isn't a team worth being on?"

Lee didn't hesitate "Yes, if I want an early grave"

The white-haired one, who I could safely assume was No.21, now piped up from Vera's back "I am an expert at putting people in graves, Big Sis Vera has been teaching me more ways to do it"

Silence rained between us, Murray looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole whilst Liv and Lucia looked slightly perturbed (As I probably did) Lee merely sighed "How is it that you managed to get a construct that is just as 'different' as you?"

Vera shrugged one shoulder "not my fault I found about what they were doing to poor 21 and dealt with them" Her shark-like grin returned "Violently".

I cleared my throat "now that we have unpleasantries out of the way, let's get to business" I pulled up a holographic map from the data pad

"We have confirmed reports of Punishing Virus in the old city of Los Angeles, near the city centre. Signal of the Virus indicates another construct or being near the level of the construct encountered in city 015. Our job is to get in, kill anything that gets in our path, kill the transmitter of the virus and then get out. Any questions?"

Vera went first "What if it's the same construct you encountered or one of similar strength?" I replied immediately "the DO NOT engage under any circumstance; it utterly rinsed us when we faced it so I wouldn't put our hopes up of facing it alone. If worst comes to worst, we can call in teams Egret or Dark Aries for support and engage with a decisive numbers advantage".

Murray was next "How are we going to go in?" He was letting me choose the method for insertion (kinky). Whilst all commandants needed a passing score in tactics and strategy to pass F.O.S, you could choose specialisations. I had chosen to be a frontline fighter whilst Murray had chosen to be more covert.

I mapped out 2 routes on the map "Team Cerberus will enter from the NE side of the city, whilst Team Gray Raven will enter from the NW side. Insertion from the airport is impossible because trying to get through the wreckage would take too long and leave us too exposed for ambush." I made both routes converge in the city centre "With any luck, we'll hit the city centre at the same time and combine firepower to deal with any threats."

Lee spoke up now "Any other objectives we should know about?" I looked between all of them "Yes, command wants any info on what makes these beings different, so look for evidence about abnormal behaviour from Virus infected or about who these beings were before they became what they are now." Vera scoffed "Does it matter when we can turn them all to junk?" I gave her a serious look "It does when those junk piles turn one of the better combat teams into helpless kids without breaking a sweat".

"Anymore?" No-one had questions "Then let's move out!".

Touching down on the city limits, Gray Raven formed up around me. I checked my comm unit "Murray, you read me?"

His voice came across, tinny and scratch from radio interference "Confirmed, Radio may be inconsistent once we get into the stronger zones, so any last-minute changes need to be done soon".

I called Celica on Babylonia "You hear that Celica? Are Egret and Dark Aries on standby because I can't guarantee they will get long to react if we send an SOS."

Her chipper voice replied, "All teams on standby and we are good to go, have fun down there sir!"

I shook my head "Alright then, I'm declaring this mission is a go. We meet at the centre plaza within the next 2 hours, contact if anything interesting comes up or if we must pull out. How copy?"

Murray sounded eager; it was one of his first combat ops "We're good to go! See you at the plaza."

I motioned to the rest of my team as I turned the comms off "Alright standard diamond formation, Lucia in lead, Lee takes left, I'll take right and Liv watch rear." It was a simple formation, Strongest fighter in front, two shooters watching the sides and support watching our backs. "Now let's move out!"

We moved out at a slow yet steady pace, moving through this ghost town, the only sounds being of wind whistling between buildings. All life had been killed by the virus and nature could never reclaim the city because of it, it was an eerie and dark sight, made worse by the signs of the first evacuations. Abandoned cars, luggage or personal belongings littered the road with bombed out buildings on either side.

Liv commented on the destruction as we stepped past a destroyed bus "I wonder how bad it was during the evacuation?" Her voice was full of sorrow, she cared for all life and believed it was sacred, the sight of this must have broken her heart knowing how many didn't make it.

I replied "It was horrific from what I heard, I met a survivor a few years back who said he came from the abandoned Washington area. Said that by the time the Evacs began, nearly half the city had fallen to the virus. Before anyone could evac in large numbers, the military started bombing to slow the Virus's spread and buy time for a retreat. Didn't help much in the end."

Lee suddenly called out "Contact, on the left at 2'oclock" Immediately we all swivelled in that direction before rushing to cover behind abandoned cars.

I spotted them immediately, two virus bots… Painting?

I shared a confused look with Lee "Since when did the Virus care about artistic quality? Has it discovered Carminati or whatever that new painter is on Babylonia is called?"

Lee seemed to analyse them, then his eyes widened "I think we've found our unique Virus bots." My eyes widened "You're right, then we have to engage and see if anything unique happens."

I grimaced looking at Lucia "I hate myself for saying it, but you're our best fighter to act as bait." None of us looked comfortable with me saying it but Lucia seemed to shake it off "It's fine, I understand."

I motioned to Lee "You go around to the left whilst Liv goes right, Lucia will get their attention and see what happens. Be ready to jump in."

Both moved out whilst Lucia stepped out of cover and began walking towards the virus bots. I slowly put my sights on the nearest bot, knowing that Lee would take the far one and that he could drop it faster than Liv could hers.

The bots seemed to notice their guest "The painter brings another gift!" Their deranged, mechanical voices echoed out of damaged speakers on their chassis "Another charlatan to be educated!"

Both bots jumped at Lucia who dodged one and stabbed Berserker through the other's main body. Shots began to wring out as Me, Liv and Lee opened fire, tearing chunks out of the final bot whilst Lucia let Berserker catch fire and cut it in half.

It fell to the ground as its voice echoed out "The painter…Creates…Again" It was silenced by me putting a shot through its head.

As the 4 of us regrouped, I took a closer look at the mural sketched on the wall, bright pink and cyan creating a random but still abstract image of what looked like birds flying in a blue sky.

I glanced to the other three "Anyone have ideas? Cause I'm stumped with this."

Liv took a closer look then seemed to have a lightbulb moment "I know someone on Babylonia in the WGAA who might be able to tell us more. Patch me in."

I put Liv on the channel then contacted Celica "Celica, put me through to WGAA Headquarters, I have something that's their area of expertise." Celica promptly patched us through and a Happy, almost high off energy voice greeted us "Hi! This is Ayla from the WGAA! How can I help?" Liv seemed to know her "Ayla, it's Liv, we talked the other day about a painting onboard the station, I need your help figuring out the meaning behind a mural on surface mad by Virus bots."

There was a pause, as if someone didn't quite understand what they were hearing. "A mural made by Virus bots? This I must see! Patch me through to your commandant's chest cam please." I dutifully pointed my body towards the mural as Ayla made several humming noises. "Interesting, the bots seem to understand the ideas behind painting, and it is aesthetically pleasing, I suppose. But they don't seem to understand that painting needs passion and emotion, you need to put heart and soul into it to make a painting really mean something and they seem to have missed that concept."

I now spoke up "Are you willing to stay on the line if we need more expertise?" She sounded excited "Of course! This is a momentous occasion! If even robots can learn to paint or create like this then it means that they're evolving!" I grimaced "That doesn't sound like a good thing to me, I like it when they were the same and predictable."

I looked to the others "Let's keep going, I want to find our resident painter and see what he's like."

Commandant Murray

Same time

To say things had been a fast start was saying the sun was a little hot.

We had encountered virus creations as soon as we landed, all a blacker colour than the normal bots we face. It didn't seem to faze Vera or No.21.

Vera was effortlessly moving between the Virus creations, cutting and hacking at them with little difficulty whilst 21 let her 'Buddy' co-bot roll between enemies, constantly harassing them and keeping up the pressure.

Whilst team Gray Raven may have been about damage output, having two expert attacker constructs that could chew up anything thrown at them, Team Cerberus was about hitting the enemy and keeping them off balance, constantly pressuring them to force them to make mistakes.

Vera seemed almost bored with the fighting, a common theme as she enjoyed the adrenaline rush from a fight to the death where the odds were a toss-up on who wins, not a run of the mill fight where the outcome was guaranteed. No.21 was being her normal, unhinged self, laughing and cackling as she ripped bots apart with her gravity matrix.

Vera was talking about the mission like one would the weather "Is this construct really such a threat? So, it could take down Lotus, so what? It faced an older, more outdated construct and a commandant who refused most of the cybernetic enhancements to be what? More human?" She scoffed "He's trying to make himself look better than us, not degrade himself to the level of us constructs."

I wasn't so sure. David had been an oddity in the F.O.S training centre. He was competent and could keep up with the best fighters, sure, but he didn't often talk with others. He was a bit of a sociophobe who stayed to himself, always had a look in his eyes like he was a bomb on a timer compared to the others who were more relaxed. One time some of the others had put a paint bomb in his locker as a prank, typical school stuff, his answer? Pull a gun and shoot into the locker until he ran out of ammo and realised it was a prank. He had been lambasted for it until he had said something that made the instructors go silent, then they had left him alone without a long-term punishment.

He hadn't been pranked after that.

All being said, I was probably the closest commandant to him. He had been partnered (read Forced to) with me for a course on electronics and general technology we had to know. He had struggled until he revealed to me, he couldn't read and had been doing brilliant on the practical tests but horrific on the written and theory. I had decided to teach him to read and write whilst he had taught me more on fighting styles and we had grown closer overtime to become less acquaintances and more friends (I hope).

Shaking myself from the memories, I watched as Vera finished off the last construct, slicing its front legs before impaling it up through the head. It slumped to the ground as I walked over, letting out one last pitiful cry of "Tifa…" before shutting down.

I shared a look with Vera "Tifa? Guess that must be the Virus Infected we're looking for."

I pulled my comms unit and called Mr Nikola "Sir, enemy infected may be called 'Tifa', recommend searching the database for any references."

Nikola replied immediately "Good work, I'll check the database for any rogue constructs with the name, until then, continue mission, Gray Raven has already encountered Virus bots of their own and confirmed the presence of an infected codename 'Painter', so watch yourselves, Nikola out."

I looked to Vera and 21 with a cheerful grin "Shall we then? Gray raven sound like they're getting ahead of us."

Vera merely brushed by me "Let's go then, I want to see this new infected for myself." Her blood-thirsty grin returned "And see if I can bag it for myself."

Author's note

And here we are.

So far, I'm already beginning to run into writer's block. I'm just not quite sure what direction to take this first story aside from being A LOT of context for later. I haven't really developed a plan in my head for how this will work out aside from where it starts (Prologue) and where it ends (Kamui vs Camu or Alpha vs Rosetta). Everything in between is just an "Oh yeah, and now I introduce this character and give them a reason to be here" or "Oh yeah, and this boss fight needs to happen because it shows up in Phantom Pain Cage".

So, I still have a lot of kinks to iron out with the plot but so far, I'm happy with the way things are going, the early game was aged badly in the storytelling department, and it wasn't until Rosetta's extra story or the Adilek to Kowloong arc that things really started picking up. I do have ideas in the works for introducing some concepts or characters FAR earlier than they appear in canon (The Nugget is one of them, as is Laurel).

Next chapter will be released at some point before the middle of the month, Though I warn now that updates are going to start slowing down as I'm recovered from food poisoning and am back to work. My plan so far is for the rest of the story to feature the end to the Nozzle and Iron Maiden arc before leading onto the Rosenblade arc followed by Watanabe and the Forsaken and ending off with Purifying Force hunting Kamui (I'm 50/50 on Rosetta vs Alpha being this story or a cold opening to the next).

Until then, Adios!