Part 1: Arrival
“Mission Briefing, 5 minutes, main pavilion. Only able bodied and capable soldiers need attend!” a male voice barked over the loud speakers in Alpha Base.
That’s odd, why would they specify able-bodied only? Besides a few soldiers in critical condition, all of these guys seem able-bodied. And why are they requesting ‘capable’?
John ‘Demon’ Fox looked over the tired soldiers, that he and Sigma Squad were passing, noting that many had injuries over vital areas. Only a few soldiers were being treated with special attention, and all the others look combat-ready.
“Something is off. This area is supposed to be under heavy Sect attack, yet we are only seeing wounded and very few suffering from the venom most Sect weaponry has. Also, where are the Illuminati? Most bases have 1 squad’s worth of Units here.” David ‘Devil’ Burns stated, a worried look on his face.
John noted David had his hand on his Flickblade, rubbing his thumb up and down its hilt. Flickblades were an astonishing piece of Technology given to the Australian Remnant Legion, which drew energy from their user and made a beam of pure energy, but their downside was, that they were only as strong as their user’s mind. Luckily for John, while David wasn’t particularly strong, his mind was powerful, and produced a blade almost as powerful as ones used by Illuminati. He’d even heard it mentioned that David might soon be given a Nexus.
John had only ever met one soldier who had been given a Nexus, Michael Burns, his former commander, and weirdly enough, not related to David at all. The Nexus was said to unlock the potential of its user’s mind, and allow them to draw upon the latent Chaos energy found in all things. Since humanity had only recently discovered ‘Chaos’ energy, and were still trying to find a way to properly extract it, only Illuminati and Nexus wielders could harness the incredible power of Chaos. No one was quite sure what the cost of using a Nexus was, but most of their Users just disappeared, ‘lost to the chaos’ as the Illuminati would say. They were a great gift, with a terrible cost.
“David, I agree, but we haven’t been briefed yet, so keep the paranoia in check until we have good reason to worry. Spirit, how long until your Overwatch patrol is finished?” John asked over Sigma’s squad channel, on his headset.
“20 minutes. 5 if you need me for the briefing.” Spirit stated, watching the empty battlefields from the ‘Crow’s Nest’, bored, and wishing she had her sketch pad with her. John smiled, knowing she’d find someone.
“Don’t worry, stay there until the end of your Patrol, I’ll upload the feed straight to your pad, so you can catch up later.” John replied, and received an Acknowledgement signal on his Squad Indicator.
Sara ‘Spirit’ Ernst was a rare gem, not only being a skilled sniper, but a master of Close combat. She was one of the few people who could take down a Sect Mantis, barehanded. Also, surprisingly enough, it was her intimate drawings and 3D models of Sect forces that were shown in most briefings. But besides being one of the most dangerous fighters that John had encountered, there seemed to be an innocence to her, and he knew she abhorred violence. It took a great mental fortitude, to withstand going against your morals, and still maintain that sort of innocence.
John walked up to one of the nearby soldiers. “Excuse me, Private, but why aren’t all these men heading towards the main pavilion? They seem able bodied and capable.”
“Physically, we are, Sir. But the Sect has started using some new weapon type, which apparently affects us mentally. There’s only been one known case, and the guy was a known ‘Roid abuser.” The Soldier replied, uncomfortable talking about a deceased comrade.
“Understood, Make sure you get that wound checked, I think its leaking.” John said, as he indicated the growing patch of red on the gauze overlay. A group of medics rushed over, and hurried the soldier away.
“That was strange. Why so much fuss over a simple arm wound? Anything the Sect has, either stuns them relatively quickly, or maims their target, and in rare cases, even kills them without affecting major body functions. Why would need something that affects us neurologically?” Shawnette ‘Banshee’ Ward wondered aloud, while browsing her Medlet’s history of Sect weapon damage and effects.
The Medlet was a masterpiece of healing technology, combining the power of an entire medical facility, within the portability of a gauntlet. The nanites that were flooded into your system were able to systematically eliminate most immediate threats to your health, and if the patient was critical, could essentially form a basic life support, and keep a soldier with half-his guts ripped out, alive for almost a week. But, as was the usual case with Illuminati technology, it came at a great cost.
The Medlet required a ‘host body’, to generate all the various chemicals and ingredients, and to store the generators and databanks needed to run and store all the data, which meant it often replaced ‘non-vital’ organs and parts, and formed a gravitonic body armour over the host body’s “shell”. While on the outside, she may look like your average female soldier, John knew that if her armour was to rupture, the ‘compression’ effect of the armour had a chance of ‘decompressing’ all these internal facilities and generators. Shawnette had recently received an upgrade to her one, which gave it a 33% of resisting Decompression.
Very few medical personnel ever considered giving themselves to a Medlet, but Shawnette was a special case. She’d been hit by the concussive wave of a Sect missile, which had impaled her onto a nearby Sect Cricket carcass, still ripe with the various toxins and venoms it normally rained onto ground forces. Luckily, a squad escorting an Illuminati unit made its way past her seemingly dead body, when the Illuminati paused, and placed the Gauntlet near her right hand. What happened next, Shawnette had refused to explain, and the squad guarding the Illuminati had been transfer the next day, back to Omega base, the ‘heart’ of the defence network in Australia.
“I don’t know, we’d better get to this briefing. I’m sure they will explain it there.”
John noticed a line was forming outside the Main Pavilion, and watched as soldiers were ordered, single file, through a series of Illuminati scanner. What they were scanning for, John and Sigma had no clue about.
“Are we supposed to line up?” David asked with a look of confusion on his face, as he watched a soldier, who seemed perfectly healthy and able bodied, being pulled away by armed guards.
Sigma headed towards the end of the line, when one of the Medics came up to them.
“Sirs, you don’t need to worry about this. This is only for personnel who have experienced combat within the last week, here at Alpha base. The Medics and VIPs have been told to keep an eye out for you. Please, if you will follow me.” The Medic stated, and started walking towards the entrance.
Sigma ignored all the glares they got from the other soldiers, and followed the Medic into the briefing. After finding a good spot towards the front, David noticed how few soldiers actually made it pass all the scanners.
“John, I’m worried. Something is obviously wrong, if they need Illuminati tech to figure out what is wrong. And why is it that only new recruits and only a few of the seasoned Veterans seem to have made it through the scan without complications?” David asked, refusing to let the matter drop.
“Because, son, we are on the verge of a crisis.” A voice said from behind them. John turned, and saw the Silver Eagle and 3 gold bars of a Brigadier General.
“Attention!” John barked, as his squad shot to attention, and saluted their senior officer.
“At ease, and don’t bother with that in here. As of entering this briefing, all ranks are equal. So you guys are Sigma, one of the few squads where each member has exclusive access to some of the more foreign examples of Illuminati tech?” The Brigadier-General asked, genuine curiosity etched across his features.
“Not all of us, sir. Spirit and I have yet to receive anything. Also, if I may, could we have your name, Sir?” John stated, confused as to how a Brigadier-General could have faulty information.
“How silly of me, name’s Terrence Parangosky.” David stiffened at the name, while The General browsed his Tacpad, “Oh, right. Report to the Armoury after the briefing, you’ll have a new squad-mate, and some new gear to inspect. Now, pay attention, it’s about to start.”
Part 2: Revelation
“Alright men and women, listen up, I am Base Commander Jakson Galle, and as of right now, ranks are of no importance. If you have questions, ask away. This is the final briefing this base will be giving, and we aren’t sure how many of you will make it to the other bases.” The Commander paused, to let what he just said sink in, then continued, bringing up a display of various Sect forces, ranging from the deadly Mantis melee fighters, to the huge, lumbering Tarantula-class walkers that have only been rumoured about.
“These are the Sect. We all know them, we all hate them, and most of us fear them. As most of you know, they either kill you and harvest what’s left, or they capture you, and harvest and regrow parts inside of you. Now, we face a much more insidious threat.” He changed the display, to a video of a beefed up soldier.
“This must be the ‘roid guy that that wounded soldier was talking about.” David said, as Spirit shushed him over the headset.
Knew she couldn’t help herself. John smiled as he thought of the boundless curiosity she had.
The video played, and seemed to be a typical assault by the Sect: Slowly whittle down the defence, and then flood the area with bodies. Except this time was different, while it was obvious ‘Roids was one of the few people in his squad left, the Sect could not seem to get the necessary angles required to take out the Machine Gun nests. This is where the scene got strange.
It was obvious that ‘Roids got hit repeatedly, yet there were no exit wounds. After a few more hits, ‘Roids stopped firing, and began to hit and rip at the holes the Sect had made in his body. Moments later, he just stopped moving. Then, after a few jerks of his arms and head, and a few clumsy steps, he headed straight for the closest Nest.
Since there were no cameras within the nests, and the outer cameras didn’t have audio, there was no way of knowing that something was wrong within the Nest, until muzzles flares appeared. Minutes later, ‘Roids exited the nest, his chest littered with holes, and his hands glistening with blood and bits of intestine. The other nest, which hadn’t heard the commotion, and where focusing on keeping the Sect pinned, didn’t notice ‘Roids until he entered the nest.
A minute after that last gun had fallen silent; Sect Mantis and Skittters swarmed the area, harvesting bodies wherever they were. ‘Roids was left alone, just standing outside the silent Machine Gun nest, until a Mantis chirped some commands at him. ‘Roids proceeded to lay down, arms and legs spread, as 5 Skitters’ expertly dissected him, removing strange white objects, looking kind of like eels, from ‘Roid’s body, placed them upon into a Sac on the Mantis’ back, then proceeded to harvest the now dead body of ‘Roids. The video rewound, then paused and zoomed, onto the strange eel-like objects.
“These are called ‘Thralls’, for the fact that if hit by one, you become a thrall to nearby Sect forces. They are only a recent addition to Sect forces, and the Illuminati have been vague on whether or not they have been used on other worlds. The fact of the matter is, this is the first recorded use on humans, and it happened no more than a week ago. This is the reason there are so few of you here. All of you have either not been able to fight within this last week, or have just arrived from other Bases or Zones. We have no known cure to them, and the Illuminati are very careful about their knowledge of other worlds, so we have no way of knowing if they know of a cure.” The Commander paused, then looked as if the weight of the world was about to be relieved from his shoulders.
“As of 0900 hours, today, we have received word that Sect forces are gathering in the region, preparing for an assault. As of 1500 hours, today, we will be engaging Quarantine Protocol: Firestorm. As we speak, all personnel who are believed or are suspected to be Thralls, have been placed into under heavy sedation, which has resulted in almost 80% of this base being placed under.
We have good Intel that suggests the Sect plans to strike at 1430 hours. Everyone in this room, is expected to have left the base by 1200, and the region by 1330. All of you know which bases you are to report to, and you have all been given Gamma-level clearance, so you can ‘raid’ the armoury for anything you guys deem useful.” The Commander stopped, as if expecting something.
“Sir, isn’t that inhumane? What if all these personnel aren’t infected?” A Corporal asked.
“A good question and the short answer is we have no way off telling who is infected with these parasites, or who are still feeling effects from various Sect weaponry. This is why we are enacting Firestorm protocol. It is a fail-safe protocol, to stop the spread of new and unknown vectors. It has only ever been enacted once, during the White House Massacre. Now, since no one else seems to have questions, you are free to leave, stock up arms and provisions, and start making your way to your objectives.” The Commander paused, checking his Tacpad.
“Sigma Squad, stay. You have a special assignment.”
After all other personnel, besides the Commander, the Brigadier-General, and Sigma Squad had left, The Commander began Sigma’s mission briefing. During the chaotic rush to gather provisions, Sara had snuck in, and sat down near David.
“Okay, now that you are all here, I can start off by telling you, the rest of these personnel that are leaving, are bait for any scouting parties the Sect might send out. Your mission, is to guard an Illuminati, and his guide, to Epsilon Base, where our more experimental and volatile projects are kept.” The Commander said, as he indicated to the door.
At the passage, stood a tall, imposing figure, dressed in a suit, but the strangest thing about him, was the fact he had no discernible face, besides a ‘hollow’ look to where the eyes would normally be. On his back, there seemed to be a kind of malleable darkness, which would spread out, elongate into tendrils and touch random objects. He just stood there, staring at them, until the Commander beckoned him to come closer.
“This is Requires Luminosity, or Lumin, for short. He is Alpha’s Illuminati unit. Unlike most Illuminati, Lumin has lost all but 3 of his units, with 2 being in storage offworld. The one remaining is a scientific model, so he is not good at defending himself. He is also one of the few Illuminati willing to give us more of their tech, and is actually willing to help with our experiments into Chaos energy manipulation. Get him to Epsilon, and his guide, and we may have a chance to win this war, or atleast get it off Earth. Now, Parangosky informed me that 2 of you are requiring Illuminati tech. You have been granted Omega-level access, so you are free to raid the Experimental Tech Armoury. But I’d advise doing so, with your new Tech Specialist, who is also Lumin’s guide. Dismissed.”
With a gesture from the Brigadier-General, Sigma Squad followed Lumin to the Experimental armoury.
Part 3: Armed
John had to admit, he was a little underwhelmed by the look of Alpha’s Experimental armoury. He’d seen glimpses of these supposed ‘holy grails’ of Illuminati tech, and cutting edge experimental human tech, and, supposedly, working version of some Sect weaponry. But besides the Illuminati door scanner, there were very few things inside Alpha’s armoury.
“I know it’s underwhelming, but the few pieces left are well worth it.” A man walked out of the nearby shadows, glasses gleaming from the light coming in from outside.
“Tech Specialist Greg ‘Gary’ Radburn, reporting for duty.”
John scanned the room, while the others proceeded to check out the tech portrayed on the table before them.
“Are you Lumin’s guide? Also, why is this place so bare? We’ve all heard the stories about what is normally in here, yet this one is basically empty.” John stated, disappointment written across his features.
“After the first sighting of these Thrall creatures, Commander Galle ordered the immediate removal of the majority of all dangerous tech, except the few pieces laid out in front of you. These particular pieces were believed to have ‘good synergy’ with you guys. Anything you don’t want, Lumin will take, and keep in storage.” Greg said, as he walked towards the table.
“First off, we have the experimental Flickrifle, an adaption of the Flickblade. This unit was recommended for David Burns, as preparation for what he will receive at Epsilon. It connects onto your Flickblade, and can switch between being a rifle, and being an actual sword, instead of the usual knife form.” Greg informed David, as he proceeded to look over the strange, tonfa-shaped object, and attached it to his Flickblade.
David activated it, and watched in surprised as the blade began to grow rapidly, growing from the size of a short sword, to a long sword, to a katana, and finally settling at the length of a Nodachi. Lumin’s dark tendrils reached over, and touched the rifle. After a few seconds, the energy blade shrank back down to the size of a Long Sword.
A deep, bass echo issued forth from Lumin, to which Greg translated as “This weapon will help you develop the mental discipline needed, for the great powers that will be entrusted to you.” To which Greg added, “Be careful, this is Illuminati/Human hybrid technology. The Rifle function has no effects, but maintaining a blade of that size and strength, will drain you of your mental energy in no time.”
David complied, and turned his new weapon off. Greg proceeded down the table, to the next piece.
“This is for Shawnette Ward, it is the latest variant of the Medlet, called the Deathtouch. It is basically an offensive version of the Medlet, allowing its User to flood a victim with deadly neurotoxins and acids. And we’ve noted that it also halves’ the chances of Decompression, which should lower her chances down to 16.66%. It has also been noticed, in rare circumstances, that The Deathtouch and Medlet will cancel each other out, and ‘free’ their user, instead of decompressing.”
At the sound of this, Shawnette perked up, and without a second thought, attached the Deathtouch gauntlet to her other hand. She grimaced with pain, as the familiar sensation of dissolution and replacement swept through her body, and her armoured sections darkened, with some pieces turning black, while others greyed or stayed their pristine white.
“Do you ever get used to that feeling?” Greg asked out of curiosity.
“No. But it’s either accepting the pain and the loss, or run the risk of decompression.” Shawnette said, obviously not wanting to continue this conversation. Greg took the hint, and went to the next piece of tech.
Greg picked up a set of strange goggles, that seemed out of place with all the advanced tech surrounding it.
“These are for Sara Ernst, and are known to the Illuminati as the ‘Eyes of Time’. We just call them Reflexts. They increase one’s reflexes to an almost supernatural degree. But there have been several reports of people who abuse them, losing their grasp on reality. Be careful not to over use them.”
Now, there were only 3 things left on table. A strange, hollow blade, a sphere glowing with an inner darkness, and a strange, spider-like vambrace.
“John Fox, you’ve been gran-“ Greg was cut off, as the wall behind him imploded, showering them all with debris. John stood, and noticed that the strange sphere and the spider vambrace had landed near him, and proceeded to pick them up. No one noticed, besides Lumin, who cocked his head in a quizzical way, as if unsure of how to respond to this. He then attached the vambrace to his armguards, and placed the orb in one of his spare ammo pouches.
“Sigma, sound off, and status report.” John commanded, ignoring the small itches he started feeling, attributing it to micro-fragments from the wall’s implosion.
“Devil, able bodied. Seems, as usual, intel was off. That was a Sect Roller.” David said, brushing himself off, and began helping Sara to her feet.
“Spirit, ready to go.” Sara said, grateful for David’s assistance.
“Banshee, wishing she’d been told she was gonna be swept off her feet.” Banshee replied, “OI, Lucy, help me up too.” She said, getting David’s attention.
“If you keep calling me Lucy, I might just leave you there, you useless waste of space.” David said, grinning, as he helped her to her feet.
“Next time, don’t choose a callsign that has a name associated with it. And I’m not a waste of space; I’m a perfect example of storing a hell of a lot, in a slender frame.” Shawnette replied, smiling at the usual insults. John knew that those 2 were fine, if they were capable of insulting each other.
He helped Greg to his feet, and noticed a dazed look upon his face. Still not getting a response, he pulled out his dwindling supply of JOLT capsules, and broke one under Greg’s nose. The response was instantaneous. The JOLT capsules were filled with various chemicals designed to instantly awaken and energize soldiers, usually ones suffering from sleep deprivation and waking unconscious soldiers.
“Ok, I’m good.” Greg said, motioning for John to see what was wrong.
John walked out into the anarchy that the base had dissolved into, and assessed the situation. Noting that only Skitters had managed to breach the base, John was about to give the order to move out; when he heard a faint noise, he swore he knew.
-chirpchirp-chirp-chirpchirpchirp-
“INCOMING CRICKET FIRE!”John screamed, as he forced the other back into the cover of the ruined armoury.
John failed to notice the shadow that now blocked the hole in the wall, covering John in its inhuman shape. A Mantis now stood in the hole, and was within striking distance of John.
Sara’s rifle was buried in the rubble, and her blades were stuck against the wall, David was preoccupied with making sure Sara was fine, and Shawnette had no ranged weapons.
“JOHN! BEHIND YOU!” Greg roared, forcing John to turn around, just in time to see the Mantis’ blades start descending for a killing blow.
John, not having time to do much else, raised his left arm to block the blades. Unbeknownst to John, this was the arm he had attached the spider vambrace to.
As the Mantis’ blades bit into John’s flesh, all hell broke loose.
Part 4: [redacted]
*Initialising data scans*
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*Data Scans failed*
*Initialising data scavenger subroutines*
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*Minimal data recovered, reconstruction failed*
*re-routing scavenged illuminati-based data feeds, sect-infected memories and chaos anomalies to data storage*
We’ve tried the best we can do, with what we have. Unless Requires Luminosity is willing to help, we won’t be getting any information on the Vambrace, or what mental effects it has on Humanity yet. -SE
According to the translation software, Lumin refuses to touch John until ‘the scourge of his people’ has left John’s system, and Shawnette says even the Medlet is struggling to contain what is happening. She’s managed to contain it, by effectively combining the power of both her gauntlets. – GR
GR, priority has changed. Get him to Epsilon ASAP. Several Tarantula-class Sect have slowly begun heading in that direction. They need the data stored in John’s mind. – TP
Understood sir. We are officially two days away from the remains of Alpha, and are making good time. But unless John awakens soon, we might have to consider opening the Network, to make it there with enough time to spare. – GR
Understood, get those men and women prepared. Beta Base has launched an attack on some of the edges of the swarm, as a diversion. You have your orders. – TP
GR has signed off.
S, your new primary objective is to study the mental patterns of Lumin. Epsilon has plans, and the odds look good. But make sure E isn’t aware. Also, keep an eye on John, we need as much data as possible. – TP
Understood sir. Objectives have been changed, and E had no access to these parts of the Core. – S
SE has signed off.
Part 5: Chitin
……flashes of fire…………raining blood, drenched in red, green and blue gore…………ripping apart foul things………claws outstretched………..escape………..safety…………….rest…………..
John woke with a start, arms out in front, ready to defend himself from an attack long since passed. When he realized that his attacker was a mere shadow, John calmed, and checked his arm.
What he saw shocked him. Instead of his usual combat fatigues, and arm guards, a strange metallic armour was now covering a part of his arm, from below the elbow. As he turned his arm around, he saw that the armour seemed to have originated from the vambrace he had picked up earlier, and found that the design had changed, with the Spider pattern now incorporating his fingers, making them seem like long, deadly talons.
Or like claws……. John thought, as he remembered the nightmare that had forced him awake. As he continued feeling up his arm, he found a small circlet of metal roughly 2 cm in diameter, firmly attached to the end of the strange armour.
Against John’s will, his arm lurched backwards, pulling him along with it. John, shocked at the unexplained movement, didn’t even notice the cave he had woken in, but focused on the figure standing behind him. Lumin was just standing there, watching.
At the movement from the Vambrace, Lumin glided back, his tendrils rushing forward as if to shield him. A sonic pulse issued forth from the strange backpack that John had seen Greg wearing, and a numbing pain issued from the metal circlet, and managed to give John control of his arm again.
He’s awake? Good, We’ll get the others. A synthetic female voice said, as if talking to Lumin, He shouldn’t try anything else for a while, that dose is supposed to give us a few hours of control.
The voice seemed to issue from further up in the cave, in the passage containing the strange backpack of Greg’s, but he couldn’t see any movement, just green and red symbols pulsating on the backpack. Greg and Shawnette arrived a minute later, looking worse for wear, but still in one piece.
“What happened to me?” John said, anger and confusion in his voice, his right arm exploring the new features of his left hand, still not believing what he had seen.
“Sir, you wouldn’t believe us if we told you.” Shawnette said, relieved to see her commander looking better, “As soon as the Mantis hit you, we thought you were dead. Next thing we saw was you snapping the blades from its limb, and then shoving it straight through its multi-hinged jaw. You disappeared after that, and we stumbled upon you as we managed to get out of the base.”
“You’ve only been coherently conscious now. You’ve been fading in and out of some sort of nightmare state for the last 18 hours. And your new attachment has effectively been trying to hurt Lumin for the last hour.” Greg stated, checking the John’s health from a careful distance with his own Tacpad.
“So, what’s the plan, now that I’m awake?” John said, his mind straight back onto the mission, choosing to ignore his arm for now. Shawnette seemed about to say something, but decided against it.
“We are falling behind schedule. Several Tarantula-Class Sect have had their courses plotted, and they all converge on Epsilon at the same time. We won’t make it in time, to be of use, so we’ve been granted permission to use the Network.” Greg said, ignoring the shock on John’s face.
-scritchscritch-scritch-scritchscritchscritch-
Without thinking, John’s arm broke the earth, and pulled up a crushed Sect Digger.
“We need to move. Skitters and Scuttlers will be swarming here soon. Take us to the nearest entrance.” John said, resigned to the idea of using the Network.