Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Erase your light / Take your flight / To a place where you will be remembered / To a place where you will be loved” -Serenity

“When you take away the human weaknesses of a soldier, you didn’t create the perfect soldier, you just made a monster.”

2035 October 27th. Unknown Location

“Memory reconstruction ready”

“Y/N”

“Y”

“Initiating Subject’s memory reconstruction, standby please”

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…PoV

*INHALE*

I woke up with a sharp inhale and a jolt throughout my whole being, a cold chill ran through my whole being. I floated weightlessly in some manner of liquid. I can’t move. Have I been restrained? I feel too weak to even lift my arms. Wait, memories, I seem to remember things.
Horizon, Task Force 27, Syndicate, Director, Anton Lazar, Patriarch, Emerson, 105, a Nuke, and a Cycle… break the Cycle.

BREAK THE CYCLE

I did break the Cycle, by detonating the thermonuclear bomb inside the Task Force 27 base, wiping out everything in a several-kilometer radius. I remember manually detonating the nuke. I was missing my left hand, but now, I can feel it? I remember several banging noises on glass while I crawled to the control terminal. I remember slamming my left injured arm down onto the big red button, a quick flash of light, then afterward pure darkness, until now.

With a great deal of strength, I was finally able to open my eyes and the cold liquid assaulted my eyes, uncomfortable but not painful. Everything was blurry, but I could make out someone through it all, a bald person in a scientist's garb. I could faintly make out his head turning towards me.

Observing every fiber of my being, and noting it down on his clipboard, giving it to his nearby assistant he turns fully towards me and starts to walk slowly near me, stopping just two passes away and placing his hand in the pod's glass, then started speaking in a voice I swear I heard from before.

“Welcome back Six, we are not done with you yet.”

Anton Lazar, I know his voice from anywhere, but how? Last I remember, I caved in his skull in Horizon HQ. Something isn’t right. Also, Six. That’s my nickname, I remember now, my callsign is Subject 106. I don’t have an actual name.

“You did it Six, you broke the Cycle! Something I’ve been trying to do for years! If only you knew sooner that the Syndicate is the true enemy all this time. As for how am I alive? Well, you killed my ancestor yes, the original me, but I always had contingencies.”

Another person, going by the body proportions and voice likely female, arrived in a hurry.

“Mister Lazar, sir? Sangvis Ferri's board of directors has arrived, shall I send them to your office?”

Anton remained stoic for a few seconds, not moving at all as if thinking through hundreds of possible answers. I remember the man being a genius, differently made than me, 105, the Patriarch or… 107.

“Send them up, but make sure that they avoid this part of the facility, there are… things here that the world is not ready to see yet. As for you Six, you better rest.”

INITIATING SLEEP MODE IN POD-CVI, INJECTING SEDATIVES, STAND BY.

I tried to resist whatever drugs they injected into me, but it was too strong, likely a large dose meant for a big game or something entirely different.

For one last time, I could see Anton from the corner of the pod turning back and saying something, I could barely make it out.

“You’ll find the world will be much better when you wake up.”

I couldn’t keep my eyes open, too weak, too powerless to do anything. My eyes closed and as with it, calm darkness came.

ITS NOT YOUR TIME, YET.

2062 February 7th. Sector S09. Eastern Carpathian Sangvis Ferri Territory.

…PoV

“Trudging through this nasty territory has ruined my beautiful uniform, and my heels are covered in mud, WHY is there so much mud around here!?”

Hearing her high-pitched complaints assaulted my digi-nerves to no end. For the past hour, my partner has done nothing but complain about rasputitca.

“I think you should have thought of that sooner before entering a territory that is known for its mud and snow this time of the year, Architect.” I softly retorted back, giving her a side-eye.

“But Gager, why did we volunteer for this mission?! This place sucks! It’s cold, dirty, wet, and specifically lacks explosions! Waaah!---”

She says that as she almost trips into the mud, catching herself at the last second.

“I hate it here!” She whined like a petulant child, she is usually too cheerful and not complain much.

“For the last time, we didn’t volunteer to be here, we were ordered to be here.” I repeat myself again, as I have done dozens of other times, turning my head from the muddy and snowy road that we have seen for hours with no end. I look at my whining compatriot’s rosy, glowing pink eyes, her obsidian-colored hair is tied in a side ponytail that cascades down her slim waist, that nearly reaches her knees, and the said knees are clad in thigh-highs that end to her armored high-heels, past the thigh-highs are her hotpants and tiger-striped corset that hugs her generously slim assets snugly.

“Besides Architect, we don’t volunteer, like ever, we are doing what we are ordered to by Agent and Elisa, and we are doing it perfectly. Any questions?” I look at her, already expecting her question.

Architect’s PoV

“Nope, none, not one at all.” I gingerly say to Gager, as I shoulder up my dear rocket launcher, its impressive weight making any lesser man buckle, holding in itself a powerful warhead, capable of annihilating any adversary that it lands on.

“Say, Gager, what is so important in this guy that we were sent to… retrieve was it?.” I asked my silver-haired partner in crime, her green eyes never left the road, she just shut them for a second and answered back.

”I don’t know, but presumably this HVP is meant to be retrieved alive for some reason, what Agent and Elisa want with a human is beyond me.”

Looking all over her for any sign of extra information was a fool's errand, her mud-covered knee-length boots didn’t show any change in gait, and the leotard that covered her body didn’t show any hesitation or unplanned movements, seeing how that didn’t yield me any success I just looked at the road, the dirty, muddy and smelly road. Awwww…

“We are nearing our destination.” Gager said calmly as her eyes fixated on a particular direction ahead of us. “This way.”

“Whatever you say, the sooner we get out of this, and into somewhere warm and dry the better!” I answered back, at last, we are arriving! I just hope the place will be warm! Oh and maybe have some hot chocolate?

Ahead of us was the likely destination, a large fenced-off building. There are barbed wires on top of the fence, and ‘NO ENTRY’ signs all over, there are a few guard towers around, sitting there empty with broken windows. In the middle of it was a large building, the main building was large, with wings that led to smaller extensions beside it. The windows, or lack off, were broken.

“Do you think this place has cobwebs? I really don’t want to touch cobwebs, that's just nasty!” Hey, it's a fair complaint! Cobwebs are nasty and sticky, and don’t get me started about spiders!

Gager didn’t spare me an answer and just began leading the echelons containing Vespids and Rippers toward the POI.

“Hey Gager? I know you can hear meeee!” She is enjoying this, I know it! I ran after her, almost tripping again, never going to wear high-heels after this.

106’s PoV

At first, I thought I was in a dream, in a far off land place that no one could reach or dream of. With beautiful flowers strewn around, rolling hills, and lush mountains waiting for me to come, I thought I was in paradise for a second, until…

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

Motherfucker…

EMERGENCY ALERT!
Power shortages were detected throughout the facility. Reserve power at critical levels!

ERROR, ERROR!
Error detected in POD-CVI! Emergency unlock initiated, please stand by!

I am suddenly woken up from my sleep, the sounds of a PA system warning and speaker blaring in the background as machinery begins to open my pod's door, its frosty surface covers all of it.

I feel the liquid in which I floated hell if I know how long it slowly drain until there is nothing left, by now the door has opened completely and I feel like there’s nothing between me and the elements as they assault my soaked form. Cold, very cold, and stingy.

Subject 106 2.0, ACTIVE.

106 PoV

2.0? What does that mean? Never mind, I got something much more important to deal with, finding some damn clothes for one.

I have clearly underestimated my situation with my body once I took a step out of the pod my entire body felt like it was on fire, I might have been here for a long time, if my body aches and hurts so much, I mused to myself.

Now for finding clothing. I managed to get enough strength into my limbs so they wouldn’t move like dead fish. Each step hurt as if walking in glass shards, hot searing glass shards. I managed to straighten myself out and look around, and well, this place sure has seen better days, rows of empty broken pods, rusty metal here and there, moldy seats, broken lamps, and so on. Suddenly I remember, remember when I first woke up inside that glass coffin and saw him. It makes my head hurt just thinking about anything right now. I looked around the pod and noticed a locker, on it was a name tag with Roman numerals on it, it read “CVI”.

I don’t need assurances to know it's mine. Slowly I went for it, and of-fucking-course it's locked.

Very well, brute force it is then, sorry muscles.

I cocked my arm back and punched the door at the hinges, it fucking hurt, but paid off as the door buckled and fell off. Now to the prize, a full set of Multicam battle-dress-uniform, a pair of black tactical gloves, an underwear, a pair of black socks, a black balaclava, a pair of military steel-toed boots, and lastly my red visor. No weapons, or a helmet or plate carrier.

As quickly as I got dressed, feeling the familiar fabric over my muscular body. Felt like small needles stabbing me. But it only lasted a few moments, until my body got used to it.

First, as I finished dressing up, I decided to check out my cloak and reflexes. Don’t know if Anton decided to do something with me while I was out. I looked at my hand and clenched it, with a slight buzzing sound my body became almost fully invisible, I remained in it as long as I could, which turned out to be longer than just 5 seconds. I could stay cloaked for nearly 20 seconds. This is good, very good. As for my reflexes or should I just say focus, almost the same, almost. Everything seems to be slightly slower if I concentrate like before, but I also seem to be relatively faster while in it. So, what now, Anton decided to improve me or something after I crushed his head like a melon back in Horizon HQ? What’s the catch? Is there any? Goddamn headache again.

I clutch my head as another headache assaults my skull, what's with the headaches all of a sudden?

EMERGENCY ALERT!

Reserve power at dangerously low levels, please reinitiate reactors in Sector 2B!

The VA blared loudly into my ear far more clearly than before. And that is not good, this place has no windows, at least here, if the power were to go kaput, I would be stuck in pure darkness. Knowing Anton, he likely using those Bio-Reactors from the Pandora Institute. I guess I can make a detour to restart them, after that, well, I feel naked without a gun, so hitting up the armory sounds like a good plan.

*GROWL*

And something to eat, yeah a chow sounds nice. I looked around again, I am on a corridor, two ways to go, but to where? The VA said Sector 2B. If so then I just have to try and follow directions if there are any. Left or right, left or right? To hell with it, right is the right way, everyone knows this.

My legs feel much better now, but they are still not what I could call 100%, still too weak, but regardless I began walking down the right path. This place is totaled, as if a tornado swept through here, what has happened here even? What made Anton and the crew jump town? As I walked down the hallway, I arrived at what could be described as a smaller office. I open the door and go inside, everything is moldy and smells like crap, the computer at the desk obviously doesn’t work anymore, but there is a folder on the desk.

I decided to pick it up and as I did a ton of dust fell out of it, which would have caused me to turn into a coughing mess, but balaclava wins again. The folder read “Preliminary Results - Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Program”. Now this got me interested, I don't understand a single thing though, I am not made to be an egghead like Dr. Emerson. I open it up and it's all equal to Chinese to me right from the get-go, I turn a few pages, but I don’t understand any of these scientific terms.

I snap this thing close, I am not ready for another headache, and pocket it, well more like jam it between my pants and my body, because do try to fit a hard-cased office folder into your pockets. Giving the room a last look over reveals nothing more of interest. With that, I exited the said room and continued down the hallway. There are cameras on the wall, but as one might expect in a situation like this, they are weathered and hang uselessly, some of them have broken out and are hanging from their cables on the hard points of the wall.

Walking past the cameras and the broken walls I found a map of this maze, finally, I could use some directions. Let’s see here, I was probably in this room right over here, after circling the room I was in, I began to follow the road on the map, passed the last intersection, and to where I currently am at.

Let’s see what we have going forward, the janitor room, nope. The engineering bay, nah. The reactor room! Bingo!

It seems to be close enough to me, I just have to pass a few intersections and corridors here and there, well I better get going, this reactor won’t start by itself. I began walking down the hallway towards it. Weird, where is everyone? How much time has passed even? This place looks like it's been abandoned for decades. Honestly, I wonder how this thing has any power left at this point, I know Horizon builds stuff to last, but to make electricity last this long? Truly something really. I passed the first two intersections, only stopping to check the direction plaques that show where the reactor is. Heading down another corridor, then another, until reaching my destination.

Finally reached the reactor’s room at last. It’s indicated by the steel door with the big lightning bolt and a reactor funnel in yellow plastic, plus the bold letters saying ‘Bio-Reactors - Entry to Authorized Personnel Only! Let’s just hope Anton made handling this easy.

I reached out and grasped the metal handle with my gloved hand and heard the most annoying sound that I know so far, the door being locked, again.

So, I do what I do best and take a few steps back, only to lunge forward and deliver a dropkick into it, making the door break off its hinges and fly to the other side of the room, a little tingling in my legs and spine but nothing that lasts for long. A quick flick of my legs later I enter the reactor room much smaller than the one from Pandora, so either the facility is smaller, or they have some redundancy measures in place, either way, I am turning the damn thing back on. I notice a catwalk leading to what looks like a terminal or console, let's just hope it works. I climbed up the stairs from where I was to the catwalk and walked to the terminal, it was turned off as expected and had a thick layer of dust on its screen, a few scratches too, likely from the nails of the previous reactor operator, man if you are still alive, cut your nails. I checked the power cable, and it was not connected. So I do what every good electrician does with possibly decades-old cables and plug them in, to my honest surprise the damned thing turned on. Finally something good. Okay, while the terminal boots up before I put my boot in it, I check out the reactors themselves, I don’t need it exploding into my face just because I stupidly decided to restart them without checking for damages.

I jumped down from my elevated position, landed on my legs, and immediately began to walk toward the reactors lined alongside the opposing walls, from the looks of it the reddish bio-material looks…good? Like hasn’t expired yet or something, the reactors themselves look to be in good shape, practically brand new, except for the layers of dust and a few spots of rust, but shouldn’t be a problem once it is turned on. A loud beeping noise caught my attention from the direction of the terminal so I went back to check it out, and when I arrived it was showing overall readiness and reactor status, basically writing in bold, fuck-off letters “OFFLINE”, yeah no shit Sherlock. I swipe at the terminal’s control surface and the bold letters go away, in its place a menu comes up with several options to choose from.

Reinitialize, Reinitialize (OVERDRIVE), Core Meltdown, Power Off.

I pressed the “Reinitialize” option, regardless of how tempting the meltdown option was. I turn away from the terminal and to the reactors to see the red matter inside starting to glow up literally.

BIO-REACTOR INITIALIZING… PLEASE STAND BY!

Music to my ears and one less headache. I turn back to the terminal and see just how quick the process is, already at 67% readiness. Just a few more moments and it's done.

*BEEP*

Or it's done right away. Good. Oh, what’s this? Engage Autopilot? Don’t mind if I do, at least I can go my merry way. With that I jump down from the catwalk once again, with the reactors up, running, and automated, my job here is done… well maybe not, that meltdown is too tempting, maybe when I am ready to leave this hellhole.

Now onto things that matter, guns, glorious guns! Back to the map on the wall!

I went back through the now familiar corridors and intersections back to the hallway where the map was located on the wall.

Okay, it seems the armory is on the other side of this whole damned mess, the Security Wing. Figures, keep the psycho supersoldier away from his toys. Well, time for walking and–

WARNING, INTRUDERS DETECTED! ONGOING BREACH IN SECURITY PERIMETER ZONE A1!

All civilians must leave this area, repeat all civilians must leave this area immediately!

All security personnel, report to your designated posts, repeat, this is not a drill, all security personnel, report to your designated posts!

Execute Operation: Bright Star immediately!

Operation Bright Star? Brings back memories from Site 14. Well, either the VA or the sensors are crapping out, I mean this place is old by the looks of it. But again, considering Horizon makes stuff to last, maybe I do have guests on my hands soon enough. Ugh, let’s just hope some kinda animal triggered the alarm. I am still in no shape to fight just yet.

Remembering where the armory was located on the map, I began to run there with post haste, hearing my boots hit the cold cement brought a thrill to me, how they easily crushed broken glass, the cold wind blowing past me reminded me of a feeling no normal man could experience. I quickly made my way to the administration hall. By the looks of it, I am underground as a large map of the whole facility is by the elevator showing the current position, there is a large building above me, no matter. The administration is trashed like the corridors, unlikely that I’ll find anything of use, I make my way to the large double doors leading to the opposing wing, or the security wing. I half expected the door to be locked, but to my relief, it wasn’t. Small mercies. Okay, the armory shouldn’t be far, it seems they designed the layout so the security can quickly arm themselves, smart, I suppose. I went in and began looking for my prize, but so far no luck, it’s supposed to be on the right-hand side right about… here. Soon enough I am standing in front of a metal door with a simple word grafted onto it, “ARMORY”. As soon as I reach the door I kick it off its rickety hinges, not caring to look if it is locked or not, I need guns, and I want them now! With that little stunt done I am reminded how old this place is, with all the soot and dust that is kicked up in the air as the door hits the ground.

After letting the dust settle a bit, I took some hasty steps inside of it, each step causing dust to fly up a bit. This place has aged the same as the other parts of this facility, with old and decrepit walls filled with cobwebs and cracks that ran all around it, rusted metal cages presumably for weapons stowage, was fully opened and bare of anything to see, I began to look around for anything that could help me, this proves to be a harder task than I thought, the place was picked clean, nothing on the shelves or storage cases, whether from a hasted armament or deliberate move-out. Something really bad must have happened, everything is trashed, the armory picked clean, and most computers are smashed beyond repair. This is either a half-assed cover-up or they evacuated hastily for some reason. I noticed something sticking out from behind the quartermaster’s chair and table, some sort of a green lockbox, or weapon case, with Cyrillic writing on it, whether it was Russian or Ukrainian I don’t know nor do I care. The only things I could reliably make out of the writing are ‘74’ and ‘5.45x39mm’. I picked up the lockbox by the handles and put it on top of the table ‘gently’ to avoid dust and soot flying up and hitting me in the face, by now I am already a walking dustman, the only reason I am not reduced to a coughing, choking mess is the balaclava, another win for it I suppose.

Studying the green lockbox, I can find its lock. The old Soviet design was very apparent on it. The thick slab of corroded metal would probably have been child’s play for a lockpicker, but I am not one, and nor do I have the patience or tools to be one, so I firmly grasp the corroded lock with one hand and place my other in the center of the lockbox, and began twisting the padlock, trick it is to snap the shackles, something normal human do too with tools. I twisted until the shackles snapped off and the lockbox was no longer locked, these older locks are so rusted that not much force was needed anyway. Afterward, the only thing that was left was to open it and see what’s inside.

Opening up the lockbox’s lid and peeking inside it, I found a pretty beautiful relic from the ’70s. Its short laminated birch wooden handle and pistol grip gave it an appearance that made original AKs distinctive and attractive. This thing had a folding skeletonized stock with the famous Soviet pink bandage on it and a short 8.1-inch barrel capable of sending a 53-grain projectile at roughly 730 m/s, truly the hallmark that was created by Kalashnikov himself for the Soviet GRU. Made for vehicle crews, airborne units, Spetsnaz, and other special operations units. The AKS-74U, or its iconic name the “Krinkov”. An original one worth thousands of dollars, ten thousand at that. Almost feel sorry that I will have to use it, almost. I can see it has a few attachments, namely a PBS-1 Suppressor, the classic “bell” muzzle break, and lastly an OKP-7 reflex sight.

Tapping its magazine against my head I can see that it has the full thirty rounds in it, just what the doctor prescribed. Further search led me to find four more mags, each one loaded and ready to go, along with 70 more rounds of 7N6 or “Poison bullet” as it was called in its heyday in thirty-round boxes and one last box filled with the 7N39 Armor-Piercing round or Igolnik for the fancy pants like I, the entire thing is completed with a nice leather sling that completes the entire look of it, gonna give props to the quartermaster of this place on this one, this is a “modern” masterpiece I have to admit. But, I can’t effectively carry all this without a backpack, maybe this place has one, if not, well I just stuff my pockets. Okay, I saw some lockers in another room here, maybe that's where they stored body armor too.

I turned away from the opened lockbox and went to check out that door not 5 meters away from me, it was a wooden door, with a broken window, glass shards broken inwards, someone likely tried to get in there. I checked the doorknob and found it unlocked, either the fool who broke the window didn’t know the door was open, or they were the ones that opened it. Either way, at least I don’t have to kick another door down, it's becoming a returning theme lately. As I entered I could instantly see several lockers ransacked from their contents, only two were closed. At least I don’t have to search much. I went to the two aforementioned lockers, they weren’t locked, just closed. Opening one of them up yielded no results as it was empty, just a chewed-up bubblegum stuffed into the corner, it reminds me that I still have to hit up the cafeteria or a supply room for something edible, like canned food or crackers.

*GROWL*

I know I know, we are both hungry now so shut up. I didn’t bother to close the locker’s door, why should I? Instead, I went to the one beside it, now this one is locked tight.

Oh boy, here I go committing vandalism again.

I cocked my arm back and punched the door at the lock, as one could expect, it made a large rickety sound befitting a rusty locker, but the punch yielded results, who said you can’t fix things by smashing them. I just fixed my problem, this one contained not only a backpack but a plate carrier and a helmet, both Horizon standard issues, not necessarily in the most optimal condition, God knows how long it sat inside, but better than nothing I guess. The backpack is in good condition at least, the plate carrier is okay and I can feel several plates inside them, the helmet had a slight crack on the left side and it has lost some color, but nothing major.

I equipped the plate carrier, adjusting the straps until its comfortably, but firmly hugs my torso. Next, the helmet, simply put it onto my head, just about perfectly sized for my noggin’. I carry the backpack out in my hands, it’s more like a larger rucksack, but at least I’ll have a lot of space to work with. I begin packing the ammo boxes and that single document I picked up earlier into the rucksack’s base, it took a bit of time, but after it’s done I zip it close and put it on my back, now for the magazines. I put the four spare mags into my plate carrier’s mag pouch on the front, done in a mere fifteen seconds. And lastly, the Krink, I just shoulder with the sling. Can’t wait to shoot something with it.

Now that I am armed with something, have some modicum of protection, and a way to store essentials, I should probably make my way to the supply room or the cafeteria. I shouldered my new carbine and went for the door, but before I could leave, I noticed something peculiar, a shovel, with a crowbar handle sitting idly in the corner. I approached it and picked it up, it was hefty enough. The shovel head was adjustable and had serrated edges, not my sword, but, I love this already, the edges could use some sharpening, maybe the supply room also has sharpening tools, who knows. As for the crowbar part, it was an ordinary, thick metal bar with a crowbar head, good for opening doors or causing blunt force trauma. Shovel and crowbar, so a crovel, totally original trademarked name by yours truly. I attach the crovel to a strap on the rucksack, if nothing else, this thing will come in handy for killing.

I stepped out of the armory and began remembering back to the map, it showed both the supply room and a smaller cafeteria in the security wing, likely meant for them only, maybe the guys were rowdy, maybe aggressive, and didn’t want them to mingle with the civies, considering the people Horizon recruited, it makes sense that their remnants to be the most zealous fanatics of Anton. But this is irrelevant now, I should be concentrating on getting to either the cafeteria or the supplies. Supplies, or cafeteria, cafeteria, or supplies. Fuck it, supplies it is. Should be a couple of corners away, so not far.

I began walking down further in the security wing, this place oddly less trashed, maybe the guards didn’t just let the mob in, all the better, maybe they left some stuff. I turned around the corner of the corridor I was walking down from and noticed that the new hallway had some sort of security gate, a standard energy gate employed by Horizon and powered, it likely turned on when I messed with the reactors, shouldn’t be a problem really, just follow the cable which conveniently lead to the room beside the gate, maybe this is why the way beyond is less trashed, kept everyone out. I headed into the room where the cable led, inside were several monitors, a console, and a few drawers, an observatory. As I entered my legs were knocked into something, I looked down and saw the tattered moldy remains of a boot attached to a skeletal leg, the skeletal leg in turn attached to a whole skeleton with a small hole in the side of the skull. Upon closer inspection, it wore the tattered remains of a standard Horizon BDU, poor sod was just a mall cop. Beside the poor sod was a rusted pistol, more specifically a rusted engraved Makarov, that's not Horizon's standard issue though, likely his personal gun he brought with him. If I know right, only decorated veterans of the Russian and Ukrainian militaries issued engraved Makarovs like this, the guy likely was a soldier in either army. I looked away from the skeleton to find where the power cable led. I followed it and it went behind a drawer, so I kicked the said drawer out of the way and pulled the thing out.

I could hear the telltale sounds of energy destabilizing then ceasing to exist. Okay with that out of the way, I can continue making my way further deep, before leaving the room I gave the skeleton one last glance, despite me being a violent asshole, I am not unreasonable or heartless, sure Horizon employed a lot of shady guys, but I remember not all of them were bad, like that worker from the Omega facility, the poor guy was so shocked, calling out to his dismembered comrades in vain that medics will arrive shortly. I couldn’t bring myself to kill him, he didn’t even hold his pistol properly, so I just sneaked by him and left him. I do regret some of my killings.

There is no point reminiscing about the good old dopamine-filled days, I better get a move on. With that, I went outside the room and closed the door.

Moving past the barrier I finally managed to arrive at the supply room relatively quickly, just as I expected it was ransacked and filled with dust, it wasn’t the largest room that I had come across so far, but it had the potential to be the most useful of them all, now with the reactors back online a faint light could be seen cascading down from the very old lights in the ceiling, showing just how much dust this room has gathered over the years, looking around I wasn’t able to find much, but probably the counter would yield him more favorable results.

Walking for a bit he was able to reach the counter, and he wasn’t impressed with its state, just a bare-bones, spartan counter, with nothing but a table-like plywood surface with many containers lining up every nook and cranny below it, beside it is an overturned chair that seen better days. When designed, efficiency was the only thing in mind for this place.

Quickly getting to work I began searching every container for things that might have been left behind or forgotten, leaving none closed I was able to find some pretty interesting items that could help with my survival in the future.

First was a sharpening tool for my shovel that I found on the far-right side of the counter, probably left in a panic after whatever happened here, then came a tarp with a sleeping bag integrated into it in a larger container, just beside it was an orange rope. Next was a cooking kit that came in with a lighter and some canned food, this was probably meant for the patrols and outer security. Next and what surprised me the most was a can of water, a canteen, and some water purification tablets, I am surprised really that this wasn’t picked up sooner and finally the last and the hardest items to find were the flashlight, knife and some spare BDUs, the knife is a piece of metal wasn’t all that hard to find one in decent condition, but same can’t be said for the flashlight, it took me a great deal of time finding working batteries and other parts to finally make this one work, and most BDU’s were either ripped or didn’t fit me. Also a note and pen, honestly might come in handy, if I need to communicate or I am just bored.

I had begun to stow away everything in my bag when I heard something, something like an elevator whirring to life, from the administration hall perhaps. So far that place had the only elevator that I came across… I almost forgot about the emergency alert about the intruders!

I am getting rusty.

The elevator’s descending sound became louder and louder, not by much given I am fairly far away, like two short hallways away. It continued for a while until suddenly it stopped then…

*PING*

The opening of the elevator’s door could be heard, considering the place is dead silent it's not hard to do so. Soon after came the sounds of… high heels?! Like a dozen at least. High heels are loud.

I quickly began stuffing any useful items that had been left and zipped the rucksack close, shouldering it back and taking off the Krink, I am still not 100%, but likely for a few days. Better to avoid combat for now.

I slowly began walking out of the storage, supply room whatever, while avoiding rubbles and trash on the ground to not give my position away. This slowly took me a few minutes to get close to the administration, the sounds of heels were synched, precise, too precise in fact. As I neared the double door, I heard a feminine voice speaking up in a rather uninterested tone.

“This must be it.”

I cloaked up and peeked out from the doors, and what I saw made me question my remaining sanity. There were women, the majority wearing weird skin-tight bodysuits, weirder metallic helmets, and even more bizarre weapons that I had never seen, lesser in numbers beside them were similarly clothed, but without helmets and with visors, were purple-haired women, what was even more weird they looked exactly alike, like same height, same eyes, same overall face, skin tone, everything. Unlike the helmeted ones, they had dual submachine guns or at least I think those are submachine guns. I looked at my Krink and then at their weapons, I feel severely outgunned right about now. What manner of futuristic shit even is this?! These… things lined up militarily, forming inspection lines for two black garb-wearing girls. One of them had white hair and green eyes, and the other had obsidian-colored hair tied into a ponytail to the side and reached down to her knees, she also had quite an interesting glowing pair of pink eyes. But their weapons, well, the worst designs I have ever laid my eyes on.

White hair had a weird machine gun, that thing is too big, too unwieldy, I could probably leverage the size of it in close quarters and easily disarm her. One problem though, she seems to carry that utter disgrace to machineguns effortlessly, is she enhanced too? The end of the crap seems to move, arching forward and igniting? Is that thing forming a goddamn… spear or something? Okay, maybe close quarters isn’t all that of a good idea. Still a horrible waste of resources design though.

Glowy eyes aren’t anything better than White, bringing a rocket launcher into a small enclosed underground room? You're just asking to be caught in a cave-in from that thing. Under the launcher itself, is a smaller machine gun. Seriously these two look like bosses of this bunch, but the underlings seem to have much better-designed weaponry.

Hell, I haven’t drunk anything yet and I see shit like this! Fuck it, let’s listen to what they are talking about, maybe it shed light on some things.

Gager’s PoV

Half an Hour Earlier

All assault squads are in their designated fire watch positions. Architect has taken the first platoon to the southern end of the compound, while I lead the second to the western wing, trying to pincer it.

As we get closer we can faintly outline an outer perimeter
from the designated POI, we will launch the assault at exactly 0500 hours sharp, from the intel provided by Agent, learned that Perimeter A is filled with barbed wire and many other tools that might impede our platoon's advance to the designated compound.

“Hey Gager, what exactly are we doing here?” Came in the voice of my partner through radio silence.

With a great sigh, I responded to her, ”We are preparing to breach the compound, where the HVP is located, over.” I responded to Architect for the dozenth time.

“But it’s boring to me alreeeeadyyy, how about we launch the assault NOW, and let me BLOW things sky HIGH!” I heard Architect shout over the radio with her usual cheery voice, blowing our radio silence just like her explosions.

“Negative Architect, we have five till we commence the assault, too soon and we may blow our cover, over.”

“Well five minutes is not good enough for me, I am commencing assault right about NOW, platoon follow me!” I heard Architect over the radio, and soon the color was drained from my artificial skin from hearing her command.

“Damn it, Architect! That wasn’t in the PLAAAN!! Why does it always have to be like this!? Oh well…” I shout over, annoyed by my partner’s antics

“Second platoon!” I shouted at the dolls under my command. ”The attack shall commence now!”.

We were able to clear out from the tree line and reach the obstacles in mere minutes, where I took care of the barbed wire with one swing of my Gunblade’s plasma saber.

After finally reaching the western edge of the compound we took a more cautious approach since things were quiet too quiet for my liking.

Eventually entering and clearing the compound I was able to meet up with Architect where I apprehended her for her recklessness and disobeying direct orders.

Right on time as the power came online to the facility, a place this old shouldn’t have a working electrical grid!

Something isn’t right, but we have to advance towards the objective and secure it, no matter the cost.

But first…

Achitect’s PoV

Aww…, I expected enemies here, or at least automated defenses that I can blow up! But nothing! I am dirty, I am cold, and I can’t blow anything up! It’s not fair.

“There you are.” I spun around to Gager’s voice, she had her indifferent look like always, but the way she narrowed her eyes? Yep, she is angry.

“At least you proved to be a somewhat useful recon, you would work well with Scarecrow.” This wasn’t a compliment, not at all.

“I’ll pass, partner.” I tried to put up my usual facade, which further annoyed my white hair companion.

“Now…” Gager trailed off as she took a good look at the building, it had seen better days, most windows were broken or missing entirely, walls are cracked, entrance door was nonexistent.
Without saying a word, my white-haired compatriot just began walking inside with her echelon, so I did the same. The administration is nasty and has an old abandoned building smell to it. Not much left either, the furniture has been overturned, the administration desk has a chair on top of it, the ceiling is full of cracks, and the supporting pillars are missing huge chunks.

One well-placed explosion could easily topple the whole thing on top of us, huh…

“Why do I have a feeling I just jinxed ourselves? Eh, probably nothing.” I mean there is no one here besides us and that target of ours, right? Now that I think of it, what are they even doing here? Doesn’t look like this place has anything useful left…

Meanwhile, Gager ordered me and my echelon to spread out and find anything that may indicate, well anything! Fanning our designated squads out we were able to cover a lot of ground, going door to door, room to room, and hallway to hallway we left no stone unturned with our obviously advanced sensors. No insult to Griffin’s folk and I don’t hate them unlike my comrades, ironic coming from me, a Sangvis doll, but they are basically civilian dolls repurposed into tactical dolls, it's a fact that they aren’t and can’t be the same quality as a purposefully built military grade tactical doll.

We spent about half an hour sweeping the floor for anything useful, but so far nothing on our end, maybe Gager has found something.

As I wanted to call her, I received a ping from her, alrighty! I should just leave the search up to her the next time!

“Form up on me girls!” I beckoned my Vespid-Ripper mixed echelon to follow me as we made our way back to Gager and her own echelon. Didn’t take more than three minutes to do so.

When we arrived at her position she was already waiting for us in an elevator that was closed before.

“This floor has nothing, and the stairs are not viable anymore to advance to the upper levels, we are moving down.” Gager’s voice was even, not betraying emotion, just her common ‘mission first’ and ‘code of honor’ mumbo jumbo.

“It's gonna be dusty isn’t it?” I whined as I slouched slightly, my custom-built bazooka dangling slightly on my shoulder.

“Quit whining and get in.” The way she said it was meant to convey ‘my word is final’ or at least I think it was that.

Me and Gager were in the back of the elevator, the elevator was a tight fit, but enough to fit about a dozen or so amount of people in it. As all of us got in a Ripper unit clicked the underground level’s button, the elevator’s door closed rather smoothly, well as smooth as it can be after years of collecting soot, and we began our descent.

“Soooo, Gager?” I ‘innocently’ turned towards my comrade who didn’t even spare me a side-eye.

“What is it?” She casually answers back, as if my little breach of conduct did not even happen.

“You still angry?” At that, she slightly turned her head towards me and spared me a side-eye! Progress!

“Angry? No. Annoyed still? Yes.” Oh, well, better than her wanting to dismantle me. Oh no, I am jumping town if that's what she wants. At least my advanced AI allows me to disregard the allegiance towards Sangvis if my life is threatened.

I didn’t say anything, because I honestly don’t know what I should say. The ride is going on now for 2 minutes, how deep are we?

Not half a minute later, I can feel the elevator slowing down, at last. With a ping, the elevator stopped and the doors opened smoothly, albeit with slightly louder decibels this time. The echelons filled out, making an abreast formation on both sides of the elevator. First was Gager, then me. Eww, there is dust and soot on everything!

Before I could sound my complaint, Gager spoke up.

“Architect, take your echelon and go through the double doors to the right and begin your search, I’ll take mine and go left. Capture the target, but don’t harm them, if you do then Agent will have both of our Neural Clouds wiped, intel suggests that they are supposed to be in a pod. And no complaints, heed your orders.” I should call her Commissar Gager at this rate, like what those Neo-Soviets have, the guy who barks at everyone and has the fanciest suits, but never seems to fight. Ugh…

“I got it, I got it! No explosions, you are no fun.” I kicked a rubble away which caused a thick cloud of dust to get kicked up, causing me to cough violently.

“*Cough!* *Cough!* I HATE this place!”
Again Gager was unamused as she began leading her part of the echelon to the left double door. I guess I better get on it myself.

“*Cough!* Fall-in girls!” They didn’t need much convincing as they fell into an orderly two-row column behind me.

“The sooner we get this done the better” I can’t believe it, but I really want to do this mission now so I can be done with it as soon as possible!

106’s PoV

So, that was interesting, they are here for me, I think. There were no other pods in good shape anyway. Also, what was that about this Agent character wiping their neural cloud? Some kinda implant? I better retreat a bit and let my cloak recharge, in other words… hide like a rat. Also brings back memories.

I retreated back to the armory, went inside, disengaged my cloak, and allowed it to recharge. Interestingly, the cloak seems to recharge much comparatively faster than before, roughly ten seconds of recharge time, not bad, not terrible.

I could hear their damned heels clicking on the concrete ground.

“At least these corridors seem to be a bit cleaner…”

There it was that whiny girl’s voice, almost right outside the armory. She seems to be a punk or a self-proclaimed princess.

“What’s with this busted down door? It seems to be… fresh. Hey is someone in there? Come on out! I don’t bite, much.”

I could hear her steps getting closer, basically standing before the open doorway.

“Hey, is anyone in there?... Did I just make a clown out of myself for talking to nothing?”

Oh, you will be a clown soon enough, just enter…

I grabbed the lockbox from which I got the Krink and ammo from earlier and held it up as a makeshift weapon.

“I won’t be a clo–!” She whined as she entered, good night bitch.

*BONK* *THUD*

“Ouch! What the?!” She let out a cry that almost brought joy to my twisted heart.

I dropped the empty lockbox on her before she could get up and bolted out of the room, shoving aside two of those purple skinsuited murder strippers, and ran away.

I quickly made my way toward the elevator and began pressing the call button.

Open up damn you!

No such luck, the fucking elevator has gone back up by itself! I could hear the machinery whining back to life, but the screeching sound wasn’t that nice, probably rusted metals. But it’s coming down.

“COME BACK HERE!” It was more of a petulant cry than an angry one. Hilarious. Oh here comes the purple murder strippers!

They didn’t shoot and instead, they stowed away their rifles and submachine guns and fashioned some kinda stun batons, yeah I don’t need to be hit by one of those to know it's gonna hurt like shit.

The door that leads back to the pods, and by extension, the reactor. I have a devilish idea.

I wanted a big boom boom? I will get the big boom boom!

I slide under the swing from those female devils, this maneuver reminded me just how sore my muscles are, and by extension, my goddamn arse. Fighting through the pain easily, I stood back up and ran through the left door, right after hitting a corner I cloaked up.

I could hear about eight pairs of heels quickly clicking from where I came from, with the hilariously angry pink-eyed midget in front, she looked dirty. Like mud, dust, and soot.

“Where did he go?! Ugh! I am calling Gager!” She whined to no one in particular, despite her goons behind her looking around, not realizing I was like 5 meters away from them, just behind a moldy and stinky chair.

“Gager come in! A potential target has been sighted but evaded capture! And he hit me with a lockbox, over my head! Ugh! He is heading your way!... No! I didn’t try to kill him, I just entered what looked like an old armory of sorts and he whacked me in the head, it hurt!... Yes, we are moving to box him in! And I want an apology from him!”

Keep dreaming and just move on, cloak doesn’t have that much long left.

“Yes, yes we are moving! Over or whatever. Follow me!” With that she left with her cohort the way I wanted to go, man did I just use up all my luck in the storage and the armory?

Nevertheless, I need to keep going, that reactor ain’t going to melt itself up down, now would it?

After disabling the cloak and making sure the area was clear of that angry princess, or snow white, and their cohorts. I moved out of my hiding area and beelined for the reactor, after turning many hallways and corners I was able to finally find the reactor room, somehow managing to avoid them.

I was about to enter inside when I detected two more of those skintight-purple mudder strippers with my ears, their heels clicking against the cold floor in unison, grating my nerves at how close I was to not having to deal with them.

Now, I think to myself how would I deal with these hostiles without throwing my hands, I knew that I was still weak from the atrophy, and probably these girls are enhanced just like that princess, that’s the only explanation that she could have survived a hit like, now Six think, what do you have on you that would lop their heads in one swing.

*TING*

As if a light bulb suddenly materialized above my head, it came to me that I had the crovel with me, unstrapping it from my rucksack, I looked over at its serrated edges, oh buddy you are gonna do some nasty damage.

Hearing their heels stop I activated my cloak and went inside the reactor room, I decided that I would go for the one the furthest from the reactor as she was shielded by the prying eyes of the other purples by the piping.

Oh boy, here we go. I laughed in my mind, remembering a certain catchphrase from a famous Italian plumber.

After getting near her I disabled my cloak, not needing it with what I was about to do to her.

Being just two steps away from her I decided to end her existence on this plane, lunging forward I kicked at her right knee with all my force, seeing how I could see her presumably tibia sticking out and her losing balance I immediately went to grab her by her skintight suit, and with a powerful swing I sank the serrated edges of my shovel past her scapula, what I presumed was skin and muscle giving in almost instantly, breaking ribs and finally ending at her sternum, it took me a few tries to yank out my shovel when, but when I did deep, some purple, almost red liquid and some sort of circuitry came out of her, sparking. Her pained cry was extinguished after I chopped at her second cervical vertebrae, her head rolling in the air exuding more of her deep purple blood and covering some pipes with it after landing on them, hell some even landed on my boots.

Well, it was fun to kill again, one left, but first, let me check that again. I crouch down beside the corpse of the “woman” I eliminated. The blood was wrong, it didn’t have a smell and looked like a very dark shade of purple instead of red, I slightly touched some of the liquid, brought it up to my nose, and took a sniff, this is coolant fluid! The skin was not even actual human skin, but synthetic, and the insides? Sparking. What is this thing, because this thing is clearly not human, more like a… combat android of sorts, with boobs? Why even? Do they double as prostitutes in their free time or something? Or does the designer have the case of being sexually unsatisfied? Ugh, let’s not think about what was the cause of making this, or how it has even got approved.

Now, the other… tin can didn’t hear the ordeal because the reactors were loud, good. I flick off the coolant fluid from the crovel in a swift motion. The tin can made its way up the catwalks where the terminal is located.

Bitch that's mine. Go up the stairs and onto the catwalk by taking larger, spaced out, and quieter steps, I rather not test just how good those hearing… receptors are. I lined up the crovel at the neck level and swung, decapitating it in a single, fluid motion, coolant and sparks flying up like a well, the head flying like a ball to the corner of the room, goal. The body remains standing for like two seconds after it buckles and falls off from the catwalk, plummeting below to the ground and crashing unceremoniously. I didn’t spare it a glance as I went before the terminal, thankfully the damned thing didn’t touch it, and is like how I left it more than an hour ago.

Now for the fun part. So Glowy eyes like explosions? I’ll give her one she won’t forget. My free hand began swiping at the screen of the terminal and found the best option possible.

Initiate Meltdown.

Are you sure you want to initiate a reactor meltdown? Warning once approved, it cannot be turned off!

Y/N?

Obvious answer.

Y

WARNING, REACTOR MELTDOWN INITIATED, EVACUATE THE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

CALCULATING TIME LEFT UNTIL MELTDOWN: T-10 MINUTES 35 SECONDS

My job here is done, now to get the hell out of here as fast as possible. Inside the reactors, the red energies began growing more and more unstable and violent. Dammit, no time to dilly-dally! If those assholes take the elevator before me I am screwed again! With that in mind, I jumped down from the catwalk, and beside the decapitated machine, I noticed something, a grenade of sorts, the same purple modern design as their weapons. Might come in handy. I pocket it and go to the door, kicking it off the hinges as it lands outside the corridor, right before Glowy Eyes and Snow White, with Glowy seeming more distressed. Their escorts are right behind them.

Well…crap.

Snow narrows her eyes as she speaks up. “I take it you are the cause of the facility meltdown? Typical of humans, you can’t win in a straight-up fight, so you resort to such dishonorable methods.” She said with a slight venom in her tone. Beside her, Glowy grows more restless with each passing second.

“Yes, yes cool and all that, can we go like… right now?!” I clutched the grenade I took from the machine corpse not five minutes ago.

“Hmph, seize the human.” Snow ordered her lackeys as they approached with stun batons out and a cuff. Fools.

I pulled the pin of the grenade and threw it at the feet of those tin cans.

“Grenade! Displace, displace!” Snow cried out, first hearing her yelling in such a high-pitched voice that could make Glowy jealous.

I leveraged the confusion caused by the grenade and ran past them, a few seconds later the grenade exploded, actually taking out two of the purples.
“Useless fools! Don’t let him get away!” With that, a chorus of high heels began giving chase, having to give it to them, they were fast, but not fast enough. The emergency facility broadcast system is still blaring into my ears. I swear if I could turn it down I would. I turned around the corner and ran full speed, the ground started to shake as the reactors began destabilizing further. Some of the ceiling began to fall down, almost crushing me.

Shitass, I didn’t come all this way just to be squashed by a rock! That would be just insulting!

Jumping over the said ceiling piece and continued running. I can already see the door of the administration hall, almost there.

Of course, the sexbots were not far behind, I just hope the elevator didn’t crap itself or go back up, seriously who designed it to go back up by itself?!

I slam into the door, breaking it off the hinges and falling to the ground, kicking up dust. I look to my right to see the elevator is there and just waiting for me! I am not a religious type, but I guess God is on my side now! I quickly entered the elevator and smashed the ground-level button. The doors began closing as the merry band of sluts came through the same door as I did.

“STOP!” Snow cried out as I could see some panic in her features, but Glowy eyes were having it the worst. She has tears running down her cheeks, with her face fully panicked. At that moment, I did feel some pity towards her, but eh… they had it coming!

I waved sarcastically at them as the door closed, I could hear them clawing at it. But to no avail.

Well, goodbye bitches, you likely won’t be remembered

The elevator began ascending, painfully slow and unnerving, the ground shook once again, this time bigger.

WARNING: 5 MINUTES LEFT UNTIL COMPLETE REACTOR MELTDOWN!

WARNING: SEISMIC INCREASED SEISMIC ACTIVITY DETECTED!

The facility speaker blared its warning, and all I could do was nervously tap with my foot. Can’t this thing go any faster?!

It took almost 3 minutes for the elevator to arrive! And of-fucking-course the door stuck halfway through opening! Okay, Six! Time to brute force it again.

I grabbed the elevator’s door and began pushing, it didn't take much to open it fully. Without looking back I began running through the main hall and out of the building, and as I got out, the morning sun’s rays shone down upon me, but I didn’t stop just yet, I gotta get outta from the perimeter, so I continued running, after reaching the fence, a large earthquake shook the ground, causing the remaining glass from the dilapidated building to fall out and down to the courtyard, by my calculations, the reactor should meltdown right about… now! The large explosion shook the very ground 10 times more violently than the earthquake did, I looked back to the entrance and saw red flames spewing out and quickly expanding to the other floors. Truly a sight to behold, but at last…

I am truly free now. I took a deep breath, clean forest air entering my lungs as I listened to the flames roaring behind me. The rays of sunshine basked me in its warm light. It was cold outside, given all the mud and snow around, it was likely the winter season. I shook my head and headed for the cut-open fence, climbed over it, and began making my way into the woodline. Only now that I realize I have been clenching the crovel in my hand the entire time, I attach it back on the rucksack’s straps. And after that, I picked a direction and began walking.

Never looking back.

Chapter Text

2 Days later since the awakening. Unknown Location. 09:36.

Two days of trudging through this forsaken place with no sign of humanity. This place sucks, the mud, snow, and cold are grinding on my nerves. Honestly, there is one thing I kind of forgot to think about since, well, I began busting my legs on the road. Where the hell am I even, Eastern Europe? Terrain checks out, and the gray, gloomy weather. Whatever I guess, I just have to walk until I find civilization, or at least a non-hostile one, and hope I won’t scare them… too much, heh… wish I could actually laugh for once, but oh well.

Hearing the squelching of mud as my dirty boots are sucked into it has been my only source of entertainment for the past hour since I have woken up, the muddy plane that is capable of hindering both man and machine alike, its mundane brownish-gray appearance hides the devilish tendencies pretty well, so well in fact that to the untrained observer, it would not look threatening, filling its prey with false confidence until it’s ready to spring its trap, slowing down anything and even causing vehicles to get stuck. And mud has a tendency to get into every little opening.

Scanning the surrounding area for any threats or potential ambushes from those robotic girls that might be hiding in the bushes and shrubbery, but fortunately for me, I wasn’t able to find any signs of that. How could they even walk with those high heels in this terrain is beyond me. I’ve encountered a few outposts of theirs, almost got my head taken off by a bitch in a tower, fucking prick. Not so soon after she tried to give me another hole in my forehead, an alarm rang out. I had to go killing again, it was actually fun, not those deadbeat mall cops Horizon employed, these androids meant business. Still, I honestly expected their aim to be better, they just mag dumped my general direction without a care in the world. The Krinkov I found proved itself, even if it took a few rounds to down one of them, their weak spot proved to be their thorax and head, it seems to be whatever important gizmos required for them to operate are located there, though by the end, I was one happy guy. I went to check out one of their weapons, but it seemed like they had some sort of a lock. In short, they were glorified paperweights to anyone but the actual user, what a bummer…

The last two days weren't anything special, other than the aforementioned run-in with the androids, and hunting for sustenance. Even big bad supersoldier such as me, needs a chow every now and then, and besides I'd rather not waste those canned foods, those are for emergencies only.

The hunting itself was alright, managed to kill a deer by getting close enough to it so I could pounce on it, head locking it and snapping its neck, internally decapitating it, not my cleanest kill, but among the less messy and the beast at least didn’t feel anything. After that, I proceeded to skin the deer, I don’t really have experience in it, so there was a lot of waste, but at least I still managed to grab as much meat as I could and left the rest for wolves or any predators. I need to learn how to skin properly, or else I will just waste good meat every time I hunt, and making such a waste is a crime. Ironic, I know more than eighty ways to kill someone with just my hands, but can’t skin a single animal.

Far forward to the present, I finally found a concrete road, could easily tell it was a main road, however, it was too small and the structural integrity was not exactly what could pass as a proper road. If I were to guess, a long while ago tanks or other tracked vehicles were driving down this road, maybe a convoy, just a hunch, it's impossible to tell now.

I looked at where the road was coming from and where it was going, no clear sign of which way I should start walking. Hell, might as well start walking somewhere instead of standing here with my thumb up my arse. I began walking up the road, and the integrity didn’t improve one bit, maybe the whole road is like this. If I could drive, I would hate to drive down here, I just know it.

Anyways, a road is a road, the first sign of civilization since days, and might as well lead me to a town, or a village at least. Still, communicating with the locals is likely going to be hard, after all, I am mute, but this is just half the problem, if they are going to speak another language then I am screwed, just hoping I could find someone who can understand English and answer a few questions, good thing I brought that notepad and pencil.

As I walked, I noticed something further, a roadside sign of sorts, rusted and weathered from what I could see from where I was standing. I began jogging closer, and bad news came, the sign had Cyrillic words on it, just my luck, I couldn’t understand twat from it, so much for relying on signs. But at least it implies something, a settlement maybe, it's a start if nothing else.

I walked past the sign and down the road. As I was walking down, I felt something fall from the sky—snow. At least it wasn't rain, which I don’t like.

As I continued walking, I arrived at a crossroads of sorts, to say I didn’t know which way I needed to go is an understatement, so I resorted to the ever-reliable method of making a decision, wing it. I walked and walked, bored out of my mind, I was itching for a fight, I hadn’t done anything else in the past few days, just hiding, hunting, or wandering aimlessly in what could be Russia or something. Well, and that one aforementioned run in with those rust buckets.

I was broken out of my musing as I heard something, something mechanical in nature, flying. I looked up and noticed something in the air, it had a familiar gray and purple metal chassis, reminding me of those chicks from two days ago, a drone or something, could they be theirs? What kinda question is that, of course it’s theirs, I’ll just shoot the damn thing.

I grabbed my AK from the rucksack, flipped the safety lever, aimed down sight, calculating the lead of the target, bullet velocity, strength of the wind, the velocity of my target and so on, then shot… a burst at it, I don’t take chances with something like this.

The three-round burst hit the drone, right in center mass, and with a small boom and sparks it barreled towards beyond the treeline on my right and into a field. Might as well check it out, what's the worst that could happen?

I jogged off the road and through the woods onto the field, and there it was, the drone which was reduced to a smoking scrap, but the way it seemed to move its flaps, indicating it was still operational, how troublesome.

I holstered my AK and grabbed my crovel, while on the road I took some time to sharpen the edge as much as I could, now with enough strength put into a swing and thrust, I can more easily cleave through even those robots, presumably of course, back in the facility, the decapitation had more to do to my own strenght than the edge of this thing.

As I stalked closer, it’s glowing optic snapped onto me, boring into my visor.

Well hello there.

I didn’t really leave it any chance as I thrust the pointy end of the shovel into the optics which earned me a satisfying show of sparks and polymer fragments from the insides as I pulled it out.
This thing feels good to wield, but I itch for more, I hope I can get a sword from somewhere, and too bad these don’t have any blood in them.

I holstered the crovel after I wiped it clean and began examining the drone.

Finding broken circuit boards and hard drives and lots and lots of wire. This tangled mess proved to be way above my knowledge of electronics. While my technological knowledge isn’t high, I assume that boxy thing must be the black box, considering there are also a lot of wires connecting to it from what I assume is the central CPU and motherboard. I yank it out after getting the annoying wires out of it and pocket it. Might as well come in handy later on, like a bargaining chip or something, hell if I know, at this point I just take anything that remotely looks useful.

After another quick examination to see if I wouldn’t leave anything interesting, I went back to the road. Deducting from the presence of the drone, I either must be in enemy territory or the drone was a scout for a unit. Either way, good.

As I walked I thought about just how much time truly has passed, these things look awfully too futuristic, like straight out of a cyberpunk thing, we had drones back in 35’, but nowhere near this futuristic, and the weapons of those chicks too, look so futuristic that they are impractical at best, their projectiles also wasn’t in a form of a bullet, they were plasma. I really need one of those regardless.

I was walking for so long that the snow accumulated so much it began making crunching sounds, kinda reminds me of the sound of bones breaking, and brings back pleasant memories.

I came to a halt, I could hear something up ahead and feel the vibrations in the ground, for a normal human these would be unnoticeable, but for me?

Tell-tale sounds of metallic high heels clicking on the concrete, I roughly judge about six, maybe seven pairs, likely a light patrol. Finally, a chance to truly cut loose, but first I need to set up an ambush.

I looked around and the trees around looked thick enough to hide behind, other than the trees, there was nothing around. I got an idea as I looked up at a thick branch just above the road, heh, always wanted to try this.

I climbed up the tree, and it was harder than it looked, considering I had roughly 50 pounds on my back. I grabbed other branches to help me keep my balance as I waited.

Not more than ten minutes later, I noticed the same-looking robo-woman marching down the road. It was a good thing my vantage point was neatly hidden by the branches. They consisted of about five rifle-wielding women and three dual submachine gunners, a pretty light patrol, as I predicted. I waited until they arrived right below me and sprung my trap.

I equipped my AK again and jumped down, superior reflexes came into play as everything seemed to slow down as I took aim and fired while in mid-air, nailing headshot after headshot, taking out about 4 before landing on the rear lass, due to the sudden weight landing on her, she collapsed and I neatly crushed her head with my boot, sending shards of circuitry, dark purple coolant fluid, and anything else around me. I looked up and noticed them already springing into action, truly at least they have better efficiency than the Horizon goons, but anyway… This is fun!

I bashed the AK’s folding stock into the head of one as I took her hostage, which caused them to hesitate, bad move. I grabbed a grenade off it, primed it, put it back on, and tossed the purple lady back, she soared through the sky with an armed grenade on her, the others didn’t try to help their comrade as she landed, but instead seem to disperse, at least they had enough common sense. The grenade exploded, leaving only half the body intact, sadly, no one else got caught in the blast. Before they could regroup again, I shot at their general direction trying to suppress them and lower cohesion, of course, most of the shots missed but that was the point, still thought, one lucky shoot landed on a submachine gunner's abdomen and wounded her and taking her out of the fight for a bit, just enough time for me to charge at the last rifle wielding purple woman that was twenty feet across the submachine gun one, her shots were sporadic and uncontrolled, landing where I previously was, but seeing me approaching her at alarming speeds she took aim at my direction and let loose some volleys, almost all of her shots missed except for the one that just grazed me a bit, the feeling of pain went out as fast as it came when my super reflexes came into life, feeling the world slow down again i slided forward, my momentum carrying me on as I approached her at even greater speed, this move proved to be the correct choice,as two shots went past me landing where previously my chest would have been.

Not worrying about that detail for long I took aim through my AK’s sights and let loose two rounds, the gases coming out from the suppressor was much more exaggerated in the grey-tinted world when my reflexes activated, still sailing past that fireball where the two rounds that I fired, their mesmerizing trail was straight and true as they landed on her her two knees, bringing her down immediately, feeling the time speed up I launched myself at her, letting go of my rifle as the sling held it in place, i caught her with my left hand and rocketing forward my right fist, it made contact her left cheek and it exploded that part of her outwards, bits and pieces of circuitry and metal were launched in the air as her head recoiled backward, but I wasn’t done with her, knowing the last submachine gunner had her sights trained on me I picked up the woman that I punched and with practiced ease threw her towards the uninjured submachine gunner, as her body sailed through the air it absorbed the plasma shots that were coming to me until it impacted her sprawling her to the ground, reshouldering my AK I send her one more shot, it lended on her right eye as it left through the top of her head spraying the surroundings with purpleish coolant and metal.

With that being done I made a beeline for the injured submachine gun-wielding woman, seeing that she was trying to get up, I had to give her the misfortune of not allowing that to happen, I achieved that by kicking her right in the wounded abdomen with my steel toe boots, her pained screams sent pleasure through me as I had to sully my boots with her purple coolant, oh well, now with her being on her back I had a better view of her face, I have to say she is quite beautiful by human standards, likely for psychological warfare, humans such an emotional beings. She looked at me with what could be best described as “go fuck yourself”, well until I stepped on her head, the last thing that she saw was my maroon-colored visor staring back at her before her entire view was covered with my heel, with a sharp crunch, her head exploded, covering the ground with purplish coolant while circuitry flew through the shrubs.

I removed my foot from what used to be her head and looked around satisfied with the carnage. They are lying on the streets dead, with some of them missing their heads, some with a neat little hole in the head where the armor-piercing bullet hit, another barely having half its body intact, not too shabby if I say so myself.

Now, my common sense indicates that because they are machines, they likely already sent some sort of alert or report back, wherever they came from. Upon closer examination, they don’t look dirty from mud or anything, which means they shouldn’t have come from far away—little details like this matter.

Well, if they have an outpost or checkpoint here, the better; that just means more fun for me. But first…

I crouched down at the first body and turned it over, a gaping hole on its head still oozing coolant fluid, the face was frozen in a surprised visage. I noticed the belt around the waist held some of those golf ball-sized grenades, which will come in handy later, so I grabbed them off the belt. I noticed the weapon it was carrying, it was quite unwieldy and obviously wasn’t designed with human operators in mind, but I picked it up. Surprisingly, it wasn’t heavy, but that’s just my strength. I estimate the weight to be roughly twenty, maybe twenty-five pounds. I ejected the magazine, which was a battery or canister of sorts, a simple mechanical ejection too. I slapped the mag back into the receiver and pulled the trigger, obviously, nothing had happened, as I already deduced these weapons have some sort of a failsafe against unauthorized use. Well, if nothing else it could have been a good blunt-force weapon, using it as a mace, but alas I already have that sorted.

I tossed the weapon away, and it clanged against the solid concrete of the road. I went to the other bodies to check them out for anything useful. The only things I found were the grenades; these things don’t carry much.

With the looting out of the way, I decided to hunker down for tonight in the forest beside me, I am hungry and the piece of venison I had on me seemed mighty inviting.

I found a nice little clearing, deep enough in the forest and away from the carnage I left behind. I already set up my sleeping bag with the tarp under a lone tree, beside it I am making the campfire, nothing too fancy, but it works, even though I have to wake up to keep the fire burning or tuck in real good into the sleeping bag.

Lighter didn’t have much fuel in it since the beginning, but I managed to make a fire with some dry sticks and leaves, though they are pretty rare considering the weather…

Using my cooking kit, I retrieved the small pot and the venison in it, not my finest cut, after all, I am not a chef, but it's fine for me. Because I lack a cooking spit, I can’t just lay the meat into the campfire, that's just nasty, so I resorted to the next best thing, this small pot.

As I sat there and watched the fire, I looked up at the sky, the sun was almost down, but mostly hidden by the gray clouds, thankfully it stopped snowing just before I arrived here. I hate the gray sky.

I heard the meat begin sizzling inside the pot and it had a delicious aroma. I wish I had some spices, but oh well, such is life I guess.

I shook the pot a few times so the fire wouldn’t burn the meat down, I would hate that too, heh, what do I hate? Guns, killing, the dopamine from violence, what else is there… and I guess some good actual comrades who are competent in a fight. And also soda.

In about ten minutes the meat was cooked and looked great. I removed the pot from the campfire and set it down in the snow to cool. In the meantime, I decided to take a swing from my flask, it only held water that I got from a stream a day ago. I grabbed my mask’s bottom part and pulled it up until my nose, revealing my quite pale skin, to an onlooker I would look like a regular Joe, albeit a very pale one.

After I finished taking a sip and screwed the flask’s head back on and tossed it down onto my bag.

I retrieved the pot which had melted the snow around it but cooled down enough to avoid third-degree burns. I grabbed a fork, stabbed it into the meat, and began eating.

Flavorless meat isn’t really the most tasty thing in the world, but what do I know? I have only ever eaten MREs, damn crappy ones at that.

With one last bite, I finished the venison, put the pot away, and just decided to sit there watching the flames and occasionally putting a few sticks into it. By the time I broke my attention, the sky already turned dark, signifying the night. So I did the next best course of action, put a shitton of sticks into the fire, tucked into the sleeping bag, and went to sleep.

Strange, no bird chirps or anything.

Hours later…

My cold night’s sleep has been peaceful so far. Eerie quiet and the occasional rustling of the pine woods could be heard, accompanying the coming dawn, no wild animals have tried to raid my pack, I would hate to wake up having a raccoon or something stealing my food. The campfire has been reduced to still smoldering ash, barely giving off any heat. While sure I don’t rely on as much sleep as a normal human, a good sleep is still refreshing just the same, besides what could I do out here in my free time besides resting. As a light sleeper, I could never truly fall asleep as much to dream, but also a boon, allowing me to remain on guard even while resting, and so far, it kept me alive.

Then I heard something,

Rustling and squelching sounds.

Rustling and wet squelching footsteps from the forest.

Contacts.

I immediately surged forward, with practiced ease, packing up my stuff and leaving my camp alone, right on time as more of those weird purple-clad women entered it, their bodies like they synced together, in a matter of seconds, they cleared the entire area where I used to rest, while my feet carried me deeper into the canopy of the forest, leaving just a temporary loll in this tense situation, just enough time for me to collect myself and be ready for the confrontation ahead, by the initial sound of them I would say there were about two dozen of them and fairly spread out at that, activating my cloak I began to flank them, as I approached their last known position I began to hear them more clearly, the wet squelching and breaking of leafs was a cacophony on the dead quiet forest, but for all that ruckus that was the only thing i was able to hear and nothing else, no talking, no huffing or even breathing, it seemed like they weren’t even alive, just that unemotional stare of theirs violet visors as it bounced the early rays of sunlight around the forest, now with my bearings straight i began to scout out the force, it seemed that my senses were indeed correct, as there were about 16 of those weird ladies, some that i encountered before and two new units that have joined the frey, the first and the most numerous of the new units was as bizarre as the other “normal” women, aqua blue hair color with an tan athletic body and an armored?, visor, moving along to her clothes, the only thing that can best describe them is as “tactical” bikinis with a pair of armored shin guards and gauntlets, and lastly her weapon or weapons, as she carried two huge bowie knives.
Lastly, it was one last person on the end of the stack, her attire resembled the more normal units, only differentiating thing about her was the grayish poncho, long hair, along with a steel visor with a green dot in the middle, and what I presume a sniper rifle, maybe she is the designated marksman of this group.

After getting as much information out of this as possible, my mind began to race with ideas about how to kill all of them as efficiently as possible, many thought came about but as quickly as they came they left, until just one stood out, and by that a good couple of them just sitting on my pouch, so waiting for the opportune time i sprang into action while throwing some of the grenades that I found earlier. And so the new day begins with big booms.

As the grenades exploded, I immediately leveled my AK and Focused on my targets, the surrounding greenery almost came to a stop as I did that, with the ease I trained my sights on individual heads as I pulled the trigger, as the effect runned out I heard five bodies hit the cold floor, the rest started to focus fire at my last position position, but alas I long since moved from there. Engaging Cloak, I flank them once again, the knife wielders don’t rush where I was, and the markswoman also doesn’t seem to have any interest even looking at that direction. Smart, I think she figured it out that I moved, not that I’ll save her, after all she is the closest to me now. She was staying well behind the other units, but never had a straight shot because of them, I need to take her out while I can.

I decloaked, and rushed at her, using the momentum from my rush, I slid just before her, the effect has been instantaneous, she went flying while wildly flapping her arms and legs around, of course, the knife wielders noticed the commotion and turned around and began running at me, of course one by one like idiots.

I know engaging in hand to hand combat against someone with a knife is just stupid, no amount of martial arts knowledge will save you from the cuts. Keeping to the range it is. I brought up my Kalash and peppered her thorax with two bursts, six holes instantly riddled her chest and neck and she fell over like a freshly cut tree. I think self-preservation wasn’t the highest of priority when these were made, more like just rush and try to deal as much damage as possible. Risky, but if they would have any tactical thinking, evidently they don’t, then the others could have used the opportunity of these things drawing attention. Oh well.

The other did the same, but when I tried to pull the trigger…

*Click*

Fucking empty, and I don’t have time to reload, but I have time for the shovel. I quickly grabbed the shovel off my back and swatted away the offending knife aimed for my jugular, she didn’t missed a beat as with her another tried to swipe at me, but with the crowbar end I knocked her straight in the head which apparently caused her to stumble back and throwing one of the knives to caress the hit spot, the said hit spot was a sizeable crack on the temple, torn away synth skin and dented metal frame underneath, also her facial features have changing into something like as if she is feeling the pain, weird. I looked down at the knife she dropped, it looks like a massive, oversized bowie knife with purple accents, this wasn’t even a knife, it's a butcher’s blade. Perfect.

I grabbed the thing and threw it into the head of the robot, landing a direct hit blade first as it embedded into the visor thingy, the effect was something, but didn’t kill her, instead shrieked out with a very feminine organic voice, but still refused to say anything, okay enough, time to end her misery. While she tried to dislodge the blade from her head, she failed to see the sharpened shovel coming straight down at her neck, slicing and crashing away both her frame, wiring, and skin. Her head bounced away and landed in the treeline.

I looked back at the others, they finally noticed I am not there and stopped firing, Jaeger, who I sent flying, is still trying to get her rifle back, which she dropped while in the said flight. The last knife wielder seemed to be reluctant to rush at me, maybe there is some thought inside that shell of theirs. Instead she seemed to wait while keeping an eye on me. If I try to grab my gun, she is likely to rush me in an instant, but I don’t reload and wait, the leftovers will get back in the fight, I can’t allow that. Grenades it is then.

I grabbed a pair of grenades, primed them and threw them at her, which caused her finally to move out of the way, and given me enough time to reload too. Now with my gun reloaded, I turned towards her, but before I could pull the trigger, bolts of projectiles started coming my way. I have to cloak and reposition, it would seem that the markswoman found her rifle and is currently trying to move behind the others. But this time she is more frantic about looking around, turning and twisting like a sonar or radar. The last cutlery enthusiast has long since recovered, she didn’t seem to have damage on her, but damaging her with the grenades wasn’t the point. The other four trigger-happy woman stopped firing as soon as I cloaked up.

All of them made a grave mistake, they grouped. They went on long enough, time to end this. I decloaked and threw a single grenade among them, while it was about to explode, I focused and began peppering the ones a bit further away from the grenade, hitting the markswoman and knives in the process in the thorax, shöulder, stomach. The others were about to turn to me as the grenade exploded, taking down the last three riflewomen and the last submachinegunner, leaving only the two heavily injured, aforementioned woman. If I could call them that. Well they look the part, so I don’t really care.

Knives had it far worse than markswoman, roughly half of my shots have landed on her, riddling her with bullet holes enough to make her look like Swiss cheese. But still alive, if struggling.

The other was in a kneeling position, and had dropped her rifle once the other half of my shots had landed on her, likely hit her arm joints, other shots are all over her thorax and stomach area, she is weakly trying to look up to me.

I stood in front of them. And for the first time, I saw their facial expressions, fear.

Good!

May their creators or whatever have mercy on their programs, because I am sure as hell won’t!

I brought up my shovel and started bashing. The other one tried to crawl away, we can’t have that. The markswoman’s head was reduced to rubble, nothing more than wasted circuitry, metal and coolant fluid. I slowly crept behind the last one as she was trying to escape and grabbed her by the throat, easily lifting her up, her visor looked directly into mine, I always wanted to try this. I grabbed her with my other hand, and started pulling, groans of her metallic neck instantly reached my ears. First, the skin got ripped, dark purple fluid started to seep out. Next the joints gave away, and lastly, off with the head. With a satisfying pop, her head disconnected from her neck, the coolant, like a waterflow, was oozing out from both the collapsed body and head.

This… was… satisfying. I don’t know how they found me, nor do I really care, best wake up call, why? It wasn’t boring.

I tossed away the head and looked around, the carnage was a sight to behold! But alas, I can’t stay and enjoy my handiwork, we made quite the ruckus, and this place is likely compromised. I should get out of here.

I grabbed whatever useful gear they had, my own stuff and bolted away from the scene.

Few minutes later…

I arrived back on the road where I eliminated the patrol from yesterday, only I didn’t find their remains there anymore, must have been retrieved by others. I shrugged and turned around, not really caring about it the slightest. I began walking down the road I threaded. It wasn’t until I found remains of buildings, snapped lamp posts and signs, and torn down fences. As i continued further the scenery only worsened, the then complex urban jungle with many linking arteries of steel and concrete is now reduced to mere rubble, either by shells or time herself, and by the looks of things we will never know, nothing remained in one piece, everywhere I looked was marked with telltale signs of harsh fighting and explosions, leaving every inch of this city scathed with artillery pot marks, from blow out windows to huge craters splitting the ground, nothing had the mercy under the ire of artillery, apartments, homes, stores and whatnot, modern engineering made with a fine mix of steel and concrete were too caught under the fierce rain of fire and shells, some even had massive chasms sculpted into them probably by bigger munitions and some where riddled with spiderwebs of cracks and holes, the largest apartment was in the middle of this entire desolate hellscape, or at least i think it is the largest, the only thing indicating that to be the case are the massive pillars that once holded the giant, now nothing but history to a passer by like me, reminding us for the time this monolith housed many lives, some probably crushed or suffocated when it collapsed. The further inward I go the worse the situation becomes, passing by many vehicles wrecks with rust from top to bottom made it hard to identify them, every vehicle told its own story, how it was destroyed and where it was destroyed, some had small holes on their sides, probably from small arms fire or artillery fragments and some had nasty gashes running around them, probably from an IFV or bigger.

I started to see skeletons, many and many skeletons, from all shapes and sizes, from big stocky builds indicating that they were probably soldiers, maybe giving command to his troops to retreat, to small ones, probably children clutching desperately to their mothers embraces in panic as a fire was consuming them, gnawing at their skin as their screams drowned out from the roaring flames, leaving nothing but charred bones and an empty stomach for vultures to return to their nests.

Past them were even more skeletal remains, they were neatly piled in one big place, suspiciously, too organized to have been put there quickly, and way too unorganized for a burial… I understand now, these unfortunate sods were probably executed, maybe because they were collaborators or the soldiers had a power trip, well nothing to be done here, I am already several years late anyways.

The further I continued, the more torn uniformed remains I saw, this was indicated by the rainbow of different camouflages, some I recognized, some I didn’t. Like that squad there, those are Russians, Ratnik, I think their camouflage is called, on the other side of the I see some American MultiCam, near them I think it’s a Canadian camouflage, which name right now slips by me, a few passes away in the middle of the street are some Belorussian soldiers, think that’s their flag, but it’s a bit washed away, and can’t see it very well. Then seen some German and Belgian uniforms, for some reason those two German Uniforms looked like they were in a struggle against each other, weird, maybe they wanted to shoot themselves, trying to end their miser, and lastly, the Belgian camo, looking like someone vomited on it, I wouldn’t fault them I would too if I had to wear that.

The pile along with the destruction grew larger as I followed this route. More, and more vehicles appeared to be destroyed, now some of them looked totally unrecognizable, while the others were somewhat recognizable, think that’s a T-14 near the alley, probably destroyed by a side shot with an APFSDS, probably. Besides the T-14, there are plenty more recognizable wrecks too, such as various BMP variants, BTRs, older T series main battle tanks, and these are just Russian vehicles, there are plenty destroyed NATO vehicles too, like a few Abrams here and there, probably SEPv3 variants, Bradleys, Leopards and Challengers, LAVs and so on. Quite possibly several mechanized brigades fought on these streets, the town was likely strategically important.

I wonder if they have any useful gear left, wouldn’t mind a handgun and something with range. The Krink served me well, but the firepower and precision aren’t the best, obviously for a rifle caliber carbine with an 8.1’ barrel and suppressor.

As I walked more and more, I encountered not just more skeletons, but destroyed automata too, but these ones didn’t resemble those chicks, these were not resembling a human at all, visible joints, heavy plating, a large silhouette, but it still seems it isn’t immune to bullets after all, at least.

I was asleep for longer than I thought, way longer. And if all this is an indication to anything, I might have slept through World War Three even, that's a boomer.

Anyways…

I have arrived at the town square, relatively modest in size, about 50x30 meters, with a broken fountain in the middle, the ground is paved with expertly cut stones, the sides are lined with flower beds, without flowers, obviously. There were trees too, but it seems they were burnt to a crisp, considering pale charred stumps.

Now that I think about it, what if the town has a nuclear shelter? Fair thinking, considering the East made liberal use of those since the Cold War. Maybe either warring sides made it a base of sorts, I would do that. Usually have to be close to the town halls…

I looked around, cranking my head left and right, how does a town hall look like again? Not my fault I never lived civilian life. It has to look better than the usual housings and buildings I recon, maybe pillars too. I looked around more, but I could only see damaged and destroyed buildings, whose to say the shelter is not caved in. At this point I am just running on ideas, and I am running out of those too.

If not a shelter, then they might have left an FOB around here, they didn’t seem like keen on retrieved either the dead or the equipment, which brings me to another question, what made them stand up and dip every one of these sods here? Detective 106 has no answer, yet.

I was looking around, looking for clues or anything that could serve as an indicator for my next move. Then my vision landed on the still standing church tower.

Eh, might as well look around from a bird’s eye view, and maybe spot something interesting, if only there were a spare binos left in the facility.

I made my way to church with a steady jog, the remnants of building materials and concrete were crunching beneath my boot like dry old bones, in a way all this devastation has its own beauty to it, one must look deeper to notice, but it's there. How nature takes what it rightfully owns back, the painting worthy visuals of the destroyed and damaged landscape, it is not as relaxing as that place in my dreams, but the silence is comforting enough, I suppose.

Never mind, I have arrived at the church, orthodox by style I assume. It seems relatively okay compared to anything else around here, all that means it's not shelled to oblivion and the tower still standing. Could have been a sniping spot, but a very obvious one. I went into the broken wooden doors, the insides look worse than the outside, rows of seats are thrown away and broken apart, the intricate windows depicting religious motifs are shattered, and there is dried marks of blood a few places here and there, possibly from survivors who ran here seeking asylum, probably expecting either side not to target the church, which is oddly enough considered a war crime, I am not religious so I couldn’t care less about the imaginary guy in the sky.

Now onto the part I have come here, the tower. I have walked around trying to find which way leads to the tower, after a little bit of door opening here and there, I found the stairs which led up to the bell, I can see larger bullet holes in the walls, probably .50 caliber. Likely a sniper used the tower, and a vehicle tried to flush him out with heavy machine gun fire. I walked up and up, the rickety wooden stairs made whining noises as I walked each step. A few moments later I have arrived, and ho and behold I was right about the sniper, poor sod nothing more now than a skeleton with raggedy green digital camo uniform and a torn old plate carrier, the skeleton itself was missing a large portion of the skill, can see parts of what supposed to be a ballistic helmet. His weapon, an SVDM, is slumped against the wooden railing. I check out the weapon, no good, too rusted, the black paint is all but gone, replaced with brown rust, the receiver is too rusted, way too much, and the barrel has a slight bend. The scope on it is all fogged up and has scratches on the surface. This thing is nothing more than a glorified paperweight now.

I have laid the weapon beside its deceased owner, and put his boney hand over it. Don’t know what made me do such a gesture, fuck me am I going soft because I haven’t got nearly as much killing as before? I will have to rectify that soon enough. I tore my eyes away from the corpse and looked around the city, it's just like as I described it, the majority is nothing but ruins, those that aren’t are barely able to pass as a liveable building anymore. Just as I thought, the church tower is the tallest POI around here, in a way I like the view from here. It eludes me why those purple chicks aren’t interested in this town, they could still fortify here and there, create an outpost or something. Well, I am just glad they aren’t. Better get moving, I have a lot of ground to cover. I have noticed some manner building in the distance, a hangar of sorts maybe, not exactly far and not close either, a few hundred meters at most to the East. It didn’t look like an aircraft hangar, more like something used for storing grain or something. Might be worth checking out or not, but better than nothing, and as noted a bit back, I am running out of ideas to chase.

I climbed down from the tower and back into the church interior, casting one last look and opened the entrance door, which couldn’t hold on any longer and fell onto the ground. Oops…

Using the door as a glorified mat, I stepped back onto the street.

Remembering where I wanted to go, I began walking with a small gait to it, passing more buildings, rubbles, destroyed vehicles, roadblocks and the like, then I was finally on it, it’s large structure and hangar doors told me that it very likely a FOB, especially with the amount of damage on it, or more correctly the lack of it, this told me that whoever had it on control would probably not want to blow it up else the possible explosives inside of it would level everything on this block.

The hangar doors were left wide open, and on the concrete, there were huge tire soot marks marring the surface, maybe it was a hasty escape from the defenders or from the attackers… or something else.

Approaching the entrance of the FOB, I was able to see that everything inside it was picked clean, the entire warehouse was empty, but what was surprising was how relatively clean it was, as if it had been lived in, and recently too. There are a few clean tables and seats, military style stretcher beds lined the right side of the wall, way too clean.. There were a few military patrol packs deposited near the said table, but I don’t know what brand or variant it is, never seen one like it. I did the next sane thing I could do, and went inside, what can I say, I like to live dangerously, adds some spice to life. I banged the sheet metal wall with my hand, making a sound that travelled down to the end of the hangar, no one was home, perfect. Time to see what we are living from. My first thing to do? Approaching those aforementioned backpacks, as I searched them I failed to find much, other than a box of matches and a… is that a hair dryer? I grabbed the thing and it was in fact a hair dryer. Honestly I should stop being surprised at this point. I stopped examining the thing and went back to searching, my hands touched something soft and squishy, a fabric, no doubt, I tugged at it to see it wasn’t just a part of the pack, it wasn’t so I pulled it out and I totally not expected to find something like this, it was a fucking black laced bra.

I dropped it back into the pack. Nope not dealing with that. I throw the backpack back where it was, but before I could grab another one, my ears picked up the sounds of footsteps, approaching the hangar, fuck, the owners probably came back. And considering what I just found, the owner may be a woman. Is everyone a woman around here?

“Hey, PPSh, did you leave the hangar door open again?” A matured voice said in an almost berating manner, with a heavy German accent. And PPSh? What manner of name is that… oh no.

“Erm… y-yes I apologize…” This voice was much younger and with a Russian accent, almost childlike, insecure.

“Don’t give her a hard time STG44, should I remind you of that incident with the Commander?” Another different voice, young like the previous. But this time with a Czech accent, and another weird name, STG44, what the hell.

I should try and cloak up before they come in, hell if I know they just don’t shoot me as soon as they see me… though I wouldn’t mind a fight honestly, but I have no interest in killing possibly children. Even if they are hated by their parents this much to be named like this.

Another thing, there are multiple footsteps, I count at least nine. Quite a few, but not many. I decide it is time to cloak up and stand to the side, right on time as they enter… and well. What they were wearing could make one think they are larping World War Two communists and Nazis, but its not all right after each, more and more of the same girls entered the hangar… there goes all my hope of meeting actual humans. Have humans gone extinct or something?

The tallest of them was a blonde who was larping as a feminine German Luftwaffe general and wielding a Sturmgewehr 44. Two others beside her looked exactly the same and were armed the same. She wore an officer hat, white gloves, above-knee-length boots, a mini-skirt, and an overcoat. Overall, not a bad looker.

The next is a smaller blonde girl, wearing some sort of Soviet inspired clothing, a light brown ushanka, similarly colored white trimmed poncho like coat, but that's where the Soviet inspiration ended, underneath she wears a blue jacket and skirt, with some weird white-blue pantyhose, her boots, if you could call something like that boots is basically just tall white shoes. Much like with STG44, she also has two other clones who are armed with PPSh submachine guns and the same clothing. I am starting to notice a pattern here.

Third and last one, well this one isn’t larping at least. The girl is also a blonde with pigtails, the hell. At least the others were somewhat relatively decently clothed even though larping, but her? Wearing a pair of red sneakers, differently sized black socks, hot-pants, a cropped blouse that shows her stomach, fingerless gloves, and a leather jacket. Otherwise she is armed with two Vz. 61 Skorpions, her two clones too. Okay, there is definitely a pattern here.

First, the tall blonde called the little blonde as PPSh and uses a PPSh, then the tall blonde is called as STG44 and wields an STG44… their names are literally the weapons they are using, isn’t it…

As I watched on, Skorpion unceremoniously landed herself onto the stretcher while her two clones just slouched, as if deactivated. PPSh closed the hangar doors… well, fuck, there goes my quiet escape. And… oh, STG noticed that the backpack is not exactly how it was left.

“Someone was here.” Her eyes, sensors or whatever, narrowed onto the pack grabbing it and going through it. “And took my matches!”

Skorpion got up, keeping a carefree face. “Well, I just hope they didn’t steal anything from my pack, or else I am shooting their beehives off.”

Bravo 106, you did it. You got an angry larper on your head.

“B-but, isn’t the town too irradiated for humans to traverse? Who could have come here and taken anything with Collapse radiation blanketing the town and the surrounding area?” PPSh said that meekly, trying to be a bit more confident, can’t fault her for that, she seems way too meek for her own good. But this radiation got my interest, I feel fine, sure a little more hungry than usual, but overall fine.

“Huh, true, and ELID infected would have found them anyways.” Ah fucking what now? I didn’t find a single living thing in the town, what is she yapping about! Argh! Too much info and not enough explanation!

“If not a human what then? A kleptomaniac doll?” STG44 calmed down a little, only a little. And,,,

Oh shit my cloak is running out.

Noticing a slight flicker in the corner of warehouse, STG flickers her head immediately at that spot, eyes sharpening and adjusting to my cloak, seemingly seeing the almost perfect edges of my cloak distorting the light, she immediately raises her weapon in my direction and on full alert, and after that she immediately warns her comrades of their unexpected visitor.

“ACHTUNG, unknown entity at three o’clock, fifteen meters away at the northeast corner!” She yelled out, trying to grab her previously deposited World War Two relic. The others did not waste time as they looked in my direction. Oh boy…

I deactivated the cloak, no point in keeping it up anymore, and rushed ahead. Backhanding Miss Blonde German before she could grab her weapon, causing her to crash into the tables. Though the others were already flicking off the safeties from their weapons and aiming my way. Wasting no time, I grabbed one of the clones and hurled it towards them, which aptly caused them to dive out of the way and the said clone crashed the beds, but looking no worse for wear. Huh, they seem to be slightly faster and a bit more durable than the trash I encountered so far, but not really much. Before they could stand up, they rushed PPSh and took her hostage by grabbing her weapon, yanking it out of her hand, and grabbed her by the throat, which caused her to yelp out in distress. She was so desperately trying to get out of my hold by tugging and pulling my arm. Too bad for her, she is too powerless to do anything. By that time the others aimed their weapons at me, with their clones already up.

“It would be better if you drop her, whatever you are!” Pigtails said with faux confidence, trying to play the badass. Cute.

Tall and black had an indignant look on her, but for some reason didn’t try to shoot, what for, this one still has two other clones, what's the matter with losing one. Then, what I didn’t expect, she talked, huh, expected her to be the pull trigger and forget type.

“Why are you doing this?” Why am I doing this? The nerve, have you not been the one trying to shoot me, you fool?!

“Please mister? It doesn’t have to end like this.” My hostage worked up the courage to speak? Maybe it doesn’t need to end like this, but I would be a fool to let go of this… machine shield.

“Listen to her human, let her go and surrender!” Tall and black said with her usual accent.

“What cat got your tongue? Speak!” Pigtails squeaked, of course I can’t speak, don’t you think otherwise I would have already spoken to you lot?

I merely point at my throat with my free hand, and do a cut motion. Indicating that my vocal cords are de facto inoperable.

“A mute, how lovely. What should we do STG44?” Skorpion asked STG44, she was deep in thought, or so it seemed.

“Stand down, he hasn’t killed her yet, and I have questions, how a human can survive out here.” Skorpion just shrugged and her clones put their weapons down. Same as STG’s.

“It’s your turn, let her go, please.” Hmm, on one hand, they at least seem to be willing to talk, the purples were shooting on sight. But at the same time, this may be a ploy, to save their own. Ah what the hell.

I let PPSh go, she stumbled a bit before regaining her balance.

“Good choice, now let us sit down and communicate.” She beckoned me to follow to a few folding chairs. They all still have their weapons on them, but don’t keep them aimed, rookie mistake. They all sat down, and I remained standing.

“Well what are you waiting for? Invitation?” Skorpion said.

If I could grumble then I would. I reluctantly sat down on the stretcher, and crossed my arms.

“So first question, do you have any alternative means of communication?” STG44 asked and I nodded, of course I have, the note and pencil.

I slowly get my rucksack off and pull the zipper open, searching for a bit, it’s a bit deeper than I thought, but I found both the notes and the pencil soon enough.

Seeing me go for my pack gave them a good, almost making them re aim their weapons at, mistake that would have costed them dearly, after shaking a bit of the scare off, they looked to my hand and found a note and a pencil, the surprised look on their faces was very funny in my opinion, probably because notes have been redundant for mute communication sense a decade ago or at least in my time, i don’t exactly know how much time has passed since then.

“So mister mysterious mute, what were you doing in our humble abode?” Pigtail blared out,

Thinking for a bit, I began writing on the notes and presented it to them, although my writing could be improved, they at least understood it.

“I am kind of lost, and were looking for supplies to scavenge, the city is devoid of anything other than a shitton of skeletons, destroyed vehicles and buildings.” Yeah, my writing skills could use some practice.

“I see, then answer my next question, how come you can walk around in an ELID infection zone? The town is off-limits for a reason, only Tactical Dolls like us and other automata can navigate it.” STG44 asked, with not a bit of scrutiny, heh still pissed about throwing ya? Tough luck gal.

“I am not familiar with this ELID, but I feel fine, one of you was talking about infected, correct?” I wrote and presented it to her, which they all read.

“Heh, you must be extremely daft for not hearing about the ELID, but long story short, it was the cause of killing more than half of the whole human population around the Earth, not infected roaming around, like those cheap zombie movies,” Skorpion answered this time, at least I am getting somewhere. ELID, so that's why I am not seeing civilization.

I got into a deep thought, was the ELID the cause of that facility becoming abandoned? Did it happen before or after World War Three?

“It still makes no sense how you aren’t melted, there are Collapse radiation hotspots in the city, and I doubt some old plate carrier and helmet would be much help there,” STG44 said again, a fair notion, but I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, nor felt.

“Hey, isn’t he one of those rare immune individuals? Think about, he apparently navigated the town and looks no worse for wear.” PPSh offered, now come to think of it, maybe my nature has something to do with being apparently immune? I mean… certainly plausible idea…

“Sooo…” Skorpion trailed off, obviously had something to say. “Are we gonna talk about how a human, immune he may be, got the best of three Tactical Dolls? He threw STG44 away as if she was a ragdoll, and was invisible!” This caused them to look at each other, then to me. Well fuck me sideaways, how do I explain this.

“Got anything to say Mr. Mute? What is your name anyways?” Skorpion asked again, she does seem like a leading conversations.

“Bond, James Bond.” I showed them my scribing, to say STG wasn’t amused is an understatement, but it caused the other two to chuckle.

“Joking, the name is 106, or simply Six if you will, I don’t have an actual name, as for how do I do what I do is a mystery even for me, I woke up like this.” Well technically I am not lying here, I truly don’t know if I do what I do. What manner of procedures turn me into this, not that I actually mind, being this strong and fast, has its perks.

“Six? That's not a name, but fine, Six it is, for now.” STG accepted it quite fast, huh, didn’t expect that.

I began scribing, I got the perfect answer for this!

“You are one to talk, you literally are called Sturmgewehr 44, now that's not a name for someone.” I showed my answer.

“Wh-what?! I will let you know the Sturmgewehr 44 is the precursor of all modern assault rifles! Such name demands respect!” This was worth every penny, well, if I had money that is, she takes much pride being called like that. How adorable, if a bit foolish.

“If you say so, well then, what is going to happen now?” I wrote it down, better address the elephant in the room sooner than later.

As they read, they looked at each other, back and forth, are they talking like that? What is this, robo-telepathy?

Suddenly all of them looked at me. “You are an enigma, you are apparently immune, but can’t say for sure without proper testing, and you have abilities that no other humans have.” STG44 said as a matter of factly.

“In short, you are an anomaly big guy, Griffin & Kryuger command would be mighty interested in someone like you, especially Mr. Kryuger!” Skorpion said, if a bit overly eagerly.

“And you are looking for civilization, are you not? Why else would anyone be out in a Yellow Zone?” PPSh added meekly, maybe I have to offer her an apology, so far she seems to be the most respectful and polite out of all of them. Crap, I don’t like to apologise.

And considering her answer, she is right actually, I am looking for civilization, because hell if I want to spend the rest of my life scavenging. Well, no other choice then, these gals might be my ticket outta here, but trust has to be earned, and so far, I don’t trust them, they might as well be just an elaborate plot to let my guard down. This is a fair notion, considering the situation so far.

I began writing my thoughts down again, the noise of pencil against paper filled the very air around us. Oddly calming.

“While I am looking for civilization, whose to say all this is just an elaborate plot so you get my guard down and capture or off me like those purple suited robo-chicks wanted and their bosses?” Once they read it, their eyes widened. What, what is it?

“Purple suited and their boss? He must be talking about Sangvis Ferri!” PPSh exclaimed suddenly. Which, due to the sudden outburst, caught me a bit off guard.

“And capture? Explain, why did they want to capture you? Last we checked they aren’t interested in taking prisoners, especially humans.” STG44 said, her eyes narrowed, but no longer in hostility, more like deeper thinking.

“How the hell am I supposed to know? They are onto my ass since the last two days!” I wrote down my answer, it is true, but I have a feeling why, I am a super soldier, now that I think about it, they must know something about someone like me, but why go through all the trouble of trying to capture me? And those… Sangvis chicks with the two black suited girls were not interested in killing me, and acted more in line than those that I encountered in the wild. All this thinking, theories and whatnot makes my brain hurt.

I didn’t let them answer as I wrote another answer. “Now that I think about it, they were lead by two individuals, androids like you probably, Architect and Gager was their name if I recall correctly, also I’ve got this presumably a black box from a drone bearing similar color to this Sangvis bunch, have it. I have no use for it anyways.” I handed them the note and the black box, When they read it their eyes almost bulged out.

“Well, it’s official, you are coming with us, if Sangvis wants you, and even sends two of their Ringleaders to apprehend you, it’s not good for everyone, and besides, you want to get out of here, aren’t you? Help us finish our patrol in Sector S09, and we will personally escort you to the closest Griffin base, in the meantime, we’ll see what we can do about this black box, deal?” STG44 stated, how awfully generous of her, but for now, I got nothing better to do and this is a better lead than I had all by myself, ah fuck it, might as well bite the bullet then.

“As much as I hate trusting strangers, deal, but the sooner we are done with your patrol, the better, so now that I am officially part of this… little band of yours, what now?” I wrote my honest thoughts down.

“For now, resting, tomorrow we break camp and move out towards the target destination. And apologize to PPSh.” She answered, then stood up and went her way.

Skorpion approached me and clapped my shoulders. “Welcome to the group, hope you can keep up!” With that she went on her way, which was just consisted of her falling back into her stretcher bed and started snoring, since when robots snore.

All this left me and the soviet larper. Well shit, better get over it then.

“Well, look, I apologize that I held you a hostage and all that jazz, so peace?” I wrote my part down and presented it to her, the rest is up to her.

“O-oh! It’s fine, I actually understand why you did what you did, sooo… uh yes peace.” Well fuck me sideways and call me a broom! She is not as bad as I expected!

“Alright, well then you better do your own business, I better fix get those stretchers back to their place, man, I hate cleaning.” Small talk 106, small talk. This did actually cause her to chuckle.

“I’ll leave you to it then.” She stood up and went back to where she was before everything took place. These things are weird, not a few minutes ago we were having each other at a gunpoint, now they are disregarding me so easily. To be fair, I am not big on societal clues, so what do I know.

I stood up and went to put those beds back in place… Yep I hate cleaning.

Chapter Text

Good day, ladies and gentlemen.

This is... quite a sad day for both me and my co-author, and sad that we have to announce this already so early on.

We are putting the story into a temporary HIATUS. Yep, you read it right, a hiatus. Sadly, neither of us has much drive to write this anymore, we have many more interesting and, quite frankly... better projects that we want to do instead.

Does this spill the end of Anomaly? Not exactly, this is a temporary setback, we will come back one day and continue where we left off. It truly makes us sad to do this, since many of you seemed to like our work, but when someone doesn't have the drive to go further, let's just say it's better not to push the matter, quality would just worsen.

Keep an eye out for our future projects. If you liked this one, you may like what we cook up next.

Until then, folks, peace out!