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Chapter Four: Shattered memories

Rain pounded the forest as the sound of concussive railgun blasts echoed through the air. My pack was chosen to assault an abandoned complex that was taken over by the Florans. Drones were useless in the thick foliage, and we couldn't risk destroying the artifacts in the base, as a last resort ground packs were dispatched. I saw a flicker of movement and brought my rifle to bear, a floran popped out of cover and I aimed... The floran disappeared in and explosion of dirt and dust. My visor tracked the shot-path back to Arrior.

"You'll have to be quicker next time Ava... Or I'll have the longest enemy report list." Arrior said jokingly. He was always better than me... His aim was flawless, and his split second decisions were what helped promote us to legendary status... We were Combat Squad Six. And we were an instrument of destruction, just as precise as drones. A rapid fire hail of bullets hit the tree beside me and I dropped down, aimed, and fired. A small explosion erupted and another enemy went down. The falling rain of the planet steamed off the barrel of my rifle. Liquid water. it seemed so funny compared to beautiful ice on Avalon. I shook the thought aside as we stalked forwards, growing closer to the Floran fortified compound. A drone dropship passed overhead, vibrating the trees with its engines. Drones poured out and hovered above the treetops, firing down on encamped enemies with minimal effectiveness. We eventually stopped firing, and there was only the roar of the rain and the whirring of our armor. We pressed forwards, coming up to the entrance of the facility, pockmarked with holes and blast marks. I stepped forwards and a Floran came charging out of the opening hefting a battle axe. I swept my arm towards him and the familiar whir of the nano forge inside my armor booted up as an Aeromer blade printed out of the forearm socket. I slashed upwards, the Floran losing its momentum and cashing to the ground, the shattered tip of my orange sword sticking out of the back of its skull. The blade ejected from my arm trailing steam and landed next to the dead floran, the bright orange segments losing their glow and turning a dull grey. The forge began charging, ready to create a new blade when I needed it.

"Show off." I heard Arrior say. I could tell he was smiling under his armor, I don't know how, I just knew. I was shaking lightly, he simply drew me into a hug, an embrace that cut through the rain and fighting... Something warm and comforting... Something I could swear I had felt.

I shot awake, the world coming into focus. I was in the training room, Tael and Soraiyan were both sleeping. I looked over to see Felix, he was still running through exercises, learning, progressing, how he could do it all without stopping to sleep was beyond me. I didn't bother to get up, just laying there and watching Felix run through training sims. He was using the physical sims, training dummies with electric shocks, I also noticed the small crowd of Avali watching his progress on the display and through the viewing area. I saw his score rapidly raise, followed by muffled encouragement from the packs around him as the world blurred and I fell back into a fitful past.

The Avali simulations were tough at first, but they had an understandable core. This one tests reflexes with fast enemies, this one hones spatial awareness through hordes of enemies, the on I liked the most however was the one built for stealth. The room generated a 3D environment made of aerogel then painted it, this time it was a stealth test. A large cannon sat at the end of the room, drones patrolled the maze like corridors to the cannon, and if they saw you the cannon opened fire. I suppose it mimicked Avali defense systems. I snuck around a corner with the generated weapons the sim gave me. A pistol, a marksman rifle, and a Aeromer sword. The Avali armor I was given had a forearm slot that fit to the blades hilt. This allowed it to be mounted and activated by punching and hitting, even reducing the length to compensate for being on my arm. I turned a corner, a drone hovered twenty yards away, facing opposite of me. Its glowing red outline marking it as hostile in my HUD. I dashed forwards, swinging my arm upwards as the blade printed out of the forearm slot with a hiss. The Aeromer blade cut the drone in two, and fragmented off, the used blade ejected and fell from my arm trailing steam. I kept moving, edging closer to the cannon. After slashing two more drones I reached the cannon, using he console at its base to toggle the end of the sim. Now enemies began to be generated at the opposite end. Their 3D holographic bodies swarming through the maze. Shots began to echo out as they opened fire at the coverless area. I dodged and sprinted forwards, slipping into a corridor, opening fire with my guass rifle, the semi automatic railgun ripped through targets at close range, and did heavy damage at long range. I dropped multiple targets, making my way back through the maze from the map my processor made. I reached the beginning of the maze, an enemy disintegrating into particles as another shattered blade ejected from my arm in a hiss of steam. I tapped the console, completing the sim. A musical tone sounded and the room cleared itself, returning to a massive flat white expanse. I stepped outside, noticing the many packs gathered around the viewing areas. I was told that the training room extended almost the entire span of the ship, save for the area where we were, and maintenance conduits. The small viewing area had been filled with packs, but I couldn't find six. I felt, loss... Saddened by the lack of their presence. I finished up in the training area, walking back towards where I last saw the pack. I found them all in a resting area, asleep. I began to think of how long it had been since I'd slept. My processor of course blinked a number at me

-23.76 Hours-

I guess now that we were safe on a ship I could afford a combat nap, an hour at the most... Just to keep me alert. I walked into the large padded area, it formed a sort of square, made for a pack. It had a domed top for privacy and was recessed into the floor. What seemed like one long couch went all the way around, but it was as wide as a bed. There was a big empty space in the center with what seemed to be pillows and cushions. The pack was sprawled out. Soraiyan in a corner, Tael laying on a flat section, and Ava was curled up in the middle. I sat on the edge of the nearest bed, wishing I could take my armor off. Furlow's warning echoed in my head about the unpredictability of my new Nanites, they could stop functioning at any time. He recommended I keep the armor on at all times, which was awkward considering he was making repairs to it while I still had it on. I leaned back and let myself drift off to sleep, I didnt want to dream. But I did.

I dreamt of the first day after I woke up from my YCS operation. I couldn't remember anything before then... Nobody could. I remember waking up, being so confused, I didnt know who I was, where I was, why I was there. The only thing I knew was my entire body hurt. Slowly the processors started to interface with us, telling us our names, why were there. Reyes was there too... Telling us how much we would help humanity. He gave us a purpose, the smiling man was the beacon of hope for humanity, following the destruction of earth. We all saw the vids, earth being ripped apart as ships fled and were destroyed by the tentacle monster. Reyes was the man we all looked up to. Training was harsh, our bodies were made strong, our minds were made stronger. Our first mission... Our first test together was to liberate a small human colony from an Apex pirate group. We dropped in and deployed to the planet, it was all too easy, the Apex expected marines, not the YCS group. We mopped up the pirates and set the colonists free, we all felt that we had done good. The brunt of our missions had felt that way, go in, win, go home. It wasn't until we found out what happened to all the people we saved that we lost faith. Every colony we "saved" lost contact after we left. When investigated all that was found was rubble. We hacked the EDEN servers, trying to find out what happened, where we had failed. What we found was downed EDEN bombers at a colony. EDEN bombed the colonies to keep YCS a secret. We probed deeper, and found that we were meant to be used as a weapon, we would be used to take the remaining planets in Sol. To take Valhalla... The largest human colony outside of Sol. We weren't the protectors of Humanity, we were the next nukes, we were meant to control. We planned our escape, destroying as much data as we could, Reyes changed then. We saw his true side, cold, ruthless, unforgiving. We lost ten... Ten of the only people I knew died. I saw every single death... It was something I can remember all to well. The halls glowed with red light from the alarms. Gunfire echoed from behind as we took out more guards. We kept pushing towards the hangar, fifteen armed YCS and fifteen using their processors to keep us moving. We reached the hangar bay, and there was the entire defense force. At the time there were eighty seven guards left. They opened fire and pinned us down. Val was the first to go, he took a hit straight through the head. Another person grabbed his gun and kept shooting. Two more dropped as we pushed forwards. Kim and Leon. The next seven died in an explosion. They depressurized half of the Hangar, causing the emergency bulkhead to seal, saving us at their sacrifice. I saw them get sucked out into the cold vacuum of space. I felt every death compound... They started to look up to me at first, I had been the first to wake up, the one who knew the most about the processor, I had almost a week on some of the others. That first week alone with the processor. A week with a thing in my head that I didn't understand.

They found all of us again when we tried to tell other people about what we were. The USMC tried to help us, but EDEN got to us first. We lost four more that day, and we a split up. I never saw any of them again, I barely even heard their voices when we checked in. EDEN had compromised the USMC and we couldn't go to them anymore. One by one they stopped checking in... Then they found me. Chased me from the small colony I hid on, I watched them drop ferozium bombs as I escaped. Then they caught me... And I thought I was dead, then everything new. I almost felt calm, and my dreams faded, allowing me to sleep peacefully. My shattered memories no longer bothering me, I had the pack, and they had me. I felt safe here, like before we feared EDEN. I felt like I belonged, and I didnt even know why. At this rare moment I slept soundly...and I dreamt of the pack...my pack.

A/N: sorry for the short chapter guys. I've been too busy. For the love of all that is holy I dont know why I thought it was a good idea to tutor a friend in principles of thermodynamics. Anyways... Chapter 5 is in production and I hope to not have a gap this large in my updates again. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'm always glad to hear feedback. Thank you, and as always

Happy reading

-Fallen