Post by Sheng on Feb 27, 2024 19:04:46 GMT
Ruins of Amnesty City
Former Capital of Lestara
210 kms South of the “Invicta” Arcology
Recherche awoke with a startled gasp, scrambling upright and rapidly looking around. Her mismatched eyes quickly scanned the tree line for any potential threats, only to see nothing but evergreens and overgrown grass broken up by the occasional flower here and there. As it slowly seeped into her mind that she was alone she paused and let out a shaky breath before looking over at her more immediate surroundings, noting the bright white parachute collapsed onto the ground some twenty metres away. She lifted her hands and took a quick look at them to make sure that her gloves were still in place and unmarred before reaching behind her to her back and tugging on the release of the bag that the chute had been kept in. It fell away with a quiet rustle and she looked down at her uniform, remembering the slight charring present on the edge of her right shoulder from where the fire had grazed it.
It took around a minute of hasty checks for her to finally realize she was somehow uninjured and whilst she did so her memory slowly began to return to her. She remembered the aircrew scrambling about the cabin shouting to the cockpit that there was something moving on the ground, the eardrum-shattering volume of the laser-detection system screaming that the aircraft was being targeted, the brief flash of light before a loud bang and a sharp jerk of the entire airframe. Whatever had hit them had blown a hole in the side of the aircraft right under the left wing and had rapidly depressurized the cabin, leaving the crew scrambling for masks as she reached under her seat and snatched her own before she fixed it to her face. She remembered someone coming out from the cockpit shouting that they were alerting Invicta Air Control and had activated the craft’s E.L.F beacon. One of the aircrew had approached her to make sure that the package was secure, but then it all happened again. The next thing she could remember was one of the crewmen grabbing her by the shoulders, dragging her over to one of the side doors and pulling the cord of her parachute whilst kicking her out of the aircraft. She hardly had any time to tie the package to her-
Oh- fuck- the package- She jumped up with widened eyes, ignoring the faint throb coming from her stomach as she raced around the landing zone looking for it. It took a couple minutes of frantic searching but she finally found it discarded in the grass only a couple metres away. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she saw that it was completely intact, the black polymer exterior of the rectangular shape having only a couple of thin scratches that likely came from the wire tied around it to keep it attached to her person. She briefly wondered how it had come off but determined that it didn’t matter so long as it was intact, with a huff she crouched down and grabbed a hold of it before inspecting the wire. She quickly found the portion that had caused it to fall off of her on her descent; a small portion of snapped wire shoddily tied to one of her parachute’s straps. “Probably from the wind battering it”, she thought to herself. Reaching down to her pocket and pulling out the spool of wire she had used to wrap the package up with in the first place and pulled out a decent length of it before reaching down and pulling her utility knife from its sheath and cutting it free. She carefully pulled the broken segments of wire free before slowly sliding the new portion in and tying it off, giving it a decent yank afterwards to see if it’d stay in place and nodding to herself when it did.
She then quickly brought it up to her chest and tied it to one of the straps on her webbing harness, fat chance that she was going to let it out of her sight again anytime soon. She then let out a quiet breath before thinking “Alright Recherche, game time. Just got blown out of the sky by something, and you have a hard drive containing shit that could literally save the entire Kingdom. Find your emergency kit… Grab the radio and get Fennec on it…” She wordlessly nodded to herself before stepping away from her parachute and starting her search, crouching down and looking through the grass for the red and white parcel that had been tied to the top of her parachute. Which had also, annoyingly, come free sometime during her descent. As she combed her gloved hands through the grass she found some miscellaneous items that had probably fallen out of the jet’s door with her; A couple of ration packs, a chemlight and the bottom cushion of one of the aircraft’s seats. She took all three, sticking the stick and chem light into one of the empty pouches on her harness whilst carrying the cushion under her left arm. I mean, she didn’t know when help would be coming and a cushion sure-as-shit beat resting her head on the cold, hard ground in the event she had to tuck in for the night. But as she continued to scout around for her emergency kit she just came up on less semi-useful stuff and instead more debris and torn up ground.
She let out a sigh as she looked up and around the treeline, seeing if it had gotten caught up somewhere around there but she didn’t have any luck. It was only trees and the lightly rusted skyscrapers of the city beyond her, actually- she paused at that and took a good luck at one. The map had projected them flying over Amnesty, the former Capital, but she didn’t think much of it at the time. She knew of it, of course, everyone did. It was one of the last cities to fall to the biozones, having been defended by both the 114th Royal Grenadiers and a few volunteer detachments of various citizens and foreigners who were retired or off-duty servicemen and women who had the shitty luck of being present during the fall. Hell, her own father had died defending this now-rotted shithole. It was almost surreal seeing the actual city itself, even if it was only a few top portions of a couple of messed up buildings. She took a few more seconds to take the sight in before shaking her head and turning her attention back to the task at hand, resuming her search with renewed ferocity. She continued her slow scouring right up to the treeline where the grass ended and a cracked sidewalk greeted her, blinking in surprise she looked up and muffled a gasp at the sight.
Right in front of her was a 6-lane road, cracked up with rusted vehicles dashed throughout. Some were flipped over, others were just stopped in the middle or on the side like the occupants had slammed on the breaks, some had jumped the curb and ploughed into the forest- no, the park she was presently at the edge of or- in one or two cases- ploughed into the buildings on the right side. She cautiously looked left to right, scanning the decrepit street for any signs of movement before nervously stepping out from the treeline. Her boots crunched against cracked and loose pieces of concrete as she made her way out onto the sidewalk proper, heart beginning to pound in her chest with every hesitant step that she made. A part of her was telling her this was too open, to go back into the concealment that the flora behind her provided. But the rational part of her mind countermanded it, demanding that she get as far away from where she had landed as possible because the mutations didn’t use surface-to-air missiles. In the end, she took another step forward and approached one of the ruined cars on the side of the road. The left tyre was hopped up onto the curb and the windshield, whilst mostly in-tact, had a series of small round holes present on the driver’s side.
It took her a good three seconds for it to click in her mind that they were bullet holes, and another few seconds for her mind to realize what that had meant. Immediately she threw her arm up over her nose and mouth and backed off away from it, chastising herself for forgetting where she was and for being so goddamn reckless. She then scrambled down for her gas mask pouch on her waist and practically ripped it open as she yanked the oxygen mask from the aeroplane off and put the gas mask on, yanking on the straps to ensure a solid seal before she reached over and twisted the filter. She listened as a quiet hiss sound escaped from it as the filter activated and she took a deep breath of the newly filtered air, there’d be a blood test in order when she got back to the arcology. Too many incidents as of late to leave it to chance and hope that she wasn’t infected, not to mention that Fennec would scold her like never before for doing so anyway…
She let out a muffled sigh before looking back towards the ruined car with a wary expression. She didn’t see any moss on it or any spores in the air but that didn’t mean shit, it could easily be hidden within the machine itself or a storage compartment. Regardless- it was time to get lost. She looked up the street to see what was ahead before turning and looking down it to see what was down it, neither seemed overly interesting but there were more wrecked cars going up the street so she turned to her right and started marching down the sidewalk. Content to take as few risks as possible from here on out. She passed by a few more wrecks as she continued her stroll, some of which had a skeleton or two still within them but none of them showed signs of moss so whilst she kept a decent breath between them she didn’t move to overly avoid them or go off the sidewalk. She kept strolling until she came to a four-way intersection, looking to her north, east and west to see which route she would take. The park ended where she stood, so turning and going down right would enable her to stay next to the treeline but she didn’t know the park’s layout, if it was just a square then sticking to the treeline would have her just going around and around the same place so she shook her head and looked east. East definitely didn’t appeal much more, with a haphazard barricade halfway down the street past the traffic lights a shit ton of skeletons collapsed just before it.
No doubt there’d be biomoss on at least a handful of them, and while she had confidence in her mask’s ability to filter any spores that rose from it away from her she hadn’t gotten to where she was today by taking risks. That left the Northern path, which looked identical to the road she had just walked up along but instead of a park being to her right there were just more decrepit buildings. One thing that did catch her eye though was a ruined tank parked on the corner by one of the light poles, the turret slumped at an odd angle and the barrel pointing towards the barricade. She stared at it for a second before checking the street and making her way over, a few skeletons wearing dirty camo uniforms and old pre-fall body armour were slumped against it and she crouched before one of them and looked at it. Their face was covered by an older variant of the gas mask she presently wore and their helmet had a solid dent right above the fallen soldier’s forehead, as if something had slammed down on top of it. She shook her head before turning and looking at his shoulder, reaching out and cautiously brushing some dust off of his arm and revealing a patch that was stitched into it: “Royal Armed Ground Component | 114th Grenadier Regiment.” She paused for a second before pulling back and facing his chest, reaching out and brushing some dust and dirt off of where his chest would be. Sure enough, a dark OD name tag was revealed: “MAA. S. Lee.” She paused for a second before reaching down and pulling her knife up from her belt once more and made quick work at cutting the patch and the name tag free. She then reached down to her pocket and pulled out a small sealable baggie before depositing the two items inside it and rolling it up, she’d bring it back with her and give it to her CO, maybe they could find their family and pass it on to them. Give them some closure, gods knew that was in short supply sometimes.
She let out a quiet exhale before pushing herself back up and slotting her knife back into its sheath, sparing the fallen soldiers one last look before she walked back over to the sidewalk and resumed her journey. Thinking to herself as she did so, “If I can’t find that damn radio or alert any inbound help soon, I might end up like one of those poor bastards myself…”
Six Hours Later.
Recherche let out a sigh as she finished unrolling the emergency sleeping back and plopped down onto it, running a hand through her hair as she stared out of the window of the building she was taking shelter in. She had a small fire going with the pot from her mess kit filled with water and hanging down from a small tripod over the small yellow flames, the ration heater sitting in the pot steaming slightly. It was a decent bit of comfort that even in such a shitty situation, she’d be able to enjoy an actually solid meal that she didn’t have to spend three hours catching herself. Command always made sure anyone leaving the Arcology had rations to spare should they become stranded, as catching and eating wildlife was always a fairly lethal coin toss due to the fact they, unlike humanoids, never showed any visible signs when infected with biomoss. Hell, they had videos of early exploration initiatives showing small game and birds going straight into the biozones and emerging visibly unaffected a couple of hours later. Only for samples studied under a microscope to reveal hundreds of thousands of spores building up in the meat. Yeah… that was a particularly gruesome training video…
She shook the memory from her head and focused back on her ration, watching as the amount of steam escaping from the stop started to rapidly increase. Should only be a few more minutes before it was ready! And boy oh boy was she excited, having gone through the rations she had found earlier and discovering that one of them was beef ravioli with real beef! She had practically jumped for joy at that, rations with real meat were exceptionally rare BUT were in circulation as part of an initiative to increase morale for her arcologies exterior-venturing forces. Especially now that increased shipments were coming in from Invicta, hells the Infantry had practically started a riot in the barracks out of joy when the news struck! She let out a faint chuckle at the memory of her team leader, Fennec, bursting into their dorm holding a news card detailing it. The entire science wing had gone down to the Arcologies “ground floor” in celebration…
And spent the next morning cleaning the scullery for what they had been caught doing after. She looked back over at the ration pack and saw that steam was practically rocketing out of the top of it so she reached over and plucked it out of the pot, quickly laying it down on the concrete floor some ways away to avoid the boiling water dripping from it landing anywhere near her. She then pushed herself to her feet and pulled the pot off of its tripod and sauntered over to the broken windows of the building, peering out over the edge and seeing the ground waaaayyyy down below. She’d be lying if she said the height didn’t make her nervous but it was far safer up here than down there. She quickly tossed the water out of the broken window and watched as the boiling liquid flew down towards the street below before making her way back to her sleeping back and slowly cooling ration pack.
But as she pulled it open and grabbed the brown plastic spoon within to start digging in an idle thought began to chew at the back of her mind;
“Do they even think I’m still alive..?”
Paragon’s Square
Trident City, Capital of Lestara
“Invicta” Arcology
Junior Cadet Cordovin Copperwell, son of Lestaran Hero and Chevalier-General; Alexander Copperwell, stood in front of the bathroom mirror adjusting his uniform with an overly excited smile sketched across his face and pure joy radiating from his bicoloured eyes. Hair neatly combed and cut, uniform freshly pressed and dry cleaned, face pristinely washed and shaved; right now he looked like a model example of a uniformed Ciarian Student, no doubt his Uncle would crack a few jokes about looking like an ‘Ice Jacket’ if he saw but right now Cordo didn’t care. Today was no normal day, and while few of his classmates would probably put the same amount of care or attention into their uniforms as he did, that was what would make him stand out from the rest. And he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to take every advantage of every little trick he could to make himself look like a good candidate. “You’re not fighting to win if you’re fighting clean” as Uncle Cardinal would say and Cordo was certainly fighting to win. The reason why? Well because today, was Conscription Day. All across the Arcology, combat schools and similar educational institutes were being visited by members of the Arcologies’ Top Brass who would be looking for exceptional students, staff or otherwise to induct into the military with lucrative packages and fast-tracked paths into in-demand careers. Being inducted based on merit was one of the easiest ways to secure a plushy, high-paying and comfortable life for not only yourself but your family as well. Those who were deemed valuable to the Arcology tended to live quite cosy lives, not only because of their stations but also to try and preemptively kill any chances of the chosen becoming corrupt or traitorous for extra pocket change and living benefits.
From the ACD’s standpoint, they thought ‘Who wants to risk betraying the Kingdom for your own greed when you already have everything you want?’ and it actually seemed to work pretty well too. But regardless, if Cordo could be chosen for one of those positions? He and his family would be safer than they’d ever been. He pushed himself away from the sink with a determined smile before reaching out and pulling the bathroom door open and stepping out back into the hall, hearing the sizzling of a frying pan down in the kitchen ahead of him along with the quiet static and audio of a TV poorly playing some sort of sports movie. He shook his head with a chuckle before walking out into the kitchen and spotting his mother, still dressed in her engineer’s coveralls, quietly frying up some… holy shit she was frying up eggs! He shouted out “Holy shit are those real eggs?!?!” which caused the older Ciarian woman to curse and nearly fling them off the pan before she rounded on him with narrowed eyes and feline ears flickering in annoyance, raising a fist at him and snapping “You snivelling little shit they could have become best friends with the ceiling because of that! Obviously, they’re real, why do you think I’ve been pulling extra shifts at the airfield for the past three weeks! Sit your polished fancy ass down before I give you a knock on the damn head.” Cordo let out an amused chuckle at his mother’s antics before raising his hands up in surrender and moving to the battered wooden table behind her and sitting down in one of the less but still kinda battered wooden chairs. Immediately after the woman hauled a gunmetal plate out from one of the cupboards and slapped it down in front of him before pulling the pan away from the burner and depositing two over-easy eggs down onto it, his eyes sparkled as he took them in.
Much like any sort of animal product, real eggs were rarer than diamonds at the moment. With the KSF and Invictan Forces still fighting against the biozone over the Fortisian Farmlands real animal product were still outrageously high in demand and jaw-droppingly low in supply, with most families having to fall back on state-supplied rations for basic sustenance. To have gotten a pair of real eggs in good condition? It must have cost her an arm and a leg! His mother huffed as she flicked the burner off with her tail before sitting down across him from with a piece of burnt toast, reaching over and ruffling his hair before saying “Now take your time and enjoy ‘em proper, gonna be a while before we can pull in anything like that again. Reports came in last night that the one-eighty-third was grounded because of some transport going down over Amnesty, Banners are apparently out in swarms combing over the whole damn city for whatever it was that went down too so we ain’t gettin’ any cargo in anytime soon.” Cordo nodded along as he cut off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, relishing in the taste before he cocked an eyebrow and said “Why would a transport be going over Amnesty? There’s a bioflower not even a hundred klicks away.” His mother shrugged and said “Dunno, boys wouldn’t shut up about it at the tower. Whatever it was though you could practically smell the classified, we got told to prep for potential scrambles throughout the next couple o’ days and to be ready for O-O-B emergency repairs and hot landings. But they wouldn’t even tell us the type of aircraft to expect or anything.”
Cordo rolled his eyes at that, god damn LS-Double-C. Everything was classified, everything was confidential. Secrets, secrets, secrets were all they had. He remembered a couple of years ago when there was a big mission being announced and paraded about to restore some of Heros’ Solar Farms, the brass was going on about how it was the “first step in a new campaign” but when the entire roster was posted for who was being sent and what the missions actually were, everything was completely blacked out and no videos ever came in from it. At this point, people had just pretty much given up trying to keep track of what the military was doing because no one in it would ever tell you. He chuckled as he bit off another piece of egg whilst his mother rambled on about her job and how the Chief Engineer was a twat but he mostly tuned it out as he chomped down on his breakfast and receded back into his own mind. Time just sort of whisked away as he continued to chomp at his eggs and take a few sips of vitamin water, checking the clock every so often to make sure he wasn’t going to be late. But then his concentration was snapped apart and he jumped at the sound of something shattering against the floor. Looking up both concerned and confused he saw his mother standing over the sink with a broken drinking glass at her feet, he made to stand up to go clean it before he caught sight of her face. The once snarky grin and quietly happy eyes were gone, replaced by lips set into a thin grimace and eyes… completely hollow, practically lifeless. Before he could even process it she said in a solemn voice “He was just like you, y’know… Always in that pristine damn uniform, with a happy smile and an infallible attitude. Heh, used to drive me up the wall somethin’ fierce but- but it was also nice. Even when something had gone wrong, he’d come home all smiles and tell me some story about when he was in the navy some odd years ago to try and take his mind off of it and play whatever had happened off as no big deal. But he always had that look in his eyes, and that’s how I used to know something had gone wrong. Because no matter how much he smiled or tried to laugh and relax, his eyes would be just… the most heartbroken kind of sad you’d ever see…”
Cordo was dead silent, dread starting to well in his gut as he realised who exactly she was talking about. The glass forgotten he slumped down in his seat and looked down at his plate whilst she let out a mirthless chuckle before continuing on. “Don’t get a combat role, Cordo. If you have any choice in the matter, don’t let them give you a combat role… It’ll- that shit will destroy you.” She was staring out the window as she said it, her hair casting a shadow over her eyes whilst her hands were bone white as they gripped the edge of the sink “Goin’ out there, fighting those things… You’ll watch every one of your friends get cut down before your very eyes, come home long enough to cry about it and curse the world for letting it happen and then the next time you get sent out? It’ll be you who won’t be coming back home…” Cordo kept his thoughts to himself, even though a fair few were racing through his head. But it was the last thing she said that nearly did him in, her head turning and looking back at him with tears present on the corners of her eyes;
“And, funnily enough? Those were the last words I ever said to your father…”
Two Hours Later.
Tyria, Grand Academy of Martial Service
Cordo stepped off the bus with a pep in his step, practically bouncing in place as his tail flickered and whipped around behind him as he stared at the grand building before him. A massive complex of pristine steel, masonry and technology with a central clocktower displaying grandiose flags of the Lestaran and Ciarian Sigils. It was practically a monument with how much effort that was put into its appearance and with how many cherished it, the tower having been built long before the Arcology that surrounded it. But before he could delve any deeper he was snapped out of his train of thought by a hand-clapping against his back and a girl with a mischievous smirk, a sand-stained uniform and wild hair stepping around in front of him, he shook his head with a snicker at the sight. Whilst many had been gruelling over looking prim and proper, he shouldn’t have been shocked by Katze’s complete disregard for it. The girl was a riot, but his best friend for around ten or so years. She snarked at him: “Gettin’ lost again in dreamland there, shithead?” To which he quipped back “As if I, a most proud and honourable example of Ciarian greatness” He performed an exaggeratedly formal bow “Could ever become so distracted.” Katze snorted before slugging him on the arm and saying “Yeah, yeah. Looking to snag one of those fancy-pants sponsors are you? Get bumped up to a nice cozy life in the city and living with all the scientists and brass? Sit around sipping champagne and eating gourmet food?”
He rolled his eyes before starting to get a move on and walking down the long concrete path leading to the entrance to the Academy and quietly humming along with the muted buzz put off by the holographic banners displaying the Academy’s regalia, a pair of crossed sabres before a crown, that were waving gently despite the lack of wind. Katze came up along his side with her hands clasped behind her back. Cordo scoffed before remarking “Just because I actually put care into my appearance and don’t get into fights the day of the Brass showing up doesn’t make me some sort of softie pencil pusher wannabe. I’m going to go in there, the Brass having been wowed so much by my scores so much that they’re going to call me up and practically be shoving an Officer’s Commission into my face.” He pointed up towards the sky with a toothy grin “My destiny is the stars, blowing up biozones from orbit.” Katze let out a quiet chuckle before saying in a mockingly hurt tone “Heyyyy… I was down at the range I never got into a fight.” They both giggled at that as they passed under the gunmetal archway and into the Academy’s main garden. After they were both done giggling she said in a slightly more serious tone “Y’know it’s not a bad goal. Certainly better than joining the Infantry or, gods forbid, es-corps to try and last long enough to climb there the ol’ fashioned way. It’s the survivor’s move and I can respect that!” Cordo nodded as they both turned and started making their way to the auditorium. Both of them went silent, Katze dropped her hands down to her side and dusted some of the dirt off of her uniform and ran a hand through her hair whilst Cordo reached up and adjusted his tie and made sure his uniform was all nicely aligned and straight. A few seconds after they arrived at the grand wooden double doors where the rest of the students were huddled up outside, muttering and whispering to each other about what was about to take place. Cordo looked over at Katze who, despite her usual carefree attitude, seemed a bit nervous. He gave her a small smile before patting her on the shoulder reassuringly and getting an appreciative wink back.
A few seconds later a Ciarian in a white and gold Captain’s uniform came out from one of the side doors before marching to the front of the group. Coming to a stop with a pristine click of his boots and turning to face the assembled student body which had gone quiet at his appearance. He looked like a veteran, with one feline ear tattered and another missing, a gnarly scar going from his upper lip up to his eyebrow and a grisly critical expression plastered across his face. He cleared his throat once before loudly proclaiming “Students of Tyria, today is Conscription Day. Those of you here are those who were skilled enough to apply and be accepted into the Serviceperson’s Grand Lottery.” There was a scattered bit of muttering after that, the Officer coughed once which promptly silenced the students before he continued “Where based upon your skills you may be selected by the Officers within to be fast-tracked into a lucrative occupation serving Altar and Lestara in grandeur and dignity in the fight against the biozones.” The Officer looked over them before turning and knocking his fist against the door exactly three times, each knock evenly spaced and firm. He then turned around and said “Just by making it here, you have made your country proud, for few are those courageous enough to do so. I wish thee luck and courage in the war to come.” With that, he gave them all a picturesque salute before promptly turning and marching back the way he came. A few seconds later, with an ominous creak followed by the sound of wood scraping against ceramic, the doors slowly began to swing open. Once they were fully open, the assembled began to slowly scuffle in. Cordo and Katze followed along with the group, the former gazing up at the grand interior laid within. Marble statues depicting fallen heroes, grand paintings of famous battles, golden support pillars and the ceiling covered in a mural depicting Oswald the Severe sat upon a massive golden throne.
Cordo then looked out towards the opposite wall, where two elaborately uniformed Ciarians and a Zetyan were standing before a grand wooden desk with a stack of pristine envelopes neatly laid across it. As all the students made their way inside and spread out a little bit, the three officers nodded to the two Soldiers who had opened the door and with a great effort they slowly began pushing them forward, the massive doors letting out a loud thud as they closed. The Soldiers then quickly snapped around to face the Officers before standing at attention. The Officers nodded before the Ciarian in the middle stepped forward and said, his voice echoing throughout the hall, “Welcome, to the Auditorium. It is here where you shall learn your destiny and perhaps be welcomed as full-fledged members of the Kingdom’s Standing Forces or Lestaran Royal Guard. We will begin shortly, feel free to relax and converse amongst yourselves in the meantime.” And the hall erupted into excited and nervous chatter, but Katze and Cordo remained silent. A few minutes passed as the trio of Officers sat down at elegantly decorated wooden chairs and began deliberating amongst themselves about something. Thoughts raced through Cordo’s mind, what if they weren’t impressed by his scores? What if he was chosen to serve in the city? He didn’t want to be some softie scientist or glorified secretary! His gloved hands clenched into fists and Katze was about to reach out and grab one before a sudden CLACK echoed throughout the chamber, the Zetyan having just hit a raised block with a gavel. The auditorium quickly fell into silence as the student’s attention quickly directed itself up at the trio. The Ciarian in the centre stood and cleared his throat before saying “We shall begin. For our first nominee; Derliske Braeun.” Dead silence followed their words, but after a few seconds a Human with brown combed hair and a nervous smile stepped out from the crowd and hastily marched up to stand before the three of them. Once he stopped he stood at attention and the Officers nodded before the Zetyan piped up and said “For your academic prowess, good faith and honourable attitudes; You shall be assigned to the House of Tyreles, to serve as their Knight’s Captain.” The boy looked starstruck as cheering and applause broke out through the auditorium, it was a goddamn lucky snag. Knight Captains were like- the highest semi-combat role you could get. Cordo instantly found himself jealous but smiled and clapped enthusiastically regardless. The boy gave the Officers a watery smile and a shaky salute before a Soldier bearing a warm grin came up and laid a hand on his shoulder before ushering him away.
The Officers nodded to him before silence descended once again and the one who spoke put the folder away and picked up another one “For your skill in the field, relentless bravery and achievements outside the dome; Victor Krusguard, you shall be assigned to the Magistrate’s Employ. Where you will study alongside Cairn’s finest to uncover the secrets of the metaphysical and devise new ways of prosperity for Altar and her peoples.” More cheering and applause erupted as a girl with long white hair tied back in a bun stepped up and gave the officers a firm salute, muted joy etched across her face as the same soldier came back and began to lead her away, patting her on the shoulder as they did so. Silence then descended and the Officer picked up another file “For your unparalleled marksmanship, tactical mastery and ingenuity; Katze Koerlyn. You shall be assigned to the Lestaran High Command Centre to serve as Guardian Cadet, where you will begin training to become a Royal Guard for the Invicta Arcology’s Military Command Staff.” Cordo froze as applause and cheering took over the chamber, before slowly turning around to face Katze who seemed shocked still, mouth hanging open in a “o”. He blinked a few times as he processed what he had just heard before breaking out into a laugh and enveloping her in a massive hug. A few seconds passed before she started laughing too and gave him a firm hug back before breaking it and quickly stepping away. She patted herself down and ran a hand through her hair before marching up to where the trio of Officers stood, giving them a big toothy smile and a salute which the one who spoke returned before a soldier came and escorted her away. Cordo hooted and clapped the whole time as tears sprung up in the corners of his eyes, Katze looking back over and giving him a watery smile as silence descended over the theatre once more and the Officer grabbed onto a file with C. C. engraved in silver on its bottom. Cordo knew it was his file. His dream was printed out onto that very paper. An officer’s commission? An induction into the Royal Armada? Perhaps he would be chosen as an Honour-Guard to the royal family itself! As the envelope was gently torn open and a pale white paper was brought out and raised before the Officer’s eyes. He waited in anticipation as they began speaking. “For your impeccable record, initiative in training and versatility beyond the dome; Cordovin Copperwell. You shall be assigned to the King’s Academy of the Esoteric Sciences as an Esomancer Trainee, where you will be taught the ways of the Metaphysical to wield powers beyond comprehension in the fight on the frontline against the biozones.”
And then it all came crashing down.
“Klieglight”
Lestaran Situational Command Centre
“Invicta” Arcology
Commander-At-Arms Fennec Altebrucke swore as he burst through the doors to the LSCC. Immediately he stared at the massive holographic display on the far wall, showing a top-down map of Amnesty City and a projected circle where Wildcard had gone down. Just outside the city’s perimeter three blips with text next to them reading “Halberd 1, Halberd 2, Halberd 3” representing a wing of Aero-Fighters were hastily blinking in towards it. An Officer in a black and emerald uniform quickly stepped up to him and said “Commander. No data has been obtained yet as to what brought the plane down, we received no communications prior nor did we spot any deviations in flight pattern or trajectory before the contact-loss.” They held out a paper report which he quickly snatched and started reading through “Halberd wing has already been scrambled and is e-t-a five minutes. I’ve also got General Veredynn and General Marksworth on the line in your office.” Altebrucke hastily nodded to the Officer who saluted before stepping away whilst he made his way to his office, kicking the door open before slamming it shut behind him as two grainy voices started to speak. He cut them off with a “Hold it!” Before making his way to his desk and plopping down into his seat. Before they could try and get any more words in he said “What’s activity outside the dome like, are there any increases? Any signs of a possible attack? What about moss readers throughout the region?” A female voice, Veredynn, responded “Negative, Commander. I’ve been personally checking both surface and orbital arrays every five minutes and there’s nothing.” A male voice, Marksworth, then said “And I’ve already opened the Arcology’s air defenses and long-range missiles are currently primed for counter-attack. If anything so much as coughs outside the glass it’ll be vaporised before it can blink.” Altebrucke nodded to himself as he processed what they had said, remaining silent for a few seconds before saying “I want bombers on stand-by and alert the Infantry. Something brought that plane down and I’m willing to bet a goddamn lot that it wasn’t some type of malfunction or catastrophic failure.” The two generals were silent before Marksworth responded “Done, what about recovery efforts? Do we have aircraft en route?” Altebrucke ran a hand through his hair before saying “A wing of fighters is five minutes out but they’ll have to clear the area before we can send in rescue, if I know Recherche she’d have assumed it was hostile if she didn’t already know and be long gone from the crash site anyway. Likely to wherever gives her the best chance of getting in contact- a- skyscraper or radio relay. Veredynn, what’s in the area?” Veredynn hummed for a second as they likely examined a map before saying “The plane went down in a park surrounded by fuckin’ skyscrapers and the nearest radio relay is forty kilo’s north in the forest. It’d be suicide to go for that.” Altebrucke cursed before saying “What about orbital? Can we get a visual on the crash site and maybe send down a team of marines?” but Marksworth shot it down saying “Impossible, no satellites in the area and re-tasking would take days. There’s a corvette over Heros but it’s currently providing fire-support for a clearing mission and taking it away could do insane damage to the mission. Plus it would take thirty hours for it to burn over and get a good visual and it doesn’t have a marine detachment on board.”
Altebrucke shook his head before closing his eyes and thinking, that couldn’t work. She’ll be lucky to survive another ten let alone thirty… the silence across the call indicated the other two were doing the same. Fighters were inbound which was better than nothing, their targeting cameras could at least provide a somewhat clear image of the site and what was around it but having them start circling around to do so could be catastrophic if it brought the attention of a swarm or something equally worse. It’d also be sure to stir up any mutagens already nearby… He reached up and scratched at his chin before Marksworth piped up “Fuck- Shit! What about the- the- fucking- village whatever its fucking name is! The one right next to Amnesty that those Espen guys use from time to time! They might have some guys there that could go out and take a look!” Altebrucke slammed a hand down onto his desk before shouting “Genius! Absolutely genius Marksworth! Ha! I love it- alright I have a guy here who might be able to get in contact with them, I’ll pay them whatever they want if they can get out there as fast as possible. Gods, Marksworth, you might have just saved the damn day!” Marksworth could be heard laughing on his end whilst Veredynn piped up “I’ll get in contact with the treasury and see if they can help out with this. Good work, gentlemen.” Her symbol then disappeared from the call a moment later as Altebrucke said to Marksworth “Have a transport on standby just in case, it’s risky as all hell but we might not have a choice. Anyway I have to go see about this, good luck” Marksworth belted out a quick acknowledgement before Fennec reached down and ended the call.
Hastily standing up and sprinting over to the door before bursting out of his office and shouting out “Korosko! Get me in contact with the Spectre Division of Espen Industries! Now!”
Act I
The Devil, The Sword & The Dealer