Chapter Two: Ψ-B (Psi-Beta): I've been dead for a while
I walked into the other door and I was greeted by six different people. One of them, in a pristine white lab coat motioned for me to go in.
The room was simple, white walls and floor. A grav-couch was against the left wall with a glass coffee table in front of it. A transparent ash tray sat on the table. To the right of the couch was a another doorway. Along the right wall were a few monitors hooked to holo-consoles on the floor. The back wall was lined with Akheton Quantum Supercomputers, their keypads blinking idly. The room smelt of tobacco, indicating that people here often smoked.
There little space left on the couch, so I decided to remain standing.
“So where do we start?” I asked
“Um, introductions?” a man wearing cargo pants and a white t-shirt that read “Infinity Squared”
“Good idea,” a different female voice echoed in my head “who wants to go first?”
“Me?” I thought
And then a feeling of mortification hit me like a Guided Hypervelocity Kinetic Impact Missile, or GHY-KIM for short. I had always hated introductions, especially to a group of people. And as a consequence, hated being reassigned to a different Crusader squad. A bead of sweat formed on my brow. I cleared my throat
“Er, I am Victor Charles O' Harrison. I serve in the Confederate Navy as a Crusader super-soldier in the 343rd Elites. I have a rank of Master Chief Petty Officer.” I took another breath and continued “I was kidnapped and taken to this installation for an unknown reason.”
I looked briefly at the other people in the room, enough for my implants to acquire images and data on these people. What surprised me most was that most of them serve, or served in the Armed Forces in one way or another, one particular woman served in the Relief Forces, the man wearing an “Infinity Squared” t-shirt served in the police. I saw the woman in the lab coat shake her head, the motion barely noticeable, she seemed sad, a faraway look in her eyes. My implants acquired an image and presented me with more data. I archived all the data and put it away with my thoughts.
“What's wrong?” I asked
“You would rather not know.” her voice, the same voice from before, echoed in my mind.
The data regarding her appeared in my vision again, there appeared to be an update on her lineage. Her family tree flashed into my vision. It was massive, starting from the founding members of the McFoster clan, then my implants showed me her family tree. Apparently she was the firstborn daughter of the O' Harrison family, my family.
“Sis?” I thought
“No,” she replied “you are not my brother. He died a decade ago.”
Her statement hit me like a hypervelocity slug to the forehead.
“You are a clone,” she echoed in my mind “we found you lying in your own impact crater after the Furthest Reaches was blown apart by those Hel 'Tonari bastards.”
I ran as explosions blossomed behind me, my Seraph class Black-Ops armor protecting me from debris with its shields. I stepped on an EM grenade and I thudded on the floor.
“Fuck!” I cursed
The grenade detonated in a flash of light, when the light faded, my HUD was missing and my body was sluggish. I tried to stand, but the armor was too heavy. I slipped and fell to the floor again. The frigate under me tilted, sending the now unsecured cargo containers flying. The ship groaned in pain as enemy fire began to blow her apart.
My HUD flickered back on, hazy and clouded with static. Another officer ran into the hallway from a service corridor. My shields slowly recharged and the armor came back on-line. The officer ran into the escape pod at the end of the hall. The airlocks closed, and the escape pod rocketed out towards the planet's surface. Only to be destroyed by a “Gao 'Nem” class Interceptor.
I stood up as another explosion rocked the ship. The service corridor to my left spilled out a trio of the ugly, three legged insects known as the Hel 'Tonari. They all wielded wicked looking polearms. Many have died mistaking them for simple Fringe farmers' tools, the cutting edges were monomolecular, and were augmented by a plasma field surrounding the blade. Those blades were able to cut a Crusader completely and cleanly in half.
I stood up and wielded my last weapon, the “Killer Tuning Fork” as it is jokingly referred to. It was a telescoping one foot to a meter long blade, the name comes from the fact that it has a gap running down the center of the blade, it allowed the ion field to envelop the monomolecular blade.
As I raised my weapon to defend myself, and as they charged. The hull behind me blew open, sucking the four of us into space. The insects died as their pressurized carapaces exploded open. I righted myself, ejecting small amounts of air to serve as maneuvering thrusters. A two square meter piece of debris floated past. I grabbed it and held on, using it as a shield. I steadied myself and prepared for the worst.
I was caught in the planet's gravity well, and my slow fall turned into a quick plummet into its atmosphere. The leading edges of the metal I was using as a heat shield began to glow red. I slowed down after a minute or so of falling, the altimeter was dropping quickly, from ten thousand meters to half of that in ten seconds. My heat shield fell apart and I saw the surface approaching rapidly, I spread out my arms and legs in an effort to slow myself down, but my armor was too streamlined and I still fell at a dizzying rate, then I slammed into the ground, a split second later, everything went black.
I stepped back, stricken by both her statements and the flashback.
“We tried to save you, but we were too late. The government issued an order to deliver a perfect clone of you for some experiments.” she said “They wanted to use you as a guinea pig.”
“But you didn't allow it.” I finished
“Yes, we told them that they were all failures,” she said “but it was partially true, all but one died.”
“So that clone is me.”
“Yes.”
“Then why ten years? A full clone takes only five years to grow.”
“It's because you are a clone of that clone.”
"And what about what you told me before, sis?"
"That..." she trailed off "was a lie."
I've heard that clones have some slight alterations in their DNA, and cloning that will make those alterations more evident.
I turned away, to give myself some time to absorb the information. Suddenly, the lights turned red. A voice came over the intercoms
“Attention all personnel! A Code: Beta Omega is in progress.” it paused “This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill”
Beta Omega always meant that a hostile force had found a top-secret installation and was attacking it with large numbers.
“All personnel, report to your battle stations.”
Everyone except my sister ran out of the room, a lightly muscled blond man grabbed my by the upper arm as he ran.
“Follow me!” he said
He let go and I ran out of the doors and into an armory, suits of Thor Mk. 27 Powered Assault Armor hung on the walls, while racks of weapons emerged from recesses in the walls.
“Why do we need these?” I asked
It seemed the most logical question to ask at that time.
“It's because we have our limits.” a raven haired woman said as she slipped into her armor
“Using Psi is mentally, physically and psychologically taxing.” a male voice echoed in my mind “You can die, go crazy, or even fall apart depending on how often you use it between periods of sleep.”
I ran to a suit of armor hanging on the wall and quickly got into it. I stared at the armor's reflective visor for a second before putting it on my head and locking it in place. Everything was quiet for a second then fans hummed to life while lines of diagnostic text scrolled across the visor and in my vision. The armor's HUD appeared, displaying the most relevant information and augmenting my implants' capabilities.
“Everyone report. As for me, ready Op.” a voice said “And Victor, you are part of the team now.”
“This is Tyler, ready Op!”
“Jacob, ready Op!”
“This is Laika, armor's okay.”
“Sarah here, everything's green!”
“This is Victor, diagnostics have completed and report that the armor is fully functional.” I said, my military training kicking into gear.
“You could just have said 'Ready Op' Victor.” Sarah said.
“Cut the banter people,” the commander said “everyone, load up and go to sector Alpha.”
I went over to the weapons racks and placed an A7D assault rail rifle on my back, the magnetic plates holding it in place while I placed six forty round magazines for the weapon in my side pockets. Then I grabbed an AP19 “Widowmaker” Anti-Tank Particle Rifle and placed it beside the R7D. I also holstered a S7H sidearm and three clips for it. I found a “Killer Tuning Fork” in the left holster, so I left it there.
“So you wanna be point man?” the commander asked “That's okay, we needed another one anyway.”
I followed them out of the armory. A marine stopped in front of the commander and said
“Sir! Sector Gamma needs some reinforcements.”
“Well, what are you waiting for?” the commander asked “Get to Sector Gamma.”
We ran down the hallway, our footsteps thumping on the floor. Explosions reverberated through the walls as dust fell from the celling.
“Damn, whoever is trying to kill us must be really crazy,” Sarah said “either that, or really stupid.”
“Yeah!” Laika agreed
The hallway slanted upwards and began to widen. We reached the surface and I saw that Sector Gamma was a huge military garage. Vehicles were lined up along the walls, most of them parked on ledges with ramps leading to the floor. Several doors were recessed into the cavernous garage. Above us hung an electromagnetic launch rail for aircraft, a Typhon Class Heavy Aerospace Bomber sat on the rail, waiting for clearance to launch. The huge opening on the far side of the garage was bathed in sunlight. Wreckage and bodies littered the floor. Several makeshift barricades were erected around the entrance. Hover tanks and other powered armors stationed behind them. We ran, covering the five kilometers that made up the floor of the garage in just two minutes. We readied our weapons and looked over the barricade. A massive spider shaped warmech stood over a contingent of Valhallian soldiers.
A pair of Typhon Bombers roared into view, plasma bombs falling from their bomb bays as particle beams lanced out from nose mounted turrets. For an instant, the warmech was covered in a flurry of sparks and electric arcs as its shields absorbed the weapons fire. A Confederate T7P2 Patriot heavy assault tank hovered over a pile of debris to get a clear shot at one of its joints and then a massive leg slammed down on the tank, its shields flaring for a moment before overloading. The leg pierced the tank's armor and its reactor. And then the tank exploded, showering the field with smoking debris. Eight spots on its 'head' began to glow red, then proton beams lanced out, wiping out several squads of marines, partially melted scars on the earth were all that was left of them.
We hid behind the barricade, popping our heads out to take potshots at approaching hostiles. Another explosion rocked the cavern, I looked up and saw that the launching rail was about to collapse. The warmech lumbered closer and fired four of its beams, raking at the barricades and obliterating some of the weaker ones. A couple of Valhallian assault troopers jumped over our barricade and landed behind us. I readied my rifle and aimed it at one of the approaching soldiers, three cracks rang out and his shields sparked but did not fail. He lunged at me and threw me to the ground, I thudded on the floor. He raised an energy flail and was about to cave my head in with it when I began to imagine his armor cracking and falling apart. A split second later and the armor began falling apart in irregularly shaped chunks, crystal gel and thermal regulation fluid oozing from separate layers as frayed bands of electromuscle twitched in the air. The armor fell apart to reveal a very panicked looking man, his storm gray eyes staring right at me. I kicked his legs out from under him and I heard bones cracking and snapping from the force, he fell to the floor and an armored boot caved his head in. One of my team mates was dueling in close combat with the other Valhallian, I stood up and fired my rifle at the soldier. The enemy turned to face me and as he did, the tips of the “Killer Tuning Fork” stuck out of his chestplate, the blade retracted and the body thudded to the floor.
A smaller Valhallian reconmech sped into the garage, I reached behind my back to get the Widowmaker, my hand felt the handle and I tugged at it. The magnetic plates on my back disengaged, allowing me to ready the weapon. As I was about to flip the arming switch, I noticed a crack in the primary power cell, cooling liquid oozed slowly out of the crack and dripped on the floor.
“Shit!” I cursed
I ripped the cell out of the weapon and threw it at an approaching squad of enemy marines. The power cell sailed in a clean arc through the air and slammed into the face of an enemy. The marine fell, and a second later the power cell detonated, engulfing the squad in blue-white plasma fire. The screams of burning men filled my ears before dying out. I dropped the Widowmaker and leveled my rifle at a lone trooper, he sprinted for cover and I pulled the trigger, the rifle bucked against my shoulder and the man fell apart, blood spraying out and painting the floor red.
The reconmech approached, its autocannons blazing. I fumbled for the Widowmaker and clipped a spare power cell to it. The weapon hummed to life and I placed it on my shoulder, the targeting reticle matching with the one displayed on my visor. I aimed at the mech's cockpit and depressed the firing stud. A high pitched whine filled the air as the particle bolt smashed into the unshielded mech, its armor did nothing to stop the weapons fire and the cockpit disintegrated. The machine fell to the floor with a loud thud as smoke poured from the hole in its cockpit. Its foot twitched and the machine went still.
A/N: Yes, I noticed the discrepancy between the numbers at the end of the first chapter and the beginning of this chapter.
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Topic: Ψ (Psi) - A (possibly) Epic Tale (Read 5752 times)