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Chapter Text

Terra. You grew up hearing about it, but I never figured I would be going there. When the first probes returned, science had made its greatest accomplishment since the moon landing. Well, it depends on which scientist you speak to. On one hand, we discovered intelligent life. The aliens, or Terrans, have animal parts, but otherwise look exactly like us humans. Prettier on average, I'd also say. The first "alien" the rover encountered was a goddamnned supermodel with a golden lab's tail. The planet has 1 super continent and 2 moons, but you could say it was almost a carbon copy of Earth. Except for 1 mineral that exists nowhere else in the universe, Originium. It kicked Nuclear to the curb and jumpstarted the Quantum race. Shit was the new oil, but the old world didn't want to let go of their black gold. The 2nd War on Terror broke out. I was sent to Venezuela where the last Petrol Barons were holding out. I lost my legs and was discharged from the Corps. I joined for the travel, for the adventure. It was all over, until the RDA offered me to join the "Avatar" program. I heard they can put you in the skin of the Terrans. Sounded like a swell deal. Travel to a whole new planet, all expenses paid for, and I'd get complimentary cat ears. It was a dream to me.

But for Terra, the RDA became its worst nightmare.

"Hell's Gate" Command Center, Acahualla

"General, the radars picked up a large aircraft bearing for HQ." An officer manning a holographic display reported.

The General, with aged white hair, took a sip from his mug of coffee.

"Do we have a proper picture?"

"The bogey does not have IFF tags belonging to the RDA or Columbian Air Force, sir. Its cross-section resembles a tilt-rotor style aircraft."

A visual aid appeared on the officer's screen.

"A V-22 Osprey." He paused, as memories returned. "For a second, I'd believe our boys forgot to turn on their transponders. I want that bird grounded, and divert a patrol to investigate."

"Copy, sir!" The officer replied, then sounded the alarm. "Attention, Hell's Gate is under an air raid alert. Please stay clear of the surface-to-air missile site."

Just outside the HQ's gates was a massive clearing, where four 16-wheeler trucks began to erect towering launch tunes. Once they were upright, 2 missiles were unleashed from one of the trucks. They barreled off into the horizon, traveling several times the speed of sound. No escape.

Crash Site, Acahualla.

2 Samson Transports touched down at the location of the aircraft. Its hull had been scorched, and suspiciously, was missing both engines.

2 fireteams poured out from Samsons. Leading the troopers was a well-built, bald male, who swept his sights around every tree, rock, and fern.

He inspected the downed aircraft, then pulled out a PDA to report back. "Lieutenant Wainfleet. Aircraft has no identifying emblems or flags. No weapons, though it is likely they were destroyed in the crash."

"Dammit, then who sent the bird after us?" The frustrated voice on the other end cursed.

His cautious eyes drifted to the other side of the aircraft. Red designer sneakers.

"HANDS UP! SHOW YOURSELVES!" Wainfleet yelled. Each half of his troop swarmed the aircraft was opposite ends, slowly converging in on the perpetrator.

A young, college age girl with brown hair lay unconscious on the ground. Her clothing was modern compared to the Acahualla locals, being a white sweater worn loosely over shorts. She had a red and white band tied around 2 vulpine ears. A metallic staff lay clutched in her right hand.

"Is she supposed to be a fox or wolf?" One asked.

Meanwhile, Wainfleet contacted the General. "...Rhodes Island?" He noticed the blue "X" necklace and wristbands the girl wore. "Bring her in. I want to get to the bottom of her little field trip into this lovely jungle."

Wainfleet hoisted up the girl on his shoulder. "General, what should I do about the bands?" He spoke with his holographic PDA in the other ear.

"Homing beacons. Smash them, Lieutenant." The General replied.

Unquestioning, Wainfleet tore off the devices, drawing blood. The girl winced in pain, but remained unconscious for the flight back to Hell's Gate.

She too, yearned to travel. Her wish would be filled, in an ironic sense.

Chapter Text

The outer reaches of Terran airspace, from what I've heard from scientists, is covered in some sort of shell made from those black crystals. Thankfully, the Orginium hasn't interfered with our aircraft. Whenever we send a ship or drop pod down to their planet, it's as if we are smashing through a glass dome. I never witnessed this, as my transport had no windows. Not that I would like to be the lucky few on the ground who get to deal with raining shards of crystal, mind you.

The base, codenamed "Hell's Gate", we touched down in was one of several the RDA had in Terra. Ironically, the jungle we settled in was practically a paradise. The tropical, humid air was rather refreshing compared to the smog back home. Yeah, it was perfectly breathable without any exo-masks. The jungle was part of a larger nation called Sargon, which was mostly desert. Terra has large expanses of untouched wilderness, so we were free to do as we pleased. It was rather fishy why the natives haven't civilized most of the land. The true reason almost cost the entire planet in the end, but I'll save that for later. Even looking back, it still makes no damn sense.

Anyways, I was rolling on through the base to where SEC-OPS was holding orientation. Dump trucks, filled over the brim with black crystals, drove on past me to the bases refinery. This was where the Resource Development Association, or RDA, got most of its Originium. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Then, cutting off the fleet of haulers was a militarized truck carrying a telephone-pole sized missile. I stopped and gawked. It was a Russian air defense weapon. Did they have an entire setup here? Who in the hell were they shooting at?

"Jake Sullivan, keep pace!" The crew chief of the Valkyrie shuttle barked at me.

I fall back in. The thought of the missile never left my mind.

"Head in the clouds, meal on wheels?" One of the guys behind me snickered.

"Just admiring the fireworks." I shot back.

The batch I was in, the next round of SEC-OPs personnel, were briefed the situation before we took off for Terra. Our garrison was in Acahualla, a place similar to the Amazon before it was chopped down. It of course, still has all the vicious wildlife you can expect. There was a short mention of the native tribes of Acahualla, but they live far out of the way. A non issue.

That was what was bugging me about the SAM site. Hell's Gate was supposed to be the stronghold of sorts, guarding the largest surface operation of Originium extraction, but against who? Guys chucking spears at our gunships? You shoot at an animal with one of those missiles, and there will be nothing left.

Anyways, I rolled into canteen, where the head of SEC-OPs was holding orientation.

"You're not in Kansas anymore. You're on Terra now. That there, beyond the fence, every living thing that crawls, flies, or lurks in the mud, wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees. There are an indigenous group of humanoids we collectively call the Terrans. To be frank, they are quite similar to us. Just try to image yourself with your animal ear of choice, and you have a good idea. In our case, the locals resemble bipedal crocodilians. For any prospecting gator tamers with us, don't bother. Even their ladies can smash your skull in. Some of these Terrans are capable of what can only be described as magic, and can slice through our kevlar like it's tissue paper. Thing is, since they come in so many shapes and sizes, you often can't tell if they can use this magic until you are burnt to a crisp."

Later on, I figured out that this "magic" was called Arts by the locals. All Terrans, from what I've heard, have an innate ability to manipulate the surroundings through Originium. The details are complicated, but we quickly figured out that they were bending things on a quantum level. We had been doing the same with the crystals long before we discovered intelligent life. Quantum fiber optics, quantum anti-matter reactors, quantum this, quantum that. Regardless, it's magic in my book. For the most part in Acahualla, they simply shot superheated plasma at us through the power of Originium. I found out shortly that they were capable of more. Much more.

"As head of security, it's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed, not without all of you. If you wish to survive, you need to cultivate a strong mental attitude. You need to follow the rules. Terra's rules..."

He never brought up SAM site. It would be more understandable if there was a hostile Air Force, but as it was blasted on the news since the discovery of a lifetime, Terra's aviation is... stunted. There are no airports, no space shuttles, and the only nation known to fly combat jets uses stuff far behind Earth's 6th generation craft. This is all because of the "Dome", an inexplicable barrier 7000 km in the air that shorts out Terran machinery at even lower altitudes. Now that's what I'd call a hard ceiling. It has no effect on Earth tech, and the Valkyries have been designed with the "Dome" in mind. The RDA has had air superiority over the entire planet since day one.

Then who do they fear?

I rolled out of the cafeteria. Forgot that I was still part of the SCI-OP's Avatar program. They lumped me in with the rest of the security recruits because of my background, but I'm pretty sure I was the only soldier among them. Hardly any of them were soldiers or police officers. Mostly game hunters or private contractors.

So while everyone else was reported to their dorms, I was due at the base's Biolab. I was cruising on through, then trouble found me.

"What is that girl doing on your shoulder, skinhead?"

A middle-aged woman was chewing out a bunch of SEC-OPs guys in the hallway. The lead guy held with him a youngish woman. White jacket, stylish sneakers, red bandana. There was no way she came from jungle, er, lived in the jungle. She wasn't even a part reptile.

She had two fox ears lying down on her head.

"We found her in the crash. Quaritch wants her in the interrogation room."

"Oh, the air raid? You mean the civilians you shot down..." Her eyes drifted to the girl's wrists. They were bleeding. "Seriously? Open wounds will get you infected here!"

"Step aside, Augustine." The SEC-OPs guy tried to move around Ms Augustine, but she got into the girls pockets a pulled out an ID.

"Angelina Ajimu. Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals." Her eyes went wide. "My god." She wiped a tear. "She was just trying to help the Acahullans... after we poisoned them all!"

The SEC-OPs jock wasn't taking it. "I've had enough of your shit, treehugger."

The rest of his boys grabbed the Doctor and forced her out of the way. It was just like the bar. I had to...

"At ease, Lyre."

The General had calmly approached during the ruckus. He had a cup of warm coffee with him. Lyre and his men released Augustine shortly. One of the troopers fixed her hair.

"Quaritch! You..." Grace started.

"I'll yet you have custody of our guest. Make sure she is in the right mind before I begin questioning." He replied. "Biolab, Lieutenant! Asap!"

"Sir!" Lyre saluted, before hauling off the fox eared girl.

Grace followed behind them, but not before giving me the side eye. "Don't muck up things any further, skinhead."

She left, leaving only me and the General. "Nevermind our head xenoanthropologist, Grace Augustine." He said, hand on my shoulder. "She's had her panties in a twist over how I run things here. She wants to bring love and kisses to the operation, but I bring results."

"Like that SAM site." I replied.

"The SA-10, Sullivan. It's an Old Soviet rustbucket, alright. Saved all of us from being bombed to kingdom come."

"...So about Angelina. You think her organization is a cover story?" I ask.

"Good! You're sharper than the rest of your peers!" He laughed, slapping my back. "I believe we will get along just fine, Jake Sullivan. Now, go off and help with Grace's pet project. Remember your roots. Dismissed."

I strolled off for the Biolab, seemingly with a new friend in tow.

The Vulpine woman awoke, screaming. Her immediate surroundings was a medical bed and an IV. She gradually eased her breathing and checked her wrists.

They were covered in bandages.

"W-Where's my monitors..." She spoke. "My Oripathy monitors! Doctor...!"

It was not the doctor Angelina expected. Instead, she was met with a sweet faced woman with auburn hair, who bent down to her level. The next person was a man in a wheelchair, observing intently. Another group of men watched from further away, wearing green combat fatigues.

Neither of them had any obvious animal parts. "Maybe they are Aegiran, like Thorns!" Angelina rationalized in her head. Yeah, that would make sense...

She then saw "it". An Anchrosaurian male floating in a giant test tube.

"EEEEP!" She shrieked. "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!?"

Angelina tried to use her Arts, but a sharp, stabbing pain emanated from her hands. She fell back into her bed, eyes welling up with tears.

"What's going on?" The wheelchair bound man asked, desperately "Why is she in pain? Is she ok?"

"Oripathy." The doctor spoke gravely. "The crystals are in her bloodstream. If she uses her Arts, the disease progresses."

"Meds, stat!" She called out. A lab assistant quickly handed off pills to the woman, who then offered them to Angelina.

"Take them. It will help." She spoke softly.

Angelina gulped them down without a second thought. Her symptoms relaxed.

"This medicine is very similar to the kind Rhodes Island makes..." She responded. "Thank you very much!"

"Talk about a complete 180." The wheelchair man commented.

"So, are you folk rivals to Rhodes Island?" She asked innocently. The doctor and wheelchair man gave her dumbfounded looks. "Either way, I came to deliver a very important message to your leader." Her friendly smile disappeared. "A Catastrophe will strike Acahualla by the end of the day."

Chapter Text

Talk about whiplash.

There was one not-so insignificant downside to the Originium revolution. As the press put it, Originium is the "ultimate assimilator", despite being a crystal. Any form of organic matter that makes contact with even a shard of is transformed into more Originium. You'd think humanity hit the jackpot twice. We had found gold that self-replicates.

We also found out that the self-replicating bit applied to humans, too.

The media said that Originium had been contained on Earth and any potential of an outbreak was an impossibility. At the local bar, I noticed a fellow who would always sit by himself. Didn't appear to have any symptons. On day when I was leaving, I saw a ring of these black crystals around his neck. He wore a bandana, but today, it was loose. He started coughing up blood. I called 9/11, and along with the paramedics, came a SWAT team and men in suits. They threw everyone out and closed the bar's doors for 3 weeks.

It was still going around on Earth. Rumors said that the government opened up a new Area 51 for Oripathy infectees. It's safe to assume that if you get caught with it, you're dead. By the government's hands, or an illness with a 100% mortality rate.

Which was why this bubbly, fox eared girl started to earn my respect. She didn't let Oripathy bring her down and learned to live with it.

What the hell was I doing to myself on Earth?

"A Catastrophe will strike Acahualla at the end of the day."

Angelica grew more stern, suddenly. I knew what she was talking about. Terra's Originum can supercharge natural disasters. Earthquakes, heatwaves, a F9 an't got nothing on the storms Meterologists documented. It's the reason why the RDA held back on colonization plans for the time being. Not until the terraforming technology was ready.

Anyways, Oh Shit. It was my first day here, and I was about to get whacked by one of these killer storms.

"That's what I've been trying to get through to him." Grace sighed. "Selfridge won't pull out until his pockets are full of Originium."

Angelina placed her hand under her mouth. "It might be too late, depending on your operations scale. Us Catastrophe messengers usually deliver the warning a week in advance." She looked Grace straight in the eyes. "How badly do you need the Originium?"

Grace reeled back, unsure of an answer. Lyre moved in and put a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll take it from here." He spoke concisely.

He handcuffed Angelina, raised her out of bed, and escorted her out of the biolab.

"How come you have no horns or tails? And why are you growing people inside test tubes?" She inquired.

"The General is the only one that should be asking, girl." He spoke back. The rest of their conversation faded into the distance.

Grace turned to face me, with a look of disappointment.

"They don't have 2 mouths. They don't hunt us for sport. For Christ's sake, she- Angelina is human, like us. Terra has as much right to independence as you crayon chewers. Imagine all the bridges we would've built, knowing that we aren't alone out there. Corporate just wants to turn this planet into another cesspool. We never learn."

She angrily strided out into the hallway. "Meet me in the link room. Oh, and I saw you checking her out, Sully."

My face went red.

Angelina was quickly driven to a cramped room. Forcefully sat down, the guards made their leave. The room dimly lit with an ominous blue glow, and sitting across from Angelina was an aging man with the same uniform as the guards. His face was stone, not betraying any emotions. A deep scar belonging to a clawed beast ran on the right side of his head, stopping short of his eye.

Angelina looked around frantically. The guards were likely still outside, waiting for her to make a stupid move.

"Stay still. Just give the man what he wants." She wished, calming herself down. "Either way, Gavial and her friends will be here in a jiffy once they realize I'm gone!"

The man began his spiel. "I am the head officer of security within this base, Miles detected you in a large, low-altitude aircraft on a direct course for a mining operation run by the Columbian Union. As such, we have established a no-fly zone over the entire Acahualla region. What is the purpose of your flight?"

"He speaks Columbian, but sure doesn't look like one." Angelina pondered. "I-I was with Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals. One of their Doctors, no, two actually! Doctor Gavial is on her vacation, so she came down to Acahualla to visit family. Rhodes Island's top Doctor came along for the ride too so we can test out an experimental aircraft."

"Did this aircraft have any weapons?" Quaritch asked.

"None. It is strictly for transport. Don't see any reason to put weapons on anything larger than a drone. We'd get in hot water with Columbia real fast!"

"And what is your purpose for being here?" He followed up.

"Oh? I'm a Catastrophe Messenger. The landship picked up a build up of Originium in the atmosphere, so I offered to come along. If I'd remember correctly, we were going to fly directly towards its epicenter before you shot us down."

"Who else was with you?"

"Doctor Gavial, Doctor... I don't really know his name. Then there's Ceobe, Elysium, and Blaze. They all wanted to go swimming."

"And what about yourself? Are you capable of Originium Arts?"

"Oh, yes, gravity manipulation! I can make things a tad bit lighter or heavier, but I'm still a novice!"

Quaritch raised an eyebrow, his face brightening up a bit. Agnelina's eyes drifted to a CCTV camera that swiveled in her direction.

"Uh oh." She begun to sweat, in panic. "Why are they so intrigued about my gravity Arts?"

Quaritch's face hardened up again. "Listen up, girl, and listen close."

Angelina slided her seat closer to the man.

"We will be sending out our pioneers for an expedition shortly. Join them on their safari and find your friends. Afterwards, I don't want to hear another peep from you Rhodes Island folk in my jungle. Make yourselves scarce. Disappear."

The Vulpo's ears shot up in glee. "I'm free to go?"

Quaritch pulled out a radio. "Lyre, get her out of here."

The guards moves back into the interrogation room and escorted Angelina from its premises. Quaricth left after them, through his side. In an urgent pace, he met up with the man who was matching from behind the CCTV camera at Hell's Gate's HQ building.

"Parker, it's the damn storm. It drew those good samaritans to our operation." He reported.

The man was in perfect business attire, with a luxurious watch and black-white striped tie. He put his hand down on the table.

"It's least of our issues, Miles. Not only are we this close to missing the quota, because those lazy dinosaurs aren't doing their share..." He pinched with his free hand. "But Rhodes Island is sniffing around. Sooner or later, they will figure out the truth, and then..." The man snarled, placing a hand on his forehead. "What did you do with the girl?"

"I let her go. She knows the truth, Parker."

Parker's eyes went wide, furious. "If I had some of that coffee you're always chugging, I would've spit it in your face."

"Rhodes Island cannot act on this knowledge. The moment they breach the perimeter, the Dragon is coming in to blast them. If the greater organization tries to confront our Columbian allies, Maylander will take 'em out. If they cause trouble to the RDA anywhere else on this rock, they will be scared straight by our air superiority platforms."

"I'm going to have on helluva time explaining to the UN why we are blowing up hospitals with their jets." He facepalmed. "Miles, we are suppose to be preventative, not reactive! Why didn't you detain the damn girl elsewhere..."

"They would've come across our operations soon enough. As I recall, we were preparing to provide support to some Reunion Movement, and our friends in Ursus told us of Rhodes Island wiping them out in 2 weeks. They would've busted up that arms trade like the SEALS. We have other highly mission critical operations running. Overthrowing the Yanese with the help of gods, disabling the Sarkaz's weather weapon, the subterranean super excavators, and Project Cerberus."

Parker loosened up, almost beginning to understand the General's logic. "The Project... Her magic controls gravity. Why did you release her, when the project demands..."

"She's a novice, Parker. There's enough of those bright-eyed pansies in the SCI-OPs division already." He responded dryly. "Cerberus is the only thing between you and your riches. Would you want the first thing Rhodes Island finding about us is THAT project, Parker?"

The shrewd man gulped, and checked his watch. "Um, no."

"Then shut the hell up and let me do my job."

The room, once full of ambient chatter, went to silence. The General slammed the HQ building's doors on the way out. It's massive satellite dish dwarfed him in size.

"The girl took the bait. Now I can rid Rhodes Island from our hair. Permanently." He smiled, the dry muscles on his mouth strained.

The Link Chairs were how the drivers connect with the Avatar, but they were more like an MRI machine in appearance. They opened from the top, and I once again internally cursed at my useless legs. I heaved myself in, Grace closes the machine, and just like that, I was on the other side.

Opening my eyes, I was immediately blinded by two techs shining a flashlight in my eyes. Off to a good start, eh?

"Take it slow, Jake." Max, one of Grace's assistants, warned me through the intercom. "We need to check your motor control. Try touching your fingertips together..."

I was more concerned about my legs. The Avatar wasn't a bodybuilder by any means, but they looked far stronger than the noodles I was stuck with as a human. I move them around a bit, but there was a small bit of me who still believed that this was too good to be true.

They were kinda wobbly when I touched the concrete. Almost as if I was taking the first steps again. The tail made things even more awkward, unconsciously smashing a table with very expensive instruments as I spin. Thankfully, it doesn't take me long to get a handle on the controls.

"Easy, Jake, I need you to sit down..."

I wasn't having any of this. Ripping off the IV wires, I bolted out of the compound. Outside, the air feels less alien with my reptilian nostrils. What else can I say? It just felt that damn good getting my legs back.

I stop by the garden, which was growing some mushrooms. Really huge mushrooms. Everything seems to be bigger on this planet. I give it a whif out of curiosity. Earthly, like dirt. This place even smells good!

"Hey marine!"

Grace's Avatar was the same species as mine, but she opted for a more youthful body. She seemed less stuck up and more alive, too.

"Grace?"

"Well, who did you expect, numbbots? Think fast!"

She chucks one of the mushrooms at me. I catch it easily, and give her a confused look.

"What, you think I'm trying to poison you?" She laughed. "That species is safe for human and terran consumption. Some of the fungi in this jungle does have incredibly potent hallucinogenics. One bite will knock you out for at least a week."

I give her another dumbfounded look, and Grace sighed. This place felt amazing, but I wasn't quite comfortable foraging yet.

"Fine, have it your way. Motor control is looking good."

We later met up infront of a Samson transport for our first sortie. Hopefully not our last, because of the incoming Catastrophe. Grace was ignoring me at the moment, briefing up one of the new guys on the Avatar team, Norm. I was new, obviously, but Grace didn't care.

"...That son of a bitch has screwed up this program enough. All this exists so that we can go out there and build a bridge of trust with these people, who can teach us so much. But thanks to Quaritch and his thugs murdering any Terran who passes by to 'maintain security', an honest relationship with the tribes is now impossible. Far too many skeletons in our closet at this point."

"Then how's this supposed to work?" I ask.

She gave me the side-eye. "We have a new face. You're fluent, you've studied the culture. You're non-threatening. Each of the four tribes are made up of the local races, Archosaur, Liberi, and Pythia. Things are looking stable with the Euncetes Tribe and the Committee. They went head over heels when we started exchanging extra equipment. They handle everything beyond the perimeter and take a cut of raw Originium in return."

"If the trade is still running smooth, then it's problem solved! Eh?" Norm raised his brow when Grace responded with a sigh. For once, I didn't smell cigarette smoke coming from her lips.

"Too smoothly. It's all about the Originium in the end, and it doesn't matter how many Sargonians they infect. The Enucete's tribe isn't what we have to worry about, it's the rowdy boys, Wildness Will. Dangling keys infront of them hasn't worked so far, and you know what happened on the outer perimeter. Things would've gone tits up immediately if today wasn't time to chose the next chief. And on top of this, a Catastrophe is due. We have a day, a single day, to make things right."

Norm's optimistic smile faded. "This is failing as a pep talk."

At the time, I thought Angelina was just a good impression. The guys in the jungle, the ones with croc jaws, where probaly as mean as the ones you'd find in the States. And they knew magic, too. The fact that any one of the natives could vaporize us with their magic was more than enough reason to subdue them lethally.

"How do we contact them?" I ask again.

"We don't. They contact us. If they see taking samples, treating the forest with respect-" She leers at me. "And not trampling everything in sight, they may begin to trust us..."

Lyre and his squad marched up the the chopper, with Angelina in tow. She now had some kind of staff with her.

"Oh, hello, Doctor Grace!" She waved at first. Once she got a good look of our new bodies, she seemed alittle concerned. "When did you get in those? And why does Doctor Grace look 30 years younger?"

"Uh, Doctor, that is not an Archosaurian." Norm pointed at Angelina. A vein bulged from Grace's forehead.

"No, I'm a Vulpo!" She corrected, waving the ears. "I guess you lot are... bodysnatchers? From one of Nian's films!"

"In rudimentary terms, yes." She replied curtly.

"Oh wow! This is feeling like a movie!" She jumped up and down like a child.

"What's her deal?" Norm asked Grace in her ear.

"There was another incident before you landed here. Stupid bastard shot down an aircraft belong to Rhodes Island."

"You mean, the hospital on the go? Jesus." He shook his head.

"SEC-OPs found only her at the crash site, but Angelina believes the rest of her friends are still alive. Our 2nd objective is to find them."

"Assuming the wildlife or tribes didn't jump them first." I had inserted myself between the two.

"That's your job, Sulivan." Grace said passive-aggressively, slinking out of the headlock with Norm. "Making sure the animals don't get between us and the Acahuallans."

"Animals?" Angelina questioned, overhearing us. "Gavial never talked about dangerous critters here..."

Her eyes drifted over to the Samson, caught on its armaments.

"Sankta Autorifles? Where did you get those from?"

Chapter Text

Flying through the skyline of Acahualla was pretty damn amazing. There were huge trees stretching put farther than the eye can see.. The doors were left open for the mounted machine guns, allowing the pristine breeze to tickle my nostrils. Man, this was the kind of shit that makes you join the marines. Soaring high, the craziest guys dangling out the doors with machine guns, it was like an adventure. I had thought those days were behind me, but I was know reliving them. In an alien's skin.

Angelina also appeared to enjoy herself. She was sitting at by myside, close to one of the gunners.

"I wish the Doctor's aircraft had these sliding doors." She spoke as the wind blew away at her jacket. "You can see everything below yourself like a fowlbeast."

I assumed that's what they call "birds" on this planet. Grace was distracted with the other Avatars, so I had a chance to chat with the girl. "You're a bold type." I say. "Not really the kind of person who would be in a hospital."

She sat back down. "Oh, I'm not with the medical department! If we happen to be around a settlement where a Catastrophe will strike, I send them a heads up. Courier work on the side helps pay the bills too!"

"Alright, Delivery girl." I tease a bit. She chuckles lightly. "But shouldn't there be some kind of... early warning system in place to warn against Catastrophes?"

Angelina gives me a confused look. "Yes, they do exist. What's your point?"

"You send these messages in person, right?" She nodded. "There's no way to push out these messages globally?"

"Globally?" She awkwardly rubbed one of her ears. "I'd be out of a job if that was possible. Originium interferes with long distance communications."

"No Internet?" I respond.

"Is it a thing from your planet?" She asked, intrigued. "Wait a sec. Are you saying Originium... doesn't exist where you come from?"

She was practically staring into my soul.

"Well," I cleared my throat. "It wasn't on our radar until recently. Some crazy ass scientists took a shot in the dark, and found an asteroid with weird black crystals."

"A world without Originium..." She pondered, looking up at the Samson's ceiling. "I've hit the beaches of Siesta, roamed the neon streets of Kazimierz, but I can't say I've been to a place free from Originium..." She slid closer to me.

"What's your name? I-I mean, your real one, not the one of your disguise."

"Jake Sullivan."

"Jake..."

The hell? Is she-

"Iwanttoseeyourplanet!"

Angelina closed her eyes and shouted aloud. Loud enough for all the occupants of the aircraft to hear. Lyre and his men could hardly hold back their jeering. Grace looked like someone swiped her favorite 12-pack.

The fox eared girls entire face turned beet red. She squeaked, turning away from me. I did the same. Thankfully, ETA for the dropsite was just a few hours..

We touched down. While everyone filed out, I noticed that Lyre's troopers cleaned out the Samson's armory. The only weapon left was a crossbow.

"Place has enough idiots with guns already." Grace cursed. "The locals think we are Colombians. We speak like them, so we also have to look the part. Colombia doesn't have a gun behind every blade of grass, so crossbows will raise less suspicion."

I grabbed the crossbow. The weight distribution was all wrong. You'd form an intimate relationship with your rifle in the Corps. No self respecting Marine would use anything that doesn't involve gunpowder for combat. Well, the crossbow had a larger draw size than what you'd find in a store. It has a fair good chance to down the freakish animals I heard about before arriving in Acahualla.

SEC-OPs stayed behind to guard the Samson. I, Angelina, and the other Avatars moved out into the jungle. The scientists did their thing, while I sorta stood there.

"I get the feeling that lady really cares about this place." Angelina mentioned while observing her work.

"Plenty just like her back home." I responded offhandedly.

"You mean, people who care about the environment?" She asked, perked up. But then she sobered down. "A world without Originium sounds like heaven. I've seen what it did to Terra during my travels. Wastelands, gaping ravines, great crystal spires... And that's not even mentioning how mobile cities flatten everything like pancakes. There's just nothing really left to care about, outside these beautiful pockets..."

She sagged her head.

"But there's the countless people you save with your messages, right?" I said. She lifted up her spirits.

"That's it, girl! I was part of the military back home. The motto was 'Always Faithful'. You stick up for your beliefs and fight to the bitter end, no matter how dark it gets. We make sure for those who can't fight, they go to sleep soundly each and every night."

"You fight for the dawn? That's Rhodes Island's slogan!" She exclaimed.

"Well, I guess you're in good hands." I reply.

Weird slogan for a pharmaceutical company. Anyways, our picturesque jungle cruise was brought to close when I ran into the fabled "Panther from Hell." The six-legged, Feline fiend was perched up on a branch. It had a "mane" with long tendrils standing up like irritated hair. It's eyes were beady, but it drew more attention to the Beasts jaws; beaklike, and with razor sharp teeth.

"Thanator." Grace gasped hoarsly harshly.

The rest was a blur. You could say it was adrenaline, the training, or me not wanting that cat to eat the scientists. I got off one shot before it pounced me. The bolt landed, the thing was bleeding, and pissed. We both went over the waterfall. I landed safely, and the Thanator fell to its death.

Huh?

I came to my feet and stared up the waterfall. No way I could have survived that. The cat was next to me, knocked out cold. It was bleeding profusely, painting the basin red. A couple of its legs were snapped. Why didn't the Thanator survive?

"Up here, Sullivan."

My angel came down from above.

She was casually sitting on her staff, kicking out her legs, as if it were not defying several laws of psychics at once.

"Bonafide magic. Sweet Jesus." I figured out why gravity suddenly became more selective.

This was my first taste of Originium Arts. The underlying concepts are understood enough for Earth to create megaprojects. I heard from the news that the eggheads were trying to manipulate gravity. Angelina could do all that by herself.

"Jake!" She gasped. "You're hurt!"

I look down at my shirt. My t-shirt was in tatters. The cat left a few parting gifts. I could walk it off.

Angelina's wrist and angles were bleeding.

She nearly fainted, and lost her balance. I rushed to her side.

"It's flaring up. My Oripathy." She whimpers.

"Can you stand?"

Angelina hoisted herself up, using her staff as a walking stick. She wiped her forehead.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She removed her jacket and wrung it out. "This was my favorite one! Had it designed in Siracusa."

Without the coat, her womanly figure was more obvious. I now noticed that she was wearing sports shorts that exposed a general amount of legging...

Dammit! Why do they have to be so cute...

"SULLIVAN!" A familiar voice from above screeched down from above.

It was Grace.

"Frosty! Angelina's cool, too!" I shout back.

Grace didn't reply immediately. She was thanking God that an Avatar and an employee from an external corportion didn't die on her watch.

"FOLLOW THE STREAM!" She followed up. "IT WILL LEAD YOU TO THE CAMP!"

By camp, she meant I'd be walking into the den of those crocodile men. My crossbow was smashed up in the fight. I would be completely defensless.

"Oh, right, the Great Chief Festival!" Angelina exclaimed. "Dr Gavial used to be part of one of Acahualla's tribes. She was invited to compete in their little competition." She looked down at her wrists. "I hope she brought spare monitors."

I hope her friend isn't with the Wilderness tribe.

Breaking through the underbrush, we stumbled into a massive clearing. An ancient temple was the centerpiece, attached to a stone stage. A miniature gladiator arena. Kinda impressed that these crocs did all that by themselves, even though the RDA had a hand. Floodlights surrounded the arena. Chainsaws were left by trees marked for felling. A paved, 2 lane road leading out to the jungle. Modern facilities. I think I saw a tribesperson walk out one of those buildings with a burger.

The Acahuallans were modernizing. A thought crept in my mind. Where they all willing to go through with this, or some stragglers wanted to cling to tradition?

I heard a loud explosion. Angelina flinched from her prone position.

A chunk of the temple was blasted away.

And the crowd was cheering.

Site 051, Colombian Union

Within desolate barrenlands of the Union, far away from any prying eyes, was a a laboratory with minimalistic architecture. It's polished, chrome walls reflected the rays cast from the relentless sun. On the surface, the building appeared to be one of many run by Rhine Labs, Coloumbia's premiere research institution. The pioneers, the Colombian's responsible for developing these mostly untouched lands, were unusually absent. The nature of the site meant that it's construction could not be handled by government drones. Only those at the very top knew what was really going.

A long, black strip of land was covered in pavement, sectioned off into lanes with white paint. Hanger bays opened up directly to the tarmac. The entire perimeter of Site 052 was surrounded by SA-10 launch vehicles. These weapons were completely alien to Terra. Wherever the trucks erected their great pillars, the skies would be safe for 300 kilometers. Colombia could not develop them on its own, not without the help of outside assistance.

Likewise, the RDA would never be able to have its sandbox for SEC-OPs R&D without "Terran Zero". The first intelligent life form discovered beyond Earth.

She decided to witness one of the tests in person. The Star People's current project was a missle capable of flying 12 times the speed of sound. Today was their live test. Breaking the sound barrier was possible for Colombian jets, but they couldn't fly much faster afterwards. Fuel economy was another factor limiting their range. The Star People were not bound by these restrictions! Combined with their optimized airframes, the missiles had enough effect reach to strike a warship sized target from the site to Victoria. She didn't care about the implications such a weapon would have on the political scene.

All that mattered was that her dream was proven true from the moment she met the rover. Since then, Rhine Labs has been donating sites to Colombia's secret benefactor. They could do as they please as long as their weapons never aimed at Colombia. She signed off every lab they asked for, no questions. She didn't have the clearest idea about every Site the RDA controlled. Was there something about "Durin" technology in the documents?

She had no idea what the aliens were doing to Terra.

A catastrophic explosion erupts in the distance. From the ATC Tower, she saw an old warship the government loaned to the Site erupt into a fireball. Once the smoke cleared away, a hull was left behind. Activity started to buzz behind her. Two controllers gave each hi-fives.

Her eyes were glued to the warship's remains. This was Terra's future. It was the tomorrow she had created.

She put on a smile. "Nice job, everyone! Keep up the work, and we will bring this world into a new age!"

The employees gave her a round of applause as she took her leave through the elevator.

Kristen sighed, staring up at the ceiling during her descent. "Once Project Cerberus is complete, I will finally be able to leave this wretched place. Goodnight, Terra."

Chapter Text

"What's going on down there!?"

Angelina turned her head to face me. It was the first time Ive seen her distressed.

"Festival... They were supposed to be throwing a festival." I recited what I knew from when Grace was explaining the situation to Norm. She was fearing that the people of Acahualla would turn against the RDA, that they'd eat us alive.

It was now apparent that they turned on themselves.

"Oh no, Gavial said they were throwing a party in her honor!" Angelina lifted herself up. "We gotta hurry!"

Gavial. She's probably one of Angelina's coworkers in Rhodes Island. This would be my first chance to meet them in person, assuming Gavial is even intact. But who knows? Maybe they were no different than the greedy bastards on Earth. Angelina put on a good first impression, though.

Its safe to say that at this point, a friend of hers is a friend of mine.

We left our hiding spot and ran over to the festival. Bad idea, as a whole crowd of crocodile people nearly stomped us into the ground.

Angelina and I dove for cover. They noticed us, but they didn't care. I peeked to get a better look. Quaritch was right, most of them are literally crocodile men. The claws, the jaws, and most of them had very sharp spears. I would not want get into a wrestling match with them anytime soon.

The ladies, on the other hand, were a different story. They were far more human in appearance, with the only scaly bits being their reptilian tails. Ears were sharp like an elf too. You wouldn't think they were even the same race of the males, but the girls had the same tails. A few had thinner, more snakey tails.

It then hit me. How was I supposed blend in if the native men are absolute hulks? Thankfully, they were too busy celebrating to come over and kick my ass.

In the center of the parade was some tracked vehicle that stomped along with the Archosaurians. One hand was a buzzsaw, and the other was a cannon, still smoking. Up top in the cabin was a snake girl manning the machine. Her eyes met mine.

"Shit." I muttered under my breath.

She sighed, then pretended to ignore me as the crowd's chanting grew.

"Euncetes! Euncetes!"

They eventually rolled out deeper into the jungle on the paved road.

Euncetes. I recalled that Grace said that they were the "stable" bunch. Guess I dropped in at the perfect time, huh?

"I never seen a machine like that one." Angelina told me.

"A metal dinosaur?" I said.

"A what-saur? I'm pretty sure that the proper name is archosaur." Angelina responded, confused.

Whoops. You know, for all the similarities between Terra and Earth, there's still plenty of differences. The glass dome in the sky, for one. And now I was talking to someone who had no clue what the dinosaurs are, let alone watched Jurassic Park.

Prehistory. Who was on Terra before its "humans" rose up? They didn't cover that part in the media, and for good reason...

Right now, Angelina was staring at me like I had 2 pairs of eyes. "Maybe that's what you call 'em back home, but Gavial needs our help! I can't imagine her walking off from a cannon shot..."

She picked up herself and ran for the temple, or more precisely, the ruins. I followed.

The very top of the pyramid had been blasted off. A slim, green haired woman layed unconscious next to a cracked portion of the wall. She only had a couple bruises and cuts, nothing too deep.

"Gavial!" Angelina and another voice yelled out her name, belonging to a female archosaur. Small, stout, short grey hair, but she had a huge tail that would put a saltwater crocodile to shame. Damn wonder that she can even run with that thing between her legs.

Both of them tended to Gavial. I moved in.

"Not another step!"

I could feel a scaly hand on my shoulder. It's a crocman, and he's somehow even huger than the ones in the parade. Armored plates completely covered his jaw.

His reptilian eyes stared back into mine. "You Columbians may have tricked the Enucetes tribe, but we know what happened to our brothers and sisters."

I tried to put some distance between the Archosaurian, but his hand slid over to my neck. He was choking me out.

"Gavial wasn't around to give y'all a proper thrashing. By her will, I will take your live."

This was it. My experience on Terra was shortlived, but the place held a kind of beauty you cant find on Earth. I met the sweetest girl in my life. Most of all, I got my legs back. Everything here on Terra... nearly made up for those dark days after the war.

And now, the curtains fell once more.

"Yo, what's gotten into you guys? Let him go!"

The croc released me. First move was to grab my gun and point it at my former captor. No funny moves. Armor didn't look too thick from the head down.

He glanced back and forth between me and someone else coming behind me.

"Hey. He's with me. You can put the crossbow down. Not that a toothpick would scratch one of our champions!"

She was the woman who got KO'd by a cannon, just casually walking up to us. I wasn't going to let go of my guard for a second.

"Tell him to back off first." I say.

"Why, you-" He snarled, but it took one look from Gavial to silence him.

"Alright, I know these Columbian types can be hard to deal with, but that's not how we treat outsiders." She crossed her arms.

I put down my crossbow. Grace said something about an "incident" around the base's perimeter, and now I was beginning to put it together. Hell's Gate has a shoot-on-sight policy for anything that gets past the fences. This was reasonable enough considering the vicious wildlife, including that panther from hell. It was never specified if the policy applied to the locals, however. Hell's Gate was so out of the way from their settlement, that you'd have a better chance striking gold than finding the HQ. It was all pointing to SEC-OPs killing the trespassers, but a few things not adding up.

The grey-haired shortstack pulled on the Archosaurian's tail. "No! You weren't supposed to show up just yet..." She spoke the later part in a hushed voice.

"Tomini, I heard that!" Gavial shouted, causing the girl to shudder. She nodded to her metalheaded tribesmate, came to an unspoken agreement. He turned tail for the underbrush, and that was the last I saw of that brute. For now.

"Sully!" Angelina grasped my shoulders. I could smell the adrenaline off her breath.

Gavial raised an eyebrow. "Uh, you know this guy, Angelina?"

Blood rushed to her cheeks. "No no no, not like that!" She brushed herself away from me, and started to explain our situation.

For a moment, I believed that Angelina would let the cat out of the bag. She was knocked out when i first saw her. If Quaritch wanted to keep the facade, an Avatar had to interrogate her. Spend too much time with an actual human and the answer become too obvious. She couldn't know the truth unless she trusted what I said before we flew outbof Hell's Gate. I was banking on that.

Espcially since some hooded guy in a labcoat made himself known to us.

"Oh, hey Doctor!" She said. "This is Jake Sullivan. He's part of the security team of a Columbian Pioneer site in Acahualla."

The hooded man casted a brief glance at me. It was impossible to know what was going on behind that visor.

"Columbia? What business do they have in Sargon?" He asked in a muffled, low voice.

"Yeah, Doctor. Ever since Originium overran the mines, there's not really anything those kind of people would find valuable here. But there is aleast one gem in rough..." Gavial teased Tomini's forehead with her fist.

"Grr, stop it, Gavial!" She cried.

"It is the Originium that they want, I believe." Angelina continued. "No other nation is willing to crack at the mines because Acahualla is simply too remote. If you solve that problem, all the Originium here is yours."

"No problem for Columbian innovation, I'll tell you." Gavial replied. "They must've dropped in while I was gone. See plenty improvements already to the festival grounds! I hope they're minding their own business with the mining." Her mood soured. "Tomini, what was that Tiacuah saying about Zumama? And our family?"

The thick-tailed Archosaurian gulped. "W-Well, some of Wilderness Will went missing in the deep part of the jungle. Then rumors starting spreading about the Pioneers... killing them."

Gavial froze. "What!?"

"But it's not true!" Tomini furiously shook her head. "Because... Because..."

Dr Grace and her crew came storming out of the jungle. She was completely winded, but the sight of me safe and sound renewed her vigor.

"Miss Grace! Miss Grace!"

Tomini ran into her arms like a puppy. The sheer weight of her tail threatened to yank Grace of her feet, but she regained her balance.

"Aww, sweetie..." Dr Augustine cooed.

"I know you didn't do it. You couldn't have." Tomimi cried.

I guessed that while Gavial was out working for Rhodes Island, the RDA established itself within that frame. That'd explain why Tomimi was close to Grace, and why Gavial had no clue what was going on in her neck of the woods. She seemed to be taking it... fine? She was ready to kill, premubly me, when her little friend first broke the news. Now Gavial just looked annoyed.

"Runt can't make up her mind. Are we dealing with good guys are bad guys? Urg, this was what I was getting away from going down her. Acahualla's rules are way more simple than the outside world." She groaned. "Hey, Mr Sully? Know anything?"

"I was just transfered over. I wasn't there for whatever happened." I say. Gavial sighed, and left to talk to the 'Doctor'.

"I'm not losing anymore hair over my vacation. Let's find the others and..."

Coughing. Archosaurian male. Tattoos wee different from Gavial's tribe. He was with the snake people, despite being a crocodile.

Blood came up. Was this a coincidence? This was eerily similar to the bar raid...

The black crystals were on his back. He was infected with Oripathy.

And Gavial was furious.

Trimountis, Columbia

Within the President's office, the Union's top official was in the midst of a diplomatic talk. Evey race on Terra called Columbia home one way or another, and all the foteign business granted the government connections to almost all corners of world. Some connections were more... clandestine in nature.

The party on the other end of the President's line was even more so. The Vice President, a middle aged Liberi male, excused himself, knowing the nature.

This left a short, plump fowlbeast in the office, who picked up the phone with its surprisingly dexterous hands.

"Yes yes, this is President Marx. You sound different. Did Ms Augustine leave the project?" It paused, listening for a response. "Oh. My cosadolences. So, how is Project Avatar going along... You figured out how to transplant ones mind into those bodies... permanent? Swell! Just swell! With this technology, a Terran who is terminally ill can be granted a fresh body, a fresh chance at life. We have a cure for Oripathy! Though, our medical insurance firms can't cover the cost, and given the nature of this technology, it may draw the ire of Kazdel... As usual, you otherworlders always come up with the most wily of solutions! The reveal of the cure will coincide with the vassalization of Boliviar via your weapons. Then, Terra will accept Columbia as its sword and shield. The rowdy bunch in Kazdel, and several other players, will be silenced by force. You... we will show Terra that warfare, traditional warfare, is obsolete... I hope this partnership of ours will continue on into the future! Have a good day!"

Placing the phone down, Marx held his heart. "Me, you, Columbia, and Earth, are both pioneers in this land. You are the only beings who understand our destiny. Columbia has your back, and you have ours."

BOR-3-001 "Basilisk", 1.5 miles below crust

Within the dry barrens of Rim Billiton's territory, a supersized tunnel boring machine burrowed through the ground with the ease of a mole. Such heavy duty excavation equipment was already employed on Earth; their work was instrumental in the construction of geo-thermal power plants. BOR-3's enabled the extraction of resources left untouched by traditional mineshaft schemes. Mobile minetowns, is what they are often refereed to.

BOR-3 operations were scaled back as the environmental crisis grew. Their mass resource hauls only seemed to worsen the climate and cause devastating sinkholes to swallow up portions of land.

Should another planet's climate be a concern to Earth, however?

The United Nations tasked the RDA with the extraction of Originium from the exoplanet. The fate of the lifeforms did not matter. Only Originium, because only those crystals have the power to save Earth. Every nuclear plant in existence does not come close.

Given the several year long trip between planets, each and every export had to maximized. BOR-3's could satisfy the demands and stay out of Terran eyes. The underground "Durin" people assisted with their operations in exchange for fission reactors. Meanwhile, the surface world is oblivious. The "occasional" earthquake would be viewed as a Catastrophe.

BOR-3's came with seismic instruments to find Originium deposits avoid potential... accidents. The instruments picked up a small blip, likely a Durin sub-colony, and the whole complex was bought to a halt. The drill opened up its starboard side doors, allowing SEC-OPs personnel to disembark and investigate the site.

It appeared as an abandoned laboratory. Parts of the cavern had collapsed inside, but the stalagmites and other debris showed signs of erosion. Most of the damage occured long, long ago.

The troopers swept the facilities with their flashlights. No signs of life, only derelict machinery. The language on the tools was illegible.

In the back of lab was the only functioning piece of equipment; a jet black, coffin-like contraction that reflected the trooper's flashlights.

They surround the coffin on all sides. The squadron's leader approached the machine. The cavern was made out of a plexiglass material. It reflected the officer's face, but did not betray who was inside.

With there being no threat, the squadron leader radioed that the site was clear. The SCI-OPs arm of the BOR-3 would then take samples of the site for research, and then they'd be on their way to complete the run.

Suddenly, the machine hissed out steam. The officer lept back. The exo-masks kept the troopers safe from poisonous gases, but deathly pale arm reaching out from the coffin was a different matter entirely.

The SEC-OPs personnel ordered the figure to put its hands up. First was the right. Then the left, slowly.

It crawled out of the cryogenic tomb as a pale zombie. The only reason why it survived was it's ability to speak the human language.

"I... am... the Priestess..."

Chapter Text

"Stand him up. He can't breathe on the ground."

Gavial had a straight to the point, professional tone of voice. Tomini tried to assist the fallen Archosaurian, but some of that rage came to the surface.

"Stay back, ya runt!" Gavial yelled, causing Tomini to hastily retreat.

Angelina raised her hand. "I can raise him, Gavial. Since I'm already, you know..."

"Just lift him up before he passes out, for Pete's sake!"

She scampered to the Archosaur and got him back on his feet. Grace's team gave him medicine while Gavial was casting some kind of magic spell. Her procedure wss equal parts treatment and interrogation.

"Did Zumama tell you to go into the mines?"

"Yes. Why?" He replied nonchalantly.

Unbelievable. He, or Yogi, as I overheard, didn't give two shits about Oripathy. A reminder, you were the government's permanent lab rat if they found the rocks on you on Earth. How could he just accept his fate? Weren't the RDA treating the locals...

"Zumama" was the leader of the tribe and the parade. The RDA wasn't doing most of heavy lifting here. In exchange for technology, this Zumama mines Originium ore for the RDA.

Grace said that the locals "handled everything past the perimeter". I did not know she meant the crocs most of the work. Minimizing contact with Originium, maximizing the yield, and spreading rock cancer to indigenous tribespeople who have never seen a needle in their lives. No wonder that Augustine politely excused herself and her team from the scene by investigating the temple.

"Alright, I'm going to have a little chat with Zumama." Gavial sighed, balling her fist.

"Wait!" Angelina countered. "There may not be enough time, Dr Gavial! We still have to find everyone else, and the Catastrophe will strike Acahualla by the end of the day..."

"Zumama could've have gotten far on that robot of hers. Becides, the Bad Guy is missing its engines. And... everything else too. We'll have to call the landship for backup."

Tomini turned away, suspiciously. I knew she wasn't the one to shoot it down. Then why was she acting guilty? I wasn't going to say the truth until I know the full story.

"Dr Kal'tsit's going to kill me..." The other Doctor whimpered behind his hood.

"The Bad Guy's broken? No no no no..."

"Angelina?" Gavial questioned.

"The Collumbians told me that they want us, Rhodes Island, gone from Acahualla."

Tomini shuddered.

"Gone?" Gavial scoffed. "These are... uh, were my woods. The pioneers have no right to say who comes and goes in Acahualla!"

The Doctor was far more obviously concerned. "Why is Columbia kicking us out?"

"They told me that we were trespassing into their site. I told their leader that is was strictly for surveying the incoming Catastrophe"

"Do they think the jungle's their's now?" Gavial groaned. She looked up at the sky. The clear blue forecast was replaced with ominous rain clouds. I had a hunch that they weren't loaded with water.

"I suggest we find the other Operators asap. Hopefuly the Catastrophe will hold until then..." The Doctor told Gavial.

"Yeah, good idea, Doc." Gavial replied. "But I'm not leaving till I settle things with Zumama."

Angelina whimpered as Rhodes Island made for the jungle.

The RDA could pack their bags and leave before the storm struck. Meanwhile, Rhodes Island, Angelina, was stranded. They were at the complete mercy Terra's Mother Nature. If Rhodes Island and the locals made it through the Catastrophe, countless more would catch Oripathy.

"Are they gone, Norm?" Grace asked her assistant, who nodded silently. She abafoned her work on the temple and came up to me.

"Quaritch ordered all the research teams to RTB. We've got to start prepping now and relocate everything to the Sargon outpost before the storm strikes." She said.

"We can help them." I respond. "Grace, they won't get out of here in time..."

"I know!" She threw up her arms.

Grace's breathing was slow snd deep. "It's too late to start caring about them. The Administration is trying to whip the locals up in a frenzy. An engineered civil war." She gestured to the ruined temple. "You'll be lucky if Angelina comes out in one piece."

"It doesn't have to come down to luck." I defy her, starting to run away.

"Sullivan! Listen!" She yelled. "They have cameras everywhere! Quaritch will find out, rip you from the Link Chair, and cancel the Avatar Project. Then you will never see that girl again!"

I turn around.

"It was never going to work out. We put profit above the head of a living, breathing, intelligent species, and hired a bunch of jarheads to terrorize them. We can't make love at this point Sully. Get that out of your head before you fuck things up further."

I fall back in with the rest of them. I'm not having my only way out from that damn wheelchair taken from me.

Several Hours Later...

Enucetes Tribe Campgrounds

After spending much of the day searching for their missing comrades, Rhodes Island recovered all the missing Operators. None of the staff suffered from injury, but Operator Ceoboe was under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms.

While she was off in her own world, Tomini led the rest to where the Euncetes Tribe called home. It was a fairy large clearing, no doubt made by the electric tools lying around. Square cans labeled with an "X" were next to them, a pungent smell emitted from their nozzles.

Scrap metal was in the process of being transformed into statues and machines. The place seemed to be a junkyard, but in the midst of the wreckage, there was complete machines with clear purposes. Bulldozers, cranes, lumber trucks. Their style clashed heavily with the tribe's aesthetics.

It all made sense to Angelina. They were the very same vehicles she saw in the base.

"Do you have your people mining ore?" Gavial asked Zumama, repairing the Ugly Thing.

"...Yes" Was Zumama's reply. "But it won't be so for much longer..."

Gavial punched the Pythia several times in gut. She felt something cold and sharp on Zumama's belly, but her anger clouded her rationale.

"Are you kidding? Putting people lives at stake for stupid rocks?" She yelled.

Zumama gripped an incoming punch from Gavial by the wrist.

"Listen. I found a way how to improve everyone's lives here for the better. Without Originium."

Gavial pulled her punch and backed away. "Huh?"

"Things changed while you were gone, Gavial. The Columbians who settled in Acahualla offered to develop the jungle. Give the weaklings a chance to survive. They only asked for Originium, which we have plenty of, and in return..."

She hoisted up one of the cans. "We get a power source that doesn't need Originium. We can modernize without fear of the Stone Disease!"

Angelina gasped. While she knew the truth, a part of her did not want to believe that Jake came from an alien world. If Originium never existed, then his planet would have to develop alternatives. Alternatives that, from her observations of the machinery, were just as effective as Originim fuel.

"I dont get it. Why do Jake's people want Originium so badly?" She pondered. "Why would thy risk Oripathy when they already have a modern civilization."

Meanwhile, Gavial contiuned to argue with her friend.

"Seems alot of your people have come down with the disease." She crossed her arms.

Chapter Text

A/N: This will be my last update for the year, so happy holidays and have a happy new year! Avatar 3 is technically coming in roughly a year from now, can't wait to see where things go. I have a feeling its going to be the Empire Strikes Back of the franchise. Or James Cameron could just rehash the first one again lol.

Acahualla Skyline

4 Rhodes Island helicopters screamed over the lush landscape of Acahualla. Each was filled with combat Operators, armed with bows, blades, or Arts casting units. The leading aircraft held two of Rhodes Island's most powerful Operators, Logos, the benchmark that all Casters in the company are measured against, and Rosmontis, the rumored "Annihilation Expert".

Out of their Elites, the two were a cut above the rest. Rarely did a situation call for one or the other, but the circumstances of the current Operation demanded their abilities. The Doctor was in mortal danger, just like the infamous rescue operation in Chernobog. Kal'tsit learned her lesson from that near disaster. Too many of Rhodes lsand's best were lost that day. She wasn't going to spare any expense the 2nd time around. Especially about the very, very concerning developments the Doctor warned her about.

A power source that ran without Originium was completely unthinkable. Unless, the Columbians had somehow found relics of home civilization, the original colonists of Terra. The world's political landscape would deteriorate into all out war if word got out. She had contingencies in place for the time a cure for Orginium was a reality... but the situation in Acahualla derailed those plans.

"Dr Kal'tsit, do we truly have to destroy the base?" Amiya, who was also in on the ride, questioned. "I can imagine all the good even a little less reliance on Originium can bring."

"It will bring doom and carnage in the long run." Kal'tsit sternly replied. "They have shared the technology with the locals, causing the first civil war within Acahualla in ages. The fighting will be far more severe if the world finds out. I cannot let that happen."

Amiya slumped her ears.

"Rosmontis will ensure that no trace of their research remains. We'll get the Doctor to safety, and prepare on from then."

Adruptly, Logos spoke an incantation in his native Sarkaz language. He casted a spell with his Arts Device in the form of of bone pen. Sweat ran down his forehead as eledrict runes ran across his body.

"Logos!" Amiya exclaimed. "Whats wrong?"

"The enemy... fired a high velocity projectile... at each of our aircraft." He clenched his teeth. "I can barely... hold them back..."

The Cautus peered out the window and a massive, elongated missile trailing at the side. It was on a scale far larger than any known anti air missles, being practically as long as the very helicopter they were sitting in.

Dr Kal'tsit gazed out the window as well, with a dispirited expression on her face.

Eventually, the missile lost its momentum and fell into the underbrush, creating a explosion that ricked the helicopter. Amiya fly off her feet, and the pen Rosmontis was writing with slipped out of her hands.

Amiya quickly got up and dusted her clothes off. She contacted the other teams with her radio. "Amiya to Teams 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4. Everyone ok?" She sighed with relief, and steeled herself.

They just had to find the Doctor, and everything would be ok.

I was laying on my in the bunks later that day until I heard the explosions.

Norm, who was my mate, fell out of his.

"Crap, was that the Originum?" He asked.

"No. Artillery." I was familiar with it from my days in the Marines, obviously. The only big guns on this site were the SAM trucks.

I crawled into my wheelchair, and bolted out the room.

"Not even gonna help me up? Thanks." I overhear him grumble.

Sorry Norm. This was my only chance to find the answer I need.

Beelinig for the SEC-OPs, I did my best to evade those packing up. It was now late in the day; gear was moved into Samson transports, Originium was loaded onto the space shuttles, and the heavy machinery was simply left behind. They hadn't ordered the people in the shuttles just yet.

I stroll on to entrance, and nearly run over the Colonel and his men. "Hold it sport!" He said without breaking pace. I followed by the side. "You wanna fight, you'll need a bigger chair. One with feet and a 30 mm autocannon!"

"Who are you fighting?" I cut to the chase.

"Remember Rhodes? They called for backup. SAMs didn't work and now we're intercepting them the old school way. They collaborated with the hostile tribe to stop our trucks. We're not leaving without them."

We make it hanger were most of the VTOl are kept. I had time for 1 more question.

"Who interrogated Angelina?"

"The girl? Had one of those Avatars fill in the role to maintain our cover."

No.

Angelina knew that we were aliens. She was covering for me when the village chief got suspicious.

Quaritch had an actual human interrogate her. But why?

Unless, he wanted her to know that, to provoke a response from her employers, Rhodes Island. The hospital. He said it was just cover, but then again, we were playing the same exact game with not only Acahualla, but the entire planet. Rhodes Island probably deals with hundreds of patients per day. The RDA would save an entire planet's worth if the Originium supply was secured. It would be used for a large scale terraforming project to restore Earth's climate, as they said.

My next move would sabotage Earth or Terra. Who did my alliance belong to, really? Those Marine days were long past, and like most former servicemen, I was ultimately forgotten about. I was never joining the Corp again, or getting my legs back.

I was screwed over. And I was not going to standby and let Quaritch screw Rhodes Island.

"Sully, do you realize just how stupid this is?"

Grace and I shared a rogue Samson, piloted by one of her friends. Both of us were in our Avatar bodies. The sky outside was dark, cloudy. The Catastrophe was supposed to hit by now, but the storm appeared to be stalling. No killer earthquakes or crystals raining from the sky.

"I'm not letting them die out there." I said.

"They are going to try both of us for treason, you know." She replied.

"They have rights! Rhodes Island, the Acahuallans..." I took a breath. "Quaritch was playing with you too. How else could he rile up the natives when the only ones making contact with them are the Avatars?"

"I had a suspicious. You weren't the first one in the program with military experience, but they didn't all come from America. Germany, France, Korea, India, East Europe, China... Most were former spec-ops." She sighed. "I did all I could to keep the UN's Military Council from bastardizing the technology to create super soldiers, but all this time, they were looking at super spies instead. Should've double-checked a few of the reports the grunts sent me."

Our Samson's missile warning system lights up.

I was going to die. But not before making things right.

Instead of being blown to smithereens, the aircraft went into a flatspin. We jumped out of opposite ends; the chopper waant flyibg too high over the jungle. I came crashing through branches and vines, but they softened tge blow. Only a few bruises and scrapes. Grace was fine too, and our pilot thankfully brought a parachute.

We couldnt relax just yet, as the telltale thmping of a Scorpion gunship reminded us. It was the one who shot us down with a heat seeker instead pf those big ass space rockets the SAMs use. Otherwise... you get the picture. The Scorpion racks way more missles than those trucks though, enough to wipe out a tank batalion.

Our savior came in the form of an orange angel, which plunged into the cockpit of the aircraft, sending it spiraling to the ground. It then flew up to us, revealing itself to be one of the famous creatures in Acahualla, the Banshee. They were honest to god, living, brrathing, dinosaurs. It was a big draw for SEC-OPs recruitment back on Earth. Who doesnt want to shootva dinosaur?

Well, it would be a stupid idea since it was couple feet away from me. Weird that it hadn't even turned us into lizard food yet.

"Look up." Grace gasped. "You never see that many Banshees around at once."

Indeed, up in the breach we made in the tree cover, the pterosaurs were in the middle of a migration. Must've been escapibg from the Catastrophe. Unless...

"They're homing directly where we came from." Trish, the pilot, spoke.

The wildlife was the Catastrophe. Weather makes cats and dogs act up on Earth, so the same should be the same here. Except the animals in Acahuaala are way less furry.

I finally had the means to turn the tables of Quaritch.

Down below, high on the vantage point of my sweet new ride, the fleet of aircraft appeared so small. Was this how the Air Force saw us day-to-day? Nevertheless, I could see smoke and flashes going off from their weapons. Whoever was on the receiving end was having a very bad day. Just hoping it wasn't Angelina.

They were in an arrowhead formation. The "head" was 4 times as large as the others. It was a Dragon Gunship; the biggest, baddest VTOL aircraft ever designed. 8 50 mm cannons. 12 rocket pods. 16 auxiliaries for a shit-ton of additional missiles, bombs, or ECM jammers. Nothing short of the best equipped and best trained armies can stand up to it, which was why they were often deployed in 3rd world countries during the war.

A straight up fight was suicide. But Quaritch wasn't counting on one thing; when you are the biggest predator in the sky, you never bother to look up.

I dived down, with hundreds of other Banshees on my tail. They plunged into the Dragon's escorts like scaly, winged missiles with teeth and claws. With the rest of the copters hopefully distracted, it would give me enough of an opening to down the gunship.

I lept of the Banshee and landed on all fours. Hitting all the bird's engines wouldn't do, as all Dragons come with failsafe if it loses to power to each of them at. Just blowing up one of the engines would destabilze it and hopefully bring it to the ground. Running up to one of the front engines, I catch a glimpse of the Colonel himself.

He was positivity fuming. He yelled something to the pilots. The ship started tilting over to my left.

He was trying to through me off. I pulled the pins of as many grenades as I could, and threw the entire belt into the engine. As I fell into the jungle once more, I got a good look of the engine erupting into fire and smoke, with the Dragon wobbling like it was on tightrope. I saw it fire off every last air-to-ground missile it had before the jungle underbrush blocked my view.

No time to be playing in the vines. I got myself out of there, and ran like hell. Meanwhile, the Dragon cane crashing down in a great ball of fire, but not before I saw a lone AMP drop in, the wreckage only a couple feet away.

It was him. And he was going to gun me down like the rest of them.

I really underestimated the abilities of the Avatar body. I could some how evade the streams of cannonfire Quaritch sent my while running full pace. But even he kept up in the AMP. Vines, roots, and underbrush were kicked aside. I could only hear, not see because if I turned around, he'd catch me.

So I simply ran, praying the Angelina had some powerful friends. I quickly came across an entire fallen squadron of SEC-OPs troopers. The ones in AMPs had molten holes left in the machines' windshields. Originium Arts, the first thing Quaritch warned us about. The others who weren't in the suits were skewered by javelins and crossbow bolts. Didn't have the time to appreciate it, Quaritch was still on my tail. And deaths of his loyal men would piss him off even more.

Eventually, I carved my way through 2 large fern plants. I found a bunch of guys in black and blue colored body armor. They wore an emblem on their sleeves that looked like the tower piece from Chess. I could just barely make out, "Rhodes Island".

I found them. But they didn't seem too happy.

"Wait wait wait! Don't shoot! I know him!"

Angelina came to the rescue. Some short kid with bunny ears nodded, convincing the rest of the Rhodes Islanders to stand down.

She ran at me with open arms. But it was too soon to celebrate.

I heard Quaritch bursting out from the woods. Bunney Ears shot a black energy... something at him. Glass cracking.

I turned around. His suit's glass was still intact. Must've gotten the first dibs on the latest model. He then aimed his cannon for the girl and pulled the trigger.

Then, this pale haired cat woman came in and some crystal monster came out of her back to defend the girl. Whatever it was, it didn't hold up to 30 mm shells. Shredded into a useless pile of crystals.

She got between Quaritch and the bunny girl. The hooded guy, their "Doctor", also came by her side.

"Doctor, get out of here!" She screamed, clutching his jacket. He remained calm, but his voice had a hint of nervousness.

"He must be their leader. I can negotiate..."

Quaritch used a built-in in megaphone to respond. "You an't fooling me. Your very presence is jeopardizing our mission."

"Originium-less technology is far too dangerous in the hands of Colmbia!" The cat lady yelled.

"It is a matter of survival for our race. Hell, kill me here, and they will send in the actual military. My men got lucky with those 2 elites of yours. A lucky shot put em both out out of action for awhile." He deepened his voice. "The real army never misses. They can't miss with discipline and WMDs. The RDA wants to hide, but if the armed forces of Earth get involved, they will turn every last one of your precious cities into craters."

He gave his focus to me. "Sullivan, I will overlook this if you come to your senses. You'd had your fun playing Tarzan, but remember why you are here."

I drew my rifle and shot him dead.

Resource Development Administration Incident Report

The operations of "Hell's Gate" were shut down due to unacceptable SEC-OPs casualties, rampaging wildlfe, and actors from "Rhodes Island". All personnel has been relocated to Sargon. The quota of refined Originium has not been reached for the Acahualla region.

Developments may change this. An individual discovered from a Terran prehistoric civilization claims to be able to control the rate Originium assimilates with its surroundings. The bunker where [REDACTED] is stored was left intact and not discovered by "Rhodes Island". Originium will be able to be transferred from Terra in much higher quantities and significantly less time.

Sadly, we didn't make quota. But give me more time to figure this woman out, and I'll promise you Tomorrow by the end of the fiscal year. You'll be glad you didn't sack me!

Signed by Parker Selfridge

Chapter Text

A/N: Happy New Years! Alot of you guys asked when the military is getting involved. I'm thinking about a filler chapter or 2 before I get into the venets that lead into the inevitable.

Backup from Rhodes Island came in on helicopters. They picked us up and brought us further from the jungle. I was sharing mine with Angelina, the Doctor, and a few other people from Rhodes Island. The bunny girl and that cold looking feline were close by his side.

"This was a gross miscalculation. I am Dr Kal'tsit." She introduced herself. "Columbia doesn't station soldiers at its Pioneer Sites, yet the combatants fought at a similar intensity. And to think they phased out all other forms of weaponry and replaced them with automatic rifles. We were very lucky that more lives weren't lost..."

"What about the little cat girl with the notebook?" I say, suspicious that Rhodes was getting children killed in these operations.

"Operator Rosmontis is stable. She offered to join the mission, because she was one of many victims of unethical Columbian science. The same people your race alligned with."

"Dr Kal'tsit, that was why you came in with such a large team?" Angelina asked. The cat eared woman nodded in response.

"So many lives were still lost... And for what?" Amiya lamented. "The last incident that called for many Operators was with Chernobog. Did Columbia's action in Acahualla demanded this much sacrifice?"

"I... was not completely sure." She admitted. Amiya gasped.

"It was my fault!" The Doctor apologized. "I shouldn't have said something so bold. We never analyzed their mech suits and the machines they handed over to the tribes. They could've lied to Acahualla about how the machines were powered."

"Oh for God's sake!" I blurted out. "They, my people, not Columbia, were leading you into a death trap!"

The Doctor, Amiya, and Kal'tsit stopped bickering with each other.

"Listen, I and Quaritch's men come from a planet called Earth. The ecosystem is falling apart, and the only way to fix it is with the magical black crystals we discovered on your planet. We, Earth, kill each other for these resources. It started with oil, then enriched uranium, and now we're after Originium. Difference is, the goods are on a different planet. The rules of warfare don't apply. Quaritch would've gunned down that kid and all your medical staff without blinking an eye. He would never face justice."

"But you did, Sully." Angelina reassured me.

"Thanks." I replied.

"The rules of warfare...?" Amiya spoke, confused. "Your people recognize the horrors of war, but engage in anyways to satisfy their selfish goals?"

"Yeah, pretty much the cause of every single conflict in recent memory."

She pulled down her ears. "Was this Operation even a success? The enemy's leader told us that the armies of your world would be coming to Terra since we disrupted their Originium mine. If they need rules for warfare, then all of Terra will be in trouble. We wouldn't be able to bring Her dream into reality..."

"Whose's dream?" The Doctor asked, but was left unanswered.

"Sullivan, have you considered the consequences?" Dr Kal'tsit inquired. "Killing a high ranking officer may cause Earth to greatly escalate their violence against Terra."

But they would all be dead in jungle, yet to accomplish a "Dream". Was the planet more important to her than the "Dream"? Well, the UN might hold off on a full scale invasion if the RDA could convince them that SEC-OPs still has the planet under control. Thy had functional bases all over Terra. As long as most of them were operational, the UN would hold off on the peacemakers.

"No. I don't regret anything." I flatly respond.

It was mostly silence from there. Later, the Doctor asked me what I look like.

"I could say the same to you, bud." We both laughed. "But seriously, this isn't my actual body. The think tanks came up with something called the Avatar Project. They artificial Terra bodies and we as the drivers pilot them. Kinda like a drone. I guess you could say that I really look like this, minus the scale bits."

Dr Kal'tsit was left shocked at my words. The other doc seemed uncomfortable, and Amiya was the child who didn't understand why her parents were upset.

"Ange, what's going on?" I said. She shook her head.

"You've got be to lucky to see all three of them in the same room. This business with your home planet most be very important if it was enough to get Kal'tsit out of her office and miles deep in Acahualla." She followed up. "Say, you're controlling this body from the base, right? The wildlife would've smashed it all to bits by now. So why are you still... here?"

My mind blanked out. I gripped my crocodile tail, squeezing it. Pain ran up through it's nervous system.

"Sullivan. You made your choice." Was the only explanation she offered.

I started to calm down. I stretched out my legs.

"It was the right one."

RDA Originium Refinery, Sargon

The Terrans had not explored every inch of dry land as Earth's pioneers did. Most of this included portions of Sargon's bone dry desert, which offered land for the RDA to refine Originium. Terra had 3 major veins where 90% of all Originum was extracted, but nearly of that land was already being used by the Terrans. A single mishap with the RDA's excavators could alert the entire world of their presence and jeopardize the mission. Thus, Originum extraction was in conducted in secluded, but poor areas. The Acahualla rainforest was one of few places that was isolated and held acceptable pockets of Originium, but the Hell's Gate disaster could set objectives back by years.

Here comes the savior. The one person Selfridge was banking on to turn things around for the RDA. She was flown out to the testing site in a Kestrel, the next batch of Samson aircraft that were uparmored and upgunned with tri-barrel machine guns. She stepped outside, the blasting heat having no effect on her pale skin. Parker Selfridge and SEC-OPs bodyguards followed, the guards wore light desert fatigues to mitigate the heat, while the RDA administrator insisted on his business attire.

She stared off into dunes, as if reminiscing about the past.

"Hurry up. Just show me you can do the thing so weren't not frying like eggs out here." Parker, who tugged on the color of his shirt, spat.

Wordlessly, the largest dune within sight parted away. A large, towering growth of Originium sprouted from the sand like a desert rose. The SEC-OPs men took of their helmets to observe the fantastical scene. It was a great black diamond, worth many more times what they would earn for the RDA in their lifetimes. That was merely the exposed portion, the tip of the iceberg. The woman, the Priestess, could alter the behavior of Originium on a whim!

To Parker Selfridge, the "how" didn't matter. He was spared from the hot seat for now.

"Beautiful! Beautiful!" He cheered. "By the time we get back, Hell's Gate will be free from the animals, the excavators will get that gateway up, and we'll be back in business, bigger and better than before!"

Selfridge and his men piled in, but the Priestess remained.

"Hey! We're on a tight schedule!" Parker yelled over the engines. "Doesn't time mean anything to you?!"

Silently, she returned to the aircraft with a small smile on her face. "Gah! I'll let SCI-OPs figure you out, but just don't go asking them about royalties."

Instead, Parker Selfridge should have been threatened by the "why".

"I shall finish what you started, Oracle." She thought to herself.

Chapter Text

RDA Originium Refinery, Sargon

The overall structure of the facility was closer to a trainyard rather than an oil refinery. There is no need for tracks, since the Basilik excavators travel underground. Off to the side of the main structure was a column of suspended hoppers. When an inbound Basilik resurfaces, the hoppers transfer the Originum, which was harvested in liquid form by tge excavator, from the machine's drills. A series of pipes point back to the facility where the raw sludge is recrystallized into a purer form.

Like the other refineries, it lay far from Terran civilization, and especially far from known landship patrol routes. But after Hell' Gate, the Refinery's defenses were enhanced due to being relatively close to where the disaster unfolded. Additional, short ranged air defenses were placed to supplement the S-300 site that was stationed away from the refinery proper. They consisted of lower range, but cheap, numerous missles, to ensure that the launchers would not run out in the middle of an air raid. All the staff from Hell's Gate temporary relocated to the refinery, including SEC-OPs. Security was twice as large.

Meanwhile, a select few staff members were detained in a makeshift brig. During the chaos, SCI-Ops associates, along with Avatar drivers, attempted a coup on Hell's Gate. It was thwarted, and all personnel responsible were promptly arrested. Dr Grace Augustine and a lone Samson pilot made an unauthorized flight into the jungle, bringing Jake Sully to rally the tribes. While Sully is unaccounted, Grace and the pilot were charged with the rest of the offenders with treason on the level of crimes against humanity. They would be sent back to Earth on the ISV Venture Star after it picks up the Originium haul.

"Keep it up, Sullivan." Grace reassured herself.

Staying on a huge ass boat was nothing new. My last deployment for the Marine Corp involved an Amphibious Assault Ship. Even so, the place Rhodes Island called home, the landship of the same name, easily dwarfed anything the Navy sailed. They had room for greenhouses, shopping districts, hotel sized dorms, and training facilities, ontop of the hospital operation they run.

I would've been completely lost if it weren't for Angelina.

Now, I'm what Rhodes Island calls an Operator. They are the ones who are sent out into field for various assignments, capable of Arts or competent in combat. Angelina and the rest were sent to Acahualla to monitor a Catastrophe, though you know how that turned out. Jesus, to think they held on long enough for me to arrive.

My files and everything pertaining to Hell's Gate is under tight control. Only the ones who were down there, or Rhodes elite, know anything. Speaking off, Logos, one of the Operators who got shot up real bad, literally placed a curse on them. He said that they would melt the face off any spy who tries to read them. No doubt my secret is in good hands, but I had a feeling Rhodes Island had some of their own.

My hunch was right, and was the beginning of the end.

For now, I was a mercenary, not an uncommon sight on the landship, lifting weights in the gym. Gotta see how far I can take this new body. If I went through the same regiment as the Marine Corp, I would probably squash anyone on the SEALs.

Then a thought came to me in the middle of a rep. What if the RDA was trying to put spec ops personnel into Avatar bodies? Then, they wouldn't have to deal with the fallout of shooting missiles at a "hospital". They are definitely looking at people who served in elite service branches in the past to make up for Quaritch. Kal'tsit and the others tried to reassure me that Rhodes Island was absolutely safe. Well, safe for the time being, until the RDA puts together an A-Team to sink this ship. Marines nearly put Rhodes best into the ground. What chance did I stand...

The dumbells slammed onto the bench.

"Sully!" Angelina was doing cardio next to me. She insisted that she could spot and workout at the same time. Can't say that she was doing a bad job.

She came over to my side. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I panted. "A little sore in biceps..."

Angelina started feeling them. "Geeze! You got some serious muscle building up. Its your first day too. I an't now doctor, but I think you should take it easy, Sully."

Easy, when the RDA has probably sent search parties? I and everyone else here is dead if they catch of whiff of me on Rhodes Island.

She wrapped her arms around my body. "There there.

I begun to let go of my deeply held fears. "Hey Angelina?"

"What's up?"

"Everyone is staring."

Indeed, the other operators and personnel who happened to be in the room took time from their workouts to witness Angelina and mine's... altercation.

I'd be best to lay low for awhile.

SEC-OPs Outpost "Vahalla", Sami

The North Pole of Terra was sparsely inhabited, just like the one on Earth. The only outsiders were mainly Columbians on expeditions. Ursan and Yanese strike groups would pass by to combat the "demons", but the routes these armies used were well documented and montiered with aircraft and satellites. This allowed for the construction of another large stronghold similar to that of Hell's Gate. However, the base had no involvement with extracting Originium. Instead, it was a bridgehead, another foot placed by the RDA into the door of Terra. With no need for mining equipment, the RDA devoted a large amount of security assets into the region, including tanks, self-propelled artillery, armored transports, autonomous drones, and radar jammers. Unlike the rest of the bases, Vahalla's stockpile consisted of current generation equipment donated by Earth's militaries. It was granted this privilege for a vital reason.

Project Cerberus took place in one other location on Terra.

If the RDA's missed its annual Originium quota, the United Nations was to take full command of all their assets. A dedicated military coalition would then be deployed through the "gateways" Hell's Gate and Vahalla to neutralize every nation that poses a threat to Originium extraction. They would remain until enough Originium is acquired to begin terraforming Earth to an acceptable state.

Of course, this meant that not a single penny would go to the RDA and its stakeholders.

A breakthrough was discovered during a mining expedition. Control of Terra would remain in private hands in the near future.

The central structure of the base consisted of a large, circular gate, surrounded by vast system of paved roads. Project Cerberus's goal was to reverse engineer 2 similar gates found on Terra's poles. Due to the strange... phenomenon and legends from the locals, it was theorized that they were wormholes connected to another planet with intelligent life. Quantum science aided with Originum could recreate the lost technology, though R&D struggled to study them due to being surrounded by otherworldly entities that corrupted their gear and in some cases, drove them insane.

After years of work, the first gateway was assembled in the remote icefields of Sami, and steadily, the stockpile of arms was built up. In the present, Hell's Gate was due to open up its own to accelerate the Originum extraction.

Meanwhile, the first WMDs in history were deployed on an alien planet.

A 16-wheeled truck rolled through the wormhole at a steady pace. Carried on full length of vehicle was multi-stage rocket. Originally, such a weapon would escape the atmosphere and then use Earth's gravitational field to slingshot itself to any city on the planet. Terra's "Dome" would force the missile to stay within atmosphere and reduce its range, but it had just enough to threaten every nation down to the Victorian Empire.

Armed soldiers, stationed preemptively by the UN, surround the nexus at all times, forcing the truck to drive slowly. Eventually, it was directed to a terminal leading out from the gateway. It would then be stationed at a firing position outside Vahalla, but well within its defenses.

The first target would be a weather manipulating weapon controlled by Kazdel insurgents, the "Shard". If the RDA was unable to destroy it after reverse engineering its capabilities for Earth's terraformation...

Peace will be made.

Chapter Text

A/N: Essays and exams took up most of my time, which is why this one is a little late. Hope you enjoy!

My next operation was in Colombia. Their government was funding a private company, Rhine Labs, to shoot a rocket into space. Question is, how? No matter how close the RDA was with them, sharing spacecraft with them was a no-go. Not when it was the only advantage they had over Terra. Instead, as Dr Kal'tsit explained to us, their scientists may have found an alternative source...

Long story short, we, er, Earth, was beaten to the punch by a different space-faring civilization.

And Kal'tsit and the Doctor are the only survivors.

"J-Just like Sully?" Angelina questioned. Kal'tsit nodded in response. The Doctor and Amiya had completely dumbfounded looks.

"Doctor..." Amiya almost distanced herself from him. She slid her seat back to the table.

"Amiya, I'm not like them!" He replied. "The RDA, I mean. My people had to have good intentions for Terra!"

Kal'tsit heaved out a sigh. I expected her to follow up, because shouldn't the Doctor be aware of this knowledge? Why was he acting like it was his first time hearing this?

"Aren't you going to tell us more?" I ask.

"A linguistic barrier forbids me from speaking further on our precursors." She replied, dully.

I wasn't having it.

"Oh really, after I told you everything about the RDA? You've kept this from Doc and Amiya, too. Amiya I understand, but Doc should be in on this since he was a part of this civilization."

"I... I've had amnesia since the beginning." The Doctor added in. "I had my suspicions, but I've always believed that Terra was my home, like anyone else.

"Doesn't that tic you off?" I pointed my attention to him. "She has the answers, Doc. You want to stick your head out for this operation without knowing why?"

Kal'tsit stood up. "Cease this nonsense at once!"

"You want to have your legs blown off by an IED?"

The Doctor recoiled back. "Uh..."

Amiya quickly stepped in, shielding him. "I will not let you say such things about the Doctor!"

"C'mon guys!" Angelina whimpered in an attempt to rein us in. "We can all worry about the Precursors after the Operation."

"Precisely. Let's get back to the task at hand." Dr Kal'tsit changed the subject, but the idea of the Precursors never left my mind. Another group of space travelers out there like Earth, but are somehow so horrible that they sealed Kal'tsit's lips and wiped the Doctor's mind to cover up their crimes. They failed big time if Terra nations were poking at their technology. And the Doctor was the only survivor... Where they really a threat?

If I were Kal'tsit I'd worrying about who got them instead.

We touched down in the capital city of Coloumbia, Trimountis. Colombia... I just thought of it as Terra's America before I came to this planet. I expected something like a typical Earth city, but looking up at those minimalist skyscrapers towering over us... Yep, this is no NYC. They had this whole... I don't know what to call it. Retro-future? High tech, if I lived in the 1960s. With a beautiful (fake) overcast up in the sky, I just wanted to forget everything and soak in in.

But I couldn't, because hell was breaking loose.

There were explosions over in a factory, as reported by the news. Fires, blackouts, rioting, things were getting ugly, and fast. Yet, the media downplayed this to the best of their abilities. Atleast America and Colombia's news companies see eye-to-eye. Dr Kal'tsit suspected it was a failed test launch of the army's new weapon, the spacecraft, repurposed as a weapon. We moved from our hotel room out to meet a contact she had in Rhine Labs. Hopefully, she knew where the mastermind behind all this was hiding.

Kristen Wright. The first proof of intelligent, extra-terrestrial life.

She was a big deal here, of course, but back on Earth? When NASA first breached the "Dome", landed the rover, and broadcasted her golden locks to nearly every single person on Earth... Life, it really wasn't the same since. Her face was on every magazine, including fashion. Merch came out the same day. RDA stock skyrocketed. Oil plummeted. War, war everywhere. The war that cost me everything.

So, to see Kal'tsit and Saria, her contact, talk about the uncontested, #1 super-celebrity of my home world was more than a little awkward. In private, too. She locked us outside of Saria's lab and left us to mill in the lounge. She knew I was going to blab. Good call. I was now stuck with the Doctor, Angelina, and 2 children.

"Yo, Angelina. Is he your boyfriend or something?"

Along with Rosmontis was a girl with short cuts and Sarkaz horns. The horns looked malformed, but I haven't met too many of them. Anyways, her codename was Ifrit, and she was a bit hot to handle.

"W-What? No!" She denied.

"Don't try and pretend! I know love when I see it!" Ifrit spoke back.

The two went back and forth. Meanwhile, Rosmontis was eerily eyeing at a letter. Long story short, some bastard at Rhine Labs tried to turn her into a psychic super weapon. He chose now, of all times, to invite his creation back home. It was beginning to make sense why the RDA was working with the Colombians. If it was fine to torture a kid in hopes of creating a super-soldier for the military, then the Coloumbian big wigs probably wouldn't give a shit about about the RDA's RD.

I looked back at Ifrit. Earlier on, she was excited about seeing "Dr Silence". Her horns were twisted. She was usually in Rhodes Island's ICU for oripathy flare-ups. Another girl around her age wanted to visit a literal mad scientist.

I didn't know it yet, but Ifrit's case was integral to the RDA's plans for Terra.

Suddenly, the exit was blown up, clouding my vision with smoke and debris. I knew the drill.

"EVERYONE, DOWN!"

I jumped behind the couch. Angelina slid into my position from the side.

"Can you do something about the smoke?"

"Aye!" She replied with a certain glitter in her eyes.

Angelina channeled her Gravity Arts, raising the smoke cloud into the ceiling. A clear shot.

I peeked my head and took aim. It was hard to tell exactly who the enemy was, but thry were large and mechanical. My crossbow bounced off its windshield. I could really go for a M4 at the very least.

"Shit! Armor! Do we have anti armor!"

My answer came in the form of steel plates, the ones always around Rosmontis. She flung them at the mechanized suits, bisecting them. Meanwhile, Ifrit was melting them down into slag with her flamethrower.

Finally, a crystalline wall rose up to plug in the breach created by the intruders, sealing the rest of them away.

Guess we handled that one pretty smoothly.

Kal'tsit and Saria came with the bad news. The bots also broke into their private chamber and destroyed the intel. We had no leads, other than the fact that Saria was close enough to atteact attention from unsavory parties.

However, we wee not completely empty handed.

My attention turned to one of the bots. Rosmontis snapped it in half like a toy, but it was still recognizable. I saw it from somewhere else. I slowly approached it. The paintjob was different, and it was missing the autocannon, but it was clear as day.

An AMP suit.

"Sully, what's that you are..." Angelina had to cup her mouth.

There was no driver inside. Was it a fully automatic model?

Saria was drawn over to us. She had on a dull gray trenchcoach that did little to conceal her muscles, and a reptilian tail swished between her legs. She was probably a former security guard.

"Hmm... I hadn't seen this kind of model employed by Rhine." She scratched her chin.

"The Defense Section might have upgraded to a different model while you were gone, Saria." Kal'tsit quickly spoke.

"More likely that they've been cheaping out. What good is a glass cockpit going to do against Arts?" She sighed. "I'll have to search tomorrow. Te Vice President's visit will provide cover."

As she left, Ifrit protested. Saria hesitated for a moment, then shut the door.

"Sully. Angelina."

Dr Kal'tsit's unusually sharp voice drew us in.

"Tomorrow, follow Saria into Rhine Labs. While she searches for Kristen, you search for more evidence of Rhine collaborating with the RDA."

She whispered the last part into my ear: "Speak nothing of the RDA to Saria."

RDA Originium Refinery, Sargon

In his office, Director Selfridge was in the middle of an important call with a Terran leader.

"Are you completely sure that the launch of your spacecraft won't interfere with the ISV, Mr Marx?"

"Maylander can guarantee it. Sadly, it has come to my attention that there are rogue elements in the military. Right after they were loaned those AMP suits of yours as well."

"Rebel groups? Ugh, it will be a real pain in the ass pulling out now that there's loose canons running around."

"No need, no need. Maylander says they will sort everything out by tomorrow. Doubled the security detail for the Vice President just in case."

"Good. Can I expect no further incidents?"

"Well... The powered armor you sent has wonderful data logging abilities. They can record an encounter start to finish, and remotely transfer the recording to command centers."

"Yes, glad you're impressed. Really nothing new, honestly."

"Here's the bad news, Selfridge. The Union Army sent in the suits to raid a safehouse belonging to Rhine Lab's former Defense Director, Saria. Several Rhodes Island members, including Dr Kal'tsit, were caught on their cameras."

A sense of unease filled the mind of Parker Selfridge.

"Jake Sullivan was also sighted amidst the operators."

"Impossible!" He shot back, in disbelief. "SEC-OPs found his body in the Link Chair after they resecured Hell's Gate. Jake Sullivan is a dead man, I tell you!"

"Oh? Maybe you need to see it with your own eyes."

A hologram-like monitor appeared on Selfridge's desk. It played a video of the safehouse raid from the attackers' perspective. The Rhodes Island operators fought back, and among their ranks was...

"Son of a bitch." Parker reclined in his chair with a terrible headache. "I just told the International Court to drop its case against Sullivan. I don't have the time to deal with that rat! I've got quotas to make here!"

"Well, you do not have to address this Sullivan issue at the moment, right?"

"He sabotaged one of our strongholds! You think I'm just gonna let him run around and try that stunt again? Unless you have a better idea, I'll contact SEC-OPs to have him detained by tomorrow. And if Rhodes Islands gets in the way, they will be shot on sight."

"Shoot first, ask questions later. You folk really are similar to us Colombians! Though, I highly suggest allowing myself to solve your problems with Rhodes Island and this Sully person."

"And what's your solution?"

"I know the company's president on a... personal level. I will work things out with her beginning tomorrow. With the RDA as my ace, she will have no choice but to come to terms with my future for Terra."

The next day, we joined Saria's infiltration of Rhine Labs. Several blocks surrounding place was shut down, due to Colombia's Vice President taking a visit.

"Dr Kal'tsit sent you 2?" She asked, taking a peek around an alleyway. "I suppose she hasn't spoken about her whereabouts."

The Feline doctor dashed once she instructed us on the next steps. So yeah, we were clueless.

"Follow my lead." Saria spoke simply.

Meanwhile, Angelina turned to face me: "No biggie. I know these streets like the back of my hand!"

We slowly, but surely made our way towards the Rhine Labs building. I had next to no experience with stealthy missions, cause that was the SEALs job. Thankfully, my senses were much sharper in the Avatar body. Could hear patrols coming from a mile away.

Suddenly, Saria came to a stop, behind a corner. Me and Angelina stacked up.

"What's wrong? Security?" She whispered to Saria.

"It's just one officer in powered armor. Guards are never supposed to patrol alone under Rhine protocol..." She shook her head, and charged out into the open.

"The hell?!" I snarl. "You just blew our cover!"

Smashed glass. I peered over. Saria smashed through the AMP suit's cockpit and pulled out the guy by the collar. He was sweating up a storm, and very fortunately, no position to raise the alarm.

"What orders did Ferdinand give you?" She asked in a low, threatening voice.

Both of us decided to step out of the shadows. "Uh, who's Ferdinand?" Angelina asked.

"Ferdinand Cloney took over the Defense Department after I left." She explained, the poor dude still within her grip. "I still had access to the department's database, so I've tracked his moves. Powered armor was removed from Rhine's inventory with no explanation."

Footsteps.

I turned around, readied my crossbow, and...

"Sully, it's us!"

It was just the Doctor, with Ifrit and Rosmontis.

Goddammit. I hadn't been this jumpy since...

We were only a couple blocks from where Kal'tsit suspected the RDA was working with Colombia. Rhine Labs was likely a far more valuable asset to them than Hell's Gate. They are not going to let us go without a fight, unlike then. If they catch us down here, or their Columbian allies, it's game over, no questions asked. We can't be wasting time, especially with Mr Reggie over there. Damn grunt knows nothing. The goods are inside the lab itself, and we already have the perfect cover. Everyone else apparently wants to save the Vice President. But I, and Angelina, can't explain the true threat. If we don't follow my plan and use the plot to sneak in, then countless people will continue to die at the RDA's hands.

"Angelina."

She broke out from the group to hear what I had to say.

"We'll go along with what they come up with. Once I give the signal, we break for the lab."

"Sully, but the vice president..."

"They will continue to kill every last person on this planet if we don't do something about it." I could barely keep it under a whisper. "This is our only opportunity to slow them down."

Her ears curled up.

The Doctor acquired a map of the underground tunnels leading to and from Rhine Labs. His intel said that the assassins planned on blowing up the originum waste pipes the moment the Vice President passes above them.

Ifrit, Angelina, and I were tasked on stopping the bad guys before they could do so.

The opportunity was as clear as day. If those pipes carried away the waste, then following them to their source would lead directly to Rhine Labs. We just had to ditch the kid.

"Hey. What are you two giggling about?" She asked.

I just ignored her, but Angelina started to figit her fingers.

"Ooh, is it love in the air?"

Angelina squirmed.

"Ha! Just pulling your leg, Angelina. This place smells like shit."

Comtacts. The kid picked up on it too.

"I hear them! I'll give them hell... Hey, where are you going?"

We ran, full throttle. That VP was probably a corrupt bastard. Before he and the actual president signed away their planet to aliens.

The hallways weren't lit up well, so I practically crashed into a short woman with glasses. We both landed on the floor.

"Shit..." I started to pick myself up, but the woman beat me to the punch and threatened me a literal double-edged sword.

She appeared to recognize Angelina, giving me time to back up into a better position.

"Angelina?" She questioned.

"Just one of my secret routes for Trimountis, hehe..." Angelina scratched her head.

Ifrit, who pursued us, slid to a stop, practically squealing.

"Dr Silence!" She cheered in delight.

Dr Silence.

No. She was certainly not the mad type. But why did I have this feeling that she did something to awful to this kid.

BOOM!

"No! I didn't stop them! Silence, I..."

The dust blinded us all, but I could hear 2 pairs of footsteps approaching.

"12 O'Clock! 12..."

2 thuds. The dust cleared, revealing a hole up to the streets. In the midst of the debris was the 2 tangos, and a panting, exhausted Saria.

Not only did the Vice President not have his fall, Ifrit's and Silence's reactions almost gave it away. While Ifrit was overjoyed, Silence appeared... apprehensive.

Then, the distinctive crack of a 50 cal sniper rifle rang from above. Saria fell face-first into the rubble.

Ifrit ran tried to run, but she was stopped.

"Huh... You! Get your freaking hands off me!"

I was not having a kid's head blown off on my watch.

Dr Silence stepped in to restrain her as well. "Ifrit, please calm down!"

No! I got to see Saria!"

Suddenly, her head grew hot, and I reflexively pulled it away. Ifrit dragged Silence across in her desperation, inching closer and closer to the sniper's sights.

I was at my breaking point. We should've infiltrated Rhine Labs by now. Instead, I was babysitting a kid.

"Damn kid! Do you want to die!?"

She started to tear up, but pushed on forward.

"Do you have a goddamn deathwish!"

"Stop it!" Silence yelled.

"Oh yeah? I know exactly who fucked her up in the first place! You!"

Her eyes went wide in shock. Ifrit slipped out of her head, ran over to Saria.

"Saria!" She bent down, shaking her head. "C'mon. Get up! You wouldn't die to a cheap shot like that, right?"

Blood continued to pour from her head.

"Right, right? Saria, get up, please!"

Ifrit pulled her head up. A horrid shriek came out from her mouth as Saria's head fell back down.

"NonOnoNonO..."

She was going into a seizure.

"IFRIT!"

I tackled Silence to the ground.

"You are not going anywhere, bitch."

Suddenly, the room temperature rose by more than a few degrees. The 2nd shot came for Ifrit's head.

It melted before it could reach her.

Well, we were in for one hell of a time.

Chapter Text

I watched as hellish flames completely took over Ifrit's body. What was left of Saria was swallowed up as well.

"Not... Again..." Silence gasped in horror.

Ifrit, or the flames that now took up her shape, threw a fireball at us. I heaved Silence and myself out of the way, but the sheer heat nearly scorched my skin.

There was no choice but to flee further into the tunnels. My enhanced strength allowed me to stride full-pace with a woman in my arms, with Angelina not far behind. Unfortunately, our resident flaming demon was hot on our tails. The heat was creeping up my back. She wouldn't even have to catch us to incinerate us at this rate.

I wound around a corner. "She's gaining! Angelina, any ideas?"

She took notice of the pipes running on the sides of the walls. "I got it! I can make these pipes burst with Arts!"

"Do it!" I shouted.

With a wave of her staff, the segment of the pipeline began to compress. Shortly after, whatever was being carried within the pipes detonated, causing another cave-in. Ifrit was snuffed out under a pile of rubble.

"Ifrit!" Silence cried out. She tried to remove the debris, cutting her hands in the process.

"Shit. Let's get her out, Angelina."

She eased the load by using her Arts to make the rubble lighter. I was lifting them away like they were styrofoam boulders. Eventually, the last piece was removed.

Ifrit was not only covered head to toe in scars and burns, but there were large growths of Orginium on her body. She struggled to pick herself up, settling for her knees, and Silence urged her to relax.

"This is what... *hack* Saria would have wanted. For me... to be strong..."

The girl coughed and started trembling again.

"What the hell is going on with her!? Do we have a medic!?" I demand.

Silence gave me a profoundly offended look. "The pipes were carrying waste from Rhine's power plant. Originium waste. You caused her Oripathy to fall to critical condition!"

Angelina covered her mouth in shock. She was an Infected to, and had unwittingly caused another's condition to worsen.

"Angelina," Her face softened. "Did he make you do it?"

Angelina's eyes began to water up.

"Hey! If we didn't do anything, that kid could've burned down this entire city!" I shot back at her.

"I don't have time for this!" She turned away from me. "Ifrit, let's get you to a clinic. Rhodes Island should have one nearby."

"But... 2 of their ops are right... *hack*... here, Silence!"

Silence shushed her. She picked Ifrit up and went up the staircase to the surface that was created by the rubble. Angelina and I pursued her, but we stopped. Several armed men with crossbows stuck us up.

"Maylander! Drop your weapons!"

I tried to stay out of trouble back on Earth. Had a few run-ins with the police. Actually, I managed to dodge hard time for a bar brawl by joining the RDA. Still, I never had the pleasure of dealing with federal agents.

But now, I was being hailed by Terra's FBI.

My mind went back to the time when the Oripathy infectee at the bar was hauled off by the suits.

"Maylander? I thought you were watching the Vice President?" Silence asked, alarmed.

"We learned the assassin's identity, Jake Sullivan." The leading legend duly reported. "We have a warrant to arrest him and any potential co co-conspirators. That includes you and the Vulpo, Ma'am." He added.

"This is outrageous! I'm with Rhine, Doctor Olivia Silence. We would never invite Mr Jackson over just to kill him!"

"Can you explain why you happened to be inside a crater that was on the Vice President's route?"

Silence backed off.

"And that is the Arts user who went berserk earlier. Ifrit."

Silence stared into Ifrit's eyes.

"Ma'am, she's coming with us. All of you are. If you don't comply, we will use force!"

Suddenly, a car horn rang throughout the streets, momentarily distracting the agents.

"Sir! An SUV breached the perimeter!" One of the suits reported to his boss, shortly before said vehicle came rocketing through.

Maylander's boys got out of the way. The vehicle came to a screeching halt off to the side and opened up its passenger doors.

I had no idea who was behind its wheel, but I'd take anything but being captured by the FBI. Maylander's probably as fond of torture as well.

With no other choice, we jumped into the mysterious ride.

"Silence, I apologize if I didn't make it clear that this situation is too much for you."

Our driver was this older woman who still had traces of her youth. She wore a beret over one of her wolf-like ears and concealed her eyes with aviators. Dr Silence sat ip front with her, while Angelina and I were in the back.

"Ifrit's Oripathy has advanced. Conrad Jackson canceled his visit. And, most concerningly, you were caught red handed with his assassin."

"I didn't do nothing!" I leaned forward. Angelina began to cry.

"They can't throw me in jail! Not when I still have the world to see!"

"You better not be a fed, or so-" I started.

"Zip it. I know you 2 are innocent. I know some other things about you that, perhaps, you would not intend Silence learning. Secrets."

Shit. She was a fed.

"Director Jara?" Silence asked, confused.

"Would you like to hear it from me or them?" She replied.

Dr Silence turned back to face us with an expectant look.

"Only if you tell me the deal with Ifrit." I fired back, arms crossed.

The Liberi nodded. "Before Ifrit came to Rhodes Island, Rhine Labs was responsible for her treatment. I was the one responsible for carrying out the procedures. In reality, the experiments were for an entirely different reason. The drugs I gave her made Ifrit lose control. Saria had to step in and stop her."

"So that's why you hate her guts?"

"No! She was the one who approved the experiments in the first place!"

"You are sadly mistaken. Saria had no say in that matter."

Silence paused, with a dumbfounded look on her face. "Dr Pravis showed me her signature on the documents!"

"As a director and former Maylander agent, let's just say I have a better idea of what goes on behind Rhine's doors, Silence. Control is the one responsible for signing off on Rhine Lab's projects. Ifrit, Site 059... She allowed those incidents to happen. She allowed aliens into Terra."

"What are you talking..." Silence was at a loss for words.

"Kristen Wright made contact with an extra-terrestrial unmanned vehicle some time after the founding of Rhine Lab. She mediated a 3-way trade agreement between Rhine, the government, and the aliens' organization, the RDA. Technology would be exchanged between the two entities, with Rhine Labs as the bridge. All those recent breakthroughs are merely the RDA's hand-me-downs."

This Jara must have been an insider who was working with Silence beforehand. Nonetheless, we finally got the evidence Dr Kal'tsit was looking for from the mouth of a literal spy. Silence was just another grunt, no different from the schmoe Saria choked earlier.

"Control signed off on several highly classified experiments involving the RDA. Nothing was left on the databases, so I had to use my connections to get in the know-how. The "experiments" mainly involved the aliens adapting their air based weaponry for Terra, but there was one I would say is very interesting. Project Avatar. The combination of their DNA and ours to form something that looks Terran, but isn't. Sarkaz witchcraft is then used to remotely pilot these bodies."

"Jara..." Silence grew more accepting. "But what does this have to do with the Flame Demon Incident?"

"The same mind was behind both Project Avatar and Ifrit. Dr Pravis."

"Pravis?! Why would he... Jara, this is all very far-fetched."

"Silence, an Avatar is with us at the moment. Jake Sullivan, the runaway."

Now with her attention on myself, I had some things to ask Jara.

"How much do you know?"

"Oh, you caused quite a mess for your sponsors down in Acahualla!" She laughed. "Though, I doubt you interfered with their Cerberus project."

"Their what?"

"Only the president and director know the details." She quickly replied. "Anywho, Silence, the kid is in grave danger. She was the prototype of the Avatar Project. The instability issues were resolved by the aliens' biotechnology. They can make a human being from scratch and alter its DNA to resemble anyone, except Sarkaz and Sankta. The need for a "pilot" was another major limitation. Until I heard that Maylander found Sully alive and well, without a pilot." She said. "The minds at Rhine and the RDA are itching to restart those experiments, Silence. Even if it means killing you to get to Ifrit."

Silence looked down at Ifrit, who rested on her legs.

"Saria was killed by the true assassins." She started.

"Director Saria is dead?" The first time I heard genuine concern from Jara.

"I still don't completely forgive her, but Saria also founded Rhine. I... cannot just sit and watch these aliens misuse science and corrupt her life's work. I must find Dr Pravis, and with him, the truth."

"If you say, Silence." Jara parked the car. "There's a secret route into Rhine's main facility around here. Just follow my lead."

"Silence, I was wrong about you."

We were traveling through yet another series of disorienting pipes. I thought now was a good time to apologize.

"I... shouldn't have jumped on you. Now I know how much crap you've been put through, and that was before learning about an alien invasion. It's frustrating, isn't it? Not knowing the whole truth."

"I see." Ifrit was supporting herself on Silence's shoulder. "I originally was hunting down one of Rhine's experiments. The Transmitter." She pulled out a metallic rod that sorta looked like liquid mercury. "Alot of damage can be done if they fall into the wrong hands. I witnessed it firsthand. But now, it seems your people handed far more destructive technology into Rhine's hands."

"Who? Silence, who are you talking about?" Ifrit asked.

Suddenly, soldiers surrounded us, led by a youngish man who wore a tactical harness over his white v-neck sweater. Otherwise, he looked like an office worker, if it wasn't for his cat ears and leopard tail.

"Jara, or should I say, Agent Morningstar." He started. "You Maylanders have been keeping Kristen's location secret. This is no science project she's hiding, but a goddamn super weapon. I don't know what treacherous deals she signed with the government, but Rhine Labs was supposed to be more than the military's R&D. They already have enough wonder weapons due to us, such as the rifle that killed Saria."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jara responded coolly.

"Trying to stall for her? Fine. That's why I brought these guns of my own."

I honestly didn't know if Jara knew of Kristen's whereabouts or was simply providing cover. I was so hung up on confirming if the RDA was working with Rhine that I never asked her about the company's president.

"Wait, Ferdinand!" Silence raised her hands. "I've been gathering the missing Transmitters all across Trimountis. Kristen Wright played a major role in the experiments. Right, Ferdinand?" He furrowed his brow. "She probably has a new 'hub' in this city. The hub is where Control lies."

She took the mercury rod from earlier and injected it into her bloodstream. Silence clutched her arm in pain, but eventually, the pain subsided. She straightened herself out.

"So? Where is our golden girl?" Ferdinand asked.

Silenced stared dead straight into his eyes. "She's not here."

"What?" He spat.

"She's not in the city. She never stepped foot in Trimountis in the first place!"

"Silence!" Jara slammed down on her shoulders. "I want to make sure that you are absolutely thinking straight. Kristen Wright has to be within Trimountis' premises. My intell is never bad."

"The signal is too weak for the hub to be here, Jara."

"Then think!" She shouted.

Silence focused again. "Ok... It's far, far from Colombia. Deep underground..." She gasped.

An earthquake struck the tunnels. We had to quickly evacuate back to the surface. And off there in the distance was...

"A rocket ship?" I thought out loud.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the plume of flame. We could only watch in silence as the spacecraft climbed and climbed, until it punched a massive, gaping hole in the sky. The aircraft then flew away until it became indistinguishable from the stars.

"Damn it all!" Ferdinand fell to his knees, clutching his fists. "Kristen Wright, what have you done?"

So this was her deal. Kristen Wright... was an astronaut the entire time. She pulled whatever strings it took to become Terra's NASA and become the first to shoot herself into space. Admirable, but something was off. Silence all but confirmed that Kristen Wright wasn't in the city.

Then who was inside the rocket?

One of the stars grew larger than the rest. It became a literal fireball, illuminating the entire city. It got close enough for us to make out the details.

"Sully? What is that thing?" Angelina asked, but I remained silent.

My radio went off, with a voice that I hadn't heard in a long time. The Doctor's. "Sully? Anyone? Madame Kal'tsit... I don't know what's gotten into her... She..."

I ignored his call for help.

Because what in the hell was I supposed to do about a plummeting Interstellar Vehicle?

Hell's Gate SEC-OPs Center, Acahualla

The reconquest of Hell's Gate went smoothly, due to the introduction of heavier, depleted uranium rounds in the RDA's heavy arms. The guns provided more than enough penetration to fell the Thanator packs and Banshee flocks that inhabited the ruins. A Basilisk Execatavor was utilized to insert the troops without interception from the wildlife safely. Once pack under RDA control, Hell's Gate was further reinforced with state-of-the-art, directed energy air defense systems. Or in other words, "lasers". 4 of these weapons lie on each corner of the main complex, ready to vaporize any airborne threat. The charred remains of the Banshee lay a road to humanity's stronghold on Terra.

Despite all of the extra measures taken to ensure another security failure never happens, an incident of catastrophic proportions reached SEC-OPs command center. Red sirens blared. Countless officers typed frantically away on their terminals. Others answered calls, both domestic and intergalactic. At the heart of it all was Parker Selfridge, whose face was beet red, taking an urgent call with Terra's most powerful politician.

"... So, you are saying that blonde bitch shot a rocket at our most expensive asset, sending it crashing down onto your city, and spewing radiation everywhere?!"

"Parker, the director told me that Kristen Wright is not the culprit. After all, isn't she down in your little basement, waiting for the portal to activate?"

"Yeah, and I'm going to send her ass back to your nuclear wasteland if you don't tell me who did this to us!" Parker shouted. "If it's Sully, I'm sending my boys over whenever you like it or not. I've got to save face here! The UN has already begun to seize our assets. We're going to use control of this whole operation if we can't convince the War Council otherwise."

"The culprit is Rhodes Island." Marx stated.

"Rhodes... Island?"

"Dr Kal'tsit. The president I mentioned in our last talk. Maylander agents caught her meddling with the S.H.A.F.T.'s controls. It is likely she changed the parameters of the spacecraft to have it destroy your Interstellar Vehicle."

"Goddamnit!" Parker repeatedly slammed his fist in fury. "Is she in custody? Where is Sullivan?"

"She is indeed behind bars, along with her accomplices. Jake Sullivan, however, is still missing."

"I'm sending in our jets to blow their landship sky-high! Label Rhodes Island as a terrorist organization, or something that I can shoot at! I cannot tolerate any further losses-"

Another phone on his desk rang. Selfridge gulped. It was the one meant for communication back to Earth. The man on the other end was the Secretary General.

"Parker? Parker?" Max questioned.

Selfridge picked up the intergalactic landline, with Max's in the other ear. "Hello?" Parker wiped sweat off his forehead. "...You want full command of our security assets? You are outing... me?"

Men in suits and sunglasses stormed the command center, detaining everyone who dared to resist.

"Y-You can't do this to me! I was the one who kept this ship afloat after that maniac, Q-Quaritch, broke rank! I even found a woman who can literally print you, me, everyone money!"

Underground, below the bunker, a wormhole forms. Kristen Wright walked through with a satisfied expression on her face. Where she stood, tanks, hulking powersuits, artillery, drones, and towed aircraft crossed over. The most formidable army in Terra's history was building up under the noses of every single world power.

"Ah, it seems that the rest of your friends are joining us."

Parker hung up on the Secretary General. "You... YOU! You set me up! You exactly what was going down, but you allowed those Islanders to down my ISV!"

"Correct. For my plans for Terra, I need an army not motivated by greed, but by purpose. Once Kal'tsit witnesses the wrath firsthand, she will have no choice but to see things my way."

The agents surrounded Parker on all sides. With nowhere else to run, he meekly raised his arm up in surrender.

"Goodbye, Mr Selfish." Max ended the call.

Chapter Text

It all came crashing down. Humanity's first spaceship, the first bridge between Earth and the rest of the universe. It was literally in pieces, coming down on the entire city of Trimountis.

Being crushed was the least of our worries. The ISV used a combination of solar power and antimatter reactors to travel. The entire thing was a radioactive death trap. I did not even want to imagine having cancer and Oripathy at the same time.

I looked for the manhole we first used to breach the surface.

"Down here!" I waved over to everyone else.

It was no lead fridge, but we were out of options. Ferdinand and his goons were the first to go. Jara hopped down, and Ifrit held on to Silence as she descended. Finally, Angelina came over and I closed the lid the moment she leaped in.

I hit the ground, suffering through an even worse quake than the one from the rocket launch. Eventually, the tremors subsided. We were all covered in a layer of dust and debris, hopefully non-nuclear.

"Sully..." Angelina coughed, picking herself up. "What was that thing? You looked like you saw it before."

There was no reason to hide it from everyone else. Ifrit and Ferdinand weren't in the know, but they did see an alien spaceship come crashing down.

"It was an ISV" I said. "The RDA used it to move people and goods to Terra."

"RDA? Never heard of that branch before." Ferdinand replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on! You see an alien spaceship level your damn city, and your mind goes to the government?" I replied, frustrated.

"Aliens?" Ifrit asked Silence on the side. "We're under attack, like one of those movies?" She grinned widely. "That sounds badass!"

"I can comprehend the government, thank you very much!" Ferdinand shouted back. "Look, I came into this suspecting foul play between Rhine and Colombia. I spent my time licking the boots of Colonel Blake to get to the bottom of this. He and the military planned to assassinate the vice president, and they would've gotten away with it if I hadn't sneaked some Power Suits from Rhine Labs. Saria... even I was underestimating Rhine's capabilities."

Ifrit sniffled in the background. "No, Silence! I swear I can control it this time..."

"Now, I know the truth. This incident had nothing to do with Rhine's genius, but Kristen Wright, making deals behind everyone's backs with... aliens." He said the last part with disdain. "Rhine Labs wasn't her dream, but ours. She threw it all away in the pursuit of her own desires. Guess Ms Wright had bigger dreams than us. Off laughing her ass off with her alien friends while Rhine Labs, Saria, and everything else burns."

I'll admit, Ferdinand painted a grim picture. The RDA infiltrated and corrupted another corporation in its attempts to control Terra. Rumors were floating around about how the RDA came to be. You don't become the largest business on Earth by holding hands with everyone. I was now hearing it from someone on a different planet. We couldn't even barge into Rhine Labs itself to find documents, or somehow get Ferdinand's testimony back to Earth. Not with the smouldering ruins of the ISV and its crew. From the perspective of Earth, Terra fired first. It was the perfect way to frame an entire planet and its inhabitants.

They'll want to hear nothing from us anymore.

"Is the Doctor still on the line, Sulivan?" Jara asked meekly.

I held the receiver. Nothing but static. Above us, police sirens started to wail over the screams and shouting from the people of Trimountis.

"Sully, what do we do?"

I turned to Angelina, who began to cry. "I wasn't lying from earlier. My goal has always been to see every place Terra has to offer. That was before I knew about Earth, Sully, that there are places no Messenger has even seen. Before these black crystals take my life, I want to see the sun set on your world."

"I won't let you down, Angelina." I said. "Not Terra. Because, goddammnit, they are not taking this place without a fight!"

"Fight back? Have you lost your mind?" Ferdinand replied. "The Arc Horizon Project was one of a kind. It's blasted off to who knows where, and its creator is gone with the wind."

"The RDA had only one of those spaceships when I first left Earth, with another one under construction. The journey from Earth to Terra takes 7 years, but you can add another 3 if they try to retrofit it to support a full-scale invasion. That gives us 10 years to prepare."

"That is still hardly enough," Jara added in. "I knew from the start that they weren't giving us their best technology. Colombia is in no state to further pursue the development of the alien weapons."

"Then, why don't we unite the world together?"

Ferdinand's soldiers laughed me off.

"You know the Victorians can't stand us, right?" Jara took off her shades. "Hell, they're probably planning an invasion of their own. I've caught more than a few spies trying to steal Rhine's secrets."

"That's how we got to space in the first place," I explained. "It took the efforts of people all around the Earth to get a man on the moon."

"Terra lacks long distance communication between nations, or what you call, the Internet." She replied. "Sorry kid, there's just simply too much mistrust in this world for such a thing to happen."

"Make it happen, then!" I begged. "Don't you have any connections left?"

"..." She scratched her forehead. "Indirectly, yes. The intelligence community has taken an interest a certain Feline woman by the name of Kal'tsit. She's a void in our picture of Terra. The only things we know for certain are that she has engaged in various philanthropic endeavors in history, and she is close with the President."

Dr Kal'tsit knows the President? We'd just have to find her, and I had a decent idea where.

We worked our way over to the launch site of the rocket. The ISV provided enough of a diversion to sneak through the tunnels unopposed. After some time, we arrived at ground zero; a massive, gaping silo. I couldn't even see the bottom.

My first thought was that Colombia attempted to build an ICBM, but there was no way in Hell that the RDA would teach them. The project probably was just a space shuttle, but then why was the military involved? Had they tried to weaponize it last minute?

A portion of the ISV ended up in the facility. It was mostly the solar panels, though I could make out what used to be the living compartments further down.

Suddenly, I heard crossbow bolts fired. We hit the deck in time for the arrows to sail over. Footsteps rapidly approached.

Trouble. And lots of it.

"Should've known the military would be sent in to keep watch." Ferdinand spoke as his men formed a firing line.

"No, it's Maylander!" Jara replied. "The military would've stopped us from getting close. Maylander set up a honeypot. They are going to incriminate the first saps who stumble into here."

There was only one avenue of escape left.

I headed over to the broken window, leading to the chasm below.

"Sully, what are you-" Angelina started.

I leaped, falling for several seconds before landing on the solar panel array. Even in a broken state, those titanic plates could still support the weight of a man. My hands were cut on some broken glass, otherwise.

I waved up towards the rest of them. One by one, they too took the plunge. From there, we parkoured down the ISV's wreckage.

Eventually, we reached a hole the ISV punched through the bottom of the silo. Inside... the place didn't even feel like it was part of the same facility.

It was a futuristic bunker, but it ran off of my ideas of what the future is. Sleek, monochrome, and dim lights. The ISV did a number on the place, for sure. There were bodies everywhere. I couldn't identify any of them. Strange black slabs also littered the place. They reminded me of coffins.

Holy shit. We stumbled into a high-tech doomsday bunker.

Suddenly, a seemingly innocent puddle of water rematerialized as a young woman with leaf-like head pins. She startled as I stuck her up with my crossbow, but then the lady recognized the Rhine Labs folk among us.

"Jara, Silence, and Ferdinand?" Tears streaked down her face.

"Mumu?" Ifrit spoke, delighted. "Hell yeah! I can't believe you jumped out of that rocket!"

"Figured out something was up with this whole Project, right Muelsyse?" Jara probed the woman, who continued to sob.

"Kristen called it the Galleria Stellaria. She would take Rhine Labs and put it up there with the stars. I'm deathly vulnerable to Originum, so I always hoped that somewhere out there was a place not touched by those crystals."

I was very familiar with such a planet.

"The launch began far ahead of schedule. I used my Arts to save myself from the explosion. That's how I ended up in this freakish place."

"What about Dr Parvis? And the other directors?" Silence added.

"I don't know of the others, but I am sure that goat was on the rocket as well. I couldn't save him." She slumped her head.

"Dammit!" Silence cursed.

"Hey, Miss Muelsyse" Time to ask the big question here. "Any idea who tampered with the rocket?"

"That would be me, Sulivan."

Stepping out of the shadows was no other than Kal'tsit. The Doctor was behind her too, but alarmingly, Rosmontis was MIA.

"Where's the girl?" I said.

"I tried, Sullivan." The Doctor lamented. "She visited Dr Loken, and he caused her trauma to resurface. She lost control. She would have destroyed Rhine Labs if Kal'tsit hadn't..."

It became obvious what went down while I was split from Rhodes Island.

"Ifrit. Your breathing!" Silence warned on the side.

"No! I'm not letting it take over again!" Ifrit wiped sweat from her forehead.

Meanwhile, I was ripping into the one who got us into this mess.

"Why the Hell did you let her come, then? If she was that unstable?" She stared blankly at me. "This is why putting children on the battlefield is a goddamn war crime on Earth!"

Something surfaced out of that pale-haired Feline. Fury.

"Not another word from your 'Earth' morals, Sullivan." She turned away from us. "The exit is in the back. If we hurry..."

"Excuse me?"

Ferdinand's soldiers pointed their crossbows at Dr Kal'tsit. "I believe you owe all of us an explanation."

A black, crystalline monster slid out from under her clothes. Standing between Kal'tsit and Ferdinand, it growled in a low voice.

"Just when I've seen everything..." Ferdinand groaned. "Don't make me turn you in to Maylander! Right, Jara? This woman and her monster sabotaged everything. Rhine is gone, and she attracted the wrath of an alien armada!"

"Alright. How do we get past the monster?" She replied sarcastically.

I wasn't getting anywhere with Kal'tsit. Maybe...

"Doc."

He jumped, drawing the attention of both Kal'tsit and her pet.

"What the hell is this place?"

"I-It was the burial ground for..."

"Doctor!" Kal'tsit sharply yelled.

"They are our only chance at this point! Why can't you understand that?" The Doctor protested. "Sully... Angelina... you were at their base. You two have a better idea of how Earth fights than anyone else on Terra. Kal'tsit, if they help Terra stop them, then it will slow down the Priest-"

"Do not speak her name!" Kal'tsit yelled.

"Whoa whoa, slow down! What's this business with a Priest..." I stopped. "Is this some cult we're dealing with?"

"No, Sully. My people." The Doctor replied. Dr Kal'tsit's monster stood down. "There was this guy in a robot, Friston, whose job was to look over us while we were in cryosleep. They perished after Ms Wright made a deal with him to use the sarcophagi as a power source for her rocket. Now, Im the only one left. Or so I thought. Friston detected the presence of a survivor, the Priestess."

"Another one... You were lying to Doc the entire time?" I shot at Dr Kal'tsit.

"It is in the best interest of Terra that he not learn who she is."

"Friston didn't have to die!" The Doctor cried out.

"It is unacceptable that she is working with the invaders." She coldly replied. "If Friston could feel her presence, that can only mean she is active once more. I had to manipulate the launch of H.A.M.M.E.R. to buy us time. Time we wouldn't have if Friston told you the truth, Doctor."

He clutched the sides of his head in grief. The RDA found someone who was involved in Doc's civilization and had already enlisted her?

I looked around the room again. Did RD want the Priestess for her technology? Earth already had more than enough firepower to level all the cities on Terra several times over. What more could she offer to them?

"I don't understand what goes on in that head of yours, but you put Terra on a 10-year countdown to destruction," I said to her face. "The good news is that we can match them if all of Terra contributes to the advancement of its weapons. I'm talking planes and missiles. Because otherwise, we will lose the moment they take off."

"The solution lies in Victoria." She replied. "Originally, our operation in the empire had no intent on bringing Terra together. However... There is still time for adjustments."

Then, from above, several Maylanders jumped us. They quickly pinned down Jara, Ferdinand, and Silence. Ifrit was taken away from Silence's hands.

Before I could do or say anything, a plump bird that barely reached up to the agents' knees presented itself.

"Hello, Madam!" It waved its feathers.

Kal'tsit snarled at the bird. "You still hate my guts, yes. Here's something that ought to brighten things up! I will hand out these pardons here," He pulled out a couple of slips of paper from his coat. "If you allow Ifrit into government custody."

"And if we don't?" I ask.

"Hmm. The minimum would be life sentences. Though, since you set my beautiful city of science and progress on fire, the judges are feeling a bit more wrathful."

We were out of options. I wasn't going to lose another kid on this operation, but...

"You have my word." Dr Kal'tsit spoke through grilled teeth.

"H-Huh?" Angelina sputtered.

"Why are you doing this in person?" Dr Kal'tsit took the papers from his wing.

"Because I just wanted to let you know, Colombia is well on its way to succeeding where you failed. The Union Army is repelling the Leithanien coalition in Bolivar as we speak." He said before waddling on out. "Toodles!"

Kal'tsit handed us our pardons. I don't know what to say. The Doctor's friend is working with the RDA. Kal'tsit threw Ifrit under the bus. And the leader of this country is a Thanksgiving dinner.

I read through the pardon. The name on the signature was Mark Max.

How in the hell does that turkey write?

Londinium Outskirts, Victoria

Sent ahead of the UN's invasion was a team of Recombinants, Avatar drivers whose minds had been fully transplanted into their bodies. This allowed them to operate not only behind enemy lines but also with superhuman strength. They are visually indistinguishable from Terrans, but until recently, the RDA could not successfully create an Avatar of the Sarkaz people. Researchers were stumped at linking the bodies to the hive mind, or "ancestral rage" that Sarkaz are attached to.

With a timely donation from Colombia's present, this was now possible. SCI-OPs fast-tracked the development of Sarkaz Avatar bodies based on the 12 Marines who perished in Hell's Gate. They would be flown into Londinium to sneak into their superweapon, the Shard. From there, they would steal its technology for Earth's terraformation.

All Quaritch had to do was play the part.

First, the Recombinants initiated a HALO jump 20,000 feet above Victorian airspace out the back of a Valkyrie shuttle. Or, in actuality, UN airspace, as the Victorians lacked an air force, and Electronic Warfare planes jammed all radars in the area.

After roughly a minute of freefall, Quaritch and his men pulled their chutes. They would hit the ground harder and faster than what a typical parachutist could handle, but their Avatar bodies far surpassed humans.

Quaritch stared down at the swiftly approaching ground. Noticing an error in the mission parameters, he cursed over the radio.

"Brace, ladies! We're smashing through-"

The 1st Recom Unit came crashing through a derelict building. Quaritch, Wainfleet, and four others ended up in the attic, while the rest of the unit scattered outside. The spent parachute harnesses had gotten them entangled in a mess.

Quaritch heard voices from downstairs.

He and his men quickly tore off their bindings and charged down to the 1st floor, weapons drawn. The weapons were not fully automatic rifles but instead crossbows with belt-strapped machetes. The recoms could not go in with their guns as the Sarkaz occupiers saw them as symbols of their archenemy, the Sankta.

Downstairs, at the storefront, was a youngish couple with cat ears. Their cover wasn't blown just yet.

"D-Demons!" The wife shrieked.

"Something's not right here." The husband asked skeptically. "Look how different they dress from those brutes. They're covered head to toe in armor, and it's a different style from the royal guard." He gulped. "Are you with them?"

Quaritch strode up to his face. "Listen here. We will leave our gear up in your attic, and you will not tell a peep about this to the Victorians or Insurgents."

"Insurgents? Have you come to rescue us?" The Feline man pleaded.

Several more Recoms entered the building. "Colonel Quaritch, sir! A Sarkaz patrol is approaching our position." One of the marines, codenamed "Ja", reported.

"Right on time." He replied. "Tie 'em up."

The Recoms still had all of their combat experience from Earth, allowing them to work with ruthless efficiency. 6 kept the shopkeepers detained, while the other half was up in the attic, disposing of their skydiving gear. The Marines then rotated positions. In minutes, the 1st Recom Unit now appeared identical to run-of-the-mill Sarkaz mercenaries. Each Recom carried a backup plan in case the mission went south, compact assault rifles hidden within their packs.

Quaritch ordered his men out of the building. They formed an arrowhead, the Colonel being the tip. In his hands were the hostages.

"We caught these two passing Commission secrets," Quaritch explained to the Kazdelians' leader, an exceptionally burly man with long, dark maroon hair. A greatsword nearly as long as he was tall, was slung on his back, like a proud trophy.

"Secrets?" He laughed. "Can't say I've seen your squad around here, but keep it up, and you'll get to high places in the Commssion. Now, where are the documents?"

"They burned the evidence upon our entry," Quaritch answered, causing the two within his grasp to squirm. He tightened his grip on their necks, almost causing them the pass out.

"Ease up on them. General Manfred needs every Victorian for the war effort." The Sarkaz warrior responded, looking up at the ruined building. "Looks like your team took one hell of a fall."

"We breached from the top to catch the enemy by surprise," Quaritch spoke the partial truth. Nonetheless, the Sarakz Warrior seemed impressed by his lies.

"Now that's what I want to hear! If more of us Sarkaz fought like you, then this damn war would be over already." He offered his hand. "You can call me Hoederer. Do you have a name too?"

Quaritch slowly accepted his offer. "...Dragon."

"Dragon. The fire-breathing beasts the Tarans worship, spitting fire and doom to those below. Bold. I like it. Just don't go calling yourself that around the Dublinners, yeah?"

"Where's the Shard?" Quaritch asked, causing Hoederer's face to light up.

"The Shard, you say? Hand the Felines over to us." Quaritch did as told, giving them to Hoederer's men. "General Manfred is planning a massive operation against the rebel forces in this area. Come along with me, kill some Felines, and I'll guarantee you a seat on Theresis's tower. Sound good?"

Quaritch formed a genuine smile. "Great. Let's skin go those Kit Kats."

The Colonel, and by extension the rest of the unit, was confident. As they spoke, the UN's ground forces crossed the Victorian border from the south west. Meanwhile, airpower completely dominated the skies, sending laser guided bombs down the gun barrels of Victorian battleships. The strategy not to simply airdrop troops into Londinium and become surrounded by their fleets. Instead, the United States and its European allies sent a combined, multinational army of men, tanks, walkers, artillery, and motorized vehicles. Cruise missiles and air dropped bombs previously designed by the RDA to destroy landships were transferred to the military's inventory. Together, the ground and air forces would carve a path of carnage on such a massive scale that Earth's dominance over Terra can not be denied. The eastern members, led by Russia, were still busy massing up in Valhalla to prepare for another invasion if the rest of Terra didn't surrender after the fall of Victoria.

Given the cool demeanor of his new "friend", the worst of it had not reached Londinium. This gave Quaritch a time limit to get in the Shard and out, as once the UN reached Central Londinium, there would likely be nothing left.

He and his Marines moved out with the Kazdelians, without knowing that Hoederer had ulterior motives of his own.

"They are obviously Colombians. The Confessors had been pulling their hair out about them stealing their secrets of life and death. Perhaps they will assist in my cause..." He thought to himself.

Chapter Text

Several days after the incident, we were called into Rhodes Island's war room. Doc, Kal'tsit, and Amiya, the usual suspects. Amiya, however, was on edge. Perhaps the Doc and Kal'tsit were too, but they are practically impossible to read.

"The Victorian capital is occupied by commissioned mercenaries sent by Kazdel's royalty." Dr Kal'tsit recapped."The objective is not to usurp Kazdel from Londinium, but Kazdel itself."

She turned to face Amiya, who jumped in her seat. "Kazdel was torn apart by civil war not long ago. Theresa..." Dr Kal'tsit stopped herself. In a moment, she became all cold and distant. More than usual.

She resumed. "The Reagent slew Kazdel's King and is now enacting his revenge against Victoria for its destruction of Kazdel. He will surely broaden his horizons, as Victoria was not the only actor behind the carnage."

"Then what makes this different? Didn't this Kazdel place already get its ass kicked?" I spoke.

"There is a relic of our old civilization within Londinum. Theresis was given the knowledge of how to activate it. I suspect he plans to use it to create a Catastrophe that completely covers Terra."

Amiya winced. Angelina stood up on her chair.

"No way! I've been to Kazdel once or twice. Odd jobs, I can tell. The people down there are rough around the edges, but at the same time, kinda burnt out. Would they really go through with this madness, 'cause the rest of the world may launch a counterattack..." She gasped. "The RDA! What if they figure out Kazdel's plans?"

Dr Kal'tsit sent her a chilling gaze. "The new Kazdel will not tolerate their meddling."

"O-kay..." Angelina sat down. I noticed that Amiya appeared distracted, her eyes darting around bit. Once they landed at me, she returned to her stoic posture.

I knew there was something up with her. Amiya's the leader of Rhodes Island, but it's Kals'tit or the Doctor that call most of the shots. Her Oripathy monitoring equipment is unique to her, and something about this business with "Thersea" seriously worked her up.

"Alright, what's going on with Amiya?" I said.

"Amiya is the King's true successor." Dr Kal'tsit explained. "Before Theresa's demise, she chose Amiya, not just to carry on her legacy, but to end Kazdel's cycle of violence. A long lineage of cruel leaders has perpetually oppressed the Sarkaz. Theresa was the only one to subvert this trend. She wished for a better future. And before we called ourselves Rhodes Island, we fought for that future as well. However, it did not come to fruition. The opposition forces infiltrated our organization and assassinated Theresa. The movement collapsed, and we were forced to flee. Today, our goal to cure Oripathy was one of Theresa's wishes, but now we can act on her true goal."

Amiya was a runaway noble. No wonder she had a somewhat classy aura around herself. But there was an obvious problem. Amiya was well respected in Rhodes, but her mentor was executed by the rebels. No way in hell that she would be accepted unless...

"Amiya has the Lord of Fiend's power." Kal'tsit continued.

"Dr Kal'tsit!" Amiya protested. "You said I was to tell no one-"

"It will be our solution to the Reagent and Sullivan's former employers." Dr Kal'tsit replied.

Once again, Amiya appeared hesitant. Dr Kal'tsit ignored her.

"We will be arriving at the outskirts momentarily. The Military Commission will have picked up our landship's movements on radar, so find the contact as soon as you touch ground. I notified her of your arrival."

With that, I departed to make the final preparations for the mission. I didn't want to jinx it, but I had the same feeling about Trimountis. Kal'tsit was saddling us with another one of her "kids" again. The RDA may or may not be lurking in the area. But she had Amiya had power, right? The same power that obviously scarred Ifrit and Rosmontis for life. Amiya seemed well adjusted compared to them, but the something about the RDA she couldn't stomach.

It was the beginning of the end for all of.

Later, our situation follows: we're close to Londinium's walls. Damn, I have to admit they are pretty impressive. Earth ditched the idea long ago when artillery became too powerful, and in the modern age were airplanes rule, forget about it. Given they still stood tall and proud, it perhaps meant that the RDA wasn't involved yet.

We were looking for a smuggler to sneak us through the checkpoint. The place was swarming with Dublinn fighters. Yeah, another group of terrorists was causing trouble in the capital. Don't think they are with the Sarkaz, though. Anyways, getting caught at this stage would draw their attention to the outskirts, so we had to move carefully. Amiya sent out a separate recon team, lead by Siege, cool girl by the way, to warn us about patrols.

The first sign was when her gang went dark.

Amiya didn't say anything at first. She started fiddling with the comms, clearly distressed. The Doctor was over her immediately. Closure, Rhode Island's chief engineer, probed her.

"What's wrong? Is it acting up?" She groaned. "The landship's radar was giving us trouble the moment we entered Victorian territory. Now the comms too..."

"It's not that..." Amiya spoke.

I stepped in. "Siege is off the grid."

Amiya jumped, confirming my suspicions.

"The only reason why you go dark is if trouble finds you." I add.

She seized up. Indecisiveness filled her eyes.

"Amiya!" The Doctor spoke.

"Dammit, get it together!" I shouted at her.

I was not going to have a repeat of what happened last time.

"Get it together. We are in a warzone. People die. I witnessed it firsthand. And if you can't handle it, then I'm running this operation my way."

Closure's eyes went wide. "Holy crap, I can't remember the last time you got scolded lie that, Amiya."

She took a deep breath. "We can continue without Siege. Everyone, just be more careful from now on."

Those words pained her, but she soldiered on.

Colonel Quaritch received an alert on his PDA. His troops were still being escorted by the Sarkaz officer. He appeared distracted by the enlisted Sarkaz, so the Recombinant took the opportunity to duck away into an alley to communicate with mission control.

"A spy plane went down in the Londinium outskirts. We need you to seize its intel before the enemy finds it." A hologram was projected of a middle aged woman in uniform.

"Commander Ardmore, I gained the enemy's trust." Quaritch's back was against the wall. He spoke in a hushed voice. "Diverting now will blow our cover to high hell."

"This is of immediate importance, Quaritch. If the Victorians reverse engineer the aircraft, then the UN will lose total air superiority over Terra. We cannot have air raids terrorizing the future Originium mining operations, and that means keeping Victoria grounded at any cost."

The device displayed a holographic map providing directions to the crashed aircraft.

"Shit. The briefings said these punks had no AA capability."

"It was likely the Dublinn group, Colonel. Their technology is ahead of the Victorians and Sarkaz, but overpowering them in a direct fight will be no issue due to your Recombinant bodies. Arrive at the waypoint ASAP and deal with any witnesses at the site."

She cut the feed. Quaritch sighed, stood up, and rejoined the rest of his troop.

The Sarkaz ahead of him remained engrossed in their conversation.

"What's the situation, boss?" Wainfleet asked.

Quaritched whispered the details into his ear.

"We'll have to fight are way back in. At least we'll see what these bodies can really do." He replied, flexing hiss muscles.

Quaritch moved to the front of the formation. "Follow me! We're hauling ass!"

He diverted the troops down a street, leaving the Sarkaz's sight. Hoederer immediately took notice.

"Want us to tail them, boss?" One of the warriors ask.

"Yes, but do not engage until I give the order. I want to see where this leads..." Hoederer replied.

The spy plane crashed on the outskirts of Londinium. Quaritch and his men spotted it several hundred meters away. It was entirely black and had a single, triangular delta wing. Too large to be a drone, but too small for it to be the Blackbird. The Recombinants werent sure of its identity, but they knew who it belonged to, and who it did not.

Quaritch gave them the go signal. 2 men in Dublinn uniforms spotted the Recombinants and pulled out their sabers. They were outnumbered and overpowered with ease.

"Wha... Sarkaz?" One of the Dublinners got out before being gored through the mask by Quaritch.

"Wainfleet, form a perimeter around the site." He ordered.

Lyre and the others provide cover for Quaritch as he approached the plane's cockpit...

When word of a crashed Victorian aircraft came around, Indra and Dadga broke off from the recon squad to investigate, hopefully to get the intelligence Amiya needed.

Instead, they stumbled into the largest conspiracy in Terran history.

"The hell is going on with this machine? It had a giant screen in the middle, see? No fancy instruments or anything." Indra inspected the cockpit. The layout was minimal, consisting of the steering and a cracked central monitor.

"And there is no pilot to ask," Dadga replied. "Behind the throttles should be the seat, if its anything like a Steam Knight." She looked at hole in the aircraft's roof. "Perfect rectangle. Escape mechanism."

"Alright, so our pilot is out here somewhere. I'll let Vina know. This could be our secret weapon..."

Before Indra could contact her, she heard shouting from outside.

"Shit! Dublinn!"

"I hear more voices! At least 30!" Dadga replied.

"30? They have the same idea as us?"

The cockpit's canopy was torn off by a lone figurr. He appeared to be a veteran Sarkaz mercenary with greying hair and a cross, chiseled face.

His attention shifted to Indra, and his expression soured. "Rhodes Island."

Wordlessly, Dadga pounced the man, slicing his face. He stumbled back and let a bloodcurdling scream.

The other Sarkaz mercenaries surrounded their superior.

They pulled out firearms.

"Bloody Hell, Sankta guns..." Indra was pinned down by a mercenary. One foot on her back, he gripped one of her arms.

"Colonel Quaritch, Sir! She has the wristband. Rhodes Island is active in the AO!"

They were not with the Commission.

"Huh... Just what in the Hell are you Colombians doing here!?" Indra screamed, but the mercenary stomped on her back.

She glanced at Dagda. The guy she was on was circling around, cursing up a storm. The Feline's claw was latched onto his face. For a moment, Indra believed that their pint-sized powerhouse could turn things around.

With a sickening thud, the old merc smashed Dagda into the aircraft's hull. She puked up blood, paralyzed in pain, fear and trauma. The "Colonel" wiped the blood off his face, revealing a fresh scare that ran down his face. He snarled, gritting his teeth with clenched fists.

It was worse than the day the Tower Knights were betrayed. Back then, Dagda and her comrades made a last stand against an enemy her country willingly invited.

But who were these soldiers?

No one invited them.

They just crossed over into Victorian territory unopposed.

Aircraft was flying over Londinium walls for unknown purposes

"Colonel Quaritch, the intel is secure." A soldier, female, reported to her superior with a black box in hand.

"Good." He calmed down. "I'll let command know of Rhodes Island. The Army Rangers will get the go-ahead and take care of them."

"Rangers... You bastards were tailing our friends?" Indra screamed, struggling. She gazed over to Dadga, who was unconscious. "NO! We devoted our lives to Queen, to get Vina back on her throne! It can't end like this. We didn't even get past the walls..."

"The hell you're babbling about, street cat?" The Sarkaz on her back spoke.

"Don't waste your breath, Lyre. All command needs to know is that Rhodes Island stuck their heads where they don't belong, again." Quaritch scowled. "This time... no prisoners. Smash her comms. Two in the head, one in the torso."

"This is her focking nation!" Indra yelled, and the man pulled out a rifle from his pack. "Get off of me, you... Demon!"

She felt a sharp, thunderous pain erupt in the back of her skull. Shock overtook the Feline's body, but her mind continued to race.

"Vina... Ugh..."

Two more ended up in her spine, and it was lights out.

"Colonel, we got more contacts moving in from the city!" Ja reported. Meanwhile, Quaritch was occupied by a nondescript building.

"There." He pointed. "The others are in that home. All units, spray it down!"

Meanwhile

"Gunshots!" Siege hissed from her observatory.

"Don't risk it, Vina!" Morgan warned. "Contact Amiya first, maybe they can get us out of this jam."

"If I don't act now, Indra and Dagda will die!" The runaway noble shot back, stomping over to the window.

She stared out the window.

Death stared back at her...

Victoria's puppetmaster won't allow them to break her toys.