[IC] The System

[Shadow-Thief]

In the Space Station Echo, the hustle and bustle of civilian workers and scientist's run around working hard making sure the life support systems are functioning properly, the artificial AI programming in the system for the artificial dragoon unit is functioning properly, making sure the Soldiers, Elites, and projects are getting food and the proper amounts of Serum necessary to have the Projects who are involuntary to serve in the fight against the rebellion. It is about chow time and the soldiers are all taking a break from their extensive training field exercises to enjoy a hot 'meal'. A young project was amongst those ranks. Redesigned after an older model he agreed to never name himself over the false pride going through his mind. The serum changes the genetics slightly in him due to the older model type. From a dark sea blue to a dull grey. HIs model is #153, an aviation unit capable of piloting any aircraft of vehicle with the most expertise on hand. With an added function he was given (And although thought over many times before it happened) added the infantry Project's ability of regeneration, Project #154's ability was to master any weapon available, along with hand to hand combat, his flaw was his ability to resist the serum over time due to his regeneration status, always rejecting the mind control. "The start of the resistance." The first CEO quoted.

154's struggle against a tyrant proved to end in failure. His dying works through a radio stated "Fend for... yourself... and you will free yourself..." he said as a soldier puts a final bullet in his head.

The boy remembers the broadcast clearly from a few weeks ago, displaying on why the rebels think their fighting a cause and may win. One stood against many. The boy looked at himself and sighed blinking his dull grey eyes down at his oven baked chicken and rice. with an eye twitching some of his friends who are soldiers comes over.

"Sup red?" One of them asks, Private Carlson was his name, fairly built for an 18 year old, slimmed down, blond high and tight, green eyes. The average look for a rifleman.

"Hello Privet Carlson." The boy says still looking at his food.

"Cut the crap man, the serum stuff can't be that bad for you? Right?" Carlson says.

The boy nodded and looked up at the young rifleman. is eyes greyer and duller then usual, but still noticeable from the whites around it.

"Damn red..."

"Why do you call me red?" He asks out of curiosity.

"Well your sixteen, don't know your name, your pale so it be rude to call you little white kid, but your hair is dark red and it matches you perfect... I wouldn't call you a ginger for the fact that you look like a killer." He says explaining.

"I see, the CEO will be eating here today, supposable to give morale to the elite unit."

"Other projects seem to eating here too... the loyalists group is growing."

Red nodded and looked around at all his technique brothers and sisters. "Like a family."

Below on the unnamed resistance planet the rebellion is currently under fire by a squad of soldiers lead by a fire-team leader Elite. He is conducting buddy rushing to cancel out the rebels gorilla warfare to get closer to their targets. The fight takes place in a dense forest full of green trees and shallow water. Vines and branches seem to be the biggest obstacles to be in the way for both sides. The leader of the rebellion is currently in the firefight as well. His name is Captain Killday. He stands at a fair height of 5'9" and has long black hair symbolizing his carless but brutal way of battle. His motive is to drive away the System in hopes to have a safe place for refugees from other planets come and live peacefully. To the system this is a sign of terrorism and must be destroyed at once. Gorilla warfare is working its magic, shoot, run,, ambush, shoot again. An endless cycle of that will overwhelm any human soldier. The Elite is the only one who can see passed this maneuver and try to point out their points of stikes. One by one soldiers die by the hands of the rebels and even the Elite takes a shot.

"Keep up the fire! WE GOT THIS!" Killday yells motivating his troops as they continue their efforts to kill, or capture."

[FateWeaver]

A hail of gunfire announced the approach of soldiers, causing Cinder to turn his head. The sound of war came from all directions, making it impossible for him to tell who might be coming. It didn't particularly matter, either. At this point, both sides were likely to see him as an enemy and kill him on sight. Reaching down into the fire he had been tending, Cinder let it coil about his arm like a pet snake, leaving only ashes on the ground. He felt the heat of the fire, but knew it would not burn him, and he had long ago burned away the sleeve that would go over his right arm.

When three soldiers appeared, in standard issue System body armor, they stopped at the sight of the flames. Their mistake.

"I'm never going back. Not alive." A flick of Cinder's wrist sent the flames out to consume one man before any of the three opened fire. The man screamed as he cooked inside the armor, and the other two started shooting in controlled bursts. As he dropped and rolled away, Cinder exerted his will on the burning husk he had created, spreading the flame to the legs of the other men. They screamed too, and Cinder grinned. It was satisfying to get just a little more revenge on those who had created him, and he stood watching the flames for a few minutes.

Before they could die out, he strode over to scoop them back onto his arm. Walking away from the direction the soldiers had come, Cinder unknowingly headed towards the leader of the resistance.

[Wernher]

Music

"What's that in her glass?"

"I dunno, sure looks like sperm though."

There was a chuckle around the table before Le Marne, chief of the elites present, gave a swift slap on the stomach to the elite next to him as to make him shut up. They were in a stylish room with a marble floor but where walls or a ceiling were supposed to be, they seemed to be eating on the terrace of a French like Chateau, around them a vineyard stretching to a forest in the distance, the sky being of a perfect and infinite blue, like Earth used to be. They even felt the wind and the warmth of the sun. This was not real, all the walls in fact monitors displaying an image, the heat and wind were other trickery of technology. On the table, champagne, confit de canard, lobster and white beluga sturgeon caviar shared place with other items, the rarity of such making people doubt the species even existed anymore. Cloning was a marvel it seemed, even in culinary science. The Elites however did not eat for the moment, merely sipping their champagne in the wait of the principal interested and owner of all they saw before them. Veronika Cornikova Tolstoy, daughter of Cornik Orvchenko Tolstoy and great great great grand daughter of Ivan Petrenchko Tolstoy which was at one point the richest human on the planet and leader of the colonization of space. Tolstoy was indeed a respected name.

"Introducing Veronika Cornikova Tolstoy, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Tolstoy group!"

The elites quickly pushed their chairs back and got up in respect as a woman entered the 'room' by opening a door leading to the illusion of a french mansion behind them, followed by 4 secretaries behind her. There was of course a lot of rumor about the... physical and mental instability of the White Mantis, but she looked... good. Human, platinum blond at the point of being white hairs, white shirt under an expensive trouser suit. She seemed young, in her 20s maybe, but there was something off about this. It seemed too perfect in many ways, like it was Photoshopped, there was absolutely no imperfection to be found. Le Marne got up and pulled Veronika's chair for her, pushing it in as she was sitting. There was no look of thanks or appreciation. It wasn't a favor from a gentleman to a lady, it was expected and if Le Marne hadn't done it, someone else would have.

"Right. Sit down gentlemen. I thank you for being here today."

Well, not like anyone had a choice, when a CEO summons you, you bet your ass you answer to the summon, especially if it was the dreaded White Mantis. The Elites began to sit down and all looked at Veronika. It wasn't Le Marne's first time at this but he couldn't help, being at the immediate right seat of her, to feel at unease. The CEO took a sip of whatever the hell the white goo in her glass was and it seemed visibly to relax her. Veronika took the salt bowl and added a pinch, then another and another. A surprising habit, didn't all that remove the taste and the point of having such exquisite food? Le Marne looked in front of him to see another elite smile. He rolled his eye, the god damn sperm joke. Tolstoy took a bite and the others around the table saw this as their cue to begin eating. It was silent at first but after a few short minutes, Veronika spoke.

"Gentlemen... Elites. Under our feet on a small planet that I frankly already forgot the name of, one of your co-worker, Elite Stevenson, is currently battling rebels. As I suspected, this woodland is diseased with this scum and as the gardener of society, I must now tend to this weed. You will remove it, burn it and salt the earth as no weed ever grow back once you are done. I put my confidence in you to achieve this. You have manpower, superior training and equipment and a dragoon unit on stand-by. Upon success you will all receive a sizable bonus pay check and upon failure... Well, I have no need to put in place diciplinary measure as after all, you will have failed should you die and the rebellion not be put down. This of course mean that I expect you to do your job as it is written in your work contract that I pay you to fight and possibly die on duty. Failure to win or die will be considered a breach of contract and thus, you may refer to the termination of contract articles in them."

Terminate your contract and we terminate you, basically. Although Veronika was right, the power they had was overwhelming, defeat was nearly unthinkable.

"As this blight spreads to other planets and the rebellion grows, so must our security forces. There will be a significant number of openings at all level of the hierarchy and thus, I will promote those that perform best in this operation. I will myself land my personal craft planet side and observe your work, of all of you."

Le Marne frowned, she'd be landing?

"Erm, madam, if I may interject... You will be landing?"

She turned toward him, almost instantly making him regret to speak up. Rule number 1 to respect when working for the White Mantis: Don't attract attention on yourself.

"Yes I will, is that a problem?"

"Well, sir, rebel activity on this planet is significant and while I have no doubt we can crush this scum, I cannot guarantee your safety if you are so close to the--"

He immediately regretted using these words.

"Cannot guarantee my safety?! Then, you..."

She struggled to remember the name of Le Marne. This always amazed him, he had been her chief of operations for 1 and a half year but struggled to remember his name. Then again, she always referred to her secretaries as 'Secretaries', even those who had been working for her for more than a decade.

"...Then why do I pay you? IT'S YOUR DAMN JOB! If this man cannot guarantee my security, is there no one here competent enough to do his job properly?!"

There was a silence around the table before at the other edge of the table one elite stood up.

"I can, milady."

The table was pretty much set up based on experience and service time. This guy, Cubric his name was, had been an elite for what, 2 months?

"FINALLY! This, this gentlemen!"

It was Veronika's turn to get up and point with enthusiasm at Cubric. The boy must have been 22 year old.

"This is what we fight for! The right of opportunity without the restriction of a 'State'! An organism stealing from the hardworking to feed parasites! In our system, our beloved corporatism, you and I are free to seize opportunity and be rewarded from our efforts, skills and intelligence! I have thrown an opportunity and someone at this table had the balls to seize it! You, my good man, will lead this operation! And all of you see him as a man to be emulated!"

"My lady, Elite Cubric is a good soldier, but he was promoted 2 months ago, he doesn't have the experience to handle such an operation and--"

"He sits at this table! He as the title ELITE for Christ sake! If he wasn't able to command he wouldn't have this title now would he? Or are you saying that you promote incompetents to such a role?!"

"No ma'am, but--"

"BUT NOTHING! What are you, 40? 50? Toiled all your life to get where you are now?"

She waved her finger at Cubric.

"Like I said, a man to be emulated, believe my experience as a CEO, only the weak willed who achieve nothing wait for life to give them what they want and this man... He had the guts to say that he could do your job despite being an Elite for only 2 months. And you know what? I'll allow him to show me if he can. He who risks nothing, gains nothing. I like to have officers that are willing to stick their neck out and that don't cower in front of the task before them. We need to be bold! Carpe Diem for the love of god, seize the day! This is the motto of this great corporation and it should be yours too!"

Veronika leaned back from the table before taking the napkin, swiping it across her lips and throwing it on her meal, which she had hardly taken more than 3 bites. "I am full and I have other matters to attend to. You drop in 2 hours, be ready."

__________________

On the corridor leading to the cafeteria, Le Marne walked up to Cubric. knowing what his senior would say, the young man sighed.

"Look, I know what you're going to say Le Marne but you threw me this opportunity and there's no way I'm passing this chance. I could retire before I'm 40, 30 even if I get this promotion. No hard feeling."

Le Marne shook his head and raised a hand to interrupt him.

"Look kid. You're going to regret this, and I'm talking about even if you actually win the war down there. Life in security is a mine field both in combat and outside of it, you need to be slower to be sure you don't detonate something that will kill you."

"Yeah, so? That's exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing now. Think I can to keep being on the front line for what, 10 or 20 more years? Fuck this shit, I'll go through the damn ranks and get out of this business quicker than a street urchin with a stolen wallet. This discussion is over. Get your gear and go to your men soldier, I'm in charge now, not you, old man."

________________________

"Alright men..."

There was talking in the cafeteria, all going around the theme of 'Why's the new kid on the stage' and 'Where's Le Marne?'.

"Hey, HEY! I'm talking maggots! Right. So minor changes in the plan. I'm in charge and OH SHUT UP! And yeah. We'll keep to the established plan in all other aspects except Le Marne will take team one to replace team 6 and 7 to bring up the rear. Team 7 will be on reserve while team 6 and I will handle security of CEO Veronika Tolstoy.... That's right people, the boss lady is watching and I have great news for you. After this, the boss is planing to add a new barrack back on HQ, whole lot of new guys will enter and that also means a whole lot of officer and elite spots to fill in. I've been an elite for 2 months and working corporate security for 3 years and now, I'm in charge of an entire planetary operation. And you know what? I just come back from eating a meal with one of the most powerful person in the universe. There was caviar, and god damn fancy roasted duck and lobster and champagne and mead, all with super fancy french name like Hydromel and Canard Confit. Have you guys seen white beluga sturgeon caviar? This shit costs 500k the ounce and I got to EAT it!"

There was silence in the room and Cubric raised his arm, pointing at the assembly.

"This, people, this is in reach of you. You don't have to wait for 20 god damn years before having a more or less decent job and even there, you'd still have some jackass the age you have now ordering you around, no, you could be this jackass ordering people around from a corner office, or at least get a suit of power armor as fancy as mine. All you have to do is remember your training and put every ounce of yourself into this. I won't lie, there are risks to take, but remember that if you want, if you're willing to take these risks, the reward will be fucking sweet."

[Elevator Music]

Gunshots and explosions echoed through the forest trees, plumes of smoke reached to the skies through the canopy of the raging battle below. In a clearing not far from the commotion, what appeared to be a seven foot tall man, sat perched on a log unmoving. Up close, this "man" was actually a scrap metal mech, brandishing a heavy machine gun, a flare launcher and all sorts of bits and pieces of the like. It whirred and hummed, the extrinsic winky face plastered on the head, but on the inside holographic panels displayed information at blurring speeds to make room for the next line of intel. Murmurs of commands and whispers of enemy transmissions bombarded the speakers of the mech's innards. The feint light of the monitors illuminated the doe-like mossy green eyes that flew in all directions, absorbing all the information being brought into the goliath's body. Sue sat as motionless as her patchwork mech, only the jittery movement of her eyes were an indicator that she was a living being, rather than some doll... within another doll.
Sue had effortlessly hacked into the network mainframe of the System's raid group, relaying all information back to the home base of the Resistance. Sue was careful not to trigger any alarm that would get her killed, or worse. Captured. The petit girls body shuddered at the thought.
A static buzz overpowered all other sounds in the tiny cockpit, it was Control hailing in on Sue and Chamberlain. "Chamberlain do you copy?" a familiar voice of a fellow rebel came through the speakers. "Yes Control, intel should be finished downloading soon." Sue replied, Her mousy voice was a strange combination to her assertive soldierlike tone. "That's great and all kiddo, but we got an issue." Sue never liked issues, they were... well, issues. "How so?" Her voice was heavy with angst, "Well, some scouting drones picked up visual of three heavily burned bodies. Just from the feed, even I can tell that it would be impossible to identify them!" Sue's jaw clenched, "Did you run a head count? They may not be ours."
"Our forces are centralized just a tad east from the site, but it's not unbelievable that they may have strayed away from the main party."
"I see." Sue had a sour feeling in her stomach, not knowing what kind of threat this could be made her more and more antsy, "It couldn't have been a flame thrower or some sort of napalm?"
" 'fraid not, the fire seemed to only have affected the bodies, no signs of damage elsewhere. But aside from that, once you finish the download, we need you to come back to base. We need you to fix up a few new vehicles and then ease them back into the fray."
"Roger that control." Sue sighed heavily. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment before the mech sprung to life on the outside, Chamberlain stood at its full height and began a steady jog westward. This new information was something she wish she hadn't heard; it meant that there was most likely that their mystery fire starter was an unfriendly, and a Project at that. Sue's uneasiness triggered Chamberlain to burst into a full speed sprint.
"Not even running works anymore."

[Shadow-Thief]

Captain Killday was enjoying his part of the war firing upon the remaining forces of the soldiers trying to engage passed the tree's. After hearing a transmission about bunt bodies he wanted to investigate with his men after the battle. As he was firing he spots a shadow of a man creep up to his side and came to a screeching halt when he put a gun to his head. "Dear god, what are you?" He states realizing he's not human and most likely a project, but this model seemed different, even after the idol they all hope to be one day, he seemed to have that same look project 154 had. He slowly lowers his weapon as rounds come downrange. "You..." He says with a little confusion =,, instantly he snaps out of his delusion and tackles him yelling to "GET DOWN!"

A the machine gunners were nested up, as the elite had requested. "Ma'am permission to speak, this is Elite rank O-3 Stevenson reporting that the machine gun nests are set and ready to finish off this pathetic rebellion. No extra support is needed at this time." He says over his radio calmly as he takes the round out of his shoulder. He looks passed his visor scanning the area for obvious area's to ambush them, attack fire with fire is the trick. With such little forces left he must think quickly.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________-

On the ship echo Red listens up closley and nodded to everything that had to be said. "So, he's commanding me now?" Red asks after sipping some water.

"Yeah he seems like a real douchbag..." Privet Carlson says with a laugh. "Hey man ease up... ever since you got that upgrade you have been real dull lately." He says with a grin and toughing his long red hair a bit.

"Yeah... I should just..." Red says as an alarm goes off on his watch. Serum time for him, double dos this time too due to the intake of food. "I don't want to go again... the needles are too big!" He says as his eyes gain a bit of color. to the soldiers this is considered a high threat, especially with !54's cloned cells in him. Scientists immediately come in and help Red to the door. "I want to listen to cubric!" Red uses an excuse.

[FateWeaver]

Cinder continued on his path at a decent walking pace, never breaking into anything faster than a light jog. Any more and the flames could die, or flare up and become easily noticed. Twice more he crossed paths with small System groups, obviously scouts trying to pin down the resistance. Twice more he left nothing but burnt corpses. They would only want to kill him, or inject the foul Serum into him. I'm never going back to that place. I will die first. This thought was one of few he clung to, one of few that remained to him.

It was not long after the last System group that Cinder's walk came to an end. He stepped into a clearing, arm wreathed in fire, to find himself behind several men and a couple women. They wore no uniforms nor lab coats, and Cinder strangely felt no hostility towards them. Once he was noticed, several guns were leveled in his direction, and one of the men started talking into a communicator of some kind. Cinder did not react to the guns or the words, still trying to fit these people into his view of the world. A full minute past before he realized that this must be the resistance. How long has it been since my worldview narrow so far as to forget even that...?

[Elevator Music]

It was humid inside the compacted cockpit of Chamberlain, mainly from Sue's labored breathing. It was heavy with fear of the worst, chaos was in all directions and the Resistance was smack dab in the center. The tiny space was filled with static from all sorts of transmissions that it almost hurt Sue's ears. The System's forces somehow pulled a devastating new heavy artillery weapon out their ass, the revered commander Killday was in deep shit as usual and something about a landing party. Sue was lost and confused, her turmoil caused Chamberlain to slow down back to its steady jog. She was frustrated, why couldn't things go smoothly for once? It was always something or another messing up the success of the Resistance to liberate and claim ANYTHING from the clutches of the System! So deep in thought, Sue barely caught the transmission about some random guy on fire flanking one of the parties; this caught her attention. "The Project! It has to be!" She hissed, she listened more attentively to the report, the entity showed no hostility to Resistance personnel "Odd, I will admit," Sue pressed a button with her good arm and spoke up, "Control, can you put me on with the party leader that came into contact with the unidentified unit?"
"Cant! We're diverting energy to get communications back up with the parties further up!"
Sue grunted, throwing her head back into the pilot's seat. Why must tech refuse to work if she's not round? "Fine then! Chamberlain to Control! I'm going topside to reestablish communications and lend a hand."
"Negative! We still need you here back at base to get these transporters back up!"
"Bite me Marlowe! Why didn't you have engineers trying to fix them while you guys waited for me to get there, you lazy pieces of shit!? I need to go where I'm needed!" Sue spat, a very audible grumble came through the speakers, "We can't seem to get a clear response from Bravo and Charlie squad about the weird guy showing up, but you owe me for not snitchin' you out about this!" replied the rebel. Sue smirked a bit and turned Chamberlain around and set the mech back into a running state, at this pace not only would she get to the frontmost party quicker, she would also run into the mystery man, or Project as she was convinced.
It wasn't long until she came across a decently sized group pointing their guns to a seemingly unarmed man.
"STAND DOWN." Chamberlain's booming robotic voice echoed its tiny pilot, "IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

[urukhai]

Rho sat among his comrades at one of the tables that ran the length of the cafeteria. Laughter and talking surrounded the Project who sat watching the others, smiling as one of the others, a large man they called Maul, retold the story of one of the various operations that he had been sent on. “So I was sitting there, rebel in one hand, tree limb in the other, his buddies moving in from all sides, bloodrage slowly draining and then I hear it. It was the sound of this rock-brain uncloaking, that little sadistic smile plastered all over his face.” He motioned to Rho, chuckling “Turns out he had sat there in the tree and watched the whole-”

Maul was cut short as the commander walked into the room and everyone was hushed up. Rho looked up expecting the usual face of Le Marne, instead he saw Cubric . Rho’s face fell impassive “A new commander, right before a mass drop?” he wondered to himself as Cubric began his speech , he had seen various commanders come and go, but none so close to a large scale attack. Shrugging off the thought, Rho used the speech to work his way towards the exit to beat most of the others to the armory. Soon enough he was out of the room and was making his way down the hall, passing a few of the station's personnel that were frantically getting everything ready for the incoming Projects. After walking a fair way Rho came to a large open room, its stark white, almost medical, appearance belying the name plate that read "Armory 252" on the wall. Walking the same route as always, he quickly ended up next to his locker, one of many that lined the side of the room. Opening it he divested himself of his normal fatigues, in favor of the tougher under armor that was always put on before his combat suit. After this was done and his meager clothing was stored and the locker locked, Rho turned to the opposite side of the room where the "Arming Stations" sat. Each station was a ring of machinery that would put on and secure the armor when activated.

Rho was almost to his designated Station when a voice rang out "And where do you think your going so soon?"

The voice belonged to a young doctor, Dr.Mercer or something like that, she was walking toward Rho clipboard in one hand, an auto-injector in the other. "You know I cant let you waltz out of here without you injection." She held out the injector "So are you going to do it or will you make me."

Rho almost laughed at this, the fact that she was a good foot, or more, shorter than his augmented height of around 7' would have made reaching his injection points incredibly difficult for her. Smiling he reached out and took the injector. Taking it he put it next to one of the arteries in his neck, and pressed the button at the other end of the injector. After the needle left his skin, it was apparent something was different, his smile had melted into a cold mask, his empathy draining out of him.

"Thank you Subject Rho." Mercer said, her tone business like "You may proceed with your procedure"

Snapping a quick salute Rho resumed his donning. Stepping into the center of the Station he activated the machinery, which unfolded into various mechanical arms that began to secure the MKII Chitin around Rho. The entire process took less than five minutes, the whole while Rho remained silent, that was until Mercer spoke to him once more "What dose that mean?" She asked pointing to some words that were carved into the back of one of the arms.

Rho turned to look before replying "Terra tremuit et quievit, Latin. It means, The earth trembled and was still. The opening to an old chant from earth, Gregorian or Byzantine if memory serves." He replied after studying the words, his words cold and official.

"Hmm, And you find these chant enjoyable" Mercer asked, flipping through pages on the clipboard

Rho nodded "Aye, ma'am. I find them relaxing."

"Interesting" She said as she wrote down some notes "Rho, you are free to go, collect your gear, you once more going to be part of a hunter team for this drop."

Saluting Rho went over to his weapon rack, lifting Maelstrom he spun it a few times before collapsing it and stowing it, he also retrieved his several throwing/combat knives, and pistols. Satisfied everything is in order he left the armory to wait for the signal to begin final drop preparations.

[FateWeaver]

Nobody moved but the flames and the man talking. It was an interesting plateau, but it was wasting time. The System would not be that far behind him. They couldn't stay here forever, not in the current situation. With this in mind, Cinder made to move past the resistance members. One of the two that he attempted to slip between shoved him harshly, pressing the barrel of his gun to Cinder's chest. Anger flared up, and the flames flared with it. The world narrowed to him and the other man, and he pulled his hand back, preparing to introduce the fool to the taste of ashes.

The sound of heavy steps and machinery distracted him enough to stay his hand and turn his head. It wasn't long before a large robot appeared, seemingly cobbled together with scraps. A voice boomed out, but the words meant little to him, but the tone was that of an inquiry. He felt that it was fairly obvious what he was, but Cinder lowered his hand and turned to face the robot completely to give it a better look at the flames wreathing his arm and slight glow in his eyes. This robot was clearly more important than any of the others, who had lowered their weapons.

"Won't go back. Can't go back. Never going back," was what left Cinder's mouth as his mind worked slowly to untangle the situation.

[Elevator Music]

Sue was puzzled at the man's words, but something deep down clicked and she knew what he meant somehow. Sue motioned Chamberlain slowly towards the man, eyeing the flames slithering around his person. "LET'S NOT GET HASTEY HERE-" Chamberlain's stomach plate hissed open with a heavy thunk as it settled to the mech's side, revealing its tiny passenger within, "None of us have time for trouble."
Sue took a better look at the pyro from her nest, she could barely tell him from the flames that danced around his slender figure. He looked young, a noticeable feature of all projects, "You may have noticed we're in a war zone, and you don't appear to be a System lackey. So unless you wanna end up as bullet swiss cheese you better start talkin'."
Sue looked up to her fellow rebels, "Charlie and Bravo squad, go on ahead and return to the main party, I'll take care of this guy." The other rebels nodded in compliance, not wanting to lose any more precious time. Sue dropped Chamberlin into a kneeling position so she would be level with her guest, "You escaped, just like me didn't you?"
Sue leaned forward, using her good arm to stabilize herself from falling out of her mech, "Just who are you?"

[Wernher]

The rebels looked up in the skies as multiple fireballs were coming down on the planet. These were ships and not asteroid as they corrected course on their approach. A missile flew out of the forest and hit one of the crafts that went crashing down. As they drew closer they flew overhead the battlefield, one of the ships was much larger and visibly much more luxurious than the others.

"Wait, what the hell is this ship doing here?"

The voice of Killday came to the rebel's communication with a small laugh.

"Looks like the CEO came... with backup. This operation is scrubbed guys, if I know the security forces as well as I remember she'll force an encirclement, her goal isn't to beat us but to kill us all, if we survive this battle she knows we'll just start again. This means that we can either flee now... or use her stupidity to deal some real damage. I won't lie, its going to be hard to pull off but I say we counter attack while they think they've got the upper hand and go toward the CEO's craft and kill the CEO and the leaders to then flee in the confusion. I can't force you to do this, but-"

He was interrupted by a rebel.

"Screw it, were dead anyways and we've known that the day we joined you. It's do or die and I intend to do as much as I can!"

Other encouragements came. They were now outnumbered and out gunned by more trained and experienced enemies, but yet morale was high.

"Chamberlain... Sue."

It was the voice of Killday.

"Listen. That ship, it's the personal ship of Veronika Tolstoy, god damn White Mantis. She's going to be a tough nut to crack and quite frankly I don't know if we can beat her and much less if we could get out after that. I know you're one to fight but I need you, if anything go wrong, if it seems like we're loosing... to bailout from the fight and find a way to go to Petersport. Go there and find the 'Black Sheeps' and tell them I sent you and that I died. Projects are our greatest assets and even to kill Tolstoy it's not a price I'm willing to pay. This is a direct order and maybe the last I'll give you so don't. Disapoint. Killday Over and Out. God luck out there."

____________

"Landing Craft 2 got shot down by a guided missile, half of the crew is dead and they had to make an emergency landing 3 miles from here."

Cubric grind his teeth before answering.

"Tell the pilot to try and repair while the soldiers move in to join the fight if it isn't over by then, the rest of the teams will patch the hole, team 7 will go in as well, only team 6 will stay with the VIP as protection and reserve. Tell Stevenson to begin deploy in halfmoon to begin the envelopment. Le Marne and Team one will flank in Embolon Flying Wedge to break the rebels once the encirclement as been confirmed."

In his inside the 'Spring Palace', Tolstoy's private flagship, Cubric observed the holographic display and gave quick sidelooks to Veronika who was also looking at it. He noticed that the enemy had stopped falling back and squinted his eyes. What were they planing?

(OOC: I'll let Rho decide if he's in the assaulting troops, the craft that was downed or in team 6 as reserve)

[FateWeaver]

"Escaped..." Cinder echoed, studying the features of a little girl who sat in the torso of the robot. He knew someone had to be controlling the hulk of metal, but did not expect this in the slightest. The other rebels had scattered at her command, meaning that she had some authority despite her apparent age. Considering this, the girl's intelligence, and her missing limbs, Cinder concluded that it was another project staring him down.

"Who am I?" he continued, frowning at the question. He had not been sure for quite some time. He had been born with a name, but it was not what the System had labelled him. The System no longer held him, but since memory of his birth name eluded him, his designation as a project would have to do. "Project Cinder... I was called Cinder," he muttered, seeming to speak to himself more than the girl. "They called me Cinder, never expecting such a brilliant flame."

Bringing his attention back around to the girl in the robot, he cocked his head slightly to one side. He felt he recognized her, on some level, more than simply having the same tormentor. There were very many projects, and a relative few escaped successfully. If she was working with the resistance, she must have been one of the even fewer who made it out and survived.

[Elevator Music]

"Cinder," Sue repeated, mimicking the man's quizzical expression, "It suits you well!" Smiling softly, Sue relaxed back into her seat.
"I thought you were some new toy those sickos popped out! Guess you're alright."
Sue stood Chamberlain back to its usual daunting height, her mood brightening. With another project possibly inducted into the ranks of the Resistance, maybe there was a chance to fight against the System. "You got color back in your eyes, so I can assume you haven't had your dope fix in a while." Sue leaned out a bit, looking over Cinder for the millionth time," The resistance needs all the manpower it can get, and since you're out of a job with the System... Maybe I can interest you in a job." Sue was never the smoothest of talkers, but she was somehow good at winning over hearts.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so rude and straight forward, m-my name is Sue..." Sue stammered out without thinking, but then realizing how silly she was. This guy wouldn't care about manners at a time like this would he? Doubtful, but it was only kindness or fear that won people over with the occasional money of course. The System governed with fear and oppression, where the Resistance strove to be everything but that; so that maybe one day the universe wouldn't be such a rotten place. Sue coughed bringing her attention back "A-anyways I'm serious about joining the resistance, I mean, it's not like you have anywhere to go." Sue was unsure where her mind went in the last few minutes, why was she so scattered?
"I don't mean that in anyway, I just mean that the Resistance would be happy to accept you into our ranks!" Sue tried to think of more things to say, "Oh! I know who you'll like! Our commander is a great guy, and he'd be better to talk to rather than me." Sue began to turn Chamberlain to walk towards the battle, "Commander Killday is a great man," Sue's expression softened, "He found me when I first escaped. Kinda raised me, ya know? He taught me all kinds of stuff, maybe he can help you too..." Sue loved Killday like a father, more or less that's what he was to her.
Before Sue could say anymore, a broadcast from the Resistance's main channel came through. It was Killday and the other frontline rebels, Sue was silent as the transmission played out; it was everything she didn't want to hear. When Killday finished, a loud cheers could be heard from behind him, even from Control there were shouts of encouragement and cheering and the fair mixture of "Down with the System!" and "For the Rebellion!".
For Sue, this was hardly a reason to be patriotic. Anger boiled inside her "Damn you Killday, you have no right to do something like that. To hell with that noble self sacrifice bullshit, and the whole "if I die" crap. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!" Sue screamed, her rising passions caused Chamberlain to echo her.
"There is no way he's getting away with this!" Sue slammed her fist against the controls, "Hey Cinder, I'm sorry for cutting things short but this is a personal affair," Sue tossed out a small chip from he perch, letting it land at Cinder's feet, "You can take that holo map, it'll lead you to the safehouse. Or you can follow me or what ever. I'm going to go smack the commander for being a hero. C'ya." Sue flashed a gentle smile at Cinder before sending Chamberlain into a full speed sprint.
"Control! If you heard the Commander right, then you best prep for a full evac! If we're gonna haf'ta, jump this planet any time soon then we best be ready NOW."
The mech's chest plate hissed as it returned to concealing the tiny girl, it's footfalls thundered with each heavy stride, and it wasn't long before Sue came across the rear of the frontline party. The ground was charred and stamped with footprints of all sizes, the roars of gunshots was louder than ever before. Above, the sky was blocked out by the few ships that had yet to land, and not far below were the ones that had. They were like mountains from Sue's view, and that meant they were packing. As the mech flew through the ranks of the back row, Sue could make out the sleek design of the CEO's personal craft. She caught herself getting ideas to mess with it with her cyber powers, but dismissed the thought; something that big and that important would have security with a grip tighter than an alligator's bite. Once in the frontmost ranks, the mech came to an abrupt halt, "If they brought this much firepower just for little guys like us, then we really must be a thorn in their side," Sue frowned, it wouldn't be the first time they would have to turn tail.

[FateWeaver]

"M-my name is Sue..."

This is the only bit of the little girl's stammering that managed to work its way into Cinder's head as important. As he was contemplating following her, it seemed a communication came through, taking all of her attention. Her anger at the situation was palpable to him and his flames burned brighter. Her hatred for the System seemed as powerful as his, which was only fitting, for they had treated her the same as he if not worse.

Picking up the small chip with his left hand, he stared at it curiously as the little girl ran off to save her friend. He considered following her, but decided against it. One against few he was confident in himself and his flame, but with bullets flying everywhere and projects on both sides, it was highly more likely he would get hurt or killed or captured.

During his moment of indecision, Cinder was wide open to attack. Someone in the distance followed up on the opportunity. A bullet slammed into Cinder's right shoulder, and he went down. His rage built, but when he expected the flames to flare up in reaction, there was nothing. Abruptly, Cinder was cold. Several minutes of panic came and went before he noticed the chip where he had dropped it, and several more passed before he reached out to it.

When he touched it, Cinder somehow activated the device. A map hung in the hair in front of him, and Cinder flinched back when it suddenly came to exist. Snatching up the chip, he pushed himself up, whirling around to make sure he was alone again. Checking the map again, he started limping.

[urukhai]

From tree limb to tree limb, vine to vine, Rho passed like a shadow in the canopy, moving with a practiced grace. As his lander was one of the first ones down, he was ahead of most of the vanguard. Rho stopped on a high canopy branch, enjoying the silence, it was part of the reason he preferred landing first as a hunter. Yet even the sounds of the battle reached his position, though this was from the crackling garble of the rebel scout's radios below him. He has been tracking them for around five minutes back to wherever they were setting up the front line defenses, but now he could see the various static defenses through the foliage, they were about forty, fifty meters out. "Perfect." Rho though coldly as he silently swung to a lower branch, releasing and extending Maelstrom.

"Agh, damn swamp rats." one of the rebels asked as he shook out his boot "I thought you said they put us in bunks, not send us out on recon job"

"Hey, that was before they started landing en masse." one of his comrades, responded quickly "Besides you'd still have to deal with the rats getting into your shoes."

It seemed like only the two of them to Rho as he listened, but upon peering down from his perch he spied a third, quieter one, positioned near the back. "Three, unaware, unprepared, shouldn't take that long" He thought as a feeling akin to having too much static charge in ones body, washed over Rho, a familiar feeling. In an eye-blink Rho was gone, a predatory growl being the only thing left of him. Silently he dropped to the jungle floor, Maelstrom in hand and advanced, slowly to the rearguard of the scouts. It took Rho less time than the thought, one good stab and the man dropped, a look of confusion painting his face as a n invisible spear was thrust through him, cutting off any cries. Withdrawing his weapon slowly, the invisible Rho turned and advanced on the other two. Quickly dispatching with the task, Rho turned and began to make his way to the Rebel front-line, keeping his cloak up for good measure. As he neared the line he spied it, a large mech suit, something no ordinary solder would be able to pilot, or even need. He silently keyed his comm "Command, this is Rho. I have visual on a possible High value. Requesting permission to engage."