The Utopia Project: Dawn of the Phantoms

>>>[FOR THE BEST VIEWING EXPERIENCE, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU SWITCH TO ROYAL ROAD'S DARK/OLED BLACK THEME]<<<

===[Chapter 20: Route Canal]===

>>> Loading File...

>>> Subject Located...

>>> Continuing playback from previous save

>>> Acknowledged

==[Begin Memory Playback]==

Stepping outside was akin to stepping through yet another portal. From inside of the protective walls of the palace, the war seemed distant. Close, threatening, but far enough away that they weren't caught directly inside of the crosshairs. As much of a paradox as that may have been, considering the elven palace was probably a giant red flag - and perhaps even the primary objective of the advancing "Avonians". So they were called. But out here, the danger was all too real. The gunfire no longer echoed - It cracked. Crackling through the skies around them. Explosions shook the air so much that Eli felt his head might burst. And all the while, Eli felt like he was following a white rabbit through the madness, as he followed Otaes deeper into the fray. He had plenty of reason to still be afraid of her, but he trusted that she wouldn't murder him outright for no reason. Though the implication that if Misfit ever disobeyed or acted out of line - she'd then exact a lethal judgement on Eli still bore down heavily, he was beginning to think that it may have been some kind of a joke. Weird warrior elf humor, maybe? Hopefully anyways. He hoped she wouldn't kill him. Though for her part, she seemed to be a million miles away. Probably thinking about her brother.

He followed Otaes closely as the duo made their way out of the palace around to the rear garden. It was a small space full of plants and trees that sloped downwards towards a narrow river that glistened in the sunlight. The water was clear, and whenever Eli looked into it, he could see small fish scuttle about above the rocky riverbed.

Otaes led him to the edge of the riverbank, where they followed the path of the river until it fed into a tunnel. Stone blocks arched up and over the tunnel, allowing for a walkable path alongside the river as it flowed underground below the city. Eli slowed his pace, suddenly feeling uncertain as he gazed into the tunnels opening. Warm, damp, air oozed out of the tunnel opening. It smelled sour like moldy clothes. The interior of the tunnel was also dark, and if it weren’t for the flashlight that Eli had on his vest, it would have been pitch black inside. Otaes noticed his moment of hesitation, and just before she entered inside of the tunnel, she looked back at him, “Scared?”

“A little,” Eli sighed, knowing that it was too late to turn back now. He could see the interior of the dank tunnel. The walkway was made of stone, and it was narrow enough that only two people would be able to fit shoulder-to-shoulder if they squeezed. The damp smell of the tunnel surrounded him as they descended inside.

“Don’t be. I know these tunnels like the back of my hand. They’re just the canals.”

He resisted the urge to blurt out, ‘it’s not the canals I’m afraid of’, managing to keep his mouth shut.

“I believe they used to be natural rivers a hundred years ago or something. Beyond the mountains is Lake Tear of the Clouds, their source. I don’t come here as much now but, during the war these canals were a small paradise.”

“Some paradise.”

“It was our own. There was safety here from the bombs,” Otaes said, “I promise it looked better when I was a kid.”

She gave him an encouraging look before walking fully into the tunnels. Eli followed her, trailing not too far behind.

“As for you, I’m guessing that you aren’t lying about being an otherworlder? What’s Earth like?” She said out of the blue.

“What can I say? Earth was better when I was a kid too.”

“What happened to your planet? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Kind of an understatement,” Eli sighed, “It would be faster if I told you all the things that aren’t a complete mess back home. I mean, I lived my entire life as a Phantom.”

“A Phantom?”

“That’s what they call the nationless,” he said, patting the cyan and orange delta on the shoulder of his uniform, “And there’s a lot of us. We’re all fighting over what resources there are left, the seas are rising, Earth’s still warming. There’s a lot of things wrong, and I don’t think it’ll ever be fixed. At least not while I’m still alive.”

“Hm,” Otaes mused, “Sounds like your world and mine aren’t too different after all.”

Eli didn’t answer. His mind was somewhere else. Back on Earth. Chief Ani’s memory reading had resurfaced memories in Eli’s brain that he had fought hard to try and forget. To put behind him. But now, his eyes glazed over when he thought about what could have been if only his family had evacuated to safety. Or if they lived somewhere else. Or if the storm had never happened. Or if maybe, when he sojourned alone in a refugee camp packed thousands full, that a hand would’ve reached out to save him…

But fortune never looked kindly on him. If it had, he wouldn’t have been here on this hell planet at all.

An indescribable feeling of discomfort arose in his chest when he thought about it. Almost like a burn. Something trying to crawl up his throat, like a sickness rearing itself in his core. Though powerfully distracting, it was a feeling all too familiar. A cocktail of hopelessness, despair, and longing for a better past. Those warm memories of the past had grown foggy with time. Cobwebs in his brain fudged the details until they were almost unrecognizable as his own. It didn’t help that he tried to push them away so they couldn’t sting with their bittersweet nostalgia. A paradise lost, a home, a family, a sense of normality. Only to wind up here.

He silently hated Ani for opening a wound that should’ve remained scabbed. Those memories were buried deep inside of his mind for a reason. That invasion of his mind, his most personal domain, for what? To prove that he wasn’t a liar? To prove that he was after all, just an escaped soldier turned prisoner, transported against his will to a new world to fight a war he had no stakes in. To build a utopia that fed off the enslavement of himself and his friends. Was that too difficult to believe?

Maybe.

But there was no use dwelling on the feeling, not while they were in the middle of a warzone. But just as he was about to fight to try and bottle the intangible emotions up again, Otaes held out her hand turning to Eli, “Turn off the light! Now!”

Her voice was sharp and forced under a whisper. Eli immediately did as told and switched off his light, plunging the duo into darkness. Otaes knelt, and Eli followed. Crouching down low unsure of what Otaes could have sensed that alerted her. But then from further in the tunnel, another light grew. A bright orange glow illuminated the tunnels further ahead, creeping, slowly growing. And it was then that Eli could hear talking.

The light grew until he could see the source. Soldiers. There were six soldiers that crossed over at the far end of the tunnel. Another river merged into theirs forming the shape of the letter “Y” as the combined. At the end, the soldiers walked towards their position. Their helmets were olive green, and it matched the puffy body armor that they wore around their torso which Eli figured was a armored vest. Underneath that, a dark green uniform mixed in with swirling browns, greys, and lighter greens. They carried weapons that looked eerily like guns Eli worked with – the old Cold War era weapons that sometimes found its way into the hands of the Penal Unit.

Looking at the soldiers themselves was bizarre. They were elves like Otaes, but also there were humans as well. Eli was most surprised to find the face of humans among the group. The new world had been so strange these past few days, that to see a human – something that otherwise would’ve been redundant on Earth - was strange and out of the ordinary. Elves and Humans together made up the squad of six.

“River Militia, a scouting party. If their scouts are already down here, the assault forces will follow,” Otaes held her breath for a moment, contemplating something deep. With a swift movement she reached for the bow on her back and pulled out a red-tipped arrow, “We have to fight them. We can’t let them pass.”

Eli wasn’t certain if they could pull it off, but Otaes looked confident in their ability. He sighed inwardly to himself, and then loaded his gun. Nodding to himself.

But before he could say anything, she had already placed the red tipped arrow into her bow and pulled back on the drawstring. Eli raised the sights of his gun up to his eye. His fingers grappled onto the trigger. They waited for all six of the soldiers to fully expose themselves. And then, like a wire being split, their world descended into chaos.

Otaes let her arrow fly, and it darted down the tunnel, missing all the soldiers. It buried itself into the wall with a sharp clang. And then, it exploded. A small red fireball burst out, knocking two soldiers from their feet while the other four were disoriented.

The soldiers returned fire, blindly into the dark. Eli ducked down even further to avoid having his head taken off by a red tracer. The gunfire being fired back at them intensified as a second soldier began to return fire. They were yelling in yet another language that was alien to Eli’s ears.

Both Eli and Otaes fought back with all that they had, but the bullets only narrowly missed them, and the soldiers were only increasing in accuracy. It wouldn’t be long until the remaining soldiers found them, and so, Eli took a risk. He crouched down as low as he could get, and then he pushed himself into the canal.

His boots splashed, surrounding his foot – then his leg – in cold water. His lower body was drenched, and irritably cold, but being down here offered more protection from the bullets. The water was only hip high, and he was able to shoot back from relative safety with the stone banks of the canal above him. A lucky shot from his rifle saw it pierce the helmet of a soldier, once his body dropped down the remaining two soldiers called it off and began to retreat down the dark tunnels. The same direction from which their patrol had emerged.

Eli fired a few bullets after them, but he was unsure if anything hit through the darkness that fell upon them. All he could hear were a pair of boots shuffling away.

“Taking a swim?” Otaes asked him. It was then that Eli realized that she was even capable of humor at all. She seemed more like the ‘kill everyone first, take names later’ type of person.

“It was safer down here.”

“Sure,” Was all she said, looking down the dark depths of the tunnels, “The soldiers will be back to sweep the area once they realize their scouts are dead. Come on,” Otaes jumped down into the Canal’s waters to get to the other side. Eli followed her as she walked over to the bodies of the soldiers. One of them was still struggling to move, alive though bleeding through his shirt. Eli looked at him closer, turning on his flashlight to observe the struggling soldier. The blood drained from his face when he realized that the soldier he killed was the human. He had tawny skin, leftover stubble, and green eyes. So human. So much like him.

“These vermin were just the untrained militia of the River Republic. Traitors to the Kiote Union, they work as the lapdogs of the Avonians,” Otaes took out her spear and wielded it into one arm. The soldier struggled to speak, and coughed out a few words that were lost on Eli. They were directed at Otaes, but all she did was give out an unamused puff. She raised the sharp spear into the air, right over the soldier’s head. His eyes widened in fear, and he began to speak. Faster. Panicking.

Eli looked away. There was a thud, and the sound of flesh gushing. The panicked talked ended. When he looked over at Otaes, she had already pulled the spear out of his cranium, and was cleaning the tip with a cloth. Eli was thankful that it was too dark to see with his flashlight off, the death of the human soldier sucked the life out of him...

While cleaning the tip of the spear, Otaes' glowing eyes met him. It was then that he noticed that one of her eyes, specifically the one which the red slash of paint covered on the mask, was duller than the other. Otaes looked at him and then to the now deceased militiaman, and then back up to Eli.

"You're not squeamish. Are you?" Otaes said, not expecting a response as she holstered her spear and continued down the tunnel, leaving him behind to stare at the body.

Eli didn’t know what to say. He felt bitter on the inside, like bile was starting to make its way up his stomach. He was in the middle of something that he had neither any knowledge of nor experience with. A war which he had been placed into. A new world, a new history.

Reluctantly he followed when Otaes turned and walked down the hall. He briefly looked back at the dead Riverlander. And then back to Otaes, his fear of her lodging itself into the front of his mind yet again as they descended further into the madness.

For the next ten minutes, things were quiet. They didn’t run into another patrol, nor did they encounter anything that would slow them down. Eli and Otaes didn’t say a word to each other, as the two wandered in the darkness towards the Eastern Quarter. The only sound in the tunnels were the vibrations of artillery hitting the ground above which shook the walls of the tunnel and dislodged dirt from the ceiling. Gunfire was muffled down here, underneath all the soil and city built over them.

He could feel a looming discomfort within him as he walked. His only source of light being from his flashlight illuminating the path ahead of both himself and Otaes. He tried not to look at her, lest the image of her sending a spear through a man’s throat surfaced again. Maybe he was just being too sensitive? It was war, big deal. People died all the time. Eli’s hands weren’t clean of blood either. He’d seen his own fair share of war from the tunnels of Seoul. And if it weren’t for what he did to get out of those tunnels, he wouldn’t be in the Penal Unit at all.

Whatever the case may be, he found it easier to just stare blankly at the walls while they walked.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” Otaes asked him after a while of uncomfortable silence, interrupted only by their somewhat damp footsteps.

Eli thought about the question for a moment, then shrugged. “Only when I need to.”

“Good,” was all that she said, “The Canals go back overground somewhere outside of the city limits, into the jungle, and then out to Canau. Where your base is.”

“The Nexus…” Eli whispered.

“Hm?”

“That’s our base. The Nexus. How do you know where it was?”

“Temetet and I were assigned to scout the area five days ago. When your people arrived, it kickstarted a war. I’m not going to point fingers, but something happened in Canau. And it involved your people fighting the Avonians. The Imperial garrison in Canau was destroyed, they blamed us, and now…”

“A misunderstanding escalated into an invasion.”

“Quick learner.”

“Well excuse me but, I did only arrive on this planet three days ago.”

Otaes turned to face him, her glowing blue eyes visible in the darkness, “So tell me. You are a human, right? Not like, some weird alien version of one.”

“As far as I know, yeah.”

“But you’re from a different planet, so… you know… how does that work?” She asked him.

Eli shook his head, “No clue. All of what’s happening is just as new to me as it is to you.”

“Well, you must have some idea. Even as a… convict. Is there any objective that you have at all? A mission of some sort?”

Eli searched through his brain. It had been a long four days, but he could still remember at least some of the finer details. The mission announcement from Kovic, the so called dreams of a better future envisioned by those in control, “Utopia,” Eli whispered.

“What?”

“That’s the name of their plan. They called it ‘The Utopia Project’. I think. It’s all really strange and it hasn’t been made clear to us what exactly it’s for. But the big shots on our planet need someplace new to build a society from the ground up.”

“Trying to escape the chaos of your planet to construct a new home?”

“Not for us. Well, they say it is, but they’re lying.”

“If you’re so against it, why are you still fighting for them?”

Eli threw up his arms, “You think I have a choice?”

“There’s always a way to resist. Besides, you already ran away and yet here you are – very much alive.”

“Yeah, just barely. Besides, we came to save my squad. We aren’t actively trying to fight the Coalition. Hell, do you know what they would do if they ever found us again? They’d throw us into solitary forever, or worse…“

“And yet, you called them here hoping that they’ll save you?” Otaes put a fist on her side, raising her other hand to accentuate her point.

Well, yeah. He knew it was bizarre. Even ridiculous. His logic was admittedly contradictory. He scratched the back of his neck, “I mean, it’s the best chance we’ve got. If the Avonians are as strong as you say they are, this whole city will be overrun unless we get help! And without the Coalition, I’ll never be able to go back home! None of us will. At least as prisoners we stand somewhat of a chance but, on our own, we’ll never see our planet again!”

“So, you’d rather take your chance as a prisoner?”

“What other choice do I have. The only reason why we’re even out here is because we had to sneak away from the Nexus to rescue my friends! They are all that I have left. I have to… I have to, uh-“

“Protect them?”

“Yeah. Protect them.”

“I see,” was all that she said.

As they were walking through the tunnel however, they heard movement. The sound of metal clanging against metal echoed through the dark tunnel. Quickly, Eli turned off his flashlight to avoid detection, but the tunnel was suddenly filled with light anyway. Above them, an access valve had been opened. A manhole on the ceiling was lifted up, exposing the dark tunnel and canal to the hazy afternoon sky. Soldiers surrounded it. They lowered ropes down into the tunnel, and one by one the soldiers rappelled into the Canal. They looked much the same as the scouts, though there were more of them than before.

Otaes instinctively leapt back, and Eli tried to hide into cover. But it was too late. They had been spotted.

The Riverlander forces opened fire. Otaes and Eli were immediately pelted with the same glowing red energy bullets as before. Eli lost his footing and fell on his back, while Otaes tried to return fire with her bow – though she only had so much cover that the curving walls of the tunnel offered. Eli scrambled back to his feet, ducking underneath the red storm of bullets, and returned fire with his own rifle. With a few suppressive shots, he was able to force the Militia to scramble for their own cover, allowing both himself and Otaes breathing room, but the fight was only just beginning.

From the open vault, another soldier rappelled down to reinforce the soldiers. But this soldier was different from all the others. He had darker armor, plates of metal over his chest glinted in the sunlight, and underneath a thick dark green helmet – was a mask that covered his face. Piping ran from his mask to a steel tank on his back, and a purple band wrapped around his shoulder. Dark circles of glass sat where the two eyes should’ve been. His gun was far larger and more advanced looking than that of the other soldiers.

When he landed on the ground, the dust that covered it was agitated and he formed a miniature cloud upon impact. Even from where he was, Eli’s ears picked up the faint traces of strained mechanical breathing coming from the Soldier through his mask.

Otaes swore in her native language, “Shock Trooper!” and then took another step away from the soldiers. She fired a bow into the Shock Trooper’s chest, but the arrow did little damage against the thick armored plates and Kevlar vests that protected the soldier. Without even flinching, the Shock trooper raised its gun. Words were spoken from the Trooper, but again, Eli couldn’t understand. But the voice, much like it’s breathing, sounded mechanical. Knowing what was to come, Eli pre-empted the attack by raising his gun and shooting the arm of the Trooper in a bid to save Otaes.

Three bullets fired from Eli’s gun, and they embedded themselves into the armor of the Troopers arm. While it seemed that he managed to at least hurt the trooper, it didn’t kill him. Instead, the Trooper stowed his gun away and raised his other arm. A device was attached to the arm of the Trooper and as he held it up it began to charge. Suddenly, a field of glowing red appeared like a holographic image in front of him. Eli tried to shoot at him, but the bullets ricocheted from the red field of light. A shield made from red energy, “Crap!” Eli spat out, as he continued to light the shield up with his gun. But despite all the bullets, the most he threatened to do in terms of damage was knock the soldier down. While the Trooper struggled, he held onto the shield effectively.

The other Riverlander soldiers ran up to create a formation behind the Trooper, and together they opened fire while using the Trooper’s shield as defense. Both Otaes and Eli were forced down to avoid the flurry of bullets coming their way.

Otaes cursed in here native language, “Eli! Come on we have to run!” she said, scrambling to her feet. She ran in the opposite direction. Eli was ahead of her, and together they fled away, down the curving path of the tunnel.

As fast as he could muster, he charged down the hall. Sweat broke from his forehead and trickled down his face, knowing that the soldiers would have been on their heels. Bullets rang out chasing them down, but they missed – just narrowly though. Eli’s eyes darted about, looking for any place to regroup in order to hide in the darkness, but now the entire tunnel seemed exposed. Devoid of any cover.

Their retreat was interrupted by yet another manhole being opened from the ceiling above. Light temporarily flooded in, blinding Eli. But soldiers didn’t drop through. Instead, there was a metal cannister was dropped down into the tunnel, and then the manhole was closed. It clanged against the floor, bouncing momentarily. Eli’s brain knew immediately what it was.

“GRENADE!” He yelled out, without a moment wasted he jumped into the canal sinking his head underneath water. Otaes followed close behind, and the second she sank underwater, the grenade exploded. Eli felt the concussive force of the grenade throw him back against the stone wall of the canal. The air was blasted out of his lungs forming bubbles that rose up to the surface of the water. Almost to be replaced by water, if Eli hadn’t realized his predicament. The air above the canal had been replaced by a fiery wave that baptized everything nearby in incendiary devastation. But the fire quickly faded without anything to cling on to besides the stone walls and the water in the canal. No sooner did Eli’s head rise above water where he gasped for air. His lungs crying out for relief, he took in a massive breath of the stale and moldy smelling air above them – now carrying the scent of burning metal. Otaes was nowhere to be seen.

He scanned the water for her body, but it was too dark to see, and he didn’t want to risk giving his position away using his flashlight. The soldiers were running right towards them. Out of options, he knelt beside the wall of the Canal and weakly held up his gun. His arms tired and wobbly, he tore out the magazine. A silent panic washed through his body when he realized that half of it was empty. The others that he stored in his vest were missing. They must’ve been scattered by the blast of the grenade while he was underwater. With no time, or visibility, to search for them, he loaded the half-empty magazine back into his gun and prepared for the worst. Dripping wet, and with the water up to his neck, he hoped to take down as many as possible before the inevitable. And that Otaes was still alive somewhere…

He saw the bright orange glow of light illuminating the far end of the tunnel. His eyes widened. This was it. The final stand. Shakily he braced himself…

A Riverlander appeared on the far side of the tunnel, carrying the light. Without hesitation, he opened fire. His first bullet pierced through the soldier’s arm, the second through his throat. The Riverlander screamed out in pain, and his body fell into the river. But just as he fell down, the rest of his squad appeared in the end of the tunnel. They opened fire, though their shots were inaccurate. Eli knew that they had lost him in the darkness.

Eli kept up the fire, checking his shots carefully as he had limited bullets to spare. The Riverlander soldiers he could manage to hold off. With a few well placed shots, he was able to convince them to back away. But the loud thudding of footsteps grew louder. The water splashed violently, and inside of the river itself the shock trooper imposed himself.

The trooper called out to the rest of his squad in that same mechanical voice. Terrified, Eli fired at the soldier. Three rounds straight to the chest. There were small sparks of light as the bullets ricocheted off the trooper’s armor, and at the most he grunted in pain, feeling their impact. But he was still effectively bulletproof. Though he was slow. Especially so in the water. Again, the trooper raised the device on his arm, charging it until it burst into the red energy shield. Eli knew that his bullets would be ineffective against it, and with his ammo so low, he could only focus on putting as much distance between himself and the soldiers as possible. He backed away, slowly, just as the Trooper advanced forward with his shield up. The other soldiers again flooded around the Trooper, opening fire. But all Eli could do was fire back.

And then, he saw movement in the water behind the Trooper. Suddenly, something lurched up from the Canal’s waters, grabbing one of the Riverlanders by the foot. The soldier collapsed onto the stone floor before he was dragged kicking and screaming into the waters of the river. Enveloped by a violent splash of water the screaming ended, and momentarily the soldiers turned their attention away from Eli – though the Trooper kept his shield up. They watched the waters, though it was still too dark for them to see clearly.

And then, another soldier was dragged in. He yelled out something in his native language before his head went underneath the waters of the canal. The soldiers, terrified, opened fire blindly into the Canal. But Eli saw a shadow crawl up the walls of the Canal behind them while they were distracted.

The first soldier was grabbed from behind, stabbed through the stomach and his body was thrown into the Canal. Another caught on, but it was too late. A spear was thrown his direction, embedding itself into his chest and pinning him to the wall. The last two soldiers remaining, terrified, scrambled away. One of them fell, shakily raising his gun up before he was silenced by a arrow to the face. The final soldier was killed by a round fired from Eli.

Otaes’ silhouette appeared in the darkness, and she dove back into the water. Swimming lightning fast to the final hostile. The Shock Trooper turned his back to Eli, knowing what was coming. But Otaes was faster and more nimble than the slow and clunky Trooper. She jumped onto his back, dagger in her hands. In the blink of an eye, she plunged the dagger into the armor of the Trooper. The Trooper grunted in pain, but was far from being killed. His shield went down, and he grabbed Otaes, carrying her like a doll until he threw her body into the water. Eli fired at the Trooper now that the shield was down, aiming for the head. A bullet ricocheted off of the thick metallic helmet, but a second bullet fractured the glass covering the left, impaling itself into the skull of the soldier.

For the first time the trooper had been severely wounded, and he dropped to his knee’s holding an eye with one arm in extreme pain. The Trooper screamed out, though it sounded… robotic. It was still a living creature. It must’ve been. And, if it could be injured that badly, it could be killed. Eli kept up the fire, trying to aim at the eyes again, but the soldier was moving around far too much. He fired again, missed, and hit an armored plate. Squeezing the trigger one more time, his heart stopped in his chest.

Enraged, the Trooper reached for his gun. Somehow, it was still alive after being shot in the eye. It grunted as it wielded the massive gun. Eli crouched down underneath the waterline. In one massive burst, the gun unleashed a massive swarm of red bullets that were so powerful – they broke off chunks of the stone wall, destroying parts of the colorful paintings that lined the canal.

The gun’s recoil was so strong that it forced the Trooper to take a step back. But no sooner had he recovered, then another round fired. And another. Eli could do nothing but swim further away from the Trooper to a safer spot. But then, he felt it.

In his leg, a searing hot burn gnawed its way through his calf! Burrowing itself straight into his flesh and into the bone. It was so painful that Eli was forced to resurface, gasping for air before he drowned underneath the water. He felt hot liquid spew out of the bullet hole. His eyes locked with that of the Trooper, who cocked the gun, and aimed right for Eli’s head.

The water behind the Trooper stirred, and out from behind, Otaes leapt onto the Trooper’s back. In this state, she resembled more a wild animal than an elf. She used her dagger to stab the trooper in the throat. Once, twice, three times she managed to sink the dagger into the apparent weak point in the trooper’s armor. The trooper struggled to get her off of his back. He circled around, visibly weaker than he was before but still extremely dangerous. Eli’s eyes landed on the metal tank attached to his back. But again, he was out of bullets.

He scanned the tunnel, the dead bodies of Otaes’ work, their energy weapons. He didn’t know how to use one, but he could try. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, and he was perhaps too optimistic about his chances. But he didn’t let that stop him. He clambered up the wall while the Trooper was distracted with Otaes’ attack. Yelling, flailing about as he desperately tried to get her to stop stabbing his neck. In this state, he was more human than ever. Panicking. Desperate.

Eli limped, every step sending a searing pain up his leg and spinal cord. He felt tears in his eyes, the water dripped down from his soaking clothes. It stung even worse when it got into the bullet wound. He was slow moving, but he pushed forward. Locating the gun of one of the Riverlanders, he grabbed it and saw that it too had a trigger – just like his gun. Awkwardly holding it in his arms, he took aim at the tank on The Trooper’s back, just as the Trooper threw Otaes from his back again. The Trooper held out his gun and brought it over her head. But Eli was faster.

The gun in Eli’s hand kicked back with surprising recoil, a red projectile darted forward and pierced the tank on the soldier’s back. Immediately it ruptured, and a jet of fire shot out from the opening. The Trooper noticed, and turned around to Eli, trying to get the tank off of his back. But it was too late for him.

It exploded into a massive ball of flames that knocked Eli down into the water. He was blinded by the explosion, but shielded his face just in time to prevent major damage.

He was surrounded by darkness and water for a few moments. All was quiet again, except for the sounds of water sloshing around his head.

Slowly his head rose again. It was dark.

The Trooper sat with his back to the wall. Bleeding profusely, even through all of his armor. His body was limp. And yet, Eli could still hear the sounds of struggling mechanical breathing through the mask. He wasn’t dead, but judging by his shape, he might as well have been.

Eli saw another figure rise up from the water of the canal. Otaes clambered up the walls, and collapsed onto her knees and hands. She coughed, spitting up water and by the looks of it – blood. She heaved. Her white hair soaking wet as it looked almost glued to her back. Her elven ears were visible for the first time to Eli, in fact so was her dark purple skin that had been smeared in blood. Eli rushed over to her, “Otaes? Otaes are you – argh,” he winced in pain from his own wounds. The adrenaline was beginning to fade, and he was forced to kneel in the water as he suffered from them. He looked up briefly to see that Otaes was holding out an arm, shaking her head.

“Stay…s-s-stay back!” Otaes coughed out. She was hiding her face away from Eli. Her shaky hands reached up to her mask which rested a foot in front of her. Her breathing was rough and ragged, gasping for air. Her hands clasped over the mask. She brought it up to her face, strapping it on, she disappeared behind the mask once more.

Slowly Otaes rose to her feet, holding onto the wall for support. Her free hand clutched her torso. A blue glow illuminated her hand. She held it over a wound in her stomach. Blood soaked her hand, but as the glow continued, the blood faded. She closed her eyes, wincing in pain. Eli watched in fascination, she was healing herself with… magic?

Within minutes, the wound had closed. Otaes took a few more ragged breaths in before she opened her eyes, they landed on Eli. Even from behind the mask, Eli could see that she was exhausted.

He switched on his flashlight as he sat in the river canal. He felt spent. Every muscle in his body cried out for rest. His chest rose and fell on its own, taking deep breaths of sour-smelling air.

“T-taking a swim?” Otaes coughed out.

Eli smiled, “The water’s fine,” he winced as the bullet wound in his leg throbbed once more. Otaes glanced down at the leg he was holding, and once she realized, she leaned forward to offer Eli a hand. He took it and she pulled him out of the Canal’s water.

Once he was on the dry and cold stone floor, he reached out to his leg, rolling up the sleeve of his pants to reveal a horrific sight. There was a crater in his flesh the size of a quarter, gushing blood. Red lines trickled down his leg, his life energy spilling out onto his boots and the floor. The pain came and went in waves, Eli closed his eyes and his head reflectively kicked back against the wall. He gritted his teeth as he looked for anything to stop the bleeding, but Otaes gestured to him, “Let me see it,” she said to him.

Eli let go of his own leg, allowing her hands to explore it. Every touch of her fingers, no matter where on his leg it was, sent a sharp jolt of pain through his skin. But she located the wound, holding her hand over it.

Miraculously, the blue glow came over his wound yet again. Slowly, the flesh began to repair. It mended together like it had been magnetically connected. New tissue formed where the dead tissue lie. Covering up the wound, but it was only surface level. The blue glow of Otaes’ magic faded out before long causing her to sigh in disappointment, “I’m sorry Eli, but I can only heal part of it. It’ll stop the bleeding but, my magic isn’t strong enough right now. The Avonians must have a suppression field active.”

“A what?” Eli choked out.

“Suppression field. Don’t ask me how it works, but it’s some sort of device that quells the effects of magic. Normally, I’d be able to heal these types of wounds on someone else but, I can’t with the field up,” Otaes told him.

“Well… thanks anyway,” Eli said, Otaes nodded.

He looked at the gun he picked up from the dead Militiamen, pointing over to it, “So. Is that the normal gun that they use?”

Otaes nodded, “Pulse rifle. It uses modified ekron stones as ammunition."

“Ekron?”

“You have a lot of questions.”

Eli chortled, “Yeah, I’m kind of not used to all of this yet?”

Otaes rolled her eyes, but ultimately elaborated, “Ekron is a mineral with magical properties. It allows creatures without natural magical abilities to cast spells depending on their skill level. You can find it in the scales of some fire-breathing dragons where you can harvest it into a useable form, but it’s mostly found underground as ore. As for the gun, I’ve never used one, but it’s the standard issue for most Avonian grunts so it shouldn’t be too difficult to work.”

“All the more useful,” Eli grabbed the gun and cradled it into his arm. He saw the metal orb that was attached to the side of it, unlatching it to find a port that connected the orb to the receiver. Inside of the orb came a deep red glow, “Ekron…” Eli noted to himself as he inspected the rifle, learning how to use it himself without ammo from his own gun, “Interesting.”

It was then that the two heard breathing. Mechanical breathing. Their eyes glided over to none other than the Trooper, “He’s still alive? I don’t believe it!” Eli said.

“Avonian Shock Troopers are more machine than flesh,” Otaes said, jumping back down into the Canal. She walked over to the Trooper, who was still in the same position as before. The explosion had torn off flesh, parts of his body armor had been completely blown off. His helmet was almost torn off from the back, and it hung loosely from his head. Eli slunk down, his leg still in pain though feeling a bit better. He limped over to where Otaes and the Trooper were. Out of the labored breathing, Eli could hear words, “Hey! He’s saying something!”

Otaes nodded, holding out her hand. A blue glow encompassed the trio. More magic it would seem. Suddenly the words of the trooper became clear…

“Trooper… Sector status report…Unit Eleven-Nineteen… Still Active… Hostile… Visual… Negative…”

Eli, curious, pulled away the helmet and mask from off the trooper. He was met with a lot of blood. But he could make out the shape of a human face. But “human” was stretching the word.

The head was shaved bald. Several bolts had been installed into the skull and along the face. Sometimes there were metal plates and machinery that were embedded within the flesh. The eyes had been torn out and replaced with the very same eyes that Eli remembered inside of the Howlers. Metal optical orbs, the one on the right was completely missing and the damage around the eye socket was most severe – right where Eli’s bullet hit him. The ears were left intact, and so was the nose. But even then, there were metal devices that had been installed inside of them. The mouth was covered by a respirator and so Eli couldn’t see what other horrific modifications had transpired there.

“Oh my god,” Eli whispered, fighting back the urge to throw up, “Are all Avonian soldiers like this?”

She shook her head, “No, most of them are normal. Shock Troopers are Synths.”

“Synths? Like the Howlers?”

“Howlers, the Dragons… Imperial abominations,” Otaes sighed.

“Who the hell would volunteer to become… this?”

“Shock Troopers don’t. Most of the time they’re prisoners or slaves, pressed into service and then modified whenever the need arises. They've given their life, bodies, and minds to serve The Empire.”

“Prisoner…” Eli couldn’t bring himself to look at the Trooper anymore. A prisoner. Eli’s eyes drifted down to the blue Delta on the sleeve of his shirt, the mark of his status as part of the Penal Unit himself. He felt ill on the inside thinking about it.

“Unit Eleven Nineteen… Report… Audibles detected…requesting assault unit… immediately… major damage… all units advise… hostiles in-“ The sharp end of Otaes’ spear tore through his throat, finally ending the Trooper’s life. Eli’s hand instinctively rose to block his eyes from the gory sight, like a physical aversion to it. He felt it. He couldn’t help it. All went silent once more.

“Trust me, we’re doing him a favor,” Otaes pulled the Spear out from the Trooper’s throat, offering Eli her blood covered hand.

“Come on, Eli. Enough standing around. Let’s go get my brother...”

>>>[Verifying...]

>>>[Loading Sit-Rep A-9...]

>>>[Going through File Directory]

>>>[Standby...]

==[Loading Complete!]==

==The Revolutionary Department Of Intelligence==

==[WEAPONS OF THE COLD WAR]==

Name: Shock Trooper

Type: Imperial Special Forces (Convict/Slave Battle Thrall)

Country of Origin: The Greater Avonian Empire

Information: Cybernetic Forces and Synthetic Organisms are an integral part of The Avonian Imperial Army and the paramilitary wing of their intelligence force - The National Service of The Empire. From Dragons whose scales have been replaced by armored plates and wings turned into iron blades, to the hellhounds who've been genetically raised for loyalty to their handlers, the corrupting influence of the Imperial cybernetic engineers knows few bounds. Bounds that don't just extend to smaller non-sentient species, but also to everyday people. The Shock Trooper is more of a description for a role - historically - more than it is an actual type of soldier, though the line has been blurred as Imperial Magitech advances.

During The Sacred War when the Avonians had been pushed all the way to its farthest point of near defeat by the combined Valdacian and Oranian Orderite exterminators, the desperate Avonians began using prisoners and slaves as disposable frontline troops in order to slow down the invading swarm. These expendables were given the designation "Shock Unit" due to their use in some of the most arduous combat situations. Bravely, these units were largely successful at stopping the Orderite invasion, and played a crucial role in Avonia's survival and eventual counter-attack that saw Avonian troops victorious against the Orderite menace.

Post-war, as Imperial magical-technology grew, there became an increasing demand for cybernetically enhanced soldiers to be used in particularly hazardous combat environments. Such areas include the presence of demonic outbreaks, areas where extreme biological hazards were present, frontlines where chemical warfare was common, or in the instances where the Imperial Army found itself outmatched by a superior magical foe (As was the case in a few post-war skirmishes against the Heavenly Dragon Empire). But most importantly, there was a need for an armed force capable of surviving a nuclear war, as both The Empire and The Commonwealth developed atomic - and later glitterbomb - weapons. While the Commonwealth and Belford Alliance experimented with the Pentomic Army Formations to adapt to the presence of tactical nuclear weapons being deployed on the battlefield - Avonia fully developed its cybernetic warriors. The first rollout of the cybernetic "enhancements" were of course deployed on unwilling Shock Troopers. While the cybernetic enhancements would later gain volunteers from die-hard patriots within the Imperial Special Forces and NSE, the Shock Troopers would be the guinea pigs of the program. Prisoners taken from life sentences or death row, modified and (according to some RDI field reports) brainwashed into complete subservience to the Iron Phoenix.

These new cybernetic Shock Troops have been crucial to the Imperial Army, responsible for some key Imperial victories in securing objectives across the Farewind continent. During the Mass Demonic Outbreak of 1236, Shock Troopers were deployed against zombified imps and demons to great effect despite heavy casualties. Their lack of free will, status as expendables, and modified biology for combat made them perfectly suitable as grunts to go up against demonic forces. And to this day, the Shock Troops have only increased their role as an integral arm of the Imperial Army in a new Nuclear Era. A particularly horrifying role to many...

Name: The Energy Disruptor

Type: Magical Disruption Device

Country of Origin: The Ostraland Commonwealth

Information: Magic and the proliferation of it has defined combat across Planet Narva since the first Wizards and Summoner's Guilds were formed - thousands of years ago. Renting out their magically gifted to the armies of the world, or building entire empires themselves with their magical ability. Magical armies have always held a key advantage against conventional forces, as some of the most powerful wizards and witches of their era were truly only limited by their own imaginative abilities. A lone sorcerer could single handedly shift the tide of the battlefield, and several historic moments were defined by their presence. For example, in the year 270 when The Bizonians defended Farewind against a mass dragonian invasion during the Battle on The Ice, Bizonian summoners were crucial in defeating the overwhelmingly superior forces of the Dragons, and halting Heavenly ambitions to conquer the entire continent. Such feats were replicated often, especially by the Valdacian Magical Colleges who reigned supreme during their peak only to be outclassed by the Avonian Empire's hybrid army. Even with the rise of firearms, conventional forces still struggled to maintain parity with the dominance of magical units. And now in a Nuclear Era defined by jet aircraft and glitterbomb weapons of mass destruction, magical supremacy remains king.

Enter, Magical Disruption. A tactic originally pioneered by Ostralandian engineers during The Glorious Revolution and The Coalition Wars to level the playing field. Ostraland's humans have been isolated to their islands which were void of Ekron. To combat this, physicists were forced to find a way to deny the Avonian and Valdacian elves their own key advantage in natural magical spellcasting, and thus invented the Ekron Disruptor. While crude in its original form, the disruptor proved revolutionary as it allowed the humans to take worthless depleted ekron and transform it into an anti-magic weapon. Depleted ekron was struck against a surface lined with charcoal, creating a powerful energetic reaction the destroyed the very molecules necessary for the magic users to tap into their power and the power of the ekron stone. This would summon lightning strikes capable of disintegrating a magical field over an area for some time, allowing conventional Ostralandian forces to triumph against The Avonian Imperials and the Valdacian Mages. Anti-magic technology was crucial for Commonwealth victory in The Coalition Wars, and would continue to be crucial to Commonwealth anti-magical tactics leading to now. Though the technology has proliferated, with all major powers possessing the technology, it remains a crucial deciding factor to either achieve parity against a superior magical foe or to further suppress a population reliant on magic.

For example, during The Kiote War, Avonian forces used magical suppressors across the Peninsula in order to disrupt Kiote Elven magical practices in healing, traditional rituals, and warfare. The weapons was an effective, and silent, destroyer. As the Kiote relied on magic for healing and emergency medical care, casualties among Warrior Elf forces skyrocketed until conventional aid was delivered by Commonwealth assistance. The disruption to their traditional rituals like the annual observation of the solar pass, was a significant moral destroyer among an already exhausted population, and the disruptor effectively became another effective terror weapon in the Imperial arsenal.

Modern innovations to disruptor tech now even allow for friendly magical tools to remain functional - though other weapons have been invented to break through the disruptor field.

==[END TRANSMISSION]==