Chapter Two

Doc and Dr. O'Malley start the enucleation to patch up the soldier. He's bleeding all over the bed and some blood is dripping onto the floor. Doc and O'Malley continue to pass tools to each other.

"Looks like we're going to need to stitch close the eye." says Doc

O'Malley turns around and looks down at the soldier and says "Hey looks like we're going to need to put you on anesthesia."

O'Malley pulls out a mask with a tube so the soldier can inhale the anesthesia. She straps it to the soldier's head to put him to sleep. After some time, the anesthesia kicks in and the soldier falls asleep. Doc uses suturing scissors and starts the surgery on the soldier. He cuts away at the skin and flesh of the eyelid.

"O'Malley, may you get the toothed forceps to handle the tissue."

"Yeah." O'Malley goes to a table and picks up the toothed forceps. She heads back to the patient's bed and takes over on operating on the eye. Doc heads to a table to get more tools and heads back to the patient. After getting proper tools Doc stitches the damaged eyes eyelids shut.

"I'll ask him questions about what happened once he's conscious." says Doc.

"Understood." responds O'Malley. Mara rushes into the room.

"You guys need to see this!" shouts Mara. O'Malley and Doc walk out of the room and head towards the main warehouse. It's crowded full of resistance fighters all staring at one television. The news is on. The screen flashes and an anchorwoman shows up on the screen.

"Welcome to North American News Network." says the Anchorwoman

"I'm Sue Boyce and let's get into this week's news." she says as she shuffles her papers.

"Political figure Reegan O'Connell was found dead in his apartment." "Evidence shows that he was assassinated by the terrorists who call themselves the resistance." "Supreme

Leader Byron Cash has a message for these terrorists."

The screen goes black and an elderly, caucasian man appears on the screen. He has short, coal black hair and a black mustache. He wears a dark blue suit with a black tie. On the left side of his suit is a pin of a jolly roger.

"To the terrorists of this country, you claim to fight for freedom, to fight for the people and yet all you do is kill. You're willing to risk innocent lives, their safety for something that is irrelevant. You will not win, you will be crushed easily. Surrender now and face your punishment before more people die!"

"And that was the message and to continue--" The anchorwoman was cut off by General Taylor turning off the TV. General Taylor walks into the room and says

"Those who sacrifice freedom for safety, deserve neither safety nor freedom." "Benjamin Franklin said that." says Taylor "He was a wise man with many brilliant ideas." "Cash knows what he's doing, he's manipulating the citizens of the NCA. Closing their eyes to the horrors. What used to be considered war crimes is now a normal event." "From the cleansing to taking

their resources to take and throw away." "We need to open their eyes to the horrors or we'll never start a revolution."

The resistance crowd cheers for a revolution. The enthusiasm rattles through the crowd. As the cheering dies out everyone starts to head back to their posts to continue their day. Doc and O'Malley head back to the medical sector. When they get there they walk in on the soldier barely awake sitting on the left side of his medical bed.

"Hello there, can I get your name soldier?" asks Doc.

"My name is Jack Warren, Corporal." responds the soldier.

"How did you lose your eye, Jack?"

Warren turns around to look at the doctors. He looks very pale and dried up almost as if he were bitten by a vampire.

"My platoon and I were patrolling the western side outside of our base."

"You know, normal routine. But this time we were attacked by a group of people."

"Were they thugs?" asks O'Malley

"If they were thugs, 15 people wouldn't be dead and I would still have my eye." responds Warren.

"I barely escaped alive, they just shot survivors they noticed and looted them."

"Do you think you can guess who or what they are?" asks Doc.

"Probably scavengers , won't be an issue if General Taylor organises a separate troop to hunt them down."

"Ok, just get some rest." say Doc.

"I'm going to stay here with him." says O'Malley

"Ok."

Doc leaves the room and starts to exit the medical sector and heads to General Taylor's tent outside. Doc walked into the tent and was about to say something but Taylor interrupted.

"I already heard the news." says Taylor

"Are you going to send in troops to hunt them down?" asks Doc.

"I already sent Creeper and a small troop on the hunt for the people who killed my troops." "We'll put them on a trial so they can explain their actions."

"That's a good thing…" responds Doc

Doc leaves the tent. Taylor sits at his desk and looks at his New Earth Globe then a burst of static from the walkie interrupts the moment.

"Voodoo 1, this is Creeper. We found the scavengers who attacked the troop."

"Creeper, this is Voodoo 1. Have you apprehended the asset?"

"No, the SEDs go to them first."

"What?!" shouts Taylor in disbelief.

"The SEDs killed them. They thought back and left one of the new SEDs for us to take back to base."

"Good. Head back to base with the SED and take it to the engineering sector. Voodoo 1 out."

"Ok team, help me get this hunk of junk back to base."

"Yessir." two resistance fighters say.

Creeper and the two fighters pick up the SED and drag it to the truck. It felt like it weighed a ton and the scaly, black armour clinging to them wasn't helping. When they reach the truck, they push it into the bed.

"I wonder why these SEDs seem less human-like than the first models." asks one of the soldiers.

"That's what we'll find out when we get back." says Creeper as he climbs into the driver seat of the truck.

Once they start driving they can see the despair in this area, people sitting in the gutters eating rats and trash they found. Buildings are crumbled to nothing but ashes. The air is heavily polluted and everyday feels the same. In the distance they can see a factory bleeding smoke into the air. Creeper gazes upon the factory while driving, he knows that tomorrow that factory will not be bleeding smoke. Tomorrow Bad Company will be infiltrating the factory.

Creeper and the other fighters reach the base after thirty minutes of driving. Creeper and the resistance fighters get out of the truck and head to the back to get the SED.

"Can you guys help me with this?" asks Creeper.

"Yeah." responds a resistance fighter.

Creeper opens the bed of the truck and the resistance fighters and Creeper drag out the SED. They take it into the base and one of the fighters at the base asks

"Need help with that?"

"Yeah.�� responds Creeper. The fighter heads towards them and starts to help drag the SED back to the engineering sector. Once they reach the destination they see an engineer working on Avesta's cybernetic arm. They drag SED to the back and a young female engineer walks into the room.

"Oooo! Is that the new SED I was promised?"

"Yeah" responds Creeper "I hope you can take it apart and find something new."

"Of course I will." says the engineer enthusiastically "Maybe I can set up a system so we can use it for us!"

The engineer starts to work on the SED and Creeper heads towards Avesta to talk to her.

"What happened to your arm?" asks Creeper

"It got jammed, I wasn't able to close my hand." says Avesta "And now, I can't open it."

"Good thing it's getting fixed." responds Creeper. "The mission would go horribly if that wasn't fixed."

"Yeah." says Avesta

The engineer working on her arm looks at it and says "It should be fixed."

Avesta looks at her arm and opens and closes her hand and then proceeds to move her fingers.

"Thanks mate." says Avesta to the engineer.

"No problem."

Avesta and Creeper leave the sector and walk to the cafeteria. When they get to the cafeteria, they see Mara fighting with Ashley.

"I don't want you to go on the mission!" yells Ashley

"I have to go! I was selected for the job. And I'm fighting for this cause." Mara yells.

"What if you don't?" "What am I supposed to do then?" "What about Alex?" "Do you want them to be raised by one parent?!"

"No!" screams Mara "Does really look like a I fucking want that?!"

Ashley cries and runs away, Mara grabs her lunch tray and throws it at the wall before sitting down and putting her head on the table. Avesta tries to walk towards Mara but Creeper stops. Avesta proceeds to leave the cafeteria to look for Viper. Creeper walks towards Mara and sits next to her.

"Ben, I don't want to talk about it." says Mara.

"Then I'll just be waiting." says Creeper.

Avesta continues to look for Viper and then sees him in the planning room marking a map. She walks into the planning room and asks.

"The Hell have you been doing."

Viper looks up at Avesta and says "My job."

Avesta walks over the map and sees what Viper has marked.

"Explain." says Avesta

"The plan is to have 7274-niner drop us off here." He points at the circle on the map marked with "B." "At Site Hotel Bravo we'll then split up." "Creeper will scout out the area for troops patrolling." "I'll head to the building across from the factory, Site Hotel Alpha, to provide Overwatch." "You, Mara and Doc will infiltrate the area to shut down the factory and investigate what the VEI is producing there." "Unfortunately, we don't know the layout inside but Taylor has drones in the area." "Once we get the layout, I'll send it to your HUD." "Carter will have our weapons ready with suppressors for this particular mission."

"Sounds like a plan." responds Avesta and then walks out of the planning room and heads into the cafeteria to see Creeper and Mara still at the table.

"Does she---" says Avesta before being interrupted by Creeper.

"No, I'll talk to her."

"Ok." responds Avesta as she leaves.

"You're not going to leave are you, Ben." says Mara

"No, I'm not."

"Well then, we got in a fight." "It's none of your business."

"Both of you should apologise to each other."

"Ben, she doesn't want me to go!" says Mara "I can't change her mind."

"And you probably won't." says Creeper. "You don't need her to change her mind." "You just need her to understand."

"Thanks Ben, you're a good friend." says Mara as she hugs him.

"I'm heading out." says Mara "Later, Ben."

"Bye Meg." responds Creeper.

Creeper stands up and decides to head back to the engineering sector to see what progress the engineer has made on dismantling the SED. When he enters the room he sees General Taylor and the engineer discussing the SED.

"If this SED is supposedly piloted by someone then is there any way you can rework it for one of our soldiers to pilot it?" asks Taylor.

"Yeah there is, it will just take some time." responds the engineer.

"Good." says Taylor "That's your number one objective."

The engineer is an Asian woman with black hair and brown eyes. She wears a black and gray hoodie with black sleeves and has jeans. Around her neck is a thick black scarf and she wears dark blue fingerless mittens on her hands. On the desk she's working lies the head of the SED and scraps and junk from that SED.

"Anything interesting about these SEDs compared to the older models?" asks Creeper

"Well, unlike the last SEDs these ones have a self-destruct sequence if a part were to be removed but I disabled that."

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" asks Creeper.

"My name is Anna Zhang." says the engineer. "You?"

"Ben Henderson." responds Creeper.

"Anything else?" asks Creeper.

"No, not yet." says Anna "But I'll tell you if I do."

"Thank you." says Creeper before exiting the sector.

Meanwhile at Taylor's tent Viper and General Taylor are discussing the plan of infiltrating the factory.

"Do you have the schematics of the inside of the factory?" asks Viper

"Yeah, you got your plan?" asks Taylor as he passes a silicon chip file.

"First thing tomorrow we head out but the mission starts on your mark, sir." says Viper.

"Once you do your part we'll send troops to take the factory and if not possible then we'll destroy it." says Taylor "Understood?"

"Yessir." responds Viper.

"You're excused." says Taylor.

Viper leaves the tent and heads back to his quarters. It's late at night and very few resistance members are awake at night. In Mara's quarters, are Mara and Ashley getting ready to rest. In a small cradle next them lays a baby snuggly asleep.

"Ashley, I'm sorry for having an outburst on you."

"No, I'm sorry for not understanding it was your duty." says Ashley "I'm just worried about you and Alex, I'm sorry."

Mara hugs Ashley and says "You don't need to be worried, hun." "I promise I'll be fine."

"You promise?" asks Ashley.

"I promise." says Mara and kisses Ashley on the cheek.

"Good night." says Mara. They both fall asleep together…

On the other side of the warehouse is Avesta's quarters. It has a desk and a bed with a map of the NAC nation on the wall. Avesta is writing a digital log about the events of today. When she finishes her writing she puts the reading log down and heads to bed.

Avesta wakes up on the cold metal floor in a new room. She gets up and looks around, the room appears to be a large storage room. The walls are metal with large bars at the top on one side of the room are large tubes that appear to be charging stations. In these tubes are young teens no

older than 15. "Where am I?" thinks Avesta. She continues to look around and one of the tubes appears to be empty.

"196!!" screams a man.

She turns around and sees a bald, caucasian with gray eyes, eyes filled with anger. She gets into a fighting stance but the man phases right through her. "What?" thinks Avesta. She turns around again and sees the same man beating a young little girl with a baton. She screams "Stop, stop hurting me!" but continues to get beat. It hits her, this was the cybergen project and that little girl is her. The man stops beating the girl and turns and stares directly at Avesta. She can see the fury, the hatred in this man. Then it all goes black…

"Ahhh!" screams Avesta and wakes up back in her quarters.

"Nightmare?" asks Viper sitting outside and sharpening a combat knife.

"What are you doing awake?" asks Avesta.

Viper puts the knife in it's sheif and says "My job." then tosses Avesta a bottle of pills.

"What are these." asks Avesta.

"Melatonin." says "Take it, we have a mission in the morning." Viper picks up his sniper rifle and leaves the warehouse. Avesta takes the melatonin and falls asleep. Tomorrow they have hell to pay.