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[Location: New California, Neptune]

In the once blooming colony of New California, now Turned to Ruins by the Shattenarch, an Alien race in a deep and destructive conflict with Mankind, a ship would enter through the large gash in the gigantic Energy shield which seemed to be kept open by a dark energy

"Since you are still Just Beginner Anfangs, I will be briefing to all of you the mission, you all are to be dropped into the city to Search through the perimeter, eliminating all Shattenarch Lifeforms you come into contact with, as well as sending all civilians found in your assessment, you are then to locate the Shattenarch prime mind, and you are to destroy it, before taking off with the evacuated civilians so the IPC's forces can come in and begin the rebuilding process, is that clear?" Spoke the voice in the Intercom channel

"Yes sir, no need to remind us you know? we're not really children anymore" A young man in white armor, the armor seemed new and form fitting, with interlocking plates that seemingly moved in and out of place to aid in movement, his young voice

"normally, yes, however, Anfang Erster, your records of going overboard and destroying Weissarch Property in practice matches necessitate this reminder" replied the voice in the intercom,

"fine fine" Erster sighed, in the end, no matter how kind the owners are, Weissarch Institute is still a research company that needs money to keep existing, and would be against any unnecessary waste by that fact alone

Rechecking his Silver Key, Weapons embued with Shattenash, a corrosive, yet highly powerful and equally mysterious Substance formerly wielded and grown only by Shattenarch, before being discovered and sent back by the Herald of Dawn, Albert Salbei, his Silver Key was a Bladed Shotgun, he checked it for the Shattenash levels, checking the edge, and after a few final inspections, he nodded to himself and slinging it back to the magnetic holders on his back, letting out a bored sigh, Erster disliked sitting still

"Landing in 10 seconds, prepare for landing, and commence operation" Spoke the vouce as the slight vibration generated by landing was felt by all the Soldiers there, causing them to take out their very own silver keys, some had rifles, some had snipers, some had melee weapons, but all of them just as deadly

*HISSS*

and with the opening of the hatch, the Anfangs rushed out, jumping and climbing onto buildings to get a vantage point or going through the roads to comb through the place, they were not infantry after all, they were more similar to special agents trained and employed by the Weissarch Institute

Erster began to run, energy filling his every step, his enhanced body and his training coming to use as he vaulted over abandoned and ruined Automobiles as he jumped off of a wall to generate enough momentum and climbing over a rooftop with innocent glee, as he landed on the rooftop he looked around, utilizing the thermal imaging offered by his helmet, and seeing what appeared to be a cluster of lifeforms

"Life Signature detected" Erster Reported to the intercom system as well as sending his coordinates, before moving on, hoping to he had found some civilians

Soon his hopes would be dashed, as jumping from building to building, he soon encountered something, a pack of Shattenhund in the road, Horse sized Canine Creatures covered in black plates along it's body, it's purple glowing eyes looking around for any signs of living creatures, they are the most common Shattenarch Lifeforms seen in combat

"Hostiles spotted, moving to eliminate" Erster spoke with a frown on his face, before jumping down, unable to wait at the prospect of eliminating the Shattenhund

"I'll Butcher you All!" exclaimed Erster with a shout, dropping on top of a Shattenhund stabbing the blade of the silver key between the plates of the Shattenhund'e nape, before grinning as he pulled the trigger-

*BANG!!!*

-And causing the Shattenhund's nape and head to burst from the sheer force of the Erster's shotgun, and riding the recoil of his shotgun, Erster jumped to another Shattenhund with a smile, whom, prepared for him and pounced at him midair-

*CHOP!*

only to be met with the blade attachment of the silver key, chopping the top side of it's face off by the mouth,

"who wants more?!" Exclaimed Erster with a refreshed grin, landing on the ground as he looked at the pouncing Shattenhunds

*RATATATA-!!*

but before they can reach him, a hail of Bullets would fire at the Shattenhund, cracking through their shields and backing up in caution as Erster Looked up with a relaxed smile

"Bobby! Thought you chickened out!" shouted Erster towards someone he would consider a close and valuable friend, Bobby Uriel Q. De Jesus, a child recruited somewhere in the south east asian continent on Earth

"Hah! Tanginamo! some of us have people to go home to! also, Call me Uriel!" replied Bobby with a frustrated tone, taking aim with his silver key, an assault rifle, though weaker than other black keys, the rate of fire more rhan made up for it with the crowd control potential

as such, when Erster Charged at the pack, Shredding Shattenhund's face with a shotgun shot, Bobby acted quickly unleashed a hail of Bullets to cover for his friend as he had done so many times in drills and practice, a bullet landing on the eye of the Shattenhund closest to Erster, causing it to go blind on one eye, and the forelegs of an a pouncing Shattenhund, but Bobby seemingly seemed unsatisfied, continued to shoot at them, with a calm but serious expression, covering for his reckless friend

"Thanks!" shouted Erster with a thankful tone, feeling his trust in his friend reaffirmed, striking the head of the Blinded shattenhund through the wound, meeting little resistance, causing the shotgun's blade to force out gray matter with disturbing ease, before shooting the crippled shattenhund in the face, all the while a smile on his face remained, simply happy to fight with his friend

Bobby only nodded, before focus firing on the remaining one, three bullets at the same spot piercing enough through the plates to reach the last Shattenhund's brain, killing it, before he began to relax, believing that the battle has ended for now and that he doesn't need to focus on shooting anymore

"phew, that's the last of them here, found any civies?" asked Erster, looking at Bobby with a hopeful tone, wishing to believe that they weren't too late

"nope, not a single living person, the few that were still there were too slow and were mauled by Shattenhund, or if they were lucky but from the traces I saw, we could be dealing with a shattenteufel" explained Bobby with a solemn tone, frustrated and resigned at the idea

Erster was Surprised, yet not at the same time, he let out a sigh, Erster hated Shattenteufel with a passion, after all, unlike most Shattenarch lifeforms, Shattenteufel existed seemingly just to torture enemies and demoralize enemy forces, after all, what kind of creature would naturally be designed to be nourished by high pitched noises as well as possess extremely slow stomach acids to slow down digestion?

"let's just hope we don't have to deal with those bloodsuckers" Erster spoke to Bobby, whom grimaced, but nodded sharing the sentiment if his tense posture was anything to go by

"hopefully so" replied Bobby, as the two continued on with their scouting after collecting some samples from the Shattenhunds

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Bobby and I explored the place, cautiously moving around at Bobby's insistence, though it wasn't hard to say that his leadership did let me save up on my Shattenash Levels, he was a good leader like that, though I could do less with his ramblings

"-and that's how, are you even listening gago?" asked Bobby, clearly irritated with the situation

"come again?" I asked with a wry smile, though in reality I just liked seeing my friend react, teasing him is fun like that

"Puñeta" Sighed Bobby before he began to explain to me his plan again, and based off of my understanding, since the Shattenarch Prime mind would most likely be at the radio tower to more efficiently keep order in the Shattenarch forces, the plan would be to use my Silver key's Activation ability to cause it's collapse to cause as much damage, while his job would be to use his Silver key's Activation ability to fend off the reinforcements, simple plan, even I could follow that

"so I blow stuff up and you keep the critters off? you know me too well" I told him with a grin

Bobby Sighed "Yes, Erster, just blow it up" he replied with an exasperated tone, getting a chuckle from me

"This is Verbinder Vestus,Anfang Erster, Anfang Uriel,do you copy?!" spoke a voice in our intercoms

"This is Anfang Erster/Uriel, over" we spoke in unison

"Good, I'm receiving worrying reports of Shattenash Signatures spiking to at the very least the signature of a Shattenarch Verwaster! Regroup with others and confirm the reports! if the reports are validated, evacuate immediately! the coordinates have been sent, now go!" Ordered the voice with an urgent tone, clearly worried about the idea of a Verwaster, but I certainly can't blame her, Verwasters are absolute monsters that would take an army of Anfangs to win against

"Roger!" I replied with a more serious tone as I grabbed Bobby by the collar and began to run towards the coordinates, jumping over cars and rubble, taking Bobby with me

"Putanginamo! iba- let me go you wreckless idiot!" yelled out Bobby in Frustration as he bumped through things Ranging from rubble to car hoods again and again

"oh, sure" I replied, stopping and letting go, watching him fly into a car before stopping halfway into the mirror

"Putangina..." groaned Bobby as he pulled himself out, unharmed thanks to his own armor, but slightly dizzy from being dragged around

"Let's go man!" I shouted, getting a dizzy nod as the two of us began to jog towards the direction, me keeping pace with the dizzy Bobby to not have him fall behind

Soon, we reached the coordinates, and were met by our fellow anfangs setting up a perimeter

"Oh, if it ain't you two! we were wondering where you went!" Spoke a man I held in deep seated annoyance

"Anderson, so you lived" I spoke in faux joy, trying to stop myself from hiding behind Bobby, Jack Anderson, a Martian Orphan taken in by the Weissarch, same as me, however, though we may have similar personalities, I simply do not appreciate his flirts towards me

"Erster, you'd know I'd only be alive if I'm living with you" he replied with that irritating grin of his, Anderson had a squarish face, with a young but hard look on his face, and his blonde hair styled into a buzz cut certainly helped with making him look like a stereotypical American

"Sorry but Rejected, go flirt with someone else, I'm into girls if I haven't told you that enough, also put on your helm man" I replied with a deadpan tone, getting a laugh out of the man in front of me

"Hah! with how amusing your reaction is?no thanks, Anyways, Valerie is worried for you, go get checked by her so she can give you the clear, you know how zealous she can be with her role as a medic, as for me, I'll be helping Nguyen fortify the perimeter, lord knows I certainly don't mind helping her when she gets all sweaty and commanding!" Spoke Anderson with a smile before beginning to dig with one of his silver Keys, a combat shovel usually paired with the handcannon holstered on his hip

"You need to tone down your jokes man, if Nguyen heard you she might just think you're actually into her" Spoke Bobby with a wince as the two of us entered the perimeter, as we looked around towards our fellow Anfangs, some wounded some resting

"Well, time to meet Valerie I guess" I spoke with a sigh

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Wordcount: 2031 words

Thanks for reading this prologue, and as this is my first original book, please be as critical as you can