12 - Memento mori

NEW_ORDERES_RESIVED.

OBJECTIVE_STACK_UPDATED:

NEUTRALISE_HOSTILE_HVT:

CAPTURE_OR_KILL.

TWO_ON_TWO_ON_ONE_DELTA_DEPLOYMENT.

ISR_INDICATES_TYPE_2_RESISTANCE.

USE_OF_TYPE_3_AIR_SUPPORT_AUTHENTICATED.

ASSET_09721_ON_STATION:_PROVIDE_SUPPORT_DIRECT_AND_SANITIZE.

END_OF_REPORT.

It was like a shock went through his entire body as he was woken up from the drug induced 'standby-mode', along with the hangover-like headache and light sensitivity came a string of information which was injected directly into his mind.

(... I guess somebody is going to die again today, wonder if it is finally my turn.)

Along with the orders which informed him that he needed to provide overwatch for a potential murder or kidnapping came a flood of visual information like maps, pictures and a visual guide to all the possible air support available at his discretion.

(Hmm, this sure is new… Where the fuck am I? Definitely not Asia anymore, so this might be the African union, or even Eroupe?)

Taking about a minute to fully digest all this information, Tom finally reached up to his own head and nose, pulling out the plastic tube which had been pumping him full of drugs and nutrients for god knows how long. After getting free of the metre long tube, he freed himself from another which was stuffed down his throat before ripping off numerous sensor patches on his naked body before he finally emerged from the coffin-like apparatus which was the closest thing he would ever have to a bed.

Getting dressed in the civilian clothes which was also inside the pod and served to hide the armour and tactical gear he wore underneath, Tom took out his pistol, turned it to his head and tried to squeeze the trigger, only to feel a shock throughout his entire body along with a head splitting amount of pain which made him collapse on the ground in excruciatingly painful spasms lasting for about half an hour before it finally subsided.

"... Fucking pieces of shit."

Failing to kill himself yet again, Tom finally went to work resigned to the fact that he couldn't die despite his consistent efforts.

Hitting the streets, Tom found himself in some sort of metropolis surrounded by civilians who didn't pay him any mind, he reached the area of operations and found a 60 story office highrise which he entered, travelling to the top floor where he found the rest of his equipment sitting in a hidden cache on the abandoned floor among various office supplies and goods.

"Let's get this show on the road… 2 on 2 on 1 delta authenticate, code: 000548757 on station."

[AUTHENTICATION CONFIRMED, ON STATION. KILL TEAM 2-1 GO FOR OPS.]

At Tom's command and positive confirmation, the operation started as numerous hidden launch sites throughout the business district came alive and launched drones which quickly blended in with the other commercial traffic swarms as the other operatives came alive.

Through the neural uplink jammed in through one of his eye sockets, Tom was fed camera information from the drones and other operatives, showing him a entertainment district where the target was currently having dinner with his wife, kids and parents; they were apparently celebrating the recent journalism accolades he had gotten after exposing a huge corruption scandal involving an allied country and were set to dine and wine at a fancy restaurant.

(Why the fuck would you be that stupid?)

Seeing the target celebrating really annoyed Tom, it seemed he had everything Tom had ever wanted, a happy wife and kids, a good job and loving parents that he was now throwing away by messing with the wrong people.

Through the CCTV feed from the restaurant, Tom Carefully observed the target and his public security detail, waiting for the opportune moment as the other operatives closed in.

"2-1, 2-2, go for phase 1."

[Understood…]

Hearing the voice of a young child responding to him didn't really surprise Tom, but there was still something eerie about hearing the tone and cadence of a person prepared to die from someone at least 50 years younger than himself.

Seconds later, the restaurant CCTV briefly cut out and 2 explosions rocked the nearby area as the plain clothed officers in the restaurant rushed into action as they drew their hidden service weapons, securing the target and their family, getting them to hunker down as the area descended into pandemonium.

"Smoke screen set. 3-1, 3-2, first wave 20 seconds out, lock down the area."

While the police officers got the target and their family under control and started to guide them outside, Tom switched to the basement garage CCTV underneath the restaurant where blast doors and car barricades had started locking down the entire area, in just 30 seconds, the underground parking garage would be transformed into an unbreakable panic room that could protect the target until police reinforcements would arrive.

Sadly, Tom was already prepared for such a move.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"

"We don't know yet sir, anti-terror ISR has put out a red alert! At least two detonations nearby! We need to move you and your family to safety now!"

Forced by his security team into an elevator along with his family, Miles was never given more information than that single line form the chief, but he already knew there was no way this was a terrorist attack.

It was only meant to look like one after the fact.

"WAIT! Don't take us to the car park!"

"Sir! You need to listen-"

"No, you need to listen to me! They know your operational playbook, these are the same people who fucking trained your u-"

Attempting in vain to explain what exactly his security team was dealing with, Miles was cut short by an explosion as the elevator doors opened, an unknown numbers of loitering munitions had broken through the car park lockdown measures and were now impacting the police cruisers and armoured cars that were meant to be their evac point.

As the multiple concussive secondary warheads not only disabled the target's primary evac but also stunned their security, 3-1 and 3-2 moved in for the kill. Having already set up for the elevator to arrive, 3-2 pulled the pin on a tear gas grenade and tossed it inside while 3-1 swung his M-507 around and hosed down the inside with fully automatic fire, shooting non-lethal paintball-like rounds at everyone in the elevator. In this case, non-lethal was a relative term, as the rubber slugs easily carried enough momentum to break bones, and break bones they did, making the target, their protection and secondary targets scream in pain.

"1-1 Overlord, target suppressed. Cleaning secondaries."

Inserting a fresh magazine of hollow point, anti personnel rounds, 3-2 'cleaned' the elevator of everything after 3-1 had secured the target.

[1-1 Overlord, HVT secured, secondaries sanitised.]

"A-firm 3-2, move with 3-1 and HVT to extract alpha."

Hearing the sound of screaming be cut short by gunfire from 3-2's comms, Tom moved on to the second and particularly harder stage of the operation; extraction. With anti terror units and even special forces dispatched to the AO, time was now very much of the essence.

"1-1 Overlord confirms phase two, execute fire mission bravo."

[FIRE MISSION BRAVO EXECUTE CONFIRMED; 31 TARGET(S) ADDED TO QUEUE.]

Leaving the abandoned office floor and moving to the roof with a smart optic where he observed the loitering munitions which had launched earlier impact cell towers, drone logistic ports, police surveillance servers and other critical infrastructure such as microwave receivers and substations.

In a single strike, the entire entertainment district fell dark and quiet, save for the fires and screaming.

[1-1 Overlord, field broken, switching to cover.]

Attaching the smart optic to an anti material rifle, Tom got on the move and jumped from the 60 story office building to a nearby one as he used his neural uplink to program the first salvo of smart ammunition in his rifle before raising it to the sky as he landed on a air condition unit. Having secured footing in the half crushed AC unit, Tom braced his rifle to his shoulder and fired a round into the sky. Quickly pricing through the lower part of the atmosphere, when the first shell reached the peak of its arc it spit open, revealing the sensor package inside as it released a parachute and started painting targets.

TARGET PROFILE(S) UPDATED; REPROGRAMING 4 SHELL(S)

REPROGRAM COMPLETE; INITIATE FIREMISSION.

With new information from up high fed into his neural uplink, Tom adjusted his aim and commenced the firemission. Using smart ammunition Tom only needed to roughly aim in the direction of the targets as he fired, something which served him well as he was already under attack by special forces.

"Fuck!"

Just after he finished firing, Tom lost his anti-material rifle to an enemy sniper… Then came the assault formation.

Enhanced without regard for ethics or the subject's lifespan just like Tom himself, these soldiers moved just as fast as he did, and being overwhelmed by superior numbers the last thing Tom saw was his own brain matter splatter from a high calibre headshot.

Waking up and immediately puking up whatever remained in his stomach, Tom's head was filled with the last emotions that went through his head, all the pain his body felt due to the suffering inflicted by both his own half-botched implants and the numerous injuries it finally took to bring him down.

"... Fucking great."

"What the hell are you going on about? Also stop puking out of nowhere, that's fucking gross."

Having woken Lisa up by both dry and wet-heaving as well as the unpleasant smell which followed, she was understandably less than pleased being woken up in such a manner.

"Yeah sorry about that, I just remembered how I died last time around…"

"... Oh."

Although she had heard about his entire reincarnation thing multiple times around, Lisa hadn't ever believed Tom, that is up until now. Seeing the mostly unshakeable Tom clearly stressed and disturbed by whatever he had just seen made her believe what was happening.

"... H-how was it?"

Before she knew what was going on, those words had already left Lisa's mouth, perhaps due to curiosity.

"It was highly unpleasant… But now that we're both awake, let's get to it."

"R-right… But, are you okay?"

"Yeah, if anything I'm thankful someone finally took me out and freed me. At the end of everything I was nothing more of a tool and more low quality implants than flesh... Now come on, we need to deal with the nest."

"Okay."

Having determined it was high time to leave the fortress city behind as he and Lisa were starting to attract too much attention, Tom had already packed their bags the night before so the pair got up and left the crummy inn they had been staying at and headed directly to the local adventurers guild.

"You remember the signal we settled on?"

"Yeah, and the training you made me go through so don't worry."

Repeating the hand signal which Tom had drilled into her head through a few day's worth of intensive training, Lisa rolled her eyes but still checked that her gas mask was firmly attached to her plate carrier which she had hidden under her poncho. Seeing Lisa reflexively check on her mask, Tom decided not to comment on her age appropriate behaviour and the pair spent the rest of the short trip to the adventurers guild in silence. Although it was called a guild, the adventurers guild was little more than a slightly larger than normal bar where adventurers wasted their hard earned coin but also a place where merchants and other potential clients got into contact with the appropriate adventurers. Entering the guild with a child in tow immediately attracted some attention from the adventurers who had decided to start their day bright and early by getting shitfaced, Tom paid them little attention and went straight to the bartender where he slammed down a pouch filled with coins to get his attention.

"I'm looking for a crew that can take me and the runt to New Dale, spend half a day there and then return."

"... Are you insane? That town is abandoned due to monster activity."

Staring at Tom like he was crazy, the bartender who acted like an intermediary between adventurers and their clients knew about the mining town of New Dale, how an extremely valuable ore had been found just days before monsters had started flooding out of the mine in droves, leading to the entirety of the town being evacuated.

"I know what I'm getting myself into, and besides-"

Opening the pouch and pouring the contents inside (gold coins) out on the table, Tom's cold expression turned into a grin as he noticed the shock spread across the bartender's face.

"- the pay is really, really good."