Rikko looked at the machine that was standing in front of him. Though of humanoid shape and with human skin visible every here and there, it was mostly black armour and a large cannon on one of the arms.
“A cyborg. He was killed during the bombing raid last week…”
Indeed, a week ago a Declipse outpost was hit heavy by a bombing raid. Though the terrorists were beaten for almost two months now, small pockets of resistance still remained. This was one of the biggest ones left and still had an operational air force.
“What was his original name?”
“Sergei. He was a Serbian recruit, operating stinger missiles as a manner of defence.”
“Yes, I met him once… Wasn’t he supposed to be trained as a commando?”
“Yes, but he failed the initiation test. He was then assigned to the forward base.”
“And he is now dubbed…”
“Ezekiel. Don’t ask why, it sounded appropriate.”
Rikko snickered. Simple logics kept everything possible to be tracked.
“You are to test run him.”
Rikko stopped snickering.
“Wait, what? You know I was taken out of active duty, right?”
“I know that very well… However, your actions during active duty are only matched by your squad mate, Eva Rang. And…”
“She is currently on mission…” Rikko finished him. He knew fully well that Eva was currently unavailable, for he was not allowed to guide her for one reason or another. He was suspecting high command to know of this Ezekiel mission…
“Okay… What about my handicap?”
“You are only to lead Ezekiel. He will do all the fighting and you will be evacuated when things go wrong.”
“And he has been tested?”
“This will be his final test.”
Rikko sighed. He thought he was prepared for everything, but this caught him completely off guard and without options.
“Okay, what are the details?”
“First of all, if this mission succeeds, we’ll know the materials for your new arm are functioning as expected. The basic idea is that you allow Ezekiel here to take revenge for his death. A Gunship will drop you two off in the area. Cause damage until they yield and then contact us for a pickup. Afterwards you report on how well he operated.”
Rikko looked strange at the man.
“Wait, new arm? Can I see it?”
“Not yet, we first need to confirm the materials and the building technique actually combine well.”
And thus, Rikko and the silent Ezekiel were loaded on a Gunship for a flight of about half an hour. Rikko noticed Ezekiel was buzzing slightly during the flight, but didn’t actually say a thing. This disturbed him.
“Ezekiel, how are you doing?”
“Functioning for 100%. All weapon systems online, vision and feeling online, armour undamaged.”
“Okay, sounds good enough…”
He’s more robot than human now... shot through Rikko’s head I don’t know if this could be a success...
After the flight Rikko had to orient himself. Apparently, he was standing next to a large mountain cave. The opening seemed to be large enough to let a column of Trashers through, so bombers would be able to come through, too.
“Okay, Ezekiel, here we go…”
“Affirmative.”
“I have orders to let you go up front.”
“Understood.”
And, miraculously, Ezekiel took the lead and entered the cave. His walking mechanism didn’t seem to have trouble with the sudden rough terrain, and Rikko quickly followed him inside.
“Light source dimming, switching over to night view.”
He even has night view...
But then they suddenly saw the base. It was there, right around the corner and came as a huge shock to Rikko. Ezekiel, however, simply raised his weapon.
“Requesting permission to start the attack.”
“Granted”
And with this permission, Ezekiel launched a large, green ball of plasma from his cannon. How it was formed didn’t interest Rikko. What did interest him was the large hole in the side of the wall, and the surprised faces on the other side.
“You have permission to continue.”
Ezekiel was an efficient fighter; so much Rikko had to admit. His arm cannon was able to incarnate human flesh and utterly destroy anything more solid. Anything coming too close got a whack with the other arm, often tearing off heads or limbs.
But then the worst thing imaginable happened. Or at least, to Rikko. An anti infantry turret popped out of the ground and started to open fire on Ezekiel. Rikko was fairly certain the damage from the bullets would shut him down, but it didn’t. Instead of mortally wounding Ezekiel, the bullets pinged off, causing little more damage then a couple of scratches on the surface. Ezekiel noticed the turret, but didn’t open fire.
“Hostile damage source identified. Armour undamaged, working for 100%. Hostile damage source identified. Armour undamaged, working for 100%. Hostile damage source... ”
For every bullet pinging off of his armour, Ezekiel reported this. While he was busy doing this, he couldn’t do much more, making him a walking target for anti armour rounds. Rikko couldn’t have that.
“Dangit, aiding Ezekiel!”
Even though he was only meant to lead Ezekiel, Rikko never left base without at least his particle gun. He still hasn’t forgotten the time it saved his life in the enemy base. He used it on the turret and it quickly dissolved.
“Note that, bookmark camera feed for later analysation.”
This vocal command was basically spit in the microphone, but it was registered properly. A green confirmation sign started to flash for a second or two before disappearing again.
After the last bullet was officially registered by Ezekiel, he returned to his original target, the hostile base. However, after a couple of minutes, a couple of hands rose above the rubble.
“Ezekiel, rest!”
“Understood.”
Seeing how the hands weren’t destroyed yet, the owner of them rose from the rubble and slowly started to walk towards the two. In quick succession, more people started to collect at their location until about a dozen of them were standing in a semicircle around them.
“G-Lead to base, we have about a dozen survivors and we’re just about ready for pickup…”
“Understood, G-Lead, dispatching Gunships. ETA 20 minutes.”
“Okay, what did you notice?”
“Only three things, of which one is a bug.
One: Ezekiel’s main weapon is too powerful. You can’t use him for precise operations.
Two: Once hit, Ezekiel will report that he identified it, if it penetrated his armour and how well he’s operating. When under heavy machinegun fire, he will constantly report this and come to a full stop. With the fire he had to take this didn’t really matter, but under AP fire, this could become a trouble.
Three: He’s slow to manoeuvre, making him an easy target for missiles.
I hope you have some use of my findings, do with it and the video feed, which is being streamed to the main server now, what you need to do.”
“Understood, we’re currently putting the finishing touches on your reward. Expect to be called to test it during the course of the next week.”
“Thanks, will do.”
