Author's Note

Well, i hope you enjoy. This first chapter took days, but I had to get this concept into motion. This first chapter does require perhaps some knowledge of the game Black ops III in order to fully understand. So I apologize if you seem even a little confused while reading. I have left trailers in the description if you need to know of any of it.

Black ops

MISSION PROTOCOL: ECHO

It all started in 2060, when the infamous Singapore disaster occurred.
It was a sunny day in August, and one of the last of it's kind. Around the corner was the murky feeling of Autumn, and soon the chilling cruelty of winter, and in the center of it all, was the Coalescence Corporation.
Coalescence was known by it's tagline: "enhance yourself for a better tomorrow," basically promoting the idea of bionic enhancement.
Many argue that this type of technology takes away the best aspect of humans. We are imperfect, but we use our social interactions to work through those imperfections.
I like that. It shows how much we rely on each other.

Of course, that idea didn't matter during the break of the disaster. Within a few miles, the facility run by Coalescence let out a massive explosion from within, killing everyone inside, mostly medical patients, doctors, and tourists.

This sparked massive attention within the area, and soon curiousity. Authorities not only blocked and prevented people from seeing what had happened, but also resorted to shooting down civilian drones to further ensure their privacy on this matter.

During the next few weeks, toxins leaked into the 30-mile region, a chemical identified as Nova 6, which brought the death toll to over Three hundred-thousand. Lives were taken, and we had no idea why.

People were already being evacuated from the newly-named Quarantine Zone, but the gas made it's way into the atmosphere, destroying weather patterns. Superstorms began to grow, those of which omitted winds exceeding 150 miles per hour, acid rain, and tore up buildings and shelters.

It became total mayhem. People were scattering, trying to leave, but the Singaporean Armed Forces decided to build a 50-story wall around the Q-zone, and abandoning evacuation efforts. The only communication possible was to be made inside the walls, and a millions of people were left stranded.

I was one of the unfortunate ones. In fact, I believe my flight outta here was next.
Sadly though, I had to put up with it, and had to prepare for the next threat.

A crime/terrorist organization, known as the 54 immortals was beginning to rise. Formed in Singapore centuries ago, its radical leaders, Goh Min and Goh Xiulan, took great hold of the Q-zone, requesting the enlistment of anyone willing to, in quote "Bring Singapore to it's natural state." It was either seize militarized control, or be a victim of it.

Of course, they didn't do it alone. The Common Defense Pact, an alliance made up of Russia and Eastern European countries, decided to supply them in their reign of terror, in both simple resources and tech, including Exo-Suits, drones, bipedal hive-mind robots, and much more. Enough for them to easily run the Q-zone.

Hell, if they wanted too, they could take over all of Singapore if they wanted, but I can assume they are either inexperienced for real war, or just planning.
Waiting for the right time..

I managed to stay alive from all the shit happening thanks to my DNI, as it would definitely aid me in combat, and help me adapt to the shitty environment.

I had already been enlisted in the 54i. I figured, "Why the hell not?" It's either I join them, or they kill me. It's one of those corrupt militaries where you could do almost anything you wanted. Show your major aggression against people, whether they be civilians or your fellow soldiers was up to you. It was chaos in the streets. The Immortals organized slave trade, mass shootings, and had brutal torture methods. They trade blood for money, and none could even give a damn.
Yet, I didn't support these extremist values. I, and a couple few, worked under vengeance. The fact that our government gave up on us because of inconvienient weather and leaking toxins maybe a couple more miles was beyond me. They quit for their own sake, so some of us want revenge, and we were getting closer to it.

By around 2065, we ruled the entire Q-zone. If you dare step outside or defy our commands, you would seat to our rage.

However I had a very unfortunate encounter with some friends who came from the west.

Jacob Hendricks, a long friend I would communicate with from time to time, met up with me in a bar, bringing his friend John Taylor, asking for a fair trade.
They wanted to sell me some more advanced GI units, an elaborate form of saying bipedal drones, in which to trade for some basic munitions. We ran into a bit of argument, and then, the Goh siblings showed up. While I was unaware of why they were here, the two were aware of why Hendricks and Taylor were here.
Turns out my little friends were agents from the Winslow Accord, the military that owns Coalescence and who supported the abandonment of extraction from the Q-zone 5 years ago.

Upon discovery of their identity, the two decided to split.
They unleashed a squadron of bots, which shot up the whole bar, killing both me and Goh Min, one of the 54i leaders.

The agents continued rampaging through the city, I believe it was to get some intel or some shit.

I managed to resurrect myself though. I had recently acquired a Rejack suit, a piece of equipment able to stimulate near-instant self repair to injury when connected to a DNI, restoring the body to a living state.

Howeverm when I woke up, I had to face consequences. Goh Xuilan was filled with rage due to her brother's death and demanded that we all open the wall and storm through to the CIA safehouse about a few miles away from the perimeter.

I was out of commission, as proper medical attention was something I needed, but the rest of the 54i went on to retaliate.

The mission was a failure. Goh Xuilan met her demise at the hands of one of the WA operatives I talked to earlier, and while I had come out of the hospital with a fully-redone cybernetic arm to pair with a reworked military DNI, our military was crippling fast.

He Zhen Zhen, the newly established 54i leader and former 17-year-old enforcer, almost had me hanged for my technical affilation with the WA which led to the death of the Goh siblings.
She wasn't wrong. They were right across the table from me, and I could've popped one in between each of their eyes if I knew.

But, Seraph came to the conclusion that they needed as much men as possible to rebuild their reputation. civilian militas were growing stronger, and militaries were attempting to fly in, sweep the Q-zone clean, and siege the land for their country for whatever purpose.

I decided to go rogue. All this controversy among political power had me right in the middle of it. I had to command several regiments, and it was too much. My morals and my death experience led to me abandoning what I knew as a soldier at the time.

I made myself a new identity. Callsign "Blackjack" was how I was known in the wrecked streets of Singapore after I officially left the 54i.

Weapon selling was my thing. I decided to stay neutral on the new up-and-coming control over the Quarantine Zone, so if you needed a weapon, you came to me on the Black Market.

I build and modify firearms, melee tools, and even some digital "swag," as they call it.
I also managed to gain access to Winslow Accord files. They have been covertly operating in Singapore, slowly clearing out competitive forces. I managed to swipe access when i found their mobile safehouse while scavenging the land for more materials. I went in, connected myself, then got out.

Their data was full of interesting intel. One that caught my eye as a multi-billion dollar failed android built in Zurich, known as "Reaper."

The intention was a global peacekeeping device. Similar to GI units, but almost fifty times more advanced, both mechanicaly and in term of their AI.

They were supposed to be mass produced. Sadly, not enough money was able to be funded and people spoke out against the idea. The whole "What if they turn against us?" bullshit argument. Honestly, i feel some sympathy. The intentions seem to have people connect more with AI and robotics, something already abundant. However, it seems that one got away. A prototype was saved and used as a soldier for the WA's black ops team.

But i took all this new knowledge to my advantage. The WA files contained a heaping amount of Cyber-core abilities, modifications that provided enhancement to any range of combat. Some weapon designs were also in the data, such as Gravity spikes, Tempest railguns, energy blades, they all kept coming. Even blueprints of the Reaper project came to me, allowing me to upgrade my cyber-arm to contain a deployable minigun.

However, within about a month of me almost completely upgrading myself, I heard a knock on my door. Thermals picked up a group of foot-mobiles closing in on my armory, both the same Black ops cyber soldiers and some 54i grunts.

"Umm hey, you got some company," my HUD showed of an audio transmission from Spectre, a mercenary accomplice of mine.

"I'm fully aware of the danger, how many are there?" I said almost impatiently. Spectre, while he was friendly towards his allies, wasn't the easily informative or instructive type of merc. He just did the job efficiently like I do, while adding his own "charm" to the mix.

"Lemme see.... I can guessitmate 60? A handful look more well armed and from-"

"-That's the Winslow Accord. They've come for me," I cut him off while frantically deleting and reuploading info from my servers to a flash drive.

The 54i had placed a bounty on not only Danny Li's head for disloyalty and abandonment, but Blackjack's in terms of ruining their business and interfering with their ops. So basically, if you got me, that doubles the price.

"Well, you better get out of there. Their plans seem extremely hostile," the cleaner responded with, any bit of worry non distinguishable.

Once everything was finished uploading, I sneaked out of the mobile armory I was in, taking my signature weapon, a MX garand marksman rifle, with me to possible clear out the area. I saw from Vision pulsing the area that Spectre was perched the roof of a what seemed like a large parking garage right outside of the forest the Black Market was kept, waving sarcastically once he figured out that I picked him up on my heads-up display.

Of course, he was behind the tens of guys taking cover, prepping their assault. Heavy armored Warlord suits, small drones, robots, these guys were using any force of taking me, the WA on the left, and the 54i on the right, taking up most of what I seen.

Spectre decided to kick things off. Using his Storm PSR x-ray sniper, he blew the brains out of 4 guy at once, causing the stir-up between parties.

"Sniper!" one of the 54i men shouted, and within seconds, the discount cyborgs and the slightly more advanced thugs took notice of each other, and started engaging in combat.

"You're a real life saver, you know that?" I said with near graditude to my new partner in crime.
"I know. Now get moving, their little squabble will buy you time."

Strafing through the forest, I stook to mostly the shadows, using active camo and picking off individual targets, while Spectre worked in his pride of making headshots.

"So, got a plan?" I asked him, hoping he'd help me find a way out, since he was in fact protecting me.

"Just one. I can hack into the WA's VTOL. Hopefully, it'll fly us out of the Q-zone."

"Spectre, you know how much money I need to make here before I started over outside the wall!" I yelled back, the flying bullets drowning out most of the world around me.
"Well, it's either that, or you survive, and these assholes come for you again," he replyed rather straight-forward.

I let my little silent treatment pass for an "alright, sure," and picked up the pace. Then I was met with another transmission.

"Hey, are you hearing this shit?" Spectre vaguely asked.

"All I hear are gunshots!"

"Well, take a listen then, it's from the WA"

"Non-lethal takedowns only! We need him alive!"
"They seem to want to take you prisoner. My guess is for those weapon designs you took. Hurry up."

Taking that as another initiative to move quicker, I activated my overdrive cyber ability.
Once I made it to the streets outside the forest, more trucks packing 54i soldiers came for me. I saw Spectre on the roof once more, giving another exaggerated wave with one arm, shooting targets with the other.

After we cleared some more initial tangos, he jumped straight down and onto the street I was on, using his back thrusters to safen his landing, sporting a bright blue and yellow loadout on him, which felt like an oxymoron to his job.

"Cmon buddy," he greeted with face to face with me, patting my shoulder. "Our chariot awaits!"

He ran for the VTOL, but I has to stop him. Confused at first, he then realized what it was when I showed a small detonator, starting to act and look excited, even with that helmet of his one.

"Oh shit! Alright, you gotta let me record this!" he said wildly, pressing his finger to a button on his helmet cam, then forming the shape of a camera with his thumbs and pointer fingers.

"Aaannnd... Action!" he signaled for me to blow it.

With a press of my thumb, we saw a huge explosion seat from the inner region of where the Black Market used to be, the assassin next to me jumping, clapping and almost cheering in delight of the possible maximum carnage he witnessed while I simply laughed at both him and in reaction to the intense destruction.

Putting his hands on his hips and arching his back, Spectre sighed at the way all our threats were extinguished.

But after seconds, he fell on his knees, groaning in pain and gripping at his head, as if he just received a major migraine.
Shocked, I went over him to help, but he but his hand out, making sure that I wouldn't be affected by what was happening.

"I'm getting a DNI virus! Augh, everything is fucking up!"

He clawed at his helmet, trying to frantically take it off, but after struggling hard, he collapsed on his side, his corpse 2 inches from my feet.

I was in total confusion and shocked after seeing what happened. It looked like his brain was fried, but how? Like me, Spectre was smart enough to put hundred of firewalls protecting his DNI, but who could-

My thoughts were cut off from the growing ache in my head, my vision looking like a broken computer screen. I panicked and my only option seemed to claw into my neck, and rip out my own interface.

But like my friend, I suffered from the same demise, falling on my back, my DNI simply showing:

WARNING: SYSTEM COMPROMISED