"Green light on gatecrasher, on you now central." came the reply from their 'volunteer' forces, it made Bradford wince slightly to think the same people he was suppose to defend were now forced to serve on the front lines. He spoke into his headset "solid copy gatecrasher now evac. before backup arrives."
"Roger that central we SHIT-" a staccato of gunfire and heavy breathing told Bradford something was up. "Gatecrasher what-"
"Fuck, crasher one is down sir, moving to secure the facility" Bradford thought this might, no with how thin supplies are now he knew there would be casualties on this mission he just prayed that his intel was right and what he was looking for was in here. as he exited firebrand he and the volunteer specialist made their way into the gene therapy clinic he stopped to acknowledge the dark solider who was positioned behind a mailbox. "Johnson"
"sir" Bradford took in the carnage that had played out before he arrived four troopers lay dead and a young woman had a hole where most of her face had been before returning to the solider "Good work, your old man would be proud of you." the young man grinned before returning to his overwatch.
Inside Bradford saw their specialist had waited on him "something off?" he seriously hoped that this wasn't ANOTHER wild goose chase."Yes,well No, I-I mean both?"
"Tell me you didn't trip the security." Bradford felt another headache coming on that usually ment it was about to hit the fan.
"Well the package is in there sir, but..." "But?" "There's a second pod and based off of the security I'd say the aliens don't want us anywhere near it." 'That I wasn't expecting.' "sir?" "Crack'em both if advent went through the trouble to hide whatever it is then we definitely want it." without further instruction the specialist went to work on the door and subsequent security systems, as they made their way back they found their targets one looked like some sort of hazmat suit while the other pod had a tinted glass meant to block the view. As Bradford approached the hazmat suit he felt a swell of relief wash over him. "Central to firebrand....we found him." "Roger that central coming around to pick you up." The mission was going good so far but, for some reason that other pod kept bugging him.
"hey jin got our backdoor yet?" the telltale crash and boom of a fragmentation grenade answered his question. "just now sir." "Good now why don't we see what's behind door number two." As the young hacker made his way to the pod a burst of gunfire erupted from outside as Bradford's headset was suddenly barraged with sound "Central, whatever you did in there it really pissed off the martians! We got skyrangers inbound and security forces closing fast!" "Solid copy gatecrasher, we got the packages-" "Packages? Uh, sir we didn't come here for some cold cuts did we?" "Negative...we got him....and something else." "Roger sir, helo out I got this." As the comm went dead Bradford scooped up the hazmat figure. Alright jin you got the other one?" "S-sure, sir." the frail framed hacker said the weight of his passenger obviously causing him trouble.
As they exited Bradford heard a sound that he was very familiar with from the war, a heavy mechanical foot followed by a burst of light that destroyed the inside of the clinic. "Jin, double time it. Firebrand we got a sectopod right on our ass get us out of here yesterday!" "Roger!" suddenly a vague metal shape roared over the city and began lowering cables, Both men ran for their lives as the object of their terror approached, practically lunging into the cables which were retracting as the aircraft took off. Once on board both men carefully set their cargo down then, they both breathed a sigh of relief. "Sir?" "Yes, private." "I thought that the advanced team was going to distract the security forces by destroying the ethreal statue, in the park?" "Good question, chuck what happened to menace 1-5." "Mission was a complete success even wiped out the patrols there to draw out first responders." "Then why did they attack us?" "Cause...whatever she is advent is scared of it or what we can learn from it. Chuck, get on the horn with tygen, tell him to prep for a exam after surgery." "Sir, yes sir!" as the comm went silent Bradford took the opportunity to see what exactly had brought the full wrath of ADVENT down upon what should have been a simple snatch and grab. It was a humanoid figure female in appearance with light purple skin color and purple hair with a stock of pink in it, overall the creature didn't look hostile little along deadly but years of fighting had taught him to never take things at face value. As the ramp for the skyranger lowered both men hurried with their passengers to the medical bay. Both knowing that for better or worst this was a turning point in the war.
12 Days later
Medical summary of research project:Echelon
Project Lead:Dr. Tygan
Assisting: Dr. Shen
"Our examination of the specimen recovered during operation gatecrasher has revealed several interesting facts about how the aliens regard these creatures. Genetic analysis revealed a almost absurd amount of genetic modification strains include viper, human and several unidentifiable strains. The neural implant which was recovered is of a nature not seen in ADVENTS regular troops suggesting that either this is some new form of control the aliens are using or a more likely scenario is the implant is a restraint, but that raises a important question if the aliens could control this species then why would they require a restraint....all the answers I can come up with are all very disturbing on this matter. Notable features of this specimen are a light purple skin pigmentation, purple hair, upon further examination the subject..."
"Um...tygan?"
"Yes, Dr. shin."
"You sedated the subject after removing the chip, right?
"There was no need even with the chip removed the subject still has minimal brain activity and..."
"It just moved!"
"That's im- containment breach!"
[Operation suspended due to green room protocol]
[Operation resumed at 0300]
"Due to unforeseen circumstances the subject has regained consciousness ahead of the projected date, this is a tremendous aid as we have been able to quantify several of its mental faculties. Unfortunately whatever ability the subject-"
"Achhmm..."
"My mistake whatever ability the 'patient' had that caused ADVENT such concern appears to have been lost while she was asleep. Although incredibly bright the patients comprehension is that of a six to eight year old child. The only other thing of note is that the patient has apparently imprinted on Dr. Shen and as such she is being awarded guardianship until a suitable settlement can be found.
As Tygan poured over the data from his research into ADVENTS modular weapon systems he couldn't help but feel something was off, like he had missed a important clue, he restarted the log and looked at the video footage he caught it. About two minutes before shen had noticed it the subjects' hand had moved but what shen and tygan failed to notice was that the hand did move...in the same pattern every five seconds. Due to the camera angle and the poor film grade he couldn't discern more than it was relaying a pattern but now he knew he had missed it and he could watch for it if any future specimens were brought in for examination.
Lily shin sat at her workstation carefully going over the individual components of her personal gremlin when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and was presented with a notepad by the girl who the few engineering staff they had had dubbed her 'little sister' she stopped to look at the notepad which simply asked 'Is there anything I can help with?' lily grinned at that even though she had expected it of her 'second family' as she had come to think of the girl, it was amazing how quickly she picked up on things, it had only taken three hours to teach her to write in English and she suspected that the speaking it would come in just a few more days, if not hours. "Not right now, but I did get you something to work on in your spare time." with that lily turned and grabbing a box from the self handed it to...'crap I haven't even thought of a name for her yet' "Oops...I forgot to put a name tag on it." The girl removed the pen from her note pad and wrote twilight shen on the box. "Twilight hmmm....are you sure you want that to be your name." Twilight nodded. "Anyway I was around your age when I put one of these together-" Lily paused long enough to open the box revealing several electronic components and what appeared to be the parts for a drone of some kind. "I imagine if you are able to get it to work I might be able to convince central to put you in the duty roster, after all putting together your own gremlin is gonna be way harder than cleaning up some alien scrap."
