Resilience (Under Revision)

Location: Epsilon 12 Command Base Alpha, Cryogenic Storage Bay.

Cold. That was the first thing to assault Jack's senses as he felt around the vessel he was in. Moving his hands along the glassy surface of the cabin, he felt around until he gripped the emergency override and yanked the handle down. A hissing noise filled the cabin as the pod depressurized and a current of air flowed in to meet the human inside. Stumbling out of the pod, the lone human fell to his knees and started coughing violently trying to empty the contents within his stomach before vomiting onto the floor next to him. Still shivering, Jack lifted his head off the ground and looked around the room he found himself in.

Turning his head he saw what could only be described as a massive storage facility. Rows upon columns of pods much like his own lined wall to wall and stretched to the edge of his vision. Each pod had their observation windows clouded preventing anyone outside from seeing the inhabitants from the inside. Far in the distance a light breached through the top of the facility, squinting his eyes, Jack could see that a massive portion of the ceiling had collapsed, allowing fauna and sunlight to breach through the top of the building and spread amongst the debris along the ground.

"What the hell?", Jack whispered to himself as he watched a mouse scurry amongst the fauna in the distance.

Grunting, Jack attempted to move his legs underneath him, as his stomach painfully protested against his movements. Slowly he regained his footing and stood up in front of his pod and moved to walk forward, desperate to get some answers.

"FUCK!"

Suddenly a massive pain shot through his skull as Jack screamed and gripped the sides of his head, veins bulging out of his neck and his eyes screwing shut. Collapsing back to the floor, Jack continued to scream in agony before his world started to go dark, the last thing he saw was a machine racing towards him.

Location: Planet Epsilon 12
Date: 2878
Time: 21:00
Event: The Battle of Epsilon 12

"OH SHIT. INCOMMIN-bzzt"

Jack could hear his colonel's last words as he was blown up in a fire ball that consumed the building to the right of his position in a crater. A piece of their APC shot over his head and crashed down into a hole about 60 feet from where he was hunkered down. Cautiously poking his head over the side of the crater, Jack saw nothing but the smoldering corpse of the armored vehicle looking back at him. Raising his right hand to his helmet, Jack sent a status report back to the frontlines three kilometers away.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. 0-1, 0-2, 0-4, and 0-7 are considered KIA. Awaiting further orders."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. You are cleared to continue on your mission. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

Bringing his hand back down from his helmet, Jack reached into his MOLLE pouch and brought out a small mirror. Holding the mirror slightly above the edge of the crater, he observed his target and the hostiles present.

The Montallum. Horrific creatures of metal and fire. Their bodies scorching the very soil underneath them as they spread from world to world, consuming everything in their path. The Monatallum resembled something that the devil himself would create, their forms warped and bulging as liquid metal ran over the surface of their bodies. Claws stretched out of their inorganic figures like tentacles, each digit as long as kitchen knives and sharp enough to slice through steel. Above all this sat a pale, white orb that casted a ghostly light on everything that surrounded it.

These creatures were currently protecting the remains of an old bombed out school building, the
ground zero for the first invasion. That day, three destroyers had unexpectedly come out of warp and destroyed what minimal orbital defenses that Epsilon had in its atmosphere before sending in ground transports to invade the planet. The school barely had enough time to issue an evacuation notice before the first transport vessels landed in the field, releasing the horrors within onto the students still on campus.

Now, massive tendrils of metal stuck out of its buildings, swaying as they awaited any unfortunate starship or person to come close enough to them. This same metal coated the exterior of the compound like a shell, making any attempts to bombard or destroy the building from the outside significantly harder.

Moving the mirror a bit higher, Jack could see the Montallum scrambling on top of second floor next to a massive particle accelerator mounted next to the railing. Yanking his arm down quickly he could hear a massive explosion rip through the air above him and somewhere into the field he as in. Risking a look, Jack lifted himself slightly to look over at what the Montallum was firing at.

The cannon had collided with a tank crew that just made their way into the field half a mile from Jack's crater. The laser tore right through the bulk of the tank's incorrupium armor, and straight into the drivers seat, and right out the back side into the hill behind them, leaving a massive black scorch mark on what little grass was left on the ground. The hatch flew open as the gunner scrambled to get out, but as soon as he jumped out of the main turret, the war machine exploded in a ball of fire, vaporizing him and causing Jack to shield his eyes as red hot, twisted metal shot into the sky.

'Back up is unreliable. Tau cannon must be destroyed.', Jack thought to himself as the particle accelerator continued to fire off behind him.

Reaching into his grenade pouch, Jack pulled out four smoke grenades and waited until he could hear the hissing sound of the Tau cannon being cooled off. It didn't take long before the energy barrage on his position stopped.

Jumping out the crater Jack pulled the pins and threw all four of the smoke grenades in succession toward the school. Within seconds, the sixty yards between Jack and the school was covered in a thick veil of smoke that interfered with his infrared sensors. Switching to the map on his hud, Jack sprinted towards the building, the confused screeching of the Montallumn soon followed after as they realized what was happening. Random scorch shots began to appear around Jack, as the monsters blind fired into the smoke. His legs became a blur as he sprinted faster, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before one of them got lucky and hit him.

Suddenly a massive shadow enveloped Jack as he turned to look above him. One of the metal tendrils above the building was looming over him, before it swung back with the intent of impaling him.

"Hard Contact!"

Leaping into a crater next him, Jack heard a massive explosion as dirt rained down onto his back. Emerging back out of the crater, he saw that tendril had impaled itself mere feet away from where he was before and was fruitlessly trying to pull itself out of the dirt. Taking this chance to escape, Jack continued running towards the building now only twenty yards away from the metallic structure.

However, just as quickly as his luck came it soon left as the smoke that had blinded the Montallum was now dispersed by the shockwave from the tendril impaling the ground. Now having a direct visual of Jack plasma soon rained down in droves all around him, kicking up dirt and filling the air with the smell of burnt grass. A charged shot bounced off of Jack's combat armor and nearly knocked him to the ground as he continued running towards the building.

'Ten yards left' Jack thought to himself before hearing a charging noise to his left.

Looking over to his left, Jack's eyes widened as he saw the Tau cannon fully charged and aimed right at him. The muscles in his legs strained as Jack desperately leaped and grabbed onto the side of the building. An ear-piercing buzzing reverberated in his skull as the deadly beam of energy ripped through the ground, carving up soil and burning everything in its way. Jack clenched his teeth as he felt the heat from the particle beam pass just feet from where he was hanging.

Grunting, Jack shoved his armored fist into the side of the wall before scaling it and reaching the second floor balcony. With one hand he hooked himself onto the side of the building while with his other, he grabbed his AR3 plasma rifle before blind firing it just underneath the railing. Screams and screeches of the Montallum filled the air before they were abruptly silenced by Jack's assault. Once he felt his clip was empty, Jack hoisted himself up and over the railing onto the second story.

The balcony was littered with the dead bodies of the Montallum, all that seemed to be desperately running for an opening into the building before they were met with their demise. Looking over to the now vulnerable Tau cannon. Jack quickly ran across the balcony before placing a series of thermite charges along the barrel of the cannon. Taking cover behind the corpse of a fallen Montallum, Jack detonated the charges and destroyed the barrel of the gun, rendering it useless metal slag.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Enemy artillery on the south east entrance has been destroyed. Requesting additional reinforcements."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Destruction of enemy artillery acknowledged. Request for reinforcements denied. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

"Understood."

Jack took his hand off the side of his helmet and cut off his communication with Overwatch. Turning towards the entrance in the wall, he turned on his night vision and walked into building.

The interior of the building was coated in the same substance as the exterior of the building unsurprisingly. Odd floating orbs illuminated the hallways as they drifted along up and down the corridors. Keeping his gun leveled, Jack swept his his vision to the right and left, not sensing any heat signatures on his hud he lowered his gun to get a better visual of his surroundings.

"Pull up the latest schematics of Westword High School."

Within a second the schematics of the building was quickly brought up. Matching the schematics to his energy locator, Jack constructed a pathway towards the tunneling device that was displayed on his internal screen. Following the locator Jack determined that the device was located within the schools old courtyard and began walking down the length of the corridor.

Jack had been jogging down the hallway for nearly thirty minutes before he heard screaming in the distance. Whipping around Jack held up his gun and aimed down the sights to the area he heard the screaming from.

"Give me information on building O, chemistry department, after occupation"

In a monotone voice, the helmet responded,

"Latest information states that building O, chemistry department has been converted into detention facility."

The whirling of a drill was heard coming from down the hall along with begging and the ear piercing screams as wet squelching was made throughout the entire hallway. A moment of conflict crossed Jack's mind as he continued to listen to the horrors that were going on down the hallway. Lifting up his hand to his helmet, Jack contacted Overwatch.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Infiltration successful. Enroute to device. Possible deterrence detected. Requesting permission to assist prisoners."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Permission denied. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

Bringing his hand back down from his helmet. Jack begins to make his way down the hallway towards the screams, holding his AR3 out in front of him.

"Following mission parameters. Eliminating hostile contact."

Jack stood outside of the door towards the chemistry department, screaming peeking at its highest, before crushing the door handle and smashing the door open. Jack was immediately assaulted by the foul smell of vomit, excrement, and blood. The walls and floors was soaked in blood. A pile of soaking wet skin was strung up on metal hooks along the wall while entrails were seen strewn about on the floor, varying from kidneys to hearts. In the corner of the room was a steel cage that was filled with prisoners, their faces twisted with horror.

All stopped when Jack entered the room. A Montallum turned to look at him, revealing a drill like device and a half flayed soldier coughing up blood, his lungs being exposed to the outside world. Without a moment of hesitation, Jack released a slew of plasma that tore into the metal hide of the creature. Whether intentionally or not the Montallum sliced off the head of the half flayed soldier as it desperately tried to escape Jack's assault. It clawed its way to a plasma rifle leaning against the table next to it, but it was too late as Jack continued to release a salvo plasma rounds into the Montallum, before ultimately running up and jamming the barrel of his rifle directly into the orb on top of its head. The creature fell limp as its insides were quickly liquidated from Jack's assault.

"Hey! Let us out of here!"

Jack, turning his head from the Montallum looked over and saw the prisoners all looking towards him with desperation in their eyes. Aiming the AR3 towards the lock, Jack destroyed the lock holding the prisoners and broke it open. Rushing out of the room the prisoners, counting four in total, and Jack flooded into the hallway and away from the horrors inside. A female dressed in a torn a flight suit soaked in sweat spoke up to thank Jack.

"Thank god you came out to save us. I...W-we were...-"

"The South East entrance has been cleared. Head back through building L to reach it." , Jack stated in a gruff tone, surprising the prisoners. Turning to leave, Jack started backdown the hallway before being abruptly stopped by one of the other prisoners; a man this time who was dressed in standard issue military fatigues.

"Wait! What about the others? There were more of us when the scrap brought us in. I saw most of my platoon get taken away south of here. Aren't we going to help save them?"

"The rescue of allied forces are not part of my mission parameters."

"... What the fuck are you talking about?", The soldier asked in equal parts confusion and rising suspicion.

"The rescue of allied forces are not part of my mission parameters.", Jack repeated once more.

"So what you're just going to walk away?!", The soldier nearly shouted out. "I got men down there getting sliced up like a fucking thanksgiving turkey and you're just not going to try and save them!?"

"Affirmative. Those are my orders from Overwatch.", Jack then walked back into the room and grabbed the plasma rife that was discarded on the ground in the fight. "It is not advised to attack an armed detention facility." He lifted up the rifle to the soldier.

The soldier growled as he grabbed the riffle from Jack's grip before giving a harsh glare into his visor. Piercing blue eyes looked back at him, unmoving and unbothered. Taking a small step back, the soldier turned away from Jack and stared marching down the hallway.

The rest of the prisoners looked between Jack and the soldier who was now marching towards the distant screams and decided to continue down the corridor that connects O building to L. Turning around, Jack continued to walk down the hallway, following the indicator on his hud leading him further into the wolf's den. It wasn't long before he was on his own again, the only the sounds of glass crunching under his heels broke through the silence that enveloped him.

However, while Jack's neutral expression still remained on his face, conflict made itself known in his mind as he debated silently to himself.

'Should we have helped them?'

'Our objective is to follow whatever orders we have from the UNC. Doing so would have been a direct violation of our orders.'

'Regardless, these are our soldiers. We should be there to help them. Is that not our main objective to service the UNC and its citizens?'

'Only how Overwatch dictates so. Deviation from the mission will be seen as a direct violation of duty.'

'...Very well'

Snapping himself out of his internal argument, Jack refocused on the path ahead of him, realizing that he now stood in front of a massive metal door. The door easily towered over him by five feet and hummed with a soft, blue glow radiating from its cold exterior. Looking to the left side of his hud, Jack could see that this door leads directly into the courtyard where the device rested. Reaching for a metal lever, Jack suddenly stopped and stepped away from the door, gun at ready.

"Abnormal conditions detected in hostile environment. Resistance speculated to be high."

As if on que, Jack heard something scuttle through the darkness in the hall behind him. Snapping around, he kept his AR3 at eye level and scanned the area around him. Silence filled the corridor only broken by the occasional breath coming from Jack as he stared down the hallway.

"Bad company 0-5 to Overwatch. Objective reached. Unknown hostile entity detected. Mission may be compromised. Requesting order adjustment."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Request denied. Unknown hostile contact acknowledged. Mission reminder. Breach hostile compound. Eliminate hostile contact. Extract quantum tunneling device. Destroy device if necessary."

"Confirmed."

Bringing his hand back down, Jack slowly began his way down the corridor to where the scuttling noise was coming from. Switching his hud on he scanned for any Montallum that may be in the area. Walking through the corridor Jack waited for the noise again. After waiting for around thirty seconds, he sighed and started to walk back to the door, determined to get it open.

"Potential sensory failure."

SHKKKK!

Whipping around, Jack had the air knocked out of his lungs as he was sent flying and connected with the metal blast door, bending its exterior. Gripping his chest, Jack stumbled back onto his feet and started to blind fire into the darkness while he gripped the wall next to him. Clearing the fogginess from his eyes Jack looked up towards his assailant and his recoiled slightly in shock.

A hell spawn. The creature was a massive, bulbous mound of flesh that had most of its body twisted between muscle and metal. Mechanical appendages stuck out at random angles, protruding from the rubbery flesh of its underbelly. It's head swiveled back and forth on its neckless body, drool dripping and seeping into the ground from what was supposed to be its lower jaw. Towards the back of the creature its fleshy body merged into a massive mechanical tail, akin to that of a scorpion, that swung back and forth with its movements.

Slowly backing away to the pulsing door, Jack grunted and clutched his chest as pain flared through his abdomen. Pulling his arm back he could see a massive gash running along the breast plate of his armor, cutting through the imperium-fused steel and in to his chest. The creature, having heard Jack turned around to "look" at him, before releasing an ear splitting screech and barreling down the corridor down to him.

Snapping his AR3 up, Jack immediately starts to open fire upon the monster, bolts of plasma bouncing off and imbedding themselves into the rubbery flesh of its target. The creature continued to charge on, completely oblivious to the damage its body was taking, as shards of metal were shot off and broken. With a sharp whip of its tail, the creature slammed Jack into the door breaking down the massive steel structure and launching him into the courtyard.

Flying a nearly ten feet into the air, Jack landed in the middle of the court and bounced off the ground before slamming into a small concrete structure. Jack stayed lying on the ground in a daze, while above him he could see the darken skies, polluted with smoke from the other battles being fought all around the city. His ribs were on fire, and he was certain that one of his lungs were punctured. Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Jack pulled himself up until he was in a sitting position with his back leaning against a dried up fountain. That's where he saw it.

A massive hollow pyramid stuck out of the ground just in front of Jack. It rested on a clear, see though platform that when looked into, revealed a massive arc reactor humming away. Bolts of blue energy were flowing up the beams connecting the hollow pyramid and pooled into a glowing sphere of light that rested on the tip of the structure.

"Bad Company 0-5 to Overwatch. Tar-agh!", Jack grunted, clenching his teeth as he got his breath under control. "Visual of target confirmed. Retrieval impossible. Destruction on stand-by. Requesting extraction."

"Overwatch to Bad Company 0-5. Extraction approved. ETA five minutes"

CRASH

Jerking his hand down from his helmet, Jack looked over to his right where the blast doors once were to see the creature barreling into the middle of the square. Its metal body kicking up debris and whatever wasn't bolted down as it flew into a stone column thirty yards from Jacks position. Shaking off the dirt from its pale body, it turned to Jack and released a shrill screech of rage as it flew directly towards the fountain he was resting on.

With his ribs screaming out in protest, Jack pulled himself up and collapsed on the ground a yard away from the fountain, just before it was pulverized into rubble. Reaching up over his back to grip his AR3, he finds nothing, spotting that his gun had fallen from his holster and was laying in the rubble halfway between him and the creature. Silently cursing under his breath, he started to crawl over to the quantum tunneling device and pulled out the charges from within he explosives pouch and started planting them onto the base of the machine.

SHUNCK

"SON OF A BITCH!"

The creature had made its way back over to Jack while he was preparing to set the explosives, and pierced his armored leg with its mechanical appendage and started pulling him across the court yard. Grunting, Jack turned himself over yelling in pain as the metal limb shifted and cut deeper into his calf muscle. Pulling a knife out of his back pocket, he lifted it up and stabbed it directly into the creatures forehead and snapped it to the right, breaking the blade off in its skull. The creature let out a roar of agony as it released its grip on Jack's leg and threw him across the ground. It then started to claw at the blade imbedded in its skull in a fruitless attempt to relieve the steel from its flesh, tearing off chunks of its own inorganic body in the process.

Gripping the side of helmet, Jack threw off the useless piece of metal as the visor was now cracked beyond use. Continuing his crawl over to the machine, his lungs pleading him to stop while his leg was being dragged behind him by a single tendon. Most of his leg still within the clutches of the monster when it threw him.

Behind Jack, the creature continued to smash its head into the walls of the court yard screaming as oily blood began to seep down its claws and into the ground beneath it.

'Five more feet'

Reaching the pad housing the arc reactor for the device, Jack synchronized the charges to the detonator in his hand and watched as the red light turned green. Gripping the side of the detonator, he started the 240 second arming sequence before he heard a loud shriek coming from across the square. The creature was finally able to tear the blade out of its head, blood spurting from the wound that the knife had created and leaked all over the ground. Reaffirming its gaze on Jack, it released an ear piercing scream as it charged Jack with death written on its horrific body.

Exhausted from blood loss and from having to fight this thing, Jack made no attempt to get out of the way when he saw the creature charge at him for the last time. Steadying his breathing Jack closed his eyes, as the detonator slowly beeped within his right hand, his broken body barely moving as he rested against the machine.

BRRRT

SCKREEAH

Snapping his eyes back open he saw a massive aircraft emerge out of the smoke and started to circle around the square. Behind the aircraft were silhouettes of the writhing metallic tendrils that whipped around frantically trying to dispel the liquid fire that poured out of the back end of the now descending vehicle. Her plasma thrusters roared as the right side of its fuselage was tilted directly towards the courtyard, a gunner manning a RFTL as he laid down round after round of super charged energy bolts that tore into the creature's rubbery hide and crippled its metal appendages.

Screeching, the creature began to run back towards the blast door it had smashed through to try and escape the aircraft's ruthless barrage. The gunner however didn't let it have that chance. Focusing all of his fire directly on to the creatures soft back side, he tore a hole directly through it. Metal wiring and singed flesh burst through its underside as it collapsed yards away from the blast doors. Its metal appendages twitching and then curling up much like how a spider does once it dies.

"Lieutenant Winston, hold your position. We're getting you outta here."

Jack's vision was growing dark as he watched the aircraft begin its quick descent into onto the courtyard. The last thing he remembered was the distinct hum of the air ship's massive engines, and a explosion going off in the distance.

Location: Somewhere near the Gryphon Kingdom

A royal carriage bounded down a barren path way between two massive alpine mountains. Its destination being a massive tree growing out of the peak of a distant mountain. The carriage was flanked by a platoon of royal gryphon guards escorting a single gryphon hen who was sitting inside. The hen had long head feathers that were slicked back and ended in white tips adorning each feather with blue-greyish fur covering most of her body.

"Damn it.", The hen silently cursed. "Not enough time. Its just..."

Presented in front of the hen was a scroll she received from the latest trade talks with the minotaur kingdom. It states that unless the Gryphon kingdom pays off their debt they have been harvesting for nearly a decade, Griffonia would be seen as a nation incapable of supporting itself. Also that if such a event were to happen, the Empire of Crete would graciously "help" stabilize the nation. In other words, with the co-operation of Griffonia's citizens or not, they will wage war to vassalize the nation.

Crumpling up the letter, the hen threw it onto the ground where it would bounce up and down on the bottom of the carriage. Resting her head into her talons, she let out a tried sigh and attempted to rub away the growing head ache in her skull.

"The ambassador of Griffonian and Crete relations is still with Griffenheim. I'll send a messenger to request a diplomatic meeting in a few days. Maybe I can salvage this."

Suddenly a large rumbling could be heard as the mountain shuddered violently, flinging rocks of its ledges and down into the valley.

"INCOMING!" Yelled a voice outside of the carriage.

A massive crash was heard as the wagon shook and the griffoness was thrown to the side. Picking herself off the floor of the carriage, the hen ran over to the window to get a good look outside. Her beak fell slightly open as she was staring at a gigantic boulder that had crashed down less than ten feet away from the carriage she was in.

"Princess Aleta! Are you alright back there?"

Turning her head, the princess spotted the driver of the caravan looking back at her from the front of the wagon, a fine layer of dirt covering his feathered body.

"Yes, I am alright. What do you think happened?"

"Well I'm not sure princess. I think it may have been an earthquake. Either way, we are all very lucky."

"Yeah," muttered Aleta as she eyed the boulder. "Very lucky indeed."

Sitting back down within the carriage, princess Aleta felt the familiar jolt of the wagon moving again as she continued her journey towards the capital of her homeland.