Prologue: Subject Termination

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Subject name: John Richards

Code name: Reaper

Race: Caucasian

Sex: male

Rank: Error

Military affiliation: Error

Current location: Union prison block 32 B

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The cell was cold, damp, and illuminated by a very dim light. The tight space held only a bed, with a person laying on it. His name is John Richards, an assassin who took on the harder jobs, no matter which faction paid him. He was laying down with one knee bent, his green cloak covering the stealth suit integrated into his cybernetic skeleton, a high tech data pad rested on his left wrist and a rebreather stretched over his mouth and nose. He breathed softly as he slept, sleep was the only time he couldn’t feel the extra additions to his cybernetics. The faction that held him prisoner like torturing the ones in their care. His most recent punishment for keeping his mouth shut was having acid dripped onto his skin.

‘We got company.’ A voice echoed in his head, interrupting his slumber.

His cell door slid open and a tall figure in deep sapphire armor walked in. he was easily seven feet tall in his imposing power armor, well, all Union soldiers were. The armor had a thick breastplate, indicating a heavy weapons class, and his shoulder pads had the Union star imprinted on them, indicating the rank of officer. His helmet spanned his entire head, and three V shaped visors made up the front of it.

“You know, it would be easier for all of us just to tell us what you know.” He said, the helmet making his voice deeper.

“I never took the easy way when I killed Odysseus, I won’t take it now.” John replied, his voice coming out raspy from behind his rebreather.

“I gotta say, nobody other than you can sneak past a group of MK. 3 assault droids without being noticed, but you fucked up when you left you blade in the captains back.”

‘I told you to bring it with you.’ the voice scolded.

‘Quiet.’ He said back. “My client wanted to send a message.”

“And what a message it was, but I’ve stalled long enough, get up, its Goliaths turn today, and you don’t want to keep him waiting.” The soldier waited for John to get up before cuffing his hands and leading him out the door.

Right when the passed the threshold of the cell, a knife sliced open the soldier’s neck. He made a gurgling sound and fell to the floor with a heavy thud.

“Took you long enough.” John said.

“I decided to take the scenic route.” A girl in a light grey stealth suit with black stripes said as she walked out of the shadow behind him. A skull and crossed bones signified her place in Rebel ranks, and a bug like helmet covered her head.

“Just get these cuffs off and let’s go see what Marcus wants.”

“Right, let’s go.” She replied.

Location: vulture drop ship over Honolulu Hawaii.

“This mission is suicide.” John said over the coms as he strapped on his parachute.

“This should be a cake walk for you then.” A marine to his right said. The lower class soldiers of the rebellion
wore patchwork red armor made of scraps of Union and confederate power armor, good protection, but shitty mobility.

“Green light, get ready to drop.” The pilot signaled. The back of the drop ship opened up to reveal a massive complex below them, and several other ships behind the, getting shot at by AA turrets.

One of which nearly blew off the birds left wing.

“Damn, that was close.” John muttered. “Alright, let’s go!” he shouted as he jumped from the aircraft to the battle below.

Location: main reactor room.

“Rose.”

‘Yes.’

“Remind me to keep a few explosives with me whenever I go out, those droids were a pain.”

‘Noted.’

John stood in the main reactor room, which was a single catwalk going between several giant cylindrical structures powering the Union war machines for the western half of the US.

“Alright, so I just set these to self-destruct and I'm done?” he asked his AI.

‘I have the codes for the reactors, when it says so, put in *combat prowess* as the passcode and we can leave.’ She replied.

“Typical Union narcissism.” He said to himself as he approached a console in the center of the large underground room. He started thumbing his way through screens of random data and made it to where he had to put in the passcode.

‘Right side.’ Rose warned.

He brought up his knife in time to block a strike from a cutlass being held by General Blade, the shipmaster for the naval forces in this hemisphere.

“You got better, last time I ripped your arm off before you had a chance to block.” he said, bringing himself into a readied stance.

“I don’t have the time to kick your ass again.” John mocked.

Blade growled and lunged forward. John blocked the strike, went up close, and jabbed the general in the nose. He then parried another strike, kicked the sword from Blades grasp and then slashed the tendons in his left knee.

“Gah! Damn it!” Blade yelled as he yelled in pain, trying to stop the bleeding.

“You’re not worth it...” John said, sheathing his knife and heading for the console.

“I'm not done yet!” Blade yelled as he lunged forward with a frag grenade in his hand, the pin was pulled, and he had a determined look in his eyes.

“Shit!” john yelled as he dodged to the side and threw Blade towards the console. The grenade blew up, taking out the general in a bloody mess, and destroying the console. The lights in the room flared red and an alert sounded. The exit doors were shut by shields and a robotic voice sounded over the speaker systems.

“Self-destruct initiated, all personnel are required to clear the area… error… exit doors shielded shut… enjoy your doom.”

“Just fucking peachy.” John muttered.

‘Should I post your will now?’ Rose joked.

“Be my guest, nothing to post anyway.” John replied.

“Ten seconds till core meltdown.” The speakers chirped.

“Anything else you want to get out of your systems before we die?” he asked.

‘I’ve been using your brain to store my vacation photos from last year.’ She giggled.

John shivered. “Even though that shit is virtual, what you did was disturbing.”

“Self-destruct in 3…”

“Well, goodnight.” John said.

“Two…”

‘Just sent a message to the others, they say goodbye.’

“One…”

“Thanks a lot assholes.”

“Goodbye.”

……………
……………………
System reboot…

Subject status: deceased.

AI status: operational.

Current options:

Regeneration active; possibility to revive subject.

Or

Move on without help from subject.

Regeneration selected; error, genetic and DNA reserves low; duplicate or acquire more?

Spider bot active…

The spider bot is a small addition Rose made without John knowing, it’s a robotic body she can take control of for certain situations, sneaking through air vents to acquire Intel is an example, but she also made it with a DNA extractor. This handy tool allows her to duplicate and store DNA to be used to help the regeneration of her charge, which is only possible thanks to his cybernetics.

“Okay, all systems seem normal.” Rose thought out loud. “Let’s see how mu- wha holy moly!” she exclaimed as she looked at the mangled carcass of her charge.

“Well, looks like I have my work cut out for me. Let’s see if I can’t find any organics to use… aha, three subjects west of my position.”

She scuttled west for several minutes and heard chatter on the other side of some bushes. She used a scan to tell her who it was, or rather what.

“Horses? No, too small, ponies then? But ponies can’t talk.” She scanned again. “Scans show similar enough DNA to use on John, radiation coming off them is a little concerning, eh what the heck.” She scuttled through the bush, and caught the attention of oddly colored fillies.

One was white, or light grey with a white and light purple mane and tail, another was yellow with a red mane and tail, with a big bow in her mane, and finally an orange… Pegasus… with a purple mane and tail. Upon closer inspection, the white filly had a horn.

‘Illogical, but no matter, priorities as they always say.’ She scuttled up to them, their eyes followed her movements.

“What do you reckon it is girls?” the yellow one asked the other two.

“I don’t know, it looks like a spider, but it’s all… metal looking.” The orange one replied.

Rose scuttled up to the white one and brought up one of the robots legs, which cackled with electricity. She stung the filly’s hoof, at which she yelped. Rose did the same to the other two and scuttled back east.

When she reached Johns body, she placed the robot back into its proper holding compartment, and got back to work.

‘Okay, going good, going good, oh crap….’

John blinked his eyes open slowly, and groaned in pain.

“Ow my everything.” he said through his rebreather.

‘Good morning sleepy head.’ Rose chirped.

He brought a hand up to his head to try and stifle a migraine, but noticed he couldn’t feel his hands, or his feet, and there seemed to be an extra appendage. He brought his dirty red… hoof... in front of his eyes and…

“Rose, what in the seven hells happened?” he asked.

‘I might have forgotten to filter the DNA I ‘retrieved’ from some subjects. ‘ She replied.

“Good job.” He took a look at the rest of himself. His cloak and stealth suit were repairing themselves and he saw his extra appendage, a black and crimson tail, also as messy as his coat. He flicked his ears, and felt that one was a bit incomplete. “Forget to finish you’re little project?” he asked.

‘Maybe.’ She replied.

“That thing came this way!” a small female voice shouted.

‘Oh dear.’ Rose said in a concerned voice.

“What?”

‘Remember how I said retrieved?’ John nodded. ‘I meant stole.’