original

Death is not An option

Chapter 1: Prologue - 1

Authors Note here, This is a prologue Will be a few if not more chapters long, so keep yer britches held up, onto the story xD...

NOTE: I redid the intro, as I've decided on a good direction for the story, Hopefully no one minds

spent a few hours redoing grammar mistakes, and adding detail, added about 200 or so words to it.

as i have to do all my editing myself, I may not be the best at it, so by all means please yell at me about grammar I will fix it if I miss it.

The year is 2087. With the world on the brink of total nuclear war, one man watches from what appears to be the internal cockpit of a bipedal machine. One arm, along with one of the legs, remains attached. Obscured by bullet impacts and what looks to be explosive residue, the letters UFA X-4 can be made out along the side. The machine seems to be lying in a small ditch, disabled.

"Damn it all. This fucking release!" As the man pulls as hard as possible on the release, the lever snaps and he falls back into the control chair. The metal handle slams onto a control board. The board sparks, and the external camera comes back on. The screen flashes for a few seconds before patching the feed through.

Outside, what appears to be a scrapyard materializes on the screen. At first glance, it seems like a bunch of dumped mechs lying around with parts missing, but upon closer inspection, there appear to be odd-looking creatures lying near the mechs. Both appear to be missing pieces and full limbs, along with burns, bullet holes, and explosion damage all around.

Nearby, the audio speaker's rattle can be heard. "This is Delta of Epsilon squad, calling any friendlies on this frequency..." He pauses for a few moments as the line returns nothing but static. "DAMN IT ALL," the man's squad appears to be dead or unable to respond. "Fuck sakes, this damned mission... Computer, give me a systems readout. What have I got to work with?"

A somewhat mechanical, genderless voice responds in broken and static speech, [Re---ing ... Sys ... readout o ... screen.] The screen reads out a list.

[SYSTEMS READOUT]

Reactor Core: 8% Damaged—78% FUEL REMAINING

Propulsion Systems: 86% Damaged—!!WARNING!! 2 LIMBS MISSING

Communication Array: 12% Damaged—OPERATING NORMALLY

Weapons Systems: 45% Damaged—ROCKET SYSTEMS MISSING

Life Support Systems: 23% Damaged—OPERATING NORMALLY

Ai Mainframe: 42% Damaged—LINGUISTIC SYSTEM COMPROMISED

Armor Integrity: 34% Integrity—ADVISE RETREAT FOR MAINTENANCE

Repair System: 4% Damaged—READY FOR DEPLOYMENT

Plasma Shield: 39% Damaged—OVERHEATING, OPERATING NORMALLY

"Well, I guess it could be worse. Fuck, what am I saying. This is worse. What the hell was that new weapon the green bloods had? Ripped Sanders in half in 4 seconds. Computer... do me a favor and replay the combat footage from that first engagement, when they ambushed us.

[Und...ood. Playing.]

The main screen flashes, showing a rear view of what appears to be 8 mechs walking in formation. They are slowly walking through a green valley. The air is thick with the smell of nature. An eerie silence engulfs the forest. Aside from the light of a half moon poking through the canopy, it's pitch dark in the forest. All the mechs are pitch black, and an eerie bloody feeling can be felt just by looking at them. Aside from a few grey bits, all the mechs have their exterior lights off. They can be seen walking through the forest for about 30 seconds.

The lead mech's arms go up, signaling the team to halt. A red light flashes on the back of the arm three times, and the mech's hands are seen making a signaling motion. It's likely a warning; all the mechs kneel down and raise their weapons, They begin scanning the surrounding forest looking for some form of target. After a few seconds of dead silence, the lead mech puts his arm down. Immediately, as if waiting for that moment, a bright green orb, burning yet solid, cuts through the air from the 3 o'clock direction. It impacts the first mech, almost instantly cutting it in half.

The other mechs take cover, along with the mech's perspective on screen. It moves next to a mech holding what at first appears to be a sniper rifle, however, two long rails with an open space in between protrudes from the front of the rifle. The camera mech anchors in place, with small tesla coil looking objects protruding from the arms. In front of it, the mech deploys a thin shield made of semi-transparent light, with a small opening on one side, which the sniper mech aims through.

The sniper mech aims around a bit as if scanning, looking for the almost invisible enemy in the darkness. Then as if locking on to something, the sniper fires, and the rest of the mechs focus on the direction the first mech fired at and start firing as well. One of the other mechs shoots out a few canisters from its back area. They land near the downed mech, shrouding it in smoke. As if waiting for this signal, the screen's perspective can be seen detaching the tesla coils and mounting them on the ground, then running towards the downed lead mech 100 meters away. After 2–3 seconds, the screen reaches the lead mech.

A gaping hole can be seen in its cockpit area, molten slag of titanium steel alloy is dripping around the hole. The remains of what appears to have once been a human, or rather his or her arm and leg ends only, remain along with some blood stains. The back area is melted and charred. The screen is then seen running back to the tesla coils unit and recoupling them to its arms.

"Alright, stop!" resisting the urge to vomit, the man holds his mouth and orders the computer to cut feed. "What the hell was that thing... Every time it fired, it killed one of us. Even my plasma shield only held one shot before overheating..." he mumbled.

[Syst... ...nalysis of wea ...on?]

"Confirm, put it on screen."

[. . . . .]

[WEAPON FIRE ANALYSIS]

35% PLASMA

45% STEEL

20% UNKNOWN

"The fuck...? How is it unknown! You have the Federation materials database built in. You should know every material on Earth known to the Federation... unless.... no, I'll worry about this when I get back to base. Seems the enemies fucked off."

[Under ... d.]

Outside the cockpit, the once green forest in the valley has become a scorched area, with stumps and black marks from the battle. The forest all the way to the ridge top is burnt.

"Computer, scan for life signs. See if any enemies or friendlies are still alive, then deploy the repair system. We'll have to salvage from the squad's mechs to get us running again."

[1/3 Rep... ir dro... ds di... bled. Co... firm?]

"Confirm. Deploy the other two. Focus on the propulsion, limbs, and your speech systems; I'm not dealing with the stuttering shit."

[Und ... ood.]

Out of the back of the mech, a hatch popped, releasing air. As it attempted to open, a scraping sound was audible as it pushed against the bent and warped metal of the frame. After about 20 seconds, it fully opened and two 1.5-meter tall, six-legged drones popped out. They scattered over to other wrecks.

After a couple seconds, the screen flashed with a list of names and life signs next to them. Aside from the top one, all other signals on screen were flatlines with red outlines. The top name was his own, Matthew Anderson.