章 4: The Beginning of Infinity (Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare/???) by Deus_Ex_Transhuman
Words: 5.7k
Link:https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-beginning-of-infinity-call-of-duty-infinite-warfare.462283/
a call of duty: infinite warfare one shot I actually hope infinite warfare si fics becomes a more common thing in the future
Chapter 1:A New Beginning
Disclaimer: I own nothing
AN: I had another idea, this was the result of that idea. It's a crossover between two games that I thought would be interesting, but with a twist. Hope you enjoy.
XXX
Rolling to one side, Salen Kotch groaned under his breath in pain as he tried to get comfortable once again after just having to undergo surgery, again. A procedure to remove the shrapnel from his lungs and close to his heart that had been, thankfully, successful as he still lived rather than dying at the hands of a Earthen Bastard. Looking around the Med Bay of the Olympus Mons, the Admiral spotted other men being take care of, soldiers that had carried out their duty and protected the ship well in doing their best to prevent the ship from being captured. Still, it had been a close call.
Looking to his left, he saw his new, omnipresent shadow, a gift from a close friend and second in command. The figure was tall, topping out at just under two metres and covered in thick armor plating that did not block movements in any way, the armor itself was jet back with only two symbols present to denote allegiance. The first was the symbol of the Triangle-like Hexagon of the Settlement Defence Front, standing proudly out from the armor in bright white while the other symbol was embossed below it, a red triple-pointed star with the top point being separate from the other two at the centre. Salen smiled at that, if it had not been for his friend's paranoia and cynical outlook that things can always go wrong, he would be dead and the Olympus would have been on its way to Mars by now, no doubt laying siege to the orbital shipyard and destroying it.
"I see that you're finally awake, huh, Salen?" Came the voice of an old friend as Salen smiled, looking up to see the man that had ensured that he had lived through this day.
"Yes, with thanks to you and your special projects." Salen remarked back as his friend smiled, a rare occurrence since the Admiral was aware of more than one running bet about the man before him, either claiming that he simply couldn't smile or that he simply wasn't Human. Vice Admiral Kevin Norwick was a tall man, built with heavy muscles and broad at the shoulder, topping out at just under 1.9 metres tall and was currently in his ever present suit of armor, a similar design as those worn by the guard posted by his at Salen's bedside. The man's short black hair and brown eyes would have given him a fairly average look if it wasn't for the fact that half of his face, his lower left jaw in particular, wasn't covered with a reminder of a nasty burn. Kevin could have easily seen to it being removed and his looks returned to their prime, but the Vice Admiral of SDF's Special Projects and Black Ops Applications Division, shorthanded to 'The Division', was not a man that cared for looks unless they were needed for a particular purpose. Function over form was his motto in life, as was either 'Things can only get worse', 'Expect the worst possible outcome, plan for things to snowball from there', 'No play survives first contact with the enemy', and, his personal favorite, 'Today, is a good day for some other dumb bastard to die'. Kevin often used that as a counter to his own 'Death is no disgrace'.
"I do my best, Salen, just try not to get cocky again, alright? The Olympus Mons may be the best ship in the SDF fleet, but that does not mean that it is immune to the problems that normal ships face, such as boarding actions." Kevin spoke as he pulled up a seat, not waiting nor asking for permission, a mark of their friendship. Salen offered a slight smile at that point.
"I'll try. You did say that the Olympus would be unbeatable when pitted against any Earthen ship in the system." Salen countered as Kevin chuckled at that.
"Ships? Yes. Infantry storming through the corridors? I may have designed this bucket of bolts to be damn near impossible to take on in a fight, but even I can't make it possible for you to fire the main cannon down your own corridors." Kevin retorted, drawing a strangled chuckle from the Admiral before he coughed slightly, pain flaring from his injuries.
"Which is why you had a full platoon of your Cyber-Ops soldiers posted on the Olympus, I take it?" Salen remarked, getting a smirk back from the man, one filled with humor as Salen chuckled once more. Kevin, while being a brilliant tactical Commander and a Soldier with few equals on the battlefield, it was not these skills that made him so dangerous. No, it was his understanding of science and engineering that made him such an asset to the SDF. The man was a genius unlike any other, seeing applications for technology where others wouldn't even consider them, a true out-of-the-box thinker. The perfect example of that was his Cyber-Ops units, cybernetically augmented soldiers that had given up their limb and replaced them with highly customised, heavily upgraded, artificial limbs plus any other augment of choice. Added to this was that the Cyber-Ops soldiers were often used as a test-bed unit for Kevin to try out his newest and most experimental technologies.
The ones that had been guarding him, for instance, had been equipped with highly effective Anti-gravity based Shielding that deflected projectile weapons off to the side while their ceramic outer layer armor was made of ablative materials that rendered energy-based weapons just as useless. Added to this was that more than one of them had integrated energy weapons built into their limbs and powered by built-in Fusion cells, they didn't run out of ammo easily. The fact that these brave men and women also had linked their minds with those of specially created, dumb AIs, a project that Kevin had been working on for a very long time, and you could turn normal Humans, into literal Gods of War and Battle.
"No. They were here to make sure that you didn't try to go down in a blaze of glory and cost the SDF the best crewmen and ship that we have in the fight." Kevin countered with his usually stoic deadpan. "I've already talked with the Council. They've talked with the others and the fleet has been redeployed, Earth is already getting boots on the ground, more than a few are talking about nuking every city on the planet to ensure that they never become a threat again, but I convinced them to put that option on the backburner... At least until we've acquired all the various toys that the UNSA and SATO have lying around." Salen let out another slightly pained chuckle at that, Kevin always did see war differently than him, Kevin's mind looking at the logistics, economics and technology while Salen's own went after the purely military and psychological aspects in turn.
"I see. Not surprising of you to do that, though I would like to know what else you came down here for, since I highly it was merely to check to see if I'm still alive since you've got one of your soldiers in the room that I can see... And probably another nineteen that I can't..." The Admiral muttered that last bit, optical and thermal cloaking was a relatively new system for the Cyber-Ops soldiers, often called Half-mechs as a joke, but that didn't make it any less widespread among them, especially with Kevin as their leader. The burned man seemed to enjoy giving people headaches at trying to figure out how many invisible killers he had managed to sneak into any given room.
"Nine." Kevin corrected with a smirk, not even bothering to deny the accusation in the slightest. "And can't I come here and visit my old friend when he is injured and in need of decent company beyond the four walls and whatever nurse is walking by?"
"No." Salen deadpanned, but the smirk was on his face at that. "I know you too well to fall for that old trick, Kevin. You rarely, if ever, do something for something as simple as that." Kevin shrugged at that before reaching behind him and pulling a datapad from his back, his arm unobstructed by the fact he was sitting on a stool.
"Well, when you put it like that. Here, latest reports from the rest of the fleet plus my own reports on a few ongoing projects taking place both on Mars and at Point Omega." Salen smiled at that. Point Omega was the name of the hidden, deep space shipyard and research base that belonged to the Division. Built outside the Solar system and hidden by a truly insane number of systems created by Kevin himself, very few people even knew it existed, and fewer still even knew where the station was. Only himself and a few others had had the pleasure of seeing the, by now, infamous shipyards and factories of the black site, the original crew of the Olympus Mons being some of those fortunate enough to see it.
After all, that was where the Olympus had been built.
Taking the pad, Salen opened it a moment later with his username, password and fingerprint to show that he was who he claimed he was. It was a standard security package, but he knew that Kevin often upgraded the systems with DNA sampling systems and heartbeat detectors so that someone couldn't just cut his hand off and steal the data. Scrolling through it, Salen never glanced to his side as he spoke.
"Give me the highlights." Salen ordered as he skimmed over the details, a finger looking over the first few reports, mostly damage reports for the Olympus as well as the initial briefings and reports from the establishment of beachheads across Earth. Casualties were well within expected margins as well as being supported by both Cyber-ops soldiers and heavy units like C12s.
"The Olympus Mons took a beating, the armor may not show it, but structural damage is present in most of the superstructure as well as a fair part of the core assembly. The FTL system is out of alignment while the F-Spar took one too many missiles from over-eager Jackals before the Skelters could force them off. We're looking at a minimum of three months in drydock to repair and replace the damaged components to get this ship back into active service, plus another five if you want it to be up to the new standard for the rest of the Olympus Mons-class Supercarriers." Kevin stated as Salen stopped before looking up at the man in surprise. He knew that Kevin was cunning as a snake and could hide a fleet in some of the most unlikely of places, but he never expected him to be that good.
"How many? What kind of upgrades will they have and when will they be ready for service?" Salen inquired, getting a grin from Kevin.
"So far? I've had the hulls for five of them laid out with plans for another five once their finished, the first batch has already been named as well. Aeolis Mons, Albor Tholus, Chalce Montes, Elysium Mons and Echus Montes. They are all about fifty metres longer than the Olympus, thicker armor with an up-to-scale Grave Shield like the ones I gave your bodyguards, more than capable of withstanding a ship ramming them, just to let you know." That last part was a quip at Salen for letting an Earthen ship ram his Flagship. That little bit of arrogance had ended with the Mons needing a week in drydock for a quick repair. "They've all been upgraded with a quick-charge FTL system with a recharge time of six minutes if left alone to charge, if not, each one has two sets of dump capacitors that can instantly recharge the FTL system in a hurry, but each one takes two hours to recharge after a dump. Cargo bay was enlarged to hold an extra ten Skelters while weapons have been added, namely in the form of two more F-Spar turrets on the port and Starboard sides. Said turrets have a depression of ten degrees and an elevation of 85 degrees. That should give you plenty of coverage in a fight. As for when they will be complete? Well, best estimate puts the completion date at between eight and ten months."
"Impressive..." Was all Salen could manage as he found that particular report and was reading through it as he absently listened to his friend. Looking at the data, it was like looking at the most mighty ship he had ever imagined, and he thought the Olympus was the best ship in the system. It seemed that Kevin had been holding out on him.
"Yeah, once their finished, I'll bring them to Mars for you and the Council to have a look over and make a big celebration about. I've got a few other projects that I'm currently working on, briefings should be in that pad for you to read while you recover. Anything else you need before I leave you, Salen?" Kevin asked, a slightly smile on his face as Salen looked up.
"When can you expect these projects of yours to be finished? And when will the results be ready to show?" Salen asked, his mind already working as he considered anything that might come out of the toy box of Point Omega to be worth its weight in Platinum.
"For the more short term projects, we're looking at eighteen, maybe twenty months before we start getting usable results. Long term ones might take as long as three to five years, but the stages between should still give us something you can use, Salen. Never doubt that." Kevin stated as he patted Salen on the shoulder. The Admiral nodded at that before turning back to his pad, looking through the data for these new projects as Kevin stood up, pushing the stool under a nearby bed before leaving, recognising that he had been dismissed.
Salen wondered, for a moment, as he watched his friend leave from the corner of his eye, where the SDF would be without men like Kevin. With a shrug, the answer came to him easily enough.
They would have lost.
XXX
Leaving the room, I couldn't help but smile behind my stoic façade that I kept up around others, only lowering it in front of my friends, who were very few in number even to this day.
Still, it had been years since the day I had woken up in a body that was not my own, living a life on Mars, in a world that I had known to be nothing but fiction, and yet, I was living it. My first clue had been meeting Salen as a child, even back then, the man still had the ever present scar on his face from living in the slum cities of Mars. Honestly, it was a lot different seeing what it was like on the other side of the line. In Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, you played as a character fighting for the survival of the Earth, but you saw little of the SDF beyond seeing them as the enemy. I now had the opportunity to see the other side of the fence, and I could honestly say that the hatred that the people of Mars had for the people of Earth was rather justified. Before Mars had been independent, it was controlled purely by the Earth, with sections of the planet being controlled by corporations that treated the local colonists and people living on the planet as just a step above slave labour. Most barely managed to earn even a quarter of the minimum wage that I was familiar with.
It was no real surprise, then, when the people of Mars revolted and threw the Corperations off Mars, killing most of them, but most of the uprising had been quietly swept under the rug, the common people of earth didn't even know why it happened, only that Mars had become independent, but with no idea of reasons. The Corperations had been sure to wipe the record clean of their mistakes on Mars, but no one ever forgot, it was often a subject of history in most schools on Mars, called The Ascension. It was the time when the people of Mars finally gained their freedom.
Still, that was not enough, not for a lot of people, and that hate had stewed for a good, long time before it was finally allowed to act.
I, unfortunately, had personal experience of that, the scar on my face being from a Mercenary that worked for one of the Corperations as a security guard. I hadn't made my quota for the day and the Merc burned me with a Plasma Welder to... teach me that I needed to do better next time.
It had not been pleasant.
Fast forward nearly a decade and a half and I was now one of the most powerful people in the system. I was second only to Salen, who I was good friends with, I was the head of R&D along with most Black Operations that Salen had not take an interest in, and I was free to build whatever I wanted, so long as I sent reports of what I was doing up the chain. Still, one thing I was glad about was the fact that the military and civilian chains of command were completely separate. The Council looking over civilians and acting as an advisory board for the military while the military did the same for them, it meant that we could separate people from responsibility and were less likely to make stupid decisions based on political moves.
The system wasn't perfect, but it worked without too much trouble, especially since each side kept the other in check. The military side dealt with problems of engineering, logistics and defence while the civilian side dealt with things such as industry, research and development, with a few exceptions, and food production. Both sides had their own culture to them, but they were both compatible with either side, at one point, I had even heard talks of created a single, united language or something like that, something different from English for the simple fact that it often made people remember Earth. Still, I couldn't help but smile at that since some enthusiastic officials were giving it a real go after talking with as many language specialists as they could, current estimate had a new language being finished within the next decade before being ready to implement along with a new alphabet.
I shook my head at that as I left the Olympus Mons for my own ship, sometimes I had to wonder about just what the people of the Red Sand Hegemony were thinking, then again, it was understandable. People wanted to put as much separation between them and Earth as possible.
It was something I understood all too well.
XXX
Looking out of the bridge of my ship as it came out of FTL, I made sure not to show it as I looked on to Point Omega. The massive scaffold-like structure was spinning quietly in the bleak, interstellar void, pumping out near constant waves of jamming signals as well as using a complex array of heat sinks and energy masking systems to hide from any who would wish to come looking for it. Enclosed hangars dominated the massive structure as it reminded me of the orbital elevator over Mars, but grander as the design made it look like someone had attached two copies of the top section to each other with dozens of pods built to hold the ships as they were being built. Looking around, I noted other ships present, a fleet to act in defence of Point Omega, all painted black and with the red, tri-pointed star of the Division on their hulls.
"Bring us in for docking, Captain Webber, I want us docked and fully disembarked within the hour, following that, having your crew report to the Labs for your regular checks." I ordered as I looked at the man in question. Tall, well built but fairly lanky, salt and pepper hair with a thick beard, the man looked like a stereotypical Navy officer wearing the standard combat armor of the Division. Black armor with the SDF and Division symbols on the right shoulder. On his hip, I could see a Hailstorm pistol like most others in the Division, chambered for .55 calibre SAPHEI rounds that were standard for the Division. Looking over him once more, I saw that his arm was linked to the control chair he was in, neural uplinks allowing him to direct the ship, and its crew, with just a few thoughts as the ship moved through the Void.
"Understood Admiral. Estimated arrival time is fifteen minutes and counting. Your orders have already been relayed to the rest of the ship and Point Omega reports that your Stormtroopers are waiting for you. Commander Morris reports that your lab has already been prepared as you requested and all items that you asked for are now present." Webber read out as I grimaced slightly at that, even as I spotted others grinning at that in turn, only making my grimace more pronounced.
Normal soldiers of the Division wore armor that looked like Spectre from Call of Duty: Black Ops three, all black and covering them entirely, unless they had armored cybernetic limbs, which still had vacuum seals on them to allow them to work in space. My 'Stormtroopers', on the other hand, wore armor more similar to the Warlords from the same game, thick, heavy and supported by a more extensive exoskeleton and augmentations, both cybernetic and genetic, the latter of which was extremely basic and highly experimental, even by my standards. Why they were called my 'Stormtroopers' was because they had painted their armor white and were always following me around, even on Point Omega. Not only that, but they were fanatically loyal to me, mostly because I had saved their lives during the initial revolution to take back Mars from the Corperations, a full platoon of thirty of them now acted as my personal guards and enforcers, even if the former was un-needed.
"... Dear God, that little joke is going to be haunting me to my grave, I just know it..." I muttered to myself. No one commented even if they all heard what I said, I knew everyone on the bridge had augmented hearing, which I was glad for as I waited to leave the ship, if only because I had a lot planned.
Fifteen minutes later and I resisted the urge to frown as I came face-to-face with a wall of white-clad figures carrying heavy weapons, all of them I recognised easily before one stepped forwards.
"Sir, your lab is fully prepared for you. This way sir." The figure stated as I nodded, knowing that this had become something of a ritual between the members of what was commonly called the Enforcer Platoon. The fact that I was looking at the heavily armed and armored form of Commander Dania Morris only helped me understand that as the woman in question, when outside of her normal armor, stood at 1.85 metres tall. In armor, like the rest of the platoon, she stood around 2.10 metres tall, usually armed with a mixture of Maulers, R.A.Ws, P-LAWs, R3Ks, ERB-800s and Banshees. Most members of the platoon enjoying the use of Fusion Mags to give them virtually infinite ammo for energy based weapons while those with projectile weapons had larger packs for storage space of more ammo. Added to this, I knew that all of them were equipped with some of my best tech, usually experimental stuff that they volunteered to test of their own accord. It had actually gotten to the point that I had to put a board up to show them what was available and they pick what they wanted.
By this point, all of them had Gravity Shields, Thermo-optic camouflage and integrated Eraser energy weapons in their forearms mixed with a few other things here and there. In short, many of them could be considered walking tanks in their own right. This fact was only emphasised further by the fact that most of them carried at least five centimetres of armor over their torsos and three on their heads. Limbs, without counting the armor on their augments, usually only had two centimetres of armor, but that varied with each member.
"Thank you, Commander." I stated back as I walked onwards, six of the thirty members of my 'Stormtroopers' already falling into lockstep by my side as I moved with purpose through the station. As I walked, I listened as the Commander gave me a status report.
"Sir. Work is continuing as projected on the five Olympus Mons-class Supercarriers. Each of which should be finished on schedule, or ahead of schedule, if there are no major complications, reports show that the installation of the F-spar turrets will be the most challenging aspect of construction but the construction teams have assured me that they will have it done within the next month, sir." Morris stated, her heavily modulated voice making it difficult to even tell that she was female, the sound coming across as rather deep, almost sounding like gravel being stepped on. "Projects Prometheus, Cronus and Erebus have all come back as being near completion and have had the results sent to your personal terminal in your lab while Project Eden is reporting some difficulty with final stage integration. Finally, Project Janus has reported that they have completed work on the items that you assigned them, said items have been moved to your personal lab, as per your instructions."
"Good. Reassign materials and personnel from Projects Cronus and Erebus to Eden, I want all four of them completed within two weeks or less. Inform them that those projects hold what I believe to be the key to Humanity's future and I want them completed as soon as possible, I don't mind them being late, but I would highly prefer them being done within the time frame." I ordered as she nodded, I glanced to one side to see another Enforcer tilt his head slightly, a habit that told me that he was relaying the orders through his neural interface.
For the rest of the trip through the labyrinth of corridors, we stayed silent as we eventually came to a thick set of blast doors that sealed my lab from the rest of the station. Walking up to the gates, I almost smirked when I saw the message engraved upon the metal above them. It was an old message that I had left there as it seemed appropriate given how very few people had ever stepped into my lab, without me permission, and walked out of it alive, Salen was one of the few exceptions, the total number of which could be counted on one hand.
Turn back, All ye who dare enter, for you step into the domain that even the Devil fears.
"Vice Admiral Kevin Norwick. Pass code: Alpha-three-six-two-five-Omega. Unseal the hushed casket and await the arrival of Death, for he is on his way to reclaim what was stolen from him." I stated as I walked into a specific spot of the floor in front of the gate, a scanner moving over me as it checked biometric data, DNA collected through the air filtration systems and voice patterns to ensure I was who I claimed I was. A moment later, the doors unsealed, the sounds of heavy bolts coming undone filled the small space before I looked on and walked in, the doors sealing behind me as the Enforcers took positions around the only way in or out of my Lab. I knew they would remain there until I left the room, just like they always had for the last few years or so.
Sometimes... I did wonder if letting those thirty follow me around was a good idea, mainly because I wondered if it was health having thirty heavily cyberdized WMDs around to act as guard dogs... Nah.
XXX
Honestly, many would have said that my lab was more of a workshop, really. It was a massive room with a second floor overlooking half the room, multiple tables laying out and taking up the ground level of the room as I saw dozens of half-finished ideas, weapons and random pieces of junk that I was tinkering with laying on these tables. Computers were left lying around the tables, some were still open while others presented holograms of ideas that I had yet to complete in one way or another. Chemical beakers were also scattered around the room, the beginnings of ideas for more potent propellants for bullets or for specialised chemicals of all kinds, some that would rapidly eat through certain materials while others froze or heated up rapidly once outside of certain conditions.
Looking up at the second level, I saw the various computers laying around there, a small kitchen and a bed that was just visible through the railings that covered the edge of the platform. This lab also served as my accommodations for the majority of the time I spent on Point Omega, mostly because I enjoyed being close to where I worked, it gave me a certain convenience to everything. Still, that did not mean that I was completely isolated. There were communications systems to the rest of the station and I regularly made sure to leave the lab to speak with the crewmen of the station, mostly so as to not lose touch with everything and keep myself grounded in reality. Not only that, but to excursive.
I was still, mostly, Human. However, I still had my fair share of augments, mainly with stuff that wouldn't be noticed, sub vocal communication systems, neural interface systems and a wireless connection to any of my forces within the Division, to name but a few. Still, I had yet to find a reason to replace entire limbs, mostly because I made use of an augmented exo-skeletal system to increase my strength and speed, reaction times were also increased thanks to other cybernetic and limited genetic work I had undergone.
What can I say? I'm rather big on the idea of Transhumansium.
Hearing the door close behind me, I smiled as I looked to the centre of the lab to see the completed form of Project Janus. A massive series of four pillars, each one being over five metres high and one metre across, these things were, by themselves, massive computers, each covered in various slots that were, in turn, filled with hard drives and processors ripped from the most advanced, most compact and most efficient designs that the other scientists of Point Omega were capable of producing. Cables ran between these pillars and to a fifth object in the middle of them, a small cylinder that rose a metre above the ground, holographic projectors covering the top of it as I looked at it with interest. I smiled at that as I quickly saw what to do.
Moving forwards, I quickly moved to the closest computer to the Pillars and activated it, downloading a few dozen files from my personal network before removing the computer from said network, followed by disabling any form of network connection in the room. A minute ticked by before the lab was completely secure before I linked the, only active, computer to the cylinder in the middle. Smiling, I quickly started typing as I watched a loading bar appearing on my screen.
"Really, the UNSA and SATO were a bunch of idiots... Building Human-like, artificial intelligences and using them to make soldiers that are only marginally better than a Human soldier, more expendable, yes, but an utter waste of resources." I muttered to myself as I looked at the notes before me, reports and designs for a project conducted by the UNSA and SATO, the documents having been copied and sent to me at the same time as the attack on Geneva. Following that, I had spent much time working on the designs, the programming and the integration of the new creation as I had spent my time building something far better than what the limited thinking of the UNSA had come up with.
I intended to create life.
"'Enhanced Tactical Humanoid'. Useless piece of junk is what it is..." I muttered to myself as I pressed the Enter key on my computer keyboard. Nothing happened for a moment, but I didn't care as I heard the sounds of the fans speeding up as the processors ran hot executing the programs that I had just left in the new computer. I smiled as the holographic projector came online. The projection of light that followed looked like the beginnings of something, a vast web of multi-coloured light dancing in the air as the web slowly grew in both size and complexity, more colours being added as it progressed. Subtle shades and tones began to take shape, I knew that if I looked closely enough, I would see strings of binary as the code mutated to become something... More...
This was the whole point of Project Janus, after all: A new beginning.
XXX
AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will be working to put out another chapter at some point. Feedback is appreciated at all times as well. Also, on an unrelated note, does anyone have any idea when the tags are going to be back?
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