Chương 1: Prologue: A Legend Reborn
Under the cold light of Thermopoly-6's twin moons, a domed metropolis was engulfed in flames as the last remaining government forces prepared their final stand against legions of corporate mercenaries.
Encircled in the city centre, surrounded by skyscrapers, with dwindling resources and their commanding officer missing, command fell to the brilliant but young and inexperienced Commander Tellius of the 31st Armoured Infantry. Skilled in armoured combat, the young scion of the city's oligarchy bravely led his men to the front.
His scarlet command mech had become a beacon of hope in a sea of carnage for the men and women under his command, and a bloodthirsty demon for the underequipped and underpaid mercenaries.
"Commander! The eastern parameter is being overrun by the enemy! I don't know how - AHHH!" Tellius heard the officer report before he was most likely killed by an enemy sniper.
'Damn it!...' Tellius cursed mentally as he melted the central circuitry of an enemy mech with his wrist-mounted ion melter before executing the pilot with a quick stab to the chest. '... Is this really how my city falls?'
No matter how many waves of corporate-hired scum he and his men had shot down, blown up with explosives, or crushed with their crude makeshift weapons, they were fighting a losing battle.
Rushing full speed east to reinforce his forces there, he found only a handful of badly wounded soldiers.
"F**k!" He cursed as he spotted the burnt out mech of the commander he had just heard from.
"Commander?" Tellius heard a raspy female voice over his mech's intercom as a much shorter and pinker custom infiltrator armour appeared out of nowhere beside him.
The owner, Sarah Lawson, his best friend, second-in-command and leader of the 31st Infiltrator Unit, the counterpart to Tellius' 31st Armoured Infantry.
"Tell all remaining forces to retreat to Liberty Plaza and the last shelter..." Ordered Tellius, mourning the lives already lost.
Were a few stupid tax exemptions really worth a city and the lives of all its citizens? Born with a golden spoon, Tellius didn't think so, but the men and stockholders in charge, one star system away, apparently did.
Having had his fill of the scarred remains of the once bustling commercial district, the Commander turned to the pink cloak beside him. "Sarah, could you have imagined a week ago that things would turn out like this?"
"No, I couldn't..." replied Sarah, his best friend and second in command. "... But then again, who would have thought that the negotiations would fail and that the President would be such an idiot?"
"I didn't think so!..." Tellius confessed honestly, as he, like most, had seen the negotiations as a routine paperwork war between the corporations and the central government. "... Any word from the High Command on when we can expect the reinforcements?"
"They said 38 hours, but that was three days ago..." Sarah reminded him, the exhaustion of the day clear in her voice. "...As soon as we get back, I'll take the first watch shift. You need the sleep more than I do."
"Damn augmentation..." Tellius cursed, but gladly accepted the offer of some much-needed sleep.
...
Landing in the mockingly named underground Shelter-31, just as its blast doors closed, Tellius fell exhausted from his three-metre-high armoured mech as it was dismantled around him by mechanicle arms.
Catching his own fall with a single step, the young commander looked less human than the corpses outside.
"Damn, you look like shit!" Sarah exclaimed, still in her stealth suit but with her helmet removed.
Thanks to her many augmentations, she looked just as she had a week ago, young and beautiful. With her long blonde ponytail, her flawless heart-shaped face, her saphire blue eyes and a body shaped by combat drills & owned by combat augmentation, Sarah hadn't been the face of numerous recruitment campaigns in the past for nothing.
"Thanks, I know..." The young commander replied, exhausted by his every move.
Unlike his deputy, Tellius looked even worse in comparison. Sickly pale skin, sunken eyes and his cracks visible even through his white environmental suit. He was a shadow of the man he had been a week ago.
Back then he had been a bulky, bright-eyed officer with healthy yellow skin. The pinnacle of human performance, so to speak, and yet massively underpowered compared to even Lv.1 Augments.
"Good that you know, but please, act accordingly!" Reminded Sarah her friend before walking out of the hangar bay.
After a week of uninterrupted armoured combat, Tellius muscle mass had been massively reduced through the constant use of his armour. Hence why he was now weakly walking through the corridors.
"Commander Tellius, a word!" An elderly panda eyed man wearing a lab coat exclaimed upon seeing Tellius but was stopped by armoured staff.
"Later, I am to exhausted to talk..." Waved the exhausted commander the elderly researcher off. "... If it's something urgent, I am sure Captain Lawson will be happy to deal with it."
"No, it's about your father's Lazarus Project!" Exclaimed the researcher desperate to talk to him.
"What did you just say?" Questioned Tellius, silently ordering the soldiers to stand down.
The Lazarus Project as far as he was aware was supposed to be an AI project funded by his family for the military with the goal of creating an AI program for recovering veterans.
Breaking free from the armoured guards, the elderly man introduced himself. "Thank you, my name is Steve Hall, Doctor Hall if you will. I was your father's lead researcher for the Lazarus Project."
"What do you want?" Tellius asked annoyed having no time for pleasentries as a regeneration chamber was calling him.
"Yes, of course you are in a hurry..." Doctor Hall said, while retriving a small chip from his coat. Handing the chip over to Tellius, he explained hastily. "... This is for you. Your father ordered me to give it to you just before the negotiations broke down."
Baffled Tellius stared down at the small unassuming chip, he asked. "You guys completed it?"
"More than that! We-" Hall wanted to explaim but was cut of mid sentence a guards shout.
"Handgun!"
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!* A handgun flared three times before the assailant dressed like an average citizem was gunned down by soldiers. *RATATAT!*
"WEAPON SECURED!"
But the faith of the attacker mattered little to Doctor Hall as he now lay dying in Tellius arms, gasping for air. "... We-... We-..."
"F**k!" Cursed Tellius as the light faded out of the elderly man's eyes.
"You okay, Sir?" Asked the guards that had first spotted the attacker's handgun.
"Yes, but he isn't." Replied the young commander as he gently placed the old man's corpse on the ground.
"You know him?" Asked the guard sympathetically.
"No, I didn't but my father did..." Tellius answered, whipping Hall's blood of his eps-suit as he hastily put the black chip into the chip socket behind his right ear.
Instantly a single line of code was added to the hundreds currently running in Tellius's Basic-OS.
[... Installing: Lazarus-Protocol...]
"The councilor?!" Questioned Sarah, who rushed down the corridor, still wearing her pink stealth suit.
"Yes." Confirmed Tellius, not wanting to remember that his father had been amongst the first to victims of this war.
Having considered the negotiations a failure, the corperations immediately launched an orbital strike onto the entire venue to make a statement.
"Who do you think was the target? You or him?" Asked Sarah concerned as the thread of being assassined from within had become a real possibility.
"You want to know the truth?..." Said Tellius exhausted. Seeing Sarah nod, he exclaimed truthfully. "... I have no idea. Could have be me or him or us both. That bastard was dead before he could shout anything."
"F**k!..." Cursed Sarah while running anciously her hand through her now messy hair. "... Still, you need to rest. I'll take care of this."
*Boom!* The entire shelter shook as the orbital bombardment
had obviously begun.
"Dammed!..." Cursed Tellius as he quickly began calculating the time they had before the bombardment
would reach them. Looking at Sarah, who had done the same, he announced. "... I got 48 hours."
"I got 46 to 50 depending on whether or no
they want to preserve the bunker or not..." Stated Sarah with a grime expression. "... I guess we'll know in after 48 hours. 12 hour shifts?"
"I guess so, Captain." Nodded Commander Tellius and Captain Sarah replied with a small smirk. "Commander!"
That said, they both left to leave it to the soldiers to clean up the crime scene.
And yet as the young commander lay down in a recovery chaimber the Lazarus-Protocol was hard at work to install itself into Tellius brain. Unknown to him at that time, he was not destined to awake 12 hours later but 12 years...
...
*"In an unprecedented move to appeace corporate interests and end the war, the UCG has decided to sell off the remains of the fallen to reimbust the Conglomerate..."* A news cast recording echoed from the cold steely walls of the space ship as Tellius awoke from his long slumber. *"... The UCG argues that since the soldiers had given their life's for the people, so should their bodies. The decision has drawn widespread condemnation from all conservative and religious parties as well as most workers unions."*
"W-What?!" Asked Tellius confused upon awakening in a dark void, his voice having a strangely artificial sound to it.
'This is not the recovery chamber that I fell asleep in.' He though unsettled by the lack of feedback he was getting from his nervosystem.
[Lazarus-Protocol active]
*"In an unprecedented move to appeace corporate interests..."* The news cast recording began, streaming right into Tellius brain before being abruptly cut off.
"Thought it might make the transition easier, but I should have known better..." A familiarly husky female voice sounded just as some airlock opened.
[... Searching for User Parameters...]
Behind the airlock in a brighty light corridor stood a familiar jet unfamiliar female fully naked and her hands raised above her head. "... I am unarmed, Telli!"
"Sarah?" Asked Tellius in disbelief trying to aline the humanoid succubus Infront of him with the image of his best friend.
"Jup!..." Confirmed the nude beauty while entering the cell or room Tellius was in. "... You see it's been a long time. 12 years to be precise. A lot has happened."
[... User Parameters detected...]
"I am sure it has..." Replied Tellius weirded out by his voice's artificialness. "... Dammed! What the hell happened to my voice and why can't I feel my limbs?"
"Please, don't freak out..." Sarah, still naked told him, as she came closer to him. "... I didn't have the money to acquire all of you."
"What do you mean?" Asked Tellius, while noticing several defects in Sarah's appearance like missing scars, bullet wounds and burn marks that he knew intimately as it had been him who had patched them up.
[... Loading User Parameters...]
"The UCG sold us piece by piece..." Revealed Sarah while stopping right infront of Tellius."... Also the promissed reinforcements never came and Thermopoly-6 is now an manufacturing world owned by Medusa."
Only now with her so close to him did he notice the flawlessness of her skin as if artificially crafted to resemble real skin. Then here were her unnaturally large globe shaped breast as if they belonged to some pornstar and not the sleek Sarah that he knew.
"What did they do to you?..." Tellius asked her, his artificial voice taking on a deep and menacing edge. "... To us?"
That said, a character menu suddenly popped up inside his mind as the Lazarus-Sytem came fully online.
[User Profile:]
[Name: Tellius 'Killzone' Warfield]
[Body Composition: 98.7% ???; 1.3% Human Brain]
[+Core Stats:]
[-Vitality: 1 (3/3 HP)]
[-Synchronisation: ? (?%)]
[-Endurance: ??? (?/? Stamina)]
"My reanimated corpse was first bought hole by some corporate executive that wanted me as a breeder and a bodyguard... As I refused to sleep with him, he began selling me off piece by piece. I guess my uterus, ovaries, heart and lungs are still with him. But I don't really know as he sold my brain before those. I then was bought by Cerberus as an agent with the option to buyout myself. Which I am currently working on..." Sarah explained detached as if giving a report to her superior. "... You on the other hand are quite famous now as not only the Hero of Thermopoly-6, a Legend of the Corporate War but also the Father of Millions. Yes, you might have already guessed it. They sold your balls to Hera and I don't know where the rest of you went except for your brain, which I stole from some underground lab during my lates job. You still with me, Telli?"
"Yes, of course..." Replied Tellius dazed not only by Sarah's revelations but also the system pop up in his mind. Instinctively he knew that not all was lost as long as he had both Sarah and said system. "... It's just why can't I move?"
"Oh, yes. That's because I had to disconnect your spine from your brain to prevent you from thrashing this spaceship..." Explained Sarah her sapphire blue eyes turning emerald while climbing up something below Tellius. Reaching behind him, he heated a *click* as she connected some wires. "... Better?"
"Oh, yeah..." Told Tellius her, his eyes closed as the lights turned on and his system updated.
[New Hardware detected...]
[... Updating Parameters...]
[User Profile:]
[Name: Tellius 'Killzone' Warfield]
[Body Composition: 98.7% Juggernaut X-86 Bodyframe; 1.3% Human Brain]
[+Core Stats:]
[-Vitality: Lv. 1 (3/3 HP)]
[-Synchronisation: Lv. 100 (100/100)]
[-Endurance: Lv. - (∞/∞ Stamina)]
[+Secondary Stats:]
[+Strength: Lv. - (max. 720kg)]
[+Dexterity: Lv. - (0.085 seconds)]
[+Intelligence: Lv.93 (210 IQ)]
[+Awareness: Lv. - (360°)]
[+Luck: Lv. 10 (~10% Damage Negation)
[+Resistances in ADR*:]
[-Impact: 89%]
[-Slash: 56%]
[-Penetration 97%]
[-Elemental: 68%]
[*Average Damage Reduction]
Shaking his head to dismiss the pop up in his mind, Tellius opened his eyes to discover his new, jet black body. Build like an Iron Adonis at 2.1 meters hight, he had perfect proportions but steel coated tubes for muscles. From his system he knew it to be a Juggernaut X-86 Bodyframe.
Looking from himself he looked over to his still naked friend . "What about you?"
"Me? Don't you know better than ask a lady for her measures..." Sarah grumbled unconsciously coquettish jet feisty, which once and for all proofed her identity to him. Smirking at his narrowed eyes, she then replied. "... Hmp... fine... Just like you, I am also just a brain but my body frame is a modified XC-69 Valkyrie with Adaptive Cloaking and Grade 6 Shielding..." Touching her tits she complained. "... And I guess who ever designed those must have been a man."
"They suit you..." Tellius unconsciously blurred put to Sarah's delight.
"You think so?..." She asked squeezing her tits together like some lewd model from Aphrodite. "... I always thought them in the way, but since you like them, I will like them."
And so a legend was reborn 12 years after his death.
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