Hells Bells

Icarus?

Originally Written in 2022

May 22nd, 2025. Innerworld. Outskirts of the American Military Zone.

ODIN: The civilian caravan is making its way to the neighboring country of Hillion, but they have a chance to get caught up in fighting when we meet up with the Russians and complete the pincer around Yensom.

The orbital recon plane moves over to the nearby city, zooming in its camera on the city center.

ODIN: We have spotted Hillion soldiers pouring through to the nearby city of Comra and have occupied the labyrinth located in the center.

LIBERTY: Odin I'm sorry to interrupt, but what does this have to do with the civilians in our path?

ODIN: Because Hillion is using the chaos of the federation's collapse to grab whatever treasures they can, of course they were immediately encircled by the 28th infantry division, but they have slowly been smuggling goods out with mass dragon evacuations. No matter how many dragons we down at least one makes it through.

Images pop up on the screen.

ODIN: The most recent dragon barrage was interrupted early by the arrival of air forces sent to aid in the stranglehold over the city. Now the reason we pulled you away from the forward assault is what was found on one of those dragons.

A picture of a bronze tablet is pulled up with a prominent six pointed star on the front.

LIBERTY: Son of a bitch.

ODIN: We pulled two more tablets out of the temple's ruins in Phillian, but we thought nothing of it due to the six pointed star being found all over various dimensions. We only called you in after we cracked it open.

Another picture shows up.

LIBERTY: God's language... unreadable gods language at that. It seems our troubles are not yet over.

ODIN: We tried to get it translated but no one can read it. We showed it to the gods yet they couldn't read it due to the degradation. So we need you to send in a squad to explore the situation further. As for the rest of your men.

The screen switches to a UAV circling around the border of the American Military Zone and Japanese Military Zone.

ODIN: The situation that happened at the treaty signing has brought up an old problem. All the Orian files that weren't destroyed are in our hands, but many files on other genetic experiments and early research on Orian are being held in a facility on the fringes of Japanese operational territory. Project Icarus, as you know it by, brought up something unknown that caused the deaths of all but two facility personnel. This situation is what caused Congress to object to Orian, and by orders of president Moser the facility was quarantined.

The screen zooms out, highlighting and drawing lines connecting the outposts guarding the facility.

ODIN: Stokins has authorized elements of the 205th and 101st Hells Bells division to start exploring the inner circle of the quarantine zone and to slowly make their way to the facility. Once you are inside you will then investigate the incident and then gather as much intel as possible. After this is done you will focus on the labyrinth. Any questions?

LIBERTY:... Why is this the first time the facility has been explored?

ODIN: Heavy radiation has been flooding from the facility, but two days ago the radiation cleared up to normal levels.

LIBERTY: Wait, so my division originally wasn't called to this dimension because of Icarus?

ODIN: No, and I'm not gonna get into the reason due to it being solved with the collapse of the federation. Any more questions?