Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 11: The Fox

In the night, I underwent new mutations and cybernetic enhancements suggested by Wilson and Master Avanka on Safe Haven's RnD platform. I was faster and stronger, I could jump higher, swing my sword with more agility, absorb more physical trauma, and was augmented with nanomachines that made my heart rate even slower, so it was almost impossible for me to lose blood at all. I was also in a Special Forces cuirass that looked like my old one, but I could change this one's color, and its leather was thicker and harder. It didn't feel upgraded, though. It felt almost exactly the same as the one I used to wear. Once I was done equipping my new gear, Master Avanka wanted me in the control room as soon as possible in order to act on what we saw through Maddy's eyes in the night. I arrived there, seeing Master Avanka and Wilson, but also Ser Gabriel, Maddy, and the Guardians Connor, Ruth, and Morgan.

"Master," I greeted, bowing at my hip. I joined the others around the hologram-projecting table when Master Avanka returned the bow.

"Now that we're all here," she began, projecting the map of the island from last night above the table.

"This island was found off the coast of Idrasyll several days ago, and surveyed by Maddy last night," Avanka continued. "An entire army of Turned is stationed there, which leads me to believe that there is something going on there. Along with that..."

She swiped on the table's control panel to show us Maddy's picture of the object being lowered below the hatch in the center of the island's fortress.

"Woah," Morgan whispered.

"That looks big," said Ruth.

"A War Machine?" Ser Gabriel suggested.

"Unclear, Ser," Master Avanka answered. "I appreciate all of you volunteering for this mission, but if you're thinking of backing out, now's the time."

None of us backed away from the table. Least of all, me. I was a warrior of light as much as everyone in the room with me, and there was something dark happening on this island that needed to be stopped.

"These are for you," Avanka offered, putting a brown bag on the table. "Courtesy of RnD."

I pulled the bag closer to us, and took out everything inside. They were four APIDs, modified to fit into the ears of normal people instead of SF operatives like me. Ser Gabriel, Morgan, Connor, and Ruth all took one, since I had my own, and Maddy's visual receivers were already connected to the monitors.

"Those are so we can monitor your status," Wilson enlightened. "And they're made from human, epsilon, and Ilentia tech, so be careful with them."

"Thanks," said Gabriel.

"Now, all you're doing is gathering information on what's there," Master Avanka briefed. "Avoid combat as much as possible, but I want every single bit of intelligence you can gather from that place. You'll be in three teams of two, and you'll use Amphibious Flight Gears to land at different parts of the island. Connor, Ruth, you're Red Team, and you'll land on the far northern tip. Maddy, Morgan, you're Blue Team, and you'll land on the southeastern coast, near the naval base. Fox, Ser Gabriel, you're Green Team, and you'll land at the cliffs of the southwestern side. Make your way into the fortress from there, and learn what you can, but if things get risky, I'll declare the mission over, and pull all of you back to Save Haven. Understood?"

All of us nodded our heads. The mission was clear enough to us, but my curiosity was fixed on the giant thing that we saw last night. We went to the AFG hangar at the bottom of Safe Haven's command platform and found six AFGs waiting for us in their launchers.

"How do we fly one of those?" Ruth wondered.

"Most of it's unmanned," I enlightened. "All we have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride."