"5 seconds, get ready."

Everyone had their weapons pointed at the doors, waiting.

Ding.

The doors opened to the barrels of laser pistols.

"Hold your fire, friendlies coming out." A male voice shouted from behind the barrels.

The armed guards stepped aside to let us through and we were led to the man in charge, who promptly introduced himself.

"Head of Standard Security, Truvilo Orca. Judging from your insignia, you're the personal defensive squad of 82nd Floor?" He said, offering his hand in greeting.

"Correct, Sergeant Manius. Fortune Squad." He confirmed, taking Truvilo's hand.

"I wasn't aware that Floor Defence Squads had eight members?"

"This one does." Manius replied, not willing to say anything else.

Thanks to our matching uniforms and facemasks, it was impossible to tell that I was the odd one out and Manius evidently had no intention to reveal my false identity. Something that I was grateful for.

"Hmm, is that so? Forget it, as long as everyone can fight, I couldn't care why you have an additional member."

This was taking too long. Every second we wasted was another second spent against us by the King's Guard. I'm stepping in.

"Head of Standard Security Truvilo Orca, I need all information you have on the attacking forces." I spoke up.

"Oh? And you are?"

"We're aiming to get the comms centre back online. So you can either give us the information we need, or I'll happily inform command that your incompetence assisted the rebels."

"Playing it like that, eh? Alright, I'll yield. What do you need to know? However, I should remind you that we don't know much ourselves."

"Can you confirm the attacking rebel group? We have suspicions it's the King's Guard but nothing concrete."

"I can't, but I can tell you they're heavily armed. They managed to push us up to this floor in a few minutes, but then they stopped for some reason."

"Heavily armed in weaponry or armour? And why stop on the 4th floor?"

"A bit of both, we faced a squad of Battlesuits about four or five strong, each armed with wrist-mounted heavy laser gatlings. As for stopping on the 4th floor, no idea, the only thing of value there is a medical supply room."

"Got it. Sgt, we're breaching through the floor."

"Trying to avoid the bottleneck on the stairs? Not a bad move, Jullosa set breaching charges on the floor of room two."

"Yes, Sgt." Jullosa replied.

The Head of Standard Security, on the other hand, didn't look as convinced with my plan.

"Are you sure that'll work? What if you drop in the middle of a bunch of Battlesuits?"

"Then we'll die. But answer me this, do you really think the rebels have brought so many Battlesuits that they can afford not to use them?"

"So you're betting this on the hope that the Battlesuits have left to fight somewhere else?"

"I'm betting this on the fact that you're still alive, because if they still had Battlesuits down there, you wouldn't be." I shot back.

A shout from Private Jullosa finished our exchange.

"Charges are set."

If Truvilo could see my face, he'd get a lovely view of a grin right about now.

"Wish us luck, Truvilo."

"Good luck soldier, you'll need it." He relented.

Manius got the squad together and waited on standby to breach. For all his lack of experience, he was rather good at leading.

"Active night-vision optics, the moment we land, spread out, see anything hostile, shoot. Understand?" The Sergeant ordered.

"Understood." Came the reply from Fortune Squad.

"Blowing the charges in 5..."

"4..."

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

A resounding bang echoed out as the floor collapsed in on itself, creating a large hole. Wasting no time, we quickly moved in.

Our boots hit the ground with a thud.

A chorus of laser fire rang out as the stunned rebels were cut down mercilessly.

A man no older than thirty was pinned down by some rubble. He reached down to his holster and withdrew his sidearm.

Not wanting to give him a chance to fire, I aimed my DMR at his skull, with a squeeze of the trigger, the barrel exploded as a bullet was launched out, an empty casing ejecting onto the white tiles below.

The recoil, combined with my poor stance, bruised my shoulder and knocked me on my ass. Luckily no one saw and I recovered, but I had to mentally remind myself to use the correct shooting stance in future to prevent this mishap from happening again.

The man's head was blown open through the middle as if someone took an axe to a watermelon and smashed it in two. A spatter of blood painted the wall behind him.

I pushed the thought of killing another human to the back of my mind; thankfully, it was always easier than the first time.

"Room clear, move to the next sector!" A voice shouted.

My body was on autopilot now, years of training from my mother and experience from another time kicked in.

Together as one, Fortune Squad and I pushed through the floor, lasers and bullets scorching and piecing the skin of every infected that moved.

The squad split into two. Sergeant Manius and his half took the north side of the floor, while Lumal, Jullosa and I moved off to secure the southern half.

The three of us stacked up on room 12's door, the hushed voices inside told me everything I needed to know as I readied a flashbang.

I signal to Jullosa to kick the door open and move to the side. He performed flawlessly and in the next second, my flashbang was in the room.

Three seconds later, a deafening crack sounded out, knocking the rebels to the floor. We pushed in and within the next moment, four individual shots rang out.

"Clear!" I called out.

"Clear!" Jullosa reported.

"Clear!" Lumal reported.

"Room clear, Lumal take point. Move to the next sector."

"10-4 Sgt." Lumal replied, adding Sgt on out of habit.

With the room cleared, we continued towards the next area.

We encountered three more rooms with infected, each dealt with in the same manner. Stack the door, flashbang in, breach and liquidate.

In total, we'd racked up eleven kills. More than I expected for this floor, we may have underestimated the numbers in this attack.

After our half of the floor was secured, we regrouped with Sergeant Manius. His half of the squad was stacked up against the outside of a large reinforced metal door. The sign above read, "Medical Supply Room." He signalled for us to join him, which we promptly did.

"Sitrep?" Manius asked.

"South Sector cleared, eleven infected dead. Zero casualties."

"No civilians?"

"None on our side, how about you?" I replied.

"Nothing, do you think they moved them?"

"Must have, but we can't focus on that now. We need to get comms back online."

"Agreed. Any plans to breach this here fucker?" He said while tapping on the door.

"Assuming that means we have no charges big enough?"

"Yep, outta bang, outta buck." He jokingly answered.

"Well, I've got nothing."

"We could try kicking it down?" One of the privates spoke up.

"Private." Manius asked.

"Yes, Sgt?"

"Shut it."

"How about we convince them to open it?" I chimed in, saving the Private from further embarrassment.

"Worth a try, have at it."

I cleared my throat and shouted in a loud booming voice.

"This is the Atlas Armed Core of Earth! You are surrounded and your allies dead. Come out with your hands up or face liquidation!"

Nothing....

And nothing....

"Guess it didn't work, any other ide-"

The metal door was smashed off its hinges from the inside as a hulking stolen Battlesuit ran through it.

The mass of titanium and depleted uranium collided with one of the Privates and sent him flying into a wall; the impact turning his body limp as he fell to the ground.

"Disperse now!" Sergeant Manius yelled out.

But I was already one step ahead of him and in full sprint down the hallway opposite to the Battlesuit. I wanted to gain some distance between it and me before I opened fire. After all, the moment I let a shot loose with the QLS-10, it was coming for me.

A burst of laserfire erupted from the Battlesuit's mounted gatling gun, eviscerating two privates as they ran down another hallway looking for cover.

I crouched down and readied my aim. A crack rang out and a bullet crashed into the Battlesuit's frontplate creating a small dent.

The Battlesuit turned its attention to me and I responded with another squeeze of the trigger, followed by a second, and a third. I fired until my magazine was emptied and ejected, then I quickly inserted a fresh one.

Most of my shots either missed their mark or connected with limited effectiveness, all except one which smashed into the suit's visor, shattering parts of the reinforced acrylic glass.

However, the Battlesuit pilot was well aware of its newly created weak spot and wasn't about to let me get another shot off as it barreled down the hallway towards me.

I dodged to the side and down another hallway just as the Battlesuit arrived, it then began to spin up its gatling laser and as it was about to fire, I jumped into an adjacent room, narrowly avoiding the hail of laser.

Leaping under the hospital bed, I deployed the DMR's bipod and aimed at head height towards the doorway, ready to shoot through its visor at the moment it entered.

Unexpectedly the Battlesuit crashed through the wall instead, its titanium arm shielding its head.

Acting quickly, I rolled out from under the bed and dashed past the Battlesuit and into the hole it just created. Fortunately, its visibility was hindered by the cracked visor and I was able to slip past unnoticed.

I then swiftly moved to my original spot looking down the hallway, setting up in a prone position, I once again angled my aim to head height and waited for the Battlesuit to exit the room after me.

And this time, it worked.

An explosive boom echoed out as my bullet punched through the weakened glass, splattering blood and brain matter all inside the helmet.

The Battlesuit froze mid-step, it's pilot dead.

I let out a breath I'd didn't know I'd been holding. My adrenaline slowly began to fade and the fatigue of my muscles crept up on me and weighed me down.

I waited there on the floor for a time, my body too exhausted to gather the strength required to stand.

A male voice interrupted my rest.

"Hey Adams, you alive?"

"No..." I replied.

"Well shit, at least I'll save money on that beer I owe you. But seriously, get up, we need to move." He said while offering his hand

I took it and he pulled me up.

"You owe me a beer?" I asked, still disoriented.

"I owe you a lot more than that, you just saved our asses. Hell, if you want, I'll buy you a whole brewery."

"How many survived?" I said, not in the mood to joke.

"Two KIA, one injured. Lumal, Jullosa, Müller and us are the only ones who can fight. But I'm leaving Jullosa here to look after the injured, as I don't trust Orca. So it'll just be the four of us. Still think we can do it?" Manius questioned.

"Pass me your stimulants." I ordered.

"Stimulants?"

"All NCOs are issued three emergency stimulants only to be used during sustained combat."

"I shouldn't really be shocked you know that, so here." The Sergeant finished and handed me two injectors.

"You used one?"

"Yep, on our buddy down there with the shattered spine." He nodded towards the injured Private.

"Will he be okay?"

"Maybe, but I doubt he'll walk again anytime soon, that is unless he comes across a mountain of gold tomorrow."

"The same amount it'd take to buy a brewery?" I joked.

"That wouldn't even cover half the cost."

"Shit, I'm sorry."

"Wasn't your fault. We all knew what we were getting into when we signed up. If you want to blame someone, then look towards the dead fucker in the Battlesuit."

I removed my facemask and was plunged into darkness as the night vision vanished. Holding the injector to my neck, I pressed it down, releasing a river of blue stimulant right into my bloodstream.

It activated in seconds as my eyes went wide and my body felt like it was burning with energy. My mind was finally able to think clearly and I instantly realised our mistake.

"Shit!" I shouted out before grabbing my firearm and running to the Medical Supply Room.

My actions prompted the remainder of the squad to follow me as our neglect became realised.

I burst past the broken metal door and into the room of what should have been full of medical supplies, but instead it was ransacked. Vials and pill bottles were thrown across on the floor, certainly the sign of a speedy and careless looting.

A boy about the same age as me became frozen in place, a box of supplies in his hands. Upon seeing my uniform, he dropped the box in fear, fell to the floor and began begging for his life.

"Wait p-please-e no, I-I was forced. They said they'd go for my family if I didn't help-p."

My gun was trained to his head as I debated sparing him or not.

I knew full well he was lying, rebels never threatened the families of ordinary citizens. They wanted to gain the respect and trust of the common man, not their fear.

Manius shouted in concern, he and the rest of Fortune Squad were outside covering the exit.

"Everything alright in there? We heard a bang."

I didn't answer, still questioning what I should do.

"I-I have a family, a mother and father. My-y baby sister-r was just born, you don't want her to grow up without her brother-r? Do y-you-u?"

My gun slowly lowered, I thought I had made my decision. But I was wrong, a camera in the corner of the room instantly reversed my action with its red recording light.

I couldn't take the chance that someone might see me spare a rebel, I was doing this to prove my allegiance, not jeopardise it.

"Adams! Are you going to answer me or what?" Manius yelled.

Bang.

"Clear!" I replied, exiting the room.

"What happened?"

"It's been looted, only one infected left. The rest must have escaped earlier."

"Roger that, Jullosa and Müller are taking the wounded up top. Orca has already informed me that they won't be defending the 4th floor, too damaged for their liking."

"Oh, they came down here and checked?"

"No, I sent Lumal to inform them of the situation, but Orca just shouted at him not to use the hole."

"Lumal seriously went to the hole instead of climbing up the stairs?"

"Hey, it's quicker. Plus, you know how Privates can be."

"I'm starting to get an idea." I mused.

Jullosa and Müller came back down and rejoined us.

"Private Müller reporting, all tasks completed."

"Good work, Private. We can now begin planning our next move. Adams, you got any ideas?" The Sgt replied.

"Stick to the original plan but with one minor alteration."

"Go on."

"I go alone while you cover me from the windows."

"Any reasons why you're changing the plan in the middle of the operation?" Manius questioned.

"Look around you, everyone can barely stand. Right now, I'm the only one who could fight my way to the comms centre and that's thanks to the stimulant."

"Well then hand me the spare and we'll go together." He offered.

"Negative, you're needed here to direct the squad. Plus, I'm holding this one in reserve, you never know when a burst of energy could save your life."

I decided against informing Manius that he'd only slow me down; after all, infiltration was once my speciality.

"Alright, you haven't let me down yet." He resigned.

"Tell that to the dead."

He chuckled at that.

"Hopefully, they'll be waiting a long time till then."

I cracked a smile at that, even if I was mad at myself. Manius still had a stupid joke to raise my spirits.

"I'm going to need a minute to prepare. In the meantime, can you pile together all the decoy, flashbangs and fragmentation grenades?"

"You heard the lady. Get to it Privates!"

I entered a nearby room and shut the door. I began stripping off any equipment that'd slow me down, that includes the armour pads and the defunct radio equipment that never worked in the first place.

The plan was simple, slip into the eastern building undetected. I know it's not exactly a master plan but it'll work.

And if shit did hit the fan, I would fall back on my DMR and the tons of ordinance I was carrying. That'd give any rebels a shock.

With my armour pads down removed, I once again slipped on the facemask and reactivated the integrated NVGs.

A final double-check of my weapon, ensuring a fresh mag was loaded into the DMR and any blockages cleared. Luckily, all checked out. Maybe Chinese weapons weren't so bad after all.

Everything was in place and I left the room to be greeted by a mass of grenades.

"This is everything we have plus the remainder of the breaching charges. Hopefully it'll help." Manius said.

I began to attach the grenades to wherever they would fit. Luckily I hadn't abandoned the vest yet, so I had plenty of room.

"It will."

"How are you planning to get down? And please don't say you're going through the floor again."

"Nope, I'm jumping out the window." I replied, purposely leaving my answer vague just to enjoy the confusion on his face.

As I spoke, I walked towards the window and pushed it open. Of course, I wasn't actually going to jump straight out the window but instead just climb down the drainage pipes.

If you're curious as to why I knew so much about the hospital... let's just say I might have stolen the plans for it a few years back and leave it at that.

"I- I'm not gonna ask. Good luck Adams, you'll need it, you crazy bastard."

"You should be wishing the rebels luck, not me, they'll need it more." I joked.

"Ha, I hope you're right about that."

"I always am, trust me."

With that, I leaned out the window and jumped. I fell for 5 metres before latching onto the pipe. Thank god I was wearing gloves; otherwise, that would have hurt a lot.

It didn't take long to climb down into the parking lot. The rebels didn't seem to have any lookouts or guards posted up outside. Not a bad move in all fairness, considering if they failed to stop our reinforcements, their only option would be to hold up inside anyway.

Thankfully, that did mean I was able to pass through the car park unimpeded and quickly reach the eastern building. Now it was simply a matter of scaling a forty story building, how fun.

I applied the same method as I did to get down, using the drainage pipes to traverse the building quickly and quietly.

Reaching the 40th floor, I smashed open a window and climbed inside of a large concrete room with two rows of pillars travelling down either side of a pathway that leads to the comms centre.

I was hoping it'd be a clear run with maybe a few lightly armoured rebels here and there, but obviously, they'd leave a pair of Battlesuits as a guard. I know it's a stupid thought, but it felt like the fuckers left them here just to spite me.

The Battlesuits were an exact match to the one from earlier, the only difference was their colours, one was black while the other was white.

Fortunately, I had the element of surprise this time. I crouched down and aimed my DMR at the visor of the black Battlesuit, with my finger on the trigger, I fired four shots.

Two hit the helmet, one flat out missed and the last smashed into the visor, cracking it.

"Shit!" I cursed my luck.

Here we go again.

Having cocked up my surprise attack, I instantly moved to close the distance.

Battlesuits were dangerous, no doubt about that. But their main strength came from fear and firepower, both of which can be nullified by a strong mind and getting close. Not that I would recommend getting close to a hulking mass of titanium. If you have any other option, use it.

My sudden sprint caught them by surprise as they foolishly readied their gatling lasers, probably expecting the fight to turn into a ranged battle.

This, in turn, allowed me to close the gap even further than I expected and just before they opened fire, I launched two decoy grenades at them, which turned into six more copies of me running and threw them off guard.

The barrel of my weapon glowed red with heat as I continually opened fire during my sprint. However, my shots only dented the armour of my main target, the black Battlesuit.

With the distances now closed, I ducked beneath the black Battlesuit's legs, dropping a frag by his legs as I did.

The explosion bought me enough time to reload my weapon, the empty mag chattering to the floor.

However, the white Battlesuit was right on top of me. Its fist only narrowly avoiding my body as I leapt out the way.

As much as I'd like to deal with the white Battlesuit first, the Black one would prove an easier kill.

I dropped another decoy and ran around to the front of Black Battlesuit, a clear shot opened up and I took it.

My bullet struck true, but instead of the kill I was expecting. The visor only broke, revealing the eyes of the pilot below, who was now pissed and unblinded.

An idea popped into my head as I threw the DMR on to my back and let it hang there by its strap. I then grabbed two flashbangs, one in each hand and prepared myself.

The black Battlesuit charged at me, which I flawlessly dodged. And as I did, I dropped the first flashbang.

Without his visor, the pilot was exposed to the full concussive force of the flashbang. Its detonation caused him to scream and stagger.

In the midst of his disorientation, I ran to his front and thrust the second flashbang into his helmet.

The fear instantly took over his mind as he uselessly tried to jam his oversized titanium fingers into the helmet to remove it.

The familiar pop went off and the black Battlesuit fell forwards, blood leaking from where his visor once was.

My attention turned to the final white Battlesuit, who was currently rushing at me.

Without any time to dodge, the Battlesuit's arm smashed into my facemask and sent me flying into a pillar with a crash.

I quickly ripped off the broken facemask just in time to see the white Battlesuit spinning up his gatling laser. I jumped behind the pillar right as the lasers tore into its side.

Luckily, the Battlesuit only had a low-powered laser weapon which proved ineffective against the concrete. Realising this, it soon stopped shooting and instead began to run towards the pillar, intent on ramming through it.

At the decisive moment, I threw out the last of my decoy grenades and evaded the charge.

The Battlesuit, upon witnessing the decoys, slowed his speed to attack them. He then stupidly lunged at one, his fist passing through the structureless imagine and instead lodging itself into the concrete pillar, pinning himself.

Not wanting to give him time to recover, I grabbed my DMR and ran up to him, placing the barrel of the weapon on the weak neck armour between his helmet and chest.

I squeezed the trigger but instead of a bullet punching into his armour, I was met with a face full of shrapnel as the barrel exploded from a round failure.

Curse my luck.

I was forced backwards from the power and suddenness of the explosion. The vision in my left eye was completely gone and I could feel blood running down my face.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one dazed, as the Battlesuit pilot now had black smoke obscuring his visor temporarily.

Now without my weapon, I had to act quickly and made the most dangerous decision of my life.

I grabbed my last two fragmentation grenades, pulled the pin and hugged the Battlesuit over its shoulders. Holding the grenades to the back of its neck. I buried my face into its chest and prayed to every god I knew and hoped that this would work.

With a roaring bang, the Battlesuit fell to his back with me still on its chest. It was a pure fluke that the suit didn't fall forwards and crush me.

With both Battlesuits down, I tried to get up, but as my hands moved to push myself up. I slipped and fell.

I took a look at my hands and my brain finally caught up with my body as pain erupted throughout my arms and face.

Both my arms were blown off from about two inches above the elbow. Seeing the state of arms, I couldn't stop myself from throwing up whatever food I had left in me.

The last stimulant injector was tucked into my vest. Using my mouth, I fished it out and rammed it into the remains of my right arm.

Because I couldn’t accurately hit any veins with my mouth, it took longer than usual to show the full extent of its effect.

Nevertheless, with the artificial energy flowing throughout my body, I managed to struggle to my feet and limp my way into the comms centre.

Thanks to what could only be described as a miracle, the comms centre was empty. The rebels must have believed that the two Battlesuits were more than enough protection, and they were nearly right.

I staggered over to the central console. Using my head, I flipped a switch and brought the comms centre back online.

Instantly the radio lit up with all types of communications traffic. I quickly searched for the nearest connection to any military unit and quickly found one.

With my head, I activated the connection and broadcast on an emergency frequency.

"This is Crossdon Medical Centre, I am reporting an emergency. We're under attack by rebel forces and are requesting immediate reinforcements."

A reply came through the radio straight away.

"Roger that Crossdon, this is the 3rd Colonial Garrison, we're on route now. I say again, this is the-"

The rest of his words faded to nothing as I collapsed onto the floor. My world quickly turning to black.