“Targets are out of effective range!”

“Negative on support fire! The Vanguard will be caught in the crossfire!”

“Impact to hull and hanger doors! Currently undergoing damage assessment!”

“Requesting reinforcements!”

Commander Gant stood up slowly from his seat as his men frantically shouted over the blaring of alarms and damage reports from the system.

Suddenly the room shook, a violent tremor running its course through the entire ship but Gant stood firmly in place. He could feel the bones in his body vibrate and he didn’t have much of those.

One of his men twisted around in his seat, and looked Gant in the eye. “S-sir!” he stammered and then paused to compose himself before the commander. “Hull has been breached.”

With those words, silence fell on the group of Augmented soldiers. They were waiting for their orders but Commander Gant was silent. Nearly motionless, if not for his one biotic eye that constantly swiveled in its socket, relaying crucial information across all of the Augmented fleet.

One of the men spoke up. “Sir, what are our orders?

Gant didn’t respond. He didn’t even blink. He was expressionless and his partially mechanical face didn’t help.

“Sir? Should we deploy the Vessels?”

Finally the commander spoke. “It’s too late.”

Another tremor.

“Hangar bays one-to-four have been compromised!” a soldier behind Gant reported.

It was just as Gant had predicted. It would only be a matter of time.

More tremors. Each one more louder and violent than the last. Then stillness. For a moment, all was calm. But commander Gant knew it was merely the calm before the storm. And just as one of the men relaxed, reclining in his seat, a sharp point penetrated the wall, making an exit through the Augmented soldier’s torso. The ebony black spear tip retreated back into the wall. The soldier looked down at the gaping hole where his torso was, and then before he could say anything, the spear tip came again, this time running its course through the entire room.

Gant had managed to avoid the spear tip in time, leaping away just a split-second before it bisected the entire control room. He stood up slowly and surveyed the room. Some of his men weren’t so lucky.

Gant turned his biotic eye to the ceiling just as it began to tear away. A massive clawed hand with streaks of gold fur on black scales appeared, then a face that made Gant shudder. It was a face that Gant recognized from the archives.

The King of Calamity.

“You abomination,” Gant uttered as he stared up at the Altered with crimson eyes and a golden mane.

Regulus roared in response, a deafening howl that shook the room.

The men who were still conscious, raised their metallic arms and fired, but as the smoke cleared, they saw that the bullets and explosives had no effect. Then they saw it. A murky yellow haze oozed languidly from the orifices of the Altered. Regulus exhaled and within seconds, the room was smothered in corrosive gas.

Gant rushed to his seat, stumbling over the debris and bodies as he held his breath. He saw the giant ebony spear. It was lodged across the center of the room, and now obstructed his path to his commander’s chair. Gant had no choice but to climb over it, and as he did, he felt his mechanical limbs slowly begin to melt. By the time Gant had made it to his chair, both his legs were gone and only one arm remained functional.

“Long live the Empire of the Augmented!” shouted Gant before connecting his hand into a slot on the side panel of his chair.

“Command to Self-Destruct Engaged,” the system intoned.

Commander Gant turned to laugh at the giant monstrosity, but only saw a hole in the interior of the ship.

Regulus was gone.

A bright yellow flash illuminated the twilight sky. When it finally faded, there were thick plumes of smoke billowing out of the Vanguard as it began to slowly tilt, capsizing in midair.

For a moment, many of the Augmented felt despair as they watched the first carrier from their fleet of six fall out of the sky.

And for the Altered, there was hope.

Hiro blinked as the display feed ended. The last thing he saw--what commander Gant had seen in his last moments were the eyes of the King of Calamity. Two massive orbs of swirling blood and fire. It was something that Hiro would never forget. The Augmented had angered a being of genetic supremacy, and they would pay for it with their lives.

What have we done? Hiro wondered to himself as he stood silently among three hundred Augmented soldiers waiting for their commander’s orders. He wouldn’t dare voice his thoughts aloud. He was just a basic Augmented soldier who couldn’t even pilot a Vessel afterall.

“Sir! Carrier 0381, the Vanguard has executed Protocol Nine!”

“We've lost all contact with the Vanguard!”

“They’re on a crash course for the mountains!”

Status reports buzzed endlessly through the comms. Suddenly, all the channels went silent. They were being forcefully muted and only one person had the authority to execute such a command.

General Corax.

“Deploy all Vessels."

“Well Hiro? You ready?”

A mechanical hand clasped Hiro on the shoulder, startling him. Hiro turned around to glare at his squad leader.

“Don’t tell me you’re already pissing your pants,” Ray remarked, disdain abundantly clear in his tone.

The squad of Augmented soldiers laughed.

The squad leader began pacing around Hiro. “What’s your Augmentation Class?” Ray asked.

Hiro sighed, “Sir, like I said, I was only a cadet less than a month ago. I shouldn’t even be here.”

“Just answer the damn question man,” one of soldiers grumbled from behind Hiro.

Hiro glanced at the floor. “Basic. Just basic. No advanced Augmentations or specializations yet…”

Ray shook his head slowly then resumed his questioning, “How many neural connections?”

“...Four,” Hiro said bluntly.

“How in the world did you end up in my squad?!” Ray threw up his hands.

Hiro shrugged, “uhh, just following orders?” When Hiro saw that Ray wasn’t satisfied he added, “Look, it’s what the designation command says.”

Ray narrowed his eyes as he stared at the hologram, then threw up his arms. “Alright, alright. What’s your synchronization rate?"

Synchronization rate... Hiro took a moment to recall what that was.

"S-sixty-percent?" Hiro said.

Ray nodded in approval. "Not bad."

"But with a--"

Training Vessel, Hiro tried to add but didn't get the chance.

"Shit!” Ray shouted as he brought a hand to his ear. “Looks like the bitches are headed our way. Everyone suit up!”

Hiro surveyed the hanger bay, and already he could see squads of Augmented jumping into their Vessels. Massive exoskeletons made specifically to combat the Altered. Eerily humanoid in shape and design, the Vessels consisted of massive chrome silver plates and fibers that made them durable and at the same time, remarkably flexible.

Hiro climbed into his designated Vessel gingerly and began inserting each of his limbs into the sheathes.

"Hey!" a voice shouts from above.

Hiro looked up at a 'live' Vessel. Then he noticed the boisterous din of hollering and cheering that was suddenly rampant.

“It's finally time for some action baby! I've been waiting for too fucking long!” a voice boomed.

"Fuck Yeah!"

More Augmented soldiers cheered and grunted in approval.

"You might wanna take some of this," she said before sticking her hand out past the metallic rib cage that was essentially the cockpit.

Hiro hesitated as he eyed the metallic syringe with black fluid swishing within. Augmentation fluid. It was what gave the Augmented an edge in battle. Enhanced reflexes and senses, but it also came with a preset rush of hormones. It was what the Augmented soldiers in the hangar bay were probably riding the high of right now. But Hiro also knew what the fluid could do to a brain with repetitive use.

"God you're such a pussy," she complained before tossing the syringe at Hiro.

Hiro frowned, curious. Who the hell is she?

She turned around, her Vessel moving fluidly, imitating human movement almost too perfectly. Then he saw the array of neural connections on her back. It was more than he had ever seen. Hiro began counting but before he could get to twenty, the Vessel's outer armor sprouted and assembled itself over the exoskeleton.

Hues of green lit up the entire hangar bay and suddenly everyone was silent. 'Deployment Imminent' a system message intoned from the interior of his Vessel.

Hiro didn't waste a second, he hunkered up into the inner frame within the exoskeleton of his Vessel, pushing all of his limbs into sheaths of fiber. But before he could finish initiating neural connections with the Vessels, the floor of the hangar bay disappeared.

For a moment Hiro was falling, then he activated his thrusters and flew.

The first thing he saw was the Vanguard. The sixth carrier of their fleet descending with the sun, sinking into the horizon of forests and mountains. Then he saw the winged abominations. Each of them nearly twice the size of a single Vessel, but the army of Augmented vastly outnumbered the Altered. It was an aerial battlefield. Vessels swarmed the skies in clusters as the Altered fought individually. As Hiro watched the chaos and carnage that unfolded before him, he suddenly found himself on a direct course with an Altered.

Hiro crashed into a colossal Altered with massive dark wings, and before he could respond his limbs were torn away along with his Vessel. It had all happened so fast. He couldn't even process what had happened. He blinked a couple times as he stared at the clouds and listened to the winds rushing past him. Then he realized it. He was falling. Limbless. Just a torso and his abdomen. It was pitiful. A terrible end for a Hiro.

Hiro.

I've always hated that name, Hiro thought to himself.

He was no hero, and he knew that all too well. A coward. That was what he was and he had made his peace with it long ago. All he wanted was a simple and ordinary life but he was given a name that would never let that be. 'A Hiro is meant for great things', his grandfather who was also named Hiro, would always say. People expected great things from him, but all he had ever done was let people down.

Now Hiro would die not having accomplished anything of significance. All he could do now was stare at the faintly shimmering stars and wish that he wasn't Hiro.

He laughed as he watched the horizon loom higher and higher over him. He would hit the ground soon.

Even Commander Gant had died gloriously, Hiro thought.

Suddenly Hiro lurched forward. He was no longer falling, he was flying - but how? He wondered.

Then he saw. It was a girl. Her features were otherworldly. Deep violet eyes that glistened like sapphires under the twilight. It wasn't perfect like the faces that he saw in the hologram posters back home. Not perfectly sculpted or designed but for some strange reason Hiro found it... simply beautiful.

She held him in her arms meekly. This girl had saved him, Hiro realized. Then he saw her wings, flapping gently in the wind.

She was an Altered.