The events of Tempered Edge take place in alternate version of earth where advancements in science and technology have greatly changed mankind’s history.

What could have led to this difference in technical advancements?

Is it possible that external forces altered the course of history and if so, what was their purpose?

Tempered Edge is a work of fiction.

Prologue

The Kynigoi were an elite group of soldiers, Handpicked from early in their childhood by a secret organization known as The Council. They were raised and trained to be able to operate with maximum efficiency in any combat situation. They were heartless killing machine’s, custom built to thrive in the theatre of modern warfare.

So why? Kiochi wondered.

Why were his men butchered in front of him?

What were those tall, dark humanoid creatures?

Where did they come from?

He needed to escape and tell someone, anyone about those things, because if the Kynigoi, the best humanity had to offer were being toyed with then who out there was capable of stopping those monster’s?

Chapter One

Two hours earlier

His name was Kiochi Suzuki, but to his superiors he simply went by A-3, which seemed quite fitting for the captain of a top secret black ops unit that didn’t exist, on paper at least.

The council usually gave Kiochi and his men simple orders. Search and destroy was their specialty.

Kiochi was proud of the fact that over the course of his many years of serving the council, he never lost a single member in his five man squad.

This wasn't because he was emotionally or personally attached to any of them, but because each of them was trained and modified to wreak unimaginable amounts of havoc and bring death to whoever dared to be their enemies.

They were mankind’s greatest assets and Kiochi led them into the darkest valleys of war and they always emerged victorious.

Kiochi’s mission this time was simple: they were to decommission the headquarters of a radical group that didn’t agree with the way the governing body of Myanmar ran things.

Kiochi was never too interested in politics, nor did he have to be. He was a soldier and he had his orders.

Thinking about it in that way made it all too easy for him.

When the council said shoot, he shot and when they said jump, he jumped.

This made him the perfect soldier, in his opinion at least.

The sun had long set and the night blanketed itself over the dense forest they found ourselves in.

The night would serve as Kiochi’s greatest ally as this was a covert operation.

Kiochi and his subordinates moved along the path that led to the location where the radical group was supposed to be stationed.

They traversed the forest carefully, each of them clad in specially designed combat gear.

Their black outfits allowed them to blend with the shadows at will.

The members of Kiochi’s squad were: Alice Freeman (B-12), Ivan Baranski (B-34), Rachel MacTavish (C-1) and Jackie Bronstein (B-2).

The numbers and letters next to their names indicated their ranks which were determined by a myriad of things. Things like their performance during the hellish Kynigoi training and overall combat capability.

Kiochi was number (A-3), meaning that there only two other people on the planet who could cause more destruction and death than he could.

He was always top of the class, whether it was in academics or physicals.

He quickly rose the Kynigoi ranks and eventually got himself a squad to lead.

“How much resistance should we expect captain?” Ivan asked.

His short burly body mowed through the bushes in front of him as he moved.

Kiochi shot him a questioning look then answered his question with a question.

“We were all briefed on this. You weren’t dozing off were you?” Kiochi asked.

“The radicals are nothing but civilians who managed to get their hands on a few weapons and have grouped together in order to cause chaos within this region, so resistance should be fairly weak.”

To this, Ivan scratched the back of his head sheepishly and let out a soft laugh.

“So you noticed? Nothing gets past the captain, does it. Speaking of, what’s your kill count sir?” Ivan asked but it was Alice from behind them who responded.

“Kill counts are not something to be proud of, idiot.” She said in a monotone voice.

Her tall figure could easily shadow any man and her strikingly blond hair and blue eyes made her give off the aura of a gladiatrix.

But Ivan’s curiosity wouldn’t relent.

“So you’re telling me that none of you are the tiniest bit curious. Huh, Alice? Rachael? Jackie?” He asked looking back at his comrades, but seeing as Kiochi remained silent, so did everyone else.

After a short pause Ivan continued talking.

“I mean, I just want to see where I stand in this team of ours. With a number like two hundred and thirty three notches on my belt, how am I supposed to know whether that’s good enough for the captain?”

More silence followed as they continued through the forest.

Their boots dug deep into the soft mud and the leaves crumbled as they paved our way deep into enemy territory.

The rules of engagement were simple: shoot to kill and that was exactly what they going to do.

This was partially due to the fact that the council had already done all the intelligence gathering necessary.

If not, Kiochi would need to keep one or two of his enemies alive for interrogation, but that wasn’t necessary this time.

“Although I don’t care about your kill count captain, I must know. What is it like being in rank A. We all know that all rank B has a hundred positions and rank C has thousands. But why does A only have ten?” Racheal asked innocently.

Kiochi thought about her question for a moment then answered when he came to his conclusions.

“Regardless of the rank, not much changes. We are still soldiers and we carry out our duties with the utmost efficiency. I don’t know why there are only ten of us in rank A though.”

Racheal exchanged glances with the others as she walked.

Kiochi didn’t know what was so special about being an A ranked Kynigoi.

All it meant to him was more work and missions that were far more dangerous than what was considered normal.

Some of those missions led him into the densest of jungles and the hottest deserts.

It wasn’t something enviable, was it? Kiochi wondered.

“Uh, cap’n. How exactly did you get the nickname blood steel?”

Kiochi stopped dead in his tracks as soon as the words left Jackie’s mouth.

His men all shot curious looks at me before he continued walking.

“I’m not sure. I guess it has something to do with my sword. Could you elaborate more on the source of this nickname?” Kiochi asked.

Jackie took a deep breath before he answered.

“Well, to be fair sir, all A ranked Kynigoi have nicknames. I heard A-1 is called Ceaseless blizzard, A-2 is called one-shot-sloth and you sir are called blood steel. The rumours about you, cap’n, say that whenever you use your blade in battle it gets an even coat of your enemies blood, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use that sword you carry.”

Kiochi nodded in understanding.

“That’s because I don’t.”

They walked for several minutes until Ivan, who was on point raised his right hand and made a fist, prompting all of everyone to stop.

Nothing was said and complete silence filled the air, the only other thing that was noticeably loud was the chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves.

After a few moments of stillness Kiochi finally heard what had made Ivan raise his guard.

There was a noise coming from further into the forests.

Kiochi motioned for his men to move forward slowly and they did.

They walked at a snail’s pace for several meters and the sounds became clearer.

Kiochi clearly remembered that the rebel camp was supposed to be several kilometres further into the forest.

Someone besides them or the rebels was in the forest and before Kiochi knew it, they found those responsible for the disturbance in the forest.

What Kiochi saw was several shadowy dark humanoids standing around a hole in the ground as other dark humanoids dug.

But was it fair to call the creatures in front of me humanoid?

Firstly, they were tall, very tall. Alice was tall, almost two metres tall and Jackie was a few centimetres shorter, but those things were even taller.

Each of them stood at least three meters off the ground and they were big. They each had around the same muscular build of Ivan who was considerably buff.

Another thing Kiochi took note of was that they didn’t have faces, literally.

Their heads were completely bald and had the same dark appearance as the rest of their naked bodies.

They were also very silent, even more so than Kiochi and his men were and the only sounds to be heard were the sounds of them shovelling the dirt out of the hole.

Ivan looked back at Kiochi, prompting the captain to think about their next course of action, but just as the gears in Kiochi’s head started turning, one of the dark creatures brought out an object from the ground.

It was looked big bronze egg but Kiochi wasn’t sure due to the lack of lighting.

The egg shaped thing was about the size of a night lamp and was covered in strange markings all over it’s surface.

Something bothered Kiochi about it’s appearance.

He combed through his memories searching for where he might have seen something similar and then it hit him.

He had seen something very similar to what they were excavating somewhere before.

It was in a museum in the UK, the historians there called it the Ovum Vitae and said something about it being linked to the creation of life or some nonsense like that.

Kiochi’s mind went into overdrive as he thought about how all of that pieced together with what he was seeing.

What are those things? Kiochi wondered.

What are they doing with what looks like another Ovum Vitae?

Kiochi was pretty sure that only one existed.

Ivan’s expression turned into one of urgency as the shadowy giants looked like they were preparing leave.

Kiochi’s options were running out, so he raised his right hand and gestured for his men to immobilize and capture the giants, but as soon as he raised his hand, his eyes locked onto what was supposed to be the face of one of the dark giants.

It was peeking directly into the Bush Kiochi and his men were hidden and Kiochi couldn’t tell if it was curious or surprised, but it tilted its head to the side as it crouched and moved closer to the soldiers.

Ivan was still looking at Kiochi waiting for orders.

Kiochi decided that they should kill the giants first and ask the council for answers later but just as he raised his hand further, Ivan’s face twisted outward and a bloody black hand emerged from where his nose and eyes used to be.

Brain matter and blood sprayed all over Kiochi’s face as he tried to process was had just happened, but all he could do was stare wide eyed at the giant as it retracted it’s hand from Ivan’s head and stood up.

“Retreat! Fall back!” Kiochi yelled and almost immediately him and his men stood up from the bush they had hidden and ran in the opposite direction of the monster that instantly killed Ivan.

However, just as they took their first steps to run away, Kiochi saw something move through the ground at an unnervingly high speed.

He watched as the ground rippled towards Alice who was running ahead of him.

Several black root like things emerged from the ground then pierced into Alice’s shins and dug into her legs as they planted themselves into her body.

“Aaahhhh!”

She let out a blood curdling scream but Kiochi and the others kept running as her body was dragged into the ground.

Kiochi’s unit ran further away from the giants when suddenly they heard the sound of something falling onto the ground with a big enough impact that the shockwave sent up a considerable amount of dust into the air.

When the dust settled, Kiochi saw another giant standing directly in front of him and his men.

“Fire at will!” Kiochi ordered and they all raised their specially made assault rifles, pointed them at the giant and opened fire.

The weapons they had weren’t your ordinary, run of the mill hunting rifles.

Each of them was specifically designed with the intent of dealing as much damage as possible.

Slower than a conventional assault rifles but with a higher calibre rounds to make up for the difference.

After thirty seconds of non stop shooting, their magazines ran dry and they stopped only to see the black giant still standing and unmarked.

It’s skin had the texture and appearance of hardened lava but Kiochi knew at this point that it was many times harder than it looked.

With giant’s behind them and one in front the chances of Koichi and his team’s chances of survival were dropping with every second they wasted. “West! Go west! We’re going to extraction point beta!” Kiochi ordered desperately.

They had several extraction points ready in the rare cases of emergency, such as this one and his entire squad was kitted with cutting edge navigational equipment, so even if they got separated, rendezvousing at a predetermined location wouldn’t be too hard.

Kiochi assumed that since the giants were so heavily armoured by the that thick looking black armour they wouldn’t be too fast.

He was wrong.

As soon as Kiochi and his team turned to run, the giant that was at least eight meters away suddenly dashed towards them and grabbed Rachel’s left arm.

Kiochi could hear the sounds of bones snapping as the giant lifted her body into the air using her broken arm.

“Captain! Help! Please help!” Rachael’s screams enveloped the forest but at this point Kiochi was fed up of watching his men die, so he unsheathed his sword from its scabbard.

The sword was a Nodachi which Kiochi received as a gift on one of his many missions.

It’s metallic properties were a mystery and the person who gave it to Kiochi explained that it was an family heirloom, but seeing as Kiochi had saved that person’s life, he gave it to Kiochi as reward.

Kiochi rushed towards the giant and swung vertically at the arm that held Rachael.

What happened afterwards would have surprised him, but the giants could take bullets head on without so much as a scratch, so Kiochi had no choice but to accept it.

Kiochi’s sword bounced off and as though to add insult to injury, the giant didn’t even flinch or turn his head, instead the giant punched Rachael in the face and Kiochi watched her head as it exploded into a million pieces.

Kiochi cursed the giants internally but he knew that he couldn’t do anything to change the situation, so he ran after Jackie.

Kiochi ran frantically in the direction that he had ordered Jackie to go but he couldn’t see any sign of him.

Kiochi continued west but he couldn’t find Jackie anywhere in the dense forest.

Then Kiochi smelled something in the air.

Everyone in Kiochi’s team had gas masks, just in case their enemies made use of biological weapons but what he smelled wasn’t poison, it was the smell of meat, grilled meat.

Kiochi ran even faster and then came to a complete stop as his gaze fell onto a scene straight from the darkest pits of hell.

What he saw was blood and lots of it. It covered several trees, as well as the ground and he could hear some of it dripping off several leaves above him creating the illusion of bloody rain.

At the centre of all the burnt blood and grass he saw what looked like a human rib cage and several other bones randomly splayed around the ground.

Kiochi’s knees weakened and his temples burnt with frustration, but he ran over the remains of what he assumed was Jackie and kept running.

What the hell was that? Kiochi wondered.

Those things weren’t human. He was sure of that.

But if they weren’t human, then what were they?

His mind was spinning, but he kept running.

BUZZ!

Kiochi felt like something electrocuted him.

[Kiochi!]

He could have sworn he heard someone call his name.

He looked around but found no one.

The voice was so clear though.

He brushed the thought off.

His vision blurred and became blueish, but he kept running as his eyelids gradually became heavier.

His steps got more sluggish with every step he took and his breaths were short.

Kiochi must have tripped on something because he fell over, hit the ground and passed out.

.

..

The first thing Kiochi saw when he opened his eyes was the glaring light of the sun.

The horrid events of the previous night seemed like a really bad dream but it only took Kiochi a few seconds for the reality to sink in.

He wasn’t able to recalled the events that occurred just before he passed out, but he brushed that thought aside.

He got up and looked myself over, searching for injuries but found none.

His men had all been brutally killed and yet there he was, unscathed.

In all honesty, Kiochi always made sure that he didn’t get to close to anyone.

Whether this was because he spent a lot of time traveling around the world and worked with many people, some of which died before him or because he was scared to lose anyone once they got close, he didn’t know.

What happened that night was different.

The way those giants killed his men caused Kiochi’s breath to shorten and his head to ache with fear.

He knew that he had to report what happened, but who would believe such a tale?

One where giants manipulated the elements and managed to kill off almost an entire team consisting of some of the worlds deadliest people.

It couldn’t be helped. Kiochi thought.

He had to tell someone, anyone about what happened on that night.

He walked to extraction point beta to the west.

The minutes ticked by and Kiochi’s brow sank heavier, burdened by the thoughts that plagued every part of his mind.

What were those things? He wondered.

What were they doing with what looked like a replica of the Ovum Vitae?

The minutes tuned into hours but eventually, Kiochi reached his destination and since he had long activated his distress beacon, he found a helicopter waiting for him over a clearing in the forest.

Two, heavily armed men awaited him and they closed the doors of the large military helicopter once he got in.

There were no salutes and no greetings were exchanged.

They weren’t part of an actual army after all.

Kiochi’s mind was in a frenzy as the helicopter took off.

How would he report the situation to the council?

He guessed that it didn’t really matter as long as he told them what happened.

His thoughts continued to rage on as he gazed into the morning sun.