*BOOM* *BOOM* * BOOM*

Mortar shells and missiles fiercely struck the ground with an explosion of dark smoke, the sound released was so loud that any survivors would most likely have their eardrums destroyed, the hail of bullets that accompanied was also completely drowned in the chaos of explosions.

This artillery strike, however, was not being fired by the Nations nor the country's government, it belonged to one of the hundreds of groups of rebels. The target, a city protected by the government.

But make no mistake, this scene is by no means something new, in fact, it is so old that some bold men that happened to live far enough from the bombardment area were casually playing a board game and betting how many hours it would take for the attack - which has been going on for two hours already - to finally end so they could go back home and take a nap.

One of them even started to make a count-down from 10 to 1 for the attack end. That is why they thought it was weird when the time it took for the booming sound to echo suddenly increase to a dozen seconds as opposed to the five seconds of just a moment ago, and, after half an hour, it had finally completely ceased.

When this happened, those who were happily gambling a few seconds before, looked at the person who made that countdown, their eyes wide in a joking astonishment, until someone said in fake devotion.

"We have been blessed with a prophet!"

Laughs echoed around the lively house everyone was in.

Barend Alim was one of the insurgents responsible for watching over the artillery, although he was not out in the field shooting at those damn traitors that had forgotten their God's benevolence, the heart in his chest was still beating pride in his blood.

Just hearing the *Fushhhhh* of the shell leaving the cannon filled his mind with the knowledge that one more infidel was dead, this, in turn, made him respect even more the leader of his empire, who had led The State to grow and mark the world, being the nightmare that haunted those unfaithful bastards.

Naturally, Barend gave his all when guarding for any flanks, occasionally boasting about the glory of the State with his friends. But he never slacked off for even a second, and he swore that no amount of tiredness would ever change that.

His group of twenty was positioned in a T shaped corner of the street where there were no buildings to get in the way of the mortars and missiles, while still being a great cover for the case of enemy attacks. The cars and vans - which totaled nine vehicles - were set in a formation that protected them from one side of the street; another was blocked by a small mountain of rubble which was also guarded by his brothers from the other side; the third and final side of the road was an open ground which not only left no cover for any flanks but was also a dead end just a few turns ahead.

When their group finished the bombardment, Barend's group needed only to turn on their cars and leave unharmed, it's not like the random artillery fire of his enemies had a chance of hitting them, at least he hoped so. But once they started leaving there was nothing that could be done to them, that Barend was sure.

*BOOM*

"YAHOOO!"

More explosions rang out in the far distance, making Barend grin with excitement, a pity that his boss announced that the ammo was ending and they would be moving in the next 30 minutes. But this did not stop Barend from cheering with everyone else, relishing this moment that would inevitably end as their victory.

Alan, being the closest one to his position, would sometimes come and talk with Barend, saying it was a pity that they still couldn't take the fight all the way inside the city, which Barend naturally agreed.

"Oh, yeah! Did you know that my wife just got pregnant? My mother-in-law is talking with my father to arrange the celebration." Says Alan, the young man that was not even 20 yet seemed to be pretty happy with having kids at his age. Barend though, was envious because he himself was already a man half-way to his forties but this friend of his had a wife prettier than his. It didn't make sense, he knew, but it didn't change the fact that he was envious.

Barend was still happy to warn his friend that even if he had a boy, giving the kid a good spanking was a sure way for any brat to learn to do anything.

He had a smirk on his face until he saw a shadow moving at the side of a car, moving until it reached cover behind a building. It didn't seem to be a person but he was not going to risk anything right before they left.

"Heads up!" He pointed his gun where he last saw the strange shadow and waited for an answer from his teammates.

1 second since the alert, no answer, those guys sure are slow.

2 seconds, still the same. Are they deaf?

"Hey, Alan, come here!" He shouted again.

3 seconds since the first warning, silence. Just what are those guys doing?

Barend couldn't take anymore and turned on his heels to complain about his friend's shitty hearing.

"Eh...?" He said. A dumb look on his face. He dropped his rifle, letting it slide off from his hands and hit the ground, he then forcibly tried to pluck out of a strand of his facial hair, it hurt.

There is no need to say that in front of Barend was a field full of mangled corpses taking the place of his late friends, some of them didn't even have their head. Thus making him think that he was stuck simply inside a bad dream during guard duty.

"Ah!"

After shouting in surprise, Barend quickly realized his mistake and tried to pick back his rifle from the ground and run for his car, he had the keys so he just needed to turn the car on and run away, pretty simple.

As for his friends? There was barely anything to make out of them. Also, how the hell is he supposed to make a funeral when there was a fucking murder on the loose?

The moment he crouched to pick up his rifle, however, a shadow flew past Barend's side, just for an instant, he could feel a pair of hands around his head before it was forcefully twisted backwards, everything went dark before he could scream in horror of meeting with his killer.

Unnoticed by the local army, that kept firing back at the already dead insurgents for another 30 minutes, the battle had suddenly gone still.

The cause for the stillness in this battlefield, however, was standing between a myriad of bloody corpses, wrecked buildings, and destroyed vehicles.

Blankly staring ahead of him, he thought of many things. His computer brain could make questions and instantly answer them, however, that was only if he already had the answer to such questions.

As for doubts that he couldn't find an answer for? He needed to slowly learn through trial and error.

At least that is what he did back in the lake, awkwardly trying to form a body made out of trillions of parts for hours before he could recreate his former body, or perhaps 'copy that man's' was a better input. After that, he needed another hour in order to walk straight.

The memories of the man named Nicolas were an unfamiliar picture to him at that time. Now - after a month - they're like a strange story, reminding him of something that he did in his past but not being really accurate when doing so.

As for the reason why a normal man like him would join this crazy war? He himself could not grasp the reason, he just had a hunch that it had something to do with Nicolas' memories.

But the answers would come with time, this proved to be true before and the current Nicolas had no other way to find them.

For now, though, Nicolas still had to fight, the identity of the enemy was still not clear, but he was confident that the answer for this would also come with time. Nicolas realized that there was much that he had to learn.

Nicolas came back to reality after but a second of thought, seeing the street filled with rubble that was once a beautiful and carefully constructed building, he suddenly felt a strange, unwelcome weight in his eyes as his non-existent heart sighed with sadness, all of that was once part of his home, his country.

If those emotions were the accomplishments of an almost perfect computer or the remainings of the human Nicolas, however, the guess is yours to make.

The man who possessed tanned white skin suddenly turned into a black cloud that danced around itself for a few seconds, the black spots that composed this cloud made it look like a swarm of insects, relentlessly spreading the plague of death to the world. This strange and alien cloud then shot off somewhere at one-fourth of the speed of sound, walking the road of carnage.

War is omnipresent, no matter place or time. There is always a bomb, a skirmish, ready to blow at any time. But no one cares about a conflict that has yet to start, it's never their problem anyway.

It was also never a problem for Carter, who was safely sitting in a chair inside of a room full of computers and controllers, fiddling with a joystick and a lot of buttons while focusing on the screen.

His eyes, strolling and running all throughout the background shown in the monitor, were in constant search for a target, not exactly to kill, since every single enemy was already dead.

"Hive, this is Donkey 2 reporting in, over." Said Carter, his voice a deep and serious tone that could pull the attention of anyone hearing it.

"This is Hive, proceed with the report, Dunkey 2, over." Someone, with a tone much like Carter's, answered through the radio.

"Donkey 2 here. I have confirmed the position of five units of hostiles, they number each between 10 to 30 infantry, with at least four vehicles accompanying each unit, over."

"Hive here. Donkey 2, confirm their status, over."

"Donkey 2 here. Every hostile seems to be dead, we will need to send our infantry to confirm it, but it's confirmed that all mounted weapons, mortars and vehicles are currently unmanned or permanently disabled, over."

"Copy that, Donkey 2. Donkey 1 and 3 also sent a similar report as yours. Stand guard until further notice, over."

"This is Donkey 2, understood." Carter laid back in his chair while still holding the joystick and letting out a breath, the man beside him - Julius -, responsible for handling the gun, had completely let go of his controller and was lazily stretching his arms.

"How boring." He yawned. "Hey Carter, is there some kind of special unit acting here on Airis? Who was responsible for stealing our kills?"

"We live in a crazy world, friend. Perhaps someone managed to create some Power-rangers and tested them just now? Look at the good side of things, we don't risk losing the drone."

"Sure! What's next? A Megazord?" Julius let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, we might end up seeing one." Carter mused at this stupid possibility, it would be funny. Maybe not.

For the next couple hours, Carter controlled the drone to circle the zone and stood on guard for possible hostile forces, at times checking with Hive about the ETA of the land troops, at others chatting with his friend beside him. This was everything he did until he was ordered to bring the drone back.

All they were told about that incident was that whatever troops ended the insurgents did not belong to the Nations and they were forbidden from disclosing any information of what happened there.

Whether the higher-ups knew something and were not telling the two of them, or simply had no idea of what was going on and didn't want baseless rumors spreading was your guess.