Greg Hu was very happy to have won an all expense paid trip with his whole family to Country C. He doesn't know how his name got on the list but he recognized his friend Joseph Chen at the hotel when they gathered up all the winners. But it wasn't long after they arrived that people started panicking about the weather. Sure it was getting colder but honestly, it's nothing to worry about. He looked at the group chat to see everyone was off line and a last message from Sandy.

[Sandy]: Are you really not coming? They said this is the last bus to the safe place. They're also taking our phones so we won't be able to communicate in the future.

Greg scoffed at the overly dramatic words. So what if they all left on the bus to nowhere. He'll just book for a flight for tomorrow if the temperature drops again. Today they had fun touring the city and eating the good food. It's hard to find good spicy ethnic food in Country M to his taste. So they visited a few bakeries, restaurants, and snack shops. His 14 year old twins both had a blast. Although it did get colder than the day before, a new jacket for each person fixed that real quick.

People were clearly overreacting.

Paula: "Dad, I'm bored. Can we go shopping again today?"

Greg: "Of course! Let's go buy more stuff!"

The family happily went to the popular mall and enjoyed their day walking from one store to the next.

But Greg started noticing the local's tension. The ones shopping were buying a lot of warm clothes and accessories, and many of the food shops were all sold out of things. Some doubts started to take root in his mind as he looked at the empty shelves.

---

Lily was puzzled by the hectic actions of everyone around her. Why is the whole LinClan all back in City S? She was still trying to figure out how to sell off the drugs she had in her possession so having so many people back on the property is quite an inconvenience.

There were constant construction sounds and foot traffic coming in and out of the house. It looked like Grandpa hired a whole construction company to work on the house and reinforce the outside wall. She was told to stay in her room and out of the way but she snuck around and heard the maids talking.

Maid1: "When are you leaving?"

Maid2: "Tonight is my last shift. I am taking the last train to City J later. I just don't have enough time to buy food before then."

Maid1:"Here, see if you can fit these in your space button. I bought a ton this morning right when the prophet account made its newest pin post."

Maid2: "Ah. Really? This is a lot! Thank you! Hopefully this freezing temperature won't last long..."

Curious to know what they're talking about, Lily went into the group chat to see if there's any news there. She was surprised to see that it's busy there too. Talks of the freezing temperature, what food to buy, warm clothes to wear to survive this.

One of the most popular item mentioned was the warm personal tent. It's big enough for 4 people and keeps the air abd temperature inside the tent warm for 8 hours before every charge. Unfortunately the price kept rising.

Seeing how everyone in the chatroom is clamouring to buy one at a lower price, Lily saw the price and wince before buying 3.

[Lily] Did you buy the tent?

[Dolly] Of course. I bought a lot of them this morning and resold them for twice the price. I am very rich right now.

Lily should have thought of that!

The 3 tents are for her and her parents if it gets too cold.

[Lily] Do you have that contact? Let's sell it since things are getting hectic right now.

[Dolly] Yeah, I got the name of this guy we can contact but he said we have to meet up with him tomorrow night!"

—-

Sherrie was annoyed at the situation back home. She was finally let out of jail a month ago. She couldn't believe how inadequate her family was trying to fix the situation for her.

She had thought that with their family's billions of dollars of wealth, her father would be able to pay people to not let her suffer. That has always proven true for all her older brothers in the past. But why was it different for her? Was it because she was a girl?

She felt great resentment towards her family. She spent 6 months in jail! Surrounded by disgusting lowlifes, unscrupulous, violent criminals! Because she looked young and moist, she was repeatedly bullied by others and made to do humiliating things just to avoid a beating.

Luckily she only had to serve for 6 months. By the time she got out, it looked like she aged 2 years. Her hair was dry, thin, and bluntly cut. She had added a scar to her face, a cut on her eyebrow from someone's toothbrush during a scuffle inside the bathroom. And her smooth beautiful moist skin was dry and flakey, full of small scars.

Immediately after she was released, she went straight to the salon, then the spa, and then called the help to collect some scar treatment ointments.

She was already informed by her family that Sonny called off the engagement. What a pathetic man.

If it was her from before her imprisonment, she wouldn't have cared. But since she only had time to think while locked inside, she refused to break up the relationship. Things at home are different now. The business lost a lot of money from the robberies so they can't afford- no, she can't afford this lost.

She'd learned some new tricks from her new friends and she's heading to City S to get the engagement called back on whether he liked it or not.

—-

Soldier1: "MG, the access code has been changed and lockdown is in place. Communications has also been shut down as well. W Base will no longer be receiving nor be able to send messages."

Soldier2: "Dampening field has been erected. Cellular service has been disabled."

Alex: "Move in for retrieval. One team stay here and observed the situation. Be alert. Meet back here in 30 minutes."

Soldier3: "Airman Han has been retrieved."

Soldier4: "Airman Tu has been retrieved."

Soldier5: "Airman Jiang has been retrieved."

...

Soldier15: "Airman Bai has been retrieved."

Soldier1: "Good job, everyone. That's the last one. Meet up at the rendezvous point- attention! Attention team! I am seeing a large group of people approaching the North East Entrance!"

—

The shuttles were parked on top of the roof for a quick getaway and also to not alert people on the inside of their arrival. Which would have happened if they opened the deck to land inside appropriately.

Alex ran into the base towards the weapons warehouse. Unlocking the warehouse, ¾ of it was full of 6x6 cases of weapons stacked on top of one another. Running over to touch a stack, the whole thing disappeared. Not bothering to be surprised at how that was possible since the space button technology required one item or container to be touched in order to store it, Alex ran through the warehouse. It took him 15 minutes.

Looking at the time, he ran towards the mech hanger bay and touched each and every remaining machine and extra parts and tools left behind.

Lastly he ran next door and stored away all the shuttles and planes and various machines and parts. He cleared out all the important machines in the base with 2 minutes left when he heard the alert on his earpiece.

Soldier1: "- rendezvous point- attention! Attention team! I am seeing a large group of people approaching the North East Entrance!"

Alex: "Team 1, meet me at point A. Team 2, go the opposite direction to point B. Shuttle 1, retreat and go around from behind them while Shuttle 2, stay between us to help cover Team 1and 2.

All: "Yes, Sir!"

...

Gunfire has been going on for 15 minutes now. Alex ducked behind the container as he quickly reloaded. A bullet ricocheted off the container to the side and hit one of his soldiers. They were taking a beating from this unknown hostile group. Their group of around 30 won't be able to hold off over 1000 of these guys unless something changes.

Alex: "Report! anyone down?"

Soldier1: "No captain! But 14 of us are pretty hurt. We need to unlock the base and get to our mechs and more ammo or we won't make it!"

Alex: "No! If we open the base, they'll get inside and we'll lose W Base completely. Shuttles 1 and 2, 4 of you from each shuttle strap up and execute attack 225.

Although he would like to take the mech out for his soldiers to use, he couldn't risk them finding out about the ring. Gritting his teeth as he heard another painful grunt through the earpiece, he told them to hold on for a few minutes.

Running around the corner, he took out his own mech, a silver S886 Model, and expertly strapped himself down into the cabin. He turned it on and quickly went through the starting sequence, taking out ammos from his space and restocked all his ammunition slots.

Hearing some yells and screams of pain, Alex activated a jump towards his group and started shooting at the hostiles aggressively approaching the group.

The hostiles fell back but a large amount of firepower was now directed at Alex. Welcoming bullets ricochet against his mech. The pings sound like metallic rain splattering on his armour.

Successfully stopping their advancement to Team 1, he hid behind a large container to avoid the onslaught of the hostiles' attention. Hearing a windy sound as someone in his earpiece cried out for everyone to duck, Alex made his mech drop flat to the ground, before hearing a loud explosion nearby.

Alex chuckled, his mind flashing to Artemis' first training recordings of her dropping face down repeatedly for 3 hours.

Soldier1: "Uhh, MG?"

The soldiers looked at one another in shock. Was that their MG laughing? He rarely smiles so they never heard him laugh.,, but that sound clearly, 100%, definitely, came from his line, right?... Right?

Alex: "Mechs, don't allow them to spread their forces. They're concentrating their efforts to the entrance but they will soon change once they realize they're boxed in."

Alex pushed himself up and continued shooting at the hostiles hiding behind their armoured trucks.

Another whistling sound was heard but no one on the earpiece gave a warning. Alex had a bad feeling about this as his 6th senses felt something dangerous approaching. Bending one knee, he pushed the body of his mech forward, towards behind Team 1, while crying out a warning.

Alex: "Team 1, Turtle!"

A very very fast but large object passed him by a hair's breadth before hitting a container behind him and exploded, shrapnel puncturing through everything in its path, the damage radius quite large due to the close proximity of the explosion.

"Turtling" is a term for Soldiers to quickly huddle and make themselves as small and compact as possible in front of a mech. The mech pilots would be the ones to yell that command in case of an emergency where he or she can anticipate all foot soldiers would be injured in a too close for comfort explosion. The mechs would then act as a shield to the human made turtles to protect them from the blast.

That's what happened here. Alex landed in the back of Team 1 sideways. One arm loosely creating a curved shape with his arm encompassing the Turtle, the other stabilizing the mech's body against the container wall, and tightly bringing his body together to not have any gaps as he curled his body around the Turtle.

All this happened very quickly within a second before an explosion rocked the ground and containers behind them. Alex activated his exoshield right before his mech's back was penetrated with sharp knife-like metallic pieces.

One piece went through a weak spot of the armor and penetrated his left shoulder, blood pooled inside the cabin.

Alex: "Mech 422, impaled left shoulder. Update."

Soldier1: "¼ of them are injured or dead and ½ are huddled in front of the entrance."

Alex: "4 mechs come around the corner to me. Keep shooting missiles. The other 4 support Team 2. Shuttle 2, free range to those hiding behind their trucks and cover, while those in shuttle one send a small group on top of the entrance and shoot downward.

Everyone, avoid aiming at the entrance.

Alex: "Update."

Soldier1: "⅓ are left and they look like they're retreating. But some are still in front of the entrance."

Alex: "All teams, concentrate your fire power to the remaining hostiles at the entrance and then clear the perimeter. Once that's done, initiate Subterranean Mode."

Soldier1: "The entrance is cleared! Everyone please move behind the red line! MG, please enter your access code and retina verification."

Alex verified the command as everyone moved away from the walls and stood behind the red lines.

Loud blaring sounds reverberated throughout the base as the ground rumbled underneath them. The soldiers all braced themselves as they continued shooting at the hostiles as the ground opened up and swallowed the base slowly.

The process took at least 15 minutes as the internal mechanisms under the base steadily lowered whole buildings into the ground.

The hostiles obviously was angry that this mode was activated. This was what they hoped most NOT to happen. Once it goes underground, the base literally goes into sleep mode. Electricity, air, water, everything was cut off. No matter how much they attack the ground or bomb it, it won't crack or open. In fact it will even randomly place landmines up on the terrain to f* with people who dare to try to get in by force.

For 15 minutes, the rumbling sounds of the base descending into the earth was accompanied by the non-stop staccato sound of firepower. When the final loud lock was heard by everyone, Alex and his wounded soldiers were already inside the shuttles and disappeared from view.

Alex grimaced in pain as the men help extract him from the cabin. The metal piece moving smoothly through this punctured muscles, blood pouring out from both the front and back wound. The clothes were pulled aside and the wound powder was generously sprinkled on the punctured meat.

Alex thought of the now securely locked base and the man inside it. When they were retrieving the remaining "skeleton staff," he left Joseph Shin locked behind.

Left behind were the bodies of the corpses and the wounded. Cries of pain can be heard throughout the field, asking for help and for their mothers. The smell of blood permeated the air.

—-

He couldn't figure out what happened. This was supposed to be easy. All the hard parts were done and over with.

The training, the smiling, the pretending, the sacrifice...

Now it's supposed to be the rewarding part. His god father was supposed to come and they're supposed to reap in years of sacrifice. How did it come to this?

He was still communicating with Su Cartel when communications were cut off. He thought that was strange when he couldn't call out any longer. Then he found out he couldn't communicate with the rest of the team inside the base... or get out of the room he's in. The door was locked.

A feeling of dread spread through him then. Something was very wrong.

He ran to the door and repeatedly hammering on it yelling for help.

It seemed like hours before the ground started shaking and the building moved. This- this was the subterranean mode! No one was supposed to be inside the base when this mode is activated! Why is the base being locked down?! Was this the military's plan all along? To sacrifice the crew here so the rest of them can escape and then lock down the base and have everyone inside die?

No, this must be an accident. They're most likely testing something and everything will be back to normal.

The mobile phone on his hand rang.

*Ring*Ring*

Joseph: "Hello? Hello? John?"

Male: "John is dead- and Matt, and Kim. They're all dead."

Joseph: "What? Stop talking nonsense and help me get out of here. I'm locked inside and have no idea what happened-"

Male: "You have no idea what happened?! You lead us into a g* d* ambush! You f*ing traitor!"

Joseph's grip slackened and the phone slipped and hit the ground.

—-

Judes: "Sir, all the family members were successfully relocated to City P to location X. We should leave now! The shuttle is outside"

In front of the large floor to ceiling window stood a lone figure of a male facing the fiery orange and red sunset, his silhouette tall and lonely.

The room was empty. In fact, the whole building was completely empty of any furniture or decorations. This is true for all of Kinetic Corporations' buildings. Kal sent everyone home a few days ago when he heard about the temperature news from one of his contacts.

He then called in his think tank and told them to investigate the matter further then draw a few hypothetical scenarios of what this event's impacts would be. After over 12 hours of discussion, each one of the scenarios indicates that crimes will break out all over the world. Especially when law enforcers, like regular citizens, would be too busy to shelter in place in order to keep warm and survive.

But others will take this perfect opportunity to break in and steal anything they can.

Kal's company mainly concentrates on cancer research and they were very close to breaking through a cure. And somehow their competitors found out.

Kal touched the ring on his finger absentmindedly. His thoughts flashing back to the mysterious female who gave him the ring and still amazed at how much it can hold.

He practically stored his whole company's things inside the ring. Everything was prepared, packed into 6x6 boxes, and labeled to be stored in a safe location. Everyone thought they would all be going into storage facilities but they were all stored by Kal. Everything in the family estates and everything in the bank's safe. Anything and everything was withdrawn and stored in his ring.

He's wondering if this is a hoarding problem...

Crimes will occur no matter what due to the ugliness of human nature, but he doesn't plan to lose in this event. Property damage can be taken care of by the insurance companies, but he can't lose his research.

Kal turned away from the darkening firelit sky and walked towards the door. Judes held up a large white winter coat and Kal put his arms through the sleeves slowly before zipping up the coat and tugging up his mask. He's taken on the habit of wearing a mask similar to hers. His eyes hidden by thick lashes as he pulled on his gloves, he paused slightly and asked the question on his mind.

Kal: "Any news about the female?"

Judes shook his head dejectedly.

Judes: "Unfortunately, we still haven't found her yet... but she is very strong, Sir. I'm sure she'll survive this."

Judes could feel the disappointment exuding from his boss, making him feel helpless. He sighed inside as he watched Kal finish covering himself up completely.

Kal: "Let's go."

The two figures closed the door behind them, the burning sunset still blazing down towards the horizon.

— Author's Notes —

Yay! So this ends our part 1 of the book! *celebrates*