Chapter 1 - A life of service

Chapter 1 - A life of service

"Your life makes more sense when you live for others."

The words resonate in him as when it was the first time he heard his dad saying them. There was a sort of comfort in them, a sense of belonging. 

His dad was a soldier for the French government, all his life was a life of active duty and services to the country. Naturally, he led Martin into a similar life. 

As far as his memory could recall, Martin's life was heavily influenced by his father. He remembers little about his mother, living under the authority of his father was indeed making sense. He never questioned anything. 

The military discipline that his father was imposing was the only influence he knew. He followed the regular government military school, he was just a copy of his own father without realizing it. 

Martin was an excellent student during his whole school life, as if he was just a machine made for one purpose, serving his country. 

Naturally, when he reached 18 years old, he got an offer to join the CTIG1 (counter terrorism intervention group). 

He made his father proud that day, it probably was the only time in his life that he has seen his father expressing emotions. 

It puzzled him. 

CTIG operatives undergo several surgeries to get a set of enhancements that are supposed to give them advantages during operations. 

Martin got an exoskeleton called "the frame", it's the basic structure that allows heavy body modifications. 

It reinforces the natural structure of the body while giving space for further enhancements, like visuals, brain interfaces, artificial limbs and even facilitates the replacement of vital organs. 

It was the most advanced exoskeleton in 2038 and every government's special forces were equipped with it. 

Within the first weeks after his surgery, Martin noticed some subtle changes in the way he was looking at the world. He already had a hard time understanding emotions due to his strict upbringing, but this was different. 

His priorities seem to have shifted a bit, he was always a dedicated soldier who never questioned orders, although he felt more detached than ever. 

Martin had no life outside of his group. He was living with the rest of the group in barracks-like facilities. His free time was spent in training to perfect his skills until he could finally get some real action on the field. 

A year later, he finally got the chance to prove himself on the field. 

That day, he was at the shooting range when he received the call. 

"Attention, CTIG1 must rally in the briefing room right now. It's an emergency, this isn't a drill." says a voice emanating from an implant behind his ear. 

Martin quickly secures the handgun he was using at the shooting range and proceeds to the briefing room. 

On the way he is met by captain Haaris, his direct superior and the leader of CTIG1. He is a man in his mid thirties with several facial scars that shows he has seen a lot of action in his life. 

"Ready for your first time?" Haaris asks Martin. 

"Yes, sir!" Martin replies instantly. 

Captain Haaris leads the way to the briefing room. A huge holographic screen is taking up the entire back wall and is already spurting images with a virtual map of the area of action. 

Captain Haaris does not waste any time and starts to address the group. 

"All right, team, we have terrorist activities at one of the specialized evidence warehouses of the NPPD (New Paris Police Department). The whole security system of the warehouse went dark, the network is probably already taken over by the group inside and a hostage situation is to be expected. The targets are the confiscated items stored in a series of safes, we believe the terrorists will use one of the hostages to open them. Our mission is simple: neutralize the bad guys before they can even open any safes. Connect to the team channel and you will receive the dets. Let's go!" He leads the team to the equipment room. 

Martin follows as they enter a large room with several lockers, everybody has their personalized lockers.

Nobody wastes any time and they quickly get equipped with body armors, handguns and submachine guns. 

They then proceed to the garage where two black reinforced SUV vehicles are ready to depart. 

The whole group is composed of ten agents including the captain who leads them. They quickly get in the vehicles and get settled down while the SUVs storm out of the garage. 

It's 4:00 pm and the streets are full of people going on with their lives. The tall buildings of the corporate district are casting huge shadows on the streets that make it look like it's almost night time. 

The two SUVs drive fast through the traffic and it takes them about 20 minutes to reach the warehouse. 

Upon arrival they are greeted by some officers of NPPD who had already established a safety perimeter. Few holographic lines are set and no public is allowed anywhere near the safety areas. 

The team follows captain Haaris and they take position near one of the service's doors. Completely ignoring the NPPD officers, Haaris starts to talk through the secure channel of his team. 

"Team, this is it, the netrunner of NPPD hasn't recovered the entirety of the network, so stay alert for sentry guns."

Their communication is entirely done through a brain enhancement interface located behind the ear. It's a small metallic plate that features a few slots for external data shards and is connected to the brain. It allows linking of visual and auditory implants so the agents can skim through different audio and visual signals. 

Martin checks the magazine of his machine gun as one agent opens the door and throws a flashbang grenade inside. 

A loud bang is heard and the whole team proceeds inside. 

They are now inside a small room with only one way forward into a long corridor. 

Martin switches to infrared vision and scans the corridor. "No hostiles." he says through the secure channel. 

Captain Haaris orders three agents to secure the corridor. They nod and move carefully through the corridor until they reach a big double door. 

One of them opens the door and throws a flashbang grenade. A loud bang followed by a few screams. 

The three quickly enter the room as the whole group moves ahead in the corridor. 

Few shots can be heard on the other side of the door, followed by "clear!" on the secure channel. 

The whole group enters a big room with a circular front desk in the middle of it.

Two lifeless bodies are lying on the desk.

Captain Haaris walks to the desk and moves the body of one of the terrorists, it falls on the ground like a huge sack of potatoes. 

He checks the screens behind the desks. 

"Clover, bring your ass over here and plug in, I want control." he says on the secure channel. 

Clover is the netrunner of the group, he quickly finds an entry point and draws a long cable from the implant behind his ear. 

"I'm jacking in." he says through the comms.

"The network is unstable, they have crippled it with weird Daemons. They don't care about controlling it, they just rendered it unusable." he continues. 

"Roger that, it means no sentries to worry about. We can move on. Clover and Spike, you guys keep this room secured." captain Haaris says on the comms.

The group proceeds to a big staircase at the back of the room, it is wide and leads downward to some reinforced double doors. 

Martin gets in position and checks the layout of the room on a visual overlay. One of the features of their visual implants is the display of maps directly, allowing them to have knowledge of areas. 

The room ahead is the safes room, it's a circular room with no cover possible apart from the main vault. 

"They are trapped in there, there are no exit points…" he says on the comms. 

"Get ready for target practice then!" Captain Haaris says. 

One of the agents gets ready to push the doors open, waiting for the captain's signal. 

"Go!" Haaris orders. 

They quickly open the doors and enter, ready to shoot any hostiles. 

But silence follows, only one person seems to be in the back vault. 

The team quickly surrounds the vault and Martin approaches the person, he runs a scan and identifies him as a NPPD officer working at the warehouse. 

Something is off about him. 

"Captain… This man's visual implants are gone…" Martin says 

The officer's eyes sockets are empty and suddenly he starts talking. 

"puppets! We are all puppets!" He keeps repeating. 

Suddenly a loud explosion from within the vault sends everybody flying across the room. 

Martin tries to open his eyes but everything is blurry and he can't feel his body. 

The whole room is silent. 

"Shit! What the hell happened!?" Captain Haaris shouts on the comms.

Martin tries to gather his thoughts but everything feels weird. Suddenly he feels he is being dragged on the floor. 

"You'll be fine!" Captain Haaris says on the comms. 

Martin battles to stay awake but he feels like he is fighting against something unbeatable. His implants seem damaged and spurt static with distorted images. 

"What…" he mutters. 

"Send the medics!" captain Haaris shouts. 

Martin feels the whole world is spinning around him, slowly drifting away, pulled into the total darkness. 

One sentence comes to him. 

"life makes more sense when you live for others…" 

He then loses consciousness.