Chapter III The First Mission - Part 1

Chapter III The First Mission

A few short minutes later, Locus assembled all his newly upgraded titanium armor. He heard a call coming from Keith's radio, "Keith, please report towards the Captain Deck immediately."

"Understood private," he clicked on his radio to report his status update, "I'm on the way."

"I guess we should get going," Locus told him, loosening his body, rotating his shoulder joints in a circular motion, cracking his neck and back to undo his stiffness.

"Huh? You're coming with?" A look of surprise Keith's face was shown, he scratched his head in confusion at first, thinking that only he was summoned, not Locus. But in that moment, he remembered that he wanted to be more involved in helping what's left of humanity.

"I'm not sitting in that hospital bed if that's what you are going to suggest for me to do," Locus told him, knowing he needed to help more, even if his current condition restricts him. He was locked, loaded, and ready to kill Scars, placing an assault rifle on his back as it magnetized together.

"Well I guess I can't stop you now can I?" the Sergeant replied, adjusting his cap neatly on his head, "Come on, there's no time to lose."

Locus left the armory room with the Sergeant, his new armored boots made the same clunking noise while he walked out. As soon as he left the room, he placed his helmet back onto his head to cover himself and to embrace the next objective.

As the two nearly arrived at the Captain's deck, in the hallway everyone could hear the clunking noise. A maintenance worker was doing repairs on an exposed panel in the hallway, he noticed the heavy bulky noise move past him swiftly. He was surprised by the tall and well equipped soldier, in his eyes he appeared about 6'4, much taller than him by a long shot. "That's no machine…" The worker said under his breath while wiping away the sweat on his head.

Locus and the Sergeant were fast approaching the room, they entered inside through the automatic glass door, the Captain was ahead of them analyzing the holographic map, making notes on his notepad and mumbling to himself nonsense. He saw Locus and had a slight surprised look on his face. He moved closer to the Captain, making those heavy clanking noises, it made him uneasy. Everyone stopped their work and just observed the bulky soldier walking towards the Captain, they were very much afraid of his appearance as if they were about to be killed.

"Locus, I uh…" He cleared his throat to wash away the fear clinging on to his tongue. He had a shaky voice but tried to hide it and remain calm, "I have a mission for you to take."

"I accept, what's the mission sir?" Locus questioned without complaining.

Captain Husky told him with a shaken voice, "There's a very large Scar stronghold spaceship carrying a drill and they are currently using that drill to dig deeper into the planet Venus. We believe they're looking for something valuable."

"And you want me to stop their little operation?" Locus asked.

"Yes, but I want you to to work in a pre-selected team. You'll serve as an asset to the team. You can agree with the team or disagree with them. Your actions will be noted completely by the team leader." He told him.

"I Understand," Locus responded. He felt the urge to address the elephant in the room, "there's unease with my appearance Captain?"

The Captain was surprised at him saying such a thing, "No, it's just I would've guessed you were… You know never mind it, I'm just impressed with the new armor is all."

Locus accepted his reply, but he knew something else was putting him off, he just couldn't say it in front of the people in the room, "I'm glad you take a liking to my armor sir, your engineers are a fine group of individuals. Now may I proceed with the mission sir?"

"Ah yes, you'll meet them the squadron at hanger 3"

"I'll greet them immediately. Good day, sir," he bowed and left the room.

The Captain sighed and relieved himself, "Something wrong sir?" the Sergeant asked, wondering why he was feeling unease. "It's nothing Keith, carry on."

"What about my summoning sir? Didn't you request for me originally?" He asked, hoping to get an answer.

"I was going to make you go on that team as a matter of fact, but I guess he was ready, I didn't want him to go with his condition. But, I was afraid," he expressed.

"Afraid?" the Sergeant questioned. "Why?"

"Don't mind it Keith, this mission will be in his hands."

"I, understand sir," the Sergeant replied softly, he swept his feet the other direction and left the room to tackle other tasks.

Locus patrolled the hanger bay number 3, it was a different site compared to the other one he firstly arrived in. He kept looking for the team for several minutes, unsure of if he would ever find them. "That squadron must be somewhere around here," he thought to himself while itching his neck. He persistently walked around, looking for the squadron in the expansive hanger bay. "Oh! Sorry sir!" A single militia soldier said as he accidentally bumped into Locus and was knocked down on the ground. Locus's appearance was unsettling for the soldier, he was a giant compared to his size.

"You should be careful of your surroundings," Locus recommended to him, extending out his hand. "Do you know where a group of people are being transferred to Venus? I'm looking for a group of specific individuals."

"Oh! Yes sir, over there with that big carrier ship," he pointed out the decently sized ship in the small pocket corner of the hanger.

Locus nodded to the soldier as he went about his business jogging towards the opposite direction as him. He saw the shallow group of people twiddling with their weapons, waiting, probably for him. He hurried over them swiftly to undo further delay. He noticed as he went over to them there were four people with light armor, (not as bulky as his.) They're weapons were polished and shined. "You finally made it," a man said sarcastically, resting back up against a blue crate.

Locus tried to scratch his head to apologize, but the helmet was too big so it was a bit awkward to show how sorry he was with action alone, "Sorry I lost my way coming here," Locus replied to hopefully compensate for his late arrival.

"Well, next time-" a woman in pink bubble gum colored armor tried to tell him off, but was stopped suddenly by another individual.

"Kate, it was an accident, let him be yeah?" a man mentioned with marooned colored armor. He seemed more relaxed and easy going for the most part.

"Alright, let's start with introductions," the older man who was resting up against the crate, walking closer to Locus, "my name's Lee Lavender. Leader of this squadron, we call it, Delta team," he said greeting everyone as a whole to him. He had short white hair, a bit older than everyone else. He had blue eyes and had a scar running down from his left eye. He had pale white skin, his face was beginning to wrinkle as well.

"My name's John Connors," he said holding a semi-automatic rifle, checking the magazine to see if it was loaded. Locus believed he was just trying to act cool with that stunt. He had short black hair, with a fluff of medium sized hair dangling over his left eye, it was dyed red to give him a flare of style. He had white skin, pale in fact, just like Lee's. He also had light red eyes, something Locus never seen before.

"I'm Kate Oliver," she said as she stepped in front of John, being obnoxious on purpose. She was a bit short, but too much shorter than John. She was about 5,7 at most, her Asian ethnicity was shown through her face. Japanese with a slight mix of Spanish. Her ebony hair and eyes glowed bright in the LED lights above them.

"And I'm Juniper Lavender, Lee Lavender is my dad," the shy woman said, wearing a light grey colored armor set, with an animal pelt of a wolf cloak hanging over her shoulders. A black polished sniper rifle was on her back, presumptuously as a primary choice of weaponry, he believed it was a 100mm sniper rifle by the looks of it. She had longer black hair than Kate that probably fell down to her shoulder, but it was tied in a bun, hard to know how far it falls. She had olive skin, with bright green eyes gazing deeply into Locus's helmet.

"It's nice to meet you all," Locus responded back to everyone, grateful to meet and greet them.

"Likewise," Lee told him, patting him on the back as a sign of respect. "Shall we go?" he questioned.

Locus was surprised at the back pat, it was something no one else had done in a long time, it meant something to Locus, it was something someone did a long time ago. He simply nodded.