First Mission Briefing
By some unknown miracle, they had not yet stumbled upon the cave town, but time was of the essence. Feeling that he had threatened these poor souls, he steeled himself.
There was no way he was letting innocents perish for him. He was sure they were looking for him after the incident he had caused.
He had killed a commanding officer, after all. There was no way they would not send a team to recover the perpetrator of such a crime towards their nation.
Coming back to the conversation he was having, Henry let out a long sigh.
"Of course they would come looking for me. DAMMIT!"
"High command wants you to eliminate the threat, but they also want you to send a message to the Tamarains. They can no longer set foot on Earth as they please. Can you do that, Henry?"
Henry was now stoked. He knew exactly what kind of message he wanted to send his enemies.
"Of course I can, Joseph. It will be my pleasure to show those sons of bitches whose planet they're walking on!"
"Good. Now, get some sleep. You leave tomorrow at 6 AM."
"Perfect. Now, I only have one question left for you. Why do I have a secret basement?"
"Ahh, yes. As I said earlier, this was my personal lodgings when I started serving. I am also a GoWSS subject, so I had to be dissimulated during training.
"So this basement is—sorry, was my personal training facility. At the end of the corridor is a training room with VCP compatibility. And people sworn to secrecy can deliver anything you need here."
Landon got up, believing he had given all the necessary explanations, and headed for a secret passage that led out of there. He saluted Henry and left through a hidden door on the wall.
Henry got up and went down the hall to see his new training center. Logging into the VCP-enabled room, he noticed it was on a private server.
He also saw an icon for users. After creating one for himself, named Crimson Mantis, he saw another icon titled 'previous users'.
There was only one, and its name was Shock Fist.
He smiled, knowing it was Joseph's user. He could see to the left if the user was currently connected.
Although he wasn't right now, Henry looked forward to when it would light up. He wanted to spar with Landon again once he got himself stronger.
Closing all this up, Henry went back upstairs to get some rest. He hadn't slept for real in a long time and longed for a good night's sleep.
He hit the pillow, hoping for the best sleep of his life. But that was not what happened.
Falling asleep, Henry's mind wandered straight into thoughts of his half-year of sleepless nights of gruesome training. He had started the military program on the wrong foot.
Everyone there looked at him with threatening gazes. To them, he was a stranger who had clearly not passed the rigorous selection process to be part of this special task force.
He had suffered so many miserable defeats at the hands of the other trainees that he had almost given up.
One night, after a horrible day of getting his ass handed to him, Henry had set ablaze with the desire to get stronger. He was tired of being used as target practice in the guerilla training and as a punching bag in the combat exercises.
He had had enough. At that exact moment, the System had told him how it could hold simulations inside his mind for combat.
It would take him into a room inside his head, where he could fight with pre-recordings of his previous opponents. The only difference was that he couldn't use the system, as it focused on keeping him in there.
So, he had to become a better fighter with his own skills. But that was exactly what Henry wanted.
He started training every night inside his new 'simulation room.' The problem was that time flowed normally during this training.
So he was getting less and less sleep. And it soon started to show in his lack of energy.
One night, before starting his training, Henry hesitated. He was too tired to train.
He only wanted to sleep.
The System then offered its help. It proposed to Henry to substitute a day of life span for a night's sleep worth of energy.
He had once again been shocked and angered at how the System lacked initiative. It could have told him beforehand, could it not?
He had yelled at it.
Seeing as how he was gaining a double life span from the injections from the military, he decided it was worth the setback. He no longer extended his lifespan, but he instead would get strong enough to prolong it himself without help from his brain buddy.
Hence, his long hell of fighting and dying in his own mind, repeatedly, started on the second week of his long stay in hell.
****
His dreams became nightmares, consisting of every single time he died.
With agitated sleep consuming his night, Henry woke up the next morning feeling worse than before going to sleep. He got up, feeling like crap.
"System, substitute my night with energy."
"System does not understand the request. Daytime has come, and the Host has been sleeping for the last 7 hours and 39 minutes."
"Shut up, you screwed up AI. Just do it," Henry grumbled, clearly not in a good mood.
"Affirmative." blandly answered the System.
Henry even thought he had heard a touch of discontent in its response.
He thought, 'Don't you start getting an attitude with me, you dumb machine.'
Henry got ready and left for the ship docks in the base.
Getting to the docks, he caught sight of Commander Landon and ran towards him. Landon was standing next to a ship, ready for departure.
"You're not late. Good. Get on board. The pilot has been briefed. He will drop you near your mission zone and leave. He will come back here and fly back to pick you up a week from now. That's your time frame. Don't mess up, understood, Agent?"
"Yes, sir! I won't fail, sir!" Henry said, saluting his officer.
Getting on the ship, Henry turned around to close the door and winked at the Commander. He then closed the door and sat down.
"You ready back there, Agent?" the pilot yelled through the open cockpit door.
"Yes, I am. Depart when you want, man," Henry yelled back.
And so he was off, back to earth, to resolve a problem he had stirred in the first place.