Chapter #11

Getting down to the armory, Zeno saw Prophet sitting on the diagnostics device, his expression grim as ever.

This was actually the first time they were meeting in person which made Zeno somewhat feel awkward since he knew his secrets better than anyone else in the room.

"Hello Prophet. This is the first time we are meeting face to face, to be honest this is way too underwhelming than I expected." Zeno greeted the Major while going to the console.

Prophet didn't answer, he was trying to get a read on the elusive Doctor who created miracles on that island during his short stay.

Prophet was informed about Ceph and he also knew their language was too complicated for humanity. His doubts about Zeno reached an all time high.

Zeno quickly took over the diagnostics device; he'd definitely do a better job than the technician deployed here.

"I'll take it from here." Zeno shooed the poor guy away.

"Hello doctor. Can you fix my suit?" Prophet replied at last.

"Naturally, I will even offer you an upgrade kit, two for one deal." Zeno jokes.

Meanwhile the soldiers moved the upgrade kits in the armory. Prophet looked at the kits with unhidden curiosity.

"Hargreave sent some resources while telling me to come back alive, whatever the hell that means.

I turned them to upgrade kits based on the information you three brought back from the ceph" Zeno answered his silent question.

He already downloaded Prophet and Psycho's data to his own private server while sending a copy to CryNet servers.

"If he sent these to you, then why are you using it on us?" Psycho asked on the side.

"Well, I'd rather boost you all while I sit back and watch. Killing North Korean soldiers was therapeutic.

Killing environmentalist aliens that just want humanity to go green, not so much."

'Truly tragic that Ceph just wants to protect the Earth by killing off humans and here I am planning their demise.' Zeno thought.

Two soldiers' eyebrows twitched at Zeno's shamelessness but they also thought it would be better to power them up rather than waste the resources.

While Zeno was fixing Prophet's suit, the word of Nomad arriving came through and Psycho left to greet him.

"Your nemesis from the CIA was on the island." Zeno suddenly spoke.

"What?"

"Just saying you might run into him in one of the ships." Prophet nodded indicating his understanding.

Right then Psycho came back and went back to analyzing the weapon Prophet brought back from the island.

He had no problems understanding how it worked since Zeno's translator worked wonderfully on in-built manuals of the weapons.

These manuals are added in case of problems arise in the Ceph Hive mind. So that the troops suddenly don't forget how to use their weapons.

The Nanosuit can integrate and read off this information thanks to the translator program.

Soon enough the repairs and upgrades were done, coincidentally it was the same time as Nomad and Helena Rosenthal came in.

"Alright, I fixed your suit. Also the upgrades I made should isolate your suit from outside interference, I have a feeling you will need it." Zeno winked at the major like he knew where he was going.

Prophet just let out a grunt before getting up.

"Hello Nomad, it seems you are still alive and without my rifle." Zeno spoke to Nomad who sat on the device.

"I passed it to Major Strickland..." Nomad didn't finish, they all knew about his death.

Only Zeno and Nomad knew about the backstory of the rifle...

Nomad truly believed he doomed the major by giving that rifle to him.

Just then Prophet took his weapon and left, the rest tried talking to him but Zeno didn't bother and continued to work on Nomad's suit.

"Well, may he rest in peace. Ms.Rosenthal, what will our friend's upgrades be about?" Zeno turned to the researcher and asked.

"I discovered an energy signal they use. I was hoping we could use that against them but Dr. Zeno's Jammer works as well, we can boost that." Helena said.

"I will look into it, meanwhile Nomad I will be boosting your armor and recovery speed of your suit by integrating energy absorption technology we got from Ceph.

According to the data from your suit you look like a masochist with how much beating you took." Zeno said seriously while lamenting the fates of the protagonists.

Nomad just nodded, people would have seen him blush in shame if not for his visor.

'Is it really my fault that I end up in messed up situations that see me getting beat up!?' Nomad was indignant but remained silent as he got up and left with Helena.

Zeno was confused for a second why Helena was still here but remembered that the nuclear option was called off hence Helena wasn't summoned by Admiral Morrison.

"Hey, doc. What kind of upgrades am I getting?" Psycho asked on the side.

"Well, you're good with computers. I'll boost the suit's supercomputer."

"Hell Yeah!" Psycho exclaimed as he sat on the chair.

______

By the time Zeno was done with Psycho's upgrade and arrived at the bridge things were heated between the Admiral and Prophet.

Prophet actually stuck around to see what the army was going to do and didn't steal a VTOL.

Admiral Morrison on the other hand was having meetings after meetings with the president and chiefs in command to decide what to do.

Apparently Prophet couldn't take it anymore and requested to be deployed back on the island to clear the Ceph wave by wave.

Now, he is having an argument with the Admiral who didn't believe some leftover team could clear the entire island, even with Nanosuits.

Zeno just stood next to Nomad while casually passing him the experimental TAC Gun he technically stole.

"I have a feeling you'll need it." Zeno whispered.

"Doctor Zeno, what are your thoughts on the matter?" Seeing a neutral party coming in Admiral Morrison asked Zeno.

"Well, just send Prophet solo, he can take care of himself. On the other hand the ceph would probably come to us." Zero said honestly.

"What makes you say that?" Admiral asked.

'Because I know the plot.' Zeno thought while cooking up some bullshit in his head.

"Ceph has been awake for a while, it wouldn't be hard for a billions of years old civilization to hack our communications.

They have probably been looking forward to the nuke since it would empower them but now that nuke ain't coming." Zeno didn't finish his words.

"They're coming here." Psycho finished it for Zeno.

"Then why are we sending Major Barnes to the island?" Admiral asked, feeling confused.

"Bait." Prophet and Zeno said at the same time silencing the people in the room.

_______

Soon Prophet left under orders while USS Constitution started to prepare for possible incoming attacks.

Zeno even gave the light armor he made to Helena after smelling something off about her.

'What was that smell and why did it go away after I gave her that armor?!' Zeno was freaking out until the System pulled out a memory.

[Your friend has that smell of death around him...] In the memory Zeno could see himself watching Akatsuki no Yona, the episode where Hak was seriously injured.

It was Zeno's line, wiki even mentioned him being able to smell death around people that were about to die.

Zeno didn't know what would kill Helena but he was glad that he prevented it.

Meanwhile, since he gave his armor away, Zeno locked himself in his room and was about to take inhuman amounts of sleeping pills.

'I will just wake up once this is all over.' He thought to himself while nodding.

Zeno also set up a computer program that kept spamming Ceph Jammers in regular intervals to make it look like he was doing his part.

"Time to sleep."

______

Meanwhile Zeno was blissfully sleeping, the Ceph forces started their attack on USS Constitution.

Psycho was quick to get in a VTOL and get Helena off the ship just in case. Helena was also sending similar signals to Zeno's through Nomad's Nanosuit.

Nomad on the other hand have been sent to the nuclear core to protect it from incoming Ceph.

The extra upgrades allowed him to enter the Core room and stay there fighting, the radiation on the air was sucked into his suit and empowered him.

Things were going good until the Ceph Hunter arrived at the ship and Nomad had to leave his post.

While Nomad and Psycho took down the Hunter, The Ceph Warrior who had been underwater drained USS Constitution's Nuclear Core and got out of water.

"It's huge!" Psycho commented.

|That's what she said.

This is an automated response program.|

"..."

Anyhow, with the jammer program and the TAC Gun, Nomad was able to take the Warrior down in a similar way to the game and the ship too had sunk similarly.

"Hey, has anyone seen Dr.Zeno?" Nomad asked after pulling Helena back into the VTOL.

"His transceiver is still pinging and his vitals are okay. He probably got out with an emergency boat or something." Psycho replied.

"He appears to be going towards Japanese reinforcements, we should head there as well. His jammer worked brilliantly." Helena spoke, she was grateful to Zeno since the armor stopped a sharp fragment from puncturing her lungs.

"No, if he is okay we should join up with Prophet. We know how to beat them, it's time we take the fight to them." Nomad decided not knowing what they would get into once they were back on the island.

On the other hand Zeno, who had woken up not because of the commotion but because drugs had worn off, was drifting on top of a piece of wood that drifted to his side.

'How lucky, I don't have to swim towards the reinforcements.' Zeno thought as he sent a SOS signal to the Japanese.

"Now, I have three years until the second game." Zeno who had a good drug induced sleep quickly started to plan his moves.

[He definitely needs a vacation after this world.] System thought to itself.