Chapter 1- Damaged

The air was silent, stale even, and the moon shone down dimly on the ground below. Only a single person walked down the silent ally way, dressed in what resembled a hazmat suit. This person was a hunter. For what one might ask? A hunter for the glitched, this is a world where humans and robots live in tandem. Occasionally, however, these robots would spark a glitch or something that causes them to malfunction and that's when the special ops team SDS comes into play. You see these bots are not your run of the mill toaster, some of these have fought along with real men on the battlefield. Which makes em' even more of hazard. These bots had been human before, but their death put them in those tin cans. Most people blew off the idea that one of these beasts would go rogue. What a joke. I've dealt with many of em. I lost my arms to a group of rouges. Terrorist fits the description better. Those Robo thugs thought they could get everything outta me, I didn't struggle, I've been tortured before then but that's a story for another time. These bots are dangerous, in fact, that's why the SDS was formed.

Our mission was simple, enter location A, find the glitched, contain them, then if they couldn't be fixed, destroy em. But as luck would serve us, that wasn't going to be the case this time. We are prepared for every possibility. Poison gas, biological hazards, Cybernetic hazards, grenades, gunfire, etc. But nothing prepared us for what we are going to see in there.

Commander Fox paces about before turning to his squad. "Our goal is to get in there and neutralize the threat" Fox turned to the man beside him, a doctor, that would be joining them for this mission. "Anything we should know about these bots doc?" Fox eyed the man through his mask. Doc coughed "They are incredibly dangerous the ones we will be dealing with are heavily modified compared to their civilian counterparts. Just be aware this is going to be different from your usual tasking." Doc said zipping his suit up, then grabbing the pistol that lay on the table. Ghost, who was leaning against a crate looked at Fox. "So if these things are as dangerous as your saying shouldn't we try and stay hidden?" Ghost chipped in. "That's the goal, the only problem is they'll see us coming. Doc said they're heavily modified, meaning that they most likely carry things like thermal vision technology as well as tracer capabilities. We'll have to be careful about our approach." "Commander, we have a situation" a small display projected on to the wall. It was Viper, SDS's recon and scouting specialist. "What the situation Viper?" Fox turned to the screen, his yellow suit shining slightly, in the light of the room. The screen showed Viper, standing somewhat high up on a building. "They have a hostage, identified as Andy Grace. According to what I gather they are trying to press information out of him" Fox didn't change his stance "Also it looks as if they have some kind of explosive..." Viper finishes talking before Fox sighed "Alright Viper, this is a stealth mission, do not engage unless necessary" Viper nodded before disappearing from the screen. It was raining as Fox and the rest of the Delta unit made their way to where the hostage was being held, as well as the unidentified bomb. Ghost was first to approach the sight, it looked as these robots had an entire operation going on. Ghost made for a silent approach, while Fox and the doc took a slightly more direct route. The scene seems grizzly, bodies of what looked like factory works and robots littered the ground. Covered in some sort of powder. Fox's mind drifted slightly upon seeing the bodies, could a couple of glitches pull something like this off? Then it crossed his mind, yea they could, they probably could pull something off like this even better than a human could. Doc, who was close behind Fox, looked towards Fox. Doc was about to speak when loud footsteps. "How long till he learns!" One of the unknown voices screams. Fox signals Doc to follow him behind cover, which happened to be a crate. "Relax, we'll get the info out of him one way or another..." Replied the seemingly level-headed female replies. Fox and Doc slowly make their way to the main room, surprisingly avoiding detection from the glitched around them. Viper's drone flew by Foxs and Docs feet, the small and flat drone seemed to run around the room before scampering away, presumably back to Viper. Ghost, in the meantime, had already found the hostage. He had to be extremely careful or something bad would happen to him and the hostage. He had a plan, a very risky plan. Yes, there was a bomb in the room, yes there are many "guards" here as well. But if his plan worked he could save the hostage and find out what happened here, after all these glitches weren't prepared for a sneak attack and they weren't dressed in any "specialty" gear. If it wasn't for this situation they are in, they'd just seem like common street thugs.

Ghost pulled out two smoke grenades, preparing to throw them towards the "guards" that were standing there. In a split, the second Ghost slammed the smoke grenades down creating a thick cloud of white smoke. Ghost ran towards the hostage, quickly removing him from his lose restraints, before running into the shadows as the smoke cleared. The glitches blew the alarm faster than a cheetah can sprint. Fox and Doc had realized this when a voice rang "Spread out and search for any intruders!" Followed by thundering footsteps. Viper in the meantime was cornered, some of them found him. Viper was now being held at gunpoint by a thug. The thug looked at Viper, they were both by the edge of the building. Viper held his hands up, in a surrendered kind of way. Viper had a trick up his sleeves, aside from combat training of course. He got pushed back into the building he had been using as a hideout. "We got one over here!" He screamed at his comrades. Viper honestly thought it was the end, even if he could access his emp drones. They dragged him off towards the explosives they have ready to blow. "Tell me where's the rest of your squad?" One of them asked Viper, who just stayed silent. The glitched aimed at Viper's leg. "I said WHERE'S THE REST OF YOUR SQUAD?!" He screamed practically in Vipers' face. Viper looked to the bot. "Go to hell" Viper replied. The bot shot viper in the knee. He gasped in pain. "Feel like talking now?" The bot looked towards Viper. Viper chuckled "I may be a Snake, but I'm sure as hell no rat" he Replied. The glitch shot him in his other leg, basically paralyzing him. Viper just looked at the glitch with cold, unwavering eyes. "Your a fool if you think you'll get away with this for long" Viper spoke in a calm, accepting tone. "This wouldn't be the first time you glitches underestimated us" The bot looked at Viper before bursting in a pile of sparks. Viper chuckled "Emp drone, no one sees it coming till it's too late." He could feel the warm blood draining out of him. Footsteps approach him, it was Fox. Doc had been trailing behind him as well. Gunfire rang from the building. "Lethal force authorized, our covers blown, I repeat our cover is blown," Fox says over the comms. Doc started patching up Viper to the point they could get him out of the building. Ghost had seemingly disappeared with the hostage, while Fox and the squad were stuck with a bomb. "Viper can you hear me?" Fox yelled to his squadmate. Viper nodded, before looking towards the metal crate he was thrown against. Fox looked into it, shocked by what he found. A cluster of could only be described as a bioweapon. "We need to get moving! NOW!" Fox yelled while picking up Viper. Doc was already a little bit ahead.

My heart races as me and the hostage make our escape. I don't know what happened to my team. But I do know we are two of the lucky ones. The Building rattled violently as a large plume of black erupted from the ground, scattering debris everywhere. The sky, grey with storm clouds, grew darker. The hostage was confused and at this point so was I. I noticed something else as well, a thin coating of yellow dust had settled on the ground. It took me a minute in my confusion to figure out what had happened but when it hit me, I realized it was too late. My comrades had been near the epicenter of the explosion. I could only hope that they made it out unscathed. I had handed Grace the gas mask I had. "I'll be fine, but put the mask on!" I had yelled at him. He did just that, struggling a little at first. "Who are you?" Grace asked. "Call me Ghost, we got to get you out of here, that mask won't last forever. I'll explain more when we are safe."

Sometime later

"This is Ghost of SDS IF ANYONE CAN HEAR US WE HAVE A CODE RED, I REPEAT CODE RED." I had yelled into my headset. Code reds are a major situation and in this case, it's about the unidentified chemical in the explosives that detonated. This is a serious problem, I've been deployed to a similar region before, high population, crowded. This area bad, and now it just got worse. I'm no chemist but I think I know what that powder is. Grace and I ran, as far and as fast as we could. Once we reached a safe spot I tried signaling for evac. "Cobra, this is SDS Delta GHOST coming in" I tried reaching for the head of the command, we call him Cobra he's a strong and level-headed leader most of the time. "Reading you loud and clear, Ghost" Cobra replied to me. "We have a code red... We lost men as well" I say trying to mask the fact that I just lost some of the people I considered family. I heard Cobra sigh before I heard him speak up. "Evacs on its way. As well as back up." He announced before he went away. I look at Grace. "Hold tight, we'll have you out of here soon." Meanwhile, a different squad of men joined the evac crew. It took a while but soon they arrived. Lynx, the captain of the Bravo squad was the first to drop from the copter, followed by K-9, and then Phantom. Each had been wearing a hazmat suit. The copter flew down, landing a small ways away from me. Lynx and K-9 approached me, while Phantom was looking at the strange powder.

"You ok?" Lynx asked me, I glanced towards Grace.

"Been better, we have a serious problem. For one as you know, this building belonged to a group of glitched." I was interrupted by Phantom. "Captain, the powder contains a nano-virus. It seems to be designed to spread through the air." Phantom seemed worried but sure of himself. "It also seems like it's specifically designed to effect, get this... Humans." He added. Lynx sighed "Ghost, haul your ass to the chopper. We'll handle things from here. Oh, also anything else to add before you leave?" He asked me. "We lost three men in there, please find them" I replied with a small hint of sadness before going into the chopper. Lynx looked at Phantom. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's do this!" Lynx said and a loud whisper. K-9 was the first to enter, there was rubble everywhere. He sighed "tonights gonna be a long night." Bravo squad scanned the area for any sign of the lost soldiers. By some miracle, they located one of them among the sparkling bodies of the glitched. He was stuck under some rubble. It was Fox, of all people and he was coughing hard. Lynx ran over to him as fast as he could. "We got one, over here!" Lynx yelled at his squad. Fox looked toward where the voice was coming from, his vision was blurred and he could hardly breathe. Phantom rushed over helping the injured soldier up. 

That faithful day, five years ago could have been the end for me. Five years forward and now I'm here again, at death's door. I attempt to push some of the rubble scattered on top of me. All I feel is a consistent numbness, and shooting pain originating from the wounds in my legs. I couldn't tell where I was, but I knew exactly what happend.

The bomb blew, me and the rest of Delta squad, maybe excluding Ghost, had got gotten caught in the explosion. I only hope someone finds me.

I slowly manage to drag my legs out from beneath the rocks that covered me. There's no way in hell I'm going to be walking, the bullet went deep into my leg and I can hardly feel them.  I heard something else move.

I slowly drew a pistol from my side. I looked around, weary of anyone that might try to kill me while I'm down. The person, who ever it may be, was trying to get up, I could tell. I was aimming for where the sound was coming from and next thing I hear is the particular sound of crunching plastic.

Bravo squad moved in and slowly swept the entire building.

The sound of their plastic suits would of alerted anyone still in the building. But Bravo team had been looking for the two other missing soldiers.

Lynx had been the first one to enter the room where Viper had been located. He quickly scanned the room, both with and with out thermal vision. For the most part he picked up nothing till he glanced toward the corner. "Squad, we got one!" Lynx yelled toward the rest of his squad.  Viper lowered his pistol slightly, still unsure of who it was that was talking. Phantom rushed over, followed by the loud crunch of plastic from K-9. "Lower your weapon, Viper we are here to help you!" Phantom said toward the injured soldier, who lowered his gun. The wounds in his legs started feeling worse then before, as Phantom helped him up. "K-9 and I will make sure the paths clear. Just watch your step, you don't know what traps have been set here." Lynx said to Phantom who nodded. Phantom dragged Viper to the LZ, where they met with the pilot of BE-784, a stealth based chopper. "Commander directed I wait till you gather everyone before takin off" the pilot said to Lynx as Fox and Viper were loaded on board.  Lynx nodded before leaving to search for the last remaining survivor, Doc. Lynx was joined by K-9, K-9 was especially good at tracking. K-9 went ahead of Lynx. They had been very lucky, it seemed like most of the glitched had been killed or some how deactivated. After a little time they located Doc. Doc was worse of then Viper, surprising.  It seemed Doc took the brute of the explosion... K-9 checked his pulse, even through the thick of his suit. Living. It's a miracle he's alive. Doc had to be taken out immediately or what ever disease was in the air could possibly kill him. They didn't need a potential causality. After escorting Doc to the BE-784 they left, heading for the place that they called a home.

"I'm  sorry..." Viper said as he pulled off the mask he was wearing, revealing a man in his 30's with scars running in multiple directions on his face. "I could have stopped it... If only we had time..." He looks down shame heavy in his voice. "Mate, there's nothing that could have been done, you and your squad didn't have much intel to go off of." Phantom said with reassurances.  "Plus, no one knew they had set a bomb in there." The usually silent K-9 said. After a while of flying they reached their destination. A building, sitting amongst the white backdrop of snow, located in a remote part of the US. After unloading everyone, Bravo squad assisted Delta squad to the medical bay, a seemingly long stretch of hallway littered with what looked like machine parts and surgical instruments.