Red
The Galaxy is a Dumpster Fire.
"For fuck sa-," I tried to utter a curse when an overwhelming pressure in the back of my head had flooded me into an everlasting void.
[Welcome Reclaimer]
'Ehy, wha- huh,' I was overwhelmed as I promtly assumed that I was either drugged or enlisted into some sort of fanfiction. 'Well ah, ehr, um… Hello there?'
[Congratulations on your selection as the 68th Gamer-]
'So close,' pervious humor aside, it did appear that this would be quiet the trip.
[…Your universal transition will commence in just a moment.]
'My what now.'
[You have been selected for Earth Series 64.8T C4 as your point of origin. You must now select your Race and Class. Note: Your race and class will modify your starting attributes.]
'Heh, this is so much better than having to work tomorrow. Weird naming sense for good old Super Earth, but I am so going to make a bardbarian for this dream!' A blue screen appeared a bit in front of my face and it populated so many options for generating my profile. It asked for everything from my species, my gender, blood type, allignment, and much more. The options came fast and looked really familiar for some reason.
Human. Two Free Points, Title: Reclaimer.
Kig-Yar. Four Dexterity Points, Title: Privateer.
Unngoy. Four Consititution Points, Title: Backbone.
Sangheili. Three Strength Points, Two Dexterity Points, Title: Modern Samurai.
Jiralhnee. Three Strength Points, Two Consitutiin Points, Title: Eh tu Brute?
I couldn't be asked to go over each step of making this character because I wanted to play the game a bit before waking to reality.
'Hey oh great voice in my head, can I just play a Human Male and we randomize the rest… maybe keep things like allignment to adjust throughout my time playing?'
[Acceptable. Please choose your Class and provide a name.]
'Sweet. Let's take a look here then!'
Merchant. 1 CHA Point.
Every Day Joe. 1 Free Point.
Warrior. 1 STR Point.
Outlaw. 1 DEX Point.
Scholar. 1 WIS Point.
Professor. 1 INT Point.
Soldier. 1 Free Point.
'Yep, we are looking good. Alright I am good with this,' I then took a moment to review the compressed profile sheet. I could play around with the rest at another time.
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Profile:
Name: Paul Jones
Title: Reclaimer*
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Soldier of Humanity*
Level: 1
- -
STR: 11
DEX: 11 -> 14
CON: 11
WIS: 10
INT: 10
CHA: 10
- -
FP: 3 -> 0
- -
Currency: 100Cr
- -
Perks:
Gamer's Mind*
Gamer's Body*
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'Solid,' I then sent a thought to the confirm button and I was finally all done with this creation bit. Overall this has been a very detailed dream. Nice.
[Creation Complete. Loading. Loading. Loading. Loading Complete. Good luck Reclaimer!]
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I was back to whatever my origin point was meant to be. I took the time to get a better look at what seemed to be a pulverized city block as sirens blaired in the background. Plooms of smoke trailed the multi story skyrises as the street had a dubious crater and most of the composition of one of the buildings to fulfill the role of a improvised road block. The scene was breathtaking in the worst of ways, and to make matters worse I could see the corpses of numerous people. Many other locals were trapped under the rubble and some were even falling from the partially collapsed tower nearest to me.
Stumbling forward, I braced myself upwards as I began to assess my body for damage. With no obvious mortal wounds, I scrambled around to investigate the area for people tk help.
It did not take long for my to find my first casuality. A twenty something man with a piece of rubble laying over his lower left leg which would certainly cause crush syndrom.
I vaulted a horizontal piece of rebar and got next to the man before taking a knee next to him and trying my best to reassure the fellow.
I gave a quick blood sweep around his leg to confirm that while squished, it was not bleeding and then offered a soft smile to the man. "Hey boss, this sucks and all but you should live once EMS shows u-"
"Fuck you, this hurts so bad and you arent even going to help me?!" The bastard justifiably cut me off. He was ignorant to basic first aid and my personal safety if he thought I was going to try and lift that heavy debrise off his leg and cause any toxins to rush towards his heart. Whatever. I ignored the rest if his rant as I went around looking for others to help.
Just a few meters over the road revealed a young woman who was now the proud owner of a mangled arm. I took of my belt - which was weird because I never wore those - to make a hasty improvised tourniqet since she had a constant supply of dark red blood oozing. I would have opted for a good old pressure pack bandage but I didnt know how long until EMS could reach us from the other side of the road blockage.
I was about to try and ease her mind off of the injury by some good old dark humor, but noticed that her focus was locked onto what looked like remnants of a human with the other half blown off. This dark scene started to suck me in as well as looked back towards the lady. "Miss, oi miss."
She gave no response so I continued to talk at her, "help is on the way in a few minutes-"
Not so far away, the asshat from earlier made a comment, "not from you though!"
Ignoring him, I spoke once more. "This tourney is not going to hold well so try not to move. I have to go help others now."
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I would then continue to run around from place to place as I offered some aid here, words there, and some new data for the nightmare vault while wrapping up my efforts. All in all I think a little less than 15 minutes passed.
Just as I started to feel like I was beginning to make an impact, bright lights erupted from the sky in an amazing display of red and white before they catered to the side to display an awesome site. Before my eyes was a working D77 "Pelican" Dropship outfitted for Civilian Search and Rescue. Flaberghasted was an understatement.
Before I could fanboy, two UH-144 "Falcon" VTOLs rolled up on either side as soldiers and militia from the UNSC rushed out onto the ground with several medics immediatly getting to work. I was frozen and just stood there.
My idling would have continued, but I was quickly reminded that this was the UNSC as one of the soldiers readied their rifle my way. "On your knees, hands behind your head, now!"
'Huh, Hero's welcome,' needless to say, I complied.
The soldiers worked quickly with some dark quips in between. This continued for several minutes until one of the medics called out rather hastely, "Captain, found the PM's daughter. Looks like someone started to help her."
'Oh fuck,' this was heating up way faster than I would like. I did not want my name logged anywhere in which one of the UEG's three letter agencies can look into my background. I sure as shit dont know it, and it was randomized after all!
Things continued like this for quiet some time.
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After about an hour I was escorted to the New Berlin CMA HQ to give an official statement. As you could guess, I was unable to provide much testament and simply kept to the basics of everything being fine until it wasn't. They followed up their questions by trying to figure out who rendered care at the site, and I claimed not to know anything about any of that. Good times.
As I left the station, another message greeted me.
[Quest: Awakening Complete.
Side Quest: Helping Hand Complete.
Rewards:
- 100 XP
- 2 Free Points
- 1000Cr.]
'Neat.'
I then went about the city as I tried to figure out basic things like where I was going to sleep, how I was going to maintain a fair wage, stuff that seemed beyond a dream and so I forwent all of that. It was probably for the best not to overcomplicate all of this.
My adventure continued until I happened to stumble across a recruiter's office. 'Welp, it wasn't terrible when I joined the Army a few years back. Being a Space Marine doesnt sound like the worse way to live in this Halo fantasy.
I walked into the office, continued right past the other recruiters to include a CMA Maritime Patrol recruiter. I stood before some Sergeant with a weird collar device from the Marines and outright offered him my hand for a simple shake. "Good morning… ah Sergeant, I wanted to try my luck in the Marines. I got no where else to go so the sooner the better."
If this wasnt a dream I would have had so many red flags that I was about to get the recruiting special as the man just got the open invite to send me pretty much to any job based on needs of the UNSCMC, but seeing as this was just a fantasy trip I had trust that I would get to do something cool.
"Alright kid, I am Staff Sergeant Beatiz," again, so happy this is a dream because if his smile was any wider I would have thought I was talking to a demon. "I just need your right hand to read your biometric chip, take a quick apptitude test, and then we can go through the jobs available if you qualify. Should be aboe to get you over to the processing station as early as today."
"Awesome," I was all smiles until he took my hand and went to register me. I quick pang of worry hit me but quickly went away thanks to Gamer's Mind.
A succession of quick beeps passed and a brillant light of green from the chip reader as his smile flickered for a moment but then went right back up. "Kid it says here that you are 17, while we can sign you on… you need someone over the age of 18 to consent to this."
I facepalmed at that stark reminder and his worry made since - or would have because a moment later he laughed vibrantly. "Just kidding, we dont need any of that beyond 16 anymore since those Innie punks went wild. Is it okay if I pull your transcripts from… Gladius High? Need those to figure out your job qualification."
I gave a kurt nod and the smile got even wider as he spoke even further, "huh smarty pants, maintained a C average throughout your tenure. Some Varsity Footy? Okay. I got a few options lined up for you already but go around that corner and hop on consol two for a quick two hundred and seventy five question test."
Fucking testing in my dream, whack. I guess with how quickly he thought of a job for me he wants me in a line Infantry role or something lame like a truck driver. Whatever.
Following his directions I was once again going mad with how detailed this dream was. The 275 question test was pretty daunting but most of it was stuff I learned from my real world experience of university after my time in the Army. Good stuff. Other things went way over my head such as the 5 questions related to Quantom Computing or the other 20 to the basics of Astro Navigation. Whatever, those jobs were probably lame anyways. Not like I wanted to be a badass Titanfall pilot or anything.
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Following my test I returned back to SSgt Beatiz and his smile… grew larger? Okay he now officially looks like a villian.
"Alright son," still weird since I am mentally twice his age, "You qualify for a lot of different jobs but here is the list of ones I can get you out of here tonight for."
I took a printed piece of parchment from him and reviewed the positions. 'Intel Marine - Oxy Morone and also not as cool as ONI. Motor Transport "Tuh" - Nope, cool to have rides, lame to have tk fix them up all the time. Aviator - Okay, genunely cool but it says here that it would be to fly the giant school bus known as the D77 rather than something like a GA-1 or Broadsword. ODST Applicant? Pass. I dont want to turn my dream into a two year training montage to wake up without even shooting any innies or aliens.'
I gave up on this decently sized list, looked the man in the eyes, and gave a quick quip. "Rifleman." I then took a lesson I learned from my real world experience and specified. "I want it in writing to go to an Infantry Line unit to kill some innies and do the cool stuff. If I gotta hike, I want to stick it to the bastards."
The Staff Sergeant gave a hearty laugh before signing a few things, then he had me sign some things, and finally I was shuffled to a bus to go to the processing station. Whack.
I was waiting for a fast forward event to happen so that I could get right into the action, but for some reason my mind wanted me to live out every bit of this dream. Lame.
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Just like my other me lived it, I underwent numerous test, duck walked, showed a doctor my rear end in a questionable manner, flirted with the cute nurse before she rejected me, and then promtly did a little swear in. Just when I wrapped all of this up, my ass was out onto a freighter with about two hundred background faces as we left Eridanus II and got a delivery trip straight to Epsilon Eridanis for basic training.
The freighter ride is where things started to finally not make sense. I mean, plenty of red flags before hand, but waking and sleeping on a ship for close to a month lets you know that either you are in a coma, or the surreal may jsut be real. The other red flag was when I made a remark to one of the other recruits to call him out on his shitty bootsona to get a square pop to the mouth. I won the skirmish and even got a few points of XP for my troubles, but quickly realized that his punch hurt.
I may or may not have went to my rack and had a small panic attack, but the important bit is that I figured it best to keep living in the moment. As my only other option was to try and break the contract I just signed like a dumbass because I couldnt do the math earlier. Fuck.
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Just like that, time stopped, and as soon as our freighter landed, I recognized the vintage of a Campaign hat on some Sergeant between 5' and 5'5". He spoke to one of the crew before eyeing us all up. I expected a warm welcome similiar to my first Army bus a world ago, but this guy really cranked it up to ten. He gestured for his other cadre to corral us into a disorganized cluster gaggle of a line before entering his finest frog voice. He gripped something in his left hand that looked early similiar to a bato- oh fuck, Jorge moment imminent.
I readied my-me- into a ready position as I prepared to depart from my landing seat that we rode down in from orbit. As I was about to head out I heard the man speak. "You have two minutes to get off my ship and onto the deck outside. Your feet go onto the yellow pads. Dont fuck this up. Begin."
Boy did he start tk count fast. Another kid around 17 to 18 tried to ask him a question, but quickly got a baton to the leg and thrown down the ramp. The instructor didnt even stutter in his count. I was awed into giving the man some respect. Fortunately we all made it outside in time, however most of us were fucked up with poor posture, positioning, or attitude.
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I knew that wouldnt be used against us yet as we were still proccessing, but boy were they going to fuck us up later. The Sergeant came back to the front of our gaggle and continued to order us about.
Processing was just as fun as it was a lifetime ago. Almost four days with less than six hours of sleep, constant yelling, a whole plethera of emotions. I was unable to look about or even try to make friends with a fellow recruit as we had to sit or stand at attention almost our entire check in. The few smart mouths would receive baton whacks for their efforts, and the rest of us fell into line. It was a good time for sure.
As quickly as the shit show came, it departed. There I was with a hundred random kids as we entered into our birthing for the next 26 weeks of the Combined Basic Training. Some of us were destined for the Army and Air Force, but most of my class would be in the Marines and Navy. Good times.
Just like that, I received my vibe check for my new reality.
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Author Note: Hey all, this is my first time writing for an actual project so please give me back feedback and suggestions as theybcome to mind. I will update this story from time to time.
I also noticed when I finished this chapter that I left out a lot of descriptors and wrote in a way that I would have to play around with a lot of it to describe the scenes, but in the future I will try to build up the world around the MC.
On a final note, for those that dont know to much about the world, the MC is in the Halo Verse around the time of Operation Trebuchet. More details to unravel with the Story.
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Profile:
Name: Paul Jones
Title: Reclaimer*
Race: Human
Age: 17
Class: Soldier of Humanity*
Level: 1
- -
STR: 11
DEX: 14 -> 16
CON: 11
WIS: 10
INT: 10
CHA: 10
- -
FP: 2 -> 0
- -
Currency: 1100Cr
- -
Perks:
Gamer's Mind*
Gamer's Body*
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Reclaimer - +1 to all physical Stats on level up. Unique event options when interacting with Ancient Species.
Soldier of Humanity - Soldier Class name modified to fit occupation.
Gamer's Mind - Provided advantage on recalling memories. Immune to Panic and Mental Fatigue.
Gamer's Body - Provide the body of a gaming character. Body adjust to match phsical statistics. Mortal wounds to others only deal critical damage.