Rewriting history

One trip through the whom-pah, and we were in Omni One, Trade District. (I know these things are supposed to be safe, but I always feel jumpy going through one of these... not too sure why though). My new... boss (I guess) wasted no time and proceeded to walk through the crowds.

Having nothing else to do, I followed him.

"A drastic change from Athen, or Tir, wouldn't you say?"

I carefully side stepped an oncoming Atrox who seemed to have issues. "Yeah, it's a little bit flashier... what did you say your name was?"

"Privileged information Haiiro. I hope I don't need to remind you that you are not exactly one of the privileged."

I spared a quick glance at the two statues towering over me as we passed underneath. "And I suppose I'm not to contact you."

"Though I would love to tell you, 'don't contact me, I'll contact you,' my life doesn't revolve around you. You can contact my... 'secretary.' Not to worry, you'll meet him soon. Just that somethings are best said in more private areas."

We were now walking through some doors and into the lobby of some tower... didn't quite catch the name. I was forced to hurry through the security checks and into and to the elevator. Moments later I was on a dark windowless floor, with no idea whether we went up or down. Bloody teleportations.

I gave a feeble wave to the guards covered in Metaplast armour. "Thought you'd have Omni-Pol guards here..."

"Really? I thought you were more intelligent than that, Haiiro."

Then I found myself in a massive chamber, with dim floor lights showing chairs, and a table, and nothing more. Oh, and someone at the far end of the table, dressed in black. Not an Omni Executive suit or an InternOp uniform, just black.

"So, this is your new recruit, sir?" he said with the barest tint of a foreign accent.

I was motioned to have a seat. I prefer to stand but I took one anyways.

"Haiiro, meet Young. Young, meet Haiiro. He doesn't have, nor need, a full name yet."

"Understood, sir. Though I still dislike the fact that you risked meeting him like this."

With a brush of his hand, he replied, "Your concern is unnecessary, Young. Just get our new contact aquanted with his new home... and identity."

And with that, he left.

There was a few moments of silence, as we both took measure of each other.

With a hidden wry smile, I said, "Pleasure to meet you."

He merely replied, "Mr. Haiiro, there is a room behind you. Please remove that second hand junk you have and change into something a little more suitable."

Real friendly guy too.

I opened up the bag, and examined my new outfit.

Omni-Pol armour... never thought I'd ever be wearing this stuff. My size too. Why am I not suprised? I also noted the black Commander's cloak in there. Damn, that raises a lot of questions... what is it's purpose? Bribery of some sorts? An omen?

Like hell I'll be wearing it, especially with my luck. With my luck, I'm probably going to be resigned to the fate of being a nobody, just a pawn in someones little game, nothing more.

And given my surroundings, it seems I'm merely the pawn of a pawn.

Well what do you know... the helmet comes with a straw, just in case I'd ever get thirsty in a hostile atmosphere. Wonder how you... oh, gel packs. Well, I never really enjoyed stopping to eat anyways. Wonder if this is a customised version or something.

_______________

I walked back into the room, noting that Young was drinking coffee or tea... or whatever the locals drink in those cups.

After he took a sip, he looked me over and commented, "Much better, Mr. Haiiro. Now we can finally get to business. Have a seat."

As I sat down, the room suddenly light up in with a holographic display, composed of my image, my current state of health, my personal record, my criminal record... let's see, wanted for murder, assasinations, vandalism, espionage... yep, seems normal enough to me.

...wait, these are clan records...

"Haiiro, meet Haiiro, second lieutenant for the Omni-Tek Armed Forces, transferred here from one of our more secretive bases in a classified solar system, currently under the juridiction for Omni-Pol to keep the peace, under direct command of Captain Nam Jae-joon, that being me."

Second lieutenant eh? Meaning I can command low grunts, get hated by the sergeants, and ordered around by everyone else.

Almost a meaningless position.

"Impressive, I see that I'm on the Sentinels hit list."

"Lieutenant, you have only yourself to thank for this criminal record. It would be longer, but luckily our technicians realised that you, a valued Omni Tek employee, was the victim of a glitch, and all the false crimes against Omni Tech that you've made have been wiped."

"Good thing that happened. Oh, by the way, what solar system am I from?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, Lieutenant Haiiro. Where are you from?"

Pain...

"I can't remember." I said, in a hopefully calm voice.

"Quite a shame. Have you ever heard of the Grey incident?"

The what? That...

I find myself slumped over the table, regaining conciousness.

"Well, this is fascinating." Young pulled out some sunglasses and proceeded to put them on. "That's enough for today. Remember the information shown here. When I am not in this room, you will call me sir, or Colonel. Colonel Jae-joon will also do. When you feel ready to leave, just go out the way you came from." Standing up from his chair, he gave the holographic display a quick glance. "As usual, there are always questions left unanswered. Good day."

I close my eyes in hopes of clearing my vision, listening to him leave.

Why can't they leave my past alone? Why can't I leave my past alone?

When I was told to go out and explore, what better way to see the view than go on visit Rome's notorious subway?

Actually, I'm getting a lot of more appealing answers to that question.

The leader, Omni-Pol lieutenant, informed me that something else other than strikers, mutant fleas, and the usual assortment was spotted in there, and it was our duty to find out what it was.

It was simple enough. Our group went along, found a large assorment of horrors, and killed them.

So we congratulated ourselves, and for some odd reason, I decided to stick around with two others while the leader and his aide left to report what we found.

And so, here I was, who knows how far below Rubi-Ka's surface, with Sile and Anni (Not his full nickname, but when things start getting dicey, yelling Annihilation in battle is not only lengthy, it also causes confusion.), reading up on my Omni-Tek history on the helmet's hologram system (the things this thing does...), and Sile notices something.

"Hey, I think the guys are coming back."

Well what do you know. Wonder what new information they have.

"Lieutenant..."

I turn to see Sile and Anni getting their weapons ready, as I see an assortment of poorly dressed, yet armed... umm... people cut off our route out. When they shot at us, I kind of gathered that they weren't friendly.

"Focus your fire!" I yelled, bringing my assault rifle and returning fire. "Take them down one at a time!"

"Too many of them!"

Damn, I could see a swarm of hostile dots appear on my screen. Wait... there's more...

Suddenly I was knocked to the ground by someone jumping on top of me.

Someone yelled something about they're dropping from above. Personally I thought that was obvious as I knocked the guy off of me... I mean girl, with a burst of bullets to her chest.

Sile shouted, "Sir! We got to run!"

Tempting suggestion. "Stand your ground! We run, we'll only get shot in the back."

Sides, who wants to live forever anyways?

Oh, right, I do.

Seconds, maybe minutes later, I found out that we actually fought them off. No doubt getting reinforcements.

They looked at me, probably wondering I would tell them. Same here. Congratulations Haiiro, you now have your first command position.

"Right, the longer we stay here, the more goons we'll probably see." I reloaded my gun, and continued, "We'll move fast, shooting whoever is in front of us, and once they drop to the ground, we keep moving, stopping only to heal. Understand?"

They nodded, and we moved. Probably took the buggers by suprise too, cutting taking them on two, maybe three at a time.

It wasn't exactly anything to brag about, but as we moved, united, I almost felt invincible.

But the enemies seemed endless. Almost every chamber had someone guarding it, slowing our escape. And we were getting tired too. Each attack drained us more and more.

Finally, silence. "We're almost out of here..." Sile said.

I nodded, and watched Anni open a door...

And we were rushed by seven, maybe eight guys, catching us off guard. Desperately I tried to focus my fire, but for a small room, it's tough to figure out who your men are shooting at.

Two bullets through my chest nearly downed me, and I watched my bullets down two of theirs. Could barely breath... Bullet through gut... started coughing up blood. Saw another one of them fall.

Noticed Anni trying to run for cover, in worse condition than I was, chased by two targets (some call them tangos, I call them targets). I yelled, "Get of of him!" Doubt they could hear me. Tried to kill them before they killed Anni, succeeded. And then saw a third guy take him down from behind.

Then it was over. Bodies were everywhere...

I slumped to the ground, administered a treatment kit to myself, hoping it could stich my wounds enough to get out of there.

"Sir? I think that was the last of them."

Grunting, I got up, feeling the painkillers set in. (Nanobots... got to love em)

I looked back at where we came from. "Well, now we know that there's something down here. Let's see if Omni-Pol will send in an army to cleanse this place."

I slowly got up, and squished a slum runner attracted to my blood.

Then a thought occurred to me. "How long have those strikers been striking? And why?"

"No idea, sir. Does it matter."

Yeah probably. "No, no it doesn't matter. Let's get out of here."

I enjoyed this.