No second chances: The beginning of the end

Chapter 17: Preparations.

“Ruler Yan Hernandez confirmed the forest became the nest of a catastrophe tier threat known as an Earth dragon. The guild has also warned any mercenary to stay away since a famous group of heroes called Deadlock was found brutally quartered in the outskirts of the forest as if it was a sort of warning; it is presumed the elves living in this forest have turned against humans, making them a natural disaster tier threat. The prime minister decided to create a task team to enter the forest and eliminate the elves before they start hunting, in the nearby cities. In the spawn of 2 weeks, the military will be mobilized in case the initial plan fails, claims the prime minister.” –A news reporter summarized before the T.V. was suddenly turned off by Elvira, who let out a sigh while getting out of her house to work on the service station once again. What if Gree knew about this before it happened, and that is why they fled? I’m worried this could spread across the kingdom; they only mentioned 4 catastrophe tier threats in the past since the creation of dragons as far as history concerns. –She thought while noticing some military SUVs approaching her family houses.

A few minutes later, 2 soldiers were interrogating Elvira and her family. “We will now go to the point. We are here to recruit you to help us hunt a certain objective in the Pandora forest, if you refuse, we will have to take your family into custody for confabulating against the kingdom and letting crucial fugitives escape.” –Said the next soldier while stepping into the house, holding an SMG and followed by 4 other soldiers equally armed. “If you decide to oppose us the government will tag you as a traitor and your family will pay for the consequences” –The soldier continued with a nonchalant tone. Elvira, unable to say anything, was taken without resistance to the SUV as one of the soldiers was left behind in order to keep her family controlled.

So in the end I can’t really escape from my past as a government dog…I can’t really let them do anything to my family so I’ll have to obey.-Elvira thought while clenching her fists as the SUV arrived at the camp on the border of the kingdoms. She was then taken into a helicopter with the capital as the destination.

“The first mission assigned to you will be the capture or, if impossible, elimination of a catastrophe tier threat individual. A group of special heroes will be gathered and turned into a task team able to fight these objectives. Unclassified information states that an updated version of the Tyranno-AMHAR series was not enough to subjugate the threat, meaning that this far exceeds what a small platoon of average soldiers could do.” –A soldier that seemed to be the team leader of the bordering camp read out loud a document with information about the mission for Elvira. “I hope you understand, failing this mission means death, and refusing it means you will become a traitor” –The soldier continued while staring at Elvira. “Once we get to the capital you will be provided with proper equipment and information about your team” –He concluded while putting away the document and closely inspecting Elvira during the rest of the flight.

Once in the capital’s military facility Elvira was escorted to what it seemed to be a large waiting room with several people already, many of them appeared to be seasoned mercenaries and heroes, all of them already equipped for combat. “Just how many of them are here already?” –Elvira spoke her mind out loud without noticing.

“We are taking extreme measurements bringing as many heroes as possible; we are expecting to send 50 towards the forest to purge the threat. We were taking into count their skills and their teamwork as they are able to defeat a Peacemaker in teams of 10.” –A soldier escorting Elvira answered.

So they are sending 5 teams of 10 to be able to fight a threat that they’ve probably not seen before, are we some sort of test subjects? If an updated version of the sweeper was dispatched and still got destroyed, I can’t imagine what could happen to us, -Elvira thought while making her way to a free seat.

After a while, a group of heroes approached Elvira with the intention of adding her to their team. Seemingly, there was another half-breed like her that accepted joining them, and with her, the team would be complete, so she agreed. Some minutes later, they introduced themselves and began talking about their past experiences as heroes. Two of them are a married couple that learned magic and helped to fight against the TDW-A01 hives; the other three escalated the guild ranks by accepting dangerous missions of escort, Intel gathering, and capturing fugitives; the half-breed who joined before Elvira was an experiment subject, the government recruited him to develop a cure for the TDW-A01 using his immunity. Lastly, the rest of them were veterans called back for duty, their exceptional results in combat and leadership were remarkable enough to let them take part in this operation.

Elvira didn’t disclose too much of her past, she just pointed that she has a special affinity with a wide variety of fauna, and the government recruited her to develop that ability and sharpen her fighting instincts. She also pointed out she joined a special weapon development program that specialized in creating custom weapons to enhance the holder’s abilities. “Oh, I’ve heard of that project, it sounded promising but the government canceled it due to the expenses, they couldn’t afford to create more than just a few of those weapons. If you are one of the lucky few who managed to get a custom weapon, no wonder why they called you back.” –One of the veterans mentioned while crossing his arms. “This certainly makes you one of, if not the most, valuable asset in this team” –He concluded while a soldier entered the room and called 3 names; one of them was Elvira Sevens.

Elvira stood up and saw the other two walking towards the soldier with a rather lazy behavior, yawning and stretching as if they just woke up from a nap. “These three people will now conduct a character test in order to be given their respective equipment, if the test results in failure you will be terminated and the equipment will be scrapped” –The soldier read from a paper given to her.

So this is the way for them to make sure we will be able to obey, I guess I’ll just have to do it properly, my family is on the line.-Elvira thought while forming in front of the soldier who then took them to a separate room along with a whole military squad.

The room consisted of a white space monitored by cameras, pretty simple for a character test room. Suddenly, the three of them were all aimed at by the soldiers; no one moved a muscle until the soldier who read the paper out loud entered the room and placed an electronic collar on their necks. “These collars are the character test, they will blow up and severe your head instantly in case you attempt to rebel against us or try to deviate from the operation objective. Attempting to remove it, will also trigger the explosion, if you don’t believe this, you are allowed to try.” –She explained before leaving the room, allowing a trolley with weapons on display to enter. The weapons consisted of a large scythe, a couple of gloves, and a whip.

Elvira took the gloves as the other two took the scythe and whip accordingly, they were then allowed to change their clothes into more suitable military clothing. After some minutes, they were escorted back to the waiting room. Once there, Elvira was interrogated by her new companions about the collar and the weapon they provided her. “The collar is for me to not disobey orders nor deviate from the plan and my equipment consists of these gloves, the one who made them said the special polymer they are made of can help Nanomachines to create a wide variety of rigid shapes, it also helps me simulate a softer touch to the senses of anything I come in contact with. Basically just a tool I could use as a weapon, like a nifty Swiss knife.” Elvira answered while suddenly the tips of the gloves turned into different tools, such as a small blade, screwdriver tip, lock pick, etc. Everyone looked at her with reluctance before starting to laugh.

“After seeing what the other two got, I was expecting to see these to be more…” –One of the veterans mentioned while trying to find the next word to finish the sentence.

“Imposing?” –A Hero completed as everyone began to laugh again.

“Given that those are simple gloves, anyone could wear then, no? I’m not entirely sure of how this be made only for you” –One of the married couples pointed out before whispering something to her wife as they both stared at the gloves.

“I’m not supposed to disclose much of the utility these gloves provide, so I’m afraid I can’t show more of this” –Elvira said while gently sitting down covering one of her hands with the other. Everyone’s laughs and giggles turned into whispers and stares towards Elvira, unsettling her a bit.

Approximately an hour later, the last of the 50 chosen people, was brought into the room, and the soldier who escorted him ordered to close the door behind him. Suddenly, the room’s lights dimmed and a projector turned on showing images taken by the recon team before getting destroyed by the treants. After swiping through a couple of them, Archival comes into the projection. “This is the individual everyone has to be careful about; he is also the secondary target of this operation but the most threatening one, don’t hesitate on terminating this individual.” –the voice of the head researcher came out from a speaker while they kept swiping after the brief explanation. Once the images turned into the AMHAR’s point of view, a massive animal with prehistoric features and an alarmingly sturdy body structure was shown, amazing everyone in the room. “This is the operation’s objective, a dragon. Upon exhaustive investigation, the research department concluded it is one of the oldest specimens that we’ve encountered; hence, it is one of the original subjects that escaped from our ancestors. After several hundreds of years, the dragon developed the body and size of a catastrophe threat tier individual; the priority is to capture it, but if this results impossible, it is allowed to terminate it.” –the head researcher explained before the lights turned back on.

“All five teams will be required to check into the devices placed on their transports in order to proceed to the mission. Everyone will be promptly dispatched to outposts nearby the forest. This operation will take place in 6 days, so be sure to prepare contingency plans and to get familiarized with each other for better coordination.” –One of the soldiers mentioned while opening the doors once again for everyone to leave the room to walk towards their respective transports.

Meanwhile, in a research facility around the outskirts of the capital, the Ruler beheld the corpse of DD from a safe distance as many scientists kept testing its properties, taking samples, and walking back and forth with several tools meant for both demolitions and surgeries. Behind him, Sinns was being kept captive in a laboratory suspension tube, while researchers kept administrating her certain components extracted from DD’s corpse. “This is going to be the weapon we need against the other kingdoms; the rest of rulers might have already noticed DD is dead and we are vulnerable. But you, my daughter, you will be the ace up my sleeve to conquer the neighboring kingdoms” –Said the ruler while turning to see Sinns in a lethargic state, as her body kept reacting differently due to the chemicals and components.