Chapter 1: not what I expected
50 miles outside Night city.
Underground militech research facility.
Year- 2022 (4th corporate war.)
'You know, this isn't what was supposed to happen.' I thought, as I ran down the crowded halls of the underground facility.
'My plan was to be some security guard for a few years at some random militech factory for a few years so I could save up enough to open up my own shop or something. not to be in the middle of some corpo war.' I thought, as my regrets washed through my head.
"Get the fuck out of my way!" I shouted, as a burly man in a militech combat suit got in my way.
Shoving him to the side, I continued to make my way through the underground hallways, going deeper down, and deeper into the restricted area.
"Of course they ask the new guy to evacuate the deepest level" I spat, as I started to run full out.
Making it to the end of the hallway, I slid to a stop in front of an elevator.
Pressing the round button on the side of the elevator doors, I anxiously waited for the elevator systems to respond.
"Security level requested." Said a nondescript robotic voice.
"Temporary black-out level access, granted by base commander Alex Dean." I said, now getting angry at the wait.
"Daniel Alvarez, 22 years of age, 2 years with militech, with Entry level security. Processing clearance…confirmed. Now under temporary black-out security clearance." the robotic voice said, as the elevator doors hissed open.
Stepping inside, I pressed the only button in the elevator.
Not even a second later, the elevator shook aggressively as a boom rang out somewhere in the base.
"Damn it!" I shouted, as I slammed into one of the walls of the elevator.
Standing back up to my feet, I held onto one of the railings so I wouldn't go flying again if there was another explosion.
'What the hell was that, an explosion' I wondered to myself.
'But why? The only thing I've ever seen researched here is new guns, and that's it. Nothing to gain a full on attack from arasaka.'
But before I could continue down that path of thought, the elevator doors opened up to reveal another long hallway, lit by red emergency lights.
'Whoever built this place deserves to burn in hell. No hallway should be this long with only one door in it' I thought as I started to run to the door all the way at the end of the hall.
Finally making it to the end of the hall, I started to breathe hard, as I pressed the access button on the side of the large metal door that stood in my way.
The large red button blinked red a few times, before it turned to green, and the large metal doors started to groan and creak until it was open enough for me to squeeze in.
Squeezing through the doors, I looked around the large room.
The room was filled with what looked like massive 10 foot servers, with large wires that came from their tops and went into the ceiling.
"What in the actual fuck is this." I stammered as I looked around me at the hundreds of servers.
"It's called a computer room, you dumbass," an angry voice said.
Whipping my head around, I looked for where the voice had come from.
Looking up, I realized that there was a small steel level that had a desk and computer screens on it, 20 feet from the floor, and right above the large steel doors that were now closing again.
Standing behind all of that, was a man hard to see from where I stood. But what i could see was a middle aged man with a white lab coat on, typing madly on a keyboard.
"We need to get the hell out of here, we're under attack." I yelled up at him.
"Noo shit, the red emergency lights and vibrations from the bombs would have never told me that." The guy said sarcastically.
"Hey dick head, I could just leave you here." I yelled, giving the man a stern finger point.
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." He said, not looking away from his computer screens, or pausing in his typing.
"You know what, I'm gonna save you just to fuck with you." I said, now angered.
Looking for a way up to the small level, I spotted a ladder bolted into the concrete wall that led right up to that level.
"Here I come shit head." I said, as I jogged to the ladder, and pulled myself up.
Climbing the latter two rungs at a time, I quickly made it to the top.
Pulling myself up and onto the graded flooring, I pointed my finger at the thin man.
"Look, you must be important or something, because they wouldn't have sent anyone if you weren't. But they never said I had to take you back whole. So you do what I say, or I'm going to throw you over the railing then drag you out of here." I said, standing to my feet.
"Shut up, I've almost got it." The man, who I now saw was a middle aged balding man, who looked to be underfed and nothing but skin and bones.
The smell that was reeking from him would have told me he wasn't taking care of himself, his appearance just confirmed it.
'uhh, that's nasty.'I couldn't help but think, as I grimaced.
"I'm just going to say it one more time. Come now, or you're going over." I said, taking a step closer.
But he didn't answer me. Instead he furiously continued to type code into the screens.
"Suit yourself." I said, ready to send him over.
But as I took a step forward, the underground base shook again. But this time violently.
Falling to one of the railings, I held on tight as the Shockwave hit us.
The sound of metal breaking, and electric pops, filled my ears as the rumbling stopped.
"Shit!" The strange man spat, as he looked up into the server room.
Following him, I looked at what he saw.
"Oh fuck." I said, as I watched water gush from a massive overhead pipe.
The pipe emptied tens of gallons a second, to come crashing down into the server room.
"Maybe I can still activate it? Then Move it to another server system at another base." the man said, as he went back to typing. This time in a slightly crazed tone.
"You must be stuiped." I shouted over the sound of the water.
"Whatever you have planned won't fucking work. If we don't get the fuck out of here now we will be trapped." I said, taking two long strides towards the man, planning to throw him over the side.
"I don't get paid enough to die for you, but I'm already here, so I might as well finish the job." I said, forcefully grabbing the man's shoulder.
But as I grabbed his shoulder, the strange man freaked.
"DON'T FUCKIN TOUCH ME!" He screamed, as he whirled around.
Showing a strength that belied the man, he grabbed me by my vest, and pushed.
The unexpected movement from the skinny man caught me off guard, and unprepared.
"Wha tha fu" was all I managed to get out before I hit the railing that only went up to my waist.
Slamming into it hard, I then felt myself flipping over the short railing.
As I went weightless, everything went into slow motion for me.
I got a glimpse of the crazed eyes of the strange man that just pushed me over the edge, then as my body rotated, I got a look at the ground.
By this point there was already about a foot of water on the floor, but that was of no importance to me at the moment, I already knew I was dead.
Closing my eyes, I couldn't help but think of my little sister. The only one left in this world that I still had, and now she would be all alone.
'God, how could I have been so stuiped to join up.' were the last thought to go through my mind, before my world went black.
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(3rd person)
Daniel's body hit the ground hard with a thud.
The foot of water was unable to stop his head-first 20 ft descent.
"Dumb cunt!" The now crazed programmer shouted as he watched Daniel's body hit the ground.
"you need to finish." His inner voice whispered to himself, as he turned back to his beeping computer screens.
"I won't let some kid or damn war get in the way of my life's work." he said as he continued typing.
As he typed, the rumbling of exploding bombs got more intense, shaking the underground server room, causing cracks to form on the concrete walls.
"Ahhhhahahah." The crazed man shouted in excitement, as he finished typing.
"I've done it." he said fondly, as he caressed the screen.
"Now it must survive," he said panicked, as he began to type again.
"Starting sequence in progress." An electronic voice said over his computer's speakers.
The servers that once sat like silent sentinels came to life, as a light blue hue filled them as they turned on.
But as they turned on, the water that was now five feet in depth, started to spark with electricity.
"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUUUUCKK." The programmer screamed, as he saw the sparking water.
"I must hurry, you must succeed." He said madly over and over again.
"Transfer program. Please select a destination." The robotic voice from his computer asked.
"Europe, Germany. Militech facility 0025." The man said, as he typed.
"Transfer denied. All external links are currently down. Please try another route or wait until external links are online." The robotic voice said.
"No no no nOOO NO NO NOOOO." he shouted as he saw the work he had dedicated his life towards slowly going down the drain.
But before he could continue to think of ways to transfer the program, one of the many servers that filled the room exploded.
Sending red hot shrapnel through the room, and making the electrical current in the water worse.
"No…noo." He said in a tone of complete defeat.
Turning to look down at his desk, his hand moved almost on its own, as he opened his pen drawer under his desk.
As he opened the drawer, the light from his computer screen glinted off the cold steel of the hand gun he had stored there.
"I had it. I just wasn't fast enough, and now the world will pay for my failure." The man said in a moment of clarity, as he raised the gun to his temple, and slowly pulled the trigger.
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