Chapter 8 OPERATION DEMIURGE (PART TWO)

...

3 minutes before Operation : "Demiurge"

"Is everybody in?" Asked Kanssen, the main pilot of the black V-280 Valor that the TF Monad was in. "2 squads of 6, all in!" Answered Winters while the Pilot was communicating to base, he nodded his head and talked to his radio. "Aeon-1 to Constellation, all of the men are ready, what's the sky like? Over." "Constellation to Aeon-1, the skies are clear, you're set. Out."

"Are you excited comrades?" Ivan said, staring at his mates while Conner was hugging his XM7 6.8mm assault rifle tight and Michael was fiddling with his optics. "You're hugging that thing like it's your baby." He said. "It is my baby, you have a problem?" Before Michael could rebut, the Valor's radio spoke. "Intervention to Aeon-1, you're good to go. Over." "Copy that, Out."

The Valor's high powered twin rotor blades start spinning, the engine of the metal Valkyrie growling in activation, bringing the VTOL tiltrotor aircraft to its glorious mechanical life. Its artificial soul being powered by the evolution of hundreds or maybe even thousands of years of advanced mathematics and the pure unbridled logic and genius engineering that came with it. The Valor starts to move forward in the airfield, its blades moving faster and faster till the point where the bare eye could not keep up with its speed.

"Lift Off in three, two, one!"

The iron Valkyrie took off from the ground and into the high blues, its engines roaring like grand trumpets in success and triumph with its pilots cheering. "Alright! Aeon-1 on route to the Big Fucking Moving City or BFMC for short! Time's 1600 and we're going 315 mph, ETA 35 Minutes! Demiurge is a go!" The Co Pilot said, while the rest of the task force looked outside the windows, staring at the environment and landscape. They were admiring the views and vistas of the world they've been forcefully teleported to. There was no doubt that there was a feeling of awe, intrigue and suspense in everyone, including the people back at the base, observing through their cameras. But everyone had a lingering question on the back of their heads. Would this world be their demise? Or a new beginning? No one knew for sure, but all hoped that all this would mean something in the end.

... Operation Demiurge

"All Clear!" "Alright! let's split off at this intersection!" "Squad 2 on me!" Speirs said, leading Second Squadron to the drone crash site. Task Force Monad had just landed into the Nomadic City three minutes ago and immediately Squadron Two had to quickly look for the drone before someone else found it first, they split up to the outskirts of the city while the other continued moving forward center. "First Squad! This way!" Winters said, leading his men to walk to one of the main roads, they were going to the middle of the city.

At all times vigilant, First Squad moved through the ravaged settlement like phantoms, swift and efficient. Not wasting a single second yet also taking the time to inspect every single shadowy corner and crevice, not letting a single detail pass by them. "Motherfucker, this place feels like a ghost town." Connor swore as they moved through the ruined and desolate city. "This place was already on fire before the super disaster struck, I'd be surprised if it wasn't." Replied Roe, picking up some broken concrete off the ground and placing them in a small ziplock bag. "Fuck are you picking concrete up for?" Asked Bull, "Maybe this isn't concrete Bull, we're in a new world after all." "Really? Hah, well I bet 20 bucks that it's concrete, you in?" "You have zero imagination."

"Hey! This lucky house is still intact!" Called out Michael, going near a barely standing brick house. "Permission to go in this, uhh- red brick house for intelligence gathering, Sir?" "Permission granted to investigate the red brick house!" Winters then turned to the former Spetsnaz. "Ivan clear that house with Michael!" "I will go immediately, Sir!" He said, making his way near the Combat Engineer.

Ivan and Michael leaned against the walls of the house next to the door, Michael took a glance at Ivan. "What? Flashbang?" The Russian shook his head. "Нет, Let me handle it." Ivan carefully puts his hand on the doorknob, and slowly opens it before stopping, investigating the hinges. "It's not trapped." Ivan nods his head to Michael and opens the door fully, gazing into the pitch dark house.

Both enter the lightless house, switching on their Night Visions, they proceed to inspect the house corner by corner. Michael took the living room while Ivan went to the back. "It literally just looks like a normal house, doesn't it?" Asks Michael, picking up a piece of paper from a table. "Alright, a newspaper? let's see- huh? Ain't this-" Michael stops himself, though his face was obscured by the IVAS and the dark balaclava, it was clear from his voice that he was beyond confused. "H-Hey Ivan! Over here!" "Coming!"

Ivan comes to the living room, taking the newspaper from Michael. "Let me see." Ivan stares at the newspaper for a while, freezing in place. "So?" The Former Spetsnaz muttered something incomprehensible, probably a multitude of Russian swear words to himself before staring at Michael. "Where did you find this?" Michael holsters his XM7 equipped with a M320 to his side, taking the newspaper with both hands. "Just picked it up, what does it say?" "Ehh, 'The Imperial Post', something like that." "And?" "Front page, there's a lot of news about some Emperor, Fyodor Vladimirovich." "Jesus, are we in Russia?" "It seems that the Emperor is in discussion with some rich aristocrats, uhh and then-" Ivan continued, flipping to the next page.

"The fuck?"

Michael reacted first, visibly flinching when staring at the pictures while Ivan quietly tried to analyze what in God's name was he was looking at. "Are those dog ears?" "Do those look like dog ears to you?" "What? You a zoologist or something?" "Quite." Ivan said, taking a closer look. "Misha." "That means bear, right?" "Da, It's bear ears." Before the two of them could investigate further, Winters called out for them using their IVAS' radio system. "Archon 1-6 to Archon 1-5, what's taking so long? Over." "Archon 1-5 to Archon 1-6, we've just finished clearing the house, we're leaving now. Out."

The two quickly take the door out of the house, their squadmates noticing them. "Find anything?" Bull asked, staring at both of them. "Da, take a look at this." Ivan gave the newspaper to Winters as the Squad came together behind some rubble as cover.

Winters took the paper, his jaw dropping slightly. "What in God's name did you two manage to dig up?" "Why the fuck are the Russians here?" "This, is this real?" Conner asked dumbfounded. "Huh, Weird looking mother fuckers." Roe said, staring at the picture then at Bull. "See? Different world, different people, different race, you gotta expect this type of shit." "Those bumps on their head were bear ears?" Bull replied dumbfounded, referring to the first recordings of the drone. Winters took the newspaper, and focused his IVAS camera on it, making sure the recording captured it.

"Archon 1-6 to Intervention, are you seeing what we're seeing? Over." "Intervention to Archon 1-6, we see it clear as crystal, preserve the artifact and proceed with the mission. Out." The radio blurted out.

Winters sighed, giving the piece of paper back to Ivan. "Keep that thing safe, command needs it." "Da, I will." "You heard what Command said, let's keep moving!" "Yes Sir!" Answered the rest.

"Still, I did not expect to see the Russians here, with bear ears no less." Said Conner. "Me too." Ivan replied.

First Squad continued their search for Snafu, taking notice of the eerie silent atmosphere of the once-city. They maneuvered their way street to street with the help of the Reaper's surveillance in the sky. "Hey Michael! How far are we from the signal's last known location?" "900 Meters, we're getting close." "I was wondering-" Conner said, staring at the marked location presented to him on his IVAS. "What do we do when we get there and there's no sign of him?"

"Remember the ID card they gave you when you first entered 555?" "Yes I do Lieutenant." "That plastic card got a tracker effective for 500 meters, even if he bit the dust, we should be able to find the body, that is of course if he has the ID card on him, which command has good reasons to believe he does." Winters replied.

With Conner satisfied, the First Squad resumed their expedition, advancing closer and closer through all the rubble, rock and stone at an unseen pace, until their radios blipped.

"This is SkyFather to all Archon Units-" The radio operator of the Reaper drone communicated through their IVAS, he proceeded. "We have observed twelve foot mobiles 800 meters northeast of Second Squadron's positions and fifty two on the northwest of at least 3100 meters away of which both groups seem to be similar to the white combatants from Canaan-1's footage, they are equipped with what can be described as swords and crossbows, exercise caution. Out."

Conner sighed. "And I thought we were the squad to make first contact." "Who cares? That confirms that we're not alone here, everybody watch your six." First Squad, now more attentive than ever, continued their trek, they walked on. "They're equipped with crossbows and swords huh?" "That's what they said, anyhow it looks like you're wrong about them being a more advanced race than us, huh Conner?" Said Michael. "Yeah? How about this massive moving city you're walking in right now?" "Maybe, the only thing they're good at is moving shit around."

"Hey what is that?" Said Roe, interrupting their conversation. Everyone looked to where Roe's finger was pointing at. There were massive gray crystals implanted into one building. Its many towering extended sharp spires reach out in the air like spikes. The crystal thing was completely consuming the entire building, transforming and making it a part of itself, almost like a virus.

"Got any idea what that is?" Bull asked his squad. "Why in God's name is that here?" Winters said, being the only one in the squad to recognize the strange material. "Uhh, you know what that is Sir?" "That's-" He suddenly stopped himself mid sentence and stared at his men, he sighed then opened his radio channel. "Archon 1-6 to Intervention, permission to reveal compartmentalized info? Over." "Intervention to Archon 1-6, standby." The rest of the squad stood in silence, wondering what this was about. "Intervention to Archon 1-6, permission granted. Out."

"This weird looking crystal is fucking classified info?" Asked Bull, getting closer to the Crystal. "Wouldn't recommend getting closer to that Bull." Winters shouted, making Bull stop in his tracks. "Well what is it?" "That's the legendary space crystal you've been hearing so much about." Winters finally said, revealing the identity of the material. "W-Wait, this thing is the so-called Originium? Holy- so this is what it looks like?" "To be honest with you, from all the info they've given us about the space rock, I thought it'd look like purple dark matter energy shit, not this, uhh- gray thing." Roe said, turning to his Lieutenant. "How did you know about this Sir? From what I know the only info they've revealed to us grunts, is that Originium came from space and powers the stupid portal, nothing about what it looks like."

Winters looked back, "That'll be a story for another time yeah? I dont even know why it popped up here, for now let's focus on the mission. Aye?" "Yes Sir, I'm now more focused than ever, wait, why can't we go near it?" Winters shrugged. "I don't know, but I've been told not to come even 5 meters near it. So don't." "That's fucking fishy man." Conner said, slowly backing away.

"Can I try shooting at it?" The Russian said, suddenly joining in the conversation. "Well probably fucking not. C'mon we're getting close to the signal, it's just this way behind that building, lets move!" Michael answered, continuing to move on with the mission. "You heard him, stop staring and let's move it!" "Aye Sir!"

First Squadron finally reached below a hundred meters near the signal location, Michael was at the front of their formation with Conner guarding him. Michael was pointing the ID card tracker side to side, searching for any clue of Snafu. "Still no luck, this thing ain't picking up shit." "Maybe the SIGINT team got it wrong?" "Nah, no way, there hasn't been a single time where our signal tracking tech didn't work." "Ever wondered what happened to the Second Squadron?" Conner asked, changing the topic. "They should be done by now right-"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

And as if by complete coincidence, the booming fire of echoing gunshots was heard, carried by the wind.

The group immediately dispersed, dashing away from being grouped too close and hid behind what cover they could find. Winters had his hand up while they checked their surroundings in total silence as they communicated through intricate hand signs and walked in strides as if they were shadows, barely leaving even a hint of sound from their steps. Winters put his hand back down, indicating authorization to speak. "It's all clear for this side." "Aye, same here."

Winters configured his IVAS, turning on his comms. "This is Archon 1-6 to Archon 2-3 we're nearing 50 meters to the last detected location of the signal, break, what's your status? Over." There was a moment of silence before the radio responded with a voice. "Archon 2-3 to Archon 1-6, we're good here, though we might have some trouble with the locals nearby. Be advised white masks seem to be highly, uhh- aggressive, proceed with caution when you make contact. Over." "Archon 1-6 to Archon 2-3, Solid copy, we're moving on with our objective. Out."

"Already having trouble with the locals huh? Now this is totally new." Michael said with obvious sarcasm marking his voice. "Fuck me, getting into a firefight with crossbows gotta be something surrea-" A low rumbling sound coming from below the ground caused Bull to stop speaking. Weapons raised, Winters led the squad in a wide opening in the ground where the noise originated from.

Winters signaled Connor to go first, he nodded his head and descended in the collapsed bunker. His IVAS automatically corrects to low light vision and a mix of heat signature tracking, with rifle raised, he examined the small underground space. Ivan was just behind him, clearing each corner twice over, suddenly Conner stopped, signaling Ivan to perform a sweeping motion around a corner.

The two turned the corner, only to be met with a flying dagger, zipping through the air at breakneck speed, aimed straight to Conner's heart.

Conner immediately adjusted his body with lightning quick reflexes so the knife would hit his plate carrier, preventing injury, and after the impact he pulled the trigger and his gun thundered into suppressive fire into whoever dared tried to take down a Tier One unit with a mere knife, throwing it no less. Ivan rushed to join him in covering fire as his Comrade advanced to look for the enemy. "Do you see anything?" "Нет, I can't see-" A movement in the dark was heard, with the two of them looking in the direction of a small figure's heat signature, lunging at them with a dagger on one hand.

Ivan, seeing it first, aimed his weapon and fired twice in quick succession. However something totally fantastical occurred, the figure suddenly vanished for a second yet its heat signature still appeared on his IVAS but the physical form seemed to blink away from existence. The more alarming thing being the bullets seeming to pass by it and instead hit the wall behind it. Before Ivan could even swear something in Russian, the figure blinked into existence again, just right In front of him like it materialized into existence out of thin air with the knife aiming directly at his throat.

"Cука-влядь!"

His instincts screamed absolute danger, and with his reflex he tried to bash the figure with his gun with all the strength he had, but before he could even move an inch, the figure abruptly stopped mid stab. The knife was dropped on the ground and instead of an active threat aiming for his soul, the figure seemed to have fainted, instead dropping to his shoulder.

"Ivan! You okay there?" "Da, did you do anything?" "No, this fucker just dropped."

"What's going on in there?!" The other members of First Squadron immediately rushed inside the collapsed bunker, their guns aimed with Winters and Roe on the front ready to extract any wounded if any. "Are you all okay?" Roe said, rushing to Conner and Ivan, before halting upon seeing the black hooded figure laying on Ivan's chest. "What the- is that thing dead?"

Ivan slowly pushed the dark hooded figure and placed the figure on its back on the ground. "It's still breathing." "This fucker just tried to kill us! And we didn't even do anything!" Conner said in slight frustration, he sighed then kneeled down to take off the figure's weirdly shaped hood. "Hey, you sleeping fuck, won't you show your face you-" Conner only lifted a part of the figure's weird looking hood Before stopping. It was a human face, a young girl's, her orange-red bangs flowing on his dirty gloves.

"It's a girl?" "The shit?" Bull reacted, taking a closer look for himself. "Well what in God's name is someone like her doing here?" "Hey, watch it! She's wounded! Look at her arm!" Roe, who quickly took action said, quickly preparing some of his medic kit. "Shit, you're right, uhh- what should we do Sir?" Michael asked, turning to face Winters, who was also perplexed upon seeing such a young person at this desolate city. "Let's bring her over to the light shall we? this visor's FLIR-Low Light is making my head spin." "Aye Sir!"

First squad managed to carry the girl out of the bunker, getting a clearer look under the slowly setting sun. Ivan and Conner placed her down on top of some flat concrete. "Hey, wait a minute, what's that?" Michael said, noticing the long protruding orange-red fluffy thing above her pants. "Is-is that a fucking tail?" Conner placed the girl down, touching her back end. "What the fuck are you doing Conner!" Bull shouted, staring at Conner's suspicious act. "Huh? Oh! It's not what you think, dumbass!"

"Hey stop messing around and let me take a look!" Ivan and Conner backed off upon Roe's words, letting the medic take care of her. Winters sighed, then faced Conner and Ivan. "Those gunshots earlier, she attacked you?" "Yeah, threw a knife at us-" Connor said, taking the knife lodged in his vest and staring at the Russian. "Then she tried to stab Ivan here." "Da, that she did."

Winters nodded his head, then contacted his radio. "This is Archon 1-6 to Intervention, we've got a young girl here needing immediate medical attention, she's fast asleep right now but possibly hostile when awake, what should we do? Over."

"Intervention to Archon 1-6, prepare for immediate CASEVAC of the girl at the designated extraction point, ETA 20 minutes, Break, what's your status on the signal? Over." "Copy that, we're at the signal's last known location but we've found nothing so far and the tracker cannot detect anything. Over." "Affirmative, use the last minutes to your objective before extracting out of the BFMC with the girl, Over." "Copy, Archon 1-6 Out."

Winters disconnected his radio, then looked to his men. Bull clicked his tongue. "They gave up on Shelton?" "I'm beginning to think he ain't even in here." Michael answered, still holding out the ID tracker. "This thing is effective for 500 meters and it still isn't beeping, meaning SIGINT guys actually got it really wrong or he isn't in here, at least not anymore or maybe we're too late?" He said, looking to the sky, gazing at the setting sun and the Reaper drone's ominous dark silhouette over it. "Besides, it's getting late, who knows what happens here at night, maybe those white masks guys the second squad encountered will pop out again." "Right, I forgot about that, did the second squad extract already?" "I'll ask them."

Michael contacted his radio in response. "This is Archon 1-5 to Archon 1-6, what's your status? Over." The radio quickly responded in a whisper. "Archon 2-6 to Archon 1-5, the drone is taken care of, we're hiding from an entire army of white masks 80 meters to our right, we're currently waiting for Intervention's orders to take them out. Over." "An entire army? Do you need help over there? Over." "Negative, we've got everything under control here, we'll link up with you at the extraction zone in ten minutes. Out."

Not long after the radio conversation ended, the recognizable booming thunder of rifle fire echoed in the distance, playing a haunting melody. Only turning into deadly silence after a minute.

"Fuck me, so much for command asking us to stay hidden and covert." "We sure we didn't just make a big mess here? I mean we got transported to a new world and the first thing we do is kill the locals, shit, I bet we'll be all over the news soon." "C'mon Michael, there won't be anything if there's no one there to see it." Bull said, with a slight grin.

"Oh what the fuck is this?" Everyone turned to Roe, who was quietly laughing to himself in disbelief. "What? The girl?" "Come, take a look boys." The squad huddles together, all wide eyed staring at the red haired girl, with her hood fully taken off. "That's, dog ears?" Michael said. "Нет, still wrong comrade, that's of a wol-" Ivan stopped, his eyes narrowing behind his visors. He slowly reached out, carefully touching the girl's animal-like ears on top of her head. "I was wrong, that is not of a wolf."

"Who cares about what it is, we're actually seeing a real animal person here!" "Shh! She's blacked out right now!" Roe said. "I've already taken all her weapons on her person, but still, better for her to be fast asleep when we don't have proper detaining equipment, yeah?" "He's right, let's keep silent, Michael, Bull, we'll check our perimeter, on me." Winters said, moving away with Michael to stand guard.

"Christ, she actually has a tail?" "I fucking told you man." Conner replied to Bull who was slowly backing off from the animal girl. "That's fucking messed up, I'll go check up on Winters and Michael, you take care of er'." He said moving away. Conner sighed, then placed his attention to the girl and took his water flask from his bag. "Hey, give her this." He said, giving the flask to Roe. "Huh, good idea." Roe said, "But you give her some water, I'm busy patching her arm up." The Russian laughed a small bit, patting Connor's shoulder.

"Already making friends with a former enemy? Huh Comrade?" "Shut it, she just reminded me of my little sister, all the way back home." "Huh, I did not know that" Conner slowly opened his flask and fixed the Girl's position, putting his flask to her lips. "Hey Ivan, what happened earlier?" He said, while giving the sleeping girl some of his water, making sure she actually injested it. Ivan furrowed his brows, in recollection of the girl suddenly disappearing for a second. "I'm afraid I have no idea." "Weird, let's check the video recording later." Conner said, putting his flask back on him at the same time Roe finished bandaging her up.

"Hey, We talk about what happened later at base, alright?" Roe said, checking his watch. "It's near time, we should move to the extraction point now." He stood up, looking to relay the message to Winters. With only Ivan and Conner near the girl, Conner decided to touch her animal ears, the only reason being curiosity of course. Absolutely nothing else. "I wonder how they evolved to become like this, weird shit." "Da, it looks like someone just mixed animal traits with a human, maybe a mad scientist?" The Russian replied.

But while Conner was caressing her ears, her mouth moved slightly, producing a soft, light voice. "M-Maestro-" She said to herself while sleeping, her soft voice catching the attention of Ivan and Connor. "I p-promise, I'll do my best to become strong, a strong w-wolf, someday." And with that sentence she was sent back to deep sleep, with both Ivan and Conner staring at eachother.

___ (Arknights is not owned by me.) A/N Above image for reference on what the soldiers look like, but imagine it pure black. Late again, I got busy, so as an apology i made 2 chaps. I know i introduced a lot of new characters, and the original idea was that throughout their entire mission, they would be calling themselves by their Callsign, but that was insanely repetitive and confusing. So i just switched it to their names.

Case officer action coming soon!

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