Information


Assault has a minion!

Deployable Support the Boom




Assault
Legacy Name: Assault


The Common Experiment #357
Owner: Derelict

Age: 11 years, 3 weeks, 1 day

Born: March 7th, 2013

Adopted: 11 years, 3 weeks, 1 day ago

Adopted: March 7th, 2013

This pet has been nominated for the Pet Spotlight!

Statistics


  • Level: 1
     
  • Strength: 10
     
  • Defense: 10
     
  • Speed: 10
     
  • Health: 9
     
  • HP: 10/9
     
  • Intelligence: 0
     
  • Books Read: 0
  • Food Eaten: 0
  • Job: Unemployed


Backstory

"Live to fight, fight to live."


cw // violence, war

I.

The blades of the ceiling fan spun above him, whole thing rattling loudly while he watched from his dingy cot. Reminded him of the chopper blades, bending and shaking wildly with the wind as the mass of metal plummeted from the sky. The soldier quickly pushed the memories from his mind; shunned his comrades spectral faces and wiped a bead of sweat from his temple with his forearm. There could’ve been ten fans pointed at him and it’d have made no difference. The heat here was sickening, permeating. There was no escaping it, least of all down in the barracks where the air was stagnant with damp. Javi refocused on the clipboard held in his hand and sighed before skimming the contents of the heavily ink-blotted pages; more redacted lines than usual, he noticed.

Another mission report to memorize before another briefing. Another hill that needed holding, another base that needed capturing, another life that needed ending. It was all the same to him now- had all been blurring together for some time. Every mission he was sent on, he’d been reassured was ‘critical’ to the war effort, would be a ‘major breakthrough’ towards the end of their occupation. But nothing ever changed. They never got closer to leaving because there was no end. All pawns in some suit’s game, sacrificing in the name of men that would never see a hint danger as long as they’d drawn air.

This had never been what he wanted. He’d never had much passion for the job, if he was honest with himself. One would think, after losing an older brother overseas had sent their family spiralling with turmoil, that Javi would have avoided the military with extreme prejudice. The opposite occurred. He’d been goaded into following in his brother’s footsteps, ‘honoring his sacrifice’ and ‘doing his family and country proud’. Javier failed to see how sending their only remaining son away would do anything but put the nail in his aging parents’ coffins, but lacking ambition, security and a sense of belonging he did what he thought they’d have wanted. If there was one thing the military was good for, it was giving the aimless something to aim at.

Javi glanced at his watch and reluctantly peeled himself from his makeshift bed to make for the door; took him all of two and a half strides to walk the length of the room. Out in the halls, bustling with movement and commotion, something seemed off. Seemed wrong. There were eggheads everywhere. Noncombatants, lab coats and even a few of the aforementioned suits rushing throughout the entire complex; flipping through notes, speaking hurriedly with colleagues. Giving him and the rest of the grunts wayward stares, wide berths. And why wouldn’t they? Soldiers might as well have been zoo animals to this crowd; rabid dogs they'd let loose to deal with pests on ‘their' property, uncomfortable around the beasts when they were finally let off the leash.

”Fuck.” He thought to himself. At least this was his last tour.

The briefing had proceeded as he'd expected, save for the extra sets of shifty eyes belonging to those listening in from the sidelines. As he and the other operatives piled into the sputtering canvas-covered pan of the humvee Javi noticed one of his commanding officers, helped by another man in a suit, fitting a large reinforced crate into the corner of the trunk. The truck coughed out two plumes of black smoke before noisily clattering from the garage and out into the blinding desert plains.

The officer gripped a steel handle jutting from the roof to steady himself while the vehicle barreled across abysmal terrain, bellowed their plan of attack over rumbling metal. Men tinkered with weapons; adjusted sights, safeties and magazines. Some studied mementos with a longing intensity, one stifling sobs as he gazed into a photograph encased within a golden locket. Others-still sat forward glaring in utter silence into either nothing or something only they themselves could perceive. Javi found himself in the later group. Finally, one of the suited men shifted positions enough for Javi to make out the insignia on his jacket he'd been eyeing for sometime. A Genetech logo, which was anything but a reassurance.

II.

Their convoy came to an abrupt halt and soldiers spilled from the line of vehicles as bullets pinged against the thick metal frames. Operatives darted for cover in all directions among the misshapen dunes and boulders littering both the sides of the highway, at the end of which was the compound they were to usurp. Javier steeled his nerves, shoved the flap of fabric aside and rushed out into the blistering sun. No one was supposed to know they were coming. As rough as the conditions were, he ran forward like nothing else mattered but the mission; because nothing else did. He’d learned fairly quick that nihilistic pontificating is a lot more cathartic when there aren’t bullets whizzing past your skull. There was a time and place, and the field definitely wasn’t it. As soon as boots hit the dirt, your priorities become a lot more refined: getting you and your squad through the day.

His company charged with him and some odd sound caught Javi’s attention, loud enough to reach him even over the boots stomping and rifles clattering. He peered over his shoulder and saw the genetech man and his C.O. standing back in amazement at what had moments ago been concealed within the crate. A sleek, black metal drone whirred and spun in the air before speeding away into the sky above them, prompted by the press of a button on small remote in the suit’s hands. Odd, but he hadn’t the time to dwell on it. He reassured himself they were just testing out some new artillery tech and carried on. One man to his left tripped, stumbled forward onto his hands and knees sending up a dusty cloud of sand as men and women rushed past. Without thinking, Javi rammed his boot heel into the gravel and spun back around, made his way towards the scene before harshly gripping the marine under the arm and pulling him to his feet. Just the single service stripe on his uniform- a private, and a terrified one. He struggled to collect all the gear dangling from his vest before peering up towards Javier with a deer in the headlights look.

“Come on!” Javi shouted over the din of combat as he dragged the man close. “We need to get into position-”

An instantaneous snapping sound followed by a sudden jolt stopped his words dead in their tracks. Javier was thrust forward, just barely able to stay on his feet as he steadied himself from the unexpected force. In front of him, the man he'd just been helping slowly fell backwards without Javier's grip to anchor him upright. The private slumped over, limp with a glazed look over his eyes; when the back of his helmet slammed against the ground, his head lolled to one side and a pool of dark liquid began to absorb the sand beneath him. Gone.

Javi shook his head, gripped the rifle strung over his chest and turned to continue charging. Only, when he started off, he found it near impossible to run. Felt like his legs weighed a ton, like he was attempting to push the earth itself down with each step. After making it a few more feet he could no longer support himself; his knees buckled, legs folded beneath him and soon he was face down in the dirt like his comrade. Exerting more effort than he ever had, Javi forced his forearm out from underneath him and braced it against the ground to push himself upright, gravel sticking into his skin and holding on once he'd moved. He peered down towards his stomach and saw all he'd needed to see. Clear exit wound, a red stain blooming ever outward from somewhere around his lower abdomen. The bullet had carved clean through him and into the private. Unable to hold himself up any longer, Javier slumped down into the dirt oncemore, barely able to muster the strength to observe the destruction around him. He was shocked at the speed his strength left him. Everywhere he could see, the operatives he'd arrived with were being mowed down; dropping mid-stride or already in a similar situation as him.

"Fuck." Javi shook his head as blood began to pool in his mouth, escaped his lips. "One last op." The dark vignette around the edges of his vision began to close in and his breath gurgled into the sand.

He was coming to terms with his situation, preparing for that long overdue sleep, when one last distraction caught his attention at the absolute edge of his consciousness. The sleek black drone he'd noticed earlier now hovered loudly above him, blasting gravel and dirt every-which way with the force of its' propellers. Javi shut his eyes tight to block the onslaught of dust and debris as best he could as two radio-garbled voices emitted from the drone, sounded like they were conversing with one another.

"Identification?" a calm, steady voice inquired with an accent he couldn't quite place.

"Javier Arroyo." A harsh, familiar voice answered back. Javi's C.O. "Loner- no family or kin. Old squad were all K.I.A on a mission three years ago. Fits the profile."

"Mhm." The drone hovered closer-still. "Lower vertebrae all completely shattered. Complete paralysis from at least the waist down... and fading fast. This is the one."

Javi could glean little meaning from their words in his dazed state. In fact, they seemed to just blend in with the rest of the surrounding chaos now. As the last hints of light finally slipped from his vision, he prepared to die. Then, a sudden surge of pain shot through Javier's body. So intense he near-fully came to again and experienced every agonizing second as a long metal rod extended from the base of the drone and inserted into Javi's lower back. His vision was ablaze, his mind racing a mile a minute and soon he was unconscious from the exertion.

"CNS induction administered." The shrill voice confirmed. "We grab him and evac. Now."

III.

When Javier later woke he was in a helicopter. Before he could properly adjust his vision or come to his senses he was greeted by the sight of a man in a lab coat administering some sort of I.V. into his forearm.

“There he is.” The man spoke as a grin swept across his face. “Welcome back, Javier.”

“Wh- What?” Javi instantly felt dizzy, went to steady himself and found that he was already standing. He quickly glanced down and saw elongated metal frames extending down his legs from either side of his body. Javi recoiled in shock, and found that the same metal rods extended down his arms reaching his hands. Each movement let out a faint mechanical whirring sound from within his joints, though he felt next to nothing. Not even the air brushing past his limbs as he moved them.

“What the fuck is this?” Javi demanded, lunging toward the scientist. In an instant, he was completely still; arm locked in a half-raised position as his eyes darted around.

“Easy, tigré.” The man scoffed and held a small remote in his hand. “Gotta walk before you can run. We don’t even have the training wheels off yet.” Javier produced the most menacing look he could while frozen in position. He let his fiery stare demand answers rather than try to muster words that were lost on him now.

“Javier.” The man started with a scolding tone. “You should consider yourself an extremely lucky man. With this experimental technology, we were able to save your life.” He gestured towards the metal suit fused to Javi. His eyes were now drawn to the intricate machinery attached to his body in several places. Felt like he was watching some horror movie, or had stumbled across something in a compound he was storming- but it was his own body he was looking at.

“We only ask for one thing in return.” Javier didn’t respond. Couldn’t. His head spun and he felt more nauseous than he’d ever been.

“Your life. The life that we saved. You belong to us now.”

“I never... asked for this.” Javi struggled out between heaving breaths. “You should have just let me fucking die out there.” Suddenly, the lock on Javier’s body released and he slumped down onto the floor of the chopper, writhed and vomited. The scientist’s grin still hadn’t faltered, and he knelt down to reach Javier’s eyeline.

“Your body is still adjusting to the implants. The drugs should kick in soon.” And the man yanked the I.V. from Javi’s arm. “Or are those just nerves for your mission?”

Javier’s blood went cold. “Mission...?” He let out weakly. He could barely move on his own, let alone deploy on an op right now. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

The doors of the helicopter were suddenly hauled open, and the deafening wind soon encompassed all there was to hear. “Look familiar? Time for a solo infiltration.” The man spoke into a headset, voice coming through some small device in Javier’s ear.

Javi glanced up and out the chopper doors, with no small effort, at the compound below them- the same one they’d stormed however long ago that op had been.

“You’re kidding.” Javi sighed. “I can barely fucking mov-” And before he finished speaking he promptly stood at attention and saluted the man before him, on no volition of his own. On either shoulder, two large weapon barrels he hadn’t even noticed yet racked into position, aiming forward.

“Don’t worry, Javi. Don’t worry.” The man said, guiding him to the edge of the fuselage. “We’ll take it from here.” And with the remote controlling his movements, Javi promptly stepped out of the chopper and plummeted towards the compound.

CREDITS

story by Derelict

art (c) aoi

profile template (c) helix

background (c) unsplash

Pet Treasure


Battle Worn Metal Helmet

Veterans Medals

Camouflage Makeup Kit

Sea Charts

Skeletal War Paint

Professor New Heartbreaker Discarded Patches

Intrepid Soldier Battle Helmet

Dog Tags

Camouflage Bombs

Camo Head Bandana

Lonely Foghorn

Chaff Grenade

Cannon Beanbag

Cyborg Soldier Dog Tags

Cyborg Soldier BFG

Omen Islands Obscured Cavern Scouting Gear

Rocket Launcher

Army Jacket

Vera

P-8 Flamethrower

Intrepid Soldier Automatic Rifle

Pet Friends


Cheater
You can't outsmart a bullet.

Strong
I will take you down.

Arrest
We make a good team.

1
You're wasted guarding that rat.