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The third chapter is up and running. Hopefully chapter 4 shouldn't be as long eh (It shouldn't its where the story really begins)? We live in hope, well enjoy.
Chapter 3: initiation
Success comes from taking the initiative and following up... persisting... eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life? Anthony Robbins
London
She pumped her legs faster and harder. She needed to get away from here fast from...from those...people there were only 4 of them and they were making mincemeat of her friends. She could still hear the screams behind her, their pleas of surrender and mercy muffled by the screams of the dying or themselves. Her heartbeat began to increase from the fear and exhaustion of her run. Bins and trashcans were knocked over in her clumsiness and desperation in a bid to escape. She had already thrown away her weapons to lighten the load. Oh god what did I do to deserve this? WHAT? it dawned on her, the mistake to cause trouble against this higher power that had a grip on the world . she was given the chance to return, but no, instead she ignorantly took up playing hero not knowing fully the facts.
It was quiet now, that meant she was to survive from the onslaught. A feeling of relief as she continued to run this time at a lower pace. Home free!...
dead end?! She panicked this wasn’t a way out of this alley! The woman clawed at the wall. It’s too tall to jump! Her escape bid was not over yet and a sinking feeling began to take over her and her heart beat increased again. There might be a chance if-
‘Sayanara unguided fool!’ Agent Kazuo Sakimiya evilly spoke as he walked calmly forwards towards the woman who wore nothing more then high boots, a leather bra and short skirt. She huddled into a ball with full terror in her eyes as the agent approached her slowly, pleading at the agent to spare her life, but for Kazuo, it meant nothing. Underneath the mask of what was soon apparent her executioner, she saw to her horror, that he had a murderous smile.
Kazuo grabbed her by the neck and held her in place on the alleyway wall. She began to choke and suffocate from the agent’s grip. She struggled frantically, wrenching at the man’s arm to release her but Kazuo merely squeezed harder.
‘Prepare to die with honour, for you have fought with disgrace!’ Kazuo shouted and pulled out what looked like a Seppuku knife that was used to disembowel a samurai. She shook her head whilst choking as if to plead no, she didn’t want to have what she knew was coming. Kazuo began to snigger. ‘Yes, you will!’ He proceeded slowly to sink the knife deep in to her stomach and slowly cut horizontally from left to right of her stomach. Blood began to seep out of the deep wound whilst exposing her guts. He could see that she was in pain and was screaming as loud as she could. But little sound was made as she choked. This torturous event made Kazuo laugh louder he wanted more. None of her friends were going to save her now, they were all too busy trying to save themselves. Not even the police could stop him, with the carnage unfolding outside the alleyway they wouldn’t notice this ritualistic execution that was taking place.
The woman’s eyes slowly rolled backwards in their sockets as she died, Watching her own guts been ripped out of her. Once finished, Kazuo threw her to the ground and wiped the Seppuku blade before he pocketed it. He wasn’t going to take this fallen enemy’s head as a trophy this time. As this woman’s head was worth nothing to the syndicate or him. There was little honour or pride from collecting the head of a coward or a low ranking s**t like her. He ran out of the alleyway to see if there was any other more high-ranking Unguided scum to kill. His long red hair flowed through the air like his trench coat from the speed he was running.
Kazuo stared from the lip of the alleyway: the hunt was over. The rest of the unguided gang was dead. His fellow agents had dispatched them, less painfully then himself he noted, as most died with bullet wounds to the torso areas. Among the dead were several unfortunate civilians who were caught in the cross fire and some of the policemen didn’t doing their job to restore order. Kazuo pitied them for their misfortune and whispered a prayer in Japanese to the fallen. He walked back to his Agent leader Schroeder.
‘Where have you been Kazuo?’
‘I chased one of the unguided down that alleyway-’ He pointed at the alleyway’- She is dead. I killed her’
‘Good. Retrieve her weapon and lets return to HQ’
‘Understood sir’
‘The same goes to the rest of you: Tracy and Richardson!’
‘Yes sir!’ they both replied and went to carry out their work. This morning was proving more interesting then usual all the agents noted.
‘Don’t worry Mr Branding, I’m sure that this is an isolated case and shouldn’t happen to you again’ the woman reassured her.
‘Yeah? You tell that to someone who’s almost being killed on his first day to work!’ Branding replied to his receptionist Maria Stevens. He frowned, still slightly shaking from the incident. There was a knock on the door Branding called him in. A scientist wearing white overalls peered through the double door holding a mug of what smelled like a cup of Genetically modified coffee. The person proceeded to invite himself in to the boardroom.
‘Woah, you don’t look good. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking’ The scientist said still holding the steaming mug with the Syndicate logo on it.
‘He’s almost been killed driving to work’ Maria quickly said before Branding was given the chance to repeat the terrible ordeal.
‘Jesus, never thought anyone’s first day would be that tough. Oh, I’m Jonathan heckler, head scientist at your HELICON research facility in the basement’
‘Nice to meet you. Robert branding’ They both proceeded to shake hands.
‘Have you met everyone else Mr Branding?’ Maria asked.
‘Just not the agents’ Branding said I’ve got a lot of questions to ask them when they get in here! branding didn’t add. Several minutes later Schroeder walked into the room with everyone apart from himself seated. Branding stood up, his shaking had mysteriously disappeared and he was already calm. Schroeder walked towards him his hand out as to shake hands.
‘You must be our new executive Robert Branding nice to meet you’
‘The same like wise. I’ve got a question to ask you’
‘Fire away. Pun not intended’ Schroeder looked behind Branding to Maria and Heckler only to see them shaking their heads and frowning at what he said.
‘Were you and your agents firing at my car as I drove past?’
‘There were a lot of cars. You weren’t in the green one were you?’ Branding nodded Oh boy, am I in deep trouble. I’ve almost killed my own boss! He paused’ Whoops I guess. I’m so sorry about what happened. Partially it wasn’t my fault for you see, we were trying to catch some of the unguided who attacked some distance from here. They hid behind moving cars and yours was one of them’
‘ I know, I opened the window to shoot him myself. Never mind, What about the others who were shooting at that policemen, were they your people as well?’
‘Yeah, we were the people shooting at those bucket heads. They started it.’
‘Oh? And what gave justification to their deaths?’
‘To be honest sir, we don’t know why it happened. Policemen CHIPs are supposed to program them to do their duty zealously whilst not harming any Eurocorp personnel unless told to. For some reason, only recently, they’ve been shall we say more “dedicated” in carrying out their orders to serve and attacked anyone breaking the law’
‘Ok, that explains everything. Where are the rest of the agents?’
‘ Currently, my agents are resting or getting patched up. Nothing to get worried with. I’ll show you around the Cryo area if you want’ Schroeder suggested.
Several minutes passed, Branding, Maria, Heckler and along with Schroeder arrived at the Limbo class cryogenic faculties on the third floor of the main building. The room was large and spacious, with numerous Cryo chambers illuminated in Blue lighting filling virtually one side of the room. A control console was situated several metres to the left of the Cryo chambers which housed the controls of freezing and augmentation. On the far side of the wall was what seemed like a home cinema but was in fact the briefing and debriefing area with a large screen to provide visual display of statistics, diagrams, footage and home movies. There were seven agents in total sitting down reading magazines or exercising. As soon as the group got past the hissing double doors, the agents all instantly formed a horizontal line as if ready to be inspected by their new leader. The crowd approached, their footsteps echoed across the room as they walked along the tiled service of the room.
Each agent apart from Kazuo and Tracy had donned the traditional clean-cut hairstyle that came with each agent. They all wore the customary syndicate agent clothing of the long trench coat with metallic shoulder pads. Small neck guards covered the front part of each of the agent’s vulnerable necks with a larger outer neck brace covering the rest of the neck. Whilst These neck guards provided protection, they also formed the collar of the agent’s coats. Beneath their trench coats they wore simple uniforms and heavy military style boots with armour plating on the front for further protection. Facemasks that covered the nasal and mouth areas of the agents were worn with metallic war gauntlets, which improved an ordinary human’s strength by 200%. A sheet of titanium underneath the agent’s chest was installed protecting from deeper penetration of lucky shots causing extra wounding. Additional impact force Shields protected agents even further, but only from initial blows of attacks, as they had been proved useless from further attacks unless they were supercharged at the cost of another weapons micro fusion cell being drained. And if they were wounded, they had prostate glands that made healing to a full recovery in seconds. Branding noted that these super soldier Agents were more then prepared for a firefight, they were quite capable already without any modifications making them a fearsome friend or foe to have.
Schroeder himself introduced each of the members of his proud team of agents He had probably the most experience out of the whole unit as numerous battle scars from Unguided fights of yesteryear were visibly seen. A keen and dedicated Agent, he had also some of the most important gifts of an Agent that no data CHIP could ever provide: Leadership skills and Charisma. Unlike the rest of the Agents, only he was modified with a fleximetal alloy replacing his bones and having robotic limbs and a reinforced Brain. With a result him being more robot then man. Branding noticed that he was quite easily a worthy person to lead what were to be and Branding’s as well as his own agents into battle if the moment should arise.
Kazuo Sakimiya was first in line and gave Branding and the group an agitated look. A Japanese agent from the Far East, both his fellow agents and previous executives sometimes knew him as a loose cannon. Honour was his life as he followed bushido: the way of the warrior. He saw it as his sworn duty to follow Eurocorp to the very end, bitter or otherwise and was therefore a dedicated and completely fearless syndicate agent. As such, it was almost to the verge of complete suicide. It seemed ironic to everyone that someone with such an attitude had a name that meant “a man of peace”, as his occupation with the syndicate had robbed this Japanese agent of any peace or tranquillity he had once before (if any). Merely raising further questions as to what happened to the person that made him under go procedures and become an agent. A disastrous childhood? A mind brainwashed from years of Eurocorp CHIP manipulation and propaganda? No one was going to get the answers of that one except for Kazuo, who remained quiet for his reasons of joining. Apart from being expertly skilled with all projectile weapons, he was also an expert in close quarter combat, specialising in Japanese blades like kitanas and daggers. Indeed, this expert knowledge of weapons compounded with his attitude in life made him extremely dangerous and almost having the perfect psyche of a murderous serial killer of the previous century. Like Schroeder, he was gifted with leadership skills and used his initiative almost daily from doing milk runs to making their own lunches.
Tracy was next in line. One of the two agents that were female and Although she smiled and was approachable (from the handshake Branding received), she had hidden talents in Sniping and demolitions. Her Training in some of the most hostile conditions ever experienced had made her virtually calm in any situation. Which were important for delicate wiring and steady aiming of a gun. Schroeder was quick to remind Branding that the Young female brunette was a free spirit and although she had an inquisitive nature she never played with the lives of her fellow agents. Although, she had been known to have spent a long time working on her shoulder long hair rather then training. Not that she needed it of course. Branding deep down agreed. Her dark brown hair was nice and made her very attractive.
Richardson was one of the younger agents in the group and came from a long lineage of ancestors who were syndicate agents of Eurocorp. Considered the all rounder specialist being sufficient in all weapons, new or old, allowing the young agent to be highly adaptable to any role. He was an eager agent and had a lot to prove to the world, his family and to himself. Although Schroeder and Branding agreed that having the dream of being the best agent was going a little too far, but he had a lot of potential of being the best agent ever seen.
The rest of the agents were only drafted in only the day before and like Branding, were new to the London Substation which didn’t allow enough time for Schroeder or the regulars to gather any info as to their skills and traits. Branding could quite easily see that they were new to their role as agents. Virtually all of them young and bared no scaring or damage at all. Even their uniforms were clean and shiny unlike the others where parts of their uniforms were worn and their collars rusting slightly. Only their name tags revealed any information or idea as to who they were. Each one showed their names: Bourne, Zambar, Wilko and Jamie. Each one came from different nationalities and from various backgrounds. Branding was convinced that further training through CHIP downloads would soon make them more then capable agents. Satisfied, Branding and the group bid them fare well and made their way to Branding’s personal office where he would monitor and advise his agents in all operations.
By now the whole thing seemed like some cheap tourist tour of a damn substation and seeing his office was probably the anti climax of the whole thing. Getting there was depressing enough as they walked down the long, blandly decorated corridor leading to his office. When he got there, things weren’t any better. The office turned out to be small, gloomy and felt confined. There was little lighting apart from outside the door, the screen of the MARIONETTE command console and from the small lamp on the side. To make things worse, the whole office was cluttered with someone else’s personal belongings with the usual Photos, paintings and gimmicks you would find in any personalised office. All of these items interested Branding not because he really was generally interested in them but he was suspicious as to why they were still here.
‘Say, who’s stuff is this? And what happened to him?’ He asked
‘Well Mr Branding, they belonged to the previous executive’ Maria replied. That part was quite obvious and Branding felt stupid. She continued without showing any emotion of annoyance‘ The executive was discovered to have been abusing funds of the substation. Turned out that he had been spending it on himself on fast cars and luxuries. He was classified NTE-1 Neutralisation Priority and was quickly dealt with. We trust that your skills and integrity wouldn’t result in this event happening again.’
‘Well, is it my first job to clean out this office?’ Branding jokingly replied
‘No’ Schroeder replied. Calm unamused by Branding’s attempt at humour. ‘Your first job is to carry out the mission that London AI has provided’ Schroeder pointed onto the screen indicating the new mail in his message box ‘ With that I’ll leave you. Carry out your orders to us. See you later’ With those words Schroeder ran out of the room and used the stairs rather then the lift to head back to the cyroVATs. Maria and heckler too this time to their respected areas. An eerie calmness filled the office he felt lonely as he puzzled over the Command console that was The Marionette Remote Drone Operating Suite. The latest refinement of the century old Remote Tactical Control technology that was used way back in the infancy of Eurocorp and lead to rise to global sovereignty and supremacy. By using the Marionette desktop system, all executives were able to observe and influence any combat encounter in which Agents were involved. In which case, Branding was merely advising the agents and being their eyes and ears. Cameras would record the action whilst the UTOPIA radar system would provide and overall picture of the operation that was at hand. Branding was glad that the system was incredibly easy to use as it was controlled using a mouse and a track ball for drone cameras.
The mission seemed simple enough and was only classified as level 3 priority, the overall mission set by London AI was to eliminate some people who had suffered total CHIP dropouts and were behaving against Eurocorp rules. But then wouldn’t they be annoyed? After years of manipulation and lies you would want to get even and cause trouble. But it was a simple case that would prove a good time to practice using the system. The agents were briefed on their upcoming mission. Everyone was going this time, not the customary 4. The new agents need to be trained up quickly for anything. Although there hasn’t been a real threat that has rivalled the syndicate’s power since the syndicate wars many years ago, it would have been wise to prepare for it. With all parties satisfied the agents left the substation on foot welding their weapons to carry out their orders and Branding switched activated the drone connection to observe and direct the action when required.
The whole experienced seemed like an excitement to Branding, not because it was his first day on the job and all, but because he was following the footsteps of his ancestors despite the odds. As if fate had chosen him to lead agents regardless of what happened to him before. A smirk came out of Branding, after nearly 40 years, another Branding was doing what he was born to do: lead Eurocorp to prosperity and superiority. One step for man, one giant leap for mankind...
Chapter 3: initiation
Success comes from taking the initiative and following up... persisting... eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life? Anthony Robbins
London
She pumped her legs faster and harder. She needed to get away from here fast from...from those...people there were only 4 of them and they were making mincemeat of her friends. She could still hear the screams behind her, their pleas of surrender and mercy muffled by the screams of the dying or themselves. Her heartbeat began to increase from the fear and exhaustion of her run. Bins and trashcans were knocked over in her clumsiness and desperation in a bid to escape. She had already thrown away her weapons to lighten the load. Oh god what did I do to deserve this? WHAT? it dawned on her, the mistake to cause trouble against this higher power that had a grip on the world . she was given the chance to return, but no, instead she ignorantly took up playing hero not knowing fully the facts.
It was quiet now, that meant she was to survive from the onslaught. A feeling of relief as she continued to run this time at a lower pace. Home free!...
dead end?! She panicked this wasn’t a way out of this alley! The woman clawed at the wall. It’s too tall to jump! Her escape bid was not over yet and a sinking feeling began to take over her and her heart beat increased again. There might be a chance if-
‘Sayanara unguided fool!’ Agent Kazuo Sakimiya evilly spoke as he walked calmly forwards towards the woman who wore nothing more then high boots, a leather bra and short skirt. She huddled into a ball with full terror in her eyes as the agent approached her slowly, pleading at the agent to spare her life, but for Kazuo, it meant nothing. Underneath the mask of what was soon apparent her executioner, she saw to her horror, that he had a murderous smile.
Kazuo grabbed her by the neck and held her in place on the alleyway wall. She began to choke and suffocate from the agent’s grip. She struggled frantically, wrenching at the man’s arm to release her but Kazuo merely squeezed harder.
‘Prepare to die with honour, for you have fought with disgrace!’ Kazuo shouted and pulled out what looked like a Seppuku knife that was used to disembowel a samurai. She shook her head whilst choking as if to plead no, she didn’t want to have what she knew was coming. Kazuo began to snigger. ‘Yes, you will!’ He proceeded slowly to sink the knife deep in to her stomach and slowly cut horizontally from left to right of her stomach. Blood began to seep out of the deep wound whilst exposing her guts. He could see that she was in pain and was screaming as loud as she could. But little sound was made as she choked. This torturous event made Kazuo laugh louder he wanted more. None of her friends were going to save her now, they were all too busy trying to save themselves. Not even the police could stop him, with the carnage unfolding outside the alleyway they wouldn’t notice this ritualistic execution that was taking place.
The woman’s eyes slowly rolled backwards in their sockets as she died, Watching her own guts been ripped out of her. Once finished, Kazuo threw her to the ground and wiped the Seppuku blade before he pocketed it. He wasn’t going to take this fallen enemy’s head as a trophy this time. As this woman’s head was worth nothing to the syndicate or him. There was little honour or pride from collecting the head of a coward or a low ranking s**t like her. He ran out of the alleyway to see if there was any other more high-ranking Unguided scum to kill. His long red hair flowed through the air like his trench coat from the speed he was running.
Kazuo stared from the lip of the alleyway: the hunt was over. The rest of the unguided gang was dead. His fellow agents had dispatched them, less painfully then himself he noted, as most died with bullet wounds to the torso areas. Among the dead were several unfortunate civilians who were caught in the cross fire and some of the policemen didn’t doing their job to restore order. Kazuo pitied them for their misfortune and whispered a prayer in Japanese to the fallen. He walked back to his Agent leader Schroeder.
‘Where have you been Kazuo?’
‘I chased one of the unguided down that alleyway-’ He pointed at the alleyway’- She is dead. I killed her’
‘Good. Retrieve her weapon and lets return to HQ’
‘Understood sir’
‘The same goes to the rest of you: Tracy and Richardson!’
‘Yes sir!’ they both replied and went to carry out their work. This morning was proving more interesting then usual all the agents noted.
‘Don’t worry Mr Branding, I’m sure that this is an isolated case and shouldn’t happen to you again’ the woman reassured her.
‘Yeah? You tell that to someone who’s almost being killed on his first day to work!’ Branding replied to his receptionist Maria Stevens. He frowned, still slightly shaking from the incident. There was a knock on the door Branding called him in. A scientist wearing white overalls peered through the double door holding a mug of what smelled like a cup of Genetically modified coffee. The person proceeded to invite himself in to the boardroom.
‘Woah, you don’t look good. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking’ The scientist said still holding the steaming mug with the Syndicate logo on it.
‘He’s almost been killed driving to work’ Maria quickly said before Branding was given the chance to repeat the terrible ordeal.
‘Jesus, never thought anyone’s first day would be that tough. Oh, I’m Jonathan heckler, head scientist at your HELICON research facility in the basement’
‘Nice to meet you. Robert branding’ They both proceeded to shake hands.
‘Have you met everyone else Mr Branding?’ Maria asked.
‘Just not the agents’ Branding said I’ve got a lot of questions to ask them when they get in here! branding didn’t add. Several minutes later Schroeder walked into the room with everyone apart from himself seated. Branding stood up, his shaking had mysteriously disappeared and he was already calm. Schroeder walked towards him his hand out as to shake hands.
‘You must be our new executive Robert Branding nice to meet you’
‘The same like wise. I’ve got a question to ask you’
‘Fire away. Pun not intended’ Schroeder looked behind Branding to Maria and Heckler only to see them shaking their heads and frowning at what he said.
‘Were you and your agents firing at my car as I drove past?’
‘There were a lot of cars. You weren’t in the green one were you?’ Branding nodded Oh boy, am I in deep trouble. I’ve almost killed my own boss! He paused’ Whoops I guess. I’m so sorry about what happened. Partially it wasn’t my fault for you see, we were trying to catch some of the unguided who attacked some distance from here. They hid behind moving cars and yours was one of them’
‘ I know, I opened the window to shoot him myself. Never mind, What about the others who were shooting at that policemen, were they your people as well?’
‘Yeah, we were the people shooting at those bucket heads. They started it.’
‘Oh? And what gave justification to their deaths?’
‘To be honest sir, we don’t know why it happened. Policemen CHIPs are supposed to program them to do their duty zealously whilst not harming any Eurocorp personnel unless told to. For some reason, only recently, they’ve been shall we say more “dedicated” in carrying out their orders to serve and attacked anyone breaking the law’
‘Ok, that explains everything. Where are the rest of the agents?’
‘ Currently, my agents are resting or getting patched up. Nothing to get worried with. I’ll show you around the Cryo area if you want’ Schroeder suggested.
Several minutes passed, Branding, Maria, Heckler and along with Schroeder arrived at the Limbo class cryogenic faculties on the third floor of the main building. The room was large and spacious, with numerous Cryo chambers illuminated in Blue lighting filling virtually one side of the room. A control console was situated several metres to the left of the Cryo chambers which housed the controls of freezing and augmentation. On the far side of the wall was what seemed like a home cinema but was in fact the briefing and debriefing area with a large screen to provide visual display of statistics, diagrams, footage and home movies. There were seven agents in total sitting down reading magazines or exercising. As soon as the group got past the hissing double doors, the agents all instantly formed a horizontal line as if ready to be inspected by their new leader. The crowd approached, their footsteps echoed across the room as they walked along the tiled service of the room.
Each agent apart from Kazuo and Tracy had donned the traditional clean-cut hairstyle that came with each agent. They all wore the customary syndicate agent clothing of the long trench coat with metallic shoulder pads. Small neck guards covered the front part of each of the agent’s vulnerable necks with a larger outer neck brace covering the rest of the neck. Whilst These neck guards provided protection, they also formed the collar of the agent’s coats. Beneath their trench coats they wore simple uniforms and heavy military style boots with armour plating on the front for further protection. Facemasks that covered the nasal and mouth areas of the agents were worn with metallic war gauntlets, which improved an ordinary human’s strength by 200%. A sheet of titanium underneath the agent’s chest was installed protecting from deeper penetration of lucky shots causing extra wounding. Additional impact force Shields protected agents even further, but only from initial blows of attacks, as they had been proved useless from further attacks unless they were supercharged at the cost of another weapons micro fusion cell being drained. And if they were wounded, they had prostate glands that made healing to a full recovery in seconds. Branding noted that these super soldier Agents were more then prepared for a firefight, they were quite capable already without any modifications making them a fearsome friend or foe to have.
Schroeder himself introduced each of the members of his proud team of agents He had probably the most experience out of the whole unit as numerous battle scars from Unguided fights of yesteryear were visibly seen. A keen and dedicated Agent, he had also some of the most important gifts of an Agent that no data CHIP could ever provide: Leadership skills and Charisma. Unlike the rest of the Agents, only he was modified with a fleximetal alloy replacing his bones and having robotic limbs and a reinforced Brain. With a result him being more robot then man. Branding noticed that he was quite easily a worthy person to lead what were to be and Branding’s as well as his own agents into battle if the moment should arise.
Kazuo Sakimiya was first in line and gave Branding and the group an agitated look. A Japanese agent from the Far East, both his fellow agents and previous executives sometimes knew him as a loose cannon. Honour was his life as he followed bushido: the way of the warrior. He saw it as his sworn duty to follow Eurocorp to the very end, bitter or otherwise and was therefore a dedicated and completely fearless syndicate agent. As such, it was almost to the verge of complete suicide. It seemed ironic to everyone that someone with such an attitude had a name that meant “a man of peace”, as his occupation with the syndicate had robbed this Japanese agent of any peace or tranquillity he had once before (if any). Merely raising further questions as to what happened to the person that made him under go procedures and become an agent. A disastrous childhood? A mind brainwashed from years of Eurocorp CHIP manipulation and propaganda? No one was going to get the answers of that one except for Kazuo, who remained quiet for his reasons of joining. Apart from being expertly skilled with all projectile weapons, he was also an expert in close quarter combat, specialising in Japanese blades like kitanas and daggers. Indeed, this expert knowledge of weapons compounded with his attitude in life made him extremely dangerous and almost having the perfect psyche of a murderous serial killer of the previous century. Like Schroeder, he was gifted with leadership skills and used his initiative almost daily from doing milk runs to making their own lunches.
Tracy was next in line. One of the two agents that were female and Although she smiled and was approachable (from the handshake Branding received), she had hidden talents in Sniping and demolitions. Her Training in some of the most hostile conditions ever experienced had made her virtually calm in any situation. Which were important for delicate wiring and steady aiming of a gun. Schroeder was quick to remind Branding that the Young female brunette was a free spirit and although she had an inquisitive nature she never played with the lives of her fellow agents. Although, she had been known to have spent a long time working on her shoulder long hair rather then training. Not that she needed it of course. Branding deep down agreed. Her dark brown hair was nice and made her very attractive.
Richardson was one of the younger agents in the group and came from a long lineage of ancestors who were syndicate agents of Eurocorp. Considered the all rounder specialist being sufficient in all weapons, new or old, allowing the young agent to be highly adaptable to any role. He was an eager agent and had a lot to prove to the world, his family and to himself. Although Schroeder and Branding agreed that having the dream of being the best agent was going a little too far, but he had a lot of potential of being the best agent ever seen.
The rest of the agents were only drafted in only the day before and like Branding, were new to the London Substation which didn’t allow enough time for Schroeder or the regulars to gather any info as to their skills and traits. Branding could quite easily see that they were new to their role as agents. Virtually all of them young and bared no scaring or damage at all. Even their uniforms were clean and shiny unlike the others where parts of their uniforms were worn and their collars rusting slightly. Only their name tags revealed any information or idea as to who they were. Each one showed their names: Bourne, Zambar, Wilko and Jamie. Each one came from different nationalities and from various backgrounds. Branding was convinced that further training through CHIP downloads would soon make them more then capable agents. Satisfied, Branding and the group bid them fare well and made their way to Branding’s personal office where he would monitor and advise his agents in all operations.
By now the whole thing seemed like some cheap tourist tour of a damn substation and seeing his office was probably the anti climax of the whole thing. Getting there was depressing enough as they walked down the long, blandly decorated corridor leading to his office. When he got there, things weren’t any better. The office turned out to be small, gloomy and felt confined. There was little lighting apart from outside the door, the screen of the MARIONETTE command console and from the small lamp on the side. To make things worse, the whole office was cluttered with someone else’s personal belongings with the usual Photos, paintings and gimmicks you would find in any personalised office. All of these items interested Branding not because he really was generally interested in them but he was suspicious as to why they were still here.
‘Say, who’s stuff is this? And what happened to him?’ He asked
‘Well Mr Branding, they belonged to the previous executive’ Maria replied. That part was quite obvious and Branding felt stupid. She continued without showing any emotion of annoyance‘ The executive was discovered to have been abusing funds of the substation. Turned out that he had been spending it on himself on fast cars and luxuries. He was classified NTE-1 Neutralisation Priority and was quickly dealt with. We trust that your skills and integrity wouldn’t result in this event happening again.’
‘Well, is it my first job to clean out this office?’ Branding jokingly replied
‘No’ Schroeder replied. Calm unamused by Branding’s attempt at humour. ‘Your first job is to carry out the mission that London AI has provided’ Schroeder pointed onto the screen indicating the new mail in his message box ‘ With that I’ll leave you. Carry out your orders to us. See you later’ With those words Schroeder ran out of the room and used the stairs rather then the lift to head back to the cyroVATs. Maria and heckler too this time to their respected areas. An eerie calmness filled the office he felt lonely as he puzzled over the Command console that was The Marionette Remote Drone Operating Suite. The latest refinement of the century old Remote Tactical Control technology that was used way back in the infancy of Eurocorp and lead to rise to global sovereignty and supremacy. By using the Marionette desktop system, all executives were able to observe and influence any combat encounter in which Agents were involved. In which case, Branding was merely advising the agents and being their eyes and ears. Cameras would record the action whilst the UTOPIA radar system would provide and overall picture of the operation that was at hand. Branding was glad that the system was incredibly easy to use as it was controlled using a mouse and a track ball for drone cameras.
The mission seemed simple enough and was only classified as level 3 priority, the overall mission set by London AI was to eliminate some people who had suffered total CHIP dropouts and were behaving against Eurocorp rules. But then wouldn’t they be annoyed? After years of manipulation and lies you would want to get even and cause trouble. But it was a simple case that would prove a good time to practice using the system. The agents were briefed on their upcoming mission. Everyone was going this time, not the customary 4. The new agents need to be trained up quickly for anything. Although there hasn’t been a real threat that has rivalled the syndicate’s power since the syndicate wars many years ago, it would have been wise to prepare for it. With all parties satisfied the agents left the substation on foot welding their weapons to carry out their orders and Branding switched activated the drone connection to observe and direct the action when required.
The whole experienced seemed like an excitement to Branding, not because it was his first day on the job and all, but because he was following the footsteps of his ancestors despite the odds. As if fate had chosen him to lead agents regardless of what happened to him before. A smirk came out of Branding, after nearly 40 years, another Branding was doing what he was born to do: lead Eurocorp to prosperity and superiority. One step for man, one giant leap for mankind...
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The third chapter is up and running. Hopefully chapter 4 shouldn't be as long eh (It shouldn't its where the story really begins)? We live in hope, well enjoy.
Chapter 3: initiation
Success comes from taking the initiative and following up... persisting... eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life? Anthony Robbins
London
She pumped her legs faster and harder. She needed to get away from here fast from...from those...people there were only 4 of them and they were making mincemeat of her friends. She could still hear the screams behind her, their pleas of surrender and mercy muffled by the screams of the dying or themselves. Her heartbeat began to increase from the fear and exhaustion of her run. Bins and trashcans were knocked over in her clumsiness and desperation in a bid to escape. She had already thrown away her weapons to lighten the load. Oh god what did I do to deserve this? WHAT? it dawned on her, the mistake to cause trouble against this higher power that had a grip on the world . she was given the chance to return, but no, instead she ignorantly took up playing hero not knowing fully the facts.
It was quiet now, that meant she was to survive from the onslaught. A feeling of relief as she continued to run this time at a lower pace. Home free!...
dead end?! She panicked this wasn’t a way out of this alley! The woman clawed at the wall. It’s too tall to jump! Her escape bid was not over yet and a sinking feeling began to take over her and her heart beat increased again. There might be a chance if-
‘Sayanara unguided fool!’ Agent Kazuo Sakimiya evilly spoke as he walked calmly forwards towards the woman who wore nothing more then high boots, a leather bra and short skirt. She huddled into a ball with full terror in her eyes as the agent approached her slowly, pleading at the agent to spare her life, but for Kazuo, it meant nothing. Underneath the mask of what was soon apparent her executioner, she saw to her horror, that he had a murderous smile.
Kazuo grabbed her by the neck and held her in place on the alleyway wall. She began to choke and suffocate from the agent’s grip. She struggled frantically, wrenching at the man’s arm to release her but Kazuo merely squeezed harder.
‘Prepare to die with honour, for you have fought with disgrace!’ Kazuo shouted and pulled out what looked like a Seppuku knife that was used to disembowel a samurai. She shook her head whilst choking as if to plead no, she didn’t want to have what she knew was coming. Kazuo began to snigger. ‘Yes, you will!’ He proceeded slowly to sink the knife deep in to her stomach and slowly cut horizontally from left to right of her stomach. Blood began to seep out of the deep wound whilst exposing her guts. He could see that she was in pain and was screaming as loud as she could. But little sound was made as she choked. This torturous event made Kazuo laugh louder he wanted more. None of her friends were going to save her now, they were all too busy trying to save themselves. Not even the police could stop him, with the carnage unfolding outside the alleyway they wouldn’t notice this ritualistic execution that was taking place.
The woman’s eyes slowly rolled backwards in their sockets as she died, Watching her own guts been ripped out of her. Once finished, Kazuo threw her to the ground and wiped the Seppuku blade before he pocketed it. He wasn’t going to take this fallen enemy’s head as a trophy this time. As this woman’s head was worth nothing to the syndicate or him. There was little honour or pride from collecting the head of a coward or a low ranking s**t like her. He ran out of the alleyway to see if there was any other more high-ranking Unguided scum to kill. His long red hair flowed through the air like his trench coat from the speed he was running.
Kazuo stared from the lip of the alleyway: the hunt was over. The rest of the unguided gang was dead. His fellow agents had dispatched them, less painfully then himself he noted, as most died with bullet wounds to the torso areas. Among the dead were several unfortunate civilians who were caught in the cross fire and some of the policemen didn’t doing their job to restore order. Kazuo pitied them for their misfortune and whispered a prayer in Japanese to the fallen. He walked back to his Agent leader Schroeder.
‘Where have you been Kazuo?’
‘I chased one of the unguided down that alleyway-’ He pointed at the alleyway’- She is dead. I killed her’
‘Good. Retrieve her weapon and lets return to HQ’
‘Understood sir’
‘The same goes to the rest of you: Tracy and Richardson!’
‘Yes sir!’ they both replied and went to carry out their work. This morning was proving more interesting then usual all the agents noted.
‘Don’t worry Mr Branding, I’m sure that this is an isolated case and shouldn’t happen to you again’ the woman reassured her.
‘Yeah? You tell that to someone who’s almost being killed on his first day to work!’ Branding replied to his receptionist Maria Stevens. He frowned, still slightly shaking from the incident. There was a knock on the door Branding called him in. A scientist wearing white overalls peered through the double door holding a mug of what smelled like a cup of Genetically modified coffee. The person proceeded to invite himself in to the boardroom.
‘Woah, you don’t look good. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking’ The scientist said still holding the steaming mug with the Syndicate logo on it.
‘He’s almost been killed driving to work’ Maria quickly said before Branding was given the chance to repeat the terrible ordeal.
‘Jesus, never thought anyone’s first day would be that tough. Oh, I’m Jonathan heckler, head scientist at your HELICON research facility in the basement’
‘Nice to meet you. Robert branding’ They both proceeded to shake hands.
‘Have you met everyone else Mr Branding?’ Maria asked.
‘Just not the agents’ Branding said I’ve got a lot of questions to ask them when they get in here! branding didn’t add. Several minutes later Schroeder walked into the room with everyone apart from himself seated. Branding stood up, his shaking had mysteriously disappeared and he was already calm. Schroeder walked towards him his hand out as to shake hands.
‘You must be our new executive Robert Branding nice to meet you’
‘The same like wise. I’ve got a question to ask you’
‘Fire away. Pun not intended’ Schroeder looked behind Branding to Maria and Heckler only to see them shaking their heads and frowning at what he said.
‘Were you and your agents firing at my car as I drove past?’
‘There were a lot of cars. You weren’t in the green one were you?’ Branding nodded Oh boy, am I in deep trouble. I’ve almost killed my own boss! He paused’ Whoops I guess. I’m so sorry about what happened. Partially it wasn’t my fault for you see, we were trying to catch some of the unguided who attacked some distance from here. They hid behind moving cars and yours was one of them’
‘ I know, I opened the window to shoot him myself. Never mind, What about the others who were shooting at that policemen, were they your people as well?’
‘Yeah, we were the people shooting at those bucket heads. They started it.’
‘Oh? And what gave justification to their deaths?’
‘To be honest sir, we don’t know why it happened. Policemen CHIPs are supposed to program them to do their duty zealously whilst not harming any Eurocorp personnel unless told to. For some reason, only recently, they’ve been shall we say more “dedicated” in carrying out their orders to serve and attacked anyone breaking the law’
‘Ok, that explains everything. Where are the rest of the agents?’
‘ Currently, my agents are resting or getting patched up. Nothing to get worried with. I’ll show you around the Cryo area if you want’ Schroeder suggested.
Several minutes passed, Branding, Maria, Heckler and along with Schroeder arrived at the Limbo class cryogenic faculties on the third floor of the main building. The room was large and spacious, with numerous Cryo chambers illuminated in Blue lighting filling virtually one side of the room. A control console was situated several metres to the left of the Cryo chambers which housed the controls of freezing and augmentation. On the far side of the wall was what seemed like a home cinema but was in fact the briefing and debriefing area with a large screen to provide visual display of statistics, diagrams, footage and home movies. There were seven agents in total sitting down reading magazines or exercising. As soon as the group got past the hissing double doors, the agents all instantly formed a horizontal line as if ready to be inspected by their new leader. The crowd approached, their footsteps echoed across the room as they walked along the tiled service of the room.
Each agent apart from Kazuo and Tracy had donned the traditional clean-cut hairstyle that came with each agent. They all wore the customary syndicate agent clothing of the long trench coat with metallic shoulder pads. Small neck guards covered the front part of each of the agent’s vulnerable necks with a larger outer neck brace covering the rest of the neck. Whilst These neck guards provided protection, they also formed the collar of the agent’s coats. Beneath their trench coats they wore simple uniforms and heavy military style boots with armour plating on the front for further protection. Facemasks that covered the nasal and mouth areas of the agents were worn with metallic war gauntlets, which improved an ordinary human’s strength by 200%. A sheet of titanium underneath the agent’s chest was installed protecting from deeper penetration of lucky shots causing extra wounding. Additional impact force Shields protected agents even further, but only from initial blows of attacks, as they had been proved useless from further attacks unless they were supercharged at the cost of another weapons micro fusion cell being drained. And if they were wounded, they had prostate glands that made healing to a full recovery in seconds. Branding noted that these super soldier Agents were more then prepared for a firefight, they were quite capable already without any modifications making them a fearsome friend or foe to have.
Schroeder himself introduced each of the members of his proud team of agents He had probably the most experience out of the whole unit as numerous battle scars from Unguided fights of yesteryear were visibly seen. A keen and dedicated Agent, he had also some of the most important gifts of an Agent that no data CHIP could ever provide: Leadership skills and Charisma. Unlike the rest of the Agents, only he was modified with a fleximetal alloy replacing his bones and having robotic limbs and a reinforced Brain. With a result him being more robot then man. Branding noticed that he was quite easily a worthy person to lead what were to be and Branding’s as well as his own agents into battle if the moment should arise.
Kazuo Sakimiya was first in line and gave Branding and the group an agitated look. A Japanese agent from the Far East, both his fellow agents and previous executives sometimes knew him as a loose cannon. Honour was his life as he followed bushido: the way of the warrior. He saw it as his sworn duty to follow Eurocorp to the very end, bitter or otherwise and was therefore a dedicated and completely fearless syndicate agent. As such, it was almost to the verge of complete suicide. It seemed ironic to everyone that someone with such an attitude had a name that meant “a man of peace”, as his occupation with the syndicate had robbed this Japanese agent of any peace or tranquillity he had once before (if any). Merely raising further questions as to what happened to the person that made him under go procedures and become an agent. A disastrous childhood? A mind brainwashed from years of Eurocorp CHIP manipulation and propaganda? No one was going to get the answers of that one except for Kazuo, who remained quiet for his reasons of joining. Apart from being expertly skilled with all projectile weapons, he was also an expert in close quarter combat, specialising in Japanese blades like kitanas and daggers. Indeed, this expert knowledge of weapons compounded with his attitude in life made him extremely dangerous and almost having the perfect psyche of a murderous serial killer of the previous century. Like Schroeder, he was gifted with leadership skills and used his initiative almost daily from doing milk runs to making their own lunches.
Tracy was next in line. One of the two agents that were female and Although she smiled and was approachable (from the handshake Branding received), she had hidden talents in Sniping and demolitions. Her Training in some of the most hostile conditions ever experienced had made her virtually calm in any situation. Which were important for delicate wiring and steady aiming of a gun. Schroeder was quick to remind Branding that the Young female brunette was a free spirit and although she had an inquisitive nature she never played with the lives of her fellow agents. Although, she had been known to have spent a long time working on her shoulder long hair rather then training. Not that she needed it of course. Branding deep down agreed. Her dark brown hair was nice and made her very attractive.
Richardson was one of the younger agents in the group and came from a long lineage of ancestors who were syndicate agents of Eurocorp. Considered the all rounder specialist being sufficient in all weapons, new or old, allowing the young agent to be highly adaptable to any role. He was an eager agent and had a lot to prove to the world, his family and to himself. Although Schroeder and Branding agreed that having the dream of being the best agent was going a little too far, but he had a lot of potential of being the best agent ever seen.
The rest of the agents were only drafted in only the day before and like Branding, were new to the London Substation which didn’t allow enough time for Schroeder or the regulars to gather any info as to their skills and traits. Branding could quite easily see that they were new to their role as agents. Virtually all of them young and bared no scaring or damage at all. Even their uniforms were clean and shiny unlike the others where parts of their uniforms were worn and their collars rusting slightly. Only their name tags revealed any information or idea as to who they were. Each one showed their names: Bourne, Zambar, Wilko and Jamie. Each one came from different nationalities and from various backgrounds. Branding was convinced that further training through CHIP downloads would soon make them more then capable agents. Satisfied, Branding and the group bid them fare well and made their way to Branding’s personal office where he would monitor and advise his agents in all operations.
By now the whole thing seemed like some cheap tourist tour of a damn substation and seeing his office was probably the anti climax of the whole thing. Getting there was depressing enough as they walked down the long, blandly decorated corridor leading to his office. When he got there, things weren’t any better. The office turned out to be small, gloomy and felt confined. There was little lighting apart from outside the door, the screen of the MARIONETTE command console and from the small lamp on the side. To make things worse, the whole office was cluttered with someone else’s personal belongings with the usual Photos, paintings and gimmicks you would find in any personalised office. All of these items interested Branding not because he really was generally interested in them but he was suspicious as to why they were still here.
‘Say, who’s stuff is this? And what happened to him?’ He asked
‘Well Mr Branding, they belonged to the previous executive’ Maria replied. That part was quite obvious and Branding felt stupid. She continued without showing any emotion of annoyance‘ The executive was discovered to have been abusing funds of the substation. Turned out that he had been spending it on himself on fast cars and luxuries. He was classified NTE-1 Neutralisation Priority and was quickly dealt with. We trust that your skills and integrity wouldn’t result in this event happening again.’
‘Well, is it my first job to clean out this office?’ Branding jokingly replied
‘No’ Schroeder replied. Calm unamused by Branding’s attempt at humour. ‘Your first job is to carry out the mission that London AI has provided’ Schroeder pointed onto the screen indicating the new mail in his message box ‘ With that I’ll leave you. Carry out your orders to us. See you later’ With those words Schroeder ran out of the room and used the stairs rather then the lift to head back to the cyroVATs. Maria and heckler too this time to their respected areas. An eerie calmness filled the office he felt lonely as he puzzled over the Command console that was The Marionette Remote Drone Operating Suite. The latest refinement of the century old Remote Tactical Control technology that was used way back in the infancy of Eurocorp and lead to rise to global sovereignty and supremacy. By using the Marionette desktop system, all executives were able to observe and influence any combat encounter in which Agents were involved. In which case, Branding was merely advising the agents and being their eyes and ears. Cameras would record the action whilst the UTOPIA radar system would provide and overall picture of the operation that was at hand. Branding was glad that the system was incredibly easy to use as it was controlled using a mouse and a track ball for drone cameras.
The mission seemed simple enough and was only classified as level 3 priority, the overall mission set by London AI was to eliminate some people who had suffered total CHIP dropouts and were behaving against Eurocorp rules. But then wouldn’t they be annoyed? After years of manipulation and lies you would want to get even and cause trouble. But it was a simple case that would prove a good time to practice using the system. The agents were briefed on their upcoming mission. Everyone was going this time, not the customary 4. The new agents need to be trained up quickly for anything. Although there hasn’t been a real threat that has rivalled the syndicate’s power since the syndicate wars many years ago, it would have been wise to prepare for it. With all parties satisfied the agents left the substation on foot welding their weapons to carry out their orders and Branding switched activated the drone connection to observe and direct the action when required.
The whole experienced seemed like an excitement to Branding, not because it was his first day on the job and all, but because he was following the footsteps of his ancestors despite the odds. As if fate had chosen him to lead agents regardless of what happened to him before. A smirk came out of Branding, after nearly 40 years, another Branding was doing what he was born to do: lead Eurocorp to prosperity and superiority. One step for man, one giant leap for mankind...
Chapter 3: initiation
Success comes from taking the initiative and following up... persisting... eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life? Anthony Robbins
London
She pumped her legs faster and harder. She needed to get away from here fast from...from those...people there were only 4 of them and they were making mincemeat of her friends. She could still hear the screams behind her, their pleas of surrender and mercy muffled by the screams of the dying or themselves. Her heartbeat began to increase from the fear and exhaustion of her run. Bins and trashcans were knocked over in her clumsiness and desperation in a bid to escape. She had already thrown away her weapons to lighten the load. Oh god what did I do to deserve this? WHAT? it dawned on her, the mistake to cause trouble against this higher power that had a grip on the world . she was given the chance to return, but no, instead she ignorantly took up playing hero not knowing fully the facts.
It was quiet now, that meant she was to survive from the onslaught. A feeling of relief as she continued to run this time at a lower pace. Home free!...
dead end?! She panicked this wasn’t a way out of this alley! The woman clawed at the wall. It’s too tall to jump! Her escape bid was not over yet and a sinking feeling began to take over her and her heart beat increased again. There might be a chance if-
‘Sayanara unguided fool!’ Agent Kazuo Sakimiya evilly spoke as he walked calmly forwards towards the woman who wore nothing more then high boots, a leather bra and short skirt. She huddled into a ball with full terror in her eyes as the agent approached her slowly, pleading at the agent to spare her life, but for Kazuo, it meant nothing. Underneath the mask of what was soon apparent her executioner, she saw to her horror, that he had a murderous smile.
Kazuo grabbed her by the neck and held her in place on the alleyway wall. She began to choke and suffocate from the agent’s grip. She struggled frantically, wrenching at the man’s arm to release her but Kazuo merely squeezed harder.
‘Prepare to die with honour, for you have fought with disgrace!’ Kazuo shouted and pulled out what looked like a Seppuku knife that was used to disembowel a samurai. She shook her head whilst choking as if to plead no, she didn’t want to have what she knew was coming. Kazuo began to snigger. ‘Yes, you will!’ He proceeded slowly to sink the knife deep in to her stomach and slowly cut horizontally from left to right of her stomach. Blood began to seep out of the deep wound whilst exposing her guts. He could see that she was in pain and was screaming as loud as she could. But little sound was made as she choked. This torturous event made Kazuo laugh louder he wanted more. None of her friends were going to save her now, they were all too busy trying to save themselves. Not even the police could stop him, with the carnage unfolding outside the alleyway they wouldn’t notice this ritualistic execution that was taking place.
The woman’s eyes slowly rolled backwards in their sockets as she died, Watching her own guts been ripped out of her. Once finished, Kazuo threw her to the ground and wiped the Seppuku blade before he pocketed it. He wasn’t going to take this fallen enemy’s head as a trophy this time. As this woman’s head was worth nothing to the syndicate or him. There was little honour or pride from collecting the head of a coward or a low ranking s**t like her. He ran out of the alleyway to see if there was any other more high-ranking Unguided scum to kill. His long red hair flowed through the air like his trench coat from the speed he was running.
Kazuo stared from the lip of the alleyway: the hunt was over. The rest of the unguided gang was dead. His fellow agents had dispatched them, less painfully then himself he noted, as most died with bullet wounds to the torso areas. Among the dead were several unfortunate civilians who were caught in the cross fire and some of the policemen didn’t doing their job to restore order. Kazuo pitied them for their misfortune and whispered a prayer in Japanese to the fallen. He walked back to his Agent leader Schroeder.
‘Where have you been Kazuo?’
‘I chased one of the unguided down that alleyway-’ He pointed at the alleyway’- She is dead. I killed her’
‘Good. Retrieve her weapon and lets return to HQ’
‘Understood sir’
‘The same goes to the rest of you: Tracy and Richardson!’
‘Yes sir!’ they both replied and went to carry out their work. This morning was proving more interesting then usual all the agents noted.
‘Don’t worry Mr Branding, I’m sure that this is an isolated case and shouldn’t happen to you again’ the woman reassured her.
‘Yeah? You tell that to someone who’s almost being killed on his first day to work!’ Branding replied to his receptionist Maria Stevens. He frowned, still slightly shaking from the incident. There was a knock on the door Branding called him in. A scientist wearing white overalls peered through the double door holding a mug of what smelled like a cup of Genetically modified coffee. The person proceeded to invite himself in to the boardroom.
‘Woah, you don’t look good. What happened? If you don’t mind me asking’ The scientist said still holding the steaming mug with the Syndicate logo on it.
‘He’s almost been killed driving to work’ Maria quickly said before Branding was given the chance to repeat the terrible ordeal.
‘Jesus, never thought anyone’s first day would be that tough. Oh, I’m Jonathan heckler, head scientist at your HELICON research facility in the basement’
‘Nice to meet you. Robert branding’ They both proceeded to shake hands.
‘Have you met everyone else Mr Branding?’ Maria asked.
‘Just not the agents’ Branding said I’ve got a lot of questions to ask them when they get in here! branding didn’t add. Several minutes later Schroeder walked into the room with everyone apart from himself seated. Branding stood up, his shaking had mysteriously disappeared and he was already calm. Schroeder walked towards him his hand out as to shake hands.
‘You must be our new executive Robert Branding nice to meet you’
‘The same like wise. I’ve got a question to ask you’
‘Fire away. Pun not intended’ Schroeder looked behind Branding to Maria and Heckler only to see them shaking their heads and frowning at what he said.
‘Were you and your agents firing at my car as I drove past?’
‘There were a lot of cars. You weren’t in the green one were you?’ Branding nodded Oh boy, am I in deep trouble. I’ve almost killed my own boss! He paused’ Whoops I guess. I’m so sorry about what happened. Partially it wasn’t my fault for you see, we were trying to catch some of the unguided who attacked some distance from here. They hid behind moving cars and yours was one of them’
‘ I know, I opened the window to shoot him myself. Never mind, What about the others who were shooting at that policemen, were they your people as well?’
‘Yeah, we were the people shooting at those bucket heads. They started it.’
‘Oh? And what gave justification to their deaths?’
‘To be honest sir, we don’t know why it happened. Policemen CHIPs are supposed to program them to do their duty zealously whilst not harming any Eurocorp personnel unless told to. For some reason, only recently, they’ve been shall we say more “dedicated” in carrying out their orders to serve and attacked anyone breaking the law’
‘Ok, that explains everything. Where are the rest of the agents?’
‘ Currently, my agents are resting or getting patched up. Nothing to get worried with. I’ll show you around the Cryo area if you want’ Schroeder suggested.
Several minutes passed, Branding, Maria, Heckler and along with Schroeder arrived at the Limbo class cryogenic faculties on the third floor of the main building. The room was large and spacious, with numerous Cryo chambers illuminated in Blue lighting filling virtually one side of the room. A control console was situated several metres to the left of the Cryo chambers which housed the controls of freezing and augmentation. On the far side of the wall was what seemed like a home cinema but was in fact the briefing and debriefing area with a large screen to provide visual display of statistics, diagrams, footage and home movies. There were seven agents in total sitting down reading magazines or exercising. As soon as the group got past the hissing double doors, the agents all instantly formed a horizontal line as if ready to be inspected by their new leader. The crowd approached, their footsteps echoed across the room as they walked along the tiled service of the room.
Each agent apart from Kazuo and Tracy had donned the traditional clean-cut hairstyle that came with each agent. They all wore the customary syndicate agent clothing of the long trench coat with metallic shoulder pads. Small neck guards covered the front part of each of the agent’s vulnerable necks with a larger outer neck brace covering the rest of the neck. Whilst These neck guards provided protection, they also formed the collar of the agent’s coats. Beneath their trench coats they wore simple uniforms and heavy military style boots with armour plating on the front for further protection. Facemasks that covered the nasal and mouth areas of the agents were worn with metallic war gauntlets, which improved an ordinary human’s strength by 200%. A sheet of titanium underneath the agent’s chest was installed protecting from deeper penetration of lucky shots causing extra wounding. Additional impact force Shields protected agents even further, but only from initial blows of attacks, as they had been proved useless from further attacks unless they were supercharged at the cost of another weapons micro fusion cell being drained. And if they were wounded, they had prostate glands that made healing to a full recovery in seconds. Branding noted that these super soldier Agents were more then prepared for a firefight, they were quite capable already without any modifications making them a fearsome friend or foe to have.
Schroeder himself introduced each of the members of his proud team of agents He had probably the most experience out of the whole unit as numerous battle scars from Unguided fights of yesteryear were visibly seen. A keen and dedicated Agent, he had also some of the most important gifts of an Agent that no data CHIP could ever provide: Leadership skills and Charisma. Unlike the rest of the Agents, only he was modified with a fleximetal alloy replacing his bones and having robotic limbs and a reinforced Brain. With a result him being more robot then man. Branding noticed that he was quite easily a worthy person to lead what were to be and Branding’s as well as his own agents into battle if the moment should arise.
Kazuo Sakimiya was first in line and gave Branding and the group an agitated look. A Japanese agent from the Far East, both his fellow agents and previous executives sometimes knew him as a loose cannon. Honour was his life as he followed bushido: the way of the warrior. He saw it as his sworn duty to follow Eurocorp to the very end, bitter or otherwise and was therefore a dedicated and completely fearless syndicate agent. As such, it was almost to the verge of complete suicide. It seemed ironic to everyone that someone with such an attitude had a name that meant “a man of peace”, as his occupation with the syndicate had robbed this Japanese agent of any peace or tranquillity he had once before (if any). Merely raising further questions as to what happened to the person that made him under go procedures and become an agent. A disastrous childhood? A mind brainwashed from years of Eurocorp CHIP manipulation and propaganda? No one was going to get the answers of that one except for Kazuo, who remained quiet for his reasons of joining. Apart from being expertly skilled with all projectile weapons, he was also an expert in close quarter combat, specialising in Japanese blades like kitanas and daggers. Indeed, this expert knowledge of weapons compounded with his attitude in life made him extremely dangerous and almost having the perfect psyche of a murderous serial killer of the previous century. Like Schroeder, he was gifted with leadership skills and used his initiative almost daily from doing milk runs to making their own lunches.
Tracy was next in line. One of the two agents that were female and Although she smiled and was approachable (from the handshake Branding received), she had hidden talents in Sniping and demolitions. Her Training in some of the most hostile conditions ever experienced had made her virtually calm in any situation. Which were important for delicate wiring and steady aiming of a gun. Schroeder was quick to remind Branding that the Young female brunette was a free spirit and although she had an inquisitive nature she never played with the lives of her fellow agents. Although, she had been known to have spent a long time working on her shoulder long hair rather then training. Not that she needed it of course. Branding deep down agreed. Her dark brown hair was nice and made her very attractive.
Richardson was one of the younger agents in the group and came from a long lineage of ancestors who were syndicate agents of Eurocorp. Considered the all rounder specialist being sufficient in all weapons, new or old, allowing the young agent to be highly adaptable to any role. He was an eager agent and had a lot to prove to the world, his family and to himself. Although Schroeder and Branding agreed that having the dream of being the best agent was going a little too far, but he had a lot of potential of being the best agent ever seen.
The rest of the agents were only drafted in only the day before and like Branding, were new to the London Substation which didn’t allow enough time for Schroeder or the regulars to gather any info as to their skills and traits. Branding could quite easily see that they were new to their role as agents. Virtually all of them young and bared no scaring or damage at all. Even their uniforms were clean and shiny unlike the others where parts of their uniforms were worn and their collars rusting slightly. Only their name tags revealed any information or idea as to who they were. Each one showed their names: Bourne, Zambar, Wilko and Jamie. Each one came from different nationalities and from various backgrounds. Branding was convinced that further training through CHIP downloads would soon make them more then capable agents. Satisfied, Branding and the group bid them fare well and made their way to Branding’s personal office where he would monitor and advise his agents in all operations.
By now the whole thing seemed like some cheap tourist tour of a damn substation and seeing his office was probably the anti climax of the whole thing. Getting there was depressing enough as they walked down the long, blandly decorated corridor leading to his office. When he got there, things weren’t any better. The office turned out to be small, gloomy and felt confined. There was little lighting apart from outside the door, the screen of the MARIONETTE command console and from the small lamp on the side. To make things worse, the whole office was cluttered with someone else’s personal belongings with the usual Photos, paintings and gimmicks you would find in any personalised office. All of these items interested Branding not because he really was generally interested in them but he was suspicious as to why they were still here.
‘Say, who’s stuff is this? And what happened to him?’ He asked
‘Well Mr Branding, they belonged to the previous executive’ Maria replied. That part was quite obvious and Branding felt stupid. She continued without showing any emotion of annoyance‘ The executive was discovered to have been abusing funds of the substation. Turned out that he had been spending it on himself on fast cars and luxuries. He was classified NTE-1 Neutralisation Priority and was quickly dealt with. We trust that your skills and integrity wouldn’t result in this event happening again.’
‘Well, is it my first job to clean out this office?’ Branding jokingly replied
‘No’ Schroeder replied. Calm unamused by Branding’s attempt at humour. ‘Your first job is to carry out the mission that London AI has provided’ Schroeder pointed onto the screen indicating the new mail in his message box ‘ With that I’ll leave you. Carry out your orders to us. See you later’ With those words Schroeder ran out of the room and used the stairs rather then the lift to head back to the cyroVATs. Maria and heckler too this time to their respected areas. An eerie calmness filled the office he felt lonely as he puzzled over the Command console that was The Marionette Remote Drone Operating Suite. The latest refinement of the century old Remote Tactical Control technology that was used way back in the infancy of Eurocorp and lead to rise to global sovereignty and supremacy. By using the Marionette desktop system, all executives were able to observe and influence any combat encounter in which Agents were involved. In which case, Branding was merely advising the agents and being their eyes and ears. Cameras would record the action whilst the UTOPIA radar system would provide and overall picture of the operation that was at hand. Branding was glad that the system was incredibly easy to use as it was controlled using a mouse and a track ball for drone cameras.
The mission seemed simple enough and was only classified as level 3 priority, the overall mission set by London AI was to eliminate some people who had suffered total CHIP dropouts and were behaving against Eurocorp rules. But then wouldn’t they be annoyed? After years of manipulation and lies you would want to get even and cause trouble. But it was a simple case that would prove a good time to practice using the system. The agents were briefed on their upcoming mission. Everyone was going this time, not the customary 4. The new agents need to be trained up quickly for anything. Although there hasn’t been a real threat that has rivalled the syndicate’s power since the syndicate wars many years ago, it would have been wise to prepare for it. With all parties satisfied the agents left the substation on foot welding their weapons to carry out their orders and Branding switched activated the drone connection to observe and direct the action when required.
The whole experienced seemed like an excitement to Branding, not because it was his first day on the job and all, but because he was following the footsteps of his ancestors despite the odds. As if fate had chosen him to lead agents regardless of what happened to him before. A smirk came out of Branding, after nearly 40 years, another Branding was doing what he was born to do: lead Eurocorp to prosperity and superiority. One step for man, one giant leap for mankind...