Broken Fate-Operation mountain Ruse PG13

By J.P. Midnight





Broken Fate Ops
Operation: Mountain Ruse


This Classified Mission document
is for your eyes only.
Unauthorized access
and redistribution
is punishable
by death.
SCOR
GM
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©2016 J.P Midnight. All rights reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher or author, except as provided by
United States of America copyright law.


This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The author of the following story, J.P. Midnight, wishes to announce that this series, Broken Fate Ops, may or may not have anything to do with the original story, Broken Fate. Further, the events in this story may or may not be occurring in an alternate timeline or dimension. Any information linking the two series may or may not be entirely coincidental. The author is not responsible for keeping track of events in the Broken Fate Ops series as they might or might not be occurring at different or similar timelines in possible alternate dimensions or realities. Due to collapsing wave probabilities, i.e wave function collapse, by continuing to read, you, the reader, beta reader, critique partner, reviewer, agent, editor or anyone else involved in the publishing process, agree to not hold the author, J.P. Midnight, liable or responsible for any inconsistencies or coincidences between both aforementioned series. However, for the purpose of convenience, Broken Fate, Broken Fate Ops, and any other future projects bearing the prefix Broken Fate shall be considered belonging to an umbrella term of BFU or the Broken Fate Universe where all or none might be considered connected in some way; this includes tv shows, plays, movies, video games, comics or any other form of printed or digital entertainment or technology.

Reader discretion is advised.

Chapter 01

“Virtually no impact. No change.” The operations room was cold and so was her artificial voice.

The reddish glow radiating from the screen was like an old nemesis, one that Raven gave up fighting long ago. Instead, it had become an annoying roommate she’d learned to tolerate. World statistics and data pertinent to their missions and goals displayed on the giant holo-screen that took up the entire wall. She watched it with tired eyes as she swirled a cup of wine in hand. “What’s the point anymore?”

“You didn’t think that stopping the apocalypse and destroying a single major, tyrannical, oppressive corporation would be enough to save this world, did you?” Natural as it sounded, a robotic hint lingered behind each of her words.

Raven sat back in her chair, eyeing the glass in hand. “I suppose that would make me a fool for thinking so.” Her british accent echoed off the smooth concrete walls. “I thought it would at least be worth something.”

“Worth something?” E-VA, their sub-A.I Virtual Assistant, paused for a moment. “Worth some.” Another second went by. “Investor confidence in many major corporations linked to The Board have taken quite a nose-dive. However, the numbers aren’t much lower when compared to other major world disasters on record.”

Raven let out a long sigh and brushed the straight, jet black hair from her face to make room for the cup. Her deep blue eyes fixed themselves on the liquid at the bottom of the glass. “I guess it would make me a danged idiot for thinking that the Sun Ray Corporation and The Board were the cause of our problems.”

“They were the cause of some problems.” E-VA displayed data on the parasites, the Sun Ray satellites and the probability maps for global conflict arising from its use coupled with the numbers and growth rate from the support of a totally controlled population. She then switched back to the current status of things.

“Has Massacre seen these numbers?”

“Mike doesn’t seem to care,” it replied.

“What do you mean?”

“After accomplishing the near-impossible task of separating The Queen from WarFairy, stopping the SRC and sealing off the Oubliettes Of The Apocalypse--” E-va paused again. “Speak of the devil.”

After a short rumble, WarFairy, their expert hacker and tech extraordinaire, came through on Ravens earpiece. “Looks like I'm gonna need your help, Rae. Can you come down here for a sec?”

“Can’t.”

“C’mon.”

“You know I need to be manning the comms chair.”

“Please?”

Please? Pretty rare to hear that word coming from her. Must be important.

“I'll make it worth your while,” she sang.

“Better be important. I'll be right down.”

As soon as Raven arrived at the 3rd floor, she was hit with the familiar and always nauseating scent of motor oil, gunpowder and gasoline. This level was home to Research and Development, the Gear Room - which housed tactical mission equipment, a gun range and a garage. The idea was that soldiers who got called out could grab everything they needed in one level and head straight out. They could even conduct rapid testing of firearms at the range.

It was always hot down there. Exhaust and heat from various machines and equipment made it so.

Haven't been to the range in a while. She thought as she walked past the cheaply printed sign that was haphazardly taped over the door.

Raven could hear huffs and grunts coming from the back of Cargo Truck One.

“I'm here. What is it?”

“Rae!” WarFairy pulled the back cover open and poked her head out. “Finally.”

“Took me like three minutes to get here.”

“I need your hel--”

“What are you wearing?”

“Prototype optics. Night vision. Thermals. Spectrals. 10x optical zoom.”

“That's cool but they look ridiculous.”

“Cool, without flipping precedent, and all you can say is that they look ridiculous?!”

“Well they do look kind of funny, but I was just teasing. That does sound nice, though. What do you need?”

“I need you to help me unpack some of my stuff.”

“I thought this was important. I’ve got my own job to do.”

“Guess who's not getting a pair of these goggles then.”

Raven locked eyes with her. A raised brow dominated her expression. “A really lucky someone. Oh, I do hope it's me.”

“Ugh! The final product is going to be.... Y’know what? You can flip right off then.”

“Fine.” Raven spun around and made for the exit.

“Wait!” WarFairy climbed out of the truck.

“What? It's too hot for this shoot.”

WarFairy looked off to the right. “Everyone uses my tech, but no one helps me when I need it most.”

“Helps you when you need it most? Like saving you from the very depths of the underworld? Stopping you from destroying any more cities? The world doesn’t trust us anymore since Massacre brought you back.”

WarFairy ripped her goggles off and tossed them into the back of the truck. “You know that wasn't me! I’m not going through this again with you guys.” WarFairy sat on the rear step-bumper of the truck. She slammed a fist against the side of it after a sob.

shoot. Raven walked back to the truck. “Listen, I didn't really mean that stuff.” She paused and looked around trying to figure out what was eating at her own mind. “Sitting in the ops room for days staring at the World-Screen, can get very ... depressing. I don't know how he does it. I'm sorry okay?” Raven eyed WarFairy’s oversized combat boots and long baggy shorts. “It's just that sometimes when I look at you, all I see is her.”

“How the flip do you think I feel? I wake up everyday, my face is always in the news - millions dead, my face, governments toppled, my face, people homeless and starving, my flipping face! Picket signs everywhere - Death To The Queen.” Tears streamed down her face.

“Massacre saved you for a reason. He didn't give up on you, so don't you give up on us. It's gonna take time, that's all.” Raven brushed the dark purple hair off her face and did what she could to fix WarFairy’s hair.

“I'm so flipin’ stressed out.” WarFairy pushed her hand away and wiped her own tears. “There's so many deadlines I need to meet. Not to mention I hit a wall in this new project I'm working on.”

“Yeah? Which project?”

WarFairy nodded as her emerald green eyes drifted down to her boots. “Which one.” She sighed. “What are we doing, Raven?”

The question left Raven with a sensation in her stomach that felt like someone had pulled the drain-plug in a bathtub filled with wine. She said nothing and just stared at her head in case she looked up. I don’t know anymore.

“I mean. We stopped Mr. Takahashi. We killed my father, burned Mr. Goldman and half of The Board. We stopped the Sun Ray Satellite. Not to mention that stuff about the Queen, King and the Oubliettes. Isn’t it over? Why haven’t we stopped fighting?”

Raven wondered the same thing but then she remembered what she truly was, what they both were. “We’re warriors WarFairy. Soldiers. We keep fighting because that’s not just who we are, but what we are.” She sat next to her at the very edge the truck's bumper, making sure her butt made as little contact with the greasy, dirty surface. “Take you for example. You love what you do because it’s who you are. You ... we, fight for freedom. We’re liberators. What better way to put your knowledge and hobby to use? I know the deadlines are hard, but screw Ghost. Massacre loves us, he doesn’t really care, so long as we usually have what we need when we need it.”

“I know, but we spend every waking minute worrying about the world. What about us?”

“Right where we should be, I imagine. I mean, I feel it too. I’m tired. I want to just leave it all behind already.”

“So then why don’t we? If we left ... the two of us, maybe Mike would come with us.”

“Come where?”

“Anywhere! We’re flipping rich as shoot. We could live out our days someplace awesome.”

“And do what, WarFairy? Learn to cook? Fall in love and make babies?”

“Maybe not right away ... I mean, don’t you ever want to have kids?”

Raven cocked her head back. “Kids with an S?”

“Not like we can’t support a big, happy family.” She smiled at her, eyes widening with curiosity.

Big ... happy ... family.... Kids?

“Mike would make a great dad. Lets just make him do all the cooking and pretty much all the work. Basically what he does around here, just happier and more fun.”

Raven scoffed. “Well there’s two of us and one of him so maybe just give him one kid each?” she said, playing along.

“We’re not giving, Raven, we’re creating. We’d be making a family and a life together, the three of us.”

“That’s sweet WarFairy, it really is but--”

“But what? Let’s just go.” WarFairy grabbed her hand.

“What’s Massacre supposed to do? Give up the Ark? If that’s even possible. Or, pretend he doesn’t have it? We grow old in front of him, die in front of him?”

“Raven....”

“Fine. I guess what I’m really saying is, no.” Raven pulled her hand away. “I’m not the mommy type. And what will you do so far away from the world? Stop making giant death-robots? You’ll forget all about that laptop of yours - leave it all behind for a couple of kids, good coffee and pancakes in the morning?”

“Maybe. If it meant leaving behind all the fighting and shoot we put up with from the world.” WarFairy looked away. “Good food, good times. Travel.” WarFairy scanned the ground at her feet. “Maybe he could be happy again. With us.”

“Yeah? You think true happiness is out there, behind a white picket fence and a huge comfortable house?”

“I didn’t ... I don’t--”

Raven stood up. “What happens when our bellies are full of babies and our bodies are fat and lazy? What happens when hell is no longer across the ocean but crawling out of it, right up to our doorstep, wherever we are? And there will be no world to save on the other side because we were too busy running away from it all.”

“So you’re saying we’ll never be happy. Never have a life of our own?”

“I want to fall in love too y’know. I want to raise ... a dog maybe, I don't know. Who knows, I might actually learn how to bake a pie one day. But I also want to live long enough to do all that. The world is still falling apart, all around us. I can’t let you bring a kid into this world, not as it is now. After what we did, it’s on fire. We might not need to put them all out ourselves, but we have to deal with some of it.”

“Then why isn’t Massacre here to help us do that?”

“You think he has it any easier? He always goes where he’s needed. We can’t always go with him. Besides, you being seen with him, right now, isnt--”

“Yeah, I know. Wouldn’t want to be seen hanging out with the person responsible for hell on earth. So what about you? They leave me behind along with you, to babysit me? Make sure I'm really still me?”

Raven placed a hand on her hip, her breathing calmed. “I don’t know any more than you do. Though it has me wondering why he decided to take every man we had at base, leaving behind only Wu and the Doc.”

WarFairy stood and faced the back of the cargo truck. “I heard from the Doc that he heard from one of the soldiers about a secret mission into the wastelands of China.”

“Suresh told you that?”

“Yeah.” She fiddled with the door’s release mechanism. “He was prepping them with all kinds of shots, including anti-radiation meds.”

“It was probably some form of disinformation spread by Ghost. You know how Merc is. He needs to control the flow of information.”

“Yeah but knowing how Massacre is, he’s just as likely to make it all sound like bullshoot only for it to all be real.”

“Either way, I'm sure they’re doing something important.”

WarFairy turned around with a little smile. “Remember that time Mike threatened to paint the whole town red, only to actually paint--”

“The entire town red with everyone's blood?”

“Top to flipping bottom - oh my gosh! That was so funny!”

“That was. Heh. It was ... really bad though. I mean it had environmental repercussions.”

“Yeah but ... that’s what makes it funny, right?” She let out a little smile again.

Raven chuckled. “Yeah ... I just don't share that same type of humor that you and Massacre do. Feeling any better after a laugh?”

“Not exactly. I'm still really stressed.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“Help me find my weed.”

“Wow! You're joking.”

“Give me a break wine-breath. It's some really good Kush, alright?”

“shoot alright.” Raven shrugged a shoulder. “dang potheads.”

“dang winoe’s” WarFairy said, just loud enough to be heard. “I'd ask someone else but Wu is an old man and Suresh is well... Suresh.”

“I suppose what he lacks in muscle he does make up for in science.” Raven climbed up onto the truck. “Now let’s find that pot, shall we?.”