Clad In My Armor I Stand

[Frunk]

CIMAIS Prologue:

Year: 2349
February 3rd: 1200 Hours
Luna Colony: Installation 9, Top Secret Meeting Room

A dimly lit room. A bottle of old Earth whiskey contraband lay on the table in front of the group of 8. Such people probably shouldn't be drinking at this time, it was rather important.

However, they would have to drink a lot more if they wanted to get drunk in this position.

There were two men sitting at either end of the table. They looked to be in charge respectively. Then there were 4 official looking people on either side of the long table. One of the important people was old, his hair was visibly balding and gray. His skin was wrinkling, and liver spots began to show. A small gray beard formed from his jaw bone and traveled down to his chin. A narrow scowl was chiseled permanently in both his eyes and face. The other man was the exact opposite. Young, clean shaved, and proud looking. Both ignorance and intelligence shined off of his persona. The old one then broke the silence.

"General Smithing, I recognize your new to your position. And I will forgive you for such an ignorant idea. But I will make it perfectly clear. I will not give up precious resources from the Imperial Navy, just to satisfy you land loving knuckle draggers flights of fancy."

"With all due respect Admiral, and I do mean with all due respect, this flight of 'fancy' might be the only thing that saves Earth."

"You know very well that these reports..."

"No admiral, I don't, every one in this room has already accepted the imminent threat. You are perhaps the last who hasn't."

"I will not hear of any of this, Plague, nonsense in my meeting room!"

"Admiral stand down! You are outvoted. High Commander herself has passed the motion. Now regardless of your opinion this plan will begin the moment I walk out the door. Now ask yourself, are you on our side, or theirs."

The admiral took one final swig of the whiskey, he wiped the sweat from his brow and finally spoke, "Fine, it appears I'm outvoted."

The meeting was adjourned and everyone began to file out, with one final remark the young general spoke, "That wasn't what I asked you old goat. I'll be watching you."

[Frunk]

Chapter 1


Year: 2349
April 7th: 900 Hours
Undisclosed Planet

"I hope this was a good idea." The military pilot looked over his shoulder to his partner. His metallic chrome visor covered his eyes. The worried look on his face was not picked up by his co-pilot. His voice sounded pathetic and high pitched. He had the faintest traces of a Martian accent.

"High Command specifically ordered this, though I don't know why we have to haul all of these snot nosed brats. Surely they cannot be that important." The man had a vastly distinct American accent, it was deep and loud. His mask had been taken off to allow him to take a sip of his hydration sack.

The jet they were flying was not a jet at all. It in reality was a large transport ship. It was about the size of a large yacht. It's official name was the X11 - Transport Class Draco. Everyone in the force had nicknamed it the dragon. It's namesake was its bow's dual chain guns. When they opened fired the muzzle flash looked like it was breathing fire. It was an impressive creature, worthy of it's title. It's large outer plating was clearly very protective, they even looked like large, army green, scales.

It's bay that was normally reserved for troops and supplies was now reserved for a group of rowdy six year olds. The oldest one was 8 the youngest child was five. She sat on the bench strapped in. She was missing her two front teeth, and she had blood red hair. Tied into two pigtails on either side she looked like she was dressed for church on Sunday with her little dress. Her name was Alice, she was crying.

Showing the diversity of the crowd, there was one boy who was eight. He was big and mean looking. He was struggling to get out of his harness, his teeth were yellow, and his hair was a black crew cut. He wore cut off jeans and a black tank top. His name was Johnathan, he was screaming.

The sergeant who was watching over all of them was about to pull out his hair. These pitiful kids might be the last hope for earth. They had been recruited because of their high I.Q's and genetic make-up. They were the perfect brain children and athletes. Or at least as far as science could tell, they were still just little kids. They were going to be raised as weapons to combat the fabled 'plague'.

"SHUT UP!" The sergeant lost his cool and shouted. While the children temporarily became silent he lit a cigarette and let his lips hold it together. The side stream smoke fluttered off to his right filling the air. "I am going to watch over you guys, but I am not going to be your babysitter. So shut up, sit down, and wait till we get to the base."

The little girl with the pigtails rose her hand, she was shaking with that signature, I've gotta' go potty sitting twitch. The actual subject matter was much more important.

"Uhm, sir, when will I get to see Mommy and Daddy. They must be worried, I never got to say by. Plus there's my dog Hopscotch, and.."

"One at a time little lady." He picked his world carefully, he didn't want to have to deal with the whole lot of them crying. It wasn't going to be pleasant. "You will see them soon, just as soon as you finish your training."

A bloody lie if their ever was one.

The dragon wavered ever so slightly, the afterburners of the ship glowed from red to blue and it slightly decreased it's intensity. The ship began to lower onto the landing strip that was cut out of the forest. It touched down and the back opened. The kids were then filed out, into the barracks.

Fully automatic weapon fire engaged. They were only firing blanks, but it still scared the kids. Seemingly faster than what should be possible the kids went into the small compound and found there bunks. They all lied down, exhausted from the long subspace jump, and then the long trip to the remote base. The sergeant took a final drag from his cigarette and spit out the butt onto the ground.

While this was entirely cruel and unusual for kids that had just been kidnapped from their homes. Then they had been transferred to a space ship launch site. They had barely slept on their trip into the atmosphere of their respective planets. They were then met into a formerly decommissioned observation satellite, they were all transfered into another ship. At this point they were almost to tired to protest, they were also on sedatives. They made a light space jump and ended up on this planet. Even though it was early in the morning, closer to noon, they were completely wiped out. The gun effect was simply used to test the physiological strength of the candidates. If they already broke mentally then their were no used for them.

The sergeant shook his head, he was entirely to old for this crap.

One of the soldiers to the left of him made a snide comment under his breath. "Sergeant Tanner, I can already see the hair graying on your head, old man."

"Shut up and clean the mess hall. I may be old, but I'm not deaf."

Year: 2349
April 8th: 600 Hours

A trumpet recording sounded over the intercom. The children rolled over, some got up and began to stretch. The vast majority of them were not used to getting up so early, just stayed down. The next sound was not so kind, it was a piercing shriek that forced everyone to cup their ears and file out of their room. Luckily it was only coming out of the speakers in their room. Tanner stood at the door way, he looked at the kids who were currently sighing and rubbing the crust out of their eyes.

"Proceed to the mess hall, the green arrows will guide you there. From their you will begin to take your training classes. After each class you will have an hour of free exercise and recreation. Then some guided exercise, mess, and sleep. Don't ask any questions now go."

A green line formed on the tile below. The entire hallway, and building for that matter, was stark white. Small black lines appeared to highlight corners and tiles. The mess room was an exception, it was mostly white, but the tables were mint green. There were some cooks working in the standard military gray sweat pants and shirt that the forces used for non-combat units. They each passed out trays covered in food. There was one cherry flavored nutri-bar, one thing of artificial rice, three sliced of bacon for protein, and one carton of soy milk filled with vitamin enhancements.

A small boy of 7 sat at the table poking at the rice, instead he decided to pick up a strip of bacon and savor it thoroughly. He had long black hair, that was straight and went down to his lower neck. His eyes were so dark brown that they looked black. He was small statured, but larger than quite a few of the other prospective applicants. Another boy sat down beside of him. He was a lot larger than the black haired boy, and he was only 6. His hair was a short mop of curly red, and his eyes were green.

"Hey my names Ezekiel, what's yours?" The large boy sat down and instantly shoved his bacon down his throat. He poured his milk down next, and gave himself a milk mustache.

Ezekiel, Hebrew for strength of god.

"Mmm...My names Felix...mmm." He spoke with his mouth full, letting small crumbles of bacon drop onto his tables.

Felix, Hebrew for lucky, or successful.

"You want to be friends?"

"Sure, hey you know how to play checkers."

"We don't have a checker board stupid..."

"Oh that's right."

They were the last two finished eating, and they walked down the hallway marked with a red arrow. They were in a large classroom head by a very young woman. She looked not a day older than 17, she was very small. Not fit for combat by the looks of it. She looked to clean and well kept to be a soldier, she was likely a civilian volunteer.

"Children quiet down, this is military tactics and history. The first day we will begin with basic military protocol..." Everyone was paying attention, or as much attention as a little kid could. There were two assistants walking around making sure the students were paying attention.

Class went by boringly, Felix and Zeke ran out of the classroom. They had both been chosen from a specific genetic field. They both had extremely good memory and intelligence for young boys. Especially Felix. Zeke was mostly chosen because of his physically superior genetic pattern. All of these children were superior to their peers, special one might say. They had been gathered both by orphanages, and by abduction. All traces of their past life had been erased by High Command, they were never alive.

Felix and Zeke were both swinging on a rope above a mud pit. There was a large obstacle course nicknamed 'the playground' by the staff. The entire thing was nearly impenetrable. The thing was so easily interchangeable it was like a complete morphing obstacle course. To accompany this there were surrounding woods and courses that could be used for training.

Tanner faced the young General, it would be the last time they would see eachother for a long while.

"Not bad for their first day," Tanner remarked.

"Not bad big bro, not bad at all."

"Be professional, I'm not your big brother when we're in uniform."

"Fine, leatherneck, no get down there and train those soldiers."

[Frunk]

Chapter 2

AN: After this chapter, or perhaps the chapter after it will become much better. These are merely chapters meant to build up the story.

Year: 2355
April 7th: 900 Hours
Undisclosed Planet - Training Grounds

Felix sat next to Zeke clad in only his training camo sweat suit and combat boots. The foliage wrapped around the two as they sat perfectly still. His entire team spread in a delta formation back into the forest. The mission of this test was simple, take up tactical positions in the forest and inject themselves into the playground while avoiding any stun fire rounds that the instructors would be firing. This, while simple, was also incredibly difficult. The wooden boardwalk like obstacle course first ramped from the edge of a cliff above a muddy lake below. Felix made a simple hand signal for Alice to go forward.

Alice was the youngest member of the team, and the smallest. Even with the steroids and growth hormones that their officers had been procuring for them. Her once long hair had been completely shaved into a crew cut mohawk. Her slighter mass made her more agile than the rest of her team.

Words were not needed to communicate, a simple go forward gesture from Felix made it clear that she was supposed to run into one of the bunkers that would shield her from the stun bullets. There were two small bunkers, completely concrete, easily able to take the concussion rounds. Alice burst from the brush and lowered her body in dead sprint. She quickly reached max speed. The bullets could be seen impacting the wooded planks below her as she did a dive through the door opening.

She had definitely outran the gunners. But their was a problem, even though she was fast, they should have been able to follow her movements and guess where she should have been next. The guns constantly shot towards where she was at the exact moment. They also fired almost exactly in unison, that was the work of a machine, not man.

He waved the go sign to his other teammate Dan and sent him running. He made it half way when a round clipped him in the shoulder. It sent his off balance and into the bunker. A large bruise set across his shoulder and he lost feeling in it. He also lost all motor function with his arm. That would impair him later in the course. Felix went over his thoughts and the teachings of Miss Sanchez, their teacher.

"Machines are not infallible, if you find their source of input, you can disrupt it. Making their output whatever you want."

The question remained, how did they know where to shoot. If they were using infrared or ultraviolet they would open fire on the bush they were hiding in. They must be using motion sensors, so if they moved very slowly they might fool the system. So Felix, Zeke, and his two other teammates followed slowly after Felix flashed the 'follow the leader sign'. The plan worked mostly.

Ezekiel dragged his teammate behind him slowly, they finally reached the bunkers out of the line of fire of both turrets. They then took a quick breath. The rest of the challenges would be harder. Felix wished he could have a rifle in his hands. He would be much more comfortable. Ezekiel was already trying to get the rest of the group moving, so they took off.

The next section was a thin catwalk. Each took one step at a time, carefully avoiding the murky depths below.

Felix instinctively flexed and tensed when he saw the pole swing out and try to sweep them off of the pole. They all jumped but Zeke, because of his size, didn't land on his feet. He railed himself on his groin, he grunted and then grabbed the rail on its second rotation. He tore it from it's socket and passed it back to Felix who threw it into the lake.

The catwalk ended and opened up into a large platform made to resemble small city block. The team instinctively took cover behind whatever they could. The clicks of the testers A1K* rifles steeled the recruits for combat. A low ark of bullets hit the cover Alice was hiding behind, denting it. The scrap tin turned makeshift shield wasn't holding up to well.

The instructors all took cover behind pre-deployed infantry protection shields. They were essentially riot shields that covered an entire body that was standing. They could be deployed when in a defensive position to provide cover.

One instructor left his shield and crouched behind a 50 gallon barrel. He took a shot at the exposed arm of one of the recruits.

The recruit didn't move and took the shot in the shoulder. He heard a curse and moved closer to take the kid and subdue him.

A fist from Zeke extended and caught the officer straight in the nose. The officer fell back and loosened his grip on the rifle. Zeke firmly confiscated it and emptied three shots into the groin of the officer with his good hand.

"That Hurt." He looked at the ammo counter on the gun, it read half full, the man didn't have any extra magazines on him. Alice took his sidearm 45 Magnum pistol replica and Felix found two grenades on him.

"Flash bangs, he said." His grin spread from cheek to cheek. Felix lived up to his name meaning lucky, because he had near godlike luck when dealing with deadly explosives.

"Dan, Jane stay here and watch for snipers. Tanner might pull out all of the stops for this one. Remember this isn't a real combat exercise, just training, so we don't have all of our normal equipment. We'll have to make do. The enemy also do not have an entire field to maneuver on they probably have to stay behind their shields."

A quick plan was concocted, Zeke went straight down the middle, taking cover behind the same barrel the trainer used and provided cover fire. He then tossed one of the flash bangs that Felix acquired. They all dove out of the way, and it blinded only the two closest to the blast.

Alice shot two soldiers trying to get out of the way. Felix engaged one soldier in fist to fist combat and knocked him out with a punch to the throat. Dan barely had the time to scream sniper, before everybody hit the floor.

"At ease soldiers," It was Tanner, the entire group snapped to attention while he took out his palm pilot. You all have passed your basic training. Within a week you will all be transformed into TRUE warriors. Not mere infantry, but Titans, gods of the battlefield."

"Titans..." The word was repeated with awe, by the young recruits. They each had basic knowledge of the Greek mythology of the Titans. They were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age.

"Please proceed to your bunks. You have one day to mentally prepare and relax, your transformation will take a lot out of you."

*Stands for Automatic Version 1, Karthridge. It was invented by Henry Karthridge in the year 2332.