[01] Forest Sector

[Piper Juunanagou]

In her dreams, Piper had been back in her future, and just as it had been in reality, it was the same hellish, sanity-sundering dystopia that she remembered. Despite the fact that she was only unconscious for a few hours, the twisting insanity of her repressed subconscious made it feel like Piper had spent the greater part of a few weeks trying to claw her way up out of the madness.

As her eyes opened to the dark, fleeting light of twilight, the false reality collapsed back into obscurity and was replaced by the serene backdrop of a quiet forest. Sitting up off the ground, the woman shook her head to liberate herself from the vanishing remnants of her dreams. Fortunately enough for her fragile, medicated mindset, Piper never really recalled her sleeping mind’s thoughts for long after she awoke. By the time she had crawled up to her feet and brushed off her fatigues, the only thing the blonde was aware of was her isolation.

“This is unpleasant, but I guess I can’t complain about the nap opportunity…”

Piper’s words fell upon deaf ears as she moved her head around to get a better view of her immediate surroundings. After a grand total of about two sweeping glances and three seconds of her life, the field officer deduced that she was in the middle of someplace absolutely foreign to her.

In fact…everything looked completely the same. Even worse, she was smack dab in the middle of a pine grove, which meant the already limited light was anything but copious by the time it filtered through the canopy. So how the hell was Piper—without a damn map—supposed to find a bunker in the middle of a forest where she couldn’t even see ten feet in front of her face?

“Damn needles always getting lost in haystacks,” Piper grumbled to herself as she took a step forward. She managed only to pick up her right foot before she felt it bump into something lying on the ground. Bending over, the woman collected the camouflaged duffel bag that bore her name embroidered in dull silver stitching. Gently peeling apart the zipper, the woman smiled faintly at the elegant, futuristic assault rifle that lay cozily inside the package.

Can’t argue with this. Piper mused as a faint smile spread across her countenance. With a few sweeping motions of her right hand, the woman pushed the bag away from its parcel and allowed the camouflaged package to plop gently onto the forest floor. Taking the surprisingly light gun into both hands, Piper lifted it up into a ready position and took a moment to sweep it across her surroundings.

When the woman finished toying around with the rifle, she looked it over once more to take note. From what she could tell, it was far more advanced that most of the proto-type energy weapons she’d seen whilst dealing with the escaped anomaly in the R&D Lab. In fact, the firearm was so damn new and so damn shiny she could see a perfect reflection of herself even in the dim lighting.

…Including the hefty, metal collar clamped around her neck.

Well that’s gawdy… Piper thought as her once joyous smile was replaced by a mask of indifference. The amusement and glee of the situation now draining from her like helium from a punctured zeppelin, the woman lowered the rifle and trudged forward into the nearby hemlock grove.

Upon marching a grand total of about twelve paces, Piper suddenly heard what sounded like a twig snapping a few yards to her left. Almost immediately, the woman dropped down into a crouch and the energy rifle soon found itself hungrily glaring in the direction of the disturbance. For a split-second, there was absolutely nothing, but just as Piper’s heart went to take another beat, she caught site of a flicker of darkness erupt through a small open patch to her left.

In an explosion of white and blue particles, Piper was gone—her body fading into nonexistence just as a two-foot chunk of steel exploded into the ground where she’d been poised defensively.

Rematerializing, the soldier leveled her newfound weapon and squeezed the trigger. With a sound reminiscent of an overly active computer, the rifle whirled to life and unleashed a concentrated hail of energy at Piper’s aggressor. Decomposing needles and rich, black earth were sprayed everywhere as the woman caught another flicker of pink and gray in her periphery.

Pivoting, Piper managed to only catch sight of an armored figure surrounded by free-floating pieces of metal debris. When that instant ended, it was followed by a thunderous boom as an armored knee found its mark on the base of her sternum.

Pain flowered from the epicenter of the strike as Piper sloppily threw up out hand to catch an oversized, shimmering knife just as it vied for the side of her spine. Before she could turn the momentum, fresh cuts were opened up across her fatigues as the free-floating debris desperately tried to reach the candy center that lie beneath the thick gear. Out of everything, it was the woman’s exposed midriff that absorbed the most pain in the few seconds before Piper and her attacker blinked out of site.

With another vibrant eruption of light particles, the two opponents appeared midair—their free-falling bodies tangled as Piper and her shadowed attacker swung violently at one another. Amidst the fall, the woman managed to break out of the mêlée and kick her opponent away from her with both her boots. The impact was enough to send the shimmering attack crashing through a nearby tree.

As the decades-old hemlock crashed to the forest floor, Piper fired off a spray of bullets that managed to do little more than ignite a few nearby trees into large, flaming idols. Piper, seeing that her attacker was still up and moving, reached her hand backwards and then violently gestured toward her opponent. As the woman’s hand arched forward, dozens of freshly fallen pine needles were swooped up off the ground and launched toward the armored foe. Although many would merely shatter against armor, a few found their mark against exposed skin, eliciting a confused and irritated yelp from what Piper could now identify as a man.

“You’ll pay for that!” The warrior bellowed as he went to leap forward. Just before his feet let the ground, the medic caught a glimpse of his face in the intense light of the forest fire burning around them.

“Vad!” She shouted as she lifted a hand in concession as the former assassin erupted toward her. Unable to stop the headstrong warrior mid-charge, the woman teleported out of his stampede and reappeared a few feet away as he turned to face her—his expression one of mild surprise and confusion.

“Piper?” He asked as the serrated blades that coated his hands and forearms regressed into bubbling masses of energized steel before vanishing into his bloodstream. “I guess neither of us recognized each other in this dark,” he remarked nonchalantly as he reached up a hand and plucked a pine needle from his cheek. Flicking it into the brush, he snickered and turned his attention back to her. Then, without much of a real transition from the brawling that had transpired a few moments prior, the former assassin crossed his arms over his chest and spoke:

“So what are you doing?”