On a quiet day in Station 154, a faceling named Nila was busy cleaning up the Snack Stall and getting it ready to close. The place was usually open 24/7, but since it was near Christmas in the Frontrooms, every faceling working at the place had gotten a short holiday vacation. Just as she had finished packing up the last of the holiday decor and turned off the lights to the place, she suddenly heard some commotion outside.
Looking out of the glass windows, there seemed to be a large group of people in military gear talking to each other. Looking closer at their uniforms, it became clear to here which group they belonged to. Aurielle soldiers, from the looks of it. But what were a bunch of soldiers doing in the Neon Station?
As she watched them further, she saw the Neon Express coming to a stop at the station. Quickly noticing her presence, the people in military armor began to shoot at her, forcing her to quickly duck at a wall.
Gingerly looking up through a window, Nila saw one of the men carry a basketball-sized crystal of Firesalt, get into a throwing position, hurl it at the train, and blow it off the track.
Rainy awoke within Base Alpha to Claire shaking them. Quickly jolting up from their bed, they grumbled, "What is it this time, Claire?"
"It's quite urgent. The Impresarios contacted Base Alpha leadership saying they need you and a couple others to go to Level 154 immediately. Come with me.", Claire sternly stated.
"Alright, but lemme get my uniform and a gun first", Rainy murmured. "You could've at least woken me up gently."
A couple minutes later, Rainy and Claire were running across Base Alpha to get to the The Hub's door to the level. As they continued moving, Rainy asked "Alright, so what the hell is happening in 154? Did the Architects have their pwecious little Hermes Drive break like the piece of shit it is again? Or is Base Omega pestering us about having to not hog all of the food from the Snack Stall?
"Not exactly", Claire said. "Base Omega alerted us about an raid by the Auriellen Ground Forces in the level, and they seem to have derailed the Neon Express using explosives. Apparently, the buggers are trying to steal the Hermes Drive within the level for themselves, and Base Omega is currently locked in a tactical engagement with them."
"Talk about being greedy", Rainy remarked.
Getting closer and closer to the door, the duo opened it and went inside.
As Armand entered the neon subway from The Metro, his ears were filled with the sound of gunfire and music from the dying speakers of the derailed train. The air was unbearably humid, with the constant throwing of Firesalt by both sides heating up the area around him.
Sighing, he motioned to the team of M.E.G soldiers around him to continue forwards. "Don't worry about these damn auries. We'll have em' cleaned out by the end of the day.", he gloated as he moved forwards into the battlefield. Quickly raising up his assault rifle to fight, Armand ducked behind a piece of rubble that had fallen from the Firesalt explosions for cover and shot at a group of Auriellen soldiers, downing two of them and injuring another.
Running across the battlefield, Armand found another vantage point, shooting another aurie right in the forehead. Raising his voice, he shouted "FIRE AT WILL!" to his team, causing them to shoot at and hit six more of the enemies. Things were going well so far under his leadership, and he'd make sure it stayed that way.
Rainy and Claire arrived in the level to find the place absolutely destroyed by the fighting. Fires from the Firesalt crystals being thrown around raged throughout the level, massive piles of rubble from the ceiling and walls were scattered around the station, and the smell of gunpowder and blood permeated the air.
"They certainly made a mess here", Rainy uttered, quickly turning towards Claire as they spoke. "Okay. Since you're hard to notice and all, you go find and secure the Hermes Drive, and I'll go help the others out a bit."
Rainy pulled out their pistol and rushed towards a group of Auriellen soldiers, shooting five times and hitting two of the soldiers. Continuing to rush forward, they grabbed another by the neck, the soldier struggling as they both fell to the ground. The man attempted to shoot at Rainy to get out of their grasp, as Rainy themselves just barely dodged each shot. Eventually, they were able to get their knife out from its holster, stabbing the soldier in the neck and watching as he bled out.
As Claire ran through the destroyed neon subway, she frantically searched for any sign of the Hermes Drive, dodging gunfire and firesalt blasts as she progressed. Running to the Snack Stall, she noticed something. A female Faceling, holding a large glass box containing what looked like a portal.
It was the Hermes Drive.
Quickly rushing towards the faceling, Claire went to talk to her. "Greetings.", she said in a soft but stern manner.
"Hey. Name's Nila. What's your name?", the faceling replied. Quite strange. It's a speaking Faceling, Claire thought to herself as Nila spoke.
"Seems like a inappropriate situation to be asking this right now. *sigh* My name's Claire, and I'm a part of the Major Explorer Group. We need that Hermes Drive to keep it safe from the Aurielle soldiers that are invading the level right now."
Flying a UACV high up in the sky of Level 154's luminescent purple void, Anne was an operative for the Auriellen General Aerial Operations Command, and she had just been tasked with bombing the meggies from above. The bombs this drone was carrying were strong, too. Just one of these bad boys could decimate an entire suburban house.
Quickly gliding the machine through the skybox, Anne dodged various shots from below. Fuck, that was close. Damned meggies must've noticed this slow ass drone.
Gotta be quick with this one.
Continuing on, Anne used three out of the five bombs she had to blow up some armored vehicles the meggies had gotten, destroying them and killing any unlucky M.E.G operatives that were around the things. Soon after, she deployed her fourth bomb to blow up a blockade the M.E.G soldiers had set up to defend the Hermes Drive. Shit. I'm almost out of these bombs. Gonna have to use the last one carefully.
Anne was quickly distracted when a barrage of bullets came from her left, wounding her and making her drop the laptop she was using to control the drone. Frantically crawling to cover, she quickly grabbed her laptop, only to find out that its screen was cracked. Frantically dodging the shots at her drone, she zeroed in on an area through the cracked screen.
There must be some meggies hiding out in the Snack Stall here. This will do.
Back in the Snack Stall, Claire and Nila were negotiating about the Hermes Drive.
"Do you really think you can just barge in here and take the thing that helps power our train just because you "need" it? I have it right here for safekeeping. The thing's certainly gonna be safer with us Facelings than with your shadowy government that's gonna do god knows what with it.", Nila whispered with a look of suspicion.
Claire replied, "Listen. We'll just keep it for a while until the fighting dies down, and then we'll return it to the Neon Express", Claire whispered. "I promise."
Sighing, Nila said, "...Alright. You better keep that promise.", handing the Hermes Drive to Claire. Responding to Nila, Claire stated, "I think we should stay here for a bit until I have an opening. The battle outside is quite dangerous, and I'd hate to be caught in that."
"Yeah, sure", Nila said. "Y'know, I had wanted to work at the Snack Stall because I needed some resources to trade. See, I wanted to get a gift for my daughter Maria, probably a good toy or something. And now because of that, I'm stuck here in a literal warzone and I don't even know where she is, because I left her in a daycare inside this damned level."
"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine. The auries are scummy, but they likely wouldn't attack a child.", Claire affirmed. Looking towards the window, she said "Alright, the coast is clear for now. All I have to do is get this thing out of here."
"Good luck, Claire."
"Good luck to you too, Nila."
Quickly rushing out of the Snack Stall, Claire heard a loud sound behind her.
She turned around just quickly enough to see a massive explosion engulfing the snack stall, rushing towards her and knocking her unconscious.
Next Part: Incident 154: Part II
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