1 CHAPTER 1- WORTH THE SACRIFICES ?

All of it for what?

For this small stone?

Linn Markel is standing in his workshop holding a piece of translucent stone in his hand. His facial expression is that of hatred and repulsion, with a bit of ....hope or is it relief? no one could tell exactly.

Even he does not know what his feelings towards this stone that lead to the death of all of his team mates. All nineteen of them died for this stone. Leaving him to be the only survivor of UNIT 235.

"No no, eighteen deaths and one sacrifice in exchange for his survival" he nodded his head as to assert it to himself. He remembers clearly the last look that his team leader Johnas gave him.

Not to be forgotten ever or to be taken for granted.

The pain in his hand brought him back to reality from his melancholy thoughts. He realized that he was gripping the 'energy core' too hard. Too hard that he could see his palm has become white without blood circulation.

'SIGH...'

Yes it is an energy core. The core that he himself has cut out from inside the head of that predator he bombed it to heavens.

There is a rare smile on his lips when he thought about that moment. Ten explosives together tied in a string. Eight shrapnel grenades, one concussion grenade and one smoke grenade.

Well.... that will do the work. Even if it is an Apex Alpha.

Alphas are not your regular predators that the scouting out teams come into contact with. Alphas are predators that could level all your AFV vehicles. Armour on the AFVs could not resist their strength.

And meeting one while you are scouting out with your team members will usually end up in 'wipe out' of the team.

Yes 'wipe out' that is the official name given by the military for the death of an entire team. Like naming it simple could somehow lessen the horror that is happening out there.

Linn realized that he again got distracted from the job and is again thinking about the past and things that he could not change.

'SIGH....' He knows that he is subconsciously prolonging the moment. He is not ready to leave behind the memories of his brothers.

He looked behind him and saw the Mecha that he built. she is .....ugly and looks like an abomination with four hands. Not at all similar to those stunning and awe inspiring mechas of the METAL CORPS.

But she represents the memories of his brothers in arms and also his team leader....who was a father figure to him. Well not very affectionate, emotions were not something that team leader Johnas good with. But Linn knew Johnas will be as close to a father figure that he will ever know.

He was not like others. He is an orphan. It is very strange to find an orphan nowadays.

Not because people no longer abandon their children but the young ones will not survive their childhood.

Food is already a big problem to many families. Those families of government officials live somewhat better lives. Others are forced to join the military, since joining the military shows them a way out. If they survive the training they will be added onto scouting teams with deceased members. And if they survive their first scouting trip, they will be treated as soldiers.

Then there are 'Elites'.

Elites are the cream of the community. They are people with abilities. Abilities such as ....well anything could be an ability. There have been elites with the ability to control fire, water, wind like those written in ancient scriptures.

Even among fire elites some may be only able to produce some heat. Some could throw out fire balls. Some could even use flame as ropes by materializing the fire energy. There were elites in history who could control gravity. Abilities of elites are strange and could not be understood by rational thinking. Each elite is different from the other elites.

A person could be an 'elite' from the birth itself or they could awaken the ability while growing up. Most of them awakens before age of twenty

There were cases of normal soldiers awakening their abilities during critical situations in the midst of combat. So every trainee is subjected to heavy and harsh treatment during their training, so that seventy percent of them drop out from training within the first week of training itself.

Scientists say that these abilities are due to the R-virus affecting their brain similar to the animals out there that turned out to be predators. For some unknown reason humans are able to control their nature. Otherwise they will be similar to the bloodthirsty predators out there.

Whatever the reason, elites are key factors in this fight. Because they are the only people who could Link Up with a mecha and complete the handshake protocol with the interface of mechas. Normal people couldn't complete the handshake protocol because their normal brains could not handle the sensory feedback from the mechas. The big body of mechas produce sensory feedback which could not be tolerated by human brain

Along with there are additional sensory inputs from subsystems like weapon modules, communication modules....and then there is the most crucial part - pain feedback. For the mechas to be as responsive as an intelligent organism it should have all the sensory inputs like a living body. These pain should be handled by the mecha handler.

Only a brain enhanced by R-virus could handle the pain feedback caused during fighting with predators.

So only teams who have elites could possess mecha. Only teams with mecha could enter the METAL CORPS, which is the special forces of the military.

If the team does not have an awakened soldier among them, the team usually invites elites to join them by giving them incentives.

Every team's aim is to enter the metal corps. Only then there is meaning to their fight.Only then could they make any changes or affect the fight. Having a mecha and controlling it also provides them with much more security than being in an AFV.

The mecha behind Linn is also stemmed out of his team's wish to enter the metal corps. But they fell before they could realize their dream. They fell short of one component-only one- which is also the most important and difficult to obtain - the energy core.

But he fulfilled their dream. He obtained the energy core from an Alpha. Even though it is the lowest of all the energy core, it could be used in a mecha.

This tiny stone in his hand is the component which converts the sensory signals from the mecha to sensory signals compatible with living tissue and which could be sensed by a living body.

Looking at the four armed monstrosity, he is not sure what to call it.

"four arms, no that is too obvious" Linn thought out loudly.

Linn thought for some time by taking in all of the mecha to his mind.

"what do you represent ?" Linn asked the metal behemoth, as if it could answer.

"you represent memories and ambitions of nineteen dead men" Linn murmured

"Maybe I will call you SPECTRE, for carrying the memories of the dead" Linn hummed with a sigh.

The mecha remained silent. As silent as a steel structure, which it is.