"A Veritirii soldier came rolling down? On it's own? No backup?"
The gears in his head began turning. This simply doesn't make sense. Why are individual units infiltrating our camp? It can't be a reconnaissance mission if they just rolled into the middle of our base. What are they planning? A suicide attack?
He began spiralling, wondering what the play was.
…
Roughly 10 minutes ago:
"Ah fuck!"
Eiran had long lost feeling in his head. He'd been rolling in this armor for god knows how long. The armor protected him from the ridge's protruding rocks, it didn't however, protect him from dizziness.
Thud
Thud
Thud
Rhythmic thuds rang as the armor crashed onto the igneous rocks, gyrating between each impact that briefly sent it back into the air. Inside the armor, a young man, barely even a man, teetered on the edge of consciousness as his body felt the impact from each crash, and his head had long lost any semblance of clarity.
Even though he hadn't eaten in days, he could still feel the contents of his stomach still rising. It reminded him of a fact that he heard in history class, back when humans were left wanting for resources, people would often abuse aquifers, even when water stopped seeping into wells, they'd just dig deeper and keep taking more, until the water table would lower, and eventually there'd be nothing left.
Urgh!
As he focused his energy on keeping his insides inside. An impact bigger than any before came.
BOOM
The armour was sent flying into the air.
Inside the armor, Eiran jerked forward, smacking his head on the neckpiece of the armor, nearly knocking him out.
Then a buzzing sound was heard, and simultaneously, Eiran could feel himself being suspended in the air, providing a brief respite after tumbling down for so long.
Before Eiran could even exhale a sigh in relief, he once again jerked back
FOR FUCKS SAKE!
The armor was being pulled on at rapid speeds by an invisible force, crashing onto a large metal plate, the impact finally knocking him out.
…
Eiran's eyes fluttered open.
His whole body screamed. He could still feel remnants of the headache from before, leaving him groggy, like walking through a half-remembered dream.
As the clarity in his eyes returned, the first thing that came into his view— was nothing.
It was pitch black.
His eyes widened, the mix of the confusing situation he found himself in, as well as the head trauma from his journey down to the base left his memory scattered in a few places.
"Why does it feel like I got sat on by like 20 Centurions?"
"That's close enough to the truth" a whimsically rough voice replied to him.
Huh?
Snap! With a snap, lights blared into the room, overpowering Eiran's eyes. He recoiled from the chair he was strapped onto, only when he jumped back did he realise that his hands were linked to the armrests with magnetic cuffs. Gathering himself, he locked eyes with the voice from the darkness.
It was a rough looking man, clearly somebody who's had a lot of experiences, he radiated a lot of strength. Eiran could feel it, this wasn't somebody he could mess with, even with the mischievous smirk on his face, he knew that this man could be dangerous.
Finally recalling a little bit of the situation Eiran asked:
"Are we in Aethra's Reach?"
Not even acknowledging the question, General Tullius's face hardened, eyes serious.
"We looked at your bios. You're Eiran Voss. Ninth Mars Cohort. You were supposed to be deployed on the right flank of Noachis Terra."
Eiran was a bit surprised by the sudden change in tone, but quickly adjusted, a few days on his own wouldn't make him forget how to act like a soldier.
"Yes sir! It is as you say."
The General nodded.
"So what are you doing here? You don't have clearance to be here. Much less arriving from inside the armor of a Veritirii scout, how did you even get your hands on one?"
"Sir, I was instructed by my commanding officer, Colonel Kael."
A hint of recognition flashed in General Tullius's eyes.
Estra Kael, huh?
"What is the current situation with your cohort, soldier?"
A slight cracked in Eiran's professional mask, making his head drop ever so slightly.
"Sir, as far as I'm aware, they were all wiped out."
Sigh
"I see, that lines up with our information, carry on with your explanation."
"Yes sir, I was instructed to deliver a certain relic that we recovered from the front lines, its one of the ones that they have been using to nullify our tanks and warplanes, we weren't exactly sure how to use it, but during my journey back… I discovered that I could use it to channel and enhance some of the spells that were gifted to me by Flame Father."
Eiran looked intently at Tullius's reaction as he was delivering this information, noting that he he seemed pleased about the relic, but didn't look overly surprised at the implied connection between Mordreon and Flame Father.
"That's impressive, so that means that you managed to defeat a Centurion commander, then is that where you got the armor from?"
"No sir, the armor was from a Centurion ranked scout that I killed on the way back."
For the first time, General Tullius seemed generally surprised?
"What? You did? I've looked through your files, whilst you're above average physically and a very dedicated soldier, you shouldn't have been able to do that."
He paused shortly.
"Nevermind, that's not important right now, you can explain on the way."
Tullius got up, and turned to leave. Snap!
With another snap, the binds on Eiran's arms were released, allowing him to stand up.
"Sir, where are we headed?"