“METAL GEAR KARENKO: HARVEST MOON”

A Harvest Moon Hybrid by: Red Sonic

XxXxXxX

Author’s Note:

I know what you’re thinking. What in the world is he doing now? Well, this one has really been at the back of my mind for a loooong time and truth be told I feel it bears telling. Now for any of your Harvest Moon fans who wonder how I’m supposedly doing this, here’s the skinny: This is NOT a Harvest Moon/Metal Gear Solid crossover. Rather, it’s more of a Metal Gear Solid tale with Harvest Moon characters injected into the mix.

For the Metal Gear Solid fans, this won’t have any of the familiar fans, though there will be references aplenty to all those favorite names and characters we know.

For the Harvest Moon fans—especially the ones who have never played Metal Gear Solid, this story will be an action drama. Lots of stealth, espionage, and techno-thriller action. And lots of character drama, as I’ve delivered before. Hopefully, you don’t mind seeing your favorite HM characters in such a different situation, but I hope the story will stand out over the novelty of the title.

In case you were wondering, Karenko is part of someone’s code—much like Snake’s codename was Solid Snake. What’s a Karenko? Well, look at it more carefully and see if you recognize someone.

XxXxXxX

PROLOGUE

The icy winds of coming winter were a familiar feeling for Rick Yeltsikov and one he had always dreaded. Growing up in the poor, war-ravaged nation of Shkarschal, the winters came before summer’s breath even had a chance to withdraw and froze the nation into a comatose state. When temperatures reached the sub-zeroes, it was a time of year fit for neither man nor beast, but one he had endured for since his own birth. He was had beaten ‘The Monster’ year after year and thrived because of it.

It was an almost welcome feeling that the world had not stopped in his absence. It had taken him four long, grueling years to work up to this point, where he was trusted enough to go outside by himself. That trust had earned him the one thing he wanted anymore than anything else: a single chance at freedom. He had only his hope, only his constitution and will to escape had driven him for so long after he had been forced to do those sickening acts. He felt like a caged animal, but now, outside, he was able to finally make his escape, his final exit.

He ran through the thick forests for all he was worth. How long had it been since he had stabbed the guard and hidden his twitching form? They had to know by now that he was gone. Were they far behind? The pine forests were thick, so much so that they were more like jungles than winter evergreens. The forests would prevent them from chasing him in vehicles and their leader detested dogs, but the Others...they could find him as easily as any animal. In a way, they were animals.

He paused, exhausted, but unwilling to stop. He didn’t have the luxury of trying to cover his tracks, that would be impossible. The rains had come ceaselessly and only stopped some days before, so the ground was muddy and cold. His thin shoes were ravaged, torn to shreds by the rough terrain. His feet had come through and the ground was tearing at his skin. He dare not look down, for he knew that he was bleeding.

He stumbled and fell hard on the ground. The pause was both cumbersome and a relief. He breathed for a moment, then braced his hands in the mud to push himself up when a distant cry caught his attention.

He whipped his head around, his blonde bang dangling before his eyes. He pushed them away and looked, gasping as distant forms moved, shouting out loud. He suppressed a cry of terror and scrambled off, finally finding his footing and scrambling up to his feet and dashing like mad across the forest floor.

He paused again, hearing a low, gruff sound. A look to the side and he could see a small, yet powerfully muscled wolf creeping out from behind a tree. He gasped. The wolf eyed him, staring with sickening yellow eyes and baring his fangs with a low growl. Rick whimpered and jerked in the other direction, breaking into a run as fast as he could. The wolf gave a growl and ran after him.

To his credit, Rick was able to outrun the wolf for quite some time. It was scrawny, hadn’t eaten for quite some time and had very little energy, so it couldn’t run as fast for Rick. But he was the only food the wolf had seen in days and while a wolf normally stayed clear of men, it knew it’s time was close and it couldn’t afford to be picky.

Rick stumbled and fell time and time again, eventually finding himself to a large rise. He hoped to find some tree he could climb, but a wolf would wait for him. He couldn’t afford to wait. He found the wolf to be his inspiration. He had to run anyway, so he ran with the teeth at his heels.

Eventually, he came to a rise and stepped over without looking first. The rise ended abruptly and he fell down a sharp incline, rolling and tumbling, hitting large rocks and trees as he fell. When he finally came to rest at the bottom of the hill, he could taste blood in his mouth. His glasses had fallen off and now he couldn’t see as well. Moving at night would be impossible unless he found them. A coming growl caught his attention and he looked up to see the wolf bearing down on him. It gave a growl and leaped at him. Rick covered himself with his arms.

SHH-INK

The sound of sharpened metal cutting through flesh caught his ear. He looked up, startled, and watched as the wolf fell on both sides of him, cut through the middle into two pieces. Rick scrambled away before any blood could land on him. He stared, breathless and confounded, at the two halves of the wolf, now quite dead near him. Only then was he suddenly aware that he was not alone.

He looked up at the slender figure standing above him, brandishing a thin katana in her hands. She was obviously female, even in the military provided skin-tight uniform. Close though it hung to her, it was also padded and armored, colored three shades of gray in military fatigue. She stared at him with calculating blue eyes and shook her short, red bangs out of her hair. She twirled the katana about in her hands and slid it quickly into it’s sheath at her side. She looked down at him, compassion a feature that was never worn on her face.

He breathed hard, whispering raggedly, “Naminaga.”

He tried to scramble backwards, but she stepped forward and planted a foot on his chest, pressing him down into the cold mud and pine needles. He entertained thoughts of striking her, but knew it was futile. She would tear him apart in mere seconds. He had seen her do it before to others and he wasn’t anxious to see what they had felt.

He sat there for a long time, keeping his worried eyes on her and she watching him with a cold stare. How long they sat there, he wasn’t sure of but finally they came, the armed female soldiers swarming around him in their environment fatigues colored more green-and-browns to blend in with the surroundings. The woman took her foot off his chest and the soldiers, all female, but all able warriors, lifted him to his feet and shoved AK-47s in his face, urging him forward. Then, he had no choice at all.

His escape had ended.

The trip back took longer than before because he had to walk, albeit at a brisk pace. He let his mind wander, thinking of the past, but not the present. The last few miles, when he could see the top of the Tower itself, he knew he would never see the outside again. He decided to enjoy what little he could see, because he believed that the trees, the snow, the fresh air was something that would never grace his life again.

The bottom of the facility was at ground level, across the great compound, through the tank yard, and finally through a set of double-doors the slid open with a terrifying finality. When they closed again, he shut his eyes and a tear slid down his cheek. The soldiers departed, leaving him alone with Naminaga, the lithe woman that had found him.

When they had all gone, she eyed him and reached out with a glove to wipe a smear of blood from his mouth. She reached into her belt and pulled out a small flask, handing it to him. “I don’t drink.” Rick said softly.

“Neither do I.” She said. “It’s water.”

Rick grabbed the flask and downed the water, all of it, and then handed it back to her. He looked at her, suspicious. “Why?”

She leaned forward, “Because no one deserves the things she has put you through. No one.”

He looked to her, desperate, grabbing her fatigues, “Then help me escape. Please. Don’t bring me back to her.”

She firmly grabbed his hands and pulled them off. “I have no choice. My path is set. As is yours. My destiny is not my own.”

Rick swallowed, looking to her with as much desperation as he could muster, but if there was any pity left to be found, she had hidden it back behind the mask she wore. She grabbed him by the cuff of his arm and led him along the corridors of the Tower until they reached the top and the set of wooden double doors that opened into a lavish room furnished in the finest of things: silk blankets, fine red carpets, gold-framed portraits, fresh bouquets of flowers in crystal vases—it looked as though a princess lived here.

As soon as the doors shut, a young woman rushed in, holding up her billowing red silk dress. She accentuated the room with her own attire. Fine red dress, shining, leather boots, gold and diamonds on her fingers, ears, neck, and wrists. On top of her head of long, pink hair was a diamond tiara. Her youthful appearance defied the terrible scowl on her face. “It’s about time, Nami. It took you forever.”

“He ran far.” She shoved Rick forward, “And fast.” She spun on her heels and marched back through the doors. “Next time, catch your plaything yourself. I’ll not waste my time like this again.” The doors shut and Rick sighed. It was only he and she again.

She approached carefully. He only looked at her through the side of his eyes. She stared at him, looking him up and down for the longest time. He was muddy, his clothes cold and wet and with mud soaked into them. His face was dirty as well, scrapes and blood and mud on his cheeks. She reached out with a hand encased in a silk glove and ran it along his cheek. “You poor thing.”

Suddenly, she leaned forward, putting her face near his and inhaling deeply. “Hmmm...You’re so dirty, Rick. The scent brings me memories...of when we were children. It brings me so many terrible memories, yet it also brings me many, many happy ones.” She whispered in his ear. “You know of what I speak?”

He swallowed. He didn’t have to tell her. He knew what she meant.

“I’ll have you wash later.” She said, removing her gloves carefully, “Right now, I want you like this...dirty, as we used to be.” She leaned over and kissed him gently on his neck, nibbling on his flesh. Rick felt his skin crawl and his heart catch in his throat as she ran her tongue up to his neck. He hated this so much, hated her more than anything...yet his body couldn’t deny what it was feeling and those old male urges rose all too quickly. Hesitantly, but with no choice, he tugged at his belt.

“No.” She grabbed his hand, “I want to take them off myself. Onto the bed. I’ve missed you so much. Tonight, I intend to show you just how much.” She leaned up and kissed him deeply, her tongue probing into his mouth violently. When she parted with a gasp, Rick coughed out a small whimper, “For God’s sake, Popuri...I’m your brother!”

“I know,” She smiled sweetly, running her hand down his chest, “That’s why I love you so much.”

XxXxXxX

CHAPTER ONE

Colonel Charles Duke, an aged old warhorse, stepped into the bridge of the U.S.S. Black Spear and saluted the Captain of the vessel. Known collectively The Duke to his peers and underlings, he had no qualms about sharing a name with the legendary John Wayne. He and the real Duke had a good bit in common, cut from the same cloth as they were. He marched past the bridge and into the hold, where he happened to run into his Lieutenant, a competent young man named Jack Speers.

“Colonel, they got her. She just got here an hour ago.” Jack said anxiously, fumbling with the manila folders in his arms.

Duke nodded, smiling a wry grin. “I know, I just heard. Everything’s hinging on her, you know. If she doesn’t do it, no one will.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Jack asked, breathlessly. “I mean what if she says no?”

Duke waited as Jack opened a door for him. Duke winked, “She won’t.”

“But...what if she does?”

Duke just winked and added a nod. “Trust me, Jack. She won’t. I haven’t been in this game long without knowing people. That’s what this is about, Jack: knowing people. And there’s no one I know more than her.” Together, they marched down the corridors until they reached a guarded door in the brig. The guards saluted as Duke approached.

He saluted back and made sure his uniform was straight, then looked to Jack. “Remember: she’s not a people person. All her life was taken from her and she had to live for herself for a long time. She’s not used to working as a team. What I want from you is to remember that and not try to boss her around. Sympathize with her plight and do anything she asks and she’ll head out and come back in two days with Castro’s lucky undershorts. Do as she wants, and everything will be fine. Let her talk herself into what she thinks she wants.”

“Oh. In others words, just act like we’re dating.” Jack nodded, “I can do that.”

Duke chuckled. “Remember, Jack...she’s a former FOXHOUND agent. She’s the best of the best of the best, no matter how low her codename might be, if she’s FOXHOUND, she’s dangerous. Don’t underestimate her.”

As the guards authorized the opening of the door, Jack leaned close to Duke and asked, “Is it true it took two squads to bring her down?”

“I heard it took a horse tranquilizer.” Duke said, cementing his wry grin on his face, “Two squads won’t take her down. Not her.” The doors unlocked. Duke leaned down right quick. “She’ll be naked. Had to do a full body cavity search. Don’t stare at her. She’ll kick you in the nads.”

The doors finally opened and the two of them stepped through into the brig. Inside they found a young woman—about twenty-five or so. Most twenty-five year olds women, however, would never be found bound by shackles and chains welded to the floor. She stood there clad in nothing, bound about the feet, waist, arms, and hands. About her head hung shoulder-length, light brown hair with a pair of blonde bangs dipping in front of her sharp green eyes. Her arms, no, her entire body, was tensed, ready to strike if she had the chance.

Her body, entirely naked, was curved just like a young woman’s should, but layered with a rugged toughness that was evident as she tensed, her muscles flexing. Duke looked at her, noting it. She had yet to lose her edge, he could tell. Jack did just as told and stared at her bangs, the only thing that wasn’t female flesh he could see on her.

“Duke.” She asked in a raspy voice that reverberated well off the brig’s walls.

“Surprised, Karen?” He asked.

“I am now.” She didn’t sound surprised, or look it, but that didn’t matter. She cast him a scowl. “I take it you didn’t call me for grins and giggles.”

“Indeed not.” Duke sat down on a metal bench. “There’s a situation. We...I need your help.”

Jack stepped forward before Duke could stop him. “The nation of Shkarschal has liberated itself from the International Union of the western countries. China and Japan are furious, but not very anxious to interfere because of the threat going on there. They’re calling it the Iron Regime and it’s making the Allied powers very nervous. The Japanese Yakusa, surprisingly, have brought forth information the US government was willing to buy, which is why we’re here and...why you’ve...been...asked...to come...ahem” His voice trailed off as he realized that the girl Duke had called Karen was staring at him, burning a hole in his face.

“Sent for?” She hissed, “Sent for? You call sending two squads with tranq rifles ‘sending for me’? You ever heard of a phone, or a frickin’ email? What’re you staring at?” Her snap made Jack look from her braid into her eyes, then back to her braid’s again. “What’re you staring at my braid for? Am I not pretty enough for you or something?”

“Well, no...I just...I wasn’t trying to...I mean, it’s not like—”

Karen spun towards Duke, who sat smiling and shaking his head and smiling. “Who is this peon?”

Duke groaned as he stood up. “Oh, my achin’ bones. Karen, this here is Jack Speers, information specialist and one of the people who’ll be helping you on this.”

“I haven’t accepted anything, Duke.” Karen spat, “And what makes you think I’m going to?”

Duke stood up and walked towards her, reaching into his pocket. He produced a key from his pocket and held it up. “Do you want this?”

Karen suddenly straightened her fingers, her joints popping loudly as she slid her hands through the shackles and letting them fall. She slithered the waist-chain down her slender waist and then took a moment to slip her feet out of the ankle-shackles. “Don’t need it.” She muttered, almost to herself. It took her all of one minute and then there was nothing between her and them. Jack backed away, realized where he was staring, then his eyes shot to her braids again.

Karen turned her head towards him, staring at the boy as he bashfully stared elsewhere. “Do something besides stand there and look cute, Jacko. Get me some clothes.” Karen turned to Duke and smiled just a little. “Good to see you again, Duke. You sure know how to charm a girl.”

“Worked on plenty of them. Capturing and chaining. How I met my wife, to be honest.” He sat down and waited as Jack fetched a loose shirt and some shorts. He gave her a gentle pat on her hind end as she sat down and then reached into his jacket. He handed her a small flask. “Red wine, just like you like it. Sorry, but they wouldn’t allow a glass in here.”

She accepted it from him and took a small sip. “You know me, Duke. Too well.”

“I know very well, Karen. If we can catch you, you’ll do anything for us. After all, in order to catch you, we have to bring out the best.”

“Not nearly as good as you think.” She said, taking a sip from the flask. “I would have been in Alaska by now, but your sniper with the tranq got lucky, is all.” She looked up at Jack. “You were saying, Jacko?”

He stood, wondering for a moment before he realized what she wanted. “As I was saying, the Iron Regime is getting ready to make a strike, but how and where we don’t know. In twenty-four hours, Operation: Ironthroat will commence and we don’t have the primary agent for the mission.”

“That’s where I come in.” Karen said. It wasn’t a question. “Why me? Why not someone else with a higher codename and ranking. What about Solid Snake? I hear he’s the golden boy for missions like this. He handled the Shadow Moses incident and the Big Shell fiasco, right?”

Jack nodded. “Yes, but Snake’s not FOXHOUND anymore. He’s outside the law, a member of a so-called anti-terrorist called ‘Philanthropy’. Besides, it was easier to find you. Not that you weren’t quite the hunt. You were right, we got lucky. But we need someone for this who specializes in espionage and information acquisition as well as commando missions. Your credentials qualify you for that. Colonel Duke is here because he knows you and we didn’t think you’d agree unless he was onboard to help oversee the operation.”

“You think you know everything, don’t you?” Karen asked, staring forward, her eyes glazing over. “Know anything about me?”

Jack opened a manila folder he was carrying and looked in it. “Special Operations HOXHOUND, Agent: Karenko Spider. Stealth and espionage expert. Qualified in multiple forms of hand-to-hand and armed combat. Part of the European Child Soldier program, escaped at the age of eleven and worked as a hired mercenary until the age of fifteen, where you joined FOXHOUND and earned your codename and served under Colonel Roy Cambell as a backup unit, but never called for an actual sanctioned mission, though you received extensive VR training and multiple environment scenarios.”

When he finished, he looked to see Karen staring out into the air, her eyes seemingly dead. “It’s funny.” She said, “To hear it all read like that. As if I’m just some stinking statistic. You really know how to make a girl feel special, Jacko.”

Jack swallowed hard. Duke sat with his arms crossed. Karen took another swig.

Jack closed the folder. “Agent Karenko, we’re not here to give orders, this is entirely voluntary. But as a person of such standing, you can’t expect us not to look to someone like yourself for help. The world doesn’t hinge on dreams, it revolves around the success of a few and the admiration of the lesser people. Still, the dreams of those few who think that their will is something they have to impose on others is where things go drastically wrong. If our FOXHOUND operative had succeeded in assassinating Hitler just after World War II started, the president wouldn’t have scraped the unit and World War II might have been averted early on. The situation with the Iron Regime is the same kind of powder keg. Even worse, right now, the Iron Regime announced that they have twenty foreign diplomats in their grasp and that if their respective governments don’t agree to join their Regime, they’ll slaughter them.”

“All it’ll take is a single, well-placed nuke.” Karen said. “I won’t miss any diplomats.”

“Not so.” Duke replied. “The situation is a bit...delicate. The Iron Regime is supposedly in cohorts with some other nations. But we don’t know who. We nukes them, those nations revolt and strike back. Boom. Eveyone’s at risk here, Karen. Even you. You can help, or not. You can go back to Canada, drinking wine every night, trying to make everything disappear. Or you can help us and make a difference. If you don’t...”

“World War III.” Jack said. “A smart man always finds a better weapon. Ours is you.”

Karen sighed, “A truly smart man would find a way to prevent war altogether.”

For a long time, she didn’t say anything. She sat there, taking an occasional sip from her flask. She emptied it and handed it back to Duke. “What do I have to work with?”

Duke and Jack eyed each other, keeping a private smile to themselves. With that, she had all but confirmed her acceptance.

XxXxXxX

Karen sat in the long, metal device thrice as long as she and twice as wide. She squirmed in her new suit, struggling against the bits of stiff joints, but getting used to it. It was just like breaking in a new pair of shoes.

“What’s this?” She asked.

Jack smiled, handing her the gray-and-black suit. “The CSU (Camo-Selection Uniform is the latest in camouflage technology. It’s woven with fiber-optics and programmed with over thirty different known camo designs. Just access the arm panel, lifted the flap, and touch the desired design and the suit will switch to it. It’s water proof, shock-proof, fire-resistant, and it’s internal battery is resistant to EMP shocks, so under any circumstances, it’ll work like it’s supposed to. It’s also designed to work with your muscles when it moves, so it keeps hypothermia at bay, in case you get into some cold weather.”

“I’ll never need another prom dress again.” Karen said sarcastically.

She leaned down, her fingers locking on the hand-grips. She sat in the tube as if she were riding a crotch rocket at 160 mph, arms out before her. She breathed through the oxygen system, her only source of air. A small buzzing voice in her ear said, “Two minutes to departure, Karenko”

She took a small device from Jack, looking at it. “What’s this?”

“A Codec. All the rage after the success of Shadow Moses. It stimulates the small bones of your ears, so when we’re in communication with you, only you can hear us. You can speak as loud or as softly as you like, we’ll be able to hear you. We’ll be in communication the entire time.”

“Careful, Jacko. You don’t want to smother a girl.”

The tube like machine shuddered and shook as it was lowered into place. Karen sighed, breathing deeply. This could be the end of her, if any factor wasn’t place just right.

“What’s the insertion method?” She asked. “Air drop?”

“Too risky. The Regime has the highest level of technology at their disposal. It’s all here, in this mountainside at the onset of the Inashadi Mountain Range. The facility the government is holed up scales almost the entire side of the mountain, plus sub-basements and caverns. They call it the Iron Tower.”

“How do I get there? Air drop? Sea insert?”

Duke shook his head, “Like I said, too risky. Their radar would pick us up before we could get near it. The nearest sea is two hundred miles away.”

Karen scoffed. “I guess I’m not going to prance up and get to come in like a dignified lady, eh?”

Duke pointed to what looked like a large torpedo with a spiked mace at the end. “This is not an experimental device, it’s been proven. It’s a UADV (Underground Agent Delivery Vehicle). You can’t go by land and you can’t go by sea, so that leaves just one option.”

“Land?” She asked, “Don’t they have border patrols for this kind of thing?”

“Not under the ground they don’t. The UADV is rocket propelled. It’ll be launched from a Stealth Bomber and into the ground. It travels for thirty miles about ten feet under the ground. When it gets as far as it can, it erupts from the ground and ejects the passenger. That’s you. We’ve calculated the entry point so we can fire you in from just inside the border and have you inserted into an area of woods some twenty miles from the Iron Tower. The device works, trust me. The head is hardened diamonds, so it’ll cut through the ground and anything that’ll get in it’s way. We’ll approach the border by air and launch the UADV.”

Karen felt the drop as the UADV fell and she shot towards the ground. The spiked head began to spin as she fell. She was glad she had learned a long time ago to suppress her stomach acids. Otherwise, she’d have thrown up.

Duke turned to her. “You have three mission objectives. One: Find out which nations are involved with the Iron Regime. Two: Find and release the diplomatic hostages. Three: Find out if the Regime truly intends to strike if their demands aren’t me, what kind of strike it is, and stop it if they do.”

“And to think I thought drinking wine was fun.”

BAM!

The UADV drove straight into the ground, but the rocket’s straightened it out, shooting it straight through the ground and rocketing through the ground. The trip was a long one, giving Karen only a countdown and a bit of time to think.

Duke handed a picture of a pink-haired girl to Karen. She looked at it. “What’s this?”

“The leader of the Iron Regime.” Jack said. “Her name is Kashana Yeltsikov, but she goes by the moniker Popuri.”

“That’s gay.” Karen said.

“Don’t let her appearance fool you.” Duke said, “She’s a ruthless and brilliant young woman. She grew up homeless with her brother, but made her way through some ranks and brilliance. Seems she passed the time in libraries, trying to better herself. She managed to turn a rag-tag militia of her home country into a revolutionary force that took it over from within some three years ago. Like I said, she’s brilliant. The one time she was in captivity, they tested her. They couldn’t score her IQ...apparently, their scale doesn’t go high enough for her. She escaped a maximum security prison in less than a week.”

Jack sighed, setting another folder on her lap. “There’s more. Apparently, if the Yakuza intelligence is to be believed, she has a small unit of former FOXHOUND operatives under her command. She’s apparently a big fan of Liquid Snake’s actions at Shadow Moses and sent the word out that she’d pay top dollar for any former operative of FOXHOUND.”

“Which ones made it?” Karen asked.

“We don’t know.” Duke answered. “We’ve got a list of thirty-seven potential operatives that aren’t dead—including Solid and Liquid Snake. Take a good look and try to memorize them, because there’s a good chance you’ll cross their paths.”

Karen shrugged, “Surrounded by people who hate me? It’s like high school all over again. Wait, that’s right. I was learning how to twist necks when I should have been in high school.”

“Quit joking. This is serious. Do NOT underestimate Kashana. She’s an enemy to be reckoned with. Rumor has it she killed her own father for beating her as a child. They call her the Iron Princess, and for good reason, or so we hear. But she’s not your primary concern. Don’t go out of your way looking for her.”

“I know how to deal with her, Duke.” Karen said, looking at him and narrowing her eyes. “Three years ago, when that word was sent out to all the ex-FOXHOUND operatives...I was one of them. She sent three guys to try and muscle me into her private army. I sent her three broken-armed jokers back. If we’re lucky, she won’t remember how much she doesn’t like me.”

The machine drove on, vibrating so violently her teeth clattered. Five or six minutes left.

Duke shook her hand and saluted her. “Good luck, Karenko. We’re depending on you.”

“I think I’m the only one you’re able to depend on, Duke. Just keep the chain of command clear: orders from you only.”

Duke gestured to Jack. “Jack is going to be your eyes and ears, so make nice. The Codec also pinpoints to us a small area, the thirty meters in every direction around you. It will show up to us in a small, simple box-like diagram, but it should be able to let us help you out in tight spots and, most importantly, once your inside the Tower. Enemy locations and”

Karen shrugged, setting her hands on her hips. “The location’s picked. The candle’s are lit. Sweet music playing. Come on, Jacko. Let’s get this date started, shall we?”

Jack smiled. “I won’t let you down, Karen. Promise. Keep on your toes and if you need to know anything, I’ll be here for you.”

“Alright, I’ll play nice. Just remember: first date, no tongue.”

The final countdown began and Karen braced herself. She had no idea how this was going to work. The counter ran down and suddenly the ADV shot upwards, bursting out of the ground. The hatch over her popped off, blasting caps sending it into the air. Karen’s seat suddenly shot up as well, sending her flying upwards.

Karen found herself heading right into a tree.

She couldn’t grab a limb, that would break her arms. She spun in mid-air and let her feet glance the tree’s side, bouncing off and falling towards the ground. She braced herself and hit the ground, rolling along the ground until she managed to bring herself to a stop. She paused, breathing in deeply to catch her bearings and kill the shock of the hard landing.

She raised herself up from the ground, standing slowly. She grabbed her air helmet and yanked it off, taking in a deep breath of the cool country air. She knew of this country. It was more easily known as ‘The Scar’, a land where freedom wasn’t welcome. Those men had come to her one after the other. If the people of ‘The Scar’ were anything like they were, she knew what to expect.

She flung her head, her long hair flipping out.

Jack stared at her hair. “Don’t you want to tuck that in? I mean, won’t it give you away?”

Karen sighed, “Jacko, trust me. If I don’t want to be seen...” She leaned close to him, “I won’t. Hair or not.”

She reached to her ear and depressed the side of it, activating her Codec.

“This is Karenko Spider...I’m in.”

XxXxXxX

Well, what do you think? Have I caught you’re attention yet? Let me know what you think and I’ll be happy to provide more chapters.