SIERRA: Morgan Remington' Story

Chapter 8: It's All In The Head

Much discipline was had when the team returned. But it wasn't by Matroya, who was out doing his own little recon with the other high ranking members of Red Team, which was the Alpha team of the group. It was instead issued by Colonel Grey Samuelson of Charlie Team, or Gold Team. In the Roughnecks, there were three teams, and you were placed accordingly based upon how long you'd been a Roughneck, how hard you'd fought to survive, and how many wars you'd participated in, as was made known by the name of said war tattooed on every member of the Roughneck's arm.

Red team was the most experienced, the most dangerous when encountered, and the most hardened of the three. To be eligible for Red team, you had to have been a Roughneck for at least six years, you had to have participated in at least twenty wars and lived through them all.

Green team was the second most hardened and dangerous. To be eligible, you had to be a Roughneck for at least four years, participated in at least ten wars, and lived through them all.

Gold team was the wild card. On one side, it was the least dangerous and least experienced team, but on the other side, it was the most revered team. To be eligible for Gold team, you either had to be an Elite soldier of any class, which included Special Elites, GHOST Elites, Tank Brigade Elites, and Aerial Elites, or you had to be a Roughneck for at least a year, participated in one or two battles, and lived through them. Morgan was currently a member of this team, and his squad leader was less than impressed with his performance. Green team's members got no better a result, and Jason's squad was out on a mission, so he was waiting in rigid silence for his squad leader to lay the hurt on.

"I don't know what you did or why, Remington, but if you were a part of my squad and you f*cked up a mission as badly as you did today, I'd have had your stripes in an instant." Samuelson made no effort to raise his voice. It wasn't necessary. Over eighteen years of war had made him threatening enough, even if nobody had pissed him off during the day. Considering Samuelson had entered the war at age seventeen and was now thirty years old, it was easy to believe when he said he'd nearly seen it all: The death of a brother, the blood of an ally spewing across the walls, the erratic jerking of a soldier as he was gunned down where he stood. And every person who looked at him saw that experience in his eyes. He wore the same look as another man, Dr. Shero Yakuto, who had inadvertently called Hell into existence and had to fight his way out of it.

Morgan felt his spine grow weak with each word Samuelson said.

"It doesn't matter if you saved any hostages or not, the point is, had the situation not turned out as it had when we reviewed the footage from your eyepiece, you would all have been killed. And Jason already explained our policy in the Roughnecks: If you die, one way or another, it was your fault. Next time you get sent on a mission, I might as well go with you to make sure you don't screw it all up again. For now..." Samuelson sat down. His legs were tired from having stood for the last five hours.

"...Let's just put the past behind us. Besides, I've got something to ask you." Morgan had a feeling he knew exactly what the question was going to be. Undoubtedly, Samuelson had heard from... reliable sources... that Morgan had somehow solved the puzzle behind his disappearance. And undoubtedly, Samuelson wanted answers.

"How is it that you knew so much about me? There's no possible way that you could have hacked the codes guarding the information about me. You couldn't have snuck in, you would've been shot down while you were still moving towards the building. My closest friends made a solemn vow to never tell anybody the truth behind me. Anybody who knew the story would end it with a lie; that I was part of the Air Force. How is it that you found out about me?" Samuelson wasn't mad, surprised, happy, or discouraged. His face retained its blank, insomniac appearance.

"I-it was a guessing game, sir..." Morgan replied, having a generally hard time meeting Samuelson's eyes. Which was certainly a first for him. He'd never met anybody who had that kind of effect on people.

"A guessing game that you just so happened to know the exact answer to? And again, with the Sierra program. It was top secret, and nobody, not even the military, not even the highest ranking government official, was allowed to see it. To even know about it, you either had to be an experiment from the program itself, or you had to be one of the three heads of the program. You met neither of those requirements."

"I-"

"And then there was the incident where you accurately described the inner workings of the Artificial Intelligence in Matroya's head. He never tells anybody that, not even when questioned by his higher ups."

"Uh-"

"I think there's more to you than we know. We may need to check that head of yours when we return to base." With that, Samuelson got up and walked away, leaving Morgan dumbfounded. What could possibly be in his head that would make Colonel Grey Samuelson, War Hero of St. Binah, this worried?

~~~~~

Matroya made no attempt to speak to any of the members involved with the safe return of the hostages. Instead, he took Ace aside with the other Red Team Roughnecks, including Jason and Leif, and asked him a series of questions regarding his reason for being anywhere in the area. Apparently, he and the rest of his squad were there on an emergency joint-recovery mission of class- A priority with Lt. Col. Scott Heatherow's squad. An important person to the military had been taken hostage and the people who were holding him threatened to have him assassinated unless their demands were met. While the rest of his and Heatherow's squad got in and out with the man in safe hands, Ace got caught and was used as the replacement. Now that he was in the Roughneck's hands, he figured they'd come looking for another person of general importance to use. Bartz had laughed at this and said, "If they're so desperate for a hostage, why not take me and Matroya? We'll make short work of them."

"Exactly who was it that was so important to the military?" Harrison asked, ignoring Bartz's sly remark.

"John Yu, the General's best hacker. He's the one who was responsible for that drug bust you guys took care of a while back." Ace replied.

"So then, how did Leif end up in the mix?" Haley asked.

"He was sent on a recovery mission to save us," Ace said.

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Bryce said, listening in from the side. "He'd said he got called out on a mission just before he left."

"Why did they take John Yu? Why not somebody like Nolan?" Matroya asked.

"Because, they wanted it to be ordered by the General himself that their demands be met. If anything different was set in motion, they threatened to kill John, and after that, who knows what might have happened?"

"So then why didn't they send in Swayde? Why did it have to be you? We could've spared an entire recovery mission if they had sent him in," Matroya said, rubbing his forehead, trying desperately to make sense of it all.

"Swayde said he didn't want to be halfway through the mission, then have something go wrong and have John get killed."

"Hm. There may be more to this than we think," Matroya said to himself.

~~~~~

Matroya decided that they'd send in a second strike and see what they could dig up. In the mean time, Ace was welcome to stay with them until help arrived to take him back to his base.

"Funny," Ace said to Matroya. "I always thought you Marines were stuck up. Guess I should tell the Army the rivalry's off?"

"Oh, now, don't you go getting any ideas," Matroya replied. "Hey, Remington!" he called. Morgan looked up from his book.

"Ever played Chess?" Matroya asked, gesturing to a chess board in front of him. Morgan shrugged and walked over.

It took a while for the game to finally end. Morgan found that Jason was extremely adept at Chess, and any situation Morgan put him in was eventually maneuvered out of. Morgan lost once out of twelve times, and he had a feeling he knew what Matroya was up to. No doubt Samuelson had tipped him off about his worries, and Matroya, with no help from his A.I., Omega, as the people who made him called him, had decided to test Morgan's mental abilities. Obviously, Morgan wasn't bad at Chess, and especially not against somebody who had two minds and was struggling to pull off just one move. But as he got up to leave, Matroya tapped the chess board again to grab his attention.

"Alright, Remington, spill it. What's in your head that makes you like a human A.I.?" Matroya asked, suddenly serious.

"Wha-?"

"Obviously, you couldn't do this on your own. You adapted far too easily to the situation at hand during that drug bust, and my men were struggling not to lose their lives. You located and saved three hostages in under five minutes. When I was a spy, it took me all night just to find what I needed, and that was under some of the most dangerous circumstances you could put a person into. You knew about Grey Samuelson, but nobody else knows about him other than he died. You were able to relate the Sierra project in a heartbeat. And you beat me at a game of Chess eleven out of twelve possible times. So I'm going to need some answers here." Matroya had a look in his eye that made his family all too well known by their enemies. It was a look of persistence that would have pissed off anybody who wanted a Matroya to get off their backs. Morgan, however, was scared that Matroya wasn't giving up so easily.

Then again, it was his policy not to shoot anybody unless they had entered a five foot radius.

"Sir, to be honest, I don't even know. I applied for the GHOST Elites, but after the operation, they said that I had successfully been able to adapt to the GHOST Elites' standards, but I had done so far earlier than I should have, and they said that because of that, I was unstable and could break down at any time," Morgan replied, shaking his head.

"So you mean to tell me that you're a prematurely developed GHOST?" Matroya asked in disbelief. All the Roughnecks suddenly turned and stared at Morgan with eyes wider than he felt was humanly possible.

"...To put it bluntly... yes." Morgan said. He proved it when his arm suddenly showed disappeared. "They said that even though I correctly adapted, because I did so at such an early time, my powers would come to me slower than normal, and they said that I should refrain from using them if I want to keep myself in as stable a condition as possible."

"If I may interject," Omega said, suddenly appearing in the air. Jason rolled his eyes.

"What, Omega?" Matroya asked in annoyance.

"How is it possible that one such as yourself could adapt so quickly to the effects of an operation that, in itself, takes months to recover from completely?" Omega asked, flickering as he did so.

"Don't know. That's something I can't answer," Morgan replied.

"Then we shall have to look into this when we return to headquarters after our mission here in the Vakara Islands is completed," the program said before dematerializing back into Jason's head.

"I hate it when he starts talking," Matroya muttered. "Alright, listen. Let's get ready to head out. We have a mission to complete, Roughnecks, and I want it done by tomorrow morning."

~~~~~

Fun Facts:

1. In the original Sierra series, it was explained that a prematurely developed GHOST was not only rare, but dangerous and extremely unstable, so unstable, in fact, that if an Elite screwed up once, it could mean the end of him. And if it didn't kill him, it would definitely mutate him in some way, thus ending his career, since the GHOST Elites can't afford any failures in their operations.

2. Omega is one of at least twenty remaining A.I.s from the Sierra project. His memories were from the mind of a fallen Sierra, and said memories were merged with the technical brilliance of the bio-technicians, therefore creating Omega, a half-human A.I.

3. In actuality, Grey Samuelson had been in war for over thirty years, but that was a well-concealed fact that not even Morgan knows. Samuelson also concealed the fact that he was also a prematurely developed GHOST Elite, and that his mutation caused him to have a considerably longer lifespan.

4. Jason Matroya's original A.I. was a female A.I. called Morwenna, but after some freak accident occurred during one of his missions, Morwenna's data was somehow transferred into Jason's laptop. He says, "It was kinda' like half my brain got torn out and turned into silly putty, and some weird doctor used the silly putty to make a super-advanced computer game."

Enjoy

 

So, wait, if he's a prematurely developed GHOST, and he's been fighting, shouldn't some form of mutation or chemical reaction between the GHOST's implants and Morgan's bodily fluids be taking place? Or does that only happen when the implants are triggered?

 

Okay, here's how it goes.

GHOST Elites are given a special microscopic implant that is triggered when the small electrical currents in the nerves from the brain come in contact with it. Being that this is a dangerous operation to undergo, and many times people don't survive it, the GHOST Elites are treated as an upper class. You already know this.

Well, on the rare occassion where a doctor misplaces the implant, or when the person in question has a stronger and more active nervous system than normal, the time it takes to adapt to the abilities brought on by the implant is shortened, but it's shortened to the point where any false movement could be dangerous to the human body's form. If the implant is triggered too many times or with too strong a shock, one of two things could happen:

1. The strong shock could destroy the implant, which in turn could detonate and destroy the human body because of it's compact and highly explosive materials leaking out at speeds too great for the body to handle, therefore turning a GHOST Elite into GHOST Elite Toothpaste.

2. Triggering the implant's powers too many times while prematurely developed could cause its materials to leak out into the bloodstream, not only mutating the GHOST Elite in question, but also making him slightly paralyzed, or comatose. The symptoms could last anywhere from three weeks to a year, though some cases have stretched longer than that. By the way, this is where the "Infected" class come from, though the real name for them is Premature GHOSTs.

Because of these two factors, a Prematurely Developed GHOST Elite is forbidden to use his or her powers excessively, or for that matter, at all, and therefore must apply for a different military status(like Marine or Army soldier).

That's what happens, Salem.

 

Um, Leif, even though I was the one who created the GHOST Elites, I'm worried as to why you know so much about them.

 

yeah, I know. I'm sounding like Morgan, aren't I?

By the way, before I put up the next SIERRA chapter, somebody asked me for a list of all the main characters in the story, and their backgrounds.

Here it is(Well, I could only really fit two on there. I'll put up some others with each new chapter):

Morgan Remington
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 0" exactly
Appearance: Looks like me, only with a shorter hairdo.
Position: Secondary medic/sniper, but alternates to Commando from time to time
Background: Born in St. Luna, Morgan Remington joined the marines at the(somewhat young)age of seventeen and applied for the GHOST Elites, considered the Specialists among soldiers and spies. They say the test to become an Elite is enough to make anybody who can't handle the pressure snap. It's composed of seventy questions, each one ten times harder than the last, and only the most intelligent of people can pass it. Only one instance had occured where anybody had gotten an A + on the test. That would be Morgan's achievement. The physical test is also ten times more stressful than that of normal marines.

Once you complete both the physical and mental challenges, you are implanted with a small microscopic chip energized with some form of crystal called Tiberia. This enables the GHOST Elites' specialty: Invisibility. For Morgan, however, that isn't entirely true. His chip was placed wrong and he slowly mutated to the point where only one part of his body could turn invisible at a time. He was re-placed and became a Marine. What he didn't expect from the Marines hit him square in the face when he met Matroya, who he describes as "The first son of the Devil himself sent to Earth to enforce torment and suffering upon the weak". Matroya is one of the only people who immediately noticed Morgan's unnerving ability to accurately describe any event in the form of a random guess, even if it was top secret and confidential from all society except for a spare few people, and he was the only person to immediately link it to his mutation while he was still a GHOST.

Jason Matroya
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Height: almost 7' 0"
Appearance: Red hair reaches waist, and piercing blue eyes. The red hair and blue eyes are deads give-aways that he comes from the Matroya family, regarded to be one of the most dangerous lines still alive, other than the Brinks, the Swaydes, and the Haleys.
Position: Regiment Leader, and he makes sure you damn well know it
Background: Born in St. Luna, Jason Matroya, from birth, was trained by his father, former DELTA Major James Matroya, in the ways of combat, while his mother gave him all the information he'd ever need on guns. When he was about sixteen, he was sent to a training facility regarded as the most deadly facility a man could ever be trained at, Quatero - X, where if you died, nobody cared, if you cried, nobody cared, if you were weak, you were shot, and if you gave up before training was over, you were whipped and then spit on. People said that one of the training exercises in that facility was for endurance: Nailing you to a wall and then beating you repeatedly with a nine-tail whip until you cried for mercy. It was no surprise when Matroya came out as the resident bad-ass he is today. Stories say his first days in the Original Roughnecks were filled with nothing but bloodshed, and he laughed through every moment of it all. He was only 18 by the time he became a Captain.

Some time later, he was offered by his higher ups to become a Sierra, which, if you ever played Halo, is like a Spartan. Originally, Matroya turned down the offer. But after his daughter, Diana, was born and his wife died of cancer and he was nearly killed in Alciudad, Jason reconsidered and thought that maybe it would be best for him to take the offer instead. He wasn't the only Roughneck who got upgrades; his two closest companions in the Original Roughnecks, Julius "The Terminator" Bartz and Captain Jarred "Eagle Eye" Harrison, also had themselves altered in a way that made them more efficient in combat. "As if we weren't already" commented Bartz. His alteration was that his right arm was surgically replaced, by choice, with a bionic arm that could transform into any weapon he wanted it to. At the time, his favorite weapon was the Minigun. So that's what he normally changes his arm into. As for Harrison, his hand was altered into an unbreakable metal glove that had claws embedded in the knuckles that he used for close up combat and silently removing enemies during recon missions.

Matroya is the only known person to date who has the same qualities as a GHOST Elite but refuses to become one. His reason: "One, I like being loud, rambunctious and painful to watch. Two, I'm smart, but I ain't that smart."

 

Hey guys. Leif's out sick today, so I'm going to post the next chapter for you.

Chapter 9: Saving Hostages Never Looked So Hard

It was near midnight when they finally got to the base. Ace had decided to come for, as he put it, "sh*ts and giggles". He carried with him one of the most badass weapons (in Morgan's opinion) to ever exist: The flamethrower. Made sometime during World War Two, it had since then been revolutionized and now looked more like two huge fuel tanks connected to a pair of bazooka-like projectors. A standard-issue Fire Beast uniform usually came with this, but Ace had said, "I ain't gonna' hide behind fireproof clothing, if I get burned, I'll take the pain and keep going!"

Why wasn't Ace in the Roughnecks?

Jason called him and Morgan up to where he and Haley were.

"Alright, listen you two. Here's the deal: there's five buildings total there, and each one has at least one hostage in it, from what the readout tells us. They're guarded by only one person, but that one person is enough to make our rescue mission a bust. There's two Marines and three Army soldiers. We have to be extra careful not to get these guys killed. That means, Ace, you're going to have to come in after we've rescued the hostages. Meanwhile, Morgan, Haley, Taylor and Markus will infiltrate and get the hostages out of there. If you need to cause a distraction, do it. The main thing is, don't let those guys get killed. If you do, not only will I kick your ass later, but Command will have your stripes. Got that?"

"Yeah. I got it," Ace said quietly. The Army wasn't too nice to people who got their own guys killed. And Matroya knew from experience. As did Heatherow and Emmet. The three of them had been in the Army once before.

"Alright, so here's the plan. Morgan, you go to the first building. There's guards at the doors, so I'd advise trying to get in through a window or something. When you get in, be sure to watch for any traps that may set off an alarm. Motion detectors, trip lines, cameras, whatever. Be sure not to set them off. When you get to your guy, kill the guards quietly, and then give him a gun and get your ass out of there. The same goes for you, Haley," Matroya said, looking over at Jason, who was staring at the buildings in question. Morgan knew that look. Jason Haley was well known for his ability to see weak points and exploit them, and he was using that ability to its fullest right now. The only way a person could tell was when Haley's right eye suddenly turned completely white.

"Chief, we have another hostage."

"What? Where?" Matroya asked. Haley's hand shot out towards three men, two were the guards, and one was the hostage.

"Son of a b*tch!" Matroya said as he saw who the hostage in question was.

"Who's that?" Morgan asked, pointing to the lady.

"Didn't you know? Matroya's daughter is in the military as well," Haley replied. Morgan paled as he saw Matroya suddenly trembling in rage. You could hear his growls, even though he was trying to keep them to himself. Morgan remembered the story well, as it was Matroya's friend, GHOST Elite Captain Baron Weiss that had related it to him:

"Jason's daughter means his whole life to him. She's his pride and joy, and the only thing he has left to remember his wife by. Losing her would mean killing himself, and that's why when she gets into and kind of a dangerous situation, Jason goes berserk."

Morgan swallowed hard when he saw Matroya suddenly get to his feet.

"Better plan: I'm going in too."

~~~~~

Morgan and Haley decided the best idea would be to work in teams they considered best. Morgan went with Matroya, Haley went with Markus, and Taylor went in alone. His response when questioned: "Sorry, but I work better solo." Morgan didn't bother asking what Taylor was planning to do, since he knew the only answer he'd get was either a blank stare or a look that clearly said, "Shut up, you twat." neither of which Morgan appreciated.

Remington now found himself wondering where the hell Matroya was, when suddenly, three green lights appeared out of the dark in front of him, followed by a blinking red light. Morgan went for his gun, but a gloved hand shot out and stopped him.

"It's me, moron!" Matroya hissed.

"Ah. Sorry," Remington replied. He'd never seen Matroya in his Recon uniform before, and he wasn't used to it.

To be precise, Matroya's uniform consisted of a black Nomex bodysuit with a black vest made with plates of "rhino" armor, which was really layers of Kevlar and some material nick-named Gore-tex that Morgan only knew the bare minimal details of. Unlike his Mark-IV suit, Matroya's was now darker, to help him blend in better. And the vest had changed. Not only was it now better plated with armor, but the pouches and pockets were all moved to create a form of disruptive patterning to make his form harder to determine. A nice little trick. Morgan wished he had been a spy where Matroya had originally worked.

Oh wait, he forgot. Matroya found out about the place's "secret" operations, which was to wipe out both sides of the Terran Wars, and instead wiped the company out with some help from his buddies within the GHOST Elites, who later covered over the accident by overriding the reports and saying that, "A tragedy occurred when one of the back up generators suddenly combusted due to the carelessness of a coworker on his smoke break."

See? Morgan asked himself. It really was a good idea to apply for the GHOSTs. Look at what they teach you!

~~~~~

Matroya and Remington silently slipped in to the building, with Morgan using what was left of his now mutated GHOST abilities to create his own little Mark V Nomex Bodysuit so that he wouldn't be shot to sh*t during the mission.

"Huh. Didn't know GHOSTs could do that," Matroya commented.

"This one can," Morgan replied.

"Oh, right, you're the Special Elite. My bad, I forgot," Matroya said sarcastically. "Come on, let's go."

Matroya jumped and grabbed onto an overhead pipe and began to shimmy across it, being sure not to make much noise. Remington shrugged and did the same.

"Chief, we're inside," Haley called over the radio. At first, Morgan was afraid somebody might hear, but then he remembered that the Roughnecks had their radios embedded into their skin, so he had nothing to worry about.

"Copy that. Keep moving," Matroya said, using his free hand to key in his radio. Then, with a swing he dropped down a foot ahead of Morgan and slid into cover against a wall. Morgan remained clutched to the pipe above. Matroya motioned for him to wait. Morgan could faintly hear the sounds of a scuffle, then two bodies dropping to the floor. He guessed Matroya had taken them out. And he wasn't far from correct when a hand popped out from around the corner and motioned him forward.

Remington dropped to the floor and slowly crept forward until he was next to Matroya.

"Here, take this," Matroya said, handing him what looked to be a pistol, but there was no ammo clip.

"It's an EMP gun. It's still in development, and I'm supposed to be field testing it here. It should only last about five seconds, so be sure to make the shot good, because it also takes a long time to reload. Got it?"

Remington nodded. He was a semi good sniper for a reason.

"Chief, we have a situation here," Sam called in over the radio.

"What?" Matroya demanded.

"They, uh, well... they found us."

"Damn! Look, just hold them off while we get the hostages," Matroya said. At that exact moment, a guard burst out of a room, tugging Diana along behind him by her hair. Morgan couldn't tell if time had stopped, but for three seconds, they all stood staring at each other. Then...

"You miserable b*stard!"

Morgan hardly saw what happened, but he blinked and saw Jason mercilessly slamming the guard's head into a wall repeatedly while retaining a death grip around his neck. Diana had dropped to the floor and was now frantically crawling towards Morgan. She may be a Marine, but she was never too fond of hostage situations. What Morgan didn't expect was for her to suddenly embrace him.

And that's when he felt his gun slide out of its holster.

In the blink of an eye, Diana turned and shot the guard three times in the side of the head, making a little triangle pattern in his skull, where the blood leaked out through the holes. He slumped to the floor in front of Matroya, who gave him one of the most evil looks imaginable, and then, with one last burst of adrenaline, kicked the guard so hard that his head literally came off, still connected to his spine.

Matroya ran over to Diana, fear lit with anger in his eyes. Morgan stepped away and let them have a moment while he continued on to find the other hostage. He had caught their distress signal on his eyepiece.

~~~~~

Fun Facts:

1. Diana Burrnns and Jason Matroya are related, but Jason is technically Diana's estranged father, since while he was in the war 99% of the time, his wife and daughter were stuck at home, and finally, Matroya's wife divorced him and retook her maiden name, as well as Diana. So, there you go.

2. Yes, that is how Diana's name is spelled.

3. It always seems like Diana gets held hostage when Jason's not around to keep an eye on her. Every story, she somehow gets held hostage.

4. The reason Taylor's such a loner? Well, this may come as a spoiler, but, during the Terran Wars, he shot and killed his own son in combat because his son had decided to join the Rebellion instead of staying with the Colonial Militia. Even though the Terran Wars ended with the Rebellion taking control of at least seven different countries, Taylor's still fighting his own war in his head.

 

I'm doing a bit of both. But that Sniper story won't be put up here.

If people want to find it, they'll have to check Xendane's deviantART page. http://jhaley959.deviantart.com/

 

Whose fault is it then? Your posts were deleted for a reason. If you want to chat, do it by VM or over something like msn.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread. >|

If your post isn't about the story or up to my standards I'm deleting it.

Rules for this section ~