Fan Fiction ❯ Espoir ❯ Starting Loose Ends ( Chapter 4 )

Title: Espoir

 

Summary: As Earth enters the final stage of it's existance, humanity tries one last stance to save themselves. A experiment that had been studied ever since the start of Earth's destruciton is put into aciton. Project Espoir 1 has begun...

 

Raitng: PG-13+

 

Genre: Drama, Aciton, Psot-Apocalypse

 

Chapter Four

Starting Loose Ends

 

 

The next few days went rather quickly for the Espoir candidates. They were woken early the following day and split into two groups. The crowds went oppsoite ways with the minority heading for the auditorium where they had first came into relization of the Espoir Program. There, they learned that they were the chsoen few that would graduate into the actual program and would soon be beginning their training for Earth's defense.

 

The training was difficult for msot. They would undergo weight and speed training, arms practice, mental tests, and various battle similators. It wasnt until about three days into their training until they were ready to take on the msot important part.

 

The candidates had been taken one-by-one from their equipment training session and brought to a small room on the west side of the facility. Doctors and scientists stood by as the new soldier was laid down onto a cot. Only then did one of the doctors explain what was about to happen.

 

"In order for your body to be able to sync with your armor, we must insert a chemical into your blood stream." At that point, many of the doctors armed themselves with needles or syringes. The doctor continued, "The chemical will align head straight to the part of your body that causes your defect. It acts as sort of a wake-up call and activated your mutation. This will allow your body's special abilitys to work along with your armor." The doctors began their advance, "You may feel a slight pinch."

 

The many shots and injections hurt excruciatingly during the process and afterwards caused the recipient's muscles to spasm out of control and his mind to drift off into a momentary coma. Each of the Espoir soldiers were tied to a restraint to make sure they do not cause bodily harm to themselves or anyone else.

 

When they awoke, however, they felt no more different than they did before. Except for a slight tingling sensation in the lump on their left shoulder.

 

A few hours after the injection and their forceful rest, the soldiers were once again split up. Each member was brought to a small area where two or three scientists were waiting along with a rather large crate. Once there, they opened the crate and allowed to soldiers to get their first glance at their own, personal Espoir armor.

 

The soldiers were forced to strip down and akwardly slip into the armor. It was a difficult process as the armor only split into two parts, the lower half of the human body and the upper. The lower half was slipped on easily, like a pair of slacks but the upper half was a pain to put on. It was heavy and the scientists had to help the candiates put it on many times. Once both portions of the armor was on, they two halfs were joined.

 

One of the scientists then went to a small computer and told the soldier to stand as relaxed as psosible and not to flex or move at all. As soon as they saw that the candidate was still, they pressed a button on the computer and the armor tightened to a almsot skin-tight state.

 

It was very uncomfortable at first for the soldier and not at all attractive. The armor was dark golden color. The majority of the armor was now as tight as skin but there were a few areas on the lower thighs, elbows, shoulders, and back that were quite bulky. The scientists then went to work and attached a slender, square holster acrsos the lower back and threw a belt around the waist. After that, the soldiers were allowed to look at themselves in a long mirror. The majority were quite unhappy with their looks.

 

They were told the armor would soon begin to feel just like their own flesh and that they would have to wear the armor for a few hours for it to adjust to it's wearer. The soldiers were not given time to complain as they were quickly brought to the auditorium once again, where the scientists had taken their psoition on the stage once again.

 

The elderly Pierre LeFluer stood at the front of the group but he was not the speaker this time. Now a younger, more handsome scientist had the microphone. Roman Evans grinned a teethy smile as the soldiers gathered before the stage.

 

"Look around, everyone." Evans said quietly and watched as the soldiers look at one another, now in their body armor. "What you see before you is the complete appearance of the thing that can save your Earth from total devastation. I, and my colleagues, commend you all on the advances you have made."

 

"However, you are not finished yet. Training with continue for you must now learn how to use and control that weapon your wear on your bodys. A seminar will follow this which shall teach you all of the new abilitys you have with your armor but I am happy to say that you are now in the final stretch to the finish. Keep your hopes high and morale going for we are almsot finished."

 

Evans smiled once more before stepping away from the mic. Another scientists took it and cleared his throat, "All soldiers will now report to the Practice Hall now."

 

The soldiers did not need to hear anymore before they departed for their training.

 

espoir

 

"Now, if you will all reach around you will find a box-like object attached to your lower back."

 

Bray Jackson reached behind him and felt around until he could feel the thing the trainer was talking about. It was smooth and long and at the end of what seemed like the hilt of something.

 

"That is one of the weapons of the Espoir armor. A blade made of titanium steel that can be used for hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Try to unsheath the sword."

 

The blade would not budge. Bray tried using his massive strength to pull the sword losoe but came to no avail.

 

The training smirked, "You must concentrate to unsheath the sword. Use your mind to control your armor, make it losoen the blade from it's holster."

 

Bray nearly spat at the sound of that. Use your mind? Sounded like some kind of yoga mumbo-jumbo. He shrugged however and tried to concentrate, telling the armor to let the sword go. Once again, he reached behind him and tried to pull the blade free. This time, it came easily and Bray looked upon the shining blade of his new weapon.

 

In a few moments, all the soldiers had their blades free. The trainer nodded and told them to sheath it once again. He then cleared his throat and said their introduction to the armor was finished and that they could now take a brief break in their quarters. Bray set off down the hall.

 

In about an hour, they had learned a great deal about their weaponry. The armor enhanced speed, strength, and thinking ability. In time, the scientists said the armor would allow the wearer to actually take flight. A handy ability since Bray had seen first hand what The Judge's flying crafts could do. The armor itself was nearly indestructable, at least by human standards. Also, it came with various weapons. Along with the sword came a large XP1-F2 machine gun. It was the main weapon for the small army and was generally suppsoed to be carried in the soldier's arms but could also be attached to a small holder on the back. There was also a secondary pistol in it's holder on the soldier's back. With thsoe weapons and the armor's shear strength, Bray felt indestructable.

 

He came to the barracks and took a seat on his bed. The soldiers had all moved into one barracks with the removable of thsoe candidates who were not chsoen for the project. More than half of the people chsoen had been sent away and the project was now made up of not much over one-hundred people.

 

Bray layed down and sighed, briefly wondering why the armor did not come with the helmet but then let the thought slip away and took on another question. How could an army of briefly trained, young soldiers be the only thing that could stand up against The Judges. The thought had crsosed Bray's mind ever since he'd come to the facility but had never gotten a good answer.

 

He was distracted as another soldier took a seat on the bed next to Bray's. He was small and carried a thick beard on his younger, white face. The male look up at Bray with kind eyes and smiled.

 

"How's it going?" He asked quietly.

 

Bray shrugged and scratched his dark skin, "Getting by."

 

The man nodded, "Everyone seems to be worn out. I guess this whole thing is taking it's toll on all of us."

 

Bray was silent. He'd spoken only briefly with anyone else in the program and didn't care much for other people's company anyways.

 

"My name's Sean. Sean Malvin." He said and extended a hand.

 

"Jackson." Bray said and didnt even glance at the hand. He sniffed and looked up at the cieling.

 

Sean withdrew his hand and thought a moment. He looked around at the other soldiers in the room and sighed. "I heard our training will be finished within the next few days. Word has it that the administration is quickening our training because The Judges have launched another assault."

 

Bray's attention was taken momentarily and he glanced over at the bearded man. He caught sight of a small corss dangling from the man's neck before looking away, "Where at?"

 

"Russia is what I heard but it's hard to tell." He paused, "They really seem to be trying to keep us out of the loop. For all I knew, the war could be over."

 

This caused Bray to chuckle. The war over? Yeah, right. It didn't seem like anyone would be able to even dent The Judges' raid. No, the war would definatly not be over. Not until The Judges decided they were tired of playing with the human race.

 

The two men's conversation was interuppted as a crash was heard in the room. The entire quiet barracks' attention went to the source of the noise and all eyes laid on one man standing, tensed and another sitting casually on one of the beds, not even looking at the standing man.

 

espoir

 

"Listen, man! I was just trying to make conversation!" Kane shouted at the white-haired young man sitting on the bed, not even bothering to make eye contact with him.

 

"I dont want to speak with you." The male said and laid back.

 

Kane clenched his fists and glared at the stranger. He could easily break the man in two. The street fighter had just been trying to be friendly and liven the mood. He tried talking with the white-haired stranger, making a joke or two and out of no where, the man had insulted him. Calling him unworthy scum. Kane had been called names far worse in his life living in the streets but just the way the man said it infuriated Kane.

 

He stepped towards the man with his fist raised but someone got in between the two. It was a bearded fellow, he stood with his hands raised towards Kane, staring at him.

 

"Hold on." The man said, "Do you really think we should be fighting?"

 

Kane gritted his teeth, "It'd make me feel better."

 

"No, fighting is not what we need to do right now." He turned around and stared at the other male, "We're in this together, not by choice but by force. We may not like it but it's true. Right, Yukio?" He threw the last statement right at the white-haired male.

 

The stranger shurgged and sighed, "Sure."

 

The man frowned and turned back to Kane, "Let it go. We're all on edge right now."

 

Kane frowned as well and took one last glance at Yukio before falling down onto his bed. He mumbled a few choice words before leaning his head back at clsoing his eyes.

 

Then, the engagement was over and the soldiers returned to whatever they were doing before. The bearded man sighed and also returned to his cot acrsos from a black-skinned man who seemed not in the least bit interested in the former fight.

 

espoir

 

She could literally not move a single muscle in her body.

 

It was as if someone had walked in and just drained all of the energy from Kei's body while she was asleep. The espoir training had been completely draining, both mentally and physically. She barely had enough strength to reach up and scratch her nsoe after the exercise and training. It seemed as though the majority of the group was feeling the same.

 

However, Kei was almsot certain she was the msot exhausted person in the room. Hell, some soldiers even had enough energy to get into a little quarrel, one that was quickly put to rest by the bearded man she'd met earlier. Seth. Steve. Stan. Something like that.

 

Still, there was one man who seemed to be in at least a similar condition as Kei. He lay on his top bunk, black hair covering his dark-skinned, oriental face and arms hanging off the edge. His dark eyes simply stared up at the cieling but he didnt seem to see anything. He was completely away from this world, secluded in one of his own creation.

 

With a sigh, she looked away from the man and looked up at the cot above her's. Ever since the training had begun, she'd found herself missing the safety of her father's arms. If he could see what they were training her for and the things she was going through, he would have a heart attack. If he hadn't already, that is.

 

At the thought of her family, Kei chuckled and put her hands over her eyes. It was a nice feeling. Laughing, that is. It seemed like forever since she'd last smiled. It was hard even to remember. She sighed once more and removed her hands, staring up at the cot once more.

 

Something caught her gaze though. Looking to her left, she saw the dark-haired man who'd been in a daze before was now staring at her, his dark eyes looking into her's with an almsot fascination.

 

Kei stared back but for only a moment before looking away. Her face turned red as she wondered what the man was looking at her for. She blinked a few times before looking back into his eyes.

 

"Something wrong?" Kei asked timidly and found herself wondering if she even spoke loud enough for her to hear.

 

The man stared for only a few more seconds before shaking his head and sighing, "Sorry." He said absently, "I heard you laugh. Just wondering if you'd lsot your sanity."

 

That made her grin, "No. Not yet, at least." She looked back over at him, "Just trying to think of happier things."

 

"I suppsoe that would be a good idea, huh?" He looked away from her and glanced around the room, "I'm Kuris, by the way. Kuris Takasa."

 

Kei nodded and looked up at him, "Kei Hayamoto. Nice to meet you."

 

"And you." He said and finally cracked a grin. "For a second there, I was beginning to wonder if there were any beautiful women in this damned place."

 

She found herself blushing once again at the male's comment. She looked away so that he could not see her reddened face, "I dont think whoever gathered us here was really looking for good-looking people."

 

"No, I suppsoe not." Kuris sighed and put his hands behind his head, "I guess they got more important things to worry about."

 

Kei nodded slowly and also looked away, "Apparently, we do too."

 

That made Kuris look back at Kei and raise an eyebrow, "How's that?"

 

She simply stared at the boy for a moment, "Well, we were gathered to fight The Judges, after all. I think that is probably one of our concerns now as well."

 

The man made a thoughtful sound then shrugged a bit, "You may be right."

 

May be right? Of course she was right. How could someone who was now 'the Earth's last chance' not have to worry about defending the planet. Either this boy was dense or just really, really laid back.

 

"I heard somewhere we were being shipping out soon."

 

Kei looked back up at the boy. It was her turn to raise a brow at him, "Shipped out?"

 

"Yeah." He said, "As in, to begin our actual mission. I aint got a clue as to where or how but a couple of the guards were talking about it and said it wouldnt be much longer before we were sent out."

 

Kei grew silent before she looked away and spoke quietly, "You really think we're ready."

 

"I dunno about 'we' but I know for sure I'm not ready to go out and fight the same bastards who have killed more people than anything in history."

 

The room had grown silent. Apparently some people nearby had heard of Kuris' assumption of being shipped out and the news had spread throughout the room quickly. Kei looked around at the blank faces of her fellow Espoir soldiers. She swallowed slowly and shook her head.

 

"Me niether."

 

espoir

 

The auditorium was as quiet as a morgue. No one spoke. Not the soliders, the scientists, the guards, or the elderly man sitting at the front of the stage.

 

Everyone stared foreward at the feeble fellow. Pierre LeFluer looked just like he had the first day the candidates had been gathered from all corners of the planet. Brittle, old, and somewhat unstable.

 

Finally, he cleared his throat and spoke into the microphone that his colleague Roman Evans handed to him.

 

"My soldiers," He began as he looked at the men and women before him with something like pride gleaming in his old eyes, "You all have my congradulations. You are now official Espoir Soldiers, defenders of Earth." He took a dramatic pause as he looked over the group. Very few soldiers seemed to feel the same pride as the old scientist but no one spoke.

 

"In a matter of hours, you all shall be at your respective locations. You will all be divided into six, no seven groups." He shook his head after his correction, "Your groups shall be sent off to your areas which will be your duty to defend. Some of you will find yourselves in area very familiar to yourself, others wont be so lucky but no matter the situation, I know deep down that you have what it takes to save this sad planet."

 

LeFluer paused once more and looked over the group, "Good luck."

 

After the brief speech from LeFluer, the soldiers were once again herded to a different area. This time, they gathered in the practice hall where each individual member was given a small card. Printed on the card was that soldier's name, rank (Project Espoir 01, Class A), and a small letter that was printed at the upper right corner. It indicated what group that soldier was assigned to. There was no information as to where they were going.

 

Trainers shouted directions to the areas that soldiers were to go. It was almsot pure chaso as soldiers raced from one place to another in search of their proper location, indicated by the letter on their card. After about an hour of checking soldiers IDs, assigning and re-assigning soldiers to locations, then checking their IDs once more, the soldiers were allowed to board a rather large plane that would take them to their new home. Where that was, was a complete mystery to everyone.

 

espoir

 

The seats were comfortable, at least. Not 'first class comfortable' but better than the terrible bunks the soldiers were forced to sleep in back at the barracks.

 

Craig Stone glanced at the little card that had been given to him and sighed. Location C. Where the hell was that? The least they could do was give them a hint as to where they were going.

 

He sighed and leaned his head back against the seat. To his right, next to the window, was a large German fellow named Jurgen. His last name was much to difficult to pronounce. To his left was a young man Craig had not met yet. He was very small and very quiet. So quiet that Craig hadnt even been able to get a name out of him.

 

With a sigh, he looked around the plane. There was about twenty or thirty soldiers on the plane, only of few of them Craig knew. There was the bearded guy who everyone knew, Sean something. As well as the loud, hot-tempered Kane Kisho. His name had gone through the group of soldiers soon after his short stint with the obnoxious man known as Yukio. Who, beleive it or not, was also on the flight.

 

Other soldiers Craig recognized was Bray Jackson. He'd been one of the first people Craig had met. During the first day of training, Craig had come to know Jackson through a short strength test. Although the black man had eventually beaten Craig, they'd went through a short test of strength on the bench press.

 

There were only a few females on the plane. Jurgen had been speaking with a girl he called Miya before he sat down and then there was a rather quiet, black haired female sitting acrsos the aisle from the quiet boy.

 

Yeah, quite a rag-tag bunch. Not exactly the people Craig would expect to be the force to counter that of The Judges. Hell no, not even with the 'super armor' could they rival thsoe bastards.

 

Shaking his head, Craig clsoed his eyes and ran a hand thorugh his greasy blonde hair. It sure would be nice to be able to take a shower. Perhaps 'Location C' would have working showers where he could wash himself a little. He almsot smiled at the thought.

 

He'd stayed up-beat throughout the entire thing. Sure, he'd been more than a little shocked when he was herded, with the other youths, into that auditorium and told that they were going to be trained to fight The Judges but he'd retained his cool and acted good during the few days of training they had.

 

He'd learned that the best way to get himself out of a bad situation was by keeping his cool a long time ago. His sophmore year of high school, he'd already been starting quarterback and the team was down by seventeen points starting the fourth quarter. Craig had successfully calmed his team down and led them down the field on three drives, all of which ended up in Stone Touchdowns and won the game 28-24.

 

The thought of football however, only helped in lowering Craig's morale. About this time, he would be gettings calls from various different Divison One colleges, asking him to change his mind in his decision to go to Ohio State. Now what was he doing? Sitting in a smelly plane on his way to God-knows-where to fight a undefeatable enemy. There had to be some kind of global rule against doing this to such a made person!

 

But there wasnt. There was nothing he could do about it and Craig knew it. His entire football career had been thrown away in the blink of an eye. His mother knew that, she'd been hysterical when he'd left with the goverment officials to go to his Espoir training. His girlfriend, the girl he'd loved since he was fifteen, had told him the night he was to leave that she could not continue seeing a man she could never see. They'd broken up that night.

 

A tap on his right shoulder broke Craig from his thoughts and he opened his eyes to see the large, bearded Jurgen staring down at him.

 

"You were shaking." The large man said, "You okay?"

 

Craig nodded slowly and rubbed his tired face, "Fine. Just fine." He said with a wry grin. He looked to his other side to see that the quiet boy had not even flinched. He still sat, staring forward at the front of the plane.

 

Looking away, Craig sighed and shook his head. He glanced around the plane at the rather quiet crowd then glanced back at Jurgen, "Know how far we are?"

 

"Someone said just a couple minutes."

 

"Still no idea where we're going, huh?"

 

Jurgen thought a moment, "There's a lot of rumors going around." He said, "We've been fliying over the ocean for awhile so I know for sure we're outta America. I'm guessing either somewhere in Europe or Asia."

 

"Africa?" Craig asked tiredly.

 

"Nah, I doubt it." He sighed, "Some guy on here said we would have his Africa already. If it's Europe, we should be getting there soon. Asia wouldnt take much longer, if it's not too far in." He shrugged, "Hell, we could be heading for Russia."

 

Craig sighed and shook his head. It was too confusing. Distances and stuff was never his thing. He'd had straight A's since he was in 8th grade but Math was by far his least favorite subject. Geography was a clsoe second.

 

Laying his head back again, he decided just to leave their location to the pilot. Even if he did know, there wasnt much he could do about it.

 

espoir

 

The little picture of the seat belt began flashing and a man's voice came over to the intercom to tell all passengers to fasten their safety belts. Kuris did so tiredly, already happy about being off the plane.

 

Everyone's eyes were glued to the windows as they finally began to see land. Kuris almsot grinned when he noticed where they were going. He leaned back and smiled, Kuris Takasa was going home to Japan!

 

The plane began to shake a bit as it touched down in the nearly abandoned city of Tokyo. Everyone knew Tokyo had been evacuated long ago in case a attack was launched on the city.

 

The door to the plane opened automatically and the passengers slowly began to file out. A small group of uniformed men stood waiting for the soldiers outside. On cue, the passengers lined up on the runway and stared foreward at the men. All of whome were their superiors.

 

Kuris watched as a older man with brown-gray hair stepped foreward and cleared his throat. His slanted eyes and dark skin indicated he was of oriental heritage. More than likely, the minister of defense of Japan.

 

"Welcome, soldiers." He said loudly, "It truely is a great honor to have you trained fighters along side us. The war against The Judges is only that much brighter now that we have you on our side."

 

Bright? How could anyone say the Judgement War bright at all? As of so far, Kuris had yet to hear of any casualtys on The Judges' part.

 

"My name is Kim Hideki, Head of the Japanese Defense Agency."

 

Kuris had heard his name a few times on the news. A direct descendant of former Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, who had been Prime Minister during the Second World War, Kim Hideki had been one of the first to say that Japan needed to take it's defense into it's own hands rather than depend on the aide of other countrys. He was also noted as being a man who had once said that Japan needed to leave the United Nations and take on their military psoition like they did in the past. When The Judges invaded, Hideki was very clsoe to be ousted from the Japanese military.

 

Hideki continued his speech, "Allow me to introduce you to your commanding officer." He extended a hand to the rather young, uniformed officer who stood on his right, "Soldiers, meet Captain Rufus Nottap."

 

The young officer stepped forward, no smile on his young face. His hair was cut short, military issued short and his clothes were as trim and neat as any military man anyone'd seen. He looked them all over then returned to the front and nodded.

 

"Greetings, everyone. As said before, I am Captain Nottap." He pronounced his name different than Hideki was and it was easy to tell of Nottap's American heritage. He cleared his throat, "I look forward to battling The Judges along side you all and I strongley beleive, that we stand a very good chance of perserving this planet."

 

Nottap nodded to them and smiled a proud grin. He stepped back and looked at the other officers. No one else introduced themselves or said any words of encouragement. Finally, Nottap looked at them and nodded, "You will be shown to your quarters shortly, as soon as your 'things' are unloaded."

 

Kuris looked behind him and finally noticed that the soldiers' armor was being unloaded. It was strange but Kuris felt a akward fear at the sight of thsoe cases being taken out of the plane. Like coffins containing the things the soldiers would more than likely die in. He sighed and looked around at the 30-something men and women around him.

 

The only thing that put Kuris at ease that day was the thought of actually dying in his homeland.

 

To Be Continued...

 

Note: I am still looking for a beta to go through each chapter of Espoir and correct the spelling and grammatical errors. If interest, just contact me at my email address or leave a review with your email.