Era of Madness

Once known as Brandon

At the terminal, each and every soldier present was remaining silent, this nauseous silence mixing with the omnipresent nervousness that was reigning in the structure, so thick one could've almost touched it. Even the two winged Guardians that were also in the terminal were showing things of nervousity, occasionnally biting their nails when they thought nobody was looking.

The only one who was maintaining his calm and composure in this invisible chaos was Eliot Mercher, the imposing special agent, that was calmly sat on a chair, on one of the floating pieces of the terminal, waiting for the ennemies to arrive, at the same time texting on his phone.

One of the youngest soldiers, Brandon, threw a discret glance at him: what exactly was this guy thinking? Did his cybernetisation also modify his brain, was he fearless or just crazy?

"Hey, Brandon, you should avoid looking at him like this, I heard cyborgs aren't really tolerant with people looking at them weirdly" his friend, Enzo, whispered in his ear.

Brandon quickly retracted his eyes to his weapon, acting as he was inspecting it. His friend laughed beside him.

"Hey, calm down, at this rate you're gonna forget who's the big ennemy that's going to kill us soon" Enzo laughed.

"And whose fault is it?" Brandon replied.

But he knew his friend was right. In this moment, almost everyone in the terminal was on edge for the same reason: the terrorists who were discovered on Glactia-62 some days ago, and later confirmed to be part of Cifer, one of the largest terrorist groups of the galaxy.

An hour ago, they took control of the Party Hall, the place where the most important people of the planet occasionnally met, and captured the planet director, Enry Arsin, taking control of the entirety of the gigantic building. They were no moving through the city, directly to the terminal, and everyone there knew that a fierce battle was now unavoidable.

Nobody knew what the outcome would be, but one thing was certain: there would be people dying. The only questions left would be how much of them would, and who.

"Those damn bastards, we finally managed to get here, and to ensure a happy life... and they still came here to cause chaos and make the entire planet suffer" Brandon spat with gritted teeth.

"Calm down, Bran" Enzo said. "I don't like this situation either, but swearing won't be of any help when they arrive, if anything we'll get shouted at and maybe sanctionned for troubling everyone while the battle is about to begin"

"Tssk, yeah, I guess you're right... plus, I don't think they can be worse than miss Melia"

"Pfwahaha, you're so right! Haha, I don't think anybody can be worse than-"

Enzo didn't finish his sentence as, at this precise moment, a luxurious floating car entered the terminal. From it came out a tall woman with pale blond hair and strong features. The left half of her body looked like it was made of metal.

Enzo and Brandon stopped breathing, thinking the moment of their death was coming. But Melia simply went past them as if they didn't exist. It wasn't that she didn't hear what they say, wasn't bothered by their insults or was afraid of hurting her reputation by killing them here and now.

No, she simply considered them too unsignificant to be even dealt with. Who were they, exactly? She knew it by their look, they were nothing but idiots of lower sectors, probably sector T or S, that somehow got the chance to get to work it.

Melia thought about it for an instant: those idiot, how did they manage to get to such a position in sector A's capital? Hardwork? Luck? Or maybe they were promoted by some military responsible that wanted to make people think the selection was impartial, so they could improve their reputation?