3rd POV

Raptor wasn't a stranger to the unknown. He welcomed it at times, unlike others who feared it. The first thing he noticed was that it was cold, not like Planet Umbros but more along the lines of a cold summer morning. The second thing was that he was in the woods, the quiet woods that put him on alert. So much that he quickly checked his things first. His HUD was new, he had his DMR and a shotgun on his back, and a TAC pad on his forearm. He set his weapons down and took off his helmet to inspect it. It wasn't his Mark V but a Grenadier helmet with a UA/FC accessories on it. DMR shoulder armor that held Anti-material rounds. His chest armor was what he had observed as Collar/Breacher variant that held shells for his shotgun. A trauma kit on his leg for utility and a TACPAD on his wrist. Grenadier knee guards and a black visor for a more intimidating look he supposed.

"Odd..." He muttered and put the helmet back on. He recognized the shotgun and it was M45D Tactical Shotgun, which made him reach around and pull out Emile's tags, letting them dangle in his hands. Thankful that he get to keep them.

Staring at them for a minute, he sighed then put them back in their place before heading off in a direction. He didn't know how the Army got him at the wrong location to be honest. It confused him and that bothered him. Confusion led to poor decision making, and that led to mistakes that could be made. Mistakes at the wrong time led to one's downfall.

Humming at his thoughts drifting, he kept North. Keeping his guard up was his only option. Time passed by and he came across what looked like a village. He went on alert when he heard shouting and quickly hid in one of the bushes and observed from a distance. There were people storming into homes and houses, hauling out valuables and food while some people lied dead on the ground. To his right was a truck that was being loaded with bags and boxes full of supplies. People were being rounded up and either assaulted or killed on the spot.

These weren't insurrectionists, their gear didn't match; some brandished guns while others wielded swords. No, he knew what insurrectionists looked like and operated like and these weren't it, they were too uncoordinated, too arrogant for his taste. Despite them being a Pantherou, they were threatening innocent people which meant he had all the right to put them in the ground. He's only been here for maybe three hours since he woke up in the woods but he's already seen something that needed to be stopped. There were shouts from the civilians and he silently crept towards the driver of the truck. He had been looking for a word for the attackers and nothing came up other than the term Bandit. These people were nothing but mere bandits like in some of the history books he used to read in his downtime and childhood.

He had the element of surprise and he wouldn't compromise his position yet. It took him sticking close to the ground and the driver too busy looking backwards to notice him until he was right next to him. The man didn't even get to utter a single noise before hands gripped his mouth and the back of his head then twisted. A sickening crack was heard and the body slumped onto the ground with a thump. He grabbed the body and threw it over his shoulder like it was a mere pillow and opened the truck door, throwing the body into the driver's seat and leaning it against the wheel.

Raptor hadn't anticipated the honking and was about to take the body off but a plan formed in his mind. It would draw some of them in the area where he could either eliminate them or slip inside the compound and take them out from the inside, only time would tell. Forcing himself to move back to his spot in the bushes, he went to a prone position and hoped that the brush would provide enough camouflage to hide him. Like he anticipated, some of them came out and investigated the sudden noise, it allowed him enough time to sneak inside without a sound. It was a very long street that had houses on either side, which provided him with a perfect amount of cover.

The bandits were suddenly on alert when they found one of their own dead but Raptor wasn't paying that much attention to them, he was more focused on the one that was currently bringing a young girl, presumably sixteen, down one of the alleyways. He threw her on the ground and chuckled darkly as he brandished a knife, unaware that Raptor was approaching from behind without a sound. Her eyes were wide with fear as he brought the knife closer and she flinched when he thrust it down, closing her eyes in anticipation to her death. The blow never came though.

She looked up to see the man gagging while a 6'5" behemoth of a titan had one hand around the offending arm and the other around the man's windpipe. He dug his gloved hand into the windpipe and squeezed with an impressive display of force. The sickening sound of flesh being torn resonated through the air, her eyes widened when the titan suddenly ripped the man's throat out like it was wet paper and threw the body away and the throat. She scooted back in fear when the titan looked down on her and leaned to her level, tilting his head.

"Are you injured?" He asked. His tone was cold, calculative, but it held a minuscule amount of worry for her well being.

"N-No. I'm fine... thank you." She gulped.

"I advise you to stay here. I'll handle the threats." Raptor said. She nodded shakily and watched as he equipped his DMR and silently crept through the spaces between houses, never once making a sound. He saw that there were fifteen bandits in total, eleven near the dozen civilians and four alerted ones near the truck at the entrance of the town. He wouldn't really call this town but more along the lines of a village, or a settlement for that matter. His boots barely made a sound as he dashed across the street and aimed down the sights to see one of the bandits hold a gun up to one of the civilians. He hadn't forgotten his training but he would not risk a civilian's death on his watch and honed his sights on the offending bandit, pulling a trigger before they could.

The crack of his DMR rang loudly throughout the air and the round soared quickly before planting itself through the man's skull. His head snapped back as the round went through and splattered brain matter and skull fragments on the ground. He disappeared around the corner of the house as soon as he fired and went behind another house the moment he heard shouting. They knew he was here, he still had the element of surprise but not as much as he would like. He heard shouts of spreading out and slightly beamed. Them spreading out made it easier to take them out one by one. With how disorganized they were, it was no surprise that those three that he killed felt like mere bugs. But he was not one to underestimate an enemy force, he would remain vigilant.

Two went down the alley that he was occupying but didn't see him until they rounded the corner. Before they could fire a shot, he equipped his combat knife and slashed one of their throats before parrying another one that had a sword. She slashed at Raptor but spat out saliva when he slammed the palm of his hand against her stomach before a quick slash of the knife made her gurgle wetly as blood leaked out profusely. Raptor watched the bodies lie on the ground for a few seconds before dashing behind the houses, avoiding the field of vision from the ones approaching. He was three houses down when he saw two more bandits spot the recently killed ones then bellow in rage, claiming how they were going to find him and make him suffer.

Twelve of them left.

His instincts blared and he ducked to avoid an axe that would've connected to his neck had he not moved out of the way. He turned around to see a man that was around his height if not taller snarl at him before pulling the weapon free from a wall. He swung twice but both swipes were dodged with precision. Raptor blocked an overhead swipe easily then twisted the axe clockwise, making the man lose some of his grip on the splitting tool. He managed to throw the weapon into the dirt before grabbing a punch sent his way then twist the man's wrist painfully. His foot lashed out and kicked his shin before he flipped him over his shoulder with his hand still in his then twisted quickly, breaking the man's wrist and forearm. He screamed painfully before being silenced with a single shot to the forehead, alerting the others to his position.

They knew he was here which meant they were closing in on his position quickly, more than he had anticipated but he adapted. One made the mistake of coming around the corner too quickly and jerked his head back when a single DMR round punched a hole in his head, making him crumble to the ground. He kicked the backdoor of the house down then dove inside when rounds started flying his way. He knew his armor would keep him safe momentarily but his training and instincts kicked in so he couldn't help it. He treated every situation like it was life or death, which is ironic, because this very well could be.

He saw that the kitchen connected to the living room and that connected to the front door. His shotgun was in his hands and his DMR was on his back as he aimed his gun at the backdoor. One of the bandits made the foolish mistake of coming through the door that he kicked down and found a Magnum shell discharged into her torso, which punched a hole the size of a dinner plate into it. Blood and gore splattered against the walls as her body flew out of the entrance.

A grenade was thrown into the house next to him and the fuse was going, making him brace the impact and feel the force of the grenade. He didn't know what kind of grenade that was because the area around him cackled with electricity but was quickly snuffed out when he stomped on it.

He praised his durability that the grenade did nothing to him. Hell, not even hurt him.

Shots from the front door splintered the wood and hit him, making him feel the bullets bounce off or dent; the effects were... extremely weak. It was like a weaker version of plasma in his opinion. It didn't really make him tense up like he did when Plasma was thrown his way.

He looked at the motion tracker and fired two shells at the door, the sound of two bodies slumping met his ears and gave him some breathing room for a quick second.

Seven hostiles left. Their deaths would be quicker than they could even blink or it could be brutal, depending on the situation. The front door to the house was kicked in and he had to duck underneath a set of arms that tried to grasp him. His fist clenched tightly and he uppercutted a massive man that was a few inches taller than him. His foot slammed on the man's shin and a natural force field from him cackled and sputtered before being replaced with the snapping of bone. He fell. Hard enough to shake the ground a bit.

His screaming suddenly stopped when Raptor jumped up high in the air and crushed the man's skull beneath both his feet. The force of the jump combined with the weight of him, the armor and the speed made the skull crush like a grape. Blood flew from the crushed head and splattered against the walls and his armor. The back door exploded with bullets and they impacted him a bit, he sighed before rolling out of the front door and into the main street. The civilians saw him aim his gun in their direction and fire half a second later, making them cower down. They screamed when they heard the shots but slowly opened their eyes when they saw neither of those two rounds were meant for them, rather the two bandits that were keeping some of the group hostage.

Four left.

Two bandits came from the house adjacent to him while the other two others followed from his opposite. Their eyes were wide at his size but also the blood that seemed to dribble down his armor and clothes. They backed up when his stance shifted and he switched to his shotgun when they surrounded him. All was quiet as the four surrounded him and began to circle him while brandishing different weapons. Everything seemed to slow down as a plan formed in his mind as he assessed the situation.

Four attackers. One has a gun, the two diagonal to him have swords, and the final one seems to have an axe but with a trigger on it? The fuck? He closed his eyes and let out a few calming breaths before snapping them open when a battle cry was heard. He ducked down quickly to avoid a shot from the gun user before sweeping his leg of one of the sword users. His shotgun was leveled at the ranged attacker and he pulled the trigger, watching the man's body fly through the air then land on one of the stalls, turning it into splinters. The sword attacker beneath him looked up to see the barrel pointing at him before his world went black. The other sword attacker managed to move out of the way from the first shotgun blast at him but a loud crack from his neck was heard when Raptor slammed the stock of the gun against his throat.

He jumped back when the man with the axe swung downwards at him and twisted out of the way when a shot from the axe came soon after. He dodged several swipes from the weapon then ducked underneath a wide swipe before rushing up to the attacker and equipping his combat knife. There was a loud shattering noise and and the squelching of the knife entering the man's heart rang out. Raptor twisted the knife a bit and heard the man groan before dragging the knife upwards and watched as a geyser of blood shot out. It sprayed for a few seconds before the body crumbled to the ground.

Everything was quiet as he looked at the carnage he had enacted then his eyes caught sight of the civilians. Some of them flinched when he looked towards them while others seemed to scoot away when he approached them. They closed their eyes when he brought out his combat knife and reached towards them, only to shakily open them when they saw he was cutting their bindings. It barely took any strength to actually cut the rope and it took a few minutes to actually set everyone free but he managed to do it. Once they were all free and hugged one another, they looked at him. There was a sudden tenseness in the air as they stared at the giant black-olive green and red death machine that seemed to slaughter an entire bandit tribe easily.

"What's your name?" One of them asked. At first, Raptor was silent but then he realized that they had been waiting for an answer for what he assumed was a few minutes.

"Some people just call me Seven." He answered. Some people winced at his particularly cold voice.

"That's not a name, it's a number. Are you part of a new Atlas squad or something?" Another one asked.

"Atlas?" He tilted his head.

"Yeah, Atlas, you know the biggest and strongest military in the world? Figured you'd be some new elite force or something with all those gizmos on you." The person pointed towards his armor.

He was VERY lucky to be wearing a helmet that hid his face. Cause he was annoyed, "... No." He answered curtly.

"You a Huntsman or something then?" The same person asked.

"What's that?" He asked. He really didn't know what these people were talking about. Atlas seemed to be a military on this planet but as far as he knew, there wasn't anything stronger than the Pantheruos Military, maybe the Covenant and a few others but even they lost to Pantheruos in the end. If there was a strong military than it would've picked up on the Pantheruos' radar.

"You okay there, buddy?" One asked.

"I'm fine. What is it that you were saying about those Huntsmen?" He asked. Some looked at him weird and he could hear their confused whispers about him not knowing about those two things. He listened to the various people explain about the world to him, from Atlas and their military, to the other kingdoms and their academies. Needless to say, he was extremely over about the events that had transpired.

If a foreign power even got a hold of his armor, and that's a very big 'if'. Then there's no telling what they could do with it, possibly nothing judging by the outfits these people wore. He asked more questions about the planet and soaked up everything he could about it before taking a bit of supplies then leaving. A part of him wanted to stay and help these people rebuild their little settlement but he couldn't trust even one of them to report him to this Atlas if they got the chance.

He did know about this world thanks to ONI, but he would learn quickly like everything else he mastered. There must be a reason as to why he was picked to go on this rock rather than be in a mission saving a planet from giant bugs.

The most he took from these people was a tattered cloak that covered his body, a map, some food and water to last him a few days, even though he can survive without it for a decade. And their thanks for saving them. He didn't mind the praise for saving innocents, what he needed was to get back in the fight. There was a job to do after all.

His mission was far from over, and his presence on Remnant was just beginning. The challenges ahead were unknown, but Raptor's resolve was unwavering. He was a soldier, a guardian of those who couldn't defend themselves, and his fight was far from finished.