Location: Sts nuclear power plant, Stanistan
Date: 15/04/2165
Standpoint: Perceus Winslow

"Okay Percy you heard Mission Control. You and your team are to investigate the explosion at the STS nuclear plant and determine the factor that resulted in the nuclear meltdown, your Mechs will protect you from the radiation but just to be certain we gave you radiation suits. Most importantly you must not engage any foreign forces unless provoked, especially if there are any troops from one of the factions, understood?".

Percy heard everything Octavius said as he fell to the ground in his Mech, his team–Strike Force Theta, falling besides him. Above he saw the Droneship fly off, it was too big to keep there so it would be stationed in a nearby UN base while Strike Force Theta did it's job. Percy opened his comms and said "Affirmative Octavius, estimated time to complete this mission is 3 hours so I hope you make yourself comfortable". Percy heard Octavius chuckle before he closed his Comms with the Droneship.

All 5 mechs hit the ground and Percy quickly did a system check to see if his mech was online and functioning. He was sitting on a Knight class Mech which was made in Britain, it was 31 feet tall and was white in colour with gold trimmings here and there, along with a blue interior glow, true to the name of the Mech, it had a shield attached to its left arm which was only big enough to cover the mech but could be extended into a 13 feet by 13 feet plasma shield. Strapped onto the Mech's back was a plasma blade which Percy could unsheath and use with the Mech's right hand. Percy controlled his Mech via genchips which were attached to the back of his head and to the Mech's systems. That way any movement Percy made inside the Mech's safety compartment; the mech would follow directly in real life. Percy's Mech was codenamed "Venator".

[Percy's Mech]

After checking his Mech Percy opened the Comms with the rest of the team and ordered "Alright everybody, status report".

Ivy was the first to reply (as usual) saying "This is Ivy, codenamed Scorpius, all systems are up and running". Ivy's Mech was an unusual Mech, she had somehow convinced the manufacturers to make her Mech into a scorpion shaped one, completely grey in colour it was 20 feet in height but twice as long as a normal mech. It had a scorpion tail that ended in a small opening from which an iron blade or plasma gun could come out and be used for combat, her Mech had 3 legs on both sides and 2 front pincers which were useful as Ivy usually was good at close range combat. There were also shock charges at the end of each of her pincers which could be used to temporarily shock a mech. Ivy had chosen this particular design because it was easy to manuver and reminded her of her homeland of New Zealand as Scorpions had become more common there. This was also the reason why her Mech had been codenamed "Scorpius". She also used a combination of the Genchip and a control panel to control her Mech and was a trustworthy second in command.

[Ivy's Mech]

The third person to reply was Artyom, saying "Ready for action Venator". He was in his Gigant class Russian Mech which he had added a few modifications too, it stood 35 feet tall and was grey in colour with a red outline. It had a massive plasma sword attached to its back which Artyom could use, but had to use both of the Mech's hands to equip it. His mech was also equipped with a plasma shotgun for close ranged fighting. The shotgun was attached to its left hip. His mech was codenamed Ares and similar to Percy's Mech Artyom used Genchips to control his Mech.

[Artyom's Mech]

The next person to reply was Sophie "All systems online Venator, except for some mud on the feet." Sophia was in her Valkryie class Canadian Mech, it was 30 feet in height and didn't have any visible weapons, however it had a jetpack attached to its back to help with short term flying and 2 circular saws that she could retract her hands to bring out. Her Mech was light blue in colour with a dark blue and slight black outline and unlike the other normal Mechs (except for Ivy's Mech if course) her Mech was a bit feminine in shape to give it more agility and speed. Her Mech's codename was Athena as Sophie was the brains of the task force and was one of the best strategists. She used a special VR headset that basically let her control the Mech as if it was her own body (this headset was one of a kind and was much more accurate then the Genchips).

[Sophia's Mech]

The final person to answer was Sam, he replied "Ready for action Venator, finally we get to do some real work instead of stupid border patrols". Percy sighed, Sam often did not think before he spoke, which had landed him into several near job losing situations, he was seated in his 33 feet Aktobe class Stanistan Mech. It was green in colour with a black outline and had a thicker and more armoured body then the other Mechs, it was also unique in a way thay it had no external weapons, the Mech's hands could retract to bring out either plasma shotguns, spinning blades or any other weapon needed for the situation. This gave his Mech the codename Viper as Sam was extremely unpredictable and you never knew when he would strike. He also happened to be Percy's best friend, though Percy tried not to let that fact interfere in the job.

[Sam's Mech]

Percy said "Viper you should know better then to talk like that, Mission Control reviews these logs and they'll probably give us more patrols for talking like that". Artyom chuckled and said "Yeah Viper, we dont want to be put on the Indian-Stanistan border again, both sides of the border are constantly eyeing each other, plus the extreme heat doesn't help either.

Ivy replied to that saying "Mate, come visit New Zealand or Australia some day and you'll realize how much extreme heat can get, the heat your talking about is mild at best."

Sophie replied saying "Yeah but you've got to understand me and Artyom are from colder countries so it's extreme for us". Sam sighed and said "Athena what's the point of being a smart thinker if you can't detect sarcasm even when it's right in your face?" Everyone shared a laugh at that.

Percy then ordered everyone "Okay everyone calm down, we have a job to do and 3 hours to do it, Athena, Scorpius and Ares you take the western side of the Aral Sea and me and Viper will take the east, we'll rendezvous at the power plant behind what's left of the sea, good luck." All 4 of them agreed and wished each other good luck before splitting up.

Percy and Sam walked towards the Eastern side of the small sea, it had been split into half while being slowly drained over the centuries, a thin piece of land had divided it into a larger western lake and a small eastern one. Just ahead of the lake Percy saw the destroyed ruins of the nuclear power plant. Sam said to him "Venator, that plant is absolutely wrecked, I'm starting to think that's not a nuclear meltdown but rather bombing from above".

Percy replies "Affirmative Viper, let's go around the eastern side towards the Plant and see if we find anything off, keep an eye out". Percy took out his Submachine gun from the Holster located on his Titan's left leg. He started to walk towards the Eastern side, making sure to double check around him incase of an ambush. Behind him he saw Sam retract his right hand and bring out the front part of a shotgun.

Percy had tried several times to convince the top Mech engineers to make his Mech have retractable hands as well but after working for 5 months on Sam's Mech, they had claimed that it was too complicated to do again. So Percy had stuck with his Knight.

Percy continued to walk towards the destroyed Nuclear Plant and as he got closer, he realized Sam was correct, the bottom areas of the Plant were mostly unaffected while the top areas were in complete ruined and destroyed. Sure some areas of the plant were completely melted and the radiation meter was extremely high indicating that there was radiation, but this didn't seem like an innocent Nuclear meltdown.

Percy said to Sam "You may be onto something, I think someone called an airstrike on this place to purposely cause the meltdown. But who would do this? And what would be the point?". Sam replied "I don't know, let's move closer and check if there's any clue in the debris".

Sam and Percy walked towards the destroyed plant, they stopped near the edge of the destroyed plant and Percy quickly scanned the area for radiation. "That's weird" Percy said after completing the scan "I can detect the usual gamma radiation and beta radiation that you can find at power plants like these, but there's also a high amount of X-Ray radiation, and last I checked there shouldn't be any x-ray radiation in nuclear plants." Sam replied "Yeah that is weird, I suggest not entering the Plant, I'm not sure whether or not our radiation suits were modified to give protection against X-Ray."

Percy nodded and opened his Comms with the Droneship "Hey Octavius you there?" Octavius replied almost instantly "Yeah I'm here, are you done with the mission?" Percy said "No we needed to confirm something, I know our Mechs can protect us from radiation and that you gave us extra radiation suits to wear just incase but are the suits going to protect us from X-Ray radiation?" Octavius was silent for a moment before saying "No the radiation suits weren't made with X-Ray radiation in mind, but you shouldn't worry because no X-ray radiation would be at a nuclear power plant."

Sam decided to join the conversation by saying "Well it might seem crazy what I'm about to say but there is a lot, and I mean a lot of X-Ray radiation, I think it's more in concentration thann the gamma and beta radiation."

The Comms were silent for a moment before Octavius finally said "But that can't be possible.. unless–no that couldn't be, they were banned 30 years ago". Percy asked "What are you talking about Octavius?" He replied "back in the third world war they developed a special weapon that used high amounts of x-ray radiation, they had found a way to mix all the harmful affects of beta and gamma radiation into seemingly harmless x-ray radiation, and they made it into airstrike bombs". Percy said "Yeah this place looks like it has been raided via air strikes".

Octavius quickly said "I'll flag mission control and update them on the situation, until then do not enter the perimeters of the plant." Sam asked "Whoever bombed the place could be close by, what should we do if we find them?" Octavius said "Don't attack, not unless provoked". And with that he closed his side of the channel.

Percy sighed and backed up a few steps from the plant. He said "Well we have our orders Viper, let's go find Scorpius, Athena and Ares and give them the news." Sam replied "Affirmative Venator. I'll activate their location beacons".

Suddenly a massive explosion went off at the west side of the sea. Sam asked "What the hell was that?!" Percy started to sprint-walk towards the explosion and replied "That, I believe, is an excuse to not use the location beacons just yet, come on Viper, let's go see what the rest of our team has gotten themselves into.

[This is the end of this chapter, I wanted to clear some confusions that you might have, firstly if you see the use of bold letters and [] brackets then that means it's me, the author, communicating with the audience to clear a few things, however a () bracket means the character that the point of view of the chapter is on is thinking].

[This is a regular Mech designed to be used for foot soldiers in wars and skirmishes].