Arknights: When Hunters Meet (A Tacet x Projekt Red novel)

Chapter 1 - An Ode of Life and Death

-You were a good neighbour to us when you spared us the early hand of doom, and left us the liberty to choose how to spend our End Times.

-You gained my friendship that day, and I shall forever be by your side as a guiding hand until the true end of all comes.

-''Oh Joshua.'' I lamented.

-Rise. Do not let this accursed tomb be your end. Grasp the chance that you have been given and rise! Leave this accursed place and find the light of the sky again!

-The light will shine your doubts away, and from there, you may decide your life further.

-... Thank you, my friend.

I could withstand the thirst nor my own pathetic wallowing no more. I picked myself up and I sighed. I focused, forcing my body to analyse and give me a status directly into my mind. I could feel the control and the state of every bodily part of myself. The gift flowing within my blood offered me much. It offered me life from this dying sarcophagus. It offered much more. But it could also tell me the state of my body should I need to be sure of my own health.

I could will the information be relayed to my brain directly. Similar to how a surge of pain would alert a normal human of bodily harm or sickness, it would be a packet of status information of my health and condition that I could summon at will while dulling down the pain. The knowledge would instantly be there more as a sense than information being relayed like a text. It was as if natural.

The immense hall that I was in was almost completely dark. My superior vision could barely distinguish the outlines of all the present shapes. Everything was dead here. No illumination or ventilation. Only small, weak red lights radiating from the few panels and servers barely alive. The power was nearly out and soon this would become a real tomb deserving of the device's name. I glanced upon some panels and realised this Clarketech wonder of a machine was long malfunctioning.

''I truly... should have been dead.'' The darker part of my mind thought.

My hope was my personal cache stash right opposite of my pod. There I could find all my former belongings intact in the still airtight locker. Unfortunately nothing electronic was still working.

There was no charge left even in the crystal batteries. They were supposed to hold a charge unused for at least five hundred years.

''Just how much time had passed?'' I wondered with concern. But I really must have thought about coming back alive in a less than a functional facility, or the chance of it. As I found a pair of sealed flares that I remembered packing away. It sparkled bright white as I popped one open.

Still, everything else that didn't require a battery was probably functional. Well... maybe the guns needed a bit of loving care and some oiling. The old reliable M40A1 sniper rifle was there along my next gen Heckler & Koch HK45. They looked as new as they could be as I pulled them out of the special preservative grease. Well, besides the scratches and dents they received on my tours through the long war. Lord almighty knows the M40A1 saved my life when that wolfish beast caught the barrel between its teeth and not my throat... hmm, wild times.

My clothes were there along with my grey winter jacket. For the life of me I could not stand the thirst anymore. It prompted me to hurry further even though I still felt like death. My awakening was rushed. Normally there would have been medical personnel to oversee me and give me special medication after such a long sleep. Yet now I could only depend on my own gift and constitution to tough through it.