*Note: as stated in my teaser book, every character and vehicle, and of course Chaknaka itself, is of my own make and thus my own creation, do not use anything in this book without my permission please*


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chaknaka.

A vast and mysterious world, Chaknaka was created as a testing ground for the gods, filled with every kind of creature and substance available, but utterly rich in raw magic, the planets core itself was a vast magic sphere.

However, as beautiful and providing as it was, it was also a world of utter chaos and conflict.

The gods placed so many different species onto the planets surface, that true peace was nearly a fools errand.

Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, mer-people, Ogre's, Troll's, Vampire's, demons, angels.

If you could name it, it very likely exists on Chaknaka in some form.

Hundreds of nations called this world home, with their nonstop wars and aggression only being stopped mostly due to a colossal wall made of an unknown biomechanical substance, that separate's the nations of the world except for service tunnels at the bottom of each structure.

In short, the world is a safe heaven for those who felt out of place, but a dangerous haven at that, with more then it's share of dark secrets and forbidden desires.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A cloud passed over the blazing sun as it beamed down onto the forest floor, it's rays reflecting it's heat all throughout the land, as it was mid summer-it was hot, but that didn't mean it wasn't good weather to exercise in.

One may think that the heat made it to hot for a sane person to be out running in, but that didn't stop one figure.

Dashing out from behind a tree, the figure dashed like a blur, dodging and weaving through the brush with all the swiftness of a wild-cat.

Leaping over a fallen log and rolling under a low-lying branch, the figure effortlessly evaded every natural obstacle that the forest tried to throw at them, which was good because they weren't alone. 

Leaping out behind them was a second figure, clad in a fully covering hood and cloak, they kept up with the first figure, though they kept a moderate lead over them.

The lead figure seemed to pay no attention to their pursuer as they leapt up onto a nearby branch, before leaping onto a second one.

Jumping from branch to branch with the grace of a professional jumper, they made no attempt to slow down as the canopy opened up and shown a ray of light directly onto the figure.

Quickly jumping back down into the shadows, they landed by a tree and knelt down, fully stopping and seeming to listen to their surroundings to make sure they were alone.

The forest was quiet, too quiet for their liking as the figure gave one last scan of their surroundings, seeming to relax a bit before their hearing picked up the sound of the rustle of bushes.

Immediately going into a defensive posture as they whipped around in the direction of the sound they had just heard, and found themselves face to face with the second figure from before, leaping out at them with a seeming intent to kill.

Reacting in an instant, they quickly drew a pistol from their hip as they leapt backwards, narrowly avoiding their drawn combat knife as they pulled the trigger and fired off several shots from their firearm.

Their pursuer somehow evaded the nearly point blank shots as they swiped the knife upwards, striking the pistol and knocking it out of their grasp.

Letting out a grunt of frustration, the figure rolled backwards, using their foot that was clad in a heavy combat boot to deflect the blade, and at the same time kicking it away from their attack as they landed upright, bringing their hands to bear into a defensive posture.

With a flick of their wrists two wrist blades extended forward, each having a pair of Karambit style blades, their color a light blue as they were brought into attack position.

Their attack in question had no weapon, but raised their fists in order to attack.

With a taunting gesture, flickering their hands upwards in a mocking manner, they were prepared when their attack leapt at them.

Ducking downwards, they managed to counter their attack with a headbutt to the stomach, as they did so, they wrapped their arms around their attackers waist and caught them in mid-air.

Staggering for a moment, they managed to hold their balance as they threw themselves backwards, forcing their attack to take a faceplant into the lush ground with a solid grunt.

Whilst this move did force them to release their attack, it did knock the wind out of them, or so they thought.

Throwing a vertical punch downwards to hit them in the jugular, the second figure caught their first and grabbed their arm, yanking them downwards as they flipped themselves over, twisting their arm and forcing them onto the ground instead.

Letting out a hiss, the first figure forced their arm out of their grasp and rolled to the side to avoid a curb stomp to the chest and stood back up again to raise their hands to defend themselves from a punch to the chest, blocking it, but noticed that their attacker had grabbed a sharp branch from a nearby tree, intending to use it to impale their neck.

Flicking their wrist out, their wrist blade sliced the branch in half as if it didn't even exist to the weapon.

However this left them open to another attack, as they were slammed against a tree trunk, a knife to their throat.

Their attacker then spoke for the first time, in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a young female adult human.

"It's over now bandit, give up now and I won't slit your throat." she said pressing the knife against the first figure's throat for good measure.

The figure in turn merely let out an odd giggle, and launched their knee upwards, slamming it into their attackers stomach, who in turn grunted as the air was forced out of her.

Using this window, they forced themselves off of the tree trunk and forced their attacker onto the ground, stationing themselves so that their arms were pinned by their legs, and the figure now had a wrist claw at their attackers throat.

"I'm sorry what was that?, "it's over now", hehe it's over alright, just that it's over for you" said the first figure, also having a female voice, just sounding more akin to an older teenager.

After a few moments of silent, the figures attacker let out a sigh and a chuckle.

"Alright Artemis, you win this one, now get off me so you don't crush me" said Artemis's "attacker".

"aw, but what if I stayed here Oni?, what if I don't feel like moving?" taunted Artemis teasingly, but she got off of Oni as instructed.

Oni sat up "depends, you wanna keep your tail?" she replied.

"oh you wouldn't!" yelped Artemis as she stood up and drew back her hood.

Artemis had long light blue hair, reaching down to her mid back, ice blue eye's watched Oni with a sense of playfulness as she shook her head, her head's most noticeable feature was the pair of cat-like ears adorning her head, which flickered as she listened to Oni.

And of course, moving her cloak a large, bushy and equally light blue tail made itself known, waving a tiny bit for good measure as Artemis helped Oni up.

As Oni stood up her own hood fell down, revealing long dark brown hair that was nearly black in color that reached down to her mid back as well, her skin was still fair, but less pale then Artemis's own skin, her most unique feature was her eye's, her left being a dark chocolate brown in color, with her right eye being a deep demonic red in color, standing up Oni came to be slightly taller then Artemis, as Artemis was a solid 5.6, with Oni being roughly 5.8.

Oni patted her stomach.

"whatever the case, you still got a hell of a kick-in this case quite literally" she said giving a slight smile.

Artemis chuckled.

"Knew you had a trick or so up your sleeve with that branch attack, sneaky fucker" she replied as the bushes rustled yet again, but neither of them reacted in any way other then to simply look at the six newcomers to their group, coming from every angle.

They were clad in Ghillie suits paired with masks that fully covered their faces, one of them who had a more reddish mask, seemed to be in charged as he held a tablet in his hands.

"well done both of you, Artemis you broke your previous record of traveling speed of nineteen point eight kilometers an hours, to twenty-two kilometers per-hour, Oni you broke your own record with being able to keep up with her at least for a few seconds without resorting to your demon speed, new records for today." said the man.

"thanks captain Lenix, that was fun, though it's hot as hell out here in this forest Geez." said Artemis wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead.

Lenix nodded in agreement as a second soldier walked forward with a small container, opened it and pulled out two bottles filled with water, before tossing them both to Oni and Artemis, who caught them easily and began to drink.

After a moment Oni asked.

"We got anything else for today?" 

Lenix thought for a moment, tapping at his tablet and scrolling for a bit before he shook his head.

"fraid'not, this was all that Fotus had planned for you today, so I guess you two can head back to HQ now, we got two more teams we gotta take a look into in the area, so we'll be out here for a few more hours, Bugger 3-5 will be here in ten minutes to bring you back to Alpha Centarious" he replied.

Artemis tilted her head

"huh, usually he has more for us, anyway I ain't complaining-" she replied.

One of the troopers snickered.

"he probably doesn't want her getting into the sugar again-" he said.

Artemis turned around with puffed cheeks.

"Hey I can't help it that I have a major sweet tooth!" she protested.

In turn the collective group chuckled at her expense as Artemis gave a "hmph" of dejection.

Oni patted her on the head and asked Lenix.

"Who's still out here?" 

Lenix looked at his screen and replied.

"We got Arina and Sylivia to the north, their practicing control over their powers, Fotus knows they can do it, but just with how new they are, Fotus wants to be sure that they can at least control themselves in heavy fighting, and we got Tidal and Scunner to the South practicing their artillery accuracy, that's gotta be worth seeing..." he mused that last part.

Artemis grimaced, Tidal wasn't known for working well with anyone, besides another individual named Whiplash, but Artemis knew not to be to tough on Tidal, Tidal had seen a lot more then a healthy mind can take several times over, she just hoped Scunner would notice that and take it into account, as both of them we're basically sentient weapon platforms, they could cause a lot of destruction if let loose a little to much.

As for Arina and Sylivia, Arina needed to work heavily on her teamwork, but was showing colors of being a powerful solo operative, she was a child of some god named Hydra, and could assume a hydra form at will, Sylivia was a gifted healer and close combat specialist, but was sometimes to passive in combat.

Nonetheless, despite how new they were to the NSCR's style of doing thing's, they were showing a lot of promise either way, so no-one could truly complain.

Oni nodded.

"well don't let us delay you any longer, we'll head over to the clearing nearby and signal Bugger 3-5 now, give the two our best wishes" she replied.

Lenix nodded and signaled to the other five around him as they retreated back into the tree line, their suits automatically adjusting to the thick foliage around them, to the untrained, dull eye they were all but invisible, but Artemis's eye's we're far better then a normal humans, and could see their faint outlines moving quickly through the tree's.

Oni and Artemis glanced at each other before nodding and making their way over to the mentioned clearing, Artemis tossing a small box shaped device Oni who caught it and flicked a switch.

"Bugger 3-5, this is Oni, me and Artemis have finished up here, requesting a lift back to HQ, we've marked out location with a IR strobe, over" Oni said into the small transceiver. 

"Copy that Oni, Bugger 3-5 is inbound to give you a lift, ETA 10 mikes, over and out" replied a Pilot.

With that the two operatives sat down on the grass with Artemis laying on her back stretching for good measure.  

"Odd that Fotus gave us the rest of today off, with that tribe of Estak warriors being aggressive so close to some of our borders, you'd think he'd want us to be training non-stop" commented Oni.

Artemis who had both eye's closed open one eye and gave a shrug.

"beats me, I was expecting to at least have one more training mission to do today, especially with how his dreams have been bothering him again lately, poor lad, I should maybe try and cheer him up later or something.." she said starting to trail off.

"I don't think he's depressed, but he's got something on his mind, my local demon side is telling me his mind's just been troubled, but as two of his warlords, he'll probably tell us anyway, you know how he get's sometimes" replied Oni.

"eh, yeah true, just wish I could understand how it worked sometimes y'know?" replied Artemis who was now sitting up.

"to each their own, he'll come around eventually again, he always does" Oni said with a shrug.

Artemis nodded when her ears perked up, hearing the very distant chopping sound of a rotor blade in flight.

"Oh goodie, their just about here" stated Artemis as Oni perked up to and then nodded to confirm her statement.

A few minutes later Bugger 3-5 appeared, they were the codename for a light Utility helicopter known as the UH-185 Scout Helicopter, as the pilot gently landed the helicopter near the two girls as said girls stood up, nodding to the pilot in greeting and Oni retrieving the location marker as the two got into the troop compartment of the Helicopter, sitting down and strapping themselves in as the helicopter's engines powered up again, lifting the aircraft back into the sky.

Looking out over the forest a few flashes of light made themselves known to Artemis and Oni.

"Huh- guess Scunner is having fun, she usually doesn't always get a lot of chances to let loose like this during training" commented Oni.

"yeah we got a message saying that operatives Scunner and Tidal were going to be doing some target practice this afternoon, so we made sure to stay out of that area, we love her, but we really don't wanna be collateral in a training exercise" said the Pilot with a light laugh.

Artemis smirked and shrugged.

"how many teams we're deployed today?" asked Artemis.

"ten in total, including fireteams crimson, Snakepit and Ripper, even killteam Wendigo got a chance to stretch their legs, seeing Jackrabbit and Alina in action is a sight to behold" said the pilot.

"Well, Wendigo is the top rated fireteam here for a reason, and we alllll know how Alina loves to show off to Fotus during training" said Artemis in a light tone.

Oni chuckled "don't let her heal you say that" she replied.

Artemis laughed "oh I wouldn't..to her face at least" she said with a smile.

The three shared a chuckle as they sped off to their home base of operations codenamed Alpha Centarius, one of the main and of course, largest NSCR bases on Chaknaka.

Seeing how it'd be an hour or so until they were to be fully back within the base's, Artemis leaned back against the cargo seat of the scout helicopter, and dozed off for a quick nap, with Oni looking out across the moving land-scape and thinking to herself.

Almost every nation had been enjoying years of peace, some minor skirmishes here and there, and the NSCR had to intervene on one such occasion a few months ago, but other then that it's been extremely quiet lately.

That's one thing that Oni secretly shared with Fotus, as much as she loved the peace and quiet around the world lately, that was exactly the issue as well.

It was to quiet for her liking, it was like a storm building up, and Oni couldn't help but wonder when it would break.