The Story of Unit 186 - Prologue

[The Mysterious Stranger]

Before the Seven Hour War - Chapter 1 - Catherine Kelislav

 Narration:

 "I guess humanity wasn't fit in order to fight upon and win the invasion. We failed, our resources starting to lower greatly along with the population. I remember seeing the former Atlantic ocean... it's combine controlled now, being drained for new visitors but who...? Although, I don't want to get to that point. I want you to look through the eyes of me, I used to Unit 186 but I guess I am Catherine once again. After many centuries, I expect children to ask their parents "What was it like back then?" They would reply with nothing, the scars of their memories not fading away till the end."

 Catherine Kelislav

 The mirror was filled with fog, although this wasn't anything that really mattered. She wiped it away and noticed herself looking at someone through the mirror. Her upper body was wrapped with a white yellow and her hair was soaked, only to be laying across her covered chest. Yes, a young 23 year old russian woman by the name of Catherine Kelislav. She was living in the capital city of Kiev which was located in the heart of Ukraine. Although she wasn't interested in becoming the fame of them all, she wanted to become a engineer. The thoughts bounced around in her mind and she thought of when she was a child, peaking through the doorway before heading to the rooftop.

 "--But Vladimer, you do know that Catherine is a young girl. It worries me that engineering isn't exactly... girl stuff, you know?" Tesla begged, her hands kept on her knees. It appeared she was having a rough time, especially with life due to the sound of her voice. "Shut it Tesla. Catherine has a heart of gold but she knows what she is doing. We will convince her tommorow." Replied Vladimer, who had her arm around Tesla' back, beginning to look down at the ground too. They were talking about many topics due to Catherine mostly sitting ontop of the roof where she was mostly near their window, seeing a few black coated pigeons eating crumbs of bread.

 She often felt guilt when her parents divorced, only to stay aside with her often angry father. "I know what you feel like Catherine but I had no choice." "But dad, why did you do such a thing!" Catherine screamed at her father right infront of him, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks. His face revealed pity but depression too. He kneeled down near her and put his wrinkly hands upon her shoulders."I know what you feel like Catherine but hence what I said before; I had no choice. She wanted a divorce and I felt shocked about it. She was a heart-warming mother but what could I do? I feel sorry for you."

 Catherine stared into his eyes, beginning to wipe some tears away using her sleeve. Wrapping her arms around his neck and rubbing her cheek on his shoulder, she knew what it felt like. Years passed and she was having a rough time in college. One day like every other day, she sat at the table looking down at a newspaper. In entertainment, she was lured in to what she was reading. Squinting her eyes while reading the words that kept her interest, she took a sip of orange juice and read the last sentence. "...a woman by the name of Tesla was officially dead on the 13 of September..." A needle struck her across the heart, she felt her insides cringe like a mixing bowl. Frozen in place, her emotion changed from faint happiness to utter sadness. With nothing to come out of her mouth, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

 The glass of orange juice spilled onto the floor while she trembled, running to where her father was. "Father! Father!" Vladimer, who was her father was on high alert, sitting up on his bed. He just returned from his sleeping progression and looked at her daughter come right at him in a flash. "What is it, Catherine?" "Mother is dead! She's gone!" Catherine who was in panic began to continue panicing, her body shaking and her face filled with depression. Nothing else to do but cry in sadness, her father calmed her down. "It's all right Catherine. Let it all out now and just breathe." Making eyecontact with Vladimer, all she could do was keep crying but although the accompany of her father, she seemed abit calm. After silence filled the air with the ceiling fan blurring the background, she was sitting in her room with depression. Hands across her face, the only noise that came from her was the moaning.

 Vladimer looked through the doorway to see the once happy teenagst to a now, broken hearted kind. It appeared he was filled with depression too. Using his cane to support him, he walked down into the basement and opened a book, revealing all of his family time with his wife and daughter. They were quite the family until it broke apart. One photograph showed only himself and Catherine while his wife wasn't included. "Hey Vladimer, keep good care of that book." "I'm sorry Telsa for dropping it on the way." "You dropped it on the way because you were drunk Vladimer! How could you never know? Just forget it Vladimer, let's just keep driving. Catherine is quite bored of this ride and we should find a hotel very soon to allow her to sleep." Catherine looked down at the piece of photo that was left on the ground. Kneeling down to pick it up, the piece of it revealed a young woman by the name of Tesla... who was already deceased.

 A few years had passed. Catherine had already left college and was on her own. A suitcase kept grasped in her hand, she just left the trainstation and looked around. Toronto city located in Canada was quite the city. She looked across the buildings but in between the two buildings were the CN Tower. She saw people from many countries, including herself but there were more Canadians than just Russians and all the countries altogether. Breathing some fresh air through her nose, she whistled to a nearby taxi and approached it calmly. The door opened and she down in the chair. "Where to miss?" "Do you know where the hotels are?" "I'll bring you to the nearest one."

 The taxi took a sharp turn and stopped near the side of the road. "Skol'ko eto stoit?" "What?" Catherine let off a glowing smile and hesitated, "'How much is this' it means." "Oh... 23.00 dollars." She nodded and searched through her leather suitcase. Some clothes, a wallet and a photo book was revealed inside along with some other things. Taking out 23 dollars where she passed it to him, she nodded towards the taxi driver and got out, only saying, "Uda'i!" Looking up at the large hotel, she smiled.

 This was only the beginning...

 FUNFACT: All russian language were translated to english so yeah. I'll keep doing that in the other chapters.

 

[The Mysterious Stranger]

Prior Seven Hour War - Chapter 1 - Catherine Kelislav

Narration:

 "It has started! I remember the glimpse of running in fear from... those things! Portals appearing in the nightskies with both alien aircraft and vehicles. They had better technology than us, far ahead of our years. Xen creatures "spawning" in odd, unknown parts of planet Earth. People screaming in fear, most of them in groups trying to evade them. The vehicles colliding into eachother, only to jam up the traffic abit more. I wasn't the only one running, there were many others too! The military quarantined most of the area off, managing to kill some of them off but I knew it was a failure. I just knew it... I was unconsious by then, being dragged to somewhere... Only to hear the silent echoes of "Get the fuck outta' here! There co-- Arrrrgggghhhh!" Their rifle bursting off along with gunshots in the background, trying to helplessly assist both enforcement and military but mostly the civilians. The destruction felt endless but it lasted for a current seven hours. Buildings were once beautiful were now demolished, blood splatted everywhere from the innocence. It was... very bad.We are all victims of the Seven Hour War now. It only happened a few months just before I was accepted into engineering.

 Turn on the clock. The time is ticking..."

Catherine Kelislav

 The footsteps below were creaking upon the grey, cracked cement. The leaking colliding to the ground from a rusty pipe was silent but the screams in the background were also heard with gunshots. Catherine was running from a threat that was ahead of their technology, more stronger than their super power countries combined. The night skies above her began to be filled with portals and the atmosphere felt more depressing than it really what. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed black-padded Overwatch units approaching her at a fast rate. Beginning to desperately cry helplessly, she know this was the end of her time. "Open fire on the target!" Crouching down onto their knees, they opened fired using their AR2s.

 Her heart thumped upon her chest and her sanity began to drain. Like never before, she was filled with fear and depression. It even made tears reign down her cheek. Trembling down onto her calf, she didn't feel a thing due to a high amount of natural adrenaline made by her body or otherwise "Flight or fight" sequence. Tripping down onto the ground before catching herself, she looked at the Overwatch units approaching her. "Amputate the citizen." Before raising their weapons, a man appeared from the corner wielding a Franchi SPAS-12. Opening fire on the unit, the Overwatch unit fell down on his chest, dropping his AR2. "Go, Catherine, go!" He yelled before getting shot in the shoulder, falling down to the ground. Another pump and another shot from his SPAS-12, he shot the unit once and then shot him once more, blowing off the units arm.

 Getting up on her feet, she looked at the man. It was her... "friend" Before picking up her leather suitcase, she ran down the alleyway that proceeded into the traffic and the metro. Her limp slowed her down but she moaned desperately, using the wall as support.

 The traffic jammed interrupted her escape but she made her way down the sidewalk. A firefight infront of her enlarged as more military reinforcements and Combine fought eachother. The military were overwhelmed quite easily by the looks of it, beginning to gain more casualities and running low on reinforcements. They were finally put to a end before retreating. Catherine thought what it must've felt like in their boots. Sprinting towards the other side of the road without getting caught, she ran down another alleyway. This alleyway went to the middle of the road where a broken train was caught on fire, the wires attached to a rail on the top appeared to be disconnected. Everywhere she looked, she saw something close to a junkyard, vehicles shot like cardboard and deceased bodies everywhere. Looking up at the portal storms spawning near the CN Tower, it was soon that the tower itself crashed into the buildings.

 Turning around, a few individuals were seen in urban clothing and weaponry wielded in their hands. The man nodded to the others before meleeing Catherine across the nose with the butt of his weapon. She fell to the ground, her nose beginning to bleed out. Half awake, she looked at the man once more. He hit her across the nose in the temple before knocking her out unconsious, beginning to drag her somewhere... but where?

 EDIT 1: Removed some shit since it wasn't very good for my unit.