Mecha System: Harem in The Cockpit

Drafted

“I’m sorry,” I said after a moment of consideration, “Did you basically just offer me a job?” 

“Yes, that’s the short and skinny of it,” The officer replied, “The fact of the matter is that the world is in tatters at the moment, and is declining at an absurdly rapid rate. Conventional means are not currently powerful enough to deal with the emergent threats and so we need to come up with new and innovative ways to deal with the problems that the new situation is presenting us with.” 

It made sense. 

From what I had seen of the city yesterday things really weren’t in a good way. 

For a start, there was the initial destruction that had been caused by the spaceships plummeting to Earth and exploding across the length and breadth of the country. 

Thousands, if not millions, of people had been disrupted from their homes and were already being placed into temporary campsites that the government had set up. 

Reclamation work was going to be a long and arduous process, and those people wouldn’t be allowed to return to their homes for likely years, if ever. 

Then there was the matter of the mutants, with superpowers that seemed to far outstrip regular army or police equipment. 

Even the guy with the stretchy arms and the guy with the lasers had been way too much for the army to deal with, and I’d managed to take the both of them out in nothing more than a couple of hits. 

The chances were that there were much stronger mutants out there somewhere, slowly building up their power levels or biding their time so that they could pull off some big attack or display of power in the coming months. 

For when that time arrived, the armed forces of Great Britain would need to be prepared… and what better way to prepare than by recruiting people who had already shown themselves to be competent combatants against the threat that they were preparing to fight. 

People like me. 

“So you’re starting up a task force of people with these… abilities… to deal with the threats that regular armed forces can’t deal with anymore?” I asked, seeking complete clarification on the circumstances. 

“Indeed, that’s the plan that we’ve come up with,” The officer replied, “You will be compensated fully, of course, as we will expect this to become your full-time job. We know, of course, that you were recently fired from your previous position.” 

They had done their research on me, that was for sure. 

Yesterday, when I had been asked who exactly I was, I’d replied that I was just a hero for fun, channelling one of the shows that I’d liked to watch the most before the world had decided that it wanted to end. 

If I were to join a military task force, could I really say that was who I was anymore? 

Hell, would that even really matter?

No. The truth was I needed cash, and I wanted to help people. 

Joining the task force might have been the best way to do something like that. 

“I think… I think I’d like to join your task force,” I said, relief flooding through me almost as soon as I said it. 

It was a real weight off, and by the look on the face of the officer, it had been a real weight off for him as well. 

“Fantastic!” He said, a grin passing over his face in what was probably the first bit of genuine emotion I’d seen from the man from the moment he’d stepped through my front room door. 

“In that case,” he continued, “If you’ll follow me, we’ll take you through to our forward operating base immediately so that we can brief you on the situation and make your joining into this new special unit of the Army more official.” 

I’d never particularly wanted to join the army. 

In fact, before I’d received my mecha suit and received the increased muscles and tone that my body now had after our joining had resulted in, I’d been terrified of conflict in general. 

Now there was some small niggling part of my brain that felt as if it were begging to be thrown into the midst of a fight. 

I should have probably been a little bit worried about that sensation, about the changes to my mental state. 

As it was, I shrugged the thoughts off, stood up, and followed the officer out of my house and into the street. 

While we’d been talking an army jeep had pulled up in the car park of my apartment complex, it was clearly for the officer and myself. While it likely would have been faster for me to run with my suit and its grappling hook, I decided I’d be polite and ride with the officer. 

In just a few moments I’d gone from worrying about not having enough money now that I’d been fired from my job to walking down the flights of stairs of my flat, following an army officer into an army jeep to be taken to a secret army forward operating base where I’d join a secret army task force to fight against hordes of mutated humans that had super powers. 

To say that it wasn’t how I’d expected my Friday morning to go would have been an understatement. 

“So,” I said when the officer and I were both sat in the back passenger seats of the jeep, “Do you have any other recruits so far, or am I the first?” 

The officer shot me a grin as the car lurched into motion. 

“Oh no, you’re certainly not the first, and I doubt you’ll be the last, either,” He said, seemingly unwilling to give me any more information than that. 

I had to admit, that filled me with a bit of excitement. 

There were other people who had attempted to be heroes already? Fighting back against the new injustices of this new world? Trying to keep people safe despite everything that had already happened?

I couldn’t wait to meet every single one of them.