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The chopper's rotors began to spin, slicing through the cold morning air. Dust swirled across the tarmac as the engine roared to life.
Atlas stepped inside, securing the harness across his chest. The metallic hum of the aircraft blended with the faint echo of orders shouted somewhere on the runway.
The pilot leaned slightly back from the cockpit.
"Ready for takeoff, sir?"
Atlas nodded. "Ready."
"Copy that. Engaging lift."
The helicopter rose from the ground, the base shrinking beneath them. The silver-gray buildings of Sector Fourteen blurred into mist as the aircraft ascended into the open sky. For a long while, there was only the hum of the rotors and the steady vibration through the floor.
Then, through the headset, came the pilot's voice — light, curious, almost casual.
"So, Doctor Li… what's it really like out there? At the frontlines?"
Atlas blinked, caught off guard by the question. He looked out the window — the clouds parting slowly, sunlight breaking through. He thought for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"It's… not something you can explain easily."
He leaned his head back against the seat. His gaze softened, his mind slipping away — back to the time when everything had just begun.
Flashback
He remembered stepping off the dropship for the first time — boots sinking into wet, bloodstained mud.
The air reeked of smoke, fuel, and iron. Sirens wailed across the base. Medics shouted orders over the chaos, stretchers rushed past — men and women groaning, bleeding, some wrapped in white sheets that never moved again.
He had been young then — barely twenty. His hands trembled so badly that he could hardly open his medical kit. The trauma tents shook with explosions from beyond the walls.
"Doctor Li! We're losing pressure here!"
"More plasma, now!"
He'd run from table to table, suturing, clamping, shouting orders he barely remembered giving.
Every heartbeat felt like a countdown. For every life saved, two more arrived broken.
He hadn't slept for days. His mind was fog, his stomach empty, his gloves permanently stained with blood.
For one desperate moment, he'd even packed his things, ready to request reassignment back to the Capital.
But then — the radio crackled.
"Medivac request! Immediate response needed — squad pinned near the old river trench! Multiple casualties!"
The base commander, exhausted and hollow-eyed, grabbed the radio mic. "Negative, we can't spare—"
Atlas stopped him. "I'll go."
The commander looked at him, incredulous. "You're barely standing, Doctor. If you die out there—"
Atlas met his gaze, voice steady. "Then at least I'll die trying."
A long silence followed before the commander finally nodded. "Fine. You've got one bird and a small escort. Don't make me regret this."
Minutes later, Atlas was in the air, strapped into a medical transport.
The world below burned — cities turned to ash, forests swallowed by fire. They followed the smoke signal through a sky thick with haze until the gunner pointed out the window.
"There! Smoke flares — that's them!"
The chopper descended sharply, landing on uneven terrain. The moment the skids touched the ground, plasma fire streaked past.
Atlas jumped out first, boots crunching against dirt and metal fragments.
Ahead, through the smoke, he saw them — a small unit huddled behind the wreckage of a downed vehicle, returning fire in desperation. Two soldiers lay motionless nearby.
He sprinted toward them, medical pack in hand.
"Hold your fire! I'm a medic!"
No one answered — too busy shooting back. Atlas dropped beside the fallen soldiers. That was when he first saw them — Captain Bear, Xavier, Judson — trying to protect their injured teammates, Amelie and Flynn.
Amelie's armor was cracked open near her ribs, blood soaking through. Flynn's leg was mangled beyond recognition.
Atlas didn't think to much — he just moved.
"Pressure bandage! Give me a clamp!"
The team scrambled to cover him. Plasma bolts scorched the dirt around them as he worked, sealing arteries, injecting stabilizers, forcing air back into lungs that had nearly stopped.
Every sound blurred together — the scream of engines, the crack of gunfire, the pounding of his heart.
When the final suture was tied, he shouted over the chaos: "Get them on the bird! Move, now!"
Bear and Judson grabbed their teammates, dragging them toward the helicopter. Atlas covered them as best he could, firing short bursts from a sidearm he barely knew how to use.
The chopper lifted just as an explosion tore through the ground where they had been seconds earlier.
Through the open door, Atlas saw the battlefield recede — a sea of flame and ruin shrinking beneath them.
Inside, the cabin filled with the thrum of the rotors and the ragged breathing of survivors.
Amelie and Flynn were alive — barely — but alive.
Captain Bear leaned back, looking at Atlas through cracked armor and exhaustion. "You showed up just in time, Doc. I owe you a drink… or maybe ill just buy the whole bar."
Atlas laughed softly, shaking his head. "Save it for when we all make it back."
And from that day on, he wasn't just another medic — he was part of the team.
Atlas Li — the doctor who save them from certain death.
Back to Present
The steady hum of the rotors filled the cabin again.
Atlas blinked as the memory faded, the burning skies of Region-04 replaced by the calm blue horizon over Europe.
Rhea's voice came softly through the headset. "That's… incredible. You actually operated under fire?"
Atlas smiled faintly. "Had to. There wasn't time to think and being afraid doesn't help when someone's bleeding out in front of you."
Rhea laughed quietly. "Still… if that were me, I'd probably faint halfway through the first suture."
Atlas chuckled. "Honestly? I almost did. My hands were shaking so much I nearly dropped the scalpel."
Rhea grinned behind her visor. "Guess even legends have to start somewhere."
"Not legends," Atlas said softly, watching the clouds part ahead of them. "We just don't give up to those hadn't given up."
They flew in silence after that, the chopper gliding smoothly through the morning light.
Below, rivers shimmered like glass threads. Forests rolled across the land, broken occasionally by the scars of old battlefields slowly healing under green.
Then, on the far horizon, something massive began to take shape — a golden halo rising from the earth. Towers and domes stretched high into the sky, bridges glowing faintly in the sunlight.
Rhea's voice returned, warm and proud. "Welcome home, sir. Capital City — Region 01."
Atlas gazed at the gleaming spires ahead, his reflection faint against the glass. The Capital shimmered like a promise — the heart of the Freedom Federation, where humanity's future waited to be written.
"Home," he whispered.
He smiled, a quiet, genuine smile — the kind that reached his eyes.
"Yeah," he said softly. "It's good to be home."
The chopper tilted forward, heading toward the shining city that marked the dawn of humanity's rebirth — and the next chapter of Atlas Li's journey.
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