This is my first fanfic, so take it easy on me.
Chapter 1: Before Hand
It had occurs to most Guardians at some point that their most exciting missions were always their first ones. The mission before you are lose any delusions as to the experience. It was the same for everyone who rode silently in the transport truck, everyone who sat listening to the one who was the exception to the rule, the rookie that had joined squad six.
She had kept herself busy (and everyone awake) for the past several hours as she gave him a detailed description of her initiation and conformation of having become a Guardian. She rambled on about her favorite foods, family members, possessions, and anything else she could think of.
It was strange (in a hilarious sort of way, or so the troops decided) that she had latched onto their commander, the tall and athletic young man with short red hair who stared at her through half-closed eyes that told the rest of the squad that he was probably asleep.
"So how did you become a Guardian?" Her face was still bright and cheery, full of youth and life. A few battles would change that. Her hair was a platinum blonde and hung in a ponytail down to her waist. She leaned closer to their commander, trying to pry an answer out of him.
The rookie seemed about ready to ask again when the last member of their ten member squad shuffled his way through the door way from the driver's cab to the transport's troop area. Of all the Guardians in the transport, only this man, known to all of them as Callen, the most up-tight guardian in the squad and the only friend of their commander.
He didn't wear his helmet, but then none of them were at the moment. Callen, however, couldn't wear his over a breathing apparatus that he was forced to wear over his face and around his neck. Everyone had been careful not to ask him what had happened to earn him that sort of treatment- those that did often found themselves considerably worse off. Stories and rumors surrounded the mask itself, but as for the truth it was anyone's guess.
He sat next to the commander but fixed his red-tinted gaze on the rookie, which only made his more intimidating through the fierce looking visor he wore. His words sounded filtered- they probably were- and rough through the mask he wore. "My name is Callen, are you the new rookie?"
The rookie seemed almost taken aback by the fact that this man was talking to her, but it was more than likely just the mask. She stared for a moment, the question of "how" on her lips, but she held it back. "Yes," she finally choked out. "my name is Aria, sir."
"Good. We've been short a man on our last few assignments and now we're whole again. Listen, we're about to arrive at the mission area, and I need to know if I can count on you." He elbowed the commander lightly in the stomach. "If we can count on you to keep your head in battle." The Commander leaned forward more surprise than the force of the attack, opening his eyes slightly, then leaned back again. He made a noise that almost sounded like a groan mixed with a sigh, then asked "Are we already there?"
"We're about to be." Callen shook his head as he turned back to the rookie. "So can we rely on you?" The commander, realizing what he had woken up in the middle of, gave a blank look to Aria.
She straitened her back into attention and saluted in an over exaggerated way that made Callen wonder if she was mocking him. Her tone of voice, however, suggested otherwise. "Of course, sir!" Sincerity and genuine ignorance to battle filled her voice rather well. This seemed like too dangerous of a mission to send a rookie on. The commander and Callen could handle it, for sure, and their various friends that also held positions on the team may be able to survive, but a rookie seemed like a gamble at best. They were on there way to a desert outpost, deep in the heart of an area outside any known countries they called maverick central, where several archeologist went digging in some ruins and found – big surprise – mavericks. It was anyone's guess what they would be fighting there. Callen's bet was ancient Elf wars war machines, but one never knows until they are shooting it down.
Callen considered voicing his opinion and asking that Aria be put somewhere safer or more fit to a rookies level, but before he could tell the commander of his objection, the vehicle came to a slow halt. Everyone slipped on their helmets, instantly losing all uniqueness in favor of an anonymous armor. At first the only change was the decidedly annoying red tint to Aria's vision, but the HUD quickly cleared her vision and set up all of the info she would need. Absently, she wondered if Callen had a HUD on his visor as she grabbed an assault rifle from rack and stepped out of the back of the truck and into the truck into the warm sun of the desert.
Aria blinked several times as her eyes adjusted to the outside and it's troublesome natural light. The truck had taken them into a canyon that had been dug up by the digging tools, characterized by rough walls on either side. The ground was covered by pieces of ancient metal objects that had been discarded all around and large rocks that could not be dug up or moved immediately. Farther down the canyon, there was a small maze of tents, almost every one of them had a truck next to it. On the far side of the tents was a huge obelisk that stabbed up out of the ground to what apeared to be an impressive height.
In the tent area, two men were talking over several makeshift gravestones. Both of them had pistols on their side and one had a beam saber of some kind. When they spotted the Guardians, one of them jogged over to greet them. The man was considerably older than any of the guardians that accompanied them, wearing a dull brown uniform. A white beard hung from his face, drenched in heavy sweat and blood. His clothing was drenched in a similar manner. His appearance was ragged and his hair wild, and deep pits under his eyes told Aria he hadn't slept in a good long while.
"I was honestly wondering when you guys'd get here." The mans voice was as ragged and tired as he looked, and was interrupted by a deep breath after every word. "We've been having one hell of a time." He crouched and took several deep breaths. He had been fighting recently. The commander lifted his assault rifle just the slightest amount. His expression didn't change in the slightest, giving him a half-asleep look. "What's the problem here?"
His insistence took the man aback at first, and his response had a cynical edge to it. "They didn't tell you?" He gasped several times, then continues "They sent you all the way out here and they didn't even tell you what was wrong?" A long silence passed as the man was left to conclude the answer for himself. "I don't believe this. Some guardians you are! I mean really…." The commander didn't change his expression or tone. It was like talking to a Mechaniloid- you would always get the same thing the same way, not matter how many times you ask it. "What is the situation here?" Another tense moment of silence passed. The man stared at the commander, but soon he simply gave up and shook his head.
"We've been digging here for some time, and we found a whole mess of them Mavericks. The've killed sixteen of my best workers already. Old ones, Elf wars we think." The man led the team through a small maze of tents, some empty, some open-air tents. One of them had a large bloodstain spread in a thick and erratic line thrown across the entrance flaps. On the ground was a similar stain, soaked into the sand. It's fresh, Aria told herself. They've fought with these things within the hour.
"We've been keeping out of the ruins since the showed up, but sometimes they come out." The man pointed to the blood-stained tent. "They never even damage the tents. Bunch of weirdos. Why do you think that is?" The man stopped and turned to the team, probing them for questions, possibly for his research. "They only kill one of you at a time because that's what they were ordered to do. When and from who is what we are here to figure out." The man wrote down the commander's answer. For the next few minutes the group was probed for answers in this way, but everyone allowed the commander to answer with short, blunt answers.
The whole group finally came to a halt at the huge metal obelisk with a door sunk into it's front. On it was a symbol that the Aria didn't recognize, which frightened her a little. It looked like an orb with an angel wing on one the right side of it, arcing with it.
The building itself didn't seem as large up close, maybe the size of a regular building in any city around the world, but the whole thing had an eerie ominous look about it. The whole structure was nicked and beaten all across it, with only one wound that was deep, a pair of strangely neat cuts across one another. It took a moment, but Aria identified it as a symbol, an "X."
"Yeah, we never figured out what it was for, either." The man had noticed Aria staring at the symbol cut into the structure. "We think it may be a warning, or a sign. Either 'give me X' or 'X was here,' whichever one you'd like it to be, I guess." He took a step towards the door and put his hand on the console on the wall.
"We're going in. Is everyone ready?" Everyone cocked their rifles. He pointed to two of the Guardians, a short man named Lepz and the plain-looking Rill. "You two stay out here, and make sure no one goes in and nothing goes out."
The two responded with a quick "yes sir" and took up positions in front of the structure.
The commander waved at their guide up to this point. "Open this thing up." He demanded.
"Sure thing, sure thing," The man keyed in what Aria assumed to be a pass code of some kind, and the door made the cracking sound of a pressure lock releasing.
As soon as the door creaked open, a feint musky scent assaulted the team. The air inside was thick and clawing, and eerily cold despite being in the desert. The walls and floor were covered with thick amounts of mold and cobwebs with a small amount of sand from the outside.
Beyond the door was a set of stairs leading down in a spiraling way for an amount that couldn't be seen. Aria adjusted her visor several times, but ended up with the same result she had from the very beginning. She could see several others doing the same thing. One in particular, a tall Reploid labeled "Jake" took his helmet off completely and removed a pair of sunglasses he was wearing underneath it.
After ten minutes of walking down the flight of stares, the team reached the bottom and their first body. The pattern of the bloodstain that lanced across the ground towards a door showed that he had sliced with great force, leaving behind something less than a pretty corpse. When Aria saw what remained of the man, she immediately turned away from everyone, tore off her helmet and puked.
Leaning back up, she realized that everyone was staring at her. Under their helmets, she was sure their faces were twisted in contempt.
"Rookie, come here." The commander motioned towards her, his voice cold and flat. When she stood beside him, he asked her strait forward: "Are you going to be able to handle this? If not then I'll send you up to the door to relieve Rill. If you think so, suck it up and don't make any more noise."
The words stung Aria as she though about the proposition. The door was a safer bet, but she didn't want the others to think of her as a coward. This was her first mission, and she didn't intend on wasting it on guard duty. "No sir, I'll handle it." She lowered her head as she put her helmet on, keeping her eyes locked on the ground.
"Good. Rookie, you stay alongside Callen." He pointed to Callen, who was leaning against the wall in a crouch beside a door. Two Guardians on the other side of the door examined the control panel then looked to the commander and gave a thumbs-up.
The door shot open with a swish sound, and two guardians ran in and pointed their weapons down either side of the hallway. For a moment, they held their position, then stood up.
Jake found himself facing a wall, and playfully stared at it, prodded it with his gun and said "All clear."
In a flash the Jake's head was gone, leaving his body to land with a thud. From the ceiling came a Maverick that Aria didn't recognize. It was bipedal, armored Reploid with sharp claws on it's arms. It released its hold on whatever was inside the hole it had come out of and dashed at the other man.
"It's a Variant!" The commander shouted "Take it down!" his rifle raised, despite the fact that he had no clear shot at the angle he was at. He fired regardless, attempting to at least stall the thing.
Despite the efforts of the team, the variant ran his claws through the other man who went through the doorway, who let out a terrible wail of pain as the Variant finished it's job.
A spray of sudden gunfire impacted the Variant's back with sudden and violent force, throwing it to the ground. After a moment, when it didn't stand back up, the commander examined the bodies of the two fallen Guardians.
"Aw, Jake…." Callen said the name softly though his mask, staring at the decapitated body. After a moment of silence, the commander waved his hand and gave the order to move out immediately. They never knew when more mavericks might show up, after all.
"From now on, we check the ceiling for holes everywhere we go. Kid, that's your job." The commander pointed to a thin young man who had chosen to take two pistols in the place of an assault rifle. He nodded and immediately went to work.
For the next thirty minutes, nothing happened. There were no mavericks, no traps, nothing. The team moved about silently at first, but soon let their guard down. Eventually, the commander was the only one actually doing anything, and everyone else simply walked behind him non-quietly.
It was almost an hour when the commander simply said "Alright, stop." The commander's words reverberated off the walls and re-stated the orders. A faint whining sound was heard drifting through the corridors. They were in the same-looking hallway they were always in, the only difference in this one being that it ended in a small meeting are with two couches and a small table next to several old vending machines.
Aria shivered in the cold. She had no idea what the commander was on to, but according to Callen, it was always better to just listen to him rather than risk it. So, for the next five or so minutes she stared at him, along with the entire team, as he stood stark still and stared at the walls.
Kid, never taking his weapon away from the ceiling even when he was looking elsewhere, was the first to enquire. "Sir, what exactly, is wrong?" No response. He sighed as he returned his attention back to his pistol, only to scream in panic.
From the ceiling came a claw, which sliced the arm of Kid and caused him to drop the gun and thus be defenseless when the hidden Variant fell from the ceiling and impaled Kid on each of it's claws.
Before Aria could react, another emerged from the hole and landed just behind the first. This one with a small machine gun attached to it's arm, which it immediately used to opened fire, clipping Callen's thigh but not bad enough to make him unable to run.
The commander ducked behind a vending machine, which Aria mimicked, and shouted for everyone to fall back. The machine gun variant went down in a hail of weapons fire, but the clawed one lunged right into their attacks. Behind him, two more fell from the ceiling followed by one machine gun version. After a moment of nothing but constant noise, the commander finally shouted "Lets move out- now!"
The five remaining Guardians tuned to run the oposite direction, but it seemed like they had nowhere to go. A pudgy man named Lance took several machine gun rounds to the back and went down, but when Aria turned to help him she saw that he was already overwhelmed by the Clawed Variants, which Aria had now lost count of.
The group began to run from them at a breakneck pace, firing behind themselves as the ran. Ian, a tall man with long limbs, tore off his helmet and threw down his gun, then passed everyone with his sprinting speed. In mere moments, a door he was passing exploded with the figure of a Variant that grabbed hima and reeled him in.
The group found that every door they passed was exploding with the figures of Mavericks, all but one.
The team turned a sharp corner, and saw no doors along the walls of the long hallway before them. At then end was a huge door that Aria assumed had once held the symbol on the door of the stucture, but now had been carved with the same "X" as the face of the obelisk. The team came to a sudden standstill in front of a large door, and the commander demanded it be opened immediately.
Callen keyed on a small pad, and when it turned a red color, he slammed his fist into the console. To his surprise, the faceplate of the console shattered and came right off, revealing the innards of the locking mechanism. He grabbed two wires and shouted "This is going to take a minute, cover me!"
The commander scoffed as the wall of Variant rounded the corner of the corridor. "We don't have a minute!" He opened fire on them and wildly threw a grenade into the midst of them, turning the first line of mavericks into a cloud of debris. This didn't stop the others from charging, as now an innumerable amount had discovered their presence and were on the attack.
Aria began to panic, backing herself into a corner and began to thrash her weapon back and forth, spraying bullets over a wide arc into the mob, eventually running her weapon out of ammo. When she tried to reload, she fumbled the clip and dropped it to the ground. She didn't bother to pick it back up, and simply threw down the assault rifle and pulled out a holdout pistol.
With a spark, Callen opened the huge door with a gasp.
"We're in, let's go!" Callen shouted in almost a panic. He ducked inside. The commander began to back his way into the door, his hand on Aria's shoulder.
The door didn't close as fast as Siege would have liked. He continued to fire at a constant rate as the crack in the doors narrowed. A single Variant lunged as the door closed, it's upped half getting suddenly caught in the door. It flailed and swung the single arm it had managed to get through, in an attempt to get one last attack before it was ended. For a moment, no one moved.
The commander clicked his weapon a few times, then dropped the weapon and pulled out a small holdout pistol from his back and fired one round into the Variant's head.
The commander leaned on the door, breathing heavy. Aria tore off her helmet and puked again, then leaned against the wall beside the door. She gasped a few times, then looked around the new place in which they found themselves.
Inside was a room that once probably held a garden, or so Aria would assume. Dead grass and fallen trees littered the ground, a small basin that she assumed had once been a pond surrounded a single, massive tree in the center that's branched were almost all broken off. The few that had survived the years were huge and sturdy, attached to the walls and one or two even had walkways carved into them. Around the room was broken remains of stone work and computers, what apeared to be a tombstone, and a huge sword.
Upon closer investigation, Aria wasn't sure how she had missed something like that on her first scan of the room. The sword was huge, easily the size of a person or maybe even bigger. It was a pitch black color, or at least had been at one time, but had since faded to a darker grey tone with dark red spilled across it randomly. All around were the telltale signs of it's use, as well; deep gashes across the walls and even up the trunk of the huge tree in the center.
"What is that...?" Callen walked over to the sword and marveled at it. "Sir, this thing has an actual blade. When was the last time you saw that?"
Aria was amazed to see a sword that didn't have a beam-blade, but the commander was still focused. So focused that he was the only one who saw what was happening.
"Callen, get down NOW!" He raised his pistol to bear on the sword and a Maverick that had hidden behind the sword. It was tall and thin, with long silver arms that ended in glowing red hands that it wrapped around the sword.
Aria stumbled backwards and raised her rifle, only to find that it was empty. Over the three remaining Guardians, the maverick now loomed. It was tall, lanky with long limbs. It's hands dragged on the ground for just a moment, then it raised its sword high. It rested one hand on the flat of it's massive blade.
"Analysis?" The commander shouted to Callen. There was no response as the huge Maverick took a long step towards the team. "Now, preferably, Callen!"
Callen put a hand on the side of his apparatus, and it seemed to Aria that he was getting a readout of some kind. "Elf wars/Battle unit/Raid machine/ Lazarus type."
The commander mouthed the word. "Lazarus." He stared at it as it took another long stride forward. It wasn't until it raised it's sword that the commander shouted the order "FIRE!"