This story is the Original version of Guardian Angel. I found this yesterday and instead of having it just lying there I posted it.
Benjamin Carmine, the youngest of the Carmine brothers and newly recruited COG soldier, stood in an open field. Carmine was clad from head to toe in the standard gear armor, fidgeting slightly with the large lancer in his hands, shifting his weight form foot to heavily booted foot.
He was both excited and nervous. Today was his first mission ever and today he was ordered to guard this small field with his life. Or at least until other gears came to relieve him of his duty, which at the time seemed like an eternity.
Carmine was tense, jumping at every noise from the surrounding forest as he would turn toward the possible threat, his hands shaking so bad it would throw the aim off his lancer if he fired.
"Stupid squirrel." Carmine muttered shakily, having thought the disturbances were caused by something much worse.
Carmine watched as the squirrel foraged for nuts along the forest floor, kicking up dirt and leaves as it went along its business until the squirrel wrapped its tiny paws around a newly found nut and began to munch on its prize.
"Cute." Carmine chuckled, beginning to envy the squirrel as it continued to live its life unchanged, even as the humans faced extinction with the locusts, the rest of the world couldn't care less and would keep on living.
Carmine sniffed slightly as his mind wondered. If he were an animal, his brother would probably still be alive. There would be no reason for an animal to go to war. Animals don't leave death and destruction everywhere they go. They move with the world, changing as it changes, growing as it grows, dying as it dies.
Carmine shook his helmeted head, the helmets eyes glowing a soft blue as he tried to push the recent death of his brother out of his head, calming slightly as the songbirds chirped merrily as if to help push his pain away and uplift his spirits.
Carmine smiled under his helmet. He always loved nature. It occurred to him that nature could never be tamed by humans or war. In the long abandoned war torn human cities nature always took over and thrived. Carmine saw it for himself. It was beautiful.
Carmine was torn from his thoughts as he heard the calls of the same squirrel, now perched on a tree, angrily yelling at the private for being too close toward its home.
"What? You want some of this?" Carmine challenged to the squirrel, outstretching his arms to look bigger as he aimed his lancer at the squirrel, lack of discipline and boredom getting the better of the young man.
"Bang, bang, bang! Oh! What now squirrelly!?" Carmine bellowed, pretending to shoot the squirrel as it continued to yell as him, its tail swinging wildly as it gave up and ran further up the tree.
"Uh huh that's what I thought. You can't hurt steel-MOMMY!" Carmine screamed, having looked down to see a spider the size of his hand crawl onto his boot, its fangs extended, looking like pure onyx.
Panicking, Carmine dropped his lancer as it landed heavily on the ground, the force causing the trigger to be pulled back, sending a spray of bullets. At hearing the bullets fly, Carmine instinctively dived down and covered his helmeted head as he heard another large thump in the distance. Several seconds passed and the forest was utterly quiet as Carmine hesitantly took his hands off his head and poked his head up, trying to see if it was safe. With silence as his answer, Carmine rolled on his back and sat upright, shaking as he tried to check himself for wounds, the rapid thump of his panicked heart pulsating throughout his body.
Convinced that he wasn't dying, Carmine timidly got up and slowly reached for his lancer, looking around, embarrassed. He had forgotten to put the safety on. He wouldn't bring his family any honor if he died like that. Not like Anthony. Not like his brother. He died a hero's death. A true death to be worthy of remembrance.
Carmine looked down to see his whole body was trembling, the result of fried nerves. Carmine took slow, deep breathes as he tried to calm himself and paused as he saw the spider twitching wildly, struggling to get off its back.
Carmine slowly walked toward the spider, curious as he picked up a nearby stick and poked it. Carmine reeled back in horror as the fangs snapped the stick in half, and not wanting to be like the stick, Carmine slowly raised his right foot over the spider.
"Eat boot!" Carmine yelled as he brought his boot down on the mutant spider with full force, feeling sick to his stomach as a crunch was heard, his boot getting covered in the spiders bodily fluids.
"Eeewww!" Carmine cried and began to drag his boot across the grass, grunting as he tried to get the offending fluid off his rather abused boot.
Carmine screamed as the ground began to shake violently and was thrown to the ground, smacking his head in the process as he expected locusts to pop up out of the ground and kill him. But it never happened. As soon as the quake started is was already gone with no sign of locusts anywhere.
Carmine wobbly got to his feet as he tried to find his balance, his head throbbing slightly from the fall as he heard a sudden scream that hurt his head. Confused, Carmine looked around for the person but found none, almost loosing his balance as he looked toward the sky and saw a massive amount of smoke rising in the distance above the tree line.
Carmine remembered seeing a small town as he passed through, but for the life of him couldn't remember the name. The locusts must have attacked the town.
At the realization, guilt overwhelmed him. He knew he would be going against orders if he left but he couldn't leave the people to die. Not when most of them were civilians. What if it was his mother who was down there or one of his brothers? He wouldn't sit back and watch them die. He didn't have it in him. His heart was too soft, not yet hardened by the acts of war.
Making up his mind, Carmine took one last look at the field and quickly broke off in a sprint, panting heavily as the armor began to weigh him down. After several minutes of running through the forest Carmine finally arrived at the edge of the small village, the town name "Evergreen" painted on a small sign. Carmine swallowed, fear creeping its way into him as he carefully approached the town, getting a clear view as he neared.
"Oh, my…God!" Carmine gasped breathlessly, absolutely horrified at the carnage he saw in the small town. The town was in ruin. The houses were burned and smothering, others were falling apart from the quake as the farms suffered the same fate, the once beautiful church steeple had collapsed in on itself, cars were smashed into buildings and on fire as were bridges. But all the destruction was nothing compared to the blood. Bodies littered the streets, some looked burned while others seemed almost skinned alive, the red from their bodies creating a river of blood as it flowed down the streets.
Carmine was not prepared for this. He couldn't handle it. He knew the world contained evil, but he didn't know how much evil. Carmine's breath hitched in his throat as a large lump formed, preventing him from swallowing properly in his state of shock as he began to feel lightheaded, struggling to fight it off as his stomach lurched, bile racing up his throat as it filled his mouth.
The bile forced its way past his lips as vomit began to fill his helmet as it ran down his chin, having nowhere to go until Carmine ripped the helmet off his head and threw it away. The majority of the vomit landed on the ground as Carmine fell on his hands and knees, feeling weak as he tried to breathe properly.
Carmine sobbed, unable to handle the situation, thinking their demise was his fault as massive guilt washed over him. They were dead. And it was his entire fault. His father had seen his soft heart as a weakness. But his mother did not and adored him for it, making him stronger with her support. He never could have made it without his ma and brothers. They said the war drove their father mad and killed him. It also killed his brother. And people were still dying from the war. Innocent people who had no reason to die. They could still be alive. Someone had to be alive. And he was wasting time feeling guilty about it while he could save others. He had to help, to save someone, anyone he could. He would prove his father wrong. He would make his ma and brothers proud or die trying.
Renewed, Carmine stood up, whipping the bile from his chin as he reached for his helmet and slowly made his way deeper into town.
"Hello? Is anyone out there?" Carmine asked, getting only silence as his answer until a bullet whizzed past his head, panicking as he slammed his back against a destroyed car for cover, heart racing. He didn't know where the shot came from. He heard it and knew which direction but not exactly where.
Carmine struggled to get his breathing under control as he switched the safety off his lancer, slowly poking his helmeted head out of cover. Unfortunately, the helmet restricted his vision, so when he went to expose more of his body to get a clear view, it happened.
A loud shot rang out as Carmine was knocked off his feet and onto his back. He was clutching his left shoulder, screaming in agony as the high caliber rifle tore through his armor and into his shoulder.
Carmine could barely breathe, blood covering his right hand and armor, now seeping onto the ash-covered dirt. The pained screams soon turned into moans, muffled by the helmet. The pain was immense and so strong it blurred his vision. Carmine looked at his shoulder and began to shake at what he saw. "Th…There's….There's so much b-blood…." Carmine whispered, slowly feeling his shoulder go numb as blood loss took effect. This was it. He was going to die. And he didn't save anyone. Not even himself.
Glancing to his left, Carmine realized he must have dropped his lancer when he got shot. It was just out of reach, just out of cover. Carmine's blood turned ice cold as he began to hear a deep, nasally breathing followed by heavy footfalls coming to his position. It was a locust and he was afraid. So much his shock had completely worn off. Now he was really going to die. If he took his hand off his wound and reached for his pistol, he was afraid he would bleed to death but if he stayed like this, clutching his arm, he would surely die.
Deciding he would rather die like a man, Carmine slowly took his hand off his wound and took his pistol out of its holster. Carmine struggled to turn the safety off of his pistol and aimed it toward the source of the footsteps, near his lancer. His aim was too shaky. He would surely miss.
With a large effort of will, Carmine slowly raised his left arm to help steady the gun. The movement caused him to groan in pain, which was followed by the deep, harsh laughter of the locust.
"Cry, human! Cry!" The locust's rough voice rang out after hearing the human in pain. The locust began to laugh as it smelled fresh blood in the air. As soon as the locust rounded the corner, Carmine fired at the drone three times. One shot in the arm, another in the chest, and the last bullet missing by miles.
The drones white skin was stained red, its sharp teeth showing hunger and its yellow eyes thirsting for blood as it rushed at the young gear and kicked the gun out of the humans hand. The locust then brought his foot down on the gears small chest as he tried to scream, only to fail with the massive weight on his chest. The only reason Carmine's ribs didn't break was because of his armor, and he was relieved when the pressure left his chest and he was able to breathe properly.
The relief, however, was short lived as the drone punched Carmine in the head, causing him to black out for a few seconds, even with the protection of his helmet.
As Carmine came to, he saw his pistol, mere inches away. Carmine slowly reached for the pistol, but before he could reach it he was lifted up into the air by his exposed throat. Carmine tried to break the drones grip, fighting despite the pain in his shoulder.
The drone laughed at Carmine as the gasps for air now became small squeaks as the gear was about to pass out. The next thing Carmine felt was the solid ground as he was thrown with a thud, now coughing uncontrollably.
The drone once again grabbed Carmine by the throat, but instead of lifting him up, the drone began to squeeze Carmine's throat, causing the young gear to panic as his lungs failed to get oxygen. Carmine tried desperately to brake the drone's grip, panicking even more as he became too weak to put up a fight, eyes wildly searching for anything that could brake its grip, landing on his pistol. The symbol of hope.
Feeling with his fingers, Carmine felt for the butt of the small handgun as he grew weaker and weaker. At soon as he felt the butt he grabbed is and pointed the gun right under the drone's jaw and pulled the trigger. The shot caused the drone's jaw to be blown off its hinges as it brain matter exploded in the air, then fell limply on the ground with a heavy thud.
As you can see this story is VERY different than Guardian Angel(and at times make no sense). The whole story line is completely different from Guardian Angel and the only thing that really stayed was Alura. Everything else was destroyed to rewrite Guardian Angel. But I do have most(if not all) of the Original written out.