Metal Gear Rising: Rebirth

~Chapter 1: Phoenix~

Cyborgs. Such efficient weapons. They are just the same as regular soldiers, only with a lot more capabilities. They can replace their limbs. They don't feel pain like humans do. Lastly, cyborgs don't need as much training as humans. They just need to be programmed. They only need VR training sessions. Cyborgs are the perfect weapon for war. However, not a lot of cyborg militants were as enhanced as some cyborgs. Cyborgs such as Raiden.

Raiden was capable of wiping out armies of some cyborgs. He had defeated Metal Gears just using his sword and two hands. Barely any cyborgs stood a chance against Raiden. Even if they did prove themselves to be a challenge, Raiden would ultimately win in the end.

Desperado was an organization which had ultimately been stopped by Raiden not long ago. This organization was bent on benefiting from war, attempting to use the brains of orphaned children to create child soldiers. Thankfully Raiden did not allow the full creation of these vicious child soldiers, mainly due to the fact that he did not want anyone to go through what he had gone through when he was young.

But a new organization had formed after the fall of Desperado. They wanted to create new cyborgs, ones which were just as enhanced as Raiden, if not more enhanced. They planned on performing various experiments on unsuspecting victims to create the perfect cyborg soldier.

This organization was Phoenix.

...

There was a small and peaceful village in Oregon, USA. Not many people lived there, making the place rather quiet. However, despite this village being difficult to notice, it was still noticed by Phoenix. As the name of the organization implies, the village was left in flames. Those sent in to attack were Phoenix's personal unit of cyborgs.

...

"They call themselves the Swords of the Firebird," Kevin informed Raiden as Raiden rode along on his motorcycle.

"I wonder why," Raiden huffed rhetorically. "So these cyborgs attacked a village during the night?"

"Yeah," replied Kevin.

"Do you think that they were after more possible test subjects?" Raiden asked.

"Possibly," Kevin answered.

"But why would they attack a small village in Oregon?" Raiden questioned.

"My guess is that they don't want media attention... yet," Kevin assumed. "Not to mention that Oregon has had it's fair share in bushfires."

"Huh..." Raiden could only respond before noticing how close he was to the given location. "I'm almost at the village's ruins."

"Look for any traces of the Swords of the Firebird," Kevin instructed. "They may come in handy and could be sent for analysis."

"Right," Raiden nodded, parking his motorcycle not far from the burnt village. "Alright, I'm here. I'll contact you if I need anything."

"Don't forget to keep an eye out for traps," Kevin warned.

"I will do," Raiden responded before ending the call. "Raiden out."

Once the call was over, Raiden walked carefully and cautiously, heading into what was left of the village. All of the wooden houses had been burned down. Currently nobody was investigating the site, though it was likely that teams of investigators would be on their way soon.

Raiden looked under the burnt wood, trying to find anything that could be of use to him. The burnt corpses of the villagers made Raiden feel a little uneasy, though he did proceed to examine some bodies in case they held any clues. He found nothing.

"Damn it..." the cyborg rasped, standing up to his full height after rummaging through the remains of a destroyed house. He then began crawling along the floor, looking for footprints. To his annoyance, all of the footprints were smudged in the dirt.

Raiden began to rummage through every pile of rubble he could find, only to discover that there was barely anything that could be considered as useful. But just as he was about to give up, he found a body which hadn't been burnt to a crisp.

In fact, this body was breathing.

Surprised, Raiden dug what appeared to be a young teenage girl out of the rubble. She was covered in many burn wounds, though none of them looked fatal. Raiden lay the girl down as he dug through the rest of the rubble, only to find that there weren't even any corpses in this pile. This did indeed confuse the cyborg, though he didn't stay focused on his confusion for long. Instead, he decided that it was vital to contact Kevin.

"Kevin, I've found a survivor," he told him.

"A survivor?" Kevin questioned. "But... how is there a survivor? The entire village was burned to the ground!"

"I'm not sure how it's possible, but it is," Raiden replied. "Though I haven't found any other survivors."

"Search for more just in case there are any," Kevin instructed. "I'm sending a helicopter to pick you up as soon as possible, so make your search quick."

"Very well," Raiden nodded before hanging up.

Raiden did as he was told and searched thoroughly through every wrecked building, but all he could find were burnt corpses. While he waited for the helicopter he decided to do one final check in case there were any traces of the cyborg unit, but he found nothing.

The helicopter had eventually arrived and picked Raiden up. Raiden made sure that the girl was stable before the helicopter took off and headed back Maverick's headquarters.

...

After arriving back, Raiden carried the unconscious teen into the command centre. Since he had resigned he didn't exactly want much more to do with Maverick, though now and thend he would still do small jobs for them, never committing to doing full-time missions.

"It's good to see you again in the flesh, Raiden," Boris greeted with a smile on his face, having not seen Raiden in a long time. "Well... flesh may be stretching it a little, da?"

"Yeah, probably," Raiden chuckled, lying the girl down. "Listen. I'd love to stick around and catch up with you all, but I've got business to take care of."

"With Phoenix?" Kevin guessed. "Raiden, you don't even know anything about this organization yet. You can't just go out there and search for them on your own."

"Kevin has a point, Raiden," Courtney agreed. "You have no idea what you're up against."

"I've handled a lot of things on my own," Raiden reminded.

"I don't think something like this will be as easy as you think," Courtney admitted. "I've been doing some research and I've found out a lot of Phoenix's plans. Their main plan is to build a perfect cyborg which could take you on in a fight, then they plan on making an army of cyborgs like this."

"The point is that they haven't succeeded in building a cyborg like that yet," Raiden countered. "I'll stop them before they can do such a thing."

Before anything else could be said, the sound of heavy coughing could be heard. The group turned and saw that the teenager was waking up.

"She shouldn't be waking up yet," Courtney stated. "Not in that condition."

The girl sat up, coughing loudly and painfully. She opened her eyes and stared ahead of her, her expression blank. It was clear that the events of last night had left her in a state of complete shock, not reacting to the pain from her wounds or her surroundings. Eventually the girl blinked and turned her head slowly towards the others who were in the room with her. Upon seeing Raiden, she gasped fearfully.

"S-Stay away from me...!" she yelled, sounding angry yet fearful as she shuffled backwards. She then hissed in pain as she held her scalded arm. The girl curled up, holding back her tears.

Raiden looked confused for a moment, but realised that he probably resembled the cyborgs who had attacked the village. He turned to face Courtney. "You speak with her," he said to her quietly. "Try and see if you can learn something from her." With that, Raiden left the room.

~End of Chapter~