In the cramped cockpit of his NEXT, within an elevator designed to hold such a war machine, Lucien L. Dove wept openly for one of the first times since the beginning of the ORCA Insurrection. He was the final surviving member of ORCA, one of the most skilled LYNXs of his time, and was about to single-handedly save mankind. To do so, he would have to kill the love of his life.
The elevator hit bottom. The core of Arteria Cranium, eerily lit in a soft red glow. He watched the radar, the signatures of two enemy NEXTs flashing though his mind, thanks to the AMS interface. Through his tears, he chuckled bitterly. Wynne D. Fanchion and Roy Salaand. Their allies dead, they would be thirsting for vengeance. He steeled himself.
His NEXT, an original, lightweight design he had newly dubbed "Sin", consisted of various parts cobbled together from other NEXT schematics from various of the corporations of the Pax Economica. Its single-horned head, not styled as other nexts, with something remotely eye or visor-like. This, a shiny, faceless void. Something he had taken from Aspina. Its sloped torso, taken from Omer's LAHIRE model. Its arms and legs were very thin, taken from the Interior Union's LATONA and Akavit's LINSTANT models, respectively. And wielding HLOR01-Canopus High-Laser Rifles. With its skeletal frame and wing-like add-on boosters, as well as its black coloration, he had previously fancied it as an angel of death for the corrupt, evil Corporations. Now, however, he likened it to a demon of the worst sort.
Being forced to kill your former lover for your cause really puts things into perspective.
There. His first disillusioned, horribly embittered thought that was not a command to his NEXT since this battle began. Well, not exactly. But it showed how much this was really beginning to weigh in on him. Before the elevators, he simply took in details and killed everything that was in his way, NEXTs, Normals, Crew. Even a few walls. All of it, leading to this final showdown.
Serene Haze, his operator and partner-in-crime, spoke, pulling his mind out of such gruesome thoughts, if only for a moment.
"Eliminate the enemy NEXTS, Reiterpallasch and My Bliss."
I suppose I have been looking for some closure to this relationship.
As he thought this, he hesitated. If even for a second.
"You've chosen your Answer. Now see it through."
He spoke through the communicator, after a longer pause.
"...I understand. The Closed Plan must be completed. At any cost."
He willed his machine, his personal demon, forward.