The Hatchling

This is my story. Like all stories, it's usually best to start from the beginning. Well... I'll start you off from as far back as I think can remember it. This is what you need to know. The Earth is in a state of emergency...

Many years ago, even before my birth, the great powers of the planet were ensnared in a bitter war for global dominance. Casualty rates as far as can tell were in the hundreds of millions. It was only recently that mankind has started to recover from the tragic 30 year struggle, infamously known as "The Great Destruction". Humanity raced from the war torn remains of the upper world to establish great civilizations underground. This era of the subterranean utopia was not to last however, as conglomerates battled for supremacy, and the right to claim the many advances that enabled people to survive as their own. When the corporations demanded action, they called them...

The neutral avengers. The mercenary giants. They have many aliases along the same line, rightfully given, as their sole reason for operating was for cash rewards. You could go as far to say it was their monetary vice, but it made them fierce adversaries. They were the quick fix to any problem, if one could afford their bill. They are the fighting elite. They are the Ravens.

Piloting giant humanoid robots and equipped with weapons of mass destruction, this group of mercenaries take on any and every assignment... as long as the price is right. Everything from espionage tactics to mass multi- unit assaults. Even... even murder. This is where I came in. I was the victim of one of their attacks, and it cost me everything...

I guess it could have been my parent's fault, for wanting to live so close to a PROGTECH headquarters building. At the time, it was the fastest rising industry in the line of robotics engineering and AC/MT advancement technology. It would make sense that the above-ground community in which it was based would be a wealthy one, containing a plethora of intellectual types and the pinnacle of mechanical genius. It should also have been obvious that such an area would be a prime target should a rival to PROGTECH should want to launch an attack. I guess I couldn't complain, since I was too young to care. I was content to have a nice dress on my back and my favorite toy in hand. It probably was ironic that it was a miniature AC figure. I don't know if it was odd or not that while the rest of my friends had these glamour dolls, I was blowing their heads off with a plastic grenade launcher. If only I had known that it would be a prelude to what would later become the worst day of my life... I'd have probably ripped that toy in half.

Anyway, it started off like so many other days. The scent of mom cooking breakfast for may father rousing me early so that I'd have a few precious moments to be with him before he went to work. I loved my father because, unlike my mother, he encouraged my interest in the AC's. Well, that day was special. My father was going to take me to work with him that day. So what if he only had a lousy job doing inventory for the production plants? I was going to see an AC being made. An actual AC! I remember the argument that followed with my mother over the intended trip. My mother was a beautiful woman. She reminded me of a muse from one of those ancient Greek myths. I really didn't like to see her mad, and that morning she was furious. In the end, I was going with my father to work. I remember kissing her good-bye, a hint of sadness and urgency in her voice, almost as if it were the last time I was going to see her again. If only I'd known how justified her concern was.

The factory was bustling, pumping out several giant robots in a matter of one or two hours. It was like a paradise to me. Thanks to my father, I could identify almost every part rolling off the production line. Man how I had dreamed of flying above the clouds in my own AC. I had even put together my own assortment of parts to create my perfect machine, following the rules of leg and arm weight parameters and energy supply. Not bad for a fifth grader! I was still caught up in my own stupid fantasies when I saw it. A strange new part was rolling off the line and be pivoted to the AC's right arm. It was the most beautiful piece of machinery I had ever seen. Sleek and silver, it's unique triangular shape almost reminded me of a knight's sword. I inquired to my father, and he responded with a smirk of adulation on his face, "That, my child, is an ultimate- no, THE ultimate laser rifle. We like to call it, the Karasawa". I could only watch with awe as the finishing touches were put on the AC and it began to twinge and move to life.

All of a sudden, the alarms started going off all over the city. The impersonal female drone of the PA system told us all we needed to know:

"Attention! This is an emergency! Hostile AC approaching! Repeat! Hostile AC approaching! All security details are to report to their assigned defensive positions and subdue the AC intruder!"

The few technicians on duty that day evacuated to a secure bunker beneath the city. My father scooped me up and began to rush me off too. We stopped halfway as my father went into the surveillance room, empty despite the fact that PROGTECH security was supposed to be in there coordinating troop battle strategies, to get a scope of the battle going on outside. It was not a pretty sight at all. The city's army of MT's were getting slaughtered by the solitary AC. It moved so quickly and struck so fast that the surveillance units couldn't get a clear shot of it. My father saw the number of MT's destroyed, the good men flying them massacred, and told himself that he couldn't stand by as his friends and colleagues died. He looked me straight in the eyes and I could see the hate and fear in his eyes. Likewise, he could probably see the scared curiosity in mine. He set me down and put his trembling hands on my shoulders as he swallowed hard and explained, "I have to go and help defend the city..."

I didn't let him finish before I jumped back into his arms and told him he couldn't. I begged and pleaded, saying I didn't want him to die. But just by taking one look and seeing the fearful determination in his stature, I knew it was hopeless. He was going whether I wanted him to or not. I just stepped back and started bawling. He hugged me close and said, "Child you must be stronger than this. If there's one thing I have taught you, only an AC can triumph over another AC, no matter the odds against him." He paused, contemplating the words he just spoke and figuring he could learn a thing or two from his own bravado and recklessness. "I will be back as soon as I drive away the AC. Be brave, and initiate the safety lockdown for this room as soon as I leave. Okay?" I looked up at him with ridiculously watery eyes and nodded, trying to stifle back my tears and follow his directions. With a kiss on my forehead, he ran out of the room back toward the warehouse, to retrieve the newly completed AC. That was the last time I ever saw him in person again. The next time I saw him, it was a few minutes later, getting his badly scrapped AC torn up and slammed around by the still unidentified intruder. Despite the extremely powerful arms of my father's robot, he was still no match for the deadly, consecutive rapid fire hits made by the ruthless intruder's AC. I guess he realized too, when he found himself thrown against one of the residential buildings, right arm and a chunk of his torso missing. Why did that building look so familiar? It was only until the intruder had stopped and I got a real good look at the red and black paint job that I realized the horrible truth. Even as the enemy AC prepped his back mounted grenade launcher, all I could do was watch in horror as he unleashed the enormous ball of fire...

And sit back helplessly as he destroyed my father and my home in a single blast. I could only scream as I watched my only family and friends go down in a flaming mass of scrap metal. I don't remember much afterwards... I think I screamed myself into unconsciousness. When I awakened several hours later, I discovered they had managed to pry me out of the security room and get me to a hospital in the underground shelter. Judging by the looks of horror and sympathy in the eyes of the underground survivors, I knew that I hadn't dreamed the events of the few hours before. It was a real life nightmare of being alone. My mother and father were dead, killed by some chickenshit pilot lookin to make a quick buck. I sat up in the cot they had laid me in and tried to make some sense of the entire situation, but realized that there was only one real truth. I would never see my family again, and it was all thanks to the Ravens. I turned to my right and there, laying atop a small cart next to me was my AC doll. I took it and held it on my lap, and as I did, scenes of my father's utter demise flashed before me, horrible images of destruction and death. With a shout of absolute hate, I slammed it onto the floor, breaking it into several irreparable pieces. Turned out that didn't help much either, as the fragments that lay at my feet only brought up more excrutiating images from the recesses of my mind. From that day foward I cursed all the Ravens. Without them always getting in the way, I might have had a chance at a somewhat normal childhood. But I guess that had been too much to ask for. I swore to myself that I would destroy as many of them as I could, break each pilot to ease my pain... and I knew just the way to do it too. As a matter of fact, my father had inspired me with the idea. I remember his last words so clear I could swear he had told me them only a minute ago...

"Only an AC can triumph over another AC..."

(END CHAPTER ONE)

So what do you think? I plan to continue this one for a very long time, so please R&R! I would appreciate any input to help make my stories better...They are for you, the reader after all...