Bet no one ever figured they'd hear from me again, right? Hey Mr. War, if you're still here, I'm back! It's been almost four years but I'm back. So this was my original BF5 story here, still posted under My Name is Rei or something. This here, that you're reading, is the new and improved and edited version. I'm editing the whole story and continuing it. I hope you enjoy this version more than the previous.
Tezz Volitov couldn't help but wonder what had just happened.
It'd been a regular day, save for the fact that he was actually out in the zone with the rest of the team, instead of cooped up back at the hub with AJ and Sage. The zone they'd been shipped off to was the same zone that Sage had mentioned earlier: she may have picked up a blue sentient signal, and even if it was unlikely, the thought excited her. As always, she was constantly on the intercom checking for updates on their progress. Suddenly the com beeped once again, tearing him away from his thoughts.
"Have you found anything yet?" Sage questioned eagerly, with no less enthusiasm from the previous check-in five minutes ago.
Vert sighed, exasperated. "No Sage, like I said, we'll tell you when we find something. Alright?"
Everyone noticed her voice fall in her reply. "I understand. I will stop pestering you and leave you to search!" There was a happier tone at the end of her sentence, hopefully indicating that she understood. The whole team was relieved. Silence would give them some peace and quiet to explore and actually pinpoint the signal. Yes, peace and quiet. No Sark, Vandal or Red Sentiant had yet to show in the water-based zone.
It was mostly ocean, with spiral tracks of land acting like bridges for them to follow. On the larger chunks of land the bridges led too often had rock structures or caves with moss and other pretty alien plants growing over them. The sky was a very soft pink, with the white sun high in the sky. Tezz had been insisting they search the nearby caves for any kind of life, ever since a particular (albeit weak) carbon-based signal popped up on his own, modified radar.
"Captian, I am telling you now. It's eerily human in signature and it's coming from there," He gestured to a cave not far north. "If you would at least let me-"
"Tezz, what happened the last time you went off alone?" Vert retorted, with flat tension. One by one the team slowly stopped their cars behind their captain, and stepped out for a better look at the opening half a kilometre away.
"I was captured by Vandals... But, this isn't Vandal! So far, we are the only living creatures here! What could possibly get in the way?"
Vert's glare was obvious. "What if there's some kind of mechanical creature that doesn't give a signal? What your "carbon signal" is an enemy? What if it caves in? What if it's like a maze, and you get lost? What of the Reds are back there, cloaking their signals? They've done that before! Or, what if-"
"Point taken, Captian." Tezz turned on his heel and headed back to the Splitwire, just as disappointed as Sage had been before. "We should just hone in on the blue sentient signal-"
"Maybe we could all go, Vert?" Agura piped up. Tezz looked up at Agura's suggestion, then gave a genuine, thankful smile. At least she knew how much this kind of stuff meant to him.
"Yeah Vert," Zoom hopped on the bandwagon, "You guys could go on inside and I could do recon! Warn you guys to get out before something happens, right?"
Both Cortez brothers nodded in agreement, Spinner even flashing a thumbs-up. Vert stared at the ground for a moment and crossed his arms. Zoom was right, having him on recon would help, and having them all go would be safer, and easiest, since Tezz was prone to debating, and later, sulking.
"Captian, have you considered this may be the signal Sage was talking about? Sentient or not, it's the first signal any of us have picked up since arrival." Tezz flicked his eyes back and forth between Vert and the cave, then down at his radar.
"... Alright, but we stick together! Zoom, you can start scouting if you want."
"Yeah! Yo, Sherm!" Zoom called. Sherman was way ahead like always, and the ramp was already in position. "All good, Zoom!"
The cave was exponentially larger up close than it was half a kilometre away. With Zoom already inside scouting, Vert led the others into what looked like a black wall. It was solid darkness until their headlights pierced through.
"Why did this place have to be so dark?" Vert muttered to himself, only half listening to Tezz's elated rambling on possibilities of what the signal could be. Agura stuck close to Vert as always, with Sherman and Spinner at the end of the line.
"Wouldn't it have shown up as a blue sentient signal if it was one, Tezz? You said it was carbon-based," Agura asked. They were fairly deep into the cave by now, and as Tezz mentioned, more than fifty kilometres under ground, and the actual "rooms" just kept getting bigger.
"Not necessarily." He answered simply, still taking in the dark surroundings. Their headlights lit the cave enough to see where they were going, leading through countless twists and turns, much like a maze as Vert mentioned. The rock on the outside appeared to be almost a maroon, but on the inside Tezz couldn't tell. Too dark. They all rode in silence for a time, more focused on tracking the signal than anything, until the com frequency opened for the first in a long while.
"Guys, I think I found something. No alien, no sentient, either. A girl." Zoom stated.
Vert stopped. "A girl? What do you mean, Zoom?"
"Like, a girl? Can't be more than thirteen. She's passed out, too, or at least I hope so. I almost didn't see her under all this rock, but she's wearing something white and reflective. I don't know how she got here."
"Take us there." Tezz and Vert commanded at the same time. Zoom led them over their coms through countless other turns until they all met in the same room. What seemed to be the end of the cave was a circular dome-like room, with a see through ceiling, the ocean above it. It was calming, with a blue glow to it, as the lights in all 4 'corners' were blue flames. The crumbling walls were covered in what looked like tribal paintings, but the figures (or creatures) were indistinguishable. But in one of the piles of rubble that cluttered the floor, a girl lied face-down on the ground, her arm and her head sticking out to be seen.
Sherman and Vert worked to carefully move the rubble around as to not cause more rocks to fall onto her, while Agura and Zoom held onto her and tried to pull her out. About ten minutes of work later, and she was out of the pile. A young girl in a plain, white (and reflective, like Zoom said), long sleeved dress that ended above her knees. She had short, coal black hair that ended in a perfect straight line, and bangs that sort of went every which way. She had no shoes, and it seemed her entire body was covered in cuts and bruises, although, that wasn't surprising. The two most predominant marks were on her face: she had one gaping wound that stretched from the front of her left ear to the middle of her forehead, and a deep scar that went over her right eye and down to the middle of her cheek.
Vert's heart went out to the child, seeing her that way. He almost regretted originally saying no to the investigation.
"How long do you think she's been here?" Zoom pondered. Vert shook his head. "I have no idea. Anyone else agree that we need to take her with us?"
Everyone called out a 'yes' or a 'of course' except for the scientist.
Tezz sat crouched in front of the child's sleeping figure, scanner of sorts in one hand and radar in the other. Results of the scan came speeding back quicker than anticipated, and the actual results were more... shocking than expected.
"Ah, Captian..." Vert looked to face Tezz.
"What is it, Tezz?"
The girl's eyes flashed open, revealing no pupil and a blinding white light, almost like staring directly at the sun.
Faint beeping emitted from what seemed to be the girl's head, sofltly, like a heartbeat.
"Well, she's online." Tezz remarked.
Other soft noises like clicks and gears slowly grew audible as the child slowly brought herself to a standing position, much like an automaton.
Then the light was gone. Her eyes were completely normal; a light hazel color with gold flecks near the center.
"Hello, my name is Rei. Hola, mi nombre es Rei. Bonjour, Je m'appelle Rei. Hallo, mien name ist Rei. Ni hao, wo de mingzi Rei. Konnichiwa, watashi wa namaega Rei desu. Privyet, menya zouvut Rei. Kamusta, ang pangalan ko ay Rei..." She continued on.
Tezz's eyes widened immediately. He stepped closer to the girl, against Vert and Agura's attempts to restrain him. "Menya zouvut Tezz. Priyatno poznakomit'sya."
