So the main character is not a very key thing to the story of X. I'm just going to get that out of the way right now. I will explain everything once we get there, but for now just trust me. If you want a good similarity story thing, then watch the movie IRobot. I think it's got Will Smith in it. Anywho, the idea is not that he distrusts technology, but that he doesn't want to be overrun by it in a sense. You'll see.
Now, the flight packs will have been made pretty early, but they will be a model that uses a lot of fuel, and is prone to having problems. There will be some other minor changes, but nothing too serious. You'll know them when you see them. Also, there is a theme song for this story. It's called My Demons by Starset.
Also, the beginning will be a little dark for lack of better words. Now then, let's get going!
"Keep moving! Keep running! Don't stop!" He picked up the pace, turning back briefly to see the dark shadow with the yellow lights chasing him.
"First my Skell, and team! Won't this thing give up!?" He kept running, hoping he would reach the cave he knew was near. The monster was closing in on him though. He turned, seeing it raising a claw to slice him. He dove to the ground, the claws barely missing him and kicking up dust around him.
"Christ!" He started to get to his feet when something slammed into his body and launched him through the air. He hit the ground, the wind knocked out of him. He slowly got up, his vision shaking and fading. He sucked in air and started to cough. He got to his feet and started to run when he turned. The beast pulled back a clawed hand and dropped it. He moved to the side, thinking he had dodged it when he felt intense pain on his right arm. He looked over to see the problem. He had no right arm.
His crimson blood was shooting out of his arm, and his bone splintered at the end. He shouted when he had the back of the monster's hand slammed into him. He flew through the air again, slamming into a rock wall. He felt his bones crack, his left arm being compressed and every bone shattered. then he started to cough blood out of his mouth. He hit the ground, watching as the monster walked towards him slowly.
Its yellow spines started to glow, the beast hissing. He raised a hand again, bringing it down and smashing his legs, turning the bones to powder. He screamed loudly, clenching his eyes shut. He forced them open, watching as the monster took a claw and pointed it at him. The claw started to glow with a yellow energy as the beast continued its hissing. He watched as the claw was forced into his back right shoulder. He cried out is pain as it slowly cut through him to his left waist. But he could feel something being left behind.
He couldn't tell, but he didn't care either. He was being torn apart by a monster that he could only guess was enjoying it. He wanted to fight, but it hurt too much. He could feel himself wasting away to death. He knew he wouldn't have a second chance like everyone else would. Then he heard the gun shots.
"Get it away from him! Luna, grab him and get him back to the city! Go!" The pressure from the claw let off and he felt something grab him and pick him up. He was then being flown through the air, lights dancing in his vision. He was losing his vision and could feel the thing in his back moving around and entering his body. But he couldn't speak. He was losing consciousness fast.
His last thought were of his team. The ones he was leaving behind. He closed his eyes, grunting in pain.
"I'm... sorry..." Then he lost consciousness.
"Here! I need to go back for my team!" She had dropped the man off, spending no more time and taking back to the skies to find her team. They were just sent out to deal with some Dilas in Oblivia, not fight whatever that monster was. Now her team was out there, outmatched and without backup. She wanted to urge her Skell faster, but knew they had a tendency to explode and short out if one did that.
When she got back in the area she only saw smoke, causing her to worry.
"Please, God, no." She descended down, seeing nothing but Skell parts thrown around. She exited her Skell, looking around the area in silence. She walked forward, then fell to her knees. She started to cry loudly, burying her head in her hands.
"Why!? Why did we have to come to this planet!? Dammit!" She continued to cry, then looked to the Skells around her. She had left them. She walked to a hunk of a Skell, recognizing it as one the one her leader piloted. She placed her hand on the green shell, her tears falling on it.
"I'm so sorry." She heard movement inside it. She looked through a hole to see a bloody corpse.
"Lucas! Are you ok!?" The body moved, she saw her leaders face. Battered and bloody.
"Luna... How's the day find you?" She tried to pry open the shell.
"I'm going to get you out of here! I promise!" She started to when she heard him tell her to stop. She looked in, seeing him slightly smiling.
"You need to get out of here before it comes back. Now go. That's an order." She wanted to argue, but couldn't.
"I let this happen." Lucas shook his head.
"Like Hell you did. You saved someone and yourself. I ordered you too. If you want to blame anyone, blame me. Now get out of here. Just wake me up with the LifeHold ya hear?" She nodded, standing up.
"I'm so sorry, Lucas." She heard him laugh.
"I'm not. Get going, Girl!" She returned to her Skell, flying it up into the air.
"When I find that LifeHold I'm waking you up first. I swear."
"Where... am I?" He felt his eyes open, but he could barely see anything.
"Hospital. You've suffered a traumatic experience." He was tempted to respond with, "No shit." but held his tongue.
"Why can't I see?" He heard a shuffling of papers.
"That beast that attacked you left behind a toxin of sorts that has become fused with your muscles, or what remains of them. It has also badly damaged your eyes as a result. The toxin is now crystalized in your back in the shape of the scar it left you. I'm sorry, Desmond. But you can't do anything but get a Mim." He clenched his teeth tightly.
"No Mims. I will never have a Mim!" He was scared of them, and saw them as lifeless shells. He would not become one of them." He heard the door open and heard heavy foot steps. Then a familiar laugh.
"That sounds like the Desmond I know. Christ, you have the Devil's own luck, ya know?" Desmond smiled at the familiarity of the voice.
"Vandham! Why are you visiting me?" He heard another laugh.
"Well, it's not every day when your cousin gets hospitalized and not his Mim either. Still can't believe you don't have one. Or how you got away with not having one.: Desmond smiled.
"You know me. Breaking all the rules. Now, is there some way I can get out of here and back into the field?" He heard his cousin sigh.
"I don't know. I think I know someone who can help. Let me ask her. Also, you have a visitor. The one who saved your ass." Desmond nodded, shifting slightly while his cousin and the doctor left. He heard light foot steps walk in and stop. There was silence before he chuckled.
"Are you gonna talk first, or am I?" He didn't get an immediate response, but did get one eventually.
"You're not a Mim from what I heard. You could have died for real, you know." He nodded, smirking.
"What's so bad about the risk?" There was more silence before he cleared his throat.
"For what it's worth, thank you." He wasn't sure if she was smiling or not, but he thought he could feel like the air was more calm.
"You're welcome. I guess in a sense we're the same now." He cocked his head at the choice of words.
"How so?" She was silent before speaking again.
"My entire team is dead. So it yours. We both have nothing. It's almost horribly funny." Desmond sighed in slight anger.
"When I get out of here, I'm going to kill that thing."
"W-What?" He looked in her general direction, scowling.
"I'll kill that damned thing for what it's done. We were sent to kill it. I am... Was a Harrier and our mission was to kill that thing. I still have a job to kill that thing. I won't let my team have died in vain." She was silent before walking towards the door.
"If you ever get out of here and get a new team to kill that thing, I'll be the first to join." He heard the door open but called to her.
"What's your name?"
"Luna. Good day." The door closed and Desmond waited in the silence, remembering to monster.
"I won't let it get away. I swear to God that I'll kill that bastard! I just hope Vandham can get me out of here."
"Are you sure that this will work?" Vandham usually had a large amount of faith in Lin. She was smart, sassy, funny and a damned good mechanic. But what she was thinking of was way more than he had originally planned on. He just wanted to add cybernetic limbs to Desmond to get him back out into the world, then maybe back into the field. And here Lin was, thinking of how she could turn him into a weapon of mass destruction.
"Hold it, kid. We don't even know if he wants to go back out into the field." Lin frowned at him.
"Well, I talked to him and he wanted to go not just out, but hunt down the thing that almost killed him. And from what I've heard about it I need to make him as strong as possible. And a new Skell with state of the art technology would help by leaps and bounds. Plus, since he's not a Mim I can almost make his Skell his Mim. In a sense. I need to run some tests with him before I get the project underway. But I have a lot of plans for him, Sir. This could really help humanity! I'm so excited."
Vandham ran a hand through his short hair. He sighed, remembering how he had felt when he saw his cousin. Whatever was in that toxin the doctor described did a hell of a lot more than make his vision fade. His skin had become pale and his hair turned silver. His eyes had become a pale yellow, which had really scared him. He wanted nothing more than to kill the monster that hurt him, but they couldn't find it. The thing just vanished. They had people setting up probes to help find it through FrontierNav, but that could only do so much.
He thought about it, realizing this is what Desmond also wanted. Vandham knew the team he was on. All great people. He guessed his cousin would want a piece of the beast. Then the girl... Luna. She was also interested in finding it. There had been another incident but with a PathFinder and his team. He only survived because he hid in the swamps of Noctilum. But that worried Vandham. It meant the monster was moving. Most stayed in one area and were relatively easy to track. This one could be anywhere from Primordia to Cauldros.
So the more he thought about it, the more he like it. Then he started to have the gears in his head turn. Something he would have to talk to the director general with and Nagi. He looked to Lin, nodding.
"Just make sure you don't kill him, alright?" She nodded to him, giving her signature smile.
"I got this!" Vandham smiled as she sprinted away.
"I know you do. I'm just worried if Desmond has anything left in the gas tank after all he's been through." They had been trying to get the crystal, even a small amount of it, out of his back for analyzing but they couldn't. All it did was cause him intense pain. Vandham pulled out his comms device, calling Nagi.
"Yes, Vandham?"
"I need to cash in a favor. A slightly big one." There was a chuckle from the other side.
"What do you need?"
"Desmond? Can you hear me?" He nodded.
"Wake up!" He shot up, still seeing the fuzziness he had grown used to after the few days.
"What!?" There was a laugh that he recognized as Vandham's. Desmond growled.
"If I had legs and hands and could see I would choke you to death."
"You wish." There was a new sound of someone clearing their throat.
"Desmond, I'm Lin Lee Koo. I'm going to be giving you your new limbs and other things." He looked in her general direction.
"You sound really young." She giggled.
"Thirteen years and counting." Desmond gulped loudly.
"Vandham, are you sure about this?" He heard his cousin laugh, patting his back, right on the crystal. Desmond his the slight pain by gritting his teeth.
"Absolutely. She's the best in the business. She's probably the only one I trust to cut into you." Desmond sighed loudly.
"Thanks, cousin." Lin looked between them quickly.
"You're related!? No way!" She started to rant on quickly, making Desmond's head start to hurt. Thankfully, Vandham cleared his throat and got her attention.
"Lin. The surgery?"
"Oh ya!" Desmond was about to ask when a needle pierced his neck, a cool feeling coming over his body.
"Sweet dreams!" The last thing he heard was his cousin laughing at him.
"Ass...hole."
Desmond slowly cracked his eyes, still seeing things around him as fuzzy and dark. He heard distant voices, making him look over to see moving shapes. It was mostly white. Then his hearing started to return.
"Can you see me?" He shook his head.
"Must be a feedback loop in the visual mainframe circuitry. Hang on." He felt a jolt through his body and his vision cleared. He saw a young girl with two clips in her hair that looked like red swords. She held up two fingers.
"How many fingers and I holding up?"
"Two." His voice was coarse and tired.
"Can you move your hands?" He looked down to see two dark grey arms resting by his side. He did what he remembered wiggling his fingers would do. They slightly moved and he smiled.
"Great! Move your new legs! I command you!" He wiggled his toes, seeing the dark grey toes moving. He saw his entire legs were also mechanical. He turned to the girl he guessed was Lin.
"Thank you." He then turned to his cousin.
"When can I get back out there?" Vandham waved his hands in annoyance.
"Not for a bit, buster. Besides, someone wants to see you." He looked where they were gazing to see a women with red hair sitting in a chair. Her hair was in a pony-tail, the tail resting over her shoulder casually.
"Who're you?" She stood and walked over to him, smiling.
"Luna. Nice to meet the new you. I believe I have to talk to you about recruitment and working under you now. Sir." Desmond smiled back to her and turned to Vandham.
"What Division will we be a part of? Harriers, still?" Vandham motioned Lin to leave, the young girl grumbling under her breath.
"The thing is, we have decided a whole new division would be in order for you. With a mission to not just hunt down this monster, but any others that are on this level of dangerous. We've received word that this thing has actually been killing large Tyrants as well. Sounds good on paper, until it decides to some after Humans again. So you're team is going to hunt it down and kill it. Your division is top secret, we can't let work of this big demon getting out. Mass panic is never good.
So anyone who has come in contact with it will be transferred to your division. Κυνηγοί, is the name of your division. It means Hunter in Greek, or so Nagi has told me. I don't have a damned clue. But anything said in this room or any other about this beast is confidential. Also, we some new team members for you to meet. I'll let you all get acquainted." He stood, walking to the door and waving his hand before smiling and leaving.
Two men walked in, one with black hair that was short and spike, the other with light brown hair. The one with brown hair had glasses and was fairly short, the other was tall and had a very skinny build. They were all quiet before Desmond spoke.
"While does everyone seem to hate talking?" They chuckled lightly. Desmond knew he had to break the ice somehow. So he decided to use their new job as a tool.
"We all know why we're here. The monster. So, why don't we all talk about it. I ran into it in Oblivia. It took my arms and legs and left me with some gifts. Killed my entire team. Desmond is the name, and from what Vandham told me, I'll be leading us all. Luna, your turn." She nodded to them.
"My name is Luna. The beast killed my whole team while I was flying Desmond to the city after he had been wounded. I am a tactical specialist." They looked to the man with black hair. He gave a forced smile.
"Jason. I was out placing beacons with my team in Noctilum when the beast attacked and killed my whole team. I hid out in the swamps for two days before returning to NLA. I am very skilled in every environment and know how to survive off the land for weeks, if not months. I'm also a skilled weapons specialist and melee combatant." They looked to the last man who gulped.
"I've never actually met the beast." They exchanged confused glances, Desmond curious why someone with no knowledge of the beast was being sent to hunt it.
"But I'm one of the best field medics around and I know my way around explosives. I'm Mitch." That was why. He knew when they encountered the beast he would be the weak link. But they would have to work around that. The door opened and Vandham walked back in, four Dog Tags in his hands.
"These are yours. New division, new tags. You know the deal. Your division name is Διαίρεση δέκα, or Division Ten." Mitch looked at Vandham in a confused manner.
"But sir, there are only nine divisions." Both Desmond and Vandham chuckled to each other. All Desmond did was look to Mitch and smile.
"Are there." Vandham shushed him and handed them their dog tags, names already printed on them. In NLA, the division you were in was printed on the back of the wearers dog tags. When Desmond looked at them he was surprised to see, not a symbol, but words in Greek.
"What does it say?"
"Send unto me your prey, so that I may shelter them. I'm sure you'll all do great, once Desmond is back on his feet that is." Desmond glared at his cousin, the strong man chuckling as he left.
"Keep an eye on Desmond for me. He's got the Devil's own luck, as I'm sure you'll see very soon. Oh, by the way. Happy hunting." Desmond looked back to the tags, smiling at the words.
Αποστολή unto εγώ σας λεία, έτσι εγώ μπορεί να τους προσφέρω καταφύγιο
"I'm coming for you, devil."
That's the first chapter. Sorry about putting so much in, but I didn't want two relatively short chapters, so I gave you this one instead. Hope you guys enjoy. I will avoid using any more Greek unless I have to. I just thought it would sound cool... SO I used it. Haha! Anywho, if you have any questions then feel free to ask. Keep calm and may the Aura be with you!