Authors Note: I really hope you know what a Waster is...
Do note I don't own anything related to the story except characters like the Admiral and Toombs and his squad.
The room was surprisingly lit, but the lights were dim. The area was a bright white. Black lines like that of thick circuitry isolatedly ran up and down the walls; same isolated design appeared on the capsule shaped booth in the middle of the room. Another big iron door blocked the way.
"Hey Crone, what does that say over there?" asked Toombs, only pointing at the huge letters above the door. He didn't even bother to try to read the English.
Crone took a quick look. "Oh that, yeah, that says Government Sector."
"Government Sector huh, much like what we've got going on back at base?" Reeves stated sarcastically.
The tengu nudged him. "Hey, you weren't supposed to know that. Who leaked you that information?" She laughed playfully.
"I don't know," replied Reeves, equally playing. "How about we find out-"
"Hey love birds, check this out." Toombs said, now at the side of the huge door. "Snake Eyes, what do you make of this?"
Toombs was pointing at a hacked computer console. It had wires sticking out and other circuitry. Snake Eyes simply rubbed her head. "I don't really know, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's an old terminal of some sort."
"Why'd they tear it apart? That's what I want to know."
"Obviously, they wanted to lock this door shut," Snake Eyes told him.
Reeves pulled at the door's sealing point. "Well, if they wanted the damn thing shut, they should've just hit the button."
The tengu examined the hack very closely. There was definitely riddling on multiple wires, not just the cut ones. As far as the cut ones go, there were signs of multiple attempts at cutting the wires. "Whoever did this was really lousy at it, that's for sure. Obviously, they had no real experience working with this stuff."
"So, they tried to cut multiple wires? Isn't basic military knowledge to know what wires do what when it comes to basic hacks?"
"Yes, but that's only for those training to be technicians, and over all; this place wasn't military," Snake Eyes told him.
Toombs looked about at some of the debris. Looking down, he found some really old shell casings. This surprised him slightly, such a hidden facility, and there were shots fired? The area is simply an entrance point to this Marker storage place. Did somebody try to break in? The soldier looked back at Snake Eyes and Reeves, who were trying to open the door. He looked closer to the wires. Definitely riddleling was present. But the the cuts themselves...
"Let me see that," Toombs blurted out. He got up and walked straight towards the two soldiers. Reeves and Snake Eyes aside, he examined the wires. More cuts on several wires, but it definitely wasn't random. They were all concentrated.
"So..." Crone started, "what do you think happened here?"
Toombs looked at the center wire in the concentrate area. Then, he had it all figured out. "Did you guys know there was a battle that took place here?"
The group then looked his direction, most surprised at what he said.
"Battle? How'd you figure that?" Badger asked.
Without looking, Toombs continued to fiddle with the wires, bringing out a knife. "There are shell casings over there. Take a look."
Reeves walked over and picked up a shell casing. A balistic projectile? "Bullets? These people used bullets? Lead Bullets?"
"It was attempted break in Toombs," Snake Eyes assured him. "Of course there would be a battle."
Toombs looked their direction. "And why does it have to be a break in? They never openned the doors." Toombs then cut the center wire. The panel attached to the door then read "Openning." He looked, yet the doors stayed shut. "I don't think they were even infiltrators. I think the people that fought here, were all gaurds. Gaurds, that were locked out."
"Locked out?" Reeves said. "Unbelievable. Who locks out muscle?"
"Expendables ol' chap," Badger replied. "Expendables. So sarge, why would they lock 'em out?"
Toombs looked about the immediate area, something was off alright; even after several hundred years, the place did not feel safe. "I don't know. Judging from how bad the hack is over here, I think these people were scared of something."
"Scared?" Snake Eyes laughed. "Soldiers don't get scared."
"I know," Toombs replied, "I know." He then cocks up his weapon.
Reeves then got up from his position at the shell casings and laid a firm hand on Toombs' shoulder. "Hey, what are you doing man?"
"Lock and load, soldier," Toombs told him.
Reeves could tell Toombs was being serious about all of this. However, this brown skinned soldier did not want to hear it. "Dude man, you can't be serious. How can anything be alive down here?"
"It doesn't have to be."
Reeves leaned back, dumbfounded. "God... seriously?"
"He thinks it might've been rogue automatons or something," Snake Eyes told the soldier. "Unlike us, automatons can live a long, long time without food."
"They're machines, right?" Reeves asked.
Snake Eyes nodded. "Had to be, only recently did Mikawa perfect the new 5th Gen, humanoid automated dolls."
"Right, right," Reeves told himself. "Alright guys, might be hostile autos down here. Lock your cocks."
The group then readied their weapons. Toombs headed over to a small storage door. Waving his hand over the icon, he was granted access inside due to the network being all access now. A small crawl space openned, and Toombs crawled inside. "Hey group, I'm going over here. Might be a way I can bypass the lock."
The group all took rally positions around the door. Meanwhile, Toombs crawled through. After about thirty seconds, he came face to face with an exit. He waved his hand over the icon, and the port openned up. Toombs pulled himself out, and found himself in a dark, rather small room. He looked to his right to find some un-openned lockers, all had a red glow on the center. To his left was a gradually rising ramp. With caution, he proceeded. At the end of it, he made a U-Turn and another ramp awaited him. At the top of the end, he was met with a door. Waving his hand over the icon, he openned it. Entering the room, he saw windows that looked out to the area he was in before. He could see his team several meters below.
"A lookout huh?"
Toombs then turned around, and was greeted with a carcass against the corner. "Holy-" He kept his mouth shut, and aimed his weapon at it. The corpse was huddled against the wall in a fetal position. "What the..." This person died of fear?
The corpse wore a uniform that looked like it encouraged combat. It wore an insignia similiar to what was found on the walls. A strange looking rifle was wrapped around his shoulders.
"Earth... Gov... huh? Okay, okay. So, from the looks of things, he must've been a soldier. If so, why was he here? Here, and not fighting with his comrades?"
Toombs looked out the windows again. No other corpses laid about. Blood stains were definitely present now that he looked for them. "They sure must've kept Government Sector clean if you haven't rotted out completely sir." Toombs reached for the panel that was on. The letters on it were arranged LOCKED. Toombs scratched his head. "Damn, I sure wish Crone was here..." Toombs reached for the panel and hit a button that looked like the OPEN word.
Then, suddenly, a loud sound of metal moving filled the air. The doors started to open.
Down below, the team readied themselves, shining lights everywhere. The doors then stopped.
"Yo Toombs, I think you openned it man," Reeves shouted.
In the distance, a loud roar was then heard. The team then looked back into the room. Whatever that was, was not anywhere near.
Toombs emerged from the crawl space, back with his group. "Alright guys, it's open."
"Yeah, we know genius," Reeves replied.
Toombs looked at him, slightly nodding, then at his gun. "Finger on the trigger huh? Did the door spook you?"
"What?"
Snake Eyes looked his direction. "Did, did you not hear that?"
"Hear? Hear what?"
"That- that noise just a while 'go?"
Toombs furrowed his brows in suspicion, "You sure that wasn't the door?"
"No 'hambre," Badger said. "There was huge roar, like the mountain lion."
"Mountain Lion?"
Reeves nodded. "Yeah man, like a loud growl of some sort."
"Oh," Toombs said, "okay. Okay. Well Team, we need to get that Marker."
"Dude man, whatever that was, I think it's at this Marker thing," Reeves fussed. "I don't think it's worth my life."
Toombs turned his direction. "Now wait a second, what are you?"
Reeves agrivatedly turned back. "A soldier dawg, what are you?"
"Your commanding officer," Toombs replied non-agitated. "Tell me what kind of soldier you are."
"I'm a grunt, and I'm not paid enough for shit like this. I'm paid to fight, not haul somebody else's science project."
Toombs looked him dead in the eye. "What. Kind. Of. Soldier."
Reeves looked back equally as serious. "I'm... I am a soldier of the proud K.P.A. Italia fool."
"That you are, and KPA don't back down," Toombs said sternly. "Listen up team. We don't back down. K.P.A. never backs down. We rule the land, and we rule the skies. We are eagles! Do you want to leave your mark in history? Do you want to be immortal? Then we finish this mission. Now, for the honor of the pope, for our country, let's go get this Marker."
Enthusiastically, all of the group but Snake Eyes and Reeves cheered. Snake Eyes shook her head. "I don't like this."
"Neither do I," Reeves told her back. He then shouldered his weapon. "Well, let's go."
Snake Eyes looked with a hint of unbelief as Reeves walked into the dark room with the group. Reluctantly, she shouldered her own weapon and followed, followed the group into the darkness.
A whir could be heard, the deep sound of lasers firing continously at something. Machinery rotating. Toombs' group reached a door. It had panelling on it.
"Crone, read it please," Toombs said.
Crone looked at the text. "Uhm, it says 'Marker 13 Access', I guess we found it."
"Thirteen?" Toombs said. "Hey Snake Eyes, what does the Signal Tracker say."
"Tracker's hotter than it ever has been."
Toombs nodded his head. "Alright, we're in business. Snake Eyes, tell the pope we found his Marker." He reaches for the icon on the door, and hovers his hand over it. The door then opens.
"Uh Jinx," Snake Eyes called in. "We found the ether signal source."
The Pope, Innocentious, took another swig of his wine. "Ahhh, this is glorious."
"Um, your excellency," started an advisor.
"What is it?" The pope asked.
The advisor then slightly bowed. "The team has found the ether equivalent of energy."
The pope raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"
Inside the lab, Toombs was heavily surprised. Four sets of triple stacked lasers were firing at some sort of structure. The structure resembled a dark purple pair of spikes hugging at one another, spiraling barely once. The tips just inches from touching one another. "Wow, will you look at that?"
"Is that the energy source?" Reeves asked. "What is it?"
Snake Eyes walked forward slightly. "I think... I think that's Marker 13."
With no hesitation, she ran for the monitors that appeared to be running the lasers. "It's still under construction." She said with surprise.
"Seriously?!" Badger said, coming over. "Well, how long 'till it's finished little lady?"
Snake Eyes looked over the panels. "According to this, the assembly should be finished right about... now."
At that second, the lasers stopped. All the lights turned off. Then, an automated voice spoke in the English language. "Marker Assembly Complete." The lasers lifted, and the structure began to glow a dark purple, the center appeared a golden color, almost like a network of nerves fading into the dark colors.
"Wow," Reeves said lowly. "Damn, that's some hard core stuff right there."
"You bet your sweet ass it is," Toombs told him amazed. The group was about one story high above the base of the Marker XIII, and it still towered them to the roof. "This thing must be atleast three stories high."
Snake Eyes nodded, and then looked at her tracker. "Yeah, and it's definitely the source of the energy the scholars have been tracking for years now. I wonder how it works..." She reached for a red button that said in English "Push to Lock"
"Don't mess with something you're not supposed to," Crone told her.
"It's a button Englishman," she replied. "What harm has ever come out of pushing a button.
Toombs looked her way. "He said not to push-"
Without their consent, she pushed it. Then, the Marker glew a bright purple and gold, waves of energy racing to the top. Then, it all gathered, and a loud burst sounded. It sounded like a dissonent horn as the energy quickly spread, powering all the electrical equipment for a matter of seconds before it all went dark. Then, a spike in the signal read outs.
"Woah, guys look," Snake Eyes exclaimed. "The signal strength just jumped off the scale."
"What do you mean?" Toombs said.
"I don't know, look."
The group watched at the frequency the tracker picked up changed rapidly in intensity, calm one second, and then fluctuating the next. The tracker's needle was going crazy.
"Shit, what's going on?" Reeves asked.
Snake Eyes shook her head, "I really don't know, but it's like it has a mind of it's own. It's-"
Then, a loud crash could be heard, and a vent breaking.
"What was that?" Reeves said.
"I don't know," Toombs said, "spread out team."
The group went over as all the lights fades out, and a rotating orange light came up. An alarm could be heard.
"Attention, Attention. Biological Anomaly present. Quarantine in effect."
"Quarantine?" Reeves said, partially shaking. "What the hell man."
Toombs neared the area of the crash, he looked it over. "Hmm..."
Snake Eyes took several three sixties before shining her light Toombs' direction. "Sarge, I don't know-"
She then stopped upon seeing somebody walking up behind Toombs. The figure wore an old military uniform, and he held what looked like two fire axes. His eyes and mouth both glew and eerie orange.
"Sarge, behind you!"
"Huh?"
Toombs turned back, but before he could react, the figure slashed at him with both of his weapons. The sargeant stumbled back, his right arm now gone. Toombs' face was stricken with shock.
"SARGE!" Badger yelled. He raised his weapon and fired at the figure. "Die!"
The figure didn't appear to take any pain. He simply took what was thrown at him. It looked Toombs down as he fell to the ground. Quickly, the glowing eyed figure raised it axes and slammed both into Toomb's skull. Toombs shook slightly, then stopped.
Badger was dumbfounded. This monster killed their sarge. "Oh no. Sarge, no."
The figure looked at him, and retrieved both it's weapons; and proceeded his direction.
Snake Eyes, Reeves, Crone and Badger all fired at it's body. That only slowed it down.
"Shit shit shit shit shit!" Badger yelled.
Then, another crash. Right behind Badger, another person popped out. The person had it's arms raised high, bone swords erecting from their bloody hands.
Badger looked back. "Oh fu-"
He was then stabbed in the chest, and raised. The person then slashed at his head, completely decapitating him. Snake Eyes, Crone, and Reeves looked with horror, their clips emptying. The two monsters looked their directions, and advanced towards them.
"Holy shit!" Reeves said, quickly reloading.
Crone looked around quicky, he saw another door. "Come on guys, this way!"
The group quickly went for the door. Snake Eyes dropped both her weapon and the tracker in the panic. The needle constantly fluctuated.
The God of War Jinx flew high above, watching as other troop transports landed. For some wierd reason, it appeared Badger and Toombs just flatlined, and contact with the entire group was lost. "Hmm, this is not good. Hey Admiral!"
Crone, Snake Eyes, and Reeves all ran down a dark, LED lit hallway. Constantly, Reeves turned back to unload a magazine of ether down the hall into their relentless pursuers. The figure with the axes ran fast after them, faster than they were running.
"Shit man, that axe thing's catching up!" Reeves yelled.
Crone turned back and fired his semi-auto at it. "Dang, these things don't die."
Then, right above Crone, the vent busts and another figure with a glowing face falls upon him. Crone topples over, and releases his weapon. "Ahh!"
Snake Eyes turns back. "No, Crone!"
Reeves reaches for her. "Can't save him honey, we got to go!" He pulls her away, down the hall.
Crone reaches for his pistol as the axed figure takes hold of it's own weapons. "Not me, not today." The figure lunges it's axes at him as he sticks the pistol to it's head. "Take this you waster." Pulling the trigger, the waster's head is blown into tiny chunks. He laughs as the figure feels for it's head. "Hahaha, I wish you could see yourself, hohohoho-"
Crone's laugh is silenced as another axe smashes into his head. The waster following them from the Marker room caught him. The headless one did not simply fall over and die either. It got up like nothing was wrong, and proceeded with the slasher and the other waster.
Snake Eyes was crying her heart out. "Oh man, what happened? Why did that happen!?"
Reeves and Snake Eyes were hiding out in another room. It seemed Reeves used Crone as a way to buy him and Snake Eyes time to get away.
"Oh man, the sarge is dead... Sarge is dead..." Snake Eyes panicked.
Reeves looked her direction. "Shut up..." he said quietly. "Shut up damnit. They're going to hear you."
Snake Eyes looked at him. "They're all dead, we're- we're the only ones left!"
Then, a loud slap. Reeves slapped the tengu's face and grasped her. "Those things didn't start showing up until you activated that damn Marker." He then realized something. Toombs had it known that they already found the Marker. That means that Jinx already locked in the co-ordinates of their last known position. That means the whole regiment, including the extraction team, know where this Marker XIII is. If that artifact is taken back to K.P.A. Italia, wouldn't that mean the very same thing could happen over there? "Holy shit, we've got to warn the surface. Jinx, come in Jinx. Jinx!?"
The earpiece he wore only recieved static. Did- did that Marker's signal jam them!?
"You've got to kidding me..."
Out of the blue, a vent bursted open. Another one of those wasters emerged.
"Ah shit!" Reeves said. He shot at it, but the figure didn't fall.
Quickly, he openned the door, but right at the openning, the first waster lunged for him, and locked him in a struggling grapple.
"Ahh-h-h-h-h, Snake Eyeeeess..." Reeves struggled to let out.
"Hurry!" She yelled, shooting her pistol at the waster headed towards her. "No, no-no-no-no-noo!"
"Sweet Mission!" It said, slamming one of it's axes into her chest.
The tengu let out a loud cry. "Ahhhhh! Reeves! Help me!"
Reeves won the struggle, and knocked the waster confronting him over. He looked back at Snake Eyes, he could already tell she was a lost cause. He had to save himself. I'm so sorry... He ran, and ran fast.
Snake Eyes was surprised, and weeped loudly. "Noo! Reeves!"
The other figures flooded into the room, and slashing could be heard, along with the tengu's cries of pain as she could be heard being hacked to death.
Reeves ran fast. Ahead of him, he heard more distant yells of anger. More and more of these creatures were emerging. He then slowed to a stop, and dropped his weapon. Looking behind him, he could hear the others finishing up with Snake Eyes, now coming his direction. Non calantly, Reeves leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down it until he landed on his buttox. He chuckled lightly, and took out his ear piece. He then looked at it.
"Heh, to think, I became a soldier... to die for my country." He then crushed it. "Not die... because of it."
He released his hands as several wasters and slashers closed in on him, rather slowly. Reeves closed his eyes, and saluted.
The ground around the area Jinx pointed was uprooted, and several rooms inside the underground structure were revealed and shredded through. Before long, an artifact that resemble two spiraling spikes was revealed.
"Stop," said the Admiral. "That's what we want."
Several soldiers and scholars came about and marveled at the site.
"Prep the extraction teams and ships," said the Admiral. "That's our Marker XIII"
AUTHORS NOTE: A longer chapter, I know; but I did need the team to find the Marker. As you can see, the Marker XIII appears to be a sentient artifact; maybe it really is, maybe it isn't. We'll find out soon enough. So yeah, Toombs' team is dead, and isn't it like K.P.A. Italia to even care? All the pope wanted was his energy source... well, it looks like he has it now. As you can tell, the extraction team isn't aware of anything that's happened to the team, and likely doesn't even care. Marker XIII will be taken back to K.P.A. Italia, and that's just the end of that story, er prologue.
So, one thing you might wonder is, how on Earth does Musashi get involved in all of this? As you can most likely see, a necromorph will outright ruin everything there is about the world. Lots of people are going to die. The prologues place is special, mostly because almost all organic beings, alive or dead, were most likely disentigrated by the fall of the Divine States. Not that many necromorphs could be awoken.
Marker XIII's completion, just to clear the question, well... it was completed long before the team arrived. It just was never activated. Since we're never going to see this place (or these people) again in the next chapter and afterwards, I'll go ahead and spill the beans on what exactly happened in the facility. The previous Marker XII was activated by an indoctrinated scientist and a necromorph outbreak occured in the region. Since Necromorphs can instictively home in on non-necromorph biologicals, it was only a matter of time before they came for the Earth Gov facility. The necromorphs soon broke in, and killed everybody; there by allowing those killed to become necromorphs. Marker XII was held in a surface containment facility to be properly researched, but it was destroyed by the fall of the Divine States. Marker XIII was the only one left, and was nearing completion by that time. Since everybody had died, Marker XIII's final assembly stage, which is simply optimation and furnishing, ran for who knows how long and for how many cycles. It's simply a coincidence that Toombs' team arrived at the finish of the cycle. After the Divine States fell, the destruction destroyed Marker XII, for only the Black Marker, the original Marker, was indestructible. Why the necromorphs appeared after the Marker XIII was activated, I'll leave that for you to find out, unless you already know why.
With that, I hope you enjoyed the Prologue, because from here on out, it's the real deal.
