Army of Two
July 12, 2172 18:37
Living Quarters
La Habra
Right after Fenrir returned from being greeted by the captain at the hanger, they made their way to their living quarters to discuss things. Hawk was the first to unpack and wind down after an exhausting assignment. Livewire didn't bother himself with winding down and headed to Skillsaw's room.
"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Livewire whispered to Skillsaw. He took a sip of rum from a metal flask while leaning against the door frame.
Skillsaw quickly remembered that he had asked for Livewire to speak to him after the assignment was over. "Right! Back on that ghost ship, remember that android that was trying to kill you?"
"Yeah." He sighs as he enters the room completely and sits on a nearby chair. "Unfortunately."
"You weren't its target."
"What!?" Livewire quickly slaps a hand over his lips, hoping that he didn't stir Hawk from his slumber.
Skillsaw hushes him harshly before continuing. "It was programmed to assassinate a person named Shawn Hoffman after the ship jumped."
"Jumped?" Livewire takes another sip. "What do you mean by 'jumped'?"
"The Mistress was unknowingly testing a prototype that will allow it to travel faster than the speed of light to arrive at other quadrants of any sector faster without burning so much fuel." Skillsaw pauses to think further about the subject. Livewire only sat patiently while listening and drinking. "I suppose it is meant to be used as an alternate way of travel than using the gates that are most commonly used for long distances."
"But the gates document every traveler that passes through them. Maybe this…prototype is meant for the traveler to remain hidden from the government." Livewire suggested before taking another sip. "So how did the ship end up looking so old?"
"The prototype caused every molecule on that ship to speed up its half-life to the point of decomposing. It killed everyone except for that guy that worked closest to the prototype. It had a different affect on him; it was sort of killing him as slowly as possible."
"That sounds like something worth looking into." Livewire ponders out loud to himself.
"What are you gonna do about it?"
"I know a guy that has knowledge about things that not even the government knows about."
"Do you know where he is?"
Livewire stood up from his seat. "He told me that he would go to the closest, cheapest planet funded by the government before Earth's doomsday. The only one that fits that description is planet: Svartalfheim. I'll head there after my debriefing."
"Okay then, good luck." Livewire left Skillsaw's room to head towards debriefing. After he left, Skillsaw kept thinking to himself about their conversation. He felt as if he forgot to tell him something he just couldn't put a finger on it.
July 12, 2172 20:03
Hanger
La Habra
Near the end of his debriefing, Skillsaw finally remembered what it was that he wanted to tell Livewire and as soon as he was done, he raced out of the briefing room to find him at the hanger.
"Livewire! Wait!" He yelled at the top of his lungs a he tried to catch up to Livewire.
"Hey, 'tsup?" Livewire responded casually when he spotted Skillsaw nearing him.
"I need to ask a favor of you."
Livewire's face suddenly grew stern. "That depends, what do you need?"
"The prototype is an FTL drive. If you can look that up, that should help you out?" Livewire nodded in reply. "Thanks. Also, that guy Hawk shot through seven walls called me 'Joseph Carter', if you can look up that name for me as well." Livewire rolled his eyes, irritated, but nodded none the less. "I took his tags." He handed Livewire the dog tags. "So you could look into him as well."
"Anything else?" Livewire hoped for a "no," but Skillsaw nodded.
"Yeah, he gave me a disk. I hope your contact can see what that disk holds." Skillsaw waved the disk in his hand. Livewire quickly snatched from his hand and put it away in his duffel bag. "Good luck out there, man."
Skillsaw turned to leave but was immediately stopped when he felt a heavy hand grab him by the shoulder. Livewire leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I want a bottle of red wine from seventy-two…eighteen-seventy-two."
Skillsaw knew that what he wanted came with a price. "Fine." He sighs in surrender.
The cyborg walked back to his living quarters to find that Hawk was packing up and prepping to leave.
"Hey, where's Livewire?" Hawk asks once he saw Skillsaw entering their quarters.
"He's out on business." Skillsaw didn't want to give Hawk any more information than was necessary. "Why are you packing up?"
"Well, if you were here, you would know that we have another assignment."
Skillsaw was surprised by this. "Already? We just finished our first and, may I remind you, it was only a training mission."
"Don't worry yourself amigo." Hawk grinned. "We got ourselves a month before we should leave." Hawk fixes the baseball cap on his head and took off with his gear held over his shoulder.
August 14, 2172 18:37
Phoenix
Alpha Sector
En route to Planet: Ilos
Operation: Winter's Wrath
The whole flight was silent since Hawk and Skillsaw left La Habra. Neither one of them spoke since their briefing. The flight was meant to take two hours. An hour and a half passed in silence. Skillsaw sat in one of the passenger seats while Hawk piloted the gunship.
"A terrorist group has hijacked a heavily armored cargo ship." Skillsaw remembers hearing MIKE's monotonic voice when he was being briefed. "What they didn't know is that they were transmitting a signal. We've traced them to a planet not allied with any government. Ilos is basically one giant tropical forest. We need you two to destroy the ship entirely including whatever fortress these terrorists reside in."
It's been a while since Skillsaw has heard of Livewire, he kept thinking about what was happening and the reasons behind it all. After agreeing with himself that it was just paranoia, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.
"Someone's awfully quiet." Hawk smirked, trying to break the silence.
Skillsaw didn't even notice Hawk when he spoke to him. "Huh?"
"Uh, nothing." Hawk stammered. "We're almost there."
"Oh." Was all the cyborg managed to say.
"We're entering the atmosphere in 3…2…1…brace yourself." The ship started rocking harshly from the speed that it entered the planet's surface. The flight returned to its smooth state after a while.
"We should land over there." Skillsaw pointed to a dense forest. Far away from what looked like a small fortress.
"But their base is just a few seconds away." Hawk argued.
"We should gather whatever info we can from these people before we destroy them." Skillsaw suggested.
"Alright then." Hawk landed the Phoenix where Skillsaw suggested and made sure that it was well hidden in the cover of the trees.
Skillsaw was the first to exit the Phoenix once it landed and began to walk through the forest with a doubtful Hawk trailing behind.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Hawk asked before running into a low hanging branch. It didn't hurt, thanks to his helmet, but he began to curse to himself for not seeing it before.
"Yeah." Skillsaw said blankly.
"Wait…how do you know? Umph!" Hawk tripped and almost fell face flat on the muddy ground. He looks up to notice Skillsaw was holding his goggles in his hand. "Oh." He mutters after realizing that the cyborg must have been using his mechanical eye and wipes the mud off his visor as he gets back on his feet.
Skillsaw turns around in time to see Hawk finish wiping off the mud. He crosses his arms and leans on a nearby tree, irritated that he had to wait. "You should've probably left it on. Your armor might give you away."
"Won't your equipment give you away?" Hawk snickered and took Skillsaw's advice and left whatever mud was on his armor.
Skillsaw believed Hawk was talking about his glossy, black, metallic arms and was almost insulted by it. "I never get caught."
"Nice." Hawk goes into a light jog to catch up. "So where's there location?"
"About twenty miles from here." He muttered plainly as he continued to walk.
"That's not so far. Why not just run?" Hawk was confused that they were heading towards their destination at such a slow pace.
"They might be expecting us. If they are, then that's exactly what they would want us to do." Skillsaw erects his chainsaw and revs it up. He continued his explanation while sawing through branches and thick grass in his way. "And if we do run right now, we'll be worn out and ready to be easily killed."
Hawk was more interested at how silent the cyborg's chainsaw was than his explanation. "Oh." Was all he could bring himself to say. It took another five minutes before either spoke again. "It's gonna get dark out soon."
"We'll make camp here for the night."
August 14, 2172 20:27
ILOS
Operation: Winter's Wrath
The night was painfully quiet for a jungle. Not a single sound of wildlife was there to be heard. Hawk was about to start a fire but Skillsaw was quick to stop him.
"It will give away our position." He explained to Hawk, leaving the two endure the cold night.
Hawk didn't complain. He set up his sleeping gear, removed his armor, and prepped himself for a small meal. "So tell me, Skillsaw, how did you become a cyborg?" He asked as he munched on his rations.
Skillsaw had already finished eating and was checking his weapons. "I already told you guys. I was told that I was in an explosion. A bomb that I was trying to diffuse was purposely detonated to kill me. They said I was betrayed by my own team."
"But you don't remember any of it. Do you?"
Skillsaw shook his head.
"Do you honestly believe that they told you exactly what happened?" Hawk asks suspiciously while taking another bite of his jerky.
"No. But I don't have anything else to believe in." Skillsaw raised his revolver to gaze upon it under the pale, moon-light.
"So how do your mechanics work?"
"Each nerve in the parts of my body that they're connected to is connected to nano-receptors in my biotics so I could have complete control of them as if they were my natural limbs and organs." The cyborg holstered his revolver and began to inspect the revolver he retrieved from Richard back on Munin.
Hawk took a big gulp of his food before continuing the conversation. "Wow. What about your AI?"
"How did you get that scar across your face?" Skillsaw quickly interrupted Hawk to change the topic of the conversation.
"What? This?" Hawk asked enthusiastically, pointing a finger down the scar that lined from the top right of his face to the bottom left. Not minding that Skillsaw abruptly changed the subject. "Okay, I got it from when I was with my ground unit."
"Wait." Skillsaw immediately stopped him. "I thought you said you were a pilot." He pointed out.
"Well, I am also infantry as well, and a d**ned good one too!" Hawk gave a devilish grin. "I led a small unit of Rangers in the Army before I moved to Air-Force during the Great World War. We'd be transported all over Earth for special operations before the nuclear strike."
"And it was during one of those operations that you got injured in?" Skillsaw assumed out loud.
"Right, we were talking about the scar." Hawk nearly slapped himself for going off track with the topic. "I would usually spar with my si-" He immediately cut himself off before he revealed any critical information. "-soldiers when we got bored."
Skillsaw noticed the pilot's hesitation but decided not to question it. Not directly at least. "It's impossible to get such a mark like that in Close-quarters-combat." He pointed out.
"We were fencing." Hawk immediately cleared the cyborg's confusion. "Well…she was fencing, I was using a battle-axe."
That last sentence reminded Skillsaw about a question that lingered in the back of his mind for a while now. "Why do you use an axe?"
"Embracing my Viking heritage." Hawk smiled. "It's in my blood."
Skillsaw only continued to stare inquisitively at Hawk.
"Whew! Well, isn't it getting pretty late?" Hawk asked rhetorically. "Time to hit the rack." He yawned sarcastically.
Skillsaw only nodded in agreement.
"I'll take the first watch." Hawk announced.
"No." Skillsaw muttered. "You need your rest."
"Okay, suit yourself." Hawk said as he quickly bedded down for the night in his make-shift sleeping bag.
The cyborg ignored Hawk's enthusiasm and only continued to inspect the revolver.
After a few minutes of just inspecting his weapons, Skillsaw finally decided to place them in their proper areas on his armor.
"AIVI, scan the area for hostiles." He spoke once he was sure that Hawk was asleep. He swept the landscape with his mechanical eye slowly to allow his AI to get a clear scan of the area.
"No hostiles detected."
He sighed in relief at hearing that the two of them were alone in the night.
For the moment.
Skillsaw moved himself into a meditative position and began to concentrate on his surroundings without using his sense of sight. A light breeze began to pick up, letting the cyborg relax a little more but he didn't let his guard down.
The sound of shuffling leaves caused Skillsaw to whirl into a fighting stance, aiming his revolver at the edge of the forest which the sound came from. Everything went silent again, but he kept his aim on the bushes a few hundred yards away from where the sound emanated from. A second later, a little snout peeked out of the bushes, sniffing the air.
Skillsaw began to lower his weapon until he saw the eye-less head pop out as well. "SNIFFS!" he shouted, causing Hawk to rouse from his slumber.
"What?" Hawk asked groggily while he began to get to his feet.
"We got sniffs!" the cyborg repeated.
The small bi-pedal creature leaped out of the bushes, charging at the two with its muscular limbs.
Skillsaw was about to pull the trigger but Hawk quickly unloaded a magazine on the sniff from his suppressed side-arm. Hawk moved so fast that the cyborg didn't even have time to notice it.
"I had the shot!" Skillsaw muttered aggressively.
"You have a loud gun." Hawk rebutted and holstered his weapon. "What did you say that thing was called?"
"Sniffs. They're in the family of snouts, only they are smaller and have no eyes whatsoever." Skillsaw explained, completely forgetting the fact that Hawk took his kill. "Predator creatures."
"Wait…" Hawk pondered the information for a second or two. "Don't all snouts hunt in packs?" He asked worriedly.
"That's what I was thinking." Skillsaw holsters his revolver and erects his chainsaw, revving up the silent chain. "AIVI, scan for similar life-forms."
"Scanning complete. You are both surrounded." She said through both of their intercoms.
"F**K! Did she just say what I think she just said!?" Hawk cursed. He was quickly removing the suppressor from his side-arm to apply it to his assault-rifle. "Safety's off!"
"Back-to-back!" They chimed in unison as they came together to cover each other's backs.
The two anxiously waited for the first sniff to appear when a sudden screech filled the air. The sound started from one point but was quickly answered by the surrounding throng of snouts. The two knew it to be a sign that they were about to be attacked.
All the sniffs attacked simultaneously; charging towards the center of their circle to where Skillsaw and Hawk were taking their stand.
Hawk was the first to attack; firing short bursts from his assault-rifle and hitting every target dead on, keeping most of his attackers at bay.
Skillsaw had to wait a while for the sniffs to get in his range before he started swinging his chainsaw, spilling their neon-green blood and entrails across the battle field.
The two survived the first few waves of snouts unscathed but each wave progressively became more difficult than the last. The sniffs that were able to avoid getting slaughtered, pierced their fangs into them, not caring where they were biting. Hawk took the most damage since he wasn't wearing his usual armor but Skillsaw's mechanical limbs were showing signs of critical damage since liquid mercury could be seen seeping out of the holes that the sniffs would leave behind.
"Skillsaw, shock me!" Hawk shouted while reloading his weapon and enduring the pain that the sniffs left behind. Each time he would have to reload, the radius between him and the sniffs would shrink, allowing more to bite into his warm flesh.
"What?" Skillsaw was so busy slicing the sniffs that he didn't notice Hawk speaking to him.
"Your defibrillator. Charge me up!" The anticipation in Hawk's voice was clear as he began to run low on ammo.
"AIVI, charge the defib." Skillsaw ordered as he continued to slice the oncoming sniffs.
"Defibrillator charged." AIVI said a few seconds later.
The sniffs were striking Hawk with their fangs and claws. Hawk felt a cold, metallic hand placed firmly on his bleeding shoulder and awaited the surge of electricity to course through his body.
"NOW!" The cyborg shouted. The electricity caused the sniffs on him to fly off with their flesh burning as it convulsed.
Hawk opened his eyes after the sudden shock to see the sniffs that were attacking him to be convulsing at his feet. With the electricity coursing through his body, Hawk moved faster than ever. Using as much of the energy from the shock as he could, he aimed, fired, and reloaded fast enough to push the sniffs back and increase the radius between him and them again.
Ammunition was running low for his assault-rifle but as he pushed the sniffs back, he realized that the hilt of his axe lay at his feet. They must've kicked it here while they were ambushing us. He thought to himself. Hawk quickly kicked the hilt of his axe in the air while dropping his empty assault-rifle. Once he caught the hilt of his axe, he immediately pressed the button to erect the blades of his axe and began to hack at the sniffs; whacking some of them with the flat of the blades.
"They're retreating!" Hawk pointed out after there was only about ten of them left. He finished off four when the fifth decided to run away. "Oh no, you don't." Hawk grinned as he threw his axe at the fleeing sniff, hitting it dead center.
Skillsaw, on the other hand, was using Gleipnir to pull the fleeing creatures back to him and slicing them open in mid-air. He finished them off in time to see Hawk returning with his axe resting over his shoulder.
"You alright?" The cyborg asks.
"Yeah. You?"
"Of course. Why?"
"You look like s**t." Hawk takes a brief pause. "Green s**t." this caused the two of them to burst into laughter. Once the laughter died down, Skillsaw grew stern as he wiped the blood off of himself.
"We should move out. It's not safe here." He muttered coldly.
"Yeah, we should." Hawk sighed in frustration that the good mood suddenly vanished. "Let me treat my wounds first."
August 15, 2172 05:37
ILOS
10 miles from destination
Winter's Wrath
"Stick to the trees." Skillsaw said at the first glimpse of a sunrays breaking through the thick fog. The two just woke up after relocating to another resting spot at the edge of a forest.
Hawk only gazed upon the tall trees, not even acknowledging Skillsaw's advice. He continued to look until a question suddenly appeared in his mind. "How far are we from our destination?" he mumbled as he yawned while stretching.
"'bout ten miles." Skillsaw replied as he popped his vertebrae and stretched himself awake. "Okay, let's start climbing." He grunts as he jumps towards the closest tree, holding onto the center of the trunk to get a grip before climbing all the way to the top.
Hawk quickly runs up the trunk of a different tree and jumps onto the nearest branch in midway. "Ha, beat 'cha to the top." He boasts out loud. Skillsaw only ignored him. A sudden crack from below him snapped him out of his proud moment. Hawk quickly grabbed hold of the trunk before the branch broke off.
Skillsaw burst into laughter after seeing the whole thing play out, especially after seeing how Hawk wrapped himself around the tree trunk. "You look like a cat holding on for your life." He chuckles.
"Hey!" Hawk rebutted but then smirked. "Meow meow, b***h!" The cyborg only gave a confused look but decided not to question it. Hawk shifts himself onto another branch. "Why are we even taking the trees?" He asks once he was on a sturdy branch.
"They have land mines planted throughout the forest." Skillsaw replied as he waited patiently for Hawk to be set. "You ready?"
"Yeah."
"Alright then. They're located north from here in case you get lost. I'll wait for you at the other side." Skillsaw smirked. He was the first to start jumping from tree-branch to tree-branch, getting closer to their destination while leaving Hawk in the dust.
Believing that he was far ahead, Skillsaw never looked over his shoulder once to see how far Hawk was. Seeing that the edge of the forest wasn't that far from where he was at, he smiled to himself at the thought of being victorious. A little while later, a cry of laughter caught him by surprise. He looked up to the direction of the sound only to see Hawk somersaulting overhead.
"See ya at the other side, sucka!" Hawk shouted playfully as he turned around briefly to show Skillsaw the finger before continuing to jump, flip, and swing from branch to branch.
Skillsaw was too dumbstruck at the sight of the pilot's agility to get infuriated by his actions.
It didn't take so long after that until they reached the other end of the forest where it opened up into another plain field. In the middle of the field stood an open-roof, armored truck with spiked tires and armed with a mounted dual missile turrets while two sentries walked around it.
"Do you know how to fix an automobile?" Skillsaw whispers to Hawk who was watching the same thing through the scope of his rifle.
"Yup." Hawk replies lightly, "You want me to take 'em out?"
"And where is all the fun in that?" Skillsaw mutters darkly with a smug grin.
Hawk returns the look with another grin behind his helmet and begins to climb down the tree to hide in the tall grass. "Bet I can take my prey without triggering an alarm." He whispers through the intercom.
"You're on." Skillsaw replies.
He waited for a while until Hawk was a good few meters away from the tree before he jumped into the grass himself without making so much as a sound.
"Are you sure there's nothing stuck between the tires?" one of the sentries asked as he was bent over to inspect the rear tires while he smoked a cigar.
"Naw, man, it's the engine." The other replied while peering under the hood to take a look at the engine. He was unaware of the crouching cyborg sneaking up behind him.
"Are you sure?" The other sentry shouted.
Skillsaw cupped his hand on the sentry's mouth, crushing his jaw in the process, and unsheathed the sentry's blade, stabbing him repeatedly before he deemed him dead.
Meanwhile, Hawk was standing silently behind the other sentry.
"I said: are you sure?" the sentry repeated. He turns around to walk to the front of the vehicle only to freeze in shock at the sight of Hawk's sudden appearance.
Hawk only smiled evilly before quickly snapping the sentry's neck.
Skillsaw walks towards the rear of the vehicle to see that Hawk was already done with his work.
"Guess it was a tie, Skillsaw." He noted.
Skillsaw was quick to end Hawk's little moment. "Nope."
Hawk didn't take the cyborg's remark lightly. "What? What d' you mean 'no'?"
Skillsaw gave a devious smile before replying, "He didn't see me." He points a finger at the dead sentry with a knife still lodged in his chest.
"Fine." Hawk sighs in frustration, "But I'm driving!"
"Fix her first, remember?" Skillsaw said as he waved a wrench in front of Hawk.
Hawk only snatched the wrench of his hand without a word and went to fix the engine of the vehicle.
Skillsaw waited on the driver's seat until Hawk was done with the repairs. He was beginning to dose off since he considered his waiting to be boring and decided to take a nap.
"Fire her up!" Hawk yelled.
Skillsaw quickly snapped awake and subconsciously turned the key in the ignition. After three times of turning the key, the engine finally decided to work.
"Whew, what'd I tell ya, mi amigo?!" Hawk hollered in joy, "Fifth time's the charm!"
"You said 'third time's the charm'." Skillsaw corrected him.
Hawk only rubbed it off as nothing. He was too good in a mood to get upset about being corrected. "Yeah, whatever," Was all he said as he walked towards the driver's seat where Skillsaw was still sitting. "Man the turret, won't'cha?"
Skillsaw simply said, "Got it" before moving towards the mounted missile turret.
As Hawk settled himself in the driver's seat, Skillsaw tested the controls to get acquainted with what he was working with. Hawk removed his helmet and set it off on the passenger's seat before looking at the cyborg with a sly look on his face.
"What?" Skillsaw asks.
"Buckle up for safety mutha-f**ka!" Hawk smiles before flooring the accelerator. "You're not gonna hurl on me, are you, Skillsaw?" he teases over the roaring wind.
"Nope!" Skillsaw yelled back.
"Let's try the turbo, shall we?"
Skillsaw only gave Hawk a thumbs up before bracing himself for the full force of the speed.
Hawk stayed on the open road for a little over an hour, following the tracks from which the truck came from.
"Stop right here!" Skillsaw shouted, causing Hawk to slam on the brakes, making the truck's rear side lift a few inches off the ground.
Hawk turns to look at a stiff Skillsaw holding tight on the bars. "Who looks like a cat now?" He taunts with a smirk on his face. "Meow. So why are we stopping he-" Hawk was cut off in midsentence by a sniper-shot that ricocheted off the hood of the truck. "Oh s**t!" Hawk yells as he quickly takes cover. He immediately peers over the car just enough to scan the area for the sniper and is relieved to realize that he was on the opposite side of the truck. "If only I had my helmet."
"Skillsaw, we got a sniper near the compound." Hawk received no reply. "Skillsaw?" Hawk looks towards the turret to see it unmanned. Where the hell did he go? He thought to himself. He looked towards the passenger's seat to notice that his helmet was still there. Let's see if I can reach it. With the barrel of his rifle, Hawk attempted to acquire his helmet. After about a minute or so, he finally had it in his hands.
All of a sudden, a light bulb went off in the pilot's mind as he thought up an idea. He placed his helmet on top of his sniper's barrel and slowly moves it just barely over the hood and begins to shift it side to side to catch the enemy sniper's attention. Not a while later, bullets began to fly by as the enemy sniper tried to hit the helmet when he finally shot it off the barrel of Hawk's sniper. Hawk quickly sets his sniper on the hood of the truck and aims through the scope. He was about to pull the trigger until he spotted Skillsaw.
Skillsaw snuck up behind the distracted enemy sniper and placed his hand over the sentry's mouth, crushing the jaw, and unsheathes his target's blade to stab it through his target's throat. He waited for the sentry to stop squirming and gagging before kicking him away from him.
"Was this your plan all along?" Hawk asked as he walked toward Skillsaw while admiring the scratch the sniper shot did to his helmet before putting it back on.
"Yeah, didn't mean to use you like that." Skillsaw said as he scratched the back of his head.
Hawk sighed in defeat. "Ya could've at least told me."
"I'll keep that in mind." Skillsaw began to eye the enemy base that stood before him.
It was a small compound surrounded by thick trees with only one safe road toward and away from it.
The cyborg began to ponder to himself; trying to think up a plan. "The way I see it, you got two choices, Hawk." He began, "Either you snipe on the water tower next to the base or on a tree away from it."
"Why can't I go in their gunzblazin' with you?" Hawk whined.
"I'm not going in there 'gunzblazin' and I need a good sniper to watch my back." Skillsaw places a reassuring hand on Hawk's shoulder.
Hawk just smiles to himself before replying. "D**n right you do!" and with that, he ran off toward the tower and climbed to the top to set himself up. Deep down, he was grateful that no one inside the compound has spotted him.
Meanwhile, Skillsaw stood in front of a nearby two-story building. He looked up to see the edge of the rooftop and used Gleipnir to launch himself to the top. "Hawk, is there anyone in the second floor?" He asks through the intercom as he made his way to the center of the rooftop.
"I don't think so. I'm not picking up anything through the thermals."
Skillsaw kneels down to one knee, erects a small portion of his chainsaw, and uses it to cut a hole big enough for him to enter. He pushes the cut-out piece of the roof to the side and uses it to cover the hole as he dropped through it into a dark, windowless room. The cyborg waited a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness before moving on.
After silently sweeping the entire second floor for sentries, only to find none, he concluded that the whole second floor was their armory. Each room was similar to the first, holding a variety of equipment: from explosives to armor, gadgets to ammo, and side-arms to rocket launchers. The entire building itself had flags and graffiti of the same symbol that was found drawn in blood on the wall of the Mistress.
As Skillsaw was checking the contents of one of many crates in the room, he heard a rather timid voice coming from the first floor. "I'm gonna go check on the gear." The sentry announced as he headed upstairs. The whole second floor was powered down so once the sentry entered it; he switched on the lights to get a better view of where he was going.
Hearing that the sentry was nearby, Skillsaw quietly waits by the door. Unfortunately for him, though, the sentry decided to go in the same room first. All of a sudden, the lights were flicked on, temporarily blinding the cyborg.
As the sentry looked through the crate Skillsaw left open, the stealthy cyborg slowly began to sneak up behind him. The radio on the sentry buzzed on, making Skillsaw freeze in fear of being caught.
"Hey, Jody, remember that one hot chick that turned you down?" it said.
"Yeah, bro. Dude, dude, I swear, she-" a bullet through the forehead cut Jody off in midsentence.
"Jody? What was that noise?"
After the initial shock of a sniper bullet shooting at his target through a wall, Skillsaw's blood began to boil. "What the hell was that for?!" he whispered harshly through the intercom. "That was my kill! My kill!"
"The guy sounded like an annoying b***h, so I shot him." Hawk explained.
Skillsaw was about to argue but stopped himself when he heard the radio of the dead sentry buzz again.
"Jody, don't be screwin' around, they'll be here any minute."
Skillsaw was in wide-eyed shock at hearing that they were being expected. "Hawk, we may have been compromised. Stay alert!"
"Got it." Hawk replied. "You have a group of sentries coming towards you from the first floor." He warned.
"Gee thanks." Skillsaw sighed, annoyed at having to deal with more than what he wanted.
"No problem." Hawk replied cheerfully, ignoring Skillsaw's annoyed tone.
"Jody, respond."
Skillsaw knelt down on one knee right next to the corpse and picked up the radio from its chest. "Your 'Jody' is dead." He muttered darkly, "As for the rest of you…none of you will live to tell the tale." He stands up and cooks a grenade before tossing it at the door.
Once the door slammed open, the fragmentation grenade detonated at the face of the point man, killing him instantly while injuring the other three; the first two suffered from critical concussions while the last one was trapped underneath them.
The surviving sentry stood up, staggering on his feet, trying to endure the sense of vertigo. "We…need…back up…immedi-"
"You're still alive?" Skillsaw's evil laughter cut off the sentry in midsentence. "Not for long." The cyborg wraps an arm tightly around the sentry's head and twists it a full one-eighty degrees. The loud snap of the vertebrae was like music to Skillsaw's ears and he smiled at his work.
The sudden sounds of gunfire from outside the building disrupted his admiration of his work. "Hawk, what's going on out there?"
"S**t's going down!" Hawk replied enthusiastically, "and a lot of it!" A wave of static flowed through the intercom. "They're trying to cut us off!"
Skillsaw ran out of the building as fast as he could, shooting everyone that stood in his way. After a while, he finally reached the landing zone where a shuttle was preparing to launch. The cyborg spotted a trio of sentries running toward the shuttle but they were being picked off by the sniper. "Nice shot, Hawk. I'm going to blow up the ship, take care of any sentries left."
Hawk tried to stifle his laughter and reply at the same time. "Alright," was all he was able to say. Skillsaw made a mental note to confront him about it.
The ship began to launch but Skillsaw refused to fail his mission to destroy it. He draws Gleipnir and fires it at the side of the ship to reel himself onto it. Once Skillsaw was on top of the ship, he braced himself by jamming his chainsaw through it. Now knowing that the ship won't exit the planet's atmosphere, he cut open a large hole and entered the ship.
Once inside, he fought through every sentry onboard; cutting, slicing, and stabbing about five sentries. Blood stained the whole interior of the shuttle. The cyborg left the shuttle on autopilot as he began to make the ship into one giant bomb. "Hawk, get the Phoenix ready and follow this ship."
"Why? What're you doin'!?" Hawk asked worriedly, "Why don't you just land it?!"
Skillsaw was hesitant on replying. "I-think I may have been a little over excessive on turning this ship into a bomb that I can't exactly land it anymore."
Hawk grunted in irritation, "I'll be there in about twenty minutes."
"You got five." Skillsaw replied as he opened a side door of the ship to see how high above the ground he was. He gulped nervously once he took a look outside."Wow, that's a long fall."
"Skillsaw!" Hawk shouted, "I'm getting the gunship started now, just hold on!"
"That was fast." The cyborg mumbled.
"Yeah, this truck can mow down through trees like a hot knife through butter." Hawk noted almost childishly. "How much time do you have left?"
Skillsaw hesitantly looked back to the timer he left on the screen. "You got about two minutes, Hawk!" Skillsaw was beginning to think that he should jump instead of waiting. At the one-minute mark, he made his decision. "Hawk, I'm gonna have to jump."
"B***h, you better not!" Hawk threatened.
"I'm gonna jump."
"Don't you dare-"
"Hawk!" Skillsaw screamed, cutting off the pilot's threat.
"What!?" Hawk yelled back, annoyed at being cut off.
"I Jumped!"
That just brought Hawk past his boiling point."Mother-f***er! I thought I told you not to!"
"Just stop your whining and hurry!" Skillsaw came out of his nose dive by slightly spreading the armor pieces of his mechanical limbs to cause significant air resistance to dampen the speed of his fall. The sudden explosion from the ship knocked him off course. "Hawk!"
"Just stop your whining and hurry," the pilot mocked, "The rear hatch is opened, use your grapple gun to get in!"
Time seemed to slow down for Skillsaw as loads and loads of adrenaline was dumped into his bloodstream. The Phoenix passed by under him and with Gleipnir, he shoots a handle bar inside the gunship and reels himself in.
Once inside, the cyborg tried to help his parasympathetic nervous system by deepening his breathing as the hatch closed behind him. He slowly but surely made his way to the copilot's seat.
Hawk was still upset at Skillsaw but wanted to make sure everything was still okay. "How do you feel?" he asked once the cyborg sat down.
"Like how you look." Skillsaw was actually still trembling in fear of falling to his death.
"Heh, funny." Hawk said sarcastically, "You's a funny guy."
"Speaking of funny," Skillsaw tried to change the subject, "Why were you laughing as the shuttle was taking off?"
Hawk's mood suddenly changed, "Oh, I know why our mission's called 'Winter's Wrath'."
"Why?"
"The shuttle's name is…was Summer's Breeze." A brief silence passed before the two burst into laughter.
After the laughter died down, Skillsaw sighs to relax himself. "So did you finish them off?"
"You didn't see it?" Hawk sounded surprised. Skillsaw only shook his head in response. "Look behind us."
Skillsaw got off the copilot seat and walked to the back where there was a small, thick window to view the outside from behind the ship. "Why should I look behi-oh…that's why."
Miles away stood a giant mushroom-cloud that only a nuclear bomb could cause. "How's you do that?"
"Simple; I connected and placed all the explosives in a compressed room and then kaboom!" Hawk explained excitedly.
"Nice." Skillsaw complemented, "I also noticed you brought the buggy onboard too."
"No s**t. It takes almost the whole ship."
Skillsaw was beginning to think that Hawk was naïve of the risks. "You know it could've been bu-"
"I'm not stupid, I thoroughly swept the car…No bugs." Hawk grew stern again. "How do you think Livewire's doing?"
"Why?" Skillsaw asks as he made his way back to his seat.
"He missed one helluvan' a** kickin'!" The excitement rushed back into him.
"He's on business."
"What exactly is he doing?"
"Research."
"Where?"
"He's at Svartalfheim."
"The planet?"
"Yes."
"What is he researching there?"
"Can we drop it?"
"Fine. I just…want to know." Hawk felt more saddened than angered thinking that a teammate was keeping something from him, but pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind because he knew that he was keeping more information from them.
The rest of the flight back to La Habra was going smooth. Although Hawk would've preferred to see some more action, he didn't mind the peaceful ride. Skillsaw just didn't care for what was going on and fell into a light slumber. Hawk arrived at the closest gate; a large ring sized object capable of creating a wormhole linked to another similar gate for faster transportation, they were large enough for any sized space vehicle to use.
Skillsaw roused from his slumber when he began to hear Hawk mumbling a play-by-play of what he was doing. He immediately was on high alert once he understood what was going on. "Wait, Hawk, don't use the-" he was cut off by the jolt of the ship moving at full speed through the gate and out another.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Hawk acted as if he didn't hear what Skillsaw was trying to say.
"You better hope our jump wasn't recorded." Skillsaw warns with a growl resonating in his throat.
"Relax, mi amigo, we're almost there." Hawk snickered cheerfully.
August 17, 2172 12:47
Phoenix
Midgard Sector
En route to La Habra
Operation: Winter's Wrath-Success
"This is the pilot of the Phoenix requesting permission to land." Hawk said through the ship's intercom as he hovered a few miles away from La Habra.
"Mother-f***in' tweetie, it is you!" Skillsaw and Hawk grinned at the sound of Livewire's voice on the speakers. "Hey, Scottie!" they hear Livewire yell. "Let them in, they're with me." A brief pause before Livewire said, "Alright you two, come on in."
"D**n, that's one big a** mother-f***er!" Livewire hollered as he stood patiently waiting for Hawk and Skillsaw to exit the Phoenix; amazed at the sight of the buggy they were riding in.
Hawk began to gently pat the side of the buggy as he drove it slowly, "I call it the Puma."
"How'd you get it?" Livewire asks.
"Fount it." Hawk grinned slyly as he found a place to park it.
"Nice." Livewire nodded approvingly. "Oh, Skillsaw, I need to talk to you too." The cyborg was barely exiting the Puma when Livewire called out to him. "But not until you give me your end of the bargain."
"Right." Skillsaw reaches behind his back to pull out a wine bottle with a red ribbon tied to it from his duffle bag. "Here." He tosses the bottle to Livewire who gently caught it. "It was a legacy for one of the terrorist sentries I killed."
"Holy s**t!" Livewire exclaims excitedly, "Eighteen-thirty-seven!"
"Yup."
"Alright, hurry your a**es up, I'm tellin' you guys now!" Livewire left in a hurry with the other two following close behind.
Once they reached their living quarters, Livewire made a quick sweep of the area before beginning to speak in a whisper. "Okay, I met with a friend that was with the USMC and this guy knows a lot of good s**t." He began while the other two gave him their full attention. "He owns and runs a freakin' underground market and it's because I know him that he gave me the Intel free of charge."
"Who is this guy?" Hawk intervened when Livewire began to take a sip of rum from a flask.
Livewire quickly gulped down the contents to answer that question. "The people that know him, including me, call him the 'Korean' because he considers himself the proudest Korean-born in the universe."
Right, Skillsaw thought to himself, since Earth's Doomsday, people have been identifying their nationality through their ancestry. Ireland-born, Latino-born, and so on and so forth. Now 'American' is used as a term for those who consider themselves tolerant of all nationalities.
"Okay," Livewire continued, "So, the FTL is a top-secret prototype being developed by Watchtower Industries; the same company that is running Operation: Scio phobia." He took a brief pause to drink some more. "The device is suppose to help ships travel faster than the speed of light, hence: Faster Than Light. Now, for 'Shawn Hoffman'-"
Hawk stiffened at the sound of that name. The other two noticed but decided not to question it. At the moment.
"From what I read, he had one f***ed up past." Livewire finally put the top on his flask and placed his flask in his leather jacket's hidden pocket. "He was forcefully separated from his sibling, who's gender wasn't mentioned, after being orphaned at an early age. He moved on with his life and enlisted in the air-force where he became a highly decorated pilot but was later placed on an assignment that cost the lives of his unit with him barely surviving the dogfight. Apparently, whoever he was suppose to fight off didn't like the fact that he survived and later hired assassins to take him out." Livewire pulled out an envelope from the same pocket he hid his flask in and tossed on the table in the middle of their little circle. Once it hit the table, photos of the crime scene slid out. "His corpse was defiled to the point where only his wife, Luna, could identify him and later held a military funeral service for him."
A small period of silence passed between them as if to mourn the death of the soldier in question.
"The assassins-" Livewire broke the silence, "were suspected to be Shadow Phasers due to the fact that no physical evidence was obtained and the case was closed off a few months later." He let the other two look at the files and images before moving on to his other findings. "The person Skillsaw encountered on Munin, Richard, used to work for Watchtower as a Shadow Phaser in the Scio phobia operation but was fired for…issues. His anger management and constant disobedience of orders led him to join the terrorist group known as San Venganza, or Saint Vengeance who the Government believes is affiliated with the Church."
Livewire turned to look at the cyborg, "His affiliation with Joseph Carter is that Joseph was his last target to assassinate before he went AWOL on Watchtower. Because he didn't exactly complete his assignment perfectly, Carter's corpse is nowhere to be found. The description of Carter is about six feet tall, African-born, and pure human. He probably thought you were Joseph because you fit the description, Skillsaw…well, almost fit the description."
"What about the disk he had?" Skillsaw finally spoke up.
Livewire raised a waved him off with a gentle hand, "Calm your a** down, b***h, I'm getting to that!"
