Bet ya you didn't think you would hear from me anytime soon, did you? Well, here I am! Still alive!
I apologize deeply for my absence, but life has been coming at me very fast. In between exams, tutoring, gaming, a massive writer's block, and looking what to do with my life after I finish high school there has been very little time for me to write. Well, that might not be entirely true. I did write, but not this story. It is for an amazing DayZ roleplay sever called FalconRP. I will try to put a link to what I wrote in the A/N at the back.
Anyways, I would like to thank everybody that has faved and followed. 100 Favourites! I can't freaking believe it! You guys are the reason I haven't thrown this in the trash bin yet, even though it may have looked like it cause of my absence.
Not Betaed, cause I didn't want to let y'all wait any longer.
"We are the Builders and the Destroyers and the Warriors and the Peacekeepers. We build and we destroy, we fight and we guard. We are the sentinels of the void, we fight the forces from beyond. We are the Remembered and Forgotten, for we will always heed the call."
-SPARTAN V oath/motto
~Chapter 12~
*I spotted seven foot mobiles incoming on your position, proceed with caution.* the voice of one of Halt's rangers came over the comms.
"Affirmative, we'll take them out if they come too close. Greybeard, how are the rooftops looking?" Villain asked over TEAMCOM, his VISR already marking the outlines of the spotted rebels on his HUD. "Gamma, movement pattern Echo-Three-Niner. Avoid hostiles at all costs."
*Rooftops are clear, Gamma. We're moving up.* Halt said and the Helljumpers saw a glimpse of khaki armour when the rangers jumped to another building.
*Anyone find it strange we haven't seen any of those Deathwatch guys?* Rookie asked.
It was answered by an annoyed British voice, *Belt up, Rookie, you'll jinx us.*
*Oui, it is not very… smart. Zhe last time someone said such things, I almost lost ma tête.* Turtle said in a jolly voice.
*So what you almost lost a tit? You don't even have any to begin with, frenchie.* Archer turned her head to the heavy weapons expert.
*It means my head, you uncultured imbicile.* Turtle shot back, not really meaning it.
"Can the chatter, troopers. It's not Rookie's fault he's an idiot."
*Sir, yes sir* they answered simultaneously, Archer giving a half-hearted salute. The Sangheili brothers just grunted in amusement. Even after three years with gamma they were still amazed by the friendly relations between their leader and his soldiers.
They continued on in silence, covering each other's backs with Squidward in the middle of the formation. The black clad troopers checked every nook and cranny for hostile movement, keeping low to avoid the patrols of both droids and rebels. Slowly they progressed until they finally got to the RV point, a small warehouse with one entrance and some skylights. The five Rangers were already there, being more mobile than the eight Helljumpers.
"Halt, how've you been?" Mike asked, depolarising his visor.
The Ranger slid a hand down his own in annoyance, "It has literally been thirty minutes since you last asked that. You're worse than Tug sometimes."
The Gunny gasped dramatically, a mock-hurt expression appearing on his battle-hardened face, "How dare you compare me to a rookie! I'm not comparing you to Swanson, now am I?"
Both rookies turned their heads at the same time, an insulted "Hey!" coming through their filters, causing mike to laugh loudly and a small simile to form on Halt's lips.
"Blaze, any word on the Shriek hawks?" the Ranger sergeant asked his second.
"Negative. Designated channel is clear an there's nothing on motion sensors."
Archer saw that as her cue to speak up, "I'm telling you, you can't trust mercenaries. They've probably already switched sides on us, the buggers."
"We are mercenaries…" Tug noted dryly.
Suddenly a person clad in red an silver armour burst through one of the skylights, followed by a smaller one in blue and black armour. They had helmets with T-shaped visors on their heads with some sort of eyes painted on the forehead. Both of them had a jetpack on their backs, which was evident as they activated them just in time to avoid falling to their deaths.
Within the tenth of a second eight Helljumpers and five Rangers raised their guns at the pair, ready to punch the newcomers full of holes.
Before they could though, both Halt and Mike raised their right hands to stop them, "Well, Archer, it appears they're here." He turned his attention to the pair, "At least I hope so. Are you the only ones they sent?"
the woman chuckled, it had somewhat of a dark tone to it. "We are indeed your allies, Sergeant. My name is Mesh'la Cadera, this is my second in command, Tor Farr, and you are the ones that will help me get my revenge."
"Ed, what's the situation on the ground like?" Andrew asked the construct. He was standing on the bridge's raised platform, reading reports and denying or giving permission for certain actions while at the same time coordinating with Kiyo' and the Shriek Hawks.
"Reports show zero KIAs on our side, three lightly wounded and one marine that'll have to have his arm flashcloned, the poor sod. It appears we are pushing back the enemy rebels and battledroids, but the Deathwatch have yet to show themselves. Also, a report from Gamma and Oaken squads; they have rendezvoused with the Shoktroopers. Apparently Cadera and Farr have joined them."
"Good, I don't want to lose any more men, I'll probably already be court-martialled for the losses we led on Naboo. Can't say I like the thought of the leader of our allies going on a mission like that, though. Anything else?"
The AI simulated a troubled look, something that worried the captain as Edward was usually very cheerful. "Agent Smith is asking to speak to you, sir, he says it is important. I have tried to inform him that the bridge is off-limits during a combat operation, but he used his BGI rank to override protocol."
"Are you sure you can't just tell him to fuck off?" I really don't want to do this right now.
A new voice spoke up behind him, "I'm sorry, captain, but this is really is important and I would prefer if we could do it in a more… private setting."
Standing behind Hallsson was Agent Smith, he didn't know his name, but that was common with BGI agents these days. The man had piercing grey eyes and a shaven, stone-cold face with a military cut of black hair on his head.
"If you hadn't noticed, agent Smith, I'm a little busy, you know, with the commander of the Shriek Hawks going off on her personal vendetta or whatever it is that drove her to leave her troops without a centralised command."
"I get that sir, but this is very important. I would really prefer not to have to use contingency 83."
Hallssons eyes narrowed, "You play a dangerous game, agent. Don't forget that there is no BGI here to enforce that. I'm already facing probable execution if we ever do get to go home, so there's very little you can do to threaten me, understand?"
"Crystal, sir, but I will still stress the importance of what I am about to tell you."
"Fine, but be quick about it."
There was shouting. She didn't know where she was, but it looked old, industrial. One very high pitched voice was ordering people around and music was blearing from a building with three large, rusted, red metal doors. There were guts of some sort of animal laying around in a pile outside and suddenly the smell of roasted meat intruded her senses. Is smelled a bit like roasted nerf.
The high pitched voice carried easily through the thin metal doors, "What do you mean stop talking like this? It's my voice, I'm a woman dammit!"
"You are?" another deeper voice was only just heard above the music, "I thought you were a guy with a very feminine voice."
She slowly opened the door and she was greeted by a wave of sound and heat. Her small hands clenched nervously. The high pitched voice belonged to a woman wearing grey pants and a dark blue checked shirt that was pretty damaged. She had a tan facemask on with an orange hat on her head. The strange woman had an axe on her back and was holding a stick to the fire in the middle of the large room.
There was a guy unconscious on the ground, presumably the one that had assumed the strange woman a man. "Oooh, look, a visitor! Do you wanna join out firestation party? Here, have some steak, it's not human meat at all!" Ratha was taken aback for a moment. Not human meat? That didn't sound good.
"Where did that music go?!" the woman's annoyingly high voice shouted, "And where's the other bambi that tried to hit us with an axe? We're runnin' out of steak!"
Ratha felt like she needed to run, but behind her she could hear the clanging feet of her usual tormentors approaching. She started to panic, these people were acting like nothing strange was happening at all!
Suddenly the woman was shot in the head, blood spraying out of her temple. The rest of the morbid partygoers fell down to the ground, motionless, with the next seven shots.
The shadows parted and revealed her protector, a black robed, silver masked, menacing, yet comforting presence. She never found out who it was as she always forgot the dream she had straight afterwards.
The door burst open and a stream of tan metal streamed through, but her protector didn't seem to care as he levelled his rifle and charged the tan metal killing machines without a care for his own safety.
She tried to scream, but as soon as she opened her mouth…
She woke up.
Most AI were created from a human brain used to map neural pathways, causing AI to develop a personality and to think like humans do. Usually those AIs took the memories of their former life with them.
Edward, though, wasn't most AIs. He was one of the first to be "born", if you could call it that, from two AI parents. They were ARL-9952-187 "Ariel", and DNL-9273-301 "Daniel", the two experienced shipboard artificial intelligences of the Infinity-class UNSC Endless.
The process was… awkward, to say the least. The two AI, both capable of emotion, fell in love in a matter of days, resulting in the first "ship romance" of the brand new Infinity. They hid their feelings from the rest of the crew and officers, fearing they would be shut down if anyone ever found out about it. For two years they were able to keep it under wraps, until the regular check-up finally came up and they decided it would be best to tell the captain before BGI went through the AI logs.
Surprisingly, the captain, Harrison Brooks, encouraged their relationship and so did the crew, most of whom had made great friends with the pair (and of course because it is never a smart idea to piss off an AI), even after what happened with Cortana so many years ago.
Another year later the couple made it known to the captain that they would like to get married, something which caused giant changes in the Synthetics Law. After many days of debate the UEG voted on the issue of Synthetic rights and the new law was passed, making AI officially part of the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command.
After the wedding Ariel and Daniel kept working on the ship, but they felt something was missing, and so, after no more than four months after the law change, they requested a child. This resulted in the creation of EDD-6336-231, a combination of both AI's former DNA and neural pathways. He was by all means and purposes their son, but after the two year learning period he was transferred to the UNSC William of Orange and only got to see his parents once before being shot into a different galaxy.
Well, here you have it.
I hope you enjoyed this, I have loads off ideas, but not enough time to write it down and when I do my brain is like "No, I refuse!"
If you want to read what I did in my absence:
www .falcondayzrp . com [slash] dayzforum/m/27611258/viewthread/ 24486396-drabbles-dr-riley-bridger
