-CNV Sovereign-
A wet day is a good day, the rain pattering against the dirt graced those who had strained to build the garden a boost in morale. The fact that food was becoming a scarce resource in the world was terrifying enough without the remnant Locust forces or the Lambent to worry about. But rain was always good. Imulsion can't spread in water and the Locust hate water, which makes living on the giant ship near the island of Vectes an even better solution for what remained of the COG.
For Dominic Santiago, it was still a living hell.
Following E-Day, he lost his sons. Two years ago, he had to kill his own wife. The Locust had taken everything away from him. All but one thing; Marcus, his closest friend. Once, Dom was fueled by the drive to find his wife, but now he could not see a bright future ahead of him.
Maria was his shining light, but now it was shut out with the bullet of a boltok pistol.
"Dom." The large Tyran soldier-turned-gardner looked to see Samantha Byrne walk up to him, holding a box full of seeds and plants. Samantha was always wary around Dom, and knew just how well the man was suffering. Since that day, or at least that's what Marcus told them, he had become a more withdrawn man, focusing on his gardening to try to forget about the pain. Dom had taken the life of his one love, and now he would forever live with that. It would be with him until the day he died.
Sam at least respected Dom, and the rest of the ship did as well. The man was deflated in terms of morale, but he was still the man that stood by Marcus Fenix and the rest of Delta, and now was practically in charge of everything that grew on the ship. The rain didn't seem to faze either of them.
"Hey Sam. What's that you got there?" Dom asked, his new interest perking at the box.
"Just some seeds that we bartered off from some Stranded. Nice people. Gave them a couple of our guns in exchange for some good stuff." Sam reached down and pulled out a really tiny bag, only the size of her finger. "Watermelon. Remember the last time you had that? And cauliflower. Good for your bones." Sam put the seeds back in the bag and gave it to Dom. She secretly wished that this would bring out more of the man, but it seemed fate was not on her side today.
"Thanks Sam." Dom took the small bag gently from Sam's hand and put it in one of his many pant pockets. "I'll plant this as soon as I can." He went back to digging with his shovel, leaving Sam saddened at his dismissive air. It seemed that there was no hope to cheer up, or even put a smile on Santiago's face. And with that, she promised that she would see him smile once, even if it meant the world.
"See you around Dom." Sam said, before walking back into the ship's hull via open staircase.
"See ya." He said, and began picking the last of the tomato plants that had grown last month. Seeing his work done, and a basket full of fruit and vegetables, Dom would have gone back down the same way Sam went were it not for someone to suddenly make himself known.
"Marcus!" Dom yelped, totally unsuspecting of his friend's sudden appearance. "You scared the crap out of me man. Tell me when you're gonna teleport on my ass."
Marcus Fenix, the one-man army and probably humanity's greatest hope against the Locust Horde, war veteran of the Pendulum Wars and Dom's best friend. Marcus was renowned as a hero on the Sovereign, and rightly so. Had it not been for Marcus and the rest of Delta Squad, humanity would have kicked the can long ago. Stopping RAAM from using the Lightmass bomb on humanity, killing the massive riftworm and flooding the Hollow on top of a mutant brumak were all in a day's work for Marcus. But even with years of war tucked under his belt, Marcus wasn't faring better than most of the crew when it came down to living rather than surviving. His consistent nightmares were just a giveaway to what plagued the mind of the last Fenix.
He was wearing his armor, unusual since there hasn't been any sort of activity from either the lambent or the Locust for quite a while.
"I see Sam came by." Marcus wasn't really one for conversation, but knew when to make an exception with Dom.
"Yeah, gave me some bag full of seeds." Dom replied. "What's with the armor? We're not fighting Stranded again, are we?"
"Dom, Michaelson wanted me to get you, Carmine and Anya. Said that he got a message of sorts and wants us up on the captain's lodge. Let's go." Marcus nudged with his head towards the large tower at the back of the ship, and started walking there, Dom in tow.
"What sort of message?" Dom asked.
"Said some Stranded got a hold on one of us, says he's willing to share some critical information. Didn't say anything else other than it was an Onyx Guard he found on his island." Marcus explained to the increasingly curious Dom. "Yeah, kinda makes someone wonder what the hell's an Onyx Guard doing with some Stranded. Certainly not looking for the Holy Grail."
"Who knows, man. Aren't they the top-secret type? Y'know, classified missions and all that crap?" Dom said as he placed his tools back in the nearby shed.
"All the more reason to get this Guard. C'mon, let's get to Michaelson. It's going to be a long set sail if can't use any of the choppers."
...
Fredrick smacked the side of the geobot again, hoping to get into the stupid thing's archives and find out what the Onyx Guard was looking for. For some damn reason, he couldn't open it. Whether it was because it was in sync with the Onyx Guard's armor and he couldn't open it without her permission, or it was just a piece of scrap and the whole she-bang about the thing found in the underground was a load of hooey.
"Anything, Fred?" Fredrick turned his head to see one of his assistants, who was fiddling with a retro lancer, ask him about to geobot.
"Nothing. Can't even get the damn thing to light up." The bitter engineer spat, and rose up to exit his makeshift workshop. It was a large, open garage that he had retrofitted into a repair and forgery, able to fix weapons and with a decent supply of spare parts to share, it was a haven to the Stranded.
"I'm going to talk with little Miss Secret Shit. Keep the place open, it won't be long." Fredrick told his assistant, and then left the repair shop. After walking towards the hospital entrance, quick since the two places were right next to each other, he made a note to not berate the Onyx Guard, but to ask her nicely. If Fredrick could push himself to be nice.
The hospital seemed to be vacant, shocking for a Stranded outpost. Fredrick made his way to the room that held the Onyx Guard, and went inside to see that she was sitting on the edge of her bed, her helmet in her hands. Her armor must have been patched up from the day before, because the deep black was now pattered with slight grays. Her torn, tattered hair which must have blonde at one point was a mess, and her face was lined with many scars, with the largest two criss-crossing her face. Her pale blue eyes seemed to match her mood as she stared at the helmet's blue optics. Her slumped posture must have meant that she was now dealing with the aftermath of being the lone surviving Onyx Guard. He could sympathize with her. The loss of his own family had taken it's toll on him as well.
"Hey." Fredrick said, startling the woman. She quickly put the helmet back on to hide her face and turned to face the man.
"What are you doing here?" She asked quickly. Fredrick raised an eyebrow on his aging face.
"Gee, I don't know, checking up on the survivor? Like a decent human being? I know you COG don't do that, but here? We kinda like to build a good relation with our people." Fredrick explained to the Onyx Guard.
"I'm not one your people." She huffed back.
"You're human, ain't ya? You're not mumbling about killing groundwalkers or serving the Queen, are you? So yeah, you are kinda one of us." To a degree, he was right. But the Onyx was still a member of the COG, even if it was a dead government. He knew she would be obstinate about the whole ordeal, but Fredrick, even with a patience as minimal as his own he would try to kindle a relationship with her.
"Why are you here." She said plainly. Not one for discussion, was she?
"The geobot. It's not opening, so I came to you to see if you could." Fredrick gave the machine to the Onyx Guard. "I never got your name, woman."
"My name isn't important." She said as she tinkered with the geobot. After couple of seconds, the damn thing decided that she had the magic touch and opened. The hologram of the nearby mountain to the outpost's south, and the opening on the opposite side of the mountain. It stretched further down, towards what seemed a massive underground cave nearly filled with enough water to be an underground sea, almost half the size of the island above. Fredrick was shocked by the hologram, but saw that in the center of the cave there was a strange structure, octagonal in shape. It must have been huge to be picked up by the geobot and even then, it was in the middle of the sea on an island.
"So we have an island, with a sea, underneath an island. Alright." Fredrick gestured with a finger. "We should tell Brendan about this. No doubt he's already told them about you." Fredrick turned to leave, but turned to the Onyx Guard. "Well? C'mon. I see you've got yourself in check. Let's get you out of here."
"Fine." She said, and stood up to follow Fredrick. She put on her helmet to once again hide her face from the world.
"By the way, the name's Fredrick. I'd ask your's, but since you're Onyx I know that's not important." Fredrick talked to the Onyx Guard to his left, and saw that she was staring at him intensely through that black and blue helmet.
"Ashley. My name is Ashley. Ashley O'Malley." The Onyx Guard said her name, and Fredrick smiled at her.
-Forest, near Wall Rose-
"You should have seen it! It was gray and hideous and it ate my allowance!"
"I'm sure you were just imagining something, Damien. Now, where's Sophia? Where is she? It's time for dinner."
"Mom, listen to me please!"
"Damien, there are no monsters in the woods. Mere child's stories that I told you when you were a wee baby."
Finding that his own mother wouldn't even believe him, Damien grunted and stormed off to find Sophia. Of course his mom wouldn't believe him. Who would, besides his best friend? Sophia had seen the monster and what it had done to Damien's pocket, but nobody else would. They told there was a monster in the woods to the Stationary Guard near the wall, but they just laughed it off and told the kids to "keep up the good stories". Damien had never been this frustrated in his life. He'd lost his allowance, had his favorite shirt torn and nobody wanted to believe him.
He and Sophia had returned to his house near the forest, and Damien was quick to replace his shirt. His parents had money for plenty of shirts, unlike those poor saps living near Wall Maria. He knew of the conditions there; people living in the streets, homes filled with families of rats rather than people, and beggars lined with muggers to steal what they can get. Damien knew that it was even worse underground, in that city beneath the earth.
"Sophia? Where are you?" Damien yelled as he walked upstairs to his room. Sophia would be in there, playing with his toys, like she had done many times before.
"I'm right here!" Sophia said back loudly through his door, and he opened to see Sophia drawing on one of his paper boards. The drawing was a crudely scrawled picture of the gray monster they encountered in the woods. Damien could see the beak and the thin legs, but it's body was too fat and he distinctly remembered that it had no eyes.
"You're drawing the monster?" Damien asked as he sat next to Sophia. If one could see, there was a blush on his face as she leaned in to explain.
"Yeah, because I'm sick and tired of hearing everyone say that we're liars. I'm gonna prove them wrong." Sophia finished the last line and held up her drawing. "You see? Once they see this, then they'll believe us." Sophia seemed pretty proud of her drawing, or maybe it was proving herself right to everyone else, including Damien.
"How do you know?" Damien had to ask. If words couldn't convince people, how could a drawing?
"Think about it, stupid. You really think that we'd imagine something like this?" Sophia explained to her friend. "No way."
"Nice. My mom wanted us to eat dinner." Damien sat up quickly to hide his blush.
"Was it her potato salad and fried beans?" Sophia asked ecstatically. Damien's mom made the best food in Wall Rose, at least in her opinion. Her potato salad and fried bean special was her top favorite. She was a growing girl, after all. Her parents couldn't afford good food since they were merchants in the town center. She lived some miles away from Damien's house, in the local neighborhood.
"Yeah, she's downstairs." Damien said, and was nearly barged out of the way when Sophia practically sprinted out his room and hurried down the stairs. "Sophia! You know my mom hates it when you run down the stairs!" The boy called out, and angrily went after his friend. The last time she did that, Damien's mom nearly spilled a whole crock of hot chicken noodle soup and had a fit. Damien abided to his mother's law without question, but Sophia, ever the rebel, still did it just to annoy Damien because it was always he who got in trouble. His mom would always demand that Damien try to get Sophia to follow the rules of the house, and he would have to stand there and listen to his mom chew him out while Sophia sneered at him in the background.
Damien waltzed down the stairs, not eager to have to listen his mom rage at him for Sophia's antics. He noticed from the candlelight that there was someone standing in the hallway, and it must have been Sophia since it was about the exact size of her. Damien found himself confused. Normally, she would have already eaten half of her dinner as soon as Damien even put his foot in the dining room.
Glass shattered, and a horrific splat echoed in the house. Damien, wondering what happened, ran to his friend.
"Sophia?" He called out. "Are you okay?" He noticed that her shadow wasn't even moving, and as he rounded the corner he saw that she was just standing there, not moving a single muscle. Confused, Damien reached out to touch her.
"You okay?" He asked softly.
"D-Damien..." She sputtered, and pointed forward. Her finger trembled, as his eyes followed to where she led.
He saw the kitchen, with the pot of soup ready and boiling. The beans were placed on their plates, and the potato salad was ready in a large bowl. He also saw his mother. On the ground. Missing her head. Blood had splattered about everywhere in the room, forming a gruesome and terrifying scene. The little giblets that were spattered around were probably what remained of his mother's cranium.
If he had noticed, there was a hole in the window.
"...mom?" Damien's eyes began to water at the sight. His mom was dead.
And he would have wept were it not for the doors behind them to suddenly explode. Damien and Sophia were sent flying back, with him landing on one of his couches and Sophia smacking into a wall. Wood shards and splinters flew around the room, and dust that had been resting in the walls of his home were now offering a fine layer over the barely conscious boy. Damien weakly rose, and clutched his side in pain. A huge gash in his side, most likely from the impact of a wooden shard of the door, was leaking blood. Sophia wasn't doing too well either. Her forehead was smothered in her blood, and she had her eyes closed.
"S-Sophia! Ngh!" Damien tried to stand up, but the injury was crippling him. His hand reached for something to hold on so that he could rescue his friend from whatever had killed his mother and blown up the front of his house.
And then he saw it, emerging from the splintered front.
A massive creature, maybe about eight feet tall and with the body of a monster. It's footsteps thundered on the creaky floors. The creature's armor was red and black, with patches of glowing orange lights. It was hefting a gargantuan gun, far bigger than any musket. The monster's dull gray skin, covered in black scales, was not enough to hide it's beady red eyes, which were blazed with simple-minded rage. It turned it's head, tiny compared to the rest of it's barrel-shaped body, and locked eyes with Damien. The boy nearly wet himself in fear as the creature pointed the barrel of the gun at him and yelled.
"Hominid!" The creature shouted, and Damien expected to die from whatever the creature had in store for him.
Only to realize that the creature was not alone. Two others flanked it, both smaller but still had that gray skin and strange armor. One of them had a deep black set of armor and was wielding what looked like a bow made of metal. The monster's helmet was open with a black glass where the eyes should be. A cape, dark gray with the emblem of some sort of cross, flapped in the wind. The other was even stranger, for it wore a pair of bright yellow goggles, red armor decorating its body and a long barreled rifle with a large scope near the stock.
"Human boy." The goggled one pointed at Damien, and the other with the black armor marched forward and grabbed the boy by the neck. The creature's immense strength nearly snapped his neck. He struggled for breath as the monster began walking out of his home. He saw the biggest one grab Sophia, still unconscious, and drag her out as well by the gut.
"Subjects found." The black armored monster spoke to seemingly no one. After a few seconds, it spoke again. "Human boy and girl. Young. Good for testing."
Before Damien could think about what it meant by testing, the one with the goggles then grabbed what looked like a strange cylinder from outside, filled with a glowing yellow light. It placed it near the kitchen, and pressed a button on the top which triggered some sort of beeping, because after he had been dragged out into the dark with the monsters, the cylinder exploded, taking Damien's house with it in a massive fireball. The goggled one and the huge one laughed at the sight, and the black armored one simply hissed at them, probably to keep them in line.
No mother. No home. And Damien began to realize that there was also no hope for him as well.
