Alright, sorry I'm late, I had to re-write the chapter once, didn't go in the direction I wanted it to so I had to scrap it and start over again. Also less time for me to write since I'm often watching the League of Legends Championship Series Thur-Sun when I'm not actually PLAYING the game. Still, I hope to be on time in two weeks.
Rest in peace Monty Oum, you will be dearly missed.
COMMENTS ON CHAPTER THREE AND BEYOND:
Crimson Homura:
Oh my god, this is going to be awesome. I'm guessing that they are going to rescue Black after learning 'the truth', but Black will just go rage on them when she sees the cannon.
SHHH NO SPOILERS… ;)
UnkownSoul:
Aaaahhhhh... great chapter, nothing else to say!
Tried to think of some witty pun to use hear, (and I thought hard) but I got nothing. Regardless thanks and hope you enjoy this chapter!
BRSLoverr:
Oh mi god I cant wait for the next chapter! Your work is absolutely brilliant!
Glad you like the story so much! Hope this chapter pleases!
Alright that's everyone, hope this one is somewhat enjoyable!
Chapter Four: Squad Keeper
Day 2
Date: Saturday, January 22nd 2015
Location: Obroseon Grand Station
Time: 11:15 P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)
After thirty minutes of being lost, asking strangers for directions, and following DJ's unparalleled failure at picking direction, White felt relief as he stood inside the biggest train station on Blue Rift, Obroseon Grand Station. The whole place was lit by numerous chandeliers at least two stories above where he was standing, and what wasn't illuminated by those was covered by other fancy looking lights that hung from the walls. In a few words, rich, stylish, and classy.
"This place is like it came out of a fairy tale!" Rose exclaimed, dashing forwards and looking around with a sparkle of wonder in her eye.
"Yeah, seems wasted on a train station that took way too long to find though." Winston commented with a quick glance at DJ, who rushed to defend himself.
"There were two streets okay! We had a fifty-fifty shot, and as it turns out this wasn't some rich guys' mansion in the middle of the city! Sorry for making mistakes!" White waved his hand up and down, signaling for DJ and Winston to no ruin the moment while keeping his eyes focused on the electronic board that was attached to the wall in front of them, since the glamour and size of the station only lasted in the waiting area.
"Alright guys cool it, we need to find out which train we're taking to get to the western front of Kheawuton, otherwise we're going nowhere fast." So focused on the board of arrivals and departures, White almost didn't feel Winston tapping on his shoulder, who then pointed to a hallway on the eastern side of the room guarded by an armed man.
"What makes you think that's it?" White asked.
"Why would they have a single guarded hallway?" Winston countered. After taking a brief moment to bring Rose back to the real world, the group walked over to the guard, who noticed them a few feet before they were stopped.
"Stragglers, glad you made it in time." The soldier commented neutrally, not even looking up from his data pad. "The last train is just about to leave, all the Guardians left behind were going to be stuck cleaning bathrooms until tomorrow." White, Rose, and DJ all got disgusted looks on their faces before dashing down the hall with Winston close behind. The words of the station guard enough to force White to step on it. No way I'm spending a Saturday cleaning virtual toilets!
The hallway was plain, illuminated by dimmed lights without anything special. White figured it was because the tunnel served a military over civilian purpose and therefore didn't require any special decoration, but damn was this a long tunnel! By the time White shot out of it and into the () it felt like he had ran a mile. He wanted a moment to catch his breath but a whistle from the sleek blue hover-train meant that they had to move.
"Wait for us, we're coming!" Rose shouted in distress as the doors started to close, the group clearly too far away to make it in time. Just as White was ready to admit defeat when the doors closed, the suddenly opened again with a man dressed in what looked like a navy blue military uniform glaring at the four.
"We got word from Stan you were coming, and the commander almost left you here. If we didn't need every man possible to defeat the Thilan you'd be back in boot. Never again is that clear?" White had his hands on his knees and was panting too hard to answer right away, although he tried. "Is that clear?" The man asked again.
"Perfectly, crystal clear." White managed to pant out. The man narrowed his eyes, pausing a moment before raising his voice.
"When you talk to me or anyone above my rank you will respond properly, is that understood?"
"Yes Sir!" The four Guardians answered, White in particular giving more force behind his voice in this response, unwilling to get yelled at again.
"Good, Lieutenant Colonel Beals, now go find yourselves a seat and enjoy your last moments of peace." Beals ordered.
"Yes Sir." White quickly ran past Beals and sat down in one of the booths towards the back, finding he had to sit at a strange angle to get comfortable because of his cannon. White and Rose had ended up with the window seats, White taking the seat closest to the back and Winston sitting down next to him.
"Geez he was scary, what does he think this is the military?" DJ's rhetorical question was answered by three annoyed glares.
"Did you really just ask that?" White sighed and shook his head.
"Sorry, bad attempt at a joke I'll take the blame for this." DJ replied, leaning back against his seat, the four of them sitting in silence for a moment.
"So, how long can everyone be on today?" White asked, trying to get a conversation rolling again.
"I have all day, my father is in the board room all day so I have the house to myself." Winston stretched his hands out above his head. "More time to kill some Thilan." DJ gave a wicked grin.
"I've got all day too, more time for shooting."
"Guess that means we're spending all day on BRSO then, I just can't wait to try out my baby." Rose commented, patting the sniper rifle on her back. "But one thing White, how are you going to stay alive with that Jacket? Black's didn't exactly help her in the arena." White shrugged.
"I didn't get a data pad telling me what this thing could do; I was just told that it had a powerful shield."
"I hope it's enough to take a rocket, because if it can't you won't last very long." DJ smirked. "I can picture it now, you in your pretty white jacket flying through the air as you take a missile to the face." White rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Yeah just keep talking tough guy, you'll be the first one here to start crying for mommy." DJ laughed.
"If that happens I'm more likely to throw the headset across the room!" There was a small jolt, White looked out the window to find that the train had started to move, and quickly. It appeared that the train didn't need a lot of acceleration time and within two or three seconds was already going maybe eighty miles per hour.
"Any idea how long it's going to take us to reach Kheawuton?" Rose asked, looking out the window. Winston pulled out his own data pad from his small backpack and began to scroll through it.
"It's going to be at least three hours, real time from the looks of it too. I guess there isn't much to do except wait." White rested his head against the wall. Despite the BRSO headset being able to send signals to replicate the bodies senses in the game, White didn't feel like he was actually on a train. And he doubted he was going to be able to just sleep through this trip sitting at his deck. We're in for a long train ride.
Day 2
Date: Saturday, 1st Month, 22nd day, 1017th year D.A. (Dark Ages)
Location: Keeper Holding Cells, Obroseon Grand Stadium
Time: Roughly 3:00pm S.S.T. (Standard Sanctuary Time)
Black had received extensive medical care upon returning to the underground facility where she was held captive. All but one of the doctors didn't seem like they cared is Black was comfortable or not, just that she lived. Black didn't recognize any of the treatments the doctors used, but she didn't get much of a chance to look at them, as everything they injected her with flooded her senses with an overwhelming feeling of pain. For the first time in her life, Black was sure she had screamed, unable to control her own feelings.
That's when one doctor, presumably the man in charge, came storming into the room, shouting things that Black couldn't make out at his colleagues. The rant lasted about five minutes and then Black slowly lost all feeling in her body before blacking out.
The next thing Black knew, she was back in her cell, all her wounds healed and her weapons gone. Once again she was trapped, but this time she had even less hope. It hadn't taken her long to recall the events of the previous evening, and to remember that not only were all over her fellow Keepers dead, but someone had used a form of mind technique to get them to kill each other.
But why didn't it work on me? I felt no urge to kill in that arena. Black sat on the edge of her stone hard bed, trying hard to think of the methods that could have been used to turn the Keepers against each other. Could they have somehow used their telepathic network? No, Black realized that was impossible. Not only did they not know about it, but using that to influence the Keepers would have worked on her as well, and the same would have applied to any form of transmitted signal being broadcast. Then Black remembered something that had happened just before she had stepped into the arena. Whatever they injected into my neck perhaps? But that doesn't explain it either, unless I somehow got a faulty device. If that was the case Black knew that the scientists who came in before might return, but Black didn't see the point. There was no reason for her not to fight and stay alive now.
The sound of movement outside Black's cell put her on full alert. Unlike the night before, she planned on resisting any injections or experiments. I will not assist the enemy in defeating myself.
The shield surrounding the door faded, swinging open to reveal a man in black pants, a dark blue button down shirt, and a slightly lighter blue lab coat similar to the ones worn by the doctors last night, or were those green? Black's memory was too fuzzy to remember accurately. Behind the man were at least three guards armed with rocket launchers, meaning that there was no chance for Black to use this moment to escape.
"Doc I can't recommend going through with this." One of the guards told the blue coat man in a worried tone.
"She's my patient dammit, I'm not going to stand around and wait for Eastil to order some tests before I know for sure she can handle them safely!" The doctor replied, clearly annoyed with the recommendations of the soldiers guarding her cell.
"If you don't walk out of this cell alive, it's not our problem." The soldier replied with a shrug, closing the door as the doctor walked inside. Black stood up and took a defensive stance, ready to knock the doctor out if he came too close.
"Those guards, always too cautious for their own good, but I guess they have a reason to be afraid. They know how strong you are, and I guess I should thank you for not killing me already."
"What do you want?" Black asked, watching for any sudden movements which would give her an excuse to sever the man's head.
"First to introduce myself. Chief of Medicine Syed Royle, just call me Sy. Second, to make sure you're okay, since you're going to need every ounce of strength to survive all of Eastil's tests."
"Why are you helping them?" Black asked, keeping her tone neutral and without any emotion. Sy smiled and shrugged.
"To be honest, I was originally with Project Keeper because I believed that you would save us all, but when your purpose was changed I figured I'd stick around and give you a friendly face, since everyone else here only see's you as weapons."
"Why haven't I seen you before now?" Black asked, wondering if this was some kind of trick to get Black to open herself to weakness. Sy risked leaning against the back wall, Black tensed but didn't move.
"Because of Obroseon standard medical practices, the Chief of Medicine only get's directly involved in the most severe cases. Everything else is left to the other doctors. Since you all were so precise in your training, there was nothing worse than a few cuts and bruises, except of course for one incident." Black knew what he was talking about, the accident with her sister nine years ago.
"You were the one who failed to save White?" Black asked, anger creeping into her voice.
"Yes, and it pains me every day. Your sister was the only patient I haven't saved since I started practicing medicine. They say the first loss is the hardest, but having to oversee her sister and keep going, I still don't know if I've gotten over that yet." Although his voice was strong, Black could sense the truth in Sy's words, this man could be a valuable ally, as long as she didn't get too attached. Of course there was still one last pressing question that she hadn't gotten an answer to.
"So why are you here?" Sy sighed.
"Don't I get to ask any questions of my own? Since you're my last patient and we're broken away from stand procedure I was hoping to get a few of my own questions of my own answered.
"You haven't earned the right to ask me anything." Sy let out a sharp breath and pushed himself off the wall.
"I figured as much, here take this." Sy threw an object at Black, who caught it mid air and looked at it, and was surprised to find a paperback book, called Rebellion Rising.
"Where did you get this, books like these are almost extinct." Sy, who had opened the door and had almost walked out, turned to give Black a knowing smile.
"I think you'll find I'm full of surprises." With that Sy shut the door, leaving Black alone in the cell once again. She turned the book over a few times, knowing she shouldn't care about a bunch of paper with fictional stories, but at the same time she was interested, possibly out of boredom. It wasn't like she was getting out of this prison anytime soon. Sitting herself down on the bed, she opened the book and turned to the first page.
Day 2
Date: Saturday, January 22nd 2015
Location: Kheawuton: Zina Sector
Time: 14:25 (2:25pm) P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)
The train ride had been so boring, no snacks, no movies, and no one feeling tired enough to sleep. In fact everyone had been so fed up with the travel time that they had pulled out their phones and had started playing games with each other back in the real world, rotating to get food since the train wasn't a logout zone. Everyone had breathed a sigh of relief when the train finally stopped.
"At last, I don't know how much longer I was going to be able to look at that wasteland." DJ commented, stretching his Guardians hand above his head. White raised an eyebrow and checked out the window.
"But the station is in the middle of this wasteland."
"I know, but at least I won't have to look at it from a train, too depressing that way!" DJ replied, stretching a hand across his body.
"You're so weird DJ." Rose sighed. The sound of a clicking megaphone got their attention.
"Alright Guardians, you all know why you're here and who our enemy is. I expect everyone to register their squad with me after getting off the train and report right the general for your orders. The Thilan Empire has decided to rally their forces on an attack on our forward position, and we need every man to defend it. Let's move!"
White briefly stretched before standing up, double checking his cannon briefly before he left his seat.
"Finally, I get to blow everything up!" DJ announced, his muscular body hitting the table as he sharply brought himself to hit feet.
"I'm going to look forward to taking off some heads with my beauty." Rose commented, briefly loosing herself in some strange fantasy as she rubbed the barrel of her sniper.
"Then let's go get ourselves registered." Enough people had departed the train for the four of them to start working their way forward, but with the sea of Guardians trying to get out, it was impossible to try and weave through the crowd.
"You remember that we can't all die if we want to stay in this game." Winston pointed out as he tried to look out the windows to get an early look at the scene.
"I know, if anything goes wrong Rose will just snipe her way to us like she normally does." White replied with a smile.
"Ugh, please don't make me have to do that again, that was such a pain." Rose groaned.
"Yes, but we ended up the richest guild in that last MMO because of it." White reminded her with a massive grin on his face.
"No heroics please, I'd like at least a chance to get a date with one of these NPC's before you get us banished." DJ pleaded.
"Like you can land a date with a girl in the real world! What makes BRSO so special?" White asked with a note of amusement.
"Are you kidding? The girls here are much cuter than the ones in the real world!" DJ declared without hesitation.
"Are you saying I'm not cute?" Rose asked angrily, rounding on DJ with eyes of fire, and he quickly realized the mistake he made.
"T- that's not what I'm saying at all, you're just as cute as the girls here but you're not going to date me!" White rolled his eyes.
"Dude, you're only making this hole deeper, stop digging."
"This is the reason you can't get a date DJ, remember that." Winston patted DJ on the shoulder.
By this time the four of them were off the train, taking their first steps in the Kheawuton war zone. White noticed immediately that the whole city looked like it had gone through a nuclear apocalypse. More than half of the buildings were missing massive chunks, no vegetation anywhere, and no people. The whole place was a ghost town, the dry desert air drying White's mouth.
Based on the height of the buildings and the layout of the city (from what White could recall from his Human Geography class,) White guessed that Sanctuaries Army was camped out in the downtown business districts, the most cover but also lots of places for the enemy to sneak in from, which probably made it difficult to find a defendable location that could protect the train station.
The station itself wasn't that impressive though, and it looked like it had been modified from an old bus stop. The area around the hover train tracks was a mess of equipment and supplies, and the overhead cover looked like it had been thrown together in an efficient hurry. A few holes here and there but it was for the most part a stable building to provide some cover should the weather have turned wet.
"Alright everyone listen up!" White's attention was drawn back to the Colonel, who was standing on a large silver box in front of the train, just inside the cover. "This is how things are going to work, you will now get yourselves organized into squads. The council has informed me that you have the freedom to choose who is in your squad, but you must have no fewer than three and no more than six. If you do not find a group and get yourselves registered to me within thirty minutes I will personally organize you into a squad." It didn't take a genius to figure out who White was going to pair with. The group shared a fist bump before walking up to Colonel Beals.
"Why am I not surprised that the four of you are together, glad to see you're first at something." Beals snorted in amusement that wasn't as sarcastic as White had expected him to be. "So what's the name of your squad?" White looked back, but everyone was looking to him to give their squad a name.
"Squad Keeper." White informed the Colonel, who gave White a strange look before writing the name into the data pad using his finger.
"Interesting name, so you saw the Keeper event last night too? What you four fans or something?"
"God no!" Rose exclaimed, sounding appalled at the suggestion, "It was horrible, if anything we're honoring them with this name." Beals held up a hand to stop Rose before she could continue ranting.
"Relax, I'm with you. Those Keepers could have been used to keep us all safe, they had a lot of talent, damn politicians trying to make some quick money by selling tickets to watch minors kill each other. Alright, just tell me the names of everyone in your squad and we'll be good to go." Beals input the names of everyone as White read off everyone's names.
"Alright it's official, Squad Keeper it is. Go ahead and wait over on the other side of the station until I can get everyone else registered, we'll be heading out for our base in the center of Zina Park shortly." With a nod, the four Guardians left the Colonel to his registration duties and walked to the far corner of the train station. DJ leaned against one of the wooden supports, while White, Rose, and Winston all sat down. White was growing increasingly concerned for Rose, who once again was staring at the floor with a depressed look on her face. The Keepers must remind her of what happened with her mother. White realized internally, suddenly doubting if playing this game had been a good idea.
"Rose, what is it? Every time someone brings up the Keeper event you freak out, like it was happening in real life." Winston observed, sounding very confused. White realized that his friend hadn't transferred to their school district yet when Rose's mother died. It had been both heroic and tragic, and it took Rose almost a year to open about what happened.
"When is something like this not happening in real life? How could any game company think doing this was alright, and what's more no one seems to care! Everyone just sees them as toys to play with and enjoy before tossing them aside!" Rose cried, finally unable to hold back her tears. DJ sighed and shook his head.
"Maybe we should ask to take the train back to Obroseon and ask to quit, I don't know if we should put Rose through any more of this." Winston turned to him with the same look of confusion.
"Can someone explain to me what's going on?"
"Well, it's a little hard to explain…" White began, but was quickly cut off by Rose.
"No, let me. My mother's story is mine to tell, so let me tell it." DJ sighed again and White just started scratching Rose's back, which he guessed she could feel in the real world because the tension in her shoulders started to ease up. After a few moments of Rose taking some deep breaths, she began her story.
"It happened when Rick, Colin, and I were all still in grade school." Rose began, using everyone's real names despite still being in game. No one tried to correct her, figuring it was easier for their friend if she told the story this way.
"My mother was part of a special international police force that protected children from underground criminal societies. We didn't have to worry about anyone coming for us to try to get to mom, the government always made sure we were hidden, we even had different last names to help keep the connection hidden. It was really cool, my mother would always come back with presents and stories about all the kids she saved. Then one day she left, Europe is where she said she was going." Rose smiled but started crying again. White wanted to stop her but knew he would never hear the end of it if he did.
"We didn't hear from her in over a month. I didn't think anything of it, sometimes she was gone for three months at a time. But then one day a man showed up at our door, and somehow I knew she wasn't coming home again. The man gave me the journal she kept every day, despite the risk she ran by keeping one in her work. Every entry was addressed to me, and it explained every job she had ever done, the names of each kid she saved." Rose smiled. "I was so happy to know about all the good she did in the world. But this last one was about taking down a child slavery ring in Europe. Every entry was filled with determination, the next one more than the last as she got reports of the things that would happen to these kids, some as young as three. Then they went in, she saved them all, before having to manually detonate a bomb to stop the group from escaping." Rose broke down after that, her words coming out in sobs and barely audible. It was like she wasn't even trying to tell it like a story anymore but was just reliving the whole thing.
"They called… her a hero… but I hated them! They knew it was too dangerous to move in that night! Why? If they had just waited one more night, dad wouldn't be depressed, we wouldn't be living off the charity of everyone else! Why do people think that experimenting on kids, on anyone is okay?" White stopped Rose after that, quietly telling her that she had said enough, hugging her in an attempt to comfort her. Winston sat there stunned at the whole thing, now realizing why last night had been so hard. The whole thing was so close to how the game had progressed so far on Blue Rift with the Keepers.
"Rose I'm sorry, I had no idea." Winston apologized, but Rose shook her head, wiggling free of White.
"You couldn't have known. I haven't talked about it with anyone in years. I'll be okay, I just need to focus on something. I know I shouldn't be getting all worked up about the Keepers because this is a game, but it all feels real, the sights, the people, it almost feels like this isn't a game at all." Winston nodded.
"I know what you mean, this feels like some other reality, not a game. I wouldn't be surprised if this game ends up being the first artificial reality."
"Wait, does that mean there are no limitations on what we can do here?" DJ asked with a note of surprise in his voice. Winston shrugged.
"If that's true, we should be able to rescue the Keepers and stop whatever is going on in the government."
"Agreed, now let's get moving." White replied coldly, standing up. DJ raised an eyebrow.
"More determined than ever to save Black? What are you thinking of ditching the army?" White looked at DJ in confusion.
"What? No, I mean yeah kind of. But that's not what I meant. Look, the Colonel is about ready to start moving." DJ followed White's finger as it pointed to Colonel Beals, who was rallying the Guardians so they could start moving. White stood up.
"Alright everyone, keep in mind that the main reason the Keepers were created was because of the Thilan, so we can start by taking our anger out on them, what do you say?" Everyone nodded and followed White as their squad name was called.
White looked around, including Squad Keeper, there where nineteen teams of Guardians, most of them in groups of four or five, including the one group of six that had been put together with the remaining Guardians. It appeared to White that the Shooter class had been the most popular, probably because of the balanced spread of stats that the class had offered.
"Alright can I have everyone's attention!" Beals wasn't using the megaphone this time, and could barely be heard over the constant chatter of one-hundred Guardians. So after ten minutes of shouting and shushing from the Sanctuary soldiers that had been on the train with them, everyone was finally listening.
"You'd think this was the first grade." DJ snickered, and White smiled in reply.
"Alright, Welcome to the former Kheawuton capital city of Fisdan. This was one of the first cities to fall at the turn of the century seventeen years ago. Now it is your job to take it back. After you got yourselves organized I received a message from command regarding your orders. It has been stated by the council that you are free to take whatever initiative you deem necessary to stop the Thilan empire from pushing further into this city. Three and a half miles northwest of here is base camp Zina, which was held by General Medias in a massive Thilan attack ten years ago. Every time you wish to depart your Guardian bodies here on the front lines, you must go to that base. We understand that you may wish to return to Obroseon or visit one of the other kingdoms, this is fine as well. Every day at noon a train will arrive here to pick up and drop off Guardians, this will be your only time to come and go from the battlefield. Is that understood?" Nods from the audience signaled that the Guardians understood.
"Very well, now regarding your squads, let me remind you that should everyone in your squad perish, you will no longer be Guardians. However until everyone of you is on the ground eating dirt, none of you are dead. All you have to do is drag the bodies of your squad mates back to Zina, and we will get them back in the action. Meaning teamwork and caution are essential, now, go do some damage!" Squads of Guardians left, some together, others separately. White and the rest of Squad Keeper remained until the majority had left before moving north, trusting White to find them trouble.
"Hang on a second Squad Keeper, General Caelus has special orders for the four of you." White turned around and have Colonel Beals a look of confusion.
"What do you mean 'special orders'?" DJ rolled his eyes and began muttering under his breath, something about getting rid of the Keeper sympathizers.
"I told him you had a Keeper weapon, and the two of us agreed that you might be able to help us out of a bit of a tough spot."
"What kind of 'tough spot' are we talking about?" Winston asked cautiously.
"Would you four relax, I'm not about you to send you into a suicide mission!" Beals replied defensively.
"So what mission are we talking about, and how did you know about White's weapon being a Keeper weapon?" Rose asked in an accusing tone. Beals sighed in defeat, realizing that he wasn't going to gain the trust of White and his friends with his request that potentially could get them all killed.
"A few miles east of here is an old factory, used to produce heavy tanks and ammunition for the army. Two years ago it fell into enemy hands and has been pumping out enough of these heavy tanks to build a small city with. They can't get into the city because of their size but they've been creating massive problems across Kheawuton."
"And you want us to go clear it out?" White guessed, which got a shake of Beals' head in reply.
"Not quite, there's too many Thilan soldiers in the area to go reclaim it for ourselves, and the position is too hard to hold. No I want you to take a bomb and blow the place apart, it should lighten the load elsewhere for our army boys." It even sounded like a suicide mission, go into the middle of enemy territory with a bomb strapped to our back and hope we can blow up a heavy weapons factory!
"Alright you can count on us!" White declared, giving a thumbs-up. His three friends gaped in shock.
"White you can't be serious!" Rose protested. "This is practically a suicide mission!" White turned and grinned at Rose.
"Exactly." Rose took a step back, her face now filled with confusion. She turned to Winston.
"What?" Was the only word she could muster.
"I think he means to say that we've thrived off of doing the impossible, and that we're going to test our limits, that right?" White shrugged.
"I don't know about the whole testing our limits thing, but the first part is right." White turned back to Colonel Beals, who was looking back and forth between Rose and White with a raised eyebrow.
"Alright, well we'll have someone deliver the bomb to a warehouse nearby the factory. I'll send your data pads with the coordinates of where to meet. Good luck you guys." Colonel Beals turned and walked past the group, muttering something about how they were all crazy but that's all White was able to catch.
"Man White, you sure get us into the craziest situations." DJ sighed. "Do you seriously think we're going to be able to destroy that factory?" Again, White shrugged.
"Who knows? To be honest I have no idea what to expect going into this, but they need a factory destroyed and we need something to do, works out great for everyone."
"There you go again White, coming up with reasons to justify your insanity. So how far west are we talking?" DJ asked, turning to Winston, who had to take a moment to retrieve his data pad from his bag.
"Looks like it's on the edge of the city, five or six miles away if I had to guess." DJ's jaw dropped.
"What, are you kidding me? We'll be walking for hours!" Winston smiled.
"Yes, through a city infested with Thilan troops, I'm sure you and your chain gun could use a warm up, now come up we should try and get there before midnight." Winston began walking eastward, out from under the cover of the train station and towards the now Thilan factory.
"Man, this game suuuuuuucks, you have to spend all day walking!" DJ groaned as he reluctantly followed behind. "And I still haven't gotten the chance to pick up any chicks!" Rose rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.
"For the factory to be five or six miles away this city must be pretty big." White remarked, looking around the broken city. Scanning for anything of interest, or anything that needed to be killed.
"Not really, if you think about it this factory might actually be out in the suburbs, where it would be easier to create and move a massive tank." Winston explained, looking down at the data pad.
"What are you looking at this time?" White asked, trying to glance over Winston's shoulder. Winston tilted the screen towards White.
"Looking up what the army has on these heavy tanks, supposedly they can level an entire city block in a single shot."
"So why haven't they used them to reach the Sanctuary base?" DJ asked.
"Probably because they don't want to destroy the city in the process, why destroy an entire city when you have the numbers to simply take it over?" Rose answered.
"That assumes that the Thilan want to take over Blue Rift." White pointed out.
"What other explanation is there?" Rose asked. "Some kind of governmental corruption or something?" White shook his head.
"Please don't say that, you'll get us involved with some government conspiracy or something." DJ punched White in the arm.
"Too late dude, you got us all involved with the Keepers." DJ deepened his voice, "Now onward my friends, we must go save the world from those evil villains!" Rose and White laughed, it was a classic moment for the members of Squad Keeper, spend every moment enjoying life, even if it was just in front of a computer screen.
Day 2
Date: Saturday, January 22nd 2015
Location: Zina Sector: Thilan Factory
Time: 17:20 (5:20pm) P.E.T. (Pacific Earth Time)
It took the better part of two and a half hours to walk all the way from the station to the edge of the suburbs, and it had been unusually quiet the whole way. They spent every second on guard, keeping an eye out for any signs of enemy activity. Their journey was mostly undisturbed, finding mostly broken chunks of buildings or the occasional stray dog. The one run in that they did have with the Thilan was a lone soldier salvaging some poor guy's former garage when they first entered the suburban areas, and Winston quickly put an end to that.
White found combat simple, when an enemy was near and he was looking to shoot him, a small circle appeared in on his screen that tracked with his cannon. The group took a minute to get used to the feature, since it was a lot different than any other first person shooter they had played in the past. Despite some of the controls still being tied to the keyboard, Winston had quickly discovered that all movements could be controlled with the headset both in and out of combat, meaning there was no actually need for key bindings in the real world other than to log out.
Along with the circle, an entire HUD had appeared, if that's what you could call it considering it didn't exactly have enough to be called complete. No ammo counter, no radar or motion sensor, no compass. All it showed was an arrow pointing to each of White's squad members, their shield percentage, and a bar at the top right of his screen with a percentage number under that for his own shields. Not exactly much to work with, looks like most of this is stuff we're going to need to keep track of.
After another fifteen minutes of walking the sun finished setting, leaving the four Guardians to wonder around the area in the dark without any kind of night vision. Eventually White spotted the factory, It wasn't hard since it was the only structure with any kind of lights on, the difficulty had been finding a place to safely observe it.
The building itself looked a lot like some of the older factories not too far from a nearby city where White lived, three or four smaller square buildings around a massive version of the smaller ones with large tube-like structures that gave the waste a place to go, everything was a light brown color, making it plain and boring to look at.
White and the others were looking at the complex from atop a nearby building that could see most of the area around it thanks to its location on a nearby hill. The group were laying on their stomachs to keep themselves as hidden as possible while Rose checked the place out in greater detail with her scope.
"Check it out, front of the factory. You guys should be able to see it, even from this far away." Rose didn't even have to point towards it. A three story mechanical monstrosity was wheeling itself out of the factory. The thing looked like a giant red boulder that may or may not have resembled a man with two gigantic cannons on either side of the body.
"That… is big." DJ said in awe.
"No wonder General Caelus is worried about these things, three or four of them could take down an entire army by themselves." Rose put in.
"Probably why they chose to send in a small team, they won't want to use those tanks against us." Winston observed. White sat upright cross-legged and sighed.
"Alright let's go get this done. The guys should be here with our bomb anytime now." They got up from their small observation camp and walked back down the stairs to the second floor, where three soldiers in blue Sanctuary uniforms walked into the room as they started down the last flight of stairs. The one in front was looking around, followed by two more that were carrying a large silver container. White could tell they tried to set it down as carefully as possible, but it still slammed against the ground with a loud thud.
"Watch it you idiots, do you want to get me killed?" The first soldier shouted over his shoulder.
"Keep shouting like that and the Thilan will find us here." Winston stopped halfway down and leaned on the railway, his voice filled with monotone annoyance. The soldier rounded on him.
"Says who? That factory has got to be so loud that they can't hear anything that we're doing up here!" White raised an eyebrow as he stepped onto the concrete floor.
"Are you willing to bet your life on that?" The soldier scowled, but White didn't pay any attention. "So, what kind of bomb is in there?" The two soldiers that had been carrying the rectangular silver box undid the latches and removed the top cover. Surrounded by blue protective material was a device that was shaped similarly to a model rocket, four semi-thin black legs held the device above the ground, which was a metallic looking egg with a yellow circle at the top. A small control panel that a mouse could have operated was attached on one side.
"A model EN-036, one of the biggest bombs Blue Rift has, it'll take out everything within a quarter mile." DJ raised an eyebrow as he leaned against the wall under the staircase, folding his arms.
"That's a bit overkill don't you think?"
"And risky," Winston added. "We have to give ourselves enough time to escape, which is enough time for the Thilan to disable the bomb altogether." The first soldier shrugged.
"Not our problem, our job was to get the bomb here, yours is to use it to blow up that factory. Later Guardians, hope you're happy, I missed dinner for this." The soldier was throwing the last words over his shoulder as he and his buddies closed the door, fleeing back towards Zina. Rose clenched her fists and growled in anger.
"That guy makes me so mad! I should go teach him a piece of my mind!" Rose began walking towards the door but White stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder, which ended up almost pulling him onto the floor.
"Relax, they're not important. Probably best if they weren't around anyway, idiots like them will only make this operation end in failure." Rose began taking deep breaths to calm herself down, her shoulders rising and falling and she tried to relax.
"So how do we want to play this?" DJ asked, switching to one of the walls perpendicular to the metal staircase so he could see Winston, taking on the same posture he had a moment ago.
"We can't attack during the evening hours, there are searchlights everywhere, and I'd be willing to bet security systems too." Winston shook his head. "I hate to say it but we're going to have to wait until morning to do anything."
"You do remember that this building isn't a save zone right?" White reminded him. Winston sighed.
"And we can't be up all night, it means we might have to do something risky."
"What if we asked Colonel Beals if we could hide somewhere for the night?" DJ scoffed, at Rose's idea quickly drawing the attention of the rest of the squad.
"If this place is anything like the real world, I think we all know it would take the whole night just to get that approved." Rose glared for a moment before relaxing.
"Yeah you're right, so we need to hit them tonight, at least it's only five-thirty, so it isn't that late."
"So when exactly do we want to try this?" DJ asked, sounding in complete disbelief that we were trying something that had a nearly zero percent chance of working.
"Eight thirty-six our time, so eleven thirty-six." White declared with a grin. DJ gave White a more obvious look of disbelief.
"What the hell? Eight thirty-six? How more random can you be?"
"That's kind of the point, who organizes an attack for that time?" White responded, barely able to keep the laughter out of his voice.
"And you guys call me crazy. Fine, but how do we get the bomb in there?"
"Your gonna carry it."
"WHAT?" DJ exclaimed in as loud of a voice as he dared make.
"Yeah it makes sense, you're the guy with the most muscle here, you should be able to carry it!" Rose skipped forward, poking DJ's shoulder.
"Unless you're not manly enough, in which case you'll never get the ladies." Steam started pouring out of DJ's nostrils.
"Not manly enough? I'll like ten of those bombs if I have to! Just tell me where to place 'em!" White smiled. Thanks Rose, only you can push his buttons like that. The plan was coming together; all they needed to do was wait.
Day 2
Date: Saturday, 1st Month, 22nd day, 1017th year D.A. (Dark Ages)
Location: Keeper Holding Cells, Obroseon Grand Stadium
Time: Roughly 7:50pm S.S.T. (Standard Sanctuary Time)
(30 minutes before Squad Keeper Arrives at Thilan Factory Zana)
Black had quickly lost track of time, lost in Rebellion Rising. She found the story fascinating, a story about how a major civilization is torn apart when the slave population begins a violent revolution to gain social equality. The whole thing sent Black's head into a massive hurricane of thoughts and questions, why wouldn't the higher social order look for ways to remove slaves as a necessity? Why didn't the slaves try and negotiate freedom? Why should a society even NEED slavery?
The whole thing was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time, it had been the first time Black had ever picked up a book like this before, and she loved it. The feel of the pages, the eagerness of what would happen next, and if Eric, the man the story followed, would make the right decisions for his country in the end.
She also found that the deeper she got into the story, the more she could relate to it. Like her, Eric had watched his entire family die in front of him as he was made a slave by the country he was supposed to serve. Will I have to start a war to free myself? Black wondered, staring at the black marks on the paper page.
When the door to her cell opened it caught her off guard, and she let the book fall to the floor from her lap as she instinctively reacher for her Rock Cannon, briefly surprised to not find it there before getting control of her instincts.
"My my, looks like I managed to surprise Black Rock Shooter, that's quite a feat." Black wanted to beat that smug off of Sy's face, her fist tightening in anger. Sy looked down at the book, which lay face up about fifty pages back from Black currently was. "I see you didn't waste any time, like it that much do you?"
"It's nothing special." Black replied coldly. "Just pages with fictional stories."
"Oh, then you won't mind if I take it back then?" Sy walked over and bent down to reach for the book, but Black caught his wrist before he could grab it. Sy smirked. "I thought so."
"Why are you here?"
"First to check up on you, see just how much that book had interested you, secondly to get you to follow me, I have a somewhat unpleasant surprise, and I promise I only just found out about this." Black knew it was a trap, some way to kill her. Her bad feeling only grew worse when an armed guard brought in her Rock Cannon and Black Blade. Black eyed her weapons, knowing that she should try and make a break for it the second she had them.
"Don't even think about it, there are still three armed Troopers outside, and we both know perfectly well that they won't hesitate to kill us to stop you. Save your energy for the arena." Black shot a glare at Sy.
"Who is there for me to fight? Did they create more Keepers without my knowledge, or am I the new target practice for the Guardians?" The lack of emotion in both Sy's voice and facial expression chilled Black, although she didn't show it.
"Neither. Now come on and follow me." Black took Black Blade, the weapon disappearing in her hands as soon as she had a tight grip on it, then she took Black Rock Cannon and clipped the backpack-like straps together and threw the weapon over her shoulder before adjusting the straps so they wouldn't go loose in a fight.
After her preparations were complete, Sy exited the cell and turned left, leading Black down a straight hallway to the same elevator she had been placed in the first time she was forced to enter the arena, however this time Sy followed her inside.
"There is one thing you should know as you enter that arena. No matter what you see with your eyes, everything that isn't you is your enemy. You must survive, am I making myself clear?" Black nodded while keeping her eyes forward. She didn't need the doctor to remind her of her number one rule. I have to survive, for my family and my sister. I must find White's cannon.
"Good luck." Sy's last words as the elevator stopped and Black stepped out into the arena for the second time. The roar of the crowd immediately followed her entrance, the citizens of Obroseon clearly thrilled by her re-appearance in the arena to fight for her very life, but now Black didn't care about them. Her combat training kicked in, and the conflicting emotions and all thoughts about her book were pushed to the back of her mind in favor of one goal. Survival, the defeat of her opponent, victory at any cost. Black drew her cannon, ready for whatever stepped out of one of the elevators, but Black froze when she saw what came out of the elevator on the exact opposite end of the arena.
Dead Master.
DUN DUN DUN! AND THE DEAD HAVE COME BACK TO LIFE! (In case you missed that part.) Going to try and not be late two weeks from now, and sorry this one ended up being so short, I wanted to extend the chapter a little but wasn't feeling it. Actually almost cried writing Sofia/Rose's backstory! (Something must be wrong with me, I CRIED AT THE BACKSTORY I HAD TO COME UP WITH _) Hope you enjoyed the chapter and will leave a comment!
(I'll admit it, this chapter is mostly groundwork and a cliffhanger, you're welcome. If you have a question about the story, I'll make sure I answer.)
And to anyone here who's waiting for Chapter 13 of TSOK, yeah idk when that's getting done. Gonna start Book 2 with a small synopsis of what happened in Ch.13
SEE YOU ALL IN TWO WEEKS!