CHAPTER 1 – STARS

"X, Zero, and Axl head to the command center immediately!" Alia shouted over the loud speaker in the Maverick Hunter Headquaters space station. All three of them came running into the command center almost immediately.

"What's the problem Alia?" Spoke X in a rushed voice.

"We're receiving a distress call from two reploids being attacked. Here, I'll put it up on the large monitor" She hit a button on the keyboard in front of her, and a video started playing on the screen. The quality was horrible, and full of static, but two female voices could be heard clearly.

"Please, some one come and help us. What…what is that?!"

"Stay back Hoshi…I…I think its…Oh god…it's a Maverick!" A reploid, armed with an energy scythe, readying herself in front of the camera, blocking view of the Maverick. Her red and black armor already damaged, she looked like she could barely stand.

"Noir! No! We need to run!"

"You run! Run or fight Hoshi. We don't know if any one is even listening! There's no point in you getting even more dama—No!" There was an electrical flash of white…

…And then the feed cut off. All four reploids stood in horror for a moment, until Axl finally spoke up.

"Well? Are we just going to stand here? We have to go help them!"

"I agree, they're obviously in serious trouble, send us down Alia, and make it quick! Lets just hope we're still in time." Zero said in a demanding tone, stern and strong as ever. He readied his beam saber. Axl nodded, but X couldnt help but show a bit of dissapointment on his face. It had been a while since they've heard anything about any Maverick attacks. He was dissapointed after all, since he was starting to enjoy the peace that had come with the Maverick dormancy over the past few days. Spending weeks at a time on the front lines fighting the seemingly never-ending stream of them can quickly become a tiring and daunting task. But, then, he should have known better than to get complacent.

"Affirmative!"

When X, Zero, and Axl reached the site, the damage to the area was almost disgusting, and the sounds of fighting could still be heard up ahead. X was relieved. They didn't appear to be too late.

"Alright, lets get moving! Be careful, this seems to be a potentially dangerous Maverick. Stay on your guard you guys."

"Right!" responded Zero and Axl in unison. Zero flicked on his beam saber, and Axl started to charge up his blaster. The three ran forward through a line of overturned, mangled mounds of torn metal that appeared to be cars at one point or another. The carnage in this little deserted town they had landed in was immense. Obviously this town had seen its fair share of Maverick attacks. The sounds of battle were getting louder as the three approached the town square. The reploid in the red and black armor was fighting bravely with her energy scythe, and the other reploid, silver and purple, who must have sent out the distress signal, was now fighting also with a brightly glowing energy glaive. But no matter how bravely the two fought, it was like fighting the current of a river, you don't seem to go anywhere. X, Zero, and Axl looked at one another, and charged forward in a full frontal attack. The Maverick was huge, it was almost a miracle that the two reploids managed to last as long as they did. Axl and X fired away, and Zero dashed in, beam saber blazing like white fire.

"Hey you! Time to back off and let us handle this!" X shouted at the two female reploids. The one with the silver armor shouted at her counterpart with the scythe while running out of harms reach, but she didn't appear to hear her. The red armored reploid kept up the attack. "Zero, get her out of there!" X shouted as loud as he could. Through the blasting and the whirring sound of energy blades, Zero managed to hear. He dashed and grabbed the red armored reploid by her waist and managed to move her quickly out of range, despite the obvious anger apparent on her face. The silver ran quickly to her side, keeping one eye on the Maverick at all times. X signaled Axl, and they moved in for the kill. The Maverick was obviously tiring, but Zero was having trouble getting close because of the Maverick's lightning quick reflexes, and razor sharp claws. This one seemed to be modeled after a wolf, only it was gigantic. However, there was something different about it, which X couldn't seem to place. He didn't think on it long however, he focused instead on defeating this Maverick, and getting the two female reploids out of harms way. Axl managed to get in a few good shots in, but wasn't quick enough to dodge a ranged energy shot from the small cannons on the Maverick's shoulders. X kept up his attack, running quickly, firing rapidly, trying to distract the Maverick so Zero could move and hit it for the killing blow to the head with the beam saber. However, Zero wouldn't get the satisfaction of killing this Maverick, since the silver armored reploid threw her energy glaive at a rather opportune moment, striking it in the side of the head. It stopped, its central core completely severed by the energy glaive, and dropped to the ground.

"Hey, are you alright?" X yelled at Axl, breathing heavily. He and Zero managed to get out of the battle relatively unscathed; Axl however seemed to finally be getting up from where he was shot down, giving X the thumbs-up showing he was okay, but pretty beat up; of course, his pride must have been the thing that was damaged the most. The three walked over to where the two female reploids seemed to be regrouping themselves. The red armored had sustained the most damage, and was leaning on her now shut off energy scythe in order to keep standing; Her gold eyes glaring at Zero, fire blazing behind them with the heat of a thousand suns. The silver armored one however, didn't seem so badly damaged.

"Thanks so much for your help." The silver said, a tired smile on her face. She was undoubtedly relieved that they had shown up in time. "We appreciate it."

"We're glad we could help. But both of you seem to be in pretty bad shape, we'll take you back to our headquarters for repairs. I'm X, and this is Zero and Axl, Maverick Hunters."

"I'm Hoshi, and this is my sister, Noir. We'd love some repairs right about now." Both of them looked to be in dire repair.

"Alright, sounds good." X paused, and spoke into his com system at his wrist. "Alia, we have them, they're alright, we're bringing them back on board for repairs so have two meditechs ready."

When she was finished in the meditech, Hoshi checked up on Noir quickly. Since her sister had sustained far much more damage than she did, she would be in the meditech longer. Hoshi decided that she should find X, Axl, and Zero to thank them once more. After all, that was the polite thing to do. She wandered the cold and sterile environment of the Maverick Hunter's space station, thinking that it was strange that three characters such as X, Axl, and Zero would choose to stay in a depressing place as this. Hoshi sighed. This was a strange world, and even stranger things had been happening lately. Like the new war between reploids for example.

It all started six months ago, when an unknown reploid assassinated one of the last few remaining human world leaders. This of course, brought out the pro-human and anti-human sentiments that seem to have divided the newly reploid dominated world in half. Each half was pointing fingers at one another; the pro-human side saying that the anti-human group, led by an unknown group of reploids, is to blame; while the anti-human side keeps saying that the pro-humans are traitors to their own kind, and needed to be exterminated. Of course, the anti-human group, who called themselves RepCore, never did deny that they hadn't been behind the assassination. The pro-human activists, PureSkies, declared RepCore as Mavericks, and apparently had enlisted Maverick Hunter Space Station to help. Even though the front lines are still up, and neither side shows any signs of tiring, everything seems to have slowed down the past couple days. Everyone was on edge, and the tension down on Earth was massing. Human inhabitants and reploids have both sustained heavy damage, but in usual fashion, whatever is destroyed, is dutifully rebuilt. After all, what's the point in sitting around feeling sorry, when you can improve your situation?

Hoshi was ripped from her thoughts by the voices of the three reploids she had been trying to find. They were in a large room, where the ceiling and two walls were made of a transparent material. From this room, you could see all the stars of never ending space, and not too far below, the blue and glorious Mother Earth. There was a large table at the center of the room, and the three reploids appeared to be having a game of cards. She cleared her throat as the door closed with an airy hiss behind her.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" She smiled when all three looked up at her, and wondered what they were playing.

"Nah, you're not interrupting. Is there anything you needed?" X asked. Of course, being momentarily distracted, Axl peered over to try and take a sneak peak at his cards, which earned him an angry glare from Zero. Once noticed, Axl tried to play innocent, even though Zero sat right across from him and watched him do it. Hoshi couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Well, I just thought I would come and thank you all again. It was awfully kind of you to come and help us like you did. Neither of us thought any one would be scanning on that frequency, but we didn't want to interfere with any others that may have been in use in that area." She walked over, peering all around her at the beautiful stars. What a wonderful room. She stopped and looked at the table, they were playing poker. "May I join?"

They played a few rounds, and Hoshi got a grasp of the game quickly. She actually became quite good at it. After beating all three of them four times in a row, they all decided to stop. They simply conversed for a while after, and she decided that they were good people. She liked X, he was strong and kind, with an easy smile and a good heart. She wasn't too sure about Zero, although he was also kind, he certainly didn't give the impression of enjoying all this sitting around conversing and playing cards while a battle may be going on this very moment. Hoshi felt easy around Zero however, he seemed a lot like Noir. She also found him a very hard person to read, he certainly liked to keep things to himself. She liked Axl too; he helped her learn how to play poker, even though his enthusiasm may have been a little extreme at times. He was still a fun person to be around though. Yes, she liked all three of them, and that's why she had no problem answering their questions when they came up in conversation.

"Hoshi, what were you and Noir doing in that town? You do realize it had been abandoned for a few weeks now right?" X asked, the conversation turning onto a little more serious note.

"Well you see. Noir and I hadn't realized it was abandoned until we arrived there. We had traveled there looking for our creator."

"You were looking for your creator?" Axl asked, a look of bewilderment on his face.

"Yes," Hoshi replied, "you see, even though most reploids never meet their creator, we feel that we must. We would like to know exactly why we were created. She and I feel…incomplete. And who better to ask than the one who made our bodies, programmed us? I suppose you all think it's strange." She cast her violet eyes down. Most did. Reploids who question were often ridiculed, and thought to be strange and unnatural. All reploids have a purpose, why don't you know yours? How could you not?

"From any other standpoint, it probably would sound strange. But it doesn't seem so weird to me, seem perfectly normal to question things. I've been down that road. The road to finding yourself is often long, dark, and confusing." Zero said, looking out to the stars. She felt a calm in him that would be hard to shake. Yes, he was a lot like Noir. She liked Zero she decided, and she would trust him as much as she trusted Noir. There was no reason to be concerned about him.

"Noir says that we focus too much on our purposes sometimes. As reploids, we are created, and therefore, most believe that we must have a purpose, something important to do in life. But why? Why must we? We were created in the image of humans, and many humans lived long and fulfilled lives, without having a determining role in society. Many simply worked jobs that only allowed them to barely survive, and yet they were happy. What makes us so different from humans in any case? Certainly our bodies differ, we are mechanical and they are biological beings. But we feel, and think, and act of our own will. If you cut us we still bleed, and we still feel pain. We may never grow older than the approximate age we were programmed to be, but we can still die. And those that die have loved ones that mourn their loss, just the same as humans mourn theirs. We still cry." Her words seemed to have struck a cord with all three, X simply stared out to the left, watching the Earth, and Axl looked at her in slight disbelief. Such was the usual reaction, so she wasn't surprised. However, Zero's words warmed her heart.

"It appears that Noir thinks a lot. Those are some profound words. I think I'd enjoy sitting and talking with her sometime." Zero said, his green eyes smiling at her. She laughed.

"I apologize, but Noir is unfortunately not the most talkative person. And she's not going to be too pleased with you for removing her from battle earlier today." She could only hope that Noir wouldn't be too angry with him, and that Noir could get along with him. They seemed so much alike. If Noir's temper doesn't get in the way, their stay onboard the Maverick Hunter Space Station will be quite enjoyable indeed. Hoshi sent a silent prayer that this adventure aboard the space station would also be beneficial for her dear sister.