Mark of Man
Chapter 11
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
When Rokko X finally managed to return to camp, the sun had long since set in Abel City. Limping into the tent compound, she found an unoccupied cot, and sought rest. She hadn't had a proper recharge cycle for several days, and that trend was likely to continue. However, she could at least try to get some of her strength back. A few hours passed as her body managed to work on several of her internal injuries.
As she rested, she dipped into dreams.
"Good to see you Rokko." Cobalt's expression held a sadness that had never been apart of his eyes in life.
"Damn it Wolf! WHY?" She demanded, grabbing his clawed hands.
Cobalt allowed her to freely grab his arms, but after a few moments he moved. In one fell swoop, she'd been pulled into her first hug.
"I'm sorry X, but even in death I'll still be with you."
"I… Wanted you, not just memories."
Cobalt's chuckle echoed hollowly across the void.
"Y'know, that kinda talk could have given me a big head."
Ignoring his attempt to lighten the situation, she pounded his chest with one hand.
There were no words, nothing she could say or think to relieve the aching hole in her heart that his loss had created. Falling silent, Cobalt Wolf simply gave her a faint squeeze. Even now though, she found herself unable to truly cry. Even when she'd executed those innocent reploids only a single tear had been shed.
"X, just promise me that you'll follow your heart."
She nodded slowly as she did.
"I don't know how to do that, but I'll try."
After everything, it was the least she could do…
With that, her eyes opened and she pushed herself up feeling better than she had when she'd laid down. Swinging her feet off of the cot and pulling herself into a sitting position, she closed her eyes for a moment more, her right hand propping her head up. Dreams were always confusing, but one that she'd talked to her only friend?
Sleeping with injuries probably wasn't the best thing in the world after all. It gave her strange dreams.
Forcing the thought from her mind, Rokko rose to her feet, a few alarms warning her that her internal damage was still considerable. However, with the current uprising from Sigma, she had little time to rest. Besides that, her desire to exact retribution still burned in her chest. Hate for humans had been eclipsed by an even greater hate. A hatred of Sigma.
Scowling, Rokko connected with the commander once more.
"Rokko X here, ready to engage the next target."
Immediately, her request was answered by a weary sounding Zero.
"Good timing X. These maverick are threatening to overwhelm us. Intel suggests that a key power plant in Russia has fallen under Sigma's control. It's granting him and his forces a tremendous advantage, including generating a powerful shield that's protecting a factory nearby. You need to get there and blow the place sky high."
"Easy enough, assuming that they don't know I'm coming." She agreed as Zero sent her the coordinates.
"Good to-" Zero paused and an explosion echoed in her headset.
"Commander…?" She began, clenching a fist.
As much as she didn't like him, it would be devastating to lose yet another A class hunter. From what she'd seen thus far, they'd lost far too many.
Assuming Storm Eagle had joined Sigma, they only had seven other A class hunters remaining. To her knowledge anyway. Spark Mandrill, Flame Mammoth, Armored Armadillo, Launch Octopus, Boomer Kuwanger, Sting Chameleon, and of course, Zero.
And every single one of them had a connection to Sigma. Outside of the red armored hunter, she hadn't seen any of the others besides Chill Penguin, a reploid she'd been forced to terminate.
Frowning, she attempted to contact Zero again.
"Commander Zero, please respond."
A moment later and the transmission crackled back to life.
"I'm still alive, if that's what you're worried about. I took a nasty hit though and am unable to continue defending Neo Hong Kong. My forces are too damaged to keep fighting. We're falling back to provisional HQ to resupply and recover. If you stick around for ten minutes we can meet in person."
Rokko shook her head despite the fact that he couldn't see her.
"I'd better head out."
"Fair enough. We can… Have a nice walk and talk about things in a park when this war's done."
"...I'll pass on that… Sir."
Zero's response was haggard laughter as Rokko cut the call.
Grumbling for a few moments, Rokko punched in the coordinates and transferred to her new mission. Most people assumed that all of Russia was an unforgiving and cold nation with little to offer beyond the bitter chill.
This of course was a misnomer. Back when Russia had been an independent nation, it was so vast that as the sun set on one part of the nation, it was rising on the other side. With over 6,000 square miles, Russia's climate ranged from the bitter arctic chill of the north to temperatures pushing to a balmy ninety or so degrees fahrenheit.
But for X, who had only seen the bitter chill of the extreme northern regions felt a deep sense of surprise as she stared out across the Baraba steppes. Nestled deep in Western Siberia, it once served as an agricultural center for Russia. Now, it served for Eurasia's needs in a similar capacity. Farms littered the landscape, but a handful of other buildings dotted the horizon.
To her left, a single power plant was running at full capacity. It was an old building, the peeling and pailing blue paint surely a decade or so of age. Shaking her head, she immediately stepped over the knee high 'security' fence of the property and readied her buster.
As she did, a number of small emplaced cannons rose from the ground forcing her to leap above the laser volley. Using the momentum of her jump, she dashed in midair and landed on the other side of the cannons.
Shaking her head as she fired a few well placed plasma shots to break the door. She then slipped into the building, glad that the accuracy of the weapons had been poor, likely remains of whatever security forces had had set up before the takeover.
To her annoyance, the lighting was poor and it forced her to rely on her other types of 'sight'; Night Vision in particular. Scowling, Rokko gripped the nearest wall and quickly scaled it, flipping onto an upper walkway suspended by cables. Each step she took on the aged steel echoed across the silent room.
She felt unnerved, and if she'd been human the hair on the back of her neck would have been standing upright. Tension flooded her entire being. This was far too quiet. Each step was another hollow thud, echoing through the empty rooms of the powerplant.
This wasn't right, or normal for a mission to be so quiet. Forcing her emulated breath to still, she continued down the hall, confused as to why there were no foes about. Carefully taking a weaving upper corridor, Rokko eventually made it to the control room in near silence.
Surely besides the cannons the leader of the base would have secured more defenses than just that…
Shaking her head, Rokko allowed the automatic door to part for her, leading to a large and cavernous main chamber.
For being a powerplant the lack of lights only caused her more concern.
Stepping into the room, a series of brilliantly colorful lights began to flicker on the opposite side. Readying her buster, she aimed at the source. Then, to her surprise, the lights burst to life, causing her to become blinded for a half second.
A terrible roar echoed in her ears, and she felt a terrible impact in her stomach as she was flung across the room, being grappled by a being far, far larger than herself. She tried to struggle and aim her buster at the attacker, but with her temporary blindness and the sudden attack, her arm had been smashed against the wall.
Slowly, her vision cleared and she felt the angry stare of Spark Mandrill returning her gaze.
"X, why?" He demanded.
"W-Why what?" She coughed, placing her feet against the wall in an attempt to push the giant fists off of her.
It failed.
"You killed Chill Penguin."
Rokko nodded, not bothering to deny it as she tried to force him off of her again.
"But… Why?"
"He was working for Sigma."
"Then… You came to kill me too?" Spark asked sadly.
"If I could, I'd go after Sigma directly." She stated, trying to stall for time and find a way to break free.
"But why? You yourself said that; 'As long as there is a Hunter force terminating Irregulars, there will never be a chance at that kind of change.' We're that change!" The monkey reploid asked, trying to understand.
Rokko shook her head, gathering as much strength as she could in her legs. If she could only… Push him off for a second…
"I'm sure you believe that, and if things were different, we may have been allies even now."
"Then why? Why do this?"
X stared into his large eyes before finally answering.
"Because I hate Sigma more than I do humans." Rokko replied firmly.
Then, with a mighty heave, she launched herself forward with her legs, only to find herself still stuck.
"I'm sorry t'hear that X. I don't like killing reploids any more than you do, but if you're after the commander, I have to stop you." He spoke as if he didn't even notice her attempt.
Of course, considering how strong he was, that was likely as not.
Her basic weapon wouldn't work in this situation. No, charging the plasma would take too long, and would damage herself as well anyway, even if it managed to free her and with Spark's large size, she doubted that her basic shots would do much more than annoy the maverick.
Focusing for a moment, she decided to experiment by switching to shotgun ice. Maybe Chill Penguin's powers would still be of value…
Unlike her primary weapon, her special weapons had an energy limitation based on her current power systems. The more excess energy she had, the more power she had to use for special weapons. If she took severe damage, or used them too frequently, the Variable Weapon System would go offline, and she'd be forced to rely on more conventional weapons, such as the X buster's basic plasma shots.
"Whatcha doing?" Spark Mandrill asked, as he frowned at her armor's sudden change in color.
Instead of replying with words, she fired the frigid blast from her buster. For a second, Spark Mandrill looked confused, and then, the pain set in. Stumbling backward, the giant maverick howled in agony.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" He roared.
"Let's finish this!" Rokko retorted, firing another blast of chilling ice.
For whatever reason, the potent weapon seemed to be tearing deeply into Spark Mandrill with each shot. Perhaps it a vulnerability that the Maverick suffered from. At any rate, it had been a great turn of positive fortune to be able to copy weapons like that.
"But… HOW?" He demanded as he slammed his good hand into the ground, causing an electric current to cover the floor.
Desperately, Rokko leaped onto the closest wall, and as she slowly began to slide down, she glared at the maverick.
Then, she launched another chilling projectile at the wall behind her foe, and he laughed, thinking she'd missed. While she slid closer and closer to the electrically charged floor, Spark Mandrill was introduced to the deadly secondary property of the shotgun ice.
Lacking a direct target, the weapon detonated into thousands of icy shards that rebounded back the way they came once they struck the wall instead.
For a moment after they struck, Spark was stunned, his lips moving silently. Then, he arched, his head tilting back and a terrible howl of agony from his lips.
"T-That's Chill Penguin's Weapon!" He cried out.
Collapsing onto his side, the maverick whimpered for a few seconds. However, his eyes filled with resolve and he rolled to his feet near a corner with a strange device nearby.
Stumbling backward, a door slid open, allowing him to take shelter in a (for him anyway) pod like device.
Aiming her buster at the door, she fired another blast of shotgun ice, only for it to bounce harmlessly off.
Just because the weapon worked on spark mandrill didn't mean it was effective everywhere apparently. No matter. She still had her X buster. Her armor coloration shimmered back to what she was used to and she once again aimed. As she did electricity flooded the pod.
What is he doing?
Charging her buster, she fired, only for it to deflect harmlessly off of the surface of the capsule.
Damn him.
Rokko glared for a long moment as she started pelting the device with single small shots instead. Maybe where one powerful shot had failed, many smaller repeated attacks would succeed. To her chagrin, each shot deflected harmlessly off of the capsule.
Realizing that her weapons would not soon penetrate the thick armor, she dashed over to a nearby array of computers and pulled up the holographic keyboards.
X was not a technology specialist by any extent of the imagination, but she knew a bit due to her time behind a desk filing papers for days on end. Her hands flying over the commands, she started to access key commands. First, she cut the flow of power out of the facility. With the power cut, the barrier protecting the factory would fall, and she'd be able to strike the reinforcements at their heart.
Then, after cutting exterior power, she found an emergency shutdown system. If she activated that, there would only be minimal lighting and power, but… She grinned. With it cut, Spark Mandrill wouldn't be able to use his capsule for whatever he was doing. With a single button press, the power died, plunging the room into a total darkness. However, a moment later, and dull red lights flickered to life.
Spinning and aiming her buster, Rokko smirked at the now trapped Spark Mandrill. The tiny (for him) capsule had become a prison. Slowly she approached.
"Nice cubbyhole Spark." Rokko taunted.
With a roar that echoed through the chambers, Spark Mandrill's fist punched through the armored front. Plasma resistant coated glass shards exploded outward, several of them slicing Rokko's face.
"TIME TO DIE X!" He roared firing a volley of electrical currents.
Leaping over a sphere of electricity, Rokko glared while swapping to her Shotgun Ice again. Firing another burst at the maverick, she was surprised as Spark Mandrill batted it away with one fist angrily.
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
He'd become enraged. He was so angry now, he probably didn't even feel the pain from the attack.
There was only one option: his immediate termination.
"Let's finish this Maverick." Firing another volley, Rokko dashed to the left, barely dodging a charge attack from the rampaging maverick.
Her shot was true, and it struck him in the face. Shards of ice exploded away from the initial impact, and she merely smirked triumphantly. Almost instantly though, he charged her again and she leapt over him, landing on his shoulders and firing three blasts of shotgun ice at point blank range. With a primal roar, Spark Mandrill spun and slammed his back into the wall. Surprised by the sudden change, Rokko was caught flat foot and smashed by the tough frame of her foe and the reinforced wall.
"G-Guh…." She grunted in pain before resuming her barrage of shots.
Each time she fired, he backed up slightly and slammed into her chest again.
With as much of a beating as she was taking, she wasn't surprised to see a warning pop up on her HUD. Severe Torso Damage: Armor integrity 22% Damage to GPS Systems. Unable to transfer without external assistance.
She had to end this, and soon.
Firing yet another blast of shotgun ice, she waited for when he leaned forward, preparing to smash into her chest again. It was then she took action, aiming her buster at herself, she grit her teeth and fired.
Gasping in pain as the brutal attack connected, she smirked as each shard from her self inflicted attack rebounded and struck the maverick from his thighs to his skull with thousands of smaller shards.
"Ahhhh!" He wailed as the attack finally began to make a difference.
"I...Won't… Lose." She gasped.
She'd essentially destroyed her own armor in the process, but she'd knocked him back. Panting for a moment, she quickly scaled the wall, aiming at the stunned maverick and firing several more volleys of shotgun ice, not stopping until she'd run out of weapon energy.
Once she'd finished, she let go of the wall, taking a chunk of durasteel with her in the process as she dropped down to the ground once more.
"H-How...Could...I….L-Lose to… A… B class… Was… Going… To… Change... " He gasped before falling forward onto his face, his eyes dimming.
Dropping to one knee, she reached over to Spark Mandrill's form, and laid her hand on his defunct body.
Her internal systems notified her of a key change and a faint smile managed to make its way onto her battered face.
Electric Spark Special Weapon Acquired
Sigma… I'll take the power of your allies and turn them against you.
"Rokko X here." She contacted Zero as she slumped against the wall.
"I hear you." Zero replied shortly.
"The powerplant's commander has been taken out. Facility should be secure unless he had some sort of-" The far door opened revealing a multitude of former hunters.
"Damn it. Unless he had minions lying in wait." She finished before cutting the communications and rolling to one side desperately.
A near endless volley of shots struck where she'd been just a few moments before. Taking cover behind the still form of Spark Mandrill, she aimed her buster over his body, and began to fire.
"Flank her! Don't let the commander's death be in vain!"
He set her up… Rokko shook her head, surprised by the planning Spark Mandrill had shown before his death. He'd arranged it so that if possible, he could convert her to his side, but if not he'd be able to weaken her at the very least and allow his grunts to finish her off after the severe beating he'd give her.
It was a cunning ploy, as much as she hated to admit it.
Scowling, she rolled onto her back, and laid her legs flat against the floor. Up, Left, Right, Up, Right, Left... She continued to glanced at the three possible attack angles they could use and if one tried to slip around Spark's body, she could fire a blast of plasma at their heads.
"X, what's happening?" Zero contacted her again.
"I'm pinned down and taking a lot of heat. I doubt my barricade will last too long, and I can't get clean shots off." She said hurriedly before firing her buster at another maverick that had tried to sneak up on her.
"I'm sending backup. Just hold on until they arrive."
"Copy that." Rokko agreed briskly once again severing communications.
The next five minutes were some of the most tense she'd ever lived through. Not even dealing with the rampaging mechaniloid had been so difficult.
Five, six, seven kills, not too shabby. Rokko's expression was tense but she managed a faint smirk. Even if they took her out, she'd done something considered impossible thus far. But, she wasn't going to die, not without a fight.
"Stop going around! Destroy the commander's body so she'll no longer have cover!" A maverick barked.
Wincing, she knew her time had just been shortened drastically. Without the body acting as a barrier she'd be hard pressed to survive. Chips of metal began to fracture off of her downed enemy and she winced before rolling onto her knees and firing over her crumbling barricade.
Firing a barrage of charge plasma shots, she managed to slow the attacks for a short time until an unlucky shot struck Rokko's buster.
Mentally cursing she rolled behind Spark Mandrill, as entire chunks of his armor began to peel away. Almost a third of his body had been destroyed.
"X, here. My buster has been damaged and there's too many to approach for close quarter combat."
"Don't worry darlin', the cavalry has just arrived." Zero replied cheekily before an explosion rocked the room.
A few moments passed as former hunters shouted curses at the reinforcements. Then, almost as soon as it began, silence reigned over the battlefield.
"You can come on out now X." Zero stated cheerfully as he rounded the ruined form of Spark Mandrill.
As soon as he took stock of her wounds he whistled lowly.
"You look like Hell."
Rokko rolled her eyes as she pushed herself onto her feet.
"Go back to base X, and get some repairs. You need them. Badly." X shook her head slowly.
"My GPS systems took damage in the fight. I can't transfer safely on my own right now."
Zero nodded grimly and but a moment later he smiled.
"Long range transfers are a drain on our power resources, but since we've managed to secure this power plant, that won't be a problem anymore. I'll have an operator bring you back to HQ."
Rokko simply nodded as she slid down the nearby wall, feeling utterly drained. With the surge of activity finally over, she was absolutely exhausted.
After a few minutes, Zero prodded Rokko's foot and she looked up at the hunter wearily.
"Transfer in three… Two… One…"
Once again she was on a ruined highway with a human lieutenant hovering over her shoulder.
"Huntress X, do you enjoy taking obscene amounts of damage just to give me gray hair?" Carlie asked dryly as she took a seat next to Rokko.
Rokko simply shrugged, not caring about the human's opinion.
"You'll need to shut down so I can start working on you. This is going to take a long time to fix."
Once more Rokko embraced slumber as an old friend.
I'm sorry it took so long for an update. I became severely ill with an upper respiratory virus that's taken over two weeks to start clawing out of. Still have a bit of it but I've been improving so here we are!
Two Mavericks down, 6 more to go and then of course Sigma... But, in case you're wondering; no this won't follow the entire Mega Man X series perfectly. Rokko is far different than X, and that in and of itself is going to cause some rather big changes here and there. At points, it'll remind you of the source material with a twist, but... There's some big surprises up ahead.
I won't say anymore on that for now!
...Still loathe FFN formatting though.