Chapter 20
It is daybreak at the jungle canyon as Sarge looks over at the horizon past on top of the gates and stares out at the vast, sandy, wasteland before him. He stares at the northwest as if he can feel something happening just past the dunes and sandworms. Up at the cliffs where the mortar cannon is, Simmons and Doc looking at Sarge.
"Is Sarge alright?" Doc asks.
"I don't know." Simmons replies. "But he's been like that since last night. Just standing there looking at the northeast."
Doc turns to face Simmons, "Maybe he's got one of those...'feelings'. Like what he said two days ago. He senses a battle waging on somewhere."
Simmons turns to face Doc, "I thought it was a stroke."
"Could be that. Yet we can't be the only ones out here in this strange place. For all we do know, we could be up against cavemen that somehow gotten their hands on technology they don't understand."
"Or it could be some aliens responsible for putting us here in this place."
"Not entirely sure, but I think they prefer to observe us like lab rats. Just like what happened back at Blood Gulch."
"Fuck that! I'm still getting used to the fact that there were people spying on me whenever I take a shower. For all I know, they must've posted nudes on me online."
"Did you check?"
"No, thank god. But I wonder if it is in the deep web. You know? Those websites that you're not supposed to go to."
"Yeah, I heard what happens to people who go on those sites. Pretty bad."
Washington then enters the picture as he approaches both Doc and Simmons. "Hey, guys. What's happening? What's going on?"
Doc and Simmons look at Washington with Simmons responding, "I think something's up with Sarge?"
Everyone looks at Sarge while Doc says, "He's been looking at the northwestern area since last night. We thought he might be having a stroke but he says he's sensing combat somewhere out there."
"You bet I am." Sarge appeared right behind them and scared everyone present.
"Sarge!?" Simmons says in a panic state. "How did you...?" he looks back and forth at Sarge and the gate where Sarge was. "When did you...How...What?"
"Simmons, listen." Sarge says in a serious tone. "I'm gonna head out for a bit."
"Where?!" Simmons looks at the gate, "Out there?!"
"You can't be serious?!" Washington objects.
"Are you sure it isn't a stroke?" Doc asks. "Because I can help you with that with some orange juice and heart medication."
"No, I'm good." Sarge replies. "Simmons, I'm leaving you in charge while I'm gone. Which means don't let Donut open any weird bars, make sure Lopez and Sanchez are well maintain everyday, and Grif stays down at that canyon. I'm taking Privates Alex, George, and John with me to join up with B-Company."
"Don't you mean the Canaries?" Simmons asks.
"Same thing. And try to find or make some giant robots that can take on Caboose's."
"That also means you guys are gonna die." Washington says with a little bit of worry in his voice. "As a matter of fact, why take the new recruits that haven't broken in yet?"
"That's the point. They need to. And this is the perfect chance to do so. Before you asks, yes, there might be other people out there and they're waging war on each other on this strange and bizarre alien planet. We need to stop them and have them declare war on the aliens that put us here as lab rats. I don't know about you, but I don't want to relive the time that I found out my entire military career is a lie."
Sarge does have a good point...for the most part. If everyone is stuck there, they need to work together. Not kill each other.
"You do have a point." Wash agrees with Sarge's statement. "We need to work together to get out of this place. Who knows how many more people are trap here with us."
"In that case, I'm going." He looks at Simmons. "Did you teach Pvt. Alex on how to speak English?"
"Well, I tried to teach him modern Macedonian at first in order to get a better standing on what he is saying. Then taught him English afterwards. He seems to pick it up very well. But that is to be expected from a guy who nearly conquered the whole world."
"Good to hear."
On board the prison shipwreck, Mark Temple starts to wake-up from his sleep with Biff looking at what is happening outside the barred cell.
He sits up while cracking his neck. "What's *yawn* going on, buddy?" Mark is still feeling a little groggy after spending another night on the hard metal floor.
"Something's happening." Biff says as he tries to get a good look. "I can't see much, but looks like some big shot is talking to Phil."
"Which one?" Mark gets up on his feet and taking an interest. He walks up next to Biff.
"Sembra qualcuno con un'armatura bianca." Lorenzo says as he tries to look.
Translation: "It looks like someone in white armor."
Phil approaches the cells with someone behind him. The person behind Phil appears to be wearing armor with Prefect helmet, Stalker torso, Ricochet shoulders, Legendary visor, and Mark V arms and legs that are all white with gold trimmings.
"Good day, to you gentlemen." The man speaks in a British accent. "I am Gen. Donald Doyle of what used to be the Federal Army of Chorus. That is until Gen. Kimball managed to unite our people and brought peace to my home planet."
"Yeah, I know you." Mark says.
"Are you supposed to be dead?" Gene asks.
"True. But somehow I'm alive and well even though things changed since my sacrifice." Donald looks at Biff, "Seems to be a common theme around here."
"Yeah." Biff agrees. "That seems to be a theme."
Donald looks back at Mark, "I do have a bit of good news for you Blues & Reds."
"Are we getting out of here?" Gene asks.
"Good." says Cronut, "This place is absolute torture! The decor of this place is awful! There isn't enough lighting in this dump!"
Gene looks at Cronut, "That's because we're in a prison. It's supposed to be torturous."
Loco says, "I still didn't get my popcorn."
"Enough." Donald says. "You guys are getting out. Sorta."
"What do you mean by that?" Surge asks.
"You guys are being recruited for a special unit called, The Canaries. This unit is meant to go outside of the valley to explore, survey, and bring back anything that might be useful to everyone here in the valley. You're also given a mission to find anyone that may be in the same situation as we are along with finding any settlements. Once you've all finish your missions, you'll all receive full pardons to any crimes you may have committed to the UNSC and Earth. Granted full rights as both citizens and soldiers in this valley. And you're all free to live outside of your cells with your own bases somewhere. But keep in mind that you all will be privates and have a handler keeping an eye on you while out on missions. Now how can you all refuse a generous offer like that?"
Mark looks at his men and says, "Everyone, huddle."
All the Blues and Reds huddle together and whisper to each other about the offer.
Biff says out loud, "Oh come on!" But everyone tells him to shush it.
After ten seconds, Loco shouts, "I also want cookies!" Everyone shushes him.
Five seconds more, Cronut whispers loudly, "But I get to in charge of all the decorations, right?"
"Yeah, sure." Surge says.
"Then we're all in agreement?" Mark asks his fellow compatriots.
"Agreed." Everyone but Loco.
"I would agree to being a pony for a day." Loco says.
Everyone stops huddling and Mark approaches the general. "We have come to an agreement, but a few conditions. One: We don't want any Freelancers or simulation troopers being our handlers."
"FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE!" South yells from her cell.
"Second: We need some form of written agreement that doesn't have any loopholes in it. Third: I'll be second in command."
"Very well." Doyle agrees. "Good thing I've found someone that is neither Freelancer or sim. trooper." He looks towards his left as someone in blue wearing a Mark VI helmet, EOD chest plate and Hayabusa shoulder pads with red and white accents on it along with a two crossed swords emblem that are white and blue. He turns to face his the new Canaries."This is Cpt. Cosmic. One of the Spartan super soldiers of Spartan Squad Omega. He'll be your handler from this point on."
Everyone looks at him with moments of awkward silence until Loco says, "Hi, Cosmos."
"So we're gonna be assigned with a super soldier." Gene points out. "We're fucked."
"Moriremo."
Translation: "We're gonna die."
Back were all the Huntsmen and Huntresses are at, Teams NDGO and JNPR prep for their departure for some mystical city beyond the mountains. Yuri, Kohta, Toshimi, and even Winter are preparing to go as Coco checks the controls to make sure they're working fine. Everyone is in leather armor for protection when they're heading out. The pelican is on top of the garage next to the falcon while Winter is at the bottom with her sister.
"You're leaving?" Weiss asks her sister. "But you're low-leveled."
"True." Winter says as she checks her inventory. "But they NEED someone with actual combat experience when dealing with the unexpected. You'll never know what you'll find." Winter stops checking her inventory as she pats Weiss' head and gives her a smile. "Whitley need some training. Not to mention that you still need to work on your summoning glyph."
Weiss has her eyes looking at the ground, "I know."
"Don't worry. Once I come back, I'll assist you with your training."
Ciel approaches Winter with her new weapon as she salutes Winter. "Your weapon, commander." (Not sure what rank Winter is in the show, so I'll just make a guess)
Winter takes the weapon from Ciel. It is identical to the one Winter had back on Remnant.
"This is perfect." Winter says with a smile as she holds her weapon in the air. "Exactly identical to the one I had back home."
Over at an arena, Oscar tries to unlocks Whitley's aura the same way Pyrrha did. He places his hand on Whitley's head with Whitley giving a grumpy face while he does it. Oscar starts to give off a faint green aura while Whitley starts to have a faint light-blue aura.
Oscar speaks, "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. *placing a hand on his chest* I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." Oscar lets go as he haunches over from exhaustion as his aura faded.
Whitley's aura faded. "Soooo, I have my aura-whatever. Right?"
"Yep." Oscar tries to straighten up. "When your sister comes back, we can continue training."
"Wait, my sister? Which one?"
"Weiss."
"Fuck that!" Whitley marches out and leaves.
Over at the falcon, Team BRNZ prepare for battle against the alpha T-Dom as May preps her sniper rifle and Roy grins as he is on the right turret.
"Yea-ha-ha!" Roy says with excitement. "That thing is gonna be toast!"
"Yeah, well." Brawnz says something while not looking all that happy. "I'm a bit worried about the obelisk. According to Team CRDL, there was a gun platform that shot down ships from orbit."
Nolan sticks his head out from the side of the falcon, "But didn't they say they found three Sunbeam wrecks at the bottom of the ocean?"
May puts her sniper away, "They did. But I'm not sure the obelisks are the same. For all we know, they could be giant towers with a huge cache of data about what the hell is going on."
"Probably." May says. "But we should worry about that later. Let's get the job done and find a way out later."
Back at the pelican, everyone takes a seat in the new aircraft with Team NDGO, Yuri, and Kohta on the left side and Team JNPR, Toshimi, and Winter on the right. There are a few weapons packed outside on the side of the pelicans and one mongoose attached in the back. Coco is the driver seat and ready for take off. Team BRNZ pile in the falcon with Nolan and Roy in the turrets, May as sniper support inside, and Brawnz being the pilot. Almost everyone waved good-bye at the two aerial vehicles taking off west in the distance.
When the two crafts are out of sight beyond the keep and floating Minecraft island, Weiss looks around as she claps and rubs her hands together. "Now then." She grins menacingly, "Where is that dead-beet brother of mine?"
The alpha T-Dom takes big bites out of a triceratops in the redwood forests under the green obelisk for brunch. It swallowed some of the ribs of the triceratops as it held its head up. After swallowing its ton of flesh, it hears something. It look towards the east as it hears jet thrusters and propellers rotating. It never seen them before as it tilts its head, having no idea what they are.
"This is Coco here." Coco says through the radio. "I see the big ass, red glowing target on the ground. I'm guessing that's the alpha T-Dom you guys were talking about."
"Yep." Brawnz confirms. "That's our bitch."
"Alright, lets see who's on top of the food chain."
Brawnz pilots the falcon towards the left side while Coco takes position to the right. Confuse, the creature looks at both at the aerial crafts and wonders what is gonna happen next. What happens is that Coco fires a laser right at the creature's back. It roared in pain as it slowly regenerates the gaping hole on its back, close to the spine. The creatures gives a vicious glare at Coco's pelican as it growls at it. Team BRNZ fire at the creature with one of the side-mounted heavy machine guns and May firing a few rounds. The creature recovers almost as fast as the bullets being fired at it until May shot the creature's right eye. It shrieks in pain so loudly that it echoed past the redwood forests which frightened all other creatures to the point where they ran away from the conflict. The alpha T-Dom gets angry as it tries to jump up and take a bite of the falcon. But it misses as it gets higher in the air. Coco fires a few machine gun rounds at the beast before firing another laser round. Everyone keeps firing hails of bullets with a few laser rounds added in as the creature bleeds and regenerates. Helpless against the pain and onslaught of highly advanced machinery and guns. It tries to run into the trees for cover, but Coco makes sure that it doesn't by firing a few laser rounds into the creature's feet or knees. Leaving big holes and wounds so it cannot run. The alpha T-Dom roars in pain and agony as it cannot defend itself. But until finally, the creature falls dead.
"Alright!" Brawnz shout out as he accidentally lets go of the controls to raise his fist in the air for victory. The falcon tilted forward before Brawnz realize it and grabs the controls. "Whoops. Hehe. Sorry. Thanks for the assist against the motherfucker."
"No problem." Coco says through the radio. "See you guys back home once I do the drop off. Just get whatever the hell it is inside the obelisk."
"Will do!" Brawnz then lands next to the carcass of the nearly invincible predator.
Nolan jumps out with a metal hatchet and started hack up the beast. Brawnz gets out along with the rest of his team.
Nolan check his inventory, "Alright. Wow! That is a lot of prime meat I got. I even got the alpha tyrannosaurus tooth, an alpha REX trophy. HA! Told you it's called a T-Rex!"
May just stands there crossed armed at Nolan while glaring at him.
"Okay, and I also got something called,...a trike bone helmet? The fuck? Hold on, let me see." Nolan tries on the trike bone helmet. He looks at his team, "How do I look?"
"I think it looks cool." Roy says.
"As much as I hate to admit it, it actually does." May says.
"Yeah, you should keep it." Brawnz suggests.
"Thanks!" Nolan will continue to wear the bone helmet. (I know it is called a trike bone helmet SKIN, but I decided it should be a helmet.)
"No let's continue with why we're really here." Brawnz looks at the green obelisk along with the rest of his team.
They all walked forward towards the giant alien structure with some sort of round metal base under it. The team head right towards the center where they see some sort of strange pedestal at the center with the green beam of light is being emitted. Brawnz approaches it carefully as if he is expecting some sort of trap. He removes his Pip-Boy in order to use his specimen implant as a key to unlock it. Once his implant makes contact, a holographic screen appear with a green 'gamma' symbol on it.
"Oh-kay." Brawnz is unsure on what is going on so he presses the gamma symbol.
Big metal walls arose around the team with many empty slots that are meant for something. One of them looks like a tooth, such as the tooth Nolan has. Then a text appeared on the holoscreen.
Minimal Level Requirements: Accepted. Insufficient tributes & artifacts.
Then the walls went back into the metal foundation and the holoscreen disappeared. Brawnz removed his arm from the pedestal. All there is is silence and confusion among Team BRNZ.
"Soooooo." Roy broke the silence. "What the fuck?"
"I guess we need some parts and artifacts for some sort of ritual." Nolan pointed out. "Maybe to summon something or gain access to some information. Guess we need to take on the strongest beasts to activate it along with some artifacts we have no idea of."
May gives a disappointed sigh, "Takashi is right. We need a key. Or a lot of them in order use the obelisk."
Brawnz looks at his implant and sees a long list of required tributes and artifacts needed. Good news is that they already have one of these tributes and got the pictures for the rest to help identify. Bad news, they need a lot more. Even from some creatures they never seen before such as wyverns, basilisks, nameless, and a few more.
With that over, Team BRNZ heads over to the falcon and get ready to leave.
Brawnz takes the pilot seat and speaks through the radio, "BRNZ to home base, BRNZ to home base. Can you hear me?"
"This is home base, Penny speaking. Did you guys kill the monster?"
Brawnz flies the falcon to the sky to gain altitude, "We did and checked out the obelisk. Bad news, we need a lot of certain animal parts to gain access. Even worse news, we need something called artifacts that also work as keys with the animal parts. We're heading back."
"Roger, over and out!"
Team BRNZ fly back east to the encampment. The victory over the Alpha T-Dom was sweet for a while up until they had to find a lot of keys to gain access to the obelisk so it is bittersweet.
Coco flies over the mountains while using turbo thrusters in order to save time. While waiting for their destination, Jaune starts a conversation.
"So any idea on what to expect?"
Octavia responds, "Not sure. But hopefully the natives are friendly."
"A bit early to be naive, isn't it?" Winter says in her usual manner.
"We can only hope." Yuri says to Winter. "I was hoping that we would get out of that canyon to escape from the undead. And it worked well. We had to wait for a month, but it worked out alright."
"Hard to believe that you guys lasted that long against hordes of zombies." Dew sympathize.
Ren looks at the four boxes near the entrance of the pelican in the back, "What are those?"
"These?" Kohta says as he looks at the four boxes. "Those are turrets that Coco found. She says that they would be useful when setting up a base."
"That's good news." Nora says.
"Yeah." Gwen agrees.
"Best to have some defense when setting up camp." Ren says.
"But where are we gonna set up camp if the place IS in ruins?" Pyrrha asked.
"That is a good question." Jaune agrees with Pyrrha. "Maybe we can do some recon first then find a suitable place."
"Agree." says Winter. She looks at him with a smile, "Despite your...flaws, you really are a good at this."
Jaune chuckles a little as he blushes and rubs the back of his head. He chuckles, "Since you and I are speaking, can I-"
"No. You will not date my sister."
Jaune looks down with a look of sadness. Pyrrha grabs his hand while smiling at him. Jaune looks at her and smiles back. Team NDGO look at the two and whispers to each other. Saying that they SHOULD be a couple yet Jaune is really dense.
Toshimi interrupts the moment, "Do you think Team BRNZ found something at the obelisk?"
"Probably." Gwen hopes. "I would like to know what this planet is actually use for."
"We're here!" Coco says over the PA of the pelican. "Get ready for landing. And thank you for flying Air CFVY. Please make sure all luggage is accounted for and weapons ready for any unforseen combat. Thank you for flying!"
Everyone, except Winter, laughs at what Coco said. After laughing, everyone gets their weapons ready.
"Anything about our surroundings?" Ren asks
Coco looks out the window of the cockpit. Looking down at the city below her. She describes what she sees. "I see a lot of structures down there. Mostly ruins and some wildlife roaming around. There are a lot of overgrown plants too. So, yeah, the place is in ruins with no sign of people anywhere. Hang on, I'll take us to the main gate."
Coco flies over the what was once a proud magical city towards the gateway. She lands carefully close to the entrance as the dust gets scattered all over. Once she lands on the ground, everyone gets out and the mongoose gets dropped while the engines are still running.
When everyone gets off, Coco takes flight while saying, "See you guys back at HQ." Then takes off in the distance.
Everyone takes in the view as they see crumbling buildings, empty market stalls, voided streets, and the sound of a few hung signs creaking whenever the wind blows.
"This place almost looks like Mountain Glenn." Pyrrha points out. "Except there should be more Grimm."
"Mountain Glenn?" Kohta asked.
Octavia explains, "It was a place outside the city of Vale when it was trying to expand."
"But Grimm overwhelm the place." Nebula says with a sad look. "A lot of people got killed and the place abandoned."
"There are other places on Remnant like Mountain Glenn too." Ren adds. "Places like Oniyuri and...my home village of Kuroyuri. I lost my parents there."
Nora gives Ren a hug to comfort him since they both come from the same village.
"Sounds terrible." Toshimi says with her hands close to her mouth.
Winter interrupts, "I believe that is enough. We need to investigate on what happened here and set up base camp."
"Alright guys." Jaune says while looking at everyone. "Pyrrha and I are gonna do some scouting on the... What is it called again?"
Some of the girls chuckled with Kohta being annoyed while answering, "It's called a mongoose, duh." Winter is unimpressed as she shakes her head.
"Right, right. Come on, Pyrrha."
Both Jaune and Pyrrha get on the mongoose with Pyrrha driving and Jaune mounting on the back.
"Okay, I feel awkward." Jaune is feeling a little strange while being on the back of the mongoose.
Pyrrha snickers a little, "Just hang tight."
Both drive off to follow one of the roads to the left.
Ren says to Nora, "Okay, you can let me go now."
Nora lets go, "Sorry." She giggles a little and secretly enjoy hugging Ren tightly.
Yuri takes a look at what remains of a gate with the doors look like they were hit by something heavy. Or something at high speed. She takes a closer look at the moss covered remains to see how old they've been like that.
She thinks to herself, 'Judging by the amount of moss, small fungus, and rot, this has been here undisturbed for a long time. I say more than two centuries even.'
She then notices human-like footprints at the entrance of the gate. The shape looks like someone was wearing a metal boot of some sort. They seem average size but what really throws her off is how deep the impression is. It must be two inches deep and the steps look like someone was sprinting towards the gate.
Yuri looks up at the group, "Hey, everyone!" She yells out with cupped hands close to her mouth. "I think I found something!"
Everyone head towards with Winter asking, "Found something?"
Yuri points down at the footprint on the ground.
Ren leans closer, "Those are deep prints." Ren looks at the old wooden gates scattered about and the ruined frame of the front gate. "Something must've burst down the gate while running towards it."
Dew takes a look at the front gate and sees more prints. "Found more here!"
Octavia follows along the wall, "Found more as well!"
Everyone look at the ground and found deep footprints on the ground that haven't withered away for some odd reason. But they did found a few prints that just stopped and disappeared.
"Any ideas what happened here?" Gwen asks.
Octavia looks up at one of the towers. "A battle must've happened."
"How do you know that?" Kohta asks.
Octavia pointed at the tower and see the rotting remains of what used to be a trebuchet yet most of it is charred.
"Well it is really hard to tell." Yuri says. "Because all the rotting wood suggests that it happened two-hundred years ago."
"Are you sure?" Nora asks.
"Judging by the decay and accumulated moss, positive."
"Then where are the bodies?" Octavia asks.
"That is a good question." Winter says. "If there was a battle here, where are the bodies? And what were they fighting against?"
"I'm guessing robots." Nora hypothesis. "Because there is no way this was an ordinary human. Unless someone has access to some advance technology to make some fancy armor."
"In this place?" Nebula adds in, "Anything is possible. I mean we have zombies, prehistoric monsters, giant floating obelisks, magical stuff, and things we never found out yet."
Jaune and Pyrrha drove around the wide road on their mongoose while trying to avoid the carts and carriages on the streets. There are a few that are turned over with destroyed barrels, some cracked stone, rotting wood, and passed a few destroyed shops along the way.
"Man this place is dead." Jaune says as he takes in the sights. "Just what really happened here?"
"I don't know Jaune." Pyrrha says while keeping her eyes on the road. "But something is definitely wrong here."
She then sees something up ahead and slams on the brakes. Jaune comedically gets launched over Pyrrha and lands on his face.
"Ow." he says while his voice is muffled over the paved brick stone street.
"I'm sorry."
Jaune lifted his head up and spat out some dirt in his mouth. Then he sees some sort of improvised barricade made of carts, barrels, crates, a few chests, and spears sticking out of it. There are even a few bags filled with gravel at the base along with some banners hanging over the barricade. One of the banners has a golden lion on a field of red. Another show's a black knight on a black horse while holding a flag that is also on a field of red. The third is a black banner with a red dragon that almost looks like it is trying to form a suit of diamonds. The last banner is a darkish green color with a golden triangle and some sort of golden bird. These banners are worn, a little burnt with a few holes, and falling to pieces with some sun bleach on it.
"There's a clue."
Progression of Project PHOENIX: 44%
Still holding until subjects come into contact with new objects.
WARNING: Weather System Malfunction! Expect category 4 weather patterns.
AN: Hey guys, what's up? Listen, I'm not gonna do a new chapter next week because of work so expect a new one in two weeks. Not to mention I still got some furniture that still needs to be put in their proper place in my new home. Leave a review about your opinion or questions that you may have and I'll get right on them as soon as I can. Go ahead and speak your mind on what you think of the serious because I may need some motivation to help me get through this long and painful week. See you guys next time!