Chapter 2 - Not Alone

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The wind gave a soft whistle as it passed through the desolate and bleak streets. The world seemed too quiet. A great city like this so silent, Rowin could hardly believe it but here he was, seeing it all with his own eyes.

He continued his brisk pace walking along the shade of one of the large buildings, scanning the area for any signs of life or movement.

'How long has it been…' Rowin couldn't help but think to himself. It was disturbing to think about how long it must of been for the world to end up like this. Although he hoped the whole world wasn't like this he figured the odds weren't in that ideas favor.

Rowins gaze shifted to a building that peek over the top of the buildings in front of him. Examining the building from this distance it seemed suitable to deploy one of the communication antenna on its roof.

Rowin stopped moving and slide into a small crevice in the building next to him. "RO, I've found a suitable building to deploy one of the antenna. Moving to its position now." He informed his AI comrade.

"Copy that Pilot." RO replied, "Once the antenna is deployed it'll take several minutes to activate before it will begin full operation. During that time you need not stand by, its system is automated."

"Understood, I'll move to locate a power source to charge the ion cell or move to another position to deploy another antenna." Rowin paused for a second, "You'll inform me when the first antenna comes online correct?"

"Affirmative, I'll notify you as soon as it appears online."

Rowin picked up his pace to a brisk jog. He'd discovered no other signs of life besides that of grass and trees on his mission thus far. The world seemed empty without the activity of humans, it was eerie to say the least. To know what came before all this to see it like it was now, the earth still going without humanity, it truly made one understand how small humanity was on the grand scale of things.

That thought would stay with Rowin for the remainder of his life.

Rowin slowly approached the tower that he thought would be a sufficient spot to deploy the first antenna. He reached the base of the building and crotched down to survey behind him to see if anything was around him.

Of course he saw nothing but he still had to check. His instincts screamed at him to remain vigilant during this operation. His gut told him something was out there.

Rowins attention shifted to the building again, he stared toward the top. The size of the building blocked out the sun from this angle making the tower seem foreboding as he stood in its shadow.

Rowin took a step back and ran toward the building, he jumped, his jump kit boosting him through the second story window.

As he landed on the inside dust kicked up from under his feet, briefly surrounding his feet.

Rowin immediately trained his rifle down the corridor. He'd landed in one of the corridors of the structure which was probably the best place to end up instead of being in one of the rooms that may have been blocked off.

Rowin inspected the corridor he found himself in, it seemed structurally sound but he'd go up through the building to reach the roof. He knew he could have gotten to the top quicker if he used his grapple hook but this way allowed him to see the internal structure of the building. Rowin wasn't going to deploy the antenna on a building that was likely to collapse.

The inside of the building was dark, so dark that it was hard to see, no sunlight entered the building because of the surrounding buildings blocking the light so Rowin pressed a button on his helmet activating its light system. His x visor shown down the hallway, illuminating it.

Rowin moved swiftly but cautiously down the corridor looking for the stairwell. Every door he passed he pointed his rifle in to make sure nothing jumped him.

He proceeded down the hall turning a corner once he reached the first corridors end. As Rowin located the stairwell he stopped as he noticed something in the trash and debris on the ground. He crouched down before he swatted a piece of wood out of his way. Underneath he found a small cloth doll. The thing was practically in bits, barely held together by a few threads.

Rowin paused, his thoughts going back to the family he left behind when he volunteered to be put into stasis. The only family he had left, his younger sister.

"Pilot," RO spoke out dragging Rowin from his thoughts. "Have you reached the roof of the first building yet?" RO inquired.

"Negative," Rowin replied, shaking himself from his thoughts, his tone of voice changing slightly from his usual one. "I'm ascending the stairwell to the roof now. I'll only be another minute or so."

"Copy that." RO paused, "I know it must be hard, but you have to keep going Rowin." RO added on. Rowin sighed, RO could somehow tell when something was bothering him. This time was no different it seemed.

"I know RO, I know." He replied, "I'll update you when I get to the roof." The chatter between them went silent again allowing Rowin to retain his attention entirely on his surroundings.

Rowin stood from his crouch and walked up to the stairwell, he slowly advanced onto the next floor, swiftly checked the corridor before moving on.

He repeated this for each floor, however Rowin was swift about it, it only took a minute to get through the building floor by floor.

As he approached the final part of the stairwell leading to the roof Rowin swiveled on the spot and trained his rifle down the corridor. His visor lighting the dark hall.

His sights rested on a small tin can rolling across the floor. The sound of it had caught his attention.

As the small can rolled to a halt Rowin still remained trained on the other end of the hall. Something had moved the can, something caused it to roll.

Rowin stayed for a few more seconds before slowly backing his way up the stairs, keeping his attention on the hall for as long as he could.

Once out of sight he moved quickly up the stairs to a locked door. The door provided little resistance as Rowin just kicked the rusty, damaged door of its hinges.

He stepped out onto the roof over to the far edge, the side facing the opposite way he'd come from. Rowins gaze turned to the vast bleak and empty city in front of him. He still found it hard to swallow, seeing how the city and world around him was. If only he could find out how this all happened.

"RO, I've reached the roof. Deploying the first antenna." Rowin informed his friend, he pulled the first small antenna from his small pack on his back. He moved over to one of the corners of the building. One that faced further into the city specifically.

"Copy that Pilot. The deployment shouldn't give you issue, once it comes online I'll inform you." RO countered.

It took Rowin a minute but after slowly following the devices guide he managed to deploy it. Once activated an antenna arose from within the small device, small clamps deployed from the sides of it and anchored it to the ground they stood on. The clamps dug into the concrete, making sure nothing could easily dislodge it.

"Systems coming online," RO spoke up over the radio, "Communication link strengthened, mapping system of the area engaged." A almost inaudible sound echoed out of the device for a few seconds. A sonar device that would help map out the region or at least part of it.

Rowin stood waiting for the all clear from RO to move off to another location, his attention turned to the city once more but this time he was scanning for another suitable deployment site.

A few seconds passed before RO contacted Rowin again. "Pilot, deployment was a success. All systems are online and active at full capacity. Well done." He congratulated his pilot. Not much of an achievement normally but given the situation anything going right was a big plus.

"Solid copy RO, searching for a suitable location from this vantage point." Rowin used his helmets enhanced zoom to scan the area, just as he spotted a point across the city RO quickly spoke up, interrupting him.

"Pilot, the mapping system picked up some large movement not far from your current location. Unidentified individuals in the region." This immediately got Rowins attention. So there was something out there.

"Can you give me a heading?" Rowin asked, quickly scanning the city around him to see if he could see any commotion.

"North, Six degrees."

Rowin turned in that direction. He couldn't spot anything from up atop the building.

"Do you wish to investigate?" RO asked, speaking up again, "Our objective might be to restore power to the bunker and establish communications we should still investigate the environment to establish hostile and friendly inhabitants in the region. We should assess hostile forces in the area for the safety of the bunker."

"Shouldn't we complete our main objectives first? Those were the emergency orders given to personel if the bunker was ever in danger." Although Rowin would like to prioritise this pretty high up as well. It was important to learn of their current environment and its inhabitants.

"Correct, we should follow those objectives but as a newly appointed Major and the highest ranking official active you have the authority to divert resources if you so desire."

This got Rowin to smirk, RO damn well knew he wanted to investigate. If there was a chance there was other life out there Rowin wanted to know. RO knew that too so he told him exactly what he wanted to here.

"Thanks RO," He began his sentence with, "Alright, as I do not want to jeopardize the operation we'll only allow for a few hours of recon. Our objective is to find any trace of life out there." Rowin knelt down at the edge and peered down to the ground below. It was a small courtyard green surrounded by buildings, a few trees grew all around. It looked like a small oasis in this deserted landscape.

"Copy that Pilot, good luck." RO replied before going silent again.

With that Rowin stood from his crouch and positioned himself at the edge of the building before lightly hopping over the edge.

Rowin skid down the wall, his left hand and feet slowing his descent as they torn down the buildings wall. Although he attempted to slow himself he still picked up a considerable amount of momentum, just as he reached the third story of the building he kicked off its wall.

Gaining air Rowin quickly plummeted another few feet before finally activating his jump kit. The burst slowed his downward momentum to an almost complete stop so using his forward momentum he landed with a small roll to disperse that remaining force before finishing on his feet.

Never gets old.

Rowin quickly recovered and took off into a sprint in the direction his scanners indicated for him. He wouldn't admit it out loud but his mind was going a mile a minute with the thoughts and ideas of what this could be. He was almost throwing caution to the wind right now, not the best idea but if he didn't hustle it he could miss out on this opportunity.

"RO, any input into what we might find?" Rowin asked as he jumped over a medium sized crevasse that obstructed his path, paying it no mind as he did.

"While we do hope it's other humans causing this commotion it's quite possible it could be nothing more than animal life, it would be hard to fathom all animals being wiped out." RO replied, "Be prepared however as it might be machines as well. We're unsure if all this commotion that was picked up was just movement or a battle broke out."

Rowin had to agree, he'd have to be ready for whatever was waiting for him. "Understood."

"Proceed with caution Rowin." RO added on quickly before going silent once more.

It took Rowin less than thirty seconds to close in on the location. He'd sprint at his top speed the whole way, jumping on the walls to bypass obstacles on route. He used his grapple hook to swing himself around the corner of a building completely skipping a series of debris and rubble that blocked the paths and roads.

The skills of a pilot certainly come in handy.

Rowin slowed right down once he reached the edge of one building, he stacked up at the corner and halted.

"RO, I'm in position." He just wanted to inform him before heading in. He got an understood as a response.

Rowin took one more second before rounding the corner, his rifle pointed forward. What greeted him was a small grassy courtyard, covered on all sides by tall buildings. A series of trees grew out sporadically around the area, some of them growing nearly as tall as the buildings. It was an impressive sight but Rowin didn't pay that much mind as he advanced into the courtyard, slow and steady.

His attention was on the scraps of machines parts, still sizzling and sparking. It was a machine massacre, pieces lay scattered all around them.

Rowin continued on, slowly surveying the site as he moved through it, examining the damage done. From what he could comprehend from the devastated remains was there was a lot of slash and scorch marks. No bullet holes however, whatever did this wasn't armed with conventional guns.

"RO," He lowly called out, "It's a graveyard out here, everything is destroyed."

"Movement in the area died down mere seconds before you arrived. Whoever did this could still be nearby. Don't let your guard down."

Rowin didn't need to respond to that and RO knew it, he'd let him focus on the task at hand.

He leaned down onto one knee, he subtly glanced around his environment to see if he could spot anything suspicious. He quickly rummaged through a small splattering of broken machine pieces. He stopped and picked up a machine eye. It was offline but in one piece, he rolled it around in his hand for a moment, giving it a once over.

Rumble

Rowin swiveled on the spot, aiming off to his right side, training his carbine onto an area of a third floor building. The walls on that floor had already been destroyed so he could see inside from his current position.

His eyes glanced to the base of the building to see where a chunk of rubble had hit the ground, kicking up some dust.

'I'm not alone…' Rowin thought to himself, his gut instinct was screaming at him about something being off. His instincts weren't normally wrong either, they couldn't be, not with the type of work he has done in the past.

A moment of silence descended on the courtyard as Rowin had a standoff with whatever was out there.

That silence was broken as Rowin heard the sound of something fast approaching from behind reached his ear. Rowin didn't waste time turning around, instead opting to leap forward.

He'd made the right call as he could hear the sound of something strike the ground behind him. Mid roll Rowin shifted his body and ended up facing the direction he'd leapt from.

Not getting a chance to see who was attacking he had to react fast as his mind focused on what seemed like a sword fast approaching.

He fired off a burst of three rounds at his assailant causing them to cease their charge and have to avoid the shots. Which they did, barely.

Using this opportunity Rowin fired off a set of rounds at his assailant as they retreated to cover. His shots connected in a few small areas such as grazing a leg and arm but no letal shots hit.

Rowin was about to retreat back himself to cover whilst keeping an eye on where his opponent had disappeared behind when he caught movement out the corner of his eye, a side on attack.

Using his jumpkit Rowin threw himself backwards and propelled himself out of harm's way of another attack. He landed on his back with a decent impact, almost knocking the wind out of him, his helmet bumping off some debris that laid behind him, as what seemed like another sword swung at where he had just been standing.

"RO! We got hostiles!" He yelled to his friend, not that it could do much good at the moment, he wasn't getting any backup.

Not getting off his back Rowin lay there before training his carbine on the second assailant. He fired off a burst of three shots, this being a quick shot he had aimed for centre mass however this assailant was lifted from its feet as something tackled it out of harm's way.

The two assailants landed a good distance away from Rowin but Rowin wasn't going to let them off easy. As they both quickly recovered and lifted themselves off the ground Rowin fired off another set of shots. One of the assailants had grabbed the other and hurled both themselves over a larger piece of broken machine. The rounds penetrated the machines armor on this side but he couldn't tell if they went through.

Rowin jumped up off the ground and rolled over a piece of cover himself putting more distance between the two groups. He peered over his cover to see if he could spot them but he couldn't.

Rowin was so focused on staying alive in this firefight that he almost missed something really important. They were speaking.

All he heard was a female voice saying, "That was reckless." Sounded almost like it was a scolding tone.

Rowin paused as he heard that faint sound, "A voice…" He whispered to himself, peering over to where his assailants had gone.

Thinking fast Rowin pulled out a pulse blade and hurled it into a piece of machine scrap. His helmets visor lit up as the blade let fourth its pulses. To his surprise the pulse blade revealed there was nobody behind the cover so Rowin quickly looked around him. During his brief moment of pause they'd moved out of that very cover to a new location.

"Dammit!" He spoke to himself. Rowin knew this wasn't an advantagous position he found himself in so he activated his cloak turning completely invisible as he quietly walked out of the opening in the courtyard.

A silence once again returned to the courtyard as that small scuffle came to a sudden end.

Nearly a full minute passed before two figures emerged from the shadows, a sword in their hand, slowly examining the now empty courtyard.

"Where did it go?" A male voice asked in surprise, a little bit of curiousity came out in his tone. He stepped further forward into the courtyard looking for where their target had gone.

"I don't know but remain on guard." The female voice quickly shutting him down, she seemed more focused on the current situation than her male comrade.

The female, however, was about to wish she'd be more cautious as a shot ran out and clang of it hitting her sword handle. Her grip, although tight, wasn't prepared for it to be shot out of her hands.

"Don't move!" A voice called out, the male of the two turned in surprise looking at his comrade while the female did as she was told and remained still.

Two feet behind her Rowin uncloaked, his rifle trained on the females head.

"Drop the sword!" Rowin barked out, directed to the male of the two, as he took in their appearance. It dawned on him that they were human! Or at least looked human anyway. One was a female dressed in some kind of black dress with pieces of white scattered across her outfit, high heels, gloves and a blindfold. She had short white or silver like hair similar to the male that stood further away.

The male was also dressed in black and white like his comrade with pale skin as well however Rowin didn't care much for how they looked. Right now they were his enemy as they had attempted to kill him, the fact the male still had his sword didn't make this any better but he still held onto it.

The two looked between each other, he couldn't see what the female looked like but the look on the males face showed what seemed like genuine surprise.

"I repeat, who are you?!" Rowin asked again, slightly louder than last time.

The male seemed to ease off, clearly not wanting to endanger his ally. A small nod was exchanged between the two which Rowin didn't like. He kept his guard up, fully aware that these two might not be the only ones here.

"I'm 2B" The female began, "This is 9S." She stated matter of factly.

…

That was it? Better than nothing.

"Why did you attack me?" Rowin continued, that first question gave him nothing.

"That's what we do." The female continued to answer for them both. The male, known as 9S, remained still, he seemed to concede that they were no longer fighting but having a conversation. If you could call a hostage situation a conversation as well.

Again, that didn't give Rowin anything. Much to his frustration.

"Was it you two who did all this?" Rowin briefly pointed at the carnage of the courtyard before aiming his carbine back at 2Bs head.

"Correct." 2B answered, a short and sweet answer it seemed.

"Alright," Rowin glared at the female through his helmet, "Are you both human or machines?

This one got a visual reaction out of them, one of confusion though.

"Neither." 2B responded.

What? Neither? Than what were they?

Rowin remained focused instead of debating the answers to these questions. "Then why attack me? I'm no harm to you if you aren't a hostile machine."

"It's our purpose to destroy machines." This time it was the male, 9S, that responded to Rowin. He took a sublte step forward but Rowin reacted by pushing the barrel of his carbine closer to 2Bs head. This sent the right message to 9S as he stopped in his tracks.

Rowin shifted on the spot before continuing, "Well I'd hate to tell you but I'm not a machine, I'm human."

There was a pause, by the look on 9Ss face as he turned to look at 2B it seemed that that genuinely surprised them both. 9S turned back to Rowin as 2B shifted slightly to face Rowin.

"What?"

"What?"

C2: End

Chapter two down, sorry for the wait. Life has just been busy so all my stories have slowed in production for the last two months. I hope I can get the next chapter out soon but I can't say anything until I get past my exams in December. I should be able for more frequent updates after that.

Anyway, glad I got this done. Had fun trying to write a good skirmish between them while I tried to keep both combat styles there.

By the request of several people through PM I added a poll to my profile about whether or not I should add a Romance side plot to this story. I would have preferred to stay away from romance in this story but I guess that can't be avoided if so many people want that. So the poll will allow you to choose whether or not you want romance in this story and if you do you can pick who it is. Note: This is for who will be 'paired' with Rowin.

I guess that's a thing now...

That's it for now, I've rambled on for long enough. Thanks for reading this chapter too.

AlcatrazDGold - Till the next chapter…