Yep its finally up, the problem was that i kept wanting to do it, but the moment i got home i felt too tired to do anything, so once again sorry for how long it took to get this up, I've already got the 6th chapter planned out so it won't take that long.
I own nothing, except the story, OCs, and made up places.
So enjoy!
Chapter 5: The end of another
After accepting Lucy's offer both clones were immediately dragged to Rosefield inc. and were thrown into whatever contracts available ranging from escort missions to retrieval of HVTs and other assorted missions available, sometimes working with other squads and sometimes even Lucy herself when she had the time.
After only a year of countless Missions they were labeled, 'The reapers by the other squads for the amount of successful missions they had accomplished and there terrifying proficiency at combat.
As time went on Rosefield started to grow in size, now rivaling Thugs-4-less in terms of size, when the company was till trying to get off the ground she only had around Three operators and 4 squads, now there were everyday people wanting to join alongside mercenaries and bounty hunters from all over which turned the company into a massive corporation with branches scattered across the , with the they even started a disaster relief branch that has gotten some major praise from unstable planets around the system, they were well respected by the defense force themselves since the majority of the aforementioned contracts come from them.
When she looks back at how far they have come she realizes that it was mostly tied to getting Xexus and Deroot onboard because of there insane mission success rate it wasn't long until resources started to pour in, with that in mind and the amount of times she and Xexus would get into some sort of comedy based routine after a mission, she realized that she was starting to grow feelings for Xexus, when she finally confessed he didn't reject her at all since she started the company and gave him the ability to help out others so they both fell in love and have been dating ever since.
Three years after the deal, planet Sargasso
Flying over the plains of the dinosaur dominated planet was a convoy of three dropships, each bearing a Red rose surrounded by thorns with a black and red scythe resting on top, underneath was the name of the most infamous squadron of Rosefield simply named 'Squadron 1, Reapers'.
Sitting inside the forward most dropship was a ten man squad all wearing the advanced protosuit, with their squadron leader Xexus, sitting the closest to the cockpit door, wearing his newly acquired hyperflux combat armor with the helmet sitting at his side. He was currently looking at the small ring he was holding onto looking at the small bit of raritanium on the top of it.
'I'll propose after this mission, maybe we can finally settle down after all of this' he put the ring back into his pocket and stood up, "Alright listen up!" every soldier in the ship looked to Xexus waiting for him to continue, "Our objective here is the securing of a Top-secret device that the drophyds are currently transporting to emperor tachyon, the contents are unknown as far as we know, what we do know about it however is that its giving off a massive energy signature, thats why there moving it through sargassos in order to keep its unique energy from being detected, the device is being transported by air so our air squadrons will move in and destroy any and all air defenses, then our teams will move in and take control of the transport, team 1 is lead by Deroot and will focus on the lower deck, team 2 is lead by Lucy and will take control of the bridge, ours is to go for the cargo hold and secure the device, there are to be no witness's so everything is considered hostile."
Once he finished the pilot of the dropship spoke over the ships com system, "Air squadrons have destroyed the defenses, we're moving in now."
The three ships kept a tight formation as they moved in on the convoy of drophyd gunships and transports that were in a fierce air battle against rosefield fighters, with the main transport being three times as large as the swarm of ships around it were, with fire and debris in places were you would see the automated turrets that were scattered about the hull of the ship.
"20 seconds to drop" the pilot announced Xexus put his helmet on and walked to the back of the ship, he went to the side and pulled the lever to open the back ramp.
"5 seconds" the rest of the squad stood up in two rows. When the dropships got close they broke up to land at their respected areas, when Xexus's transport got to its position the light inside the back turned green. "GO!" Xexus yelled as he jumped out, leading the squad to a small opening in the top of the ship.
When everyone made it inside they immediately checked their surroundings, where all they found were small grates and vents, indicating that they were in a maintenance shaft.
"Alright remember the briefing, get to the cargo hold, find the device, set charges and exfil."
As they made their way through the vents, all they heard were either footsteps or gunfire and explosions, not being able to tell who was firing or help out, they continued moving until they came to a vent that had laser tripwires set up to making it impossible to proceed.
Since they couldn't proceed any further, Xexus broke radio silence, "Team 1, team 2, status report."
"Team 1 here, lower deck secure, moving to rendezvous with team 3." The voice that was easily recognized as Deroot said. After which Lucy's voice came over the channel.
"Team 2 here, secured bridge, beginning deactivation of all security devices in the cargo hold."
After she said that, the lasers turned off, allowing team 3 to proceed "Team 3 here, proceeding on schedule."
As they got closer to the cargo hold, Xexus had this gut feeling tell him that this was a little too easy, but before he could say anything to his team the vent fell with him still in it, "SHIT!" was all he said after the vent hit the ground.
When he woke up he was in a very dark room with nothing in it, he didn't bother checking for wounds because they would've healed by now, when he looked up he saw the rest of his team still their yelling if he was alright, "Yeah i'm fine, i'll find a way back to you just keep going!" Once he finished his felt another presence in the room, something that was big.
Xexus didn't have time to turn when a giant leg took a swing at him, forcing him to duck only to get shot with a plasma cannon sending into a wall, the parasite already working on his wounds.
When his vision came back he was able to recognize what his attacker was, a drophyd enforcer that was heavily modified, were it would have rapid fire gatlins were two experimental alpha cannons and what appeared to be an orbital weapon launcher and seeker launcher on its back, he also noticed there wasn't a drophyd container that would usually hold the little fish while it piloted the mech, indicating that this one was unmanned.
Xexus, immediately recognized the amount of danger he was in so he looked around to see if there was a way out, unfortunately there wasn't, 'Dammit! looks like i don't have a choice' He put his hand over his heart and started to talk to it "activate level 1" once he said that, the parasite activated and the black aura appeared around him, once it finished he pulled out a new HF plasma blade and black pistol that was Lucy's ebony, she gave it to him as a sign of trust.
"Come on you piece of scrap metal, LETS DANCE" he flashed out of existence and was behind the mech ready to slice one of its legs off, but it seem to know where he went and moved its legs out of the way then it kicked him away again into another wall, 'How the hell-' he didn't finish his thought as he had to dodge seeker missiles, when he managed to evade the missiles the enforcer looked like it was upset and launched its orbitals that chased Xexus around the room, they had one flaw which made them have to stop in order to shoot at him which he took full advantage of and destroyed them with ebony, this got the enforcer even more mad which caused it to use very weapon it had against Xexus.
'Theres no way i can keep up with this' he thought as he kept running until the enforcer got a lucky hit, knocking him to the floor, noticing it hit home it pressed on its attack, the explosions and laser fire pushing Xexus back into a wall, unable to retaliate.
The enforcer stopped firing once its missile launcher and orbital weapons were empty, its alpha cannons had overheated from all the firing, with no other way to finish Xexus off it got close to him, looking to see if he was still alive.
Xexus's armor was completely destroyed, with pieces of it falling off and scorch marks all over it, but somehow he was still alive, intending to finish what it started it raised one of its legs up, the bottom of it opening up to reveal spikes underneath 'I…guess…this…is the end…sorry…Lucy' Xexus thought, waiting for the enforcer to crush and impale him.
But it never came, when he opened his eyes, he saw something he wasn't expecting to happen at all, something was burning its way through the top of it, the enforcer made an agonizing roar as it tried desperately to get whatever it was off of it, unfortunately for it, whatever it was made it inside and was now burning its way out the bottom of it.
It stopped reacting when the fireball went through the bottom of it, its now lifeless body fell to the side, no longer functioning, Xexus tried to move his head to see what the blob of fire was, only to find Deroot standing where it was.
Xexus tried to stand up, but fell back onto the ground, Deroot realizing how bad the injuries were, ran over to Xexus and picked him up.
"Deroot…hey…buddy" Xexus could barely get a word out of his mouth as he was slowly losing consciousness.
"Hey, save your strength Xexus, you'll make it out of this, just hang on" Deroot said, trying not to break down from the amount of pain Xexus was currently in.
When he was about to jump back up to the vent, the whole room turned red for a brief second, and in the middle of the room, a small pillar rose from the floor, once it made it out, the top of it opened up to reveal what shocked both Deroot and Xexus.
What came out of the pillar was the exact same parasite that both Xexus and Deroot currently have in their bodies, Its single red eye looking at both of them, curiously.
When it started to look at Xexus, the parasite in him, spoke to Xexus "Consume that other parasite, if you want to live through this" Xexus, with whatever strength he had left, tried to speak, "Get…me close…to that…parasite…Deroot" Deroot, eyes went wide, and immediately began to protest, "Are you nuts?! your dying and you want to get into contact with another parasite! We have no idea what'll do to you!" Xexus used whatever strength he had left to get out of Deroots grip, slowly limping his way to the parasite, "I got…no choice…unless…I want…to…LIVE!" HE yelled with his remaining strength his hand just touching the parasite.
Once he came into contact the entire room was engulfed in black, the parasite let out and inhuman screech as it was slowly being absorbed into Xexus' body, when it was done Xexus was in his level 1 form only this time, his entire left arm was cover in some sort of dark substance.
Xexus was panting heavily on the ground, the parasite in his body then spoke "You have just taken the first step into becoming what your destined to be" When he was able to sit up straight, he looked at his left hand, he then looked at the remains of the automated enforcer, grabbing the leg that was closest to him, he lifted with all his strength, picking up the enforcer, he swung it like it was a giant club, once it landed his arm began altering the shape and form of the enforcer, remodeling it into a giant hammer, a jet turbine was in the very top of it and the hammer part was 6 giant chainsaws (Take the mega blade, grind blade, and mass blades from Armored core verdict day and put them together, this is the result) Once it finished forming, the entire thing vanished, Xexus had no idea what just happened and neither did Deroot, This is when the parasite spoke again, "You won't be able to use that weapon until I can evolve again" was all it said, Xexus didn't bother replying because he wouldn't get a straight answer from the parasite about what it meant, He turned back to Deroot his expression one of shock, amazement, and fear, shock of being able to use such an ability, amazement that he possess a weapon like that, and fear for what he's becoming, Deroot had a more fearful look on his face, unsure of what to say.
"Deroot-" he couldn't finish his sentence, when the whole ship shook violently, the alarms started going off when a mechanical voice spoke.
"WARNING, SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED, ALL HANDS, EVACUATE THE SHIP IMMEDIATELY"
Without saying anything to each other, Deroot activated his hover boots, with Xexus jumping on his back he flew up into the vent again and through a hole in the wall that led to a hallway, they ran in the direction towards the lower decks, with both of them now running aside one another, Xexus spoke, "Deroot, I don't know exactly what happened back there but I am would never attack anyone I care about, you and Lucy know that more than anybody!"
"I am glad that you survived, but listening to that thing is not a good idea in my opinion, what if it does take control, then what?!"
"If that happens, then don't hesitate to kill me!"
Deroot, stopped running and stared at Xexus, his eyes were the size of saucers, His best friend, and practically brother, just told him if the parasite took control, then don't hesitate to kill him.
"Xexus…you know i can't do that, there has to be a safer way right?"
"You probably wouldn't get the chance to if I lost control, I would rather have myself die before I hurt anyone I care about, now I would like to continue this, but I think we have to get the hell out of here, so where to in order to get to the lower decks?"
Deroot, got his composure back and said almost hesitantly "We have to go through the reactor room, in order to get to the lower decks." with no real time to find another way around Xexus took off in the direction towards the reactor, with Deroot right behind him.
Once they got to the reactor, they noticed that the catwalks surrounding it were all destroyed so the only way to get to the other side was to use the support beams.
Once they made it to the other side, they were about to continue until the heard a noise from behind them, they turned around to find a Drophyd standing their, its exoskeleton was badly damaged, it was missing a left arm, and it tank was leaking profusely, what they both noticed was it was hold a fusion grenade, that starting to count down its detonation time, Xexus and deroot couldn't get their weapons out in time before it was about to throw the grenade, but instead of throwing it at them, he threw it at the reactor.
With no time to get out of the blast range Xexus did the unthinkable and threw himself in front of Deroot, taking the full blunt of the blast for him, the blast engulfed the entire corridor before the ceiling caved in.
Back with Lucy, the remaining Squads dropships had left except hers, there were explosions happening all over the transport, but she wanted to wait because the other squads said that Deroot and Xexus got separated from their groups.
Sensing the impending danger that was coming the pilot spoke, "We got to pull out!"
"No! we can't leave yet, not until there back!" Lucy retorted, but the pilot noticed that the transport was starting to dive he started pulling up the ramp and started to pull out of the hangar "I'm sorry, but we have to go now!"
"No wait!" was all Lucy said as when the dropship got far enough away, she watched in horror as the massive transport, blew up, as it crashed into the planet below, unable to stop it.
"XEXUS!" was all she said as the ramp closed and the dropship flew back to igliak with the others, Losing the one person she loved more than anyone else.
Yeah so i kinda forgot to mention that Xexus will get a lot of crazy abilities later on, and that giant weapon is just one of them, oh and heres the description for said weapon:
Ultimax blade:
Massive hammer like weapon, with 6 chainsaws surrounding the hammer part, and a giant laser cannon on the very top
Level req: ?
This chapter took a lot of motivation and focus for me to actually finish, now i will get the next chapter up soon, but i also wanted to let you guys know that i got the first chapter of another story being made, but i want your guys opinion on what it should be, should it be one of the crossovers i mentioned or be an arc of this, PM me your answer, please review and i'll see you all next time.
