Chapter 8: Stand-off
Location: Near Hanover on the planet Sera Timeline: 16 A.E.
As we rushed over to the others, one of them saw us and asked Sam and Carmine, "Whoa! These are the guys that were helping you in Hanover?"
Sam replied, "Yes, Jace. That's them!"
We continue to follow Marcus and others to the back behind a cargo container, revealing an injured man and a blonde woman, which turns out to be Anya.
She said as we approached, "Oh thank God, anyone got a hemostat dressing? I'm out. Dom, give me a hand-press down here and hold it."
Dom nodded and walked over to the injured man, assuming it's Prescott, and covered his wound.
Then Anya walked up to Marcus and said, "Don't expect too much conversation. One lung's collapsed. His chest cavity's filling up."
Then Anya walked up to us and responded, "So, you're the ones that were helping Cole and his team while in Hanover, right?"
I replied, "Yes, ma'am. That was us. We're here to help out in any way."
Ruby agreed, "That's what we do best!"
Ralphie beeped in agreement, surprising Anya a bit, then she said, "Good to hear."
Then we approached Marcus as he asked Prescott, "Can you hear me?"
Prescott replied, "I hear you, Sergeant... Where's that... chat you promised me?"
Marcus demanded, "Where's my goddamn father?"
Prescott answered, "The disc..." and coughed up some blood and continued, "Azura."
Marcus replied, "And I'm supposed to know what that is?"
Prescott coughed up more blood before he replied, "No... it's a research facility. He's been working there... Queen... Myrrah captured it days ago..."
Ruby and I looked at each other, then to Anya and I asked, "Who's Queen Myrrah?"
Anya answered, "She's the Queen of the Locust Horde."
I replied in sarcasm, "Oh great! Another power-hungry woman who would destroy everything in her path in order to get what she wants. Perfect!"
Anya raised an eyebrow and asked, "Have you dealt something like this before?"
I nodded and replied, "Yeah, you could say that."
But then Marcus shouted at Prescott, "Goddamn you, where's Azura?"
Then Anya approached Marcus and said, "Marcus... come on."
Prescott answered, "Encryption..." as he handed Marcus the device.
Then in Prescott's final words, he said, "That old bastard... he'll be... furious..."
And with that, Prescott passes away. Anya said in sorrow, "He's gone."
And then Anya closed his eyes with a palm of her hand, then turned to Marcus and said, "Maybe there's something in your father's message. We've got to find a data reader."
Then Dom asked, "Who was he talking about?"
Baird answered, "Hoffman. The bastard is Hoffman."
That caught all of our attention, then Marcus slowly walked up and demanded, "Spit it out."
Baird began, "Look, Hoffman's been hanging on to that data disc he stole from Prescott back on Vectes. All of those goddamn months I spent trying to crack the encryption for him, we still didn't have a frigging clue what was on it. Well, I bet it's the data on Azura, and that unlocks it. We have to get it to Hoffman and crack that disk."
Anya began, "But he's at Anvil Gate. That's a hell of a long journey, Marcus."
But then Cole ran up to us and said, "I hate to interrupt, people, but we got some visitors!"
As we ran out, more Locust started to pop out of the ground and started to attack us. We then proceeded to engage the enemy.
Ruby used her Semblance to get to higher ground and began to snipe the enemies while the rest of us stayed where we were at.
I began to rev up my minigun and yelled at the Locust, "Eat lead!"
And I started to mow them down with it while the others that me and Ruby were helping stayed out of my line of fire.
After a few minutes of fighting, Ruby came back on the ground and we started to hear monstrous roars.
Marcus yelled, "Ahh, frigging terrific!"
Then a Brumak slammed through a rock wall and marched towards us. As it stopped, it roared at us.
As I approached towards it, I started to hear Marcus yelling, "Hey! What are doing?! Get back here!"
Then I overheard Ruby saying, possibly to Marcus, "Let him do it."
Jace asked, "Uh... do what?"
Ruby replied, "You'll see."
I then activated my Heaven's Trinity and summoned up Liberty Prime.
LP spoke, "LIBERTY PRIME IS ONLINE. ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL. WEAPONS HOT. MISSION: THE DESTRUCTION OF ANY AND ALL CHINESE COMMUNISTS."
As the Brumak roared at him, LP took notice and replied, "HOSTILE DETECTED."
Then LP said, "EMBRACE DEMOCRACY, OR YOU WILL BE ERADICATED."
Again, the Brumak roared and began to charge at him. LP responded, "ENGAGING RED CHINESE AGGRESSORS."
And with that, LP started to brawl against the Brumak.
As I walked back to the others, I saw all, besides Ruby and Ralphie, have expressions of shock and disbelief.
Ruby said to them, "Told you."
As I approached, Marcus asked, "How the hell did you do that?"
"Well, after the battle, Sergeant, we'll tell you everything." I replied.
XXXXXX
'3rd POV...'
Liberty Prime was battling against the Brumak while Edward, Ruby, Ralphie, and Delta Squad watched.
Then the Brumak fired its missiles at Liberty Prime, but LP shrug it off.
LP quoted, "RED CHINESE VICTORY: IMPOSSIBLE!"
The LP fired his laser at the Brumak, blowing off its helmet. As a result, the Brumak roared in anger and started to shoot down LP with its machine guns attached to its arms.
But the bullets just simply bounced off LP, who then quoted, "THE LAST DOMINO FALLS HERE!"
Then LP took out his Mark 28 nuke and tossed it at the Brumak, blowing it up into pieces.
XXXXXX
'Edward's POV...'
After LP destroyed the Brumak, he turned to us and said, "HOSTILE NEUTRALIZED."
I replied, "Good work, Liberty Prime!" Then LP started to fade away.
Then I turned towards Marcus and said, "Now we can talk." as I deactivated my Heaven's Trinity.
While Baird began to decode the message of Marcus's father, me and Ruby explained everything like where we're from, our Semblances and Auras, about Remnant and Earth, the events, everything.
"... and that about sums it up." I finished. All of them, besides Carmine, Cole, and Sam, were in shock and disbelief.
Then Marcus said, "So, you guys have been through that much, huh?"
Me and Ruby nodded and I said, "Yeah, pretty much."
But then I asked, "Can I ask you a question, Marcus?"
Marcus nodded and replied, "You may."
"Well, it's not really a question, more like a request. Me and Ruby heard that you discovered that your father's alive." I said.
Marcus raised an eyebrow and replied, "Yeah, so?"
I then replied, "Ruby and I want to help you find your father. It's because we both know what it's like to lose parents, so we want to make sure you won't have to go through that again."
A moment of silence came as Marcus began to think, until he responded, "Alright, I'll accept your request. Besides, we need more people like you in our ranks."
"Of course, sir." I replied.
Ruby replied, "We won't let you down!"
Ralphie beeped in joy as he bobbed up and down.
Then we all began to approach Baird and he said, "This is all I could recover." as he stepped aside.
Then the message of Marcus's dad began, "I tried to contact you over the years, but I've been held prisoner at Azura since Prescott abducted me-"
That last part caught our attention. Then the message continued, "-you mind on the Imulsion countermeasure! That's all that matters-"
Then the message began to go through a loop, "-at Azura since Prescott abducted me from the estate-Prescott abducted me-"
It keeps on repeating the last part over and over until...
"Fucking Prescott, Goddamn him!" Marcus yelled as he smashed the console, damaging it.
I muttered, "Yikes."
Then Baird approached Marcus and asked, "Uh... So now what?"
Marcus replied, "Now we go see Hoffman."
The Marcus turned towards Sam and asked, "Sam, you're from Anvil Gate, what's the quickest route?"
Sam answered, "Across the Deadlands. It's going to be rough, but I can take you straight there."
Marcus said, "Just give us directions, Sam. You and Anya stay here with Carmine and Jace and supervise the salvage."
Anya spoke to him, "Marcus, we'll catch up with you when the situation's under control, okay?"
Marcus replied, "Okay. Good luck."
Then Marcus turned to us and said, "Baird, Cole, Edward, and Ruby. We've got a long walk ahead of us. Let's get going."
Sam put in coordinates into a large tablet that Cole held and we began to head straight towards the Deadlands and to Anvil Gate.
To be Continued...
