Chapter 1: A New Mission and a New Soldier
Everywhere he looked, an enemy. Quick, jerky movements had saved his life more than once. He tried as hard as he could to conserve ammo, but his mind couldn't program a strategy quickly enough. The enemies were coming too fast. However, before he knew it, only one was left; one shot, one enemy. He would have to be extremely careful. He waited. The injured Zombie-bot lunged: a fatal mistake. The scatter blaster's shot hit it straight in the heart. The Zombie-bot was pushed back by the sheer force and fell into such small pieces that you couldn't tell bullet from body.
Since his defeat of General Corrosive and the deprogramming of the Mils, Glitch had been very highly praised and promoted to an Elite Soldier, only because that was as high as the rankings went. Glitch had always been an awesome warrior.
"Well, well! I'm impressed!" A familiar voice boomed as the speaker, Colonel Alloy, came into the room. "You done good, Glitch. You beat every enemy out of hundreds on the first time you've ever done the level."
The little yellow droid looked surprised. The colonel had never called him anything but "kid" or even "soldier" from time to time.
"Permission to reboot, Colonel?" the deepening voice of the small robot asked.
"I believe that's enough training for today."
"Thank you, Colonel!" Glitch answered enthusiastically, getting ready to go rocketing out of the training building.
"But I have a mission for you." Colonel Alloy stopped Glitch in his tracks. The look on his face was one of puzzlement. "You know you're different from the other droids."
Glitch stood up taller. My mark...
Though he had never understood why, he had always been less blocky than the rest of the Droid army, and had a few more tools that even he didn't know how to use. But most importantly, he had an odd, foreign mark on the back of his head, one that was created of almost crude lines and symbols.
"We believe you are of Morbot descent. You must re-enter Morbot Land, and discover your heritage, for lack of a better word."
Glitch nodded solemnly, going off to have a little break with the other soldiers, but not telling them of this new mission. Morbot? He looked very similar to other droids. Was it that he had been a failed Morbot reproduction of a Droid? He could well be the prototype of an artificial droid army...like the Mils had once created. He shuddered.
After his break he went to his bunk to gather his weapons and change his oil. Then, tense as he could be, he walked to the door to Morbot Land, where the Colonel was waiting.
"Alright kid, even though you've done this before, we're sending someone with you," He announced. Alloy made an odd gesture with his had to signal the opening of a door, where two droid scientists shoved an odd-looking droid through.
"Let go of me!" the weird droid said. It was purple rather than yellow, and its eyes were green. There was something about the droid's voice that seemed different, and the body was built differently as well.
"This here is Vix," Said Colonel Alloy, "She's a prototype of a new type of Droid our scientists are working on."
"She?" Glitch queried. All the Droids of the army had been male, and there were few females on Ironstar as there was no need for them with robots who built up the population by building.
"That's right, dipstick," She said grumpily, glaring at the Elite soldier. "Don't go making fun of me or trying to treat me different because I'm a girl! I can operate a Rocket Launcher just as well as you! I probably can decipher a code better too..."
"Pardon her," one of the scientists said, "She's still a prototype, and she's not as well-behaved as she should be. Vix is one sniper, though."
The female couldn't suppress a smile. She narrowed her eyes in satisfaction from the comment, keeping the green glow focused on Glitch.
The other scientist spoke up. "You'll have to show some respect, though, Vix. This is your Colonel and an Elite Soldier."
Vix's eyes grew wide. She looked from the scientist to Glitch and back, then bowed her head in recognition. The scientists returned to their lab, and the Elite soldier began to instruct the prototype bot on how to get into Morbot Land the safest way.
"It's best to climb on it and sit on the rim," he said, "That way, when he opens the door, you can slide in on your feet and you'll land without getting hurt too badly." The purple droid only nodded.
"Ready?" The Colonel said, "3...2...1..." And he opened the door.
(End Chapter)