The facility had been brand new but a gaping hole now marred its south wall. A path had been made as if something massive had been dragged from the dirt road, over the fence and through the concrete wall.
This was the scene that Dominic Sorel observed as he rode up on his motorcycle. His black military uniform clinged to his sweating skin in the hot climate the region was known for.
A few technicians that manned the post were standing outside the hole in their facility arguing with each other. He rode up to them making sure not the come near the drag marks leading up the path to the mining facility.
"Excuse me! I am Lieutenant Dominic Sorel and I was assigned to look into this matter. Are you the men that called for the investigation?" he asked loudly over his bike's engine and the men's shouting.
They stopped and turned to him as he killed the ignition. One man, a short and curly haired engineer spoke up, "I'm the head technician here and yes we called for an investigation. We believe that someone stole parts of an LFO frame and yet it still takes them a week to send an investigator."
"Just a frame? Not an archetype as well?" Dominic asked looking away to the interior of the building. He wasn't going to listen to the man complain about how long it took for someone to come out to this tiny factory. As he looked inside he noticed it didn't look like anything had been taken; the place barely looked disturbed at all.
"Well that's the thing we didn't have any parts set up yet. But you see the automated outfitting systems we use to equip the archetypes we dig up over the hill were used to build something." replied the man with clear dislike over being ignored by Dominic.
"Can't your men tell what was built by your own systems?" Dominic said walking over to the drag marks and bending down.
"No the systems don't show themselves being used, but we're sure they were used because the materials are gone and the machines have obvious signs of use from the day before. There were even some emergency supplies that were taken." said the man watching what Dominic was doing to the disturbed ground.
"So can I assume that these drag marks go all the way to the dig site?" said Dominic standing up and finally looking directly at the engineer.
"Yes they go into the site but they enter a section of the caves that we abandoned because there were no archetypes down that far. We haven't investigated ourselves past the safety markers." Answered the man finally able to get a full look at the young man.
The technician saw that Dominic may have been on the short side but it belittled a well built body under his uniform. His eyes also displayed signs of a young but wizened mind that that also contained much experience.
Dominic walked up to the man and held out his hand, "Thank you sir. I believe I will look into the source of this objet."
The man shook Dominic's hand but was confused, "That sounds fine sir but shouldn't you be focusing on who did this rather then what they stole from us?"
Dominic walked over and started up his bike. "Ah, but if you understand what they stole and why they stole it you will start to understand who the criminal is." He then jumped onto the bike and road off up the hill riding thru the drag marks all the way.
They had been heading for Bester for a couple of days since their visit to Ramen Street. Sumner's backside hurt from driving for this long on the bumpy roads that vaguely connected the towers. He could see the familiar tower of Bester in the distance. Despite being so far it was almost the size of the sun high up in the sky.
Sumner took a quick look over at the empty seat next to him and thought to himself, "Ruri hasn't been spending much time up here in the cabin with me since we left Ramen Street. I hope I didn't do something stupid without realizing it again." But his thoughts were interrupted when the road started to get much more hap hazard, he needed to focus on the road.
Meanwhile Ruri was in the small kitchen area between the cabin and the bedroom that had the garage on its other side where they kept Sumner's 505 Kai. Her head hurt from all the bumping around and when she finished looking through all the cabinets she realized all the snack foods had run out again.
She was miffed but decided it was best to just lie down and get some sleep. But suddenly a loud bang erupted next to the truck and sent her flying nearly to the roof of the room. She landed hard on the floor and slid sideways as the truck stopped abruptly.
"What in the hell is going on out there?" She asked allowed. She had a pretty good guess in her mind and as she worked herself upright her suspicions where confirmed as another series of blasts rocked the vehicle side to side.
A loud voice could be heard through the steal sides of the truck. "This is our territory! Come out and get on the ground and we may only take your possessions!"
"Someone picked a bad day to make me miss my beauty sleep." Ruri thought to herself as she ignored her headache and started up the ladder in the corner of the room to the roof of the truck.
Wearing an environmental protection suit Dominic stepped over a broken "do not enter" sign as he entered deeper into the scub mine.
Luckily the drag marks were very distinctive, even in this dark place, he thought to himself. He couldn't make any sense of the map they had given him at the entrance and he refused anyone's help to guide him so once again he thought to himself, "Lucky me."
As he went down the narrow passage he realized he was probably the first person to come down here besides whoever had made the deep dirt trail sense this cave was first uncovered. After a while the passage suddenly opened into a large room.
In the center of the room the drag marks stopped. He looked up from where it originated and discovered what he had expected to find. A large area of the scub had been cut out from the side of the cave.
But as he looked around he wondered to himself, "How where they able to cut it down with no cutting equipment. And how where they able to rip it out and haul it off without any other kind of equipment to help them? This isn't making any sense."
He looked back to the entrance to the room; it was too small for any kind of equipment bigger then something the size of his bike to get through.
He stepped back from the hole in the wall trying to get a better view of how they could have done this when his foot stepped on something that went 'squish.' He turned around and pointed his light to the floor on the far side of the cave.
What he saw reminded him of something Coronal Dewey had once shown him a long time ago. A perfect circle of scub had grown into what looked like an egg in a clear space on the scub's floor; it was broken open and filled with tendrils of scub that had been ripped apart. "What is this?" he thought to himself. "Why? What would something like this be doing here?"
Just over the ridge, to the right of the truck, stood two Scud Bike and two Cyclops type LFOs. Using typical gang intimidation they all stood out in the open showing off their heavily graffiti LFOs and making the machines flex and show off their 'strength.'
Sumner thought to himself of all the times he's had to deal with such people in his military career and his own adventures.
He was thinking of a way to settle this peacefully when he started to hear sounds coming from above, on top of the truck. He grumbled to himself, "Damn it Ruri! Don't go out on your own." he then jumped out of his seat and dashed to the back of the truck.
Ruri started up her Flestnia type LFO, turning it to humanoid form and jumping off the top of the truck. She activated the comm. system on its highest volume and yelled over it to the assailants, "Hey you jerks you're in for it now!!" she said before firing off a blast from her cannon over their heads.
"You bitch! Come on guys lets show her who's the boss around here!" Said the lead pilot before they all jumped down the rise.
Sumner's 505 Kai popped out the back of the truck and transformed into its humanoid form, "Ruri! Couldn't you have waited for me to get ready?" Sumner said over the comm.
"Hey Sumner! Glad you showed up! Let's knock these guys down a few notches!" Ruri replied back before charging at the enemy group.
Sumner cursed and followed her.
The enemies split into two groups. Sumner and Ruri split up as well making it one on two for the both of them.
As the battle began one Cyclops charged at Ruri with a knife drawn. But with no fear in mind she just charged back at it. At the last second before they could slash at each other, Ruri reversed and weaved around his knife backwards, coming around behind the other machine and cut the LFO's arm off at the elbow. She then sped away backwards till she was far enough away and blasted the damaged LFO's legs out.
As Sumner was trading blows with the other Cyclops one of the Scud Bikes drove around him in vehicle form. After it was behind him it fired its missiles from a short distance. Sumner's radar picked them up and he quickly broke from his fight and sped away behind an outcropping of rocks. The Cyclops was not so quick, it wasn't hit but it did get hit by several blasts disabling it.
Sumner jumped from his cover and around to let one of his boomerangs go flying trough the billowing smoke created by the missile attack. The scud bike didn't have time to react, by the time the pilot saw the knife cut through the smoke it was already cutting thru his missile launchers. The lucky strike caused the rest of the missiles the LFO was carrying to explode on its back destroying it in a great fireball.
As Sumner stood there waiting for the boomerang to return the other Scud Bike that had been engaging Ruri jumped from over a cliff above him with a laser cannon on its back, aimed right at him.
Ruri sped over a cliff from the opposite direction in vehicle mode. She lined up her cannon fired at the flying Scud Bike before it could take down the stationary Sumner. But it continued to fall as it burst into flames right at Sumner.
But at the last second the boomerang knife returned to him. Sumner he caught it and spun around, cutting the burning wreck in half before it had collapsed into him.
Ruri sat in her seat relieved that she had caught that guy in the air on time. But suddenly her headache returned harder then before, she felt sick. Before she could fight it down the bottom of the cabin was covered in her sick.
She started to recover but then her LFO was thrown down onto its back. She looked up, the last Cyclops, that had seemed to have been put out of commission, had jumped on her, and she couldn't get up.
The man inside yelled over the comm. "Ok buddy I got your girl! Now hand over that Compact Drive of yours or else!" The enemy pointed a machine gun down at the cabin of the Flestnia.
Sumner had his LFO put away its weapons to show no aggression. "Damn it they got her. But why the heck does he want my Compact Drive?" he thought to himself.
"Ok I'll hand it to you but don't hurt her!" said Sumner back over the comm. before jumping out of his LFO onto the hard dirt of the scub wastes with the Drive in his hand.
"Good now bring it here!" the man yelled through a speaker in his LFO.
Sumner started walking over to the enemy LFO. Ruri noticed the enemy LFO was slowly pulling up its gun at Sumner. She knew this guy wanted to kill Sumner but she wasn't going to let that happen. She suddenly yelled out, "Now way in hell!!" as she set off the boosters of her LFO, sending both combatants into the air.
The Cyclops hit the ground on its back but the Flestnia was able to land on its feet, and with lightning quick speed, rushed down on its opponent. Ruri pulled out her combat knives and fell on the opponent cutting thru both of its arms and literally pinning it to the ground.
Sumner ran up to the LFOs heaped on top of each other and climbed up to Ruri's cockpit yelling, "Ruri! Ruri! Are you alright?!"
Her cockpit opened up to reveal her slumped over the control panel with vomit covering the sides of her mouth. She looked so weak; Sumner had never seen her like this before. He felt himself go pale, she was the one person he loved the most, and he never liked to see her hurt even a little.
He helped her out of the LFO slowly and put her softly down on the ground. "Ruri what's happened to you? Why are you like this?" Sumner said to her as she opened her eyes a little.
"It's nothing Sumner… I... am just a little…sick … is all." She said back to him through obvious pain.
"I'll be back in a minute, Ruri." Sumner said getting up and heading over to the enemy's cockpit.
He opened it up expecting to find a cowering street punk but instead he found a man with a bullet hole thru the back of his head; the man had shot himself through the mouth. He had committed suicide just seconds before, the enemy pilot's eyes just lost their light as Sumner realized what he was seeing.
Sumner was disgusted and looked away, but then something caught the sun and his eye. The glint of a metal, a military metal, showed on the shirt's collar the man was wearing. As he overcame the sight of the man's face he got up close to see it.
Sure enough the man had the stripes of a Corporal in the Federal military.
"But what in the world would a military squadron be doing posing as a waste gang, stealing people's compact drives?" he thought to himself.
But before he could ask himself more questions he noticed a dull beeping sound. He looked at what the dead man had on his dash screen, and was shocked when he realized that it was displaying a timer counting down.
"Oh damn!!" Sumner yelled as he pushed himself out of the cockpit and ran to where Ruri was lying down. Not with any time to be gentile he yanked her up and started running with her in his arms.
"Uh.. Sumner what's going on?" Ruri asked looking up at Sumner weakly.
Sumner kept his mind on the uneven ground, trying not to trip and to put as much distance between them and any of the LFOs they had fought as possible.
He was half way to his 505 when four consecutive blasts erupted all around them causing him to drop to the ground, Ruri landing in front of him.
Sumner's ears rang as his head started to swim. In front of him Ruri's face stared blankly back into his own.
Dominic was returning to home from his assignment. Luckily the incident was just outside of town he was thinking to himself, Anemone didn't like it when he had to travel for his work. But he was a senior officer now so he was responsible for many things, or least that's what he told himself.
But as he rode up to the two story town house they had bought in a town on the outskirts of the nearby tower city he still was deep in thought over what he had discovered in the cave. "Could another child have been created? Was it even possible? Or was it just coincidence?" These troubling thoughts are what Dominic brought with himself as he entered his home.
As he walked in he started to say, "I'm Home!!" but only got to the 'I' part as his foot caught something large and squishy, but still very heavy. He fell forward onto his face, landing in an awkward position.
He looked down to where his foot was caught. "Gulliver? Why are you waiting right in front of the door?" Dominic said to the large blob, dog thing angrily.
It looked at him, got up and rubbed up against his leg. Dominic softened his tone and started to pet it saying, "O so you were just waiting for me to come home, huh?"
A shadow appeared over him as he continued to pet Gulliver. "He wasn't the only one." Anemone said quietly behind one of his ears. She put her arms around his neck, not letting him turn around or get up.
"Anemone! Um, sorry I'm in late. It's just that a lot of weird stuff happened over at the…ach!" Dominic gagged as Anemone tightened her grip on his neck, choking him.
"I don't want to hear a bunch of excuses Sweetie I just want you to stop being such a Meany and come home early more often, instead of working late all the time." She then loosened her hug to give him some room to breathe.
Between heavy breaths he replied, "I'm sorry Anemone, I….I really think we should take one of those vacations I promised. It's just that I…"
Before he could finish she let go of him completely and pecked him on the cheek, "That would be great Dominic!"
She then stood up and started naming places she wanted to visit like she was in her own world to Gulliver.
Dominic stood up and turned around to finally get a look at his wife. He was then taken aback when he realized that all she was wearing was a long breezy pink buttoned up shirt of hers. She was wearing matching socks as well and her hair was clipped up. She had filled out a bit over the last year and this was very apparent with only the shirt covering her slim body.
She then finished her list to Gulliver and squealed with laughter, causing Dominic to flinch. She jumped and hugged him hard, her breasts rubbing softly against him. He started to feel warm inside and looked down at her head in his chest.
She looked up at him, "What do you feel like doing?" she said, her lips getting closer to his.
"Well I…" he started, but before he could continue she kissed him.
His troubles melted away in that kiss, when he was with her his world always looked a lot clearer. He started to kiss her back and soon they both started to hold each other closer.
They started to move their tongues together and move down the hallway. Dominic moved his fingers through her hair as she started to work at removing his military jacket. They finally made it to their bedroom and kicked the door closed behind them.
Sumner stood over Ruri as he wiped the vomit from her face. He had laid her down in their bed and had been tending to her for the last few minutes.
His bandaged head ached but he ignored the obvious signs of a concussion. "We need to get to the city ASPA or we're going to be in real trouble." Sumner said to the unconscious Ruri.
She was breathing hard but not as bad as before. She seemed to be having a fever but he couldn't get a reading of one with the thermometer.
He put a cold wet cloth over her forehead and kissed her on top of it. "I won't let you die Ruri." He said softly to her before kissing her again and leaving to the driving cabin.
"Luckily the blasts hadn't damaged the truck, but the Flestnia was completely destroyed." he thought to himself.
With the 505 secured in the back and Ruri in dire need of a doctor Sumner kicked the engine on and started flying down the road to the city with what speed the vehicle could muster.
As he went down the road he kept thinking of Ruri's eyes staring at him as he blacked out after the battle. "I've got to get there soon or Ruri may…" he said to himself as he drove, but he couldn't continue as he had to fight himself from passing out.
The truck bounced hard on the road shaking the whole vehicle. Blood started to run from his bandaged head, but he didn't care.