(Steps out of the shadows, a frown upon his face)
Good day to you all, and I wish I could say the same for myself, as it has been a very hectic week, and I have scarcely had time to squeeze in my writing. As such, this chapter is probably the worst one I have written for this story thus far. Not to mention, I cannot help but feel that I am rushing things. Perhaps it is merely my imagination, but I shall leave that up to you people.
Lawyers: I own nothing, so don't come knocking on my door trying to sue me.
&
To search for a Hero.
Torn paced back and forth in the Naughty Ottsel, trying to figure out what should be done next. A week had passed since Keira's miraculous awakening had occurred, and she had quickly proven to be an invaluable asset on the battlefield, both with the advent of her newly discovered powers, and with the inevitable morale boost that had come from having yet another Channeler in their midst. Not to mention the psychological factor that her angelic battle form had upon the troops, making it appear as if the Heavens themselves sided with them in the conflict.
The Metal Heads had also become far more hesitant in their attacks, as their fear of death had greatly diminished since Jak and Kage had been banished to the Wasteland. The appearance of a replacement had brought that fear back into them.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the Death Bots, whose egoless computer minds still made survival a very precarious thing for them. Complicating things was the fact that while Keira had spent every single waking moment she wasn't fighting examining the CPUs of the two Hunter Killers that they'd brought back, she was not really much closer to figuring out how the maverick one was reprogrammed, if that was what had happened to it at all.
Sighing to himself abruptly, the hardened commander walked over to a booth and let himself collapse against the soft seats, whereupon he began to rub his temples, trying it will away the headache that he could feel rising up within himself.
There was a strange bit of hopelessness welling up within him as well. They were cut off from the rest of Haven, had enemies on all fronts despite their best attempts to take out the tunnels that led to this area, and even with the windfall of Keira's abilities, it would only be a matter of time before they were overrun.
Gods, how he wished Ashelin was here. She'd always had a better grasp of long range tactics than he did, probably one reason that he'd never make much higher rank than he was right now.
That feeling of longing for the daughter of Praxis soon turned to thoughts of disgust as he remembered who was responsible for landing them in this nigh impossible to win scenario: Veger. Heaven help him, the image of the Count's smug grin and his absolute confidence in his textbook attack plan brought a burning rage to the heart of the Revenant leader, and he wondered how many had died for this…
He swore that if he ever got the chance, he would make Veger pay for all the men and women he'd sent into the next life.
In war, causalities were inevitable, any soldier with a pair of brain cells to rub together knew that, knew that if you sent them out, the odds were that not everyone would return. However, what made all the difference was whether or not those soldiers died for a good cause, if they gave their lives and they made a difference in doing so. That was a life that had been spent, the bloody currency that war demanded.
What had happened in the attack…those were lives that had been wasted, soldiers who had died needlessly in a battle that should have been fought differently, that would have been fought differently had the council not been in charge.
For the life of him, Torn swore he'd never figure out why Veger and his cronies, politicians who probably had never seen a battle from the front lines before in their lives, thought that they were soldiers.
Still, bellyaching wasn't going to help them now, and as he refocused his attention to trying to figure out how to get everyone out of this disaster, the tattooed soldier found himself praying for a miracle, for something that he could use to turn the tide back in their favor…if for no other reason than for those who had shed their blood for this campaign to not have died in vain.
Some hours later, he sat in the same booth, caught somewhere between the world of the waking and dreamland. Tess was already asleep, trying to catch as much as she could before the next attack came, while Keira continued to fiddle around with the CPUs, and Jinx kept rigging up more homemade explosives from what he had been able to scrounge up in the Harbor.
It was then that the miracle that Torn had been praying for chose to manifest itself.
There was a garbled crackling noise that suddenly emanated from the holo vid table set in the center of the bar, and after a couple of seconds, a distorted noise that sounded almost like a voice. A couple of seconds later, it cleared up, and the signal came through.
"Hello, anyone home?" the person on the other end said, a voice that Keira and Tess, who had been woken up by the noise, knew particularly well.
"Sig?" they both exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other and then over to the table that his voice had come from.
"Oh, lovely," the Wastelander said upon hearing them, a grim tone to his humor that indicated he was very much on edge, "I was afraid I might have had the wrong number."
"Where are you?" Tess asked, curious as to how he was able to communicate with them, as the Lockdown shields should have been scrambling the signal beyond any hope of it getting through.
"Down in the sewers underneath the Industrial District at the moment." he responded. "And let me tell you, securities getting a little tight around here." A light and brief chuckle followed the statement.
"Then how in the name of the Ancients are you yakking with us at the moment?" Jinx inquired, scratching his head in disbelief.
"Simple, cherries, I got a telecommunications pack with me and I spliced into the power cables running down here." The large elf informed them, which had the humorous result of Jinx and Torn both slapping themselves in the faces.
"Why didn't we think of that?" Jinx groaned, shaking his head at his own stupidity.
Such a device would enable them to run a signal underneath the disruptive energy of the sector barriers and thus allow for undisruptive communication with other units or the GHQ.
"Probably because it was too obvious." Sig responded, a smirk detectable in his voice.
"So why are you giving us a call right now?" Keira inquired, cocking her head slightly and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Because I know things aren't going too well for you guys right now," was the response that the Wastelander gave to them, "and I know that you could really use the help of a certain exiled prince."
One could have heard a pin drop in the room as he finished, as everyone stood stock still, stunned by this apparent revelation that he was telling them. Keira was the first to snap out of it.
"You know where Jak is?" she said, her voice quiet, scarcely daring to hope.
"Sure do." he told her. "If you can get out here to where I am, I can take you to where he is, and being his wife and all, you might be able to convince him that he needs to get his butt back to this place rather than drinking in the sights and sounds of the desert."
A quick glance was exchanged amongst the four elves, which was followed by a mad rush to try and get things together for an extraction op. Morph guns were loaded, grenades were attached to belts, and bandoliers of power packs were thrown over shoulders while the four Revenants hastily donned their armor as well.
Keira slipped her helmet over her head, grateful beyond measure that the damage it and the rest of the Katarn battle suit had suffered hadn't been beyond repair, though it would be obvious to even a person needing glasses that the gear had certainly seen better days.
Time was also taken to allow for them to get their hands of some communications gear, in hopes that they might be able to emulate Sig and finally get word back to Ashelin and the others in the Residential Sectors that there were indeed some people in the Harbor that were still alive and kicking.
All in all, preparation took them about twenty minutes, and then they were off, heading towards the nearest manhole cover.
She was alone now, having left Torn, Jinx and Tess some ways back, while they attempted to rig up their little comm. device, a silent prayer upon her lips that it would work.
As for herself, she was busy trekking through the sewers of the Industrial District, her active camouflage generator on just to be safe, as while the Hunter Killers might have been able to see heat, she had come to suspect that little upgrade might have been left out of the rank and file battle droids.
Her fellow Revenants had been most reluctant to let her wander off alone, the memories of last week fresh upon their minds. However, Keira had been adamant, and had pointed out that her newfound powers would enable her to take care of herself. Not to mention that the sooner that comm. link was up, the sooner they could get into contact with Ashelin and get some orders on what to do. Maybe if they were lucky, they might even be able to come up with a plan to bail everyone out and hold out together long enough for her to return with Jak.
It also left her with some time in solitude to contemplate upon what had happened to her. The initial spike of adrenaline and the curiosity that had overwhelmed her about the nature of the shrine that she had uncovered had put off any thought she might have had for what had occurred a week ago.
After all it was to be expected, considering she'd fallen to what should have been her death, only to find herself transformed into what could only be described as an angelic being. The explanation was rather logical and rational: that she was a Channeler, and judging by her experimental attempts to absorb Green Eco later on, an Ascended one at that.
It had left her wondering if maybe those strange nightmares that she'd been having were more than simply nightmares. After all, she knew little of her time before Sandover, and she was rather well aware of the fact that she was not Samos' daughter. This also made her wonder why her father hadn't told her before now, as that was info that they really could have used a little bit earlier.
For some reason, it also had her longing for the presence of Onin, as she knew from experience, that if that old seer didn't know the answer to the question, that there likely wasn't one.
And who knew, maybe Jak might have a few answers for her as well. After all, he had been there, done that, right?
She was suddenly yanked out of her musings by a warning from her ears that something might have been amiss.
She heard the faint pulsing and cracking that could have only been blaster fire. Her mind instantly realizing that it might have been some of the Freedom Guard that had somehow managed to survive the disastrous counter attack. That thought on her mind, she moved forward as quickly as she dared, not wishing to give herself away in the event that Hunter Killers were present within the enemy ranks.
But when she peeked around the corner that the weapons fire appeared to be coming from, she was in for yet another shocking twist in the already strange nature of this war that was raging.
There were Death Bots alright, and they were indeed battling with something, but it was not at all what the aqua haired elf had expected to find.
A group of about a half dozen or so Rollers, with three scouting Hawks thrown in to mix things up, were duking it out with what appeared to be a pair of auto-turrets that were hanging down from the top of the sewer passage. The smoldering remains of several of the crimson armored droids littered the floor, and even as the Channeler watched the unfolding battle, one of the Hawks found itself the target of a turret barrage.
A multitude of small, thin Eco bolts came from the barrel of one of the mounted blasters, catching the flying robot before it had a chance to evade. The rounds ripped through its armor as if the plates weren't even there, and within seconds, the machine came crashing down, exploding in a heap that sent shrapnel flying into its comrades, damaging them as well.
An image flashed through the mind of the young elf, an image of the remains of Metal Heads that she and the others had found, slain and full of tiny holes.
Instantly, she realized what had happened to the Hora-quan.
She was confused, trying to figure out what was going on here. She knew the power grid of Haven City rather well, as she'd help orchestrate quite a few sabotages upon the systems during the reign of Baron Praxis, and never could she recall coming across power supplies for sewer turrets, aside from the large ones that Praxis had installed and Jak had later blown up. Furthermore, these weapons didn't even resemble normal elven mounted weapons, being far sleeker, and dare she say, more elegant in appearance than the ones they used. Not to mention the fact that even their method of firing seemed different.
Two flashes, back to back, testified to the destruction of a pair of Roller bots, and then something else caught her attention.
She had been a little curious as to how the turrets had put up with the abuse that they'd doubtless been put through; even as that thought passed through her keen mind, a pair of Eco bolts, fired from a Hawk, connected with one of the guns. However, rather than reducing it to slag, or even causing the metal, if that was indeed what they were made of, to glow from the heat, the bolts were suddenly stopped, and dissipated as a shimmering field appeared around the gun, and she felt her eyes grow wide as the realization hit her.
The mounted weapons were shielded.
She shook her head slightly, wondering if it had possibly been an illusion, a product of her imagination. However, another shot slammed home, or tried to, a moment later, and was again stopped by the energy field surrounding the turret. The auto-gun then targeted the offending battle droid, and with a few well placed shots, turned it into scrap.
Keira kept her eyes riveted upon the scene of the battle as the gears of her brain whirred, trying to grasp what this could mean.
The concept of an energy shield was not a new thing, and had been theorized about ever since her kind had first noted that Channelers had been able to use Green and Light Eco to create barriers of that nature. However, while scientists and technicians alike had tried for ages, they had had only partial success in that field. True, they had the Shield Wall, but even it was something of a mystery to the elves, as after all, Mar had had help when he'd begun its construction, and they'd never really been able to duplicate it to any practical degree, the few units that they had being insanely inefficient with massive appetites for power, which would have also made it impossible for them to get the units small enough for field use.
And yet, here before her now, was the seeming impossibility, of weapons that possessed such personal defensive countermeasures.
As the two ceiling mounted guns turned another couple of Rollers into smoldering wreckage, leaving just a pair left with a single Hawk hovering above them, the young tech head realized that if such technology could ever be duplicated, that its potential applications would be limitless.
The last three battle droids held their ground, firing furiously upon the strange auto guns, and they actually managed to take down the shielding on one of them, as the Eco bolts of their blasters started to connect with metal rather and an invisible energy field. However, before they could make anymore headway, the pair of turrets quickly turned them into slag.
Wide eyed, Keira watched as they then zipped back up into the ceiling of the chamber, hidden away and utterly invisible.
Something also puzzled her then, something she had thought about distantly, but had really concentrated upon while watching the firefight unfold.
Who had been controlling those guns?
Might it have been some soldiers from the Freedom Guard that had stumbled across them, or had some technician back at the GHQ have located them remotely and figured out how to turn them on?
Or could it have been that there was another party involved altogether, that someone else, apparently not on the side of the battle droids, had taken an interest in how things were unfolding in Haven City?
Vividly, Keira recalled a week ago, when she had watched the maverick Hunter Killer destroy one of its supposed comrades, and she couldn't help but wonder if they had an unseen ally running around somewhere.
Still, she was able to realize that she still needed to get a move on, as she had to link up with Sig, and still had no idea exactly where in the sewers that he was.
She'd been trekking on her own through the sewers for another half hour before she finally caught a break. She got close enough to where Sig was that the Wastelander was able to communicate with her over a comm. channel. As luck would also have it, the burly elf was also very good at handing out directions, so it was only a matter of minutes before she was able to link up with him. She came around the bend in the sewers that he was holed up in, her active camouflage disabled so that she didn't startle him, as she hadn't forgotten what he'd nearly done to Jak in the Underport when the Metal Heads had swarmed the city all those months ago.
Sure enough, there he was, cybernetic eye and everything, a smile on his face as he saw the girl approaching him.
"Nice armor." He remarked, giving her the one's over. "Looks good on you."
"Thanks." She said, before opting to get right down to business, especially considering it meant that she'd finally be able to meet up with her soul mate again. "You said you could get me to where Jak was."
"Yep, sure can." Sig responded, before shouldering his rifle and motioning for her to follow. "Just watch my six and I'll get us to where I left my ride parked. It's not to far from here, and while I don't think those over glorified trash compactors will give us any trouble, it never hurts to be careful."
"Tell me about it." the aqua haired elf muttered, rolling her glowing eyes behind her helmet.
She then took up position behind the dark skinned elf, and the two of them began to make their way out of the sewers. However, something bothered Keira the entire time that they were on the move, and finally, that curiosity got the better of her.
"Sig?" she asked abruptly, waiting until the Wastelander responded with a grunt. "Why are you doing this?"
"What do you mean?" he inquired, never taking his eyes off the path in front of them.
"Why are you offering to help like this?" she explained while maintaining a sharp vigilance in regards to her surroundings. "You're not exactly a big fan of Haven City, so why are you offering to help us get back the one person who we need to win?"
"I ain't doing it for this town, Keira." Sig responded with a growl. "I don't own Haven anything, especially after all the things Krew had me do." His voice was laced with venom and he spat the old gangster's name like it was the most bitter of poisons. "But you and Jak have both gotten me out of some rather tight spots before, so I kind of owe it too the both of you to do this."
"I see." She muttered quietly, digesting this revelation.
It didn't take them very long to get out of the sewers, and they managed to avoid any confrontation with the red colored, mechanical locals, for which both were quite grateful.
From there, they made their way up through the foot hills and cliffs that surrounded the area outside the Industrial District, and before long, they came across a small recess that was in the side of one of the cliffs. Sig took a quick sweep of the area to make certain that there was nothing hostile around them or within the small cave, before motioning for Keira to stay put. He then trotted inside, and disappeared into the shadows.
About thirty seconds later, a loud roar echoed within the cave, and while Keira knew instinctively that it was a motor, it did not sound like any she had ever heard before. The growl increased in volume, and the next thing she knew, a large vehicle of some sort came out of the recess, and she felt as if her jaw had suddenly decided to unhinge itself.
The strange vehicle that Sig was in was unlike anything she could ever recall observing, as moved along the ground on four extremely large wheels. Aside from that, the vehicle was also very heavily armored, with what appeared to be titanium-A battle plates covering just about every conceivable inch of the boxy frame. She also couldn't help but notice the large, cannon like gun mounted on the back of the thing.
"What do you think of my baby?" Sig inquired, a crooked smile upon his face as he patted the steering wheel.
"Interesting…" was Keira's remark as she continued to stare at the massive dune buggy.
"Glad you like her, now climb on board and get comfortable, cause this trips gonna be a long one." The Wastelander told her, gesturing towards the passenger side seat of his ride.
Quickly as she could, the aqua haired elf got herself situated, and Sig then proceeded to put the petal to the metal, and they were off.
His face bruised and beaten almost beyond the point of recognition, the monk hit the ground, what little breath he was able to hold in his lungs was driven from them.
Weakly, groaning all the while, he picked his head up off of the floor, and stared up at the person in charge of the torment.
The elf was covered in spiked steel armor, which could not hide the sheer size of the person inside. He was easily seven feet tall, and composed of about four hundred pounds of rock solid muscle. However, only a fool would believe this man to be a muscle bound idiot, for one look in his eyes revealed a glow one would normally associate with street wise cunning and guile. They also held a cruelty that was almost overwhelming.
His true name was unknown,but he was called Scourge, and he was the iron heart of the Marauders, an elf who was feared for his malice and his brutality, and rightly so.
Right now, he was very pleased with the way things had been going. It had been all too easy to snatch those foolish Wastelander monks right out of the desert, as they really weren't adept at hiding their movements. Their escort had been dealt with easily enough, though they themselves were under strict orders not to be harmed during the capture, and none had been.
Only the most stupid and suicidal person would disobey a direct order from someone like himself, as death, when it finally came, would seem a blessed mercy compared to what he did to those who violated his will.
His torturers had been skilled, though it had taken weeks to finally get them to crack and break under the sickening treatments that they had been put through.
Scourge turned his attention to a strange object in his room. It was about five and a half feet long, one end of it was sphereical with a hole set into it, and it hadthree triangularly shaped rods that came out of the main part,which were lined with strange depressions on the inside that if all three were to be pressed together would be circular.
He had known it to be a Precursor made artifact the moment he'd laid eyes upon it, and he'd also been fairly certain that it had been a weapon. However, he hadn't had a clue as to how to power it up, which was something that this monk lying beaten and battered upon the ground in front of him had conveniently provided for him.
Eco Crystals were the key, and after many years of combing the desert, dozens of the rare gems had been found by his men, so that would not be an issue. Now there was only the process of rigging them up, as they had about eighteen of the devices altogether.
He smiled behind his mask as he made his way over to his metal throne, before sitting back against it and resting one of his hands against the weapon that was always close to him.
It was a massive blade, fully seven feet long when one included the hilt, about eight inches wide, and about two thick for the most part. The weapon was something that would have seemed impossible to wield, yet his massive strength allowed him to do it with relative ease, something many a Wastelander warrior had found out posthumously.
His two enforcers began to walk towards the fallen monk, their weapons out and ready to end the wretches life. However a swiftly extended hand on his part prevented them from carrying out the murder. They looked somewhat confused, and he opted to elaborate his plan to them.
"Let him live." He said, his voice deep and gravely, and laced with cruelty. "Let him live with the knowledge that he has given us the means of finally triumphing over that outsider and the rest of the Wastelanders."
Realizing the malicious intent of their ruler, the two Marauders exchanged a glance, before holstering their weapons and taking the pour soul back to a holding cell.
Scourge, meanwhile, merely glanced over to the strange gun like weapon, and smiled once more.
It would take two days to get everything ready, and then their greatest victory would be at hand.
&
Okay, that's a wrap. Once again, I apologize if this chapter was lacking in quality. Thus, feel free to blast the living daylights out of me.
The good news is that the next chapter should be better than this one, and about twice as long, as it will deal with a couple of reunions, one of which should probably be unexpected, and Jak's third trial in the arena, which will be quite a bit different from the one in the game.
On another note, by about chapter sixteen, Keira should be getting the rest of her powers, and I think I have finally decided upon a form, but I think I need to runt his by you people. Her Ascended Form will be somewhat humanoid, though she will possess triple jointed legs in a nature similar to Kage, and her legs and hands will have draconic like scales. She will also have marks similar to Kage, and will also retain the wings of her current form.
Probably a really bad idea, so please let me know what you think.
Thank you once again for taking the time to read this, and feel free to leave me any form of criticism, flames, advice, ideas, or feedback of any kind.
Thank you, and have a great day. (bows)