Disclaimer: MMX & all associated characters belong to Capcom. I own nothing except OC's.
Chapter 1- Discovery
Dr. Samuel Mavris scoured the ruins for the fifth time this month in the hopes of discovering SOMETHING useful. He'd been assigned here almost a year ago by Imperium Command's Scientific Division stating that 'Ruins always held secrets ripe for collection'. "I call bullshit on that.." he thought as he continued to chip away at a section of stone wall.
"I'm not an archeologist..." he spoke to himself, "I studied Reploid physiology and psychology, not Mining. This is a waste of my skills..." Dejectedly, Samuel tossed his stone tool aside and sat down wiping sweat from his forehead.
"HEY DOC! THINK I GOT SOMETHIN'!", a young man's voice called out from the other side of the cave they were working in. With a sigh, Samuel stood and dusted himself off before heading towards the voice. By the time he arrived, the young man, actually a Reploid, with a shock top of green hair and eyes to match was almost hopping from foot to foot with excitement. Samuel just shook his head slightly at the overly enthusiastic display.
"Easy Roto, or you'll blow a servo. What did you find?" the doctor asked with a slight air of annoyance and boredom. They'd found NOTHING here in the last few months that was note-worthy. But apparently the young Reploid known as Roto thought he'd made a fascinating discovery.
Roto pointed to a large section of wall that he'd broken through and activated his shoulder mounted lamp. Moving over to the hole, Samuel gazed inside what appeared to be a fully intact chamber made of metal with various pieces of equipment inside. At first glance, it didn't seem like anything different from several other such chambers that they'd found while digging around the ruins but a closer look yielded sight of a large set of hydraulic doors at the far end. This was the first time one of the chambers had access to somewhere else, and Samuel couldn't deny that he was curious about this.
"Good find Roto. Radio back to HQ with our findings and see how they want us to proceed." Samuel said, doing little to hide his annoyance at having to alert Command after every find.
Roto rolled his eyes knowing the 'Doc' hated informing HQ before being able to properly explore anything himself.
"Screw that Doc. Let's check it out first and send the pencil pushers a message IF there's a reason to send one. Maybe it's just like the other rooms we found, with nothin' but rats and dust."
Before Samuel could protest, Roto jumped into the hole and landed with a thud a second later. Shinning his shoulder lamp around the room and seeing nothing but the doors and a few old computer terminals, Roto called up to Samuel.
"Doors aside, Doc, looks pretty empty to me. Like I said, rats an' dust."
Above, Samuel watched his young assistant move around the room, a slight headache beginning to form at the base of his skull. Although Roto had good intentions, he was just as impatient as a Human teenager, "...just as stubborn too...", and always leapt head first into a situation before thinking it through. One of the many reasons he was deemed unsuitable for military purposes and sent to the Science and Research Corps.
"Are you finished down there? If so, come back up and let's call this in." Samuel called down as Roto moved to one of the old terminals and started pressing buttons. "Roto, stop! You don't know-" Samuel's warning was cut off as the terminal came to life and the emergency lights came on in the room casting a pale orange glow throughout. Roto smiled up at the doctor and doused his lamp.
"Looks like this place is linked up with a geotherm connection, Doc. Come on down boss-man and check it out." the young Reploid called out.
With another sigh and shake of his head, Samuel fetched the E-Ladder and extended it to the floor of room. When he heard the telltale 'clink' of the ladder reaching the floor, Samuel made his way down and got his first good look at the very large chamber. Again he found himself very curious as to how such a vast room could exist behind a solid wall of stone. Making his way over to Roto he took a look at the terminal that had activated and his jaw dropped open. Roto noticed the doctor's surprise and a slightly worried expression came to his face.
"What's wrong Doc? Did I screw somethin' up?" the Reploid asked, knowing well he was regarded as a bit of a loose screw throughout Imperium Command. But when Samuel shook his head and closed his mouth, Roto exhaled in relief. He hadn't really paid too much attention to the terminal screen after he'd activated it and he now noticed that the doctor was intently staring at it.
"Roto, what are the coordinates of these ruins?" Asked Samuel, almost in a whisper.
"Ummm... XX100D. Area MGC-02. Why? What's goin' on?"Roto asked nervously.
"Are you unfamiliar with the old world grids? If my calculations are correct, we are currently standing in the Mega City ruins. To be more precise, the old Maverick Hunter headquarters."
It was Roto's turn to be slack-jawed as he looked around the room again. Sure enough he saw, upon closer inspection, a few of the ancient crests that were used by the Maverick Hunters of old. The pair were standing inside of one of the most historic buildings of the late 22nd century.
"Holy shit..." was all Roto could say. And although Samuel didn't vocalize it, he felt much the same. The history of the Maverick Hunters was well known by most Humans and Reploids alike. They fought for Peace for all races, natural and artificial, and were the basis behind Imperium Command. Although Maverick attacks were no longer a commonplace event, like in the 22nd century, they did arise and the Imperium quelled them swiftly.
"I think you were correct, Roto. We should explore more BEFORE we call it in. I'd hate to have Command's Tech-Teams crawling around in here before we've had the chance to find something of interest."
As Samuel said this, Roto's eyes seemed to light up at the prospect of exploring the historic ruins some more without official eyes and ears monitoring them every step. Samuel tapped a few more keys on the terminal and pulled up a schematic of the base.
Most of the areas were highlighted in ominous red, indicating inaccessibility. This was a disappointment to Samuel, and Roto, because he'd hoped to see more of the fabled base. But the terminal revealed that they were standing in the Garage/Vehicle Maintenance Bay and there were several corridors that were still viable just beyond the huge doors. Samuel typed in a few more commands, but an error message told him he didn't have the proper clearance to access them. Roto smiled at the doctor and stepped back up to the terminal.
"I got this Doc. Just gimme a nano."
The palm of Roto's hand opened and a set of small cables extended from them, which he hooked into the terminal. As he linked in, his eyes began to flash through the color spectrum as his internal processors went to work cracking the old passcodes for the base. After several moments, the terminal chimed with an 'Access Granted' alert and the hydraulic doors started to grind open. Roto unhooked and looked back to Samuel with a stupid grin.
"S'pose I'm good for stuff after all, eh Doc?"
Samuel patted his young friend on the shoulder and smiled as well. Even if they DIDN'T find anything of use, this would be an amazing discovery nonetheless. Command would send in teams to excavate the old base from it's stony prison and make use of whatever information they could pull from it's data cores. They may even rebuild and recommission the ancient stronghold. All in all, as far as Samuel was concerned, this once pointless research assignment was finally paying off.
Once past the doors, the pair moved through the historic base in nothing short of awe. Most of it was completely preserved and pristine, aside from the occasional rats and dust. One of the first rooms they were able to enter was known as Armor Containment. It was filled with capsules that once housed the various armor upgrades of the legendary MegaMan X. Although none of the armors remained, their capsules contained detailed information about each of them. One in particular made Roto whistle as he read.
"Ultimate Armor. Boosts the power output of X by a times 5 margin. Equipped with a Mega X-Buster capable of fully charged shots of great and devastating force. Wings and leg booster upgrades for flight capabilities and upgraded power core enabling the massively powerful Nova Crush skill. Built-in energy refraction shielding for reduced damage against beam weaponry... Geez, this guy could've taken on armies by himself in this armor suit. No wonder he was a legend."
"Indeed Roto," Samuel agreed, "However if you remember, X was opposed to violence. He fought for Peace. And if anything I've read on the subject is true, he hated the fact that he had to fight. As with most soldiers of peace, in fact."
Roto just nodded, still slightly in awe of the quantity of armors that were stored in the room for just one Reploid. They left the room and continued on into the facilities. Roto had uploaded the schematic of the base and was identifying rooms as they moved along. Most of this corridor was living quarters, with little of interest left inside them aside from some old photographs. Roto collected them anyway, saying they would be 'awesome ice breakers' in conversation.
At the end of the corridor the pair turned off to the right, as the left side was blocked by a cave in. There was one door in the middle of the hall and an elevator at the far end. Moving to the door, which was closed, Roto looked for a control panel but there didn't seem to be one. He scratched his head.
"Can't code-crack this one if there's no access port... But we GOTTA check it out." Roto said, still looking for some way to enter the sealed room.
"What's in this room Roto?" Samuel asked his slightly rampant looking assistant.
Roto smiled with his big grin again.
"It's Hunter Command. The Heart of the Maverick Hunters ops. Don't really care if it's in ruins Doc. We'll be the first people in centuries, not Mav Hunters, to see the inside." The young Reploid said excitedly, looking like he might fry a processor or two.
Again Samuel couldn't help but smile. Even though he wasn't good enough, by Command's standards, for Combat, Samuel couldn't have asked for a more enthusiastic assistant in his assignment.
"Alright. Bring up the room-to-room schematic for me."
Roto nodded and, using his shoulder lamp, projected the floor plans onto the wall for Samuel. After a moments contemplation he moved over to a panel several feet away from the door.
"According to the electrical plans, there should be an access behind this wall that will allow us to override the lock. Unfortunately, I didn't grab any tools on my way down." Samuel stated, rubbing his chin in thought. Roto moved to stand next to Samuel and flashed him a sly grin.
"Uhh, Doc. You already forget why they built me?" he said as his hand reconfigured into a hook-like shape and he pried the wall panel away to reveal a mess of wires behind it. Shifting his hand back to normal, Roto disconnected several wires from their housings and reconnected them in various arrays of 'controlled chaos', as he fondly referred to it, and sent a quick jolt of energy through them.
"Sweet!" Roto exclaimed as the sealed door to the Command Center slid open crisply and almost silently. Looking over at Samuel with his 'I'm Awesome' grin, the pair stepped inside. Although expecting ruination, neither was prepared for the sight they beheld.
The room itself was massive, larger even than the garage they entered the base through. A high domed ceiling was noticeable immediately, as was the immense curved viewscreen that dominated the far half of the room. Beneath the screen was a bank of terminals, used by the Operators to coordinate Hunter missions, which stretched the length of the screen. Debris from a roof collapse littered a quarter of the room and destroyed the screen and terminals, but otherwise the place was fully intact. Samuel approached the screen and terminals, his voice was that of a child seeing a meteor shower for the first time.
"Unbelievable... This...this is astonishing. Roto, just think of all the information stored within these data cores. It's a treasure trove of knowledge. A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT into the past. This could be the biggest find in Imperium history... And WE found it!"
Samuel couldn't contain his excitement and Roto could understand why. This one discovery could finally get them out of these caves and into a proper lab for a while. If he was in the Doc's shoes, he'd be jumping for joy.
"Hey Doc, you think we're standing in places where X once stood? Or Zero? That would be Omega!"
Samuel nodded to his companion. "I don't see how we couldn't be. They were the Alpha Hunters for so many years, they've probably tread all around this room. Stood in almost every inch of it. Parts of their spirits are most certainly embedded in the walls."
Both of them stood silent for a moment and took it all in. They were now a part of history, walking through the past and living in it's memory. After a few minutes of silent reverie, Samuel tapped Roto's arm and nodded toward the door.
"Come my young friend. There's still a few more places we can check. Perhaps you can get that elevator down the hall operational again. The schematics indicate that three of the lower levels are still fully intact. Let's see what we can find."
A/N: Still not much going on, but some characters to follow. I know it's a bit long for not too much however I wanted to get a little introduction going. Next chapter will provide some familiar faces. R&R. All feedback welcome. If it sucks, lemme know and I'll see what I can do to make things better.