Disclaimer: This is my attempt to revive my Rebellion Rising story arch in conjunction with SOTF Apocalypse Sky canceled fanfic. It detail the final moment during its last mission and how our hero, L-X8, prevent the looping disaster in the timeline by doing the unthinkable; allowing General Morden to live. In Apocalypse Sky, the general story is that the team had to travel back in time before the First Rebellion War started to prevent General Morden from rising into power, prevent his son from being killed or outright remove them from the timeline. All of that method fail, so it falls to L-X8 to do what needs to be done in order to survive, and this action led to Rebellion Rising story arch.
So rejoice, fans of Metal Slug. I'm back... sort-of... in a form of a post report on all event from my point of view! If you haven't read Metal Slugopedia, do it now, because many of that element here is taken straight from my fan writer partner.
Metal Slug belongs to SNK Playmore
Metal Slugopedia and its elements belongs to SOTF
Rebellion Rising and its elements belongs to me.
ENTRY NO. 00
Apocalypse Sky.
My name is L-X8, formerly a Cyborg Prototype of the Cyborg Federation Army or CFA, now an Assign Commando Unit of the Regular Army. I have been tasked, painfully, to write a report of any and all progress under the Regular Army banner. It was not my intention to write anything, just a constant need that urges me to 'be human' as one would call it.
I will provide audio log detailing the event as well, just to save a few more lines and to provide proof that such a matter had occured.
Perhaps I should start from the beginning. I, as I have stated, am a former Cyborg Prototype of the Cyborg Federation Army under the tyrannical hierarchy known as CABAL. Initially I have no quell to kidnap, abduct and convert any and all known humans among our rank. To me, they are like cattle, ready to be herd and process. My mission was simple; go in as a soldier known as Leon and assassinate the higher official, leaving the headless Army into utter chaos that will ensure my master victory. However, I was to be perish as well which I did not initially object; I was a tool, an instrument, a weapon.
I was wrong. All of it.
My timing was an error, that I realized. The soldier name Nathalie Germi and Matthew Rossi alongside their instructor, Leon caught wind of the assassination attempt, and stop me before I could finish my mission. I have failed my mission. I spat foul words to these flesh sack, provoking them to finish me off. The female child took the insult to heart, ready to finish me, but her mother, Fiolina Germi, my target instead interfere. She wish to restore me back onto my feet. A notion that would proof to be an error on their part.
AUDIO LOG 00
SUBJECT: CAPTURED.
Fio: ...Is it over?
Leon: Yeah, that damn machine is down.
Matthew: Wait, look at its eyes... I think it's still functional.
Leon: Huh, resilient piece of work.
Nathalie: Sir, permission to execute this foul abomination to the scrap heap.
Leon: Hmm, I dunno. We could study it. You know, learn of its weakness. Plus that egghead on the Kanegawa is real interest in its design.
Nathalie: Well, I for one don't approve of such an idea. Let's just melt it already.
Matthew: I second Leon's idea. We could be looking at a tactical value material here. Heh, I bet we can fix it up and have it turn against CABAL.
Nathalie: Matthew! This thing is TRYING to kill our mother! Fixing this monstrosity is the last thing we will do! I'm finishing this fight right now!
Fio: Wait, Nathalie.
Nathalie: Mama?
Fio: Destroying it will not yield any tactical advantages other than a confirm kill. This thing had just killed several officer and a number of elite guards. Alone.
Nathalie: But-
Fio: In addition, he has successfully mimic Major Leon in personality, albeit serious than our beloved silly kid we know and love.
Leon: HEY!
Fio: No, we're not going to destroy it. We're going to repair it back on its feet. Send word to my husband. I like to have a word for him.
Nathalie: But Mama! This thing is trying to kill you!
Fio: I know dear, but it didn't, thanks to you three. Leon, send in the chopper to our location. This mansion is no longer safe from further assault.
Matthew: Are we abandoning our home?
Fio: Yes. Take only the essential with you. And no video games, Matthew. Those are not essential.
Matthew: -GROAN-
?: You. Won't. Get. Away. CABAL. Will. Find. You.
Fio: Oh dear, I hate to use violent. Leon, dear - could you send our guest here to sleep? He seemed very tired.
Leon: With pleasure.
AUDIO LOG END
I did not however take into account of their AI coded programming skills.
I did not know what happen after I was offline for 2 months, but something inside me change. I simply could not understand. My strength slowly return to me, and decided to break free of my makeshift prison (a surgical table, bind by steel chain on all limb). After my activation, I was (supposably) approached by a heavily damage Cyborg, though slicker and thinner in design. This Cyborg help me, though he avoid sensitive questions who he is, or what he is. I did not bother.
AUDIO LOG 01
SUBJECT: ENCOUNTER.
?: (Door crushed to the side. The Cyborg enters the room) Oh. Wrong room.
L-X8: (Break free of my last binding) Oh, hey. Hmm, you look very different for your average standard Cyborg unit. Are you here to extract me? Your late by the way.
?: What?
L-X8: Huh, a little slow aren't you? Judging from that damage you sustain, I say you just walk out from a very bad situation. Guess you're tougher that you initially look. Nice helmet though.
?: Hmm, you look like that Leon fellow, but augmented. Quite a surprise; I've never encounter your kind before.
L-X8: That makes two of us.
(The strange Cyborg walks out)
L-X8: Where are you going?
?: Completing my mission. Marco is here, and he's got a huge target over his head. To think that he manage to score a good hit on me is-
L-X8: Wait, General Marco is here?
?: (Remain silent for 15 second) Yes, along with his wife and kids.
L-X8: Can I come with you?
?: (Shift to the side, shows interest.) ...Why?
L-X8: Because I have a score to settle as well.
?: ...have it your way.
L-X8: Thanks. I'm L-X8.
?: That is the strangest name I've ever heard.
L-X8: Heh, I think it's special. You?
?: ... Victor.
L-X8: Err, okay. Now THAT, is a strange name.
Victor: I was named after Frank Victor Frankenstein. What's your excuse?
L-X8: Heh, fair enough.
AUDIO LOG END
Our objective are align. We continue to kill the defenders left and right. Their merciful cry cut into my mind more times than I could count. It had affected me somehow. I could not continue onward, puzzled, confuse and... tears.
It was the first time I... leak water from my eye. Am I broken? Yes. Of course I'm broken. Machines do not cry. Humans do.
So why is this affecting me so?
The other Cyborg ran forward, ignoring my own dilemma. As a machine, like I am.
I was a machine. I am a machine. A machine meld in artificial flesh, blood and motives. I was never human. But something, inside my mind, wants me to. I truly do not understand why. I've always thought I was a defect, disposable. My existence was suppose to be short. My one half, the machine, make cold hard calculation of this, that no matter the outcome, I will still perish, and then, my objective will be complete.
My human side however, decides to fight against such fate. Such loathsome destiny. It wants to live. Nay, it wish to continue existing. Continue living. Continue fighting. Fighting against the program. Fighting against what I was meant to become.
Fighting to free myself from the machine.
The two inner force, threaten to break me in two. I would not be sympathetic to say that the machine side is winning. But the human side has one resource that not even the greatest artificial intelligence could understand. It cling onto that one resource, defying the machine to yield.
Willpower. Human beings most important, unrefined, and absolute willpower. The more pressure you apply harshly, the greater it's will to resist is.
It was this willpower that are quick to brought attention to me. I look at my hands, my artificial hands. Once, I saw my hands in glee, an instrument to wield the biggest baddest weapon I can find, duel wield two AR-10 was easy. Now I saw it with a new outlook. I saw my hands, bath in thick red blood. It quickly horrified me. The machine in me saw nothing wrong with it. My human side however...
My god. What have I done?
Memories begin to flash before my very eyes. Some from my own. All horrifying.
They say to see the monster in you was to simply look at yourself. And what I saw in me scared my very existence.
It was enough to end my own life, to meet the maker. To commit suicide. The machine in me could not understand why. It could not compute. It could not read or rectify what it had gone through. The human side of me saw enough horror. And now it wants to die. Conflict arise almost immediately; it was finally had a voice to call out against the machine, to live and to survive. Now it wants to die. It wants to give up.
Heck, even as of this writing, I am still confuse.
But I did nothing. I sat at the ground, horrified by the nightmare I've brought upon myself. It was then that a lone soldier approach me from behind, perhaps mistaken me as one of the survival in this bloody carnage. Surveying the carnage, the lone soldier said about redemption and forgiveness, one of many traits that human possess. An ability that machines lack of. An ability that humanity use to right what was wrong.
AUDIO LOG 02
SUBJECT: HUMAN.
?: What in Arceus name happened here?
L-X8: ...A massacre... I... I did this...
?: ... I see. I guess you were affected by that mental wave as well? I'm not surprised by this turn of event. That damnable Cyborg Commando is nothing but trouble.
L-X8: (Light chuckle) you... You have no idea.
?: Still, it's too late to just sit there and cry over spilled milk; we still have a runaway, and if we don't stop them, there won't be any military unit standing guard this structure.
L-X8: It doesn't matter what happen already. CABAL and his forces will certainly wipe all humanity off the planet. Convert or not. There is nothing left to fight for, there's nothing but bloody war, and the casualties will rake up.
?: Heh, you really think it's hopeless? Is that a challenge? Heh, I think it's kinda fun.
L-X8: FUN?! You call this bloody war FUN?!
?: Heh, don't sound of offended, man. War is never about rainbows and sunshine. You had to admit that at one point you lost yourself in such impulse that you just kept that trigger finger held as long as you can, feeling every jolting recoil pounding against you. (Force light chuckle)
L-X8: ...
?: (Long Sigh) Look, I know that it's a bad thing. It still is. But we can't afford to just mellow and cry for the dead. We can still avenge them. We can still deliver retribution against our fallen soldiers. Fellows like us aren't made to feel sympathetic to such an atrocious foe, and if there is any way for redemption over there massacre, well, we're it.
AUDIO LOG END
It click me. Perhaps I can still be forgiven, perhaps I can still be redeem by my monstrous action.
I turn to him, much of his surprise (and my own). It was Matthew Rossi who spoke to me in a calm manner, not the raging bull he was. The first thing I did was thanking him, which further confusing the heck out of him. Heck, even the machine sides was like 'What the Hell?'. In the briefest moment, he and I are align. I seek to redeem my entire existence by defying the machine. Defying the Cyborg Federation Army. It was the first, but definitely not the last.
Matthew and I rush forward, searching any surviving soldiers and recruited them in the fight against this one Cyborg still in the base. We recruit roughly 25 members, all armed with the heaviest weapon they could carry. The soldier still having trouble trusting a turncoat member of the CFA, but Matthew assured them that I have change. He must be well liked than I thought, as the men trust him more than they trust their weapon they wield. One even ask me if I had a name. A proper name. I politely said no. I have no name. Not right now.
Matthew and I, along with 25 or more soldier bust into a room turn battlefield. There, a single Cyborg unit of unknown origin continue his assault against the Matthew's parent, his sister and my organic counterpart. They were less enthusiastic about me - understandable - but I continue to aid in the assault.
Our target, known as Victor, was not in my existence database, so I assume that he could be another product by the CFA. Unfortunately, I was wrong; Victor is actually an adversary to the Regular Army for years, longer than the establishment of the CFA. Victor was part of the Future Rebellion Army.
From their brief bantering with foul words, it would have seemed that Victor has been terrorizing America for years, just as the CFA became active. According to Marco's own words (and from my understanding), Victor is nigh unstoppable, but was wreaked when Tarma Roving release the Black Hound against Victor. The FRA Cyborg Commando took heavy damage since that battle, and similar idea to collect it and study it was suggested. Unlike me however, his reactivation was swift and truly pissed. Despite heavily damage and is fighting at its last leg, Victor seemed determine to end Marco and his merry family.
I make sure that it did not happen.
Several times has Victor lurch towards Marco, and many times I have block his attempt. Though I cannot see behind his battered and worn out helmet, he looked pretty pissed. His armor looks thin, almost too thin for a standard armor for a warrior his stature, but what he lags in bulk and weight, he has speed, and seeing him zipping around during the fight is hectic. Punch that lurch forward that hit like a locomotive (no kidding, Victor use his massive speed boost with enough velocity to kill a soldier with one well hit is unnerving) are not easy to parry, let alone taken on, but eventually our resistance paid off; the Cyborg was driven away, but not before sustaining serious damage and inflicted heavy casualties on the soldiers. After the battle, they begun discussing about... me.
AUDIO LOG 03
SUBJECT: TURNCOAT
Matthew: Phew, that was one tough cookie.
L-X8: I can't disagree, though he is different. I've never seen that kind of model before.
Matthew: Hmm... Perhaps we could (his speech is interrupted) hey, Nathalie! What gives?!
Nathalie: Are you mad?! Do you have any idea what you drag into?!
Matthew: Yeah, I know, a walking bolt and nuts of AWESOMENESS!
Nathalie: Your hopeless, Matthew! At least this time I get to -
L-X8: (drop weapon to the floor) I give.
Nathalie: ...What?
L-X8: I give.
Nathalie: Oh? And that matters to you how? Your a clanker, a metal monster with no soul, who kill discriminate regardless of age. You are freak to nature!
L-X8: And according to military rules, unarmed combatants are to be treated as prisoners. Any attempt to harm me will be your undoing.
Leon: His not wrong...
Nathalie: Does that even matter if your a killing machine? No. It doesn't. (Nathalie ready her weapon, aim at my head) Any last words before I blew out whatever computer processor you possessed in that head of yours?
Marco: Stand down, Nathalie.
Nathalie: What?
Marco: Stand. Down. That is an order.
Nathalie: But papa! This monster-!
Marco: I said stand down. The man is right. We can't kill him if he has lay down his arms and surrender.
Nathalie: Wha-!
Fio: He's right sweetie, and besides, we help him first, so it's only natural that he help us.
Nathalie: You can't be serious?!
Leon: I think your mom is being very serious.
Nathalie: NOBODY ASK YOU!
Marco: Nathalie, behave yourself and organize a search and rescue operation here; we may have survivors. Matthew, you'll accompany me for damage control.
Nathalie: But-!
Marco: NOW, Nathalie.
Matthew: Heh, (gentle nod onto my shoulder) you just got some serious support by raising your arm dude.
L-X8: It is only logical to surrender, albeit chances were very low under any circumstances. Especially when such an enemy is myself.
Matthew: Probably. Still, you should be thanking your lucky stars. My mom rarely share her generosity to her enemy, especially when she support my idea of sparing you alive.
L-X8: ...
Matthew: Hmm? What is it?
L-X8: Is it wrong for me to feel... grateful? To have your mother vouch me like so?
Matthew: Look buddy, she can be as gentle as the next holiest soul in high heavens, but you'll probably be running south when she starts crying.
L-X8: Okay... I think I understand...
Matthew: Good! B'cos as of today, you will be following her for the rest of your days!
L-X8: I... Wait, what?!
Leon: (approach me as Matthew and Nathalie walks off together with Marco) Well, looks like you and me are going to get REAL acquaintance with each other... And Fiolina Germi...
L-X8: Your tone sound fearful.
Leon: Oh, you don't know the half of it.
AUDIO LOG END
And there you have it I guess, how the mighty lion is tame and grown within the Regular Army. We are still pretty much at war against multiple threats, and our situation isn't getting any better, but we are not without hope; the Kanegawa Military Industry is placing the final component for their most ambitious project called Apocalypse Sky. Sound menacing, but that is just red herring against our enemy. I will not bore anymore of my report. I could put in the detail of my experience to those I would call a family.
Matthew Rossi seemed to like me as a companion, and also the most foolhardy. I can't say much of his intelligence; he act like a brute, a berserker even, but at times he act very intelligent for the sake of others... I dunno who's he fooling though. His idea for mix-matching weapons also gives the Kanegawa Military Industry personal headaches, since the idea is outrageous (Really? A Shotgun that shoots out flaming chainsaws? That sounds almost impossible to even exist in the realm of fantasy, let alone reality)
Nathalie has been avoiding me like a plague... I can't fault her. I have killed many of her friends, by my hands. Their final moment was them screaming for mercy... And I gave them a quick death. Marco and Fio is willingly to overlook this problem, and I wish to amend my sin to her. The fastest way is to have her kill me, which is impossible as of now. The slowest way was to gain enough trust from her... and seemed to be the most logical way to do albeit very slow and painful progress. I think that by the end of this war, I will still won't be forgiven by Nathalie.
Marco and his merry friends seemed to like me, though I think they are just curious of my very existence. I remember a certain General from the Experimental Forces ask me to visit their base so they could reverse-engineer my body structure... yeah... Not going to happen. And your constant pestering is going to get you into my 'do not approach' status.
Leon... well, his me... but human. I found out that majority of my memory was actually belongs to him, though it is weird to me to have them when CABAL created me from scratch. Perhaps it's that DNA that was implemented alongside my structure... I might actually need the assistance of the Kanegawa scientist to study this possibility.
... Well, I guess I'll wrap this report up-
Ah, right. My name. Almost forgot about that.
My name is Shepard, Lieutenant Captain, Assign Commando Unit of the Regular Army.