Author's note

So I have reposted this fanfic due to being unable to get another chapter uploaded. This may be a recurring theme.

This is my first ever fanfic I've written and am still getting used to writing on this site so bear with me as I work out the kinks

Updates to this story will be sporadic as I still try to work out a proper schedule, so I can't guarantee new chapters to be a constant

I fully intend to make this a full story and will be trying to stay true to the lore and story of PGR as much as possible, so much so that I'm replaying the earlier chapters to recap what I know

Until then, Enjoy!

Thanks, UndecidedJam

Gray Raven: Prologue

They say, "War never changes". What a crock of shit.

War has changed since the beginning of mankind because we keep finding new ways to kill each other, each more efficient than the last and we keep pushing the boundaries of our morals to say we are still in the right. The truth is we're all just monsters in human clothing, chained behind our delusions of "law" and "right vs wrong" but as soon as our lives are on the line? Humans will throw those out to survive, no matter the cost.

When Earth fell to the Punishing Virus, I was just a Kid and I've grown up seeing the worst mankind has to offer over the years. I've watched other kids gunned down in the streets for scraps of food or torn apart by living metal monstrosities that hunt you relentlessly. Watched good men or women die needlessly on pointless crusades for" good" or "justice". And through it all? I became a dreamer, a dreamer who dreamed of a day that we would one day retake our home from the virus and live in (relative) peace once more. I took the cruel world's beating and managed to come out of it somewhat intact (at least, that's what I told myself)

When I was 16, I managed to get onto Babylonia, the station orbiting the earth and the last bastion for Humanity beyond the few scattered pockets left planet side. With this, I joined the commandant programme to become one of the few trusted to reclaim the ruined planet we once called home and after a few years, I graduated a full-fledged commandant with stars in his eyes and a cybernetically enhanced body (minorly compared to the constructs) ready to dedicate his heart to reclaiming the home we once had.

This is my story

City 015

Year 2147, 10:44

Commandant David Forest

I was snapped out of my daydreaming by a hand on my shoulder, shaking me gently

"Commandant?" a voice asked me to my left

"Yeah, I'm good Lucia" I replied, turning to look at the seat beside me on the manta Gunship.

In it sat one of the three members of the Gray Raven squad, construct Lucia, callsign Lotus. She was dressed in a black combat jacket with a red scarf, her black and red hair fanning out behind her like a silk veil trailing her and her red eyes almost seeming to pierce your soul with how vivid they were. On her head was her two horns, her Inver-device for communication and restricting the flow of Punishing virus into her body. At her side sat her weapon, Lotus Berserker, a short Asian style sword that I knew could channel fire when needed, was wickedly sharp and well maintained by its owner.

I snapped back to attention as I heard her next words "Are you sure? You seem almost distracted by something" She looked worried, something I had learnt was a constant with her. She was a shy, almost sociophobe with little in the way of people skills but a fantastic combatant and one of the most experienced combat units Babylonia had to offer (though you would never be able to tell by talking to her).

"I'm good, just thinking about the details of the mission" I told her, brushing off my thoughts of earlier

"Worried something will go wrong?" a voice chimed in opposite the side of the gunship

If Lucia was the sword of Gray Raven, then Lee was the brain. He was graded on his technical expertise as a genius and far outmatched the rest of the squad in his intelligence. He was also the only other male on the team, so yay me, I needed someone else to help balance out the testosterone in the squad and he was the chosen one in that regard.

He stood almost as tall as me (Me being 6'2 and him 5'9, A fact he constantly cursed the Pale fire frame for) and was dressed in a striking black and blue jacket and combat trousers. He had a different, newer model Inver-device nestled in his unruly blond hair as two striking blue horns perched out of the side of his hair. He was the gunslinger of the team, wielding his dual Wolf Fang handguns and mixing in a healthy dose of Mixed Martial Arts (But I call him Clint Eastwood when he isn't listening, He hates being compared to an old movie actor I heard about a few years back).

"I would be lying if I said no, after all, no plan survives first contact with the enemy" I told him, knowing it would annoy him to be quoting things out of the few books left on Babylonia, He much preferred reading on a datalink or control pad than a piece of paper or parchment.

"Are you so sure something will go wrong?" A final voice nervously piped up from the final member of the team

If Lee and Lucia were the Brains and Strength of the team, then Liv was the Soul. She was kindness personified and couldn't hurt a fly outside of combat, fitting given she was the medic I supposed. She fought with her heart and was genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met. She was dressed in a pink and white jacket with skirt (How she thought that was practical, I don't know but she could make it work) and her Inver-device, same model as Lucia's, was in her long, cascading white hair like a waterfall. She fought with two Levi-guns, Type Zero and was the medical officer (a name in rank only, she held no duties other than being the team medic).

I had called these 3 my team for a month now, having taken over from the last commandant who had resigned due to "inter-team issues". Lee had not held me in high regard at first, the last commandant had driven his expectations off a cliff and let them crash into the sea, Lucia had politely ignored me for a while before she seemed to think I wasn't that bad (How she reached that conclusion, I don't know) and Liv had been terrified of me, leaving the room whenever I entered and generally hiding from me whenever she wasn't needed, though she had warmed up to me when I asked for her advice regarding my medical health for our upcoming first mission. I don't know what the last commandant had been like, but he must have been a real piece of work to get them so riled up.

I snapped out of my funk to reassure Liv, "Just a thought, our best plan is to improvise until we can't and with a little luck, it'll be smooth sailing all the way to the finish" I finished with a reassuring grin. "Alright" I stood up "Mission should be simple, so let's get this briefing done" I began "At 0915 yesterday, we received an encrypted call from a signal inside city 015. Things get interesting when you know that the cities meant to be abandoned and the signal is over 5 years out of date with its encryption scheme but command, in its infinite wisdom, decided to send us to investigate". I pulled up a holographic map from my data pad "The signal came from an abandoned church near the centre of the city, but we can't get any birds in there due to the punishing virus strength in the area that practically shuts down our birds if they breathe in that direction", I marked out a route on the map "That means we get to hike our asses through half the city, destroying anything that gets in the way and see if this signal is a fluke or someone genuinely needs a pick up or to contact us" I finished with a sigh "Any questions?"

Lee piped up almost immediately, he was the one who could see the obvious flaws "Any guarantees that this signal is even real? Or that this isn't just an old signal that slipped under the net?" I gave him a tired look "You really want me to answer that?". Liv piped up next "What do we do once we find the signal? What if someone really does need help?" I gave her a soft smile "Don't worry, if someone is in trouble then the orders are to extract them to Babylonia ASAP". Lucia was the final one to voice her questions "what do we do if whatever we find isn't friendly? If it is a punishing virus trap?" I gave her a smirk "well if that happens then it just so happens, we have a full combat team investigating this signal, don't we? Don't worry, the 3 of you combined can handle nearly anything the virus throws at us so this should just be a milk run" I looked between the three "I know that this is our first real combat mission together, and that we haven't gotten completely used to each other's styles yet, but as long as we keep our eyes on the prize and stay cool, we'll get through this without a scratch. Remember, we are one of the most promising combat teams on Babylonia right now, so stay frosty, watch each other's backs and we'll be back on station in time for supper". I drew my submachine gun, an old-style weapon but reliable and better than the pistol I had been recommended by the quartermaster. I felt the gunship enter landing mode "Now let's move out!"

To say our mission got off to an… interesting start was an understatement.

"Lee, cover us!" I yelled as Lucia went cutting through Virus creations like a farmer through wheat. "Liv, flank them and keep the pressure on!". We had initially engaged a small group of Virus creations but had been jumped by a larger group that had forced our team to split up. Lee and Liv had been forced back whilst I had been knocked down and Lucia critically damaged. In the end, Lucia had managed to fend them off before Liv managed to get her patched up and Lee had finished them off the held guard. As we were still combat effective and Lucia was less wounded than we thought, I decided to continue mission. We had just run across another group of creations just a few streets away from the objective and decided to go straight through them rather than waste time going around.

Lucia was a black and red blur, dashing from one target to the next and keeping them off balance for Lee to pick off. Liv stayed on the edge, watching the perimeter and keeping the enemy from repositioning to engage Lee or surround Lucia. I could only watch as Lucia turned a fight into a dance, seamlessly moving between strikes and gunfire to cut down Virus creations one by one. It was an almost entrancing sight as I couldn't remove my sights from it, the easy, almost lazy movements and shifting of the body to dodge attacks or the twists and turns as she cut through enemies, sometimes two at a time, it was a beautiful, deadly dance that she was leading. Soon enough, all that was left was the burnt out and destroyed remains of the virus creations. Lucia standing above them, like an angel shining down on the lost and forlorn and Lee standing just behind her, like the grim reaper made real.

"Alright, let's get to that church" I called out, walking over the destroyed remains with Liv a step behind me. "Should just be beyond these buildings"

The church that housed the signal was a run-down ruin, more rubble than a building but the door was intact. Entering the church, we saw a being standing at the far end of the room, still, almost like a mannequin. "Are you the one who sent the signal?" I yelled to her, keeping my distance at the other end of the hall. I got no reply, as the being stood there, still as a statue. I whispered to Lee "Run a scan on her, see if the signal is originating from her" He barely hesitated "already on it", I motioned to Lucia to join me as I approached the being, I could see a tattered leather combat jacket with ripped up leggings, an old pair of combat boots, a worn red scarf and a set of ID tags hanging from a chain around her neck. She was about the same height as Lucia, with long, snow white hair that hid her features save for a lone red eye staring at us and a pair of skeletal cybernetics creeping up the side of her face from her jaw to her ears. Just as me and Lucia got within 10 metres, Lee yelled out at us "High concentration of Punishing Virus! She's not one of ours!" That seemed to set the being off, as she moved.

To say I don't know what happened would be the understatement of the century, one second, she was stationary, the next, time seemed to slow as she moved at lightning pace and practically teleported in front of me, drawing a katana as if to bisect me. In that instant I should have died, but Lucia managed to just bring up Berserker to parry the attack and save my life. The being, one I could now safely say was a construct, didn't even seemed phased, immediately breaking off her attack on me and chambering her strike to cut me in half, who immediately rushed in to attack and keep her attention off me. Lee and Liv were running towards us before I noticed more Virus Creations climbing through the rubble to engage us, "No!" I yelled to them "keep the virus bots busy, me and Lucia will handle the construct". Lee seemed reluctant but ultimately turned to fight the creations whilst Liv yelled to me "Be careful!" before joining him. I had barely turned back to help Lucia when the unknown construct drew her sword in a flash, sending a blocking Lucia flying back into rubble at the far end of the hall. She promptly sheathed her sword, before sending a flurry of wave attacks at Lucia. Lucia dodged by running up the rubble before back flipping off and twisting to send herself at the construct, new swords forming in mid air to assist her as the construct once more sheathed her sword. Time seemed to stop as the two were only 5 feet apart before the construct drew her sword and slashed at Lucia, who had no time to dodge. She was sent flying back, smashing through a concrete wall before the construct was before her, stabbing her sword through Lucia's shoulder and pinning her to a supporting column as she cried out. "Lucia!" I yelled, running forward and firing to draw the construct onto me, she seemed to almost boredly regard me, parrying my bullets out of the air negligently, like a human would a fly. She promptly withdrew her sword from Lucia's shoulder before dashing towards me. I immediately went down to one knee and slid under the strike before turning to fire again, only to realise she had already turned around and was dashing towards me. I dropped my submachine gun and drew my combat knife, determined to at least draw blood before I went down. I held my knife in an icepick grip and managed to redirect the first strike from the construct, she drew herself backwards and left no room for me to counterattack and I could only keep backing up and giving ground to stay out of her range. Within seconds, my back was to the wall, and I decided to go down swinging, I ducked under her first strike and slipped angle side to try and get a hit, only for her to punch me with her off hand. It felt like getting hit by a train and I fell to my hands and knees, stunned, it was all she needed as she drew her sword back and skewered me through my shoulder, in a grim reference to Lucia's defeat.

I gasped in shock as the construct gripped me by the throat and raised me up to eye height, her lone red eye blankly piercing my soul. "How fitting that the mistakes of the past repeat themselves" her cold voice sounded out, the first time she had spoken in the fight. "That the same thing should happen once more, with them idly hoping for a different outcome". I could barely breathe as her grip tightened, choking me "perhaps I should kill you now, and spare her the trouble" she idly murmured, almost content to ignore my choking. "Who are you?" Lucia croaked out from behind her, crawling towards Lotus Berserker on the floor at the construct's feet "Why do I know you?". The construct seemed to only now remember that Lucia even existed, barely sparing her a glance "It doesn't matter, not yet" she seemed to consider something before with a flash of her eyes, she released me to the floor, arm still pinned to the column behind me and gasping for air. She wrenched her sword out of my arm and flicked my blood off it before picking up Lotus Berserker and using it to stab through Lucia's injured shoulder and pin her to the ground. She sheathed her sword before turning to walk out of the ruined church, but before she did, she spared a glance over her shoulder at me and Lucia "You should hold onto what you have now, because you won't have it for much longer" she then turned and left us, bleeding and broken in the ruins. I barely managed to reach my comm device "Celica, mission failed, requesting pickup and MEDEVAC from the objective, over" I talked into it. A normally chipper voice sounded worried "MEDEVAC on the way, the Virus in the region has been subdued enough to let a SAR bird get to you, what happened down there?" I spared a glance at Lucia, bleeding out on the floor as Liv and Lee, finally finished with the other virus creatures came sprinting over "Tell Babylonia that the Virus just got a whole lot more dangerous".

End of the Prologue

Author's note:

I know that the fight between Gray Raven and Alpha played out differently in the game, but this was my attempt to make it a little more coherent and add my own spin on it. Alpha is so far a fun character to write because she is the perfect blend of Terminator combined with Raiden from MGR.

Next chapter will focus a bit more on the lore and characters will be introduced

Until then, Adios!