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Episode Two: The snake awakens
The door slid open, allowing three figures to enter all at once. One of them was a small nimble girl, dressed in full robes but moving with the grace of a preying cat. Her light blue eyes darted to and fro, surveying everything around her. Her short brown hair moved slightly as she walked.
Next to her, a man in his mid-thirties, wearing full body armor with a navy blue color, strode with the confidence one has after fighting in countless battles. He was completely bald, but he kept a goatee evenly trimmed. His once young features were marred with a terrible scar, which ran from the top of his left temple, over his eye, and finished in a strange twist under his nose.
And finally, behind them came a very tall and gangly android. It walked with an uneven gait, and its overlong arms seemed to sway from side to side. Its head possesed only a single green eye, with a strange swept-back metallic horn protuding from its forehead. It also wore a green-gray armor over its frame. To people, it looked like some sort of metallic lizard.
After the three figures entered the darkened room, the door slid shut silently behind them.
Countless monitors lit up, and a myriad of glowing colours splashed over them as random data and info sped through each display.
Static suddenly shot from the speakers and a grating male voice spoke:
"There is little time"
The man crossed his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow, said:
"Is it back?"
Some of the screens stopped showing random images and synchronized to show several shots of maps, diagrams and even overhead views of seemingly random areas on the surface of Ragol.
"It would appear to be so," responded the grating voice " the collected data so far indicates a large chance of positive probability of such circumstance."
The young woman shifted her arms, putting one hand over her cheek and the other at her waist.
She remained silent.
The android however, made a strange metallic noise as it spoke. It seemed like rusted iron rubbed against rock.
"You know of our fee..." it twisted its head strangely and snap it back into position "but what exactly is what we are doing this time?"
The monitors still showed more data, and the large man blinked as he saw a couple of images strangely familiar to him.
"You are to collect data first..." said the grating voice.
"How boring..." said the android amusingly, its hands twitching.
"Keep silent now, you!" said the man at the android, he then faced the monitors and replied "Understood. We will first observe and then we'll wait for further orders..."
The monitors shut down all at once at the very same moment the door slid open once more.
"Let's go! The faster we meet the target and collect the information they need, the faster we get paid..." the man walked out, followed closely by the android.
The girl stood there, looking at the darkness for a second more and after a moment, she turned on her heels and walked out into the corridor.
The crystal glass clinked against the other.
"To our mutual benefit, my dear General Chief Natasha"
"Likewise, Lt. Vryce" she smiled back.
Both sat facing each other at a dinner table in the luxurious Farahez restaurant. Vryce wore an elegant black suit and had combed back his hair, giving him a debonair look to go along with his grinning face.
The General Chief was looking simply astonishing, as she wore a dark blue sleeveless dress with a low cut on her back. She had let her hair down also, giving her an even more radical change from her usual get up while working at the Laboratory.
The soft sound of violins and a piano nearby soothed people's spirits in the classy bar.
"Chief, I have one thing to ask of you..." Vryce suddenly looked very serious.
"Mmmh... ask away. I will see fit if this one thing needs an immediate answer" Natasha sipped a little wine.
Vryce looked around and waved to a waiter, ordered some dessert and after thanking the young newman for the quick service, he turned to Natasha.
"Very well..." he added with a smile "There is something bothering me for the last week and I needed to clear this up with you, madam"
Natasha didn't say anything, she just merely smiled back at his in a bemused sort of way.
Vryce picked up his glass and drank a couple of sips of wine and continued:
"The identity of my protege..."
"Is a very well-kept secret... I have seen to that, my friend" Natasha cut him off.
Vryce stirred the wine a little before putting the crystal glass back on the table. He closed his eyes and smiled.
"Sir, your dessert" interrupted the waiter as he placed a couple of small plates filled with a deliciously-looking parfait in front of the General Chief and a small coffee in front of Vryce.
"Thank you, my young man" Vryce smirked.
As the waiter left, Natasha tasted a bit of her dessert and softly cleaning her lips with her napkin, got up.
"I am very sorry, my dear Vryce, but I must leave in a hurry. It would seem that the preliminary tests in the VR field are commencing in about 6 hours and I am expected to be there early... after all, I am the General Chief" she laughed a bit.
Vryce quickly got up and took her hand in his. He put the other hand on his chest and raising an eyebrow he said:
"Couldn't you make an exception tonight madam? This place would seem very dull without your presence..."
She laughed a bit more and putting her hand over Vryce's she shook her head slightly.
"You'll never learn, will you Lt. Vryce? I must admit the idea sounds tempting but my duties come first, especially now with this new situation about the Gal Da Val island and the Control Towers"
"Oh! And here I thought you would join me for a night cap" Vryce said as he dramatically swept his hand from his chest to his side.
"Hahahah... still funny as ever" she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and then continued "Like I said, tempting but no thank you. I will probably see you in the Labs then?"
"Of course! I wouldn't miss this event for anything my dear lady" he smiled as he kissed Natasha's hand.
After she left, Vryce sat down and drank his coffee in silence.
Suddenly, one of the waiters approached him and politely handing him a phone and the bill, took the plates from the table.
Vryce took the phone and dialed a long number.
After a few seconds of hearing it ring, someone at the other side picked up and answered.
"See to it that we have a good escort tomorrow at noon"
"Understood"
At that, he hung up and sipped his coffee a little more.
Looking out over the window, his gaze met the blue-green planet. His eyes rested over a certain formation of stormy clouds, which looked like a white and gray spiral.
His brow darkened and he got up the table, leaving a few extra meseta as a tip.
"Professor, have you finished yet?" said Alianna, very tired and beat. Her silvery hair was damp with sweat and grime.
"Not yet, but I will probably finish this one here really quick. It seems that this one was only severely damaged in her frame, not her inner circuits... that means, I only have to finish the repairs and I'll turn her on" said Fritz with enthusiasm.
As he worked up and down, repairing small and large notches in the frame, he noticed that the HUcaseal on the table in front of him had a strange patch on her shoulder.
Using an odd-looking glass that he mounted on his work goggles, he read what seemed to be a serial number of some sort.
Over the number, he noticed a small icon, probably from one of the Pioneer One's laboratories.
"Mmmh... very interesting..." he studied the number carefully.
Alianna looked up from the cluttered floor up to the table. Feeling very tired, she didn't feel like getting up.
"It seems like at least this female android belonged to a special corps or something. There's some kind of badge on her shoulder, and though the badge seems to be badly damaged due to some kind of impact, I can make out at least a zero and a letter 'T'"
"So? Name her 0-T..." Alianna left herself drop on top of a beat up old couch, her legs and back felt like lead.
Fritz smiled broadly. He took a small piece of cloth and cleaned the android's face a little.
"I'll name this little girl, 0-T then... unusual name for an unusual android... hahahaha" he giggled as he put away the small cloth.
Turning around, he double checked the inner servos inside the huge RAcast frame he salvaged from various places. Looking at them, he noticed that even if they were a jumbled mess, and that they belonged to different-sized models and very distinct versions, he had made and admirable job at patching them up and making the impression it would work, at least before it could blow up.
Fritz quickly made a cursory search over the parts, and not seeing anything out of the ordinary, he closed the chest section and sealed it.
He switched on several toggles and walking towards a smaller table at the end of the room, he looked over the peculiar pettite android curled up in her sleep, as if it were a small cat.
Strangely enough, the android was incredibly short, but Fritz had told his bodyguard, Alianna, that not many of the androids in the storage ship were intact. So, he had to make do with the good materials he scrounged up from his search.
Unfortunately, only the '0-T' hunter was the only one mostly complete, and thus, her brain and memory chips in better shape than the others. The smaller female android was given a brain of Fritz' own design and manufacture, right there in the storage ship. The big ranger android? He tried to make an effort, but Fritz only found pieces of different models all around the place, so he had to make them fit, making the end result look like a badly put-up children's jigsaw puzzle.
Still, all three of them were installed with emotion chips of his own design. Alianna did try to convince him of leaving them alone, but seeing as the professor wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, she had finally surrendered all hope of seeing normal combat androids.
She was kind of right when Fritz had turned on the small female.
Right away, it had acted like some sort of kitten, excitedly playing with things and them.
After four hours of chasing the small android all around the storage complex, tricking her with some bundled up wire and finally shutting her down, Alianna had to carry the strangely heavy HUcaseal back up at the control room, where Fritz was working with the others.
"Well? How to name this one?" he said as he turned to look at the very tired Alianna.
The newman huntress thought of a fair amount of names, none too flattering and actually, very rude.
"Ugh... just think of something yourself, professor... let me get some rest..." he couldn't hear the rest as she mumbled herself into sleep.
He turned around and looking at the small, black armored female android, he half-smiled as he though of a name.
As he felt the breeze around him as he stood on the apartment's balcony, Raziel looked over the lights on the streets. He heard the muffled sounds of the pedestrians and the traffic below. A siren or two wailed weakly in the distance and sounds of the latest hit from the GoGoBoomas echoed from some dance club.
He concentrated once more, trying to feel his focus.
The sounds were blocked and his sight blank. He tried to find his center.
But something gnawed at his mind.
Opening his eyes, he felt the need to reach for his weapon, as he caught a glimpse of a figure on a rooftop some three hundred yards away. It seemed it was beckoning him to come closer. It looked gangly and way too strange.
"Raziel? Is something wrong?" called out Faye from inside.
He turned quickly to see her at standing near the living room, looking worried.
When he turned back to see the rooftop, the figure wasn't there.
"Huh... no... nothing's wrong... I was just admiring the city, as always" he smiled as he saw her worried expression.
He then noticed she was holding something behind her. It was his Agito sword.
She smiled back at him and made a nod towards the balcony.
Raziel put an arm around her waist as she came to him. She held the katana low, but firmly, just in case he needed it.
"Do you think we'll be able to join in the exploration of Gal Da Val island? I've been hearing some strange rumors about it"
"Mmmh? Like about some strangely altered beasts populating it?" he said as he glanced to his right, trying to catch a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary.
"I've heard that a couple of scout ships have been lost. And that even low-flying probes have been taken down by very weird creatures" she said as she hugged Raziel.
The breeze caressed his jet black hair, but Raziel felt the air carried a strange scent in it.
"And isn't there any survivors? What does the military say about this?"
"You know them... any strange stuff like this and it gets covered up in no time..." she closed her eyes and sighed "Raz..."
"Mmmh? Yes, Faye?" he looked down at her for a moment. He saw how she was bitting her lip.
"Promise me you will be extra careful..."
Raziel turned around and put both arms around her. When she was facing him, he raised one hand to her cheek and caressed it tenderly.
"I will, I promise..." he smiled at her.
"I'd wish I could go with you on this mission, but the military ordered that a small group be on standby just in case something goes awry..."
"Or we find out something we shouldn't, right?" he said bitterly.
"Raz, you know I'd never hurt you, or any of our friends!"
"That's not what I mean... It's our government's policies for situations like these that get on my nerves" he kissed her forehead softly.
She felt a pang of guilt. It was true what she implied. Her team was to be on stand by in case the hunters from the Guild would stumble onto something they shouldn't be nosing around on. And she knew she would have to dispose of them quickly, or else be arrested and court martialed on the spot.
Still, she felt safe that Raziel would come and save her if anyting would happen. She wasn't afraid of making the right choice.
She lifted her head slowly, looking at his eyes and nearing herself to kiss him.
Suddenly, a couple of razor sharp disks whistled by and struck exactly at the spot where she was standing.
Raziel, however, had reacted very quickly, and grabbing her in his arms, he had leapt to his right. Unfortunately, in the moment, the Agito was still leaning against the wall at the left.
"Get inside and grab your weapon Faye!" he said quickly as he rolled to his side and five more razor disks cut into the concrete in fast succesion.
Grabbing the hilt of the Agito and unsheathing the katana with blinding speed, Raziel twirled the weapon over his head and around his right flank, deflecting several more projectiles aiming at his chest.
From the angle of the attacks, he guessed his foe was standing exactly on the rooftop he had noticed the strange silhouette before. He closed the visor over his face and inhaled deeply.
Currently, there was no way of getting there... unless...
Faye had punched the hotkey to Vryce's comm link when she saw the black armored HUcast suddenly leap from the balcony.
Her eyes wide with terror she lept to her feet and rushed to the balcony.
She saw as Raziel had leapt into the air, and, by some amazing calculation or pure dumb luck, landed on top of a hovership a couple dozen feet down. He barely managed to grab the side of the hovercar with one firm grip, and swinging with his entire body, landed on top of the vehicle and jumped into the air onto the next one, a big cargo freighter that was following the first one.
She felt little relief at this, as what he was attempting was basically suicide just to get at their attacker.
Two more disks missing her by inches made her come back to reality, and quickly kneeling behind the balcony's wall, she pulled out her red handgun.
The direction of the shots gave her an idea of the attacker, but she didn't know exactly what kind of weapon shot metal disks at high velocity... Her opponent would be on the rooftops to her right from her guess. She would need to get fired upon some more to better estimate the exact position of the enemy sniper. Risky, but she didn't have any other way of knowing.
She heard a couple more of shots and some dust sprinkled her. Her enemy knew exactly where she was hiding, now she would have to move a bit to take her measuring shots.
Raziel stood firmly on top of the heavy cargo freighter. He knew that he wouldn't need to find his enemy, as he saw a tall, lithe figure suddenly land over the rear end of the freighter. It was a man with platinum hair, long and braided. He wore a dark blue armor and seemed to carry a small double bladed hilt in his left hand. He got up silently as the vehicles around them zipped and darted about at great speeds.
He saw the man's face. It was cold and devoid: the hardened look of a killer. The man's red eyes gave no hint of emotion. He calmly twirled the hilt on his left hand and turned on the blades. Blood red photon lit up the grey metal of the freighter. Raziel grabbed the hilt of the Agito with both hands and stood silently watching his opponent.
To be continued...
 Tsunami K · Wed Sep 13, 2006 @ 09:39pm · 0 Comments |
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