Author: Techbot Red
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THE CENTURIONS TALE – Part 1- Decent
The rubble was still warm to the touch, smoke drifting in the feeble breeze. Wolf took it all in, looking out over the desolate wasteland.
“Sweet bejesus…they sure made a mess of the place, huh?” a voice said from just behind him. Wolf turned slightly, watching Fox, his brother, help Professor McReedy over the slag pile. X21 Ice Wolf and Z22 Pyre Fox, a.k.a. the Hound brothers, currently assisting the cities scientists in piecing together the mess the Rikti invasion had left smashed across Paragon City.
“What do you expect from Rikti, bro?” Wolf shot back at his brother, turning back to the devastation. This whole side of Atlas Park was buried in rubble and ash and slag, and, even though the Rikti had been ousted by the Freedom Phalanx, there were still occasional stragglers. Wolf racked the slide on his assault rifle, more for comfort then anything else. The Prof and his team were busy digging around, lab coats and research equipment bright against the dull rubble and ruin.
Fox moved down the slope slightly, looking around. His large metal legs clacked against the stone. Fox had lost his organic legs to a mountaineering accident some time ago, but, in his nature, he took it in his stride, using his technical genius to craft himself a new set, or sets for that matter. These were his usual adventuring ones, bipedal in design with good grip and surface. Plus they could create an energy-board under his feet, allowing him to jet along at pace. His suit, picked out in red and orange, was similar in design to Wolf’s own blue and white one, both engineered by his hand, and both capable of manipulating fire and ice respectively.
Fox grinned beneath his flat, featureless helmet, despite the wreckage around him. They had certainly earned their stripes in the past few days, and this escort was a nice wind down to the action.
Action. Hell. Fox winced to himself. He might be a bit of an action nut, but this was definitely a nice way to wind down. Pretty quiet, and blasting the hell out of any Rikti scum that crawled from the rubble…
Just then something rumbled in the air. Wolf and Fox looked up as it grew louder. One of the scientists took a step back in shock.
“The molecular readings…there way off the scale! The particles are going haywire!” he shouted, the rest of his sentence drowned out in a colossal roar.
The air split in half, a huge rent ripping itself across the sky, and becoming a whirling red vortex of matter.
“By all that’s proven…” Professor McReedy whispered, something not even he could hear. A howling wind was blowing, even as the portal fully emerged. It was nothing like the portals that had so previously opened around the city, spewing out the Rikti invaders. It glowed brightly, and it was almost as if a rain of glowing red particles was falling from it as it hung open in the heavens. Then the rumble began again, the portal itself shaking violently, and setting the ground shuddering.
There was a pause, filled with perfect silence, even as the ground heaved. The Professor tried to say something to Wolf, but realized that what they were hearing was not in fact silence; it was merely the absence of sound.
Then it returned in a massive booming wave, a beam of light almost as wide as the portal shooting out and smashing into the ground, and making the rubble jump as the shockwave pummeled the ground. Over the roar of the portal wind and the explosion of the blast, even as Wolf was hurled from his feet, he could just make out a faint sound over it all, as if someone was shouting at the top of their lungs, but very far away.
The last, echoing words he heard before he lost consciousness sounded like some sort of battle cry, or, just possibly, a prayer to some sort of alien god;
“ENTOR THA’LOS!”
-Sensor feed online-
-Checking systems-
…
…
-Check complete, all systems functional, life readings at maximum-
-Restoring visual and aural capacities-
Wolf climbed unsteadily to his feet, picking up his rifle from where it had fallen. Down the slope Fox was helping the dazed scientist to their feet.
“What in Gods name was that?” one of them whispered. It still sounded deafeningly loud in the silence.
“I have no idea, Jenkins, but I intend to find out!” the Professor snapped, striding forward, until Fox took him by the arm.
“No go Prof. Whatever came through could be dangerous. We’re going in first,” he stated firmly. McReedy relented.
Wolf moved down the hill, into the massive crater that the blast had created. He stopped as his foot hit something.
“What in the world…?”
It was a Rikti drone. Or, rather, the remains of one. Most of it was cracked and leaking fuel, and, if it had ever been alive, now it would look like it was more than just dead. Obliterated would perhaps just about cover it.
As Wolf and Fox both moved down the slopes and dips of the large crater, they began to spot the signs. A limb here, a shattered helmet there, dropped and destroyed weapons; it was like a mass Rikti grave had just dropped from the sky.
“What a mess,” Fox said quietly, as he pulled up next to his brother. Wolf nodded silently, carefully flicking the safety off his weapon. Fox looked over at him, then, with a thought, powered up his suits thermo-manipulators and let two small fireballs form in his palms.
“You hear something?” he whispered.
Wolf shook his head.
“I don’t know. I think so…”
The pair picked their way down carefully, as McReedy and his group watched from the rim. Slowly and warily, the brothers made their way towards the epicenter…
Something was poking out from the rubble. Something that shone, even in the dull light of the evening. Wolf moved forward, gun trained on it. Fox moved past his sibling, kneeling down beside it. It looked like some sort of being, half buried in the rubble. Fox reached out slowly, one hand resting gently on the smooth metal…
Which reared up and latched onto his throat. Fox made a sound which sounded vaguely like “Glark!”, while his brother instantly swung his rifle up and aimed…
And stopped, watching. The metallic thing had risen up, and he could now see that it was a robot, or a being in armor, dented and cut up and dirtied. It had two solid comm style aerials rising from its headpiece, along with something that looked like a respirator and a protected visor. Its face was dented and pounded, and a raspy wheezing was coming from the respirator device. Then, still looking directly at Fox, one large hand latched onto his neck while it tried weakly to pull itself out of the ground, it spoke.
“Kor’vash neka, tec’nam Rikti Vesha?” It croaked, its voice did not sounding metallic at all, but oddly harmonious, apart from the rasping breaths.
“I…don’t, ah…understand…” Fox gasped, trying to pry the fingers off his neck.
“Bro? Just say the word and I can put a slug into its shiny skull,” Wolf said quietly, but, deep down, he didn’t think he could. The thing looked wretched, and yet, somehow, noble, as if underneath the dirt and mud was some sort of higher being.
The thing seemed to look between then, the head turning so that the visor-viewer could take in Wolf, then back to Fox. The fingers eased there grip slightly, enough to allow Fox more air. The glass visor glowed slightly, and then the thing spoke again. Wolf and Fox both jolted. It was speaking perfect English.
“Are…they gone? The Rikti…Chhhk…are they dead?” it asked, its melodious voice pausing to draw in a shaking, pain wracked breath.
Fox nodded, wincing as the creature made another choking sound.
“Yeah…their dead. All of ‘em…dead.”
The robot nodded, its visor seeming to glow again, and the breathing sound eased slightly.
“Ah…” it breathed, “Then…I…Have not…failed…” With that its hand slid off Fox, clunking weakly into the dust. It slumped forward, knocking against its own arm, then lay still.
Or almost still. The almost glowing metal seemed to dull, and, from within, came the sound of whirring and clicking. Finally an electronic voice, similar to the one that the robot had used, but with no life, no feeling, spoke;
“System lockdown initiated. Standby.”
Then the thing was silent and still, leaving the brothers staring at it, in the steaming crater that echoed with stillness and death.
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