22-12-2005, 05:13 PM
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Chapter 3: Forgotten metal
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Decades passed, broken metal lay long forgotten in the shelter of a secret well, but it would not survive undiscovered for much longer.
Special ops teams had been sent out by the head of office at pioneer 2. These teams were designed to be support groups for hunters and were christened the Rangers, they favoured ranged weaponry and were far more understanding of machines and the way they worked than any 'Hack n' slash' hunter.
They were mechanics, snipers, and the heavy artillery. One such special ops team had been sent out to salvage technology developed by Pioneer 1 that may be able to help in the war effort. There was a war, a war in the deep and little of the events unfolding underneath them the ranger scout group the 'hell hawks' knew. All they knew was they had received a faint signal from some kind of shelter in the forest.
Scope was slowly passing a pair of broken gates; behind him were Warhawk and Finchy. Scope brushed one hand through his hair and gazed back into Warhawks' visor. "Picking anything up back there?" he bellowed. "The situation appears to be stable sir" responded Warhawk in a metallic voice. Finchy took her rifle from her back and held it up to her good eye. "I don't like the feel of this, sir, we have already lost one of our team so far and I'm not about to let us loose another." They wandered into a dense area of undergrowth with a few shrubs and odd scraping marks in the ground.
The more the team studied the area, the more confusing things became. Finchy spotted a dead plant that seemed to have just given up on life; decay reeked from its bone like branches reaching up towards the sky as if in protest to an unstoppable force.
"Blimey!" murmured Scope. "Look here Hawk, there's a photon mark on this wall, it's kinda slanted though. Looks like a ricochet!" there was a thunderous roar, birds spiralled into the thick sky in desertion of their homes and silence was kept a few moments longer. A giant monstrosity suddenly reaping through the forest charged straight at Warhawk, he went down in under a few seconds. Scope opened his COM link with Pioneer 2 and screamed into the mike "Man down man down! No, Harle I don't give a crap if it was 'only the android' we're not getting into one of these bullshit arguments now just get me support or I'll court marshal you myself when I get back!" then, he took three flat metal disks from his utility pouch and flung them onto the floor in the rough shape of a triangle, there was a moments whirring and suddenly bright, beautiful lights sprung forth from the forest floor.
From the light a shadowy figure emerged, calm at first his technical force gauntlet plain on his right hand with the emblem of the house of science clearly imprinted on it. His red fiery robe contrasted sharply with the pale skin of his face and his mud brown hair, medium in length. There was a thunder crack and lightning cascaded from the sky striking the brute in the chest and sending it reeling backwards.
Warhawk, who had by now found his feet, picked up his guided rocket system (prototype 'Inferno') and blasted the monstrosity in the head. Suddenly, it opened its jaws and out came the force of decay. "Not this time you ugly son of a bitch" said the mysterious force. He clasped his hands together and released a giant flow of purple energy easily equal to the hildebears own attempts to master the arts of death. It swallowed up the ball of decay and hurled it full on into the the monster. A gut wrenching, ear splitting, in-human sound pierced through the night like a white hot knife through black butter. The monster later to become known as the 'Hildetorr' dissolved on the spot, and the last anyone saw of the creature were the two black recesses where its' eyes should have been.
"I'll continue to the salvaging site while you mop up here" said Finchy and with that she was gone.
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Chapter 4: Relics of the Possessed Forest
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As Finchy swept silently through the ferns and bracken-like plants surrounding her, she noticed an odd hole apparently ripped into the ground. Every one of her senses was heightened, if there was another armoured beast near by she would never deal with such a devastating opponent on her own. She lent over the hole to see a kind of ceramic material lining the edges of what once must have been a well. It smelled Dank and musty, her nose wrinkled at the stench.
As she peered inside the well, she noticed a small glint at the bottom; she marked the site with a radio-receptor and turning to her left saw a hunk of metal lumped on the floor. Curiously, she advanced towards it. It was an old android arm, possibly a relic from Pioneer 1. Then, startled, she noticed a long fine blade in its grasp. She picked it up and ran its' edge along the inside of her hand. She gasped as blood flowed from her index finger. It was still sharp after what must have been decades. Sharp as when it was created, it seemed. The sky was clearly visible along the fine blade, reflected, blue and ambient. It was a fine weapon; it must have been wrought by one of the masters of steel long ago, long ago on Coral when such substances were still plentiful and of good quality. There was a shout from behind her.
"Finchy" said a melodious voice. There stood the force, Warhawk and Scope. "We picked up your signal" said Scope bluntly. "Yes" said Finchy as if she had just come out of a trance. "It's over there, in that well". Scope walked over as the force illuminated the well with a pure white source of light. "Wow, it's an old android all right. Looks like a military enforcer, first of those Hucasts. Not one of our lots. Hey, hey Finch. Imagine what it could tell us eh? What stories he could tell..."
Finchy spun around with the sword in her left hand and the android arm in her right. "We should repair him" she commented without a second thought. Warhawk took a step back from the well, there was a clicking sound from inside his right shoulder pad and from the back of his head a laminated photograph was produced. "You should look at this sir". Scope took the photograph from the back of the androids head; it was a picture of the bottom of the well. It showed the back of the fallen jet black android. Four characters were clearly printed centrally on its back. They read 'D U S K'.
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Chapter 5: Faded Future
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All he could here was a buzzing sound. The darkness was finally lifting, bright lights, hummed overhead. He was spread out on some kind of work surface, he could not yet tell shapes and colours from one another, nor fully distinguishes words, but something was happening. Someone or something must be trying to repair him.
"Why do you insist on working on that thing anyway? It has been thirty-six hours and no progress seems to have been made at all..." Scope interjects offhandedly. "Well if we're to have the team back at full strength again it is kinda' essential" Finchy retorted, as she put down the blowtorch. "That's enough for today, I carried out some research on this sword and if it's not another replica like the other hundreds I have seen it is the true Oroagito."
"Hah hah, yeah right, the true Oroagito. You know, if it is I'll give you Three-hundred-thousand meseta and that's a promise." As Scope walks out of the room, Finchy glances away from the white, plastic-like interior of the room, gleaming in a bright white light as she catches movement out of the corner of her eye.
The android sits up on the table, flexing its' restored arm. "Systems stable, operating system stable. Physical functions appear not to be abnormal. Where am I? Where is the beast? Where is my sword?"
Finchy gasps. The android leans over the table side, and picks up his masters sword. The sword of injustice, the sword of the pain, the memories that will never leave him - here in the faded future, it appears not even time can distance him from the events long ago in the forest of sorrow.
Chapter 3: Forgotten metal
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Decades passed, broken metal lay long forgotten in the shelter of a secret well, but it would not survive undiscovered for much longer.
Special ops teams had been sent out by the head of office at pioneer 2. These teams were designed to be support groups for hunters and were christened the Rangers, they favoured ranged weaponry and were far more understanding of machines and the way they worked than any 'Hack n' slash' hunter.
They were mechanics, snipers, and the heavy artillery. One such special ops team had been sent out to salvage technology developed by Pioneer 1 that may be able to help in the war effort. There was a war, a war in the deep and little of the events unfolding underneath them the ranger scout group the 'hell hawks' knew. All they knew was they had received a faint signal from some kind of shelter in the forest.
Scope was slowly passing a pair of broken gates; behind him were Warhawk and Finchy. Scope brushed one hand through his hair and gazed back into Warhawks' visor. "Picking anything up back there?" he bellowed. "The situation appears to be stable sir" responded Warhawk in a metallic voice. Finchy took her rifle from her back and held it up to her good eye. "I don't like the feel of this, sir, we have already lost one of our team so far and I'm not about to let us loose another." They wandered into a dense area of undergrowth with a few shrubs and odd scraping marks in the ground.
The more the team studied the area, the more confusing things became. Finchy spotted a dead plant that seemed to have just given up on life; decay reeked from its bone like branches reaching up towards the sky as if in protest to an unstoppable force.
"Blimey!" murmured Scope. "Look here Hawk, there's a photon mark on this wall, it's kinda slanted though. Looks like a ricochet!" there was a thunderous roar, birds spiralled into the thick sky in desertion of their homes and silence was kept a few moments longer. A giant monstrosity suddenly reaping through the forest charged straight at Warhawk, he went down in under a few seconds. Scope opened his COM link with Pioneer 2 and screamed into the mike "Man down man down! No, Harle I don't give a crap if it was 'only the android' we're not getting into one of these bullshit arguments now just get me support or I'll court marshal you myself when I get back!" then, he took three flat metal disks from his utility pouch and flung them onto the floor in the rough shape of a triangle, there was a moments whirring and suddenly bright, beautiful lights sprung forth from the forest floor.
From the light a shadowy figure emerged, calm at first his technical force gauntlet plain on his right hand with the emblem of the house of science clearly imprinted on it. His red fiery robe contrasted sharply with the pale skin of his face and his mud brown hair, medium in length. There was a thunder crack and lightning cascaded from the sky striking the brute in the chest and sending it reeling backwards.
Warhawk, who had by now found his feet, picked up his guided rocket system (prototype 'Inferno') and blasted the monstrosity in the head. Suddenly, it opened its jaws and out came the force of decay. "Not this time you ugly son of a bitch" said the mysterious force. He clasped his hands together and released a giant flow of purple energy easily equal to the hildebears own attempts to master the arts of death. It swallowed up the ball of decay and hurled it full on into the the monster. A gut wrenching, ear splitting, in-human sound pierced through the night like a white hot knife through black butter. The monster later to become known as the 'Hildetorr' dissolved on the spot, and the last anyone saw of the creature were the two black recesses where its' eyes should have been.
"I'll continue to the salvaging site while you mop up here" said Finchy and with that she was gone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 4: Relics of the Possessed Forest
---------------------------------------------------------------------
As Finchy swept silently through the ferns and bracken-like plants surrounding her, she noticed an odd hole apparently ripped into the ground. Every one of her senses was heightened, if there was another armoured beast near by she would never deal with such a devastating opponent on her own. She lent over the hole to see a kind of ceramic material lining the edges of what once must have been a well. It smelled Dank and musty, her nose wrinkled at the stench.
As she peered inside the well, she noticed a small glint at the bottom; she marked the site with a radio-receptor and turning to her left saw a hunk of metal lumped on the floor. Curiously, she advanced towards it. It was an old android arm, possibly a relic from Pioneer 1. Then, startled, she noticed a long fine blade in its grasp. She picked it up and ran its' edge along the inside of her hand. She gasped as blood flowed from her index finger. It was still sharp after what must have been decades. Sharp as when it was created, it seemed. The sky was clearly visible along the fine blade, reflected, blue and ambient. It was a fine weapon; it must have been wrought by one of the masters of steel long ago, long ago on Coral when such substances were still plentiful and of good quality. There was a shout from behind her.
"Finchy" said a melodious voice. There stood the force, Warhawk and Scope. "We picked up your signal" said Scope bluntly. "Yes" said Finchy as if she had just come out of a trance. "It's over there, in that well". Scope walked over as the force illuminated the well with a pure white source of light. "Wow, it's an old android all right. Looks like a military enforcer, first of those Hucasts. Not one of our lots. Hey, hey Finch. Imagine what it could tell us eh? What stories he could tell..."
Finchy spun around with the sword in her left hand and the android arm in her right. "We should repair him" she commented without a second thought. Warhawk took a step back from the well, there was a clicking sound from inside his right shoulder pad and from the back of his head a laminated photograph was produced. "You should look at this sir". Scope took the photograph from the back of the androids head; it was a picture of the bottom of the well. It showed the back of the fallen jet black android. Four characters were clearly printed centrally on its back. They read 'D U S K'.
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Chapter 5: Faded Future
---------------------------------------------------------------------
All he could here was a buzzing sound. The darkness was finally lifting, bright lights, hummed overhead. He was spread out on some kind of work surface, he could not yet tell shapes and colours from one another, nor fully distinguishes words, but something was happening. Someone or something must be trying to repair him.
"Why do you insist on working on that thing anyway? It has been thirty-six hours and no progress seems to have been made at all..." Scope interjects offhandedly. "Well if we're to have the team back at full strength again it is kinda' essential" Finchy retorted, as she put down the blowtorch. "That's enough for today, I carried out some research on this sword and if it's not another replica like the other hundreds I have seen it is the true Oroagito."
"Hah hah, yeah right, the true Oroagito. You know, if it is I'll give you Three-hundred-thousand meseta and that's a promise." As Scope walks out of the room, Finchy glances away from the white, plastic-like interior of the room, gleaming in a bright white light as she catches movement out of the corner of her eye.
The android sits up on the table, flexing its' restored arm. "Systems stable, operating system stable. Physical functions appear not to be abnormal. Where am I? Where is the beast? Where is my sword?"
Finchy gasps. The android leans over the table side, and picks up his masters sword. The sword of injustice, the sword of the pain, the memories that will never leave him - here in the faded future, it appears not even time can distance him from the events long ago in the forest of sorrow.
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