《Smokecutter》


 Prelude, Origins

    <u>Prelude:</u>


    Pharavanna was no place for the timid.


    The planet, distant from the smoking hellhole of earth was an uncanny sight to the people that first settled there, seeing that its life was very similar to that of earth on a basic level, but that evolved in a completely different course. This made complex animal and plant life forms seem wildly distinct from earth¡¯s life. The animals of Pharavanna were larger thanks to the large supply of oxygen in the atmosphere. There was also slightly weaker gravitational force on the planet than earth, since the planet was smaller. Still, though, the planet did have many of earth¡¯s key features, such as its abundance of both salt and fresh water sources and many geographical similarities.


    On the surface of Pharavanna, corruption and chaos was ever apparent. The corrupt and unmerciful Nexactus Corporation had already started to claim dominion over swaths of land on Pharavanna, to build its self-owned capital known as Crescendurn. This roaring metropolis was also known as ¡°The Big Light¡± to uncivilized factions that dare set foot near the glowing rat¡¯s nest. The owners of the city, Nexactus, also owned a military, spaceships, and a massive abundance of wealth. The appearance of Crescendurn was actually very deceptive. While the city possessed beautiful architecture, and buildings with a clean and sleek appearance, those who were actually in power were horribly exploitative and corrupt, keeping a massive amount of slaves to do hard labor, dangerous jobs, as well as being forced to participate in cruel scientific experiments.


    But Nexactus weren¡¯t the only ones seeking dominion over the planet of Pharavanna. The newly empowered space travelling Chinese mafia known as ¡°The Red Sickle¡± opposed the Nexactus Corporation without being any better. The Red Sickle were a group of dishonorable thieves who were motivated by fame and plunder, and saw Nexactus as the perfect target. The Red Sickle constantly spat in the face of Nexactus by distributing weapons or materials that they considered illegal without any regard for the corporation¡¯s whims or desires. It condoned saber rattling with Nexactus and used violence and fear as its most effective methods.


    In each of these two brutal and malicious groups, however, there were some individuals who just didn¡¯t cooperate with the hand dealt to them, and who seek not the values of who they find themselves with. Even though humanity found this new planet, the nature of politics was not changed, and rebellions from earth not only survived, but also exceeded in their goals. One of the most famed defectors was not one most would expect. It was one who wandered, but was not lost. One who died, but was not defeated. One who was strong, but untrained. One who was inhuman, yet the most human of all.


    And his name was Stavikk Smokecutter.


    <u>Act 1: Beginning</u>


    <u>Scene 1: Origins</u>


    He was never a timid soul.


    Until just recently, Stavikk Smokecutter was a worker for Nexactus sent to clean their machinery, which were previously used for human experimentation, and were often covered with blood and medical solutions. He was positioned in Eris Laboratories located far at the outskirts of the city. Stavikk had witnessed several experiments that day, and it was only the beginning of his afternoon shift. Yet, he was never prepared to see what he was about to.


    It was then that he witnessed the doom of the subject named Blake Pierce, a white man who looked to be in his early 20¡¯s, killed in experimentation in the most gruesome of ways. The good look that Stavikk got of him revealed that the man was begging for his life, with tears running down his red, blood-filled face. The man had a strange substance rubbed on his skin by the doctors there, and he was suddenly he appeared to be in excruciating pain as he was strapped to the experimentation chair. His skin appeared to become paler, and suddenly parts of his skin popped-open, with parts of his bones appearing to pop through, and his wild muscle contractions adding to the sense of torture. His curly, black beard was soaked in sweat and blood, as he was bleeding profusely from places his bones fell through. Stavikk was in pure shock from seeing such a horrid sight, and started banging on the door with his forearm and shoulder pads, even punching the door as hard as he could. While Stavikk wasn¡¯t particularly frail, his attempts were to no avail, as the stainless steel door was meant to withstand shotgun blasts. There was no way he was getting in-at least not of his own volition. The officer that he would often answer to, Corporal Sanders, who was intent on immediately punishing Stavikk¡¯s misconduct, spotted him. He started running towards Stavikk, with a stun gun firmly in his hands. Stavikk, seeing this, really did try to get away, running as fast as he could, before finally being put into a seizure at the hands of Sanders.


    ¡°We¡¯ve got a new volunteer¡±, stated Corporal Sanders as he dragged Stavikk¡¯s unconscious body into the room, where Blake¡¯s flattened body laid. The staff of the experimentation room ungracefully moved Blake¡¯s corpse off of the chair, only to have its occupation replaced by Stavikk. Barely conscious, Stavikk was only able to hear the few words from Sanders: ¡°Seems you weren¡¯t too hesitant to be on the other side of that glass after all. As the injectors cut into Stavikk¡¯s flesh again and again, he faded in and out of consciousness from excruciating pain. Stavikk moved around from the torture, desperately trying to make it stop. As the pain continued, he felt the range of it slowly expanding, but he wasn¡¯t sure why.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    He mentally became more and more animal-like, spiraling out of control into a realm of pain and hatred. His sanity snapped, and he was pushed to the limit of human willpower, every fabric of his mind focused on stopping what was happening. After an unknown amount of time to Stavikk, which seemed like ages, he felt his body regain the flexibility it had lost. The weapons used to harm him seemingly disappeared, and Stavikk felt nothing but rage and determination. ¡°Oh God, he¡¯s comin¡¯ back!¡±, said one of the doctors in the room. ¡°Get outta here or-¡°. Stavikk thrashed wildly with his arms, to gain vengeance on those who had tortured him. Every time that his hands tore through someone he recognized as a threat, he felt great satisfaction. Tore¡­through? He wondered what had happened to set him free before an array of sharp pains appeared on his chest, sending him further into a rage. He realized that he had no time to think, and that if he thought, he was dead. He saw, through the glass, an armored soldier shooting through the thick glass, which Stavikk almost immediately pounced on, after charging through the glass screen. Since the soldier was much smaller than Stavikk, he was essentially torn in half by Stavikk¡¯s hands of hatred.


    Screeching. Alarms. Stavikk recognized the noise, as he had heard it only when there was an emergency, but Stavikk now realized that he was the emergency. He was the cause of panic and mayhem. Stavikk, winded and thwarted, but not defeated, knew he had to escape, and that he was running out of time. Stavikk picked up an assault rifle from the soldier he killed. The rifle seemed much smaller to Stavikk than it used to, and was somewhat easy to carry. He tried to use the soldier¡¯s armor, as well, but to no avail, as it could no longer fit. He ran towards the exit of the complex, as he knew that a getaway by train, regardless of its implausibility, was his best shot at escape.


    He opened the doors realizing he had been led right into a trap. Standing right outside the doors was a firing squad of Nexactus soldiers, making not a flinch or sound. Stavikk knew it was game over. He already absorbed as many bullets as his body would allow, and he was already starting to bleed profusely. He did the only thing he knew to do. He raised his hands in the air, hoping that the firing squad would spare him for some absurd reason. Corporal sanders came out of the crowd of soldiers to arrest Stavikk, the very person that Stavikk most wanted to kill, but knew that he couldn¡¯t if he was to stay alive. ¡°Logan was my cousin, you know. Asshole¡± remarked Sanders in the angriest voice Stavikk had ever heard. ¡°The only reason you¡¯re alive right now is because I actually follow orders, but I¡¯m gonna watch you get beaten for hours¡±.


    Stavikk and Corporal Sanders were as different in appearance as they were in personality and values. Sanders was a man who valued order and organization, and wanted to control everything around him and in his life, making him fit in very well with the Nexactus Corporation. Corporal Sanders, though, didn¡¯t truly work to make Pharavanna a better place, but he used his leaning towards order as an excuse to others and himself for his lack of goodness on moral grounds. Stavikk, though, was much more chaotic. While his unrefined and unkempt appearance may have stricken others as him being barbaric, he was actually a courageous individualist who opposed the fascistic nature of Nexactus. He was patriotic, but to a different culture, or perhaps no culture at all. Stavikk was quite sensitive, but he was often seen as being thick-skinned because of his stubbornness. Those two traits naturally gave him a flair for the dramatics. However, this wasn¡¯t always a good thing, as the act of defiance that he actually got nailed on would land him in arguably the most dangerous prison camp on the continent.


    The train ride was one of the worst experiences that Stavikk ever had. He looked at his hands, which, while cuffed, actually told him a lot. His hands were blood-soaked, and possessed longer and sharper nails, or claws than he used to have. He also noticed that his skin had brown patches all over, this despite him being European in descent. After reconsidering, there were a lot of ways that Stavikk noticed he had changed. He had horribly scarred skin, which is to be expected from gunshots and human experimentation, and much longer arms than before. Guards on the train spouted off-handed insults at him, which, while not exactly the greatest, didn¡¯t bother Stavikk as much as where he was going, somewhere he had only heard rumors about, the Sepam Gulag.


    Eventually, Stavikk arrived at the Sepam Gulag, led to his prison cell, which would be his new living quarters for the next four months. While a lot less than ideal, it was much better than execution outright. The Gulag made prisoners do an absurd amount of physical labor, which was made even worse by the cruelty of both the guards and prisoners there. Stavikk was alienated culturally from the prisoners there. Stavikk always stood out in a crowd, and it always seemed to work to his disadvantage. There was one person, however, that immediately appreciated Stavikk and his ability, Evan Scorchwood, or known by nickname as ¡°The Bane¡± by his fellow inmates. Evan and his gang, known as ¡°The Reapers¡± worked in secret with Stavikk in subtle ways. While pretending to alienate him like the others, they would actually have his back in a lot of social situations, knowing that he was the last piece needed to escape the Gulag.


    Evan Scorchfield was a slim half-black man who was a specialist in long-range firearms as well as being an effective scout. Evan Scorchfield was always a very quiet person, but when he spoke he seemed to know exactly what to say. Evan Scorchfield was very calm and adaptable. On the flipside, though, he was also sly and mischievous. The Reapers, however, while being a prison gang, were actually a small-time band with only 2 other members. Alyce Mcdune and Dolph Arnold were the last 2 reapers. Alyce was a weapon specialist and master craftsman, able to forge weapons and other devices for countless applications out of almost anything. Dolph Arnold was a computer wizard and master hacker, able to get through almost any firewall with ease or moderate difficulty.

 Release, Rising Action

    <u>Scene 2: Release</u>


    Labor was often cut off in late autumn in the Sepam Gulag for something known as¡°Hell Week¡± to stop the prison guards from getting bored. It was essentially an array of fighting matchups between prison gangs to see who would not only come out on top, but not be assassinated afterwards as a revenge act by other gangs. This was the worst for Stavikk, since he was only unofficially part of the ¡°Reaper¡± gang, he would have no idea who he was fighting. His best hope was to be against some of the Reapers so that they could work together to escape the Suicide Stadium.


    As chance would have it, however, Stavikk was actually not put against the Reapers, but instead a member of ¡°The Hounds¡±, nicknamed ¡°The Nighthawk¡± by his inmates for his gothic appearance, and eerie silence. Stavikk went into the fight confident that the Reaper gang would be working behind the scenes in his favor, but was concerned about what consequences angering the Hounds would entail for him later down the line. Sizing up his opponent, Stavikk noticed very particular things about ¡°The Nighthawk¡±. He was a man who, while not particularly bulky, seemed to have all of his muscles toned to his physical peak. He appeared to have Asian descent, and he had jet-black hair that was spiked going forward. He was wearing a wife-beater undershirt, as well as brown pants that were covered in pockets. He also wore arm-wraps used for boxing, his possessing a black color. While Stavikk still wasn¡¯t sure, ¡°The Nighthawk¡± seemed like he had the capacity for many tricks up his sleeve.


    The fight began with both fighters meeting at opposite ends of the ring, with the highly intoxicated referees vaguely suggesting when the fight was to begin. Finally, both fighters got the message and began their own routine. Stavikk used the fighting style that worked for him before, rushing towards his opponent, trying to end the fight quickly. Stavikk wasn¡¯t about to kill the man that easily, though, as he dodged just out of the way before reaching into a large pocket, pulling out 3 sharp, knifelike pieces of metal, which he threw at Stavikk as if they were a volley of kunai. 2 out of the 3 hit Stavikk, one in the stomach, and the other in a shoulder muscle. ¡°The Nighthawk¡± was then always going to the back of the arena, avoiding Stavikk. When Stavikk first felt slightly drowsy, he realized that there must have been some sort of poison in the knives, sapping away his energy.


    Evan Scorchfield and the Reapers went to work at causing mayhem within the Gulag, eavesdropping on guard conversations, and whacking guards foolish enough to travel alone. After hiding the corpses in the air vents, the Reapers took on the uniforms of the guards. They were then able to spread misinformation about technical issues in the prison, intentionally putting guards in terrible positioning for the next stage of the plan.


    ¡°The Nighthawk¡± took the opportunities he could, punching and kicking Stavikk in the stomach without opening up any vulnerability with himself. As he kicked Stavikk in the stomach, a little bit of his stomach acid flew out and hit the stone brick floor. The acid melted through some of the stone, but not all of it. This gave Stavikk an idea: since the acid melted through some of the material keeping the brick in place, he could easily remove it and throw it at his opponent, which would give him a huge range advantage. While his opponent continued to avoid him, Stavikk reached down, and pulled the brick out of the floor and threw it at ¡°The Nighthawk¡±. ¡°The Nighthawk¡± was quick, but he wasn¡¯t quite quick enough. The brick hit him flat in the head, stunning him from blunt force trauma. Meanwhile, Stavikk rushed at him and clawed and punched at the man, eventually finishing him by smashing the brick over his skull. Stavikk had no nickname before, but the crowd of zealous prisoners started shouting out ¡°Ogre! Ogre!¡± as his new name. Stavikk wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about being a beloved prison gladiator.


    The Reapers continued their creation of chaos, deliberately pulling alarms and sprinklers to confuse and disorient guards. With no idea what was happening, the guards as a collective unit would be much easier to disrupt and making it far easier to escape. Dolph went to work on hacking the computers, to disrupt their communication systems, and Alyce prepared any materials the group may have needed once they escaped.


    While Stavikk executed a very impressive maneuver, it cost him time. Alarms were going off in the building, and he could already feel water from the sprinkler water pouring from above. The prisoners saw their opportunities and started fighting the guards, who shot back with automatic rifles. While the guards did all that they could, they were no matches for the mob¡¯s overwhelming force. Stavikk had a riot, which he needed, but he needed more than a riot. He needed a war. Stavikk then served his main contribution to the plan. He quickly moved towards the main cellblock and busted open some of the holding cells with brute force. This bought him and the reapers a lot of time.


    Now, Nexactus military personnel were arriving at the scene, which was actually a good sign for the escapees. Their escape plan wasn¡¯t to go by unnoticed. But rather, it was to hide in plain sight. The Reapers went back to their prison cells to get all of the materials that they stole or forged before. They used a brown bag, long clothes, and fake handcuffs to disguise Stavikk as a regular prisoner, and used the guard uniforms to disguise themselves as guards. They took the most obvious route, the main enterance, to the first truck in sight, and explained to the soldiers there that they needed to move a prisoner outside the gulag, but didn¡¯t know where to move him. The soldiers, suspicious of their activity, asked whom the prisoner was, as Stavikk was now 6 feet and 4 inches tall, making him stand out to the guards there. The Reapers had to think quickly, and Evan said the best thing he knew. He said: ¡°We couldn¡¯t Identify the prisoner, sir¡±, pulling off the brown bag to reveal Stavikk¡¯s less than ideal outlook. The soldiers stood there in awe, as they had never seen anything like Stavikk¡¯s appearance. Before they thought to say anything, Evan said, ¡°This is why we couldn¡¯t find a matching Identification.¡± The soldiers in the squadron actually found this to be quite believable, and no other convincing was needed.


    <u>Scene 3: Rising Action</u>


    Before they knew it, the Reapers were already driving through the ¡°Scorching Prairie¡±, the arid desert plains to the southeast of Crescendurn, on a very clean and new road that passed through the area. Alyce had made sure to seat herself between two other guards. Evan had already called shotgun of the van, giving himself an excellent view of the area. Dolph was more of a shy man, and sat himself at the left end of the soldiers, not wanting too much attention, or having to make up more stories. He wasn¡¯t a very good liar, after all. Evan looked in the glove box, checking to see if there was anything of value or usefulness that could help later, finding a pair of binoculars, as well as gun attachments and microchips. ¡°You¡¯re not supposed to be using those, said one of the soldiers. They¡¯re for our team only.¡± ¡°You should know this¡±. Evan immediately put the supplies back into the glove box, not wanting to cause too much of a scene. The drive continued in awkward silence until another 2 armored vans showed up behind them, with alarms screeching like banshees. Evan, noticing the driver was starting to slow down, quickly shot him in the side of the head with his burst fire pistol, killing him and breaking the windshield. Evan struggled at first, but was able to get a hold of driving the vehicle, and putting the pedal to the metal.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Meanwhile, in the back of the van, two other soldiers beside Alyce drew their firearms to waste Evan, only to realize that their guns wouldn¡¯t shoot. Stavikk Instantly broke free of his fake handcuffs and started getting into fisticuffs with soldiers in the van, punching one of them to death. However, Stavikk took two bullets, one in the stomach and one in the chest. Dolph drew his handgun and shot one of the soldiers in the eye, killing him instantly, but was, however, shot in the leg by another. Alyce stabbed one of the soldiers with a makeshift knife. The two other soldiers that were still alive didn¡¯t last much longer. One was also shot by Dolph. The other soldier was disarmed and picked up by Stavikk. He signaled for Alyce to open the back doors of the van, and Stavikk threw the man forward, crashing his flailing body into the windshield of the first van behind them.


    Evan was driving like a maniac, taking detours and side routes to try to avoid both the vans, as well as the prison they were first headed to. The vans they were trying to avoid, however, were not far behind. Stavikk did his best to gun-down the drivers, but they were clever enough to hide under their windshields. Hope was running out. The Reapers were running out of fuel, and therefore running out of time. They were upon a cliff face when Alyce found secret openings under the benches, each with locks, and walls meant to resist even the strongest force. Alyce reached into her large bag and produced a lock-pick. She was able to open 2 out of the 6 boxes without her pick breaking, because she was under the pressure of her group. What was in the boxes however, was enough. It had to be. They found duffel bags, of which Alyce noticed 2 grenades, a sniper rifle, a medical kit, and a jetpack. Dolph was the one to come up with the plan this time, and it would have to be executed with precision to actually work. Stavikk checked the jetpack to make sure it was fully powered, and then Evan executed the first move.


    He immediately stopped the van, making the two vans crash together, and then Stavikk leaped out the back door and through the broken windshield of the second van, killing the driver, and other soldier in the second seat. After that, the two vans started moving again, but Stavikk¡¯s driving was very strange, as he drove the van off the cliff. Since the gravity was weaker on Pharavanna than on earth, the van fell slightly slower, giving Stavikk ample time to exit the side door, and then activate his jetpack to not die from the fall. Stavikk though, made a slight mistake, but one that would not cost him his life. He accidentally set the jetpack in overdrive, consuming way too much fuel way too fast, and he ended up flying incredibly fast just over the surface of the desert. He eventually managed to slow the jetpack down, but he still had a very rough landing, flipping over 3 different times after the initial ground impact. Stavikk emerged from the landing relatively unscathed, as his newly improved thickened skin allowed him to not get too much rashing because of the landing.


    Meanwhile, on the van with the other reapers, they only had one enemy van remaining, which would be the target of the remaining 2 grenades. Dolph shot multiple holes in the windshield with the sniper rifle, while Alyce threw a grenade into the front of the van, exploding and killing the driver and the soldier in shotgun. The van stopped, crashing into the cliff face, but the units inside still lived. The back doors swung open, revealing a squad of Nexactus soldiers and commandos, as well as a terrifying super-soldier. The soldier possessed artificial and armored arms, waist, and legs, as well as having a cybernetic eye, projecting a harmless red beam forward. The Reapers, jaw dropped, instantly recognized the soldier as a cyborg, equipped with some of the most advanced weaponry and armor that Nexactus could afford. In the soldier¡¯s right arm, he carried a normally two-handed chain-fed automatic machine gun with uncanny ease. After all, it had a huge strength and stability advantage with the cybernetic arm. The man looked to be in his mid 30¡¯s, and his facial hair suggested a strong Greek-descent. However, since age affected cyborgs as well, his beard had just a touch of grey.


    Stavikk, from where he was, barely spotted what looked like an old farmhouse in the distance. He figured that him and the Reapers finished off the remaining troops, and decided to investigate, before hearing a noise from the crashed van, which seemed like a plea for survival. Stavikk opened the back door of the van to find all of the soldiers dead, except for one. Stavikk dragged the soldier out of the van, and onto the hard, dry ground, removing his helmet as well. Stavikk would have killed the crippled soldier, too, if it weren¡¯t for the penetrating glare of desperation in the man¡¯s eyes. Stavikk decided otherwise, seeing as he was no longer a threat, and decided to save the man¡¯s life by carrying him towards the farmhouse. He got within reasonable distance of the farmhouse, too, before being shot in the shoulder, causing him to fall over, and dropping the man he tried to save. A woman emerged from the farmhouse, wearing tattered clothing and sporting a cowboy hat, and carrying a long rifle in her hands. She possessed a small frame, dark complexion, round face, and straight black hair. As Stavikk cried out for help, she paused, as this was obviously unexpected to her. She investigated further before going back into the farmhouse, leaving the rifle leaned against the doorway, before coming back out with a roll of bandage and a scalpel. She did her best to do surgery in the burning heat, and removed most of the bullet pieces out of Stavikk before letting the two inside the house. The Reapers tried to drive away, but they were no matches for the cyborg¡¯s utility weapons. From his shoulder, he launched a small, self-flying drone after the runaway van. The drone, carrying C4, crashed into the tire of the van, slowing and eventually stopping their escape route.


    If there was one thing that betrayed Stavikk¡¯s appearance and outlook, it was his voice. Normally, for what Stavikk looked like, most would expect a deep and rigid barking voice. However, his voice, after all he had been through, stayed relatively the same. His sweet, slightly raspy voice, in every interaction, made him seem more human than ever. Stavikk said, in the most basic of terms, ¡°I need your help. This man needs surgery, bad, and I need weapons to save my friends. If you can grant me those two things, I will give you enough medical supplies to save you from a shotgun blast to the chest, and enough money to get yourself a decent bodyguard, or whatever else you want to do¡±. The woman nodded, and urged her two frightened sons upstairs. She then pointed to her sniper rifle, and went out through the backdoor. She came back in, brought in a chainsaw, looked at Stavikk in the eyes, and suggested: ¡°Maybe this could be of some help to you¡±.


    Stavikk leaped up the cliff face, with a boost from his jetpack and the chainsaw already revved up, sliced through the heads of two soldiers before making his landing like a hot knife through butter. Luckily, he was given sniping support from Evan, while Dolph and Alyce approached the fight with firearms in hand. Dolph was burned, though, Stavikk noticed, and he started slicing apart more of the soldiers, but taking heavy fire in the process. The cyborg was the main target for Evan¡¯s sniping, but his shots were to no avail. His shots were accurate indeed, but they seemed to disappear into thin air before they killed the cyborg. Stavikk, realizing this, shoved his chainsaw in the back of the cyborg, hoping his allies would cover him, and the chainsaw got stuck at first, but eventually broke through the invisible armor around the cyborg. Dolph and Alyce killed most of the Nexactus soldiers before the cyborg turned around and knocked Stavikk off his feet. Dolph and Alyce were lighting the cyborg up with gunfire before the cyborg shot Alyce through the chest multiple times with his machine gun, killing her. Stavikk killed the remaining Nexactus soldier before starting to chew through the cyborg¡¯s shielding, while Dolph and Evan focused him. Right before the cyborg was about to shoot Stavikk in the face, he himself was felled by a headshot at the hands of Evan.


    Stavikk investigated the van, noticing it had fallen to one side, had a very wrecked appearance, with holes going through the whole back and sides of the vehicle. Evan was standing beside it, obviously disguised by the flames, and with a very sobered appearance once he heard the news about Alyce. Now, the Reapers were intent on only a few things: Investigating the surviving soldier in the farmhouse, figuring out a way to stop Nexactus, and burying their fallen.

 Grievances, Excursion

    <u>Scene 4: Grievances </u>


    The Reapers also heard, from Stavikk, about how the surviving soldier needed surgery. Since he was crippled, Stavikk suggested using some of the cybernetic limbs from the recently killed cyborg to repair the man¡¯s broken body. Dolph was much more skeptical, however, and wasn¡¯t sure how ready he was to trust who he considered a fascist just like the rest of Nexactus. They all came to a unanimous decision to investigate further before giving the man the power to throw a motorbike 10 feet in the air.


    They scaled down the cliff using some rope, looted from an armored van, and went into the farmhouse to find the soldier, barely conscious, lying on a wooden table, with a crushed left arm and left leg. ¡°This man needs amputation¡±, said the woman in the farmhouse. ¡°Otherwise, internal bleeding is going to get him.¡± ¡°Nexactus won¡¯t have any use for him anymore¡±, Stavikk figured. He reached into a looted duffel bag to pull out two cybernetic limbs, and offered them as replacement parts after the surgery was complete. Evan offered his military knife on the table as the preferred surgery tool. While Stavikk¡¯s chainsaw would cut through the arm easily, it would cause much more bleeding than the internal wounds themselves. The woman cut off the man¡¯s crushed arm and leg, before attaching the sawed-off part of the cybernetic leg that would fit for the wound, and the cybernetic arm. The whole process was completed without using painkillers, so the man¡¯s screams of agony could be heard clearly from outside the farmhouse.


    Afterwards, the man was vitally in very good shape. He was clearly Black, with a square-shaped haircut, and deep brown eyes. He knew that Nexactus would have him executed for losing a battle, not wanting the public to find out, if they found him instead. Perhaps joining this new group would be much better for his survivability. While the man was recovering from the surgery, the woman of the farmhouse decided to introduce herself, despite it being late to do so. ¡°My name is Olivia Osgood, though I suppose it was quite late to tell you¡±. ¡°I was in a town called Shallowstone that was further east in the badlands, but they kicked me out after they found out I didn¡¯t want my boys, Ted, and Jeremy, to be fighters¡±. ¡°I still have hard feelings with them, but perhaps you would be better negotiators than who¡¯s known as a traitor to them¡±. ¡°What is this ¡®Shallowstone¡¯?¡± Stavikk inquired. Even if the residents weren¡¯t people who he could work or negotiate with, he would at least be aware of it. ¡°It¡¯s a town of outlaws and criminals, to Nexactus, of course¡± said Olivia. ¡°And your team doesn¡¯t look nearly as slick as Nexactus personnel usually do, and I should know¡±. ¡°Their patrols come out here a lot, and while they¡¯re not moving said criminal from death camp to death camp, they often investigate me, thinking that I¡¯m some sort of mob boss, even though I live alone, with no protection other than Ol¡¯ Betty¡±. She said this as she clutched the barrel of her sniper rifle. ¡°Since the Patrols come out here so often, I mistook Ol¡¯ muscles over here for one of their cyborgs¡±. ¡°Sorry bout¡¯ that by the way.¡± ¡°Anyway, the wanderers live about three miles to the east of here, and while the walk isn¡¯t particularly treacherous, you¡¯d better watch out for the beasties that reside out here¡±. ¡°The ¡®Burning Badlands¡¯ aren¡¯t exactly known for their hospitality, but you¡¯ll have to cross through there if you want to go anywhere without Nexactus on your ass¡±.


    <u>Act 2: Rising</u>


    <u>Scene 5: Excursion</u>


    The group, including the recently recruited soldier, by the name of Gabriello, began crossing through the ¡°Burning Badlands¡±. The trip would prove to be a lot easier now with the addition of a trained and effective scout, Evan, who was able to use his affinity for the landscape and his powerful binoculars to determine the safest routes for the group. He was also was able to recognize and describe most of the species living there, even the dead ones. Some of the species he recognized were known as ¡°manticores¡±, a reptilian species that were four legged, low to the ground, and had long, thin tails. They also had thin, aerodynamic bodies with thin, orange and gold scales, and blue eyes. They also had long stretches of skin going from their elbows to their hips, allowing them to easily glide across canyons, treacherous steppes, or whatever environmental barricades came their way. They were scavengers, picking off the last bits of meat from another dead species in the area, the leviathans. While leviathans weren¡¯t extinct from Pharavanna, some of the leviathans that became landlocked died out here, as they were biologically a type of fish. Evan explained that the ¡°Burning Badlands¡± were once part of the inland sea of ¡°Shivau¡±, but became ridden of water after continental shifts. The consequences of this meant that many Leviathans died out here, and the manticores took the niche of picking the corpses clean. ¡°The manticores almost never hunt humans,¡± Evan stated. ¡°But they will feed on human corpses in times of desperation¡°. ¡°Make sure you don¡¯t pass out.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    What Evan just briefly mentioned would be the main killer in this journey, water loss. If heat stroke came in for at least one of the members in the group, the other members might have to leave them behind to die in the wastes. The group came upon a pass of rocky hills, with what appeared to be hardened, thorned vines sprouting through the rocky cracks. In some of the drops, the group could see pools of yellow liquid with bubbles coming out of it. It smelled like a mix of putrid and sweet, like gasoline, but seemed thoroughly unappetizing to the travellers. Stavikk, in particular, recognized the same, bright and sickly yellow color, and it had disturbing similarities to the liquids injected into his bloodstream.


    As the group travelled through the pass, they came upon many corpses of manticores, which had staggering differences from the ones that they saw earlier. They had bizarre, disproportioned body parts from the ones seen earlier, some with broken bones, and spikey tumors and growths coming out of them. The group, shaken from what happened here, continued their journey across the treacherous pass, using rope and hooks to scale up and down the cliffs. Suddenly, they heard a sharp calling noise from the other side of one of the cliffs. Before they could react, a giant manticore leaped up onto the cliff, breaking pieces off of the rocks. The horrendous beast looked much different from other manticores seen earlier. It had red and black scales in addition to the orange and gold scales, giving it a jaguar-esc color scheme. The creature also had bony growths on its tail and forefeet, and had a jaw that was oversized on the left side. The creature went for Stavikk first, seeing him as the meatiest target. He, however, revved up his chainsaw and cut off two of the creature¡¯s teeth as it leaned in to bite. The creature, in pain, instinctively ducked under the cliff and leaped to another cliff face, gliding gracefully over the drop and climbed up the cliff. The manticore, though, was being shot during its movement to the other cliff, and bullet holes through its gliding skin didn¡¯t exactly give it a benefit to altitude. Still, its movement was quite efficient, and it started hurling needles off of its tail at the group. One hit Evan in the leg, one hit Dolph in the stomach, 2 hit Stavikk in the stomach and chest, and the rest missed the group. Gabriello, the only one that wasn¡¯t hit and able to maintain focus, started lighting up the manticore with his burst fire rifle, his favored weapon, Wanting, needing a way to deal with Gabriello, the manticore leaped back onto the cliff where the group was, and began attacking Gabriello. Gabriello managed to land one punch, breaking the manticore¡¯s jaw before being knocked off the cliff in one foul swoop, plummeting to the ground. Gabriello, luckily, having a cybernetic leg and competent with Nexactus technology, switched his cybernetic leg to mag-lock mode. What this did was made his leg attracted to magnetic-related metals. While there wasn¡¯t too much metal in the cliffs of the Burning Badlands, it was enough to give him a light hold on the Cliffside. Gabriello, hanging alive by a thread, decided to trade his rifle for not dying, as he dropped his rifle down the cliff to spare his other hand for switching his cybernetic arm into mag-lock mode as well, allowing him to scale the cliff.


    Stavikk continued to slice gashes in the creature¡¯s side while Evan and Dolph were lighting up the manticore with gunshots; Evan using a sniper rifle, and Dolph using a pump-action shotgun. The manticore was losing blood ¨C fast, and in response, it clawed Dolph directly across the chest, cutting right through his leather jacket, and cutting significantly into his flesh. Gabriello was nearly to the top of the cliff face, climbing slowly and steadily up and over the rocks. Unaware of the commotion happening above, he decided to wait until it was the right time to strike, and yelled to the others to let him know when the coast was clear. The manticore tried to bite Stavikk in two, finishing him off for good. Stavikk, seeing this, jumped to the side, but the manticore didn¡¯t miss completely. Its bite landed in Stavikk¡¯s shoulder. In response, Stavikk shoved the chainsaw through its cheek, essentially sawing off the back of the manticore¡¯s jaw, dislocating it. Both of them backed away, both in fear and in pain. The manticore grew desperate, resorting to tactics that would kill the members of the group, but making them unfit for eating. It used both of its arms, one of them cut in response, to push Stavikk off the ledge. Stavikk instinctively used the jetpack from earlier, and he had just enough fuel remaining to boost himself back up in time. However, he also dropped his chainsaw in the process, leaving him to resort to his sidearm, a handgun that he switched to burst fire mode. He landed more gracefully than previously, still almost tripping in the process. Gabriello peeked up, and, seeing an opportunity, switched his cybernetic arm off of mag-lock mode, and ran up to the manticore with their last grenade in his hand. The beast instinctively bit Gabriello¡¯s arm off, but finding it rather difficult to chew. Gabriello then used his cybernetic leg to force kick the manticore off the cliff. The manticore was able to glide and climb to safety from everything but the grenade, as Gabriello told everyone to get down behind the other side of the ledge.


    As the manticore¡¯s head exploded, pieces of its jaw, skull and neck came flying in every direction. Pieces of its shoulders came flying off, and there were huge tears in its wing-like blankets of skin. The manticore fell into the boiling yellow liquid below, making not another movement or sound.

 Convergence, Emancipation

    <u>Scene 6: Convergence </u>


    Eventually, the Reapers made their way to the town known as Shallowstone by its inhabitants, as it was built on the rocky flats of the Burning Badlands, a place so desolate, even Nexactus themselves wouldn¡¯t come out here to hunt down the town¡¯s criminals and outlaws, the overwhelming majority of the town. Instead, Nexactus just dumped their waste in the Badlands, as a casual way of disposing of trash, and perhaps contaminating the town¡¯s water supply as well, killing well more than two birds with one stone, or in this case, with biohazardous waste.


    Luckily, though, the town¡¯s water source was protected from such an attempt, as the town collected rainwater in huge cauldrons and funnels at the tops of the shallow hills, hoping to keep everyone alive another day. Speaking of water, the townsfolk were particularly superstitious about the resource, believing that merely talking about rain was bad luck, and that for each time it was said it would delay rain by a half-day, something that could go from either being an inconvenience to being a death wish. The town itself was very crude in construction, using rusty grates for roofs, and used tires from broken-down vans as a source of rubber to forge instead into gloves or boots, useful for working with machinery and walking across sharp rocks every day. Citizens here were often grizzled, and almost every one of them, even children, possessed a firearm.


    Stavikk and Gabriello in particular got some strange looks from the townsfolk there, but most were glad that the Reapers weren¡¯t some group of bloodthirsty cyborgs. While Gabriello technically was a cyborg, his appearance, movement, and expression didn¡¯t carry the same dispassion and coldness that most were used to when dealing with Cyborgs. Also, the man was missing an arm, so it wasn¡¯t like he was going to level the whole town in a timespan of hours. Dolph was quite normal looking, but his antisocial personality caused him to not be the best diplomat when it came to social interaction. That job came to Evan, who was the most slick, charismatic member of the group who was able to get along with almost anyone instantly because of his charm and his wisdom when it came to dealing with people. He was even able to compensate for Stavikk¡¯s unrestrained tongue, and Dolph¡¯s sheer awkwardness.


    The group, however, had another goal in mind, not just cooperating with the townsfolk. They wanted to get back everything that they lost from Nexactus back, and to stop the fascist rule for good. They were still a great distance away from being able to rival them in sheer power, though, and they needed a way to get more allies. They found that the best way to do this would be to gather the townsfolk and see who is willing to help the cause. Many individuals who came to Shallowstone lost their families and loved ones, and who had absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Some of the townspeople had absolutely no interest in fighting for a frankly losing cause, while others were waiting for the opportunity.


    The Reapers did get a significant fighting force to help them in their campaign, and it would prove to be valuable, but it wasn¡¯t enough. Nexactus still had enough firepower to level an island, and four-dozen foot soldiers just wasn¡¯t going to do it. The group discussed their plan for days on end before coming to their decision. While everyone hesitated at first, they soon realized it was the best plan they had. They were going to go back to the place that they first ran from out of desperation in order to gather a fighting force that was simply large enough. They were going to go back to the Sepam Gulag. This time, though, was going to be different. This time it wasn¡¯t just going to be a small, rogue band of escapees. This time, they weren¡¯t going to fight in cruel arenas for the guards¡¯ entertainment. This time, the arena was going to be the entire prison camp, and there was going to be a bloodbath for what happened there and to free the prisoners.


    <u>Scene 7: Emancipation</u>


    The group of the Reapers and their militia, now known as the Grave Guerilla came to the Gulag by two separate ways. Most of the troops came by helicopter, possessing three of them, and carrying about twelve people each. Some of the Guerilla came by land, carefully sneaking around to the Sepam Gulag right where the coast was. Some of the ground forces exited the armored car carrying them, and carefully placed mortars in certain points around the camp. They then shot mortar projectiles near where the steel walls were. The walls were tough as far as prison camps went, but they soon began to weaken under the force of mortar explosions. The walls were then weak enough for Stavikk and a few fighters to rush in. Their new armored car, now with a crude metal ram attached to the front, crashed through the Steel wall and quickly turning to the right, opening a side door to let out the remaining ground troops to invade the camp. With an opening for troops into the camp created, the mortar troops then focused their attention on Anti-air turrets on top of the steel wall. Any guards there did not pilot the turrets themselves; instead they were the equivalent of stationary drones. In any case, the mortar shots tore through most of the turrets, giving way to the helicopters into the gulag. The helicopters shot rockets at the guard quarters, outlined by Evan Scorch wood earlier, as he knew the Gulag inside and out.


    The Guard quarters were burning, smoke spewing from below, and most of the guards didn¡¯t manage to escape. The helicopters deployed the majority of their soldiers into the prison camp below to free prisoners. More than just guards defended the Gulag, though. There were also Robots designed for military use, possessing the recognizable Nexactus colors, gold and purple, and outfitted with small Gatling guns, and the other used to stabilize it and throw grenades. The Robots tended to be more powerful than the militia fighters, though, and needed multiple soldiers to take them down. The Gulag was now a frenzy of killing. Prisoners ran for their lives out of the gulag when they could, or the ones that were lucky not being shot by Nexactus military personnel. Those who could not escape, however, didn¡¯t last long. Stavikk, accompanied by Gabrielllo, and a platoon at this point, charged in with a katana in hand, battling his way through the complex. Evan assisted on helicopter, sniping from a distance. Dolph didn¡¯t play much of a role in the fight, just making sure to keep the fighting force in check.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    As buildings burned and the soil began to stain with crimson, the Guerilla and their fighting force encountered reinforcements dropped from space. A large wave of red light hit the ground, and emerging from the explosion a massive robot colored gold and black, possessing missile pods on both sides of its body, and plasma cannons on its set of actual arms. It possessed thick, shock absorbing armor that looked as if it could withstand a tank shell. This lumbering killing machine opened its top hatch to release an array of flying drones to scout the area. It found the helicopters, as most obvious, but it also found that most of the commotion was happening near the front side of the gulag.


    The titanium juggernaut, named Plumus, approached the death camp, its stride made deafening by its overwhelming height. This death machine stood about 15 feet tall, and was just a little bit shorter than the walls of the camp. To enter the camp, it launched a volley of missiles at the wall, causing a massive explosion and killing several escapees in the process. It then opened a back hatch to release a small squadron of Nexactus robots to aid it in its conquest. Dolph had a plan to stop Plumus, and sent a radio message to Evan Scorchfield, telling him what to do next. Within a minute, Dolph was inside Evan¡¯s helicopter, a little bit safer from the murderous death machines below. Evan ordered some of the newly recruited escapees to hide behind cover, and harass the robot with gunfire. This, however, was merely a distraction for what was about to come next.


    Another helicopter that was part of the plan launched torpedoes attached to it at Plumus. They didn¡¯t shoot it in the chest, which would be futile, but instead shot them at its plasma cannons, destroying them and making the arms all but useless. Plumus continued to shoot missiles from its pods, killing more and more escapees unless Dolph could stop Plumus. Dolph equipped his Null Blade from his bag, and jumped onto the back of Plumus as soon as the helicopter got close enough, stabbing it into the back of the robot.


    Plumus wasn¡¯t quite so vulnerable, though, and it deployed Auto-guns on its back in response, which immediately started firing at Dolph. Dolph was very fortunate, for two reasons. First of all, he was covered by ally gunfire from all angles, and he had a defender suit to soak up some of the bullets. One of the Auto-guns on Plumus¡¯s back was immediately shot and destroyed by Evan, but the last one took a bit longer. It shot a burst of 5 shots at Dolph, most of which were absorbed by Dolph¡¯s Defender Suit. However, he really felt the last one, in his gut. Dolph knew he didn¡¯t have much time, and quickly climbed up higher only to slash the Auto-gun with his Null-blade, stunning it temporarily. He slashed it as much as he could, until another tough-looking escapee with a double-barreled shotgun shot it. Dolph, with every last reserve of energy, slashed at the juggernaut¡¯s armor with his Null Blade, barely making a dent.


    Evan, Recognizing this, tossed Dolph a grenade, which he shoved into the crack of the armor. Not wanting to be killed by the explosion himself, Dolph jumped back onto the helicopter to remote-detonate the grenade. The grenade busted through Plumus¡¯s armor effectively, but it also focused on the helicopter carrying Evan and Dolph. Dolph was able to jump on Plumus¡¯s back quickly enough, but the missiles were headed towards Evan¡¯s helicopter, and fast. Evan instinctually jumped to the roof of the nearest building, which was approximately twenty feet lower than he was. Blood. Screaming. Gunfire. That¡¯s all that Evan could think of as he lied, prone, on the roof of one of the cellblocks. Evan¡¯s legs and feet partially broke his fall, landing on his back and side quickly afterwards, breaking 3 of his ribs. He had trouble breathing at first, but knew that he wasn¡¯t going to die, and that¡¯s all that mattered.


    It wasn¡¯t quite the same story for other fighters that attempted to survive the same way that Evan had. Some of them jumped down before and after Evan had jumped, causing some of the fighters to be not as fortunate. As the Helicopter exploded on top of where Evan was lying, he could only hope that Dolph didn¡¯t go down with the ship. Dolph hadn¡¯t, luckily, and was cutting through the insides of Plumus. He eventually reached the A.I core of the mechanical monster and uploaded one of his custom viruses in his Computer keys. The virus was meant to switch any machine into destruction or suicide mode. Dolph, however, wasn¡¯t prepared for the details that would entail for his own survival.


    Plumus switched to suicide mode, yes, but it was suicide by a warhead filled with nuclear runoff, which while not as powerful as an atom bomb, would be enough explosives to blow up four city blocks. Dolph, Realizing this almost immediately, chopped through more of the machinery to reach the warhead, which had a thirty-second timer, not much for Dolph, who pulled it out with surprising ease and waved for another helicopter. By the time Dolph was on the helicopter, only 19 seconds were left on the timer. Dolph, without having time to ask, chained the warhead to a torpedo, which was rather difficult, but feasible. Dolph told the pilot to fire the torpedo into the bay. By the time the warhead-carrying torpedo was launched, there were 11 seconds left on the timer, but was enough to keep most people in the Gulag alive.


    The torpedo flew through the air at incredible speed, but was weighed down somewhat by the warhead. 5 seconds were left when it dove into the water, and 3 seconds left when it eventually ran out of fuel. The bay burst with a fiery explosion, sending steam, nuclear waste, and fire everywhere, and creating a miniature mushroom cloud in the middle of the bay. The remaining robots were finished off with somewhat ease, considering the overwhelming numbers of escapees compared to them. The Guerillas and escapees looted as much as they could from the Gulag, before one of the helicopters shot its torpedoes into the back of Plumus, destroying it from the inside. It, too, had a violent explosion, sending shrapnel and fires everywhere, as its limbs and missile pods fell off of its crippled and falling body.


    The remaining escapees and Guerillas then needed to escape the Gulag. Most of them went by helicopter, though some of them went by armored car with Stavikk and Gabriello. Since the Sepam Gulag was perturbingly close to Crescendurn, Nexactus forces already started arriving on the scene. Barricades were placed in the middle of the highway, with auto-guns and soldiers present. These efforts proved futile, however, and while Stavikk¡¯s armored car took heavy fire at first, torpedos launched by the remaining two helicopters destroyed most of the barricades quite easily, and what did the explosion not destroy was smashed through by the front ram of the car. The armored car and the helicopters made a huge break down the highway, chasing Pharavanna¡¯s sun, Celestia, as they rode back to Shallowstone.

 Infiltration

    <u>Act 3: Climax</u>


    <u>Scene 8: Infiltration</u>


    To truly strike at Nexactus efficiently, the Grave Guerillas would need to learn more about the corporation, and find their weaknesses and strengths. For this, the group would need to invade the Nexactus information nexus. This wasn¡¯t going to be easy, as the nexus was defended with some of the finest weaponry that Nexactus owned, not to mention the difficulty of actually hacking into their computers with the most advanced firewalls. The Guerillas, who now recruited the escapees into their ranks, had 89 members now, almost doubling their fighting force. They also had more advanced weapons, armor, and utility items now thanks to the pillaging of the Sepam Gulag. This included Auto-guns, which they attached to the armored car and helicopters, and numerous amounts of extremely deadly explosives.


    Still, though, it was going to be almost impossible to get the information they needed without all dying first. All they needed to do was get past enough land-mines to level the town of Shallowstone, get past snipers each with the training capability to hit a penny at another end of a football field, survive lethal robotic killing machines and auto cannons, and access information in computers they couldn¡¯t possibly hack. The information nexus was located upon and built into a Mesa in the Yellow Wastes of northern Phaethon. Thanks to Pharavanna¡¯s strange geography, the mesa appeared to be tilted, so part of it touched the sands like a natural slope, and made the nexus optimal for defense. Its hull was armed with steel and concrete, which, while not the best camouflage, made it almost impossible to lose to battles of attrition. The first hurdle to Nexactus¡¯ secrets was the minefield. In order to have ground shipments of supplies not be destroyed and workers killed, Nexactus implemented a network of Steel-lined cables that would light up the sands to make an illusionary lane where the mines weren¡¯t located, to grant vehicles safe passage. The only way to get their ground forces through the first hurdle would be to convince Nexactus that they were among them. This job was up to Gabriello and Stavikk, as they previously worked for the corporation and remembered the design of their armored cars. The two of them along with the most reputable town mechanic dolled the armored car up to look more sleek, and colored black, purple, and gold to fit in to the corporation¡¯s ranks. A real Nexactus armored car next to it might reveal some differences between the two, but over a long distance it would be almost impossible to tell.


    In the meantime, Dolph worked with other members of the town to improve his custom viruses, which could put a challenge against Nexactus¡¯ computers in the Nexus. Evan, on the other hand, found himself one of the most effective long-range weapons ever created, the rail gun. The rail gun is a long range, sniper rifle-like weapon that would fire beams of compressed sound that would tear through almost any shield or armor on a single target.


    The armored car arrived right in front of the minefield, where Gabriello stepped out to radio officials on the other side of the minefield and wall, to convince the Nexactus personnel to let them in. Stavikk, Dolph, and Evan. These people would help Gabriello once inside, but in the end it would have to be him that would get them through. Gabriello began speaking with an unknown commander at the Nexus, who questioned him, specifically, about his robotic parts. He researched Gabriello and recognized his original mission to chase down escapees, and for what profile picture he had of him revealed no cybernetic limbs. Still, Gabriello appeared disturbingly similar to the pictures he had in other aspects, and the commander perhaps was just missing information. Stavikk recognized the voice, however, and as soon as he heard the commander talking over the radio, his blood began to boil with rage. He recognized this person as Sanders, and Stavikk was heartened at the opportunity to finally put a stop to the human experimenter. He knew, though, that he would still have to keep his wits about him, or perhaps he and his friends would die first.


    The radio conversation continued, and Gabriello explained that his cybernetic limbs were what he was given after he lost the limbs during the fight. He said he was injured during the fight, shot by the slim and agile man, Evan, in the arm and leg, but did not mention his name. He said he witnessed the rest of his group kill Alyce, but that the rest ran away and that they are still searching for them in the wastes. Since Nexactus failed to investigate the van at the bottom of the cliff face, there was no proof that Gabriello¡¯s group was dead. The claim was irrefutable, but improvable as well, and Sanders still wasn¡¯t sure. He was a skeptical man, wanting to make no assumptions, and needed more proof and convincing. He asked Gabriello to describe the one escapee that the group, as he didn¡¯t know where Gabriello was at the time, but knew he was sent on the mission. Gabriello only saw her corpse, but described her as a fit woman with freckles and short hair that cut off at her neck.


    The armored car was allowed passage into the Nexus, Nexactus believing that the car carried a shipment of armaments, which was only partially true. In the back of van there was Stavikk and other soldiers, ready to strike when the time was right. They knew that if some conflict in the nexus broke out, they would be immediately under heavy fire, so they took measures to prevent quickly dying from gunfire, but it would only last them so long. Evan was camped out on a sand dune near the massive mesa that laid the information nexus. He would be almost impossible to spot from where he was thanks to his unsurpassed disguising skills. He and his rail-gun would be of major value to him and his group. However, if the rest of his group died out there, he would have no chance of getting the information they needed.


    Two of the cohorts that stuck out to Stavikk in that van were Elyse Burner and Ralph Woodhill, also known as ¡°The Shark¡± by his prison inmates from the Suicide Stadium, though he tried to forget. This was because of the tattoo on his left arm of a Shark biting an anchor, a symbol of his distraught when he was behind bars, and the labor there felt like he was trying to lift an anchor above water. Before being sent to the Gulag, the very fit, Hispanic man with a thin, baldhead and with no facial hair was a biker and mechanic.


    Elyse Burner was a bit different though, and what she lacked in stature she easily made up for, as she was a savant when it came to machinery. She knew how to operate many different devices with ease that no one else could. Because of her physical disadvantage, though, she had a really hard time in the Gulag, and she would have been killed if not from the protection of her gang. Both Elyse Burner and Ralph Woodhill were previously part of the Hounds, and both who previously would have killed Stavikk if it weren¡¯t for the untimely rescue, and Nexactus trying to kill them all. It was one of the silver linings of such a catastrophe.


    Gabriello stepped out of the vehicle, and walking through the inside of the Nexus without much difficulty, seeming as close to someone in Nexactus as they go. Gabriello still had a radio under his jacket, and spoke hints to his group about how they could get through the nexus to the computer, using phrases like: ¡°Man, I¡¯m exhausted, but it¡¯s pretty easy to move through here¡± to suggest that a member of the group could climb through the exhaust pipes. He also spoke phrases like: ¡°It¡¯s really difficult with my sickness, and I might have to hack and cough¡± to suggest that it would be difficult to hack into the computers. No soldier there seemed to be able to decode Gabriello¡¯s strange innuendo, but his friends read it very well thanks to the context. Gabriello only had so much time to drop hints, though, and high-ranking officials started questioning when he was going to deliver the supplies. Gabriello responded cleverly, dropping only vague hints as to when he would. The officials there of course were not impressed, and demanded him to deliver the shipment before opening the side doors of the car themselves. Inside, though, they were unpleasantly surprised, as they found Stavikk and his allies inside the car. They were not so vulnerable, though, as they had an Auto-gun inside the car with a strange feature. Soldiers and commandos allied with Nexactus shot bursts of bullets only for them to evaporate in midair around the turret. The Guerillas¡¯ bullets were not evaporated, however, and they as a group were an unstoppable Phalanx of sheer power. Stavikk, with his immense stature, picked up the turret with one hand and threw it out of the car, while carrying his banana-clip fed assault rifle with the other. The shield didn¡¯t last forever, however, and soon their battalion needed to find other forms of cover. They started the fight being surrounded by their enemies, which put them somewhat at a disadvantage. However, even without the bubble shield of their turret, they had one major offensive and defensive tool: their car. Elyse was the one driving, while there were still some of the troops in the armored car.


    As soon as he heard gunfire, Evan started sniping other snipers atop the wall. They attempted to shoot back, but they just couldn¡¯t spot him in the sands. Eventually, the snipers atop the wall were forced to retreat to behind it. Also, because of the normally long-range weapons the snipers would use, they were put at a major disadvantage in medium to close range. Elyse started running over the snipers with the car, and Stavikk killed those who were trying to get into the main building with his assault rifle. The bayonet on his gun much resembled a giant cleaver, and cut through the snipers¡¯ armor with only one or two swings. The information Nexus wasn¡¯t that easy to invade, however, and within a matter of minutes, Auto-guns were deployed on the ground and walls, firing superheated, electrically charged gas at the Guerillas. They were able to destroy most of the Auto-guns with only a few casualties because of them.


    The two large, metal slide doors into the building slid open, only to release a squadron of Nexactus robots, one of which bigger than the rest, with two Gatling guns, one on each arm. These robots started raining bullets onto the Guerillas, causing numerous casualties because of it. They also threw grenades, which destroyed Stavikk¡¯s Auto-gun and blew up several of the Guerillas as well. Since Stavikk was larger than the average person, he was able to carry and aim two assault rifles at once, which he shot both forward, then opened his arms to hit every single enemy in sight. Stavikk killed two snipers, and injured several robots using his maneuver. Three Guerilla fighters killed two remaining robots, and Elyse, Dolph, and Ralph killed the last with shotgun blasts and running them over. Now, there was only what was inside the base that could stop the Guerillas from gaining the information they needed. Stavikk attempted to pry the door open with the bayonet of his gun. He failed to do so, however, and they needed to use some other means to get the door open.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    The armored car smashed through the steel doors after multiple hits, and the Guerillas walked inside, since they couldn¡¯t fit the car through, with everyone protecting Dolph. The inside of the information nexus had a strange pattern of hexagonal metal tiles on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Certain glowing tiles lighted it very well, and the whole inside of the building seemed very sleek and high-tech. eventually, the group came upon a spectral, blue and red wall, mostly red but with blue patches. The wall was recognized as being a plasma field, and sported a Nexactus logo on it as well. The wall had a thin microphone that fit very well into the ring, and Gabriello recognized it immediately. He knew that the wall was password protected, and that only Nexactus personnel were allowed inside. Even Gabriello didn¡¯t know the password, most likely because he wasn¡¯t a high-ranking official such as a commander. The group was faced with a dead end, and it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived. They needed some way through the wall, and were completely locked out of entering the hallway. If they shot the projector ring of the plasma field, the wall would overheat and explode, killing all of them.


    Gabriello reminded the group that there was still the option to climb through the air vents, and only Elyse could fit through and get to the other side. Stavikk pried open the vent, and Elyse climbed through, the courageous woman knowing that could be killed if there was a temperature change. She eventually got to the other side of the plasma field, and saw a few more twisting and turning hallways, always careful to not get caught by sneaking soldiers before arriving at a huge room with a cylindrical shape, and an unrecognizable individual sitting in a chair in the middle. This person was wearing a large helmet that was connected to the ceiling by huge wires going in all directions, and the wearer seemed very sedentary. In front of them lied a huge keyboard in a third of a ring shape in front of the individual. The floor pattern was different in the room, with tiles shaped similarly to sections of thick rings placed around one another harmoniously, with one purple-glowing tile in the middle, with a gold ¡°N¡± inscripted on it. Elyse inferred this to be a symbol of Nexactus, and made her way towards the helmet wearer, silently, with a submachine gun in hand. The alert woman was suspicious of everything around her, as the room was seemingly too quiet.


    She silently and quickly ripped the helmet off of the computer operator, hearing a shocked gasp before he was shot with Elyse¡¯s submachine gun. Elyse moved the man off of the swivel chair and looked at the controls of the computer. She looked through the computer programs and eventually managed to shut off the plasma field in the way of her allies. She also shut off the minefield allowing Evan Scorchfield to enter into the Nexus.


    Dolph and the group made their way towards the computer, Dolph inserting his virus into the computer, flashing a bunch of files before the many computer monitors before downloading gigabytes of files onto the microchip. The process would be relatively slow, though, but Dolph took as many shortcuts as he could to speed up the process. The doors were shut behind them after fighters were positioned outside incase they were attacked. Suddenly, a very loud mechanical noise appeared in the room, and the circular, central platform began to rise up about ten feet before a squadron of soldiers, Commander Sanders, and two vicious-looking cyborgs appeared in the hollow space of the risen floor. There were also auto-guns that were pushed outward from the sidewalls and ceiling of the platform.


    Dolph was the first one to be shot, right in the back of the head, before more bullets landed in the computer and screen. The cyborgs made sure to defend the Commander against enemy fire, and sanders himself wielded a plasma rifle, shooting in concentrated bursts but still retaining accuracy at Stavikk. Stavikk¡¯s thickened hides would normally protect against bullets to some extent, but the plasma tore right through. In shock and pain, but quick to act, Stavikk aimed his two assault rifles straight at Sanders, initially doing nothing against his shields and armor, but eventually busting through and injuring him considerably. Stavikk was taking heavy fire, both from Sanders and the cyborgs, and was forced to take cover under the bubble shield of an Auto-gun.


    Ralph fought back against Sanders, devastating Sanders¡¯ shields with close range shotgun blasts while Gabriello focused more on the Cyborgs, shooting at their vulnerable joints and trying to disable their oversized limbs. The Cyborgs soon unleashed their most dangerous weapons; firing mortar blasts from their shoulders while also concentrating with machine gun fire. Gabriello, now an incredibly powerful jumper, leaped out of the way of the mortars with the power of his cybernetic leg, but also taking gunfire, but most bullets being absorbed by his defender suit, luckily. Elyse didn¡¯t have much to contribute to the fight. She grabbed the data chip from the computer, and hid behind Stavikk and the Auto-gun, taking pot shots when she could with her submachine gun. She was actually able to kill a couple of soldiers with headshots without being hit herself. Evan Scorchwood hid behind Steel barricades as cover while sniping the Cyborgs from a distance. He was able to shoot the mortars on their backs, which were not protected by the defender suits. The bullets hitting the non-fired mortars caused them to explode, sending pieces of metal flying into their backs, most caught by the defender suit, but not all. This gave him an opportunity to shoot bullets into their joints, disabling them from fighting. He chose to shoot them in the legs, which left them in prone positions, and vulnerable to gunfire.


    After the cyborgs fell, so too did most of Sanders¡¯ strategy. He, however, was able to rally his soldiers and maintain proper positioning, focusing Gabriello and dousing him in streams of lead. Gabriello ran for cover, but ended up being hit several times by Sanders and his allies. Evan went towards Gabriello, assisting him with cover fire and as much distraction as possible. Gabriello, however, suffered severe bleeding and muscle weakness, and could hardly move, while Sanders and his battalion advanced towards Gabriello at a frightening rate.


    Stavikk and Ralph needed to act quickly in order to save Gabriello¡¯s life, and only all of them combined could stop Sanders before he could reach Gabriello. They needed major trust in one another, and if they didn¡¯t, Gabriello was going to die, and it was going to be their fault. A bolstered and coordinated effort between all of the other Guerillas bought Gabriello just enough time to survive. Stavikk and Ralph brawled at close range with guns and melee, Elyse assisted at medium range with her submachine gun, and Evan Scorchfield sniping from a distance. This combined effort brought down the soldiers surrounding Sanders, but not the Commander himself. Sanders reacted in a very strange way. He didn¡¯t try to blow himself up as a final act of retribution or blow his brains out with a handgun, but instead bargained for his life. ¡°You¡¯ve gotten what you wanted,¡± said Sanders. ¡° ¡°You have what you came here for, and you have me defeated¡±, Sanders said in a fittingly defeated tone. ¡°All that I ask is that you spare my life in exchange for anything you might want.¡± ¡°And if you came here to rob Nexactus, how about five million GC¡¯s instead, with no added effort¡±. ¡°That¡¯s enough money to buy a Cruiser ship to escape this god-forsaken planet¡±. ¡°Or you could fornicate with members of whatever sex you prefer¡±. ¡°Your wildest dreams are at my dispo-¡°. ¡°I don¡¯t want your stinking money!¡± Stavikk replied, cutting him off with a loud and vengeful voice. ¡°Then what do you want?¡± Sanders asked. ¡°Whatever you want could be yours!¡±. Stavikk, unsatisfied and angry, declared one final desire: ¡°Justice.¡±


    Stavikk lit a match and dropped it on the corpse of Sanders, with a massive split in the front of his skull thanks to Stavikk¡¯s cleaver bayonet, and covered in gasoline. As Sanders¡¯ body lay there, scorching, Stavikk picked up and carried Gabriello¡¯s unconscious body with both arms to try and escape the building. Just when they were about to go down the elevator platform, there was a huge explosion that blew the door open, with reinforcements rushing straight in. A platoon of Nexactus soldiers and robots was beyond that door, and rushing in, quickly. Luckily, the fire started at Sanders¡¯ corpse grew, feeding off of the burning of wires in the building and blocking off the path between the Nexactus overwhelming platoon. They eventually activated the elevator and arrived at a lower floor, which was partially exposed to outside air. The lower floor resembled much like a tunnel opening, but also contained a suspended landing strip outside, that was suspended by cables, girders, and beams. The group reached outside and called in a helicopter to pick them up, before the whole building would collapse behind them. As they waited for the helicopter, Stavikk looked down once more at Gabriello, and said: ¡°When this is over, don¡¯t forget who saved your ass¡±.


    The group eventually escaped by helicopter, quickly flying away from the Nexus. The nexus exploded behind them, shooting flaming pieces of metal and concrete everywhere. Stavikk and Ralph were holding onto the rope ladder, and Gabriello, Evan, and Elyse were in the main room. Stavikk and Ralph eventually climbed up, and Elyse removed the microchip that she had in her pocket, and inserted it into the computer that they had in the helicopter. Stavikk closed the side door of the helicopter, and Elyse accessed Nexactus files, searching through to find where their leader would be, and how they could take their president out, finally putting a stop to the corporation¡¯s cruelty.


    The corporation¡¯s leader, known as Benevola, resided in her main headquarters where she could look over the entirety of Crescendurn with her status and power. Benevola, besides her name, was actually a brutal sociopath, caring nothing for her people and letting others do the dirty work for her. Her main headquarters was known as ¡°Beacon tower¡±, the highest skyscraper in Crescendurn, possessing a sleek shape, and was ever so slightly curved inward in its shape, showing off Nexactus¡¯ wealth and elegance. It possessed a white gold color on most of the tower, with a main large black stripe going up the center of the building, surrounded by two smaller purple stripes. The top of the tower had a very innovative design. It possessed a double-horn shape at the very tip, and each side of the top appeared to be a white blade that pierced the sky, each going slightly inward, and had horizontal projectors appearing on each blade. With the circular shape that was formed in the inside of the blades, the Beacon tower cast a giant purple ¡°N¡± in the middle that lit up the midnight sky. Besides its elegance, however, the Guerillas learned that it was surprisingly well defended, outfitted with high-tech weaponry like other important Nexactus bases, but not as well defended as the information Nexactus. It couldn¡¯t be, as it was a tower instead of a bunker. Because of the information that they received, the Guerillas knew where the defenses of the tower would be, and how to avoid them. They found, through the files, that most of the anti-air guns were located near the middle of the tower, mostly to resist bombings. They also found that Benevola would be at the top floor of the tower. The Guerillas knew that they would have to start near the bottom of the tower, and work their way up the floors. It was all or nothing, and the winners would take all.

 Casualties, Death Wish

    <u>Scene 9: Casualties</u>


    Ralph was the last one through inside the information nexus before the Guerillas sealed the door, so he only got a glimpse of the events that would happen next. The Guerilla fighters outside the building were a doomed squadron, and with a captain named Aubrina Goodlyn, also known as Aubrina one-eye by her prison inmates, as she lost an eye during a fight during hell week at the Sepam Gulag against an opponent who punched her with a nail. Luckily, the nail went into the side of her eye instead of straight through, missing the vital parts of her brain. Because of this, she had massive overconfidence issues, believing that she could take on the platoon of Nexactus soldiers arriving at the scene. She saw glowing beacons in the distance at first, but seeing a behemoth tank arriving in the distance, having a massive body, six treads, and having two squadrons marching to each side of it, composing the platoon. The behemoth tank also had a massive turret on top, and Auto-guns mounted on all sides of it.


    The platoon continued to march, side by side, until snipers atop the wall broke their formation, causing them to run for whatever cover there was behind rocks and dunes of sand. The behemoth tank, in response, fired beams of nuclear runoff at the snipers atop, the three barrels of the cannon rotating after every shot, causing snipers to be atomized, and having no protection from the height. While the landmines were still intact before the tank could actually reach the wall, the landmines did not destroy the tank, instead, it destroyed the treads one by one, until it was left with only three left, gradually moving the tank, slowly and steadily up to the wall, its door slammed shut. The behemoth tank approached the door, and blasted it open with a combination of nuclear runoff, and rockets fired from RPG-wielding soldiers. Aubrina ordered her fighters to throw grenades at the tank¡¯s treads to slow it down. The troops did so, and the tank¡¯s front left middle tread soon came off the wheels, putting the tank to a dead halt.


    Mortars flew overhead from Nexactus soldiers, who set up mortar cannons behind cover, and they soon killed all of the snipers on the wall, and all Fighters near the wall. In response, Aubrina ordered her Fighters to take cover behind bubble shields of the Auto-guns, hoping to stave off the mortars a little bit longer. After what felt like hours of mortar bombardment, the giant metal doors on the wall was blown apart, and the remainder of the platoon rushed in, having assisted fire from the tank. Aubrina and her Fighters took a defensive formation near the door, holding cover from barricades and the bubble shield. Aubrina and her fighters did their best to mow down incoming troops with gunfire, but the troops just kept coming. The barricades were blown apart by blasts from the tank before the rest of the troops, as well as robots deployed from the tank, came to wipe them out. Aubrina, in a last-ditch effort, decided to end it herself, running into a crowd of soldiers and pulling the pins on two grenades, killing herself, and a bunch of soldiers around her. The remaining Fighters were killed off, before Nexactus commandos blew open the door with C4, and then rushed in, only to find a massive fire there, and a dead commander. The fire grew exponentially quickly, causing the whole building to melt down. Many different alarms and sprinklers went off, but they weren¡¯t enough to stop the fire, and the Nexactus troops decided to flee, understanding that staying any later would be asking to die. The robots, eerily, tried to stay to complete their mission, but their wires caught up in flames when they tried to walk through, destroying their ability to function. Their metal parts quickly warped and turned black, from the overwhelming heat. The soldiers there tried closing the slide door, but failed as they already blew it open, and were unable to put it back in place. Few soldiers actually survived the explosion of the information nexus, and those that survived that quickly perished in the wastes. The behemoth tank was ground to a halt, so there was no way that they would be able to escape using it. Instead, they had to try to last on the food sources from the tank, of which proved insufficient for the trip back across the yellow wastes.


    <u>Scene 10: Death Wish</u>


    The helicopters deployed Stavikk, Ralph, Gabriello, and the remaining Fighters at the third floor of Beacon tower, and Evan was deployed at the top floor of another skyscraper known as the Opal Obelisk, and having a semi-Obelisk shape, but shaped more like a blade than a square base. Meanwhile, Elyse focused on piloting the helicopter herself.


    Evan was left to defend himself if anyone tried to stop him, and he immediately set up his rail gun and started assisting his friends as soon as Nexactus noticed them. Stavikk and the others essentially jumped through the broken windows, as thick as they were, and started immediately attacking. There was a lot of computers and tables on the floor, but didn¡¯t stop much in the way of bullets. Most of the people there were simple guards, with not much capability of fighting, and so were killed relatively quickly. For speed¡¯s sake, Gabriello, Stavikk, and Ralph each fought on different floors along with their squadrons. Gabriello took the lowest floor, Ralph took the middle, and Stavikk took the highest and most dangerous floor above them. Gabriello was on the fourth floor, and came with a squadron of prison fighters. The floor was mostly full of cubicles, so it would be difficult to see. Luckily, Gabriello, even though he was injured from the fight in the nexus, was still a master at guerilla warfare. He and his squad confused and ambushed enemies who couldn¡¯t see them. Still, there were some very efficient fighters among the fourth floor. Nexactus fighters, and managed to kill off a fourth of Gabriello¡¯s squadron, leaving him with only eight remaining fighters.


    Ralph ascended to the fifth floor, which was divided by walls instead of just cubicles, and the floors were made out of white, hexagonal tiles, and possessed red mats, displaying that someone of status owns the floor. Ralph noticed by the lack of soldiers in most of the floor that the remaining troops either fled to another floor, or were holding down in a defensive maneuver. Ralph considered the first option very unlikely, and led his Fighters through very carefully until he met a long hallway with the Nexactus soldiers on the other side. These soldiers were protected by the bubble shield of their Auto-gun, and would take shots only when they needed to. In what Ralph saw of the hallway before being shot in the arm, he saw another room to the side of the hallway. His strategy was to push them back into the room in the side. If only he could do that, they would be very easy to all finish. He tossed a grenade behind the wall he was hiding beside, which blew up a few of the soldiers there, as well as the Auto-gun, but the explosion was contained within the bubble shield, but blasted through the floor, revealing parts of the fourth floor and rain and buildings from outside.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Stavikk¡¯s strategy was somewhat less subtle, however, and bravely led the charge against the many enemies on the sixth floor, chewing down enemies with his two assault rifles. Since the floor had many windows, it would be easy to shoot through, and it was an all out lead storm. While his strategy was the fastest to kill all enemies, it was also the highest on soldier casualties and ammo waste. Stavikk and his five remaining soldiers looted guns from the corpses, as well as ammunition. To assist Ralph, he used a cable to swing down and crash through the window to the fifth floor, where he was able to sneak attack the soldiers at the other end of the hallway at a good angle and slaughtered them easily. Ralph then threw a grenade into the room. The explosion this time was not contained, and the Nexactus soldiers that ran out of the room to escape the explosion were shot by Stavikk and his two assault rifles.


    After the first six floors were cleared the group moved on to floors eight to ten, floor seven being completely cleared by Evan Scorchfield¡¯s sniping and torpedoes from the two remaining helicopters. Each member and their squadrons continued to fight together as earlier. Gabriello and his squadron found themselves in a room with another similar hexagonal pattern to the flooring, but this time, their enemies were prepared for them, containing multiple Nexactus elite commandos as well as a tough-looking cyborg, but one that looked tougher than most. This cyborg, known as Diabolus, had not only a machine gun arm, but also had missile pads on his back, and massive, metal claws of death. Gabriello and his Fighters actually fought very efficiently against the commandos thanks to steel barricades there as cover. Gabriello lost half of his fighting force this way, however, and now only being assisted by three other fighters. Diabolus¡¯s machine gun, Gabriello only surviving because his Fighters tried to save him, shred his fighters down. Gabriello was hiding behind cover, taking pot shots and throwing grenades. He did all that he could before Diabolus picked him up with one hand, and then shanked his stomach and torso over and over again with his cold, metal hands, stealing the life from Gabriello¡¯s body with each thrust. Finally, Diabolus whipped Gabriello¡¯s dead body onto the ground with no question, sympathy, or tiny bit of remorse. The helicopter, piloted by Elyse, attempted to kill Diabolus with the helicopter torpedoes. However, Diabolus shot his missiles off of his missile pads, hitting Elyse¡¯s helicopter, and causing it to go crashing down.


    Diabolus then went onto the steel porch outside of the floor, and jumped up, using his jet-powered legs, to floor nine. Once he was there, he was faced with Ralph Woodhill, who immediately shot him in the head with his double-barreled shotgun. Thanks to Diabolus¡¯s head armor and shielding, it dazed, but didn¡¯t kill him. Immediately afterwards, Ralph got down into the prone position, taking cover behind a steel barricade. It was then that the remaining helicopter belonging to the Guerillas rose from the previous floor, and shot all of its torpedoes at Diabolus. Before he could respond, the torpedoes crashed into his body, violently exploding and flinging the Steel Barricade off of the building, but Ralph ten feet instead. Ralph landed safely near the edge of the building, cut all over his body by shrapnel and bleeding profusely from his wounds. Diabolus wasn¡¯t so fortunate, however, and got blown into pieces, his cybernetic limbs falling off of Beacon tower, inflamed and broken apart by the explosion force.


    Stavikk rallied the remaining Fighters, with only four left at his side, and Ascended to the eleventh floor, where they killed the remaining Nexactus soldiers and commandos with somewhat difficulty, Stavikk using his two assault rifles as usual. At this point, there were two other fighters at Stavikk¡¯s side. They destroyed the Auto-guns on the sides of the floor quite easily through the use of grenades, blowing them up and making a clear path for the remaining helicopter. Stavikk had only one thing to say to them: ¡°I need you two to make sure Gabriello and Ralph are still alive before we get out of here¡±. ¡°I¡¯m going after Benevola¡±.


    Stavikk ascended Beacon tower by helicopter, keeping the slide door closed until the last seconds, as to protect him from bullets shot by the soldiers on the floors in between. Eventually, Stavikk made it to the top floor, swung the slide door open, and shot and jumped through the broken window. There were still two doors in front of him, which he swung open confidently, leading him to a staircase, still each tile with the hexagonal pattern and with a red carpet leading up the staircase. Stavikk found himself walking right in the middle of a huge squadron of Nexactus elite commandos, all of them pointing their guns at Stavikk, surrounding him. Ironically, Stavikk wasn¡¯t intimidated at all, walking into the room confidently but not getting too close that he would be shot.


    ¡°It¡¯s over¡±, said Benevola, her sitting with her hands together at her desk in the middle and back of the room, her prominent voice standing out amongst the obvious tension in the room. ¡°Your little adventure¡¯s over, and once reinforcements get here, they¡¯re gonna kill you all¡±. ¡°That¡¯s right¡±. ¡°No mercy anymore for you or your group of misfit toys after what you did to my Gulag and information nexus¡±. ¡°So just admit it¡±. ¡°You¡¯re already dead¡±. ¡°Then why are you still talking to me?¡± replied Stavikk. ¡°The truth is, I¡¯m just getting started, because you¡¯ve made one assumption leaving you wide open, and if you continue to believe you¡¯re safe just because you¡¯re in your controlled domain, you¡¯re in for an unpleasant surprise¡±. ¡°You¡¯re out of your mind¡±. ¡°Your group is just a bunch of outlaws with no purpose on this planet.¡± ¡°I have a firing squad, and all you have is an arrogant attitude and a disgusting-ass face!¡± What could you, you hideous piece of shit of a human being, possibly have against me?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll give you ten seconds to surrender, maybe I¡¯ll let you live¡± Stavikk said flatly, with nothing but sincerity in his voice. Up until now, Benevola thought this to be some sort of bluff or attempt to intimidate her. But now, she wasn¡¯t so sure. Benevola was used to being able to read people very well, and figuring out their tells and weaknesses. All that Benevola heard so far, though, seemed to be all-true. What could she be possibly missing? ¡°Ten¡±. ¡°Nine¡±. ¡°Eight¡±. ¡°Seven¡±. ¡°Six¡±. There had to be something more at play here. There was no other reason that Stavikk would be able to keep up the act and composure for so long. ¡°Five¡±. ¡°Four¡±. ¡°Three¡±. ¡°Two¡±. ¡°One¡±. It was over now. Benevola was certain that she was going to be attacked, and she was desperately trying to think of ways to avoid dying. Finally, the helicopter ascended from the floor below, and shot its machine guns and torpedoes at Benevola and her firing squad. Stavikk would have been shot for sure if it weren¡¯t for the distraction of the helicopter. He jumped behind the staircase, narrowly avoiding the explosion but being peppered with other bullets. Stavikk was hurt, but thankful that he was still alive.

 Aftermath, Interlude

    <u>Scene 11: Aftermath</u>


    Stavikk and Evan Scorchfield were flying above the yellow wastes in the remaining helicopter, trying to use humor to distract each other and themselves of what had happened earlier. It was early night at the time, and everything around them seemed to be barely reality, which was good for their psyche, as it wasn¡¯t exactly optimal what reality held for them beforehand, but they could take solace in knowing that they accomplished their ultimate goal: because of Benevola¡¯s death, Nexactus wouldn¡¯t be run in the same fascist way that it was before, but they had absolutely no idea who would come into play to fill that vacuum of power. Their nighttime revelry came to an end, however, as they saw multiple red lights in the distance. Stavikk¡¯s emotions of mild solace and accomplishment were immediately replaced with grizzled dismay, as he knew what the red lights were, why they were there, and exactly what was going to happen. Immediately, Stavikk said to Evan: ¡°Get the guns out¡±. ¡°We¡¯re gonna have a rough night¡±. The red lights in the distance came closer and closer until it revealed exactly what they were. They were Nexactus ¡°Pheonix¡± spaceships designed similarly to fighter jets in purpose, though looked more triangular in shape. They started firing plasma blasts at their helicopter, slowly cutting through the hull of the vehicle, and causing it to lose speed and slowly lose altitude because of it. Evan¡¯s railgun blasts from the side door managed to tear through one of the Pheonix fighters, but Stavikk¡¯s assault rifle hardly dealt a dent in comparison, not having nearly enough projectile power to bust through their armor. Eventually, the hull of the helicopter took so much damage that they were quickly losing altitude, and were headed for a crash landing. Evan and Stavikk chose the slightly less definitely lethal option of jumping out of the helicopter with no parachute on, an act that was flirting with the reaper at best. Evan and Stavikk of course waited until the optimal time to jump, and then jumped downwards to their likely demise.


    The more careful Ralph Woodhill understood the dangers of just trying to run out of the building, he understood how easily spotted he would be. He was finally able to get up right around the time that reinforcements were able to show up. He previously injected himself with a solution designed to induce blood clotting and increase healing, and so he had a good start against the odds. Another soldier nearby that was revealed to actually be playing dead was already walking around on the floor below him, he could see through a giant gaping hole through the floor caused by the torpedoes. He stealthily dropped down through the hole and slit the man¡¯s throat with a machete, before stealing and wearing the Soldier¡¯s armor and helmet. Nexactus armor was usually a case of one size fits nobody, so Ralph would definitely not stick out in a crowd, which was his exact intention.


    All that Ralph needed to do now was act like he knew what he was doing and escape the building unnoticed. Identity theft wasn¡¯t easy, though, and it was highly likely that someone, at some point, would eventually catch on. He descended the building with little-to-no suspicion, and was able to navigate the streets of Crescendurn with moderate difficulty, the glowing metropolis being the only barricade between him and his salvation. Ralph then took one of the Nexactus trains to get out of the city as soon as possible, using some of the GC¡¯s he stole from Beacon tower.


    As he looked out of the window of the train, he could see through his visor the Burning Beacon tower, seeing that it no longer projected the purple ¡°N¡± from the two horns of the tower, and seeing the whole thing covered in flames. The train ducked, ascended, and twisted its way through the concrete and steel jungle before finally making its way to a stop. After the train ride, Ralph bought himself a motorbike and set out once more to Shallowstone, though he didn¡¯t tell anyone that. As he rode out into the Burning Badlands once more, he was finally able to breathe easy.


    He got up from the crash, with broken bones and bruised tissue, but still very much alive. He luckily landed in a bank of sand after rolling off of a rocky ravine, so his body didn¡¯t suffer too much. He could barely focus, but looked around to see that Evan Scorchfield was not so fortunate. He saw the man, impaled by a sharp, rocky spike from the ground, with no movement or twitch. There was dried blood all over the rock, and he saw Evan¡¯s railgun about twenty feet away from him, broken in half from the force of impact. Stavikk loitered, then sat against a rocky ledge, and started to cry for the first time in a long time. The last time that he actually broke down from crying like that was when he saw what happened to Blake Pierce. He shed tears for five minutes straight before yelling: ¡°Damn you fucking fascists!¡± with his two middle fingers up into the sky, even though he knew no one could hear him. Stavikk eventually took Evan¡¯s water bottle and drank the rest of the water, as it wasn¡¯t like he was going to use it anymore. He then lifted Evan¡¯s corpse from the spike, and threw him down a crevasse, nothing personal, but he couldn¡¯t afford attracting more manticores to the area after what happened.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Stavikk eventually came upon an area that he hadn¡¯t seen before, and he saw a whole city in the distance. Stavikk walked for hours before reaching it, and discovering the true ruination that Nexactus caused. It looked very abandoned, and all the lights that a city would normally have were off. Suddenly, a group he had never seen before ambushed him, holding him at gunpoint with Russian-esc assault rifles, shining silver in the daylight, and sporting a crimson emblem. He had no idea who they were, but he noticed that they were all of Asian descent, and were wearing white jackets with red clothing underneath, and a strange, crimson emblem on their shoulders, which Stavikk could not recognize. Stavikk knew that they weren¡¯t Nexactus, though. Otherwise they would be covered with body armor and would have already shot him. They eventually captured him and took him back to a building he could not distinguish where they tied his weakened body to a cross, presumably for torture, but Stavikk just didn¡¯t know why.


    Ralph came upon Shallowstone, or what remained of it. The town, mostly in ruins, was populated now only by scavengers of supplies, and the streets were filled with destroyed Nexactus robots, unrecognizable soldiers, and citizens that Ralph once knew of the town. After being spotted by scavenger patrols and shot at, eventually losing their trail, Ralph knew he had to leave-quickly. Ralph, understanding the danger there, unfortunately was forced to leave empty handed, but perhaps fortunate to leave at all.


    <u>Interlude:</u>


    Life is such a fragile thing.


    Pharavanna was indeed not a place for the timid, but that didn¡¯t mean that the bold were well off either. The difference was that the bold weren¡¯t generally wiped out as easily, and would oftentimes put up enough of a fight to spare their lives, or be willing to do what others would not be willing to do to stay alive. Heroes like these are often tough in reality, but they are rarely tough enough against the overwhelming odds. And so ends the story of the Grave Guerillas, all of them putting up the good fight against Nexactus, and pushing through and persisting up until the very last breath they had. It was this good fight, however, that ended up getting them killed in the end. The question is, is it better to die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain? I don¡¯t have all the answers, but what I can tell you is that I would rather die a hero, because even a long life of villainy isn¡¯t worth living.


    And so is the case with what remains of the lost rebel group. The Grave Guerillas¡¯ time has largely passed. Now, Pharavanna needed new heroes to come by the side of good in the planet¡¯s time of strife and turmoil, which was now being furthered by a debatably greater evil. The Red Sickle was never some sort of myth, or something that could only be run into in a few cities of the planet. It was an overwhelming criminal organization set on taking over the planet of Pharavanna completely, and killing anyone who stood in their path, torturing for information, and using other ruthless tactics. The mafia, ruled by the mob boss known as Kargas, or ¡°The Butcher¡± by his followers, for his brutal tactics and his specialization in the Null blade, a weapon used to counter technological targets, disabling them, using the edge of the blade coated with signal disturbing viruses.


    As Nexactus was dethroned, some sections of the corporation abandoned its cause, some joining the red sickle, and others joining other uncivilized factions on the planet. Most of them, however, were killed because of acts of treachery from one another. Now, there was still an empty throne remaining in the corporation¡¯s hierarchy, waiting to be filled by an ambitious soul. Our story began with Stavikk Smokecutter, but it is going to continue with The Red Sickle, and with its mob boss, Kargas.

 Treason, Consultancy

    <u>Act 4: Falling</u>


    <u>Scene 12: Treason </u>


    A bitter, angry look was on Kargas¡¯s face as he hit a punching bag chained to the ceiling, shaking the upper floors with his strikes. His pattern of punching was actually quite effective. He focused more on speed than anything else, moving around the punching bag, and hitting it in a variety of unpredictable ways so that it would land an opponent a consistent amount of smaller concussions. On the punching bag was taped the picture of Nexactus¡¯s new ¡°elected¡± official, Victor Swainec, a bald, particularly overweight man who perhaps enjoyed the splendors of wealth a little too much. More of a coward himself than Benevola, he ordered most of Nexactus personnel and equipment to retreat to their moon known as Arborea, where Nexactus had already begun to build colonies, and would be much easier to defend and control than Pharavanna, which granted Nexactus diminishing returns.


    Kargas wiped the sweat off of his shoulders and face with a cloth, before sitting down on his large, black couch, and picked up a cigarette filled with an organic drug known as Illabra, meaning ¡°Off balance¡± in the new languages arisen from Pharavanna. The drug came from where Kargas was now, the forest of Feronia in southern Phaethon. The drug grew on the Ilabra plant, which was a plant growing near the forest floor, looking like a small bright red shrub, vaguely resembling coral. As Kargas exhaled a breath of smoke, he felt noises he heard from the fans in the room start to sound like loud static, and he saw a strange blue glow coming from outside the windows. Kargas used the Illabra drug to heighten his senses for future fights, but mostly just to get wasted. A side effect of short-to-long term use of the drug was over-aggression, which could have explained his punching earlier. A little while longer, he noticed that the double doors to his large room were open, and that another member of the mafia was pouring drinks for others downstairs. As Kargas looked down, he saw a letter left on the glass table in front of him, and he opened it to find news he didn¡¯t exactly appreciate. As it turned out, Nexactus wasn¡¯t exactly too keen on having its outposts blown apart by raider groups or mobsters, and so they decided instead to hold a conference to potentially make a peace negotiation with the sickle. Kargas, of course, wouldn¡¯t have any of that, and he wholeheartedly believed that he deserved to own Phaethon completely. He was going to crash the conference, and show Nexactus how much peace he wanted. But being the last of his bloodline, which owned the mafia, though, he wasn¡¯t going to go in unprotected. His custom-made smart armor, as well as a squadron of some of his finest fighters would be enough to keep him alive, while doing the opposite for the negotiators. Kargas arrived at the scene in a complementing red and white suit, his smart armor being well disguised. His hair was slicked backward and somewhat wild, making him seem powerful and aggressive. He entered the building from his luxurious hover car to find that it was much more of a party than it was a conference. Many-colored lights lit the inside of the building, and he could clearly see both bars where there was drinks being served, as well as strip poles where he expected the obvious individuals to be.


    Later, him and his group were led into a room with a long, black table where Kargas was invited to sit at the head, obviously given favors in the hopes that he would be more lenient. A Nexactus official, Wayne Watson, was there to be doing the negotiating, as Victor was too much of a coward to come there himself. A group of strippers entered the room to pour Kargas and his men various alcoholic beverages in a fruitless attempt to sweeten the deal, but Kargas himself didn¡¯t look convinced. Kargas sat against the chair leaning back, with his legs wide open, presenting a cool air of confidence that was unshaken by Nexactus¡¯s alleged power. He drank the whole cocktail presented to him with one swig, before asking: ¡°So, what¡¯re you offering¡±.


    Wayne was quite intimidated by Kargas¡¯s self-presentation, and just wanted to walk out of there having a deal. The truth is, it would be a miracle if he walked out of there at all. He presented his offer: ¡°If you and your¡­family stop attacking Nexactus outposts, we will give you two point five million GC¡¯s, which holds much more profit to you up front than breaking one of our banks, for example¡±. Kargas waved his hand before him, as to ask for the money in cash as opposed to some other medium. He was a particularly demanding man, asking for a lot from others, but Nexactus didn¡¯t have time to bargain. As Wayne reached into the bag to produce the bills to stave off the kills, Kargas reached into his suit and pulled out an automatic pistol, pumping Wayne full of lead before focusing his partners. Wayne was backed up by some of the most reputable and experienced commandos, who took at arms and actually did good work against Kargas¡¯s fighting force, killing half of his skilled fighters in the first thirty seconds of fighting. Luckily, Kargas¡¯s smart armor covered his body just in time for him to survive. His helmet plates moved over his back, neck, and covered his whole head extremely quickly.


    Relatively quickly, the room was cleared. Kargas moved onto the main room, of which was filled with the most troops of all. With only half his troops remaining, Kargas knew it would be tough to get past. He took cover behind one of the elevated stages where the strippers would walk, all of them obviously fled after hearing the gunfire. His machine pistol managed to pick off some of the mobile soldiers. Beads of sweat started to drip from his forehead, him not sure how he was going to get out of this. He held his ground, though, and made sure to not let himself or brethren be killed in vain. He was just getting started, after all.


    Finally, his backup arrived. The hover car crashed through the front doors, its sleek shape coming in like a blade from the midnight sky. Its driver fired bursts of plasma from the front of the car, melting the troops that tried to take cover. Those soldiers¡¯ aim was also true, though, and they managed to kill the driver, too, causing the vehicle to move slowly forward and to the right. The troops saw their plan to hijack the car, but luckily, Kargas was prepared. He drew perhaps his most powerful weapon, the null blade, from its sheath, and then threw it at the car as if it was a tomahawk. The initial strike of the blade did nothing, of course, but its virus within the blade managed to stun the hover car, causing it to fall down approximately two feet, before raising his machine pistol to fire through the windshield and kill everyone outside. Kargas was out of ammunition now, however, and switched to an assault rifle manufactured by Nexactus.


    Now that Kargas evened the odds, it was now plausible to finish the fight. Kargas emerged from that conflict victorious, but with complications. Kargas took bullet wounds, was missing all of his fighters, and now a new conflict was arising. Two soldiers from Nexactus he had never seen came out of the last room, wearing the Nexactus Juggernaut suits, a suit of high quality armor equipped with hydraulic arm enhancers, not to mention the state of art protection. Kargas was lying against the side of the hover car, blood coming from his stomach. Kargas was injured, but not dead, and luckily for him, the Juggernauts didn¡¯t see him instantly. Thinking quickly, he removed the null blade from the hover car, knowing as the effects of the blade were only temporary, and that the null blade would do work against the armor of his plated opponents.


    Kargas played dead for as long as he needed to, as he was in no rush, but as soon as the hover car powered back on, he rolled back in, and drove as quickly as he could towards the first juggernaut, the hover car¡¯s left side grinding against the stair railing, before crashing into the juggernaut. Kargas shot several plasma blasts from the front of the hover car until the juggernaut was torn in half by the waist. The second juggernaut was more vigilant, shooting at the hover car with a double-barreled shotgun, which hit the engine, causing it to explode right after Kargas escaped through the side door. His smart armor blocked most of the burning from the flaming engine, but he still suffered bruising and two broken ribs because of the sheer force.


    The juggernaut needed time to reload, so while doing so, Kargas jumped to and from one of the small strip stages with sufficient speed, slashing his null blade into the shoulder of the juggernaut, stunning it temporarily. Then, Kargas slashed the blade in the juggernaut one final time, making the operator unable to leave the juggernaut suit, forcing the operator to die in the burning club. Kargas did all he needed to. Walking out of the club, he was confident knowing that when Nexactus police forces would arrive, his brethren would be eager to back up their boss, which they so did. Driving back in one of the hover cars he owned, Kargas was more than pleased with the message he gave.


    <u>Scene 13: Consultancy</u>


    Stavikk lay, chained to the metal cross and a bag on his head with a strange sense of confusion that overtook him, thinking how grotesquely similar this was as the mutation leading to his origins. He felt the same feeling of helplessness as he did before, but never the same sense of mystery, which was all too prominent where he was. Who were his captors, and what were their intentions?If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Whoever they were, they were torturers as well. They lifted Stavikk¡¯s shirt to shock him with a strange torture device, scorching his chest with heat, sending him flailing but unable to escape nonetheless. The pain was excruciating, to say the least, and put him deeper and deeper into a less conscious state. Finally, Stavikk reached the bottom of the abyss of his mind, and hardly recognized the shocks from the torture. Barely conscious, Stavikk saw a long platform vaguely reminiscent of a church, made out of grey stone, and huge chunks of it missing. At the end of the platform, there was a huge stone stairwell with a massive stone throne at the top. Seated on the throne, there was an average-sized black-cloaked human figure wearing a golden mask. Behind the figure was a huge, broken, floating stone archway as the last solid structure he could see before abyss. The platform seemed to be lit up by a spotlight, though Stavikk could not tell where the light was coming from.


    Stavikk, deeply confused and curious, walked towards the figure atop the throne. Emerging from the shadows in the stone benches were figures that came to resemble figures that were disturbingly similar to people he had seen before. In the first bench on the right side, shadowy figures emerged from cracks in the stone floor, with dissolving shadows to reveal the doctors that first experimented upon Stavikk, with huge gashes through their white lab coats, blood pouring from their wounds, staining their coats red with blood, before dripping ever so slowly. Still appearing to be alive, the two doctors eyed Stavikk depressingly, saying: ¡°It was nothing personal¡­we were just trying to save our own lives¡±. ¡°But, it looks like that was a fruitless attempt¡±, as they clutched their stomachs, soaking their hands in blood and intestinal juices. Stavikk continued towards the masked figure, with a disturbed look on his face. On the next bench, another figure appeared in the same way. ¡°The Nighthawk¡± was seated there, slouched back, with his forehead appearing to be smashed in, with blood and brain matter on the bench before him, turning towards Stavikk, temporarily speechless. ¡°I did all I could¡­ but it wasn¡¯t enough.¡± ¡°Sorry if the hounds go after you¡­ all this fighting isn¡¯t worth it.¡±


    The next bench had someone more familial, and a reliving Alyce appeared sitting on the bench, with bullet holes through her chest. ¡°There was no way I was getting out of there alive¡±. Said Alyce, deeply depressed. ¡°You did all you could¡±. Stavikk, in attempt to comfort himself and Alyce, sat down and hugged her, blood on his bulletproof vest being a small price to pay for showing how much he wanted her to live. ¡°While your intentions are good, there is no point to try to comfort a dead person¡±, said Alyce. ¡°You can¡¯t comfort me anymore¡±. In an instant, Stavikk¡¯s hopeful smile was replaced by a grieving sadness. He got up, and moved on, hoping he wouldn¡¯t have to see anyone else.


    A few benches later, he saw three figures instead of one. Dolph and Aubrina were sitting on one bench, while Commander Sanders was sitting on the opposite bench, each with something to say. Dolph said: ¡°It¡¯s good to see at least one of you made it out alive¡±, cracking a slight smile, which betrayed the small bullet hole in the back of his head, and large bullet hole in the front of his head. Aubrina, with scorched skin and covered with shrapnel all over her body, turned to Stavikk, saying: ¡°I was so stupid not to order us to flee¡±. ¡°Doing what I did was asking for us to be killed¡±. Sanders had a much more disturbing appearance. He was still wearing his armor, but had scorched, black skin, and a huge, deep crack in the middle of his forehead and nose area. All that sanders said was: ¡°You, are such a jackass¡±, before slouching back, arms crossed around his chest.


    Finally, Stavikk made it to the final two benches, where appeared three figures on one bench, and two on the other. Stavikk¡¯s dead allies, Evan, Gabriello, and Elyse, were on one bench, and Diabolus and Benevola on the other. Gabriello, the first one to die, clutched his stomach wounds with his biological and cybernetic hands, with sheer hopelessness across his face. ¡°What a tragedy¡±, said Gabriello. ¡°We should have never set foot on that tower¡±. Elyse, much more disturbingly, turned towards Stavikk, having scorched skin, as well as having most of her facial features melted off. The seal of melted flesh that trapped her lips together grotesquely broke, as she said: ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me now, Stavikk.¡± ¡°I¡¯m done fighting¡±. Diabolus was the next one to talk, strangely, and he had something very unexpected to say. Diabolus, before he spoke, ripped off his voice modulator from his larynx with his crushed, broken arms. His whole body appeared to be flattened and scorched, as well as covered in bullets. In a weak, soft voice, Diabolus said: ¡°Don¡¯t mourn for my death, Stavikk¡±. ¡°Benevola ended my life long ago, and always had her way with me¡±, as he pointed to a chip implanted to the back of his head and neck.


    Benevola was the next to speak. Her body appeared to be almost broken in half, covered in bullet holes and shrapnel. She said: ¡°You think you¡¯re such goddamn heroes, don¡¯t you.¡± ¡°You think you actually stood for something, fulfilling some higher purpose, but you¡¯re not¡±. ¡°See, this isn¡¯t any happy ending now.¡± ¡°Now that we¡¯re gone, you¡¯re not going to like who comes next in power on this hellhole of a planet¡±. ¡°In fact, if you hadn¡¯t been such a dumbass in the first place, maybe you wouldn¡¯t be standing here listening to me talk¡±. ¡°Do you believe that I¡¯m somehow still alive?¡± ¡°Oh, how feeble your mind is, Smokecutter¡±. Stavikk, ashamed, turned his attention away, towards an even worse prospect. Evan Scorchfield was sitting down, with a stone spike coming out of the bench impaling him through his chest, clearly resembling the one that impaled him in actuality. Stavikk, breaking into tears, said: ¡°I¡¯m¡­ sorry you had to die¡±. ¡°I¡­I¡­ just wish I could have found you in different circumstances¡±. ¡°I know¡±, said Evan. ¡°I know¡±.


    ¡°See the consequences of your actions?¡± Asked Benevola, a condescending tone in her voice. Instantly, all of Stavikk¡¯s sadness turned into unfettered rage, responding saying: ¡°Shut the fuck up you fucking cunt!¡± before punching Benevola straight across the face, knocking two of her teeth out. Benevola laughed, spitting her teeth out, along with blood onto the floor in front of her, saying: ¡°You can¡¯t kill me, dumbass¡±. ¡°I¡¯m already dead¡±.


    Finally, Stavikk had nothing else to do. Sinking his head into his hands, crying, he completely lost hope. Just when everything seemed like it was going to fall apart for Stavikk, a comforting pat on the back came from someone who seemed all too familiar. Stavikk, turning around, saw Ralph Woodhill standing behind him. Ralph stood out to Stavikk, not because he was someone Stavikk didn¡¯t know, but because he didn¡¯t have any lethal wounds apparent on his body, only a white bandage around his left upper arm, seeming only to be a flesh wound. Also, Olivia Osgood walked up to Stavikk from the other side of the lane in between the benches. Olivia tipped her cowboy hat towards Stavikk, understanding his plight, her sniper rifle still in hands.


    It was now Benevola that was speechless. After a while of reconciliation, Benevola said to Olivia: ¡°You stupid bitch¡±. ¡°You have no idea what you¡¯re getting yourself into, or what psychotic murderers you¡¯re working with¡±. ¡°And how did your path end for you?¡± asked Olivia, shutting Benevola up for good. The group of three then approached the masked figure, not knowing who, or what it was. The masked figure communicated telepathically, saying that it understood Stavikk, Ralph, and Olivia, and what their goals were. This figure also said that it knew how Stavikk could escape, but in return, the masked figure needed help as well. It said it couldn¡¯t tell them who it was, but told them who kidnapped Stavikk in the first place, the Red Sickle. Stavikk had never heard of such a group as the Red Sickle, and was extremely curious to know more information. Was the red sickle a defecting division of Nexactus? A barbaric faction? An alien force? Stavikk had so many questions going through his head, but not nearly enough answers. The masked figure told Stavikk that it was running out of time, and it was time to return to the conscious world. Time, to wake up. Suddenly, the masked figure evaporated into pitch-black vapor, leaving only the golden mask behind. The stone throne lowered into the stairway, and the archway behind became a portal-like appliance, Stavikk seeing the torture room behind it. He walked through the portal, the mask¡¯s color shifting from gold to red and white, but still maintaining the same shape.


    Stavikk attached himself to the cross again, and a bag put over his head once more. Finally, the bag was ripped off, Stavikk seeing his captors, and Kargas, who walked in with the door wide open. Kargas¡¯s Smart armor, Stavikk noticed, had the same style of mask as he saw earlier, that had the Red sickle emblem painted on it with red and white. The mask pieces slid off to reveal Kargas¡¯s face, which looked rivaling, even to Stavikk. Kargas was a fierce man, and his defined facial features reflected that very much. Kargas was Asian in descent, and had jet-black hair that was slicked back and spiked, making him seem chaotic and wild. He also had a scar from his left cheekbone all the way down to the bottom of his nose, giving him a slightly grizzled appearance. Kargas glared at Stavikk, before shouting in some foreign language that Stavikk could not decipher. Stavikk looked back, confused, and at a loss of what to say in response. Kargas, frustrated, resorted to another method. Kargas reached into his suit to produce a Nexactus officer badge still with blood all over it, and had a shining purple ¡°N¡± being projected.


    Expecting this to imply that he was part of Nexactus, Stavikk followed his first instinct, to shake his head, distancing his affiliation with the corporation. While the Red Sickle had no advanced lie-detecting technology, Kargas took Stavikk¡¯s response at face value, which was fair enough. This, of course, was because Stavikk didn¡¯t seem at all like your average Nexactus personnel. In fact, he didn¡¯t look like anyone that Kargas had ever seen. Kargas inferred this: Stavikk wasn¡¯t part of Nexactus, yet he ended up near up until recently Nexactus conquered territory, alone, and without supplies. Was Stavikk some sort of humble defector, or unrelated to the corporation in the first place? Kargas suspected the former, given that Stavikk eagerly rejected the prospect of being with them, but Kargas didn¡¯t know for sure. While Kargas would have pursued the investigation for longer, he decided to attend to other matters, and he still had more opportunity for plunder still ahead of him. The night, after all, was still young, and Kargas still had many goals ahead.

 Subjugation, Rescue

    <u>Scene 14: Subjugation</u>


    Kargas, along with some of his finest fighters exited their hover car, decently disguised with citizen apparel, but still with bulletproof vests underneath, and two of Kargas¡¯s thugs carrying a large duffel bag along with them, looking alike to the ones that would carry money. They entered the pyramid-esc shaped executive center of Crescendurn, and walked through the main hall into the middle of a giant room, with managers and desks before them, and a hexagonal tiled floor. The two mobsters let down the bag to produce face-covering masks and more than enough firearms for the group. As soon as the guns were shown, guards in the room reacting vigilantly, but not quite fast enough, as Kargas¡¯s thugs had already taken out guns and were mass-murdering guards in the executive center, with no mercy among them.


    As it turned out, Kargas brought a whole platoon with him, some of which entered the center later and in different places as him, but a large number with him. Kargas¡¯s goal in this raid was to kill Victor, Nexactus¡¯s new leader, and supposed that he would be in the executive center if anywhere. One thing that Kargas noticed about the center was how poorly defended it was, at least compared to other Nexactus controlled areas. Did he catch the corporation off guard, or did they pull their troops back to lure him in, and then kill him? These questions made Kargas instantly reject the idea of underestimating his opponent, and kept his mind focused until it was all and done.


    Kargas ran out of ammunition fairly quickly, switching to a revolver instead, his favored sidearm. Kargas took no prisoners, blasting holes though the heads of innocent managers and civilians there, as he himself was already knee-deep in brass. Kargas was ruthless, to say the least, and cleared most of the rooms in the floor before proceeding to a huge metal door, where he placed a mortar next to. Two separate mortar rounds were fired into the door before it blew open, broken and unable to function. Behind it was a long hallway with statues to both sides, and a squadron of Nexactus robots, armed with machine guns, in the middle. Kargas instantly knew what to do. He commanded for cover fire, and then rushed in through a side door with his Null blade in hands, slashing through the robots¡¯ legs. Since the robots were taller than Kargas at a staggering eight feet tall, he managed to do this quite easily. While Kargas didn¡¯t cause robots to lose any limbs, but stunned them, and as Kargas walked back through the side door, his thugs tore through the menacing machines with their bullets.


    One final room was remaining, with only one cowering manager in the center. Since Kargas was sure there weren¡¯t any guards there, so he walked in with purpose and passion, pointing a revolver at the manager and yelling: ¡°Where is your sleazy little bitch that you call Victor?!¡± ¡°Tell me or I¡¯ll see how scared your face looks with a pound of lead sunken inside it!¡± Realizing that he was yelling at a man in Mandarin, a language he didn¡¯t seem to understand, Kargas pulled out a crumpled picture of Victor, showed it to the manager, and then placing it on the desk in front of him, before slicing it in two with his Null Blade, clearly getting his intentions across.


    The manager then did something peculiar, pointing his finger in the air straight above him, signifying that Victor was¡­ up. Was this to say that Victor was in space, on a plane? Kargas could not tell. After a short episeode of anger and fear, the manager drew a crude picture of a moon on the back of one of the page halves, signifying that Victor was on the moon¡­ somehow. Finally, Kargas understood, which was actually very grim news for the manager. After getting the information he needed, Kargas decapitated the manager with his Null blade, using the sliced pieces of paper to clean off the blood.


    Kargas and his thugs eventually left the Executive Center in hover cars, making a speedy getaway, and would simply drive-by the troops deployed to stop them in true mafia fashion, and terrifying citizens of the metropolis. This didn¡¯t mean they were invincible, though, and if they got too arrogant, then they would almost certainly be picked off. Luckily for them, they didn¡¯t, and managed to not stay there too long.


    <u>Scene 15: Rescue</u>


    As Stavikk left the stone structure through the portal, the masked figure reappeared at the opposite end of the platform, seated against one of the benches, and looking straight at Ralph. Disturbingly, the figure removed the mask to reveal Stavikk¡¯s face underneath. Ralph was taken aback. Was this masked figure some sort of shape shifter, or did Stavikk have a very exceptional disguising ability? Stavikk, looking around, said: ¡°Help! I¡¯m trapped by people who I¡¯ve never seen before.¡± ¡°They¡¯re definitely not Nexactus, Ralph, but they¡¯re just as well armed¡±. ¡°Ok, but where are you, generally?¡±, Ralph inquired. ¡°The yellow wastes¡±, replied Stavikk.¡±Just make sure to look for a city in ruins, and you¡¯ll find me there¡±. ¡°God damn it, you¡¯re in Shallowstone?¡± suggested Ralph. ¡°No, what¡­ oh¡­ no¡±, Stavikk replied. ¡°Them too¡±? ¡°I¡¯m afraid so, friend.¡±, said Ralph. ¡°But right now, I need to find you, and if I can¡¯t, you¡¯re gonna die, and it¡¯s going to be my fault¡±.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°Okay¡±. It¡¯s a city that looks partially destroyed, sort of resembling a smaller Crescendurn that¡¯s in the yellow wastes, that¡¯s all I know¡±. ¡°Just look for a helicopter crash site, but you might also find some other unpleasant sights¡±. ¡°If you find that crash site, you¡¯ve essentially found me¡±. ¡°You were my friend, too, you know¡±, said a voice from behind, Ralph discovering it to be Olivia Osgood. ¡°You saved the life of a dying man, and helped fend off the troupe that would¡¯ve came for me next¡±. ¡°Wherever you are, you deserve to be free, Smokecutter¡±. ¡°Thank you, but I¡¯m running out of time¡±. ¡°Find me, I fear they¡¯ll kill¡­ me¡­¡±. Stavikk started to wince in pain as sparks flew from the jet-black robes, blood seeping from underneath, and dripping onto the stone floor. Stavikk then put the mask back on; the bleeding stopped, and then opened a portal from the other end of the platform. Ralph ran and jumped through the portal, waking up as he lunged forward, jolted with shock, and possessed an incredibly fast heartbeat.


    Ralph got on his motorbike to set out once more, leaving his camp behind, to find Stavikk, and get him out of whatever horrible dungeon he was in. In his dreams, he too saw the masked figure, and seemingly was with Stavikk, so he knew the mutant outlaw was alive. Ralph didn¡¯t know about any of the other Guerillas, and if they were still alive, but he didn¡¯t have time to find out. He needed to find Stavikk fast, or else Stavikk too would join their ranks.


    Ralph arrived near an abandoned warehouse by motorbike, his tires screeching to a halt, seeing flashing sparks under the garage door, sporting a red sickle spray-painted onto it. Ralph hopped off of the motorbike, carefully observing the sounds going on inside. Shouting, and wincing noises from Stavikk could be heard clearly from the outside of the warehouse. The garage door was opened just enough, that Ralph was able to throw a stun grenade under it, stunning the mobsters inside. With that opportunity caught, Ralph approached a locked door, and used his double-barreled shotgun to blow the lock open, then shot the nearest enemy in sight, killing him instantly.


    Ralph then took time to reload. At this point, the mobsters inside started to grab their bearings, the stun effect starting to wear off. They shot blindly, their bullets tearing through the thin metal walls. Ralph, his shotgun reloaded, decided to rush in, and went straight to the nearest cover of a concrete barrier after shooting one of the mobsters, however a bullet fired from one of them hitting him in the face. Luckily, his biker helmet caught the bullet, but the force however remained. This fatigued Ralph, but he was still able to get to cover successfully. Ralph shot the second shot out of his shotgun, hitting one of the last mobsters in the stomach and chest, dooming him to die of blood loss.


    One mobster remained, shooting wildly with his submachine gun, leaving countless holes in the barrier. Ralph used his last viable option, throwing his machete at the last enemy. Unfortunately, two bullets hit him in the arm as he tried to throw the machete, causing him to drop it and causing excruciating pain. The mobster then rushed towards Ralph, intent on finishing off the invader.


    The mobster, amazingly, was then clubbed over the head with the stock of the shotgun, causing a small concussion and stunning him temporarily. To knock him out cold, though, Ralph hit him over the head a second time with all his force imaginable, even though he suffered the weakness of his left arm. Ralph finally took his machete and beheaded the last mobster, his head rolling off to one side after losing the connection with the neck.


    Ralph then saw Stavikk, with a bag over his head and a body covered in scars, and sweat dripping down all over him. Ralph felt the compulsion to pay his friend back for freeing him from the Gulag, and looked around to see of anything that could potentially free the scarred mutant from the chains keeping him to the black iron cross. Ralph then saw a buzz saw, and used it to cut through the chains like butter. Stavikk, finally freed from this terrible disposition, took off the bag from his head, and gave his old friend a hug, the least he could do to repay him for saving his life.


    Both of them had difficulty walking out, Stavikk exhausted and weakened, and Ralph in horrible pain due to the bullets in the arm. Ralph opened the garage door by using the switch on the perpendicular wall on the left side from where he was, and the two of them drove off on the motorbike. As Stavikk drove down the highway, he saw the city¡¯s name on a scratched-up, rusted billboard, ¡°Bleakford¡±. Stavikk decidedly sped up, partially in panic with the intent of never visiting this city again.

 Pursuit, Camouflage

    <u>Scene 16: Pursuit </u>


    Stavikk and Ralph sat down by their fire in the scorching prairie, laughing and telling stories to each other, and eating a dead Catoblepas. A Catoblepas was a six legged, mammalian, bull-like creature that would occasionally wander the wastes and prairie-like biomes of Pharavanna, scrounging any plant life they could find, and so developed crushing-like teeth for breaking apart hard vines. They had incredibly thick, dark brown or black skin, and had no eyes, but rather had a very strong sense of smell and hearing that would always lead it in the direction of food or a mate. For defense, a Catoblepas has an extremely thick head with a bunch of smaller horns protruding from it, and five different tails with sharp tips, capable of cutting skin and flesh with ease. Stavikk, preferring dark meat himself, decided to eat the legs of the mostly cooked Catoblepas, while Ralph decided to eat the meat around the stomach and chest. As they talked around the campfire, the night slowly began to grow old, and they fell asleep within not too long of the eating.


    In their dreams, the two of them once again saw the masked figure and on the same platform, sitting in the throne. Even though nor Ralph or Stavikk knew who he was, Victor appeared out of the darkness, a grudging look on his face, and pointed a handgun at the masked figure, saying: ¡°Don¡¯t you dare come for her, or I¡¯ll blow your brains out just like what happened to your friend Dolph¡±. ¡°No, come find me, I¡¯m on Arborea!¡±, the masked figure retorted. Stavikk and Ralph looked back at Victor, with angry and disagreeing looks on their faces, but unsure what to do to stop him. ¡°Fine, you want to be like that?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve just dug your own graves, idiots¡± said Victor. ¡°Oh, looks like they¡¯re almost here!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard they have a real bone to pick with you¡±. Ralph and Stavikk looked back to see flashing lights and loud motors in the distance, seeing bikes, and instantly knew they had to wake up. A portal appeared on the other end of the stairway, and the two of them ran through, waking up quickly and getting onto their motorbike, driving extremely fast down the highway, but being followed, chased, by an array of hover cars and motorbikes. Ralph shot back at them with his double-barreled shotgun while Stavikk drove away as quickly as he could, knowing the correct routes to take, and not before too long took a turn off of the highway, driving straight through the desolate prairie towards the farmhouse, the one place they would be truly safe.


    They could see the farmhouse in the distance, as they constantly got closer to the cliff face, and its dim lights contrasting the midnight tint that was cast on the whole valley. They drove closer and closer, Ralph getting a lucky shot on one of the motorbikes, and causing it to go way off course and crashing into a boulder, causing a loud and fiery explosion. They were about halfway there when they noticed that there were bikes skidding out of control without Ralph having to shoot them. The hover cars behind them suffered no such obstacle, being able to pass over this terrain easily, because they could just float right over it. They were being shot at, Ralph could tell, but they weren¡¯t going down as easily as the bikes were. Finally, they were close to the farmhouse, and the hover cars were being shot at over and over, until one of their engines exploded.


    One of them remained, driving extremely quickly towards the motorbike, and bouncing slightly as it glided across the rocky flats to avoid crashing into the surface below. As Stavikk and Ralph got extremely close, the two large back doors of the farmhouse opened, and the two of them could see Olivia right behind an A.T.V, which Stavikk could see filled to the brim with explosives, in every cavity that wasn¡¯t a fuel tank or engine. Olivia then tied a brick to the gas pedal of the vehicle, and then watched it go forward towards the hover car at an extremely fast speed, the pilots, though, not noticing. Luckily, Stavikk was quick enough to turn out of the way, but the hover car pilots were not so fortunate. As the two vehicles crashed together, an explosion erupted between the two, making a bright orange and yellow crashing against the midnight sky. Stavikk slowed down the motorbike to a stop, and the two of them getting out to walk into the farmhouse, but seeing Olivia with a look of dismay on her face as she held her sniper rifle horizontally across her stomach. ¡°They took my boys¡±, she said. ¡°In the night, and I haven¡¯t a chance to get em¡¯ back¡±.


    Ralph and Stavikk dropped their heads in sadness after hearing this fact, and expressed their sympathies sincerely at this horrible loss. The three of them moved into the house, slowly, trying to make sense of it all, and getting some protection from the frigid night. They sat down inside, on chairs and the bed in the corner of the room, and discussed what to do next. ¡°I¡¯m assuming you all remember¡­ the dreams¡±, Stavikk inquired. He figured his best bet was to follow what information the masked figure was giving them. She seemed to know so much. ¡°Yeah, we were there¡±, Ralph responded, Olivia nodding her head in agreement. ¡°I remember her saying she was on Arborea, but how the hell do we get there without being obliterated by Victor¡¯s fleet?¡± Stavikk questioned. ¡°I have no clue¡±, said Olivia, all of them being thwarted as of how to get to space. They needed more information going forward, but didn¡¯t know where to go, and there were only three of them against the superpowers that were Nexactus and the red sickle. Unanimously, the group decided to lay low in Feronia, where the cover of the forest would easily protect them, and perhaps they could gain an advantage by waiting it out.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    <u>Scene 17: Camouflage:</u>


    The three fugitives arrived in a remote area in the forest, stopping at the side of a sandy-brown gravel road, with lush trees to either side. It was raining at the time, as it would typically in Feronia, but seemed unusual to Stavikk, Ralph, and Olivia, since they were used to the arid deserts of northern Phaethon. They got off the relatively crowded motorbike and headed into the lush rainforest a little bit too quickly and obviously, perhaps, and ventured out, looking for food, shelter, and allies. None of them had an optimal sense of how to get around or survive in the rainforest, and so the three of them relied on their instincts from their time in the burning badlands to discern the right path in Feronia.


    After a few weeks of camping and living off the land, the group arrived at another camp, which seemed very quiet, almost abandoned by whoever seemed to live there. There was a singular tent there, barely recognizable, as it had been covered with shrubs to help it disguise with the surroundings. There was a central fire pit, surrounded by rocks that were covered in a strange, lime green moss. It was eerily quiet there, with no signs of any population in sight. Stavikk decided to investigate the main tent of the camp, pulling the flap open to reveal a slim, frail-looking man with a scraggly white beard, and tattered, green clothing. The man was wielding a submachine gun and was wide-eyed at the sight of Smokecutter. Stavikk put his hands up, a move that the man did not expect, and said calmly: ¡°I¡¯m not here to hurt you¡±, before backing away. As the panic quickly drained from the man¡¯s face, he said: ¡°Oh, thank god¡±. ¡°I thought you were some sort of creature, but judging from your footsteps, it seems you aren¡¯t too adept in the ways of Feronia¡±. The man walked out of his tent, switched his gun safety on, and put it in his satchel, before sitting on a rock, and beginning to talk. ¡°Allow me to introduce myself¡±. ¡°I am Layne Pontiff, but I have no idea who the heck you three are¡±.


    Layne was an older man, and seemed to be rather savvy with how to survive in the wilderness of Feronia. His clothing seemed rather tattered, and he had a wide hat painted with multiple shades of green. Layne wore multiple necklaces, each with bizarre teeth: some serrated and some straight, but usually sharp and yellowed. He was a man of European descent, but had been exposed to a lot of sunlight in his lifetime. He had light blue eyes and white hair, along with his thin white beard and moustache that gave him a relatively grizzled appearance. ¡°So, why exactly are you here?¡±, he asked. If they were here to murder him and steal his belongings, at least he would be aware of it now. ¡°Laying low¡±, Stavikk responded. ¡°That¡¯s our plan for the time being, but eventually we¡¯ll need a way to get to Arborea¡­¡±, Stavikk explained.


    ¡°Well, then I¡¯ve got some really good news, and some really bad news¡±, Layne said. ¡°The good news is that I happen to know a launch base that can get you right into space¡±. ¡°The bad news¡±, Layne said, ¡°is that getting close to the base means certain death¡±. ¡°The base is taken over completely by the sickle, and surrounded by their camps as well¡±. ¡°I¡¯ve scouted the area for months¡±. ¡°Trust me, you don¡¯t want to get close¡±. ¡°Now, before you act all tough and say you¡¯ve faced more dangerous fights, trust me, you haven¡¯t¡±. ¡°Not in Feronia¡±, Layne said. ¡°So, what do we do?¡±, asked Ralph as he tilted his helmet visor up. ¡°Here¡¯s what you do¡±, said Layne. ¡°You stay with me¡±. ¡°You train, with me¡±. ¡°You learn everything about the forest of Feronia, because you¡¯ll need every possible advantage you can get your hands on if you want the slightest hope of staying alive¡±. ¡°Look, you don¡¯t have any reason to trust me, I get that¡±. ¡°But if you want to get to space before being turned into crimson mist, you¡¯ll need to stay with me¡±.


    The group, led and mentored by Layne, took part with him daily, learning how to know their location and that of their enemy, how to use every tree, rock, and crevasse to its absolute advantage, what plants are poison, and which are boon. They learned about how to hide, move silently, and climb almost any surface with absolute ease. They trained constantly and consistently, until everything that they needed was instinct to them. Finally, after three months of strict training, the group of three was ready to take on the red sickle in this type of warfare, and finally have a chance to get to Arborea. Layne, while wise and full of knowledge, was far too old to be able to survive against opponents wielding firearms. The group set out, hardly noticeable under the canopy of the forest, to find the launch station to achieve their ultimate goal. They needed to find out who that masked figure was, and after three months they were finally prepared.

 Act 5: Resurgence

    <u>Act 5: Resurgence</u>


    <u>Scene 18: Ascension:</u>


    Stavikk, Ralph, and Olivia stealthily moved towards the electrically charged fence surrounding the complex, seeing the top of an old, sleek looking spaceship positioned perpendicular to the ground, surrounded by a concrete launch station. The complex looked quite old and withered in general, mostly built upon a clearing of the rainforest, but since it had been abandoned for so long, the forest started to reclaim the buildings, and the earth for itself. Because of this, plant life such as thick vines and tree-like plants began to grow in and out of the concrete structures, causing their stability to become severely weakened, and the infrastructure of the roads there to be crippled.


    This was where Stavikk¡¯s strength came in; because of his mutated, thickened skin along with hard leather gloves, he had a strong resistance against the electric fence. He used the cleaver bayonet of his assault rifle to slice through the hinges of one of the doors without being electrocuted himself. After doing so, he simply gently pushed open the door, making but a creak as the three of them carefully walked through. Stavikk closed the door behind them, and they continued forward, carefully as ever. They noticed, for what they could see, that there were three major patrols in the area, organized, and wielding Russian-esc assault rifles. They wore robber masks under their helmets, and their equipment and armor was mostly painted silver, though scratch marks had shown a dull grey underneath. Stavikk, Olivia, and Ralph hid behind a shack, seeing cover in the area in the form of sandbags, which was limited, but existent. They weren¡¯t even close to being optimally armed, but what they had in firearms had to be enough. Olivia Osgood backed up Stavikk with her sniper rifle as he revealed himself to one of the patrols, certain that they would fire back, but determined to try one last time to spare them.


    Indeed they did fire back, and more than Stavikk expected. He was hit three times in the stomach, and forced to retreat behind the shack, continuing to shoot them with his assault rifle, killing some of them, but most of them were able to take cover in time. The fighters realized this and rushed forward, and around the corner of the shack. Ralph, who shredded some of their bodies with his double-barreled shotgun, punished them for this. Since Stavikk still had a cleaver bayonet on his assault rifle, he sliced through a few fighters that ran at him around the corner. Right when a fighter pointed his assault rifle at Stavikk¡¯s head, he himself was shot by Olivia, wielding a revolver. Stavikk and Ralph got their bearings together, and, now armed to the teeth, rushed for cover behind sandbags, before their enemies could see them. Olivia, of course initiated fire on the next patrol with her sniper rifle, getting a quick headshot on the next patrol¡¯s captain. However, because of this, she actually got the attention of three more squads, and a helicopter.


    This is where their training came in. Stavikk moved quietly under and through the cover, then quickly scaled the wall on another concrete building with his thick nails. Firing with two assault rifles from above, he was able to get the surprise on the squadron below. Instinctively, they ran for cover behind the sandbags, which were perhaps their worst mistake. Stavikk jumped off the opposite side of the building from where he was, getting out of the way of their gunfire. Ralph threw an incendiary grenade over and into the sandbags, which started a furious inferno that consumed half of the squadron by fire.


    The helicopter flew faster than Olivia could ever predict, hovering almost directly over her, and fired a volley of missiles, leaving Olivia Osgood and the shack in scorched pieces. Stavikk and Ralph, Devastated that their friend died to a helicopter, were both certain making sure she died not in vain. Stavikk climbed to the highest building he could, and later jumping onto the side of the helicopter, using his assault rifle to support his weight on the metal ski of the helicopter. After making sure no one saw him, he got his hold on the metal ski with one hand, and shot bullets through the bottom of the helicopter, killing whomever he could from below.


    Meanwhile, Ralph Woodhill fought off some of the troops from below, using grenades and sneak attacks to thin their numbers. He was aided in his efforts by Stavikk, who managed to shoot off one of the missile pods with his rifle, and then barrel threw it down at the troops below, causing all of the missiles to explode at once, and killing them all in a massive explosion. Finally, Stavikk dragged open one of the slide doors, seeing that the internal room was lined with corpses, and a four-armed mutant awaiting him from the cockpit. The four armed mutant, General Tylvac wore much of the Red Sickle¡¯s iconography, and possessed a grim, ferocious look on his face.


    Tylvac made the first move, swinging his null blade at Stavikk, trying to decapitate him. Stavikk instinctually ducked out of the way, and then shoved the barrel of his assault rifle into Tylvac¡¯s stomach, his bayonet and bullets being blocked by Tylvac¡¯s smart armor, but his stomach armor did start to crack open. Tylvac responded by clawing Stavikk across the stomach, then trying to shoot him in the head with an assault rifle, which would kill him instantly. Luckily, Stavikk was the stronger of the two, and pushed Tylvac off of the side of the helicopter, causing him to fall 25 feet onto the hot, flaming earth. While this broke multiple bones in Tylvac¡¯s body, it did not kill him, and he was able to get up after approximately 10 seconds after falling thanks to his smart armor, without fail. Tylvac, soon after, made the decision to throw his null blade at the helicopter, too big of a target to miss, which cleaved into its hull and caused its propeller to fail. Stavikk, quick to act, quickly stole a jetpack from one of the would-be flying fighters of the Red Sickle. As Stavikk fell, he activated his jetpack to fly in a downward arc toward Tylvac, taking hold of his body with his long arms, and slammed him into a broken brick wall, causing him to suffer major bodily force damage. Afterwards, Stavikk killed the engine on his jetpack, causing him to fall, but he absorbed most of the force of impact. The helicopter, however, flew directly into the ground, splitting it apart, and blades and shards of metal flew, slicing and sawing into the earth.


    After not too long, another squadron of fighters ran out of the concrete building because of the loud noises outside, and the relative spike in the gunfire and explosions that they would normally hear. Since Stavikk and Tylvac were barely in the line of sight at the time, Stavikk did have time in which he punched Tylvac in the face, breaking off what little pieces of head armor he had, and cracking his jaw in two different locations. He held the wounded general up in front of him, and held a revolver to the side of his head as a threat to the squadron, who halted when they saw what they did.


    Ralph Woodhill, unseen, looked around for some way to save his endangered friend, and chose to equip himself with a heavy machine gun that he found lying on the dry, hot ground. He rested it over cover, and then opened up fire on the squadron from another angle, catching them off guard, killing the overwhelming majority of them, and leaving the remaining four to be executed by Stavikk. Stavikk realized when he tried to shoot Tylvac that he was actually out of revolver rounds. Instead, he simply snapped Tylvac¡¯s neck, stopping all movement in the mutant¡¯s body. Since Stavikk nor Ralph knew the true extent of Tylvac¡¯s mutant powers, they needed to make sure that he was dead. Stavikk, with a stolen shovel, dug a 5-foot deep hole, which Tylvac was thrown into, along with an armed incendiary grenade. The two of them slowly walked away from the fireworks, set on getting to Arborea as quickly and as easily as possible, in this case by spaceship.


    Ralph and Stavikk crossed the burning, scarred earth, and reached a set of double metal doors, predictably locked, but nothing that couldn¡¯t be solved with Ralph¡¯s shotgun, blasting through the door hinges and allowing the two passage into the concrete building. Ralph attempted to turn on the lights, but to no avail, it appeared the building was out of power. ¡°Looks like power¡¯s out, pal¡±, Ralph remarked to Stavikk. ¡°That¡¯s ok¡±. Spaceship shouldn¡¯t need it, anyways¡±, replied Stavikk. We¡¯ll find our way around here eventually¡±. Behind him, Ralph heard an electronic noise behind him, but wasn¡¯t confident as to what it was, he turned around to see, but as soon as he did, he saw a massive heat ray impale through Stavikk¡¯s torso, scorching the inside flesh with jet black. As soon as this happened, Stavikk dropped his assault rifle, and clutched his Stomach with his hands, rapidly decreasing in temperature because of the devastating blood loss. Stavikk ground his teeth together in pain, with barely enough oxygen in his body to process his long known friend, Ralph, say ¡°Stavikk!¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°Stavikk!¡±, at the observation of his death in front of him.


    Stavikk keeled over, forward, and lay face first in a growing pool of his own blood, massive at this point because of the destruction of his heart. Ralph looked over to see the perpetrator, which was none other than Tylvac himself, with a reclaimed confidence on his face. ¡°You bastard!¡±, screamed Ralph. ¡°I¡¯m gonna kill you!¡±. Ralph raised his shotgun to try to shoot Tylvac in the face. Tylvac, of course, expected this, and shot him through the tissue of his arm, causing him to drop it. Seeing the heat ray cannon start to charge up again, Ralph pulled out his machete and threw it at the cannon, hitting it dead in the center and causing it to explode in his hands, crippling two of his arms, and causing pieces of metal to fly into his chest, stomach, and lower leg. Ralph Woodhill rushed forward, in a vengeful rage, picking up his machete and narrowly ducking a bullet that Tylvac shot to try to hit him in the head. He sliced off the arm of Tylvac wielding the revolver with the partially broken machete before picking up his shotgun once more, shooting him in the final arm. Finally, Tylvac was left to run, but outpaced by Ralph because of the blood loss. Ralph ripped off Tylvac¡¯s helm, tackled him over, and beheaded him with the broken blade of the machete. Ralph held up the head of the recently beheaded, and roared in triumph, as Tylvac appeared to be looking down with a nervous panic in his face, seeing the blood fall from his neck, until his face rested as he deceased. Ralph Woodhill dragged Smokecutter¡¯s corpse with him, mopping the concrete with blood. He looked for a body bag the right size, and put Stavikk in, wanting the dead mutant to reach Arborea one way or the other.


    He searched through the panels controlling the ship, seeing the massive machine towering before him. He opened the main doors of the spaceship, to reveal its inner workings, supplies, weapons, and clothing. Ralph Woodhill gathered food supplies, which was all he could find from the launch station and brought it, along with Stavikk, into the spaceship on a quest for the heavens. Ralph, after prolonged research, was able to figure out how to operate the spaceship, activating its thermal jets, the hull security and the oxygen flow, before launching the spaceship into the great beyond. The jets left behind a streak of smoke and fire as the spaceship drove itself further and further from Pharavanna¡¯s atmosphere, and towards the unimaginable, illuminating sphere of Arborea.


    Ralph, in his dreams, again saw the golden-masked figure, this time in a cylindrical room with a hexagonal pattern of flooring, walls, and multiple lights in a circular pattern overhead. The masked figure sat in a metal chair, before having the chance to reveal her face for the first time. The young woman¡¯s cloak fell from her shoulders, hitting the floor in a circle around her, and revealing her, standing up prominently, opposing Ralph Woodhill¡¯s cautious stance. The young woman was wearing an extremely dark grey under armor, possessing the same hexagonal pattern all over it as if they were the scales of a reptile. They were made out of a material that Ralph could not recognize, possessing incredible malleability with the exceptional ability to retain shape. In between the hexagons that made up the under armor, there was a strange blue light emitting from within the cracks.


    ¡°You have a lot of questions, I presume?¡± she asked, expecting his presence. ¡°Who are you?¡±, asked Ralph, seeing her for so long but never really understanding who, or what she was. ¡°I am Victoria¡±, she stated as obviously as if she said the sky was blue, ¡°and if you can get to me, I might be able to keep you alive for a bit longer¡±. Suddenly, a frown struck her face, as she said ¡°But your friend Smokecutter, I¡¯m not so sure¡­¡±. ¡°How exactly am I supposed to find you, then?¡±, asked Ralph, concerned not only with navigating the civilization on Arborea, but also of his own safety as if he was walking into his own crypt, a miracle if he could ever walk out. ¡°You need to find Amy Radcliff, recently promoted as a Captain, and the only person that I am completely confident won¡¯t turn you in to Victor and his thugs¡±. ¡°The same is likely for most other low-ranking officials, but generally won¡¯t be as trustworthy as Amy herself¡±.


    ¡°So, how do I get to her without dying¡±, Ralph inquired, wanting to know more, as there were far easier ways to commit suicide. ¡°There¡¯s no easy answer to that, Ralph, but you¡¯ll need to blend in or hide somehow¡±. ¡°You¡¯ll probably be able to find a disguise in the armory at around midnight when it¡¯s at lowest alert¡±. ¡°I detect you¡¯re getting close to Arborea now, and I¡¯ll need to wake you up in a second, but if it helps, remember that Amy was previously part of the Beta company¡±, said as a final note before snapping her fingers, creating a blue spark, and waking up Ralph just near the surface of Pharavanna¡¯s great moon. He was able to land the spaceship somewhat successfully a few kilometers away from the main Nexactus facility known as Selene, and built inside of a massive crater, looking vaguely similar to that of the information Nexus. Going to the lower level of the ship and seeing Stavikk¡¯s corpse, Ralph promised: ¡°I¡¯ll get you there, buddy¡±.


    <u>Scene 19: Desecration</u>


    Hextor Dios, the general of the Nexactus army was called in the early morning to arrive at the top floor of Beacon tower for a conference with Nexactus¡¯s ruler, Benevola. He arrived at the tower by train, before ascending the great elevator to where Benevola was. Upon entering her great office, she sat with her hands together, with a devilish smirk on her face, unnerving Hextor. Benevola had always secretly terrified Hextor, as her uncanny cruelty towards prisoners, as well as underperforming workers was nothing to be ignorant of. Benevola announced: ¡°We¡¯ve created a new¡­ initiation for you and your fighting abilities¡±. Already Hextor was uncomfortable, but he had to go along, or lose his rank in the military at best, and sent to the Gulag at worst. He hesitated, but later asked: ¡°What kind of initiation did you have in mind¡±, so that at least he could be aware of what to expect. ¡°You¡¯ll find out soon¡±, said Benevola.


    They arrived at the Eris Laboratories in the outskirts of the city by truck, all exiting to walk inside. The strict rigidness of the guards accompanying Benevola terrified Hextor, but there was no way he was going to be able to run away from this. They eventually entered the building, vaguely rectangular in shape, and with a roof with a single slant, and had a vaguely warehouse-esc look to it. They went through a set of glass doors in the front of the Laberatories, later navigating corridors where they reached an elevator leading them to a lower level. There were guards seemingly positioned everywhere in the warehouse. ¡°Why?¡± Hextor wondered. ¡°Why would this place need so much protection?¡± They reached the lower level of the building, and entering a great room where Hextor saw what could be described only as nightmare fuel. Dozens of corpses were strapped to the walls, some missing limbs, others cut completely in half. All of which, however, had robotic parts attached to them, and dried blood smeared all over them.


    ¡°No, no no¡±, said Hextor. ¡°There¡¯s no way you expect me to do this¡­¡±. At this point, the guards were aware of what was going on, and dragged Hextor, kicking and screaming to the opposite side of the room, where they strapped his body to the side of the wall. Hextor screamed, as loud as he could, but to no avail, as there was no way out for him. ¡°We¡¯ve had a lot of failures in the past, but we¡¯ve corrected the process to make you my perfect weapon¡±, Benevola said. ¡°Enjoy your new life, Hextor!¡±. Benevola and the guards left the room, where the two metal doors slammed shut behind him.


    A finely crafted blade attached to a robotic arm protruded from the wall, and preceded to sever both his arms right at the end of his shoulders, causing them to fall limply to the ground, as Hextor¡¯s blood sprayed profusely all over the wall behind him and floor. Hextor would have fell unconscious if it weren¡¯t for the speed at which his arms were replaced with cybernetic ones to halt the bleeding. Bauling his eyes out from the pain, Hextor saw only the oppressive rays of light above him beaming into his eyes, causing him to cry down the width of his eyeball. After hours of waiting there in excruciating pain, needles going into his back, causing him to then be fully conscious before the next procedure, replaced the blood of the lost arms. The blades then cut off Hextor¡¯s hips and everything below, causing him to lose almost half of his body weight, before they were quickly replaced with robotic hips and legs, much larger than his original ones. Then, a robotic arm from the wall ripped his right eye out of his skull, before jamming in a cybernetic one, and welding it into place, searing his skin and severing arteries in his head. Because of this, a huge black eye caused from the released blood hung below the cybernetic eye.


    Finally, blades cut into the front and back of Hextor¡¯s neck, and implanted a large metal device into the back before welding it into place causing excruciating pain. The other arms from the wall cut a small incision into the front of Hextor¡¯s neck, implanting a metal voice modulator, before again, welding that into place. Hextor¡¯s body then violently twitched in a variety of different ways, his face making thousands of expressions, and his mouth uttering words that would cripple the courage and morale of even the bravest hero. This twitching sent blood that was all over his body to fly everywhere, and the psychological suggestions of the device in his neck deprived Hextor of all emotion, and self-interest. Hextor was no longer truly human ¨C he was something else. Benevola walked back into the room, seeing Hextor¡¯s surrendered body lying still against the wall. Benevola smirked, and asked: ¡°Who are you?¡±. This was rhetorical, as she expected and wanted only one answer:


    ¡°Diabolus¡±.


    <u>Scene 20: Toil & Trouble</u>


    Gerard McCuff stroked his greyish beard in his Captain¡¯s quarters, and looking out the window, releasing a heavy sigh as he saw the glowing planet, Pharavanna, in the distance from the spaceship. Gerard woke up early that day, and faced extreme stress early that morning. Today was his big day, as him and the regiment that he was in was going to go on a massive campaign sweeping through western Feronia in an attempt to destroy strongholds occupied by the Red Sickle. Luckily for him, he was going into battle with the mighty general himself, Diabolus, who was intimidating enough for Gerard, and very likely a force to be reckoned with.


    Gerard walked out of his quarters for breakfast, rolling his shoulders to ease some of the stiffness that came with his sleep. He walked out into the halls, which, while almost completely empty at this time, did include a familiar and non-comforting face. As he leaned back, took the cigar out of his mouth, and exhaled slowly through his mouth, Sanders looked at Gerard with utter contempt, before striking conversation in an unexpected manner. ¡°Do you think you¡¯ll be brought back in a body bag, or do you deserve such a thing?¡±, Sanders rudely asked. ¡°Or maybe you¡¯ll be left to rot out there, eaten alive by animals?¡± ¡°It¡¯s all meaningless in the end¡­ for you, though, of course¡±. ¡°And maybe if you were the kind of man who could actually follow protocol, that wouldn¡¯t happen to you, now would it?¡± ¡°But you can¡¯t be trusted with anything, now, can you¡±. As Sanders said these things, he stopped his loitering on the wall, and started walking towards Gerard, with cool confidence, and utter certainty.


    At this point, Gerard made a terrible, potentially deadly mistake. He talked back: ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sure it¡¯s real easy to say from your ivory tower, but for those that actually bother to get our hands dirty¡­¡± ¡°Did you just talk back to your commanding officer?¡±, Sanders interjected. As he pulled out his combat knife from his holster, and played with it in his fingers, he said: ¡°That¡¯s really something you¡­ shouldn¡¯t do¡±. ¡°If you keep up talking like that, then the firing squad¡¯s going to get you first¡±. Sanders slid his knife gently against Gerard¡¯s cheek, causing his face to be slowly painted with crimson as he bled from the cut wound. Sanders took a paper towel from the countertop of one of the tables and cleaned his knife blade with it, before sliding it back into the holster, then throwing the paper towel at Gerard. Sanders then vanished into the darkness, and Gerard was left with an empty feeling of helplessness as he sat there contemplating what had just happened, but there was seemingly nothing he could do about it.


    Gerard lied to his friends that breakfast, which arrived later than he did. They were a little bit more full of energy than he was, since they slept longer, and observed that the cut wound looked extremely fresh. Gerard¡¯s claim was that the cut wound was from him falling on his desk, but his cohorts at the table were prudent, and saw that the wound was too clean to be a product of a desk cut. They figured that it had to be something else, but had no idea why Gerard would tell them otherwise, so they played along, secretly disbelieving him.


    His two Cohorts were actually siblings, Roger and Amy Radcliff, who both possessed light blue eyes, and seemingly very resilient and reliant characters to them. They spoke in a very careful manner, and were naturally very skeptical individuals. They ate breakfast with him genuinely wondering what had hurt him, but didn¡¯t bother to ask. It wasn¡¯t like he was going to tell them, anyway.


    Eventually, the battle cruiser swept above the jungles of Feronia, initially striking down with napalm bombardment, which caused massive forest fires. Gerard could see out of the ship four different helicopters flying beside the spaceship, opening their side doors imbued with the Sickle¡¯s symbol to reveal crude machine guns, firing a barrage of lead at the battle cruiser. Surprisingly, these did almost nothing against the shielding of the ship, along with the incredibly durable hull, which was able to shake off bullets like they were nothing. The Battle Cruiser, in response, fired volleys of missiles that completely annihilated the helicopters. As the Battle Cruiser flew directly over the canopy, anti-air guns bombarded the bottom of the ship, causing slight damage.


    A few minutes later, the battle cruiser stopped within a kilometer of a Red Sickle Stronghold, with red and silver flags soaring above, and the Regiment climbed down by the use of rope ladders. Gerard, Amy, and Roger, along with their regiment of Soldiers, ultimately lead by the war-renowned Diabolus charged through the burning forest. The ruthless tactician, however, could not hope to keep the whole regiment in line by himself, and so gave specific orders to Commander Rydell, Sanders, and Borus, who commanded three Companies: Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, who would attack a cluster of strongholds in a trident formation, giving the Regiment the nickname: ¡°Trident¡±. Since Gerard was a Captain, he did have control of a platoon of soldiers, including, of course, Amy and Roger. Their platoon was within the company Beta, and so they went straight forward with the fighting assistance of several Pheonix fighters overhead, shooting napalm rockets at the enemy helicopters, and engaging in a blazing dogfight in the sky. The use of Napalm was actually a strategic choice by Nexactus in this battle, as a common trap used by the Red Sickle was a thorned plant that could be grown into an arch to trip and poison Nexactus troops with neurotoxins, killing them within twenty seconds or less. However, this plant¡¯s response to intense heat nearby was to retreat back into the earth, and removing its threat in the battle. This strategic choice allowed the Beta Company to advance much faster, being led by Commander Rydell. Eventually they ran into a deadly position, as concrete trenches shaped like a semicircle surrounded them, and lighting the company up with machine gun fire. In response, Commander Rydell ordered the company to deploy the auto-guns, which protected them temporarily with bubble shields.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Captain Gerard, given time to focus, noticed an anti-air heat-ray turret attached at the back of the small bunker complex. This turret had a massive gun, with a series of tubes that went from the sides and top of the gun, all the way down to the base where the turret rotated on. It fired a huge heat beam, which tore through both the energy shielding and hulls of the phoenix fighters, sending them crashing down like meteors onto the ground, streaking the sky with orange and red.


    Gerard had a new strategy. Him and his platoon divided into two squadrons and went in opposite directions around the trenches, and evading being seen by crawling through the undergrowth. Naturally, Gerard went first, going under barbed wire and evading gunfire, proved to be a grave mistake. Dirt that he crawled over shifted downward, Gerard hearing a mechanical noise. Gerard realized that he walked over a landmine, and having no way out on his own. Roger looked at him, his face expressing sadness, before acceptance a few seconds later. Gerard, realizing Roger¡¯s plan, yelled: ¡°No!¡± before Roger rushed forward taking Gerard off and absorbing the shrapnel and fire from the landmine himself. Gerard, while having his life saved, was not completely unscathed, as the explosion blew his left foot right off of his leg, and twisting and warping his tendons. Roger¡¯s body lay next to him, seeing that his back suffered third degree burns, and his skull was caved in from the force. Gerard looked down, shook his head, and continued forward.


    He saw the behind of the trenches and heat ray cannon, and was helped walking by another soldier. Gerard ordered his platoon to make a coordinated assault on the middle trench, as the rest of the regiment was already attacking the ones on the side.


    Gerard threw an incendiary grenade inside the middle trench right before him and his platoon was spotted. The loyal soldier carrying him was shot, and Gerard was shot once through the stomach, bleeding profusely and crawling on the ground, backed up by his allies. Gerard noticed that the rest of the Beta regiment was the prime target for the fighters in the trench. He heard gunfire and explosions coming from the other side. Unnoticed, Gerard slowly crawled towards the heat ray cannon, before blasting open the top door open with his shotgun, crawling inside, and killing the pilot inside it.


    Gerard saw surprisingly clearly inside of the turret, the walls seeming like a huge windshield from the inside, but before seemed like walls from the outside. Bleeding profusely, and losing focus, Gerard sought to figure out the controls of the cannon, and started firing heat rays at the red sickle fighters inside the trenches, all of which adjacent to the cannon. The heat rays burned through the damp soil, causing water in and on it to quickly evaporate, and scorching and drying the dirt to a crisp. The heat rays slaughtered fighters there within seconds, and they barely had time to notice him. Fighters rushed out of the trenches, surrounding Gerard and shooting him from all sides, putting bullet holes through all sides of the turret, Gerard just barely surviving the first five seconds of shooting by desperately ducking low in the turret, but bullets whipping through his left leg, brutalizing his calf muscles and causing the inside of the turret to be painted red.


    Gerard, barely conscious, was able to hear a barrage of gunshots, seemingly quieter than the ones heard before, and left the area silent of gunfire, at least temporarily. While the gunshots were gone, he could hear many more landmines go off in the same vicinity, presumably either because of heat or soldiers running desperately for their lives. Soon, the steel top door was ripped off with excessive force, before revealing Diabolus, showing an unfazed expression and bearing his machine gun, cooling with steam and vapor being released from the internal chambers.


    ¡°Advance, soldier.¡±, said Diabolus, with the most obvious impression of apathy that Gerard had ever witnessed. ¡°I think that¡¯s his way of saying ¡®let¡¯s go¡¯¡±, said Gerard¡¯s first lieutenant, carrying his railgun over his shoulder. ¡°And I think your friend Amy¡­¡± ¡°She¡¯s a bit broken up, to say the least¡­¡± Gerard looked over to see Amy breaking down over the body of her brother, and demanding Gerard come over, sweeping the tears from her eyes, and her helmet on the ground. ¡°Go over instead. I can¡¯t afford to wait any longer¡±, Gerard said, limping forward. Gerard¡¯s lieutenant stood there, in complete awe, staring at him with a face of pure confusion. ¡°What?¡±, asked the lieutenant. ¡°Are you sure you want to do that?¡± ¡°You have your orders, Lieutenant¡±, said Gerard, trying to seem authoritative, but deep down under, his gruff persona was starting to crack, and he was beginning to lose his way with his first Lieutenant, James Quiver, who followed through, but secretly disagreed with Gerard¡¯s decision. Gerard moved forward, with, of course, the help of his fellow soldiers, which slowed down the group slightly. As they advanced, a soldier from the company operated the heat ray cannon and fired continuously at opposing air forces, before being killed himself by a helicopter missile strike.


    They finally reached the central stronghold in Haltvia, the far western province of Feronia that was currently under control by the Red Sickle, and provided a somewhat airborne advantage from above. However, they lost contact with the two other companies, and presumed them both to be dead. They came upon the middle stronghold, appearing crude in its design, with cracked concrete, Rusty Steel beams, and brown sand bags composing its design. The fort was blocked off by a huge, plasma death-field possessing the same ¡°N¡± projected on it. This made it obvious that it was stolen Nexactus technology, something that Diabolus, the Regiment¡¯s General knew how to deal with. Before he could, however, he noticed, with his cybernetic, bulky, scope eye that there were snipers climbing atop the walls of the fort, and identified their weapons as railguns. He also noticed a massive gun turret atop the main, rectangular looking building, and, with precise vision, was able to see that it was a massive fuel rod gun. From a distance, the snipers were annihilating his troops. Gerard, hiding behind cover, aided his allies in getting through by deploying a helicopter drone that, since Nexactus technology, flew right through the death field with ease, and blew up at the other side, disabling the projectors and granting the regiment passage into the stronghold, appropriately nicknamed ¡°Fort Hades¡±.


    Diabolus needed no such passage. His hydraulic, Jet powered legs allowed him to fly up onto the thick, concrete walls. Bullets and rail gun blasts eventually cut through his defender suit, but his juggernaut armor underneath was able to, to a certain extent, bounce sound into and away itself, meaning that it would break chunks off of the armor instead of going any further. The fighters in the vicinity were no matches for the Beta Company alongside Diabolus, and as he mowed down enemies with precision and computer targeting, he launched two volleys of missiles at helicopters overhead, blasting them out of the sky. Overhead, the fuel-rod turret was devastating phoenix fighters, the radiation from the blasts killing the pilots instantly, leading the spaceships simply to fall and crash land. Their plasma blasts cut through the energy shielding, but barely left a dent in the armor of the turret itself. As Diabolus reloaded his missile pods on his back, he launched a final two volleys of missiles at the massive fuel rod cannon, causing it to essentially fall apart with the explosion force. Diabolus then lead the rest of the company through Fort Hades, the armored war machine helping to disrupt defensive maneuvers. However, because the Red Sickle did have the defensive edge in this case, they were able to sneak attack the company and eventually reduced it to a mere platoon. Since Gerard was lagging behind and was severely injured, a squadron of attacked him, armed to the teeth and wearing black masks, sporting the Red Sickle emblem on their shoulders. Gerard was mowed down by assault rifle fire, and was left to die in a pool of his own blood. Diabolus and what little remained of the Beta company hustled forward at a consistent pace towards a plethora of barricades and gun turrets spewing forth bullets, and initially having the upper hand against the company. Diabolus, one of the most armed beings on Pharavanna, moved his metallic wrist to dispense grenades from his arm piece into his hand, which he through continuously over the barricades, breaking apart the cover, and sending shrapnel and fire everywhere.


    Commander Sanders, a gruff tactician, kept his wits about him, and made sure not to rush anything too soon. After wiping sweat from his brow, he had an idea: if he could bring the fight to himself and cause the enemies to budge, he would have an opportunity to wipe them out. He told Diabolus of his plan, and the mechanical death machine hid inside a partially ruined building. He ordered his troops to retreat, losing cover but gaining the bluff of seeming at a disadvantage. His troops ran back, some of them dying in the process, and the opposing fighters there followed, carefully of course. Once they got a reasonable distance ahead of Diabolus, he, along with the soldiers of Commander sanders, were able to surprise attack the previously protected. Since the soldiers of Sanders were able to take cover, they only lost two more soldiers in the process.


    The doors of the main building were torn open by Diabolus¡¯s huge metal hand, revealing a huge stone stairway towards an array of masked marauders. Leading the group was General Tylvac, a four armed mutant trained by Kargas¡¯s deceased father, and had alike to Diabolus, had a reputation of never being defeated in battle. Tylvac was a man with straight, jet-black hair, and had a many-horned head along with rough, scarred, crimson skin. Also an escapee of the Sepam Gulag, Tylvac naturally abandoned the cause of Smokecutter, seeing the Guerillas as a doomed group. Naturally, he found himself later joining the Red Sickle in a quest for power, camaraderie, status, fame, and wealth by becoming one of Kargas¡¯s Generals later during the conflict.


    Both fighting groups merely pointed guns at each other, and tried to see who would budge first. After all, they each wanted a capture of the opposing general for more information instead of just killing them outright. Although Tylvac had Diabolus outnumbered, Tylvac recognized Diabolus as a superb fighter, perhaps even surpassing him. Both sides refused to fire from fear of mutually assured destruction, because even if Diabolus died, a nuclear warhead attached to him would explode within twenty seconds, but that would mean that the Beta Company would die as well, killing everyone in the room, including both generals, so not within any of the factions¡¯ goals.


    Diabolus decided that it was worth it to trade his own life to conquer this stronghold and kill general Tylvac, and so as he raised his arm to open up fire, Tylvac was able to reflexively throw a null blade, which sliced into Diabolus¡¯s shoulder, disabling his machine gun. However, Diabolus wasn¡¯t out of options, and deployed a grenade into his other hand, but one of Tylvac¡¯s soldiers shot the grenade with his assault rifle, causing it to explode, and sent pieces of shrapnel to fly into the walls, floor, and ceiling, and destroyed Diabolus¡¯s hand and forearm.


    Diabolus had to do it. He commanded a full retreat for the only surviving platoon, the Beta Company, before it got too late. However, forces from the two other strongholds rushed towards them in a pincer-esc move. Diabolus, his machine gun arm coming back online, was able to fire countless bullets at approaching hover cars, causing some of them to explode as they rushed towards the platoon. Since by this time the Nexactus air force here was essentially obliterated except for a few still surviving phoenix fighters who completely retreated after the aerial onslaught that occurred beforehand. The battle cruiser was long gone, and the surviving platoon was reduced to three soldiers, Sanders, and Diabolus. The cybernetic commander¡¯s goal at this time to save Commander Sanders and himself, and so he used his jet powered legs to fly away with Commander Sanders and essentially mag-locked onto Diabolus.


    Amy Radcliff and Gerard¡¯s Lieutenant, Lieutenant Newman were watching over a steep hill, signaling their locations so that the remaining soldiers could find them, and a drop ship could rescue them. The seven remaining Soldiers walked through one of the side doors to fly back to Arborea. As the doors closed behind Newman, he wondered if this is truly what he wanted. If he wanted to work for a ruler that would sooner put his people in danger than she would help them. ¡°We can¡¯t do this¡±, Newman said. ¡°We made it out of this alive, but Benevola¡¯s just going to find another bullshit excuse to get us killed¡±. Most of the soldiers in the drop ship had their heads sunken in their hands, Amy included. Newman¡¯s method of coping with this sort of situation, however, was just to distance himself from it. He found that much easier than getting involved with a problem he could not solve. ¡°You¡¯re right¡±, one of the soldiers said in a sob. ¡°If we come back here, we¡¯re dead¡±. ¡°Goddamit, we have to do something¡±.


    <u>Scene 21: Insurrection</u>


    The firing squads had long taken the lives of Lieutenant Newman and his vocal supporter after higher-ranking officials such as Sanders and Diabolus found out about what they said via drop ship camera. This news, spread among by rumor, strongly swayed many individuals against Benevola¡¯s rule, and some were actually quite relieved when finding out of her death at the hands of the famous or infamous Smokecutter. After the death of Benevola, the people of Nexactus were simply disappointed with their new dictator, Victor, as they observed his weakness when dealing with The Red Sickle. Amy Radcliff in particular was extremely distraught because she watched everything she fought for melt away, and the vanity of her brother, Roger, dying.


    The Red Sickle had reclaimed the territory that was originally conquered by the Trident regiment of Nexactus during the invasion of Fort Hades all because Victor decided to focus Nexactus¡¯s energy and resources towards building civilization on Arborea. For this reason, Victor was seen as being a weak and impotent, incapable of leading Nexactus correctly.


    Ralph deployed a small hover car from the spacecraft, gently pushing moon dust away from its hull as it bobbed over the milky white surface, and projecting purple light from its front, shaped in a triangular-esc pattern. Ralph, in his spacesuit, carried Stavikk¡¯s corpse within the body bag into the trunk of the back of the hover car, making several trips back and forth to gather all of his supplies before driving towards the Selene base, zooming across the surface of Arborea, and bouncing high over the indents made by craters, but the hover car catching itself just before the hull would hit the ground. In that moment, Ralph Woodhill never felt more alive. He eventually arrived outside a side door to the colossal base of Selene, seeing a huge metal door with a keypad to enter a password. After parking right next to it, he walked up to it, seeing the alphabet and numbers 1-10 embarked on it, and contemplated what to do next.


    Amy Radcliff and her followers met in private when on scavenging missions across Arborea, as Victor nor his regime made any effort to track what was said on specific missions, or what groups met together with one another. This was potentially Victor¡¯s biggest weakness, because every time these groups met out in the distance, the threat of a rebellion consistently grew. At this point, Amy and her squadron were explaining away a series of suspicious radio messages to their superiors in the radio center of Selene. After their information Nexus was destroyed, Nexactus had to work with what they had, and so built a far inferior version of that on Selene.


    ¡°The password is Arborea¡±, Victoria said telepathically to Ralph. He put in the passcode, and to no surprise, the doors immediately opened from up and down, allowing Ralph passage into Selene. Ralph, looking at every digital clock he could find said it was early evening at the time, not quite midnight, and Ralph¡¯s optimal time to find a disguise for himself, and find Amy Radcliff. What Ralph decided to do to stay unsuspicious was to wait in a bathroom stall until midnight, the only place he would not be recorded by camera.


    Midnight finally came around, and Ralph exited the washroom normally, walking towards the armory, where he quickly changed into a more Nexactus-appropriate spacesuit and replacing his double-barreled shotgun with a Nexactus-manufactured pump-action shotgun. He left the armory, leaving his previous gear behind him, hopefully recognized by no one. Ralph Woodhill inquired to other soldiers about the Beta Company, and its fate and implications, at which point he was seen in a much more suspicious light, as the Beta Company was almost annihilated during the battle of Hades. As a result, to ask about the Beta Company was inappropriate to say the least. He eventually learned this fact, and chose instead to ask where Amy Radcliff was. He was inaccurate in his guesses of her rank multiple times, but eventually managed to track her to the radio center. At this point, Amy¡¯s superiors had already left, and Ralph was left to speak with her and her platoon. Ralph removed his helmet, showing his helmet to everyone there.


    ¡°How the hell are you still alive?¡±, Amy asked reasonably. ¡°Long story¡±. ¡°Short story is I need your help, I don¡¯t have much time¡±, replied Ralph.¡°I asked you a question, soldier!¡± ¡°Now give me an answer, or you¡¯re getting the burner!¡±, Amy yelled, acting as if she was in control even though she didn¡¯t care. ¡°I¡¯m not a soldier, Amy, I¡¯m the last living member of the Guerillas¡±, Ralph explained. ¡°Holy fuck¡±, Amy said. ¡°How did you know my name?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll explain everything soon, but we need to go now, or we¡¯re all dead¡±, Ralph said. ¡°Do you know where Victoria is?¡± ¡°Whoa. There¡¯s no way you¡¯re getting to her without being pumped full of lead¡±, Amy said flatly. ¡°I¡¯m not going to Victoria, and neither are you!¡±.


    Amy then went up to Ralph and whispered to him where Victoria was kept, pointing out all of the barriers that stood between him and Victoria, and how to get past. First, there was the fact that Selene was crawling with Nexactus loyalists, Robots, and the like. The only way to get through those was with a distraction, and an ability to climb through the ventilation system of the base. The vents, too, however, were not safe either. Upon the detection of entry, the vents would release a burning, poisonous gas that would suffocate any organism passing through, as well as burning skin to the touch. Finally, a high-ranking general must be present in order to open any door of the facility. Because every general in the Nexactus army was a cyborg, they would be equipped with a voice modulator that requires puncturing of the trachea to be used. In other words, Ralph would need to kill another Diabolus, scorch his skin, and puncture his throat with a stainless steel blade. He was ready. Shortly after Ralph hid away in a janitor¡¯s closet, Amy and her platoon was met with opposition once again in a cybernetic General named Lucifix, with a platoon of his own with the purpose of interrogation. Since, on camera, Amy acted as if she wasn¡¯t affiliated with Ralph, Lucifix was more lenient. Amy requested that she could talk with Lucifix alone, keeping the information ¡°to themselves¡±. However, she had a different purpose in mind.


    In the middle of their discussion about the former events, Amy reached very carefully towards Lucifix, feigning a hand gesture, but at the last second ripping out Lucifix¡¯s voice modulator. Amy, who would have been dead in that moment if not for distracting Lucifix, as he was coughing up blood, ran out of the room, sliding the voice modulator under the door of the janitor closet. Lucifix quickly ran after Amy, more concerned for her life than his modulator, lighting her up with his machine gun and killing her before opening the door to the Janitor closet. Luckily, Ralph was prepared against such a scenario, with a heat ray cannon positioned perfectly, and with his back against the wall. As Lucifix swung open the door, he was unpleasantly surprised with a heat ray that drove through his face, disintegrating his head completely, and causing him to be killed instantly.


    Ralph, in possession of the voice modulator, ran down multiple hallways to avoid the explosion caused by the recently executed Lucifix¡¯s self-destruction. This explosion, which tore through a steel wall, caused other airlock systems in Selene to activate, closing off a whole section of the base. This caused more soldiers to go investigate, as an explosion in a corner of the base wasn¡¯t exactly a telling of good times. Ralph, using a stolen crowbar from the janitor closet, broke off the covering plate of an air vent and climbed in, putting on a stolen gas mask. As Ralph climbed through, he began to stress the journey ahead, the poison gas, and could only hope nothing below him went wrong.


    The platoon of the recently deceased Amy created as many distractions in Selene as possible, which, while aiding Ralph, heavily increased suspicion around them. As soon as they found the dead Lucifix, they immediately presumed Amy¡¯s platoon guilty, but pressed the investigation further until they found the exact culprit. After all, it wasn¡¯t like Victor¡¯s nobles had the time to Lynch them all.


    Ralph came upon a section of the ventilation system that was almost impossible to access through simple reach or climbing because of its sheer height. Below him in this vertical tunnel was a fully functioning, huge turbine, but did almost nothing to Ralph except create ripples in his clothing, which waved as the air passed by. The controls were accessible on a platform next to the giant turbine. ¡°I detect you¡¯re getting close¡±, said Victoria telepathically. ¡°Just get past the poison gas, and you should have an open route to my chamber, Olympia¡±. ¡°Make sure to reverse the direction of the air going through the turbine after you hear the poison gas entering, to lead the gas away from you and your precious skin¡±. Ralph activated the turbine, steadily pushing his body upwards as he was in the ¡°X¡± position. He then grabbed a hold of the ledge allowing him to climb through the upper vent. Before too long of crawling through the vents, he heard the sound of poison gas being released from parts of the vents, presumably detected by motion detectors. The mere touch of this gas on Ralph¡¯s skin caused it to turn red, and bubble on his left forearm, as it was the point of first contact. Ralph hollered in pain and raced back towards the turbine, putting his body into a pencil-esc shape, and drifting back down to the fan. He reactivated the controls, pushing the air the other way through, and watched the poison gas as it left the hallways. Victor himself came down to investigate, after prolonged delay, and looked through some of the camera footage. He played the footage multiple times before sitting there, jaw dropped. He yelled to his nearest Commander: ¡°It¡¯s Woodhill!¡±. ¡°He¡¯s here for Victoria!¡± ¡°Get him!¡±. Victor and a division searched the entirety of Selene¡¯s halls unable to find Ralph.


    Ralph rushed through hallway after hallway, rigidly determined to find Victoria, before coming upon an opening in the vents, where there was a dome shaped ceiling, flat, hexagonally patterned floor, which failed before a giant metal door in the floor, accessible through one final passcode. Ralph was so close to Victoria that he could clearly picture her face while she telepathically communicated to him: ¡°The password is me, Victoria¡±. If this password didn¡¯t work, it would be all for nothing, and he would have no way of reaching Victoria. Judging too by the wires overhead, there may have been some other programmed response. Ralph inserted the voice modulator¡¯s needle into his throat, a painful process to say the least. Blood came running down from the piercing as he said, in a bizarre robotic voice: ¡°Victoria¡± into a microphone next to the door. The door creaked open, appearing not to have been used in years. As the door came slightly open, a ray of blue light exited in between the blunt teeth of the door way. It came open, and Ralph fell down, finding Victoria lying dormant on her bed, still conscious, but appearing malnourished, dehydrated, and wounded. She had a black eye, blood running down her lower lip, and a broken nose. She was still wearing the hexagonal under-armor as Ralph saw before, and the bed jet black. Judging by her figure at the time, Victoria seemed to be in a similar state as to late anorexia, starved and beaten by whoever kept her there. Ralph picked her up off of the bed, opening another door on the wall from the inside, trying to get her out of whatever horrible place she was in. As soon as Ralph opened the doors, which slid up and down to open, Victor and his division greeted him with guns to the face and threatening looks.


    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot¡±, Victoria said, with the last reserve of her energy. Strangely, the division seemed to listen, and no bullets were fired. ¡°Kill em¡¯ already¡±, Victor demanded irritably. Still, their guns released no hot brass or lead, and the soldiers refused to fire. Suddenly, Victor began to look extremely nervous, and yelled: ¡°Fire!¡± ¡°Why the hell aren¡¯t you firing?!¡±. ¡°She¡¯s the one giving the orders now, Victor¡±, his next-in-charge Commander said to him, making Victor¡¯s face go pale white. ¡°Your reign is over, Victor¡±, Victoria declared. ¡°I¡¯m the true heir¡±.

 Act 6: Resolution

    <u>Act 6: Resolution</u>


    <u>Scene 22: Revolution</u>


    Victor¡¯s brain matter painted the white floor as Ralph¡¯s shotgun caved in the back of his skull, killing him instantly and causing blood to gush from his head and neck. As Ralph walked over to the others, he could see a soldier wrapping Victoria¡¯s head with bandage to stop the bleeding from a previous cut, and given canned food to stop her from starving to death. Ralph walked back to get Stavikk for a proper funeral, and hear any final thoughts anyone had. Ralph pushed Stavikk through Selene on a metal cart, his arms draped to both sides, and his skin pale and cold to the touch. ¡°It¡¯s a damn shame, Woodhill¡±, said one of the soldiers beside Ralph as they stood around Stavikk¡¯s corpse, and they placed flowers of a variety of colors inside the gaping hole in his chest. ¡°Hey Ralph, I think you¡¯d better get over here¡±, said the recently esteemed Commander Pontiff from around the corner. ¡°We might have something for your dead friend... but it¡¯s a prototype¡­¡±. Ralph, Pontiff, and the deceased Smokecutter travelled through the base until they reached the technological center, a giant warehouse-esc structure with a classic Nexactus look. It possessed purple lights, hexagonal tiles, and a huge, curved bulletproof glass window at the back of the room, granting a nice open view to the rest of the barren Arborea. Right below the window was a large, cylindrical capsule-like structure sitting on the floor with a glass top half that slid down, making a 180 degree turn leaving the capsule open for a body. Commander Pontiff, walking over to it, said: ¡°This is Nexactus¡¯s first ever rebirthing chamber¡±. ¡°Now, if all goes well, your friend Smokecutter might be able to live another day¡±.


    ¡°But there¡¯s a few things we need before we bring em¡¯ back¡±, Pontiff continued. ¡°Stavikk, here, seems to be missing a lot of blood as told by his paleness¡±, Pontiff said. ¡°I¡¯m gonna get some cultured cells to make new blood for him¡±, Commander pontiff said. ¡°Do you happen to know his blood type?¡± ¡°No, but can we check his medical records?¡±, Ralph asked. ¡°Maybe we can find that there¡±. ¡°Sorry, his records were deleted ever since he was presumed dead¡±, Pontiff responded. ¡°Ok, can we use O- instead?¡±, Ralph asked. Even if it wasn¡¯t the right blood type, it would allow him to function normally. ¡°No, unfortunately our supply was crippled, almost depleted due to a moon virus last month, which our doctors were able to stave off just in time¡±, Pontiff informed. ¡°And our current supply is sufficient for him to survive, but not to function normally. ¡°If we bring him back just with that, he¡¯ll only be physically able to stay awake for two hours a day. ¡°The rest would need to be sleep¡±. ¡°Then let¡¯s do that!¡±, Ralph suggested. ¡°In his two hours of consciousness, he could tell us his blood type, and we can work from there¡±. ¡°Ok, that solves one problem, but we¡¯re still going to need to regenerate the muscle tissue, bone, and organs Stavikk¡¯s chest cavity¡±, Pontiff explained. ¡°Do you know any way to get a whole lot of protein really fast?¡±


    Ralph dragged Victor¡¯s corpse into the room in the metal cart after short delay, which Commander Pontiff handed off to the two biologists in the room. The two of them put his body under a machine, dissolving most of his body, that which wasn¡¯t already infected, and as Pontiff explained, extracted the protein from his body into a liquid solution below him. After collecting everything that they needed, Ralph and Commander Pontiff carried Stavikk¡¯s body off the metal cart, and placed his body into the rebirthing chamber, Pontiff activating the controls to slide the glass back around, covering Stavikk¡¯s body completely. Ralph placed the protein solution below Stavikk while Pontiff placed the solution of O- blood below him. The two biologists stood there in awe. They had never seen someone come back from the dead, much less at their own hands.


    A bright blue light came to surround Stavikk as he lay there, before his body began to seem to shrink, and reverse age, seeming to get younger and younger by the second, until Stavikk¡¯s body was reduced to that of a baby, and then a fetus, until he was merely an invisible zygote. Suddenly, Stavikk began to regrow in size, growing into a fetus, then a baby, and then a child. This process continued until he again reached his age of 26. Stavikk, though, was different now after this whole process. Stavikk retained his thickened, blotched skin and enlarged build from his original mutation, but it seemed that a mask, a curse, was lifted off of him. He no longer had the many scars all over his body from the original injectors, bullets, nor the gaping hole in his chest no less. Stavikk¡¯s facial structure also was as it would have been if not for the many falls, blows to the face, and the like that he suffered in his life. In that moment, they saw a younger looking, less battle-worn Smokecutter.


    The biologists and Pontiff were equally astounded. Never before had they seen someone come back from the dead, and that day was truly an amazing day for them. The bright blue light then cast itself horizontally, initially appearing at the top of the inside of the chamber, then being cast downward until it scanned Stavikk¡¯s entire body in a top-down manner. After that, Stavikk received his memories once more. The bright blue light focused and compressed, and then shot into his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, restarting his brain and heart with electrical impulses before vanishing into thin air.


    Stavikk lay there unconscious for a few hours while everyone else waited for his awakening. In a dream-like state, his brain flipped through every memory he had: his childhood, his mutation, the Sepam Gulag, the grave guerillas, the information nexus, beacon tower, his escape from the helicopter crash, his torture by the Red Sickle, his rescue, his training in Feronia, the Red Sickle launch site, and his death at the hands of a heat ray. After that his mind went completely blank of any awareness until his recent revival. When he woke up, Stavikk was astounded at his very existence after his death, and was sure before that he was gone for good. Stavikk then became severely anxious. He saw Pharavanna out of the window, and wondered how long he had been dead for. A year? A decade? A century? Aeons? Were all of his friends dead? Did Pharavanna have a new ruler? He got partially up noticing that there was no longer a gaping hole in his chest from the heat ray, and his skin was smooth and wet to the touch. He did undergo a rebirth, after all. He also noticed the absence of all of the scars all over his skin, proving once again that something had changed.


    Stavikk, however, couldn¡¯t do this for long, and quickly fell back to lying down until Ralph checked back to see that he was conscious. Stavikk was relieved that Ralph was still alive, and told him his blood type, which happened to be A+, and allowing Ralph to give Stavikk the blood type he needed. Stavikk slowly regained more consciousness, memories, and clarity of thought before being able to finally get up from the rebirthing chamber and get a new change of clothing. Even though Stavikk no longer had a gaping hole through him, his combat vest still did, and Stavikk had absolutely no intention of looking like some sort of bizarre magician. After a couple more days of boredom, Stavikk, explored Selene for the first time. He noticed almost immediately that where the Nexactus ¡°N¡± would be cast, there instead was a bright, purple ¡°U¡±. So much of Nexactus had seemed to change, and he found not a soldier to arrest or kill him.


    ¡°Stavikk Smokecutter and Ralph Woodhill¡±, Victoria said as the two knelt before her. ¡°Both men are officially pardoned for the slain personnel of Nexactus that died due to bloody conflict between them¡±, She continued. ¡°And the two of them are no longer against us¡±. ¡°As much as you may hate these men for the family or even friends that died at their hands, we¡¯ve got bigger problems on our hands¡±, Victoria explained to the crowd around her. ¡°Kargas and his thugs are taking over our precious home minute by minute, and if we don¡¯t do something, Pharavanna¡¯s going to be the Sickle¡¯s homeland¡±. ¡°But here¡¯s the question of how we take out a criminal organization with a fighting force overpowering our crippled military (you can thank Smokecutter for that), and territory on Pharavanna dwarfing ours¡±.


    ¡°How about we don¡¯t¡±, Ralph suggested. ¡°Maybe find an actually nice planet, no mafia, no Benevola, no nothin¡¯¡±. ¡°Just a thought¡±. ¡°Maybe Pharavanna is just lost, and walking away is the smartest thing to do at this point¡±, Ralph continued. ¡°How many cities need to burn, and how much life need be lost, just so we can win at our little game of chess¡±.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry about what happened at Beacon, you know¡±, said Stavikk from the other side of the wall, arms crossed in front of him. ¡°I would have checked on you too, but Evan and me didn¡¯t have time to-¡°. ¡°This isn¡¯t about that, Smokecutter!¡±, Ralph interrupted. ¡°Remember when that ray scorched through your chest?!¡±, Ralph inquired. ¡°When our choices against the Sickle finally caught up with us, was fighting really the thing you wanted to do?!¡±. ¡°You don¡¯t exactly think clearly when you¡¯re dying, Ralph¡±, Stavikk explained. ¡°And don¡¯t act like you knew exactly what was going through my head¡±. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to experience that shit either-¡°. ¡°Then why did you dry hump with the reaper just so we could get here?!¡±, Ralph asked. ¡°You know miracle working by bringing someone back from the fucking dead isn¡¯t an easy task, right?!¡±. ¡°In fact, it¡¯s kind of fucking risky and difficult!¡±. ¡°Enough!¡±, demanded Victoria from both sides. ¡°Woodhill does have a point here, as our losses are already severe¡±. ¡°But what exactly do you think is going to happen if we flee?¡±, Victoria asked. ¡°You think Kargas is just going to let us get away after, say, an all out war on them for the past few years?¡±. ¡°Ralph, they are going to hunt us down and kill every last one of us unless we can stop them, to put it simply¡±. ¡°And I¡¯m not sure you¡¯ve adjusted to this dramatic change, but there are no Geneva conventions anymore¡±. ¡°It¡¯s just us and all we have against the most powerful known regime in the Milky Way¡±.


    ¡°Oh god, what the hell are we going to do this time, Stavikk?¡±, Ralph said with his hands covering his eyes, seeming in mental anguish over the predicament he was currently in¡±. ¡°I have an idea¡±, Stavikk said, with a smirk across his face. ¡°You might not like it, Ralph, but it¡¯s just crazy enough to work".


    <u>Scene 23: Subterfuge</u>


    ¡°You¡¯re absolutely insane, Stavikk¡±, Ralph said. ¡°You¡¯re going to die here, and it¡¯s all your own goddamn fault¡±.


    ¡°Thanks for the motivation as always, Ralph¡±, Stavikk said as he swung his two handcuffed arms from side to side in somewhat boredom. The fast, dry wind made his hair and clothing rise and fall around him, as well as move in any direction seemingly in a frenzy-like manner, and the dust in it didn¡¯t exactly make seeing a breeze. Behind the both of them was an army of the newly named ¡°Uprising of Pharavanna (U.P)¡±, or a division of the former Nexactus army. Victoria was currently absent, honestly with much better things to do than stand around in the windy, yellow wastes and wait to deliberately trade her friend to a psychotic, violent criminal. Stavikk had some silent pride about being the Trojan horse of the Uprising of Pharavanna, and while he didn¡¯t say anything pertaining to which, he certainly acted it. Because of this, many of Stavikk¡¯s cohorts including Woodhill himself held deep concern for Smokecutter¡¯s sanity, knowing not the true effects of the mutant¡¯s rebirth.


    Eventually, the spaceship containing Kargas landed approximately 80 feet away from where the U.P division was located. In full, silver body armor, Kargas stepped confidently out of the spaceship, which was sleek enough to look graceful and sturdy, but rugged enough to be fitting as the vehicle of a psycho murderer. It was outfitted with efficient shielding systems, and an array of weapons such as napalm rockets, concussion bombs, and plasma cannons. Kargas and his thugs walked over to the U.P¡¯s division, Kargas recognizing Stavikk in particular from before, and willing to trade at least a little bit of money in order to get his prisoner back. He figured if he could hold Stavikk captive, he could find a way to replicate the mutation, as a Smokecutter with his fighting skill would be a truly devastating force indeed. He was incredibly close with his research, after all. Since Victoria was absent from this ¡°meeting¡±, Commander Pontiff was chosen to negotiate instead. He was much more careful in this case, knowing that if he let down his guard, the same thing could happen as the last time Nexactus tried negotiating with the Red Sickle. The deal was tough to make for Pontiff. He didn¡¯t want Kargas¡¯s suspicion to rise by making it too easy, but didn¡¯t want Kargas to outright refuse either. They settled on an amount that Kargas was willing to pay with slight doubt of 550 GC¡¯s, and Stavikk was carried off into Kargas¡¯s ship, flying away at incredible speeds. ¡°Why do I even try?¡±, whispered Ralph, confident that he just murdered his friend.


    Back inside Selene, Victoria and her followers had clear access to the location of Smokecutter after he stopped moving. They identified Stavikk, using an attached tracker, in Nijunn, a central province of Feronia, obviously under heavy occupation, and where Victoria could safely assume as being the home base of Kargas. Even though Victoria was a telepath, she for some reason could not detect that specific location, but she didn¡¯t quite know why. Stavikk, however, knew what to do from the inside, and Victoria decided it was a reliable time to attack for the plan to unfold.


    Using drop pods all the way from Arborea, Legions of the U.P soldiers were deployed to invade Nijuun. Streaks of crimson shot down through the sky from Arborea as the drop pods crashed into the earth, and the soldiers from them abruptly started attacking the defenses around the main base of The Red Sickle.


    Stavikk was trapped in a field of blue energy as opposed to a traditional prison, with his hands and feet bound to the ceiling and floor projectors. The room he was in was made out of silver-colored steel in a clean and elegant design. Hours beforehand, mysterious people did experiments upon Stavikk, such as taking his blood, and analyzing his DNA. The mutant, for the most part, was unaware of what these people were doing, and waited until they left. Stavikk, fortunately, was prepared all along for such imprisonment, having prepared hidden tools on his person. While he couldn¡¯t currently use his hands or feet at the time, he did still have one secret escape tool.


    Commander Pontiff commanded the division of the U.P¡¯s army currently in Nijuun, advised by Ralph Woodhill. The division pushed from west to east in a vague pincer formation, fighting through encampments and anti-air guns which infested the forest, making no place in Nijuun safe, only safer. The division created cover in the form of trenches as it slowly advanced towards Kargas¡¯s base known as Olympus. Soldiers wielding more powerful weapons such as heat ray cannons or rail guns would focus down turrets, while the ones wielding faster weapons with more ammunition would focus down infantry instead.


    Stavikk vomited up bits of his potent stomach acid down onto the projector below him, melting it slowly and steadily. The projection it cast became weaker and weaker until his feet were completely free from such imprisonment. However, his hands were still trapped, leaving him essentially dangling from the ceiling. Stavikk looked up to see if he could do a similar thing to the projector above him, but to no avail when he tried, as his stomach acid could not reach that far. Instead, Stavikk pulled himself up, and kicked in one of the grates in the ceiling, causing it to fall and exposing the wires inside of the ceiling. He then consecutively kicked in the wires with his steel-toed boots, causing sparks to fly down upon the room he was in just as the projection that held him up dissipated. Stavikk was released from the energy field, but not yet free. There still lied a large, steel door in front of him, presumably that would open up and down instead of in any other manner. Though Stavikk¡¯s hacking skills were lackluster to say the least, Stavikk did have a tool to deal with this kind of barrier. In the cleanest words, he just had to wait for it to arrive.


    Stavikk squatted in the corner of the room, wincing in pain as the rectangular metal case was pushed out of his anus. Finally, Stavikk opened it, revealing a multi-tool inside. While the multi-tool had no use for hacking the door in the most efficient manner, it did have a miniature null blade attached to it, which Stavikk used to cut into the unlocking system attached to the door, and causing the bottom half of the door to open but not the top. It wasn¡¯t the whole doorway, but was enough for Stavikk to climb through with barely any struggle.


    While the U.P¡¯s air support certainly wasn¡¯t optimal, it did provide an advantage against the Red Sickle¡¯s tanks and spaceships currently fighting in the battle. Anti-air guns continued to shoot the U.P¡¯s fighter spaceships out of the air, and the sky was seemingly set ablaze.


    In Selene, Victoria ordered a missile strike against the Olympus base, but seeing that it was completely futile. The missiles exploded all around the base, but it nevertheless emerged unscathed from such a satellite strike. Because of this, Victoria finally realized that there was some sort of barrier, some sort of shield stopping both her communication with Stavikk and attacks targeting the base. With that, she realized that Stavikk was completely alone in this.


    He found himself in a much wider hallway made with an ultramodern and sleek pattern of steel on the walls, ceiling, and floor. Strangely, though, there was water in the hallway slightly that rose to a height of below Stavikk¡¯s knee, which would equate to being about knee-high for the average person, give or take. This water, however, was flowing gently in and out of drains, which suggested that this place was being used as a sewer system.


    There were also many wires that Stavikk could see through the cracks of steel, and many screens and buttons on platforms not exposed to the water, which seemed very strange to Stavikk as he travelled through this bizarre network of hallways and rooms. He eventually came upon another closed door, this time with no controls attached to it. Stavikk was initially confused, and went out looking for the missing set of controls.


    Stavikk came upon a room with a 20-foot drop in the middle, filled partially with water. He also noticed a large plumbing valve on the left and right wall. On the other side of the drop, there was a hallway to a larger computer room in the distance. Stavikk dropped down to get a better angle, and a clearer view on what each valve did, but found that the labels for each valve were written in Mandarin, an indecipherable tongue for Smokecutter.


    He went with his kneejerk reaction in choosing the right valve, as it was traditionally used for cold water, something that Stavikk knew he wouldn¡¯t harm him. Surprisingly, though, it actually caused the pipes above him to release a strange, pitch black ooze as thick and gooey as lava, but strangely at room temperature. Stavikk turned the valve in the other direction to stop the flow, but the damage had already been done. Stavikk¡¯s feet and legs began to sear as he rushed to the other valve, which released the water that the other neglected. The water flowed in, allowing Stavikk to slowly float to the top, but causing the ooze to be distributed more evenly in the water, causing him to be more harshly burned. Eventually, He climbed himself out of the drop after the water flow automatically cut. He reached the metal flooring once more, but searing with pain as well. He reached the computer room, which he saw had four operators inside, all of which neglecting to check on the noise outside, likely commonplace for them. Stavikk made his presence obvious as he walked in. Even though he was unable to speak Mandarin, he had a slightly different method of communication.


    He motioned, with his null knife in hand, for the four computer operators to leave the room so that he didn¡¯t have to kill them or knock them out. The operators, unarmed and caring simply for their own safety, left the room and sat against the steel walling,


    Stavikk closed the door behind him and tried to gain access to the computers, struggling quite severely, as the only information he could decipher was from numbers and images. Each of the keyboards on the computers had Mandarin letters, and there wasn¡¯t any way for Stavikk to change the language that he could see. He looked around on the desk and saw a device about the size and shape of a walkie-talkie, which Stavikk immediately recognized as a Universal Translator. This would be of great use to Stavikk, and he turned it on to use it, inquiring to see how he could access the computers. He went outside, shocked at what had happened. Three of the operators were crying in the corner, yelling words that Stavikk could not recognize. It was then that Stavikk saw one man floating; face first, in the water with that ooze, his skin bright red and rashed. ¡°Shit¡±, Stavikk remarked, running his fingers through his hair, with no ideas on how to solve the problem.


    The U.P division ran for cover as a barrage of napalm missiles fired from Olympus base painted the landscape an array of dark and aggressive colors with fire and smoke. After two volleys, however, the giant missile pods were emptied, and retracted back into the base after firing. Olympus base had a very angular, sleek steel design where several silver and red flags flew from the sides and top of the building. It seemed to have a strange, triangle-esc roof made of steel plating, with one silver blade arising from among them, and piercing the sky. This is where the U.P troops could see the red shield being produced, which protected the base from outside attacks.


    Stavikk saw one of the computer operators reaching for a phone-esc device on the wall. Stavikk cringed with stress, but later hoping, figuring, that the operator was simply calling in a medical team as he hid behind a wall, meaning to be unseen, and unnoticed. Stavikk was wrong. Instead, a squadron of thugs entered the corridors to investigate the scene. Though Stavikk couldn¡¯t see them, he knew that the marching of medical personnel wouldn¡¯t be deafening in the sound-deflecting hallways, and there certainly wouldn¡¯t be lights pointed everywhere. A fighter walked through the open doorway assuming nothing there, when Stavikk punched him in the head twice, knocking him out cold. Stavikk pulled the man¡¯s unconscious body through the doorway before shutting the door behind him. Stavikk began using the universal translator to scan the text on keyboard to gain an English equivalent for the words used on the keyboard and computer screen. While there wasn¡¯t always a smooth equivalent for everything, Stavikk managed to figure his way through the programs and what they did, though in the back of his mind he felt as if he was reading the writing of an infant. Stavikk found the shielding program of the base, finding an option to adjust what the shield was to be resistant against, but seemingly with no way to disable it completely. Stavikk thought about it for a moment before he heard banging against the door and shouts in Mandarin, as to demand that someone open the door, which Stavikk assumed was the man that he knocked out.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Stavikk heard several shotgun blasts from behind the doorway, as well as feeling them through the doorway, desperately trying to think of a way out of this. He looked further in the database of the computer, finding evidence of two inhibitor systems in the base, a huge technological device designed to interfere with communications over long distances, which would explain, in Stavikk¡¯s eyes, why Victoria hadn¡¯t tried to telepathically communicate with him after he was ¡°captured¡±. Stavikk, from another one of the computers, activated the pipeline controlling the black ooze, and made the black ooze pour out of the pipelines in an attempt to kill the squadron surrounding him. Shortly after doing so, the screaming outside indicated he was successful. After it died off shortly after, Stavikk killed the flow of ooze, and activated the drain below to empty the ooze from the hallways. Stavikk moved silently through the hallways once more, the ooze luckily not affecting him since it was low enough not to touch his skin. Stavikk now knew that the inhibitors were in the Far East and West corners of the base, and to speak to Victoria meant destroying them both.


    Stavikk headed to the West corner of the base first, sneaking past anyone that he could hear or see, before reaching a large, cylindrical room with a giant machine in the middle, taking up a surprisingly large part of the room, which Stavikk inferred was the inhibitor. It had a half-egg shape, and appeared to be produced from the floor, grounded to it as if it was part of the room. It had an elegant steel shell, with perfectly aligned cracks in it, where Stavikk could see blue energy lying. It was surrounded by five, floating rings in which Stavikk could see energy spin, climb, and fall between them. Stavikk entered the room, activating an alarm. The door closed behind him, and he saw four turrets produced from the walls. He shot one of them with his shotgun, before the others opened fire on him from above with burning plasma blasts. Since the turrets were poor at tracking where a target was headed, he was able to dodge many, but not all of the shots by rolling for cover, and only a few made it through his armor, and burned his flesh. He shot another two, destroying them, before taking cover behind the inhibitor. The turret foolishly shot at the inhibitor instead of Stavikk, eventually causing the Inhibitor to make a strange, loud, beeping noise, its lights turning red to indicate it overheating. Stavikk quickly looked around for a way to escape, and tried to get through the door with his null knife. Since there was nothing there to target, he searched for alternatives.


    Stavikk noticed that the room was very tall, and had a steel grate at the top, and assumingly some area above. Stavikk climbed on top of the inhibitor, and then jumped to one of the previously destroyed turrets. The final turret kept shooting at Stavikk, all of which missing him, luckily, as he quickly jumped to a semi-ring platform above. One ladder was above him, but retracted to disallow him access to the other platform above, which lied right below the steel grate. Stavikk shot the ladder with his shotgun, causing one part of it to fall, and become more accessible. Stavikk climbed up the ladder, and right as it broke off, he grabbed onto the platform above, but dropping his shotgun in the process. Now, Stavikk couldn¡¯t get through, unless¡­


    Stavikk jumped up, holding onto the grate above him with his hands. The turret continued to shoot at him and miss, and eventually the plasma shots melted through the steel grate above Smokecutter. The mutant ripped off one partially melted chunk of the grate, dropping it to be below him, before climbing up to the area above, where the grate would actually support him. The area that he reached was much like a ventilation system for the inhibitor, and looked for the closest tunnel to escape through. He saw one blocked by a thinner grate. But one, which Stavikk easily ripped off, as it, wasn¡¯t very secure. Stavikk ran through the vent as fast as he could, closing as many doors behind him as possible, and twisting and turning as much as he could to get away from the inhibitor.


    He dropped down to a familiar place near the pipeline of black ooze from the vent, before he heard a massive explosion from southwest of where he was, spewing heat and energy in a huge radius, and naturally taking the path of least resistance through the vents, scorching them with its raving retribution. Stavikk could now make out faint messages from Victoria, though it would cut off extremely rapidly. This made information to Stavikk very unclear, because what he heard was twisted and warped in thought that it made it almost impossible to decipher. Since Stavikk knew the doors would close to the second inhibitor room, he went to find the nearest armory he could spot. No such place existed that he could find, but he did find a storage room, containing steel boxes and crates appearing not to have been opened in years. He looked through the boxes there, casting dust throughout the room, and found a very old looking audio recorder. It had very peculiar sound files on it including laughing, dialogue, and speeches from a long time ago. Stavikk noticed with curiosity at how different the accents used were in these audio recordings. The accents of English were so much more romantic sounding and with ease than the typical accent that one would find on Phaethon.


    He heard one audio recording announcing the 200<sup>th </sup>year birthday of something called ¡°Canada¡± in 2067, made by a calm, professional sounding man. What was this ¡°Canada¡±?, Stavikk wondered. Was it a rivaling corporation to Nexactus? A sprawling community on Pharavanna? A newly discovered planet? Stavikk allowed the question to leave his mind as he thought about how to destroy the second inhibitor without dying, a close call the last time he did so. He recorded his own voice using the device, hoping that it would be clear enough to sound realistic enough.


    Stavikk saw a patrol of thugs circling around the inhibitor room, obviously prepared ever since the last inhibitor was destroyed. He waited for a moment for when no one could see him, then slid the audio recorder into the inhibitor room, with his voice playing as loud as he could make it. Stavikk then hid behind a wall, and waited for his plan to unfold. All he needed was for one thug to mess up, after all. He heard yelling from nearby, and then heard running into the inhibitor room, before Stavikk heard the doors close. Stavikk knew what would happen next, and ran away as fast as he possibly could, before hearing and feeling a massive explosion behind him. As the flames and energy tore through the inhibitor field, Smokecutter heard Victoria loud and clear. Victoria said: ¡°To lower the shields of Olympus base, you must destroy the main shield generator in the center of the floor, which you may have noticed is blocked off from all doors¡±. ¡°However, I detect a large amount of enemies in the area¡±, she continued. ¡°Be careful, Stavikk¡±.


    The hallways and vents were now starting to fill up with smoke, which Stavikk resourcefully used to his advantage. He manually closed doors and vent exits to guide the smoke produced from the destroyed inhibitors into the room of the shield generator, where Stavikk waited right outside. The panicked thugs that ran out of the door where Stavikk was located were inevitably surprise attacked, Stavikk stabbing them to death with his null knife. When Stavikk carefully snuck into the shield generator room, he saw that the other thugs there positioned as sentries were no longer there, and Stavikk presumed that they ran away. Stavikk saw the massive shield generator stand in front of him, a cylindrical shaped, elegant steel machine that was surrounded by computers, and had, at the top, a barely visible red beacon shot up to the floors above. ¡°How do I destroy this thing without blowing up, I don¡¯t know, the whole floor?¡±, Stavikk thought in his mind. Stavikk had seen shield generators before, but not at such a massive scale, and predicted that the result of the destroying of this one wouldn¡¯t be pretty, to say the least. ¡°Ralph Woodhill tells me that the best way to destroy the shield generator is to deactivate the cooling systems, causing it to overheat. ¡°Uh¡­ and how do I do that?¡±, Stavikk asked. ¡°You still think it was a good idea to send Stavikk down there?¡±, Ralph asked Victoria.


    ¡°You need to alter the maintenance system surrounding the shield generator¡±, Victoria said. ¡°Ralph says, look for the giant blue power box¡±. Stavikk looked around the generator and found a box with a metallic blue color, and was inserted into the side of the surrounding systems. ¡°You mean the metal one inside the generator?¡±, Stavikk asked. Victoria had a somewhat delayed response before saying: ¡°Yes, that should be it¡±. ¡°Now, you may see that it¡¯s clamped into place by blunt metal claws¡±, Victoria continued. ¡°If it is, you need to remove the claws from the rest of the device¡±. ¡°Now, you can do this¡­ one of two ways¡±, Victoria said. ¡°You can either carefully unscrew-¡°. ¡°Done!¡±, Stavikk interrupted. ¡°He just said he¡¯s done¡­¡± Victoria said. ¡°Wait a minute, did he just rip off the claws with he bare hands?¡±, Ralph asked. ¡°He did, didn¡¯t he?¡±. ¡°God damn it, Smokecutter¡±. ¡°What do I do now¡±, Stavikk asked Victoria. ¡°Ralph says you need to remove the maintenance system so you can properly disassemble it¡±, Victoria replied. ¡°Ralph also says not to do anything stupid like last time by ripping off the claws¡±. As Stavikk let out a chuckle while wiping the sweat off his brow, he asked: ¡°How did he know?¡±. Stavikk pulled the giant maintenance system out by the large, metal handle before laying it on the ground, and Stavikk saw the exposed tubes and wires connecting to the shield generator. ¡°Ok, what now?¡± Stavikk asked. ¡°Ralph says you need to break open one of the sides of the maintenance system as if it were a crate¡±. Stavikk chose the horizontally placed side that was facing him, using the null knife to saw open the edge connecting two of the sheets of metal, and then broke one of them off causing it to fall on the ground. ¡°I see a lot of wires, guys¡±, Stavikk said. ¡°Any ideas? ¡°You only need to tamper with a few¡±, said Victoria. ¡°Sever the three blue wires, then connect the seven black wires to the seven red wires¡±. ¡°Will do¡±, Stavikk responded, before doing so with haste and vigor. Stavikk then used a device from his multi-tool, the metal-heater, to weld the metal plate back onto the box before re-inserting into the massive shield generator. Shortly after doing so, Stavikk¡¯s heart sank as he heard the alarm and seeing the shield generator flashing red. It was then that he recognized the true scale of the danger.


    The shield generator exploded with electricity, sparks, and flame flying in every which direction in the shield generator room. The metal plates covering the generator collapsed, as the heat and force was simply too great for them to hold any more. As the shield generator malfunctioned, unable to work under the conditions of self-destruction, the beacon cast by it quickly dissipated, as well as the shield covering the entire base in a dome, which disappeared from the top-down, the faint red being replaced by pure transparency. While the shield didn¡¯t disguise the base itself, it did disguise a horde of Kargas¡¯s thugs positioned outside, ready and willing.


    <u>Scene 24: Showdown</u>


    The elevator doors opened on the main floor of the base, allowing entrance for Smokecutter onto the main floor. Stavikk exited cautiously, wanting to be unseen. ¡°Where are you, Ralph?¡±, Stavikk thought, meaning to communicate with Victoria that way. ¡°He¡¯s right outside Olympus¡±, said Victoria. ¡°Pontiff¡¯s division is advanced, but blocked narrowly by the troops outside¡±, Victoria continued. ¡°Listen, Stavikk, you have quite the imagination, and a base to plunder¡±. ¡°Go wild¡±. ¡°I¡¯m flattered¡±, responded Stavikk: ¡°Believe me¡±. The horde of thugs outside of Olympus made use of many stolen vehicles, such as smart-cars, tractors, and the Red Sickle¡¯s famous hover car. While all of these vehicles and all of these vehicles seemed distinct from one another, they all sported the silver and red iconography of the mafia. Ralph Woodhill and Commander Pontiff lead opposite ends of a pincer strike against the defending Phalanx, giving them the instant upper had. However, now that they were getting close, wall-bound auto guns were activated as well.


    Bullets, explosions, and blood were everywhere in sight, and it was a figurative uphill battle to face against the Red Sickle in this instance because of their vehicular and defensive advantage. The UP¡¯s air strikes against Olympus were now much more effective, the hull only blocking some of the force of impact. Suddenly, the massive doors of Olympus opened side to side, to reveal a silver-armored behemoth of armor emerge. He shot his two red-matter rifles at the troops opposing him, tearing their ranks apart with streaks of crimson. The heavily armed fighter sported Red Sickle iconography, but wasn¡¯t quite Kargas. Stavikk Smokecutter then threw two bags of grenades into every which hover car he saw before retreating into the base, as to not get lit up by every which foe. He ran into a large room with a red carpet and a black sofa, waiting behind one of the walls for his assailants to pursue him. Indeed, some of them did, and they met their match with a nasty surprise. The unnoticed sticky bombs attached to the ceiling detonated, shattering the skulls of all of the thugs charging at Smokecutter.


    Meanwhile, the distraction that Stavikk created softened up the thugs defending outside significantly; as their backs were turned, Ralph Woodhill and his side of the pincer managed to land several well-placed shots against the opposing phalanx, pushing them further and further back. Eventually, The UP forces managed to push through, making their way into the inside of the base. It had a very glamorous look to it, possessing red carpets, chandeliers, slot machines, and black sofas, making it seem like a very luxurious building from the inside. The U.P forces were reduced to no more than a platoon at this point, as the right side of the pincer formation including Commander Pontiff were slain during the battle. Ralph Woodhill was now leading the U.P troops into battle. Ralph¡¯s platoon hastily moved through the floor and onto the next, seeing as the fires from the lower floors was slowly but steadily climbing its way up, but slowed significantly by the steel and concrete walls, floors, and ceilings. It was then that the platoon of soldiers divided into two squadrons; one squadron led by Ralph climbed up the staircase to get to the upper floor, while another squadron led by Smokecutter himself went up the elevator in an attempt to get behind Kargas and his allies.


    In the top floor, Kargas was sitting in a rectangular room with a paranoid look on his face as his null blade lay on his right thigh, and his trusted bodyguards staying close to make sure of Kargas¡¯s survivability. Strangely, Kargas wasn¡¯t wearing his own smart armor at this time, but had a very good reason, at least in his mind, to abandon it. Kargas sat on his large, black couch with the glass table in front of him, seeing his punching bag in the opposite end of the room. Near each corner of the room, there were large pillars going from floor to ceiling, and giving the room an older look.


    The two squadrons led by Stavikk and Ralph entered through opposite hallways, but was met with their match, as Kargas had multiple fighters equipped with Juggernaut suits at the time working for him. Stavikk and his soldiers took heavy fire immediately, but the red matter rifles that Smokecutter possessed showed great efficiency, and was able to slowly but surely melt through the armor of the juggernaut inside. However, because of this fight, Stavikk took heavy injuries and suffered the loss of some of the armor that he wore via melee bludgeoning. Ralph Woodhill¡¯s strategy, on the other hand was to essentially lure the juggernaut into a larger room for the purpose of surrounding and killing such an opponent. However, Kargas also sent more troops after Ralph, almost annihilating his fighting force, but leaving him alive, fortunately.


    Ralph and Stavikk¡¯s four soldiers rushed in to take on Kargas himself, but Stavikk staying behind to regenerate the previous wounds he endured. As Kargas¡¯s bodyguards fell around him, he was left with only one option. Kargas previously calculated that he had a 18% chance of surviving what was about to happen, but he logically took it over next to 0%. Kargas injected himself with a large needle into his left bicep, and pushing the fluid inside his arteries. Kargas¡¯s body rapidly began to mutate, his body growing, and his mind going wild from the torment of such a process. As Stavikk walked around the corner to aid Ralph and his comrades, Kargas swung his null blade in his large arms at Ralph Woodhill from top to bottom, essentially cutting him directly in half, a guillotine of power that acted as the bane of the unfortunate Woodhill. Stavikk Smokecutter ran towards the others, but struggling because of the previous gunshots, and saw his allies get torn apart by Kargas¡¯s claws of death, each falling to the floor, damned by Kargas¡¯s ferocious force. Stavikk, due to the wounds from earlier, was only able to wield one red matter rifle, and as he lifted it to fire at Kargas, his right hand was taken off by the mob boss¡¯s thrown null blade, sinking into the side of the wall, and causing Stavikk to holler in pain and bleed profusely from his right arm.


    Stavikk then tried to pull the null blade out of the wall, but didn¡¯t have time to do so as Kargas pulled out his assault rifle. Stavikk, realizing the act, quickly hid behind one of the pillars in the room. The assault rifle fire tore through the pillar just above where Stavikk was hiding, and Stavikk constantly ducked lower and lower to avoid the bullets, until, thankfully, Kargas had to reload. During this time, Kargas was completely vulnerable, which Stavikk realized immediately. Stavikk reached into his pocket, and threw his null knife with his left arm, hitting Kargas directly in his right shoulder, causing him to be unable to shoot. After Kargas¡¯s right arm was disabled, Stavikk rushed towards him from around the pillar, and getting into a melee brawl with Kargas. The two of them punched, clawed, and thrashed at each other until Stavikk got the upper hand by taking Kargas¡¯s assault rifle, and bashing him in the left arm 6 times until Kargas¡¯s upper arm bone was completely crushed. After that, Stavikk went atop Kargas and beat at him with punches until his facial structure was completely crushed, and a mess of bone, flesh, and blood. Stavikk quickly rushed over to Ralph, winded, and ran his fingers through his spiked hair. Since he mentally blacked out through most of the fight, Stavikk was thoroughly startled at the bloodbath around him. He noticed flames creeping from the side of the hallway in front of him, and therefore chose to go in the other direction, climbing up the elevator shaft to the roof of the base, and escape from the outside. Stavikk used the many metal bars and cables to reach the height of where the elevator shaft, and then kicked through the metal door at the top to find the outside of the base very tricky. He saw below him the fire ravaging through the middle floor of the base, and caused countless explosives to go off in its reign of heat and wildness. Because of this, countless glass windows as well as sheets of metal were blown off and were continuing to do so. Stavikk climbed down a massive plate of the roofing, using a null blade to stick between the cracks of the metal sheets, and using broken windows to support his body weight at certain points. He was about halfway down the base when something exploded right inside the base, causing him to drop his null blade, which flew and fell as he did until Stavikk slammed onto a platform below him, breaking two of Stavikk¡¯s ribs and dazing him.


    At this point, Stavikk had no other option but to slide down the inclined wall of the base, hurting him as he reached the bottom causing to collapse, but not severely injured. Stavikk suffered fewer cuts from sliding down in this way than he expected, but overall was not too pleased with the result. Stavikk walked out as far as he could before hearing the roaring of an engine behind him, coming from the base: ¡°Oh fuck¡±, said Stavikk, as he turned around, wide eyed to find what faced him. A Red Sickle hover car crashed through broken window, chasing after Stavikk as well as the driver could. Stavikk waited until the hover car was just the right distance behind him before leaping to the left side of where he was running. The car whizzed by him for a few meters before turning and arriving at a complete halt.


    Stavikk had to think quickly. Realizing that he was completely unarmed now since he dropped his null blade, he had to think some way out of this. A thug walked out of the side door - which opened like a wing would flap - and reached to draw his handgun. Right as the thug reached below him, Stavikk turned around and spat directly in the man¡¯s eyes. Normally, this would do no less than delay a fighter¡¯s focus; but because of Stavikk¡¯s mutation, his saliva had an incredibly acidic composition. This caused the man to be completely stunned. After that, Stavikk rushed towards the man in a berserker rage, and cleaved through his skull multiple times with his hands -surrounded in a strange red energy-, causing his brain matter to spray out of his skull. The man¡¯s two allies also exited the vehicle, armed with null blade. Stavikk then spat in the second man¡¯s face to stun him, causing him to drop the Null blade before picking him up and slamming him into the ground impossibly fast, causing his body to make a crater in Pharavanna¡¯s flesh, and broke his spine in half. The final mobster, on the opposite side of the car, shot shotgun blasts through the windshields, breaking them into thousands of pieces, but Stavikk ducking below. Stavikk, desperate and out of options, noticed the mobster turn the corner, with a shotgun in hand. As the mobster pumped the handle of the shotgun, Stavikk yelled ¡°No!¡±. Contrary to the result Stavikk expected-certain death-, the mobster¡¯s head was completely cut open by a red beam projecting from Stavikk¡¯s mouth, leaving the flesh inside of his skull searing with heat. As this happened, Stavikk realized he was only scratching the surface of knowing the full extent of his mutation. Questions aside, he made sure the car was completely empty of mobsters before climbing into the driver¡¯s seat, as he sped away, back to his home, back to the place he once fought, the city of Crescendurn.


    <u>Epilogue: </u>


    And yet, Pharavanna had peace.


    After the defeat of Kargas, the mob boss of the Red Sickle, the faction split apart and left Pharavanna, as they were a criminal group motivated by the promise of plunder, fame, and glory, instead of an ultimate purpose, and were demoralized at the loss of a singular leader. After the Red Sickle left the planet in search of somewhere else to conquer or live, the redeemed faction now known as the Uprising of Pharavanna began to rebuild human civilization, freeing its surfs and prisoners from Gulags, and welcoming outcasts of other groups around the planet to aid its growth. Defectors of the Red Sickle were now not uncommon among the streets of Crescendurn, and the planet of Pharavanna began developing new cultures and ideas over the next few decades, all centered around the singular beacon of technology, and with the goal of liberty and peace.


    The once villainously used Eris laboratories were transformed into a prosperous medical center to treat the harm done by grotesque mutations and torture that once occurred there. Many medical professionals in the laboratories starting testing the very limits of Stavikk¡¯s abilities, finding that he had a strange way to manipulate kinetic energy beyond what a normal human could do, allowing him to accomplish incredible feats. Records of earth¡¯s history began to develop after finding of its radio messages, as well as artifacts discovered on crashed ships and in deserted buildings. After searching for months in the jungles of Feronia, Stavikk and his cohorts found Layne Pontiff, and invited him to Phaethon in the hope of him living a better life. Layne of course accepted, but chose to live further away from the city, and aided in the reconstruction of the destroyed town of Shallowstone, which became an industrious mining town.


    Politically, all ties to the Uprising¡¯s old form were abolished, transforming it into a civilization similar to one of Earth¡¯s, but different in some ways such as its focus on space exploration, and the development of cultures vastly different from Earth¡¯s. The inspiration for the cultures of Pharavanna were a clash of very far-eastern and western in nature, combining language and architecture used by both, and religion was mostly abandoned in search of technology, the vastly more attractive option for those raised on the planet itself. Since Nexactus was a global corporation affiliated mostly with the United States Canada, and Japan, part of that new culture arose, but also that of the defectors of the Red Sickle, which obviously had a Chinese cultural origin.


    Earth was a different story. Since civilization on it was essentially obliterated from nuclear war, the people on it had the choice of either leaving it behind, or die from the radiation. Life on Earth, however, was not over, and it instead adapted to the radiation, some multicellular life evolving into bizarre and grotesque forms. The Universe, still, was barely even scratched by the reach of human potential. With the development of advanced space-travelling technology, the people of Pharavanna discovered how little they truly knew about the expanses of the universe. What they did know, however, was that humanity was truly bound for the stars.