"Hey, wake up"
"What the hell do you want?" said the groggy man, as he opened his eyes and tried to place where he was. Then it all came back, the Phoenix base on Pentax 4... "Are you Vega?" asked the uniformed officer impatiently. "Yea, thats me" the man replied. "The commander wants you..." The hungover warrior cleared his eyes and sat up. He couldn't believe he was taking orders from this scum, but, it was his job, for now. He slowly walked to the refresher, as he switched it on he felt the warm water flow over his body, cleaning off the caked blood and liquor, from the previous nights incident, he smirked glad to know the blood wasn't his own. The officer waited nervously and impatiently as Vega dried off and suited up in his civ-clothes, aching too badly to don his myrmidon armor just yet. As he stood up ready to go the officer scoffed at him and walked out of the room.
The officer led him down the short hallway of the base he already knew.. too well. He had become accoustomed to the layout quickly, for knowing it might save his life sometime. He felt his stomach form a knot as he walked down the hall thinking of the many reasons why, that annoying commander, all that liquor, maybe the repulsive surroundings of all these halls embrazened with the phoenix emblem, its hard to tell, all made him cringe.
At times he wondered why he took this job, besides the pay. It's been so monotonous. Just stand around, sleep, get up, stand around, over and over. He decided to ignore it for now. Something was up and maybe he could see some action. After the walk they arrived at a high double door, which two guards opened as they approached. The commander's gaudy office showed little of what the true meaning of what this base was for. He watched and wondered how a flit like he could get this position, never having had to prove himself in battle. "Ah, Vega. I heard of your shenanigans last night. That's the second time. Start acting right or you'll find yourself bugging another man of my stature for a job." The hatred between the two was obvious, but the surrounding warriors and the oath between them kept them from acting upon it. "We are preparing for an attack soon. We can expect a large Blood Eagle force to attack within the next few days. I hired you to protect me. Do you think you can do it?" He got his answer in a cold stare from the hardened warrior before him. "Good. Seeing as how we don't have many forces at this outpost, while we wait for further reinforcements, we have hired a mercenary group to help us battle."
The man answered as he turned to the door, "You called me here for that? Thanks for the info, oh High One. I'll get back to bed now."
"It's not that simple, Vega. Being a mercenary group, they might also have a second agenda, like me."
Vega thought of how much he wished someone had paid him to kill this man, but so far he'd had no luck.
"I want you keep a close eye on them, you know their type. Find out what they're after. Oh, and you're on duty in 20 minutes. I want you to patrol their rooms. Got it?" The twit dismissed him and Vega quickly returned to his quarters to begin putting on his myrmidon armor. Back in his room, Vega opened the chest at the foot of his bed and pulled out his armor.
It was an old war-torn Blood Eagle armor emblazoned with the emblem of his brothers, the Star Slayers. The armor served him as a constant reminder of his lost brethren and made him furious that he couldn't find them. He wore it as his code of honor in his loyalty to his brothers. It was the first armor he ever wore and would be the armor that he died in. He never really cared during battles, if someone confused him with the enemy. Either way, anyone that touched him would surely regret it. After the meticulous task, he retrieved his chain gun, plascannon, and shield pack from his locker.
As he stepped out the door, he thought about how tedious patrol was. As he walked through the halls down to the barracks that held the Mercs, thinking of how lucky he was. He got officer's quarters seeing as how he had to be within arm's length of the commander at any time. As he reached the bunker, he felt something hit him from behind, spun around, chain gun in hand, barrels already spinning, to see a man in strange armor standing behind him. Vega threw him against the wall, pinning him with his strength, enhanced by his heavy armor.
"Who the hell are you?" Vega whispered.
"Hey, watch it big fella. I'm one of those Mercs your boss hired."
Vega asked, "What the hell is your name?"
"Chill, man. The name's not important. Call me Spectre."
"Watch it spook and don't pull that stunt again."
"Hey. I just wanted to know why you're in that bloody armor."
"They hired me. I wear my armor, not those scums' flimsy plastic armor," Vega spat out.
"Okay. Okay. I'll see you around, Okay?"
Both men began to walk as they had been, snorting disgust at the other's behavior, right as the base was rocked by explosions everywhere and the ceiling began to give way. "By the ELD..." yelled Spectre when his sentence was cut short by an arm slamming across his chest, sending him flying. Within a second, a charred boulder of concrete smashed the floor where he had stood. He looked up to see his savior as the man in heavy armor he just tangled with, resetting his arm after it had been hit by the boulder. He tried to say thanks but his words were muffled by the speaker-enhanced voice yelling, "Take this!"
A shield pack hit him in the chest. Spectre caught it and ran off. As Vega turned away, a voice came over the intercom, "All warriors suit up. The Blood Eagle are early. The defenses are breached. I repeat...." Then only static.
Vega flipped on his jets and jumped down the quickly-crumbling hall to the commander's office. He brought up his plascannon and made sure it was loaded as he reached the door. As he rammed his shoulder into the door, he could hear yelling inside, but it wouldn't budge. He grabbed another passing myrmidon by the arm and ordered him to help smash down the door. The other soldier brought his chain gun and, on the count of three, they smashed into the door with their full force. The door crumbled under their combined weight and they tumbled into the room. As they regained their footing, the saw three hoplite Blood Eagles preparing to execute the commander and some poor soul in pletlast armor. Both of the intruding warriors took aim and opened fire on the Blood Eagles with their backs turned. Their fire quickly ate through the armor, ripping into the warriors' skin. As the would be assasins fell to the ground, one had a death grip on his storm hammer and was still firing off disks. As the commander stood up, a disk exploded into his chest with the force of a grenade, sending him flying. He looked up at his two would-be saviors with a sort of awestruck gaze, as he looked down at the gaping hole where his chest used to be and collapsed to the floor.
The pletlast quickly rose to his feet and ran to a panel on the wall. He slammed the button down, revealing a small armory behind the wall. The other heavy warrior said, "Wait a second, what's everybody's name? If we're going to communicate, we have to know. My callsign is Knight."
"Morpheus," as Knight quickly began running a nano-repair kit over all of them.
"Vega, but I go by Gangrel."
When they finished, they grabbed all the weapons they could. Morph and Gangrel grabbing shields. They looked at each other silently and then charged out the door.
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