Post by serraskai on Aug 25, 2009 2:37:07 GMT -5
Excerpt from my work-in-progress novel, Spirits built from Steel (A G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N. novel)
Prologue:
Before hand.
The thought occurs to most Guardians at some point that their most exciting missions were always their first ones. The mission before you are lose any delusions as to the experience. It had been the same for everyone who rode silently in the transport truck, everyone who sat listening to the one who was no exception to this universal fact of military, the rookie that had just joined her first squad, strait out of the "new-and-improved" lackluster basic training.
She had kept herself busy (and everyone awake) for the past several hours of boring transportation by giving a detailed description of her initiation and conformation of having become a Guardian, as well as the pranks and stories her friends had played on teachers during high school. She rambled on about her favorite foods, family members, possessions, and anything else she could think of that might, maybe, sound interesting to her new, all-male team.
It was strange (in a hilarious sort of way, or so the troops decided) that she had latched onto their commander, the tall and athletic young man with short black hair who stared at her through half-closed eyes that told the rest of the squad that he was probably asleep. He had dozed off twice already, which prompted the rookie to yell at him angrily and tell him he should listen to his soldiers because maybe that could keep them alive. The real question was whether or not she actually believed that.
She drew a deep, unnecissarily long breath before spitting out “So how did you become a Guardian?” in the direction of the commander. Her face was still bright and cheery, full of youth and life and completely without scars, unlike every other member of the team. A few battles would change that right-quick, that was for sure. Her hair was so very blonde that many of the soldiers had actually mistaken it for silver when they first saw her, and hung in a ponytail down to her waist. Her uniform, as per Guardian standard, was a black undershirt and green chest-sixed shirt, which she had customized with small symbols and monicres she had no doubt created herself. Her legs were sheathed in a black pair of pants similar to the shirt she wore, but a rolled-up pair of green pants (also cusomized) provided the necissary pockets and straps for battle, including twelve slots for extra ammo. She leaned closer to their commander, trying to pry an answer out of him.
The rookie seemed about ready to ask again when the last member of their ten member squad shuffled his way through the door way from the driver’s cab of the vehicle to the cramped, dimly-lit troop area. His presence immediately ended all conversation, his piercing gaze seeming to destroy them all as he walked through. He wore a similar uniform to Aria's (albiet with armor plates across the chest, shoulder and hips and a backpack slung over his shoulder.) He didn’t wear his helmet nor did he carry one with him. However, a thick and armored mask covering a breathing apparatus forced over the lover jaw and extending up to his eyes gave the same sort of apearence.Every member of the team had been careful not to ask him what had happened to earn him that sort of treatment- those that did often found themselves considerably worse off. Stories and rumors surrounded the mask itself, but as for the truth it was anyone’s guess.
He sat next to the commander but fixed his red-tinted visore on the rookie, which only made him more intimidating to her. His words sounded filtered- they probably were- and rough through the mask he wore. “My name is Callen, are you the new rookie?”
Aria seemed almost taken aback by the fact that this man was talking to her, but it was more than likely just the mask. She stared for a moment, the question of “how” on her lips, but she held it back. “Yes,” she finally choked out. “my name is Aria, sir.”
“Good. We’ve been short a man on our last few assignments and now we’re whole again." Callen leaned back in his seat and relaxed quite a bit, a good sign (or so it seemed at the time) "Listen, we’re about to arrive at the mission area, and I need to know if I can count on you.” He elbowed the commander lightly in the stomach. “If we can count on you to keep your head in battle.” The Commander leaned forward more surprise of the occurance than the force of the impact, opening his eyes slightly, then leaned back again. He made a noise that almost sounded like a groan mixed with a sigh, then politely inquired as to whether or not they had arrived yet.
“We’re about to stop now.” Callen shook his head at the commander. He didn't see it, of course, as he was already going back to sleep, leaving Callen to speak to the rookie once again. “So can we?” The commander (who had probably just realized what he had woken up in the middle of) gave a blank look to Aria, his eyes almost as piercing as Callen's.
In an appropriate response, she straitened her back into attention and saluted in an over exaggerated way that made Callen wonder if she was mocking them. Her tone of voice, however, suggested otherwise. “Of course, sir!” Sincerity and genuine ignorance to battle filled her voice rather well. This seemed like too dangerous of a mission to send a rookie on. The commander and Callen could handle it, for sure, and their various friends that also held positions on the team may be able to survive, but a rookie seemed like a gamble at best. They were on there way to a desert outpost, deep in the heart of an area outside any known countries that was known for harboring "Variants," dangerous ancient machines, where several archeologist went digging in some ruins and found – big surprise – Variants. It was anyone’s guess what they would be fighting there. Callen’s bet was ancient war machines, but one never knows until they are shooting it down.
Callen considered voicing his opinion and asking that Aria be put somewhere safer or more fit to a rookies level, but before he could tell the commander of his objection, the vehicle came to a slow halt. Everyone slipped on their helmets, instantly losing all uniqueness in favor of an anonymous armor. At first the only change was the decidedly annoying red tint to Aria’s vision, but the HUD quickly cleared her vision and set up all of the info she would need. Absently, she wondered if Callen had a HUD on his visor as she grabbed an assault rifle from rack and stepped out of the back of the truck and into the truck into the warm sun of the desert.
Aria blinked several times as her eyes adjusted to the outside and it’s troublesome natural light. The truck had taken them into a canyon that had been dug up by the digging tools, characterized by rough walls on either side. The ground was covered by pieces of ancient metal objects that had been discarded all around and large rocks that could not be dug up or moved immediately. Farther down the canyon, there was a small maze of tents, almost every one of them had a truck next to it. On the far side of the tents was a huge obelisk that stabbed up out of the ground to what apeared to be an impressive height.
In the tent area, two men were talking over several makeshift gravestones. Both of them had pistols on their side and one had a beam saber of some kind. When they spotted the Guardians, one of them jogged over to greet them. The man was considerably older than any of the guardians that accompanied them, wearing a dull brown uniform. A white beard hung from his face, drenched in heavy sweat and blood. His clothing was drenched in a similar manner. His appearance was ragged and his hair wild, and deep pits under his eyes told Aria he hadn’t slept in a good long while.
“I was honestly wondering when you guys’d get here.” The mans voice was as ragged and tired as he looked, and was interrupted by a deep breath after every word. “We’ve been having one hell of a time.” He crouched and took several deep breaths. He had been fighting recently. The commander lifted his assault rifle just the slightest amount. His expression didn’t change in the slightest, giving him a half-asleep look.
“What’s the problem here?”
His insistence took the man aback at first, and his response had a cynical edge to it. “They didn’t tell you?” He gasped several times, then continues “They sent you all the way out here and they didn’t even tell you what was wrong?” A long silence passed as the man was left to conclude the answer for himself. “I don’t believe this. Some guardians you are! I mean really….” The commander didn’t change his expression or tone. It was like talking to a Machine- you would always get the same thing the same way, not matter how many times you ask it.
“What is the situation here?” Another tense moment of silence passed. The man stared at the commander, but soon he simply gave up and shook his head.
“We’ve been digging here for some time, and we found a whole mess of them Variants. The’ve killed sixteen of my best workers already. Old ones, Successor wars, we think.” The man led the team through a small maze of tents, some empty, some open-air tents. One of them had a large bloodstain spread in a thick and erratic line thrown across the entrance flaps. On the ground was a similar stain, soaked into the sand. It’s fresh, Aria told herself. They’ve fought with these things within the hour.
“We’ve been keeping out of the ruins since the showed up, but sometimes they come out.” The man pointed to a small crowd of people standing in and around a blood-stained tent as the passed it. “They never destroy the tents. Odd behavior if I'd ever seen it. Why do you think that is?” The man stopped and turned to the team, probing them for questions, possibly for his research.
“They only kill one of you at a time because that’s what they were ordered to do." Callen entered his rather dark opinion there without a second thought. "When and from who is what we are here to figure out.”
The man wrote down the hasty answer, talking to himself as he wrote on a small notepad. For the next few minutes the group was probed for answers in this way, but everyone seemed to give not but unsatisfactory answers, which displeased him somewhat. Finally, the now-large group began to walk again, this time is silence, towards the obelisk.
The whole group finally came to a halt at the huge metal structure, only now willing to reveal the door sunk into it’s front, previously hidden behind walls of tents. On it the door was a symbol that the Aria didn’t recognize, which frightened her a little. It looked like an orb with an angel wing on one the right side of it, arcing with it. Through the orb was a lightning bolt.
The building itself didn’t seem as large up close, maybe the size of a regular building in any city around the world, but the whole thing had an eerie ominous look about it. The whole structure was nicked and beaten from years of neglect, only keeping its basic structure due to a metal skeleton that threatened to give way at any time. Near the top of the structure was a pair of strangely neat cuts across one another. It took a moment, but Aria identified it as a symbol, an “X.”
“Yeah, we never figured out what it was for, either.” The man had noticed Aria staring at the symbol cut into the structure, and politely offered his opinion. The rest of the team seemed to dislike hearing the man speak, but said nothing. “We think it may be a warning, or a sign. Either ‘give me X’ or ‘X was here,’ whichever one you’d like it to be, I guess.” He took a step towards the door and put his hand on the console on the wall.
“We’re going in." The commander said ina low growl. "Is everyone ready?”
Everyone primed their rifles, the resulting sound acting like music to Callen. The commander pointed to two of the Guardians, whom the HUD labeled as Lepz and Rill. “You two stay out here, and make sure no one goes in and nothing goes out.” The two responded with a quick “yes sir” and took up positions in front of the structure along either side of the door. The commander waved at their guide up to this point. “Open this thing up.” He demanded. As he spoke, he rapped on the side with his knuckle.
Prologue:
Before hand.
The thought occurs to most Guardians at some point that their most exciting missions were always their first ones. The mission before you are lose any delusions as to the experience. It had been the same for everyone who rode silently in the transport truck, everyone who sat listening to the one who was no exception to this universal fact of military, the rookie that had just joined her first squad, strait out of the "new-and-improved" lackluster basic training.
She had kept herself busy (and everyone awake) for the past several hours of boring transportation by giving a detailed description of her initiation and conformation of having become a Guardian, as well as the pranks and stories her friends had played on teachers during high school. She rambled on about her favorite foods, family members, possessions, and anything else she could think of that might, maybe, sound interesting to her new, all-male team.
It was strange (in a hilarious sort of way, or so the troops decided) that she had latched onto their commander, the tall and athletic young man with short black hair who stared at her through half-closed eyes that told the rest of the squad that he was probably asleep. He had dozed off twice already, which prompted the rookie to yell at him angrily and tell him he should listen to his soldiers because maybe that could keep them alive. The real question was whether or not she actually believed that.
She drew a deep, unnecissarily long breath before spitting out “So how did you become a Guardian?” in the direction of the commander. Her face was still bright and cheery, full of youth and life and completely without scars, unlike every other member of the team. A few battles would change that right-quick, that was for sure. Her hair was so very blonde that many of the soldiers had actually mistaken it for silver when they first saw her, and hung in a ponytail down to her waist. Her uniform, as per Guardian standard, was a black undershirt and green chest-sixed shirt, which she had customized with small symbols and monicres she had no doubt created herself. Her legs were sheathed in a black pair of pants similar to the shirt she wore, but a rolled-up pair of green pants (also cusomized) provided the necissary pockets and straps for battle, including twelve slots for extra ammo. She leaned closer to their commander, trying to pry an answer out of him.
The rookie seemed about ready to ask again when the last member of their ten member squad shuffled his way through the door way from the driver’s cab of the vehicle to the cramped, dimly-lit troop area. His presence immediately ended all conversation, his piercing gaze seeming to destroy them all as he walked through. He wore a similar uniform to Aria's (albiet with armor plates across the chest, shoulder and hips and a backpack slung over his shoulder.) He didn’t wear his helmet nor did he carry one with him. However, a thick and armored mask covering a breathing apparatus forced over the lover jaw and extending up to his eyes gave the same sort of apearence.Every member of the team had been careful not to ask him what had happened to earn him that sort of treatment- those that did often found themselves considerably worse off. Stories and rumors surrounded the mask itself, but as for the truth it was anyone’s guess.
He sat next to the commander but fixed his red-tinted visore on the rookie, which only made him more intimidating to her. His words sounded filtered- they probably were- and rough through the mask he wore. “My name is Callen, are you the new rookie?”
Aria seemed almost taken aback by the fact that this man was talking to her, but it was more than likely just the mask. She stared for a moment, the question of “how” on her lips, but she held it back. “Yes,” she finally choked out. “my name is Aria, sir.”
“Good. We’ve been short a man on our last few assignments and now we’re whole again." Callen leaned back in his seat and relaxed quite a bit, a good sign (or so it seemed at the time) "Listen, we’re about to arrive at the mission area, and I need to know if I can count on you.” He elbowed the commander lightly in the stomach. “If we can count on you to keep your head in battle.” The Commander leaned forward more surprise of the occurance than the force of the impact, opening his eyes slightly, then leaned back again. He made a noise that almost sounded like a groan mixed with a sigh, then politely inquired as to whether or not they had arrived yet.
“We’re about to stop now.” Callen shook his head at the commander. He didn't see it, of course, as he was already going back to sleep, leaving Callen to speak to the rookie once again. “So can we?” The commander (who had probably just realized what he had woken up in the middle of) gave a blank look to Aria, his eyes almost as piercing as Callen's.
In an appropriate response, she straitened her back into attention and saluted in an over exaggerated way that made Callen wonder if she was mocking them. Her tone of voice, however, suggested otherwise. “Of course, sir!” Sincerity and genuine ignorance to battle filled her voice rather well. This seemed like too dangerous of a mission to send a rookie on. The commander and Callen could handle it, for sure, and their various friends that also held positions on the team may be able to survive, but a rookie seemed like a gamble at best. They were on there way to a desert outpost, deep in the heart of an area outside any known countries that was known for harboring "Variants," dangerous ancient machines, where several archeologist went digging in some ruins and found – big surprise – Variants. It was anyone’s guess what they would be fighting there. Callen’s bet was ancient war machines, but one never knows until they are shooting it down.
Callen considered voicing his opinion and asking that Aria be put somewhere safer or more fit to a rookies level, but before he could tell the commander of his objection, the vehicle came to a slow halt. Everyone slipped on their helmets, instantly losing all uniqueness in favor of an anonymous armor. At first the only change was the decidedly annoying red tint to Aria’s vision, but the HUD quickly cleared her vision and set up all of the info she would need. Absently, she wondered if Callen had a HUD on his visor as she grabbed an assault rifle from rack and stepped out of the back of the truck and into the truck into the warm sun of the desert.
Aria blinked several times as her eyes adjusted to the outside and it’s troublesome natural light. The truck had taken them into a canyon that had been dug up by the digging tools, characterized by rough walls on either side. The ground was covered by pieces of ancient metal objects that had been discarded all around and large rocks that could not be dug up or moved immediately. Farther down the canyon, there was a small maze of tents, almost every one of them had a truck next to it. On the far side of the tents was a huge obelisk that stabbed up out of the ground to what apeared to be an impressive height.
In the tent area, two men were talking over several makeshift gravestones. Both of them had pistols on their side and one had a beam saber of some kind. When they spotted the Guardians, one of them jogged over to greet them. The man was considerably older than any of the guardians that accompanied them, wearing a dull brown uniform. A white beard hung from his face, drenched in heavy sweat and blood. His clothing was drenched in a similar manner. His appearance was ragged and his hair wild, and deep pits under his eyes told Aria he hadn’t slept in a good long while.
“I was honestly wondering when you guys’d get here.” The mans voice was as ragged and tired as he looked, and was interrupted by a deep breath after every word. “We’ve been having one hell of a time.” He crouched and took several deep breaths. He had been fighting recently. The commander lifted his assault rifle just the slightest amount. His expression didn’t change in the slightest, giving him a half-asleep look.
“What’s the problem here?”
His insistence took the man aback at first, and his response had a cynical edge to it. “They didn’t tell you?” He gasped several times, then continues “They sent you all the way out here and they didn’t even tell you what was wrong?” A long silence passed as the man was left to conclude the answer for himself. “I don’t believe this. Some guardians you are! I mean really….” The commander didn’t change his expression or tone. It was like talking to a Machine- you would always get the same thing the same way, not matter how many times you ask it.
“What is the situation here?” Another tense moment of silence passed. The man stared at the commander, but soon he simply gave up and shook his head.
“We’ve been digging here for some time, and we found a whole mess of them Variants. The’ve killed sixteen of my best workers already. Old ones, Successor wars, we think.” The man led the team through a small maze of tents, some empty, some open-air tents. One of them had a large bloodstain spread in a thick and erratic line thrown across the entrance flaps. On the ground was a similar stain, soaked into the sand. It’s fresh, Aria told herself. They’ve fought with these things within the hour.
“We’ve been keeping out of the ruins since the showed up, but sometimes they come out.” The man pointed to a small crowd of people standing in and around a blood-stained tent as the passed it. “They never destroy the tents. Odd behavior if I'd ever seen it. Why do you think that is?” The man stopped and turned to the team, probing them for questions, possibly for his research.
“They only kill one of you at a time because that’s what they were ordered to do." Callen entered his rather dark opinion there without a second thought. "When and from who is what we are here to figure out.”
The man wrote down the hasty answer, talking to himself as he wrote on a small notepad. For the next few minutes the group was probed for answers in this way, but everyone seemed to give not but unsatisfactory answers, which displeased him somewhat. Finally, the now-large group began to walk again, this time is silence, towards the obelisk.
The whole group finally came to a halt at the huge metal structure, only now willing to reveal the door sunk into it’s front, previously hidden behind walls of tents. On it the door was a symbol that the Aria didn’t recognize, which frightened her a little. It looked like an orb with an angel wing on one the right side of it, arcing with it. Through the orb was a lightning bolt.
The building itself didn’t seem as large up close, maybe the size of a regular building in any city around the world, but the whole thing had an eerie ominous look about it. The whole structure was nicked and beaten from years of neglect, only keeping its basic structure due to a metal skeleton that threatened to give way at any time. Near the top of the structure was a pair of strangely neat cuts across one another. It took a moment, but Aria identified it as a symbol, an “X.”
“Yeah, we never figured out what it was for, either.” The man had noticed Aria staring at the symbol cut into the structure, and politely offered his opinion. The rest of the team seemed to dislike hearing the man speak, but said nothing. “We think it may be a warning, or a sign. Either ‘give me X’ or ‘X was here,’ whichever one you’d like it to be, I guess.” He took a step towards the door and put his hand on the console on the wall.
“We’re going in." The commander said ina low growl. "Is everyone ready?”
Everyone primed their rifles, the resulting sound acting like music to Callen. The commander pointed to two of the Guardians, whom the HUD labeled as Lepz and Rill. “You two stay out here, and make sure no one goes in and nothing goes out.” The two responded with a quick “yes sir” and took up positions in front of the structure along either side of the door. The commander waved at their guide up to this point. “Open this thing up.” He demanded. As he spoke, he rapped on the side with his knuckle.
