Corrupted Hope (Quark x Ithreal)

[Avatar Arvis]

The sounds of people chatting indistinctly filled the air and Erik made his way through the inner "city". True, the place was relatively large, with closer to two-hundred-thousand people living in this city alone, it still felt small overall to Erik. The buildings were tall, but they were old, and on the brink of disrepair. The smells of people surrounded Erik, and all too soon, he felt claustrophobic from the press of people. Even here, people seemed to give him a respectable distance, several whispering and pointing as he passed by. Heh, my reputation precedes me, Erik thought with a slight mental laugh.


He was on his way to the Compound, or the Headquarters of the Ascended Corps. Apparently they were going to assign some new recruits that had just graduated from initial training and were now ready to be paired with an experienced Ascended for further training. Erik snorted derisively. He would refuse to have a greenhorn under his command. He didn't want or need someone dying because they had no field experience. The Compound was a large building with multiple floors. The first level was almost entirely devoted to training rooms with solid-light simulations. The upper floors housed command, and the barracks.


Better get this ridiculous thing over with. Erik thought. That was when his otherwise relatively pleasant day when to shit. The very loud and obnoxious blare of the evacuation siren rang out, signaling that Evos were approaching the outer barriers. There were very few exclamations of fright. Most people quickly and efficiently headed towards the entrances to the underground bunkers that rose from the ground. They had been through this enough times that they knew what to do by now.


Erik ran into and through the Compound, to the Dispatch center where he grabbed his trusty weapon and then off to transport. The transport system was a network of magnet trains that could reach any part of the outer barriers that protected the city within 2 minutes, despite the outer barriers being miles away. Erik and several dozen Ascended had been dispatched to the Northern Quadrant. Erik noted the number of fighters, and instantly deduced this was no normal Evo attack.


After just a minute on the train, Erik and the rest of the Ascended disembarked the train, and stood upon the immense steel wall that was fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide. The wall stretched into either distance as far as the eye could see. Directly ahead, you could see a large dust cloud on the horizon. Dispatch had placed the encroaching mass 5 miles out, and closing fast. Estimates were that the hoard of Evos to be several hundred strong. "Just great. I wonder what riled them up..." Erik said to himself as he went with this small squadron to the lift that would take them to the ground outside the barrier.


@Quark

 

[Quark]

Turning around a corner in the corridors of the Compound's lower floor, Jun waved to her friend. He gave a silent nod to her, wishing both of them luck on their formal entry into the Ascended. Just moments ago they had arrived together with a small group of other new recruits. As she was an ascended, it wasn't a surprise that they would not be allocated the same training room.


As he had left, she inspected the numbers on the doors, until reaching the designated one. Opening with one hand, she entered in, inspecting the interior and noted that no one had arrived yet. It seemed that she may have arrived earlier than her mentor, or field trainer. Their recruit training instructor didn't say very much, other than that training and the actual field work was nothing to compare. She shrugged as she settled to sit down by the bench on the side. Perhaps the training was all to prepare themselves just in terms of mentality. At the very least, if she met an elder member, they may have known about what happened to Shun. There weren't that many Ascended from what she remembered in the populations statistics.


Her thoughts were interrupted as a sharp tone from the speakers pierced into the silence. On reflex, her bolted up from where she was sitting in realising what the sirens indicated. Swiftly she opened the door and dashed to the corridor. Seeing a few less confused faces, she decided to follow them. On the screen in the main hall, the words confirmed her suspicion that there was an emergency. As for what, she did not know until she was on the train from the dispatch centre.


Within the few minutes towards the Northern edge of the city, her eyes narrowed as the wall of cloud seemed to get closer towards the city. Rather than focusing on the other Ascended around her, old and new, thoughts were more circling around the Evos. She gripped her katana tighter, unsure whether she was fully prepared to face all of them and come out alive.


@Ithreal (have subbed to the thread, so no need to tag after this o/)

 

[Avatar Arvis]

Once on the lift, Erik and his squadron chitchatted while waiting for lift to deposit them on the ground. They weren't nervous or worried. They had fought together through thick and thin, and knew what to do. They trusted each others judgment and skills to see them past the battle. Erik was the leader of his squadron, with two gunner and the rest bladers. One of his people cracked a joke and they all laughed. That was the moment the momentum of the lifted ended with shudder as the ride ended. Immediately everyone became serious. This was no game.


Others were already on the ground, and Erik quickly directed his squad to their post while listing out commands. That was when he heard the crackle of static that was immediately followed by a relay personnel requesting authentication that Erik was present and ready. Once that was given, information was relayed informing them that sensors had detected near two hundred medium class Evos en route, to the predicted battle grounds, followed by nearly seventy large class Evos some distance behind. The medium class were Lowens, vicious creatures that resembled lions, except they had organic metal blades that ran along their spines, and joints. They also had organic metal plates of armor the protected most vulnerable areas except for the the juncture of their chest and neck. They were fast monsters, nimble and cunning. Pair that with the ability to unleash fire as an attack, and they were very dangerous creatures.


That wasn't the bad news though, he had also received an order to assimilate a new recruit into his squadron. Cursing, Erik tried to refuse saying this was not the time to put an untested person in a well organized unit. But the command had come for some place high up, and the command remained.


@Quark tags help to ensure there is a notif. Even if you are subscribed, notifs don't always appear.

 

[Quark]

After the bullet train had lurched to a stop, she followed closely behind the group of Ascended out of the carriage as they headed towards the lift. She spotted another one, who seemed to be gripping onto his weapon with a slightly nervous manner. It was comforting to know that she wasn't the only one who was new around here. Although, that just meant that it was likely another one might end up as a mangled body.


Shun had spoken that on his first field work, the other knew kid he had been recruited with barely survived. The battlefield was too chaotic to even keep track of your teammates at times. A thumb ran across the hilt of her katana, a habit of nervousness that had developed over at the training camp. The door to the lift closed behind her.


Within the small space, it was indeed unexpected that some of them were just chatting, some even laughing. Without the many Evos lurking outside, and their weapons and their scars, it would have been they had just been a group of friends on a trip. The other new recruit and her gave a few glances around, not quite used to the rather carefree atmosphere. Yet the instant the lift jerked to a stop. All the laughter died, and they walked out as the grim atmosphere soon settled in. An electronic notification came to her, which Jun quickly checked. She had been allocated to Commander Gliborna's team, and would be required to assist his team.


As she exited, with the others, her eyes darted from one head to another, trying to locate the commander. Once all the members had exited out, one of the front-most had started listing instructions for his squad. That would be likely to be who she should be looking for. She had waited for him to finish and a few of the other members to distribute out among themselves before she walked up to him and gave a polite nod. "Commander Gliborna?" she asked with somewhat uncertainty. "Jun Stratus reporting in. I have received notification that I am assigned to this squad for today's emergency assault."


@Ithreal

 

[Avatar Arvis]

Erik inspected the kid in front of him, fresh out of the training. He snorted derisively at the kid. "I don't know what Command has been smoking today, but this place isn't the place for newbies like you." Erik said, and pointed to the barrier behind the kid. "I suggest you wait up there, that way you can't get in someone's way and end up dead." And with that, Erik turned around and strode away.


A few minutes later, the Evos arrived. They were running full kilter towards the barrier, their growls and screams could be heard as a wave of noise rushing towards the Ascended. Erik got into a stance, his sword out before him. With a thought, he summoned his fire, and a moment the blade was glowing red-hot as heat radiated from the weapon. Lowens' organic metal armor protected them from most conventional attacks, but if his blade was hot enough, he could slice right through that armor as if it were warm butter. And with a savage war howl, he surged forward towards the monsters. All around him, he heard his compatriots respond likewise. Then the two sides collided in a roar.


Erik slashed at one unlucky Lowen, cleaving through it as if it where made of air, the wounds cauterized as the two halves of the beast fell to the ground dead. Erik followed through with a cross slash, which missed the target, but with his empty hand, he unleashed a torrent of flames that caused the monster to scream and backpedal. Erik took advantage of the distraction and surged forward, dispatching that monster in a single strike. This continued on Erik killing droves with practiced and analytical ease all the while conserving his strength.


As he was fighting a particular nimble and cunning Lowen, he was alerted to danger thanks to his warrior instincts and with his empty hand created a blue energy barrier that protected him from the rear as a large fireball exploded over the barrier. The fire wasn't strong enough to affect the barrier, nor push Erik forward at all. "Honestly, sneak attacks are boring as hell." Erik said. With that he managed to strike his forward opponent while they were still blinded by the after effects of the fire. Then he turned to the Lowen that had failed to attack from the rear. "My turn." He said, and his sword, which had been imbued with fire since the start the battle suddenly returned to normal.


With that, Erik activated the forme change of his weapon, the and sword became a cannon. There was a low hum as the weapon gathered power. Fiery red energy gathered in front of the cannon's barrel. "Eat this." Erik said, and released the attack. Fire exploded from the weapon in a large spiraling beam. It screamed through the air, destroying many Evos in its path. Breathing hard from that exercise, Erik returned his weapon to sword form, and reignited the weapon.


@Quark

 

[Quark]

If Jun and the others hadn't been at the recruit training camp, there would have been a scowl on her face. However, the new recruits have experienced countless times of off-putting comments from their commanding officers. All it really meant was that they were required to all be like-minded. Or don't even need to think too hard. It was grunt work after all, they just needed to fight and protect the city.


Her dark eyes followed the direction where Gliborna was pointing towards. Above the lifts near the barrier of the city.There were a series of footsteps, and she turned back to see that he was already walking off. To be honest, she didn't want to fight. Anything that she could die in wasn't something one wanted to jump into. While half of Jun was going to take a sigh of relief, she couldn't feel but glare in frustration at the back of the black-haired commander's head. The only reason they probably also sent in the new recruits was because of the sheer number of Evos. If any of them got close to the city, there would be people dying and mourning. She had followed orders, she was positioned where he had instructed. He never said anything about not assisting in long-range attack though.


She refrained from letting out a sigh by biting onto her lip as she walked back to the lift quickly. Instead of getting within the barrier though, she jumped up from the bottom of the lift's pillar, all the way up to the spot that Gliborna had been pointing to. She turned to face the battlefield. Here was a better view. Though some of the Lowen were hidden in the cloud of dust, her falcon's eyes could see their features. The joints between their armoured backs and spikes.


The Ascended that were on the frontlines were able to stop the Lowens from coming closer, but there were still more behind. Not wanting to be idly just staring, she crouched down as from her pouch on the side to take out several flasks. They contained a small chunk of copper and steel. Though the temperature wasn't too warm, they soon softened to liquid and floated out of the uncapped bottle. Her eyes focused on several of the Lowen, as the suspended liquid metal hardened into spikes. There was a slice through the air, and the metallic spikes sped like arrows towards some of the Lowen. One of them swallowed the thin spike, but then soon was on its knees and groaning. With a flick of her wrist from within spikes pierced its head. A few other spikes pierced into the junction between the neck, bringing another two down.


"Tch," she cursed under her breath when one of the Lowen had been agile enough to avoid her spikes. The metal from the other dead Lowens quickly formed to liquid and shot up towards it, aiming at its eye and its chest.


@Ithreal