Arkenstone_2

Cesar woke up from a massive headache he had forgotten about when he lost consciousness, the pain making him wonder if someone could knock him cold again. He scratched his head and felt a tissue—a bandage covering half of his body. He felt the texture of its clean white surface, with stitches keeping it from loosening in the middle of his face, chest, waist, and...

"You're fully bandaged, see?!" burst a female voice on the other side of that room, hellbent on halting Cesar's inspection for some reason.

He saw with his good eye that a woman was staring at him irritated, a bit blushed too. Her black hair was short,, soft like silk, wearing an equally black slim suit adequate for piloting mechanized walkers, truly a sight to behold; Cesar wished he could appreciate the full vision with his bad eye as well.

The girl stood up, now collecting herself, "Mercenary, you have been rescued by the..."

"Hex? I've been detained by the Hex?"

The girl cleared her throat.

"Rescued would be a more suitable word."

There was a brief moment where Cesar considered her. Then, he deducted it would best to play with the girl's claim.

"Ok, rescued then. Thank you."

"You're most welcome, sir," she said, as serious as ever,  "Rejoice, for the Hex Authority has saved you and your brother-in-arms from certain doom."

"Yay, thanks!" Cesar replied.

"Yes... ehem, now, if you don't mind me asking, why were you laying on the premises of burned ground, with you scorched to the thousand hells and your friend losing litters of blood."

"Ah, I don't seem to know all the details..."

"Doubtless," the girl continued, "the worms attacked you, their acidic spit burning your skin and knocking that guy unconscious in a swing."

Cesar ignored half of her speculations, trying to picture the whole thing so that he could give a full report, "it was flying..." he vaguely said.

The girl stepped back, surprised at the revelation.

"Flying one? There have been no reports that the worms could fly!"

"Gael intended, or pretended, I don't know for sure with that guy, to shoot it as it flew from the sky, but it evaded it easily."

"Flying worms... I bet this Gael is this friend healing in the medical chamber." 

"Friend?"

It was then that Cesar could appreciate his environment well. The room was a clear example of what a submarine bridge would look like, except smaller, way smaller. There was just enough space for a pilot seat on the front with many guidance instruments. The back was capable of holding a bed and, as the Hex woman said it, a medical chamber.

In said pod-looking device, Cesar saw Diego's head through the one window. It was filled with a strange white-colored liquid that pulsated with light—which intrigued Cesar.

"You like that?" the girl said, smiling, that is a piece of marvel I got recently equipped into my walker.

"What exactly are you doing here, ma'am?"

"I'm on duty trying to pick any stragglers or wounded on the field."

"Since when are the Hex interested in saving people?"

"I don't know, ever since the worms attacked en masse, it's been quite messy."

"I didn't know there would be so many stragglers, I think the only ones interested in this region were the Golden Elves and the Annals Institute."

"Like I said, things have been messy."

Cesar gave her pause, as a sudden beeping coming from the helm stunned the girl, as she rushed to take the controls.

"Shit, Ticks!" she cursed.

"Everything all right?"

"Yeah, yeah, just stay there all right?"

She grabbed her headphones and began spouting codes and callsigns. Cesar began to unbind himself from the bandages, finding them quite restraining.

A quick rumble shook the cabin.

"Shit shit, no, no, cease fire, friendly fire—I repeat, friendly fire!!"

More shaking made Cesar grimace at the girl, he began to look for his things, hitting every compartment he could find. The girl noticed that and stressed even more. The bandages were now spiraling off on their own.

"What are you doing?" she asked, frantic, but her eyes widened and her face blushed when Cesar's body was fully bare, "What the frick is going on!?! Ah no, stop your shooting, friendly fire! If you remove your bandages your burns will be exposed!"

"The bandages were uncomfortable, I need my other half to fully move."

The girl then paid full attention to the boy's body, and lo and behold... it had been fully healed!

"How?" she asked, astonished, ignoring the incoming fire.

"You're not Hex, are you?" Cesar asked, "Aha! Here they are!"

The boy began to put on some pants and grab his guns while the girl shuddered. He checked the loadout.

"You said Ticks, right?"

The girl remained silent but nodded.

"Look, you're the same as me, I'm not going to hurt you," he said as he switched his magazine from bullets to a plasma cartridge on his two machine guns, "Would you be so kind as to open the hatch?"

"You want to go outside?" the girl finally said.

"I'll help you, you helped me and Diego recover, all I can do is return the favor."

"But you're outgunned!"

"They're Ticks, I can deal with Ticks."

The girl went for a button on her controls, and the backdoor began going down.

"Thank you, Do you have any weapons?"

"This walker is just a transport walker, and I have a rifle..."

"Good enough, set this walker to walking again, take us out of here, oh and look out for Diego... especially now since he appears to be drowning."

The girl noticed that Diego, now fully awake, was frantically looking for a way out, his face panicking and his cheeks inflated with air.

"Ah!" the girl exclaimed, venting out the liquid and opening the hatch. Diego fell and smashed his face against the metal floor.

"Cough cough, this... this hasn't been my day, has it?" Diego uttered, looking at the slimy liquid wetting him.

"He's fully healed!" the girl yelled again, shocked, "but how?!"

The door was finally open.

"I'll be right back," Cesar said, jumping out of the big, bipedal walker.

The girl looked at Diego, then looked outside again.

"This is not helping my mental health," Diego said.

"I knew it!" she stated.

"What?" Diego asked, confused, "Who are you?"

"You guys are Pathfinders!" She said, excited.

She ran for the controls and pushed the joystick, diverting all power on movement.

Outside, Cesar watched as the walker proceeded to march through the forest. Little time did he have to pause, as flying drones appeared from behind the treeline and above the foliage, twenty in all.

He took a deep breath, "Okay, let's do this."

He drew his machine guns and began to fire at the drones, who were still aiming at the fleeing walker. His bolts began to shoot them down in a way that the drone wing paid more attention to him. It was too late, however, as soon the entire cluster had been eliminated.

Tkssst "Yo, Cesar, it's Diego" the comms said in Cesar's ear, "We've got incoming on the walker you're protecting, you seem to have woken up the hive, they're sending more drones plus we see multiple live ones coming, the Hex know that we're here."

Cesar began to run towards higher ground while following the walker, "Stay with miss..."

"Tamar!" a female voice yelled on the comm, "It's Tamar!"

"Protect Tamar, she was kind enough to pick us up from the landing zone."

Back in the walker, as Diego and Tamar adjusted to the up and down shaking of its two giant legs, Diego loaded up his sniper rifle.

"They're ticks, a sniper's hardly gonna do the job," Tamar commented, as she tracked her route.

"They're Ticks, all right, but when the heavier guns come, if they come, it's gonna get messier for simple machine guns."

"See that right there is your mistake, we're pathfinders, learning the messy ways of Moros is our thing."

"Seems modesty is not one of them."

"Tachyon beam loaded," Diego uttered as he loaded a very unstable-looking cartridge that spew electrons.

"What is that?" Tamar asked, nervously fixing her headphones. She was curious about finding pathfinders on the road, but now she was regretting that choice.

"Tachyon beam," Diego responded.

A beeping sound, then two, then many popped on the walker's sensors. Then they began to disappear as more machine gun shooting took place outside. However, one in particular caught her attention and made her gulp.

Diego seemed to notice it as well, "That's a big one."

Cesar had just finished the remaining Tick drones when the crashing of trees rumbled from the distance, growing closer and closer, until two massive mechanical feet stepped into the scene. From the walker's perspective, a great oval eye came forth from the pines, beaming red, somehow angry lights as it rumbled and rumbled. Tamar instinctively breaked.

"Attention rogue walker, this area is under the control of the Hex military, you're in a no-transit zone and you have fired upon Hex forces, surrender now and prepare to be escorted to Base..." the voice hesitated,  "sixty-nine".

Both Diego and Cesar chuckled at the name. They've heard that Hex bases were numerically named as per the time of their establishment, and so the fact that the GP region's forward base happened to be named sixty-nine added a whole new shade of irony to their conservative predicament.

"This is Bigfoot walker, the Hex Authority does not have jurisdiction over Great Phallus," Tamar said, "You fired first upon our ship, we're responding in kind."

"Things have changed in the Northern Arm," the voice said, emphatically, "Constant worm attacks in the region have become a matter of national security. If you don't comply, I will be forced to terminate you as per regulation 00—"

"Comply to this!" Diego shouted as he leaned out of the Walker over its roof, firing its tachyon beam from the sniper rifle, the recoil was too much and Diego was sent flying off the walker and crashing down a tree.

"Shit, what are you doing?!" Tamar panicked.

"Hex policies are a pain in the neck," Cesar responded over the comms, "they sure love to monologue their regulations. Every. Single. Time."

The hit had been direct into the gleaming red eye, and the robot shut down immediately, kneeling and making the ground tremble. Tamar hit the reverse and pulled the joystick so to avoid a crash with the bot.

When all was done and the smoke dissipated, Tamar took a deep breath and cleared her sweat as she used the walker's visuals to peek at what Cesar was doing. The boy, with his eyes closed as ever, was looking at the Hex robot stoically, as if enjoying a moment's respite.

"So these are pathfinders..." she uttered, admittedly blushing a bit.

Diego stretched his back as he recovered from the fall, grabbing his sniper rifle again.

"Did I hit her?" he asked as he rushed to his friend's side.

"Uncertain," Cesar asked, "Tamar, you still with us?"

"Yes!" she yelled, taken aback.

"Check the robot's back, does it have a missing part with few burn stains in it?"

Tamar zoomed in on that specific area, seeing that a whole compartment had left the bulky torso.

"Indeed, that's a good thing right?" she asked.

"This is not a normal mech pilot," Diego concluded.

"Look alive," Cesar said as both of them aimed their weapons at the forest, seeking a missing target.

A growing hissing alerted both teenagers, and their eyes lit up.

"Above!" they yelled together, jumping away from each other.

An explosion lifted ground and grass just right where they had lept away from, shaking even the larger Bigfoot walker.

"What now?!" Tamar yelled, desperate, ordering her walker to back down even more, her sensors indicated a lifeform had emerged from the consecutive dust cloud, "what's that?"

"A fricking Musa," Cesar said.

Tamar felt like passing out, right there, in front of them, was an elite Hex Warrior.

The Musa in question emerged from the dust cloud. It was a teenage girl just like the trio, only that she wore a stylistic exosuit in blue, like most Hex standard units, except that she had laser cannons on the back of her suit and metallic wings. 

As they appreciated the armored warrior in all her splendor, her laser cannons came online.

"You managed to defeat my Centurion robot in one hit, impre—"

Another tachyon beam hit her directly, sending her away once again into the woods. A stunned Cesar turned to Diego as he looked back, and smirked.

"Monologue window," he said.

"We won't be able to take another shot like that at her, though," Cesar commeted as he tapped Diego's shoulder in approval.

"You mean she's not dead from that?" Tamar said, "This is bullshit, I'm sorry guys, this is where we part ways."

The walker turned around and proceeded to leave.

"Clever girl, leave the mini-boss to the pathfinders," Diego said.

"I don't want to hear this, you guys are crazy and I don't want to fuck around and find out what happens, shutting off comms now!"

"Wait, Tamar!" Cesar called out.

"What is it now?!" she yelled.

"Thank you for saving us, we'll never forget it," the boy said, truly grateful, smiling as gently as possible.

Tamar saw all that from her visual sensors, and could not avoid getting blushed again. She turned off her voice communicator and rushed to the opposite treeline. Leaving nothing but static on the boys' ears, yet as she wished to hear their battle more, she kept listening.

Diego smiled at Cesar, "Ho ho, thank you for saving us, is it?"

"Shut up, you know I have a weakness for girls with glasses."

Somewhere behind them, they heard the Bigfoot walker crash against something, then it resumed its course.

"You dared fire at Mneme, 3rd Musa of the Hex Musa Project!" the alleged Mneme yelled as a blade beamed into existence in the thickness of the forest, and the cannons charged up.

"Switch to dueling mode," Cesar said, holstering a machine gun and starting to reshape the other in a series of movements. Now its barrel was at the center, and the body of it had split in two to serve as a tilt, with a new plasma cartdrige directly inserted in-betweem to charge up the new form—a plasma sword.

Diego disassembled his sniper, detaching the barrel and a small portion of the body to make a semi-automatic gun, loading it with plasma, while the rest of the body, rod, and accessories assembled to make a makeshift core with a handle that could be attached to the forearm. When Diego insterted a plasma cartridge to it, it beamed an expansive, round, green energy shield.

The Musa's cannons fired at them, making a small smokescreen, yet it quickly cleared, and Mneme noticed how the shield had effectively deflected the shots.

"Hooo~" she exclaimed, "You're not normal tresspassers with fancy guns."

"This job is not making it us easy," Diego said.

"First a difficult start, now a random encounter with a mini-boss, of course it was not going to be easy," Cesar giggled, "Mark my words, if we successfully complete this mission, drinks are on me."

"I'll hold you to that."

Thrusters in Mneme's boots and back propelled her towards the boys, "let's see how you handle my attacks from a closer distance, readying a blow from her sword.

Diego readied himself, wondering if David and Gael had been fared any better.