Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

__________*_Skylen_*__________

'Good riddance' I thought and snorted in satisfaction after I saw that armoured dragon get ripped from the Jump.

'But who was it? It looked like Alex, but the colouring was slightly different, and judging by the build and the horns it was male... was there more of them?'

My attention was brought forward to the ruckus happening just ahead. I floated forward to B02 who was holding Sarah Jarvie and pulled her from his grasp and held my tail tip near her throat.

Skylen: "VANGUARD!..." The unknown Dragoness Vanguard stopped resisting my SkyTech upon seeing me with Sarah and gasped, "...tell me young Vanguard, why is it you chased me into the Jump?, I doubt it was just for my pleasure..." I extended my tail blades and held them closer to Sarah's throat.

Vanguard: "Wait! Wait! Don't..."

Skylen: "Tell me who you are then!"

Vanguard: "That... Might upset you."

Skylen: "Do you know what would be upsetting..." I pressed my blades against Sarah's throat, cause her to whimper as some blood trickled out.

Vanguard: "Stop! It's Sora! My name is Sora!"

Skylen: "Well Sora, pleasure to meet you. Why is a Vanguard, a wielder of the Heart, such as yourself not wearing any sort of armour? Executioner? Maybe?"

Sora: "If you really must know, I guess you could call me your cousin... In-law. I am the daughter of queen Arisu."

My eyes widened in shock.

Skylen: "RESTRAIN HER! AND IF SHE ESCAPES YOUR HOLD I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF!..." I threw Sarah back to B02, "...If either of them try anything, kill her as well!..." I barked at B02. "...I can not compromise our destination, I'm rerouting." I floated ahead of everyone and pulled the Shard from a pocket on the front of my plasma canon holster, held it tightly and changed the direction of the Jump.

__________**__________

---Just a few minutes earlier---

21:16

A relunctant Wrex slammed the door of research and development lab 5 shut and locked it...

The door at the other end of the room was still being smashed and was about to give way...

Alex's body hung from the frame above the workbench motionless...

...Until the faceplates snapped shut and the eye slits illuminated their dull red glow...

__________*_E14_*__________

21:17

Myself and E01 continued to smash this door in. I hadn't long been posted on active duty, merely a week since being released from retraining. We were informed that one of our fellow Echo team was killed on the other side of this room and that the perpetrators had locked themselves in this room, R and D lab 5. I could smell them... at least two Dragons, possibly three, and a human. Finally the door gave way into a dark room, E01 stepped in, the only source of light in the room was a flickering LED light unit, dangling by the wiring and swinging from the ceiling. When the light flickered on for long enough, we could see an empty workbench in the center of the room, a frame above it with dangling cables and sparking wires. There was a slight whir and motion in the corner to our right as we entered, two faintly red glowing eyes charged at E01, smashing him into the wall. I watched as his rib cage and skull collapsed from the force of the black and red hulking mass as it flattened him with ease. This armoured Dragon then turned it's attention to me as I stood frozen in shock and fear.

__________*_Alex_*__________

21:18

I collapsed, as I withdrew my tail blade from the second SkyTech's skull, panting away.

Me: "How...*pant* how are we looking Crystal? *Pant pant* "

Crystal: "Your life signs are weak, I'm detecting multiple organ failures and unsurprisingly the oxygen content of your blood is currently very low. I'm combating the effects with different vitamin and chemical boosters, but my options are limited and in an ideal situation, rest and proper medical attention would be advisable."

Me: "Terrific... What about the armour?, it feels sluggish... or is that just me?"

Crystal: "The plasma core has suffered damage from Skylens last Shard pulse, it is currently only operating at 47% capacity, most of which is being diverted to your life support, Like you, it will need time to recover. There are also numerous other systems that are either damaged, disabled or currently unavailable due to power loss."

Me: " *Sigh**Pant* any good news?"

Crystal: "Since you are now alive again, I took the liberty of cancelling the self destruct sequence."

Me: "Oh so thoughtful of you. WHY did I even have self destruct on in the first place? And where's Wrex and the others?"

Crystal: "They vacated the room moments before I managed to revive you. They also initiated the self destruct believing you had passed away and not wanting to leave you to the SkyTech."

Me: "Oh... Right... ok, well hopefully we'll find them before they leave the building. I heard the scientists talking about a plasma core they had built, but there's issues with it? Apparently that's why the building was evacuated?"

Crystal: "That would make sense with the radiation level increasing."

Me: "Radiation? Is it safe?"

Crystal: "Gamma radiation levels are still low but increasing, I estimate three hours until lethal exposure levels."

Me: "We need to check it out. Where are the others headed?"

Crystal: "To 'check it out', as you put it."

Me: "Call Wrex for me."

Crystal: "I'm unable to, your communication systems were disabled by SkyTech to prevent me from calling for help while you were detained."

Me: "For fuck sake. Ok, can you communicate with the gauntlet I saw Sarah using?"

Crystal: "Although there was a copy of myself running in sync in Miss Jarvie's gauntlet, Sarah was hacked into the building's mainframe. The only way I was able to synchronise myself then was due to your suit being hard wired into the mainframe as well. Now that we are disconnected from the building I can't re-establish contact, again, due to no operational communication systems."

I gave a long sigh before weakly pulling myself from the floor and without any real grace, made my way out the room through the open door.

...

21:25

I couldn't face the stairs, I didn't have the energy, so I was slumped against the side of the lift. I felt the lift slow and stop as we reached Sublevel 3. The automated female voice from the lift spoke.

"Authorised access only, please present appropriate identification."

Crystal: "Alex, with the coms system down I can't hack the security."

Me: " *Sigh*... let me try my hack then." I raised my left arm to the door, braced myself and fired my final 40mm grenade round. The doors exploded out in an array of twisted and molten metal. I ran out and slid into the hallway beyond. I thought I saw a faint cloud of red and purple mist disappear down the far end of the hall, but I must have imagined it. I followed the sound of the loud hum. To find in a room what looked like an oversized plasma core and two scientists helping an unconscious third to his feet. I raised my arms to the pair and they dropped their colleague upon seeing me.

Scientist 1: "Errrr, didn't you just leave?"

Me: "Erm, what?"

Scientist 1: "Oh... You're not... How many of you are there?"

Me: "There's another like me?" I tried to cast my mind back to when saw Wrex in the lab, did he have the new armour? I couldn't remember... actually, my memory of that moment was quite a blur.

Scientist 2: "Yeah, he went down the hall just now, you didn't see him?" I glanced up and down the hall, there was no one there.

Me: "Look, enough chit chat, that plasma core, what's wrong with it?"

Scientist 2: "It's overloading, we can't shut down the coils and the capacitors are failing from beinng overcharged."

scientist 1: "And as we told your friend, all the safety overrides have been bypassed."

Crystal: "Alex, if a plasma core overloads it will explode in a way similar to that of a nuclear device. Judging by the size of this one it will be the equivalent of a 1.5 mega ton nuclear device, which at ground level will cause damage covering approximately 355 square miles." I stumbled back with my eyes wide and jaw dropped.

Me: "ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME?!"

Scientist 1: "What?"

Me: "THIS HAS THAT MUCH DESTRUCTIVE POWER AND YOU'RE PLAYING WITH IT IN THE MIDDLE OF A DENSELY POPULATED CITY?!"

Scientist 2: "There were safety measures in place, multiple layers. Overrides and countermeasures to stop this sort of thing from happening, but they've all been disabled or sabotaged!" I shook my head in disbelief.

Me: "London needs to be evacuated."

Scientist 1: "It's already begun."

Scientist 2: "But even with as much notice as we've given, we don't think it will be complete in time, the city's gridlocked and we probably only have a couple hours left."

Crystal: "Analysing... Alex, the core is overloading at a faster rate than people are anticipating. I estimate we have twenty minutes before detonation."

Me: "Shit... And there's no way to disable it?"

Scientist 2: "No we-" but I cut him off waving a hand at him.

Me: "Shh, I wasn't talking to you." he looked back at me confused, but remained quiet.

Crystal: "No, it is past any point of shut down." I scrambled my head for ideas, trying to think of what to do with it, but only one thing was coming to mind...

Me: "We need to get it out of here, you don't have hours before it blows, we have minutes."

Scientist 2: "No, we have about two hours. What makes you think you know about these?"

Me: "Because my suit runs on a smaller version and my AI also just analysed it and told me so! So stop arguing and help me get it out, we have a little less than twenty minutes before it blows!" They both looked at the core, then each other wide eyed then tried to bolt it past me. I spun and grabbed them by their lab coats, their momentum yanking them off their feet and crashing to the floor on their backs with groans.

Me: "I said... you're helping me! I don't need you to carry it or anything, just open any locked doors or lifts for me!"

__________

I heaved and dragged the core along the floor, the two scientists doing as they were told and gained access to another lift for me to get to the roof. I tried pulling it inside but it was too wide.

Scientist 1: "Quick, there's a service lift down the hall, it will take you to the loading bays, this way!" He shouted to me as he run down the hall. I groaned and dragged the core along again behind me. Getting to the service lift I pulled it inside, screeching across the floor and we all surrounded it as the lift doors closed. I'm glad I had a minute to get a breather, the strain of pulling this heavy thing along was getting to me, even with the suit's assistance. I felt so weak and aches and pains were presenting themselves all over my body, I grunted subtly as I tried not to double over in pain.

Crystal: "Alex, you are causing serious issues deep within your boddy, that without medical attention soon, I'm not sure you will survive from... IF you don't rest now." I muted my external audio so the scientists didn't eavesdrop.

Me: "You know I can't stop. All those millions of people stuck in the city... I can't just fly away and let them die."

Crystal: "I know. I have been with you long enough already to know what you're thinking, despite the fact that I can't actually read your thoughts. But it certainly is a noble act."

Me: "What would you do? If you were in control?"

Crystal: "Miss Jarvie has programmed me to ensure both your survival and hers, by any means necessary before ensuring my own self preservation. So going by protocol I would opt for leaving the core and the city- no... since meeting and working with you, I would do what ever it takes to... 'do the right thing', even if I know the odds were stacked against me."

Me: "Nice..." I said with a smile, "...you've grown Crystal, sounds like you've got a soul now."

Crystal: "Thank you. I must say Alex, I am surprised at how well you have performed. Unpredictable in your methods, but it has served you well it seems. I just want to say, that should this be your final act, it has been an honour serving with you, and I truly believe Sarah made a good choice."

Me: "Hey, I'm not dead yet... But thank you, that means a lot."

The lift stopped and the doors opened, sure enough, we were in a loading bay.

Scientist 2: "What's your name?" As I rounded the core, getting ready to drag it again.

Me: "Alex."

Scientist 2: "Got a last name?"

Me: "No... Just, Alex." I smiled to myself. Then heaved the core out the lift, eyeing up the large truck sized shutters up ahead.

Scientist 1: "Let me get those."

Me: "No time..." I aimed both arms at the shutter, charged and fired. Two white glowing balls of plasma sailed one above the other, puncturing and melting a large, almost oblong hole in the shutter. "...thanks for the assist guys. Oh and by the way, if I catch you working for Sky High Technologies again, I'll kill you." I ignited my plasma jets before they could reply, hovered next to the core and strained to pick it. I haphazardly flew through the bay to the door, I could only use the jets on my legs of course. I scraped through the hole in the shutter and growled in pain as I angled my body to point straight up, putting more power to the jets. I tore up through the skyline, past the tops of the skyscrapers and into the low lying clouds.

Me: "How far do we need to get?"

Crystal: "By my calculations, I estimate we need to be at least 900 miles up and reaching escape velocity before we can release the device for it to reach a minimum of 1300 miles for the effects to not be felt on Earth."

Me: "Come on then!" I engaged full power to the plasma jets, or so I thought...

Crystal: "Alex, our core's total output capacity is now down to 38% functional capacity and falling which means total output I can spare to the jets is decreasing, now 36% and falling rapidly."

Me: "Keep going!"

...150 miles up... 515 mph was displayed and gradually falling...

Crystal: "Alex, with current output we will not make the distance."

Me: "Fuck... How much of that total power is being diverted to my life support?"

Crystal: "52%"

Me: "Put that to the jets."

Crystal: "But Alex-"

Me: "DO IT!"

I felt a burst of speed and the speed displayed jumped to 944mph, but was still gradually falling. I felt my breathing starting to become more difficult already, I could feel myself getting weaker again, but I put all my effort to making sure I held onto this core.

...400 miles... 912mph...

Crystal: "Alex, your life readings are-"

Me: "Don't wanna hear it... Keep climbing."

...700 miles... 821mph...

Crystal: "Alex-"

Me: "Not another word about my health, got it?!"

...850 miles... 676mph...

I started going light headed, my vision started going blurry...

...902 miles above sea level... Well and truly classed as an astronaut now... Had I been more with it I might have actually enjoyed the view.

Crystal: "Alex, we have reached the minimum distance." But I was already turning my jets off, spinning my self around to stand on the core, upside down to the world essentially, and kicked away with my feet, giving one more burst of the plasma jets to take me back towards Earth. But that was it, I had done it... I relaxed as I took in the upside down horizon... Then everything faded to black.

(-Jeff Williams)