Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

__________*_Wrex_*__________

Somewhere in the North Atlantic, Tues 18th Jan '22 21:33

I spread my wings under the water to point myself in the right direction and used my plasma jets to launch myself out if the water. I hovered 20 feet above the waves for a moment and looked around. Off in the not too far distance was a container vessel, my HUD identified it as the 'Tukuma Artica', a Danish operated ship. But apart from that there was nothing else around, I was in the middle of the sea with no land in sight. I 'willed' a map on my HUD and a map appeared with my GPS location. Sure enough I was in the Northern end of the North Atlantic Ocean, slap bang in the middle of Scotland, Faroe Islands and Iceland.

'But why, what was around here that Slylen would be heading for?' I was thinking about the plasma core back in London, the way I didn't even give it a second thought... I had time to get back there just, but what to do with it? I had no idea... Hopefully London will be evacuated before it becomes unsafe.

'But what about the armoured figure I saw? It can't have been Alex, surely?, I watched her die, I left her for dead on that table...' a pang of guilt hit me hard thinking about the little time I had spent with Alex, '...so had Sarah roped someone else in and not told me about it?' Suddenly a ping appeared on the same map I was analysing, an 'S.O.S.' over Iceland. I needed to check it out and a marker appeared on the Horizon on my HUD as the map vanished.

Wrex: "Well, beats sitting around here." I reoriented myself a shot of in the direction of Iceland.

__________*_Skylen_*__________

Near Ábær, Iceland, Tues 11 Jan '22 21:34

We all stood waiting on the lightly snow covered ground near Ábær, the only things lighting this desolate area that we were stood in was moon light and the mostly green northern lights dancing in the sky above us, giving everything it touched a eerie green tinge. My SkyTech all stood quietly, two of them, D12 and C09 standing guard and restraining Sora, not that they would stand a chance at holding her if she wanted to escape, I'm sure, and then another, B51 holding Sarah who was shivering away in the cold, windy air.

'Humans... so pathetic... can't even regulate their own body temperatures to adapt to the environments.' B02, the only one not guarding someone stepped closer to me,

B02: "Master Skylen, sir, why did you remove the safeties from the plasma core in London?"

Skylen: "After returning with Alex for analysis, I made a demand for my own version of her armour to be made and access to Alex once it was removed. They denied me this, so if I can't have it then no one will."

B02: "I see... so why are we stood here waiting rather than returning to base?"

Skylen: "Because this one..." I pointed at Sarah, "...activated a homing beacon, she didn't think I noticed... but I did." Sarah looked sheepishly at the ground .

B02: "We should kill her then sir! Leave her body to lure her saviors away from us!"

Skylen: "No. She is more valuable than she appears. Plus, I've had it with these armoured pests tracking us down. When they do, I will simply pulse the Shard again, knock out the power from their suits, then they're easy pickings for us. We wait."

We only had to wait for about another ten minutes for the first signs of their rescue, a faint rumble which quickly turned into a roar of rockets and a what seemed like a shooting star approaching us across the horizon, rapidly growing in size.

__________*_Wrex_*__________

Near Ábær, Iceland, Tues 18th Jan '22 21:45

The spot my marker was directing me to came into view, the marker hovering directly over Sarah's head as my HUD zoomed in on the group that was stood around her. I counted four SkyTech, Sora and... Skylen, My HUD zoomed back out as I got closer

Wrex: " *Sigh* Here we go..." I said unenthusiastically, decreased my speed as I approached the group and landed a short distance away.

Skylen: "So kind of you to join us, I think your friend Sarah was starting to feel the cold a bit, we were all getting worried you weren't going to come."

Wrex: "Enough of this brother, let them go, you want to take your anger out on someone, take it out on me."

Skylen: "I'm sorry... 'Brother'?... Wrex? Is that you in there?!, have you come out of your little pit just to interfere yet again?!..." I opened my faceplates just to show him my face, just to confirm it for him. Skylens face contorted into sheer anger and he reached for his weapon on his back, charging it as he pulled it over his head, whining as it wound up, aimed at me and fired *POW*. I snapped my faceplates shut and rolled to the side in a braced pose, ready for his next move.

Wrex: "You do know it wasn't me that killed her brother! Why do this?!"

Skylen: "It was your stupid nobility that got her banished! If it wasn't for that my Reikon would still be alive!" He charged until it whined and fired again, *POW*, and I leapt up out of the way again.

'The problem with his cannon is it takes too long to charge.' I thought to myself as I fired my jets to hover in the air.

Wrex: "Just think about it Skylen! Is this what Reikon would have wanted you to have become?!" He lowered his gun ever so slightly,

Skylen: "Actually... Yes, yes it was!..." He fired again at me, but he didn't charge it so it was a smaller shot but this also meant I had barely any time to dodge, the round sizzled past me into the night sky. "...You have no idea what we were planning in her final mo-" He was cut off and we were all distracted by a rumble in the sky, night suddenly turned to day, and the northern lights were wiped from the sky, replaced with a spectacular yet frightening white and blue aurora emanating from a blinding white sphere high up in the sky.

Wrex: "What the fuck was that?..."

__________*_Alex_*__________

Decaying orbit, Tues 18th Jan '22 21:44 GMT

Crystal: "...-up... Alex! Alex wake up! Alex! You're falling to Earth at terminal velocity! Alex please, I can only make minor adjustments to your plasma jets but if you want me to save you, you need to authorise me to take complete control of your armour! Just say 'Yes' then I can save you!"

Me: "...Yes..." I weakly replied, unable to open my eyes. I felt my body lurch and change direction as the roar of my plasma jets kicked in, I felt my limbs being moved by an outside force, against my will, like I was a puppet, not that I had the strength to resist anyway. I had no option but to put full faith in my AI.

Crystal: "Alex, Miss Jarvie has activated an S.O.S. Through lack of options on me being able to help you, I'm taking you directly to her." I forced myself awake a bit more.

Me: "Where is she?... Is she in trouble?"

Crystal: "Unknown. But she is in Iceland."

Me: "I thought the coms were down?"

Crystal: "Miss Jarvie set up a low priority, low frequency channel to emit an S.O.S., should it ever be needed. we can receive this signal but not send."

Me: "Right... What's she doing there anyway?"

Crystal: "Ukno- BRACE BRACE BRACE!" She barely got that out before it felt like I got hit in the back by a truck with a deafening bang, causing my ears to ring and sound reverberated through my armour and body, strong enough to disrupt my HUD into a fuzzy mess and we were shot downward by a good couple of hundred meters from the shockwave

Crystal: "It's ok, regained control."

Me: "What was that?" As I wondered if my inside were still intact after that, well... what was left of them.

Crystal: "That was the shockwave of the core exploding, you did it, you saved London."

Me: "That's good news... but how are we doing after that?"

Crystal: "Well, that's the bad news... Our plasma core is down to 20% efficiency, Skylen's previous attacks with the Shard has caused some of the capacitors to become ruptured and there was just too much drain on it on our ascent so it's severely weakened the core itself. Weakened to the point I don't think it can be recovered and efficiency is still falling, your core is failing and with continued flight I estimate you approximately 40 minutes before complete shut down. With you, I'm managing to keep you stable at the moment, but any stressful situations might push you over again and I don't think you want to know the details of you injuries and internal failures now. Eyes up, we're coming up on the beacon and- Oh no..." I focussed in on what Crystal had seen, my HUD zoomed in... There was Sarah, Sora, I guess Wrex in the new armour and five SkyTech including Jinx and Skylen all looking in my direction. "...Calculating new destination and evasive manoeuvres-"

Me: "No! Take us in."

Crystal: "Alex, your body literally can not handle any more abuse! and our core is about to fail!"

Me: "I don't care we need to help them." Crystal pulled us back on track and toward the group.

__________*_Wrex_*__________

21:46

The light around the 'shooting star' faded and... No... it couldn't be... The figure flew in low behind me, plasma jets spluttered and died just before she made contact with the ground and stumbled slightly but just about managed to stay upright, the snow instantly melting around her in a couple of feet radius. Her armour completely blackened, paint all burnt off with visible heat waves emanating around her.

Wrex: "Alex?! You're alive!" I dropped down and started stepping towards her.

Alex: "As they say, news of my death was greatly exaggerated."

Skylen: "Oh so touching..."

__________*_Alex_*__________

I looked past Wrex to see Skylen pull the Shard from the pocket on his holster and it glowed in his hand. But out from nowhere Sora jumped in, smacking his hand up causing the Shard to fly up in the air. In almost slow motion, Sora literally ran up Skylen, kicking him in the face in the process and grabbed the Shard in mid air. Skylen was too quick to recover though and grabbed her tail, whipping her down to the ground with an "Oof!" escaping her. I charged in and so did Wrex, only for Wrex to be tackled by B02. But I leapt feet first into Skylen's gut, winding him and knocking him back, releasing Sora in the process. I landed roughly on the floor, any element of grace had escaped me in my weakened state so climbed back to my feet as quick as I could, only to get tackled by one of the SkyTech that was originally guarding Sora.

He screamed in pain as he landed on me, quickly rolling in the snow to cool his burns, Jinx then came up to attack me next, she had curved blades attached to her arms that reached from her hands and up just past her elbow she swung wildly at me, the odd swing scraping across my armour as I back stepped. I stopped and grabbed her arm mid swing and twisted it sharply. She screeched in pain as I heard her bone snap and her flesh seared under my grip and fell to the floor.

'One down' I thought. I looked over to check on Wrex, he was still fighting B02, who, since the last time I saw him, now not only had the skeletal robotic arm, but now a whole exoskeletal frame surrounding his body, it seemed to be making him pretty quick and light on his feet, enough so that Wrex seemed to be struggling. The remaining SkyTech that was guarding Sarah dragged her back away from the fray and I made a move for her, only to have the SkyTech that initially jumped me along with Jinx now punch me in the side of the helmet, knocking me to the floor. I looked up to him, you could see fresh burn marks all over the inside of his arms and on his belly... and he looked pissed. He kicked towards me, making sure his foot was covered in snow as he did, kicking me hard in the stomach causing me to roll through the snow, I heard it sizzle and melt as I rolled over it...

'There goes any sort of advantage that I had' I thought, knowing that being rolled in the snow would cool most of my armour down. I stopped myself rolling and stood up, but too quickly, I felt something deep inside me tear and I groaned in pain and fell back to one knee.

Crystal: "Alex... you're killing yourself."

Me: "*Grunt* Better make sure I kill them first then eh?" I strained out as I stood back up again while my attacker strode toward me, unlatching what looked like large riffles from his back from either side, which latched on to his arms. My HUD scanned over the weapons automatically, 

Crystal: "Alex, those weapons are based on 50 calibre Barrett M82A1 riffles, I recommend immediate evasive manoeuvres." I fired my plasma jets and tackled my attacker instead, just as he had raised his arms. We travelled a short distance before I was punched off of him to the ground by the other SkyTech that had been keeping guard of Sarah up until now.

__________*_Sarah_*__________

I watched the fight that was happening in front of me, helpless, with no idea what to do, in the short time of my capture I had learnt each of the SkyTech's designations. The one currently giving Wrex a hard time was B02, I recognised him from the mansion attack anyway. Alex had already taken out D12, which from what I remember, Alex had referred to her as 'Jinx', she was looking sorry for herself sat in the snow, cradling her broken arm, which left B51 who had just left me to assist C09. And finally, Skylen, the big bastard, seemed to be trying to take on Sora, who was adamant to not let him regain possession of the Shard... That was until I caught Alex launch a shot of plasma past him to gain his attention, completely enraging him and distracting him. I watched as B51, C09 and Skylen punched, kicked, sliced and stabbed at Alex, who seemed to really be struggling. I ran around and closer to the group, to get close to Alex and slid down a small nearby embankment for cover, peering over the top.

Sarah: "Crystal! What's the matter?, Alex is moving too slow! You need to help her!" Crystals voice bellowed out from Alex's armour as she was attacked from every direction.

Crystal: "All power is being diverted to life support and suit attack and defence systems. Core efficiency is down to 12% and falling rapidly!"

Skylen: "Good to hear! This is boring me!..." He punched Alex square in the face, swung and sliced his tail blades over her arm. "...You should have joined us when I gave you the chance Alex! We would have made you better than this!..."  He kicked her to the floor but she slowly stood up low on all fours then gradually to two feet again, staggering back as she did, "...Soo weak! Almost Human again!"

B51 went for a swing of a fist but Alex pulled back, spinning beside him and putting him in a head lock and swung him around, knocking back C09. She released the headlock then booted B51 hard in the chest away from her. Alex then swung her tail blades at C09 who was approaching again, but B51 was already back up and close and grabbed Alex's head, pulling her toward him, so her blades barely scraped across C09's chest.

Wrex: "Alex!..." I heard Wrex call, I looked to him as he tried to run this way to assist her but B12 grabbed him again, "...Oh will you just... FUCK OFF ALREADY!" And proceeded to continue grappling with B12. Sora came and slid down beside me, several large and deep cuts trailing down her neck and onto her chest.

Sarah: "What do we do?!"

Sora: "I don't know, but I need to keep this away from them." She presented the Shard still in her hand. I looked back to the battle in front of us. Alex swung and elbowed B51 in the face, C09 slashed his blades down Alex's arm, leaving some deep scratches in the armour plating. Alex kicked him away in retaliation before being grabbed by the neck from behind by Skylen and thrown over his head and slammed at the floor behind him. She barely had time to pull herself up as Skylen spun on the spot to swing his tail at her head, the force of it buckling her helmet armour and the faceplates causing her to stumble.

Sarah: "Alex! No! Watch out!"

Alex barely had time to recover again as C09 breathed fire over her, she stumbled away as the fire rolled over her armour, into the firing line of B51, raised his arms and fired both guns he still had attached *DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF DOOF* the sound of the heavy 50 cal rounds made and they ricochet off of Alex's armour, causing visible damage. She turned and covered her helmet from the shots, just as the fires died out off of her, straight into the barrel of Skylen's heavily charging cannon. The gun charged until it whined then he fired... *POW* straight at Alex's head... The round smashed into her helmet sending her flying backwards towards us, the helmet dented and cracked, sending three of the four face plates splintering off, the fourth hanging by a thread. She flew through the air, almost seemingly in slow motion then crashed hard into the ground, skidding to a halt just six foot away from us.

Sarah: "Alex!" I started to get up to head to her aid, but Sora yanked me back.

Skylen: "I guess I was wrong, you don't have the potential..." Alex weakly looked up to us, her face blackened, burned and bloody. "...The blight known as the Human race will be extinguished. But you won't live to see it... and I'll make sure of it this time."

Crystal: "Plasma core depleted, 1%. Shut down imm-" she announced and fell silent from the armour.

Alex: "Run..." She strained to say and her head settled on the the floor, her eyes slowly closed.

Wrex: "ALEX?! NOO!!" He finally pulled the winning move on B02 and drove his tail blades deep into his chest, B02 spluttered and fell off the blades to the floor and Wrex tried to rush on over as Skylen raised his cannon to Alex's back.

Skylen: "Best to be sure... No!" He screamed as Wrex advanced on him, Skylen brought his barrel up, but too slowly, Wrex punched Skylen hard round the face, knocking him to the floor, span and sliced at B51 with his tail, while he charged and fired at C09.

Sarah: "Alex get up!" but she remained motionless on the floor. I looked to Sora beside me, then to the Shard in her hand. I stood up and walked up the bank, turning to crouch in front of Sora.

Sora: "What are you doing?"

Sarah: "Giving her a jump start." I snatched the Shard from her hand, instantly everything burned, searing pain shot up my left arm and into my body. 

Sora: "No you stupid girl!"

My natural response was for me to drop it but I refused and I lunged at Alex's back, used my spare hand to open the hatch that covered the Plasma core and jammed the Shard into it. A powerful explosion of energy blew me backwards, Sora just about caught me as I flew over her and she yanked me to the ground. I daren't look at me arm, but even after letting the crystal go it was still pulsing and throbbing in pain all over, causing me to writhe and groan on the ground.

Sora: "What were you thinking?!" She shouted at me as she scooped snow up and pressed it into me arm, making it sting more. I looked above me and so did Sora as light emanated and flowed around Alex and she started floating off the floor, spasming as though she was having a fit or possessed maybe, then strong and bright red and purple lights engulfed her whole form.

Sarah: "Sora?, *Grunt*, what's happening?!"

Sora: "I have no idea..." She replied mouth agape. Even Wrex, Skylen and the others had stopped fighting and started pacing backwards in fear of what was happening.

( -Ghost Data)