The story behind

Chapter 4: The story behind

 

 

"Come on Rasp, get up! Cap called us all in the meeting room!", Crazy was waking Rasp up. "Alright, wait a minute.". She got up and both of them went to the meeting.

"Alright girls, listen up. I just asked our HQ how's the battle on the planet that we are supposed to warp near. They said that the war is over, but there are few battles being fought in a few cities. They, as I predicted, want us to help them. I said that we are on an important mission and will only help them to take control in one city. We are going to warp soon and everyone should get ready to fight. Again.", Cap was explaining them their situation.

"Does this mean I'm again getting the mech?", asked Rasp. "Yes. Light will stay in the ship, and will be providing aerial support to ground units with our weaponry." answered Cap. "Get ready. We will warp now".

On those words, that Pilot heard through microphone, she started their warp drive went into warp-hole. They got out near a Drows Heavy Carrier. That ship was massive and could carry many infantry, armor, mechs and everything needed for a battle.

"Greetings, Captain Rightway. Thank you for helping us in combat. We are sending you your coordinates for attack and we wish you happy hunting." That sentence could be heard through the speaker and came from the carrier.

"Well, here are the coordinates. It looks that we will be fighting in that city." Said Pilot and switched one screen to show one pretty much destroyed city. Now, only ruins were left but it could be seen that the city was quite big. Also, they saw some infantry and mechs down there. The battle still raged.

"Let's not leave them waiting. Get your equipment and lets kick some butts!" said Cap and, with Crazy, Rasp and Pilot went to the hangar, to get ready. Light went to the cannon and fired it up, it came out of the hull with all other weaponry.

"Good luck!" said Cap just before everyone jumped out of the ship. As the wind was strong, everyone pretty much spread out, and Rasp landed alone.

"Does anyone hear me? Is everyone alright?" she asked. Answers were positive and she moved in trough the part of the city she fell in. The part she was in was quite old and it looked like it was the poor part of the city. She always felt bad for everyone who lived in these living conditions, but she knew, that with all big cities, there are these kind of places. There were few in the city she lived, but she also knew that there is nothing she can do to make poverty disappear.

From that kind of thinking snapped her out some strange noise. Enemies, she thought to herself, and got her gun ready. She waited and after a few moments, few men came around the corner and, as soon as they saw her, they started shooting at her and retrieving.

"Bad move, fellas." said Rasp and opened fire on them. She killed them all but one. One got around the corner and, as soon as she walked around the same corner, he fired on her with his rocket launcher. The rocket hit her with surprise, in her left shoulder. "Curse you!", she said while killing him. "Argh, he destroyed my communication device. Well, it looks I'm on my own from now on. I'll get back to the rendezvous location we made." she said to herself and started moving.

After a few streets she went into a dead-end. "Why isn't this s**t working?! Argh!" she said and turned around. There was a soldier standing there. It looked like they both accidentally stumbled upon each other. She looked at him for a moment, before he started running away. He didn't wear helmet and the only thing she saw is that he was quite tall. She raised her gun and fired few bullets but he got around the corner. She followed him in what looked like a dead-end. He was running towards the wall that was on the opposite side. Rasp didn’t shoot him, she didn't like to miss and that was quite a long shot. She

started running towards him, playfully. When he got to the back wall, that was around ten meters tall, she thought she had him, but, on her surprise, he fired up, what looked like, small jetpack that gave him a jump boost and he climbed over the wall. She stopped with her mouth wide opened. "What?! But, but... No! I can’t let him go!" She powered up a shot and fired in at the wall. She also came and kicked it down. On the other side it was the same street layout. It looked like someone just put a random wall there. Rasp went to the nearest corner and looked left. There he was. In front of him it was, what looked like an indicator flare. He was looking upwards and Rasp looked up too. At first she didn’t see anything, but when she looked better, she saw something like a meteor falling down to them until it fired up fall dampeners and landed gently. Her mechs interface was beeping: "Caution! Unknown mech close by!".

His mech was a few meters taller than her and, she could see, it was made to withstand much damage. She aimed at the enemy soldier that started running to get to his mech, but the enemy mech put his gun up and started firing at Rasp, it probably had some kind of AI. Rasp saw that there is no way she can win this fight, and started falling back. She ran around a corner and hid herself in some kind of big garage. She could her the mech thumping as he was closing in. He didn't see where she went, and when he got to the corner, there were three roads to go. He enabled his speakers and started talking, annoyed and kind of angry: "Why? Why couldn't you let me go? Why did you have to follow me over the wall? I'm not here to fight. I don't even know who's fighting on this planet, I'm here to get some information I need. But you! You had to follow me and now I'll have to kill you. Come out, little fella, let's play." Rasp switched on her speakers, but she changed her mind. Instead, she looked over the corner and saw him standing there, with his back turned to her. She switched her gun for maximum powered shot that she could fire, and she know that she only has one shot, because her gun will overheat immediately as she fires. She took a deep breath, powered her shot and turned around a corner. He was still standing there, with his back to her. She fired, but on her surprise, he turned around incredibly quick and put his hand in front of him. Some kind bluish-water-like shield appeared in front of his hand. Instead of absorbing the shot, or deflecting it, it just stopped it. The pink-looking shot of some sort of electricity just floated in front of his hand. Rasp stood there, in fear and surprise and, without even giving her time to react, he made a move you make when you want to throw something. He threw her own shot at her, and, as soon as it left the shield field, it began moving with its original velocity. The shot hit little bit bellow the mechs chest and literally cut her mech in half. It started collapsing and she screamed. Her speakers were still on, she forgot to turn them off. Enemy mechs pilot heard. "What the hell? A girl? Oh hell no. S**t, now I have to help her! Why a girl?" she thought to himself and ran towards her. In the same moment Tarren heavy squad came from behind a corner. They started firing at him. He returned fire but he couldn't lift Rasp's mech while shooting. "Screw it!" he said, and got out of the mech. While he was leaving it, he swiched it to "Defend Position" mode. Now the mech was fighting the Tarren squad alone. While its pilot was saving Rasp, he got near the mech and tried to lift it up. It would be no hope for normal men, but he had power armor, and jetpacks. Also, he was incredibly strong. He lifted it and Rasp was under it, where the cockpit was. She had her pistol aimed right at him.

"You really want to shoot me? You do understand if I let this down, it'll kill you. And it looks like your leg is broken.". Rasp looked at her leg, it was in strange position and it was bleeding, but she didn't feel it. Her adrenalin was pumping. "Throw the gun away and come from under it." he said. Rasp started crawling towards him but he lowered her mech down, like he wanted to drop it. "Throw the gun away!".

She had to throw it, and continued crawling. She tried not to get burned by his jetpacks that were on full power and were helping him lift the thing. As she got under it, he lifted her and placed her over his shoulder, she tried to resist but, suddenly, her leg started hurting like hell. She passed out.

"You passed out, didn't you?" he asked her, without response. His mech killed the enemy squad and he got into it. He tried to place Rasp next to him, but there was no space for two. He, then, sat down, and position her on him. It looked like she was hugging him. "Alert. Artillery strike imminent".

"Ah, come on! Shields, full power. Nano-plating, switch to armor mode." he ordered and mechs AI did as ordered. Everything started shaking as artillery rounds started falling around them. That kind of strike lasted for around one minute. Then everything stopped. He removed nano-plating from armor mode. It prevented him from seeing, as it covered whole mech in black armor.

Half of the city was already in ruins, but now it looked like some scene you would see in apocalypse movies. Everything was destroyed. Nobody to be seen, everything's smoking.

"You need immediate medical treatment." he said to Rasp. He, then, walked around the ruins until he saw something that looked like crashed skyscraper. He got into it and found it a good shelter. There, they spent the night. He got out with Rasp and he placed her on some kind of a table. Her leg was bloody and under weird angle. He put it back in original position and a snapping sound was heard. It was back in place. He, then, bandaged her leg and went to start a fire. It was around midnight when Rasp finally woke up.

"Ugh... Where am I?" she asked. "You are on planet Isp, in one of the cities that the battle has razed. You fought with me. Don't you remember?". Rasp remember everything and took a moment to look at him. He was tall and had really blue eyes. Even if it was bad light, Rasp could see his eyes with no problem. It was like they glowed. He had messy hair and was wearing an armor she never saw before. It was black and wasn't big,it was flat with his body and wasn't looking metallic. It looked somewhat like jumpsuits. "Who are you?" she asked him.

"Oh, silly of me. My name is... uhm. I don't remember my real name. That's strange, but still, nobody haven't asked me my name in a long time. But I know how they call me. Virus." he answered. She opened her eyes wide and he noticed that. "You heard of me before, didn't you?" he stopped for a moment. "What do you know about the squad that was sent to kill me?". He asked that coldly and he looked Rasp straight in her eyes. She felt like falling through a pit. She could only hear herself saying "I'm the part of that squad..."

"Do you even know why are you chasing me? I guess you don’t." he said and got up to go. "You will be alright over the night.

"No! Please, don’t leave. Why did you save me back there? I was first that wanted to kill you and you helped me. I wasn't expecting that, after you mindlessly killed all those scientists and people before... " she regretted what she said.

"Mindlessly!? Mindlessly!? Is that what they told you I was doing! I am just some monster going around and killing random innocent people?" He was red angry. He stopped and took a deep breath. "You know what? We have a whole night. I am going to tell you my story. I don't have anything better to do. And I don't think your empress told you anything. Not talking about the military."

He sat down, across where Rasp was laying and started talking.

"As I said, you have been probably informed that I was a monster and went around killing. Am I right?" Rasp was silent. "I'll take that as yes. You see, you never heard of me before 'cause I was top secret. I was a product made by scientists two hundred years ago. Yes, that's right. I am over two hundred years old. How, you ask? Do you know a planet called Earth?" Rasp just nodded. She heard of it and that they were aggressive and strong race. Led by men. "Well, I am from Earth. You see, when I was around thirteen... even I don’t know what happened anymore. So much time has passed. One day I woke up in some sort of, what I thought was, a hospital. I thought I was sick, or something. I didn't react until I saw one of the personnel had pointy ears. Just like you. Then, when I looked better, I saw more different men and women. Some had pointy ears. Some had hard, stone-looking skin. Some were really tall. And, the worst of all, I couldn't see my parents. Can you imagine what it is for a kid when he figures out that he can't see his parents?" he asked that quietly. He just took a breath and continued. "I was used as a guinea pig. They've done tests on me. They thought Earth, as it was in early, non-space-exploration stage was a big place where you can get test subjects. They gave me something that would make me feel like I was sleeping and made me unaware what was done on me. They gave me loads of injections

and every single one of them went to my right arm. I don't know what they've done that, like they didn't know that it'll start dying sooner or later. After all of those things my arm just started dying and they have to cut it off." Rasp stopped him, "But, you do have your right arm. How's that?".

"Let me finish. All of those experimental things changed me. You see, it made me different. I was, and am, incredibly strong. I am really intelligent and can learn really fast. My skin has changed, It is really tough and bulletproof. Well, anything-proof, nothing I came across couldn't pierce it."

"When I was twenty, I think I became really resistant to the medicine they use to drug me, and I became completely conscious and I never felt so alive before. Also that was the day I first killed. As I told you, I was bulletproof, and really strong, but had one arm. Even like that, I stole a mech transport ship. The station that I was in was also a military weapons building center. I scavenged few parts off mechs and made myself an arm. That's why I can do this." he raised his right arm. It opened outside from wrist down to elbow. His hand retracted inside and on its place appeared some sort of cannon. Everything snapped in place and his hand turned metallic black, as Rasp though, was its natural color.

"Kinda creepy, right?" He said as it was turning back to normal hand. "Anyway. After a few days in that ship they caught me on surprise and froze me in something like liquid nitrogen. I don't think you know what it is. "

"Liquid Nitrogen? I know what it is. A liquid at around two hundred degrees Celsius."

"You did your chemistry homework. " He smiled. It was a small, but impressed smile. It disappeared right after.

"They froze me and put me in cryo-stage. Then, two hundred years later, I woke up on my own. I guess I became resistant to cryo-stage or something. I still had my arm and I think they were too scared to remove it. In fear I'll wake up. Everything was different. I was in some sort of chamber I broke out. The guards started firing at me, but I killed them and got into a laboratory where this armor was made. It was a prototype armor with nanobots. It can make me invisible and I took it to protect my hand. Cause my body is really tough on its own, but the hand isn't. I stole mech carrier, again, and flew really away. I went into black market ship repair bay and made it tougher. I told them I wont kill them if they did that for me. After that, I made that mech that is outside and guarding us, and also wrote an awesome AI for it. Then, I went and started gathering information what happened to me and who did that to me. That's where I, as you said, mindlessly killed many people. Ph."

Rasp listened that all and couldn't believe that nothing of that was told to her. And any of the crew members she was with. She again asked him, "Why didn't you kill me back there? Why did you help me?"

"I cannot stand hurting a woman. I think that has something to do with my parents. And how they raised me." He smiled. It was a warm smile Rasp never thought he could make. She felt something in her stomach. Something she had never felt before.

"So what are you gonna do now?" She asked him.

"Well, I can’t leave you. You'll come with me." She looked shocked. "What? To come with you? Why?"

"Because, I can't leave you here. You'll get killed with that leg. You'll come with me to my ship and then I'll give you to your squad that's supposed to kill me."

"Don't say it like that. I never heard your side of the story. I don't get it, why didn't we get informed?" she said. "Probably want to terminate me silently." He answered.

"Enough talking. Better get some sleep. I'll guard."

Rasp didn't want to sleep, but as soon as she closed her eyes, the pain in her leg exhausted her and she fell asleep.

The next day, outside was even worse. On the bright day the city was really bad looking. Everything was in ruins and destroyed. Smoke everywhere.

"Can you walk?", asked Virus, as he was helping Rasp to get up. "I think so. Yeah, it doesn't hurt that much, anymore"

"Come on, let's get into the mech.", he said and mech opened his cockpit. Virus got in and sat in. Rasp looked questioned where she will sit. When she figured it out she rejected It and said that there is no way she'll sit in his lap. He laughed. He closed the cockpit and picked her up with his mechs hand. She screamed as she was suddenly raised from the ground few meters in air, but she calmed herself quickly. They started running and moving through the city fast. What was strange, they didn't see any soldier on their way. They got out of the city, and went into the mountains that were near. When they came near the mountains, Virus called his ship. A chunk of mountain detached and went into the sky. It was a ship, but it was camouflaged as it was a rock. Rasp tried to hide her impression but it was really strong. It was a single "wow". The ship changed its color to black and grey and it was really big. It wasn't as big as theirs, thought Rasp, but it was tougher. It was covered in armor and it had two huge engines on the back, positioned one above other. There were cannons in front and some other weapons Rasp didn't know of. They got on it and Virus put her down. He got out of his mech. "You go and repair yourself." he told to the mech, and it marched into, what looked repair bay. It was a really big hangar, because it was made to carry few mechs and repair them. "I'll show you around, follow me, please." Virus said.

He led her out of the hangar and in one of the meeting rooms. It looked identical to the one they had, thought Rasp. It was just missing few bits and bobs. They went to a hallway that had two doors on both sides.

"These are resting areas. I removed all the rooms as I don’t need them and enlarged a hangar. I'm in the left one. Come here."

He led to the room on right. They entered it. It was a medium sized room with bathroom attached. It had a big bed on it and all other stuff you could see in a hotel room.

"I did remove other rooms, but these two I tried to make them as perfect as I could. It was because I never experienced a nice looking room and a big bed. It also has a powerful computer over there."

The computer only had a keyboard and monitor. But it was colored in black and red, which gave it really good looks.

He, then, led her to the bridge. It only had one big chair in the middle and lots of screens all around. Also, when they got in, a voice greeted them. "Its my AI, I called him VirOS. I found it funny and childish, again, the fault I didn't have a normal childhood."

With every statement Virus made about his childhood, Raps felt worse, because she didn't know anything about him and thought of him like a murderer. She weren't saying he isn't, but he wasn't like that on his own, others made him.

"Uhm, Virus. I would really like to talk to my crew. I don’t want them to worry, you know..."

Rasp started. "I can't just go with you, they will think I died or something, and I don't want that."

"Alright. Your ship is Hunter 557, right?". Rasp nodded. "Computer. Scan for a ship model, IS_H_557."

"What was that?" Rasp asked. "It's yours ship model name. 'IS' stands for 'interceptor ship', and H_557 is hunter 557." answered Virus. "Scan complete. Ships found, one. Distance, half a galactic click." said the voice. "Cloak mode online. Follow it and as soon as it moves out the area of other ships, notify me." Virus said. "I can't talk to them now. That Heavy Carrier will shoot at us, definitely. I can't risk it. As soon as they leave, we'll talk to them."

"Thanks." said Rasp.

While they were hiding from the Drows ships, rest of the Rasps team was on their ship.

"Rasp is still not responding. You think...?" Pilot stoped. "No. She is still alive. Don't even think about that." said Cap.

"We can't find her anywhere. The battle stopped few hours ago and she was not spotted since then. You all understand that we need to live soon?" asked Light. "Yeah. But I still can't belive she is not showing up. Damned be this mission. Why did we even accepted it?" answered Cap. "Pilot, get the ship ready. we move in an hour." said Crazy. Pilot looked at Cap and she just nodded. Pilot left the meeting room and

went to the bridge. Cap was sitting and looking down. Crazy was scanning for any signs of Rasp on her computer and she found one.

"Hey, this is Rasps mech!" she yelled. Cap immediately came behind her and looked at the screen. Same did Light. "It looks like its cut in half. Oh my god. What could pierce that armor with that force to cut it in half?" stated Light. "That doesn't mean she's dead. Keep searching." said Cap.

"We will move out of this planets orbit and away from the carrier. We can't warp near them." said Pilot through speakers.

"Sir, IS_H_557 is mobile. It moved out the orbit and is ready to warp." said the voice to Virus.

He went to the Crazys room and knocked. She answered and he came in. "I will now establish communication with your ship, if you would like to come with me." he said.

Crazy got up and they went to the bridge. He said, "Enable communications. Connect to IS_H_557."

One of the screens went black.

"Cap, we have incoming call from unknown ship. Better get here." Pilot called Cap.

She came to the bridge and they accepted the call. Rasp was on the screen. "Hey there!" she smiled.

"Raps! You are alive! We were so scared something happened to you. What happened?" she asked and called Crazy and Light to the bridge.

"Oh, well that’s a long story. But now we need to move out this region and we will then talk for real. But in person. I will follow you in this ship and we will meet here." She said as Virus sent them location for where they will meet.

"Where are you, what's happening?" asked Cap. "I know this all looks shady but just trust me" she smiled and added, "Get moving.". Communication ended. Pilot looked Cap with a questioned look on her face. "Get us to that location." Cap said. "That is behind an asteroid. We won't have any connections with our ships and if we get attacked we are dead. What if this is a trap?" said Pilot. "I know and I'm scared as well. But let's trust Rasp. Just get us there." answered Cap. Pilot started the engines and started moving.

Pilot powered their engines and moved in position behind the big asteroid. Nobody was there.

Soon after one ship disabled its cloak mode and appeared in from on them. It was bigger then them and they weapons were ineffective against it, as Pilot said, this looked like a trap. A docking request came in and Pilot asked Cap if they should accept it. Cap approved the request and, when the ships came close enough to each other, Virus' ship deployed a docking bridge. It looked like some sort of piston with tubing going through it for crew to be able to move within. It locked on one of the side doors on Hunter and everything locked in place. Light and Crazy took their rifles and went to the door, getting ready for a anything skeptical. After a brief moment door opened and Rasp was standing in between them. When she saw their weapons pointed at her, her smile disappeared. "What's wrong?" asked them Rasp.

"It is you! We were so scared this was some sort of a trap and we didn't know how to act. Sorry for all of this.", said Crazy while putting down her gun and went to greet Rasp. She hugged her and Rasp went red. She blushed and awkwardly returned the hug. Light said: "Glad to hear you are not dead and that you are back, but I have to ask you whose ship is this?"

"Yeah, about that. I really need to talk to Cap. Where is she?" said Rasp. "She's on the bridge."

Rasp got to bridge and Pilot almost crushed her in her hug. Rasp again went red, but this time it was more because of the pressure in her blood from the strength of the hug. Cap did the same thing and would probably started crying if there was no other ship, possibly hostile, docked with them.

"What happened? I want to hear everything!" said Pilot wondering how she survived destruction of her mech, but Rasp turned to Cap. "About the ship out there... How to put this, ehm. It's captain helped me on the field. I mean, he was also the one who destroyed me, but he is also the one who saved me. Listen now, the next I tell you will be crazy and please, don't overreact."

Cap became really suspicious and asked Rasp what's wrong.

"The captain of that ship is Virus. The guy we are looking for."

 

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! :)