Master X (Copy X) looked out the window of his throne room. The resistance had become more capable under its new leader. This must be put to a stop… He turned to his 4 generals, Harpuia, Fefnir Leviathan and Phantom. All very capable… very destructive beings. “Harpuia, any news from the aerial forces?”
Harpuia nodded, “Yes sir, it's been reported Ciel has taken a small band of her fighters in search of something… or rather someone.”
“You mean…”
“Yes, I refer to Zero, it appears they have a good lead on his location.” Harpuia said softly.
“Follow them! But do not attack unless they have found him… Then bring them back to me. And I shall deal with them personally.” X dismissed them with a wave of his hand and continued in his brooding.
“Soldiers!” shouted Ciel. “Today might very well be the end of the resistance! We're outmatched, outgunned and today we risk all to find the only one who can save us. It matters not where you come from, you may be a merc, a former Arcadian or one of our own, we must band together or we all will die. Zero is in these ruins somewhere and the Arcadians will be right behind us. We're going to spread out. Milan and I will take our team east. Grim?”
“Yes Ma'am?” grunted a tall, battle hardened soldier.
“You and your team,” Ciel gestered to the remaining troops, (the players) will be searching the western side. We've no idea if comm systems will work once we enter the ruins, its likely that we'll be too far underground. Some of us will die today, but you know what we're fighting for. Freedom isn't free, now move out!” As the troops hurried into the ruins a single tear fell from Ciel's eyes. “Come back alive..” she whispered.
Grim gestured to his band of recruits. “Come soldiers, lets make Miss Ciel proud. For a better tomorrow!”
After clearing out some Neo Arcadian ambushes and robotic spiders the resistance soldiers eventually came to a large door. There appeared to be no means of opening it. “Stand back,” Grim commanded, “I'll take care of this.”
With that, Grim placed a few explosive devices and pressed the detonation button. The door exploded inward and the soldiers rushed into the room. In the center there stood a reploid, sealed behind a protective field. One of the resistance soldiers reached forward and touched it but recieved an electrical shock and pulled his arm away.
“Its ok, Ciel thought we might come across a barrier during this mission.” Grim activated a cyber elf and the barrier shimmered and disappeared. The reploid slowly opened its eyes. Suddenly without warning an electrical shock ripped through its body. The resistance soldiers could see sparks and stray wires poking out of its body. The reploid let out a scream, raised its axe and began swinging.
This reploid, Gawain, was not the legendary hero as they'd hoped. Gawain had in fact been a maverick hunter much like Zero, and had taken it upon himself to stand guard over Zero as he slept. Years passed, and Gawain's body became damaged after fending off the incursions of tomb raiders. Now he no longer had the processing capacity to distinguish friend from foe, and he attacked the resistance members with earnest. The resistance fighters were both numerous and tenacious however, and Gawain knew he was fighting a losing battle. Suddenly his axe glowed with an orange aura. “OBSIDIAN SPIRE!!” he yelled, driving it into the ground. The resistance soldiers stepped back, the crack in the ground seemed to follow wherever they went. One of them lagged behind and a gigantic hunk of rock burst from the ground under him. It hit the ceiling with a loud crash and slowly, slowly the rock around them started to crumble.
“Cave in!” shouted Grim. “Everyone out, look for a transerver, we're not going to find Zero in he-urk!” Gawain had thrown his axe into Grim's back. He stepped forward menecingly but a large piece of the ceiling fell down between him and the resistance soldiers who recognized that it was too late to save Grim and ran for their lives. The group finally located a trans-server and reconvened with Ciel.
“Thank the Maker you all made it!” Ciel cried, giving each of the soldiers a hug. “I am the sole survivor of my group, and I wouldn't have made it out if not for Zero.” The soldiers could see the tall, red armored reploid standing in the back of the room. He looked uncomfortable, unsure of what to say or do. “He's suffering from sort of memory loss,” Ciel continued, “But he's agreed to help us fight back against Neo Arcadia.”
Copy X turned on his generals, his eyes blazing. “One simple task! That’s all I had you do! One bloody thing! She was out numbered! Out gunned! And yet she escapes and lives!”
Fefnir cowered behind Harpuia, “Well… you uh… You see Zero helped her and…”
X turned on him, “A hundred year old reploid! With only a handgun! Defeated your force! You call that an excuse?! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT WORMS!” HE turned his back on the four as they fled the room. HE stared once again out the window. “Zero… Alive and fighting… This… Complicates things.”