02-26-2011, 06:42 AM
The air was empty. Once dominated by the bellicose mechanical monstrosity that coordinated and controlled the invasion of Ja City, a pervading sense of freedom filled the brave warriors who looked to the sky. In the pallid green swum sparse, insubstantial clouds that blew about in the gentle winds. Any remnant of the Grand Ship Myreen had parted from above, instead dispersed chaotically in huge chunks of irregular metal over the Namekian landscape. The destruction had been absolute. The war for Namek was won.
Bodies littered the plains. Many alien, many native, while some belonged to the valiant men and women of varying races who gave up their lives for one singular purpose; liberation. The planet was pockmarked by the destructive taint of war. Long standing trees were obliterated into nothing, while some were torn from the soil and dumped into the ocean. Craters that could contain a lake scarred the beautiful terrain. The peculiar blue grass existed in random clumps, and even where it wasn't scorched from the earth, its unique colour began to fade. Namek hadn't fallen, but what a price it paid for its victory.
Ja City was ablaze. The militia that held out at the spaceport crumpled soon after the departure of Vad, Trixie and Robert. Flames hungrily consumed buildings and corpses alike. The stench of death and ruin stung the nostrils of the selfless groups that dashed about the city, battling the remaining elements of the war. Hover trucks crawled solemnly through the streets, coming to a halt whenever a dead body was found. Attendants collected the deceased and respectfully lowered them into the trailer before continuing on their way. Emergency services tended to the wounded; many sustained damage during the individual skirmishes, but an unfortunate part of the ailing were hit by the haphazard debris of the destroyed Myreen, putting extra strain on the medical staff. Fire engines hurriedly doused inferno after raging inferno before the whole of Ja City was one simmering conflagration.
In one particular high rise building, surrounded by voracious fire, a solitary figure sprawled over the floor. Jagged shards of glass lay around him. A broken window wasn't far away. The flames traveled over their fuel sources, incinerating carpet, plaster, chairs and whatever else permitted its struggle for survival. Black smoke billowed out of the shattered window, but amidst the innumerable structures doing the same thing, it wasn't about to catch anyone's eye. Creaking of floorboards and the twisting of metal girders screeched over the crackling of the flames, but the unconscious person had no idea what was going on.
Suddenly, reality swam into his mind.
Robert shot up. The first thing that registered with him was the unbelievable aching of his entire body. Everything seemed operational, and he doubted that any limbs were broken. He groaned as he climbed to his feet. He was still housed within the Prototype suit. Mottled with nicks and large fissures, Robert wondered how the armour hadn't peeled off his body.
Then he noticed the fire. It was everywhere. Smoke invaded his lungs. He stumbled away, coughing vigorously. Where was he? How did he get where he was?
Prototype noticed the militant march of the smoke to the window. A window! He started to sprint over. The disconcerting sounds of the skyscraper buckling to the will of the inferno seemed to threaten him, to mock him, that his death was imminent. He ignored it, pressing through the condensed charcoal plume.
His heavy metallic foot abruptly crashed through the floor as he ran. Prototype shouted in fear, his body collapsing to the ground. The flames were closing in on him. Hastily he hauled his leg out of the crater in the floor. A brilliant red-orange glow pulsed below. Robert had never tested the suit's capability to withstand intense heat. In any case, even if it could, he theorised that he'd cook in the armour like a potato in tin foil.
With as much care and speed that would coexist together, Falconer made it to the window. He gazed out into the clean air. The drop to the city sidewalk must've been ... he didn't want to think about it. It was high. Robert considered allowing the suit to calculate the exact distance, but precise details wouldn't help his confidence any. He queried the database about the armour's remaining functionality.
Information abruptly flooded his mind. It was still a strange experience. There wasn't a voice in his head or a visual cue; the data that he requested was just simply ... there, in his mind, as if he knew it all along.
Suit integrity compromised. Airtight seal disabled. Long range scanning disabled. Short range scanning disabled. Energy cannons unresponsive. Communications disabled.
"Shit!" Robert cursed, noticing for the first time a huge crack in his green visor. "Argh! Well, what does work? How about the propulsion system?"
A moment passed. Falconer wearily glared at the approaching wall of flame. The entire skyscraper shuddered. Girders were bending. Glass was shattering. Combustible materials within the office were exploding in a haunting fanfare, singing an ode to the building's death.
"Hurry up you damn piece of tin!"
Propulsion system critically damaged.
Another spine chilling explosion sounded. The ceiling brusquely collapsed. The skyscraper was about to collapse at any second. "More information, dammit! Can I fly?!"
Propulsion system activation not recommended. Energy Combustion and Redirection module critically damaged. Activation could cause semi-nuclear explosion.
Robert's blood ran cold. The heat of the unrelenting fire seeped through the cracks of the suit's wounds. A hideous shriek of snapping metal nearly deafened him. If he didn't know better, it sounded like the skyscraper was wailing in pain, trying to warn anyone around about its imminent destruction. Falconer knew there were seconds left to make a decision.
He looked down. He was situated on no lower than the twentieth floor. Jumping meant painting the sidewalk with his internal organs. Yet attempting to fly away could cause not only his own death but the hundreds still left. If his energy leaked while being converted into the thrust required for flight, there was no doubt that Ja City would be no more. Die for certain, or risk his life and the remaining populace of the burning metropolis?
Wait! The Mimic function! It stored the ability from Vad! Maybe he could repair the suit with the metal obtained from the sinking skyscraper!
The armour preempted him just as he went to activate it. Mimic function disabled. Database offline.
"No!" Robert protested passionately. "No! It can't be offline! Son of a bitch!"
A cacophonous, resonating boom spirited Robert into action. Without thinking anymore, he jumped.
A indiscriminate column of fire burst through the window as he fell. The entire floor buckled and caved in to the demands of the inferno. The skyscraper was collapsing.
Right on top of Prototype.
Robert screamed. The last time he experienced freefall had not hardened him up for enduring it once again. At least Vad had been there to collect him and his constituent armour segments. This time, there was no one. The scorched pavement came rushing up to him as if it were a long distant loved one running to embrace him.
He spun about in the air. The entirety of the skyscraper was toppling over and somehow managed to direct itself above Falconer. He could see, without the magnification zoom of the visor, burly chunks of metal and fans of jagged glass raining down towards him. Not only was he going to die, but his body would be unmistakably buried beneath the smouldering rubble.
All of the sudden, something changed in Robert. He stopped fearing. There was no way he was about to let himself die when there was a way out. Screw everyone else! He earned his right to live. There was a chance, and he was going to take it. In the face of his demise, nothing else mattered.
Giving what he hoped wasn't his last command to the suit, Prototype ignited the thruster on his back. Immediately there felt like something was off. There was a greater vibration in his back, and the control he normally wielded over the path of his flight was rough and unresponsive. Not to mention the fact that he had increased his speed to his death.
Robert pulled back, demanding the suit level itself with the ground. It wasn't listening. Still he plunged, headfirst, towards the disused road. He felt a white hot rage couple with desperation. Nothing was stopping him now!
"Suit! Pull up now!" he shouted emphatically. Gradually, in small portions, he felt the thruster complying, redistributing the propulsion in such a manner that would comply with his commands. Yet, from basic calculations and his frazzled state of mind, he could see it wasn't enough.
"More power to the thruster!"
There is an eighty-n-
"I don't care about the explosion! Do it now!"
A great expulsion of energy left his back cavity in a torrent of fire, and in a violent motion, the suit broke out of its nosedive and sailed parallel with the city ground. The skyscraper heaved and crumpled upon the ground.
Robert was safe, except now the propulsion system wasn't taking notice of his directions. He ordered it to cool off, to lessen the amount of energy poured into it to burn, but the directive wasn't reaching the appropriate subsystem.
Propulsion system failing.
The flames came out in sporadic spurts. Falconer's trajectory was greatly compromised.
Internal module failing. Explosion imminent.
"No!" The ground was still too far away. Dropping immediately downwards would still spell death, but if he didn't disengage the propulsion system, an untold dome of destruction would engulf the remaining survivors of Ja City.
He did what he could. He had to let go.
"Disengage chest module!"
The chest of the suit abruptly disconnected and fell away. What connections that sutured the limbs and helmet as one ended. The neural synchronisation shut down, leaving Robert in four heavy limb casings and a sturdy helmet. He hoped that would be enough to survive.
As a last order before disconnection, Falconer commanded the propulsion system to fly as high as possible. As soon as Robert was separate from the chest module, it shot up at a right angle into the sky. He wanted to see if the jet pack would distance itself safely from Ja City, but the greedy pull of gravity focused his mind to more important matters.
The weight of the arm, leg and head modules dragged him faster towards the earth. Small houses and businesses rushed beneath him, growing larger as he fell. Robert guessed his landing; a large brick factory that rushed up to meet him. Balling his limbs into his chest, he clenched his eyes, grit his teeth, and prayed.
Robert smashed into the brick wall, and everything went black.
Bodies littered the plains. Many alien, many native, while some belonged to the valiant men and women of varying races who gave up their lives for one singular purpose; liberation. The planet was pockmarked by the destructive taint of war. Long standing trees were obliterated into nothing, while some were torn from the soil and dumped into the ocean. Craters that could contain a lake scarred the beautiful terrain. The peculiar blue grass existed in random clumps, and even where it wasn't scorched from the earth, its unique colour began to fade. Namek hadn't fallen, but what a price it paid for its victory.
Ja City was ablaze. The militia that held out at the spaceport crumpled soon after the departure of Vad, Trixie and Robert. Flames hungrily consumed buildings and corpses alike. The stench of death and ruin stung the nostrils of the selfless groups that dashed about the city, battling the remaining elements of the war. Hover trucks crawled solemnly through the streets, coming to a halt whenever a dead body was found. Attendants collected the deceased and respectfully lowered them into the trailer before continuing on their way. Emergency services tended to the wounded; many sustained damage during the individual skirmishes, but an unfortunate part of the ailing were hit by the haphazard debris of the destroyed Myreen, putting extra strain on the medical staff. Fire engines hurriedly doused inferno after raging inferno before the whole of Ja City was one simmering conflagration.
In one particular high rise building, surrounded by voracious fire, a solitary figure sprawled over the floor. Jagged shards of glass lay around him. A broken window wasn't far away. The flames traveled over their fuel sources, incinerating carpet, plaster, chairs and whatever else permitted its struggle for survival. Black smoke billowed out of the shattered window, but amidst the innumerable structures doing the same thing, it wasn't about to catch anyone's eye. Creaking of floorboards and the twisting of metal girders screeched over the crackling of the flames, but the unconscious person had no idea what was going on.
Suddenly, reality swam into his mind.
Robert shot up. The first thing that registered with him was the unbelievable aching of his entire body. Everything seemed operational, and he doubted that any limbs were broken. He groaned as he climbed to his feet. He was still housed within the Prototype suit. Mottled with nicks and large fissures, Robert wondered how the armour hadn't peeled off his body.
Then he noticed the fire. It was everywhere. Smoke invaded his lungs. He stumbled away, coughing vigorously. Where was he? How did he get where he was?
Prototype noticed the militant march of the smoke to the window. A window! He started to sprint over. The disconcerting sounds of the skyscraper buckling to the will of the inferno seemed to threaten him, to mock him, that his death was imminent. He ignored it, pressing through the condensed charcoal plume.
His heavy metallic foot abruptly crashed through the floor as he ran. Prototype shouted in fear, his body collapsing to the ground. The flames were closing in on him. Hastily he hauled his leg out of the crater in the floor. A brilliant red-orange glow pulsed below. Robert had never tested the suit's capability to withstand intense heat. In any case, even if it could, he theorised that he'd cook in the armour like a potato in tin foil.
With as much care and speed that would coexist together, Falconer made it to the window. He gazed out into the clean air. The drop to the city sidewalk must've been ... he didn't want to think about it. It was high. Robert considered allowing the suit to calculate the exact distance, but precise details wouldn't help his confidence any. He queried the database about the armour's remaining functionality.
Information abruptly flooded his mind. It was still a strange experience. There wasn't a voice in his head or a visual cue; the data that he requested was just simply ... there, in his mind, as if he knew it all along.
Suit integrity compromised. Airtight seal disabled. Long range scanning disabled. Short range scanning disabled. Energy cannons unresponsive. Communications disabled.
"Shit!" Robert cursed, noticing for the first time a huge crack in his green visor. "Argh! Well, what does work? How about the propulsion system?"
A moment passed. Falconer wearily glared at the approaching wall of flame. The entire skyscraper shuddered. Girders were bending. Glass was shattering. Combustible materials within the office were exploding in a haunting fanfare, singing an ode to the building's death.
"Hurry up you damn piece of tin!"
Propulsion system critically damaged.
Another spine chilling explosion sounded. The ceiling brusquely collapsed. The skyscraper was about to collapse at any second. "More information, dammit! Can I fly?!"
Propulsion system activation not recommended. Energy Combustion and Redirection module critically damaged. Activation could cause semi-nuclear explosion.
Robert's blood ran cold. The heat of the unrelenting fire seeped through the cracks of the suit's wounds. A hideous shriek of snapping metal nearly deafened him. If he didn't know better, it sounded like the skyscraper was wailing in pain, trying to warn anyone around about its imminent destruction. Falconer knew there were seconds left to make a decision.
He looked down. He was situated on no lower than the twentieth floor. Jumping meant painting the sidewalk with his internal organs. Yet attempting to fly away could cause not only his own death but the hundreds still left. If his energy leaked while being converted into the thrust required for flight, there was no doubt that Ja City would be no more. Die for certain, or risk his life and the remaining populace of the burning metropolis?
Wait! The Mimic function! It stored the ability from Vad! Maybe he could repair the suit with the metal obtained from the sinking skyscraper!
The armour preempted him just as he went to activate it. Mimic function disabled. Database offline.
"No!" Robert protested passionately. "No! It can't be offline! Son of a bitch!"
A cacophonous, resonating boom spirited Robert into action. Without thinking anymore, he jumped.
A indiscriminate column of fire burst through the window as he fell. The entire floor buckled and caved in to the demands of the inferno. The skyscraper was collapsing.
Right on top of Prototype.
Robert screamed. The last time he experienced freefall had not hardened him up for enduring it once again. At least Vad had been there to collect him and his constituent armour segments. This time, there was no one. The scorched pavement came rushing up to him as if it were a long distant loved one running to embrace him.
He spun about in the air. The entirety of the skyscraper was toppling over and somehow managed to direct itself above Falconer. He could see, without the magnification zoom of the visor, burly chunks of metal and fans of jagged glass raining down towards him. Not only was he going to die, but his body would be unmistakably buried beneath the smouldering rubble.
All of the sudden, something changed in Robert. He stopped fearing. There was no way he was about to let himself die when there was a way out. Screw everyone else! He earned his right to live. There was a chance, and he was going to take it. In the face of his demise, nothing else mattered.
Giving what he hoped wasn't his last command to the suit, Prototype ignited the thruster on his back. Immediately there felt like something was off. There was a greater vibration in his back, and the control he normally wielded over the path of his flight was rough and unresponsive. Not to mention the fact that he had increased his speed to his death.
Robert pulled back, demanding the suit level itself with the ground. It wasn't listening. Still he plunged, headfirst, towards the disused road. He felt a white hot rage couple with desperation. Nothing was stopping him now!
"Suit! Pull up now!" he shouted emphatically. Gradually, in small portions, he felt the thruster complying, redistributing the propulsion in such a manner that would comply with his commands. Yet, from basic calculations and his frazzled state of mind, he could see it wasn't enough.
"More power to the thruster!"
There is an eighty-n-
"I don't care about the explosion! Do it now!"
A great expulsion of energy left his back cavity in a torrent of fire, and in a violent motion, the suit broke out of its nosedive and sailed parallel with the city ground. The skyscraper heaved and crumpled upon the ground.
Robert was safe, except now the propulsion system wasn't taking notice of his directions. He ordered it to cool off, to lessen the amount of energy poured into it to burn, but the directive wasn't reaching the appropriate subsystem.
Propulsion system failing.
The flames came out in sporadic spurts. Falconer's trajectory was greatly compromised.
Internal module failing. Explosion imminent.
"No!" The ground was still too far away. Dropping immediately downwards would still spell death, but if he didn't disengage the propulsion system, an untold dome of destruction would engulf the remaining survivors of Ja City.
He did what he could. He had to let go.
"Disengage chest module!"
The chest of the suit abruptly disconnected and fell away. What connections that sutured the limbs and helmet as one ended. The neural synchronisation shut down, leaving Robert in four heavy limb casings and a sturdy helmet. He hoped that would be enough to survive.
As a last order before disconnection, Falconer commanded the propulsion system to fly as high as possible. As soon as Robert was separate from the chest module, it shot up at a right angle into the sky. He wanted to see if the jet pack would distance itself safely from Ja City, but the greedy pull of gravity focused his mind to more important matters.
The weight of the arm, leg and head modules dragged him faster towards the earth. Small houses and businesses rushed beneath him, growing larger as he fell. Robert guessed his landing; a large brick factory that rushed up to meet him. Balling his limbs into his chest, he clenched his eyes, grit his teeth, and prayed.
Robert smashed into the brick wall, and everything went black.
![[Image: PrototypeAug11.jpg]](http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b187/captain_civic/PrototypeAug11.jpg)