Recap on episode seven, the lion blood tribe captured Leafa and forced her and other women they captured to become slaves for Balthazar. What they didn't realize is Zach led a dangerous mission to rescue his beloved girlfriend and managed to defeat Balthazar with the help of his allies. After the attack, the remaining survivors of the lion blood tribe were killed by a mysterious figure who has since then began searching for the golden warrior.
Prologue
5 hours after the siege of Balthazar's palace.
After his encounter with the remaining survivors of the lion blood tribe, the mysterious stranger walks among old ruins of a deserted city which resembles a warzone. Suddenly, the stranger hears thrusters of a ship flying above him and lands on a clear patch of ground. When the cargo door opens, the figure noticed a bunch of men wearing strangely designed armor walking towards him. "You're needed," said one of the soldiers. Afterwards, the ship takes off and flies to an unknown location. As the ship is flying, one of the soldiers walks up to the figure and says to him, "I do not trust you, he may, but I do not." Then the figure looks at the soldier and says, "Noted." Then a mysterious man walks up to the figure and says to him, "My friends trust is not the issue today, Kirito. It is my trust you must earn." Then Kirito recognizes the man's voice and says to him, "Commander Kuzo." Kuzo looks away and says, "You are the most dangerous swordsman known to mankind." Then Kirito shrugs and says, "That's not my official title, but it's close enough." Then Kuzo looks back at the black swordsman and says, "And now you are searching for someone." "I'm not so much searching for someone, as I'm searching for, this man right here," said Kirito. Afterwards, Kirito pulls out a hologram and displays the person he's searching for to Kuzo. After recognizing the man that Kirito is searching for, Kuzo looks up at him and says, "You seek?" Then Kirito says, "Paladin Prime Zachary Huehn." Then Kuzo continues, "I was told not to identify my target." Then Kirito said, "That's why I'm asking you for my help. We're talking about trust after all. Let me tell you something, you and your army faced him before, what was your first reaction to seeing him on the ground?" Then Kuzo simply answered, "When me and my prowlers first encountered him, he was probably our most dangerous enemy we ever faced. Zach Huehn has not only the powers of a light bearer, but he also has the strength of a UNSC spartan, and the agility of an ancient warrior group known as the Tenno, despite being a Titan. He is one of the most powerful lightbearers humanity has seen. Like all guardians, he uses a variety of elements to destroy his enemies, but he is unique. Zach is known to use some old arts when he uses the light, making him considerably more dangerous. Also, he somehow overcame the darkness and learned some of its powers, but I really don't see him use it as far as I know. Over a period of time, me and my Prowlers started to call him ally, even friend. The events that lead to our bond is, rather complicated, but it's vital that we find Zach alive. And for good reason, something is coming, and we must all be prepared for it." After explaining his story to Kirito, commander Kuzo looks away and the scene cuts to black.
Project Crossover episode 8: Old dogs, new tricks.
Back in Sanctuary, Zach and some of his fellow soldiers are in a firefight with an unknown alien species. Carlos raises his rifle over his head and fires a few rounds at his target. "We need backup guys," he yells. Suddenly, Zach leaps forward and crashes to the ground in a blinding flash of arc energy. His fist smashes in the ground and all nearby enemies are killed by his arc powers. "Sorry I'm late boys," said Zach, "I had to deal with some vex behind you." Afterwards, Zach grabs his shotgun and fires at a minotaur, destroying its stomach and splitting it in half. While Zach and the others are fighting, they hear an electronic voice in the background, "SIMULATION PAUSED." Then Wolf said, "Woah, what happened?" Then Zach said, "I don't know." All of a sudden, Leafa walks up and says, "Hey guys." Then Zach said, "Oh, hey Leafs." "What are you guys doing?," asked Leafa. Wolf walks up and says, "We're doing some training in the danger room if you can already tell." Then Leafa giggles and says, "I can clearly tell Wolf, facing a bunch of killer robots." Then Carlos says, "They're actually called Vex." Then Leafa said, "My apologies Carlos." "That's fine babe, you're not used to the threats we face in our dimension," said Zach, "but it's always good to understand how they fight, adapt, and survive." "Yeah, especially when nightingale conquered us on earth a few years ago," said Carlos. "What do you mean?," asked Leafa. Then Zach said, "One of our most devastating events in USSO history is when nightingale destroyed the earth chapter of the USSO. Earth is obviously the capital of our military. Before the attack, nightingale was able to disrupt communications from the rest of the USSO colonies and that's why we lost Earth to nightingale. But eventually, we were able to get communications back to the other colonies and kicked nightingale where it hurts." Then Leafa said, "Honestly, I'm still quite happy that you guys are still fighting to this day." "I don't blame you ma'am, I'm happy that you're doing the same thing as well," said Wolf. "If you guys aren't too busy," said Leafa, "Riley has another mission for you." Then Zach said, "We'll be on our way babe." While Leafa exists the danger room, Zach notified his buddies to prepare their gear at the armory. A few minutes after gearing up, Zach, Carlos, and Wolf head to the briefing room to meet up with Riley, and some other heroes. "General, They're here," said a USSO operator. "Good to see you boys again," said Riley. Then Zach says to Riley, "Same with you General, what have you got for us?" Then Riley looks at the tactical map and says, "While you boys were training, we have picked up a signal of unknown origin. But I can confirm that the signal is somewhere around the remains of Massachusetts." "I thought Massachusetts wasn't destroyed," said Zach. "Remember Zach," said Riley," we're inside a multiverse." Then Zach said, "That makes sense now. Who's in the commonwealth?" Then Riley said, "You're not going to believe it. Your younger brother is out there all by himself." Then Zach looked up and said, "Charlie. He usually doesn't go alone in the commonwealth, he has some backup with him. I still can't believe that he got pulled inside here as well." "Then it's time to bring him here to Sanctuary," said Riley. "With your light and his survival skills, I'm sure you will be able to bring him home, as long as you don't kill each other first." Then Carlos stepped up and says to Riley, "Don't worry General, we'll be with Zach in case if he and his brother starts fighting." Then Riley says to Zach and the others, "Good luck, and Godspeed." Then Zach salutes Riley and the heroes head to the hangar to prepare their ships for the mission. While on their way, Zach noticed Edward and Alphonse Eric accompanying the heroes as well as Leafa, Jerome, and a robot walking towards Zach. "Good to see you sir," said the robot. Then Zach recognized the robot and says to it, "Nice to see you as well Ethan." Carlos and Wolf also greeted Ethan and says to the others, "Commander, good to see you again." Then Jerome said, "Nice to see you again as well troops. Now you all know what we need to do in this operation correct?" Then Zach stepped up and says to Jerome, "Retrieve and rescue my brother. I know he's out there somewhere, so we need to find him." Then Leafa says to Zach, "Don't worry honey, we'll find your brother, but we need to do it as a team." Zach smiles and says, "Exactly. All right guys, let's go." Then Ethan, being humorous as he always is, asks Zach, "I'm sorry sir, what do we need to do again?" Then Zach placed the palm of his hand over his helmet and shook his head from side to side. "Just kidding sir, I know what we need to do." Then Zach said to Ethan, "Some things never change from you Ethan, Charlie is definitely going to be happy when he sees you. Anyway, let's get moving guys." Afterwards, the heroes entered their personal ships and takes off to the commonwealth to find Charlie. In the commonwealth, Charlie and a squad of soldiers were wandering around the ruins of Massachusetts, after a few hours of walking, Charlie said, "Okay guys, let's set up camp here." Then one of the soldiers said, "Thank god, my legs are killing me." Then Charlie looks over his shoulder and says to the soldier, "You still have a long way to go private. But I think you deserve this break." Once they set up camp, the squad is resting around the campsite, eating their MREs. After a few minutes of eating and resting, one of the soldiers stands up and does a quick recon to observe the area. Once he left, he stumbled upon some trees to make a quick pit stop. Once he's done with his personal business, he grabbed his rifle when he heard movement next to him. Suddenly, a mysterious creature leaped out of the bush and attacked the soldier. Over the distance, Charlie and his squad heard a scream from the hill below. Then Charlie grabs his rifle and says to his squad, "Break's over guys, let's get to our missing comrade." By the time the squad ran to the soldier, it was too late. Something had ripped the soldier to pieces. "Damn," said the rookie. "A licker definitely did this to him," said Charlie. Then he reached down and picked up what was left of his dog tags and said to the remains of the dead soldier, "Peace to the fallen." Suddenly, Charlie hears ships flying overhead and says to his squad, "I think we're going to get some company boys." "Friend or foe sir?," asked one of the soldiers. Then Charlie said, "I'm not sure, but they sure as hell don't look like vertibirds." Then Charlie observed one of the ships and recognized the black and gold ship. "Yep, that's definitely friendly," said Charlie. "How do you know?," asked the rookie. Then Charlie says, "The black and gold accents on that ship is definitely my brother, Zach. I'm not sure what he's doing, but I think he's walking into a dangerous situation, especially around here in the commonwealth." Meanwhile, Zach and his team landed on an elevated patch of land to observe the commonwealth. "I can't believe after all this time," said Zach, "I never expected the commonwealth to be this beautiful." Then Edward walked up and asked, "What happened to this place? Why is it that this place looks so green and beautiful?" Then Jerome said, "I could give you the exact details, but I don't necessarily want to upset you guys. A very large bomb decimated Massachusetts within minutes. Many years have passed since the incident." "200 years to be precise," said Zach. "Damn that's a long time," said Edward. "I really hope we'll find your brother sooner than later Zach," said Alphonse. "I hope so too Alphonse," said Zach, "alright guys, let's not keep Charlie waiting, we better find him and bring him to Sanctuary." Then Carlos says, "On you Paladin." Then Zach and the others started walking down the hill and walked around the commonwealth, looking for any signs of Charlie. Suddenly, Zach noticed a man lying on the ground. Zach raised his fist in the air, notifying his allies to hold their position. Then Zach walks up to the man's corpse and observed the body. "This is a pathfinder alright," he said, "or what's left of him." Then Alphonse said, "What's a pathfinder? I've never heard of them before." Then Zach stood up and said to Alphonse, "The pathfinders are a group of trained survivors that my brother organized, he made the pathfinders with only one goal, the complete liberation of the commonwealth, and they're also trying to establish peace as well. But even as they're trying to ensure peace, they don't screw around when they fight in combat. I've personally seen a squad of pathfinders taking out a large group of super mutants all by themselves." Then Leafa asked Zach, "Who supplies these people honey?" Then Zach said, "The NCR, the New California Republic. They support the pathfinders and supply them with weapons, munitions, armor, everything. The NCR obviously was organized in California, and they settled in the west coast, specifically, the Mojave desert. The NCR is a group you don't want to fight, especially their rangers." "Yeah, and we're pretty damn proud to serve alongside them," said a voice next to the squad. Then Zach stood up to see the person. "So you must be a pathfinder correct?," asked Zach. "Yes sir," said the soldier, "but I have one question for you. What the hell are you doing here?" Then Zach said, "We're from Sanctuary. I'm trying to find my brother. Have you seen him?" Then the soldier said, "I've seen him recently. He left here a little while ago to do some reconnaissance, he and his squad should be back by the next two hours." Then Edward said, "I think we should find him Zach." "I think so too," said Zach, "but this place is quite dangerous and unforgiving." "You definitely have a point, Mr. Huehn," said the pathfinder, "I do recall seeing your performance in the commonwealth before you became a guardian, I just wish you didn't leave us." Then Zach said, "I understand and I'm sorry." Then the pathfinder said, "It's alright sir, but you have more important things to take care of, especially your friends and your lovely girlfriend." After hearing the comment, Leafa smiles. "If you're planning on finding him however," said the pathfinder trooper, "he won't give you a warm welcome because of your, well, attributes." Then Zach said, "It doesn't matter how much crap he gives me, at least he'll be quite happy to see me surviving this multiverse." Suddenly, the heroes hear distant gunfire ringing out. "That doesn't sound good," said Wolf. Then Zach says, "Let's move team," and they ran off. Then the pathfinder calls to Zach, "I hope you guys don't end up like one of our last patrol teams." Then Zach calls back to the pathfinder, "We'll try to survive, don't worry." The heroes ran for a little while when suddenly, Zach spots the battle beneath his feet. He sees Charlie and his squad attacking a pack of strange creatures that are only comprised of muscle tissue, and sharp teeth and claws. "How is it babe?," asked Leafa. Then Zach said, "It's not good, we got lickers on the ground. I recall fighting some of these beasts back in my day, they have wickedly sharp claws that can rip a man to shreds, and they also have a very long and sharp tongue that can puncture steel, even through heavy armor, just like mine, just like Jerome's, just like anyone." Then Edward says to Zach, "If we want to save your brother, we have to go down there and fight them off." Then Zach has little choice but to risk his own life and save Charlie, before it's too late. So he nods to his squad and says, "Let's hope all of us makes it back to Sanctuary in one piece." Then he slides down the hill and provides the pathfinders with support. Then Ethan looks at the rest of the squad and says, "Come on guys, we can't let Zach have all the fun," and then he starts sliding down the hill. Shortly after, the rest of the team joined up with Zach to assist the pathfinders. Charlie looks over his shoulder and sees his brother fighting alongside him and his troops, and he says, "Zach? What the hell are you doing here?" Then Zach said, "It's a long story brother, we'll talk once we clear this place out." Then Charlie nods and noticed more people fighting alongside the golden warrior and he said to himself, "I don't believe this. This is really strange." Then one pathfinder noticed a licker running towards Charlie and he said, "General, watch out!" Then Charlie rolled away from the licker and shot at it with his rifle. Carlos sees a couple of feral ghouls and pulls out his bio blades and charges at the ghouls to protect a squad of pathfinders. He ripped the ghouls to shreds and one of the squad mates said to Carlos, "Thanks for the assist, blade runner." Then Carlos says to the squad, "You're welcome, but the proper term you're looking for is bioweapon." Then the commander of the squad said, "I'm sorry sir, but we don't necessarily see someone like you around here." Then Zach noticed Carlos and the squad of pathfinders and calls out to them, "Fight first, chat later boys." Then suddenly, Charlie pulls out his pistol and aims it to his own brother. Then he said, "Duck," and Zach dropped to the ground before Charlie fired his pistol at a licker that was leaping towards the golden warrior. "Pretty damn impressive brother," said Zach, "but you have to warn me next time you pull a stunt like that." Then Charlie smirked and says, "Come on bro, where's the fun in that." Then Zach gets tackled by a hunter and gets pinned to the ground. Suddenly, Leafa took notice and runs to her beloved boyfriend, when suddenly, she gets knocked down by a bloated feral ghoul. Charlie runs towards the hunter and says, "Leave my brother alone you overgrown mutant!," and climbs on the creature's back. While Charlie wasn't looking, Zach pulls out his sawed off shotgun out of thin air, shoved both barrels in the hunter's mouth, and blasted it's head off. The dead hunter falls to the ground and lands on Charlie, while Zach pulls out another sawed off shotgun and lays down a barrage of superheated buckshot all around the battlefield. Eventually, Leafa was able to grab her katana, and decapitated the feral ghoul. Once she threw her target to the ground, she saw Zach blasting his opponents with his mythical shotguns. Everyone that was fighting shifted their focus on Zach and became fascinated with the golden warrior's unfathomable weapons. Once the smoke cleared, Zach holsters his shotguns on his hips, and they vanished completely. Eventually, one of the soldiers said, "Holy, crap. That, was, Awesome." Then Carlos said to the soldier, "That's one of his mystical weapons, he only uses them if under extreme circumstances." Then Zach says to Carlos, "Or if I feel like pulling them out to annihilate whatever I fight. Now where's Charlie." Then Charlie says to anyone who can help him, "Over here. And can someone get this giant bastard off of me." Then Zach, Alphonse, and Jerome stepped up and pushed the hunter off of Charlie. Once the hunter was pushed off of Charlie, he stood up and kicked Zach to the ground. Then he said, "Next time, let me know when you do something like that, I almost lost my god damn head." Then Zach said, "I rather wouldn't spoil any suprises." Then Charlie realized what Zach said and he said to himself, "Well, that's one thing that we have in common." While Charlie is pulling Zach up, Jerome said to Charlie, "Honestly, I am quite shocked that you weren't crushed by the sheer weight of that hunter." Then Charlie looks at Jerome and says, "Yeah, lucky me. I mean damn, I feel like Buck now." Then Edward asks Charlie, "Who's Buck?" Then Charlie chuckles and says, "Edward Buck, he's a former ODST, now he's a spartan. I do recall one of his missions with his team at new Mombasa. One of his teammates, Romeo, he had his lung punctured by a brute chieftain, and the rest of the ODSTs tackled the chieftain and killed it. But Buck was on the chieftain when it died, and it landed on him." Then Zach said, "Yeah, but Buck was very lucky that he wasn't crushed by the chieftain." Then Charlie nods and says, "Definitely, because one brute with their power armor can weigh up to over a ton." Then Alphonse says, "That's definitely gotta hurt." "Yep," said Ethan, "But like what Zach said, Buck was very lucky that day." Then suddenly, Charlie looks at Leafa and says, "I'm surprised that you're here Leafa." Then Leafa said, "A lot can happen in a multiverse like this." Then Zach, being confused, looks at his brother and asks him, "How do you know her?" Then Charlie gives Zach a confident smile and as soon as he saw his brother's smile, the golden warrior says, "Oh great, now I remember." Then Charlie says, "You should know brother, because I love watching that anime." Then Zach says, "Yeah yeah I know." All of a sudden, strange music emanates from below the heroes feet. After the music ended, Charlie asked Zach, "What the hell was that?" Then Zach recognized the music and he said, "Rasputin. He's in trouble." Then Charlie questions his brother, "Who's Rasputin?" Then Zach says, "Rasputin is a golden age A.I. that humanity in my universe made. He maintains an orbital defense system around the solar system from intergalactic threats. And we access the orbital network from many underground bunkers to see what's happening. And because of the music, there's one right here in the commonwealth." After explaining to his brother, Charlie says, "Now I understand, troopers, let's find this bunker and restore it to full working order." Then Zach asks, "What about us?" Then Charlie says, "You know a lot more about Rasputin than I do, you'd be better off coming with us." Then Leafa looks at Zach and says, "We can't keep them waiting babe, let's get moving." Then Zach nods and says, "I agree, let's go." After the conversation, Zach, Carlos, and the others caught up with Charlie and the pathfinders. Once they arrived at the location, two massive doors from underneath the earth opened upward. After the warmind bunker opened, Charlie looks at his brother and says, "So how are we going to get inside?" Then Zach says, "The fun way." Then he looks into the dark interior of the warmind and starts sliding down into the bunker. "You've got to be kidding me," said one of the pathfinders. Suddenly, from below, gunfire rang out from the bunker and the heroes heard grotesque screams. "We need to get down there, Now!," yelled Jerome. With brutal haste, the heroes and the pathfinders carefully and quickly ran down into the massive underground bunker trying to find out what's happening. Suddenly, a strange creature with three eyes notices the heroes and lets out an angry shriek. One of the pathfinders that heard the shriek started to freak out and tried to ran down to the bunker as fast as possible, but he lost his footing on the steps and started sliding down the steep vertical pitch. This unfortunately caused the other heroes to roll and slide down as well. Once they arrived at the bunker, the heroes noticed Zach facing a strange alien race that's charging at the golden warrior. He then looks down at the heroes and says, "start sleeping or start fighting guys, pick one." Then without any hesitation, Charlie sprang up and started shooting at the aliens, alongside the rest of the soldiers. "What the hell are these things Zach?!," shouted Charlie. Then Zach says, "The hive, ancient worshippers of death. They love to thrive in the darkness and they worship their ancient gods. "Worshippers of death my ass," said Charlie, "let's send these bastards back to hell." "HOOAH!," yelled Zach. Then the heroes fought back the hive with everything they have. Wave after wave of hive was approaching with no signs of slowing down. Zach charged up his burning maul and started beating the hive and turning them into ash. Carlos sees a group of Acolytes who were running towards Jerome, Edward, and Ethan and ran towards the hive troops with ease. He then leaps into the air and starts cutting down the Acolytes with his bio blades. Then Edward looks at Carlos and says, "Nice, but you missed one." With no hesitation, Carlos pulls out his pistol and shoots at the last Acolyte, and then he said, "You were saying?" Then Leafa looks at Carlos and says in a playful manner, "Showoff." Then Carlos says to Leafa, "You should show some good manners to a bioweapon young lady." Then Zach interfered and says to both Carlos and Leafa, "Cut the chatter you two, stay focused on the mission." Then Carlos nods his head and says, "Copy that Zach." Suddenly, the rookie notices a strange, bright blue glow walking towards him and he says, "What's that weird glow." Then Zach noticed the glow and yells to the rookie, "STAY BACK!" Then the glow happens to be a cursed thrall running towards the rookie and the rookie tried to shoot at the cursed thrall, but he didn't realize that his rifle ran out of ammo. Zach tried to stop the thrall from reaching the rookie, but it was too late. The cursed thrall exploded, taking the rookie with him and pushed the golden warrior away. Once he landed on the ground, Zach noticed the remains of the rookie and he yelled while slamming his fist to the ground, "Dammit!" Then Charlie saw what's left of the rookie and ran up to his remains. Suddenly, Charlie felt a huge dose of anger rushing through his veins and he screamed in rage, and he started shooting at the hive with extreme prejudice. "Charlie, calm down," said Zach. But Charlie looks at his own brother and yells, "Back the hell off!" Then Charlie continues to take out the hive in the bunker by any means necessary. Suddenly, Ethan noticed a hive knight carrying a large blade and it was charging at Charlie. After noticing the Knight, Ethan yells, "Look out sir!," and Charlie looked over his shoulder to see what was behind him. He was able to land a few hits on the Knight, but the knight shrugged off the damage and impaled Charlie with his sword. Zach's heart stopped momentarily when he saw Charlie being stabbed in the chest by the knight. Suddenly, Zach pulls out his break actions once more and he screams at the Knight in anger. The knight prepares to kill Zach as well, but the golden warrior shot at his right arm, blowing the arm off the Knight, and Zach finished off the Knight by shoving his barrels into the knight's mouth and pulled both triggers. It was overkill, but Zach didn't care, he wanted payback, and he wasn't done yet. He opens up his shotguns and loaded up wolf shaped shells. Once he loaded up, he closed the mechanisms and shot at the hive with the wolf shaped grenades which howled in the air as they flew. Upon impact, the shells exploded, disintegrating the hive caught in the blast and leaving behind a scorching pool of fire, burning any hive that was foolish enough to enter the flaming pool. Once the coast is clear, Zach calmed down and put away his shotguns, and ran towards his brother. One pathfinder walked up to Zach and says to him, "He's dead, you can't bring him back." Then Zach looked over his shoulder and says to the soldier, "Even though he's a pathfinder, I can feel light flowing through his veins. I'm going to save him no matter what you say to me. Ghost, get Charlie back on his feet pronto." Then Ghost appears out of thin air and says to Zach, "Understood guardian." Then the rest of the pathfinders watched in amazement as Zach's ghost resurrected Charlie and brought him back alive, all while healing his massive wounds and his vital organs. Once the resurrection was complete, Charlie gasped for air and looked at his brother and says, "You brought me back, why?" Then Zach says, "Because I need you, you're not dying on me this early." Then Charlie slowly got up to his feet, and hugged Zach and he said, "Thank you brother." Then Zach said, "You're welcome bud, but clear the warmind first, appreciate your brother later." Charlie gave Zach a pat on his shoulder and ordered the rest of the squad to follow the golden warrior and clear out the warmind bunker. Then the heroes heard more grotesque screams and one of the soldiers yelled, "God dammit, more of these things?!" Then Zach said, "The hive just won't give up." Suddenly, Rasputin activates a giant rig and summons a massive warmind robot to protect the heroes from the next wave of hive forces. "I was hoping that Rasputin would activate a heavy frame to help us," said Wolf. Then Leafa says to Wolf, "I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I think Rasputin is doing this to keep us safe." Then Zach says, "It's more than just that babe, he's doing this to eradicate the hive with no remorse, just like us." "Well let's quit yapping and kick some ass," says Edward. Then Edward uses his alcemy to summon a powerful pole arm with his face on it. Afterwards, Edward takes out a group of thrall chasing him. Then Zach scoffed and says, "Amateur," and deploys his Void shield. But this time, he also generates small, razor sharp blades all over his shield, and then he threw it at multiple units. Rather than disintegrating, the hive were being cut in half by the blades and once he retrieves his shield, Zach cleaves multiple knights in two with one spin attack. Shortly after, Charlie pulls out a flamethrower and yells to the hive, "Burn in hell!," and lets loose a continuous stream of flaming napalm at his foe. Suddenly, Zach noticed an opening to his left and says, "Guys, let's try to make it to the core room." Then Charlie says, "Let's get moving people, but make it in one piece, got it?" Then the pathfinders yells, "Hoorah," and started making their way into the core room while keeping the hive away from them. The hive kept coming in droves, but Zach leaped into the air with two of his flaming hammers, and then he slammed them to the ground, blowing up the hive in front of the heroes. This made an easy pathway for the heroes to reach the main core room. Once the heroes made it inside the core room, the door quickly closed behind them while one thrall tried to crawl underneath it. The sheer weight of the door crushed the thrall before it got a chance to attack. After the brief attack, the heroes started walking towards the main core of the warmind bunker and notices an ominous orange glow. Quickly realizing the glow, Zach says, "The main core, we're getting close." Once the heroes arrived, they were amazed at the core. Suddenly, Rasputin speaks in Russian and Zach recognized what he's saying. Once he translated Rasputin's distress call, he says to Charlie and the others, "Rasputin told us that a hive lieutenant is thriving here. If we find the lieutenant and kill it, the hive will scatter." Then Charlie says, "That's impressive bro, how did you learn to translate Russian?" Then Zach says, "Ana Bray, daughter of Clovis Bray. If I remember correctly, He and his company was the main founder to create Rasputin and the warmind. With her help, I was able to kill Xol, a hive worm god on Mars, with a pretty cool lance made out of warmind energy." Then Carlos looks at Zach and says, "I apologize for interrupting you Zach, but look behind you." Then Zach turns around and sees a high ranking Hive wizard next to him. She charges up a blast of energy and throws Zach away from her, knocking down the rest of the heroes in the process. She let's out a loud, grotesque scream to summon reinforcements and Zach quickly gets on his feet and yells, "This is the last time I'm hearing that damn scream!" Ethan quickly follows suit and says to Zach, "I don't blame you sir, let's take her down." Suddenly, multiple thrall starts crawling out of the vents and surrounds the heroes. Once they realized that they are surrounded, Charlie says to Zach, "I hope you have a plan for this." Then Zach says, "I sure do." Then without hesitation, Zach generates large ice crystals from his hands and slams them to the ground. The shockwave travels around the heroes and freezes the thrall that are closer to the heroes within the circle. Then Zach leaps into the air and pounds the ground with his maul, which breaks the ice crystals. The force was so strong, the thrall that was frozen in ice were completely shattered in peices. As this happened, razor sharp ice shards flew in every direction at incredible speed, and the velocity of the shards started cutting down and dismembering the rest of the thrall and leaving behind a trail of dead hive corpses. Once the thrall was taken care of, Zach says to the lieutenant, "No more games, you're not going anywhere." Then the heroes start attacking the lieutenant. She was a slippery target, but the heroes wouldn't give up. Afterwards, Zach pulls out his shotgun and waited until the lieutenant was close. Once she was at the right spot, Zach fired and hit her with triple aught buckshot, but the lieutenant would not stop. Eventually, she stopped playing cat and mouse and started to fight. She fired a barrage of energy blasts from her hands at the heroes, but Zach deploys his banner shield to deflect the blasts. Then Zach leaped to the air with his razor blades around his shield and starts attacking the lieutenant. She recieved a big gash from Zach's shield, but she was able to throw the golden warrior back into the ground. Even though the lieutenant was in great pain, she still tried to fight off the heroes. The lieutenant didn't realize is that Rasputin deploys a squad of combat androids to assist the heroes and defeat the high ranking wizard. Then Zach sees the androids and says to his buddies, "Looks like we have some backup guys." Then Charlie says, "Yeah, but for how long?" "I'm not sure," said Zach, "But hopefully it will be enough." The combat androids lays down suppressive fire at the lieutenant, giving the heroes enough time to find cover and restock on ammo. While the lieutenant was busy fighting off the androids, Charlie grabs an RPG-7 and hands it to Zach. Once the golden warrior grabs the launcher, Charlie says, "Remember brother, this is unguided, so make your shot count." Then Zach nods and gets into position. Once he's ready, Zach signals his allies to fight alongside the combat androids, and keep the lieutenant busy until she's in position for the golden warrior to take the shot. Once in place, Zach fired his launcher, but the rocket dipped down a little low and landed next to the lieutenant, knocking her to the ground. "C'mon Rasputin," said Zach, "Do something!" Suddenly, the heroes hears Rasputin speaking and deploys a lance made out of warmind energy. Then Charlie calls out to Zach and says, "Hey brother, we have a lance ready to go for you." Then Zach smiles behind his helmet and says, "I was hoping that Rasputin would generate a Polaris lance. Keep me covered guys." Then Leafa says, "Right behind you babe." While the heroes are trying to contain the lieutenant to the ground, Zach runs to the lance and picks it up. However, once Zach grabs the Polaris lance, he hears a loud roar from the outside of the gate. Then he hears a series of loud pounding on the gate, until the gate breaks open and a massive creature walks towards the heroes. "What the hell is that thing?!," yelled Edward. Then Zach looks at the creature and yells, "Ogre! Get to cover now!" Once the heroes find cover, the ogre searches endlessly trying to find anyone who opposes it. "This isn't unlike any ogre I've faced," said Leafa. "That's because this is no ordinary ogre honey. Unlike the ogres you've faced, this ogre is one of the most dangerous and the most fearful units the hive has summoned. But I have definitely seen worse threats before," said Zach, "How many rockets do you have left troops?" Then one pathfinder said to Zach, "I count five, why?" Then Zach says, "I need you to distract it, give me some time until I kill that thing." Then the pathfinder said, "I've heard crazier ideas, but lets do this." Then the pathfinder runs out of cover and finds a good vantage point. While he's running, the ogre fires at the soldier with a rapid barrage of void energy out of its eye. Even though he was under hostile fire, the corporal was able to seek cover while the void barrage whizzed above his head. Suddenly, the ogre gets hit by the Polaris lance that Zach threw, which crippled the ogre's right arm. While the ogre is in great pain, the corporal aims and fires at the ogre with his RPG-7. The rocket hits the ogre right in its eye and knocks it down to the ground, landing with a giant, ground shaking thud. The Lieutenant was very shocked at how fast the heroes took out the ogre, and now it was her turn to meet her fate. But she realized that she wouldn't go down without a fight. Part 2 coming up soon.
Prologue
5 hours after the siege of Balthazar's palace.
After his encounter with the remaining survivors of the lion blood tribe, the mysterious stranger walks among old ruins of a deserted city which resembles a warzone. Suddenly, the stranger hears thrusters of a ship flying above him and lands on a clear patch of ground. When the cargo door opens, the figure noticed a bunch of men wearing strangely designed armor walking towards him. "You're needed," said one of the soldiers. Afterwards, the ship takes off and flies to an unknown location. As the ship is flying, one of the soldiers walks up to the figure and says to him, "I do not trust you, he may, but I do not." Then the figure looks at the soldier and says, "Noted." Then a mysterious man walks up to the figure and says to him, "My friends trust is not the issue today, Kirito. It is my trust you must earn." Then Kirito recognizes the man's voice and says to him, "Commander Kuzo." Kuzo looks away and says, "You are the most dangerous swordsman known to mankind." Then Kirito shrugs and says, "That's not my official title, but it's close enough." Then Kuzo looks back at the black swordsman and says, "And now you are searching for someone." "I'm not so much searching for someone, as I'm searching for, this man right here," said Kirito. Afterwards, Kirito pulls out a hologram and displays the person he's searching for to Kuzo. After recognizing the man that Kirito is searching for, Kuzo looks up at him and says, "You seek?" Then Kirito says, "Paladin Prime Zachary Huehn." Then Kuzo continues, "I was told not to identify my target." Then Kirito said, "That's why I'm asking you for my help. We're talking about trust after all. Let me tell you something, you and your army faced him before, what was your first reaction to seeing him on the ground?" Then Kuzo simply answered, "When me and my prowlers first encountered him, he was probably our most dangerous enemy we ever faced. Zach Huehn has not only the powers of a light bearer, but he also has the strength of a UNSC spartan, and the agility of an ancient warrior group known as the Tenno, despite being a Titan. He is one of the most powerful lightbearers humanity has seen. Like all guardians, he uses a variety of elements to destroy his enemies, but he is unique. Zach is known to use some old arts when he uses the light, making him considerably more dangerous. Also, he somehow overcame the darkness and learned some of its powers, but I really don't see him use it as far as I know. Over a period of time, me and my Prowlers started to call him ally, even friend. The events that lead to our bond is, rather complicated, but it's vital that we find Zach alive. And for good reason, something is coming, and we must all be prepared for it." After explaining his story to Kirito, commander Kuzo looks away and the scene cuts to black.
Project Crossover episode 8: Old dogs, new tricks.
Back in Sanctuary, Zach and some of his fellow soldiers are in a firefight with an unknown alien species. Carlos raises his rifle over his head and fires a few rounds at his target. "We need backup guys," he yells. Suddenly, Zach leaps forward and crashes to the ground in a blinding flash of arc energy. His fist smashes in the ground and all nearby enemies are killed by his arc powers. "Sorry I'm late boys," said Zach, "I had to deal with some vex behind you." Afterwards, Zach grabs his shotgun and fires at a minotaur, destroying its stomach and splitting it in half. While Zach and the others are fighting, they hear an electronic voice in the background, "SIMULATION PAUSED." Then Wolf said, "Woah, what happened?" Then Zach said, "I don't know." All of a sudden, Leafa walks up and says, "Hey guys." Then Zach said, "Oh, hey Leafs." "What are you guys doing?," asked Leafa. Wolf walks up and says, "We're doing some training in the danger room if you can already tell." Then Leafa giggles and says, "I can clearly tell Wolf, facing a bunch of killer robots." Then Carlos says, "They're actually called Vex." Then Leafa said, "My apologies Carlos." "That's fine babe, you're not used to the threats we face in our dimension," said Zach, "but it's always good to understand how they fight, adapt, and survive." "Yeah, especially when nightingale conquered us on earth a few years ago," said Carlos. "What do you mean?," asked Leafa. Then Zach said, "One of our most devastating events in USSO history is when nightingale destroyed the earth chapter of the USSO. Earth is obviously the capital of our military. Before the attack, nightingale was able to disrupt communications from the rest of the USSO colonies and that's why we lost Earth to nightingale. But eventually, we were able to get communications back to the other colonies and kicked nightingale where it hurts." Then Leafa said, "Honestly, I'm still quite happy that you guys are still fighting to this day." "I don't blame you ma'am, I'm happy that you're doing the same thing as well," said Wolf. "If you guys aren't too busy," said Leafa, "Riley has another mission for you." Then Zach said, "We'll be on our way babe." While Leafa exists the danger room, Zach notified his buddies to prepare their gear at the armory. A few minutes after gearing up, Zach, Carlos, and Wolf head to the briefing room to meet up with Riley, and some other heroes. "General, They're here," said a USSO operator. "Good to see you boys again," said Riley. Then Zach says to Riley, "Same with you General, what have you got for us?" Then Riley looks at the tactical map and says, "While you boys were training, we have picked up a signal of unknown origin. But I can confirm that the signal is somewhere around the remains of Massachusetts." "I thought Massachusetts wasn't destroyed," said Zach. "Remember Zach," said Riley," we're inside a multiverse." Then Zach said, "That makes sense now. Who's in the commonwealth?" Then Riley said, "You're not going to believe it. Your younger brother is out there all by himself." Then Zach looked up and said, "Charlie. He usually doesn't go alone in the commonwealth, he has some backup with him. I still can't believe that he got pulled inside here as well." "Then it's time to bring him here to Sanctuary," said Riley. "With your light and his survival skills, I'm sure you will be able to bring him home, as long as you don't kill each other first." Then Carlos stepped up and says to Riley, "Don't worry General, we'll be with Zach in case if he and his brother starts fighting." Then Riley says to Zach and the others, "Good luck, and Godspeed." Then Zach salutes Riley and the heroes head to the hangar to prepare their ships for the mission. While on their way, Zach noticed Edward and Alphonse Eric accompanying the heroes as well as Leafa, Jerome, and a robot walking towards Zach. "Good to see you sir," said the robot. Then Zach recognized the robot and says to it, "Nice to see you as well Ethan." Carlos and Wolf also greeted Ethan and says to the others, "Commander, good to see you again." Then Jerome said, "Nice to see you again as well troops. Now you all know what we need to do in this operation correct?" Then Zach stepped up and says to Jerome, "Retrieve and rescue my brother. I know he's out there somewhere, so we need to find him." Then Leafa says to Zach, "Don't worry honey, we'll find your brother, but we need to do it as a team." Zach smiles and says, "Exactly. All right guys, let's go." Then Ethan, being humorous as he always is, asks Zach, "I'm sorry sir, what do we need to do again?" Then Zach placed the palm of his hand over his helmet and shook his head from side to side. "Just kidding sir, I know what we need to do." Then Zach said to Ethan, "Some things never change from you Ethan, Charlie is definitely going to be happy when he sees you. Anyway, let's get moving guys." Afterwards, the heroes entered their personal ships and takes off to the commonwealth to find Charlie. In the commonwealth, Charlie and a squad of soldiers were wandering around the ruins of Massachusetts, after a few hours of walking, Charlie said, "Okay guys, let's set up camp here." Then one of the soldiers said, "Thank god, my legs are killing me." Then Charlie looks over his shoulder and says to the soldier, "You still have a long way to go private. But I think you deserve this break." Once they set up camp, the squad is resting around the campsite, eating their MREs. After a few minutes of eating and resting, one of the soldiers stands up and does a quick recon to observe the area. Once he left, he stumbled upon some trees to make a quick pit stop. Once he's done with his personal business, he grabbed his rifle when he heard movement next to him. Suddenly, a mysterious creature leaped out of the bush and attacked the soldier. Over the distance, Charlie and his squad heard a scream from the hill below. Then Charlie grabs his rifle and says to his squad, "Break's over guys, let's get to our missing comrade." By the time the squad ran to the soldier, it was too late. Something had ripped the soldier to pieces. "Damn," said the rookie. "A licker definitely did this to him," said Charlie. Then he reached down and picked up what was left of his dog tags and said to the remains of the dead soldier, "Peace to the fallen." Suddenly, Charlie hears ships flying overhead and says to his squad, "I think we're going to get some company boys." "Friend or foe sir?," asked one of the soldiers. Then Charlie said, "I'm not sure, but they sure as hell don't look like vertibirds." Then Charlie observed one of the ships and recognized the black and gold ship. "Yep, that's definitely friendly," said Charlie. "How do you know?," asked the rookie. Then Charlie says, "The black and gold accents on that ship is definitely my brother, Zach. I'm not sure what he's doing, but I think he's walking into a dangerous situation, especially around here in the commonwealth." Meanwhile, Zach and his team landed on an elevated patch of land to observe the commonwealth. "I can't believe after all this time," said Zach, "I never expected the commonwealth to be this beautiful." Then Edward walked up and asked, "What happened to this place? Why is it that this place looks so green and beautiful?" Then Jerome said, "I could give you the exact details, but I don't necessarily want to upset you guys. A very large bomb decimated Massachusetts within minutes. Many years have passed since the incident." "200 years to be precise," said Zach. "Damn that's a long time," said Edward. "I really hope we'll find your brother sooner than later Zach," said Alphonse. "I hope so too Alphonse," said Zach, "alright guys, let's not keep Charlie waiting, we better find him and bring him to Sanctuary." Then Carlos says, "On you Paladin." Then Zach and the others started walking down the hill and walked around the commonwealth, looking for any signs of Charlie. Suddenly, Zach noticed a man lying on the ground. Zach raised his fist in the air, notifying his allies to hold their position. Then Zach walks up to the man's corpse and observed the body. "This is a pathfinder alright," he said, "or what's left of him." Then Alphonse said, "What's a pathfinder? I've never heard of them before." Then Zach stood up and said to Alphonse, "The pathfinders are a group of trained survivors that my brother organized, he made the pathfinders with only one goal, the complete liberation of the commonwealth, and they're also trying to establish peace as well. But even as they're trying to ensure peace, they don't screw around when they fight in combat. I've personally seen a squad of pathfinders taking out a large group of super mutants all by themselves." Then Leafa asked Zach, "Who supplies these people honey?" Then Zach said, "The NCR, the New California Republic. They support the pathfinders and supply them with weapons, munitions, armor, everything. The NCR obviously was organized in California, and they settled in the west coast, specifically, the Mojave desert. The NCR is a group you don't want to fight, especially their rangers." "Yeah, and we're pretty damn proud to serve alongside them," said a voice next to the squad. Then Zach stood up to see the person. "So you must be a pathfinder correct?," asked Zach. "Yes sir," said the soldier, "but I have one question for you. What the hell are you doing here?" Then Zach said, "We're from Sanctuary. I'm trying to find my brother. Have you seen him?" Then the soldier said, "I've seen him recently. He left here a little while ago to do some reconnaissance, he and his squad should be back by the next two hours." Then Edward said, "I think we should find him Zach." "I think so too," said Zach, "but this place is quite dangerous and unforgiving." "You definitely have a point, Mr. Huehn," said the pathfinder, "I do recall seeing your performance in the commonwealth before you became a guardian, I just wish you didn't leave us." Then Zach said, "I understand and I'm sorry." Then the pathfinder said, "It's alright sir, but you have more important things to take care of, especially your friends and your lovely girlfriend." After hearing the comment, Leafa smiles. "If you're planning on finding him however," said the pathfinder trooper, "he won't give you a warm welcome because of your, well, attributes." Then Zach said, "It doesn't matter how much crap he gives me, at least he'll be quite happy to see me surviving this multiverse." Suddenly, the heroes hear distant gunfire ringing out. "That doesn't sound good," said Wolf. Then Zach says, "Let's move team," and they ran off. Then the pathfinder calls to Zach, "I hope you guys don't end up like one of our last patrol teams." Then Zach calls back to the pathfinder, "We'll try to survive, don't worry." The heroes ran for a little while when suddenly, Zach spots the battle beneath his feet. He sees Charlie and his squad attacking a pack of strange creatures that are only comprised of muscle tissue, and sharp teeth and claws. "How is it babe?," asked Leafa. Then Zach said, "It's not good, we got lickers on the ground. I recall fighting some of these beasts back in my day, they have wickedly sharp claws that can rip a man to shreds, and they also have a very long and sharp tongue that can puncture steel, even through heavy armor, just like mine, just like Jerome's, just like anyone." Then Edward says to Zach, "If we want to save your brother, we have to go down there and fight them off." Then Zach has little choice but to risk his own life and save Charlie, before it's too late. So he nods to his squad and says, "Let's hope all of us makes it back to Sanctuary in one piece." Then he slides down the hill and provides the pathfinders with support. Then Ethan looks at the rest of the squad and says, "Come on guys, we can't let Zach have all the fun," and then he starts sliding down the hill. Shortly after, the rest of the team joined up with Zach to assist the pathfinders. Charlie looks over his shoulder and sees his brother fighting alongside him and his troops, and he says, "Zach? What the hell are you doing here?" Then Zach said, "It's a long story brother, we'll talk once we clear this place out." Then Charlie nods and noticed more people fighting alongside the golden warrior and he said to himself, "I don't believe this. This is really strange." Then one pathfinder noticed a licker running towards Charlie and he said, "General, watch out!" Then Charlie rolled away from the licker and shot at it with his rifle. Carlos sees a couple of feral ghouls and pulls out his bio blades and charges at the ghouls to protect a squad of pathfinders. He ripped the ghouls to shreds and one of the squad mates said to Carlos, "Thanks for the assist, blade runner." Then Carlos says to the squad, "You're welcome, but the proper term you're looking for is bioweapon." Then the commander of the squad said, "I'm sorry sir, but we don't necessarily see someone like you around here." Then Zach noticed Carlos and the squad of pathfinders and calls out to them, "Fight first, chat later boys." Then suddenly, Charlie pulls out his pistol and aims it to his own brother. Then he said, "Duck," and Zach dropped to the ground before Charlie fired his pistol at a licker that was leaping towards the golden warrior. "Pretty damn impressive brother," said Zach, "but you have to warn me next time you pull a stunt like that." Then Charlie smirked and says, "Come on bro, where's the fun in that." Then Zach gets tackled by a hunter and gets pinned to the ground. Suddenly, Leafa took notice and runs to her beloved boyfriend, when suddenly, she gets knocked down by a bloated feral ghoul. Charlie runs towards the hunter and says, "Leave my brother alone you overgrown mutant!," and climbs on the creature's back. While Charlie wasn't looking, Zach pulls out his sawed off shotgun out of thin air, shoved both barrels in the hunter's mouth, and blasted it's head off. The dead hunter falls to the ground and lands on Charlie, while Zach pulls out another sawed off shotgun and lays down a barrage of superheated buckshot all around the battlefield. Eventually, Leafa was able to grab her katana, and decapitated the feral ghoul. Once she threw her target to the ground, she saw Zach blasting his opponents with his mythical shotguns. Everyone that was fighting shifted their focus on Zach and became fascinated with the golden warrior's unfathomable weapons. Once the smoke cleared, Zach holsters his shotguns on his hips, and they vanished completely. Eventually, one of the soldiers said, "Holy, crap. That, was, Awesome." Then Carlos said to the soldier, "That's one of his mystical weapons, he only uses them if under extreme circumstances." Then Zach says to Carlos, "Or if I feel like pulling them out to annihilate whatever I fight. Now where's Charlie." Then Charlie says to anyone who can help him, "Over here. And can someone get this giant bastard off of me." Then Zach, Alphonse, and Jerome stepped up and pushed the hunter off of Charlie. Once the hunter was pushed off of Charlie, he stood up and kicked Zach to the ground. Then he said, "Next time, let me know when you do something like that, I almost lost my god damn head." Then Zach said, "I rather wouldn't spoil any suprises." Then Charlie realized what Zach said and he said to himself, "Well, that's one thing that we have in common." While Charlie is pulling Zach up, Jerome said to Charlie, "Honestly, I am quite shocked that you weren't crushed by the sheer weight of that hunter." Then Charlie looks at Jerome and says, "Yeah, lucky me. I mean damn, I feel like Buck now." Then Edward asks Charlie, "Who's Buck?" Then Charlie chuckles and says, "Edward Buck, he's a former ODST, now he's a spartan. I do recall one of his missions with his team at new Mombasa. One of his teammates, Romeo, he had his lung punctured by a brute chieftain, and the rest of the ODSTs tackled the chieftain and killed it. But Buck was on the chieftain when it died, and it landed on him." Then Zach said, "Yeah, but Buck was very lucky that he wasn't crushed by the chieftain." Then Charlie nods and says, "Definitely, because one brute with their power armor can weigh up to over a ton." Then Alphonse says, "That's definitely gotta hurt." "Yep," said Ethan, "But like what Zach said, Buck was very lucky that day." Then suddenly, Charlie looks at Leafa and says, "I'm surprised that you're here Leafa." Then Leafa said, "A lot can happen in a multiverse like this." Then Zach, being confused, looks at his brother and asks him, "How do you know her?" Then Charlie gives Zach a confident smile and as soon as he saw his brother's smile, the golden warrior says, "Oh great, now I remember." Then Charlie says, "You should know brother, because I love watching that anime." Then Zach says, "Yeah yeah I know." All of a sudden, strange music emanates from below the heroes feet. After the music ended, Charlie asked Zach, "What the hell was that?" Then Zach recognized the music and he said, "Rasputin. He's in trouble." Then Charlie questions his brother, "Who's Rasputin?" Then Zach says, "Rasputin is a golden age A.I. that humanity in my universe made. He maintains an orbital defense system around the solar system from intergalactic threats. And we access the orbital network from many underground bunkers to see what's happening. And because of the music, there's one right here in the commonwealth." After explaining to his brother, Charlie says, "Now I understand, troopers, let's find this bunker and restore it to full working order." Then Zach asks, "What about us?" Then Charlie says, "You know a lot more about Rasputin than I do, you'd be better off coming with us." Then Leafa looks at Zach and says, "We can't keep them waiting babe, let's get moving." Then Zach nods and says, "I agree, let's go." After the conversation, Zach, Carlos, and the others caught up with Charlie and the pathfinders. Once they arrived at the location, two massive doors from underneath the earth opened upward. After the warmind bunker opened, Charlie looks at his brother and says, "So how are we going to get inside?" Then Zach says, "The fun way." Then he looks into the dark interior of the warmind and starts sliding down into the bunker. "You've got to be kidding me," said one of the pathfinders. Suddenly, from below, gunfire rang out from the bunker and the heroes heard grotesque screams. "We need to get down there, Now!," yelled Jerome. With brutal haste, the heroes and the pathfinders carefully and quickly ran down into the massive underground bunker trying to find out what's happening. Suddenly, a strange creature with three eyes notices the heroes and lets out an angry shriek. One of the pathfinders that heard the shriek started to freak out and tried to ran down to the bunker as fast as possible, but he lost his footing on the steps and started sliding down the steep vertical pitch. This unfortunately caused the other heroes to roll and slide down as well. Once they arrived at the bunker, the heroes noticed Zach facing a strange alien race that's charging at the golden warrior. He then looks down at the heroes and says, "start sleeping or start fighting guys, pick one." Then without any hesitation, Charlie sprang up and started shooting at the aliens, alongside the rest of the soldiers. "What the hell are these things Zach?!," shouted Charlie. Then Zach says, "The hive, ancient worshippers of death. They love to thrive in the darkness and they worship their ancient gods. "Worshippers of death my ass," said Charlie, "let's send these bastards back to hell." "HOOAH!," yelled Zach. Then the heroes fought back the hive with everything they have. Wave after wave of hive was approaching with no signs of slowing down. Zach charged up his burning maul and started beating the hive and turning them into ash. Carlos sees a group of Acolytes who were running towards Jerome, Edward, and Ethan and ran towards the hive troops with ease. He then leaps into the air and starts cutting down the Acolytes with his bio blades. Then Edward looks at Carlos and says, "Nice, but you missed one." With no hesitation, Carlos pulls out his pistol and shoots at the last Acolyte, and then he said, "You were saying?" Then Leafa looks at Carlos and says in a playful manner, "Showoff." Then Carlos says to Leafa, "You should show some good manners to a bioweapon young lady." Then Zach interfered and says to both Carlos and Leafa, "Cut the chatter you two, stay focused on the mission." Then Carlos nods his head and says, "Copy that Zach." Suddenly, the rookie notices a strange, bright blue glow walking towards him and he says, "What's that weird glow." Then Zach noticed the glow and yells to the rookie, "STAY BACK!" Then the glow happens to be a cursed thrall running towards the rookie and the rookie tried to shoot at the cursed thrall, but he didn't realize that his rifle ran out of ammo. Zach tried to stop the thrall from reaching the rookie, but it was too late. The cursed thrall exploded, taking the rookie with him and pushed the golden warrior away. Once he landed on the ground, Zach noticed the remains of the rookie and he yelled while slamming his fist to the ground, "Dammit!" Then Charlie saw what's left of the rookie and ran up to his remains. Suddenly, Charlie felt a huge dose of anger rushing through his veins and he screamed in rage, and he started shooting at the hive with extreme prejudice. "Charlie, calm down," said Zach. But Charlie looks at his own brother and yells, "Back the hell off!" Then Charlie continues to take out the hive in the bunker by any means necessary. Suddenly, Ethan noticed a hive knight carrying a large blade and it was charging at Charlie. After noticing the Knight, Ethan yells, "Look out sir!," and Charlie looked over his shoulder to see what was behind him. He was able to land a few hits on the Knight, but the knight shrugged off the damage and impaled Charlie with his sword. Zach's heart stopped momentarily when he saw Charlie being stabbed in the chest by the knight. Suddenly, Zach pulls out his break actions once more and he screams at the Knight in anger. The knight prepares to kill Zach as well, but the golden warrior shot at his right arm, blowing the arm off the Knight, and Zach finished off the Knight by shoving his barrels into the knight's mouth and pulled both triggers. It was overkill, but Zach didn't care, he wanted payback, and he wasn't done yet. He opens up his shotguns and loaded up wolf shaped shells. Once he loaded up, he closed the mechanisms and shot at the hive with the wolf shaped grenades which howled in the air as they flew. Upon impact, the shells exploded, disintegrating the hive caught in the blast and leaving behind a scorching pool of fire, burning any hive that was foolish enough to enter the flaming pool. Once the coast is clear, Zach calmed down and put away his shotguns, and ran towards his brother. One pathfinder walked up to Zach and says to him, "He's dead, you can't bring him back." Then Zach looked over his shoulder and says to the soldier, "Even though he's a pathfinder, I can feel light flowing through his veins. I'm going to save him no matter what you say to me. Ghost, get Charlie back on his feet pronto." Then Ghost appears out of thin air and says to Zach, "Understood guardian." Then the rest of the pathfinders watched in amazement as Zach's ghost resurrected Charlie and brought him back alive, all while healing his massive wounds and his vital organs. Once the resurrection was complete, Charlie gasped for air and looked at his brother and says, "You brought me back, why?" Then Zach says, "Because I need you, you're not dying on me this early." Then Charlie slowly got up to his feet, and hugged Zach and he said, "Thank you brother." Then Zach said, "You're welcome bud, but clear the warmind first, appreciate your brother later." Charlie gave Zach a pat on his shoulder and ordered the rest of the squad to follow the golden warrior and clear out the warmind bunker. Then the heroes heard more grotesque screams and one of the soldiers yelled, "God dammit, more of these things?!" Then Zach said, "The hive just won't give up." Suddenly, Rasputin activates a giant rig and summons a massive warmind robot to protect the heroes from the next wave of hive forces. "I was hoping that Rasputin would activate a heavy frame to help us," said Wolf. Then Leafa says to Wolf, "I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I think Rasputin is doing this to keep us safe." Then Zach says, "It's more than just that babe, he's doing this to eradicate the hive with no remorse, just like us." "Well let's quit yapping and kick some ass," says Edward. Then Edward uses his alcemy to summon a powerful pole arm with his face on it. Afterwards, Edward takes out a group of thrall chasing him. Then Zach scoffed and says, "Amateur," and deploys his Void shield. But this time, he also generates small, razor sharp blades all over his shield, and then he threw it at multiple units. Rather than disintegrating, the hive were being cut in half by the blades and once he retrieves his shield, Zach cleaves multiple knights in two with one spin attack. Shortly after, Charlie pulls out a flamethrower and yells to the hive, "Burn in hell!," and lets loose a continuous stream of flaming napalm at his foe. Suddenly, Zach noticed an opening to his left and says, "Guys, let's try to make it to the core room." Then Charlie says, "Let's get moving people, but make it in one piece, got it?" Then the pathfinders yells, "Hoorah," and started making their way into the core room while keeping the hive away from them. The hive kept coming in droves, but Zach leaped into the air with two of his flaming hammers, and then he slammed them to the ground, blowing up the hive in front of the heroes. This made an easy pathway for the heroes to reach the main core room. Once the heroes made it inside the core room, the door quickly closed behind them while one thrall tried to crawl underneath it. The sheer weight of the door crushed the thrall before it got a chance to attack. After the brief attack, the heroes started walking towards the main core of the warmind bunker and notices an ominous orange glow. Quickly realizing the glow, Zach says, "The main core, we're getting close." Once the heroes arrived, they were amazed at the core. Suddenly, Rasputin speaks in Russian and Zach recognized what he's saying. Once he translated Rasputin's distress call, he says to Charlie and the others, "Rasputin told us that a hive lieutenant is thriving here. If we find the lieutenant and kill it, the hive will scatter." Then Charlie says, "That's impressive bro, how did you learn to translate Russian?" Then Zach says, "Ana Bray, daughter of Clovis Bray. If I remember correctly, He and his company was the main founder to create Rasputin and the warmind. With her help, I was able to kill Xol, a hive worm god on Mars, with a pretty cool lance made out of warmind energy." Then Carlos looks at Zach and says, "I apologize for interrupting you Zach, but look behind you." Then Zach turns around and sees a high ranking Hive wizard next to him. She charges up a blast of energy and throws Zach away from her, knocking down the rest of the heroes in the process. She let's out a loud, grotesque scream to summon reinforcements and Zach quickly gets on his feet and yells, "This is the last time I'm hearing that damn scream!" Ethan quickly follows suit and says to Zach, "I don't blame you sir, let's take her down." Suddenly, multiple thrall starts crawling out of the vents and surrounds the heroes. Once they realized that they are surrounded, Charlie says to Zach, "I hope you have a plan for this." Then Zach says, "I sure do." Then without hesitation, Zach generates large ice crystals from his hands and slams them to the ground. The shockwave travels around the heroes and freezes the thrall that are closer to the heroes within the circle. Then Zach leaps into the air and pounds the ground with his maul, which breaks the ice crystals. The force was so strong, the thrall that was frozen in ice were completely shattered in peices. As this happened, razor sharp ice shards flew in every direction at incredible speed, and the velocity of the shards started cutting down and dismembering the rest of the thrall and leaving behind a trail of dead hive corpses. Once the thrall was taken care of, Zach says to the lieutenant, "No more games, you're not going anywhere." Then the heroes start attacking the lieutenant. She was a slippery target, but the heroes wouldn't give up. Afterwards, Zach pulls out his shotgun and waited until the lieutenant was close. Once she was at the right spot, Zach fired and hit her with triple aught buckshot, but the lieutenant would not stop. Eventually, she stopped playing cat and mouse and started to fight. She fired a barrage of energy blasts from her hands at the heroes, but Zach deploys his banner shield to deflect the blasts. Then Zach leaped to the air with his razor blades around his shield and starts attacking the lieutenant. She recieved a big gash from Zach's shield, but she was able to throw the golden warrior back into the ground. Even though the lieutenant was in great pain, she still tried to fight off the heroes. The lieutenant didn't realize is that Rasputin deploys a squad of combat androids to assist the heroes and defeat the high ranking wizard. Then Zach sees the androids and says to his buddies, "Looks like we have some backup guys." Then Charlie says, "Yeah, but for how long?" "I'm not sure," said Zach, "But hopefully it will be enough." The combat androids lays down suppressive fire at the lieutenant, giving the heroes enough time to find cover and restock on ammo. While the lieutenant was busy fighting off the androids, Charlie grabs an RPG-7 and hands it to Zach. Once the golden warrior grabs the launcher, Charlie says, "Remember brother, this is unguided, so make your shot count." Then Zach nods and gets into position. Once he's ready, Zach signals his allies to fight alongside the combat androids, and keep the lieutenant busy until she's in position for the golden warrior to take the shot. Once in place, Zach fired his launcher, but the rocket dipped down a little low and landed next to the lieutenant, knocking her to the ground. "C'mon Rasputin," said Zach, "Do something!" Suddenly, the heroes hears Rasputin speaking and deploys a lance made out of warmind energy. Then Charlie calls out to Zach and says, "Hey brother, we have a lance ready to go for you." Then Zach smiles behind his helmet and says, "I was hoping that Rasputin would generate a Polaris lance. Keep me covered guys." Then Leafa says, "Right behind you babe." While the heroes are trying to contain the lieutenant to the ground, Zach runs to the lance and picks it up. However, once Zach grabs the Polaris lance, he hears a loud roar from the outside of the gate. Then he hears a series of loud pounding on the gate, until the gate breaks open and a massive creature walks towards the heroes. "What the hell is that thing?!," yelled Edward. Then Zach looks at the creature and yells, "Ogre! Get to cover now!" Once the heroes find cover, the ogre searches endlessly trying to find anyone who opposes it. "This isn't unlike any ogre I've faced," said Leafa. "That's because this is no ordinary ogre honey. Unlike the ogres you've faced, this ogre is one of the most dangerous and the most fearful units the hive has summoned. But I have definitely seen worse threats before," said Zach, "How many rockets do you have left troops?" Then one pathfinder said to Zach, "I count five, why?" Then Zach says, "I need you to distract it, give me some time until I kill that thing." Then the pathfinder said, "I've heard crazier ideas, but lets do this." Then the pathfinder runs out of cover and finds a good vantage point. While he's running, the ogre fires at the soldier with a rapid barrage of void energy out of its eye. Even though he was under hostile fire, the corporal was able to seek cover while the void barrage whizzed above his head. Suddenly, the ogre gets hit by the Polaris lance that Zach threw, which crippled the ogre's right arm. While the ogre is in great pain, the corporal aims and fires at the ogre with his RPG-7. The rocket hits the ogre right in its eye and knocks it down to the ground, landing with a giant, ground shaking thud. The Lieutenant was very shocked at how fast the heroes took out the ogre, and now it was her turn to meet her fate. But she realized that she wouldn't go down without a fight. Part 2 coming up soon.
