The Beginning

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Prologue          On the outskirts of Honey Grove, a small city state in the northeastern corner of the main continent, there is a caravan approaching. A group of five respectable traders, with their pack mules and backpacks holding all their wares. Amongst the traders are various kinds of mercenaries. Some big, some small. All with different kinds of weapons and clothing, and many different races. Five to each trader, a total of twenty five make up their party. The traders had spent a great deal of money to acquire these mercenaries for the trip to Honey Grove, and had gone as far as to pay half up front. The stories were illustrious, a city of high class, and decadence. They could already see it, and the sight of it was building their excitement. Gigantic metal walls all painted white, stretching up further than seventy feet high. The land surrounding it were flatlands covered in swaying green grass. The hills rolled up and down all the way to the city, like a vast sea of bright green waves. It felt calm as they approached. The wind whispered softly in the traveler's ears and the sun danced on the horizon, sending a colorful assortment of beautiful and warm light their way. As the caravan draws nearer to their goal the walls of the city begin to stretch up like long hands grasping at the sky. Quite close now the walls tower over the caravan. The setting sun, on the other side of the city, is nearly out of sight. A great, dark shadow stretches out between them and the city. Now under the shadow of the city the men can no longer hear the whisper of the wind or the warmth of the sun. An uneasy feeling sets in on the men like a thick fog. The tension is high as the men stop in front of the gate, only a few yards away. Grey shapes like men can be seen at the top of the wall, looking down at the caravan. A few of the shapes huddle together, as if discussing something, and then one of them calls out in a low, course and impatient voice "What business have you in Honey Grove, travelers?".          Nervously, one of the traders steps forward and, though trying to sound strong and confident, ends up sounding quite scared when he responds "Traders from the East, we radioed in about a week go...". The shapes huddle up again, and then clear off the wall. Silence takes the road just in front of the wall, and tension rises again. On edge, the mercenaries are getting nervous. They look from side to side as if expecting enemies to emerge from the flat plains surrounding the city.          "Stand back!" A strong voice calls out, both demanding and acquiring everyone's attention. The men obey, and as they step back there is a terrible scraping of metal that comes from the gates as they begin to swing open. Dust falls from the great heights and pelts the ground. A cloud of smoke is pulled into the gap between the doors as they open. As it clears the men can see, within the small window that has opened, a great expanse of shining buildings. Row upon row, block upon block, it seems to stretch out beyond imagination. The tension is cut down when a man dressed in a fine suit walks out to greet the caravan. A black jacket, black pants, black tie and a white undershirt. All of it was recently pressed and it seems to shine in the dim dusk light. His face is kindly, and is smiling from ear to ear. The man speaks to the caravan, drawing their attention and somehow soothing them "Hello there gentlemen, my name is Clark Gabel, I'm the chairman of trade and commerce in this wonderful city, and I'll be showing you how things work around here. Come, come inside, there's much to discuss". The caravan follows Clark Gabel as he walks into the city. Once inside the gates close behind them with the same shrieking scraping screaming metal sound as before, just as unsettling as it was the first time. Settling due business, the traders pay their mercenaries the rest of their money. A few of the men demanded to be let outside once they were paid, and were guided through a small hatch next to the gates. The rest began to wander into the city before a line of armed guards walked onto the road and faced them. Clark Gabel spoke in a sharp, arrogant tone "Ah, ah, you mercenaries will have to follow General Jarosa over there before you can walk around the streets freely, we have a system you see, and can't just let anybody come waltzing through these gates you see?" His eyes briefly garnered some small hint of hostility before quickly reverting to their original friendly disposition. The general waved the mercenaries on, and as they filed in so did the soldiers behind them. Like herded cattle the mercenaries marched into a large cement building, and down a long straight hallway. They came through two red doors into a large, open room with an assortment of dusty chairs and couches. What was left of the sunlight peaked through the windows, and a pale light was coming from a few lamps hanging from the ceiling. The general turned around after all of the mercenaries made it inside the room, and the soldiers shut the doors behind them. There were a few soldiers scattered around the room along the walls, standing with their hands behind their backs, looking towards the mercenaries. The general crossed his hands behind his back and addressed the mercenaries in a commanding, strong voice.          "I am General Jarosa, and I am a leader of Talon, the city guard and military. We are always looking for new recruits, and we pay well. If you're interested-" the general motioned towards three men standing by a door "-please follow them, and they will make sure you're suitable to our company's needs. If so, they'll get you set up, and if not, you can come back here. The rest of you will await your turn to be processed. Once you've been processed you're free to move about the city and do as you please. That is all." The same glare that was in Clark Gable's eyes was now in the General's eyes for just a moment. Almost imperceptible, it faded back to his regular, stern, well composed eyes. A few men left with the three standing by the door, and the rest sat down or began pacing, or talking with other mercenaries. Awaiting their turn.

[killergnome2100]

Ezekial is standing in a corner, uncomfortably close to one of the soldiers, fiddling with their thumbs. They are wearing some old rags that Ein had picked up before they left with the caravan. The old rags are concealing the metal that lay underneath, and so no one had noticed that they are a robot. Zwei was quite pleased with this, though she found the clothes uncomfortable, they suited her needs for the time being. The two of them were debating whether or not Ein could go and socialize with the other mercenaries. Zwei had held him off until now, fearing to reveal their robot face, but Ein was pressing her, and he did not cease. Zwei did not like the air that seemed to fester within the building. Nor did she like all of the armed guards standing around. Cities were never her favorite, and this one in particular had something that made her intuition fire off. The soldiers were tense, she could tell, but she could not tell whether they were simply inexperienced green horns, or if they were hiding something. Ein couldn't hold it any longer, and demanded he be allowed to talk to some of the mercenaries. Zwei gave way and Ein began walking about the room, greeting people, shaking hands, and introducing himself. "Hello, my name is Ein, it's a pleasure to meet you!" He said in a high, energetic and friendly voice. Most of the men scowled, some made an attempt to smile back, and others smiled kindly and returned the introduction.

[Laharal1]

Gora was not one to usually get mixed up in the affairs of merchants, but that's just where he found himself on this particular day. He was traveling as a mercenary for a traveling merchant. The merchant he was working with was selling pelts, blankets, and other fine quality home needs. When he happened upon Gora he was all too quick to pay the Wolfen a handsome price.

Well being that Gora really didn't have much of anything else going on he agreed, but he wasn't happy to see the cargo. True only a small minority of the animals in the world changed after the event, but still he could smell wolf and see fox pelts in the wagon, and this didn't exactly give him the warmest of receptions about what the man was carrying, or selling. Yet, he was in hostile lands with hostile people all around him and without his pack he really didn't have much of a choice, but to submit to the whole thing.

Upon reaching the city and being paid the other half of his promised fee he thought it best to stick around. True he would find nothing about what he was looking for here, but perhaps there would be something worth seeing in here. So he followed the rest who had chosen to stay here, but he soon began to feel uneasy with the tension that was growing in the room. The guards smelled of fear, and were the source of the tension, but why the wolf couldn't say.

He was distracted from his thoughts however as he heard a voice next to him and he turned to see a metallic face staring at him introducing himself. This wasn't the first time Gora had met one of these strange machinemen, but this one was the most cheerful he had ever seen. He politely declined the handshake instead speaking "My name is Gora. It is good to meet you as well. Tell me why are you so cheerful?" he asked in genuine curiosity.

[killergnome2100]

"Why?" The pale green light that had been faintly glinting from the shadow underneath Ezekial's tattered hood now grew as bright as the sun. Someone is speaking to me! Ein excitedly echoed within himself. "What a wonderful query, why? Why indeed!" Ezekial was shaking with excitement. He shot off words like bullets. "I'm cheerful because life is so beautiful, I'm cheerful because there are so many people in this room, I'm cheerful because I get the chance to talk to some. I'm even more cheerful now that I've got someone to really talk to, if that is what you are. Maybe not, lots of people decide not to talk to us once we've opened our mouths like we are now. Well, that's mostly my fault." Zwei hadn't been paying attention to the conversation but rather the three soldiers that had just entered through a pair of large swinging metal doors. Through the doors was a long hallway, the end of which was impossible to see from this distance, but it seemed to go on and on.
"Alright, you there." one of the soldiers by the door pointed at a mercenary who was sitting down in a red velvet chair. "Come on, time for processing."
The man flung himself out of the chair, exclaiming "I'm the first one! Oh yeah, read it and weep!" He pointed at a few other mercenaries that were sitting near him and stuck out his tongue. "I'll collect on the other side boys-" The doors closed quickly behind the men and no more noise could be hear from behind it.

Ein hadn't noticed any of this, and was currently staring at Gora intently. "So, Gora? Am I pronouncing that right?"

[Laharal1]

Gora had to look away from the bright like that came from the curious creature standing before him. He knew it wasn’t anything he had really met before as he couldn’t recognize the scent of it, but it seemed happy, and friendly enough so he wasn’t going to worry too much about its slightly quirky attitude. He listened to how cheerfully the hooded figure spoke of the many reasons he was cheerful, and yes it did seem that there was some reason to be so, at least to the creature before him. He wasn’t really sure if he felt the same, but he wouldn’t voice such a thing at this point in time. It would serve no benefit.

He was slightly distracted by the fact that someone had just been called in order to be processed and possibly get out of here. It was an interesting turn of events to be sure. Things seemed to be moving so quickly, and the Wulfen still wasn’t exactly sure if things were on the level. He would have to be careful otherwise he could get himself killed. At this point however he heard his name and he looked at Ein nodding his head lightly “Yes that’s correct. You said it just fine. Tell me Ein do you know anything about this city, and why everything here seems to be…well strange to say the least?" He asked as he glanced over to the door where the other mercenary had left hoping that they would open the door soon, or perhaps just try something stupid so he could have an excuse to get out of here.

[killergnome2100]

Ein was beside himself with the conversation he was in. "I have absolutely no idea. We've never been here before. Zwei, do you know anything about this place?" Ein waited a few nanoseconds for the post verbal response that Gora wouldn't hear, but got no reply. He pinged her, as he does in these situations, and got a response that indicated Zwei was handling more important things. Ein wrote this off as her being on a high horse about protecting them again. This back and forth took about a half a second before Ein started back in. "Don't mind her, she's just a grouch. I'm quite fascinated by this place though. There's so many people. Yay!"

Zwei focused on the long hallway with the three guards leading the mercenary down it. The door had closed so she had to send gentle sonic waves down its length to get a picture of what was happening. She could hear that Ein was still talking to the Wulfen, so she continued to probe. Further down the hall there was a conveyor belt moving with assorted shapes on it. Zwei couldn't make out exactly what was being moved.

The four men stopped after turning a corner at the far end of the hallway. They turned towards each other and seemed to have a small argument, then the mercenary's head fell down on the ground. The guards walked away as a number of other men in oddly shaped clothing hoisted the now dead mercenary up and placed him on a hook, then began dismembering him and tossing the limbs onto the conveyor belt. The guards began making their way back down the hallway, likely to let the next mercenary in.

Ein was just describing his favorite way to spend Sunday afternoons when Zwei cut in "Right at the peak of afternoon when the sunshine is juuuuu~" Zwei jerked their head around scanning the room quickly. She turned to Gora and focused her attention.

"You seem reasonable, Wulfen. I don't normally help others when it is not necessary, but Ein seemed to take a genuine liking to you. This place is a slaughter house. Proceed through those doors and you will be decapitated, or otherwise disposed of. I don't know what killed that first man but it was fast and undetectable to my ears. If it would suit you, I would be willing to establish a brief partnership to make the odds of escaping this place unharmed much more likely. What say you Wulfen?"

[Laharal1]

Gora watched and listened to Ein keeping his mouth shut as his ears flicked to and fro as he tried to hear everything. His nose twitched slowly, and he couldn’t shake the scent. It was blood, faint though it was, the scent was in no doubt. He could tell that blood had been spilled, or at least left around here. Though if it was from the wounds of previous mercenaries, or from bleeding guards he wasn’t sure how such amounts of blood would account for it. He didn’t like it, the reasons to not like this place were growing all the time.

Truth be told Gora could only account for less than half of everything that Ein was talking about, and when he suddenly cut off Gora’s claws flexed. A soft green glow covered them only perceptible to those who had the ability to use such aura, but his claws grew longer and thicker looking as if they were capable of cutting through metal, as well as giving scars to rock. He was caught off guard, but as a new demeanor covered Ein, Gora looked around rapidly and covered the exits with a brief once over. There wasn’t anything that he could see which would cause such a change. Then the voice that came out was very, very different his ears flicked forward as he watched the person he had been talking to.

He didn’t understand what it meant about “Ein taking a liking to him”, wasn’t this thing Ein? However, the words it spoke to him made him very glad that he had already been using his enhancer abilities on his claws. Looking around his lips curled up in a slight snarl silent but menacing all the same “I say that we should get the hell out of here.” He glanced back towards the door they had come through, there were guards at it, but he was confident that he and this robot could take them out. Looking back to the metal person he was talking to he nodded “Our only option is to escape the way we came. We can take the two guards and getting out won’t be hard. Besides, most of these mercenaries will join us if we try to start a panic. I’m going to go for the door, you see if these mercenaries will riot if you start spouting that one of us was killed.” He said as he turned around and surged towards the door. The two guards were a bit surprised, and he dragged his claws along the ground to create sparks. The moment the sparks were up he lifted his hand and sent a torrent of flames towards the guards Snarling loudly as he lifted his other hand and began to send flames from that hand as well “I WILL NOT BE MADE INTO MINCE MEAT!!” he bellowed with a fury the flames seeming to grow hotter for a moment.

The whole of the mercenaries who were near the door all quickly rushed away from the clearly overt display of violence. The fight was truly on now.

[killergnome2100]

Zwei was not expecting the Wulfen to act so rashly. The situation had been escalated and there was nothing to do but utilize the current momentum. Turning on their active camouflage, Zwei jumped into the air and attached herself to the ceiling. She ran along to one of the other doors that the Wulfen was not at and lowered herself next to one of the guards. Everyone in the room was now standing and the guards all had their barrels aimed at Gora. She wasn't completely invisible right now due to how light the room was, but it was good enough with the Wulfen distracting everyone.

Most of the guards had well maintained, fully automatic, assault rifles. The young man, maybe in his twenties, that Zwei had placed herself next to was holding an AR-15 with a standard magazine. She slowly regarded it, verifying that the safety was on right now. The guards thumb was resting next to it, nervously twitching, ready to switch it off. Zwei gently switched the safety off, careful not to disturb the motion of the rifle. She stepped behind the young man and wrapped her arms around him. Grabbing the handle and barrel, she turned it towards the crowd of mercenaries and squeezed the trigger. Holding it down until one of the mercenaries shot this guard, Zwei carefully stepped away from the body as it crumpled to the ground. All of the guards and mercenaries opened fire simultaneously. The room was now a battleground.

Zwei quickly made her way to Gora and uncloaked. "This should be distraction enough to escape. Let's go." She opened the door behind them and two stationary machine guns came into view, housed within cement pillboxes. They were about 50 meters down an empty hallway, pointed directly at Gora and Zwei, ready to fire. There was no cover between the two of them and the turrets. Men with metal helmets readied the guns, perhaps unaware of what was going on in the room behind them.

"Do not come any further! Step forward and we will gun you down!"

This is going to be difficult to get past without any damage... Zwei thought to herself regrettably.

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