The group's flight was without any incident. From where he was, Larnos saw the devastation that was unleashed onto humanity two centuries ago. Ruined, hollowed remains of cities litter the landscape.
The transport ship begins to drop in altitude as it approaches a mountain range. Larnos, although unsure of where it was going, had no choice but to follow. Scans indicated some kind of mechanical structure lay deep inside the mountains but geological interference was too great for him to see anything else.
The ship entered a cave oddly large enough to fit it and he followed close, occasionally looking over his shoulder and watching the radar in case they were being followed. The path was illuminated by the headlights of the transport ship.
Soon it came to land on that same structure he had seen earlier. It was a large, circular platform with a strange logo reminiscent of the first letter of the English alphabet. The ship landed on it and he followed suit.
There was a shudder as the platform began to descend. It goes on for quite a while until he sees it, the last bastion of hope for humanity. An underground city hundreds if not thousands of meters deep below the surface.
The domed city is one out of a cyberpunk story. Corporations have their ads set up in easy to spot areas but there are not as much as he was expecting. Perhaps there's some kind of law to control advertisement.
Once the platform finally reaches the bottom, a team of technicians and security personnel make their way towards the group. Most were not too eager to get close to his mech and rather gathered around the transport ship.
He knew they were suspicious of him and who could blame them? They've been beaten so bad they were forced underground.
' Perhaps them seeing it's a human would calm them down,' he thought.
Opening the cockpit he was met with the gasps as most of the personnel began to backtrack. Dropping out of his Arsenal he observed the group and spotted a few people of interest standing at the far end.
" Seems you're quite the subject," Anis told him as she and the others got closer to him, much to the disbelief of the onlookers. " Why not say hi?"
"Cut it out blondie," Neon quipped causing Anis to shoot her a stink eye.
" I would rather not," he told the blonde brunette who was now looked in a staring contest with Neon.
" Have they prepared it?" He asked Rapi who confirmed that they had set up a temporary quarantine zone for him and his mech.
The third group of nikke finally stepped out of the transport ship and headed off in an unknown direction. As he watched the group grow smaller and smaller a new voice called out to him.
" Is this what the fuss was about? " The individual asked. " He's nothing more than a relic if you ask me."
He turned to face the source of the voice. Standing a good feet away stood a woman with a condescending look plastered on her face.
It was clear she was from an extremely affluent place and her demeanor showed that she only cared for her interests.
She had black hair with some strands at the front dyed a soft purple. Two ribbons flowed down from behind her hair. She had on a white sleeveless top and a black undershirt paired with an extremely short white skirt with some kind of soft purple tattoo on her right leg. Her overcoat was covered in a myriad of designs with similar colors to her clothes and hair strand color.
He merely watched with an unblinking gaze which eventually caused her to shuffle for a bit before she walked away.
' No matter the era certain aspects of humanity always persists,' he thought to himself as he watched the petite woman.
" Excuse me," a different voice called out. " Could you please follow me?"
The voice belonged to an individual wearing a bright yellow hazard suit. They kept a distance even though they were fully protected.
"Lead the way," he gestured for the individual while his mech came to life, startling the group that had managed to conquer their fears and got close to it. It made its way towards Larnos and the now slightly panicking individual.
" It won't harm you," he told the individual.
The individuals from earlier seemed interested in the mech but kept their distance. The duo watched the hazard suit personnel who gave a cough before leading them away. All around him he heard whispers and murmurs, something he was already used to.
They were led to a large building with multiple hazards signs painted in large triangles on all sides.
" This was on such short notice but this our emergency quarantine zone," the individual explains. " Hopefully this will be enough."
"It will," Larnos answered. " How long will I be in there?"
" Well I can't really say but it might take a while since all manner of tests will have to performed which might take more resources than there are available. " They answered.
' Resources,' Larnos mused. ' Sounds like things aren't all that good with all the current situation considered. '
The interior was not what he was expecting. A series of drones went about managing the state of things. One flew down to Larnos and a beam of horizontal light shot out of from it and scanned him from head to toe before moving on to do the same for his mech.
A beep emanated from it before it flew off to the personnel who had not entered but rather waited near the entrance and pulled out some sort of device which looked like a see-through tablet which they used to interact with the drone but it never made contact with the drone or crossed the entrance.
"Everything seems in check," the personnel said. " I'll leave you to settle down."
They immediately took a step back and he noticed a transparent film over the entrance which was only visible by the slightly warped rays of light. A barrier must be in place to isolate airflow within the structure.
The next few hours entailed a group of researchers performing a multitude of tests on both him and his mech. Most of which was done with the drones in the quarantine structure.
On some occasions he would see elaborately dressed females which were most likely other nikkes that wanted to see the "Relic" as he was called by the scientists.
A man dressed in a similar apparel as the commander approached a few days after Larnos had arrived at the Ark. He had brown hair and a light stubble running along his jawline with a thin mustache. His amber eyes gave him an air of formality.
" I'm guessing the higher ups sent you in to question me? " Larnos asked.
He nods before taking a seat in a nearby chair.
" My name is Andersen and I am one of the Deputy Chiefs of the Central Government and you are?" He gestures towards Larnos.
"Larnos, Captain of a now forgotten squad," Larnos answered with nonchalance.
" According to reports from the squads you encountered," Anderson says as he picks one of those see through tablets. " It says here that you fought a rapture and beheaded it on your own. Is that correct?"
Larnos wondered how they were able to see any information on those things but answered in the affirmative.
" But most of the thanks goes to Mercury over there," he gestures to the mech that is currently watching a group of nikkes. " And the adrenaline helped. "
" Mercury?" Anderson questions.
" First generation mechs or Arsenals if you want to be technical," the older man responded. " Honestly according to the calculations done by the scientists at the time I should not even be alive as most of the first gen mechs were considered canon fodder by the time the fourth gen came off the assembly line.
The only plausible explanation they could chalk it up to was me being too stubborn to die and honestly I think they are right. Hell most of the squad under my command died when it should have been me and our missions were damn near suicidal. It was almost like they were trying to get rid of us. "
Even though it lasted a brief moment, Larnos saw the Chief's eyes widen in response before his calm composure came back.
" That is, quite some disturbing information, " Anderson said after a pause. " What do you remember about the war." He leaned in as he asked.
" Which one? " Larnos responded with a blank gaze.
This came as a shock to the Deputy Officer who now pondered on how many wars the man in front of him had been in.
" The war against the raptures, " he clarified.
" Well," Larnos sat down and began to ponder on what the overall situation was like. " We got our shit handed to us. Lost two continents from what I remember and there was this rumor of making some kind of super soldier program as a last ditch effort. Project NIKKE was what the boys called it. "
" So you were there during the early days of the creation of the nikke?" Anderson asked.
" Before the creation. To put it simply I fought in the extremely early days of this particular war when the project was most likely in the conceptualization stage. "
" What is it like piloting that?" Anderson gestured to his mech which was now observing the drones as they went on their way.
Larnos gave a chuckle as he remembered his first time piloting. It was after some mega corporation decided to take a new initiative in battling the raptures and he was one of their first picks. The link between pilot and mech was so unique that no two pilots could use the same mech. A few stubborn souls did try to go against this but ended up as lobotomized, vegetative husks of their former selves.
" It was overwhelming at first. You feel like your body just got more limbs which operated in different ways. Not to mention the constant influx of data both on and off the battlefield. Vision would sometimes be limited due to factors that we were able to control or not.
Then there were the weapons and class types. The three base classes were the assault, reconnaissance and heavy. Others began to merge different classes to create their own. But that came with certain dangers exclusive to custom classes."
" Some of which are?" Anderson asked, intrigue in his tone.
" Psychosis. The added strain on the brain paired with often at times brutal battles could cause pilots to snap and attack anything that moved which forced their allies to kill them. I and the others who decided to customize our rig where treated like some sort of beast that would snap at any moments. "
" Then what kind of custom rig do you use? " Anderson inquired.
" I use a bit from all three classes which made others weary of me. Not to mention that I would always opt for missions that had a high chance of fatality. The boys at the base came up with a nickname which they claimed described my 'suicidal' attitude as they called it," Larnos reminisces.
" What nickname did they give you? " Deputy Anderson asked.
Larnos took a look at his mech which was now actively following a drone without making any physical contact before he answered;
"Daemon. Not demon, no. They were very adamant on it being Daemon because I embodied the resilience of humanity, if it were dialed up to eleven."
"Daemon," Anderson muttered to himself. " That is quite the name. You had no opposition to this?"
" Even if I did it would not have mattered. Stubbornness was quite common among the men,"
" These men you speak of, what ever happened to them? "
Larnos knew he would ask this. That scene played over and over in his mind long after it happened. The screams of futility and desperation was all he heard on that faithful day.
" They, " he pauses as he pushes down the urge to grieve. " Died because of my actions. "
Anderson could see that he had touched a sensitive topic and mentally chastised himself for being too quick to obtain information. Larnos realized this and gestured that Anderson had not offended him.
" It's alright," he says. " You wouldn't have known. Perhaps I will tell you another time."
" That would be best, " Anderson agrees.
" I have another question, " Anderson speaks up after a moment. " What was the surface like? Two hundred years ago."
Larnos leaned back and let out a sigh as he recalls the beauty of the land before hell descended.
" Where do I even begin? Granted the climate was not great at times but there were times and places where nature was untouched by man. It was beautiful. Wildlife and vegetation roamed free.
Wars did still happen but they occurred in isolated regions and luckily did not spread to the whole planet. There were so many cultures and not to mention the food. Man the food was usually something I would always look forward to when we were deployed to a new place. "
" Deployed? " Anderson inquires.
" Yeah. The boys and I were part of the UN Peace Corps for a while but before then we served in our respective units in the army," Larnos explained. He withheld a lot of information from the man although he seemed trustworthy.
' Can't be too careful, ' he reasoned as he watched Anderson.
He would continue to discuss the past with a man who has most likely never seen anything from back then. Perhaps there were photos and videos of back then but he was skeptical of it being easy to access around here.
Anderson would ultimately excuse himself but he thanked Larnos for sharing his experiences with him. As he watched the military man go he felt that they would cross paths once again and who knows? They might end up being friends.
He chuckled at the thought.
The next few days entailed performing more tests for various scientists and checking in on 'Mercury' as he now called his mech. A few nikke would occasionally come by to watch him making him feel more like an exotic animal than anything else.
Anderson would return a few days later with three people, one being that condescending short woman from earlier. The one on her left had on a full white coat with red highlights as well as the inside of her white overcoat being a lighter shade of red. Her light brown hair ended in curls with a few just above her lilac eyes. Her expression was stern and reminded Larnos of the stare a drill sergeant would shoot his way every once in a while.
The only other man other from Anderson was glowing, literally. He had on a checkered leotard with a golden ball the size of a car tire following him. His brown hair was shifted to the side which made the gigantic golden ear ring he wore more prominent.
' Talk about flamboyance, ' Larnos thought as he squinted his eyes due to bright light.
" Anderson, " Larnos said as he sat down. " I'm guessing these are extremely powerful people?"
The shorter woman gave a smug look to which he replied with a deadpan stare.
" Yes," he answered. " They are Ingrid, CEO of Elysion, Mustang, CEO of Tetra Line and Syuen, CEO of Missilis. " He informed as he pointed to the stern looking woman, flamboyantly dressed man and the short woman respectively.
" I am Larnos although you already know that, " the man out of time spoke. " And what relevance are these companies? "
" We are responsible for the creation of nikkes, " Syuen boasts.
" Only three companies? " He looked to the others for confirmation and they nod in response.
Larnos nearly voiced out his thoughts on this but decided against it as dealing with the rich tended to spiral into something disastrous.
" So what do I owe the pleasure of having the top brass pay me a visit? " He asked the group.
" We simply want to see your combat prowess for ourselves," Ingrid declares. " And it will be done in the simulation room. "
" Do I even have a choice? " He asked.
No one answered him.
" Very well," he answered. " But do expect me to fail to meet any of your expectations or even make it through the whole thing. " He stated bluntly.