Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Warmachine ❯ Chapter 3: When Things Go Wrong ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 3: When Things Go Wrong

The contrast between the Civilian Sectors and the rest of East City was huge. While the slums outside were ruinous, dangerous shadows of the city’s former glory, the Civilian Sectors seemed to successfully regain that splendor. Several skyscrapers had been rebuilt from the ground up and a few others were well on their way. One Skyway was even connecting several of the sectors once more and had been built on the ruins of the old one. The streets had been cleaned up and repaired and there was plenty of room and safe housing for the families of the workers who continued to help restore East City. However, hover vehicles, luxury shops and completely renovated neighborhoods were still rare. Sector A-7 specifically was one of the newer projects so the square shaped block of the city was still littered with building sites and the sound of heavy equipment digging, drilling and lifting could be heard constantly.

Vile’s target was near the northern edge of the sector. The facility had survived the cataclysm that hit East city but nevertheless it had been closed off and was no longer being used. The archives however were still active though disconnected from the outside world. It was typical of the bureaucracy to take their sweet time when deciding to delete the information in the archives, copy it to a different archive or simply move the entire facility to a safer location. Regardless, it was poorly guarded as no one thought anyone would be interested in how well the stock market had been doing two days before the Eurasia Colony crashed or what a clean-up crew reported in Central City. They were wrong about the latter, against all logic. Vile needed that information and at least now he had some certainty that he would be able to get his hands on it. The renegade only hoped his computer skills were good enough to get past the security systems the government had no doubt installed.

Vile crouched behind a stack of crates filled with raw materials and watched the only two guards outside the facility exchange pleasantries. They were slacking off, that much was clear. But it seemed every security officer in the sector was laid-back, a sharp contrast with those outside or on the walls. He had barely needed to stick to the various alleyways and other cover to avoid patrols or Hunters. The Ex-Hunter was pleased to see both guards move away from the front gate to continue their round of the facility’s perimeter. It was the perfect chance for the still roughed-up Reploid as fighting them would attract far too much attention and he began doubting he could handle them in his current state. Not wasting any more time he rose to his feet and quickly dashed for the entrance, sticking to whatever cover he found on the way there as he needed to cross a small square. None of the engineers, Mechaniloids and worker Reploids walking about had noticed him, which was another lucky break.

Vile reached out for the control panel, ready to see if he’d be able to get through the lock when he noticed the door had already been unlocked.
“Strange… I better watch out for more guards inside.” He whispered to himself before opening the large, double sliding gate and entering. The facility’s blast door closed behind him.

The main hall was a mess and none of the lights seemed to be working. Using the night vision installed into his helmet, Vile was able to make out several trashed booths where visitors could get any information they needed. Benches, desks, chairs and basically all the furniture in the hall had fallen over or had been smashed up against the walls. The tiles on the floor were cracked, sometimes entire patches simply missing after having been hurled across the hall. The green Reploid’s eyes quickly spotted a blueprint of the place on one of the walls near a booth. Vile made sure to keep his sensors running at peak capacity so as not to be caught flatfooted by any guards while checking the map. The blueprint was mostly to show visitors and basic personnel where to go when they had official business to take care of and as such it showed very little information on the restricted or security sections of the facility. Vile quickly noted that an entire block was missing from the second floor and concluded that that was as good a place to start as any.

The hallways and offices he passed were in as bad a shape as the rest of the place. Vile had been forced to take detours every now and then as entire corridors had collapsed or loose power cables were making it less than prudent to advance. Reaching several flights of stairs, Vile carefully made his way to the second floor, one of the flights nearly collapsing. Walking through a green-colored hallway he felt as if he should know the place. It felt familiar but only in the sense that it reminded him of a place similar to it.

Most, if not all the security cameras in the restricted area were down or destroyed and the single security door sealing off the block from the rest of the facility had been torn down by a nearby power conduit exploding. That section was far more intact than the rest of the facility as most of its walls had been reinforced. Some of the offices were unstirred, as if nothing had ever happened outside. Vile looked into one of the larger offices. It was made up of several cubicles, each with an almost identical workspace. He heard a soft humming originating from a terminal in the far back of the room. That particular one seemed to still have some power supply keeping it online. Seeing as how he was inside the restricted area that terminal might have some more information on where to find the archives. Wandering around the building aimlessly was both dangerous and took far too long. It took no more than entering a few commands to bring up a more detailed blueprint of the complex and it seemed there was only one room left that was still drawing a lot of power from the back-up generator in the basement of the facility.
“Bingo…” Vile muttered before shutting down the device and rising to his feet. But the Reploid didn’t move, he only straightened his back and seemed to listen for something. He was being watched…

~~*~*~~

The archives were stored in a secure vault in the back of a large room with a massive terminal. A single Reploid sat in the armchair before the keyboard, pressing a multitude of keys, trying to trace down the information she needed. Nana had stumbled upon her target an hour ago and had since been trying to hack the security protocols keeping her locked out of the sensitive files. The massive view screen bathed the almost empty room in a soft blue light, removing the need for the overhead lights to work. It hadn’t been hard for her at all to break into the building or into one of the only computers still operational in the building or to find this place. But the archives themselves were a different story. Her nerves weren’t helping either, she knew she wasn’t in there alone, she had a gut feeling. Every time she heard some dirt tumble down from the ceiling in one of the collapsed corridors outside, she jumped and looked over her shoulder.

After another half hour of work she finally managed to break through and got an overview of the files stored inside the archive. Much of the data was corrupt and some was unreachable as the servers that stored that information had been destroyed. The rest was all encrypted but that was no problem for her, she’d merely download it and get the rest of the work done in a safer, more legal place. The files were barely organized but Nana still managed to track down some entries from Maverick Hunter HQ, including some personnel rosters. The tags she needed would undoubtedly be in there, but just in case she didn’t miss anything she began downloading all entries into the datapad she had been carrying with her.

Nana gasped again when she thought she had heard noises behind her. She looked over her shoulder at the door opening and bit her lower lip. The door into the room had broken down long ago so the light of the view screen poured out into the corridor outside. That meant it was easy to notice the room was being used. She was a sitting duck, with no place to hide. She found herself staring at the progress bar that still only read 8%. Nana took the datapad in hand and began turning off some of its systems in the hopes of having it work faster. She didn’t notice the distinct footsteps of Reploid boots behind her until it was too late. She heard the sound of a buster activate.

“Put down the pad and move away from the terminal.”
Nana startled at the sound of the voice and quickly realized she’d been caught. Slowly setting down the datapad she turned around the chair and rose to her feet, her arms raised into the air. Three Maverick hunters were aiming their weapons at her.
“An operator… Move away from the terminal.” The Hunter repeated, motioning with his buster for her to walk towards the side wall.
“Sensors are picking up another intruder. Team B is heading for it. Who’s your accomplice?” one of the hunters asked, deactivating his weapon as Nana was clearly not a threat to them.
“Accomplice? I… I don’t have an accomplice.” She replied. She quickly regained her balance however as she calmed herself. She’d been through much worse when Silver Horn had captured her and tortured her back on Giga City. These hunters were nothing. She steeled herself and glared at the nearest hunter.

“Why were you going through the Maverick Hunter files stored in the archives? And more precisely, the personnel files?” The sergeant of the hunter unit inquired. The Reploid had dark blue armor with the gold trimmings to indicate his rank. The man had two energy sabers attached to his belt and from the look of his confident attitude he knew how to use them.
“I know what this looks like, but I’m not trying anything illegal… I just have reason to believe there’s a traitor in your ranks, that’s all.” Nana stated, shaking her head slowly.
“A traitor, hm?” The sergeant narrowed his eyes.
“You’re Nana, from Giga City, correct?” He then asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he turned back to face the operator.
“You know her, sir?” One of his subordinates looked at the Reploid before responding to a message from another hunter team.
“Sir, they’ve located the other intruder… He’s armed and dangerous. They’re moving in to apprehend him. Your orders?”
“Shoot on sight. He’s trespassing.” The sergeant replied immediately, not giving the order a second thought.
“On sight? But… Of course, sir.” The hunter seemed hesitant to relay the rash order but did as told. Nana didn’t know what it was about the sergeant’s stare, but she didn’t like the situation one bit and the more she watched the Reploid, the more she began to doubt she’d get out of there alive.

~~*~*~~

Vile walked out of the office, the sound of his booted feet touching the metal floor echoing down the corridor. Slowly he looked left and right, trying to see if he could find what was following him. He remained relaxed, acting as if he didn’t know he was being watched and continued down the hall. His single red eye glowed slightly as he inconspicuously activated his shoulder cannon, the weapon slowly humming to life. He kept the cannon tilted diagonally upwards, in standby mode. After all, he didn’t want their trap to spring too soon. The ex-hunter forced a half-broken sliding door open and walked out into a small hall. He hadn’t found his goal just yet so he couldn’t leave but the hall had little cover so he would be a sitting duck out there. He had little choice in the matter however so he descended one small flight of stairs into the large, steel hall. Vile took note of the long, rectangular, stone flower boxes that stretched along one of the walls. They looked sturdy enough to manage some crossfire and keep him safe. Without any of his weapons other than a barely charged shoulder cannon and without his jet boots working there was little he could do.

The renegade had barely taken two steps past the center of the room before he heard the sound of an Arm Buster discharging and firing a single, yellow energy orb at him. Vile groaned as he quickly barrel rolled aside and used his boots to dash for cover behind the box, vaulting over them once he reached them.
“He’s right there! Keep him pinned down!”
Vile gritted his teeth beneath the helmet, his hand gripping his shoulder cannon and leveling it to point straight ahead, priming it for use.
“Hunters? Since when do they shoot on sight?” Vile asked himself, even though that had been his strategy all the time.

Several more buster shots hit the solid cover, small bits of stone and gravel breaking apart with each impact. He needed to act because once one of them got the bright idea of charging his buster before firing he’d be done for. Leaping from cover the moment the Hunters paused their barrage briefly, Vile fired a blue plasma shot from his cannon at the nearest target. The Reploid went down instantly, critically damaged as the blast had penetrated his chest armor. The remaining four quickly opened fire but didn’t manage to get a proper fix on Vile. The Renegade used his dash boots to make for the wall opposite of where he had been waiting. At the last minute he jumped up high, his hand grabbing hold of a loose piece of plating and his boots kicking off the wall hard. Using his dash boots in mid-air Vile landed right behind one of the Hunters that had been firing at Vile from the higher vantage point. Before the Reploid managed to turn around and react a blast had severed his weapon arm. Vile roared as he violently grabbed hold of the Reploid’s head and slammed it hard into the wall behind him, crushing the vital systems and letting the limp robotic body slide to the ground.

A buster shot hit his back, causing the renegade to stumble but his armor had protected him from serious harm. Vile now set his sights on the origin of the attack and opened fire. His helmet warned him of his dwindling energy levels and he cursed as it took three shots before one of them connected and took down the Maverick Hunter.
“Two more left…”
“Sir, it’s Vile, I repeat, it’s Vile!! We need back-up, now!” The Hunter Sergeant desperately called for aid as he saw his last remaining team member smashed down by a metal bar Vile picked up while dashing for the young Reploid. A mere seconds later the officer fell to the floor as well: a plasma shot having pierced a hole through his abdomen.
“How the hell did they find out?!” Vile grunted as he stared at the fallen sergeant briefly, as if checking if the Hunter had truly gone down. He then cast his eyes instinctively up at one of the deactivated cameras before noting a small blinking light in the corner behind it.
“A silent alarm… I didn’t do anything to set it off yet.” All of this didn’t sit well with the Reploid labeled Maverick. More hunters were inside the building, that much was obvious by the communiqué the sergeant had gotten through and by now the remaining hunters would have called for backup as well. But he still needed to track down the archives and there was no time to lose.
Throwing caution to the wind, Vile used all the energy he could spare to fuel his dash boots as he raced through the hallways to the archive room.

~~*~*~~

“Si-, -‘s –ile, … -epeat, … Vil-!! … need back-up, -ow!”
“Sir! The other team is being slaughtered out there, I could barely make out the transmission but they’re requesting immediate backup!”
The sergeant seemed less than responsive, he had been looking over the info that Nana had been downloading and seemed to care less about what was happening to his team mates.
“Fine, we’ll head down there. Terminate our charming operator here.” He finally ordered.
“What?! But sir, we have to take her in. We can’t just go about randomly killing, ugh-“ the Reploid was interrupted suddenly and Nana’s eyes went wide as she saw the reason. The sergeant had drawn one of his sabers and had run his fellow hunter through. The Reploid dropped to his knees, his eyes dying out as he collapsed. The hunter that had been keeping his buster fixed on Nana barely had time to turn around and realize what was happening. The sergeant slashed rapidly with both his sabers, slicing the Reploid apart into a pile of severed limbs.

“Oh my god!” Nana cried out as she dropped down onto her behind and tried to crawl back, tryinh to get away from the lunatic.
“You’re next, my pretty. You’ve seen a little too much here. Besides, I had my orders to terminate you anyway.” The Reploid’s face seemed to deform unnaturally as he grinned widely, his eyes glowing a dark red as the very point of one of his humming sabers rested a mere inch from Nana’s right eye.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What?!” Before the psychopath could turn to face the door opening where the voice had originated from, a powerful blast sent him crashing through the glass wall where he hit the bottom floor of one of the server rooms.
Nana looked at the stranger who’d saved her and quickly realized who it was.
“V-Vile! You’re the one who killed those hunters!” She concluded aloud, rising to her feet and taking a few steps back as the green and gold Renegade entered the chamber. His hand still gripped the smoking barrel of his shoulder cannon but he slowly raised it back to its diagonal standby mode.
“Calm down, I’m not interested in harming you, unless you get in my way.” Vile commented as he passed the operator and looked over the edge of the now broken glass wall. The Sergeant lay several levels down on a steel grid walkway, a painful scorch mark where the plasma blast had hit. The Reploid didn’t seem to move and was most likely permanently dispatched.

“What are you doing here? Did you set off the silent alarm?!” he asked next, anger rising at how things never seemed to go his way.
“Silent alarm? The archives must’ve been better protected than I thought…” Nana looked away as the intimidating Reploid walked up to her, his body towering over hers. She did notice the 100% progress bar on the view screen however. She’d been so close…
“Look, if you’re here for the archives, they’re still wide open, just let me go, you don’t need me.” Nana bartered, looking up at Vile defiantly.
“Hmph, of course I don’t.” Vile noticed the glance she had thrown the screen and slowly looked at the data being displayed on it.
“But you know what you’re doing. Find me a specific report stored on the servers. It’s about an explosion in Central City two decades ago by a Maverick Hunter cleanup crew.” He ordered, pointing at the chair as if that would urge her more to aide him.
“You want me to help you? You?! You’re the worst kind of Reploid, you’re just as likely to kill me after I do what you say as the one you shot down.” She shot back, her eyes narrowing in anger. Her courage quickly vanished however when Vile gripped her neck tightly and easily lifted her off her feet. Nana tried desperately to claw at the iron grip and gasped for air.
“Don’t tempt me, woman. Now do your job as an operator!” he ordered, forcing her in the chair and kicking it so it spun around to face the view screen again.

Nana coughed several times, silently cursing at how everyone constantly used her for their own selfish gains. Her hands shook slightly before she pressed several keys. Before she could properly input a command however an explosion shook the facility. More security was on its way.
“Wait! I downloaded all the records of all entries related to Maverick Hunters onto my datapad. If the report you’re looking for wasn’t deleted or wasn’t corrupted than it should also be on the pad.” Nana knew she was offering one of recent history’s greatest monsters the fruits of her hard work but it was her only chance of getting out of there.
Vile’s eye narrowed as he pondered her words, his attention turning to the pad and then to the viewscreen as the download confirmation window did indeed show a great deal of files on the Maverick Hunters. She wasn’t lying.
“Fine. But if you lied to me, I’ll track you down.” He replied, despite the fact that he didn’t even look fit enough to make it out of the facility in one piece. He reached out to grab hold of the datapad but Nana reached it first, pressing it to her chest protectively.
“No! The data’s encrypted… But I can decrypt it, provided you take me with you. I don’t know why but I don’t think that sergeant was the only hunter under orders to kill me. And he also ordered to shoot you on sight despite protocol. Something is very wrong here and I want to find out what…” She pleaded, looking at the ground before her feet, her semi-long hair hiding her eyes.
“Even if it means helping me?” Vile couldn’t help but chuckle at the prospect. But he had no idea how to decrypt data and an operator was always useful, she might even have the means to repair his body.
“Fine. I’ll get you out of here alive. Time is short, follow me.” Vile ordered before turning around and running out onto the hallway outside, hoping Nana would be able to keep up.