Miriam, my dearest sister. I apologize for not being able to properly send a Direct Message or a video call recently, we have been currently at siege by a band of Mercenaries and Bandits from across the sea. But enough of that, is our family doing well? What about Gaige and Gray? I miss all of them, I hope that by the time you read this message I am already halfway home and so we, plus Gaige and Gray, can catch up from all the years that I have missed.
Fifteen-year-old Mark Dirus typed on the terminal. Which suddenly turned off that night as the lights flickered and the foundations of the outpost where he was stationed in shook as they were bombarded with cannons. He let out a sigh as he glanced at Arthur’s hilt which was resting on a table next to him which he just casually placed there in case of emergencies like this.
He grabbed the sword and switched it to Caliburn, the one handed sword mode, and alongside several other Combatants working under Hashira Enterprise started making their way to the Entrance where his Commanding Officer, Troy Miller, and the others were loading their weapons.
“How many do we got?” Mark asked his Troy who was loading his rifle and readied the bayonet.
“About thirty people, but don’t worry they’re not armed with anything concerning.” Troy said as Mark put on his helmet while the other troops started equipping as well.
Three years have passed since the Nation of Honshu was established, something that Mark had a hand with in it’s founding thanks to him acquiring the GRAIL. But the problem is that a community like Honshu stood out like a sore thumb within the frozen wasteland that is Hokda. As a result many smaller settlements that live in the area either joined Honshu or want to take what they have established for their own.
What will happen tonight was the latter.
“Need a rifle?” Troy said patting the Service Rifle that he was holding.
“I think I’ll stick to this.” Mark replied pulling out the Service Pistol that he had holstered on his hip.
Eventually the other Combatants opened the doors and started making their way towards the main entrance of the Motor pool and—Boom!—The shutters of the entrance burst open like a banana with the edges smoking, the smoke clears to reveal a tribe of bandits which was armed with weapons that were crudely made from reverse engineering the weapons stolen from various other outposts within the Hokda region and started charging through the gap.
“Get them! No survivors!” One of them said as he charged his thunder hammer which crackled with electricity and he had set his sights on Mark and grinned as he started making his way towards him. One of the Combatants aimed his rifle at the hammer wielding Bandit and struck the nearest Combatants sending him flying, had not for their Mk. V Combat Armor they would have been dead on the spot.
Another soldier dropped her rifle and pulled out a pair of power firsts and slammed the knuckles together which also crackled with electricity and sprinted towards the Hammer Bandit and started punching him in the chest and face shattering his helmet and sending him flying on a nearby pile of crates.
Mark sprinted towards the Hammer Bandit and switched to his Rhongomiant, the spear mode and impaled the Hammer bandit in the face decapitating it in the process. He felt a bullet bounce off his chest plate and he quickly turned to the side and found a Bandit armed with a homemade Rifle and started opening fire on Mark as he danced around each bullets with the skill and ferocity of unfitting to a fifteen year old young man.
Now holding Arthur in it's Caliburn mode Mark started swinging with decapitated Bandit here and a bisected Bandit there. Unlike Mark and the other Hashira Combatants who were fitted with heavy duty bulletproof combat armor, the Bandit were armed with crude patchwork armor with some of then are just salvaged from dead Hashira Combatants. And Mark had just sharpened Arthur allowing him to slice through the Bandits with ease.
"Dark Hound!" He turned realizing that he had just been called by his alias within the Combatants and Bandits to find a Bandit armed with a claymore as well.
Mark scowled as he aimed Caliburn and swapped it towards the two handed sword which was Excalibur and slowly walked towards the Claymore Raider who started spinning the claymore with anticipation. This was because Mark had gained a reputation as the best swordsmen within Hokda something that even Shinobu, who herself had become famous for her swordsmanship, could not surpass and thus earned the nickname of being the Dark Hound.
He slowly approached the Claymore Bandit and made the first move with an overhead strike to which the Claymore Bandit blocked it causing sparks to fly as Mark went on the offensive while the Claymore Bandit went on the defensive despite the height difference. But since Mark was faster he was able to land a quick blow to the side slicing the Claymore Bandit in half. That alone was the killing blow to the morale of the Bandit party that attacked them as they started to flee and withdraw from the fight as they started funneling out of the outpost with their wounded and everything.
The clean-up that followed after was the least fun thing for Mark, this was because he and Troy had to run a check on their losses and whether or not the Bandits have stolen something in the chaos. This was the daily routine of Mark and his team in the Outpost, at least when not being called for extra missions. As Mark and another Combatant was busy running the checks, he was approached by Troy with a smile on his face.
“Mark we have received word from the Headquarters,” Troy said handing him a tablet which contained a mission briefing. Mark grinned as a wave of relief made it’s way through him, this was because Mark was a skilled Hashira Agent in all but name mostly due to the fact that he lacks a requirement that make him a full fledged Agent of Hashira Enterprise.
“What do you got for me?” Mark said looking up on his tablet while on tip-toes.
“It’s a rescue mission, we have a young and aspiring scientist that have captured located between Hokda and Svasha.” Troy explained to him as he handed the tablet. The mission was very plain and simple, rescue the young scientist and then bring him home to him home or rather where his designated lab was. And the reason Mark was selected for this job was that he was the best that had anywhere, even without the Scout Ranger training.
But there was an unexpected variable.
“Gaige?” Mark asked as realized the scientist shown in the tablet was none other than his childhood friend Gaige Shinomori.
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[Rise of the Dark Hound]
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In the last three years Gaige was able to cultivate his knowledge and connections, mostly the latter, and rose to the ranks within the Hashira Enterprise. And when he had proposed Operation Augment, which was the creation of the Augment Driver which was designed to create a new generation of Armor while empowering the user in the process, he was promoted to Field Scientist and then he can further develop the Augment Driver. But as he was in the middle of researching the materials required him and his assistant, Arnold Castillo, was captured by a local tribe of bandits who plan to use his knowledge and research into creating their own brand of weapons.
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And so here he was in the middle of an abandoned mine shaft located in the border between Hokda and Svasha, but despite the rather grim situation they were on they had a plan.
Day 15 of Captivity, Gaige wrote on his notebook while Arnold was off soldering the last remaining circuit boards on their prototype, which is the Proto-Augment Driver. We’re almost done with the prototype, we haven’t tested whether or not it is safe but the thing is we don’t have the luxury for tests but once this is complete we are gonna break out. Peace out!
He closed the notebook with a loud thump and let out a sigh of relief as he turned to Arnold who was almost done with the finishing touches that he offered to add. Gaige smiled and clasped his shoulder proudly like a brother, originally their relationship was frosty with how Arnold was generally cynical and doubtful that Gaige could pull off his research but eventually after their time together in captivity they have formed a bond that puts him on the same level as Mark, Gray and Miriam.
Miriam, Gaige thought to himself, he had carried a torch for the young woman for years but he hasn’t gained the courage to tell her what he feels. Maybe once I get home I’ll be—
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Gaige peeked out of the window in his cells as he overheard gunshots while Arnold grabbed a sheet of metal as a makeshift shield. But as he was taken by surprise by a bandit getting slammed against the door. He glared at Gaige while turning to the sounds of gunfire and growled ‘Stay there.’ and pulled out a makeshift shotgun and started marching towards the blind spot of the corridor and only heard gunshots and the sound of him gurgling on blood.
“What the hell is going on?” Gaige muttered under his breath as the gunshots and fighting grew louder and louder until he spotted a rather short, roughly around the same age as Gaige was, walking towards them armed with a large sword.
“Get back!” The young man said with a muffled voice as he slashed the door open causing it to fall down this caused Gaige to reach for a homemade rifle, that he kept as a last resort, on a nearby table and aim it at the young man who stood there unnerved by it all meanwhile
“Who are you and what do you want?” Gaige said aiming the homemade carbine on the armed boy.
“Gaige Shinomori, we’re here to take you home.” The Young man said as two Hashira Combatants entered the room and started gesturing them to follow after them. And so they made their way out of the cells and through the corridors where other Combatants decided to free the hostage and armed them so they can fight their way out of the Bandit imprisonment.
"Who sent you, the Sokolovs?" Gaige asked in confusion wondering which one responded to his distress message which he managed to send during one of his early attempts to escpae with Arnold. And during his time traveling and researching Pre-Collision technology he was able to strike an unlikely friendship with the Patriarch of the Sokolov family.
"Honshu," The Young soldier said as he watched him swap a Sword with a shield after pressing a specific combination on the hilt of his weapon earlier. Hope began to swell in his chest as this meant that his message worked and now he was well on his way to—
"Grenade!" One of the Combatants shouted as they were sent flying to the well and turned to find a large group of bandit closing in on them armed with Grenade launchers. Their Hashira Combatant Escorts were killed due to being the closest within the blast radius. All the while Gaige’s ears started ringing from the blast while Arnold was unconscious after being knocked out by the blast, the ground shook and dust fell upon them as smoke descended cause of the explosion.
The Young soldier made his way towards Gaige, his shield was missing and was now holding a trench knife that he sheath on his belt. He took off the visor of his helmet to reveal a pair of familiar eyes, he was trying to say something to him based on his body language but his ears were still ringing and all he can hear were faint sounds of gunfire instead he picked up a rifle and started opening fire to an unseen enemy.
Eventually two more combatants grabbed Gaige and Arnold, and proceeded to carry him over their shoulders as the last thing Gaige saw was the young man with a rifle opening fire at the bandits as his vision started to fade out.
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[Rise of the Dark Hound]
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“I’ll cover you, hurry!” Jerry the Combatant said as he helped in covering fire as they were withdrawing from the large group of Bandits.
“Don’t be a hero Jerry.” Mark replied as he sprinted off, he heard Jerry yell a grenade causing the ground to shake as well. Mark looked back and to his relief Jerry was sprinting towards him as well with just a handgun indicating that he had dropped his rifle in the scramble. The two of them made their way on a series of Military Trucks that were Parked at the entrance of the Mine shaft all the while other trucks were engaged in vehicular combat against the Hashira manned vehicles.
“Drive!” Mark yelled as he immediately boarded one of the nearby trucks, incidentally the one where Gaige was one who was unconscious in the seat alongside his assistant. Without hesitation the Driver started driving off and then running over a bandit in the process as they were trying to escape, as soon as they were out of the danger zone, Mark took off the helmet and let out a sigh of relief.
His respite was short lived as from the corner of his eye he spotted an oncoming group of Bandits on various Technical Trucks chasing after them. But his look of annoyance was replaced with that of horror as he watched one of the Bandits raised his hand and a swirling mass of blue light materialized around the palm of his hand. Mark’s blood ran cold as they weren’t informed that there were Magic users within the bandits, incidentally in this world magic is also a concept but the people of Neogea have yet to understand how it works and only the Vakarians have learned to harness this concept.
Mark made a mental note to travel to that land to learn it as soon as possible.
“Magic Missile!” Mark shouted as the truck shooked and flew into the air causing them to roll down the slope of snowy frontier that is the Svashan-Honshu border.
Mark's head hurt as he tried to regain his sensed but it was no use as he had gotten a concussion from the explosion.
"Mark are you alright?" Jerry asked as he was crawling towards him with a worried look as but then Jerry went pale as his eyes landed on his stomach. Mark looked down and found himself to be impaled by the stomach causing Mark to let out a groan of pain as he tried to move with it stuck on his body, any sudden movements and then he'll bleed out like a gutted animal.
"We-we need to--" Jerry tried grab the shard of metal that was lodged into Mark's stomach but he grabbed him by the arm and shook his head.
"Forget about me, get the VIP out of here." Mark said his breathing becoming Laboured as tears began to pool in his eyes from the pain. "We're not leaving you here to die." A surviving Combatant said taking off his helmet which had already been cracked from the explosion.
"Shut up and do as I say," Mark said grabbing a rifle and reloading it. "That's an order."
As the Bandits were closing in, Mark started opening fire from the window all the while Jerry and the other combatant were fleeing with Gaige and Arnold in their arms as they were boarding a nearby truck. While it wasn’t his specialty, Mark over the years have become a proficient marksman so with each burst of bullets that he fired would somewhat meet their mark killing them then and there. But as they were about to close in on the Mark’s location a hail of gunfire managed to bombard the Bandits in the process, Mark’s blood went cold as he wondered what was happening next.
“Good grief, is it my time already?” Mark said as his grip on consciousness began to slip away and his hands grow numb as he continued to try his best in firing his gun at the enemy until he finally dropped his gun. As the rifle clattered to the ground and his vision began to darken his thoughts lingered to his family.
I wish I should have stayed in Fenrir, So much for using this as my second chance in life, spent it all on some pipe dream. Mark lamented with a scoff as she remembered his home while his body was slowly going numb as his last thoughts lingered to his family.
His parents, Joshua and Mary who loved him despite being distant with them still loved him regardless. His sisters, Mirabel and Miriam who loved to take turns in throwing pranks on him and yet he took it with stride, it was a shame he wouldn’t be around to see them in a bridal clothes or something. His friends especially Gaige, whom he tried his best to save him and hopefully they were halfway far from this mess. And Gray, there were so many things he wanted to say to her and yet now it’ll be in vain.
He chuckled to himself as he coughed out blood and eventually passed out.