Allies

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By nightfall, the evacuated members of Hunter HQ had reached a stronghold, simply known as control. Jake sighed as he looked at the soldiers wearing uniforms that weren't issue to his team and said, “Never thought I'd have to resort to coming to this dump. Damned Commando wannabes. Call themselves CRIT.” Rock looked at him and said, “The Crisis Response and Intervention Tactical? I thought they were completely wiped out.” Wes sighed. “Nope. Bass spared these guys to make new weapons for his cronies. What he doesn't know is that this place is actually a front. Underneath this place is an old command outpost that's impervious to scanners. That's were the real control is.”

They stepped onto a platform and said, “We were lucky that one of your people was passing by a couple of days ago. If not, she would've been executed my a Maverick patrol that was passing through. We took her inside and kept her safe until the bots came back three days later for the convoy. We wanted to make it look like an ambush when in fact, the rifle transport was already planned before they were loaded into the trucks. They're ten times more powerful then the current models, so obviously it was sabotage from the get-go. We didn't know that they were going to put Glideman in there.”

Zero hobbled alongside the group and said, “Sounds like they knew about the ambush ahead of time. I think you might want to considering a retreat from this place. You seem to have a traitor.” Was laughed and said, “We know. The ambush was deliberately leaked so that we would have them focus on us, but not you guys. Our little trap back in Neo Arcadia was just to create enough of a threat to retaliate without feeling a need to use the prototypes. You saw the damage it could do on level two. Can you imagine if they turned it to full power? Those rifles were commissioned to be hand held bunker-busters.”

Rock looked blankly at the soldier and asked, “So you deliberately leaked the info to them?” The man nodded and said, “That's right. We put a Reploid on the inside and he serves us by giving the general's false recon while he also keeps up to date on the latest attack plans from the enemy.” A voice said from the shadows, “I'm afraid that's going to be a problem now, Admirals, sir.” Jake and Wes both said in shock, “Quickman!” Rock took a fighting stance while Zero attempted to do the same through blinding pain. Jake said, “Cool your jets, you two. He's our informant. Dash, what happened?”

Quickman said in a panicked voice, “I was listening in on Bass after we were dismissed, but was discovered by Lead General Protoman. He knew right away that I was leaking Intel to you guys and has dispatched the entire Lance division to track me down and terminate my functions. Also, I have some very disturbing news regarding the Reploid Traitor.”

The two hunters didn't look convinced as he explained what he had overheard. At least, not until one key factor. “Slag!” Rock yelled. “You're telling me that he has found a way to mimic Reploid abilities into Mavericks? How can he do that?” A blond female in a lab a lavender dress and matching lab coat said, “Didn't you get Jake's Intel?” After a moment of thought, Zero yelled, “Wait a minute, Ciel! Are you telling me he's been making Reploid-Human monstrosities so that he'd learn how to copy our ability to assimilate our enemy's abilities? That's beyond sick!”

Ciel nodded and replied, “According to the data Quickman, real name Dash 108-B here returned with, it confirms Jake's autopsy findings as well as explains why they only felt the need to smuggle a lone Maverick into HQ. If it had the ability to regenerate itself at the same level as Bass, one maverick would have been more than enough to annihilate every human and Reploid there. On the topic of lost units, Where's Axel?” Nobody said a word. After several minutes of silence, Zero finally replied, “He's staying with his mother.” Ciel's expression was one of heartbreak. Rock said, “Don't cry, Ciel. He did what needed to be done to make sure everyone else survived. The kid who accidentally destroys all your data grew up and became a hero. He used his abilities to save the people he cared about”

After a moment, his voice trailed off, saying, “Unlike me...” Nobody wanted to remind him that his sister's death nobody's fault except Bass', but his current mood told them that it was a taboo subject on grounds best not to be tread upon. Jake decided to break the mood by switching topics before somebody said anything that would only end in disaster. “Say, Dash, why are you still wearing your Maverick Dragon Guard armor? If I had your job, I'd have ditched it long ago.”

Dash said, “Original attempt for the Assimilating Maverick was to strip away Reploid parts while replacing them with Maverick components. Lucky for me Bass pulled the plug before the procedure terminated me the same way as every other subject prior.” Jake muttered, “And who knows how many humans met that fate through this Frankenstein Nightmare. Excuse us..” He and Wes moved aside and started debating over something. Dash said, “On top of that, Bass was talking to someone in his throne room. But there was no other voice. I think someone might have been reprogrammed by someone...”

Rock cut him off and said, “Did you say he was talking to himself?” Zero, who was now being patched up by a maintenance team, asked, “What? Why are you so surprised by that?” Rock looked disturbed as he said, “That explains the inhuman experiments. Zero, do you remember the day you proposed to Roll?” His teammate looked at him and said, “Now you feel like talking about her?” Frantically, he yelled, “Answer the Dim Ram question!” Rock nodded. “Yeah. I'll never that day. It was the first time in my life I ever smiled. I never knew what it was like to feel emotion until them. It was Intoxicating. What about it?”

Rock said, “That day, I was trying to deliver a psyche report on Lt. Wiley in outpost 117. He was talking to himself in the third person. I think it's safe to say that somehow he might have origin of the Wiley Virus. Some kind of ghost program designed by Dr. Wiley before he died must have made it into his core and created the virus. I was never able to find the back up for it after he died, and it might have accidentally found it's way to the lieutenant's Neural Net.”

Ciel cut him off, saying, “And since two Wiley's cant take up one core without overloading the system, he adopted the Identity of Bass under the influence of the virus, duplicated it and released it into the Maverick Network at Wiley Hour, at which point he became nothing more than a puppet!” Zero Shook his head. “If that's the case, That explains why Base Reploid combat features got formatted around the world. Bass already knew close to everything about how to make the abilities function, and Dr. Wiley designed the virus to control Mavericks, disable Reploids and Enslave everyone else. We didn't lose out base attacks! They were Formatted along with Dr. Light's backup files.”

Jake added, “And you said this Roll was a scientist that specialized in Reploids. He might have targeted everyone in that field globally to make sure that they couldn't fight back!” After the realization, Dash said in horror, “If he's that smart... Then he knows about the front, As well as every resistance base there is, And that I was a traitor from the start!” they looked at him in acknowledgment before Jake yelled, “Shit!!! He's going to attack all the strongholds at once!!!” The group ran to the entrance and say that the horizon was engulfed in flames. Jake said, “The refugee camp was there. They're unarmed. It's a slaughter...” Rock replied in disgust, “This is just the start. Now that we know who's really pulling the strings, it's only going to get worse.

As strike craft appeared in the horizon, Jake said, “I guess whether we were in or out doesn't mean shit at this point. We walked into your war and now we have to pick a side.” Rock looked at him and said, “This is sickening.” Wes called, “Luckily we chose our side a while ago.” Zero and Rock turned to him and saw Reploid armor that appeared to be a new, thin model made of a rare, near unbreakable, flexible metal called Quantium. They were identical designs, one was a navy body suit with red gloves, boots and vest. The other was a two tone, blue color scheme. Jake said, “You're uniforms, sir! As of this point, Lode Runner is in Chaos Core status. All command belongs to the Hunters.”

Zero said, “This is going to be a suicide war.” Rock Rock said, “It's going to be suicide to do nothing as well. We'll stand a better chance if we have allies. Like it or not, everyone is at war, and we're just getting started.” The four officers looked at the advancing army Jake, “And may the Devil have mercy on our sorry souls.”