With Hearts of Steel (RP)

[Arya Stark 1,337]

I wielder of the Armor

Swear upon my life

To protect New Earth and its inhabitants

To always put others above myself

To always strive for more

And to do whatever it takes to achieve that.

I will do this through

My Armor

My Strength

My Mind

And

With Hearts of Steel

 

Eight years ago, a small group of 12 year olds placed their right hand over their hearts, and raised their left hand, then swore this oath. Since then, they have been working non-stop, becoming the deadliest humans ever to live. With their Armor, they are now finishing off their training, and just in time. Because the alien lifeforms that exterminated most of humanity 200 years ago are back, and only the Armor wielders will be able to stop them this time.

 

Inside the main meeting room, and most other rooms about the base, a large monitor was positioned on the wall. It read:

 

1. Zero

2. Spectre

3. Sigma

4. Archangel

5. Destroyer

6. Paladin

7. Rho

8. Barbados

9. Shinra

10. Valkyr

11. Arisen

12. Vanquisher

13. Epsilon

14. Immortal

15. Conductor

16. Stray

 

To almost anyone but those fifteen people, this would make no sense. A random string of words that meant nothing without context. But for those names, the list was much more. Their entire life had been focused around this leaderboard, built around their position and what it meant. Number One always got the best deals, the most privileges, meanwhile those on the lower end of the spectrum were punished with the harshest punishments. Capital punishment and deprivation of food or sleep were commonplace. Recently that has stopped for the sake of getting the wielders ready for the oncoming war, but the mental scars remain. Get to the top, or else.

 

Rho cracked her knuckles as she stood ready in the arena. An area for sparring or advanced training, the arena was a complete cube of steel, with laser neutralization and momentum dampeners on all the walls, floor, and ceiling. She was scheduled for a one on one sparring match for today, and had, as usual, gotten their early, anxious for the match. She had already removed her excess clothing, the skintight armor ready to do its job. Rho reached behind her head, and pulled the hood over her scalp. The computer overlay appeared, keeping track of her vitals and armor integrity, as well as weaponry ammunition and status. She took a deep breath, feeling ready.

(First come first serve for this match, but only one on one)

 

Sigma sat up in the observation and operation chamber for the arena, silently watching Rho prepare, and waiting for her opponent to arrive. Computers were lined all across underneath the main observation window for manipulating the various equipment and training programs that were built into the room. Sigma always enjoyed watching the fights of his peers, and if one was scheduled, he was often to be found observing. It was always great fun, and it always helped to keep him wary of new tactics and techniques. Any kind of fighting lessons he could gleam were helpful. Of course, he enjoyed watching Rho for other reasons as well, but he kept those safely tucked away.

 

Epsilon sat in the library and read a particularly interesting journal of the Meeting and the war that followed from the perspective of a civilian doctor. The more she learned, the more Epsilon pondered. Why did the aliens come? Why did they do what they did? Why did they wait so long to come back? They were interesting questions, but ones that had never been answered. Capturing these enemies was a difficult thing to do and very rare, and even when they did, they either refused to talk or did not know any human languages. All of the data was the same way. Even after this lengthy time, the alien language has not been decoded. This lack of information often frustrated Epsilon to no end.

 

Throughout the rest of the base were multiple other rooms, from basic amenities such as personal rooms and a cafeteria to a luxurious lounge and game room, and a heavily equipped gym complete with a track and a field that could transform into anything from a hockey rink to a baseball diamond. Not to mention the locker room, hangar, weaponry and engineering labs, and classroom. Anything that one could want for a team of young adults destined to save the human race could need, aside from any kind of shopping area. There was no civilian access, and even military officials only came by rarely, so the team was only really ever in contact with the staff and supervisors of the program.

Edited November 28, 2015 by Emerald Sustrai

[rikunobodyxiii 700]

{Immortal}

Inside the lounge, Marcus closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the armchair he was in, enjoying the audiobook he was listening to through one ear bud. It was one he was surprised got past the censors, but that just made it all the more enjoyable. Though he was trying to achieve a relaxed state, he wasn't achieving it well. He had heard rumors that training and tests were coming to an end and, soon, real missions would be handed down. That excited him. He was tired by the little games the brass made the Armored Squad play. Time to actually do some good. Maybe.

 

{Valkyr}

Laura sharped her sword, Dakra, with loving care. She had moved up the Leaderboard recently, which meant the Overseers would be happy. If she could keep going up, they would keep being happy. She didn't like to think of the alternative. She gave her weapon an experimental swing, then replaced it in its spot next to her armor. Her hand touched her armor longingly. Life was easier in it then not. She pulled her hand away, then headed for the gym.

Edited November 28, 2015 by rikunobodyxiii

[Atrias 19]

Kallin was fiddling with his armor in the engineering lab as was becoming more and more of a habit. The stream of training and punishments were over and in relief he was able to rest. From earlier times he had wanted to do several cybernetic implants on himself yet thankfully it was unnecessary. He was at it since the early morning hours since due to everything he was now used to going on without sleep for weeks at a time. Also because of the increasing tension between some of the members he had begun shutting himself in and developed a habit of talking to himself and keeping it a secret.

"No no ... It needs the adjustments for armor piercing ... But that's still the high risk high reward way of doing it. You want more punishment? ... It's not that. Just a few kinks to work out and we'll be golden." The pointless conversation dragged on and was mostly muffled out by the sound of his tools working on the armor.

[Saber Lily 1,543]

Zero. That was what she had chosen as her callsign. She had become nothing, emptied the day the aliens attacked. Everything she had, gone.

She had her life reset to zero.

 

The man stepped and swung his leg, but she caught and twisted - hard. The man was sent slamming into the ground, but she ignored him - spinning, she began fending off blows of the next instructor, her body slick with sweat. She had been fighting all of them for over fifteen minutes, nonstop. She threw her entire being into these types of trainings, going harder and harder each time. And every time, she'd alternate between offense and defense, never keeping herself too far into either. A block then grip, she judo threw the man into the oncoming third instructor. She had asked for four of them this time, which is why she used the excess momentum to spin at the ready - to throw herself to the side, avoiding a perfectly-executed jump kick that probably would have given her a concussion. She traded blows, until she found the smallest of opening.

She struck with a side-chop to his kidney, then followed with  an elbow strike, breaking his nose. She hadn't meant to do that, but it worked. A whistle blew after that, but she stayed at the ready, chest heaving, tank top looking as if she had been through a torrential downpour.

 

For the past eight years Eclaire had been fighting. Her first year, she spent every free moment with these instructors. She had mastered dozens, maybe a hundred or more types of unarmed combat. Every form of Taekwando the first two years. Judo, Muay Thai, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, you name it. She had learned it. This last fighting style was Bokator, from Cambodia. Six months ago, Okichitaw. Last year, Krav Maga. Tomorrow, she'd return to resume her swordsmanship - they eggheads had already prepared her newest addition to the Valkyrie suit, the broadsword Callais Hawk. Able to split into twin katanas, she needed to learn the proper techniques. She had already entered the advanced states of virtually every single martial art or swordsmanship offered - at the cost of her social life. Already a master of pistol karate (as she referred to it) now sword and gun were next on her list - hopefully tomorrow's lesson would finish off that segment.

 

Bowing to her defeated foes, she retrieved a bottle of water and downed, then the next three.  She headed for the showers, and soon was under a warm spray. Being Number One was great and all...but it was exhaustive. So exhaustive, that Zero had been aiming for something else now.

 

Walking out of the shower, she dried off and got dressed, heading for her room. She needed to pick up her training swords for later, after she had a small snack of fruit..

 

 

Eclaire Takagi-Voelker wasn't aiming to keep Number One. She was aiming to surpass it - to become Number Zero.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Soren de Wynter, otherwise known as Archangel, was taking some time to game. Playing some FPS, he was also enhancing his hand-eye coordination, to the point that it was entirely unfair for him to ever play the game against anyone else. So, he mostly played for fun, to unwind. he was tired after all, and he needed to rest. Luckily, the game room had everything.

[Scrapmaster 1,731]

- Destroyer -

 

Destroyer was lifting some weights at the gym, without his armor, which was sitting in the corner (think FO4 power armor), lifting weights in the armor was too easy it wasn't even fun or beneficial, he loved to do it himself.

 

"Nineteen, Twenty..." He muttered as he kept a good pace, he was lifting around 270 pounds without the armor, with it equiped he'd no doubt lift over two or so tons, he kept counting, without realising if anyone was entering the gym or not, not that he cared, because they'd see him in all his athletic fit body's glory. He'd usually come to the gym to lift weights, run on the treadmills and stuff, conditioning himself outside the armor so he could increase his performance INSIDE the armor when he finally entered it for the simulations and whatnot.  

Of course he also wanted to better his ranking, but that could wait, so far he was at fifth place, not too bad, specially since only the ones bellow ranking 8 or so were treated badly, those between 4 to 8 could enjoy some peace and "middle class" like upgringin, the top three however, were treated like royalty.

 

"Fourty eight, Fourty nine, Fifty!" He said as he let place the weight in the stand, as he grabbed a bottle of water to refresh himself, as he sat in the bench.

 

 

- Vanquisher -

 

Vanquisher strolled into engineering, with his full armor equiped, except for his helmet, which was retractable to the armor, his two drones, savior and Ravager flying with beside him, often swirling around him, these drones had better personallity than he had in all honesty, he did notice someone was already in the area, Stray, the bottom rank, well, he felt bad for the guy, the punishments were horrible, thankfully, while they were also quite bad for him too, some officials understood that his armor's abilities, and role in general, didn't allow him to really climb to the higher ranks.

 

He was a support that could provide a very good defense to an area, he wasn't exactly a killing machine, Ravager was, and the drone doesn't count for him in the leaderboard.

 

"Hey Stray. Officials tough as always?" He tried to start up a conversation as he went to a working table, and motioned for Savior to come, as the drone landed in the middle of the table, Vanquisher began to tinker with its wiring and systems, much to Ravager's dismay, as it was floating, looking at what Vanquisher was doing.

 

 

- Spectre -

 

Spectre walked inside the observation room where Sigma was observing the soon to be sparring match, kind of disappointed he was appointed to participate in the spar, Spectre didn't exactly think about that too much, he had no helmet on, the helmet retracted into his suit of armor, which paled in comparison to Sigma's.

 

"Greetings Sigma" Spectre said plainly and simply. as he also began observing the arena, "Excite that we'l finally be heading out for a real mission soon?" Spectre asked, trying to bring up a conversation. as he kept a hand on his katana, sheathed to the right side of his wais, he always kept a hand in it, regardless of the situation, even when relaxed. 

 

"Who's the unlucky opponent?" He also added.

[Atrias 19]

Kallin looked backwards at Vanquisher.

"They haven't killed me yet ... Underline the yet." He let out a chuckle and almost dropped one of his tools. With small movements he adjusted several screws and detached the left arm on which his canon-like weapon was mounted. The metal surrounding his arm let out a few sparks of electricity before it could move.

"Call me incompetent all they like fact is my results in sciences were pretty damn high." He then aimed away from Vanquisher and made his weapon fire a beam that ended just a few centimeters before the wall.then at it's end split into two directions again stooping before touching the surface.

"I just remembered. I overheard spectre mentioning rumors of actual deployments soon. Any thoughts on it?" He said shutting down the beam. Once it ended a piece of burnt out metal ejected from the canon.

"GOD THAT BURNS!" He shouted and immediately took the arm-piece off. His left hand had burns on the back of his palm shaped like the piece of metal it threw out.

 

 

(I know this is kinda adding stuff so if there is something wrong plz tell me. I added a limit of once per energy source use (the thing it ejected))

[Scrapmaster 1,731]

"Eh, better now than in the next eight years, least now we can finally do something for a change." Vanquisher commented as he kept tinkering with Savior, Vanquisher smirked however as Stray commented about him being called incompetent, "Hey, they judge us more for the leaderboards, im not fit for mass murder of aliens, im a support for goodness sake, the officials can't seem to get it in their heads that everyone's equipment set is different and unique to them, some better at killing and flashy moves than others." Vanquisher ranted, "I can lock down an area with defense turrets and my drones, but thats about it." He finished tinkering with Savior, as it began to fly around him, as Ravager did the same thing.

 

"They focus on your killcount, that would explain why Zero and Spectre are so damn high on the list, they're mistreating us, for not having the fighting enhancements they have, which is...weird,to say the least." Vanquisher said, simple and plainly. The officials were never really around to overhear them, so he used to just go on rants about the leaderboard system.

 

Seeing Stray burning himself prompted Vanquisher to smirk and motion for Savior to check out, soon enough Savior flew right beside Stray's burned hand, as it shot out its green-like energy laser, and the burn wound began to heal quite fast, without leaving a scar.

 

"I help keep the team protected and alive, as well as being able to lock a place down with defensive tech, and I still get shit on by them. Go figure." He joked.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Scrapmaster

[rikunobodyxiii 700]

{Valkyr}

Laura turned the corner to head for the gym when she caught sight of something big passing around another corner, heading for the arena. It looked as big as Destroyer, but the silhouette was wrong. Laura remembered there was a match today, but she thought it was between Rho and Immortal. She altered her course to the observation room to see who was fighting.

 

{Draconis}

Above the entrance to the arena, a screen flashed on, declaring a match between Rho and Immortal. Immortal's name flicked for a moment them winked out as the door opened to reveal a large armored figure which looked like a humanoid dragon of red coloration. He stepped out into the arena, the doors closing behind him. A couple of meters in, the dragon stopped. He pulled from his back a disengage energy axe, then set the handle of the axe on the ground, placing both hands between where the blades would extend. He then proceeded to stare at Rho, saying nothing and acting like a statue.

(Armor: http://i.imgur.com/1X0wW6s.png&imgrefurl=https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/37089-a-warframe-concept-the-dragon-20-%25E2%2580%2594-final-update-2092015/

Axe: http://mqwiki.com/images/mqwiki.com/7/78/Energy_Axe.jpg )

Edited November 30, 2015 by rikunobodyxiii

[Scrapmaster 1,731]

(First Valkyr, now Chroma! )

[rikunobodyxiii 700]

(First Valkyr, now Chroma! )

(Mostly)

[Nero Kunivas 3,046]

-Paladin-

In the middle of one of his always grueling training sessions, Garret Garland aka; Paladin, was kicking all sorts of virtual ass in a Combat Simulation, working on his offensive capability, as he knew the Higher-Ups seemed to value Kill-Count over anything else...which was both a shame and nonsensical to say the very least. Irregardless, he kept to his usual strategy in other simulations and got considerable marks for it. Perhaps they were seeing his potential...probably not.

 

Planting several Bullets from his Revolvers into Simulated Heads of Simulated Aliens in a Simulated World resembling one of the lost areas of Earth being a rocky, barren terrain, it doesn't get anymore Virtual than this, Paladin did not waver yet he knew that actual combat with these...things, would be considerably worse both in challenge and intimidation, as they were the ones who wiped out the vast majority of Humanity many years ago, so taking them lightly was completely and utterly out of the question. So the Higher-Ups view on Kill-Count was partially understandable...but still stupid.

 

Whatever the case, one more Sim!Alien ran up to him, but he pistol-whipped it repeatedly in the face, tripped it up with his leg and fired a bullet right into its forehead, more blood splattered upon his often blood-covered armour, which was surprising for someone mainly defensive. Well, only to those who see only his surface.

 

"Simulation complete." The computer that ran the Virtual/Enhanced Reality Suite spoke on loudspeaker as the world around him reverted back to normal: As a simple, technological chamber with door, console and Weaponry Locker replacing the barren wasteland from before, with the Alien Bodies and Blood covering his armour dissipating in a stream of Glowing Blue Pixels, leaving him clean and the Reality Suite back to default, with Paladin reloading and holstering his weapons. "Moving on..." He said to himself, making his way to the door, stopping at the console to log his results, nodding to the Technician on site as he left and headed for the Gym. Maybe he'd bump into a friend of his, in a fashion.

 

-Shinra-

In her own area of the Gym, Vera Chambers was doing her daily exercises; Push-ups, squats, intense stretches, the lot really, all out of her armour and only wearing her skin-tight suit, even her Heels were put to the side with her armour, mainly for safety but partially for comfort. She chose to ignore what was occurring as she did a full-split, then leaned forward with her hands touching the ground as she raised her lower section high, bringing her legs together and raising into a stand, raising her arms into a normal, but strong stretch, a couple of her joints cracking as she did so, moaning a little, then relaxing herself. "Whew..." She uttered, then took her water bottle and took a swig of Ice Cold H2O, pre-cooled by her armour before exercise.

 

Cracking her neck one last time, she chose to observe the others in the Gym, although she'd probably be noticed soon, she did not care. Then again, she could strip and they'd still discuss their...assets.

 

-Arisen-

Away from everyone else, in a secluded room, Violet Oryx meditated quietly, reflecting and wondering what would come next, especially with the mention of potentially being assigned to a real mission in due time...it would give her something to do at least. Better than trying to keep away from everyone else when not in Team-Based Simulations, or practicing her Necromancy on Humans who had died in...accidents.

 

She didn't ever ask, she just...did.

[Arya Stark 1,337]

"Hey!" Rho called. "Who are you? I've never seen you around before." She questioned sharply, more than a little surprised. She had heard rumors of other Armor programs, but this was definitely not anticipated. And he was definitely wearing Armor, her overlay had analyzed it as such. This was odd...

 

"Yo Spectre." Sigma waved a greeting to his fellow top three member. "I hear she's to be fighting Immortal. It'll be a slaughter... But still, fun." He said, looking back to the arena, not yet speaking of his thoughts on deployment. Personally he was excited, but he had feelings of apprehensiveness about the whole thing. But no need to load down Spectre with what were irrational fears. That's when he noticed the other figure in the arena... And the match up.... "Hey Spectre... Ever heard of a Draconis?" Sigma questioned, perplexed, his eyes glued to the window in fascination.

 

"In three seconds, the fight will begin. Ready? Three... Two... One. Match start." A robotic voice said in the arena, also through a PA in the observation room. Rho shook her head, still confused.

"Well... Computer says we're going to fight. I'm still dying for a good one. Let's go." She said, surging forward with her incredible speed already activated. She pulled out her tomahawk, and swung it right at the opponent's left shoulder. Rho also pulled out one of her guns, and let off a full powered blast from the weapon. Rho then kicked off the hulking Armor, flipping and landing gracefully with some room to spare between them.

[rikunobodyxiii 700]

{Draconis}

Draconis remained immovable after the count down and did not answer Rho's question . As soon as Rho blurred to move closer and attacked with her tomahawk, Draconis moved to block her attack with one arm, using a forearm block. While he managed to predict and intercept her first attack, her follow up with the pistol took him square in the chest. He stumbled back, but managed to plant his feet to stand his ground as Rho kicked off him.

"Well done." He said, his voice deep and reverberating. "You didn't hesitate. Continue."

Draconis' "mouth" opened slightly, cracking with energy. A cone of fire sparked from the mouth, lancing out at Rho.

 

{Valkyr}

Laura came in behind Sigma and Spectre, watching the start of the fight between the stranger and her teammate.

"And where is Immortal?" She added to Sigma's question.

[Saber Lily 1,543]

-Zero-

 

She entered the gym once more. Again early, she found a decent area for her swordsmanship lesson. She looked around.

Ah. Shinra. Always showing off in her skintight outfit. She turned away and raised her sword, and took a breath and began shadow sparring. Her sword a became a river, almost a perfect movement. She took a breath and turned, moving in time with an inner rhythm. Her workout clothes still soaked from earlier, they were nothing like Shinra's skintight suit. Yoga shorts of sort. A tank top that left her midriff exposed.

 

Eclaire turned, practice sword clashing with an instructors. Without missing a beat she swung under and up, and the fight began.

 

-Soren-

 

He fell asleep in the game room. He had trained enough for today.

[Atrias 19]

Kallin was a computer head and to him the most interesting thing was software. How fun it was to discern a mountain of information just by monitoring vitals. This was often a topic of discussion whether his "improvements" were actually improvements. Stray was testing the new vital monitoring software that he had just integrated into his helmet when he saw every active armor's vitals. Curious to this he checked the pulse and lung activity.

"Is Rho in the gym or something?" Then adjusted a few things on his helmet. Adrenaline hormones were a little more active but nothing out of the norm and muscle activity in her legs was showing signs of usage. He then checked the gym cameras which were already hot-keyed (ctrl + f + u) Seeing nothing there he switched to the only other place it'd be logical to look ... the sparring room.

"Oh oh oh! Put up the training room cameras!" Without much more he eagerly voice commanded one of the screens to on just as the shot was fired and Dracos got shot in the chest.

"You wanna take bets on this?"

[Scrapmaster 1,731]

- Spectre -

 

Spectre looked unimpressed, normal, this was his normal look for everything, he was hardly surprised by anything, seeing the challenger appear, he didn't know who or what the man was, but the man certainly looked strong. "Never heard of him, come to think of it I don't remember him being around at all..." Spectre pondered, "Must be new." Spectre said as he saw Rho's attacks.

 

"Not bad Rho." He muttered as he then saw Draconis breath fire, "Well he breaths fire, now draconis seems more fitting...you think he can fly too?" Spectre asked jokingly to Sigma.

 

- Destroyer -

 

Destroyer was now doing push ups as he noticed some figures walking around the gym, passing through the area and heading for their own, this prompted him to stop and look at who they were, first, Shinra, the cryomancer as he loved to title her. "Hey Shin, how goes training?" He asked, trying to start up a conversation as he stood up and walked to her, not noticing Palading walking in.

 

"Now I know, not usual for me to get out of my suit, but I do it on workouts every once in a while".

 

 

- Vanquisher -

 

After leaving the engineering labs Vanquisher wandered around a bit, trying to look for something to do, he soon got to the game room, to entertain himself and possibly his two drones, in there he noticed someone in particular, Archangel, having fallen asleep out of boredom most likely.

 

Vanquisher paid no mind and went to see if he could play something by himself, but Savior and Ravager floated up to Archangel, curious, Ravager floated a bit closer, poking Archangel's face gently, before floating back.

[Guest]

(For whatever reason, the air in this park ground fills you with excitement and recollection of happy memories fills you with determination.)

 

"Jazz...?"

 

 

"Jazz..?"

 

 

"Jazz?"

 

"Dammit where is she..."

 

Kirin walked along the hallways, trying to find that girl. He was generally punished for his lower marks to bring one of the lowest to their monthly meeting. He shambled across the rooms, trying to find her.

 

However, he hadn't checked the Lybrary yet.

 

In the lybrary, Jazz sat in the corner of the room, a page of notes glued to her face via drool as she napped away. She never was the best student.

[Arya Stark 1,337]

"New? We've never had someone new. It's just been us, for eight years. Why's that changing now?" Sigma continued speaking with Spectre, his eyes not leaving the match. His fists clenched as he leaned over the operating terminal, getting as close to the window as he could. He noticed Valkyr coming up from the reflection in the window, and heard her question. Sigma shook his head. "I don't know... Probably off doing something else. Maybe he actually knows what's going on." The Explosive Armor answered her question.

 

Rho rolled to the side, the huge blast of fire avoided neatly. But she couldn't take him lightly if he was able to intercept her rapid tomahawk strike, and especially with huge area control ability like that blast. "Thanks for the invitation." Rho said crassly in reply to this guy's previous comment. He was still immobile, the same spot he had been before. The Quick Armor moved forwards again, this time throwing her tomahawk as she approached, aiming it towards his head, but it flew closer to his shoulder. Hopefully it coming that close would psyche him out, but he didn't seem the type. Then she boosted her speed more, and moved behind him. She jumped up, and caught the tomahawk as it flew over his shoulder, and slammed it down in a hard downward strike. The claws on her other hand extended, and she stabbed them into the upper back of this mysterious Armor wielder.

[rikunobodyxiii 700]

{Valkyr}

"He generally hates these matches." Laura said as she watched the battle between Draconis and Rho. "Immortal might ridicule or skip a match, but get someone else to fight? Not like him."

A small bit of fear welled inside Laura. If this was someone from another unit, did that mean that command would start replacing lower tiered armors?

 

{Draconis}

The Dragon Armor did not react to the thrown tomahawk, but whirled around as Rho ran past. Though it was in slow motion to the faster armor, Draconis' movements were as unstoppable as his name sake. He ignited his energy axe, using the blade to block the down ward tomahawk, while moving the handle of the axe to stop the claws. He then jerked forward, head butting Rho.

"Flashy!" He growled. "Predictable. Do better!"

[Scrapmaster 1,731]

[rikunobodyxiii 700]