(This post is for Kilel. I'll make a second post for everyone else.)
Lima Tuberculosis Hospital - Lima, Ohio
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d0/8b/c1/d08bc15b01b0d398552ceb795d2cbb9a.jpgIt was a relatively quiet day at the abandoned tuberculosis hospital in Lima, Ohio. There was a chill in the air cold enough to chill straight to the bone, but not cold enough for it to snow. The only thing that could be heard amongst the broken-down and dilapidated ruins was the whistling of the wind through its barren halls, the rustling of the tall grass, and the footsteps of a lone armored Character, The Hero of Kvatch, approaching the entrance. As the Hero's metal boots faintly scraped against the beaten path to the hospital, he pulled out a note, the one that he had received from an anonymous person that only referred to themselves as "FATE", and carefully read the instructions on the paper. Just as it had directed, The Hero of Kvatch was now at this long-forgotten ruin in search of this person that agreed to meet him there, this "FATE" who made promises within the note to give him the location to a secret trove of powerful relics created after the Horizon Incident. If the Hero of Kvatch was lucky, he just might find something of use among the trove.
As the Hero of Kvatch walked up the cracked steps leading to the entrance, he silently put the note away before walking up to the door and reached for the door handle. To the hero's surprise, his attempt to twist the door handle was met with the sound of the knob jerking to a stop. Unfortunately for the hero, a locked door blocked his path, meaning he would have to find another way in. The hero merely grunted softly before pointing his finger at the lock, and a green mist seeped from his fingertip and into the lock before the soft clunk of the door unlocking could be heard. Soon after that, the Hero pushed open the door, eliciting a loud high-pitched screech as the hinges of the door grinded together. The Hero lightly winced at the noise, but quickly shrugged it off as he looked into the decimated room. Pieces of the ceiling and walls were missing and scattered all across the floor, buried underneath the countless years of dust that had settled. It was clear to the Hero that this place had been abandoned quite some time ago, and was perhaps the reason why FATE chose this place for a meeting. with a faint sigh, the Hero carefully treaded through the room, taking care not to trip over any of the debris and began his search for FATE.
"Hello?", the Hero of Kvatch called out as he entered the room, passing over the remnants of what used to be the door. So far it had been a quarter of an hour, and the Hero still had yet to see any indications that FATE was here. In fact, it seemed as if nobody was even at the abandoned ruins. It seemed to the Hero that this entire adventure was little more than a waste of time. The Hero was not late to this meeting, so it was either that his informant had gotten lost, or didn't show up. If that was the case, then there was little else for the Hero to do but leave and go home. Feeling somewhat disappointed and defeated, the Hero began to walk out the door, but just as soon as he had crossed the threshold of the door, a small red dot glinted against his metal cuirass and lightly shook and danced against his chest as he tried to make sense of what this strange occurrence was.
*BANG*All it took was a single instant for the Hero of Kvatch to hear an ear-piercing gunshot echo throughout the room as he was sent straight to his back, a single instant to realize that the small red dot from before belonged to a sniper. As the Hero slammed against the concrete ground, a five-man squad of soldiers suddenly began to close in from where the sniper fired, quickly descending on the Hero with high-powered rifles as they tried to kill him. Of course, what the squad wasn't expecting was to be suddenly and violently thrown back, for in that moment, a giant fiery explosion blasted out from the Hero and scorched the solders and the walls around him. Wasting no time at all, the Hero of Kvatch quickly flipped over to his stomach and pushed himself up from the ground before pulling out his Madness longsword and shield, ready for the sudden ambush.
Meanwhile, the soldiers that had been blasted back by the magically powered explosion were still trying to regain their composure. Three of the men that were closest to the explosion had been killed from the shockwave and temperature of such a powerful blast, slowly roasting in their now burning armor, while the other two were badly burned, yet still strong enough to pat the fires on their armor out before focusing on the Hero once again. Unfortunately, one of the soldiers were not so lucky as before he could react, a fifty pound blade cleaved his helmet and skull in two as the Hero came down upon the soldier with all his might. The last man in the squad took aim and fired at the Hero, but the bullets simply crashed against his armor and either mushroomed against the breastplate or bounced off as the hero rushed towards the panicking soldier. Once he was in range, the Hero bashed the man with his shield, sending the soldier to the ground. The soldier hastily scrambled to his hands and knees, but was decapitated with a two-handed swing of the Hero's blade, causing a cascade of blood to spurt from the wound as the head rolled away.
Meanwhile, the sniper from before had packed up his gear and had retreated down the hall and around a corner of the crumbling hallway in an attempt to put some distance between him and the Hero. Of course, the Hero knew that the sniper was still around, and cast Detect Life upon himself, bathing himself in a purple light as he sprinted after the sniper. Once the spell took affect, the Hero was able to see the glowing purple aura of the sniper through a wall and increased his speed. The sniper only managed to outrun the Hero for a brief moment before he was struck in his lower back by a large icicle. A loud crash echoed through the hall as the icicle pierced straight through the armor and into the sniper's spine, sending him to the ground. The Hero quickly caught up to the now helpless sniper and made short work of him with a large burst of lightning that erupted from his armored hand. The smell of burning flesh seared the Hero's nose as he watched the smoke billow off of the dead sniper, quickly trying to figure out who these people were that had attacked him. Although the man was still lightly smoking, the Hero decided to inspect the man's armor and knelt down beside the body. From what he could see, the sniper wore a black modern military uniform underneath his reactive MR fluid body armor, and on the back collar of the vest was an insignia of some kind, a white sword resting atop a grey shield with a white trim. Around the sword and shield was what appeared to be a white olive branch, and around that were two rings, the outer ring taking the appearance of a half circle. Other than that, there were no real identifying markers on the man.
As The Hero of Kvatch stood back up, he could hear the faint pitter-patter of feet against concrete in the distance. It was now clear to the Hero that he had been tricked. This was an ambush. Still having his Detect Life spell active, the Hero sprinted all the way down the hall and towards one of the stairways of the abandoned building and reached the second floor. As soon as he reached the top of the stairs, he sharply turned to the right and held his shield in a guarding position as he began to charge after another squad of soldiers. As he closed half the distance to them, the Hero quickly raised his sword arm up into the air as he cast a summon spell to the squad's left flank, causing a bright light to flash on the targeted area before it faded to reveal a Gloom Wraith with a deep sunken face, sickly green skin, and a black shroud covering it's incorporeal body. All the six-man squad heard was a terrible high-pitched screech and felt an icy chill burrow itself down into their bones before a 367 pound man in armor slammed straight through them with a shield, knocking them all to the ground in a feat of brute strength. Four of the soldiers quickly rushed to their feet and took aim at the Hero, while one soldier struggled to regain his composure and one called for backup while laying on the ground.
"This is Fire Team Delta, we have contact on the second floor, west side!!", the solder shouted into the communicator in his helmet as he took aim at the Hero. Gunfire ripped through the air as the Gloom Wraith screeched once more before frost began to form along the soldiers' armor. As two of the soldiers fired at the Hero, three of the others quickly switched targets over to the Gloom Wraith and opened fire, but the bullets simply passed through the wraith, leaving the apparition unharmed. Meanwhile, the large-caliber rounds slammed against the Hero's shield, piercing the air with the sounds of metal crashing against metal, sending small sparks as the bullets ricochet off the shield and lightly dented the metal. Although his armor was protecting him from being riddled with holes from the bullets, it was not able to keep him from being pushed by the force of the rounds. The Hero grunted as he endured against the force of each shot, keeping his footing as he pushed against the full-auto gunfire.
With one final grunt of exertion, the Hero pushed forward and rushed through the gunfire, slamming against one of the soldiers and pushing them to the ground. Without hesitation, the Hero then took his sword and stabbed down into the man's neck, shredding and piercing straight through the nanofiber uniform covering the soldier's neck and traveled all the way through to the other side, striking the aged tiles on the ground. The soldier gurgled as blood spurt from his mouth before growing still, although the Hero didn't stay to observe. Instead, he charged after the other soldier firing at him and punched at him with his shield arm. His fist didn't make contact with the soldier's head, but the shield did. The soldier's visor shattered as the shield broke straight through and ripped into the soldier's face. Inside the helmet, there was nothing visible but the crimson blood as the shield crashed against the soldier's nose and continued travelling until it hit the very corners of the helmet's visor, resulting in the soldier's demise. Just then, the soldier that had been trying to regain his composure from before sprang into action and pulled out his combat knife before lunging and clasping onto the Hero's back.
The Hero began to flail around madly as he tried to shake the soldier off of his back, but to no avail. In a desperate attempt to kill the Hero, the soldier pulled out his combat knife and slammed the blade into the padded neck portion of the armor, but was met with failure as the blade glanced off the back of the Hero's neck, sending a spark as metal grinded against metal. The Hero grunted in anger when he realized that the soldier was trying to stab through his armor. Finally, the Hero backpedaled as hard as he could straight into as nearby wall, slamming the soldier straight into the wall and slightly through. The soldier coughed in pain from the impact, but continued to hold on for dear life as he reached forward with his knife and attempted to stab the Hero through his visor. The knife blade jammed itself into the eye slit of the visor, but unfortunately wasn't thin enough to fully penetrate the helmet. Just then, the Hero grabbed the soldier's knife hand with his shield arm and pulled away from the wall, tossing the soldier over his shoulder as he did so. As soon as the soldier made contacty with the ground, he was met with a blade through the chest, ending his life only moments later.
After the Hero had killed the soldier, he quickly darted his head over to where the other three soldiers were, only to find that his Gloom Wraith had frozen them all from the inside out. The Hero of Kvatch gave a somewhat relieved smile of victory, but it was short-lived. The sound of a faint beeping preceded a large explosion as a powerful shaped charge exploded through wall the soldier had been embedded in only moments ago and throwing the Hero out of the second floor window.
http://static1.opacity.us/images/db/serve/101/xlarge/0000005727/lima_state_tuberculosis_hospital.jpg The Hero landed with a hard thud as he landed face-first into the grassy field of the courtyard. His vision was blurred and a ringing flooded his ears as he tried to make sense of where he was. After a moment, the Hero rolled over to his back and looked up from where he fell. At first he couldn't tell if his eyes were deceiving him or not, but if they weren't then there was a white figure looking down from the blown out second floor window. Another moment later, the Hero's vision cleared enough to plainly see that there was indeed an armored man looking down at him. Reacting quickly, the Hero raised his hand up at the man and cast a powerful fireball. The fireball crashed into the hall where the man stood and exploded into a raging inferno, destroying the entire hall and filling the remnants of the area with fire and smoke. The Hero then quickly rose to his feet and darted away from the blown-out hallway, hoping to put some distance between himself and it, to observe the aftermath from a safe distance. The Hero expected to find a body laying on the ground after such a blast, but as the smoke cleared, the armored man could be seen staring down at him. Even more to the Hero's surprise, it seemed as if his fireball had caused only minor damage to the man.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/055/b/6/pbs_by_mohzart-d5w5g7n.jpgAs the burning cinders rolled off the armor and blew away in the wind, the white armored man disengaged the gravity modules in his boots and activated the communicator inside his helmet.
"Initiate Phase 3-B. Mortar units four through six, roll in and stand by for coordinates.", the man calmly and coldly said into his communicator. All of a sudden, soldiers carrying Barret .50 sniper rifles emerged from the second floor windows on east, north, and west sides of the building, each one taking aim at the Hero. The Hero sharply inhaled as he realized that he was now in the middle of all the enemy's forces, and that death was a very likely outcome. The Hero reacted and moved as quickly as he could, but even then, some of the shots fired by the snipers connected with him, heavily denting the upper-left corner of his shield, chipping off one of the spikes on his right pauldron, and leaving a deep scratch on his torso. The shot that connected with his chest knocked him off his feet and onto his back, but not before he let loose another spell, this time a fireball infused with lightning. As the Hero hit the ground, the ball of fire and lightning struck the very center of the north side of the building. The spell exploded into a blast of fire and electric plasma as it melted concrete and blasted it to pieces, leaving a large hole in the north side of the building. Many of the snipers in the north side were killed by the blast, while a few were heavily injured by either the burns they received or the flying debris.
Meanwhile, 3 three-man mortar teams armed with Soltam K6's approached from the south, east, and west and set up 700 meters away from the fight. Now all that was left was to wait for the order from their leader to engage the enemy. Back in the courtyard, the Hero rose to a stand, but was immediately shot at with a second wave of .50 BMG rounds. Again, he had managed to dodge most of them, but one managed to strike his torso, and unlike all the other rounds from before, this one managed to pierce the armor. If the Hero were human, the bullet would have torn him in half inside his armor, but such an injury was not critically damaging to a Madgod, instead embedding itself into his chest and knocking him over to his hands and knees. Up above on the second floor of the west side, the armored man received a message from his mortar teams, each one broadcasting a green light to the man's HUD.
"Sending coordinates. Stand by for Pattern Delta", the man said as he pulled out a laser designator and aimed it at the Hero,
"Fire." Just then, a faint popping noise could be heard in the distance, though the Hero was too preoccupied with the snipers to notice. As the Hero of Kvatch tried to rise to a stand, three XM395 Precision Guided Mortar munitions landed around him in a triangular pattern and violently exploded, sending the Hero 40 feet into the air and shredding off pieces of armor. Time seemed to slow down for the Hero as he helplessly tumbled through the air and finally landed on the ground with a painful thud. So much was going on around him, but the only thing he could think about was how much his body hurt. Everything sounded muffled, he could barely see, and perhaps worst of all, he tried to rise back up to a stand, but couldn't.
"Hold your fire.", the armored man said to his team over his communicator. After that, the armored man hopped out of the second floor window and gracefully landed on his feet. He then walked over to the debilitated hero and stared down at him. The Hero could barely make out who was in front of him, only being capable of seeing a blurry outline with a blotch of white in the center of it. In response to seeing the white armored man in front of him, the Hero raised his right arm to cast an "Absorb Health" spell, but nothing seemed to happen. In fact, it hurt just to move his arm. The hero turned his gaze over to his right arm and saw the sickening sight of it no longer being present. His right arm had been blown off at the elbow from the explosion, the only thing hiding what was left was the ruined and bloody chainmail. The Hero made a weak gasp and coughed as he felt blood beginning to pool up in his lungs, making it harder and harder to breathe.
"Do you feel that warm sensation in your chest, that feeling spreading? That's the feeling of blood pooling up in your lungs after they ruptured from the mortars' shockwaves. That means you don't have much longer before you die from exsanguination or suffocation. Of course, you will be gone long before that.", the white armored man calmly said to the Hero before grabbing the Barrett XM500 strapped to his back and holding it in his hands. The only thing the Hero could do was look up at the man, and asked in a weak forced voice, "Wh..o are.. you?"
"Reaper, but you know me by another name: FATE.", Reaper said to the Hero as he loaded a Raufoss Mk 211 HEIAP round into the chamber of his weapon. The Hero gasped for another breath of air mixed with his own blood as he tried to ask another question, but he could not force the words out, but right as Reaper aimed his gun at the Hero's head, the Hero barely managed to croak one last question. "Why?"
Reaper was about to shoot the Hero, but upon hearing him feebly try to ask his question, he suddenly paused before easing his finger off the trigger and lowering his gun to answer.
"Why? Because perhaps fate has ordained that we meet and that you fall. I don't have time to explain to a dead man why this is happening or all that will happen, but I will give you a hint. You are a pawn in a much larger game, one that looks black and white on the surface, but beneath all the politics, is all a web of motives and false loyalties, people vying for power, control, and survival.", Reaper said to the Hero,
"Goodbye."After speaking, Reaper decided that enough time had been wasted. Right before the Hero could utter another word, Reaper aimed his Barrett XM500 at the Hero's head and fired. The shot rang out and echoed into the distance, scaring off the birds in the forest near the building. The caws and flapping wings of the birds faded into silence, leaving Reaper and his team alone in the ruined hospital. Their work was done here, and now it was time to leave.