Chapter 1.
I slowly crawled over to the ledge, peering down at the horde of Chimera preparing for battle. About two hours ago there were reports all across the country of Chimera leaving their posts and heading off to an unknown area.
From the various reports Command was able to pinpoint where the Chimera were heading to, London. home to Tower A-0, rumored to be the hub that connects all the towers together. X-Ray Squad, my squad, was the only squad currently there, we had been tasked with recovering Grayskin, otherwise known as Sergeant Nathan Hale.
Once Command realized the Chimera were congregating in London they gave us new orders to proceed into the tower. Due to the high risk of the assignment and the importance of Grayskin only one person could be given the task. I was the unfortunate soul who was given this task, Corporal Raymond Kelly.
As I peered down I spied the bodies of multiple Chimera, a Titan, the remnants of a Stalker and two Angels, their bodies pulverized by gunfire and poison spikes. Lying nearby was another Angel, wounded but still very much alive. Several Chimera were tending to it, taking spikes out of its skin and pouring Sym-Bac over its wounds.
Sightings outside the tower had led Command to estimate there were between two and four Angels in the tower, and if it was accurate then the Chimera here had just lost at least half of their command structure.
I eyed the wounded Angel and then looked down at my Fareye, considering if it was worth it to take out the Angel. It took me all of five seconds to make my decision, setting the rifle down on the ground.
I reached down to my vest, turning on my radio that I had turned off when I entered the tower.
"Command, be advised, I have sighted three Angels at A-0, two are dead and one is wounded, I am preparing to take out the last Angel, with these Angels dead the tower should be vulnerable to an assault. Resuming radio silence."
I flipped the radio off again and looked down at the Angel through my sights, adjusting until I was aiming for its eyes.
I moved my finger towards the trigger, having had the safety off long before I'd even entered the tower.
I steadied my breathing, beginning to squeeze the trigger.
(Type-2 Chimera)
"It is time."
I stopped what I was doing and looked up at the Angel hovering nearby. I was one of the original Hybrids she had changed, I had been with her the longest and she had grown to trust me.
She trusted me enough to tell me she had no allegiance to the Chimeran army and its goals.
Had I been a normal Hybrid I would designated her a traitor and she would have been eliminated by the other Angels without a single thought.
But I wasn't a normal Hybrid. I was given freedom to choose and do what I wanted, my queen had given me and several others sentience and we had all seen what the Chimeran army had done to the humans.
I had long thought it was wrong what we were doing but I did not voice anything, fearing the wrath of my queen, but hearing her say that had given me the courage to voice my opinions to her.
This had in turn caused her to trust me enough to tell me her plans she had for the Chimeran army and the Angels.
She planned on either turning the Angels to her side or killing them. If she could turn them to her side she would have a nearly unstoppable army to protect the humans from further harm. If she had to kill them it would mean countless Chimera would die as she wouldn't be able to maintain control of them long enough to give them the ability to think for themselves.
"What will you do?"
"I will try to convince them to join me. If I cannot do that you must fire on them, you must do it fast or they will take control of all of you."
I looked behind me and saw multiple Chimera flooding into the room. There were four Titans, an idle Stalker and hundreds of Hybrids milling about, waiting for orders from their queen.
Seconds later the two Angels appeared, wondering why they had been summoned.
My queen went over to them and a heated argument quickly ensued. I could not hear what was being said but the shocked reactions of the two Angels gave me enough of an indication of what was being said.
My entire body tensed up, seeing both Angels readying their spikes, and I gripped my Bullseye tighter, looking at my queen.
I watched her move away from the two Angels and ready her spikes. It seemed talks were over.
I raised my Bullseye, aiming at the Angels and firing.
They roared, retreating as they were fired on by both the queen and me. I looked over at the Hybrids near me, watching them all turn on each other as the Angels fought for control of them.
I staggered, feeling the Angels fighting for control of my mind. I had to get control of this now, or everything would be over. I looked around before noticing the Stalker, lying idle on the ground.
I ran towards it as fast as I could, shoving Hybrids aside and shooting any that tried to attack me. I got to the Stalker, glancing up at the Angels and seeing my queen being impaled with multiple spikes, collapsing to the ground.
"Destroy them! Now!"
With the queen's command fresh in mind I jumped into the Stalker, activating it as fast as I could and aiming at the two Angels preparing to finish off my queen.
I aimed the weapons, firing both weapons with reckless abandon, the AA cannon ripping through the flanks of the Angels. The missiles took a second longer to hit, flying towards the Angels so fast all they could do was watch as it flew into them, knocking them out of the air.
I was jostled in my seat when the Stalker was hit by a shot from a Titan, the vehicle staggering as it tried to stay on its feet. I turned the turret towards the Titan, firing the AA cannon at it, seeing it stagger back as the shots penetrated its thick hide.
I watched as other Hybrids began to fire on it and I turned to my queen, seeing her rise from the ground. I looked at the two Angels and saw one of them lying limp on the ground, the other one trying desperately to get back into the air, a burst of spikes sailing into its back knocking it back to the ground.
Thundering footsteps suddenly sounded, getting closer insanely fast, I turned the turret just in time to see the Titan slam into the Stalker, shoving it to the ground.
"Get out of there, now!"
I didn't need to be told twice, opening the hatch and scrambling out, seeing the Titan being pummeled with spikes, Bullseye fire and now Titan fire from another Titan in the hanger.
It roared, its heatstacks taking several direct hits, beginning to overheat.
The Titan groaned, reaching to its back, desperately trying to grab the heatstack. It looked over at me, standing up and roaring before exploding, the Stalker exploding alongside it.
I fell to the ground, the explosion making the ground shake, a piece of its body slamming next to me, big enough to crush me.
I looked around me at the massacre. There were bodies of Chimera all over the ground, many of them dead from bite and claw wounds. It looked like few Chimera had escaped without being wounded.
The fight appeared to be over, the Angels had been defeated. I looked over and noticed the other Angel was still alive, breathing heavily, too weak to attempt to take control of the Chimera in the hanger. I looked over at my queen, seeing her focusing heavily.
As I watched I began to notice the Hybrids were behaving differently. They were looking around everywhere, at the bodies, at each other, at their wounds. I looked at my queen, realizing she was giving them sentience.
"Kill... the traitors."
I swung my head around to look at the Angel, seeing it slump and go limp. Something telling me we were going to be in for a bad time. I looked up to my queen, seeing her slowly come to the ground, hovering just above it for a few seconds before losing her strength and falling.
I panicked, running over, grabbing some Sym-Bac off a dead Hybrid along the way.
I stopped next to her, looking at her wounds in panic.
"My queen, are you okay?"
"Please, take the spikes out, they are poisoning me."
Other Hybrids were beginning to come over now, and together we began the painful process of taking the spikes out of our queen.
She roared in pain as I grabbed a spike, tearing it out as fast as I could. The other Hybrids watched and followed suit, quickly getting rid of all the spikes.
I looked down at my queen and saw her breathing heavily.
"My queen, what did that Angel say?" I asked, worry in my voice.
She was breathing heavily as she answered.
"Every Chimera not under my control was told to eliminate us. You need to prepare a defense, we will be getting attacked by every single Chimera in this country very soon." She was very weak as she answered and when she was done talking she laid her head on the ground, passing out.
I looked at the other Hybrids, directing them to care for the queen and get her back up as soon as possible. Without our queen we would not be able to properly command our forces and would be vulnerable to other Angels.