Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Crusaders III: The New Age 1.2

Crusaders III; The New Age


Part One

The New Call


1.1. The Horn trumpeted

The turn of the new millennium at 2100 marked the new beginning of mankind. It was to sparkle into a world conflict as mankind once betrayed itself to the greed of evil and declared a war that ripped apart all that was build over the last century. The nations of the world have become of two and their conflict resulted in one disaster; man's doom. The advancement of Mankind in its technology was not used in space exploration but in the acts of war.

Among the two conflicting sides, there are still the remnants of the believers. They prayed for the day of peace or be damned to the day of revelation. It  was from their prayers, one movement of salvation was called on again to save the mankind.

They are named the Crusaders.

Smaller in numbers, hidden by the Order that they have sworn to served, they are now called to perform their duties when needed.



1.2           Heroine of the Faith

The last war that lasted seven years had ravaged the land from that of forests and lakes to that of withered unfertile lands now. What were once proud mountains were now mounds of stones covered with icy cold surface, where once snow was rare due to the dry lands around its plains. It may be a form of wasteland but life still trampled its soils, and where the elixir of life can be found, the seeker of it would converged.

The gentle creature once seen in abundance on the grounds of that land was now a predator and feared no others. Its whiskers twitched to pick up the scent of any preys before it hurried forward on its four legged limbs. It does not run for length but dashed in short distance to seek the next cover or holding its position to avoid detection.

That moment the creature known as the rodent, once smaller than a feline creature but today shared it size, caught the scent of another. Its sensory alerts went up as it short ears picked up the vibrations of the sources, while its whiskers now tuned up tried to gauge the oncoming threat. It does not show fear as the rodent once a loner in its quest, but now adapted to hunt in packs; shrieked off a long squeak to alert the pack.

In a flash, it jumped aside to avoid the jaws of the canine creature which had evolved from a dark furry coat to plain bare skinned with the long fangs that protruded from it lower jaws. It was once a feared breed of domesticated creature but now roamed like the rodent in packs for food to survive. The canine was not to give up as it twisted its body to do a tight turn and snapped it jaws onto the rodent rear limbs.

The bite was deep when the fangs dug into the flesh there, but rodent was as ferocious to fight back with its own short and sharp teeth on the lower front limb of the canine. It was to be a test of endurance but the earlier squeak of the rodent had drawn its reinforcement. Three equally large rodents jumped onto the canine and took the fight to a dying match soon after. The three rodents having seized chunks of the canine body frame tore its flesh off causing the canine to howl out in pain. Soon the attacker was vanquished by the sheer number of its prey. The first rodent despite the wounded limb was still able to savage its bites into the canine's head area, drawing out streaks of flesh and blood.

Their frenzied feeding was not without miss by the greatest predator of all creatures; the one they named Man, creator and killer of all kinds. The deadly zap of energy contained lasers flashed out like streaks of lightning’s ended the feeding frenzy within seconds. The charred bodies of the four creatures were scattered by the blast.

The last killer of the creatures rode over on the energized two wheel machine contraption. It was a mean machine mounted with an energy efficient engine body for a single rider on a set of rimless twin hub; one at the front and the other wider one at the rear. The machine was steered by a twin horn handle with mounted display panels to showcase its power and speed. The machine also comes with a set of energy lasers projectiles mounted to its front controlled remotely by the rider through its thought activated force strength helmet.

The rider who was riding astride the machine dismounted from it and walked towards the charred site. The rider was clad in silvery leather tight suit covering the whole body with a set of knee high boots, where a set of laser phaser phasers were seen holstered on the right side while the hilt of the laser blade can be seen on the left boots. The rider also had on a pair of leather like gauntlets that stretched towards her elbow with a screen on the top of the wrist. Above at the sleeve of her suit were the two streaks of red and green which ran across her chest. Just below the two streak was an emblem which resembled the sign of the cross; an emblem of faith from the few scattered believers then.

The rider helmet was a virtual one although it had the image of the cross displayed proudly in the face of it; was energized by a force field that formed a dark tinted whale like shape on the head. Once the thought command was given, the helmet would retract to the formed a dark ring around the neck line. It can be removed and stored away in that form with a command on her left arm gauntlet wrist screen.

At that moment, the rider gave its command to retract the helmet, and the breeze on the land blew at the exposed young face of the rider. It was a young lady of her late teens, and with her short cropped hairlines, she could have been mistaken for a boy by many. She crouched down and tore off a piece of the charred meat off one of the dead rodents. She bit into it and tasted the meat.

"Not bad for a rat." She muttered to herself before she devoured the remaining piece.

It was then she heard the call sign from the Controller.

"Geranium, you are needed back at the post." She stood up and looked again at the charred creatures.

"Guess you are just lucky today. I am not eating you." Geranium smiled at herself. She activated her helmet and gave her thoughts to the bike via the helmet. The machine gunned up to life when she swung her legs over its back. Once seated comfortably, she grabbed the two horns handle and steered the machine away back to the place she was told to return to.

So then we had just met the First Crusaders of the New Age.

She was to be named the Heroine of the Faith.



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