"Because I … I don't know … well, I do know. I just don't want you two to know."
Jareth and Lachlan exchanged a glance of confusion. Why was it so hard for Matthew to take lead?
Omega and Bravo arrived back at their base and took Delta, Gamma and the boy to the med bay. Their base was a small outpost on a deserted planet near the edge of the solar system. There were very few people at the base, only the ones needed for the mission. Everyone knew everyone in such a small place. There were only around twelve people living at the base.
Omega sat on a chair near the door to the med bay. He was the only one not injured in the fight to rescue the boy. Bravo was getting himself checked over by one of the three doctors that lived on site. Omega sat deeper in the chair and felt himself drifting off. Theta and Alpha had sent them on non stop missions for the last week and Omega wasn't coping with the lack of sleep.
His eyes became heavy and he fell asleep in the chair, it wasn't long before he was awoken by Theta calling him over the comms.
"Omega, I'd like to see you immediately."
"Yep, sure boss. I'll be there soon," Omega replied, standing and stretching from his short nap. He felt somewhat rested even if he was only asleep for a few seconds.
Omega made his way through the long silver and grey halls of the base. He passed research facilities, a gym, the mess hall and a few bedrooms. It only took Omega a few minutes to get from one side of the base to the other. He found Theta talking to Alpha in Mission Control, the room where Alpha watched over every mission conducted by his Chosen.
He waited for them to finish their conversation but even once they had finished Alpha didn't leave, almost as if he wanted to see Omega too.
"Ahh, Omega, good to see you again. I trust you and your team retrieved the boy," Alpha said, tensing and moving the muscles in his scaled hand.
Omega had never liked Alpha - he had too many secrets. Like why was he half-dragon? Had he played Skyrim and loved it so much that he'd genetically altered himself to be Dovahkin? Or was he a dragon that altered his form to be half-human? It really didn't matter. He was still the boss of this whole thing and Omega had to follow his orders.
"Yes, Sir. We retrieved the boy and killed one of Chaos' top Generals. His name was Riley."
"Oh yes, that prick. He has a nasty habit of returning from the dead. I guess it just means that you'll get the chance to kill him again."
"If you don't mind me asking, Sir, what's so special about the boy?"
"His name is Kaylin. He is an Unbound Elemental and is vital to winning the element war. I know the part he has to play, Omega, and if you don't get him onto that path then we will lose the war."
Alpha was always prattling on about the Element War that was coming, but Omega thought it was a load of bull. Alpha also seemed to be able to see the future. It was just another thing that made Omega dislike him.
"But Theta is an Unbound. Why do we need another one?"
"We need all the Unbounds we can get, Omega. This war will have thousands of plain elementals and we need the upper hand if we are to win it. Unbounds are the only way to get the upper hand. That's why I need you and Theta to train him."
"Sir, he's only a boy. He's like eleven, at most. I was seventeen when I first got into my element. How do you expect us to teach an eleven year old how to use his powers to kill?"
"You will not speak to me in that tone, Omega. I have given you orders and I expect you to follow them. Now you and your team can have the next few weeks off but once you are all recovered I want you all back in action. That goes for you too, Theta."
"Yes, Sir," Theta said, standing at attention.
"Now if you'll both excuse me, I must go and see my Brothers and Sisters," Alpha said leaving the room.
"Why'd you go and see Sam? You know it's not the right time yet," Theta growled at Omega once Alpha had left.
"Sir, he needed my help. Frankly, if it wasn't for me then I don't think that they would've made it out of the battle with Chaos."
"I don't want you seeing him until we actually need to recruit him."
"Yes, Sir," Omega said, lowering his head.
3: Finding Father and Friend
Sam found his chakrams embedded in the ground not far from the Defilers. They had landed behind another trash heap and were away from the Defilers. As he pulled the chakrams from the ground, the trash heap behind him exploded and a Defiler walked over the rubble. Sam was thrown onto the ground and didn't have time to get back up as the Defiler pointed its main cannon at him.
The Defiler charged up its cannon and fired at him. Sam quickly activated a shield to protect him but the force of the blast still flung him back. He slammed back first into an old beaten up fridge, denting it. The Defiler charged up its cannon before Sam could erect another shield.
The Defiler fired, shattering a wall of earth that had formed between Sam and the Defiler.
"Get up and fight Sam!" Jareth's voice rang through the air. Another wall of earth appeared in front of him and stopped another blast from the Defiler.
"Are you gonna move or and am I gonna have to drag you away from that fridge?" Matthew asked in his beast form as he appeared next to Sam, his yellow eyes piercing his black form. Sam gabbed his paw and dragged him back through the portal he'd created.
Matthew and Sam came out near where the other marines were held up. Jareth and Taine were flying overhead while Lachlan and Cheyenne waited for Matthew.
"It's good to see you guys again. I missed you all," Sam said, seeing his old team.
"It's good to see you too, bro," Jareth said, softly landing next to them.
Taine took down the rest of the Defilers and the marines headed back up to the base.
Sam headed back up to the Command Centre with Matthew and Lachlan in tow. They found Doc tinkering with the main control panel. There weren't any S ranked teams out on missions but Doc's work was never done.
"Doc, I'm here to call in that favour," Sam said as they entered the room.
"Well, that was fast. What can I do for you, Sam?"
"I want to find my dad."
"Sam, your dad died back on Chaon remember?" Doc replied, turning his attention to Sam.
"He's not dead - I know it. He talked to me when I was dying. He was the one that told me about my powers and he unlocked my golden armour. He's out there. I know it."
"I can find Apollo - he's still active - but I'm not sure about your dad," Doc replied, turning back to the control panel.
"Wait, I thought Apollo and Sam's dad were the same person," Matthew said, confused.
"No, Sam's dad is a person. Apollo is an Armour. Apollo, Hades and Athena are a new kind of armour that I helped the General create. It's a new armour that is its own sentient being. It's kind of like a robotic armour but it's completely hollow and can think for itself. It allows the host to separate from it and use another armour while the separated armour can fight for itself, or they can combine and become stronger together. Look, you won't fully understand it until you've experienced it, which you won't do for a while. Put simply, Apollo and Sam's dad are two different beings," Doc explained, but the boys all had confused looks on their faces.
"I've tracked down Apollo. He's on an abandoned planet not far from Jupiter. Maybe he'll know about your dad, Sam," Doc said with a sigh as the boys stood there still with confused looks on their faces.
"You guys wanna come with me?" Sam asked Matthew and Lachlan.
"I want to Sam, but I have a team to command," Matthew said.
"I can do that. I am still technically your tactician," Doc replied.
"I'll come too," Lachlan said, nodding his head. "Like old times," he continued, holding out his hand.
"Like old times. Hoorah!" They all said putting their hands on top each other's.
Nathan walked the lone halls of his high school, going from classroom to classroom to make sure no-one acted out of place. It was his job as Chaos' Australian General to make sure that everyone f
ollowed Chaos' laws and rules. The Space Marines hadn't found out that Nathan had taken over all of Australia and turned it over to Chaos.
Alexis and Josh walked behind him, each in their Chaos general armour. They walked with force, creating audible bangs with each step to make sure that everybody knew that they were coming.
"I can sense that everything is good here, Nathan. Should we go to the next hall?" Alexis asked, her voice deepened from under the helmet.
"No, this school is good. We need to inspect the theme parks and make sure that they comply with Lord Chaos' rules and regulations," Nathan answered, creating a Chaos Portal in front of him.
Nathan and his two team mates stepped through the portal and found themselves face to face with hell. Fires swept through the parks, destroying everything, and they weren't normal fires either. The Chaos fires were a deep shade of purple and black instead of reds and yellows. Black smoke rose up into the sky, casting a dark shadow over the abandoned theme parks.
Nathan found Matt and Cassie attacking some marines in armours that were matte gold, unlike Sam's glossy golden armour. The marines were foolish enough to stay and fight. Nathan watched on as his team tore out the marines' organs and forced them to watch as they crushed the organs in their hands, before putting a bullet between their eyes. Matt and Cassie walked over to Nathan, Alexis and Josh.
"This one's done, Nathan. Are you sure about all of this? The theme parks used to be your favourite places in the world and now you're tearing them apart," Matt asked.
Matt, along with Cassie, Alexis and Josh, weren't enhanced with the Chaos Element, which meant that they were still able to think for themselves and able to know what they were doing was wrong. But Nathan was their leader and they didn't want to get on his bad side. Everyone was afraid of the Chaos Element.
"Destroy them all!" Nathan yelled. "Leave nothing alive!"
"Shouldn't Jareth be here? I mean we are looking for his dad too," Matthew asked as he Sam and Lachlan walked through broken, destroyed and abandoned buildings.
"Probably, but he's lived his life with Dad. I want to see him without my brother there," Sam replied as they walked through a covered courtyard of a destroyed apartment block.
"Jeez, Sam, since when did you become a heartless cow?" Lachlan asked sarcastically.
"Hey I'm sorry I want to see my dad. I've been angry ever since Jareth was born."
"You didn't even know he was…"
"Shut up!"
"No, let me finish. How could you know…"
"Shut up, Lachlan! There's something up ahead," Sam loudly whispered. A loud explosion followed, shaking the buildings and causing rubble to fall from the open ceilings.
The marines followed the sound of the explosion and found a Chaos General fighting an orange and yellow armour. It was Apollo.
Apollo was clearly winning as he was beating the General. The General was being pushed back by each of Apollo's attacks, jabs punches and kicks, each attack cloaked in fire. Apollo landed a punch to the Chaos General's helmet, shattering it and revealing who was under the helmet. It was Riley.
Matthew noticed it was Riley and was the first one to strike. He activated his Cerberus armour and switched both of his cannons to blades. He ran for Riley without either of them noticing, slashed his Cerberus blade, and clean cut Riley's left arm off. He swapped out his blade for his cannon and fired at Riley's stomach. The blast tore right through his abdomen and out his back. Riley fell backwards, dead, again.
"Well, that was unexpected," Apollo said, seeing Matthew quickly take down Riley.
"Hey, Apollo," Sam called as he and Lachlan ran over to the armour.
"Ah, Sam. It's good to see you, although I didn't expect you to find me. Your father told me that you didn't know I was active," Apollo replied.
"So what you're saying is that my dad is alive?" Sam questioned inquisitively.
"Oh, crap. Um … well, yes, he's alive but he doesn't want you to find him."
"Why not?"
"Because he's on an important mission. He needs to concentrate on that instead of babysitting you," Apollo said harshly.
"I don't need him to babysit me. I just want my dad back. I finally found out he's alive and then goes and blows himself up. Wait! What happened in Chaon? Everyone says that you and dad blew yourselves up. We saw the explosion."
"Your dad and I are both Fire Elementals, so that fire eruption didn't hurt either of us."
"Crap. What's this big important mission? I want to help."
"I'm sorry, Sam, but your dad ordered me to make sure that you didn't get involved in the Element War," Apollo replied, flinching at what he had said.
"Element War?!" Sam's eyes lit up at the sound of something he didn't know about.
"Crap. Okay. Well, I'm not going to tell you any more about it. But I'm sure that one of your old friends will be fighting in the Element War. Hmm, now where did that marine go?" Apollo began to look around for someone. Sam hadn't seen anyone else when they had arrived.
A shadow flew overhead and a person in a golden armour landed beside Apollo. The armour was matte gold and had two large golden angel wings sprouting from its back. The armour seemed bulky but at the same time it seemed all in proportion. It carried a large great hammer - one that would usually need two hands to hold but the person seemed strong enough to carry it in his left hand. It had a helmet on, a golden face.
"Ahh, Brin, you're back," Apollo said to the large person. Sam and Lachlan looked at each other with curious faces.
Brin took of his helmet, revealing curly light brown hair that flowed over his brown eyes.
"Hey guys," Brin said with a somewhat deep voice as he faced Sam and Lachlan.
"Hey, dude, since when did you become a marine?" Lachlan asked, giving his mate a high five. Sam, Brin and Lachlan were classmates in their first year of high school and had been friends ever since.
"Not very long. I kinda wish I hadn't become one now. I just had to watch my team be killed by the Chaos Marines. That's when Apollo here saved me and brought me here. I didn't know that you two were marines."
"Me and Sam have been marines since we were young - not on the same team or in the same faction but now we're a team. Or we used to be until Sam got booted off being team leader."
"Oh, thanks Lachlan. Why don't you tell the whole entire universe I got demoted?" Sam said sarcastically. "Sorry to hear about your team, Brin."
"It's okay. I didn't know them too well but I had come to like them. Make sure you keep your team from dying, okay Sam?"
"It's too late for that. I've lost two of my best team mates in the last few years. I also had to watch their lives being extinguished. We all lose team mates. It's part of the job description," Sam said.
"Uhh, guys. There are a lot of Chaos Marines heading our way," Matthew said, interrupting the talking and pointing off into the distance.
"Me and Brin can handle it. Sam, you take your team and go," Apollo said as he and Brin positioned themselves between them and the Chaos Marines.
"No, we can fight. Right, guys?" Sam said, turning to his marines.
"Yeah! We are marines! Hoorah!" they replied, banging their forearms together.
"No, I made a promise to your father that I wouldn't get you or your brother injured. What the hell are you two doing?"
"Frozen Fenrir!"
"Shadow Cerberus!"
Matthew and Lachlan jumped over Apollo and Brin in their beast forms and sprinted towards the Chaos Marine army that was heading their way.
"Dammit, Sam, get your team under control!" Apollo yelled, looking back at him.
"Hey, they're not my team anymore. Matthew's leading them now. And I'm now a freelance marine, which means I don't have to listen to you," Sam said as he walked passed Apollo and activated golden defender. Sam switched to attack mode and flew after Lachlan and Matthew.
4: Old Friends, New Allies
1 Hour Earlier
Nathan walked through the now burned and ruined
amusement park. He smiled as he walked past helpless marines getting executed by his team or other Chaos Marines. His grin widened as he approached a large wooden structure which had four marines in golden armour dangling by their hands from a large wooden post above the ground. Each of the marines had been beaten and now it was Nathan's duty to execute them. The marines had been the ones who had fought back and killed a few of Nathan's men.
"So this is where you've been hiding, Nathan. You're pathetic, running off to the Chaos Marines when no other faction would take you. No wonder Alpha left you to rot. You're nothing but a coward," one of the marines said to him as he approached the wooden structure. Nathan ignored him and walked to the other end of the structure.
"You're going to die soon. Any last words?" he asked the marine at the far end.
"Just this. Why don't you go take your Chaos Element and sh…" Nathan fired his pistol at point blank range, killing the marine and stopping him mid-sentence. There were screams from every other marine strung up, protesting and saying how the Chaos Marines were monsters.
Nathan slowly walked to the next marine as if to taunt the others. He walked up to the next one and didn't even let him speak before burying a bullet into the marine's brain. The marine died but not before he could purse his lips to form a word starting with F.
Nathan walked right past the next marine and found himself standing in front of the marine he knew.
"So, Cameron. How does it feel to know that you're staring death in the face?" Nathan asked.
"If yours is the face of death then no-one's ever gonna be scared of dying. In fact, I bet that some people would laugh if you said that to them. Marines don't fear dying. We fear living in a world run by monsters like you. When I die I'll gladly wait for you in heaven - oh wait, don't you Chaos scum have your own religion? Do you guys believe in the after life? Anyway, I'm not afraid of you," Cameron said staring Nathan right in the eyes. Nathan stared blankly at Cameron before bringing his pistol up to Cameron's forehead.
The Chaos Saga Page 16
