Lanterns

This idea's been bugging me for a while and when I was finally about to get around to writing it, Irene hit. Go figure.
Anyway, this is a KHV based story.

The images are not exactly what the armor looks like, but I'm using them as a reference to make it easier for me to write and for people to reference if needed.
CODERS – White armor with yellow-orange markings. Computer hacking geniuses. Armed with electrical stunguns and EMP grenades.
REPORTERS – Green armor. Proficient in recon and gathering data. Armed with standard short range guns and standard grenades.
SEC MODS – White armor with red markings. Good at keeping track of specific areas, but don’t often work together. Armed with standard midrange guns, a handgun, and standard grenades.
SUPERMODS – Deep purple armor with white cloth. Essentially the special forces and black ops, work in a squad. Armed with a gun that can be configured for short, mid, or long range; carry EMP, standard, and flashbang grenades. Answer only to Admins.
ADMINS – White armor with blue markings. All other ranks answer to them, each are masters of a specific skill. Armed with a standard midrange gun, handgun, and standard grenades. Often seen with Sec Mods nearby as support.

Chapter I. Endgame, Part One
Chapter II. The Fallen Future
Chapter III. Beginnings
Chapter IV. Calm Before the Storm
Chapter V. Resolute Strength


This night will fall like any other
Daylight subsides and shadows crawl
Up from under black corners hiding

Chapter I. Endgame, Part One
Summer of 2009​

“Hold them off, dammit!” the female voice growled over the armored soldiers’ helmet audio link. “This is the first time all of us are together in one place, if we can’t stop these things from breaching Off Topic what good are we?”
She didn’t want to discourage her troops, but the odds were beginning to become overwhelming. Sections of the blue paint on her armor were chipping off and she knew the others weren’t any better off. “Where did all of these bots come from? KHV’s borders were secure up until recently, I’m sure of that.”
It wasn’t something she could consider for much longer, as a second voice broke over the audio – it too was female, but several years younger.
“Grenades incoming, clear out!”
The blue-armored warrior barely had time to dive back behind the massive wall that separated Forum Assistance from Tech Support. Seconds later, a handful of grenades was tossed over the wreckage of part of the wall, detonating almost instantly in the swarm of bots that were trying to break into Tech Support. The younger voice rang out again. “C’mon guys, we got ‘em on the run! And we got a blue watchin’!”
A blue. The affectionate nickname Sec Mods gave Admins. Said Admin watched as five red-armored Sec Mods charged past her, weapons firing into whatever the grenades didn’t take out. She was proud of them, that she knew for sure. They’d never had a drill anywhere close to this intensity but they all seemed to be holding their own well.
“Wolf, Advent, Trigger, Fayt, Styx – hold this line, do not let those bots through. If they get through the wall and into Tech Support who knows what they could do to the rest of the Forum. I’m going to find the Supermods and see if they can’t rearrange some architecture to block off whatever else tries to come through that wall,” the Admin said. She saw them all nod, and then one speak to the rest , no doubt using the private communication link. The Sec Mod threw another grenade into the attacking bots, then turned and ran back to the Admin.
“You gonna be alright on your own, Mom- er, Admin Catch the Rain?” she said over another private link to the Admin. The worry was clear in her voice.
“Yes Wolfie, I should be fine. Those purples probably aren’t too far away anyway…but I suppose you can never tell with them,” CtR responded. Wolfie nodded, but a few moments of tense silence followed.
She spoke up again. “I want to go with you. Even if it’s dangerous, it’d be safer for you to have a gun watching your six.”

CtR sighed. Wolfie was stubborn, almost everyone knew that. But she was also right, it would be safer to have someone else with her. She closed her eyes, though she knew her adoptive daughter couldn’t see it. “That is true. You can come along but I want to take another Sec Mod with us. You may pick, when you’re through meet me up at Suggestions and we’ll go from there,” CtR said.
Wolfie gave an excited nod of agreement. Finding bots had always been a bit of a game for her, but finding the Supermods? It was a new type of excitement for a Sec Mod. She trotted back down to her fellow reds and gave a summary of the situation, though none stopped fighting during it.
“So, who wants to jump through flaming hoops with me to find the Supermods?” Wolfie asked the others. None responded at first. They were all afraid of the Supermods, and with good reason. Finally, one Sec Mod got up from his crouched position.
“I’ll tag along with ya, Sis. Shit’s gonna be awesome. Maybe I’ll kick Darky in the balls too, just for fu-“
Before he could finish, a gauntlet clunked against his helmet. “You’re too much of an idiot to keep them safe, Advent. Even if Wolf is your sister,” a second male said, “I’ll go.”
Advent laughed good naturedly over the communication link. “Want some alone time with her, eh? ‘Atta boy, Fayt!” Despite the number of bots on the other side of the wall, all the Sec Mods got a chuckle out of that.
“Her mother will be with us, Advent. I’m not stupid.”
Wolfie cleared her throat. “If both of you are done, we had an Admin to escort.”
Both Sec Mod boys nodded. Advent gave a little two-finger salute. “Stay safe, Sis.”
“You too, Advent. Same for you, Styx and Trigger.” The other two nodded but said nothing.
“Alright, let’s move, Fayt.”

It took the pair a few minutes to reach Suggestions. It was a swampy area, bogged down with mush and sludge, with various trees scattered about the place. It was fairly dangerous to anyone that didn’t know the area well, but they were all counting on it to slow down the bots if they broke through. In a short while they found CtR – who, much to Wolfie’s disappointment, had already found the Supermods – as well as Roxasvsriku, a handful of Coders, and a Reporter. CtR noticed the two Sec Mods and filled them in.
“Good to see you two made it here okay. But unfortunately…those damn bots have somehow broken into the Staff CP. RvR and the Coders were in there trying to fix what they destroyed-“
“But it’s no good,” RvR said. “They got to the security systems faster than we could undo the system overrides. They’re getting smarter and it’s costing us. All security doors are down, not even the Coders could come up with a Code to fix the security locks.”
“Meaning anyone,” one of the Supermods said, “can get anywhere. Regardless of rank or if they’re even human.”
The Reporter nodded. “Misty’s right. I’ve managed to get a look around the nearby Sections, there’s at least twenty bots in each. Most members seem unaware of their presence right now, some are even interacting with them without realizing it.”
“And to make matters worse, we lost one of our Supermods while trying to eliminate the threats in other Sections,” Misty said. Wolfie and Fayt glanced at each other, they couldn’t believe that the bots had actually taken down a Supermod.
“They’re that strong now?” Fayt asked. If it was true, that was a terrifying prospect.
“Yes. It’s just me, Darky, and Repliku left now.”
“Well shit,” Fayt said.
One of the Coders spoke up. “Er, hello Mods – I know we’ve never really met before but it’s an honor all the same. I am Evilman, perhaps you’ve heard of me? Uh, regardless. There may be a way to secure the largest area of KHV if we abandon any efforts here, the largest area being of course the Rules & News Forum. The Coders – with the help of Admin RvR – may be able to create a digital shield of sorts around the area. But again that is only if we abandon this area now.”
The other staff members regarded this with silence. The Sec Mods knew they had little say in this, and even the Supermods were strangely silent. Given the slight head movements from the two Admins, they all knew the two were using a private link. After a few minutes of this, CtR turned to the Sec Mods.
“Alright. You two are coming with me, we’re going into the CP and making an announcement to the members to move to Rules & News. The Coders and Reporter will head to the Forum now and start working on that miracle. RvR and the Supermods are going to go down to Off Topic, picking up the Sec Mods there, and will rendezvous with us back in Rules & News. Understood?”
Fayt and Wolfie stood at attention and saluted. “Yes ma’am!”
“Good. Move out, Staff.”


RvR moved through the section with ease. He could hear the footfalls of the Supermods behind him, and it was comforting in a sense. They were the only people here now and he could hear the sound of the fighting beyond the door of Suggestions. RvR activated a link to the Sec Mods, given their proximity.
“Hey guys. RvR and Supermods incoming. What’s the sitrep?”

Static.

“Sec Mods, come in. This is RvR, what is your current situation?”
He was met with static again, but for a moment he heard Styx’s voice. “Not go- can- hold –em. Tri- own. Ad- nded. All t-ken he-y -amage.” More static, then Advent’s voice, “S- ry boss. Loo- we –ren’t read- -or this.” And then the static came back.

RvR swallowed hard. “Goddamn. Supermods, let’s pick up the pace. We need to get down there now.”
He felt like there was a weight compressing his chest, despite the fact that he was upright and sprinting. The group went through the door into Tech Support, only to be greeted by a harsh sight. The wall was badly damaged and the Sec Mods were pushed back to a small pile of debris near the door. Styx was the only one left standing, albeit barely; Trigger lay dead over the debris and Advent was propped up behind it. His helmet was smashed and he was breathing heavily, extensive damage evident on all of their armor. RvR heard Darky swear. This was no time for everyone to panic.
“Darky, Repliku, Misty – get this section secure, bust through those bots and then blow what’s left of the wall. I don’t care how you do it, but get it done.” The Supermods nodded and charged forward without question, guns firing. He had faith in them, so he focused on the Sec Mods.
“Stand down, Styx. We need to get you boys out of here.” Styx didn’t fight him. The Sec Mod stumbled through the door into Suggestions, and RvR followed soon after. He carried Advent in, carefully setting him down against one of the Section’s many trees. His second trip brought in Trigger. As he set the dead man down, RvR said, “You had your moments. Some bad more than good. But you were a decent soldier, Trig. You went down fighting.” He bowed his head for a moment then stood back up. Styx and Advent seemed stable, at the very least. Soon after he felt the rumble of an explosion, telling him that the Supermods were successful.
Minutes passed, but he saw no sign of what was left of the Supermod Squad. As he was about to try and contact them on the com link, the three came crashing through the door. Or what he thought was the three of them. “There you are, I was starting to worr-“
“Th-they got them. They got Darky and Repliku. I tried- I really tried to save them but they were covering me and as soon as I set the detonator on the wall- I turned around and they were gone. Just gone. I don’t know what they did with them but I knew there was no way to save them so I left and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Misty was shaken. And none would be able to blame her; she lost the three she was closest to in less than twenty-four hours.
The news hit RvR like a brick. They’d never lost this many Staff at once. But what could he do?
“Don’t apologize Misty. You…you got the job done. We’ll mourn later, but right now we have to get Styx and Advent back to Rules & News. We’ll take the Staff Access Tunnels, it’ll be faster.”
“What about Trigger?”
“…He didn’t make it.”
They didn’t speak again for some time after that. RvR carried Trigger and Advent while Misty helped Styx walk. When they got to their destination, members were already gathered in the Forum. It was a good sign how many showed up, but he knew just from looking it wasn’t everyone. Regardless, he and Misty proceeded to the Staff’s headquarters. The Coders were busy at work and didn’t pay too much attention to them, and their Reporter – Mike – was looking through video surveillance of the Sections he could reach.
“No sign of CtR, Wolf, and Fayt,” RvR muttered. He wasn’t too worried, not yet at least.
The Admin and Supermod went through several doors and hallways until they came to the medical bay. They laid their fellow soldiers on the beds, though RvR pulled a sheet over Trigger.
“Get them out of their armor if you can and get them set up on the machines,” RvR said to a nurse that followed them in. “And get any help you can in here. They are in critical condition.”
He nodded to Misty, indicating she follow him. They made their way back to the main area where Mike and the Coders were.
“Hey…RvR. Do you think they’re okay? CtR and the Sec Mods?”
He didn’t want to answer Misty right away. If these things were strong enough to take out three Supermods and three Sec Mods, they were not to be taken lightly. “I’m sure they are. All of them are stubborn fighters, I don’t doubt they’ll be back soon.”
“Yeah. You’re right. Guess we’ll just have to wait.”

They didn’t have to wait long. Before the hour was up, a battered pair of Sec Mods came through the door of the Access Tunnel, supporting an unconscious CtR between them. Wolfie’s helmet fell off her head, nearly impossible unless the armor has taken critical damage.
“We’re done. It’s over,” she said, panting. She fell to her hands and knees and vomited, CtR dropping to the floor next to her.
Fayt removed his helmet and tossed it to the floor. He knelt down next to Wolfie, putting a cautious hand on her shoulder. She whipped around and hugged him, much to his surprise. He didn’t fight it and instead put his arm around her shoulders. She didn’t say another word.
“All of this was some kind of stunt. One gone wrong, but a stunt nonetheless. We managed to get into the CP, but what did we find? Spdude. The bastard came back for a quick visit just to lower our security in hopes of getting more members registered before his rule ended. Of course he had no idea what he was doing, so he ended up leaving a massive hole in security that allowed these bots in,” Fayt said.
The room was speechless. Not only had Spdude logged on, he was also the one that inadvertently let the bots in, killing those that kept KHV alive.
“We tried to explain what he had done and stop him. He wouldn't listen. We couldn’t use our guns or grenades much because of damage it could do to the control system. It ended up being CtR getting in a brawl with Spdude while Wolfie and I sent out the announcement. After we got the message out, CtR seemed to have Spdude beaten-“
Wolfie cut Fayt off. “But then the damn coward shot her. No accident, either. Shot her multiple times, not even the armor stood up to it…”
She couldn’t finish. Despite her training and best personal efforts, the tears starting coming. The person that adopted her and took her in was now dead. It wasn’t a joke. She wasn’t coming back. CtR was dead and that was that.
“She was…gone before we made it halfway through the tunnels,” Fayt said quietly.
RvR was going to speak some sort of comforting words. The entrance of a nurse stopped him.
“I’m sorry if I’m interrupting, sir. We tried everything we could, but we couldn’t save them. Both Styx and Advent have passed on.”
She left the room as quickly as she came.

No one spoke for several minutes. Staff was more or less broken, both as a physical team and mentally. With the threat of the bots and only four members of the frontal fighting force left, hope was slipping.
Evilman spoke softly, “If…if it helps the mood at all. We have successfully secured the Rules & News forum. So we are safe.”
RvR nodded and surveyed the room. “Coders, do you think you can make bot sensors and set them up on Forum perimeters throughout the next two days?”
The Coders looked at each other, all giving signals of speaking on a private com link.
“We don’t think we can,” Evilman said, “We will.”
“Good,” RvR said, “I won’t beat around the bush. We have two Sec Mods, a Supermod, an Admin, a Reporter, and a handful of Coders left. In a lot of ways, we’re absolutely screwed. But there’s still hope. We have a lot of members here that are safe thanks to Fayt and Wolfie. Tonight, we’ll take care of our dead. We’ll honor and mourn them and get all the grief out. Tomorrow we start looking for new candidates. Get some rest everyone. These bots won’t take us down this easily.”

They'd all suffered losses that day. But RvR knew from years of experience on the battlefront that losses were the fuel for revenge. If anything, it would make the survivors more vicious fighters. And that's exactly what they'd need in a time like this.

 

Very impressive, Wolfie. Also, any natural disaster hitting before something like this is great, amirite? XD

Anyway, you went into exclusive detail on everything, without leaving anything out, and I think what I like about this is how you gave each staff group a code name.

Reading through the story, I felt like I was part of it myself because of how in-depth you went on each paragraph, and it doesn't appear like any paragraphs just dragged on, and if you did have drag-ons, I'm sure they were intentional.

Overall, great job. 10/10 from me.

 

Wow, Wolfie! This was awesome! I like the story line and i felt so bad when some of the old Mods died :(

I really hope you plan on writing more because this was very good :D

oh and a quick question. Are any ya know Not-Satff going to be in it? And what about the new Staff like Jayn and Claw and Tienewman?

 

I hope there's a chapter 2 coming. There's a chapter 2 coming, right? I'd like to read a chapter 2.

It's a touching story. Between the mood where you can tell everything's falling a part, the desperation of the characters, and the way everyone interacts, it was very spot on. Good job, pup.

 

Fixed the lyrics and a typo derp

Thank you.

Thanks, and yeah, I had to get them out of the story somehow :c

As for your question, yes, there will be. The first chapter takes place in the past, from here on it'll be present time.

There will be a chapter two coming. xD
But thank you~


I might have time to get chapter two finished today sometime, if I do I'll post it either today or tomorrow. :]

 

Yay! Wolfie you are the best! I was a bit scared there wouldn't be anymore after this xD
and your sig is awesome btw XD

 

Ohhh I liked that.
It was very nicely written,and intersting to read...
And I must say I am sad enough to well up reading the end. Le sigh.
But really good job,and I am looking forward to chapter two of this masterpiece <3

 

Wolfie, that was fantastic! Will there be a cha-

^What Spike says. There better be a cha-

I am very pleased. =D

Absolutely loved this and I can't wait to see what you have in store for the current staff and forum.

 

Ooh this is fantastic! Your attention to detail is awesome and really helped the intensity of this chapter; wonderfully written and with lots of tension and emotion. You did a good job of introducing everyone, there were a lot of characters but it wasn't confusing at all. I really think this was a perfect way to get the story in place for chapters that take place in the future, too, it gives everything a back-story and creates sympathy/familiarity for the returning characters. Really creative also.

tl;dr: Loved it & can't wait for the next chapter~!

 

Lol at Spdude.

This was awesome Wofie. I can almost never read these stories people post, but I managed to get all the way through, excellent work.
Now I know the past of KH-Vids.. sorta. Can't wait for future chapters!

 

Thanks for all the feedback guys! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far.
...Also the historical accuracy of this is questionable and events leading up to staff member changes may or may not be entirely true!
But enough of me rambling, here's chapter two.

Something stirs, oh so restless
Cracked windows open wide
Deadbolt turns, doors creak open
Whispers and moonlight there to guide

Chapter II. The Fallen Future
Present Day, 2011​

“Hey. You alright?”
“Yeah. Can’t believe it’s been two years already.”
“I know. I wasn’t really around when it happened, but they’re still with you as long as you remember.”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry Wolfie. I’m probably not helping much, huh?”
A soft snort.
“Nah. You are. It’s just a rough day, y’know? Don’t worry about it Star.”
“At least the situation’s calmed down a bit since then, right?”
“Definitely. No reason to let our guard down though, especially with Staff spread this thinly.”
“True. Do you…miss Fayt a lot?”
“…”
“Right…sorry.”
“It’s cool. Like I said, don’t worry. We just have to keep focused for now, Intro tends to have a lot of bots scurrying around at this time of day.”
“Hey, I’ll let you kill all of ‘em if you want.”
“Heh. Don’t tempt me Star, you know how much I love a hunt.”

To any of the normal members going about their day, they wouldn’t hear the conversation the two Supermods were having on their helmets’ private com links. They’d just see two Supermods quietly patrolling. The only recognizable difference between the two was that one had a wolf head design on her chestplate and the other had two overlapping rings, one orange and one blue.
Supermods chose to designate themselves with a telltale marker on their armor - since they were actually seen by members now - usually something that had a personal meaning.
Wolfie took the design of her namesake, while Stardust chose the concept of portals. Had she gone with a slice of cake, Wolfie probably would’ve punched her on the spot.

Two years had passed since the bots’ attack, and in that time, much had changed. Members got used to life in the contained area of the Forum, and life went on somewhat normally. The constant fear of bots breaking through the Coders’ shield was still there but nothing disastrous had happened. New Staff were trained, existing Staff were promoted. Misty became an Admin alongside RvR; Fayt and Wolfie both became Supermods, and two new recruits, Stardust and Chevalier, went from Sec Mods to Supermods. The four became the new Supermod Squad though they rarely worked together over the past year.
The new Sec Mods were composed of Sabby, Forsaken, Clawtooth, Ienzo, Jayn, and Plums. The last four were recent additions and were still fairly new to how Staff worked, but they seemed to be doing well. The need for increased surveillance also caused two more Reporters to be recruited – Ty and Mixt. The Coders’ numbers were still small, but they all actively helped maintain the shield.

Shortly after the bots’ main attack, Staff discovered that some members in the Gaming Forum were able to fend off the onslaught by themselves – the Coders guessed that the programming the bots had were severely disrupted by the signals coming out of The Code Vault, causing the bots to become easier to kill. The surrounding Forums were not as lucky, leaving Rules & News and Gaming the only two Forums intact and safe for members to live in. Even then, only Rules & News had the shield. Gaming was protected only by a handful of Staff, Supermods rotating out every six months and Sec Mods every year. Currently, Fayt was the commanding Supermod there, assisted by Sabby and Forsaken. They were required to report in daily and the past few months had gone on without incident. It was dangerous there, but the Access Tunnels in the Sections allowed refugees to quickly reach Rules & News.
Despite the number of people that were in the said Forum now, survivors were checked in every day through the Introduction Section. The bots were still deemed dangerous and did have a habit of slipping through during late night hours so patrols were assigned. Wolfie and Stardust were the ones patrolling now. The four new Sec Mods were kept away from the area, just in case they ran into something they couldn’t handle.

Wolfie was easily bothered by silence now. She rolled her shoulders, wincing when she felt something crack. It was the consequence of long patrols, but it had to be done. “You’ll be shipping out to Gaming soon. It’ll be your first run there, right?”
Stardust nodded. “Yep, I was never one of the Sec Mods assigned there. It’s a little scary to think about, since I’ve never left this Forum in two years.”
“Understandable,” Wolfie said. She gave Stardust a playful nudge. “But hey, you’re a Supermod now. We’re armed to the teeth, and with the Code Vault’s signals, it’ll be no problem. Besides, you’ll have Sec Mods with you. You’ll be fine.”
“Guess you’re right,” Stardust said, genuinely relieved. She liked being on patrols with Wolfie; while the other girl seemed to give off a cold vibe at times, she truly did care for people. The fact that she stuck around after her adoptive mother and brother were killed was a testament to that. Stardust was about to make a joking comeback at her comrade, but a sudden movement caught her eye and she stopped walking. Wolfie did the same.
“You see that too, Star?” Wolfie’s voice growled over the audio. She’d shifted into her hunter’s mindset.
“Yeah. You want to take it down? I’ll charge it and back it into a corner,” Stardust said, quietly removing the midrange attachment for her gun from her supply pack.
“Sounds good. I’ll be topside.”
All Stardust had to do was nod and her companion silently slipped away from the main area and jumped up to the nearby rooftops. Not too impressive of a feat, considering the amount of rubble that existed in this Section. It had seen more than its fair share of bot raids. In an instant Wolfie was keeping track of the bot from above and Stardust began to pursue it on foot. It was late so not many other people were about, making it easier for the two Supermods to eliminate their target.
Stardust fired a shot several yards behind the bot, alerting it to her presence. It moved away from her - lone bots had a tendency to run first and fight as a last resort.

“Wolfie. I think there might be more bots in here, they usually don’t come alone.”
“Copy that. We’ll take care of this one and pick up the pace on our patrol.”
The two continued to follow the bot, eventually managing to corner it in an alley. It stopped when it saw the back wall then turned to face Stardust. It unnerved her sometimes, how human they looked. They looked like an average person, but to the trained eye, one would see irregular movements and odd habits such as speaking in poorly constructed sentences. The danger was that they also had weapons built into them – arms that could transform into guns, grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and the worst could self-destruct.
“hello, want review to have for IPHONE 4G? best price not beaten by any!”
Stardust stayed silent, gun still pointed at the bot. “Where is Wolfie? She was following along not long ago…”
“please interest buy!” the bot said, raising an arm, transforming it into a gun. Not about to let it shoot her, Stardust fired two shots at it, blowing off the other arm and part of its midsection.

The bot’s eyes turned red. “FATAL ERROR. ELIMINATE TARGET.”
“Dammit!” Stardust swore, cautiously backing up. Shooting at it now would be a mistake alone, but she had no idea where Wolfie was. Just then, a gunshot rang out. She heard the bullet go by her and hit something metal behind her.
“On your six, Star,” Wolfie’s voice rumbled over the com link.
She whipped around and saw a second bot getting off the ground, a chunk of its head torn off by the impact of Wolfie’s shot, revealing the mechanical form under the human-like skin. “Got it,” she said as she heard Wolfie jump down behind her, facing the first bot. They were back to back, this was nothing they couldn't handle.
Stardust shot at the second bot several times causing it to stagger, then charged forward, removing the midrange attachment of her gun at the same time. When the bot regained balance, Stardust was there and unloaded the gun’s entire clip into the bot’s chest. She sprang back a few steps and watched as the bot’s torso caught fire, causing an inhuman screech to come from it as it was overtaken by the fire and collapsed in the street. She turned in time to see Wolfie shoot the remaining bot in the chest then headbutt it, making it fall to the ground. Before it could get up again she stomped on its chest and shot directly where a heart would be. The bot stopped struggling.
“Sorry about that. Bot jumped me on the roof, didn’t want to alarm you while you were tracking that one,” Wolfie said, nodding at the bot she’d just killed.
“Probably for the better. These two were strong, I-“
“buuuuy…ipho- o- one….”
In a flash, both Supermods raised their guns and shot the bot, saying “Not interested” in unison. As the remains of the bot caught fire, Wolfie laughed. “You’re learning,” she said, tapping the back of her glove’s armor against Stardust’s helmet.
“Yeah, we make a pretty great team,” Stardust said, grinning beneath her helmet and returned the gesture. “Let’s finish up this patrol and go back to HQ. With any luck we won’t find anymore bots.”
With that, the two continued their patrol of the Section.


“Sabby, anything of interest to report today?”
“Nope. All quiet.”
“Forsaken?”
“Same. Seems like they’ve figured out they can’t really last here.”
“Good,” Fayt said. He looked at the surrounding area from the window of the small Staff building in the Code Vault. The members that lived here stayed in small huts pressed close together around the Staff building. It was the easiest way to keep bots away from their homes, as they were too attached to the Section to leave it behind. Beyond the huts was a huge expanses of land on either side; the walls that had separated the sections were long gone. Fayt knew there were cities in the former Sections but any life there was not human. The Gaming Forum was more or less one huge wasteland with the survivors huddled around the one thing that kept them alive out there.
Plus it was strange not seeing Coders around, but they all knew they were busy in the main Forum.

“How long do you think people can live here?” Sabby asked, looking down at the members below.
“As long as Staff is here to protect them. It’s our job and we’re going to keep doing it until…” he trailed off. “Until what? Do we even have a plan of what to do now?”
Fayt cleared his throat and continued, “Until we are issued further orders.”
“Not like it’s too big of an issue anyway,” Forsaken said with a shrug, “We rotate often enough for people to still listen to us. Though I hope the new Staff are prepared for this area. It can be a little rough at times.”

Though no one really spoke of it, Gaming ended up being where people that didn’t like Staff lived. They accepted Staff’s protection since they were defenseless otherwise, but they did so reluctantly. Problems occurred from time to time, but it was only during the first year that extra Sec Mods had to be sent in to keep the members in line.
“Speaking of rotating, are you two ready to return to HQ?” Fayt asked.
The two Sec Mods nodded.
“Good.”
It was always a relief to return to the main Forum after a shift in Gaming. No one particularly liked having to be in a wasteland with the threat of both bots and disgruntled members. Fayt knew Sabby and Forsaken were probably eager to return home, since it meant they’d finally be able to go home now that they had new Sec Mods, but he was quite excited himself. It’d be the first time he’d be in the same place as Wolfie for an extended period of time in nearly two years – they saw each other for two or three days between each shift, but it was never enough for them to spend time together.
“Focus, Fayt. You’ll be home soon enough,” he told himself. He thanked the Sec Mods for the work that day and dismissed them, then checked in with RvR. Afterwards he stood alone, resting his hands on the windowsill as he watched the sun set. Below, members began moving into their homes, doors and windows shutting with only faint glows of the interior lighting shining dully through the cracks.


Power had been cut from all the fallen Forums in order to power the populated ones and in the depths of the darkness of Forum Assistance lurked the reason why bots were becoming scarce. It reeked of death but was alive, flowed in a liquid-like movement but was solid. Bots gathered around it, reveling in the power it exerted, though some that ventured too close became one with it. Thousands of bots were already near with even more were being drawn to it as far away as the Spam Zone Section.
It knew that when it advanced its power would grow and more bots would come to it.

And the human ants that populated KHV would stand no chance against it.

 

Oh Man Oh man.... Poor KHV Staff... I hope they are ready to face thousands of bots...

I wonder if the Prems and Normal members might have them as time goes on...

Another awesome chapter Wolfie :D

 

admin plums yes

Anyway, I agree with everyone else that this is awesome. The action is really fast paced, and I like how the bots are actual robots. xD (Despite the human skin hnnng). There were a few run on-y sentences, but that works well with the fast paced action. Also, I thought the characterization was really good except for where star wasn't a derp

I think I'm also now terrified of the bots, but hot dayum dat sec mod gear.
I hope you update soon. 8D

 

Another very well-written chapter.

I'm going to have to say that this one is even more in-depth.

What I like about this one is how you started kind of slow at the beginning, but then sped the story up towards the middle.

Overall, 10/10 again.

 

We'll see, haha.
Thanks. :]

shhh they mustn't know of the secret history of KHV

Thank you, and yeah, I was trying to make it flow but without being either run-ons or choppy. More characterization will probably come in the next chapter. xD

It's okay Plums the supermods are here to protect you
just don't blow yourself up with those grenades okay

Haha, thanks again. :]


Anyway, I'll try to update before Sunday, but after that updates may become slow because I have to start packing for college. I'm definitely gonna try to do my best to update regularly though.

 

And here's chapter three. It's a little more lighthearted than the previous two, not as much action this time around.

Come raise your lantern to the sky
Can we illuminate this night?
We'll dance like heathens around our flame
While the world sleeps we are awake

Chapter III. Beginnings​

“It’s bullshit, man.”
“Again with this Daxma?”
“Yeah. I ain’t gonna stop till they let us out of this desert cage,” Daxma said, leaning forward. His hooded face was illuminated by the fire burning in the hut. Several other members sat around the fire too, but none that close.
Arch sat across from Daxma. “Look, no one’s keeping us here. You want to go to the main Forum? Then go. We aren’t going to stop you,” he said, shrugging.
“No way in hell I’m going to them!” Daxma roared, standing up. “They think they’re heroes just because they sit in their Staff city and let us out here to rot, I bet they have plenty to eat there and don’t have to worry about surviving day to day in that fancy armor of theirs!”
“Aw, just shut u-“ Arch began, but was cut off by Daxma.
“Don’t tell me to shut up, Arch. Just because you’ve fallen victim to obeying them doesn’t mean I will! NOISE agrees with me too.”
A teen sitting next to Daxma stood up. “Yeah, I do agree. They’re corrupt! They’ll kill us all, we should just take over ourselves!”
The other occupants of the hut sighed collectively. It wasn’t the first time this outburst happened. Daxma and NOISE continued on their wild-eyed rant of how corrupt Staff was and were shouting out possible plans for a hostile takeover, how they’d make the Forum better and kill all the bots. Daxma was standing on his seat next to the fire and continued shouting when a voice cut through his ranting.
“Yo man. Enough of your shit, I can’t write music with your stupid screaming. Shove it, both of you. I hate ‘em as much as you do but they keep the bots away from us as best they can. Unless you’d like to go out there with the tiny ass knife of yours and see if you can take on what they kill with guns. In teams.”
The others fell silent. Even Daxma stopped for a moment . “Ghetto, old buddy, didn’t know you were there. But you agree! Even he agrees, see? We need to mount a revolution agai-“
Daxma’s raving turned into a cry of pain as something hit him, then a scream of agony as he lost his balance and fell into the fire. Not even NOISE tried to help him when he saw what had hit Daxma – one of Ghetto’s recording tapes.
“Once that’s done with,” Ghetto said, nodding at the fire, “someone get rid of whatever’s left. We’re far enough away from the Staff’s tower to have time. Unless no one reports it, ‘cause we wouldn’t have to worry about it at all then.” They all knew he was speaking to NOISE.
After seeing that no one was moving, Ghetto nodded. “Aight, cool,” he said, then put his headphones back on. They drowned out Daxma’s dying screams nicely.


RvR stood at the wall-size window of his office in the Staff building, arms folded across his armored chest and deep in thought. “Two years to the day…”
He knew the Staff that survived through it were scarred, probably for good. But no matter how much time passed, he would be haunted by his own commands that day. What if all of them had gone to get the Sec Mods? What if more than just the Supermods went to detonate the wall? What if they’d all gone into the Staff CP together?
RvR closed his eyes and lowered his head. No matter how he looked at it, all the deaths that day seemed to circle back to him. More than half of the team had died and it was his fault.
“Sir?”
The voice shook him out of his drifting to the past. He turned, armor illuminated by the lights outside. “Yes Misty, is there a problem?”
“No, but the greens are reporting in for the night,” she said, “They have some…interesting data.”
“Alright. Send them in,” RvR said, moving to sit behind his office desk. Misty nodded, turning to leave.
“Misty.”
“Hm?”
“Two years ago today…KHV fell,” he said, turning in the chair to look out the window again. “You lost your squadmates…and overall, we lost most of our friends. To this day we still don’t know how many normal members didn’t make it. The more I think about it, the more I believe I’m at fault for all of it – all the deaths.”
“RvR, you and CtR led us through that day like no one else could have. Had any of us been in charge at the time, all of us would probably be dead. There wouldn’t be a KHV anymore. Yeah, we had pretty bad losses. But compared to how much we could’ve lost, we made it out okay. And now we’re surviving. We have more Sec Mods than we usually do and a mostly functional Supermod squadron. That’s more than we could’ve hoped for in the weeks that followed the invasion,” Misty said. She moved a few steps closer to his desk and continued, “Even if you think it’s your fault, everyone on that’s survived looks up to you, from the newest arrivals to the senior members of Staff. You haven’t cracked under the pressure of all this. CtR’s gone, spdude’s abandoned us, and I’m still getting used to being an Admin. You’re our leader, Roxasvsriku. If you give up, so will everyone else.”

Misty didn’t say anything more, but she’d been working with RvR long enough to know her point reassured him. She knew that kind of guilt – she’d been the senior officer of the Supermods, responsible for issuing commands to the others on missions. She had been the one to tell them to cover her as she set the detonator on the wall that day.
She turned around and went towards the door and when she reached it, she merely nodded at the Reporters waiting outside to go in. Misty closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she walked away, knowing that sleep would not come easy that night and when it did the faces of her dying comrades would be there to haunt her.


“…and in conclusion, we’ve decided that the bots are starting to retreat for whatever reason and that it is extremely abnormal. Ty’s been watching the areas on the outskirts of the remaining power grid not in the protected sections.”
“Mike’s right. The furthest surveillance we have at the edge of Video Warehouse shows that bots are no longer advancing this way. Most are going in the opposite direction now, back towards the powered-down parts of the site,” Ty said.
Mike nodded. “We’ve seen a trend over the past few days too – nothing major at first, but now it’s to a point where something is definitely happening.”
RvR leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk. “I see. Mixt, you wouldn’t be able to go make a time-lapse of all the video recordings from the past week, would you?”
“That wouldn’t be a problem at all, sir. I’ll send the tape up as soon as I’m done,” Mixt said, turning to leave.
“Excellent, thank you,” RvR said. After a moment, he added, “Ty, go with him if you will. I imagine it’s quite a lot of data to go through. Mike will follow shortly.”
Ty nodded then followed Mixt out the door. RvR looked up at Mike from his seat. “Mike, I-“
Mike simply shook his head. “Two years. I know. Don’t blame yourself, because none of us do.”
He shrugged good-naturedly. “Besides, we’re a team, we need to have each other’s backs.”
RvR gave a short chuckle – barely more than an exhaled breath – but nodded. “Thanks Mike. Go help the others out now, there’s a call I need to make.”
“Yes sir,” the other man said, closing the door behind him as he left. Mike sighed; RvR was a serious man but it was extremely unnerving to see him this serious. Shaking the feeling off, he headed for his fellow Reporters.


“I can’t believe this, it’s so…troublesome.”
“Wolfie.”
“Stupid, irritating…”
“Wolfie!”
“Dammit, what?”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Oh motherfu-“
“H-hey, come on, let’s get you to the med bay.”
Stardust and Wolfie had returned from their patrol late – there were a strange amount of bots trying to get out, but it never hurt to kill as many as possible. The two of them managed to destroy quite a lot without any problems, but a second group came from behind and gave them trouble. Staff armor was strong, but it seemed like one lucky shot had grazed an unarmored spot at the back of Wolfie’s left leg. She’d been walking without problems for the most part, but as they neared their headquarters the leg gave out. Stardust helped support her weight the rest of the way.
As the pair neared the medical center, they saw someone exiting. The person stopped, took a look at them, then turned and went back inside.
“That was Chev, wasn’t it?” Wolfie said. It was less of a question and more of a statement. They knew he’d been on duty in the med bay.
“I think so,” Stardust replied, “He’s probably letting the med workers know you’re coming in. Considering what happened last time and all…”
She trailed off. The last time Wolfie had to be taken to the med center was for mandatory Staff vaccinations and she nearly tore the place apart.
“As long as they don’t try shovin’ any needles in me I won’t break anything,” Wolfie growled, then added as an afterthought, “…Probably.”
Stardust couldn’t stop herself from laughing. The senior officer of the toughest fighting force on Staff was terrified of needles. In her broken concentration, she accidentally dropped the soldier in question, vaguely aware of the older girl’s storm of swears.
“Stardust. I’m glad you find my issue with needles amusing, but might I remind you that I’m still bleeding all over the damn place?”
“R-right, sorry,” Stardust said, still trying to suppress fits of laughter.
Wolfie grunted as Stardust helped her up. “I’m going to see that the official Staff roster changes your name to Starderp.”
A voice called out from not too far away. “If you two are, um, done, there’s a room waiting for you, Wolfie. Please…don’t hurt anyone this time, okay?”
She gave a halfhearted wave. “Yeah, yeah. I won’t Chev, just tell ‘em not to come at me with needles.”

Chevalier shook his head and walked back inside. They’d have to give some kind of local anesthetic to heal her leg, so she would be getting at least one needle, like it or not.
“It’s going to be a very long night…” Chevalier muttered, nodding at the hospital staff around the doors to be ready to knock the senior Supermod out.


“So you’ll be able to make it tonight?” RvR said to the other person on the audio link.
“Yes sir, already more than halfway there since you last contacted me.”
“Good, we’ll probably need your help back here anyway…something strange is going on and I’d like to have as many of us in one place at a time,” he said, looking back over the tapes Mixt had delivered as promised.
He continued, “It has to do with the bots, so please neutralize any you may happen to come across in the Forum as you enter. Wolfie and Stardust already made their rounds, but it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick glance again.”
“Understood,” the other voice said, “I’ll speak with you shortly then. Over and out.”
The line cut out, but it didn’t help what the Admin was seeing on the tapes. There were many more bots than they had known about in the main Forum, but all of them seemed to be on the way out. And with the Staff in Gaming reporting that bot sightings were going down there as well…it was just too strange to him that the things that destroyed most of KHV would suddenly be retreating.
It’s not like they could interrogate the bots – confining them was far too dangerous, and they were barely coherent anyway. He hated to think it, but only time would tell the reasoning behind all of this.
And his gut told him he wasn’t going to like the answer.

 

Once again, Wolfie, awesome work.

What I like about this is how you, like you said, changed it from heavy writing to light writing. Not only that, but, if I read it correctly, you added spambots to the story, which was kind of an interesting twist to the story.

Also, like always, in-depth detail in every paragraph.

Overall, again, 10/10!

 

Thanks. :]
Not really sure what you mean by adding spambots to the story though, the bots are kind of the main enemy in the story even in the first chapter.

In any case, I'm going to try and update again before I move to college (a week from today) but no promises as of yet.

 

Lol the moment you see the name "Daxma" and have a brief indenity crisis.
But once again,great wrok m'dear.
I love how your explaining kinda background info while keeping it in the present,and of course adding all the little descriptions and jokes etc really gives the whole thing depth.
Cannot wait for chapter 4,keep up the great work <3

 

I'm really enjoying this story, just read it for the first time today. I like the action element, as well as the more comedy- oriented parts (needles ... lol).

I really want to know what that big black mass thing is in - wherever it is - it seems to be a plot point (obvious statement is obvious). You managed to keep me engaged while I was ill, so props to you ^^.