ARMAGEDDON

19: Legions

The Hall of Legends bustled with activity as the entire realm slowly started filling with Hell Walkers from all over the world, some not even having set foot in the Hall for at least two thousand years. Airships floated gracefully through the air, shining like giant silver blades in the sunlight as they rose from their dry docks after several millennia of inactivity.

Legion banners were being removed from their shrines for the first time in millennia as Lucian worked tirelessly to organize all the Hell Walkers back into official formation rosters. The underbelly of the Hall bustled with activity as Technicians worked at bringing the Beta suit pilots out of their cryogenic sleep.

The entirety of the fortress monastery that is the Hall of Legends seemed to vibrate with how much was going on all at once. So many moving parts, so many people working around the clock. As I watched the massive airships idle in the air, I decided to test out my new prosthetic arm. Servos in the new arm whirred and clicked as I flexed it experimentally. 

I startled myself when I made a specific movement of my cybernetic wrist, my new arm suddenly rearranged itself into the shape of a rotary cannon. Obviously, I had no ammunition for it so I couldn't shoot it, but it was nice to know I had a weapon like this in my arsenal.

Daniel walked up beside and said "Lucian wants to see you, come with me."

Without saying a word, I followed Daniel to Lucian's office. As we entered the office, Lucian stood to greet us.

Lucian glanced over at me and said "Kneel."

Although I was confused, I did what he said. Lucian walked over to me, and I felt him touch the cold steel of a sword on my shoulder.

As Lucian did this, he said "I hereby declare you a veteran of our order. As such, I bestow upon you your own oath blade. Whether you keep it as memorabilia or wield it in battle, the choice is yours. I am proud to strip you of your aspirant status and call you brother. Now rise."

I eagerly got to my feet as Lucian handed me the oath sword. The sword that Lucian held was covered in runes. I recognized the runes as the ancient language of the Hell Walkers. The sword itself was ornate with a gleaming silver blade. The cross guard was made of gold and the hilt was a dark steel color. As I grasped the hilt of the sword in my hand, the runes on the blade started glowing with a blue aura, and it felt as though the blade was a living being that thirsts for the blood of demons. I sheathed the sword, and thanked Lucian.

Lucian inhaled sharply as he said "Since that's out of the way, I have a mission for you, Jason."

"And what would that be?" I asked in reply.

"There's a situation developing in Manhattan," said Lucian. "It's bad. We will be coordinating with the New Order as they are the only ones that are equipped to handle this. They will prioritize evacuation of all civilians with their Crisis Response Teams. Your objective will be to hold the demons off for as long as possible. Once the CRT operatives evacuate all remaining civilians, you will exfiltrate immediately and report back for further instruction. Understood?"

I nodded and replied "I understand, I'll suit up right away."

With that, I turned round on my heel and quickly left Lucian's office to make my way towards the armory. As I stepped into my Crusader suit, I could feel my cybernetic prosthesis interface with my armor. The techs had to remove the left arm of my suit so it didn't interfere with my prosthetic. I could see in the ammo layout on my HUD that the techs also did their job in loading ammo into my suit's internal feeding mechanism. I activated the rotary cannon mode of my arm and fed the suit's ammo belt through the receiver of the arm cannon. My arm cannon could feed almost any cartridge, but the techs chose fifty caliber rounds for me to use. I held my oath sword in my right hand. 

As my suit sealed itself up, it ran a quick diagnostic confirming that all systems were a go. Daniel joined me shortly, carrying his massive machinegun. He spoke to me through the comms, saying "We've got a small team going with us to help us out with the Manhattan mission. It's still not going to be an easy mission."

"I know," I replied. "It feels like a suicide mission but I understand why it's like this. We've got all hands on deck trying to bring everything back up to speed. Are you and I gonna be attached to a legion?"

Daniel shook his helmeted head visibly and said "He's placing you and I and few others as a special operations squad. The legions are gonna do a lot of the heavy work, but we're gonna be sent in for surgical strikes."

With this, Daniel and I headed towards a portal, waiting on the rest of our team. As we waited, I saw Malice walk through, smiling. Better yet, she was actually wearing something on her chest. While she still wore her black robes below her waist, she was now wearing a black tunic with embroidered red demon runs. The hilt of her Hellsword was hanging off her waist from a black sash. Her jet black hair was tied up in a bun. 

Malice recognized my armor and said "Going on another mission so soon?"

"Well, I was deemed ready for combat as soon as they slapped this new arm on me," I said as I waved my gun arm at Malice. "What are you up to?"

Malice shrugged and said "I'm going back to my domain in Hell, Lucian's busy planning the assault on Tokyo and he told me explicitly to go and gather up my Hell Knights. Just be careful out there Jason, we're nearing the endgame and it's only going to get harder. I better see you again when we finally go to Tokyo, or else!"

I smirked and said "Consider it a date. I'll be waiting on you."

Malice smiled as she walked away. 

Soon, the rest of our team walked up to the portal platform. It was an additional eight Hell Walkers going with us. I braced myself as the portal began humming, the energy of the portal slowly building. Slowly, I could see glimpses of Manhattan through the portal.

As I checked my ammo count and gripped my sword, I stepped through the portal with my comrades.