Ordinal of the Rebellion

Chapter 2: Rebellion

"On to Subject Thirteen," a man in a white coat said, moving in front of a table with a blue haired boy, no older than ten or eleven, strapped down. He was also missing his left arm. It appeared to be sloppily bandaged; the wound was likely infected. He was scared, but he said nothing.

Two other scientist flanked him on either side, one female and one male. Each brought various surgical tools with them.

"Begin healing nanomachine injection. Increase dosage of painkillers to hopefully prevent shock and the requirement of testing Subject Fourteen," the female scientist said with slight annoyance at that last part and absolutely no sympathy for the child.

The kid struggled against his bonds as the needles were inserted. Despite the painkillers, it felt like fire in his veins, burning everything in his body. He screamed out for someone, anyone to help him—

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For the second time in recent memory, Kayn woke up in a state of semi-panic. Upon scanning his location to find he hadn't moved from before, he relaxed a bit. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep. Hours? Days?

The Ordinal glanced over his wounds from his battle to find they'd sealed up. While there might be some scarring, at least he'd be alive.

If only my clothes were self healing. Having a ripped uniform isn't the best for my image...

He finally stood up, aware of the aching in his joints as he took a tentative step forward, and another, and finally he began walking off through the forest.

Kayn only knew one thing: he was lost in a potentially dangerous forest, he had just recently recovered from some pretty extreme injuries, and it's likely that by now, if he made it back to The Horde, he'd likely be humiliated or worse.

Wait, that's three things...

Without a map, Kayn did the only thing he could: walk forward. He kept trekking through the forest. However, he wasn't coming up on any clearings, and things were looking a little too familiar for his liking.

"Haven't I passed this rock three times?" Kayn wondered aloud. To be sure, he flipped the stone to the side to mark it if he saw it again.

Sure enough, he passed it again five minutes later and kicked it away with a scream of frustration.

I'll never get out of this First Ones' forsaken forest at this rate, he seethed internally, What the hell even is this place?

His inner ranting was cut short by an odd sensation. A feeling creeped its way into his body; it felt as though something was beckoning him, leading him on to some sort of prize.

Strange...

Kayn cautiously followed this attractive force, keeping an eye out for anything amiss. No animals of any sort attempted to jump him. Actually, as he got closer, he noticed he couldn't hear any animals at all.

Definitely strange.

Finally, Kayn came to a clearing in the foliage. He collapsed to his knees and raised his hands in the air upon seeing the sun again, only to immediately have his excitement turned to shock at the landscape before him.

What happened here?!

What he found was a small canyon of sorts with a large hole buried in the left side, almost as though an object had crashed through at high velocity. Just outside of the cave in the canyon, many decrepit machines and skeletons littered the ground, all of them with the gear and insignias of...