Fallen Angel

  They rounded the corner and saw Flyer; it took Glaive’s breath away.

   It had a huge curving prow with a slightly bulbous cockpit at the front followed by a massive rectangular module with six large doors underneath, all open, three on either side. Behind the module it curved into a tail that was the spine of the craft that started just behind the cockpit, the spine curved towards the ground, resting on an oval pod.

  From directly behind the cockpit the two massive, top mounted wings  spread, there were intakes at the centre where the wings joined the spine, and on the end of the wings were two massive engines, they were roughly rectangular in shape with an intake in the front and a large spine sprouting out of the back, it was these spines along with the pod at the back that kept the flyer upright on the ground.

  There was a burst of fire from under the Flyer that startled Glaive,

“What was that?” she asked

“Has Inferno got himself a new toy?” Griffon asked Razor, seeming to ignore Glaive

  “Yep, his flamethrower is no longer a lighter and an aerosol attached to a frame, he’s been saving up and got himself a Dante class heavy flame thrower” Said Razor with a grin, they both knew of Inferno’s extreme Pyromania

  They drew closer and saw Inferno and his new toy. Inferno Was different to Razor and Griffon, his skin had a healthier tone to it, not as pale as the two fallen angels, and his hair wasn’t black, it was spiked up away from his head and dyed like flames, yellow fading into orange into red. He had a black vest top on with camouflage fatigues, the jacket was lying discarded, and he had massive flames tattooed up his arms, starting on the back of his hand and continued up his muscular arms to his shoulder. His eyes were covered by black goggles which he raised onto his head when he saw Razor approaching, his eyes were red, the iris’ were red, and he had a massive grin on his face like a child on midwinter’s day opening his presents

“Hey guys, look what I got,” he said, holding up the flamethrower

“You finally got it then” said Griffon, as a hello

“Hey guys, are we going yet?” came a voice from the access ramp, a female voice (With what we would call a Russian accent)

“Mantis!” called Griffon to the voice

“Oh, Griffon, you back in one piece then?” said a woman who you could tell was an angel, her skin was deathly pale, her cropped hair was jet black and she was wearing black, her outfit was akin to stealth-camo, black trousers with a black vest top and a black jacket over the top, she also had an intricate black, spidery tribal tattoo over her right eye, almost as if her eye were the centrepiece

  They all climbed into the flyer, the Mercs moving their ARMOUrs under the hatches, they were winched up and the hatches closed behind them. They found themselves inside the module; it was the ARMOUr bay, where they could maintain their suits.

  In the cockpit Razor took the pilot’s chair and turned to the co-pilot, Venom

  “How is she?” he asked, jerking his head back towards the med bay

  “She’s gone, she can’t exist without him, and so we’re down by two Mercs “Replied Venom, her voice sad about the loss of her friend,” Will you tell them?”

  “Yes, they need to know, and we may be down two Mercs, but I think we have gained another” Razor said, prepping the Flyer for lift-off

  “How so?”

  “That woman Griffon brought back. Set course for Lancett, they need to see everything,” replied Razor, getting a raised eyebrow from Venom

  “Lancett? Are we back on the original mission?”

From Razor came one word, but it was the one word she wanted to hear, “Yes”

  The engines roared and Flyer left the ground, heading towards the next destination. Razor left the cockpit and called for a fall in, an assembly of the Mercs under his command, Griffon, Glaive, Inferno and Mantis lined up, Griffon wondering where the others were.

  Razor addressed them, “People, I have bad news, on their last job Piranha and Spines were caught in a trap by anti-guild terrorists, their ARMOUrs were breeched and they were gravely wounded. We picked them up but Piranha was already dead, Spines died a little while after, that is all. Dismissed”

  All but Glaive were saddened by the news, Piranha had been a friend to them all, more so to Spines, they shared the same room, and Spines had been a great laugh, and now they were gone, thanks to Anti-Guild terrorists, an organisation that thought the Guild had too much power in today's society, but whereas others complained, the Anti-Guild Occupation Freedom league, as they called themselves, decided to attack every Merc they saw, they had caused many casualties and the GA wouldn’t get involved, they said it was Guild business and had nothing to do with them, the URA didn’t trust the Mercenaries anyway so probably welcomed the terrorists.

  Glaive sat in a room thinking, her arrival would be unwelcome at best due to this development, the others would think she had arrived to replace those lost to the terrorists, she was even in this Spines’ old room. She decided to talk to Griffon; he might help her feel better about this whole thing.

  Glaive thought he might be on the ARMOUr deck, repairing it after the battle, only Inferno was there, rigging his armour with the Dante Flamethrower, she asked him where she could find Griffon

  “Griffon?” he said, “Ummm, think he’s in the training room, oh yeah, you’re that chick he brought back, I know what you’re thinking, we don’t hate you, you just came at a bad time but you would do good to keep out of Venom’s way, she and Spines were like sisters” He told her, still tinkering with his ARMOUr

  “Thanks for the advice, see you” Glaive said as she turned to go to the training room

  “If you aint hooked up with Griffon, I’m free” Inferno said to her, trying half heartedly to chat her up, Glaive smiled and turned back to face him

  “Nice try, maybe it’ll work on some other girl” she told him, he shrugged and returned to his work

  She walked to the training room at the end of the living quarters and heard a noise like a pole hitting a tree, ‘what is Griffon training with?’ she thought as she opened the door and saw Griffon training with a Quarterstaff and without a top, revealing his well muscled form and a massive tattoo across his back; it was a gothic cross that ran from his neck to the base of his spine, and from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, it was black with a silver twisted pattern along the centre and a midnight blue edging.

  “That’s beautiful,” Glaive thought out loud, causing Griffon to whirl round

  “Oh, it’s you, what’s beautiful?” he said as he recognised the intruder

  “The tattoo on your back, it’s wonderful, who did it?” she asked

  “Another Merc, at the Guild, most Mercs have a tattoo somewhere” he replied, putting his top back on

The intercom buzzed, it was Razor, “People, I am about to show you something you all should have seen ages ago, in two minuets we will be docking at Lancett, my greatest creation, look to your screens” the intercom was silent as the VIEW screen in the room activated showing the cloud layer, then something stirred within the clouds and then dropped out of them, slowly, like a creature rising from the depths but only upside down the massive airship revealed itself.

The Flyer found

Others met

Two Mercs killed

Feels like replacement,

Poor Angel

Fallen Angel

.:xX Fallen Angel Xx:.