Originally Posted by Lutae

Prologue: The Last Day Dawns




The softly waving grass of Old Ascalon was green… not the vibrant, explosive green of the plant life on Shing Jea Island, but a more muted, mellow hue, as if the very earth itself knew that it had once been barren, and would be barren once more. And the trees were acknowledging it – tones of red and yellow floated down gently, swaying back and forth as autumn wind began to give way to winter’s grasp.

The representative from Cantha looked out the window of the moving vehicle. Trees and highway railing alike dashed by many times every second as the MLU Stalker limousine raced along towards the Great Northern Wall. Once a military structure to defend against invading Charr centuries ago, nowadays it served a decorative purpose welcoming those entering Ascalon City, although everyone knew that somewhere in the Wall or nearby were defensive measures to ensure that history would not repeat itself again.

“Quite pretty, isn’t it, Major Rubydragon?” The man sitting in the back-facing seat of the limousine remarked. The aforementioned major was looking out at the countryside with rapt fascination.

“The green up north is short-lived, but all the more beautiful because of it,” she murmured in reply. “The Gate of Devona…”

As she spoke, the scenery abruptly changed from rolling hillsides to a brick wall. The limousine sped under the famous arch that was the gateway into Ascalon City, the stones that compromised the towering monument each one a tribute to the Chosen of Ascalon who had devoted their lives to king and country.

They sped along the VIP lane, the limousine not slowing down even for the border guards. Once again the stones flashing by outside the window transformed without warning into open air against a backdrop of buildings towering into the sunny sky. Steel and glass soared, reaching for the heavens, their insides bustling with the activity that made Ascalon City, well, the most significant city of Ascalon.

A steady stream of cars, trucks, and even the occasional military vehicle were heading both into and out of the city on the multi-lane highway. The red rear lights of the line of vehicles made the highway look like a bloodstream, ever feeding the skyscraping skyline that comprised one of the great beating hearts of Tyria. For a few seconds the blinking of a turn signal could be seen, and then the MLU Stalker limousine switched lanes to pass in front of a relatively slow-moving army transport.

Strapped down on the back of the flatbed truck was a mechanized walker that would be forty feet tall had it been standing upright. Its hull glistened sea green with silver highlights and a cockpit decorated with red crystals. “Your WArrIOR will be delivered to base on schedule, it seems, Major,” the man smiled and gestured. “Oh, and welcome… to Ascalon City.”

Major Naimee Rubydragon, of His Majesty’s Imperial Canthan Army, on a mission of alliance goodwill and exchange with Ascalon, smiled and thanked her guide.




DEI Airlines presents…

A Guild Wars story…

GUILD WAr’s




“I’ve never seen a WAr like that before…”

“Isn’t that a HiMICA chassis?”

“It’s Canthan, all right, but not imperial. Looks like a Luxon W-15K Stonefist to me, although the cockpit must have been redesigned to match an Imperial WNS cockpit.”

“Isn’t the 15K series extremely expensive?”

“That it is, and sponsorship is explicitly not allowed for the 15K line of WAr’s… I wonder if the Major comes from Canthan aristocracy?”

“That would certainly explain why she was chosen as the exchange representative…”

The two pilots were in the hangar, gazing at the forty-foot high mechanized juggernaut that occupied centre stage. Painted in blue-green camouflage colours instead of the standard mottled brown-green army scheme, the WArrIOR (a much-appreciated abbreviation for Walker, Anti-aRmouR Itinerant Operations Rover) was an all-terrain, all-weather unit designed for one overwhelming purpose – the destruction of hostile WArs, the roughly humanoid giant machines (Walker, ARmoured) that made up the backbone of any self-respecting army.

About twenty-five feet up, on the side, on the “waist” of the walker, was stencilled the serial number of that particular WArrIOR for the convenience of the REMF accountants whose overpaid job it was to keep track of such things. But in battle, or nowadays in training exercises which were about as close to the real thing one would ever get in these modern days of peace, nobody would have the inclination or the time to read the number. Instead, the combination of the ocean green paint scheme with an unusual choice of almost-silver-but-not-quite highlights marked it uniquely.

“What colour do you think those lines are, anyways? Silver?” Lieutenant J. Stefans, WArrIOR pilot, quipped.

“Looks like a real light blue to me,” Lieutenant A. Reyan replied thoughtfully, a hand on her chin.

“It’s tinted a hint of lavender, if you’re wondering,” a new voice broke in from behind them.

“M-major!” The two pilots snapped to attention and about-faced more quickly than the speed at which vermin scattered under a firestorm. Naimee gave them an amused look, one hand on her hip, the other holding her helmet. It was set with an actual ruby above the visor, matching where the cockpit of her WArrIOR was set with a glassy red accessory above the windshield. The gem was almost as brilliantly crimson as her hair.

“Maybe you’ve been too busy gawking at my WAr to notice,” Naimee continued, “but the commander’s ordered an Unlocked exercise as some sort of welcoming party. You guys do this to every new face in town, or is it some ritual before one can join the boys?” The last statement was made conveniently ignoring the fact that the composition of gender on the hangar floor currently consisted of one male and two females.

Right on cue, the base commander’s voice boomed over the intercom system. “Stefans, Reyan! Get your arses to your WAr’s, ASAP!”




Naimee sat in the cockpit seat of her WArrIOR, forty feet above the hangar floor, watching the gauges and monitors as the juggernaut’s systems powered up. Everything stayed within safe parameters as the WAr recognized the primary master system (translation: her), booted up the secondary master system (translation: the onboard computer), kicked the secondary slave system (translation: the engine) into gear, and routed power to tertiary slave systems (translation: the mechanized arms, legs, and everything else).

The quaternary systems – the weapons – remained offline.

With experienced motions the Canthan WArrIOR pilot flipped a few switches and eased the throttle forward, coaxing the giant legs to take their first steps on Ascalonian soil, bringing the walker out of the hangar and into the sunny courtyard. The arms twitched in response as Naimee experimentally thumbed the hatswitch. Good, those were working too.

“Major Rubydragon, this is base control, callsign Omega. Please acknowledge, over.” The words came over radio communications.

“Omega, this is Rubydragon. I read you loud and clear, over.”

“Be advised, your IFF has been entered into our tactical systems, with callsign…” the normally stoic voice of base control couldn’t help a chuckle. “Vampire One.”

“Crimson is the field after battle,” Naimee answered cryptically.

“Um… yes. Status check, Vampire One.”

“Quaternary offline, all other systems functional. Your GUILd system working properly or not, over?”

She didn’t hear the furrowed brow of the base controller in the control tower, and he was professional enough to keep his immediate thoughts out of his voice as he recited the tale of the GUILd. “Our GUILd system – General Unauthorized Initiation LockDown system – was, like all other GUILd systems, first developed according to the Treaty of Augury Rock after the Crystal War. Global implementation of the GUILd scheme was ordered by the True Five and overseen by the Seers of Kormir, with the aim of preventing future hijack and misuse of military hardware by rogue factions. GUILd authorization nodes were to be installed only in established cities and outposts-”

“Yes, I’ve heard it all before,” the Canthan pilot interrupted. “At what level does the lockdown happen, over?”

“Quaternary systems.” As if in afterthought, base control added, “What’s the level on HiMICA units, over?”

“Secondary slave, over.” Which meant that in Cantha, the engine wouldn’t even start before permission was granted from a military installation’s GUILd authorization node. Apparently in Ascalon, people had fewer qualms about giant mecha wandering around unauthorized, even if their weapons were still disabled. Possibly it had something to do with the vast tracts of open land out here.

“Your WArrIOR’s GUILd system will receive authorization to enable quaternary systems upon commencing the exercise, over,” Omega informed Vampire One.

“Acknowledged. Over and out.” Naimee pushed the throttle forward, and the W-15K Stonefist WArrIOR picked up speed and lumbered east away from the glass towers of Ascalon City and towards the designated military exercise grounds.




Glossary:

HiMICA: His Majesty’s Imperial Canthan Army
WAr: Walker, Armoured
WArrIOR: Walker, Anti-armour Itinerant Operations Rover
GUILd (system): General Unauthorized Initiation Lockdown (system)

Originally Posted by Shadowfrost

It's... very, very well written. Interesting storyline as well.

btw KingWarman, did you have to copy the entire story?