All that matters...is being the last one alive.
A voice echoes across her mind as she sat aboard the dropship. Her voice to be exact. But it comes out more as a thought crossing her mind instead of her 'unique' ability.
The war was now long over, the IMC has since retreated back to the Core Systems and has finally been banished from the Frontier after countless years of fighting. But victory came at a cost as the whole Frontier was left in disarray afterward. The Militia tried to establish order among the systems but their voice did not have the same effect it had during the war. Up to this day, they're still trying to establish order. But at least there was now peace in the Frontier after so long. Or is there? The chaos brought by the liberation from the IMC has led to minor conflicts between local factions in the Outlands. But the realization of another war would be too costly for any of them led to the agreement to settle differences through a bloodsport now known as the Apex Games. And so, here we are today.
Wraith sat back on her seat aboard the dropship as they headed towards the dropzone. Today was a special day, so they say. It was the beginning of a new season in the Games. And what better way to start it off with a first few solo matches to get the crowds hyped up. Every Legend was on board, mixed with other grunts that managed to get this far. They have the chance to become Legends themselves but, in all honesty, they're just there to fill out the empty slots in the dropship. They were nothing more but food for the real Legends.
"Hey," Someone called out to her. She cocked her head slightly to her left to see her friend, Mirage, looking at her from his seat a couple of rows across from her.
"What?"
"You're zoning out, what's gotten you thinking, maybe a drink with good 'ol me after I win this thing?" He flashed her one of his trademark grins.
Wraith scoffed, "Only in your dreams." She retorted.
The trickster chuckled, "The slot is always open for you, ya know?"
She just rolled her eyes and continued to keep to her herself. She made a mental note to slit Mirage's throat if she encounters him down there. He just wouldn't take the hint, and she didn't know if he was just very persistent or just very dumb. Probably both.
Definitely both.
But what he'd just told her was half true. Something is on her mind. For some reason today, Wraith felt, odd. Maybe nervous even. A gut feeling telling her to be on her guard, not the usual voices. That didn't make sense to her. She's been doing this for hundreds of times already. Sure they were headed down to kill each other, but no one actually dies. In the first few seasons, the Syndicate, the guys who run the games, realized that televising the senseless deaths of people was not very good for business. So, with the help of modern advanced medical technologies, they adopted the respawn system. As the name suggests, you can be brought back to life, even if you're whole body gets obliterated into a bloody mess after a grenade explodes on you, you can still come back like you never entered the Ring in the first place. So that wasn't it.
So what is it? She asked herself, but there was no answer. It's just a game anyway, I can be done with this in a little bit.
"Attention. 1 minute to drop zone."
"Woo, yeah! Let's get this show on the road!" Someone shouted from some seats behind her in a Spanish accent.
Everyone aboard stood up from their seats and got ready to jump, each one checking their gear, especially their jump-kits. They'd be coming in from the northern end of the island, heading to the south. She took a quick look at her map and decided where to land.
"Okay, Repulsor it is," She said to herself. The ramp at the rear of the dropship came down and everyone stepped forward.
"10 seconds...5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Match start!" The dropship entered into the airspace and everyone started to jump out.
"See ya, when this is over," Mirage finger gunned her before running out and jumping. She rolled her eyes as she waited for the right moment before jumping herself.
This day ought to be interesting.
"Oh, you have no idea…"
[ … ]
[ … ]
[ … ]
[ POWER = LOW ]
[ REDIRECTING TO AUX POWER UNIT ]
[ ATTEMPTING REDIRECT… ]
[ … ]
[ ERROR: ATTEMPT UNSUCCESSFUL ]
[ ANALYZING OCCUPANT STATUS… ]
[ … ]
[ OCCUPANT INFO: {REDACTED} ]
[ STATUS = FINE ]
[ WARNING: CRYO SEQUENCE MALFUNCTION DUE TO LOSS OF POWER ]
[ WARNING: LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION DETECTED ]
[ INITIATING EMERGENCY SALVAGE PROTOCOL ]
[ INITIALIZING… ]
[ … ]
[ SUCCESS ]
Hidden in one of the underground facilities built by the IMC on the island was a lone cryo pod. The technology was pretty old since cryo-tech was phased out after the invention of faster-than-light for deep-space ventures. So it was no surprise that this one was now beginning to fail. What was interesting, however, was that this one was occupied. With a hiss of cold air, the cryo-pod opened up revealing a man inside it. He had a well-built body but what stood out the most was that his right arm up until his upper right torso was made out of metal. But otherwise, he was mostly human. A small surge of electricity was sent into his body and his heart restarted. A minute passed before he began to stir.
"W-What? W-Where am I?" He asked himself. He looked around the room, the only light source being from the pod he was currently on. The room looked rather small, with shelves that had stuff in it on all sides. A storage room, probably. He mustered the strength to move his body and he staggered out of the pod. Upon realizing that he was nearly completely naked, he searched the shelves for some clothes and found himself rather surprised. He found a black jumpsuit and a grey shirt and a pair of boots. The jumpsuit surprisingly had his surname on it and the army of the nation he used to serve. He sighed, he was still a stranger to the time. But right now he had to figure out where he is. He put on the clothes and continued to search the room. A lot of stuff were actually his.
He found his highly modified helmet. Based on the helmet used by Pulse Blade Pilots, it did not only allows him, infra-red, night vision, threat-vision sight effective to up to 500 meters and a respirator which filters out toxic gases, but it had a special software in it which allowed him to have the deadly accuracy of a Smart Pistol for a short period of time.
The standard Pilot's kit, which is given to all Pilots in the IMC. A Jump Kit and a Data Knife, and a little bit of body armor, and a belt for stuff. He preferred being lighter and more mobile over being more protected and tankier. And there was the Regulator. A device that would be mounted onto his left arm that gave him the control to his most unique ability. It looked more like an arm guard with a little screen and switches attached to it but it allowed him the most advanced Phase Shift tech that science itself could allow. But it was still charging, unlike the cloak which he could start using already.
This would make up for most of his personal gear. He continued to look around for weapons if there were any. He found what appeared to be an R-301 carbine, the brand new variant of the R-201 that he got used to. It also had an IR laser and flashlight attachment on the side of the barrel, an angled foregrip for better stability, a suppressor, and a 2x-4x variable AOG. And another opened case revealed, low and behold, a Smart Pistol MK7, more accurate and deadlier. Technically, he didn't necessarily need it since any gun is a Smart Pistol for him due to his visor, but a sidearm would be useful. He moved on to another case and when he opened it, he was shocked.
"Wow, I never thought I'd see one of these again." He said.
Inside was a Barret M107A1 .50 caliber anti-material rifle. This was his most favorite gun back in the day. But after he was commissioned again he learned that they'd stopped manufacturing the rifle which was disappointing. He removed it from the case and prepped it.
He continued to scour for anything else of value. He found a backpack that contained the standard all-terrain survival gear, a med-kit, and some rations. He also found a canteen which he attached to his belt. He even found more personal stuff like his cellphone and wallet. But as he scoured for more stuff, he accidentally knocked over a small a rectangular container. The lid came off and a cylindrical object rolled out. He picked it up and examined it. The object had a bluish glass plate on one side and was metal everywhere else. He was shocked once again.
"VAL," He whispered. He opened up his backpack and carefully stored the object in there. After he was sure that he had everything he needed but was still mobile enough, he now prepared himself mentally. He could do this, not only is he a Pilot, but he was SpecOps before that. He has trained his whole life for this.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," He said to himself before moving over to the door. He opened it and looked around. The halls of whatever facility this was were pitch black, no light whatsoever. So changed that by turning on the flashlight. He needed to find out where he was, then find some sort of way to contact IMC or any friendly element so they could send a team to get him out of there.
He roamed the halls for about ten minutes, searching every room before coming up with nothing. At the end of the hall was a ramp leading up to a large door. The panel next to it was giving off some light so that indicated power. He lowered his rifle and unsheathed his Data Knife. He plugged it into the port and once the orange light turned blue the doors opened. Sunlight peered through the dark halls and he brought his arm to face so that the light wouldn't overwhelm him.
He lowered his arm once his eyes adjusted to the light and he stepped out. He was in an open space, another facility but this one was on the surface, the space was in a diamond shape layout with exits heading to the open air. The stranger climbed up and exited the area. There were other buildings around the area as well as crates, tanks, and other vehicles laying around. There was also what looked like a Repulsor tower there as well. He turned on the radio on his helmet and began to scan for any signals.
"Any stations, any stations, this is Pilot Walker of the Reaper Division, does anyone hear me over?" He said into the radio but all he received was nothing but static. He tried again a couple more times before cursing. "Damnit." He looked over to the Repulsor tower. If there was a higher chance of him getting ahold of anyone it would be on the top of that thing. As he began walking over to it, he heard the unmistakable noise of gunfire. Reflexively he pulled the R-301 from his back and brought it to his front. The noise came from the tower or in the area around it at least. He was headed there anyway, why not investigate?
The Pilot made his way over to the tower, he moved swiftly with his weapon up while staying near spots where he could easily jump to cover. As he got closer, he heard more gunfire and he instinctively crouched down and looked around to where it came from. He walked over to a corner of a building and peered around it to the other side. He saw two figures. One was on the ground while the other had a pistol pointed at them. He recoiled back quickly thought of a plan.
"Okay, 3, 2, 1...Go!" He told himself and came out of cover with his weapon up. "DON'T MOVE!" He yelled at the one with the gun. They both cocked their heads towards him and the gunman tried to move the pistol over to shoot at him but with one burst from his rifle, the gunman went down. He swiftly made his way over to the body and kicked the pistol away just to make sure that he didn't try anything if he was still alive. Fortunately, he wasn't. The Pilot looked over to the other person and scanned them. It was a girl, who had her hair tied in a bun and a scarf around her neck. And she was also wearing a black jumpsuit, maybe a Pilot's suit even.
"Pilot," He started. "Are you alright?"
AN: Hello everyone, and thank you for reading this new fic of mine. After discovering Apex Legends through fanfiction, I was immediately interested and I pried deeper into its lore. Turns out, Apex is connected to Titanfall so I had to go over the lore of that as well. I just couldn't help but write my own fic with this theme because of how deep everything is. But I'm still very new to the community and I still don't know a lot of stuff. I actually had a hard time thinking about this first part and I don't know if I even did a good job at it. So if it sucks, I'd understand. And unlike all the other stuff I write about, I can't promise anything for this one. But I'll try my best. Reviews and constructive criticism are very important to me here. I'll also explain y OC in the next chapter.
Anyway, if you've read the full thing, again thank you very much because I'm very nervous about this one.
That's all for now. Peace everyone.