I slept very little that night, mostly due to the loads of questions going through my head. Am I really this Zero they call me? And if so, will I ever live up to my reputation? In addition, the environment that I am in is very new to me. That further increased my discomfort. In the morning, I was met by the ominous grey cloud cover above the skyline of Neo Arcadia. For such a large settlement, one would expect more noise during the day. Following the putting on of my armor, I approached my door to find a terminal informing me of the location of the meal hall. Mental note - Room 256. Above my doorway was the number "309", so it would be logical to ride an elevator down one floor.

...

Finally! The lift! I thought after walking down what seemed as hundreds of the same hallway. Fortunately for me, the elevator was not far from the Dining Hall, and I arrived to find breakfast started already. X was, as I could have guessed, at the head of the long table. Occupying four of the remaining five seats was Harpuia with three others who looked almost the same as him: a strong red and white stallion with a huge saddle, a purple and white pony wearing a red face scarf, and a blue and white mare with a unicorn horn above her helmet's crystal. All conversation among them stopped, and they instead stared at me.

"Ah, good morning, Zero!" X greeted, breaking the silence. "Please join us. But first, allow the Gaurdians to introduce themselves."

"Hey, man! The name's Fefnir," the red one said to me.

The purple clad pony stated, "You may call me Phantom."

"Hello there, Zero," spoke the blue mare. "I'm Leviathan. Nice to meet you."

"In case you forgot, I go by Harpuia." The pegasus still seemed annoyed from yesterday.

I sat down to find a blue can slid in front of me. It had a black "E" printed on its side.

"Drink up! You'll need your strength," explained X. "We have a lot ahead of us today. Oh, and, Harpuia," X stood up, "would you instruct Zero on how to use the Trans-Server?"

Harpuia grumbled an inaudible response.

"Good," X continued. "We'll all meet at the Command Center in one quarter of an hour."

We all nodded as X exited the room, and he was followed by Phantom, Fefnir, and Leviathan. The liquid in the blue can left me feeling recharged, and I followed Harpuia to the Trans-Server room down the hall. It appeared the same as the others I had been in.

"So, Zero, to use a Trans-Server," he motioned at the button-filled control panel, "you simply type the ID of the location you want to go to. For example, the ID for any room in Area X is written as 'X-Room Number'. What's your room number?"

"309."

Harpuia stepped aside. "Try sending us there."

I typed in "X-309" using the keypad, and the room responded by filling our vision with white for a couple seconds. Following the return of my sight, I could plainly see the interior of my room.

"See? Nice and simple. There is a Trans-Server on every floor in here, in room zero. Now, in other areas, they may have their own ID system, so be sure you know what it is before heading there."

I nodded in reply. Now that I think about it, "What's the number for the Command Center?"

"Hm? Oh yes, it's '301'. Not far from here. But we can use the Trans-Server if you like."

He pressed a button on the face of the terminal by my door to reveal a Trans-Server control panel next to it.

If only I had known earlier. I transported us to the Control Center, where we were met by the others. This room was expansive and oval shaped. In the center was a circular desk with several ponies reading terminals and tapping buttons. We were standing on a large Trans-Server pad situated in front of said desk. There were huge screens all over the walls showing feeds of different areas along with seemingly random statistics and data.

"I assume Zero can operate a Trans-Server now?" inquired X.

I nodded.

"Good. Now, Zero, for us to communicate via radio, I need to install a device on your wrist. It will be quick, just stand still for a moment."

He clamped something onto my foreleg. It was like a long tube with a screen on it.

"There you go. Try it out, would you?"

Remembering what Harpuia did after my capture, I raised my hoof to my mouth and said, "Hello. This is Zero. Testing." I heard my voice come from everypony else's radios.

"It appears to be working," I figured. "So, what am I required to do?"

The four Guardians stood with puzzled looks on their faces.

"Quite perceptive, Zero," responded X. "To test your loyalty to our cause, I do have a simple task for you. I wish you to meet up with Aztec Falcon at the Disposal Facility to oversee the execution of some Mavericks. Nothing too dangerous or difficult."

"Who's this 'Aztec Falcon'?"

"He is one of my field officers," Harpuia replied.

"When can Zero do a mission with us? I want to show him my moves!" The outburst came from Fefnir.

"In due time. But first things first, right?" X's words dampened Fefnir. "Harpuia, please step off the pad." He complied. "Zero, if something goes wrong, notify me immediately."

I nodded, and was whisked away to a green room with a glass wall. On the other side of the glass, several zebras and a couple ponies could be seen. Twelve zebras and three ponies to be exact. Standing next to me was a yellow pegasus who was wearing light white armor while sporting a square-cut green mane. I assume this is Aztec Falcon. Even though he appeared to be tough guy, it was blatantly obvious that Harpuia possessed much better armor.

"Zero, huh?" Aztec Falcon sounded unimpressed.

I nodded. Thinking out loud, "These guys must have done some pretty terrible things to just get killed like this."

"Doesn't take much to get on Master X's bad side, " was his grumbled answer.

Looking at these acclaimed Mavericks, something seemed odd. It was the look in their eyes and faces. They weren't acting as criminals; if anything, they were scared for their lives. Confusion and terror painted them, but Aztec Falcon was not affected. Not at all.

"How are they to die?" My question was straightforward enough.

"Drones will come in and shoot them, one by one."

Just shot and killed, just like that? Sigh. If this helps, then it is to be done, I guess.

The lights suddenly went out, leaving all of us in pitch-black darkness.