"Buzz-buzz." the headpiece on the nightstand vibrated. X woke up, groaning, and grabbed the headpiece.
"Who is this, what do you want, it's 2 in the morning." X said tot he person over the comm link.
"X it's me. I've got a job for you. You up for it?" Chaos said over the other end, sounding jumpy.
"When?" X asked, still not awake as Caleb snored lightly above him on the top bunk.
"No later than 5, we need to move quick. So?" Chaos asked, almost pleaded.
"Sure, let me get Caleb up." X said. He got up and stretched before cupping his hands over his mouth and yelling "GET YOUR ASS UP, WE'VE GOT A JOB." Caleb fell out of the bed, and landed with a thud on the floor as he flailed about. Coming to his senses, he rubbed the back of his head and winced.
"Dammit X, you could have hurt me." Caleb complained.
"To bad. We got a job from Chaos, don't know what for, seemed jumpy. Gotta go by 5 though. He's on his way here." X explained.
"Okay, let's get going." Caleb said with a sigh. The two went on waking essential personnel and getting ready.
20 minutes later. "Okay, so you've found proof that the XX have your partner, and you want our help to go get him?" X asked.
"In a nutshell." Chaos said.
"I must be fucking crazy to do this, but let's go." X said, sighing.
2 1/2 hours later and the two are suited up and awaiting drop. The target destination was approaching. The target was the XX Battalion's main headquarters, heavily outfitted with large walls and battalions upon battalions of normals and mt guards, and even some M-NEXTs. Leading it all was Crescent Blade, near the center, giving out orders. That's where the data ended, no specific numbers or how many back-up NEXTs might be there, or even the model of M-NEXTs.
"Well, that's just a wealth of information isn't it?" X said sarcastically, as he read through the data.
"30 seconds to drop guys." Caleb said.
"Well, let's hope they won't have enough time to properly react. This is their main base, of course it's going to have back-up NEXTs." Chaos said.
"Well, let's hope we don't have to pull out the big guns." X said as the counter in his hud steadily depleted.
"5 seconds guys." Caleb said. 3 seconds, the door begins to open. 2 seconds, the doors are completely opened. 1 second, the clamps release. The two machines plummet through the air, the ground quickly becoming a lot bigger. The forms of the machines, only recognizable as dots at this altitude, move about the base. A group of the dots form up and move towards our landing zone. Scans from the NEXTs show that their are 300 MTs, 100 Normals, 50 M-NEXTs and 5 NEXTs.
"Quite the welcoming party. You split off and look for Ying. I'll take care of these guys." X said as he primed his thrusters with minimal power.
"You sure?" Chaos asked.
"Yeah man, land over there, there's another clearing closer to the base." X said as he highlighted the area with a way-point.
"Okay man." Chaos said, reorienting his NEXT.
"Okay, let's rock." X said to himself in a barely audible tone. He fed more power to the boosters, further slowing him down. As the ground raced up to meet him, he progressively fed more power to his thrusters until feeding full power to them just before hitting the ground, landing with a thud. Raising his head, his hud displayed the forces approaching. Leading the charge was Crescent Blade, with Corrosion, Bleeding Iris, and two more unknown NEXTs at her side. Behind them, 50 Interior M-NEXTs followed. They were all interior main, armed with a average grade dual fire hi-laser rifle in it's right, a low grade broad energy sword in it's left hand, low grade AS (auto sight) missiles on it's right back shoulder, a high grade powerful hi-laser canon on it's back left shoulder, average AS missiles on it's shoulders, and an average grade pulse gun on it's right hip. It had high end PA, but the actual armor itself was very low grade. One blade swipe would end it. The two NEXTs, the names assigned on the hud were Hammer and Positive Charge. They were both mid heavy's, Charge an energy defensive build and Hammer a physical defensive build. Charge was outfitted with with an assault rifle in her right hand, a laser bazooka in her left hand, a chain gun on her back right shoulder, some vertical fire PM missiles on her back left shoulder, a pulse gun on her right hip, and a laser blade on her left hip. She was white and mint green. Hammer had a bazooka in her right hand, a Gatling gun in her left hand, twin hand guns on her hips, and Missile launchers on her shoulders, back left shoulder, and back right shoulder. She was grey and blue.
"So bold to think you could take us by yourself." Crescent said as they came to a halt, the MTs and Normals still a ways away.
"Not bold, efficient. You're not worth more than one persons time." X said. Crescent growled at him and raised her rifle. "Oh, touchy, eh." X said as the enemy next's grip tightened on the trigger. The other NEXT raised their weapons as well. X primed his PA to go into overdrive.
"Fire!" Crescent yelled as every NEXT and M-NEXT unleashed their fire. X activated the primers, and his blade, and dashed forward before swinging and cutting down 10 M-NEXTs and cutting the fore-arm of Iris off. The others boosted back and continued their assault. X dashed back behind a rock, disabling the PA and sword upgrades. He looked at his gauge. His PA was almost depleted. The rock started to glow red, so he dashed out and hid behind another rock, returning fire as he did. The normals and MTs arrived, starting to fire as well. The rock was quickly being reduced to rubble. He dashed to another rock, nailing 4 Normals in the head. His PA was at full strength now. He activated his laser canon and peaked out from behind the rock, firing at a group of 5 normals and 2 M-NEXTs. The result was 4 dead Normals, 1 normal with no legs, and one less M-NEXT. Blade dashed at him, activating her blade and slashed. He dashed back, activating his own, before lunging forward and scoring a direct hit through the torso, using her to soak up bullets. "ARRAGH" Blade screemed as her NEXT went critical (Generator is seriously damaged, but not destroyed. Results in a NEXT blowing up in a massive Kojima and fire ball.). X threw her at the army of MTs, Normals, and M-NEXTs. Her NEXT detonated in a huge ball of flames and Kojima, polluting the surrounding area and decimating most of the army. None of the MTs remained, 3 of the Normals were online, though none had all their parts, 16 M-NEXTs remained, only 7 were suited for combat, only 3 had all of their parts. One of the NEXTs, Hammer, had been destroyed and Iris had lost her broken arm, as well as a chunk of her core. She no longer had PA and she was leaking Kojima. One of the other 2, Charge, was fleeing, and Corrosion was the only one left who was at full functioning capacity.
"So, this is how it ends, to fade away and be forgotten. Hmm, maybe it is for the best. She was a fool to think she could kill you. Rosenthal does put quality over quantity, after all." an unfamiliar voice said over the comms.
"Is this the pilot of corrosion?" X asked.
"This is she." Corrosion said.
"I wish I could say it is nice to meet you. However, I don't think, after all, with who you're fighting for, I can." X said powering up his missiles and locking on.
"Let's end this, X." she said. X launched his missiles as she dashed to the side. 4 of the missiles hit, staggering her. He fired his laser, nailing her in the arm, sending her rifle and arm sailing through the air, impaling a Normal and causing it to explode. X dashed forward and swung his sword, but was staggered by a laser shot from one of the M-NEXTs. He dashed back to avoid her blade. He turned and fired a salvo of missiles and the M-NEXTs, destroying two without PA. He dashed to the left to avoid her blade again. This time when he lunged, he wasn't shot. It slice clean through, killing the NEXT. "Heh, figures. To die before it even began." the NEXT collapsed into the sand. X turned towards the remaining M-NEXTs, activating his blade. The green aura traveled down the blade. He lunged, cutting down the last 7 M-NEXTs. A few well place rifle shots later, and the only things left standing were Iris and X.
"Heh, didn't even get to fight properly. A shame. Oh well." X said as he powered up his laser. She attempted to dash away, but her generator failed to produce enough energy. She fell to the floor, dropping her rifle. He charge up his laser, blasting off her arm.
"I'm not going to tell you twice. Run." X said as his NEXT seemingly glared at her. And run she did. With what little energy her NEXT had, it boosted up and glided along the ground, boosting away.
"X, how in the fuck did you do this." Chaos said. X turned and saw another NEXT standing next to him.
"Good work you two, the base has fallen silent. The drop-ships will be there soon." Caleb said.
"A tale for another time Chaos, is this Ying?" X asked.
"Yeah, we hijacked one of their M-NEXTs for him to use. We'll have to rebuild his."
"Great, well, let's power down our PA and head to the extraction point." the NEXTs all powered down their PA, Kojima particles shimmering in the air as they were released from their prison. 5 minutes later and the NEXTs were strapped into their respective choppers and were on their way home.