The Story So Far

Springer had been awake for a while, her entire being just refused to believe it. Huddled under several blankets, she was warm and safe and had no desire to face the world. Her work as a BLADE Mediator dictated otherwise, however and she knew she had to get up. She opened her eyes to see the other side of her pillow empty and her heart couldn’t help but sink. Reluctantly and slowly, Springer dragged herself from her bed. Her eyes barely open, she managed to find her pants and shirt, wiggling into them without a shred of grace and left the bedroom. She stumbled her way past her Holofigure collection, five trophies she had collected in her time on the planet Mira. In the collection today stood the Prog Ares, a prototype Skell a young man disillusioned with life on Mira named Lao had stolen in a moment of lapse. Another was the Vita, the mechanical monstrosity the Ganglion Army leader Luxaar attempted to destroy the Lifehold with. Then there was one Springer was still not sure was the title, or where it came from. A shirtless BLADE stood with both of his arms over his head. Next to that stood the monstrous Daghaan, who with the aid of his partner Ryyz, had almost bought an end to life in New Los Angeles. The prize of the collection though was the last one. The legendary Yggralith, a beast of incredible power and size. The beast was immortal as far as BLADE intel was aware. Defeating it only caused it to run away and return at a random time. Springer yawned and rubbed her eyes as she ambled slowly down the hallway and into the living area of her personal living space.

The home had once belonged to Colonel Elma and was shared with the young genius Lin, but since the Lifehold had been found it had been left to Springer. Springer made her way to the kitchen, her neighbour’s pet beagle Serenity wagging its tail hopefully. She still had no idea how Serenity would get into the house, but when Springer got to the fridge, she still threw it a leftover bit of dinner from the night before. Serenity wolfed down the meal and barked happily, making its way to the door. Springer turned to the kitchen counter and saw something that made her smile. A bottle of Jack Daniel’s, one of the few things from Earth that had managed to be recreated on Mira. One of Springer’s favourite drinks. Attached to the label was a folded up piece of paper. She carefully took it off the label, careful not to tear either. The note read as follows:
Hey Sleepyhead! Sorry I didn’t wake you, you looked way too cute when I woke up. This is my gift to you for no reason whatsoever. Make sure you save it for when I get home, okay? Have a good day at work and I’ll do the same! See you when I get home, sweetness! xxxx

Springer smiled when she read the note, folding it back up and kissing it gently before putting it down her shirt into her bra. She turned back to the fridge and grabbed her six pack of beer she’d stored away last night, feeling each bottle carefully to make sure they were each cold. After deciding they were, Springer made her way to her front door. Along the way she picked up her weapons that were designed to deal with life on Mira as a BLADE, for self preservation. First was her sword, once carried by “The Strongest Prone” of the Ganglion army before Springer met it and killed it. The sword was known as the Galaxy Chief and watching Springer wield it while drunk was like watching a child play with a toy sword. Then, as if by magic, her firearms hovered and hung themselves over her back. Psycho Launchers they were called and they operated via a connection to the host’s mind and could fire in any direction Springer pleased. These launchers were strange cylinder shapes that didn’t look menacing in the slightest. Placing her sheathed sword over her back, it floated neatly behind her back, the sheathe magnetically linked to her body. Serenity scratched and whined at the door and Springer pressed a button, the door hissed open and the dog bolted out into the sunlight.

Across from Springer’s home in the BLADE barracks was the concourse, where missions for all BLADES from all Divisions could find work. As a Mediator, Springer’s work typically lay within the walls of New Los Angeles but more often than not she snuck out on missions in the mysterious lands outside the walls. Springer was on her way to the concourse now when she saw a buddy from one such adventure.
‘Jackie! Hey! JACKIE!’ Springer called out to a familiar face. The young lady turned around and waved making her way now to Springer from the concourse. Jackie was one of Springer’s newer friends, the pair had gotten off to a rough start but after being assigned to a mission together, the pair realised they worked well together. Springer put a closed fist out and Jackie fistbumped her. Their personal greeting. Jackie fixed her sunglasses and flicked her hair back.
‘Dude, I’ve got something fun for you today. No Mediator work. But we gotta go now.’ Jackie grabbed Springer’s arm and turned her around. Springer reached down into her six pack and picked out a bottle, handing it to Jackie before getting one for herself.
‘Oh? Do tell.’ Springer smiled groggily, still not completely awake. Both bottles hissed simultaneously as they flipped their bottlecaps off.
‘Ganglion remnant camp about an hour north of here. You and me, we’re gonna go clear it out before they get any ideas. A few of the guys from the Interceptors also got the draw, but they’ve gotta prep their Skells and themselves.’ Jackie said with a smile before she took a mouthful of her beer.
‘Hell yeah, I’m game.’ Springer smiled, taking several gulps of beer. ‘You owe me a few beers though.’

Primordia was a beautiful sight to behold, the green plains seemed to go on forever. Many lifeforms lived in these lands, Indigens they were called by New Los Angeles. From the small buglike creatures to the giant beasts called Millesaurs that Springer desperately wanted to ride one day, Mira was thriving with life. They’d been walking for quite some time now, Springer was down to her second last bottle and halfway through it while Jackie still hadn’t finished the first.
‘You know you’re the Frye of our little team, right?’ Jackie laughed as she took another sip of her beer.
‘What? Ew. Don’t ever say that again. I hate the guy, he could not stop staring at me whenever I went to that diner down in the Industrial District. Total creep. I’m clearly our Alexa only better than she was.’ Springer shuddered in disgust and shook her head as if trying to actually shake the idea out of her head. ‘Besides, what does that make you?’ Springer asked as she drank again. Jackie puffed out her chest proudly.
‘I’m our Elma! Obviously!’ She said triumphantly. Springer almost burst into laughter mid-drink and her mouth bloated like a chipmunk. She could almost feel the beer come out of her nose and was thankful it didn’t. When she finally downed the mouthful, she laughed and laughed. ‘Don’t go dying on me yet!’ Jackie said with a smile, appearing to be unhurt by Springer’s reaction.
‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t ready for that. Holy shit, dude.’ Springer sniggered a little more. In the distance, the gates of the Ganglion camp could be seen. Jackie nudged Springer’s arm.
‘There’s a lookout up the hill over there, we’ll head up and take a look at exactly what we’re gonna be taking on in there.’ Jackie started to pick up her pace, moving into a jog. Springer took off after her, finishing the rest of her beer as she went.

Perched atop the Ganglion camp, Springer and Jackie were flat on the ground peering over the barracks below.
‘This should be easy as shit, just some Prone and their Suid steeds.’ The four beers were starting to make Springer feel a tiny bit tipsy. Jackie handed her binoculars to her. ‘Take a look.’ Springer took the binoculars and peered through them. Everything seemed so far away suddenly. It took Springer a moment to realise she was holding them the wrong way. After correcting herself, she looked over everything. The Prone were large purple alien lifeforms who didn’t know much except how to club things to death. Springer had counted at least two dozen before seeing something that took her fancy. A Prone was holding a rudimentary mug and was drinking from it, next to him a few barrels stood with taps at the bottom of each. The legendary Prone Brew she had been dying to try for a long, long time. She’d heard tell that it could knock out a baby Millesaur and was desperate to know what it would do to her. ‘See, easy right? We’ll take it stealthily, head around the back and hit ‘em from behind.’ Jackie said but Springer didn’t pay any attention.
‘Oh yeah, come to Mama!’ Springer smiled as she handed the binoculars back to Jackie who went back to looking through them again. Springer got back to her feet and took a few large steps backwards and stretched a little. Charging at the edge of their vantage point as hard as she could, Springer launched herself into the air. She heard Jackie behind her.
‘Oh what the fu—‘ But the rest became noise on the wind as Springer realised where she was going to land. A Prone stood right below her, on patrol making sure there was no one nearby. Oh shit, oh fuck oh shit oh fuck! Springer screamed silently

Jackie gritted her teeth and pulled her gigantic gattling gun off her back. Taking a few steps back and a moment to compose herself, she prepared to follow Springer.
‘Can’t take you anywhere, can I?’ Jackie said with a half smile. Stealth was never the fun way of doing things. Like Springer, she charged and leaped off the cliff watching as Springer crash landed ontop of a Prone. There was a gargling roar from the purple beast as he was sent crashing to the ground. Before Jackie could ready her weapon, there was a flash of silver as Springer buried her sword deep into the beast’s chest. Jackie landed heavily a short distance from where Springer had landed. ‘What’s the rush, man? There’s more than enough for us both.’  Jackie asked Springer as her weapon prepared itself.  The pair could hear rallying cries from around the camp and the rush of heavy footsteps.
‘You’ve got this, yeah?’ Springer turned, sliding her sword back into her sheathe. Before Jackie could even answer, she was gone. Jackie watched as Springer turned a corner behind one of the sleeping quarters the Prone used.
‘Fucking hell, really?’ Jackie sighed to herself, marching out to the main path into and out of the base.  Her gattling gun whined into action as the first few Prone roared and charged at her, assault rifles raised and firing. Every shot they fired at Jackie missed it’s mark, and Jackie pulled the trigger, the rat-a-tat of the cannon filled the air and the first wave fell.

Springer sprinted as fast as she could. She memorised where the Prone Brew was and was making her way there.  She jumped towards the window of one of the many Prone Quarters, vaulting over it and combat rolling when she landed. There stood the barrels, three of them to be exact. Springer licked her lips and made her way over to them.
‘HUMAN SCUM. STOP WHERE ARE.’ A drunken roar came from behind her. Springer put her hands up in shock, trying to play the prisoner role. She turned to see her captor, a larger Prone than the others, mostly because he was fatter but he also looked taller. The drunken Prone was stumbling and staggering it’s way to her. Springer frowned and threw her hands in front of her, making finger guns aimed directly at the Prone.
‘Bang.’ Springer said simply and her Psycho Launchers kicked into action, going from the unassuming wings they looked like when inactive to firearms almost angelic in appearance, ten energy rounds blasted the Prone and he dropped without a word. Springer mimed blowing on the barrel of her finger pistol as her weapons went back to idly resting on her back and turned back to the barrels of the legendary Prone Brew and grabbed the mug from the top and poured herself a round. The brew was very, very deep purple and the smell was like lavender mixed with paint thinner. Without a second thought, Springer took a mouthful and swallowed. It burned, it seared, it hurt. She nearly choked as it went down into her stomach, her eyes watering and throat searing. Springer looked at her hand, and suddenly there were three more hands than she remembered having. ‘Holy fuck.’ She said with a smile, grabbing two nearby jugs that the Prone used to career the Brew with them and filling them both to the brim. It took several attempts to line the jug and the barrel up but after spilling half a barrel all over the ground she managed to fill both jugs.

Springer made her way out, the gunfire and roars had finally stopped. Jackie sat on the riddled corpse of one of the many Prone that had charged.
‘You happy with yourself, you idiot?’ Jackie fumed, getting up and straightening her clothes.
‘Dude, there’s fucking three of you!’ Springer laughed, stumbling over the bodies. She checked the time, it was now four in the afternoon. ‘Shit, we’ve gotta get going!’ Springer suddenly picked up her pace. Jackie followed close behind.
‘Wait, is that the Prone Brew you keep talking about?’ She called after Springer. ‘Can I have some!?’