Project Wyvern: Test Run (Sci-Fi Monster Hunter)

	A man was walking through the desert in the middle of the night, a scoped rifle strapped to his back. He had been walking for quite a while now, the mission timer on the inside of his dragon-esque helmet clocking at twelve days, thirteen hours, seven minutes, and thirty-six seconds. The only time he had stopped was to sleep, and sometimes not even then. The small window in the corner measuring his vitals gave him a clean bill of health, however, despite this intense abuse on his body.

	If one had listened closely enough to him as he walked, the near-silent whirring of gears and the quiet hiss of hydraulics could be heard beneath his skin. His arms and legs were partially artificial, far more powerful than a normal human could ever hope to be. If he wanted to, he could easily lift a car over his head and throw it.

	His chest, shoulders (the right of which bared an orange, stenciled "04"), and waist all appeared bare of protection (he was wearing an armored short sleeved black bodysuit for modesty), but his epidermis had been hardened by the medical process he had undergone, and his dermis was harder and more damage resistant still. During testing, one of the test givers was so upset with the cyborg's resilience that he launched a rocket at the man.

	The cyborg came out of the explosion with a charred chest and in a really, really foul mood.

	On his hands and 4-toed dragonesque feet were orange tinted, wickedly sharp talons, easily capable of scarring rock. The ones on his fingers were retracted, though the ones on his feet were not, for extra grip on the sand.

	Wings, shaped more like fins than traditional wings, traveled from his shoulder on downward to the base of his torso. These appendages were powerful enough to allow him to fly, and the shape of them let him glide on them for long distances before needing to beat them again. He had only touched down momentarily, allowing his advanced water collection system to pull the vital fluid directly out of the air for his personal use...or at least, that was the plan. The desert didn't have much to spare, naturally. Thankfully, he didn't have to rely on it just yet.

	His supply, stored in the tail that trailed roughly three feet behind him, read at half a tank. His rations, too, were still good to go. He had enough electrolytes in storage to last him another six months. 	Said tail also contained two helium fuel cells for his fusion reactor (on top of the two near the reactor itself), which read at full and three quarters, respectively. In the rare event that the tanks ran out, the cyborg had a battery with a charge long enough to allow him to retreat.

	This reactor powered everything, from the prosthetics themselves to his HUD to the nanite 'highway' that maintained his armor and in-built particle beam weapon. This was stored directly where the mouth would be on the helmet, the barrel barely visible. In addition, he had an EMP generator underneath his armor for electronic warfare. His own systems were hardened against it, rendering him virtually immune to his own weapon. In a pinch, he could use his own tail like a spiked club, several spines poking out on either side for that very reason.

	If that wasn't enough, the reactor had one other advantage: It was quiet. An internal-combustion engine had been planned, but thrown out due to the noise that it put out. Besides, fusion reactors were now cheaper and easier to build, their materials found readily from other countries.

	The man stopped suddenly, flattening against a dune and tapping the side of his helmet. His Heads Up Display automatically zoomed in on a small encampment in the middle of the desert, filled to the brim with armed men. There was a gate on both the north and south ends, the south gate appeared to have been sealed shut. His HUD highlighted over fifty targets in red, then the one person he was looking for in blue. Said blue target was inside a building, detected by the cyborg's unique bioelectric vision mode. The VIP had a heart murmur, used by his HUD's targeting system to ID him. The HUD noted that two other men in the camp also had heart murmurs but, as they were carrying weapons, were disregarded.

	Alas, as much as the cyborg really wanted to, he couldn't go loud. This was a covert operation to grab a VIP from them, any hostile motion and they'd execute him. So, he and three others were hired, both to rescue the VIP and to test all of the expensive, high tech gear that they had all been trusted with. So far, his had been performing exactly as it should...aside from a small, tiny glitch at the start, where his helmet refused to come off. Techs had that fixed in ten minutes.

	"This is 'Nomad', found the target. Roughly one klick west from my position, target is inside a small, run down hovel, second floor." The man said, his voice muted to outside listeners...not that there were any. "Let's get it on."

	"Transport on the way, on your position in thirty." Came the reply.

	Roy merely chuckled. He had found the VIP, which meant he was going to eat like a king tonight...all on the other's tab, at that. He loved bets that were practically a sure thing for him. Roy pulled the rifle off of his back and set up shop on the hill, tail idly sweeping back and forth as his HUD performed duty as his robotic 'spotter', highlighting several targets and pointing out exactly where he had to aim to hit, weather conditions already accounted for. Roy was just lucky he (and the others like him) enjoyed being what was essentially a high-tech dragon, otherwise that tail would have driven him mad long ago.
---

	Meanwhile, the man that had answered Roy, Suzaku, was prepping for launch. His cybernetics were jet black in color, aiding the micro solar panels embedded directly underneath his skin. Unlike Roy, he was not heavily armored. The best defense he had was equivalent to Kevlar, which meant a few stray bullets could cause serious damage to him. He had already been rescued once by another cyborg after being downed, and he truly did not want to repeat the experience.

	Suzaku's cybernetics system, instead of all the heavy plating and other defenses, carried a camouflage system that made him almost literally disappear. Depending on how much charge the cyborg wanted to expend, it could render him anywhere from slightly transparent to just an outline on the background. Unfortunately, this drained his battery quickly, with the rate being determined by usage. His battery also could not recharge while active, the very light-bending nature of the camouflage working against him. Fortunately, his solar cells were upgraded to recharge off of almost anything that put off light, allowing him to function at night as easily as during the day.

	Luckily enough for him, he was stealthy enough without it. His own arms and legs ended in needle-sharp claws, allowing him to find purchase on almost any surface, including walls and ceilings. Suzaku's last mission ended in a successful assassination of a target due to his wall-climbing abilities, though he received several gunshot wounds in the process from the target himself. Suzaku's medical nanites had been immediately upgraded to deal with trauma like that. He had also taken to wearing the same armored bodysuit that Roy was, the regulation one good for modesty and little else. Extra weight, but nothing his own cybernetics couldn't handle.

	On his forearms were two large, curved shafts, one on each arm. They lead from his wrists to just past his shoulder (the right of which had "03" stenciled in black), and each could be turned into an ultra-sharp blade at will. A nanite 'highway' made sure his blades were always as sharp as they could be, smoothing out bumps and repairing nicks on the edges.

	Suzaku also had a tail, though it was arguably more useful for him than for Roy. It was useful as a counterweight for the balancing acts he frequently had to perform, and also contained a dartgun on its tip with poisoned darts. Said poison was dependant on the mission he was running, so it would be lethal on some missions, and not so much on others. The darts were replaced every so often by nano-fabricators at the base, each dart taking roughly a minute to produce. It was also a viable melee weapon, striking with the speed of a whip and the weight of a tree branch. A single strike alone could kill an unaugmented or unprotected human.

	The black-armored cyborg put his helmet on, bat-like ears peaking just above the helmet ridge. These ears served two purposes. One was to terrify those who were either superstitious or afraid of bats (which had been proven to work at least twice before). The other function was to allow his echolocation 'sense' to work. The ears could pivot somewhat, and could translate sound into vision for pitch-black working conditions, or in situations where the standard night vision or thermal vision would not work. This echolocation could be overpowered by excess sound, however, and would automatically disengage when a certain threshold was reached to avoid damage to both the system and the user.

	Popping open the door on his ride, an optically camouflaged VTOL, he waved goodbye to the other two occupants and jumped from over seven stories to the ground. He spread his arms, an extremely thin set of 'wings' appearing to slow him down. While he couldn't fly anywhere near as well as the others (or at all), he could manage to slow himself down enough to avoid pancaking on the ground.

	He hit the sand and rolled, the molecule-thick membrane disengaging and shredding on contact with the sand. After giving a thumbs up to Roy sitting on a hill three hundred meters to his left, Suzaku began closing in on the camp.
---

	Roy watched as Suzaku closed in on the camp, 'Shinobi' stopping for a moment to engage his camouflage unit. The darker cyborg vanished in an instant, the only evidence of his passing being the footprints he left. The sentries never saw him approach, and Suzaku flattened himself against the wall.

	Above Roy was their optically camouflaged VTOL, holding two other passengers according to his bioelectric vision mode. Those two, with support from him, were going to take this camp apart when the VIP was out of harm's way.

	Speaking of harm...

	Roy watched through the scope as a patrolling sentry made his way around from behind Suzaku. Before Roy could even key the mic, the Shinobi had 'unsheathed' his arm blades and made the man three parts instead of one with a single swift stroke. The patrol was dead before he hit the ground, and none of the others in the camp made any indication they had heard him die. Suzaku retracted his blades while he waited for his camo unit to recharge, flicking a short thumbs up to the cybernetic dragon he knew was watching. He then went up and over the wall, dodging a sentry by mere inches. The man looked around briefly, confused, before shrugging and resuming his watch.

	The urge to pull the trigger was strong, enough to make Roy force his trigger hand off of his rifle entirely. The cyborg had at least six targets he could engage *right now*, and more would present themselves when they came out to investigate the gunshots. He just couldn't blow his cover yet.

	Another red outline went dark as Suzaku ended his life, the Narga-based cyborg dragging the corpse into a dark corner to hide it. Not that it would matter in a few moments, but it bought him time.

	One of the women above him was getting antsy, pacing back and forth in the VTOL. Roy chuckled, knowing exactly who it was that was pacing.

	"Just a few more minutes, Reia, then you can burn the place to the ground." The Rukodiora-based cyborg said over the radio, chuckling under his breath.

	"But I want to do it now!" Came the feminine reply, slightly whiny.

	"VIP secured, heading to exfil point. Ladies and Gentleman, you may proceed with the distraction." Suzaku said over the comm link, his green outline helping the blue outline up.

	Who were they to disappoint?

	"Finally." All three said in unison, as Roy pulled the trigger on his rifle. The .338 round tore out from the barrel, several seconds later embedding itself in one of the guard's chest. He fell over, bleeding profusely and gurgling the whole way down. The guard that saw him fall shot a flare into the sky, to alert the entire camp to an attack.

	It was at this point that a green blur pounced on him from the sky, talons tearing into his chest and neck. The man managed one strangled scream before a green cyborg, Kino, ended his life. The Rathian-based cyborg, codenamed 'Queenbreaker', kicked off of him, proceeding onward to gut the next hapless victim, the talons on her hands just as lethal as the ones on her feet.
---

	This is what Kino lived for. The rush of adrenaline at the start of combat, the frenzy of fighting...she couldn't get enough. As she pulled her claws out of one man, she turned and spat flame into the face of another that had come to help. This gout of flame came from a special implant in her throat, Kino's mouth coated with a unique flame retardant fluid to prevent the female cyborg from burning herself.

	The man didn't duck in time and ate the five-thousand degree ball of fire, screaming as the flesh on his face melted on the spot. Kino ended him with a strike from her own tail, which was loaded with dozens of toxic spikes on the end. These spines were constantly being replaced by nano-fabricators on the tips, each individual thorn taking roughly a minute to replace itself. Her tail started at the base of her spine, like the rest of them, and then slimmed down until roughly three quarters of the way down, where it widened back out to form a bulb. The bulb was weighty, easily capable of shattering bone with even a glancing blow.

	Kino herself was covered in green scale from the knees down and from the elbows down. On her left shoulder was a "01" stenciled in green. She was, like the others, wearing a skintight bodysuit. Unlike the others, however, it was flesh colored and left very little to the imagination. This was deliberate on her part, as it afforded her that much more time while her opposition was dumbfounded by a very curvy, nearly nude woman bearing down on them.

	In fact, she had just managed another kill due to it. The bodysuit was getting drenched in blood, it was a good thing she could get a replacement almost whenever she wanted.

	Like Suzaku, her cybernetics were solar/battery powered. While she lacked the blades on her arms, she did have the advantage of actual flight. An ultra-thin membrane would be fabricated almost instantly whenever she needed it, the shape allowing enough lift to provide flight.

	She also happened to be the only one with complete replacements for her arms and legs, instead of enhancements. Her original arms and legs had been damaged to the point of no return, necessitating replacement. Project Wyvern put the entire bill on their tab, in exchange for her participation in the program.

	Naturally, Kino had said yes. With much enthusiasm.

	"Ha! That makes six! Zei, what's your kill count?"

	"Fifteen." The woman said, completely focused on creating as much havoc as she possibly could.

	"Feh." Kino said with disdain, waving off Zei's response. "How about you, Roy?"

	"Five. Scratch that, six." The Rukodiora replied, rifle report audible over his mic. Another man dropped just as Roy finished speaking, the bullet blowing out the back of his head and continuing on into the ground.

	"And you, Suzaku?"

	"I'm MISSING IT ALL!" He half-shouted, upset that he had been stuck babysitting. Again. "I've got two."

	Kino ignored his griping and tore down the door to the barracks, where a handful of men were waiting for her. She cracked her knuckles with a sadistic grin, then proceeded in.
---

	Roy had to deactivate his intercom, the terrified screams from Kino's end distracting him from his job. As Zei caused one hapless fool to look up, a round from Roy's rifle took his face clean off. Zei snorted at the 'assistance', using her body's heavy weaponry to simply lay waste to the surrounding area.

	Codenamed "Seraphim", her cybernetics were run with fusion power. She also was not a full amputee, having only lost part of her left leg before being accepted into the program. She was the test bed for a full assault model, having white-colored armor twice as thick (and twice as heavy) as any of them. It was also layered with depleted uranium, providing additional protection from almost everything that could be fielded by hand. The tips of the plating was painted blue, while the protection on her arms was colored a blood red for intimidation...and hiding just how many she had already killed with them. On her shoulder was a light blue "05", which was somewhat covered in blood.

	Her HUD had many of the same targeting systems that Kino had, though somewhat more sophisticated. She could target a fly a quarter of a mile off and *hit* it, if she truly wanted to. She did not, however, have a special vision mode like Roy or Suzaku, having no need for it. Wings on her back provided her with flight, despite being half a ton in weight. When she landed, everyone in the nearby vicinity felt it.

	In her throat was something similar to Kino's flame projector, but directly beside it was a port that spewed liquid nitrogen. Her mouth and throat were protected against both of these, as it would be awfully inconvenient to have Zei's tongue fall off and shatter in the middle of an operation. Her frame also provided nothing for the opposition to look at. Being naturally flat-chested, Zei's augments did nothing for her by choice. Her argument was that she was there for destruction, not to be ogled at.

	Several buildings had been reduced to rubble through sheer brute force alone, though Zei also had a small port on her back for weapons that would ordinarily be mounted on vehicles. Rocket pods, chaingun barrels, small scale mortars...the augments in her legs allowed her to both carry them and absorb the shock from firing them. For right now, a rocket pod normally reserved for larger aircraft was attached to her left shoulder, linking up on the port on her spine.

	It was also empty, and ready to be discarded. Said rocket pod had already laid waste to several buildings, the place was now looking more like a demolition yard than a camp. Roy pulled the trigger again to drop an opponent that had thought he had gotten the upper hand on her. The bullet passed through him and hit one of Zei's plates, ricocheting off harmlessly into the dirt.

	That still got a chilly glare from the woman, directed at Roy. He shuddered, despite there being almost half a mile in between them. Soon enough, the Rukodiora's HUD registered no other targets, living or otherwise. Just the two currently demolishing buildings, and Suzaku with the VIP a quarter of a klick east from the camp.

	"Alright ladies, I think we're done here." Roy said over his radio, shouldering his rifle as both women perked their heads up. Kino shrugged and punched her prey one more time (spilling just that much more of his crimson life-force), and Zei detached and discarded her empty rocket launcher. It self-destructed moments later, leaving nothing more than useless fragments of metal.

	Roy left a marker on the ground near Suzaku for the UAV VTOL to land at, which also served as a rally point for the group. The vehicle swooped out of the sky, landing expertly near the Narga-cyborg. He proceeded to load himself in and strapped the VIP into a seat, before taking one of his own. Kino was next, being faster than both Roy and Zei by a good deal. She loaded herself in across from Suzaku, presumably making faces at him to get a rise out of him.

	Roy and Zei arrived roughly at the same time, Roy loading in last as he swept for any survivors that may have wanted revenge. This time, there were none.

	The words "Mission Accomplished" scrolled across their collective visions, and their world exploded into light.