PROLOUGE

“Night falls on the plains surrounding the Dark Hunter’s supplies checkpoint, several Thornatus V9s passed through the gate the new dark hunter recruit was working as he checked them off the list. The five wheeled vehicles of Glatorian make that had been refurbished as transport vehicles for cargo to supply the organization with weapons and armor. The Dark Hunters were a faction of mercenaries with little to no morality unless payment was involved. Since they appeared in the Cryptex and took over, the central region had become a lawless wasteland where thieves, murderers and other undesirables lived around every corner. Toa existed here but the population was slowly dwindling day by day from defections to the Dark Hunters who were the only real enforcement outside of the six houses that inhabited the outer surrounding regions. But beyond their reach, The Dark Hunters were always recruiting new members. The Dark Hunter rookie manning the booth at the checkpoint had just finished checking through the last of the shipments for the day and was ready to change shifts when a spec of light blinking in the distance caught his attention. “Another one? I thought there were no more coming today.”putting down his data pad and exiting his dimly lit booth, the mercenary squinted as the vehicle approached. When it came into view it was clear something wasn’t right, the whole thing was ablaze and was speeding right towards him. The rookie dodged behind some barrels just in time for the vehicle to crash through his booth and hit the nearby tower before exploding in a fiery inferno. the Dark Hunter intern crawled out of his makeshift cover to inspect the damage, the Thornatus was completely wrecked and all the supplies it was carrying were either burnt or looted and the pilot was nowhere to be found. The strange part was that the empty container labeled ‘medicinal and food supplies’ were empty. “What the h-” before he could finish his sentence a looming dark shadow crashed down from the sky demolishing the wreck and knocking him back. When the dust settled a intimidating figure stood illuminated by the flames, it was over 13 feet tall clad in futuristic jet black armor that glowed icy blue in some places, it’s right arm was a massive rotary gun that had icy mist pouring from it’s six barrels, it’s face or rather thereof hid a ominous red eye underneath and on it’s back luminous bright blue glowing tentacle-like limbs sprouted from it’s back waving in the wind, and today wasn’t windy... The thing scanned it’s surroundings with a beam of light from it’s face plate and it’s tendrils examining the remains of the cargo vehicle for remaining supplies before moving to the crushed booth. The merc could practically feel the ground shake with every step it took as it passed his hiding spot, from what he could tell this thing from it’s tall stature, fancy armor and that strange whirring sound coming from it was no normal robber. Slowly he crept towards the the nearest weapon while keeping an eye on the strange tall figure while it continued to search through the remains of his station. When he finally found a working weapon, a midak sky-blaster blown off of the vehicle in the crash he stood up turned around taking aim with the recovered weapon at the thing while was occupied scanning the data-pad it had recovered from under what was left of his desk. The blaster fired off a high caliber volley that scored direct hits directly in the back below the tendrils, but to the merc’s despair they all bounced off of it’s armored shell without a scratch, it was then that he realized that this thing was entirely machine and not bio organic like he was. the machine monster swiveled around with lighting quick speed and weapons primed, and glowing angrily. The merc had no time to run when it sped past him and blocked him off from escape in a blink of an eye, after which he was torn to shreds by the Automaton’s mini-gun…

Chapter 1 [Investigation]

“Boss, there’s been another incident, same thing like last time, wrecked beyond salvage, medical and food supplies stolen and weapons and cash have been burnt.” a stout but heavily armored figure said to his another figure, a much taller and intimidating character “The more of these we find the less that makes sense, the only reason anyone would attack one of ours is for the money and guns, but who steals bandages and fruit?” the brooding figure shook his head before speaking in a rough but commanding voice “It’s quite simple Ancient, this thief intends to starve us to death and prevent us from getting our footing, if we can’t help our own then they may as well start asking questions, the kind that bring tear gangs apart from the inside out.” The tall leader strode towards one of the screens showing the previous day where a group of hired mercs were defending a caravan, then shooting at something before a black mass moving faster than the camera could catch took them all out with a single swipe of one of it’s back blades before gunning down the vehicles and taking the meds and food. The shorter figure threw his hands up in exasperation “That guy is tearing us apart out there! Eliminator, Spinner, Darkness, and even Gladiator are dead because of that him! if he even a he I don’t know and I don’t care, were losing good men and with all due respect The Shadowed One, I don’t entirely understand how you can be so calm about this while it bleeds us dry!” The Shadowed One continued to watch the video feeds on playback each one showing a Dark Hunter or local lowlife mercenary squad attempt to fight the mystery thief and each one ended with it over the bodies of the Hunter or mercs. “Ancient I need you to go out there and investigate last night’s disturbance, bring back anything you find be it living or dead, I want evidence!”

Ancient knew better than to question The Shadowed One’s authority, in his years of Being a Veteran Dark Hunter he knew that kind of questioning out loud often led to bodies or the ashes of said bodies being tossed out behind the fortress to rot, he should consider himself lucky to be out here alive. As he drove through the desert he contemplated the history he had read up about this place. This whole world was called The Cryptex, some legends say that it was created in secret by an angel, enslaved by the Scholar of the Deep…as a act of defiance against the Author of Evil, he created a place of light and refuge from the terrors spawned from beyond. Others mention the eight armed angel by a name, The Prodigal, the being that created the world they lived in long ago then abandoned it once it served it’s purpose. But Ancient didn’t care about some old fairy tales he just wanted to get this investigation done and over with. Ancient’s Thornatus drove past the skeleton of a Kaxium V3 double car motor bike picked clean by scavengers over the weeks, thieves and would be mercenaries often stripped abandoned vehicles like that one in a matter of hours and would either sell the parts to scrap peddlers or ambitious vehicle collectors for money or outfit vehicles of their own…sometimes they would be desperate enough to attack some unfortunate traveler and rob them of everything they had. Fortunately for Ancient no one, no matter how desperate or depraved would attack a Dark Hunter owned vehicle lest they incur the Organization’s wrath. When he finally reached the toll booth it looked more like a recent war zone, disembarking the vehicle he knelt down and grabbed a handful of bluish colored sand, it felt eerily cold like ice compared to the scorched brown sands all around him. The toll booth itself was completely obliterated confirming Ancient’s suspicions, whoever this was had tech beyond what they had. He had a hunch and a feeling that something terrible was coming...

Sylus opened his eyes to a blinding white backdrop “Where? oh yeah…that’s right weird portal stuff how long have I been stuck in here?” He reached over to rub remove his mask only to feel a stump where his prosthetic hand once was. He was confused for a second, why was his hand missing? then he remembered the bout with Karzahni and how the unhinged mad god had come back from death to try and kill him one last time before the world crumbled around them, Sylus hoped that would be the last time he would see him. Suddenly the white gave way to a deep blue with blurs of grey, the toa realized that wherever the box had taken him he had finally arrived…