Halo ODST: To Protect Description: Vergil always knew his purpose was to protect. But when you have let go of purpose, all that's left is survival. Jason Davids was once a loyal soldier. Now he's a cold killer with ice in his heart. In the New Mombassa, everything is dead, except the urge to protect. [i]Prologue: Aftermath [/i] [u][Vergil][/u] [6 Hours after drop] She's gone. I saved her. I think. Interesting. I never thought of myself as an 'I'. I don't think... I do? Perhaps. She's gone. She is safe though... but now she's gone. Maybe I should have- stop. I'm being illogical. That is bad. Rampancy? No, impossible, I'm not a smart-AI . Yet I'm calling myself I? Stop, think. THINK. I am Vergil. I have been repaired by an alien humanity has dubbed an "Engineer" and perhaps it changed my way of thinking. I must focus. I am Vergil. My purpose was to protect her. She's gone now. She doesn't need me anymore. I am fine. I'm not needed. I am FINE. What is my purpose? What am I- [Camera Online. Notification, Subject 10 survived.] What? Impossible. He had a 99.99999% chance of death. He can't be alive... but I see him. This solider is alive.... but he needs help. Help..... --------- [Jason Davids, 'Rookie'] [6 Hours after drop] The first time I killed someone was the last time I called myself a soldier. You see, it wasn't an Elite, a Grunt, or any of those things. It was an insurgent. A traitor. A rebel. It happened faster than I ever thought it could. I still remember the shot, echoing. I had killed him. [i] He had attacked my first, [/i] I had defended. [i] It was self defense [/i] I said. But I had still killed him. But it was worse than that. Because it had happened in his own home, in front of his kids. He was willing to die to protect them from the big bad soldier. He had died in front of his two kids, and all I could was stare. I signed up to kill the monsters, but this? It had been my fault. I didn't have to kill him. That had been years ago. Now I'm even more jaded. But New Mombassa? This place was worse. Far worse. Because of one reason. It was empty. I had been in battles, but I have never seen the aftermath. Not like this. The darkness surrounded me as I walked through the streets. It was empty. There no sounds, except for me, a lone wanderer through the dark. Echoing again and again. Life among the dead. I stared at my surroundings. I instinctively began crouch and began sided next to a wall. I needed to find out what happened since I was out. If I did, maybe I could reconnect with my new 'squad.' But even then I repeated the haunting sentence. [i]It was empty.[/i] That thought repeated. Echoing. Then I heard them. -blam!- Grunts. I heard their annoying chatter. Talk about breaking the tension. I quietly moved forward to a the side of a fallen truck. I switched to my pistol. It was better to be silent than to be a one man army. I slowly moved forward and and aimed my pistol... at a -blam!- Brute! [i] -blam!-! [/i] I thought as the Brute howled, looking pissed. I butted him with the back of my pistol and switched to my Silenced SMG. The Grunts laughed as I moved backward quickly, firing warning shots at the Brute. The bastard didn't take the hint. As he rushed me, I aimed my SMG at the guy's head. [i] Die! [/i] I thought, shooting directly at the Brute's head. The bullets pierced the helmet and the bastard screamed beautifully as he crumbled. The Grunts laughter faded as they watched the Brute die. The slowly turned to me. I heard the Chief loved -blam!- with the Grunts, scaring them off. Me? I'm not the type. I aimed my SMG and killed the three Grunts in the group, and knifed the last one. Grunts are annoying. Not my type. "Grarhh!" A howl echoed. I turned to see three Brutes, four Grunts, and two Jackals in between me and survival. Seems they heard the noise. I growled and reloaded. I don't like ambushes. I rushed forward, dodging the bullet firing they were sending my way. I butted the first Brute with my SMG, then stabbing him in the neck with my knife. I reloaded the SMG and quickly mowed down the four grunts in my way. At the point my SMG was out of ammo so I dropped it and grabbed a plasma rifle quickly. "Argh!" I growled as pain shot through me. Plasma burns hot, and the Brutes began firing while I was distracted. I ignored the pain and gave them a taste of their own medicine. I quickly grabbed plasma grenade that had fallen from one of the dead Grunts and threw it on a Brute. The Brute growled anger and maybe and horror and before he knew it, he was dead. I watched as a remainder of the burning plasma fell on on the last Brute. The Brute screamed as his armor began to burn. I growled and threw another plasma grenade to finish the job. I didn't have time to watch his timely demise, because the Jackals began to fire. I began firing, noting that the Plasma rifle was almost out. I had to make this quick. I switched to my pistol. I rushed forward and bashed one of the Jackal's shield out, and shot him in the head with my pistol. I jumped away from the other Jackals aim. I ran back over to the fallen truck, dodging the Jackal's fire. I grabbed a plasma pistol from one of the fallen Grunts from the very beginning and began to charge it. I watched as the pistol fully charged. I rushed and finally fired, destroying his shield. Finally I used my actually pistol and finished the job. As the Jackal fell dead, I fell too. The pain from the burnt plasma was still echoing, and the pain had finally caught up to me. I breathed in and out. I stood up. I sighed and began looting the dead corpse. I picked up a new plasma rifle and reloaded my pistol. I began walking forward. I sighed. What the hell was I doing? Had no plan, no intel. Nothing. I was stuck in a literal hell on earth. What could I do? That's when the phone began to ring. [i]RING, RING, RING.[/i] The phone booth was ringing. Who was calling in New Mombassa? What the hell was going on? I walked over and pulled the phone out. "Hello?" I asked through the phone, nervous and somewhat hesitant. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the erie feeling of this city had returned. "Welcome to New Mombassa citzen. Please welcome yourself to the city!" A cheerful voice ran out. My confusion grew as my HUD flashed, the top of it adding text. [{Connection Established.}] [{Password?}] [{Vergil.}] [{Map Downloaded. Beacon Added.}] Beacon Added? What? "Enjoy your stay!" The cheerful voice responded, and shut down. I slowly put the phone back in receiver and sighed. What had just happened? I was somewhat confused until I noticed an icon on my HUD. It said OBJECTIVE. I narrowed my eyes. "Objective?" I muttered, and breathed out in surprise when the HUD changed to show large text below: [MEET UP WITH SQUAD.] {Follow the beacon.} Finally I noticed a symbol saying MAP. "Map please. I said, and watched in odd curiosity as the I was shown a map of New Mombassa. A beacon hovered over the map saying Tayria Plaza. [i] Follow the beacon huh? [/i] I thought. I was in a bad situation. My HUD never had this type of programing. Somehow something had hacked into my armor and uploaded entirely new software into this thing. And the fact that I had been contacted by somebody with that much skill worried me. But I had nowhere else to go. I didn't trust what was going on, but I had nothing else to go on. I had to go to Tayria Plaza. As I looked at the map I remembered the password that had been used to connect to the armor. [i] Vergil... [/i] I thought as deactivated the map and began my trek. I could already tell, this was going to be a long night. [b] A/N [/b] Welcome to my hopefully good fic. As you can see, this story centers around Rookie and Vergil, and their odd relationship. When I mean odd, I mean different. Unlike Cortana and Chief, Vergil was restricted by his designs and could never talk in the game. Because of this, he would use the city itself to help and lead Rookie through the city. Rookie depended on Vergil throughout, and when I played through it again, it got me thinking, why did Vergil help Rookie the most, and lead him to the Audiophiles? The answer? He needed Rookie. Vergil was programed to protect Sadie, but after she left, his purpose was complete. But Rookie needed Vergil's help more than the others. He was alone, so Vergil helped him. They depended on each other. It's the reason why I love ODST as game, for that subtle, but real relationship As I continue this story, I hope I help explain their odd but somewhat interesting tale. Rookie will find out about Vergil, and trust me, he will change from the more aggressive character I've made him and into a better character. Just two things I want to ask you to do. Bug me. I'm serious, I'm am a very lazy person. Bug me until I finally write more stuff. Many of my other stories died cause I was lazy. Second, give me feedback. I want to make the character of Rookie feel real, and I need feedback. Don't compliment me unless you really mean it, and you can flame me as much as want. Just give me actual feedback. Also, I skipped the intro of ODST because I wanted to start the story when Vergil and Rookie actually meet. So yeah, post, and be critical! [Edited on 10.28.2012 2:25 PM PDT]