Blazing Dawn

Prologue

War was everywhere on Spherus Magna.

From the slums of New Atero to the hermitages of the Iconox, its stench of iron and rot pervaded the scene. Smoke hung over the countryside of the planet, particularly Bota Magna. The forest had easily caught fire and had been burning for some time now. Corpses lay everywhere, hung on the roadsides or scattered through the suburbs, a grim reminder of the sword that had fallen upon the planet and ruthlessly cleaved through it, leaving violence and devastation in its path.

And from a throne hidden in the shadows of Roxtus, the former city of the Skrall, a cloaked being sat. It red eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he looked out upon Spherus Magna and saw Death itself, its bony smile grinning back at it. The war was unstoppable, an irresistible force of monstrous proportions that was bearing down on the planet with the force of a tsunami.

But there was one variable that, uncontrolled, could end this all. The cloaked being looked down upon the being that could destroy his revenge. The mark was a matoran in matte black and gray armor, a small radio antenna sticking out from his chin, a scope upon his Miru. Stormy blue eyes gazed out from the scope and the slit. Although the cloaked one had never met the matoran personally, he knew his name, his weight, his weaponry, his occupation, and his friends, along with everything else there was to know about the mark. Without emotion, the being turned and telepathically called to a servant. Within seconds, the Ta-Toa aide was there, kneeling by its master's side. "Your majesty?"

The hooded being did not even look at the aide. "Kill the being known as Arytai in any manner before a week is up. You have access to the resources of my forces and everything they control. You are dissmissed."

The aide saluted and left, leaving the commander alone with his thoughts. A dark smile emerged from the being's lips. Soon, revenge would be its, and the world would cower before its name...

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Chapter One: It's just another war

324 Hours

Arytai heard something come whistling through the air behind him. Without thinking, his legs acted, propelling his matoran body into a ditch off the side of the road. He didn't look back, but heard a rattling sound as whatever it was hit the ground and clapped his hands over his ears-

BOOM!-

-Not a moment too soon, as a shower of gravel, debris, and soil rained down upon the matoran in a choking cloud. He coughed as it filled his nose and mouth, spitting it out.

He sighed, stopping. How the karz did he get here anyways? Arytai thought back...And he remembered...

After his first job, protecting a convoy for a year, had been done, he and his small group of mercenaries had been approached by a client who sent someone else to represent them. Arytai had been suspicious. Anyone that smart would've hired someone else, not an inexperienced merc with a small group of soldiers.

But the Vortixx representative did nothing to increase those suspicions. He said that his client required a smaller, specialized force. And he was right. Arytai's band were all commandos and specialized in one thing-explosives, technology, animals, and more. Not one of them was a normal soldier. And their armor and weapons were the same. Each had a standard cordak sub-machinegun, as well as a state-of-the-art headset that included a HUD and a comlink, and armor made of static-responsive crystals, made to respond to tiny shocks by becoming rigid, but otherwise acting like soupy liquid. However, they were also equipped with one specialized weapon that they themselves had made. Arytai's was his pride and joy, a pair of gauntlets plain-looking gloves made of the same material as his armor. However, they concealed many surprises: electromagnets that could generate magnetism and electricity, claws made of protosteel that could detach with lines and act as grappling hooks, and also double as miniature drills, and retractable wrist-launchers that fired missiles. Not all weapons were quite as specialized as Arytai's "magnegaunts", as he liked to call them, but all doubled in function and had special powers unique to it.

The Vortixx then added that, unlike protecting something or attacking an enemy, the band would have to find something-they'd know what it was when they found it-in the wreck of Mata Nui's body and retrieve it, then bring it back to the city of New Atero, where the Vortixx would be waiting, and give it to him. The commander, unhappy, asked if there were any pictures of this artifact.

"No," the being simply replied. "You will know it when you find it."

And, Arytai, knowing he wasn't going to get anything more out of the representative, signed the contract.