One hundred years had passed since Leila went back in time to see her friends. In that time, she had found herself protecting the world that they had left behind, a peaceful world. She found herself not needing weapons anymore, so she had discarded the armor that she had once wore in exchange for a new set of equipment that was geared towards search and rescue rather than combat. Unlike most commanders, but very much like Mega Man X, she took to the field herself in most operations. It was a behavior that she picked up from him. Most days were spent doing much of nothing but traveling the world, there were times where they went on shore leave to get out of the monotony of the airship. It wasn't easy for any of them, but it was good, honest work.
During a particularly boring patrol however, the Guardian Commander started to wish for something to happen. She was bored of just sitting around in a chair looking out of the viewport or going out onto the deck or wandering the halls of the ship. She yearned for some action, something to really test her skills and mettle. She let out a yawn and sighed, causing everyone on the bridge to look at her. "Commander, isn't it normally good that you've not seen much action in a few years. We haven't seen any combat in a century," one of the Reploids pointed out to her.
Truthfully, the last time the older Reploid had seen combat was over two hundred years ago, when she had tried to kill her friends and her sister. It wasn't a pleasant memory for her. "I've already seen all the surface world has to offer, this is important work, but it sure is boring," the ex-Maverick Hunter protested.
"Sir, we've got a distress call on the priority channel... it's coming from one of the space colonies!" the radio operator called out.
Leila sat up straight, she was excited. Finally, something worth my time!, she thought to herself as she straightened up her coat and put on a serious face, trying to hide the smile that she was feeling grow inside of her. "Put it on screen, I want to see what's going on myself," she stated.
A human with black hair and blue eyes appeared on the screen, he had a neatly trimmed beard, but with an obviously sadistic grin on his face. "Ah, I assume you're Leila, the Commander of the Guardians!" he exclaimed, excited.
The Reploid was amused by this, "You're not calling me because you're in distress. In fact, I believe the priority distress call was caused by you. You're not really fooling anyone. I've been dreadfully bored lately, so I'm looking for a little fun. What is it that you're seeking to do, what defenses do I have to get past, and what obstacles are you going to try to put into my place to stop me from getting to you?" she told the person on the other end.
"Wha? How did you..." the human stated, bewildered
Leila stood up, "Look, you're not the first megalomaniac in my history to try something like this. Just tell me your plan, tell me what I'm going to have to get through to stop you and we can get this little show on the road," she stated, already bored with the postulating of this person.
The black haired human smiled, his dark blue skin made it difficult to distinguish hair from flesh, but it didn't matter to anyone really. "Well, yes! You see, I've taken control of this space colony and in sixteen hours, it's going to crash into Canterlot City! The destruction that will be wrought will be enough to cause an apocalyptic event!" he started.
"Sigma did it," Leila interrupted.
"What?"
"The Eurasia incident, Sigma along with some guy named Dynamo. It was before I was created, but he infected a space colony known as Eurasia with the Sigma Virus and was going to smash it into the Earth in order to cause an apocalyptic scenario. Just like you're doing now."
"I bet it wouldn't have taken sixteen hours to get the thing to slam into the Earth!"
"It did, actually. Now what's next on your list of schemes?" Leila stated, unimpressed thus far.
The human tried to regain his composure, "Well yes! I have taken eight Reploids and turned them Maverick!"
"Sigma, again."
The dark blue human's brow furrowed, "You really do know how to take the fun out of trying to create an apocalypse to force the evolution of man because we've experienced nothing but a wretched peace for the last one hundred years," he complained.
The Reploid chuckled to herself, "Sigma didn't do that one," she stated.
The person on the other side of the communication breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally, something you can't nitpick," he stated.
"Master Albert of the Sage Trinity tried that one," Leila pointed out.
"Oh come on! Is there something that people where you come from hadn't tried!" the human protested.
The Guardian Commander folded her arms and shrugged, "None of them were ever kind enough to give me their name. Though to be fair, the name's a formality to put on your obituary to begin with," she taunted.
This didn't quite faze the person threatening the world, "My name is Winter Chime and the world will thank me after I am done! And you won't be able to get up to the space colony, because the teleporter is encrypted!" he gloated.
The Reploid rolled her eyes, "Dr. Weil did that. Specifically with the space station known as Ragnarok. Really, the first original idea you've had was telling me your name," she pointed out.
Winter Chime grumbled, "Well I have eight shield generators protecting the building that the server is in that's encrypting the teleporter!" he protested.
"And they're protected by the Mavericks?" Leila asked with a smirk.
"How'd you know?"
"Dr. Wily did it in ancient times where I came from, specifically in what was known as the Evil Energy incident," she pointed out.
This caused the human to scream in frustration, "Look, you have my threat to the world! You have sixteen hours to make your peace, you won't be able to stop me!" he started yelling as the Reploid rolled her eyes and started moving her hand in a talking motion, "Stop being rude! I'm trying to force the world to evolve here! Why do you want to be stuck in the past, in a stagnant evolutionary path!?" he yelled.
Leila's expression turned serious, "Because I thought you'd at least be original. At least you alleviated my boredom. This is probably where you're expecting me to make this grand boast about how I'm going to disrupt your plans and save the world. However, I just have a threat to you. I'm going to retire your eight Mavericks, I'm going to destroy your shield generators, then I'm going to teleport up there and kill you for attempted genocide," she stated.
This shocked Winter Chime, he was expecting some further witty banter with some taunting, but seeing the Commander of the Guardians go from being rude and mocking to deadly serious in an instant, almost as if it was like flipping a switch. The rumors about this Reploid were indeed true, that once she wanted to be serious, there was nothing that was going to deviate her from that. She was going to be serious until her task was completed.
"Close communications," the Commander ordered.
The image and sound was cut off and Leila walked towards the lift, she was going to the lab to get refitted with her armor, she was going to need some sort of protection and firepower to get through this. The lift closed around her and she started to remove her coat. The door opened up on the lab level and she walked down the corridor to the lab itself. An orange Reploid with purple hair looked over at her, "Commander, you don't usually come into the lab with your coat draped over your shoulder, is there something wrong?" she asked.
The older Reploid nodded, "Yes, there's some megalomaniac threatening to destroy the entire world. You know, basic event that happened where I came from. Happened ten different times before I was created, would go on to happen a few more times, some of the people starting to develop a god complex as they did it. It's almost like a Sunday afternoon ritual there," she stated with a disturbing sense of calmness.
This did not go unnoticed by the Chief Engineer, "What kind of world did you come from!?" she asked, worried.
Leila shrugged, "A place where a computer virus fused with a Reploid which made it sentient and evil. Then a program was created to destroy the virus, but was itself turned evil and used to control Reploids en masse and the man who did that was given immortality and was fused with a space weapon that he tried to slam into a planet and started to consume souls," she said in an excessively deadpan tone.
This shocked Scootaloo who was stunned by the sheer calmness that her commander had stated all of this. "Listen, we don't have a lot of time, after I go off and save the world, I can tell you all about the craziness of where I come from, but we have less than sixteen hours to defeat his eight Mavericks, destroy the servers encrypting the teleporter to the space colony, and blow up the space colony in orbit, so that the defense systems will be able to destroy any fragments large enough to cause damage," Leila pointed out.
This snapped the Chief Engineer out of her stupor and she rushed over to a console that opened up a pod. The Guardian Commander stepped into the pod and armor was affixed to her. The armor was of a different design than she was used to, but she could tell that it was of the same quality as the suit she once wore. She stepped out of the capsule and Scootaloo walked over to her, "Let me explain how your armor works. Your helmet has been equipped with a ground-penetrating radar. While you won't be able to see the layouts of the base or anything like that, you'll be able to detect if there are enemy Mechaniloids on the other side of a wall. You've also had a chip installed into the helmet that increases the efficiency and speed at which you can build a charge of solar energy into your weaponry. According to all simulations, you should see around a thirty percent increase to this. Your arms remain unchanged, though we figured that it's not merely a third level of charge. Imagine it like this, without the arm parts, you can charge your weapons up to one hundred percent, but with the part, you can add another fifty percent to that. This naturally uses more of your stored solar energy, but the effect as you know is much more impactful. Your armor has mostly remained unchanged, but instead of the video gamey explanation that it's a flat fifty percent reduction in damage, simulations have indicated that it has various resistances. For instance, it's rated to be fire resistant up to around seven hundred degrees. The various different resistances average out to deflect roughly fifty percent of incoming damage. There was a chip installed that's connected to your locking mechanisms. When your sensors detect something moving towards you with enough mass and momentum to exceed a certain threshold, your joints will lock up to brace you for the blow. As for your boots, they have been changed from the Variable Air Dash. Instead of using all stored Solar Energy in a single burst, you expend it at a constant rate. Simulations indicate from your mass and energy reserves in the boots, you'll be able to hover in mid air for around thirty seconds. By opening jets around the boots and expelling energy, you'll be able to move around in the air, but you'll use further solar energy and reduce the amount of time you'll be able to stay in the air. Furthermore, you have a chip in the boots that will allow you to expend half the solar energy in your boots to be able to propel you upwards as if you jumped on thin air. You're able to use this ability twice on a full charge in your boots," she reported.
Leila smiled and flexed her hand, "Thanks Scoots. Can you inform Sweetie Belle that she's going to be my operator for this mission? I'm going to need her analytical skills if I'm going to get through this alive," she stated.
The orange Reploid nodded as the Commander left the lab and walked to the trans server room. She wound up passing Midnight Sparkle, who turned to follow her, "Aunt Leila, you're going out on a mission?" she asked.
The armored Reploid nodded, "Remember those stories I told you about my world?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
"Well some megalomaniac is trying the same thing out here. I want you to stay here, this isn't a mission for any unproven Reploids or non-combat models. I'll be back before you know it."
This did little to reassure the purple Reploid, but Leila was determined. She walked into the trans server room and stepped onto the pad. She inserted the coordinates to the first Maverick that she was going to fight. He was situated in an underground base, which was an odd place for a shield generator, but didn't give it much thought. She pressed the button and was teleported off the airship, towards her destination.
Author's Note
I decided to make the descriptions for the powers of the armor less video gamey and more like it would fit in a sci-fi fic.
Also the original plan was to have the villain gloat and just have Leila listen to him until the very end where she would ask if he was human as a formality of what word to use as she threatened his life.