Mesonyx: The Ice Warrior

Previously: Mesonyx Attacks!

After the very people we entrusted with leading us justly and equally betrayed the ideas I believed in I felt… disoriented. I didn’t know where to go, who to see. Every friend can become an enemy once they hear what happened, or at least of the version of the story the leaders will tell the masses. I didn’t doubt they would paint me as a traitor of all of our values, someone who turned on his society. To think I once believed their lies. They said they wanted peace and prosperity for our people, but once faced with the kind of power that artifact provided us they showed their true faces. They turned their attention to war. I honestly thought that the devastation wrought upon our world would teach us something. But maybe, I thought, it was just the leaders. Maybe the Collective, that is, the people, would still believe me and see what I saw. I had to try and look for allies.

At first I flew to the southern parts of Lower Thyle, looking for an old friend. We first met in training for the Special Ops – for users of the very suit I’m now wearing. He didn’t have the necessary psionic control to truly master the suit, so he didn’t make it into an agent. It’s not surprising, very few people are able to make it, and there are few still working suits. However, what he lacked in psionic control he made up for with his personality. He was always a great man. He was a good friend, loyal and dependable and his heart was always in the right place. When the trainers would do something spiteful, he’d help the downtrodden recruit, even at the cost of his own hide. I wished I was that kind of man myself, that I could muster that kind of strength… but apparently my weaknesses were what made me a better fit for the suit.

When I finally got to my friend, he was hardly the man I remembered. He looked… smaller. He didn’t shrink, there was just something changed in his disposition. He was working in a factory on the surface where he helped refine some of the minerals for the industry. I knew he was sent to some mundane job after he failed to prove his worth as an agent, but I didn’t know it was this. I observed him stealthily for a while and followed him home, where I finally showed up to him. He surprised me. When he saw the suit at first he ran for his life and hid in a cupboard, thinking the government sent an agent to kill him for whatever reason. I took off the helmet and reminded him of me. That’s when we finally started talking.

Life hasn’t been kind to him. After he failed his agent classes, he was reassigned to working class, sent to the surface and assigned a working class spouse. Their personalities didn’t much at all, and the job was an exhausting nightmare. He tried what he could to show some incentive to better the world around him, but on the surface of Lower Thyle all his efforts failed. The factory demanded more and more work, and the spouse continued to cause trouble. Finally, his spirit was broken and he simply lived from day to day, toiling his days away and going home to rest immediately. I couldn’t believe this man was the same friend I once had. I was even more surprised when I asked him for help in exposing the lies of our government and he just… backed away in fear. He wanted nothing to do with it. He wanted to just never again stick his head out for anyone.

I didn’t know what could have happened to him to instill that kind of fear in the man I knew, and he refused to tell. But finally, at my insistence, he decided to share with me a file he got in the factory. A file that detailed what kind of project their refined minerals went to. It was a new kind of suit, a prototype they’ve been working on for years, but never had the energy to fully commit to making one. Now, with the power cell I delivered them, they were able to get the project going again. This new prototype suit was called “the Ice Warrior”. It was superior to mine in every way and I knew that if they sent this against me, I would have no chance. Later, I begged him to let me stay the night in the basement, to rest until I could continue. With the Ice Warrior on the loose, there was no place on Mesonyx where I would find peace. I had to go to Azeroth… and seek allies there.

Unfortunately, during the night I heard strange noises upstairs. I decided to investigate. When I went up, I saw strange blast marks on the walls and doors. They weren’t burns or bullet holes. They looked… frozen. As if someone blasted those spots with ice. Furniture was frozen and shattered, and home devices scattered around. I’ve never seen anything like this before. As I was looking through this, I heard a noise again, from another room. I followed through and I couldn’t believe what I found there. My friend’s wife, frozen to death. He, skulking in the corner with a man in a suit similar to mine, but entirely white, standing over him. It was the Ice Warrior.

I had to protect my friend and I attacked the Ice Warrior with my heat vision – what’s better against ice than heat? As soon as he noticed me, he blasted some kind of freeze rays from his visor. I dodged just in time, but when the rays hit the wall behind me, they left the same kind of blast marks I saw in the other room. I leaped towards the assailant and for a moment, I fought him hand to hand but I was hardly a match for his superior strength. He was beating me, and slowly damaging my suit’s systems. Finally, he threw me into a corner, barely able to move. He loomed over me for a moment with some strange sound that almost sounded like laughter. His visor frosted up again and he was about to shoot me with the freeze rays… when my friend grabbed him from behind. The Ice Warrior turned his head in the last moment… hitting my friend instead, killing him on the spot.

As I was staring at that in shock, emergency power in my suit restored mobility. I couldn’t wait any longer and I had no way to beat the Ice Warrior. I bolted from the room at my highest speed, diving out of the window and speeding through the land outside. My helmet’s vision showed the Ice Warrior, flying out of the house and flying just behind me, and quickly catching up to me. Then, he launched his freeze rays once again, hitting the ground literally just behind my feet. With seconds left, I thought on my feet – I used the heat vision to blast the rocks nearby, making them explode. While I could speed through the avalanche, the Ice Warrior was surprised and momentarily stopped, giving me time to cloak and run for my ship.

I hope he isn’t still on my track. I’m in the ship, planning a trajectory to Azeroth. I’d hate to bring the Ice Warrior and my leaders’ wrath upon this unsuspecting world. I will have to look for allies here, perhaps by taking upon an Azerothian personality, disguising myself as a local. Perhaps, I should use this suit to its intended potential and fight the evils that lurk on Azeroth. But first and foremost, I will have to warn Azeroth’s leaders about the impending danger. If Mesonyx attacks Azeroth… the results could be devastating for both worlds.