Great Neo Maverick War

*The Great Neo Maverick War lasts almost the entire story of Mega Man X: Unit 49, and thus this article is the biggest of the entire wikia. It can serve as a resume for the comic.*

The **Great Neo Maverick War** is the ensemble of events envolving the Neo Maverick Army, the Maverick Hunters and Earth's Government and its army during 2193.

## **Prelude**

### **After the Jakob's Incident**

*To read a complete article about the **Jakob's Incident**, check MMKB's article about Mega Man X8.*

After the whole plot involving Sigma, Lumine and the New Generation Reploids, the Maverick Wars seemed to be taking a turn towards their end.

However, the Maverick Virus was still spread through the world, added to thousands of Mavericks still around the world since the recover period of the Earth after the crash of the space colony Eurasia's massive debris. The Maverick Hunters continued to work hard on their duty to hunt these criminals, but a single Reploid would start a conspiracy to bring the chaos once again.

### **Gathering Forces**

The robot developer Saturn was already plotting to build an army of renegades since before the events envolving the Jakob Project, as he was apparently waiting Sigma to be gone for good so his remaining followers would have no leader and be susceptible to his speech. Saturn also had an aversion to viruses and believed Reploids should go Maverick at their own will, so Sigma's means were not what he seeked.

Endowed with a strange power, Saturn has shown to be dangerous enough and slowly got allies, most of them coming from the obscure part of the society and the black market. The malignant leader start to fill the heads of his followers with ideas of a world where they have the freedom to do as they please, seeking the evolution of the Reploids and the end of the Maverick label. He called it an "**evolutionary anarchy**".

Saturn put people with similar ideals in the charge of his army, such as Kran and Kerbekeros and began the last preparations for his initial act.

## **Phase 1: The Doomsday**

*To read the full story about the Operation Doomsday, check Prologue: Doomsday.*

### **The Devastation Machine**

Saturn and his loyal creation Shad sneaked into a secret hangar in an unknown place in search of a huge Reploid, called Gigantex. The twenty-meters creature was deactivated for a long time, and his past function was supposed to be helping with the removal of debris after the crash of Eurasia.

### **Operation Doomsday**

The Mavericks manage to find Gigantex and he is put in berserk by Saturn. Saturn uses a strange ability to warp them to the main headquarters of the Maverick Hunters and the giant immediately begins to unleash his wrath against the building. Meanwhile, Mega Man X and Zero were chasing a trio of identical Mavericks in a city near the Hunters' base, and headed back to base immediately after they lost contact with Alia due to a jamming so strong it could destroy them while they were teleporting.

Saturn had a brief conversation with the commander Signas, while Shad sneaked into the base and captured Axl. X and Zero arrived shortly after, but it was too late. Gigantex had already put the entire base into ruins and killed several Hunters off-guard. Enraged, they wanted to engage combat with Saturn, but he uses his remaining energy to withdraw instead.

The 17th Unit was now reduced to X, Zero, Alia and a few workers. Signas disappeared and Layer and Pallette were heavily damaged. Demoralized, the three did not know how to react against such a sudden tragedy.

After being reported about the situation, the Earth's Council organized an emergency meeting at their secret shelter called Winter Base, in the southernmost part of Chile.

The leader of the Red Wing Raffould suggested the creation of a massive reploid army divided for each one of the councilors, but was countered by the bluewinger Takahiro, saying it would result in a second Repliforce and a disaster similar to the Great Repliforce War, but Raffould persuaded the Council to believe it was the only viable option. Thus, the Earth Army was approved.

## **Phase 2: Theatricality**

### **Setting the Stage**

The news about the Maverick Hunters' headquarters being destroyed spread quickly, but nobody knew who did that. It was time for Saturn to put the second phase of his plan in action.

Several hours after the Operation Doomsday, Captain Elika contacts the Hunters, taking responsibility for letting Saturn cause such catastrophe. Elika leads a subdivision of the Maverick Hunters called Special Pursuit Squad 8, the **49th Unit**. They are B-Class and C-Class Hunters who were designed by Signas in the early 2180's to take care of RD217900-6, a mass-produced Reploid assistant from the Research and Development of Reploids Bureau who went berserk and killed many of his colleagues. X remembers talking with him when he was retired during the Maverick Spring, and gets surprised for not recognizing Saturn, since he was very different from his former appearance.

### **The Hunters join forces**

*Recommended reading: The 49th Unit (chapter)*.

X, Zero and Alia go to the 49th Unit, located in the North Pacific Coast. They are received by the members of the 49th Unit and have a brief introduction:

Captain Elika - a former policial Reploid, he was hired by Signas to command the 49th Unit for his excellent abilities and strategic thinking.

Blue Knight - a sympathetic Hunter with a mysterious past, specialized in both saber and buster techniques and also bearer a strange power that comes out of his fury.

Nora - the Operator of the 49th Unit, she is specialized in tracking down Reploids, but ironically she has never been able to track Saturn due to his mysterious teleportation method.

Platina - the only human Maverick Hunter, she is a mature woman who had her limbs replaced by prostheses after a Maverick attack. She was married with Dr. Henry Snacman, a researcher from RaDoRB who has been killed by Saturn in the late 80s. Platina uses the Expanding Weapon Kit and a Combat Armor made by Henry, along with Power Prostheses that grant her superhuman strenght.

Snacman (not to be confused with Henry) - he is the Reploid "son" of Henry and Platina since she became sterile after the incident with Mavericks. Snacman never saw his creator, as he was never activated before Henry was slain. Snacman wears human clothes and fights with his S-Bladester, a weapon similar to the Blade Armor Buster .

### **Parade: Disseminating the Ideal**

*To read the full story about the Parade, click here.*

The Hunters had not much time to know each other, as Saturn appeared in the middle of a city with a huge sound truck and was detected by U49's Main Computer. Meanwhile, a small group of Mavericks invaded a TV Channel, which was about to show an important announcement. The reporter Akira, presenter of "7 News" was not seen after this. The Mavericks take over the transmission and put Saturn on the screen, and he started his speech:

*Every day, more of our reploid brothers are hunt down for being "Irregulars", just for having their own dreams and desires. If "Irregular" is a synonym of "free", then that's what we are.*
*We aim to obliterate those in charge of this unfair world: the HUMANS! As soon as we take down their dictatorship and their protectors, only the "Irregulars" will remain, turning us back to the merited "Regular" title.You may not agree with my ideals, but that's the thing. We are going to be free to have our own ideals. Together, we have the POWER! **I want YOU for Neo Maverick Army!***
*This battle only ends when someone manages to checkmate the King-- me! This is a challenge for the Earth's Council and the Maverick Hunters!*

Saturn is interrupted by the 49th Unit, but he reveals that it was all a bait. His allies Kran, Kerbekeros, Shad and Baronel and start a "Parade" through the highway while attacking the Hunters. The Neo Mavericks show their strenght and eventually force the Maverick Hunters to retreat using massive laser weapons, all while broadcasting the fight to the whole world. However, Captain Elika remains in the battlefield and tries to throw Kran into one of the lasers, forcing him to teleport back to where he came from and allowing Nora to track him.

### **Aftermath**

Saturn is questioned about all this theatricality by a Mysterious Man in his hideout, and he justified it was purely *publicity*. He wanted to make his name and ideals known, at the same time he proved his strenght by defeating the Maverick Hunters with the whole world watching. Sigma never seemed to sympathize with the independent criminals, while Saturn is well known in the obscure part of the society for selling reploid technology and weapons in the blackmarket, thanks to his past in the RaDoRB. It would be just a matter of time until thousands of Mavericks joined his cause. If an "ordinary" Reploid could make that, what many Mavericks can do together? Saturn overcame his weaknesses by deluding the world, and so the Neo Maverick Army rises. Meanwhile, the shard planted by Lumine in Axl's crystal was detected and it was behaving strangely.

## **Earth's Army**

*Recommended reading: Eerie Changes*.

The Earth's Government made a press conference while Saturn presented his Parade. Those were the speeches of Raffould and Alain, respectively.

*Formerly, the only protectors of our world were the Maverick Hunters and minor police units, which are showing a sudden and disappointing inefficiency against the newest world threat.*
*But now, as approved by both Red and Blue wings, we are founding the Earth Army - a military organization led directly by the Council, which will operate in every corner of our planet! Our primary objective is to suppress and then eradicate the new threat... and any future ones.*
*Despite its name, it was decided we don't want any civilian of the Earth, human or reploid, in the middle of our forces. [...]*

*This project was made in a hurried situation, and we only have a few units ready. We're using the latest and best technology available for these reploids, and we can't spend all the budget at once, otherwise we'd be irresponsible and start a crisis.*
*We can't change much of our plans nor stop passing the correct funds and resources to the Moon colonies, they are already impaired with the half of the copy chip production and the Jakob Incident.*
*We will still take around one month until the necessary units are done, until then... we must rely on what is left of our current defenses.*
*The Maverick Hunters X and Zero have done much for us in all of their years of service and have passed through worse situations. They're destructured due to the loss of their headquarters and leader. I'm personally very unhappy about this.*
*Now it's our turn to amke something for them: save the Earth!*

The Maverick Hunters began fearing that a war between the Neo Maverick Army and the Earth Army would result in a devastation of immensurable proportions, and they decided that they should put an end to this as fast as possible. The Captain decides to mobilize all the remaining Maverick Hunters left in the world to strike the Neo Maverick Army.

## **The Iberian Castle**

*Recommended reading: Briefing.*

Some days before the Parade, the Neo Maverick general Kran invaded a castle in the Iberian Peninsula with his troops and took over the abandoned factory inside it. They began producing new combat Reploids, replacing their A.I. templates. They destroyed and blocked all the entrances except one, and reinforced the internal security.

Kran was tracked by Nora and she discovered about the invasion. The Operator could not send the Hunters directly into the factory due to a strong interference, so had to walk through the only opening. X and Zero were sent to open the way.

### **The Sewers**

*Recomended reading: The Sewers and Cat and Mice.*

X and Zero arrive at the Reception Hall and are sent by Kran to the depths of the castle sewers to recover the four Jammers, the source of the interference, which were stolen by a thief group called The Rats before the delivery man could hand over the package to the Neo Mavericks.

The Hunters explore the waterways and finally find their hideout. Cave Bigrat accepts to abandon the hideout since he did not want to engage combat with the Hunters, knowing he would lose. However, one of the rats called Sewer Jailrat fools his brothers and the Hunters, staying hidden behind the sewers' main computer in which the jammers were attached and attacked X and Zero, pushing them away and gaining time to activate the *Presset 3A*, which reorganized the water management systems of the sewers and set their hideout to flood in a few minutes, making the massive waves destroy the place and be contamined by hazardous chemical substances stored in their base.

    The Hunters are forced to pursue Jailrat and force him to revert the process, but it was too late. Zero takes one of the destroyed jammers to the base and escapes with X while Sewer stays in the ground just to be brutally destroyed by the wave he created.

In the end, Sewer helped the Neo Maverick Army, since his actions bought time for more troops to be produced in the factory.

### **Castechno Inc.**

    While X and Zero rest, Blue Knight and Snacman sneak into the Castechno Inc. in search of the main computer of the factory, with the objective of deactivating the production lines. They fight some of the troops with altered A.I.s through the vandalized area until they find a claw that takes them to the administrative sector, not before falling on a trap that almost turned them in molten metal.

There, are detected by an alarm that awakens RT-93H, one of the units produced by Castechno that was considered "out of boundaries" by the Government and lead the factory to closure. Although very powerful, RT-93H could not prevent the two Hunters from proceeding. After that, they find the main computers and destroy them, leaving the factory disabled for good.

**Collapse**

*Recommended reading: Orchestra of Lights, Chain Vengefulness and Shattered Shine.*

While searching for any clue about the escape trajectory of the recently produced troops, Alia detects an energy reading that matches with Kran's. Even suspecting it is a trap, X, Zero and Snacman go once again to the Iberian Castle to search for him.

After passing through countless traps, they finally reach the innermost room of the castle and are surprised by Kran. Kran reveals that he took over the Iberian Castle not only for its factory, but because he could drain as much energy as he wanted from the hydropower and thermal energy sources there. His superior intelect could elaborate attack sequences that confused the Hunters, using several cards that were under his sleeves when they thought they had learned his patterns.

Kran defeats the three, leaving Snacman temporarily disabled by an induced malfunction in his neck and X and Zero in the ground, with their internal skeletons heavily damaged. Kran wanted to obliterate the two by using his masterpiece, the *Punishment Parabolic Melter*. When he was about to fire the cannons, Snacman woke up and jumped exactly in front of the focal point of the mirror. His body was almost destroyed, but the crystal in his chest somehow absorbed most of the energy fired at him, making the power overflow his body. With that surge of energy, Snacman manages to destroy Kran's armor before deactivating once again. While X tries to convince Kran to surrender and solve things peacefully, Zero uses hostile words that trigger bad memories in Kran, making him lost his sanity and determined to fight until the end.

X remains in the place trying to finish off Kran, as only one shot was necessary to end it all. Even blind by rage, Kran was still able to raise his reflexes and strategies, thus preventing X from hitting him. Kran could almost destroy X with a trick, but X unleashed a hidden power that allowed him to overcome Kran's strenght. Even with his arms destroyed, Kran still shows determination to make one last move and throws X in a harsh dillema, having him to choose *between a small chance of surviving and possibly harming thousands of people or letting himself get killed by Kran's suicidal attack*. X decides that dying there would strongly demoralize his allies once again and they would not be able to prevent the upcoming catastrophe, thus the destruction he was about to cause would be nothing compared to that.

The violent shockwave throws X away hundreds of meters away in a few seconds, while the Iberian Castle falls apart due to the huge outburst of energy that once was Kran's body. X wakes up with a tremendous feeling of guilt due to his (unexpected) selfish choice, but he is relieved after hearing nobody was hurt. The councilor Raffould reacts the news with an ironical smile.

## **Phase 3: Enter Warmongers**

Hours later, Kerbekeros welcomes dozens of Irregulars in his own place, the Arashiha Citadel. They prepare the First Neo Maverick Conference, in which they will discuss their ideologies and the next steps they should take in the war.

***The history goes on...***