The transport hummed quietly in the background as it took them over the walls and the safer half of the city to their destination.  'Next stop, the quarantine zone.'  The announcement filled him with an unknown sort of dread, though he was aware of [i]some[/i] of what caused it.  He had been in the zone, and let me tell you, first-timers, it wasn't pleasant.  Sure as hell wasn't a great thing to first wake up to, either.  You always remember your first encounter with them.  Mavericks...  Standing there, staring with a vacant smile and a twinkle of madness in your eye...  Crimson Nova - Crim, Crimson, Nova, or even just The Maverick Virus - had developed from a supposedly powerful but unstable Force Metal, causing those upgraded with it to tweak out of control, losing both mind and soul.  Well...nobody's been able to [i]prove[/i] the soul, but you get the idea.  It's just an expression the humans say.

He himself was not human.  Sitting among these people was a fox-like machine, or pseudo-machine, or however you want to put it.  Reploid technology was a complicated science.  Someone once told him that Reploid was short for Replicated Humanoid, much the way Pseudoroid denoted a Pseudo Reploid, or a Reploid-like being that was different than the humanoid types.  Case in point: Swift Fox.  He wasn't a human like Shanna or Richter the Reploid, but a humanoid fox-like Pseudoroid.  Unlike most Pseudoroids, though, he had a few differences.  For instance, someone likely designated Gauss Atlas for her - Yes, that's a she - upon creation.  Swift had a designation.  You could see it written on his chest, but...that wasn't a [i]name[/i].  He wasn't named, on creation because his model - the Nu-Fox versatile soldier - was not a single machine, you see.  They were an army built in a factory, the place where he first awoke.  Swift designated himself, after it'd been established that he wasn't a Maverick and he had individuality, a Bio-Metal core, unlike every other Nu-Fox.

Nobody knew how they could possibly work without one.  It was a mystery to this day.

Anyway, Swift tried to settle what had to be his equivalent of the nerves.  He gave the medic a glance of understanding at her own anxieties, knowing that while she was mainly there to support them from the back, he and the others here would have to fight the madness out there.  He sympathized, though, because it was definitely shocking to even witness it, to know that 'That thing was once a sane and happy, now violent and crazy'.  He'd never get use to it, unlike 'I work for the money' Duster, nearby.  Oh right!  They were introducing themselves!  Probably better to be familiar with one another.  The vulpinoid spoke up next, raising his hand as sort of a greeting.

[color=f26522]"It's actually my first mission too, though unfortunately...I've been here before."[/color]

He had kind of a youthful voice about him, maybe not what others would expect.  Then again, he technically [i]was[/i] younger than everyone here.

[color=f26522]"My name is Swift Fox, and I woke up not far from the walls, originally, just on the wrong side."[/color]

He lowered his hand and his gaze, glaring more at the floor now.

[color=f26522]"I've seen what Crimson Nova does to Reploids, what it reduces them to.  I don't care about the credits.  I just want to see this end."[/color]