Imminent: Ready to take place; Happening soon.
No’Dea stood behind the bullet-proof glass with her fists clenched tightly around the datapad. It still cast a dim light in her office as it displayed the memo from her boss. A dark cloud was brewing, and not only in the sky above the carnage displayed beneath her. It usually rained after a tournament.
She knew she had to respond to the director, but what could she say? “I’m sorry the people I keep hiring either die or join the scavs. Tough luck, huh boss?” or “Yeah… they keep disabling, breaking, or stealing the androids too. Boy, that’s rough. Yeah I know they cost half a million credits each! This sucks!”
She rolled her eyes at herself. She knew she’d either be fired or forced to fight in the arena if she kept this up; something had to change.
She scanned the arena with her bionic left eye again, not that it’d do any good. The stupid scavs always wore thermodeadening suits, making their heat signatures blend perfectly with the red-hot metals and oil fires spotted throughout the arena—the aftermath of another successful tournament where no one survived. That way no one got the prize money, making her organization that much richer.
No’Dea’s mouth downturned in grim acceptance. She spun around, placed the datapad on her desk, and walked to her closet to don her power suit. Once it was on, she pulled up her brown hair into a tight ponytail. Her human hair was one feature she’d never part with!
“If you want something done right…” she muttered as she wrapped her utility belt around the waist of the sleek suit, which hugged her body like a second skin. Feeling the familiar weight of the sheathed plasma pistol and lightning sword sent little shivers of excitement down her spine.
Sebastian hunched over a dead cyborg, carefully assessing and extracting any tech of value. Some of his fingers had been replaced with augmentations (or augs), giving him versatility whenever he needed to swap those metal fingers for different tools for easier extraction of tech. Over half his body was made of augs of one sort or another. That's the easiest way to make money, anyway: selling body parts. Whether his or someone else’s, it didn’t matter. He just had easier access to his own.
Only the truly wealthy could afford to remain or become human. One, because some people (not Sebastian) were willing to kill and rob them of parts if they didn’t have ample protection; and two, there was so much pollution that they’d have to find some way to filter their air without an augmentation. Staying human was more a display of wealth than any utilitarian reason.
Sebastian wasn’t into displaying squat. He’s a survivor.
His automaton tiger crouched unmoving beside him, constantly scanning their surroundings for signs of danger. Ever since he’d created Fang, his scavenging trips suddenly became ten times easier because he no longer had to watch his back, which allowed his full concentration to go toward scavenging.
He heard a raspy metallic breath somewhere to his right, and the quiet whir of gears as Fang turned her head toward the sound. He smiled and kept to his work. Trading his own heart for her power core had been the best decision of his life! He just had to remember to plug himself in at night or he’d die. But he couldn’t think of any situation where he didn’t have the option to plug in at night, so it wasn’t a big deal.
He shoved a couple batteries, a finger-laser aug, two laser-gun clips, and an infrared sensor into his backpack before moving on to the next body.
Brutus lay on his back, his undamaged bionic eye staring up at the darkening sky. Clouds slowly covered the pollution, meaning rain was eminence.
Pre’y clouds, he thought to himself. He tried to give a wistful sigh, but it only came out as a metallic click-clack. He gave a harrumph to show his annoyance, and was satisfied to hear a smooth growl.
Brutus saw glowing numbers floating in his field of vision. One function of his bionic eyes was to provide mental projections of data that only he could see.
He ran a diagnostic of his body, and saw the following results on his bionic projection:
HEAD: DAMAGED; CANNOT CONNECT ROTATION
SENSES:
LEFT OCULUS: DISABLED
RIGHT OCULUS: CONNECTED
GLOSSA: CONNECTED
LEFT COCHLEA: ERROR
RIGHT COCHLEA: CONNECTED; DAMAGED
NASUS: CONNECTED; DAMAGED
LEFT ARM: DISABLED
LEFT ARM AUGS:
GRAPPLING HOOK: DISABLED
EMP: DISABLED
HAND: DISABLED
RIGHT ARM: CONNECTED; DAMAGED 70%
RIGHT ARM AUGS:
PLASMA BLASTER: CONNECTED; CHARGES 3/6
HAND: DISABLED
PHOTON CANNON: DISABLED
ENGINE CORE: CONNECTED
SUB-ENGINE: CONNECTED; DAMAGED
LEFT LEG: ERROR
LEFT LEG AUGS: ERROR
RIGHT LEG: ERROR
RIGHT LEG AUGS: ERROR
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FUEL: 0.04%
RESERVE FUEL: 0.00%
His legs were unusable and he couldn’t determine why. His system merely said “ERROR”. His engine core was fully intact, being at the center of his chest. That’s what allowed him to use fuel, and was easily the most important aug he had. The sub-engine was there in case the primary failed. But without fuel, it was a useless backup. But the photon cannon just outside of that was “DISABLED”. His right arm was dented, but still usable, and his left arm was twisted like a corkscrew. He didn’t need the diagnostic to know that! Another cyborg had used a worm-weapon-thingy to grab hold and spin. It was an impressive display, but Brutus stopped him with a simple headbutt to the face. Not everyone had as thick a skull as Brutus, and it showed. Lastly, the motor that moved his head showed “DAMAGED”.
He didn’t bother running a diagnostic on the other, non-combat augs he had. They didn’t much matter at this point.
His fuel was nearly all depleted, displaying 0.04%. That meant his repair nanobots didn’t have the energy to repair him. He knew as soon as that idiot with the photon blaster blew open his reserve tank, he wasn’t gonna make it this time.
He lay there, knowing his death was now eminence. His lips curved into a lopsided smile, (since the other half of his face was at the far end of the arena). He liked that word: eminence. He’d just learned it the other day, so he tried to use it as much as possible. He knew by the confused looks on peoples’ faces, that they didn’t know what it meant, which made him feel much smarter!
He heard the smooth growl again, and his half-face scrunched. He hadn’t harrumphed…
He still had use of his right arm but he couldn’t turn his head. It was a good thing his functioning bionic eye could see right through his titanium skull up to 20 feet! It swiveled and locked onto the giant cat prowling toward him. His smile returned as he raised his arm, which still had juice enough for three more plasma shots. Pain lanced through his brain as his last bits of fuel dropped to 0.02% in order to raise and shoot the arm.
He may die tonight, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take down one more with him!
The cat pounced at his outstretched arm with the plasma blaster affixed to the end.
No’Dea stepped out of the entryway onto the oil-stained concrete leading to the arena. Two androids accompanied her. After being betrayed once, she dared not risk taking another cyborg to eliminate scavs. The steady zip-thump of their metal feet gave her some reassurance as the last door opened in front of her, displaying the full glory of the arena, littered with heaps of metal and flesh that used to be battling less than half an hour ago.
After a single deep breath to steady her adrenaline, she blew it out slowly and engaged the boosters attached to her boots. She took a moment to get her balance as she hovered about 6 feet above the disgusting oil-spewing mess. She could fly with the boosters, technically, but that used far more juice than hovering. It simply wasn’t worth it. The androids stepped over and around the debris, their footing sure despite the slippery surfaces.
She advanced slowly, meticulously rotating her head back and forth, looking for any sign of movement. She used her left eye to search out heat signatures in a panoramic view, and her right human eye to catch anything her left may have missed within its field of vision. Using them independently gave her a splitting headache afterward, but this was well worth it.
A beep resounded in her ear from her cochlear aug, which was connected to the radio hub the androids used. She looked to her right and saw one of her androids booking it toward a fleeing figure. She gave chase, breaking into a 35 mph flight speed.
“Stop or we’ll shoot!” She yelled, before stopping to take aim with her plasma pistol. The androids were programmed to take non-lethal actions, but she sure as heck wasn’t!
Her finger was on the trigger and she had a split second between her brain telling her finger to pull it, and her finger complying. Within that nanosecond, her bionic eye caught the heat signature of a rifle firing before the sound reached her ear.
She didn’t know if her shot found its mark, because she used her right booster to give a massive surge of power, flipping her into an out-of-control cartwheel. Even though her brain was discombobulated, her bionic eye had no trouble staying trained on the dark space the rifle’d shot from. Her boosters stabilized her instantly, and with one swift movement she brought her pistol to her left eye and fired within its alignment. She saw no heat signature to indicate it ricocheted, so she knew it punctured flesh. But whether that was a carcass or the scav shooter, she couldn’t say.
Just to be safe, she got low enough to hide behind a behemoth metal shell and turned back to the fleeing scav. The android was holding him by the upper arm, dragging him in her direction.
Once they were close enough, the cyborg shouted, “Overseer, this isn’t fair! We gotta live t—”
Without a second glance, she shot the cyborg in the head.
“Go find more,” she told the android. It dropped the body and complied immediately.
No’Dea glanced at the fresh corpse, not bothering to hide the disdain etched all over her human features, then turned to find the rest of the vermin.
Sebastian hadn’t even crouched to inspect the corpse, when Fang blasted over his head, clipping his shoulder aug with a spray of sparks.
That sounded like a plasma weapon! He thought. Had another scav taken Fang out? Or had the Overseer already gotten this far into the arena to clear them out? That didn’t seem likely. And she’d never used lethal force before!
His opticals hovering just in front of his human eye told him Fang hadn’t shut down, so he wasn’t worried that he wouldn’t be able to repair her. With that reassurance, he unholstered his laser pistol and aimed at where Fang had been. He saw no movement, nor any heat signatures beyond the normal hot metal that permeated a freshly-fallen tournament.
Unsure whether to go check on Fang or continue to search for the attacker, Sebastian paused, his pistol pointed at nothing in particular.
It was easy for Brutus to hold completely still. He only needed to breathe every five minutes, and his mechanical parts stayed still unless he moved them. So when he saw the scav behind the giant cat, he completely froze. He only had two shots left, and there was no telling how many scavs surrounded him past his 20-foot field of view. The scav clearly couldn’t see him, and Brutus actually felt grateful for his twisted and broken body. He wouldn’t’ve even recognize himself! He almost smiled but remembered that it’d use up fuel. The scav slowly retreated, his eyes wildly scanning over and around Brutus, until he exited the 20 feet of Brutus’ eyesight.
Sebastian moved slowly until he could duck behind a giant shield-looking thing jutting from the ground. Then he turned around to see Fang. His precious beast stood on three legs, limping toward him. Using his opticals, he sent a silent command: GUARD, which caused Fang to stop moving and enter Sentry Mode. He assessed his shoulder aug, and felt grateful to only see a few scratches.
A bang shocked him out of his observations, and he turned toward it. It seemed the Overseer was starting her eradication. He zoomed in his bionic eye and saw she’d come in-person! That was unusual. And not a good thing. An android dragged Jerry toward her, and before Sebastian could form thoughts, the Overseer shot Jerry in the head and followed her android right in Sebastian’s direction. His optics listed her as 131 meters away…130…129…
It was time to leave. Now.
He scrambled to Fang and commanded her to retreat with him. It started limping obediently alongside him.
A flare of purple light to his right stopped Sebastian in his tracks. He whipped his head around, his mouth agape.
It can’t be! he thought. A Life Stone!?! If anything could make Sebastian risk death and dismemberment, it was a Life Stone! He had no idea how someone fighting with a Life Stone in the arena could possibly die, because they provided a nearly infinite energy source when used by an efficient engine.
Pivoting toward the purple light, Sebastian didn’t think twice as he sprinted for all he was worth. Fang ran loyally at his side, stumbling slightly with her missing front leg. Sebastian put his hand against her side to steady her.
No’Dea spotted a fleeing figure no more than 140 meters away. Focusing her bionic eye confirmed them to only be 123. She allowed a small smile to purse her lips. Close, but not close enough, she thought, as she boosted her boots to fly faster, quickly outpacing the androids. Her pistol only had a max range of 62 meters, and she could only pull that off on the range, when she and the target were not moving!
Brutus chanced taking in a breath. Nothing bad happened, so he relaxed. Or, at least, he relaxed in his mind. His mechanical parts were already as relaxed as they could be. Can mechanical parts relax? he wondered. Machines don’t have muscles that can relax… He heard lots of movement nearby, so he stopped thinking so he could focus on holding his breath again.
A minute later, Brutus heard what sounded like a jetpack heading his way, fast. If he wasn’t already holding his breath, he would’ve started. He saw, of all things, the Overseer fly over him.
I’m saved! He thought. Since he was still technically alive, he’ll be declared the winner! When he saw that she had no intention of slowing down, he risked the use of a little fuel to yell, “Wait! I’m still alive!” He even waved his right arm to get her attention!
His optics showed some data: they clocked the Overseer’s speed at 76 mph; and they showed his fuel level fall from 0.02% to 0.01%. As his bionic eye slowly dimmed and shut off, the last thing he saw was a glowing 0.00%.
No’Dea raised her pistol and trained it on the cyborg running perpendicular to her, toward an eerie purple light. Almost there…, she thought, moving her finger over the trigger. 62 meters, 61…60…
Someone shouted something unintelligible directly beneath No’Dea and pointed a gun at her! She yelled in fright and swerved to the side. This alone gave Sebastian the time he needed to reach the purple light.
Since he’d only seen projections of Life Stones and had never handled one in person, he wasn’t sure what they’re supposed to look or feel like. But the purple orb floating a foot off the pavement seemed far too pristine. Life Stones were coarse and misshapen like a… well like a stone! This purple orb was perfectly spherical and smooth.
All this went through Sebastian’s mind in a split second, but it did nothing to deter his human hand from closing around the sphere.