Chapter Nineteen
BEYOND THE REALMS OF DEATH
“My God… What have I done…” Felix breathes to himself.
A minute later one of the suits brings him a copper container, lined with lead and a magnetic seal.
He tries to lift her, but he can’t move anymore. The pain is like a warm blanket now.
“Put her in.” He pants, “and bury her deep into the wall.”
It would make better sense to end the suits functions sir.
“I am not killing her!” Felix growls. “If I wanted her dead I wouldn’t have put her in the suit in the first place.”
Sir, in a sense she is already dead, and I’m afraid to say, you aren’t far behind.
Ivor helpfully displays Felix’s vitals on a projection in front of him. Now that he has peace to think, to take in the damage, he sees it is bad, very bad. The suit is the only thing keeping him upright.
“I don’t think I can fight anymore.” Felix chuckles. “I think, it’s for the best… I deserve to die… You’re good to keep things going without me yeah?”
There is an 88% chance we will win this battle with earths military, but we have another problem I am unable to deal with.
“What other problem? I doubt I’m going to be much use now.”
Irene spoke live to the world, warned them, said the suits were dangerous, and that they were to be destroyed on sight and not to be entered.
“She did what?” He barks, “that’s not good.”
Ivor displays the news feeds for Felix to see, multiple screens appear and are littered with scenes from all over the world, people fighting, blowing up his suits, petrol bombs, police and military blockades tear into his suits.
“We need to stop this,” Felix grunts, gasping at the pain as he tries to stand.
Shall I command that they should defend themselves?
“Yeah, I think so…” He winces. “I’m starting to think, that maybe I can’t leave just yet, you’ve no idea what your doing without me.” He lets out a hollow laugh.
In my simulations of your demise, I have come to the same conclusion, I am bound to you sir, even in death.
“Then it was all for nothing…”
There is no reply. He sighs.
“Do it.” He says, “And so ends the life of Dr Felix Eisenmann,” he says to himself, “A fool healing a sick world, now he’s just going to be a hunk of metal… Dead Metal.” He says looking at his arm.
There is a notification on the little wrist screen, indicating that the Nanites have entered his system. He can already see them working as a new helmet reforms around his head.
Then, in the blackness, the burning begins. His blood literally boils beneath his skin which liquefies, every single nerve in his body screams as his brain is overwhelmed.
It seemed to him to last a life time, and during the midlife crisis, he’d heard a voice asking wither to engage the Vulcan Protocols to ease his suffering, but one thought persisted and prevented him from relenting.
He needed to be aware, to stay conscious, or there would be no hope for the planet and the people living on it.
The heat fades, leaving a hollow coldness that he could feel everywhere and no where, he moves his hands, but they are numb, there is no feeling anywhere in entire body.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He screams, and screams, and screams.
When his lungs and throat dissolve, his screaming stops. In the silence, he cries. Then the vocal synthesizer engages and a distorted robotic voice continues his howl for another few minutes.
SIR
Ivor's voice is in his head, but isn’t the same soft spoken tones he was used to.
Felix moves his head up, still adjusting to the new environment. Unable to feel anything, he can’t gage his strength or movement, and topples back wards as he tries to stand.
His vision is also different, no longer seeing the screen, his vision is the screen, the HUD now affixed to his retina.
Something grabs him and rights him up, another suit, but this one has blue lights instead of the red like the others.
IVOR?
Felix asks.
IN THE METAL, SO TO SAY SIR, THERE ARE MISSILES HEADING FOR THIS LAB, WE MUST EVACUATE.
The other suits around them are coming to life and engage their thrusters to depart through the wrecked hole.
FELIX? DR EISENMANN? ARE YOU STILL WITH ME?
Ivor persists in his questioning, Felix puts up a hand to stop him.
FELIX EISENMANN… IS DEAD
He says looking at his weightless hand.
I AM NOW, NOTHING MORE THAN A WALKING CORPSE ENCASED IN A METAL TIN… I AM DEAD METAL.
Without another word the pair leave the doomed lab and join the battle above. Their presence swaying the course of the battle in seconds, easily out maneuvering their opponents.
They manage to stop one of the missiles by redirecting one of their ships, but two more got through and hit the mountain side. The explosion knocks everyone in the battle field away.
The blast disables most of the ships and military flight suits. Right before the rockets hit, Ivor and Felix had moved up and out of range. Over forty percent of their own forces had survived.
They scan the aftermath; Earth’s army had decimated themselves in their own explosion, those who survived floated helplessly in the water. The house and the lab were now nothing more than rubble. The hole to the hanger gone.
There would be no going back.
With a shared thought, Dead Metal and Ivor issue orders to their army. Assimilate survivors, assist empty suits.
Then they make a speech to the world.
***
Across the world, on every screen and device. The blank face of Dead Metal appears. The helmet had been rebuilt by the Nanites, but they’d forgone most of the human features usually present. Instead they’d made a sleek black helmet, with faint white marks around where the eyes and mouth would have been.
Smoke billows behind him from the destroyed island.
PEOPLE OF THE EARTH, I AM DEAD METAL, YOUR SAVIOUR, DR GRAVES IS RIGHT, THE SUITS ARE GOING TO CHANGE YOU, THEY WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER, ALLOW YOU TO SURVIVE THE HARSH ENVIRONMENT.
ABOUT WHICH…
THE WORLD GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN LYING TO YOU, THIS PLANET WILL BE UNABLE TO SUSTAIN YOU IN YOUR CURRENT FORM WITHIN THE COMING MONTHS
I MYSELF HAVE TAKEN THIS FORM, IN ORDER TO CONTINUE TO REPAIR THIS WORLD. WITH YOUR HELP WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
DO NOT ATTACK THE SUITS, THEY ARE PREPARED TO DEFEND THEMSELVES, AND YOU WILL STILL BE ASSIMILATED IF YOU SURVIVE.
ENTER THE SUIT WHEN OFFERED, AND ALL YOUR FEARS, YOUR WORRIES, YOUR SINS, WILL BE LIFTED AND REMOVED FROM YOUR SHOULDERS, I WILL CARRY YOUR BURDENS. I AM YOUR SAVIOUR.
I AM DEAD METAL
***
That was the day the world of humans ended.
DEAD METAL led his army of the enslaved, like the pied piper leading rats through the street, destroying and consuming, they swept through the remnants of civilization. There was nothing and no one who could stop them.
Police hid behind their cars, unloading shots into the marching metal soldiers. Each bullet doing nothing more than to create sparks. Gangs attempted to protect their neighbourhood's, hiding, shooting and even using explosives.
None of it mattered.
Most just ran, their only resistance came when they were captured, flailing around like fish out of water. It became a game that Dead Metal tired of quickly.
He and Ivor left the suits to continue their rampage. So many had been assimilated now that there was no need to continue overseeing the operation. Instead they set off across the lands, searching for a new place to set up shop.
This was it, the big gamble.
Dead Metal prayed he had done the right thing, but then reasoned that it was the only way things could have gone.
Now was the future, and he and his army of roboticized humans will work together to repair the damage done to their home planet.
They would also prepare the home defenses, to be used against the alien threat, that was still promised in his future.