Chapter :1 Obligations And Dreams
Underground Lab
A figure in exoskeleton mechanical arms with multitool could be seen fiddling with machines drenched in sweat,soot,and dark sticky liquid. She could not care less of her appearance focus and determination could be seen in the glint of her eyes.
She is Sera Hawke 25 year old prodigy she got masters and doctorate on engineering, mechanics, programming and electronics, but all that effort is for a singular purpose… Freedom
.
For Hawke is a cripple. fragile bones, weak muscles, respiratory problems, ever since she was a child she knew she was bound to live out all her years bound in a wheelchair being taken care of by others. but there is one thing hawke knew was possible to break her shackles and that is she would forge a body for herself. Technology was not there yet but she knew at an early age what she was capable of, she made calculations in her growing years that by the time she made her foundation, technology would have climbed barely just close enough for her use.
Years passed her talents outshone others and with it attention both private and government sectors around the world got a whiff of what she was building at first she denied them but lured with funds and overall support to hasten her projects she eventually agreed and soon various designs of power Armour came from her ‘’Investors’’ urging her to make for them
She was too deep in to back out billions of funds already flowed to her project and all she can do is move forward, as if with foresight she already knew what would become of her creation what was once an invention of her salvation would become her burden and damnation she knew all to well what people could do with Power Armour, but regardless, for her to become free of the shackles of mortality the Power Armour would be the foundation of her creation which she kept well for herself.
Footsteps could be heard approaching ‘’Professor Hawke working late… Again? You should have called in the others’’ a man in a business suit said as he slowly approached marveling and the creations laid before his eyes.
‘’I'm fine tuning things the grunts wont cut it, Besides there is only days 2 left before the presentation I cant leave anything to chance I must do it myself’’ said Hawke while facing the machines not even bothering to look back at who she is talking to.
‘’hmhmhm as cold as always, you know higher ups is breathing down my neck to keep tabs on you. This has become an international event I am just making sure things are in order, and for crying out loud cant you have some assistant watching over you? Secure as the building is, we wouldn't want you to have an accident working on these industrial machines’’ the man in the suit said pleadingly and accusingly.
After Lifting her head and wiping the sweat from her face she turned and said ‘’Glenn you know why I couldn't trust anyone you know exactly why! They can study my creations as much as they want but the core knowledge and technology will be handled by me and me alone!!’’ shouting and looking him straight in the eye.
Glenn then said in a calm manner ‘’you are misunderstanding things this Power Armour is going to save lives! Jupiter was a pipe dream since its discovery but your Armour will change everything for the first time in history the doors to the biggest planet in the solar system is now within our reach, all we need is to open it can’t you see?!’’
‘’oh I see it alright, pretty convenient you forgot to mention that tanks would be phased out in favour of my Humanoid sized walking tank. I know what they plan to do with my creation! All I ever wanted is to be free of…..of THIS!!!!’’ shouting and pointing to her frail body and skinny legs for her age. ‘’I am not a saint but the least I could do is keep the core technology away from their grubby hands, and then I would walk away from all this’’ she added
‘’okay. we know that the higher ups knew that and we are not pushing you beyond those limits, as I said im just making sure everything is in order after this you get paid you walk away and we get our product see… everybody happy. Now finish that and go to sleep we need to go early tomorrow’’ Glenn said as he walked towards the elevators
Sera Hawke is still putting A.I. security measures to her private collection of Power Armour that would serve as her bodyguards, drones were relatively old but an A.I. controlled drone is another part of her project which she kept very close secret to her, as an orphan she is not the type to trust anyone so easily.
As she finished her work Sera walked towards the elevator and before the doors closed she said “activate sentry mode kill everything that moves that is not me’’ with that she cleaned herself and wen to sleep for new burdens that await tomorrow.
Unknown Military Installation
Later that night
‘’So She is cooperating? Are you sure she wont do anything funny?” said a man in 5star General uniform while eating his steak not looking at Gelnn.
‘’Sera Hawke will pull through her end of the deal, she did not buy the Jupiter idea though’’ said Glenn as he is savoring the fine wine in his hand.
‘’Hmph. Obviously she wont, tensions around the borders across the world are nearing its breaking point, though we have kept it quiet this long is already miraculous in on itself that Power Armour is going to change warfare. the potential of that weapon is bigger than any tank or battleships we have created, its a shame other countries managed to dip their fingers on her so quickly’’ said the General as he stood from away from the table. He walked towards the couch in front of Glenn and said ‘’what happened to the spies in charge to steal some of her work?’’
Glenn stiffened at the question knowing the answer is anything but good ‘’w-well.. sir they are dead after exiting the elevator camera feeds suggest that the Sera Hawke’s Private Power Armour collection has quite the formidable defense system in place’’
‘’all of them?’’ asked the General slightly disbelieving.
Glenn reaffirmed the obvious answer ‘’yes sir all of them. Camera has recorded that the Power Armour came alive and shot them to pieces, it would seem that the good professor has been holding back on us, we believe its an A.I. though how sophisticated we don’t know. cleanup will have to wait until tomorrow until Hawke disables the security. death row convicts has already replaced the guards and killed on site it wont be traced back to us, we even lit up the entire area it really looked like there was an intense firefight.’’
‘’hmmm… anyway tell her that we need 100 Power Armour of every model she has including the models and schematics from the other countries tell her after this she is free to go no strings attached’’ after the General said those words he stood up with Glenn.
Glenn then asked ‘’ we are just gonna let her go?’’
‘’of course. The last thing we want is malfunctioning products or her having a vengeance coming after us, we already have too many to worry about we can let her go. Besides we can always reverse engineer her work its just gonna take a while’’
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Research Lab 1:00 AM
Glenn would not have expected that his actions that night would trigger a chain reaction of events that would push Sera Hawke to the limits.
Alarms are blaring, rapid gunshots could be heard despite the thick walls and glasses of the laboratory followed by occasional explosions and shaking
Sera is a shallow sleeper because of her body pain waking her from time to time, she is always wearing an exoskeleton even in her sleep although this particular model is more soft and comfortable it still has durable mechanical arms not only for utility but also for self defense
‘’Guards what is going on Report!!’’ sera shouted as her heart rate increased and is beginning to hyper ventilate she immediately call emergency lines since her work is closely tied to the government and military on international level she had access to a panic button soon soldiers and special forces would come to her rescue meanwhile her goal is to get out of dodge and stay low.
With practice Sera grabbed her tiara with multiple gemstone in it but they are far from decorative each gemstone are packed with microchip and crystal projector creating a screen of interface in which she can interact she then called for her guardians in the Underground Lab.
‘’SENTINELS PRIORITY 1 ALPHA!’’ Sera shouted as the Sentinels designed to look like Power Armour came to life moved quickly and entered secret elevators for each of them to move up and go to their masters aid.
Gemini Doc - 3 meters - 4 tons
Light Armour- Non combatant its purpose is to tend to the health of Sera Hawke it has 4 arms the front are for medical use it’s hands which have retractable surgical tools. The back hands are repair tools designed to service and repair the other Sentinels.
Ashura - 4 meters - 20 tons
Heavy Armour- it has 9 sets of elongated arms its job is literally to charge in the midst of battle and wreak havoc its legs are designed akin of that a Velociraptor.
Riot - 3 meters 10 tons
Medium Armour- designed to protect Sera from hordes of people. it carries a 2 meter transparent bulletproof tower shield which is equipped with powerful flood lights and has flash setting that could temporarily blind assailants, or cause seizure, it can also shoot electric bolts from its hands but only for 1 meter range highly inaccurate as the bolts would stick to anything conductive, settings that range from non-lethal to lethal.
Vulcan - 3 meters - 10 tons
Medium Armour- shoots spikes the size of .50 cal via super compressed air effective kill range 500 meters estimated to be capable of 1000 shots per minute one minigun for each shoulder and another set for each of its forearm, can also shoot underwater with effective kill range of 20 meters.
Banshee - 3 meters - 2 tons
Light Armour- its legs are purely cosmetic inside of it are miniaturized turbines and multiple flight stabilizers it can fly up to 5000 meters and its weapon is LRAD which fires focused sonic waves rendering even a tanks Armour useless killing its passengers effective kill range 100 meters, its also equipped with optical camouflage sending images from the back to the from rendering it nearly invisible.
Torch Light -4 meters - 20 tons
Heavy Armour- has four arms all equipped with foot long plasma cutters, flame throwers with range of 30 meters with specialized formula it spews white flame invisible to the naked eye but lethal enough to melt flesh and bones in 10 seconds, they also shoot lasers it wont be killing anyone but its job is to blind assailants with range of 1000 meters.
As the sentinels exited the elevator corpses of soldiers from different countries are already mounting up, forcing the to walk over the dead bodies towards Sera’s room in a formation while cutting a swath of bodies as they move forward.
‘’Riot open up!’’ Sera said as she shakily entered the sentinel, feeling finally secured she managed to calm her nerves and started giving commands.
‘’Ashura and Torchlight go outside and block the entrance to this room kill anyone who enters, Banshee go outside and attack anyone pointing a weapon towards the building, Gemini Doc and Vulcan will stay behind’’ the sentinels moved swiftly and efficiently at her commands.
Sera contemplated weather to activate the Power Armours inside the vault but decided against it. there is no reason to alarm everybody that she has backdoor control over them and the army should already be here slowly cleaning up the place, which she wondered how much assailants came. usually after the panic button is pressed it wont even take 5 minutes for first responders to make contact, her thoughts were interrupted by a voice just outside her room.
‘’this is her room no need to preserve them destroy the Power Armours guarding her, well have her making more for us soon enough’’ said a voice in a full body combat suit like a modern day full plate.
As they approached they were shooting heavy machine guns dozens of them anti tank rifles, recoiless rifles, rocket launchers deafening sounds could be heard even from several miles away. The explosions only served as a signal for Sera’s rescuers to go double time as they fought through a makeshift blockade.
Ashura retaliated almost instantly by charging straight into their formation, using threat assessment it started wailing on rocket launchers, while Torchlight blocked the doorway and flooded the hallway with fire only avoiding Ashura… of course it was an eerie sight to see flesh while people scream being burned by invisible flames.
As the minutes goes by gunshots and explosions are becoming fewer and fewer and the corpses laid down broken until. Another group of soldiers came towards the room given pause by it guards, Glenn and several soldiers have seen the devastation the sentinels have wrought to the invaders.
‘’Professor Sera Hawke its me Glenn move the Power Armours away… its over now the area is secured we need to get you out of here now!, the media will be soon swarming this place its an international disaster!’’ Glenn said with a slight hint of panic in his voice as he saw the 4 meter tall beast of a metal guarding the door with signs of scars from the extreme firefight.
Riot slowly moved towards Glenn with the others following behind her, Riot’s chest opened up revealing Sera and said ‘’What happened!? what is going on is it war already!?’’ she asked as her chest heaved up and down.
‘’No not yet but close enough, someone tried to break in to the vault and caused a chain reaction amongst multiple spies placed around the vicinity by multiple foreign powers under the pretense of safeguarding their own purchase’’ Glenn said uncomfortably not daring to look Sera in the eye as he knew he might be the very source of this disaster.
“I got word from the General and he said there is no need for the presentation and you need to throw the Power Armours to their respective buyers ASAP, there are so many dead foreign agents here the sale is going to make a buffer giving us time to prepare what their reaction to this would be!’’
After hearing that, Sera remotely opened the vault and have them loaded into trucks for her buyers/investors, the truck are well disguised and built in GPS that can drive automatically directly to their embassies, all would they do now is to grit their teeth and await for the aftermath that is to come their way..
Shaken through her core Sera Hawke formulated a series of plans to escape she already fulfilled her duties and obligations, using the holographic interface she simultaneously ordered supplies from the nearest stores to be delivered in a undisclosed location.
Within 5 hours most of the supplies already arrived judging that it is enough she already left with haste not waiting for the rest of the delivery her private cargo plane flew on autopilot, she had a bunker within the Bermuda triangle, for some reason signals get jammed in the area most of the time accompanied with its legends very few would travel in that place much less intentionally comb it.
But…. when it rains it pours just as Hawke was about to relax alarms in the cargo plane are ringing they she is being pinged jet fighters are hot on her tail and have unleashed a barrage of missiles on her.
‘’deploy counter measures!, activate phalanx turret destroy anything within range’’ she shouted as she looked on the monitor while entering Banshee.
Majority of the missiles were shot down or have been evaded by flares but dozens of jet fighters have appeared on radar some added to hunt her down but some helped her fight the others off. “damn after all these years now that they got what they want I’m a loose end in their political and military posturing… I am sooo right in putting that backdoor’’
Sera then activated the backdoor system and marked all military and political figures of the countries who sent jet fighters against her, now the Power Armours are Trojan horses waiting for their targets.
As she was busy loading targets to their databases the fight in the air are still going for each downed fighter jet another would be deployed to replace it, all this while the cargo plane is sustaining damage pressure is already lost in the cabin, while Sera cant feel any of it she has directed Vulcan to engage enemy Jet fighters, unfortunately accuracy wasn't one of Vulcan’s it just unleashed a hail of barrage which downed a handful of enemies.
Ammunition's running low the cargo plane is heavily damaged so much so that normal landing would be impossible, and when the flares ran out the auto pilot climbed to maximum height and hide in the dark clouds where storm seems to be brewing.
The storm came at an opportune moment as it scrambled signals from jet fighters and now they are firing by sight meaning no lock on from their missiles. But the limit has finally come, too much damage has been sustained by the vessel and it has now stalled, free falling from the sky and it became target practice for the enemies.
Allied fighter jets are hard pressed defending the cargo plane they were too focused of fighting of enemies that they didn’t notice a thunder storm hitting the area more frequently as the time goes by until one big fat lightning strike hit the falling cargo plane that sent it in a fiery blaze spiraling down and more of its parts are being stripped piece by piece, until the whole area is covered in thick fog and black smoke at 3,000 feet Sera Hawke jumped out of the vessel, inside Banshee while the others are huddled together as they used maximum thruster to slow down their descent at 500 feet their fuel are empty and they fell from the sky.
As they landed heavily on the soft soil almost mud in nature that helped soften their landings they still sustained damages not only from the crash but also from being hit by stray bullets from enemy jet fighters and allies alike.
Sera saw the damage of the landing luckily majority of them only have damages from waist below specially Ashura its weight has not been helpful to it, she then ordered Gemini Doc to start repairing until Sera could hear noises from the distant metals clashing and people shouting.
“t-they couldn’t have found me already have they?’’ she thought nervously that she never realized that this place is no longer the Bermuda Triangle. She couldn't connect to the internet or GPS.
The area is thick with tall trees and large patches of grasslands there are corpses nearby wearing full plate armour, broken swords , shields and other curiosities Sera could not be bothered to notice as they just fell from the sky.
She looked at the other sentinels and see them still being repaired Sera turned on the optical camouflage and flew towards the noise to investigate at the height of 1,000 meters Sera Hawke was stunned wide eyed and cannot believe what she is seeing right now balls of fire explode in the grounds forked lightnings chased the flying reptilian creatures, soldiers in formation marching steadily to clash against the opposition.