[5]
Xandesh fired multiple projectiles in a frantic mode, capturing Grelda and Akym, as he pulled himself close to the three. A sudden electrical shock stunned his machine. Benji and Havana had arrived with their machines.
As Akym was having some concussion and a painful headache after the knowledge transfer. He fell down.
“Argh~! Annoying pests!” Xandesh sent out commands to the other attacker drones to ambush them in return for their intrusion.
“Help Grel!” Old Doc shouted.
[4]
While Benji countering the attacker drones, Havana saw half of the baby’s head already came out from Grelda. She jumped out from her machine, which turned back to a motorbike. Gently, she held the baby’s head, while Grelda roared in intense pain, pushing the baby out.
Original Post: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51152/tales-of-teleios
“LEAVE! LEAVE NOW! PLEASE! TAKE THE BABY AWAY! FOR SAFETY! LEAVE” Grelda cried in pain and tears. Pressing the desire to hug, to kiss and even to take a look at the infant that had been living in them for the past 9 months. The new life, with their own new soul, Grelda heard the little weep of the baby.
“Havana! You are the fastest! Please take the baby and ESCAPE!”
[3]
Tying a knot on the umbilical cord and cutting it with the fire of a bullet with the gun on her hand, Havana opened her own jacket and tucked the baby to her skin and zipped the jacket.
“I CAN’T, I CAN’T LEAVE but I HAVE TO!” Controlling her tears, Havana knew clearly, she had to leave no matter how much she hated leaving her people behind. Jumping straight onto her motorbike, rolling the full trotter, dashing through the attacker drones which trying to stop her, she escaped. When the attacker drones trying to chase after her, Benji came to take them down. As his machine was already in low power state, he used the two large staves to stab on the drones, stealing their battery power to charge his own.
[2]
“My… my prototypes! The baby! It’s all your fault! And I’m running out of time! I’m gonna take all your souls!” Xandesh aggressively hits the hologram buttons on his cockpit screen. With his 10 years old body, he behaves just like an immature ignorant child.
The system started to tore Old Doc’s soul compartment which made him jerking uncontrollably and screaming, crying but laughing.
“NO! MY SOUL SHALL NOT LEAVE MY BODY! HA HA HA!”
“Do you know what is the best way to die?” Old Doc asked with a painful smirk etched on his old wrinkly face.
“It’s to die of old age! And you’ve avoided that shit! Xandesh Petrovich, you silly! Mwahaha!”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Xandesh was panicked, he himself was once an old soul that had skipped death by taking over a young boy’s body. He never believed in death!
[1]
“I disagree! Old Doc!” Grelda, still panting, climbed to the fallen Akym, pulled out the knife which he stabbed on his own left thigh.
“Argh!” The pain woke him up, but that was not Grelda’s aim.
“Huh? Grel?” Old Doc confused.
“The best way to die… is TO SACRIFICE GLORIOUSLY FOR LOVE!” Grelda climbed towards Xandesh’s drone, stabbed the knife on the cockpit screen. Realizing there was no harm to the machine, Grelda extended towards the drone’s turbine. Roaring in pain, the propeller sucked the whole arm in but the body damaged the propeller, causing the machine to lose balance.
“Hahaha! You’re right, Grel! May our souls return to God!” Old Doc closed his eyes, he took his final breath as he had reached his limit.
[Code 3… Activated]
Blood splatter out from the turbine, but it started to turn into gray dusk in the air. As the Code 3 atomic bots were already working their way to turn everything into ashes.
“NO! There’s only nothing! Nothingness if the soul is gone! IT’s GONE! NOTHING!” Xandesh screamed.
While still fighting the numerous attacker drones, Benji started to feel strange as he saw some of them turned into ashes. When he flew his machine up higher, the scenery set him into extreme horror. Spots of circle desert started to appear. The trees and even the rivers were all turned into sand. The circled area got larger and larger, not a single animal able to escape.
As he rushed back down to the workshop, he saw the circle pile of sand taken away Xandesh, Grelda and the already departed Old Doc. Departed. But Akym activated a hologram screen from a fallen attacker drone. With speed, he kept typing on the hologram keyboard and the code continuously tested and executed itself.
“Kym, we must leave now!”
“We won’t be able to escape! Nobody… nobody ever able to escape unless…”
“Unless? Unless what?”
With all the knowledge from Old Doc transferred to him, it uncovered a part of the muscle memory of his originator, Vybranny. He was the one who coded the WMD Code 3. Only he knew how to stop it, else, there would be no return. But Akym was not Vybranny after all. He do not possess the full set of his memory key. All he can try is to rely on the typing muscle memory to hack the Code 3.
Benji was stunned, standing and watching Akym, confused and sad at the same time. He knew the Akym he adored had full control of his own. But staying in the area trying to hack Code 3 means either he himself will get destroyed if he fails.
“I am his 3rd generation clone, I am the upgraded version of him. I must be able to hack and defuse his code!”
“I must be able to do something…” Sweat kept flowing from his forehead as Benji’s machine died out of battery and he walked out of the cockpit. As part of his body started to disappear, Benji wanted to approach Akym, but was scared that the Code 3 bots would take him as his arms slowly turned into ashes…
Akym getting nervous, his heart pumping as he knew he was their only hope. The surroundings started to distort while he continued to type and test and execute, until his mind went completely overly depressed, he yelled and beat the metallic drone with both of his arms in anger.
----------------------------------------
As Havana dashed beyond the boundary of the jungle, she heard a large explosion. Kicking the break and turning the bike, she looked back. The faint scent of ozone hit her nose. As a sense of relief followed up and made peace with her emotions. The desert circle stopped growing. Unzipped her jacket, the little head tried to suck her breast. Too bad she was not lactating though. She needed to find help from the dispersed surviving Fringe people to help her out on this new tiny life.
“What should I call you?”
“Human, we have been focused on ways to frame the future we desire. Through empirical analysis, we interpret our future based on our past. What is good and what is bad? Will eliminating the bad make the future any better? Why should we ask “Who am I”? Or should we ask “When am I?” In the rise and the fall of time, we are no longer our previous form. It is no longer about what is good or what is bad. But now, baby is baby, baby is not Grelda. Although you inherited the complete set of Grel’s genetic, your soul only belongs to you alone. Therefore, you are unique to yourself.”
“Juno.”
The end