[USER ACTIVITY DETECTED]
[ENGAGING COUNTERMEASURES . . .]
[WARNING! DAYS SINCE LAST REBOOT: 99999999-]
[ERROR]
[STARTING UP IN SAFE MODE]
[PLEASE WAIT . . .]
[SUCCES-
Pain.
That’s the first thing he felt.
Like millions of needles stabbing him, skewering him like pork on a stick, again and again. It wasn’t pleasant, that was for sure. On the contrary, it was a bit annoying. Like a leg or arm had fallen asleep on an interstate road trip to Disneyland, only this time, there wasn’t any fun incoming.
Jacob slightly flexed his limbs, which proved to be a mistake. It felt as though he worked out nonstop for hours, went to sleep, didn’t move for days, and just then decided to go for a run, which was slightly similar to the actual situation. It wasn’t like the nice sensation of stretching after a long night of good sleep, but more like every muscle in his body was on fire.
“Ow.” Jacob tried to say, only for the muscles in his face to cry out.
Jacob wasn’t going to be deterred by a little pain, however, so he pushed through it, flexing and stretching his muscles as much as he could while he was restrained. It hurt quite a bit, but after about ten seconds of doing that, it had faded to just annoying soreness. Jacob hadn’t really felt like that before, so it was a bit concerning that he just now felt like this, and the fact that alarms were blaring didn’t really make it better.
And the door was opening as well, hooray. And while it wasn’t moving at the agonizingly slow pace that it used to move at all those centuries ago, it wasn’t exactly speeding along either. And to make matters worse, a copious amount of fog and steam continued to obscure his vision, making everything appear as though he was in an 80s rock concert with all the smoke, or just California.
Huh, what if the smoke was because of something burning? While Jacob couldn’t smell anything burning, perhaps the sheer amount of disinfectants that had been slathered all around the chamber prevented Jacob from smelling anything but that. Speaking of, you would think that he would become immune to the smell of bleach and disinfectant, but no, his nostrils sadly remained in perfectly good condition, making Jacob put up with the burning sensation of having chlorine and cleaning chemicals constantly assaulting his nasal passageways.
Why they didn’t come up with a new disinfectant that didn’t scald his nose, Jacob didn’t know. He only knew that he still couldn’t see a damn thing. He couldn’t tell if the door was open all the way, or if it had opened at all. He thought he had seen the door’s pace, but now he wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light. Suddenly, without warning, the hissing noise stopped, and fog stopped streaming into the chamber.
Without the hazard obscuring his vision, Jacob could see the cloud clearing up, allowing him to see that the door was indeed all the way open. Also, now that the hissing noise had stopped, Jacob became painfully aware of a new threat; migraines.
Like a silent predator, it struck, a dagger in the night. A jackhammer relentlessly pounding on his skull, every movement aggravating it. However, Jacob had plenty of experience with headaches, and so the only outward reaction to this one was a twitch of his head, not dignifying this invader with even a gasp of pain.
Jacob gathered his thoughts, focusing on the outside world. Looking at the open door, Jacob could see two figures standing outside the pod. And while their outlines were a bit muddled, Jacob saw some really odd shapes and bulges along them, something that looked humanoid, but wasn’t. Eh, must be a trick of the fog. Jacob just remained still, waiting for the cloud to fully clear up.
And clear up it did, presenting Jacob with a rather interesting sight.
Instead of two people in hazmat suits, Jacob’s brain had to play catch-up for a second to register just what he was seeing.
Two humanoid figures, but if what he thought he was seeing was true, then they were anything but human. Enlarged heads, conical wrists, LED glowing faces, and wearing what looked suspiciously like the soldier's uniform of a certain trapezoidal-mustached angry man, complete with silver buttons and armbands. However, instead of having a color palette of red, black, and white, the armband had a primary color of yellow with black lines that were arranged in the shape of something that Jacob couldn’t really see in his current position. But why robots were just chilling in front of him, and why the one on the left was staring wide-eyed at him, while the other one on the right looked like he was looking anywhere but him, was beyond Jacob.
Jacob looked back and forth between the two for a moment, waiting for someone to say something.
Nobody said anything.
Deciding to be the one to leap into the unknown, Jacob cleared his throat, startling the one that appeared to be shocked by Jacob’s very existence. The one on the right finally decided to look at Jacob as well.
“So uh, how's it going?” Jacob asked plainly.
The one on the left was silent for a moment, before realizing that was their cue to talk.
“Uh, you’re alive.” Left stated. Jacob figured that it was a girl by her voice. Why a robot would have a gender was beyond him.
“I think so, but uh, you never know these days. Mind uh, telling me what’s going on?” Jacob asked.
“Er, I suppose. You see-” The left one began, but was cut off.
“Oh wow, uh, mind also telling me why a bunch of robots are dead? I mean, I get decorations and the like, but this is a bit much.” Jacob’s gaze wandered behind and around the pod, where he could see the dismembered parts of what looked like more robots. Also, was that a machine gun?
“Well, these drones were, uh, keeping you captive, and so we had to, uh rescue you.” She kept stuttering and pausing during her statement.
“Huh. Why was I being held captive?” Jacob was getting a bit confused with the lack of information.
“Well, it's a long story . . .” She said.
“Well, I have plenty of time. I think.” Jacob suddenly was worried about the lack of humans, but that was a time for later. Hopefully.
“Well, you see . . .”
* * *
“. . . and so we broke into this room, killed all these chumps, and then we heroically saved you. I believe a thanks is in order.” X finished with a graceful bow.
The pair had spent the better part of half an hour explaining all of the relevant events that had occurred while he was asleep, with the worker drone revolt, the purpose of the disassembly drones, how the planet had been wiped clean of almost all biological life, and every single human, save for him. The two had swapped the role of storyteller multiple times, with X butting in most of the time, and K having to wrest control of the narrative back from him. They had also introduced themselves to Jacob, so he didn’t have to call them Left and Right anymore. Why anybody would call robots Left and Right as anything more than a placeholder for a real name didn’t really make sense to Jacob, but that was beside the point.
“Uh, thanks I guess.” Jacob looked around. “By the way, on a completely unrelated note, how's the air quality?”
K froze. “Uh, we aren’t sure. Are you not breathing well?”
Jacob shrugged. “Not that I would notice it. I feel fine, pretty much.”
“Either way, we should probably get moving.” K turned to X. “Give me the map.”
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll direct. And would you look at that, there’s a sealed changing room just over there.” X looked up from the tablet to point to a room in the outside hallway.
“Are you sure that there’s still working suits in there? I don’t wanna go outside, thinking that I’m gonna be fine, only to breathe in a lungful of cold nitrogen or whatever makes up the atmosphere now.” Jacob inquired.
X shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”
The trio walked into the hallway, with Jacob making note of the countless scorch and claw marks decorating the walls and floor, with corpses being the bow on top. A busted open door revealed a dimly lit room, the interior being one of murky darkness. However, the darkness lessened the closer it got to the trio due to some light source, illuminating small parts of the room. Jacob looked towards the source of the light, it being the yellow glowing LED eyes of both K and X, the former of which looked towards him expectantly.
“Well, here we are.” K motioned ahead. “Why’d you stop?”
“I can’t see.” Jacob stated.
K blinked. “Oh. I forgot that uh . . . here, X can help you. I’ll watch the door.” K retreated to the sole source of effective light.
X blinked at the speed of the exchange. “Uh, sure, I guess. Come on, let’s search the walls or something.”
Jacob followed X into the room, feeling a bit awkward at how this whole debacle was currently going. One might think that Jacob would have a more outward reaction to the whole, “Oh, everybody on the planet is dead, I’m the last one left in this place, the aboveground looks like your average Russian northern city, and futuristic sentient war machines are escorting me out of the facility to try and save me!” but Jacob had a tendency to not be surprised anymore. Constantly waking up to a whole new world that looked nothing like what it did a few days ago will do that to a person.
X stopped at a locker, opening it to reveal a hazmat suit hanging on the wall by two hooks that were holding it up by the arms. The suit appeared to be made out of a rubbery substance, with the head covered by a glass visor and a breathing apparatus. It didn’t look to have any tears or rents, and a display on the side reported that the suit was in full working condition. Jacob wondered for a moment about how and why the suits were still in perfectly good condition, but he supposed that the drones that had inhabited this place were fixing them up, before these questionably emotional descendants of an MQ-9 Reaper obliterated most of the populace. However, the suit looked kinda goofy
“I’m not putting that on.” Jacob glared at the hated suit.
“Uh, why?” X looked back at Jacob in confusion.
“Would you wear that?” Jacob gestured towards the locker’s contents.
“Nah, you’re right, let’s keep looking.” X closed the locker.
“I’m gonna assume that the only type of hazmat suit in this room is that kind, so how about we go to another room.” Jacob suggested.
“Ugh, fine. I guess we can go look.” X swiveled, turning back towards the doorway.
“Yo, K!” He called out.
“You found one!?” K peeked her head into the room.
“Nah, we’re gonna look for another one.” X called back.
“What!? You’re telling me that this entire room is filled with nothing but broken hazmat suits!?” K stepped fully into view.
“Nope, they all just look bad.” X justified his reasoning with this very reasonable statement.
“Are you kidding me!? The human is just gonna refuse to wear something that doesn’t fit his fancy!?” K wasn’t placated by X.
“I’m uh, right here you know.” Jacob interjected.
“Oh uh, sorry.” K’s gaze jerked to Jacob, and then back to X. “Anyway, uh, I forgot what I was gonna say.”
X nodded sagely. “Must be a sign. Let's go find another suit room.”
* * *
The trio spent about fifteen minutes searching for a suit that fit Jacob’s standards, which seemed to be quite high. The majority of the rooms closest to the cryo chamber were just filled with the same old rubbery-plastic suits that looked more like what the little astronauts of a certain social deception game that was released when Jacob was still known to the outside world as alive, but even speaking of that lowered Jacob’s mental stability by a considerable amount, so he immediately purged any and all thoughts of it from his head, and continued to search for something that wouldn’t make Jacob seem pretty sus-
No.
Finally, our dauntless protagonists came across a locked door that had a glowing sign above it that read, “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY” in bold lettering, which X promptly ignored by tearing three rents in the obstacle without hesitation.
“Huh.” Was Jacob’s only outward reaction.
The trio stepped into the room, which appeared to be an armory of sorts. Guns rested on the walls behind locked bars, along with many other fancy tools of destruction that looked fun. Lockers lined the walls, with assorted sleek black armor pieces littering the floor, giving the room a rather messy appearance. A few guns also rested on the floor, but nobody made any move to pick them up.
“Well this is different.” K remarked.
“Yep. Let's get on with it.” Jacob said.
They walked to one of the lockers, which was guarded by an electronic lock. However, the impediment was quickly remedied by a slash of X’s claws, with the locker door creaking open as he did that. Jacob probably would’ve rebuked X for nearly taking his face off, seeing as he rather liked having them, if his eyes hadn’t been resting on the contents of said locker.
Jet black, like most of the armor in the complex, with slight lines showing where the interlocking plates met. Practically zero exposure above the ribs, all covered by the same dark material. The helmet didn’t have a plastic visor, instead replacing the weak point with a pointed plate, whose only source of outward sight appeared to be two dark glassy lines that ran horizontal through the faceplate, before meeting in the middle, forming a “V” shape. Broad shoulders, stark edges, Jacob was reminded of a character in a game about an engineer stuck in the dead outer reaches of the galaxy, trying to escape a planet cracker infested with eldritch abominations that never should’ve existed, along with a franchise about a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist that makes a cool exosuit. But, alas, such things were never meant to be.
“It’s too big.” X said, closing the door.
“Oh come on. Where can I find one of these in my size?” Jacob whined.
“I dunno. We can look, I guess. You’re fine with this?” X asked.
“Yep. Let's start now.” Jacob pointed at the locker to the right of the one they had just closed. “That one next.”
* * *
“Noice.” Jacob said.
The display on the side of the locker said that the suit was five feet and eight inches tall, which made Jacob start to wonder why this society, which was over a thousand years in the future according to his compatriots, still used the imperial standard. His best guess was that the person who used to use this locker had personalized the settings to imperial, but it still raised the question as to why imperial measurements still existed, or it might just be mixed, which was more acceptable to Jacob.
Either way, Jacob was five foot eight last time he checked, so it should fit him fairly well, a theory he would soon test.
“Uh, how do I use this?” Jacob asked no one in particular.
“Why are you asking me? I’m not a fragile human, so I don’t need to use armor.” X replied.
“I wasn’t- whatever.” Jacob tapped the display on the side of the locker, opening up a menu.
However, as soon as his hand got near the exosuit, it clicked once. Jacob’s hand froze, stilling in midair. The suit clicked again, before making a buzzing noise. A display popped into life on the chest of the suit, showing the outline of a hand. Jacob, being the genius that he was, placed his hand on the reader. This proved to be the right course of action, as the suit’s chest and helmet folded outward, exposing the inner cavity of the armor.
“Fancy.” Jacob murmured, glancing behind him to see the two deadly instruments of destruction, who were standing awkwardly waiting for him to do something.
Jacob obliged, stepping into the suit, making sure he was facing the right way. After all, he didn’t really want to turn into a mess of broken bones, right? The suit clicked again, before sealing itself, ensconcing Jacob in a cocoon of metal.
The interior was dark for a moment, reminding him of that moment right when you wake up from a dream, and your eyes are still closed, the sheer blackness seemingly infinite. Then, displays glowed to life, relieving Jacob of the dark abyss. He was also graced with a view of the outside world, allowing him to see X and K, with the latter leaning around X to get a better view of Jacob.
“Yo.” Jacob said, jerking his head up and down.
“Oh good, thought you died for a second.” X remarked.
“I’m too good for that.” Jacob replied.
“Is everything alright? How's your oxygen and suit integrity?” K interjected.
“Well, no alerts are showing up, so I think I’m fine.” Jacob looked around the locker. “Can you move? I kinda wanna get out.”
“Ah, sorry.” K said, before backing up with X.
Jacob stepped out of the locker, noticing the significant increase in his height, and how it compared to the pair who were now looking up at him. Before, the difference wasn’t that noticeable, with K being maybe five foot six and X an inch taller, but now, Jacob’s height had increased a few inches for sure, with Jacob putting his height at an inch below six foot now. And while he wasn’t exactly towering over the disassembly drones, Jacob wasn’t really seeing them eye-to-eye as of right now.
“Good, good, great, now can we get moving? It’s been so long, and I’m really getting tired of doing nothing.” X complained.
“Calm down, we’re leaving now.” K assured X.
“Hold up, one last thing I need.” Jacob walked over to the locked rack of guns.
He gripped the lock tightly, before yanking on it with as much force as Jacob could bring to bear. The lock flew off with ease, deforming under the enhanced grip of Jacob. He then lifted up the bars, exposing the firearms behind.
“Oh, yeah, that's alright.” X completely understood.
* * *
The security camera zoomed in on the group traveling through the halls, unmolested by any sort of resistive force. The drone manning the camera had another drone leaning over his seat, both staring intently at the screen.
“And so we’re just gonna let them leave!?” Somebody could be heard yelling in the background.
“Yes, we are. As much as I hate it, we don’t have enough men left to completely overwhelm them, and even if we did, the likelihood of the asset being killed would be far too high.” The General replied.
“And whose fault is that? Instead of sending all of our forces to eliminate them in one big push, YOU just let them carve a path through the complex!” The Lead Engineer accused.
“We hardly had any time to even grasp the severity of the threat! And besides, I didn’t see you doing anything!” The General shot back.
“What do you expect, for us to have charged those things with our plasma cutters!? We aren’t meant for combat, that's your job!” The Lead Engineer shouted incredulously.
“You- whatever, fighting isn’t going to do us any good. We need to plan for the eventual recapture of the stolen asset.” The General got up, with the Lead Engineer following suit.
“Agreed. But pray tell, how?” The Lead Engineer inquired.
“That's something we need to talk about in private.” The General replied.
* * *
The pair were sitting down on opposite sides of a long table, joined by several other high ranking members of the complex. And this little meeting requires a bit of explanation on the chain of command in the facility.
On the very bottom of the command pyramid, which was more like a lopsided diamond, you had the bad boys. Drones who had messed up so badly that they were being disciplined for their reckless actions, or defective drones who were deemed too problematic to stay in the same state that they were currently in, and were now in the process of being reprogrammed. Then, one layer above that, you had the majority of the population, the assorted masses. They existed to follow orders, and were generally seen as grunts and cannon fodder for the higher ups. Not much to say there,
Going up, you had another layer, this one more complicated than the others. This one contained the officer caste, the middle men between the leaders and the general populace. You either had an upper officer, or a lower officer. The lower officers took more of a supervisor role, general command over the grunts, and were tasked with keeping them in line. The higher officers were more like managers, supervising the supervisors while planning and organizing lower functions of the complex. They were tasked with taking the leadership’s commands and filtering them into things that the supervisors can give out. They existed as a buffer between the leadership and the lower castes, oiling the gears for better transmission, so to speak.
Then, you had the top of the pyramid, the big fish. This group was the smallest, consisting of only seven drones in total, each of whom taking on different roles. The ministers were the second-highest position in the facility, being in charge of their assigned specialities. For instance, the Minister of Power handled all matters related to power, if they weren’t special enough to require the input of the administrators. They could give out commands to change the flow of power, to choose what areas could be powered, and other assorted matters relating to the usage and production of power.
There were three ministers on the side of the worker drones, all overseeing matters directly related to the upkeep and maintenance of the facility, while the military drones oversaw the combative strategic and military side of the complex. For example, the Minister of Military Logistics managed the movement and use of all combat-related tools, not to be confused with the Minister of Construction Logistics, who oversaw the management and use of all tools that relate to the worker drone side. The military side only had two ministers, both of whom only reporting to their respective administrator, with the worker side doing the same.
Two administrators were in the facility, of those you already know. The General was in charge of all things directly related to military matters, while the Lead Engineer was in charge of all things directly related to facility maintenance and upkeep. The two sides didn’t interfere that much with each other, only cooperating on problems that require the input of both, or fighting over matters that lie in the small gray area between them. There were plenty of small sub-groups and sections within the layers already stated, but that is the general gist of things.
And now, resuming back into the story, the General and the Lead Engineer were both giving a presentation. They had gotten up from their seats, and were standing on either sides of a large screen.
“-and as you all know, we have suffered immense casualties.” The General said, flicking to the next slide, which showed a pie graph of the facility's old population.
“This is how many drones we had before the intruders came,” The Lead Engineer flicked to the next slide. “And this is how many we had after.”
The next slide showed a pie graph the same size as the last one, just with considerably smaller numbers.
The General spoke up. “Of the five thousand military drones we had onsite, only 4.235% survived the recent assault in working condition, leaving us with two hundred eleven soldiers,” The General paused before continuing. “And three quarters, still combat ready-”
One of the military ministers raised her hand.
The General sighed. “Yes, Alicia?”
“Erm, what do you mean by ‘three quarters’? How is that possible?” She asked.
“Well, one of our soldiers managed to escape an attack from the intruders, but not unscathed. He lost an arm for his trouble, which was much less than what many of our men can say for themselves, if they could still talk. In fact, on that note, he is one of the only people who managed to survive an attack with only an injury, and the only one of those injured to be able to continue fighting. And before you ask, the other two that survived the attack but were still injured cannot currently walk.” The General finished.
Alicia nodded, satisfied.
The Lead Engineer cleared his throat. “Anyway, of the seven thousand worker drones stationed here, only seventy seven are still alive, with all of them in working condition, which means that out of the exactly twelve thousand drones inhabiting this facility, only about 2.4063% of them survived, leaving us with two hundred eighty eight . . . and three quarters . . . men left to deal with this disaster.” The Lead Engineer finished.
The ministers looked worriedly amongst each other. While they had already known the losses on their own respective sides, it appeared as though they had expected their counterparts to have fared better in the face of this disaster.
“Now, I’m sure all of you are wondering what our next course of action is, and while I do have an answer for you all, I’m not sure if you’ll like it.” The Lead Engineer flicked to the next slide, which appeared to be showing a photo of a tear in a chamber.
“As you all know, a few days before the intruders began their attack, we had a malfunction with our computer systems which led to the majority of our reactor battery cells being compromised, cutting the facility’s power expectancy down from many years to just a few months.” The Lead Engineer paused for a moment to gauge the reactions of his audience. “These circumstances still stand, and will continue to remain that way for the foreseeable future, as we cannot find a solution to this problem, and likely won’t find one before our power runs out.”
The Lead Engineer looked back towards the General, who gave him a nod. “That, along with the fact that our asset is now in enemy hands, with those enemy hands departing from the facility, the difficult decision has been made to order a full evacuation of the facility, effective as soon as the command is given.”
The room was silent for a moment, before erupting into protest.
“What!?”
“We’ll die!”
“But I left my marbles in my room!”
“We don’t even know what the outside looks like!”
These complaints were silenced by a gunshot ringing out.
“Quiet! We share the same worries as you, and while I could give a long-winded and reasonable explanation as to why we are leaving, I’m not. Pack your bags, ladies and gentlemen, because we are going for a trip.” The General holstered his pistol. “This meeting is adjourned.”
The two administrators walked out, leaving the room in stunned silence.
“We're screwed.” Alicia remarked.
* * *
“Hurry up!” A shout rang out.
The trio were slowly climbing up a long elevator shaft, using the maintenance ladder to ascend. And while K and X could’ve just flown up, a certain someone prevented that.
“I’m trying my best here! I can’t really fly, you know!” Jacob called back.
“Doesn’t matter! You said that you didn’t want to be carried, so I told you that you had to go faster, and now look at you! You couldn’t go slower!” X yelled from below him.
“Quiet, both of you! Just because those drones didn’t attack us earlier doesn’t mean they won’t right now!” K interjected.
“Oh whatever! At this rate, I’ll gladly welcome them, I’m so bored!” X grumbled.
“Well my arms are tired, we’re all suffering here! Deal with it.” Jacob called back down.
The only reply was the groaning of X, which Jacob ignored.
The shaft was quiet for a moment, the only noise being the clanking of ladders. However, after about thirty seconds of this silence, it was once again broken.
“I’m bored.” X said.
“Yes, I know, and I don’t care.” K replied.
“No, I’m REALLY bored. I can’t take it anymore, at this rate anything will entertain me.” X complained again.
“Too bad.” K called out.
“I’m being serious.”
Silence.
“Hello?” X called down.
“Will you just continue to pester me?” K finally asked.
“Yes.” X plainly answered.
“Ugh, fine. What do you wanna talk about?” K relented.
“I dunno.” X shrugged.
“So you want to talk about something, but you don’t know what to talk about?” K seemed quite annoyed.
“Yes.” X replied again.
“You’re an idiot.” K accused.
“What? How? I’m one of the smartest people on the planet!” X cried out.
“I seriously doubt that.” K said.
“Well that's just the way it is. Deal with it.” X said with a superior tone. “What about the human? What does he have to say?”
Jacob looked down towards the arguing disassembly drones. “About what?”
X shrugged. “Anything. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was bored.”
“I don’t really have much to say.” Jacob really didn’t have much to say, considering how he spent the last thousand years.
“I’m sure something was interesting.” X insisted.
Jacob searched his memory, which was a bit fuzzy when he tried to recall his stay in the facility.
“Well?” X asked again.
“I guess there was one thing.” Jacob begrudgingly relented.
“Nice.” X sounded satisfied.
“I was in the cryo pod for a while, over one thousand years if your dates are correct. I was woken up every decade by the scientists for them to make sure I was in working order. Over that time the facility staff obviously were changed out a lot, due to them not having long enough lifespans to stay in that position for long, compared to a thousand years. So, one time, when the administrator of the experiment died, she was replaced by another guy, B . . . something, I can’t remember his name, for some reason. Anyway, this guy seemed pretty friendly at first, maybe a bit too friendly, now that I’m looking back on it. He always gave me weird vibes.”
Jacob looked down at X and K, who had both stopped climbing.
“Why’d you both stop climbing?” He asked.
Seemingly chastened by the question, they resumed climbing, with Jacob continuing his story.
“So yeah, next time I woke up, the place around me felt really weird. Like the air was full of tension, like people were gonna snap into violence at any time. That was also weird, considering I never really picked up on that kind of stuff before. Eh, whatever. I went about my normal routine, met with that B person, and went back to sleep. But uh, next time I woke up, it seemed like my observations had some truth in them. My pod opened up, and alarms were blaring. The chamber was bathed in red light, and it took me a second to realize that gunfire was erupting all around me.” Jacob ran out of breath, so he took another one.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Yep, a full on gunfight, happening all around me. I think people were coming into the chamber, shooting up the place like it was the American Midwest, and some guards were shooting back at them. And to make matters worse, supposedly I took a stray bullet.”
“Heh.” Was X’s only reply.
“Heh indeed. Afterwards, it seemed like everything went back to normal, with the exception of a lot more guards. They never told me what happened, and the only thing I could get out of some of the scientists was that the old administrator was part of it. Best guess I could come up with was that they wanted to kidnap me or something, but that would imply me being of extreme importance-”
“Actually, you never told us WHY you were being held there, what's so special about you?” X interjected.
“Your guess is probably as good as mine.” Jacob lied.
While Jacob didn’t plan to leave or betray his benefactors anytime soon, he would be making a severe lapse in judgment if he just took their story at face value. After all, if these and the other robots both wanted nothing more than to guarantee Jacob’s well being, then why did they fight? People, or rather drones, on the same side usually don’t kill each other for reasons unknown to Jacob. And so, Jacob didn’t really intend to reveal his little secret, as he planned to find out for himself why him, a teenaged boy with a cool tumor, required an amount of guards that you would regularly see in a military base, not in an innocent medical research project that just so happened to be funded by the CIA, or whatever stood in for the CIA these days.
“So uh, that's it?” X asked.
“Pretty much, yeah.” Jacob replied.
“Just stay quiet X, you’ll live.” K interjected.
“Eh, it's fine. I guess I can tell more stories.” Jacob relented.
“Oh nice. What’ll it be?” X questioned.
“Well there was this one time . . .” Jacob began.
* * *
The wasteland was cold, obviously. This fact was confirmed by the amount of frost that had accumulated on Jacob’s armor, so much so that, whenever he moved his limbs, a scratching sound could be audibly heard in the deafening silence around him. Jacob had known that it was freezing out, but knowing it and feeling it were two very different things, something that he now knew very well.
“You would think that an advanced combat suit would have better heating systems, but I guess not.” Jacob remarked.
“I imagine that those suits weren’t meant to be used in this kind of weather. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the reason you’re still alive is that suit, since you would be dead from at least the cold if you stepped outside without that.” K dryly replied.
“Oh nice, you decided to talk to me for once. Long time no see, how’s it going?” Jacob said back with an equally dry tone.
“I’m just saying.” K shrugged. “Anyway, X, how long until we reach the halfway point? It's nearly daytime, and I don’t wanna get caught out.”
“Why don’t you wanna get caught out in the sunlight?” Jacob asked.
“The sun kills us.” X answered.
“Ah.” Jacob nodded simply, the cogs turning in his head.
These disassembly drones, the ones that are highly capable war machines and can lay down firepower that rivals the military units from his time, die in the sunlight. Even an idiot can tell you that that is a major problem, and Jacob just couldn’t see how the people who were designing the disassembly drones overlook that huge problem. Their combat opportunities were effectively halved because of it, and it made traveling much harder, though he supposed that they could go wherever they needed to get to within the timespan of nightime. Still, even Jacob, who had barely any inkling of robotics, could think of several solutions to this problem, and how the problem shouldn’t even exist. The sunlight in this place wasn’t nearly hot enough to cause an overheat, and even if it was, their constant consumption of oil should take care of it.
Jacob had to come to the conclusion that perhaps the company behind the disassembly drones didn’t exactly have the drone’s wellbeing in the forefront of their mind, but instead had been actively planning against them from the start. However, there was the possibility that he had gotten it all wrong, and the sunlight problem was just a technical issue that couldn’t be solved in time, so more information and data was required. And plus, more pressing matters were at hand. While the mechanical suit of armor had exponentially increased Jacob’s strength and physical capabilities, he still had to move his limbs to actually get somewhere, and all the running that he had been doing for the better part of several hours was now taking the toll on him.
“Uh,” Jacob began breathlessly. “When are we stopping?”
X didn’t answer Jacob, instead turning towards K. “How long until we reach the halfway point?”
“Let me check- WHAT!” K yelped in surprise.
“What happened?” Jacob asked, slowing down.
“We’ve barely made any headway!” K glared at Jacob.
“What did I do!?” Jacob cried out.
“If you weren’t so slow, then we would’ve been halfway back to our base by now!” K slowed down as well.
“You probably should’ve let us carry you.” X interjected.
“I’m not being carried by anyone, alright!?” Jacob insisted.
“Would've been faster though.” X did a full 360°, before heading off towards a partially collapsed building.
“Now where are you going!?” K asked in exasperation.
“Suns nearly up.” X pointed towards the brightening skyline.
“Oh.” K followed X, with Jacob following suit.
The trio entered the ruin, their footsteps echoing across the silent chamber. Part of the front was broken, rubble replacing a once-strong wall. The place appeared to have been a diner or restaurant of sorts, considering the assorted tables and chairs adorning the room. There was a countertop which had a small area behind that someone could stand in, likely to take orders from customers, however, it appeared as though the employee had been slacking off as of late, considering the frozen skeleton leaning on the counter.
Several other frozen corpses dotted the ruined diner, having been encased in ice to be forever stuck in the positions they were in when they died. Customers were sitting at the tables, a few with smaller, more childlike skeletons sitting next to them. No employee remains could be seen though, the one behind the counter the sole organic being that used to work in this part of the establishment.
K stepped over the employee’s body, entering the kitchen through the door, with Jacob and X following suit. Inside, the kitchen was empty, save for a few frozen plates full of food laying on the floor and counters. Curiously, there were no bodies. Jacob figured that made sense, as robots appeared to have taken over the various tasks that humans used to do to make money. This was one thing that the distant humans of the 21st century had predicted well, which led Jacob to start thinking about his past, which led to thinking about the present, which led to thinking about how the hell he had gotten here. K and X appeared to have gotten into an argument about where to sleep, so Jacob had plenty of time to think about events.
Jacob was the sole living organic being left on this entire planet, a planet that was so far from any form of civilization that in the time that it would take him to get back through conventional means, he would already be dead by the time he arrived. His only company were these two bickering idiots, and one of them seemed like they wanted to kill him already, which was a new record for Jacob. And even if he did get back, he would probably be killed sooner or later due to the government wanting to cover up their involvement in the experiment that, which, a bit of a refresher, essentially took a child, told everybody they were dead, and kept them alive in containment for over a thousand years.
By all means, Jacob was screwed.
* * *
The waiting area, which had been silent for who knows how long, was now bustling with activity.
The many drones that had been inhabiting the underground complex for many years were now evacuating, and by robogod it was messy. For all of the drone’s protocols and intelligence, it seemed as though they had never created one that included the subject of evacuation, or how to evacuate in an orderly fashion. The air was filled with shouts and cries of anger, bodies jostling and bumping into one another.
“Ow, that's my foot!”
“Hey, let go of my stuff!”
“My marbles!”
“Don’t point that at me!”
“You ever wonder . . . if we're real?”
“Waugh! Who dropped their marbles!”
“Somebody killed Jerry! One of you is lying, who is the imposter among us?”
The various officers were courageously trying to keep order amongst the chaos, though their efforts seemed to be for naught. While the situation hadn’t progressed to the point of an all-out gunfight, it was steadily moving towards that.
Two drones looked on in disbelief at the chaos unraveling before their eyes.
“How did this even happen?” The Lead Engineer asked.
“Why’re you asking me? I’m as confused as you are.” The General replied.
The Lead Engineer scowled at the General. “It was rhetorical.”
“I know.” The General said.
The Lead Engineer shook his head, returning his attention to the situation at hand.
“I’m going over there.” He stated.
“You won’t be able to do anything.” The General warned the Lead Engineer.
“I seriously doubt that.” The Lead Engineer replied.
The Lead Engineer walked over to a congregation of worker drones that were entering a heated argument.
“Alright, what's going on over here?” The Lead Engineer glared at the troublesome group.
“This guy stole one of my favorite posters, I swear!” A worker drone pointed towards another that was standing across from him.
“You just left it back at the facility, we all saw it!” The Poster Stealer cried out.
The Lead Engineer, and yes, that is his name, shook his head. “What does the poster look like?”
“Here, it looks like this.” The Posterman took out a rolled-up poster from his back pocket, unrolling it to show the Lead Engineer.
It was fairly colorful with large emboldened text at the top that the Lead Engineer only glimpsed at, it saying something about crafting a mine or whatever. The actual contents of the poster were an assortment of strange blocky figures doing various activities, which included, but were not limited to: jumping into pools, going through weird purple portals, jumping into lava, killing each other, flying, eating stuff that might not even be food, and other assorted things that just didn’t make sense.
“What the hell is this?” The Lead Engineer stared incredulously at the poster.
“What do you mean?” Posterman asked, confused.
“Wait, you said that the poster you lost-” The Lead Engineer began.
“It was stolen.” Posterman interrupted.
“Er, yes, anyway, you said it looks like this poster?” The Lead Engineer questioned.
“Yeah, I did.” Posterman confirmed.
“It looks exactly like this?” The Lead Engineer asked.
“Uh, yeah, why do you ask-?”
Posterman wasn’t able to finish his sentence, as the Lead Engineer yanked his gun out of the holster, shooting Posterman in the head at point-blank range.
The group let out a resounding gasp.
“What the hell man!?”
“He owed me five bucks!”
“Wha- I just woke up, what happened?”
The Lead Engineer didn’t respond to any of the exclamations, just fixing the group with a glare. Getting the message, they backed off, dispersing into the crowd.
The Lead Engineer let out another sigh, before heading back over to where he saw the General last.
After shoving through the crowd for a good five minutes, and having to shoot three more people, he finally reunited with the General.
“Hey.” The Lead Engineer said.
“Hey.” The General replied.
“I fixed the problem.”
“Did you now?”
“Yep, and you said that I wouldn’t be able to.”
“I’m pretty sure I said that you would be able to defuse the situation perfectly.”
“Uh, no you didn’t.”
“Yeah I did.”
“Your memory must be malfunctioning. You clearly said that my efforts would be futile, or something along those lines.”
“Who said what doesn’t matter, what does matter is getting these two hundred eighty eight-” The General began.
“Actually, it's two hundred eighty four.” If the Lead Engineer had glasses, he would be adjusting them right now.
“Ok, two hundred eighty four-” The General began again.
“Two hundred eighty four and three quarters.” The Lead Engineer interrupted again.
“Ok, I get it, two hundred eighty four and three quarters drones, we need to get them sorted out.” The General then seemed to realize something. “Wait, what happened to the four drones that we used to have?”
“What do you mean?” The Lead Engineer inquired.
“Earlier we had two hundred eighty eight . . . and three quarters, drones left, but now we have four less.” The General clarified.
“You must be remembering things wrong again, you should go get your memory checked out.” The Lead Engineer suggested.
“No, we definitely had that many only a little bit ago, and now you're telling me that some just mysteriously disappeared?” The General asked.
“Okay, fine, I shot them.” The Lead Engineer admitted.
The General facepalmed. “You idiot.”
“What!? They were being pretty stupid, so I did what I had to do!” The Lead Engineer cried out.
“We need to conserve our population, you can’t just go around shooting people!” The General yelled.
“You would have done the exact same thing if you were in my situation!” The Lead Engineer shot back.
“No I wouldn’t have!”
“Just last week you tossed three drones into a fifty feet deep hole just because they spilled stuff on your armor.” The Lead Engineer stated dryly.
“I just polished it!” The General replied.
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” The Lead Engineer turned back towards the sea of jostling metal. “Do we still have a clear read on the asset’s location?”
The General nodded. “Yep, the tracker is still running, but the battery isn’t gonna last for more than a week, considering we didn’t charge it right before he left.”
“Good. Once we get everything sorted out here, we should get moving.” The Lead Engineer stated.
“I agree-” The General began. Huh, he really keeps on getting interrupted, doesn’t he?”
A loud gunshot broke through the ruckus, sending the crowd into further disarray. To make matters worse, several more rapid shots chased after the first, officially starting a gunfight.
Both administrators let out a groan in unison, before sprinting into the chaos.
* * *
Jacob couldn’t sleep.
Like, at all.
You would think that he would feel even the slightest amount of drowsiness, but no, while he felt physically tired, his eyes and brain remained in perfect locomotion. Maybe because he had been sleeping intermittently for the past millennium, but that hadn’t really been sleeping. Maybe it had to do with the little trespasser in his head, that was maybe himself, maybe, maybe, mayb-
Jacob didn’t know why he wasn’t feeling very sleepy, but he wasn’t just gonna spend the rest of the night laying in the uncomfortable position that he had assume to try and lay down, but it was a mere facsimile of a resting position, and like he had stated earlier, quite uncomfortable. The armor wasn’t really made for sleeping in, it was more for combative situations, so the plates made it quite difficult to move gracefully and flexibly. And so, he made the wise decision to get up. Truly, a mastermind here.
Stepping over the dented pan lying on the ground, Jacob walked towards the exit, stopping at the doorway to look back into the kitchen. His mechanical compatriots had settled on who would take the countertop spot, with X being the victor. One of his legs was dipping into the sink, with one of his hands finding its home in an upside-down pot. Despite X promising he would take the first watch, he was now fast asleep, doing the exact opposite of his job. Thankfully, Jacob was awake to take his place, and plus, he wasn’t sure if anything wanted to kill him within a radius of a few hundred miles, aside from a certain poorly-designed killing machine in the corner.
Shaking his head at the scene before him, Jacob stepped out into the main dining room, treading as lightly as he could so as to not wake up the two drones in the other room. After nearly putting his foot through a frozen rib cage, Jacob finally exited the empty diner.
The air was cool, well, Jacob thought it was cool, but he couldn’t really confirm it, considering he was wearing a suit. Well, he could feel the cold through the plating and thick fabric of the exosuit, but he guessed he couldn’t determine the exact temperature of the air outside. Oh wait, scratch that, there was a temperature readout on his HUD, so it really did have everything, except for free food. Jacob could really go for some food right now, he hadn’t eaten in about a day. While he had grabbed some rations on his wait out, he hoped to save them for when he really needed it, which wasn’t right now.
But now that he was thinking about it, how would he even eat his food? He couldn’t take off the helmet without breathing in a whole lot of deadly concentrations of all sorts of fun gasses that people’s uncles love to inhale on the regular. Jacob supposed he could try and hold his breath while taking a bite, but the ration bar he took a bite out of would still be freezing cold, and plus, Jacob was still taking a little bit of the aforementioned deadly gasses in his mouth, which he would then swallow, and then die.
Even if he managed to take a bite without getting anything else in his mouth other than the ration, when he put his helmet back on, more gasses would be trapped in his suit, and when he breathed in next time, he would, again, die. The atmosphere cycling system might take care of it, but Jacob wasn’t sure if he could hold his breath for long enough.
But, that’s a problem for Future Jacob.
Jacob gazed off into the boundless skyline, however, absolutely zero noteblock choirs played this time, because that would be stupid, what even is a noteblock anyway? He couldn’t even see the skyline because it was blocked by towering monolithic behemoths made from concrete and steel. Jacob didn’t really know what to do, considering this freezing wasteland didn’t have anything worth doing, as of right now at least. He supposed he could try and play Jenga with some rocks, but that was stupid, and boring. Waking up the others was also out of the equation, as there was a higher chance of getting killed than entertainment, and while the moment before he got his head sliced off might be a moment of thrill, which in turn in also entertaining, it wouldn’t last, and plus, he didn’t want to die just yet.
All in all, Jacob didn’t want to just stand around, but he also didn’t want to just lay uncomfortably on the ground, futilely trying to go to sleep. However, This little mental debate was proving to be entertaining so he planned on continuing it. But wait, now that he had settled on what he was going to do, the mental debate had ended, which meant Jacob was now bored again.
Jacob groaned, the sound lost in the howling icy winds, and he resigned himself to drawing in the snow. He had a little game that he liked to do, something that he had invented a literal millennium ago, when he was a child and got bored at the beach.
Making a large rectangle, Jacob drew several shapes at both ends of it. The most common shape was a simple rectangle with two smaller squares jutting out front the sides of the original rectangle. Those two squares had a small line jutting out from the front of themselves, with the lines reaching towards the other side of the giant rectangle. There were other, large squares, each with varying amounts of lines, but that was the general gist of it.
The little square figures were meant to be vehicles and people, with different vehicles having different amounts of guns and health. It was kinda like chess, but with less strategy involved. The only objective was to completely eliminate every unit on the other side of the board, and whoever did that first would win. Jacob usually played the game by himself, and he found that it was fairly entertaining as long as he didn’t favor one side.
* * *
The man lay face down in the mud, ears ringing.
He could hear sounds around him, but they were muffled, like he had cotton in his ears. He felt like he needed to get up, but he was tired, so he didn’t. He couldn’t remember what had been happening, but if he had forgotten, then it likely wasn’t important.
Then, the man felt something touch his back, gripping a fistful of his shirt. He groaned, not wanting to be disturbed so soon. Suddenly, he was flipped over, coming face-to-face with a man yelling at him.
The strange sounds the yelling man was making strung themselves together into cohesive words, and the cotton that had been burying his head lifted.
“GET UP MCKINLEY, GET UP AND CHARGE!” Commander Stanford screamed into his face.
Private McKinley nodded, grabbing his rifle out of the mud next to him, before rolling onto unsteady feet, and running forward into gunfire.
Machine gun rounds sprayed into the charge, felling men like tree trunks, row after row. A plane flew overhead, its right wing flaming. McKinley looked up to see their air support falling down in a flaming meteor shower, adding to the chaos. Soon, they would slam into the earth, killing even more.
The private saw a busted-open machine gun nest, the only remains of the men inside being a bloody rib cage and other assorted meat chunks. With a shaken stomach, McKinley sprinted forwards with newfound speed, wanting to get away from the grisly scene. Only twenty feet to his right, a Soviet jet impacted the ground with a massive explosion, sucking the oxygen from the air around the blast. Heat washed over McKinley, but he kept running, zigzagging back and forth to throw off the machine gunner’s aim.
A spray of dirt kicked up at McKinley’s feet, causing him to jump in fright. He glanced up from the ground, seeing what looked to be a frightened soldier facing him. McKinley’s eyes flicked down to the man’s uniform, where a bright red star was emblazoned.
Bringing his rifle to bear, McKinley drew a perfect bead on the soldier’s left eye, sending a bullet straight through his head. With no time to dwell on his recent action, he leaped into the machine gun nest that the Russian soldier had been guarding. Just in time as well, considering the flurry of explosions that hit the ground where he had been not three seconds ago.
Dirt peppered McKinley’s back, and when the bombs stopped falling, he hopped right back out of his little hole, going right back to charging.
McKinley crested the hill, diving down right next to several other soldiers that had made it up the bloody climb, fixing his gaze on the city that was a few miles ahead of him.
“Is that Moscow?” A lieutenant asked no one in particular.
“That it is, sir.” Another private replied.
“Well, we better get to moving.” The lieutenant stated after a moment.
“But, that’s a meat grinder! We’ll die in droves!” McKinley protested.
“We have our orders, private, and we’ll follow them.” The lieutenant got up from his resting position, before charging down the hill into more machine gun fire.
McKinley shook his head, before running down after the lieutenant. The charge, while it was costly, had somehow not lost momentum, and so it seemed their orders remained.
Who knows, maybe they would win the day.
* * *
Jacob scribbled out the last of the attacking side, as they had been bombed to bits by the defending air force. He had honestly expected the attackers to win, considering the troop disparity between the two sides, but the fact remained. And plus, now that the round had ended, Jacob was now devoid of options.
While he could draw up another game, Jacob knew from experience that he would have diminishing returns in terms of entertainment values each time he played again. And so, he faced a problem. The sun was bright in the sky, and it had only been about an hour since it had risen, so by Earth standards, the day would definitely still be young. He wasn’t sure what he would do other than suffer through it.
Jacob sat down, and immediately regretted it, as the freezing snow could be felt through his coverings. Standing back up, Jacob started to pace to get at least some semblance of warmth back in his body. However, this only brought attention back to the many aches his body had, a painful reminder of his miles-long trek across the wasteland, as well as his centuries-long sleep. Groaning, he continued to walk in circles, pondering on what to do next.
First, Jacob reviewed his situation.
He was over one thousand years ahead in the future, with almost everybody who used to know his name dead, and the ones that still do he could count on one hand. If he were to somehow return to civilization, there was a chance of being gunned down to complete the impromptu cover-up. If that didn’t happen, then he would still have a dark future, with the rest of his days being spent in another government laboratory, trapped. While he did agree to the first experiment, and did like the fact that they might have saved him from death, he would’ve preferred to live on his own terms, and plus, it got pretty boring after a little bit.
Back in the present, the planet was well and truly dead, with the only human left being Jacob himself, and the only other sources of intelligent lifeforms weren’t even alive in the normal sense. Robots now made up the population, and if his companions were to be believed, the more common androids would prefer to kill him rather than safeguard him.
Speaking of his apparent saviors, the ones who killed the other robots who DID like him, were quite worthy of suspicion themselves, as their stories didn’t exactly line up. Why were they loyal to a company if the government had been in charge of his experiment? And if the worker drones really did rebel, then why couldn’t they just reprogram them from afar? They are clearly at the mercy of humanity, so they never should’ve been a problem in the first place. And what did Jacob have to do with all of this?
On the topic of himself, it might have been the most confusing subject of them all. Yes, he did have a rather strange tumor, one that seemed more alive and intelligent than others, but surely they had gotten enough data from it over the last millennium, right?
Something wasn’t adding up. Well, many things weren’t adding up or making sense at all if you were to think about it. But, what if-
“You’re up early.” A familiar voice behind him interrupted his thoughts.
Jacob whirled around to see X just standing there in the sunlight, which shouldn't have been possible.
“How are you-” Jacob then cut himself off, as he realized that X and the landscape was once again shrouded in darkness. How time had passed so quickly was something to dwell on later.
“How am I- what, you cut your self off, spit it out man, come on.” X crossed his arms.
Jacob shook his head. “Nothing. I just couldn't sleep”
“You were out here all day?” X sounded slightly surprised.
“Yeah. Like I said, I couldn’t sleep.” Jacob confirmed.
“I thought humans had to rest every, like, four hours or something.” X said.
“We only have to sleep eight hours a day for proper functions, and we can just not sleep for a day or two sometimes.” Jacob corrected.
“Oh dang, so you guys aren’t completely useless.” X joked.
Jacob scoffed. “Man, you can’t talk. You have to hide away all day just so you don’t boil like a lobster.”
“Can you fly?”
“No, but I don’t have to, since all I have to do to beat you is go to the beach.”
“What’s a beach?” X asked.
Jacob shook his head again. “Nothing, not important. Also, you didn’t take the watch.”
“You were awake.” X replied.
“You didn’t know that.” Jacob shot back.
X rolled his eyes, or whatever one could call those LED things. “Alright, fine. Anyway, K wanted me to tell you that I’m carrying you.”
Jacob stopped, wondering if he had heard right. “I’m sorry?”
“For what?” X replied.
“No- what did you just say?” Jacob fixed X with a stare.
“I said, ‘For what?’.” X repeated.
Jacob facepalmed. “No, before that, you know what I mean.”
X smirked. “Oh, yeah. You were too slow yesterday, so we both agreed that I’m carrying you. She isn’t gonna do it because she’s too chicken.”
“Oh come on! How was this decision made without me!?” Jacob cried out.
“You know what they say man . . .” X began
“You snooze, you lose.” They both said in unison.
* * *
“This is humiliating.” Jacob stated.
The trio were sailing above the clouds, high above the reach of any crumbling skyscraper. Jacob was thankful for that too, since the first time something flew into a tower or two was bad enough, he definitely wouldn’t want that to happen again.
“I don’t see why not.” X replied.
“Yeah, why do you think that, huh?” Jacob rhetorically asked.
“Will you two shut up?” K interjected.
“What are you gonna do about it?” X shot back.
“I’m going to come over there, and make you.” K replied after a moment of silence.
“Yeah, I seriously doubt that.” Jacob replied.
K scoffed, muttering something that was probably insulting, before going quiet.
Jacob looked up at the moon, its light shining down on him. However, he made note of the fact that one of the supposed moons had rings, which might not be possible. Jacob wasn’t an expert on astronomy, after all.
“Hey uh, I have a question.” Jacob leaned slightly over to peak at X’s face.
“What? And don’t adjust yourself like that, it throws off my balance.” X replied.
“So uh, you see the moon?” Jacob gestured towards the moon, knowing full well that X wouldn’t see his arm moving.
“Yeah, what about it?” X sounded slightly frustrated.
“It's got rings.” Jacob stated.
“Ok, and?” X might’ve glared at Jacob if the movement of the head required to do that wouldn’t throw Jacob off.
“Are moons able to have rings?” Jacob realized that X probably didn’t know the answer, and likely wouldn’t care if he did.
“I dunno.” X would’ve shrugged if he could.
“I know the answer.” K called out helpfully.
“Oh really?” Jacob turned towards the shadowy outline of K, the only thing visible of her being the little LED lights on her head.
“Moons can have rings, in some specific cases. In fact, a few of Saturn’s moons actually have rings, those rings being formed by another moon ejecting icy debris from itself as it orbits its planet.” K seemed almost gleeful to share this information, which was a definite change from the constant annoyance that seemed to exude from her ever since Jacob met her.
“Huh, I didn’t know that. Also, do you know if those are moons up there, or is the planet we are on the moon, and the big one a planet?” Jacob questioned.
“I, uh, don’t know that one.” K slightly deflated.
Jacob shook his head. “They can do everything but answer my questions.” He muttered.
“What!?” X called out. “I can’t hear over this wind!”
“Nothing!” Jacob yelled louder than he needed to.
The wind had indeed picked up, but it hopefully wasn’t enough to throw Jacob off.
Jacob turned back towards K. “How long until we reach wherever we’re going?”
“One more day and we should be there.” K replied.
“Where are we going anyway? You never told me, and I’m pretty sure that’s an essential part of transporting someone to someplace else.” Jacob inquired.
“I don’t see the point.” She replied.
“I insist.” Jacob insisted.
“Ugh, fine. We’re heading back to our base for further instructions.” K relented.
“Well that wasn’t informative at all.” Jacob complained.
“What did you want me to say!?” K cried out.
“I dunno, something that I wouldn’t have known or have been able to figure out myself.” Jacob replied.
K scoffed. “Well people rarely get what they wish for, and that’s where we’re going, so deal with it.”
Jacob didn’t reply, probably because a rather violent gust of wind nearly threw him off of X, so he was busy holding on for dear life. But then again, you never know. Maybe he was a bit hungry, and didn’t reply because he was too busy thinking about a Whopper. Maybe he was feeling a little bit drippy and was in the process of dropping some classified documents. But, no one will ever know.
* * *
The wasteland was loud.
Very loud.
The sounds of boots marching, the occasional gunshot zipping through the air, and the cries and shouts of the annoyed. The number of the combined facility personnel had dropped to two hundred seventy nine and three quarters at this point, with two military drones tripping and falling over non-existent untied shoelaces, a worker drone forgetting he could live, another worker drone slipping on some rogue marbles, and a final military drone seeing something shiny in the snow, and when he ran to get it, he realized that the light was simply reflecting off of the snow, right before a skyscraper collapsed on him. One worker drone was nearly killed by a stray bullet, but his comically large tuba managed to deflect the projectile.
After the deaths, the situation had calmed down a bit, with only slight disorganization and unrest present, order once again asserting its dominance.
Speaking of order, time to talk about the organization and structure of the evacuated facility personnel. The trek was being made on foot, as long-range vehicles were not wanted nor needed for the underground complex, the tram being the main source of transportation between sectors. Scouts were constantly probing the area ahead of the central body, reporting back to officers who would then direct the directions as needed. The broken roads weren’t friendly to formations, as a massive boulder partially blocking off a pathway would just make everybody break formation to get around, and this happened frequently. So, the solution was to have no formation at all, allowing the drones to move around loosely
However, many weapons were brought with them, including mounted machine guns, laser-guided missile launchers, various computers and tracking equipment, extra battery packs for emergencies, spare parts, and more. The more sensitive equipment was generally kept in locked cases surrounded by armed guards, accompanying the top officials.
Speaking of those heads of personnel, they were smack-dab in the middle of the large crowd, a space for them always present in the center.
The Lead Engineer tapped on the shoulder of the General, who turned to look at him.
“We need to camp out for a little bit.” The Lead Engineer stated.
“What? Why?” The General questioned.
“The men are getting backed up with unprocessed memory, and it's starting to hinder their functions.” The Lead Engineer answered.
“You mean they're getting tired?” The General asked.
The Lead Engineer blinked. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”
The General scoffed. “Just say that next time, no need to lengthen it with a bunch of random nonsense.”
“It's not random nonsense, it's the proper definition for their condition!” The Lead Engineer sounded affronted. “You just like shortened sentences because you can’t read!”
“What! I can read fine!” The General cried out.
“Oh really!? Name ten books then.” The Lead Engineer shot back.
“Alright, uh, okay. Let me see, uh, how about, ‘A Dummies Guide to Not Running Out of Battery While You’re in a Frozen Tundra’.” The General answered.
“That's a manual, it doesn’t count.” The Lead Engineer. “And plus, that can’t be real.”
“How? I read it just yesterday.” The General said.
“It's too specific for our current situation, name a different one.” The Lead Engineer crossed his arms.
“There was this one called, ‘See Something, Say Something; How to Identify Rogue or Malfunctioning AI’.” The General nodded.
“That's just another manual! Stop naming manuals!” The Lead Engineer yelled loud enough to draw some attention.
One of the worker ministers walked over. “Hey, what's going on over here?”
“Here, back me up Francis, I told this guy to name ten books to prove he could read, and he keeps on naming manuals.” The Lead Engineer explained.
“What? Those aren’t books.” Francis said.
“I know! That's what I’ve been telling him!” The Lead Engineer gesticulated wildly towards the General.
“You name ten books then!” The General smirked.
“Uh, well . . .” The Lead Engineer deflated.
“Hah! See!? You can’t do it!” The General pointed a finger at the Lead Engineer.
“Well, there wasn’t really that much reading material back down in the complex!” The Lead Engineer whined.
The bickering attracted the attention of yet another minister, this one on the military side.
“Yo, uh, why y’all yelling so much?” The man said.
“We’re debating on who can read.” The General dryly stated.
“You guys can’t read?” The second minister sounded shocked.
“We’re naming books that we’ve read to determine if any of us can.” Francis clarified.
“Oh, I’ve got some.” The second minister replied.
“I’ll believe it when I hear it.” The General scoffed.
“The Electricianist, Don’t Hide When We Stay, Metal Is The New Black, Wormholes: Barley, The Stars And Stripes: A History, The 2000s, Strife and Strobe, Exterminator: Redux, Time Thieves, Infested, Mythos of Kratos, and Final Girl.” The second minister finished.
“Uh, that last one was a guide.” The Lead Engineer stated after a moment of silence. “Also, what's your name again?”
“I’ve still got eleven other books in that roster, and my name's Derrick.” Derrick said.
“Rather generic name, Derrick.” The Lead Engineer stated.
“Uh, ok. How’d you forget my name anyway?” Derrick inquired.
“I never bothered to find out in the first place.” The Lead Engineer replied.
There was another moment of silence.
“What the heck man?” Derrick raised his hands.
The Lead Engineer simply shrugged, before walking away with his minister, presumably to do some management or some random leadership type stuff, I dunno.
The two military men stared at the pair walking away for a second, before Derrick spoke up.
“What the hell just happened?” He asked.
* * *
“Rather imposing, huh?”
The trio were standing at the base of a relatively large tower, shadowed by its enormity. The omnipresent moonlight that had been highlighting the landscape was proved to be not omnipresent, its constant force now halted, shrouding the area around the tower in darkness.
However, this wasn’t any old tower, it was a spire. And while you might be asking how a spire is any different from a tower, I will not clarify the difference, instead explaining why this one is so special. You see, this spire was constructed out of, 100% certified real, straight-from-a-living-being, corpses. Yes, you heard me right, corpses. Luckily, they weren’t human, much more mechanical in nature. Or would they be electronic? When people refer to mechanics, they usually mean machines that typically use, well, mechanics. Like a steam train, its wheels are turned by a bar that is connected to the engine, causing it to move, which in turn causes the wheels to move.
Electronics are more referred to as an electronic gadget, like a phone. They use circuit boards and extensive use of more synthetic materials like silicon and plastic to make the intricate device that people use every day, perhaps a bit too much. Modern androids are a complicated combination of both of these. Their limbs and body are most likely animated by joints connected together, which are then moved by motors, giving them the ability of motion. However, the thing that coordinates their motion is the delicate electronics in their head, giving them their thought, somewhat questionable logic, and everything else that they need to use their body.
And so, would that make the current worker drones mechanical or electronic in nature? Was there a specific category for them, being both and yet neither at the same time, or were they one of the two options? Other questions, like Jacob’s future survival, were currently irrelevant, for this was a rather pressing matter. This was the big question, one that could determine future outcomes for eons to come, one that-
“Yo, you coming inside man or what ? You're acting real slow, man, hurry up before I make you.” X called out.
Jacob was startled out of his thoughts. “Uh, yeah, sorry.”
Speed-walking forward, Jacob entered the imposing structure. He could practically feel the weight of the place, as well as the slight anticipation of the chance that the entire thing could come crashing down.
However, the inside wasn’t quite as interesting as the outside. The interior was nearly devoid of anything, the only objects populating the inside being random corpses and structural debris from who knows what. But, the large pod in the center might be able to bear some fruits. It had a octagonal shape, with what appeared to be an entrance to the pod at the top of an exterior ladder.
What made the thing strange, however, were the four spidery legs that jutted out from the bottom of the vessel. If his newfound benefactors were to be believed, then Jacob could infer that this was the landing pod that they had initially come down in, and maybe the crash had resulted in all the random debris that seemed commonplace around this area. But, why the spacecraft had legs was beyond Jacob, though he could see the potential values for them. If the craft was coming down at high speeds, then the large mechanical legs could brace themselves, absorbing the impact to a certain extent, much like how human legs behave. But, the speeds that the craft would be coming down at would most definitely be over the limit of what the legs could halt, which would just make them a hindrance. The combination of the extreme speeds coupled with the now-unneeded legs providing unwanted air resistance, which would throw off the craft's stability, made for a rather non-ideal landing craft. This just added to Jacob’s growing theory that whatever organization that the disassembly drones belonged to weren’t really on their side of the mat. However, it could just be a symptom of technologies changing, and maybe this design was a suitable method for landing.
Nonetheless, Jacob mentally cataloged this fact, following X and K towards the pod.
“So uh, what's going on now?” Jacob probed.
“We're going to meet with our team leader, and introduce you to him. He did send us to get you, after all.” K explained.
“You guys knew I was alive? I thought you said that it was a surprise to learn of a living human.” Jacob feigned surprise.
“What? Well yeah, we were surprised, but he sent us to investigate a distress signal on your location.” K said incredulously.
“Ah, sorry, my mistake.” Jacob apologized.
Jacob had intentionally done that, as he wanted to see if they would stick by their story under a moment of pressure. If they hadn’t, then that would be a telltale sign of a lie in the works, and while it would be bad news, it would be helpful to know. However, they had maintained their story, which either meant that they were pretty good at lying and staying cool under interrogation, or that that part of the story had been true. Jacob personally thought that latter was true, but it was important to stay vigilant. But then again, he wasn't a police officer, so he was just making it up as he went.
“Ladies first.” X stepped aside to let K climb up the ladder first.
K scoffed, before ascending the ladder. X tried to grab at her leg to destabilize her, but she swatted his hand away, disappearing into the opening.
“You go first, wouldn’t want anything to happen to you in the split second I’m gone.” X turned to Jacob.
“Alright man.” Jacob agreed, before gripping the rungs.
Voices could be heard from inside, with K saying something to a second unfamiliar voice. Jacob pushed on, clambering up the rungs, before popping his head into the interior cavity.
The inside was sparse, and save for a couple chairs and a cool looking console, the only thing of interest was the new person sitting in one of the chairs. With a captain’s hat, cleanly-combed locks (why do they have hair, WHY DO THEY HAVE HAIR!?), and a pressed and proper uniform, the guy gave off an aura of a military man, but Jacob was always bad at taking cues. But, any further investigation was cut short by the next words from the drone.
“What the fu-”