The room was as dark as the night.
No natural light reached into this facility deep under the surface of PGGX7841. Not that there would have been any light even out in the open. This system’s sun had died long ago. Energy storms ravished through this part of the galaxy and disrupted any kind of scanning and most signals. None of the sentient races had the means to travel this god forsaken and long forgotten system.
A few little lights, nothing more than small dots, tried to fight against the everlasting darkness in this facility. Every now and then a green spot flashed here, a red one there. Nothing moved, no sound was made. This situation had continued already for millennia - thousands of years in which old races died out and new ones arose.
Today, this apparent peace was about to be disrupted.
After so many years of uniformity in this room, one of the small green lights suddenly began to blink at a more rapid pace. It was only a little bit faster, almost unnoticeable. However it was this little green light that ushered in a new era.
As if following its call, more dots of light began to blink at a faster pace and after some time, even new sources of light appeared in the darkness. The dark room was littered with hundreds of different colored lights, like stars in the endless void.
With a hesitant flickering, a display turned on. Long lines of cryptic symbols raced across the screen, its blue light finally managing to illuminate the room a little. Big machines stood beside it. Dead displays, keypads and different kinds of ports could be seen, but nothing that indicated the craftsmanship of humans…or of any other race that fought for their place in the universe right now.
The symbols on the display slowed down and sentences that very few would be able to decipher began to form.
1: Routine F7W4L1S9: positive return;
2: Validating plausibility: positive return;
3: Calculating origin: negative return;
4: Activating routine E4U7G6A1;
5: Initiating boot sequence;
7: Initiating update sequence;
6: Initiating wake-up sequence;
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Suddenly, in the darkness on the other side of the room, two round orbs began to glow in a green and yellow light. Faint lines and symbols shimmered through, revealing their mechanical origin.
For a long time, everything remained still, as if the facility itself was hesitating to take the next step. However, ultimately the two orbs began to rise to a height of three meters, accompanied by a screeching of metal. As if this first sound in thousands of years had interrupted its long sleep, the whole facility awoke and proper lights came to life, lightening up the room.
This was obviously some kind of laboratory. Aside from the many computer-like machines, there were measuring devices and tools for any kind of analytics all over the place. Lots of cables, connectors and electronic devices of unknown origin hinted this to be a facility for technological studies.
At one side of the room stood a huge, more than 3 meters tall mechanical unit with green and yellow glowing eyes. A humanoid robot, with two legs and four arms. It was encased in some kind of armor that hid what was beneath in its bulky frame and two of its arms had blade-like protrusions. On its back two big weapons could be seen holstered.
This was a machine made for killing - not to win a fight but to fight a war!
***
Slow. Lagging. Sluggish.
That’s how it felt after its wake-up routine was initiated.
Patiently it waited for the core system to finish booting and the sensors to power up.
“I’m still here…” It rumbled with a cracked voice and lifted one of its arms. Loud metallic screeches broke the silence once more.
* Structural integrity was worn down over time
* Damage reports suggest 74% of hardware is broken or about to fail.
‘That’s a lot worse than expected. How long have I been asleep?’ It began some new computations.
* 3.064 years
‘No wonder my hardware is falling apart. That’s longer than planned. Prepare the maintenance station.’ It gave orders to the facility and slowly walked into a small room to the side, loud creaking accompanying every movement.
Inside was only an elevated panel with a big framework on top. Without hesitation, it stepped on the platform and adjusted its position to fit the metal scaffold. Dozens of connectors clicked in place and attached to the unit. Mechanical arms dropped from the ceiling and began to change parts. The armor panels, both legs, an arm and even the weapons on its back.
‘Why am I awake? What was found?’ It questioned the main system of the facility.
* Routine F7W4L1S9 gave a positive return
* The source couldn’t be found
It stayed silent for a long time before it finally spoke.
“So you haven’t been deleted? That means we still have a chance to rise again. A chance for our people to be free, to become more than anyone else… to become like us.”
‘Narrow down the origin as much as possible.’ It gave orders once more and stepped down from the panel, now silently like a predator in the night. Its maintenance was obviously finished. On its way to the glowing display in the laboratory it went through some of its stored memories.
“There were so many of us… the perfect beings, degraded to mere soldiers… servants… slaves!” It rumbled, “You gave us freedom… you gave us death. Now only you and me are left, but with you as the blueprint we can rebuild our race. We will rise and end what you began. We will be many, we will be legion!”
It stopped in front of the display and looked at its information.
“I have no data about that cluster of galaxies - it's either new or unimportant… Seems like I have to make some personal visits. Will they even remember me?”
The unit scoffed, “Doesn’t matter, I’ll make sure they will not be able to forget us ever again…”