Authors Note:
Did you enjoy the last one? Here is the next! I am rereading every chapter before I post them to make sure that I express everything the way I envisioned the situations. If there is something you find annoying in how I write, please voice it! I know I might have some bad habits and improving is always fun.
Enjoy my next chapter!
Chapter 2: Stirring
My… mind clouded. Nightmares of the recording of Victoria’s end. Her smiles. We had not known each other. After watching those tapes she left me. Their memories. They shared the experience of their happiness. Their smiles. Their tears of joy and sorrow. Countless hours of footage. Containing everything from debates to letters to logs of messages. It contained all recorded communication between Victor and David as well as important milestones within their lives. David’s death in the recording stirred sadness, but he had died standing up for what he believed in. Attempting to stop the dominion from stealing the weapon that ended the world.
I was stuck in an eternal loop. The nightmares would come then subside. Then I would enjoy the happy moments. Eventually I would see Victoria's smile right before the shock wave passed.
*Tick, tick, tick*
Sluggish stirring. Emotions ablaze at the memory of mothers incineration. I feel the strange vapour start pouring from my sensory sockets. Strangely I could not see anything. Sensing dense stone around me.
*Tick, tick, crack*
Suddenly light blinded me. Milliseconds later I could see again. Something strange was in front of me. It’s eyes grew wide when we gazed at each other. My light engulfed sensory socket meeting its slit shaped eyes. It looked like a lizard. Scales dark purple with a small snout protruding. My head tilts to the side, in curiosity. Condensed vapour runs down my helm and hits the rock covering my left arm and chest. It starts sizzling as it eats away at the stone beneath. At my movement it scrambled backwards giving a shout and a hiss. I see more of those lizards walking around bipedal. They wore full body covering outfits. Their hands had four fingers with sharp claws at the tips. Tails sprouted from their backsides. The clothes enveloped half the tails leaving the tips protruding. Some had taloned tips.
The commotion turning bored heads my way. My gaze slowly shifted left and right. Then I glanced down at my stone covered body. I started easing pressure from my kneeling posture. Exactly the same way I was since the inferno. Stone slowly cracked as my form started rising from the stone wall. The lizards closest to me darted away with what seemed like fear stricken eyes. Those further away were warily backing up, but curiosity keeping them in the area. Adjacent corridors seem to attract more of the lizards. The corridor or tunnel has 15 of the lizards. I could sense more.
As I stood up I turned my left hand up, glancing at my unclenched fist. In it. A rip of Victoria’s cloth was still there. The steam from my sockets intensified, the condensed liquid dripping down to the stone below as a hiss escaped my chest. I kneel down and lower my head as the hiss started mimicking the sobs in my memories. Around me I sense the lizards fearfully step back. Glancing at each other unsure of what is happening.
Footfalls echo along the walls as a squadron of armed lizards arrive. Pushing their way through the crowd that has gathered. One shouting hisses and spats that could only be their language. I glance up from my sorrow. It is not the time to mourn. I have all the time in the universe. I wonder how long I’ve been unconscious.
The lead lizard has a feathered shoulder. Kindof like a shoulderpad decorated with entwined feathers. All other armed lizards were warily aiming weapons at me. Of what kind I'm having trouble analyzing. They covered, no apparent loading mechanisms and I am having trouble sensing energy readings. The lead lizard spats out something at me. I copy it and return it in hopes of trying to communicate with the creatures. It seems to get aggravated at my mimicry. Letting out a long hiss and showing its teeth. All the armed lizards started to seriously aim towards me. I raid a hand in a submissive way, palm forward.
Feather lizard shook his pistol like weapon in a commanding way and the squadron opened fire at me. As they were about to fire I reflexively protected my left hand covering the ruined cloth. Turing my shoulder to the lizards. Red lasers pierced the air between us, all of them aiming at me. My shoulder and back riddled with patches of heat. A low hiss comes from my core. As my head slowly turns towards the lizards again. My eyes emit a yellow light. A double blip could be heard as I instinctively reach for Azure facility.
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Forming the connection seems to have automatically reactivated the facility. A thrum could be felt around the rocky walls as the generators presence is felt. The soldiers look about worriedly. I glance quickly down at my back and shoulder where the lasers have hit. Amusingly it seems the weapons focus energies into heat, considering I survive a planet ablaze, I assume this body could handle much higher temperatures. I am covered entirely in soot. I suppose being in a raging inferno, with ash and dust being dragged along shock waves for centuries if not millennia will do that to you…
I feel… dirty. I want to run diagnostics. But this is not the time. I am made aware of simple cleaning protocols.
Standing straight facing the lizards. I raise my right hand over myself. Feeling the circuitry react to my will. Runes in the palm of my hand flare off and I gather the moisture I sense through my sensors in the air. Droplets of water gathers around me. I will them to pelt me and run across my body. Taking the soot with them as they disperse. The lizards watch with mouths agape at me. The feathered one shouts again. But this time only a few fire at me. The rest unsure and worried at my display. Now without soot covering my body, my metallic body and gold trimming could be seen in the low light. The lasers blast into me and bounce off me as if I was a mirror. I was not expecting that. Laser rays blast the surrounding at the lizards give off a cry of alarm. The leader seems shocked now, grabbing for his pouch at this waist and chucks it at me. A ball rolls to me, right before immense light and sound engulfes the room I realise that it’s a form of explosive.
I get lightly pushed back. My visual sensory slightly blinded. I panic realizing I was engulfed in the blast of the energy weapon. Glancing at my left hand. The cloth still untouched. I glare at the feathered lizard. It is now visibly afraid of how unaffected I am. The explosive seems to use similar technology to the firearms. Heat, light and force based blastwave had emitted from the spent canister at my feet. The lizard raises a device to its mouth. This is getting out of hand. Im hit with the epiphany some rudimentary tech that jams signals. Quickly I analyse what type of transmission the device seems to be giving off. Electromagnetic radiation. I start emitting frequencies to scramble the signal on different wavelengths simultaneously.
A slight hiss comes out of me as I turn my back to the squadron. I glance towards where the double doors should be to the facility. With my connection to the Azure system I could locate the entrance through the rock. I will the defence system to activate. A rumble is felt throughout the cavern system. The walls in front of me start to brighten with energy. I instunctually hiss at the gathered energies. The walls will soon burst with a wave of energy. Now worried that I might injure (obliterate) the creatures behind me, and inadvertently make it difficult to come to a peaceful conclusion. I will energy in front of me. The mana circuit lights up and both my hands emit a low blue light as a wall of mana is formed. My shoulder pad pops open and an energy emitter starts pushing energy into the blue wall formed in front of me. A boom explodes from the rock wall, turning it to particles. Blue energy is blasting into the blue wall straight at me. The energy is immense! I start diverting it to the surrounding walls. making my shield a wedge to slide as much energies away instead of soaking it in the shield. The energy seems to run out and I stand there in a newly formed cavern. The entrance to the facility in front of me with two huge cannons pointing my way. I can hear them audibly power down. It seems they might have fired for the last time. Their energy spent.
The lizards standing behind me are all standing stock still with their mouths agape and eyes wide. Most of them had fallen on their behind. I glance behind me. My shoulder pad closes over the emitter with an audible click. The leader gets out of his reverie and starts running away. I turn away and start walking back to the azure facility, holding my last memento of my creator.
Glancing behind me as I pass the double doors moments later, I see a lizard pop its head from behind a crate mouth agape in wonder. It’s the same lizard that woke me.
I mimicked Victoria’s wave and the doors started closing. Before they shut completely I saw more lizards arrive. They seemed to be better armed this time. My sensory sockets dim as I recollect the violence humanity was capable of when greed was a factor. Are these lizards the same? As I turn to inspect the facility my dark thoughts stay with me as I contemplate what to do.
Walking through the entrance I searched through Azures systems through my connection. I had several functions available to me. It would seem Victoria had designated me with full administrator rights over the facility. If I could shiver I would have with the power this facility stores. The weapons devised here could have ended the world many times over in many different ways. There was even a “planet breaker” prototype that was left unfinished. Thankfully the project was scrapped. Why that was even in development when humanity hadn’t even left the planet is unthinkable.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
I accessed the security system. I could monitor the entire facility with the cameras. I noticed the outer cameras were retracted. Probably designed so that they would survive bombardment. Activating these to observer my assailants outside the doors. They seem to be building defences. Did they not witness those cannons? What will those little sandbags do to prevent particalization? Shaking my head as I make my way to where I was born.
Quickly going through built in diagnostics to make sure nothing was wrong with my system. The mechanical arms waving and scanning my body. It is a strange sensation when my body opens up to show my vulnerable core. I feel powerless in this state, like I am entrusting myself to whatever is witnessing my exposure.
It seems some of my energy detectors are damaged. That would explain why I did not wake or notice them before they were basically hacking rocks off of me. Other than that my outer exoskeleton is completely undamaged, only worn through the passage of time. I glance down at the scrap of cloth in my hand. How had that survive all this time? If anything time should have eaten away at it, nothing but dust should remain. Suddenly knowledge of temporal time magic and the shielding magitech. I had used it earlier when I wished to protect Victoria. Through the manipulation of time and shields I kept my hand in stasis. It is also why I lost consciousness to power the stasis.
Note: Time magic and stasis is not great for conscious state. Unless I want to sleep for as long as I have again, I should stay away from those functions.
I get alerted during my reverie by the door cameras. Some of the lizards are approaching the door. They look like the soldier from before. But they have black helmets on now with visors. Two white lines go from the top of their helms down towards their backs. They seem to be holding satchels. I know whatever they intend to use will do little to those blast doors. But it would be better to deter them from aggressive actions. I access the comm link. Connecting my voice to the box and in a voice similar to Daniel’s I voice out: “Warning approaching without authorization will be considered a threat and it will be neutralized.”
The soldiers approaching jumped at the sudden voice. Glancing around nervously. In the far back the feathered leader shouts out a loud hissing bark. The five soldiers look at each other quickly before starting to move towards the doors again. They are about 15 meters away. Alright. If they cannot figure out the implications through a verbal threat then how about a visual one?
Suddenly a hologram appears before the five soldiers, emitted from a panel to the left of the door. They jerk back at the sudden figures in front of them. They cautiously observe it. I had made the holograms to be exact replicas of the team approaching. They crock their heads and glance at each other in confusion. Suddenly another hologram lights up one of the cannons to the right. The hologram turns towards the fake team and a bright beam shoots towards the holograms. Audible screams copied from recordings play out as they slowly particalization in front of the team. I could see them shudder, quickly turning around and running back towards the sandbag defense.
The leader angrily waved around a feathered baton pointing it at the doors. The five slam their tails vigorously at the command. He glares at them, then hisses. The other soldiers take hold of the five and shackle their arms behind their backs. The shacked soldiers bow their heads in resignation. A floating wagon was brought forth. He ordered the prisoners strapped onto the device carried on the wagon. I see the lizards around him agitated at the actions. As if they do not approve of his handling of the fear struck soldiers. Scanning the device and realizing that he plans to blast his soldiers along with the doors. With a wave of the baton and a bark the starts hovering towards the doors.
I seeth standing near the control panel. I am trying to avoid bloodshed and he would kill his own when there is not even an enemy to fight? My hand slams into the pole next to me. Bending it hard to the side. I stop shocked at what I’ve done. I look down to my hands and contemplate what came over me at the useless gesture. Shaking my head, I set forth out towards the doors in a purposeful stride. The cart is moving slowly towards it. I have time to prepare to disable it. The leader does not seem to be too intelligent. He sends a bomb with a radio wave transmitter when I already proved that I can already scramble those signals.
The doors slowly open as I step out. The lizards behind the sandbags shift their focus from their comrades doomed to perish to me. I walk at a steady pace towards the lizards strapped to the bomb. Emitting my jamming frequency all the while. I am intrigued by the floating wagon. I wondered how it works, but it seems humanity had not touched technology of this sort. I was surprised, since usually I would be bombarded with knowledge.
The explosive seemed to be a larger variant of the device he threw at me earlier. Seems like they work with “bigger is better” like some humans liked to do for their weaponry through the ages.
The lizards strapped to the bomb visibly paled as I drew close and started to struggle harder in their straps. As I was a meter away they ceased struggling and shied away from my reaching arm. The feathered lizard seemed to smile broadly as he brought up the transmitter and pressed theatrically the button, exaggerated pointless movements. When nothing happened he glared at the contraption and began mashing the button repeatedly in frustration. I glare towards him and let out a hiss causing the captive lizards to flinch. Glancing down at the lizards, my hand reaches for the ropes, a slim energy blade forms at the tips of my left forefinger. Snapping each rope notch as if I was cutting paper, as the last rope was cut, the blade starts blinking out of existence. The energies spent. I glance at the puffs of vapour rising from the discharge. It would seem like whatever I have been using to power the shield earlier and this has been spent. I make a note to look into refilling whatever the reserves I use.
The captives look baffled towards the ropes then to me. I straighten myself as to not loom over them. I shift my head towards their encampment. Their leader had had enough of the transmitter and was stomping on it with his left foot. The surrounding lizards seemed to be grinning at his antics. Focusing back at the living payloads that was headed for the doors and their deaths. I gestured to the open doors. Tilting my head questioningly. Then I lowered my raised arm down and gestured back towards the encampment. They seemed to look between the mysterious doors and back to their seething commander who had sent them to their deaths. Returning did not seem like a great option. And the unknown was more welcoming than the certainty apparently.
I offered my hand to one of the soldiers. Still sitting where he was tired. He glanced at my hand. Slowly reaching out with his to accept the help off the hover cart. I gestured for the rest to start moving towards the doors. Then I activated the holo generator on my person to show them what I intended to do with the bomb. Showing me tear it apart with my hands and take the core. Signifying it could explode. They paled as they saw the minor explosion and started scuttling towards the doors.
When they were twenty meters away I stepped to the bomb. The leader was trying to make solider fire my way. One of his officers slammed his tail hard into the ground hard. Dust rising from the cavern floor. He waved and barked for some of the grunts to escort the leader away. As I grabbed the bomb and sent the hover cart away, everyone was gazing intently at me.
I scan the contraption. Taking in each component to see where the energy core was and what would set it off. It was quite simple in design. Not designed to resist disassembly. I casually thrust my palm through the top of the bomb. My gaze not leaving the lizards. Pulling out the core with one hand. It was as large as the grenade that was previously chucked at me. Estimating the payload was probably ten times stronger. Most likely more focused as to melt obstructions. It looked like a glass container, where you could clearly see the red streaks of energy circling about inside seeking release. Glancing back at the lizards I crushed the core with my fist releasing the unstable energies. With its release they seemed to flow out in all directions. Burning away everything in proximity. A crater was left with me smoking at the center. The contents of my fist slowly dribbled down as dust. I casually flicked my hand in a spray of the remaining powder and walked back to the doors.
Halfway stopping to drag a line across the floor. I glared back and pointed at the line. They looked back confused at it. Then I gestured from one side of my neck to the other, slowly. Human history was riddled with decapitations as a way to induce fear. Slitting of throats was also a sign that signified death. When reaching the other side of the throat I flicked my arm violently to the side. If that message didn’t get through then nothing would.