The Codex
Codex Entry No. 6, "The Vault"
Mars and many, many other groups have vaults. In this case "the Vault" refers to Martian Vault TN 002 buried under Titan Academy. This vault would be the largest of its kind until the year after the year after the Titan Tragedy when Martian Vault CE 038 was placed into service on Ceres. The Vault was a massive Trinium-2 cylinder with a total of forty active levels which contained several thousand discarded and disused research projects, assets, and data. All of the items in question either could not be destroyed or were being stored for future research.
The Vault was also a fallback location for the Titan Academy and was capable of housing all 5,600 faculty and students. Many of its sub-levels were dedicated to this purpose, but primarily the upper fifteen. Within these levels was everything a force of students would need to hold out until help was to arrive. This vault was known to exist in passing among the students, but none had ever seen it.
At the time of the Titan Tragedy the Vault was kept secret from even the majority of the staff and students who were present at the academy in an effort to hide the fact that the A.I. Zeus was imprisoned within it. This would inevitably be revealed to the general public, but only after my return to Mars and a brief period of intrigue involving several different covert arms of Martian society.
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Chapter 7, "Combat Program: Overclocking"
"Thomas' healing lets him take greater risks, but his boosted physical and mental faculties are what let him perform greater feats. Combine both with his experience, and you have the recipe for the most dangerous man alive."-- Executor Alexander D. Maine during a briefing to his assassination squad in 2366.
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Zeus and I had gone back and forth about our options while Zeus started checking at a deeper level that our new A.I. friend, Horus, did no lasting damage to my head. While he did that Zeus said, “Oh… That’s no good.”
“What? Is my memory damaged?” I asked, feeling my stomach drop.
“No, no… I could do something about that,” Zeus said grimly, looking at me dead-on enough that I could see unease in his eyes.
“What’s wrong then?” I asked carefully.
“I managed to get a look at what’s going on outside. Using your contacts and the extra preceptory aspects of the nanites, I managed to get a clear picture of what is going on,” Zeus said, “and it would seem we are alone with the scientists now. Hannah was very suddenly called away. The Mandroids went with her. The bad part is that the scientists are getting restless because they now know something is wrong,” Zeus explained, “they were monitoring the installation process and they are about to ping Hannah.”
“Since you are telling me this, I’ll take it there is no way to fake the installation?” I asked, praying that the A.I. had overlooked this simple option.
“You’re correct,” Zeus admitted, crushing my hopes.
Honestly, running around occupied territory after launching another escape didn’t sit well with me. The last one hadn’t really worked. Hannah could track me easily, it seemed, and so my options for where I could run were slim. The real trouble was that even if I made it out of the room, there was no guarantee I'd make it any farther.
“Even if I was to get my hands on Martian arms, I can’t fight through an army,” I told Zeus, at last admitting aloud, "I don’t see a clear way off this table.”
Zeus stroked his beard for a few minutes, and then asked, “What if you had a bit of a boost?”
“A boost?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s- Well, I assume you have noticed how your perception seems to stretch time when you are in stressful situations now?” Zeus asked.
I nodded, then replying, “I thought that was just my imagination and panic.”
“Oh, there is a natural human equivalent,” Zeus granted, “but not like that. No, what you have been experiencing is due to the changes within your body. I was hoping to keep quiet about them for a while longer until I was more confident in the software package though… To put it simply, the body and these nanites have certain… Safety blocks on them, things that they won’t let you do because if you did then they would be damaged. Now, the nanites can self-repair, and they can repair your body faster than I’ve ever seen, so such safety blocks are more about your pain tolerance than anything else… Without them though, you would naturally move faster, strike harder, and think faster than you ever thought possible. The price is that the longer you keep going, the more damage you risk doing to yourself, and it will take longer to heal than a normal injury. It will also run your nanites down on power enough that I may be put into a sleep cycle for a time.”
He stood silently and let me digest that information. For those of you up on your history, yes, this is how I have done many of my impossible feats over the years. Not all of them, mind you, but most. This version was slightly cruder than what I have today though, and neither Zeus nor I knew the full risks it carried.
“I- I may be able to do something with that,” I allowed, “but it will be a mad dash to escape. I’ll have to pop into a place Hannah doesn’t know about and won’t track me. That’s not so easy since I don’t know her limits as well as I thought. The easiest way will be to get into the basement of this building and into the sewage feeds.”
Zeus wrinkled his nose at the suggestion, exclaiming, “I offer you superhuman abilities and the best you think we can do is to escape into pipes full of waste and ruddy water? I was hoping for something a bit less… Disgusting.”
“I can’t fight an army,” I said with a sigh, “and the sewers are built for exactly this reason. Once we are down there, we can try and make our way to where the other Martians are holed up. You said while we were escaping earlier they were in the vault, yes?”
“I did,” Zeus confirmed.
“Great. This will only be slightly difficult then,” I grumbled, “in any case, tell me how this works and let’s get on with this.”
What was several hours for me was several minutes outside, during which Zeus gave me a crash course in the updated control scheme for my nanites. Through Zeus, there was a thought component which was easy enough to use. Otherwise, I had to use a physical stimulus with the thought to activate them. The physical stimulus in my case, turned out, was tied to the nodes I had implanted in my hands to control my contacts.
I had designed the nodes to accept controls centered on certain finger movement combinations. For instance, thermal vision was turned on my touching my thumb to my palm and sort-of “double clicking” with my pinky. I had many different gestures which I’d learned, but Zeus gave me several more.
“Thinking the commands at me will still be easier,” Zeus said, “I can manage the action faster and more efficiently. Focus on that and worry about the gestures later. I keep forgetting that human coordination is more complicated than I give it credit for. Now if you feel ready, I’ll wake you up.”
I gave a short nod, and no sooner than I had blinked was I booted from Zeus’ library and dumped back into my body with my eyes snapping open just as I thought, Engage overclocking!
Time slowed to a crawl, with everyone moving in seemingly half speed as I burst free from the chair, shattering the bolts on the restraints rather than the bolts themselves. The sensation was like drinking one too many energy drinks and the feeling of limitless potential that comes with it, which is to say, exhilarating.
I didn’t care about Hannah, I didn’t care about the invasion, I just wanted to make it into the sewers. That’s it. The level of focus was refreshing and almost calming as I barreled through the faux wood door to the lab. The cheap material turned to splinters, and I'm sure many small cuts peppered my face and were healed by the Zeus' superior nano-tech. I didn't feel any of that though and sprinted down the hall past both the guards before they could raise their weapons. Somehow, I knew the pair had a bewildered look on their face. I'm sure guarding a sleeping man was supposed to be an easy gig, but we all have our little disappointments in life. I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew I needed to go down towards the basement.
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Luckily as I made my death run I caught a flash of a fire escape route map. I don’t remember it now, but at that moment it was as though I had spent years with that map, and I figured out exactly the route needed.
Two right turns, I thought, as I sprinted at Olympic speeds and used a wall to vault into a turn so that I could keep my momentum. Pops of semi-automatic rifle fire shattered my ears every few seconds, but from the sound and some sort of sixth sense I knew just how to dodge so that the shots wouldn't throw me off balance. I know a few hit me, but I'd never feel any ill effects. Once I reached the stairs, I took them three or four at a time. The fire and quarantine alarms both blared on just as I made it to the bottom, and I started lifting the heavy grate. Once I made it down there it wouldn’t matter if anyone followed. They wouldn’t find me.
Lowering myself, I splashed into the murky water below, ignoring thoughts of what exactly my boots were sinking into as I turned and sloshed my way against the flow of the sewage
Only once I’d made it a considerable distance away did I disengage the program. My knees buckled first and I nearly ate sewage, but I steadied myself with my hand against the wall. My breath turned ragged and sweat started to pour off me.
That’s one hell of a boost, I said mentally, waiting to hear Zeus’ response. It didn’t come.
Guess he’s asleep… I suppose I’m on my own for a while, I thought as I grudgingly began
sloshing my way to a recognizable point.
The sewers were made of metal piping with emergency lights on the ceiling, like most things on Titan. This metal was rough, crude, and had many worn spots and dents that let me know that there had been combat down here at some point. I couldn't tell when in the low light though.
I must’ve spent at least an hour looking for a point I recognized, but it was difficult. Zeus hadn’t lied about the power drain. I couldn’t access any of the visual filters in my contacts that would’ve helped, or even night vision. I only found one of the markings on the wall that hinted where I needed to go by keeping one hand along the right wall and feeling for markings.
I was betting a lot that Hannah didn’t know about the bit of academy lore I was using since she hadn’t yet made it into the vault. It wasn’t surprising, given that this secret was one which was kept for very select students, or those who had gone shuffling through their Dean’s papers in their private office.
The carvings were directions to a sort of back door into the vault beneath the academy, the one that held all the nasty things Mars decided it could do without, or that just weren’t useful. There were rumors of everything of time machines to mutants in the vault, but I’d never made it inside. I don’t think anyone had, and not for a lack of trying.
I was gambling that whoever was running the vault would let me in this time, instead of keeping quiet like all the other times. It was really the only option I had.
After much more sloshing and getting my borrowed clothes soaked, I found no trace of being followed and so I doubled back along a parallel line and followed the markings until I found the one, I was looking for: an “X”. In front of me was a seeming dead end.
“Hello?” I tried; my voice weaker than I thought it would be.
Nothing happened, of course. The wall I was staring at didn’t move. No voices came. Just silence.
“I-“I quickly wetted my lips despite the awful taste on them, “I’m Thomas James Maine… If you can hear me, please, just- Just do something!”
Still nothing, at least until I felt a pinprick in my hand. I looked down and in the dim light I saw that something had pricked me. Blood dribbled briefly out of a small wound on my palm before it stopped and the blood was absorbed through my skin. As I started to turn towards the “X”, the wall in front of me opened and I was greeted by ten figures in fresh Martian combat armor.
This was not the unpowered variety I had used in my test before the invasion, but the heavy kind with plating mounted to exoskeletons capable of each lifting a freight engine. Each of the armored equipped with large bore rifles and one with a rotating barreled canon that I knew was meant for mechs rather than people. None of the armor bore any distinguishing marks common for Martian soldiers to tell rank and association in the heat of combat.
Those must be fresh prints, I thought, knowing that the only reason Martian armor wouldn't have regulation markings would be that they were just created recently and there wasn't time or the need.
“Freeze!” The lead figure ordered as she stepped out, “Identify yourself!”
“Cadet Thomas James Maine, Titan School of Intelligence,” I said, keeping perfectly still, “I escaped-“
“-we know you broke out of the flagship, and we know you got captured,” The woman interrupted, “That doesn’t mean you can be trusted. We will search you for weapons, we will lock you onto a gurney and you will lay quietly until we get some scans done. If that’s not good with you, then you are free to take your chances elsewhere.”
Without any thought I said, “Fine by me."
Between answering to angry Earth soldiers or mistrustful Martian ones, I'd choose the latter. At least they wouldn't shoot me on the spot.
Two of her men quickly dragged my inside, the heavy wall closing behind us. I was searched, and then locked onto a metal gurney.
The room was made of the same metal the sewers were, though cleaner. Sadly, I carried the sewer smell into the place which several of the armored figures commented on as well walked. I didn’t say anything as I didn’t feel like testing the orders of the lead soldier who had so graciously let me in.
I let myself relax, despite being locked up, as I knew I was close to home. Well, closer than I’d been since the whole mess on Titan had started. Hope was setting in, and that was nice. What wasn’t nice was when my brief nap was interrupted by jets of cold water as I was forcefully decontaminated.
Sputtering, I blinked water free of my eyes as the armored Martians all marched out of the other side of the chamber and into a large elevator. It went down for what seemed like ages, a nd then opened into another room that had barricades and heavy weapons implements set up. Once we passed this checkpoint, I was wheeled through many, many hallways and at last arrived in a lab.
“You all know if that is Thomas, our Thomas, then once he’s authorized, he’ll make your lives a living hell for this bit of theater, yes?” A familiar voice said.
Leaning up, I saw in the center of the lab the familiar face of Robert, standing in a fresh lab coat with his arms crossed as he scowled at the armored woman and her team.
“It’s all protocol,” the armored woman insisted, taking off her helmet to reveal a much less welcome face.
“Maria,” I grumbled, “should’ve known you would be the one who would offer to leave me in the sewers unless I came quietly.”
Maria Windsor was the only other person on Titan who came from one of the Greater Martian Families besides me. Unlike me though, her family loved that she came to Titan, and she lorded her status like a club over anyone with ears.
We had known each other since we were very young though, and I hadn’t’ liked her since I first saw her at some party my father took me to where she threw punch in my face, and I responded by tipping the whole punch bowl on her. Good times…
“Can it, Maine,” She ordered, “you could be a traitor.”
“You are definitely as cold hearted as that water,” I bit back, “I know you turned the water in that chamber to cold just to screw with me!”
“Hot water is- ““-not a luxury, surely!” I protested, “we aren’t some twenty-first century country! We’re Martians!”
Robert ended this conversation by wheeling me into a machine that I didn’t recognize that had a long tunnel in the center clearly meant for gurneys full of people. He left me there for a few minutes before announcing, “He’s free of mental tampering, but he is altered.”
“If he’s altered then- ““-then he’s an asset, just like everyone else. Let him up,” Robert instructed Maria.
The gurney was pulled free, and Maria’s team unfastened my restraints. I sat up and pointed to Maria, promising, “I’ll get you back for that cold water. Just wait.”
The two of her men still in the room by that point stepped forward and I dared them both, "Try it."
I had never had much patience for my comrades at the School of Warfare, and though my opinion of them was low, I was surprised when the guy on the left took a swing at me.
Time slowed and with a thought I had overclocking engaged again, ducking his high-powered punch. Surging forward, I planted my ruined boots on the ground, drove my shoulder into the side of the guy's knee with all I had and shot up with the full power of my legs, back, and abs to tip the armored boy back on his ass.
At that point, I collapsed as time resumed its regular pace. Looking hatefully up at the other guy whose rifle was trained on me, I heard Maria shout, "That's enough! The fuck is wrong with you two? Punching someone in that armor would've caved his chest in!"
I looked over at her and Robert who were clearly both still a bit shaken after watching me outclass a heavily armored opponent in nothing more than sewer soaked rags, but neither of them asked any questions.
Rolling her eyes at me as she approached, Maria asked, “Shouldn’t you put that energy towards actual enemies?”
“I am,” I chuckled, standing up and stretching. I was still sopping wet, and once a puddle had formed around me, Robert came over with a towel, a robe, and several curses.
“Mop that up,” Robert said, pointing at the puddle, “change into the robe, and then we’ll get you settled. After that you can inform us of what’s going on.”
As I changed into the robe a few minutes later Zeus announced, “I am now back online. I see you made it into the vault. I am also seeing from your memories that you have already found familiar faces. Very good. Now what do you plan to tell them about me?”
I paused at that. I hadn’t considered what I would tell anyone about Zeus.
Yes, the A.I. had been helpful, and yes, I’d accepted his help readily until this point, but he was still a former maniacal dictator who was considered equal to Mussolini and Joseph Stalin. I couldn’t exactly just tell everyone about him, surely?
I don’t know, I answered honestly, I’ll see what the situation is. I don’t really want to be locked up again, even by Martians, and you are stuck with me apparently.
Once I had changed, Maria escorted me through the halls and informed me of how things were fairing so far.
“There are about 2200 Martians down here. The rest are either dead or on ice aboard the flagship you escaped from. Believe it or not, you are not the first escapee. In the first few days, several individuals and groups escaped. Some we were able to assist and pick up. Others… Well, they are sleeping tight on the flagship, I guess. Each of them seems to have some form of nano-tech in them which gives them abilities that range from mundane to extra-ordinary. Since you broke out alone, you are probably closer to that second category,” Maria admitted.
“Thanks,” I said, surprised by the compliment.
“It’s just a fact,” Maria snorted, “Riku Ito busted out and got sent back. I can’t imagine what happened to him.”
I didn’t say anything, not sure about triggering something nasty. Riku and Maria were friends, and she likely wouldn’t enjoy hearing that he was a meat puppet. I didn’t like it either, but… Well, I’ll talk more about that in time.
Maria walked me not to a locker room full of new clothes, which is what I had hoped for as the robe was very breezy, but instead I was sat in a conference room and left alone for less than a minute before I was joined by possibly the one person, I would’ve liked to see dead after the invasion: Dean Winters.
“Hello, hello Thomas,” Dean Winters said pleasantly, sitting down across from me, “I am pleased to see you alive.”