----------------------------------------
Phoenix - Chapter 1
----------------------------------------
It stood almost 40 metres tall, glimmering in a spectacular accent of gold, massive but still sleek and angular - The Phoenix.
Fittingly the only one of its kind, and all going well, the only one there would ever be - Or so wished its chief collaborator.
The Doctor stood in front of his towering creation, taking it all in, admiring every curve, every elegant fold, each scar of a half decade of battling.
"Hey Professor! You must be chuffed with this last test hey? Total success as always." Beamed a newcomer, a man in his early thirties, tall with close shaven black hair. The Doctor had come to know him well in the last few years - Despite his age, the young man was something of a prodigy, highly talented, hardworking and with sheer skill enough to lead a project as delicate as theirs;
"Yup just one more last test tomorrow and it's over, fancy that eh? Finally got the higher-ups approval to start development of a phoenix production type - They've ah, well, they offered me my own team for the next project - In fact they're even willing to let me keep using this ship as a base for it. I, ya know, of course they'll probably want a learned man like yourself for bigger things but just thought you should know we would all welcome you staying on for whatever the next project turns out to be prof - Couldn't of got this far without you."
The 'Prof' turned sharply from his place in front of a small computer terminal wired to the mech itself, his diminutive stature and narrow glasses hiding old, tired eyes - Struck the young head-technician as colder than usual;
"Indeed I have heard all the tales of how poorly control of her was before my arrival - Seemingly you just pointed her toward the enemy and then shut off her system to retrieve her, hmmm."
The technician receded a little, scratching the back of his head, "Ah-ha, I always forget you weren't here for the first few years - Ya control was tough before you arrived. Well I best get my checks in before the party - You coming?"
The doctor scoffed, shaking his head dismissively - "Her final flight is yet to come, is it not too soon for celebrations?"
"Ah no way, tomorrow's test is just a demonstration to show the admirals what it is they've invested in, today was the last proper test."
"Well then, better not keep them waiting - I will preform the checks myself, parties have seldom been my 'scene'." The doctor said back, as he did he offered out a hand to the chief technician. Surprised for a moment, the young man quickly took the offered hand with a smile - Accepting the doctor's kind offer to cover both their work loads;
"Thanks Prof, it really has been a pleasure working with you, don't be stranger ya hear." - With that the smiling man left the hanger bay.
The whole place empty now, everyone attending a party - 'How unprofessional' - Then again the doctor felt inclined to offer them some slack, it had been half a decade's work, career defining for most of them - But the second he felt that moment of comradery, he spat on the cold metal ground beneath, disgusted by the feeling.
None of them deserved kindness, empathy or mercy - No one on this entire ship was innocent, all were complicit in his eyes.
"And they're all fools too." The lone man mumbled to himself, before looking upwards to the massive form of Phoenix, addressing it freely now;
"They won't mass-produce you, never! They wanted to dismantle you not long ago, recycle you for precious Goibniu - No they'll use you as a base, to murder more children like you my dear girl."
Yes 'Murder', that was the word that had driven him - It hadn't been easy to infiltrate a top secret TSU project, his doctorate was hardly enough to enter this part of the military. And when he had finally snuck his way aboard, it was years too late - She was long dead.
She had been his daughter once, a beautiful vibrant young girl - And he her foolish father. She had called him one day, back when the world was normal, told him not to get the train home from the university - He'd laughed but her voice was so frantic, and instead he splurged on a Taxi home, no big deal.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
That evening the local and national news had been filled with just one story, the terrible tragedy of a freak train crash, dozens dead. From there she had simply known things from time to time - When not to go out without an umbrella, when a food was out of date, and on one occasion which horse to bet on to win them a small fortune.
And like the fool he was he had written a paper, claiming that perhaps the Magi weren't as extinct as everyone thought - And then the war began, then his daughter went missing.
He had floated through life without a purpose, the world was ending, the Abhailen revolution burning across all of Bhaile - He had begun to hope he would simply get caught up and killed in all the fighting. But the invasion stopped one town short of his home, a home his daughter had advised him to buy just before her disappearance - Even the war refusing to put him out of his misery by a mere few miles.
And then it had happened, a friend with connections who remembered his paper, let him in on a little secret - The war was ending, all thanks to TSU using a bonafide Magi.
That was when the doctor knew - Knew why the police had never stood a chance of finding his little girl.
It had taken years, and it had been too late, but he found her - A secret project that had never even been deployed in the war. A gaint golden mech, controlled by an 'Artificial Magi Brain'.
That brain was what remained of his beautiful girl - Its free will long gone, its soul a victim, kept alive by a series of artificial organs - The machine and his girl, one and the same.
But it hadn't worked, the machine was impossible to control and so it had been of no value to the military, not when they had the 'First Casnel', another magi controlled unit but who's pilot hadn't required butchering.
But he wasn't about to see his daughter scraped for parts - Never.
"No, Mass-production would be impossible, too much Goibniu runs through your veins my dear - What they seek to do is simply replicate your brain, to create more fully subservient Magi like you - But don't worry, father won't let them have you much longer."
He had made her work, made the system plausible - Made the Phoenix invincible - And so when Abhaile tried for independence a second time 6 month's ago, they had been ready.
And from there, he had perfected her.
He began to active the programmes, years of inputting backdoors, secret codes, new 'fail-safes'.
"Never let them say our family leaves a job half done my child, you will complete that final test, but not the way they want of you - Destroy them with your own thoughts, learn to be your own being again - And once you have, fly free forever my dear, let nothing stand in your way!!"
The Doctor knew this would make up for nothing, he could never be forgiven for his sins, for being so foolish as to site his own child in a frivolously researched paper - For taking so long to find her, allowing her to be maimed, sliced, experimented on - For failing to protect her.
He input the final command the Phoenix would ever obey.
"Hey Prof you still here? You haven't seen my handheld around have you?" Called out a voice from the nearest doorway.
'Far too late, chief technician.'
The Phoenix rose.
"Prof, what's goin--"
The young man didn't get to finish, the Phoenix turned, the two glowing red slits for eyes moving in his direction - The machine didn't need eyes, The Doctor had even tried to get them removed, after all, her eyes had been the first thing stolen from her by the researchers - Better to improve her foresight abilities.
It reached its gargantuan hand out, bigger than any man, and crushed the lead technician in a bloody instant.
With a thunderous roar the second hand came down around the doctor, he found himself in the gap before finger and thumb.
"Fly my daughter, be free at last." He spoke softly.
The Phoenix reared up, the hanger bay had not been made for a mech that large to stand upright - Its sheer bulk strained against the ceiling. Then it gave way.
The Doctor stared up at his magnum opus, in his final moments mesmerised by its colossal majesty, its all encompassing, glowing beauty filling all his vision - Before the vacuum of space claimed his life at last.
That day The States Union research vessel 'Shelly', sank, torn apart piece by piece from the inside - Lost with all hands.
The Phoenix left unaccounted for.