CHAPTER 17
2210
Titan Corporation HQ Atheux Fortuna
Earth
At first, there was a glowing speck of light, which grew into a streak, then a tear in the fabric of space itself. The tear expanded until it was large enough for temporal energy to bleed through. The energy brought a burst of light. The bright particles eventually cleared, revealing the Vindex in Machina, standing and reflecting the sunlight, with remnants of quantum energy on its hull. The quake subsided, along with the deafening sound that accompanied it. Riley jumped out of the pilot chair, retching, feeling overwhelming nausea. Despite how sick he felt, nothing came up.
To his right was Isaac, seated in a wall chair, held in place by a safety belt. He was asleep, mouth hanging open, snoring quietly. Riley envied him and wished he could have felt the same kind of peace. However, he knew peace was one thing he needed to sacrifice for his mission. He sighed, then climbed back into his chair. Riley opened the most recent jump data and rubbed his forehead as he scanned it with his eyes.
“Sky,” he said, “we didn’t jump.”
“It appears not,” said Sky.
Riley continued staring at the data on the display, trying to make sense of it. Perhaps the drive was overheating and simply needed a reboot. He initiated a complete system reboot. All Vindex’s systems shut down. The lights went out in the cockpit, and even the reactors rebooted. For a few seconds, everything inside the armor was perfectly quiet. The whirring started again, followed by the hum, the lights, and every other system. When the reboot was completed, Riley opened the jump data again and frowned. Nothing had changed. He opened a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree video feed of their surroundings. They were standing in the ruins of the Titan Corp HQ building. The wreckage of twelve destroyed mechanized armors surrounded them, two dead vilis, and too many human corpses. Too many to count. Some were burnt, others torn apart, and some crushed. Riley clenched his fists. Each human body he saw was like a spike driven into his chest.
Isaac coughed and his eyes flickered for a few moments before they opened. They were bloodshot and he struggled to keep them open. He looked up and saw Riley glaring at him, which was enough to wake him up fully. Isaac looked around, trying to make sense of where he was and how he got there, but he remembered nothing.
Isaac touched his temple as his head throbbed. Suddenly, his memories returned, as though the sun had illuminated the darkness. His eyes widened and he felt his body, making sure he was still intact. He was relieved to find that he was. He took a deep breath, then again looked at Riley in the pilot seat.
Riley stared back at Isaac. He couldn’t remember belting him down or knocking him out. He couldn’t even be sure if he had knocked him out or if Isaac was just a really heavy sleeper.
“Sir,” Isaac started. His voice cracked, and he felt a sudden urge to vomit.
Riley looked at him with a slight grimace, then turned to face the screen.
Isaac grabbed the center of the safety belt. He fondled it for a moment, trying to figure out to release it. He eventually figured it out and pressed the round button at the center of the fastener, then tilted the housing to the side. The belt unfastened and Isaac fell on his hands and knees. He gazed around, able to see more clearly. He tried to push himself to his feet but felt another surge in his stomach, so strong that he couldn’t hold it back. Before Isaac knew what was happening, he had vomited onto the floor. He stayed on his hands and knees for a while, unable to look Riley in the eye.
Riley sighed, leaving his eyes fixed on the screen.
“I saw a vilis tear into the reactor chamber,” said Isaac. “The reactor exploded. How am I here?” He fell back into a sitting position and rested his back against the wall. “Who are you?”
Riley ignored him.
Isaac rested his head against the steel behind him. He tapped at his watch and the holographic display appeared in front of him. The image stuttered every few seconds, making it almost impossible to use. Isaac tried to adjust the watch, but it made the display less clear. He sighed. “I’m sorry for messing up your cockpit and I’m grateful that you saved me, however you did that. I still need to know who you are and what’s going on.”
A beeping started in the cockpit, coming from the walls. Isaac looked around rapidly, trying to find its source. He had seen several mechanized armors before. He had even worked on some but he had never been inside one before.
Riley’s screen displayed an incoming transmission from ‘Ethan Ramirez’. He accepted the transmission and directed the call into the cockpit’s speakers so Isaac could hear it.
“Private Karlsson,” Ethan greeted, “where the hell have you been? Your signal was offline for the past five hours. We thought you were dead. Our readings are showing that Doctor Clarke is with you. Is that correct?”
“That’s affirmative, sir,” said Riley.
“Good. We’re en route to one of the few secure camps left in the north of Onyx Lavenport. I’m sending you the coordinates to rendezvous. Be there in twenty minutes. Over.”
“Over and out, sir,” Riley responded.
Isaac stood up and walked to Riley’s chair, where he saw his first glimpse of the world outside the mech. He trembled when he saw the surrounding destruction. Isaac almost lost his footing, but he grabbed onto Riley’s chair before he could fall.
“You should go back over there,” said Riley.
Isaac nodded and returned to the wall. He pulled out the retractable chair and sat on it. “Where have we been for the past five hours, Private Karlsson? Why did your signal go offline? I assume you know that means you died, right?”
Riley stared at him, then grunted and turned back to the screen. “Strap in, it’s about to get bumpy.”
Isaac didn’t argue. He reached for the safety belts and tightened them until they were snug around his body. Riley put on his helmet, connected his hands to the mobility module, and set the armor in motion. He stopped near the dead vilis, aimed his shoulder cannon, and put an explosive bullet in both of the creatures before moving on. The rounds exploded behind the Vindex, destroying what remained of the vilis. Riley tapped the location Ethan sent and it appeared as a blinking red dot on a map. Sky immediately plotted a course from their current location to the destination.
Before long, they arrived at the coordinates. There was no sign of life, only the rubble of collapsed buildings and the wreckage of burnt vehicles. Riley raised his hand to send a transmission request to Ethan when the ground shook.
“What was that?” Isaac asked.
Riley knew. He had felt that quake enough times to know exactly what it was. “Helmet, now!” he yelled at Isaac.
Isaac looked from side to side before looking up and seeing a helmet hanging above him. He put it on and fastened it as quickly as he could.
Vindex drew its shotgun from its back. A vilis appeared further along the road. Riley settled into the pilot’s chair and smiled. Isaac watched him with concern; Riley hadn’t seemed remotely happy about anything, until now. The vilis rose on its hind legs and roared. Isaac’s breathing intensified when he heard the terrible sound. He shut his eyes and hoped the monster would leave.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Riley fired the shotgun with two deafening bangs, then darted toward the vilis, grinning. Vindex had barely started running when another vilis rammed its head into the roaring creature from the side, knocking it through the nearby ruins of a building. The vilis stood up and fought back. Riley frowned, deactivated the gun, and returned it to the holster on his back. He slowly backed away to where he had been standing moments earlier.
Isaac cautiously opened his eyes. “What’s happening?” he asked.
Riley scoffed and brought Vindex to a stop. He sent a transmission to Ethan. “We’ve arrived at the coordinates. What’s your ETA? Over.”
As soon as the message was sent, a transmission request came from Ethan. Riley accepted it.
“Private Karlsson,” Ethan greeted, “we’re seconds away from the drop site, but we have eyes on two vilis in the vicinity. Follow the smoke in the sky, over.”
Riley looked up and saw the airship flying away, leaving a trail of red smoke in its wake. Vindex followed it and mounted a gigantic pile of rubble. When he reached the top, Riley saw the airship landing two hundred meters away. He slid down the rubble and headed for the ship. The ship’s hatch opened and Bethany ran out, sprinting toward the Vindex. Riley stopped, popped the hatch, and lowered Vindex’s visor closer to the ground. Isaac climbed down.
Before Isaac could say anything, Bethany jumped at him.
“Where the hell have you been?” she playfully punched his arm.
Isaac rubbed his arm. “All I know is, that man up there saved me.”
Bethany looked up and waved at Riley. He scoffed, marched into the ship’s hangar, and parked the mech. He remained in the hangar as the ship took off. Riley made sure Vindex was secure before joining the others in the cabin. There were eight people on the ship, including Ethan, Sayeed, Bethany, and others they rescued from the HQ.
Riley sat a few seats away from everybody else.
Ethan entered from the cockpit and sat opposite Riley. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”
Riley didn’t look at him. “I caught him, just before the explosion,” he glanced toward Isaac. “I brought him into my mech. The explosion must have distorted our signal.”
Ethan paused, and then inquired “For five hours?”
Riley shrugged. Ethan leaned forward, towards Riley.
“Where were you in those five hours?”
“Right where I was when the reactor exploded. Passed out, I guess.”
“So you’re saying you survived a nuclear reactor explosion to the face, point blank,” said Ethan. “Then it knocked you both out for five hours. Then you both just happen to wake up five hours later, and nobody saw you in the rubble, even after searching?”
Riley shrugged again.
Ethan stared at Riley’s eyes, trying to determine if he was telling the truth or lying. Eventually, he nodded. “I want a full report as soon as we reach the base.”
“Base?”
“That’s right,” Ethan said. “It isn’t really a base, but it’s all we could put together with the time and resources we had. It’ll need to do for now.”
Riley nodded.
Ethan nodded too and returned to the cockpit. The ship hit some turbulence, making its passengers jerk back and forth. Bethany took a snack from her bag and offered it to Isaac. He grabbed it from her hand and quickly ate it. As soon as he finished, he asked for another. Bethany giggled and gave him another, then her water canteen.
She looked over at Riley. “Hey,” she called.
Riley heard her but didn’t look.
Bethany got out of her seat and sat down next to Riley, holding a snack in front of his face.
He took the snack and nodded at her.
“Riley, right? I’m Bethany. Bethany Clarke.” She held out her hand.
Riley looked at her hand and turned away. He tore the packaging from the snack and ate it in two bites.
Bethany smirked, then returned to her seat beside Isaac.
Isaac was drinking from the canteen. He glanced over at Riley and back to Bethany. “Who is that guy?” he asked.
“Riley Karlsson,” she answered. “One of the newest recruits.”
Isaac snorted. “There’s no way that guy is new.” He paused and glanced over at Riley again, who was looking at his tablet. “Does he look new to you?”
“I don’t know but the way the serious guy talked about him,” she pointed in Ethan’s direction, “he sounds like a big deal. What really happened out there?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Isaac admitted. “One second, I was looking directly at an exploding reactor. Five hours later, I woke up strapped to the wall inside battle armor, with a possible psychopath who saved my life.” Isaac looked down at Bethany’s bag. “Can I have another one of those?”
Bethany shook her head and dropped the bag on Isaac’s lap. He opened it and saw that it was filled with snacks. Isaac looked up at Bethany and smiled. She smiled back at him.
The flight to the base took half an hour. The ship landed far from civilization, surrounded by trees and vast mountain ranges. There were three huge bunkers on the site. An aged man wearing a black uniform walked out to greet them. He gave them a tour of the base, showed them the bunkers, and explained their purposes. The bunker on the left was for the females, while the one on the right was for the males. The bunker behind was for housing the mechanized armors and used as a storage unit. At the center of the camp, there was a long-range scanner for detecting vilis movement. There were also several automated cannon batteries in strategic positions around the camp.
“If you’ve never piloted a mech before, this is the perfect time to start,” said the old man. “We have more mechs here than people who know how to use them. We’re not forcing anyone but, since we don’t know how long we’ll be here, we might as well learn to protect each other better.”
After the tour, Riley rolled Vindex into the hangar bunker. The man handed each of the new arrivals a duffle bag containing clothes and provisions. Riley carried his bag into the hangar and changed into jeans and a t-shirt. He stood in front of Vindex, looking it up and down, and shook his head. With the help of a fellow mech pilot, Riley found an extendable hose and plugged it into a water source. He climbed up Vindex with the hose in his hand. The smell of bile in the cockpit was disgusting. Riley pointed the hose at Isaac’s vomit and turned it on. Water gushed out, washing away the stain and the smell with it.
Riley spent hours inside the mech, wiping it clean with a cloth. When it was cleaned to his satisfaction, he polished the surfaces one section at a time. Once he was finished with the interior, Riley moved outside and gave it as thorough a cleaning as he had the inside. After several hours of cleaning, he finally stepped back and took a long look at the mech. He nodded with a slight smirk. Since Riley had started the mission, all he had done was fight one battle after another. There was no time to do the little things and he was grateful for a rare opportunity. Riley unplugged the hose and returned it to its place.
Riley sat on a bench beside Vindex, scribbling in his journal. He heard footsteps coming and looked up. It was Bethany, approaching with a bowl of food. She sat opposite Riley and held the bowl to his face. Riley stared at the bowl for a moment. He closed his journal and set it down beside him, then took the bowl from Bethany.
“You don’t always have to act like everything is a tough choice,” Bethany said. “It’s only a bowl of oats.”
Riley ground his teeth as he looked at her. She reminded him of the person he used to be. A smile almost crept onto his face.
Bethany gasped. “Oh, wow. Making progress, are we?” she teased. “The world must be about to end.”
Riley looked down and lifted the spoon of oats to his mouth. He wanted Bethany to leave. He knew exactly what he needed to do to make her leave, and he had done it. Somehow, she was still there, eager to discuss what was bothering her.
Bethany stood up and walked to Vindex. She knocked on the hull, making a dull clang. “What’s it like piloting this thing?” she asked.
Riley didn’t look up and continued eating. Bethany touching Vindex evoked an uneasy feeling in Riley. He opened his mouth to speak, but simply grunted instead and continued with his meal. Bethany saw the journal and picked it up with curiosity before sitting down again. Her eyes met Riley’s and saw the coldest glare she had ever encountered. It sent a chill up her spine and she quickly returned the journal to its place at Riley’s side.
“I just wanted to say thank you for saving Isaac,” she said. “He’s the closest thing I have to a family, and I don’t know what I would do if something happened to him,” Bethany paused, waiting for Riley to respond.
Riley said nothing.
“There is something I can’t wrap my mind around,” she continued. “You were both missing for five hours. Where were you?”
Riley clenched his teeth.
Bethany gulped. “I… I’m only saying that I checked Isaac’s chip; it never turned off. It’s as though it was still online but we just couldn’t find it. I’m assuming the same thing happened with yours. It’s just strange. Your signal reappeared at the exact spot where it vanished, down to the inch.”
Riley finished his oats, then placed the bowl on the bench beside him. Bethany picked it up.
“Thanks for the food,” Riley muttered.
Bethany raised her brows. “You aren’t going to make this easy, are you?” she asked with a smile, still trying to figure him out. “Please don’t tell me that’s all you’re going to say.”
Riley picked up his journal and tucked it into the back pocket of his jeans. He walked away and started climbing Vindex.
Bethany shook her head. “Good talk,” she said, walking away to exit the bunker, “looking forward to the next one.”
Riley stood on the shotgun deck and watched Bethany as she walked away. Once she was out of sight, he climbed into the cockpit and sealed the hatch behind him.
“Sky, pull up the data from our last jump,” he said.
“Just a moment,” Sky responded as the data appeared on the display.
Riley scanned through it, line by line. When he reached the end, he sighed and sat back in the chair. “I don’t see a damn thing,” he said.
“Me neither.”
“Where the hell did we go for five hours?” Riley asked with confusion.
“Perhaps you can tell me since you’re the one who decided you needed to break a simple rule. Those rules exist for a reason and they aren't to be broken. You only had one rule and you still couldn’t help yourself.”
“You damn well know he is--.” Riley couldn't finish his sentence out of pure frustration.
“Are you sure of that? Or did you let your emotions influence your mission?”
Riley was silent. He turned his chair to face away from the screen, then pressed a button on its side. The button lowered the chair back into an almost horizontal position.
“I am as intrigued by this as you are,” Sky said. “When you wake up, we can…”
Riley hit a button below the screen and Sky’s voice distorted briefly before falling silent. Riley leaned back with his hands on his chest. He sighed, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.