Polis Kyiv, Polytechnic Institute
Daria Vasilevskaya, August 12, 2049, 10:30 AM
“Damn it!” Dasha emerged from virtual reality, her eyes gaining a focused expression.
“This shit is happening all around the world! Looking at the geotags, this phenomenon is spreading…” She took several deep breaths, fighting off a creeping panic. “There haven’t been any confirmed sightings of those portals in Kyiv yet. But that could change in a minute’s time!”
Returning to her desk, Dash leaned over, picked up her vape, and slipped it into her pants pocket.
“It’s mostly clear to me how the military caught wind of this. Although the effectiveness of their actions leaves much to be desired.” Her backpack had been lying unopened, so she just grabbed at it and habitually put it on. “Out of three open conflicts, we’re winning only one! No proper info on the monsters and what they want as of now. Gotta dial up Max immediately.”
“I’m scared…” the girl said in a barely audible whisper, slumping her shoulders. Then she straightened up and said in a much louder and more confident voice, “Moira, stay in touch, and I’m taking three Ravens!”
“Understood, Daria.”
Dasha pressed the ‘contacts’ mediaglyph and speed dialed Maksim. Taking her mediaphone with a camera out of her pocket, the girl rushed out of the lab.
“Max?” A picture came into her view: a room with dust on the floor, some junk strewn about. In the center of it, a medbot was working. She saw a smart cable connected to the bot; an operation on some guy’s leg was underway. The camera went up, showing the stomach… then the chest… the head… That’s Maksim.
#Alisa.Thread0.Primary
# Incoming call: Daria ‘Dark’ Vasilevskaya
“Alisa here,” she answered and simply shared her perspective, turning on the ‘first person view’ instead of fumbling with the camera.
“What’s wrong with Max?!” There were notes of panic in Dasha’s voice.
“An accident. I’m handling the situation, but I can’t call an ambulance.”
“That thing has already reached us?!” Dasha leaned on the wall and slowly slid down.
“Unfortunately, yes. Maksim was hit by a wave during the first shot at opening the portal,” Alisa remained motionless, fully controlling the medbot via direct connection. Her eyes were focused on Max’s face and chest. At that moment, he twitched, took one ragged breath, and then started breathing normally without coming to. The machine put away the resuscitation kit.
“The damn monsters from the damn portals! How’s Max? Is he breathing?”
“Maksim will be okay, I’m working on it. He’s breathing.”
“Thanks to Her Holy Brightness,” Dasha breathed out quietly. “Alisa, I can’t believe it... The whole world is turned upside down! It’s like we are in a video game, only much worse, and you can’t just turn it off!”
“Apocalypse... a pretty accurate description,” Alisa replied after a slight pause and looked up. The frame captured a cyborg girl sitting on a stool by the medbot. Above average height, fire-red long wavy hair, green eyes. She was wearing short athletic shorts and a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and the hems tied around her chest. Her arms and legs were professional cyber-models, the left leg was bent upward at the knee joint, perpendicular to the floor, the protective elements were off, and the girl was calmly and confidently working on something inside.
“Are you watching the videos right now? Who’s that cyborg? What exactly happened to you guys? You said a portal opened?”
“Yes, I’ve just watched all ninety-three clips released in the last minute. The cyborg is Nikola, she happened to be nearby, helped me out,” Alisa answered, simultaneously wrapping up the resuscitation procedures and working on the leg. “As for the portal… there was something like an attempt to open one at the stadium, as far as I understand. But it all ended with a big explosion. I don’t have enough data to explain in detail.”
“The world is screwed,” Dasha succinctly summarized, still sitting against the wall. Fidgeting, she got into a more comfortable position and produced her vape again. “Alisa, you noticed that the military seems to know more than we do and trying to resist, right? Like, all of them: corporations, states, and polises?!”
“Indeed. It's clear the military has information, but they're not explaining anything to civilians, which means some game is being played. But I, personally, think that the outcome of said game is close, and, most importantly, there’s a third side we don’t know anything about. So, it’s unclear what to do.”
“That's precisely my thought. I’m pretty sure we’ve been sold down the river…” Dasha pensively spun the vape box in her hand. “If a portal were to open here, and the military were to start nosing around, I think we’d better hide Moira. Maybe we should load the main frame onto a truck?”
“Good idea. Can you start preparations so we could move it, but without disconnecting me? I need to take Max to the hospital, it’s not far from here. The ambulance service is overwhelmed, we simply can’t wait for it.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Dasha received a dynamic geotag that said ‘Us’ from Alisa. Following the first, a second static one came that said ‘Hospital.’
“Is Max really gonna be okay?”
“Definitely. But his spine is broken, so he needs help as quickly as possible. Especially if we’re going to leave town...”
“Okay, understood,” Dasha replied, getting up and putting her unused vape away. “I’ll get right on that thing. Will check at the neighboring wing, the ‘industrialists’ there have a great mobile roboplatform. I dropped by a few days ago, they were finishing making it. We can also manage to loot some fuel cells. From that, assembling ‘Mobile Moira’ becomes feasible.”
“Great. Then that’s what we’re doing. I’ll keep you posted on my end. All right, take care now, stay out of trouble.”
“I always… stay out of trouble. You know that. Okay, over and out.”
Dasha picked herself up slowly, leaning against the wall. She adjusted her backpack, sighed, and turned on the map in the “navigation” mode in the additional window.
“Well… Godspeed, I guess...”
After a short five-minute jog through the almost desolate due to summer break university hallways, the girl came up to the top gallery.
She crossed the lobby at a brisk pace and came out onto the balcony around the atrium, which separated the left and right wings. There weren’t any people up here at all, but you could hear voices coming from the food court below.
Reaching the glass barrier, Dasha looked down at the handful of cafeteria visitors on the first floor…
At that moment, a powerful flash assaulted her eyes. Her professional implants triggered in time and dimmed the brightness, but she still saw colorful spots… A loud explosion came immediately.
Because of the way the area was built, the powerful shock wave shot upward, smashing into the glass ceiling with a roar. Dasha got swept off her feet and thrown on the floor.
Sparkling smithereens began raining down loudly. The girl instinctively dashed under a small overhang and hugged the wall. That most likely saved her life because most of the dome had collapsed onto both the atrium area and the balconies.
“A portal! Those things always make an explosive entrance!” Pausing for a second, she touched her face and stared at her bloody palm in shock.
Her cut cheek ached badly.
“Carefully, carefully…” Looking around, Dasha cautiously snuck up to the barrier that was still miraculously intact. Her thin-soled sneakers were no match for the sheer volume of broken glass and pieces of metal lying around.
A large portal had already fully expanded below; it was much bigger than what she’d seen on video. What she saw next made her turn as white as a sheet, and she put both hands over her mouth not to scream. Everyone who was down at the food court got mangled up in the explosion, their remains smeared on the floor and the walls. Blood, severed body parts, and the glistening blanket made of broken glass…
The crab-like creatures had already left the portal and taken off in all directions. The two survivors who tried to get up were met with an even more gruesome fate – the monsters instantly tore them to shreds.
No sign of the big “worm,” but many long flat whip-like tentacles emerged out of the portal, resembling a squid’s but with many flexible hairs instead of suckers. All that monstrous biomass was moving, actively picking up dead bodies and carrying the prey back into the portal.
“Eff me, dude!” Dasha blurted out after witnessing the awful scene. She reflexively ran through some mediaglyphs in her mind, pressing ‘contacts,’ ‘special services,’ ‘police,’ and ‘call’ in quick succession.
The girl broke off a little part of her mediaphone that served as a backup camera with communication module and slid it through the gap in the barrier so that she could capture the chaos below.
“Thank you for your call. We’re sorry, all the lines are busy at the moment. Your application will be processed by GMAI ‘Kyiv Police,’ virtual line 00211.”
“Shit! So typical…” She held the line and streamed her camera’s view onto her channel, sharing it with the police.
“I need to run!” Her eyes darted around. “But where do I go? Those things are down there, so that way is a no-no. They can’t work an elevator, can they? Here’s hoping that it’s safe up here for now. Should I go back to the club, to Moira?
How would that help me?
I’ve gotta get the hell out of here.
But I need that roboplatform ASAP! I’m helpless without it!”
The portal’s protective field had almost faded away, allowing to vaguely see the outline of some kind of giant creature inside that looked like a pile of mass.
Dasha had snuck all the way to the end of the balcony when an emergency alarm wailed. The girl got caught off guard and madly broke into a run. As if on cue, the Army drones swooped down with an ear-splitting roar. This time they started the counterattack by bombarding the area with missiles instead of using miniguns.
Looking back, she noticed smoke trails from the discharged missiles in the air. There was a flash followed by a rumble. It seemed like the entire building started to shake, not just the floor.
“Shit! Shit!” The girl rushed away from the ill-fated area like there’s no tomorrow. The elevators were to the left of her, and a ‘staff only’ room straight ahead.
“Please…” She didn't slow down, charging straight ahead, and with a twist at the last second, she shouldered the door open, “…be a door that opens inward!”
Pain exploded in her shoulder as Dasha carried forward a few more steps by momentum. Stopping, she turned around, gasping for air, her gaze fixed on the door frame in a hunted manner. Yet, visibility was zero – the corridor was filled with smoke, and the only sound was the working of machine guns.
“Damn it! What can I use to block the door? What now?!” she hissed, her whole body trembling.
Forget about getting to the hospital in twenty minutes, she just needed to survive!
A belated thought flickered that if the military demolished the building now, it would mean the end for Moira, Alice, and all her Ravens. Perhaps, a retreat to the safety of the clubroom would have been the better choice. Alas, it was now beyond her reach. The situation on the balconies remained shrouded in uncertainty — her camera’s feed had been cut long ago. Yet, the din of battle echoed unmistakably through the air.
“Ugh... damn it... that hurts,” she muttered as the rush of adrenaline ebbed away, leaving Dasha to nurse her throbbing shoulder. “I can’t even begin to guess what’s happening out there, but it's clear I need to make a run for it... Only...”
Approaching the battered door, she noted its lock was smashed, yet the door stood resilient. Her eyes scanned the corridor for anything that could serve as an impromptu barricade. Her hands found a fire extinguisher on its wall bracket, which she briefly considered before discarding with a toss.
“No, this won’t work!” The extinguisher clattered away. She tried in vain to rip its plastic mounting bracket off the wall, but it held fast. Desperation gripped her as she clutched her hair with shaky hands. “Balls! What the hell! There's nothing here I can use to block the door! It wouldn't hold back anyone, anyhow! It’s a university, not a freaking fortress!”
A few deep breaths helped the girl to clear her head and soundly evaluate the situation. She still had a mobile connection with Moira, all the networks worked fine. Also, the gunfire had quieted down. Either the Army drones had run out of ammo, or they had won.
“I gotta get my hands on a few drones or some ground bots at least,” Dasha decided. “There’s a storeroom down below. Let’s hope it has what I need and no monsters…”