by Drew Cordell
“Leroy!” I yelled, stumbling through the street and avoiding flaming wreckage. A burst of green bolts sailed through the air, deflecting off my blade in an explosion of sparks. I couldn’t see the HK shooting at me, but trudged forward with the blade raised, using the glowing edge to guide my way.
Green bolts darted toward me from the right, and I jumped back, deflecting them and running forward. I blocked the bolts and deflected them back toward the attacker. The energy slammed into the chest of an HK, causing it to stagger back before I drove my sword through its head. The HK sunk to the ground, and I jabbed my blade into its chest, spending more power to cook the internal circuitry.
With enemies all around me in the smokescreen, I had to be quick when checking my Artemis feed on my wrist. Something was wrong, and I couldn’t see any friendlies or hostiles in range.
“Leroy! Where are you?” My voice was drowned out by the roar of flames. A surge of fire burst forward from a downed Dropship, singeing my face and causing me to stagger away from the intense heat. Suddenly, a brilliant blue nova burned in the sky with a thundering roar, lighting the entire area for several seconds before extinguishing itself as if nothing had happened.
In the wake of the explosion, everything seemed silent—peaceful, almost. The burning edge on my blade flickered off, and my Artemis link went dark. I tried to control my cybernetic hand, but it wasn’t working either. A blurred figure rushed out of the darkness toward me, and I instinctively raised my CZR-7, aimed at center-mass, and squeezed the trigger. The gun clicked, but nothing happened and thankfully so—it was Leroy.
“It worked; all the HKs are down,” he said, speaking loudly so I could hear. Seeing me, he knelt to the ground and dug through his backpack, pulling out a spare mask and handing it to me. While the filters were crude, the goggles protected me from the smoke burning my eyes.
I took several deep breaths as the mask filtered the smoke out of the air for me. After a few seconds, my eyes calmed and I could see clearly again. All of our electronics were dead, and the only thing we had left working was our SMGs—Martinez was right for insisting we bring them.
“Are you guys okay?” Caeldra asked, running up to us with Mary.
“We’re fine. The EMP worked; all the HKs are down,” Leroy said.
“Come on, we need to check for survivors.” Caeldra started to run forward with her SMG raised.
As she moved, a huge, slender figure materialized from the smoke, swinging something. A blade arced forward and hit Leroy, slicing through him with a horrible sinking sound. He fell to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth and splattering into his mask before he fell to the ground.
24 GOODBYE
Caeldra screamed and fired at the figure with her SMG, spraying bullets and trying to find her target. Some of her shots hit their mark, and the figure whirled back and ran through a wall of fire, jumping through it and disappearing into the flames. Caeldra dropped to Leroy’s side and tried to help him. The gruesome scene left no question of Leroy’s death; there was nothing we could do but try to save ourselves.
I tried to layer away the fear, to rely on my mind’s power to think logically and filter out the pain and emotion. I couldn’t afford emotion—not now when we’d all be dead if I didn’t take charge.
“Caeldra, he’s gone, and that thing is still out there!” I said, fighting the panic. “We need to get to the train in case there are survivors. We won’t be so exposed there.”
The initial shock faded, and Mary managed to pull Caeldra away and toward the Train. I tossed Caeldra my SMG and held my sword in my left hand, searching the dancing shadows for anything that moved. Caeldra was sobbing, and I could tell her composure was shattered, yet something propelled her to do the logical thing and follow us. If I didn’t get us out soon, we wouldn’t have a chance against the attacker.
Moving in a tight cluster and watching our surroundings from three vantage points, we moved toward the train. Clearing the worst of the smoke and wreckage, we entered the door, looking for anything that could help us. Bodies lay scattered all over the floor, interwoven with deactivated HKs. It was even darker inside the train, but with the flames burning outside, it was bright enough to see. Mary reached into her pack and scrambled to pull out some flares, popping the caps and tossing them around us.
The interior of the train was illuminated by the brilliant red glow of the phosphorous flames, and we searched for survivors with growing hysteria. The HKs had been ruthless and thorough—we were the only survivors on scene, and there was no sign of Shadow Squad. A figure approached from outside, its sword hanging from its hand dripping with Leroy’s blood.
Mary and Caeldra unloaded their weapons, but the bullets only seemed to slow the titanic robot as it walked. Their weapons clicked dry. Brilliant blue light ignited from the robot’s eyes as it walked forward into the red light of the flares. The robot was silent, just observing and calculating through its burning eyes.
“Get to the Undercity. I’ll hold it off,” I said to Mary and Caeldra.
Mary brandished her sword, and Caeldra flipped out her combat knife. “We can do this together,” Mary said. “We’re not leaving you alone.”
“Your army is gone,” I said raising my sword and concentrating as the robot walked forward. This robot was bigger than the previous version of Infinitum, and it wasn’t covered in artificial skin. Its gleaming alloy was coated in soot from the fires, but it appeared completely unaffected by the EMP. It was the same type of robot Infinitum had used in Olympus, a Titan class. This robot didn’t seem like Infinitum, though. It wasn’t talking—it didn’t seem to want anything other than to kill us all.
The giant robot continued forward silently, standing to full height and towering over us at over seven feet tall.
“Leave them out of this,” I said, stepping forward and moving in front of Mary and Caeldra.
If the massive robot could hear or understand us, it didn’t show any indication of it.
“We’ll take it together,” Mary said, moving alongside me with her sword ready.
The robot rushed forward, swinging its sword at me. Anticipating the attack, I jumped back and raised my blade, angling it and deflecting the blow. Even without blocking the swing directly, the force exerted by the Titan was staggering, and I fought to maintain my footing. When I blocked, Mary jumped in and slashed at the Titan’s head, her blade bouncing off a piston on its face and leaving a visible dent. Maintaining its momentum, the robot lowered itself and swung in a low arc. Caeldra jumped over the swing and dug her knife into the robot’s arm, cutting through some of its armor and causing a spray of sparks to erupt from a now exposed servo. Mary brought her weapon down on the Titan’s blade and countered its swing.
The enemy was having a hard time facing us all at once, and with its Nanotech-based shielding offline from the EMP, our Nanoedged Blades were inflicting heavy damage. Although the Titan didn’t have its Nanotech, neither did we and one mistake could cost us our lives.
The robot jumped forward and swung at Caeldra with its fist, catching her on the shoulder and sending her sprawling through the air before crashing and sliding on the smooth metal floor.
“Take out its arms!” Caeldra yelled, picking herself up and grabbing another knife from the body of a Guild member.
Caeldra’s knife was still embedded in the Titan’s arm, but the arm appeared relatively undamaged and functional. I moved in and slashed with my blade, trying to hit the robot’s sword arm before it could raise the weapon. I underestimated the Titan’s speed, and the robot countered my slash with ease. With my body thrown off center, I was defenseless as the robot swung its massive sword at me. Mary somehow managed to step in and strike the swing off its path. Regaining my balance, I swung and hit the robot’s leg, cutting through some of the armor and causing the robot to stumble backward.
Caeldra was back on her feet, moving in to strike at the Titan. The robot slashed at Mary and me, and I managed to swing down and hit its hand.
The force of the impact reverberated through my arm, jolting my bones painfully, but it was enough. The titan’s sword fell to the floor and skittered to the side. In an instant, the Titan pulled the knife from its arm and hurled it through the air. The blade sailed, flipping rapidly before sinking through Caeldra’s chest. Caeldra staggered back, wrapping her fingers around the hilt of the blade before falling to the ground, groaning in pain.
Mary screamed in anger, jumping forward and swinging at the Titan furiously. The robot backpedaled, but its leg appeared to be damaged from my swing. The robot moved slowly toward its weapon, trying to recover the heavy sword.
“Mary, catch!” I yelled, throwing Mary my sword and diving on the floor for the Titan’s blade. I gripped the weapon and pulled it out of reach of the robot. Mary was hitting the robot enough to pull its focus. Mary ducked under a punch from the Titan and jabbed her blade into its leg. Moving quickly, the robot chopped down on the bottom of the blade with its hand, breaking the weapon then hitting Mary with a swift chop from its hand. The robot’s hand hit Mary in the collarbone, and I heard the bone crunch. Mary fell backward and tried to crawl away as the robot staggered forward, trying to reach her.
Using my good hand to close the fingers of my cybernetic hand over the hilt of the sword, I rushed forward and swung with all my might with a two-handed swing. Positioning my feet as Marwin had taught me and driving power from my feet to my arms, I hit as hard as physically possible. The blade hit the robot’s leg, nearly cutting all the way through. The Titan fell to the floor, then quickly rolled away as I tried to swing again. Grabbing the body of a fallen Guild member, the robot threw it through the air. The body collided with me and knocked me to the ground. My head bounced off the metal flooring and stars danced across my vision against the red hue of the train. The body was still on top of me, and with the EPX armor, it must have weighed at least three hundred pounds. I squirmed, trying to free myself from the crushing weight as the Titan walked over to Mary who was still trying to stand. Her right arm was hanging slack by her side.
“No!” I screamed, trying to free myself to save her. I heaved with all my might, but the body wouldn’t move and my cybernetic arm was useless. I watched in horror as the robot grabbed Mary, lifting her high in the air and slamming her down on the ground. Mary’s body went slack, and the Titan raised her up again. Before it could slam her a second time, the bloody blade of a knife exploded through the back of the robot’s neck, cutting through the cabling and sending blue sparks dancing across the floor. Caeldra was standing behind the robot and pulled the knife out, jabbing it through the Titan’s neck again. The robot’s head slumped and its eyes flickered, but it was still operational.
The Titan spun around and dropped Mary, grabbing Caeldra and twisting her body around. It pulled Caeldra’s arm to the side and gripped her opposite shoulder with the other hand. In a raw display of visceral power, the robot pulled with all its might, ripping off Caeldra’s arm from the shoulder. Blood erupted from the wound, splashing on the floor, and the Titan threw the arm and her broken body to the side.
I screamed in anguish, fighting with all my might and somehow managing to free myself from the body on top of me. Jumping up, I grabbed the sword and rushed forward before the Titan could grab Mary again. The robot saw my swing coming and raised its arm to block the blow, but the sword cut all the way through, continuing through the air and cutting through half its head before coming to a stop. I screamed in anger and kicked the Titan down, pulling the sword from its head and swinging down on the broken robot again and again until I was sure it was obliterated. Mary’s mask fogged up in a methodical rhythm—she was breathing, and I had to save Caeldra.
Dropping the sword, I ran over to Caeldra who was trying to crawl away. A thick trail of blood lay in the wake of her movements. Blood was still pouring from the gaping hole where her arm was supposed to be. I flung off my backpack and pulled my medkit from it, scrambling to grab the bottle of medical sealant. I ripped off the cap and poured it onto the wounds, sealing them and stopping the profuse bleeding.
With a shaking hand, Caeldra pulled off her mask and took deep breaths of the cold night air. Tears cascaded down her face and blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. She was sobbing uncontrollably, her breaths racking through her whole body. She was trying to say something, but couldn’t get the words out. She had lost too much blood.
I pulled off my own mask, cradling her in my arms. “Don’t talk. You’re going to be fine,” I lied. Tears blurred my vision as I held her in my arms while she died.
Caeldra kept trying to say something, but her lips were trembling too hard and she couldn’t stop hyperventilating. Her whole body was shaking, and there was nothing I could do to save her.
“Don’t talk,” I croaked, my voice cracking as emotion surged through me. “I’m here for you; you’re going to be fine.” I brushed her sweat plastered hair out of her face and caressed her forehead gently.
Caeldra’s crystal blue eyes glowed in the red of the flare light, dancing around frantically.
I kissed her forehead. “You’re going to be fine. I’m here.”
“Goodbye,” she said, her words barely audible as she took her last breath.
25 REALITY
Through dulled eyes, I watched the flares burn out while I held Mary in my arms. I tried to keep my eyes off of Caeldra’s body, but it was impossible. I couldn’t deal with the fact she was gone. After everything, I had failed to protect her. Until Mary awoke, there was nothing I could do but wait and soak in my new reality—a reality without Adam, Caeldra, or Leroy. I tried everything I could to bring Caeldra back, but I failed. Because of me, she was dead along with the rest of Knight Squad. It’s hard to comprehend exactly how much someone meant to you until they’re gone, and the emotional pain I was feeling was greater than any physical pain.
I couldn’t help replaying the fight in my head, trying to think of what I could have done to save her. The hardest thing was Caeldra knew she was going to die when she saved Mary and me. She gave her life to give us a chance to live. It wasn’t fair, and there was nothing I could have done to stop her or save Mary myself.
My reality was simple. Mary and I were the only survivors of the mission apart from the other reconnaissance squads that were still MIA. The Omniscience Engine was taking everything and everyone I loved away, and I was forced to accept the fact Mary and I could very well be the only survivors on the surface of New York.
Mary awoke and looked at me with dazed eyes. I had wrapped her arm in a sling to help her move, but she wasn’t in good shape and needed medical attention.
“Caeldra?” she asked through her mask.
I still hadn’t replaced mine yet, and I burst into tears, covering my face with my hands and weeping as the glass walls of false comfort I had created shattered away. Mary looked to the side and saw her body and started crying with me. Words weren’t necessary or possible while we mourned.
The time that passed while we waited crept along painfully slow. My hand rested on the Titan’s two hand sword while Mary kept one of her Hellfire Blades close by. She had taken some pain pills, but with all of our electronics fried, there wasn’t much I could do until I got her back to the Guild Hall. While I couldn’t be sure, it seemed like at least two hours had passed since we’d defeated the Titan. I was beginning to lose hope that anyone was going to show up to rescue us. Maybe they’d been attacked on another front. Maybe we were the only ones left.
Breaking down and simply giving up would have been easier. It would have been easy to mourn and succumb to death, but it wouldn’t be fair to everyone who had died here. Mary and I had a duty to them, to live on and remember them, to fight for the cause to which we’d sworn allegiance. We needed to move, and the longer we waited here, the more danger we put ourselves in.
“I don’t think anyone is coming, Jake,” Mary said, looking up at me through her mask.
“Can you walk?” I asked.
She nodded. �
�I’ll be all right. I don’t think I can make it all the way back to the Guild Hall in one trip, but I’ll do my best.”
“I just want to get away from the Docks in case more HKs show up. I wanted to wait to see if anyone else was coming to rescue us, but we can’t stay here any longer,” I said.
“You’re right. Let’s move.”
I stood and secured the Titan’s heavy sword to my backpack and grabbed my Hellfire Blade from Mary. After a second thought, I added as many ration packs to my backpack as I could carry and slung Mary’s backpack around my back as well. I wouldn’t be very mobile, but I could drop one of the bags if we were in trouble. We were out of SMG ammo, and the rest of the weapons available to us were useless. Everything electronic in the blast radius was ruined, and we’d have to navigate the streets blindly. I sheathed my blade and grabbed a flare from my pack, pulling the striker and igniting it. In a pinch, I’d be able to cover it with the cap and hide the bright light.
I helped Mary stand, and we walked through the graveyard of the train, taking one final look at the Guild members we had known. I swore to myself that their sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain; that I would do everything in my power to stop the Omniscience Engine. The body count was staggering, and it was unbelievable Mary and I were the only apparent survivors. I had no more tears left to give, but the sorrow pitted in my stomach was almost unbearable. I popped the cap on some stim pills and threw a couple in my mouth, biting down and chewing the chalky powder despite the overwhelming bitterness. After a few seconds, my focus sharpened and my nerves numbed, taking away some of the pain and pulling me away from the choking grasp of emotional pain. Mary looked like she wanted to say something, but kept quiet as she prepared herself for travel.
Moving as quickly as we could, we walked back onto the streets and toward the direction of the Guild Hall, watching for any movement through the flames. After a few minutes we cleared the worst of the Dropship wreckage. Things quieted down, and we were left in the darkness save the burning flare I held in my hand.
