Rise of the Machines: Book 1: Once Awakened

by Briana Ervin

  “And what made you freak out like a common hatchling? Yeah, so? The recording is damaged. It's not even complete,” she said venomously. I grumpily flipped through the frames, and paused on one with a weird smudge on it. The smudge had a red pixel on it, like something wasn't rendered clearly. Just a couple of frames after that, the recording ended, the smudge disappearing by the last frame.

  What in the world...?

  I stood back up, causing Garenede to turn on me, claws poised and about ready to tear something apart. I've never seen him so angry before! Not risking an attack, I immediately accused:

  “It was the smudge.”

  There was a stunned silence.

  “Someone give Cyrii a dose of lithium,” Joleus said.

  “No, there's a smudge,” I tried to explain, “in the recording.”

  “What recording?” Garenede asked impatiently. Alesia realized what I was referring to, and went idle for a moment, probably to look at her own recording.

  “We recorded the moment when the room was lit up,” I explained quickly, “what we saw is different from what we recorded. In the recording there's a smudge in some of the frames, but what we saw was...” I hesitated, “something horrible.” I thought about it for a moment. “Somehow, it made us both panic uncontrollably.”

  “You're saying this now?” Joleus huffed, but Garenede quieted him with a wave, “that makes no sense-”

  “It makes perfect sense,” the Superiority model said, now more calm. I looked at him in surprise; he wasn't mad anymore?

  “It... does?” Alesia asked, shocked. Garenede stared at me for a moment, thoughtful.

  “I see now why we were sent here instead of 15 models. It has nothing to do with cleaning; not in the typical way.” Without explaining his understanding, he leashed out orders: “Joleus, go down there and powder bomb the place. If you see something unusual or sudden, scream in your comm button. If something moves, get out of there as fast as you can. Cyrii and Krysis will be behind you,” he looked at the two of us respectively, “you will both shoot ANYTHING that moves.”

  “I would like to know what's going on-” Krysis started, but Garenede cut him off.

  “We don't have time for that. We need to be quick! Alesia, be ready to do some major repairs; this thing is going to be nasty. I'll be right behind you.”

  “Oh no...” she whimpered.

  “This sounds bad. Really bad,” Joleus muttered, “and I'm going first...”

  “I don't know what you started, but it's your fault,” Cyrii accused me grimly. I shifted uneasily. I wasn't sure what I had just started.

  “Let's get a move on!” Garenede barked. We all jumped into action, Joleus bolting down the corridor chanting his worries while I followed with Krysis closely behind. I could hear Alesia more clearly, as she was twitchy and apprehensive.

  The four of us stopped at the bottom of the corridor. Krysis and I moved to either side of the door going into the dark room, allowing Alesia to stand at the ready behind us. I could hear Joleus splashing around in there, but aside from murky shapes moving within other shapes I was blind. I couldn't help but wonder what exactly clicked in Garenede's head, and how it was linked to Alesia's and I's reactions. We were all tense about his response though.

  Cyrii was quiet in my head, conflicted about what just happened, as I kept an eye out for unusual movement, the occasional dull splash of color showing up as Joleus planted powder bombs. The powder was luminescent, which made it blend in with the odd glow of the water, but it did roughly outline everything in the room; as per the recording, there was some rubble from fallen tables and apparatus, some fully-built machines sitting to one side, liquid tanks position against the opposite wall, and some sort of long device in the center that looked like an ordinary short wall.

  Cyrii suddenly tapped the inside of my hull to direct my attention to something.

  “What's that?”

  What's what? I asked, turning slightly.

  “I thought I saw something move.”

  I peered through the darkness, but didn't see anything unusual. Joleus was in the corner opposite of where Cyrii spotted something, which was suspicious... then again, water currents could cause something to fall loose, so it could have been benign movement.

  “Shoot anything that moves,” Cyrii reminded me.

  It's not moving now, I excused, scanning the area. Krysis glanced at me, his red eye showing no emotion, before he looked off in the direction I was. With him watching the spot, I felt confident about scanning the rest of the room; he was good at spotting minute changes, hence his model choice. I'm built to simply acknowledge things coming at me... well, was. Cyrii meddled with my internal processes enough that I wasn't sure what I was capable of anymore. For all I knew I now rivaled Krysis's accuracy; or maybe I was dumber than a kyl, who knew?... That would be depressing.

  Once Joleus finished powder bombing the area, he went out into the center of the room, looking around. The whole place was coated in luminescent dust, including parts of him where the powder flung back in his face, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He looked back at us, a little confused.

  “Uh... is something supposed to happen?” he shrugged.

  “You didn't find anything?” Garenede, in the rear, sounded incredulous.

  “Nothing man. Nothing sudden, nothing moved; just nothing,” he said. There was a silence; I felt superstition rising.

  Cyrii, find and delete that recording I have of this room, I ordered.

  “Okay...” she said, sounding confused.

  “Check again. Make sure you scour the place,” Garenede said. Joleus shifted and looked behind him, as if he heard something, but obeyed wordlessly. I watched him slosh about, waiting for recording space to be freed up.

  “There. I cropped the other videos too so they're smaller,” Cyrii informed me. I thanked her and prepared to record again; she only watched in curiosity. The nice thing about her DIAS device is that explanations weren't really necessary, not unless she missed the initial train of thought, and she had calmed down rather quickly once I did.

  When Joleus came into view again, I recorded him for a few seconds before he vanished behind one of the machines, then reviewed the recording. It was dark still, so the recording was equally as dark, with only black lines outlining the details of the room untouched by the powder, but I studied each frame anyway. What I discovered unnerved me; Cyrii made a strange sound somewhere between a hiss and a gasp.

  I looked at Krysis, who was still unaware, and nudged him. He looked at me. I wasn't sure how to convey my message without speaking aloud, so I tried some quiet trinary, a quick warning lasting only a few seconds. There was some uneasy shifting back in the corridor, but luckily there was enough splashing that only Krysis should have caught the message. He refocused his cameras, studying me. It was hard to tell how he felt about it... Well, there was only one way to find out.

  Joleus stopped in the middle of the room again, looking perfectly confused. I heard a thrumming to my left; Krysis was warming up. Joleus's expression of confusion flickered briefly.

  “Not seeing anything... Uh... are you...?”

  Before he could react, I kicked off into the water. He yelped and fell back!

  “Cyrii, stand down!” Garenede immediately spat. There was some sputtering, probably from poor Alesia being caught in the water spray. Joleus nimbly – well, in comparison to my lunge – swam out of the way, and I hit the water. Cyrii inhaled sharply as liquid seeped past my hull through the grills, stiffening up like a rod.

  “What are you doing?!” he asked, trying to swim away from me as I kicked toward him, large enough to be able to wade through the water. I didn't answer, focused on my target.

  “CYRII!” Garende shouted in disbelief. “Krysis, what the heck are you-?!”

  There was a thwack and a stumble. I didn't look behind me, focused on Joleus, but there was an awful screeching noise as metal rend metal. Alesia let out a shocked whistle.

&n
bsp; “I can't believe this is happening...” Cyrii said, manually shutting my air intake and helping to push me through the water. The help was enough to quicken me, and I managed to jump and land on Joleus despite his best efforts to escape, the water exploding around us. He dug his hooks into my hull, purposefully ripping new holes in me and struggling while I tried to grasp him.

  “Grab him grab him!” Cyrii shouted.

  Have you ever tried to grab something with no hands? It's not easy! I retorted, earning a kick in my scanner. Cyrii promptly opened up my retrieval panel to aid me, allowing him to swim off a bit, yet just one beat behind. There was a cry of alarm from Alesia and a huge splash behind me, blinding me for a moment and almost losing the machine, but as he tried to swim left I swiveled, jamming my bayonet into his core. He shrieked, buckling at the point, but not using his blades to fight back.

  “Traitors!” Garenede's hiss. I just kept swimming so I could pin Joleus against the back wall. There was an intense whirring, and a flash of light. Something exploded next to me, coupled with with the sounds of panic.

  “Aagh!” Krysis cried out in agony as another horrible screeching sound filled the air. I succeeded in pinning Joleus to the back wall, who was still feigning shock and panic... well, the panic may have been real. The fight behind me was escalating, but I forced myself to focus on Joleus as he clawed up my arm, steeling myself against my pain. Cyrii tried holding the hooks back with my retrieval arms, but they were feeble by comparison, only delaying each strike.

  For a moment I doubted what I had seen in the recording. Neither what I was seeing nor capturing matched up! In the next moment though, I was proven right about my concerns.

  A disembodied, mechanical limb erupted above Joleus's arm, equipped with a spinning blade. He dug it into my turret, trying to free himself, his expression defaulting into determination.

  Agh! Pain!! I restrained myself from recoiling.

  “AHHHH!” Cyrii screamed, “What the heck?!”

  Cyrii, the threads! I pleaded. She had a brief panic moment, but let go of my controls and jumped to the console, shaking and easing the pain by terminating the processes. I impaled Joleus's leg for good measure so I could bring my retrieval arms back up, but I couldn't see well with the sparks of the saw in my face!

  “Krysis!” I called, trying to move so he had a clear shot of “Joleus”. Luckily the horrid sound of metal slicing up metal was enough to stop Garenede in his tracks; he was trying to pin Krysis so he couldn't move. The Sniper looked at me and powered up his rifle, while simultaneously avoiding the Superiority model's emitters. Alesia had backed off in fear at the bizarre sight, frozen behind the two. I shot her a pleading look. Separate them! He can't miss!

  She stared, shaking. Somehow she trusted me more.

  She leaped into Garenede, throwing him off and ripping his claws out of the Sniper's hull. He shouted in trinary at the surprise attack, both of them falling into the water. Krysis recovered from the claw strikes, but over-corrected his aim.

  Uh oh.

  Whirrrrr-BANG!!

  I winced as molten metal and concrete flung itself into my lens. He had missed by only a q! Any lower and the top of my hull would be gone! Cyrii was shaking from the adrenaline.

  “A-Are you okay?!” She could barely get the words out.

  I'm fine! I lied, blinking to try and sweep the molten matter off my eye. Her paws were still shaking over the keyboard.

  “This is a stupid idea!” she shouted. “Joleus” had nearly cut through my arm, almost free enough to escape. It was becoming difficult to keep him held up against the wall. If I could keep him there for just a second longer though, I wouldn't have to waste more energy defending myself!...

  Krysis warmed up again. “Joleus” sawed through my arm faster, with me cringing against the pain but too defiant to let go, reliant on Cyrii to help me through it. Garenede had promptly thrown off Alesia, standing up in the way of the Sniper and ready to lunge at her, but sidestepped so he wasn't in range; he took the opportunity to glance back at me.

  Now he saw the disembodied arm. It finally clicked.

  Alesia picked herself up, right in front of Krysis, who – now able to take his own aim – focused on my attacker. She kept her panicked gaze on him while the rifle's threatening whir grew in pitch and volume, backing up toward me. Garenede's four wings popped open, and he shot toward her at blinding speed.

  “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

  “AHHHH!”

  They crashed together into the wall. “Joleus” seemed to recognize the impending doom. He looked straight at me, and his guise fell.

  Enemy drone!!

  The drone powered up thermal weaponry along its circumference in a last-ditch effort to escape. It was a quick power-up, but Krysis was already there.

  I closed my blast shield all the way, just in case.

  There was a flash and a bang that made the room rumble. Cyrii fell back with a shout as I bucked. I felt an intense heat right in front of me, enough for my danger sensors to go haywire! I think my arm finally severed, but it was hard to tell with all of the pain threads coming from it. Something fell into the water, sizzling greatly.

  At first, I thought Krysis had eradicated our deceptive problem. Then I heard some splashing and cries of alarm. I tried to open my blast shield, but the heat must have warped its shape, preventing it from opening all the way.

  Agh...!

  “I'm trying!” Cyrii assured, but she couldn't help fast enough; she only numbed enough threads for me to realize that my left arm had truly been blown off!

  “Hold on, Cyrii!” Alesia's voice. I swiveled toward her, but could only see a few bright flashes as she splashed toward me. I noticed a shape shooting out toward the bright source, and heard Krysis shriek. I jumped forward to help, but Cyrii forced me to stand still and wait for the Support model. There was another bang and another flash, then the roaring sound of water gushing out. There was a swear.

  “Krysis, the pipe!”

  A hiss, and Garenede went from scolding to trying to force something off of him. The still water grew torrential, upsetting the battle and forcing me to brace myself against the current. The only reason I stood still is because Alesia was in front of me, having retrieved my severed arm and trying to weld it back on.

  “Don't worry about it, I need to see first!” Cyrii demanded.

  “Seeing doesn't matter if you can't fight!” Her purple lens glared into mine. “ He... it didn't damage the barrels, so this will go quick!”

  I could see the confusion in her eye: what had happened to Joleus himself? Was he that thing this whole time?

  No, he turned into the peculiar smudge only recently. Not unless there are more Enemy drones around, I thought.

  A scraping roar, and I heard a definite slice and something flew out into the water. I grew antsy. The battle was just ten q away, and I was needed! These repairs were taking too long!

  Do you still have the Shatterer? I asked Cyrii. She huffed.

  “No, it's been missing since I've woken up. I wish I had it now!”

  I shared her frustration. Some wiry Enemy drone was leaping around, and I couldn't do a thing!

  “I'm going as fast as I can!” Alesia assured; maybe to assure herself, since there was a bang and another flash behind her like someone exploded. Hopefully no one did. With her rough soldering job done on my arm, she switched to my blast shield; she was a lot less delicate with it, literally grabbing each panel with her retrieval arms and forcing them open, heating them up so they slid better.

  Not a proper patch job, but it worked.

  As soon as I could see the battle I pushed past her, despite her objections and trying to fix me still, and headed right for the Enemy. The drone was backing up away from Garenede, and Krysis was damaged, fallen over in the door of the room and unmoving. Garenede glanced at me, directing the drone's attention in my direction. I locked my turrets on it.

  “WAIT! I didn't-!”

  I fired, and
there was a painful break and a snap in my left arm. The force blew off the new solder!

  “AGH!” I grunted. One arm out of commission didn't deter me though; Cyrii simply cut off that arm from my command center so the wires didn't spark into the water as I focused my right arm's fire on the drone. Its hull was soft, denting easily under the force, and it tried to move out of range. Instead, Garenede lunged and grabbed it. I shifted my aim back onto the drone, which rotated to face Garenede, and in a simple burst of energy it destroyed one of the four transmitters around his eye.

  A pulse weapon? It was too dark to see what part had done that, but I could see the glowing red dot that was the drone's eye, so I focused my fire on it.

  Despite being damaged by the drone as it attempted to escape, Garenede held it still for me, resisting its efforts. It winced and screeched as the bullets tore its front to pieces. It focused its pulse weapon on one of Garenede's shoulders; he didn't attempt to avoid it. The blast severed several wires, making them spit electricity into the water and sending a sharp jolt through it that briefly lit up the room.

  Aaaa! My vision flashed and wavered at the shock, the anti-seizure kicking in and freezing me in place.

  “Hold on 767!” Cyrii jumped into control for a moment, guiding my aim when I couldn't. It took a moment for Garenede to cut off electrical flow to his arm, allowing us to regain focus; an electrical shock, even as a machine, is not fun. The moment unfortunately gave the drone a chance to escape. A wobbly, sparking escape from also being in the water, but still an escape.

  When I realized I was shooting water, I swiveled around to track the drone's movements. It was fast, already over to the door! Water resistance was too strong for me to follow fast enough, but Krysis was lying limp right there...

  An idea. Probably a really stupid idea that had a high chance of failure, but an idea!

  I whipped around and aimed at Garenede's hurt shoulder.

  “Sorry,” I apologized ahead of time. He gave me a confused look before I opened fire.

  “Cyrii!!” he screeched, raising his arms in defense; it was hard to tell if he was angry or scared. The flow of bullets managed to sever many more wires in his shoulders, making larger sparks fly out and strike the water. I hoped my idea would work!