by E. R. Torre
The ARW was the source of this buzz and she knew it was desperately trying to contact the rest of its group. She also knew it was being blocked.
The creature moved on and was lost between a pair of cast iron boxes.
Laverna followed.
She found two sets of footprints in the dust.
She kept low, following the footprints while fighting a strong sense of familiarity. In her mind she was back at Bordertown’s imaginary Starport. She knew what lay ahead. She knew where Elias was going.
The two footprints were joined by a third. One of them belonged to the now destroyed ARW.
Soon enough, Laverna arrived at the spot where that ARW and its attacker confronted each other.
Particles of sand and dust floated in the air while the winds outside reached a crescendo. The sand below Laverna’s feet was disturbed and large pieces of the first ARW’s body lay alongside fresh puddles of what looked like coolant or lubricant or a mix of both.
She saw no sign of the ARW she followed but the footprints continued past several metallic shelves.
Laverna kept moving. Through the wind’s roar she heard other, strange sounds.
They increased in intensity and, incredibly, rivaled the extreme whistling of the winds. Laverna heard metal thrashing and then, suddenly, something smashed against one of the many metal sheets before her.
Laverna held her worthless weapon forward and cautiously approached the edge of a large metal bucket. She looked around and expected to find Elias’ destroyed body.
Instead, she was shocked to find the second ARW standing there, if barely. Its left arm was gone and bright blue liquid ran down its side. The creature stood over Elias, its remaining arm grasping his neck.
Like the ARW, Elias was also a wreck. The clothing on his body was torn and his skin, what she saw of it in the dim lights, was lined with deep scars. His face was cut up and his arms and legs bent into sickening shapes. They were broken and barely hung together.
Despite these life threating injuries, Elias was alert.
His blue eyes stared hard at the creature holding him and he tried to defend himself even as the ARW’s pneumatic powered fingers tightened around his throat. The creature pulled Elias’ body up.
Laverna reacted instinctively. She screamed and swung the metal rod, slamming it against the creature’s back. Hard as she hit it, the creature didn’t move. At all.
“Don’t!” Elias managed. His voice was weak.
Laverna ignored him and took another swing. She slammed the rod against the creature’s back. The force of the second hit was enough to stagger it. The creature released Elias and he fell to his knees.
Laverna faced the ARW. Its face was shiny silver chrome with a pair of red lights radiating from within. The electronic buzz in her head was overwhelming. Now, so close to its source, it was as if the creature were screaming at her.
Laverna dropped the metal tube and, without understanding why, jumped the creature. She grabbed and held on to its remaining arm and, incredibly, managed to keep it down.
The buzz in her head grew louder and louder.
It is trying to worm its way into you. It is trying to take control.
Laverna’s legs felt distant. Then she lost feeling in them altogether.
“No you don’t,” she muttered.
With one arm holding the creature down, she raised the other. The fingers of her right hand settled over the creature’s smooth metallic face.
She pressed down.
Hard.
She did so with all the force she could muster. Some instinct deep within her told her to do this. There was no logic to the action but she somehow knew this was what had to be done. The fingers of her right hand pushed hard against the creature’s smooth metal faceplate. She felt her fingertips heat up and then, abruptly, she felt them push past the metal plate and enter the creature’s head.
The creature’s buzzing immediately changed. It was no longer attacking and, instead, retreated within itself. As it did, Laverna seized the advantage.
Her mind enveloped the creature’s being while tightening her grip on it. She had closed off its means of mental and physical escape. The creature drew into itself, its essence growing smaller and smaller. Without a means of escape, it used all its remaining energy to defend itself.
Laverna’s hand pressed down harder.
She felt another electronic buzz. It was small. Insignificant. The creature mounted its final attack. It accomplished little.
Abruptly, all energy was gone and the creature’s life force was suffocated.
Laverna was now holding and an empty, limp shell.
“It’s over,” a voice from behind her said.
Laverna was transfixed. The ARW should have destroyed her and instead, she killed it.
“How…?” she asked.
Laverna released the creature and it fell to the ground. On the ARW’s head were five holes, those burrowed by her fingertips. They marred the otherwise smooth metal faceplate.
“How?” Laverna repeated.
She looked at her right hand and was shocked to see her fingers had… changed.
The flesh on her finger tips were cut. Through those cuts emerged sharp metallic spikes. These spikes dug into the creature’s body.
“What in Hades is this?” Laverna said.
The spikes slid back into her fingers and her hand returned to its normal shape. The skin around which the spikes emerged remained torn but no blood dripped from the wound. Incredibly, the torn flesh was already in the process of healing.
Laverna fell back. She held her hand as far away from her as she could.
“Laverna,” Elias said.
His voice came from her side. She felt his hand on her.
Elias was beside her. He crawled to her, his broken limbs barely able to move his body. She saw him from the corner of her eye and realized that despite all the cuts, he too hadn’t bled.
His icy blue eyes were upon her. His mouth and lips, ripped apart by the attack, moved as he spoke. In the short time between seeing him and defeating the creature, his skin had also changed. It too was healing.
Outside, the storm’s winds continued howling.
“Laverna?”
“What in Hades am I?” she moaned.
She fell beside the dead ARW. All those thoughts buried within her were like dynamite thrown into a fire.
Elias’ gnarled hand grabbed hers.
“We can’t wait anymore,” he said. “It’s time.”
And with those words, the rest of Laverna’s lost memories flooded her mind.
48
The creature opened its eyes.
It stood in the middle of a city block. Rubble surrounded and covered it.
Tons of it.
It thought back, to the moments before it was trapped, to the massive explosion that took out the Downey Building.
The one, moments before, it was standing in front of.
Within, the creature’s internal systems rebooted. The impact had momentarily taken it offline. An internal display appeared.
Shielding 65%.
Acceptable.
Left arm and fusion cannon damaged and unusable. Repairs initiated.
Estimated time to repair: 14 minutes 35 seconds.
Communication systems damaged. Outward communication compromised.
Estimated time for repair: 53 minutes.
Acceptable.
None of this damage would compromise its system.
The creature moved its arms. It pulled them through the rubble until they were over its body. Its hands grasped at metal panels and rebar until it had something firm to grab onto.
The creature pushed. Hard.
The tons of rubble covering it shifted and the creature moved its body.
It pulled itself between slabs of concrete and through a sea of razor sharp tinsel glass and faux wood. It emerged from the rubble, its body covered in dust and deep gashes and was back on the street.
What was left of it.
The creature looked around.
Before it were a series of beautiful, modern buildings glistening in the sun. The creature recognized every one of them by name and knew the firms who designed them and which companies constructed them and how long it took for each and every one to be occupied. It could list the building costs and the amount of credits made in rent. It could list every single person and business that occupied every one of their spaces from the moment they opened until today.
Pieces of debris fell forward and past the creature.
It turned around.
Unlike the city blocks before it, those behind the creature were ravaged. Buildings collapsed upon themselves and entire blocks were a shamble. In that carnage the creature detected the faint presence of life readings and scores of fresh corpses.
It did not react to this information.
Again it faced forward, toward the immaculate buildings before it. In a short period of time, they too would be rubble.
It walked forward and, as it did, felt rumblings.
Another building three blocks to the west collapsed. Its destruction sent a fresh wave of choking dust through the area. The dust lingered while the creature unhurriedly moved forward.
It meant to join the others.
Their movements were fluid and they marched in exact formation. Their muscular bodies were covered from head to toe in shiny silver metal. They had no faces, ears, or sexual organs.
They numbered sixteen and their orders were to rid the area of hostiles. They did so and realized there were armed forces following closely behind them. The forces hadn’t attacked them yet carried weaponry.
They could not understand why.
The creatures had no other mission yet were tasked to eliminate all hostiles. Hostiles carried weapons. Those that followed them carried weapons. Those that followed them therefore were hostile.
The creature stepped forward and kept pace with its companions. They converged at a main road and moved on. They were near a concentration of the newly labeled hostiles.
Waves of dust from the destroyed buildings covered their approach until they were practically on top of them.
While the main group of hostiles huddled beside a building, two lifeforms lay elsewhere, near yet apart from the main group. One of them was elderly and severely injured.
No indication of weapons. Non-hostile.
The other was dressed in combat armor identical to the hostile group.
Female identified as a hostile.
She carried a weapon. It sustained shrapnel damage.
Weapon is ineffective. Chance of causing damage: 0%
The hostile gave aid to the elderly injured woman in the form of medication. The hostile did this before treating her own injuries.
Why would hostile give aid to the non-hostile when her system was in equal need of repair?
The creature tried to make sense of this.
It examined the situation and verified its readings. It replayed the previous moments via images from drones and the sensors in its companions. The events passed exactly as seen.
The creature was confused.
Why does hostile ignore her own injuries? Why does hostile not protect herself?
As the creature considered this, one of the hostiles, a very large man, left the larger group. Curiously, he didn’t move toward the creature and its group. He moved diagonally and toward the two injured females.
The creature watched him run across the street.
You exposed yourself. Why?
He was followed by another, smaller hostile. Together they ran toward the women but paused midway to their destination. The dusty haze before them parted and the creature and its companions were revealed.
Upon seeing their forces, the two hostiles opened fire.
Their actions were met with overwhelming force.
The large man, his body destroyed, collapsed to the ground. His companion made no attempt to run. He too was eliminated.
The creature hadn’t fired. It was closest to the injured hostile female and the injured elderly non-hostile. It received an incoming transmission.
Unit 6, eliminate females.
While its group attacked and destroyed the large hostile group, the creature approached the two women. It stopped ten feet away from them and raised its right, uninjured arm. An energy charge flowed through it.
The injured female hostile heard the sound and looked up at the creature.
She was twenty six years old. Her vitals were weak and despite this new danger, she continued cradling the elderly woman. In the elderly woman’s hands was a dead baby.
“…son of a bitch,” the woman muttered between bloody lips.
She covered the injured elderly lady’s body as best she could.
“Take me,” she yelled. “Spare her.”
The creature considered her words.
Why risk yourself for another? it wondered. Especially one that is so close to death…
The creature attempted to find a rational explanation.
If a hostile is injured and her weapon is ineffective and she therefore presents no threat is she still a hostile? If she is all this and aids a non-hostile, is attack still mandated?
The creature didn’t know. More scenarios appeared in its mind.
If hostile is eliminated, harm may come to non-hostile. Mission parameters are to kill hostiles and save non-hostiles. Hostile is saving non-hostile…
Internal logic stumbled upon itself and the creature needed clarification. It tried to communicate with the others.
Outward communication systems remain compromised. Estimated time to repair: 44 minutes.
It caught sight of its group.
They had eliminated the hostile squad and moved on, disappearing into the smoky haze and leaving the creature alone.
More energy crackles emerged from its arm. Its weapon was charged and ready for use.
The creature didn’t fire. It stood still.
“Do it,” the injured hostile muttered. “Just do it.”
The hostile reached to her side and grabbed a rock.
Damage possibility: 0%
“Come on, do it!”
With what little strength she had left, the woman threw the rock. It barely made it to the creature’s feet.
The creature kept still, its weaponized arm pointed at her. On its formless face appeared a blood red light.
The elderly woman let out a groan.
“Easy,” the injured hostile said. Her voice was calm. “Just rest. It’ll all be fine.”
The creature took several steps forward until it was next to the injured hostile woman. Data flowed through its system.
It watched the injured hostile woman hold the injured elderly woman who, in turn, held the dead child.
“What are you waiting for? Get it over with!”
The creature was as still as a statue. Only its eyes and weapon pulsed with life.
Seconds passed.
The creature lowered its arm and the energy weapon on it.
Its head cocked to the side.
The injured female hostile took a quick breath and tried to say something but couldn’t. Tears flowed down her face.
The creature’s weapon merged back into its arm. Fingers reappeared.
The injured hostile female gasped as the creature reached out.
She could not move far enough away.
The creature’s metallic hand touched the injured female hostile’s helmet.
The woman’s combat suit display warned of a breach and she felt something sharp and warm touch her forehead. The creature looked away.
As it did, another massive explosion was heard.
It came from very close and a wave of dust and debris flowed through the area.
The creature’s companions continued their destructive advance through the city.
“My apologies,” the creature said. “This may hurt.”
The injured femal
e hostile gasped.
Sharp, microscopic spikes from the creature’s fingers dug into the woman’s flesh, their size small and their movements quick and precise. The creature tried its best to minimize the pain as it bored through the woman’s flesh and made its way deep into her body.
Deeper and deeper…
It wanted answers.
The injured female hostile’s eye’s rolled up. Her vitals elevated, then slowed. She was unconscious but remained alive.
The metal spikes worked their way to the injured female hostile’s spinal cord. They moved into her brain.
Pockets of memory were exposed and a life relived.
Her name was Laverna DeCastillo. Her father was a ship builder. He perished in an accident when she was a child. She was raised by her mother but grew up isolated and lonely. The relationship between Laverna DeCastillo and her mother, her last living relative, was strained. She ran away from home and got into trouble many times.
Yet she always returned and found her mother waiting and hoping her troubled child would outgrow her anger.
As she matured, she recognized this internal rage.
She enrolled in the Phaecian military and left home one last time.
Today, far too late, she recognized the sacrifices her mother made and regretted the trouble she caused.
Before being ordered to Gehinnom, she decided to get back to her mother. It was time to settle their differences and become a family again.
Even now as she feared her life was at its end, it was her mother she thought of.
I’ll never see you.
The emotions were raw and the creature took them in.
It took them all in.
In time they came.
Laverna DeCastillo and the elderly woman were discovered alive and taken by the Medical Corps and transported away from Gehinnom. Laverna DeCastillo’s body was covered in cuts and bruises. No one paid particular attention to the five pinhole wounds in her forehead.
They found the mechanical creature standing several feet away from them. It was frozen in place and the soldiers and medics steered clear. They made absolutely no attempts to communicate with it.
They were unaware of the internal processes the creature was going through.
The creature lived Laverna’s life within its circuitry.
