"If you run, we'll find you." The Blue AI had said.
My reply: "No… you won't."
As I cloaked myself with the Active Camouflage module, I walked away from the sim troopers wondering if they would ever actually find me again. If they did find me, I would be a dead man with no hope of ever redeeming myself. Redemption. I have to redeem myself. No amount of resistance was going to stop me from righting all the wrongs I had committed. Millions of innocent lives were taken away, all because of me, and as I said to the sim troopers, I couldn't change if I was behind bars. Emotions suddenly rushed to my mind, filling it with feelings I had pushed to the deepest, darkest corners of my mind. The rush was overwhelming, with each thought threatening to break me.
No.
I'm a soldier, and soldiers can't break.
No, I'm not a soldier, I'm a monster.
All the horrible deeds I thought I was doing for money, or for the need to follow orders, or simply to become the ultimate weapon, I only began to realize why I did it. I did it because I refused to reflect on my actions, I refused to believe the truth, that I was the bad guy, and that I had tried to do more harm than good in this world. The last though on my mind was of Agent Washington. He too had done some terrible things in the past, but he managed to redeem himself. He worked with the Meta, he shot one of the sims troopers, and tried to capture their blue AI friend, but even after all of that they helped him out. They gave him different armor and hid him from authorities. Perhaps that was only because he helped them before, and he helped to defeat the Meta and protect them afterwards. Me, I had already given them a bad impression from the start, and continued to do so throughout the war. I stayed by the Chairman's side, only until Felix and I went through the jungle temple's test. It was then when it dawned on me, but only now did I actually react.
Exhausted, bleeding, and drained of any energy, I sat down in a quiet corner of the temple. Out of thin air, the alien AI that controlled the temples appeared in front of me.
"Exactly what do you wish to do, now that you have no use here?" asked the red alien program.
"I am not so sure. All I know is that I don't deserve to exist here anymore."
"Redemption won't be achieved by disappearing forever… Or maybe it can…"
The AI seemed to be thinking, and longer than it usually takes for an AI to think. I was actually starting to get nervous, since I have never seen an AI "think" for so long. What sort of plan could it have for me? Perhaps it was something that would incinerate me, as payback for what I had done to so many of the colonists. It would be very ironic too, if an AI could understand irony. What if it teleported me into a desert and I had to find my way out by myself? That would be an even more unfortunate scenario than incineration. At least incineration is quick. It could probably teleport me somewhere in Armonia, and have me die of radiation. Slow, painful, torturous, it seemed like the perfect idea. Then again, it's an AI. Maybe it doesn't understand irony, or torture, or anger, or emotions. I was hoping it didn't.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked with a nervous tone.
"On this planet, my creators installed a teleportation device capable of teleporting an individual anywhere in the universe, not just on this planet." It replied.
Unfortunate. Not only does a teleporter exist on this planet, it can teleport anyone anywhere in the entire universe. If this thing wanted me dead, it could teleport me at least 600 miles under some forgotten planets ocean, perhaps even an ocean inhabited by killer mutant piranhas. If that AI wanted to kill me, it could definitely know how to do it.
"They also made some devices of particular importance to my plan." The AI suddenly said.
"What sort of devices? Weaponry? Defenses?" I inquired.
"No. A cloning machine and a time machine." The AI replied in its monotone voice.
"What does this have to do with my redemption?"
"The cloning machine makes an exact clone of an individual, including their conscious and their memories. They will be able to remember everything that happened until a certain point. The time machine can only send an individual back to a period of time where they haven't affected the timeline."
"You still haven't answered my question." I impatiently gritted.
"If you were able to clone yourself, then I could make that clone have memories only up to the part where you walk away. Then I can send that clone back in time to when you start walking. Then that clone will most likely have a different outcome on this situation than you. "
That peaked my interest. However, the complications that could occur would be unknown to me, and with that in mind, I asked,
"How do you know that the clone won't do the exact same thing that I did? If it had all the same memories as me, it might do the exact same thing that I did. And what if there are two of me at the same time?"
"Rest easy, as the clone will replace your past self. The different outcome will most definitely occur since the clone will be easily distinguished by my past self. I was programed so I could identify clones and their originals so they could not change the original timeline. If the original timeline were to change drastically, then the outcomes would be severely different and you could possibly die. There is a 78.2% chance that the clone will make a different choice than you with the help of my past self knowing what not to do." The AI said as if this was information everyone on Chorus knew.
I suddenly understood what the AI was trying to do, but wasn't sure if the plan would succeed. However, it was the only way to fix my mistakes, and not interfere with any of the sim troopers. Besides, if the sim troopers needed me, then my past self would be able to do something different while I was somewhere else in the universe.
"The only problem is getting to the devices. The fortunate thing is that they are all in the same general vicinity. The unfortunate thing is that they are 4 miles from our location, and reaching it would take a lot of energy. We could use the teleportation grid within the planet, but then it would take around 7 minutes to finish everything, considering the opposition headed your way." The AI calmly spoke.
As it disappeared, I saw about a dozen of Charon's forces heading towards my direction.
Two armed with Sniper Rifles, two with shotguns, two with SAWs, and a heavily armed one with a railgun and a C4 detonator, most likely their captain, I thought to myself. This should be an easy battle. As they started walking towards me in standard formation, CQC in front, snipers in the back, and the heavy support in the middle, they suddenly stopped. These soldiers, their armor was almost like…
"Hahaha! Well well well boys, look what we have here. If it isn't the traitor Locus. What exactly do yo-" The captain started to say before a flash of light blinded the entire group, as a portal appeared in front of both me and the soldiers. The alien AI suddenly appeared and nodded towards the direction of the portal.
"GO," it yelled, "Before they enter the portal as well!"
Two options, both which seemed very desperate choices: Fight the group in front of me and risk dying, or enter the portal and risk dying. Unfortunate, yet a decision that I would have to quickly make. With the soldiers readjusting their vision, I quickly slipped into the portal. Lost in space and time for a brief moment, I pondered whether or not the portal would lead to somewhere where I could lay low for a while. Instead it led me to a place which was even more beneficial than laying low. As I exited the tunnel of darkness, I quickly checked my surroundings. I was in a circular pit with high walls surrounding it, leave for one staircase that led outside into the surrounding forest. I quickly raised my gun and checked my surroundings, hoping the enemy soldiers hadn't followed me into the portal. Unfortunately, luck was not on my side. The soldiers surrounded the pit, all yelling at me to stop. I would have immediately killed them if it didn't hit me.
It was as if my fear at the jungle temple was real again, save for a different setting.
"Freeze! Don't move!"
"Don't you fucking move!"
"Lower your weapon or we will shoot!"
"Put the weapon down!"
All of the feelings, started rushing back towards me. The anger. The fear. The horror. The sadness. All pressuring me into a blank trance like state staring at the soldiers. It was happening again. All of it. I froze in place, not knowing what to do. Their captain suddenly came into view and started to speak.
"What do we have here men?" he asked.
One of the soldiers with Aviator armor spoke up. "Caught us Locus captain. I think he understands what we're going to do."
"Really?" the captain inquired before continuing to speak, "Then tell us what you think we're going to do."
I replied, "If you think I'm going to go back with you peop-"
"Answer him, motherfucker!" a soldier with warrior armor cut me off.
I turned and asked him, "Do you all really want to die this bad?"
He must have been glaring at me through his visor as he asked menacingly, "You threatening me punk?"
From behind one of the trees a voice yelled out, "Maybe you're just his type, and that's his way of flirting!"
If they could see behind my helmet, they would have seen a look of horror as I inwardly prayed that whatever was about to happen was different from my nightmares. And then he came. A soldier in that looked just like Felix walked up to the left of the captain. Could this get any worse?
"I say we blow his brains out." The Felix look-alike said.
"That's your answer to everything."
Unfortunate. It could get worse. Another soldier walked up to the right of the captain and looked right at me. An exact replica of me, save for the helmet, which was one of the oldest helmets ever worn. A Mark V. He must have been effective in battle to live this long. He could be deadly, but he seemed to be concerned.
"This can't be happening, not now. Not again." I muttered.
"Hey!" The captain suddenly raised his voice and caught my attention.
"You quit eyeballing my men and give me some answers. Are you alone?" he demanded.
I looked up to them and started chuckling. "You're all just reincarnations of a nightmare that has turned into a reality."
The Aviator soldier asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"He's surrounded, and if he activates his sword, he'll be dead before he even gets close. We should bring him in." The Mark V soldier said.
"Bullshit, I think he's stalling! Sir, this feels like a trap." The Felix look-alike retorted back.
I chuckled. How much of a coincidence could this be? I thought before saying, "There is no one here who could possibly help me."
The captain ignored my response and said to the look-alike, "Private, I did not ask for your opinion-"
"LISTEN TO ME!" I shouted, interrupting the captain and causing the soldiers to train their guns on me once more.
"Hey watch it!"
"He's getting hostile!"
The Felix look-alike calmly said to the captain, "Sir, he's wasting our time and we are in no position to take him in as prisoner."
The captain sighed and replied, "Fine." Looking towards both the Mark V soldier and the Felix look-alike he commanded, "You two, move into a quiet spot in the forest and take him out. Quietly."
"Good luck." I said to the two soldiers advancing on me. It wasn't long before the Mark V soldier spoke up.
"Sir, he's not going to do us any harm."
"And I'd like to keep it that way." The captain annoyingly spit out.
The Mark V soldier turned to fully face his superior as he said, "If we could restrain him, we could-"
The captain interrupted, "Son, you listen here!"
I muttered, "Don't make the same mistake I did."
The captain continued reprimanding the Mark V soldier.
"You're a soldier! In this war, you are nothing but a suit of armor and a gun! So when I give you an order you damn well follow it! Do I make myself clear?!"
Those words. Those soul breaking words! I would not hear those words ever again, and I would not allow anybody else to be broken by them ever again. I prepared to die as I yelled, "NO!"
But as I took out my sword, the Mark V soldier did something I never did. He hit the captain with the butt of his rifle and shot down the Felix look-alike. With the soldiers surprised with his sudden betrayal, I threw my sword at the Aviator soldier, dropping him to the ground. The Warrior soldier aimed his gun and fired. As I closed my eyes, I waited for the pain to hit. But it never did.
As I opened my eyes, I saw a shield, just like the one Felix had, hovering in front of me, blocking all of the bullets the soldier was shooting. I turned towards where the portal dropped me and saw the alien AI activating some buttons and yelling at me to go. Without hesitation, I rolled to the side and kept my head low as I ran up the stairs. The Mark V soldier tossed me the dead look-alikes SAW which I promptly caught and shot the Warrior soldier in the head with. I ran to the Aviator soldier and took my sword out of his body while putting away my SAW. It was then that I realized that the captain was missing, and before long, I was knocked on the ground by a railgun blast. My shields were down and I was in an open position, with no cover around me. I went to get my sword, but realized that it had flown out of my hands towards the edge of the pit. The captain dropped his railgun, picked me up with both hands and began to strangle me.
"Exactly what made you think you would get out of this alive Locus? Huh? You really thought you would survive?" he said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Mark V soldier waving his hands and pointed at a pistol close by. I realized what he was going to do and kicked the captain in his nuts. Dropping me, he held his groin for a while, long enough for me to throw the pistol to the Mark V soldier. The captain regained his senses and put his foot on my chest, aiming his C4 detonator at my head.
Bang!
A shot rang out through the air as the captain dropped dead. As he fell, I saw the Mark V soldier standing right behind his dead body, holding the pistol in the air. He beckoned for me to grab as many weapons as I could and threw me my sword, which deactivated in his hand. I caught the hilt and reactivated it, staring at the dead bodies all around me.
"I couldn't do something like that. That would make me a monster," he explained, "not a soldier. Besides, I never really liked them anyways."
"At least you did something I never could." I replied, pointing to the corpses on the ground. I picked up a Sniper rifle off of one of the soldiers, and grabbed a shotgun from the dead Warrior soldier. As I walked towards the captain, I heard the Mark V soldier mutter, "Were it so easy…"
I picked up the captain's railgun and his C4 detonator, briefly equipping them to the front and back hip of my armor, respectively. I hurriedly scavenged as much ammunition as I could and walked back into the pit. Looking around for any sign of machinery, I saw the alien AI enter something into a holographic screen. I curiously asked him, "What were you called by the simulation troopers?" I did not expect his sudden reply.
"Santa."
I looked back to the Mark V soldier, and he just shrugged it off, grabbing more pistol ammo preparing for the next inevitable wave of soldiers that would follow. They would realize that their squad had died and would send in as many soldiers as they could to kill me and the Mark V soldier. Aiming a pistol towards the forest, he turned towards me and shouted, "Whatever you're going to do, make it quick! I'll hold them off as long as I can."
As he turned back to face the forest, nearby whirring caught my attention. I slowly turned towards the sound to find four pod-like machines coming out from the pit wall. Felix and I once searched a facility looking for files on the Freelancers and found a room full of robotic bodies in cryopods. These machines looked exactly like them. The first one connected two of the cyropod looking machines together. That one had to be the cloning machine, and the two pods were probably for one person to enter and the other was for the clone to exit. The second one had a swirling purple portal behind it; that one had to be the teleporter. That meant the last one must be the time machine. A curious looking device, it had very faint yellow-green rings spinning around the entrance of the pod. It seemed to have a different essence than the other ones, with a different feeling emitting from it. The alien AI materialized in front of me and looked towards the direction of the cloning machine. I entered one of the pods and felt it close me in. I blinked and for what seemed like a second was really five minutes as I noticed 7 other soldiers trying to kill the Mark V soldier. He was athletic enough to dodge most of their shots and ended up killing most of the soldiers. Suddenly, a shot came out from my left, and I turned to see an exact copy of me shooting at the soldiers that were still alive. I stepped out of the machine and immediately took out my sniper rifle. As I cloaked myself with the Active Camouflage module, I shot down the rest of the soldiers, only to see a Pelican dropship start dropping more enemies into the fray.
"Quickly human! Get your clone to enter the time machine! I have already set his destination in the timeline, and have erased his memories." The AI suddenly commanded. I noticed that the clone also had a module just like mine, and realized that the AI was telling the truth. I told the clone to enter the other machine, and to wait for the alien AI's signal. He agreed, and knew exactly what to do. I ran towards the teleportation machine only to see two soldiers drop in front of it. Not wanting to risk damaging the machine, I pulled out my sword and prepared for a duel. The other soldiers looked at each other, then back at me. Or at least where I was. I had activated my camo module right when they were looking at each other, and walked right behind them. With a swift swing, I slashed their backs, watching them fall onto the ground. It was then when I realized that I could not redeem myself alone.
I quickly turned towards a pedestal that Santa used to materialize, and yelled for him. He promptly appeared, looking quite worried, and asked, "What are you doing? You are supposed to be inside the teleportation machine!"
I inserted a data implant that I had in the back of my helmet into the pedestal and in turn asked it, "Can you transfer yourself into the implant and make a copy of yourself to take care of my comrade?" It seemed like a reasonable request, but I was running out of time. The Mark V soldier was doing impressive on his own, slaughtering all of the soldiers that got in his way. He even managed to bring down the pelican dropship using a rocket launcher he picked off a dead soldier. The AI stopped for a second and then swiftly answered,
"I have completed your request, but you need to hurry."
I took the implant from the pedestal and inserted it into my helmet. As soon as I heard the click, I ran as fast as I could towards the teleporter. Gunfire rained over my head as I jumped right into the seat of the machine. Closing it behind me, I turned and saw the Mark V soldier holding his own against dozens of heavily armed soldiers with detachable machine gun turrets. The gunners were being shot down faster than they could shoot their guns at him. He was good. Really good.
The sound of machine gun fire hitting the teleporter brought me back to my senses. I quickly let Santa activate the teleporter and watched as the Mark V soldier ran out of bullets for his pistol. He rammed one of the gunners head on and snatched his gun from him, quickly using it to spray down the rest of the gunners. As all three machines started to activate, I looked in horror as three soldiers with rocket launchers began firing at the machines. Alarms started ringing inside the machine, and I yelled to Santa, "ACTIVATE THE MACHINE NOW! BEFORE WE BOTH DIE!" Santa reluctantly activated the system and started the time machine. A blinding light flashed before all of our eyes and the machine opened, revealing itself to be empty of any passenger. The clone had made it to the past. But we were still in an unfortunate predicament.
Out of nowhere, the teleportation machine activated prematurely. Yellow-green rings began to circle the pod just as black and purple swirls began to envelope the both the pod and the rings. Santa appeared, rather worried looking and displayed his concern, "The energy from the time machine is mixing with the teleportation energy! If we go through with this, we will have ourselves preoccupied with more problems than even my creators have ever faced."
And then the pod started to shake violently. It began to hum very lowly, until it started whirring so loud that it almost popped my eardrums. The world around me started to spin and I began to get dizzy, up to the point that I almost threw up. Suddenly, the pod began to disintegrate into tiny rose like petals. It continued to disintegrate until it was only me flying through the air.
"Impact in 20 seconds." Santa spoke as I felt the ground rushing towards me. The first thing that I noticed was the trees. Then a city. The very world looked different, and I braced for impact.
Boom!
As I hit the ground I made a crater bigger than the size of one of the tree trunks in the forest. I looked around and realized that I had escaped the soldiers. Speaking to Santa, I asked, "So where in the universe did we land exactly."
He didn't answer. For a long time, he stayed quiet, until he finally spoke with a grave tone.
"I do not know where we are. I am not getting any signals of any of my creator's artifacts, which is impossible since they had at least one on every planet in the galaxy. There is only one logical solution to this problem: The energy from the time machine and the teleportation machine must have fused and sent us to a universe where we have never existed before. "
Horrified, I asked him, "Are you saying that-"
"We are in an alternate universe."
A/N: First chapter of first story. Enjoy.