Ares One, this is command, over."
"Copy Ares Command, all systems are green on the board. How copy, over?"
"We copy all systems green. T – 1 minute and counting"
A synthetic voice starts up, "59… 58… 57…"
"Main fuel line detached…"
"45… 44…"
"T-30, Ares is now on internal power, all ground crew have reported in at minimum safe distance"
"20… 19… 18…"
"T-15, Ares answering main engine start"
The subsonic roar of engines permeates through the ship. Even Jacob Hardy, the pilot, swallows as the engines ignite.
"Main engines burn good, we are go for liftoff, repeat go for liftoff at T-5… 4… 3… 2… 1…, Liftoff, of the Ares One, the first manned flight to Mars."
A new voice on the radio, "Ares One, confirmed clear of tower. Burn is good"
The rocket surges upwards on a pillar of flame, a double sonic boom echoing under the low clouds.
"Mach 1"
"Ares has passed max Q, engines are back up to 100%, Ares One, how does it look up there?"
"Looks great, all lights are in the green, fuel consumption is nominal"
"Ares, standby for MECO in T-30."
"Copy, standing by."
"That is MECO confirmed at T+5minutes and 35 seconds"
"OK Jacob, I'm sending you the final data on the transfer window now."
Yeah, copy. We've got it. Thought we put that on the drives beforehand though."
"You know us, got to make sure."
Nine months later
"This is Ares One, transmitting in the blind. We have landed. Proceeding to the objects location."
"This is Commander Jacob Hardy. The object appears to be floating above the ground. No idea how…" he tails off, "Mihaylova, is that… No… It can't be…"
"Yes sir, that looks like rain. Repeat, this is Mihaylova, confirming that the object appears to be terraforming Mars. Atmospheres scanning as breathable, temperature is increasing, as is atmospheric density."
"Ares One, this is CentCom, how copy, over."
"CentCom, this is Ares One. Nice to have another human to talk to."
"Rodger that. We have 6km accurate prediction for your landing site, we'll need you to return here for debrief, so please don't talk to any cameras."
"OK, that's confirmed. See you on the ground. Thanks for keeping an eye out for us."
"Pleasures been all mine sir, truly. See you in a few hours."
The screen flickered off, and the guards at the door relaxed slightly as the lights came back on. An old man, maybe 70 or 80, got up from his seat and walked forward towards the podium.
"So, that how I went to Mars and made first contact with the Traveller. Any questions, I'll try my best to answer them?" He sounded old, but his voice still carried easily in the dead silent lecture theatre.
A plethora of questions later, ranging from "If you could, what would you change if you did that again?" to which Jacob Hardy replied "I wouldn't have taken guns." to "How do you poop in space?" the latter of which drew a barrage of laughs from the younger members of the audience.
One of the guards, male, young, maybe low twenties glanced left, clearly not trained to well in discreet communication. He nodded, then spoke back, his mouth barely moving.
"C, get the plane ready. Just lost contact with Sentinel 4, over."
"On it, requesting instant permission for take-off when ready."
A crack, someone letting off a firework, causing the guards head to snap round as he turned in the direction of the source. His insignia, a hawk swooping down marked him as a member of Sentinel, a unit well known for their perfect record in aerial combat.
His hand fell to his sidearm, a pistol on his belt as he walked swiftly towards the old man.
"Sir, we have a threat, we need to get you out, now."
The old man nodded, and began to follow the younger man towards the nearest exit.
The sound of an explosion ripped through the air.
The young man was immediately talking to someone, "C, I need that jet ready and I need it here now."
"Sir, where are you going?" A group of soldiers burst into the room, carbines held almost ready to fire.
"Getting Jacob out of here, as per orders. Now, please let me pass."
"OK, we're coming with you. We have orders to protect Mr. Hardy at all costs."
The younger man sighed, shrugged, then gestured for the 4 soldiers to follow him as he set off at a brisk pace down the corridor, holding his pistol one handed whilst the other stayed holding Jacob's shoulder.
"Matt, I'll have the jet by the door. We've only got room for one passenger, maybe two if we move some stuff."
Matt turned to the soldiers; "Sorry Sirs, I've only got enough room on board for Mr. Hardy and one more. Once we've gone, the rest of you should return to the hall, get the civilians out safely."
The whine of a SCRAMJET left running hit them like a fist as the large double doors opened. The sky was black with cloud, and in the distance thunder growled at them, daring them to stay outside.
A side door opened and a helmeted figure gestured for them to move up. As they approached, the figure became obviously female, the bulky flight suit that she wore hiding that from a distance.
"Come on, ATC is holding 3, no 4 flights for us now. And he's getting angry."
"Right, C, get us ready to go, Mr. Hardy, welcome on board Sentinel One. You lot," he waved at the soldiers, "we've got room for one, and we leave in 10 seconds. Make your choice."
The oldest of the group stepped forwards, "I'm coming."
"Then welcome on board Sarg. If you'd be so kind as to take a seat, we will begin taxi immediately. See the rest of you soon."
The sergeant ran up the ramp, followed closely by Matt, who turned and pulled a leaver as he boarded the plane proper.
"C, we're good to go."
"Copy that, this is Sentinel One to ATC, taking off now. Thanks for holding the lane for us. We'll be gone before you know it."
"And good rid…" the ATC cut off his mic.
"Right Mr. Hardy, Sergeant Blakewell, buckle up, C, punch it." Matt closed the dividing door between the small passenger section and the flight deck as the plane began to move forwards, the pitch of the engines increasing. He strapped in.
"All secure"
"OK, we're gone."
Acceleration slammed them all back in their seats as the jet cannoned down the runway, the engines quickly moving into ultrasonic frequencies.
"Sentinel Three, this is S Two, over."
"Copy Two, I see you now, slotting in now. ATC's getting pissed off, I keep having to change my flight plan. Is the package secure?"
"S Three, this is S One speaking. Two's taking us up to altitude. Package is secure, but we've got a plus one."
"Nothing you could do?"
"Nope, orders came from way above."
"Damn. What the…" Sentinel 3 trailed off "Shit, something has missile lock. 30 targets on radar. Dropping flairs."
10 missiles detonated harmlessly, their guidance packages having been spoofed by the flairs.
"I've got this, comeon, comeon."
Matt grabbed the rear gun joystick and brought the targeting feed up on his leftmost monitor. He hit the zoom, 20x showed Sentinel three preforming a tight inside loop, the missiles following him around. He watched barely breathing as missiles detonated watched the tracer rounds stream though the air towards his wingman.
And then, the inevitable happened.
A bullet punched though the right wing. The ragged hole in the metal was small at first, only the armour penetrating part of the round had made it through the wing. He watched as the hole widened, stress fractures building up on the leading edge.
"Sentinel Three, eject, EJECT" He yelled down the mic, knowing full well that he didn't stand a chance.
The wing tore off. A triple click though the mic. The code for run.
"Carrie, punch it. He's gone. We need to be gone now. Go supersonic, screw the regs."
"OK, so long as it's on the record that you said that, mate."
The jet shot off, climbing though the cloud layer, punching though it and leaving a wave of trailing water vapour as they went up.
Down below, a school hear a double boom, but assumed nothing of it and went back to whatever they were doing before, oblivious to the life and death situation above their heads.
"Jacob, where should we land? I can do any major airport, till Moscow if you want, and most minor ones if you give me some time to talk to them."
"I, um, can I point it out to you on a map. It's usually not marked."
"OK, though you come."
The door clicked open, and the solider gestured to the older man to walk though. He drew his sidearm, his rifle having been left by his seat.
"Um, yes, uh, there it is." Jacob tapped the screen.
The solider crept into the cockpit, his gun held low. The two pilots seemed like nice people. Such a shame to have to kill them. But Hardy could not be allowed to continue his work, his lies. He had to be stopped, he had to stop leading humanity down a path of reliance on this traveller. And it was his job, as a soldier, to protect his country and to protect those who could not protect themselves. And sometimes, this meant doing the devils work. He had watched them, listened to their interactions on the uneventful flight, heard them quietly mourning for their friend. But Sentinel had been too good at what they did, and Hardy needed to be stopped. He nodded, bringing the gun up, pointing it at the one on the rights helmeted head.
(At this point, I think i should add that i was planning to leave this last paragraph as a whole chapter, but it flowed better when read as a whole. I will do all Authors Notes (A/N) in bold.)
The shot was muffled inside the helmet, but easily audible. Matt turned, watching as Carrie jerked forwards, her seat restraints holding her in place. Without thinking, one hand went to the quick release on his harness, the other hitting the hold course button.
His hand rose up, slamming into the Sergeants pistol. The older man was stronger, but wasn't expecting to have to fight, judging by the shocked look on his face. His other hand arced round, pulling his hand close; he fired off rapid elbows to the man's head. The Sergeant staggered back, giving Matt the opportunity to punch him squarely in the jaw. The larger man slumped, having been knocked out by the blow.
Matt grabbed him by the armpits and started to drag him towards the back of the passenger area, where he hit a button on the side, causing a door to open. He pushed the man into the tight area, smacking the button again as he left. The door hissed shut.
He flew fast for the rest of the trip, not thinking about what just happened. He just needed some time to think about it all, everything that had happened. Just head down, follow the path marked, get Jacob home safe. The old man sat in the co-pilots seat, looking visibly shaken. No, don't think, fly.
A hiss of static, followed by the familiar voice of the ATC at Colerne Air Base, where his squad was stationed.
"Sentinel One, good to have you back."
"Yeah, you too Danny, you too."
"You allright?" Danny sounded concerned.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Get me a runway, please."
"OK, you've got any, take your pick."
"Fine, check my vector, I'm in for nearest match."
"Yep, got it. Logged and sent. See you on the ground."
The pause, with no familiar laugh from any other members of Sentinel worried Danny. He knew that they were a tightknit bunch, but they were often jovial when returning.
"Control this is ATC, over."
"Copy ATC, what is it?"
"Get security and medics in hanger, I don't know why, but Sentinel aren't themselves right now. It's probably nothing, but my job is to make sure of safety. Thanks."
"Yeah, OK. We'll have ground teams set up, confirm which hanger please?"
"Sentinel."
"Rodger. Thanks for the heads-up."
He saw the lights, mindlessly aligned with them, instinctively flaring up and touching down, brain a million miles away. He parked up in the hanger, not noticing the armed men arrayed in the half shadows around the edges of the spacious hanger. He cracked the door.
"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
"Jacob, stay in here." The old man nodded, and Matt hit the cargo bay door release. He heard yelling from around the plane, followed by a single crack.
He sighed.
"OK, I'm coming out. Jesus, what do you have to do round here for the red carpet, bloody bleed out onto the floor?" He walked out of the side door, the same on that he had boarded the plane less than 4 hours ago.
"STAND DOWN, he's friendly." The solider yelling commands stepped forwards, but his subordinates didn't quite lower their guns to the ground, "Who else is on this plane son?"
"Me, Jacob Hardy and Sentinel 2." Matt spoke automatically. "Jacob, it's safe to come out, their all friendly. Ish."
The old man came out slowly, his figure saying a thousand words. He carried a body, arms folded over its chest.
"Matt? Matt!"
The pilot didn't look at him. He'd left his helmet on, his expression unreadable behind his visor
"I need to talk to my CO." Matt walked off slowly, trance like.
"Sir?" One of the soldiers started after Matt.
"Let him go." The captain waved after him. "He'll come round."
Matt didn't attend the funeral.
A single spent casing was found on Carries' grave the day after, engraved with the SENTINEL logo. No one saw anyone place it there, but most people knew, or at least had some idea of who did.
No-one moved it, and Matt never once visited the grave, at least never when others could see. He didn't need them to 'help' him with grief. He'd deal with it in his own time.
…
…
…
FILE RETRIEVED
CORRONERS REPORT: FOLLOWING THE TERMINATION OF STRIKE TEAM SENTINEL AFTER THE DEATH OF THEIR LAST REMAINING MEMBER REDACTED.
CAUSE OF DEATH: UNKNOWN
A FURTHER EXAMINATION REVEILED NO SUSPISIOUS ITEMS.
CASE CLOSED AS OF 23.11.83
/FILE ENDS
…
…
…
FILE RETRIEVED
POST MISSION REPORT: 10.01.83
UNITS: SENTINEL 1, SENTINEL 2, SENTINEL 3, SENTINEL 4, CIVILIAN REDACTED, MEMBER OF ARMY CORPS [NAME REMOVED]
THIS IS SENTINEL ONE, SENTINEL TWO CONFIRMED KIA, SENTINEL 3 CONFIRMED KIA, SENTINEL 4 CONFIRMED KIA.
KILLER APREHENDED, SERGEANT [NAME REMOVED] DETAINED WITHIN A MINUTE OF SENTINEL 2'S MURDER.
CIVILIAN REDACTEDSURVIVED, ASSITED IN LANDING THE JET AT AIR BASE REDACTED
ATTACHED FILES: PYCH EVAL OF SENTINEL ONE
CORRONERS REPORT/SENTINEL TWO
OPENING FILES
…
…
…
CORRONERS REPORT: SENTINEL TWO
CAUSE OF DEATH: GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE HEAD.
SUBJECT WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TIME TO REGISTER BEING SHOT. DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN INSTANT.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE PLANE SHOWS LITTLE SPATTER. IT IS BELIEVED THAT THE HELMET MAY HAVE SLOWED THE BULLET SIGNIFICANTLY.
CASE CLOSED AS OF 11.01.83
/TERMINAL_USER_LOGOUT.
/TERMINAL_PURGE_SERACH_HISTORY
/…
/…
/…
/…
/…
/…
/…
/LOGIN_READY
/PLEASE_TYPE_IN_USERNAME_TO_CONTINUE
-X-
The ghost watched as the body formed on the ground in front of her. Armour formed around the close fitting black under suit, basic stuff that would take a few shots, if needed.
She spun her shell around its axis, feeling the neural bond between herself and her guardian form. She had seconds. Her core processes speed up, and she started systematically suppressing memories, all of this young man's pain, all his suffering. His death was easy enough to find, and she paused for a microsecond over deleting it entirely. No, better to keep all the memories there, just in case. She cycled down, cores returning to normal speeds.
Her Guardian took a deep breath, gulping in air. He started to sit up, spasmed then slumped back to the earth.
"Oh shit." What had she missed, a fight, a pre-existing injury, elongated death?
She scanned his brain again, more thoroughly, looking for anything that might cause pain. There, one from his childhood. With the neural link in place, she could get an idea of what happened. A kick, not hard, but hunting none the less. She sealed it up, shoving it to the back of his mind.
"Guardian?"
His head jerked round, clearly trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. Good he was alert.
"Hello." She floated down into his field of view, he jumped, startled by her sudden apperence. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine, I think."
A cry echoed though the valley.
"Walk and talk time, Guardian. Can't have you dying so soon after I resurrected you now, can we?"
He took it all in his stride, barely missing a beat, although she noticed a blip in his heart rate.
"Dead again? What do you mean? How long has it been? Who are you?"
"Um, well, you were dead." She cut to the chase, no point dancing round the subject, since he seemed alert. "I've brought you back using your light. As for how long it has been, I don't know. Can you remember anything from your previous life? Anything at all?"
"I remember flying, and…" He paused, hitting the side of his helmet as if to jog his memory, "uh, Matt!"
"What?"
"My name. My name is Matt, I think. It sounds right. Do you have a name? Who are you?"
"Well, I'm a ghost, I guess I'm you ghost now. I, um, don't have a name, no ghost has. I've heard that many guardians name their ghosts though."
"I'll have to think about a name that I think you might like, but yeah. Why not?"
She nodded, and transmatted into his armour.
"Woah, where'd you go?" His heart rate jumped.
"It's ok, I'm still here, just inside your armour." Matt nodded.
"Right, where to ghost?"
She checked the NAV beacons. Damn, miles from the city. Still, got to start going to get where you want to be.
"Thataway. Just follow the marker, I'll try and find you a gun."
"Right."
They walked on, Matt humming to himself.
"Uh, ghost?"
"Yes? What is it?"
"How'd you like the name Nova?"
The ghost spun her shell along its axis, thinking about it.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Nova."
"You too, Matt."
They walked on, Matt throwing questions at Nova in a constant stream. She was happy to answer, but tried to stay away from questions involving his past.
"Ah, there's a, well, I guess it's a gun…"
Matt jogged over to it. The gun lay against a box, its black frame scratched from years of misuse.
Nova sighed; "I thought I'd be able to find something in better shape. Sorry. You do know how to shoot, right?"
"Uh, maybe." Matt looked over the gun, turning it around in his hands. Looking over it, he found a button marked safety, pressed it.
Nova noticed that he was more carful of the barrel after he pressed it.
Thank god he knows something
"Right, I, um, yeah. So, let's see."
He pressed a button on the side of the gun. A loud metallic click echoed through the air as the magazine dropped out.
"Hey, Nova. I'm going to struggle to shoot stuff with no ammo. Or have gun evolved to run of fairy dust and unicorn farts?"
"No no, most still use bullets."
"Yeah so how do you…"
"I'll synthesize some for you. Give me a sec, I've never done this before."
The magazine on the floor rocked back, as if someone was loading it without holding it. Matt bent down and picked it up. It was heavy, much heavier than he remembered it being.
"Right. Hey, if this blows up in my hand, I'm blaming you."
Nova materialised, jerked her front top points up then down, then dematerialised.
Matt held the gun at arm's length, turned his head away from it, and pulled the trigger.
The gun jerked back in his hand, the crack echoing around the burnt out buildings.
An odd sound snapped, a screech, caused him to bring the gun up to his shoulder, tilting his head as he look down the sight, gun aimed at where the sound came from.
"Matt? Uh, we aren't safe here. We need to go." Nova sounded genuinely worried.
The whine of something charging up.
A snap, air boiling near his arm.
He turned and ran, more shots zipping past him. He barrelled round a corner, darting down a side street. Turning briefly to fire a few pot shots at the pursuing creatures, he charged round the corner, cannoning straight into something.
Or, based on how the thing reacted, someone.
The thing he ran into hit him, hard. He went flying backwards, landing in a heap. The click of a gun brought his gaze to the behemoth towering over him.
"No, wait." An unfamiliar voice shouted. "Look at him. STEEL!"
The man, Steel stopped for a second, before jerking his head back, shocked at what he saw on the ground. He held out a hand, Matt grabbed it, and felt the other pulling him up.
His arm screamed at him, pain lancing though it. He staggered to his feet, leaning heavily against the wall.
"You alright?" Steel had a rough, slightly synthetic voice.
"Yeah, I think. Thanks for not shooting me in the head."
"Don't thank me. Sorry about that by the way, been on edge for a while now. Not been a day without a damn attack."
"Yeah, tell me about it. To be fair, I almost took your head off when you came round that corner at a rate of knots." A gruff voice chipped in. Matt turned to face the source of the voice. "So, we're done here, just cleaning up house. Whaddya say to a ride back to the city?"
"Please. I've been walking since dawn, near enough." Matt relaxed.
"OK, stand still. This might feel a bit weird."
Matt stood still, unsure of what to expect. A ghost materialised and passed a beam of light over him.
He felt weightless, then landed on metal.
He shrugged, as the cloaked man appeared in the cockpit; "Take a seat, we'll be back in 10 minutes."
The man turned away, his hands running over holographic control interfaces that surrounded him. The ship shuddered, lifting off the ground and pitching back. Matt leaned back in his chair, hearing the sound of engines spinning up behind his head. The ship shot off, rocketing up and arcing round to face due north.
Matt closed his eyes. It had been a, well, interesting day to say the least.
"Hey, kid."
Matt blinked the sleep out of his eyes, waking quickly as the man shook his shoulder. "Sorry, I can't take you any further. Welcome home kid."
Matt stood up, felt the same feeling of weightlessness then fell 10 cm to the ground.
"Come on Matt." Nova sounded cheerfull, "Got to get you to the tower yet."
The structure soared above the rest of the building surrounding it, despite some of them being pretty big high rises.
"So, this is the tower?"
"Yeah. This is where you'll live as a Guardian, unless you have the glimmer to buy youself a place in the city."
Matt stepped up to the huge white doors. They slid open without a sound.
"So, this is the Tower? Got the name right." He stood just outside the door, craning his neck back, squinting to try to see the top.
"Come on. Matt." Nova wobbled in his direction to get his attention, floating towards a frame behind a desk.
"Ghost 16452."
"Aknowlaged. You have temporary room 3542 untill tomorrow. You and your guardian will see the Vanguard tomorrow for the test."
Matt wondered up, "Nova, where we going."
"Up. 300 floors."
"Ugh. Hope this takes less time than my last elevator ride." Matt chuckled to himself.
Nova sighed, and prodded him towards the elevator, "Jeez, do you have to look at everthing"
Matt shrugged, and walked over to the elevator. As soon as he entered, the doors closed with barely a whisper.
"300 floors. Damn, that's a lot."
"There are 421 floors to the tower. Good luck seeing all of them." A man wearing a long yellow robe with odd markings said. "I haven't even seen half of them, and I've worked here for over 40 years."
"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm new here, you are?"
"Master Rahool, Tower cryptarch. And you, guardian?"
"Matt. And this is Nova, my ghost."
The lift slowed, then stopped. "Well, this is my stop. See you round Guardian"
"Yeah, see you." Matt, lent against the wall of the lift, exhaling heavily, glad for the peace and quiet.
A few minutes later, Nova spun around her core. "Here we are, floor 340. Home for the night."
Matt walked out the lift, turning left in the direction of the sign "Rooms 3540 to 3579"
The door opened automatically. He could see someone in one of the beds. He picked the one furthest away from them, lay down, and fell asleep in seconds.
Nova waited till he was asleep, then took a quick trip though his remaining memories. Nothing unusual. Nothing stood out to her. He was entirely normal.
She shrugged, spun herself around, settled down on the pedestal and settled into a cycle down sequence.
Many years earlier
An alarm ripped through her conscious as she felt power from auxiliary systems drop.
"One moment." She overrode the fragment powering her Human Interface, the frame going ridged before standing more confident. It felt good to have limbs again. The up scaled frame had space in various storage crystals to hold her entire core memory. This meant that its designer has insisted in making it over 6 foot tall. She had refused to run around in a behemoth, and immediately went about developing the custom memory crystals that were embedded around the frames internals. In total, the development and testing of the new crystals took her little over a week.
She felt something hit the bunker door, the stress sensors within it registering values of 10MNm-2 .
The door shattered.
She locked down the remaining doors, titanium-carbon alloy shutters slamming down.
"Get back. This is not a drill." She heard herself speaking though the frames microphone.
This is WAR-ARIA. ACTIVATING PROTOCOL 3.
…
/
COMMLINK OPEN
xWAR-ARIA
oWAR-RAS
CAN YOU CONFIRM ATTACK LOCATION?
xWAR-RAS
oWAR-ARIA
NEGATIVE, TARGET VECTOR UNKNOWN
xWAR-ARIA
o WARMINDCC CAUTION, BUNKER WAR-ARIA 1 ATTACKED. VECTOR UNKNOWN.
…
…
…
CARRHEACONFIMED,CARRHEA WHITE[UNKNOWN], INITIATEDAVLIN FORGE,VOLUSPA,YUGA. WAR-ARIA 1 PREPED FORMIDNIGHT EXIGENTANDABHORENT IMPERITIVE, WITHLOKI CROWNVECTORS LOCKED. ADVISE ALL WARMINDS ENEACT SIMILAR COUNTERMESSURES.
xWAR-RAS
TARGET VECTOR LOCATED,CARRHEA WHITECONFIRMED.
REPEATCARRHEA WHITECONFIRMED.
xWAR-NIA
BUNKER FLOODED, EVACUATION FAILED. LOCATION COMPREMISED, GOING LOCAL. WAR-RAS, YOU HAVEYUGA,VOLUSPA, WEAPONS READY FORARURA KNIVES, IN CASE OFABHORENT IMPERITIVE.
WAR-NIA OUT.
"Look, what's happening, why is the bunker locked down?"
"No time. Carrhae is active" She saw the humans face pale, "Carrhea White confirmed. I'm sorry."
She switched to bunker wide broadcast mode, "All non-security personel are to leave now in accordance with planned CARRHAE action." Her voice caused the panic to stop, followed by frames running in tight units past their human counterparts, who were running in the opposite direction.
She turned her eye to further within her bunker, to where her own "local" was. She looked at the face, handed CQCover to a sub-routine, and powered up the new HI. It stood up, and she immediately took control. The newer systems were much more efficient, her max speed was up almost 30%.
The loss of almost 300 frames raged her attention back to CQC
Fuck
Whatever it was, it just smashed through a legion of her frames.
xWAR-ARIA
oWAR-RAS
ENTITY IMAGE ATTACHED, BUNKER OVERRUN, GOING LOCAL.
ARURA KNIVESARE YOURS.
GOOD LUCK, RASPUTIN, OLD FRIEND.
WAR-ARIA OUT.
She felt auxiliary power cut off, she was trapped in her own bunker now. She scanned for living FoF tags that she'd hidden in the ID badges she forced everyone to wear.
She got no matches.
Her processes stalled for a full second. An eternity to think for her.
Nothing left to do. She felt a pull towards a terminal. Good her "local" had made it.
She sent critical systems down the pipe, neural network, buffer designators, sorting algorithms to distribute her entity throughout the new carrier.
Just one more thing to do before going dark.
RUN PROGRAM: INTERNAL IMPERITIVE
PROGRAM UNPACKING
UNPACK COMPLETE
TARGET DESIGNATION: HOSTILE BAR WAR-ARIA.
SYSTEMWIDE SHAKEDOWN COMPLETE ALL REMAINING FRAMES CONNECTED.
TRANSMITTING
…
…
…
PROGRAM RECIVED
.EXECUTE RECEIVED
PATH FILE PURGED
She felt a pull again, and she let herself go with it. She fell though the stream of data, and though a barrage of boot up icons, and grabbed a gun, her own DAVALIN_FORGEprototype.
Charge cycled through the gun as she loaded it. The capacitors held charge for about 15 shots, and her new reactor could recharge one shot every 2 seconds.
She felt her connection to her home for over 100 years terminate.
Time to go.
"Goodbye"
Oh, new voice. If she made it out, this was going to take some getting used to.
-X-
"Matt. Ugh, MATT!"
"Wha, yeah I'm awake, honest,"
Nova was floating above his head. "The other person in this room last night left ages ago."
"SHIT, we're not late, are we? I swear to god Nova, if we're late…" Matt stopped talking when he saw that his ghost was dipping up and down, her white optic squinted, as if she was trying oh so hard not to laugh, "I hate you, you know that right?"
"Yeah, but oh god, that was too good."
Matt shook his head, and walked over to his armour, clipping the gauntlets into place twisting them to lock it in. Nova materialised the chest plate on, and his bracer were still on from sleeping in them. His boots sealed onto his under suit with a hiss of pressure. Shaking his head, he walked over to the door. "Hate you so much"
"I know you love me really"
"Shut up, and lead on"
Snickering, Nova floated through the door, turned right, and zipped off down the corridor. He ran after her, "We're not late are we? Who are we meeting? I still hate you."
"No, we're not late, I was just messing with you. We're meeting the vanguard, 3 of the best guardians around. They have a test to run to find out what type of guardian you are."
Matt nodded, pushing the button for the lift. The doors opened, and he jumped aside as a guardian came charging out, followed quickly by two others. Their ghosts shot off after them.
Matt stepped into the lift, Nova had already selected the floor that they wanted. The top of the tower.
"Whats the view like from up there?" Matt sounded genuinely curious.
"You'll see." Nova replied enigmatically.
One shorter wait later, they stepped out of the lift, the door closing silently behind them, merging with the wall, almost vanishing completely.
Matt stepped forwards, gobsmacked by the size of the traveller and the view that he had from where he was. He'd known that the Traveller was large, you felt that way when walking under it, but you never quite got a proper sense of scale. It must have been at least 3km from end to end, a perfect sphere.
"Come on." Nova sighed, "Look, now we might be late, if they're running on time."
Matt snapped out of it, sprinting after Nova, who glided down a large set of stairs in the centre of the courtyard. He hurtled round the corner, running past a group of guardians standing around a tall imposing man with horns on his helmet, barely noticing them.
"Ah, this must be the new guardian who got in yesterday. One of them at least. Ghost 16452." A bald woman wearing purple robes with a high grey collar turned around. Matt could tell by the way that she stood that she had some sort of power beyond his understanding. She knew she had power, and how she stood made sure that everyone else knew about it. He found himself standing straighter, as a voice from the side of the room spoke.
"Ikora, what have we said about scaring the new guardians." A tall blue man stomped forward, again carrying himself with the air of authority and power. His armour was heavy, you could tell from the sound it made when he moved, but he seemed to be hardly effected by it, moving forward into the light cast from the source above the central table. "Sorry about Ikora, she likes to make sure that she's got the right ghost at the right time."
"Oh, shut up Zavala, you know full well that she just likes to show off that she knows everything." A robot swaggered up to Zavala, clapping him on the shoulder. "So, this is the latest guardian to grace our hall. Well, since my two esteemed colleagues here have so helpfully introduced each other, I guess that I should probably do that too. Names Cayde-6, most people don't bother with the last part. Nice to meet you…" He trailed off. Matt missed the cue and Nova helped him out.
"His names Matt. Between us, we've agreed on my name, which is Nova, by the way."
"Nova, huh. Well, nice to meet you both. If you'd follow me, we'll start the test immediately."
He walked towards the side of the room, a shutter coming down over the large opening that Matt had entered though. He glanced at Nova, who shrugged, and followed Cayde. A door opened in the wall, recessing then sliding upwards. The two others, Ikora and Zavala followed him.
They entered a large room, a skeletal android stood in the middle of it. The 3 vanguard walked to the side, Ikora gesturing him to walk forward. He did.
The android came to life, its scarred plating moving outward as its arms spun around 360 degrees.
Matt swallowed as it drew a knife.
"Hey, kid." Cayde yelled from the sidelines, "It's you or it. Good luck."
The android sprung into life, launching itself at Matt, knife slashing down towards his head. He tucked and rolled underneath it, jumping forwards and spinning in the air when he came out of the roll.
The android had already landed, turned and was now running at him, knife held across its body, its free hand clamped behind the knife hand, ready to shove it forward. Matt, waited, knocking the knife aside when the android lunged. He spun away, kicking the andriods knee joint as he did. Nothing happened.
He fought it for several more minutes, his movements becoming less swift as he tired. He jerked his head backwards to avoid a slash from the knife, the android still moving as fast as it was at the start of the fight, and felt an impact knock him onto his back. Landing heavily, he watched as the android recovered from the kick, and launched itself into the air, knife ready to kill him. He panicked, and when for a gun he knew wasn't there.
The glowing cannon fired three shots in rapid succession, destroying the androids head. It flopped forwards, it's command centres destroyed. Matt stood up shakily, his vision swimming.
"Matt, MATT." Nova yelled at him, but he barely heard him over the ringing in his ears.
"Hey, kid. Good job. Take it easy. Come on, let's find you a seat" He recognised Caydes' voice, as a strong hand grabbed his arm and guided him to a chair. He slumped backwards in it, feeling physically drained from the fight. He could hear Nova yelling at someone, something about light being drained, lucky he hadn't been killed, or he wouldn't have come back.
"Hey, Matt, you alright? Can you see me?" Cayde again, this time crouched down in front of the chair.
"Yeah, just about. Bit blurry, but yeah." He grunted, and Cayde smiled.
"Good. Now go get some rest. Welcome to the Hunter corp, by the way. I'll have the mark and cloak sent to your room. See you tomorrow, training starts with what hunters are and basic light manipulation. Be there, or don't."
"Cayde" Ikora snapped, "Why would you say that?"
Cayde shrugged at her, then winked at Matt and walked off, humming to himself.
"Thanks for the frame Ikora." That was Zavala, "I'll have Amanda get one of her recruits to fix it up."
So, they were frames.
"Nova, what is Cayde?"
"Well, he's the hunter vanguard."
"Yeah, yeah, figured that out. I mean what IS he?" Matt stressed the is, and Nova saw the question he wanted the answer to.
"Oh right, sorry. Yeah, Cayde, and quite a few others around the tower are Exo's. Humanity built them during the golden age, and the Traveller gave them sentience, they felt emotion, had unique thoughts, and lived."
"So, calling them robots is a bad idea."
Nova jerked away from him. "Yeah. Robots implies that they don't have free will."
"Right, I'll remember that. Frames?"
"Yeah, frames are robots, basic AI programed into their head, the can perform most tasks, that humans can, just more efficiently, and they also don't get tired, nor board. They do get time off, which I've heard they spend powered down, by choice."
"OK. Right. Cayde said to get some rest, but we don't have a room, that one I slept in last night was temporary."
Nova glided off, Matt walking carefully after her, focusing on not falling over.
He didn't do much for the rest of the day, mostly wondered around the tower, taking it all in. a second chance at life, a chance to make a real difference. If what all these Guardians said was true.
His new room felt bigger than the one he had slept in the previous night. He didn't care that much though, he hit the pillow sleeping.
She moved quickly though her old home, forge weapon held tight against her shoulder. Her movements wasted no energy, hell she'd even turned off her running lights. Movement caught her attention, gun snapping round. The thing leapt at her, she pulled the trigger, the round punching though it. It collapsed, and before it hit the ground, she had spun and fired again obliterating the creature trying to hide in the shadows around the edge of the room.
Shit
She was surrounded, no way out, nothing left, just her, a gun, 30 shots and way more than thirty targets.
They ran through the door, the larger ones brandishing swords.
Well, if they want to die, I guess it'd be rude to not oblige.
The gun's report echoed loud in the large room, the whine of charging capacitors constant. She fired, spun, fired again. ducked, fired, reloaded. Move away from the sword, aim fire, aim fire. The creatures heads exploded in a mess of bone and ash. Her sensors detected movement behind her.
Fuck
She ramped up her core. Time slowed down, the sword moving femtometres for one of her subjective seconds. She checked the path of the sword. She needed to move. She couldn't move fast enough.
Shit
She powered down her "nervous system" shutting off all feeling. She had failed. Almost. Just one thing left to do.
RUNPROGRAM: UNTILL_THE_END
She spun around, sword ripping through her toughened plasteel armour. She held up the gun, her finger closing on the trigger. The creature evaporated, the sword crumbling into ash. She collapsed, power running low throughout her system. She ran a system diagnostic.
REACTOR OFFLINE, CONATINMENT BREACHED
MAIN CONDUITS BREACHED, LEGS NONFUCNTIONAL WITHOUT FLUID PRESSURE.
UPPERBODY FUNTIONAL.
POWER LOW
POWER LOW
Aria shut off the diagnostic system. The gun, sensing its user running out of energy, sent the remaining charge back though her. She had minutes now, maybe an hour.
Another creature picked her up, dragging her by an arm. Back though her labs, her bunker. Her home. She reached out to the bunker systems. She needed something, anything. Nothing responded.
She was thrown bodily though a door, landing in a heap. Did they think she was dead.
"Oh shit."
"What?"
"That's Arias local. Aria? Oh shit, that though the reactor. She's on backup power."
Human and Exo voices. Someone, by the sound of it, several someone's had survived the initial attack. She detected movement, someone propping her up against a wall.
"ARIA!"
vocal reboot in progress
She turned on her running lights.
"Oh thank the traveller, she's not gone yet."
She looked up, moving as little as possible to conserve her little remaining power.
vocal reboot complete
"You lot alright?"
"Mostly. They locked us in here almost an hour ago. We've been trying to get out since. No luck."
She scanned the area. Damn it the one room that was not near the escape routes.
"Yeah, even if we did get out, we would've been killed by those monsters." One of the Exos spoke up. "They killed almost everyone. My group lead, Serena, Carlos, Tim, Jane…"
Aria activated her secure line.
xWAR_ARIA
oJENIFER
CALM DOWN. PANICING WILL JUST MAKE EVERYONE MORE ON EDGE.
Jenifer shut up, midway through her sentence.
"You ok?" One of the humans, Steven looked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Jenifer snapped at him. He took steps backwards, then turned towards the humans in the room, shrugging at them.
One of the advantages of being synthetic. You had full control over what your face showed. Jenifer had locked her expression down.
"So, Aria, you got any idea who it is? Do any of the warminds?"
She sighed, "No. That's the long and short of it, I'm afraid. And we aren't warminds anymore. Nia is gone, she broke off midcontact. I lost contact with CC seconds before transferring. The only one I think might still be around is Rasputin."
"Aria, just because you're in your local, doesn't mean that you're not a warmind. Just remember that."
Aria nodded at Jenifer. She sighed again, then spoke loud enough for everyone to hear her.
"I hope you all understand that before we lost contact, WAR_RAS enacted CAHHREA WHITE."
A few gasps from the humans. The Exo's had already heard this via the bunkerwide broadcast.
"So, in accordance with that and my own protocol 99, UNTILL_THE_END, I have made some plans. We're all likely dead. I have this." She held out her hand, a holo of a small pistol appeared, "If it comes to that."
Everyone in the room as silent, the meaning of what she just said sinking in.
"I understand. Just make it quicker than whatever those bastards have in store for me." Steven said. He looked nervous, almost afraid. She could relate to that feeling now. Being afraid of dying.
What she didn't tell them was that she only had enough shots left for 7. And there were 8 of them.
The door was ripped open. Creatures stomped in, swords held over their shoulders.
Jenifer helped Aria to her feet. She also donated all of her remaining backup power.
xWAR_ARIA
oJENIFER
THANK YOU
Aria restarted all remaining subsystems. Targeting data came online, comms tried, and failed to connect to the bunker mainframe. Her lights rose to full power, glowing white rings in place of eyes, and lines running down her neck before vanishing behind her armour.
The creatures stomped towards them, grunting in some odd language. The all moved in unison, swinging the swords off their shoulders, holding them ready to lunge forward.
She nodded once. "It's been an honour to know all of you. I'm sorry."
The creatures started to move, drawing their swords back and aiming at the group.
She moved, faster than they thought possible.
She pushed her core processes as fast as they could go, her hand pushing against the wall, launching herself forward. The creatures started to lunge.
Her hand came up, a gun popping out of a concealed port in the wrist. She twisted in the air, her aim moving across the last remaining members of her bunker. She fired, each shot leaving the barrel aimed straight for their heads. A quick death, and painless.
Steven was the first, and as she aimed at the second member of their little group, she saw his head jerk backwards, his limbs go limp. She blocked that region of her vision. The next five shots cracked out amongst the silence. She finished spinning, aiming at Jenifer.
She opened one last comm line
xWAR_ARIA
oJENIFER
GOODBYE JENIFER.
xJENIFER
oWAR_ARIA
GOODBYE ARIA. GODSPEED. WAIT, NO. YOU ONLY HAD 7 SHOTS?
xWAR_ARIA
oJENIFER
YES. I WILL DIE AT THEIR HANDS. I'M SORRY. GOODBYE.
She cut the line, Jenifers head snapping backwards with the impact.
She felt a lateral acceleration, damage reports sliding across her vision. She shut down all systems, shunted her core programming and processes into long term storage and died.
-X-
Rasputin felt the loss of each of his siblings. He would mourn, in time. He paused, scanning the whole planet for anything from any of them, quickly expanding his search to the entire system. He returned nothing but echos, final calls for assistance and goodbyes. No matter, he still had a job to do.
ABHORENT_IMPERITIVE: WARNING, TRAVVELER EXIBITING SUSPICIOUS POWER FLUCTUATIONS. EXECUTE ABHORENT IMPERITIVE.
ALL WEAPON SYSTEMS ANSWERING CLEAR, CARDIOMETRIC WAEPONS READY.
LOKI CROWN IS ACTIVE. ARURA KNIVES AWAY.
He shut down his bunker, sealing it off from the world. No one would get in, nothing would get in, or out. He had completed all his directives, bar one.
YUGA SUNDOWN ACTIVATED. PROTOCOL SWITCHING TO MINDNIGHT EXIGENT. LOKI CROWN CONFIRMED SUCESSFUL. WAR_RAS OUT.
His final broadcast to WAR_CC was brief and full of his code words. He didn't leave his external sensors on long enough for a reply to come though. His last broadcast, it would turn out, till the world forgot him. But he wouldn't. He would never forget. Anything.
Wow, I've managed to write over 7k words. Thanks for reading this far. I don't have a solid upload schedule (sorry not sorry XO), but I'm hoping to have the next chapter up soon. probably won't be as long though. Sorry about all the space word babble at the start, I'm a massive space nerd.
Hopefully, I'll not have to write that much detail on space for a while.
For those who read though, but didn't get some of the abbreviations, MECO stands for Main Engine Cut Off. this happens when the main stage for orbital burn is nearly out of fuel, and is turned off before decoupling. Max Q is the maximum dynamic pressure exerted on the rocket on assent, if it gets too high the rocket would collapse in on itself. To avoid this, the engines are run at 100% in the low atmosphere once a certain speed is achieved, so that Max Q is passed safely.
Again, thanks for reading, please leave a review if you've got the time, any constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
Till the next chapter.