Momo's Nightmare
It all started with a bang, literally. Momo thought that she'd never end up in a situation like this before but then again as the Public Relations manager of the Ooarai Girl's High School Student Council AND the loader of the Tankery Platoon's Hetzer there was bound to be an accident at some point or another. What started as a friendly match between Ooarai and the rival school of Saunders spiraled out of control when Turtle Team's tank was not only knocked out near the edge of a cliff, but it along with the crew inside suffered damage from a landslide inadvertently caused by the blast. Immediately, the match was cancelled and everyone went to help out the crew of the fallen Hetzer.
All three members of the student council were hurt, Momo herself included but what caught everyone's attention was the nasty injury she took to her head with the skull nearly fractured by several blows from the fall. Despite saying that she was fine after a brief stay in the hospital, she obviously was suffering from the after-effects were still lingering. Fatigue, migraines, short-term memory loss, the occasional nightmares, and more symptoms occurred. It got to the point it worried her fellow student council member and lover Yuzu Koyama enough that she pressured Momo into going back to the hospital just in case. Despite her stubbornness, the PR manager eventually caved in and agreed to seek help from a professional.
After going over the symptoms and bringing up the events of that day, the doctors were seriously concerned about one major possibility; Brain damage. Though they were unable to determine the severity of it from the few symptoms described they decided that she needed treatment immediately. Fortunately, medicine and biotechnology was significantly advanced enough that there were multiple forms of treatment for brain damage. She would thank Kami-sama for the fact that she lived in the year 2033 but there was one problem; deciding which form of treatment would be the best for her condition.
Fortunately, there was a way to determine that nowadays. Back in 2015, Dr. David Mushi and his colleague Dr. Paul Berg of PACE Laboratories developed the Nakajima Neurograph; A type of brain scan that would produce a computer model of a damaged brain which could be used safely to test and identify optimal treatments for patients. In fact it just so happened that the School Ship was arriving in Toronto, Canada where PACE Laboratories was located.
"Momo-chan?"
"I told you not to call me that!"
Yuzu pouted a bit at seeing the scowl of her friend as she slowly got dressed for the appointment at PACE Laboratories.
"Sorry, I was just wondering...are you nervous?"
Momo pulled her shirt down before answering.
"Yeah...I'm pretty nervous about this, I heard one of the first guys who got a scan had the right treatment but...he died a few years later."
One of the early bumps in the road for the Nakajima Neurograph was that one patient, a brain-damaged man by the name of Simon Jarrett got a brain scan and later treatment for his condition but it deteriorated much to the regret of both Dr. Peake and Dr. Mushi who tried their damnedest to help him. Before he died though, he allowed both doctors to keep his brain scan as well as various medical information in order to improve the process. Since then, the Nakajima Neurograph was refined multiple times and it has become extremely reliable for victims of brain injuries.
"Don't worry, Momo. I'm sure everything will be alright. Besides, I'll be with you the entire way."
"Thanks, Yuzu-chan." Momo finished putting on her usual school uniform before immediately grabbing her rucksack and her keys.
"Alright, I'm ready to go."
"Er...Momo-Chan..."
"I thought I told you not to-" She stopped when she saw the brunette holding a familiar bottle with an almost metallic pink liquid.
"Oh, right...I almost forgot about that."
She took the bottle of tracer fluid from her girlfriend's hand, giving her a quick peck on the cheek and a "Arigato." before opening it. She grimaced a bit at the smell and sight of the fluid before shrugging it off and swiftly gulping it down. When she was finished, she nearly slammed the empty bottle down on her desk shuddering a bit at the taste. It almost reminded her of a Popsicle or a Sherbet but it had a very sharp coppery taste that almost sickened her.
"You okay, Momo-"
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. The tracer just left a bad taste in my mouth...Anyway, lets head out."
Momo and Yuzu disembarked from the school ship, grabbed a taxi and managed to arrive at the lobby of PACE Laboratories. The lobby was brightly lit, with beige walls, and several chairs set up like in a waiting room. Stationed at the desk was a young women, probably fresh out of college performing secretarial work on a desktop computer. The women took a glance from the screen to the two high school girls in the lobby.
"Can I help you?" she asked dully.
"Yes, I'm here for an appointment with Dr. Munshi."
The women raised an eyebrow for a second before dragging her mouse towards an unnamed program and making several commands with a few clicks.
"Are you...Uh, Ka-wa-shi-ma Momo?"
"Yes, and this is my Girlfriend, Yuzu." Momo blushed a little at revealing at admitting that she swung for the other team, but Yuzu gripped one of her free hands and stroked it soothingly. Fortunately, the secretary didn't seem phased by that little confession, most likely because LGBT rights were acknowledged and respected in Canada as far back as the mid-two-thousands.
The women nodded, standing up from her office chair and pressing a few buttons on a keypad. One click of the locks later and the door opened.
"Head forward past the bend in the hallway and keep going until you reach the door at the end. Doctor Munshi is expecting you there."
"Thank you." Momo said.
"You're welcome."
As they entered the hallway and the door closed behind them, Momo thought she caught the secretary muttering something about a 'cute couple' but she shook herself and focused on what was to come next.
True to the secretary's words, both Yuzu and Momo were now in a room where the doctor was waiting for them. Doctor Munshi from a glance had a few signs of an Asiatic heritage, his neatly combed hair was black with a bit of graying on the edges. He peaked up from a computer located on their left, where in front they saw what appeared to be either a supercomputer or server racks and wired to it was a machine connected to an adjustable chair that would probably be found in an optometrist's or dentist's examination room.
"Ah, you must be Kawashima Momo."
He extended a hand and she gripped it in a firm handshake.
"A pleasure to meet you, I'll be in your care."
"Indeed, now did you drink the tracer fluid that was sent to you?"
Momo winced, remembering the taste of that stuff while Yuzu giggled softly.
"Hai, my girlfriend even reminded me to do so before we left the school ship."
"Excellent, now if you can step into the chair over here..." He pointed to the chair and the machine connected to it, "We can begin."
"Hai."
Momo sat down in the chair, getting as comfortable as she could until a device engulfed her head. She nervously fidgeted in the seat, Yuzu grabbing her right hand and holding it tight.
"T-This won't hurt, will it?" Momo asked.
Suddenly, the darkness disappeared revealing a panorama of the room and its occupants, while Dr. Munshi chuckled.
"No, No, it won't hurt at all. You'll barely feel a thing, its just like getting your picture taken so sit back and relax while I finish up over here..."
"Okay." Momo did her best to nod, the claustrophobia that the helmet caused faded away when her vision came back to her. In all honesty it reminded her of when she used the sights on the Panzer 38(t) turned Hetzer.
"...Dr. David Munshi...Okay then, now just a few questions before we get started, alright?"
A hum of acknowledgement followed that question.
"Alright then, you are Kawashima Momo born in the Ibaraki prefecture in Spring of 2015, correct?"
"Hai." Momo said anxiously.
"It's okay Momo-chan."
Rather than lashing out in anger, she sighed in frustration instead while Yuzu giggled.
"...Ooarai Girls High School...Grade 11...Okay then, we're ready to go."
Momo nodded again, tightening the grip on her girlfriends hand as she closed her eyes.
"Alright...just relax...aaaaaaand...say cheese!"
The last thing Momo experienced was a white flash of light and a electronic whine in her ears.
Clarity returned with the fading of the white light and the visor of the brain scanner being inoperative. Momo also quickly noticed from the sliver below the scanner that the room was a bit darker than it was when she arrived.
Odd, she didn't feel her girlfriend's presence nearby either nor did she hear her voice...nor the voice of Doctor Munshi.
"Yuzu-chan? Doctor Munshi? Are either of you out there?"
Silence, except for the sound of...dripping water?
"Hello? Anyone out there?"
The brain scanner folded its helm over Momo's head back to behind the chair and she immediately noticed that not only was she alone but she wasn't back in the office. Instead, she was in a dark room with a few fluorescent lights flickering over her head. She noticed that there were some odd human-shaped...suits of some sort which looked as though it was built for use underwater or in space.
"What the hell is going on?" She muttered under her breath, "Yuzu-chan? Doctor Munshi? T-This isn't funny! I'm serious, where am I?"
Hesitantly, she stepped out of her chair, quickly noticing that the cushions of the seat were stained with dark red blotches. 'I-Is that blood? Kuso!' She closed her eyes and shook her head. 'Get a hold of yourself, Kawashima. Okay, you don't know where you are or why you are here. Both Doctor Munshi and your girlfriend are obviously not here...' She paused for a moment, taking a few tentative steps towards a cracked window and a door next to it. Parallel to it was a computer or something like that. She saw a button near the door and quickly pressed it only to get a whirr of denial.
She tried again, only to get the same result. Frustrated, she decided to try and kick the door down which was not the smartest idea as her right foot now throbbed with pain. 'Kuso, KUSO, KU-SO!' she thought to herself as she leaned against the door rubbing her hurt foot in an attempt to soothe the pain. Thankfully after a few moments, the pain faded away.
'Okay, kicking the door down; not a good idea. So how else am I supposed to get out of here?'
She quickly glanced around the room, once again her attention went to the cracked window. She hummed in thought as she gave the glass an experimental push with her left hand, it was still pretty sturdy despite the spider web of fractures on its surface. She wondered if she could break it using something in the room and quickly began an inspection before finding a fire extinguisher, perfect for what she needed! She inhaled, exhaled, and with a grunt threw it against the window shattering it.
"Well, that's my way out." she muttered. Carefully maneuvering over any shards of glass left over from the window she managed to make it to the other side, finding herself in a corridor of an industrialized building which reminded her of the innards deep within Ooarai's School Ship.
She glanced to her left and saw a sharp bend in the walkway that lead to parts unknown while to her right she saw a small hallway which lead to several smaller rooms, as well as the reason why the door was locked in the first place.
There was some sort of instrument braced against it, with a small handle in the middle of it. Curious, she grabbed the handle and gave it a clockwise turn causing its blue glow to fade and its pneumatic arms to lose their hold against the doorway. Momo discarded the device with a toss to the side, hopefully she wouldn't have to deal with any more of those things blocking the doors.
Seeing no further obstacles in her path she took the path parallel to the door she just unlocked, intending to explore a bit and hopefully find a way out.
So far, her journey has been uneventful but she ended up in a strange room with a pathway shaped by wire fences much to her bemusement and suspicion. So when the lights suddenly shuddered off, she bent into a crouch, cautiously checking for noise until she heard a metallic scream coming from behind a braced metal door. She crept closer to the door and prepare to undo the clamp that held the door in place, nervously wincing at the sound of hollow metallic banging echoing from behind the door. She quietly turned the latch counter-clockwise, disabling as she slowly lowered it to the floor.
She gulped and with much reluctance she opened the door with a press of a button. As she predicted, that is when shit hit the fan for her.
Immediately, she heard an electronic roar as a bulbous mechanical shape with glowing blue spots stampeded towards her, she immediately gasped at the sudden explosion of pain before she blacked out.
She awoke with a splitting headache, groaning "Kuso" under her breathe as she unsteadily stood back up with a hiss of pain. 'Agh...What in Kami's name was that thing? It looked like a machine but...' She took a glance back to the now empty room she stumbled upon earlier before that damned thing nearly killed her. "Well, whatever it was it's gone now..." She murmured her remaining thoughts out loud. She
She stumbled into the room with aches and pains over her body, it was some sort of tool store, with a work bench off to the side. She rasped in pain as she limped into the room, quickly taking a glance at the desk when she noticed an object that caught her attention.
It was some sort of handheld computer or tool device that was red in color with a yellow frame covering a small LCD monitor. She remembered that the computer she found when she woke up here had a distinct slot that had the same shape as this device. She was about to grab it when she saw an instruction manual off to the side for it.
'Better give this a quick read just in case.' She thought, and though it was in English she had enough of a grasp of the language to read it:
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
OMNITOOL 2.5 - SMART ACCESS COMPUTER - HAIMATSU TECHNOLOGIES.
She paused at the name of the company on the side, she was unfamiliar with Haimatsu Technologies. She should know, having had to sort through offers for a sponsorship of Ooarai from various companies and firms following the joint match with Selection University.
Shrugging to herself she continued reading;
The Omnitool is a an advanced interface for accessing, managing, and controlling
computerized systems. The on-board intelligence includes an open set of behaviors
and protocols to enable the user to automate routine actions through basic logical
charts.
Over time the Omnitool will adapt its programs to cover subconscious behavior
to optimize work and minimize user error.
The Omnitool has a short-range signal useful for basic or automated actions
such as opening doors, while performing complex operations the omnitool
should be physically connected to a workstation or terminal.
'Aha! That might be what that console I saw when I woke up was for!' she realized. Immediately, she grabbed the device and started to make her way back to where she started.
When Momo finally made her way back, she opened the door and inserted the Omnitool into the slot she saw earlier. Immediately the touch screen next to it started to show activity.
A progress bar under a bold 'LOADING' label. appeared and soon it was fully filled.
"Service console Upsilon three including pilot seat; activated."
There were only four buttons displayed on the touchscreen:############################################
System Status
3progresS6ScAN-KM
Omnitool
Inventory############################################
Curious, she pressed the first button that displayed the text of a diagnostic, however her breath caught in her throat at the site of the date with her eyes shrinking to pinpricks in shock:
[2103/05/09]
'T-Twenty-one oh-three?! T-That is impossible! It can't be...It-' she grasped at her heart in her left hand, trying to stop the heartache that set in. If what this console displayed was true...she had been gone for over seventy years! That can't be possible, it just couldn't be! That means Yuzu was gone! A few tears went down the public relations manager's cheeks, she felt like falling on her knees and crying out for how cruel the world could be but...she couldn't. The only thing holding her up was right hand clenched against the edge of the terminal.
Despite how her emotions were continuing to swirl around her head, she continued to mechanically read the text on the screen;
############################################
UPSILON#7185783
Run Setup...
WARNING: Remote access denied
WARNING: Servers offline
WARNING: Main power suspended
-Initiate WAU setup A.41iu
...Program unreliable...
...denied...
Emergency Systems: 13 days remaining############################################
So that means she has thirteen days to find a way out of...wherever she is, find Anzu and Yuzu (If they were still alive by this point that is), and sort out this mess. If she could some how find a way to extend the amount of time she needs to get out she'll do it. Oh god, this situation couldn't be real...it had to be a dream but considering the pain she felt earlier when that robot attacked her...
She shook her head, sniffling a little as tears stung her closed eyes. She still needed to find out what was going on and how to get out of this damn place, so she went back and pressed the second button. More text and another diagnostic:############################################
[2104/05/09]
UPSILON#61633
thetaCache:graphs:legacy - DM_KM
unfold...
Sub_Kawashima Momo
18xY, terminalScan
Aut_DavidMunshi2033v3
Ooarai
=(2 (573/3/6
-ApPS
...operation unavailable...
-4416cWAUcf77
...complete...
############################################
'What the hell is Dr. Munshi's scan of my brain doing here? Kimoi...' Slightly unnerved, she decided it was better not to find out why it was on this terminal in the first place, and instead returned to the menu and tapped the 'Omnitool' button.
A new menu appeared:
############################################
Manage Tool Chip
Manage Cortex Chip
Unlock Tool Box
Orientation############################################
She tapped the third option and the small glass-enclosed section on the left side of the terminal opened. She would check it in a moment, it probably had something to do with those chips mentioned in the previous menu, out curiosity though she pressed the orientation button. There was a brief paused before 'Pathos-II Field Service Technician Briefing' appeared on the screen and the audio recording of an American male with a sharp Brooklyn accent started running.
"I know they told you that field technicians would get full access throughout Pathos-II. I'm here to tell you, that's not going to happen."
A chart appeared labeled 'PATHOS-II HIERARCHY' was displayed and it showed a descending list of personnel and their occupations by rank in the style of a family tree.
"Don't get me wrong, I don't want to get in your way, we need you guys to keep this place up and running, but there needs to be at least some level of security on these things."
A web chart with various Greek Alphabet designations appeared with some meshing together to form a group of some sort. Considering how she heard this place being referred to Upsilon, Momo thought that this was a map about the other facilities around here.
"I don't want to hear you barged into some quarantined area at Omicron and just knocked out the whole place with some virus or whatever the hell they are doing over there."
A diagram showing an Omnitool similar to the one she had appeared next, she made a note of where the so-called 'tool chips' and 'cortex chips' were to be inserted as displayed by the diagram.
"This is what you can do. You'll be able to use it to open doors, basically all of them. If you can't, there's something wrong or someone didn't want you in there. Then what do you do?"
Yet another diagram appeared, this one showing how Momo could dock her Omnitool to a terminal and use one of the wireless panels.
"You shove that Omnitool into a terminal and see if you can't get around it somehow. I mean sometimes you'll need to get into places where you don't belong!"
"Isn't that the truth?" Momo sarcastically mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes with a grunt.
"Just find a way, you're an engineer for crying out loud."
"I'm still-" She paused before resuming, "Well, I was in High School..."
Another diagram appeared showing a row of four different pieces of equipment as well as some sort of diving suit and helmet.
"What else? Take care of your gear, don't be an asshole, that's about it, really...My name is John Strohmeier, Pathos-II security operative."
There was a portrait of a stern serious-looking American man with brown hair in a partial buzzcut, brown eyes, and a bit of a five o'clock shadow but the image was suffering from screen tearing oddly enough.
"I got an office at Theta. Come see me if you got any issues you can't handle yourself, good luck."
And with that, the audio recording ended. She grabbed one of the tool chips from the glass case of the terminal before inserting it in the front slot of her Omnitool, there was short whir as it was slowly pulled in before it finally clicked into place.
The terminal beeped, "Tool Chip: Found."
She went back to the touchscreen and pressed 'Manage Tool Chip';
############################################
Welcome back, Louise Meuron (UPSILON).
Your omnitool is in perfect condition and fitted with a tool chip.
Run an update to confirm the FST-Kit installation and the latest security ciphers.
TOOL CHIP: HaiTT-7 (Update Required!)
UPDATE
############################################
She tapped the button and with a beep it began the update process, she watched the progress bar as it proceeded:
############################################
Updating security ciphers############################################
There was a short chug from the terminal and new message that read 'Tool Chip Updated. Please remove Omnitool' followed by the terminal saying "Tool Chip Security Cipher: Updated." and then Momo grabbed the Omnitool, seeing that the screen was active and satisfied that it was functioning, she left the room and turned back to the area where she was ambushed, intent on finding a way out. She instinctively froze however, when she heard a clang of metal and a electronic shriek from inside the room. When she thought the coast was clear, she reluctantly decided to head in its direction, because wherever it was going it might lead to a way out.
Momo found that using the Omnitool was fairly easy. When she finally found another working door, she did as it instructed, holding the device in front of the interface, it cycled for a moment before the display said "ACCESS GRANTED" and the door opened, allowing her to proceed forward. At least it did until she saw the corridor in front of her...
It was glass tunnel and outside of it was an underwater view unlike anything Momo could see or remember. She saw the outside parts of the building, layered with seaweed, algae, and other underwater fauna and flora.
"Sugoi..." she whispered to herself.
She continued forward but much more slowly as she couldn't help but wonder how she ended up in the ocean of all things and watching as things swam out of her line of sigh or swayed with the currents.
When she reached the end and found herself in another metallic corridor, she couldn't help but groan in frustration because two areas she could explore were cut off by wire fencing and padlocked fence doors.
She turned to the right, seeing it as the only remaining path with a wide open door clogged by that weird coral or whatever-the-hell it was that she had seen lining the walls and ceiling of all things. She heard a person's voice on a radio and peeked into the room only to hear whatever transmission it was be cutoff. She saw the room darken for a moment before she saw a weird...flower bud that was rooted against a computer console with vines around it. She heard the voice pleading for her to stop before she touched it with her finger, a ringing in her ears and a bright purple light engulfed her eyes.
"Agh! W-What was that?!" She pulled away from the now dimming glow. She then realized that the pain she had moments ago had vanished. "H-How? The pain is...gone...phew..." She glanced of to a corner and saw some sort of maintenance shaft with a door button nearby. Sighing to herself, she decided to climb in. Hopefully wherever the hell she was crawling to would lead somewhere that was better than here.
Slowly crawling out of the maintenance shaft, the public relations manager of Ooarai had ended up in a control room for something. She saw a pile of debris held together by that almost organic substance that had glowing bulbs and a thick oily fluid dribbling down from the ceiling and onto the floor. Shuddering in disgust, she decided to move forward, finding a control panel with two of those flower buds wired to some sort of rectangular robotic construct. She was about to access the console until she saw that one of the screens said 'Radio Signal Blocked: Insufficient power' in red lettering.
"Kuso!" she muttered, she could've called for help if there was more power! She slammed her hands on the keyboard, growling until she heard the whirring of the construct on the floor, her peripheral vision picking up the power cable that was rooted into the console. She reached out her hand to grab it, pausing a moment to take a glance at the machine on the floor before she pulled it out.
"No, don't!" Startled, she dropped the cable onto the floor and turned towards the source of the voice; the seemingly immobile robot. Hesitantly, Momo spoke to the machine.
"H-Hey, can you...hear me?"
No response, the robot's single functioning limb came up to the camera-like appendage mounted on its body, examining the limb for some odd reason. She hoped that the robot...whatever or rather whoever she may be didn't need the other cable and decided to yank the other one out.
"I need it!"
Momo turned back to it.
"I-I'm sorry...I-"
"Why? I was okay...I was happy..." and then the robot's lights faded off before its components slumped to the floor. Momo felt oddly disturbed at the fact the machine's voice sounded so...human and the fact she may have just...killed it. She shook her head in denial, 'It's just a machine, it's just a machine, it's just a machine, it's just a machine.' She repeated that mantra in her skull, seeing that one of the screens said 'Standing by...' she pressed the power button to bring it online. There was a positive ring before she had to bring power back online. Thankfully, all it took was a push of a button- Actually, three buttons and there was a crack of a turbine, the buzz of an alarm, and finally a loud snap before the machines roared back to life in the room below.
She quickly darted to the other screen, checking for anyone or anything she could contact but unfortunately, the only radio signal listed as 'ONLINE' was the coordinate labeled 'Site Lambda'. With no other choice, she tuned into her last option and after a moment a voice came through.
"Oh, what is-what's happening? Hello? Is anyone there?"
So Momo wasn't alone after all.
"Hey, Hey! Can you hear me?!"
"I hear you-uh...Upsilon...What's going on?"
"Uh, Kuso! How do I put this?" Momo whispered under her breath, deciding it was better to roll with it rather than to say something awkward or stupid in front of this potential ally.
"I have no idea, I just woke up here and I have no idea where the hell I am."
"In the room, right now?" the voice asked, seemingly curious.
"Uh, no...It was some place with a weird chair and a helmet or something like that."
"Is that right?" The voice now seemed a bit skeptical, "What's your name?"
"I'm Kawashima Momo, public relations manager of Ooarai Girls High School."
"Okay, what are you-" There was a bit of crackling of static, the voice cursing about 'damn relays', "Where are you now?"
"Er-Some place dealing with electrical power or something, I'm not sure if this a power plant, a transformer, or what but-"
"Yeah, you're probably in the thermal plant somewhere. You'll want to go upstairs to the comm center. It's the room with the domed ceiling."
"Okay, but there is something seriously wrong with this place and I have no idea how I-" The audio whined a bit, "Hello? You there?"
Static.
"Hello?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that, we lost another relay. Now listen, head for the comms center upstairs. I'll wait here, okay?"
Suddenly, the signal went dead. Momo sighed in frustration, muttering in Japanese under her breath.
"...Well, looks like I'm walking..."
She turned away from the console and headed to the exit, finding herself on a catwalk in the larger room. The PR manager couldn't help but whistle in astonishment.
"This place looks pretty high-tech."
Walking along the cat-walk on the wall, she noticed a path across to another area was cut off by a broken section, so instead she headed to the end of the wall where there was a ladder.
But as soon as she took a single step down said ladder, there was a screech of metal and then she suddenly found herself on the floor with a grunt of pain. "Chikushou! That hurt..." She clambered back to her feet, wandering around the room until she saw one of those organic buds from before, she reached to touch it again and with a blink of blue her pain was gone. However, she soon realized she wasn't going to be alone as she heard a electronic screech and the tumbling of tools and equipment nearby.
She glanced around a corner and saw the same robot...thing that ambushed her earlier and it seems that the sound of jammed machinery had caught its attention! Cursing to herself she crouched and went around the large storage tank near the broken catwalk and hid there, the listening to the repetitive metallic march of the robot as it went to examine it with a glowing aperture peering against the jammed pistons. As she sidled against the storage tank, she felt her foot nudge a wrench and she quietly lifted it into her hands. She had an idea on how to distract it.
The construct assigned by WAU had detected two unregistered noises with its audio sensors. Both of which meant that there was one or more intruders that needed to be pacified. The first was the sound of something breaking apart while the second was the jamming of nearby pistons. The machine slowly paced around the pistons, checking for intruders and/or any signs of broken machinery as any potential hardware faults would have to be logged for maintenance drones to repair.
The pistons in front of it seemed to have had some sort of electrical failure, more repairs would be required. Satisfied, that the area was secure and the faults were logged in its databanks and sent to WAU for further instructions, the machine turned around and went to return it to its station.
There was another high-pitched clang of metal near by, another unregistered noise and it quickly charged over to investigate. The only thing it found was a lonely wrench, until it heard a rapid rhythmic sound; one, two, one, two, one, two. The sound of footsteps! Immediately, it turned around to see an intruder! It would need to be pacified under WAU's orders as all unregistered entities were to be logged and/or pacified at all costs!
Quickly, the humanoid shape began to run up a metallic staircase, flipping a switch as an opening to another section of Site Upsilon was opened. With an indigent electronic screech it charged up the stairs!
All unidentified entities must be pacified and/or logged. All unidentified entities must be pacified and/or logged. All intruders must be pacified and logged. All intruders must be terminated on sight. ALL INTRUDERS MUST BE TERMINATED ON SIGHT. ALLINTRUDERSMUSTBETERMINATED! INTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDERINTRUDER! KILL! DESTROY! MAIM! CRUSH! DIVIDETHEZERODOWN!
Momo panted once, twice, three times before sighing in relief as she slumped against the wall, she had barely managed to make it up the stairs and shut the door to that thing! Hopefully, that would be the last she would see of that monster because it tried killing her twice already!
"Kuso...that was close..." She muttered, "I better get moving though."
She stood on her legs and made her up another set of stairs into yet another control room, with what appeared to be several sleeping backs and clothing, and sketch pads laying around in one shadowy corner of the room. Suddenly the lights in the room clicked on, banishing the darkness and nearly startling Momo out of her skin. She took a glance around, seeing another set of stairs with a switch, this one had a sign in front of it that said 'COMMS CENTER", perfect! She pulled the switch down once only to see that it didn't work at all.
"Chikushou, now what?" As she was lamenting her bad luck again she heard a voice, this one being male.
"Ah, shit!"
She paused before cautiously making her way to the other room which was brightly lit and had several robotic arms working on a halted assembly line. There was another rectangular robot like one of the many before, only it had one working camera module of a head, one working robotic limb, and it was wired to the gooey debris in the wall.
"Hey, over here!"
It called out to her in that same masculine voice, reluctantly she approached it.
"Are you blind? It's me, Carl. Carl Semken. Wrangler? Any of this sound familiar to you?"
"No, actually..." Momo muttered nervously while 'Carl' scoffed.
"Well thanks for being so helpful," He sarcastically remarked, "It's not like I'm knocked down on the floor or anything."
Curious, as this was the first machine that actually could speak to her, Momo decided to probe further.
"Are you...human?" She asked cautiously, watching for his reaction.
"S-Shit, did my body give it away?" He thumped his single working limb against his head, "I try hard to stay a mystery. YEAH, I'M HUMAN! Are you?"
"M-My name is Momo, do you know anything about this place?"
"Oh...you're new..." At that point, Carl's tone shifted from agitated to understanding, "That makes this...slightly less awkward. Look, I'm obviously hurt. If you see anyone else around, just tell them where I am."
Baffled, the fact that the machine in front of Momo was claiming to be human despite his appearance was disturbing to say the least. Unless...
"So...uh, where are you?"
"Are you for real? See me waving?" Carl shook his hand once to emphasize his point. "Look at my hands. Hey, honey!"
Momo raised her hands defensively, "Okay, Okay, it's just...I see a robot talking to me not a...person."
This seemed to anger Carl rather than satisfy him. "What the hell are you looking at?!" He raised himself up with his single arm as leverage to push him upwards.
"I'M. RIGHT. HERE! SEE?!" He then hit the ground with a crumble of the assembly lines treads below.
"O-Okay, I just didn't expect you to look like that." Momo didn't know what to think...He couldn't be human because he was a machine but...he sounded like he was telling the truth. Not only that but he was actually showing a range of emotions that she wouldn't see in machines of her time including at this moment; exasperation.
"You're really hung up on appearances, you know that?"
Momo wasn't going to go any further, she saw there wasn't much of a point to speak with Carl anymore so she decided to explore the room a little more, stumbling upon a switch that lead to a cable. Curious, she flipped it down. The lights in the room dimmed, with the exception of the smaller red ones along the floor. She then caught the sound of active electrical currents in the air and the sound of Carl Semken crying out in agony.
"AH, SHIT! FUUUUCK!" He made a few shuddering gasps of pain as Momo stumbled back to the switch to flip it back to its previous position. Instantly, the lights buzzed back to life and the Brooklyn accent that belted out curses of pain died down. Feeling sympathetic, she decided to inspect Carl.
"Gomenasai, I-I think I pulled the wrong lever..."
"D-Don't sweat it, just get me a doctor!"
Making a mental note not to touch that switch again, Momo retreated back into the control room and decided to check the nearby terminal where a small yellow posted note was attached near the screen. It said 'Lockdown process initiated - Check terminal for details' so she tapped the screen only to find that she needed a pin number to access it.
She looked around the room, seeing another doorway labeled 'Sector D' and took that route. Immediately, she was bombarded by the slight whiff of an incredibly foul odor that made her sick to her very stomach, the trail of the dried blood on the floor made things even worse for her. Hesitantly, she followed the trail until she reached a slightly desiccated, burnt human corpse where the smell of feces and rotten cabbage made her innards turn in disgust. The PR Manager covered her nose and mouth with her left and instead shakily reached for the ID card on his person and her eyes widened in shock at who it belonged to.
Semken, Carl - ID: 0722.
"But if he's dead then..." Momo couldn't even express in words how fucked up this situation was to her and wondered what kind of god (or gods) would allow such a thing like that to happen. Resisting the urge to vomit and risk losing her will to continue, she gulped and immediately sprinted back to the control room, desperately trying to get rid of those image and thoughts that were recently burned into her memory, with the exception of the passcode she needed to use instead.
0-7-2-2
She tapped the 'OK' button.
############################################
Logged in as Carl Semken.
############################################
'Not much further now.' she thought to herself.
She tapped the button that said 'POWER MANAGER' and among the list of options she toggled the button next to 'Comm. Center' where a new window popped up for her.
############################################
INSUFFICIENT POWER
SOLUTION FOUND: Shut down one of the highlighted sections to divert power to the communication chamber.############################################
There was a map of the area, with one part of the map showing a room highlighted in red with multiple explanation points and an area near the entrance of the assembly line. Since she didn't want to hurt Carl, she decided to head to the other room highlighted on the map, immediately she ended up in front of a room with the sign 'flow control' overhead and the button to its sign not available. After doubling back and enabling power for the Flow Control, she found herself in this tiny chamber with a switch off to the side and another note.
Read this!
We strained the system. If you pull the lever there's no turning back. Make sure you want it bad enough!
Well, she did need it bad enough so she went forward and with a brief moment of hesitation she pulled the lever down. There was a crackle of electricity as all of the lights went down and a brief whine of the halting turbine before all was quiet and dark.
Satisfied, Momo decided to finally make her way to the Comms Center but when she reached the end of the corridor she heard the rattling of metal and a familiar electronic shriek and as soon as she saw the bright blue beam of light on the opposite side of the room she immediately went into fight or flight mode. She looked back and forth between rest of the corridor and the slow approaching hostile robot, after catching a brief glimpse of a small space to the side of the corridor with some stacked crates, she quickly crouched down and crawled behind them. She took a quick peek to see it marching towards the corridor and ducked, bring her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, her heart beating faster and her voice caught in her throat with only brief gasps of breath.
The machine's light peered on Carl Semken's corpse, warbling and scanning the corridor briefly before it shuddered around on its two legs and exited the corridor slowly with several electronic rasps from its voice. Hesitantly, Momo crept out to see the robot march back into the control room. She thought she almost heard a few words come out but shook it off as nothing more than whatever part of that robot made those noises.
She sidled near the doorway, slipping to the other side of it so she wouldn't be spotted. She peeked out again, hearing it groan and that its attention wasn't on her at all. She hesitantly crept towards the switch that would lead her to the communications center and prepare to pull it until her peripheral vision turned a bright cyan. The robot had spotted her! Screeching angrily as it marched towards her, she scrambled away from the staircase, trying to make her to the terminal until something tightly grabbed onto her leg.
"Oh, Kami! Iie! Iie! IIE!" She was being dragged back, she rolled onto her back only managing to roll her ankle in the robots huge grasp and out of desperation started kicking the robot's camera-shaped head in an attempt to wrench herself free only to further enrage it. The machine simply grabbed the offending the limb and tightly twisted it with a crackle cartilage, breaking her leg.
Momo-chan...
She screamed out in pain as it dragged her closer, released her and then started to bash at her torso. The first fractured her limbs, the second almost smashed her skull if her weren't for her now broken arms to block it and the third time it grabbed her broken elbow and squeezed it tightly, her voice being strained as she cried out in pain and to Kami, President Anzu, and Yuzu-chan as she tried to break free! This was the end, she was so dead! She wouldn't be able to experience graduation, marriage, or adulthood for herself! Oh, the inhumanity of it all!
Momo-chan!
The robot paused for a moment, its camera-like head getting closer to her face, almost to touching the monocle on her right eye before it pulled back and released a smaller appendage with a drill scream to life.
She screamed again, fruitlessly trying to break free before the drill finally pierced through her eye and monocle!
MOMO-CHAN!
Momo screamed as she found herself in a chair with a helmet-like device on her head.
"Momo-chan! It's okay! It's okay! It's okay!"
Momo flinched upon hearing that voice...quickly turning to her head and realizing that something- No, someone was holding her hand!
The helmet lifted off of her face, revealing the concerned face of her brown-haired lover.
"Y-Yuzu-chan?"
"Yes, I'm here."
Momo slowly and shakily looked around only to find that there weren't any robots that were hostile nor friendly and then realized she was somewhere familiar. She was at PACE Laboratories!
"W-What happened?" Momo asked, to which Yuzu kindly answered.
"You must have dozed off during the scan because after a couple of minutes I saw you asleep and whimpering a bit. When the scan was finished, I decided to wake you up...Sorry."
Momo's eyes widened in surprise.
"S-So it was all just...a dream?"
"Hai, Momo-chan it was just a nightmare."
Momo sighed in exasperation, slouched in the chair.
"Kami, that was a pretty scary one though."
Yuzu Koyama made a hum of sympathy as she helped her girlfriend, classmate, and colleague out of the seat while Dr. Munshi was quickly looking at the screen before turning back.
"Sorry about that, I didn't expect you to fall asleep during the scan." Dr. Munshi bashfully scratched the back of his neck, feeling guilty for what has happened.
"Dajyobu desu, Munshi-san. I'm unharmed physically so there is no need to feel guilty about that." Dr. Munshi sighed in relief, that was all he needed to hear.
"Alright then, while we're speaking though do you want to see the results?" He asked, he had a small smile on his face which meant something.
"Ano, if it is not too much to ask."
"Alright then."
He entered a few commands into the console of his PC, a few moments later a 3D graphical map of Momo's brain appeared.
"How does it look?" Momo asked nervously, while Yuzu held her hand. Dr. Munshi smiled.
"Your brain is actually in pretty good shape and I have a pretty good idea what type of treatment you need but I'll need to run a couple of simulations just to be sure. Other than that though, we're good to go here. Do you have any questions or concerns?"
Momo looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing at a smiling Yuzu as they held hands before a small grin appeared on her face.
"No thank you, but I'll keep in touch with you just in case anything comes up. Arigatogozaimashita, Mushi-San."
It was time to head home.
The next few days at port in Montreal went by quickly for the students and staff of Ooarai Girls High School, including a certain PR Manager who woke up like she usually did, quickly got dressed and ate breakfast, and then grabbed a bottle of pills. She took one out placed it into her palm, brought it into her mouth and gulped it with a glass of water to wash it down.
Dr. Munshi was right about the treatment after the scan and the simulations several days ago, all she needed was to take these pills every day for the next couple of months and then she would be fine. Already she was showing improvement though, her short-term memory loss was minimized as were the migraines and the fatigue. The nightmares were redundant and it was coincidental that they were happening at the time she first started showing symptoms of brain damage. Although, the nightmare she had during her scan remained burned into her memory and though she had no idea why she had such a vivid dream in the first place she still wrote down her experience just to get it off her mind.
Needless to say though, whether it was a vision of a future that could come to past or a twisted fantasy from her consciousness she never did have that nightmare again and she never would either.
Hello everyone,
I'd like to apologize in advance for this story being so late but as with some of my other stories things came up in real life such as school and other activities, not to mention that I was also working on entries for three different YTP collabs at the time. Anyway, I came up with this story after I played SOMA for the first time and needless to say I was hooked to the game. With Halloween coming up at the time I thought it would be a good subject for a story and throwing in Girls Und Panzer was a bit of a bonus to say the least. As for why I chose Momo Kawashima as the protagonist of this story, she is one of my favorite characters AND there doesn't seem to be that many stories featuring her or the student council of Oorai on so I decided to rectify that!
Anyway, I hope you all liked this story and I would like to ask to please read, review, and favorite if you want.
Cheers,
-VentXekart
Romanji to English Translations (If there are any inaccuracies or errors, please let me know in the reviews. I'm not a hundred-percent sure how many of these are actually correct to be honest.):
"Arigato." and "Arigatogozaimashita." - Two different variations of 'Thank you'.
"Kuso!" - A curse word, more specifically the Japanese equivalent of 'Shit' and 'Fuck'.
"Chikushou!" - Japanese equivalent of "Damnit!"
"Dayjobu-Desu." - Means "It's okay" or "It's alright".
"Kami." - Loosely translated as 'God.' but also can refer to divinity, spirits, and/or similar entities in the Shinto religion.
"Iie!" - Essentially 'No!'.
"Hai." - Essentially 'Yes.'.
"Sugoi." - 'Great.' or 'Amazing.'