Zero
The ground shook violently. Alarms seemed to sound off at the same time, each one emitting a high pitched squeal as they flashed from a simple white to blaring red color. Mortar from the walls began to crumble as they fell, breaking apart and shattering into a million pieces as they hit the solid tiled floor. The control room was in havoc. Men and women ran around as the walls shook again. Cracks began to form under the stress of the material above it.
"Pantheons are advancing." Someone called out.
"Sir we don't have much time left." Doctor Celina Mane shouted into her ear piece. Her fingers frantically typed in commands into the holographic console, desperately trying to isolate the containment breaches that had erupted.
Another blast rumbled throughout the room and a block of mortar from the ceiling hit her shoulder, a sharp piece cutting into her white suit, drawing blood from her soft skin. Sweat beaded down from her forehead as she tried to find a way to prevent the impeding doom.
"Doctor?" One of the young doctors in the command centre said. She couldn't distinguish which one but she raised one hand to stop him anyway.
"We are out of options." A male voice said the director, his grizzled voice coming through her ear piece. The transmission was beginning to cut, his voice briefly mixing with static. "Wake him up."
"Sorry sir?" Celina stopped working, not knowing if she heard right.
"I said wa*e *im *p." The director's voice mingled with the static again becoming less audible.
"But it's not time." She replied as she looked up into the room outside her window. Only one pod was in that room, isolated and protected by every known defence this building was capable of having.
"Dr. Mane t**t i* *n o*d*r." The director said firmly.
"Yes sir." She said with resignation in her voice. She sweeped some loose strands of her blond hair out of her green eyes and back behind her head joining with the rest that flowed down her back. Her fingers brought up the isolated room's settings and she entered the twenty four digit pass-code that would allow her access.
"Welcome Doctor Celina Mane." The female computerized voice chirped.
"Oh shut up." She said offhandedly. She dragged the pods settings into view.
"That is not a registered command." The computer chirped back. "Please see-" The voice cut off as Celina slammed her fist down on the mute button.
Her left hand slid over to the cryogenic settings for the pod and she began the thawing procedure. Her right hand after hitting the mute button quickly executed the release procedure.
The machines in the room quickly began to work; the loud mechanisms of the mechanical arms began adjusting the tubes that connected to the pod itself as it began cycling out the freezing air with a warmer solution.
"Pod has begun thawing procedure." Celina said transmitted.
"Warning, I cannot allow you do that." The computer's voice said.
Confused, Celina looked and saw the mute button was still active. Suddenly alarms began to chime off inside the containment room. Celina looked back down at the holo screen to see many of the vital circuits beginning to switch off.
Desperately she tried to stop the process but every button she now pressed an error message popped up. "I am sorry Dr. Mane but you do not seem to have the necessary clearance." The computer said almost taunting her.
"Someone get me Chief Roe!" Celina shouted into the chaos behind her.
Someone approached beside her, Chief Angela Roe, the head of security at the base.
"What do you need Doc." She asked.
"The computer's locked me out." Celina explained. Chief Roe put her blazing blue helmet down on the table beside the panel and accessed the pass-code interface.
There was a sharp crack, like the ground was beginning to split open. Her heart began to thud faster; there was a crack above her that began to emerge. "Damn it." Roe cursed as she typed in her access code which received the same security restriction message as Dr. Mane had gotten.
"We have incoming at the forward bay, designation bravo three." One of the soldiers said. "Chief Roe we need you."
Angela quickly scanned the controls, her fingers trying to work out a way to bypass the computers system, however each and every time she was blocked out by the computer.
"Chief Ro-" The Chief spun around; the look on her face shut the soldier up instantly.
"If we don't get this soldier out of cryo we are all dead no matter what!" She said all but shouting.
"Chief, Doctor." One of the scientists said. "What if you bypassed through the internal matrix? The computer was not designed to protect against direct internal access."
Then suddenly control panels all over the room seemed to short circuit at once, each one emitting a spark of electricity before the screens exploded, shards of the shattered glass went flying through the air. Quickly Celina whipped her arm in front of her face and turned her head as bits and pieces sprayed against her. She felt some shards rip through her sleeves even as she heard people scream.
"I've lost visuals." Someone shouted.
"We're doomed!" Someone else screamed.
"Shut up and give me something." One voice said.
It was chaos. Pure and utter chaos. Celina watched from the room as the pod in the containment room was slowly losing power. Without the proper procedure the occupant would die.
She turned to her right; Chief Roe's hands were holding her left cheek. A large ugly red gash leaked blood down her cheek. Quickly she used her right hand to grab her helmet and placed it on her head, the helmet clicked into place.
"I'm going in there." The Chief said. Not waiting for answer she keyed in a sequence into the digital transformer attached to her hand. Immediately it began to transform into an arm cannon which she aimed at the window in front of Celina.
"Duck." was all she said and Celina dropped to the ground as the head of security fired the weapon. The sound of the weapon firing echoed throughout the room as the shot flew through the air, the yellow blast of energy crashing into the glass window, easily shattering it into thousands of pieces. Celina looked up in time to see Chief Roe run by her and leap forward, diving through the window into the containment room.
Alarms blared inside the room and multiple turrets began to emerge from the hidden panels in the walls. Without pausing Chief Roe blasted each of them leaving a smoking heap of metal behind her. A sharp metal crack could be heard as a metal support was sudden released, falling towards the chief. Deftly without missing a beat she slid underneath the falling beam, the heavy metal crashing into the ground behind her as she rose to her feet without slowing.
Angela approached the manual control pad on the pod and set to work. The ground shook once more; the tremor was larger than the rest of shock waves up until now. Celina struggled to maintain her balance but Angela had nothing to grip onto. She lost her footing and stumbled backwards, slipping and falling onto her back as the ground rippled in response.
The intercom suddenly chimed to life many people including Celina looked up in surprise to see it working. "This is Director Raul Insectus." The director said.
"The intercom works but the whole damned computer system doesn't!" One of the scientists retorted. "Great life we live isn't it. Pompous rich bastards."
"The enemy is closing in on our major facilities. We cannot allow the enemy to get their hands on the experimental weapon. I am authorizing protocol four six eight. It was a pleasure working with you." The transmission ended all at once the control room erupted in chatter once again.
Four six eight? Celina wracked her head, and then it came to her. Four six eight was the self destruct protocol. She glanced out the window into the containment room to see Chief Roe slowly crawling to her feet. Then all at once, Celina almost missed it. There was an explosion in the room; one of the set charges tied to the protocol went causing one of the fuel tanks near the head of security to explode. She was engulfed in a flame instantly, the instant heat and light caused Celina to shield her eyes from the brightness. When she lowered her hand all that was left of the chief was a burnt carcass.
She looked back up at the containment pod. The same might happen to the occupant. No she couldn't let that happen. She had promised to make sure that he wouldn't die. She could not let him die. She will not allow him todie.
With that thought stuck firmly in her head she took a deep breath in grabbing hold of the pain in her arm and her shoulder and pushed it deep down inside herself. Then she knelt down in front of the control panel, the metal frame that held the wires in behind it was designed to hold against the most unstable conditions. With her right fist she punched the metal frame, using all of her strength. Each strike she landed she winced in pain as flesh met metal. Finally the inner frame cracked and allowed her to grasp the inside of the frame and tear it out, exposing the wires that connected to the now useless control panel above. Deftly she ripped the wires free and grabbed hold of the main cable that contained the basic information needed to connect with the network. From her pocket she withdrew a mini holo computer and opened slide open one of the sides revealing a port. She jacked the main cable in her hand into her computer. The jack sparked for a moment before she turned on the computer, a game of RedvsBlue appeared which she quickly dematerialized.
The screen processed to a loading screen before the system for the pod appeared on her computer. She didn't have much time. The AI which had now become hostile was not directly connected to the mini computer so it would take time to notice the intrusion. Quickly she rerouted all power to the essential cables, shifting the pod back onto its usual thawing procedure. However the temperature inside the pod was still unstable. Lights began to flash on her computer as she keyed in the preset instructions, desperately hoping she wasn't too late.
There was a crash from above her; it was close, very close. The AI in the computer seemed to sense something was wrong and tried to block off her connection. Unfortunately for the AI she was able to erect a shield that the AI had to crack. That was all she could do, now she just hoped the process would finish before the AI broke through.
Suddenly she the sirens began to get louder as she slipped back into the world around her. She looked around to see doctors and soldiers alike on the ground wounded. The pain of her cuts bringing her back to her senses and the world around her.
The second wave of charges suddenly exploded. No.Celina rushed to the window she didn't need the alarms ringing on her computer to tell her the AI had broken through. The pod was opening, air gushed out in waves, the cold air mixing with the warm. It was too early. She heard an explosion go off, than another, a series of simultaneous explosions each one bringing down a key subject of the base.
She could swear she saw a foot emerge from the pod. But that was impossible. The ceiling above her began to crack further. Still she didn't move, she didn't hear the warnings everyone else was screaming at her. She just stared. There was something there. Could he be alive?
The ceiling finally buckled under the stress, just as she saw the explosion the final explosion in the containment room go off. Something hit her head and darkness took her.
The sun seemed to beat down on the four blue Pantheons as they waded through the debris. The desert wasteland kept shorting their sensors. Number 46 or "you" to his masters felt the familiar programmed emotion of being angry at having been selected to rummage through the debris of a destroyed base in the middle of nowhere.
He was a simple Pantheon Guardian with an electrical sword slotted into his right arm. His red eye scanned the environment, of course nothing useful showed up.
Number 84 and number 36 were both Pantheon Hunters. Each one had an arm cannon equipped and were both under his command along with the Pantheon Bomber Number 22.
"I found something!" Number 36 said, his voice carried the audible frequency of being excited. The rest of the Pantheons converged on his location, what might have once been a room but was now buried in sand. The only thing visible was a few metal beam supports and a helmet. The helmet had a distinctive shape, it was completely red accept for the top where it dipped in towards the middle which was white. Where the forehead would be positioned was a blue gem.
All four Pantheon's ogled the helmet. Number 36 walked up to it and with one hand picked it up, the sand slowly draining out from inside it. Then he tried to place it on his head.
"Hey." Number 46 said. He walked up to 36 and gestures for the helmet. "It is mine."
Number 36 raised his weapon and aimed it at 46. "Mine." He said.
"Twenty Two, Eighty-four." Number 46 called. No answer.
Number 36 turned his head and then suddenly dropped the helmet. He took a step back before tripping over a metal beam.
"Good, it is mine." Number 46 said before turning back to face the other two Pantheons or at least what was left of them.
The remains of both robots were in two neat piles, their circuits smoking from where they had been cleanly cut in two. Between them stood a reploid in red and white armor, a sword was sheathed on his back and a cannon like weapon was attached to his left arm. He stood up straight, ignoring the desert sand that decorated the ground. He didn't spare a single glance at the robots at his feet, his eyes only focused on the helmet lying in the hot sand before shifting back to Number 46. His blond hair flowed down to the back of his legs, slowly shifting in the wind.
Analyzing...Number 46's threat sensor said. ThreatlevelZero.Number 46 gave the equivalent to a robotic chuckle. Zero threat level. "Mine." Number 46 said defiantly and took a step forward raising his electrical sword.
In one fluid motion the man whipped his hand to the sword on his back and unsheathed it, green energy spurted to life as it slid free of its sheath. The blade sliced through Number 46's sword hand and less than a heartbeat later his neck. The man's expression on his face didn't change at all.
He knelt down to pick up the helmet from where it rested in the sand. "No." He said to the destroyed robot as he placed the helmet on his head where it fit perfectly. "It's mine." He was complete once again.
The last Pantheon tried to get away, struggling to run in the sandy sea. "I did not start this battle." Zero said as he aimed his Z-buster at the fleeing robot. "But I will end it." He fired; the shot took the mech's head off clean and the robot fell.
Cautiously Zero looked around, analyzing his surroundings. "Where am I?" He finally said.