Chapter 2: Exodus
----------------------
CMOS - OK
BIOS - OK
Combat Frame - OK
PROM - ERROR
Device Driver - ERROR
Initializing main program...
ERROR 2219: FUNCTION NOT SUPPORTED 0xE22345
(C)ontinue, (R)etry, (Q)uit?
cmd -c
reading "Z.O.S."
reading "MV.cfg"....not found
Operations at 80% capacity. System at 100% capacity. The date is July 4, 22XX. Welcome.
-----------------------------
The reploid awoke with a start. At least, he assumed he was a reploid, as a small text scroll in the corner of his field of vision gave off a litany of information about the things he was seeing. He knew, at least, that humans didn't possess such a feature. A quick scan of the area revealed that he stood in a room exactly 56 feet by 42 feet, confirmed by laser-rangefinding, and the floor was covered in 13 inches of greenish fluid, which a quick molecular scan confirmed to be approximately 40% water, 60% hydraulic fluid, and 10% decomposed plant and animal matter by volume.
There were four lifesigns in the room; before him stood a trio of humanoid machines in blue armor, with a single red eye in the center of their heads and a plasma submachinegun attached to their right arms. His sensors visualized a faint wavering line extending from their heads off into the distance; he instantly knew that this was data from his radio-emission detectors, being converted to a visual stimulus for easier processing. Perhaps they were radioing for further instructions, upon his 'arrival'. Behind him was the fourth lifesign, a young girl cowering behind a rock; he craned his head to get a better look at her. Hardly more than 5 feet tall, with large blue eyes widened in fear, and long blonde hair; she was wearing a pink dress and jacket, though it and her hair had become fouled with muck and grime from the swampy surroundings.
This vast quantity of data was processed in less than half a second. The girl spoke first, breaking the momentary trance that had fallen over the room. "Zero...are you...?" The robots seemed to have gotten their reply at that precise moment, as in unison they raised their arm-guns and readied them with an ominous metallic clack. Two were aimed at him, and the third was drawing a bead on the girl behind him.
They never even got a chance to fire, as the reploid leapt forward with surprising speed. His hand shot through the nearest machine as if it wasn't even there, it's armor tearing like paper from the sheer force of the blow. Retracting his hand, the reploid allowed it's pole-axed corpse to drop from his grasp. The other two backed away, perhaps from fear, perhaps attempting to line up for a better shot. He didn't care. Before the first body had even hit the ground he was in motion again, lashing out with both hands as he passed. The robots recoiled, then slid to the ground in two neat pieces; the cut was so clean it looked as if it were made by a blade rather than a hand. That only left the girl.
The reploid hadn't acted to protect her, really. The enemy just happened to have aimed at her as well as himself, and self-preservation took over from there. But, now that the enemy had been cleared, he was at a loss as to what to do with her. He spotted the corpse at her feet, however, and saw that it was armed with a pistol of some sort. Without a word he drew closer to relieve the dead body of it's burden, and tried his best to ignore her flinching as he approached. She almost looked like she was about to cry as he reached down to grab the pistol still clutched firmly in the dead reploid's hand; unlike a human, 'rigor mortis' set in almost instantly as his body stopped receiving instructions and stuck in the position it last occupied. A firm yank, and the weapon came free with a loud 'crack!' as the hand clutching it shattered under the assault. The girl looked away, suddenly turning a rather sickly shade of green.
"Are you allright?" the reploid asked, after a moment. He didn't quite know why he said it; maybe something about her plight spoke to a buried memory that he couldn't quite recall. She took a moment to collect herself, but only a moment. He was silently impressed as she spoke, with a quiet strength he hadn't expected from her slender frame. "I'll be fine. You're...no, you have to be Zero."
He said nothing for a moment, considering the name she addressed him by. For some reason, the name Zero seemed rather appropriate for him, though he couldn't quite place why. He frowned slightly, as that realization came to him...he really didn't remember anything before he was awakened. How curious. But, the name suited him, so he decided to accept it for the moment. The girl took his silence as an acknowledgement, and continued, "My name is Ciel. I'm with a group..." she swallowed hard. Zero wondered how many of this group had been slain coming here. "...we're fighting against the people that employ those things you just destroyed. Will you help me get back?" Her voice softened, as she continued: "I...don't want to die here. Not like this, with so much left to do...."
Zero nodded. Again, he briefly weighed the risks and benefits; if more of these machines were waiting outside, then the possibility of their being similarly hostile was very likely. Furthermore, she had come into this place, so she knew the way out. Again, Zero took the most expedient option as he took a step towards the ruined door. "Follow me then. I hope you know the way." She nodded.
With Ciel in tow, Zero approached the entrance that the blue machines had come through. He could have sworn that as he left, he heard a faint and sinister laugh...but when he looked over his shoulder, nothing was there.
-----------------------------
Phantom hated delivering bad news. It wasn't just the short walk from the operations center to the commander's quarters, which gave him this time to pontificate, that he dreaded. No, he decided, the worst part was his belief that Master X saw him as less than worthy for it. The dishonor of failure was a burden on his synthetic soul. While he was a Guardian, one of the four 'children' of X, and thus afforded a certain immunity from execution due to his value, it didn't help his feeling of guilt.
So clouded were his thoughts that he didn't even pause to appreciate the beauty of the Path of Sephirot, the name of the hallway linking the two rooms; its grandiose name was assigned partially due to it's regal splendor, with Greco-Roman columns and artfully-designed artificial foliage springing up nearly everywhere one looked, and partly due to the fact that it was the path leading from the outside world to the domain of Master X, who was like unto a god. That thought was humbling, so as he entered the room, Phantom made sure to keep his head bowed.
"Master, there's been a complication." he began, after a moment. Though he kept his head low, he could practically /feel/ his master's crimson eyes burning into his skull. "I'm aware, Phantom," was the reply, a faint undercurrent of irritation...or was it bemusement?...slipping into his tone. "Whenever you have bad news to deliver, you always adopt the same expression." Phantom's mood lifted, just slightly, as he saw his master smile just a little. A rare thing, these days. "But very well, make your report." Phantom nodded, and began to speak.
"As I've already reported, the 9th Special Forces unit has engaged the Resistance after stumbling across a small cell making their way through the forests to the south. The Golem units they were field-testing at the time ensured that the rebels were put to rout, but they fled into the ruins, where the Golems were too large to effectively pursue. The Pantheons sent in managed to get this transmission back to us before they were destroyed." As he said this, Phantom activated the small holo-projector that he was carrying. An image appeared in mid-air of an impassive Zero slamming his fist through one of the cyclopean blue machines. Phantom frowned slightly as his master took in a sharp breath. Apparently this was more serious than he had first believed. "Master, I've taken the liberty of ordering the entire 9th Unit to flush out and destroy the rebels. The Golems are just able to fit into some of the larger accessways, so I ordered them as well to...." "It won't be enough," his master stated flatly, giving a faint sigh. "....sir?"
----------------------------
At first, things were deceptively quiet. The three one-eyed machines that Zero had already dispatched had, apparently, been the last of their squad. He took the opportunity to familiarize himself with the weapon he had retrieved; the pistol was made of a dull silvery material that his sensors tentatively identified as titanium alloy, with a rubberized black grip and heavy trigger guard. According to his databanks, it resembled a primitive projectile weapon used centuries ago, even if it did fire bolts of energy. Despite the fact that he had never seen such a weapon before, it felt oddly comfortable in Zero's hand. Like it belonged.
This came in handy as he heard the sound of footsteps around the corner. Glancing over at Ciel to make sure she was allright, Zero waited until the footsteps were at their lowest ebb before leaping out and firing. The one-eyed robot on the other side didn't even get a chance to turn around before a three-round burst punctured it twice in the back and once in the head. Its companions, however, did...and began to fire at Zero, rapid-fire bursts of plasma peppering the ground and the area around him. With a yell of surprise, Zero jumped back for cover, but not before a bolt skimmed off his back and left a nasty, blackened scar.
"That was a bloody stupid thing to do," Ciel observed, which got a humorless smile from Zero. "I'm still learning," he replied. The machines, naturally agitated now, rushed around the corner to finish off their prey. As they rounded the bend, however, they came face to face with Zero and his pistol. One shot tore the first machine's gun-arm off, sending it spiralling to the ground. The second burned a clean hole through the other's optic sensor and out the back of his skull. A third shot finished off the twitching, struggling remains of the armless one.
As Zero turned to check on her, Ciel again looked pale and almost ill. He briefly wondered if she had seen killing this close and personal before. For some reason, he decided to make small-talk. "So, what are these things called anyway?" he asked, kicking idly at one of the corpses. "Those..." she paused for a moment, as if thinking. She began to look better already, and actually smiled at Zero as she continued: "Those are called Pantheons. They're built to resemble the leader of Neo-Arcadia. They're the standard trooper of our enemy's forces." Zero frowned slightly as he glared at the corpse. A vague hint of recognition passed through him, and for a moment he almost thought that the body looked like someone he knew. But he filed that thought away, and began to press on. Ciel followed without a word.
----------------------------
A few twists and turns later, and they had passed more opposition. The Pantheons were appearing in larger formations now, and had apparently been instructed to wait for someone coming this way, as they fired almost as soon as he was spotted. There were other machines too, including a sort of robotic spider that fired sticky webs at Zero and Ciel, as well as creating nests that would spawn smaller baby spiders. Thankfully Zero began to get into the groove of destroying his enemies, and very few of them managed to land a shot on him. None even got to so much as scratch Ciel. The human was more delicate than he, so he went out of his way to defend her. The meter in the upper-left of his field of vision glowed faintly; it measured his internal operations energy, and he could see that he was only down to 80%. Acceptable, but he suspected that he could do better.
"Oh! It's a dead end." Ciel's exclamation snapped Zero's attention away from his internal H.U.D. They were, indeed, at a dead end. Zero frowned and shook his head. "I thought you said you knew the way." Ciel began to pace around. "I did...I think....but..." She idly kicked at an old box that was lying on the floor. Exactly four minutes before the deep rumble that both Zero and Ciel heard, his advanced audio sensors picked up a faint creaking noise from below the floor. "What was that?" Ciel cried, looking around to see if they were under attack. Zero's eyes narrowed as he began to concentrate; a quick sweep of the area confirmed that the floor now had a leftward slope of 22 degrees. He was already in motion before the loud 'CRACK!' signalled that the floor was giving away.
Ciel screamed in mortal fright, now quite convinced that she was going to die. She never even felt Zero's arms around her until they hit the ground, nearly thirty feet below. He didn't seem at all phased by the drop, and by grabbing her he had probably saved her from severe injury, if not death. She was momentarily confused as to why he would do such a thing, as was he. Neither said anything for what seemed like an eternity, until Ciel cleared her throat. Zero, picking up on the unspoken cue, kneeled down so that Ciel could stand up on her own.
"Zero....thank you." she said, finally, after looking around to confirm where they were. They stood at the base of what appeared to be an elevator shaft, and the faint inscription 'TRANSPORTATION - B1' could be seen stenciled onto one of the walls. "...for everything. We seem to have fallen into an abandoned facility of some kind. I think there might be a Trans Server we could use to get back." At his confused look, she continued: "I'll explain when we get there." Zero seemed to accept this explanation, and again took point while Ciel trailed behind.
------------------------------------
Again, they found themselves at a dead end. This time, however, the hallway had evidently collapsed. The rubble was still fresh, Zero noted, as the chunks of debris didn't have grime and mildew on the sides that would have been adjacent to each other. Ciel didn't appear to notice this, or at least she didn't comment on it. She began to say something, but Zero didn't hear her...he had already begun sending electronic 'feelers' out, focusing on using his long-range sensors to see what was beyond the debris wall. As a result, he sensed the low whine of a rocket motor lighting up long before the gigantic robotic hand burst through the wall. "Get back!" he shouted, but it was too late; the huge fist wrapped around Ciel, eliciting another scream from the girl, before snapping back the way it came on a cable winch.
Zero leapt through the yawning hole created by the fist without a second thought. He almost regretted it, though, as he saw what lay beyond. A massive bronze-armored robot lay in a small chamber beyond the debis wall, clutching Ciel in it's large fist. Floating a mere foot off the air via advanced hover thrusters, Zero knew that it was probably faster than it's size would indicate. His first priority was Ciel, however, who was thankfully still alive. "Are you allright?!" he called out, firing wildly at the machine to keep it's attention diverted. He didn't even notice as all of his shots fizzled harmlessly against it's armor. "Zero, forget about me and run!" she shouted, struggling futilely against the monster's grasp. "There's no way you can defeat that thing with just a buster!" Zero gritted his teeth, as a hatch on the front of the machine dropped down and the lens beyond began to hum and crackle with gathering energy.
It may be true, but he apparently had no other choice than to try.