Kazuki stepped out of Zinv's cockpit and onto the artifact ship's deck.
He slowly approached a seated figure that was observing him from the
shadows. As he grew nearer, he recognized his wife and began running
towards her. He stopped when he realized she did not run to him.
The cold metal reflected light back into his eyes...
A comm. signal violated Kazuki's light slumber, "We've been ordered to escort you to the hanger. You will follow us there now."
Kazuki rubbed the sleep from his eyes and squinted. He muttered to himself, "What the hell was that," as he stretched his arms. Thankfully, the enhancements to Persephone and the other Mark II core robots included an enlarged cockpit.
"You will follow us now."
Kazuki shook his head. "What? I'm not going anywhere until I see Dee! Where is she?"
"Do as we say or you shall die!" A nearby core unit held a rifle to Persephone's cockpit to emphasize their point.
Kazuki instinctively threw his hands upon the life sympathy orbs, activating Persephone's systems and instantaneously grabbing the rifle out of the offending unit's hands. The other units moved in to assist their comrade, surrounding Kazuki.
"Stop!" Dee's normally small voice boomed over the communications signal. The sound was enough to halt all parties in their tracks. "Kazuki, I'm coming up. Follow them to the hanger afterwards."
"What's going--"
"Later, Kazuki."
Kazuki frowned for a moment. He didn't like being left in the dark, especially in hostile situations. Realizing that he had no other choice for the moment, he sighed and lowered Persephone to one knee. "Understood, but I'm keeping the rifle."
The unit to whom the rifle belonged to stepped forth, about to object, when the commander's voice bellowed, "Let him keep it, if he thinks it'll make him safer. From what I've heard, he'll be needing it more than you anyway."
The unit backed down and Persephone's cockpit opened. A small ladder shot out from the hatch and unfolded until it came to rest on the desert floor. Quickly, Dee climbed into the cockpit and sealed the door behind her, turning off the comm. systems as she approached Kazuki.
Kazuki stared blankly at Dee. For a girl who was near death only a few short hours ago, she sure had found a sudden burst of energy. "Dee, what's going on here?"
"It's too complicated to explain. Basically, we're now friendly acquaintances of the Adome and will be allowed limited access to their facilities in exchange for certain services."
Kazuki gulped, his cheeks reddening slightly. "What services?"
Dee giggled softly. "Nothing perverted. They need core uni-- robots and pilots. We, and myself in particular, can help this need. They've asked that we accompany them in the morning to what they call 'The Graveyard'."
Kazuki frowned. He didn't like the name of their destination one bit, but Dee had made it sound like they had no choice in the matter. Sighing and reluctantly accepting his fate, he nodded and followed the Adome.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Kazuki, wake up." Dee gently pushed Kazuki for the hundred eleventh time in a futile attempt to wake him.
"This one could sleep through a full Elev invasion. There's only one way to wake this one," Faran drove his foot into Kazuki's stomach, causing him to instantly rise out of his bed and out of breath.
"I'm awake, Mitsuki! I'm awa--!" Kazuki rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stared momentarily at the unfamiliar cave-like surroundings.
"Get up. We've got a long trip ahead of us."
Kazuki uttered a strange groan and slowly rose off of the ground, searching the floor for his shoes. His hands flailed around his immediate surroundings, but came up empty with each pass.
"Here you are, Kazuki." Dee handed him his shoes, a smile on her face. "You'd better hurry up. I heard that some of the men were going to dump you out into the desert if you didn't get moving in the next five minutes."
Kazuki nodded and muttered to himself, throwing on his shoes and stretching. "Fine, fine... Let's go."
Dee giggled and grabbed Kazuki's arm, dragging him toward the hanger where Persephone rested. As they entered the bay, the light shining through the opened doors gave Kazuki a much better view of the Adome's forces. Most of the core robots appeared to be hundreds of years old. It was a wonder that they still had main power, let alone were in any form of working condition. The best units had major dents and bits of faded paint all over their surface. Some of the more dilapidated units were missing limbs, portions of their armor, weapons, and other key components of any well-maintained core unit.
When Kazuki realized that these units were the only line of defense against a much better equipped Elev force, he wondered how they had survived as long as they had.
"By sheer determination, I assume." Persephone's almost pristine condition, in comparison, was like night and day.
"She's right, Kazuki," Dee replied, frowning slightly. "If it weren't for their desire to survive, the Adome of this world would have been wiped out centuries ago."
"I'd like to think that it was a little more than just determination, myself." Faran approached the couple, looking up at Persephone's exterior as he continued, "You have an interesting unit here, I must say. Our scans say it isn't Adome, but it isn't Elev either. It's missing many key components that an Adome or Elev unit would possess and it also seems to be a mere imperfect copy of one of our units."
Persephone: "Imperfect? I'll show this little one imperfect..."
"Persephone! Calm down," Dee quickly chided her core unit. The last thing they needed was a pilot-less core robot ripping apart an Adome base.
"Persephone? Is that its name? Intriguing."
Kazuki simply glanced back and forth between the two, deciding that it was best to remain out of the conversation. As he did so, Kazuki reflected upon the events that had brought him and Dee to this point. He wondered why he and Dee were even able to have this conversation with the Adome leader, why they hadn't been killed immediately on sight, why the others approached Dee with such apprehension, and many other things that had up to that point remained unanswered.
"... As interesting as this conversation has been, we must depart. Once we've exited the hanger, you will follow me. If your path strays from ours, we will destroy you immediately. Your core unit is no match for ours, so I suggest you follow closely. Understood?"
Dee's eyes narrowed slightly at the thinly veiled threat, but nodded slowly. "Completely."
"Then we're off." Faran turned for them and ordered his men to suit up, climbing into his core unit immediately thereafter.
Dee muttered to Kazuki as they climbed into Persephone's cockpit, "Be careful, Kazuki. I have a bad feeling about this."
Persephone: "We could sing songs as we travel. I still have your music files stored in memory, Dee."
A wide smile instantly brightened Dee's face. "Yeah! Do you have any of my love songs saved?"
"Of course." Persephone instantly began playing some insipid song popular with the young girls on Earth prior to the crew leaving their home world. Dee began singing along, bobbing her head back and forth as she did so.
Kazuki rolled his eyes as he shut the door. "Great..."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Clotho: "Survey complete, Mena. No traces of Kazuki or Dee found. I do sense that Persephone was near, but I cannot determine where she went. It's almost as if she disappeared entirely."
The desert's sands began swirling around Clotho as she returned to the planet's surface. Her external sensors had detected an increase in the intensity of the wind in the surrounding area since the team's initial arrival. The two Elev units returned to where Clotho had landed apprehensively. With their efforts yielding no results, the pilots were obviously afraid for their lives.
"How did they disappear? Did she teleport again," Mena stared at the shifting sand on her display.
"Um... Ma'am? Shouldn't we return to base before the sandstorm comes?"
Mena snarled, "What sandstorms?"
"The sandstorm that's approaching from that direction, Ma'am. During the winter months, sandstorms are quite frequent. We tend not to remain out for any extended period of time because of this. Most of our core units couldn't handle the strain."
"We're not returning until we locate our targets."
"But Ma'am!"
A tentacle-like arm shot forth from Clotho's back, lodging itself inside the offending pilot's cockpit. The accompanying robot jumped backwards, barely avoiding the core unit's explosion and the fragments of metal and assorted parts.
Clotho retracted her arm as her pilot's cold voice stated, "We're continuing the search."
The frightened pilot of the remaining Elev unit simply replied, "Y-y-yes Ma'am..."
Clotho: "I'm sorry to interrupt Mena, but I am detecting a strange power reading."
"Show me!"
The instantly external display's viewing spectrum changed, showing the movements of all of the power cells for any core unit that had been in the area recently. As she glanced to her right, Mena could see a large splash of red that had once been the Elev unit accompanying her. She also saw multi-colored images of the Elev units that had carried out the initial attack on the Adome camp along with three Adome units that had apparently intervened on the camp's behalf. The central gray image, however, was the one that caught her attention.
"Persephone..."
"Yes. I was able to track her progress up until this point." The area Clotho had mentioned was surrounded with a large box that quickly magnified that section of the screen.
"What the hell," Mena's mouth dropped as the gray path ceased and a large burst of color signifying enormous power took its place.
Clotho: "It matches the power signature from our prior encounter with Persephone. I believe we've located her, dear. However, Persephone's path leads straight into the on-coming storms. Perhaps we should wait until the weather is more accommodating?"
A wide grin spread across Mena's face. "Take us there."
Clotho: "Are you sure?"
"NOW!"
Clotho: "Plotting course. Shall I tell the other core unit to return to base?"
"No, I will do that. We don't want our brethren knowing too much about you would we, Love?"
Clotho: "I suppose not."
Mena sighed contently, "I shall be rid of this little dust ball sooner than I had anticipated, it seems. Good. Kazuki-kun, I hope you're ready for your date..."
FOOTNOTE:
And thus, part 1 of Ageless Souls is complete. This originally was going to be just "Desert Heart", but due to the author's excessive imagination, he had to break it up into two parts.
Will Mena find Kazuki? What tie does Dee have to the Adome of old? Who will survive? To find the answers to this and other shocking revelations, keep an eye out for the final chapter of "Dual! What is This Emotion, Love?": "Ageless Souls: No Turning Back". Coming soon!
The cold metal reflected light back into his eyes...
A comm. signal violated Kazuki's light slumber, "We've been ordered to escort you to the hanger. You will follow us there now."
Kazuki rubbed the sleep from his eyes and squinted. He muttered to himself, "What the hell was that," as he stretched his arms. Thankfully, the enhancements to Persephone and the other Mark II core robots included an enlarged cockpit.
"You will follow us now."
Kazuki shook his head. "What? I'm not going anywhere until I see Dee! Where is she?"
"Do as we say or you shall die!" A nearby core unit held a rifle to Persephone's cockpit to emphasize their point.
Kazuki instinctively threw his hands upon the life sympathy orbs, activating Persephone's systems and instantaneously grabbing the rifle out of the offending unit's hands. The other units moved in to assist their comrade, surrounding Kazuki.
"Stop!" Dee's normally small voice boomed over the communications signal. The sound was enough to halt all parties in their tracks. "Kazuki, I'm coming up. Follow them to the hanger afterwards."
"What's going--"
"Later, Kazuki."
Kazuki frowned for a moment. He didn't like being left in the dark, especially in hostile situations. Realizing that he had no other choice for the moment, he sighed and lowered Persephone to one knee. "Understood, but I'm keeping the rifle."
The unit to whom the rifle belonged to stepped forth, about to object, when the commander's voice bellowed, "Let him keep it, if he thinks it'll make him safer. From what I've heard, he'll be needing it more than you anyway."
The unit backed down and Persephone's cockpit opened. A small ladder shot out from the hatch and unfolded until it came to rest on the desert floor. Quickly, Dee climbed into the cockpit and sealed the door behind her, turning off the comm. systems as she approached Kazuki.
Kazuki stared blankly at Dee. For a girl who was near death only a few short hours ago, she sure had found a sudden burst of energy. "Dee, what's going on here?"
"It's too complicated to explain. Basically, we're now friendly acquaintances of the Adome and will be allowed limited access to their facilities in exchange for certain services."
Kazuki gulped, his cheeks reddening slightly. "What services?"
Dee giggled softly. "Nothing perverted. They need core uni-- robots and pilots. We, and myself in particular, can help this need. They've asked that we accompany them in the morning to what they call 'The Graveyard'."
Kazuki frowned. He didn't like the name of their destination one bit, but Dee had made it sound like they had no choice in the matter. Sighing and reluctantly accepting his fate, he nodded and followed the Adome.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Kazuki, wake up." Dee gently pushed Kazuki for the hundred eleventh time in a futile attempt to wake him.
"This one could sleep through a full Elev invasion. There's only one way to wake this one," Faran drove his foot into Kazuki's stomach, causing him to instantly rise out of his bed and out of breath.
"I'm awake, Mitsuki! I'm awa--!" Kazuki rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and stared momentarily at the unfamiliar cave-like surroundings.
"Get up. We've got a long trip ahead of us."
Kazuki uttered a strange groan and slowly rose off of the ground, searching the floor for his shoes. His hands flailed around his immediate surroundings, but came up empty with each pass.
"Here you are, Kazuki." Dee handed him his shoes, a smile on her face. "You'd better hurry up. I heard that some of the men were going to dump you out into the desert if you didn't get moving in the next five minutes."
Kazuki nodded and muttered to himself, throwing on his shoes and stretching. "Fine, fine... Let's go."
Dee giggled and grabbed Kazuki's arm, dragging him toward the hanger where Persephone rested. As they entered the bay, the light shining through the opened doors gave Kazuki a much better view of the Adome's forces. Most of the core robots appeared to be hundreds of years old. It was a wonder that they still had main power, let alone were in any form of working condition. The best units had major dents and bits of faded paint all over their surface. Some of the more dilapidated units were missing limbs, portions of their armor, weapons, and other key components of any well-maintained core unit.
When Kazuki realized that these units were the only line of defense against a much better equipped Elev force, he wondered how they had survived as long as they had.
"By sheer determination, I assume." Persephone's almost pristine condition, in comparison, was like night and day.
"She's right, Kazuki," Dee replied, frowning slightly. "If it weren't for their desire to survive, the Adome of this world would have been wiped out centuries ago."
"I'd like to think that it was a little more than just determination, myself." Faran approached the couple, looking up at Persephone's exterior as he continued, "You have an interesting unit here, I must say. Our scans say it isn't Adome, but it isn't Elev either. It's missing many key components that an Adome or Elev unit would possess and it also seems to be a mere imperfect copy of one of our units."
Persephone: "Imperfect? I'll show this little one imperfect..."
"Persephone! Calm down," Dee quickly chided her core unit. The last thing they needed was a pilot-less core robot ripping apart an Adome base.
"Persephone? Is that its name? Intriguing."
Kazuki simply glanced back and forth between the two, deciding that it was best to remain out of the conversation. As he did so, Kazuki reflected upon the events that had brought him and Dee to this point. He wondered why he and Dee were even able to have this conversation with the Adome leader, why they hadn't been killed immediately on sight, why the others approached Dee with such apprehension, and many other things that had up to that point remained unanswered.
"... As interesting as this conversation has been, we must depart. Once we've exited the hanger, you will follow me. If your path strays from ours, we will destroy you immediately. Your core unit is no match for ours, so I suggest you follow closely. Understood?"
Dee's eyes narrowed slightly at the thinly veiled threat, but nodded slowly. "Completely."
"Then we're off." Faran turned for them and ordered his men to suit up, climbing into his core unit immediately thereafter.
Dee muttered to Kazuki as they climbed into Persephone's cockpit, "Be careful, Kazuki. I have a bad feeling about this."
Persephone: "We could sing songs as we travel. I still have your music files stored in memory, Dee."
A wide smile instantly brightened Dee's face. "Yeah! Do you have any of my love songs saved?"
"Of course." Persephone instantly began playing some insipid song popular with the young girls on Earth prior to the crew leaving their home world. Dee began singing along, bobbing her head back and forth as she did so.
Kazuki rolled his eyes as he shut the door. "Great..."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Clotho: "Survey complete, Mena. No traces of Kazuki or Dee found. I do sense that Persephone was near, but I cannot determine where she went. It's almost as if she disappeared entirely."
The desert's sands began swirling around Clotho as she returned to the planet's surface. Her external sensors had detected an increase in the intensity of the wind in the surrounding area since the team's initial arrival. The two Elev units returned to where Clotho had landed apprehensively. With their efforts yielding no results, the pilots were obviously afraid for their lives.
"How did they disappear? Did she teleport again," Mena stared at the shifting sand on her display.
"Um... Ma'am? Shouldn't we return to base before the sandstorm comes?"
Mena snarled, "What sandstorms?"
"The sandstorm that's approaching from that direction, Ma'am. During the winter months, sandstorms are quite frequent. We tend not to remain out for any extended period of time because of this. Most of our core units couldn't handle the strain."
"We're not returning until we locate our targets."
"But Ma'am!"
A tentacle-like arm shot forth from Clotho's back, lodging itself inside the offending pilot's cockpit. The accompanying robot jumped backwards, barely avoiding the core unit's explosion and the fragments of metal and assorted parts.
Clotho retracted her arm as her pilot's cold voice stated, "We're continuing the search."
The frightened pilot of the remaining Elev unit simply replied, "Y-y-yes Ma'am..."
Clotho: "I'm sorry to interrupt Mena, but I am detecting a strange power reading."
"Show me!"
The instantly external display's viewing spectrum changed, showing the movements of all of the power cells for any core unit that had been in the area recently. As she glanced to her right, Mena could see a large splash of red that had once been the Elev unit accompanying her. She also saw multi-colored images of the Elev units that had carried out the initial attack on the Adome camp along with three Adome units that had apparently intervened on the camp's behalf. The central gray image, however, was the one that caught her attention.
"Persephone..."
"Yes. I was able to track her progress up until this point." The area Clotho had mentioned was surrounded with a large box that quickly magnified that section of the screen.
"What the hell," Mena's mouth dropped as the gray path ceased and a large burst of color signifying enormous power took its place.
Clotho: "It matches the power signature from our prior encounter with Persephone. I believe we've located her, dear. However, Persephone's path leads straight into the on-coming storms. Perhaps we should wait until the weather is more accommodating?"
A wide grin spread across Mena's face. "Take us there."
Clotho: "Are you sure?"
"NOW!"
Clotho: "Plotting course. Shall I tell the other core unit to return to base?"
"No, I will do that. We don't want our brethren knowing too much about you would we, Love?"
Clotho: "I suppose not."
Mena sighed contently, "I shall be rid of this little dust ball sooner than I had anticipated, it seems. Good. Kazuki-kun, I hope you're ready for your date..."
FOOTNOTE:
And thus, part 1 of Ageless Souls is complete. This originally was going to be just "Desert Heart", but due to the author's excessive imagination, he had to break it up into two parts.
Will Mena find Kazuki? What tie does Dee have to the Adome of old? Who will survive? To find the answers to this and other shocking revelations, keep an eye out for the final chapter of "Dual! What is This Emotion, Love?": "Ageless Souls: No Turning Back". Coming soon!