Please forgive me for the sorrow, for leaving you in fear,
For the dreams we had to silence, that's all they'll ever be,
Still I'll be the hand that serves you,
Though you'll not see that it is me…
Chapter 10) A Golden Age of the Past
(Gazelle's PoV)
"No that won't do at all!" She muttered to herself as she scratched out yet another dress design in her scrap book before going to a fresh page. "I just can't think of a good design for the party…"
For the past few hours since her backup dancers picked her up from the hospital and drove her home, she'd been busying herself with passing the time, trying to design a dress for the party. She had expected Jeremy to call her a while ago, if for no other reason then to let her know he was leaving the hospital, but so far, no call. Since they had the next day off, she'd let her backup dancers stay in her home and play video games downstairs. It was a nice distraction to get over the quiet her home offered her, since they were quite loud with the game they were playing called 'Underwatch'.
"Will you kill the 'Raven' on my tail!"
"I'm a little busy with the 'Golf Ball'!"
"Isn't the hero's name 'Bowling Ball'?"
"He can be a Basketball for all I care if someone else heals on this team!"
She chuckled a little at their banter while she sketched out a new design. She wanted her dress to look fancy, but not 'so fancy' that it made her look super rich. Yet she also wanted to look nice since she 'was' bringing a guest.
Thinking about Jeremy she smiled a little bit more and wondered if they would be able to bring Aelita as well. The little AI would no doubt have loved the chance to talk to more mammals 'besides' just her and the occasional friend. Plus, once everymammal got used to Jeremy and Aelita, she would no doubt receive just as much attention as the lone human on the planet.
As she thought about said human, her phone suddenly rang, causing her to jump and grab it, expecting it to be either the hospital, the mayor, or even Aelita using her phone number to call her for a pickup for Jeremy. Yet instead, she rolled her eyes as she saw the number was 'Sable', a popular actor for the very same movie that 'she' did the musical headliner and music video for. Answering she prepared her usual list of responses and excuses…
"Hello Sable, how are you tonight?"
"Hey heeeey, how is it going Gazelle!" He said in his usual jovial tone, but she knew it was a façade. "Listeeeen I got some crazy news, I made a reservation at La Hay-Sante and accidentally put a reservation for two mammals, and wouldn't ya know it, I can't change the reservation without canceling it, and you know how hard it is to get one there…"
'Yea I 'bet' you made that 'accident'…' She thought in annoyance.
It wasn't that she liked the antelope, far from it, he was a decent enough mammal. But ever since the movie recordings and her involvement as a side character in it (her screen time was all of four seconds), he'd been trying to get her to go out with him. Sable would make up some lame excuse, from theatre tickets to fancy dinners, he just kept on trying to date her.
She figured it was more for 'popularity' and increase his fanbase, rather than actually being interested in her as a mammal. Which she disliked, ever since becoming a pop idol, the number of guys trying to date her had grown, if not in number than in social status…
She really disliked the idea of someone trying to date her for either her money or her fame…
"Oh, that sounds terrible Sable, whatever will you do?" She replied in fake sympathy.
"Yea it is terrible, which is why I was wondering, if you don't have any plans tomorrow would you be willing to join me for dinner!"
She grinned as she resumed sketching, already having the perfect excuse.
"I'm afraid I am busy Sable, see I have a friend who's new in Zootopia and I promised I'd show him around, you know see the sights…"
"A friend, I never knew you had a friend who's new to Zootopia!"
"Oh, he is 'very' new to Zootopia… like 'way out of town' kind of new…" She said.
That wasn't a bad description for the human and his AI.
"Any way, I'm sorry Sable, but I'll have to do a rain check… maybe next time." She said before hanging up.
She put the phone down and resumed sketching, trying to decide if she should make her dress more 'exotic' or more 'natural'…
"Yep, way out of town…" She muttered before scratching out the image and starting over again.
(Jeremy's PoV)
"Ugh, I forgot how much I hated vents!" He grunted as he crawled through the maintenance vent. "Cramped, tight spaces, no light… why couldn't we design anything better?"
"Yea, I'm smaller than you human and even 'I' am hating how cramped it is in here!" Nick complained as they continued to crawl through the vents.
Though Nick at least had an easier time walking on all fours than Jeremy did by crawling on his knees and elbows.
They had just exited the corridor a few minutes ago, with Nick surprising Jeremy by catching up to him and dodging electrified plasma rounds from Sentinel's auto turrets. That was also when Jeremy kicked open a vent door to get out of sight of the turrets and try to evade the defense turrets.
Upon entering the vents, Sentinel had also declared a 'level 3 defense protocol' and initiated a lockdown of the entire base, as well as activating the Sentinel Drones and ordering them to eliminate the intruder.
"Hey Nick, how ya doing back there?" He asked as they turned at a juncture, after barely able to read where they were.
"Well, other than feeling like a gerbil in an office box maze, I'm fine." The fox said. "Hey, where are we going anyway? How are you going to turn off… 'Sentinel' is it?"
"First place we're going to… is to the Central Power Core room, located two levels below us…" He said as they continued along the vent, him looking every so often for an exit point. "Once we get to the CPC, I can transfer the power to the main generators manually, to get the lights and everything else activated again. Once that's done, we can go a few more levels down to Ventilation Control to turn on the Air Filtration and Recycling turbines. After that's done, we can head on down to Sentinel's Mainframe and finally put an end to the lockdown and Sentinel Defense Grid."
"Okay, the first one I sorta understand, and the third I get… but why the second one?" He asked.
"Air toxicity since it shut off over three hundred and fifty thousand years ago has grown out of control, almost every room closed down is filled with air so toxic, just a few seconds breathing it will nearly kill you." He explained. "That's why none of the mammals who tried to enter the rooms could, the base's air-quality controls forced every closed room to magnetically seal until conditions improved. Even if you gave them special filters, the air is so foul nothing you have can prevent it from seeping into your suits."
"Makes sense…" Nick said.
They continued to crawl along the vent until at last an access port appeared. He carefully wedged it open, sliding it into the wall and poking his head out to see if Sentinel had activated any turrets in the corridor. Thankfully it was all clear, and he led the way out, being as quiet as possible.
"Okay, now where to?" Nick asked.
"This way… since the power grid is still mostly off, we need to use the manual access route to descend to the lower levels…" He muttered.
"Manual Access Route?"
They walked along the corridor until they reached the first MAR, which would taken them down seven floors if necessary.
"Stairs… really?" He asked him. "Do you humans have weird names for 'everything'?"
"What, the term 'stairs' was changed in the year 2104, we created far easier and quicker ways to go from floor to floor." He explained, pointing to the left of the staircase to a pair of closed off tubes. "We created the more practical 'anti-grav-elevators' to replace the old elevator systems, and even updated 'escalators' to move large groups of people en mass like the old elevator system."
"Man… you humans and your technology…" Nick said with a grin. "So, were stairs just relegated to 'use only in emergencies'?"
"As a matter of fact, yea… how did you guess?" He asked, surprised by Nick's quick uptake.
"Lucky guess."
With that they began to descend the staircase to the next floor below. He led the way in case something lay ahead of them, which was a good thing because right as they got off on the next floor…
-Clank Clank, Clank Clank-
"Wait!" He hissed, holding up his hand and holding Nick back.
He edged down the staircase flight halfway and leaned over to look down. Several beams of scanning light were constantly waving around the dimly lit corridor below, and as he watched a pair of 'DOG' drones marched past, using both their eye optics and tail scanners to locate them.
Grimacing he quietly walked back up to Nick.
"What's wrong?"
"Drones, DOG drones scanning for us, we can't walk down there…" He muttered. "We're going to have to find another MAR to reach the next level… follow me I know where there's another one nearby."
"Can you just call them stairs human?" Nick grunted in annoyance. "Really, even 'I' know they're called stairs…"
They walked in silence down the hall, passing by various rooms that mostly were labeled as living quarters. One room they passed was labeled 'ANT AND UTILITY TOOL STORAGE', and the door was wide open.
"Hey Jeremy… what's this?" Nick asked quietly, pointing at the open room.
He looked up and led the way inside, glad for a bit of luck on their side. "Storage room, mostly for the ANT drones and some utility tools." He said, walking past several shelves with row upon row of miniature drones.
"Woah… they're so tiny…"
He looked at the ANTs and nodded with a smile, picking one up and handing it to him. "Take a closer look, they're all offline so don't worry."
The ANT, or 'Autonomous Nanobot Tools', were miniature six-legged drones roughly two inches tall and six inches long, each equipped with varying tools designed to repair and maintain any location of the base, as he explained to Nick. The drones themselves had three segmented bodies, a middle 'thorax', a head and a rear 'power supply'. The legs were equipped with miniature magnets to allow them to stick to metal surfaces.
"These little drones are programmed to receive repair and maintenance orders from the central hub in HQ. Once an order is issued, drones with the necessary tools for the task will be selected and dispatched from this room. They can't switch their tools and each of the ANT drones are equipped for specific tasks limiting what they can do, but because they're so tiny and so maneuverable they can fit anywhere and fix almost anything collectively. Their network carries schematics for anything built in the base, and if anything is newly designed their Central Neuro Network will update them so they can perform repairs or maintenance if needed."
"Wow… this is so cool." Nick said, turning it over and examining the drone. "I would 'love' to have a few of these little guys for our home."
"Sadly, they need to stay here, as this room also is where they go to resupply their power." He said taking it back and replacing it where it was found. "Because they're so small they can't stay online for more than about six hours at a time. Once they begin to run low they will automatically return for recharge, cataloguing whatever progress they made and requesting other ANT drones continue their task."
"Nice, now if only a few of our co-workers were like that…" Nick chuckled as he and Jeremy each walked to the back of the room where several tools were lying in wait.
Most of the equipment was exceptionally dusty, only recently disturbed because of the drones moving around, mostly the ANTS that seemed to have been activated by Sentinel, but a few of the tools were still serviceable. They each grabbed a flashlight, after Jeremy explained what it was, and he grabbed a spare toolkit in case he had to be creative with getting through doors.
Once they were done, they moved on from the storage room and resumed moving through the dimly lit corridor, passing by halls and rooms locked down for various reasons. After a while they reached another staircase, and this one wasn't being monitored by the DOG drones.
"So, Jeremy… what kind of 'drones' are there down here… just curious?" Nick asked as they slow walked down the steps.
"Well… I know that there are DOG drones and FOX drones, and as you saw ANT drones but those aren't dangerous at all. Then there's SCORPIO drones, HARRIER drones and then there are RAPTOR drones. I've also heard from some of the older people… well… when I was kid… that there was another drone built down here or being constructed but I never saw it."
"I don't suppose they are… mammal friendly?"
"Well you still aren't considered 'sentient' so they would still think of you as 'animals'… so they'd probably ignore you." He responded. "No offense intended."
"Eh, I'll take it as a compliment…" Nick said with a chuckle.
They continued to walk through the next level, Jeremy leading the way and heading toward their first destination, the Central Power Core.
Just as they rounded a corner and headed toward a fork in the hallway, one route heading toward the CPC, and the other to the Sanitation Center, they heard the telltale sounds of metal feet clanking on metal floor.
-Clank Clank, Clank Clank-
They turned around and saw six DOG drones round the corner, red eyes gleaming as they locked onto them and weapons extended from their sides. Some of them had mounted weapons on their backs, one wielding rocket launchers and another with an advanced hot-air cannon.
"Running time?" Nick yelled.
"RUNNING TIME!" Jeremy yelled.
Both turned and went down the left path toward CPC, all the while avoiding the weapon's fire the drones were launching. Pings of electrically charged plasma bolts and intense heat waves missed them by the tiniest of margins, only because Jeremy was giving Nick directions of how to avoid being killed.
"KEEP RUNNING SIDE TO SIDE, DOG DRONES LACK ADVANCED MOTION TRACKING ALGORITHISMS!"
"WHAT DOES 'THAT' MEAN?!" Nick yelled.
"JUST KEEP RUNNING FROM SIDE TO SIDE!"
So, they ran from side to side, and as he said the DOG drones could not easily track them because they kept on moving. Then Jeremy turned left at another junction point and pushed the 'emergency close' button on the wall, sealing it off from the drones. "Here, this way!" He said and ran toward a large pair of double titanium doors with the letters CPC on them.
The door was under lockdown, obviously due to Sentinel, but he had the tools to unlock it. He pulled out a tri-driver and began to pick at the manual lock to undo the magnetic seal. While this was happening the sealed door behind them was being sliced open by a line of heated air and plasma fire.
"Jeremy…" Nick muttered fearfully, pulling out his gun and preparing to take aim.
"I knooooow…" He muttered while picking away at the door.
Suddenly the plasma fire pushed down rapidly to the middle section.
"Jeeeremy!" Nick yell-talked nervously.
"Patience is a viiiirtuuuuue!" He said back, trying to concentrate.
Just as the drones neared finishing torching through the door, he picked the door and it opened up automatically.
"Inside!" He yelled.
Nick didn't need to be told twice as he jumped on all fours into the room right behind him, right as the doors keeping the drones back opened as well. With rapid memory movement he jumped to the left side of the door and punched in a series of commands, making the doors once again magnetically lock. Several plasma bullets sounded as the drones fired and failed to stop them from getting through.
"That will keep em out for a while…" He gasped. "Long enough to finish at least."
"How can you be sure, they cut through that other door in no time!" Nick complained.
"Those doors are solid Titanium and are seven inches thick, the other doors were made of a weaker metal and only four inches thick. Also, they won't risk damaging anything related to this room without authorization from Sentinel enabling Level 1 protocols, or a human orders them to do so."
"Speaking of what is this room?" Nick asked.
Jeremy smiled and turned around at the massive spherical room.
They were standing on a raised platform that overlooked a vast empty space where, ten feet below them sat a large black segmented sphere with two adamantium pillars kept it raised and positioned. It sat there, rotating silently in the dead, dimly lit room. The sphere itself was roughly eighty meters in diameter, made up of segmented adamantium plates, and each plate magnetically locked with the ones next to it to create a perfect air-tight seal. The only sources of light could be found from two holo-computers which sat before him awaiting authorized command inputs.
"This is the Central Power Core room, where we generate and transfer power to the primary and backup generators which is then distributed to various areas of the base." He explained as he approached the computer. "All I have to do now is transfer the energy to the main generator… and then we can go on to Air Filtration and Recycling."
"Wait… generators generate energy… so… if 'this' isn't the generator then… what is it?" Nick asked in confusion.
"I'll explain soon… for now let me concentrate… it's going to take me a while…" He said while turning on the computers and activating the holo-keyboard.
There was silence for a while as he punched in commands and entered his authorization commands, glad that Sentinel didn't think to change command codes as a precaution. While he worked Nick continued to look around at the mostly dark room, looking at the dark sphere below them. Then Nick's phone went off, which in the silence sounded extremely loud.
(Nick's PoV)
"Uh… yes 'dear'?" He answered nervously.
(Niiiiick!) Judy yelled in an angry voice. (You had better explain yourself mister! AND DON'T YOU 'SUGAR CARROT' ME!)
"But… Judy… I had to help him, he needed help!" He explained nervously. "Even if he's a human… he needed all the help he could get!"
(Nick, I swear, if you get yourself killed in that base YOUR IN HUGE TROUBLE MISTER!) She screamed angrily, and he knew that if he 'did' make it out of this alive, he most certainly was sleeping on the couch. (I nearly 'died' when I thought you died… why did you just…)
He glanced at Jeremy who seemed very busy with his computer and turned away while covering the earpiece.
"Look… honey… Sugar Carrots… I just… I just wanted to help Jeremy after… you know… how I treated him." He whispered. "I'm sorry… I really am but I just had to help him. Alright?"
(Alright your 'temporarily' forgiven… but I swear Nick… you are SLEEPING on the couch tonight!)
He grimaced at that, he hated the couch.
"Agreed…"
(Alright… where are you guys right now?) She asked now.
Just then he heard a hissing sound and Jeremy laughing proudly at something.
"Central power core or whatever it is Jeremy called it, not much in here just a black sphere and… and… aaaand…"
He stared in awe as the room was lit up in a beautiful glow as the metal black sphere, moments ago just sat below them spinning silently, segmented and revealed yet 'another', smaller segmented sphere about half the size, which too separated and revealed the mystery it was containing. What Nick saw made him go wide eyed as he felt… 'primitive' to the human technology around him.
(Nick… Nick?)
He just turned the phone around and switched on video feed so she could see what he was gawking at.
(Oh… sweet… carrots…)
It wasn't hard to see why they both acted that way… because they both stared at what could only be described… as a miniature 'sun'.
It sat there in a strange glass case spinning and lighting the entire room is a golden orange light that bathed everything with absolute clarity. Not a single shadow remained as the entire room lit up like it was daytime, which 'technically' it was now because of the miniature sun. It's warmth instantly touched Nick's fur and made him feel like he was standing in the middle of a summer's day with not a cloud to be found in the sky, and the light made him think that it was the first rays of morning touching the ground, warming and bathing everything in its beautiful majestic glow.
"Jeremy… what is… that?" He asked in amazement.
"That… is the crowning achievement in energy generation technology… say hello… to the Solar Core." Jeremy explained as he beckoned him to look. "Ten meters in diameter, consisting of the same ratio of Hydrogen, Helium, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, neon, iron, silicon, magnesium and sulfur as our sun… contained inside a seventeen-inch-thick glass silicon container, restrained by two three-inch-thick adamantium segmented spheres… this Solar Core was among the final great achievements during the Golden Age of Peace."
"Capable of generating heat up to one thousand degrees Celsius, creating a light source that travels just as fast as the sun's, and an 'active use' life span of almost five hundred thousand years, this is how we generate our power for the base." Jeremy continued. "In other words, the power of the sun… in the palm of one's hand…"
Nick could only marvel in wonder, his mind blank as he stared at the tiny sun. He'd read it in school, it was massive, the sun easily dwarfing their planet, and the other '8' in their solar system. Yet here, under Zootopia, buried under how many meters of earth lay not 'just' a relic of the past… but the ultimate symbol of a species' power. They harnessed the power of the 'sun' itself… and not just the bits of light that touched their little ball, but the actual sun itself.
"How… did you 'make' it?" He asked in disbelief.
At that he looked at Jeremy and saw the sadness in his eyes.
"It cost many… many… many lives." He muttered sadly. "The first experiments to synthesize a sun… even one barely an inch in diameter… were almost total failures. It was only continued because we were desperate to find a new way to generate power in the waning years of the Golden Era. Billions were suffering because they had no power, governments agreed to continue despite the risks, fossil fuels were nonexistent and renewable energy wasn't outputting enough despite our advances. They were desperate to save the lives of trillions, no matter the cost, willing to give up so much to save so many lives."
As he continued to talk about it, it was as if the Solar Core responded, and seemed to glow just the 'tiniest' bit more, warm the room just another degree… all to make the room feel better just for 'his' sake.
"Finally, a scientist named Doctor Octavian created the first successful 'synthetic' sun. He proved the potential and capabilities of the technology, and it was him who expanded and built upon it. He eventually led the creation of larger and larger Solar Cores, assisting in developing stronger methods of containing and sustaining them. The first ones only lasted a few years, which wasn't enough time to make use of them, yet a single Solar Core, even a tiny one, output enough energy to power up enough cities to cover half of the United States Empire!"
"For the first time in what seemed like a century, our species had crawled out of a hole of our creation. When the first cores began to be synthesized and placed, the world became brighter and warmer. Homes were lit for what was essentially 'free energy', massive city centers became better, people's lives were improved… the fear of worrying how to afford light and heat became a thing of the past. It was like the Golden Age had started all over again, the future looked so much brighter thanks to this one breakthrough in technology!"
"Eventually Octavian discerned that, provided it was big enough, a single Solar Core could power half the hemisphere for 'centuries' if needed. It was even theorized that a large enough one could power the world on its own. That… was the moment we realized… how arrogant of a species we had become."
(Judy's PoV)
Judy listened in as Jeremy explained the history of the Solar Core, feeling so sorry for the human as he described the glory and horror of the beautiful creation below them.
(The Solar Cores are only stable provided the gravity between them and the planet remains in a delicate balance, as well as the delicate mixture of materials that make them up remains constant. The Solar Cores act just like the sun, creating a massive sphere of gravity around them, and the bigger the core the greater the gravity effect on the area around it. And if the balance of the Solar Core's materials isn't maintained precisely, or the gravity between the two isn't kept in check by keeping one Solar Core away from another… well… all that explosive power has to go somewhere.)
She couldn't believe it, such a wonderful thing being 'that' destructive?
"But… you said it was created to save lives." She said nervously.
(Nuclear weapons were designed to be a deterrent… to prevent wars from ever happening… that didn't stop them from happening.)
She looked down at Aelita who nodded in agreement, stating that what he said was true.
(It happened when a team of scientists were developing a new Solar Core, the largest one ever believed possible. Over seventy meters in diameter, protected by three layers of Adamantium Plating barriers and nearly thirty inches of a glass silicon container… using the same ratio of elements used to create the others. It worked… the Solar Core turned on like they expected… but they underestimated the gravitational pull between the core and the planet.)
There was silence as she dared to ask…
"What happened?"
Silence again…
(Jeremy? What happened?) Nick asked nervously.
(Jeremy's PoV)
He closed his eyes and sighed sadly.
"The core… turned on itself, all that energy imploded as the gravitational pull between it and the Earth made it twist inside and out. The unthinkable happened… it went 'supernova'… only on a much smaller scale …"
He only read the history about the incident, 'Facility 115-38-9P' as it was called, and Incident 'Solar France' as it was labeled by the public and governments.
"The facility was miles away from the nearest city… but it was still close enough that the Super Nova from the Solar Core melted 'everything' and 'everyone' within a fifty-mile radius. Fifty-two 'Million' people died… over half a major city center gone. Paris was literally wiped off the map…"
"It was only an accident… they didn't intend to kill or mean it… but the moment it happened, no more attempts to create larger Solar Cores occurred. This core is the largest one ever built since the incident… and we never pushed the bounds ever again. It was still theorized that provided a strong enough container, and enough space between the Earth and the Core itself, could still enable us to make a larger core capable of supporting all the energy needs of the earth by itself… but they remained theories."
"That was also how nations learned… how to sabotage all the Solar Cores. Those methods were used during the Final War… to commit mass genocide and eliminate all major government leaderships during the opening years."
"All it would take… is to upset the delicate mixture of the Solar Cores… by the tiniest margin and you have the biggest bomb ever conceived of. Just one tiny adjustment to one of the core's materials and… everyone and everything nearby… will die."
He stared at the beautiful orb of molten fire before him, a symbol of humanity's genius, of it's unending desire to push beyond it's limits. Even after all this time remaining inactive, it still burned bright, still gave off wonderful warmth, continued to serve and power the facility it was built to sustain. Yet it also served as a metaphor for him, as he learned in his studies, of the delicate balance that 'must' be kept between a species' genius and its desire grow.
"And you guys still used them?" Nick asked.
"It was easy to maintain the Solar Core's mixture, and even easier to find the exact distance between each core needed to ensure they didn't destabilize. Provided those two things remained constant, they were perfectly safe to use…" He replied as he typed in new commands. "I'm bringing the main generator back online, transferring power systems from backup battery power to primary generator…"
From around the room the spherical walls shifted and various solar panels, each layered with thick dust appeared. Upon finishing the panels opened and reveal their energy absorbing panels and began to burn the dust from the intense light and heat being generated. Hidden behind the panels were multiple turbines that took the electrical energy being generated by some of the panels and began to turn, creating more power which was added to the panel's and began to be distributed to the entire base as a whole.
"Power controls are online… everything is working at full power; the base is back online!" He yelled proudly.
[Warning, Sentinel Defense Protocol level 2 approved!] A female digitized voice declared over the internal base comms. [Solar Core perimeter breached… all Sentinel Drones search and eliminate…]
"And now Sentinel knows exactly where we are…" He said as he typed in commands and felt the room shift. "Changing the room's axis so we can leave without having to go through the drones, but Sentinel will automatically know where we're going, so we have to move fast!"
"Okay you heard him dear, see you later!" Nick said.
(Nick, don't you-)
"Oh, she is so ganna make me sleep on the couch for a week for this!" The fox complained.
"You'll have more to worry about before this is over!" Jeremy yelled as the room stopped and the doors opened. "Let's go, we have to get to the lower levels now and turn on Air Filtration and Recycling!"
They left the room and the door closed behind them, but as Jeremy had said the entire base was now online. Lights now lit up the corridors and hallways, yet doors still remained locked down for various reasons. They ran past rooms like 'Storage' and 'Energy Supply', even running through various corridors that were glorified Coolant Containers.
That was when they ran headlong into another drone.
Right as they rounded a corner, Jeremy leading the way to the anti-grav elevators, a small three-foot-tall drone floated out of the elevator going 'up' and turned toward them.
The drone itself resembled Nick, a very slim, metallic 'Nick'. It stared at them with green lit eyes as they came to a halt, tilting its head slightly as if confused about their appearance.
"Uh… hi?" Nick whispered.
The drone ignored them as it looked at Jeremy, its eyes changing from green to yellow as it identified him.
"Jeremy… I'm guessing this is a 'fox' drone, right?"
"Yea…" Jeremy said nervously.
"I assume it has an acronym for its name as well?"
"FOX drones, Friendless Operative and Xenophobic drone…" He replied. "FOX drones are designed to operate alone as infiltrators… and be suspicious of 'anything' and 'anyone' that it isn't programmed to instantly recognize."
"You humans and your names…" Nick muttered.
The drone continued to stare and scan them… before its eyes changed to red. [Intruder Detected…] It declared in a monotone voice.
"RUN!" He yelled as the drone walked toward them.
They both turned and ran while Nick took a gamble and pulled his gun out and aimed at the drone. He fired two shots and hit the drone directly in the head, but no 'ping' sounds were heard.
"It didn't do anything!" He yelled as he ran after Jeremy as he turned a corner, heading toward another anti-grav elevator.
"That's not the real FOX drone, it's a hologram!" He yelled. "Here!"
He turned another corner and punched a light switch to turn the lights off in the hallway, ran right past the elevator and then opened up a door labeled 'crew quarters L-54'. Thinking quickly, he grabbed Nick's sunglasses and tossed them by the elevator. He then pulled Nick inside before he could protest and waited quietly with the door cracked open just enough for them to see.
"What are we…"
"Shush!" Jeremy hissed as he saw the FOX drone turn down the hallway.
They both watched quietly as the drone stepped to the shades and scanned them, then looked at the elevator going 'up'. It stepped into the anti-grav elevator and floated upwards and out of sight.
"Nice going now…"
"Not yet!" He hissed.
He watched and waited, making sure to stay absolutely quiet while listening for the tiniest sound. Sure enough, moments later he heard the subtle clank of light metal footsteps walk past them. Carefully he leaned out and turned down the corridor and saw the tiniest shift of lighting from the lit hallway beyond, turning and leaving.
"Okay it's safe!" He said.
He expected Nick to ask why he did that, so he preempted the fox by explaining.
"FOX drones are designed to be infiltration drones, they aren't designed for direct combat, so instead they use their advanced holographic technology to disguise their movement and fool their targets. Unless you keep direct eye contact with the real one, it will disguise itself using its holographic technology while also creating a hologram of itself for you to focus on. They won't engage targets that are in groups and will simply wait until they are either alone or follow them to coordinate their actions with other nearby drones."
When the fox didn't respond he turned to see what he was looking at, and saw Nick staring wide eyed at a bed.
On the bed was a dusty skeleton, the clothes worn on it faded and worn down with age, barely resembling clothing and simply held together by a few defiant strands of thread. Nick just stared at the bones of the once living human, lying in bed in a sleeping position.
"Jeremy…" Nick asked quietly.
Jeremy simply walked over and placed a hand on the skull, feeling his heart feeling twice as heavy as he once again remembered, that he was the only human alive in the entire base.
"I don't know who this is… and I don't feel like I want to know yet." He muttered quietly. "Let's go Nick… we have to go."
"Are there any others?"
"I know there are nine hundred and ninety-nine in the other pods like mine, and who knows how many more in rooms like this… who died… just…"
He shook his head and led the way out and to the anti-grav elevator. He demonstrated how it worked by first stepping into it and feeling the anti-grav field lift him steadily downwards. After he walked in Nick joined him and soon, they were floating downwards side by side.
"How come we're traveling at the same speed and side by side, I got in 'after' you?"
"The anti-grav field operates under a 'group' principle, if multiple people are taking the same lift it slows everyone down taking it while grouping those who got in on the same level together so they can get off together if needed."
"Huh, cool… beats waiting on elevators to go up instead of down."
He waited until they passed three floors to climb out, and from there led the way to Air Filtration and Recycling.
"Ugh… the air is so 'foul' down here…" Nick complained, holding his nose.
"It's the toxic air levels, until we get the air recycling online the quality will decrease the lower, we go. For now, we're okay, but if we go any further our lungs will be filled with toxic air that could poison our bodies."
Moments afterwards all the lights aside from the emergency lights switched off, causing him to stop and look around nervously.
"What the…" He whispered. "That's not right, the lights aren't supposed to shut off for any reason unless they're manually shut off."
"Uh… Jeremy…" Nick whispered, tugging at his arm.
He turned around and saw what the fox officer was staring at. At the end of the hall, a set of four gleaming red eyes and tracking lasers aiming around the hall, with serrated diamond edged teeth exposed, durasteel plated bodies, copper tipped steel clawed feet, and sensor lined tails waving slightly from side to side… stood 'four' RAPTOR drones.
All four of them looking directly at him and Nick.
"Jeremy… what are those?" Nick whispered fearfully.
[Hyeeeeeeeh…] One of the drones hissed menacingly.
"Raptors… RAPTOR drones… Reconnaissance and Assassination Personnel Trapper and Operations Recon drone." Jeremy answered quietly.
[Tap-Tap-Tap] One of the drones tapped on the floor, using the middle most and sharpest claw to make that sound.
The claw was so sharp that it made scratches in the floor, where nothing else could.
"Please tell me that those things have a weakness of some kind… or that they're mammal friendly."
"RAPTOR drones were programmed with powerful smell sensors and heightened hearing, but only standard visual optics. No better than a DOG drone's… in low lighting they struggle to see their targets. But if they spot said target… 'nothing' short of low lighting will make them lose it… and they operate in 'packs'. And they are 'not' mammal friendly… they will eviscerate you if they catch you!"
"Well… what are they waiting for?" Nick whispered fearfully.
He squinted at the lead RAPTOR and barely saw that its optics looked damaged, something had coated the drone's visual sensors and was obscuring their sight.
"They can't see us… not completely… to them we probably look like distant blurs." He whispered quietly. "In the low lighting with that obstruction on their optics, we can probably slip away without them getting a positive bio-lock. Listen, no matter what stay as calm as you can… those actions their making…"
To emphasize what he meant, one of the RAPTOR's opened its mouth to reveal the glittering teeth it had, razor sharp and snarled with low hisses to match.
"Yea…" Nick whispered in fear.
"They're doing it to get a reaction, they can hear your heartbeat if it beats faster, or if you breathe louder. They can smell the sweat glands that secrete sweat off my body, not sure how it works with mammals but if you sweat for any reason then they'll smell you too. They're trying to trigger your fear responses to compensate for their lack of visual sensors. If we just stay calm… walk 'slowly'… and avoid the tracking lasers… we can slip away from them."
Nick nodded and slowly backed away, both of them trying to keep their breathing steady and staying calm.
[GAWK, GAWK… GAWK!] One of the drones yelled out, stomping loudly with its metal feet.
[KYReeeeeeeee!]
[Hssspbt… pfbt…]
The drones were mimicking sounds to inspire fear into them, and sadly it was working for Nick. The fox, who's species had 'never' had to deal with such a creature as the one the RAPTOR drones were based on, even before 'human's' time on earth, was barely holding back the panic attack that was starting to creep out. Jeremy too was holding it together, though barely, having seen RAPTOR drones before and how they worked gave him an idea of how to resist it. Yet those times had been when the drone wasn't trying to kill him.
They made it to 'just' the end of the corridor when Nick let out a 'yelp' as the drones started marching while hissing. He clamped his hands hopefully over his mouth, as if that would stop the sound, but it was too late. Jeremy turned and saw all four drones' heads snap to Nick's location, and tracking lasers locked onto both of them.
"RUN!" He screamed.
They both ran as fast as their feet could carry them, Jeremy leading the way and telling Nick to not look back for any reason.
Right behind them the RAPTOR drones screamed and yelled, and around the facility he heard echoes of metal clanking and footsteps, indicating that the other drones were now alerted to their presence.
[TERMINATE, TERMINATE, TERMINATE!]
Jeremy ran through a hallway fork, heading right and hitting the automatic door lock to the room. Seconds later he ran over to a light control panel and manually shut off all the lights including emergency ones. Just as the lights went off the door began being sliced into by plasma torches equipped onto the RAPTOR drones.
"Quickly, that won't hold them for long!" Jeremy yelled, using his flashlight to point at a maintenance vent.
With the speed that only fear of being killed could provide, he rapidly opened the vent, crawled inside with Nick behind him and silently replaced the vent door just as the drones sliced into the room.
"Quiet…" He whispered, putting his hand on Nick's mouth trying to keep him as silent as possible.
The drones stepped in one by one, first RAPTORS as they scanned the room for them.
[Scans… negative…]
They were then joined by other drones, DOGs, a few FOX drones, other RAPTOR drones, all of which looked around the room for any sign of them.
When one of the RAPTORs clawed over to their side, began tapping its middle claw on the ground, making subtle yet easily noticeable dents and revealing its sharp point, both of them had to take deep breaths to remain calm and unseen.
-BOOM-
As one all of the drones turned in the same direction.
[Unknown disturbance detected, Lower Level, Sector S-7! Investigate at once!]
[Command Received!]
All of the drones ran out in unison the way they came in, their metal feet clanking loudly in the distance as they went to investigate whatever it was that distracted them. He let out a sigh of relief before gently coaxing the vent door to open.
"Whoa!" Nick yelped out.
He turned and looked at what Nick was shocked to see, before he chuckled at the sight of hundreds of ANT drones marching along the vent ceiling. "Relax Nick, they're just ANT drones."
"Just 'ANT' drones?" He half screamed.
"Relax, they don't even care about us." He said, putting his hand in front of them to demonstrate.
The ANT drones simply marched on, using his hand as if it were a simple bump and walking over it. All of them marched in single file, equipped with various repair and maintenance tools, heading off to wherever it was they were going or even back to the service room for recharge.
"But aren't they… like… going to tell the others we're here?!" Nick complained.
"Like I said, they don't care, they aren't intelligent enough to make decisions like the others. Their programming is limited to maintaining and repairing whatever they're told to that resides in the base. They have a complete map of every room, vent, equipment and anything else in this base. They haven't the storage space needed for more advanced algorithms." He explained, lifting his hand and letting the ANT column march on in peace. "Let's go, before those drones come back…"
They slowly left the vent and the ANT drones to their duty.
Right after they left, he led the way to the door and paused.
Staring at them was a FOX Drone, lying on its side and only holding its upper half up with its forward legs. The rear legs appeared to be damaged or disabled because they were limp. The drone's optics shined a blue light as it looked at him, scanning him for a moment before starting to slowly crawl toward him.
"Uh… shouldn't we run?" Nick said, slowly reaching for his pistol again.
"No wait…" He muttered as the small drone continued to crawl toward him. "This one isn't hostile… if it were it would have alerted the others by now."
As if to confirm his statement, it crawled forward and simply looked up at him.
[Reeeeee… pa are… re que-que-ted…] It declared in a broken, damaged feminine tone.
"It's damaged… poor thing must have been damaged who knows how long ago and has been trying to crawl all this time trying to find a human to fix it." He said.
"Yea well, let's leave it and go to wherever we have to go, just let the drones fix it!" Nick said, running past it to look past the doors and check for drones.
"No, they won't fix it…" He said, holding the FOX drone's head in one hand. "Drones are incapable of repairing themselves, its hardwired into their programming to prevent them from fixing themselves or building more of themselves. No schematic of any drone exists in their databases outside of the ANT drones, and only ANT drones can perform repairs on themselves in case one of them is damaged for any reason. The only way for any other drone to be repaired is if a human repairs them. Only thing they can do is search for a human and ask to be repaired."
Thinking quickly, he pulled out his toolkit and began grabbing the tools needed to repair the drone.
"Are you 'crazy'? This entire base wants to kill us, and you want to fix a random broken drone that, may I remind you, one of them tried to KILL US?!" Nick complained.
"Just trust me Nick… I know what I'm doing." He said as he tapped a panel on the drone's underbelly to release the metal plating shell. "I think this drone can help us…"
He looked at the Drone's internal mechanics and immediately saw the problem. Several joints connecting the legs to the body chassis had snapped out of place and wedged themselves in between various gears that turned the legs and allowed the drone to kneel or walk. As for the vocal processor he saw that it had received some internal damage from having to support its entire body using only its forward legs.
All were easy fixes which he began to perform, grabbing some screwdrivers and a plasma torch to begin his repairs.
"Alright hang on FOX, I can't properly repair you without the parts needed, but I can at least give you a quick patch job to let you move around and talk."
He worked slowly and steadily, un-obstructing the limbs and twisting or burning other pieces into positions where they could be used again. Damaged portions that were beyond repair he simply extracted and tossed away. When it came to the voice box unit, he managed to hotwire a temporary fix to at least let it talk to them.
Once the repairs were complete, he closed the shell up and backed up to Nick.
"Alright FOX, up you go." He said.
The FOX drone picked itself up and steadily stood on all four limbs. Performing a basic function test, it moved each leg independently to determine if any further damage was caused.
[Diagnostic Complete, all functions within serviceable conditions.] It declared looking up at him. [FOX Drone 42-L7 at your service, awaiting your orders.]
"Huh, you were right… sorry for doubting you Jeremy." Nick said. "So, while we're on the subject what's your name miss fox?"
The FOX drone turned to Nick's general direction and scanned. [Error, Error, no additional sentient individuals detected… reveal yourself, reveal yourself.]
"FOX drone scan for additional life signs."
FOX scanned and immediately registered Nick. [Species identified, Vulpes Vulpes…]
"Update species clarification, label as sentient and regard with same intelligence level as Homo Sapiens."
The drone's eyes flashed yellow then green, then back to yellow and orange, before finally settling on blue at last. [Confirmed, species updated…] It stated before flashing red. [Intruder alert, intruder alert, intruder alert!]
"Disregard intruder status!" He ordered.
[Disgregarding…]
"Okay, now that that's done… FOX drone, explain why you didn't try to eliminate me or alert the other Sentinel Drones to my location."
[This unit is not under the direct coordination of the Base AI 'Sentinel'. As such, human protection protocols remain in effect for this unit's programming.]
"Okay… so how were you damaged?"
[Upon the activation procedure of the Sentinel Drones and the targeted life form being identified as a 'Human', multiple drones were activated simultaneously from various areas of the facility and ordered to intervene and protect the human.] The drone stated. [Upon our activation, a firefight ensued and most of the drones activated to protect you were either destroyed or severely damaged. This unit escaped thanks to intervention but was suffered minor damage.]
"Wait… who or what would be able to authorize the activation of drones besides a human or Sentinel?" He asked himself.
"That sounds like a bad thing the way your describing it." Nick said.
"It is… other than Sentinel or a living human, nothing should be able to activate and order any drone in the base." He said. "Nick call Judy again, I need to talk to Aelita!"
(Judy's PoV)
Her phone rang and she instantly answered it.
"Hello?"
(Judy, this is Jeremy, put Aelita on the phone I need to talk to her real quick.)
She held the phone out to the AI in her sphere, but the glowing human girl simply shrugged before pointing at her mouth and shaking her head.
"I don't think she can talk." She said.
(Aelita, use sign language, have MUTT translate for you.)
Aelita nodded and turned to the drone and began moving her hands in rapid succession.
[Jeremy… this is Aelita, what is wrong?]
(Aelita, some additional drones were activated that weren't affiliated with the Sentinel Drones. One of them informed me that there seemed to have been an internal fight among them about either to defend or kill me. Do you know if there is 'anything' with command codes to initiate such an activation or command authority besides Sentinel or myself down here?)
Judy looked at the AI as she held her chin in thought, before using her hands to rapidly make signs that she had no hope of understanding, so fast that she couldn't catch a single one before the 'fifth' one after was made.
[Negative, other than 'you', Sentinel, and I nothing has the authority or command authority to activate or order the drones.]
(I don't suppose 'you' activated them by chance…) He asked hopefully.
[Negative… I was locked out of all command functions upon Sentinel's sudden activation…]
(Well that doesn't sound good… oh 'fuck'… Sentinel has locked down this passage!)
"What's going on, what does that mean?" Judy asked.
(It means we're cut off from direct access to Air Filtration and Recycling. Aelita, can you access 'anything' in the systems from where you are? Can you help us out here?)
Aelita looked thoughtful again before rapidly using one hand to type while signaling with the other hand for MUTT to translate.
[Sentinel's defense protocol has reached level 2, I am still locked out from most of the command functions and subsystems… but I 'can' at least access a schematic of the base's interior and triangulate your position based on Nick's phone to guide you.]
After finishing her typing Aelita used the hand that was typing and broadcast a holographic image on the floor, astonishing Judy as she saw how 'vast' the base was. She couldn't describe or imagine how large it was just based on the image, or how she could possibly compare it before Aelita zoomed in on a small corner where Jeremy and Nick were located.
[Based on your present location, if you go through 'Drone Parts Storage' Beta Section, you should be able to pass through it and reach Air Filtration and Recycling.]
(Drone Parts Storage Beta Section, got it… watch our progress for me and alert me if anything happens that I should know about.)
Aelita nodded as the call ended while she continued to stare at the hologram, her eyes glowing various colors.
"Uh, Aelita, is there any way you can tell what else is down there?"
The AI looked thoughtful before nodding and used one hand to type while the other altered the hologram. Seconds later she saw multiple lights appear, all of them moving in various sections of the base.
"I assume those are all drones… right?"
Aelita nodded as she zoomed in on Jeremy and Nick's location and saw that one drone was right next to them.
"I hope that's the friendly one that Jeremy talked about." She muttered.
The AI nodded as she identified it with a 'blue' light alongside Jeremy and Nick.
She watched the trio move down one hallway before halting right outside of 'Drone Parts Storage'.
*Riiiiiing*
Judy answered instantly.
(Aelita… we have a problem…)
Aelita nodded instantly, updating the map to show a 'green' coloration on the floor directly in front of them.
(Nick's PoV)
"Okay… so what is that?" He asked as he pointed at the floor which was covered in some kind of blue slime blotting various places.
"That… would be Sentinel trying to stop our progress, it's getting smarter and analyzing our movements." Jeremy explained. "At defense protocol 2, Sentinel will use various lockdown methods to either slow down or outright halt our progress to whatever our destination or target is. In this case, Sentinel is trying to keep us out of Air Filtration and Recycling and knows that this is our fastest way with the other areas locked off. And since it doesn't want to damage anything in here, without authorization from humans or being at level 1 defense protocols… it chose to coat the floor with 'Zero Friction Fluid' as a deterrent."
"Zero friction fluid? So, what does that mean to the mammal who is not an expert on humans."
"If we try to walk on this stuff… we won't get very far, we'll just slip and slide in random directions until we come to a stop." He said before talking on the phone again. "Aelita, is there another way around?"
(Negative, all other access routes are sealed off, only Sentinel can unlock them. You're going to have to find a way through the fluid Jeremy.)
"Well that poses a problem… if we try to walk on that stuff, we'll never get through… and we have no other way around…" He whispered, looking around for something. "And there's no way we can climb these shelves and walk around without causing a ruckus that the drones will hear instantly."
Indeed, as he looked up all around them were various shelves stacked high with spare parts for every conceivable drone in the facility. Some of the shelves were so heavily stacked with parts that even pulling '1' part down would cause others to fall and create noise that would attract unwanted attention. Not to mention the sheer size of the room, which easily encompassed three stories height from floor to roof. If they tried to scale the shelves it would take them forever to navigate to the other side.
That's when he spotted something off to the side.
"Hey Jeremy, you said anything that tries to walk on that stuff will slip and slide right?" Nick asked.
"Yea, why?"
"What if we…" Nick said, grunting and causing the human to look at him as he hauled a metal slab from among other metal slabs. "Use 'this' and surf our way across…"
"Good idea!" He said, helping Nick.
It took them a while, but they eventually maneuvered the slab over the ZFL coated floor and lowered it gently, so it sat there for them. Sure enough, it began to slip ever so slightly around. He and Jeremy got on with him grabbing a steel rod to help push them forward.
"Well, ya coming?" Nick asked the drone.
The FOX drone sat there waiting for orders, having received none from Jeremy since he fixed it.
"Well… we can't leave you behind…" Jeremy said. "FOX drone, get on and follow us until further notice."
The drone nodded and climbed aboard the slab right as Jeremy began to push away.
They slid without effort, sliding along the floor aboard their makeshift raft across the storage room floor. It was slow work because Jeremy had to constantly make corrections to keep them from crashing, as well as keep their speed slow so they didn't make any noise. This allowed him to talk to the drone.
"So, while we let the human drive, you got a name?" He asked the FOX.
The drone simply looked at him and stayed silent.
"What, was it something I said?" He asked quietly. "Look if this is about trying to hit on you, I'm already a married fox…"
[This unit is identified as FOX Drone 42-L7, despite your new classification as a 'sentient' species… you are not to be trusted.] It stated before turning away.
Nick just gaped at the drone. "Rude much?"
"Don't blame it, FOX drones are suspicious and xenophobic by programming. At least it's willing to talk to you."
"I don't suppose there's a reason you chose to do that with a drone based on 'foxes'?" He asked curtly.
"They were designed to be infiltrators and saboteurs…" He said sheepishly. "My ancestors chose to base it on a species known for being sneaky. I'm… sorry…"
Nick just hmphed and looked forward. "Well for your information, not all foxes are shifty and untrustworthy… so I hope you consider updating them."
"I'll try to update them…" The human muttered. "But like I said… I had no control in how the drones were originally programmed and designed, before my time."
They continued to surf through the large room for a few more minutes before Jeremy slowed them down as they neared the exit. Once close enough they all jumped off and landed on the dry part near the door, which was conveniently locked.
"Sentinel really… I'm starting to think you don't want us going anywhere at this point." Jeremy chuckled as he began to manually unlock the door.
[Intruder…]
Without warning the door opened, revealing a large rectangular turret lowered from the ceiling, along with two similar looking turrets poking from the floor, each of them with glowing nozzles and pointing directly at them.
"Oh boy…" Nick muttered, lifting his hands in surrender.
[You are required to surrender and submit for elimination…]
From directly behind them a loud hissing sounded, and he turned to see a blueish haze begin to fill the room.
"Cryofreezing Air and Disintegration Bolts…" Jeremy yelled, before shoving him to the side of the door right as the turrets opened fire. "Nick, call your wife quick!"
"Done!" He said, speed dialing Judy.
(Jeremy's PoV)
As Nick speed dialed his wife, he stared in fear that the cryofreezing air behind them. The air was designed to 'slow' down targets for the turrets, but because of his disease it might as well be a death sentence.
"Judy, put Aelita on, quick!" Nick said, before handing him the phone.
"Aelita!" He yelled.
(Jeremy, I am detecting increased activity from the drones and Sentinel.)
"We've noticed!" He yelled. "The room is filling with Cryofreeze, Sentinel is going to freeze us solid! The cold air will kill me, and the drones or turrets will finish Nick off at this rate! Can you shut off the turrets or the air?"
(Negative, Sentinel still has me locked out, I can't access any sys-)
-BOOM-
Directly above them a part of the ceiling erupted in an explosion, and a massive wave of hot air poured into the room.
[Alert, heating system compromised in sector BETA, Level 8!]
Jeremy looked up at the pouring hot air from above, which was now creating a 'hot zone' separate from the cold zone made up from the Cryofreeze air in the rest of the storage room. Now he knew, something was going on, that conduit which controlled the heating system for this section of the base was 'not' designed to spontaneously explode for no reason. Something or someone was down in the base with them, and it was trying to sabotage the base. But whoever or whatever they were, they had bought him some time, the heated air would keep him safe at least from the freezing air until Sentinel got it under control, which would let him find a way to deal with the disintegration turrets on the other side of the door.
"Aelita, which way to Air Filtration and Recycling?"
(It's the second door on the right, straight ahead.)
"And if I remember my schematics, this corridor goes three directions, and we're directly at the intersection, right?"
(Correct)
He nodded as he looked down to the FOX drone. "FOX drone, I want you to distract the turrets for us, buy us as much time as you can!"
[Order received…] It declared with an affirmative nod.
"Wait, what?" Nick said. "You're not seriously telling 'her' to go out there alone? She'll get massacred!"
(Who is this 'she' your talking about?) Judy said over the phone.
"Nick, it's just a drone, I can repair it later, besides we don't have time, the Sentinel Drones won't take long to reach us here!" He said before nodding to the FOX drone. "Get going, buy us as much time as you can!"
The drone nodded and bent low to prepare to sprint.
"We'll only have a few seconds before the turrets realize the deception, as soon as they start firing run straight ahead!" He said.
"Wait, you can't just use…"
"GO!"
Instantly the drone jumped forward and was promptly shot down by the turrets. Yet as the drone, 'disintegrated', a new FOX drone appeared and received the attention of the turrets.
He jumped out with Nick right behind them, running past the turrets as they still shot at the drone. He turned around just in time to watch as the drone's illusion was dispelled and was forced to fight the turrets once they got a lock on the 'real' drone.
The drone tackled the ceiling turret, biting at the nozzle and attempting to use it's 'assassination tool' to neutralize it, but the sharpened lance, while very effective at slicing into and through flesh and bone, was nowhere near effective against durasteel plating.
The two ground level turrets rotated and opened fire at point blank, blasting the drone off and causing heated damage to the metal body frame.
He didn't see what happened after as he ran through the door into Air Filtration and Recycling, and right after Nick entered, he shut the door and magna-locked it so the drones couldn't access it easily.
"That was close…" He muttered, even over the continued fire rate of the turrets.
"Jeremy… why did you leave that FOX drone to die!?" He yelled angrily, grabbing him and forcing him to look into his angry eyes. "You just sent her to die, and for no good reason! We could have found another way without leaving her to die!"
Seeing the furious look on the fox officer, he could only go wide eyed at the stern expression.
"Nick… that drone was just a machine." He explained. "It wasn't alive to begin with, it was made to obey orders no matter what they were. Even if it gets damaged or destroyed, as long as we have the parts I can easily repair it."
"How can you just stand there… stand there… and just…" Nick snarled. "Treat her… as if… she doesn't 'matter'? As if she were just a wrench or a hammer or… A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT!"
At that he sighed, and gently coaxed Nick's paws off him.
"Because I have to…" He whispered in a dead tone. "The only difference between the AI that drone uses, Sentinel's AI, and Aelita's AI… is that they have varying levels of intelligence. Aelita's is a category ten, which is on par if not exceeding 'human' intelligence, whereas FOX drone is equipped with only a category six. Sentinel's is category three… the lower you get the more simplistic and basic their AIs are…"
"It's for their own good Nick… that's why I told it to do that and didn't consider what might happen to the drone."
He eventually turned around and headed to a computer console which overlooked massive turbines and ventilation shafts.
"Nick, those drones weren't 'built' to work for Sentinel, they were simply assigned… every single drone, including MUTT, was once a combat drone. Aelita is considered 'alive' in all but the definition, she just lacks a living body. The drones however… they aren't alive, and they can never be…"
"And why is that?" He snarled.
He closed his eyes in quiet contemplation, wondering how best to describe it to the fox officer.
"Because if we did treat them as living, sentient beings… then that means my entire species created an entire 'race'… and enslaved them… and forced them to commit horrendous acts of murder beyond anything even man could achieve by itself against itself." He muttered. "If you treated it like another mammal… then your calling it a murderer… I don't know how many humans that drone killed before today… and I don't 'want' to know."
He looked over at the fox and saw the look in his eyes as comprehension started to dawn.
"If we gave human level sentience to the drones… it would be like labeling them as murderers, without giving them a chance to defend themselves or their actions. Every single 'one' of those drones. And my species…" He turned away. "My species… would have committed probably the worst sin imaginable. There's a massive… massive… difference, in enslaving a species and creating a race and enslaving it from the start. My kind did that in the past, enslaving our fellow humans. But the drones, which were built from the start to kill and serve humans have 'no' defense, nobody to protect their rights. They were created to kill, to slaughter, to protect and destroy… they had no choice in the matter."
With that he entered commands and brought Air Filtration and Recycling back online. As he did the turbines began turning and humming, and already he began to feel the air become steadily cleaner. He heard air being pumped through the massive ventilation system, reaching all areas of the base.
"There… it will take a while before all areas of the facility are clean and toxic free, but at least now we can access Sentinel's mainframe."
"Jeremy…" Nick muttered. "I'm sorry for that outbreak… it's just… seeing a fellow fox… even a machine one treated like it's nothing. It really got to me. I understand now why you must act like that, but… I still don't like it."
"Neither do I." He said back. "As a kid I always talked to the drones, thinking they were like me. But as I learned more about them… the more pity I felt for them. At one point I asked why we don't treat the drones better, and all I was told is… that they're machines, they aren't alive… nothing more."
He sighed as he finished entering the priority level override for the turbines. This way they could enter the key levels, namely Sentinel's mainframe level, which was still six levels down. Now they can enter it safely without the toxic air levels killing them within minutes.
"Let's go, we still have six levels between us and Sentinel's mainframe, and I doubt Sentinel is going to just let us waltz right in without a fight."
They walked out and saw that the turrets had been retracted, which actually surprised him as Sentinel should not have done so without good reason. He also saw the smoking remains of the FOX drone, it's metallic casing sporting melted holes and smoking burn marks.
While Nick wanted to go investigate it, Jeremy told him to ignore it and led the way to a pair of 'priority' anti-grav elevators. He explained that they operated similar to the other elevators, but they allowed for faster travel, and only allowed a limited number of individuals at a time.
"Alright we should be fine… as long as we both enter at the same time, we'll be okay." He explained. "Just in case though, remember, 'six' levels, as soon as you see five floors pass by enter the sixth one."
"Why does that sound like some cliché line said right before something bad happens." Nick muttered.
"This isn't fiction Nick, just get in…" He said back, before climbing in.
Right after Nick entered though, Sentinel proved the fox's words accurate.
(Sentinel Base Defense Protocol Level 1 approved…) Sentinel declared.
"Oh, you are kidding me…" He yelled.
(Disengaging all Anti-Grav Elevator safety protocols… increasing all lifts to five times speed…)
He felt his body suddenly fly downward at a rapid pace, much faster than should be, and knew that Sentinel was 'done', absolutely done playing games. It knew they were in the elevators and was going to let a heavy dose of gravity kill them off where drones, turrets, and anything else it's used so far has failed.
Yet no sooner did it happen did the anti-grav elevator slow down, and they paused right on Sentinel's mainframe level.
(Error… error… system override protocol engaged… initiating countermeasures…)
He heard the elevator beginning to increase in pressure again, and he took only a moment to realize that Sentinel was getting ready to resume killing them with gravity again.
"GET OUT NOW!" He screamed at Nick, before kicking off the wall and onto the level.
Right as Nick got out the elevator turned on again, and he saw that Nick's gun had been left behind in the elevator, thankfully the only casualty of what would have been a messy end to the two of them.
"Jeremy… your Base AI… needs to shut up… and 'die' for all I care now." Nick complained while staring at where his gun used to be. "I am getting REAL TIRED… of hearing that thing trying to kill us."
"Nick…" He whispered quietly, trying to get the fox to shut up as he stared ahead of them.
"I mean for 'fucks' sake… this is too damn stressful, and I thought parking duty was annoying!"
"Niiiiiiiiick…" He muttered in fear.
"What?!" He said, turning around and seeing 'what' Jeremy was hissing about.
Directly in front of them, were three RAPTOR drones, and they were all staring directly at them.
They just sat there, staring at them, and they stared right back at the drones.
"They're going to leap at us, we've only got one hope to beat them…" He whispered. "When I say now… duck…"
"How do you know they're going to leap at us?" He whispered back.
"Raptor's attack targets they think are cornered by leaping… its how they 'neutralize' them… before eliminating them when at close range. It's in their programming… remember… on my signal…"
[Hyeeeeees…]
[GRAW!]
"NOW!"
At his word both of them ducked and laid flat, while two of the RATPOR drones jumped to deal killing blows. Yet instead they flung forward and landed in the elevators, and while one zoomed straight down, the other went up, heading directly to the same demise that Sentinel tried to inflict on them.
The third RAPTOR however, held back and simply watched them.
"Jeremy… the third one didn't do what you said it would!" Nick yelled fearfully.
"I know… I know!" He yelled as well. "I'm thinking I'm thinking!"
[Grhhyeeeeees…] It hissed.
"Any plans?" Nick asked.
"Running would be a good idea…" He answered. "On three… with me… THREE!"
Both jumped and took off running, and the Raptor followed. Going off memory he turned down a very wide and mostly empty corridor heading toward Drone Storage B-4. He knew that there weren't that many 'big' drones, and some of the few drone storage rooms in the B category were empty, just vast spaces that went unused.
He turned and headed toward the room before he was tackled by the Raptor from behind, and felt it sink its sharp claw into his back.
"Gah!" He yelled painfully, feeling the copper tip slice cleanly into him.
"JEREMY!" He heard Nick yell.
"Graaaaaaaaaaah!" The drone roared before lowering down it's head to finish him off, preparing to bite down into his neck with its serrated diamond teeth, perfectly lined to-
-SMASH-
He looked back to see the metal door close shut 'down' on him, barely holding an inch above his body, but it's sudden and heavy movement had crushed the drone in two, sending the two halves to fall pitifully to the sides.
Panting in fear and pain… he slowly crawled through the door, and watched it finish closing as he did.
Panting heavily… he walked over to Nick who was looking in shock as well.
"Nice going…" He muttered.
"Wasn't me…" He said. "Give me your phone again… call your wife."
Moments later Judy answered and Aelita was on the phone.
"Aelita… there's something else down here… something is activating and disengaging various parts of the base and its not Sentinel." He said in the dark room.
(Jeremy… I have accessed Nick's phone and turned on the loud speaker…) Aelita declared into the echoing room. (I have been monitoring your progress and Sentinel's actions and I believe I have an answer. My scans indicate there is a drone in that room with you… yet it seems inactive… my guess is that it is 'not' a Sentinel Drone. I also calculate that whatever is doing this, is acting 'against' Sentinel in an attempt to save you. If this is the case… then remember this Jeremy…)
(You are the last living human being on the entire planet… whatever drone or AI is operating in that facility… outside of the Sentinel Drones as of this moment… is programmed to obey your commands and protect you however they can.)
"I already know the Human Protection Protocols Aelita, what are you getting at?"
(Just remember what I said… you are the last 'living human'… it 'must' obey you and protect you based on those algorithms. Remember that Jeremy… FOX obeyed your order without question… this drone will do the same.)
With that the phone hung up and he handed it back to Nick.
"Okay…" He whispered.
He turned his flashlight on and looked around, not seeing anything, until he saw a handle switch before him.
"What's that?" Nick asked.
"A power transfer switch… it manually transfers power to this room… or whatever is in this room and activates it…" He explained, before remembering Aelita's words.
He stepped toward the lever and put his hand on it.
"Alright… whoever you are… whatever you are… my name is Jeremy Wilheart, I am the only surviving resident of Eden Facility 17, and as of this moment… I am the last living human being on the entire planet!" He declared in a loud voice. "I don't know what you are, or how you are able to defy Sentinel's protocols, when even I am not able to override it… but by the human protection protocols created and programmed into you… I ask…"
At that he paused and took a deep, calming breath… before speaking in a loud commanding voice.
"No… I 'order' you… to assist me in stopping Sentinel and save the native intelligent species of this planet, before Sentinel perceives them as a threat and moves to eliminate them… by any means necessary!"
With that he pulled the lever.
He heard a humming sound and shielded his eyes from a sudden bright light.
"What?" Nick managed to say before a loud 'boom' sounded, and the whole ground shook, causing them to fall over.
He managed to adjust his eyes enough to watch as a large, twenty-foot-long body, uncurled itself and aimed two massive pincers, stood upon eight powerful titanium reinforced legs, raised a long and sharpened adamantium tipped tail, and stared at them with six blue optical lenses.
The pincers opened up and extended a liquid metal claw that gently grasped and lifted Jeremy up to look at it eye to optics.
In a loud booming voice… it declared…
[SCORPIO Drone… AI Alexander… Heeds the call of the last of Mankind!]