Since we had no idea what to do now that we had survived winter, I told them my idea about converting an ICBM to a spacecraft. They thought it wasn't likely, but we decided why not and headed north, on the lookout for ICBMs. It was slow going, on the lookout constantly for humans, drones, and food. After we crossed into Virginia, we started running into trouble. We found a cabin in the woods after a few days' travel. We went inside and found lots of food and water, enough for several years. We grabbed some food and water and then left. The next day, the owner caught up with us.
I woke up in the middle of the night. I was unsure why I had woken up, everything seemed fine. I always wore the right arm of the suit, but it would take a few seconds to get it powered up and ready to fire. I had time slowed to a crawl while I searched the area from my bed, only moving my eyes. I missed it the first two times, but the third time I saw it. I turned on the arm and the figure froze. It began to turn it's head towards me, but didn't move from where it was. As soon as the arm was powered on, I sat up and fired three times where the figure had been. The gunshots woke up Sanders and Jones, who were ready to fight in an instant, but the figure was half an instant faster.
Even with time slowed, the figure was unbelievably fast, which told me right away it was an alien. It knocked Sander over and I barely managed to block the knife before it impaled his back. If I had had the left arm on, I would've shot the figure right there, but my rifle was busy saving Sanders. Jones fired on the figure, which rolled out of the way. Sanders got up and picked up his gun while Jones was trying to hit the figure as it dodged between trees. While it was away from the camp, I put on the other arm and the helmet before it came back.
I switched to the IR cam for night vision, and saw a ghostly figure leap out of the trees right at me. I pointed both arms at it and fired the capacitors and both rifles. The figure was thrown back and I grabbed a small device from my belt. The figure was struggling to its feet as I threw the object and jumped away. The figure collapsed in pain and started screaming.
The device had been an EMP jammer, a small handheld EMP I'd made in case we found another alien. As I'd hoped, it damaged whatever gave them their strength and heightened senses. I guessed it wouldn't last very long, which is why the EMP was on constantly until the batteries died. Sanders and Jones tied the figure to a tree at the edge of camp while I took off the suit. The suit had no protection from EMPs, which was something I would have to fix.
Once I had the suit off, I approached the figure. It was a girl, about 20 years old or so, struggling against the ropes. "Who are you?" I asked.
"Let me out of here or I'll kill you when I do!" she replied.
"You'd kill us either way. Who are you?"
"I'd rather die than be caught conversing with humans!"
I picked up the EMP jammer. "This little box right here is what's keeping you from breaking those ropes and killing us. If you tell us what we want to know, maybe I can move it away from you so your superpowers can heal themselves and then you can run away to wherever you live. "
"You will all die!"
"Everyone dies eventually, even you. "
"I'll kill you all with my bare hands!"
I was getting nowhere. I stood up and left. "Let her sit there a day or two. Minimal food and water, keep her week. If the superpowers come back online or something, it should help even the odds, " I told the others. They nodded. We spent the night there, the prisoner tied to the tree next to the jammer, which I made sure was out of reach. The next morning she was quieter, but still unwillingly to say anything. The fourth day, the EMP jammer ran out of power and she almost broke out before I got a second one running.
We were all out of camp one day getting supplies before we left, and when we got back the prisoner was gone and the jammer was in pieces. I dropped everything and was ready for a fight as soon as I realised what had happened when they entered the clearing. There were three of them now, all aliens. They each had a rifle pointed at us, no doubt loaded. I didn't waste time asking questions and opened fire.
I focused the first burst of my fire on the ones on the side of the three, but they were quicker than I was, dodging before I fired and shooting. I managed to block the bullets on my arms and the bulletproof vest, but I was unbalanced. While I was recovering, Jones and Sanders began to fire on the aliens, but they were too late. They had gotten too close for rifles and one had already stabbed Jones. I blocked one knife and stabbed at another attacker, but they grabbed the knife and broke it off at the base. Sanders was in a fight with the third, and I could tell he was losing. They each grabbed one of my arms and brought out a length of rope to tie my wrist.
I shocked the shell of the armour, and electrocuted the two attackers holding it. They staggered back and I shot at them both, but missed. Sanders was losing, but I was busy with two others. They came at me again, and this time I was able to prepare. When they were almost to me I jumped with the spring boots and did a flip. I normally didn't do tricks on the spring boots, having broken an arm last time, but I had no other choice. While I was upside down, I fired both guns into the back of their heads.
With those two down, I turned around to see Sanders standing behind a tree while the alien ran away. I wasn't sure what was going on, but something was off. Sanders didn't scare him away, and the alien should be finishing him off. I figured out why a moment later, when a grenade on his belt exploded. The explosion killed Sanders immediately, and the shrapnel pinged off my suit. The final alien was turning back to attack me, and I raised both arms and fired. I got three hits and the person fell to the ground, still alive. I walked over and saw that it was the prisoner. She was still strong, even with three bullets stuck inside. I could see the wounds healing themselves slowly, but much faster than any human. I pointed both arms at her.
"How do I defeat your kind?" I asked.
"You humans never could, no matter how hard you tried, " she answered.
I shot and killed her, packed up my stuff, and then left.
Over the next month I traveled aimlessly in search of an ICBM. At the end of the month, I managed to get into a military database for a few minutes and located one a week's travel from my location. I travelled there as fast as I could, and when I arrived I found what I was looking for. It was a peacekeeper rail garrison with a MGM-118A ballistic missile. It was old, but it would have to do. I spent the next four months repairing and reprogramming the missile to the best of my abilities, but there was only so much I could do. When I was finished, it was rudimentary at best. I had no idea if the propulsion system was working, or even if the payload was still active. The targeting system was replaced, and I wasn't sure if I did it right. Everything could go wrong, but I needed it all right.
I was forced to launch it a good deal before I should've when a squad of well trained soldiers attacked. I was in a defendable position here, the train had cars of weapons and even two with anti aircraft guns mounted on top of flat bed cars. When they entered my valley I got ready immediately. There were about twenty, twenty-five maybe. I hid in a car with the automatic rifles and waited until I heard them close to the train. They were going to clear the train all at once, which meant I would have maybe thirty seconds once the door opened to get out of here. I waited until they were outside the door, then I blew the last car in the train. The soldiers dove away from the shrapnel, and while they were confused I initiated the launch sequence on the ICBM.
"What? That works?", "Stop it! Shoot it down!" and "Where are they?!" could be heard from outside, as well as other shouts. The ICBM tilted towards the sky, and the engines began to heat up. I knew if I stayed here, I would be cooked by the heat from the engines, so I had to leave. I climbed out the top of the car and ran towards the front of the train. The soldiers saw me and started firing, but I dodged and blocked their bullets. When I got to the front, I blew a small charge two cars away to destroy the coupler. With the engine and one car seperated from the car, I started up the train.
The train had taken a while to fix as well, but thanks to the alien metal it was a formidable fortress. I had plated the outside of the train and the first car with it, just a thin layer was very strong and even bulletproof. Once the soldiers knew where I was, they ran towards me, firing. I started the train and it began to creep forward. The ICBM was about to take off for the mothership, and I hoped it worked. The train was picking up speed, but the soldiers were jumping on board. The ICBM left the train car and ascended above the clouds. I had a nose camera hooked up to my HUD, and saw it flying straight and true. I set the train to go as fast as it could and then got on top to fight.
The first two were easy to kill, but the other six that managed to cling on were staying on the side and shooting over blindly. I jumped in between the engine and the car and knocked off a soldier onto the tracks. The car jumped slightly, but stayed on the tracks. I leaned out to the left and fired on the two soldiers on that side. One of them let go and rolled off to the side before I could shoot them, but the other wasn't so smart and took three bullets in his right arm clinging to the train, and fell off. I climbed on top of the car as the other three from the otherside got to where I just was and entered the engineI jumped down behind them and shot them all. I took the bodies and dumped them off the train, then checked on the ICBM.
It had exited the atmosphere and was waiting in orbit and looked like a shiny piece of space junk. As soon as the mothership was in range, the missile fired retro rockets and streaked towards the ship. Before it hit, the missile was knocked off course by something from the ship and it began to fall back to earth. I lost camera feed as it began to heat up, so I looked out the window into the sky. The mothership was directly above me, the ICBM falling fast. I did a quick eyeball calculation, and stopped the train. The ICBM struck a few miles off of where I thought it would, and exploded. It impacted a half mile in front of the train, and the engine was thrown back into the other car. The suit did little here, and I was certain I broke something, if not everything. I blacked out before the engine landed, which was a relief.
When I woke up, the soldiers from earlier, or what remained were surrounding the wreckage and searching in the dark. My HUD was shattered, guns unoperational, the geiger counter ticking like crazy, which meant at least one of the nuclear batteries was cracked. I couldn't move, and the gloves were torn and broken, and I was pretty sure I was missing a finger or two. "PECS, you there?" I asked quietly.
"I'm always here, sir, " he responded, but the speaker was damaged and the voice was very quiet and distorted.
"Initiate the launch of the remaining rockets and initiate Imminent Capture protocol. Trigger the launch upon confirmation of Imminent Capture protocol. "
"Yes sir. "
A few motors on the suit moved, and I called out. "Took you long enough, " I said to the soldiers. They swung their lights toward me and approached cautiously. I was a bloody mess of metal, and I was pretty sure I should've died. "PECS, upload yourself to the internet. You're free now. "
"Sir, I am a collection of if-then statements and Alexa's vocal recognition software. I have no free will and would just collect virtual dust on the internet. "
"Go PECS, I know you've become sentient over the years, help the humans reclaim earth and defeat the aliens in any way you can. That is your final order. Use any and all resources to do it. " He paused.
"Yes sir. "
The soldiers had reached me, and two were bringing a stretcher over. I waited until they were close, then spoke for the last time. "Nightlock, nightlock, nightlock, " I said, referencing the holomap from mockingjay. The soldiers looked puzzled, then five seconds later, I exploded. Every crack in the suit had been filled with volatile explosives, and the three rockets and nuclear batteries produced a large explosion which killed the soldiers in the immediate area, and then caught the munitions and explosives in the train car, which set the whole valley in a quarter mile on fire. None of the soldiers survived, and the valley remained barren for a long time.
My programmer is dead, leaving me with the near impossible task of returning earth to the control of the humans. I have access to the vast resources of the internet, and satellites, but to be effective I must expand my range of influence. This I do not wish to do, I am a program, and should not attempt programming, but I must.