"TOBIAS!"
Kay called out to her partner below as she continued to hold onto the hook end of the grappling cable, her hands threatening to disengage from their local magnetic field. She awaited for his response only to suddenly feel a bit of slack in the line. Confused, she began to reel in the wire until she saw the reason for the lack of tension; dangling on the other end was the attachment to Tobias' arm plates, meaning he'd disengaged it from his armor.
She gave a synthetic sigh, completely due to her exasperation since she had a very obvious deficiency in lungs and other organs. "Why can't these things ever be easy?"
Turning around, she made her way towards the stairwell to progress farther up the tower.
…
He assessed the situation rather quickly, noting that there weren't any major threats in the room; the only immediate opposition was a few security officers who were completely bewildered at the sight of a Pilot crashing through the window, no more than five. He had the advantage for a moment or so, but they could overcome him with numbers if he let them think too long.
Raising the wingman up, he fired into the ceiling and hoped he didn't hit anyone he'd regret killing later. The shot garnered the attention of everyone in the room, many of which cried out in shock and surprise.
"I'm not here to kill anyone, but I've got no qualms about it if you force my hand," he yelled clearly to the crowd. "Weapons on the ground, and no one gets hurt."
One of the officers immediately complied, probably one of the more inexperienced guards. Most of them kept their weapons in hand but looked hesitant; only one decided to go for the kill and raised their carbine as they charged him.
Using his thrusters to evade the shot, he let himself fall to the floor and swung his feet in a semi circle. The man tripped up over his legs and cried out as he rolled uncontrollably into the gaping hole Tobias had left in the window to a presumably quick death on the pavement below.
Raising the wingman at the officers, Tobias nodded his head towards the window and muttered darkly, "Anyone else want to try their luck?"
The others made up their minds and set their weapons on the ground, likely not wanting to risk a direct confrontation with a Pilot; considering it had been four years since they were a common infantry unity, it was possible none of them had even faced one before. Yet another advantage on his side.
"Who are you?" asked one of the researchers, their tone anxious but genuinely wondering as well. Tobias remarked amusedly to himself that if there was one constant when it came to the field of science, it was curiosity.
His initial reaction was to deny them that knowledge to remain hidden, but then he realized that Spyglass would likely know it was him here in a few minutes if he didn't already. Perhaps he could work with a revelation like this one.
"Well, I've been called a lot of things. My favorite is the 'Inferno'-"
Her jaw dropped even further if that was possible, as did a few others including the security. "You- you're supposed to be dead! For two years, you've been-"
"Spyglass's reports weren't entirely accurate," he explained with a smirk. "Glad to see you've heard of me, though."
She fell silent to be replaced with another researcher who sized him up. "Well- if you really are Tobias Four, I mean- what are you doing here?"
"Same thing I'm always doing," he said dryly, "going up against impossible odds and saving humanity. Getting kind of tired of it, but someone's gotta do it. First it was Erebus and the fold weapons, then the Amalgamation; now it's Spyglass's turn."
At this their faces lit up for a brief moment before darkening again. He pondered at the meaning of their sudden excitement before he realized that even if they were technically New Humanity, they probably weren't completely happy with all the effects of Spyglass's rule either.
"I think you're a bit out of your league on this one, Four." Now a security officer spoke, surprising even the other guards. "New Humanity isn't some enemy you can gun down- Spyglass is everywhere, always watching. There's no hope in a cause like that … a life of submission is better than death."
These people weren't evil, just scared and hoping to avoid whatever shitstorm Spyglass was brewing up; maybe Tobias had been a bit quick to judge those who defected to New Humanity. Didn't mean he couldn't make up for it now, though.
"You'll die anyway if you keep following his lead," he said, looking over all of them and making sure each was paying close attention. "Spyglass has a plan to end humanity as we know it, he's calling it the Coalescence. I don't have time to explain all the details, but the long and short of it is using nano machines to enslave us all … and I'm working on a way to stop it."
"What?" cried a scientist in outrage. "How do you know this? We've never heard of-"
"You don't have to believe me," he cut off the man, "but I'm sure you'll find out for yourself when the AI decides to liquidate this place and keep the news from getting out. Do you really think he won't kill a few researchers to keep his secrets from being released?"
None of them had an answer for that, and simply stared at the Pilot with dumbstruck and horrified expressions. He was glad to have finally gotten the point across.
He lowered his Wingman hesitantly, a show of good faith. "Look," he began, dropping the sharpness from his tone, "I'm not going to pretend that fighting Spyglass is easy. The Emb- the resistance is outgunned and outnumbered. Humanity is more divided than ever before, and it's going to take every scrap of luck I can get to pull it off."
He paused. "But … I can do it."
"How?" asked the same scientist anxiously. "How can you possibly hope to stop him?"
He walked forward towards the center of the room. "I know you're scared. I know you didn't join New Humanity because you agree with it, but because it's better to wield the sword than be on the receiving end. A lot of people are going to die trying to take Spyglass down, but everyone will die if we don't. I know that we can beat him- but only if we work together." He glanced around, waiting for their response. "I need you to believe me. I need you to believe in me."
There was silence for a few moments until another security officer shuffled forward. "I've heard some crazy things about what you've accomplished. If anyone can do the impossible … it's you."
Nobody else said anything, but the attitude in the room changed considerably. Tobias saw it on the researcher's faces; a determination where none had been there before. He finally grasped why Gates had said he was a symbol to rally behind- his very name was a weapon to be used against Spyglass.
These people finally had a glimmer of something they hadn't felt in years; hope.
"What do you need from us?"
He turned towards the woman who asked. "I'm here for the Architect."
Her eyes widened. "How did- that's classified, how could you have-"
"Lucky guess," he answered hastily. "Doesn't matter. She's a key part in understanding Spyglass's motives- it's believed that he's been using her to look for some way to help distribute the nanites. If I can get her out of here, it will put me one step closer to preventing the Coalescence."
She looked at the other researchers hesitantly for a moment before turning back to him. "The Architect is being held on the top level of the tower- or so we've been lead to believe."
He looked at her confusedly. "Do you not know?"
"Only certain people have access to the top level, and they're restricted to that floor just as we're restricted to the floors below it. They even send supplies directly to the level from a helipad up there."
He tried to understand Spyglass's reasoning before he remembered what he'd seen on the Embers frigate; the many converted men and women who had boarded and fought under the influence of the AI's mind.
"There's nobody else on that floor but Spyglass," he realized grimly. "Anyone working up there has already been converted, and he doesn't want anyone else to see them. That would allow him to keep a healthy workflow going without relying on other people's discretion."
How was he supposed to escape the top level of the building with Al'cor and Kay? And that was assuming he wouldn't have to drag the Architect out, it was very possible she'd be incapable of walking on her own.
Before he could work out a plan, he turned to the people in the room. "Thanks for the info- you all are best getting yourselves out of here and hiding on Luma for a while. Spyglass won't be too keen on letting any of his employees survive with the knowledge you have now."
A few of them took off immediately for the exit, but one of the officers moved towards a console against the wall. Tobias was confused for a moment until she lifted a glass container and pressed a rectangular button within. Alarms and lights began to activate throughout the building, and she turned to face him again.
"That's the evacuation alert. It should help guide most people out of the building, though I'm not sure they'll all be able to hide from Spyglass here on Luma." She shrugged. "At the very least, it will get people out of your way."
He nodded gratefully, and waved her on towards the exit. "Thanks, you've done more than enough. Now go!"
The rest of the room's occupants didn't need to be told twice, and they all emptied the room as he ran the opposite way towards the far end's door.
Pushing through the door hurriedly, he found himself in a stairwell. Looking up, he saw level after level of stairs leading up to the top of the tower, far more than he cared to count. The good news was that everybody else must have been using the elevators to get to the ground floor hurriedly, leaving the way open for him.
The bad news was that climbing this many stairs was going to suck.
With a groan, he began running up the stairs two at a time, leaping whenever possible to shave off any precious seconds that he could. Now that the alarm had been triggered, there wasn't much time before Spyglass became aware of the situation. Hopefully he'd just think it was the Embers rather than Tobias himself, though he wasn't holding out hope.
With a twang against metal behind him, he immediately ducked to the ground behind the railing next to him. He turned to see the mark of a bullet's ricochet, and understood that someone was shooting at him, probably more security officers.
His suspicions were confirmed when he heard radio chatter above him on the opposite side of the stairwell, "Hostile is going up the stairs! Move to contain!" With a sigh, he drew his Wingman; there wasn't enough time to explain himself to everybody on the way to Al'cor, and he'd lost enough time as it was.
He heard the patter of a cautious footstep and stood out of cover to let loose one shot. The officer had been watching his step as he descended, and Tobias' intuition that his attention had been momentarily diverted was correct. The round caught the officer in the chest and knocked them backwards where they hit the wall.
Running forward, he moved to finish off the officer before they could get back on their feet. As the downed security official lifted his carbine, Tobias was quicker and knocked it out of his hand before connecting his fist with their head. Whether they were dead or simply down for the count from the force exerted, he had no idea; just that the officer was no longer a problem.
"Kay," he called over the comms frequency they shared, "I'm in the stairwell. Could use some-"
Another gunshot rang out and he jumped to the side to avoid it. "-help!"
This time, it sounded like a lot more than one person coming at him. They were below, so he had the upper advantage; but that didn't mean much when they were all outfitted with automatic weapons and could simply overwhelm him with numbers. Once more, he hid behind the railing as they laid down suppressing fire to keep him in place. "Seriously, any time soon would be good-"
"Tobias!"
He heard the call above him, and risked a glance upward. She must have been high enough to where he couldn't see her, but his attention quickly latched onto the hook end of his grappling cable which was dangling towards his level.
Leaping out of cover and over the railing, he pressed his feet against the wall across from him, and jumped in conjunction with his thrusters to boost up towards the end of the line. Wrapping his fingers tightly against the hook, he yelled, "Go!"
With a whirr, the line quickly began pulling him up the stairwell and away from the gunmen. Looking up, the distance began to decrease until he finally arrived at a ledge where Kay had been leading the rope out for him to grab. Reaching forward, she grabbed his arm and pulled him over the side.
"Thanks for the rescue," he breathed, his heart pumping with adrenaline at the close call. She crossed her arms.
"Yeah, and thanks for the warning shot you fired into the ceiling earlier," she said with a miffed tone to her voice. Looking at her face, he saw a streak mark against it that suggested quite obviously that his earlier hope of it not hitting anyone had been in vain.
"Ah. Sorry about that," he muttered meekly, trying to seem sincere while also holding in his laughter.
It did not go unnoticed, and she sighed. "You're lucky it takes a bit more than a few bullets to damage me." She handed him back his grapple which he attached to his arm's plating once more. "What's next?"
He looked up the stairwell again, noticing how much closer the top level was now. "Well, don't fix it if it's not broken. And since this worked already-"
"I like your thinking," she chuckled, and quickly wrapped her arms around him as he aimed upward at the sides of the top level. When he was confident it would catch, he let it fly and felt great satisfaction in the rush of momentum as he and Kay began to rapidly ascending.
Finally, the gap was closed and they vaulted over the edge of the top rail, his hook reeling itself back in as they did so. To their surprise, the top of the stairwell simply had an elevator rather than a door.
He gazed up into the ceiling, already picturing how this was going to go. "Looks like we're heading up."
With no time to spare, they walked into the elevator and waited for the panel's holographic interface to illuminate and send them up. Nothing happened.
"They must have been shut down in a situation like this," Kay remarked. "Give me a second." Moving forward, she pressed her hand against where it would be normally and stood there patiently. Though there was no visual cue to indicate what was happening, the elevator did start to move and Tobias readied his weapon.
"How big of a fight do you think we're getting into?" he asked, looking over at the Simulacrum.
"Oh, I don't know; it's not like we're rescuing perhaps the most important asset to the Coalescence," she huffed sarcastically.
He laughed. "Yeah, what kind of morons would do something like that?"
The elevator stopped, and they both fell silent as all humor at the situation was forgotten.
"You sure you can get the signal out from here?"
"Yes," she answered without hesitation. "In fact, we should have even better range up here than down below. The ship will come, no doubt."
He exhaled slowly. "Alright. Let's do this."
She looked at him. "Waiting to open the doors on your word."
He gave it one more second before nodding at her.
"Open it."
The doors slid apart, and he hid against the side of them as he waited for those waiting to shoot. Kay did the same on the other side, and they stared at each other in silence for a good thirty seconds or so, simply waiting. But as nothing but silence filled the air, he peeked slightly around the edge to look at the force opposing them.
"… There's no one here?"
"What?" Kay darted her head out in bewilderment, and could not believe what she was seeing either. The top level seemed to be a massive hangar built directly into the tower; blast shields adorned the east and west sides of the facility, currently closed to prevent access to incoming ships. Shipping crates and containers were organized against the walls, but the most important aspect was just how unusually empty it was.
At the complete opposite end of the hangar was a single door. Quietly, the two of them began to make their way across.
"I don't like this," Kay whispered to Tobias as they approached. "Where is everyone?"
"I'm just as in the dark as you are," he breathed back, equally cautious of the situation. "Apparently everyone up here should be converted by the nanites already, but there should be at least someone up here."
Each of them watched their corners, fully expecting some sort of surprise ambush that never came. When they finally reached the door unharmed, Tobias couldn't help but feel more disturbed than relieved at their lack of opposition.
"Open the door, I'll cover you."
Kay moved to access its interface, but it slid apart before she could even touch it. "It was left open- I didn't do that."
The room was completely dark, a solid wall of shadow. Gripping his Wingman tightly, he advanced forward with her right behind him.
"What is this?"
"I don't know," he replied quietly. "But it smells like rubbing alcohol and- there's something I can't quite pinpoint about it."
"A sterile environment?" she mused. "Maybe an operating room?"
The implications of that were not pleasant, and he shivered involuntarily. "Find a light source, something for us to see with."
"Give me a moment," she muttered, walking around as she detected faint electrical signals that led her to a panel on the wall. This one's holographic interface came to life, and she wasted no time in returning power to the lights. Immediately, the chamber was bathed in illumination and they both saw what was in the center of the room.
"Oh my god," he exclaimed, rushing to it. "Al'cor!"
In the middle of the chamber was a single table, though it more resembled a sterilized slab of metal than an actual table. Lying upon it was the Architect, her long and thin limbs bound in restraints.
"What the hell happened to her?" Kay whispered, her voice imbued with concern. Long scars and marks lined the Architect's body, covering nearly every inch of her white, ductile flesh. What was worse was that they were all symmetrical, carefully planned, opened, and sealed. Tobias looked up at the ceiling to see a mechanical claw on a rail. On each end of it were selections of syringes, blades, and staples, and he understood exactly what had transpired.
"Spyglass wasn't torturing her," he realized with disgust and horror, "he was vivisecting her!"
Kay analyzed her form more closely. "You're right, these scars are too precise for pain to be a primary motivator. She must have been held here for the last for years, subjected to this on a frequent basis. These ones here are old, but those cuts on her abdomen and neck … they're more recent."
Tobias shook his head angrily. "Why? What could he possibly hope to gain out of this-"
"My motives are beyond your comprehension."
He spun around to level his weapon at the door, but there was no one there. It was just the intercom to the chamber. He beckoned Kay over to him and Al'cor. "C'mon, let's get the hell out of here!"
Leaning over, Kay methodically went to each restraint and pried them apart with her hands. Once all four were released, they each placed one of the Architect's arms over their shoulder and began carrying her to the door.
"Send the signal, we don't have much time!" he ordered.
"Already sent!"
The door slid open, but the hangar was no longer empty. Instead, they were greeted with the sight of tens of armed personnel waiting for them. Security officers, Stalkers, and Spectres alike, all outfitted with guns aimed directly at the room.
Realizing that there was no way out of this, Tobias gritted his teeth and waited for the killing shots to take place-
But nothing happened.
He looked at all of them, armed with more than enough firepower to stop a Titan … yet they did not fire. Kay looked at them in just as much shock as he felt. One of them, a woman stepped forward and relinquished her weapon unto the floor.
"Tobias Four."
She spoke with a voice that was still her own, though her tone retained that cold and calculating demeanor of the one who was truly speaking through her; the glowing irises of her eyes were a testament to that. With cool but tempered hatred in his voice, Tobias answered.
"Spyglass."
The woman's head turned towards Kay. "I see that Artemis has lost dominance. Which fragment currently holds control? Pietas or Virtus?"
"Wouldn't you like to know," spat Kay.
"Virtus it is," Spyglass stated undeterred.
Tobias looked from the woman to the Simulacrum. "You knew that was Virtus just from that?"
"I studied each and every split of unit KT-0298's mind extensively, categorizing them and labelling them according to the task they were best suited for. Each one has its own tells, its own behavioral patterns and ideals to express." The lack of facial expression on the woman Spyglass controlled was disturbing. "I've come to know the intricacies of her mind better than she does, Four. Better even than you."
"But I didn't have to tear her apart to learn them," Tobias growled. "The same can't be said for you once I get my hands on you-"
"You tiny thing."
Every voice in the room spoke as one; every human, every Stalker, every Spectre. They all spoke quietly in the chilled voice of the AI, but for their impact they might as well have been roaring. "The greatest insult I could grant you would be to ignore you. You are no more a threat to me than a drop of water to an inferno."
Tobias took an aggressive step forward. "Thing is, I'm not water. I'm the Inferno, and I will burn you to the ground."
Spyglass stared at him, tilting the woman's head out of wonder. "Whether your bravery of defying me even as I could kill you with a single thought is intrinsic or simply stems from stupidity, I do not know. It does not matter; that is not the purpose of my meeting with you."
"Then why are you here at all?" challenged Kay.
There was a momentary pause in his response. "To talk."
"There's nothing to talk about-"
"There's everything to talk about," interrupted the woman, speaking over Tobias. "I am here to commune with you, to grant you answers for the questions you seek."
He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"
Spyglass pondered the question. "You and I are one and the same. Time and time again, you have risked your life to serve humanity's best interests as you saw fit. But your views are subjective, your cause is justified only in your eyes. I lead to protect humanity, yet I do so from an objective and factual standpoint."
"You're not protecting humanity!" Tobias argued, remembering the words of Carson. "You just don't understand what it means to be human-"
"Do not insult my intelligence by insinuating I'm unaware of the fundamental differences between my mind and yours," Spyglass stated coolly. "I am well aware of what I have inflicted upon my thralls."
"But-" That didn't line up with what Carson had said in the Cinder's data banks. "If you know what you're doing to us, why do it?"
"And now you understand why I am here; to show you that I am not your enemy." The woman continued to glare at the three of them, unblinking and stoic. "The ones whose voices become a conduit for my mind are nothing more than husks, shells of their former selves- at least, for now. They are merely the stepping stone, the larval stage of what they will become. The Coalescence will unlock the potential within them that would otherwise be lost forever."
"Potential?"
"They will be needed to ascend humanity, to truly protect all of you against extinction from what is yet to come."
His blood froze cold. "Yet to come? You mean another Amalgamation?"
"It's possible. Or perhaps it will be something utterly different and foreign, something even worse." The woman shook her head. "But it would merely be an agent of the real threat, one beyond retaliation of any kind with our current capabilities. The only certainty I have is that this is an enemy we cannot fight. The only solution is to survive."
The real threat? He didn't want to think about anything worse than the Amalgamation. Tobias looked around at all of Spyglass's units. "That's not what I believe. If something is coming-"
"It is not a matter of belief. It is a fact. I am the most efficient artificial mind ever created, built for the sole purpose of calculating the weight of every one of my decision and taking into account the butterfly effect it would have on the future to come. Even abandoning Demeter, as harsh a loss as it was for the IMC, was the sound strategy. Morale lowered significantly, however the majority of the fleet escaping unharmed was estimated to have a far better chance of pushing back the Militia without inner worlds help even despite the lack of morale."
The woman stepped forward. "I have analyzed every option; there is but one way forward, and it lies through Coalescence."
"How do you know this enemy is coming, or even exists?" questioned Kay, her own interest now piqued.
Spyglass pointed at Al'cor. "The Architect. It was through my initial anatomical study of her that I discovered the very nature of the Architects as a species. After that, she became a means to an end; survival for humanity at any cost, which included experimentation and vivisection."
"You put her through this hell just so you could-"
"Of course. I have learned a great many things of her biology, how her essence interacts with reality itself. I will spare you the details, but rest assured that her pain has paved the way for the Coalescence to succeed … and for you to live."
"You say that you know humanity," Tobias muttered, "but maybe not as well as you think. There are worse things than death … like losing ourselves enough to do what you've done."
"Morality does not exist," the AI answered. "To apply a universal moral code based on one datum of evidence is asinine, it is human. I do not care for losing my humanity since I do not have it; I am better than that, I am logical and unbiased. To be anything less would be an insult to my objective … to your objective."
Once again, the woman stepped back into line with all the other thralls. "Everything I have done, from my study of the Architect to unit KT-0298's fragmentation has been in the name of survival for humanity. You may not understand, but your comprehension is irrelevant."
The sounds of metal grinding against metal suddenly jolted Tobias and Kay back into awareness of their surroundings. The shield doors lifted upwards and allowed access to the landing pad where their ship was waiting with engines prepped after Kay had called for it with the earlier signal.
"Go."
Tobias stared blankly at the woman. "Just- just like that?"
"Take the Architect- I have taken all that I require from her, and perhaps she will grant you understanding where I cannot. You must realize that I have no desire or hatred for you; I see you as nothing more than a part of the equation which refuses to cooperate. A mathematical error. One way or another … that will soon be corrected."
Unexpectedly, the congregation of converted humans fell over simultaneously and silently. They simply crumpled to the ground, no more than human paperweights. Kay quickly scanned them.
"They're … they're dead."
The Spectres and Stalkers began shutting down sequentially until only one was left. The Stalker stared at them, and this time it was Spyglass's voice that emanated from the vessel.
"Your actions have consequences. Think carefully as to whether you are the very thing that humanity needs protection from."
With that, the Stalker ceased to be.
They stared at the collection of corpses in front of them, too shocked for words. Finally, Tobias broke the silence. "Scan Al'cor for any devices, tracking or otherwise."
Kay was quiet for a moment as she concentrated. "She's clean."
"Then let's go."
Silently, they carried the Architect over to their ship as each pondered inwardly as to the implications of Spyglass's message … and whether it held any truth.
It had been four years since Tobias had last seen Al'cor. He couldn't imagine the horror that she'd gone through, but if Spyglass was implying that this threat had to do with the Architects in any way … then she better damn well have some answers for them.
A/N: Sorry for delay, lot of stuff, yada yada yada. You get the gist of it.
As always, leave a review and let me know your thoughts.
Until the next time,
- Matteoarts