Shadow Enforcers: Chapter 3

Mark of History

The princess was spending the day with the children of certain Mechas to teach them about certain aspects of their society. Tachyon had heard this before but he found himself lacking in the history of the Mecha people. The treaty signing had not been completed as both sides had been sent back to agree upon the new details of the treaty. This break in the negotiations was a welcoming relief to Tachyon. Princess Mechana had spoken to Tachyon about his outburst. She understood but she reminded him that he had to keep to the proper procedures of the negotiations. Tachyon-1 came to understand that warrior units were not at these types of negotiations as that was normally left just to the Princess and the proper parties. This was a new thing.

Mechana gave Tachyon the day to do as he saw fit. She knew he needed the reprieve. Tachyon decided that now was the best time of any to try to delve into the history of the Mechas. He made his way down to the Information and Historical Repository. Being he was the Enforcer to the Princess, he was granted access to the highest security section of the Repository. The code on his armor was scanned and he was granted entry.

'Welcome, Enforcer Tachyon. Please state your query.' The historical unit chimed.

"Show me the history of the Mechas."

'Query acknowledged.' The historical unit began the playback from nearly one million human years ago.

-The dimension Kraedon-

For millions of years, the dimension Kraedon existed, far before the time of man. It was home to a race of intellectual beings, called Kry'lon, which sought knowledge and a peaceful way of living. But even after millennia of peace, war eventually becomes a part of the cycle. The war was between the Kry'lons and one of their earlier creations, the Crys'lis. Experimental laborers created to work in the dangerous mines that housed the crystal fuel used by the Kry'lon. The crystals that were mined were fatal to the organic structure of the Kry'lon. But when the Crys'lis rose against their creators, one final creation was made in hopes to stop to Crys'lis. That creation was the Mechas. The Mechas were robotic servants with true AI status created to help in the defense of the Kry'lon and the Mechas against the Crys'lis. But it was too late.

The Mechas had not received the completed programming for battle. One of the last Kry'lon scientists worked feverishly to protect the last bit of stored information about the Mechas. He hoped that someday someone would find this place and stop the Crys'lis once and for all. The scientist's name was Adjudicator Mjl'soun and he had just finished downloading the final bit of data into a fractal storage unit. The unit sank into the floor and the safety's activated, locking into place and making it to look like part of the floor. There was little left to do as he heard the Crys'lis trying to break through the blast doors. He knew it was only a matter of time before they broke through and killed him. He turned to the first Mecha he ever created, Viatha. She was beautiful but had a very scared look on her dirty face.

Her eyes looking to her creator to tell her it would be alright. "Father, please tell me what I must do. My processes are conflicting. I am afraid." She often called the Adjudicator "father" being that is how he always treated her. The Mechas had feelings and were treated as family to those that owned them.

Mjl'soun looked down at Viatha and took her face in his talons. "You must go and take what remaining Mechas are alive and go into hiding. You must not make the same mistakes we made. You must live." He looked back as he heard the door start to buckle under the constant assault of the Crys'lis. The mechanical controls that were keeping the door locked began to spark and short out. A part of the door's structure gave way and crashed into the computers and databanks in the room. Mjl'soun pulled Viatha to him to protect her from the explosion. As the explosion passed he opened an access point to an escape tunnel. "You were the greatest of my creations, Viatha. Lead your people and remember that you were the most loved among the Kry'lon. Now go, quickly!"

As the sound of the main door began to strain, Viatha ran to the tunnel and turned back to see a portion of the ceiling collapse, blocking her path to save her "father". "FATHER!" She screamed out, reaching her hand out to grab at nothing. An oil tear fell down her cheek as she could feel the weight of losing someone close to her. But she would not disobey him. The access door shut behind her, sealing itself. Leaving only the blackness of the escape tunnel.

As she made her way outside, there were several other Mechas there waiting for her. The Mechas often looked to Viatha for leadership and they were doing so now more than ever. She turned to look back at the collapsing city, their home.

"What do we do now?" One of the male Mechas asked.

Viatha turned and looked at the seven gathered in front of her. "We do as 'father' told me. We will go far from here and create our own lives. We must live to never repeat these mistakes again. We must live." And so the eight did. They created a small city on the far edge of the continent, far away from the Crys'lis. In time, the Mechas numbers grew as they learned how to procreate among each other. They even learned how to repair one another to keep their systems from failing. They learned much about their own race. But as with all beings, there are even some "diseases" that cannot be cured. After nearly one thousand years of functional life, Viatha was suffering from catastrophic cascade failures of her systems. Her knowledge and memories of her life were stored in a separate databank so the failures could not carry to the other Mechas. The Mecha scientists could not stop what was happening to her. When her systems had finally failed, she was given a place where those that followed would always remember her. She was named Seni-Matrix One, the first Goddess to lead her people to freedom from the Crys'lis. The other seven original Mechas were also raised to godhood when they also passed away.-

Tachyon took in this new information. The deity, Tachyon, must have been one of the original eight Mechas. He must have learned about the art of war. "What happened to the Crys'lis?"

The historical unit was silent for a moment before speaking up again. 'The Crys'lis has not been seen in nearly one millennia.'

Something felt wrong with that. In his years studying psychology and animal behavior, something or someone that considers another race an enemy does not stay hidden for long. "How long have the Machnars been at war with the Mechas?"

'Nearly five hundred megacycles.'

If evolution has run its course, the Crys'lis could have created the Machnars to act as their soldiers to destroy the creations of the Kry'lons. Tachyon spent the next several hours going through every bit of history he could. Trying like hell to piece together a puzzle that may have been long since forgotten by the Mechas. After a great deal of research and nearly twelve more hours, Tachyon had an idea of what happened to the Crys'lis. A small probe entered his chambers and began to pulse. It was like his own personal secretary.

"Enforcer Tachyon, the treaty proceedings will commence in 5 cycles. Your electronic presence will be necessary to the Princess' safety." The female voice stated quietly.

Tachyon-1 was in the other room and didn't hear the probe. He had his helmet off and was startled when the probe entered his bedroom. "Oh shit…."

The probe's pulse began to increase as if to raise an alarm. "Intruder…Intruder. Summoning the Enforcer Tachyon! Summoning the Enforcer Tachyon!"

Tachyon raised his hands. "S.I.T.A, stop…it's me! It's Tachyon."

SITA stopped pulsing. "Voice recognition acknowledged. I do not understand. You are not Mecha."

Tachyon rubbed the back of his head. "It's a really long story, SITA. I'll try to explain as best I can. But you cannot divulge this information to anyone. You must not reveal that I'm human. Comply."

SITA pulsed again. "Acknowledged."

Tachyon explained everything to SITA. How he was from another dimension and how he was trapped here and the rules he had to follow to ensure the Mecha day to day life was not disturbed. "And that's the whole story."

"I will not reveal this information without your authorization. But that still means you must attend the treaty signing." SITA pulsed softly.

"I can't. There's a part of your history that has to be solved. I think the Crys'lis are still alive. And I'm going to find out how." Tachyon put his helmet on and the air seals locked into place.

"This is illogical. To truly learn if the Crys'lis are still alive, you must enter into…." She stopped as Tachyon spoke up.

"Into Sector 9 Zeta, I know." Tachyon checked his weaponry. "If I don't learn the truth, SITA, your people could get overrun by the Machnar." He looked up at SITA. "I've become far too fond of your people to see them get destroyed."

"My people or is it just the Princess you have grown fond of?" SITA almost sounded indignant.

Tachyon chuckled lightly. "If I didn't know any better, SITA, I would think you are jealous." He turned to pick up a pack. "Besides, she's a Mecha, I'm a human. It wouldn't work. Plus I'd be violating Code 3."

SITA seemed to be silent. "Tachyon…I…"

Tachyon was about to transport himself as he stopped. "What's wrong, SITA?"

The probe moved and pushed herself against his armor. "Please…be careful. You don't know how much of an impact you have made on our people."

Tachyon touched the small metallic ball of light. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, access my secondary onboard computer and tie into my homing beacon. If anything goes wrong, it'll go off and you'll be able to track me." He grinned. "It's probably so archaic to you by your standards in terms of the programming."

"Just as long as I know you are safe. I don't care how archaic it is." SITA said quietly. She backed away from him carefully.

Tachyon smiled under his helmet. SITA wasn't just a probe. Something about her was more than she was letting on. But at this point, everyone had their secrets. Tachyon slammed his fist into the upper left portion of his chestplate. The electrical discharge transported him out of the palace.