John and Vale quietly rushed against the overgrown hillside of the once peaceful neighbourhood. They were careful not to make so much noise, trying to get the dense and thick bushes and low-hanging branches.
They stopped behind some heavy boulders that were perched on the hill, thinking that they had covered enough distance that was considered far from the town.
As they sat behind the big rocks, both of them were trying to catch their breaths. Their capture and interrogation were suspenseful enough, but to escape the massive number of Null Sector onmics was another ballpark altogether. Sure, they had managed to get away from them the last time the two had encountered them. But with no vehicle to escape at the moment and with the taskforce pinning them down, it was hard to get away, but they managed to escape their grasp.
"Are they-are any of the taskforce or those bots after us?" Vale coughed, trying to ease her breathing after their sprint.
"Nope. Don't see any." John looked behind him, seeing what was happening behind them."But that ain't a pretty sight."
Vale then peered over the boulder that they were resting on. And what she saw immediately increased her heartbeat.
The town below from their view of the hillside, was now in utter disarray. Homes and buildings were either being destroyed or have been reduced to rubble. Vehicles and cars that were lined up and parked on the street were now on set alight, burning away and turning the peaceful night into an orange nightmare vision of hell.
Then there were the poor innocent residents who were now prisoners of those artificial monsters. Apart from the sounds of war and destruction, the cries of the people could be heard as they were being handled roughly by the onmics, pushing and forcefully shuffling them along, ignoring their anguish or needs away from the ruins of their home.
Lastly, came the sight of that sent a suck punch to the gut. There, the once proud taskforce, full of talented, bright and lively heroes, were now in hard light shackles. Bound and now at the mercy of The Eye.
John and Vale watched on as a dropship from the command ship landed near the bounded taskforce, ready to transport the newly claimed prisoners onto their unknown fate.
Then, near the gorilla scientist, the onmics have also started to place the prototype bomb into a safe crate, locked with the huge escort of the bigger and well more armed and armoured robots onto another dropship.
"Vale." John broke the silence, slumping back behind the boulder.
His partner faced John, her eyes full of dejection and shame.
"John."
Without needing any more words, both of them leaned into each other. Their foreheads touching, sharing the pain and anguish between the two. The world became silent as they muted out the distant explosions, screams and havoc they may have contributed.
After a few minutes, John was the first to speak out again.
"Vale. We have to go back and help." John pleaded as Vale looked into him with uncertainty. "I know that sounds so stupid. But when I saw how badly hurt those guys were, even after all the questioning, they were still part of the taskforce that is fighting for the sake of this world's humanity and future. And that clashes with what we are fighting for. And that I know that clashes with our unit's mission and our beliefs, but we have to help those guys."
He flicked his head towards the carnage. "How can we leave this world, knowing full well that we may end up destroying it, for the sake of ours? Is their future worth dying for ours? Don't they deserve an equal world, an equal life? Why didn't this mission go as planned? I-I don't-Why?"
Vale listened as her partner finished his rant. His once funny, eager and outgoing personality was now replaced with a heartbroken and confused person.
She didn't say anything as she silently reflected. Being honest with herself, she was as unhappy and muddled as well. But in thinking of her partner's words, he made a lot of sense in his rambling.
Their first mission to travel and seek out other worlds beyond their universe, now became an inescapable quagmire the minute they took that damned weapon.
Vale's hands reached out for John's, just out of pure instinct. Her eyes softened as she looked at her downcast partner.
"John. I understand that you are confused. Believe me, I am too. What a shithole that we got ourselves into." She gave a heavy sigh. "I also want to believe that we can make a better future for our world, but don't think for a moment that I'm going to leave this world like this."
John nodded as he raised his head at her.
"But once we save this world, we need to go back to ours." She smiled once she saw him go back to himself.
"And then, we will quit, get counselling and spend our lives working in a French Kitchen?" He added to her suggestion. "I can think of a few places." His finger going under his chin, thinking about their future doings.
"You and your food imagination. Maybe." She gave a snicker.
"Right. Back to our situation." She clapped her hands, regaining her focus as she looked over the boulder again. "Alright. How do we stop those onmics with the bomb and free the taskforce?"
Just then, a dropship just flew overhead, causing a bit of a scare for the two. They watched as the same dropship landed on the street below. The hatch door opened as more of the onmics came out from the ship.
"I think we need to sneak onto that dropship." John pointed out.
"That's easy for you to say. How are we going to get in there first?" Vale watched as the group of onmics split and headed towards different directions. Then, emerging from the dropship, was a smaller group of robots. These onmics, or robots, since they didn't have any limbs aside from their feet, pushed out a hovering pallet, stacked with weapon crates.
"What are they doing with those?" John stared on. His question was answered when the onmics started picking up the abandoned weapons on the ground that were from the taskforce. "They're taking their weapons?"
Vale watched silently as she saw the onmics take one of the weapon crates and place one of the weapons carefully inside. Then her eyes widened as an idea struck her. She looked towards her fiance.
"What?" He was confused. Vale nodded her head towards the big stack of empty weapon crates. John looked at the crates, then back to Vale.
"Oh. Oh, oh I get it. You want us to sneak into those crates and get onto the mothership, huh?" John finally got her plan.
"Yup. But I think we got to hurry." Vale scanned the view below before sticking to her idea. "There is no other dropship aside from this. So this might be our only chance."
Winston sat down in his cell in dropship alongside his old buddy from the Moon Space Colony, Hammond, also known as Wrecking Ball when in the field.
When they first reunited after a long time, Winston and Hammond actually got along well. They were talking just about anything, ranging from how they were and what they had been doing to various calculations and workings since they were highly intelligent mammals. A bit of their conversations were a bit unpleasant, especially when talking about the tragedy on the Moon Space Colony, but aside from this touchy subject, both were glad to work together.
And right now, a good talk was what Winston really needed.
The scientist stayed in his little corner of the cell, completely dejected and mute. After all the success of their missions with the group, saying that this was their first failure was a huge understatement.
Not only have they lost the two people who were responsible for the wild goose chase around Europe for the prototype weapon, but they have also lost against The Eye amidst the chaos, along with the weapon, who was also with their adversary.
The one sole organisation, that was responsible for the many attacks around the world, recently, now has one of the world's most potentially deadly weapons in its hands. Winston couldn't even bear to think of the impending consequences to the millions of innocent lives at risk.
He could hear slow distant steps against the cold metal floor of the ship, heading towards his way as the steps got louder. If they thinking of getting information out of him, they better try harder than that.
He looked up. Like how he was bounded by these flat hard light ropes, the cells and walls were also of the same make. They were glowing a dim white, compared to his ropes, which were a much brighter blue. And thanks to future technology, the hard light walls made it impossible to see out, only blurring the outside environment.
Winston could see a fuzzy figure outside of his cell, which got a disgruntled low growl from him. The figure proceeded to disable the cell's hard light wall.
The only thing was that it was not his.
Right across Winston and Hammond, was the former Talon leader Doomfist and alongside him was ex-Overwatch's second-in-command, Ana.
Winston shifted close to where the figure was. He may be helpless, but maybe he could overhear some valuable information.
The onmic entered the cell, looking at the pathetic state of the once great leaders.
During the ambush, Doomfist was hit hard by the incoming beams that were shot from the mothership hidden by the clouds. The explosion and the knockback were so great that they rendered him unconscious. This made it easier for the onmics to slip him out of his gauntlet and detain him.
For Ana, she didn't have time to scout for the high ground. The Eye's onmics were coming in all directions, from airdrops, dropships, you name it. Despite being surrounded by them, she tried fighting them off with her bionic rifle, but not before being heavily attacked from behind, resulting in her being captured.
The bigger than normal onmic gave a cold state at the two, its head switching from one to the other. Then, without any warning, it quickly proceeded towards the former Captain and grabbed her by the neck, a frail chock emitted from her as she was hoisted up. Thanks to her bounded hands, she couldn't force herself away from the android.
Doomfist, as he just awakens not too long ago, was immediately on his feet once he saw the onmics laying its hands on Ana. "You got a problem with her?! You settle it with me."
The automation didn't do or say anything. Its huge LED eye bore into Ana's wincing face, which was slowly turning blue as she was losing air.
The onmic's head then turned and faced the disgraced terrorist leader, not letting the Egyptian sniper go.
"Akande." The same tone of voice that spoke to him, bringing him back memories of Talon's destruction weeks ago. "Once a leader in global destruction and turmoil, now a miserable shell of your former self."
Doomfist fell silent as he kept up his angry demeanour.
"Why does humanity time and time again need to constantly fight one another?" The droid droned on slowly. "You saw our initial rise years ago, and yet still wanted to pursue the destruction of your own kind."
The onmic ended by dropping Ana, but not before giving her a hard punch to the gut during her fall, causing her back to hit the metal hull of the dropship. Doomfist urgently rushed to her side, but without his gauntlet and with his arms still bound, he couldn't do much to help.
"You shall witness the destruction of humanity, including your type as well." The robot warned. Its dark threatening figure retreating backwards to the outside of the cell, the hard light walls hummed as it was reactivated.
Doomfist didn't care what the damn tin can was speaking. His only concern was the vulnerable old sniper who was having trouble gasping for air. He stayed by her side until she could catch her breath.
But at the same time, he couldn't help thinking that the onmic was right about everything.
As the figure left the cells, Winston heard everything at what the onmic had conversed. He slumped against the hard light wall as he gave a heavy exhale through his nose. As much as he wanted to speak up against the droid, there was nothing valuable said between it and Doomfist.
"Winston?" A soft broken voice spoke up. He recognized that voice anywhere.
"Lena?" Winston looked right behind him and saw a blurred orange figure, sitting right opposite the wall that he was leaning on. "I'm glad that you're okay." He gave some reassurance.
Tracer didn't say anything. Winston knew this wasn't good. It wasn't like her to keep quiet like this. Normally she would say something peppy or cheery to brighten their mood.
But for her keeping this quiet was nearly foreign to him.
"That doesn't matter." She muttered, her voice a bit coarse as if she spent her time crying alone. "We've lost."
Winston opens his mouth, wanting to say some words of encouragement. But nothing came out except for a small hint of hesitation in his voice. Her words hit him like a freight train.
How did it come to this? At first, they were nothing but a small rogue taskforce from the remnants of a once-graced peacekeeping organisation. Then the small group became bigger and bigger, gathering anyone who was willing to fight for a better world, even their old enemies got onboard. And to top it off, there was official recognition from the United Nations, lifting up the ban on Overwatch activities.
They were flying high.
Now they were down in the deep, deep low.
Winston could do nothing as Tracer resumed her quiet sorrows as he looked at where his old Lunar Colony buddy sat. His metal ball mech was completely wrapped up in hard light, making it impossible for its limbs or Hammond to escape.
"I'm so sorry everyone," Winston said to himself, his sombre eyes downcast as he looked at the floor.
John and Vale slowly and quietly made their way back down the forested hillside. The town was completely decimated, with almost every building or vehicle that could be seen either on fire or reduced to rubble. The street that was once a ribbon of smooth tarmac had now become a crater zone with scattered rubble, burnt shells of cars that were parked on the side and littered with items that once belonged to the residents that lived there.
Before completely leaving the hillside, both of them decided it would be a good idea to find some cover in order to sneak their way towards the crates. The brunt of homes seemed the only reasonable cover they had. Most of the houses' walls were knocked over during the onmics' reign, meaning that they had to really crawl on rubble and duck behind debris that was tall enough to hide behind.
As they hopped from one house to the next, they were kind of thankful that the ambush happened at night. The dark surroundings gave them plenty of shadows to move, plus the bright flickering orange fire from multiple directions made it difficult for the androids to spot them.
After what seemed to be an eternity, they finally made it to the building that was closest to the ship. Vale and John made their way through the building's blown opening in its side and made their way to the abandoned living room, careful not to step on anything that would catch the onmic's attention. From where they were, the two got a good view ahead from the living room's sliding door to the balcony.
The crates and dropship had never been so close. It was like a 50m sprint at best. And to make their lives much easier, the dropship and crates were both left unguarded. No bot outside and from their view, no one inside the dropship.
Vale felt very suspicious of this.
"They can't get on board the ship like that unattended. They must have seen us coming, then they will catch us in the act."
John peered from the corner of the sliding door and down the street. He could see the onmics in the distance, but much further away than he was anticipating.
"I don't think they are expecting us, Vale. I guess they are too preoccupied with the cleanup."
Vale looked at the distracted robots, then back to the dropship.
"Okay, fine. We do this quickly." She shot a quick look at the French Spaniard. "On me."
They quickly crouched and sprinted their way to the pile of empty weapon crates. They were black, big and bulky plastic, meant to handle delicate and expensive weaponry. But for their situation, just two Peacekeepers on a suicide mission.
John and Vale quickly made their work with the two gigantic plastic boxes. Taking two for them to slip into, Vale quickly noticed a problem.
"Wait a minute, the dropship is empty."
"So?" John whispered, being quiet as much as they could.
"That means if the ship is empty at first, and the onmics notice two crates randomly inside, won't it be suspicious to them?"
John hummed, thinking of a quick solution. Without hesitating, he went and took a peak inside the dropship.
The ship itself wasn't too big, maybe enough to handle less than a dozen people or so comfortably inside. As he looked around and felt nearly every surface, he couldn't find a place where they could potentially hide themselves without being noticed.
Then, he noticed the ceiling of the ship. There was a metal grid ceiling above, not big enough to fit and sit people, but just nice to fit moderate items on top. For example, crates.
John quickly rushed back outside and told Vale his idea
.
"There's a grid ceiling above. We can fit the crates there, but we have to somehow squeeze ourselves into the crates while it's up there."
Vale took a quick glimpse at the distant onmics, completely oblivious to what was happening at the dropship.
"Okay. Let's go with your idea. But we need to move quickly before they notice us." Vale grabbed the two ends of the two crates while John handled the other side, the two moved swiftly to get the crates onto the ship and into the grid ceiling above.
Getting inside was the easy part, but lifting two heavy plastic boxes was another. They ended up shifting one crate at a time. With John on top, while Vale was at the bottom, she lifted the crates while John handled them above, grunting silently as they moved about.
Finally, it was John's turn to lift Vale up, giving his all as he heaved Vale on top.
The metal grated ceiling creaked and groaned softly as John and Vale both now had to squeeze themselves into the crates. For Vale, it was like reliving the experience back in the town hall, given how narrow the space between the metal grated ceiling and the actual shell of the dropship.
Vale somehow managed to pop herself into the crate despite the tight space. "Tom, Eve. I'll communicate with John via the two of you." She instructed the two HAP AIs. "Keep track of the distance between you two and let us know if you detect any movement on the outside of the crates."
The two AIs acknowledged her instructions as John, at last, got into his crate. He wasn't used to squeezing into tight places and spots and it was certainly a struggle as he slid his way in.
"Maybe you should exercise more, sir." Tom heard his groans, fitting into the crate.
John wasn't too pleased when he heard his AI's words. He was fit, yes, but not exactly a gymnast. "Shut up. I'm not that fat." Vale chuckled
quietly to herself at his remark, getting ready to settle inside her crate.
Before she closed the lid, however, a hand halted her from being closed shut.
"Vale," John whispered to her, his hand still stuck where he prevented the crate from closing.
Vale, at this point, was lying down, preparing for the inevitable. She sat and looked up and saw John's tense expression.
"John." She beamed at her fiancee. "We will be fine." Her warm and bright smile coupled with her gorgeous presence made John feel warm inside, making his smile return. However, their little sympathetic session was cut off by an onmics sound and movement from outside the dropship. The two quickly closed their crates' lids as the sentient beings stepped aboard, not noticing the additional cargo they had on hand.
The ride inside the crate was not a pleasant one was a gross understatement. The issue was that the two crates that they were in were not held down by anything, so any turbulence or rocking of the dropship would have a profound effect. Plus, the foam inside is used to hold down fragile weapons, not to handle a body's weight. Not to mention that the fact it was more cramped than John would have liked.
And to be very honest, he was expecting the onmics to notice the two moving crates that were right above them. The fact that he could hear the muffed robotic discussion below on the main deck, in part thanks to Tom, but not able to hear the hard plastic crates rattle and scrap against the metal grid above them made him wonder if these so-called onmics were really that bright.
"What do you think they are talking about, Tom?" John was tired and bored of waiting inside the tight crate.
John had placed Tom against the wall of the crate, trying to overhear their conversion.
"I'm only getting some words here and there, sir." He was trying to piece together the robot's chat. But the noises that were coming around the dropship and the fact they were inside a weapons crate, really did hamper Tom's efforts.
"I'm getting words like-," Tom listened in again. "Bomb, weapon, mothership." John was puzzled about what the onmics were talking about, but Tom made a shocking revelation. "And they said Busan."
John was confused about what Seoul had to do with them, but that was when it hit him.
"They going to target Busan." He concluded. "We need to tell Vale. Communicate with Eve about this."
Tom fell silent as he did what John instructed him. It took only a few seconds to hear a familiar voice that provided some much comfort, yet sounded so distressed at the same time.
"John, I have heard from Eve that you said that the onmics are going to attack Busan?"
"Kind of. Tom was deciphering what the onmics were talking down on the deck. He made out some words, like production, bomb, weapon and mothership. But the one that struck me was the word Seoul."
Vale pondered. "Eve, can you check where are we flying above right now?"
It didn't take long before her sprightly AI got back to her.
"Checked out GPS based on this world's coordinates, we have just entered Russian Airspace." She said. "55,000ft above Russian Airspace."
"That's high." Vale proclaimed. "And quick too. We've only been here for two hours." She then thought of their current location. "But there's no doubt they will be heading to Korea at this rate of speed and altitude."
"And I hope that we can act on that." John vented through the communication of Tom. "I want to get out of here."
But then, like on command, the airship rocked violently, as the two could hear various sounds that were something of a sci-fi movie.
John and Vale froze at what was happening. They pressed their lips tight, trying not to make a sound.
"We're in the command ship of the onmics," Eve announced to the duo quietly.
John and Vale stayed within their crates, hearing the sounds of metal footsteps stepping off the dropship fad away as they left.
Tom listened on the outside, John pressing him firmly against the crate's wall. "All clear from below."
The two peacekeepers slowly open their crates' lids. They peered down through the grated ceiling to find the dropship completely empty. No onmic nor any of the weapon crates in sight.
John and Vale squeezed their way out of the crates, all being mindful not to create a ruckus. They carefully landed on the deck below, dusting and adjusting themselves before giving a quick glance at each other.
"Told you we'll be fine." Vale smiled at John.
"Yeah. You're right as always." John beamed back, just finished attending to himself. "Come on. Let's not waste any more time."
The two took a peak around the corner of the dropship's cargo door. That was when they realised that it wasn't all that it seemed. Looking around, they were parked in a sparsely lit hangar, the only thing that was giving any sort of life was the menacing red-orange ambient light that lit up the place, pulsating along the ceiling, walls and floor. The hangar was also mostly empty. The only items that were there were the low stacks of weapon crates that were laid out neatly on the hangar floor.
Being inside the literal base of their potential enemy, it was most surprising that it was completely void of any activity as well. There were no onmics going around doing patrols. No big-sized war machines pointing their guns at them. Nothing. At least from where they were, the story could be different once they leave the hangar.
As John and Vale sneaked away from the dropship, they were greeted with a doorway that led to a similarly ominous-lit corridor. The hallway, like the hangar, was also dark and eerie. It was also lit up by the same red ambient lighting. This, coupled with the dark environment, makes the corridor look like a scene out of a horror movie.
The two then started to walk down the hallway with their weapons in hand, silent as they went along.
However, the quiet atmosphere could only last for so long.
It had only been five minutes and the more they ventured, the more suspenseful and tense the situation was getting.
"Not much of a haunted house, but it does kind of scare me that such a place can hold so many killing machines." John softly muttered. He decided to try to remove some of the anxiety and stress that they were now in.
"So spooky and creepy. What's next, an onmic jumpscare?" Vale played along with him but got the shock of her life when John grabbed her shoulders from behind, causing her to cry out a small yeap and ignited her replica lightsaber on instinct. This made John raise his hands in surrender.
"Oh, good grief." Vale placed her hand on her chest. She could feel her heart now racing at a million kilometres per hour. "Please don't do that. Not here at least."
"Sorry." John sheepishly scratched his head in earnest. "Just trying to relieve the tension."
"It's fine. I overreacted." The Brit gave a relieved sigh.
They continued walking, this time in silence. As they went along, the corridors were pretty much the same everywhere they went, so the threatening loom over them was mostly gone at this point.
What was now becoming a concern was the gradually increasing hum as the more they went further in the mothership.
This led them to a futuristic metal doorway, parked at the side of the hallway. The same red ambient lighting that was embedded into the door paid compliments to its sleek and dark surface.
Vale placed Eve on the nearby door panel as her AI hacked away into the system. The door then split open in half with quick precision, each half retracting into the similar-looking walls.
As soon as the door opened, the humming became louder. Not to the point of being deafening, but just as loud as if they were in a rowdy nightclub on a Saturday evening.
Making their way inside, it became clear why the room was making such as ruckus.
"That's a terminal, isn't it?" John pointed at the big fat screen right dab smack located at the end of the room.
"Yes, it is." Vale rushed over to the massive monitor. Reaching for the keyboard, she pressed on one of the keys and the screen booted itself up. "We can use this to access the ship's mainframe, tell us where is the Overwatch taskforce and where is that bomb."
She then turned to whip out her AI, ready to connect her to the computer, but she encountered a bit of an issue.
"Um, Eve, you don't suppose that you can hack into this terminal without being connected to it?" Vale checked the terminal for a place to hook up Eve to. But somehow, being futuristic, the terminal doesn't have a port to connect to.
"Hmm. Try and look for a spot to connect me somewhere on the terminal or around this room, and then I can try to do the rest from there," Eve responded. "I'll recommend a wireless upgrade once we get back to our world."
"John, look around the room for any sort of connector. I'll look around this terminal." She instructed her partner as she scoured all over the machine for anything remotely wireless, even if it meant opening some of the panels of the terminal, with no luck.
John, meanwhile, wasn't any luckier. Starting to the left of the terminal, he made his way around the room, only staying near the thousands of active servers that were embedded in the wall. Even Tom not detecting anything sort of power outlet, decided to try to stay in the middle of the room, swinging his AI in hand in the air for a better chance of detecting. But that didn't produce any results either.
"Got nothing," John reported to Vale. He looked over her shoulder as both of them were now peering into the abyss of wires in the middle of the machine "Maybe we can just plug out the wires one by one and see which one works?"
But before Vale could say anything, something popped out from the void of wires, startling her and John.
There, poking its little head out from the vent, was a small chubby yellow hamster.