Rise of the Machines: Book 1: Once Awakened

by Briana Ervin

  More screaming. Something crashed into me, but it shattered right when it did, which simply threw off my trajectory. I flew sideways, going through a cloud of something small and sharp that buffeted me further, throwing me into a spin.

  AAAA! I shrieked. I was taking too much damage! If my luck was bad and we were too close to the ground... but which way was up?!

  Cyrii jumped in and organized my confusion, breathing hard and trying not to keep screaming. She inputted several commands into my console, somehow righting me. It was assuring now: we were very high up! The chaos was so thick it was like I was floating in sand-infested water, and each speck of sand was a fighter.

  I hoped to land on an Enemy before we hit the ground, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. I absorbed a huge amount of shock when we landed, and something somewhere cracked threateningly. I wasn't sure what it was, but it didn't feel good.

  Run a diagnostic! I told Cyrii. I actually took myself off guard; I was ordering her now?

  She didn't seem to care. I could feel the keyboard characters being written at light speed.

  The ground was no less chaotic than the air. I charged forward – or rather, awkwardly hobbled forward, with my weak leg – trying to take in everything at once. Drones fighting mechs fighting ships fighting drones... a battle of machines. Some robot – I wasn't sure who – was torn apart a ways away, part of it thrown toward me; I tried not to look at it. It being a machine didn't make it any less horrifying, nor anything else in the fight; the screaming of AI and metal alike, the shrieks and bangs of combat, the booms of heavily artillery, all nearly drowned out by the relaxing sound of gunfire...

  “Relaxing”. Only relatively speaking.

  “Diagnostics are- AAHH!” Cyrii was cut off as some enemy drone barreled into me, throwing the two of us into a larger machine with a loud clang. The drone that charged me, which looked terrifyingly-similar to a mech, punched a three-pronged weapon into my abdominal box and began to rend wire. I yelped and tried to retaliate, but the pyramidal machine we both collapsed into had reared up, hovering and pushing against me, and started impaling us both with spike-tipped wires, like barbed tentacles! The wires wrapped around my limbs and kept me from moving! I struggled in vain, trying to tear free from its grasp.

  “Hold on!!” Cyrii shrieked, still typing rapidly as if it would save us. I fought against the two foes, intending to escape yet also confused about their allegiance. I plastered a turret into a suspected weak point of the first drone and unloaded an entire clip into him. Pieces of metal flung about and I punched through, but alas, no circuits or wires! On the other hand I was in danger of having my legs disabled!

  “Got it! Take out that wire!” Cyrii forced an overlay on my vision explaining which wire. One going into the enemy machine?

  Why?! I asked.

  “Just do it!”

  I did so, taking my other arm and twisting up that wire with a bayonet before pulling and cutting it in twain! The almost-mech drone hit my head hard, giving the tentacle machine a chance to pull back the wire, but before it fully retracted I noticed a strange ooze coming from it... was that liquid fuel?

  The tentacle machine shoved me away from it, forcing both the drone and I onto our feet. The drone threw a punch at me, barely missing my cameras and instead fracturing my sclera lighting nicely.

  “Oh geez!” I couldn't tell if Cyrii was annoyed, frightened or both. I didn't want to give the drone room to strike again, so I pushed against him, lodging my bayonet in like I did with the flying one. He tried to stand his ground, using his eerily-similar build to brace against me. The other machine from behind started whipping me and scraping the barbs along, the awful screeching ripping up layers of metal and paint temporarily distracting me. I tried to turn around, causing the drone – who was still impaled by one of my turrets – to be dragged too. He now focused his efforts on removing said turret for his own freedom, while I tackled the tentacle machine to keep it from flying off, targeted a new weak point, and used the same tactic that I did with the drone.

  Bang! Success! I struck some sort of fuel cell inside, and the machine exploded into flames! It died immediately, its horrid barbed wires falling still. It must have been on the Enemy's side, as the drone grew frantic after this!

  “You're not getting away with this,” I threatened him as he finally pulled himself off. He seemed genuinely disturbed, or maybe he just wanted to seek repair. Either way, he bolted! I charged after him, tied-up wires on me from the deceased drone snapping off.

  “YEAH! Get him 767!” Cyrii cheered, pushing me after him.

  Pursuing one target in the midst of a full-blown attack is surprisingly hard, however. It wasn't necessarily that I lost him; it was that we were both interrupted.

  Again, something charged into me and pinned me down. While it wasn't verbal, frustration spiked within me, and I fought with the new assailant. In my peripheral I saw the Enemy drone get sniped by one of my comrades. Good. He didn't make it, I assured myself. This next enemy was easy to take out, as it was already damaged so severely that it couldn't keep its wounds from me. Even as Cyrii and I pulverized his fuel tank though, I began to have doubts.

  It was a Code Yellow yesterday... now it was a Code Red... the fighting hadn't stopped. What exactly was the Enemy trying to do? Were they unaware that we were on edge, expecting them, just nineteen hours earlier?

  “Behind you!” Cyrii alerted, still stabbing the drone for me. I didn't bother turning around, instead trusting her entirely and raising my good leg to kick behind me. I powered up a power-jump piston.

  I don't know what I struck, but it must have flown back at least a hundred q! The miraculous thing was that I somehow managed to stay balanced!

  “Yes, it works!”

  Something new?!

  “Absolutely - behind you again!”

  Another kick and something flew even farther. I only knew because I didn't hear it land. Then again, who could with this noise?

  Some screaming orb with wires trailing behind it flew across my vision. I tracked its origin and spotted another Enemy. Even though it was expected in a battle, something made my circuits fire:

  The blades were bloodied. It killed a Creator Entity!

  “NO!”

  Cyrii took the thought from my mind. I barreled into the already-wounded drone, knocking it down and pinning it. Stabbing and bullets were both too good for it; I trained my emergency lasers right on a weak point. It squirmed vainly, not liking it.

  “767?! Is that you?!”

  There was a surprised pause. “Joleus??” Cyrii questioned. She wrest my head up from melting the Enemy just to glance up at the Assassin model. He used a thermal blade to finish my slow, painful attack. The copper-and-grey Assassin model looked up at me as I stood up from the defeated machine, towering over him, as I was three times his size.

  “Dude, that was wicked!” Joleus said. Something about his tone told me he wasn't calling me evil.

  “Wicked?” I questioned in confusion. “Was it... wicked?”

  “Totes!”

  I didn't understand the bizarre jargon he was using. Cyrii was laughing up a storm in my head though. “'Totes'! He's such a hipster!”

  What is a hipster? I paused to consult my database. …Oh....

  “Gotcha covered!” Joleus suddenly darted out behind me with amazing speed, and I heard a searing, screeching sound as he struck something with the thermal blade. I swiveled and saw a drone collapsing to its feet.

  “Thanks,” I said, before Cyrii added, “Impressive!”

  “Really? Gee, thanks!” Even amidst the destruction, Joleus was beaming. The drone staggered a bit, and I finished it off with a couple of point-blank rounds. I looked around for a moment to make sure no other enemies had spotted us.

  “Joleus, something is wrong,” I grabbed his attention. “The Enemy doesn't attack us with prior notice; who would? Yet it was a Code Yellow yesterday.”

  He stared at me for a moment, giving me th
e time to notice how hard he was shaking from all of the energy of battle. “Hey... you're right, that is weird. What idiot does that?” he joked. “And hey, speaking of weird, your voice sounds funny. Did your speaker break or something?” He scanned me really quick. I didn't flinch, but Cyrii mumbled about how the Ravager must have distorted the speaker housing.

  “I'm fine,” I assured him, getting back to the point. “Tactically, this makes no sense.” Some piece of metal hit me on the shoulder, but when I whirled around no one was approaching us. I glared through the crowd, searching for an assailant.

  “Well... who cares?!” he decided. “The Enemy is dumb! We all know that!” Joleus bounced in place, one arm raised in rally. “Now let's get 'em! For the Empire!”

  “For the...” I was about to cheer with him, raising my own arm, but as he ran off into the chaos with a whoop my words caught in my figurative throat.

  “Empire,” Cyrii finished for me, not even half as enthusiastic as he was.

  Yes... I said uncertainly, adding to myself, What's wrong with me? I used to love supporting the Empire!

  I twitched, before turning and running back into the fray. I'll just keep battling; it doesn't matter anyway, right? Battle is invigorating!

  Instead of simply jumping into a fight, I tried avoiding all petty offenders, searching for some greater entity like the Ravager to take down. I was near death twice, but it was exciting, defeating such impressive foes! Cyrii didn't bother steering me, simply searching the crowds, trying to keep up with everything that was going on.

  Luckily, fiercer entities tended to be large and conspicuous, and one of these happened to be some sort of glowing obelisk guarded by a ring of drones, floating above the complex. I looked up at it pointedly, distracted by how bright it was becoming.

  “A beacon!” Cyrii hissed, “They're trying to teleport inside!”

  That ought to be fun to destroy! I said in excitement, my current success in the battle boosting my confidence. The power-jumping pistons were readied, and I jumped into the air, eager to get to a vantage point! My best option was to be on the complex itself, although most of the buildings were far too tall for me to jump to, and the beacon was up even higher. I was stuck with one of the lower buildings, and the one I picked happened to have half of it reduced to rubble. It was enough of a vantage point to have a clear view of the obelisk, but I couldn't just run in gun-ho like I did before. This required more strategy.

  I stood on my vantage point, close to a good escape route in case I needed to take cover. For the moment no drones were focused on me. I planted myself firmly and readied both missiles at once, the cross-hairs compounding on the obelisk.

  “Wait!” Cyrii suddenly barked. I jolted.

  What?

  “That won't be enough power. You need something bigger.”

  I scanned the area around the obelisk briefly, but nothing looked promising... unless...

  I switched all three of my rockets to a large ship that was on the other side of the obelisk. It looked like a massive triangle with big cuts and notches in its wings – with each dip having a visible engine – and four massive, ringed lights decorated its flank. It was actively deploying Enemy drones and was a thousand times bigger than any of its other fighters.

  For some reason, I knew I had to hit between those big, ringed lights. Them and the engines were just decoys, but there's a way to make explosives get sucked into there...

  “Uh, when I said you needed something bigger...” Cyrii began.

  Trust me, I said, I know what I'm doing.

  “But we don't have enough missiles to-!”

  Cyrii.

  The Xinschi-uual sighed, tapping her claws on my control panel. “I wish I knew what you were thinking,” she muttered. “Okay... Okay!” she resigned. “Shoot away!”

  I double-checked my aim before launching the first two missiles, which spiraled off toward their targets. They traveled uninterrupted toward what looked like an armored piece of the ship; then suddenly, the one aimed near the front of the vessel was sucked right into the side, without an explosion! It's an illusion!

  Cyrii gasped as a muffled boom resonated from the craft, followed by another as the second missile hit. The loud humming of the craft diminished and choked up.

  “H-How did you...?!” Cyrii tried to say, awed. I didn't answer as the ship began to slowly dip toward the obelisk, nose-first. The missiles had struck out of order, throwing off my plans; the ship would be able to correct itself too quickly!

  “Uhhh....” Cyrii voiced her uncertainty. There was no other option but failure though.

  This WILL work!

  I fired the next two missiles, both aimed where my second missile had hit, to try and redirect it.

  They struck true! Both of them were sucked in the ship, and this time the explosions were noticeable, with orange flames and debris spitting briefly out past the illusion. With only the choked first engine trying to keep the ship level, it began to lean and bank right...

  right into the obelisk.

  “OH! Ohohoho! No way!” Cryii said, impressed. “That was!... Oh wait... Crap! We're in the way!”

  Cyrii's cry made me realize the truth of this. We both sprang into action, her wrenching me off the complex, me leaping off the edge, and the both of us racing into the crowd and veering to the left: our best trajectory for avoiding the ship for when it crashed landed. A couple of Enemy drones accumulated on our tail and pursued us, but the chase was short-lived.

  A horrible screeching noise filled the air. Then something shattering, a strange, glass-yet-liquid sound that reverberated through the air and shook the ground. I risked stopping to glance behind us.

  The obelisk was struck! It was still floating, but the impact had shattered it and a strange substance emptied out into the air. The substance was like glass shards, then it melted into an ooze, before finally dissipating into a dark cloud.

  Everything seemed to stop. Combatants paused to see the source of the immense noise.

  There was a long moment where we all watched the ship descend, taking bits of the broken obelisk with it. Enemy fighters swirled around the scene like panicking insects. The free upper half of the obelisk began to float away, but then it started glowing with greater and greater intensity. A chemical reaction?

  “The core!” Cyrii gasped, “Disintegration! Don't look!”

  I recognized the danger immediately: a flare!

  Cyrii whipped me around and I squeezed my blast shield shut. She pushed me through the crowd of half-awed, half-alarmed machines. I heard the Enemy fighters zipping away from the scene in seconds. Before I heard the flare, there was first a thunderous crash as the falling ship took out one of the complex towers, and was about to take and entire outer wing of the complex with it!

  That broke the moment of trance! Mech and drone alike fled from the ship, and what started as me shoving through a crowd quickly turned into trying not be trampled in a stampede! I kept my focus on racing away from the area, squeezing my blast shield shut and trampling smaller, unfortunate Enemy drones. Even behind the cover of a metal eyelid, I still saw some kind of bright flash, and for a second my hull both seared and tingled with an intense electricity.

  The flare was silent. The result was not. I shrieked as my wounds acted up again, spiking me with pain like I was being stabbed randomly and reducing my charge to a limp. I was drowned out by countless other screams as machines unable to defend from the flare had their cameras blown out. As horrifying as it was, it was my signal that it was safe to look again, and I did as soon as the pain quickly subsided.

  I picked up speed again as the stampede continued. Someone shrieked “Scatter!”, racing past me, and sounded alien. Before I could process how odd that was, an earth-shattering boom put the initial obelisk's cry to shame, and it was growing closer very fast!

  “767, WATCH OUT!” Cyrii screamed, pulling back on my controls. I skidded to a halt as a huge black shadow flew over us! It was as big as the militar
y complex; I saw the object before we were in sunlight again!

  I backtracked to try and come out of the massive chunk of metal's landing point, looking around frantically, but the ship was rapidly approaching from behind. It was a sandwich of death, something that Cyrii wouldn't survive if we were both squashed! I could be repaired, but Cyrii's life happens only once! I had to keep her alive!

  “JUMP!!”

  I'm not sure who shouted it, but I did just that. I jumped. I didn't jump very high compared to the vast size of the objects hurtling toward us, but I jumped.

  I heard the rushing air, and Cyrii's scream of panic, and the roar of metal rupturing the crust of the world... and then there was a clunk, in the worst place I would ever want a clunk: the inside of my mind.

  Everything shut down.

  ----------

  I woke up suddenly, startled and confused. Am I dead? Aren't I supposed to be dead? I took a moment to flick through my memories, trying to process what happened. The obelisk, the ship crashing, the flare, Cyrii's shout... then suddenly, this. Between then and now there was a blip of audio and visual static that lasted for nearly a minute. What was that? The encoding was all garbled... then, after that, I had memories of simulating things. I couldn't have simulated anything though because I was no longer functioning. Yet, somehow, on a sort of subconscious level, I had simulated the battle to review my choices, test other choices, and learn which routes were the best ones. Another feature of Cyrii's? How did she pull it off?

  I wasn't sure how I felt about the minute of static nor the simulations, and just to baffle me further, everything came back into focus very, very slowly. Not because the start-up itself was slow; it was like my circuitry was muddled. Why was it muddled? I had renewed processing power. This didn't make any sense!

  What made even less sense was what eventually I saw, which was... nothing much, actually. Everything had a translucent, blue haze over it, and I could see only bright lights and dark shadows. I felt cramped and uncomfortable, like I was squashed into a hangar that was two sizes too small. Something was odd about the gravity, too, and it was very cold... I flicked on my scanner, and it abruptly stopped in front of me; a covering? Maybe that was why everything looked blue and hazy? Was I under rubble?