by Briana Ervin
To make matters even stranger, our General showed up with Garenede; the former, however, was present only on a hovercraft. Garenede was stolid, but his guise slipped when he saw me moving around; a hint of concern came through only for a second.
“All right, roll call, who's here?” The General sounded unnaturally exhausted, not even saying the order properly. His usual vigor was missing.
“Is it just me, or are things making less sense?” Cyrii muttered to me.
I don't understand either... I said hesitantly. Regardless, I obeyed, lining up with the other two in front of the General. There was a frantic shout when we took our positions.
“WAIT! I'm here! Just give me a bit!” a female voice sounded: Alesia! She was running late. The General grumbled, but didn't reprimand her like he should have. Was he feeling ill?
I didn't turn to look behind me, but heard some scrambling in 562's hangar before Alesia hastily stepped in line. She looked prepared to give an excuse, but chose to remain silent when the General made no comments. He scanned us, looking tired, with even Garenede drooping by his side.
“All right... that looks like all of you. Krysis, Joleus, Alesia, Cyrii...” For a moment his head nodded as if he was about to doze off! “Yeah, whatever, that works. All right, let's go.”
The four of us exchanged confused looks; we didn't respond to roll call appropriately, and he didn't even care?
“What about your mech, sir?” Garenede asked in hushed tones.
“Eh, don't worry about it,” the General huffed and slowly moved his hovercraft to Row 4's exit, leaving Garenede to stare numbly after him. No one dared to comment on it, instead falling in line as per our training, with me in the lead and Garende in the rear.
So, with our processing power, should we be able to figure out what's going on? I suggested to Cyrii, trying to fathom how this was happening and why the others who were awake in the barracks turned a blind eye to it.
“I have no idea what's going on...” she admitted. “The General didn't look like that when he questioned me. A little tired and stressed, maybe, but that's normal, isn't it?”
Wrong.
“Huh? It's wrong?”
No, I was just wondering what would happen if I said 'wrong' instead of 'right'.
Cyrii scoffed as if to laugh, but became grim. “I don't like this...”
Me neither, I said honestly. I kept an eye on the General in front of me, trying to pick up any clues, but came up with nothing.
The four of us said nothing as we went outside into the crisp air, the night lit up by Kyaxeng's dim glow. The General didn't lead us out into the badlands, or to a training area, but instead took us to a part of the complex we weren't authorized to enter: a low outer building, detached from the rest and lacking windows. He paused his hovercraft in front of a retinal scanner set beside a large door, big enough to let a 17 Tank model go through. I could feel everyone growing tense as the unexplained situation grew only weirder. I was especially tense, since I was in front; that meant I was first to face whatever the exercise was. A target range? Ambush tactics? Just another warmup before something else? What was this classified part of the facility, anyway?
Despite Cyrii not needing to control me anymore, she still gripped the control panel tightly. Her anxiety was spiking. I could hear Joleus shifting behind me.
“Gotcha covered...” he murmured. I didn't acknowledge him, eye glued to the corrugated door.
Once the General's eyes were scanned for authorization, the heavy door pulled open. It was pitch black inside the building, especially with it already being dark outside.
“Augh, hold on a second,” the General groaned and flew inside. I just stood there, holding up the line and letting those behind me look past. I stared into the empty blackness, wondering how the General was going to find the light panel... assuming there was one. Maybe this building didn't have any lights?
The brief concern dissipated as there was a clunk and the whole building suddenly flooded with light. I pulled back a bit with a shocked beep, squinting, and Cyrii squeaked in my head.
“Bright!”
“All right, come in,” the General's voice echoed in the building. As I led everyone in, slowly raising my blast shield to adjust to the light, I scanned all of the containers and devices within range around us.
The building was peculiar... It was two stories high, but all one level. The vault area was mostly catwalks reaching out to the taller apparatus and their controls. On the base level, there were a few small, closed-off rooms lining the left and a mixture of storage containers, tables, and machinery to the right. What caught my eye first were the two tall, cylindrical machines – almost like towers - in the middle, reaching up to the roof but disconnected from the pipes actually going through the roof. Their bases were bulbous, covered with indicators and lights that were dark. Strewn across the tables were mixtures of blueprints and machines similar in design to the two towers. Most of the machinery was cryptic, partly-assembled but holding no apparent purpose.
“Wow...” Alesia was filled with wonder, “What is this place?”
“Who cares. I would like to know what we're doing here,” a calculating male voice came from my left: Krysis, our Sniper, had broken line to take a closer look at some of the rooms.
“Uh, dude, should we break line..?” Joleus asked. Krysis pivoted and gave him a stern look.
“Break line, who cares.” The General, still not in sight, sounded disinterested. “No fights right now.”
“Darn, I wanted to test the DIAS responsiveness...” Cyrii mumbled and slumped in my head, disappointed. I took the opportunity to run up to one of the towers and scan it. The metal shells were very particular; fine-tuned, almost. Unfortunately, scanning the controls and indicators on the towers didn't tell me what they were for. Alesia ran off into one of the rooms in the back – all of which had open doors – and suddenly backed out with a shout:
“Radiation!”
We all jumped. As if done specifically to make us feel trapped, the main door behind us shut itself with a loud bang. We all swiveled to stare at it.
“No worries, it's containment protocol.” The General was up above the door, near a large control panel. “Yes, there is radiation. That's why you're here.”
“Great. He's about to kill us,” Krysis deadpanned.
“DUDE!” Joleus bolted behind a stack of storage crates in the second it took for me to think about how killing was my job! The General sighed.
“Don't be so dramatic! The radiation won't kill you, your mechs all have lead linings,” he snapped. “That's why I'm up here. My model is an older model without the lining, and I have to be up high so I don't die.” He looked at Alesia, who was growing skittish. “562 is equipped with molecule stabilization for when the Enemy uses radiation and chemical weapons. If your scales start dropping off, just go to her.”
“Oh, great. That's what I want to hear,” Krysis said sarcastically.
Are you okay? I asked Cyrii right away while Alesia moaned nervously and backed away from the room.
“I'm fine,” Cyrii assured.
“Sir, if you don't mind me asking: why are we in here?” Garenede finally spoke up, walking out in the middle of the room to assess our positions.
“Now see, that's the part I hate,” the General grimaced. “Some experiments were run in this wing – don't ask me what they were, the Alkinest would I know? - and something ruptured. This whole wing was sealed off to contain the radiation. Of course, radiation doesn't give a crap about concrete walls, so we need to clean it up.”
I exchanged looks with Garenede, who was confused.
“Don't we have 15 models for that?” he asked. The General snorted, his face wry.
“You'd think, wouldn't you? But our superiors decided that, somehow, Enemy sabotage was involved. You guys haven't finished your training, so you're the 'cleanup crew'.”
Expendable? I thought with a hint of venom. There was a series of clunks, and I s
wiveled to see Joleus ascending the stack of crates precariously; he had remarkable balance. “Now see, that makes no sense,” he judged, perched at the top, “we don't know squat about radiation other than 'no touchy'!”
“Don't complain to me. I was just ordered to roll out of bed,” the General snapped back.
“If there were Enemies in here, wouldn't they have died from radiation?” Cyrii spoke up, digesting all of this.
“That's what I said,” the General said in frustration. “Didn't matter. So, let's just get this over with. Basically your job is to clean up the toxic spill, and go underground to clean up the rest of it while keeping an eye out for Enemy influence.”
“'Underground'?” Cyrii mused. “This building goes underground?”
Apparently, I said, while Krysis muttered that this better be worth it. Garende sighed, his expression unreadable.
“This is when you say I have a sweeper or something for that, huh...” Alesia whimpered.
“562 can use her stabilizer to make safe pathways for you,” the General confirmed, ignoring how disgruntled we were.
“Ohhhh....”
“Well, hey, it's radiation. What's the worse that could happen?” Joleus said all-too-optimistically, jumping down from the crates and meeting up with her.
“My scales melt off and fuse my clothes to me while I turn all knobbly and gross!” Alesia retorted. Joleus suppressed a snicker... not very well. She glared at him.
“It's not going to be that bad!” the General barked. “Now hurry up! The sooner this is over with, the sooner we can all go to bed. The entrance to the underground facility is right in that room; once you're in there, you're on your own. Corrections officer, keep an eye on these buffoons,” he added to Garenede. He promptly saluted, even though his eye still betrayed puzzlement. “I need to leave before I start losing my scales...” The General muttered the last part to himself, moving his hovercraft toward an outer door in the building so he could leave right away.
“Mmm, scales,” Krysis said, going ahead. I could feel Garenede's gaze pushing me to follow, so I took my scanner off the towers and went to Alesia. The DIAS was nice, but now I constantly saw Cyrii's distrustful frown lingering in the back of my mind. It was making me more and more suspicious of the situation, but there also wasn't much that we could do about it.
“What's the worse that could happen?” Joleus repeated, popping up beside me. I jumped and gave him some space at the sudden entrance. Cyrii suppressed a snicker, rubbing my control panel in assurance.
“Your bones liquefy,” Krysis stated factually. Joleus looked at the Sniper model suspiciously.
“Uh... That's not too bad, right? You can always replace... that won't work... Oh geez, that's doesn't work at all.. Agh, I just thought of something worse!” He shuddered, and Krysis laughed. Garenede pushed past me, his annoyance showing only with how bright his eye was. “Dude, why you gotta plant these things in my head?!”
“Because it's funny,” Krysis said.
“It is pretty funny,” I agreed. The Assassin model just looked between us, one copper hook on his head like he couldn't figure us out. Garende tried to nudge Alesia into the room, as she was frozen in front of it. She merely hummed, defiant.
“Alesia...” he grumbled.
“Right, right...” she sighed, “I still don't get why a 15 model doesn't just do this...”
“Right, man?!” Joleus burst out. “Seriously, this is weird! Like, what did we do?”
“Exist,” Krysis rolled his eye. “Apparently.”
“No kidding,” Cyrii agreed privately to me.
Still think something isn't right? I asked.
“You serious? Nothing had made sense yet!”
Garenede, despite always looking like he had an idea what was going on, simply stood with his arms folded and said nothing. Alesia remained still for a moment – probably examining her functions to find the mentioned molecule stabilizer – before a slot along the outside of either arm opened up. Metal extensions folded out from the slots in front of her arms, then hummed, connecting to each other using beams of energy and forming what looked like a wall of blue light between them. She then angled the extensions so the energy flooded out in front of her on an angle.
“Cool,” Joleus commented.
“I think this is the right tool...” Alesia murmured.
“Looks right to me,” Garenede said. I looked up at him, but he gave no indication as to how he knew that. With her “flashlight” of energy ready, Alesia re-entered the room, her nervousness showing. “No one go in until it's clean. Lead linings will deteriorate over time,” Garenede cautioned us. I moved beside him, watching the process through the door with fascination; it looked like she was burning up particles in the air!
“Who knew. You can light the air on fire,” Cyrii joked weakly. I already knew that, but hummed in interest anyway; it was rather mesmerizing to watch.
“So... say there are enemies. Shouldn't one of us stay here and keep an eye out for them?” Joleus said.
“And who would do that?” Krysis asked.
“Well, you, for one. You're a Sniper. You don't have anything going on,” he pointed out.
“I have plenty going on.”
“Uh huh. Your job is to stand there,” Joleus didn't sound convinced, but playfulness was entering his voice.
“My job is important,” Krysis shot back.
“Yeah!” Joleus laughed. “Sure is! 'Don't just do something, stand there'!”
Krysis refocused his cameras, looking down at the shorter model. “Don't make me blow you to pieces.”
“Hah! You gotta catch me first!” Joleus poised as if to run off. I watched in curiosity, wondering if a chase would start, even though Cyrii wasn't as amused.
“Oh, for the love of...” Garenede muttered while the two bickered, but only rolled his eye. “You're all a bunch of hatchlings.”
“Joleus certainly acts like one,” Krysis said.
“I do not!!” he replied, scoffing, “I mean, look who's talking, the guy who has to stand still so he doesn't blow himself back into a wall!”
“Show of power.”
“Show of weakness!”
“Better than you.”
“Dude! I'm spectacular!”
“I-I think it's clean now...” Alesia's voice came from within the room; it was hard to hear over the chatter.
“All right, you know protocol,” Garenede spoke loudly over the two, making them both go quiet, “go in Cyrii.” He backed up so I had a clear path to the door, but I didn't do anything.
“...Shouldn't Joleus go first? He can jump out in time in case Alesia missed a spot,” I reasoned.
“Are you saying that to keep me alive?” Cyrii questioned me privately. I didn't respond, keeping my subconscious worries to myself.
“Yup! I'm dang fast!” Joleus beamed proudly.
“Sure, throw him in the radiation first,” Krysis teased in his detached manner. Joleus sputtered.
“Come on man, stay out of this!”
Garenede refocused his cameras with a faint whirring, specifically to show agitation. “Fine. Joleus goes first.”
“But, now I don't wan – Agh!” His protest was cut off as Krysis kicked him into the room. “Gee, thanks!”
“It's safe!” Alesia weakly tried to assure him. I heard him pick himself up and mutter something, running around inside.
Why is she a Code Orange, again? I asked Cyrii, recalling Alesia's status from when I first met her.
“Good question,” Cyrii muttered, like it brought up a bad memory. “Any ideas? Because I have none.”
I was just as clueless. Alesia seemed very sweet, especially now that I was taking the time to actually socialize with my comrades. It was bizarre, how efficiency demanded we shouldn't do that; or maybe it was just the mechs that weren't supposed to do trivial things?
“I'm not dead yet! It's safe!” Joleus called out soon. “Heh heh heh, and here Krysis thought he would win!”
/>
“Just give me a couple more radiation rooms,” Krysis said coolly, entering. I followed, and of course, Garenede came in last.
“Oh no you don't!” I saw Joleus jumping away to evade Krysis, who advanced as if to corner him. Without the General around, their antics were hysterical, especially concerning how tiny the Assassin model was! He zipped around the place like an acrobatic kyl on caffeine! Not that it mattered, once Krysis made him trip. He practically flew into the wall with a shout, making the Sniper and I laugh. Cyrii jumped.
“Is that you?!”
I cut myself off. Yes? I answered, confused by her shock.
“Garenede, this door needs clearance,” Alesia redirected our attention to more serious matters. Cyrii didn't answer me, looking up at the mentioned door. The room, which held only some crates and tables that were in disarray, had a high-security door that reached to the room's ceiling; such doors were huge, multi-layered obstacles, designed to seal out everything from water, to heat, to air, to of course, radiation. Considering that some radiation had leaked out from that door, the idea of what lay behind it was unsettling... the General never said when the leak happened, just that it did.
While Garenede approached the door and tried his security code on it, I looked at an upturned table. The floating slab of metal was only a basic data computer, broken and permanently powered down so no holograms could be displayed, so I couldn't exactly use it. Yet there were some tangible blueprints lying around it, like the tables and platforms outside. As some grumbles arose about all of the different, potential security codes, and Joleus resumed running circles around Krysis, still toying with him, I crouched down to examine the blueprints.
“What are you doing?” Cyrii asked.
What do you think they were trying to do? I responded, referring to the scientists that must have been here before.
“Leaking radiation, apparently,” she said, disinterested.