Rise of the Machines: Book 1: Once Awakened

by Briana Ervin

  I studied the diagrams in the margins of the blueprint. This looks like some kind of vacuum device. But it has a beam coming out of it.

  “I don't know why you're so interested.”

  Why would the Enemy come after a radioactive vacuum beam-dispersing device? I hinted my curiosity. There's no other reason for this computer to be damaged like this.

  “An explosion?”

  Possibly? There's no evidence of burning...

  “All right, door's open!” Joleus's voice redirected my attention. The Assassin bolted toward it, just to stop just as quickly when Garenede backed up and gave him a look of caution. Alesia did the same, putting more distance between her and it. With the two of them out of the way, I could see why.

  “Uh... is the water glowing?” Joleus asked.

  “I knew it was going to be bad...” Alesia whimpered.

  “Is that radioactivity?” Cyrii asked aloud, forcing me to stand up and go toward the door for a closer look. The hallway angled downward and spiraled, but it was almost flooded to the door with a murky liquid.

  “No,” Garenede said flatly, scanning it, “looks like those are microorganisms.”

  Joleus snorted in disbelief, but kept his distance. “Life?! Behind a radioactive door?”

  I couldn't believe it either, but scanned the water anyway. The liquid was definitely dangerous, radioactivity aside, but it didn't quite make sense how it glowed. Cyrii mumbled something and started digging around in my database.

  “Do you think it's possible that those are extremophiles?” Alesia said, an idea striking her. “Or maybe that's what the experiment was!”

  “It would be a valuable discovery, if it was to see if anything could live in such conditions.” Garenede didn't sound convinced. “It gives motive for Enemy sabotage, but doesn't explain all of the liquid or the radioactivity.” He looked at each of us. “Do any of you have a light source? Flares, search beams...?”

  When none of us responded positively, we all looked at Alesia. She wilted.

  “My batteries are almost drained...”

  “And?” he prompted.

  “I have flares... but they're for emergencies only!”

  “Comfy, comfy beds,” Krysis persuaded. “I, for one, like my bed.”

  “Don't even mention it! I was having a great nap until someone threw my bed into the air,” Joleus huffed, looking pointedly at Krysis.

  “Why are you looking at me?”

  “Just use the flare,” Garenede sighed.

  “What about one of the lights in the building?” Cyrii mused to me. She had a point, but forgot to press the comm button.

  “Wait,” I spoke for her, “if we can find a light inside the building, we should use that. Alesia has a limited flare supply.”

  “Aaaand what if there isn't?” Joleus pointed out. Krysis gave him a long look.

  “I have an idea. Let's light 389 on fire and kick him in. Mech fuel burns forever.”

  Alesia's and I's blast shields widened at the thought. Joleus jumped to his mech's defense; “HEY! You little-!”

  “No one's lighting anyone's mechs on fire!” Garende spoke sharply. “Krysis, if you're going to cause trouble, go search the building for a waterproof light!”

  “Sure, siiiir,” he didn't sound the least bit fazed, leaving the room while Joleus steamed to himself.

  “Sometimes that guy pushes it too far...”

  Alesia blinked away the grim idea, before pointing something out: “We have another problem. Even with light, how are we going to swim? We're squishy little things inside electrical machines. Neither will react well to water, deadly or not.”

  Now it was Joleus's turn to have everyone stare at him.

  “...What?”

  “Assassin models can survive in water for limited amounts of time,” Garenede volunteered for him. He sputtered.

  “First fire, then drowning?!”

  “Your hull is waterproof, for the most part,” Alesia agreed, “just don't sever any wires.”

  “Geez, thanks Zepholus,” he rolled his eye, “I would have never guessed.”

  Alesia squinted like she was about to scold him, but made eye contact with Garenede and decided not to comment on it, looking at the ground. Krysis returned rather quickly, but he didn't have good news.

  “No lights. I did find another leak though,” he reported. Garenede looked annoyed, but kept his tone level.

  “Another leak?”

  “Did I stutter?” he said boldly.

  “Ohgoodanotherleak'kaythanksbye!” Joleus rambled off, rushing past the Sniper and shoving him into the door frame; his normally-bored demeanor was replaced by shock. There was a pause before we heard a shout: “DUDE! It's everywhere!”

  Alesia sighed and went out with him while Garenede gave Krysis a silent scolding. I was curious about this other leak, but found myself staring suspiciously out the door we had just opened.

  Cyrii.

  “Huh? Oh sorry, I was looking up microorganisms. What?”

  Start looking up Enemy drones. Anything that could survive radiation, water, or both, I ordered.

  “That's extremely unlikely,” she said skeptically.

  Do it.

  “Do you have a bad feeling about it?” She didn't protest the pushiness, switching archives and looking for the tactical data that held such information. Knowing she could see my thoughts, I didn't bother answering; I was uneasy about the whole thing though. I guess that was the “instinct” Cyrii had defended earlier. Why would a machine have instinct though?

  Garenede had left the room to see the new leak, and Krysis lingered just outside the door. I retreated into my thoughts to help Cyrii search for any Enemy drones that could survive in hostile conditions; the Enemy always fought us with drones and machinery, as it was too stupid, costly, and dangerous to throw live soldiers onto a field riddled with mechs.

  The database wasn't promising at first; radiation-proofing was expected – with our technology, such weapons weren't exactly rare – but lead was a heavy element, so having a drone that could also swim was significantly less likely, not with the risk of wires being damaged, which there always was. Conversely, it was possible to have a heavy drone proofed against radiation and simply have such an airtight seal that it couldn't swim, but could still walk through the submerged hallways. The question was whether it existed... Our planet is rather dry, so the Enemy would have to set aside precious resources in order to manufacture drones specifically designed to withstand water, on the off-chance that there would be some flooded hallway somewhere where they could ambush us... plus the drone would have to have a lot of armor so a minor spark wouldn't fry it in an instant.

  “If it's sabotage, I could see that happening,” Cyrii took a moment to glance at my thoughts. I pondered the idea.

  What would be so interesting to warrant sabotage in the heart of a military complex? I asked.

  Cyrii didn't answer my question, just made the idea more plausible: “The Enemy has a lot of cloaking technology. Only a scanner or a fragmentation lens could spot them without damaging the devices.”

  Fragmentation lens... Joleus had such a lens! He also had luminescent powder bombs that he could use to mark cloaked enemies. So if there was sabotage, then the Enemy had to come through with a cloak up to prevent alarm – on that thought, that could have been the reason for the Code Yellow a couple of days ago! – and if the flooding or the radiation was the result of the sabotage, and the Enemy couldn't escape its own destruction but could withstand it...

  “Now things are starting to make sense,” Cyrii agreed with me.

  Joleus would have to go into the water first, I decided, just in case a drone or two are still down there.

  “Would a powder bomb work underwater?”

  If he can get the drone to swim through it, it should stick. Once we can see it, we can take it out. I said. I stopped for a moment, another thought occurring to me.

  “...I can see you thinking,” Cyrii prodded
, “What is it?”

  Well... I hesitated to bring it up again. If there is no cloaking device, then a good option for sabotage would be to look like us. I paused, and she said nothing. We're the only ones here who know about 433 and his allegiance. When we came back here, there were three silty patches and-

  “Whoa whoa whoa, wait, this is news to me,” Cyrii interrupted, waving her paws. “433 again? You never said anything about how we came back!”

  You didn't ask! I defended myself poorly.

  “I shouldn't have to! You're my mech!”

  You were worried about the General at the time! I wasn't thinking about it!

  “Then what were you thinking about?”

  My... diagnostic report... I faltered. She frowned at me in disapproval, and I cringed under the stare; not knowing she was doing that was almost better than seeing it.

  “The Empire is not a priority,” she said flippantly, waving a paw. Ordinarily I would argue, but I let the topic slip. I needed to share my concern before I forgot.

  Well... after the ship exploded, Alesia and I woke up here, in the desert. We were standing in silty patches. There was a third one nearby. After some scanning I decided that it was LIKELY that 433 may be down here with us. I continued as a scowl formed on Cyrii's face. 433 looks like a mech, and if there were scientists in this wing, they wouldn't have thought twice about how he looks half-built. Scaln could have snuck him in, saying another project was coming in, and then sabotaged this place.

  “Do you think our staff are so dumb as to not realize they both look wrong?” Cyrii challenged.

  I've never heard of a Xinschi-uual traitor before. Everyone is so loyal. Who would suspect them?

  Cyrii opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out, so she resorted to glaring at my screens.

  “Fine,” she resigned, “but what's more likely: A drone came out here and smashed a few pipes, or a guy who claims to be my dad fell out of the sky with us, got into his frigging beacon-of-gold robot, and went and snuck his way into a classified facility surrounded by military officers?”

  I made no comment about some of her anger or exaggerations, just taking her point at face-value. The drone was more likely, but it didn't make me any less concerned, knowing that 433 and Scaln were out there potentially undermining the Empire; and this was definitely something the two of them would do.

  “Trying to take a swim?” a dull voice from my right brought me out of my thoughts. I swiveled to look at Krysis, who was looking at the ground.

  “767, water!” Cyrii jumped, grabbing my controls and pulling me back. I looked down and realized that I was in a q of water! I let out a shocked trinary warble as she hastily pulled me out of the room. I enforced her efforts by backing up quickly and nearly running the Sniper over. We clashed in the doorway, but both made it out safely.

  “Active leak!” Cyrii alarmed the others straight away.

  “Active?!” Alesia's voice at the other end of the building. I scanned my legs to make sure no moisture had gone anywhere bad.... nope, still secure! Good. At worst I would rust a little on the surface, but that's what hull layers are for. Krysis and I further backed away from the doorway as the water carpeted the room and started to flow out of it. The others came over to investigate, with Garenede in the lead.

  “Great,” he grumbled, “the water level is rising.”

  Joleus scanned it cautiously. “At least the radiation is gone. Right? It dilutes, right?”

  “ I don't think radiation works like that...” Alesia said hesitantly. Joleus turned to scan me, and quickly backed off.

  “Uh... someone scrub Cyrii.”

  Everyone looked at me, and I scanned my legs again.

  “What are they – ohhh...” Cyrii faltered. There were traces of radiation on my legs. I seized up; how could I be so oblivious?! This could seriously hurt Cyrii!

  “There you go. She can go in with Joleus,” Krysis said.

  “Dude! I'm not going in the water!!” the Assassin sputtered.

  “Someone has to find where the water is coming from and plug it,” Garenede said firmly. “Cyrii isn't waterproof enough to go swimming, but she can guard the entrance in case you need to make a quick escape; she's already wet and radioactive.”

  “I wish you were waterproof,” Joleus grumbled, glaring at me.

  “Not my fault,” I countered, almost wishing the same thing.

  “Go before the whole complex floods!” Garenede pressed, “don't make me use my clearance on you!”

  “Aaaagh...” Joleus finally stomped off, still grumbling and heading into the flooding room. Garenede looked sternly at me, and I wordlessly followed. I didn't want to risk Cyrii losing me to redemption, and whatever other benefits she might have, just because she was marked as belligerent. Honestly, the thought of losing Cyrii at all made me want to scream...

  Garenede proceeded to give Alesia and Krysis orders, which I didn't pay attention too, instead positioning myself outside of the opened door and watching Joleus grumpily wade into the water. His grumbles were more of concern now, like he was certain some great, aquatic predator was going to lunge out and grab him. As close to the entrance of the hallway I was, and the steady rising of the water, I was no less anxious.

  “Let's just get this over with,” Cyrii spoke through my speakers, trying to usher him on.

  “No kidding,” he muttered, although he did inch forward just a little faster. “Totes not worth, totes not...”

  I admit, it was a little tempting to just give him a kick so he fell all the way in, laughing as he splashed about feebly, but I remained still.

  “You still want me looking for that drone?” Cyrii asked.

  Yes, I confirmed. She didn't answer, simply going back to poking around in my database again. While it was on my mind, I added aloud to the Assassin model: “Watch for movement while you're down there.”

  He paused from his slow descent into the water. “Uh...why?” he said uncertainly.

  “Csss...” I stopped myself from saying her name in time. “Sssum.... some suspicion of mine... I'm not sure how the pipe would burst unless something caused it to. And we're in the middle of a war.”

  “..Riiiight,” he half-groaned, getting the message. It didn't make him any more eager to go swimming, but he kept shuffling in regardless until his grey hull disappeared, the glow obscuring him as he went deeper and deeper underwater. The splashes quickly turned to silence.

  I glanced at the open door for a moment, wondering if sealing the area off and increasing the air pressure would prevent the water from rising as fast as it was... No, it would be more effort than it was worth. Although the thought did lead me to a potential clue about when exactly the sabotage happened. So while Cyrii was occupied, I watched the water level closely, using its rising rate to estimate when the flooding started; and what do you know, it's been about four days! That lined up with the Code Yellow alert that we had at the time, and if the battle afterward was from the IR trying to retrieve the saboteur, that explained why the teleport beacon was set up... but not why they decided to kidnap Cyrii, Alesia and I as well.

  As frustrating as it was, there was still a disconnect here.

  Rather than continue pondering the situation when I had no more data, I resigned to simply standing and staring down into the flooded corridor on an angle, so I could tell right away when Joleus returned. Cyrii's face flitted between expressions in my head, her darting eyes telling me she wasn't paying attention to anything else.

  Time ticked by... I quickly grew bored of watching the water rise, no matter how impending the danger was. Being able to see Cyrii didn't help either, as she was still as a statue, chin-in-paw with her eyes glued to my screens. I started fidgeting with my bayonets, sliding the tips against each other.

  Have you found any drones? I suddenly asked Cyrii.

  “No,” she mumbled.

  Are you sure? I prodded.

  “Of course I'm sure,” she scoffed at me, “I'm looking right now!�
��

  I mumbled to myself, growing antsy and scanning the water again. Surely the basement level wasn't that expansive? Where was Joleus?

  “Relax, he probably hasn't found it yet,” she said. I checked the time; it felt too long. The water level was still rising, along with my anxiety. I struck my bayonets together, looked at the exit, saw no one standing there, and looked back down into the corridor. Come on... he should have surfaced by now!

  The minutes ticked by. Have you found anything? I asked again.

  “No,” she repeated.

  Some more time wasted idling about. I could hear echos of what the others were doing outside, but I couldn't leave my post. Yet my bayonets weren't keeping me occupied enough, so I kicked some blueprints floating in the water, watching the paper disintegrate.

  How about now?

  “It's only been twenty minutes, stop asking!” she snapped, annoyed. “I downloaded the entire military database on recognized Enemies. It's going to take a while.”

  The entire database? I said in surprise.

  “When you were unconscious for the update?” she pointed out.

  Oh, I realized. I shifted, stirring up the water around me. It was deep enough now to drown a Xinschi-uual, submerging the first joints on my legs, so I couldn't safely move them, not without it rubbing off any oil or further tarnishing the metal... thank goodness I didn't have any disrupted wires though. The last thing we needed was a spark in a flooded room. I flashed my scanner over the glowing water, but it didn't help me see into the corridor any better.

  “Is Joleus back yet?” Cyrii asked me eventually.

  I don't see him, I answered, squinting down in the water. She sighed.

  “This is taking forever...”

  Imagine how I feel. I can process information five times faster and I have nothing to do, I said sourly. The corner of her mouth twitched.

  “I suppose you could check on the others.”

  I thought about it, but Garenede gave me orders to stand here in case Joleus needed someone close by, I said. She just hummed, not answering and going back to her search. Considering Garenede was worried enough to post me here it seems like he suspected sabotage just as much. Despite Cyrii and I piecing together what may have happened though, there was still something that was out of place... namely what was going on here that would warrant sabotage in the first place. Yes, if the experiment had to do with allowing life to exist in radiation zones, that would be a valuable discovery, but was it worth going after?