by Duran Cross
Rennin enjoys perusing the latest weapons magazines and is dumbfounded. “That gun was only made last year…” he says as it dawns on him. “You’re alive.”
◆◆◆
Half an hour later Rennin storms through the lab entrance finding what can only be described as a shambles. The foyer is ripped to pieces, burning. Security staff lay dead all over the place, some with holes through them, others apparently bludgeoned by the looks of them. None that he can see look like they’ve been struck with claws or been bitten.
Can’t be contaminants.
He reverts to decades old training. His attempts to tread lightly but his heavier left leg thuds just that little bit louder. He doesn’t really need to know where he’s going, he just has to follow the carnage. Something ripped the entire Godyssey security force to pieces with minimal damage to property. He can see some of the dead have crushed limbs and an image enters his mind of Prototype and the aftermath of their rooftop encounter. He grunts in frustration at the thought of the damned thing still being alive.
He reaches an emergency stairwell, following the gore down several flights. He tracks the smatterings of blood that vary from a few drops to smears of grotesque viscera until he arrives at the hatch to one of the lowest levels. He leans over the handrail, looking further down the stairwell.
No further evidence of a struggle is apparent, so he levers open the hatch cover to access Base Level 3, the first level of the Test Labs. He’s never been down here before. Until recently it was the restricted wing.
More bodies, still very few shots fired. Whatever took them out was fast and viciously efficient. A little further down the hallway, Rennin finds something strange. It is a shimmering purplish puddle next to one of the walls that looks like partially coagulated blood.
Is it contaminant blood? Or some other kind of infected individual?
He continues for a few more paces before faint gunfire brings him up short. Rennin looks around, ensuring he has a doorway to duck into for cover should he need it.
Jogging slowly down the hallway towards the gunfire, he sees a familiar shape through a lab window. Slowing for a moment, his brain catches up.
Del!
He realises the great android is powered down in a massive cradle or over the top chair, though he does not seem connected to any mainframe. A weapons rack is exposed near him.
The hell are they doing?
He soon happens upon a security door down the end of the corridor. It’s one of the fully armoured doors designed to stop anything getting out. By Rennin’s reckoning, it must be some kind of testing ground for Del. He presses the panel on the side but the borders of the door flash red. He curses. He can hear the gunfire clearly now, then there’s a rumble of an explosion.
Thinking quickly, Rennin bolts back up the corridor to Del’s room and enters. The lights flicker on automatically yet the android remains powered down. He grabs the grenade launcher from the weapons rack and steps back into the corridor, briefly wishing he had some sunglasses to pull off the complete Terminator look.
He launches three grenades up the corridor towards the armoured door. When they detonate, his obstruction is completely obliterated. He looks back into the room to see Del’s head is up, facing him. A rush of goosebumps cover Rennin’s body in a brief wave.
“Hey, big fella.”
Rennin runs up to the blasted door and looks in. There’s a rigged obstacle course but no one inside, no one living at least. There’s a significant hole in the floor and the gunfire is louder from below but still not very close.
He lugs the grenade launcher over to the hole, looking down to see the floor below at about a five-metre plunge. He drops down, crashing to the floor relying on his strengthened bones to hold their own against gravity. His bones do just fine but his muscles and tendons twang with sharp pain causing him to fall on his stomach. He struggles to his feet, limping slightly. A few steps away, he finds himself in another test chamber.
More blood.
Following the cloying trail, he is lead through a blown out side door. He goes up an identical corridor to the floor above, muttering and swearing enough to turn Satan’s face white when he realises he’s been led back to the same stairwell he started in.
Down we go.
He can’t hear the gunfire anymore but whoever is shooting must have chased whatever it is down there. It’s the only possible place left to look.
Rennin gets to Base Level 5, the lowest in the lab and also the largest. He runs through the white corridors, checking every room he comes across but finds no living people. Guards, scientists and test subjects are all dead, either shot, crushed or burned. The blood is still red so he takes that to mean he must be very close. His body shudders with goosebumps again and he looks behind to see that Del has followed him.
The great android crouches near him, completely still. Rennin asks him what he’s doing but Del makes no visible effort to respond. Rennin looks around his position but can’t decide on a direction. “Del, can you hear the firefight?”
Del doesn’t respond.
“Nod if you can hear me.”
Del nods.
“Okay, can you lead me there? Nod for yes, shake for no.”
Del nods.
“Alright good,” says Rennin.
Del doesn’t move.
Rennin waits for a few painstaking moments then leans closer to Del with a frustrated expression. “Any time, pal.”
Del remains still.
Rennin is getting agitated but remembers that machines need to be told—to the letter—what to do sometimes. For fucks sake. “Take me to the fight.”
Del gets up immediately and jogs up the left corridor.
The blind android hurries around several corners, down another flight of stairs, and to a level that has no visible indicators that it is even there. Not that Rennin’s surprised.
They enter a rather narrow corridor. The door at the far end is open, revealing a large round room. As they approach and their view widens before them, six pillars seem to circle the room, becoming the major focus.
Del runs in first with Rennin following, guns in hand. They wander into a maelstrom of fire from both sides of the room. Rennin takes cover, peeking out to see Caufmann and Drake crouched behind a pillar halfway across the room with the soldier laying down an intense amount of suppressive fire.
Behind the pillar closest to him is Mia Saker, desperately trying to stop the bleeding from a gaping hole in her leg. To the right he sees Isfeohrad, the Prototype, hiding behind a pillar blasting back. Rennin’s assessment of the room takes less than a second, but that is enough for Isfeohrad to take a pot shot at him. The bullet grazes his arm but he makes it to Mia’s pillar. “What the hell is going on?”
“Half the security squads were dead before we realised anything was wrong,” says Mia through gritted teeth. She is sweating profusely from the pain.
“Loading!” calls Drake and Caufmann opens fire with his handgun.
“What is this room?”
“How should I know? We followed it,” she says, nodding at Isfeohrad. The hands covering her wound are shaking. There’s a lot of blood.
“Stay still for a sec,” says Rennin taking his belt off and looking towards Del. He’s still standing in the doorway, facing everything and nothing. Rennin guesses Isfeohrad isn’t taking a shot at him until it has to. Del hasn’t done anything yet, so it would appear the prototype sees no sense in provoking an eight-foot android.
“Rennin! It’s coming at you!” yells Drake.
Rennin pictures in his mind which pillar is closest and judges where Isfeohrad would be if it is coming straight at him. He hugs the pillar, reaching around with his shooting arm and empties his clip, firing blind. He hears a surprised grunt as at least one of the bullets finds its mark. Drake starts shooting again and Rennin risks a quick glance out to see Isfeohrad back at the other pillar. “Yeah, you remember that gun, don’t you?”
“Farrow, help me up. I�
��m going to fill that fuck so full of lead it won’t be able to move,” says Mia, beginning to slur from shock.
Rennin wraps his belt around Mia’s injured leg above the thigh and tightens it very hard. She grunts in pain but accepts it. “You need treatment. Stay here and don’t shoot, you’re just as likely to hit us as it,” he says reloading Killjoy.
He risks another glance around the pillar. A green laser dot from Isfeohrad’s direction is aimed at Drake and Caufmann. He has just enough time to register that in the android military, green is for grenade. There’s a clinking sound a split second before an explosion behind their cover from the android’s shot. The grenade missed both of them but the concussive force in such a small area is enough to throw Drake out of cover rendering him unconscious. Caufmann was closer and took more of the blast, most of his coat is scorched and his skin is torn from shrapnel. Rennin is mystified at the amount of smoke Caufmann’s body seems to be emanating.
Isfeohrad is very quick. It’s over to Caufmann in an instant, slamming its knee into his head, driving him into the wall. Rennin is out of cover and running over to help, Killjoy looking for a target, a perfect shot to take it out for good. Rennin slows to take aim but Isfeohrad has a hand outstretched his direction. The gesture looks like it’s saying ‘come no further’ but a sudden blast of energy erupts, surging at Rennin. He didn’t know they could do that.
It hits him square in the chest throwing him off his feet and into the wall, hard. He hears more than two ribs snap on impact and falls limply to the ground badly winded. He manages to get to his hands and knees and coughs some blood onto the floor, “Del,” he half spits. The android faces towards him but doesn’t respond.
Prototype and Caufmann are locked at each other’s throats, each gritting their teeth. The progenitor takes a swing. Caufmann ducks and shoves Isfeohrad away with both hands. The mist from Caufmann’s wounds is filling the room making it hard to see. Caufmann’s eyes stand out like some kind of spectre in haze.
Isfeohrad looks Caufmann over regarding his steaming blood. “You’re not human, but you don’t show up on my scanners as android. What are you?”
Caufmann spits some freezing blood into Isfeohrad’s face and slams his fist across its jaw throwing it back a few paces. “I might ask you the same question.”
Isfeohrad hurls an energy stream at Caufmann that looks like green lightning but the doctor slaps it with his hand, absorbing the energy and electrifying his eyes. “What are you?” yells Isfeohrad more in alarm than rage.
Caufmann’s veins in his arms and the sides of his face are glowing green, spreading up to his eyes, which look to be made of pure energy. “We’re registered as dead, what does it matter?”
Isfeohrad screeches and blasts at him again but Caufmann slaps it aside again, this time generating an angry green aura. “You have lost,” calls the progenitor.
Caufmann doesn’t answer, but slowly steps forward. Still engulfed in energy, he is forcing Isfeohrad back little by little. Caufmann smiles and speaks in a voice so soft that only his enemy can hear him. “Unit ee-ex-zero-zero-eight-eight, Medtech, Cyclone Division, Rupture Team.”
Despite the sheer horror on Isfeohrad’s face it manages to draw a hidden pistol so fast it looks like a cut-scene. It fires a bullet into Caufmann’s chest throwing him off his feet, onto his back. Rennin calls to Del. “Can you tell which one is the progenitor chassis?” he gasps.
Del nods.
“I want you to focus on the progenitor!” Rennin takes a careful breath. He doesn’t want to say what’s he’s about to utter. It’s a death sentence to all of them if Del can’t distinguish which is which, but then again they’re all dead if Isfeohrad kills Caufmann. It’s a command that all combat model androids have ingrained into them. An autopilot-like command designed to make a unit act quickly and decisively. “You got it, Del?”
Del nods.
“Weapons free!”
Del’s head snaps around to face Isfeohrad. A harsh vibration bursts outwards from his body. Rennin shudders as goosebumps appear all over him, causing a brief tickling of pins and needles. It feels like a pressure is building inside his head along with a bass hum in his ears.
Isfeohrad obviously picked up the sonar pulse because it is facing Del with a look of disbelief.
The giant android springs into action, running directly at Isfeohrad opening his mouth and letting out a violent snarl. The progenitor fires at Del with what’s left in the gun but the bullets either bounce off Del’s armour plates or simply cannot penetrate his hide, falling harmlessly to the floor. Once Del is within reach Isfeohrad throws a punch. Del blocks impossibly quickly, grabbing the wrist then bringing his other arm up, snapping its elbow the wrong way. Though Isfeohrad is disabled Del continues his assault, bringing his knee up to crush the progenitor’s abdomen. The progenitor-class leans forward in shock and Del performs a downward left hook to Isfeohrad’s face. There is no doubt it could have smashed through a concrete wall. The android’s head snaps left leaving it completely vulnerable. Del grabs its broken arm and throws the progenitor like a stone across the room. Isfeohrad collides with the doorframe on its way out of the chamber, into the hallway skidding along the floor.
In the brief lull, Isfeohrad climbs to its feet, vomiting up a hideous looking liquid before retreating up the corridor away from the pillared chamber. It risks a glance behind as it feels a grating vibration ripple across it. Del is regarding it closely.
Del doesn’t waste any more time and shoots off after it. Caufmann calls after him, but he’s completely fixated. The doctor limps over to Rennin holding his chest wound. It’s not too severe, Caufmann’s bones are too strong. The doctor clamps his hand hard on Rennin’s shoulder. “Did you say ‘weapons free?’”
“It was the only way to make him do something,” Rennin says, obviously rather shocked at being dressed down.
Caufmann releases him. “I’m not upset with you, Ren, I’m just confused. I never programmed that in,” he says and a grin crosses his face. “He got that from you. He works!”
Rennin is looking Caufmann up and down, mesmerized by the steaming injuries. “You’re badly wounded.”
“There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Rennin suddenly zones out. With the mist in the air coming off Caufmann’s body and the words ‘there’s nothing I can do’ repeating in his head it floods his mind with images from the dream he had the night before.
He looks to Caufmann’s face and can’t, for the life of him, understand how he never put that together. “Medtech?”
Caufmann eyes him for a moment very enigmatically causing Rennin to wonder if he’s just uttered his last word. Caufmann puts his hand back on Rennin’s shoulder. “After we take care of Prototype, I’ll make sure to fill you in,” he says as a loud blast blares from upstairs, followed by the chamber shaking.
Drake is on his feet again. “Where did it go?” he calls.
Caufmann turns to him. “Drake, get Saker some help immediately. Rennin and I will go after Del. Take her to emergency treatment down the main hall on the left then come to our position,” he says just like the soldier he once was. They break off, following the sounds of the battle up and up the stairwell.
Rennin’s head is spinning. He’s still short of breath due to what feels like a punctured lung but he can’t believe he’s running into a fight with the Nexarien Decora. He’s reeling that he didn’t recognise him earlier. It is true that he only saw him during his brutal recovery from Indigo Reign, but still. In another way it might explain why Caufmann has kept him around so long. Rennin is still at a loss to how these events have all come together since Venus III. The watchman and the other CryoZaiyon S troops were decommissioned two days after the CryoZaiyon androids left for the ice planetoid.
Del has Isfeohrad on the run. The progenitor has attempted to distract or trap the larger android but Del simply outmatches it with sheer force. Isfeohrad is cornered, looking to be panicking at the time Caufmann and Renn
in come bounding in after tracking them down.
They are fighting on a floor full of offices, but most of the office partitions are now shattered debris. Rennin is puffing like mad after the ten-storey climb, but can almost taste the progenitor’s capture.
Isfeohrad’s left arm is completely useless. Del’s manoeuvre viciously dislodged the elbow joint completely, but the android is still a formidable foe. Even for Del.
Isfeohrad ejects a flare from its good hand, so bright it blinds both Caufmann and Rennin. They scramble to the floor, feeling around for cover. Having no eyes, Del is completely unaffected. That is something the progenitor clearly didn’t expect. It thought that the blind android’s sensory system might be scrambled, but Del ends that possibility by rushing at it to land a left strike, a right, then a heavier left throwing Isfeohrad off its feet. The blows are so fierce it sounds like someone is kicking an empty chemical drum.
Del grips Isfeohrad by its long cable-strand hair, and tosses it into the air. For a brief moment the progenitor is suspended, completely defenceless. Del uses this opportunity to blast a hole clean through its torso with his inbuilt wrist gun.
Rennin is still blinded but Caufmann has recovered, half dragging and half carrying him free of the battle. Rennin is swearing and cursing but Caufmann reassures him that his sight will return.
Del’s composure is one of infinite patience while waiting for the maimed progenitor to rise. The splatter marks where the android’s blood hit the wall steam and bubble in a corrosive, acidic kind of way.
A battered Isfeohrad slowly climbs to its feet losing fluid, clutching its abdomen on the left side with its one good arm. Caufmann has set Rennin down in the stairwell and is back in the destroyed office space.
The progenitor reaches into its coat. Del’s entire body visibly tenses waiting for an attack. Caufmann’s eyes are two beacons of murderous rage as he raises his gun for a kill shot. Isfeohrad produces a cylindrical object about the size of a spray can. Caufmann’s eyes betray his horror and that break in his concentration gives Isfeohrad enough time to press the red detonate button, drop it, and spring towards the windows in one fluid movement. Caufmann grabs Del’s arm and leaps for the stairwell doorway with everything he’s got. “NAPA bomb!”