Kin of Exile

by Tyler Bunyard

  Karrel tore from his current position. The cover did not matter anymore. A single hit from one of the small meteors would take him out of commission, so he would take his chances with the turrets.

  The group accelerated to their top speeds, making no attempt to hide themselves, but they had noticed the storm too late. Fiery balls of rock crashed into the ground, exploding into pieces and spitting rocky shrapnel in all directions. Karrel covered his face and felt himself get pelted with red hot chunks.

  The meteors were bombarding the ground like artillery shells, and their numbers made it feel like the sky itself was spewing bullets at them. The superdome itself was taking volley after volley of the blazing boulders. However, the sheening surface would grow bright with each hit, and the dome would remain unharmed and perfectly clean. The weapons along the outside however, did not seem to like the new assailants.

  The entire row of turrets pointed upward. They began picking their targets. Red lasers fired from the weapon emplacements, and they began to easily blow apart the falling earth. Searing rubble fell down to the ground.

  Karrel dive-rolled to dodge a pack of the newly destroyed debris. In front of him, Angel had transformed himself into a cloudier form, allowing the smaller slabs of rock to pass right through him. The girls were keeping pace, gracefully dodging what they could, however their cloaks were bestowed a few new holes.

  Johnny and Puck were the first to arrive at the superdome. They slammed their bodies against its walls, bouncing off of the shields and keeping as close as possible. Everyone else followed suit as soon as they approached the gray semi-sphere. The gigantic structure was now catching any of the falling debris that would hit them, though a shower of red stone periodically battered the group.

  The turrets continued to fire for a few minutes, until finally the meteor storm passed. Immediately, they returned to their usual security cycle, panning from one side to the other. Despite how mutilated the area around the superdome now was, the structure itself still appeared as pristine as ever.

  “What a– Fantastic way– To start this mission,” panted Puck, who was brushing hot stone from his arms.

  “On the bright side…!” Angel pointed down the side of the superdome. A garage-like entrance to the dome was only a short distance away. “Now we just need to get inside.”

  They proceeded toward the garage area. It was a fairly large entrance, with two massive doors that protruded downwards to the ground. It seemed as though it was a loading zone. With how large the openings were, semi-trucks and other large vehicles could easily fit inside. As Prisca had stated before, there was no one guarding the entrance.

  When they arrived, Johnny began fiddling with the lights along the bottoms of his wrist. “Just need to make contact, and hope she’s in position,” he said to himself. Once he was done fiddling, he stood close to the doors and stared at them for a while. Nothing was happening. He glanced back at the group and the group stared back at him. He messed with the controls on his wrist, and once more, scanned the large garage doors. Then he looked back to the group. They all stood there, waiting expectantly. Still, nothing moved.

  Johnny sighed. “I’m afraid I might have just wasted everyone’s–”

  The doors began to ascend. Slowly but surely, they were opening up, and all of Johnny’s dismay was flushed from him. He ducked underneath the doors once there was enough room and scanned the inside of the garage.

  Inside, it was surprisingly dark. The walls of the facility were dirty, and only a few, dim overhead bulbs were lighting the area. Crates, supplies, and shelves, that one would expect to see in a loading zone, were nowhere to be seen. One would also expect to see large passages on the inside of a loading area, but there were only two access points leading further into the facility. One of them was a small door on the ground floor, and the other was a door connected to some aloft service railing.

  However, there was a large batch of tools, sprawled along the floor. They were resting next to two small armored trucks, not unlike the ones that the Survivor’s Guild used. Karrel chuckled inside, now knowing where the guild had been acquiring some of their assets, but also took notice that even with these two vehicles, there was an enormous amount of free space not being used. It all seemed a bit strange that an area as big as this would be used for trucks as small as those.

  Puck proceeded forward and patted his hands on one of the trucks. “I found our exit strategy,” he smiled.

  Johnny scanned the room once more, not finding what he was looking for. After a few moments of failure, a voice spoke out from somewhere.

  “Psst! Yo, up here!” the voice loudly whispered.

  The group brought their attention upward, where the overhead railing platforms were hanging. Off in the corner, the silhouette of a humanoid figure was hiding near the edge of the catwalk. She had the controls to the garage, which was hanging from the ceiling, in her hands. The dim lighting made it impossible to see any details of the figure, though the voice sounded as though it was coming from a young adult. She probably wasn’t any older than Karrel or Angel.

  Johnny quickly maneuvered himself below the figure, who tossed a small item down in response. Taking a quick peak at it, and nodding his head, Johnny gave a friendly gesture to the silhouetted figure and walked toward one of the inner doors. “Wait here,” he commanded the young woman, “stay hidden. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  Puck and Angel both started to move to the figure, but Johnny caught them and spun them around toward the door he was walking to.

  “–what? Hey!” Angel resisted Johnny. “It’s been like, a year. I just wanna see if she’s taller than me now.”

  “Not now!” Johnny snapped. “We’ll have plenty of time for sentiments after we escape.”

  Shrugging the hand off his shoulder, Angel begrudgingly agreed and followed Johnny to the door. Puck understood as well, gesturing to the others to move up with them.

  Karrel watched while the rest of the group gave their silent regards to the now hidden figure, who returned the gestures with a slightly more vicious hand wave of his own. “Just hurry up!” the silhouette implored, “I’m risking a lot just being here.”

  Karrel wondered who the young woman was. It was a bit eerie. The voice, even though she was speaking through loud whispers, seemed incredibly familiar, but he couldn’t quite tag a name to it. He put the thought to the back of his mind, supposing that he would get his answer if he survived the upcoming endeavors.

  The group proceeded through the lower of the inner doors. A familiar scene was thrust upon Karrel. The inside of the garage had been completely drab. The walls were dirty, and the only colors they carried were that of the wasteland. Now, however, as they stepped into this new hallway, a pristine mural of white blinded the group. The floors were spotless, and every inch of the corridor was drenched in bright light.

  The setting reminded Karrel of the night he had spent in the back of the bandits’ truck. The only difference was the lack of chains along the sides of the wall. Proceeding forward, the pearly white halls continued endlessly. There was an obvious lack of doors. The only colors that separated themselves from the white walls were found on the occasional label or sign. Of course, these notifications meant nothing to the group. They had never seen or been inside this facility before.

  Luckily, Johnny had received a small gift from their insider. Apparently, before their friend left a year ago, Johnny bestowed a small group of his MAIT’s to him. Now, Johnny had received them back, and due to their friend’s efforts, they carried with them the layouts of multiple areas. Karrel was happy to see that this infiltration they were undergoing had been properly planned out, and that a sufficient amount of foresight had been used.

  Johnny dropped the small group of MAIT’s and they immediately formed themselves into a set of 3D-multilayered maps. The group now had their bearings straight. It was time to breach the facilities.

  The halls were utterly vacant. They tried to progress as quietly
as possible, but there was no white noise to mask their footfalls. Karrel could feel every single step the group made as though the floor itself was shaking. His heart slammed against his chest, terrified that someone would hear the quiet vibrations of their pitter patter. Yet, turn after turn, corridor after corridor, their walkways remained completely devoid of life. It took them a few minutes before approaching their first encounter.

  Angel silently signaled for the rest of the group to halt. He glued himself to the wall and peaked around the end of the l-shaped hallway. He quickly retracted back and turned toward the group. “We’ve got two guards…” he relayed.

  Johnny scratched his head, giving a concerned look to the ground. “The map shows this as the only way through,” he said.

  “I think I can take ‘em,” Angel thought aloud.

  Karrel’s curiosity got the better of him. If they were going to engage, he wanted to see what they were up against. “Let me take a look,” he said, as he peaked his head around the corner.

  The hallway extended down a fair distance before splitting off in two directions. At the intersection, two figures stood guard. They were humanoid in shape, but they were far from being humans. Their limbs consisted of multiple metal bars, wrapped around in a helix-style formation, before forming feet and hand-like appendages. The figures did not seem to have torsos either. Rather, the arms and the legs met in the middle of the figure, forming a deformed and elongated x-like shape to the contraption. The headpiece sat in the center, atop of the rest of the metal. A single, orange line of light was the only color that differentiated itself from the black and white bars that made up the automaton. The orange visor wrapped itself around the head, scanning the perimeter for anything that moved.

  Karrel turned back to the rest of the group. “Robots!?” he expressed his surprise. “They have friggin’ robots guarding the place?”

  Angel nodded his head, but was quick to reassure Karrel, “Trust me, the x-bots should be the least of your worries. Though I do have to say, the gauss rifles are new.”

  Karrel had seen them when he had peaked out. The robots were equipped with two rifle-like devices. Though, instead of a single barrel, there were two flat plates of metal on each side, extending at the end. In between the two plates, it glowed with electric energy. A thick, silver disk was floating in the middle of the plates and moved wherever the rifle moved. Karrel knew of this technology, though it was supposed to only be speculative. The magnetic energy in the rifles could launch the metal disks at supervelocities, causing devastating damage. He wasn’t sure if any of his book’s shields could withstand a blast from those devices, and he was not in a hurry to find out.

  Johnny tapped Angel on the shoulder. “Aim for the heads,” he reminded his dark-eyed friend, “they might be relatively small, but it’s the only place large enough for them to store the motherboard and processors.”

  Angel nodded and approached the edge of the wall. An overconfident grin formed across his face, and he shot a cocksure look at Karrel. “Watch this,” he smirked.

  Angel extended his hands outward. A plume of black smoke started to coalesce in his hands, forming upon itself until a specific shape had been made. Angel was now holding two long knives, made purely out of his dark substance.

  Angel launched both of his knives down the hallway, at the two guards, while simultaneously jumping out from cover. He instantaneously charged another collection of black smoke into his hands once more, and as soon as he was satisfied, blasted the newly formed attack down range to follow the knives. Without missing a beat, he dropped to the ground, placing his hands and body into a sprinter’s bullet-position. A dark cloud wrapped itself around Angel’s legs and they glowed with black energy. He kicked off the ground and rocketed himself forward, toward the two robotic guards.

  The two automatons spotted Angel’s shape when he popped out of cover. They both raised their gauss rifles and pointed them down range. “UNKNOWN ENTITY VERIFIED,” their robotic voice crackled simultaneously. “FIRING.”

  However, before the guards could trigger their rifles, the two black knives that Angel had tossed connected with the weapons. The power behind the smoke-infused blades caused the rifles to be knocked from their metal hands. The x-bots tried to dive and retrieve their weapons, relaying aloud, “ERROR 404. WEAPON NOT FOUND,” but before they could move, the two black barrages of smoke instantly followed the daggers’ assault, smacking into the center of the automatons and exploding. The concussive force bounced them against the very wall they were guarding. They were about to topple over when Angel had reached them. He grabbed the headpieces, one in each hand, and used his current momentum to slam them once more against the wall. Bits and pieces of electronics erupted from the shattered heads of the x-bots and showered onto the floor. One of the robots let out a computerized scream, “UNABLE TO RETALIxfghtcher–” which cut off as its metal body toppled. The other tried sweeping Angel’s feet with the remnants of its power, calmly stating, “AVENGING MY COMRADxfghtcher–” which was also cut off when Angel slammed it to the floor. Both of the mechanical humanoids plummeted to the ground, motionless.

  Angel pivoted 180 degrees and gave a thumbs-up back to the group, signaling that it was safe. Suddenly, the two gauss rifles on the floor began beeping. Two red lights flashed on their sides. Angel examined the lights, bringing himself closer to the weapons. In a small red font, a message was blinking, “No User Found. Unauthorized Entity In Proximity.”

  Angel’s eyes went wide. “Oh shi–” he tried to swear but was cut short. Both rifles gave off a high-pitched humming noise, as if they were charging up. Instantly, they exploded into pieces, sending a storm of shrapnel in every direction. Angel’s body was completely enveloped in the invisible blast wave, and where he once stood, a plume of navy-blue smoke erupted and was blown in every direction.

  Watching the event transpire, Johnny swore underneath his breath and sprinted down the hall. Karrel followed immediately after, his heart sinking from what had just transpired. He had seen Angel thrown in a grinder before, but he had never seen him blown to pieces. Usually the navy-blue smoke would coalesce shortly after, but now it had been spread all throughout the hall.

  Approaching what was supposed to be the cloudy remains of Angel’s body, the group came to a halt. The navy-blue smoke floated in space for a few moments. Their lungs were devoid of air as they watched the cloud slowly fill the corridors.

  After a few breathless seconds, the plume of navy-blue began to contract. It started slowly but got more rapid as more and more of the smoke began to compress into itself. Karrel let out a sigh of relief when he spotted the first of Angel’s limbs forming out of the cloud.

  His body reassembled, Angel’s head was last to be reformed. As the eyes and ears regained their substance, an agonizing voice shot out from the rest of the smoke. “Owwwwww…!” Angel howled in pain. “Exploding guns. Also, new…”

  “Glad to be hearing your voice again,” Karrel laughed, “which is more than I can say for these mechanical bastards. They sure are a talkative bunch.”

  Jessica was grinning, looking at Karrel while pointing to Johnny. When Karrel caught wind of this he gave Johnny an expectant look.

  “Well, back when we were planning this” Johnny began, “I knew that whoever went in was going to need a way to slip by all of the robotic security. So, I created a virus that would cloak him from their scanners when he decided the time was right. For fun, I also figured out how to force the bots into announcing all of their actions. Though…” Johnny scratched his head. “I figured they would have cleansed the virus by now…”

  Karrel gave Johnny a blank stare before letting out his thoughts, “That… is amazing! Is there anything else that you–”

  Krystalyn interrupted, “Hey! Hate to be a buzzkill, but we don’t have time for this. There’s no way that this little scuffle will go unnoticed for long.”

  The group agreed and all of them continued to proceed toward their objective. A sh
ort while longer, and Krystalyn was proved to be correct.

  A wandering patrol of six x-bots was marching down the adjacent hall. They were obviously responding to the two missing signatures that were now heaping piles of scrap. There was no way around this fight; they needed to proceed down this hall, and it was impossible to get by unspotted. Puck took the initiative, realizing the advantage of surprise was about to disappear. He darted around the corner, tossing one of the knives into the air next to him.

  The knife floated for a brief second, before pointing its sharp end towards one of the x-bots. With a flick of his wrist, the dagger blasted its way down range. The knife easily connected with the headpiece of the front-most robot, shattering its structure into pieces and sending nuts, bolts, and sparks flying.

  The rest of the patrol’s visors all lit up. In a cacophony of robotic voices, they shouted out, “UNKNOWN ENTITY VERIFIED.” The two closest robots lifted their rifles and aimed at Puck. They calmly announced, “FIRING,” as they pulled the triggers on their gauss rifles.

  The rest of the group had just rounded the corner in time to see two spinning discs being fired at Puck. They were magnetically flung at a velocity far greater than any bullet, and they left a clearly visible vapor trail behind them. It was impossible for Karrel to track the rounds that were fired, until they reached their target.

  What should have been two gaping holes in the torso and leg of Puck, never appeared. As the two disks approached, they rapidly began to slow down. Their vector of motion shifted, and whereas they were originally heading to collide with Puck, they now moved to the sides, and eventually behind him. Puck had been holding his hands in a forward position, and Karrel now realized what was happening. In a final struggle, Puck let out a thunderous roar, and brought the two rounds that had been fired at him to a silent halt. His nose was bleeding, and he was panting heavily; it was a sure sign that what he had done had taken a rather large amount of energy and concentration.

  Now that he had two floating projectiles at his disposal, Puck returned the favor. He flung them as fast as he could back at the two x-bots that had attacked him. One of the metal disks crashed through the headpiece of the left robot, which began to spark violently. The other severed the metal bars that composed an arm of the right x-bot.