Railgun: Earth under Siege

by Luis Robles

  “How can we trust you? I insisted.

  “The core… I will tell you how to destroy the core. This will extinguish the life of the Keepers on earth as we know it. But we have to move quickly. It is only a matter of time before they open the doors to the chambers, and all Miriu who will walk into this chamber will be powerful,” said Biria as he struggled to get up.

  “Perhaps it would be wise if we hurry,” Amadeus uttered.

  “Do you still have any shots left in your cannons?” Biria asked, turning to face Railgun.

  “I do…” Railgun answered, tilting his head.

  “Good. Then we still have a chance, but we must not waste a single second. Follow me,” Biria said as he ran to a control panel near the massive core.

  “Can we trust him?” Amadeus asked.

  “Amadeus, now is not the time for these kinds of questions…we have no choice. Unless you know how to take down the core, then he is the only chance we have now,” I said as I followed Biria, running with Amadeus in my hands. “Railgun, how are you managing?”

  “I’ve calculated that our chances of survival have increased with our newfound alliance. My body is severely damaged, but I will be able to carry out this mission,” Railgun answered, unable to lie to me.

  I felt bad for Railgun, but it was largely because of him that we had made it this far. I had no doubt in my mind that if we were able to succeed, humanity would have a huge debt to pay to him.

  “The core of the Nefvalia functions, in human terms, as a big battery. Its energy is funneled using the entirety of the ship as a form of antenna. To destroy it without blowing ourselves up in the process, we need to drain the core to the rest of the ship. I presume that it will take about a minute to drain. However, once we drain the core, the ship will immediately start falling from the sky,” Biria explained as we listened intently. This time, Railgun’s core began humming at a regular rate once more. I allowed myself to feel a bit of relief, thanks to that.

  “How long do we have before we crash land?” I asked.

  “We have about five minutes before we compromise the ship’s integrity and risk getting stuck here. Although the ship is very strong, we don’t know what effect it will have with earth’s gravity. It has never been tested this way,” he continued as he was working on the control panel. The only problem is that, if my theory is correct, it will take an exuberant amount of fire power to destroy the core. This thing was built to last.”

  “How much?” Railgun abruptly interrupted.

  “Up to one Gigajoule in rapid succession…” Biria stated, stopping all work.

  Every strand of confidence I had to possibly getting out of here alive was cut loose after hearing those words. Railgun could not possibly produce that amount of energy. My grandpa and I did not build him that way. We built him so that he would be efficient, with what he had.

  “I believe I can do it. We should not waste any more time. Do you have a plan to get out safely?” Railgun asked.

  “Wait! How do you believe you can do that, Railgun? You are not assembled to handle that kind of power,” I asked, worried, already imagining what Railgun was planning to do.

  “That is correct. But I believe that Dr. Liu had planned for a situation of this magnitude. My secondary core has initiated, and it will only take a few minutes to reach its maximum power, which I believe would be sufficient for the final task,” Railgun said with a warm voice.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, feeling that I was missing something important.

  “Jaika, if I may… There isn’t much time to debate. We have a great number of Keepers trying to get inside this chamber,” Amadeus said, worried.

  “That is right. We should process now if we are to stand a chance,” Biria uttered as he continued working on the control panel once again.

  * * *

  Amadeus and I were waiting for Railgun and Biria near a small hatch away from the core of the ship. Biria had said that we would be able to get out of the ship quicker through here. It was an engineering hatch that would lead everywhere in the ship directly, including the outside. We waited anxiously for them.

  Railgun assumed a new position that I had never seen, with his rails extended a lot further than usual. Particles of electricity were dancing all over him and on the floor around him. Biria began running towards us, with a faceless, scared expression. Once Biria reached the half point between us, Railgun aimed the gun slightly up and fired into the core itself.

  Even with my ears covered with my hands, the sound was intense, making the chamber reverberate. The sound felt heavy on my body, and I began to feel nervous, with my heart pounding faster and faster with every shot. Railgun fired five times before there was a blinding flash. Just as it reached the highest audible pitch, it all went silent.

  The core now bled and leaked across the floor, spewing some form of liquid energy plasma blew across the floor. The walls wobbled.

  The soaring vocals from the Miriu shook the walls as if trying to get in. The sound of these sirens was like an endless scream of pain, with the added sound of an operatic soprano hitting a high note without taking a single breath. These sounds meshed together like a glorious screech filling out our ears.

  Biria held his hand to his mouth as if to prevent him from screaming. There was visible pain in his face.

  When I looked over at Railgun, he was already running towards us at full speed, and I felt the ship shift. We were already descending and we were descending fast, a lot faster than what Biria had predicted. We were in big trouble.

  “The code for the door is not working!” Biria vociferated, pushing the wall. “Dammit! I didn’t know the core would affect the ship this quickly.”

  “Let me try!” Amadeus said as he jumped towards the lock.

  “We must get out now,” Railgun said as he walked up to the door. “Stand back,” he said as he pointed one arm towards the door and then fired. His lights weren't so bright, and his railgun didn't even seem to be charging. He was slower than usual but somehow managed.

  Railgun’s shot caused a hole in the door but it was not large enough for us to fit in. He ran backwards and then rammed the door at full speed using his broad shoulder. But the door left its mark as pieces of him flew off in the process.

  “No! We can’t do that!” I argued.

  “It’s the only way. We must move,” he said.

  My eyes got watery, and I felt horrible for what Railgun was enduring.

  “How many more doors are there before we reach the outside of the ship?” he asked, facing Biria as we felt the ship tilting again.

  “There are four more levels, so four more doors like this one,” Biria answered, almost not wanting to speak.

  “Can you break any of them yourself?” Railgun asked as unnatural particles of electricity jolted his body.

  “No, I’m afraid not. Without the core, we are as strong as a human, maybe just a little stronger,” Biria replied with a grave expression.

  “Very well then… Amadeus, stay next to Jaika and keep your weapons hot at all cost. You stay near me and tell me where to go.”

  We ran… We ran, in what seemed to be almost a straight line, and we covered ground fast. It pained me to see Railgun break through each door as more damage was caused to his body by each one of the doors.

  As we broke through to the last door and finally saw the dock and buildings within reach, our little moment of relief turned into a dire situation when we saw two Keepers pointing two very large weapons at us. Railgun immediately extended his almost broken cannons and was ready to fire.

  “Wait!” Biria screamed and then stepped forward just to the side of Railgun. “I know them. They have the mark of research on their armor,” he whispered to Railgun. Then, he faced the Keepers. “What do you want?”

  I didn’t feel good at all. My chest ached and I was feeling so exhausted that I dropped to my knees. Amadeus ran to my side right away, holding me up using the entirety of his body. I heard Railgun’s core spe
ed up as if he was about to fire. I knew that to him, I was the most important thing.

  “Wait, let them finish…” I said weakly.

  “We are here for you. We heard what happened. So you have sided with the humans, right?” They screamed from across the dock.

  “Yes, I have made my decision. I will not let our people commit genocide ever again. My place is with humanity, with Earth, with them,” Biria enunciated clearly, gesturing at us.

  The Keepers raised their weapons, and then they dropped them. “We are with you then,” they said without hesitation.

  Railgun fired at their weapons, knocking it far out of their reach. He retracted his cannons and came to get me. Before I knew it, I was in his arms, staring down at the rapidly approaching buildings.

  “Without a parachute, I believe that this may be quite an unfortunate end, Miss Liu.” Amadeus said with a gulping noise. “I had imagined a situation less dire.”

  “Can you survive the fall?” Railgun asked to the trio of Keepers.

  “Our armors will protect us from any fatal injuries, I believe. But at this stage, I believe we have no other choice. We have to jump,” Biria replied horridly.

  “Or die on this ship,” Amadeus added softly. The Keepers only nodded.

  “We’ll jump to the nearest building. Amadeus, hold on to me and cover Jaika as best as you can. There will be a lot of debris flying around,” Railgun said as he ran back to the edge of the dock to pick up speed.

  Railgun ran fast with Amadeus and me on his arms. For a few seconds I felt light, I felt what it was like to fly. Moments later, we hit a wall and we began to fall straight down. Railgun and Amadeus’ bodies were shaking hard. As I looked up, Railgun was trying to hold on to something on the high-rise building. I heard the clang of debris as it hit their bodies and saw Railgun’s visor crack with a big chunk of falling cement.

  For a moment, I just had to take in how beautiful this place was, even though it was lightly raining and grey, even though we were just over a city with tall spires and glowing little dots between the streets, and dark oceans, with dead Dragons, even if everything had gone to hell... It was still, and always will be worth fighting for.

  My ears popped harshly as we descended. The ship was right on top of us, but my eyes would not remain open any longer. I was drifting in and out of consciousness.

  “Stay with us, Jaika,” I heard Railgun murmur, probably noticing my eyes close, “…Just a few more seconds.”

  …

  When I opened my eyes again, I saw Railgun on his knees right in front of me as I lay on the ground. I was disoriented, and my eyes were struggling to adjust without my glasses. A large crowd of people were gathered around me, and I was able to recognize Kuan and Shu waving frantically at something. The three Keepers that jumped were also within the circle, and the people were keeping their distance.

  “You must understand, they can help! Do not get any closer! Give her some room to breathe,” Amadeus said desperately to the crowd of people, running back and forth, making a perimeter with his stun guns.

  “Move out of the way, cat. We want justice. All of them must pay for what they did,” one of the crowd members viciously shouted, followed by many more agreeing.

  Then, a loud sound from far away, followed by a tremor, made me focus beyond the crowd and on to the fallen ship. The ship didn’t look so mighty anymore. It looked fragile, weak and it was engulfed in almost white flames—nothing could have survived that.

  The softest of whispers made me focus back at Railgun. His core sounded frail and getting slower by the second. His right arm was twitching and moving towards me ever so slightly.

  “I understand now,” he managed.

  I got up with whatever little strength I had left and hugged him. He couldn’t hug me back, but I felt that he was trying, he was still fighting.

  “Save your energy, Railgun, I’ll have you back running in no time, and after that, there will be no more running, no more fighting. Just, please…stay with me,” I said, tears rolling down my cheek.

  “I am afraid that, for me, it is just too late. But I understand now,” he said in the faintest of voices.

  “What is it, Railgun, tell me!” I demanded as I tried to be brave and face the unavoidable.

  “I understand now what it is like to fight for someone, what it is like to care for someone, what it is like to feel pain over someone else, and I understand now what it is to be human. For that, I thank you,” Railgun said as his core stopped humming completely, and his body grew cold.

  …

  And so at the end, the space travelers that journeyed so far to come to our planet and wipe us off the face of existence were defeated by a single android that learned how to feel. The juggernaut race, the Miriu, came to a stop at our planet. I didn’t have any doubt in my mind that Railgun would be able to defeat the Miriu because of the human emotions he harbored in his cerebral computer. No, in fact, I am sure that it was because of those human emotions that Railgun found the strength to carry on and protect me and this planet.

  We, as humans, are flawed. We have an imaginary self-importance that made us believe that we have a privileged position in this planet and that we can do anything to it without consequences. The Miriu taught us that that is not the case. They taught us that what we do to our planet will eventually have a consequence. If they weren’t able to destroy us, we will eventually destroy ourselves. They also taught us that we are not alone, that there are other far more ancient and dangerous beings out there. We must do whatever it takes to change our ways, to change the way we treat nature, so that humanity may survive the long road ahead.

  We have a lot of work to do in order to restore our planet, but thanks to the past events, the human race has undergone a mind change. And I believe that this time, we just make it.

  Five Years Later

  Railgun

  My optical sensors adjusted for optimal performance in the dim lighting conditions. I woke up slowly, my eyes blurry and my body cold—at least that was the description my cerebral computer told me at the time of my awakening. I made out a nice, smooth-faced feature of a young woman with the white coat standing before me. My cerebral computer instantly recognized her as Jaika. She was looking at me with hope as well as worry, and I did not understand. Emotions flooded through her that I had yet to properly identify and categorize. From a start-up scan, I was able to read that her heart was beating faster than a human heart normally did, and that she was in great distress. As a reflex, my mechanical body began to alert itself, hundreds of once dormant sensors came to life. I became more aware of my surroundings with each second that passed by.

  “Railgun! Railgun, are you alive? Can you understand me?” her voice wobbled. I turned my unblinking eyes back to her after scanning the room. It was a workshop, and images of my humanoid form plastered the walls. Other images were there as well, including those of a cat, and a family. Models of what seemed to be my heart-core and GEL system concept work rest on tables, along with many different species of plants and vegetables. My cerebral computer was so fast and clear that I was able to notice a small collection of printed news events of past but recent events, events that I understood had changed the world. I noticed many pictures were on the printed paper, pictures that caused sharp pang in my cerebral. Among the pictures that caused the most distress were the picture of a cat and an old scientist that went by the name of Dr. Liu, the picture of the woman standing in front of me, and the picture of…myself? I processed this information through my cerebral computer located in the hardened steel casing behind my visor.

  “Yes,” I pronounced categorically, “I can understand you clearly,” I said as I tried to adjust my voice for a more ‘human’ sound.

  “Do you remember me? Do you remember everything that happened?” she asked with a worried voice and tears beginning to fall…

  Afterword

  Whether or not Railgun remembers Jaika, is completely up to you and your imagination. Whet
her there is another alien invasion five years later, that is also up to you. It could be that at this time it is a different race that went on to invade earth after they knew that Miriu had retreated, or it could be a vengeful Miriu ship. I know what happens next, do you?

  This book was incredibly fun and complicated to write, since it’s written in its entirety in first person. But the biggest challenge came, when I had to step inside of a mind of a computer and narrate the story from its point of view. I had to ask myself every time: what does a computer that thinks think? And that was not an easy question to answer. However, at the end of the day I am quite happy how the story turned out. I’d like it to become a major motion picture someday. I wish that it was a bit longer than this, but to keep the fast pace dynamic, I had to move it along and did not want to bore you with all the small details of the world of Railgun: Earth Under Siege.

  This book went through several editions, fine tuning it before it got to your hands.

  I hope that you have enjoyed reading this book as much as I did when I re-read it for the final OK. This is what I consider to be a good work of Sci-fi.

  While it is of great pride to have written a book like Railgun, I would have never done it without the support from all those who saw me through with this book from beginning to end, especially those who talked things over, read, wrote, and offered comments. To them, I am eternally grateful.

  Specifically, I also thank Carmen Magtuba for her time and dedication in editing this great book. Thank you, and I hope to continue working with you in the future.

  Equally important, to you my dear readers, for showing interest and giving Railgun a chance. I hope you will have the same enthusiasm with the other books from Sky Gate Tale. Thank you, and amplify the brink of the world of Science Fiction by sharing and leaving a review to help get this book in the hands of other readers.