[Music: Frozen Touch - Yaroslav Molochnyk]
You know, that moment, when one hears their alarm tone. When fleeting thoughts like "five more minutes" start going through one's head.
I continued lazily hibernating in the warmth of my blankets until silence prevailed in the room. As soon as the music ended, I stood up, grabbed some clothes for the day, and went to have a warm shower.
The worst came when I had to struggle to put on that tight synthetic suit while water vapor hastily siphoned my thermal energy. I do have regular clothes: it's just that today I was unlucky enough to 'volunteer' for today's expedition. I have to acknowledge it was 'cool' the first few times, at least until I got tired of it.
Nothing but deadly silence awaits outside, and if you're unlucky, you might even stumble upon a terminator. I guess they were named after the movie, you know, because: yeah. In short, expeditions are boring and scary, for an encounter with a terminator means you may not know how you died.
Standing up from the bench, I walked back to my room to leave the pajamas and started navigating the labyrinth of poorly lit metal corridors.
Even though I work in the software department, sometimes I get to do various unrelated errands because the base lacks personnel. No matter how many complaints one sends to the headquarters, you know how those things work: talking with a wall may yield the same results.
What is today's errand? Well, last night, a droid got struck. Those simple machines manage most if not all of our outdoor equipment; without them, there would be no way to keep everything running. Resources are scarce, making it hard to replace most old models. As you may have guessed, the old equipment brings trouble once in a while.
Usually, we handle such chores with a remotely controlled droid. But this time, an hour of maneuvering proved that human intervention would be needed to complete the task.
'Well...'
What can I say?
"Damn it."
"This had to happen when it's my turn."
[Charge 100%]
[System diagnostics: OK;]
As you guessed, this morning, my mood is awful. Putting on my heavy exoskeleton piece by piece, leaving the helmet last, my negativity faded to the back of my mind. As the mechanical armor sealed with a muffled noise, several windows appeared on the helmet display. Dismissing them with a glance, I began walking. Each step produced a high pitch buzz followed by a heavy thud.
Reaching the end of this long corridor, I pushed open the heavy metallic door in front. Walking inside, I locked the door behind. Clumsily navigating the interface on my helmet, I requested permission to exit the base.
["Warning: unit 0x2B, private Orion, requesting exit from door 016."]
After a few seconds, the mechanical voice spoke again:
["Request approved by Capitan Rose Evans."]
Soon, the characteristic muffled noise of depressurized air was followed by the creaking and shaking of the whole room: slowly, the door in front of him unsealed. Taking a glance around, I stepped into the poorly lit room and walked directly to the six-legged tank in the middle. Climbing on top, I sat into the cabin at its center.
[Charge 98%;]
[System diagnostics: OK;]
Sealing the valve of my cabin, I waited until the garage doors started lifting. The floor shook; white mist sipped inside, covering all surfaces with a layer of frost. Taking a deep breath, I moved forward the fancy joystick, and the six-legged machine walked out of the base.
ººº
The outside world is dark, cold, and unchanging. Here, even time itself seems to freeze. Dark clouds cover the sky, and a dense fog hides the horizon. Thick layers of hardened ice stretch through the barren lands; sharp edges, craters, and architectural remnants make wheeled vehicles obsolete.
After navigating for five hours in an almost straight line, I finally reached the objective. Carefully maneuvering the bulky machine, I descended to the bottom of a massive excavation.
It's been a hundred years since the beginning of the third world war. To this day, we still use nuclear weapons against our enemy. There's been no sunlight for half a century, for which several meters of frost encased our home planet.
I wish I could leave this damned place, yet I know that I'm chained here until the end. Space travel has never been cheap; besides, the council won't allow people like me to leave this planet. No one wants to live in this barren place, yet someone has to stay.
That artificial intelligence has to remain here until we find a way to kill it. We say we won the war since the surface and outer space are under our control. But, I feel it isn't that simple: no one knows what that mechanical form of life is planning under the surface, for it may be the real version of the death star.
I stopped the tank in front of a massive truck whose 15-meter wheels could easily crush anything on their path. After clumsily getting out, I took a pneumatic hammer from the back of the vehicle. Once again, checking whether I left anything undone, I began walking towards the truck.
I like silence, but the silence of this place is suffocating. Centering my mind on the buzzing sounds of my exoskeleton, I walked under the truck, which despite the size of its wheels, its bottom is only 4 meters high.
Soon, I stopped in front of a four-legged platform with two long arms. It had two legs stuck in a pit and was uncomfortably close to one of the giant wheels. Sighing, I walked closer to it and started pondering on how to get this stupid machine out.
Navigating the interface of my helmet, getting permissions, I connected with the controls of the mechanical platform. Stepping back, I played by moving its legs back and forth. Walking to one of the struck legs, I used my mechanical fist to hammer out a struck rock from its joints.
'This will be a long day...'
[Incoming call from Capitan Rose Evans.]
[Accept.]
Soon office noises and a female voice interrupted the deadly silence.
["Orion, come back to the base."]
"Uh... Why?"
["The mine you're in has just poked a nest."]
'Damn it.'
That was the only thought that crossed my mind as I started running back.
["Countless started pouring out... The base decided to detonate a 100 megaton, so get ready for an earthquake."]
Just as she finished talking, the whole floor shook upwards, which made Orion stumble and fall.
'Urgh...'
Feeling as though someone punched his stomach, Orion suppressed the dizziness, stood up, and continued running. As his hearing slowly returned, he could hear the buzzing of machine guns in the background.
*Bzzz* *Brrr*
Turning his head, he could see orange beams illuminate the sky.
["Can you hear me?"]
["Orion... Answer..."]
"Yes, I'm here."
Jumping on top of the tank and opening the valve, I was going to board the vehicle and make it run back to the base; but, today wasn't my day. A cold robotic voice interrupted the background noise.
["Evade."]
That is the combat assistant, which is usually there to avoid stuff like friendly fire. Feeling the hair on my whole body stand up, I instinctively jumped away as far as I could. Shortly after, a beam of bullets cut my tank in half.
'Holy...'
Before I could react, a 4-meter metallic ball slammed into my vehicle, scattering its remnants. Without thinking about it too much, I began a sprint; swiftly taking the machine gun strapped to my back, I aimed its barrel at the drone.
Before I could press the trigger, blue plasma fired from the small linear apertures all around the metal ball, launching it upwards. It was damaged and spinning out of control, but it used every opportunity both of its barrels aimed at any functional structure to fire.
Jumping face-first into the floor, I somehow avoided a hail of bullets from the spinning drone. As I stood up, an orange beam hit dead in the center of the drone. Pressing the trigger as it fell, I think I managed to scrap one of its guns. I wouldn't feel at ease until I saw that thing disassembled.
When it fell to the ground, it tried to lift off again, but the blue plasma only spun it. The drone began skidding on the ice, making me turn my body in circles. I was running backward trying to put some distance; yet, the damned thing almost hit me twice.
As it passed less than half a meter away from me, half flying, I swear I could feel the vacuum suction me into its trajectory, even from within my heavy mechanic armor.
I tried aiming at the only functioning barrel of the drone, but it was moving around too much. Concentration, stress: time seemed to stretch endlessly as my whole body shook with every bullet leaving the muzzle.
It suddenly stopped moving, showing me the side previously shredded by bullets. Breathing heavily, I questioned whether this was going to be the end of it. Then, it happened: it used the recoil of its only functioning barrel to spin.
---
["Warning: barrel overheat."]
["Warning: Structural integrity 60%;"]
[Warning: unable to perform thermal sealing, requesting
[Error: protocol 037 failed.]
My arms felt numb, and I couldn't feel my legs. I remained standing only thanks to the mechanical armor. The display was full of red windows, but I didn't bother to read them, for it was no longer my concern.
["What happened? Can you hear me?"]
I tried to answer, but only a weak whisper came out of my mouth.
'Capitan, I think I won't return.'
For some reason, I wanted to laugh; yet I couldn't.
["Are you there? Stay awake! Don't you dare to sleep! The machines won't come out: they as always want the battle underground. If you persist..."]
Another male voice spoke in the background.
["Rose, his heart stopped, I don't think he can hear you."]
'I hear you...'
'To think that a paper scissors game decided my life. No, if only I didn't run from under the truck.'
Slowly, darkness swallowed the world as I embraced death with my eyes open.
Or so I thought.