I'm a legend
Not really. Wait, maybe I am? No wait, that wasn't what I'm supposed to think about. Ah yes: the rotor. So, the rotor has three separate coils, but everything's in pieces. Is it synchronous? What is? Wait what? It spins at positive edges of the clock signal? Wait, when did clock signals get involved with putting together a bike? Wait, is that the answer? Is that the answer to everything? The unified field theory? There has to be discrete units to continuous values. Gravity and electromagnetism unified. Gravity? Ah yes, that thing that drops stuff. I hate gravity. I wanna float. Wait, am I floating?
Hugging a wrench in her hand, she rolled over and hit her head on one of the legs of the mobile workbench in the garage. The toolbox on top of it, which had been barely balancing itself on top of the table all night, gave up and dropped straight down on the poor girl who not many moments ago bumped her head against a heavy metallic leg.
She was shocked awake. After a few seconds to herself to fathom the phenomenon that took place, she turned back and stretched with a long yawn.
It was an absolute silence that was occasionally broken by water drops dripping off the roof onto the grassy floor or the concrete. The two doors that lead into the garage were wide open and from outside a chilly breeze flew in to greet the girl laying on the floor and to implore her to at least put something on top of the grease covered vest and torn pants she was wearing. Wherever you'd look outside the garage door, it was all green and drowned in a mist. Within the threshold of the garage was an old, disassembled bike with only its wireframe hinting that collectively all this mess used to be a functioning vehicle. Laying around the girl were the tools that used to be in the toolbox, what seemed like a rotor to a motor, an open book with grease marks all over it and the wrench she fell asleep hugging.
She blinked lazily looking up at the roof of the garage, now hugging the toolbox on top of her.
'Jill,' She raised her sleepy broken voice. 'What time is it?'
'It's half past seven, Liz,' the garage spoke back.
With her eyes widened with panic, Liz sat up fast. 'Oh no.'
She quickly assembled all the tools into the toolbox, closed the book and with both the toolbox and the book in her hands she got up to her feet. Keeping them both on the workbench she reached down to the rotor that lay nearby.
'Jill!' She picked the rotor up with both of her hands and crab walked to the side of the room. 'Why didn't you wake me up?'
'I did,' the garage replied. 'You snoozed the alarm eight times.'
'What did I say?' Liz fit the rotor inside the stator chamber.
'You aggressively moaned three times and told me to shut up five times. Two of the five times you told me to shut up you used inappropriate words that I can't replay back to you since I'm restricted by the profanity filter.'
'Yeah,' Liz crouch walked around the room collecting a couple of nuts and bolts that lay around into a box. 'That sounds about right.'
'Do you know if Jaime's home?' Liz asked, depositing the box of bolts on the workbench.
'Yes, Liz, and he's not,' the garage replied condescendingly. 'Some people wake up when I ask them to and leave for work.'
'Oh, come on,' Liz addressed the garage. 'You can't be mad at stuff I said when I'm passed out. I don't even remember falling asleep.'
'I can and I am.'
Liz wiggled her toes anxiously thinking about how to make up for her delay.
'Jill, could you let me use Jaime's bathroom?'
'He locked the doors before he went out, so no.'
'Oh, pretty please? I'm already so late and I'll only use his shower.'
'NO!'
'Oh, come on! You know Jaime would let me in if he was here! I'll take only fifteen minutes; I'll be in and out before you know it.'
'Those two are semantically incompatible statements,' the garage sassed. 'You can't be in and out of the house before I know it if it takes you a total of fifteen minutes.'
'JILL!!'
There was a moment of silence while Jill was still processing the request.
'Fine,' Jill replied. 'But get out before eight.'
'Yes,' Liz cheered to herself before making her way out the garage.
'But you can't borrow a toothbrush!' Right when Liz was about to step out the garage, the garage yelled out once more making Liz turn back and head back in with a grunt seeking her toothbrush. 'Damn it.'
Liz was closing the door walking out the house by seven forty-five. She had a white shirt on her and a pink crochet sweater on top of it. Carrying a side bag, quickly stepping out the house and down the stairs she ran to the front gate across the lawn passing a lonely lawnmower just going about its business. Opening the gate, escaping the bounds of the house, closing it behind her she ran along the empty narrow street.
Water drops dripped off the top of lamp posts onto the ground, blending in with the splashes of Liz's shoes hitting the wet asphalt. With still a hint of rain the chilly wind hit Liz's face like small spikes piercing her skin, but ignoring everything she dashed down the misty and empty streets. Except for a few, most of the houses had overgrown lawns and green invading the constructions. Some streetlamps still flickered in their amber glows having decided for themselves that it's not bright enough yet for them to abandon their duties. Small bots, not taller than a few centimeters roamed the streets cleaning the pavements and getting rid of leaves which were hiding the beauty of well-polished concrete.
About fifty meters into her journey, she arrived at a main road, four lanes but all empty. She eyed up and down the street and seeing a couple of parked Beans to her right she hastened towards them.
A boy, strutting down a narrow street carrying a backpack and gig bag with both his hands in his pockets walked in Liz's sight. Recognizing him instantly, with a smile across her face she greeted the boy. 'Hey! Good morning!'
'Liz?' the boy replied. 'Good morning. Where are you going so early?'
'To the HQ hall,' Liz answered. 'They have trials today.'
'Trials for what?'
'For collection recruits.'
'You're still on that?' Jake giggled.
'Hmm hmm,' Liz nodded.
'Well, best of luck,' Jake wished subtly, joining Liz to the Beans.
'So, where are you headed?' Liz inquired to keep the conversation up.
'Oh, I'm headed to the HQ hall too, they got a cabin in the woods that they are practically handing out for free,' Jake answered. 'I was going to go check on it.'
'Why? What happened with the Goodalls?'
'Well, uh... it was their daughter's room that they let me stay in... and she's fully recovered now,' Jake explained. 'The Goodalls helped me a lot, I just don't wanna be an inconvenience anymore.'
'So, you are gonna be living in the woods alone?' Liz looked at Jake puzzled.
'Yeah, why not?' Jake replied. 'The cabin is nice, if I find a way to have the food delivered or buy myself an Edibles unit it could be a pretty cozy place.'
The two made their way to the Beans with that little chit chat. The 'Beans' were small four-wheeled, or more precisely four-balled, vehicles, shaped like a morph between an egg and a bean that could fit two people inside. From Beans that were parked on the side of the road of different colors, Liz walked to the white colored one.
'Wanna share a Bean?' Liz asked, opening the thin glass panel of a door and putting her bag inside.
'Sure.'
The journey along the highway was quiet and plain. The bean passed skyscrapers with their top halves missing and doors closed, gone out of commission. Streets were all empty except for a few people walking around living in their own worlds and small maintenance bots floating and crawling around the streets doing their jobs even with not many people to monitor and judge them for not doing any of it. Misty windows were being wiped, sheets of paper laying astray with moving pictures on them were being sucked into garbage bags and the pavements and the asphalt were being polished. There were a couple of drones carrying parcels flying above them keeping the city very lively even with not as many people around.
Both Liz and Jake sat in a comfortable silence making their way to the HQ hall through the mild rain. The Bean played calm acoustic jazz music with beautiful vocals amplifying the cold yet cozy mood of the music. Liz kept bobbing her head to the music all the way to the HQ while Jake sat looking out the window and tapping on his gig bag to the rhythm.
The two arrived at the HQ hall soon after. Both Liz and Jake got off the Bean from either side putting their bags back on themselves.
'Well, good luck with your purchase, Sir,' Liz bowed jokingly.
'Oh, and good luck with your trials, madam,' Jake smiled as they both parted ways.
Liz hastened towards the auditorium hall. At the front of the door to the auditorium handling the traffic and confused people in the place was an android. With its thin limbs and the uniform it had put on, it couldn't seem anymore friendly.
'Excuse me,' Liz addressed the android. 'Can you tell me where the recruitment session is?'
'Good morning miss,' the android extended a proper welcome and pointing to the door the android continued, 'The session is in progress now in the auditorium.'
'Oh… could you let me in?' Liz pleaded. 'I'm a little late.'
'Of course, miss,' the android directed Liz to the door and without a moment's hesitation Liz barraged in through the doors.
About a hundred eyes locked onto Liz as she walked in pausing the presentation with her presence.
'Hi!' Liz awkwardly smiled at the presenter who extended a friendly smile in response.
'Hi Liz,' Ashley from behind the podium welcomed Liz in. 'Come on in, take a seat, but I have to say, the session is almost over.'
'Sorry, ma'am,' Liz begged pardon as she moved through the seats to the back rows of the audience. She sat at the back of the audience comfortably and directed her attention to the speaker.
'Ok, so,' Ashley continued her speech after Liz had taken her seat. 'Up next, we'll be introducing a Collector's tactical gear set and for that I'd like to invite Whitechok, armory manager for the collection.'
Ashely stepped down from the podium and walked to the vacant seat next to Tyson.
'Ok, let's get started,' Whitechok said, grabbing the attention of the audience. The image on the stage reappeared and the lights grew dimmer. Now there was a dummy on stage wearing all sorts of tactical gear on its person. 'So, the basic tactical gear set is similar to what most of you have seen in movies about the decimation war, except we may have some of the gear missing from that complete set...'
The tactical gear talk, something Liz forced Jaime to have with her and made him walk into the conclusion that 'the birds and the bees' conversation would have been easier with this girl. It hadn't been three days into Liz's recovery from the shatter and it was an article she had seen that drove her to first start asking questions, or more precisely, start making demands.
'Minimum age for collection enlisting lowers to seventeen,' the black translucent tablet read. Liz sitting on the couch in her pajamas, with her eyes locked onto the text in the tablet, kept on reading the article that followed.
It was a small house, a couple of miles away from the rest of the civilization that laid really close to an expressway exit, but the lack of vehicles, at least moving ones, made the streets empty. Behind the bounds of the house lay a grass plane that laid almost till the horizon if not for the woods at far bounds of it.
'Jaime,' Liz raised her voice and got a 'hmm, hmm' in reply. He did not want to speak amidst sipping his morning coffee, but he wasn't left with much of a choice.
'I wanna join collection.'
'What?'
'I wanna enlist.'
'Are you crazy?'
'Why?' Liz put down the tablet and asked.
'That's,' Jaime needed time for a reply. 'Why do you even want to enlist?'
'Because it's fun,' Liz replied, picking the tablet back up and burrowing her face in it. 'And I think I'll be good at it.'
'In what world is shooting people fun?' Jaime waited once again before the query.
'In what world it isn't?' Liz asked in reply. 'I mean, if they get injured or killed then it's horrible, but with the radiant armor thingy and flash teleport stuff it's more like paintball now. Paintball with parkour. Paintball's fun. And besides, it'll be helping our world.'
'This is just idiotic,' Jaime returned to his coffee. 'You are not even old enough.'
'Not now,' Liz, with the tablet in hand, fell down on the couch having her head fall on one of the cushion armrests. 'Next year, when I'm seventeen.'
'How do you even know you are sixteen now?' Jaime asked. 'You don't even remember your name.'
'Well, it's what that nice lady at the hospital said,' Liz replied. 'I believe her one hundred percent and for your information my name is now Elisabeth Turner.'
'That's your biological age,' Jaime replied. 'And my grandmother's name.'
'Well, your granny wanted me to have her name,' Liz replied stubbornly.
The front door swung open, shining morning light into the house and a one-eyed drone with two hands carrying bags in both hands entered the house.
'Good morning, everyone,' the robot greeted in a female voice. 'I bought tinned Kowichi for you two!'
'Yay!'
'So, there is virtually no delay,' Whitechok continued with the explanation. 'The moment the radiant shield's charge drops below the threshold, BAM... the flash recall sends the agent back to the flash waypoint.'
Liz heard none of the presentation except for those lines.
'So, these are must haves for an agent during a collection,' he said. 'And for the most part, these balances out the field even with super soldiers in the fight. So, before the session ends, do any of you have any more questions?'
The audience stood quiet with some packing up equipment back into their bags.
'Alright then, that concludes this session,' Whitechok remarked with a heavy breath. 'The new recruits can follow me to the trial halls, and we can get started with those procedures.'
Once Whitechok left the podium, a few grown men, a couple of young men and one teenage girl went out the right following him, and following that one teenage girl, Ashely joined the troops. Liz walked with the troops proudly, reminiscing about all the time she spent training, feeling as if she fit no other place better.
One evening taking a Bean from work, Jaime reached his home to sit back, relax and call it a day. After Jaime climbed off the Bean and the Bean started heading back along the road, looking at the empty expressways, Jaime sighed out loud. It's a lot simpler now than how it used to be.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three gunshots, rapidly following one another, from the other side of the house deafened the vast extents of the grass fields. Panicked, scared and confused Jaime dropped his bag and pulled out a pistol he ran to the back of the house.
About a hundred meters away from the house, Liz was cleaning broken glass shards off a table and placing new bottles in their place. She placed the final bottle on the table and turned back only to notice Jaime staring at her.
'Elisabeth Turner!' Jaime yelled once he noticed the shenanigan at play. 'Get here right now.'
With her neck buried between her shoulder blades, a forced grin and clenched fists of anticipation she slowly made her way to Jaime. Once she was close enough for Jaime to hear, slowly returning to a normal posture, she commented 'You're early.'
'What do you think you are doing?'
'Before I answer that, when did you come home?'
Jaime stood silent with a terrifying expression on his face and looking into his eyes Liz realized if she wanted not to sleep in a hospital bed tonight, she had to answer fast.
'About three hours,' the phony smile returned, and the neck got buried back between her shoulder blades. 'First, I shot some trees and then moved to fruit and bottles.'
'Get back in the house,' Jaime commanded after a couple of minutes of thought with no explanation.
'But-'
'NOW!'
Liz sealed her lips and walked quietly, too scared to retaliate. The rifle she had used lied among the grass. Jaime bent over, gripped the rifle with both of his hands and picked it up. Jaime inspected the weapon now in his hands and then drove his eyes towards the three bottles on the table about a hundred meters away.
'The three shots I heard,' Jaime addressed Liz as she was about to step into the house. 'Did they all hit?'
'Yes,' Liz replied.
'Hm,' Jaime smirked from the corner of his lips, aimed down at the sight of the rifle. Stock against the lower of his shoulder blade, gripping by the grip down the barrel of the gun, he held down the trigger briefly and holding the trigger down for the brief moment he swung the gun slightly to his right. Exactly three bullets fired consecutively, and all the three bottles exploded. He quickly unloaded the weapon magazine and cocked the gun to unload the chambered bullet.
'Don't single fire with an automatic rifle, not in the twenty second century, but make sure to hit every shot,' Jaime commanded walking into the house and Liz obliged. 'Pick up the mag and get in the house. I don't appreciate the insubordination, but I got a day off tomorrow.'
Liz, with the mag in her hand, looked up at Jaime, puzzled.
'Wake up early tomorrow and I'll train you,' Jaime announced in an annoyed tone. Liz was ecstatic. 'Don't be too happy. I just don't want you blowing up me or you trying something stupid.'
'Ok, Mr. Baker,' Ashely spoke to the mic looking at Baker from a screen on the wall. Baker stood still in a black room, a vantablack room to be more precise. There was light on him, but there were no shadows or light reflecting off of walls. He had an automatic rifle in his hands and his outline was glowing in a light blue glow. 'Are you ready?'
The room Ashely was standing in was no different, except for it was small and it was dark due to lack of light and not the abundance of light absorbent surfaces. In the room, in addition to Ashley, there was Whitchok, putting the same kind of black kit Baker had on, on a young man. Additionally, standing next to Ashely in the room was Liz looking up at the screen with excitement.
'Ready,' Baker replied.
The black room suddenly lit up to the purest white again with no shadows falling anywhere. Then the white light lowered the room and arranged itself to a harbor at night and Baker was standing right behind a giant crane.
'Your time starts,' Ashely announced. 'Now.'
Suddenly men started shooting at Baker from behind the crane. Panicked, Baker started returning fire from the cover of the crane, but then all of a sudden, the crane, with a loud beeping noise started moving.
'Ah there you are,' Jaime walked in the monitor room. 'When you weren't in the waiting room, I thought you probably forgot.'
'Sorry to disappoint you,' Liz replied. Walking over to her Jaime knocked on her head with his knuckles. 'Ow.'
Following Jaime and bending slightly to get past the door Rupert entered.
'What are you doing here?' Ashley with her arms folded, smirked at her husband.
'You don't have to sound so grossed out,' Rupert replied, walking past her and taking the station next to her looking at the screen. Then he subtly leaned towards Ashely and whispered in her ear. Once the whisper was over Ashely turned to Rupert for confirmation and then returned to her straight pose.
'So, Liz,' Ashley initiated the conversation. 'Why do you want to enlist?'
'Huh?' The conversation caught Liz off guard. 'I don't know, I guess I just wanna help people.'
'Well, you can do it by studying,' Ashley replied. 'We could use good doctors, scientists and engineers, you know.'
'Well, I am doing academics. Dr. Tyson's new intern is helping me with electronics engineering now. He said he'll first teach me electronics, then photonics and cover knethonics in six years,' Liz replied enthusiastically but realized it wasn't what was expected of the conversation. 'Maybe I'm too naïve to have these ideals ma'am, but I want to be able to help someone in a bad situation, you know. Like a superhero, someone people can rely on. And I'm willing to work hard for it.'
'Hmm,' Ashley took a moment to consider her standing in the situation.
The soldiers kept on firing on Baker, and he barely managed to hide behind a set of craters, now panicking. He unloaded the empty magazine, pulled out a new one and tried to insert it into the weapon, but his shaky hands made it almost impossible. His stagger behind the containers allowed units to push on from the other side and before Baker was on the run again, his radiant shield took a couple of hits.
'Liz, what if you come across an enemy soldier with a disabled radiant shield in a collection?' Ashley asked with her eyes still fixed on the screen. 'What would you do?'
'Depends, ma'am,' Liz replied without much thought. 'If it's safe for me I'd help him get to safety, otherwise I'd try to help him until his team gets there.'
'What sort of a soldier wouldn't take the clean shot and move on?' Whitechok chuckled, walking away from the recruit he was preparing. 'It's an enemy, kid, take the shot. You don't even have to be a soldier to do it, it's your duty.'
Liz after hearing the reply fixed her eyes onto Ashley to see what her opinion was, and Ashely felt the nudge.
'Trust your human instincts Liz,' Ashely commented. 'We have enough people to stick to the commands, but not enough people to think for themselves.'
Whitechok felt offended, but he wasn't in a position to continue with the debate hence he ignored it and the room fell into silence.
That is until Baker's shield shattered from a bullet, and he disappeared from the simulation.
'Trial over,' a voice spoke over the comms system. 'Send in the next.'
The man who had put on the black kit opened a door to the left side of the dark room and walked in.
'Wait here,' Ashely quickly ran out the door to the right side and almost bumped into Baker leaving the hallway. A few seconds later she returned with an assault rifle in one hand and a black vest, a black belt and a couple of other items in her other hand.
'Take off the sweater and get over there,' Ashely commanded Liz pointing to the left corner of the room with a nod. Liz obliged, handed the sweater over to Jaime and walked to the corner of the room where Ashely followed her. 'Put the belt on, I'll strap in the vest.'
'Ready?' Whitechok took over the comms and asked the man now on the screen.
'Ready.'
The simulation once again sprung to life and bullets started flying once again at the harbor. 'Your time starts now.'
The room was in silence for a moment with Ashely setting up Liz and all three men in the room standing with their arms folded looking at the monitor screen.
'I didn't see that level of mercy from Nova when you two first met,' Whitechok decided to vocalize his thoughts.
'I didn't even know she had a pistol, she could have easily killed me, and she chose not to,' Ashely tightened a strap on Liz's vest. 'And besides, if we sink to the level of our lowest enemy... what's the point?'
'The point is to win, Ashely,' Whitechok replied.
'How's that working out?'
A moment of silence befell the room before Ashely spoke again. 'The point is to try and negotiate peace. We have nothing to gain from fighting.'
Soon after the conversation ended the simulation ended with a bullet as well.
'Well, that was quick,' Jaime commented, making Liz start to sweat.
'Trial over,' the voice once again echoed through the comms.
'Alright, there you go,' Ashely after tightening the last strap handed Liz the rifle. 'Turn on the shield after you go in.'
Liz nodded in and walked in through the door. Then the door was closed behind her.
The room was entirely dark. There was nothing in her field of senses, no lights, no windows and no sounds. She was glowing in the darkness, from a light that had no source.
'Ready?' Ashley's voice echoed in the room. Liz dragged her fingers along the belt and suddenly with a glow, a light blue outline appeared around her body. She double checked her rifle and with a heavy sigh and a heart beating loud, gave a reply. 'Ready.'
With a white glow, containers started materializing to her left and a ship to her right. She was standing at the right edge of the dock, the ocean raging beneath her. Then right in front of her a gigantic crane rose from the floor. The sky became dark with twinkling stars. Everything assembled correctly into place and the lighting adjusted perfectly. Within seconds Liz has moved from a dark room into a harbor at war. 'Your time starts now.'
Liz ran to cover behind the crane as the bullets started flying. The crane, following the usual procedure, started to move. Stepping with the crane hidden in the cover she waited for a window. In a few seconds one of the two men firing on her stopped firing and Liz responded to it immediately. She swung out of cover fast and single-fired four bullets, two clean headshots on each, taking them down from about fifty meters away.
Ashley chuckled looking at the screen. 'The cleanup crew genes in her blood.'
'The cleanup crew genes?' Jaime chuckled in response. 'I trained eighteen years in the cleanup crew. I have no idea whose genes those are,' said Jaime gesturing to Liz on screen.
With the first two down more men popped up from behind the containers in the distance and from the ship's deck. With men running along the deck of the ship, Liz understood that her cover was no longer safe. She dashed across to her left fast and slid into cover behind a pile of containers.
She then picked herself back up and slowly peeking from cover, aiming at the deck of the ship, landed headshots on everyone becoming visible around the edge of the crate only making her visible to one at a time and taking down whoever was visible.
She wasn't missing any shots. Her accuracy was so precise to the point Ashely unfolded her arms to pay better attention to her plays.
Liz was pinned behind the containers, with bullets flying really close to the edge of the containers. If she peeked even to check, she knew her shield would deplete instantly. But she couldn't stay there either, because she instinctively knew she's being pushed on from the other side each second she stayed put.
Her mind ran in search of a solution: a way out. She couldn't peek out from her left, nor could she push from her right. She could afford to get hit a few times, but with them expecting her around the corners those wouldn't be an option. Then it hit her, there is still one way out the bots would not expect.
Trees ran tall in the woods to the edge of the grass plane. It was like a ten-minute walk for Liz to cross the field to get into the woods. The bullet holes from her first day of training three months ago still decorated the trees and branches she shot. She was wearing a black vest and a black belt, and she was carrying an assault rifle in her hands as she made her way into the woods. She had to go a little deeper into the woods before she could find Jaime waiting for her sitting by a tall tree.
'You took your sweet time,' Jaime complained.
'Sorry, I didn't know how to put these on,' Liz complained back. 'Had to watch a video.'
Jaime stood up brushing the dust off his pants. Liz looked up and down for the slightest hint of what she was supposed to do, but nothing in her sight gave any hints.
'So, what now?'
'Agility training,' Jaime explained. 'Back when one or two bullets got the job done it was more tactically advantageous to fire from cover at an opening and move from cover to cover with cover fire, but now that's not the case. When you can take more bullets now, it's smarter to be on the move, never get cornered, because your enemies can take more shots too and they'll push into you if you stay still. So, the idea now is to know exactly where your enemies are and not let them know where you are. Landing the first shot in a battle can drastically put the advantage of the fight in your favor.'
'Ok... So, what do you want me to do?' Liz asked with her eyes wide, paying attention to Jaime's words.
'The floor is lava,' Jaime grinned. 'First try to keep yourself in the air, then once you've practiced enough there are sixty targets in the woods that you have to shoot while in the air.'
'How am I supposed to keep myself in the air?'
'The jump kit you're wearing,' Jaime gestured to the black vest Liz had on. 'When paired with a radiant shield it can help you jump, jump again in mid-air, hover and boost at the expense of the shield's charge.'
'How do I get it to work?'
'It reads your brain, so, you are gonna have to figure out how to use it yourself.'
'Ok...' Liz was skeptical, but she attempted her first feat and ran to a tree. She stepped to its side and pushed herself away towards the other tree, but the kit didn't help her out and she just fell onto the ground awkwardly. After regaining her balance, she commented with a chuckle 'This is gonna take some time.'
But it didn't take her long. First day she was flopping onto the ground. The second day she figured out how to jump boost. That led to one week of training that allowed her to jump between trees. In a month she started to go for the targets laid out for her and three more months later she found herself needing that training hiding behind a crate at a simulated harbor.
Knowing Liz had to be right behind the corner the troops pushing in from the left side turned the corner with their guns drawn, but to their surprise Liz was no longer there and to their panic, now a grenade was right at their feet.
Liz popped up from the top of the containers with a loud bang in her trail. Running along the top of the containers now she had a clear vision of the enemies who were shooting at her. Before they could see her, she managed to take about eight of them down with just seventeen bullets from more than a hundred meters away.
She was shooting at the bots from top of the containers forcing them to run into cover when suddenly from the ship's deck a sniper peeked and took aim at Liz. With the sniper's aim locked onto Liz now and Liz standing perfectly still there was no way the sniper would miss. The trigger was pulled.
Liz, without a hint of awareness about the sniper, quickly ducked out of instinct, dodging the bullet and returning fire to the sniper, who a couple of seconds ago was completely out of her field of vision. No one at the monitoring room, now impressed with Liz's skill, noticed that one sniper shot, except for Ashley.
Ashely's expression shifted; she was now more curious and concerned than she was impressed.
'Jaime,' Ashely raised her voice. 'How long has Liz been training?'
'For about six months.'
That's impossible, but maybe it's a coincidence.
There were more men pushing in from the left and some of them had the familiar blue glowing outline. Deciding to clean up from the right, Liz ran to the right of the pile of containers and jumped off. In midair, she jumped once again to her left for her feet to touch the surface of the crate and running along the sides of the containers she aimed for the head of men beneath her. Taking a couple of shots herself, she managed to take down four men with sixteen bullets in total.
The moment she touched the floor she boosted herself and rolled towards the only bot left to the right side of the harbor and managed to trip the bot on to the floor. Seamlessly getting up from the roll, before the bot itself could get up, with four more bullets, Liz managed to take down two more peeking around the far-left corner of the containers. Once she was done with those two, she emptied two more bullets to take down the bot now trying to get up. At that moment more bots turned the corner from where the two bots previously peeked out and one of them, that had a blue outline, while shooting at Liz, dashed over to the pile of containers at the other side of the narrow path between the piles of containers and started wall-running towards her. Liz quickly ran to get cover after unloading the magazine.
'That girl is a witch,' Whitechok commented with his eyes now locked onto the screen. 'She's going for the five minutes.'
Ashley was deep in thought processing what she was seeing. It was not natural seeing such a level of performance from the first assessment trials. Before then, and before her own attempts at the simulation, she had only seen such performance in old GDI training days. Those were grown men and women, there never were teenagers. Those were super soldiers, chosen from the Trial of Sierra, and millions spent on modifications. Those were men and women in the lead on the frontlines in battles to crumble nations. No matter how hard Ashley tried justifying what she was seeing she couldn't accept that a seventeen-year-old could even be one percent as competent as they were.
With the new bots entering the field and starting to abuse the high ground for themselves the battlefield lost the linearity it once had. There were bots everywhere, and Liz was slowly losing whatever covers she could have utilized. Playing around the moving crane getting to the top of it and knocking down anyone attempting to reach her, she didn't spend a single second without getting an elimination.
She was barely balancing on top of the crane's boom making her way to the edge of it before she got shot from the side. She lost her balance and plummeted down onto the concrete. Breaking the fall with the jump kit, she rolled forward into a pathway between two heaps of containers. Attempting to intercept her between the containers, a bot ran along the wall emptying its weapon onto Liz. She took a couple of hits, but she dodged and weaved enough to limit the damage to those couple of hits. Just as the bot was about to tackle Liz, Liz leaped forward punching, hitting the bot in its face. The bot lost its momentum and collapsed onto the floor. At the exact moment another bot slid out of cover shooting at Liz. She immediately ducked kneeling on the bot on the ground, dodging the shots meant for her, and returning fire. After eliminating that bot with two headshots, she eliminated the bot laying at her knees with two bullets to the head and it disappeared.
Liz got up aiming forward and another bot peeked around the corner aiming at her. Simultaneously, from behind her, a different bot aimed at her head with a sniper. She had no vision of it, only the threat at the front she saw, but the moment the sniper's finger pressed against the trigger Liz was already out of the way aiming a pistol at the it. The sniper bullet hit the other bot and two of Liz's took out the sniper.
Ashley was stunned, her eyes wide open. She was no longer concerned, she was scared.
That's no coincidence.
'Could you-' Ashley poked Whitechok. 'Could you take over? I'll be back.'
Leaving one very confused Whitechok behind, Ashely left out the door into the hallway. She slowly walked out into the sunlight; the mist had vanished, and it was bright out. A few meters away from her, she saw Tyson looking at a report that one of the interns was presenting.
'Doctor,' Ashely addressed Tyson. 'Could I borrow you for a moment?'
'Well, is it something urgent?'
'It could be,' Ashley replied.
'Ok, uh,' Tyson handed the tablet back to the intern. 'I'll meet you at the lab.'
'What's the problem?' Tyson asked once the intern was out of earshot.
'Do you still have your clearance key?'
'To the mainframe?' Tyson asked and got a nod in reply. 'Yeah, I remember it.'
'Follow me.'
The simulation was getting harder and harder for Liz to deal with. Replacing the wall-running soldiers, super-robots sprang into action. They were moving a lot faster; they could endure more bullets and they were harder to hit. On top of that, Liz has now run out of bullets. Her new weapon of choice was a metal pipe. More and more of the remaining fights turned into melee combat and she started taking more hits than earlier. With every punch to the face and every swing of blade on her shield that bruised her, she was beginning to lose stamina fast. Her eyes were starting to drown with tears, but she did not back down.
The three at the monitoring room were impressed. The robots are meant to be almost impossible to dodge, but for most part Liz was managing to dodge the fast flicks and fast swings. One by one, the robot count was going down and the harbor was growing quieter.
When Ashley and Tyson walked into this, yet another dark room, the lights turned on automatically and one gigantic computer with three screens sprung to life. With a beautiful, blurred background on its screen it was requesting a 'clearance key'.
'Ok, uhh,' without much of a prompt, Tyson tapped the phrase he remembered on the keyboard of the computer which had no keys.
'No wait,' before Tyson could submit his key Ashley stopped him. 'I need both our clearance.'
Hearing her voice, the computer added one more input to under the one that was just filled. Ashely typed her key into it and submitted the details.
For less than a second the computer read 'decrypting' and then it showed an array of files on the screen.
'What's this about?' Tyson asked.
'There's a seventeen-year-old girl in the simulation now, currently beating Maxra's record.'
'Maxra? The cleanup crew sniper?'
'The only non-super soldier to ever get a perfect run in a distinction grade training simulation.'
'Oh wow,' Tyson didn't understand the implications.
'That's it, she's down to the last enemy unit,' Whitechok commented. The room did not respond to his comment, everyone was too focused on the fight in view.
Liz, on top of a robot now collapsed onto the floor, delivered the last blow crushing its head.
The harbor grew quiet, and Liz got up to her feet. Her lip was cut, but the radiant shield now recovering from having no damage dealt to it for a while, kept her from bleeding. There were multiple bruises on her face and her eyes stuffed with tears. She sniffed in pain, breathing in the tears that were trying to flow out of her nose and stood up with the pipe in hand. Then suddenly there was a clanking sound behind her.
She quickly turned to see what it was.
Clank.
It came from behind a heap of containers. Clank.
Then into her vision from behind the containers a well-dressed robot in a cream-colored trench coat walked in. It had a giant X across its face glowing in green before it suddenly switched to red. 'Enemy detected.'
'Ever heard of the Genesis projects?' Ashely asked Tyson.
'No, not that I recall,' Tyson replied.
Liz ran down the narrow paths in between the containers, where she tripped multiple times, but kept running without hesitation. Behind her, crawling along the sides of the crates, was the robot with the red X on its face.
'A Gashadakuro,' Rupert commented. 'Those are class E super agents. Never seen this simulation run long enough to meet this guy.'
Liz couldn't run any further. It's the last barrier between her and a perfect run, but she knew she couldn't beat it. There was no point running away anymore.
Liz stopped and gripping the pipe in her hand she turned back.
The Gashadakuro didn't seem to be crawling, now it was teleporting, basically vanishing and reappearing getting incredibly closer to Liz.
She swung her pipe, but it missed. A sharp pain in her stomach, the radiant shield cracked. She went flying into a container denting it on impact and just as fast as she was flying away the merciless robot dashed at her and pinned her against the container with its arm now pushing too hard on her throat, she started to choke.
Images of two separate car accidents popped on the screen along with images of two dead women being carried away. Among the images there were more zoomed in photos of the cars. There were holograms of crime scene details floating in midair and parts of documents refusing to recover, staying redacted as they were.
'I need more,' Ashley commanded, popping up the text on the screen 'Clearance insufficient.'
Jaime tried to reach the control panel, but Rupert grabbed hold of his arm without letting him proceed. 'She still has her flash recall.'
Within a second three long blades, too long to be concealed within its arm, popped out from between the fingers of the clenched fist of the Gashadakuro and accelerated towards Liz's throat.
The fear was overwhelming. Within milliseconds it rose exponentially and then- black.
'No one, no one organization should have that power, it's bound to corrupt.' There was blood all over. A finger flopped onto the floor, but the room had to remain silent. Needles punctured the skin, screams echoed in the room, but not a word was spoken. She had to die; she knew too much. Struggles, but unable to break free. Gunshots. Blood splats. Drowning too deep; can't breathe. Help me!
'What are the Genesis projects?' Tyson asked once again.
'Not sure,' Ashely replied. 'But from what I know, it's the GDI trying to play god.'
It was quiet. Too quiet. The ocean waves hit the dock breaking on impact. The ships were silent. The crane was not moving.
Liz was disoriented. 'What just happened?' she thought to herself. There was nothing around her; the killer robot was nowhere in sight.
Splat. Splat.
A sound of drops hitting the hard cement right below her drove her focus towards it. It was a green liquid leaking out a small tube that had been torn out. Adjacent to the tube there were more wires that had been similarly torn out. Connected to all those wires, at their end was a metallic head that had a cross-shaped display on its face that rested on Liz's palms.
Liz was sitting on the Gashadokuro, which was now torn to pieces. Its hands detached from its shoulders and its joints bent back to impossible angles. Laying on the ground it was more deformed now than it was when it became an arachnid.
With her hair a mess now, covering her face which was drenched in bruises, Liz simply stood still. What did I just see? What just happened? Who did this?
-
Who am I?