City 25-5's Last Battle By Kain Vinosec An empty alleyway seems inviting enough when you're alone and brave. The problem comes when you're katana is broken and the andriods don't want to give you a fair fight. A man stands alone in darkness. His sword falls to the ground in pieces and he curses his situation. His name is Tsen and he is as human as they come. Tsen has always been the type to help other people but lately he has been taking it to extremes that risk his own life. He's been really tired lately, but he's not the kind of guy that would ever give up. The suit he's wearing is sending messages to his wristband that are telling him his heart rate is increasing and that his breathing is irregular. His body is telling the suit that it is involved in combat and the odds of winning are low. When the suit begins to understand this, it pushes his mind and body to a higher level and boosts his strength, stamina and speed of thought. It gives him an edge. The suit is a straight black cybernetic piece of technology that was developed during a recent war but ended up never being used. The andriods that were kicking his ass were used during the war however and they are exactly what the suit was made to combat. He was out of weapons and still had two more androids to defeat. The fact that it was night and that his E.V. had been disabled several fights ago made it impossible to track them if they decided to retreat. The E.V. was designed specifically for finding androids and was originally planned to be used for missions handed out by the higher ups. Now however, the vision (when it was working) and the suit were both Tsen's weapons against the remaining andriods that would find themselves still trying to overtake the world for their robotic brethren. Unfortunately when the weapons broke or malfunctioned he didn't really have anyone that could fix them. Everyone that had worked on the suit's development was either dead or imprisoned within the android camps outlying the areas that were used by The Infected in years past. “One in front, one to the left. No weapons for me and tetra-lasers for them. Time to run.” The androids heard him say every word to himself but they couldn't understand the language. These were newer models that had been created by other androids. They had limited intelligence but were effective as cannon fodder for the wars. The goal of the androids was misguided after the wars. They now sought to turn every human left into androids or eliminate them. Not really much room for negotiation. The higher ups wouldn't even acknowledge that the androids were a major threat at the time because of their minimal numbers and unfocused battle tactics. Tsen on the other hand, knew that they had to be stopped or else they'd become more problematic as they began acquiring more soldiers. Unfortunately there were too many of them for him to take on alone, but with the suit he could defend the people they were attempting to capture for recruitment which would keep their numbers from growing any more than they already had. Tonight however would be a different story. Tsen turned away from the alleyway and dashed into the dead streets of the once vibrant city. The androids immediately followed. The suit was pushing Tsen's abilities far beyond their max and allowed his speed to match that of the enemy. His agility however was not quite on par as he dashed through the old cars and broken buildings his pursuers were jumping entirely over the cars and running along the fallen walls next to him. The obstacles made it a challenge to get away and the androids weren't helping with their laser sights falling all over the shiny suit. He pushed himself harder to keep them from having a clear shot but it wasn't enough. One of the androids had hit his arm with the tetra-laser. It sliced straight through his forearm and severed it from his shoulder. He cried out in pain but would not stop running. The androids eased up their chase some, but continued following him for awhile as a precautionary measure. Once he felt he had escaped completely he focused his attention on his arm. The suit was making a world of noise through inaudible beeps and Tsen knew what was sure to come next. He braced himself for the pain as the suit stretched itself over the injury and burned his flesh. Afterwards it flooded his system with liquid pain killers that would knock him out in a matter of minutes. He found an empty building and made his way up to the second floor. He could feel the need to sleep rushing over his mind and he collapsed into a corner in the dark. He awoke several hours later in a daze. He came to notice a woman across the room from him as his vision began to clarify. She seemed terrified and he felt like he was going to throw up. He went to scratch his head but his arm was not there to respond. His memory began returning to him about the last battle as he raised his other arm up as a substitution for his previously schedule task of itch control. He glanced over at the woman again and composed himself a bit against the wall. He was still kind of out of it, but made his best effort for realistic communication. “My name is Tsen. I'm not going to hurt you.” “I don't think you could.” “Then why are you frightened?” “Because you found me.” “Sorry. I wasn't even looking for you if that helps any.” “You weren't?” “No. Should I have been?” “It would make more sense than us running into each other by coincidence.” “True. So, where are we exactly?” “The ruins of City 25-5 (pronounced twenty-five, five).” “Right. I remember now... Wait, what are you doing here?” “That's none of your business.” “I suppose not.” “You should be leaving now. Those two M.I.s (pronounced 'my-s', stands for Mechanical Intellectuals) have been looking for you.” “Really? I thought they had given up.” “Hardly. Their base is within the city. They do whatever it takes to protect it.” “I didn't know... I'll make sure to watch my back.” “Yeah. Watch your front too.” “Do you have a name?” She looked at him curiously and shook her head, then repeated her stance on the conversation. “You should be leaving now.” Tsen stood up using the wall for support. He walked out of the room a bit confused by the conversation and still curious as to why the woman chose to remain in a place altogether uninhabitable. Other things were on his mind however as the androids found him rather quickly after his leaving the building. The woman saw what was happening and as he began to flee from them, she decided that it was her job to help him escape. She knew where they were leading him and she ran as fast as she could out of the building in the hopes of cutting them off via the sub roads before they could get there. The two M.I.s jumped Tsen as he was running along an old overpass. The highway below was flooded with destroyed cars, blasted pavement and dead Zex fighters still in their armor (Zex are this world's equivalent to large mechanical suits designed for war). He began fighting with them on the covered (though shambled) overpass and quickly began to realize that his missing arm was a crucial element in the fight. He was being beaten rather savagely by the androids and felt like he was hopeless to stop them. The woman he'd met previously entered his mind briefly in a vision as he thought of her safety, then passed out from the pain. The suit had malfunctioned. It was supposed to keep him awake by any means necessary. When his suit failed the woman from earlier had finally caught up to them and managed to secure Tsen and take him back to her makeshift residence. He awoke several hours later in a daze. Again. Finding himself in the same room and in the same position that he was in before he decided to press on for some more answers this time around. “Why did you bring me back?” “Thought being here would be better than death. Though I have been wrong before...” “How did you get me away from the androids?” “My name is Reis. I was one of the scientists that created the first M.I.s. They have an automated shut down sequence. If you had known about it you might have saved yourself a lot of trouble.” “Perhaps. Did I get the crap kicked out of me?” “Yes.” “Good to know. So why are you here?” “I'm waiting for my chance to attack their base. If I can manage to render their base useless then their programming will consider it a crisis and their basic functions will take over.” “And their basic programming means what to me?” “It means that they will scatter and remain as far away from each other as they can until they regain some type of establishment amongst themselves.” “And if they're all alone it'll make them easier to take out.” “Yeah, but you wouldn't need to. Once they are alone like that they pose no threat. Their actions would be based solely on their own survival and everything else wouldbe meaningless to them. Including their current objectives.” “So why hasn't this been attempted before?” “I'm the only one left that knows about it and I have been doing my best.” “Right, sorry. Okay, so how can I help?” “You can't. You're injured. You are more helpless than I am.” “Couldn't I be a distraction or something to help you sneak into the base?” “It is possible that could work. You would not be able to escape though.” “That's not important. As long as they are taken out...” “If you feel so strongly about it, then we will make it work.” “Great. Reis was it? My name is Tsen.” “I wish you hadn't told me that.” “Why?” “It'd have been easier to forget you after you died.” The next day started early. The two accomplices went straight to the base. It was flooded with hundreds of M.I.s. Sneaking in would have been a pain if either of the two had wanted to sneak in. Luckily Tsen and Reis were more concerned with actually getting in, rather than the 'how' of it all. The best plan they could come up with was charging straight in through the front doors and splitting up. Tsen would begin attacking the soldiers and drawing their attention away from the base while Reis would go farther into the facility to shut down their power and resources. The plan sounded good enough to the both of them before they charged in... Making it past the first few androids near the doors was easy enough but once inside the base was a labyrinth of corridors and rooms that all looked completely bare and exactly the same. Androids had no use for decorations or furniture but storage was a possible need so they had removed everything of non-importance from the base. Two of the androids from outside had heard their infiltration attempt and decided to check it out. Tsen took a last, long look at Reis and smiled. “Guess we gotta do our jobs now.” “You should hurry. They're coming.” “Alright. Good luck. And, thanks for helping me.” “As far as I'm concerned you are helping me and luck is a figment of your imagination.” “Cold as ice.” “I've just got a lot on my mind right now.” “We may never see each other again.” “Fine. Good luck.” “Was that so hard?” “It could have been easier.” “Just don't die okay?” “I'm not the one in a position of danger.” “Okay, so how about we both don't die?” “Fair enough.” “Promise?” “Promise.” The M.I.s from outside charged into the room and saw Tsen and Reis standing apart from each other. Tsen looked back and them and turned to run. Reis followed suit but ran the opposite direction. The androids chased Tsen as they were supposed to and he felt better knowing that the plan was working already. #1 – Reis' Story The base was huge and finding her way down to the separate floors was a task quite hard to overcome. Luckily she hadn't run into any M.I.s since she had split up with Tsen and was doing fairly well at making her way into the depths of the base. She ended up making it all the way to the bottom floor and the energy chambers without any problems but she was not prepared for what she found there. A large cylinder held an unconscious human suspended in some sort of liquid with tubes and mechanical parts extending from every part of its body. It had once been a male but she knew that whatever it was now, it was certainly not human. She walked up to the large tube and put her hand on the glass. The body did not respond, but the mind did. Some kind of apparatus for mind-speech reciprocation had been developed specifically for this situation by the M.I.s and was implemented into the tube. The android spoke to her. “Why are you here?” “I've come to divide you.” “You cannot. We are a solitary being.” “Not when you don't have a home or a leader.” “You are one of us though. Why would you turn away from us Reis?” “I am not like you. I am an enhanced human. You are humanized robots.” “You are trying to make this difficult.” “It became difficult when I designed the technology that created you.” “Yes, but that technology is what keeps you alive.” “And that is what it was meant for. Helping people. Not assimilating them into a cult.” “We seek dominance.” “I know what you seek. And you will not find it here.” “As you wish. Destroy us, but you will be terminated as well.” “I do not care. Eradicating you is my only salvation.” “Then so be it.” Reis walked over to a terminal designed for controlling the being in the tube. She input a series of commands that would cause the tube, and all others like it on this floor to rupture. It would be an explosion large enough to eradicate the desolate city surrounding the base. Reis walked back over to the tube as the contents started to become critical and resumed their conversation. “Do you fear your own demise now that you know it is to come?” “No. Do you?” “Yes.” “I suppose that is what makes you different from us then?” “It is enough for me to know that I was not like you.” “You are like us enough to kill.” “I'm killing you because you are trying to kill me.” “We could bring you into our world.” “I want nothing to do with your world. And I want you out of mine.” “It seems as if you will get your wish.” “None too soon either.” “Do you really hate us so?” “I hate what you stand for.” “What do we stand for in your eyes?” “Everything that I was against. Man-made creations being used to kill man.” “We are just doing what we were programmed to do.” “Even more so you should not have been programmed in the first place.” “Then what is our place in this world?” “You have no place as far as I am concerned.” “Even though you helped create us?” “It was a mistake. Humans make mistakes.” “Humans are imperfect.” “So are you.” With her last sentence the tube ruptured instantly killing the creature inside of it. She heard the other devices on the floor begin to do the same and in a matter of seconds a huge explosive wave was sent out from within the chamber that covered the city. Nothing survived. Or... #2 – Tsen's Story After splitting with Reis, Tsen had one task at hand. Survive long enough for Reis to disable the base so that those damn things would stop chasing him. He ran down the corridors initially but soon enough managed to find a path that led outside. He continued running through the outlying wastes and scattered trees of what ones was probably a forest. He had at least ten or fifteen M.I.s following him as he paved a trail away from the base. He was breathing hard and his suit was doing its best to compensate but it was steadily starting to power down after all the use it had seen in the past few days without a chance to recharge. When the suit began to give out, Tsen steadily felt the pain that his missing arm left behind. It crawled throughout his body like a blaze and drew his attention away from his flight. Once he looked back at the horde chasing him in the middle of nowhere, he quickly regained his composure and continued running. Now he was running under his own power though. He was tired, severely injured and malnourished, but he was not about to stop running. After almost a solid mile of the most intense exercise he had ever experienced he came to an open field. Sand and various splotches of grass lay scattered around but it was completely empty. He decided that this would be where he would make his last stand. The M.I.s came running through the last of the trees with an intensity that Tsen was all too familiar with. He readied himself and was doing his best to catch his breath but he was not truly prepared for a fight without the functions of his suit. The androids attacked him mercilessly. Due to his injury they quickly discarded any idea of trying to convert him and instead sought only his destruction. What would come next however would catch them all by surprise. The androids stopped attacking. They stood straight up, glanced at each other with very human eyes for the briefest of moments and then sped off into separate directions. Tsen was still conscious and managed to get himself to his feet slowly and with a good bit of trouble. He watched as they all fled. “She must have disabled their base. Guess I survived after all. Shows what she knows. Hah!” When he turned to look back in the direction of the base he was greeted with a destructive wave of energy that was vaporizing everything before his eyes. He stepped back in fear and realized that he was doomed. She had succeeded but not with the plan they originally had. He thought about running, about hiding, protecting himself, the comical nature in which the androids were running away from a fate they could not escape... But instead of doing anything he just stood there with his fist clenched and awaited The End. #3 – The Story After the explosion the remaining androids all over the world had fallen into chaos. They no longer hurt humans anymore and sought out peaceful lives until the end of their times, doing what they knew best; surviving. Reis and Tsen's stories have yet to be revealed in history. Together they had stopped an uprising that could have ruined the final peace amongst the planets and they managed to do it before it had become a severe problem. The higher ups within the governments would ignore the theory that the battle had ever taken place and would never have acknowledged that the androids posed any kind of threat. This continued until the governments were abolished and the planet relocated. City 25-5 was completely obliterated from the blast and was never missed. Reis, the lone scientist that had created and solved the largest underground program from the war had vanished and no one missed her. Tsen, a soldier from the former wars and rogue hero had perished saving the day. He was never missed. The Mechanical Intellectuals that were obliterated in the battle were hardly spoken of and in the end were never missed. With their stories told now they will not be forgotten.