COLONY SHIP 02, UR: ARKS COMMAND TOWER
For the second time in as many days, Luna found herself crawling through a series of ventilation ducts. The first time had been an innocent excursion. Relatively innocent, anyway. This time she was on a top-secret mission to rescue General Valias from the vile clutches of Auntie Oh One—and loving every minute of it! It was just like a spy movie, the kind that kept her on the edge of her seat, except this was ten times better because she was actually living it.
It’s not like she was deluded. She knew full well how dangerous the mission was. But the sheer thrill of it, the adventure, was enough to keep her excited. It was much more fun than hanging around the lab all day doing chores.
So far Luna had taken the stairwell down to the forty-fifth floor, waited until the coast was clear, then snuck into one of the overhead vents. From there she had navigated her way towards the inner part of the tower where the detention center was located. As she approached one of the many vents supplying air conditioning to the building, however, she froze.
Voices! There were voices coming from the room below her. Luna shuffled forward and peered through the metal grille.
She wasn’t prepared for what she saw. It was a bathroom—the men’s room, in fact. Two guys in soldier uniforms were standing at the urinals, facing away from her. They were talking while doing their business.
“Hey, you hear about the raid last night?”
“At Research Circle?”
“Yeah. Crazy, right? The way I hear it, the targets were mostly women and kids.”
“Maybe they were especially
dangerous women and kids.”
“I dunno, man. I’m startin’ to get a bad vibe from all this. Like we’re crossing a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Next thing you know, us ARKS will be stealing candy from babies.”
“You got a problem with that, take it up with Colonel Aki.”
“Hell no! You seen the look in her eyes? That cold stare? If I breathe a word of this to her I’ll be doing garbage duty the next five cycles, guaranteed. And that’s the best-case scenario.”
“Actually, I kinda like that cold stare. It’s a look that says, ‘I’m getting what I want whether you like it or not.’ And me, I’m more than happy to give her what she wants. Publicly
or privately, if ya know what I mean.”
“Heh. You got weird taste, you know that?”
“Hey, c’mon. All I’m saying is, the colonel’s pretty smokin’. You gonna tell me I’m crazy?”
“Well… okay, we can agree on that much.”
They both laughed. Inside the duct, Luna shook her head with disdain and moved on.
She rounded a corner—and nearly ran into a cleaning robot. It was a squat, faceless thing. A third of a meter wide, roughly cylindrical in shape, colored a metallic shade of gray. A pair of pincer-like arms extended in front of it. To regular-sized folks it probably would have looked harmless, maybe even cute. But to Luna, up close and personal, it seemed plenty menacing.
The robot’s primary function was to clean, obviously. It was a simple machine with very basic intelligence, programmed to collect anything caught in the ducts. Dust, debris, whatever else it happened to find—including, say, a support partner who wasn’t supposed to be there. The robot snapped at Luna with one of its pincers. “Ouch! Knock it off, dust-for-brains!” she hissed.
It came at her again. Luna whacked it with the side of her hand, which merely stunned the robot for a moment. She didn’t know what else to do. The duct was too narrow for her to turn around and she couldn’t get past the robot. Her only option was to scooch backwards the way she came, all the while keeping the robot at bay.
Luna approached a T-junction. On a whim she decided to take the untraveled path. If she were lucky, she thought, it might lead to her destination. Still crawling backwards, she didn’t notice the vertical shaft until it was too late. Suddenly there was nothing but open space beneath her. She started to fall. At the last second she grabbed onto the duct, her tiny fingers barely gripping the edge.
Luna glanced down. Three meters below her was a fan spanning the width of the duct. Its curved blades whirled menacingly.
Better not let go if I don’t wanna end up a Luna smoothie, she thought grimly.
Above her, the cleaning robot nipped at Luna’s fingers. The support partner lost her grip and went sliding, uncontrolled, towards the spinning blades of death. She had nothing to grab onto, no way to slow her descent. It was all over. But then—
An opening! One meter above the fan, Luna kicked off the wall of the duct. The momentum propelled her across the shaft and into the connecting passage. The passage, as it turned out, was another ventilation duct connected to the main duct. Luna tumbled through it and eventually slid to a stop. She looked behind her. There was no fan, no cleaning robot. She was safe.
Or so she thought. All that bouncing around hadn’t gone unnoticed. From outside the duct, a voice called out: “Hello? Anyone there?”
Luna remained very still. The only sound to be heard was the constant whirring of the fan somewhere behind her. If she kept quiet, maybe whoever it was would give up and go away.
“I heard a noise in the air duct,” the voice continued. “If someone’s in there, please—you have to help me!”
Help? That didn’t sound like the tone of a guard. Against her better judgment, Luna pulled herself up to the nearest vent. “That depends who’s asking,” she said.
“My name is General Rayn Valias, commander of the ARKS forces aboard
Ur,” came the reply. “I’ve been unlawfully imprisoned here for the past several days. To whom am I speaking?”
The little support partner nearly burst out laughing. Somehow she’d managed to stumble upon the very man she was looking for! “I’m Luna,” she responded proudly. “Today’s your lucky day, General. I’m here to rescue you!”
All she had to do now was wait for Irene to shut down the power to Valias’ cell block…
* * * * * * * * *
Far below Luna, beneath the Command tower itself, Irene was well on her way to the generator room. Once there she would be able to shut off the power line feeding the detention block. A simple enough job—theoretically, at least. The hardest part would be locating the right breaker, but Irene was confident she could figure it out once she got there.
At present she felt a bit like an ant in a flower garden. She was slinking along a metal walkway near the upper edge of a cavernous underground chamber. The path wound among a forest of pipes and conduits, many of them wider than she was tall. Each carried a basic utility to the city above: water, power, or gas. If Irene had looked over the railing, she would have seen clusters of pipes descending deep into the darkness below. Somewhere down there, among those murky depths, lay the enormous supply tanks from which the pipes originated.
Not that Irene had time to think about such things. She was singularly focused on her objective: finding the generator room. She was so focused that she didn’t even think about the fact that one of the overhead lights up ahead was out—or why.
“Hello, Irene,” came a familiar voice from the darkness, “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Irene reacted instantly. In a blur, one hand reached into her coat pocket and produced a tranquilizer gun. She aimed it down the center of the walkway towards the origin of the voice.
A silhouette took shape in the dark. The concealed figure stepped into the light, revealing herself. It was Aki01. “I was wondering which of you would end up down here,” she said. “My bet was on either you or Rho. But somehow I had a feeling it would be you.”
Irene said nothing. She merely kept her weapon trained on the colonel, who—surprisingly—appeared to be empty-handed, though not unarmed.
Zero One continued, “I knew you would pass through here eventually. Simple cause and effect, really. I locked up Valias; you want him set free. The only way to do that is to cut the power to his cell block, and the only way to do
that is to trip the breaker. Unless, of course, you could somehow shut off the power to the entire building, but you would need access to
Ur’s main computer to do that, and we both know that’s not going to happen. So I knew you would come. And here you are.”
Once again, Irene remained silent.
“Nothing to say?” asked Aki, smiling politely. “Not even a friendly greeting for old times’ sake?”
Irene tightened her grip on the tranquilizer gun. Her expression was resolute. “Talking to you is pointless. Reasoning with you is pointless. Okada’s virus has control of you now.”
Aki’s smile broadened. She spread her arms and shrugged. “So what now? Are you planning to shoot me? You don’t really think those darts will have any effect on me, do you?”
“Why don’t we find out?” Irene replied quietly.
Then she pulled the trigger. A single dart exited the gun barrel, its needle nose rapidly closing in on Aki’s left shoulder. The colonel was slow to react. Maybe she figured Irene was bluffing. At the last moment she thought better of it, smacking the dart out of the air with the side of her hand—something only CAST reflexes could manage.
The dart fell to the walkway, bounced twice, and lay still. A small crackle of electricity emanated from its tip.
Aki01 gave Irene an ‘I-should-have-known’ look. “Electrified darts? You always come prepared, don’t you?”
In response, Irene fired twice more. The colonel dodged right, diving behind a trio of large pipes. Irene quickly followed after her. When she rounded the pipes, however, Aki was nowhere to be found.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Irene,” came Aki’s disembodied voice. “Really, I don’t. But you’ve left me little choice, and I have my orders. Why not surrender? We both know how this is going to end. If you surrender, I’ll make it as quick and painless as I can.”
She didn’t answer right away. Instead she skulked along the edge of the walkway, her weapon seeking its target. But the red-haired Caseal seemed content to remain hidden. Irene finally said—to no direction in particular, “I helped program you, Aki. I was at your side when you were first activated that day on Eldona. You’re the closest thing I’ll ever have to a daughter. But when I look at you now, I don’t see the same strong, brave woman I have always loved and respected. Do you know what I see? A puppet of evil. I don’t hate you, Aki. I could never do that. But I pity what you’ve become. And I will do everything in my power to stop you.”
“Strong words,” Aki replied. “But then, you’ve always had a strong sense of justice. Perhaps it’s where I got mine. Either way, consider this: if you won’t surrender for your own sake, what about for your friends? I’ve already captured two of your teammates. I know there are more of you in the tower; you wouldn’t have come with only a three-person team. Tell me where to find the others and I promise to spare them. You have my word.”
She caught two of the others? Irene wondered. Could it be a bluff? She had no way of knowing. Even if it were true, Irene had no intention of betraying the rest of them. Not now, not ever.
“Think about it,” Aki continued. “It’s not a bad offer. Certainly the best you’re going to get from me. There were others with you when you arrived. Where are they now?”
Irene paid no attention to the colonel. She was more interested in locating the source of her voice. It sounded like Aki was somewhere behind her and to the left. Hard to tell, though. The thicket of pipes was bouncing the sound waves around like a reflection in a fun house mirror. She followed the walkway around a corner as Aki kept talking.
“Your silence betrays you. It only confirms I’m right. Very well. If you won’t tell me where they are, I will simply have to flush them out myself. As for you, my dear Irene… don’t say I never gave you a chance.”
A flicker of movement in the distance. Irene fired twice. Too late—Aki was already gone.
Irene picked up her pace. She was closing in now. A left turn, then a right. Aki came into view at the far end of the walkway. A pair of darts left Irene’s gun. Both narrowly missed, ricocheting off a massive water pipe instead.
Aki ducked out of sight again. Irene immediately gave chase. This time, when she rounded the corner, the colonel was there waiting for her. Aki grabbed Irene’s weapon arm and shoved it aside. Irene fired anyway; the dart flew harmlessly past Aki’s head.
With a heavy kick, the colonel sent Irene tumbling to the floor. The gun flew from her hand and bounced awkwardly across the metal walkway. Before Irene could grab it, the weapon went skidding over the edge. Down, down in fell, until it was eventually claimed by the cavernous depths far below. She never even heard it hit the bottom.
“It’s time I put an end to this little diversion,” Aki01 said coolly. She reached behind her back and took hold of the weapon stowed there—a Red Partizan. The blade end hummed to life with crimson photon energy, casting a menacing glow over the entire scene. With the press of a button, Aki extended the pole end of the partisan until it was taller than she was.
“Forgive me for this.” Aki gripped the weapon in both hands and lowered herself into a fighting stance. “Using a photon blade against an unarmed civilian normally goes against my code of conduct. In this case, however, I am rather pressed for time.”
Irene fought the urge to panic. She had hoped to end things quickly with an electrified dart. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option. That meant things were about to get messy. Very messy. It was going to be an all-out brawl… and the outcome was far from clear.
Irene tossed away her coat, revealing a black bodysuit underneath. She positioned one arm and one leg in front of her, the others behind, knees bent at a moderate angle. She was utterly composed, a pillar of strength, inviting Aki to make the first move.
The colonel raised a single, half-amused eyebrow. “You believe you stand a chance against me? You’re a research engineer, Irene. A scholar. Not a fighter.”
Aki was only half right. It was true, Irene didn’t have the same ARKS training she had. She had never been on the battlefield, never come face-to-face with a Darker. But what Aki
didn’t know—what none of them knew, aside from Rho—was that Irene had once been the crime-fighting hero known as the Masked Phoenix. She had stood up against some of the city’s worst criminals … and won.
The other thing Aki wasn’t fully aware of was the extent to which Irene had modified herself over the years. She was an excellent programmer and engineer. By continually tweaking herself, she had pushed herself far beyond her original operating parameters. She doubted she was on par with Aki, a much newer model CAST, but the gap between them was probably marginal.
“You’d be surprised,” Irene replied quietly.
There was nothing left to be said, nothing to be done except the terrible business at hand. Aki leapt at Irene, her crimson blade angling for the woman’s neck. Irene sidestepped out of the way, avoiding a fatal hit by the narrowest of margins. She was forced back again and again as the assault continued. The Red Partizan struck the walkway and railing several times. Each time, showers of sparks exploded around them like miniature fireworks.
Eventually Irene found her back pressed against the far railing. There was nowhere to run. Aki lunged forward, her victory all but certain. Instead of trying to dodge, Irene took the hit—and charged. As the blade ripped through her left shoulder, she threw herself at Aki. It was a desperate gamble. Fortunately for Irene, it caught the colonel off-guard. The red-haired Caseal took a direct punch to the chest and was hurled back a dozen meters.
Irene attempted a follow-up hit but Aki kept her at bay with wide swings of her partisan. The photon-infused blade sliced through the walkway like a knife through melted butter. With an agonized groan, the floor started to collapse beneath them. Both Caseals leapt to safety—in opposite directions—as an entire section of walkway vanished into the endless abyss below.
Irene turned to face Aki, standing on the other side of the gap. If she thought the distance afforded her any margin of safety, however, she was dead wrong. Aki performed a diagonal slash and a wave of pure photon energy shot out of her blade. Irene dive-rolled to the left. Her shoulder slammed into the railing but she managed to avoid the energy blast.
Irene had taken her eyes off Aki for only a moment, but the Caseal was already on the move. She leapt across the gap at an angle, bounced off a water pipe, and came flying straight at Irene, the partisan extended in front of her like a jousting lance. Irene pivoted around it, tried to throw a punch, but ended up catching the pole end of the partisan instead. Aki used the weapon’s momentum to hurl Irene across the walkway.
She was up again in an instant—just in time to face Aki’s next attack. The colonel unleashed a flurry of lightning-fast strikes, too many to dodge. Irene found herself struggling to keep up. Three times she was struck—in the upper arm, neck, and thigh. They peeled open her jumpsuit and dug into her skin, but amounted to little more than glancing blows.
With a graceful backflip, Irene landed on top of the railing behind her. It gave her a moment to think—but only a moment. During that all-too-brief respite, she considered her options. Things were not going well. She had held her own—so far—but Aki was clearly the better fighter. It was only a matter of time until Irene made a mistake. A single mistake is all it would take to end the fight. She needed to do something before that happened. But what? An idea came to her then, a sort of last-ditch gamble. It would be risky, but at that point it was her best shot. Her final ace in the hole. All she needed was an opportunity…
Irene’s train of thought was broken as the photon blade hummed past her ear. She pivoted sideways, hopped off the railing, and rushed in before Aki could reorient herself. With both hands she took hold of the pole end of the partisan and
pushed. The colonel pushed back, equally as hard. They were locked in a stalemate, each vying for control of the weapon.
With a sudden burst of aggression, Aki redoubled her efforts and forced Irene all the way back to the railing. She pressed down hard and the blade inched ever closer to Irene’s clenched face. Irene held it at bay—but just barely. It was a losing battle and she knew it. If she didn’t do something fast, it would cleave her in half within moments.
“Nowhere to run,” the colonel growled, her voice strained by the effort.
Irene did two things simultaneously. She slid to the right, releasing one hand from the partisan as she did so. As the blade swept past her head, she used her newly-freed hand to grab a small, round object off her belt. Then she hurled it straight into Aki’s face.
The smoke grenade detonated on impact. It was a smaller version of the smoke bombs she’d planted inside the ducts at Rauth Robotics. The colonel was so completely taken by surprise, she didn’t even have time to guard. Irene used that moment of confusion to headbutt her as hard as she could. A human skull is extremely hard; a CAST skull is even harder. Aki cried out and fell backwards, releasing her hold of the partisan as she did so. Irene was quick to take possession of it, immediately turning it on its owner.
The scene was as follows: Aki01, sprawled on the floor, furiously waving a cloud of smoke from her eyes. And Irene, standing over her opponent, her newly-acquired blade aimed squarely at the colonel’s throat.
Yet somehow, despite it all, Aki had the audacity to smile. “I understand now,” she said to Irene. “I always thought it was strange, but now it all makes sense. The smoke bombs, the tranquilizer gun, that fighting style… you’re the Masked Phoenix.”
Irene merely glared.
“You
are, aren’t you? I remember the news stories back then: the mysterious masked vigilante, fighting the city’s criminals all by herself. They never did find out who she was. Then one day she just… disappeared, vanished without a trace, never to be heard from again. But now I know—it was you. Not only are you secretly a CAST, you’re the Masked Phoenix, too.” Aki nodded, mostly to herself. “You managed to keep that hidden from me a long time. It seems you’re quite adept at keeping secrets. Well, if we’re being honest, I’ve been keeping one from you as well.”
Irene raised the partisan high overhead, ready to strike. Ready to deliver the final blow—
“The truth is,” said Aki, “I always carry a backup weapon.”
She pulled a previously-concealed pistol out of her coat and fired it point-blank at Irene’s chest. Then she fired again. And again. And again.
Irene dropped the Red Partizan and staggered backwards. Despite being a CAST, the pain was overwhelming. Dark liquids poured out of multiple wounds, staining her bodysuit. Her internal systems began to shut down one by one. Motor control was still operational, so she opened her mouth to speak. “Aki, wait—”
The next bullet went through her brain. Aki added one more for good measure, then watched as Irene’s limp body tumbled over the railing.
She was little more than a ragdoll. Gravity quickly took hold of her, pulling her down into the bowels of the great colony ship. She fell and fell, her last vestiges of consciousness evaporating into the ether, until she was eventually swallowed up by the abyss.
She was dead before her body hit the ground.
On the walkway high above, Aki watched it happen. The darkness and distance couldn’t deter her enhanced CAST vision. When Irene’s body struck one of many pipes zigzagging across the floor of the chamber, it didn’t quite explode. The synthetic skin covering her chassis kept that from happening. However, the sheer force of the impact shattered her internal parts, leaving her body a twisted, mangled mess.
Zero One performed a quick analysis in her head. Chance of survival: zero percent. Satisfied, she picked up her fallen partisan and turned to leave. “That’s one down,” she muttered to herself.
Only four more to go.
* * * * * * * * *
Back in the air duct on the forty-fifth floor, Luna was growing restless. She couldn’t bust General Valias out of prison unless Irene shut down the power to the cell block. And it was taking a
long time. A lot longer than Luna had expected.
C’mon Irene, hurry up already, she thought impatiently.
What’s taking so long?
TO BE CONTINUED
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I tried to do something a little different this season. Each part has been racheting up the stakes and the tension. It's been a slow build-up throughout the season but we're finally reaching the boiling point now.
Originally Posted by AIDA
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