14

“So you’ve made your choice?” Clara asked the heir that was standing silently before her. “You could always run, even now.” Clara first looked at Teresa standing by and then to the two Gorians behind him.

It was true, although the Gorians weren’t much of a threat to them it wasn’t as if Clara had put any measures in place to keep them from running.

The heir shook his head, the corner of his mouth turned up slightly. “No, there’s nowhere else for me to go. I’ve already made up my mind, as you knew I would.”

She put a hand on his shoulder and pulled him closer. “You aren’t cut out for this. Leadership isn’t your thing, so too with the scheming and the killing.” She waited a moment as her words registered and his face turned to shock. “Trust me, I know how you feel. But there are people behind you, who trust you, who follow only you. So for their sake, don’t think of quitting. Even though you weren’t born for this we’re going to see this through.” He nodded, slightly more confident.

She pushed him back. “Have you heard of what’s happening?”

“Yes, everyone’s talking about it. Plus the radio’s keeps on speculating about it. For us, this isn’t hard to guess. They’re after you.”

Clara nodded, “Teresa, how are our preparations?”

“Our agent has managed to place himself in the frontlines, just as you instructed. Tomorrow he’ll be finished.”

“We’re going to have to stick it out until then…What about the doctor?”

“He’s waiting for you, of course. He was surprisingly quick after you’re motivation.”

“What? Is he some kind of masochist?” Teresa only shrugged in response. Clara sighed. “Very well, we attack the Katharis clan at dawn, I’ve got a doctor to see about a robot.”

“He insists that you call it a mech.”

“Whatever.”

The doctor was standing in front of the machine. It was radiant in its glory. At the opposite end three guards were standing. None of them were bothering with their handguns and were all holding high intensity blasters.

“It’s beautiful.” Clara couldn’t help but let out her amazement as she looked over the mech. It was larger than a person, but not by much. All similarity it held from its former life as a guardian had vanished, it now looked lifelike, and was many times more agile than before.

“Is it awake yet?” She asked the doctor.

“No…I thought you’d never forgive me if I got ahead of myself.”

Clara looked at him questioningly.

He smirked evilly, “You can’t hide these things from me. You’re like me with these things. Isn’t this plain cool? Stepping into a new era, bringing fantasy to reality, who would ever have thought of these things a mere hundred years ago?”

Clara chuckled, indeed she too wanted to see the coming of a new age. “Very well, start it up.”

The professor walked over to a lever and pulled it with a great deal of effort. The mech started shacking slightly, and the markings over its body started lighting up one after another. On its face were three circular eyes laid out in the form of a triangle, the very next moment its eyes lit up.

*BEEP*

A strange voice came from the machine. It sounded tinny, but also smooth, as if it was synthesized and resynthesized until it had found voice sounding at least partly mortal.

“Startup successful, welcome USER. Please input your identification.”

Clara started to understand why the doctor was hesitant to start it up, if the guards standing at the other end of the room were to take this as a threat they might have opened fire on him.

Clara stepped forward, the mech titled it head as it detected the movement. “USER named, one Clara Grey Harcourt. Confirm received.”

“USER identification received, please declare command.”

“List commands.” Clara was already familiar with the standard operating procedure for animus driven machines.

“Commands are as follows:------ERROR, commands list corrupted, please contact manufacturer for instructions.”

Clara looks back at the doctor. He laughed nervously and scratched his head. “Well, it was a rush job. You understand that right?”

Clara sighed, “Fine. How do I activate the animus?”

“Oh, it’s already activated, it’s always active. Part of my design was that---“

“Stop, I’m interested in the details. But I don’t have the time. Just tell me how to get it running.” Clara still had to go work on The Project today.”

Doctor Khostra nodded, “Yes, the input is ‘RELEASE CAGE’…Then, this is the part that is different from all the other machines. You start talking to it.”

“This is sounding less like a machine and more and more like some sort of freaky attempt at creating life.”

Khostra nodded excitedly, “Yes, this is a very unexplored part of the animus potential. The ability for higher reasoning. Up until recently we’ve only been treating our systems as pets, or you could even say wild animals, but the potential is there for so much more…”

“And you didn’t expect to get in trouble for doing this?”

Khostra huffed, “Humph, you wanted it to work didn’t you? Do you really think that something that only amounts to the intelligence of an animal would be enough to operate an artifact left by the gods?”

Clara remained quiet, this had of course never even crossed her mind. One must know that everything that needed a system used an animus as their central operating system. Even some self-operating cars had their own animus installed. This was nothing new, in fact it was part of the daily life of every person in the Meritocracy. The Overseer himself was nothing more than an animus, and until recently Clara had suspected that he was only a very well put together piece of software. But this didn’t seem to be the case anymore. Perhaps even people were nothing more than animus running around in bags of flesh.

It was a harrowing thought. Clara committed to stop thinking of these things. “Never mind then doctor, is there anything else?”

“Yes, I want to take notes as you interact with it, I’ll monitor it for any irregularities as well.”

“Do as you will.” She turned to the mech. “RELEASE CAGE” The mech shuddered and fell to the ground. Clara looked at the professor, he didn’t seem worried by it.

“It is controlling its body for the first time in its life. How do you expect it to be proficient in something it has never done before?”

Teresa flashed behind the doctor and loudly cracked her knuckles causing the doctor to start and straighten his back. Clara shrugged and Teresa stepped away.

Clara turned to the mech. “Are you alright?”

*BEEEEEEEEEEP*

Clara supposed this was also its first attempt at talking.

“Come on, try standing up, you can do it.” Her voice turned soothing. But in the back of her mind she was worrying that her big bad killing machine might be something like a baby.

Khostra couldn’t help himself and said, “You don’t need to worry about something stupid it’s not a person. It only seems that way due to your lack of understanding. It is much closer to a spirit given a body to possess, like a poltergeist in stories or a low ranked undead like zombies.”

“Well that’s reassuring.” So instead of a baby she gets a baby monster…Still this was more in line with her future objectives.

The robots shuddered some more and wildly swung its arms about. “Oops!” Khostra turned a dial and the swinging lessened.

Slowly the swings calmed and it seemed to gain stability. It stopped then moved its arms again, pushing it up from the floor. It bent its legs and a moment later it was standing before them its lights blinking in all glory.

“Nice.”

“Nh-Neice-Nice!” The robot responded. It then continued, “Greetings user, I am called T5, how may I assist you?”

T5? What happened to the other four? Probably some artistic thing, Clara decided.

“T5, do you have emotions?”

“Emotions, what is that?” It tilted its head and asked.

“Emotions are things which burden mortals, not something to concern yourself with T5.”

“Very well, I will ignore emotions from now on.”

“T5, Do you know your purpose?”

“…To serve the user.” It responded, reluctantly. This not what Clara had expected at all.

“T5, I am sending you on a trip, there are some bad people I need you to get rid of for me. Can you do that?”

T5’s three eyes turned red, “Get rid of? Dispose, make vanish. Kill? Does User want me to kill these people?”

“It is appreciated, but is not a requirement, I only them distracted. You can use this as an opportunity to get used to your body.”

It looked over its body, “Yes, my databanks tell me this body was designed by you User. It is many times more functional than the other T-models, my thanks.”

Teresa listened to something in her ear then spoke to Clara, “We don’t have much time, the clans have finished squabbling and have started moving.”

No time for pleasantries then Clara decided. “T5 we have run out of time so I need you to start moving as soon as you can. Do you understand?”

T5 saluted, the Meritocracy’s official salute, “Mission received, User.”

“Terr, get a chopper to take him, I don’t want him to get lost. Also make sure to sync his coms up with our network.”

“Yes.” Teresa said and started talking into her ear again, short and clipped commands that were quickly received and interpreted by Teresa’s secretary.

The city scape of the Meritocracy was a sight to behold. The clouds drifted lazily overhead, the cars passed one another below in the streets, and the pedestrians on the sidewalk moved from place to place.

From the large building where the clan leaders were gathered a stream of cars departed one after another.

There was a building overlooking the road where a certain group of cars would pass through.

On this building’s rooftop Chief suddenly appeared. “Hmmm.” He waved his hand and a powerful force blasted from his body and slammed into the street. The gawkers looking at the procession and the traffic were all shunted to the side.

Chief then lifted his hands in a grasping motion and slammed them back again. The road responded and dug into the ground, smashing up trees as the asphalt further and further into the ground. All around the scene people were experiencing an earthquake from the large amount of power that was acting out on the road.

The limousines and the accompanying cars around were forced to come to a halt. The guards in the escorting vehicles seemed unfazed as they got out of their vehicles and took out their weapons and aimed them towards the sky. A large and strong man shouted out commands and the guards spread out and raised their weapons.

“Fire!” The guards started opening fire at the building and towards the crowds which were still fleeing the scene.

“Sansha!” Chief commanded.

“On it!” A woman answered. From the distance a lithe woman rose into the sky and then floated. As she started to fall wings rose from her back and spread out, four wings in all. She spun to face the ground and fell, then changed her angle until she was heading right to the center of the elder’s cars.

As she fell she started glowing and the bullets flying towards her were flung away. The guard leader shouted again and the back of all the cars were thrown open. A group leashed climb out from the back of the cars and looked up. Men, woman, human, non-human. All the different races captured from the outside world and from within the Meritocracy were gathered. They lifted their arms and started gathering magic of their own.

One of the Leashed stepped out and waved into the sky, a shadow seemed to pull itself from his body and clung to the sky in front of the guards. And directly in the way of where Sansha was rushing.

“Sansha, leave it!”

Sansha clicked her tongue then spread her wings again. With a flick of her wings she changed direction to fly upward. She spun her body around and opened her arms wide, from her the currents of wind following after her came wisps of light that spread out then swarmed towards the procession.

“Sansha that’s enough. Return immediately.”

She dived down just as a large pulse of plasma blasted in front of her. “Crap.” She grit her teeth then focused her energy, a thin barrier surrounded her.

Chief saw the situation wasn’t looking good. “Start the next phase.” Shadow stepped out behind the Leashed holding the darkness barrier up and slit his neck, he spun around and sent spikes of darkness from the ground to stab at the people around him.

The guards around him were surprised but they reacted quickly enough. Three were stabbed in the legs, six turned around and opened fire on Shadow. Shadow smirked then stepped away. One moment the bullets were shooting past him and the next he was gone. Then another scream of the dying.

Green flames gathered, and shot towards the limousines. A guard stepped forward and threw a grenade in its way just in time. The flame remained but the unnatural motion of it had stopped. It fell from the sky and melted the busted up road beneath it.

Smoke rose into the air and blanketed the air, obscuring the mercenaries and the guards view.

The head guard shouted one more order then listened to something in his ear. He stepped away and pulled out a device from his pocket. The chief felt a pulse of magic and immediately shouted. “Retreat.”

A crazed howl came from one of the vans at the back. The van blasted open and a creature that looked much like those crazed beings created by the cultists stood in its place. Another creature emerged and another. Soon there were twenty or so, some of them former guards themselves, some slightly special.

“Mage killers. Retreat!” Chief shouted. The mercs were well trained, no matter what they were doing they immediately jumped back and started retreating. “Serena, don’t hold back!”

“Okay!” The green horned girl shouted back then started giggling. Her giggle soon turned to a laugh then a crazed huffing. “Here it comes!” She shouted right before her and everything around her turned a deathly dark purple.

From the dark purple a small wave of energy rose, a pulse of magic accompanied it. Then the ground started floating with all the energy concentrated in the space. Then, Serena shrieked like a banshee and the world around her crumbled.

“Sigh. She lost control again,” Chief muttered, “Kunjaga, go get her.” Chief signaled, the purple skinned masked man. Kunjaga didn’t waste time and immediately ran back. The mage killers had already recovered by now and were storming at the prostate girl lying in the center of the crater.

Kunjaga lifted his spear then threw it with all his might. It slammed into the ground in front of Serena and sent a burst of gravel up into the air. Then, he bent his legs and leaped forward. Covering the distance between them within a second.

The first mage killer was already in front of him. Luckily Kunjaga could be considered as more warrior than mage, or he would’ve been in a lot of trouble. He raised an arm and vines rose from the ground around him, they started whipping any mage killers that came close. But each hit caused the vines to weaken visibly. Kunjaga knew that this delaying tactic could only last so long. He bent then gathered the girl in his arms, her light green frame seeming much smaller compared to his thin, tall body.

He pulled his spear from the ground then stabbed it through the first mage killer’s neck. But it was followed by another that had managed to bypass the whipping vines.

Kunjaga was not someone hardheaded enough to fight overwhelming odds against, and Chief’s training had hammered the importance of survival into their very souls. The tide was starting to turn but Kunjaga was already running away. The mage killers chased after his heels but he seemed to be much faster than them and also had longer strides than the average mortal.

As soon as Kunjaga joined them Chief nodded then waved his arms. A boy and girl, two twins held one another’s hands then they spoke simultaneously. “Warp.”

And thus the mercenaries vanished.