Cloudless Stars - Part 4

“Ai, Ai, Ai, wake up!”

A young girl with short blonde hair sluggishly woke up to the sight of the blindingly white padded room. Her bright blue eyes gleamed in the searing lights like perfect gemstones.

She turned lifelessly towards a doctor with short red hair and thin glasses. Her name tag read: “Assistant Doctor Mihara.”

“It's time for your regular test again.”

Little Ai waddled closely behind Doctor Mihara as she hid under her shadow. The lights of the white corridors scared her.

They arrived at a room which caused her to hug tightly onto Mihara’s legs. She quietly shook her head in disagreement.

Doctor Mihara lowered herself with a reassuring smile.

“It's ok Ai, after this we can play. I have your favourite show on. As a reward I will let you watch it all night. How does that sound?”

Ai reluctantly entered the room looking back at Mihara with timid eyes. Mihara waved back with a smile that calmed her nerves.

***

“Subject A-1502 shows remarkable promise as it is capable of harnessing living nanomachines through Bio Fusion control. A big step in releasing our own evolution.”

Ai held up her hands in the air cupping into a bowl containing a swarm of glowing red fireflies that swirled around creating an orb.

“Process deemed to be unreplicable. She is unique. Subject lost - 2829 and counting. Need to procure more from the Mother.”

***

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Ai woke up shaking as she clutched her head yelling uncontrollably.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

***

Doctor Mihara stomped her feet over to one of her colleagues and slammed her fist onto the wall next to her.

“Replicate the process? You would kill her before even doing that!”

“Doctor, Mihara please calm down, it all a part of the process—”

“And how many more of our children do we need to kill for this process?”

“She is not your daughter, Mihara. She is even less like us which is why more research is needed.”

Mihara stumbled backwards as a heavy migraine struck her head.

‘What have we been doing?’

***

*Alarm Alarm Alarm*

Ai once again woke up but instead of being greeted to the usual white noise of her room it was instead flooded with red strobing lights above. Her bright blue eyes now reflected as a beautiful ruby red.

Doctor Mihara stood next to her plain bed. She was out of breath but still showed an uneasy smile to reassure Ai that everything was alright.

“Ai, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Everything that we did to you was in the name of evolution but I can’t… I can’t stand by and watch. So please go to sleep and when you wake up, I promise you a world of peace and freedom.”

Doctor Mihara touched her forehead as a small electric shock dispersed out from her finger causing Ai to fall asleep.

***

‘A world of peace and freedom.’

*Cathuck*

*Wrrrr*

A large metal platform emerged from the ground as two large mechs entered the hangar of the space station.

*Fwooosh*

A pool of red and blue liquid burst out as it evaporated in the empty air.

The space was filled with endless cargo in a lifeless labyrinth of metal and silence. Dim white lights illuminated the area leaving large areas of complete darkness and within it were thousands of red lights that began to eat away gnawing at the metal like small glowing termites.

Ana’s mech stood motionless as Augustus’s mech began to sluggishly walk. Their mechs glowed red and were steaming with heat and bright liquids that stained the armours.

*Clank*

The leg of Augustus’s mech broke away as it stumbled down only catching itself with both arms firmly held on the ground.

*Clank*

The joints of the arms could not hold anymore as it snapped leaving the chassis to fall onto its sides.

A faint voice echoed from inside the machine. It groaned with pain.

“I… It is d…Done…. Now show… Show me the world… that you promised….”

The orange mech grew silent as all system lights dimmed out.

*wrrr*

The mech grew silent and was now completely lifeless.

***

The streets of Kolumbiya were filled with joyous smiles as people went about their days only to be abruptly halted by the sudden rumbling below ground.

*Crack*

The grounds beneath their feet began to split open as a frantic panic began to set in. A stampede ensued as bodies crashed against each other with confused screams and cries that went to no avail. The finely crafted buildings began to tumble and fold beneath the earth as everything collapsed upon each other.

Out of the slurry of dirt and rubble rose forth a mechanical monstrosity of unimaginably large size. Steel that shook the seas in its awakening causing several mountain size waves to ripple outwards.

*BRRRRRRRR*

Deafening warhorns screamed with a coarse pained voice of mechanical madness. A symphony of war that shook the very air around it.

This was a metal contraption shaped like a tortoise with a thick shell that carried the still hanging remnants of Kolumbiya on its back. The central gothic monument of opulent brilliance sat like a miniature shining gold bell at the top. Its eight legs each were the size of a small country with movements that would echo throughout the planets in small seismic tremors.

*BRRRRRRRR*

A chunk of the east coast of America had been taken out and now walked a trail of unstoppable destruction.

***

The colossal space station basked in the deep recess of space. Its black hull glowed with the bright blue ocean of earth and the orange light of the sun. It now had rings of shiny metal made from fragments of the destroyed elevator that now orbited the station.

*Woosh*

A large rocket shaped in rough abstract angled metal raced rapidly towards the station.

*Clink*

The metal parts of the rocket began to fold out of place as a humanoid mech emerged out.

*Stsss*

It was a mech shaped with intricate shaped angled armours that smoothed out to create a slim almost human-like body profile. A next gen prototype unseen and unused with red and orange paints that were haphazardly placed on. Test markers and writings could be seen on various parts of the body with more improvements proposed but not yet implemented. In addition, it sported a large wing of eight total rectangular pieces.

It was a phoenix in metal form.

*Twink*

The space station twinkled with several blue lights as the orbiting materials began to fire several bright white lasers at the mech.

The mech twirled effortlessly in the air dodging the barrage of lasers that rained down upon it.

*Wrrr*

The space station spun its metal disks prompting the orbiting materials to move aiming directly at the incoming target. These were new drones shaped from the remains of the former space elevator. It had the appearance of sharp tear drops with a single bright blue eye at the centre.

*Woosh*

The drones flew down exploding upon contact but the mech was too fast for it to do any damage. The mech in response to the swarm of silver began to fold its wing to the front of the body.

*Vrrrrr*

*Pew Pew Pew*

A pulse of red energy fired off from each metal feather and when the silver drones were close the mech switched to a melee stance using the wings as energy blades.

The mech danced in the deep sea of space flying elegantly and slicing through the drones until it had reached for the station’s surface.

***

*Crack*

*Kaboom*

*Wooosh*

The red mech’s body pierced the station’s black hull as it slid into the hangar dragging bits of metal in its wake. The arm was raised in an attempt to block the incoming projectiles that came from the exposed airlock.

*Woooosh*

The mech stood firmly in place as the newly formed hole caused anything that wasn’t tied to the ground to rush violently out.

“There you are… Let's leave this place Ai!”

The hangar was unrecognizable anymore with curved metal tentacles and cables that filled the room like an eldritch domain. Ana’s mech had been crucified at the centre of the room impaled by the tentacles that drained away at her energy.

With small steps it moved, lowering the wings to pull out two bladed swords.

“This is not a place for you Ai!”

The station reacted aggressively to the intrusion as tentacles frantically lunged towards the mech. This attack was met with blades that quickly sliced through the slithering metals arms.

It had arrived in front of Ana’s mech as it slowly reached for the chest. The metal arms slowly pierced through grabbing hold of the black orb that was the cockpit.

“AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!”

Screams echoed from inside the red machine as red nanomachines migrated from the crucified body and into a new host.

“L… Let us go home… Home.”

***

Ana opened her left eye sluggishly as if she had awoken from a century long slumber. She had awoken to a void of total darkness. She pulled a lever to her side.

*Stssss*

A lid up top slid open bathing her in the bright sunlight above. She climbed out of the cockpit and as she looked up her left eye widened as it reflected back a new reality. The sight of a steaming hot mech of red and orange burnt into her single eye.

“No….”

The mech had cradled the cockpit in its chest tightly as it crouched down in a crater. A sleeping giant within a green field of grass that flowed gently with the wind. Clear skies with large clouds dotted the landscape.

Ana reached towards the red mech’s chest.

*Sstsss*

Angled triangular armour folded out of place revealing an orb at the centre. The sphere retracted out revealing the inside of the cockpit.

Ana slowly approached cautiously with her legs buckling down upon seeing what lay within.

It was Shiori, who sat with several metal tentacles that were attached to her back. Shiori looked upwards with lethargic movements and blood that trickled down from her lips.

“Oh, thank… goodness… Y… You are safe. Thank goodness. Thank goodness….”

“Mother? Why?”

“Hehe… I don’t quite know… myself….”

“Quick! If we can detach those—”

“Don’t… bother. I was not made for this mech. No implants for it. This is it for me.”

“No! No! No! You just came into my life. I barely even know you! You are not allowed to just leave like this! Not now! Not now!”

“It's funny, I thought I never cared about human life other than idealisms of Anabhraka as a higher species… but all that was wrong… I… I really did cared… no. I loved you, Ai. My own daughter, my sweet and only daughter.”

“Mother please no! You can’t–”

“My beloved Ai, you will be forever more human than any of us.”

“Please… Please don’t leave!”

Shiori reached out her hand placing it softly on Ana’s face. Ana held onto it tightly with a bright blue eye that shimmered with an ocean that swirled.

“A world of peace and freedom… make it true, Ai.”