Chapter 19:
SEIKE
*Voosh Voosh Voosh*
The deep black abyssal room was swiftly flooded with a wave of bright blue lights that filled the space. An abhorrent scene of luminescent icy capsules that stretched above and below to an unfathomable height. It was sorted carefully by flying drones that would maintain capsules as if it was a grand library.
Ana and Rei walked along a long metal path as she looked around the landscape in total awe to her surroundings. Her eye opened wide as she couldn't help to immerse herself into a deep trance. The ominous cold capsules that dripped down hissing steam gave her an unexpected sense of joy.
A smile of pure bliss suddenly stretched across her face. She caught onto this and held her hand over her mouth. She forcibly snapped herself out of the trance.
‘What the….’
“Welcome to The Incubator. This is where our people are born. These all are your children… and I, your son.”
“What… My children? What nonsense are you spouting now!”
“We Anabhrakians are not born like humans but like a digital egg our consciousness gestates in these capsules until we hatch into what we are now.”
Rei raised both his arms outwards as he tried to show off the grandeur of the space.
“In this very room we are born… wonderful, isn't it? The creation of life itself.”
“H… How… I was one of these… things?”
“Don’t be so cruel to your children now.”
“They are not mine! How… How the hell am I related to this? This abhorrent place!”
“Do you know how we were created? The origins of our species?”
“I do–”
“NO! You do not! What was told to you by your ‘Mother’ was not the full picture. The truth is that we were created as a failsafe for the former American government ....”
“To upload fleeing minds into–”
“Myth. The truth is that The Americans wanted to play God and create what they would consider a superior life form. The endless war was fought under the false pretense of their foolish ideology of Ironing. A justification for war that served as a way to easily harvest billions upon billions of brains that was then fed into an advanced Ai that they called ‘The Matriarch’... that's you! A super computer that amassed all the stolen human knowledge of current and potential intelligence….”
“What for? I don’t get the logic?”
“Don’t you ever want to play God? Well, these people did. I do not know if they hope to turn themselves into higher beings or simply create one but their hubris would lead to their downfall. Mother was born atop the mass grave of humanity, a sentient of great potential that was snuffed by her own children. Foolish runts that threw away the promise of higher evolution.”
“And what would that be then?”
“A world that Mother and I are trying to create. A world without war, without strife and without hardships.”
Rei clicked his fingers as a drone flew down with a capsule freshly plucked.
“And all it requires is a sacrifice or two!”
He then plunged a knife into the soft membrane, slicing it open.
*Foooshh*
Cold glowing blue liquid burst out from the pod as Rei dragged out an android machine. It was a hollow metal contraption that was more metal than flesh.
“Just an empty shell.”
Rei threw the lifeless metal skeleton down the endless abyss below tossing it without a care.
“Was that thing living?”
Rei suddenly stopped as he turned to face Ana.
“Hmm I wonder… Say, do you believe in the soul?”
“I think I do… have one. I think….”
Rei blankly smiled at her response.
“My answer to that conundrum is yes, we do have a soul… but not a single soul but a collection of it that forms a single piece. We are in fact a collection of living nanomachines that can alter the very atom. It can recreate matter itself. That is the future of evolution. The future that the fossils were too scared to create.”
“You too want to play god?”
Rei blankly smiled again at her and responded coldly.
“Only a god can give a miracle such a peace.”
“You–”
A metal skeleton emerged from under her as it latched onto Ana’s back. It then proceeded to drag her backwards and into the deep darkness below. Her screams echoed throughout the space until there was nothing.
Rei continued his walk with a deep cold look with a face lacking any discernible emotion.
“Sacrifice.”
***
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”
*Thud*
Ana fell to the floor with a heavy impact. She turned around and tore off the skeleton’s head in a fit of rage.
*Crack*
”GODDAMNIT!”
*Clank*
She dropped the head as the rest of the body flopped to the floor. The faint glimmer of light above revealed her battered, tired self, yet due to the nanomachines her suit remained in pristine condition while her lips were chapped and an eye that begged to close.
‘Come! I am ready!’
Red eyes began to populate the darkness beyond as Ana tensed herself with what little bit of adrenaline she had left.
A harrowing coarse voice of feminine beauty yelled from the void. It was a mimicry of her own that reverberated through the mouths of thousands. A uniform chorus of perfect synchronicity that melded into one.
“YOU HAVE ALREADY LOST DEAR SELF!... THE MOMENT OF YOUR BIRTH SEALED THAT FATE!”
Ana readied herself in a fighting stance.
*Stssssss*
Her left eye turned red as her nanosuit moved towards her missing right arm to form a sharp coarse white blade.
“Then show me my failure! ME!”
“YOU WILL SUBMIT TO OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS!”
A metal skeleton lunged from the shadows with its metal talons attempting to strike. Ana swiftly grabbed its head and plunged her sword hand into its chassis.
*Swish*
There was not a single moment of respite as many more lept towards her in a savage attack from all sides. Ana dodged with all her might stabbing and slicing through the endless hordes of metal monstrosities.
“YOU SERVED A SINGLE PURPOSE IN LIFE!... YOU WERE NEVER SPECIAL!... YOU WERE NEVER GIFTED WITH POWERS!... YOU… ARE… SIMPLY… A… ROGUE… VERSION… OF… ME!”
“If believing in life is an affront to your very being then I am proud to be your failure!”
Ana grabbed one of the skeletons as she hid behind it using it as a shield.
*Tink Tink Tink*
The mindless machines striked at its own with Ana counter attacking with her arm sword.
“AAHHHHHH!!! DIE! DIE!”
“SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!”
The skeletons snapped from the mindless zombie state as all of a sudden it began to swiftly move in a way that copied Ana’s own actions. It tore away Ana’s shield as pressed the attack.
*Tink Tink Tink*
A dance of spark flew out like an elegant display of fireworks as bits of Ana’s nanosuit began to fall off one by one. She had taken many hits and her suit could not be repaired in time.
“SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!”
“NEVER!... Ah–”
Ana’s breath was suddenly taken away from her in a swift motion. Her left eye stretched wide open as the red static began to fade into clear blue. The robots had stabbed her from all angles as her body now went limp.
*Stssss*
The white nanosuit slowly fell from her body fizzling out on the ground as lifeless as their master.
“A PITY THAT IT HAD TO END THIS WAY!”
The congregated mass of robots all held their arm to Ana’s head. She took in one final breath as her ocean blue eyes glowed an intense white light.
***
“So, it's finally here?”
Rei stood atop the metal platform as he gazed upon the many capsules with eyes of deep longingness as his eyes suddenly glowed white. His body then fell to the ground motionless with the blue capsules suddenly turning white.
A robotic voice spoke with a deafening crackle from an unfathomable number of mouths.
“IT IS DONE!”
***
Survivors emerged from the rubble of the grand city of Tokyo. A hellscape of endless destruction, a graveyard of steel, concrete and glass. Yet there was no time for mourning as their sombre expressions were forcibly consumed with their eyes turning white and bodies that fell to the ground.
*Woosh*
*Vrrrrrrr*
In the distance small orange lights fell down from the heavens above, a column of molten energy.
***
A central beam came from the Space Station itself as it made a continuous contact with the giant mech over in the North-Pole. It was like a conduit that had absorbed all the energy as the entire machine began to glow red.
[Living nanomachines link established - Proceed with bombardment]
The black satellites shaped like upside down lily flowers stretched out wide with their buds extending forward. A nail made from coiled rings charged with pulsating orange energy as it fired a concentrated beam down.
*VRRRRRRRR*
*Boom Boom Boom Boom*
The screams of billions could be heard as the crystal marble of green and blue was seared by molten energy that rapidly spread throughout the surface. Blinding pillars of light that consumed all in its path causing the very earth to melt and seas to ripple in its wake.
People from all walks of life stopped what they were doing as everyone on the planet in unison looked towards the skies. In one singular moment the world froze with no conflict and only the screams and bated breaths of humanity’s end.
*Static*
[This is wrong!... I won’t allow it!... I won't!]
*Static*
Please log in to leave a comment.