ATLAS 2

There was no question that I was at my destination. Stormy clouds hovered above the large facility. The sight reminded me of a lone black castle on a hill during a stormy night. I used to love those kind of stories. Green bolts of lightning struck the roof and various surrounding trees. I was fairly certain I could see bits of the architecture floating over the roof.

“Where is that bastard”?

As ominous as the scene was, it was also calm. If Nicodeme was raiding the place, I’d have expected some kind of uproar. That being said there was no way I had managed to beat him to the place. Despite my experience traversing the Zone, his speed was too great to match. Unless he had to slow down to conserve energy. In the end after all the time we had spent together, I had never seen him have difficulties with his exoskeleton. Perhaps battery technology in the outside world had made some incredible advancements over the last years.

I could do nothing but pray as I approached my final objective and entered the facility. The ground was littered with destroyed drones. It showed my lack of knowledge since I didn’t even know whether they were made by CERN or by the alien creature. The one thing I was able to tell was the fact that they hadn’t been there for long. Nicodeme.

The inside of the facility was hardly recognisable as a human building. It was as if a large explosion had collapsed many of the walls and even floors together and left a large hall in the centre of the facility. Much of the old debris now served as the floor and walls. On top of those were various alien pieces of technology that looked as if they had been scavenged from the old CERN equipment and transformed into something beyond human comprehension.

At the edge of the room there was none other than Nicodeme. My gun was pointed at him immediately. He wasn’t moving and emitted a strange green light. I looked around and saw drones flying about. None showed concern over his presence. There was also no sign of the alien creature. Not that I knew what it was supposed to look like at all. I had only seen a silhouette in the storm clouds. I just figured that I would probably know it when I saw it. Those drones were all to small for what I had seen that day. Although there was a possibility that larger mechanical creatures would be present in the facility.

Nicodeme’s hand was touching some sort of a ball sized object on a pedestal. Or perhaps the pedestal was also a part of it. There were connections from it to the different devices that littered the laboratory including many cables of varying thicknesses that either snaked along the ground or were hanging from the walls and various devices.

I circled around the room using the debris and walls as cover to get to the part where Nicodeme stood. From up close I could see his face contorted in agony and completely motionless veins of green light were visible under his skin. Only then I saw the large crack in the middle of the room. It was hovering above the ground in line with Nicodeme and didn’t touch anything. Light was streaming from Nicodeme and the artefact to it. I approached Nicodeme with my gun trained on his head. Hey there buddy. Let’s have a little chat. I was able to get right up next to him without raising alarm. The artefact was making a whirring sound and vibrated slightly. My gun was just centimetres away from his head. I held my breath as I prepared to end my troubles.

I tried to shot but my hand would not obey me. Estelle’s face flashed before my eyes. I shook my head and concentrated. I grimaced and had to hold back a scream. No matter how much I hated him and wanted him dead I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger. A chance to save. Was that what you said Estelle? I looked up at the drones flying around and waited until most of them were not facing me. I slapped Nicodeme away from the artefact. A blinding flash of light and loud buzzing stunned me for a second. Nicodeme was screaming in agony. Before my vision even recovered I grabbed for Nicodeme’s shirt and dragged him after me behind a partially collapsed wall. I heard the shots hitting the ground all around us. As soon as I could see I peeked around the corner and began firing at the drones. I managed to hit one but had to duck back to avoid getting shot.

“Are you happy now you idiot?” I hissed. “What in the world were you thinking?” Nicodeme stared at me in stunned silence.

“I,” he stuttered. “I failed. It’s over.” I could see tears welling up in his eyes. I was aghast at the audacity to use an emotional appeal and had to fight to keep my voice sounding annoyed.

“Great. Do you at least have your gun? I could use some help.”

It took him a while to process my words but he drew his gun and began firing. I was jealous of it. A single shot from him ripped a drone apart without fail.

“Well?” Nicodeme asked as we continued fighting. I pointed to a better cover position.

“Go,” I said and we ran while taking shots at our foes. “Well what?”

“Won’t you ask me why I did it?”

“I kind of did already but if you want to have it plainly: Why did you stab us in the back you bastard?”

He sighed. “I didn’t tell you who I really am.”

“No kidding.”

“My parents were both CERN scientists.” That surprised me enough to look at him.

“I thought I could undo it all. Use the artefact to reverse the damage it did or erase it completely. In the end I was being used as a catalyst to open the rift once again. The world will end because of me.”

His explanation made little sense to me and every word just opened countless new questions. Sadly I didn’t have the time to clear everything up as we were still being assaulted by the robotic menace.

The building suddenly groaned. A loud thump, accompanied by the squeaking of metal being bent and crushed, shook the ground beneath us. My eyes went wide as I saw the giant robot or perhaps a mecha arose from the far corner of the hall. I ducked back behind the cover. A loud thump sounded and a projectile went straight through the wall just above my shoulder.

“Run,” I shouted. We got up and ran towards more effective cover. An explosion went off behind us and threw me to the ground. The spot we had been in moments before was obliterated. “What now?” I was gasping for air.

“I don’t think we’ll make it. It’s going to kill us.”

“I suppose but that doesn’t really help. We can try and damage it and take out some of the drones.”

“That won’t help. When the portal opens countless aliens and machines will come through and invade our world. We need to stop it from ever opening.”

“Can we do it?”

“Maybe. We have to disable the artefact and also destroy the central control system but we won’t be able to get to it.”