NOTE 19

Five minutes before the first contact between the horde of automatons and the northern defence line, Dianka and Cakra were already on the shore of the reservoir near the entrance of the secret factory. They watched the horde move away from them before making their move.

“CL-109 The Rhino,” murmured Dianka. “Above all, the artillery automaton, Porcelain. They will definitely make things difficult for Kerta and the others.”

“Shouldn’t we do something?” said Cakra.

“Yeah, we will stop whoever controlling them.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I understand what you feel, Cakra. But right now, the only thing that can really helped them is to stop the mastermind behind all this or plug off the factory’s core.”

They bowed their heads down again. Another horde moved in the opposite direction, heading straight for the southern point. The numbers were not as many as the previous horde but still it’s beyond their expectations. Although not accompanied by Porcelain, The Rhino’s total moving with that horde was double.

“Now I’m double worried. Isn’t it just Alanka help defending the southern point?”

Dianka was silent for a moment. “The sooner we complete our mission, the faster we can help her.”

After making sure no more of those automatons would come out, she immediately moved followed by Cakra right behind. Based on the information provided by the academy before leaving, the ruins of the factory almost covered a quarter of the city of Cilegon. And the factory’s operational activities are supported by various infrastructure and utility supplies that owned by the company known as Rakata Industry, namely: power generation, port, and water treatment facilities. And the secret factory itself was located in the eastern part of the complex, near the Rakata reservoir.

After running through the entrance of the complex, the stopped at the ruins of guard post to check their maps.

There are currently only two accessible entrances to the secret factory. One was the gate through which the horde of automatons emerged and the same door that the intel they had possessed. The other was the emergency exit discovered by Bahyu when he attempted to hack into the factory’s network. And it was located on the opposite side of their position.

Naturally, they chose to enter through the emergency exit. But it wasn’t that easy as they stopped again not far from the door.

With hand signal, Dianka informed Cakra of the presence of two sentries at the door. Both are camouflaged so that they cannot be seen by the naked eye or without certain gadget or apps. She also told him to activate his Inchi thermal vision so that he could see them. It was only small yellow light, but now he knew where they were exactly.

{what should we do?}

{I want you to attack the one on the right}

Cakra nodded. He quicky dashed toward the sentry on the left. It didn’t surprise them, and they were quick to react, but not quick enough. Dianka threw her spear, and it got through the chest of the guard on the left. That distracted the guard on the right and allowed Chakra to take him down without too much trouble.

“A cyborg,” said Cakra. He saw Dianka pick up one of the weapons they were holding. “Hold on! Are we going to use that?”

“Only you.” She tossed the gun at him.

He still caught it. “But I had my fist!”

“Chance are we won’t have too much room to manoeuvre inside. And I could use someone to guard my back.”

In the distance they could hear a loud sound. They didn’t know what caused the sound, but they knew that it came from north and that Kertanegara and the others had just started their fight.

“Let’s go!”

“But—”

Without hearing the rest of his words, Dianka rushed inside. Not knowing what to do, Cakra sighed as he looked at the weapon now in his hands. He checked the chamber and the ammunition it had, then checked the bodies of the two cyborgs and picked up the unused magazine before joining in.

Once inside he could see it, a giant factory the size of three to four football fields. He could see everything, from the steel coils to the components needed to construct an automaton being moved systematically. It’s fast, it’s efficient, and most importantly that everything there is still works. He could also see a number of completed but not yet active automatons being moved elsewhere.

“Take cover you stupid,” said Dianka as she dragged him to her side.

“A-Ah, sorry.”

Dianka took a peek from cover.

“So, what now?”

“We must find the core of the factory and shut it down to stop the production.” She cast her eyes around the factory. “It’s usually on the lowest floor, but to be sure we should find the control room first. I don’t want to run around without knowing the exact position of it, if possible.”

“And where is that?”

“I believe that room over there.” Dianka immediately readied with a spear in her right hand and a buckler in the other. She took a deep breath then looked at Cakra straight in the eyes. “I trust you to have my back.”

Dianka immediately charged forward through the passageway that only had railings on both sides. Like outside, the factory was also filled with sentries who noticed her presence right away. Two of them were in front of her and ready to fire. Yet this time however, she did not throw her spear, but instead she used the tip of her spear to cut through the bullets that keep raining on her. As she came closer, she pierced the first cyborg and continued to push it toward the second, making it a sort of protection for her.

“Agh! I’ll be damned!” grumbled Cakra.

He came out of his cover and started shooting. Most of the sentries were on the floor below him and that made it easier for him to shoot since they don’t have many covers. Within seconds he had taken down several of them. And now they were shooting back at him, prompting him to return to the emergency stairs.

[Nice cover!]

“Are you in the room yet!?” shouted Cakra.

[I’m in. Just give me a moment.]

The sound of whizzing bullets filled his sense. He couldn’t return their fire since as soon as the slightest part of his body was exposed, they would shower him with bullets. Now he could only wait for Dianka as he listened to those sentries begin to approach the two of them.

[Sorry for the wait. But I got it.]

“Now what?”

[As expected, the location of the factory’s core is on the lowest floor. I tried to turn it off from here, but it seems they activate the manual drive.]

“Alright, I got it. We go to the lowest floor and turn it off. So, what’s the waiting?”

[We need to clear off those sentries.]

“Hah!? Isn’t there any elevator that would take us down!?”

[There isn’t. The elevator shaft had collapsed long ago during the non-stop bombing of the factory. Besides, we only have one door that we can access to the core’s room. And I didn’t find any key in here to open it.]

“Don’t tell me that those sentries have it…”

[Maybe, but I’m not sure.]

Cakra can only gape for a second. “What kind of sick joke is this!? Are we in some kind of J-RPG!?”

[Cakra, stay focus.]

“A-Ah right, sorry.”

[You don’t need to worry. Fortunately, these sentries have simple programming installed in them. As long as we can divide their attention at the right time, it just like a walk in the park.]

“Fine. Let’s do this!”

Dianka rushed out of the room and jumped one floor down. She then quickly disposed of those sentries that standing in her way and at the same time drew attention of the others. With nowhere to hide, she once again parried those bullets with the tip of her spear, split them in half and let the momentum carry the rest.

[I’m pinned down here.]

“On it!”

Cakra took up a position and started firing. When one floor was deemed to be clear, they continued to the next. Constantly swapping positions between the decoys and the cleaners. They keep doing it until they reached the lowest floor, and they still hadn’t found the key they needed.

“We’re finally here,” said Cakra, breathing heavily. From where they take cover, they could see clearly two figures wrapped in a black robe standing facing the door with the sign that write ‘core room’ next to it. “They seem different from other sentries.”

“Because they are different.”

“So, what’s the plan now?”

“A quick rush,” said Dianka. “I still want you to use that rifle and cover me from distance. You still have enough magazine, right?”

“Enough to clear up another secret factory full of sentries.”

Dianka was the first to move. Cakra followed behind, trying to keep up with her speed. However, unlike her who continued to charge, he stopped in the middle of his track and pulled the trigger. The assault rifle immediately spewed bullets at the speed that exceeded the speed of sound and there was nothing to obstruct or interfere. It only needed to burst forward and penetrate whatever was its target. But nothing happened.

The bullets stopped right in the middle of the air.

Dianka’s eyes wide opened as she broke her pace. She knew that power. Then her attention was immediately directed to Cakra. “Stay away—!”

A powerful force rushed past her. In the blink of an eye, Cakra was sent flying into the wall. She quickly looked back at the two figures. One of them had its arms fully extended. They slowly turned their bodies towards them. And at that moment she finally realised.

What was in front of her was no ordinary cyborg.