Chapter VI
1209 Words
Shines of the yesterday.
Secret Hangar, Berlin, January 18, 2095, Doom's Day.
Driver: we have arrived, are you going to kill me already?
Pentecost: no need for it, besides, the world is already in the s**t. Wait here.
Driver: Yes sir.
Silas: good to see you again.
Pentecost: oh, Silas!
*Hug*
Pentecost: you look great.
Silas: thank you. What brings you here in such a hurry, and... what's going on outside?
Pentecost: oh, right. We've got a global alien invasion, I've already lost a lot of teams trying to stop them.... *sigh* I'm sorry to have to tell you that Zack is one of the many missing men out there.
Silas: no... not him, it cant be true!
Pentecost: I would never play with something like that, old friend.
The poor man looked away for a moment and then said something that had no explanation.
Silas: I must say... I was afraid something like that might happen.
Pentecost: really?
Silas: yes, a "vision" I had when I touched one of the crystals. They warned me of the future, but not how or when it would be. That's when I gave my life to the research and development of the technology we have today. Just to try to help in this conflict.
(Flashback)
Unknown location, Mars, June 2047.
(Silas Esino)
That day was predisposed to be the typical routine exploration we did every month. But, something in the luck changed.
Piterson: what I tell you, Tigers and Hawks. Thirty-sixth World Series, 22nd Mendez hit the best shot.
Nanders: hey Pit, weren't you the 22nd on your team too *laughs*.
Piterson: well... yes, but... *clears throat* it... didn't... go as it should.
Nanders: kicked off the team just two days after joining, for almost beating the referee to death *laughs*.
Piterson: come here!
Baxter: come on, don't be like that. We've got a long way to go yet. Don't we Sai? Sai?
I was concentrating on a reading that my sensor couldn't understand or register, I was so intrigued that I ignored what was going on around me.
Silas: What the hell...?
Baxter: Silas!
Silas: huh, what?
Baxter: Make these guys shut the f**k up already!
Silas: We're a team guys, don't argue over something as simple as local soccer.
Piterson: whatever.
Baxter: hey, why do we always have to go out there and take all the s**t?
Nanders: no Baxter, it's only you who should get the shit... and write the report for the Multinational Federation *laughs*.
*Laughter*
Silas: leave him alone, watch the road. We must document even the motes of dust that stick under our feet, so understand at once the seriousness of this-.... ahhhh!!!!
A hole opened up in the middle of the sands and everything was moving too fast in front of my eyes, I was in free fall.
Piterson: Doc!
I know you saw me fall, and then you saw me get out of there with an Atonium crystal in my hands. But that's only part of the story.
That tunnel took me meters down in a dive, I thought my time had come, but it wasn't. I landed hard in a subterranean cavern, although the suit didn't break down.
The place was full of crystals and a blue liquid, I was counting on it being water, but the sensor was still out of control. They were the first vestiges of the Atonium, although I still didn't know it.
Silas: mmm.
I stood up and walked through the shining cavern, which years later would be one of the first Atonium mines.
It was a strange landscape of bluish crystals and shiny leaks, intriguing to me up to that point.
Silas: fascinating... woah!
Then, a flash blinded me for a few moments, and when I regained my vision I stumbled on a slope and a crystal stuck to my right hand.
I was paralyzed and started having hallucinations, until those hallucinations turned into a message.
Silas: what the heck is...?
???: a war will bring your race to its knees and there will be no way to avoid it. Millions of your people will die, and millions more will be enslaved. On this day I warn you that your end is near and it will be painful, with this new form of energy I hope you can give that doomed generation a beacon of hope and prosperity.
Silas: I do not understand...
The voice just continued his story without paying attention to my questions, he was saying it with great detail in a prophetic way.
???: a hero with a skin of steel and a heart of fire will emerge from the ruins of your civilization, he will carry his sword alongside noble warriors of steel and flesh and blood. And he will fight for the freedom of your people against all odds.
Silas: but how do I...?
???: that hero will be denied for a long time, but when he is most needed, he will come. Believe in this, mortal, this new destiny of yours has been marked and must be realized, no matter what.
The voice stopped speaking and the paralysis ended, then, an entrance opened in the cavern. And it was then that I was seen to come out of that hole that was originally meant to kill me.
(Present)
Secret Hangar, Berlin, January 18, 2095, Doom's Day.
Pentecost: so... everything that has happened up to this moment... was... written?
Silas: maybe, but we must hurry.
*Resume their path*
Pentecost: what about the restrictions?
Silas: nothing a little covenant won't fix.*Pushes a button*.
Pentecost: what have you been working on, what is that weapon? or at least... i-is it a weapon?
Silas: the definitive... mech-armor. Behold, the ZT project.
Lights began to illuminate the subterranean place, revealing capsules of various sizes with inscriptions. The surprised colonel looked around, unable to process what lay in front of his eyes.
Pentecost: How could you create all this by yourself?
Silas: I didn't do it alone.
Baxter: Hello, Piterson.
Nanders: Look who we have here.
Pentecost: guys?...t-this is... wow.
Silas: with them this project stayed active since its "closure", and they supported me in everything I needed at the time.
Nanders: there is nothing to adjust or change, it's just a perfect being.
Pentecost: it's... amazing. its ID?
Silas: as you can imagine, he honors his model. And he's tough. Nanders?
Nanders: the hell he does, this bad boy has a combined 12-core Longuinus reactor, enhanced interface system and all-new fluid controls. Its power is equivalent to 670 diesel engines of yesterday per servo-articulator, unmodified Vanguard class weaponry, and its armor is composed of a completely new, indestructible alloy.
Baxter: it was hard, but we finally did it. Nothing and no one will be able to stop it.
Pentecost: really?
Nanders: Infinitum alloy with no welds or joints. Totally indestructible and impenetrable. In addition, this one has a capability that gives it a temperature pigmentation system envious to other models.
Baxter: sequences completed, turn this thing on now.
Nanders: Integrated AI in place, we're ready.
The doctors cleared the area and stood behind Silas' board.
Silas: when I press this button, my destiny will be completed.
*Explosion*
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Next chapter: Invasion. The second fall of Berlin.
- Writer
