Aether Book One: Fugitive

Jaiden had lost everything. All she had to show for it were piles of rejected and scribbled-out sketches littering the floor, adorning the walls, and stacking up in piles by her desk. Dozens of half-finished animations filling her computer's memory. Two and a half years of fighting to keep her family together and struggling to look after her friends had left her alone, hiding in the backwater ruins of civilization, just trying to get back to doing something she enjoyed. She had been here for months, trying to find something to animate; she had plenty of stories to share, having seen so much during her time as a military scout and as a corporate trainer. But every time she tried... Nothing worked outside a few short animations about the video games she's played. Anything else brought back too many memories, too much pain, too many mistakes. Along with video games, most of her time was spent learning how to navigate the new Web. Ever since the war, computer networks were either heavily restricted, monitored, and controlled; or outlawed. Any device or person on these free networks were hunted down and 'taken offline', making it extremely hard to reconnect with her friends and family. You never knew what was a trap, a scam, what was monitored, or what could be trusted. At least at first. After five months of cultivating sources, contacts, and techniques, she had gotten the hang of it. She had even found a few places she could publish her work. She just couldn't produce anything worth publishing. She drops her fist to the table, sighs, and leans back in her chair, scratching the back of her thick mane of brown hair. She looks down at her tablet, a blank digital art canvas covering the screen, then gazes around her room, illuminated by the blue light of her computer monitor and the white light of the front window. Dead quiet, no birds, no wind. Just the half-collapsed house next door, back-dropped by trees. She turns the other way, out the back window. Past the row of collapsed houses, the broken skeleton of the town that stood there years ago. That skewed lamp post still flickering weakly. She turns back to her monitor. She swears heard something, or felt something... Thmp. The water bottle on the desk shakes. She catches the movement out the corner of her eye and stares at the bottle, eyes wide. Thmp. Regular intervals. No mistake. Her face hardens. Thmp. They found her. Thmp. She gets up, surveys her surroundings, gauges the distance of the enemy, and estimates the size. Thmp. She crosses the room, approaches the door leading to the hallway -Thmp- and dons her trainer's jacket hanging on the door. It's been over a year since she first designed the jacket with her team, her family, months since she'd been able to wear it out in the open. Her team's insignia, the geometric silhouette of a bird, dominates the back; and a stylized J, marking the jacket as hers, at the breast. Feels good to wear it again. Thmp. She retrieves her stylus from the box at the bottom of the bookshelf, -Thmp- she spins its familiar weight around in her hand as it charges up, vibrant pink energy swirling at the tip, and catches it in the other hand. She reels it behind her head with both hands as the energy jets out behind her, illuminating the room with its pink glow, casting her monstrous shadow across the floor. She swings it forth, releasing the dark, curved, purple blade from its prison as the ethereal glow fades. Thmp. The metal still gleams pink and white where the light hits it. The thumping stops. Replaced by the quiet, sporadic whirs and whines of a machine. Come on. Her hands tighten on the katana's handle as a giant metal head peers through the front window and a single red eye, as large as her computer monitor, envelopes the glass plane. Her heart jumps despite herself. She makes out the pixels on the display, as well as her own reflection in the center. A cross-hair flares to life in the red, overlapping her reflection. A familiar pink glow rises from the bottom corner of the window, coloring the gray metal head and the glossy red eyes like a sunset. A bright blue arch burns up through the hardwood floor, sending the smell of burning wood and copper throughout the room. She steps aside as it races across, feeling the heat radiate up her shins, stomach, and through her jacket as it straightens into a beam searing through the back wall. Fuck that. She turns and jumps out the back window, curling into a ball and tucking her face into her arms. The neon blue plasma beam ignites under her right side, infused with pink electricity, blowing out the window and back wall with the deafening c***k of a wrecking ball. The rush of hot air pushes her off-center, and she turns midair. Glass and debris surround her, the air bakes hotter as she falls closer, she is sure it will consume her, the smell of burning copper fills her lungs and suddenly the heat begins to wane. She opens her eyes and finds the ground racing towards her. She skids to a stop, facing her house and the intruder: Nearly as tall as the house. Black-purple metal talons forming X-shaped feet and hands, probably the same metal as her sword. Blue-steel encases the shins, pelvic area, torso, and jut out as pauldrons over the shoulders. Black-purple cable for its thighs, arms, and waist, which is embedded with a red crystal. Its gray metal head, black beak, blue-steel collar, metal tuft rising from the crown, and red eyes are almost entirely obscured behind a blue-white bow protruding from its chest. Metallic tail feathers fan out over its backside. The number 01 stenciled below the bow of the breast. Made in his own image. That little brat. She saw them showcasing these titans on the net last month. Generic, plain steel versions. The mountain of metal leans forward and stares her down, cross-hair in the left eye still burning. It thrusts a claw, clenched into a spear, at her and she vaults to the top of the arm, jumping off as the machine swings its arm back. She comes in with sword overhead, it catches the blade in its claw and starts pushing down on her, sending out sparks and ozone as it slides across the blade. The drone yanks the sword, along with its wielder, to the side. Jaiden ducks and backs away as the Aribot spins around in a blue and black tornado. It comes to a stand-still, revealing a right arm now sporting a massive spiked ball at the end, the left holds a rocket snug in its launcher. Six shining metal winglets, each twice the length of her katana, flourish from its back, a parody of the wings on her team's insignia. It raises the mace over its head. Oh f**k. She turns tail and runs, jumping as a chest-splitting thoom spits out rock and dirt just behind her. Midair, she looks back to see the spike-ball half-buried in the broken earth, a chain running back to the titan's arm. A second Aribot descends on a roaring jet several meters behind the first. Dust and exhaust choke the warm breeze. Like the first, but green. Black head, gray beak, fiery orange chest bow, two massive tanks on its back, 02 stenciled directly on the corner of the bow, black metal framing its red eyes like mock eyeliner. Tofu. Hovering midair, the Tofubot thrusts open its chest bow, revealing a five-chambered rocket launcher, red tips gleam in the midday sun. They ignite one after the other, scattering in all directions. Shit. She sprints away as the rockets bear down on her, most fall short, shaking the ground and sending shock waves slapping into her back. Suddenly her stomach drops as the seat of her pants ride a fireball into the air, sending her scrambling midair as she tries not to flip. The shock waves slam into her one after the other, convulsing her insides and shaking the rapidly approaching ground. She lands on her feet and keeps moving before she can vomit. Everything smells of burning fireworks, scorched earth, and searing copper. Ears ringing, she turns to see a red-tipped rocket coming straight for her out of the clouds of earthen dust and acrid smoke up by its predecessors. She brings her sword back, and swings for a home run, closing her eyes as the jet burns close. The blade passes through with little effort, acrid fumes assault her face. The two halves fall and skid harmlessly across the ground. The Tofubot barrels out of the dust and smoke like the rocket she just cleaved. Bright steel blades sprouting from the arms by its sides. Jaiden leans forward, raising her sword and standing her ground. The Tofubot kicks upright and brings its blades down overhead as it lands. Jaiden binds with the twin blades, crisscrossed over her own, the subsequent gust of wind throws the dust clouds away in all directions. Blades bearing down on her, sweating, panting, arms shaking, she doesn't know how much longer she can keep this up. The ground shakes as a blue blur falls from the sky, landing in front of the house. Jaiden steals a glance to see the Aribot squatting, a blue and pink jet forming at its beak. Jaiden jumps back as the jet erupts in full force, leaving the Tofubot to take the heat for this one. The plasma stream is brought to level. A deafening explosion erupts as shrapnel and burning metal scatter from a pillar of fire and acrid black smoke where the Tofubot once stood. All while Jaiden closes the distance to the Aribot. Time to end this. She jumps up, levels the blade to her hip, point first, as she descends on the Aribot. It leans its body up to look up at her, another pink spark igniting at the beak. The blade smashes through the right eye, sparks and smoke leap from the jagged cavity. Jaiden pulls, legs pressing against the metal beast, the pink and blue charge heating her hands and chest from below, but the blade won't budge. Anchoring onto the handle, she kicks off, twists around, and lands on the shoulders of the mechanical hulk as its arms close in around her. She looks down to see the flail and rocket launcher now tangled together, pinning them both in the path of the coming stream, now a narrow beam just above the arms. The Aribot struggles and thrashes. Jaiden shields her eyes with one arm, and hangs on to the sword with the other, bracing herself as the cannon goes off, the heat baking her entire front side. She wrenches the sword free and jumps as the Aribot spins. She lands, they face one another, and reengage. The Aribot goes to grapple and constrict with its whipcord appendages. Jaiden blocks, dodges, and evades its grasp. Jaiden vaults onto the arm going for her ankle, jumps off the arm and onto its shoulders, thrusts the tip of her katana into its damaged eye, wrenches up, and drives down into the torso. Pink sparks leap out through the shattered eye. She wrenches her sword free and jumps as it collapses. She readies herself for another go. The Aribot falls to its knees, venting pinks sparks and gas, keels over, and powers down. With the killer robots made in the image of her children dealt with, Jaiden walks up to her house, gasping for air, presses her back against the front door, and collapses to catch her breath. She listens past the blood pounding in her ears and scans the trees for more enemies, keeping an eye on the Aribot. Stertorous and sweating, Jaiden puts away her stylus-sword and walks back into the house to gather her belongings. There would be more where that came from, now that they found her. After months of hiding, it was time to move on. Breathing hard, she gets some water from the fridge, drinks half, and pours the rest over her head. Then she walks upstairs, down the hall, and opens the door to her room. Glass, burnt wood, drywall, and paper litter the floor and permeate the air. Both windows are shattered, there was a small hole smoldering in the front wall between the window and the door. Half of the small round carpet melted and burnt away. Black streaks on the floor and ceiling lead to the back window, with half a burning hole borne into the side wall between the shattered window and her desk. The contents of her desk scattered about. My tablet. She races to her desk to find her tablet flung to the side, covered in spiderweb cracks. She frantically swipes her fingers and her stylus across the glowing screen. No effect. Tears well up in her eyes, falling to the shattered screen. She wipes her eyes and her face hardens. She knows what she needs to do. She gathers her tablet, a few changes of clothes, her phone, charger, water bottle, the hard drive to her computer, and packs them into her backpack. She scans the room for anything useful. The clock over her workstation reads just past twelve o' five. The calendar on the right wall is marked with red Xs, leading up to June eighteenth. Next to the calendar is an enlarged, framed picture of her two birds, Ari and Tofu, cracks running over the glass. It was taken when life was simple. Before meteors rained down from the sky and threw the world into chaos. It was her most prized possession. She had taken it everywhere she went for years. But she couldn't take it with her this time. Even rolled up it would be too noticeable. She goes downstairs and packs enough food for a few days, then outside to the metal hulks, and tears out anything that looks valuable. The munitions and mechanical parts are too heavy to hide, so she scraps any electronic components that look like it could still work, wrapping them in her clothes for concealment. She takes one last look at what had been her home for the past five months, then starts toward town. On the run, once again. Strangely enough, she felt relieved.