NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2 (The First of Many)
Ok, first things first. From my memories, I had a rough idea that I was in an old (or maybe it was new?) ANS military base, but I needed to confirm for myself. Taking a deep breath, I focused on any cameras that were still working. My vision was constrained to cameras around a facility, one which looked outside onto a ruined city, the only sign of life being a row of fresh tire tracks left in the snow. Below the camera was a steel hatch leading into a sort of bunker; it was hard to tell where I was with how broken down everything was, and the snow-covered terrain I didn’t recognize. However, I doubted if I would even be able to recognize my own hometown anymore. Switching to an internal view, I saw the remains of many people, confirming the fate of the people who had used me. I wanted to hate them, but the truth was I didn’t really feel anything looking at the corpses of these people who had wiped themselves out over their own greed. They had already gotten what they deserved, besides although they were the ones trying to kill me, I never knew it by their time I had already become an unfeeling tool. Just like my past, these people had also met their end at the unfeeling hands of time. Taking one last contemplative gaze at the room of bones, My view changed again, this time showing an engineering room in the middle of which was a large glass tube like you might see at an aquarium (sadly I had never been) stood as the only mostly intact item in the room. Besides it, nearly everything that wasn’t nailed down and stuff that was lay scattered around like a storm had come through, but it wasn’t the chaotic scene that caused my mind to reel. Inside the tank, the body of a woman was suspended in transferred green fluid by thick hoses that penetrated her body.
It looks like not all of me survived as well as my mind. Through the camera, I stared transfixed on me. I had never had the same attachment to my body as everyone around me. I had always felt it was a prison made to torture my mind. Sometimes when my mind would because I was unable to sleep due to the pain. I would imagine myself as characters from the books I had read. The characters I would think of were never human. I just couldn’t imagine being one, and not living in pain, and yet as I looked at my ruined body, some part of me screamed out that I was a monster now. That the hope of living a normal happy life like so many others had died there. I let the thought run its course before collecting myself. Something like that could not faze me. If I thought humanity had any attachment to the body, I would have died long ago. Besides, though it had been my father's dream, I had never believed that I could be anyone other than who I am. No, as silly as I knew it was, my desire had always been to have enough power so that no one else would have to live like me again. It is true that my father's dream for me to be like everyone else was gone; however, I had finally been given a chance to control my own destiny.
I’m sure that the old man must be breathing a little easier at seeing his daughter work for herself.
Peeling my vision away from the cameras, I calmed my thoughts to plot my next move. I needed to find out what condition this place was in. Although from what I had seen so far, it didn’t look very promising, but I had always been an optimistic person. I focused my mind to scan everything that was currently connected to my consciousness. It was a little strenuous to spread my mind out so much; it was like thinking about every muscle in my body at once. Still, the results I found were a promising start. Besides the thankfully in good condition nuclear generator, which powered the base, generator, and air purifier (though judging from the bones around it, I didn’t know if I should trust this one), there was a holographic map, a communication relay that couldn’t connect to anything, and a fleet of small recon quad-rotor drones, which I could divert some of my power to charge. I would need these to explore the base, so I quickly selected the one that was the most functionally charging it up. In the meantime, I shifted over to the map.
Projected over its surface were hundreds of red dots of varying sizes spread out over a geographical area that measured distances in the hundreds of miles. Although their exact purposes eluded me, I managed to gather that they were the facilities previously under the AI that controlled me. I suspected that these places were likely as desperate as the base I was currently confined to, but had no way of knowing for sure, the communication network seeming to be cut off. Amidst my thoughts, the drone had charged enough to use.
I quickly launched it into the air. Its controls felt just as natural as every other machine, but I did do a few laps around the room to make sure I wouldn't crash it while exploring the rest of the base. finally taking a deep breath I sent it out.
The drone navigated through the dark and desolate corridors of the underground complex. I had gotten the map of the floor plan of the base in my head. I scanned through the rubble of the base, feeling impassive at the bodies which littered the ground. Shooting past them. I enjoyed the feeling of moving quickly even if it was just my view through a camera that was moving fast. Somehow it all felt so much more real then anything I could imagine. This feeling as I moved through when compared to the hospital bed I had been confined to in the past made me once again appreciate the chance I had been given. Sadly, I couldn’t keep getting distracted; she needed to find the armory which, according to what she knew, should still be operational. Coming across the room, I managed to connect to the heavy metal door, with a label that was scratched off, and it opened without too much trouble. As the old door opened with a heavy creak, it revealed a veritable treasure trove of items and weapons. There were tens of crates piled high filled with unknown contents, some labeled with explosive symbols, others with biohazards, all certainly relics evident by the rust and wear on the crates despite the seal of the armory against the outside weather. What piqued my interest the most was the large quadrupedal tank which must have been at least 2 meters high, the gun missing from it. Next to it were two human-shaped robots, their metal parts giving off an imposing war-like feel. Instead of arms, they seemed to have some sort of heavy machine gun and grenade launcher. I noticed they were standing on metal stands, hundreds of wires attached to them, they hung in their stands clearly inactive, however getting close to them I noticed they still gave off a faint signal as my drone neared. Suddenly with a start, it came to life as I felt a strange connection establish I heard a voice in my head.
[Unit b1] “What are my orders”