Escape from Metal

Location: Rebel HQ.

Jake stretched his hand out before his eyes as the rays of light pierced into his skull. Uncountable needles sent from the sun to his eyes. Jake could barely see anything except a partial silhouette of Akilina trying to open the door to the surface.

The old and battered door screeched as it grated against the floor, occasionally getting stuck on a bump forcing Akilina to have to pick up the door slightly and push it again.

“Thanks for the help.” She said sarcastically.

“You’re welcome.” Lee said with a smile on his face as he walked past her.

After almost getting thrown into the pit Jake certainly was wary of her. He made sure to keep at least some distance between them.

After Dan saved Jake from being almost thrown into the pit again, he gave him a short tour of their base of operations. Although Jake still hands no idea what exactly their operations were, come to think of it Jake felt like he was the only one that had no memory of well anything and Dan’s crew seemed less than willing to tell him.

The base mainly consisted underground. On the second to fifth floors of the pit. Most of the sections of the base was some kind of communal living space for a couple hundred people. The rest of the base was mostly training areas for close quarter combat and short to medium range weapons.

Weapons was the largest commodity or rather resource that the base had to offer besides food and people of course. Jake asked Dan why they had so many guns but after staring for a few seconds at the wall all he said was.

“To free the human race.”

Jake found this statement slightly amusing and a bit over dramatic even though Dan’s face was that of a man who had seen a ghost.

After he said that his eyes broke their intense staring at the wall, and he quickly said.

“We try to save as many slaves as we can feed, count yourself lucky.”

After he was shown through most of the clanking and clattering of the metal base Dan took him to the top underground floor of the base. Which to Jakes surprise had much more refreshing air than the rest of the places he’d been in.

Jake was happy to see some greenery on the metal. As he took a deep breath.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw plants.” Jake said.

Jake was looking at a longer and narrower room than the rest of the base. With some rudimentary hydroponics setup in the middle and some hanging plastics sheets between each row as well as the same plastic plugging holes in the roof.

They gently fluttered from the artificial breeze. Some of the survivors had setup some fans in optimal areas of the room to facilitate airflow. As smart as it was, the gently sound of the plastic flapping in the wind was the most calming thing he had heard in a long time.

“Well, enjoy the sight. Take it in. Because this is the last time, you’ll be seeing it.” Dan said as he patted Jake on the back.

“Wait, why can’t I see the plants again?”Jake said with a very bewildered look on his face.

“You’ve seen the outside right? Seen any plants around? Any roaming animals? Perhaps a oasis with food that walks right up to you? No? “

“I didn’t think so, in case you haven’t noticed there aren’t exactly a bunch of places to get food for our kind.”

There were a few seconds pause between them. Jake didn’t want him to know that he couldn’t remember anything. If he gave even the slightest reason to validate Akilina’s imposter suspicion down the pit, he would go.

“I was just wondering what food source you were using exactly, so why is it I can’t come back up here? Scared I’ll eat all your carrots.”

Jake managed to force a smile although it’s not exactly what you would call subtle.

“I didn’t make the food rules you’d have to ask our botanists. C’mon you don’t want to be late for the trials.” Dan said as he left the room.

“But I don’t even know what the trials are.” Jake shouted after Dan who was far enough that he could just pretend he didn’t hear anything.

“What do I have to do to know what’s going on here?”

Jake stepped outside into the blinding light still squinting his eyes trying to see where he was going. The twins were handing out helmets to everyone as they exited the door.

Jake could hear Akilina’s voice but had no idea where she was.

“As most of you may not have seen the majority of the time the sun makes it nearly impossible for humans to see far in the distance without some sort of equipment or without being indoors. So, the twins here have given you all a helmet with lenses that will help you see.”

Jake being somewhat not in the moment didn’t think to put them on.

“That means put them on Jake.” She said.

Once on Jake could see a lot better and was able to make out much more detail of the spires in the distance although not entirely as good as he hoped. Akilina was standing on a pedestal with Lee on another next to her. Both of them having their own helmets and with their full armour set on.

“It’s still pretty hard to see in the distance.” One of the rescued slaves said.

“That’s why we are up here to see which of you might be able to perform well in the environments of this sector. If you pass the trials you’re drafted into our combat unit, if you don’t make it you’ll become part of the utilities group.”

“Now, let’s get started.” She said with a tinge of excitement in her voice.

“The basics we will be covering now is going to be handling of short to medium range weapons the rest… you will see as we go.” Lee said as he gestured towards the range.

“Remember at any time you can stop participating but that will lead to your immediate re-assignment to the utilities or to the reserve fighting core, this way scrubs.”

Jake could barely see further than a few meters in front of him. He could hear the occasional electrical whizzing in the distance or more jarringly a gunshot. The first few which may have had him flinch slightly, luckily a lot of the other survivors clearly couldn’t see much as they tried to block out the sun even with their helmets on.

Lee and Akilina lead him and the others to what seemed to be a firing range of sorts. Some of the more equipped and probably trained people were already at the range firing at targets, targets which he couldn’t see clearly with the glaze staring back at him.

The range looked like most of the surface of this place. Flat with the towering spires dotted seemingly randomly as far as the eye could see. With more than occasional loose metal plates and protruding metal sticking up.

“To your left you will see the electrical coilguns we use. Pretty standard guns used to incapacity people but completely fries a robot’s circuits.” Akilina said gesturing towards a table with the coilguns placed neatly in a line.

“Now what we want you to do is pick up the coilgun, choose a lane and shoot the corresponding target 5 times. That’s it no more no less when you are done put the guns back, the twins will tell you where you are assigned as you head back inside.”

Jake hesitantly went over to the table of guns and waited his turn to get one. Once it finally was his turn, he felt a strange feeling come over him but if he had any hope of finding Gwen this was the only way he could find her.

The gun was similarly built to the one the woman had who captured him and Gwen. One central metallic pipe with some sort of metallic coil around the metallic pipe and with two half triangles on each side of the coilgun.

Jake was starting to feel slightly lightheaded as he walked towards one of the open lanes. He started to sweat on his forehead, but he would keep calm he had to try all he had to do was figure out how to turn it on.

Jake wasn’t an expert at guns although he guessed he could be an expert at anything owing to his memory loss. Maybe he was a plant whisperer, then he could go back to the fresh cool room with its relaxing breeze.

He fiddled around on the gun looking for a button, a switch or anything but couldn’t find something of use. He could feel the people who were at the range before him staring at him. Probably making notes of some kind even if it was just mental.

Their eyes bored into the back of his neck and suffocated the space around him and just as one of them was about to start walking over to him he accidentally pulled the trigger of the gun and telling by the sparks coming off of the coil itself and the distinct whirring he guessed it was on.

Now he just needed to figure out how to aim and actually fire the gun, shouldn’t be a problem he thought to himself.

But again, he struggled as every time he released the trigger it simply made a faded winding down sound and he didn’t exactly try to aim it as much as he was just pointing it in the general direction of the target.

His breathing became slightly faster, and the helmet wasn’t exactly helping him breathe. He felt trapped and enclosed as he started to squeeze the trigger this time, he held it down.

The coilgun made a winding up sound and the sparks on the coil became bigger as the turned into arch’s hopping from one place to another.

He took a deep breath, aimed the coilgun and exhaled slowly as he tried to focus on the target.

Explosions surrounded him as he took cover in the trench. His hands were shaking as he held his rifle. He hoped that it wouldn’t jam like with his now dead brothers in arms.

Jake could barely hear the rallying call of a officer telling all the remaining troops to charge over the trench towards the enemy, just as everyone started climbing over the trench the enemies bullet found its mark and the officer dropped to the ground.

More explosions landed all around him. Throwing dirt into the air and into Jake’s face. Most of the troops decided to charge, the rest were either too injured or disorientated to do anything.

Distant sounds of vehicles crashing could be heard, soldiers screaming or crying. Giant gatling guns firing at the ships in orbit with such speed that you could barely hear the gaps between the shots.

But the thing that everyone could hear no matter the insanity and bloodlust chaos around them was the colossal anti-orbital railguns. That was probably one of the only reasons it was better being on the ground rather than in a ship. The ships were safe and had big guns on them, but they were an even bigger target, and the outer colonies were better prepared than they had expected.

They only shot every few minutes but when they did it demanded respect from both sides no matter the happenings. As its thunder deafening clap throughout the battlefield, sending ripples of sound soaring through the atmosphere. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence to kill anyone who stood to close to it just with its shock waves. The crew operating it had to stay inside a enclosed bunker behind it. Its hyper magnetically accelerated projectile flew through the sky into the upper atmosphere where the cruisers were orbiting the outer colony planet.

Jakes relief of not being in any of the cruisers quickly faded when he realized that one of the railguns shots got through and scored a critical hit on a cruiser. A cruiser which was going to fall straight onto his general area. Even if it didn’t land near him the explosion of its reactor or reserve ammunition would most likely kill him.

He quickly stood up from his crouched position and sprinted to the side as fast as he could. He didn’t care that more projectiles were flying around him than in the trench, he had to get away. He could hear the moaning of the ship getting closer to the ground. As it groaned in protest as it entered the atmosphere of the planet.

Jake ran, ran faster than he ever thought he could gear and all. Now he could almost feel the gigantic mass of the ship pushing the air out of its way as it plummeted down to the planet. Time felt like it had slipped to a crawl. Of course, this would only happen in the worst moments of his life, of course time wouldn’t slow in those moments that he so wanted to last but he didn’t have time to think about that. Only to run.

He felt like he was testing the number of times a bullet or a stray piece of shrapnel could fly mere centimeters away from his face. He had to make it, he couldn’t die… he just couldn’t.

But having to run through all the other soldiers still focused on the enemy in front of them instead of the ship about to crush them was making it difficult. That and all the hundreds of corpses scattered around and the few ruins of buildings that remained.

Suddenly Jake was flung into the air, and he hit the ground hard. He groaned in pain as his brain tried making sense of what happened and what areas of him had been hurt. It wasn’t doing too great, instead Jake found his stressed-out mind not being able to focus on anything and instead focusing on bits of everything which didn’t make any senses collectively.

Jake sat up gasping for air. The battlefield was strangely quiet although as he realized after a few seconds the battle had not disappeared but had instead just moved further away. Judging by it being dark now he must’ve been out for quite a few hours.

That’s when he noticed the ship right next to him. The titanic ship had crashed only a few hundred meters from him, the impact force must have flung him all the way away.

Most of the ship seemed relatively intact considering it had just made planet fall except for one side section of the ship had a gaping hole in it where the railgun had hit it. He was lucky the reactor didn’t explode or any of its remaining ammunition.

Scattered fires blazed across the ship as its pitch-black smoke swerved into the sky above them, it had been many weeks since the sky was blue. The death and chaos of the battle was so severe it had not only irreparably damaged the planet itself but the very sky had become twisted. Even if the war had stopped right now the sky would remain a foul brown colour.

Areas of the ship where it had been torn and shredded left many of the electrical wires of it exposed sparking and sputtering the final lifeblood in its desperate attempt to keep the systems of the ship running.

Jake had to wonder if anyone could survive such a tumultuous impact from the railgun never mind the crash itself.

Its then that he started to see the bodies around him. There was almost no space to put ones foot they were so closely packed together. Some were horribly mangled beyond any human recognition.

He wondered how many of those that lay around him would awake later as he did, how many could have been saved if they actually sent medical supplies down with the troops but why save a soldier when you have a thousand to replace each individual. They were just grunts, fodder to be disposed of and he knew it.

Its then when he heard it, someone close to the ship was crying for help. Jake moved close to investigate what was going on whilst trying not to step on any of the bodies. After several minutes of careful maneuvering, trying not to step on any scattered body parts and some decent balance he managed to hobble his way over to the man trapped under the wreckage.

He was badly injured and seemed to be trapped under a piece of the ship that had fallen off. Their right arm was almost completely ripped off.

Jake stood there in horror not quite sure what to do but he would never forget the screaming, the terrified face of that man. They had descended into a state of desperation that would rival civilians in a warzone like this.

The man was screaming at the top of the lungs and was desperately trying to drag themselves out of the wreckage with their left arm, but it didn’t help much because the more they moved the more blood pooled under them.

Jake guessed that both their legs were crushed too judging by the giant piece of hull on them. An armoured mech hanger was above them. One of the mechs dangling dangerous unstably above him just hanging on with the cables that got ripped out of the ship.

“You got to help me man. Please.” He almost screamed in pain.

Its then that Jake saw he was wearing infantry armour and not star ship uniform. He could have been one of the soldiers he ran past, one of the soldiers he pushed aside as he ran.

“I’m not going to make it you, ha… have to put me… out of my m…misery.” He gritted his teeth said barely being able to speak.

Jake gave him an empty stare for a few seconds not moving a muscle.

“What are you waiting for?”

“Do it!” He said raising his voice.

Jake continued staring at him his eyes were wide and his words seemed to retreat back into him as he tried to say something, anything to get him out of this situation. But what was their left to say. What could he say.

Would he have to give him parting words intricately woven as he spoke. Would he have to be as cruel and stoic as many of the veteran soldiers and not say anything. What words could he say to calm the chaos and to mend the pain of this man.

Jake slowly raised his rifle as he aimed at the man’s head. His hands wrapped around it tightly as he gripped it and his teeth locked in place. He slowly started to pull the trigger, closing his eyes just as incrementally as he pulled the trigger.

That’s when he heard it. A rumbling sound no grunt ever wants to hear. They had deployed the veteran mechanized division. Mechs three times the size of a man with ten times the fire power a man could ever carry. Heavily armoured and fearsome tanks followed closely behind and when you were extremely fortunate the division would not be accompanied by a forged mech.

They were titanic mechs that always brought up the rear of the division. Few have seen them and lived and those that have never speak about them. Some said that they were ancient machines found on one of the outer colony worlds. No one really knows where they came from.

All Jake needed to know is they were called forge mechs for one reason, they could forge the battlefield to their will no matter the opposition. They were almost akin to mythical creatures they were deployed so rarely and only in cases where the infantry division was loosing badly.

Jake’s eyes widen and he started nervously checking the side the rumbling was coming from then quickly look back at the man.

“I… I…” Jake stammered.

Somehow through all the pain the man was able to stifle it for a second.

“I can see it in your eyes , don’t leave me like t-this don’t let me die by them…please.”

Jake could now see through the wave of dust on the horizon. The dust stretched as far as the eye could see, ravenously tumbling towards him without slowing down.

In a normal day Jake would be afraid terrified even but today he was more afraid of what was making the dust and as he at peered of the remains of the battle he could see them, all of them.

Past all the piles of corpses and wreckage of the cruiser and the mangled and twisted remains of once deadly vehicles. He could see the mechanized division coming to clean up their mess and they themselves too if they were even a centimeter in their way. They were only grunts after all. Expendable.

Even if they were considered allies the mechanized division often didn’t show any regard for normal infantry soldiers and would trample or open fire their own if they got in the way. They had a job to do and no one was allowed to stand in their way.

Hundreds upon hundreds of mechs led the charge in full sprint traversing the terrain with ease. Jumping, leaping and blasting their way to the front lines and in this case the last lines.

The collective un-synchronized sound of their mechanized legs was a sound he’d never forget.

The chattering of the tank treads followed closely behind their mech brethren, ready to obliterate any who stood in their way.

Jake knew they would be here in a few seconds. He had to make a choice quickly, run or stay and give the man his final wish.

Jake paced back and forth for what seemed like eons. Then he stopped and aimed his rifle once more. Closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.

The man under the wreckage opened his eyes. He thought death wasn’t as painful as he had thought. He thought it would be more jarring but then he realized he wasn’t dead, he was still under the wrecked cruiser and the mechanized division was so close small pieces of metal were starting to hop on the floor.

All he saw in his final moments was the whole Jake’s rifle next to his head. Smoke still drifting gentle from it. Then as if the end to a long-awaited fate the division arrived.

They ploughed through the cruiser as if it was mere air to them. The tank like vehicles absolutely shredded through it as they burst through the other side. Their bipedal brethren behind them crushed what little remained under their metallic feet.

Jake didn’t dare look back as he ran away. He ran faster than he ever had. Faster than when he was deployed. Faster than when he was trying to escape an enhanced soldier. Faster than when the cruiser almost fell on top of him. He was just happy that the clatter of the vehicles finally muffled the screams of that man.

All he heard as he dived into the doorway of a bunker on the surface was the terrible screams of the soldiers that were left, they must have reached the front-lines, the sound of the mechs crushing metal and flesh. No respect was given for the countless dead that lay under their metallic feat. Merely a terrain inconvenience to wipe off of their feet.

“You should fire at the target you know and not just point the coilgun at it.” Lee said.

Jake snapped back to reality. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there staring at the target, but he knew that Lee knew something wasn’t quite right by how much Jakes coilgun was shaking in his hands.

“C’mon kid we don’t have all day, fire at the target.”

“I…I…can’t” Jake said as he stammered away.

“If you don’t know how to use it…”

Jake took a deep breath.

“It’s not that I just need a second to catch my breath.”

Lee looked at Jake quizzically.

“You’ve got to be the first person I met that scared of guns, either that or you’ve got some kind of shaking disease.”

Jake didn’t say anything but took another deep breath as he tried not to shake as much, tried not to think back to the war.

He didn’t want to remember anything from back then but now he could remember something about his past but all it was was war.

He finally started to calm the shaking when Akilina walked over to him.

“Hey kid, we don’t have all day either take your shot or go back inside.”

“I just need a minute.”

“Look kid, if you’re not meant for shooting, you’re not meant for shooting.”

“I…I…” Jake stammered.

“Give me the coilgun.” She said firmly as she reached for the gun.

“That’s it. I’m done, none of you feel like telling me whats going on, fine but at least give me some indication of what I am doing here.” Jake said as he stormed away.

As Jake stormed away, he yelled back to them. “And you Akilina get off my back.”

“Hey kid where are you going.”

“To somewhere where you aren’t Lee.”

Akilina started slowly walking towards Jake.

“Stop following me.”

Akilina was right behind Jake before he even knew how she had gotten so close to him.

“How are you going to survive out there, huh? There’s no food, no water and the machines do not have mercy. They’ll pick off someone like you before the end of the day, especially someone like you.”

“What’s your problem with me? Did I look at you funny or something?” Jake said as he turned around to face her.

“I don’t have a problem with you. I’m just saying you can’t live out there.” She said nonchalantly but he could hear the edge of satisfaction in her voice. Just on the percipience of her words.

“Or maybe you’re one of them, going back to your puppet masters, are you? Well go ahead not like we can’t take care of them.”

Jake’s pupils shrunk as all his facial expression faded away. His stance changing to a more relaxed and loose one. His nervous expression replaced by a single half smile.

Jake abruptly swung at her head with his bare hand barely missing it as she turned her head to the side.

Silence crept in around them as everyone turned to see what the commotion was about.

“You nearly hit me.”

“I know.” Jake said as his halfcocked smile turned into a full one.

He swung again, this time she was ready for him and moved out of the way.

He swung again but instead of dodging his blow she moved slightly to the side and grabbed his arm and flipped him over. Jake landed on his back with a loud clank as he hit the metal floor.

He dusted himself off as he stood up. Akilina on the other hand kept her stance ready for another fight. As she positioned both her fists just below eye level and steady her stance

As if he had shifted gears his strikes came fast and quick. She was barely able to stop them all in time. With each strike she would block with her arms trying to not lose any ground to his aggressive strikes.

He kept up his advance as he maintained his striking, she had to finally yield some ground as she back pedaled until she managed to redirect one of his strikes throwing off his rhythm and get some distance between them.

They walked in a circle around each other until she attacked him head on but instead of blocking any of her strikes he seemed to seamlessly move out of the way. Missing each of her strikes by mere centimetres.

They did this for what seemed like minutes. By now a large crowd had gathered around them watching them as neither was able to get a leg up on the other.

Akilina pulled out one of her handguns from her belt. The electric arch’s jumped around frantically on the gun as she squeezed the trigger but a second before she managed to fire at him he grabbed her arm and angled it away from himself. The gun went off with a mighty arch of energy for a gun of its size.

Akilina seeing her opportunity used her right leg to kick Jake hard right above the ankle. He groaned in pain as he crumbled to the ground grabbing his leg as he fell.

He lay there still groaning in pain. His narrow eyes had become wide as the pain slithered through his body.

“You shouldn’t…” Before she could finish her sentence Jake quickly used his legs to sweep her feet ensuring to use his leg that wasn’t in pain.

“You know it’s not very nice to kick someone.” Jake said picking up the coilgun and aiming it at her. The gun whirred as it powered up. The electricity arching all over the coilgun again.

Her eyes widened as she realized he’d held the trigger long enough for it to go beyond a simple stun and more to a permanent shock.

“Are you crazy that you’ll kill me Jake.”

A moment of silence passed between them as the gun continued to charge up. Her very serious eyes at the end of it. He knew she was trying to look tough, but he could see that sliver of fear in her eyes as small as it might have been.

“I know and the names not Jake. It’s Jack.”

The small coilgun was starting to shake as it was reaching its breaking point.

Suddenly Jack dropped to the ground.

“What took you so long.”Akilina said as she slowly stood up.

“I didn’t feel like stealing your thunder, well up until he was going to kill you.” Leesaid.

“I’ll take him to the cell.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep an eye on the recruits.” Akilina said.