Escape from Metal

Jake drifted in and out of consciousness for several days. Most of what he would remember when he woke up was someone coming in, occasionally someone refilling his drip, but time seemed to have no meaning. What felt like a moment could have been hours. It was strange how time moved as if he was weaving it in this abnormal state of consciousness. Making it go faster and slowing it down.

When he did finally start to wake up. He had to pull himself back to consciousness. As if he was pulling a heavy object out of the sea. He wrestled in this state for a while until he woke up properly.

He was in a room similar to the first time he had woken up in at the survivor’s base. Although slightly larger than the one from before. This one also had a small view port for looking outside. Not the best view looking into the pit though.

He tired moving but his whole body felt weak. Probably after effects from that massive energy blast. His arms were especially hard to move. Suddenly Jake flashed back to the event of that day in his mind.

He didn’t think it would end that way. If he was being honest, he thought that he wouldn’t be waking up and if he did he… well he didn’t have time to think that far then. He just hoped that he managed to save everyone else around him or at least help in some small way.

Something must have gone right otherwise he would be dead or waking up outside.

For the first time in a while, he could hear his own thoughts. In a place where he felt safe for the most part.

First though, the extreme fatigue that had plagued him returned and very much against Jake’s will he fell into a deep sleep again. He had tried to fight falling asleep again but in the end, he did succumb to the weariness.

He opened his eyes again without any real concept of how much time had passed but instead of waking up to the mostly peaceful base. He was back, back in his worst nightmare. He was back in the trenches.

He could hear the whirring of tracks on the surface. After, he had panicked Jake fled the downed ship and he left that man to be crushed mangled or severed depending on whatever machine encountered him first.

Jake felt like something was right behind him as he ran. Something waiting to strike. It felt as it something had crawled up his spine. This only made Jake run faster as he splattered through the mud and grime.

Trying to avoid the corpses in the trenches. Some areas were easier to navigate than others mostly because there weren’t as many dead people as possible and giant rats in his way.

Jake would never forget the stench of rotting, pussing and sometimes if there were enough rates, pulsating corpses. It is the type of experience that was burned into your mind forever.

Jake had to carry on however and quickly. The mechanized division was far worse than the sight and smell of the dead.

Jake and his battalion had landed on the planet five years ago after they breached their orbital defenses fairly easily. Jake and all the other grunts were then packed into drop ships and hastily rushed onto the ground where they would begin their five years siege of whatever planet it is they were on.

They were never told which planet they went to so that if you survived you could not tell anyone where all the horrible atrocities they saw had been committed. Not that it ever made sense to Jake after all the victors had the right to change the rules and stories as they wished. The loser well they would not have anyone left to tell any stories.

Jake guessed that they were fighting on one of the outer colony planets. They were the only ones that ever rebelled against the royal houses in the core sector. Mostly because it took an army several months to get there by warp jumps. They were the only ones not benefitting from the precious resources they sent back to the core worlds.

That and grunts were expendable and easily replaced so they were always sent to the outer colonies. Jake quickly got acquainted with this fact. He had seen millions of soldiers die if not billions, but they were quickly replaced by more drop ships carrying more fresh meat for the grinder.

Most grunts were equipped with a rifle, some basic armor, and some basic rations but that was it. They could periodically supply if they lived that long. Being a grunt wasn’t exactly fun with being forcefully drafted and not being able to leave a planet until it was conquered or obliterated.

Naturally grunts were the bottom of the cast doing all the ‘oh so noble and royal houses’ dirty work who couldn’t care less about how many people die or how gruesome the wars were. Even if the colonies did rebel with legitimate reasons.

No, these royals were far too busy with their duties. So, people like Jake were sent to fight a war they knew nothing about halfway across the galaxy. With one fact and one only, death was certain and 80% of all grunts would not return. That statistic became even higher if the royals became impatient and sent their real soldiers to fight.

The mechanized division. Mostly composed of tanks and heavily armored walkers. Occasionally if you were an unlucky grunt the forge mechs would be sent in as well. They were almost always a guaranteed death sentence for anyone in their immediate vicinity. Usually equipped with near mythic weapons. Those that have survived an encounter with one described a blinding light and then a complete evisceration of the area around them.

That’s why Jake couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t wait another moment to give a merciful end to the man’s life. What was a few more minutes until death?

After Jake had taken cover in the trenches, he spotted a previously enemy occupied tunnel. It was in a way more wretched inside the tunnel than outside even with the lack of corpses everywhere. Perhaps it was the thought that he was cowering inside a safe haven. While all his fellow soldiers outside were probably getting massacred on two fronts now.

Jake was walking slowly and cautiously. The tunnel was competently silent now save for the occasional drop of water and distant sounds of explosions. There were the occasionally scattered bodies slumped against the wall or lying on the ground most seemed to be wearing the enemies’ uniform or none at all.

The other soldiers must have taken this position after they saw one of the ships taken down in orbits in orbit. Even though it seemed secure enough Jake still checked every corner and held his breath when he tried to listen very carefully to any suspicious sounds.

That’s when Jake spotted it. At first it was a brown purple coloured splotch in the corner of his eye. Jake approached cautiously fearing that it might be a trap, or some explosive device left behind. Even as he was standing right next to it he couldn’t tell what it was, nestled behind a dead soldiers back.

Jake very slowly tipped the soldier forwards with the nose of his gun. The dead soldier fell over with a thud.

Nothing exploded. No alarms. No bullets flying past his face. It seemed it wasn’t a trap at least not a obvious one. Jake waited a second more before picking it up just to be safe.

It was a child’s teddy, some sort of local animal by the looks of it. Probably a common pet or something of the like. Jake dusted it off to reveal a slightly less brown colour and a fading purple.

Jake took a moment to look at it.

“How did you get here?” Jake asked himself in a whisper.

Something happened then, something overcame Jake. As he sat down against the nearest wall. Jake’s eyes had gotten a far look to them. He had put both of his arms over his knees as he sat and was staring at the ground. Still stained with blood and smelt of gunpowder from the assault.

“What are we doing here, what… am I doing here?” Jake had a realization of the time he had spent here. Killing, burning and destroying an entire planet. Just so that some hosh-posh house member could get their fine linens on time.

He didn’t know where he was, and he had no idea what had happened to his family these past few years or if they were still alive.

He could have been responsible for whatever happened to the girl who owned this teddy, directly or indirectly.

Jake sat in this position for several minutes contemplating the entirety of his situation. Even if he wanted to leave, he couldn’t. Even if more grunts than just Jake wanted to leave, they would all be slaughtered. Grunts like Jake they just don’t leave, they’re only tools after all.

Jake decided he couldn’t just sit here for the rest of his life but as soon as he stood up a shot flew past him. Jake instinctively jumped behind one of the tunnels support pillars.

Suddenly the darkness that he had navigated so easily earlier seemed much darker. He had no idea where the shot came from or what kind of weapon. If Jake really got it bad, he would be facing off against one of their power armor soldiers. That would be a death sentence, but he couldn’t worry about that now he had to plan his next move.

Jake thought for a few seconds but couldn’t really think of any strategies on how to get deeper into the tunnel with the confined space, but he had to think quick the entrance of the tunnel was starting to succumb to the weight of the armored division.

Jake guessed that based on the fact that he was still alive his opponent probably couldn’t see well either and was only using the light from his gun to aim.

That gave Jake an idea if he used a sudden flash from his guns light followed by several intermittent flashes it could blind his opponent or in the very least slightly throw his aim off.

Jake quickly opened the clip of his gun to check how many rounds he had left. Four he had four rounds left he must have fired more in a panic than he thought and all his spare ammo pouches either fell off in the chaos or were used.

Jake would get one chance and one chance only to do this.

Jake turned his guns flashlight off for a minute. He planned to keep it off for longer, but the tunnel entrance had started to collapse and might have caused a cascade through the entirety of the tunnel and if that happened, he would be able to out run it.

Jake pointed his gun forward and turned on the flashlight. He counted for three seconds before turning it off. Jake quickly started running forwards. After leaving his flashlight off for five seconds he flashed it on for two seconds again.

Jake repeated this process until he got to what seemed to be a bunker of some sort. Whoever was at the end of the tunnel only fired one shot and it barely missed him. Any logical man would have fired a flurry of shots in the direction of the light.

He must have been low on ammo too and judging by the fact that he hadn’t been crushed into the wall he wasn’t in power armor either.

Jake slowly peered into the bunker, making sure to check the immediate left and right of him and the furthest corners of the bunker. Jake had almost forgotten he used to check cities like this in the early days of the war, but they were all long since destroyed and grinded into dust.

The would-be opponent was nowhere to be seen. Jake wondered where he could have gone but for the moment brushed it aside seeing as there was only one entry and exit to the bunker and the tunnel behind him had just collapsed as it spewed dust into the room.

The bunker was relatively simplistic, it was lined with reinforced metal walls. With meters of concrete behind the metal reinforcements. The bunker had only one viewport barely wide enough to stick a person’s hand through. The view port was the length on the front side of the bunker.

A single console which was also the length of the room was next to the view port. Jake walked to the console and looked through a viewport to see the massive railgun. It looked just like the one that had shot one of their ships earlier. The sheer scale of it was much more impressive this close even if the gun was still several kilometers away. It seemed to be at least ten floors high.

Jake quickly started studying the console as the gravity of where he was started sinking in. On the console was a pixelated image of the railgun. Jake didn’t understand most of what the controls on the console did, but he did understand the firing and aiming mechanism.

A screen indicated that it was charge at 97% and almost ready to fire again.

Jake had no idea how the battle in orbit was going but if he could use the railgun to destroy or cripple their flagship, he could turn the battle in orbit and the faster it was over the more support they could get on the ground and perhaps the quicker he could go home.

As Jake was in thought of how he could use this weapon to win the war. One of the panels on the opposite side of the room started moving and slowly the man that had shot at him earlier silently slipped out the gap behind the wall.

He quietly tip toed to Jake but when he was about a meter away from him Jake swung around and pulled his gun on him.

“My nerves might be fired, and I have not slept in three damn days, but I can still hear when someone scratches metal against concrete. Next time you might want to pick a better hiding spot than that.”

“Well, well, I finally get to meet the demons that have invaded my once beautiful world. Come on demon pull the trigger it’s what your masters halfway across the milky way want isn’t it?”

Jake hesitated as he started aiming at the man.

Suddenly the man hit Jake’s rifle upwards. A shot rang as Jake instinctively pulled the trigger. Even in the midst of the closer quarter combat Jake kept track.

Three shots left.

The other man grasped both ends of Jake’s rifle. Both men desperately grappled for the rifle as they heaved and pulled it.

After this back and forth for a moment the man pushed Jake backwards until he hit the console both of them still grappling for the rifle.

The console was now on the halfway point of Jake’s back, and it was sharp. Sharper than he was expecting he wasn’t sure how long he could stay in this position.

Jake would never forget the man’s expression in that moment. Teeth bare, his eyes was something else to behold probably how Jake had looked by now. Eyes that had seen death in all its forms. Eyes that had seen everything taken from them.

Amidst the struggle one of them must have accidentally hit the trigger of the rifle. The sound of another shot rang through the room.

Two shots left.

“Give up you demon, I’ll show you the same mercy you and your compatriots have. Absolute annihilation.”

“How… thoughtful of you.” Jake said as he struggled to talk under the weight of the gun on his chest.

“While you are feeling so kindhearted why don’t we sit for tea and talk about how most of the men here were forced to fight.”

The man didn’t reply for a few moments. Something shifted in his eyes. It was minute but it was there.

Seeing his hesitation Jake used the moment to leverage the man off him and throw him backwards.

“That doesn’t change the lives that have been snatched away.”

Jake quickly aimed his rifle and fired.

The man barely dodged the shot. As he ducked under where Jake was aiming.

One shot left.

The man charge at Jake wrapping both his hands around Jake’s waist and pushing him against the wall. Jake couldn’t keep hold of the rifle as he was pummeled into the wall. It slid across the floor as the men continued to struggle.

Once again Jake pushed the man off of him, barely.

This time Jake struck first as he hit him in the face with a sharp right hook. Quickly followed by a left but before Jake could land another the man swung under his punch and returned with his own uppercut.

They exchanged blows in this fashion for what seemed like ages. Until both were staggering and bloodied.

Jake’s nose was bleeding and blood was flowing over his one eye. His vision was blurry, and he could barely stand. The world seemed to shift and phase as it made doubles of itself.

The man standing several meters from him seemed to be having similar problems, with his movements equally as unbalanced and erratic.

In that moment both realized they were too weak to continue in hand-to-hand combat any longer. With a zombie like walk both of them started towards the rifle. Grasping the air as they reached for it.

Jake was slightly faster though but as he picked up the gun the man was right behind him. He swung around as quickly as he could in his state and hit the man with the butt of his rifle. The man staggered backwards.

“Nor does it change the ones your people have taken.” Jake said solemnly as he aimed his rifle and fired. The man fell backwards onto the floor.

He wasn’t dead. Jake slowly approached him. His injuries had turned his head shot into a shoulder shot but he couldn’t worry about the man now. He would be out for a while before he could do anything to stop Jake.

The counter had reached 100% Jake approached the console and took hold of the joystick and shifted its aim from their flagship to the enemies.

Jake could hear the enormous machine changing its angle even though it was several kilometers away. The railgun whirred with a deafening sound as it turned and adjusted its angle.

When the aiming reticule was aligned, he slowly squeezed the trigger, unleashing the full might of the railgun. The railgun fired, everything around it was sure to die or be destroyed from the massive shock wave it sent out.

Jake was exhausted and he didn’t even bother to see If the shot had landed as he collapsed on the floor.

It was then when it all started as the roof of the bunker opened up as something burst through. Before Jake stood a four-meter-wide spider-like machine. It quickly grabbed him with its underbelly cable arms, entangling him in wires under it.

Jake woke up with a start as he shot up right. He was full of sweat and his breathing was short and quick.

Jake remembered now. The memories of the war and the death that came with had never been lost like he thought. No, he just didn’t want to remember those times but now the memories had returned. It would take some time to forget them all again.

*

The next morning Jake was woken up by Dan. Who seemed slightly friendly than usual, but his shoulders seemed tense and he would occasionally stare far past Jake at seemingly nothing. Dan had to be thinking of something and whatever it was it clearly bother him a lot.

They had breakfast in the same room where the chairs were put in the circle and his fate was decided. There was a strange feeling of silence in the room. Jake had no qualms about people not wanting to talk to him, but this felt forced.

“So, are you going to tell me what is going on?” Jake said finally breaking the silence.

“I was hoping you could enjoy your meal before we showed you.”

“Showed me what?”

“Don’t worry about that right now just finish your food.”

“Okay, can you at least tell me what happened after I got knocked out?”

“Well, obviously you survived miraculously although I’m not sure how. No doubt you have seen the extent of the damage on your body with all the new scars.”

“Well, actually I have not really checked guess my heads still a bit foggy.”

As Dan continued to speak Jake slid down the sleeves on both his arms. He saw what Dan was talking about. It looked like a very fine root structure of some plants. Both arms were lined with scars that ran along the length of his arms like tiny lightning bolts.

The left arms were more pronounced than the right and much bigger. Probably because his left arm was closer to the coil ejection side. Which function very much like normal guns’ barrels,

“Well, after you fired the coilgun all the advanced hunter’s circuitry was completely fried. Akilina and the other men got off with only minor shocks because they were so far away from you. Which I might add was very stupid firing it so far beyond its limit.”

After that Akilina and the others rushed you to our medical room to do whatever they could, unfortunately we don’t have any of the fancy tech like they have on the core worlds so there wasn’t much we could do but wait for you to recover.”

Jake kept eating in silence as Dan finished talking.

“Did the machines attack again after that?” Jake asked.

“No, I don’t think they would have wasted any more resources after we… I mean you destroyed quite a few of their new units.”

“Thanks, I think. You know I have never seen anything like that before. I mean I have seen hunters before but those were so much faster. They seemed somewhat smarter too.”

“First time we have seen anything like that too. Anyone’s guess what they are for but I I were to hazard a guess I would say they are probably advanced versions of the original hunters. Only question is with most of the planet in ruin where the machines are getting the resources to build the new models.”

Dan said quickly switch from his serious and concentrated face to a more relaxed one.

“But don’t you worry about that we have something to show you now.”

“Lee you can come in now.”

Lee walked into the room from a joining door.

“Where’s Akilina.” Jake asked.

“Oh, don’t worry she will be joining us shortly. She just had something she wanted to do. Now, follow me.”

Jake put down his plate of food and followed Dan and Lee down the corridor. He recognized most of everything from the first time Dan showed him the base. That was until Dan opened a maintenance hatch Jake thought was sealed off.

The hatch looked rusted and appeared to be welded shut. Obviously, Dan didn’t want anyone to go down there.

Jake carefully climbed the ladder inside the hatch. It was almost completely dark save for the faint light below them. The metal here was coarse and scratched his skins as he brushed against it. The crawl space wasn’t that big either barely enough room for a person to breathe.

Once below Jake was greeted by an airlock. It seemed much better maintained than the hatch they had gone down. The paint indicating where to stand when the door opened was still clear and didn’t show any signs of degradation.

“What you’re about to see you don’t speak to anyone about except for me, Lee and Akilina. Got it?” Dan’s tone was much more intense than his usual neutral tone. Whatever was behind the door had to be serious.

“Yeah, I understand.” Jake said slightly annoyed by being address like a child.

The airlock opened after Dan hit several switches. The giant door screeched as it opened ever so slowly. As it finally lifted Jake was mildly confused by what he saw.

“A prison cell? That’s what you keep down here. What did you lock a hunter up or something?”

Jake’s snarky grin quickly disappeared when he heard a woman softly laugh.

Behind the airlock door was a single prison cell. Similar to the one Jake was kept in, this one had a double layer of energy fields to keep in whoever was inside. As well as the additional security of a 50mm thick steel door or whatever material the machines used to build it.

The room was dark, except for a single light that illuminated the door to the cell. Jake could only make out the figure of a person sitting in the back of the cell.

Jake took a step to get a closer look.

“Don’t get any closer Jake.”

Just as Dan had said that she jumped out from the shadows. Jake jumped as her face popped out from the darkness.

“Don’t worry, there aren’t any monsters down here. They are all in the basement.” She said as she put her one finger on her lip in a hushing fashion.

“And that supposed to mean…”

“We don’t know she has been saying that since we found here.”

“Oh, don’t worry sir. I will survive sir.” She said as her body stiffened, and she came to attention.

Almost as soon as she had done that, she became more jolly and frolicked in her cell.

“Okay, I’m not the biggest fan of seeing crazy people so why am I here.”

“She’s not crazy Jake, she has from what we have counted over twenty consciousnesses in her body. Hard to tell which was the original. You do remember how the machines would override our conscious with someone else’s as they needed different roles right?”

“Well, if you don’t remember seeing as you are prone to amnesia. They transplanted our consciousness onto each other as they pleased. Suppressing the one that was already there, until they needed the original one or any previous installed consciousnesses.”

“Machines, they’re funny things they could transplant someone’s consciousness, but they never did figure out how to make one but that’s not important I brought you here to see her. We suspect you may have a suppressed consciousness and that might be causing your blackouts and bursts of violence. We can probably…”

Before Dan could finish Akilina slid down the ladder.

“Dan, we have got a problem, it’s urgent.”

“Alrighty then, I’ll be seeing you handsome young man. Do come back soon.” The woman said as she waved a kiss to Jake.

After they had exited the secret holding cell and Dan had sealed it up properly so that it appeared to be rusted shut again. Dan, Jake, Lee and Akilina all rushed to the armory.

Some of the outer most scouts had heard something crash and several minutes later saw smoke coming from more or less where they heard the crash. Dan decided to send in some of his more experienced fighters to the scene.

“Dan, I don’t get why I am here.” Jake said trying to follow behind Dan as he scrambled between the different sections of the armory trying to stay out of everyone’s way as they scrambled to get their gear.

“Well, I was going to tell you this later but...”

“Since you saved so many of our lives and almost died, we decided not only are you not a machine but you’re joining the Elite fighting corp.” Akilina said interrupting Dan.

“Now suit up and get ready, this is your first assignment with us. Don’t make me regret it.” She said as she left the armory.

“Is that not a big risk? I mean I could be a really good robot spy or something.”

“Well, if you are ill just blow out you robotic brains.” Akilina said.

“Noted.”

“Your gear is in that locker.” Lee said as he pointed at an old, rusted locker in the corner of the room. “When you are done meet us outside.”

The journey to the crash site of had crashed there was at least a five-hour walk. Which meant that Jake had some time to get used the gear he was given. Mostly just medium or lightweight armor nothing as heavy as Lee was wearing.

He was also given a modified coilgun. According to Lee it had a much higher tolerance for electrical overcharge which meant that now Jake could actually overcharge his weapon far beyond its normal limit without almost dying this time.

Everyone in the elite corps was given specialized gear. Akilina had the sniper variant of the coilgun which excelled at long range shots. Lee had the heavy somewhat automatic coilgun. Dan’s coilgun could take two battery cells at once which meant he could shoot at higher rates.

The modifications they had made could also increase the voltage of the shots he fired if he flipped the switch on the side of the rifle. This would kill anything much more efficiently or disable bigger machines. The only downside being is it would drain the power cell much quicker.

Jake felt it strange the whole experience. No longer was he a number like back in the war. Something expendable and easily replaceable. Now he was one of the numbers, just like the armored division he meant something.

The entire dynamic of the team felt different too. They were alert and energized, ready for a fight at a moment’s notice. Back in the war as the skies started to turn darker and darker and lost its natural beauty so too did the people in the war.

Their acts became animal like, and each day was another day in hell where they had to pull on every fiber of their being to find the will to fight.

These people were much different than those he had gotten used to in the war. They would talk about events long before he had joined them, and they would occasionally joke around. Jake could see the professionalism they held too.

The way they moved, the way they handled their weapons as if they were extensions of themselves and the way they could convey messages without really saying anything. That wasn’t really something new he had done it back in the war too but Dan and the rest of them seemed to have a far more extensive no verbal language.

“Looks like we have reached our destination admiral.” Lee said as he nudged Akilina.

Everyone was standing on an elevated platform to get a better view of the crash site.

“Looks like the ship crash here and busted through to the second floor, we’ll need to abseil down there.” Akilina said as she took a knee.

“I am assuming you know how these work.” She said as she tossed Jake a rope and a clip.

“Not exactly, no.”

“Well, you better learn quick you are on the elite squad now after all.”

Akilina led the repel down the hole the impact of the vehicle had made. Followed by Lee, Jake and Dan.

Jake said he was unfamiliar with repelling down but in truth he didn’t know anything about it. Instead of going down steadily like the others Jake when down with short, jagged bursts. He let the braking mechanism go a little bit too much, Jake would then clamp down hard on its breaks which made it stop abruptly.

This continued several more times until he reached the bottom.

After several minutes of struggling to unbuckle himself, he could finally inspect the crash site and allow Dan who had been waiting above him to unbuckle himself as well.

“Looks like a low orbit transport, probably one some people salvaged after the rebellion.” Akilina said as she surveyed the outside of the ship.

“This seems to be the back of the ship they must have flown over us, lost control and crashed. They are lucky they didn’t hit a more eroded sections or they would have gone straight to the low levels.” Dan said.

“Jake, you and Akilina check the cockpit for survivors or any useful data.”

“Aye” Jake said.

“You were a soldier, weren’t you?” Akilina asked Jake.

“I…”

“Don’t answer I can tell by the way you are carrying your gun, your fingers are already on a ready position. Probably used a bolt action.”

Jake didn’t say anything he just stared uncomfortably in front of him.

“I get it not everyone wants to talk about how they killed people.”

“Not a lot of people know this about me but I was a soldier too so I can understand what nightmares live in your head.”

“C’mon here’s the cockpit let’s see what’s in it. You check inside I’ll have a look around the front.”

Jake pulled himself into the cockpit of the transport. Nothing seemed to be of use from first glance. The console was totally shattered from the impact.

Jake pocked his head around the corner of the ship to check its cargo hold, empty.

Jake took one final look at the console maybe they had some mobile data drive or something. Still nothing.

That’s when he noticed the faint dark red stain. The entire one side of the console was covered in blood.

“Jake get out here.”

Jake quickly jumped out of the transports and ran to Akilina.

“What is I…Who is that?”

“The survivors I’m guessing.”

Its then that Jake noticed it. Corpses scattered around the blood drenched floors. They were dragged and thrown all around judging by the blood patters on the walls and floors. Crushed and stamped to death. A gruesome scene to be sure but nothing Jake hadn’t seen.

“See this one she has a metal arm, must be a machine infiltrator. These people probably tried to escape, and she was sent to kill them. Guess it doesn’t do so well in crash landings.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Jake was fixated on the infiltrator he couldn’t make out what it as supposed to look like with all the blood covering it.

“Don’t you think it’s strange though, it’s cradling this man in its arms?”

Before Akilina could answer its eyes shot open as it took a breath.

Without a second thought Akilina pulled out her handheld coilgun out of her holster and aimed it at the infiltrators head.

“Better put it down before it tries to kill us.”

Timed seemed to slow for Jake as he looked at its eyes. It seemed sad and lonely but most of all something about its eyes seemed human. Her stare in that moment could see right through him.

Jake’s eyes went wide as he realized who it was. Jake quickly jumped in between Akilina and Gwen as held his hands out.

“Wait, wait, I know who she is. She saved my life.

“What are you talking about. Get out of the way, we have to put it down.”

“Please, Akilina I know her. She isn’t a machine.”

“I knew it you’re one of them. I am giving you one last chance Jake move or die.”

“Get out of the way Jake.” She screamed. “She has got a metal arm.”

“I can’t do that.”

That’s when Jake heard the sound of the coilgun powering up.

“Akilina what are you doing?” Dan shouted as he came running along.

“Jake’s protecting a machine, he is one of them I told you.”

“Now Akilina, we know that they can’t build people like us. Otherwise, why would they keep us around?”

“Akilina listen to me if I wanted to kill you I would have let those hunters do it for me.”

Akilina stood motionless as she thought. After a few seconds she lowered her gun as it powered down.

“Very well.”

“Akilina why don’t you check the perimeter with Lee.” Dan said.

“I’m going back to base.” Jake said as he hoisted Gwen is his arms. “She needs medical care. I’d appreciate it if you can carry her friend back with us for a proper burial or wherever it is we put or dead on this forsaken place.”