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<Audio log created by Dr. Takayama of the Mandate Fleet> “Dr. Rem: This is Dr. Takayama, your supervisor. There’s been some reports that you are being uncooperative with your fellow doctors and your working environment. The way you addressed me yesterday didn’t exactly help matters either. Please stop trying to make me your enemy. I did not ask to be supervisor, but the Mandate decided that I was more suited to manage this team of doctors for the Far Eden Project than you were. Therefore, you must accept that. Your pedigree as both a combat medic and head doctor clearly are about as useful to this project as that lame arm of yours—sorry, that was out of line… I’m not trying to be rude here. I appreciate your service and your medical expertise. But your prime has clearly passed! It is time for others to take up the mantle. I’m worried about you, Rem. Just the other day, a mechanic told me that you almost killed your patient, because you tried to tamper with a cryotube with your patient still inside, claiming your remote didn’t work! That, my good sir, is borderline negligence! I should have you shipped back to Earth for a stunt like that! Need I remind you that the remote is synchronized to a specific power core? If you change one out, then the remote won’t work unless you re-synchronize it! Yes, the mechanic should have told you they replaced a power core, but that doesn’t excuse your incompetence! Please don’t make that mistake again. I don’t know what it is, but you seem to be struggling with this new core technology. This tech is the wave of the future. If you can’t get a grasp of it, then… *mumbles incoherently* Look, I understand you are upset that someone younger is taking what you feel like should be your position. I’m sure someone with your credentials and your…*clears throat*… age… must not enjoy being pushed aside for the next generation. However, you have been given your duty and therefore, you must follow-through. I tried to help you, I really did. You may not think getting the Graveyard Shift is mercy, but I gave that to you to try and keep tension down to a minimum. You clearly do not get along with the younger doctors! I admit, the prank they pulled on you recently was out of line, so this is not completely one-sided. I will have a talk with them and make sure you can sleep in peace from now on while the others are working. Let me reiterate, Rem. Your career has helped get us to our little Promised Land. And we all appreciate that. But truth be told, I don’t think there’s that much more you can do for this project. So sit back, relax, and live out the rest of your days knowing that the future is in good hands.” Something shrieked loudly throughout the ship, thrusting Rem’s senses back to reality. “Can’t these kids let an old man rest?” He grunted angrily. As his body returned to normalcy, his ears slowly deciphered the shrieking sound as none other than the alarm, warning the ship’s inhabitants of impending danger. Nonetheless, Rem remained motionless. “If this is another drill, then I ain’t movin’.” He squinted his already closed eyes, believing that if he tried hard enough, he could go back to sleep in this cacophony. Suddenly, the ship gave an apocalyptic wail as its hull crumpled like paper. Intense spasms shot throughout the interior, throwing Rem from his cozy bed and forcefully onto the cold metal floor. He was awake now. “Not a drill!” He muttered. Remaining prone on the floor, he reached under his bed and grabbed a small box. Even as death approached at lightning speed, he delicately opened the box with reverence. A Purple Heart Medal was tucked safely inside. Carefully, he placed the medal in the pockets of his doctor’s coat. Then, with much less pomp and circumstance, reached again under the bed to grab his trusty blue-lasered blaster and attached it to his hip. He pulled himself off the floor and hurried his way through the doorway and into the hall. The right side was lined with doors to adjacent rooms, while the left was covered with windows showing the rest of the fleet in orbit above Far Eden. The alarm continued to blare. The sound was joined by flickering lights struggling to remain active, making his trek through the corridor more difficult than he needed it to be. A startling but soft knock occurred next to Rem. If he had been a few feet further away, he wouldn’t have heard it. “Hey! Is someone --- there?! Help! I need a m---c! My door --- jammed!” A young voice from inside squealed. The metal must have been thick, because it sounded muffled, and not all the words came through due to the dissonance going on around them. Rem understood enough of the context to know that this man needed a medic. He pounded on the door firmly and replied, “I hear ya, son! I’ll take care of ya...” Rem laid his hand on the door, but it didn’t budge. “…Somehow…” Rem mumbled under his breath. Already, he was out of options. He did not know technology very well—if at all. Even with his own medical equipment, he sometimes struggled. The muffled voice continued. “Is it something with the power core?” Rem nodded to himself. “Perhaps. Um, where would I find these power cores?” “There should be a replacement --- the storage closet --- doors down on the left ---.” Rem slapped the door as acknowledgement and sprinted as fast as he could to the left, searching frantically for signs of a storage unit. Luckily for him, it was well-labeled and the door was already open. However, the trouble was finding the power core. What do they even look like? How would he even be able to tell? As the walls continued to twitch mercilessly, Rem remained focused and intent on his mission. His eyes rolled around the room slowly and precisely. Suddenly, the lights flickered out, leaving the room in darkness. He would have been blinded by shadow had Rem’s eyes not caught a glimpse of light from the corner drawer in the room. He stumbled to the back and tried to open the drawer. Unfortunately, it was locked. In desperation, he ran his hands on top of the drawer and felt around for something—anything—that would cut the lock. His hand brushed against what felt like a bolt cutter. Perfect! He activated it and swiftly pried the drawer open. A bright light blinded him from a glowing orb encased in a container. Even with training, Rem still struggled telling different cores apart from each other. He hated this new core technology; it all looked the same! “I assume this is a power core. Only one way to find out.” Rem stated. He pushed his way out of the closet and back to the door of the young voice. “I think I have a power core,” Rem shouted through the door. “Assuming they glow and all. Now walk me though how to replace one of these things.” “Wha--? You don’t know how to do this?” The voice began to get panicky. Despite the ship exploding around them, Rem found himself to be a tad irked. “Uh, no! You said you needed a medic, which is what I am! But I need to get through this door before I can treat ya!” “I ---- I needed a mechanic, not a medic! --- door IS the issue!” The voice yelled rather clearly. Rem stared blankly at the door for a few seconds. “Oh…” He came to his senses and started looking around the door for where the core could be placed. Quickly, he saw a box jutting out of the wall adjacent to the door. Using the bolt cutters, he wrestled the case open and, sure enough, a sparking power core protruded; it wasn’t giving off any light. Rem grabbed the handle and pulled as hard as he could. The battered core wouldn’t budge. He repositioned himself to where his back faced the core and his face looked out the window. His good hand grabbed the handle and he used both his arm strength and leg strength to pull as hard as he could. Still nothing. “I could’ve done this easily in my youth…” Rem grunted. He continued to try and force the core out of its socket to no avail. His eyes squinted at the window showing the rest of the fleet. He may have been facing it, but nothing our there particularly concerned him—not at first, anyway. Suddenly, a glint of light caught his eye: a missile rushed and rammed another capital ship, tearing it in two. Rem stopped and continued to gaze at the onslaught before him. “Missiles?!” He thought to himself. “But why? By whom? It can’t be Far Eden. Our own colony wouldn’t attack us! Would they? What could possibly be gained by destroying the Mandate fleet?!” Before he could work out an answer, another missile came into view and came closer…closer…closer… Rem realized the trajectory and dove back onto the metal floor. He landed right on his lame arm, which grew hot with agony as it hit the ground. The ship rocked yet again as a deafening explosion threw metal and debris in all directions. Shards rained down around Rem. The ship made an announcement over the barely functioning intercoms. “—zzzt Artificial—zzzzzzzt—avity offli—…” Rem began feeling a sense of weightlessness as he rose off the ground. He struggled to rotate back around to face the door, to which he found blasted open with smoke pouring between the seams—not a good sign. He attached the spare power cell to his belt next to his blaster and floated into the room. To his horror, he saw the young adult unmoving in the air. After taking his pulse, Rem realized the man was not breathing. He needed to perform CPR, but that wasn’t really possible in zero-gravity. Only one option was left: he needed to get to an escape pod in order to treat his new patient. “Now you need a medic,” Rem murmured. He grabbed the unconscious man with his good arm and flew across the ship as quick as possible. As best as he could, he used his legs to slingshot himself around the ship, avoiding all kinds of debris. Eventually, Rem viewed the escape pods several yards away. Just one more corridor… The ship rattled one more cry of death. “…zzzzzzzt—life suppo—zzzt—line.” Rem rolled his eyes as the situation continued to decay. He took one large, final breath, held it, and launched himself as far as he could. Both he and his patient zoomed through the corridor, rotating clockwise as they went, steadily approaching the escape pods. His face was turning slightly blue once they reached the pods. Strangely, only a few pods had jettisoned. At least a few perhaps made it out, but it didn’t sit well with Rem that so few were able to escape the surprise attack. He fumbled to put his hand at the center of the door all while balancing the young man on his shoulder. “Please work…please work…please…” he thought to himself. The reader scanned his hand as a blue square grid appeared in the center. For what seemed like eternity, his hand was slowly verified. The grid eventually went away and the door to the escape pod opened effortlessly. Without wasting any time, he threw his patient in the hold and followed suit. He closed the door, turned on gravity, and launched them to the surface of the planet. Both men were thrown to the ground as the sensation of heaviness swept over them. The fall was sudden and forceful, but he grimaced through the misery and sprawled the young man before him as he began CPR. The pod raced toward the planet of Far Eden, humanity’s last hope for a new beginning… Rem picked up one more good-sized rock from the dusty plains of Far Eden and moseyed on over to his wrecked escape pod. Delicately, he placed the rock on top of a mound of other rocks. After concluding that he gathered enough, he placed his hand gently on the pile and remained silent for a minute. “Rest in peace,” he whispered eventually. Rem squinted around at the alien world. Up above, a bright sun shone in pure radiance. In the sky was also some rings from a distant planet, providing wonderfully crafted white lines cutting through the blue atmosphere. It looked like it was painted by hand. The actual planet of Far Eden was less interesting: just rocks and sand for miles and miles. This…was the next Earth? Rem shook his head disappointingly. The Mandate made Far Eden sound like Humanity’s last hope to survive. They promised a paradise where the human race could rebuild what was lost and thrive once again. “They’re taking their sweet time getting this promised land up and running…bunch o’ slackers…” Rem grumbled to himself as he wiped sweat from his brow. Rem turned and burrowed through the broken escape pod to see if anything was worth keeping. Nothing of note. Only what he brought in the pod: a rifle, a bolt cutter, and a replacement power-core. As he was scouring, the ground trembled slightly below him. “Oh great,” Rem moaned. “They have quakes here too? Well, at least they’re not…” He turned around to see a metallic lance pop out of the ground. Then another. Then another, until a black robotic spider emerged from the shifting sands. The spider-looking corebot had four legs with a long central frame. Small obsidian spikes jutted out in all directions and in the center was a glowing red orb partially exposed. The top of the spider opened up and a blaster rotated out and pointed right at Rem. “…violent,” Rem finished. The spider gave a horrid shriek and started firing red lasers at Rem, who dove out of the line of fire. One of the red lasers grazed his shoulder and started a small flame on his shirt. Rem quickly patted it down and tried to scurry behind his makeshift grave for cover. Unfortunately, the spider nimbly shifted in the sands and had Rem back in its cross-hairs. Rem feared the worst when a large silver ball of energy suddenly rammed the spider, knocking several bits from its frame. Without thinking, Rem grabbed one of the rocks from the grave and threw it at the corebot. The rock directly hit the blaster atop the spider, hurling it and partially burying it in the sand a few feet away. Continuous white lasers pounded the spider from its flank. In a fit of desperation, the spider wailed again and charged Rem, who instinctively raised both his hands—even his lame right arm—to nullify the blow. But the attack never hit. The corebot seemed stuck in place, struggling against an unknown force. The spider eventually snapped in two. The head and legs collapsed in a pile, forcing sand to shoot up around Rem. He covered his eyes for a second and looked back to see the red core attached to some thick grappling hook. Rem studied the red orb. It was beautiful. Something inside swirled with life. He was amazed as he laid his hand on the volleyball-sized core. Strangely, and without warning, the ball somehow shrunk to an even smaller size—a size much easier to carry in one hand. “Huh? Wha-…What did I do?” Rem’s eyes grew wide as he held the ball up to his face. It was much lighter than he expected. The tether attached to the core became taut and tried to wrench the core from Rem’s fingertips. Rem refused to let go and looked to the horizon to see the source of the hook. The sun’s rays made it difficult to fully make out the the person—or thing—slowly approaching Rem. Despite Rem’s instinct to hide, he stood his ground, hoping whoever or whatever this was that helped him from certain death was ultimately friendly. For what seemed like forever, Rem eventually made out this thing to be a tank. It was by no means a traditional tank. For one thing, it was actually kind of cute! Unlike the spider, it wasn’t intimidating at all, as it was not plastered with black spikes. That being said, like the spider, it was a corebot. But this one had a purple core between its two treads and its head. It was about the same size as the spider as well. On its sides were the grappling hook and the blaster, both of which looked like poorly attached upgrades. On the front of the tank was a cracked screen which occasionally flickered with life. Rem thought he saw a smiling face—the kind you would put on a stick figure—but it was difficult to be sure. The two stood facing each other for a bit. “Dwooooooooo.” The corebot remarked. The grappling hook tugged once again on the red core in Rem’s hand. Reluctantly, Rem set the core down, and watched it be dragged to the tank, picked up, and, to Rem’s horror, the core was placed inside the tank’s own purple core. The red core vanished into the the purple essence, with no trace of ever existing. “Dwee Doo Wooo.” The tank continued. Rem stood stiff with mouth gaping open, trying to make sense of everything—anything. “Dwee Dee?” Rem eventually started laughing. “I—I…I don’t… I don’t understand… ANYTHING on this planet…” He waved his hands wildly in hopelessness. “This is nothing—absolutely nothing—of what I expected of this place.” Without warning, the blaster on the tank’s side fell to the ground. “Dwoooooooooo.” The tank used the hook to grab the blaster from the sandy ground. Then, it rolled up to Rem and held out the blaster to him. “Doo Dwid Dee?” “Oh no no no!” Rem pushed the blaster away. “I can’t help you fix that! I am not an engineer…or whatever you need.” He emphasized all his words. “I know nothing about your kind. For all I know you run on cuteness!” “Dwee Dee?” “I fix humans! I am doctor! DOCTOR! Take me to humans! HUMANS!” “Bzzzrt. Woooooo!” The tank wiggled around a bit closer to Rem. Rem stood in confusion for a bit before he slowly understood. He grabbed the power core, the bolt cutters, and the blaster before stepping on the tank’s back. The tank took off across the dunes to some distant place. Rem hoped for the best as he continued to try and communicate with the corebot. “So…you got a name?” “Dweeee Wooo Dwooooo.” “Uhh, yeah, I’ll just come up with something.” Rem rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. “Let’s just go with something classic…like Sherman. I’m going to call you Sherman. Sound good?” “Woooooooooo!” Rem gave a small chuckle and shrugged. This had become the most ridiculous assignment in his entire life. Hopefully, one of the colonists stationed here can explain all this nonsense. Needless to say, the nonsense continued for the rest of the journey. The route Sherman took was all over the place. Through caves, unused equipment storage areas, and even quicksand! Rem and Sherman did not come across any humans on their trek, but there were other corebots. Some of these bots Sherman avoided like a plague. And some Sherman casually strolled up to like lifelong friends. Most of the dangerous corebots were covered with obsidian spikes, but not all of them. Rem was constantly on edge whenever he saw another corebot. He did come to the conclusion that these corebots must have been designed to help with the colonization of this world. But why were some hostile? And what made them that way? What worried Rem most was the amount of distance they covered with no sign of human colonists anywhere. Shouldn’t humans be involved in their own colony? Machines and buildings were at least partially set up. But without any humans, what could Rem possibly do to get the project back on track?! He couldn’t fight as well as he could in his youth due to his lame arm. And he would have to somehow get all the machines operating again. He couldn’t even get a door open on a ship he spent years on! Without other humans, he would be doomed. Worse, he would be obsolete. Sherman eventually slowed down after passing a makeshift gate surrounded by a wall of rocks. Clearly, this little alcove in the mountains was a defensive position. Inside was a huge modified carrier. Rem’s heart skipped a beat. He actually knew what this was! This was called a crawler. It would be used as a mobile home for the colonists. If there was a human, he or she would be here! On the horizon, Rem noticed a large sandstorm approaching their direction. The wind around them was already growing aggressive. Rem took a long look at the crawler and noticed all the dents and rust covering the vehicle and tried not to get his hopes up. It looked like it had seen battle of some kind. At this point, as long as it protected them from the coming storm, he wouldn’t complain. Sherman rode up to the entrance and knocked in a special rhythm. The door slowly lowered in front of Rem. He took a deep breath, thanked Sherman, and walked in. Neither of them noticed that the crawler was being watched by an unknown pair of eyes. The crawler looked a little better on the inside. It certainly was not the most spacious of homes as it was one big room, but it had a computer, a storage unit for food and supplies, and a place for a corebot to stay. On the farthest wall, Rem’s eyes lit up. There in a cryogenic pod was a human being! Finally! Rem checked his vital signs; the man was healthy and stable, suprisingly. Rem heard an aggressive beep inside the crawler and turned defensively to see a large, ape-like corebot slam his arms down in anger. It’s red eyes and red core were flaring up. Sherman came rolling in spouting his gibberish and he and the other corebot discussed something heated. Rem eventually understood that he had invaded the territory of this corebot. “My apologies for intruding,” Rem began, trying to be respectful. Sherman seemed to know this corebot, so Rem had to be as diplomatic as he could. He laid his gun and bolt cutters on one of the nearby tables as a sign of peace. “This human means a lot to you, huh?” The red corebot nodded frantically. It continued to stare at Rem as he reached down and grabbed Sherman’s blaster and re-attached it with relative ease. Rem thought he saw another smiley face briefly appear on Sherman’s front monitor before fizzling out again. “I am a doctor. Don’t worry. Your human friend is safe. I’ll do my best to help him if he ever needs it. But first, I need some information. I have no idea what is happening here. Can you help me?” The Ape immediately began giving a long lecture in beeps and whistles. Rem shook his head in frustration as he gave a big yawn. His focus rudely shifted away from the conversation to something he could understand: the wind whistling louder and louder outside. The storm was close. As his concentration returned to the unintelligible garble the machine spouted, his impatience forced him to interrupt. “No no! Listen, I can’t understand anything you say. We need to find some other way to communicate, because I need answers!” The two corebots murmured at each other before the ape moseyed on to the storage area and pulled out some unused white paint. It grabbed a small metallic rod and dipped it in the paint and began drawing on the wall. Rem was amazed. The intelligence shown by the corebots was far greater than he could have imagined. A machine was creating art! Better yet, it was creating informative art! The picture showed a bunch of corebots of all shapes and sizes looking up at a unique looking corebot with a staff. That must have been their leader. Or perhaps the leader of the evil corebots. Maybe one specific corebot convinced the others to abandon their tasks and take over Far Eden! Rem started to understand. A civil war between the corebots was underway. “And all of the humans?” Rem asked cautiously. The ape hovered his painting rod up to the wall but had trouble thinking of what to draw. It eventually just turned to his friend sleeping in a cryogenic pod and put his large hands gently on the glass cover. Rem slowly was able to put some of the pieces together. To turn this place into a paradise would take years—hundreds and hundreds of years! Therefore, the colonists needed to cryogenically sleep in order to keep the project going forward for that long. So theoretically, all the humans would be in their crawlers safe and sound! What a relief they haven’t been attacked yet! As if on cue, the cryotube holding the human began to shake violently. The ape removed its hand quickly in a fearful panic. The lid slowly began to rise up, exposing the human to the world. Rem’s heart dropped. He had dealt with some cryo-stasis in the past, and the proper protocol for waking someone took a few days, sometimes weeks depending on the patient’s vital signs. To instantly open the pod would kill the patient in a matter of minutes! Rem rushed to try and push the lid back down; the ape followed suit. Rem’s mind was whirling. What else could he do?! He had only minutes! Something was malfunctioning! Wait! That’s it! The door malfunctioned on the ship, right? So perhaps he needed to change out the power core! He could change it out with the spare he carried! His eyes shifted to the cable connecting the cryotube to the crawler. He followed it around the perimeter of the inside of the crawler and noticed it went into the floor. Rem swiftly scanned the floor for a box like the one he saw next to the door on the ship. Nothing. Perhaps it is below the crawler! On its underbelly! It was now or never, so he grabbed the bolt cutters and rushed outside. The sand blasted Rem’s face with gusto, blinding him. The sandstorm had moved right on top of the crawler. Luckily, Rem’s destination was below him, so he dropped carefully to to the ground and slid under the crawler with the power core in hand. The sand swirled a bit, but with much less force. A mound was beginning to pile on one of the sides, creating a small barrier. Rem cautiously opened his eyes. He was thankful that he was relatively safe from the coarse irritance hovering in the air. Not to mention, he was thankful that the power core gave off light when charged. Had it not glowed, nothing would have been visible in this small nook under the crawler. The temperature dropped drastically as this area hadn’t been exposed to the sun in a long time. Rem tried not to let the coolness of sand distract him as he searched and, sure enough, he found the hatch. He pried it open with the bolt cutters and swallowed hard. Strangely enough, the power core looked fine! It was glowing and looked identical to the one he was carrying. Things were not looking good, but he was out of options, so he wanted to see this through, whether this worked or not! He took a deep breath and scanned the contents of the hatch. This time, he noticed a small button in the lower right corner. With nothing to lose, he pushed it and to his surprise, the old power core released and fell right on Rem. Was that button always there? Was that seriously all he had to do on the ship?! As quick as Rem could muster with one hand, he brushed the old core aside and attached the one he had been carrying for so long. The crawler hummed and Rem could hear muffled beeps and whistles from Sherman and the ape corebot. Rem began wiggling back into the storm when he heard a painful, metallic wail come from one of the corebots. He froze in fear. “Was that my doing?” Suddenly, a silver and black ape corebot was thrown in front of Rem. This new corebot was close enough for Rem to make out spikes all along the body and a unique crystallized-looking core. It was unlike anything he had ever seen! The corebot recovered swiftly, stood back up, and intercepted the attack that was apparently coming from both the red ape corebot and Sherman. Honestly, Rem was more frightened by his red friend than this newcomer. Such ferocity! It was the kind of ferocity that came from fierce devotion to another, and the desire—the passion—to protect something to your dying breath. Sparks joined the sand surrounding the combatants as they traded hits in succession. Sherman remained on the outskirts of the fight pelting the enemy with rapid fire. The red ape corebot eventually shouted and pounded the ground with both arms, sending out a wave of fire across the ground! Rem squirmed and twitched as the blast approached him . Luckily for him, Sherman moved directly between him and the flame, giving him ample protection from harm. Before Rem’s vision was blocked by Sherman’s frame, he noticed that light from the fire made the enemy’s core sparkle in thousands of different colors briefly before the sandstorm snuffed out all hues different from its own. Sherman continued circling the brawl, providing blaster fire. This allowed Rem to resume watching the fight from under the crawler, hidden away. He saw the red corebot connect another powerful hit on his enemy, forcing the prismatic corebot to let loose a small device from one of his hands. The enemy corebot knew it was losing, so it decided to flee. The red ape charged in hot pursuit. Rem did not waste any time. He wiggled out of his hiding spot and ran into the crawler. His heart dropped. The cryotube lid was closed, but the glass surrounding the lid was smashed. Rem further observed that sand was being blown into the crawler from above. When he looked up, there was a large hole in the ceiling now. One of the panels was peeled back. The other corebot must have entered and shattered the glass. Rem approached the cryotube carefully as an uneasy feeling crept over him. Did the prismatic ape corebot see him and Sherman enter? Was this human’s life at stake because of him? He laid two fingers of the neck of his new patient, praying for a pulse. “Rest in peace,” Rem croaked eventually. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed some data displayed on one of the screens around the cryotube, which said, “Error: Failed to reset due to breach in glass.” Rem clenched his one good arm. His plan would have worked… Several slow, methodical clanks echoed through the crawler. The red ape corebot stood adjacent to Rem, reached out its hand, and gently placed it on the broken lid. A few murmurs escaped the machine. To Rem, it sounded more like whimpering sobs. “I’m sorry…” Rem wanted to say; he tried, but he could only form the words with his lips. He watched in silence as the ape corebot intensely grabbed its painting stick from earlier and drew yet again. This time, it drew several corebots around a couple of cryotubes holding stick figures. The corebot turned to face Rem and whimpered some more before handing Rem a small remote. Rem scrunched his face at what he was given. “Did that other corebot drop this?” He asked. The red ape grunted and nodded its head. The item was a remote control for the cryotube holding the human inside. Rem had used one before—all doctors had some experience with it. Only the medical doctor assigned to the patient in cryosleep would have one. Since cryogenics can be bit volatile, doctors would monitor their patients and use the remote to adjust conditions accordingly. What the corebot was trying to tell Rem hit him like a ton of bricks. “If the enemy recovered the remotes for each colonist and traced which remotes go to which crawler, that would allow them to kill all the humans by just getting near the crawler! The colonists could be slaughtered in a matter of hours,” Rem proclaimed to the room. The ape corebot nodded yet again. Rem finally realized the machine’s request: to make sure what happened to his friend doesn’t happen elsewhere. “Do you know where other crawlers are?” He asked. The ape nodded firmly. “Sherman, do you know where other crawlers are?” “Dweee!” Sherman did his best to mimic nodding with his torso, but ended up throwing his blaster onto the floor again. “We need to split up and cover as much ground as possible. I’m not the fighter I once was, so I’ll go with Sherman over there. You seem to be able to handle yourself, Ape man,” Rem explained to the team as the red corebot re-attached Sherman’s blaster. “These remotes are synced up with the power core that runs the cryotube. All we need to do is switch out the core with another.” He handed one of his two cores to the red corebot, who took it gently. Rem went around gathering his stuff in haste. “Change out the core, and the remotes wont work. It’ll look like a malfunction. But in reality, the pod resets and is no longer synchronized with the doctor’s remote.” “We can go on indefinitely if we keep swapping out cores,” Rem finished. “We’ll try and meet you back here as soon as we can. Oh, and if you know of any other friendly corebots, you may want to warn them as well.” The red corebot nodded and pointed to himself. “Dun-can,” it beeped. “Good luck…Duncan,” Rem saluted respectfully. The storm was slowly dissipating and the sun was breaking through the dense clouds, as the team rushed to save as many humans as they could before the enemy corebots could get there first. “Dweeeeeeeeee!” Rem’s good arm tightened as he held onto Sherman for dear life. Sherman screamed as its treads zoomed across the valley floor. Rem used all his might to counteract the gravity trying to pull him away from his corebot friend. He was surprised a tank could go this fast! Though the sandstorm was over, sand continued to be thrown into the air due to the amount of laser fire hitting the area around the duo. A couple of enemy corebots, from behind and on the cliff side above, fired down on them. Perhaps Rem was going crazy, but the tone of Sherman sounded rather indignant. “How was I supposed to know the sandstorm would die down as we snuck through enemy territory! If I had known that, I wouldn’t have said to pick the fastest, most dangerous route!” A blue laser bolt exploded on the rocks near Rem, startling him. His ears rang, drowning out all other sounds as he bent his knees to try and take up less ground—and to use Sherman’s torso as cover. Their mission to save the sleeping humans was certainly off to a rocky start. Several screeches from enemy corebots echoed through the canyon as they tried to give chase. Fortunately, Rem and Sherman were able to extend the distance between their foes by a large margin. Rem’s eyes lit up as a crawler came into view off in the horizon. “Way to go, Sherman! We made it!” He proclaimed. Rem heard a muffled “Dwee Dooooo!” from Sherman. Once they arrived at the crawler, Sherman turned sharply, taking Rem off guard and launching him from the back of his corebot friend. Rem tumbled ferociously across the sand as Sherman gracefully ground to a halt. Now, Rem was dizzy, achy, and had ringing ears. “Gee, thanks for the warning, buddy…” he murmured. “Dweee!” Sherman clearly wasn’t used to having passengers. Rem remembered his mission and focused on the crawler. It looked in pristine condition—as pristine as something in the desert landscape can look, anyway. The most important thing was that it did not seem to be tampered with as of yet. “Deee Dweee Doo Dweee Dwooooooooo!” Sherman’s frantic speech confused Rem. “What nonsense are ya beeping about?” he quipped back. Sherman’s screen flickered several times showing a smiling face before it fired a silver blaster bolt passed Rem and into some large rocks adjacent to the crawler. Rem felt the breeze from the projectile on his face. He spasmed in shock. “Whoa whoa…” he blurted out. “Friendly fire!” Rem glowered at his friend, Sherman, who fired again at the rocks. Rem finally understood. “Oh...” he slowly got up, gained his bearings from all the commotion, and jogged toward the rocks. “Why didn’t ya just say so?” Without a moment to spare, Rem reached the rocks just as the ragtag corebots firing at them earlier came within eyesight. Rem placed his blaster on the rocks and waited in ambush. He closed his eyes briefly and took several deep breaths. His heart rate slowed, his focus aligned. The skills he learned on the battlefield so many years ago were coming back to him. As he reopened his eyes, Sherman began firing at the attackers; a few returned fire. For the first time, Rem got a good look at their enemies. There were four total: two blue-cored wolves, one yellow-cored spider, and a red-cored tank—all of whom had spikes all along their frames. Rem analyzed the situation carefully. For a tank with a loose blaster and extractor hook attached, Sherman was surprisingly nimble. It was pinning down one of the wolves easily. The white laser fire constantly pushed the blue wolf back. However, the tank laid down heavy suppressive fire against Sherman. Meanwhile, the spider’s focus seemed to be on finding Rem. The spider looked around the crawler and was starting to head right for the rocks where Rem was hiding. Rem charged up his blaster for a powerful first strike; he just needed to pick a target. The spider was the biggest threat to him, so he manuevered a bit to to get a better shot against his hunter. However, Rem was unsettled. He had only marked three corebots. What happened to the other wolf? In his new position, Rem saw out of the corner of his eye the final attacker. The other wolf had flanked around and looked ready to pounce on Sherman. Blue electricity circled around the wolf as it lunged in the air. Rem instinctively rotated and fired at the wolf with his charged shot. The bolt rammed the core of the wolf as it was in the air! The wolf corebot exploded. Bits of shrapnel rained from above on Sherman, the other wolf, and the tank. “DWEEEEEEEE!” Sherman’s battle cry rang over the combatants as he pushed forward and shot out his grappling hook toward the other, weakened wolf. The hook latched onto the blue core, making the wolf panicky. Sherman reversed and pulled on the rope as the wolf tried to claw free. Suddenly, the core flew out of the wolf’s frame; the wolf crumpled to the ground, lifeless. Meanwhile, the spider had found its prey. It scurried over to Rem and fired a yellow beam while also trying to jab him with one of its legs. Rem lunged out of the way and fired his blaster. The force kept the spider at bay for a brief moment until it took cover near the rocks Rem originally used. Rem struggled to juggle getting himself off the ground and fire his blaster—all with one arm! He eventually stood upright and starting backpeddling toward Sherman, while simultaneously shooting at the spider. His blue lasers didn’t seem as effective on the spider. The yellow corebot began glowing yellow all around, much like the blue wolf before it charged. The corebot then climbed onto the cliffside and hurled itself toward Rem, who lunged out of the way again. This time, however, an electric current shot out from the spider’s gun and hit Rem. Rem felt a surge of pain across his body. The pain itself was manageable; he’s been through worse. What took him off guard though was the fact that he felt paralyzed. Not just his lame arm, but his entire body just failed to function. He felt stuck on the ground, helpless. The yellow spider scuttled toward Rem and lifted its two front legs for an impaling strike. But the attack never came. A hook latched on to the yellow core, freezing the corebot in place. It kept trying to lunge forward, but to no avail. Sherman had forgone his own target to help Rem! Rem’s body quickly relaxed and was free to move again. Thank goodness that blast didn’t permenantly stun! Rem grabbed his blaster and fired—not at the spider looming over him, but at the tank attacking Sherman. The tank was already badly damaged, so a few well-placed shots to its core was enough to have it explode into a thousand pieces. Sherman continued the tug-of-war with the spider for a bit longer before eventually prevailing. The core sailed toward Sherman as the frame collapsed around Rem. Silence. “Dwoo?” Rem grunted as he slowly picked himself off the sand. He took a deep breath and slowly relaxed. “Thanks, Sherman.” “Dwoo Doo Dweeeeeee.” “Stand guard, will ya? This won’t take long.” Rem crawled under the crawler and, with the precision of an expert, unattached the old power core and replaced it with the one he was carrying. Although muffled, Rem could hear the machine inside working overtime to readjust to the new core. Success! Rem emerged from the underbelly of the crawler and jumped to his feet. “Operation: Passover is officially a go!” “Doooooooo?” A tone of confusion was readily apparent to Rem. “What? You don’t like it? All the daring missions have a name to it. Besides, I name everything else around here.” “Dweeee Deee Dweeeeeeeeeee Doooooooo Deeeee.” As Sherman beeped at Rem, it bent down and picked up the remaining blue core and yellow core shining brightly atop the dunes. Once again, Rem observed—rather uncomfortably—as Sherman placed the other cores into its purple core. The other cores disappeared without a trace. Rem shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that…” he mumbled aloud. “Maybe instead of ‘Sherman,’ I should call you something like ‘Canni-ball,’ eh? Eh? Hahahaha.” Rem had a silly grin plastered on his face. “Dwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.” “Aurghhhhh! You know what? What does a tank know about humor, anyway? Like you could do better.” “Dweeeeee Dweeeeeeeeeee!” Rem got back on Sherman’s frame as they rode, once again, across the desert to another human in need. “Dweee Deee!” Sherman made a hard right and slammed on the brakes, drifting to a halt at the base of another crawler. This time, Rem braced himself and was able to keep his balance aboard the tank. Once at a full stop, his feet touched the sandy dunes with grace. “Thanks for warning me this time.” Rem smirked as he moseyed near the crawler. He quickly got on his hands and knees and pulled himself under the crawler and extracted the current core with a new one. Too easy. Rem returned to the scorching heat of Far Eden’s environment. The sun was starting to set, creating an orange and blue hue across the landscape, but it certainly didn’t lower the temperature at all. “Dwoooooo Deeee Dwoooo!” Sherman squealed loudly and wagged its frame violently. Rem turned to see what the fuss was about and saw a figure off in the distance rushing toward their position. Rem squinted his eyes, hoping to get a better view on this unknown figure. The way it moved across the sand seemed a bit familiar. Sherman turned sharply and shot a blaster bolt at some rocks nearby. Rem couldn’t help but chuckle. “What? Again?” “Dwoo.” “Well, I guess if it is not broken…” Rem hurried to the rocks and took up a sniping position. He placed his gun steadily on the rocks and waited. Drowsiness started to take him as he stopped moving. He did his best to fight it off and remained focused, but it was becoming more and more difficult. Rem was simply exhausted. Sherman moved its way to the front of the crawler, ready to defend if need be. Its screen continued to flicker on and off. Not to mention, its attachments—the blaster and the extractor—wobbled to and fro with each sudden move. Rem finally saw how frail the old corebot was. The fact Sherman could still function was impressive. The mysterious figure was close now. Rem was finally able to make out the frame. Before them was the large ape with the prismatic core, with spikes all around. If Rem wasn’t mistaken, this was the corebot that killed the human Duncan was guarding! The corebot also seemed to recognize Sherman, because it stopped in its tracks and gave a ferocious roar and pounded the ground with its large hands. Sherman countered with a menacing cry of its own and showered the enemy corebot with white blaster fire. The ape used one hand to cover its face as it jumped into the air and landed near Sherman, who reversed out of the way and continued to lay down suppressive fire. The shots seemed to be doing a large amount of damage to the corebot. Rem, in the meantime was lining up a shot. Sherman twisted suddenly to secretly give Rem a better angle on their foe. Unfortunately, the sudden jolt detached Sherman’s blaster. It fell lifeless to the ground around the fight. The ape laughed. Rem shook his head. “That’s unfortunate,” he whispered to himself. He began charging up his blaster for a powerful first strike, similar to last time. Once fully charged, Rem released the trigger and watched as a big, blue ball of energy zoomed across the desert toward the ape. Rem narrowed his eyes in anticipation as it got closer and closer and closer… The shot went in front of the ape’s face plate and continued on its trajectory. He missed. The ape’s face spasmed back in a fit of surprise, albeit completely unharmed,and then looked directly at Rem. “THAT’S UNFORTUNATE!” Rem grumbled loudly to himself. Sherman yelled loudly once again and rammed into the ape, knocking it slightly off-balance. Rem continued to hide behind the rock and fired mercilessly. But his firing didn’t really help. His weapon seemed to do an inconsequential amount of damage! He wished Duncan was here to help; the ferocity shown by that red corebot seemed unparelleled. How could they muster that kind of attack? The prismatic ape eventually leaped near Rem and smashed the rocks into oblivion. As small pebbles littered the ground and grazed Rem’s face, he dove out of the way and crawled as quick as he could. Sherman continued to ram the ape, but with each consequent attack, the less phased the ape seemed to be. The ape jumped back on Rem again. With no cover this time, the ape successfully landed a solid sweeping blow on Rem, throwing him quite a ways into the air. The blaster he was holding shot out of his hand and flew in a different direction from Rem. He landed firmly on the sand. Pain coarsed through his body and his vision wobbled, making it difficult to decipher what was happening. By the time his vision returned to normalcy, his heart got stuck in his throat. Before him, he saw Sherman getting destroyed on the sand by the ape. The ape’s strikes were devastating to the old tank frame. Sherman screamed in pain. The ape noticed Rem trying to inch his way to his friend’s aid and raised up both of its hands. Sparks of silver bolts coursed between the two fists. The ape gave a shrill laugh. “Sherman!” Rem shouted in desperation. Sherman’s frame was pinned helplessly to the ground. The screen flickered more than ever. And even then, Rem could have sworn he saw the old corebot give Rem a smile. Even then. The attack came down hard on Sherman. A bright light spread across the battleground. Part of it hit Rem. He was blinded temporarily, but even when his sight returned, he couldn’t see colors. First, he was temporarily paralyzed and now he was suddenly color blind!? These corebots certainly knew how to mess with humans. Even with no color, he could see the remains of Sherman’s tank frame, scattered into a bunch of pieces on the sandy ground. Already, the wind was burying some debris. In the middle of the rubble, Sherman’s core remained intact, still swirling with energy. The ape picked up the core off the ground and laughed maniacally again. Rem’s heart dropped as the core got smaller in its hand. He knew what was going to happen. “No! Don’t!” The ape slowly placed Sherman’s core to its own. Rem watched in horror as Sherman’s purple core was assumed by the ape’s prismatic core. Sherman was no more. “SHERMAN!!” Rem yelled. His adrenaline kicked into overload. His heart was racing. His mind was whirling. And his eyes were menacing. He reached and grabbed the bolt cutters from his belt. With fire in his veins, Rem charged the ape and leaped onto its frame. Taken off guard, the ape convulsed in surprise as it attempted to break free. It moved around the crawler trying to remove his attacker. Rem positioned himself on the ape’s shoulder and used his good hand to ram the bolt cutters into the enemy frame. Sparks flew and the ape wailed in pain and frustration. It eventually found Rem and threw him off with force. Rem flew through the air once again. As he landed on the ground, he tumbled about clumsily. As the world slowly stopped spinning, Rem reached out and his hand found something metal. He turned his face and saw he was near the remains of Sherman’s frame. He started quickly shifting the sands hoping to find something that could be of assistance. Sure enough, Rem found the blaster that was normally attached to Sherman. He pointed and fired the white lasers at the ape. To Rem’s surprise, the lasers were doing insurmountable damage to his attacker! These bolts were much stronger than his own gun! “Thanks, Sherman…” He whispered as he stood up and continued firing. The ape leaped back onto Rem, forcing him to the ground once more. The ape pounded the ground with its fists in quick succession. Rem rolled and dodged as best he could, all while charging up a powerful shot. Sand sprung from the ground and was slowly covering his face and eyes, blinding him. Without being able to see, one thrust hit Rem right in the chest. The pain was excruciating! He felt himself choking and his body convulsed in agony. In one last attempt, Rem brought the blaster to the corebot's chest and fired. The huge, charged-up energy blast rammed the ape with enough force to knock him into the air. Unfortunately, the blast exploded so close to Rem that he felt some of the effects. Rem had trouble as he tried to stand back up. The blast and the force of the punch had left him numb and dazed. Even breathing burned his torso! He touched his stomach and was met with crippling effects. His diagnosis: internal bleeding. He turned to look at his attacker and it was in a worse condition. Parts were flung about, its legs were partly blown off and gizmos whirled inside the beast, working overtime to keep it alive as it tried to crawl away to safety. Rem picked the blaster back up and carefully walked over. Color was beginning to return to his vision. The effects of the corebot’s color-blindness attack were wearing off. The ape then turned to Rem and held up a doctor’s remote—the same remote used to open the cryo-tubes housing the humans. The ape did its best to laugh one more time as it pressed the button. Nothing. It pressed it several more times in desperation. The only noise was the wind in the background. “I don’t think so,” Rem taunted to the ape. Each word burned his insides, but he continued. “You’re not killing any more of my patients.” He lifted his weapon and charged one final strike. The ape howled in agony as the blast finally destroyed the frame, leaving nothing but the prismatic core in the sands. Silence. Rem took a few more shots at the core, trying to destroy it. Alas, each shot bounced harmfully off. Rem shook his head in frustration as he coughed profusely. “I’ll just let the sand bury you.” Rem limped back over to Sherman’s remains and stared at his friend. After a moment of silence, he reached into his pocket and took out his favorite trinket: the Purple Heart Medal. He rubbed it in his hands for a few seconds before tossing it into the middle of Sherman’s remains. “Rest in peace…” he muttered. He coughed a bit more and turned away. The adrenaline pumping through his body subsided. Aches, both old and new, returned. Drowsiness crept back over him. Maybe he should rest. So tired… His hand touched the power core still on his belt. No, he still had a job. There were still humans that were in danger. He needed to keep going—whatever the cost. He limped his way to the horizon. He had no idea where he was going. He just picked a direction and hoped to find another crawler. Or, more likely, he would find his doom. So tired… Rem peered out of the cave he took shelter in. The cave jutted above the ground on some hill he had found. It was enough of a climb to give Rem difficulty, but not enough to be impossible for someone in his condition. He tried to make it back to Duncan’s crawler, but he was lost, and in his state, he couldn’t afford to wander around in hopes of finding it. His hands rested on his stomach, completely motionless. Rem tried to fiddle with the fingers on his good hand a bit, but his muscles felt paralyzed. Breathing was the only function he could still operate as his head laid on a rock like it was a pillow. He took deliberate slow breaths as he gazed into the night sky. The breaths were shallow and eccentric. No two breaths matched. And each inhale made him wince. The pain seemed to be subsiding a bit, but not because of healing. To Rem, his body was just getting numb; the ability to feel anything was diminishing. It felt like he laid there for an eternity. He lost track of time. It was still dark out, so maybe it was the same night. Perhaps he slept a full day. It was impossible to tell at this point. Besides, that’s not what Rem was thinking about. Rem’s focus was absorbed by the sky. And what a sky it was! The stars shone across the horizon, perfectly complimenting the rings from a nearby planet that still felt gracefully handwoven across the painted canvas. The night sky also included orbiting asteroids, shooting stars, and purple nebulae. Many people on the ship before reaching Far Eden stared out into the expanse of space and were awed. Not Rem. He was never one for sights—until now. The view from his perch captivated him and he couldn’t look away even if he wished to. Rem knew he was losing it when he noticed that the luscious blue and black sky that covered Far Eden made its sandy, rocky terrain even look beautiful. There was a uniqueness about it now. The rocks now felt gracefully sculpted by the wind and sand. Cliff sides and rock faces had a story to tell. The world, for the first time, felt inviting. Rem’s closed eyes shifted quickly from side to side. He could feel himself drifting farther and farther. As Rem forced his eyes open, he surprised himself by doing something he hadn’t done in a long while: imagine. He imagined a colony of humans below his perch, going about daily life. Some were harvesting fresh produce from lush crops, while children played hide-and-seek among some rocks. Off in the distance, he saw a girl petting her corebot dog while it wagged its metal tail. There was no fear nor worry in his dream. Just life… …And abundant life at that. “The Promised Land,” Rem gasped to himself. “I see it now.” Reality slowly crept in and reminded him of the danger that remained out there. The rebellious corebots were still hunting the humans, and only a few seemed to be able to defend against the onslaught. Rem hoped the humans he rescued would be able to fix all this. He hoped the future was in good hands. He hoped he did enough. His eyes slowly descended back behind his eyelids. His breathing eased up. Soon after, he surrendered unto peaceful sleep, accompanied by his more cheerful dreams of hope and a future for the promised land of Far Eden. |
About the AuthorMy name is Trent. I occasionally write for fun. I'm actually an Accountant in the "real world." |