Rise in Revolution (Chapter Twenty-Seven)
May. 31st, 2016 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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saladloveMy lovely friend Monique was kind enough to beta this chapter, and will likely be doing so from now on. ^^
Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
World map: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/Kaldri
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Choices
Outskirts of main city, Sector SOV. March 19, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Shawn gripped his shotgun tighter as Nine glanced back at him and jerked his head for the group to follow. He double- and triple-checked that the gun was ready to fire at the slightest hint of danger, which wasn’t far off. Ahead of him, the cyborgs led the way, led on by arm waving from Emma in the distance. Kyir, Zahnra, and M walked beside and behind him, as did Cap, Fan, and Tanadin.
He wasn’t a huge fan of this plan, but he was willing to play his part. They were going to take out a cyborg patrol, then the group would split- some of them would race off a ways away and destroy another building before running back to the tunnel while the rest would follow Cap to where she was sure an old demon hunter weapon stash remained undisturbed since she had last seen it. She insisted that there were maybe one or two dozen weapons, some of them guns with ammunition. That had been enough to convince Nine to accompany them- them being Cap, Fan, and Tanadin- to the site, while Seven, Shawn, Emma, Kyir, Zahnra, and M went to blow up a building.
Shawn hoped that Cap was right, as he wasn’t too fond of being the only guy other than the cyborgs with an actual gun.
His breath caught in his throat as he saw the patrol- a three thousand unit flanked by a two thousand unit on each side. He raised his gun but knew he couldn’t hit them from this distance- it mostly just made him feel mildly safer. Seven and Nine raised their own ranged weapons and, seconds later, three bullets shot out.
Both two thousand units stumbled and one collapsed, dead. The other whipped around and readied his weapon, shouting a warning to the three thousand unit beside him. Nine and Seven charged in, dodging the projectiles sent their way. M and Kyir weren’t far behind.
Shawn silently wondered how Kyir fought cyborgs with nothing but speed and a sword as he advanced, slower, with the others, gun at the ready. He watched as the two cyborgs on their side immediately focused on the three thousand unit while Kyir and M dispatched the two thousand with little effort. Shawn’s finger hovered over the trigger of the shotgun but he didn’t fire, not wanting to risk hitting his allies.
A well-placed shot from Nine finished off the three thousand unit. Kyir immediately made a hand motion for the groups to split and shot off down the street to the right. Shawn followed, tense and feeling his hands shake more and more with every step he took. He found himself wishing he was going with Nine and the others to go find the weapons supply- it was a slightly less dangerous mission and, he realized, he wasn’t ready for this kind of thing.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever be.
~~~
Cap skidded to a stop beside a very, very familiar building, one with two stories and a balcony on the second floor. She shivered as she remembered what had happened the last time she had been there, but she tried to shove it aside.
“Here.” She pointed at the ground. “There’s an entire chest full of weapons buried down here. I don’t know what the demon hunters did to it to keep it invisible to the scanners, but it was there last time I was here.”
“How long ago was that?” Nine asked her, already kneeling down to start digging.
“Five years ago.” Cap helped him dig, Fan and Tanadin quickly joining in alongside them. “I doubt it’s been disturbed since.”
Within a minute they encountered the wooden surface of the chest. It glimmered faintly purple where it was touched, betraying its magical nature. Nine hauled it out of the ground and set it down, looking it over.
“Can you carry it?” Tanadin asked anxiously. “If not, then-”
“I can carry it,” Nine assured. He moved to pick it up but Cap stopped him.
“Wait.” She stepped forward and placed her hand on the sturdy iron lock, whispering the passphrase. It clicked quietly and unlocked. Cap opened the lid and hesitated, looking at the chest’s contents. There were about ten guns of various types within, as well as a few crossbows and some melee weapons. Fan immediately seized a crossbow off the top of the pile and grabbed the matching bolts, throwing her inferior weapon in.
Cap’s eyes were locked on a particular weapon, but part of her wouldn’t let her take it. Her muscles were frozen and she couldn’t seem to move.
“Take it,” Atar hissed from where he floated beside her. “It’s the only thing you’re good with. It’s the only weapon you know you can use.”
“You died to it,” Cap whispered, so quietly that only Nine could hear her as Fan and Tanadin argued about weapons. “I can’t-”
“Cap Jones!” Mentor barked. “Listen to him!”
“Take it!” Atar growled. “You need it.”
“I shot you with it! Doesn’t that bother you?” Because it bothers me.
“It was that or be turned into a damned cyborg and you knew what I wanted. Take. The damn. Gun.” Atar’s blank white eyes glowed faintly in anger.
Cap took a deep breath, unlocked her muscles, and took the sniper rifle.
“Let’s go,” she mumbled, taking the ammunition as well. “It’s a long way back to the tunnel.”
~~~
It was late on the twentieth when a group consisting of Seven, M, Tanadin, Shawn, and Cap returned from a mission. They had been sent out half an hour after a different group- Nine, Kyir, Zahnra, Geek, and one of the earth elementals- and arrived back much later. As they re-entered the tunnel, Nine immediately stepped forward to get Seven and Tanadin’s attention.
“You might want to go see Kyir. He’s in one of the makeshift rooms a few of the elementals made.”
Seven blinked. “Why?”
“He’s...got something you might find interesting. I’ll let him tell you the story because when I tried to explain last time, Fan almost shot me.”
Tanadin and Seven exchanged glances before hurrying off to Kyir’s makeshift temporary workshop. Tanadin knocked, but received no answer. She knocked again.
“Kyir, I can hear you swearing in there, so you might as well let us in!”
“Fine, fine, come in,” Kyir grumbled. “If you must.”
Tanadin opened the door and stared.
Kyir and Scara both stood next to a table that was home to an unconscious cyborg. Her hair was matted with blood and both the table and floor were red with it, but any apparent wounds that she had previously were gone. Kyir was fiddling with a control panel in the cyborg’s arm and swearing occasionally as he worked. Scara stood by the cyborg’s head, hands glowing faintly and shaking her head as she tried to heal a wound she knew was there but couldn’t find.
“Kyir,” Tanadin said slowly, “what the fuck.”
“Nine hit her pretty hard on the head and it knocked her out for a short time instead of killing her,” Kyir explained. “And I figured, why not try to repair her? She’s a two thousand unit and I’ve already cut her connection to the Mainframe, but she’s a little messed up right now and hasn’t woken up yet. Any progress over there, Scara?”
“Not yet,” she grumbled. “My powers aren’t usually used for damage beyond bone.”
“Concussion?” Seven guessed.
“Her skull was a little dented too. Nothing Scara couldn’t fix.”
“That was hard!”
Seven circled the unconscious cyborg a few times and quietly read her unit number- 2339-α- aloud. “Let me know if she wakes up. She could be useful.” With that, he left the room.
“Sometimes I wonder if excitement is an emotion he has,” Tanadin muttered. “I think this is great. A third cyborg could be really useful.”
“A two thousand wouldn’t do us much good. She couldn’t take down much of anything.”
“Hmph! Try being optimistic for once in your life, would you?”
“Optimism? What’s that?” Kyir glanced up at her through his shades, raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, sarcasm boy. What parts of our new friend here are robotic?”
“Both arms from the elbow down and her left eye. Overall, not a lot. That’s pretty standard for a two thousand, though.” Kyir fiddled with something in the control panel before shutting the metal plate, growling in disgust. “I can’t get this damn arm working properly again for the life of me. It’s pissing me off. It can’t use half of its unique functions and most of what I need to repair is back at IAL. Or, alternatively, under the control of SOV.”
Tanadin nodded. “Keep me updated, okay? I want to know if she does so much as talk in her sleep. Got it?”
“Yeah, yeah, got it. Now get out.”
~~~
Tanadin yelped and sat up as a small electric shock woke her.
“She’s up,” Kyir hissed before darting out of the room. Tanadin quickly scrambled to her feet and followed him, almost running right into Seven when she charged in the door. She sidestepped to get around him and get a look at the cyborg.
2339-α was sitting up on the table, looking around at them curiously with a blank expression on her face. Her eyes, red cybernetic left and brown natural right, passed over their faces as she watched them silently. She had short black hair and looked to be from somewhere in Vos-tar.
The room was quiet for about two minutes before the cyborg finally spoke. “Are we going to stare at each other all night or are you going to explain where I am and what is going on?”
“Okay, so you can speak. So you’re not totally broken.” Kyir circled her a few times. “You were one of the Mainframe’s units until we freed you. 2339-α. You’re going to need a new name after this.”
“Do I?” She looked down at her hands and blinked a few times as if they didn’t belong to her. “I...I don’t remember anything.”
“That’s normal,” Seven assured. “You will remember when you are prompted properly to.”
“Will I? I feel like my mind is completely blank.”
“Well, you’re talking to us, so that’s a good sign,” Tanadin reasoned. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure something out.”
“Wait, shit. Where’s Nine? He wanted to see her too.” Kyir glanced around the room.
Tanadin jerked her thumb at the door. “Go get him.”
Kyir glared at her for a few seconds before leaving, grumbling about having to do everything himself. Tanadin rolled her eyes. “Pissbaby.”
“I heard that!” Kyir shouted from the hallway.
“Shh! You’ll wake everyone up!” Tanadin snapped. “It’s hard enough to get to sleep in these stupid rooms as it is!” To prevent walking between IAL and SOV multiple times a day, the earth elementals had quickly created some temporary rooms for the rebellion leaders to crash in until they could capture the train station and retrieve the rest of the rebels from IAL. Trying to get that many people down a long and small tunnel would be a nightmare and take far too long, so they had to keep their attacks small while their numbers were still down.
It sucked, Tandin reflected as Kyir brought Nine into the room. It made their job a lot harder than they had hoped it would be.
Nine immediately sat down next to the two thousand unit. “Hey. It’ll be okay, alright? It’s really confusing at first, I know. But it helps to have other friendly cyborgs there to remind you how to do things. You’ll get the hang of this soon.”
“Maybe,” Kyir added. “Your right arm isn’t totally functional- it works like a regular arm but I’m missing the parts to fix it to do much else- and you’re only mostly recovered from a concussion and having a couple of skull bits cracked.”
She blinked. “How did that happen?”
Nine grinned sheepishly. “Woops. I had intended to kill you but it’s lucky I didn’t, huh?”
“Why were you trying to kill me?”
“You were part of a Mainframe patrol. Right now it’s kind of my job to kill them. When we saw you were still alive but incapable of doing anything, we decided to bring you back here and see if we could save you.”
“Hopefully you’ll be useful, as you’re the one who’s been taking up all my mechanical parts,” Kyir muttered. “You’re my primary resource drain and at the moment I don’t have the resources to spare.”
“Stop being an asshole and congratulate her on being alive without making her guilty about needing all those parts to save her!” Tanadin snapped.
Kyir grumbled.
“Can you stand?” Scara asked the cyborg, ignoring everyone else around them.
“Um...maybe?” 2339 swung her legs down from the table and carefully shifted to stand. Nine steadied her as she swayed. “N-no. Not well.”
“You can do it,” Nine assured. “Look. Steady your legs. Okay. I’m going to let go.”
“Wh-what? No! Don’t-”
“It’ll be okay. Look.” Nine carefully stepped away from her, leaving her standing shakily. “See? You’re okay. Try taking a step forward.”
She fell and both seven thousand units moved to catch her. “Okay. Maybe you’re not ready for that yet.”
2339 shook her head and let Nine place her back on the table. Nine turned to the group and shooed them away. “I think you guys are making her nervous. Shoo! Go away! It’s late, and you need sleep.”
“I don’t need to sleep,” Seven informed him.
“Yeah, yeah, rub it in, why don’t you. Go stand guard or something.”
~~~
Tac almost screeched in surprise when she came around a corner in the tunnel and came face-to-face with an unfamiliar cyborg.
“Woah, woah, it’s okay!” The cyborg held up her robotic hands in surrender. “I’m on your side! I’m new! It’s okay!”
Tac calmed her racing heart, taking a deep breath. “Okay, okay. You just startled me is all.”
The cyborg grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. I’ve been doing that all day today.” She took a step forward and stumbled, catching herself on the wall. “Oh, dammit.”
Tac frowned. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she confessed. “I think I’ve still got a slight concussion from Nine hitting me in the head. He tried to kill me originally, but Kyir had the idea to bring me back here and cut my connection to the Mainframe. He’s a disagreeable man, but he saved my life, unfortunately. I like Scara better. She and Nine have been nothing but helpful.”
Tac nodded. “They’re like that. Do you want to sit down? You don’t look too steady.”
“Yeah, I…” The cyborg’s human eye shut. “My ears keep ringing and I don’t...I don’t feel well.”
Tac moved out of the way of the doorway and urged the cyborg inside, practically pushing her into a chair. “Better?”
“A little. Thank you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Um, well...I don’t remember what it was before, but my number is 2339-α. I don’t...really have a name yet, but Kyir’s been calling me Fall because that’s all I seem to do. Who are you?”
Tac frowned. “That’s not particularly nice of him. And my name’s Tac.”
She shrugged. “I don’t mind it. It’s better than ‘hey, you’ or something.”
“Fall, then?”
“Yeah.” Fall shrugged. “It’ll do.” She blinked and looked down at Tac’s hands as if noticing them for the first time. “Wait, hang on! Are you a cyborg too?”
Tac glanced down at her hands self-consciously and crossed her arms to hide them. “Not really. I lost my hands to a three thousand unit.” She shivered at the memory. “Kyir made me new ones, but…”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Fall held out her own metal hands. “We’re not so different, then.”
Tac hesitantly shifted to hold her own hands next to Fall’s. Hers were clearly constructed in more of a hurry, out of inferior materials, but they weren’t dented like Fall’s right forearm was.
Her moment of observation was ruined when Mars barged into the room.
“Hey, I heard that I could find the new cyborg here!” She grinned and stepped forward, extending her hand to shake. “Hi. I’m Mars.”
“I go by Fall.” The cyborg shook her hand. “There’s so many people to get to know.”
“You’ll figure us out, don’t worry.” Mars glanced over at Tac. “I’m glad to see that you’re making friends instead of just drinking in the corner. This revolution’s good for you.” With that, she was gone.
“Rude,” Tac muttered. Fall stared after Mars.
“Did you notice how pretty she was? Like...wow.”
“Oh, great. Mars has seduced another lady with her ‘charms’.” Tac rolled her eyes. “She sells alcohol for a decent price if you need it. Not that I ever do.”
Fall raised an eyebrow. “Sure you don’t. Anyway, I’ve got a blood filter, so it wouldn’t have any effect on me.” She stopped and blinked in confusion. “How do I know that?”
Tac shrugged. “Nine mentioned the cyborgs having associative memory or something. You don’t remember until properly prompted, and I think you just naturally- well, not really naturally, but whatever- know stuff about yourself and your enhancements.”
“Really? Huh. Well, my right arm isn’t working right. It should be able to do all sorts of stuff, but...”
“You might want to see Kyir about that.”
She made a face. “He doesn’t have the parts, he said, and I don’t really want to deal with him.” She glanced at the door again. “Hmm.”
Tac rolled her eyes. “If you want to go back to Nine or chase after Mars or whatever, go for it. I was going to go find Shawn anyway.”
Fall nodded and shakily got to her feet. “Okay. Thank you for being friendly, Tac.”
“Anytime, Fall.” The cyborg smiled at her and left, leaning slightly on the wall as she went.
Tac leaned back in her seat.
Things were getting stranger and stranger by the day.
