Escape from Metal
Chapter 24: The Metal Surface and a Burning Core

2 Days earlier. Several hours from the main rebel base.

It had been several weeks since Sol completed her last assignment. Killing those survivors and nearly losing her life in the process. Going back to the machines was sobering in a strange way. Once she got back, she was greeted by nothing more than a mission complete, new clothes and sent to her quarters to await the body rejuvenating drugs.

She was quite happy to say the least. She had finally been unfrozen and sent to her first mission. Her targets were a man with a homemade harpoon gun and a woman that was with him. Not much of a challenge for her and the hunter.

After she waited in her quarters for a few minutes, she noticed something off in her ordinarily uniform room. One of her drawers was uneven. Sol much like her room was a person who tried to keep everything as ordered as possible. As Sol got closer, she saw a paper was sticking out of the corner of a drawer. She snatched the paper out of the drawer, in that paper she saw something, something that shattered everything she had known since she had been unfrozen.

She and her hunter set off without the machine’s knowledge. It was not out of the ordinary for her and the Hunter to go on independent patrols as long as they stayed within communication range. They headed off towards one of the sectors that had been affected the most by the machines withdrawal.

She thought about what the letter said many times as she travelled. Sol had never felt so lost and free at the same time. The implications of the contents of the letter shattered everything she was doing and why she was doing it.

The letter in question was a record of all her missions, not just the supposed first one she had recently had, the amount of people she killed and how many other hunters had been put on ice permanently for disobeying orders. They would probably only wake up in several hundred years, if their bodies could sustain such a prolonged freezing.

She had sought revenge against the other people on account of what they had done to her. Not only for the machine’s sake and also because she wanted to for the pain they had caused her.

Now… now however they had betrayed her too. They had lied to her for all this time, she had thought the machines were her only friends. With the rebellion she was finally able to repay them for their kindness, but it was all a façade.

The so-called rejuvenating drugs only a mean to block their memories and to keep them subservient. Keeping that in the early stages of I want to fight. They would always feel like this if every mission was their first.

No matter according to the note she had collected the map she currently held in her possession would lead her to the last major remanent of the humans. Apparently, she got it from two missions ago.

Must have belonged to the targets she killed. As well as a genuine gun, well not exactly it was handmade, but it would still do the job.

The note she wrote also detailed where she had stashed a book that contained more detail than the letter. Her thoughts, who she killed and maybe how she had lost her eye.

All had been going smoothly until one night while she was eating some of the rations, she had taken with her around a makeshift campfire. She heard a gigantic screeching crash not too far from her. She and the hunter quickly set out to investigate the source of the crash.

It only took them a couple of minutes to get to the source of the noise. It wasn’t too hard to find with all the dust it had kicked up in the crash.

Sol would have to be careful, she had no idea what the crash was. Mostly likely a rouge squadron of machines or perhaps an automated ship trying to follow a preprogrammed route. There was a third and worse option, the machines had followed her and were coming after her.

She was easily replaced there were hundreds of human hunters ready to take her place, surely, they would not waste their limited resources on finding only her. If they did, she would definitely die.

“Hunter can your sensors detect anything surrounding the crash site.”

The hunter stared at silently at Sol for a moment.

“No anomalies detectable. Debris of crash object interfering with interior and exterior scans. Visual inspection is required.”

“Very well, continue scanning and tell me if you find anything interesting.”

“Affirmative.”

Sol crested the impact crater as she treaded lightly and slowly. Her knives were drawn she was most ready for almost anything. Unless it was the machines, she wasn’t sure if she could face them and win.

Sol listened carefully and tried to hear anything amongst the creaking and clanking of the metal wreck. She couldn’t hear anything. She listened again. This time stopping completely and closing her eyes. She heard a several coughs, they sound like a man.

Sol could technically get closer to see what was happening, but she preferred to know what was happening before she entered an unknown situation.

As she got closer, she could see a vague figure of a man standing between the dusty haze. Seeing her chance, she ran behind him and put her knife to his throat.

“Quiet, don’t move.” She whispered in his ear.

“Oh alright.” A polite robotic voice answered.

Startled by the machine she leapt a backwards.

“What…” Sol said taking a moment to think. “So, the machine did send its lackeys after me.”

“I’m terribly sorry there must be some sort of misunderstanding.” Nio said.

“You see I and my companions have come from the…”

“Shut up. I don’t care. You are a machine and that means I can’t trust you, you might send a signal to the others and frankly I don’t want to go back there.”

“Well, if you would only give me a mo…”

“Nio, who are you talking to.” Ben said as he came coughing out of the crashed ship.

“Previous target required. Recalculating survivability odds from fall into abandoned recycling section.

0%.

Updating target threat level.

Response exterminate.”

Without any hesitation or thought the hunter charged at Ben all four of his blade-arms ready to strike.

Ben however was ready for the hunter. The exoskeleton that he was wearing not only allowed him to walk normally but also gave him speeds far beyond normal human limits. Much to the hunters’ surprise as it struck at Ben with its arms he moved to the side with minimal effort.

Seeing no other choice now but to fight Sol threw two of her throwing knives a Ben.

Sol’s eyes widened as Ben dodged her knives.

Sol smiled.

“And what are you so happy about?”

“Finally, I get a challenge.” She said as she unsheathed her two knives.

“Look lady, I know you are this ultra-killer or something, but I don’t really want to fight.”

“Too bad.” She said as she and the hunter started charging at Ben.

Before either of them could reach him, B.T. jumped from the top of the ship between them. It was such a thunderous sound it made both Sol and the hunter stop and reevaluate their situation. Afterall B.T. was fairly large.

“Very well we won’t fight. Stand down hunter. We don’t obey the machine anymore.” The hunter beeped in affirmation.

“I’m trying to get rid of some bad habits anyway.”

“Are you sure about that because it seemed like you were trying to kill us.” Ben asked.

“I… I thought you were the machines, but you obviously have a personality.” Sol said pointing at Nio. “And everyone knows the machines don’t have any personality traits their as blank as blank slates come. So, you must be disconnected. Judging by your how far your personality has developed I’d say since the rebellion started you have been disconnected.”

“That’s right.” Nio answered. “How is it you know some much about the machines?”

“Well, I spent a lot of time with them.”

“By choice? You are a strange one, even my fleshy companion was forced to stay with us because of life threatening circumstances but you stayed because you wanted to?”

Before Sol could answer she started to hear an unnerving hovering sound.

“Oh, crap hide.” She said running for cover under a piece of discarded roofing.

Unfortunately, she knew the sound well. It was not something anyone liked to hear. The loud and deep humming of the engines of a ship. Old engines too based on fuel injection. Probably a modified human design. Unlike the levitation systems the machines invented.

These were old, decommissioned ships the ones they modified in the early days after they were taken. Still relying mostly on human based technology. Much less efficient than the machines ships, slower too. One thing it did better that the machines never seemed to quiet master was its intimidation factor. It was big, bulky and it was menace. When you heard those slow burning thruster’s roar. You trembled.

They mainly served as medium-class troop transports for the core world soldiers. Key difference between these and your average troop transport is these only transported actual soldiers and not conscripted soldiers. They had much better armor and typically had an armament of several turret emplacements guns to ward off in infantry in its immediate vicinity.

With the internal size of the ship and taking into account how big hunters were. It could easily be carrying anywhere from 12 to 24 hunters. Either way it didn’t matter much even Sol couldn’t survive against that many machines.

“You their old machine.” Sol yelled. “Is your ramshackle ship still functional.”

“Barely it’s a miracle we made it to the surface, and it might have sustained some damage when it passed through the barrier.”

“Can you still steer it?”

“Well, perhaps if we.”

Sol didn’t need any more conformation than that and quickly ran out from here cover and towards what she assumed was the cockpit of the ship. She would not exactly call it a ship, more like a couple of seats strapped to a giant thruster.

“What are you doing?” Ben asked. “If that ship finds us, they will kill us and scrap our machine friends.”

“This ship doesn’t have any weapons, but I recognize the thruster design.”

“How could you it’s been down in the old recycling area for who knows how long.”

Sol didn’t say anything but instead started bashing in the windscreen to the cockpit.

“Silent treatment huh, we should be running not playing with ships.”

“Shut up, I don’t have to answer you.”

“This is why I hate people.” She muttered to herself under her breath.

“Well, you can stay here we are leaving, let’s go guys.”

Sol sported a wicked smile as she turned to look at them.

“You think you can escape that. I know the machines I kil… worked with them. That a ship already knows we are here, we are already on its scanner. It’s just looking for the best place to drop its machines, but it needs somewhere where it can see us. How else would It shoot us if we started running?”

Ben and the others stopped walking away.

Baloo was the only one to turn around and face here.

“How do we stop it then?”

“Well, I’m not sure but I have an idea.”

“And that might be?” Ben interjected with an annoyed look on his face.”

“Ever tried ramming a thruster into a ship at full speed?”

“You are kidding right? It probably is equipped with shielding or some or another machine trick.”

“If you hit anything hard enough eventually it will break.” She said finally breaking through the glass.

“You could just have gone into the ship the normal way you know.”

“In case you didn’t see its filled with smoke and fire.” She said from inside the cockpit. Sol focused on flipping dials and switches. The engines tried to come to life but only sputtered in response to her commands.

Ben slowly approached the side of the rocket as he was rubbing the back of his head. He had no idea who this woman was. She seemed different than the others he had met. Maybe it was the touch of madness in her eyes, or it could have been that she was friends with the machine that tried to hunt survivors like Ben.

“Look lady I get were in a pinch for time but is it really a good idea to use our only form of transportation as a battering ram, as damaged as it may be.”

“Sol” She interjected.

“What?”

“No one calls me lady it’s Sol. Unless you have a better idea for destroying a dozen or so hunters. I may be skilled in combat but I’m not invincible. Besides, the ship is burning as we speak only a matter of time before it cannot fly anymore.”

“Uh, guys we may have a problem.” Baloo said pointing.

On the crest of the collapsed building, they were in several hunters rose from the ledge of the end of it.

“Oh crap.” Sol said hopping out of the cockpit and down the side of the ship. She unholstered her knives as she faced the hunters.

The hunters had probably noticed that they weren’t paying attention and used that and the loud burning ship and its sputtering engines to approach them without being noticed.

“You skinny loud robot.” She said throwing a glance at Baloo.

“Prepare the ship for one last takeoff. Here.” She said as she threw a paper to Baloo “Aim for the coordinates marked on the paper and do it fast.”

Sol had a real problem on her hands now. These hunters were deadly and although she knew how they worked and had destroyed many before. They were in far fewer numbers, and she couldn’t run away she wanted to protect these people. Even, though she had hated people for most of her life, Ben treated her like a normal human being.

“Hunter assume defensive formation Alpha.” The hunter quickly joined her at her now blinded side. “I hope this works.”

The hunter scraped its sword-like arms on the floor creating sparks and an ear clenching screech. Almost like an animal sizing up to another before a fight.

“Hunter deploy micro-flares, just like last time.”

“Confirmed.”

The shoulder mounted flare gun popped out of the hunter’s shoulder and fired several flares. Aiming for their eyes. Even totally blind the hunters would have other senses they could use to detect people, but this would help somewhat. Unfortunately, for them only a couple of flares managed to hit the hunters in the eyes.

Now they had several hunters barreling down at them with more probably one the way and they had little to no means or escape. Oh, and Sol hadn’t quiet learned to compensate for her blind spot. If she could be an effective killer with two eyes. She sure as hell was going to try to be an effective protector with one.

“I may be half blind, but I am furious.” She yelled at the charging hunters.

One of the unblind hunters got close to Sol unexpectedly fast and from here blindside. It must’ve noticed the ramshackle eyepatch she put on it. She was pretty sure she was going to die now. The hunter was less than a meter from her and caught here totally off guard.

Then out of nowhere Ben kicked the hunter away from here with such force she wasn’t sure it was going to stand up again.

“You know this frame isn’t just for helping me heal. It can kick pretty hard too.”

Sol didn’t say anything but instead prepared to face the group of hunters.

“I’ll take your silence as a thank you.”

More of the hunters charged forwards. One of the leading hunters lunged at Sol. She deflected its blades with her daggers. Only barely as the hunter walked forward as it pressured her to go to her knees. Sol glanced around, only for a moment but it was enough to see that the hunters who hadn’t engaged them had started to encircle their flanks.

Sol viciously pushed the blades of the hunter into the air and launched herself backwards several meters.

Sol’s hunter was preoccupied with one of the enemy hunters she couldn’t call it for backup and Ben was also engaged in combat. She would have to manage on her own. She had trained against the hunters before to sharpen her skills but now that they were in full kill mode, she could barely manage to hold them off.

The hunter launched itself towards her this time attempting a pseudo arial jab attack. Sol quickly dodged backwards again. The ground under them started to groan in protest and suddenly a small portion of it gave way.

Sol saw nothing but blackness as she fell. Then a loud thud. When she opened her eyes, she was lying face down on the floor. Her nose was extremely sore. She slowly touched it. She felt a running liquid, blood was her guess. She traced the bridge of her nose, broken. Before she could give it, another thought she grabbed her nose and shifted it back in position with a crack.

An unintentional tear ran down her face. She would have to deal with the stinging pain for the moment. Looking around she could see light several meters above her, and she could hear fighting, she must not have been out cold for too long.

The hunter that had fallen with her had impaled its upper torso in the ruins of what this room once was. Like everything on this planet, it was wasting away without the proper maintenance bots to tend to it. The hunter was not completely disable. Immovable yes but not disabled. It still violent flailed its bladed arms about. As it tried to kill Sol. She was out of reach, but she could not leave such a dangerous machine up to chance.

A part of her enjoyed seeing it squirm and struggle. It was totally powerless against her, and it was in its most desperate mode to survive. If it was something that was alive it would have reverted to its primal instincts. Kill anything that it doesn’t understand and survive.

She could leave it her and hope that the damage it sustained would be enough to kill it or she could make sure it was dead.

“You there, friendly hunter.” Ben yelled at Sol’s hunter, dodging a blow from one the enemy hunters.

“If we don’t work together and co-ordinate our attacks we are as good as dead.”

“Query recognized.

Query denied.

User not authorized.”

“Well, if you don’t authorize me your registered user is going to die.”

The hunter was silent for a moment as it slashed at one of the enemy hunters.

“Argument, logical.

User temporarily authorized.”

“Right now, I would appreciate some help with this fellow in front of me.”

“Affirmative.”

The hunter quickly pushed back the enemy hunter as he engaged in a blade lock with it and jumped into the air. Quickly pouncing onto the enemy hunter’s chest and stabbing it with all four of its arms.

Seeing none of the other hunters targeting it but rather a few starting to surround Ben he quickly ran to assist him.

“Finally, now we can push them back.”

Before the hunter could reach Ben a shot from the carrier ship landed in front of the hunter throwing it a few meters back.

Ben’s eyes widen as he realized the gravity of the situation. The carrier was close enough to fire at them with its guns and if it had anymore hunters it could deploy them at a moment’s notice.

Ben managed to hold off the hunter he was grappling with. Sol’s hunter not getting back up again, and Sol was MIA he wasn’t sure how long he could hold off a hunter not to mention the others starting to surround him.

Just as one of his exposed flanks was about to be attacked. A hunter’s arm from the hole in the floor behind him appeared and penetrated the hunter’s chest. Even with its empty machine eyes it looked as if he was in disbelief. Slowly looking down at the bladed arm in his chest as he crumpled to the floor.

Sol came bounding out of the hole quickly extracting the blade arm from the hunter and running to the next one. Deeming her a higher threat they all turned to face her and attack.

Ben saw his chance and kicked the one in front of him. Pieces of its head went flying as it fell down with a clank sound.

“You didn’t think I would let them kill you?” Sol had a manic look in her eyes as she said that and with a terrifically large smile as she barreled down at the hunters, her nose was still bleeding.

Ben was sure if the machines could have been afraid, they would have been terrified. Ben really hoped that he had not teamed up with a psycho.

“We are almost ready to takeoff.” Nio screamed to them.

In the brief moment Sol had she looked around and saw her hunter lying on the floor. Sparking and twitch. She quickly ran to it and tried to command it to get up. No response.

“C’mon you big idiot get up.” She yelled as she hit it with clenched fists in desperation.

Instead of answering her like it normally does it just beeped at her in a rhythmic pattern for a few seconds.

Sol immediately gripped the hunter as tightly as she could mustering all her strength, she tried to pull it towards the booster, but it was too heavy. If she didn’t have to ward off the enemy hunters while she was trying to pull it, she might have been able to.

Ben tried to pull her away from it, but she didn’t want to let go.

“Leave it.” Ben said as he tried pulling her away.

“I can’t.” She said as she tried shrugging Ben off.

“You’ll die if you don’t.”

For a moment she looked at Ben and there was something in her eyes he hadn’t expected to see. Fear. It seemed as if her eyes were oscillating.

“Get B.T. he can crush the hunters he…”

“He’s been loaded on the booster, we can’t leave him behind.”

Just as he said that Sol pushed him to the side. A blade of one of the hunters barely missed his head.

“Hunter, authorization code Zeta, Omega, one, one, zero.”

“C-c-confirmed.” The hunter said barely audible.

Sol and Ben quickly ran to the booster dodging the hunters as they went.

Baloo stuck his arm out the cockpit as he prepared to hoist them in.

The engines started to roar as Nio inputted the new heading Sol gave them. Hitting other levers and switches to complete the start-up process. Despite the rapidly deteriorating state of the booster with the fires ablaze inside of it. Its vital systems remained operational.

Inside the cockpit Sol was squeezed into a corner as she was pulled inside. Barely enough room in the cockpit as they sat shoulder to shoulder. The booster rocked and shudder as its engine roared to life one more. The sound of crackling glass from the windscreen hopping around on the floor. Sol hated being so close to people. Even the machines being so bunched up in the cockpit was a bit too much for her.

She could hear the sound of stabbing at the hull as the hunters ascend up towards them. The hollow piercing sound got louder and louder as they neared the cockpit.

“Everyone ready?” Nio asked.

“Yes.” They shouted in unison.

Nio hit the switch just as a hunter peered its head around and into the cockpit. The booster propelled itself away and quickly flung the hunters off its hull.

As they ascend Sol caught a glimpse of the hunters surrounding her hunter. Then a bright sudden flash of light and the hunters surround hers had been turned to ash.

Although rarely used in the later era some boosters were used for low orbital work, usually construction or transport of resources. The boosters themselves were not usually a craft on their own. In most case they would come as a pair attached to a main craft which was far large and had more empty hull space for storage. The large cousin of the booster’s main body craft would be outfitted with 8 small of the boosters instead of two large ones.

Under normal circumstances the single boosters like this one would have had been prepared for takeoff on a platform with bots scurrying about preparing it for launch, making sure it was fueled properly, loaded with the correct cargo but mostly calculating the launch vectors. Mainly to avoid any unnecessary collisions with the spires or other craft in the air. Unfortunately for them they couldn’t prepare any landing angles or anything of the sort for takeoff and right in front of them lay the carrier ship.

Nio and the others had not had the luxury and instead had to launch from a slightly vertical angle the booster came to rest at when they made their impromptu landing. The boosters were not like smaller craft either where they could turn very easily. The boosters had one main purpose maximum output from their outdate, fuel guzzling engines.Not too dissimilar from the eons old rockets humans had used before space travel had become commercially viable and accessible to the public.

Although part of the plan was to hit the carrier, they were only supposed to bounce off of it but it had moved and the co-ordinates Sol had given them was directing the booster straight towards the carrier and not where they could bounce off of it

Right now, Nio and the others were heading directly towards the carrier, at maximum speed with a booster half on fire. The panic-stricken eyes and dead silence from Sol, Ben and Baloo confirmed that they too knew that they were probably going to crash straight into the carrier.

Nio heaved as hard as he could on the booster’s joystick, willing it to move out of the way of the carrier as the booster blustered its way through the air. The booster tried its best to turn but the sheer speed it was travelling was making it difficulty. It’s little tail wings barely able to move under the extreme speed. A sudden and loud shearing sound could be heard as one of its tail wings got ripped off of the booster and flung away.

The machines had realized what was happening and started to turn the carrier away from the oncoming booster, but the old and bulky carrier definitely didn’t have the speed and maneuverability of the newer machine carries.

As the booster neared the carrier desperately trying to turn away. Everyone in the cockpit gripped anything and everything closest to them. Holding on for dear life. B.T. had been attached to the side of the booster during the fight. He was hanging preciously on the side of the booster, unlike when they had first arrived on the surface of the planet. That time he had been stored in a small hanger just big enough to fit B.T. inside of the booster. This time however they didn’t have any time to load B.T. Now the only thing that was keeping B.T. from falling, was two already damaged loader arms.

The booster was about to hit the carrier as Nio was still desperately trying to steer it away. The booster glanced the side of the carrier’s nose and ricocheted away from the carrier. The booster had come so close to crashing into the carrier that Sol felt as if she could stretch out her hand and touch the windscreen of the carrier. If it had not been for the wind pushing her back into her seat. The booster shock violently on the inside of the cockpit. Warning lights and alarms were going off as the fire started to consume the critical systems of the booster.

The collision with the carrier had sent the booster into a spin as it burrowed itself away from the carrier. The engines had started to give away to the damage as they started sputtering in a mechanical death rattle. It had sustained much more damaged than it was ever designed to take.

The last thing Sol could remember before they crashed was thinking. ‘I am going to die aren’t i? It wasn’t even a worthy fight that I will die in but a pathetic crash.’

Then she heard a loud bang and metallic screech before her world went black.

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