We flew down the street as everything around us crumbled from the attacks. We raced under bridges, wove in between crashing cars and pedestrians — the city was in utter chaos.
Cops were firing on the robots — which was not what I expected given how this rabbit hole started.
I took a few turns and, soon, Artech tower was right in front of us. Blue lightning arched across the light poles, hitting several bots out of the air.
I continued to shoot down the street as fast as I could, with Tessara taking down all the robots in our way. We left a trail of robotic corpses in our wake.
An AV spun overhead, its thrusters sputtering flames as it crashed to the ground.
Ambulances and medical vehicles lined the sides of the roads. I noticed another guild member assisting them — Aleusa. She specialized in healing magic. Good thing she's here, these people are gonna need her help.
Several metal spikes flew across the street, skewering two robots to a wall.
I snapped my head to see Drik and Sein fighting side by side. With Drik using metal magic and Sein specializing in a form of magnetizing magic, they were a good duo.
"Tessara I'd hold on tight if I were you." I said, focusing back in front of us. Artech tower was directly ahead of us now.
"Aww, you want me to hug you?"
"Why do you have to make it awkward? No, I want you to not fly off the bike as I crash through the front door."
"Crashing is a poor way to park," remarked Xarne from the rear of the bike.
"That's adorable, you care for my well being. Wait, did you say crash through the front door!?" Yelled Tessara.
"Yep."
"Wait, Vera! Maybe we should THINK ABOUT THIS!"
She screamed as I crashed through the front doors and slid around to a stop in the front lobby.
"I did think about it. Now cover me while I undo Xarne."
"That's not what I meant and you know it!" she said as she shot down the bots patrolling the lobby.
"Great parking job! And thank you for untying me. I am now fully operable once again! What will yo-Target acquired." Her attention snapped to the bots piling down from a set of stairs at the back of the white and gold lobby. She snapped from each bot with deadly precision, blasting a hole in the head of all twenty in less than ten seconds. She then looked back at me.
"What will you have me do now?" She said in a far more soft voice.
"That."
"Yup, whatever you just did is exactly what you need to do," said Tessara, shocked.
"Understood…combat mode activated." Xarne's arms, legs and chest flipped, concealing the once skin covering and replacing it with a black matte armor. Her eyes glowed red and her head fully encased in the armor.
"That's badass!" exclaimed Tessara with a wide grin.
"Yeah it actually kind of is. Now let's shut down this operation." I pulled my sword out and we began to make our way to the top.
I've taken a tour of the tower once before, many years ago, so I have a vague idea of the interior.
Artech's main control center resides up at the top level, which means we have a hundred floors to go.
I walked up to the elevator controls and pushed the button. I waited, but nothing happened. I pushed the button again, but nothing happened.
"Damn it, ughhhhhh. Fucking work!" I yelled as I kicked it.
"Oh, hooray! Stairs…" said Tessara with extreme sarcasm.
"Whatever, lets just go. We don't have time to complain," I said, running to the stairs on the far left side of the lobby. I got to the stairs and looked up. They ran in a square up to the top, with a large space in the middle.
"Guys, I'm gonna use my grapple hook to get up."
"You have fun with that. I don't feel like falling to my death," she said, running up the stairs past me.
"Have it your way, then."
I shot the grapple hook up at an angle and hooked onto one of the railings. I launched myself up past Tessara and Xarne and climbed over the ledge. I turned to see a door labeled floor fifteen. Eighty-five to go.
I leaned over the ledge and shot another hook and shot up again. As I flew up, I heard gunshots in the distance. They were getting closer. I climbed over another ledge and the door said thirty-three. The shooting was coming from above me, but it wasn't in the stairs. It would've been far louder if it was.
I grappled up again, up to floor fifty-three.
I stood at the door and listened. Shouting and gunfire rang from inside.
I readied my sword and slowly opened the door. The sunset blared through the room, blinding me as I entered. I walked fully in and the sun toned down and I could see the madness unfolding before me. I was in a hangar filled with carriers and other kinds of ships. On one side, Ghost's soldiers were shooting and hiding behind crates. On the other side were Artech's bots, continuously walking towards them and firing relentlessly. A few soldiers tried to push up with covering fire, but were shot down in a spray of blood.
I saw a lone soldier behind a nearby crate and ran over to him.
He spotted me and pure fear shot across his face. He raised his gun and started to shoot at me, but I easily dodged his poor aim. Kicked the gun out of his hand and picked him up with one arm and pinned him to a nearby carrier by his throat.
"You have one chance. Now tell me what the hell is happening here?" I yelled.
"Uhhh, uhh. I don't know! T-they just turned on us and started firing."
"Why?"
"I don't know!"
I clenched my teeth and aimed my sword at his face.
"No! NO! I swear, I swear, I don't know please!!"
"Useless," I said as I threw him to the ground. He coughed several times and started crawling back to his cover. At that moment Tessara and Xarne burst through the door.
"Vera! What's going on?" yelled Tessara as she sat in Xarne's arms. I ignored whatever was going on.
"I don't know. Sounds like the bots turned on the soldiers."
"Turned on them? How? I thought Artech and Ghost were on the same side?"
"Me too."
"This just keeps getting more complex," she said.
One of the bots jumped down behind me. I turned to face it and saw it had yellow stripes. It stood about a foot over my head and immediately shot me in the chest with a blast.
I felt a shock reverberate through my body and my vision blurred.
The shock nearly brought me to my knees, but it quickly subsided and settled.
I looked down at my chest and saw sparks dancing across my skin and around my feet.
I turned towards Tessara and Xarne. They were untouched, but my hair had sparks also flowing through it.
This is just like what happened with Anasu, but how? I focused the energy to my hands like last time and electricity started sparking around my fingers. I pushed the energy out at the robot and watched it spark and sputter about.
The energy within me faded and the sparks disappeared. Tessara just looked at me with a shocked face.
"That's just like what you did in the mountain!"
"Yeah…"
"How are you doing that!?"
"I don't know, I just stood there."
"Well you better figure it out, because it's awesome!"
A loud rumble sounded and carriers began to fly out of the hangar sides. The soldiers around us had all but cleared out. With the soldiers disappearing the robots began to notice us and fired.
"Get down!" I yelled as I pushed Tessara behind one of the nearby crates.
"Shit!"
"We don't have time to fight them," I yelled as Xarne started lighting the bots up. They just kept pouring out from the side doors.
"Just go!" yelled Tessara.
"What?"
"GO! We'll handle this."
"You sure?"
"YES, now go! The faster you shut them down the faster we get out of here!" she yelled as she peeked and fired on the bots.
I ran out through the door back into the stairwell. I grappled until I hit floor seventy. That's when the soldiers started running down the stairs. They noticed me pretty quickly and immediately started firing.
I jumped onto the stairs and deflected a few of their shots.
I surged forward, kicking the gun out of the hands of the first one. I then swiped his legs and jumped over him as he slumped down the stairs. I put my sword away. It was getting in my way. I decided to take them one at a time.
Punching and kicking guns, throwing soldiers screaming over railings and down sets of stairs. At this point, time is what mattered, and they were taking up too much of it.
After twenty or so soldiers, there seemed to be no more in the stairwell. I grappled up to the top floor.
I opened the door to find an empty room full of panels, screens, buttons and switches. I ran over to observe them and see if I could find a kill switch. I reached over to a screen and was about to push a button when I heard a voice behind me.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
I whipped around with my sword drawn and saw a man standing in the shadows of the room.
"Who are you?"
The man stepped out into the light and I saw him clearly. Seran, the head of Artech. He was wearing a sleek gray suit, black slicked back hair with a sharp face.
"Oh, come on, Vera. You should know who I am."
"I do. Seran — head of Artech."
"Correct."
"How do you know me?"
"Please, how could I not know you? Your reputation extends far outside just this city."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Oh, you'll understand soon enough. The first part of my job — getting you into the action — is complete."
"What are you talking about?!"
"Don't worry you'll find all of your answers in time."
"Stop playing games, I'll rip you apart for what you're doing!"
"Oh hush, we're not enemies. In fact, our ultimate goals are exactly the same. Destroy this prison we're trapped in."
He clenched his fists to his chest as if grabbing at invisible bars, while pacing back and forth.
"I don't know what you're on about, but I'm not here to destroy anything but you and your operation. So shut it down now, before anyone else gets hurt!"
"Anyone else? You think those things down there are people?"
"Of course I do! Every person down there is alive and has a life worth protecting, so shut the fuck up and turn the bots off!"
"Sorry, I can't do that. I've worked too long and hard to stop now. Besides, I have an important role to play and I refuse to fail." He began to walk towards me.
"Role? What do you mean? There's more to this?"
"Oh, much more. I'm not one to skip out on grand plans," he replied, stepping forward.
"Stay right there and tell me how to shut it down now!"
He walked up to the railing in front of me, flipped up a panel and pushed a button. A hole appeared beneath his feet and he fell down.
Suddenly, the ground shook and the floor around me started to retract. I quickly side-stepped away and watched him rise up from the floor again, but far higher than before.
He towered a solid six feet above me now in a huge mech. Thrusters flared out the back and a rotating barrel clicked into place on its right arm.
"If you don't remember what all of this is for, then I will have to remind you!" he said, taking a step forward. The floor shuddered in the weight of the mech. "I don't want to hurt you, but I can't let you get in the way either."
He brought the fists of the mech together and the sound of metal crashing reverberated through the room.
"Time to see if your strength is anything more than a simple story," he said, charging at me.