LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 8 (A Message)
The elevator had enough power to take me to the top floor of the base. The robots crowded on behind me, their steps echoing in unison like a marching band. Landing my drone on the ground, I activated the platform, causing it to shoot upwards.. The seconds ticked on as the platform moved through the concrete tunnel we quickly passed the second layer. Every few I checked on the progress of my mission while idly humming the faint memory of an elevator song. The communication dish, which had been used to receive signals from dozens of bases in this area, now barely had enough power for manual short-range communications. I could feel that I might be able to push more power into its systems, but it would be like giving a crashed car with only a working radio more gasoline.
Before it could come to a full halt, I had flown off the now stretching platform. The robots behind me had locked their feet into the ground, apparently wary of the elevator's brakes. Turning my focus away from them as they regained their balance, I looked around the room. It was effectively a large box with cutouts in its wall where the remainder of footwalks stood. Unlike the rest of the base, this place had very little to denote its purpose other than the two nearly completely decapitated truck frames that stood collapsed in a corner. Examining the image of the map in my mind, I realized that this was a staging area connected to the outside world through a sloping road.
Pulling up the last remaining exterior camera, I looked for where the exit was supposed to be; unfortunately, all that appeared in the spot was the remnants of a round concrete dome and piles of snow. After some consideration, I sent two of the nus over to the weak area while having the others follow me up the sloping road to find out the state of the exit and the communication tower. Flying up the tunnel, I came across the remnants of another truck, its badly burnt metal frame stuck into the side of the wall. Swooping by, I could see the blackened remains of a man slumped where the glass of the windshield had once stood. Internally squinting my eyes, I passed by before finally coming to a pair of steel half-circular doors covered in broken pipes and hanging wires standing at the top of the tunnel. The massive pair of doors still had a faint amount of power going to them, but it was nowhere near the amount required for normal operation.
Clicking my tongue a little, I had the other robots following me search around for the entrance to the communication bunker that was somewhere around the area while I examined the extent of the damage to the pair of doors. Floating to the top, the sight didn’t fill me with any confidence that they would open even if I gave them the command. The only intact power line was covered in dust, and the massive hydraulic pumps which had once opened them with ease were now dangerously low on fluid. Sighing a bit at the power of old father time, I concluded that at least it still had a chance to work.
Having finished the search, I suddenly got a series of messages from the teams of robots. The two at the parked cars had found a pile of bones in the back of the trucks as well as weapons that looked like they even predated the robots themselves. Reviving the pairs' plan to gather the weapons, I quickly approved, before turning my attention to the other robot who had managed to find a way into the coms room. Flying to their location, I passed a pile of metal that may have once been an armored vehicle, though it was hard to tell in its current state.
Standing around in a semi-circle, my team of bots were examining a metal bulkhead recessed into the concrete wall. One of them was prying on the door, but judging by the rust that covered the handle, it transitioned into an armored steel wall. Apparently, my thought process was passed to the NU unit as it stopped pulling and took a step back. Its foot reared up, sending a metallic hiss into the air, before it slammed down, causing flakes of paint and chips of concrete to rain down from its frame. Shaking my head, I watched as the robot removed its foot, revealing that the door was unharmed from the attack. Reproaching it internally for thinking that something like that would work, but I realized it was likely acting under my intention in the first place.
My thoughts were interrupted as I received a request to fire from... Taken aback, I looked around only to see that another NU had raised the cannon on its arm towards the door and was preparing to fire into the tight corridor. Realizing that such an action would likely cause more damage to us than the target, I hurriedly rejected the request before half-heartedly motioning for the nu’s unit to try. I had a faint hope that it would be able to make it through, but after having my expectations lowered, I was beginning to think that maybe this door, the very first obstacle on my path, had thoroughly beaten me.
Contrary to my ramblings, B2 approached the door, its long hand extended outwards, and a small blue flame erupted from its tip, casting an eerie glow that would have been almost ghostly had I not been looking at it through a camera. Anything the blue flame touched was turned into molten metal that dripped down, cooling into dots on the floor. When it got halfway through the door’s latch, the flame flickered and began to dim, causing my heart to leap inside of me. But after it sputtered for a moment, the flame roared back to life, quickly cutting through the rest. The hinge fell to the ground with a clang. Hearing the noise, I wanted to pat B2 on the shoulder. I always knew it could do it, never doubted it at all, huh, then why didn’t I use it first? I had to give the others a shot, yeah, anyways, it looked like without the hinge, the metal door had begun to list unsteadily forward, causing all the robots to take a step back as its mass came crashing down with a thud that shook the hallway like the whole room had been struck by a hammer.
After the dust cleared, I flew down the now exposed hallway, passing over several skeletons, their hands stretched towards where the door had been, as I entered into some kind of control room. My drone quickly spun around, glancing over the remnants of a large screen that was suspended in the air by wires falling down from the ceiling. Seeing the state of the place, I began to fear that I wouldn’t be able to access the main communication relay.
The excitement in me had been growing for this moment. I had been busy focusing on the tasks that were in front of me, but it hadn’t stopped the thoughts from running wild in my mind. What would the world outside be like? What will I do? Surely, nobody will want to listen to the words of a machine, even if I could help them... It had always been my intention to fix this fractured age (that painfully may have been my own doing). My goal was rapidly approaching, and I couldn’t feel more conflicted. Even in my past life, I had never really had free will. My mind was free, but it was bound like chains by my body. Ahh, free will, I could do whatever I want now? Yet, despite how intoxicating those words should have been, they felt empty like an empty vessel. I realized that I didn’t have the faintest idea of what it really meant. Well, if I don’t know what my pursuit is, why not make it searching for a great one! When life gives you existential crises, make it into lemonade.
All this thinking had left my mind feeling like it was on the verge of breaking. Shaking my head, I noticed that all the bots were standing at attention around a console in the middle of the room. Flying over, I received a message that they had found the relay but had run into complications when trying to manually activate it. Confirming this, I saw that B2 was crouched on the ground, the blue flame coming from its fingertips sending sparks into the air, illuminating the wire ends it was working on after the other layers were melted away. I watched a bit curiously as B2 wrapped the silver metal of the wires together. As soon as they made contact, the pillar lit up, covered in orange and red lights laid out in orderly rows, only one at the center showed green. At the same time, I could feel a wave of information enter my mind. The excitement that had been growing in my heart cooled a bit after I finished processing though what was sent. It appeared that this base had lost contact with nearly every single one of the others. Reading through the past reports, each one was like a different tragedy.
“Location 56, Large heat signature detected, requesting support from any available assets, power lost, updates impossible (year 2333).”
“Location 99, anti-missile defenses disabled, under sustained fire by unknown target (designating priority 3), all defense units destroyed, requesting to detonate remaining resources (year 2359).”
“Location 34, tidal water levels reached primary reactor 3, routing all information to core, evacuations impossible (2400)...”
"Location 2, power critical in all production units, time till deactivation called
"Location 2, multiple heat signatures have breached perimeter, defense measured impossible, requesting assistance priority 3 (2670)."
I stared in shock that the most recent message was from today.