Alternate Reality part 3 : Zenobie Straße

Written by : Frundock

Special thanks to : Ptah Aegryptus

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- “Alright, unit 01, guard the stair, unit 02 and 03 guard the streets. The rest of you come with me!”

- “Yes sir!”

- “Hurry up, I want everyone in position in 2 minutes!!”

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-        “Ah shit! Deep Shit!”

- “We have to go Lucas! They’re coming, we have a chance just right now...”

- “No w..wait ! I’ve got to destroy this computer! It’s linked to Arpanet…”

- “No time Lucas, they’re coming and we’ll get killed!”

- “I don’t CARE! This is important!”

How could he be so careless? Cybersix didn’t know much about Arpanet but it seemed very important so she decided to act. She took the cube on the ground, which was a normal computer. As he turned to Lucas, she saw that he sweating, not knowing what he had to do. They were coming from everywhere. They had to move.

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- “Unit 02 and 03 in position.”

- -        “Unit 01 ready.”

- “Attack force preparing for assault.

- “Alright, enter the apartment now! Check the rooms as fast as you can.”

The team forced the door, and as they entered the room quickly, spreading in all rooms as machines. Checking every place where a human could hide. The leading team soldier reported quickly to the officer the result of the assault.

- “Sir, they are not here.”

- “What?!”

It was confusing: reports had them in the room, they had surprised the opponent, and still they were not there. Something was wrong; they had to be near here…

- “Sir, Unit 3 reporting, they are escaping from the next apartment. They changed rooms! They are going on the roof!!”

- “Alright, everybody MOVE!!”

==========================

What was happening? For Lucas, everything was moving so fast. Adrian had started taking command, and he had quickly made them switch apartments, bringing the computer with him. He had pointed out the window as an escape possibility, but Lucas had refused to go there: It was too dangerous, and the road was probably guarded.

- “Who said we are going for the streets Lucas?”

- -        “W-What do you mean?”

The rest was unbelievable. Adrian had put him on his back and started moving to the roof as if it was nothing. Down below, he heard a soldier speaking loudly, they were spotted. Gunfire was coming from the street, but none seemed to be getting to them. And a voice from the room they had just left, screaming “get them now”. But they had already reached the roof. But Lucas knew this was nothing to stop the Fixed Ideas, they were incredible jumpers and soon, the streets guards were also on the roof. And Adrian stared at them!

- “You won’t get us, horrors of nature.”

Both of them jumped on Adrian, he dropped Lucas on the floor and to his amazement, he started to fight. He was so quick.The Fixed Ideas were powerful and well trained, but he made a strange move while jumping and knocked the two Fixed Ideas' heads together, making them vanish into thin green smoke.

- “A-Ad-Adrian… Are you…”

- “Yes… but there’s no time to rest here. I’ll explain it to you later.”

He took the two vials, took Lucas in his arms, and jumped to the next building. Wind whipped at Lucas' hair! They were moving fast. Far behind, he was seeing flashlights and an alarm being started. Watchtowers’ attention were focused on their escape. The moon behind them, they were jumping, no he was jumping for both of them from roof to roof. Adrian had a kind of smile on his face…

- “Where’s Zenobie road? You spoke to me about an apartment…”

==========================

What an incredibly annoying voice!!! The officer, Hans Piperfelt, was on the edge. He had just reported his failure to José Von Reichter, the new commander, and the little brat was screaming at him. But the high-pitched voice was simply too annoying to be ignored.

- “I want results Officer Piperfelt, and what do you give me?!?! A failure on a mission a three-legged dog could have done alone. You even come back with two units lost…”

- “Sir, about those lost, there’s something important in the report.”

- “And what is it?"

- “The vials were missing.”

- “WHAT?! Who could use their vials?”

- “I don’t know Sir, maybe a unit working for the Global Government?”

- “How dare you say a work of my father could do such a rebellious act? Get OUT of my sight!!”

- “Yes sir!”

The officer left the room, but what he had just seen had been confusing. José had reacted vividly to the accusation, maybe he knew something else…

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Note : This article was taken from the Meridiana Sun

TRAITOR CAUGHT LAST NIGHT

LAST NIGHT IN THE NORTHERN DISTRICT; A TRAITOR WAS ARRESTED BY THE GLORIOUS FORCES OF THE WERMACHT. THE TRAITOR WAS WORKING FOR OUR ENEMIES.

AFTER BEING JUDGE, IN FRONT OF THE TEMPORARY COMMITTEE, HE WAS FOUND GUILTY OF TREASON AND SENTENCED TO DEATH. YET ANOTHER PROOF THAT THE GERMAN FORCES ARE AN INCREDIBLE ASSET TO OUR CITY AND THAT WE WILL BENEFIT FROM THEIR INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.

==========================

Everything was quiet now, they had taken a room in that creepy building. Looked very European, kind of like an old castle. The apartment was the highest in what was looking like a tower from outside. Cybersix had looked at the streets around the building and decided it would be easy to escape if there was any trouble. Lucas was sleeping now: he had had an hard time and too many surprises in such a short amount of time. She had had to improvise very fast when they had entered the room one hour ago.

<one hour ago>

- “What are you Adrian? Please tell me…”

- “It… That, I’m not sure I should tell you Lucas…”

- “You have nothing to fear of me… Please tell me.”

Cybersix paused. she didn’t want her identity revealed, and Adrian was a good hiding character. If Lucas knew Adrian and Cybersix were the same person, it would be difficult for her to escape if he compromised her. No the best thing to do would be to lie. Lie again, like everytime…

- “In the 70’s, before the war came here, before the artificial creatures came to the world and entered the war, Von Reichter their creator was working on a new project. You know who Von Reichter is right?”

- “He’s the creator of life, he changed war, and the ethics of it. A monster…”

- “He’s my father…”

- “H..he.. he is your father…”

- “You see, the project he created was on a new series called “Cybers”. He created 5000 of them, his most perfect creation. But they had a malfunction and he decided to kill all of them…”

- “5000 deaths… oh my god…”
“Not entirely true, a few survived, and I am one of them.”

Lucas was looking at Adrian, straight in the eyes. What she had just said was not true, she was the only survivor, but she had to make this believable.

- “So, you"ve already meet Cybersix. She is my sister. She is number 6, and I am number 12. We fled with a slave, and came to this city many years ago. Here we managed to survive. When the war started, we decided to try to help get a victory against our father.”

- “So…that… that’s what you are.”

- “A machine, a creation of a mind, property of…”

- “Stop that! It’s not true, you are Adrian Seidelman, and you saved my life. Where you come from doesn’t matter to me, it’s what you did for me.”

- “W-W-W-Well… Thanks Lucas… thanks for understanding.”

They both stood silent, like if there was nothing more to say. Cybersix was amazed he believed her story, but for now, she could still change identity with him. All sorts of ideas were going thru her head. Wouldn’t it be better if I tell him the whole truth? But she was still undecided; the truth would probably come by itself to Lucas.

Lucas was exhausted. It had been a terrible run, and they were safe for the night. For sure, he wanted to know more about the Cybers. Maybe he would get to see Cybersix again one day. He would have to find a computer screen to contact the A.I.A. as soon as possible, but it would be hard to get one without attracting attention. Tomorrow, tomorrow would be a much better day.

- “We’ll speak more about it tomorrow. Now is a time for sleep.”

And there she was… Cybersix was sleeping in the same room as Lucas. But she couldn’t sleep : She rarely slept at night more than one or two hours. She had just used the sustenance she had taken from the Fixed Idea. She was in the bed, Lucas had taken the floor. She was on her back, looking at the old ventilator in the room. It was working, but she couldn’t feel the air moving. The lights from the streets filtered thru the palms. Light, dark, light, dark, light, dark…

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Dark, light, dark, light, dark, light… What an annoying thing to do. José had been watching the ventilator for a whole hour, while thinking about the two vials missing. Someone had stolen them, but whom? That damn ventilator was still working and he did not have a single clue. Maybe the sub-commanders would know something he didn’t. He decided to call them in to get information. He took the phone and dialed the 12 numbers to reach the sub-command office, near the front.

- “Speaking.”

- “Sub, I need information from you.”

- “Who is this? This is a priority line, get the hell off of it!!”

- “It’s the new commander Col. Behrer. Now shut the hell up and listen to me.”

For about 5 seconds, he heard some whispering and a very low voice saying you could have told me idiots.

- “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”

- “Who could be stealing vials from us?”

- “Humm… I don’t know for sure, probably the Cyber.”

- “There’s a Cyber in Meridiana?”

- “Actually, we don’t now Sir. We used to try to catch her. It’s a woman, when she crossed the border, but every time, she escaped. We haven't seen her for the last 4 days.”

- “Interesting, and do you think she is in Meridiana or away?”

- “Well Sir, with the war and what you told me, it would be easier for her to get sustenance in Meridiana. There’s so many soldiers and we need to supply them, we can’t put many guards on those wagons. What she stole from us was always negligible, so we never used high security measures.”

- “I see… well, from now on, I want high security measures on high sustenance transports.”

- “But Sir! I need men to continue the attack on the frontier.”

- “It’s not a problem, suspend assault on the wall for two days. We need some better preparations when throwing thousands of troops against a wall.”

- “Y-Yes sir.”

- “Alright, dismissed!"

So there was a cyber still alive. José had read a report on them and their destruction, but father had never told him there was one still alive, and wandering. Maybe he didn’t know… Nah, that bastard always knww what was going wrong with his creations. Calling home was the best thing to do right now. So again, he picked the phone to call his father.

- “Yah ?”

- “It’s José, I need to speak with my father.”

- “Your Highness, Herr Doktor is currently speaking with the führer.”

- “It’s important Krumen!! »

- “What do you need information about?”

- “There’s a Cyber in town, I want to know the story.”

- “You’ve found her?”

- “N..No.. But I have proof she is in the city.”

- “Alright, it’s important. Your father will call you back with orders.”

Krumen hung up the telephone, without giving a chance to José to even reply… Something was wrong, for why would Krumen do not want to give more details? He had seemed nervous on the phone: maybe it was a tricky discussion to have with Von Reichter. Anyways, if it was important, he would receive a call soon.

José was leaving the room when the telephone started ringing…