A Hero's Song (Darkest Secrets Volume 1)

Chapter 1 - Test Run

This was how the Ruchin avoided the casualty rates of the rest of the globe.

It was one of their closest guarded secrets, both the Ruchin's and Iodine's, but it didn't mean that he had had any trouble finding this information exploring the Company's networks. It was this discovery that made Gabriel resist the scientists.

This particular model standing across from him was set to Class 3. Possessing strength, speed, simulated pain response, as well as a Heavy Plasma Lance. At Class 3, its reflexes were quick enough to dodge bullets. It had a ballistic shield mounted on its left arm.

"Initiate test run," said a voice from the speakers high on the walls.

The bot's eyes flashed blue and then turned red, showing that it had powered up and that Gabriel had 10 seconds to prepare himself. He powered the generator attached to his back to 20% and lifted a few inches off the ground.

The six circles on the device glowed a deep purple, brightening as the soft whine of the machine rose. His glasses' heads-up display or HUD showed all systems green.

The jetpack-looking antigravity engine used a small energy pack to start up, and then a complex system of weights that would use the lack of gravity to produce power through perpetual motion. It could - theoretically - run forever.

Gabriel channeled that electrical power through his suit. In that way, his armor was a sort of battery, though to do anything big he'd need to channel a lot more power.

He removed his AM Scissor from his hip and it began to hum as his thick gloves made contact with its surface. Black antimatter coated its length like a viscous oil of a black so deep it looked purple. What looked like tiny bubbles floated away from the main body of the saber, dissipating centimeters from its surface.

With that, Gabriel set his shoulders and raised his guard. After an instant, the robot seemed to twitch, firing its Plasma Lance.

He had been ready but was sorely disappointed with his performance. The mech's speed made him look drunk in comparison. Its aim wasn't bad either, more like dead on.

Reacting on pure instinct he jumped left. An orange, superheated rod of plasma dissipating in the corner of his vision where his head had been a split-second earlier.

He regretted not putting the armor and muscles on his suit at 2 in the morning.

He raised his generator to 70% and angled towards the "Training" robot in what had now become a last-ditch attempt at survival. He needed to get into close range. The aiming algorithms on the Bot would punch him full of holes if he ran at it, so he needed to do something swift... and unwise.

He dropped his AM Scissor and it magnetized to his hip as the generator on his back heated quickly, propelling him through the sound barrier and into the robot. The impact jarred his senses quite unpleasantly and left an aching pain in his right shoulder.

The Training Bot had time to turn and reach for him before he hit its chest plate, caving it a few inches inwards and pushing the machine along ten meters. The mech swiveled almost immediately afterward, knocking itself free from Gabriel's bear hug and aiming its Plasma Lance at his head, point-blank.

He could smell the heat.

Fighting the urge to panic he flared his engines diagonally to aid his strength, thrusting his right hand into the robot's arm, overloading the robot's servos. He jammed the limb upwards, both to get it away from his skull and to free up space for the saber stab that followed.

His blade passed through his opponent's armor like a hand through the wind, but what he struck was the shield. The robot had managed to block.

The Super sliced upwards and increased the G's, flinging himself away to dodge the almost invisible counter kick that sought out his midsection.

As he disengaged, he flared his generator once more. This time to attempt to end this confrontation for good. He dropped to the ground and felt the heat on his back as 100% of his generator's power was directed to his AM Cannon.

He was panicking at that point, so he discharged a burst from his Cannon rather than a more focused form of energy.

The dark, goo-like force shot towards the robot and struck its shield. The cheat still had time to raise its arm even now, it seemed. It didn't matter, the arm still disappeared.

More accurately it seemed to evaporate. 2 shots left.

Down its shield and much of its defensive arm, the robot burst into motion, barreling towards Gabriel. Without its pre-programmed weight, it overbalanced at such a high speed and fell to the floor. Sparks flew as it scraped along the ground with a screech.

Gabriel wasted no time and jettisoned forward, aiming a powerful stomp at the Training Bot's head before it could recalibrate its sensors, but wasn't fast enough to beat the software. He got swatted out of the air like a fly.

It was the first time his attacker had managed to land a blow on him, but his enhanced ribs cracked just the same. His left side flaring in pain, he gritted his teeth and directed his momentum into a one-handed somersault that left him facing the machine from a few meters to its side.

He didn't give himself time to register the pain of his body and, instead, launched another immediate assault. Generator to 80% he shot around the mech's back, his saber drawn and aimed at its legs.

The legs moved, roundhouse kicking him at a speed he could barely register. The pain was excruciating, and this time his ribs did more than crack.

The next thing he knew, he was embedded half a meter into the training room's reinforced walls. His sternum was broken, he knew that to be a fact from the way it shifted as he extracted himself screaming from the supposedly impenetrable surface. A few vertebrae might have also been damaged.

As his healing kicked in he saw the mech start sprinting towards him, the small rational part of his awareness that was left realized that something was wrong, and it wasn't just his body, however much it begged and pleaded to be allowed to lay down and sleep.

The training robot should not have been able to throw anything hard enough to make a dent in the walls, let alone kick him into a fresh crater.

Its strength Class must measure closer to 4 than 3, if not mid Class 4, and the speed it was running at him defied even that estimation. That wasn't right - he had been briefed that the training bots limitation was Class 3 when they started using them the year prior. Had they advanced in Class and not informed him when his life was on the line!? At that moment that didn't matter, just another complaint on a list. He had to get out of this first.

His eyes glanced at his HUD and he noted that his generator had taken damage. Its output potential was down to 70%, maybe too little to outpace the thing crossing the expanse of the training room. His mind - his only real advantage now - raced.

The fact that the metal beast was running at him implied that its Plasma Lance either didn't have the range to reach him or that it had been damaged at some point in their fight. Both options weren't good. It wouldn't be long until it beat him into red gravy or got in range to snipe him through the hippocampus.

Knowing he had to act, he did the only thing he could think of. He would use his AM Cannon. Firing a construct at 70% was dangerous, the containment field holding the antimatter in place would be weak. He risked losing control of the energy and potentially killing himself, but he had no other choice.

He had a bit of time, he hoped, so he picked out a construct from the small list on his goggles, imitating the shape of the machine's Lance. Breathing deep, he moved his left hand towards the incoming machine, took aim, and brought his desperation to bear in one final attack.

Plasma Lance weaponry fired giant rods of superheated metal, only instead of metal, it was superheated plasma. Much hotter, much more sticky. Imagine boiling acid combined with napalm. Gabriel's AM Lance did pretty much the same thing.

The thin rod of antimatter speared the bot through the torso. Its armor held for an instant, as the robot's armor struck the rod of energy before accepting its molecular death.

The lance dissipated and the robot fell in a heap, a silent husk of its former self. The armor and components struck by the AM construct vanished as if taken out with photo-editing. The only evidence was a slight smoldering around the edges of the hole. The fight was over. 

Gabriel sighed inwardly, remembering this was just a test run.