War Machine

Prologue

In the middle of chaos, a woman sat in the brightly lit, warm room of her lab, shrouded behind a collection of books, gadgets and a few odds and ends. Her foldaway table was littered with a collection of dusty old books and papers, many dating back as far as the 1600s. This woman was asleep. Amid the guns and bombs shaking the earth around her, she was out like a light, face first on a table. Her incredibly long, raven black hair was cascading around her like a rush of water.

Her name was Mayris Arkham, leader of the 935th Rydrons. The Rydrons were a military group, specifically designed for the safekeeping of Androids and Cyborgs. Cyborgs were frowned upon in this era, as were Androids.

An unusually loud boom erupted around her, shaking and jostling everything that she liked to call ‘organized disaster’ from the walls and shelves. She jumped up, her eyes wide on alert. Saying ‘jumped up’ would be a lie, as she more flailed around aimlessly, knocking over the chair and nearly flipping the table in front of her. One of her soldiers, Demras Sheperd, ran into the room, his green uniform caked in dirt and blood. Mayris directed her attention to him almost instantly. He stopped and saluted her.

“Commander Arkham.” He practically yelled to her. She nodded, acknowledging him.

“Private. Right, now, what kind of anarchy is going on out there? You wouldn’t come in here, nor would there be bombs or blood, had there not been something important that I appear to be missing, so get on with it!” Mayris stared him in the face, enjoying the unnerved look that was toying with his dirt streaked features.

“It’s the Drones, ma’am. They’re here again. Today, they put up a fight. The medics are running out of space. We need your expertise to create a plan.” He explained, tripping over his words. Mayris nodded, seemingly calm. The Drones always showed up, wreaking havoc on the base. She shuffled around the room, carefully trying to avoid breaking her neck on the destruction that covered the floor. She collected her firearms and hid a few more in her heavy army boots beneath her skirt.

“Ready, Private Sheperd? This is going to get very ugly very fast.” Mayris said, a smile on her face despite the somber conditions. A grin blossomed slowly across the Private’s face.

“Oh, I’m ready, Commander. Let’s go kick those buckets of bolts to the curb.” He said. Mayris hurried down the hallway of the bunker, the earth shaking violently around her. She ran down a flight of stairs that went underground to a secret weapons locker. Demras followed her, surprised as to what this was. She collected a few boxes of bullets, then fled back upstairs to the outdoors. A bomb erupted and she was blown back, everything going black.

Mayris awoke to muffled conversation. She wasn’t entirely sure what they were saying, but she could make out the words ‘Professor’ and ‘surgery’. A woman in a white labcoat walked in. All she could feel was the white hot pain erupting through her face.

“Miss Arkham? Hello. We need to take you to see someone. He’s going to make you better, alright?” She said, a smile on her face. Mayris was nodding off, the world going fuzzy. She was unable to form words and couldn’t understand the woman in front of her, then the room went black.