Nathan Jones
I felt the pressure on my fingers as I quickly typed the passcode to the Safe Room—the President's bunker. Lieutenant General and the others were right behind me, impatiently waiting for the bunker to open. As I successfully did, we all went in together. We gasped in disgust and despair as we saw six soldiers lying on the ground, lifeless and bathed on their own blood. President Gana was there sitting on his personalized chair, staring blankly at nowhere. He's the only one unharmed.
“Are you alright, Mr. President?” I asked as we went to his aid.
“Call the medics!” commanded the Lieutenant General. “Mr. President?”
We gained no respond from President Gana, he looked unusual and his stares were blank. When I touched his arm he started convulsing, then he looked at me with fear—a feeling he hadn't shown us before. He started in between his convulsing, “He killed them all. He did.”
“Endless?” I said, asking for confirmation. He twitched at the sound of his name.
“How could he do such a thing? He's my personal bodyguard! He tried..he tried to kill me too!” He pulled his neon hair out and I tried to stopped him. The President seemed to lost his sanity, although I believed that was only due to shock and denial. I admit that President Gana wasn't trained much for wars, he wasn't a soldier type of a person, so he was weak in terms of emotional distresss. He was the first President in Panes who wasn't a soldier first, he was a negotiator and a public icon, elected by people due to his popularity and business skills.
“He's a machine President Gana, he's been hacked, like everybody else.” I told him, just in time the medics arrived and assisted the President away from me. I hurt at the sight of his traumatic episode.
My G-watch rang so I pulled my left hand up, then I answered the call. It was the General. I turned the loud speaker. “How's the President?” He asked, making Sire George to looked at me with envy and despise, all because he was the Lieutenant General and yet I was the one whom General Smith called.
“He's not hurt, but he's okay,” I answered, ignoring Sire George's stares. “I believe however that it's time to pull out all gadgets from our officers, even if they seem to look okay. I suggest you order them to shut down their machines, General, before it's too late. Yes, yes, I do understand Sire. Thank you.” Then I ended up the line.
“You really have the guts to order the General, aren't you, Jones?” Sire George asked.
“I wasn't ordering him Sire, I was suggesting an idea.” I replied and walked out of the room. But I walked back inside and added, “Oh by the way, I know someone who gives orders without the General's permission. Good thing though, Zion escaped his exile to Station 6.” I shrugged my shoulders and left him mad.
Station 6 wasn't the right place for a combat machine like Zion. It was the place for people like Lieutenant General and machines like Endless. They could make a duo up there.
General Smith
Endless gave us at least three days to prepare and attack. And I wasn't agreeable to that, because the longer the hours spent, the longer the Shield was to retrieve. I don't get why Endless wanted us to prepare and plan our attack, but him telling us this might be a trap. So we really had to be careful after all. He's outside the North borders with the earl, and before we could meet him, we would encouter lots of cyborgs in the North. In other words, that means war.
At first, I hesitated to rescue the earl. There was no way we needed him alive. What we really need was to protect Panes from the cyborgs. However, we later found out that the hacker was Zion and when I called him, his first statement was, “Help me rescue the earl, only then I give back your Shield.”
Left with no other choice, I agreed to Zion's terms. Zion had been working with us prior to this incident, and so I wouldn't be surprise if he knew the ways inside the Shield Project. If there was one thing I learned from this event, that was never understimate a combat machine.
I gathered all of our great soldiers in Panes, and they were five thousand of them. I didn't include the soldiers in training yet. For three days we prepared ourselves, we geared up, so that when we go North we're not just soldiers—but history makers.
Our Science Lab prepared a set of war suit for the soldiers, something that we haven't tried using before since was still in beta mode. But this suit could now serve as our bullet proof, a hundred times thicker and safer. According to recent encounters, cyborgs have upgraded weapons, and so we needed to upgrade our gears, too.
All was prepared on the third day. Land battleships and war planes, and other war mobiles were set to the North borders. Some were set to the South borders, too, in case of unplanned attack from the South. The South was actually connected to the Pacific Ocean—the last ocean of this age, and so we prepared war ships there to guard the waters. The East and West borders were surrounded with great walls, they're the last places to be attacked. But to be safe, we sent armies there to guard.
The civilians and survivors of the lost cities in Panes were gathered safely to the Safe Zone, just next to the Headquarters. Food was starting to become a problem, especially since the NN and other nations have already abandoned us—all because we didn't submit to the Emperor's invasion. The nerve, we didn't even know how he looked like! Sooner or later, famine would be our major problem. But that's something we can't avoid. We're in war!
Before we'd set off towards the North, I gave a short speech to Panesh people in the Safe Zone. There were lots and lots of them. Kids, pregnant women, sickly men, old and retired veterans—everyone was there. Everyone who wanted to live was there. When they saw me up on that metallic stage, they started whispering, “Where's the President? He should be here instead of him,” or “Why can't we just surrender to the Emperor? We're safer that way!”
I ignored their angry stares, I ignored their traumatized faces, I ignored their hungry looks, then said in a mic,“People of Panes, this is General Michael Smith.”
“Where's the President? Bring him to us!” someone shouted and then everyone was shouting and yelling too. Soldiers were trying to quiet them and it took some minutes to make it work.
“Yea, bring him to us! He said to release the Shield to protect us, where is it now?”
“Why did he not submit to NN's orders? It's safer that way!”
“Bring him out!”
“The President's life has been threatened, in fact he's currently undergoing treatment. In behalf of President James Gana, I stand here before you, to officially declare that we are...in war.”
Everyone started roaring again, they were shouting and they were gnashing of teeth. I looked at them and for once, for some seconds, I felt like declaring war was not the right decision. For once, I felt like surrendering to New Nation's order and to the Emperor was the best solution to save lives. But then...it cannot be.
“What? We can't go to war like this!”
“We can't win over those freaking machines!”
“What about our food? We rely to Maxima for food!”
“We're against to this war!”
“Soldiers will die for nothing!”
“You can't bring my husband to battle against cyborgs!”
“In order to protect Panes and release the Shield, we must go to war.” I explained to them but they were blinded with their fears and madness. They kept complaining. Someone even threw a stone at me, but my reflexes was good so I was able to dodge it.
They continued on shouting and complaining, but these could not change our mind. I sighed deeply before I gave my last words, “People of Panes, this is war, and when it's war it means surviving. God bless our land.” Then I turned to walked out from the lots of them. I could still hear their angry shouts. But it's something we did expect. I did expect.
“What now, Sire?” Nathan asked me.
“Signal the East, West, and South armies. Let's go to North.” I ordered as I widened my arms, a personnel helped me in putting my war suit. Gearing up, we proceeded to enter the battleship prepared for us.
“Sire,” Lieutenant General George started as I entered. “He forced himself in.”
“I'm going, too.” Charlie said and I felt like my eyes shrink. He was wearing one of the war suits. He no longer looked like a butler.
“We can't guarantee your safety.” I said.
“I don't need your guarantee though,” he replied.
“Well, can't be helped. Let's go to North.” I walked to the navigation area.
“Is a combat machine allowed to this ship?” I glanced back when I heard the familiar voice of Zion. He was there standing at the ship's door, cocking his head to the left as if there's nothing happened. I walked back and glared daggers at him, even though I owe him a lot, he made me decide this war! He added, “Well, I suppose you need someone like me.”
“And the Shield?”
“Oh, come on, General Smith!” He rolled his eyes as he entered. “You know I have reasons. Let's get the earl back to Panes, and you will have the Shield.”
“Do you realize that soldiers will die in exchange of one life?” I asked angrily.
“I do.”
“Then why?”
He was now standing before me. He replied with his mechanical and deep voice, “Because the earl is my mission and everyone else is a virus. Humans aren't the only ones who need to survive, General Smith, I too aim for survival.”