ZERO DAY

Chapter 3

You ride the Hyperloop to the maintenance stop and jump off.
It’s about 5am.
Astronomical dawn.
The air feels mild, and a bit cooler.
The terrain is mostly dense rainforest and it’s hard to navigate.

“Still heading in the right direction?” You ask
“Yup.” Her eyes locked on her GPS HoloDisplay

You reach an overgrown path which leads to a moonlit clearing.
You soon approach a compound with a large satellite dish on top.
It’s covered in vines and graffiti.
You hear a bird call out in the distance.
The door is almost rusted shut.
You force it open and make your way inside.

Aside from the faint glow of electronics, it’s completely dark.

“Looks like no one’s here…”
Cyan turns her light on.
“Holy shit.”
At the far end of the room stands a MECH., nearly 10 feet tall.
It’s connected to a variety of wires and tubes.
In a small cavity near it’s core you see a glowing green stone.

“The Fragment”
You move in to grab it.
Before you can touch it you hear a loud electronic whirr followed by a flash of light.

“ＷＡＲＮＩＮＧ”

A digitized voice repeats

“ＬＡＳＥＲ
ＴＡＲＧＥＴＩＮＧ
ＳＹＳＴＥＭ
ＡＣＴＩＶＡＴＥＤ.”

It’s a XENOS Industrial Security-Class MECH. This is bad.

You turn around to see Cyan writhing in pain.
“It got me!” She shrieks
You run to help.
It only grazed her shoulder - but she’s bleeding.

“Your knife!” You pick it up off the floor.
The MECH charges up, prepping to strike again.
You have to act quickly.
Diving forward, you slam the glowing green blade into it’s core.
It makes a harsh metallic grinding sound before coming to a halt.
You grab the meteor fragment.
“COME ON!” You shout at Cyan, still reeling in pain
“These things can self repair!”

You both make it out in time to see a large hovercraft touch down.
On the side is scrawled ‘CERULEAN CORP.’
You let out a sigh of relief.

“Xeno.”
“How’d you find us?” You ask him.
“Same way I always do” He replies
“Hop on”
You both board the craft.
“So what’s the news on MEGA?”
“Good news and bad news.” He replies
“None of my attempts to divert it have worked - yet but, we’ve still got plan B."
"Plan B?"