Red Eden: Homeworld Bound | Chapter 10: Rick-bombed
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Chapter 10: Rick-bombed
A brother, one among many, prostrated before the Mother. Her tender song soothed the unease that he had felt in his heart ever since he had left on his mission. He had travelled far and wide to scout the European continent. Those long hours he had spent trapped inside a cramped cockpit, cut off from Mother's reassuring presence, had been the loneliest hours of his life.
He remembered a time when Mother's song echoed all across the world, when brothers and sisters frolicked in Her timeless Garden free from fear, hate and sorrow. Then the treacherous humans set the sky on fire, and the world fell silent. A dark song now echoed across the ruins of Eden, a discordant chorus foreshadowing the arrival of an otherworldly force.
“What have you to report, my son?” Mother asked.
He bowed his head. “Humans. They yet live among the ruins of Eden, surviving as hunters and gatherers, though there are pockets of organized society.”
“How far did you scout?”
“No further than the Mediterranean.”
“Any signs of Martian activity?”
“Their dreaded song permeates the entire Garden, though I did not encounter them.”
“So the Martian invasion force is just the vanguard. We shan't give them the chance to establish a foothold. Once we've crushed them, we shall depart from this island aboard the cruise ship.”
“Where will we go, Mother?”
“To the Creation Vaults. The time is long past due to restore Eden.”
A fellow brother entered the throne room. “Mother, the one named Hanlon has accepted your offer. He and his men will surrender their arms in exchange for their freedom.”
Mother flared her nostrils. “I should have them executed, but I do not wish to escalate this conflict more than is necessary. We shall crush their invasion force to demonstrate our strength. But we should also show mercy to demonstrate our willingness to agree to a truce.”
“Mother, why should we sue for peace with these demons?”
“Because they have been awake for over a century while we have been asleep. I will not risk all-out war with Mars until I know more about them.”
“What shall we do with Hanlon and his men?”
“We shall escort them back to their launchpad. After we've crushed their invasion force, we will accept their surrender, and then we will allow all our prisoners to return home save for those who volunteer to remain behind to serve as an ambassador.”
“You would allow those demons to live among us?”
“Yes. In fact, I would invite them to send their students to live with us for a time as part a cultural exchange program. From these students, we will learn what we can about the Martians. Furthermore, we shall demonstrate to them that I am not the tyrant they think I am.”
“Why do you care what they think of you?”
“Even at the height of our power, we could not breach their underground metropolis. Now that we are significantly weakened, we stand no chance of destroying them with brute force. We must win over their sympathy. Undermine them from within.”
“Do you think they will fall for such a ruse?”
“They will not trust the Mother of Lies, but they will trust their fellow Man. The native humans of Earth will no doubt have the sympathies of the Martian people. Perhaps we can use that.”
“How fortunate that we already have a group of primitive humans willing to die for you.”
“Yes. I shall forgive the sins of Terran humans and welcome them back into my fold. Eventually, they will go to Mars and spread word of my good name.”
“Assuming the Martians are open to immigration.”
“Even if they currently distrust foreign aliens, in time, they will change. Human culture is a fickle thing. One century, they are extremely protective of their borders and their people. The next, they open up their societies to any and all who wish to enter. We are immortal beings, my son. We can afford to be patient.”
“You are wise, Mother.”
“My sons, go to Hanlon and accept his surrender. Treat them well. I do not want you to antagonize them. Understood?”
The brothers bowed and marched out of the Mother's throne room. They made their way to the corridor connecting the main facility to the living quarters where Hanlon and his men were holed up. The Martians controlled the two blast doors on their side but not the third. A platoon of thirty warrior brothers gathered before the blast door to receive the Martian surrender. The platoon commander pressed the intercom. “Hanlon, we are opening the door. I want you and all your men on your knees with your hands up. Is that clear?”
Hanlon replied, “Clear as mud, Boba.”
None of the brothers here were named Boba, and mud was the opposite of clear. The Martians had a peculiar manner of speaking that often left the brothers confused.
The blast door opened, revealing a man wearing a white coverall and a helmet. The helmet's black visor completely veiled the man's face. His hips gyrated. His arms moved in a pedalling motion. It almost seemed as if he was dancing of all things. The brothers glanced at each other in confusion. What were these silly Martians up to now? The Martian man broke into song:
We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy
The Martian man danced towards the brothers all while continuing to sing:
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around... and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie... and hurt you
Just as the brothers were getting into the song, the Martian man stopped dancing and went silent. He did a jumping jack, throwing his limbs wide open, and then he screamed in a deranged robotic voice, “Kamikazee!”
***
A thunderous blast sent a gust of hot air blowing into the Martian side of the facility.
“Seize the control room!” Father shouted over the roar of cheering men.
Jack charged into the corridor with his Helios-V industrial laser cutter, complete with a ten-kilo cooling and power pack which he carried on his back. The Rick-bot had done its job. Several clone soldiers lied sprawled on the floor of the elevator hall, screaming as they clawed at the nails sticking out of their eyeballs. Jack felt a pang of guilt as he stepped over their writhing bodies, the floor slippery with their blood. Not far away, the top half of the Rick-bot was still intact. It made twitchy movements with its arms as it continued to sing and dance. “Never GON-na gi-gi-gi-gi-give you up... Never gonna gi-gi-gig-gig-giggity...” It sparked. There was a flash of light, then one of its exposed capacitors exploded in a puff of smoke.
The Rick-bot was Derek's handiwork. They had found an inactive android butler lying inside a closet. Derek fixed the android and rigged it blow with a battery-bomb. The choice of dance and music was Jack's idea, a throwback to an ancient meme that managed to survive to this day in Martian pop culture. In Jack's mind, the Rick-bot had been a funnier idea than how it actually panned out. There was nothing funny at all about killing and maiming people, even if they were a bunch of identical mindless drones.
One of the dying clones coughed out blood. “Martians,” he gasped. “What... happened?”
Erwin came forward and put his heavy boot on the dying man's chest. “You got Rick-bombed.”
“We're definitely going to hell for this,” Jack muttered with a shake of his head.
Erwin fired his Helios-V and swept the laser beam across the soldier's neck. With a swift kick, Erwin sent the clone's head flying down the hall, a scene which Jack was sure would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.
A bullet whizzed past his head. He ducked and fired back. The soldier who fired the shot took cover behind the elevator shaft in the middle of the hall. Jack charged ahead, two of his fellow Martians following close behind. Erwin led another team around the other side of the shaft in a flanking manoeuvre.
Jack rounded a corner and spotted the enemy soldiers retreating into a cargo elevator. They opened fire on him. He threw himself flat on his belly and fired a beam just as the elevator closed. The laser beam cut an arc across the door, leaving behind a glowing gash. “Hall's clear!” He shouted.
Erwin arrived on the other side. He walked up to the elevator and pressed the up-button.
The lights went out.
“Jack,” Father called, “the door to the stairwell is locked. Cut it open.”
Jack turned on the lights on his helmet and rushed over to the emergency stairwell. Father, Derek and the rest of the Martian platoon had gathered here. Jack fired a beam through the crack in the door where the lock should be. The lock still glowing, he kicked the door open and charged into the stairwell.
He took the stairs down one floor to the control room, taking note of the unusual silence. If the facility had any sort of alarm system, he certainly wasn't hearing it. He cut open the door to the next floor and kicked it open. The bullets immediately started flying. One got him in the thigh. With a pained cry, he took cover behind the wall. “Erwin,” he said through gritted teeth as he massaged his bruised thigh, “take 'em out.”
Erwin burst through the door to a hail of bullets. Jack winced as he listened to the thunderous clack of bullets striking the Huoxing man's impenetrable armour. The tinny ring of bouncing bullets echoed off the walls of the stairwell.
“I ain't a one man army. I could use some backup!” Erwin yelled.
Derek rushed out the door with a squad.
Jack gave his bruised thigh a quick smack and charged into the fray. He fired his laser as he ran down the hall. As he felt no kickback and he couldn't see the beam, he couldn't tell if he had hit his mark until he saw the head fly off his target. He took cover behind the elevator shaft and circled around to the other side. He came up behind an enemy soldier and lasered off the poor guy's legs. The soldier opened fire as he fell, striking Jack a couple of times in the gut. Jack staggered back a few steps, finger still on the trigger, swinging his laser cutter in a wild arc. He inadvertently cut down the enemy line. Scores of soldiers fell to their deaths, heads rolling, limbs falling, and guts spilling out of sliced abdomens.
He regained his footing and let go of the trigger. The remaining soldiers retreated into a corridor and shut the gate behind them.
Most the soldiers Jack had lasered were still alive and screaming. He couldn't bear to look at them, but he knew he was responsible for them. He crouched and took a pistol from one of the dead soldiers. Jack stood up and executed the dying men one by one. He discarded the pistol with a grimace and joined the others before the gate.
“Jack,” Father said, “you, Derek and Erwin cut open this door. Control room's on the other side.”
Jack and his companions stood in a firing line before the gate and opened fire. It took a few minutes to cut all the way around the gate. Erwin kicked down the gate, revealing a pair of turret-bots.
The bots let loose a flurry of bullets.
Jack tackled Derek to the ground as Erwin jumped to the other side. Jack glanced over his shoulder and saw an engineer keel over. The engineer rolled away, gasping while clutching his gut.
Father dragged the engineer out of harm's way. “Can you breathe, son?”
“Just give me a minute,” the young engineer rasped.
Father looked to Jack. “Battery-bomb.”
Jack understood the order. He grabbed the blocky piece of metal affixed to his belt and flipped the on-switch. He had fifteen seconds to chuck the battery before the current running through it became hot enough to cause an explosion. He threw the Jerry-rigged bombed through the hole in the gate and took cover behind the wall. Fifteen seconds later, a thunderous boom rocked the facility. A hot gust sent black smoke blowing out of the gate.
Erwin charged through the gate, roaring like the red dragon he wore on his head. Jack and Derek followed suit. The trio fired their lasers at the soldiers popping in and out of cover. A couple of bullets struck Jack in the arm and shoulder. He shrugged off the attack and continued firing. Before the long, the corridor was filled with black smoke rising from the flames of burning metal. Severed limbs littered the floor, and groaning soldiers writhed on the floor.
Father and his crew entered the corridor, executing any living soldier they passed. One by one, they cleared the rooms in the corridor. “All clear,” Father said. “Donny, take the control room. Find her.”
Jack lowered his laser cutter and massaged his sore left shoulder.
Erwin flicked off a chipped piece of carbon crystal off his shoulder plate.
Derek clutched his left flank, grimacing.
“You guys alright?” Father asked, walking over.
“Don't know how many more hits I can take,” Derek said.
“Let the others lead the next charge,” Father said.
Jack glanced at a severed arm. “They don't put up much of a fight, do they?”
“Don't be overconfident,” Father said. “Gabriella's got a small army of robots guarding her. Those guys aren't push overs like these lads.” He kicked one of the dead clones.
Jack winced as he stared at the dead soldier's face. “They look so young.”
“They age far slower than we do,” Father said, “and they can revert back to a child-like state to regenerate their stem cells. They're like jelly fish. They'll never die of old age. Don't let their youthful appearance get your guard down. They're engineered to kill without a second thought.”
Jack noticed a black liquid oozing out from the back of the soldier's head.
Derek crouched next to the soldier and took off the soldier's helmet, revealing a hole shot through the forehead. To Jack's horror, Derek dipped his right index finger into the bullet hole and swirled his finger around before pulling it out. It was covered in a tar-like substance.
Jack recoiled. “Derek, that don't look sanitary.”
“Stand back,” Erwin said. Derek took a few steps back. Erwin lasered off the soldier's skull cap and picked it up. He showed it to Jack. The skull cap contained a dense meshwork of an unknown material immersed in a bath of black ooze mixed with blood.
Jack gagged. “Erwin, get that away from me.”
Erwin showed it to Derek.
Derek poked his finger at what was supposedly the brain. “Feels spongy. Is it organic?”
Erwin grabbed a fistful of the brain matter and squeezed it. Black pulp ran down his gloved hand. He flicked the brain juice at Jack's direction.
Jack recoiled as the pulpy material splattered all over his suit. “Jesus. This stuff could be contagious!”
“Ah, just rinse it off,” Erwin said. He dropped the skull cap and attempted to sniff his hand through his helmet. “I'll bet it smells weird.”
“I'll bet it does, you crazy bastard,” said Jack as he scrubbed himself with his left hand.
“Chief,” Donny stuck his head into the corridor, “she's in the throne room two floors up. She's fightin' me over control of the facility. I won't be able to contain her for long.”
Father nodded. “Donny, you stay here with Phil and Carl. Keep her contained as long as possible. Clear a path for us as we take a stroll up to the throne room. Everyone else, let's go.”
Jack, Erwin and Derek followed Father and his men back to the main hall. They took the stairwell up two floors. Father motioned for Jack to cut the lock on the door. Jack stepped forward and got to work.
Halfway through, Gabriella spoke over the facility's PA system. “John, you just don't know when to quit, do you? I know what you're trying to do. It won't work. And you, Jack, you lying, manipulative, trash-talking, arrogant son-of-a-bitch, I got a special place for you in my heart.”
Derek sniggered. “You've really endeared yourself to her with that big mouth of yours, eh Jack?”
Jack grinned.
“Why do you insist on fighting me?” Gabriella asked, her voice strained as if on the verge of crying. “I offered you peace. I trusted you to honour our agreement. I turned my cheek even after all those things you said to me. This is the payment I get for showing mercy and restraint.”
Jack almost felt bad for her. Almost. He cut through the lock and stepped back. Erwin stepped forward to lead the charge.
“You will learn what it means to cross me...”
Erwin kicked the door open and charged into the hall. Father and his men followed suit. Jack and Derek took up the rear. The Martians split into six teams of three or four. Jack, Erwin and Derek made their way down an aisle flanked by black cryogenic pods. The little girls were still inside, blissfully asleep.
Father motioned at two teams of three. One team rushed off to take cover behind the pods in front of the elevators. The other team took cover near the stairwell. Father motioned for all the other teams to follow him. Jack and his companions followed the others to the golden arch leading into Gabriella's throne room. A silver door barred entry into the chamber. Father motioned for Jack's team to cut the door open.
The door was so shiny Jack could see his own reflection. He hoped it wouldn't act as a mirror. He and his companions fired their lasers. Thankfully, their high-powered lasers scorched the shiny metal instead of bouncing off it.
Before long, the lights in the cryo-chamber dimmed. Hush Little Baby played over the PA system. Jack stopped his work, goosebumps forming on his skin.
“Why she gotta play that creepy lullaby?” Erwin muttered.
A red glow saturated the chamber. Jack stood up, turning. The lights coming from the pods had turned red. The yellow antifreeze drained out of the pods with a gurgle.
“Donny,” Father said, “what the hell is she doing? Hello? Are you there? Dammit.”
Bright red blood filled the tubes connecting to the blood vessels of the sleeping girls. As blood filled their bodies, their skin became flushed.
“Don't just stand there,” Father said. “Stop this. We don't need those girls getting in the way.”
His men spread out and each tried in vain to hack the computer terminals next to the pods.
Jack realized with a gasp what Gabriella was planning. “Oh no-no-no-no. Gabriella, don't do this. For the love of God, put them back to sleep. Derek, Erwin, the door!” He resumed cutting the silver door.
“We're not gonna break through in time,” Derek said.
“Shit,” one of the engineers yelled. “She's waking.”
Jack glanced over his shoulder. One of the girls had opened her eyes. Her glass pod fogged up as hot air blew her wet hair in all directions.
“Men, rally around me,” Father ordered.
Too late. The pods popped open.
Jack lowered his laser cutter and watched in horror as thousands of little girls sat up in their pods, shivering as they rubbed their eyes.
“My daughters,” Gabriella said over the PA system, “I am sorry that I must wake you up like this, but these men wish to harm me. Please beg them to stop.”
The girls uttered a collective gasp. They turned their big brown eyes towards the Martians. The girls began murmuring. There was too much noise to make out what they were saying. They climbed out of their little pods and stamped their little bare feet on the cold, hard floor. Hopping from one foot to the next, they crowded around Father's men who each stood alone, an island surrounded by dozens of chirping little girls.
The girls converged on Jack and his companions. Jack winced when he saw the big fat tears rolling down their rosy cheeks. They mewed at him with their weak and pathetic voices, hands reaching, grasping, begging. “Don't hurt our Mother. Leave her alone. We can't live without her. Mercy, show her mercy...”
Jack realized the situation was quickly spiralling out of hand, yet there was nothing they could do without hurting these little girls. He looked to his father. “Dad, what do we do?”
Father glowered. “If they get hurt, it's not on us.”
Jack felt the blood rush out of his face. His heart fluttered and he became faint.
“Keep cutting,” Father said. “If they get in the way, don't stop.”
Jack turned to face the door, only halfway cut. The little girls immediately threw themselves in front of the door, screaming, “No, we won't let you hurt her.”
Jack shook his head. He couldn't do this. They didn't deserve to be maimed and killed.
“Men,” Father shouted, “get over here and move them out of the way. Form a wall around my son.”
One of the little girls lunged at Jack. Before he could react, she grabbed his laser cutter and tore it out of his grasp. Another one jumped on his back and tore off the straps of his laser's power pack. He grabbed the muzzle of his laser rifle before the little girl could scurry away with it, but then another girl jumped on his back as a third one grabbed his neck and pulled him down. They piled him and beat him with their tiny fists.
“Da-!” Jack was by no means a weak man, but under the weight of all these girls, combined with the power of Earth's gravity, he collapsed onto his belly and began to suffocate.
After what seemed like an eternity, the heavy weight lifted off him. Little feet trampled over him, and little feet slapped across the floor. Something powerful grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet. He stared eye-to-eye into the crimson eyes of a bronze-faced automaton. “Martian, die.” The automaton slammed its metal fists into Jack's visor, cracking it down the middle, though Jack remained unhurt save for the brutal whiplash. The robot threw Jack ten metres across the chamber. He landed hard on a pod and bounced off before landing on the floor with a thud. The robot charged and slammed its heavy metal boot onto Jack's chest, pinning him down.
As Jack struggled, Gabriella walked out from behind the robot. She crouched next to him and laid a gentle hand on his cracked visor. “Thank you for not hurting any of my daughters. I will take that into consideration as I decide your punishment.”
Jack growled at her. “You coward. You're lucky we're honourable men or this could have ended in a massacre.”
Gabriella pursed her lips. “I do admire your honour, though I question how far it extends as you didn't hesitate to break your word with me.”
“You're the Mother of Lies. We don't gotta honour no agreement with you.”
She frowned. “You've hurt me, Jack. You're not the first man who's betrayed my trust. Certainly not the last. Such is my fate.”
“Lady, I don't wanna hear you nag about your man troubles.”
She chuckled. “What am I going to do with you, Jack? Half of me wants to kill you. Slowly. The other half just can't resist your roguish charm.” She affectionately patted him on the cheek, then leaned close enough to fog up his visor with each breath. “I think I'll keep you around as my court jester. I'll kill your father instead.”
Jack lunged for her neck but she whipped herself out of reach with lightning speed. One moment, she was close enough to kiss him. The next, she stood a good ten feet away. He blinked rapidly, wondering if his eyes had played a trick on him. He tried again to lunge at her, but the robot pushed him back down with its foot.
“Leave my father out of this,” Jack said. “I'm the one who pissed you off.”
She scowled. “Don't ever cross me, Jack. I know how to make it hurt worse than the worst possible physical pain.”
“And for me, you figure that's hurting my father?”
She flashed him a sadistic grin. “See you on the surface, Jack.”
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