The Lightbreakers of Orpheus [22]
A serialised Sci-fi novelette
Previously [21]
[22]
Identifying, identifying. Soldier Mark43, you have been identified as terminated.
The Voice was back in Mark’s head, squeezing through his biomechanical brain, forcing itself into the very depths of his thoughts. Mark was a half-machine again, but he had never felt so frightened and human. He even felt cold sweat breaking out on his back.
He had been walking through the desert unstoppable, indefeasible, a machine marching closer to its goal with every step. Until he was in the range of the Lightbreaker outpost near the Rebel settlement. Mark stopped at the sight of the colour blobs his thermal vision revealed to him. The Lightbreakers surrounded him. The Voice found his signal. Mark stood still while it scanned him. If it would find him suspicious, Mark’s mission was bound to end early, with him terminated. It was a huge risk. Mark’s palms got sweaty. The Voice kept its silence. So did Mark. A silent soldier was a good soldier. One minute, two, three…
Your termination has not been confirmed. Enter, soldier Mark 43.
Mark sighed with relief, as the Lightbreaker guards parted, and let him march into a metal door of the outpost building swooshing open.
He got scanned multiple times. Luckily, the Gravedigger technologies were so out-dated, the Rebel systems could not detect them. Not only was Mark equipped with a transmitter, but also a scanning device, that mapped his surroundings. That way the Peacekeeper forces got the exact coordinates of their targets in the Rebel territory. Mark had become their eyes.
The return to the old Lightbreaker daily routine was painfully familiar. Every minute of the soldier’s day was planned to maximum efficiency. Mark followed a group of soldiers marching down the hallway. The Voice directed him the same as others. They were driven into the showers to disinfect them. Standing in a line, robots took off their armour, and clothes. All in line they were showered by a disinfector. Mark felt the droplets sliding down his skin, and he remembered Anouk’s gentle fingers gliding over his muscles. He remembered her scent. The soft touch of her hair. Mark wanted to rip the biomechanical visor implanted in his eyes, to see again, to run away from this place where he was merely a human-like machine. Never before had he wanted to be simply human as much as he did now. But he gritted his teeth. He would not give into feelings. Feelings didn’t matter. Mark was a soldier. Mark was a machine. He had a mission. A secret mission of the Peacekeepers of Orpheus, and he would not stop until he’d find Anouk.