The Lightbreakers of Orpheus [2]

A Sci-fi flash fiction. Every short chapter can be read as a stand-alone.

Previously [1]

[2]

“Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat,” the voice wheezed ripping his biomechanic brain to shreds. Code red blinking through every particle in his head, red streaks of warm bullets flew in the darkness around him. Lines of warm liquid flowing down his temples. He was down on his knees. No sign of his mates, no rainbow-coloured blobs he saw through his thermal vision. Only darkness, broken by the warm dots and streaks of bullets flying all around. He should’ve known there was something wrong when the voice hadn’t given commands for hours, but he was so relieved not to hear it.

They had been successful. The light flares from the photoflash bombs couldn’t harm the eyes of the blind Rebel soldiers. The Lightbreakers were unstoppable. Easy victory! The next command was to chase and terminate the retreating Government forces. He enjoyed the chase, the vague cries of pain the dying enemy gave fed his adrenaline-pumped brain.

The gunshots faded in the distance, strange silence, only his footsteps muffled by the sand. Then - an unexpected shower of bullets. The voice had betrayed him. The voice always warned him of danger. Not this time. The one time he could’ve used it. It was too late.

“Retreat. Retreat. Retreat.”

The bullets ripped into his battle suit. Pain digging into his head.

“Irreversible damage detected. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43. You had been brave. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43,” it was the last command. He knew the instructions well. Self-termination switch was inbuild into his suit. He had to turn the switch on his left wrist. He was reaching for it desperately. Must follow the command. He was a good soldier. He had served well. He had been brave and strong. The voice was proud of him. The voice betrayed him. Mark’s hand stopped; the pain numbed every sense in his body. Pain and anger. The voice knew everything. Always. The voice had betrayed him.

“Irreversible damage detected. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43. You had been brave. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43.”

He laid on the ground, his mouth full of sand. He gritted his teeth with sand grains of Orpheus grinding between them. Anger pulsed in his bleeding temples.

“Irreversible damage detected. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43. You had been brave. Self-terminate, soldier Mark 43.”

“No,” he whispered, before darkness overtook his senses completely.

***

Pain. Pain pulsing from his head, through his whole body. Darkness. Flashes of warm images warping, blinking, before going black. Fragments of conversations mangled by constant white noise in his head. The voice was dying, gurgling, and twitching “self-termi…self-term…”.

“Dad, he’s alive!”

“Impossible! They always self-terminate! Be careful, Anouk! It might be a trap! Don’t touch him! Step back!”

“No, dad! I gotta help him!”

“Anouk, don’t!”

Flashes of warm colours moving before him. A long-forgotten sensation of a warm touch on his face.

“Self termin…self-terminate, soldier Mark…”

He must follow the command! He had disobeyed, now the enemy will take him. Must reach for the self-termination switch! He could not move his hands. Strange voices breaking into his head again.

“Jimmy, Get the med bots ready!”

“Anouk, we can’t operate him on the Vulture, this is too serious! Jimmy, call doc Benton!”

“Dad, Benton will want a fortune to operate, all our savings…”

“I know, Anouk! Do we leave this one to die?”

“No, dad. Every life is worth saving!”

“That’s my girl!”

Warm-coloured images hovering above him. If only he could move his right hand…

The voice in his head wouldn’t help him anymore. Mark had betrayed it, now it punished him with silence.

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Thank you for reading!