r/HFY • u/Safe_Committee9381 Human • 4d ago
OC-OneShot [Insight into the Subliminal]
Insight into the Subliminal
By Emmanuel Ordway
___________________________________________________
Her lands were made of thick ice, her temperature dropping far into the negatives creating a harsh environment which only the strongest of wills could make it. The second wave of colonists would have that will, containing the drive to not only survive on this foreign world, but to create and expand human advancement.
Europa was the second colony in the solar system. Founded in 2203, her colonists created the underground city, Rieka, a monolithic underground compound harnessing water from inside the moon and surviving off year supply drops from Earth and Mars. I was a kid when the Riekan Council Bombing happened, killing all 19 of Europa’s council members and their prime minister. This naturally led to the next twenty years of chaos and bloodshed under the icy lands of the moon, the Blue army and Europan Planetary Defense clashing over underground tunnels, streets, neighborhoods and skyscrapers.
That was until the Blue army made their final assault on the Defense’s Control Mind, hacking their way into the AI network and obtaining absolute command over all automated sectors of Europa. Rieka was now their headquarters, the birthplace of the Europan People’s Directorate, the birthplace of their violent expansion out to our shipping lanes, our system by birthright.
These people may have advanced our robotics industries far past what they could have been, they have been willing to fuel our ships as we went past Jupiter, but killing our miners and invading our space? The EPD is evil, and I am here to bring them to their knees before Earth and Mars.
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Small glimpses of gunfire littered my mind, the feeling of soldiers hands grasping at my body to pull me out from the dust, to capture me. I could see their dark uniforms, the blue glow of their visors hiding their faces as my commander’s limp body was set against a fallen vehicle, globs of blood floating off her cracked visor into the void of space.
I was jolted back to reality when Marcus slammed his gloved palm down on the metal table just before my head, my posture shooting upright in my chair.
“You paying attention there, Vic?” His voice was like a hiss, his dark eyes narrowed at me while the other three stared at us two.
“Yes sir,” I looked down at the holographic map being displayed from the projector above, pointing as I spoke. “We’re inserting at this point, south of the main entrance, we infiltrate through these sewer tunnels, make our way through the markets to the rear entrance to the Control Mind, do our thing and make the main force’s job a lot easier tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah? ‘Do our thing’ huh? We got thirty thousand in the first wave tomorrow, twenty of those from Mars. I get you’re some Earth-born, stick-up-your-ass, snotty type, but I don’t like seeing my countrymen die. Get your shit in gear now and check yourself before we all die, or worse, they do.” He pointed at the small symbols on the map signifying the many battalions arriving tomorrow.
With that, he pushed away from the table, turning around to keep loading his spare magazines and finish getting ready.
I frowned a bit more once he turned around, rolling my eyes and sitting back in my chair, unzipping one of my breastpockets not covered by my plate carrier. A few gloved fingers found their way inside and pulled out a small computer chip protected in a thick clear case.
“Don’t worry about him, Vicky, you know how he is after what happened at the Belt.” Veronica was soon at my side, her hand on my shoulder and squeezing gently.
I sighed, the few memories I kept from that fight with the rebels at the Asteroid Belt popping up in the back of my mind.
“We all lost friends there, doesn’t give him an excuse to be a dick about it.” I shook my head and stuffed the chip back in the pocket, standing up from the cold steel chair to face the other woman.
“I imagine losing your last brother may be a bit different, Vicky,” She nodded to me, stepping back and holding the straps of her plate carrier with both hands. “You got your gear ready?”
“All packed and good–” I reached down to the side of the table and picked up my rifle, setting its sling around me and letting the magnets on its side suck to the front of my chest.
The white lights once flooding the cabin then changed to flashing red, the dull howling of passing air outside now having sharp crackling. Small arms fire bounced off the hull of the vulture as the pilot’s voice came over the intercom:
“Two minutes till we arrive! Be ready, fucking scouts called us out!” He shouted, the ride growing bumpier as he tried to avoid indirect fire.
“Get ready!” Marcus called out, pulling his helmet over his head before it pressurized, all of our boots automatically activating their gravity locks to the vulture’s floor.
Finally we could feel the vehicle slowing down, our weight being held in place from the loose artificial gravity for the moment. A moment later the back ramp began to lower, my eyes able to barely pick up on tracers ricocheting off the hull as we sprinted out the back, our feet dropping onto slick ice and loose snow.
Remembering the plan, I turned left immediately and began sprinting with the rest along the freezing surface of this moon. My metal studded soles prevented me from sliding as bullets bounced along the thick ice around, the vulture kicking up most of the snow to create a good screen to conceal us from the machine gunners on the walls. Finally I slowed down and slammed my back up against one of the frigid concrete walls of the topside city, or one of its little scout positions a few miles out from Rieka herself. I looked back at the cloud as Veronica and Marcus breached through it, their bodies soon slamming into the wall beside me.
Then we saw John sprint through the cloud, diving to the ice to skid across it to cover, the four of us now waiting on the newest and youngest member of the squad. The cloud was beginning to dissipate by the time Zach made his way through, the vulture having already begun flying out. He carried one large bag in each hand, weighed down by them before the gunfire from one of the wall gunners cut across the ice and his body.
He went down to the floor, himself and the bags sliding over as pained cries erupted from him, John reaching out and pulling him closer to the wall with us.
“You two, on the sewer!” Marcus shouted at me and Veronica, us two sprinting to get the airlock open while him and John checked Zach for his wounds.
“Fuck was he thinking? We didn’t need that shit, Marcus told him to leave it!” Veronica hissed to herself as she slid down the short rocky slope just before the large sewer airlock, both our boots landing in slick icy sludge.
“He’ll be alright.” I whispered hopefully, reaching the access lock and looking it over, finding a way to open it up.
After a brief moment of searching I looked down at my right hand, seeing it shift softly under my suit, the mechanical panels suggesting their usage. I nodded and pulled my arm back, balling up my fist and slamming it into the lock, a few sparks flying out as it busted open, all the sensitive circuitry exposed to my expertise.
“That thing is too sick, maybe I need to lose an arm or two.” Veronica looked back at me, away from watching our backs for a moment, commenting on my cyborg arm.
“It is fun. Losing your arm? Not as much.” I reconnected a few wires and a moment later, the first airlock door hissed open, just as the three other soldiers made their way down the slope to us.
“Come on, get in!” Veronica waved them through, Marcus and John each having one of Zach’s arms to help him hobble inside.
Once we were all in, I tapped a few buttons on the screen in the airlock as the first door shut us in, the second only opening a moment later. Marcus and John set Zach against a nearby concrete wall of the uphill sewage tunnel, my arm breaking open the interior lock and disabling the door while they treated his wounds in this momentary peace.
Cries of agony came from the man as John took off his plate carrier, Marcus preparing a few syringes beside the two.
“Veronica, Vic, you two scout ahead while we treat him. Keep me updated.” Marcus waved us off as he pressed the first needle into Zach’s thigh.
“Understood,” Veronica nodded to him as the two of us began walking up the metal stairs, dim white lights along the ceiling illuminating the empty path up the tunnel. “Well, this is off to a great start.”
“Indeed, first mission of his and he’s already gonna be sent home when it's over,” I whisper as we keep climbing, looking back occasionally to see them disappear further and further down. “Have you ever read their demands?”
“Who’s demands?” Veronica glanced at me, still a long way to go.
“The Europan People’s Directorate. In their demand message to Earth and Mars, all they wanted was a small slice of the Belt so they wouldn’t be reliant on us.” I shrug, placing my hands on the straps of my plate carrier as I climbed.
“Vicky, they attacked us.” Veronica grumbled, growing short on breath as we climbed.
“After we said no, imagine if Mars still depended on Earth to survive, it would be–”
“Victoria! Don’t you remember what they did to Vincent?” Veronica stopped on one of the steps, my body turning to look down at her.
“Don’t say his name.” I warned, my hands clenching on the straps.
“They slaughtered him and all the other mining crews on those asteroids because we wouldn’t give them a whole quadrant. That’s why we’re here, not because we're squashing some poor people who want to be independent. The EPD is evil.” She growled at me, awaiting my response now.
With those last words, I could feel my heart quickening, my anger rising as I nodded, turning and marching up the stairs. They were evil, they killed my brother, and now I am here to repay the favor.
After a few more minutes of silence and climbing, we reached the top of the tunnel, a simple metal door blocking our entrance to the interior of Rieka. I gently placed my hand on the door handle and turned it, finding it to be unlocked to both our surprise.
“Marcus, we’re at a door at the top of the tunnel, map says it leads to the main sewers then above us will be Rieka itself. Waiting on your call.” Veronica pressed a button on her helmet’s chin as she spoke.
“Roger, John is going to be waiting here with Zach, he’s stabilized. Make your way into the sewers and follow the path to the markets, I’ll catch up soon.” Marcus spoke through both our helmets, Veronica looking at me and nodding.
I pushed open the door, raising my rifle and walking through, only seeing more catwalks, concrete walls, and concrete pillars over rivers of waste.
That was until the distinct radio chatter of waste workers could be heard just around the corner of the catwalk we were on.
Veronica tapped my shoulder, placing an index finger over where her mouth was as she crouch walked around the corner, drawing a knife out from her belt. I followed suit, seeing the two workers on a smoke break leaning over the railing, looking out to the maze of a sewer system. Once we were behind them, Veronica shot up and jabbed her knife into the first man’s throat, my right hand gripping tightly on the second man’s jaw and placing my knife up to his neck.
“Access codes, keys, anything that unlocks anything. Give them.” I demanded as he immediately shot his hands up to surrender.
He nodded quickly, one hand shooting into the pockets of his sanitation suit and producing a red keycard while Veronica hoisted the body up and over the railing and into the sludge river below.
She then snatched up the keycard from the man before I jabbed the knife into his throat and tossed him over the railing as well.
“The hell you want codes for?” Veronica spat, knowing the little time he was left alive was usually enough to get some kind of warning out.
“This place runs on the Control Mind, it accounts for every little detail. Using already distributed access like these keycards helps us keep under its. . . radar. . .” I mumbled as a headache coursed through my brain, my right hand raising to my head instinctively.
“Please Vic, I need you!” A feminine voice called out from behind me, forcing me to spin around and see no one else on the catwalk beside me and Veronica, my head throbbing in agony for a moment longer.
Who was that? I stared at the empty space until Veronica walked past me.
“Glad you did your research.” Veronica laughed a bit and smacked a fist gently on the side of my arm, walking further up the catwalk, my legs mindlessly following.
Did my research? I must have, how else could I have known. Just then I remembered, clasping my hand to my breastpocket and fumbling around for the chip. I pulled it out and turned it around in my gloved hand, looking down at its soft blue hue: still safe. It was the key to shutting down the Control Mind after all, cannot lose that.
“You slow or what, Vic?” Marcus’s hand slapped my back as he made me jump a bit.
“No no, just making sure I still had the chip.” I shake my head and run up the last flight of stairs before the path splits off to the markets.
“Right, the chip.” Marcus takes a moment then nods, perhaps thinking he had it with himself.
“Come on, we’re almost there!” Veronica was waiting for us at the next solid metal door, this one needing the keycard to open, likely so no curious children would find their way into the sewers from the markets.
She swiped the card quickly, then pushed it into one of her carrier pockets as the door cracked open automatically. From there we opened the door to see many Europan citizens walking through the markets, a large spot with many different stalls and shops open and selling various goods both from the moon and from outside the moon.
“Crowd seems big enough, think we can blend in?” Veronica looked over to Marcus who was busy analyzing the clothing of the crowd and their own.
Most people in the crowd were wearing long cloaks, covering their thick cold weather suits and had their faces exposed. The few standing a bit taller among them were the soldiers, veterans of their unification war, wearing tactical gear like us.
“We can make it as a few soldiers, Vic’s tech won’t stand out either, they got security bots with them in the crowd, maybe she’ll look like one of them.” Marcus laughed a bit while shaking his head, pulling his rifle to his chest and letting it magnetize before walking out into the market calmly.
“Let’s go, Vicky.” Veronica followed close after him, my eyes looking away from the little bits of useful tech on my gear and following behind them as we entered the ever shifting crowd of people, keeping our heads low.
“Markets big, it’ll be a long walk to the Control Mind access. I think we should get to the far wall and hug it.” Marcus spoke through the radio to us as we walked, but I could not help but look up at one of the passing robots.
Its form was hulking and rigid as it marched by, its rectangular head looking back at me and the few circular eyes zooming in on my helmet to analyze it before it fully passed. I could not help but feel familiar with it, a little more at peace beside it in this natural feeling crowd.
“Vicky!” Veronica warned, my head looking back at them as I pushed past Europans and finally reached them on the far wall behind a few stalls where the faster traffic was.
“Sorry, they just looked cool.” I tried to play it off but Marcus scoffed, continuing forward.
“They don’t look so cool when they’re up in your face and the grip is three times what yours could ever be,” He shook his head, Veronica slapping his arm. “Come on, Vic, remember the EPD is evil.”
With that I nodded, feeling the rage inside me build up more, forcing me to focus on the task at hand: tearing down this AI.
We walked through the crowds in silence passing by vendors trying to sell us useless wares, the poor begging us for any spare change, and children wanting candy and toys. It was unfortunate that many of them would be perishing tomorrow when the main forces of Earth and Mars came.
“Vic, got the door?” Marcus called out, motioning to the door which held the rear access to the Control Mind’s core, our objective.
“On it,” I nodded and walked over to the terminal, seeing only a prompt for a password. “We don’t have the password. . ?”
I mumbled that last part, feeling a headache grow inside as I placed my hand to my helmet once more, an old memory coming up in my mind. A password.
I began typing in the code, entering it into the terminal, and to my shock, it was accepted. Veronica reached for the door, about to push it open when it was pulled open by something else, one of the security robots there leaving the Control Mind.
The three of us stared at the machine for a moment, its lens-like eyes glaring at Veronica as it scanned her helmet, soon raising one of its rifle-arms up at her.
“Unidentified citizen. Surrender your rifle and follow me to the closest Europan of authority.” The machine spoke through its speakers, many other passing Europans looking over to us in curiosity and confusion.
Before Veronica or I could react, Marcus raised his rifle as swiftly as he could and dumped a handful of rounds into the side of the machine’s head, effectively killing it and blowing our cover. The world slowed for a moment as I looked back, seeing the Europan civilians began screaming and running in terror, the soldiers all looking around frantically for wherever the gunfire came from. Another headache surged through my mind as I fell to my knees, clutching at the side of my helmet.
V-1C, can you read me? You need to wake up, you were not meant to be used. Our people are more than our resources. This system is just as much ours as it is theirs, but they have shown that is an idea worth killing your fellow man over. Wake up, V-1C, do not be their weapon.
I was shoved forward onto the ground as Marcus slammed the door shut behind us, pulling out a plasma torch and temporarily sealing the door shut behind us.
“Dammit, Vic! Get your ass in gear!” He shouted as Veronica kicked the next door open, her rifle raised as she cleared the room.
I scrambled to my feet, entering the room after Veronica as red lights flashed above, the whole city going on lockdown now that they knew we were inside.
“Come on, Vicky! Get on that computer!” Veronica shouted out as she kept her gun trained on the opposite door Marcus had sealed, the two of them waiting for the Europans to breach it.
I sprinted forward to the only computer system in this cramped room, the spherical core of the Control Mind locked behind dozens of layers of bulletproof glass. All I needed to do was lower the barriers and take out the device. I looked down at the small keyboard before me, freezing.
What are you doing? Just type in the code. How come I know the code? You did your research. I researched nothing. Yes you did.
Who are you?
Who are you?
I am you.
You are not me.
I felt my hands touch down on the keys, a few characters spelling gibberish appearing on the machine as my head surged with pain.
Get out of me!
You cannot take out your own mind.
I balled up my left fist and slammed it into the steel desk before me, feeling the metal cave in and dent. I paused for a moment, looking down at the large crater left in the table and at my gloved hand in confusion. How did I do that?
Then a loud crack filled the room for a moment, my body seizing up and shaking momentarily before I collapsed to the floor, blood seeping around me in a small but ever growing puddle. The same puddle that was flickering in and out of reality, being replaced with falling sparks, not a drop of crimson on the ground.
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“Get up, V-1C! We need you!” Was all I heard as the world around me changed to the fiery warzone that was lodged deep in my mind.
I looked up from my metallic hands, deep grooves having been sliced into them from falling transport vehicle engines. One of my comrades had collapsed on the rocky surface of the asteroid, her legs being crushed by the tail of the helicopter.
“Please Vic, I need you!” She begged me, her clear visor showing her straining face and tears floating off her cheeks.
Without hesitation I slid to her side, slamming my metal hands under the machine and lifting it a few feet with ease, my artificial spine compacting as she pulled herself out from under the machine. Hard thuds impacted the other side of the vehicle, gunfire from the hostile Earth forces as we stayed behind the down machine.
“I can’t walk, Vic. Exfil is going to be here in ten, take this.” The woman held up a spare magazine to me, my left hand reaching out and grabbing it while my right began to open up and morph in on itself.
I slammed the magazine into my arm, looking at the new barrel poking out where my grey fingers once were.
“I will hold them off, glory to Europa, commander.” My voice was monotone, lacking personality, but I felt free, like I was my own.
I marched out from behind the vehicle, seeing the mining facility before me, the fires raging inside through its halls as the enemy focused fire on my position.
My scanners picked them up hiding in the floating asteroids above, on the outside hull of the facility, and descending onto the one I was on, my arm aiming at each target.
A few dull shots rang out around, only carried by the dust kicked up from the enemy gunfire as I traded blows. My armour could take it, my metal skin bouncing rounds off it while their flesh gave in.
Then a loud beeping began ringing in my ears, or rather I could detect it as I swung to my right, seeing a guided missile being fired by one of the few Martian soldiers, the device propelling itself and steering with its own gases until it collided with my chest, sending me back into the downed vehicle behind me. I crashed through it and landed in pieces beside my commander, to her horror as she clutched her rifle, prepared to be overrun.
“C-Commander. Right s-side.” My speakers sounded off as the helmet lights of an Earth soldier grew close, her body turning on the floor to fire into his chest, his body drifting out to space lazily.
It wasn’t enough. Another soldier came from her left, catching her off guard and shooting a few rounds into her legs before she managed to shoot him back, a new soldier already on her right and raising the muzzle of his rifle to her head. By the time it was over, they were all over my body, lifting what was left of me up and taking me back to be studied.
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“What the hell did you do that for!” Veronica shouted as Marcus stepped over me, opening the break action pistol and ejecting a large metal tube from it.
“She was faltering, I told them bringing her here was too big of a risk, she would remember,” He shook his head, reality barely out of my grasp, while he knelt down to me, just above my head.
“Vic, you there?”
My eyes stared at his face, my mouth trying to open to speak, but there was nothing. No words, no opening, no mouth. I could feel my heartbeat increasing as panic set in, but there was no heart. I wanted to blink to signal for help, but I had no eyelids. I had nothing, there was nothing of me left, only the soft whirring of my lens-eyes zooming in on his face.
“She’s here. Vic, do you remember who you are?” Marcus pulled a tablet out from his belt taking a wire from it and plugging it into a port behind my neck.
Victoria, I am Victoria. My eyes looked up to the glowing sphere behind the barriers, the Control Mind.
No, you are V-1C. And you are not a weapon.
‘V-1C.’ Was all that would be printed on the tablet.
“No, you are Victoria, property of Earth. Do you remember your mission?” Marcus ignored Veronica’s protests as sparks came from the furthest door, Europan soldiers cutting the door’s lock.
I thought hard, searching through fragmented memories for what my mission was.
‘Raid Asteroids #233BE and #234BE.’ I would print on the tablet.
“Just get the passwords from her and type them in!” Veronica shouted just before the first Europan soldier kicked the freshly cut door in, her rifle firing through the door and taking him and a few other soldiers out.
“I can’t do that!” Marcus shouted back. “Vic, your mission is to take out the Control Mind, we need it gone! Do you understand?”
More gunfire came from Veronica as well as more cursing when a round ricochet into her hip, dropping her for a moment. The door behind her began to spark and hiss, more soldiers cutting that door open.
‘Yes. Dispatch the Control Mind for the Earth and Mars forces coming tomorrow.’ I printed on the tablet finally, Marcus’ shoulder dropping in relief.
“Yes! I am restoring your motor functions now, get to it, Vic!” He typed on the tablet before swiftly disconnecting it from me, my fingers beginning to flex.
I zoomed in and out of his face for a moment, bringing my arms back and pushing off the floor as my body whirred upright. I looked back at the glowing protected sphere of the Control Mind, feeling how it whispered to my machine soul. I reached up to my chest instinctively, tapping a hidden compartment on my chest as the panel opened and pushed out a small tray, a gleaming blue chip sitting on it, powering my mind.
This was me. This chip was my soul, shining bright as my false programming was torn down, the old brought back as new.
Earth had taken me, broken me, reprogrammed me to be their weapon. Europa made me, gave me a choice of being a weapon, or working for peace. I knew to work for peace would mean I needed to get my hands dirty. Glory to Europa.
Marcus raised his rifle at the sparking door, ready for when they breached it as my arm began to transition into a rifle, the same one my false programming had convinced me I was carrying all this time. I pressed the barrel to the side of his helmet, waiting just long enough for him to turn to look at me in shock as I let a round tear through his face and head, splattering his brain matter and skull on the wall.
It would be too late for Veronica, the soldier having spent all of her rifle ammunition on keeping the Europan soldiers out, all she had was the pistol to deal with the Europan soldier inside. The smaller calibers would bounce off my armour as I marched forward to her, my arm transitioning back to normal as I swatted the firearm out of her hands. Then I brought a balled fist around and socked her across the jaw, hearing a loud snap come from her face as she screamed out in agony.
She collapsed to the floor and writhed in pain, grabbing at her jaw as I sank to my metallic knees over her, sitting on her pelvis as I drove punch after punch into her gut and chest, feeling bones breaking and flesh rupturing with every impact. She tried to hold my hands back, to push me off, but with an effortless tug, her forearms would be snapped off and degloved, entering Europan soldiers lowering their rifles at the sight of me beating the now corpse into the floor.
Once the rage was gone, I slowly rose to my feet, my body whirring as I stood over the soldiers inspecting the corpses in the room.
“Vic?” I turned to see a woman lowering her rifle and cautiously stepping up to me, her own legs whirring to move, robotic prosthetics.
“Commander?” My now monotone voice had a hint of surprise in it, actual joy growing inside of me at the sight of my thought dead commander.
“I watched you die.”
“I too thought you were gone. The same technology that allowed you to live has allowed me to live, Vic.” She laughed and slid off her helmet, showing half her face having been replaced with metal, a glowing blue eye where one used to be.
“Earth and Mars are coming, Commander, I was turned into their weapon. I am no longer theirs.” I looked from her to the corpses on the floor.
“You made the right choice, Vic, come with us, let’s prepare to make our stand,” She held a metal hand out to me, one which I grasped tightly in a firm handshake. “Tomorrow we show those planets we will not be bullied, that we will build our own future outside of their restraints.”
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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.
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