The Breach. (For Action Readers)

RING!!! RING!!! Every escape point and opening closed dramatically as the trained swordsman and gunners dash to their assigned points in the facility. Laser beams activate, traps open up and the corridors flash a fluorescent red and white as a hooded figure leaps over one of the closing doors. “STOP HIM!!!” the head scientist screams out. “HE MUST NOT ESCAPE!!!”. All swordsmen activate their blades and all gunners load their plasma rifles.

***

Tired and limp, the damaged swordsman ‘11-5792’ smashes into rubble as peril leaps over buildings and creates screams heard throughout the globe. With a chipped helmet and damaged blade, the swordsman manages to U-turn the road of death and sets sail to the sea of life. Two hours ago, the world would’ve been going about their normal days “What went wrong?” it thought to itself. “How could this have happened?”

“I’ll tell you how”. A mysterious voice was heard beneath the depths of the alleyway north-east of the direction the swordsman was facing. ‘11-5792’ limped towards that alleyway.

***

The figure dashes to the vents, leaps over a gunner and slips through the first set of ventilation. They then climb over a room of swordsmen and throw a smoke bomb down in the centre of the group. Slashes are heard as the hooded ‘person?’ fades into the smoke and out again, holding two helmets with sparks flying left, right and centre.

“I am unstoppable!”. The dark shadow chuckles to himself as the next set of swordsmen appear out of thin air. Meanwhile, a group of scientists are having a rather unproductive conversation.

“He cannot escape with the Android Killer Obliterator!”, an old scientist with a funny moustache clearly states.

“I think we already know that,” General Gerald, the head of R.A.F.T (Robotic Association of Foreign Troops) responds sharply, whilst walking in the room. Arguing starts to erupt after a few minutes, until the head scientist had had enough.

“BE QUIET!!!!” He screams at the top of his lungs. The whole room fell silent.

And then there was no room.

***

The strong swordsman leaned on a garbage bin as support for its half-broken leg. Wires poked out of the hole of what was left of the leg. It was on 49%. “I should be ok,” it thought to itself.

A dark man emerged from the deep alleyway as silent as a ninja. He was holding something. Something familiar.

“Come here, 5792”. The man said.

“How did you know my name?” the damaged robot swordsman replied.

“Sometimes in life it’s better to know less” The man replied quickly.

“I am not dumb, I know everything” the swordsman sharply indicates. That was true, it did know everything. “I know who you are” It said. “The question is… how did you survive Gerald?”

“Clever android.”

Gerald leaped to the android’s back and plugged the familiar object into the misshapen hole. The robot started to malfunction and fight back. A few slashes went here and there, and then there was silence. Nothing left but the apocalyptic wasteland of what used to be Earth, and the panting breath of Gerald’s mouth.

***

The head scientist woke up in a destroyed building, looking at the sky, one last time before life let go. A few of the other scientists also couldn’t hold on to life, and let go. The last thing the funny-moustached man saw before he let go was the hooded figure slashing and stabbing the R.A.F.T androids. Every single gunner, every single swordsman. All traps and lasers destroyed.

“H-h-how d-did h-he…”. The moustached scientist fell silent.

The hooded person wanted to change what he created. He didn’t want this to be his reputation. That’s why he stole the Android Killer Obliterator. It knew that now, and it was angry that all its brothers and sisters have died to this man.

The last remaining swordsman in the facility confronts Gerald one on one, in the last ‘room’ of the facility. It charges up its sword, whilst Gerald removes his cloak and pulls out a sharp dagger, a kill code tied to it.

“You didn’t have to do this,”. The swordsman said. It sounded scared.

Suddenly, a sharp thought rushed through Gerald’s mistaught brain. He suddenly knew why she wanted him to do this for her. He shouldn’t have made them in the first place. Any of them. He needed to do this to get his helpless children back, and he needed to do this NOW.

“I’ll beat you one day, I-I know it”. It continues

“No, you will never be as strong as me, and once I manage to reprogram you, I will be unstoppable!” Gerald had already reprogrammed all other R.A.F.T androids in other galaxies.

“But you don-,”

“IT’S MY DESTINY!!!”

Gerald charged at swordsman 11-5792 as it jumped in the air.

“This is it, this is how I die.” The robot thought to itself.

***

The Swordsman’s demented helmet glowed an eerie red colour. Its head tilted upwards, and it joined the other android army of robotic swordsmen parading down the streets. Gerald, on the other hand, quickly dashed to the last standing ‘building’ in the middle of the orange abyss. A few bleeps and bloops were heard, and then he walked out in what looked like a gunner’s suit, combined with a swordsman’s suit, but it looked much stronger.

“I know they will turn on me one day,” Gerald thought out loud. “Even the humans, the government, all that kinda stuff. So, I had to turn on them. Before they even had the chance. Before they even knew what was going on.” He said these things so confidently that he completely forgot he was doing it for her.

The helmet concealed Gerald’s face as he flew up, high into the polluted sky. A sparkling tear slipped down his face like a lifeless vine. Gerald had never cried in his life. The Earth was now in the distance, and as Gerald flew into the planet he had been building for the past 30 years, Earth was scattered into a million pieces with orange explosions flying everywhere.

“Before they even knew.”

***

A colossal explosion was created as the swordsman and Gerald clashed strongly. The swordsman fell to the ground, but managed to get back up again.

Gerald smiled mischievously. He told the confused and angry android that he bet it couldn’t dodge his blasts. He was of course, incorrect.

“You’re a strong one!” Gerald screamed, as he was shooting plasma blasts out of a ruined gun.

“I know, and you not going to win!” The swordsman spoke sharply, as it was dodging the blasts.

“Says who?”

“That’s not how the story goes. It’s- it’s not how it works.”

Gerald looked confused. He didn’t understand cliched stories, but his creation did.

As him and the swordsman fought tirelessly, the swordsman began to talk about how the hero always wins in the end, and if the hero hasn’t won, it’s not the end. Gerald got bored, so he started to charge at 11-5792.

“Who says I’m not the hero?” Gerald shouted.

The dagger Gerald was holding slashed right at the robot’s head. Sparks where heard as the Swordsman fell to the ground.

The swordsman was starting to malfunction. Steam wafted out of its back and the screen flashed with rainbow squares and triangles. It started to yell and then in order to sustain consciousness, the helpless android ejected its left leg. The last thing Swordsman 11-5792 saw before it went into reboot mode was the ocean blue sky transitioning into an ugly orange. Then, simple silence.

“Useless little-.”

Gerald threw 11-5792 over three buildings and a big explosion was heard.

“Woops.”

Gerald ripped the key code off the bent dagger. He looked in the direction he threw the android.

“Didn’t mean to kill it”.

Gerald decided to check if it was still active. Around 30 minutes of sprinting through the streets, and he was there. Gerald knew as soon as he saw it that the swordsman wasn’t dead. “This is gonna be a treat”. He thought maniacally to himself.

Swordsman 11-5792 woke up 30 minutes later.