Chrome Symphony - Chapter 1

Renk had been hiding inside a small storage room in the sub-basement of the EMA corp building. He had managed to destroy a few security robots and sneak past security cameras on his way down.

Sometime in the early morning, Renk received the final transmission until this moment. He had simply been instructed to hold his position and that the building had been surrounded by police and the main military. Something has gone very wrong, he thought to himself. I've been here all night and now it's well into the morning. No futher communications and somehow the authorities have caught on. This is not how missions have gone in the past.

Renk had a relatively good hunch that the authorities may not have been there because of his team. Due to the circumstances, the authorities may have become aware of other nefarious activity and that the timing of the mission had become an unfortunate coincidence. He wasn't sure either way but the lack of communication had built up a lot of tension in the mean time.

Suddenly, Renk heard a ventilation grate become dislodged and fall to the ground. s***, the Army's moving in.

He looked through a slit in the door to see not soldiers but two cyborgs stumble inside through a ventilation shaft about halfway up the concrete wall. Wait, this isn't the Army.

The female cyborg looked familiar. In the building's security records that had been obtained the prior evening, he remembered her photograph. That's one of EMA's employees. Sure is dedicated to come to work under these circumstances, thought Renk, stifling a chuckle.

The other cyborg was an old man with the most outdated hardware he had ever seen. What's that old codger doing?

Renk decided the cyborgs were no threat and emerged from the storage room. He held his weapon but kept it lowered.

"Don't move, you two. What are you doing here?" he asked, trying not to startle them too much.

Duncan and Shell put their hands up.

Duncan responded, "Don't shoot! She's an employee and I'm just here to assist her since the entrances are obviously blocked off."

Shell nodded. "Are you with the military... or...?"

Renk shook his head. "Special ops. Can't get more specific than that. So you're not with the faction that's taken over the building?"

Duncan put his hands down slowly. "Faction? I'm not sure what's happened here. We were trying to find out."

Renk put his weapon away. "I see. Listen, you two shouldn't be in here. No job's worth this much risk"

Shell started to laugh. "Says the special ops guy in the building with possible terrorists."

Renk shrugged. "Fair enough. Risking our lives is just kind of what we do. Still, I don't like civilians getting hurt."

Renk's comm link, which had been silent for hours, suddenly reactivated and he heard an urgent message.

Attention team, we're under heavy fire in the lobby! The police and Army have moved in!

Renk was stunned by the report. "What? Why are the police attacking us?!"

Duncan used his neural link to break into EMA's security system. He told Renk, "Like we said, as far as the police know, this building's been under seige by terrorists! I can get you a tactical advantage via a ventilation shaft that leads to the lobby. If you want to get your men out..."

Renk shook his head. "Terrorists? My mission didn't..." He stopped himself. Renk almost got a little careless and divulged details about his mission. "I won't run. I'm getting my team mates out alive."

Duncan replied, "That vent behind you leads up to a grate just behind the front desk. You can sneak up there and show your men back down this way. We can all escape via the storm sewers."

Shell connected herself to the building's security system. "It looks like I'm still locked out, but given the current situation..." she said as she used her usual techniques to crack the passwords and force her way in. She obtained a view of the main lobby.

Shell saw something that alarmed her to the point of losing her breath.

"DON'T GO UP THERE!" she screamed, quite suddenly. She caught her breath.

"There is a self-destruct system in this building. EMA had it installed as a last resort should there ever be a breach of security that jeopardized our most sensitive data but it normally cannot be activated until all personnel have evacuated! Unless my tracker is malfunctioning, the system should know I am here! Still... still..."

Shell hesitated. She couldn't force out the words.

Renk stared at her, wide-eyed. "Yes? What's going on with the self-destruct? They've ARMED it?!"

Shell shook her head up and down in a "yes" movement. "It could not have been armed by terrorists or your men or anyone but management! THAT'S why they were all gone last night, I'd imagine, but there are still other employees in the building along with your men!"

Renk started to climb up the shaft that Duncan had pointed out earlier.

Duncan ran over to him and tried to pull him down. Renk shoved him away, knocking him to the ground.

"No, I have to try to save my comrades!" he yelled at Duncan.

Shell ran over to Duncan and looked up at Renk, already halfway into the vent. "No, it's going to detonate in 30 seconds!"

Duncan sprang to his feet and pulled at Renk's boots, causing him to fall out of the vent and bump into Shell, knocking her down in the process.

"We have to get out of here immediately!" he said to Renk. Shell stood up and looked at the vent. She knew it wasn't going to do anyone any good at this point. "DAMN IT!" she screamed. "Management had a heads up your guys would be here and now they've decided to sacrifice everyone else..."

Duncan ran over to the vent and looked back. "Listen. We have to go. I hate that we can't do anything else."

Shell and Renk ran over to the vent and climbed through. They ran as fast as they could through the storm sewer and dove into the murky water as a blazing fireball rushed over them, forcing its way through the vent and down the sewer tunnel.

They had escaped with their lives, but many others had just ended in that moment.

Jess sat in the study, fidgeting nervously. Usually she was poised and calm but her mind raced as she tried to figure out how to get out of the mansion and out to the streets to begin her search for answers as to where her father might be.

He has an entourage of security guards with him at all time, she thought. A kidnapping would be impossible. As assassination wouldn't happen without it immediately getting into the news.

Jess hated these thoughts. She still couldn't deal with her mother's assassination.

She tried to calm herself so she could think more clearly. As she reached for her tea, she noticed ripples on the surface of the tea in the cup. It was a little like that scene from Jurassic Park, that ancient film she had watched with her parents as a small child.

An earthquake? Jess pondered. The entire house shook for a few seconds. She got up from her seat and walked back into the dining hall. One of her butlers was standing there, also puzzled by the brief shaking that had just happened. "Did you feel that," he asked Jess.

"Yes, seems there was a tremor," she replied. She walked over to the window and waited for an aftershock. Looking toward outside, she noticed some black smoke rising in the distance, just over the hills.

"What's that..." she mumbled to herself. She went upstairs to get a better look.

From her bedroom window, she saw thick, black smoke rising from the direction of the city. The sky began to fill with the smoke as she stood there, suddenly realizing that something huge must have happened. She then thought of the situation with Crest and EMA headquarters and realized that the smoke was rising from that general area.

Oh my God. I have to get out there NOW.

Jess waited until the main hall was devoid of staff and quietly made her way to one of the side entrances of the mansion. She darted her head out the door. Coast's clear. She sneaked around the hedges, being mindful to avoid the security staff and police that had been stationed around the perimeter. She'd be in a little trouble, especially with her sword attached to her back, if she was caught. Still being broad daylight, this wasn't the best time to do this.

Eventually, Jess found her way outside of the back yard and jumped over a small creek. She quickly ran through the woods, which gave her ample cover. She used her sword to clear some of the brush in her way.

When Jess reached the outskirts of town on the other side of the woods, she pulled out her communicator and called in a favor. She stood in the field for about 20 minutes before a friend of hers, Dianne, pulled up on a flying scooter.

Jess greeted her friend. "Dianne, thank you for doing this discreetly. I need a ride into town."

Atlas had spent what he thought would likely be his final night in his apartment. He had started boxing up items before finally going to bed in the early morning.

He had awakened to a loud, earth-shattering boom. Wondering what it was, he turned on his communicator and checked the news. Nothing explaining the boom showed up yet, which was to be expected since it had happened mere seconds ago.

He looked out his window and saw lots of emergency vehicles rushing down the street. His view further down the street was obscured by the buildings surrounding his apartment complex. Atlas quickly cleaned himself up, put on his boots and headed outside.

After hitting the street, he noticed loads of black smoke beginning to fill the sky. He ran down the sidewalk to see if he could spot the source. As he turned a corner, he saw a blazing inferno at the EMA corporation building. Atlas had never seen such carnage since the incident, which he struggled to avoid remembering. The scene was starting to trigger some bad memories but he shook them off for the time being and ran down the street to get a better idea of what was going on.

Just then, he saw two cyborgs and a familiar-looking man emerge from a maintenance portal in the sidewalk. It was his old comrade Renk, with whom he had served in missions years ago. He was accompanied by the two cyborgs from yesterday!

"Renk?" Atlas yelled, over the sound of panic and carnage. "Is that you?"

"Atlas!" Renk yelled back as he and the two cyborgs ran over to him. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I live down the street... for now," Atlas replied, "what were you three doing in that maintenance shaft?"

Renk looked back at the EMA corporation building, which had partially collapsed and was now completely in flames.

"What the hell... what the hell were we doing in there?" he said, still trying to deal with the reality of what just happened.

He looked at Atlas. "A lot of people just got killed and we narrowly survived." Renk put his head in his hands. "Our guys in there were just senselessly killed thanks to EMA's greedy a******s who figured their lives were nothing compared to their selfish corporate ambitions!"

Renk screamed in anger and punched the side of the coffee shop. The brick crumbled a little and his knuckles began to bleed.

"f***ING b******S!" he screamed.

Renk sat down on the sidewalk. "We... we need to... I need to report back to central command." He tried to contact his superiors over his communicator to no avail. "No good. What's going on? Why is no one answering?!"

Renk noticed that the two cyborgs had some minor damage, as he also had some burns from the explosion and a few cuts and scrapes.

He stood up. "Until I get some answers from higher up, maybe it's best if we get out of here, get some first aid, and figure out what's going on."