Chapter 68 – The Lost Shiva (9)

Who is he?

The girl thought as she looked at that surprised face. He was bloodied. His clothes were rather outdated.

Where am I?

She looks around her. She saw that it was a modified laboratory. She could recognize the failed mutants. Psion-wielding humans turned to something like this for the sake of humanity’s fight against the unknown. She smashed the throat of the mutant before her. She turned to the other remaining mutants and activated her augmentations to the fullest. The things implanted inside her body excreted toxins that turned her pale skin to blue. Her blue eyes turned blood red as she suddenly moves with a mechanical sound. The failed mutants that saw her tried to activate their Psion abilities. But she was fast. She charged like a raging torrent at them as she quickly defeats the enemies before her with relative ease.

Threat Eliminated. My Type-Shiva Augmentations are working at least. How about my Omni-Forge? Is it working?

She touched her left gauntlet. She summoned a hologram that allowed her to read her current status.

“Type-Shiva Serial Number 00-555-72: Cpl. Zola Dawn. Omni-Forge, do you function?”

The hologram on her left gauntlet shimmered and flickered. Then, a virtual eyeball appeared. It scanned Zola from head to toe before suddenly speaking out a mechanical voice.

“Shiva Type Soldier Confirmed. Welcome Back, Corporal Zola Dawn. Your body has been in Cryostasis for One Hundred Thirty-Five years, Eleven Months, and thirty-five days, and thirty hours.”

Zola widened her eyes. “That long?”

“Yes, Corporal Zola. You have been asleep for a century after the escape ship that you were riding was shot down by a Quietus Type Ship. Thermal radar suggests that aside from the non-augmented human before us. There is no one that survived the crash.”

“Then why am I inside a Cryostasis pod?”

“The data shows that a surviving scientist pulled the Corporal into the pod,” The Omni-Forge showed images of a person putting Zola inside the pod. “The person’s current whereabouts are unknown. And possibly he has died.”

“I see. So where are we?”

She looks around her.

“Atmosphere scans suggest that we are in a Terra-Type planet with same qualities as Gaia.”

“What?” She said, looking at the person near her Cryostasis pod. “How could that be?”

“It seemed like the Ship that the Corporal was on board, got involved in a space-time storm that made the ship drift into a new cycle where the current technology seemed primitive. The human before us seemed to possess gunpowder technology. Their clothing material suggests outdated materials.”

“So you are saying?”

“The Corporal has traversed an alternate cycle of Gaia. There are new elements in the vicinity that suggests that this world has strange mixtures that might prove valuable to be researched. However, the computation power needed is not available.”

“I don’t care. What about the Quietus? Did they follow over?”

“This Unit is currently accessing laboratory data, processing through, filtering relevant information, sorting through, and completing the process, compiling it. Information suggests that a Quietus Ship emerged along within this cycle. The Number of Ships: 1. But the technology is enough to wipe out every hostile. The Quietus, however, is unable to call out reinforcements. Probability suggests that they have been subduing the area through mutations.”

“Damn it,” She cursed lowly. “So what are my chances of winning against the Quietus of this cycle?”

“Body scan suggests that Corporal’s Bionics isn’t going to be enough to fight the Quietus herself. It is heavily recommended for the Corporal to recuperate and allow the people of this area to fight the Quietus. United Alliance Codex suggests that the Corporal isn’t entitled to protect the people of this cycle. They are not United Alliance citizens.”

“I see. Omi-Forge, scrap codex manual, scanned for highest authority.”

“Acknowledged: The Corporal has the highest rank in the area, scrap the codex?”

“Yes, do it.”

The Omni-forged loaded and deleted all Codex data. Seeing that, Zola sighed to herself and turned to the human was looking at her oddly. “Who are you and what are you doing at this place?”

The person before her spoked. Obviously, she couldn’t understand a single damn thing he said.

“Omni-Forge, can you translate?”

“Scan suggests that doing so would consume the limited power that this Omni-Forge has to implant translated data to the user. Doing so would mean that the user would have lost this unit. Would user like to continue?”

So all that scanning burned this Omni-Forge of mine?

She thought. She looked at the human before her. Was it worth losing her Omni-Forge just so that she could speak to him? It would take too long for her to learn and speak fluently their language. The Omni-Forge she had was absolutely useful. But she could tell that it could not perform well as perfect as she remembers. Turning it on itself has consumed the little power that it had.

“Do it. Goodbye, Omni-Forge.”

“Very well, processing language, please speak to the native so this unit could analyze their langue patterns and imprint it on the User’s neural network.”

Zola spoke to the native. The person didn’t understand and started saying things. To her it was gibberish. But as she had to completely analyze the language. So she had no choice but to continue this gibberish conversation. The Omni-Forge started to stutter. It slowly flickered dimly as it then gives off a rather lonely sound before it implanted the language to her.

She felt electricity running through her brain. As if there was something that was being carved inside her brain. She stumbled for a moment. She then looked at the person before again, speaking. “Can you understand me now?”

“What the hell?”

“I see. I guess it worked,” She looked at her left gauntlet with a bitter smile. “I hope this is worth it.”

“Huh?”

“So tell me what are you doing? And where am I? You smell of blood and gore. Can you tell me what’s going here?”

“Ah, I am Archie of Avilla. I came here to search the ruins.”

Then, Archie started to narrate how he ended up here. He also told Zola about who sent them here. Zola had many things to ask. Luckily, she was able to converse through this Archie. However, as she talked to him. She understood that she’ll never get along with them. Their time was far too apart. And she feels too alone. No one in this world would understand her.