The Barrens
A world reduced to sands....
Ace made his way through the deserted hallways of the ruins. He pried open the large metal door leading to the weapons lab. As he walked in, a blast door slammed behind him and the massive mechanical being in front of him burst to life. It was built to resemble a bat, its massive wings stretching across the tall tower as it took flight. It opened its mouth and fired off a ray or electricity. Ace rolled behind a lab bench as he pulled out his machine gun. Ace popped up from behind the table and fired off a few shots at the guardian's face. The guardian turned towards Ace and fired off another beam. He dove out of the way and began firing bullets through its wings. It fell to the ground, smashing apart the lab equipment below. Ace began firing bullets through the guardian's chest. An electrical surge blasted through the guardian's body. Its eyes faded and it feel limp. Ace explored the lab, but there was nothing salvagable. He left the ruin and rode back to Jaydor.
As he entered the saloon, Ace noticed a beuatiful young woman at the bar. He ordered a beer and started up a conversation.
"Hey there, can I buy you a drink?" Ace asked.
"You look like you've been through hell, what have you been doing?" she replied.
"I'm a treasure hunter." Ace replied.
"Interesting,. I've always wondered how someone goest that path." she said.
"Well, it all started back when I lost my job at the pump. They said it was something about me being a screw up, but they were just a bunch of pompous know nothings anyway. I had always dreamed of seeing the world as a kid, so I thought I'd try this hunter business. I picked up my machine gun from a thrift shop at my home town and decided to go exploring. I was a natural. My first exploration got me tons of cash and I barely broke a sweat. I was unstoppable. Nobody can compare to me now that I've been in the business as long as I have." the hunter said.
"I don't think I caught your name, stranger." the beautiful woman sitting next to him replied.
"The names Jack Conroy, but everyone knows me as Ace." he said.
The woman burst into laughter and left. Ace finished off his beer and went to the bar to order another round.
"You sure know how to lie with a straight face boy. Problem is, you're driving away the customers. They don't want to be anywhere near you. I mean, who hasn't heard of you Ace, you're a screw up, a klutz, famed for failure. Listen, there are some ruins to the south, maybe you can get some cash there to get back on your feet, that way you can leave me the hell alone and drive away someone else's customers." the barkeep said.
He marked off where the ruins were on Ace's map and gave him one last round of beer. Ace finished it up and walked out the door. He hopped on his sand speeder, his main vehicle for transportation, and rode off to the south. He sped through the barren wasteland, keeping an eye out for anything that even resembled ruins. He saw a massive spire crawl over the horizon.
"This is it." he thought, "Maybe I'll actually get some money out of this one."
He reached the spire. It was a tall mirrory building sticking up out of the sand, most of which was submerged. Ace climbed in through a broken window and looked around. The walls were covered with what was once elegant wallpaper, which had long since been peeled away in many places revealing the steel and wood behind it. Ace noticed a door in front of him. There were two buttons next to it, one pointing up, the other down. He pushed the down button and waited. Nothing happened. "Why did I even think that was going to work." he thought to himself as he pried open the metal doors.
He slowly inched along the pathway around the tall shaft, making his way towards the ladder. He climbed down the ladder, reading the signs on the walls to get an idea of what each floor entailed. He reached a sign that read "Research Department". He made his way to the door and pried it open. "Jackpot." he thought to himself while he looked through the old test labs. He reached a door read "Level 10 Clearance Required". Ace pried open the door and walked in.
A red light began flashing overhead as an alarm sounded. The lights in the room turned on as Ace stood face to face with a massive guardian. It was a massive mechanical being, resembling a wolf. Its red eyes homed in on Ace. "Time to put you to rest!" Ace yelled as he whipped out his machine gun and held on the trigger. 'click click click'. "Uh oh. I forgot I didn't have enough money to buy ammunition and never reloaded this thing. This is bad." Ace thought as the guardian moved closer. He jumped to the side as the guardian pounced. Hatches in its shoulders opened to reveal machine guns. Ace began to run around the room in a panic trying to dodge the gunfire.
Just when he thought it was all over, there was a loud boom of a shotgun. The red lights of the guardian's eyes faded, and the guardian fell to the ground. Ace turned around to come face to face with a beautiful young woman. She had long black hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a black jump-suit.
"Oh, Clara, it's you." Ace said.
"Is that your way of thanking someone who just saved your sorry ass? You can be so thoughtless sometimes. What the hell were you thinking anyway, taking on a guardian without any bullets. Did you think you could just throw your gun at it, or were you going to challenge it to a game of chess." she replied.
"I didn't have enough money to buy bullets. I got so caught up in the idea of exploring I never realized I never picked up any until just now." he said.
"No wonder you have this reputation. I'm in a good mood so I'm going to help you out a bit. Here, take this." She said as she threw him a large capsule.
"Why are you helping me?" Ace asked.
"It's not worth much, pocket change compared to what I'm already making from this site. Thought maybe you could use it. Who knows, maybe you can buy yourself some common sense so I won't have to save your sorry ass again." she replied.
The two of them left the ruins and headed back to Jaydor. On the way back, Ace heard a shriek. He turned to see a young girl being attacked by a massive sand worm. Ace veered off towards the girl.
"Ace, what the hell do you think you're doing? You don't have any bullets remember?" Clara yelled to him.
He took out a Desert Eagle and began firing at the worm as he approached. With a few well placed shots to the head, the massive beast fell. Clara watched in amazement as Ace rode back with the girl.
"Wait, you had a Desert Eagle and you decide to use it NOW? Where was that thing when you were fighting that guardian?" Clara asked.
"I don't have armor piercing shells for this thing. It's more for defending myself out in the sands." Ace replied.
"Why not get armor piercing shells for it then, they work just as well." Clara asked.
"One word, money. Listen, if you want to continue this over coffee or something..." Ace began.
"We still have a long ways to go before we reach town. That won't be necessary." Clara interrupted.
"Aw, I was in the mood to sit down and talk about this over some coffee, maybe with a candle lit dinner under the stars, almost like a...."
"Don't even say it. I'm way out of your league Ace, so don't even bother." Clara interrupted.
"Well, we're getting close to town. I've got things to take care of. If I'm lucky we won't run into each other again." Clara said as she rode off.
Ace rode into town and dropped the still somewhat shocked girl off at the saloon. Ace walked into the pawn shop in town. He walked up to the counter and took out the capsule. The shop owner's eyes lit up.
"Wow. Do you even know what this is? This is a recording capsule. What's on it I wonder...." the clerk said as he popped open the capsule.
A hologram appeared from inside the capsule. It was in the image of an older man, dressed in a military uniform. He was in a panic.
"Not much time....Eart...reat....radica...tem....activa......end...near......ETES.....approaching fast....It's over.....nothing....stop...it....."
The image broke off. Both Ace and the shopkeeper looked on stunned. They replayed the message over and over again, but couldn't figure it out.
"This could be big." the shop keeper said.
"So, how much is it worth?" Ace asked.
"A lot. Quite a lot. We're talking thousands of credits here man. I'll pay you ten-thousand credits. How does that sound to you?" the shop keeper asked.
"Sounds great." Ace replied.
They made the exchange and Ace walked out of the shop. Ace made his way to the gun shop and re-stocked on ammo for his guns. He made his way out of town and began to roam the wilderness. He rode off to the east, hoping to catch up with Clara.
As he rode through the desert, Ace spotted some ruins, and more importantly, Clara's hover-bike parked outside. He rode up to the entrance to the ruins and dismounted his speeder. Ace walked through the door or the massive tower, drawing his machine gun as he entered. He walked down the narrow hall leading towards the center of the building. He saw a massive elevator shaft at the heart of the tower. He began climbing the ladder in the middle of the shaft. As he reached the top, he noticed a door had been pried open. He shuffled along the edge of the shaft and walked through the door.
He followed the trail of mutilated guardians and came to a massive door. It slowly opened as he approached. Inside, he saw Clara in a heated battle with a massive guardian. It stood upright on its massive legs, and had spinning claws that generated beams of electricity. Its head resembled that of a lizard, which blasted fire at Clara. She ran around the room dodging the guardian's attacks, firing shotgun blasts into its face every chance she got.
It was then she noticed Ace standing in the doorway. The guardian took advantage of this distraction and nailed Clara with a beam of electricity. As the guardian moved in for the kill, Ace began firing machine gun shells into the neck joint of the guardian. It stopped and turned its attention towards Ace. Ace began blasting shells through its face, but it was no use. The guardian continued its assault.
Ace had nearly blasted off the guardian's entire face, revealing the inner mechanics of its head. The processing core was nowhere in sight. It was then that Ace noticed a glowing light coming from the guardian's chest. He fired away at its chest, blasting a hole through the core. The lights of its eyes faded as the guardian fell to the ground.
"What are you doing here?" Clara asked almost ready and waiting for a pickup line to come flying out of Ace's mouth.
"Remember that capsule you gave me?" he asked.
"Yea, what about it?" she replied.
"Well, I think it may be the missing link to how the world ended. Listen to this." Ace said as he took out a recorder.
Ace played the recording he made of the hologram and Clara's eyes widened in amazement.
"Do you know what this means?" she asked.
"No, what." Ace said.
"What ever it was that destroyed the world may have originated in that ruin where I found the capsule. I still never checked the bottom floor." she said.
"We have to go back and check it out." Ace said.
"We? You're just going to screw things up." she replied.
"I killed that guardian, and managed to track you down to show you this. I've got plenty of ammo, so what can go wrong? It will be great, trust me. Hell, it could even be the start of a relation..." Ace began
"Don't even say it, no. I'll let you tag along, but this doesn't mean I like you, got it?" Clara interrupted.
"Alright, sounds good." Ace said.
As they left the ruin and mounted their speeders, Clara began to think to herself.
"Maybe there is more to this guy than what his reputation says. Yea he's a bit of a klutz, but he has one hell of a good shot with that machine gun, and the way he put his life on the line for that total stranger. I'm curious what Ace is really all about." Clara thought as they rode back to the west.
They reached the tall spire reaching out of the sand. They climbed in through the broken window and walked into the elevator shaft. They climbed all the way down the ladder until they reached the bottom of the shaft. Ace pried open the door and walked on ahead. They were in a massive room full of broken tables and lab equipment. Hologram capsules were scattered all over the place. A large control panel, still intact, caught Ace's eye. He began walking towards it while Clara checked the capsules.
The capsules tracked the progress of an ultimate planetary defense system, used as a last resort in case of dire emergency. All of the capsules were badly damaged, so the name of the system never came out clearly, and Clara was barely able to piece together what it was that the device did in the first place. Clara picked up the last capsule and opened it.
"Something has gone wrong. ETES was supposed to protect Earth from any threat imaginable, yet one threat we never considered was ourselves. Time is running short, and I doubt I have much time left before it finds me. If anyone has survived this catastrophe, for the love of God, do not reactivate ETES! There is a flaw in its programming that allowed it to develop its own self awareness. The only reason it deactivated itself was because there was no longer any threat and it was no longer needed."
"Hey Clara, I wonder what this thing is." Ace called over to Clara.
Clara turned to see Ace standing in front of the massive control panel, and noticed the faded out words of "Earth Threat Elimination System" engraved on the front of the console.
"Earth Threat Elimination System......ETES?" she thought.
"I wonder what this thing is for, maybe I should try pulling this switch here." Ace said.
"No! Wait!" Clara yelled.
But it was to late. ETES had been reactivated. The radar screen lit up with a map of the world. A red target appeared over the ruin. Within seconds the entire ruin began to quake. The spire split open as something crashed through the top of the spire. A guardian landed in the center of the room, several floors worth of debris falling through the hole it made in the ceiling.
It rose to its feet. It stood at about Ace's height, which was surprising considering most guardians towered over humans. It had a round head with a single visor-like eye. It had four arms protruding from underneath its broad shoulder extensions. It looked around.
"Logic error. Humans eradicated in year 2500. Does not compute. Situation analysis complete. Threat level 4, engaging." the guardian said as it pulled out two laser pistols.
"Ace you idiot! You just revived ETES! If we can't stop it now, the world is doomed." Clara said.
"Knowledge of my purpose. Threat level raised to 8. Battle tactics alpha initializing." ETES said as it pulled out two rail guns with its free hands.
Ace began blasting away with his machine gun. His bullets stopped before they even reached ETES and fell to the ground. Ace watched in disbelief as he continued shooting. ETES focused all of his fire on Ace. Ace quickly rolled out of the way as it made a massive hole in the wall with the rail guns.
While Ace had its attention, Clara snuck around back and fired at ETES with her shotgun. Just like Ace's machine gun shells, Clara's shots stopped just short of hitting ETES and fell to the ground. ETES pointed his two rail guns behind him and fired off a shot at Clara. It grazed her side as she jumped out of the way. Clara whipped out a detector and pointed it at ETES.
"Damn, no wonder we can't hit him. He has a magnetic barrier." Clara said.
"I can handle this!" Ace said.
"Knowledge of defense system detected. Threat level raised to 15. Battle tactics omega initialized." ETES said as its shoulders opened up revealing laser cannons pointing in numerous directions.
Ace took out his Desert Eagle and started blasting away at ETES. His shots made it though the barrier, but bounced off ETES' armor. The laser canons in ETES' shoulders began aiming at Ace.
"Clara! Any idea where that shield generator is?" Ace yelled.
"Looks like its at the base of his neck!" she yelled back.
"Structural weakness detected. Final tactics phase initialized." ETES said as his four arms separated into eight, each holding a rail gun.
Ace began running around the room while all eight arms blasted away at him with rail guns. Ace jumped over one shot and landed into a roll to dodge the next, only to spring back up into the air in anticipation of ETES' next move. Ace quickly got the generator in his sights and fired. It was a direct hit. Ace pulled out his machine gun and started blasting away.
"Stealth mode initialized." ETES said as began moving around the room at close to warp speeds.
Ace and Clara dodged ETES' hit and run tactics and he faded in and out of visibility. Ace anticipated his next move and blasted him in the face as he appeared. ETES fell limp and fell into a slump on the ground.
"It's finally over. We did it." Ace said.
"I guess I was wrong about you. You aren't that much of a screw up after all. If i remember correctly, you were in the mood for some coffee, right?" Clara replied.
With its last bit of energy, ETES fired a rail gun shot through Clara's back. She fell to one knee, still alive, but fading. Ace's face went pale.
"Clara! I can save you, I'm going to carry you back up to the surface." Ace said.
"Don't bother, I won't make it. I know you really care about me, and even though all those pickup lines were probably the worst imaginable, at least they came from the heart. If you truly love me the way I think you do, please, don't let me suffer like this."
"I'm sure surgery can fix you up. Please, just let me get you to a doctor!" Ace said in desperation.
"For God's sake Ace, I'm missing a stomach! Doctors don't grow organs on trees! Stop trying to tell yourself I'll be fine, because I won't. I'm in enough pain already Ace, just do what has to be done." She said.
"Alright." Ace said reluctantly.
He held her in his arms for their first and final embrace, as he put a bullet through her heart.