The alarms have been ringing for over an hour, Takeshi is a heavy sleeper but even this is bad for him. Over 24 hours on a training exercise cleaning up robot wreckage is pretty mundane work. No, it's boring, really boring. And he was up giving lectures on mecha strategy for the whole afternoon just before that.
What happened in the last hour since the red alert? His rookies have gone and so have their Grand Titans. Whole squads have disappeared, it looks like they were in a hurry from the tripped over chairs and mess they left behind.
Takeshi finds his own Grand Titan in a recharging point. It still needs it's ammunition replenished but it's fully powered up. Everything's quiet so Takeshi reloads his mecha's armaments. So quiet, perhaps this is how Ryo felt when he was all alone on the other side of the wormhole. No. He knew there were no humans there with him and he still built this mecha up to be stronger and faster than before. He had a survival instinct about him, Takeshi would never dishonour his friend by underestimating his resolve. His own situation is not the same. Not quite. There should be humans nearby, Takeshi just needs to find them or at least find out what happened to them.
Stealth may be the better option for now, Takeshi removes the beam rifle from his mecha. Time to go exploring on foot, his Grand Titan is on standby and tracking his location. Just in case.
This is eerie, the Golden City is just like when they first discovered it. Standing proud but desolate, a city abandoned generations ago dating before the great disaster that isolated Sentai Mountain from the other tribes of mankind. The further Takeshi wanders through the city the less sure he is that is was actually abandoned. Only a mere hour or so ago this city was bustling and well defended. What could have happened in less than a hundred minutes while he slept? This city was alive and busy, now it looks as it did after being empty for decades. Abandoned, except he knows his comrades would never have abandoned their posts so easily or quickly. Perhaps the original inhabitants of the Golden City didn't abandon this place either. We're they captured? Unlikely. A surrender couldn't have happened so quickly, and the alarms were still ringing when he awoke. Takeshi wishes he wasn't such a heavy sleeper.
It's been three hours now. Takeshi has wondered through the city and there is nothing. No sign of activity. No sign of life. No sign of anything.
What would Ryo do? Probably tinker with something and use his knowledge of electronics and mechanics and come up with something to help him. Takeshi doesn't have Ryo's skills, but he realises that he does have one of Ryo's inventions. One of his best and newly modified with all the latest improvements.
Takeshi boards his Grand Titan, his Grand Titan XS. What to do? His friend Ryo knows he's not technically gifted, lets try talking.
Takeshi speaks to his mecha, "Where is everyone?". The console illuminates and a light blinks. "No life forms detected. Area identified as The Golden City, population depleted cause unknown. Scans indicate residue tachyon particles.". Takeshi was able to keep up with what was said until the last bit.
The console blinks again, almost as if it detected an uneasy pause. "The source of the residue radiation may be attributed to the use of a teleport rather than wormhole activity.". Thank you, Ryo!
A teleport. A mass teleport. Hundreds of thousands of people gone in such a short amount of time. The robots don't have this kind of technology. Who has?
"Arghhhh! Who has this kind of technology?", Takeshi shouts at himself. He is so annoyed with himself for not even knowing where to look.
"Martians. The Martians and the Human Martian Colonists have compatible technology, but it is unknown whether they have scaled up to this capacity.", the Grand Titan's console blinked again.
Takeshi pauses. It's a starting point, Takeshi thinks. Thank you again, Ryo my old friend.
Since many generations ago, Sentai Mountain has isolated itself from the rest of the world. It started with the great disaster that shook the world. Since the aftermath, the old civilisations either disappeared or they rebuilt themselves from scratch forming tiny pockets of humanity all across the world. It has been a long time, some of these pockets must have thrived like Sentai Mountain.
The Martian settlements were from the time of the Golden City, Mars was not affected by the great disaster but communications with those colonies have been lost since then. No contact has been made for generations. It's not even clear if those colonies survived without help from the home world, although transmissions have been sent there from Sentai Mountain none were ever received.
The old Sentai Fortress seems a good a place as any to start looking for answers.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment