Samuel woke up in an unknown room, dizzy, confused and still in pain. The room was dimly lit, the bed was probably rescued from an old hospital. The intravenous infusion on his arm was still dripping and there were a few bottles of enteral nutrition on the table nearby. Giovanni was by his bed side.
"Finally awake, how you feeling kid?"
"Like shit"
"Well, you look even worse. I am joking, you look worst than that. Wanna drink something?"
"Not really. How long was I out?"
"Just two days. Your father and a lot of people have been looking around for you; things have changed, we have no time. Look"
Giovanni showed him some news report in an old tactile screen terminal, the video depicted a tenctopus attack in a city, a squad of exoskeleton came out in the defense.
"Commander Hector Gonzales and his team managed to defend the city without casualties. This new squad is the latest in Exoskeleton and exopilot technology" The anchor said as they showed the image of a full white exoskeleton, it was a mix of a long range shooter and a knife user, the legs were a lot slimmer than the original Fortress, the main cannons were mounted on the shoulders and the chest had short range machine guns.
"That machine can pack a punch at far distance and also give a good fight in close quarters, the design is brand new, I can tell just by the form in which the joints are put together, that this thing is fast for its weight" Giovanny evaluated.
"I am glad he survived the augmentations" Samuel smiled.
"This is bad for us, now the enemy is on the attack again; and the army is short of pilots, the high command might want to offer all the pilots available an upgrade with that new tech. They are already looking for you. The problem is, if they find out the changes we have done to your implants, we are screwed"
"So what do we do?" Asked Samuel.
"We will have to speed things up, do you feel good enough to pilot?"
"I guess so"
"let's go then" Giovanni brought an old fashioned wheelchair, no engines, no automated mechanical joints, no AI.
After taking care of the intravenous infusions and helping Samuel move into the wheelchair, Giovanni pushed the chair through the door of the room along a small corridor. The sound of welding and hammering could be heard, once they made out of the corridor, Samuel saw a workshop, Raphael and his team were working on an exoskeleton.
"This is the Silver Bullet, this is the exoskeleton we need you to pilot. Welcome to Zion, our little private base, we moved you here while you were unconscious" explained Giovanni.
Raphael came closer to them and took Samuel with him.
"This machine is a joint effort, most of it is made from repurposed materials we took off the hands of the army. The core is a hot mixed plutonium reactor; it has nuclear detonation capability, but just use it as a last resort. The armor is made of a re purposed tenctopus alloy. The machine has no flight capabilities, but instead has a deep sea exploration electric engine propulsion system, its top speed should be close to seventy knots, about one hundred thirty kilometers per hour. Its is not too fast on land since we had to make a lot of changes and limit its mobility and maneuverability in order to make it pressure resistant, but it should be enough to stand on his own on a battle, the compartmentalization and pressure resistance gives you a lot of extra protection, is like an extra armor layer, is a tough machine. The muscular fiver is similar to the original executioner Graphene alloy, however we did some changes to make it faster and resistant, the problem is it overheats, but since you are gonna go under water that shouldn't be a problem. The best part is this machine has all kind of anti detection system incorporated, we included as much analogical systems as possible, there is an AI on board, but its function is mainly navigation and it can't connect to anything else but the Exo; it will delete itself as soon as you order it, do it as soon as you reach your objective. This machine is a piece of work, unfortunately, that leaves little capacity for weapons and ammunition. All you get is middle range auto cannons with very limited ammo and two short swords. There will be no communications to the outside, all the guidance you might need is already in the exoskeleton system, all the exploration we did, all we know about the underwater facility is in there"
"When will I be ready to go?"
"A few days" Answered Raphael.
"That doesn't seem to be the case anymore" a white men on his forty, dressed with a suit and fine shoes came into the workshop and joined the conversation. Next to him there was a man who had a well groomed beard and a prominent nose, he was also wearing a suit and a kaffiyeh on his head.
"I told you I don't like you to come in here Benoit" protested Raphael.
"Don't forget who is paying for all of this Raphael, without the Order support your little thing over there would be just a lot of scraps. Your are the head of this workshop, but this base is actually ours, that thing also belong to us since we paid for it" Benoit signaled to the Silver bullet.
"So, this is our pilot" Benoit walked towards Samuel.
"Samuel allow me to introduce you, this man is Emmanuel Benoit, his father was the infamous French anti AI minister Benoit. He is one of the heads of the Christian branch of the order of faith, by his side we have his highness, Arab prince Fahad Bin Salman he is the leader of the Islamist branch of the order of faith. As you heard, they are the ones bank rolling us; so we can complete our project" Giovanni did the presentations.
"Thanks for trying to kill me" said Samuel in a sarcastic way.
"You are welcome" answered the prince.
Emmanuel looked at the roof while taking a deep breath.
"Lets let the past be the past. We are all together here to deal with the real threat, so, lets do our best, shall we?"
"Can we really trust this AI dog?" The prince disdain towards Samuel was obvious.
"Look at my face prince. My health is gone, I probably wont live too long even if I never get into an exo again, the man I admired was played like a fool by that machine. He and his men died to save my life, after a life of suffering he found out he was just used in this ridiculous conspiracy. I don't know if you can ever trust me and I don't give a fuck; but my family have been fucked over by that AI; so, here is something you can trust, I want revenge"
The prince looked at Samuel to the eyes and smiled.
"Very well boy, lets see you try"
Emmanuel spoke trying to change the atmosphere.
"The army and that new pilots organization are looking for your ass right now Samuel. It seems that your absence has called a lot of attention. That AI has some interest in you as well. We have until tomorrow maybe to make our move. In case you have no success we are ready to do massive nuclear strikes on the target, we rather not do that, we don't wanna bring a possible nuclear war out of nowhere"
"You heard the man, get to work, we need this thing ready for tomorrow" yelled Raphael.
"You should rest" recommended Giovanni as he took Samuel to the room that acted as hospital.
After a high dose of sedative, Samuel fell asleep.
"Time to wake up Samuel"
Samuel opened his eyes when he heard Giovanni voice, Raphael was by his side. The two men helped him get into the wheelchair and pushed him to the workshop. As soon as they got out of the corridor all the technicians and engineers members of the team, formed at attention in a line and saluted. Samuel raised his right hand and saluted back at them. Then a platform elevated and positioned them right in front of the cockpit of the giant robot.
"Good luck Samuel. Your grandfather and all of us are proud of you" Said Giovanni as he and Raphael started strapping Samuel into the cockpit.
"This thing is different from modern machines, the cockpit is a little bit more uncomfortable, but the piloting method is pretty much the same. The system is older, so there is no need for calibration and compatibility test since it does not use much of that biological tissue. The down side is it hurts a lot more, but don't worry, we are gonna hook you up on the good stuff" Raphael signaled to the packs of painkillers and stimulants that were being load into the machine.
Meanwhile, Giovanni was connecting intravenous infusion to Samuel arms and legs.
"You are ready now, starting activation"
Raphael and Giovanni moved few steps away. Samuel clenched his teeth, as the pain ran through his body.
"Hit him" said Giovanni.
Raphael activated something in the terminal next to him. Samuel face and body relaxed.
"Good stuff ain't it?" asked Raphael.
"I can't complain" said Samuel with a smile.
"Lets do a test. Move your arms"
Samuel did as instructed.
"Move the right leg"
Samuel complied.
"Left"
"Good. Now turn the torso. Good, all the external cameras are working, sonar is working. Perfect. You are ready to go"
Raphael activated one button, the cockpit started closing and the safety lines on the exoskeleton disconnected. Everyone started moving to a safe location while the roof of the building they were in opened and the giant machine was lifted by a platform. Once out, Samuel saw the morning sun to his right and the sea a few kilometers away. There was no buildings around. The exoskeleton interface showed the direction he had to follow, Samuel walked forward into the sea. The exoskeleton submerged itself a few minutes later, the deep sea exploration engine came on line and the machine became like a submarine. Most of the systems in the exoskeleton were turned off. As Samuel delved deeper and deeper into the ocean his sonar system became his eyes in this overwhelming darkness. Some light turned red in the cockpit.
[Warning, minor integrity breach in left leg, shutting down compartment, mobility will be reduced twenty five percent]
"Acknowledge"
A few boring hours later Samuel started speaking.
"This is the longest trip I have ever had in my life. Silver Bullet, how long until we reach our objective?"
[At current speed the estimated arrival time is twenty nine hours and forty three minutes]
"Great. Do you know any joke?"
[I remind the pilot that I am a very basic AI with the only function of facilitating the exoskeleton underwater navigation]
Samuel kept silent and continued his lonely descent into the dark ocean for two days.
[We are about to reach the proximity of our destination, this is a reminder that we should expect high resistance from hostile forces]
"Keep all systems off, are you able to calculate our direction without the sonar system at this distance?"
[The coordinates are fixed, since the area has been already scanned it is possible to navigate without sonar, however in case of any obstacle in the path it would be an assured crash]
"Turn off the sonar, reduce speed to twenty knots, we will advance slowly"
[Acknowledged]
Time passed slowly by as Samuel focused of the darkness in front of him trying to discern anything.
[Objective reached, turning deep sea exploration engine off]
After waiting for what seemed to be way too long, nothing happened. If he was in the right place, in front of him should be the enemy base.
"I can't see anything, give me a sonar reading and deep scan with a three-dimensional reconstruction"
[Warning, Such an order contradicts the directive to be stealth, it would alert enemy of your position]
"I know, that is what I want. This is too quiet. I am sure they know I am here anyway"
[Acknowledged]
As soon as the images of the three-dimensional reconstruction started to appear; the underground mountain in front of which Samuel was standing started trembling. A portion of the mountain wall moved to the side opening a huge cave.
"Tch, I knew it. Thanks Silver Bullet, delete your AI core code now"
[Acknowledge]
And then there was silence, Samuel took total control of the machine, turned all lights on and walked inside the cave.