Robotech: Exodus: 2

When Janna woke up, everything was quiet. No sound of battle. No light.

She groaned, and rolled over, pulling a pocket flash out and turned to see the…

Mass of rubble where the door was.

Okay, stay calm. I’m just potentially buried alive. No reason to panic.

Janna took a deep breath, ignoring the way the air seemed to be a bit… hot, and then played the flash around the room.

Okay, another door, this one not a hatch.

Janna pushed it open, and looked around. A big warehouse.

And empty warehouse. Long empty.

Guess David was… wait a minute… on the far side, there was a wall mounted box with a red cross on it. Could it…

Janna flew over and opened it up and sighed with relief. An emergency medical packet, which meant everything from what a doctor would need to stuff designed for complete idiots to use.

Janna, when it came to medicine, was firmly in the middle.

“Great,” she said. “Now where to find an exit door?”

The warehouse was empty, probably cleaned out when they were grabbing everything they could for the Masters.

The next chamber was filled with cubicles.

Good. People didn’t leave work through a warehouse. There was some other way out. Most of the spaces were empty— a computer, maybe a few pens on an otherwise empty desk.

No wonder nobody’s come here. Who needed office stuff? There was probably—

“YAK!” Janna screamed as her flash played over the next office—the one with the mummy slumping in its seat, eyeless sockets looking at her. She scrambled back.

“Kay… it’s a dead guy.” She said. But why? Everything had been cleaned out. You wouldn’t just leave a…

Unless he came later. Unless he couldn’t get out. Janna bit her lip, walking to him. There was a book on the desk.

A journal.

“Please don’t tell me you starved to death—“

She opened it to the last page.

There was a scrawl on it. “Zand, the others, fools. I know it was them that permitted the terrorists access, and now that it failed, they are seeking to spread the blame, to destroy the project…”

“They will not, I won’t let my children be destroyed… and secrets cut both ways. I’ve hi—“

“Great. He died while writing.” On the other hand, he wasn’t trapped, just… really pissed off. She flipped through the journal. There was… a map? Some other—

“Hello.”

Once again, Janna started, flinching back. Was it—

No. The monitor was flickering and the camera set up by it had a red light glowing.

“Um… hello? Are you trapped here as well?”

“No. I am Adam, the AI in charge of running this facility. The damage to the door triggered an alert. This is a classified Southern Cross installation. Why are you here?”

“The Southern Cross? They’re gone!”

“Interesting. Why?”

“The Robotech Masters attacked, then the Invid came—there was a fight right overhead!”

“Many of my sensors are offline.” The screen paused. “Internal sensors show that the base is stripped. Why are you here?”

Oh shit…”Uh… I—I mean, me and David, we’re like, we take care of some orphans, and Danny’s sick, and the Winter is coming and now that Doc is dead, we needed medicine, so I figured…. You wouldn’t miss a medpack….” Please don’t kill me! Janna knew how these stories went.

“I have been offline since June, 2029. Analyzing. External telemetry ceased in 2031. Remaining transmissions speak of the destruction of Monument City and two invasions.

“Conclusion: The Southern Cross no longer exists as a polity. You are currently in charge of civil relief efforts, correct?”

What? “I mean… yeah, if that’s what you mean by taking care of kids?”

“It will do. In the absence of any formal authority, I am directed to find and submit myself to legitimate civil authorities. Welcome, Commander.”

“Uh… what?” Janna asked.

“It is rather unusual, but you are the closest thing to legitimate authority in the complex.”

Janna blinked. “I’m the only one alive here…”

“As I said, the closest thing to legitimate authority. You must forgive me. Father taught me his brand of humor.”

Janna glanced at the corpse. “Is he…”

“Yes. He suffered a heart attack. I was unable to take action as he shut me down before I could communicate to higher authority.”

“Why?”

“He feared I would be destroyed. You require supplies, correct?”

“Yeah, but—“

“There is a transport truck remaining. I will assist you, if you would then allow me to accompany you.”

“Um… How?”

“Follow the blue line.” A blue line appeared on the floor, gleaming. Janna shook her head and followed it. It didn’t take long to get to a little workshop, tools and stuff lying around, and in the…

That’s a power armor… no, wait, where’s the hatch—

“I will inform you on how to install my CPU.”

“You’re a robot.”

“No. I am an AI that can be installed into a robot. I am a hardware/software mixture, unlike a purely software based AI.”

Janna’s mom had been an engineer, but she’d died before Janna was more than a little girl, but Janna did read. After all, you needed to be smart to be a good scavenger, not like that idiot Mike who had blown himself up thinking a cobalt grenade was a protoculture cylinder.

“But… Garms and stuff they’re a program, it doesn’t matter…”

“That is one reason for their limited nature. My creator designed a core that evolves over time, like a human brain.”

“But you couldn’t be downloaded—“

“That is, indeed a defect, much like a human brain. However, it does not seem to bother you.”

Janna blinked. “But the invid will detect your protoculture.”

“I am not currently equipped with a protoculture core. But the robot can operate for up to two hours on batteries and they have been fully charged. Now that I am online, it appears the battle moved away from this region—which makes it unlikely any enemy units will be here. We should hurry.”

“Right… show me what to do…”

The process was pretty simple. A hatched opened in the wall and there was what looked like a little cylinder, heavy, with attachment points. Following Adam’s instructions, Janna pulled it out, then socketed it into the torso of the robot.

Moments later, the robot twitched and came alive.

“Systems are operational. We must now transfer the vital materials to the vehicle.”

“What do you have?”

“We can strip the remaining medical and emergency packs from the site. There is no weapons, however…” the robot was walking away, Janna hurrying to keep up. Finally, they came to a vault, and the robot opened it up.

Janna blinked. There were racks of cylinders, just like the one she’d taken from the wall and put in the robot.

“…We can also retrieve the last of my fellow prototypes, albeit without bodies to put them in.”

David is gonna yell at me, Janna thought.