Zero 2.0: Mech. Chronicles, #2

By Adam Moon

Zero and his fellow mechs have just won the first battle of a war they didn't know or care about. The Beetars are their new enemy. They are an oppressive alien race who've subjected all other races to their rule and tricked humanity into doing their bidding for a century.

The mechs don't know that the first battle was to be the easiest. They will face two more Beetar Commanders, the last being a living legend, before they can claim victory over planet Beetar and end tyranny throughout the galaxy.

But the enemy isn't going to bow down for a ragtag group of humans and mechs. They'll stop at nothing to end the uprising, even going so far as to threaten Earth with total annihilation.

Zero and his pals get upgrades and pick up some unlikely allies along the way, but will it be enough to take down the apex species of the galaxy?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam Moon
• Release date: Feb 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781507017432

Adam Moon

Adam Moon was born in California, grew up in Scotland, and currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two young sons. His oldest son wants to grow up to be the first American President who is a space-ninja sniper-robot from the future. His youngest son likes to punch things and say bad words. His long suffering wife just wants some peace and quiet for a change. Adam writes science fiction and horror. You can visit his website at: www.moonwrites.com

Book preview

Zero 2.0

(Mech Chronicles, Book #2 – Uprising)

––––––––

Adam Moon

Zero 2.0 copyright © Adam Moon 2014

All rights reserved

If you haven’t read part one,

you can find it here:

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapter 2: Victory

Chapter 3: Henshaw Explains All

Chapter 4: The Mechs Reunite

Chapter 5: Dead Planet

Chapter 6: Double Agent

Chapter 7: Penal Planet

Chapter 8: Running Scared

Chapter 9: Stacey the Savior

Chapter 10: Mech Invasion

Chapter 11: Assessing the Damage

Chapter 12: Doctor Cyborg

Chapter 13: Recruiting Tiny Warriors

Chapter 14: Dead Fleet Reawakened

Chapter 15: Planet Beetar

Chapter 16: The Destroyer

Prologue

The situation is this: The year is 2799 and Jack Peterson was led to believe he had terminal cancer. He was told there was only one treatment option that could save his life but it was located deep in space, around an alien star system.

He had no other options so he agreed to go.

Once he got there, he was told more. Aliens called Beetars were allies with mankind and they were the ones responsible for the machinery that would eradicate the cancer in his body. In return, they wanted one thing: he had to have his conscious mind uploaded into a mechanical battle robot and fight for them against various rebellions within their empire until his body was cured.

He got his new mech body and training commenced on the alien planet. From there, everything went wrong. His mechanical body failed on the first major test and when he couldn’t be fixed, he was assigned guard duty for the training facility. The guards he joined were a small group of wash-outs. He liked them, despite their idiosyncrasies. Even though every attack on the training center had been thwarted in the past by the guards, a deployment of extremely fast alien ships got past them and destroyed it, and of course it had to happen on Jack’s watch. That made him a double failure.

Luckily Doctor Henshaw, who’d transferred his consciousness to the mech, had a plan for them.

Jack, Volts, and Eve, were sent to planet Cogmore to help put down a rebellion by the indigenous people. Stacey and a guy they nicknamed Piss-pants got luxury duty aboard a Beetar warship.

Cogmore tested Jack in ways he didn’t think possible. He killed Cogmore’s without mercy as they tried to kill him. He was abducted during a raid by the resistance but when he discovered he could communicate with the Cogmore’s, he started to see their point of view about the oppressive Beetars.

Then the Beetars destroyed the rebellion and all mechs were reassigned. Volts got to join Stacey and Piss-pants on the Beetar warship, Eve had to go to a penal planet called Ishca, and Jack had to protect a diplomat on a planet called Dosia. The Dosians sure acted warlike until they got a load of him. After his very first defense of the Beetar diplomat, they retreated and surrendered to the Beetars like cowards. The sight of his mammoth mech body scared the honor right out of them.

With that done, he was reassigned to join his friends aboard the warship. It was being attacked by the same little ships that had destroyed training camp, but they weren’t effective against a warship so formidable.

That was when Stacey told him the truth about the Beetars and the doctor and his role in all of this. The Beetars had lied to them. They didn’t even have cancer. The Beetars had their human collaborators on Earth lie to them so they could harvest them to pilot their mechs. With the threat of death and a hope for a longer life, they knew they’d succumb to whatever they asked of them. Instead of healing their bodies, which would’ve been pointless anyway since they were not sick, the Beetars instructed the doctor to simply flush them out into space as soon as their consciousnesses were uploaded into the mechs. Lucky for them, the good doctor had other plans. He hid them away on the moon that his space station orbits. He supplied their fleshy counterparts with weapons and ships and readied them for the war he was going to wage against the barbaric Beetars.

Stacey told him that his mech was special. The doctor had spent years making it resistant to Beetar influence. He’d shielded his cables and battery so that a directed EMP couldn’t disable him. He’d disabled his kill-switch so that the Beetars could no longer shut him down with the push of a button.

Soon after Eve arrived to join them on the warship, they realized her last assignment had made her nuts. She was on edge. She was violent.

The Beetar Captain of the warship, Flimfor, caught her acting aggressively towards one of his men so he gathered them together to put them all down.

They couldn’t allow that and it turned out Flimfor’s methods weren’t as effective as he thought they’d be, because of the doctors upgrades to the mechs.

They fought for their lives and prevailed, killing Beetars like it was their passion, and taking their warship. They made it out almost unscathed. Piss-pants’ death sent Volts and Eve into a rage the likes Jack had never seen before and hoped to never see again.

But in the end, they’d won the battle from the inside out.

Then they allowed the little ships surrounding them, with their human occupants, to come aboard. There were about thirty of them.

Now he’s found himself on a Beetar warship that has been overtaken by three dozen humans dead-set on stopping the Beetars at all costs. He’s less clueless than he was an hour ago, but he still barely knows what the hell is going on.

Everything has changed for Jack, even his name. He no longer goes by Jack. He is robot Zero.

Victory

Human Stacey took a close look at him. You’re Jack, aren’t you? I’m not surprised you prevailed. You were designed with victory in mind.

He nodded. I go by Zero nowadays. Where’s the other me? He hadn’t seen his handsome human face in the crowd that had just joined them on the ship.

She looked at her feet, saying sadly, He died out there. I’m so sorry. He saw her eyes mist up.

Mech Stacey put her arm around the human Stacey. I’m so sorry to hear that. How are you holding up?

Human Stacey shook her head but she said nothing. She was clearly close to the other Jack.

Then Mech Stacey saw him standing there looking confused. She said reassuringly, If you need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.

He nodded because he didn’t know what to say. It’s not every day you find out you’re already dead. But the truth was that it didn’t change anything. That body was no longer his own anyway.

Human Stacey said, Tell the Beetars that they have a choice. They can help us pilot this ship to Epigog or they can die horribly.

Eve asked, Why are we going to Epigog?

To pick up the doctor.

Why?

Because he found out where planet Beetar is located. We’re going to take the fight to them.

The Beetar Captain Flimfor took a step forward and said arrogantly, You’re all wasting your time. There will be no attack on Beetar. You will not be picking up the traitorous Doctor Henshaw to help lead your rag-tag army against the greatest empire in the galaxy.

Human Stacey pressed a button on her wrist and a mechanical human voice issued from it, translating into English what the Captain had just said. She looked at Flimfor like he just didn’t understand what a dire predicament he was in.

Flimfor continued, I sent a distress signal out moments ago. My people will be at our location shortly to rescue us and slaughter all of you. Your rebellion will be over before it begins. If you’re smart, you’ll leave this ship immediately. It’s your only hope.

So that was why the Captain had retreated during the earlier scuffle.

Human Stacey said, This ship is our prize. Without it, we don’t have the technology to get to Beetar. We came for your ship, took it, and now you expect us to leave? You must be joking.

Flimfor shrugged his shoulders. It’s your funeral, human. To the rest of them he said, You do realize that you can reach your own planet in a matter of weeks, don’t you? Part of our conditioning program requires we tell you that the Earth is eight hundred years away, but that’s only so you accept that there’s no going home. We don’t want homesick mechs moping around, or worse, trying to escape back home. Your planet is a few weeks away by shuttle if you leave now. I’m just giving you options.

Zero looked at human Stacey for confirmation as soon as her wrist translator had finished relaying the Captain’s speech. She nodded, saying, He’s right. The doctor told me that once we’ve defeated the Beetars, we can all go home to our loved ones.

That added a new wrinkle. Zero’s dad was still alive. He’d believed that he’d been dead for eight hundred years. His world had not changed because he hadn’t been gone that long. The prospect made his head spin.

Stacey said firmly, We stick to the plan. No one is going to derail us now that we finally have the advantage.

Volts slowly turned her way and eyed her menacingly. Who put you in charge? I have yet to join your rebellion so don’t presume to make my decisions for me. I want to go home.

Stacey threw her hands in the air. Which side are you guys on? What the hell happened to you all?

Their human counterparts had led very different lives since their consciousnesses had been copied and put inside the mechs. The flesh versions had been told the truth and they’d been active in a rebellion with Doctor Henshaw as their leader. The mech versions had been told lies. They’d been fighting on the Beetars’ behalf, putting down various alien rebellions and acting as hired muscle. They were not on the same page as their fleshy human doppelgangers

Eve chimed in, We’ve been deceived by Beetars and by humans. Don’t be so shocked that we don’t trust you or your plans for us.

Human Stacey shook her head angrily and said, Let Doctor Henshaw reason with you before you make your decision. We can pick him up in a few minutes as soon as we figure out how to pilot this ship.

Captain Flimfor said, You’d better hurry then because reinforcements should be here any minute.

Human Stacey pulled a gun and shot the Captain between the eyes, ending all further discussions.

Regroup

It took very little persuasion to convince a Beetar to get them to Epigog. He even told them that they would be safe for awhile so long as they didn’t send out another distress signal after they arrived; that Flimfor was exaggerating about there being no escape. To the humans and mechs, he was awesome, but the other Beetars treated him like a pariah because he was technically a traitor to his own people. His name was Benro.

Because he’d been such a help, they kept him around. The others were led to the mechs’ living quarters because that was the only area of the ship that they could be sure was safe from potential sabotage. Only then did they recognize the ambassador, Quiss among them. If Quiss thought he’d get special treatment because he personally knew them, he was wrong. They jammed them in the room and then Eve welded the door shut just to be safe.

When Eve came back in to the command hub, she said forcefully, It’s time for someone to tell me what the hell is going on here.

She’d been separated from the rest of the mechs when they found out the truth about their predicament so she was the only one of them operating blindly.

Zero took her aside and explained all that he knew. He told her that the Beetars had lied to them, that none of them had cancer so curing it was just a ruse to gain their cooperation to pilot the mechs. She gasped when he explained that their human bodies were supposed to be disposed of the moment their consciousnesses were uploaded. But she relaxed when she found out Henshaw had saved the last few batches which included her group, so she was still alive, probably on the warship somewhere. Then he told her that after a couple of years of service, their minds were supposed to be scrubbed from the mechs, meaning they’d be dead, mind and body. He didn’t know much more except that he was built specifically by Henshaw to stand against the Beetars. By the time he was done, she was breathless.

The helpful Beetar, Benro keyed some gibberish into a couple of consoles and then he hit a switch. The view on the monitor changed in a flash. Henshaw’s space station orbiting the moon of Epigog 31 was small but recognizable from where they’d arrived.

They all knew they’d just experienced the impossible; they’d traveled faster than the speed of light, instantaneously, but none of them broached the subject with the Beetar because they were too preoccupied with what was going to happen when they saw Henshaw. Zero had a dozen questions of his own, and he was pretty sure Volts, Stacey, and Eve did too. The Doctor was going to be overwhelmed.

The moon was directly behind the space station which was the only reason any of them even noticed the three ships that took off from its surface, heading their way. Then two ships decoupled from the space station to join them. They were all heading right for them.

Human Stacey said to her human companions, Welcome them and get them up here quickly.

Three humans left and the rest waited with baited breath and fear in their hearts. The Doctor had all the answers and Zero was sure most of them weren’t what he wanted to hear.

Henshaw Explains All

The humans all cheered and clapped when Henshaw entered the command hub. He was a rock star to them. To Zero, he just looked like a frail old fart wearing a gasmask.

Henshaw waved to everyone bashfully. Zero knew he wasn’t used to crowds.

The first thing he did was to order human Stacey to maintain orbit around the moon. He handed her a folded piece of paper saying, Plug in these coordinates. We have some business to take care of before we travel to Beetar.

She nodded and grabbed the helpful Beetar by the scruff of the neck, saying, Enter these coordinates please.

Zero wanted to smack her. Benro was helping them. He didn’t deserve to be roughed up.

Henshaw turned around, taking everyone in. I need to speak to all of the mechanized units right now. Everyone else, get out of here. Patrol the ship. Make sure it’s secure.

All of the humans marched from the command hub, except for Stacey.

Henshaw took a seat in the weirdly shaped captain’s chair and the mechs all gathered around him.

He took his gasmask off after a few minutes of awkward silence and smiled. I suppose you all have questions for me. I hope I have the answers you’re looking for.

None of them knew where to start so Henshaw said, "I’ll give you a brief history lesson. The Beetars have been enslaving humans for nearly a century. Young adult humans are best suited to pilot their mechs because they interface well with the tech and the latent aggression in young folks suits the type of work the mechs are needed for. That’s why each of you is stuck inside a robot. You are nothing more than a dispensable operating system to the Beetars. I was just like you at one time. I was young, led to believe I was dying, and given a choice to be healed. I chose poorly since I wasn’t dying in the first place, but how could I know I had been lied to? But I was one of the lucky ones. A few recruits are spared after their consciousnesses are uploaded and I was one of them. The doctor who uploaded my consciousness was dying and I was chosen to be his replacement. It was a blessing and a curse.