Nanorage

By Strahil Mihaylov

The takwin, a far-off dream of Persian alchemists to create artificial life, turns real in year 2950 when semi-organic humanoids are synthesized atom by atom in laboratories with the tools of science. Yet there are many unknowns in the programming of their quantum consciousness, which appears to follow inexplicable universal laws.

Fabricated to serve in the military, Anneke gets on a remote planet where a cruel reality game is set up. Men and takwins from the Earth and its colonies who are sentenced to death are given the opportunity to escape the electric chair and fight against each other in the high-tech gladiator arena called “Nanorage”. Completely blinded by their ambitions for power and domination, they suffer in a virtual reality, which is confined by the restrictions of their mind.

Capable of pure perception, free from the duality of consciousness, Anneke gets inspired by the Source, a mystical framework of space-time the takwins believe in. A mental journey would enable her to unfold the thick veil of illusions and understand the true reason for the game existence. Only a radical change in the takwins’ souls could ignite the spark of rebellion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strahil Mihaylov
• Release date: Dec 8, 2014

Strahil Mihaylov

I was born in Varna, Bulgaria in 1983. Instead of writing, as readers might suggest, I developed an affinity for painting as a child and have always loved to draw sci-fi characters and airplanes. I graduated from Naval Academy as a Marine Engineer in 2006 and began a career designing offshore vessels. After four years, I married my wife Maggie and moved to Singapore to a new job position, where I live ever since.Besides trying to keep up with modern physics and high technologies, I have a strong interest in martial arts and spiritual teachings since my teens. In my free time I like to read ancient texts, learn about philosophy, work out and meditate. Being driven by a strange impulse inside, I always aim to gain knowledge of the controversial human mind and body relationship, which is something we all need to cope with in our lives.Writing is an activity I got recently attracted to. Although my day job does not permit to spend a lot of time to write (I am at work more than 10 hours a day), I am planning a cycle of short stories that would follow my first novel “Nanorage”.I am inspired by nature and the beauty of the outer world, although it is a pale, scaled down reflection of our inner world, which itself is a miracle.Good stories are not made up by writers. They are seeds, carried over by the wind, looking for a proper soil to sprout.

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Strahil Mihaylov

Nanorage

Copyright © 2014 by Strahil Mihaylov. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without written permission of the author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the author.

Books may be purchased in quantity and/or special sales by contacting the author, Strahil Mihaylov via http://takwin.wix.com/smihaylov or by email at [e-mail]

Cover Design by: Milan Čolović

Editing by: Stacey Coverstone

http://takwin.wix.com/smihaylov

"Hark ye, O man, and know of thy bondage,

know how to free thyself from the toils.

Out of the darkness shall ye rise upward,

one with the light and one with the stars."

(The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, the Atlantean

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1

Anneke opened her eyes, awakened by heavy bumping and screaming alarms. The first thing she saw was the sight glass of the carbon capsule cover just above her forehead. Following the command from her artificial brain, the vital processes in her body started one by one and for the first time she felt blood flowing in her veins. The self-preservation instincts in the takwin’s body activated and she tried to lift up the capsule’s cover, but it was securely locked.

The spacecraft transporting Anneke and a dozen of other soldiers had lost one of the main engines together with half of the cargo module after a crash with a meteorite. The pilot was struggling with the onboard computer to redirect the ship and isolate the damaged compartments, filled with ionized fuel. Unfortunately, all gates were blocked, since the hull was twisted like a beer can.

Red alert on the ship computer was warning continuously, Critical radiation level in thruster room. Repeat, critical radiation level in thruster room. Structural integrity will be lost in two minutes. Prepare for immediate evacuation.

The pilot tried to take control in manual mode, but the steering actuators were also damaged. He spoke over the radio, "All crew, prepare for emergency landing, repeat, emergency landing!"

Wrapped in flames, the ship turned away from her route and approached the orbit of the ocean planet Palea. Igniting due to the high temperature, she entered the thin atmosphere, and started falling obliquely to the water surface.

One of the navigating flanks flew apart. A few more explosions burst, killing everybody on the bridge.

Anneke was struggling with the capsule cover, beating aggressively with her knees and elbows. She strained all her muscles to push, but in vain. The capsule, swollen from her punches, was levitating inside the freefalling ship, which was about to experience the deadly crash within a few seconds.

Luckily, the capsule hit the open gate of the compartment and after pushing away the heavy cover, Anneke flew out to the cargo hold ceiling. Moving in free fall by hardly grasping at the walls, she encountered smashed bodies of other takwins, scattered in the air. In the nearby corridor, there was a cabinet with lifesaving equipment – life vests, buoys and a parachute bag. The parachute seemed used already, as the release mechanism was damaged. Hastening, she put it on and looked around to find the emergency exit.

The ship was twisting and shaking with pieces disintegrated and flying apart, chaotically flying objects slowing Anneke’s movement. After kicking the cover of a maintenance hatch, she opened it and the air stream took her like a feather rapidly up. After some struggle to release the parachute mechanism, she began to slowly descend down to the ocean, dark and gloomy clouds around her, threatening a storm.

Anneke witnessed the spacecraft crashing down with a rumble, causing a huge circular wave to propagate. Shortly after that, she fell in the water and was caught up in the parachute ropes. Huge waves immediately swept her body in an unknown direction.

Anneke looked around. There was no land to see and she was completely alone and helpless in the hundred kilometers deep ocean. Her navigating system identified the planet poles’ location but it was unthinkable to overcome the high current by swimming. The waves were lifted and lowered her body, smashing her down and twisting her inside. Knowing her chance of survival was almost zero, she let herself float, surrendering to nature’s uncompromising force.

***

Red morning light teased Anneke’s eyelids. Sound of waves crashing came from behind, accompanied by a bird cry. She opened her heavy eyes and felt her wet hair immersed in sand and seaweed. There was a salty water taste in her mouth. She found herself lying on the shoreline of an island, surrounded by remains of the cargo ship. Twisted steel plates, a smashed cockpit and broken rescue capsules were scattered around.

Trying to ignore the terrible ache in her back, Anneke got up slowly and looked around. The shore stretched to her left and right into wide crescent curves fringed with eroded, tree-topped dunes. The sand was white and soft as powdered sugar. A hundred meters away from the coast, there was a small palm forest, encircling mahogany black rocky hills. The hills were covered by a dense jungle, reaching to the distant pale blue mountains, veiled in water steam.

It was still early in the morning but surprisingly hot. Anneke shifted her attention to the horizon and found out the reason for that. Instead of only one sun, there were two bright red disks, peering behind a long grey cloud like the eyes of an angry dragon. Rea and Uru – the twin red dwarfs Palea orbited, emitted gigantic flares, which would cause significant temperature rises on the planet’s surface.

Anneke couldn’t detect any humanlike forms within the five kilometer range of her scanners so she shook the sand off her black military clothes, undressed and put them on the ground to dry. Her slim body with the well-shaped thighs of a gymnast and light blonde hair reaching down to below her neck would create the impression of a tender and charming Nordic girl, approximately twenty years of age. But this femininity and white as milk velvet skin was just a disguise. All her moves emanated remarkable strength, firmness and determination. Anneke was manufactured to serve in a special team of United Armed Military Forces (UAMF) executing secret missions in the Martian Colonies. The Earth government still faced considerable resistance from the Cydonians and National Cyberface Engineering (NCE) fabricated hundreds of takwins to be sent to the front. There was even no time to fully program her quantum brain. All she possessed were fighting skills and basic survival instincts.

Anneke looked at the ship remains, trying to find something useful. She took a laser pistol, a knife and a water can from one of the rescue capsules. After putting her clothes back on, she headed north to the hills. Her empty stomach required her to find food, because she hadn’t eaten anything since the day of her fabrication.

The demand for food and water of the synthetic takwin body was much less than that of an ordinary human, but it was important for maintaining the organic substructure. The nanocrystal skin was designed such as to produce electricity, required for the central nerve system, the quantum brain and the organ systems. There were different takwin designs, some of the most efficient ones using a battery or a miniature nuclear reactor as a power source, similar to that of the robots. In fact, it was always a dispute between the scientists as to what prime mover had to be used. There were esoterically oriented biologists and cyberneticists, including those in NCE, who defended the thesis, that a mental body following a human pattern has sufficient capacity to power the takwin, no matter the application. Their argument was that the takwins’ internal energy could be increased with proper training and catch up with the nuclear powered ones. The latter were used mainly on the Martian Colonies and became a state of the art in takwin technology, since the need for a breathing system was eliminated and the soldiers could live in vacuum environments, including outer space. Unfortunately their price turned out too uneconomical, so the synthetic design prevailed.

Sweating under the scorching heat, Anneke entered a dense tropical forest. Her senses started recognizing thousands of signals of animals, most of them completely unknown. Anneke was familiar only with terrestrial organisms and some of the creatures Earthmen encountered while trying to colonize other planets. A strange bird flew over her head, giving a piercing cry. It was yellow in colour with long, bright fluorescent feathers. A snakelike animal covered with thick skin and metal coloured, gleaming scales passed between her feet and hid in the bush.

Anneke heard the sound of flowing water and after a few steps she found a small river flowing down from the hills, its bed running over big oval stones. She entered slowly into the crystal clean water, scanning the bottom like a hungry predator.

A fish looking like a salmon was trying to find its way between the moss-covered stones.

Anneke zoomed with her bright crystal lenses and two thin laser beams flashed for a thousandth of a second in a V-shape, stabbing through the fish’s body. She cut it roughly with the knife, and sank her teeth ferociously into the tasty meat.

A short inspection of the area revealed a wooden structure, rising above the trees, two kilometers away. It looked like a military outpost. Nobody was up there, but Anneke’s scanners recognized human thermal emission in the forest. She quickly finished her meal and continued sneaking cautiously by the trees, eager to find out who the inhabitants on the island were. She realized that she didn’t even know which galaxy the planet was in.

After approaching the source of the human signals, she suddenly heard something moving up in the tree crowns, and as she looked up, a heavy object fell on her head from above. Struggling to throw it aside, her legs tangled in something like a cord, she tripped and fell on the ground, wrapped in a net made of thick ropes.

Got ya, sweetheart. A deep male voice came out from the bush and a big black guy wearing khaki soldier clothes approached. He pulled the cord and it squeezed Anneke’s ankles.

Three more men appeared from behind the trees. Two were red-haired, of medium height, probably Irish, with muscular tattooed arms. The other one was a tall blond Scandinavian, wearing a black uniform, resembling those of UAMF.

Hey Joe, she’s as hot as those of the North Legion. Ok, this time I’ll be the first one, said one of the Irishmen, excited.

You are wrong, buddy. It is my turn now, said the other one, smirking. It seems we have a good hunt today. But… Hey, Ned, she is not from the North Legion. He checked the back of Anneke’s neck and scratched his beard, confused, because he didn’t see any tattoo.

Ned gave an irritated snap at Joe, who attempted to caress her cheek, lustfully. Not so fast brother, we are going to share. Right Chris? He turned his vivid blue eyes to the black guy, who appeared also pretty excited about the upcoming scene.

The Irishmen removed the net and caught Anneke’s legs and arms.

Back off! Anneke growled out and struggled to free herself, but they were holding her tight. What the hell do you want?

Discreet adult fun, baby. Hahah, answered Ned, grinning to show his dirty crooked teeth.

The others responded with loud-mouthed laughter.

Only the Scandinavian was sitting on a stone to the side with no interest in what was happening. He took a whisky bottle from his bag and lifted it to his mouth.

Come on, Captain. Don’t tell me you are not in, said Chris. He was holding tight the takwin’s hands behind her neck, while the Irish brothers started to strip her clothes down.

Anneke had no idea what the intentions of these men were, but she was irritated by the violence she was subjected to. She swept a rapid knee kick at Ned’s face, who was trying to pull her pants off. The soldier’s jaw swayed and he fell aside.

Stunned by the unexpected attack and unable to react adequately, his brother received an accurate round kick on the temple.

With her legs free, Anneke made a whip-like motion with her back to throw Chris on the ground.

The captain, who was enjoying his drink, got up and raised his rifle immediately. A red sight immediately pointed at Anneke’s chest.

Hands up. Get down on the ground. Now! he commanded.

Anneke looked at him under brows then to Chris and Ned, who recovered from her surprising attack and got up back on their feet, while Joe was lying unconscious on the ground.

Go away, Anneke warned them, but they snarled and lunged on her again.

This time Ned was awarded with a fast as a lightning hook on the other side of his jaw and he fell unconscious, blood flowing from his mouth.

A bit confused after seeing his mates beaten up so fast, Chris took out a long knife from his belt and swung it provocatively at the stranger.

Agitated, Anneke fixed her gaze on him as if attempting to kill him only by the power of her thought.

Within less than a second, the soldier caught a glimpse of the bright white sparks in her eyes and he received a bad premonition.

Captain! Chris screamed shortly, panicked, before his head burst and fell apart like a smashed watermelon, pierced by a thick purging laser. A red fountain spurted up his throat and the corpse crumbled helpless on the ground, next to the Irishmen.

A smell of burnt meat spread in the air.

The stunned captain aimed at Anneke to shoot, but she closed in with a lion jump and pressed him with the rifle against a palm tree. Two gleaming amber eyes stabbed him with magical power.

Who are you… Captain? And may I know why UAMF soldiers are assaulting their colleagues? she said.

The captain noticed that Anneke spoke with a Nordic accent, like his friends at home in Finland. He looked down and saw the UAMF’s designations on her shirt, but the warm breath and pleasant smell of the female body was so distracting that he could not speak a word.

Both watched each other in silence for what seemed like an eternity.

Answer me, yelled Anneke.

Finally, the captain pulled himself together and replied, "Henrik Nodeland, ex-Captain of the Fifth fighter squadron, corps Trident."

Still agitated, Anneke pressed the rifle so hard that its barrel bent, threatening to smash the soldier’s chest.

"Trident should be deployed in the Colonies. What are you doing here?" she asked.

She looked at his shirt, but instead of the UAMF logo she saw an airplane shaped emblem with the letter H inscribed inside.

A sound of car engines approached from the back.

Anneke emptied the rifle, threw the magazine away and broke into a run to the river as fast as she could. Apparently, it was wiser to avoid any further encounters with UAMF.

Hey, stop, yelled Henrik.

He fired his pistol and ran after the stranger. However, Anneke was much faster and he soon lost her among the hardly passable oval rocks.

Shortly afterwards, two jeeps arrived at the place of the trap. The soldiers rushed out and took positions as they saw their comrades down.

A short plump man in his fifties with a ruddy face and sharp blue eyes approached Henrik as he came back from the river. His faded blond beard and mustaches had a dark yellow tint from tobacco smoke and gunfire.

What happened? he asked, tersely.

We caught a gangster in the trap but she escaped, answered Henrik reluctantly, Anneke’s face still before his eyes.

He looked at Chris’s body. A cluster of insects had already surrounded his scattered skull.

Mike, sorry, can you give me a cigarette? he said.

The man with the moustaches pulled out his pack and sighed. Argh, this boy was the only good pilot I had except you.

She was new, muttered Henrik and looked up to the riverbank, climbing up the hill. But I’ve got no idea from which gang.

His heart was still beating hard, but not because of Chris’s sudden death. In fact he didn’t seem to care much about that.

Mike looked suspiciously to his subordinate. Whatever, we’ll catch the bitch later. She can’t be far. Hey, what happened to your gun?

Henrik looked down to his deformed riffle and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his breastbone. It was amazing how the mind is able to ignore the nerve signals coming from the body, when it’s attention is fully occupied.

Both men smoked, while the others were helping Ned and Joe to come to their senses.

Meanwhile, Anneke was running through the jungle on the riverside, with large jumps over the bushes, making her way through the vegetation. Her heart was pumping hard. She was wondering why had the commandment dropped her on a remote planet without any assignment and let her be attacked by her own forces.

Distant shouts and aircraft noise came from behind. It was better to find a safe place to hide.

The river passed around a small hill, coiling around the black volcanic rocks, punctured by many small caves inside that were formed by lava flow.

Anneke found a narrow passage between two gigantic stones and entered through a small hole in the almost vertical flat rock. She found herself in a narrow lava tube, going steeply upward. The tunnel walls were wet and cold and crawling on her hands and knees turned out to be extremely painful. After some struggling, she reached a chamber, which was completely dark inside.

She scanned the space using her night vision lenses. The scenery was shocking. Scattered all around were corpse remains – male and female skeletons frozen in convulsed postures. Some still had residue of dried up flesh, attached tо their fractured skulls. There were also many trails of takwins - metal bones, wires and plastic blood vessels sticking up from the floor.

A massacre…, thought Anneke.

This part of the cave appeared to be connected with other tunnels, taking into account the holes on the walls. A sound of falling water was audible through the front chamber wall.

Assuming that it was worth to check what was up there, Anneke crossed over the corpses and climbed up to enter one of the holes. This one was even narrower, but she snuck her flexible body inside like a reptile. After half an hour of panting and painful crawling, she saw light passing through the end of the tube. The exit led her to an open chamber at the back of a waterfall.

Exhausted, Anneke walked to the edge of the cliff, where the water streams fell. The sun rays were passing through liquid curtain, forming playful shadows on the cave floor. In the background, she saw the forest and the coastline. The beauty and peace of the island was in such contrast to the violence that had happened here.

She slid down the cave wall and closed her eyes.

***

The year was 2950. For two centuries after the Fifth World War, human race lived in a highly technologically developed world, infiltrated by sophisticated machines, robots and takwins. Due to the undisputable economical efficiency of artificial intelligence, a complex social order was established.

Robots, the obedient mechanical units, were widely employed in all industries, performing hard repetitive processes, ranging from agricultural work to construction in space, thus completing the process to eliminate human labor, which had started long time ago. They were restricted to a certain level of intelligence by their silicon processors, which could not be exceeded.

Logically, the robot management became more complex over time and required a lot of engineers. Initially the engineers were humans, but with the invention of the quantum brain and the application of continuously advancing genetic technologies, a new smart substitute was born – the takwin.

Being a far off dream of Persian alchemists during the seventh century, takwins were manufactured from organic matter and metal compounds, assembled atom by atom in laboratories. Their unique brain, composed of nanomaterials, worked on the principle of movement of freed electrons, discharged by radioactive elements. Being a continuation of the Self Thinking Interface (STI) developed almost a millennium ago, the quantum brain had a much higher productivity than that of a robot or a conventional computer. Furthermore, the takwin semi-organic body was stronger than the human one and could work in aggressive environments.

The new kind became fully independent, reliable and perfectly integrated within society. Takwins progressed fast and gradually replaced all engineers. Later on, they proved well in many other professions – medics, soldiers, teachers, etc.

Being freed from hard labor, humans themselves worked mainly in high levels of administration, the art sphere or decided to take a path toward spiritual development. After global population drastically reduced after the Fifth World War, the countries decided to establish the United Earth Government (UEG), which would take care of global politics. This government was formed of representatives of large-scale corporations, who controlled the economy anyway. UEG formation was an efficient solution since colonization of other planets was pushed due to the lack of natural resources and devastated land; with the first candidate being Mars. However, the Cydonians, an alien space nation which was found to have settled on the Red planet, turned out to be a tough opponent and despite all the technological advantages UAMF had, they suffered a lot of casualties from this war, which went on for decades.

CHAPTER 2

"Approaching 50, 65, 39. Please confirm to proceed with landing," crackled the voice of the jet-fighter’s computer.

The coordinates Sarah had to meet the North Legion commander at were correct. Almost asleep, she looked down in the darkness outside and saw two white headlights, illuminating long sand strips in the dark. The aircraft descended slowly shaken by the wind, and the cockpit cover opened up letting the dusty desert air tease her nostrils.

I hope it’s really important, Ingrid. You fucking woke me up, Sarah jumped down and headed to the big military truck waiting for her.

Dressed in a black leather overcoat Ingrid was leaned on the front radiator, the night breeze swinging her long blonde hair. She said, I know your team starts first tomorrow. The Black Bay is not a nice checkpoint. You wanna? She took out a cigarette pack and offered one to Sarah.

That’s right. So cut it short please. The Gamblers’ chief took the cigarette and lit it up.

Ingrid breathed out a long jet of smoke and took a small electronic device from her pocket. Two grey eyes, sharp as steel, lit up by the bright screen. She pressed a few times on it and an audio tape with bad quality crackled through the speaker. Transfer… transfer data file 34485BH4R0… Units 3G-4 and 5H-3. Repeat, data file 34485BH4R0. Upload on server 12...

The tape interrupted.

Who is this? asked Sarah.

There is only one gang on the island using red torsion waves for communication. I wonder how such sensitive information about the Deathtones’ controls has leaked out and Azumi could have reached it.

Well, you were a Mistress last time, you should know, Sarah said sarcastically. Where did you find it?

Ingrid sighed and shook off the cigarette ash. "Last season one of my soldiers reconnoitered around the Dolls’ base. I retrieved the data stored on his HPC¹ that we found next to the butchered body and managed to decode it."

Sarah frowned and looked at the dark horizon. The wind carried the sounds of the majestic ocean waves clashing at the coast.

If Azumi has the codes controlling the Deathtones, you and me are screwed, she said.

Yes. But there is a slight obstacle. The software she will have to use would require a powerful server. So the intention will be to use a secure base as a control center. Yet her team has to be outside fighting, so the base won’t be safe from bomb attacks and raids. I suspect Azumi will use a transmitter.

A robot?

I don’t think so. The Dolls don’t have any robots. She will give the codes to a takwin.

Sarah looked at her suspiciously. To whom?

We have to find out.

You want me to find out.

I’ve always admired your perspicacity Dr. Lorence, said Ingrid with a hypocritical smile. If you find the one holding the codes, I’ll help you to cross the Silver Passages.

Hahaha, I don’t need your help. I’ll handle the Serpent on my own, said Sarah with overly confident tone.

And lose soldiers, munitions and vehicles? Think back. Once we get the codes both of our teams will be able to manipulate the giants and fucking smash the Dolls.

Ingrid was right. The narrow paths of the Silver Passages were a nightmare not only for the Gamblers but for any other gang in the game.

How can I be sure that you wouldn’t attack my Deathtones with yours during Beta?

Come on, the game rules forbid fights between the gangs at that stage, you know that. I would not risk to screw up myself.

Sarah sighed heavily, aware this would be hardly a relief. She threw her cigarette butt and headed to the aircraft.

So? Are you game or not? yelled Ingrid after her.

If you cannot clear my path through the Passages, I’ll take your ship, said Sarah and put on her helmet.

Deal. But I have also a condition. Ingrid jumped into the truck and turned on the engine.

What is it?

If you cannot find the takwin holding the codes, I’ll take something more personal from you. She made an obscene gesture with her tongue between her index and middle finger, and drove away with a deafening roar.

Sick bitch, thought Sarah.

She got back on her plane and took off to the sky in a steep curve, leaving a hot gas tray behind.

Purple dawn was spraying its first rays over the straight line of the horizon, preceding the rise of the Palean suns. The ocean was illuminated by two V-shaped trails, setting the calm water surface on fire.

Sarah watched at the silent clouds, concerned that her gang would not stand the battle today.

***

Anneke woke up lying on the cave floor. She had fallen asleep and felt stiff and cold now. After remembering the scene with Henrik and the soldiers, she thought it might not be a good idea to enter the jungle again.

She got up and approached the waterfall. The small crystal clean lake it was pouring in tempted her and she jumped off the cliff. The fall into the fresh cold water made her feel better.

She swam to the riverbank and sneaked along the stones, trying to stay unnoticed, constantly observing the forest for any enemy signs. Flowing down the steep slope, the river was twisting and turning, passing through small pools full of fish. The swift currents made her movement difficult and she faltered at almost every step.

After half an hour’s journey Anneke came to the outflow at the ocean. She saw the place with the ship wreckage and started walking on the white sand, examining the empty coast on the eastern side. The waves of the ocean crashed loud against the shoreline, accompanied by hot wind and splashes of salty water that tousled her hair.

She looked up to the sky. It should have been around midday already, because the suns were high in the firmament, almost eclipsing each other in a blinding oval. However, the sky was still painted red as it was in the morning, though in a slightly paler nuance. Since the air on the planet atmosphere was rich in sulphur compounds, the long wavelength red light scattered freely, interfering with the dense clouding, caused by the immense water evaporation.

The fauna also showed some oddities. During her two hours of walking, Anneke encountered ugly amphibians, resembling genetically modified organisms, coming out of the water. Some of them were aggressive and she shot them down. She was programmed with a self-preservation instinct, similar to that of humans, but without its usual deviation, called fear. Her mind had no past memories or experiences and was simply exploring the extraordinary world she had fallen into.

The end of the shoreline stretched around two kilometers away. The palm forest was on her left side, and right in front, the trees grew higher along a huge sheer cliff, which entered into the ocean. This black volcanic formation stood silent and magnificent like a proud giant, swallowing the refreshing morning sunlight.

On top of the cliffs, a fortress-like structure attracted Anneke’s attention. Her telescopic lenses magnified the object and she saw high concrete walls, arranged in hexagonal shapes with watch towers in the corners. On each tower were installed laser guns and heavy pivot cannons. Behind the fortification walls, a spherical shaped building protruded, surrounded by satellite towers and structures with avant-garde twisted oval shapes. There were also tiny flying objects, circulating over the fortress, which gave Anneke the impression that there was an entire city up there.

Curious to discover more about it, she entered the forest sneaking among the trees. After a short while, her scanners registered a network of thermal sources, though with different intensity that of humans.

Abruptly, a distant rumble from a loudspeaker resembling a digitally generated voice came over the hills. It was hard to understand what the voice said because of the background noise and the jarring electrical crackling it was accompanied by. Getting louder, the sound approached and it appeared that someone was commanding a group of people to move. Strangely, the sound wave propagated equally in all directions as if there was a network of speakers and advanced audio equipment installed across the entire island.

When the voice stopped speaking and the noise faded away, the forest became silent for a minute, only the screeching of some frightened bird being audible.

Then a blaring siren thundered through the sky as if it were a warning for a bomb attack.

Anneke took cover among the roots of a big deciduous tree, pressing her palms to her ears to block the ear-splitting sound wave. Three explosions burst one after another, followed by a blood freezing human cry and rattling of machine guns. She saw puffs of smoke rising above the adjacent hill and she climbed up on the tree to orientate herself.

Among the huge moving leaves of the tropical vegetation, a dispersed crowd of people was running fast through and heading to the seaside. There were dozens of men and women, dressed like soldiers with full armour on, carrying hand grenades, laser rifles, pistols and knifes, hanging on their thighs. Some of them were shooting over their backs and throwing grenades, but most of the faces looked scared to death and focused on running.

A tall slim woman around her thirties with long dark red hair shouted something, desperately trying to organize and direct the group by hand signs. An agonizing old man with a cut leg by a laser crawled out of a pit, dug by a projectile and growled out after her, Saraaaah, help!

Startled by the shaking of her tree, Anneke looked back to the hills and felt a strong periodic vibration, as if huge steps were tramping the ground, approaching and accelerating. She saw a row of trees on top of the hill collapsing together within a second and four gigantic metal bodies, gleaming in the sunlight, jumped out from the smoke, moving in a fast pace after the fugitives.

Anneke’s scanners indicated the radioactive signatures of fifth generation Deathtones - heavy infantry fighting robots, equipped with self-laying laser guns and missile launching tubes attached to their shoulders. Each one had a robust trunk of titanium, stretching twenty meters above the ground with a small head on top. The Deathtones were widely used in the military because of the effective usage of nuclear reaction in their motor apparatus, maintaining a whole lifecycle without the need to refuel. These monsters did not have a brain in the usual sense. Their silicon processors were able to execute simple operations like to guard an area, report to commandment, hunt and kill. The sound produced by the laser nozzle inside the Deathtone’s single eye was a blood freezing air vibration and that was where their name came from.

Shooting at the crowd, the robots set the vegetation on fire and a thick layer of smoke swallowed the forest.

Anneke observed a guiding beam passing by her tree and flickering after acknowledging its target. The missile strike that followed lifted a hail of soil and rock and hit one of the fugitives in the back, breaking his spine.

Anneke knew it was not the best idea to interfere in a fight with unknown sides involved, but somehow she recognized a part of herself connected to the runaways. She came down from the tree, crept to the dead body and saw the face of a young man, maybe twenty years old with a tattoo on the back of his neck – a pentagon shape with the letter G inscribed inside.

Anneke took the soldier’s gun and raised it towards the first giant approaching. Her right eye zoomed in on the target and sent a tracing ray to the robot’s central processor, located in the armoured head.

Anneke’s visual system was able to integrate with a large range of weapons, allowing her to easily align her gun with the target and additionally increase the strike power by engaging an inbuilt miniature particle accelerator in her brain.

After she pulled the trigger, a blazing portion of billions of accelerated photons flew towards the Deathtone, striking his head with a bright electric arc. A glittering rain of sparkles burst like fireworks over the trees.

The giant shook and crumbled helpless on the ground in front of Anneke’s feet.

Stunned by the shaking ground, the red haired woman leading the fugitives stopped running and turned back.

"Gambler’s hunt violation code 980. Unidentified life form in quadrant III, coordinates 46, 98, rumbled another Deathtone, who faced Anneke and sent the scanned biological data to the central information network. Cannot recognize player, cannot recognize player. Possible intrusion! Destroy! Possible intrusion! Destroy!"

The other two giants immediately turned to walk towards the newcomer.

Anneke was clear she needed more fire power and reached down to the dead Deathtone to dismount the missile launcher from his shoulder. She bent under the heavy as lead weapon and hardly pointed the sight.

The kick almost brought her to the ground. The approaching robot was hit in the chest but he continued to run forward, giving a terrifying digital scream. He fired and burnt Anneke’s arm on the side vaporizing a piece of her muscle and the skin.

Anneke threw the weapon on the ground, grasping her shoulder in pain and ran away through the smoke screen formed by the burning trees. Jumping over dead bodies, burnt to the bone, she startled by a female voice coming from the back.

It’s too early for such heroism yet. We are moving to the water, come on! said Sarah and grasped Anneke’s elbow.

When both reached the shore, Anneke saw the fugitives jumping in the water and diving as deep as they could to escape from the rain of piercing lasers, but most of them ended up dead, sinking to the ocean bed. Surrounded by dark clouds of blood, streaming from the corpses, the survivors dived deeper to a dead coral reef until they reached the opening of an underwater cave. The Gamblers had built bomb shelters like this one in the shelf to escape to in critical situations and hide from the attacks of the Robot army.

Sarah and Anneke followed the flashlights of the others, illuminating the dark narrow tunnels, drilled inside the volcanic rocks and overgrown with algae. After a while, they came up to the surface of a small lake and Anneke rushed to take a huge gulp of air, coughing out water.

Hey, don’t swallow so much, said a beautiful young woman with brown hair and warm blue eyes and looked facetiously at her.

Let me introduce you to the lovely Catya, said Sarah and asked the newcomer to present herself to the rest of the gang - Joan, Natasha