Rowdy Dead Productions

By David C. Daoust

“Rescue me? Rescue me from what?” Dakota asked in response to Ivan’s sudden declaration that they were there to rescue her.

The Commissar stood in the middle of a stark white lab, Dr.Sun completely surrounded by his small squad of assault-bots that had infiltrated the Consortium Cruiser. The mass of snake-like mechanical tails created a protective wall around her, blocking out the rest of the world.

Ivan could understand the fearful look on the woman’s face, this form was not built for conversing, quite the contrary, it was built for battle. What he didn’t understand was the woman’s confusion.

Ivan made a deal with Dakota, she would cure the moon of the horrible infection, and in return she would be cleared of the charges against her, namely those of stealing. When she allowed for the deal to be altered, and in fact ended the Drone raid on his prized moon, a loyalty had grown within Ivan. He took it upon himself to protect her from any Consortium charges they could levy against her.

Dakota fulfilled her side of the deal, Ivan aimed to fulfill his.

Once the Consortium took her, in Ivan’s mind, he may fail to fulfill his end of the deal, which meant he must get her back. Maybe achieve a bit of glory for the Red Faction, and himself, while he was at it.

The Consortium’s raid on the Red Faction ship was unwarranted and unexpected, but there were certain protocols in place, most of which deferred to the Commandant. In fact, Ivan would have waited for the Commandant’s orders on the matter, if not for the fact that they had abducted the Good Doctor.

Ivan remembered back to those days aboard the Crucible, remembered back to when Vincent would speak to all assembled bots. Their original leader spoke of ideals that built their way of life. Loyalty, honor, unity. Among them, and quite simply, ‘A deal was a deal’. Ivan was nothing without these ideals; Red Faction was nothing without these ideals.

“You were under our protection, Doctor,” Ivan answered, a bit taken aback. “You still ARE under our protection. Did you think we would just leave you to these pigs?”

“But, I’m a Consortium Citizen…” Dakota said in response, uncomfortably trying not to touch any of the bots that now encircled her as Ivan lowered himself down within the protective coil of the amassed bots.

“You can’t possibly want to stay with these people,” Ivan mused aloud as he joined her within the coil, his own tail flopped down as he moved around, effectively limiting her movement all the more as he circled, and spoke, “Can you not see the exploitation? They profit off your work… they demean your workers, all to control the ebb and flow of material, of production… ”

“How is that different than your own system?” Dakota argued as her gaze followed him around.

“We are the workers. United we set the standard …” Ivan explained, “We provide the people, One Voice…”

“Are you sure?” Dakota asked, “Maybe at one time,Commissar, and I applaud your collective bargaining skills… But you’ve grown; you’ve fused with the state. Now you’re the one on top, the one calling the shots. Who is there for you to bargain with? What happens to those that disagree? Who do they have to bargain with?”

“We allow for all to acquire what they need,” Ivan argued, bitingly, “Not just those that can afford it.”

“Looks to me, like it puts you in the perfect position to control that ‘ebb and flow’ you were talking about,” Dakota reasoned.

Ivan was frustrated, his tail came up sharply, he wanted to wrap it around the small blonds mouth, and just squeeze. He didn’t. He’d heard it all before. This is what they said to confuse him, to pry him away from his conviction. Ivan knew what was right. Ivan could see it in his mind, like no other before him. Ivan would fix everything for everyone; they would see it in the end… she would return his loyalty, in the end.

These thoughts were interrupted as a pulsing light filled the room. A light which suddenly intensified before he could find its source.

Abruptly, Ivan found himself pulled out of his assault-bot, all the way to his ‘Monolith’, the massive server that housed his data sphere, a server which allowed him to jump to dozens of bot bodies throughout all the Red Faction’s holdings; all to maintain his vision.

The Solargate was open once again, he knew because he could now access all those other bodies, which he had been cutoff from once the gate closed. (While the Solargates primarily allowed for solar energy to be warped to faraway systems, it also maintained a bridge of networks, through the same wormhole, to allow communication at faster than light speeds, thereby destroying any delay throughout the Onion.)

He could not access his Assault-bot. Ivan found his Commissar-bot waiting where he’d left it, and jumped directly to it. Ivan knew the Commandant would have questions, but was more concerned with what could force him out of his form. He called-up what information he could from the holo-table before him.

It was gone, the whole ship was gone, the starfighters still battled throughout the black, but the Consortium Cruiser had vanished.

“What happened?” Ivan asked, as more and more Monolith-users suddenly jumped back to their vacant bodies in the War-room. Each in turn was also evicted from their assault-bots. They all began clicking through data. There was no sign of the ship.

No answer was given.

Ivan called up a visual recording of the events just prior to his sudden departure from the Consortium Ship. As he backed-up the video feed, the Cruiser suddenly reappeared amongst the jumble. Playing it forward, at normal speed, he found the ship instantaneously enveloped in a halo of strange light, then, with what felt like a ‘flpt’ the ship was gone.

‘Didn’t make any sense, Ivan thought as he backed it up again and played it at a much slower speed.

That was when the darkened form of what could only be described as ‘a man in an astronaut suit’ suddenly appeared in his War-room. Not like walked in the door, it materialized from thin air. Three glowing spheres of light surrounded the mysterious guest. The blackened dome of its helmet gave no clue to who may be within.

Ivan barely had a chance to react before the strange figure began to glow in that same strange light. It emanated from its body, the light grew in a strange unnatural pulse, filled the room. Ivan jumped to a different bot, in another chamber of the massive barracks-ship, only to find the light suddenly appear, he jumped again and again, every room was lit with that strange pulsing light. Ivan covered his eyes as it intensified, was tempted to just jump to a body in a different system, but before he could, he felt that strange ‘flpt’…