Plasmatropolis

Chapter Eleven - Regretful Lies

"Finally," William Edward Lothan breathed as he strode through the dark, empty halls of his makeshift base. Broken lights swung slightly in the drafts that passed through the shattered windows and rotting wooden doors, dysfunctional.

The base had once been a hospital for the mentally ill, before it had been abandoned. The people in charge had decided it was too inaccessible out here in the Outerlands and relocated to the Heart of Plasmatropolis - allowing others to step in and take control for themselves.

For decades now, this building had been a secret base of the Knights of the New Order, the organization of which William worked with. He had been leased the base temporarily so he could work on his project. William was a good friend of Orson Graham, one of the high ranking members of the KNO, and the deal they had made was simple.

William would build an army to help the organization, but the army would be his to control, for his own purposes as well as theirs. This army was nothing normal, of course. Human soldiers were a thing of the past. A technological army? That was more like the future.

The man had received a report from one of the few KNO engineers helping him on the project. The report declared that his army was finally complete, and as such, William was on his way to verify it.

He passed by an old, grimy window, and caught a glance of his own reflection. Sometimes his black, purple-tinged hair would be messy and his eyes would be bloodshot, dark grey bags hanging below. Today, however, he was in good condition, wearing a suit and holding a confident gait. He didn't want to appear in a bad state for the grand opening, after all. His sinister reflection gleamed, almost gaining its own sharp smugness from the dirty glass.

After a moment, William turned away from the glass, continuing on through the hospital until he finally reached a large, open area of the base. The KNO had emptied out this part of the building after they'd gained possession of it. That had worked well in his favour, as he had used it both for testing and building. Now, he would stand here once again, but today was different, for the project he had been working on for years was finally complete.

He carefully opened the door and stepped inside, walking down the flight of stairs until he'd reached the open room. It was dark and dreary inside, and William found a nearby lever and yanked it down, turning on the large floodlights and illuminating the space in a blinding white light. He looked behind him and gazed upon the carefully arranged robots standing still nearby - just as he had hoped they would one day.

The robots were none other than the fallen Droug who had invaded Plasmatropolis ten years ago - except for one small detail. They had each been found dead and brought here, and William had reanimated them; not with their original sentient conscience, but with an artificial intelligence system that took orders from only one person - himself.

He was the king here, and every king needed a crown.

William reached into his inventory, procuring the metallic, amethyst-purple object. It was modelled to look like a crown, although in reality it was more of a fancy headpiece. He fitted it atop his head, fastening it to make sure it was properly fixed in place.

The device was linked to the reanimated Droug army, and worked by recognizing commands in William's voice and transmitting the data of those commands to the AI running the army. Some thought of him as a genius, but in reality, this was a remarkably simple system. Nevertheless, it was going to work.

He knew it was going to work.

"CRDAC, boot up system." William ordered. CRDAC was an acronym - it stood for 'Centralized Reanimated Droug Army Command'. It was what he had named the AI. As soon as he had spoken, there was a mechanical whir that spread throughout the open space like a choir, echoing off the walls in a deafening cacophony.