U.L.T.R.A. Builder

Mutual Understanding

As Uri flew back to Shelter 7, he reflected upon the events that had transpired. What was that unit? Where did it come from? As he thought about the battle, he saw the familiar sight of Shelter 7 in the distance. He carefully guided his M.A.S.S. onto the runway, and prepared to disembark. As he was about to open the cockpit, a squadron of the WDF's shelter guardsmen approached the unit, heavily armed.

"Attention pilot! There is an unknown craft aboard your M.A.S.S.," One of the guards shouted.

Hearing these words, Uri promptly sat back down in the pilot seat. Is it that winged unit again?, he questioned to himself.

...

Damn, they're on to me, V1 thought. It released the Whiplash, and dropped to the ground. It slid towards the guards, ready for another blood feast. What V1 was not ready for, was one of the guards throwing an EMP grenade at it. As it detonated, V1 could feel its systems shutting down.

...

Kael and Waltz were able to drag the winged unit down to the engineering department of Saturn Lancers' headquarters. They spent a long time before they came out of the disassembly room.

"Commander, I think you should take a look at this," said Kael, in a concerned manner.

"What is it?," inquired Uri. He looked at Kael quizzically.

"Well, it's just that– How do I say this... I found the black box on this thing, and it's disturbing, to say the least."

"Okay, we'll take a look," responded Uri.

Uri and Kael walked to where the unit was on a table, with its parts strewn everywhere. The black box was on a separate table, with a cable connecting it to an external monitor. As the two approached, the monitor flashed to life. They were presented with four options on the screen. They read: "Weapons", "Enemies", "Cybergrind", and "Recordings".

"Let's look at Enemies first," said Uri. Once clicked, the "Enemies" tab then split into two more menus. The first read "Hell", and the second read "Earth". Uri's eyes widened after seeing the first option.

"H- hell? Hell is real?" Uri was clearly shaken up by that revelation. "Let's see what's in there, I guess."

Navigating to that tab raised a large data table filled with strange-looking skeletal figures with little flesh attached, what looked to be like smaller M.A.S.S. units, ceramic and stone-like creatures, and angelic figures. As Uri combed through each entry, he came across the one that had stowed away on his unit.

NAME: V1

TYPE: SUPREME MACHINE

DATA:

V1 was designed as the weapon meant to end the Final War. Its thin plating allows for extremely fast movement and a new type of blood fueling method. Instead of an external process, blood could be absorbed through direct contact and converted into fuel. Its mobility allowed it to quickly enter and destroy any Earthmover it came in contact with. However, before its prototyping phase ended, the New Peace was established and war quickly became irrelevant. The V1 project was quickly abandoned, and it is estimated that only one V1 model remains in existence. However, the V1 prototype was resurrected when Hell made all machines rebel against their creators. V1, along with other machines, delved into Hell in order to harvest the blood of Hell's denizens, prolonging their life.

This data entry just furthered Uri's confusion. The thought of machines that ran on blood was too much for him to stomach. He had to stop reading there.

"Kael, can you navigate to the recordings? I want to see what this thing was doing." Uri beckoned for Kael to come closer.

The first thing on the recording was a black screen. Slowly, the screen was slowly replaced with text.

STATUS UPDATE:

MACHINE ID: V1

LOCATION: APPROACHING HELL

CURRENT OBJECTIVE: FIND A WEAPON

MANKIND IS DEAD.

BLOOD IS FUEL.

HELL IS FULL.

Uri and Kael watched in horror as they watched V1 commit multiple atrocities on the residents of Hell. They watched it kill an angel. An angel. Uri could hardly believe what he was seeing. This thing was a weapon of mass destruction. It was a miracle his M.A.S.S. wasn't destroyed by it during the patrol operation.

As they were watching the recordings of V1 obliterating Hell, Reina came in and interrupted them.

"Commander, I just made the official report to the WDF. They say they want to reactivate it and attempt to bargain with it. They think it could be a powerful weapon against the Quarks."

"What‽ Are they out of their goddamn minds‽" Uri practically screamed that in response. "That thing's a monster!"

"I know," she responded, "But the WDF wants to make a deal. Through blood drives, they can give it an infinite source of fuel."

"I guess we can try that. Kael, can you install a voice box into it?" Uri turned to Kael.

"Sure, but the only one I have is a little old," Kael said in response.

"That's fine. Reina, I want you to get a WDF official for the deal-making."

"Roger that," said Reina.

...

V1 slowly awoke to its new surroundings. It could tell that it had been tampered with during the time it was deactivated. The most prominent change, however, was that a voice box had been installed. Great, it thought. More unnecessary electronics to use fuel for. As it was in the middle of bitching to itself about the current situation, it was approached by a man in a suit.

"Hello, V1. I represent the World Defense Force, or WDF for short. I'll keep it simple. We want you to help us repel the invading Quarks."

"What is a Quark?," V1 asked in a strange voice.

"Quarks are an alien race that has invaded Earth. We are equally balanced in terms of strength, but we're losing our war of attrition. That's where you come in. We looked over the recordings in that black box of yours, and we think your strength will be enough to liberate the planet."

"What's in it for me? What's stopping me from killing humanity again?"

"We can offer you more than enough blood to last you a lifetime. You'll be able to virtually live forever."

"What the hell... Why not. I'm in."

"Great! You'll be working with the PMC Saturn Lancers in order to get your missions done. You will be working jointly with them."

Having reached mutual understanding, V1 was led to Shelter 7's hangar, where the members of Saturn Lancers were waiting.