U.L.T.R.A. Builder

Shelter 13

Cyclops's betrayal against humanity sent shockwaves around the world. No person could figure out why someone would actively work towards the downfall of society. Many speculations and theories had been made, but none could be proven. V1 was one of the many who were speculating this. V1's perspective as a being that had betrayed humanity gave it the most thoughtful insight.

Maybe everyone in Cyclops has no real reason. They might just be bored and want to have fun. A sick, twisted fun. After all, that's why I killed humanity.

V1 stopped thinking about the topic. It did not want to bog itself down with that kind of philosophical thought. It walked to Uri's quarters, meaning to ask him a couple things.

V1 walked in on Uri watching a news channel, seemingly related to new technologies.

"A new particle has been discovered, named 2465-B. Although all of its properties are unknown, we know that it can be supercharged and spontaneously released. The WDF is looking into practical combat applic-"

Uri turned off the channel when he saw V1 at the door.

"You just gonna stand there? What's up?"

"Not much, I just had a question."

"What is it?"

"With all the stuff about Cyclops... I had to wonder. How many PMC's are there? I only really know about us, you know."

"Well, there's a lot. Way too many to count. The most notable, besides us and Cyclops, are the Einherjars and the Valkyries. They're the best of the best. We couldn't even compare to them."

"They must be impressive."

"They are. And don't even get me STARTED on Odin. They are the WORST. Hate those guys."

"Why? What did they do?"

"They mainly take care of the Ascendant. I hate that guy. He's so stuck up. Acting like he's better than everyone."

"The Ascendant? Who's that?"

"Some guy who volunteered to be a test subject for the WDF. They augmented his body with cybernetics, which gave him an overwhelming advantage on the field."

"Why did the WDF do that? You guys seem perfectly fine with dealing with Quarks. I don't really see a reason for that."

"Well, uh, they mainly did that after the Shelter 13 incident. The WDF wanted to be able to respond to situations like that more efficiently."

"Shelter 13? I thought there were only 12 shelters."

"There are now. But there used to be more."

Uri closed the door to his room, it seems this topic required privacy.

"15 years ago, when I was a kid, I lived in Shelter 13. It was located in Australia, near what used to be Melbourne. The shelter's Void Canceller went down, and the ambient Void Particles were able to manifest into Quarks. Almost instantly, the shelter was overrun."

Uri's face darkened. He was clearly still shaken up from what had happened.

"It was a massacre. Quarks broke through the walls, and they rampaged through the buildings. Einherjar's members were all out on business, so the shelter's emergency guard had to fend off most of them. They were all ineffective in repelling them. I remember seeing a M.A.S.S. get tackled by a Quark and then torn to shreds by a swarm of them."

V1 could see small tears welling up in Uri's eyes.

"At the emergency shelter... we were all huddled up, flinching from the shockwaves and explosions from the battle aboveground. I- I think the shelter guards got overwhelmed or something. I saw the bunker door buckle and collapse from a Quark ramming it. It killed a lot of people, a lot of my friends-"

At this point Uri had fully burst into tears. V1 was conflicted. It wanted to comfort him, but didn't really know how to do so. V1 mentally cursed its mechanical brain. It lightly embraced Uri, its four arms gently holding him as he cried into its shoulder.

"It's okay. You're all right."

"I should have died with them! Why did I survive and they didn't?! It's my fault- It's my fault they're dead!"

"It's not your fault. You had no effect on the outcome. Live on, for them."

Slowly, Uri was able to calm down. He continued the recount.

"A M.A.S.S. pilot was able to kill the Quark before it got to me. It flew off nearly immediately, but I think that encounter was what pushed me to be a M.A.S.S. pilot."

Uri was able to get through talking about the incident, with the occasional pause and stutter. V1 was shocked when Uri got to the last part of the incident.

"I didn't see this part personally, but there was this supermassive Quark, like waaaay bigger than the large Quarks we fought before. This one was easily more than 2 kilometers tall, and was the most vicious Quark in the records. Its attacks were able to wipe out a whole squadron of M.A.S.S. units. The WDF had to ultimately abandon the shelter after evacuating most of the civilians. The supermassive Quark suddenly left after a certain amount of time, like it was ordered to do something... We still don't know why it did that."

Uri stood up, as he was done with the conversation.

"I think that's enough for now. Look at the records in our main terminal if you want to know more. As you saw with me, it's still a touchy subject for a lot of us..."

"I think I've got enough for now. Thanks for telling me about this."

"It's all good, man. I'll... try to get some stuff done. I need a break."

With that, Uri had vanished down the hall. V1 got to thinking about the supermassive Quark. Its processors were all busy with the huge amount of information Uri had given it.

I hope he wasn't too shaken up by recounting that experience. He shouldn't shoulder that burden by himself.

As V1 was thinking about how it could help Uri with his emotions, it heard its radio go off. It was being called down to the briefing room.

Already? It's only been a few days since the dam mission...

V1 shrugged, and headed down to the briefing room.