Colossus

Chapter I

I stumbled along the path, cursing under my breath. The damn Darwinists somehow removed all the fuel from my Cyklops, so now I'm stranded here, alone, in the middle of the Kolmården Forest. I stubbed my toe on a large rock and tripped.

"Argh!" I screamed as I fell through a bush, down a dirt path, and into a small town.  I read the nearby sign. Staden Erlang, hem för många äpplen. I was bemused that the town was proud of its apple production when the town of Thule produced more apples. I considered the possibility that these apples were of higher quality when I heard a scream. I sprinted over and saw a young woman, of a similar age to myself in a cage. "Hey! Do you speak German?" I asked, trying to establish communication.

"Finally, another German! I can't get out! The Englisch Geheimpolizei trapped me in here, and I can't get out," the young woman replied in German.

"I'm Swedish actually. My name's Felix, by the way. Felix Kjellberg," I answered, relieved to finally speak Swedish again.

"I'm Anna. I help farm the apples," she replied, "but the English trapped me in here. Where did you learn German?"

"At university. I'll be back in five." I broke into a jog, noticing that the chill had grown. I suspect that whatever trapped her in there was neither human nor creature, but a lost soul trapped in a creature's body. I jogged over to the next town, Teld.

"WHERE'S THE BLACKSMITH!" I bellowed, unintentionally slurring my words from the cold—the blacksmith was the only person in Teld that had a crowbar. I repeated myself multiple times. Finally the blacksmith emerged from his house.

"Waddya want, I'm trying to sleep!" he cried as he pulled a rifle on me.

"Listen, I'm just looking for a crowbar. Do you have one?" I asked as I silently drew a semi-automatic Heckler & Koch machine pistol from my belt.

"No. DIE GERMAN SCUM!" he yelled as he shot the rifle. Luckily he was drunk. Even luckier, the gun was a bolt action, so it took a number of seconds to reload. I used this time to unload three rounds into his skull.

"Ursäkta," I apologized. "Things could have been better." After thinking about it for a moment, I drew my combat knife and entered the blacksmiths house. Suddenly, I fell through the floor.

"Oof! Looks like this will be a regular occurrence," I muttered as I took in my surroundings. Large, rocky spires; pools of lava; screeching creatures; I knew where I was in an instant. I was in Hell.

I noticed a creature striding towards me. It was the Colossus, the creature that ended the Great War for the Germans. I whirled around and sprinted to a glimmer in the distance, hoping it was what I thought it was. "YES! Finally something good happens to me!" I yelled in exultation. It was a Ströder, the largest mechanikal ever built. I climbed into the cockpit and grasped the controls. It was time for a fight. After activating the machine guns, I opened fire on the beast. The .50cal rounds did absolutely no damage to the Colossus. I swore repeatedly.

"Time for a different strategy," I muttered as I detached one of the ten twelve-foot Cyklops' from the side of the Ströder. Hoping it would work, I flicked the switch that activates the ejector, and oriented the head of the Cyclops towards the head of the creature.

It didn't work. I fell towards the mouth of the beast and fell in. As the beasts teeth enclosed around me ... I sat bolt upright, on the floor of the blacksmith's basement. It was then that the throbbing lump on by forehead came to my attention.

"Ah, the crowbar," I said as I spotted the fruits of my labour. I broke into a run on my way back to Anna. As I ran, the odd silence enveloped me. As I drew nearer to where I left Anna, the silence grew denser.

"Anna? Where are you?" I cried in vain. The silence was so dense, that my voice never broke my lips.

"Foolish mortal. You thought I was human! I honestly expected you would be smarter, especially considering you were a member of the British SIS, William," I heard on my right.

"Anna!? You're not human!? And how did you know my real name!?" I replied in shock. "WHAT'S YOUR REAL NAME?!" I bellowed after a moment of thought.

"My real name is Orivari.  I am a Tiefling – the newest creation of the Darwinist Movement and I am half human, half beast. Something went wrong in the procedure and I gained telepathic powers and a free will. I escaped and vowed to wreak havoc on the village of Erlang, where my father, Benjamin Smith was born."

"Wait," I answered, "my father was also a Benjamin Smith. He's the one who taught me to hate all creations and enlist in the Clanker Corps. You're saying......"

"Yes, William. I am your long lost sister, back from the grave."

"NO! I HAVE NO SISTER! YOU SHALL BURN!" I bellowed at the top of my lungs.

I sprinted back to my Cyklops hoping that the meagre amount of fuel I had left would be enough to kill the beast that claimed to be my sister. I slipped in through the pock-marked and rusted top hatch and powered the mechanikal up. After a moment, the Cyklops shuddered to life, a sad reminder that my Cyklops was old, and still ran on diesel. After opening the fume hatch I flicked the radar switch then, the twin machine guns on the side of the vehicle. I checked the ammunition readouts and was disappointed by what I saw. Zero bullets, zero missiles and zero shells. The mechanikal was on its own. As I rounded the corner, I saw the beast fully for the first time and gasped. It was an ugly beast; all claws and teeth, with blood-red skin and deep black voids where the eyes should be. I let out a short cry as I realized that Orivari was essentially Colossus 2.0; faster, stronger, smarter. After thinking for a moment, I grabbed the emergency weapons in the cockpit: a .44cal magnum sniper rifle; a .22cal rim fire semi-automatic rifle; a grenade launcher; and the machine pistol I used on the blacksmith. After lining up a headshot, I unloaded my sniper rifle into it's skull. I swore as the weapon, which can easily destroy a skull, did absolutely no damage.

"This is like hell all over again. Perhaps it was a premonition?" I muttered as I fully opened the leg pneumatics and ran full belt over the rocky terrain. After about ten minutes, the Cyklops was empty, and I had to run myself. Luckily for me, I was within 10 metres of my final destination. Base One. After sprinting the five metres to the entrance and unlocking it, I relaxed for the first time that evening.

"Computer, activate code 010010110110100101101100 01101100001000000101001001 10111101110101011001 1101100101001000000 100001101101111011011000110111 101110011011100110111010101110011," I gasped.

"Code Accepted. Activating .50cal machine guns and missiles," the computer system replied.

"No! I will never die. If you kill me," Orivari began.

"Two will spring from my corpse," I finished. "Of course! The hydra principle. Computer, change of plans. Activate code 0100000101100011011101000110 100101110110011000010 1110100011001 01001000000101010001110010011000 01011100000110010001101111 01101111011100100000110100001010!" I yelled.

"Trapdoor Opened," the computer answered.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Orivari screeched as the door opened beneath her feet. "Curse you William Smith!" I heard from the bottom of the hole.

"And to think I liked you," I spat down the hole.

"Felix?" I heard a distance away. I activated my nuclear fission powered Cyklops 2.0 and ran.

"Anna? What happened, why are you human?" I stuttered.

"That beast, Orivari probed our memories and hid me with illusions," Anna answered simply.

"Ah. I've got a crowbar," I stated as I pried the door off the cage.

"Thank you Felix," Anna stated as she threw her arms around me.

"Anna, I have something to tell you..." I began.

"Shh," Anna replied as she put a finger to my lips. "I heard the conversation with Orivari. It's okay William. I still appreciate that you saved me." And with that, she placed her lips to mine in a tender kiss.

"OK, where to next?" I asked her.

"Your choice," she answered with a sly smile.