II. Gods and Monsters

Know Thy Enemy

"Why Garry? Why is my name Garry?"

Mr Heywood had asked himself this question a lot. Especially when he was about to go on shift. He'd always thought the name was daft and reminded him way too much of that guy from Take That. In fact, that was probably who he was named after.

Garry Heywood worked in the Pentagon, "one of the most important places in the whole of America" he would tell his mates. He was server maintenance, constantly rotating with his co-workers so that whoever was on duty could be bright eyed and bushy tailed. His wife constantly told him he was a workaholic and needed to let the other guys pick up their slack, but Garry was determined to help. He swiped his card and entered one of the vast server rooms housed inside the Pentagon. Garry prided himself on always having a shift in the main room.

"Alright, Peter; you're off now!"

"Thanks Garry, I was going stir-crazy," his colleague replied.

"I still have no idea why you took this job, you can't stay still for ten seconds," Garry laughed.

"One day I'll run this place, just you wait," Peter smiled mischievously as he shut the door behind him.

Silence. The best part of the job. Nobody here but him and the quiet hum of information. It was pure bliss. A time where he could just relax and...

Clunk

Garry's train of thought vanished. Had that actually been a noise or was he just being daft?

"Who's there?" Garry called, "Peter if that's you I'm gonna be mad!"

Another clunking sound was his only response. It had come from the far corner of the room. Unfortunately, as the servers stretched to the ceiling and there were rows and rows of them, Garry couldn't see much.

"Peter, stop messing around! I know it's you!"

Then he heard it. That sound. It was nothing like he'd ever heard before. It was a mixture of deets, beeps, chirps, white noise and high-pitched whinings, all woven together in a way that he could only describe as some form of technological language. It was almost musical.

"What?" was all Garry could mutter to himself.

It was definitely coming from the other end of the server room, the noise drowned out everything now, even Garry's own breathing. He moved closer and closer, the language ringing in his ears.

Then it stopped.

Garry rounded the corner and found himself staring at an empty path between the server and the wall. Garry walked down the aisle, looking at every detail on the board, straining to find any evidence of that noise. Then, three-quarters of the way down, he found it. A single port had been left partially open. Without Garry's profound knowledge of the place, a normal person would have missed this fine detail, but not him.

"I know you're here! Don't make me call security! Just come with me and there'll be no need for violence!" Garry called to the empty room.

But it wasn't empty. Garry had just been looking in the wrong place. A sound like the groaning of metal being played through low-quality speakers came from above him. It was then laced with a digital clicking sound as he looked up and came face to face with... he had no idea what he was looking at. It unfolded from the ceiling, its impact on the floor as it landed echoed around the entire room. It towered over him, it must have been 8 feet tall. It was the colour of pure silver, with a black cross covering its face. Its figure flowed perfectly, armour plating crossing over armour plating, its shoulders curving into fine points. Wings were folded behind its back, each "feather" ending in blade-like points. He could feel hidden eyes boring holes into him, studying every aspect of him. Then it leant forward till its face was inches away from Garry's.