Overwatch: The Alternate Future

Chapter 6: Zarya

Volskaya Industries

Zarya had launched her Projected Barrier just in time, protecting the dwarf and gorilla from the falling Syvatagor but the barrier would only last for a couple of seconds. She dropped her Particle Cannon and with all strength she trained from her weightlifting days, Zarya held the mech on her shoulder just before the photon barriers vanished.

"Go!" Zarya growled at the two weirdos. That mech was heavy.

As soon as the dwarf and gorilla got out from the wreckage, she let go off the machine as the mech crashed sending ashy dust all over them. The gorilla tried to thank her but she saw something she dislike and even a talking ape could not faze her.

She picked up her Particle Cannon and aimed for the trembling Bastion a distance away. It spotted her. It was also in its Recon mode – a mobile form but not as powerful. She should have no problem destroying it. Zarya shot a particle ball but the gorilla knocked her cannon away, missing the Bastion by a yard.

"He's good," said the gorilla. "He helped us."

"It is a Bastion!" Zarya snarled and aimed at the bot again.

"And he is scared." The gorilla pointed at the trembling Bastion unit.

Zarya could not bother whether the rusted-brain omnic was afraid or stupid. Whatever perspective the gorilla has on it, she had seen the worst of what Bastion units can do and personally involved in destroying some of them. Russia is at the edge of preventing a Second Omnic Crisis and this surviving Bastion could mean a lot of difference.

"That machine is at war against us!" Zarya said in her loud booming voice.

"That omnic saves my life!" The gorilla matched her tone. He now stood between her Particle Cannon and the Bastion. "I owe him and I will not let you destroy it."

"Move away," Zarya warned as she charged her cannon. Her loyalties were with the humans. A dead ape meant nothing. "I don't take orders from a monkey."

The gorilla growled.

"How about from Overwatch?" the dwarf finally spoke.

Zarya had heard of Overwatch. The global peacekeeping taskforce that fought against the artificial intelligent robots during the First Omnic Crisis. It was disbanded not too long ago for reasons unknown. Russia had always been an independent nation even during the crisis and did not require assistance from Overwatch. But still, Zarya respected the Overwatch. Their ideals may be different but they fight the same battles.

Zarya peeked behind the gorilla's head and noticed the Bastion was gone. "You let it get away."

"Good," said the gorilla. "I owed him that."

"You also owed me," Zarya pointed out. Still, she did not want to go up against a fellow hero. "Aleksandra Zaryanova. Zarya for short. Soldier for the Russian Defense Forces and dispatched here by Volskaya. What are you doing here?"

"Winston," said the gorilla. "And this is my colleague, Torbjorn Lindoln – well sort off," Winston added when the dwarf shot him a dirty look. "I am here on a recruit mission but it seems like we ran into some trouble with the Liche. And who is this gentleman?"

"That's Mr. Oladele," said Zarya, referring to a dark bespectacled man in a lab coat examining the pieces of the fallen Syvatagor. "He is a robotic expert with PhD in mech engineering. He was employed by Volskaya to improve the Syvatagor but when we heard that there were stolen mechs gone rogue, the both of us were tasked to inspect it."