Something On The Horizon - A 21 Hour Story Project

Nightmare in the armoury

Part I

Two Years Ago – At Phalanx Headquarters

It had been almost a whole year since Jacob, Diggy and Olivia left the End. He remembered that Diggy had to leave her 'daughter'. She was torn up about it, and she wanted to go back for her. He knew that they would just be captured if they went back to the End, but he also knew that Hannah would be fine in the End if she avoided the scientists and the police. After weeks of travelling from the Ender Portal, they finally returned to the lab. They were exhausted and they had been through too many conflicts to recover from.

Jacob wasn't originally part of the team, but he joined after finding out what the End City was doing to their people and prisoners. He was originally employed from the military of the Phalanx Alliance for a guard of Dr. Henry Parnasis' laboratory. Parnasis had him employed to protect Diggy and Olivia in their journey to the End, but he didn't expect that they'd be captured. He didn't know why Parnasis selected him for the job. Maybe he saw potential in the young man, or maybe he was chosen at random. Either way, he was assigned to protect the two girls on their expedition.

Jacob was responsible for setting the Ender Core to explode. He was the reason that the three of them survived the End. He was rewarded by Parnasis for bringing the other two back alive and unharmed, but he had to explain the mental torture Diggy had gone through and the experiments that were done to her. Parnasis was furious and declared that the End be forbidden to travel to, in fear of people losing their lives to the monsters that lived there. After that day, Jacob began to work in the robotics branch of Phalanx Industries. He made many new friends and formed new relationships. He occasionally got visits from Diggy and Olivia, and rarely got visits from Parnasis.

Jacobs first successful robot was achieved with the help of Diggy. Her research allowed him to put an A.I in a robotic body. This machine was called Shadow Trap, and it was a maroon red machine that was about two and a half metres tall. Although Shadow Trap's coding was the same as what was used to create Olivia's original A.I, it did not feel emotion. It felt no sympathy for people who got injured in the labs. It was programmed to test the newly developed devices that the Phalanx Military would use. Eventually, it was allowed to test in the fields. Simulation combat was too easy for the machine to do, so the scientists decided to have a Field Test. Recently, an enemy of many towns, had invaded. The machine was sent to the place that these invaders were last seen from – their headquarters.

The machine arrived and did nothing but stare at the three soldiers nearest him. Two of them walked away while the other was left to stare into the infinite blackness of the machine's eyes. As soon as the soldier turned away, the machine attacked. It moved faster than the soldier could keep track. The machine's hand gripped around the soldiers head. Then soldier began to scream, alerting the other soldiers to him. They got to him in time to see the machine crush the man's skull with it's hand, and instinctively fired at the it, but it just walked towards them like it was nothing. Bullets bounced of the machine's body and flew off in different directions. The machine's paint was scratched off by the bullets, but was coated with a layer of new paint – human blood.

When the machine had done it's job, it returned back to Phalanx Headquarters. No one expected the machine to return, but they saw how when they reviewed it's visual log from the battle. No – not a battle – a bloody massacre. When Jacob found out what the machine had done, he had it decommissioned and locked away in the Robotics Scrapyard, in an abandoned lab thirty feet below the surface.

Part II

One year ago – At Phalanx Headquarters

"Sir, I'm detecting a massive power surge below us!" said en engineer. "What's directly below us Corporal?" Jacob questioned in a serious tone. "It's the Robotics Scrapyard, sir!" said Corporal Jenkins subtly. Jacobs face twisted into a face of pure fear. He knew what was down there, but he didn't want to accept that this was the problem. "Check again... there must be a mistake, I shut him down myself a year ago!" Jacob ordered. "I did, sir! It's him. It's Shadow Trap" Jenkins replied, trembling with fear. Jacob ran to his desk, lifted a case on a small container and hit the button within. In that instance, alarms sounded for an evacuation. Someone else in the facility had pressed it before him, but how? The main door into his lab closed, shutting everyone in the room, and locking. The only way that the door could open, was if the facility was shut down from the reactor room.