Andromeda

Prologue

Somewhere deep in the Rocky Mountains

The light fixtures along the ceiling flickered sporadically. A lone man sat at a desk in a confined office space, hunched over and focused intently on what he was writing. He appeared to be around forty, with thinning dark hair combed over his bald spot. He wore a lab coat that was worn and covered in black smudges. Behind his glasses, his eyes were unblinking and weary with exhaustion.

The lights flickered again over his head, followed by a rumbling that lightly shook the desk. The man glanced up at the lights with a look of hard suspicion. The rumbling ceased as quickly as it had begun, and the only sound to be heard was a faint buzzing coming from the fixtures. The man looked over at a landline phone that was sitting on the desk. Next to it sat a digital clock which read 3:17 am. The man winced as the exhaustion crept over him at the sight of the time. Everything was silent for a moment, but as if on cue, the telephone rang with a loud and persistent tone that enveloped the entire office. Without hesitation, he snatched up the phone and pulled it to his ear.

“This is Park,” he answered in a stern and tired voice. As he listened, his expression quickly changed to one of deep concern as though a cold chill had just swept over his body. Springing to his feet, he said, “I’m on my way. Lock down the area and do NOT let the subject break containment!”

Park threw a brown leather jacket over his lab coat and hurried out of the office. On the other side of the door, he immediately stepped into a whole other atmosphere. An alarm had begun echoing throughout the hallway where people were rushing about in different directions. Park’s focus was set ahead of him like a hawk as he strode briskly down the hall before rounding a corner, almost colliding with someone in the process.

Just around the corner, a woman sat at a security desk and was talking frantically on the phone. “I know! I’m just telling you what I was told; evacuate the lower sections of the facility and scramble security!”

Park walked past the desk straight toward a set of double doors. “Open the doors,” he said over the noise of the commotion.

The woman at the desk looked up at him, startled and confused. “Dr. Park? You shouldn’t be here right now, sir!”

“Just do it!” Park had already planted his hands against the doors and waited for her to open them. The woman hesitated before pressing a switch underneath the desk. A buzzer sounded followed by the conspicuous click of the tumblers unlocking. Park forced the doors open and stepped through the opening.

The room on the other side was large and dark. Park stepped in and was immediately greeted by the sound of dozens of people talking at once and clamoring about. Several rows of computers were on either side of the room, and everyone sitting at them was focused on the commotion ahead. At the far end of the large, open chamber, a single figure could be seen shrouded in the darkness. They stood in the center of an array of machinery, their feet anchored firmly to the ground and their arms shackled and suspended on either side. All that Park could make out from here was the figure writhing and struggling in vain against their constraints and letting out a series of shrill, angry grunts.

“Wait, Doctor!” A man was standing in the center aisle yelling out orders. As soon as he saw Park approaching, he stepped in front of him to hold him back. “It’s not safe!”

“What happened, Simmons?” Park demanded.

“I don’t know,” the man called Simmons said frantically. “We were running additional stress tests when the subject suddenly went haywire!”

“Additional stress tests?” Park responded in disbelief. “You were supposed to be preparing to synchronize with the Machina uplink!”

Before anyone could react, their heads shot toward the subject as a series of powerful electric currents traveled through the constraints. The subject let out an agonizing scream and struggled more violently than ever.

“What are you doing?!” Park shouted, pointing at the worker sitting at the nearest station. “Shut it off now!”

“This isn’t me, sir!” the young man cried in a panic. “The system’s not responding!”

“What do you mean?”

The young man looked up from his station, a look of serious concern on his face. “Someone’s hacking in.”

Just then, Park’s attention shot up as the sound of the power shutting down traveled throughout the facility. His eyes fell on the subject when the restraints binding their arms suddenly broke, causing the subject to fall to their knees.

“Shit!” Park hissed and rushed forward.

“Park!” Simmons called after him. He snatched up a radio from the station next to him and brought it to his mouth. “Security! Breach in Containment!”

Security was already on the move. As Park ran out into the open containment chamber, he looked up to see armed officers lining up along the catwalks on either side just above him, aiming their weapons directly at the subject.

“No!” Park shouted up at them. “Hold your fire! Do not fire!”

“Park, we have no choice!” Simmons said from behind him. “You know the protocol! If security has been breached then we have to terminate all assets!”

“We have over two billion dollars invested in this asset, we can’t just destroy everything now! Don’t shoot!”

The guards held their weapons steady, unsure of what to do as Park approached the subject, who was now keeled over on all fours.

“Sir!” one of the guards yelled from above. “I strongly recommend you back away!”

Park just held up his hand to urge them to remain calm. “Simmons!” he called back. “Cut the power. All of it.”

“Are you crazy, Park?”

“We need to calm her down. Just do it!”

Simmons looked around as if waiting for a conflicting order. Hissing under his breath, he turned and rushed toward the back of the room. Planted on the wall, behind a glass panel and surrounded by various brightly colored warnings was a single red button that was labeled simply, “Emergency shut down.” Simmons grabbed the small metal rod that hung down next to it and smashed the glass before reaching in and forcefully pressing the button with his entire hand.

The sound of everything shutting down at once was deafening at first. The subject’s shackles, which were still generating electrical currents, were the first to deactivate, and the restraints holding the subject’s feet were released. The dozens of monitors on either side of the room buzzed with static before going black themselves, and in seconds, all lights in the facility shut off, leaving the entire area in total darkness.

In a matter of seconds, the entire scene had gone from thunderous and chaotic to a penetrating, deathly silence. The guards along the catwalks turned on the lights attached to the rails of their rifles, casting their beams down onto the subject, who was still down on her hands and knees. It was so quiet now that Park could hear his staggered breathing above everything else. He stepped slowly forward until he was a mere several feet away.

“Subject Nine?” he said as quietly as he could, yet the words still echoed throughout the silent chamber. The subject remained motionless on all fours, her head drooped and nearly touching the floor. The only sound to be heard was her breathing, which was quiet and faint. Park dared to take one step closer, swallowing anxiously before speaking again. “Andromeda?”

Just then, the subject’s head shot up to look at Park. The thin beams of light from the guards’ rifles barely illuminated the area in the intense darkness, but Park could clearly make out a face twisted in raw, primal anger. What made the sight all the more terrifying was a ring of neon blue lights around the corneas of the subject’s eyes. The hairs on Park’s arms stood up and he was frozen in place.

“Park!” he heard Simmons call from behind him. The guards seemed to take this as a command as they aimed their weapons again.

“No!” Park shouted.

Quick as lightning, the subject leapt to her feet and snatched Park by the throat. She grasped him with such strength that she easily lifted him off the ground. Park clutched at her hands, scrambling desperately to pry them off his neck, but they would not budge. The subject stared up at him with her glowing blue eyes that looked almost mechanical. Her teeth were clenched and her expression was monstrous and full of hate. She pulled him closer and hissed a single word that reverberated in Park’s ears.

“Antithesis.”

In a motion that shook the entire chamber, the subject stepped forward and launched Park into the air. He flew back and crashed over several monitors before rolling limp onto the floor.

“Christ!” Simmons cried out in shock.

“OPEN FIRE!” one of the guards shouted from the catwalks. The area was suddenly filled with the deafening roar of gunfire which rained down on the subject in the center of the chamber.

The subject ducked down and shielded herself with her arms. The rounds landed all around her, with many of them hitting her body directly. However, the bullets all bounced off, leaving little more than a series of welts all over her skin. 

She growled under her breath. Just then, the flesh of her arms began to peel back and turned a shimmering silver color. The transformation continued up her arms. When it reached her hands, her fingers dissolved away completely. With her entire arms now transformed into what appeared to be some sort of metallic armor, a pair of twin blades extended from where her hands used to be, running parallel to one another like elongated metal claws. In between them, at the end of her forearms, was a glowing opening like the barrel of a high-tech cannon.

The guards continued firing relentlessly. The subject stood to her feet, let out a roar of pure rage, and threw her newly weaponized appendages toward the ground. The cannons at the ends of her arms charged up and fired at the ground, releasing a powerful wave of energy that engulfed the area around her. The guards were thrown back by the force of the blast, with several of them falling over the railings. The subject raised her arm and fired up at the catwalk to her left. The entire catwalk was blown off its suspension and the guards were sent flying throughout the chamber, screaming as they vanished into the darkness.

Simmons watched in horror as the subject began her rampage. “EVACUATE! EVERYBODY OUT NOW!”

The scene was in absolute pandemonium with people trampling over everyone and everything to get out. Simmons fought his way over to the limp form of Park and grabbed him under the arms. Park moaned semi-consciously, but still alive. His head was bruised and bloody, and a series of hand marks were visible on his neck.

“Park!” Simmons cried as he pulled him toward the door. “Come on, we have to go!”

Park struggled to open his eyes. His vision was blurry, but there was no mistaking the terrifying sight of the subject rampaging toward them with arms that were completely transformed into mechanized abominations and a pair of ominous, glowing blue eyes that pierced the dust and darkness.

“Oh my God…” he muttered weakly.

As Simmons dragged him away, several more guards rushed into the chamber, armed and charging into certain death. The subject swiftly dispatched every adversary in her way. One of the guards attempted to rush her. The subject whipped around with blinding speed and impaled him with her powerful, mechanical claws. The guard dropped his weapon, gasping painfully as blood shot from his mouth. With inhuman strength, she heaved him over her head and slammed him into the floor. As the life drained from his eyes, she charged up her cannon one last time and fired it upon her victim.