Welcome to Gaia! ::

“They will want one. It will be important to them.” Amelia answered softly, gesturing slightly towards the Hanger where Will had gathered everyone else. Regardless of Adrian’s wishes they would want to mark the man who had given up so much to lead them all to freedom. Still if he persisted she would tell them not to build a monument if the worst should happen. “I know Adrian, it was only supposed to last a month or so…and a few hours ago I thought I had more time, but we have to at least try right? If we don’t have hope, then what do we have?” There was a sort of desperation to her tone. “A heart is just a pump really. Once we have access to the hospitals I could make you one, with the help of the doctors or your medics. I spent some time working in the medical field.”

Amelia’s usual frustration with Adrian bubbled just beneath the surface. Why had he resigned himself to this fate? Why wasn’t he even willing to try? Every step of the way he had argued with her, even now when she was trying to save his life. The other cheered for Adrian, while Amelia stood silently and watched them. Without hope there was a certainty Adrian would die and they would have no leader. And she would have indirectly killed two Directors.The cheering was cut short as a loud explosion shook the Hanger. Then another. Amelia looked down at the tablet in her arms and began typing, as a third fainter explosion could be felt. It took a second to connect to one of the War Machines on the surface, but once she had control of the camera’s she could see. The warehouse was nothing but smoke and rubble, as a jet flew overhead to drop its payload at the vehicle entrance. “Sybil means to bury us alive.”

“Jets.” Amelia clarified, as she began to follow him down the hall. What Adrian was asking for wasn’t exactly easy, given the jets were much faster than the turn speed of the miniguns. Firing blindly would only attracted Sybils’s attention and get the war machines blown up, but the longer she waited the more bombs Sybil could drop…if it wasn’t already too late for them to dig themselves out. From where the war machines were sitting she couldn’t tell if the tunnel for the vehicle entrance had collapsed or if it had with stood the assault so far. With the tablet cradled in her left arm, Amelia dutifully followed behind Adrian, keeping an eye on him with her peripheral vision. Fortunately his slow place made it easy to keep up while spending most of her focus on solving the problem of trying to shoot down jets with the slow war machines. She only looked up long enough to climb into the back of the truck beside Adrian. Returning her attention back to the screen, she asked almost casually. “Will isn’t coming with us?” The earth rumbled as the jets completed a second pass, dropping their payloads. “One more…” she mumbled to herself rather than those in the truck.

“I am working on it.” Amelia answered slightly frustrated as she typed in a few more commands. Like he would be able to do it any faster. She had missed most of the first run and needed data from the second run to hit them on the third pass, but now any success she had would be undermined by Adrian’s instructions whether he meant to or not. She would give her left arm to be riding with Will instead of Adrian. The jets started lining up for their third run, but this time she was ready. Just as the jets were in range the twin miniguns started up, the rapid fire bullets easily tearing into the jets. The first and second were direct hits, the jets bursting into flames and shortly after exploding in midair. The third tried to veer out of the way, but still ended up with a heavily damaged wing. Uncontrolled, it crash into one of the high rise buildings in the city. A few seconds went by before it’s payload also went off and the building quickly collapsed. The shockwave cause glass from several streets over to shatter and implode, surely injuring anyway who had been standing near them. “There, it’s done.” She said rather bitterly, wondering how many innocent people just died in the whole exchange.

It certainly didn’t feel like a well done. Amelia didn’t acknowledge Adrian’s instructions, but silently typed in the commands for the 3 machines to make their way towards the tower. With a breath she tried to remind herself that this was war, and people died. She had been prepared to see people die. The dead laying outside the Hanger had bothered her, but not like this. They had been fighting, they had been at war with Sybil, but the people in the building that had just collapsed hadn’t been a part of it. They just wanted to go about their normal lives and she had killed them all. Somehow it had made it so much worse in her mind. Lost in her thoughts, Amelia stared at the tablet screen with unseeing eyes, the lack of screams going unnoticed.

As the front line members of the resistance got close to the Tower, it became clear they had a problem. Sybil knew this was the end, that it was all or nothing in this last battle to the finish, but if it was going down, it was taking society down with it. After all, if Sybil no longer existed, then it had no reason to protect the people in the city, so in a last desperate attempt to defeat the rebellion it had made itself a human shield. While the rebellion had been preparing in the Hanger, Sybil had called every citizen it could fit into the Tower itself. They couldn’t blow it up without murdering a good chunk of the city’s population and those left would very likely see the rebellion members as the enemy.

Amelia looked up at Adrian at his question, her eyes searching his face, as she considered her answer. The truth was she knew the answer as soon as he had asked, but was concerned for how he would respond. Would it be better to make the odds seem better than they were? Adrian wouldn’t really command the rebels to bring down the Tower with everyone inside would he? She could feel the eyes of everyone in the van on her as the silence stretched out. “Not from here. From inside the Tower? Maybe. Hacking Sybil’s network is impossible. The only reason we have control of the war machines is because I physically removed the part that connects them to the network.” There was a slight pause before she added, “Why not convince them? They are people, not machines.”

What happened to Adrian’s father had been a different situation entirely. These people followed Sybil because they didn’t know anything else. They didn’t even know how to take care of themselves. She was about to say as much when he looked up at her and what he said next made her completely forget about her comment about his father. “You want me to talk to them?” Amelia asked incredulously. “I’m good with machines, not people. What in the world makes you think I could convince anyone to do anything? I can’t even convince you to try and save your own life. You’re the one people follow and listen to Adrian.”

“I gave you a way!” Amelia replied frustrated. Did he simply not believe she could do it? “You would really do it wouldn’t you? Adrian you can’t! We are doing this to free everyone from Sybil, to give them a life instead of mindlessly going about their day. If you kill everyone then Sybil has won, even if you destroy it. Can’t you see that’s why it’s done this? Instead of heroes we’ll be the enemies hunted down one by one by everyone who is left.” She couldn’t really be the only who would try to stop him could she? Will, the others, they wouldn’t actually go through with such an order and kill thousands of innocent people. The very people they were trying to save from Sybil. One thing was true, the longer they spent arguing about it instead taking down the Tower, the more members of the resistance would die fighting the machines.