After Earth Fell: I Became Humanity's Strongest Mecha Soldier

Chapter 10: Intruder!

Thira rubbed at his jaw swiping his pad with the other free hand , pretending to observe the body he had been looking at for the past minutes,

"That’s true actually," Kagu chirped. Thira turned slowly,

"Kagu!" If he had eyes they would be staring daggers into her circuit,

"What? It’s true!"

"Kagu..."

"Oh-" the Ai slowly hid behind her master.

K moved closer to them, suspicion rolling off of him in waves,

"B-Bak let me watch this one...to see if I recognized the U’Kan"

"Thira..."

"I swear! I swear on my ring!"

K moved closer but before he could say anything to the doctor. Alarms blared.

Great! What now?

He huffed and began heading out.

The matyr had barely taken a step out of the lab when several soldiers subdued him. Tasing him and placing him in reinforced handcuffs.

"What do you think you’re doing?!"

Thira screamed and rushed at the soldiers only for one of them to bash him in the face, knocking him back.

"Why don’t you stay put, love?" He pointed at his fellow soldier, "put this place on lockdown."

They dragged K off to Shira knows where!

"Kagu! What’s going on?"

The Ai paused for a few seconds before responding, "Code Yellow; System security breach"

"What?"

"I’ll get info on the situation!"

Kagu vanished into thin air leaving Thira pulling at his fingernails as he desperately tried to think of what could have warranted K being apprehended and in such a manner too!

...

[[NEW QUEST!]]

Capture the Mimic! -(0/1)—0%

....

Bak rubbed at the bridge between his eyes as he stared down the subdued soldier before him.

K-0-0-1 was held in reinforced handcuffs and gagged. Not a bad sight to be honest.

"First, it was taking out your pellet without authorization. Second, you ignored orders from command’s control. And now, you’re forcefully accessing restricted files...K? What the fuck is going on with you?" He threw the glass pad at the subdued man, the fragile piece shattering to bits.

"Clean this up and remove the gag"

The soldier pulled the gag from K’s mouth.

K immediately spag, eyes wild and glaring.

"Are you done?"

Bak ignored him, he flicked his wrist and a hologram hovered between them.

"Watch."

The footage began playing.

A hallway. The one that led to surveillance.

Timestamped three hours ago.

K’s stomach sank.

It was him.

Walking through Command.

Entering a classified archive database.

Opening restricted files. And somehow accessing them.

Searching through military records.

Then leaving.

The footage ended.

Silence.

Bak folded his arms.

"Problem."

K looked up.

"I was unconscious."

"I know."

K blinked.

That wasn’t the response he expected. Bak never really liked him from the start, and here he knelt with the admiral on his side...

Bak leaned against the wall.

"You were inside a cryotube."

Another screen appeared.

Medical logs.

Heart activity.

Neural activity.

Cryotube monitoring.

Everything confirmed it.

K never left.

Not once.

The room suddenly felt much colder.

One of the officers shifted nervously.

"Sir..."

"Shut up."

Bak’s eyes never left K.

"Because according to every system we have, K-0-0-1 was simultaneously unconscious in a cryotube and walking around my command center."

Silence.

Then another screen appeared.

Zoomed footage.

Frame by frame.

The fake K paused outside a secure door, turned his head and looked directly into the camera.

The image sharpened. Everything about them was alike, except the swirl of gold he had.

"Now explain to me...your eye"

"Thira said it’s due to head trauma"

"K...head trauma doesn’t change your eye color to gold."

K’s heartbeat spiked. Did they think he was the fake one and the K in the camera was the original?

"The doctor is under lockdown as well, his database is being ransacked"

"What are you looking for?"

"Flash clone data"

That confirmed his thoughts.

"I’m not a clone"

"Hm, your eye color is a result of a disruption in your DNA...not head trauma. Do you even know you’re a clone?"

"I’m not a clone!"

"I don’t know what the doctor fed you but you’re not leaving here until we find the real one"

"I’m right in front of you"

K groaned, forcing the handcuffs apart by a small fraction.

The System appeared immediately.

...

WARNING

QUEST TARGET IDENTIFIED

[[MIMIC DETECTED]]

STATUS: ACTIVE

...

K shot up.

"Put him down!" Bak barked, and immediately electricity surged through him. The handcuffs had a taser implanted in them that could be manually activated.

"Going somewhere?"

The message expanded.

...

[PROFILE]

ENTITY PROFILE

Species: Unknown

Classification: Mimic???

[QUEST]

REWARD ON COMPLETION:

+5,000 XP

???

???

...

Bak noticed the change immediately.

"K."

The Admiral’s voice was sharp.

"What are you looking at?"

K looked away from the screen. His eyes shifting from the floating message to his face.

Bak stared back.

"I’m not the clone..."

"I beg to differ"

The admiral marched out with his soldiers, the metal doors sliding shut and a code being inputted to secure it.

"Double the security here and find that bastard K!"

"Sir, Yes Sir!"

"Make sure the doctor doesn’t leave that lab, keep your eyes on him"

The cell grew quiet, the subtle sound of machinery humming filled the room. His eyes wandering around as he continued force the cuffs apart, groaning softly as the metal dug into his skin.

"K? Can you hear me?"

K’s head shot up, darting around to find the source of the voice,

"Don’t worry only you can hear me, it’s me Kagu!"

"...h"

"It’s okay, you can talk. I disable the audio system"

"Why am I hearing you in my head?"

"Master planted a chip copy in your head incase of an emergency so you could contact him"

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to bust you out, duh!"

"There’s a camera watching us"

"That’s true and somehow soldiers are not swarming in here asking who you’re talking to... I overlayed a looped footage of you here so it looks like you’re just here awaiting your fate"

K glanced around, going back to freeing himself,

"Gosh, you won’t drop dead if you said a little ’thank you’"

"I’m afraid I would, get these off me if you can"

A few minutes of silence then the cuffs beeped and fell off,

...

Ding!

[[NEW QUEST]]

Get past hostile entities-(0/6)—0%

Reward on completion—3,000xp

—500xp per each entity bypassed!—

...

"Here’s the plan—"

"Open the door"

"What? No! You don’t even have a plan on how to get past them"

"Kagu...open the door"

The Ai sighed, the door beeped and slid open.

The soldiers stationed outside sprung into action but they weren’t fast enough,

"Two soldiers outside my cell(Two soldiers outside your cell)."

Two armed soldiers rushed at him, one with a taser in hand and the other a loaded tranquilizer. They weren’t holding guns, Bak wouldn’t want him dead anyway.

Quickly, he slammed a balled fist up the taser soldier’s chin, knocking him out immediately. The other soldier, panicking, started shooting rounds of tranquilizers at him but each shot was smoothly dodged by K.

In no time, he had gained distance on him. He grabbed the gun snapping it in half and delivering a blow to his stomach, knocking him out as well.

He caught a camera stationed in a corner,

"Tell me you overlayed that one too..."

"If you has listened to my plan, you would have known!"

"So it is"

K flexed his shoulders and rubbed at his wrists,

"Care to brief me on what’s going on?"

"Admiral Bak already gave you the gist of it, there’s a ’K’ running loose around Command although Bak believes you’re the ’K’ and that the real K is the one in the footage"

"Where was this ’K’ sighted last?"

"Surveillance"

"Hm"

"You have to get past—"

"I know"

The main cell door beeped and slid open, surprised noises came but were quickly silenced as K tackled and knocked out the 3 soldiers standing guard.

...

[[QUEST]]

Get past hostile entities-(5/6)—95%

Reward on completion—3,000xp

—500xp per each entity bypassed!—

...

"Bak should have stationed a Matyr at least, did he underestimate ’clone me’?"

"He didn’t"

Lex pushed herself off the wall behind him.

Camouflage? How had he not seen her?

"Take one more step and I’ll plummet you"

Helmet tucked beneath one arm, she looked exhausted. Like she hadn’t gotten a moment’s rest since the whole mess started.

"Move."

"No."

K sighed.

"L-0-0-3."

"No."

"Lex."

"No."

"This is an order from your superior."

"I don’t take orders from an imposter."

The redhead rubbed her forehead.

"Does the real K understand how much trouble I am in right now?"

"..."

"I vouched for that bastard."

K looked away.

"You are literally escaping military detention and I can’t have that happening now, can I?"

"I need to find the clone."

"Yeah right, attacking friendlies...that’s totally Matyr behavior, talk-less of real K-0-0-1 behavior"

Silence ensued.

Neither moved.

The tension in the hallway tightening, finally Lex spoke.

Softer this time.

"Where are you going?"

K didn’t answer.

That answer alone told her everything.

The archives.

Lex closed her eyes.

"Oh my stars..."

Then she looked back at him.

"You can’t go there."

"I’m going."

"Fraud..."

"I’m going."

"I’ll plummet you if you try to."

The two stared at each other.

Then Lex swore.

"Fuck it."

Her helmet hit the floor.

CLANG.

K immediately shifted his stance.

"Oh come on!" Kagu complained, "Can nobody in this base solve problems with words?"

Lex lunged first.

Her fist shot toward his jaw.

Not lethal. But enough to disorient him.

K caught her wrist.

Lex twisted instantly.

Her body rotated around his arm. Momentum carrying her upward.Her legs swiftly wrapped around his shoulders.

"Shit."

K had just enough time to say it.

Then Lex threw herself backward. The world flipped before his eyes.

BAM!

K hit the floor hard enough to crack his bones.

Lex released him immediately. Them swiftly climbed onto him.Trying to pin his arm.Trying to immobilize him.

K groaned and held unto her then stood up forcing her up as well.

"...seriously?" Lex huffed.

K rushed before she could release slammed backward into a wall.

The impact crushed Lex between them.

The woman wheezed and forcibly released her grip and flopped unto the floor.

K stepped forward. Big mistake.

Lex swept his legs.

K hit the floor.

She pushed off the wall, pounced on the fallen man and began delivering blows.

Elbow descending toward his face.

K slammed a fist into her side.

CRACK. "Argh!"

She slapped his hand away, hitting harder than before,

Chunks of blood splattered upward.

"STOP MOVING."

"I’m literally trying to leave."

"THAT IS THE PROBLEM."

Lex threw another fist, this time K caught her.

Both hands.

He forced them apart, creating an opening to her chest.

For one glorious second she looked horrified.

"Motherfuc—."

K struck her. The blow sent her flying across the room.

The redhead crashed through a security scanner.

Sparks erupted.

Alarms immediately started screaming.

"Great!"

"I can handle that!" The alarm stopped almost as soon as it started, "don’t worry, I erased the feedback, control won’t detect it"

Lex stood.

Bleeding from her lip.

"Now you’ve done it."

"..."

"...gonna beat the living shit out of ya."

She spat out blood and lunged at him again.

K blocked the first strike.

Missed the second.

The third caught him in the ribs.

The fourth hit his jaw.

Lex moved like liquid.

Every time he tried grabbing her she was somewhere else.

A kick.

A punch.

An elbow.

A knee.

Death by a thousand paper cuts.

K was stronger than she was.

Far stronger.

But Lex was everywhere. Closing every opening she left and dodging every attack K threw back

"I’m not really in the mood for this..."

Finally she made a mistake.

One step a little off.

K grabbed her wrist.

Everything stopped.

Lex’s eyes widened.

"...K."

"This will save me the stress of having to kill you." He spun.

The hallway became a blur.

Lex hit the wall. Hard.

The metal dented inward.

Silence.

K rolled his shoulder and walked over to her.

Lex slid down the wall. Coughing blood and saliva. Breathing hard. Holding her side.

"For the record, I did tell you to stand down"

Lex threw a weak punch K didn’t bother to dodge, he bent over and plucked the keycard tucked into armor sleeve.

"Monitor the corridors"

"Most personnel have been moved to above ground security, the hallways are crawling with soldiers. And since this place is underground, Bak had L-0-0-3 stationed alongside these soldiers here just in case the ’real K’ came to break you out"

"So what’s the plan?"

"Oh so now you want to hear my plan," Kagu harrumphed.

"Out with it..."

"W-who are you talking...to?" Lex was starting to stand up, clutching her stomach and grabbing onto the wall for support.

"Something that can help me find the clone"

"I’m not letting...you"

She coughed blood, K sighed and walked back to where she stood bent over. With a soft apology under his breathe, he drove his elbow into the back of her head, knocking her out.

...

[[QUEST]]

Get past hostile entities-(6/6)—100%

Reward on completion—3,000xp

—500xp per each entity bypassed!—

....