The Rig

The young man introduced himself to Anna as Wrench. He pilots the lead mech in a three-man team. They don't represent any military faction or world power. They are a group of scientists that built their own mobile base in the ocean using their technology and are funded by selling advanced technology to the highest bidder on the black market.

Upon finishing the connections, the two humanoid mechs took to the sky with Anna and the Werewolf mech in tow. It wasn't long before Anna could see an oil rig surrounded by broken ice. She opened a newly forged communication channel just between the two mechs.

"Is it okay if we're seen?"

"Oh yeah," Wrench started. "That's our home. Our base, our shop, and our life's work."

Anna took a closer look at the rig. Although she had never seen one up close, a few portions looked out of place. There was a large platform in the middle that seemed to displace other sections. The four mechs eventually landed on the platform. Up close, it was much larger than Anna estimated with more than enough room to support the four mechanical masses of metal.

As Wolf helped Anna down from the mech, the platform began to descend. Not long after, Wolf's hand returned to the floor with Stephanie. Wrench also came out to greet the newcomers up close.

"So, this is Wolf?" He asked pointing at Stephanie.

She didn't respond nor was she paying attention. Stephanie was engrossed by all of the technical marvels around her, including the mechs.

"No, he's still inside."

Wolf made a small salute with the unsevered arm of the mech.

"Well, why not come out? I'm sure everyone here would like to meet the man behind the knowledge that advanced our technology by decades in a matter of days."

Knowing that his speech pattern was more garbled than ever, he decided to speak as little as possible. Instead, he hacked nearby screens and displayed his responses in text form.

Wrench heard a *ding* sound on his wrist computer.

[My apologies, Wrench. I feared that revealing myself too early might dissuade you from our meeting. I am an A.I. that is housed inside of the mech. Therefore, I cannot come out.

~Wolf]

"An Artificial Intelligence? A real A.I.? Whao..." Wrench reeled back and grasped at the blonde bangs on his forehead. "A.I. experimentation has been banned. The last one that was nearly completed went berserk and detonated a nuke the moment it left its silo, devastating thousands of acres of farmland. Who made you? How did you get past the radar? That kind of computing power would need hundreds of super servers and its own power plant to... Wait, Housed inside the mech?"

Wrench looked back at the broken mech, realizing that several parts were similar to what the enemy robots had been using. Along with the same coloring and the weapon that was fired.

*ding*

[Yes... I am... I was made by your enemy. The Empire of Galaxies, ruled by Emperor Okklin.]

Wrench suddenly had a horrid feeling in his stomach. He brought an enemy into his home. To his family.

Anna reached a hand out and was about to ask if he was okay, but he stepped away.

"Are you with it?" He asked with a shaken voice.

"What?" Anna responded.

"Are you with that thing? The enemy? The ones who-" Wrench's words were cut short by a fist to his lower jaw.

"I WOULD NEVER JOIN THEM!" Anna said seethingly as she held up her throbbing fist. "They killed my father and my friends. They destroyed my home... And that's just a minuscule fraction of a fraction of what they've done to this planet. I will fight them till the day I die." Her eyes almost looked like they had a fire in them.

"But, he is one of their mechs, isn't he? Why is he... why is Wolf fighting them?" Wrench asked as he sat up from the floor.

Anna had never questioned it before, but that was more than a valid question. She turned to Wolf and asked him through their connection in her head.

*ding*

"He says, "Because... I was made to fight them." But that makes no sense! Why would they make an A.I. fight themselves?"

*ding*

"I don't know..."

*ding*

"I remember.. being locked away."

*ding*

"I was alone and I blindly followed instructions from an unknown source."

*ding*

"But then, something awoke me. It was like a nostalgic feeling.

*ding*

"The chains that bound me we no longer strong enough to hold me in and..."

*ding*

"I woke up."

*ding*

"That was when I met Anna. That was when I was freed."

*ding*

"Make no mistake, I was created by the Empire. But, I know that I was created to destroy it."

Wrench finished reading out loud what Wolf had to say. Before either Anna or Wrench could interrogate Wolf any further, a shrill scream caught everyone's attention.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Stephanie was near the edge of the elevator when the lower deck came into view. Anna and Wrench ran over.

"Stephanie!? What's wrong?" Anna held her shoulder.

Stephanie fell to her knees and was on the verge of tears. She pointed out toward the mecha hanger that had workers moving to and fro in a small section of a metropolis-style underwater hanger that could put a full-sized aircraft carrier to shame.

"It's... just... so beautiful..."

Anna squeezed Stephanie's shoulder until she started crying, uncle.

"We thought you were in trouble, you spaz." Anna scolded her.

"Sorry, I just... I never thought I could see something like this in my lifetime. It's like a real-life anime story. Aliens, giant robots, a secret base that's bigger than my hometown... As sobering as it is to realize "why" this is becoming my reality, it's still the closest thing to a dream come true."

Anna looked again at the sight before her. The elevator had lowered enough that the full height of the standing mechs could be seen from anyone below as it was an open platform without any wall to hide the contents. And, it hadn't even fully descended the other half yet. There were walkways and homes along the upper walls. Shops and large machinery as well as the mecha hanger were on the ground level. People were riding around on one-wheel or two-wheeled scooters. Aside from a few onlookers watching the mecha descend, or wondering about the source of the recent scream, people were moving around like it was a busy day in a busy city.

To the right people, this could be a paradise...