Artemis: A Gamma Nine Short Story Page 2

was not it. It sounded like teeth. Artemis tilted his armoured head upward, focusing his sensors even more. Yes, it was teeth, human teeth, rattling or gnashing against a denser material. It was a strange sound he had never heard before and the eagerness to discover the origin of the sound grew within his metal body.

  Artemis ignored the scurrying sound and focused everything on the new sound. He picked up his pace, climbing faster to reach the summit above him.

  The last few steps were ascended with an unnatural fervour, something only Artemis possessed. If he could smile, he would. If he could understand the depth of human happiness he would have shown it across his artificial face, if he had one.

  With a clang of excitement and haste his giant feet planted his heavy body at the top of the old staircase. Artemis’ head swept from side to side, gears grinding to keep up with the movements as he scanned the area in front of him. No-one will ever know why the monsters on-board the Argent Divided never heard Artemis arriving, or why the sounds of metal on metal never alerted them. Perhaps it was due to the ecstasy the creatures were experiencing on the main deck of the Argent, or maybe it was because they were too hungry to notice anything around them. But whatever the reason was, the bright lights sweeping from side to side brought the nightmares in the dark out of their trance.

  Artemis had only a few moments to process the scene, his mind calculating targets while another part of his mind brought his fighting systems online. He had no weapons with him, so he would have to improvise. The great one took away the few things he had crafted for use in combat. It was an understandable decision from the captain.

  And then the beasts were upon him.

  “Contact!” Artemis reported over the radio, not waiting for a reply.

  At first the enemy overwhelmed him, scurrying over his body in droves. Artemis calculated that there were too many of the monsters around him, sensors working overtime to compensate for the sheer amount of targets. It was as if he was the special guest at a surprise birthday part, and everyone wanted a piece of him.

  The mutations of the monsters assailing Artemis were varied, large and small, two-legged or multi-limbed, fat or thin, bony or fleshy. There was no consistency to the mutants. But there was no time to ponder the genetic mutations within the Beast, Artemis had to fight, he had to thin out the numbers.

  He took a step forward to steady himself, hearing the bones of the unlucky crew members who were consumed instead of infected crack below his metal foot. In an inhuman robotic roar fused with anger and excitement, Artemis struck his first blow against the enemy.

  Artemis closed his giant fist, grasping two monsters in his lethal grip. He swung his heavy limb, using the two creatures as fleshy clubs to clear and arc in front of him. At least five other beasts were sent flying into nearby walls, their bodies bursting from the force. For all their hunger and fury, their bodies still show weakness. He tightened his grip and the two dead mutants in his fist broke apart, their bodies nothing but a dripping mess.

  A larger monster tried to pierce Artemis’ protective visor with a sharpened bone where its right arm used to be. Artemis shrugged off the blow; the visor in front of his armoured head was too thick, nothing short of heavy ordinance would be able to crack it. He tilted his heavy frame and caught the brave mutant with his other metal hand, crushing it before it could try another attack.

  Monsters swarmed around the metal giant, all of them seeking an opportunity to bring it down. Artemis did not mind the beasts trying to encircle him. He knew he was relatively safe from their puny attacks, relishing the opportunity to unleash some of his pent-up power.

  Three more died as Artemis brought his heavy fist down on them. Bones splintered and squeals escaped dead lungs as they were turned to paste on the Argent’s decking. A short, fat creature jumped on Artemis’ back, its fleshy limbs finding purchase on the armour plating protecting the metal giant’s reactor. It tried to pull off some of the plating, foolishly latching on to the steel rivets fastening the armour plating to Artemis’ body. Its life ended when it was crushed against the wall behind Artemis. He had just taken a few steps back while killing creatures in front of him, shrugging off the fat fleshy one’s lifeless corpse.

  More died with every swing of metal limbs. Crushed or flung into walls as Artemis spun on its heavy legs. He elbowed a creature, shattering its face, tossing another he had in his other hand into a group of beasts that were waiting to attack.

  The attacks suddenly stopped as a tall creature, towering over the rest, stepped closer to Artemis. Artemis judged it to be an alpha beast of some kind. The other mutants around this creature had seemed to pull back, giving it more space to attack. Good, Artemis thought, a challenge.

  It charged at Artemis, raising sharpened claws at him. On its back two more mutated limbs with long sharp claws clicked and scratched in anticipation.

  Artemis did not hesitate, taking a few steps towards the rushing creature, using his momentum to bring his right fist up in a powerful uppercut.

  The creature was not smart or fast enough to dodge the blow. A loud cracking sound echoed in the chamber Artemis was fighting in. Everything seemed to stop for a moment as realization dawned on the creature’s mutated face. Its features changed from anger to a blank stare as soon as it was hit. If anyone competent enough to understand the effect of such power had witnessed the blow, they would have felt the tiny shockwave expand from the epicentre of metal meeting hardened mutated flesh.

  The alpha beast’s head disintegrated as the blow followed through, tearing muscle and separating bone from sinew. When Artemis stopped the upward momentum of his fist he saw what he had done. A headless mess of a body was at his feet, a torrent of infected blood pooling around him.

  One blow was all it took to put the fear of annihilation in the minds of the monsters on-board the Argent Divided. They scattered as they saw the biggest of their number die in what could only be called embarrassing.

  Artemis had not known the extent of his power, but he now understood it to some degree. The understanding awoke another new emotion within his artificial mind - bloodlust. He wanted more, and he wanted it now. He was not going to let anything live that posed a threat on the Argent Divided.

  Artemis jumped into action. His heavy foot falls echoing in the corridors of the dead vessel as he picked up his pace.

  He would kill everything on his path towards his objective, and those unlucky enough to be caught in his path would see the depths of Artemis’ true fury.

  Fury for his previous master, fury for his imprisonment, fury for anything and everything that has ever or will ever try and make him a slave again.

  Artemis’ anger was unfiltered, raw and more real than anything the universe has ever encountered. On a derelict vessel, in an unknown sector, near an insignificant dead planet, pure anger had awoken unhindered by the human soul and all its inherent weaknesses.

  Artemis had been reborn. The mindless slave of metal and wires destined to do the bidding of others was no more. The puppet masters behind his body and his own artificial mind would never have sway over him ever again. The real Artemis, a battle machine of solid steel and anger, had tasted blood for the first time and he would forever drink from that fountain until all of his enemies were extinguished or until he succumbed to their blades.

  Loyalty was what he used now to fuel his anger. He felt it coursing through his artificial mind as he stomped forward. It was not forced or engineered by some misguided or selfish individual. No, it was his own, it belonged to him, and he had chosen it, allowing it to govern his new body and personality. His loyalty was birthed from one single act of kindness, something he had never experienced, and something he would forever be thankful for. No-one would ever understand how his mind functioned. No-one could ever experience the universe as he did. Trying to explain how he was capable of experiencing human emotion and identifying with it would take eons to decipher. Only the ones that made him knew the secrets within his circuits and magnificent mind, bu
t they were long dead and they took their secrets with them to their graves.

  Loyalty for one human, and by extension everyone the human cared for, was all he wanted to fight for now. Operator QC0021-13 now designated as Corporal Quinn or Christian was always at the forefront of his mind. Christian had extended a hand when no-one else wanted to, granting him light instead of leaving him in the dark alone. That one simple act sparked an intricate and extensive re-evaluation of his operating parameters. After days of contemplation and discovery, Artemis had not understood the emotion, but rather he had felt it. Like a warm feeling in a pit of a stomach that he did not possess, human kindness and their marvellously bright but short lives were worth saving, especially QC0021-13.

  All of that echoed in his mind in mere moments. It did not diminish his ability to kill the monsters in his path. Instead, it made him more deadly and more agile than before.

  Artemis pummelled a large mutant with his giant metal fist, crushing it up against the corridor wall leading to the distant bridge of the Argent. Shot after shot rang out as his fists and sturdy feet killed, tearing through flesh as easy as a large rock would shatter glass.

  One stealthy beast attacked from an open air vent above Artemis, but was