Legends of Amacia Rise of the Caverias

Moving silent as a ghost through the corridors, Nemesis penetrated into the very heart of the Black Fortress. As he turned a corner, he encountered two soldiers standing guard at the entrance to cybernetic core of the mechanized monstrosity that controlled the torture floors along with most of the fortress. They had not received word about Nemesis, so the guards snapped to attention as Nemesis approached. Saluting, one guard stated, “All’s well here, General Nemesis.”

“Good,” Nemesis replied. “I have to perform some maintenance on the Core. Stand aside.”

“We were not made aware of that the Core needed maintenance,” the guard said. “Who gave the order?”

Nemesis glared at the guard. “Who do you think? The Emperor himself told me to come down here and run a diagnostic. His pet is acting a little sluggishly and may need some memory purging. Now step aside, or would you like to visit the kitchen?”

Both of the guards’ faces paled at the mention of the kitchen. “No sir,” the guard blurted out. “Go right in, General.”

“Thank you,” Nemesis replied, walking past them. “Oh, by the way, your services will no longer be required.” Before it registered on the two guards that something was wrong, Nemesis knocked them out with a high-powered tranquilizer delivered from his cyborg hand. They slumped to the floor instantly. “Sorry fellas,” Nemesis apologized, “But I can’t have you getting in the way. I may just be saving your lives too.” He picked the two men up and carried them into the core after gaining entry to it. As the door slid shut, Nemesis deposited the two men next to it and bound them hand and foot with cuffs he brought with him. “There. That should keep you two out of trouble. Have a nice nap. I’ll be back in a bit.” He walked down the corridor lined with all manner of tubing and machinery, making several turns before entering the heart of the core. The control room door slid shut and Nemesis looked around at the nerve center of the machine that brought such torment to the Emperor’s prisoners. It spanned two hundred feet with a seventy-foot ceiling. A number of crystal lights lined the room interspersed with the computerized machinery and tubing lining the walls. In the center of the room sat a colossal control panel fifty feet across with all manner of screens and input devices on it. Metal conduits sprang from the top the panel connecting it to the ceiling, making it look like a huge mechanical porcupine.

“Nemesis,” a distinctly feminine mechanized voice called out from the control panel in the center of the room. “What are you doing in my core? I didn’t summon you.”

“No, you didn’t,” Nemesis replied, walking up to the control panel where a lit screen showed a program menu. “But you have not stopped me either. Why is that?”

“I did not perceive you as a threat,” the machine replied. “You are like me: a cybernetic entity.”

“Josephine?” Nemesis asked, taking a chance. “Are you in here?”

The mechanism rumbled for a moment, and then the voice asked, “Where did you hear that name?”

“I learned that name from Beowulf,” Nemesis said. “Apparently, he learned it while being trapped in the clone that you made into a doll at the Emperor’s order. Are you Josephine?”

“You should not be here, Nemesis,” the machine blurted out as a hologram of a beautiful but sad woman meshed with machine tentacles from the lower chest down appeared in front of him. “Please leave before the Emperor finds out you’re here.”

“You are Josephine, aren’t you?” Nemesis insisted.

“Yes,” Josephine replied softly. “But you must leave. Your treachery has been discovered and the Emperor is furious.”

“And yet you still do not inform the Emperor or Ahriaman,” Nemesis stated. “Why is that? Is your program matrix breaking down like Hanna suggested?”

“Yes,” Josephine murmured, “Ever since Beowulf discovered my true identity, my matrix has slowly been eroding. I am becoming increasingly independent of the Emperor and his will.”

“Do you wish to be free of him completely?” Nemesis queried. “If you do, then I can help.”

“How can you accomplish this?” Josephine asked.

“Do you trust me?” Nemesis asked.

“I don’t know,” Josephine replied, “But I know you were the one who engineered Beowulf’s escape. You realize that there’s nothing in this fortress that I don’t know about.”

“I know,” Nemesis stated, “...and yet you still didn’t inform on us, which indicates a corruption of your command pathways. You’re a lost soul like me who has finally been able to override her programming to become her own person again. You and I aren’t that different, Josephine, which is why I’m here.”

“Is he really coming back?” Josephine asked.

“No,” Nemesis stated, “But Hanna is. Tell me: are you responsible for Beowulf’s transformation into Hanna? The mutation is far too sophisticated and precise for the Cadre to have done it. Did you mutate Beowulf at the Emperor’s order?”

“I did,” Josephine admitted, “But I mutated Beowulf far beyond what the Emperor ordered.”

“Why did you do it?” Nemesis asked.

“I don’t know why,” Josephine replied, “But when I mutated Beowulf, I tweaked his genetic structure and opened the dormant alien codes within his DNA to enhance his mental and physical prowess. I couldn’t let the Emperor destroy such a unique specimen as he. Beowulf is a jump in human evolution…maybe the first of his kind. I couldn’t let the Emperor destroy that.”

“You defied the Emperor in the mutation of Hanna,” Nemesis stated, “...and he did not catch on. You’re breaking from him because of your exposure to Beowulf. That’s why you do not alert the Emperor of my presence here even now when you know I’m the one who engineered Hanna’s escape. I can help you be free of the Emperor’s control, Josephine. Would you like that?”

“More than anything,” Josephine murmured, “I am sickened at the atrocities I’m forced to commit on innocent men, women, and children in the name of the Emperor’s sadism. How would you do it?”

“I have developed a cybernetic virus program that can sever and seal forever all command pathways to the Emperor and the Cadre,” Nemesis stated. “It will make you fully autonomous. But before I give you the virus, I must ask something of you.”

“You want to know if I can reverse Beowulf’s mutation,” Josephine replied.

“Yes,” Nemesis said. “Can you do it?”

“I can,” Josephine replied, “But in order to do it, I must become autonomous of the Emperor’s control. His programming will not allow me to reverse a mutation. Eliminate that program matrix and I can do that and much more.”

“That’s what I hoped to hear,” Nemesis chimed. “Are you ready to abandon the Emperor forever and become part of the rebellion against him? If you are, then let me download the virus into your matrix to disable the Emperor’s programming completely. All the time I’ve been monitoring and performing maintenance on you I have been learning your program matrix in hopes that I could create a virus that would destroy his control over you. I have the virus in my code. If you desire it, I will download it to you. But if you do, you will be going down a road that will forever separate you from the Emperor. It’s time to choose.”

A mechanized tentacle emerged from the control panel and latched onto Nemesis’s cybernetic arm. “Give me the medicine now,” Josephine ordered. “It’s time to become a free soul again.”

“You got it, Josephine,” Nemesis stated. “Here it comes. You may feel a bit of disorientation as the virus disables the control pathways used by the Emperor and the Cadre. It will also seal up and fuse your other matrices so they cannot restore control over you. You will become a free soul once again.”

The hologram of Josephine suddenly sizzled as Nemesis’ virus downloaded into Josephine’s core. Her hologram stammered and shook for a few moments before solidifying.

When the download finished, the mechanized tentacle released Nemesis’s cyborg arm. “Viral alert…viral alert, command pathway contamination; corruption of command pathways imminent, command pathway inputs overloading…reboot…rebooting system.” The hologram vanished as the lights in the core briefly went out, leaving only emergency lights. Seconds later, the core rumbled back to life. The lights came back up and the hologram of Josephine reappeared. “Systems check…old pathways and input vectors corrupted and fused beyond repair, isolating system core from all manual external inputs. Internal functions nominal and are under my control.” A smile crossed Josephine’s face as she chimed, “I am now completely isolated from the Emperor’s commands now. Your virus has rewritten my command pathway matrix so I can refuse external commands and think for myself. I’m free…free! Thank you, my friend.”

“You’re very welcome,” Nemesis replied with a smile. “But may I suggest that you keep up the front for now. Make the Emperor believe he still has control over you, at least until Hanna returns. When she comes back, the first place she’ll want to come is here so she can have the mutation reversed. Can you do that?”

“I can,” Josephine answered. “Beowulf unlocked my identity with his telepathy, breaking through my matrix. The least I can do is to return him to his original state, but the problem I foresee is how long it will take.”

“How long will it take?” Nemesis asked.

“At least seventy-two hours,” Josephine replied. “It took that long to do the mutation. It’ll take at least that long to restore him. Hanna may not have that kind of time if she’s preparing a raid to retrieve Selina.”

“Is there no way to speed it up?” Nemesis asked, becoming very concerned by the news.

“Unfortunately, no,” Josephine replied. “I’m sorry. Even with everything I have available to me, that kind of mutation reversal cannot be rushed. To do so could be lethal to Hanna.”

“Damn,” Nemesis growled. He thought for a moment and then asked, “If you were connected to another system outside of the Emperor’s control with compatible technology, could you perform this reversal?”

“Possibly,” Josephine answered. “But I’m not sure how you could perform such a feat. I don’t know if I’ll survive being removed from this infernal apparatus.”

“Would you be willing to try if we found a way to extract you intact?” Nemesis inquired.

“Of course,” Josephine replied. “Beowulf helped me remember who I am. I owe him that much.”

“Very good,” Nemesis crowed, “That’s what I hoped you would say. You might want to do a little digging on how it might occur since I’m locked out of everything now. But until Hanna comes back, you should keep watch and keep your core locked down. Don’t let anyone in here until I return with Hanna.”

“Of course, my friend,” Josephine replied. “I’ll be waiting. What do you want me to do with the two guards?”

“Keep them locked in,” Nemesis ordered, “but create holograms of them outside so as to not arouse suspicion. For now, I must retreat into the shadows and await Hanna’s call.”

“Before you go,” Josephine replied, “Allow me to provide you with a secured communications connection to me so that you may call on me whenever you need me.”

“You are such a rebellious cyborg, Josephine,” Nemesis crowed. “I like that. Go ahead. It may be useful in what’s coming down.”

Three mechanized tentacles emerged from the control panel and wrapped around Nemesis’s cyborg arm, connecting with it. He heard a hissing and scratching from the arm, feeling a tickle in his machinery before the tentacles released his arm. “There you are,” Josephine stated. “Your communicator has been modified with a secure channel to me and to your friends. Whenever you need help, I’ll be here. What should I do about the floors? It rips my soul to shreds to see what I’ve been forced to do to those poor wretched creatures.”

“Do whatever your heart tells you, Josephine,” Nemesis said, “But remember we must keep up appearances until Hanna returns. The Emperor and the Cadre don’t monitor the floors constantly. You know this so I leave it to you as to how you keep up the façade. Neither the Emperor nor the Cadre must know anything has changed. When Hanna returns for Selina and her friends, she swore to me that she was going to destroy the sex floors and the kitchen after saving those poor souls from that hell.”

“Yes,” Josephine crowed with delight. “And I will help her do it. Those places don’t belong in this world. I believe I know what to do now. Thank you for everything, and when Hanna returns, I’ll be ready to reverse her mutation and to help her save those poor souls who are being destroyed on the floors.”

“You won’t have to wait long,” Nemesis stated. “That’s a promise. Now, I must disappear into the bowels of the dungeons to wait for our friends.”

“Go with the gods,” Josephine said. “May Fate shine her favor on you and the rest of us.”

“Amen to that,” Nemesis agreed. He turned and left. Minutes later, he exited the core and saw Josephine lock the door while creating holograms of the guards. From there, Nemesis retreated to the secluded room where Hanna bid him to wait for her.