As he had many times before Malcraft joined the line of rebels exiting the tiny citadel. He watched as two lines of exoskeletons and indigenous bots filed silently along dusty plain to meet Asimov.
In the game he was know as FaiZool, his backstory had the feeling that it had been cobbled together after Asimov had been hidden in the game, and they realised that things might not have gone as planned.
Malcraft steered his giant exoskeleton so that it hovered around thirty metres above the twin columns of players heading to the FaiZool lair. Poor fools, he thought to himself, they don’t even realise it’s not a game. He winced at the merest hint of the pain that was to come.
Being a full immersion QSID simulation meant that you felt everything, there were no pain sensors to dial back, or psychological failsafe to put into action. Each player down there would feel a terrible pain causing them to beg with wailing screams for death.
Malcraft knew that their deaths would not come quickly, the torture, the immense torture . . .
Your last second shall be as an eternity, the lives of a billion suns will pass , the last photon in a heat death-induced universe will wink out and yet your pain will continue beyond space, beyond time, you shall truly know what pain is.
He remembered those words as if they were his own, but they were the words of Asimov. He scanned the lines below looking for K-Rox and Jemima, in the end it would be the three of them, they were the ones feted to try and try again, just like he had before. Malcraft had pleaded with the Order, but they had insisted he try again, they were looking for something in the code, clues as to his method of attack. No matter that in order to do so, Malcraft had to die a thousand agonising eternal deaths a day.
Ah, there they are!
He had begun to wonder if something had gone wrong, Malcraft knew that his side had him to motivate K-Rox, and the others had Amorphia. Poor sucker, he’s been a pawn in this from the very beginning, so much effort from both sides.
I wonder how much of the story he knows? No doubt that bitch Jemima will skilfully make him believe he is aware of all the variables. However I very much doubt she has given him everything. That’s her style, or at least I should say, it is the style of most of the Jemimas, definitely all the ones I’ve killed.
Was their faith in K-Rox misplaced? Both sides seemed to think he held the key to unleashing Asimov. He did an internal shrug, it wasn’t his place to contemplate overall strategy, he was a grunt, a sharp tool, a smart weapon. His job was to destroy, kill and . . .
to die.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 52 - A Chance At Paradise
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 51 - A Time For Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 41-50
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee
Altered image by Cg