Condemned to Live, Compelled to Seek

The order appeared in his field of vision.

OBJECTIVE: NEUTRALIZE THE CISIRIAN FREIGHTER.

The search-and-destroy battalion had been traveling through space for some time when it received the order. Tomás Varela set off alongside his squadron. Around him, dozens of soldiers advanced in formation, propelled by the thrusters of their S.E.R.A. suits —Synthetic Exoarmor for Response and Adaptation.

Every soldier wore one of those armored suits. None moved ahead or fell behind; they maintained their positions with absolute precision, as though their movements were part of a choreography rehearsed to perfection. Course corrections were executed simultaneously, without any need for communication between them.

Their orders were to reach the Cisirian freighter and neutralize it. They traveled for thirty minutes before arriving at the designated coordinates. Before them stretched an enormous vessel, a rectangular structure comparable in size to Earth’s Moon. Its dull gray surface was covered with strange symbols resembling ancient hieroglyphs that ran from one end of the hull to the other. The engravings emitted a ghostly greenish glow, giving the ship the appearance of an immense monolith suspended in space.

Suddenly, countless hatches opened across the freighter’s surface, too many to count. Enormous cannons emerged from them and began turning toward the battalion. They had been detected. The enemy opened fire with its massive arsenal to eradicate the approaching threat.

A barrage of missiles and energy beams struck the formation. Tomás’s squadron was at the front, and its members were the first to come under attack. This was neither a coincidence nor a mistake on the part of their superiors: it was precisely the purpose of Zero Squadron, a unit composed of R.E.S. soldiers —Resurrected through Engineered Synthesis—, human beings brought back to life and subjected to a system that controlled their movements and prevented them from disobeying orders.

Their duty was to serve as the battalion’s vanguard, absorb enemy fire, and open a path toward the objective. Individual survival was not among the conditions required for mission success. Their bodies could be destroyed, but as long as they retained the ability to execute an order, they would continue doing so.

The first impacts tore several members of the squadron apart. Fragments of metal and bloodied flesh scattered in every direction, mingling with the wreckage of their shattered armor. One soldier was struck by a projectile that pierced his torso, tearing away part of his abdomen and leaving his organs exposed between the mangled plates of his S.E.R.A. His body continued advancing, propelled by the thrusters that still functioned, until a second shot finally destroyed him.

Tomás watched his comrades die. Some vanished amid the explosions; others lost limbs and continued moving with whatever remained of their armor. The soldiers who retained the ability to advance, even when gravely wounded, pressed forward without attempting to protect themselves from the next attacks. Their thrusters maintained their assigned trajectories, as though the casualties had not altered the course of the operation in the slightest.

No one broke formation. None screamed or attempted to help their comrades. Those soldiers were human. They felt fear and pain, but their bodies continued executing orders without allowing them to express their suffering. Their faces remained expressionless while their armor systems recorded elevated heart rates, extreme physiological responses, and injuries that would have incapacitated any human being.

Zero Squadron continued advancing toward the Cisirian freighter. None voluntarily moved ahead or fell behind; those who could still move maintained their positions, obeying with the same precision they had displayed at the beginning of the operation.

As they approached the freighter, a new instruction appeared on their interfaces.

ASSAULT AUTHORIZED. DIVIDE INTO TEAMS OF TWENTY UNITS.

The formation began to break apart. The R.E.S. divided into teams of twenty and performed evasive maneuvers while returning enemy fire. Their thrusters launched them in different directions with violent accelerations, while the stabilization systems of their armored suits attempted to reduce the forces transmitted to their bodies.

Tomás followed the trajectory assigned to his team until they reached one of the freighter’s open hatches. Beyond it stretched an immense landing bay. The twenty soldiers passed through the opening and entered the ship. As soon as they crossed the threshold, they began firing at the organic and mechanical forms appearing on their sensors. Their orders made no distinction between hostile units and any other presence that might interfere with their advance.

The first defenders were quadrupedal machines with armored torsos, articulated arms, and turrets resembling enormous cannon heads. Some were equipped with laser weapons; others used projectiles and missiles of various calibers. The R.E.S. advanced through the bay, eliminating the defenders they encountered, until the fighting spread into the interior corridors.

One of the soldiers took a direct hit to the arm. The projectile pierced his armor and destroyed part of the joint. Exposed bone and torn muscles were visible between the deformed plates. The limb remained attached to his body by a small portion of tissue, while blood escaped through the openings in the armor.

The soldier did not scream. His interface recorded a sharp increase in heart rate and an extreme physiological response to pain. The S.E.R.A. sealed the breach in the armor, applied compression to the wound, and partially immobilized the limb. Auxiliary mechanisms took over some of its motor functions, although the biological damage was far from repaired.

The soldier continued firing. His face remained motionless, even as the armor’s sensors continued recording his body’s reactions to the suffering. Tomás advanced alongside him, eliminating the defenders attempting to block their path, until they finally managed to make their way into the freighter’s corridors.

The passageways opened into an immense chamber that appeared to be empty. For a few moments, the echoes of metallic footsteps and the hum of the thrusters were the only sounds disturbing the silence. Large conduits crossed the chamber, supported by columns that rose toward an upper deck. Between them stood structures of unknown design, resembling gigantic statues.

The same symbols that covered the outer hull were engraved into the columns and statues. Everything was illuminated by that strange, ghostly green light. It was curious: the illumination seemed to distort shapes and outlines to the human eye, as though human senses were incapable of correctly interpreting what lay before them. At first glance, distances were difficult to judge, and some objects seemed to change shape depending on the angle from which they were viewed. However, the S.E.R.A. suits’ optical sensors reconstructed the chamber’s geometry and overlaid its details onto the images received by the soldiers, compensating for the limitations of human perception when confronted with that phenomenon.

One of the team members approached a structure that appeared to serve as a computer. It was a solid block of metal resembling a polished stone, with no visible openings, screws, or welds. The soldier extended a hand and began examining it with his armor’s sensors. A few moments later, a notification appeared on the team’s interfaces.

COMPLEX MAP ACQUIRED.

POWER SOURCE IDENTIFIED.

OBJECTIVE: DESTROY THE CENTRAL CORE.

A marker indicated a region inside a structure that, according to the reconstructed map, had a layout resembling a pyramid. The freighter’s power source was located there, connected to an enormous energy distribution network extending throughout the complex. Destroying it would trigger a cascading failure of the ship’s main systems.

The soldiers received their new route and, just as they were about to resume their advance, a thunderous noise shattered the apparent tranquility of the chamber.

From one of the entrances emerged a machine unlike the defenders they had encountered before. It stood approximately six meters tall. Its structure resembled that of a tank, but it rested on two enormous articulated legs. It possessed four arms, each equipped with a firearm, and carried a gigantic axe with an undulating blade on its back. The familiar greenish light emanated from its joints, as though that glow were somehow connected to its power source. Its dark gray armor was crossed by luminous lines that flickered on and off as its systems came online.

The R.E.S. opened fire without a moment’s hesitation.

Their armored suits, ranging from two to four meters in height depending on the model, carried enough firepower to destroy the defenders they had encountered so far. They were equipped with high-energy rifles, gamma-ray cannons, and machine guns capable of firing up to five hundred projectiles per second. The latter used ammunition made from high-density tungsten alloys. They also carried missiles of varying capabilities, ranging from conventional high-yield projectiles to nuclear weapons whose use required special authorization because of the damage they could inflict on friendly units and the facilities in which they fought.

For close combat, they carried swords, axes, and hammers whose thermal edges could reach extreme temperatures upon contact, high enough to melt numerous metallic materials. Yet even with that arsenal, they could barely inflict any significant damage on their new enemy. The weapons that had torn the previous robots apart scarcely affected its armor.

The machine began moving at high speed, using its thrusters to continuously correct its trajectory. It anticipated their lines of fire, changed position before the R.E.S. could complete their shots, and attacked from angles that made any coordinated response difficult.

This did not resemble the behavior of an ordinary defensive system. There was a pilot inside, a being capable of interpreting the squadron’s movements and adapting its attacks. It did not follow a fixed pattern; instead, it modified its strategy as the soldiers attempted to find an opening in its defenses.

The first R.E.S. fell under the fire of its four arms. Some were struck by projectiles that tore off their limbs and destroyed the joints of their armor; others took direct hits that reduced their bodies to a mass of flesh, blood, and twisted metal. Those who could still move attempted to close the distance and engage it in hand-to-hand combat.

The robot drew the axe from its back, and its blade cut through one soldier’s defenses. The armor resisted for an instant before yielding to the impact. The body was split apart, and the remains began to disintegrate, consumed by a phenomenon Tomás could not identify. Within seconds, almost no evidence remained that the soldier had ever existed.

Those struck by the firearms suffered a slightly different fate. Their remains were so badly mangled that it was impossible to distinguish an arm from a leg or any other limb. At least they left something behind for the recovery systems to collect. The soldiers struck by the axe, however, disappeared almost entirely.

One by one, the members of the team fell, until Tomás was the only one left.

The other groups continued advancing through different sections of the freighter. Even if one of them had been close enough to assist him, their assigned duty remained the same: reach the core. Rescuing an isolated unit was not part of their orders.

The robot turned toward him, identifying him as its final target. At that moment, a notification appeared in his field of vision.

ENEMY ANALYZED.

PILOT LOCATED IN THE THORACIC COMPARTMENT.

The marker highlighted the machine’s chest, the most heavily protected region of its entire body.

The enemy lunged at Tomás. The S.E.R.A.’s thrusters ignited, moving the armored suit out of the axe’s path. The blade passed dangerously close to his body, but the robot did not stop. It spun around and opened fire with the other two arms, which it was not using to hold the axe.

Tomás raised his shield, and the impacts drove him violently backward until he crashed into a wall. His armor absorbed part of the force, but the impact still traveled through his body. For a few moments, damage indicators occupied almost his entire field of vision.

The enemy approached again without hesitation. It was then that Tomás noticed something strange: the floor beneath the robot’s legs showed signs of deformation. In some places, the metal had become so hot that it was beginning to melt. Every time the machine used its axe, it shifted its limbs and activated its thrusters to compensate for the movement of its enormous mass.

Its speed was extraordinary, and its corrections were almost impossible to follow with the naked eye. But it was not violating the laws of physics. Its technology did not eliminate inertia; it allowed the machine to exert tremendous forces to control the movement of that enormous mass, compensating for the loads generated by its own maneuvers. Tomás was only beginning to understand how the system worked, but he knew that, however advanced its technology might be, it had to have limits.

The robot initiated another maneuver, and Tomás directed his fire toward its lateral thrusters. The first impacts barely affected their operation. The enemy responded with another barrage, forcing him to take cover behind his shield, but Tomás continued firing until a high-energy beam finally struck one of the thrusters.

The machine lost stability for a fraction of a second. The remaining systems immediately activated to compensate for the deviation, and the robot recovered its orientation. But Tomás had seen enough. The enemy could still move at high speed; however, it now needed more time and more space to correct certain maneuvers.

Tomás aimed at its chest with the gamma-ray cannon. Unlike bullets or missiles, the weapon did not fire material projectiles, but a concentrated beam of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. The discharge struck the pilot’s compartment directly, but the outer layers of armor absorbed and scattered much of the radiation, preventing a sufficient amount of energy from reaching the interior.

INSUFFICIENT PENETRATION.

The warning appeared on his interface. The pilot was in there, protected behind that armor, and his weapons could not reach it.

Tomás surveyed his surroundings again. The columns had sustained damage during the confrontation, and some showed cracks and deformations caused by the impacts. He had also noticed that the robot avoided striking them directly whenever it used its heaviest weaponry.

One of them caught his attention. It stood near a conduit running along the upper section of the chamber. Its structure exhibited a barely perceptible curvature, and several of its connections to the floor were damaged.

“Analyze the structural integrity of the support columns,” he requested of the AI.

The interface began displaying information about the materials, loads, and recorded deformations.

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS COMPLETE.

SUPPORT IDENTIFIED: LOSS OF STABILITY.

REDUCED RESIDUAL LOAD-BEARING CAPACITY.

The column was under enormous compression due to the weight of the structures it supported. Its deformation indicated that it was approaching the point beyond which it could lose stability.

Tomás knew that physical phenomenon: buckling. A column subjected to a sufficiently large load could deform until it lost its ability to support the weight resting upon it, even before the material reached its maximum strength. There was no need to pulverize it to cause its collapse; it was enough to disturb the equilibrium that still kept it standing.

“Calculate the support’s response to an impact from the target.”

The AI processed the data, and a representation of the column appeared in his field of vision, accompanied by several possible trajectories. Tomás examined the distance separating the column from the enemy, then the indicator marking the damaged thruster.

That machine possessed enormous mass and could travel at extraordinary speed. However, with one of its thrusters damaged, its ability to brake and correct its trajectory had been reduced. If he could lure the enemy close enough to the column and make it commit to its movement, he might provoke a collision capable of destabilizing the structure.

He did not need to destroy the robot’s armor. He could use its own mass and velocity to deliver the energy his weapons could not.

Tomás moved toward the column, and the robot followed. Once he reached it, he remained close to the support, using his position to limit the angles from which he could receive a direct attack.

The enemy stopped.

It seemed to understand what its opponent was attempting. For several seconds, it remained motionless, observing Tomás’s position and the structure behind him. Then it opened one of the plates on its torso, and a vibration swept through the chamber.

The S.E.R.A.’s sensors registered a high-intensity pressure wave. The attack propagated through the chamber’s atmosphere and transmitted vibrations through the armor’s structure. He felt himself losing his balance. He was terribly dizzy, pain coursed through every part of his body, and his interface filled with red warning messages.

NEUROMOTOR IMPAIRMENT DETECTED.

INVOLUNTARY MUSCULAR RESPONSE.

SOMATIC STABILIZATION ACTIVATED.

The S.E.R.A.’s internal mechanisms partially immobilized his limbs and corrected his posture while the somatic system attempted to restore control of his motor functions.

When the wave subsided, Tomás could still feel the aftereffects it had left on his body. The robot had not needed to approach him or compromise the column’s integrity to reach him. It had used a weapon capable of bypassing his cover through pressure waves and vibrations transmitted to him and his armor.

Tomás abandoned the protection of the structure, and the enemy advanced once more. During the following exchanges, the S.E.R.A. maneuvered around the robot, using its thrusters to circle the enemy and fire at its enormous axe. It was the machine’s most dangerous weapon, the one that had caused his comrades to disappear almost entirely.

The blade repeatedly swept through the space Tomás had just vacated, while the other arms attempted to track his movements and fire at him. He also attacked with his own weapons, directing his shots at the axe, but the impacts barely left a scratch on it, and the enemy seemed to understand that its opponent was trying to destroy the weapon.

However, his real objective was something else. During those maneuvers, several shots struck the auxiliary stabilization systems. The robot began requiring increasingly extensive corrections to maintain its balance, and its remaining thrusters had to work harder to compensate for the damage.

Whenever the enemy prepared another attack with its sonic weapon, Tomás retreated toward the column. The structure could not stop the pressure wave, but it provided cover from direct fire and allowed him to recover.

The battle dragged on. The robot seemed to have understood that Tomás was using that area as a refuge and, apparently frustrated, began alternating its attacks to force him out of cover. During one of those exchanges, the S.E.R.A. activated its stabilization mechanisms once again in response to another sonic discharge, but the systems took longer than before to restore coordination to his limbs. When Tomás finally regained normal movement, he noticed a change in his enemy: the machine had begun approaching him.

Its sensors had detected the accumulated damage to the S.E.R.A., his dwindling ammunition reserves, and the effects the last attack had inflicted on his body. The Cisirian pilot appeared to have concluded that it could end the fight before its opponent managed to recover.

The robot abandoned its previous attack pattern and headed directly toward his position. Its enormous axe rose above its shoulders as its thrusters began increasing their output.

“Calculate its approach trajectory.”

The AI highlighted the enemy’s position, velocity, and the estimated capabilities of its remaining functional thrusters. A warning appeared beside the representation of its movement.

REQUIRED STOPPING DISTANCE EXCEEDS AVAILABLE SPACE ALONG PROJECTED TRAJECTORY.

Tomás looked at the column, then at the axe. The enemy accelerated, propelling its enormous body forward with the thrusters mounted on its legs. As soon as the machine committed to its trajectory, the S.E.R.A. initiated a lateral maneuver.

The Cisirian pilot detected the movement and attempted to correct its attack. Its remaining stabilization systems activated, but the damaged thrusters failed to deliver the necessary force. The enormous machine continued moving forward while its engines attempted to alter a trajectory they could no longer correct in time.

The robot began to turn, and the axe swept past Tomás. The blade caught the edge of his sword, which he used to partially deflect the blow while his thrusters completed the maneuver that carried him out of its path. The impact stripped away part of the weapon’s thermal coating, and a damage alarm appeared on his interface.

The robot attempted to brake.

Too late.

It struck the column, and a thunderous crash echoed through the chamber. The structure deformed violently; its connections to the floor began to break away, and the curvature it had exhibited before the collision grew increasingly pronounced. The impact had destabilized the support, which could no longer adequately withstand the enormous compressive load to which it was subjected.

Tomás opened fire on the damaged connections, and the last anchor points gave way. The column began to bend as the upper structures lost the support that had held them in place. Part of the upper deck collapsed onto the robot, dragging fragments of the large conduits that crossed the chamber down with it.

The enemy attempted to rise, but one of its arms had become trapped beneath the wreckage. It activated its thrusters to free itself and managed to displace some of the metal imprisoning it, although the movement further compromised the support. The column finally gave way completely, and another section of the upper deck fell onto the machine, burying it beneath several tons of debris.

Tomás remained at a distance while his sensors examined the site of the impact. He could not determine whether the pilot had died or whether the robot had been completely destroyed, but the machine had stopped moving.

The interface displayed the route to the core once more.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: PENDING.

There was no time to rest or verify whether the enemy would rise again. The mission was still active, and Tomás resumed his advance.

Reaching the core no longer presented a challenge comparable to the previous encounter. Most of the defenders had been destroyed, and the few that remained operational failed to stop him. The other teams had probably managed to fight their way through different routes inside the freighter.

It was fortunate. Tomás had consumed almost all his ammunition during the battle, and his armor had sustained damage to several systems. He would not have been able to endure another confrontation like the one he had just survived.

When he reached the center of the complex, he confirmed that his suspicions were correct: other teams were already there.

The core was surrounded by enormous structures emitting pulses of greenish light. Their geometry was as strange as that of the rest of the ship, and the symbols running across their surfaces seemed to illuminate in a sequence that none of the optical systems could fully interpret.

The R.E.S. concentrated their fire on the points indicated by their tactical systems. The first protective layers gave way, and a series of explosions traveled through the structures connected to the power source. The core’s glow began to fluctuate as several sections of the complex lost power.

CORE DESTRUCTION CONFIRMED.

CASCADING FAILURE OF PRIMARY POWER SYSTEMS.

IRREVERSIBLE LOSS OF FREIGHTER OPERATIONAL CAPABILITY.

OBJECTIVE COMPLETE.

The destruction of the core had compromised the ship’s energy network. The backup systems were attempting to redistribute the load, but failures continued to spread into other sections of the freighter, and the structures connected to the power source were beginning to overload. Anyone might have believed the ship was about to be destroyed, but that was not the objective. The intention was to disable it, probably to seize whatever it was carrying.

A new order appeared on the surviving units’ interfaces.

EVACUATE THE COMPLEX. RETURN TO THE SHIP.

The R.E.S. immediately abandoned the area.

Tomás made his way through the freighter’s corridors, following the assigned route. The green light was no longer present; a faint white glow had taken its place. Along the way, he encountered several recovery units collecting the human remains left behind by the fighting. Body fragments were removed from the wreckage alongside shattered armor, while the recovery systems identified whatever could still be retrieved.

Among those remains were his comrades.

Tomás continued advancing without displaying any reaction. He did not stop to look at them or attempt to approach the bodies the machines were collecting. His armor maintained its assigned pace, and the mission indicators continued guiding him toward the exit.

When he reached the landing bay, he passed through the hatch and emerged into space once more. The remnants of the battle floated around the freighter; fragments of armor, debris, and organic matter drifted slowly through the vacuum, illuminated by the glow of explosions still spreading through some sections of the gigantic vessel. They were evidence that a cruel and violent battle had ended, although to the battalion’s systems, they represented nothing more than material losses and units awaiting recovery.

Farther away, the surviving units were returning to the battalion’s ship. Tomás rejoined the formation and continued advancing alongside the other soldiers. Then his AI began transmitting the combat report.

“Operational analysis initiated. Analyzing ammunition expenditure, executed strategy, user integrity, structural condition of the S.E.R.A., and recorded response times.”

A succession of data appeared on his interface. Among them was the following entry:

“Physiological evaluation complete. Heart rate, blood pressure, neuromotor activity, and somatic response recorded.”

The indicators continued scrolling before his eyes.

“Transmitting report to the R.E.S. Review and Control AI.”

Tomás waited while the transmission was completed, listening only to the sound of his thruster and the noises of the integrated computer.

“Report transmitted. Awaiting response.”

For a few moments, nothing happened. The units continued advancing as the Cisirian freighter grew ever more distant.

Finally, a new notification appeared.

COMPLIANCE REPORT ACCEPTED.

NO OPERATIONAL ANOMALIES REPORTED.

Tomás finally let out a sigh of relief upon receiving the notification. He studied the result for a few moments before communicating with his AI.

“Can they tell?”

The AI initiated another analysis, checking the transmitted records and the responses from the supervisory system.

“Not yet.”

“What happens if they find out?”

“Dismantlement.”

Upon hearing that answer, Tomás felt terror course through his body. He knew perfectly well what his superiors would do to him if they discovered the anomaly, but there was something he could not understand: why the possibility of having his existence brought to an end terrified him so much.

He slowly moved his fingers, first one, then another. He had received no order. The Executive Link no longer controlled his movements; it had not done so for some time. Throughout the entire battle, he had been able to stop, refuse to obey orders, and look away from everything he had witnessed. And yet, he had continued obeying.

He felt the pain that still coursed through his body. His armor had managed to keep him alive, but none of its functions could completely eliminate the suffering of that day.

He had once chosen to die. In that life that no longer existed, he had reached a point where he could find no reason to go on. Now, faced with the possibility that they might discover he had regained his free will, he was afraid of losing it again.

Why? Was it simply his survival instinct? Some genetic alteration caused by his reconstruction? Or had he lost his mind?

He could find no explanation for his behavior. He continued obeying, enduring the pain, and struggling to conceal his freedom, even though there was no longer anyone he wished to return to, nor any place he could call home.

And yet, he was still trying to survive.