Automaton

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.

It was December 24th, 3021 when the crew of the UFG Sagan detected a faint signal on their journey home from a peace conference on the twelfth moon of Ultio. The crew consisted of four members: Hamlet, Kraken, Cano and Marcus.

Hamlet was the captain of the starship; he wore a scar on his right cheek that he got as a child during the insurrection on his father's throne. He was the would-be prince of the planet Orcus that was lost to the Automatons, an army of robots created by the humans to protect the very planet they destroyed. Kraken, the demolition expert, was a career criminal who was sentenced to life in prison for single-handedly taking out a fleet of UFG starships all because of a bet. After serving only three years of his sentence, he was acquitted by the UFG and recruited as a Special Operative. Cano was the medic and by far the largest member of the team. He spent the greater part of his life on the small planet of Elysium, where everyone was family and violence was all but non-existent. Finally, there was Marcus, the recon. He was as ordinary a person as you could be. There was nothing exceptional about him and he had no special talents.

The four men sat in the control room. Hamlet being the captain, sat in the middle of the room on a large chair. He was in charge of navigation. On his left was Kraken and his right, Marcus. In the back of the room, facing away from the others, was Cano. While on the ship, Cano was in charge of watching their six.

"I'm picking something up on my radar. About 1 parsec off course." said Marcus from behind a large monitor. He was immediately intrigued as this was the first time anything unplanned had occurred during his tenure in the UFG.

"A bit of a ways away, don't you think?" asked Hamlet.

"It's a distress signal. Someone could be in trouble!" exclaimed Marcus.

"I agree. For all we know, it could be one of our own men out there." added Cano, who had turned around in his seat.

"Kraken, what do you think?" Hamlet asked.

A crooked smile formed on Kraken's face, "Let's do it. Besides, if there's trouble, we'll just blow them to kingdom come."

"Excellent point." replied Hamlet. Then, under his breath, "Very original." He addressed Marcus, "Send me the coordinates."

Excited that he might finally see some action, Marcus pressed a button on his monitor. "Sending coordinates," he said.

Hamlet entered the coordinates into the navigation system and pushed forward a lever on his control panel. "Fasten your seatbelts everyone, we're going off course!" Finally, he hit a flashing button on the panel and the ship went into hyperspace.

After about 10 seconds, the ship came out of hyperspace and stopped in front of a small escape pod. The pod was damaged and had a cracked window on its side. The men got out of their seats and walked over to their ship's front window to get a better look.

"It's an escape pod," exclaimed Marcus. "We need to help them!"

"What's it doing all the way out here?" asked Cano. Just after he asked this, the pod rotated to reveal the Automaton insignia.

"That's no UFG pod," stated Hamlet. "Back to your stations!"

Everyone returned to their seats. Hamlet pointed at Marcus, "Map out the pod's trajectory." Next, he addressed Kraken, "Put our weapons on standby." Then, he sat back in his seat and awaited further information from Marcus.

A look of terror formed over Marcus' face. He turned around in his seat to address Hamlet. "It's headed towards Salus." The entire crew went silent, all eyes were on Hamlet.

"This can't be right. We were told Salus was unable to be detected." stated Hamlet.

"Well, they found us. I don't know how, but they did." retorted Kraken. He then used a joystick to lock onto the escape pod and placed his finger over the fire button. "Just give me the word and he's gone."

"Sir, I don't think this is a good idea. Those things have trackers on them. If we destroy this bot, a hundred more will be on their way." Marcus chimed in.

Hamlet's eyes darted between the men and the pod for a few moments as he considered their situation. "Stand down, Kraken," demanded Hamlet.

"It's us or them!" declared Kraken.

"We don't know why they're out here. It's an escape pod, not a starship. We can't let our emotions get the better of us." Hamlet said.

Kraken let out an exasperated sigh and released his grip on the joystick. "Fine, but if that bot murders us I'm going to kill you." responded Kraken.

"Cano, can you pull up the tractor beam?" asked Hamlet as he ignored Kraken's remark.

"Already ahead of you, brother," proclaimed Cano. Cano lined up the pod in the tractor beam. "I've got it in my sights."

"Pull her in," Hamlet commanded.

"You got it." Cano replied. He activated the tractor beam and pulled the escape pod in.

"Are you insane?" asked Kraken.

"Look, if we blow that thing up, it'll send a signal out to the rest of them and then not only us, but everyone we've ever cared about will be dead within a month. But if we bring it on board, maybe we can take it down and re-route the bot's signal to another planet." stated Hamlet.

"That's a lot of maybes," replied Kraken.

"Maybes are all we have. Do you trust me?" asked Hamlet.

Kraken took a moment to contemplate. "Ah, hell. Let's take down this son of a bitch." declared Kraken.

Hamlet smiled. "Arm up, boys. We're heading to the docking bay," he commanded. All four of the men got out of their seats and filed into the armory which was adjacent to the control room.

"Just for the record, I did say this was a bad idea." stated Kraken as he grabbed a gun off of the wall.

"Hey, brother, if this ends in a firefight, I've got your back." declared Cano, and he gave Kraken a big pat on the back that made him lose his balance.

"Thanks, but I think I can handle myself," Kraken retorted.

"Everybody ready?" asked Hamlet.

"Yes, sir!" they all responded in unison. However, Marcus had never held a real gun before, only the rubber ducks they used in training.

"Then let's head out!" exclaimed Hamlet.

As the men approached the docking bay entrance at the end of a long narrow hall, Marcus' heart started to pound. He began taking deep breaths to calm his nerves. Cano took note of this and addressed Marcus, "Relax, it's going to be okay."

"Yeah..." replied Marcus.

At that moment, Hamlet held up a hand, signaling the others to stop moving forward. Hamlet continued to creep towards the door on his own. Once he reached the door, he looked into the docking bay through the window. He squinted his eyes to get a better look and then suddenly, one of the robot's arms extended out through the window. Hamlet ducked out of the way, narrowly dodging the strike. He began to run back down the corridor to the others. "Fall back!" he demanded.

The other men took a few steps back and then aimed their guns at the door leading to the docking bay. Silence filled the air as the crew of the UFG Sagan waited in anticipation for the bot to come through the door. Then finally, the door was blown off its hinges and the bot's two glowing eyes could be seen staring through the cloud of smoke.

"Fire!" Hamlet cried out and everyone opened fire on the bot. The bot stood its ground, not phased in the slightest by the crew raining lead on it. Hamlet noticed this and commanded the others, "Stop!" Immediately, everyone stopped firing at the bot.

For a moment, the bot remained still. Then, it took a step forward out of the smoke. Hamlet took one look at the bot and immediately images of his father being murdered flashed through his head. Full of rage, he let out a battle cry and charged towards the bot. He threw his gun to the ground and drew a baton from his side. Two blades protracted from the end of the baton, turning it into an ax. As Hamlet reached the bot, he swung the ax at its head with all of his might. However, the bot stopped the ax in its tracks by catching it with one of its hands. Hamlet's eyes went wide and the bot extended its other arm at him and pierced clean through his skull with its razor-sharp fingers. The bot retracted its arm and Hamlet's skull exploded into small fleshy bits.

The others stared, gaping in terror at the horrific sight. After they snapped out of it, Kraken and Cano gave each other a knowing nod and also charged at the bot. They too drew batons from their sides. These batons had electric charges at the ends. Kraken swung his baton but the bot was too quick and dodged his strike. In one quick move, the bot used one of its bladed legs to slice Kraken vertically in half. Both halves of his body peeled apart and fell to the ground.

The bot turned its attention to Cano, who stood his ground. He pounded his chest to show that he wasn't scared. The bot lunged at Cano and the two of them clashed with each other. Cano swung his baton but the bot easily knocked it out of his grasp. Just as the bot was about to finish Cano, Marcus began to charge at them. The bot heard Marcus' footsteps and extended its arm out and grabbed him by the face with its razor-sharp fingers and lifted him off the ground. Marcus cried out in pain as blood trickled down his face. Cano took Marcus' distraction to his advantage and picked his baton back up. He activated its electric charge and drove it into the bot. This temporarily stunned it and gave Marcus enough time to free himself from its grip. As he fell to the ground, Cano yelled out to him, "Get out of here!"

Without looking back, Marcus dashed down the hall away from the bot. Cano raised the baton once more. Before he could make another move, the bot rotated its head to face Cano and extended its arm towards him, impaling him through the chest. Then, it retracted its arm, taking Cano's heart with it. Cano fell to the ground and his body went limp. The bot then crushed Cano's heart in its hand. Bits of flesh and blood splattered on the walls.

Finally, the bot returned its attention to Marcus. However, Marcus boarded one of the UFG Sagan's escape pods just in time. The bot slowly approached the pod as Marcus entered the coordinates for home. Just as the bot reached the pod door, it deployed and Marcus was free.

Marcus used a comm in the escape pod to contact home. They answered, "This is Mission Control. What's your emergency?"

"Mayday, mayday! The Automatons are here! I repeat, the Automatons are here! Initiate evacuation sequence." Marcus cried out.