Darkness entered Altair’s view, as did the eternal feeling of isolation, the ear-splitting silence of the abyss. Unable to feel anything out in the world, yet his emotions and feelings lay bare in the open.

  A light shone before him, as did numerous windows around him. He had suffered and experienced this thousands of times, yet one memory remained still, like that of his homeland, Terra.

  Unknowingly he gazed toward a window, a window to his past and his memories.

  A man stood before the door, flowers in his hands. He knew what it was: it was him, wearing combat fatigues and a patch of the United Earth Defense Force.

  He raised his fist and gently knocked on the door.

  “Wait! I am coming!” A soft, womanly voice came from inside the room.

  Altair, watching from the memory window, stared with a forlorn face as numerous tears glided across his cheeks.

  He continued watching.

  The woman, dressed in an elegant dress, wore an engagement ring on one of her fingers that glinted brilliantly around them.

  “So?” she asked as she gently bit her lip flirtily.

  The man, or Altair of the past, brought the flowers from behind him and, with a wide smile on his face, said, “Happy 100th Anniversary since our engagement, Elena!” He came forward and hugged Elena tightly; she responded by hugging him back lovingly.

  Altair, still watching the memory window, couldn’t hold it back anymore. His chest tightened in pain. He was breathless; numerous memories of deaths, including that of Elena, started assaulting him as tears streamed down his face in frustration, then fell to the ground.

  “If only it weren’t for the precursors, we would have married each other a long time ago!” He kneeled and slammed the ground with both hands in anger and hatred.

  “Why?!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. “Just why?” His voice lost all energy as he looked at the sky, eyes wide.

  There it was.

  The clock was still ticking, like that of a child’s nightmare inside a closet, still haunting him to this very day.

  Three… two… one…

  “No rest for the wicked, huh?” he said defeatedly.

  R.E.S.E.T

  The sky gleamed with bright light as the orchestra of trumpets started to play its music again.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Altair lost consciousness and fell to the ground, lifeless.

  “Lieutenant!”

  Altair snapped awake at the Adjutant calling to him.

  “Adjutant?” he bellowed.

  Across the glowing lights in front of him, a noticeable amount of fluid was scattered on his cheeks and lap. He glanced around and at his hands, which were trembling.

  “I apologize, Lieutenant. I should have acted faster.” The Adjutant whirred at an unbearable frequency of sound.

  Altair, who had a moment to rest, finally talked about the elephant in the room.

  “Adjutant, are you expressing emotions?” Altair asked, a bit of hope glinting in his eyes.

  “I don’t understand, Lieutenant. Ever since we arrived here on this world, a certain function has been modified or something external is affecting my entire system and codes.” The Adjutant whirred. “But if that’s what you think it was, then I’ll register it as such. Let’s just set that matter aside for now.” The Adjutant’s voice and tone fluctuated throughout the ordeal.

  Altair lowered his head and rummaged through his mind for a possible explanation. However, it came back fruitless, so he decided to accept the outcome temporarily until more evidence surfaced.

  Yet somehow, deep down, if it really was the case, he felt strangely comfortable and happy. Perhaps the knowledge of being able to talk to someone real, even if it was an artificial intelligence, was what gave him solace throughout the past years.

  “I see,” Altair decided to push the matter back. “What is the current situation?”

  “Lieutenant, we seem to have regressed to the moment when we were about to rise up and the abominations appeared.”

  Altair gazed down at the metallic sheen of the floor as it reflected his face. He was seeing himself, but to him he could only delude himself and pretend he was seeing Elena—her memories, her warmth, his love and her love, nights of mingling together, and their dreams together.

  Just like the reflection, it had changed, and once he moved out of view, it eventually disappeared.

  He knew it was pointless, so he narrowed his eyes, then pivoted back up.

  “Adjutant, blast the biological signal in a three-hundred-sixty-degree wave around us, amplify it, and focus on the incoming threats,” Altair said as he firmly gripped the controls—not with anger nor hatred, but with sheer desire for peace.

  “Affirmative, Lieutenant!” From the hull, a compartment opened, a sleek antenna rose meters above, then stretched out and spun around.

  From the interface, numerous figures appeared. “Filtering…” the Adjutant murmured until a few biological signatures remained. “Done, Lieutenant!” the Adjutant said plainly and decisively.

  Just like before his death, he once again saved the male sentient species so that only slight changes would occur from before his death.

  As Altair readied himself, the abominations started to move at an increasing pace kilometers away from him.

  “Lieutenant, there is an anomaly in the system,” the Adjutant whirred suddenly.

  Altair’s heart almost jumped out; however, the Adjutant continued, “I am detecting the atmospheric particles that I observed in the environment after we killed the abominations earlier.”

  Altair raised an eyebrow in confusion as he gazed forward, never leaving the movement of the abominations.

  “Elaborate, Adjutant,” Altair ordered decisively.

  “Preliminary research suggests that the atmospheric energy could be used as a substitute for powering the Ironside, Lieutenant,” the Adjutant continued. “It also seems to be very malleable; however, more time would be needed for me to research and decode it properly,” the Adjutant buzzed.

  Although Altair had his suspicions about the strange atmospheric energy they encountered, he could not ignore its current benefits and mysteries; however, caution would be needed.

  “Alright, we’ll talk more about it later.” He gazed into the interface at the abominations now merely hundreds of meters away, approaching.

  “Understood, Lieutenant!” the Adjutant said with an uplifted tone.