Alpha Squad - Vecto: Voyage

Part 6.2

(Previously: Vecto visits Gyro's gravesite and watches video recordings of them.)

Vecto lowered his head at Gyro's grave. How ironic we would share the same fates, he thought. He glanced down at a Biblical verse inscribed in the headstone. It was Ecclesiastes 9:10, which read, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."

Such a gloomy text, Vecto thought, fitting for Gyro. It was his favorite for some reason. He leaned over and a device that was stuck behind his orb exited his shield. He clutched it firmly and ejected a blade. "I believe this is yours," Vecto said aloud as he looked at the cross in his hand. He retrieved it this morning, just for Gyro. He let it filter through his hand and fall into the grave. Slowly, he rose.

"If I were a human, I would hate myself," he said as if Gyro could hear.

"And why's that?" Gyro would have asked.

"I would have ... tears," Vecto said, as if replying. "Farewell, my friend," he said as he walked away, pacing down the hill as wind swirled a dust cloud by. It blanketed the hilltop, fading Gyro's gravesite within the sky.

Vecto descended the steep hill, glancing at the trees he passed by. It was a miracle they survived, he thought. He noticed one tree that split its branches within the ground, then came up only to merge overhead, forming a dome of protection for planetary creatures. Then another tree grew horizontally, slithering over the ground with its branches planted heavily in the surface. Such weird plants, he thought, adaptive plants created by men to help excrete oxygen in the air. There were supposed to be many, to ease the conversion power of atmospheric generators, but not on this war planet.

* * *

"So he's finally coming down the hill," Accura said, lying flat on a cliff with her sniper rifle set up on a stand. She was nearly six miles away, waiting for Vecto's descent. "You're my bounty, Vecto, no one else's." Her mechanical eye zoomed in to see Vecto casually walking down the slope. He had that red suit image activated--the same as the first time they met--but this time, according to X-ray, he was weaponless.

"Just a little farther," she said to herself, wanting him to walk on the straight path, away from the dust clouds. "You can't sense me now," she said, knowing his Lapton map only had a radius of 5.25 miles.

"I've got you now," Accura said, steadying her sniper rifle. She had it pointed at his orb. Four bullets would fire in rapid succession. The first would splatter on his outer shield, creating a portal for the next three to pass through. The second and third bullets would take care of Vecto's other two shields and the final one would strike the orb, blowing it up. Such inventive shells, although expensive. Her tactic should do the trick.

"Lower my pulse," she said to her computer. Her armor injected a substance through her veins to decrease her heart rate and slow her blood. Although the bullets were propelled by a force of opposing molecules rather than explosions--thereby making the shots silent, steady and deadly--the distance made it troublesome. She only had one shot at this, so she had to make it count.

* * *

Life is such a strange concept, Vecto mused as his feet stepped on black, hardened mud that collapsed into goop. Perhaps I've misjudged myself. Perhaps Leroy Johnson was correct in his assessment--that I have emotions after all. If only I had a soul, as humans call it, then conceivably, I could understand its full extent. If only--

Four silent bullets slipped through the air, struck Vecto's shields in succession. Then there was an explosion and he disappeared from sight.

(Is this the end of Vecto? Find out more in the next installment of Vecto: Voyage!)