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Location: Wastelands, Epitaph.

Time: 01:20am.

Year: 2092, March 1st.

The plan was simple; get into a complex of warehouses and buildings that made up Epitaph, plant explosives next to a four support beams, and get out quietly. It shouldn't have been hard. But now we were trapped. I kept rotating to find tens of pairs of orange eyes looking down at me and Cam.

"I don't suppose you have any plans." Cam said; "Do you?"

I looked around and saw nothing; just boxes, shelves, crates, more boxes. Nothing that could be of much use. The Demons would pounce on us before we could even reach an exit. I just cursed under my breath, and gripped my rifle even harder.

"I'll take that as a no." Cam sighed. "If we're lucky, I may have the right tool for the job."

We were back to back, but I heard Cam fumbling around in his clothes and belt for something of use. It didn't take him too long to pull something out. I turned around to see what he was holding; it looked like a thick, disk-like shape with a digital timer on it.

"Pick a number." He whispered; "And don't pick a high number."

"...Five." I whispered back, playing along. With any luck, it would be some kind of smoke bomb, or a flash grenade, or even some kind of device that would distract the Demons would be useful.

Cam pulled the pin out, and the timer started to count down. He rolled the disk into one of the corridors around us, and counted down silently. Once he reached one, I heard a loud shout from the direction of the disk; shouting ‘COME ON' repeatedly. I almost couldn't believe what Cam just did. The disk was a Militia made ‘Screamer bomb'. It was regularly used to draw attention the other way, but I didn't expect him to resort to such slyness. It was more suited for a Fox.

We ran the other way, watching the orange eyes gathering around the opposite corridor.

"You're a crazy bastard, Cam." I said. "You know that?"

"You're not the first to say that." He replied; "But now to business."

In one smooth movement, Cam stopped and gripped my arms, forcing me into a wall. I struggled, wondering what he was doing.

"We don't know what this ‘Epitaph' thing is." He began. "But I know its bad news, and you're going to help me. That's what squads do; they help each other."

He loosened his grip and let me go. I was about to ask what had gotten into him, but I realized that I was also curious about Epitaph. It wasn't a building. It was something more; and helping Cam just might tell me what it really was.

"Commander; I've been separated from Cam." I said into my headset. "I'll try and find another way out."

"Copy that, rookie." He replied. "We can't stick around forever; so double your pace."

Cam turned off his headset and took off his helmet.

"Look around for a staircase of some kind." He said. "Keep quiet and whatever you do, do not talk about this to anyone other than me. Understand?"

I nodded obediently. I was clearly disobeying the Commander's orders, but I let my curiosity get the best of me. We both went our separate ways. Cam was going up, I was going down. I cocked my gun, and breathed in deeply. I just realized the danger I was putting myself in. I had to get past tens of Demons, as well as find a staircase that could be anywhere. Maybe I would die before I even got close. Maybe I would never see Joseph or my squad again. But I had confidence that I would make it out of Epitaph alive. I was trained for these odds.

Finding the staircase was fairly easy. The only areas I had to maneuver around were a few small warehouses and large corridors. What concerned me was that none of them contained any Demons. It seemed odd that the situation had gone from our squad being trapped by dozens of them, down to me. All alone; no Demons, not even any bodies.

The door was marked ‘Underground: Key Personnel Only', and was made of pure, thick steel. I cursed under my breath; there was no way that I would be able to get through the door. Luckily, the walls weren't as strong as the door itself. The walls were all made of simple plywood, or were pure drywall, making it easy to bash through. I flipped my rifle around so I was holding the barrel, and repeatedly swung my rifle from my right side into the wall. Pieces of dark grey wall were constantly flying outwards, almost covering me. On final strike had caused the wall to collapse, and another doorway to form.

I walked through the opening, turning on my floodlight. Though power had been restored to the building, no lights had been installed in the staircase. My light had revealed a long flight of metal steps that kept turning inwards under the complex. I felt like I had walked on for hours until I finally got to the end of the steps. I figured that I was at least half a mile underground.

The floor was the same as the steps; cold, metal, and completely without rust. There wasn't even a sign of cobwebs on the walls or corners of the room. I had came out in a large, empty opening; possibly another warehouse, but still without any lights. The walls were like mirrors; I stared at my reflection, revealing that my Arch-Angel armor had been stained with blood. It must've been Demon blood; I didn't remember anyone other than them getting injured.

I constantly felt something snaking around my feet, but not moving. I looked down to see dozens of wires that linked from the walls over to the far end of the room. I broke into a jog over to the end of the room, casting my shadows all over the room. I reached the end wall, which revealed a section of black wall that had the other ends of the wires attached to it. I heard a low hum as the wires began to spark and crackle.

Suddenly, the whole room was illuminated. All of the mirrors on the walls had lit up and almost blinded me. I staggered back from the wall and tried to rub my eyes, but only ended up hitting my visor. I pulled my helmet off and dropped it to the floor. I looked down at my helmet, and spotted a small rectangular tile next to the black wall.

The tile had started to rise up. I followed it as it also met another tile that was coming down. They both attached to each other, forming a large tile that began to turn to static and project an image in a blue background. It was the same Dragon that I saw on the projector, but a bit older and taller. I leant forwards to touch the image.

"Greetings, my Lord." The Dragon introduced, causing me to stumble back, and almost fall over.

"You seem less... agitated than before." I muttered to myself. Unfortunately, the image had heard me talking to myself.

"Statement: I apologize for the previous model you may have seen." The Dragon said. "You may want to consult maintenance and/or maintenance procedures about this occurrence."

I sighed. I would end up putting one sentence in and getting a life story out of the damned machine. I thought for a moment; Cam needed me to get some information out of this thing, so I decided to ask some basic questions.

"Who are you?" I asked. "Are you just a computer, or a real person?"

"Answer: I am E.P.I.T.A.P.H." The Dragon answered. "My image is centered on my creator, a now-deceased sentient Dragon."

"Who is your creator?" I asked, thinking up of more questions. "What does Epitaph stand for?"

"Answer One: Information not found." Epitaph said in a monotone voice. "Answer Two: Information not found."

I groaned. Obviously, there was a limit to what and how much this computer knew about the facility. Never the less, I asked more questions, and delved deeper into the facilities origins.

"Tell me about the construction of Epitaph." I commanded. "After that, tell me about your creator."

The machine paused for a minute, and looked around the room; as if it was looking for something.

"Answer One: Epitaph was constructed in 2020 as a city." The computer began. "One standard decade after the city's construction, it was destroyed in 2030 due to unknown circumstances. This facility was constructed from the ruins, and Epitaph is now the given name to this program."

I was surprised; the computer didn't know about the nuclear meltdowns that covered over half of the planet. It seemed odd that a machine as advanced as this didn't know about such an event.

"Answer Two: My creator is known to most other sentients as Odin." Epitaph continued; "Named after the Norse All-God; lived from the year 1977 up until 2040. He had been subject to immense radiation poisoning and mental conditions, resulting in delusions, and mental insanity. Needless to say, he was considered useless by his coworkers and was murdered with ease."

My ears perked up. It sounded as if the computer was showing feeling for something. I also noticed that the Dragon had lived past the nuclear meltdown disaster. I gripped my gun, but continued with questioning.

"What do you know about Demons?" I asked simply. "Do you know anything about Arch-Angels?"

"Answer One: Demons; Description; Evil spirit, or a person who does something with great energy or skill." Epitaph explained. "Answer Two: Arch-Angel; Description; Chief Angel. Is there something else you require?"

Clearly the machine wasn't advanced enough to know what Demons or Arch-Angels were, so I simplified my question.

"Give me a summary of any mutation outbreaks in this facility." I commanded. "Any radiation occurrences; everything."

"Full Summary: There have been several reported outbreaks of radiation and mutations." The computer stated; "As well as CI measurements of up to one hundred thousand units; over ten times as much as a standard sentient can take. This may explain my creator's death, as previously mentioned."

I paused for another moment. Epitaph was showing a sense of emotion again. I raised my gun up to the screen.

"You're feeling." I accused. "What kind of machine are you?"

"Statement: I... I am Epitaph." The computer repeated in a deeper voice. "Who...who are you?"

"I am Kobalt Kaiken." I played along; "Arch-Angel and protector of Arpeggio city."

"Welcome Sir Kaiken." Epitaph replied. "Tell me... what is heaven like? What will become of me? Is there any redemption for me? What I have done and how I have done it?"

"I don't know." I confessed. "I'm not from heaven. I'm not a real Arch-Angel. It's just a title."

"But you still WEAR IT!!!" Epitaph shouted. "I'm sorry... you're no God. No Angel. No Demon no Spirit NOTHING!!!"

My hand was on my trigger. I was close to destroying the screen; If only to silence the clearly busted machine.

"I think I've got as much as I need." I muttered. Just as I was beginning to walk away, I felt a short thud from above me. Three more thuds had followed. I stood still for a moment and wondered...

"Critical failures in all systems." Epitaph said in a monotone voice again. "Please evacuate to safe distance. This is not a drill."

It suddenly hit me. The charges! The squad must have set them off. I was about to be caved in this place unless I got out quickly. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the way I came through. It must have been blocked by one of the walls. I cursed loudly and hit the wall with my gun. I was going to be buried alive, and I felt so helpless.

"Kobalt Kaiken, please report to ascension pod zero-three." Epitaph said. "Thank you."

I turned around to face the screen. By now, it had closed again, and behind it, the black section of wall folded downwards to reveal a small seat. I stepped forwards to inspect it; it had a number three on it, so I guessed that it was the pod that Epitaph was talking about. It was my best bet of getting out of this hellish place, so I picked up my helmet and slapped it back over my head. I backed up and forced myself into the seat.

The wall had folded back up and I was left in the dark again. My floodlight had run out of energy, and I didn't have any spare batteries to insert. So I just waited for the pod to start up.

I heard a quiet fizzing noise, and I felt slightly out of breath. As the noise continued, I was slipping further from consciousness. The pod was running out of oxygen, but had begun to start up. I could tell from the loud humming and constant shaking.

I was starting to ascend. Hopefully, my squad would still be there once I got up to the surface again.