[Note: I started creating this story after hearing Schoolboy's "Project No-Autotune", I'd say it's inspiring, but you can decide for yourself. Link(warning: contains profanity): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1wGFgoocKk | I also took some inspiration from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, taking the element of people controlled by television. Enjoy my short story, hope you like it.]
There will always be times when tyrants ruled nations: Julius Caesar, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, to name a few. But, what if the tyrant ruling you wasn't a person, but a form of media? Well, this is the case of Rockhollow City. And in the midst of mindless propaganda and television shows, rebels rose; They were known as The Wolves.
-20:55, 2056, 5th TV Station, Rockhollow City-
"We don't have time for this! Just smash it, the patrol's coming!" Yelled Connor. "Not yet, Connor, buy me some time." replied Donovan calmly, adjusting his mask. "You've gotta be kidding me, man. Me, Steve and Arthur against a unit of patrol drones. I'm too young to die, I really am." Sighed Connor. Donovan looked at Connor through his grey mask, fashioned like a wolf and spoke to him, "Grow up, Connor. It's killed or be killed here. Too late to turn back now, little pup, just do it." And after that, Donovan continued his work at breaching the radio station's security systems.
"Arthur, cover me. Steve, flank the drones, I'm going in." Connor issued commands as they went to work. Arthur whipped out his heavy-duty custom M134 Minigun and stared to rain a hailstorm of bullets at the drones. The drones, notorious robots shaped like a TV screen with guns, claws and wires protruding out of it, was controlled by the Uncle Sam of Rockhollow Media- Big Al. Big Al was presented as a man in a smart, striped suit with a TV screen as a head aimed his small army of robots and guerrillas straight at those he think is a danger to his society-namely, the rebels.
The drones effortlessly blocked the incoming rain of lead as they tried to find a way to start attacking the 'deviants' in their minds as Steve dashed behind them and fired at them with a slightly customized version of a Tesla Rifle. The results were immediate: The drones were paralyzed by the sudden shock, allowing Connor to move in and shoot them, one by one.
"There we go!" Donovan yelled with triumph. "The system should be down now. I suggest we continue to the core of the station." Donovan concluded. Connor looked at him, "Couldn't you finish this earlier? We wouldn't have to waste the bullets this way." Donovan stared, "Well, I wasn't here earlier, so no, doing it earlier isn't possible. Chop chop now, we only have 5 minutes before the backup kicks in." And so the group of four went merrily along their way to the core of the station.
Meanwhile, Big Al sat on his news anchor chair, looking at hundreds of TV screens at once. He smiled when he spotted a small pack of hooded figure inside the TV stations-the Wolves. He had personally ordered the guerrillas and drones inside the core, thinking of the dead bodies of the rebels, he smiled yet again, displaying his cold and heartlessness to the world.
They walked and walked until they walked into a huge metal door. Arthur smiled and whispered, "Jackpot." Steve walked closer and kicked the door open, but they didn't expect what was inside the door: A small pack of elite drones and a squad of guerrillas in front them with guns raised and aimed straight at the door. A raspy voice emerged from a soldier who looked like the leader, "Fire!" After he issued the short and clear command, both sides whipped out their weapons and started an unfair gunfight.
A few guerrilla soldiers in heavy armor produced a large MG-300 Spartan machine gun from their backs and started shooting at Arthur. Arthur took out his Minigun and fired back, gunning down several soldiers. Donovan on the other hand, was assaulted by the drones. He was the engineer of the pack, so he had no problem dealing with the drones. While evading their heavy acidic bolts, he pulled out a mobile hacker from his waist, and jammed a hack dart into a drone. Now gaining full control of a drone, he started a counterattack, destroying the drones with ease while he hid behind a barrel, controlling the hacked drone. As he saw his teammates battle, Connor took a deep breath and unsheathed his sword: with a white blade, with the guard shaped like an eye with the blade protruding out of the pupils.
He gripped the demon-shaped hilt and charged. He took down the soldiers, slashing an hacking with his expert control with the sword. After a hard fight, they looked at the fallen enemies, and adjusted their sight to the core: A small metal sphere with red, glowing circuits. Steve then jammed a bomb and told the team, "RUN!!" and ran they did. Running into the dark, shadowy night, the sound of explosions broke the peace and tranquility of the night.
Big Al cursed silently as he watched his men gunned down by three petty rebels. He looked at the cameras, hatching an idea. It was time to turn the tables. It was time to pull out the wild card. "Lights, camera, ACTION." He whispered.
Back at the Base, where the remainders of the Wolves planned their attacks and lived, Connor was making plans for the nest attack, remarkably mature for a 25 year-old boy. One of the 2 survivors from the British branch of the Wolves, Colin approached Connor and asked, "What do we do now boss? There's only 2 stations left." Connor took off his mask, revealing a pair of blue eyes and a impressively average face, answered, "After the stations, we hit the HQ of those propaganda freaks." He smiled at the idea of releasing the people from the clutches of the evil media. "Alright boss, I'll go tell Arthur and the others," He glanced at the small crowd of operatives, talking and laughing. After hearing the news, the operatives cheered and looked at their new, young leader. Perhaps he wasn't so bad after all, thought Donovan, the eldest of them all. But what they didn't know was Big Al's plan to destroy them with the people they vowed to free; He was going to turn the people against them.
Steve walked warily down the street, scared that he would be caught on camera, and walked to a nearby grocery store. Just when he was about to enter, he noticed an unusual phenomenon. People were glued to their TV screens, which was flashing with a singular message: KILL THE WOLVES. And then as slowly as he could, he backed away from the store, trying to escape. But a pedestrian saw him and recognized his markings on his jacket and yelled, "There he is! He's one of them!" After the words left his mouth, the whole neighbourhood turned into an angry mob and started chasing him, taking a total of 45 minutes to get back to the Base unharmed.
After he briefed the situation to his colleagues, computer technician Hal spoke up, "So what do we do now? Mr. TV has turned the people against us, and there are still 2 stations and the Headquarters we haven't broke through yet." Arthur looked at him and said with a smile, "It's simple, isn't it? We kill the Big Al." Connor nodded in agreement, "He's right. If we manage to destroy the stations and kill off Al, things should return to normal. That is, if we do it before things go out of hand." And after a long session of planning, the packs went off to finish their mission.
-A few days later-
"Alright, we've managed to destroy the stations. Now, we'll break them, once and for all." Connor looked at his team of operatives as he made the announcement. Colin raised his hand and asked, "And how exactly do we do that sir? Break into 2 teams again?" Connor's face turned serious, "No, We'll leave you and Hal here for wireless communications and support. Cole will be the driver. Arthur, Steve, Donovan, you're with me." And as another set of commands were issued, the last of the rebels went off to their respective workstations, performing their duties to make sure everything goes smoothly.
-23:00, 2056, Rockhollow media HQ, Rockhollow City-
"This is as far as I can take you, boss. Anywhere closer and our ride will be riddled with bullets. Good luck, anyway." Cole, the driver spoke in his usual Irish accent. "Thanks Cole, we'll need the luck." After thanking their driver, the pack of four landed onto the wet soil not far away from the HQ. "Here we go folks, it's either now or never." Connor announced. "Anybody want waffles after this?" Steve suddenly asked. The rest of the pack looked at him. "I'll take that as a yes." mumbled Steve. "So, let's do this people!" Shouted Connor. And they charged into the facility with a roar, gunning and slashing everything in their way.
"Aaaaand action." Said Big Al, putting his TV like helmet on and connecting the wires to his neural system, controlling everything. "This, is going to very interesting. Send out all the elite drones and also, send out Thanatos to guard the doorway." "yes, master." Answered the robotic assistant. "It's show time!" Shouted Al for the last time.
Connor charged into another long corridor. Blocking his path to the door was countless elite drones. "Well damn." cursed Arthur. "Leave no survivors, NO SURVIVORS." Connor ordered. "Yessir." The pack answered. As always, Arthur took out his trusty Minigun and started to riddle the corridor with lead. Steve pulled out a Quake Hammer and attacked his enemies with a fury of shock waves while Connor was decapitating his enemies with his laser-edged sword; The upgraded version of his old saber. Meanwhile, technological genius Donovan produced his Circuit Saw and started slashing drones with his Saw. After a robotic skirmish, the boss of this 'level' appeared: Thanatos. He was wearing a cybernetic mask, and dressed in black trench coat and gloves, as well as red and black trench boots. He whipped out a Energy Scythe and said in a cold, steel voice, "Well, well, well. If it isn't the rebels. I'd give up on this little operation if I were you, because there's no way you can defeat me, one of the top 0.1% of the assassins. I am the best, after all." Arthur snorted, "You? The best? Stop kidding me, you look like a clown in black!" Connor stared at Thanatos, and attacked without saying anything. "Wow! Easy there!" Chimed Thanatos as he easily dodged Connor's slashes. Arthur started shooting Thanatos as Donovan scans his enemy's armor, looking for anything he can use for a counter attack. And then an idea sparked in his brain: the Mobile Hacker. He took out the hacker from his waist and rushed towards Thanatos, who was casually fending off bullets with his scythe and dodging Connor's attack. But he missed Donovan rushing behind his back, with his mobile hacker in hand. Once in range, Donovan jammed the dart into Thanatos' mask, and started hacking.
Thanatos froze, and Connor looked at him, puzzled. Even Arthur stopped shooting. Thanatos looked behind him with all his strength, and saw Donovan smiling with triumph. He jumped back and looked at the screen of his hacker, now displaying a 3D hologram of Thatnatos' mask, as well as displaying his vitals and another bunch of controls and setting for the mask. Thanatos looked at him and tried to speak, but only managing to mutter "you..." And Donovan looked at his screen, tapped a few buttons and shut his vitals off. Thanatos, realizing his lack of his life support system now, swore for one last time. And then he dropped to the floor, motionless and lifeless. "Well, that was easy, wasn't it?" asked Steve as he pocketed his Hammer. "I wouldn't say that, Steve. I'm pretty sure there's another half a dozen doorways before we-" Connor stopped his sentence halfway through as he kicked the black, steel door open. Behind that door was Big Al sitting on a chair with his helmet, staring at hundreds of screen inside his helmet interface as he controlled the cameras and drones with his virtual control panel. When he noticed them, he turned his chair around like a stereotypical villain and bellowed, "I was expecting you, looks like I wasn't dealing with a gang of typical mobsters, huh?" "No, you weren't, Al. We're here to finish everything you started. We're here to end this mess." Replied Connor as he walked towards Big Al. Big Al, unable to move because of his heavy interface helmet, sat on his chair as he tried to remove his helmet. Connor inching closer. Big Al trying to remove his helmet.
Utter silence.
Finally succeeding in removing his helmet, Big Al revealed his true face. A man in his late fifties, an over-average face, with deep creases on his forehead and white streaks on his brown hair. He smiled coldly and said, "Kill me if you will. I might die, but the media lives on. I might be dead, but there will be another one like me, rising in the dark and taking over when the time is right. Someone who realizes the importance of...power. The show, you see, must go on." And with his last words, Connor plunged his sword into Al's stomach and watched the tyrant of media bleed and die. He picked up Al's helmet and threw it on the floor, lighting a match and dumped it into the interior of the helmet and the whole pack watched his helmet burn from the inside. "Sir? You alright? I hear fire." Asked a concerned Colin through the comms. Connor looked up and said in a solemn tone, "Today, we mark the death of a tyrant, and the end of his reign. The people will be freed from this tyranny on this very day." And with those words, the whole pack planted a bomb and walked their way back to the van. "So...Waffles? I mean, we're done here, right?" Asked Steve as he pulled the trigger of the bomb. BOOM.
And then the people woke up from their deep slumber, finally free from the tyrant's control.
~End~
