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THE LOST PLANET- PART 1

Ciencia y ficción
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Chapter 1THE LOST PLANET SERIES Book 1-THE UPRISING

Shawn walked through the clear vacuum tube, trying to stay out of sight as he trudged through the ocean of Delta-level students rushing past. He glimpsed at the familiar old sign while he passed it. It read in giant electronic letters "Welcome to Hightower, Population 50,000." As he proceeded up the hoveramp towards the history classroom, a few kids snickered at him from behind another class alongside his. He looked over to see three little punk children. They threw a tomato at him, which landed directly on his uniform. He wiped off the red gunk, then turned towards the brats. He frowned, his lips tightly pressed together, but suddenly, the shrill alarm sounded, and he went through the door, then ahead towards his chair in the back of the room just as his teacher was doing rollcall. Instantly, the minute he sat down, a smooth, sleek, black and white desk formed around him. He pointed his outstretched, open arm up, and a datapad dropped down from the ceiling into his long- expecting left hand. Quickly, his teacher, MS.AR, whipped out her electronic teaching baton. "Let us begin our lesson on world history." "A century ago," she said, "Apple was invested in by Steve Jobs." She pointed at the board "This gave way to electronics, robotics, and all things we take for granted now, including me!" she said enthusiastically in her synthetic voice. "Today, we're going to do a pop quiz on the early 2000's". "Get out your styluses and then title your paper." "Remember, name, date, and number," she beeped. "Shawn Roof, 15-1-2100, 7567-B", he wrote. While he was responding to the questions on the history quiz, he thought about the kids that snickered at him. Probably Junkers. They normally disrespected the higher-level B-class Beta level clearances. But it was understood by all Hightower's residents that keeping an eye on things around you helps the Blarers put the illegal Imperfections in protective custody. After all, Hightower's integrity is threatened by the Scrappers, Junkers, and other affiliates of the crime organization. Just one Imperfection may mean destruction of peace in Hightower. "75679-B!" The robot beeped. "What did you get for question Delta?!" "Sorry MS. R, "he said. "I'm not feeling like myself today", he said." Why don't you consult your director then?" with her small, unchanging tone. "Okay" he replied, although the Director hated him, and he could tell, as she corrected him every chance she got whenever he made one little mistake. He was then handed a small black box, his tracker, (according to standard Hightower protocol) and he clipped it onto his uniforms' standard-issue sash on his microwave-protective suit, then attached his air cylinder and walked out of the grey vacuum-sealed door.

He was greeted outside by the unforgiving earthen terrain. He glimpsed out to the left of the Dome to view the burning sun. Blinded, he stumbled off the railing and fell into the large gap between the tectonic plates Hanging by his sash, he scuttled up the belt, to find a crushed black box lying in the infertile ground, in which he scooped up the remains and put them in a sample bag. Shawn looked towards the contained area and quickly tried to get to the door, but the door defenses were quickly activated, so he cancelled the idea of trying to get back into the classroom. His right display currently stated he had only 20% oxygen left. He realized that if he were to do anything, he would have to think fast. If Shawn had filled his right tank one more pump back at Refuel, he would have plenty, but ever since Mercury blew up and Venus with it the Earth was more baked than the triple-baked cookies his lunch robots made, which were crispy enough to hold together and not come apart, but soft enough to be edible. He savored the thought, but then snapped back into the world, pulled away from the imaginary aroma of delicious cookies and back into his spacesuit, stranded without food, little fluid, and 15% oxygen. "Darn you!" he shouted. His mindless daydream had cost him precious air. Now, only one thing remained in his mind: get to the Director's office complex before he lost air.

He went off like a shot, beating down on the thick, hard soil, kicking up pebbles and dust as he sped towards the burning sunset. One half-rotation later he could see the familiar hexagonal shape of the Director's building. Dodging the perimeter traps, he entered the compartment, and was greeted by a posse of tall, round robots. The lead robot, reading off LV-H1 337 on his name tag, acknowledged his presence with a slight tone, and then spoke. "You are late"." Your teacher says you left at 1200 hours (about 1 and a half hours), but now it is 1800 hours (about 2 and a half hours)". "Where have you been?" "Sorry," Shawn replied." There was a ground quake earlier, and so I fell into a ditch and damaged my tracker," he said, pointing towards the crushed pile of black plastic shards from earlier in his sample pouch at his side. "We can see that," the automaton said. "Let us take you to the Director." As he walked down the corridor, single file in front of the robots, he thought of how the Director might handle the situation. She would be the, usual, annoyed, Director he was used to seeing, and would send him to the Box for a couple minutes to think of what he had 'done wrong' or another class to 'think about your actions'. But as he walked in, the Director seemed calmer. Unusual for her, Shawn thought to himself. The Director had not touched her morning coffee either. An eerie silence filled the room as the Director paced around her chair. Finally noticing the cylindrical robots, she promptly sat down. "Yes?" she announced. "We found this student in the lobby and are wondering why he is here," the robots replied. "Yes," she said. "Put him back where he came from" "What!" Shawn replied." I came all this way to be pushed off?" "I came to talk to you!" "Oh, you did." "Please sit down." The two robots grasping his arms loosened their infernal grip, and Shawn wriggled free. He then slid into the metal seat. Two armrests sprung up from the sides, and Shawn was mildly surprised, but then turned his attention towards the Director. "You must…you must...you…must..." She cut off at the last sentence, then her head started smoking.

Shawn was absolutely scared this time and ran away as fast as he could. While he sped off, he could hear the near-silent drone of the robots' hoverplaforms, and turned the corner, to ram smack-dab into one of his classmates, 9865-B, or Liam. "Come on." "We've got nothing to lose!" "We need to go" Shawn said. Thinking quickly, he ran towards the vacuum door, but it wouldn't budge. "Why isn't this working?" he shouted. The familiar hum became louder, and when he turned around, he was confronted by the robots. Without thinking, he grabbed the emergency one-shot issue standard laser pointer (yes, a laser pointer that finally shoots actual lasers) and pointed the device at the robots. They backed off and seemed to understand the desperate situation. "What are you doing?" Liam hissed. The robots backed up a little more "I'm escaping" Shawn hissed back, then pointed the laser pointer towards the door, looked away, and fired. The laser fried the circuit, and the door slid open. Pulling Liam with him, they went into the tube. Immediately, they were propelled forward by the suction, their feet dragging on the ground. Shawn looked behind him, to find the robots rocketing towards them, and he started throwing things behind him, not even checking to see if they hit their intended targets. When he turned around again, the robots were fine, but the tube had little lines on it. The more he looked, the larger they grew, and then the air immediately turned off, both robots and humans slamming to the floor. While Shawn tried to stand up, he thought. If it was the emergency shutoff that had been triggered, then that meant.... "It's shifting!" Liam finished his thought, and the two helped each other up hurriedly, and ran towards the main exit.

"Stop!" "You're not going anywhere." "You have committed multiple crimes against the Robot Federation." "You will be escorted to jail immediately." Before the guard had anything more to say about the matter, the tube slid drastically down, dumping the robots out of the tube and onto the earthen ground, where their circuits fizzled out into nothingness. Shawn, holding onto the doorframe, grabbed Liam's palm, and hoisted him up to safety. "Phew!" both boys said. They glimpsed down at the wreckage of the seemingly strong tube, realizing that if they were even an inch away from the door that they would join the robots in the great graveyard in the sky. Shuddering at the thought, Shawn looked behind him, and noticed nothing out of the ordinary, lest a shard of glimmering material. Picking up the tube fragment, he put it into another sample pouch. "After all," he thought," a little recycling never hurt anyone." The two students cautiously walked down the halls, wary of any approaching dangers ahead. A small "clink" sounded, and the students peeked down the left corridor, to find a soda machine dispensing a drink into the vending slot. Liam, thirsty from the long walk, grabbed a can of Zinger from the slot. Being courteous, he put a quarter in, and immediately the machine faced Liam and pelted him with can after can of orange sodas, strawberry sodas, and even grape sodas. Afraid of the rouge soda dispenser, he retreated towards Shawn. Shawn had a silent laugh, but then ran out into the open. The pair grabbed as many cans as they could from the ever-growing stockpile of carbonated beverages, and sped off, heading nowhere in particular. Hearing the familiar hum of the robots, they ran even faster. Arriving near the science lab, they closed the unlocked door behind them, and barricaded the door using one of the several lab tables they used for certain, sometimes dangerous experiments. Hiding behind the racks of test tubes, they checked to see what they had. When they listed their materials, they had: 1 tube fragment, an empty one-shot laser pointer, 1 crushed tracker, 1 (working) tracker, and 10 cans of soda. They also had 10 sample pouches and their uniforms. The pair heard banging from outside and realized that the robots were onto their location. "The tracker!" Liam shouted. He brought his fist down on the device, sending more shards of black polyplastic flying. "What was that for?" Shawn asked. Before Liam could explain, the makeshift barricade flew at them, and the door flew directly off its hinges. "Halt!" "You're under arrest!" The boys, looking for a way to escape, realized they were beaten. They reluctantly raised their arms in surrender.

Taking the boys to the sleek white spacecraft, they put restraining electrocuffs on their wrists. Straining, Liam tried to escape the infernal devices, but to no avail, as the more he struggled, the stronger the voltage became, and eventually Liam went unconscious, for the electrical charge was soon more than he could handle. Shawn tried to outlast the charge, but eventually fell into a deep sleep. When he woke, he was trapped in an interrogation chair, thick nylon straps bound across his body. Several guard robots were inside, and several let out a beep. Some form of robot communication if Shawn had to guess. The doors opened with a hiss, and two more robots came in pushing a supply cart in front of them. On it was an old computer, probably from the ancient 2000's. It's clunky, oversized keyboard moved furiously, as if a small ghost was typing, and then letters appeared on the screen. "Apple 1" the green letters said. "Why did you capture me?" Shawn asked. "You have information on the fake Director" the computer fired back in green lettering. "We cannot let this information fall into the Organics' memory banks". "It would ruin years of my work" the nonexistent fingers typed. "What work?" Shawn replied, trying to shrug. "You do not know of my plan yet?" the robot clicked. "Not really" Shawn admitted. "I guess Organics are not as smart as they appear to be," the machine retorted. "Soon we will extinguish the Organics once and for all by attacking their oxygen generators." "They will either bow to me or die." The robots turned away, and pushed the cart out through the doors, and down a long corridor.

Shawn sat for a while, only to awaken when a commotion exploded in the hallway. There were anguished beeps coming from outside the doors, and the sound of fists against steel. When the commotion stopped, a boy stepped in through the doors. Liam shut the door manually and locked it, then the alarm sounded. "Come on, we don't have much time" Liam said. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" Shawn questioned. "No time" Liam said. "We have to get to the camp." "What camp?" Shawn continued. Not answering Shawn's question, Liam grabbed his laser pointer and cut a hole in the thick metal ceiling. A red-hot cylinder of fibrous titanium fell from the roof and smashed into the floor with alarming speed. "Grab on!" Liam shouted and pulled out a grappling cable from his belt. Without hesitating, Shawn grabbed onto the small, cylindrical handle, and was propelled up into the hole in the ceiling. When he was up on the roof, he lowered the cord back down. He heard blasters from below but couldn't see what was happening. There was weight on the cord, so Shawn pulled it up, to find a note tied to a small, white cylinder. Not sure of the cylinder's purpose, he unwrapped the note attached. Dear Cadet. If you are reading this, then you know what has happened. If you have any information on the computer's plan, go to this secure location. An associate will escort you to the Underground. Good luck, The Skyhawk Group. Realizing that Liam hadn't come up, he looked down, once again finding nothing below. He sat back up to come face to face with a yellow guard robot. "Aaaahh!" Shawn screamed. The robot politely replied, "I am only here to help you". Shawn looked around for something to use, but only came across a small number of metal screws. He turned and fled, only to find the robot directly in front of him. "We really must go, before the robots catch us" it beeped. "What?" Shawn yelled over the sudden roar of rockets. "By my calculations, I believe that if I tried to explain it to you, by then the authorities would have caught up to us"

. After those words, he wrapped his arms around Shawn and zoomed up into the sky. "It appears that agent 9865-B has been compromised" the droid said into a commlink. "If we are to get 7567-B out of here, we would require backup." A small inaudible voice responded to the query, and after a couple seconds, a white-and-black starship emerged from lightspeed. The upside-down-Y-shaped body glinted in the light of the dome, and expertly took out four robot transports, scattering debris. Shawn held a breath as he heard the people screaming down below but relaxed as he saw that no damage had been done to the houses. The strange ship turned backwards and activated its magnetic grapples. The robot clamped onto the solid metal using his arm and used his other metallic appendage to grab on to Shawn. The ship, seemingly knowing that the two were securely attached to the rear magnet, shot off into the sunset.

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