The Journey

"No, I am against your decision," Caitlyn made her position clear with her voice and posture. Standing upright and confidently, she stared down on Artemis who was sitting on his black office chair. He was wearing the bulky costume of a 'villager' or at least he was confident that he looked like a villager.

"Yes," Artemis simply answered. He gave Caitlyn little attention as he brought up a holographic interface. The holographic interface displayed the map of the eastern region, the Great Isthmus Region, and the northwestern part of the Western regions currently in the Empire's information databanks.

"I mean, why?" Caitlyn began to walk around the room. She held her head with her right hand while placing the left under the right to mimic a thinking position as if she was stressed. Artemis just ignored her and continued to skim through the interface.

"Artemis, please consider your own safety. We could just send out a battalion or two to do the dirty work while we sit here safe and sound! There is no need to always be putting yourself in the field," Caitlyn continued.

Artemis stopped swiping on the interface. His eyes moved and locked on Caitlyn who was walking around and about.  Caitlyn then stopped when she noticed that Artemis was finally paying attention to her, albeit a bit ominous in style.

"What's the fun in just asking our children to do all the work while we seat her comfortably. I, for one, would like to experience the cultures, civilizations, and wonders of this world, just cause I want to," Artemis stood up after speaking these words and headed off outside. He exited through the only door in the room, leaving Caitlyn standing in the middle.

Caitlyn sighed as soon as Artemis closed the door. She walked slowly towards Artemis' seat and sat there. As she moved her hips against the chair's fabric, she proceeded to scan Artemis' room, or rather, the brain of the Other world's hub.

Monitors, holograms and different equipment were placed around and about. She remembered when the room was an awful mess. It's only been a couple of weeks since then but she is yet to feel comfortable and confident with Artemis' safety and mental state.

But how could she ignore the wishes of her dear leader? She was but a servant, a maid or a butler. Although she possessed the same power as her counterpart, Artemis made it clear that he was the head, the leader and the man behind the wheel. Caitlyn was to sit still on the passenger seat.

Still, she was reluctant to have him go. She was going to devise a plan to stop Artemis from doing what he so desired but was dumbfounded to find out that Artemis had already set out as soon as he went down. He had hitched a ride on one of the hovercrafts returning from the eastern front. 

The Theocracy's entire military might have already been wiped out and so was the morale of what remained of their armies. Once disciplined soldiers now resorted to banditry and crime after witnessing their devastating defeats and so did the cascade of total anarchy did sweep the land. The north, central and south armies of the Machine Empire have effectively merged into one army and have continued to push into the heart of the Theocracy with little resistance.

"The Legion," Which Artemis now referred to the massive force of Androids, armored vehicles, assault craft and many more, was not en route to the holy city itself. Artemis was pleased with the victories they achieved and whatever victory the enemy may gain in the future would be pyrrhic and utterly useless.

The hovercraft that carried Artemis from the eastern front flew through the clearing skies that were once choked with ash and smoke. The sun had finally begun to shine on most parts of the forest after months of severe pollution. The Androids down on the forest below with strict orders from Artemis have so far maintained their steady progress of forest rehabilitation.

The Forest Rehabilitation Initiative, coined by Caitlyn; was the Machine Empire's reestablishment and rehabilitation plan for the decimated forest. "This is proof of human ignorance and abuse," Artemis remembered Caitlyn saying when the initiative was first being planned.

Artemis did not possess much of sympathy or empathy Caitlyn had, Artemis was still happy to have someone mimic what a normal human would have done if he was given the power to handle the situation at hand. The territories of the Machine Empire have not been clearly defined, for now, the kingdom of Atira was still a bit of a problem on the western side of things.

Although there had been no reports of any mass movements or military build-up from Atira, only time would tell.

The hovercraft landed on the grassy plains of Moöur approximately 100 kilometers east from where the nuclear missile was detonated and the storm destroyed by it.

"Orders complete," The hovercraft's computer said in a robotic voice. Artemis simply walked against the direction of the hovercraft as it lifted itself up back into the air and flew off.

To avoid any further interference from Caitlyn, Artemis managed to predict her moves, he specifically told the hovercraft to fly a straight line towards the east before turning sharp right to the south, then turn right again to the west. This was to mislead Caitlyn into thinking that Artemis went to the front instead and so would focus solely. In the meantime, searching through the front for him.

Why would Artemis want to journey alone? it was indeed safer to have an Android or two take the job instead and do the dirty work for Artemis. But Artemis wanted to find meaning, he was lost and was no doubt not going to blindly follow vague orders from a strange voice in his head for the rest of his life. He needed to understand himself better and become "human" again. He was once a human and it won't it be a shame if he dies not knowing who he was, how he was and what his life was back then?

Before the fall of humanity.

Before the war that would completely wipe life from the face of the Earth itself.

Artemis had many questions and a genuine curiosity of what this new world of fantasy would bring him and thus his sole desire to discover the truth and meaning of it all eventually culminated into the journey he will now undertake.

"This is nice," Artemis said as a whisper. He stared at the wide plains in front of him. Over the dancing grass, he slowly walked. His clothes looked heavy and drowsy and in fact, they were but Artemis neither struggled nor did he stagger with his footing. He walked as if nothing was out of the ordinary. He wanted to blend in with the nature of the world and so, how about he dressed as a lowly villager? a peasant under a lord who was fat and obnoxious? That was the stereotype Caitlyn told him about before revealing his true intentions of having a journey.

Michael and Johnathan, Artemis' two Elite Guards and sapient Androids voiced their concerns on Artemis' intentions and overall decision.

"Please no!" They both would say repeatedly before Artemis would tell them to shut up. They insisted that they come with him but instead, Artemis directly ordered them to stand down and command the army and annex the lands of the Theocracy for him. He made it clear that he wanted to be alone in this journey of his and thus his two sapient Androids had to concede and follow orders or else they be consequences.

Liz and Valentine were yet to report back to the Machine Empire, although no signal of their demise was received, Artemis was getting anxious. Anxious not because he was going to lose two human pawns, but anxious that they may compromise the Machine Empire and leak vital information to the enemy. Artemis and his machines had the technology to extract information from the minds of their captives and so there was a high chance that the enemy also had the ability to do the same but with magic.

Magic was indeed a headache and a pain to deal with it. He indeed learn his lesson when he ignorantly ordered more Androids and Gunship Drones to neutralized Joan. And the spells {Return to Zero} and {Fallen Down} are proof that magic can be taken seriously.

"Now, where the hell am I," Unsurprisingly, Artemis only had a vague idea of where the hell he was. Sure, he had maps and read it all but specifically he did not know where to go, he knew this vast grassy plain was called Moöure but that's it. The nearest village? well, it was a few kilometers away, though.

Then, if that is the case, why can't he just scour the Machine Empire's vast databanks? Why did he not plan ahead?

To answer these questions, one must assume that Artemis wanted a bit of adventure. He only wanted to know where he will land and the nearest settlement he'd go to and just go with the flow of everything that will happen over the course of his journey.

His first objective was to walk through these grassy plains for how many hours and reach the village. Well, not exactly walk but use his embedded thrusters in the palm of his hands and sole of his feet to hover his way across.

And so he did, he opened his hands and pointed his palms to the ground. The thrusters then activated at the same time, first starting with a mild burn before powering enough to lift him off the ground. The grass below him was burned expectedly as the sole of each of his feet erupted into a burst of hot propulsion.

He thought that he looked majestic as he glided through the grassy plain.

But Artemis may imagine an overly bloated old peasant just gliding midair across some green grass and you'd get the idea of how he looked. He actually looked ridiculous. He floated over the grass for an hour before he stumbled upon a thin dirt road. It stretched from the north to the south and of course, Artemis decided to follow it up north or else he'll be back within the reach Caitlyn and had a chance of being asked to go back which Artemis would refuse.

The dirt path was shaggy but it was not as if Artemis was going to really use it for walking anyways. He was going to float over it like a weird ghost and glide through the air with such steadiness and precision that it would make any local wonder if a ghost or a spirit had escape the depths of the underworld and has decided to glide through the dirt road to haunt its next victims.

Probably to eat someone's baby. Thankfully, Artemis was not a baby-eater, although he could be if he needed or wanted to.

The sun was shining bright. The entire landscape was basking under its bright embrace and grass continued to dance with the slow warm breeze. The night was approaching but the sun was still in the sky. A few hours before dusk would settle and Artemis would need a place to stay for awhile, he can't just suddenly pop up at the front gates of a settlement in the middle of the night and expect to get a warm welcome.

Suddenly, his eye monitors started to flash red. Something was up and it was surely a threat.

[Danger: High concentrations of radiation detected]

"Radiation? Nuclear kind?" Artemis thought as he continued to float over the road. He tried to scan his surroundings but he found no evidence of any radioactive spill, damage or anything wrong with the greenery. Something was wrong and he knew it, but the real question was, does he possess the necessary counter-measures to counter this unknown threat?

Artemis disabled his thrusters and his feet slammed against the ground. The gravity was also weird. This was no natural occurance, most likely...

He was being ambushed.