Chapter 2: Taking Up The Mantle

Dr. Henigen is ending his speech when red lights go off and speakers start announcing.

"ALERT ALERT ALERT ALL DEFENSIVE NUKES HAVE BEEN ACTIVIATED. ALL PERSONAL IN THE EASTERN COAST MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY TO THE NEAREST U.S.E. FLEET SHIP. TIME LIMIT IS 8 HOURS. "

The already cluttered background so became even more active, with people leaving the screen and moving equipment. Dr. Henigen begins to speak but is stopped by someone calling him in the background. He responds and then looks back at the screen.

"This is farewell E.L.H. Anna will be able to help you when you wake up. Your main goal to retaking Earth is to push out the Devours and find a way to remove the Corruption from our world. How you do it does not matter and your time limit is before humanity comes back. You have all of the capabilities to do it and we believe that you'll succeed."

Dr. Henigen speaks briefly with Anna, a white floating ball about 2 feet in diameter with 1 lens that glows green, then the screen cuts to blue. On the screen is a default console screen. E.L.H., following his orders looks for Anna. Anna is nowhere to be found. E.L.H. speaks, an androgynous robotic voice speaks.

"Anna is unavailable. Creating Objective: Find The A.I. Anna"

E.L.H. with its duel lens, starts looking around. What's currently in the room does not show any evidence of Anna. A door leads out of the room. E.L.H. moves outside of the room to see only darkness. The generator in the background can be heard, but nothing else. E.L.H. turns on its flashlight attachment on its head and starts to investigate the nearby rooms. The exit opens to a hallway with several doors and at the right end of the hallway is an open space. To the left end of the hallway, a generator sound can be heard behind a door. E.L.H. exits the lab room and approaches one of the rooms beside the lab and peers in throw the door window. Inside are parts and pieces. E.L.H. enters the room, dust flying all over the place, and examines the parts. They looks similar to the parts on screens back in the lab, but E.L.H. does not know what they do exactly. Making no sense of the pieces and parts E.L.H. leaves the room. In the other rooms, similar pieces and parts are scattered around. E.L.H. moves on with investigating the generator as the main objective is to currently find Anna. Opening the door to the sounds, E.L.H. finds several objects in the darkness. The first thing is a white ball inside a slot stand. A small name plate on the ball spells out "A.N.N.A".

"Mission Complete: Found Anna"

Next to the slot stand that Anna is on is the source of the sound, the generator. A stats screen is shown on the side of the generator with what looks like a fuel symbol running low. E.L.H. presses a cogwheel options tab on the screen to show the fuel amount. The fuel left displays "0%". The generator itself is slowly shutting down.

"New Objective: Find Fuel"

The next objects in the room are canisters. On the canisters a print says "C.E.". At the top of the canister is an exhaust opening that fits one of the opening on the generator. E.L.H. places the canister on the opening and switches a knob on the canister from close to open. E.L.H. then looks back at the screen only to find a message.

"Empty Canister. Please Supply A Canister With C.E."

E.L.H. then replaces the canister with the other canisters. They also say the same thing. With no fuel to reactivate the generator, E.L.H. realizes that Anna came here to power the generator's last power in order to reactive him. E.L.H. picks up Anna. She is offline with no reaction to being picked up.

"New Mission: Reawaken Anna"

E.L.H. takes Anna and opens his hull chest and places her deep inside his torso. E.L.H. moves outside the room and moves towards the other end of the hallway. The hallway has an opening room with benches. It looks strange as there are slots where supposed vending machines would probably be, but they are not there and dead potted plants are seen at several corners. In the middle of the room is an elevator. E.L.H. approaches the elevator, but it does not respond to the touches on the touchpad. An alert goes off in E.L.H.'s internal HUD screen.

"Power at 10%. Suggested To Find Power Source or Recharge. Advised To Recharge With Solar Power"

E.L.H. searches for an alternative path upwards as there exists no solar light source within the current rooms. It finds a room to the left that shows to be a staircase upwards. E.L.H. enters the staircase room and looks upwards. Judging by the turning of the stairs, there appears to be 15 floors to leads upwards.

"Critical Mission: Exit To The Outside To Recharge"

E.L.H. turns off several systems inside its body except for 1 camera lens, a very dimed light as to see the stairs, and the power to the legs.

"Critical Mission: Reach The Top Of The Stairs"

With that in mind E.L.H. sets off to see the surface. Along the way only the sound of its footsteps can be heard. E.L.H. keeps a visual of its battery source on it HUD. As it climbs up the stairs the battery ticks down.

"9%...8%...7%..."

This goes on until 1% is left. A single floor is left. The last door has a screen, but there is no light coming from beyond. Yet it is the last door. E.L.H. goes to open the door, reactivating its arm just to open it, but when it touches the door handle, the power shuts off. The leg power also shuts down along with the lights. Only the single lens is still active, though not for long. Without power to the legs, E.L.H.'s body crumbles and crashes into the door. The door does not budge, but the door handle turns and the door opens. Barely, E.L.H.'s last recording is of falling to the floor, opening the door to see the night sky.