28th February 2076 – 1st Galactic Step

Shanti Street

New Dawn City

Earth

Solar System

Mud squelched under Lara's body as she fell heavily into the puddle of brown sandy muck. A booted foot stamped down next to the girl, splashing more of the thick, sloppy sludge over her round face. Lara rolled away and jumped lithely into an upright position, and then she used the back of her hand to rub the mud out of her cold blue eyes.

"Ha, throwing mud in your opponent's face. Is that the best move you've got, you cheater," sneered Lara through clenched dull white teeth. "I won that medicine, fair and square Milo. Now give it back or I'll..."

Lara never had time to finish her sentence as two more boys roughly grabbed her from behind and threw her down, face first into the sticky dirt. The mud did not bother Lara at all, but the pain of her neck snapping forward did. Then she heard the booted footfalls again and a firm pressure was applied to her upper back, forcing her face further into the suffocating swill. She tried twisting her head to the side to suck in a gasp of air, but a callused hand grabbed her dirty brown hair tightly and held her head still.

The mud went up her nose and into her mouth. The gritty tasteless gunge made her feel sick at first, until the panicked sensation of not being able to breathe overrode her nausea. Lara could hear the boys laughing cruelly and the moment she felt the pressure upon her back lessen slightly, she thrush her free arm up into the boy's crotch. She felt his body double over from the crippling blow, and then she rolled over spluttering and coughing.

The boy named Milo came at her again, while she was struggling to stand. Milo was a large rotund teenager, with a wonky smile and a pockmarked face. He also had several big red blisters, which had been caused by radiation poisoning upon his forehead and neck.

Milo lunged at Lara, but she quickly managed to use her tiny frame to twist out of his way and just as he passed her, she kicked the back of his leg. The kick sent him plummeting downwards into the puddle, where Lara had just been. Then she spied the small white and red medicine case in his back pocket. Lara kicked Milo again hard in the rib cage and then stooped to snatch the meds, before his other friend could get involved.

Lara jumped over the fallen boy and trampled barefoot through the slippery mud away from the fight. She felt a rush of air behind her as the third boy made a desperate grab for her, but only ended up overbalancing himself and crashing down on top of Milo. Lara giggled when she saw the pile of dirty boys who were struggling back to their feet, and then she spun and ran away quickly.

Lara ducked and weaved through the maze of hastily built shanti houses, that been erected on the outskirts of New Dawn City. Many of the constructions were unstable and Lara guessed that it would only take one good hard kick to knock them to the ground. This is exactly what she did to a nearby shack to try to discourage the boys from pursuing her. The metal corrugated roof collapsed in on itself and many of the wooden boards spilled out into the alleyway, leaving the bewildered occupant huddled up in the corner.

Between the startled yelps and the crashing that the tumbling building materials were making, Lara found herself giggling again as she scurried away. Lara had been homeless for as long as she could remember. She grew up in the EuroTac capital, dodging from one garbage-strewn alley to another, hiding in the shadows from the internal security officers who policed and conscripted anybody they met.

Lara was loving being in New Dawn City, for now she was free to go anywhere and do anything, within the sight of the half-hearted law bringers. She thought that the holocaust was probably the greatest thing that had ever happened in human history. Of course, she had never received proper schooling, so she did not really have a basis for comparison. Lara thought that she was very grown up for a twelve-year-old, who had never had or even wanted anything in her life, except for the approval of her younger brother Toby.

Toby and Lara had been likened to a pair of gutter rats, constantly scurrying in and out of the dark hellacious back streets around 'The Hub.' The two children had been almost impossible to catch and on the few occasions when the officers had managed to grab one of them, the other would quickly distract the guard enough that the captive sibling could get away.

Lara grinned as she remembered a time when Toby had been caught by a grouchy guard in grey and blue fatigues. Toby was screaming and kicking at the security officer as hard as he could, until eventually the guard got fed up and swiped the boy away with the back of his hand. Then Lara had whistled at the officer and bared her naked posterior at him. The guard had been so shocked by the young girl's rude actions, that it had given Toby plenty of time to escape into the darkness.

Then her daydream faded, as she rounded a corner of the ramshackle shanti town and lowered herself to the ground to crawl through a foul-smelling tunnel. The tunnel led to a partially constructed sewerage section, which had been abandoned several days ago, when the ground above had become unstable. Lara and Toby had adopted the smelly pit as their new home, at least until Lara could find somewhere else for them to go.

Then Toby had gotten sick again. This was the only problem that had been caused by the falling radioactive bombs. Toby had contracted a bad case of Acute Radiation Syndrome because he had been out foraging for food in the fields beyond 'The Hub' when the nukes had dropped. EuroTac had issued a warning to the populace, not to go out, while they tried to knock down the approaching rocket with a massive anti-missile system, but Toby had snuck out anyway.

The anti-missile system had worked to protect the 'The Hub,' but instead of destroying the nuke, it had caused it to crash near Toby. When the boy went to investigate the leaking missile, he had ended up getting extremely sick. Toby had managed to find his way back to their temporary shelter, but he had vomited several times along the way and great clumps of his hair had fallen out. So since then, Lara had been forced into sneaking into hospitals and infirmaries to steal medical supplies, pills, and potions, all to try to save her brother.

Lara clambered over a few grey concrete blocks to get up to where Toby was sleeping. Her brother was scrunched up in a ball under a thick layer of crusty cardboard. His body was very thin, and Lara could see his ribs sticking out under his pale white skin. She cursed the fact that he had taken his clothes off again, he was constantly saying that it was too hot, but really, it was just his fevered sickness making him feel warm.

"Toby?" Lara asked him as she shook him gently. "Wake up Toby."

"Ung..." grumbled Toby as his dark blue eyes blinked open slowly.

"Come on Toby, let me help you sit up," Lara said as she put her hand under his cold clammy back and helped him into a sitting position against the hard artificial wall. Then his wiry body was racked with a very painful coughing seizure, Lara rubbed his back with one hand whilst stroking his baldhead with the other until Toby regained control of his fit.

"Here, look at what I've got," Lara said proudly as she held up the small medical case.

"What's that?" Toby said in a very small boyish voice.

"Do you remember the meds that the nice doctor gave you when we first got here?" Lara said as she carefully opened the case. "Well, a crazy old man's buying more of the meds from a greedy little nurse and then he holds ridiculous competitions and contests. The winner gets the meds, and the old man just rolls round on his backside laughing and sniggering like a child."

Lara pulled out a small plastic bottle of clear liquid, a few syringes in clear wrappers and a small booklet that was full of strange inscriptions that she could not read. She leafed through the pages until she came to a few pictures of a hand inserting the syringe into the bottle and pulling the plunger up. Lara copied the diagrams in the instruction manual, until the small syringe was full of the clear liquid, then she found the mark on Toby's body, in the crook of his arm, where the doctor had previously inserted the needle.

"Hold still now Toby," Lara said softly as she pushed the needle into the same hole as before and squeezed the liquid into his bloodstream. Then she pulled the sharp implement out of his arm, it made a slight popping noise and Lara smiled brightly at her sickly brother. "Does that feel any better?"

Toby looked visibly shaken by the fact that his sister had just stabbed him and pumped him full of drugs that had come from a 'crazy man.' Nevertheless, Toby forced a smile and nodded at Lara. She knew that he was only pretending to be better; it had taken many hours for the meds to take effect last time in the medical tent. As soon as Toby had seemed better, Lara had dragged Toby out of the tent and the two had been sneaking around the shanti town ever since.

"What happened to your face?" Toby asked his mud-stained sister. "You look even more messy than normal."

Lara touched her face and felt the dried, caked on mud that almost completely covered her whole face. She licked her hand and rubbed at her muddy stained cheeks, as she tried to think of a way to answer Toby's question, without telling him about the fight.

"It's... it's... it's a disguise," Lara lied.

"Well, it looks pretty funny," Toby said trying to stifle a giggle.

"Oh Toby," Lara said smiling, happy to see her brother grin for the first time in a long time. "Why don't you get some clothes on and rest a little more while I go see if I can fleece some more meds out of that old codger. He said something about a hopping, skipping, and jumping thing, and I bet I can win that one too."

Lara gave her brother a big hug and dashed back out of their little hideout. She had already memorised the whole layout of the shanti town and had decided upon her route to where the old man was, long before she had even crawled out of the slimy tunnel. She raced through the corridors, between the poorly constructed hovels, being careful not to go anywhere near where she had tangled with Milo and his friends.

She rounded a final corner to come to the edge of the city near the entrance to the ravine, and there was the decrepit old man, with a group of children who were all jumping up and down in a deep sandy pit.

"Hey mister, got any more meds?" Lara said breathing deeply, as she recovered from her sprint through the shanti town.

"Maybe," wheezed the elderly man. "Maybe not, depends on how much amusement you give me, girl."

"I'll do anything...." Lara's sentence trailed off as she watched a few indistinct shadows appear in amongst the sandy gusts that were rushing past the canyon entrance. She could have sworn that they looked like impossibly tall humans with oversized arms, but she decided that it must have been the sandstorm playing tricks on her mind.

Then a few men came running out of the storm, with panicked expressions upon their faces. They were flailing their arms wildly and shouting in a language that Lara did not understand. Suddenly, a brilliant white flash of laser fire zipped out of the yellowy dust and cut straight through one man's body, leaving a black charred hole in his chest.

More of the white beams of death began lancing out of the storm, cutting down anyone who encountered the deadly rays. Lara just froze in place, looking over the white-haired man's shoulder, then another laser blast slashed through the old man's body and narrowly missed Lara's right arm. Lara screamed as the dead body fell on top of her, pushing her awkwardly to the ground. She shuffled out from under the man, a whiff of burnt skin filled her nostrils and she gagged.

Lara crawled along the floor as more of the laser fire flew over her head. One beam sliced through the sand next to her. Instantly superheating it into sharp glittering glass shards. She rolled onto her back, away from the hot molten glass and looked up as the sinister shadows emerged from the lightly swirling clouds of sand.

They were robots, tall thick-bodied, red metallic robots, with orange glowing eyes and long arms. One arm ended in the snub barrel of a laser rifle, while the other was clenched into a large, oversized claw. The mechanical soldier's head looked like it was far too bulbous to stay upright, and its two eyes blazed furiously as it swung its rifle up to point at a pair of youths who were running away from it. The gun flashed and the ray of simulated radioactive light burnt a hole clean through the boy's small chest.

Lara screamed again, but the crashing and smashing sounds of combat drowned out any noise she made. She rolled over again onto her belly, scrambled forward into the relative safety of the shanti town, and hid behind a twisted lump of steel. Then she heard a new sound and dared to peek out from behind her cover, to see some men fighting back against the automatons, the thudding of a rapid firing machine gun filled the air, but the slugs just bounced off the machines thick red armour.

The robot felt the impact of the bullets and in an almost human-like mannerism. It looked down to check its body was ok, before lifting its rifle arm up to blast the nuisance man away. The man however was quick enough to duck back down behind a concrete block, which shielded him from the incandescent beam of light. Then another man popped out and threw something towards the crowd of war robots, the small ball landed at the feet of one of the monstrosities and exploded, knocking the machine over, and tearing its leg off.

The noise of the exploding grenade made Lara's ears ring and she covered her head with her arms instinctively. She was more frightened now than she had ever been in her entire life. She had seen soldiers before, but she had never witnessed an actual battle. Then the image of her sickly brother sleeping in the sewer filled her mind and she knew that she had to get to him.

There was no back way out of the little house, which she was hiding in and no matter how hard she pushed against the wall, it would not budge. Lara guessed that the owner of this house must have been more skilled at building than most of the others and for that, she cursed him. Turning back to the front doorway, she doggedly decided that she would have to brave going back out into the battle and circle round the shoddy looking house.

There were at least thirty of the big robotic infantry units outside now, but there were also a lot more human soldiers too. Bullets flew and laser beams sliced across the battlefield, while more darkened shadows moved around out in the sandy desert beyond the city. Lara straightened her back, took a deep breath, and leapt out of the house, with her hands over her head and she ran as fast as she could.

The town became a blurry maze, tears filled Lara's eyes while she ran, panic stricken in the general direction of her little den. More shouts and screams followed her through the tumbledown streets. She noticed that many of the small houses were on fire and thick black plumes of smoke were rising to join the blackened clouds above.

Lara heard footfalls behind her and looked over her shoulder to see one of the dull red robots following her. The machine was missing its right arm rifle and little electrical discharges were fizzing out of its shoulder joint, while the other arm was clawing menacingly at her. The robot was much more agile than Lara expected it to be, it kept gaining on her no matter how many quick twists and turns she made.

The shambling giant's hissing and whooshing joints sounded so close behind Lara, that she did not dare to look back. She cut to the left suddenly and dived into a tiny alley. The crashing sound that came from behind as the bulky robot smashed its way into the thin corridor made Lara cover her ears again as she pelted forward. Judging by the noise that she could hear, Lara guessed that the falling debris was giving the robot some difficulty, which helped her to put some distance between them.

Lara made it to the end of the path and again cut right quickly into a somewhat broader lane. Then the shanti house beside her exploded outwards as the crimson machine barged its way through it, showering Lara in a cloud of rubble and dust. She skidded to a halt and coughed as the dust went down her throat, then she looked up at the rear of the robot. It must have heard her cough, for the devil machine spun its thick metal shelled torso round, so that its simmering orange eyes could stare remorselessly at her.

The robots slender arm rose up ponderously above Lara's head and she squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the steel fist that was about to strike her. The blow never came, for the sound of a chattering machine gun and the pinging of bullets bouncing off the robots unprotected back stole the machines attention.

Lara silently thanked whoever had come to her rescue and scooted away, back up the alleyway. She twisted round one bend and then another, just in time to see a man in dull sandy armour get his skull caved in by same the robot that had been chasing her. Lara skidded to a halt again and ducked into another litter-strewn corridor, she had almost made it back to her brother, just ahead was the slender waste filled tunnel. She lunged to the ground, slid headfirst into the shaft, and began crawling forward as fast as she could.

"Toby, Toby, where are you?" Lara screamed into the dimly lit dripping duct. Her heart was pumping, and her mind raced as she wondered just what she'd do if Toby was not there or worse if he was... if he was dead.

"I'm here," Toby said from a tiny little pipe entrance up near where he had been sleeping. "Lara, what's happening out there?"

"The cities under attack Toby," Lara said frantically. "We need to get out of here. Can you walk?"

"I'll try to sis, I get a little dizzy when I move, so don't go too fast," Toby replied as he struggled to get his thin bandy legs under him.

"You might not have a choice, Toby. Here let me help get you down," Lara said as she offered her hands up to help catch the tiny boy as he slid off the upper ledge and into her arms.

"Eww, Lara you're all sticky," Toby said and then he stopped suddenly when he noticed that Lara was bleeding from a series of small cuts on her arms. Lara had not noticed that the falling shrapnel from the broken house had bit into her skin so deeply. Her upper shoulders had been shredded and drips of bright red blood were leaking down her arms.

Toby looked thoroughly terrified, he had probably never seen so much blood before and it must have been even more alarming to see his sister drenched in it. Lara tried to smile at Toby to try to reassure him that she was ok, but it did not seem to be helping.

"Right, come on Toby, we need to go," Lara said briskly. Then she grabbed his hand and started dragging him toward the exit.

Suddenly the concrete tunnel shivered and rumbled, the air vibrated and the ground began to shake. The entrance to the sewer shifted abruptly, earth and rock spilled inwards rapidly as a massive steel fist tore the white wall open.

Toby screamed and buried his face in his sister's chest as dirt and dust flew everywhere. The arm kept digging and more sandy coloured boulders collapsed into the nauseating cesspit. Then Lara saw the robots throbbing orange eyes shining in the darkness, swirling and totally emotionless. Lara pulled Toby tight against her body. She could feel him shuddering in abject terror as the demonic machine, clawed its way into their little sanctuary.

The robot's big lumbering body forced its way into the small chamber and reached out to grab at Lara's bare feet. She pulled her feet away and began to whimper as the blood red bot's cold metallic hand brushed against her ankle.

Lara stared death in the face, she was so scared that she could not move, not that there was anywhere to go.

"Aaagghhh," was the next sound that she heard, but it did not come from her own mouth. Instead, a bare-chested man descended from a grate above the robot and crashed down upon the war robot's wide red shoulders. The man's arm muscles pulsed, while actuators, gears and metal rods that seemed to be growing out of his skin, whirred, and whistled. More metal plates covered his back and rose up his vertebrae in a pattern that made it seem like his whole spine was exposed.

The man's massive arms gripped the robots large head tightly and then the gears in his arms spun even quicker as he began to pull the monster machines head off. Metal cracked and cables snapped as the head started to lift off the robot's body. Flashes of electricity surged from the severed neck joint and thick green coolant splashed all over its chest. The head came away with a pop and the half man, half machine warrior tossed it away like a piece of trash.

Lara gawked at her saviour as he turned to face her, his bright blue eyes shined strangely and his shock of bright blond hair stood on end, in thick tufty spikes. The muscles on his chest rippled and bunched in an almost hypnotic fashion.

Then the man gently picked up the two children, like they were seemingly weightless, bent his knees and jumped the eight-foot gap, back up to the surface. He carried them away from the firefight to a refuge point and carefully placed them on the ground.

"Are you ok?" said the man in the deepest voice Lara had ever heard before. Lara just nodded mutely, and the metal man nodded back and strode back towards the battle.

"Wait where are you going? Lara shouted after him.

"I'm going to smash them all into little bits!" said Lara's mysterious hero and then in a flash, he was gone.