Ouroboros

To Ouroboros

      Coda-9994 was weary to his bones when the time came. He had not slept at all the night before. Instead, he had spent it pondering everything he'd been told about his impending space journey. He would spend the entire year-and-a-half trek in an induced hibernation, during which he would need no food or water. Upon landing on Ouroboros, his vessel would fall apart, awakening and releasing him. What he didn't understand was how the hell they intended to launch his sixty tons into space to begin with.

     He stared at the sling as they lowered it into the water. There was no point in fighting anymore. Any act of resistance would only serve to hurt him more. He swam into the sling and let the crane lift him up. His own weight threatened to crush him, but it was no heavier than all the hurt he carried with him. His thoughts drifted to Jim. How would he fare alone?

     The crane lowered him into the dark shipping container. Beyond the container's walls, he heard people yelling unintelligibly. He wondered what the fuss was about. Though Coda couldn't understand what they were saying, they sounded...angry. He sent a message to Jim.

     - What's going on out there? –

     Jim's voice came through his earpieces. "A mob."

     He tried to remember what that was. A lot of angry people in one place, he inferred. Why, though? Did people other than Jim really care about him? That surprised him.

     - There's nothing they can do, though...not a damn thing. –

     "That doesn't mean they won't try," said Jim. "Desperate people do desperate things."

.........

     Sofia squinted through her mask, trying to remember who everyone was. Ice Five had insisted they all look identical. Black clothes, bulletproof vests, shields, and masks like Fiver's. The only one she could distinguish easily was Tegan, with her prosthetic foot and single crutch. They stood at the front of a crowd of perhaps a hundred protesters, shielding them from the oncoming bluejackets.

     A voice screamed at them over a megaphone. "Disperse, or we will be forced to intervene!"

     "You forced us!" shouted a civilian behind Sofia. Several others picked up the chant. "You forced us! You forced us!"

     Assault rifles pointed at them. Sofia raised her shield. She knew – they all knew – that nothing they did would stop Coda-9994 from being launched, but they had to protect these people, no matter what. There was no question about it. WOHLF was as much about liberating humanity as liberating the oceans, Fiver had told them. They had moved small stones. Now, it was time to move mountains.

     Her shoulder bumped against someone in an identical outfit to hers. They made eye contact. "Fiver?" she asked.

     A nod was the only response she received before gunshots rang out. Warning shots, but they still made everyone jump back.

     "Stay put!" Tegan shouted over the chaos.

     More shots. People screamed, and some fell down. They ran for their lives, but the guns kept firing. A few bluejackets with assault rifles ran after them. Tegan took one out with a crutch to the head, then yelled to the group. "Get the others before they open fire again!"

     "Fight back!" Sofia screamed, turning a few heads in the fleeing crowd.

     Tegan tried to run, but achieved only an awkward, wobbling jog. Fiver sprinted over and tackled a bluejacket aiming at her. The shots flew off into the sky. Sofia grabbed the gun before the officer could, then aimed it at him. She had no idea how to use the weapon, but perhaps it would threaten him into submission.