A Ruined Factory on the Island of Majaphit (PL1)

The officer uses his small pistol to shatter the glass tube with a well-placed round.

The glass shatters as the bullet shoots through, and the officer is dumped onto the ground, soaked in water. The flames in the furnace stir and intensify, while a wispy voice bounces around the room, "Well, well. Looks who's up and about. A parasite..."

"Goddamn ghosts in my goddamn factory..." the officer mutters. Unperturbed by the strange voice he proceeds towards the furnace. He says one last prayer to his god before pulling out the small canister of nitroglycerin and chucking it into the flames.

The canister flies into the flame, but the kindling shifts to the side and a pipe quickly sucks up the canister and transports it away. "Let's not be hasty, now." Two pipes reach down and attempt to grab the officer's arms.

"Are we really going to have to use the weapon? I suppose they would've sterilized the site anyways. Oh well." the officer mutters. The officer holds up his arms in surrender.

The pipes seem to cackle in glee as they grab onto the officer’s outstretched arms. “Good. Glad to see you’ve come to your senses, good sir,” the voice whispers. “A smart man should see when he’s outmatched.” The Fire in the furnace crackles and snaps in contemplation, “You may be wondering who and what am I. Am I right? Well, who I am is irrelevant- just a dead man who’s found a new body. And I suppose that answers what I am as well.” A large pipe drops from the ceiling and hovers in front of the man’s face menacingly, “And I’m a kind man, so I’ll let you ask one more question before you die.”

The secretary attempts to contact her superior via radio, yelling into it loudly, "Sir? Sir! We've evacuated most of the citizens, what's your status? Do you need back-up?!"

"Alright then monster, answer me this, ever been hit by an atomic bomb?" the officer chuckles as he turns on the radio. "This is officer Ibrahim reporting a Code Violet, I repeat, Code Violet!" he hastily shouts into the handheld radio.

The secretary takes a shaky breath, and responds, "Roger that sir. Transmitting your orders to the general pronto. Can you make it to the evacuation site in less than thirty minutes?" she asks doubtfully.

"NO, CARRY ON WITH CODE VIOLET! THE SITUATION IS TOO SEVERE!" the officer shouts in panic. As he finishes levying commands he sighs in resignation. "For god, country, and vengeance!" he shouts in Sumatran.

The fire sparks and slightly diminishes, "You... you wouldn't? You would just throw a bomb at your problems?" The voice shakes a bit as it says this. The piping shutters and the containers holding people seem to begin leaking water.

"HAHAHA! You clearly weren't in the second war. When the Japs landed their army of monsters on Borneo we got slightly desperate." he casually states. "We initiated day and night bombing runs on our own villages and roads in an attempt to slow the enemy down by destroying infrastructure. We killed hundreds as a result of collateral damage in our attempts to merely delay an enemy threat. So yeah, we have and very much will throw bombs at our problems. I don't know whether you're some kind of mutant or a psychic of some strange variety but either way, the IRC shall not stand for such abominations polluting our soil. Leave our rightful islands and I'll call off the strike, otherwise, we'll reduce this entire island to ash if necessary to contain a mutant outbreak." he coldly orders.

"No... No, no, no." The steam in the pipe in front of the man slowly hisses out. "You bastard! I have to... I have to get out of here." The furnace roars with flames for a moment, then dies down. The pipe in front of the officer creaks, "And you're my ticket out of here." The pipe begins to inch forward to the man, approaching his face, while it begins to suck in air. The furnace grate creaks open and from the flame a skeletal burning hand reaches out, charred and covered in ash.

"I don't know what you're about to attempt but I would highly recommend you reconsider." he nonchalantly warns. "If you don't want to be disintegrated all you have to do is accept my deal, no need to pull something stupid and risk even worse punishments." he half-heartedly cautions.

The hand pauses for a moment and the vacuuming weakens, "Deal? What deal? What are you on about?"

"You leave Indonesian soil and we let you live in peace. Hell, if you are willing to cooperate with our government... there might be some perks." he slowly elaborates. "You see, it doesn't seem likely that you're in league with the Japanese dogs. They are so busy with their dictatorship over the Philippines and inciting dissent among their own weapons that they have barely given us any attention. As I said, if you refuse but leave in peace then fine, we'll let you go. Work for us and we'd pay you handsomely in whatever compensation you'd desire. Refuse the previous two options and you'll have the distinguished honor of becoming our first nuclear test subject. If you do intend on accepting my previous offers though, I'd recommend you do it quickly." he glances at his watch "you don't have much time." he says plainly.

The hand closes slightly, then retracts into the furnace. "I can't leave. At least, not without bloodshed. But I have no allegiances..." The voice pauses for a moment, "Fine, I'll help you if you spare my life. But I must warn you, I'm only limited to this factory and some of the surrounding land."

"If you can control, as you appear to be capable of doing, this factory and the surrounding land then we have much use for you. I will call off the tactical strike and in exchange you cease whatever the hell you were doing with those pipes and the villagers. Understand? We don't have much time so let's make this quick." he barks. Lieutenant Ibrahim quickly sends a command over the radio "Threat neutralized! Code violet has been revoked! I repeat, the threat is neutralized!". "Now then, it's about time we get to work. I will disclose my plans for our little partnership later but for now, I believe introductions are in order. I am Abu Ibrahim, Lieutenant of the Indonesian Revanchist Confederation and current overseer of the industrial reconstruction program. And you?" he cordially asks.

The pipes holding Abu's arms release them, and the large pipe retracts into the ceiling. The light voice speaks, "I've been dead for too long to remember my name. You can just call me The Factory." The hissing of the steam quiets and the containers holding people open and deposit the people on the ground. "What now?"

"Now, we rebuild. While it would've taken months of labor, dozens of workers and god only knows how much raw materials we can't afford to rebuild this factory... I have a hunch you can do this at a significantly lower cost. The purpose of this factory was originally the manufacture of guns and ammunition yet I have more ambitious ideas. If I can provide you the blueprints do you think you could retrofit this place to mass produce aircraft, Factory?" he questions enthusiastically.

The pipes begin to groan as they shift and the sounds of grinding stone can be heard. "I can build whatever I'm needed to be given the resources. Just give the blueprints and throw the resources into my pipes. I'll do the rest."

"Very well. I shall return in a week or so with the necessary resources and blueprints. I believe this will be a quite beneficial alliance, Factory. While I do not know whether currency is of any value to you from now on you shall be treated as a government employee and as such will be granted all of the benefits and salary of one. Welcome to the IRC, long live the Federation!" he proclaims patriotically.

"Sure, whatever. And money is of no use to me. I don't eat, or have rent to pay." Above, the pipes sink back into the soil, and all is quiet.