A/N: Okay, I realise this might've taken a little longer than two weeks, but I have a reason (don't I always?)
Okay, so first things first - for a few days my computer fritzed on me. Didn't play sound, the USB ports weren't functioning, etcetera. But a few days ago it just magically fixed itself. Like, kaput, fixed. Almost like magic. Figures; the second I threaten it with maintenance or replacement it works again. Thanks computer.
Second reason - THIS CHAPTER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE LONGER. LIKE WAY LONGER. 8 THOUSAND WORDS LONGER. So I cut it in half. But it's still double the length of my usual 2k. So yeah. Enjoy that, if you're into the longer chapters and stuff. The second half of this monster chapter will be updated next week, while I take advantage of my computer's seeming time of wellness to quickly write up the next instalment.
Heh. Remember when I said this was only supposed to be like four or five chapters long? MAN, did I underestimate!
Anyway! No anon reviews again this time. Not like I expected any, because FanFiction decided it wouldn't register my previous upload! I mean, it did, to a point. But it didn't go up to the top of the list of stories, like most recently updated stories do. So yeah. That REALLY helps the reviews come in. Get it together FanFiction!
Special, special, SPECIAL shoutout to my regular reviewers, laFia and TTY7! You guys are seriously the most awesome of reviewers - and also the best conversationalists! Honestly, I love you two.
Read on! Enjoy, and I'll see you at the bottom.
Widespread Illness
If there was one wish they all shared, without knowing that they did, it was the wish to see the world under the cover of night, with stars sprinkling the sky and the moon bathing the earth in a dim, silvery glow.
Logically, it was an impossible wish. They all knew that for some unknown reason, thousands and thousands of years before, the lunar and solar cycles came to a grinding halt. There was nothing in the old-world data left behind to explain why or when exactly it occurred, only that it did.
The only way to know exactly what had occurred would be to ask the humans who came before them. But they also knew that that too, was impossible.
They were all dead. Gone. In a world decidedly better than this one.
What they didn't know was how.
How, exactly, did a race as proud and intelligent as the humans – homo sapien – disappear from this world?
Maybe they would eventually come to know. But it was also equally as likely that they would not.
2B stared down at her YoRHa-issued helmet, her chest filling with anxiety.
She was forced to change her preferred outfit – that of her black dress and boots – to a tight, black jumpsuit with gold accents that made her uncomfortable, purely because it cinched tightly in places where she wasn't used to.
But that wasn't what was bothering her.
No, what was bothering her was that he knew.
And she hadn't been given the order.
It gave her a sense of wrongness, a sense that something was deeply amiss. That something was coming. But what? Would it happen during the skirmish? After? Her mind whirred with the infinite possibilities.
She knew that something was deeply wrong the first time she ran into him on her way to see Operator 6O, after Adam and Eve had been dismantled. He was skittish, his hands fidgeting with his sleeves, his gloves, and each other. His lips were set in a determined line that worried 2B until she realised what must have happened.
He'd found out the truth.
He opened his mouth multiple times, trying – and failing – to find the words he so desperately wanted to say.
2B gave him a composed look, trying to pretend that nothing was wrong. "9S?"
He just shook his head, a self-deprecating smile gracing his lips. "It's nothing, 2B. Tell the Operator I said hi, would you?"
She nodded, and he strode past her, presumably on his way to R&D. He had spent an increasing amount of time there as of late, which otherwise wouldn't have bothered 2B if she didn't know him so well.
He liked to lose himself in work when something was bothering him.
2B shook her head, trying to rid herself of her distracting thoughts. Her grip on the black helmet tightened, and finally she put it on. Her resolve seemingly set, she stood from her seated position on her bed and made her way to the Hangar.
He tried to tell me something before he left, too… 2B shook her head again, annoyed with herself that she couldn't even focus properly. She went through the mission again, trying to clear her mind.
She and the other combat units would arrive in squadrons, if the machines in charge of the anti-air defences were properly put to rest by 9S and the other Scanner models. She would fight the weakened machine lifeforms along with the other girls. And, presumably, they would win.
2B tapped her foot in an almost impatient way as the elevator took her up into the Hangar, and then jogged down the hall to the flight unit that waited for her. Taking a deep breath, she jumped into it and took off, hoping that whatever the cause to her anxiety was would fade with the adrenaline of battle.
Before I could convince myself to tell 2B the truth, our final major operation had begun. Still, at the time, I knew nothing. Not how the battle would end…
Nor what fate stood in wait for us.
...
"…and those are your orders. Do you understand?" asked the fuzzy image of Operator 21O.
9S had only just touched down onto a ruined building-top, watching his flight unit soar back in the direction of the Bunker, when Pod 153's call tone activated. 9S nodded, his mind on other matters as he replied, "The Scanners are going to hack into the enemy's anti-air system and shut it down in advance of an all-out assault, right?"
"That's right. Good job, 9S!"
9S narrowed his eyes as he sailed down to earth, holding on to his pod as he did so. "Why are you talking to me like I'm a child?"
"What? That must be your imagination."
9S rolled his eyes. Just my imagination? Yeah, right, he thought as he sprinted towards the battered and broken body of the Goliath-class machine next to the crater and made his way up. And I'm really a human disguised as an android.
"Look for machines that are receiving signals from the anti-air system," 21O continued. "They should be located in areas with good signal reception. I've forwarded the general positions of the machine lifeforms you need to hack."
9S had already plotted those likely places onto his map before she had finished speaking. "Roger."
He had only gone towards the Goliath because it was a decent place to scout out likely places where the machines could be, but as he gave his map a quick scan he realised he was already on his way to one. Good, he thought. This may not take as long as I thought it would.
"Please refrain from destroying the target. If you do, another one will simply take its place," said the Operator matter-of-factly.
"No killing the target. Got it," replied 9S as he finally made his way up to the top and spied a stubby little machine lifeform sporting red and black paint, staring into space. He lifted his hand and hacked into it with no difficulty, and the machine dropped like a fly, twitching occasionally.
"I see your hacking was successful. Way to go!" congratulated 21O.
9S used the pod to lower him gently back to ground, sprinting to the rooftop of the next target. He knew he wasn't imaginating the condescension in her voice. "You're totally treating me like a kid."
"Now move on to the next one," she continued, as if he had never spoken.
9S sighed. "Fiiiine."
The next spot took a lot of acrobatics and help from his pod, and the gigantic tree roots were a lot of help too. Finally he jumped to the top – to be greeted by a small sword-wielding bipedal unit. 9S dodged its strike and quickly hacked into and shut it down before it could do any damage.
These hacks are a bit simple considering their internal specs. What's up with that?
Releasing a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding, 9S dusted himself off as the face of 21O reappeared on his HUD. "Defensive system operation confirmed to be declining."
That sounds more like you, Operator. "Almost there," replied 9S, quickly looking to the top of his HUD. Defensive systems stood at 75%. They were a quarter of the way through already. Jumping down, he skirted the roof of the next building over, which he knew to hold the Resistance's desert storage area.
The next target was on the rooftop where Father Servo used to stand. 9S, using his Pod, managed to fling across the gap and safely onto the concrete, where the medium bipedal unit in red and black paint immediately jumped him. He dodged, but just barely. Darting back and as far away from the machine as the rooftop would let him, he deftly hacked into it, and found it a touch more difficult than the previous two. He managed anyway, and, upon watching it fall to the ground, proceeded to his next target.
"Looks like it's going well down there," said Operator 21O. "Every Scanner in the force is involved in this operation, so let's try not to fall behind."
"Yeah, yeah, no falling behind," replied 9S as he made it back to ground and sprinted in the direction of the commercial facility. "Got it."
"9S?"
"What is it?"
"Make sure to do whatever is necessary to avoid combat."
What? That can't be right… "And how will I provide support to the squad if I don't fight?"
"Scanner units such as yourself are not designed for battle."
9S smiled. "Aw, are you worried about me?"
The Operator looked to the side, frowning slightly. "No," she replied, a little too quickly, "I'm merely pointing out that you would be a liability on the battlefield." And with that, she disconnected.
9S blinked, shocked for a moment. By this time he had made it to the grass area before the bridge that led to the commercial facility, and he stopped running. "Wow. That's…harsh." 21O sure is brutal when she wants to be.
Ignoring the slight pierce to the ego, 9S made his way up the ladder in search for the next target, which turned out to be a medium flyer sporting the same red and black paint as the others. He hacked it, noticing the act to be more difficult again than the last, involving a vicious attack barrier. He slid back down the ladder just as another laser communication reached him.
"11S to 9S, come in."
Hiding his disappointment that it was not in fact 21O, calling to apologise for her harsh words, 9S responded, "9S here. Go ahead."
"I'm just about wrapped up here. How about you?"
"Um, just one left, I think," said 9S as he checked his map.
"Roger. Be sure to head back to the Bunker when you're done so you can sync your data."
"Oh, right." 9S felt worry coil around his heart at that statement. "I forgot about that."
9S had, in fact, halted his last data sync, as well as 2B's, when he noticed a strange noise at 98 percent completion when he was undergoing the full data overhaul back on the Bunker, before the battle with Eve. Upon investigation, he had learned something shocking – that the Council of Humanity was formed as part of Project YoRHa, and not the other way around, as he was told. A few minutes later, he was interrupted by a distress signal from 2B, stopping him from investigating further. After the mission, he was waylaid by the Commander, who told him to meet her outside Communications. There, she told him the truth – that humanity was, in fact, extinct, and the transmissions all YoRHa members periodically received were simply dummy signals set up in advance. She then gave him a memory chip, leaving him with a veritable information dump to sort through, and a question he wasn't entirely sure how to answer.
'What path will you take? It's up to you to decide.'
"Until your combat data is uploaded, none of the Scanner modules can run updates," said 11S, yanking 9S from his chain of thought.
"Okay. I'll take care of it as soon as I'm done here," assured 9S.
"Appreciated." 11S disconnected, leaving 9S to his thoughts, and what remained of his mission.
He quickly finished off his last target – a goliath-class bipedal unit that required him to remote hack from another machine. When he did, Pod 153 spoke.
"Proposal: unit 9S should rendezvous with unit 2B before the combat situation worsens."
9S nodded, sprinting back across the bridge. "Sounds like a plan. Lemme just mark the spot on the map. Aaaand…there."
His new marker was placed on the concrete bridge leading into the area where the Abandoned Factory stood. Weaving around both buildings and a growing amount of machine lifeforms, 9S reached the bridge in record time and leapt, first onto the truck beneath, then onto the concrete structure itself. From where he stood, he could clearly see the squadrons in their flight units break the stratosphere and speed off towards their respective landing zones in the formation shown during the planning phase in Comms.
"Here we go…" murmured 9S. This was it. The last skirmish. If they won this one, it would surely mean the end of the war.
But if the war ended, and the android forces won, what would happen then? Would YoRHa come clean about humanity's extinction? Or would they play it off, and simply state that they had decided to abandon Earth after all?
Little did he know that he wasn't the only one with that question in his mind.
2B had just finished breaking the Earth's stratosphere when she received laser communications from her Operator, 6O. "2B, the operation will begin at a point southwest of the city ruins. Use your flight unit to travel there and meet up with 9S."
"Will do."
"We've repaired and reinstalled the weapons damaged in the fight against Eve. Be careful, okay? The mission will be in full swing by the time you get there."
"I will…and thanks," she replied, disconnecting the call herself. Soon after she did, another call came in, this time from the Council of Humanity.
"The Council of Humanity has a message for all of our brave androids fighting on the surface…"
Here we go, she thought as she listened to the broadcast, coming into contact with both small and medium flyers soon thereafter.
"Our elite YoRHa forces, the pride of humanity, have defeated two enemy network units known as Adam and Eve. This victory is a giant leap forward in our quest to reclaim Earth. The moon rings out with the cheers of the entire human race! We look forward to your continued combat exploits. Glory to mankind."
After gunning down as many flyers in her way as possible, she soon found herself at the point of rendezvous. Ejecting herself from the flight unit, she fell to the bridge below, landing at a crouch. When she stood, she saw 9S in front of her. It appeared that he had waited here for her to arrive.
"2B," he said.
"What's our status?" she asked.
"The operation is underway, and a few squads have already engaged the enemy," he replied as they jumped from the bridge to the ground below. Already the city was overcome by the fog of war. "Our orders are to function as a sort of guerrilla unit that provides support as necessary. I've forwarded our squads' current positions to your map. You should head over there ASAP."
"Sounds good."
They headed towards the marker up the road from them first. As they neared the squad there, they received communications from their leader.
"This is 4B, captain of Vanguard Squadron Alpha. We're being worn down by a fierce enemy attack."
"This is guerrilla unit 2B. We're on our way."
"Roger. And thanks."
2B severed comms and sprinted the rest of the way to Alpha Squadron, surrounded by machine lifeforms. Once there, she and 9S worked together as a team, helping to wipe out the group as efficiently as possible. After they were done, 4B thanked them profusely, and offered to join them in providing further support, an offer that 2B and 9S agreed to.
Slowly, they made their way around the city, helping each Squadron that called for help.
"This is unit 8B with Attack Squadron Omega. We've gained control of our assigned zone. Heading out now to provide support elsewhere."
"This is 3B, captain of Theta Squadron. The enemy machines are multiplying in front of us. We can't hold this position!"
"This is unit 7B, with Vanguard Squadron Delta. We're currently pinned down by a number of machines that appear to have lost their minds."
With each squad helped they gained another handful of allies. Finally, it appeared that all Squadrons had gained control of their assigned zones. It was then that Operator 6O contacted 2B once more.
"2B, we've sighted new enemies in the region. They've got Attack Squadron Omega pinned down, and are giving them one hell of a fight. Can you head over there and provide support ASAP?"
"We're on it." With that, 2B disconnected from the call.
"Man, this is tougher than I thought it would be," said 9S.
"We need to hurry," replied 2B, already sprinting as fast as she could toward Squadron Omega, ridiculously glad she had the foresight to upgrade and install a new plug-in chip that increased her movement speed.
After what seemed like an age, they made it. "This is unit 2B. We're in position to provide support for Attack Squadron Omega."
"Are we ever glad to see you!" exclaimed 8B. "They came out of nowhere. We were fighting for our damn lives!"
With more allies than they could have hoped to ask for, they made short work of the machines in front of them. Everyone there was riding on a high.
"If this keeps up, we can win," said 2B. "9S, check the area to see if any reinforcements are on the way."
"You got it," replied 9S, sprinting as fast as his legs could carry him inside the nearby building and up the stairs as 2B and the others continued to wipe the floor with the remaining machines.
Until a curious buzzing noise caught their attention. "What was that?" 2B immediately froze, scanning the area – and under the helmet, her eyes widened in horror.
More and more machine lifeforms were converging on their position, heads popping up and away from their bodies to reveal some kind of mechanism similar in design to that of the human spinal cord. The spines continued to buzz, gathering energy around them, which was then suddenly released in a close-range EMP attack that had the remaining YoRHa combat units kneeling on the ground, crying out in pain.
Through the buzzing in her head, 2B heard 9S's voice. "2B! Are you okay!?"
"Let…my guard down…" she grunted. "EMP hit me point-blank…I…gotta reboot…"
"I'll provide backup!" 9S dropped from the collapsed wall that served as a bridge to the neighbouring building their first time together to the Ruins, and landed in a crouch in front of the collapsed combat units.
As he fought, he was hit by one of the EMP attacks and, suddenly, all he could see of them were pixels. "They…have visual camouflage? What the hell's going on here?!"
And that wasn't all they had. If caught in any more EMP radii, 9S was periodically plagued by a failure in his NFCS region, general motor system or evasive function, which made it difficult to fight them until a cure for each was used. This forced 9S to keep his distance and use Pod fire or continually throw one of the spear models he and 2B had acquired over the course of their exploration of the world.
As he finished off the last one, 2B and the other combat units regained consciousness. He immediately ran to her side. "You okay!?"
2B did not respond, but silently accepted his help in getting slowly to her feet. She bent over, taking off her helmet and taking deep breaths of the smoggy air.
Anguished yells from the other units caught their attention, and they both looked over to see them bent over double, grasping their head in their hands and stumbling in place.
"Is this…a wide-area virus?"
Seconds later, 2B dropped her helmet and started behaving the same way, dropping to her knees and groaning in pain as she, too, clutched her head. "2B!"
As 9S surveyed the area, he tried to piece together what had happened. "This viral attack…the EMP must've triggered it!? I gotta do something…I have to save 2B!"
He then did the only thing he could. He hacked into her.
The hack was simpler than he expected it to be, and soon enough 2B stopped convulsing in pain. 9S placed a hand on her shoulder. "2B…you okay?"
She nodded, and together they pulled her to her feet. Around them, the convulsing combat units began to laugh.
It was only small, at first. The tiniest giggle. But then that giggle caught, and soon they were all laughing at the two. "The hell…?" 2B looked around at them.
They stood, laughing louder now, and their eyes changed colour from allied green to enemy red. And then they began to attack them.
"They've been infected and taken over!" said 9S.
"No…wait, what!? Attack functions aren't working!" exclaimed 2B as she tried to swing her sword at the oncoming infected horde – only for it to remain at her back.
"That's because of their YoRHa IDs! 2B, I need to hack into you and fry your identification circuit!" yelled 9S as he dodged a circle around 2B and away from the other combat units, trying to find an opportunity. Once he was far enough away, he quickly hacked her once more, and was faced with a maze barrier. His hacking body barrelled through it and destroyed the sphere at the end that served as her ID circuit, and sure enough, a little pop-up appeared indicating that her identification signal was no longer functioning.
2B regained control, beginning to hack into her former allies and friends with 9S's help. "Pod, report our status to Command!" she ordered.
"Alert: All communications are currently being jammed."
"Goddammit!"
"2B! I located the unit that's jamming our comms," said 9S.
"Got it."
"Target location data obtained," said Pod 042. "Marking on map."
The marker was in the crater in the middle of the city. Thinking fast, 2B darted away from the attacking horde and sprinted for the crater, 9S and the infected combat units hot on her heels.
"The jamming is coming from that thing!" shouted 9S as they reached the crater, pointing straight ahead and down at a Goliath bipedal machine.
Of all the goddamn machines it could have been… 2B ran straight for it, trying to destroy it as quickly as possible before the other YoRHa members caught up with them, but to no avail. Dodging as many attacks as she could, she struggled to keep her target in sight as the infected units surrounded them and attacked in rapid succession. Finally, they succeeded, and the Goliath fell to its knees, exploding soon thereafter and taking out a few corrupted YoRHa along with it.
"That should take care of the jamming!"
"Pod, send an emergency distress signal to Command!" she ordered again. When 042 did not immediately respond, she shouted, "Pod!"
"Alert: Connection lost. Unable to reach Command."
"Damn it, they're still jamming us!?"
"Negative. Signal reception is clear. Connection lost due to server-side authentication failure. No response is coming from Command on any channel."
A litany of swear words ribboned through her mind at once."Shit. What happened to the Bunker?"
They had no choice but to continue to fight the never-ending swarm of infected YoRHa coming from all sides. But they were both tiring from the strain it placed on their bodies. Even though 9S was doing an excellent job of not showing it, she could still tell by the way his attacks became slightly clumsier, and his dodging slower.
"We can't keep doing this forever!" said 2B after an extended amount of time.
"2B! I have an idea!" exclaimed 9S. "It's possible to access the Bunker from a backdoor in the system. I can use that to initiate an emergency backlog of our personal log data. Then we set our black boxes to self-destruct, and take 'em all out at once!"
"Sounds good!" she replied, dodging an attack from one unit and parrying another as she waited.
"Data upload 30 percent complete."
"50 percent complete!"
"We just hit 70 percent!"
"Are you done yet!?" yelled 2B, panic filling her heart like water in a jug.
"Almost. We're at 92 percent! 2B! Your black box!"
9S had the log in front of him. He watched the bar fill from 93 to 97 percent… "Log-data upload…complete!" he exclaimed as it hit 100 percent and he swiped the alert away. Turning, he ran straight into the fray for 2B, wrenching his black box from his chest as he did so. The infected YoRHa came at him with blades and, when he dodged them, their bare hands, grasping his arms in an effort to keep him away. He reached out anyway as they took him to the ground, black box in hand, as 2B did the same. Giving up, the corrupted units jumped on top of them in a pile, attempting to smother them before they could get their black boxes together, but the light permeating through the gaps in their bodies were proof enough of their failure – and 2B and 9S's success.
The light encompassed them all.
And 2B and 9S lost consciousness.
A2 saw the sheer amount of machine lifeforms converging on the city, and the explosions of war, all the way from the forest castle. Heart in her throat, she began to make her way into the forest, over the raging river below and pick her way through the trees in the direction of the commercial district.
Are they engaging in another descent? Are they winning, or are the machines? Is this war finally ending?
…This might be my chance. To do my bit, die in battle, and re-join my friends. I have to get there!
As she neared, however, she realised something was wrong. She scaled the commercial facility, flipping herself up and onto the roof in order to get a better look. She saw the YoRHa soldiers nearest to the bridge fall, groaning in pain and grasping their heads as they rolled about on the grassy ground below them. Then they stilled as they began to laugh; she could hear it from where she was. Their eyes changed from green to red as they got to their feet once more.
A…virus? But…how did it infect all those YoRHa at once!? A2 ducked down, staying as out-of-sight as she could. Then, as one, the contaminated YoRHa combat units ran from their positions to what looked like the middle of the city, where the crater was, laughing all the way.
About 15 minutes later, she saw it. The explosion and light of a dual black box reaction.
A2 rolled onto her back, breaths heavy from shock.
YoRHa was…all but gone, on the ground. Unless there were more up in the Bunker or in any of the Defence HQs…
The machines would win.
A/N: Whoo, that was a ride. Well, I'll see you guys next week.
My muse is a hungry dragon! And this hungry dragon has a particular taste for reviews. Keep 'em coming! ;)
Fang out.
