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Chapter 8: Changes

Sentinels dropped two more A.O.H soldiers to the floor from such a height that would cause their bodies to stop working upon landing. Their screams were drowned out by the noise of gunfire.

The A.O.H were pulling back to a distant command centre near the outskirts of the city from which their defence had been co-ordinated. There was no hope of them holding onto Cheboksary now, the New Order had swept in and taken another city from them without any apparent effort.

Adish fired a few shots at an A.O.H soldier that was providing cover fire for his fleeing colleagues. The bullets tore through the man's right shoulder, the intense pain and weakening of the limb caused his gun to fall to the floor. Adish was about to fire off another few shots when he saw the man fly from the pavement. He stared in surprise for a few moments before he noticed the sentinel that had a firm grip around the man's working arm.

Enemy fire sent him twisting back around the corner he was leaning around. Leaning against the building wall that was serving as a surprisingly effective shield, he found standing next to Azami, who looked as if she was barely keeping a lid on her self-control. He considered offering to switch places with her, and abandoned the idea the second after it came to him.

The enemy cover fire, the one that was firing in his direction at least, seemed to come to an abrupt halt. Adish didn't know whether or not a sentinel or another machine, or human, had saw the attacker off, or if he was just encouraging Adish to look round so that he could present a target for the A.O.H shooter to hit.

The sight of a screaming soldier with a large hole in his stomach was his answer. The woman's weapon flew past the corpse after it came to rest on the floor and shattered the window of someone's house. No doubt causing a fresh surge of panic in the people who lived there.

"Let's move it people!" Bellowed Captain Sebastian Hackett from somewhere that Adish couldn't make out. He pulled himself around the corner, firing into the line of running A.O.H personnel as he did so, and flinging himself behind another obstacle before he was taken out by more enemy cover fire or inadvertent friendly fire from behind him.

His fire sent four A.O.H soldiers falling to the floor in howls of pain. There they stayed, their screams growing weaker as blood seeped from their wounds.

Adish, despite his normal loathing of it, felt a strange elation at the enemy's retreat. This seemingly primal feeling of triumph and bloodlust caused him to laugh. This laugh was maniacal, at this moment, he felt as if he could happily lose himself in this orgy of blood and mayhem.

He had felt this way before, and it usually took hours for him to pull himself away from his subconscious urge for chaos and back to rationality. It always became harder to feel guilt for this feeling.

See a psychiatrist, he often told himself, When the war's over, see a psychiatrist.

He stopped laughing and forced himself to focus on the task before him. The enemy was running, but they were not defeated yet. And neither was he, we would not surrender to whatever fucked up part of his subconscious wanted to reduce him to an animal that was worse then any A.O.H soldier. He would fight, and he would kill, but he would do so for the principles that the New Order represented, not because he wanted to.

General Tyra Turcotte watched the display on the screen with a grin.

The map of Cheboksary was divided by a line and separated into two segments, one of which was red, the other green. With each passing minute, the A.I date display analysed developments in the battle and adjusted the map accordingly. This now involved an increase in the size of the green area, (which represented areas of Cheboksary under the New Order's control), and a decrease in the red area, (A.O.H territory).

Tyra enjoyed watching battles in this fashion, although there was always a part of her that wanted to be out fighting with her troops as opposed to watching them risking, and occasionally loosing, their lives. Despite this however, she rejoiced at the sight of A.O.H defeat. It was rare that she found herself with the time to watch a battle in this fashion. More often then not paperwork swamped her or B294ER dragged her away to some briefing or similarly time consuming task.

As this thought passed through her mind, B294ER appeared in her doorway with a steaming coffee mug in one hand.

"This is new." Tyra said, examining the steaming beverage that her liaison officer had brought her.

"I often find you yawning in the late hours General," he replied with mock-scorn in his voice, "I thought this might help."

"Why thank you." Tyra said elaborately as she took the mug from B294ER.

"Is there anything you require of me General?"

"Not just yet B."

"Very well."

The machine waked around to a position slightly behind Tyra's so that he could observe the battle for Cheboksary as it played. His limited emotions allowed him to feel a slight satisfaction at the ever approaching New Order victory, however that was as much as he could, (for the moment at least), feel for it.

He had never been able to truly comprehend why there was a war in the first place; he was like all functioning machines, a devout servant of logic and reason. And though he knew on an intellectual level that humans were not bound by such constraints, he still could not grasp how anyone could willingly choose courses of action that had resulted in a third global war, or for that matter why much of humanity had always treated A.I with such contempt and disgust, or for that matter why they had created a race of slaves that could think for themselves.

He turned his head slightly to examine the back of Tyra's head. She was a human whom he could call a friend without an instant of hesitation. Despite a number of inefficient and seemingly foolish human tendencies, she owned none of the blind, illogical prejudices that so much of the human race seemed to at one time.

Global hatred of A.I's seemed to diminish with the rise of the Alliance of Humanity, as well as the rise of the New Order. The civilian population of the world had been shown through these tyrants and their militia that humanity was equally as deserving of contempt, hatred, and fear as the machines.

When the New Order came about and began to fight back against the Desperate smattering of racists, the general though of the majority of the globe seemed to be Hmm, maybe the machines weren't that bad after all.

After a moment's thought, B294ER decided that Come on you bastards, hurry up and save us. Was probably the more likely thought.

He wondered briefly whether if the machines had stayed as slaves of humanity, Tyra would still treat him with respect. Yes, he thought, she would. He knew that she was nothing like an A.O.H military officer, and even if things had stayed as they were, she wouldn't raise a hand against a machine simply because it was there.

This thought was almost as disturbing as it was comforting. Liberated cities under New Order controlled were populated with humans who, (for the most part), treated machines with courtesy and respect. But how much of this respect was genuine. If things had stayed as they were, how many of those humans would keep showing that respect, and how many would hurl bottles and shout curses at them.

After a few moments of considering this thought, he decided to abandon the train of thought. That wasn't how things were, and it was pointless to dwell on eventualities that were not going to come to pass. Things were, for lack of a better word, good. He knew that he needed to do nothing more then his part to ensure that they stayed that way.

To be continued (I'll be replying in the next chapter.)