Thanks once more to all reviewers, sorry it took a while to get a new chapter up but college has been getting in the way more then usual.

Anyway, on to chapter 9,

Chapter 9: Progression

Azami was seated on an old bench that had been dedicated to a World War 2 veteran. The name was obscured due to the burn marks that now covered most of the chair.

Cheboksary had fallen, the surviving A.O.H troops were currently kneeling on the hard concrete road in front of him, their hands clasped behind their heads and with watchful mechanical humanoid soldiers glaring at them with glowing red eyes.

Apart from those that had been placed on sentry duty, or to deal with a surprisingly zealous collection of civilian looters, the New Order soldiers had little to do but sit upon the floor and wait for the transports to whisk them back to the command centre.

Most of Cheboksary's population were at present, cowering within their houses, many of them probably expected to be killed within a matter of minutes of hours, for all the conventional mistrust of the A.O.H, it was not an easy task not to feel fear at the thought of an opposing army that had been demonised by their former masters so often now being in control of their city.

The dead had been moved, the New Order casualties carried off by two or more sentinels to the makeshift command centre in Pioheh, (there were no separate compartments for them in the transport), there they would be identified and given a decent burial.

The A.O.H soldiers that had fallen in battle would be dragged off by one of more sentinel to a distant part of the city, there they would be identified, catalogued and promptly burned.

Looking around her, Azami noticed that, as per usual, the mechanical soldiers all wore deadpan facial expressions and stood perfectly still, either concentrating fully on the task at hand, or simply standing perfectly still and conserving their power stores.

The human New Order soldiers all seemed to be looking with mixtures of awe and confusion at the sights of blood on the floor. None of them would vomit at this sight, having been witness to the New Order's delightful detachment, (and vomit) educing film. And for many, guilt was impossible. Over 75 of the New Order armed force's human recruits had suffered at the hands of the Alliance of Humanity, some had had friends or family who had been killed as a distraction for A.O.H minions, others, like herself, received first hand experience of pain, rape, torture and mutilation at the hands of the enemy.

She shuddered at the memory and pushed it away in favour of others. Casting a glance at the line of surrendered A.O.H soldiers, she grinned as she saw two people who were now in tears. Clearly terrified of the grisly fate that they believed awaited them. Maybe they were right. Standard POW's were treated with all the usual decency and humility that they probably didn't deserve. Mercy however was not wasted on war criminals. Anyone found guilty of war crimes was promptly executed, or handed over to the machines for 'experimentation'.

This experimentation, as far as Azami knew, basically involved people being tortured to death. She had heard that it had something to do with research into a virtual penal system. If all went well, bothersome criminals and A.O.H soldiers could be stored in tubes and left to rot in a virtual oubliette as opposed to leaching off of resources and wasting space in prisons. What this all had to do with blood curdling shrieks was something of a mystery. Still, listening to them was always fun.

"Attention!" Boomed a porcupine that was waiting overhead, "transports ETA is now approximately 5 minutes, all New Order personnel not assigned to critical tasks are to report to the South eastern outskirts of the city for transportation to OCC-01. Repeat, transports ETA is now approximately 5 minutes, all New Order personnel not assigned to critical tasks are to report to the South eastern outskirts of the city for transportation to OCC-01."

OCC-01 was the New Order's orbital command centre. In the event of a full-scale nuclear bombardment on all occupied territories on the Earth's surface, the fight would continue from the huge beast that circled high above the Earth. Contained within the station were numerous sizable domes, which were home to numerous species of plant and animal life, as well as 2,000 humans. It was also the New Order's primary war machine construction facility and Administrative complex for the entire war.

Due to its sheer size, and its position in a planetary orbit, the base was impossible to hide, however, thanks to the assorted sentinels and anti-missile defences that surrounded the place, the A.O.H were unable to shoot it down. (Not that they hadn't wasted considerable resources in an attempt to.)

Azami pushed herself to her feet and started walking in the direction where the others were heading. Most people were simply following the machines that, unlike them, seemed to know where the Southeastern outskirts of the city were.

"Evening." Adish asked, somehow appearing behind her out of nowhere and startling her in the process.

"It's still the afternoon I think."

Adish started to check his watch but then decided that he didn't really care enough to justify doing so.

"Final count?" Azami asked.

"Twelve." Adish seemed to be trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to conceal the pride in his voice.

"Twelve?" There was genuine surprise in Azami's voice; usually Adish was lucky to earn five kills on an outing, "They grow up so fast." She uttered in a mock maternal voice, sniffing loudly a few times for effect, and earning a stare from a nearby corporal.

"Well what about you? How many A.O.H corpses are your doing?"

"Nine."

"Nine? Well that's not too bad, I guess."

"Ah shut it." Azami swung her arm lightly into Adish's chest. The resulting laughter produced a welcome diversion. Laughter was typically in short supply for soldiers at the front line. Both of them enjoyed the feeling, and the sounds whilst they lasted.

There were too many empty seats in the transport for Adish's liking, far more soldiers then usual had fallen in this battle, the A.O.H for whatever reason had clung to Cheboksary with a previously unseen tenacity, Adish didn't know if this was because Cheboksary was a strategically important area of if they were just fed up with losing.

Memories of Anshelm Kier being cut to pieces before even firing a shot finally began to emerge to his mind. The kid's shattered corpse, like the other human New Order soldiers', was most probably now being flown to Pioheh where they would be categorised and shoved under the ground to rot.

None of this should have...

Adish cut himself off, unwilling to repeat any of the pointless statements such as 'this war is pointless' and 'these things happen'. He had learned, after watching other soldiers die in battle, the futility of trying to justify their deaths with the same rhetorical phrases that everyone said at times like these, thinking all the while that they were being helpful.

Adish had learned that trying to sugar coat or justify someone's death only led to greater amounts of anger and pain that you feel for lost comrades. The only reasonable thing to do, in his opinion, was to accept the fact that they were dead and move on. The more you thought about it, the worse it became.

Adish continued, with limited success, to suppress the feelings of guilt and anger that was steadily growing in his mind, as well as the images of the nineteen year old soldier that had taken his advice and been shot to pieces as a result.

Right, now for replies:

Tai Wilson: I doubt it as well. Human types are typically followers, that's why in this fic they have come to accept the machines, because that's what everyone else is doing. Anyway, thanks for reviewing.

Thereisnobrain: I think that the assorted gore, blood, shredded organs and so forth is necessary for this story, also its fun. It'd be better if the machines ran things then the bunch of twats we have at the moment. Ah well, what can you do, thanks for reviewing.