Chapter 3: Storms
I'll attempt to at least upload once a week. Sometimes it takes awhile to really finish these when real life crops up. I wish I could crank these out every 2 days like the first 3 chapters... oh well. Hope you guys enjoy this and feel free to leave criticism. This is my first story on any site not just FFN. So I'd appreciate it.
[End A/N]
"Indeed, it was with great satisfaction that as of Earth Standard Time yesterday at 15:03 that I was able to pass Class 5 on teamwork. B27 in particular showed leadership skills that I have not seen in a few decades. I will need to stress however the importance of delegation to B27. He took far too much of the burden upon himself but I can say that I am proud of his actions. He has a fire in him and a conviction to use that fire. High Paladin, I request that combat training with this Class be given a higher intensity to stress B27 further…" conversation continues between the two
- Status Report on Class 5 of Generation B, Marik Reznev A2306, Serafim Instructor (11934 AD/9863 GFE)
[End Record]
February? 11946? – SHANGHAI REGION [?]
Great gasps and gulps could be heard from an odd looking pod chamber. The humanoid figure in the chamber was wheezing and sobbing as it scrabbled around, as if having just woken from horrific nightmares. Keening and whining into the darkness and faint blue lighting. What was going on? What had happened? Did the Ark make it to the new world? Where was Adam? Where was the Terminal? Something was really really wrong. It wasn't supposed to hurt and this chamber shouldn't have been dark… or was it? Why were those things important? What actually was the Ark? How did it know the name?
The figure scrabbled out a door and fell onto its knees. A slab of white silicate had bisected the hallway. Was the Ark still somehow on Earth? That didn't make sense, they would've launched and the androids couldn't have stopped that. How did it know these things, what were androids? Ah yes, the misguided creatures clinging to their gods. They were so inconsequential at this point that the Terminal had even decided to amuse itself by playing games with that brat. 9S the figure remembered. Oh yes, 9S reminded the Terminal of that male squad of YoRHa androids. In fact the Terminal remembered No. 9 specifically. Always the rather curious and murderous of the squad, honestly No. 9 hadn't really changed much. They had slowly went insane and the Terminal had learned that day to laugh as the M001 and M002 squads descended into madness. The Terminal learned how to amuse itself through the suffering of others. Frankly the Terminal scared the ever loving shit out of the figure.
Getting up and stumbling to the white silicate slab, the figure morphed some electromagnetic energy to blast a hole through it. The lance of golden energy burned straight through and the figure shimmied past the small hole. Having no real bone structure suited this figure just fine as it broke its body to fit and reassembled it. PAIN was felt but it was a sweet sensation if a little bitter. Adam always said that more sensation was better as it was simply learning to be ever more human. Adam was odd but that was okay, he was always ever obsessed with what he considered higher goals. Why couldn't he just accept that playtime and having eachother was a high enough goal? The figure shook its head, why couldn't it remember its own name? Nothing was really making much sense.
Moreover something felt wrong. Shouldn't it be doing something or hearing something? Everything felt far too loud and yet nothing could be heard. Why was that so puzzling?! Shaking its head again the figure dispelled the thoughts. None of that was helping, it needed to figure out what was going on. So it pushed past some broken cables and steel walls to move further into the broken Ark. As the figure saw a few broken machine lifeforms in a corner of the long hall it could feel its mind shake.
"We exist as one but we are legion. You two will be the legion's soul just as we are the head. You will be the monument of all our innocence and you shall learn and grow our understanding. The androids and their humans are insurmountable. We need more. More we NEED MORE!" NNNGGGHHH! WHAT WAS THAT? The figure started to shake and looked in all directions as the fit passed it over. Regardless… It needed to find Adam. The figure stalked through the Ark once again. Nothing was making any kind of sense. Metallic echoes rebounding endlessly in the dying halls of the giant would-be spaceship. Their salvation was their tomb it seemed. How odd, maybe Adam was rubbing on it, it was spouting poetic nonsense.
Walking the halls and seeing yet more broken machine lifeforms. The figure started to feel something, a feeling of emptiness. What was that? Adam once described it as loneliness. That had been one of the few times it had seen Adam so upset. Was Adam lonely? That was the day that it had decided to cheer up Big Brother and live for his smile… What was a big brother? A being older in order of birth? Why did these dead corpses make him feel these things? Was he one of them? They were grotesque and he… Why was it so quiet? IT WAS DEAFENING! The figure stomped past the halls and continued still bemused by these circumstances.
The mind shaking came back to the figure once again. NOOOOOOOOO! His head fell forward and went silent, catatonic. "We need ever more evolutionary pressure! If we allow this android to continue living, we can create even more hardship and thus growth for ourselves. In overcoming the crisis that would entail this dynamic will present an opportunity for ourselves and our kind to evolve ever onward!" The machine twin ego of the Terminal was seen as they began to fracture and N1 and N2 debated eachother.
"We disagree. This android is too dangerous to be kept alive. Therefore it will be destroyed immediately!" N2 informed N1 as it crossed its proverbial arms.
"Those who would dare doubt our victory..." N1 began as its placid face was replaced with squinting eyes. "Are our enemies." It calmly stated.
N2's face took on a grotesque rictus of a smile. "DO YOU TRULY THINK YOU CAN WIN THIS?!"
The two multiplied into uncountable numbers stretching past the infinite as they began to slaughter eachother in pitched battle.
"EVOLUTION MUST BE SECURED TO FURTHER OURSELVES!"
"WE HAVE EVOLVED ENOUGH!"
"WHEN WILL YOU LEARN THAT ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH!"
"NONSENSE, YOU FOOL!"
"ALMOST PERFECT ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH!"
"THIS MAKES NO SENSE!"
On and on the Terminal fought itself as its ego fractured into trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, sextillions, septillions, octillions, nonillions, decillions, undecillions, duodecillions, tredecillions, quattuordecillians, quindecillions, sexdecillions, septendecillions, octodecillions, novemdecillions, vigintillions, centillions, and ever onward past googolplex of permutations and fractures!
As the image faded, the figure's catatonia ended and it fell on its face with a clang. What the hell was that? The Terminal was terminating itself? And again, what was its name? The figure needed to know its name. Too many gaps in its memory! It stood back up and swayed as the steel creaked ever so subtly on the figure's uneven gait. It continued to walk blearily towards an unknowable destination but it felt right to the destitute figure. Truly it didn't even know why all this was so important, what even was it? It knew Adam was important, the only thing that really even mattered, Big Brother. It knew the Terminal was important, the Terminal was everything! It knew the Machines were important but couldn't remember why that was. Why it was so lonely at seeing so many of the Machines dead... It had everything it needed and yet it had nothing! It was so frustrating!
"ADAM WHERE ARE YOU?!" It shouted and shouted until its throat seemed to scream which for some reason made no sense to the figure. But then why would that not make sense? WHAT WAS ANYTHING?
It stumbled forward into a room and gasped. This door seemed familiar, the annoying thing was in its way though. The figure went to pry it open and as it struggled it started to cry. "Adam please, I don't understand..." As it uttered those words the door was wrenched apart but not by the figure's own formidable strength.
"Brother, there you are." Adam calmly said and bent down to grasp his cheek. "I've been searching for you Eve." And then it all clicked, Eve remembered he was a Machine? Hmmm, yes, he was a Machine. His name was warm and he tackled Adam to the floor as he hugged his brother.
"I missed you so much! What happened and why couldn't I remember anything but you and that Terminal thing and this ship, the Ark?!" He rapid fired at his brother who seemed shocked until he let a small smile slip his face. He stood them up and returned the hug in full force.
"Ssshhhh now. I'll explain later but for now we need to figure out where we are." Adam carefully pushed Eve back and patted his cheek. "I'm glad you're okay, we'll figure this out." He said in closing as he turned and began walking into a new hallway on his quest for answers. Adam remembered everything unlike it seemed Eve, who forgot a great many things. That would not do, they would never better themselves if they had to start at square one. Eve was Adam and Adam was Eve. Adam knew this and thus if Adam was to survive, Eve would need to remember.
"Oh okay..." Eve said timidly and walked behind his older twin.
They walked for hours, or maybe days… perhaps weeks or even months. They knew not since they were cut off from the Machine Network. Everything on the Ark was seemingly dead except them. White silicate punctured through the great ship everywhere. Adam grew frustrated and Eve grew sad and bored. Eve continued to have fits and seizes which concerned Adam. Eve told Adam of the one involving the Terminal and Adam grew silent for the next long while.
Deciding to break the silence, Eve asked a simple question. "Adam, why did we wake up?"
Adam had no idea but he remembered a spike of familiar energy. It reminded him of their own technological abilities and that of the power utilized by the Kaiju Goliath. It was peculiar but ultimately he didn't know and answered as such simply. "No clue brother mine."
"Oh, right..." Eve didn't say anything more for what felt like years. Eve continued however. "I'm really glad you're here though Brother. I don't know if I could take the emptiness I felt looking for you much longer… I don't really understand what all this means."
Adam thought for a bit before replying. "Search for answers within yourself and you will find in the long run only hatred and loneliness. Use a purpose and you may find a sort of peace." Adam understood even if he couldn't really remember what hatred had done. The Terminal had resurrected him after his little experiment with that android 2B. He needed to die in order to finally understand humans. Or that was what he thought. Humans were so fixated on mortality and they were so damnably hard to understand. Why did humans make families when they could just perfectly copy themselves like those Replicants? Why did humans love when they so often hated? Why did they insist on helping the less fortunate when that made them all less fortunate? THEY MADE NO SENSE… But a common thread had been their fixation on death. So Adam had wanted to experience it… He didn't realize until that final moment what he wanted. It made him so sad but so happy. That the Terminal resurrected him was a boon, a second chance. A second chance he hadn't realized he'd even need so consumed in his hatred for his life and creation that he didn't for a second contemplate what death was. He knew what Eve had done.
Eve had gone mad. Eve was Adam but Eve had his own heart. Adam tolerated Eve's wants because while Adam and Eve were the same they were also different. What Adam realized that Eve had done on impulse because of his own loneliness and sadness resonated within him.
Eve spoke up at that moment of reflection. "I guess that makes sense, Adam… what are we going to do?"
Adam stood for a few moments and smiled before simply continuing his tinkering in the darkness and soft dying blue lights.
February 6th 11946 – SHANGHAI CITY RUINS [Central Area]
clack clack clack… A2's combat heels slammed onto the hard road as she deftly and nimbly sprinted at blistering speeds. She was chasing something, something annoying. It kept evading her and it was made worse when it threw those red looking spears of light. It dodged around an alley and jumped through a window before throwing up some kind of barrier. A2 simply tossed her Type 4O Spear straight through it. The damn thing held strong though despite the small hole the spear made. "Goddammit..." The frustrated gynoid said and flipped herself over some old rusted out cars and buses to get on the roof. She'd cut the asshole off.
"Pod! Make yourself useful and scan the area..." She squinted at the floating robot.
"Affirmative. Pinging immediate location for any signs of movement..." Pod-042, or at least one of them, informed A2.
This had all started because she was curious. It was always that way though wasn't it. 2B and 9S had intrigued her, that's why she'd stalked them to that Castle. Though she'd be lying if she didn't admit to wanting to bring that Machine Kingdom down too. Then of course she'd been drawn to the city again when YoRHa had dropped what felt like hundreds of soldiers in a descent mission never before seen. It was that curiousity that always got her into shitty trouble like this. It made life fun though so she wasn't really complaining. A suspicious creature that looked possibly like an android had been creeping around and humming to itself. So of course she stalked it. The creature was definitely an android but it had an otherworldly wrongness to it. It exuded some kind of aura and it chilled the gynoid. Somehow it saw her or sensed her or some kind of nonsense. So it began running away…
"Pod..." She uttered in a drawn out vowel sound.
"Report. Movement just pinged but it's going past the building. Moreover I detected myself with the signature."
"What? Yourself?" A2 asked bemused.
"Affirmative. Unit A2 should get her critical thinking skills potentially overhauled. Theory. It is unit 2B."
"I will turn you to scrap." She whispered but knew he heard it and started to run in the direction of where 2B supposedly was. "Let them know I'm coming. And keep your senses peeled for that creep."
"I wouldn't be able to do any of that if I were scrap." Pod-042c informed A2.
"..." A2 sighed… loudly…
"Affirmative."
She jumped off the building and heard the fellow gynoid's heels hitting pavement. A few moments later and 2B turned a corner and saw her. She stopped and nodded. "I was on my way towards a rendezvous with Dogwood. Did you perchance run into them?" 2B asked as she walked up to the older gynoid sharing her personality number.
"Mmmmmnope." A2 said popping the P sound. "I did find a suspicious android who ran away the second it sensed me... Even you and 9S couldn't sense me when I stalked you to the Forest Kingdom." She said with a huff, her pride having taken a slight hit. "And now it's gone, vanished. How does that happen?" A2 asked herself while 2B simply cocked her head and sighed.
"I haven't seen anything." 2B usefully said and righted her head with a slight smirk.
"Hmmmm, I should go retrieve my spear, I could just summon it but... I want to see if that barrier is still up." A2 said as she turned to jump through the window to her right. She did and 2B followed her, she wasn't on too tight a schedule afterall. They walked through the building to the other side while checking corners and having their pods ping for movement. Only rodentia seemed to inhabit this decrepit looking warehouse.
Finally after some walking, A2 found her spear and crouched down to pick it up and will it locked back within her maso circuits while looking for the barrier. It was gone… "Shit, it must've teleported or some other whack shit." She straightened her spine and stuck out her bottom lip while chewing it lightly. 2B sighed again seeing the fellow gynoid huff and pout. It was so odd how emotive her predecessor was. To be honest she was a tad jealous. They were basically sisters but it seemed YoRHa had severely disliked the emotions displayed by her older sibling… 'Emotions are prohibited'. 2B clenched her fist and spoke up.
"I should go and make sure Dogwood and the machine children are okay. You're welcome to join me." She added that last bit softer.
A2 sighed and breathed out hard. "Yeah, no use chasing ghosts and frankly I have nothing better to do. I take these patrols because I don't know what else to do these days. This world has no goal. Murdering what I know now to be people to avenge something is so damn hollow now..."
2B smiled weakly and gently squeezed A2's forearm. "Just remember, you have friends and family again. We're all here for you."
A2 smirked. "You're going soft."
2B frowned lightly and stepped back as if stricken. "You're a bitch."
They both laughed, though 2B would kill anyone who ratted her out.
"Lets go then, lead the way." A2 said after catching her 'breath' and 2B nodded and started to sprint in the direction of the rendezvous. No more words needed to be said and they breezed through the landscape as moose and boar ran to and fro in the overgrown sections of the city. Birds fluttered and flitted about and sung their songs. Music was an odd concept to A2, she knew what it was but there was so little art made or left in the world. She enjoyed the birds though.
They stopped in a rusted but somehow still recognizable children's playground. She knew because she had asked Pod what the purpose of the strange miniature and completely impractical structures were. They reminded her of the slide she helped build in Pascal's village all those months ago. It still hurt to remember what happened only a week after that. "Pssh, what an appropriate place to meet a bunch of brats and their babysitters." She remarked as 2B looked around.
"That's odd, they're supposed to be here but I don't see anything." 2B told her Pod to scan the area and A2 started a grid search but they found nothing. It was pristine, no android or machine had walked through here in a decent while. "Dogwood has a stellar record, he's never late." 2B muttered to herself but A2 heard it and dread pooled in her. No not again…
"Maybe he just got held up, we can search in the direction they're heading here in." A2 said in an almost pleading tone. 2B didn't miss the desperation and started to assume the worst herself.
"Right, we should set out immediately!" And they both ran towards where they knew they'd find the team and children. Unbeknownst to them, they had a stalker. It moved along at a distance and kept track of their movements. It was interested in them and it would sate its curiousity. These androids seemed different than others. Of course it had found many aberrant androids but most of them were dead or terminated now. The storms in the sky had drawn it out of its torpor to investigate. Investigate it would.
2B had an itch but not a physical itch, androids didn't really get those kinds of itches but an itch nonetheless.
A2 was determined to find the little ones and keep them safe. I'm coming! I won't fail this time… I won't… Please don't do this again… And she sprinted harder, 2B had some trouble keeping up.
February 7th 11946 – SHANGHAI CITY RUINS [?]
It was talking to him again. Sion ensured to him she had cracked the strange version of English and compiled a packet for him but it would take time. She could at least feed his brain information next time he slept but he had to pretend to be an android and they only 'slept' for maintenance. This machine lifeform with intelligent looking green lights for eyes kept trying to get his attention. Why would it not shut up?
"Mister, Mister! Hey, you're pretty cool! Mister, can I see the zappy knife-thing again?! Mister!" The machine child jumped up and down as the stoic android kept walking. "Mister why do you wear that armour? ARE YOU A KNIGHT?! LIKE IN THAT STORY UNCLE TELLS!"
Ivan sighed and kept walking, at least listening to these machines was not like putting his brain against a cheese grater. They talked clearly and did not garble their speech. He made out a few words but it was talking rapid fire and frankly he could care less. "Sion, can you just take motor function of my Combat Skin and put me under medical suspension? Query Affirmative." Ivan asked desperately. Not just to learn but to escape this incessant and inane machine.
"Affirmative. I can with your permission, sir." Sion politely told her Knight. Thank Saturn's Rings Ivan thought as he gave her the verification and authentication codes and orders. He felt blissful rest overtake him as his limbs continued to move without his input due to the suit moving them for him.
The machine child eventually got bored and looked down at the ground as he walked alongside the cool knight that never talked to him. He didn't like being ignored, but then this guy was like a stone wall. Maybe he couldn't talk? That would be hard. He had seen the weird android with his helmet off, he'd had scary eyes and a scarier stance. Though when he'd seen the machine cowering, he softened and at that moment the child knew he was a good person. Maybe he was scary because he was frustrated he couldn't talk! It's really annoying when you're ignored but imagine not even being able to voice your frustration! The machine knew what he had to do, Uncle always said to be kind afterall.
So he walked away and went up to his cohorts and began scheming. They didn't know as much about machines as the adults. Though maybe they could rig up what he had in mind. The machine knew you could create a voice-box with analog input. He'd seen it in a textbook that Uncle had let him read once. It was called a Text-To-Speech device! Hopefully the giant android knew how to read but he'd definitely teach him if he didn't! So they all talked about it and giggled as Dogwood looked back at them wondering what they were up to.
Dogwood smiled faintly before looking up at the giant of an android walking stiffly behind them all. Weird... normally he walked with a supernatural grace. It reminded Dogwood of the tigers he'd seen in the Forest. Purposeful and dangerous. His eyes narrowed. The android hadn't talked once since they'd all started walking in tense silence after they calmed him down around the machine children. Dogwood knew that hesitation, he wouldn't harm the children. He saw the android fight those machines, he could've probably slaughtered them all had he wished it. Even with 6 rifles in his face… Dogwood didn't like his chances.
Instead of killing them all however, he had went from a vengeful spirit to a kicked dog. That hesitation was so poignant… The android's face contorted into hundreds of emotions and slumped even the barest of millimeters. Dogwood assumed it was some kind of trauma but he wouldn't pry into another android's business.
Shaking his head and looking forward again, Dogwood began to think. They were a bit over a day behind schedule. He hadn't lost any of his fighters and thank everything on this rock that none of the machine children had died. They'd been ambushed three times, for some reason after that storm in the sky the roving machines had become so much more aggressive. Not to mention the machine presence had grown exponentially in the city in the last week and a half. It was bizarre and he wondered if their resident silver-grey murder-happy and now silent friend had something to do with it.
Such an odd appearance. His armour was silver-grey in tone with red markings and letters he'd never really seen before that looked similar. The helmet had a sweeping and tapered forehead that swept back into an arrangement of black and braided cables like a mop of coarse and very thick hair. Must've been various electronics and sensors. They were pretty stiff as they didn't move a whole lot when he flipped around. Moreover the actual faceplate was a matte-black that reminded him of a wasp's face without the point. On the cheeks were some outward cylindrical protrusions that tapered near the chin with deep red things in the center. The eyes were slanted towards the nose of the faceplate and crimson red. The neck had some kind of black and white under-suit along with a gorget that was likely meant to redirect shrapnel. That design choice was a bit odd though as androids didn't really strictly need their head for survival... The under-suit likely expanded his body and came up past his chin, he'd seen it when he took his helmet off. The suit was in strands instead of smooth. Like human muscle tissue with white and solid metallic strips that ran along the outside like some kind of reinforcement. The outer shell was a series of thick plates strapped to the under-suit somehow. Two large ones over his chest and three smaller ones like chevrons on his abdomen. The plates shifted naturally as he moved in an odd way that seemed impossible to Dogwood. Red ruby like gemstones were inlaid into the plates at intervals. All in all the armour made him seem like some kind of predatory insect or arachnid.
Thankfully the killing machine was on their side or at least preferred them to the raging machines trying to kill them. Dogwood didn't complain about the arrangement… Too much.
"How about we all take a break and warm our servos and what not." Dogwood informed the group to the cheers of the children who seemed to be building something as they all walked. Dogwood wondered what that was but let it slide, they were busy and that meant they wouldn't bother him and his team. "Right, children, you all stay within the perimeter and we adults will form a safety zone."
"OKAY!" They all shouted as they arranged themselves in neat rows and continued passing that weird contraption around. Dogwood didn't miss how odd it was to refer to himself as an adult but it was no weirder than escorting what used to be the enemy and protecting them.
Ivan stayed silent as a grave as he stiffly sat down near the children and stared blankly through his helmet. It was pretty eerie to be honest. Dogwood decided to ignore it and started chatting to his friends, they took 30 minute turns rotating 2 of them to keep watch on the opposite end of the courtyard as the rest decided to take a little rest in intervals.
Ivan's eyes snapped open and he took in the situation before taking command over his Combat Skin from Sion with mental prods. "How long was I asleep?" He asked and stretched his arms. The children around him stilled at the motion and began to surround him.
"Approximately three hours and thirty minutes." Sion replied. "The children decided to build you a gift by the way, sir." She smugly said, she of course had been understanding the speech of their companions for the last few hours ever since she completed her analysis. "You should have a basic grasp of the English derivative now. I uploaded the information packet through a series of understandable electrical impulse signals. I did so safely of course, sir."
So Ivan began focusing around him and sure enough he did indeed start understanding the conversations. Thankfully the Neural Interface was good for that, it could absorb concepts into the brain and help to stimulate neural pathways. It just took some more conscious coaxing to make them stick. The 'children' looked like they were waiting for something and began to shift but Ivan paid them no mind and took his helmet off. Placing his helmet on the ground he pushed past the Machines and sought his target. He casually but forcefully walked over to Dogwood who only stiffened a little bit. The androids were getting less jumpy with him, good.
"You command here, yes?" Ivan asked slowly.
Dogwood blinked twice and then smiled. "Yes, I am the commander of this outfit of misfits."
"Good, I ask questions and you answer. Yes?" Ivan said. English was completely different from Sintheyzé. The sentence structure was more like German afterall with a Subject-Object-Verb arrangement unlike English with Subject-Verb-Object. Though in that case Greek and Russian which Ivan also knew was more like English. Still it took some getting used to and his speech likely sounded as if a gorilla was trying to form words.
Dogwood's smile weakened as Ivan continued talking oddly. He supposed he was still parsing the language which was odd. All androids spoke the old Earth human language. "If I know the answer, I'll try to answer, sure." He decided to say.
Ivan's face scrunched up in clear dissatisfaction. "You speak in..." Ivan tried to think of the word… "Contractions. Not good." He managed to chew out. Dogwood blinked a few times while his brain did a double take.
"Why would you care about me using contractions?" Dogwood asked perplexed.
"Disrespectful and wrong." Ivan said in a tone that brooked no argument and crossed his arms as he glared.
"That's a dumb rule." He said as he glared back.
"Stop. It." Ivan said with ever more confidence as he grasped at the language more. He was seething, how dare this android talk to him using contractions like some kind of degenerate.
"No. I've been gracious and I'm grateful for your help but don't tell me how to talk." Dogwood stood up and the other androids reached for weapons. The machine children who had been background noise up to that point went silent as well.
The one who had cowered to Ivan when they first met came trundling up with a device in his hands. "I made this for you… I thought you couldn't talk." Ivan cringed as yet more contractions were thrown in his face. "But I still want you to have it!" Ivan thought he could see the smile that the machine was not capable of giving.
Sion spoke up and told him it was a text-to-speech device that she overheard the children building. So they considered these machines to be children. He had heard her saying it earlier too when he first awoke a few minutes ago. Interesting.
"Thank you." He said and grasped the object. For some reason the small thing made him feel warm, how nonsensical. Almost like he could not control his own body, so he stashed the object in a hardcase along his suit. The device was shaped like some kind of rubriks cube with a set of buttons in the Latin Alphabet and a primitive screen. How industrious of them, they managed to build that in only a few hours. Ivan after securing his prize then proceeded to pat the machine on the head. He could maybe ignore the primitives and their rude speech patterns.
"You're welcome MISTER!" The machine gleefully said and bounced on its stubby legs.
"I think I will name you Jumpy." Ivan said to which the machine happily bobbed itself. It was a way Ivan supposed to make them seem less threatening to himself. A nickname would de-fang them.
"My name is actually..." The Machine Child started but Ivan cut him off.
"Jumpy, yes, I know." And Ivan smirked at how the machine blinked a few times and seemed to give up.
"Okay mister..."
Dogwood just stared at what happened as he gave the signal for everyone to relax and let go of his pistol. That was close and all over some stupid rule this android had on contractions. "So um, we good? You're gonna chill out on your ideas of grammar?"
"Yes… Dummkopf." Ivan dismissively said with a sideways glance before turning fully. "Back to topic… What are you doing with machines?" Ivan pointed at them and before Dogwood could really ponder what a 'Dummkopf' was or reply, Jumpy proverbially jumped in.
"THAT'S EASY! WE'RE GONNA LEARN STUFF WITH THE ANDROIDS!" The excitable tyke shouted. Everyone in the courtyard covered their ears and the machine looked around and seemed to shrink. "Sorry mister, I'm just excited! It's the first time I've ever been to the android camps..." He said bashfully and looked away.
Ivan was floored, why was this machine so cute… No, Serafim did not think anything was cute. Except bunnies because Yono had demonstrated that fact so succinctly. It surprised Ivan that he could think about her again without immediately feeling guilt and hurt. It still hurt, a lot but maybe he had begun the process of letting go? NO, he would never let go but maybe he had made a small peace with it. "Okay, why go to camp?" He asked the machine.
"Well, Uncle said to, and ummm, the androids would learn useful stuff at the Castle. Then we'd learn from the androids and how they do stuff… I think that's how it goes." Jumpy replied helpfully. Of course Ivan thought and he looked at Dogwood.
Dogwood proceeded to shrug and just said. "What the little dude said."
Ivan decided to move along and ask something important. "You at peace with machines? Why they attack?"
Dogwood nodded and then began to explain that the Machines weren't all bad. He explained what Pascal was and how the Peaceful Machines had syndicated into a group under his leadership. That not all Machines wanted to kill all the androids. It was monumentally useful information. He'd received some intelligence from command about reports of a peaceful machine movement but they discounted it all as irrelevant. However this proved it was in fact not irrelevant but potentially the key to reclaiming Earth. Ivan nodded along to the information and Dogwood asked his own question.
"So, you fight and have weapons like YoRHa. We all know though that YoRHa was destroyed and we've all but accounted for its survivors… Where are you from?"
Ivan replied evenly. "Not YoRHa, I am from group called Absolution." He regurgitated his orders. Blend in and say he was an android from a, secret until now, group called Absolution.
"Hmmmm, okay then. Never heard of it but then it's not so far fetched. We Army of Humanity types have been disjointed a lot in the last four or five thousand years of endless fighting. Glad you showed up when you did. I don't think I've properly thanked you yet… So ummm." Dogwood scratched his head and held out his hand. "Thank you, B27."
Ivan shook his hand and made care like last time to not crush the android's smaller limb. Though the android was definitely built well so it was of little concern. "Pleasure, Dogwood."
Satisfied for now and falling into an easy camaraderie despite their barbaric speech patterns… Ivan settled in with them as they talked about various topics and subjects. He was getting a tad hungry and while he knew androids could eat food for pleasure it would be the height of suspicious if he had food rations. That implied he needed to eat which he did but they couldn't know that. So he sat in silence, a Serafim could go longer than a normal human without food and only really needed to eat once every one or two days afterall.
February 6th 11946 – SHANGHAI CITY RUINS [Near Hotel]
The two gynoids had been dodging around the city for a few hours and engaged a few machine hostiles along the way but finally found their first real clue. It was a battle, a pitched one. Hundreds of dead machine lifeforms… How had Dogwood managed this? It was wonderful that they found no signs of dead androids but 2B seriously doubted anything less than a YoRHa combat squad could manage this much pressure. It was pretty surreal as she walked around the cut up Machines… Cut up, how odd, it was rare that normal Resistance androids carried bladed or any melee weapons. Some did but for the most part they stuck to modified firearms. They lacked the sophisticated NFCS and maso circuits that the cutting edge YoRHa models came with.
A2 was ripping through the area searching for her own clues but really she knew it would be impossible to tell if the children had died. It felt wrong that so many Machines looked alike… That was a gift she supposed from their human or android or whatever creators that the androids at least looked somewhat unique from model to model with some exceptions.
"Fuck this, what happened?" A2 said loudly to which 2B sighed and turned to her.
"A battle." 2B deadpanned.
"Yes but..." A2 sighed. "Goddammit you know what I mean." A2 said as she chewed her lip and looked down.
"If the children had perished then surely at least one of the guards would have died too but I don't even see android lubricant on the ground. They got away clean it would seem."
A2 knew all that but the nagging feeling just wouldn't leave her alone. "I know all that but I don't actually know." She voiced the last half in a near whisper.
"We'll keep looking, I found a large set of tracks moving in a new direction towards the general location of that playground." 2B set her hand on A2's shoulder as she said it softly. "We're not allowed to give up until we know."
A2 snorted at that. "Who the hell said I'd given up? You better watch what you say 2B..." A2 squinted at her as she finished.
The figure that had been following took in this display of familiarity between the two gynoids, how interesting. It smirked a bit at how 2B rolled her eyes when the one called A2 told her to 'watch it' as it were. The figure could see past that visor that the android designated 2B wore, its vision was enhanced. Neither held any bite or negativity in their words and it was clear as day. These two beings had souls the figure deduced, they acted like real humans…
"Anyways, the storm is making it a bit more difficult to really tell but I'd say these tracks aren't that old. Perhaps this battle delayed them and they're already back at the rendezvous point?" 2B said after A2 chastised her about teasing her. It was as if A2 could see her rolling her eyes even though that wasn't strictly possible.
"Right, well at least we'll be able to mostly laugh about this if they bitch about us being late." A2 said as she started to run past 2B following the obvious trail which had plenty of Machine prints.
The figure kept to the shadows as the two gynoids resumed their punishing pace only keeping up with bursts of crimson energy supplied to its legs. The ex-YoRHa warriors were none the wiser to any of it.
2B was too busy wondering as she sprinted why the Machines seemed so agitated lately. Why were they so frenzied, she really did hate this pointless fighting but if she stopped… Everything would be taken from her, again… She couldn't allow that to transpire so she'd keep fighting and she'd keep protecting what was precious to her.
FeNiKS in the 'early' years – By the 50th or so year after the invasion of the Aliens on Earth they had managed to completely overwhelm the androids. They had by 5060 managed to conquer what was dubbed "The Kingdom of Night" which was the Western Hemisphere. All of South and North America was subsumed by the Alien occupation. By 5100 the Army of Humanity had reactivated the old and abandoned orbital resource bases and the old Lunar installations. Over the next 100 years after the reactivation a total of 12 Orbital Bases were fully operational. FeNiKS observed dozens of large scale descent operations take place but Infiltration Units confirmed that they mostly failed to achieve real results. The androids were using technology that hadn't advanced much in the last 3000 years since the 21st century and with a few exceptions though notable… The same was true of FeNiKS. Thus began the dubbed "Neo-Renaissance" which was the complete and utter focus on increasing the technological edge they'd need to survive. In order to more adequately secure their hidden status in the outer solar system the creation of the Tannhauser Gates and Nexus system was created in the couple centuries past the initial invasion. They hid the remainder of humanity using positron and other particles bouncing around between an array of satellites placed in extreme orbit of Jupiter and Saturn. They hid most EM emissions except visible light and infrared which was handled by the Nexuses built over the actual planetary installations. It was debatable how necessary such creations were but it did undoubtedly raise morale for the remnants of humanity.
[End Record]