"Take a chance, you never know what might happen."
He was an active duty soldier, geared to take on any enemy that stood before him. He could shoot down ten or more enemies and still have ammunition in his rifles. He could repair weapons in the middle of battle and fire back with minimal scratches and dents to his armor. With a gun, he was a force to be reckoned with.
She was a nurse at the time, programmed to assist the wounded in battle. She was nothing much more than an Exo. She saw him on the day he carried a wounded ally with him to the infirmary, swift and eager to assist a comrade who had been injured on the field. She looked at him and forgot that he charged into the tents unannounced while barking at the other nurses to help his friend. For a moment she wished he was barking those words at her, to imagine him talking to her was something she yearned for. Her fantasy however, would have to wait for another time, because as the soldier charged in the tents he charged back out into the open, only quicker.
For the longest time, she would ask around about the stranger man but not get much response in return. She would figure such a man would be well known throughout the camp, the lack of information set her investigation to a devastating halt. What more could she do? She thought about it for days, over long hours.
"Perhaps the only way to meet him is on the battlefield itself?" She said to herself.
"Are you crazy, Lakshmi?" Another nurse asked, overhearing the fellow nurse, sitting down next to her in the cafeteria.
"Crazy?" Lakshmi turned her head to the other nurse. "What is being crazy when you're in love?"
The nurse scrolled her eyes to Lakshmi, hearing such words. "Love? Love for whom?"
Lakshmi held her head in her hands, thinking of the man in those few moments that she remembered seeing him. "I do not know his name, it seems nobody knows."
The accompanied nurse looked down at her finger that made little circles on the table. "What did he look like?"
Lakshmi rejoiced at the question. She could describe the man in a million words and still feel that they weren't enough. "He looked like a God."
The nurse looked to Lakshmi. "A God?" She asked. "Surprising that nobody knows much about such a man."
"I know, it is such a shame." Lakshmi stood up from the table. "I'm leaving for the battlefield at midnight."
The fellow nurse turned to Lakshmi with obvious concern. "Are you sure about that Lakshmi?" She stood up and went to the fellow nurse, still displaying obvious concern. "We're made nurses for a reason─"
"I don't care what I was assigned to do," She said in a nasty tone of voice. "We Exos are programmed to become self-aware but because we are just bodies of metal does that mean we cannot display feelings as humans do?"
The nurse looked back at Lakshmi, trying to configure her words but it was difficult to any human or Awoken to understand that Exos shared a similarity in mental state as they. Before the Golden Age, artificial intelligence or what they commonly knew as robotic bodies did not share an emotion or similar mental function as their fellow humans but as the advancement of science progressed, Exos were beginning to experience self-awareness the perception of robotics changed but some kept their prejudices. The nurse after a moment failed to recognize Lakshmi's statement and turned her head back to the table. "Alright then, have fun." She replied to the Exo, not even making eye contact.
Without a response to the fellow nurse, Lakshmi was on her way. Before she could find her metallic Romeo, preparations were to be made before her venture.
The crest of the moon had rose from beyond the hills, casting dim shadows upon the decimated battlefield decorated with deceased Fallen and soldiers alike. Sitting at the nearby base, sat the reclaimed 'legendary' soldier, smoking an electronic cigarette.
"Hey Banshee!" Some of the rookies called. "Wanna pose with the dead Fallen?"
Banshee let out a slight chuckle, taking a puff of the vapor from the small cigarette. "Nah, you boys go on ahead."
Not far behind, Lakshmi spied on Banshee from beyond his tent. He was so much more glorious than she had remembered, she wanted to go closer, to touch him or talk to him, but alas, she was too shy. After a while, storm clouds could be seen overhead. Banshee returned to his tent just as the first few droplets started to fall; Lakshmi hid to avoid the rain.
The hours strolled by as the rain hit down harder, Lakshmi lied by the hill near the camp curled up in a ball under the gray sky letting the pellets crash against the bare parts of her body. Banshee lied on his cot, closing his eyes. Turning off was pointless. "Exos don't dream…" He said sitting up. "What is 'dream', and what is there to dream about?" He sighed.
A loud scream snapped Banshee from his thoughts followed by a crash against the crates of rations and ammunitions outside his tent. He rushed outside to find an unconscious Lakshmi lying in the mud. Banshee looked at the fellow Exo in surprise, he tried to wake her but with no response. "She must be a nurse from the station… But that's miles from here." He said picking her up from the muddy ground and walking back into the tent with the nurse.
The hours passed by and so did the storm; Banshee had spent most of that time cleaning the mud from the metallic nurse's frame, she was still unconscious when he wrapped her in blankets and laid her on his cot, he had tried to wake her but to no avail. Banshee pulled up a stool and sat across from his cot staring at the Exo. "She sure is pretty," He thought. "What was she doing all the way out here?"