Nighttime fell on Mars. Unlike on Earth, there was no formidable-sized moon to reflect much of the sun's light.
The electricity had failed at the ruined Poseidon facility after the generators were all strafed, plunging the battered towers and broken machinery into darkness, only for it to be partially illuminated periodically by explosions peeking over the horizon like miniature sunrises. While Tainan City was attacked, three flights of unarmed Poseidon drones broke their neat formations to search for salvageable parts, machines that were not damaged beyond repair, and human survivors hiding in air pockets created by heavy bulkheads deep within the complex.
Drones' scanners swiftly slipped over twisted metal and corpses' frozen faces. One of them detected the heartbeat of a man lying in the open, in defiance of everything that it had been programmed to know about human survival. The drone's vectored thrust brought it to a standstill, then it descended towards where the heartbeat was coming from. Despite the fact that no human could survive more than 90 seconds without protective equipment, the unmistakable heartbeat activated a rescue protocol.
The drone ascended and continued its task while a larger, cuboid-shaped personnel carrier swooped down over the rubble and scooped the survivor away into its airtight interior. While the survivor recovered from his oxygen starvation and hypothermia, the drone hovered and awaited for its next orders.
Meanwhile, Prussia was about to leave the planet entirely. He was amazed that something so massive could move so quickly as the spaceship accelerated through a tunnel within the now structurally unsound building. He saw tiny lights whizzing by through a tiny window in the closed door on the side of the fuselage. Suddenly the lights were gone as the spaceship emerged from the tunnel, leaving a wake of blue flames behind it.
Heavy smoke stacks still billowed all across the city, but the fighting didn't seem quite as intense as it had been previously. Perhaps the two corporations were running low on both fighters and supplies within the city's vicinity. With a jolt, the spaceship nosed down towards the city to gain airspeed before beginning a near-vertical climb upwards into the stars, engines howling. As he had been during the acceleration, Prussia was pushed to the wall right at the back of the cabin by the extreme G-forces, at the mercy of whatever flightpath the spaceship was programmed to take. Prussia was in for one hell or a ride.
Thinking he must be clear of the exhausted battlezone, Prussia calmed down from his previous state of alertness and let the acceleration push his body against the wall. But to his horror and surprise, he detected something moving outside the small window. Craning his neck against the G-force of such a steep, fast ascend into space, he saw a sleek swept-wing fighter craft jettison twin RATO bottles, having just caught up with the cargo spaceship. It didn't bare either Poseidon nor Tainan markings. Instead, it was painted grey with a black underside. The cockpit canopy resembled that of a craft flown by a human pilot rather than a computer. But Prussia's attention was quickly drawn to the under-nose laser cannon turret that swivelled its barrel straight at him.
The gun seemed to Prussia as though it were pointing right between his eyes. Prussia stared down the barrel, then back at the cockpit, straining his senses to find out who (or what) the brazen pilot was. Yet, he was unable to do so; the craft was too far away and had a well-insulated cockpit. But for some reason he was sure the pilot was staring back at him.
It seemed a catastrophe was less than a second away, when the cargo spaceship jettisoned an emptied external fuel tank from below the fuselage. The engines gave a boost of thrust, propelling the more aerodynamic machine out of the thin atmosphere and into space. The smaller craft, however, free from its RATO bottles and having spent much of its comparably meagre fuel supply catching up to the cargo ship and matching its speed, stalled and nosed over backwards. The light from its single thrust nozzle was extinguished while ailerons, stabilators and the pilot wrestled with the laws of physics to regain control over the powerless fighter.
Prussia was safe; the danger was evaded. The speeding cargo ship had broken away from Mars's atmosphere, leaving the battlezone behind. As the crushing acceleration force weakened, he sat himself down on the steel floor. "Will I ever find Germany in all this chaos?" He said out loud.
Gilbird fluttered to Prussia from behind a stack of crates. "Don't worry, you'll find him," said Gilbird positively, landing in front of him and folding its wings away.
"What makes you so sure?" Prussia scoffed.
"We know, in one way or another, some your kind have survived the end of nations. And Germany has existed within the in the internet's reach. He is out there," replied Gilbird.
"Yeah, I know that," Prussia reached out his right arm stroked his only friend from head to tail feathers, his intricate finger mechanisms allowing such delicate movements, "but that doesn't mean I can determine his precise location."
"You've got all the time you need, Gil," said Gilbird.
Prussia leant his head back and laughed a mechanical, maniacal, synthesised cackle. "Now that is true," Prussia said after finally calming down from his laughter.
"Besides," continued Gilbird, "you love your brother, even after everything he did to you. Your love will help you find him."
Prussia nodded in agreement as Gilbird's words sent Prussia's computerised mind sifting through its extensive memory archives to a memory response it had triggered.
The memory occurred an aeon ago, but if he recalled correctly, it was a Tuesday: As usual, Dr. Schäfer stared at her clipboard while sipping her mid-morning coffee. She will return to her clipboard in the afternoon while sipping her mid-afternoon coffee. Prussia lay still and limbless on an operating table in front of Dr. Schäfer, watching her through the cameras that were connected into his head through a cable spaghetti below the table. His flamboyant silver hair had to be shaved off for brain surgery, but tiny whiskers were already beginning to poke through his naked scalp. The cameras should have been off, but Prussia switched them on with his brain. Unbeknownst to scientists like, Dr. Schäfer, he was very much able to watch them when they thought he was in a state of unconscious sensory deprivation.
His lip reading skills, however, were not brilliant. But Prussia was making every effort to learn, having no microphones to listen in on what they were saying.
There were three cameras that his brain had access to. One was in the top left corner of the room facing Dr. Schäfer, the other was in the top right corner of the room facing him. The other was positioned outside the room where Prussia lay, in the corridor which led to the main lab room and engineering workshop in the research facility that he had paid for with leftover money he had obtained from German taxpayers.
Prussia admired Dr. Schäfer's brilliance in her field. She was dismissed from an artificial intelligence solutions company in California after designing, and attempting to persuade her superiors to allow the production of, operating systems for robots that broke the Laws of Robotics. She deemed such laws to be arbitrary, but her bosses were too dogmatic to agree with her. Prussia plucked her from the application pool when she moved back to her home town near the Polish border. Dr. Schäfer reminded Prussia of another woman he was once acquainted with, which was initially one of the reasons why he hired her.
As if on cue, Dr. Akagi, another scientist, limped down the corridor to the operating room. Even with much of his face covered by his hair, Prussia could still tell that he looked rather fed up. It was also clear to Prussia that Dr. Akagi was yet to wash the bloodstains from his white labcoat. Prussia switched to the camera that faced Dr. Schäfer as soon as Dr. Akagi flung the door open.
"That thing tried to kill me again!" Dr. Akagi is believed to have said while pointing at Prussia's motionless body. Prussia's lip reading missed words here and there, but he could sill fill in the gaps with his intuition.
"Oh yeah, I read the report. You're lucky you had time to hit the kill switch!" Said Dr. Schäfer. She remained seated.
"I did, once again," huffed Dr. Akagi, "but hey, me and my team think we're near a breakthrough on those artificial fingers it has! We want to see if that robotic hand will stroke an animal the same way a human will."
"I hope it won't use the robotic hands to strangle me again," replied Dr. Schäfer, who had also had to hit Prussia's kill switch numerous times. The two scientists both shared an awkward laugh. Prussia, meanwhile, could not understand what they were laughing about.
"But I suppose getting it to stop trying to kill us is more your area than mine. How's that coming?" Said Dr. Akagi, trying to break the awkwardness.
"It's like teaching morality and consequences to an infant psychopath who has the strength of a fully grown man. No matter how much I try to hack its brain to tone down its strength, it keeps overriding my commands," said Dr. Schäfer wearily.
They were calling Prussia an 'it'. How flattering.
"Hmm," Dr. Akagi stroked his chin, "well, it's not like it was ever, you know, human. Maybe that has something to do with it. Science has prepared us for modifying, augmenting or repairing humans and other animals, but not these. It's like building the SR-71 Blackbird. Planes were traditionally been made out of aluminium, but the SR-71 was made of titanium. New tools and techniques had to be developed for working with such a different material."
Dr. Schäfer turned and looked at Dr. Akagi. She said, "hmm, good analogy. But wait, you mean you were told it isn't human too? I thought I was the only one!" She sounded amazed.
Dr Akagi laughed, "nah, all heads of teams know."
"Guess I didn't get the memo," said Dr. Schäfer. Her face changed from surprised to bemused, "I was told that it's the embodiment of the Prussian people, or their culture, or something like that. And now that Prussia iss gone it wants a new body before the old one rots away. It would be a hell of a way to die, if we weren't here saving it's life."
"I feel bad for it," said Dr. Akagi, "I wonder if Japan has one of these creatures."
"Do you like anime?" Asked Dr. Schäfer.
Dr. Akagi looked at her, then raised one eyebrow, "where's this going?"
"Well, we're turning a demon into a robot, which seems like something from an anime," said Dr. Schäfer happily.
Dr. Akagi folded his arms, "why don't you tell me more about anime over pizza tonight?"
"Y-you want to go out for pizza with me?" Dr. Schäfer seemed genuinely stunned by Dr. Akagi's proposal, to which Prussia thought was odd because Dr. Schäfer seemed to him like the kind of woman to get asked out a lot.
"Yeah, how about that place by the train station after work tonight? They're serving those new Poseidon pizzas!" Dr. Akagi suggested.
"Okay, sure!" Said Dr. Schäfer, who was now, as far as Prussia was concerned, insufferably excited.
"Oh get a room you two," Prussia would have said if what was left of his mouth was not disconnected from his brain, "or better yet, why don't you just make love right here? I could do with some light entertainment."
For the rest of the day Prussia's brain was pricked and prodded at by Dr. Schäfer while Dr. Akagi and his team worked on improving his robotic limbs. They were incompatible for a human, but would fit a nation such as himself perfectly. Prussia didn't mind his brain being the subject of Dr. Schäfer's science project so long as it meant his survival.
When the evening arrived, Dr. Schäfer stood up and smiled proudly at her good day's work. Prussia watched her walk into the corridor and meet Dr. Akagi, whose lab coat was now stained with blotches of machine oil. The two of them walked away together, along with the rest of the people who worked in the building. The last employee to leave turned out the lights, leaving Prussia alone in the dark. Prussia thought of Dr. Schäfer. She reminded him of Hungary, no doubt about it. Dr. Akagi was a lucky man. Right there and then, he desperately wanted to be in Dr. Akagi's place, eating pizza with someone so pretty and lively, and so very intelligent. Instead he lay alone in the dark, crippled and clinging to life.
Behind all of his confident and brash bravado, Prussia was a very lonely man. Yet his loneliness only crept into his conscience at such times when he was truly alone with his thoughts. Prussia hoped that his loneliness will soon be engineered away, and tried to laugh at such a prospect, but was unable to make a sound because his mouth and vocal chords ceased to function his body broke itself apart.
The two scientists returned the next morning, talking excitedly in technological jargon that was beyond Prussia's limited abilities in lip reading. Prussia wasn't completely sure that, even if he could hear them, his vocabulary would be able to keep up with what they were saying. Dr. Schäfer and Akagi talked about guidance systems and love, artificial intelligence and sanity, empathy and loneliness. Prussia understood that they wanted his robotic implants to stop trying to kill them, and that they wanted him to continue to behave rationally when under digitalized decision-making processes. He was to have protective mechanisms in place, similar to senses in humans that detect pain.
Dr. Schäfer and Akagi worked for years on Prussia to perfect him. They both died peacefully years after Prussia was allowed to walk free, mechanized and powerful. He did not attend their funerals because he was not invited.
Prussia realised he had been asleep, his sensors were jolted back to readiness by the occasional bumps the spaceship made on its journey. He wondered why he had thought of those two deceased scientists, but dismissed his worry by shrugging it off.
Out of nowhere, a boom rippled through the spaceship's interior, knocking Prussia to the wall and sending crates flying. One of the crates was sent flying beside him and splintered open, its contents spilling out. The crate was filled with guns. Prussia was on full alert. He struggled against the now shifting G-forces to see out of the tiny window in a desperate attempt to gauge which way was up, but all he saw were stars. Smoke detectors rang out in his brain as he felt the vibrations from the engines fizzle out.
"We are going to crash," announced Gilbird unhelpfully.
Prussia had the choice to either accept his fate and die, or be disappointed and then die. He pondered this choice for a few seconds before concluding it didn't matter how he felt in the next few moments, because he was sure he would be killed in the ensuing crash regardless. Disappointment clouded Prussia's mind as the protocol was activated whether he liked it or not while he waited for the final impact. The fuselage imploded in the fraction of a second, and it was over.
System re-starting.
Electrical power restored.
Sentient systems restored.
Checking motor functionality.
Gilbird restored.
WARNING: LEGS ARE NOT RESPONDING. MAJOR DAMAGE TO SKIN AND INTERIOR. SELF-SEALING NOT RESPONDING.
WARNING: CRITICAL DAMAGE IN TORSO AREA. PHYSICAL STRENGTH COMPROMISED.
The warning messages repeated until Prussia finally dismissed them. When he tried to switch on his eyes, another warning sounded.
WARNING: EYE 2 IS NOT RESPONDING.
"For fuck sake," was all Prussia was able to say, before it occurred to him how amazed he should be that he survived the crash despite gaining significant damage. He could still see with one eye, but saw only blackness, so he switched to night vision. When he did, Prussia saw that he was lying in a field of debris which looked just like a scrapyard. The grand Tainan spaceship was utterly obliterated, with what was left of the fuselage rolled onto the side in the distance. A chunk of metal, which looked as though it was once part of a door, had crushed his legs and rendering them inoperable. His torso was dented and leaking oil, likely from something being knocked into him during the impact.
Prussia detected movement. Two sets of footsteps were wading through the debris. "Woohoo! We took out a whole Tainan spaceship! Props to the laser turret guys, I thought that laser couldn't hit a target if it..." said a man's voice excitedly.
"Quiet, we don't know who or what was onboard. Any survivors would kill us if they had the chance," a woman's voice interrupted him.
"Don't worry, it was a cargo vessel. Nobody would be onboard. Now time for some raiding!" Said the man's voice again.
The footsteps drew ever-closer, shaking loose small pieces of metal and machinery. The sound of engines could be heard, coming ever nearer, most likely to be from the vehicles of anybody looking to make money from the cargo and scrap metal. "There's something over here," one of the voices said, sounding mere inches away from Prussia. He looked to where they were coming from, his neck functioning just fine.
A figure stepped up to where Prussia lay. It walked and talked like a human, but Prussia knew that it was some kind of mutant. More and more humans had mutated by now, especially those working on offworld locations. The figure's face was concealed behind a helmet visor, two long tubes extended from the helmet to two tanks of oxygen the figure was carrying. "I've found something over here!" He called, while Prussia lay still in the debris. Two torches from the man's shoulders shone directly into Prussia's remaining functioning eye, but he could still see him detaching a pair of huge hydraulic cutting jaws from his back and pointing them at Prussia. "Must be one of Red Castle's military 'bots."
Someone else arrived and stood next to him. "We're gonna be rich! Look what it's wearing. Is that synthetic hair?" She said, pointing down at Prussia. Neither of the two figures' faces could be seen, but Prussia could hear their voices well enough to deduce what sex they were. One of Prussia's fingers twitched as he continued to automatically check all remaining systems were functioning. The two figures gasped and jumped back. "I-it's moving!" The man stammered.
"Run!" Screamed the woman.
"No way, don't you remember how much salvaged robots are worth?That one's ours now!" Said the man, inching the hydraulic jaws closer to Prussia's face.
"I'm not affiliated with Tainan. Or Red Castle, whatever that is," said Prussia, as calmly as he could.
They both jumped back again in surprise. "It talks! Kill it!" Wailed the woman.
"No! You've gotta believe me!" Protested Prussia, still unable to pick himself up.
"Classic robot talk," the man said impatiently, and dug the jaws into Prussia's already damaged torso.
"Gilbird, do something!" Was all Prussia was able to croak before everything went black.
When Prussia's system re-started, he found himself being dragged across a yellowish barren landscape. As far as he could tell, the sky didn't exist. The previous events of the crash and being found in the debris was all a blur, like a quickly forgotten dream. He was disorientated and nothing made sense. He hit a rock, jolting his head to the right where he saw the red spot of violent storms.
Prussia's inoperable legs were chained to some kind of vehicle. His speech systems were damaged and not responding, making him no longer able to protest. A crowd of people strode on the left, right and behind. He was driven through a town, brutalist and bauhaus-style buildings, which looked as though they had been jabbed violently into the rocks. Prussia felt as though he were in a town of fiction where nothing was real except his old dreams.
He was dragged into a huge hollow building, with an interior like a cathedral and an exterior that could have been bashed together in a couple of days. A door like that of an aircraft hangar clanged shut, and lights flickered on as the air pressure normalised. People began to take off their helmets, allowing Prussia to finally see the faces of his captors.
He saw a man with undersized ears, an oversized hairy nose that probably impaired his vision by blocking his eyes slightly and green teeth, pointed straight at him after jostling his way to the front of the crowd. "There it is! Let's first of Tainan's robot infantry to be killed on Ganymede!" He exclaimed excitedly, "let's salvage it for parts!"
"Salvage it for parts! Salvage it for parts! Salvage it for parts!" A crowd of mutants chanted as Prussia was unchained and dragged by hand to a metal cubic podium in front of everybody. Skinny topless grey people of varying genders beat booming drums in synchronism with the chanting. Prussia was being lynched.
In the rapidly shuffling crowd of people, one person stood still. That person wore a helmet and respirator with lenses that flickered left to right as people jostled in all directions, but Prussia was barely able to register that the person was there. He was fastened to the podium by chains, and looked upon the crowd that wanted him dead. They were no different from the nations who turned their backs on him; they wanted him dead too. A mutant, as tall as he was wide, waddled to Prussia. It held a massive drill in one arm, and a pair of electromagnet-operated metal jaws in the other. The tools were attached to holders under his wrists, and only portable due to the mutant's exceptionally large biceps. The mutant chuckled, "Cutting edge technology? I'll show you my cutting edge!" The mutant said in a gruff voice as he raised the drill to Prussia's neck.
Germany's smiling face appeared in Prussia's mind as he waited for the end, hearing the mutants chanting and the topless drummers drumming. Then a single plasma gunshot brought the huge room to silence. Everybody looked around, trying to work out where the gunshot came from. The crowd then parted as someone walked to the front. Mutants began to gasp and back away fearfully, and it didn't take Prussia very long to figure out why. Poseidon stepped to the front of the crowd, a smoking glowing pistol in hand. "Release him at once!" Poseidon demanded. Prussia was ushered away to darkness. People hardly said a word, avoiding eye contact with Poseidon, fearful of his wrath.
Laid out on an operating table, reminding Prussia of his long transition into mechanization, he half expected scientists to begin tweaking and repairing him. Instead, no less than ten insect-like thin electrical arms dropped from the ceiling and worked in unison like fingers on piano keys as they fixed the damage inflicted by the crash. The arms would sometimes retreat to the ceiling, then return a fraction of a second later firmly clasping parts to be welded, screwed or riveted into place.
Prussia underwent a system re-start yet again, and bolted upright as soon as he found that all systems were functioning as though they were new. He had been lying on an expensive, comfortable leather sofa in a spacious office. Beige walls were lined with posters displaying corporate propaganda and technical information, and framed photos of people smiling while wearing business suits. One of the walls was dominated by machinery, lined with pipes, circuit breakers, valves and levers, and quietly humming motors. On the far end of the room was a desk, and atop of the desk was a glowing computer console. To the right was a lanky scientist with asymmetrical breasts, a long purple beard and no eyes. She used Pulse-Doppler radar, similar to Prussia's, to overcome the blindness that her mutation had given her. "Sir, he's awake," she said while keeping her hairy hands behind her back.
"Thanks, ," said a familiar voice. The scientist nodded and walked out of the room without looking at Prussia. The computer console flickered for a moment as it was being switched off, then disappeared. Poseidon, who had been sitting behind the console, grinned and stood up. "Prussia!" He said gladly and extended his hands out as though about to hug him.
Poseidon wore tore blue slacks and a purple jumper. He limped as he walked towards Prussia. "Welcome to Poseidon Base 6. The largest Poseidon settlement in Jupiter's satellite system! How do you feel?"
Prussia wasn't sure how to answer that question.
Poseidon hobbled to the machinery that took up an entire wall. "Sorry about my employees getting a bit," he paused and made a contemplative expression while trying to think of the appropriate word, "murdery. Everyone's been on edge since the mining facility on Mars was destroyed by that bastard, Tainan. There's been sporadic conflict for a long time now, sure, that's normal for competing corporations. But now it's a full-scale war! Any Tainan craft that comes within range of here gets shot down. Or at least, we try to shoot it down." He began to twist valves and pull leavers, operating the advanced machine with ease. When pipes rattled and gurgled, Poseidon took and unfolded a cup from a pocket on the front of his trousers and held it under where one of the pipes ended. A thick green steaming liquid oozed out into the cup. When the cup was full, Poseidon lifted it to his lips and took a long gulp. "That's some good coffee. Unlike the kind you'd find back on Earth. Would you like some?" He asked.
"No thanks, I don't drink," replied Prussia.
"Oh, right, of course," said Poseidon
"I'm on Ganymede right now, aren't I?" Asked Prussia, waiting for confirmation.
"You are," said Poseidon, walking to the wall and running his finger up halfway to the ceiling. The wall faded to reveal a large window, to which Prussia walked curiously towards. His now functioning eyes focused on the sky above, dominated by a huge celestial body where gas swirled like sandstorms, making abstract patterns thousands of miles across. Prussia identified it as Jupiter. "I suppose you're still trying to get to the Kuiper Belt?" Asked Poseidon
"I am," stated Prussia.
"Then you'll have a hard time getting there," said Poseidon grimly, "Tainan Corporation has strongholds all across Saturn's moons. And Red Castle Superdynamics have factories and bases on Miranda, Ariel and Umbriel. They've been supplying Tainan with all their robots, in case you didn't know."
"I know now," said Prussia, then looked at Poseidon, "hang on, how did you get here so fast?"
Poseidon chuckled, "I can travel effortlessly through my own territories. As could you, I presume. But I must admit, I was a bit delayed on Mars when a compartment I was in suffered a rapid decompression. The few humans I was with were all killed in under two minutes."
"That must've been painful," said Prussia, finding out that his empathy protocol had been activated for Poseidon.
"It was," huffed Poseidon, "I felt like I was perpetually drowning and freezing at the same time! Good thing I was rescued eventually so I could come here." Poseidon walked to his desk, continuing to look at Prussia, "but that's not all! I also had something brought here on a fast courier from my home." Poseidon raised his finger to the wall and began to punch in an overly complicated enigmatic code, and a small panel of wall opened up like a camera shutter. Thin smoke escaped through the opening. Poseidon reached in his arm and pulled out a folded up piece of black and white cloth, which he handed to Prussia.
Prussia took the cloth and gently started to unfold it. "I believe it should be returned to you, since you're the rightful owner," stated Poseidon. As Prussia unfolded it he soon recognized what it was. Prussia would have cried if he were physically able to as he became overwhelmed by Poseidon's kindness. After unfolding the cloth and seeing it fully in his hands, Prussia became so overrun by emotions that his CPU had to interject. He was holding a late 19th Century flag of Prussia. The edges were frayed, but the flag was kept in surprisingly good condition. It reminded Prussia of who he used to be, and who he had become.
"An old artefact from the ancient times that I won in an auction," explained Poseidon.
"T-thank you," Prussia croaked as his CPU continued to strain on suppressing an emotional meltdown. He opted not to tell Poseidon about how the flag was a very convincing expensive knock-off rather than an actual antique.
Poseidon soon set to work with his board and supercomputers to create battle plans. He sat at his desk, communicating through encrypted codes to devise strategies and tactics. Prussia stayed in the office, and when Poseidon stood up to get another cup of green coffee, he turned to Prussia as the machine rumbled into life. "We need your help, Prussia," he spoke in a serious tone, "There's a huge warehousing facility on Enceladus and it's being filled with tech from Red Castle Superdynamics. You're the only one of your kind that I have this side of the Asteroid Belt who can be mistaken for a Red Castle machine. If we you use their friendly IFF, Red Castle shouldn't know you're one of us. There's a security force here that'll go with you, it's comprised of transhuman grunts. We'll raid everything we can from the warehouse, including the spaceships that are stored there. You can use one to fly to the Kuiper Belt."
"Sure," said Prussia, "I was created to fight!"
"Um, you were created to fight when you were a nation. You know, back when nations were still a thing," Gilbird reminded him.
"I've survived this far, haven't I? This is my only option," Prussia told Gilbird.
"Who are you talking to?" Asked Poseidon.
"It's settled," replied Prussia dismissively, "take me to Enceladus!"
A day later, Prussia stood on the icy surface of Enceladus in the shadow of Saturn. The flat round ring system eclipsed the sun and he heard nothing but the hum of five unarmed windowless dropships as they waited patiently to pick up Prussia and the grunts. Three dropships were scattered in smouldering piles of debris with scorch marks from concentrated laser impacts. A huge transporter waited beyond the atmosphere to collect the loot. Poseidon knew that his employees were desperate for his providence, and joined the formation for the ensuing battle. Despite the nay-saying of his advisors, Poseidon thought accompanying his soldiers to a battlezone will help maintain his reputation as a respectable figurehead. He sat in a light data collection craft carrying a bulbous TARPS pod, but ascended out of sight to evade getting shot down by no less than a dozen high altitude tracking laser turrets that popped out from the warehouse roof. Prussia had tied the flag Poseidon had given him to his neck like a cape. It flapped flamboyantly in the wispy wind.
Prussia was surrounded by fresh corpses of the transhumans that were mowed down by three headless white and crimson Red Castle mechs that punched their way out from the ice with their titanium hydraulically extended fists. They killed each of the soldiers using plasma cannons that folded out from the mechs' wrists. All grunts were K.I.A, leaving Prussia standing alone and staring at the mechs, barely damaged by the missile and plasma gunshots from the doomed soldiers. Combat engineers in leather trench coats, snipers with laser scopes built into their eyes, medics who carried both medical and mechanical equipment all lay in one tangled bloody mess. Prussia held the sleek white gun he had been given, although using it would be futile. Poseidon's intel had failed to predict any of this.
The towering mechs, bearing the medieval-style tower and hiragana character logo of Red Castle Superdynamics, released missiles from their shoulders. Prussia flinched, ready to react, but instead tracked the missiles' white contrails to the five dropships. His synthetic hair was blown back by the ensuing explosions as the machines exploded, one after the other, in massive spheres of fire. Pointy shards embedded in the ice. With the targets destroyed, the mechs stood still.
"T-they didn't shoot me. I'm still alive" Prussia stammered into the small standard issue Poseidon radio.
"Your hacked IFF must've been a success," said Poseidon urgently, "But it's only a matter of time until they figure out you're an imposter. I'm getting you out of there. Stand by for extraction."
"No!" Shouted Prussia over the radio, "I have to get into that warehouse."
"Do you expect to just walk up and open the front door? It'll take the combined force of most of the grunts I sent down there, and now they're all dead," said Poseidon, who was more frustrated than he was angry.
Prussia was close to the warehouse's front door, as tall as the deadly mechs and twice as wide. On a whim he pushed the blast-proof door and saw the following words appear in his vision:
PROTOCOL PR0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
IFF CODE ACCEPTED.
WELCOME. TRANSFERRING IN 3…2…1.
Prussia found himself lying in a somewhere dark, so he switched to night vision and picked himself up. There was no wind, and a cloudy ceiling was high over his head. At first Prussia thought he was in a narrow alley way, until he noticed that on either side of him were shelves that spanned from horizon to horizon. He was inside the warehouse.
Prussia looked to the left and right. Prussia gasped when he saw that lined neatly on each of the steel shelves were robots that were almost identical to him. The robots were bald and naked, standing with their heads slumped and without lights illuminated in their eyes. Each of the robots bore Red Castle Superdynamics's logo on their arms, like the mechs that had killed his comrades. "They all look like you. Why don't I get a robot doppelgänger?" Gilbird complained. But Prussia didn't have much time to look at the shelves as he heard a clink, followed by pattering footsteps.
He stepped back as the shelves started to rattle. His senses heightened while the footsteps grew louder and faster. Something was coming for him. He gripped the plasma gun and raised the sight to his left eye, switching off the safety with his thumb, causing the motor to begin spinning up and the barrel to glow neon green. The shelves suddenly stopped rattling and Prussia detected something moving rapidly behind him. He spun around and saw, to his horror, a figure in black wearing a respirator and helmet with blue lenses that glowed through the darkness. Prussia angrily squeezed both triggers, sending out a deadly stream of energy at the figure, who darted to the right and launched itself into the air using rocket boots, charging at Prussia like a rabid animal.
Prussia fired again, only to hit the floor as each of his limbs became immobilised. The gun fell out of his frozen hands. From where Prussia lay he saw the rockets switching off and two boots crashing into the cold concrete floor. The mysterious attacker held a small stun gun that jammed his electrics, causing him to loose his footing and become helpless. Its little transmitter dish scanned from left to right quick enough to look like a grey blur. The figure could kill Prussia in any way it wanted.
Prussia's plasma gun was stomped to pieces under a boot, using a crushing force inconceivable from any human. The boot hammered down on it repeatedly, resulting in the gun cracking and crunching under such pressure. The crushed and battered pieces were then blown away by the rocketwash from the boot, before the figure turned attention to Prussia and lunged at him with a sawblade de-pixelating and solidifying from the palm of its hand, stripping away at Prussia's neck. "Why are you killing me?" Prussia asked fearfully.
"You should know why," said a raspy low voice from within the helmet. The voice was auto-tuned and artificial, much like Prussia's.
Another set of footsteps quickly drew closer. The figure stood up, concealing the blade and ascended away with all rockets blazing. The figure made no noise as it faded away like a phantom. By then Prussia's electrics were back online, allowing him to stand up again. He had trouble keeping steady and warnings erupted in his head as his polymer skin began to seal itself. "Are you alright?" Called a voice from behind, Prussia turned to see an east Asian man with circular glasses, a messy grey bowl haircut and a long pointy beard. "Damage doesn't look to be too severe."
Dazed, Prussia said, "I'll be fine. What was that thing? And who the hell are you?" He regretted mentioning 'hell' the moment after he said it, knowing hell to be a very archaic word.
The man suddenly looked sad, "it loathes all my products, yet it fears me," he perked up, "let me see your serial number. You should be awaiting shipment." He adjusted his glasses and squinted at Prussia. While he did, Prussia noticed 'PR0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001' appear in the lenses of the man's glasses.
The man stepped back. "Prussia?" He whispered, before repeating a little more loudly, "Prussia."
"That's me," said Prussia modestly.
"It's me, Prussia, I'm Red Castle Superdynamics!" He said excitedly, "Dr. Akagi used to tell me stories about you when I was a kid."
"Y-you knew Dr. Akagi?" Prussia stammered.
"Know him? He's one of my founders! He said that you helped him to realise the advantages of using robots to kill people. You were his prototype" said the man, who was apparently Red Castle.
"I see," said Prussia, who wasn't quite sure what to make of that.
"So what brings you all the way to Enceladus?" Asked Red Castle.
"I'm trying to reach the Kuiper Belt to find Germany. I need a ship, though," said Prussia seriously.
Red Castle scowled, "Poseidon put you up to this, didn't he?"
"Um, yes," admitted Prussia.
"That blasted fool! The brazen bastard! That pompous pirate thinks he can stop the likes of me?!" Spat Red Castle, "you need not waste your time with him. I can supply you with a means and safe passage to the Kuiper Belt. I'll see to it that you will rendezvous with a tanker over Uranus so you can have enough fuel for your trip."
Red Castle led Prussia through the warehouse, past lines upon lines of identical robots, to the delivery bay where a row of dart-shaped triple engine craft bearing clipped delta wings awaited official designation. They were shiny and unmarked with external fuel tanks hanging under the wings. Four variable pitch thrust nozzles were under the wing roots, two on each side, allowing VTOL capabilities. "Have one," said Red Castle graciously, hinting to the craft closest to where him and Prussia stood.
"Why are you doing this for me?" Asked Prussia cautiously.
Red Castle chuckled, "you're a product of Red Castle and knew my two founders personally. It will be an honour to help you. Now come on," he walked to the craft, calling Prussia over to it, "you've never flown one of these before, right?"
"Flown? No, I haven't," said Prussia as he followed.
"In much of the solar system, humans can't be pilots because they don't meet the qualifications, so it's a good thing you're not a human!" The cockpit canopy opened with a hiss when motion sensors detected Red Castle's proximity. Prussia followed and stepped inside, noticing that the cockpit had no controls or gauges, a far cry from the biplanes he and Germany would fly for fun.
"The helmet behind the top of the seat," said Red Castle, trying to be helpful. Prussia picked it up, trailing wires behind it. Despite the extensive advanced avionics it possessed, the helmet was surprisingly light. The visor was dark curved, and as soon as Prussia put it on he momentarily became unaware that he was in any craft at all. The helmet mounted display illuminated one section at a time while the cockpit interior was invisible to him. The information was fed directly into Prussia's head, as though it were talking to him.
SPEED: 0
ALTITUDE:0
HEADING: 255
He closed the cockpit canopy innately with his brain. "Good luck finding Germany," said Red Castle with a sad smile. From inside the cockpit, Red Castle was presented as just a moving object; a potential target.
"Thank you," said Prussia sincerely, before switching on the engines. He no longer considered them to be the craft's engines. They were his engines, along with all other components the craft possessed. Red Castle stood back as thrust nozzles pointed downwards. Ceiling doors detected an engine start-up, and swung open to reveal a starry sky beyond the warehouse. The craft lifted off with blue flames streaking from the thrust nozzles.
"Prussia? Is that you?" Poseidon's voice crackled over the radio, "I'm picking up your signal from... is that a Red Castle craft? How did you get that? That's incredible! Destroy those mechs and as many laser turrets as you can so we can land a larger fighting force."
Prussia raised the radio to his mouth and said slowly, "sorry, Poseidon. I have other objectives." Prussia pitched upwards, away from Poseidon and Jupiter. His heading display showed clearly that Uranus, Neptune and the Kuiper Belt lay beyond his cockpit canopy. And they were to come exponentially closer as his mighty engines powered up.
"What? Are you insane?" Shrieked Poseidon, "don't you dare. You have to..." Prussia clicked off the radio, cutting Poseidon off mid-sentence.