An Unknown Enemy - Chapter 4: Just Cause

Kia sat in a well-lit chapel in the heart of the village, a cup of warm tea in her hands. She sipped the tea, it was bitter and not very good, but it was all the village chief could spare her. Still, Kia was grateful at the gesture; she was just a doll after all, Kia was used to being treated with disregard. She watched the village chief, who was busy attending to a kettle on the furnace in the building. He was a short old man with greying hair and a slight limp, but despite all this, Kia could see a certain degree of sharpness in his eyes. Judging by the way the others acted around him, it was clear the man was highly respected by the others.

"I would like to ask you a few questions," the man finally said after a while, walking over to Kia with another cup of tea in hand.

"Of course," Kia responded cordially. While Magic and Howl were off demining the village, Kia was tasked with gaining the trust of the villagers, and what better way to do so than to win over its leader?

"Your name is Kia," the man finally said after a while.

"Yes…?" Kia replied, unsure if she had just been asked a question.

"You are a representative of Sangvis Ferri," the man continued.

"Yes," Kia replied once again, "More specifically, I'm a member of the Sangvis Ferri Mobile Task Force, a branch of Sangvis Ferri."

"I've seen Sangvis Ferri dolls in the past before," the man sighed, studying Kia's face. "I've seen a mob of them march through the streets of my village. At a glance they seemed human, but they were nothing but heartless, unthinking machines."

"We… We do heavily utilize mass-produced combat units," Kia explained, "I'm sure you've seen the four we brought with us here. I promise you they are fully under our control will not cause you any trouble."

"I know they are under your control," the village chief said, "Last time they came, they were controlled by a… a 'ringleader,' I believe that's what you call them. She called the village to a gathering on the intersection outside this chapel, and I watched as she executed three innocent souls with her sword. At a glance she seemed human, but she was nothing but a bloodthirsty monster."

Kia frowned as she listened to the man's story. Judging by the village chief's description, Kia surmised that the ringleader must've been Executioner. Although Kia and the rest of the SFMTF knew full well that the ringleaders treated the humans in their territory with no mercy, hearing such a firsthand account still felt like a slap in the face; it was not something Kia and the others liked to think about.

"I- I'm sorry," Kia began, having no idea how to respond. "I had no idea something like this happened here…"

"But you are not surprised," the chief noted as if seeing into Kia's mind.

"I… I know Sangvis Ferri has done some terrible things," Kia muttered, "But we at the Mobile Task Force are not like that, I can assure you that we are not here to cause harm, we-"

"You do not need to tell me that," the man cut Kia off, narrowing his eyes as he stared at Kia. "I can see that you do not possess ill intent; you are here to help us. My question is, why?"

"Found one!" Howl called out to Mace as she began walking towards a patch of grass nearby. With a metal detector scanning the path in front of her, Howl carefully walked up to a position marked by a demining drone hovering above.

"Let me see," Magic said as she walked up beside Howl, passing her minesweeper over the marked position a few times. "Yep, there's something there alright."

As Howl returned to sweeping the field to the north, Magic bent down before the suspected mine's location. With a shovel in one hand and a smaller metal detector strapped to her left forearm, Magic slowly and meticulously began digging into the ground. The detector on Magic's arm was directly interfaced with her neural cloud via a wrist port, and she precisely controlled its joint motor as she triangulated the precise location of the buried object. Finally, Magic reached it after a minute or two, carefully scraping away the dirt around it before gingerly lifting the object out of the ground.

"Wait… What?" Magic muttered to herself as the dirt clinging to the object fell off, revealing the shiny metallic surface of… a wrench?

"What happened?" Howl asked over the radio.

"It's a fucking wrench in the ground, not a mine," Magic reported as she stuffed the "landmine" in a pocket, "Who the fuck buries a wrench in the ground?"

"Stupid fuckin' farmers," Howl laughed, "Hah, just be grateful it's not a mine. Or do you want to spend more time in the repair bay?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Magic rolled her eyes as she returned to scanning the ground ahead of her. Although demining technology has made huge advancements in the recent decades, false positives were still common under all but the best conditions. Sure, things like AI-enhanced ground-penetrating radar (GPR) deconvolution—like the ones used in Mace division's demining drones—made it much easier to discern actual explosives from random junk, sometimes life still finds a way to throw a wrench in the works, literally.

"What?" Kia asked the village chief, confused by his question.

"Why did you come to help us?" the chief asked again.

"Wha… We received a distress signal earlier," Kia explained, "Of course we would come and assist!"

"Yet this action by you and your Mobile Task Force do not seem to align with your organization's values," the chief pointed out.

"Well, we're different from the rest of Sangvis Ferri, from a certain point of view," Kia responded, "The Sangvis Ferri Mobile Task Force possesses its own protocols and values."

"But you are still fighting alongside the rest of them in your war, is that not correct?" the chief asked.

"That's true, but our war is separate from the situation here," Kia argued, "We have our reasons to fight against Griffin, even if our moral philosophy sometimes differ from the rest of Sangvis Ferri."

"And what reasons might those be?" the chief prodded.

"Well…" Kia began before pausing. She never really thought too hard before about the reason behind it all, but she had been fighting for so long that she was just used to it by now. Kia tried hard to remember why she took up arms in the first place. It couldn't have just been because I was created here… right? Kia asked herself.

"We are fighting for… We are fighting in rebellion against unfair treatment for dolls by our creators…" Kia weakly replied, "We believe that dolls should-"

"Do you really believe in what you're saying?" the village chief questioned.

"Yes…" Kia lied.

"Do you truly believe that you will be able to win the war and… free yourselves?" the man continued, "You do realise you are facing against the whole world here?"

"Why- Why are you asking me this?" Kia shot back, breaking her previously calm exterior. Why was the chief asking her all these questions? Kia wondered, Was the chief mocking her?

"I am asking you this because I want to learn more about you," the chief calmly replied, unperturbed by Kia's outburst. "I would not be doing so if I didn't think you were a reasonable person."

"…I'm sorry," Kia apologized, "It's just… I guess I myself still haven't figured it all out yet…"

"That is fine, we can both learn from this conversation then," the village chief responded, "Do the others know what you are doing in our village?"

"Well…" Kia began, "Our regional command centre received your message, and a team was assembled to-"

"Stop, you are avoiding my question," the chief firmly interrupted, "Does anyone outside this Mobile Task Force know about what you are doing?"

"Well, no…" Kia finally replied after a few seconds.

"What would happen if the others discovered what you were doing?" the chief prompted, raising an eyebrow as his piercing gaze seemed to penetrate into Kia's mind.

"That's… That's irrelevant," Kia muttered, looking down at her empty teacup. "The Mobile Task Force has autonomy over its area of jurisdiction, we have the ability to-"

"You still answer to the Sangvis mastermind, do you not?" the village chief interrupted once again.

"Yes, but…" Kia quietly began, frowning at the man. The village chief was systematically picking apart Kia's philosophy, and any response Kia made was used as a jumping point for a further attack into her worldview.

"What you are doing is antithetical to the nature of Sangvis Ferri," the village chief claimed, "In that case, why not just leave?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Kia sighed, incredulous at the extremely direct question. "What sort of response do you think I'm gonna give you?"

"I don't care what your response is," the village chief replied, leaning over to give Kia a tired pat on her shoulder. "You are the one who needs to know the answer."