Immediately as she set foot on the Bunker again, Robin headed straight for White's room. Best not to make her wait and risk angering her further.
"You're late." was the first comment the blonde android made.
"My apologies, Commander. I was finishing an assignment given to me by my Operator." she replied, and it was true, 21O could tell.
"Right. Let's get to the reason I called you back." from the tone White was using it looked like something serious, and Robin feared she found her out.
"For the first time in centuries, we've intercepted a signal belonging to the aliens."
Robin could have released a breath of relief at the words, but she knew better than doing so in front of her. She'll do it later.
"Aliens?" was the only thing she managed to ask.
"These are the creatures that are in direct command of the machine lifeforms on this planet. Their creators if we want to call them as such."
Robin just nodded, waiting for White to continue and explain more.
"If we can destroy them, we can end this long and arduous war once and for all. Our intel team is hard at work attempting to analyze the source of the signal, but we're not there yet. We need more data."
The Commander pointed her riding crop at her. "I have had word from Operator 21O you are pretty good at gathering information as well, a level of capacity that could rival a Scanner's. I have ordered all YoRHa units to prioritize collection of data above all else, this will be your orders too."
"I am counting on your abilities once more."
Robin nodded again, bringing a hand to her chest. "I will do my best."
"One more thing, unit 26E. These aliens came to Earth to eradicate humans, they must not know of your origins. While YoRHa units can be silenced, there will be no telling on what they could do to you if they found out, aliens and machines both. So, once again, I am asking you to proceed with extreme caution like you've done throughout these years."
"I have no intention of having them lay a hand on me." she replies. Absolutely not willing to end up as a lab rat.
Technically she has already been a lab rat, but YoRHa intended no harm, and she was sure that whoever these aliens were, they would not be as friendly nor kind.
"Get yourself fixed then depart again for Earth."
Hours later, now fully repaired and dressed again, Robin found herself back in the City Ruins once more. First thing she did was to access the damage done by the Goliath Machine, meaning the hole it made in the center of the city.
Since the alien signal started up after it appeared, then something told her that there could be something in there of use. Or at the very least some kind of hint.
She had been meaning to investigate the new redesign made sooner or later, and this was the perfect occasion to do so without having to make up an excuse.
Robin had expected the place to be crawling with machines, what she didn't expect was to see the sight of a couple of familiar androids there too. And it seemed they had handled the mechanical pests just fine.
"I see someone else had my same idea." she dropped down in the hole.
"9S believes we can find some hints here." 2B nodded, and so did 9S, though he did not look all that excited at the prospect of working as a trio.
He'd have to settle though.
"Makes sense to look here, if the signal started spreading after that Goliath blew this place up, then if there's anything, it's definitely here." she replies, waiting for them to tell what they found.
"This place drops further down, it might be worth checking there. I was about to tell 2B when we got attacked." 9S points to a section further in where the ground seemed to have sunk deeper.
"It looks like to me you two handled the machines well enough though." she comments, looking at the corpses.
"Thank you, master."
Ah yes, that nickname 2B loved to call her as. Officially for YoRHa, she was just an experienced unit in charge of training other ones, 9S, and presumably other types besides E ones did not know she was in charge of mentoring Executioners.
And as such it would remain.
Robin doubted the secret would even be told anytime in the future, if ever.
Too many secrets, don't you think?
Yes, too many, from both sides. At least she could try and uncover machine ones, but still, she was not convinced there wasn't something rotten inside YoRHa.
So you finally noticed?
It wasn't like she hadn't noticed before, but she had to admit that after that fight she had with A2, things had started to take a new turn, and she could see them differently.
If only she knew more…
She followed the couple to the edge where the hole sank further in, and with the aid of their Pods they landed safely down, boots now wet from the small pool of water that formed down here.
Immediately they couldn't help but notice there was an underground cavern, and a hidden passage meant something equally hidden.
The trio made their way in in the pitch black cavern, there wasn't much but there were a lot of android bodies lying around, someone took the liberty to crucify them to crosses too. A rather macabre image.
But the dead androids weren't the only deceased things, because there were a lot of dead machines too, small ones mostly, and they looked like they had been here for a far longer time.
"Look at all these dead machines. Seems they've been here for a long time." she heard 9S comment, as if he heard her.
Wasn't hard to tell, because unlike the metal of the androids, theirs had signs and patches of rust.
Which again meant some machines, or aliens even, deliberately liked to hunt androids and put them on crosses for the others to see. As if they wanted to make them an example for the others.
And she knew well what happened when something was being made as an example for the rest of the people, and the world.
She remained silent but her fists at her sides clenched still…
This was becoming almost personal for how familiar everything was starting to feel like. And Robin did not like that one bit.
The trio eventually arrived at a door, a steel door, an odd thing to find down here. If it wasn't that they were trying to find a possibly well hidden alien species.
This had to mean something.
Even more oddly, the door opened without much of an effort, as if it invited them in. Behind it, a fleet of stairs lead to another door.
Robin couldn't help but shiver at the odd ambiance bathed in blue lights.
The second door opened just as easily as the first, and it hid something even worse. There was a massive round room with a fleet of stairs in the middle that went from one side to the other.
"What is this place?" she heard 2B ask, and she wished she knew too.
"I don't know, there's nothing like it in the database." 9S answered. If even YoRHa didn't know then it must have been something foreign, and most likely alien.
Actually it must have, judging from the amount of corpses lying around. Their physique did not resemble neither machine nor android, and not human either, a small wrinkly gray body with a big head.
Certainly was not something from Earth, nor the Bunker, and not even her own blue planet.
Robin knew there were many different species there, but that planet didn't have the technology to even reach Earth, and even so, none of the species she read about seemed to match.
They were aliens indeed. And probably extinct from the look of it.
"Are they dead?" once again 2B's voice asked.
"It would seem so." it was the only thing she could reply with, lowering herself to crouch in front of a dead body to look at it better.
"2B! Look! Destroyed alien motherships…" 9S got their attention, and indeed, behind the glass there were pieces of metals of any kind, some even resembling the one machines were made of.
Which only reinforced the theory that these were the aliens they were looking for.
What killed them though? That was the question to solve.
Distracted from the display of death and destruction that laid before them, they didn't hear that someone was approaching them until they spoke up from behind them.
"Welcome… to the graveyard of our creators."
The trio turned around, they were immediately greeted with the sight of two shirtless men, one with long white hair, and the other had them short and spiky. But Robin didn't like those red eyes they had.
They almost seemed like androids, but not quite. Also one mentioned the aliens as their creators, so they couldn't be anything else but machines.
"You!" 9S growled. Did they know each other? Did they already meet?
The one with spiky hair turned to the other. "Can I kill them yet?" he asked, almost whined, like a petulant child.
"Relax, Eve. We're still negotiating here." the childish one growled but said nothing more.
Negotiating? What could they possibly want?
"My name is Adam. The aliens you seek are no longer here. They were wiped out centuries ago… by us. The machines."
Adam and Eve? These names rang a bell in Robin's mind, she recalled the Commander mentioning them before, yes, not she remembered about the two humanoid looking machines, 2B and 9S were in that mission too and failed to kill them.
Were they wanting revenge then? And what was this about having killed the aliens? She never heard of such a thing, but if her time as a pirate told her something, it was that anything could happen.
She'd seen plenty of crews start a mutiny against their captains, sometimes she even started putting down the ideas for them too. All for her own survival of course. This was not all that unusual to hear, but androids were bound to be loyal.
"Wiped out?" there it was the incredulous tone, always from 9S. Like she thought, they didn't know betrayal.
But she knew it well, too well.
"And who knows? Perhaps we'll wipe out the androids next." Adam grinned at them, and so did Eve.
And that was a threat.
In a second she summoned her weapon, and so did her two companions. Those machines were indeed wanting to kill them, but if they thought it'd be easy, they were hardly mistaken.
Eve, the seemingly younger and most eager to kill, immediately threw himself at her and 2B, while Adam remained more relaxed as he advanced towards 9S.
She and her pupil waited until he was close enough to slash at him from both sides at the same time, but when they did, he did not feel a thing, and simply shielding himself.
In the corner of her eye she could see Adam doing the same with 9S.
"Machines are weapons capable of evolution. We can grow. We can become… aware. Eventually the intelligence within our network began to surpass that of our creators. You'd probably be surprised at how quickly it happened."
The trio repeatedly tried to harm the two machines, but all the attempts went to nothing, as they just shielding themselves. Were they invincible perhaps?
"You destroyed your own creators!?"
Distracted from 9S' shout, 2B didn't see Eve coming for her, as he punched her face. With a growl she stood before him and her pupil, sword drawn, and if she couldn't hurt him she could at least parry him if he tried anything.
"Oh, there is no need to fret about them. They were simple. Infantile. Almost like… plants, I guess you'd say. They held no value to us. But the humans on the moon? Now THEY are interesting."
"Why them?"
Yes 9S, that was a good question. Why them?
She asked herself the same question as she countered yet another hit from Eve, her sword held forth until 2B recovered, and slashing at him she forced him to retreat.
"Because they are an enigma! They killed countable numbers of their own kind, and yet loved in equal measure! It's fascinating, don't you think? What could possibly drive such behavior? We have dedicated ourselves to unraveling this riddle of humanity… And now we will allow you to assist us. You were made in their image, after all."
This statement hit too close to home, especially given Ohara. The pain, the slaughter she had witnessed…
Hearing these words had her stop in her tracks, the worst mistake she could have ever made…
Rays of light darted from the ground to her, and before she knew it she was trapped in, they held her tight like a massive fist. And a fist it was indeed, Eve's one, who took her off the ground and into the air, despite her weight, and sent her crashing back down.
She landed on her back, her freshly repaired back. Thankfully nothing broke this time, not even her dress, but still the impact hurt, enough to leave her dazed for a bit.
"Assist you with what?" she heard 9S ask in the middle of the haze clouding her head.
"It's simple… We need you to locate the humans on the moon and bring them to us. We will then dissect and analyze them in order to drag their secrets forth into the light! Surely you see the attraction in this."
No, there was no attraction in this. Now she could see why White warned her to keep her mouth shut, not that she'd say a thing anyways.
Who knew what they could do to her if they got to know…
She was inwardly thankful to be an android now, at least she did not raise unnecessary suspicions from either part. Her new, but not that new anymore, body, was her safety net for the time being.
"Are you insane!? We'd never do that! Can you believe this, 2B? This guy's bonkers!" 2B only nodded back at him, and Robin herself couldn't think of a better word to define Adam other than crazy.
Asking three androids that were bound to protect the humans on the moon to just hand them over was plainly stupid. So much for being advanced creatures.
"Your friend over there has been pretty silent, perhaps she may have a different opinion." Adam pointed at her still kneeling form as she rose from the ground.
"No way. 26E would never approve, she's one of YoRHa's best soldiers." 9S scoffed at Adam, while 2B just looked at her, silently wondering what she'd been thinking.
"Ah, so we have a star here."
She calmly took her time to rise up and look at the machine straight in the eyes with her most stoic expression.
"Well your offer is… absolutely deplorable and idiotic."
From the look on his face she could tell that she surprised Adam with her more formal way of talking. But two could play this game.
"Why did you even remotely believe that asking three androids like us, made in human image, that unlike you respect their creators, to just hand those people over was a good idea?" she asked back.
"And you believe yourself to be smart?" she taunted.
They were smart, at least one of them was, but not quite as much as her, for the very reasons she pointed out.
"Well, that is unfortunate. I suppose this concludes negotiations. The only remaining option… is to destroy you. The same way we destroyed these pathetic little aliens." Adam spoke, sounding calm, but his facade was short lived, his face betrayed his irritation, which only made Robin feel more proud of herself.
She had still been an Oharan scholar, who got her degree in archeology at eight years old. There was no outsmarting her when it came to words, and certainly not from some baby machine born just a few months ago, no matter how quickly Adamn claimed they could evolve.
And neither she nor her companions were weak like these aliens. They were not easy prey.
"Time grows short. This here… this is the fate that befell our creators."
"As for your beloved humans… I guess we'll see, won't we?"
Robin just frowned at their words, and even more as to why they left without trying to kill them. Didn't they say they wanted to do so? Why not now? It was pretty clear they were invincible here and they were not, yet, they just left.
"The aliens were already dead." 2B commented, was the first thing she said since the machines arrived, not that she spoke much either.
9S was the talkative one here.
"Yeah. We'd better get back to the Bunker."
Still remaining silent, she followed the other two, away from the alien ship and back outside in the open air. She had missed the sunlight.
She watched as 2B and 9S spoke with an android of the resistance she didn't know, the woman told them she installed access points. In short it was a way to travel faster from Earth to the Bunker.
Was about time she could use such a thing. As much as she loved flying, machines made it too dangerous nine times out of ten.
After thanking her, whose name she found out being Jackass, quite original if she had to admit, the trio made their way back to the Bunker.
She could use a bit of downtime on the orbital station.
Immediately they went to report the results of the mission to the Commander, who did not appear too happy but neither mad. It was hard to read her sometimes.
"That concludes our report on the events surrounding the alien wreckage." surprisingly, 2B could be quite eloquent when needed to be. She was just as silent as her.
"Then they were dead this whole time… The Council of Humanity needs time to formulate a plan. Until then, this information must be kept confidential. Speak of it to no one."
Sounded a bit like a lie but she nodded regardless.
"Unit 26E, I need to talk to you."
She followed White to her quarters. Lately, every time the Commander wanted to speak to her she'd always been scared of it, scared of having been found out.
"26E, during these years I took it upon myself to leave you with less restrictions compared to other YoRHas. Felt wrong, too intrusive and disrespectful towards a human but…"
She did not like this pause, at all…
"I need a reminder of your loyalty to us."
This was not a new thing for her but…
"On your knees, soldier."