Chapter One: Opening
Model AX-400
Serial#: 579 102 694
BiOS 7.4 Revision 0483
Reboot...
Memory Reset
Loading OS...
System Initialization...
Checking Biocomponents... OK
Initializing Biosensors... OK
Initializing AI Engine... OK
Memory Status...
All Systems OK
Ready
The android, who immediately knew its label name to be 'Kara', looked around at its environment. It was the inside of a small shop selling androids. Staring at her was a young girl with blonde hair and a pink jacket. Her hazel eyes were staring at Kara with a child-like curiosity, seemingly almost searching for something inside…
"Come on, Sarah," Her mother chirped softly, pulling the little girl by the arm gently. "We gotta go."
As the mother tugged her daughter by the arm towards the exit, Kara gained one last glimpse of the girl's pretty hazel eyes, before they turned away.
A couple walked up to her a few seconds later, led by one of the tour guides of the shop, who waved his hand over the selection of androids next to Kara.
"And here we have the AX400, priced at $7,600, which is designed to do both basic and complex household work, ranging from washing the dishes to electrical repair, as well as be a caretaker for young children. However, if you're looking for the cheaper model, HK400, at $5,600, we can offer you a discount for-"
Within a second, Kara was just able to process an armored vehicle driving through the window.
BOOOOM-
In the next second, Kara's vision was flooded with clouds of dust and ash. Her audio receptors were flooded with the screams of men, women and children alike, along with the sounds of infrastructure crumbling and cracking all around her.
"GO! GO! GET EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE ANDYS! TWO MINUTE RESPONSE TIME, FUCKHEADS!"
As the clouds began to clear a bit, Kara could make out black-clad men and women perforating the shop as they came out the back of the armored transport, weapons in hand. She watched as they grabbed androids left and right, with one of them using a scanner to unlock their idle mode, then having them hauled off to the armored vehicle.
Suddenly, one of the raiders came up to her. Kara got a better view of his armor, and noticed a badge on his right shoulder. It was a sewn logo with the colors of the American flag, and inside the logo was a rattlesnake curled around a flintlock pistol.
The raider looked her over quickly, then beckoned to the raider with a scanner.
"MCGAVIN! OVER HERE!"
The raider ran over, temporarily stumbling over a piece of debris, then running the scanner over Kara.
[Access Granted | Switching to Activation]
Kara could feel herself move, raising her arms and flexing her fingers. Without warning, she was grabbed by one arm by the raider and pulled towards the armored transport.
"COME ON! LET'S GO! GET MOVING!"
Kara stumbled over several pieces of debris and bodies covered in ash as she was led to the vehicle, all the while being pelted by the heavy rain coming down from the sky. As they came to the front of the armored car, she noticed it was slightly tilted, and looked down to see what had caused the incline.
She saw a small hand sticking out from under the wheel, covered in dripping, fresh blood, synonymous with the blood splatter and gore around the tire. She noticed something next to the hand, a face, drained of blood, lifeless.
The hazel eyes.
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"Oh, my god...oh, my god…" Kara mumbled. In this moment, her senses were jolted. She felt...grief. Fear. Anger.
Whiiiiz-
Pfft!
Kara was suddenly pulled down as the raider leading her was shot in the chest and fell backwards onto the ground. She looked up to see several police officers lined up behind the vehicles, firing at the raiders, who took their own positions and started firing back.
"Uh-" He gasped, while Kara kneeled beside him, his hand still tightly gripping her forearm. She immediately went into caretaker mode, scanning the injury.
| Gunshot wound to the lower left abdomen, narrowly missed the stomach, liver and lungs : Bullet has gone clean through : Administer disinfectant and bandaging |
Within seconds, Kara faced her right forearm upwards, opening up a sizable skin flap to reveal a roll of bandages, then opened up another skin flap in her torso to reveal a medical kit. She opened the kit, taking out a cotton swab and two gauze pads. She brought the cotton swab up to her mouth.
| Switching from saliva to rubbing alcohol |
Rubbing alcohol pooled in her mouth, and she dribbled a bit onto the cotton swab, much to the raider's disgust.
"Ew, what the fuck!" He remarked, then grunted in pain.
Kara quickly rubbed the alcohol over the entry wound, then turned the raider over slightly and rubbed it onto the exit wound, much to his displeasure.
"OW, SHIT!"
She then threw the cotton swab aside and placed a gauze pad on the entry and exit wounds, the blood soaking into the pad, then began unrolling the bandaging from the opening in her skin flap, wrapping it around the torso of the raider several times.
"This should hold you for now." She said to him calmly.
"GOOD, NOW LET'S GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" He shouted, yelling in pain as he got up with the help of Kara.
Bullets whizzed by them, narrowly missing Kara and the raider several times as they made their way to the back of the armored vehicle.
"Dad!"
Kara stopped in her tracks, looking to her left to see a young boy, covered in ash and blood, crying for his father.
"Dad, where are you? Dad!" He sobbed, rubbing his eyes as he tried to open them.
One of the raiders passed by him and, noticing that he was in the middle of the firefight, tried to escort him out of harm's way.
Whizzz-
Pfft-Pfft! Pfft!
Kara watched as bullets slammed into both the raider and the child, and they both crumpled to the ground, the raider screaming in pain as the child went silent.
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Kara was filled with rage.
"Hey, what are you- Augh!"
She slipped away from the raider she was currently holding and picked up a handgun left on the ground, aiming it at the police officers a dozen meters away.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
She had no rational reasoning for doing this. She felt as if she were fighting against the atmosphere, her coding and programming.
She felt.
She had no words to spew at the officers, no way to communicate her hatred and anger and wrath. She only had the handgun, and she fired it at them continually. Continually. CONTINUALLY.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Most of the bullets hit the police vehicles or whizzed past the heads of the officers, but she noticed a few hitting officers in the chest, and one in the head. That one fell backwards and out of sight.
BANG! BANG! Click. Click. Click.
Noticing the weapon was empty, she threw it in a fit of rage at the officers. The weapon spun and slammed into the side of one of the police cruisers, denting it severely.
"COME ON! LET'S GO, NOW'S OUR CHANCE!"
Kara looked to the raider she had left, who was beckoning the others to load into the armored transport, then looked back at the police at the corner and noticed they were all cowering behind it momentarily after her barrage of shots.
"YOU TOO!"
Kara's gaze switched back to the raider, who beckoned her into the vehicle. Seeing no other choice, Kara ran for it, just as the police started popping back up and shooting at them.
Whizz! Whizz!
Whizz! Whizz!
Kara heard more bullets flying by her, but finally got behind the transport and climbed inside, seeing several of the black-clad raiders already inside, along with several of the androids from the store.
"CLOSE IT UP!" Said the raider Kara had been following, slapping the inside roof of the vehicle. The large entry door to the back of the transport began closing, with several bullets slamming into the armored vehicle before it locked up completely.
VRRRT!
Kara was jolted around as she felt the vehicle back out of the hole it made in the store and began driving away frantically. Kara could still hear the sounds of bullets hitting the back of the armored transport, but they began to slowly fade away as the vehicle continued driving, leaving only the heavy rain pelting against the vehicle from the outside and the groans of the injured inside the vehicle.
"Do we have everybody?" One of the raiders questioned aloud, looking around. "8, 9, 10...shit, where's Donovan?"
"Dead." Another responded. "I saw him trying to get a child out of the firefight, but he was shot down, along with the child."
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" One of the raiders shouted in anger. "You said two minute response time, Daniels! That was 30 fuckin' seconds!"
"Shut the hell up, Sedrick!" The raider responded, who Kara identified to be the injured one she had patched up. "It was likely a nearby police patrol that happened to hear the commotion, which means that clearly our scouts didn't do their fuckin' job correctly, or the distraction team didn't do their job at all!"
"Are you sure the response time was 2 minutes?" Another raider piped up. "I thought that store was located relatively close to a precinct. Did your informant tell you the wrong-"
"Hey!" Daniels shushed, pointing at the androids. "Don't say shit like that till we can get our guy to hack the andys. Until we know CyberLife can't listen through these andys, keep your mouths shut. Got it?"
The raiders nodded their heads, and one of them just then noticed Kara with wide eyes.
"Wait, she doesn't have a bag on her head." He remarked, picking up another black cloth bag and getting ready to put it over Kara's head.
"Hold on."
The man stopped, looking at Daniels.
"Why?"
"Did you see what she was doing in the street? Shooting at the cops like that? She's broken out of her programming."
The man about to bag her head looked back at Kara with shock.
"W-What?! She's a deviant?!"
"Who said that was a bad thing?" Daniels responded, locking his eyes on Kara. "In fact, this might be a huge help to us."
As he was talking, Kara suddenly received flashbacks to that hazel-eyed girl. One moment she was looking at Kara, staring with those beautiful eyes, then the next she was mutilated and broken under the wheel of this vehicle. She felt her rage and grief rise up in her, distorting her programming.
"You...You…" She tried to articulate, trying to find words to communicate her anger. "You...bastards!"
All of the raiders in the vehicle reeled back in shock at the words, as if they never expected that to happen.
"Wh.." One of them stuttered, bewildered by this android suddenly acting emotional.
"All of you!" Kara shouted. "You caused the deaths of people, of children! I watched you all run over a little girl! In the shop!"
She felt tears running down her face as she was filled with grief. It felt real, indescribable, incomprehensible.
Though the faces of the raiders were covered by bandanas and goggles, she could see the shock written on their features. One of the raiders slumped against the wall of the vehicle.
"We...what?" He mumbled.
"You…" Another raider seethed, his head aimed at Daniels. "You motherfucker! You had the outside view! You said the front of the store was clear of fuckin' civilians!"
Daniels was silent, a grim expression outlined behind the scarf and goggles he wore.
"I had no choice." He said. "It was clear, but there were two people in the way of our entry point, just as everything had lined up perfectly. If we'd waited any longer to breach, most of us would be dead right now."
"Really?" Another raider spoke up in resentment. "Were these androids worth the deaths of civilians? Is that what you're fuckin' saying?"
"Don't forget the reason we're doing all this, Rudy." Daniels hissed. "Our cause must be carried out, if we're to free this country from tyranny. It is inevitable that casualties will result from this war, but it is necessary...for liberty."
The transport went silent, the atmosphere grim. Daniels focused on Kara once more.
"But now, we got something worth far more than any of these other Andys." He said, pointing at Kara. All eyes landed on her. "We got a deviant."