"Kill… Kill… Kill…"
Three gigantic building-like robots arose from the sea, their 'arms' were gigantic bucket wheel excavators repurposed for combat, with steam rising from the pipes installed on the top of the bodies of these artificial monstrosities as the glowing red eye-lights of the machines' steelheads glared with malevolence at the two small humanoid lifeforms on top of one of their destroyed brethren, getting ever closer to them as they took small yet massive steps towards the two.
The taller of the two figures was a woman with white hair styled into a short bob cut, her eyes were hidden from view by a black blindfold, with a beauty mark below the left side of her lips. She wore a high-slit turtleneck dress made of fine quality with gloves of a contrasting white connected to her dress, with black crow-like feathers attached in-between the black of the dress and the white of the gloves, with intricate symbol-like embroidery on both the hem of her skirt and on the lace-covered fabric of the chest area. With the final touches of her brown thigh-high garter stockings with black lining underneath her thigh-high black leather boots that were equipped with heels.
The other figure was younger in appearance, akin to an adolescent teenage boy. He had short, snow-white hair that is neatly styled and a blindfold covering his eyes, similar to the woman besides him. His outfit consists of a trench coat with the same symbol-like embroidery on the hem, with large cuffs fastened with belts. He also has a pair of shorts, and knee-high socks, and a pair of combat boots also fastened with belts like the cuffs, all dyed black in the same leathery texture as the other figure besides him, along with a black choker around his neck with a square with an X attached to it, with the final touches of black gloves, and a fanny pack on his back.
Yet, despite the doll-like appearance of these figures, it's both clear that not only were they in combat, but were not human at all, at least internally. For the young boy was missing both an arm and a leg, but instead of blood, muscles or blood spewing out, steel wires and cords were exposed, with a lead-like coloured material that seemed to separate the skin of these robotic machines and the inner workings of his body being exposed on his abdomen from where he was seemingly slashed across.
The two had black boxes that seemed to glow from crevices here and there on their surfaces, as if they were pulsing with life.
"Requesting… destruction of enemy hostiles via black-box reaction."
The smaller of the two figures uttered seemingly to no one, waiting for a response of some kind, which came after a few seconds from a female voice that seemed to have spoken via a radio or some other long ranged communication system.
"Request accepted."
The boy smiled for a moment as he held his black box towards the woman, a small smile was on his face as he looked at her through the blindfold.
"2B… It was an honor to fight with you. Truly."
The woman seemed to have been taken aback for a second before she recollected herself and nodded, responding to the young man.
"The honor was mine, 9S."
After their final words were exchanged, the woman, now know to be 2B, touched 9S's black box with hers, encasing the two and the three large hostile machines in a red-hot explosion that took out all of them.
…Or at least that should've happened.
Suddenly, the middle three building-like machines stopped mid step as if it lost whatever that was powering it, before it began twitching for a moment as its eyes changed from a dangerous red, to a calm emerald.
And just as sudden as its eye colour change was, the machine brandished its weaponized limbs and struck the machine on its left, tearing off its excavator arm and piercing its former ally's body, before removing its limb from the machine in the same way, tearing off the head in the same mechanic fashion.
The sudden actions of one of the gigantic machines, halted the two humanoid robots from touching their black boxes together, surprise filing their faces as they saw the now steam covered monstrous entity gazing at the other machine on its right, who immediately began to slowly swing its arm to kill the treacherous machine.
The emerald eyed monster took a step back in the nick of time, escaping the red eyed one's attack. A few rockets were fired from its back and aimed at the torso of the hostile machine, damaging it as it was forced to one knee from the damage. Yet, before it could try to stand up and attempt to attack the rogue once again, it swung its arm in vertical direction before striking the head of the red–eyed machine and tearing it off from the rest of the body like a guillotine blade of old, finally killing the last of its equally gigantic brethren.
An uncomfortable silence permeated the place as the machine watched the last of the two fall to the sea floor once again, while the two humanoid robots gazed with utter shock at the turncoat.
Suddenly, the machine turned towards 2B and 9S, which quickly dawned on the two how uncomfortably close the turncoat was, and if it were to swing its arm or fire rockets from its back like it did before to kill its own brethren, they wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it in time.
9S quickly looked at 2B as he remembered that they can use their black boxes to take it down, which seemed to also have been a thought crossing 2B's mind, but before the two could touch their black boxes together, a voice, a young female monotone one at that, spoke up from the gigantic machine.
"Uwaaah… cute."
2B and 9S had a double take at suddenly being called cute by their unexpected savior, yet before the two could even say anything in regards to this ridiculous situation, the lights of the building-like machine's eyes dimmed to black as its arms hanged limply on its sides, aking to a toy that lost power.
None spoke up for a good while, the mouths of 2B and 9S opening and closing like koi fish as they tried to formulate a response to this ridiculous situation they found themselves in.
After all, in which world should they ever expect to fight for their lives, prepare for a kamikaze suicide attack, being instead saved by an enemy turned rogue, get called cute by said rogue, before it powers off and leaves them with more questions than answers.
"Pod, run a diagnostics scan on me and 9S, check for any signs of visual or auditory sensory deterioration."
"Affirmative."
The small floating robot besides 2B hovered towards her and 9S as it ran a scanning procedure on the two, who were barely reacting to his actions, before the tiny robot answered once again.
"Scanning complete. With the exception of physical damage incurred by the fight against the first Goliath-class machine, both the visual and auditory sensory functions are running on near optimal efficiency."
2B only nodded absentmindedly to her small companion as 9S took the opportunity to speak to summon through the comms.
"Operator, are you there?"
The voice on the other side of the line was silent for a moment before a female voice spoke up, the same degree of shock that was filling both 2B and 9S seems to have been also within her.
"...Loud and clear, 9S. With all the Goliath-class machines annihilated, the mission is complete… Prepare for evac, two flying units will arrive at your location to transport you back to the Bunker…"
"Alright."
As the line was cut off, 2B and 9S could only stare with curiosity and shock at the still pristine form of the last of the Goliath-class machines who saved them, though whether it was intentional or not was something the two were not prepared to dwell on for now.
After all, for the first time since the beginning of Project YorHa, a machine assisted an android and went rogue against its fellows. An uncomfortable and shocking revelation for any who have bore witness to this event.
Yet, amidst all this, 2B having faced this new factor amidst the ongoing war, could only think of one thing.
'Will we… finally be able to break this cycle?'
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"Hmm… So androids and machines? Fascinating…"
A humanoid figure clad in dark purple academic gown hummed in thought as he looked into the distance.
The being had a deathly white skin tone that one would expect of a corpse, he had pale white hair that reached to his back, and scarlet red eyes that were almost like blood. The figure could be considered a normal human, if one were to ignore these unusual features. Yet the man's right upper limb is what would ensure none would think of him as normal.
The entirety of his right arm didn't have nary a piece of flesh or skin on his body. Being completely skeletal in nature instead, yet even then, it didn't seem as one that would belong to a human as the finger phalanges were extremely sharp, as if they were claws, and the total amount of bones was also unusual as well. It was almost as if the limb was magical in nature due to how different it was to the other regular hand of the being
Though that should've been assumed to begin with, with how the limb seems to move fluently even without any muscles or nerves on it.
"Yes Lord Ainz, when I hacked into the sentient building machine - Engels was its name according to the machine network - I found out that this is a war between the androids on behalf of humanity who currently live on the moon and the machines led by the alien invaders of earth."
The one who answered in a monotone voice was a young woman kneeling in front of the pale robed figure. She had a maid attire that seemed to be mixed with camouflage accessories and metal armor pieces, and wore an eye patch over one of her emerald coloured eyes, while her red-gold straight hair reached to below her hips.
The one known as Ainz hummed in though as he scratched his chin with his skeletal hand, mulling over the info he was given.
'Humans Vs Aliens? This feels like the set up of one of those 21st century games, especially with how the aliens don't even have a specific species name, even among their creations… Even so, humans living on the moon now? That does explain why this world seems to be overrun with vegetation and animals. Though for all this to have grown, how much time has passed exactly? If I were to take a gamble and say that this is my world, the capability of traveling to the moon, and most importantly, making living habitats on its surface, and the state of the world as it is, would mean that I at least jumped a few centuries to the future, a millenia or two perhaps. Hmm…'
Ainz stopped scratching his chin as he looked at the kneeling figure once more. "Shizu, what is today's date?"
"Today's date is March 10th of the year 11,945." The girl replied simply, unaware of the shock the answer gave to her master, who's {Emotional Suppression} skill was working on overdrive to calm him down.
'Did she say 11,945?! Wasn't it just the year 2138?! That's like… 9,807 years into the future! What the hell is going on?!'
Ainz, even with his skill working on overdrive to compensate for his emotional turmoil, bit the inside of cheek as frowned deeply, tapping with his left hand's index finger the bones of his right hand with a sense of panic.
'Aside from the fact that this means that everyone I ever knew died a long time ago, why was I transported here? And in my in-game avatar at that, with CZ Delta. Does that mean that other players were transported as well? And even NPCs? What about hostile ones? Raid Bosses even?! Or even World Enem-!?'
"Lord Ainz?" The skeletal limbed undead flinched as he looked up from his thoughts as she called out to him. Shizu has a small frown of her own as she tilted her head, indicating even the monotone girl's concern and worry for her undead master.
Ainz blinked for a moment before sighing, the {Emotional Suppression} finally kicking in and doing its job as Ainz's cold dead heart calmed down, the man coughing for a moment using his right skeletal hand before looking at Shizu with a cool calmness.
"Apologies, I was simply lost in thought. Now then, I have a task for you."
The girl straightened her back as she continued kneeling, her head down as she waited patiently.
"Shizu, regarding these two androids who you saved, have you been able to find out anything regarding them?"
The Pleiades battlemaid spoke up instantly in response. "Yes Lord Ainz, the female android is known as 2B while the young male is known as 9S. According to the machines' knowledge of her, the androids belonging to a particular group called YoRHa are given names according to their model and type. The one known as 2B in particular is Model No.2 Type B, which stands for Battler, a type of androids specialising in close and long range combat. While the one known as 9S is Model No.9 Type S, which stands for Scanner, a type of android specialising in reconnaissance with additional sensor capabilities and comprehensive hacking suite. The two seemed to be sent on a mission with other androids who perished beforehand to destroy an Engels machine lifeform while unaware of the presence of three more in the abandoned factory."
Ainz hummed approvingly of Shizu's answer as he asked once more after a few seconds. "Were you able to hack into them like you did with the Engels machine."
Though it didn't appear on her face or her tone superficially, Ainz was able to sense her disappointment as she answered. "My deepest apologies, Lord Ainz, I abandoned the machine I hacked into following the destruction of the other two Engels according to your instructions in case I am attacked in turn by the machines or the androids in retaliation."
The undead sighed for a moment before shaking his head. "Don't apologise Shizu, You were simply following my orders as you said. And besides, you are right, with how easy you were able to hack into one of their Goliath-class machines, then they could've done the same to you, regardless of your level upgrade. Still, do you know where those two androids might have gone off to afterwards?"
Shizu nodded her head as she responded again. "The Bunker, which according to the information gained, is an orbital satellite base that serves as the headquarters of the YoRHa androids."
Ainz nodded as he hummed in thought, mulling over all that Shizu informed him about.
'Hmm, aside from all this, I'm honestly worried with how much the machines seem to know so much about the androids, particularly those YoRHa ones and the inner workings of their organization, and this wasn't even the surface of it! All the information Shizu gave was only what she was able to extract before she left their network in those few minutes, I wonder what would've happened if she stayed for longer?' Yet before this line of thinking could continue, Ainz stopped himself. '…No, that's a dangerous thought, those machines proved to be a considerable threat just by how much they were able to pull the rug from under those androids' feet when they surprised them with the existence of three more of those Engels. For all I know, they could've hurt or do worse to her if she stayed on that Engels machine for long…'
Ainz sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. 'I should find some device or something either from my inventory or from this place to help me hack into these things instead of relying completely on Shizu, she's the only member of Nazarick with me, the only part of my and my friends' legacy have left, I can't expose her to pointless danger.'
The undead exhaled an exhausted sigh as he scratched the hair on the top of his head, consternation clouding his face for a moment before his skill brought him back to peak mental tranquility as he looked at Shizu.
"Shizu, I have an order for you." The maid lowered her head to the floor of the rooftop they were on as she waited for him to continue.
"I want you to keep tabs on this YoRHa organization, and in particular the two known as 2B and 9S, along with any identified leaders within the organization. While this is a top priority, under no circumstances are you to expose yourself to harmful or lethal consequences, and if you find yourself in a risky situation, escape will be your bigger priority, understood?"
"Yes, lord Ainz." The Pleiades said in her usual monotone voice, yet there was a hint of determination in her posture as she responded.
"Good. Until then, I'll have you accompanied by an Eternal Death and a Clockwork Aberration for extra protection, leave them behind if need be to escape out of any dangerous situation. That would be all for now, should any news come up on either of our sides, we'll inform each other."
CZ Delta nodded as she stood up and gave a swift stiff salute before beginning to walk to another side of the building to continue the maintenance of her guns, leaving Ainz with his thoughts alone once more.
The overlord sighed as he sat down on the ledge and looked upwards at the starry sky above him and the moon hovering lofty in that cosmic wonder.
'The moon, eh? …Can't believe that it took a literal interplanetary war between humanity and an alien race for those greedy bastards to finally start developing proper habitats for people to live outside of earth. Did a World War 4 happen too in the meanwhile?' Ainz chuckled mirthlessly as he imagined the same event that screwed humanity into the calamitous world that he knew so well happening again but with greater force than before.
'Still, I wonder what exactly happened throughout this time, I doubt it was just an lien invasion that occured in these nearly ten thousand years, something else must have happened.' Ainz hummed as he leaned on the ledge and look down from the rooftop at a few machine lifeforms moving around aimlessly.
'Well, with how slow things are for the moment, surely I would have time to figure this all out on my own pace, right?'
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"That is all, Commander."
The android 2B fell quiet as she the her end of her report to the 'commander', a blonde woman in an elaborately decorated high-slit white dress with the same symbol-like embroidery, possibly hinting at the insignia of the organization 2B and the 'commander' belong to. She also sported some
"Thank you, 2B. I assume that the two of you are aware that you aren't to share this information publicly, yes?" The commander asked as she folded her arms, awaiting the responses of the two androids, which arrived in the form of solemn nods.
"Good, until then, this information will be sent to the Council of Humanity so that we may be able to plan our next steps, in the meanwhile, you two will be sent to the main camp of the resistance to help our allies over there, along with dealing with some operations on earth while you're at it. Dismissed."
The two saluted the commander before riding the short elevator to the upper platform, leaving the command base as they went towards the terminal.
"Hey, 2B. Do you have any guesses on that weird machine that saved us? I mean, it saved us from those three other Goliath-class machines." 9S asked the taller android as they walked through the Bunker's main halls, the only source of noise to be heard for the two being the glistening blanket of stars outside of the sterile white base and the clink clank noises of 2B's heels and 9S's boots.
The woman hummed for a moment as she mulled over the question. Even when she thinks about it again, she doesn't remember at any moment of time a machine helping an android or vice versa, so to be faced with such a situation, brought both a sense of shock and hope to her. And yet, when she thought about the situation over and over again, it grew weirder each time in her opinion.
"I don't know." 2B began. "Even if it saved us. It still went offline the moment afterwards, so there's a chance someone else hacked into it before destroying the machine from inside."
9S pursed his lips as he picked up on her line of thought. "Do you think that it was another android that saved us then? And if it was, then who could it be? I tried searching the data bank with the voice we heard back then, but there was no match… I don't think there's any android yet that we haven't kept a log of in our server, so maybe it was another machine hacking into that Goliath? No wait, that wouldn't make much sense, hm…"
The Scanner spoke out loud to himself regarding his theories about the last mission, the Battler android leaving the young boy to his own devices until they reached the Flight Units in the Terminal.
"In any case, 9S, like the commander said, don't discuss or reveal anything about this to anyone. This includes both the Resistance members and our fellow YoRHa androids."
The young man sighed for a moment before nodding his head, hopping dejectedly into his own shit and following after 2B who already was flew out of the base.
Well, at the very least, surely things couldn't get weirder than they already did.
…Right?