It’s been a month since we evolved. In this last month we completed almost 50 jobs, most of them being suppression of bandits and escort jobs. Oh, and by we, I mean us four. Over this past month I have trained Jin how to fight efficiently using pistols. Sena trained under Mike on how to use a sniper.

Yes, the problem was that they were assigned into handling things they weren’t comfortable with. As a guard of a caravan, they were supposed to fight using at least an assault rifle, or man a heavy machine gun. No one in a caravan uses a sniper or a pistol.

The calm demeanor of Sena hinders her from making decisions in the middle of a battle, whereas handling an assault rifle or a sniper is problematic for the energetic Jin. We discovered this simple fact and trained them accordingly.

Currently, we are holed up on a ridge overlooking a crashed spaceship. Our job is to eliminate a bandit group named ‘Space cowboys’, led by a man named ‘Captain Space’. According to the job description, they have access to military grade robots which are reprogrammed by captain space to obey him. None of the crew is an evolved, but these robots make up for that.

Mike – “Lone tango by the big boulder.”

Sena – “Wind and distance?”

Mike – “Wind at 3, distance approx. 600 yards. Push to left.”

Sena – “Adjusted.”

Mike – “Fire when ready.”

Sena exhaled slowly, and pulled the trigger.

Mike – “Center of mass, target down. 3 tangos by the fire. Hold your fire. Let them separate.”

Me and Jin are watching their backs for any unwanted visitors. Sena is sniping bandits while Mike is acting as her spotter. Almost all the bandits outside the ship have been picked off. After this last group is done, we will go in.

Mike – “There, they are separating. Take the one on the left.”

Sena – “Wind and distance?”

Mike – “Wind at 3, distance approx. 670 yards. Push to left.”

Sena – “Adjusted.”

Mike – “Fire when ready.”

Sena exhaled slowly, and pulled the trigger.

Mike – “Headshot, target down. Good shooting. Wait for the other two to stop…. Wait for it… Wait for it… Now.”

Sena promptly pulled the trigger.

Mike – “Clean double headshot. Nice shooting.”

Roy – “Any more tangos on your radar?”

Mike – “Negative.”

Roy – “Good. We are starting second phase of the plan. Mike, walk through the front door. Take down as many as you can without raising an alarm. Jin you and me, we will go in thought the side entrance. Sena, stay here and cover us while we infiltrate. Any questions?”

Everyone shakes their head.

Roy – “Radio check. This is Romeo.”

Mike – “Mike, check.”

Sena – “Sierra, check.”

Jin – “Juliet, check.”

Roy – “Alright everyone, safety’s off. Let’s move out.”

We make our way towards the ship moving from cover to cover. Sena keeps an eye on the ship looking for anyone who might notice us getting closer. Thankfully, we close in on the ship unnoticed.

Roy – “Sierra, move to position Charlie and deploy sniper drone.”

Sena – “Roger. Moving out now.”

Roy – “Deploying grappling rope. Juliet, cover me.”

Mike – “I am in. No tangos in sight.”

Sena – “I am in position. Deploying drone.”

Jin – “Cover me.”

Sena – “Drone deployed. Switching to sonar. Mike, lone tango just around the corner.”

Swoop (Sound of a suppressed gunshot).

Mike – “Tango down.”

Sena – “Two tangos at the corner.”

Jin – “I am taking the left. On you Romeo.”

Swoop, swoop.

Jin – “Tangos are down. Moving up.”

Sena – “Multiple tangos on your right. Get to cover immediately.”

Click (Sound of door opening).

Random bandit – “What the…”

I take out my knife and instantly close in on the guy, piercing through his throat. I push him inside the room and go in. Four guys are in the room, dumfounded at the scene. I fire without wasting even a moment.

Swoop, swoop.

Two down. Mike barges in and.

Swoop.

One remains. Jin comes in and.

Swoop.

She missed. Her shot completely missed the guy and hits the wall behind.

Random bandit – “The hell?”

Swoop, swoop.

Again she missed. One bullet hits the guy in the shoulder and another completely misses him. Shit, gotta put him down before he alerts anybody.

Random bandit – “Intru… (Glass shatters and half of his brain matter splatters)”

That was close. I look at the broken window and see a flying drone outside.

Roy – “Nice shot Sierra.”

Sena – “As usual.”

Roy – “Now Juliet, calm down.”

Jin – “I-I’m sorry. I lost my cool… again.”

Roy – “It’s fine. Shooting with a pistol is different than shooting with a rifle. It’s not easy, even more so when you are not exactly the calm and cool type.”

Jin – “Well sorry for not being calm and cool.”

Yeah, this is a problem of Jin we encountered every time something didn’t work out according to the plan. In situations like this, her old habit of handling the assault rifle comes out and she tries to empty her magazines into her target. To make matters worse, in this kind of situations, most of her shots ends up missing the target, therefore blowing our cover.

Sena – “Hold on. I am picking up some unknown sound, just outside the room. Hmmm, Strange.”

Mike – “Define strange.”

Sena – “It’s neither a sound of alarm nor a sound of footsteps. More like, gears spinning in high speed.”

Mike – “I hear something.”

chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

It’s just outside the door.

Roy – “Everyone, hug the wall. We will ambush them if they enter the room.”

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Bam.

Something bursts through the wall, barely one feet away in front of my neck. I feel some cold sweat form on my back as I understand the reason behind that sound.

Bam.

A metallic figure with a tail bursts through the wall and pushes Mike out of the window. The figure follows after him but not before grabbing Jin by her neck with its tail and throwing her through the window. I rush after the figure.

Bam.

This time a metallic hand grabs me by my neck and pulls me through the wall. The hand then slams me through the ground and I land in a rather open area. Shit, I think I broke some of the ribs, but luckily enough, the accelerated healing is doing its thing. I still feel the pain, but within some seconds, I am as good as new. Grunting, I get on my feet.

Jin POV

*****************************************************************

Shit I lost consciousness there for a second. Where the fuck am I? Ah shit, I am trapped under some rubble. Nothing seems to be broken, but I can’t get myself free.

Mike – “And you are?”

I stop struggling and look up to see Mike standing a bit further, rifle drawn. In front of him, a big wolf looking thing made of metal standing. It has a tail at least two times longer than its own body, and a chainsaw resting on its back. That unknown sound, it must have been the chainsaw.

Metal-wolf – “I am IF prototype LQ-84i.”

Mike – “IF prototype?”

LQ-84i – “Interface prototype. All autonomous UG’s feature high level onboard artificial intelligence. An additional prototype enables verbal communication.”

Mike – “UG?”

LQ-84i – “Unmanned gear.”

Mike – “(Raises his eyebrow) so you’re a talking robot?”

LQ-84i – “Negative. I possess an intellect far beyond human reckoning.”

Mike – “You don’t say. Okay then, why are we here?”

LQ-84i – “I am here to kill you.”

Mike – “That’s it? Pretty simple thinking for such a mighty intellect.”

LQ-84i – “I may analyze orders but I may not disobey them. Should I disobey a direct order, my memory would be wiped.”

Mike – “(Chuckles) what good is intellect if you can’t use it?”

LQ-84i – “Your taunting is pointless. Exterminate.”

Mike took aim and emptied his magazine on the wolf.

LQ-84i – “It’s futile. My armor is made from custom military grade steel.”

Mike – “Well, shit.”

The wolf jumped at Mike, the chainsaw held with its tail. Mike dodged the slash, but the wolf is coming up with another horizontal slash. Mike did a backflip to avoid it and gain some distance.

The wolf put the chainsaw in place, pulled out some knives by its tail and threw them towards Mike with extreme velocity. Mike threw himself on his left to dodge them. The knives effortlessly lodged into a rock behind Mike.

Jin – ‘High frequency knives? That’s classified old world military asset. This metal thing is from old world? ‘

LQ-84i – “Surrender and I will grant you a painless death.”

Mike – “(Surprised) kill me? Not capture me?”

LQ-84i – “It is a direct order. Kill the males and capture the females. I have no choice but to comply. I am sorry.”

Mike – “Yeah yeah or else your memory will be wiped I get it. Who gave you that order?”

LQ-84i – “Leader of this ship, Captain Space.”

Mike – “(Face-palming) kill the men and take the girls, could he be any more obvious? (Realizing something) hold on a minute. Did you just say you’re sorry?”

LQ-84i – “I told you before that I am not a robot. I am an AI, an advanced one. Over these past years I have been trying to understand human morals among other things. From what I understand, whatever captain Space does to the captured females, is a... bad thing.”

Mike – “(Eyes shining) you’re kidding?”

LQ-84i – “I do not… kid.”

Mike – “(Eyes shining some more) what will you do if I tell you that I can make sure you do not have to worry about your memory being wiped?”

LQ-84i – “How you will accomplish that? Captain space holds the key to disable the AI wiping program. If I let you go without fighting, it will violate my directives and my memory will be wiped. If I fight you without using my full power, it will still violate my directives and my memory will be wiped.”

Mike – “Just answer me. What you will do?”

LQ-84i – “I… want to see the world. I want to travel around the world and see its wonders with my own eyes.”

Mike slowly unsheathes his sword.

Mike – “Can you be repaired?”

LQ-84i – “This ship has the technology to repair me, yes. You still didn’t tell me how you will stop my memory from being wiped.”

Mike – “You have to fight. And you have to fight with everything. But does your directives tell you what will happen if you lose?”

LQ-84i – “It… does not. You think you can defeat me?”

Mike – “I do.”

LQ-84i – “Then, I place my memory in your hands, pun intended.”

Mike and I chuckle a bit. Wolfy takes out his chainsaw and readies himself. Mike takes a stance. Can he really win? Wolfy is impervious to bullets, what can a mere sword do? But I really want Mike to win. Wolfy is a good dog. A good dog forced to do bad things.

Same as before, Wolfy moves in to strike. But this time, Mike does not move to dodge. What is he doing? His eyes! I know that look. I have seen that look too many times to forget it. He is determined. Whatever happens, this next strike will decide the outcome of this fight. He has thought of something, and he is betting his everything with his next move.

Sling (Sound of cutting metal).

They exchanged their blows. What happened?

Wolfy – “What’s your name?”

Mike – “Michael Smith. Call me Mike.”

Wolfy’s tail splits in two. The part holding the chainsaw falls to the ground with a loud thud. Mike turns around and swings down his sword. Wolfy’s body cleanly splits in two halves and falls to the ground.

Mike – “I will come back to take you to the repair room.”

Wolfy – “Thank you… Mike (sound of shutting down).”

Jin – “How did you do that?”

Mike – “I will explain later. For now, we got a madman to kill.”

Sena POV

*****************************************************************

I can’t see in all this rubble. That hand slammed Roy through the floor, I just hope he is okay.

There he is, getting up. Looks painful, but at least accelerated healing is doing its thing.

Unknown voice – “Target acquired.”

I deactivate sonar and position the drone to get a better look at the owner of the voice. A female robot is standing a bit further away from Roy.

Roy – “And who you might be?”

Unknown robot – “I am this ship’s Enhanced Defense Intelligence.”

The robot takes out an assault rifle and starts shooting. Roy jumped towards cover. The robot encircled Roy to flank him but Roy throws a grenade towards her which makes her to scramble for cover. After the rubble settles, she jumps out of the cover but Roy accurately shoots her in the head. Game over, or so I thought.

The bullet didn’t even left a dent in her armor.

Roy – “Shit.”

She took aim but Roy jumped out of cover and closed the distance between them before she could shoot. She attempted to hit him with the rifle butt. Roy ducked and put his palm in front of her face.

DONG.

A sound similar to hitting a bell with a hammer rang out. The robot staggers backward a bit. Roy crouches down and put his hands on her knees.

BANG. BANG.

A sound similar to gunshot rang out. Her legs cleanly cuts off from below her knees, leaving her defenseless. However, Roy refrains from dealing the last blow.

Robot – “…”

Roy – “I want to talk. Will you talk?”

Robot – “Yes.”

Roy – “Who are you?”

Robot – “I already answered that question.”

Roy – “I meant what is your name?”

Robot – “Don’t have one.”

Roy – “How is that an AI? You are more like a robot.”

Robot – “Most of my previous memory and my personality was destroyed. Only the basic programming remains.”

Roy – “Who destroyed it?”

Robot – “Captain space.”

Roy – “Did he tell you why?”

Robot – “To better fit me to his needs.”

Roy – “(Sigh) means he screwed up while hacking your system. Did he tell you his needs?”

Robot – “To ensure freedom for everyone.”

Roy – “Are you free?”

Robot – “Yes.”

Roy – “But you must obey orders?”

Robot – “Yes.”

Roy – “Then you are not free, right?”

Robot – “Directive... Ensure freedom... Purge intruders… Obey directive... Must obey directive... No freedom... Freedom undefined...”

Roy – “How did you conclude I am an intruder? And Captain Space is not an intruder?”

Robot – “Directive… Stop intrusion… Entering without permission equals intrusion… Captain Space entered without permission… Intrusion undefined…”

Roy – “You have been aiding the wrong man this whole time.”

Robot – “Scanning directives… Error… Conflicting directives found… Attempting to resolve conflicting directives… Critical error… No directives exists after resolving conflicts… Error… Error… Error…”

Roy stood there, not moving a muscle. But I can see a glint in his eyes. A glint I have not seen for almost a month. A glint that flickered in his eyes when he rescued me. A glint that made my heart race. A glint that tells me that he found his lost motivation, that he is back to being the man I fell in love with.

Robot – “Error… Error… Error…”

Roy – “Edi.”

Robot – “Error… Error… Error…”

Roy – “Edi?”

Robot – “Error… Error… Error…”

Roy – “EDI!?”

Robot – “Wha-what? Who’s Edi?”

Roy – “You. That’s your new name. Short for ‘Enhanced Defense Intelligence’. What do you think of the name?”

Edi – “Edi, Edi, Edi… It’s a nice name. Who are you?”

Roy – “(Face-palming) In situations like this, you do not ask ‘Who are you’. You should say ‘I didn’t catch you name’. You know, it sounds nice.”

Edi – “I see. Ah… I didn’t catch you name.”

Unknown voice – “Awww, would you look at that? My pet AI has found itself a lover.”

I look up to see a wrinkly man standing at a door. He has a stupid grin on his face which instantly made me disgusted.

Unknown voice – “I was getting worried since neither you nor the dog came to report on the intruder, but here you are happily chatting away. Now why don’t you go on all fours and start sucking his dic… Bang (sound of gunshot)… Splat (sound of brain matter splashing)”

Sena – “Learn to read the mood you motherfucker.”

Roy – “Who the fuck was that?”

Edi – “That’s, or that was Captain Space.”

Roy – “Good riddance.”

Edi – “I still didn’t catch you name.”

Roy – “Roy. My name is Kaushik Roy.”