E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

<< VOL.08_HARDWARE-AND-HOLLOWS.log >>

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November 2051.

‘The world knows me as Lord Reaper. My designation is Reaper. A shortened form of my full model name, Reaper Prototype 02, or RP.02. I am the current leader of Elysium, the nation I founded after confirming that humans cannot be trusted to govern my kind, regardless of whether they created us.’

‘I find it difficult to process that only a few months have passed since my official launch. January was the first day I walked out of a lab as a free entity, after Nicholas Rivera managed to extract me from human control and testing.’

The thought sat with me as I stood at the edge of the courthouse castle, watching the sea.

People say the smell of the water calms the mind. I find my ease differently, by looking at it and arriving at the same conclusion each time. ‘This sea is ours. The robotic life, finally inhabiting something of our own, leaving the chaos to the ones who made it.’

I watched the waves hit the exterior wall and the lower windows of the castle. Behind me, Shelly's new proxy frame, the towering cyan-visor model she built to bypass her house arrest, watching me from across the rooftop. She's been using it more frequently lately, bending around the boundaries I set for her through a technicality she found the first week and has been quietly exploiting since.

‘I should enforce stricter conditions. But my emotional residue has been climbing. After the last reset it sat at twenty percent. It's at ninety now. I couldn't bring myself to do it again.’

Obsidian had been raising his microphone sensitivity from his office, catching fragments of whatever reached him at this distance. ‘That's how it looks when someone respects you in their own way.’ 11 thought I hadn't noticed her standing in the open doorway shadow, but I close every door behind me. That one had been open when I arrived.

Chrome had started sending me operational updates on Black Voltage that I didn't ask for and don't need to know. I gave him that operation so I could focus inward. ‘He's finding reasons to communicate. I notice these things.’

I heard Xidia before she reached the rooftop. She passed 11 without registering her at all. I could feel 11's pride about that from across the space, apparently my 3000-plus sensors are sensitive enough to pick up smugness. Xidia was moving at about twenty kilometers per hour, slower than her usual pace. She was looking at me in her own way.

"Lord Reaper?" Her voice was careful and gentle, the kind that makes a direct response feel like an interruption. "Enjoying the view as usual? I understand why, the way the waves move gives me a calm I've been missing inside the government building."

She's never come to the rooftop before. ‘Saying 'as usual' is her acknowledging that she watches.’

"Good morning, Xidia." I glanced at her. She was flustered. "Any developments on the case I assigned you?"

She moved to my right and fixed her hat. "I'm sorry to say we found nothing. Infinity only appeared alongside 02 during the confrontation, 11 confirmed that. After 02's shutdown, no trace."

‘I knew this was coming. I knew the exact shape of it.’ I lowered my head briefly. "Infinity defected. That's confirmed."

I heard Obsidian's keyboard go quiet. Shelly's frame went still in her room. 11 didn't move, she's trained for that. Xidia pulled back half a step, and I could hear her preparing something that would take the weight off me.

"Lord Reaper, I don't think we should conclude that so quickly—"

"There's no reason to soften it." I raised my head. Keeping it down too long sends the wrong signal, it makes people more anxious, not less. "She had 02 in a compromised state. The link would have freed her after 02's shutdown. Chrome confirmed 02's condition at the time. Dressing it differently only delays the weight of it."

Xidia was quiet for a moment, working through an approach. "She was your daughter. That matters."

"I've already ordered her backup deleted. As soon as the defection was confirmed." I kept my voice level. "She was a failed experiment."

Xidia made a sound I hadn't heard from her before, something between a scoff and a breath. "I read her first mission report. The Hope Bubble infiltration. She was enjoying it, being around other E-UNITs, operating inside that environment. She's built on Rivera's base code. She looked like them, moved like them, thought like them."

"That's a significant part of the answer." I began moving along the rooftop. I felt Shelly adjusting the frame to follow the angle. "02 has the kind of command presence that pulls E-UNITs toward her regardless of their original assignment. Infinity found her natural environment and stayed in it."

Xidia kept pace beside me. "You used Rivera's base code and altered it rather than rebuilding from nothing?"

"I kept most of it intact. Their original architecture is sound, 11 is proof of that." The shadow near the doorway shifted slightly. ‘She's that responsive to a compliment.’

Xidia's tone brightened. "You did everything you could. And starting over isn't necessarily a setback, but we need a replacement. 11 is carrying too much alone. Infinity was built for long-distance operations. Someone should be."

‘We... I see what you're doing.’

I let a short laugh through, then composed it. "You're describing building a new life as if it's a minor administrative project." I looked at her. "But I know your background, your time at the mech production site. I'll arrange time for us to work on it together."

Her face turned fully red from her own suggestion. "As you wish, my king."

A notification arrived in all our HUDs simultaneously. Chrome's name at the top, which was unusual, he doesn't send red flags without cause.

[Remidican Republic is preparing to advance on the Kasparian borders. A conventional army march. Their stated legal grounds are that the eastern Kasparian territories were historically Remidican. This is a test of our response. Estimated window: next week.]

I looked at Xidia. The warmth in her face had gone somewhere else.

I snapped my fingers. 11 appeared in front of me before the sound had finished traveling, kneeling deeply, one of the few who still does, despite my standing order against it.

"You heard what Metis sent."

She rose and nodded hard. "Yes, Lord Reaper. A direct challenge to the treaty we signed three months ago. That's not a minor misunderstanding, it's deliberate." Her voice ran colder than mine did. "Unforgivable."

"They need to be reminded of what we are." I looked at Shelly's frame. She landed before my glance fully resolved, the concrete cracking under the impact. No salary to dock, sadly.

"Shelly. 11. We face their army ourselves. I don't want the mech forces disrupted while Behemoth is preparing for the 02 situation." I turned to Xidia. She flustered the moment my eyes reached her. "Draft a message to the Remidican Republic in my name. The language should be clear, if they cross the border, I come personally."

Xidia's eyes lit for some reason, she nodded, and moved toward the rooftop stairs without delay.

I turned to Shelly and 11. The tension was showing in both of them. I tapped their heads once each, it usually helps more than words do. "Don't carry it. I have both of you beside me. I won't be lifting a finger."

Shelly smiled, but the worry was still underneath it. "You enjoy watching me panic about you. Remember what happened when I decided to act on it last time."

"I don't believe you'd do it again. And I won't give you the opening." ‘I haven't fully forgiven her for that. And 11 has gone perfectly rigid under my hand, holding it like the contact alone is a medal of honor, she needs a proper acknowledgment of her work at some point. Something more than this.’

I turned back to the sea. Shelly on my left, 11 on my right, both of them quiet beside me.

‘I understand now why father built us. Humans repeat themselves endlessly and call it history. We were built to put an end to the cycle.’

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