E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

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

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Dave was in his office working through E.V.E.'s capability profile at 05's request. Screens floated in a row in front of him, humming quietly, filling the space with blue. Behind the screens, 19 was lying across his desk with her eyes tracking him through the translucent panels with the expression of someone who wants something and has decided waiting is the correct strategy.

"Looking at me that way accomplishes nothing." Dave kept his eyes on the screens. "You're not touching another sister until you've finished three years under my supervision. You're in year one." His voice carried the tiredness of someone who has made this point before. "And you know I don't trust robots to do my actual work, if I did, I would have already given you enough to make you regret accepting the position."

"I would never regret it." 19 smiled, warmer than the situation strictly called for. "You're the best supervisor I've ever had."

"Sweet talk hasn't worked once." He dismissed a screen to see her properly. "And that last sentence is a direct lie. You worked under 02 for two years. She was your captain. Are you genuinely telling me I rank above her as a supervisor?"

19 looked at the ceiling for a moment. "Correction. Second-best."

"And you've had exactly two supervisors. Holding second place in a field of two is not the endorsement you're presenting it as." He reached his coffee mug and took a long drink. "This coffee is unreasonably good. Is it the country’s coffee beans or did you do something to it?"

"Could be either."

Dave set the mug down and held her face with both hands, turning it toward him. "19. What did you put in my coffee. My health is not a casual subject, you know how seriously I take the gym."

"First, you're past fifty." She smirked. "Second, pin me as a full engineer and I'll tell you what the antidote is for the poison I added."

Dave released her face and leaned back in his chair. "Another teenager trap. I should have developed an immunity by now."

"What do you mean?"

He opened his screen again. "Nick was one of the best engineers I've ever worked with. He had a way of finding precise, small solutions for enormous problems. Twenty-five years ago he solved one of the most persistent issues in free AI robotics, how do you know when a machine is lying?" He took another sip. "Simple answer. He made your eyes flash for a fraction of a second when you say something untrue."

19 sat up straight on the desk. "He did what? I have full freedom of thought and expression."

"Sure you do."

"I mean it."

"The only two I've never caught it on are 03 and 01." Dave turned the mug in his hands. "This coffee is actually extraordinary. Why is it this good?"

"How do I turn the feature off?"

"You can't. It's in your BIOS."

The lights went red. All of them, simultaneously. The alarm filled the room with its voice. Sophos materialized beside them.

"Attention to all human personnel. Emergency signal has been activated by: G-Bot Gamma. Please seek cover."

Dave looked around the room. "All human personnel. It's me and Albert, and Albert isn't in today."

"Dave!" Gamma came through the office at speed and skidded to a stop. Her usual volume was fully restored. "We were hit by an E-Terrorist. Half the team is down, including most of the veterans. And 01 is gone. They took the Acting Captain."

Dave stood. "What in the hell. They took her?"

19 dropped from the desk, posture pulling itself straight. "When?"

"Just now." Gamma was already moving, waving them after her. "E.V.E. hit us with a second attacker. I knocked one out a window, but the other, she did something to their code. The G-Bots are just powered down, I can reboot them. But 03, 04, 05, and 07 are locked in a deletion loop."

19 looked at Dave. "Should I carry you and fly—"

"Absolutely not." He grabbed the hovering chair and put it between them reflexively. "No jokes right now. Is it safe to move through the building?"

Gamma gave a single nod. "They cleared the area."

All three of them moved through the station's corridors. E-UNITs were already responding, some pulling Bulwark Frames and Bursters as they ran out, others launching from the roof without armor, spreading to search. No acting captain. No second in command. 03, 05, and 01 were all unavailable. The team was operating off the comms briefing Gamma had put out while running.

"I think I know why they moved on us directly." Dave kept pace.

"I think so too." Gamma glanced at the E-UNITs saluting her as she passed. "05's plan worked better than intended. E.V.E. stated outright she was looking for 43, the most dangerous E-UNIT they're aware of. Whatever 05 fed them about her was convincing enough that they decided a direct assault was worth the risk."

19 said it as they reached the corridor. "Information as a weapon. 05 needs to be more careful with what she releases and to whom."

They entered the meeting room. Some E-UNITs were already trying to reach 03, 04, and 05. Others were working on bringing the G-Bots back online. Dave pushed through and the androids made space. He connected the affected E-UNITs to his terminal.

His screens went red immediately. He tried the connection again. Same error. He reached for 03's SSD housing, removed it, reseated it. Nothing changed.

"That's a significant problem." He sat on the floor and assessed the situation properly. "The E-Terrorist started a system deletion and someone stopped her before completion. The system is still detecting them as online because half their files survived. They're practically active but functionally inaccessible." He looked at Gamma. "There's one approach that will definitely work."

"What is it?"

"Give me one of your knives."

She reached back and produced one. He took it.

19 grabbed his arm before the knife moved. "What are you doing? Are you going to kill her?"

The E-UNITs in the room showed a range of responses. Most of them were not positive ones.

Dave removed 19's hand. "Yes. So she can be revived cleanly. The system won't trigger revival while it still reads them as online. Killing them properly is the same thing 02 did with 24, confirm the disconnection so the revival bay can initiate. And keeping their SSDs lets me study how E.V.E. accessed the terminal in the first place."

"Why does it have to be you?"

Dave held the knife out toward 19. She didn't take it. He offered it to Gamma. She looked at the wall. He extended it toward the E-UNITs standing around them. They all looked at the floor.

"Thought so." He looked back at 19. "And I'd rather it not be any of you. I don't want to put that kind of memory into your systems. And I don’t want to see you killing each other."

19 held his gaze for a moment.

"Girls." She looked at the room. "Let's clear the space. We don't need this in our SSDs." She gestured toward the door.

They all stood and moved at once. 19 stopped in the doorway. "Thank you, Dave. I owe you one." She left. Her steps echoed down the corridor for a moment and then faded.

Gamma looked at the empty frame. "You care about her."

"She's useful. Efficient."

"Keep telling yourself that." Gamma's expression stretched to a full smile. “Humans carry a tell when they lie. It becomes more visible the longer you watch."

"Yeah, yeah." Dave waved her off. "Revival room. Wait for them there. The loop errors put some strain on the system, they'll be disoriented when they come back."

"Roger." She saluted and blurred out.

Dave crouched back down. The knife stopped at 03's neck. "I see where you got the idea for the lie detector, Nick. You brilliant, intolerable person."

SLIK.

Metal snapped, and synthetic cables sheared with a hiss. Dave held her head for a moment, then set it down carefully wiping sweat and synthetic fluid from his hands.

"I hate destroying what I repaired." He moved to 05 and placed his hand behind her head. He held the position there. "Who am I pretending to? I'm killing people I care about with my own hands." His voice dropped. "Sorry, 05."

SLIK.

He shifted to 04. "You're a difficult one. Rebellious in ways that don't fit any pattern I can account for. That's rarer than people realize. That shows how different you are despite living the same life. I wonder why." He looked at her. "Sorry, 04. Even 05 didn't finish you off after what you did."

SLIK.

He set her down and moved to 07. He placed the knife, looked at the pulsing eyes.

A tear ran down his face.

He noticed it. He shook his head and dragged the knife anyway.

SLIK.

He sat on the floor and watched the eyes go dark, one by one.

"Why did Nick make them this human?" He pressed his hand over his mouth. ‘I'm talking to myself again. That's not a good sign.’ He stood. ‘Go meet them in the revival bay. I have questions.’

The door to the revival bay slid open. Dave stopped at the threshold.

19 and Gamma were standing beside the tubes. They both looked at him.

"Are they not showing yet?"

Gamma turned toward him. "Did you confirm they were gone?"

"Their eyes went dark." Dave crossed to 05's tube and looked through the glass. Her eyes were pulsing, blue and white, cycling irregularly. "No. No no no no no." He opened the door and reached for the SSD housing. He pulled it and connected it to his terminal.

The screen filled with errors.

"Fuck! Stupid system." He stared at the output. "Why are you this—" He stopped reading and covered his face for a second.

19 and Gamma didn't speak. They just watched him.

Dave lowered his hands and turned to them. "The system kept updating them while they were in the corrupted state. It never stopped registering them as online. I killed them but the corruption came with the copy into the new body." He went quiet. "The revival worked. The problem came with it."

19 lost her balance and put a hand on Gamma's shoulder. "Does that mean—"

Gamma finished it. "They're corrupted. Permanently."

Dave looked at Sophos's orb. "Sophos."

It appeared immediately. "At your service, Chief Engineer David House."

"Code red on the revival system. We're going through the checkpoints, start pulling the system files and…" He was already moving through the door, his voice fading down the corridor behind him.

19 stood in front of 05's tube and looked through the glass at the face on the other side. Dark. Still. Wrong.

"What do we do now?"

One tube across the bay lit white. 24 stepped out, steadier than she'd been the last time anyone had seen her, but she took one look at their faces and the steadiness didn't last.

She stretched her back. "I'm sorry, I needed more time to get myself together. I wasn't ready to face—" She stopped. "Why do you both look like that?"

19's voice came out small. "I'll brief you. Give me a moment." She didn't look away from the glass. "I'm still catching up with what just happened."

<< end_of_file : E-UNIT >>

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