I dragged the body for 30 minutes of earth standard time, following the gaunt man as he led us towards a town. As we exited the caves, it became clear that this area was an exhausted mining installation, though the lack of engaged depth and surface level mining techniques meant more was in reserve deeper in the caves.

“This is Logtown.” The gaunt man said, rubbing his nose. “I took it over recently.” The man sniffed. He was showing signs of exposure to an irritant in his nose.

//QUERY: HOSTILES?

The gaunt man took a second to reply, scanning for the targets I was referencing. He likely wasn’t able to see them at this distance.

“The undead around the town are mine.” He said, before pausing and squinting at me. “You’re awfully intelligent for a skeleton. That normally only happens with exceptionally intelligent creatures. What were you before?”

//DESIGNATION AI615-OFF01 ALL-PURPOSE HUMANOID OFFICER BOT DESIGNED FOR DELAGATORY INTERACTION AND REPORT HANDLING. PRIMARY OFFICER OF COLONIZATION SHIP AI615 FOR COLONIZATION AND TERRAFORMING MISSION 284.

The gaunt man nodded. “A military officer on a conquest mission. That makes sense.”

He continued walking towards the town, and I followed. On closer inspection, the guards around the perimeter of the town showed signs severe injuries. They stood still, moving only with the wind that blew over the plains. The wind lifted their shirts, causing them to flap in the wind like flags.

Men, women and children guarded the perimeter, holding makeshift tools: pitchforks, rusted swords, pots and pans. Their eyes were dead and glazed, bodies covered in dried and flaking blood and old wounds filled with rot. We stepped between two of the sentries. They did not look at us.

My thermal vision detected no heat from them.

Cold targets represented potential threats. I required more information to analyze the dangers of this world.

The gaunt man led us forward to a tall building in the center of town. Atop the church, a bell rung. A child pulled the rope under it, pointing and shouting our direction. The child featured the same neck tattoo that the gaunt man had.

Alerted by the ringing of the bell, others pulled the door open. They dressed better than the townsfolk, but nowhere near the level of royal clothing possessed by my charge.

The doors swung open as we approached. I ducked as I entered. Analysis of the main interior of the building registered a 98% probability that the building was a church. Light shining through the stained glass window and the myriad shattered pieces of it flooded the room with color.

Fire damage blackened several of the pews.

The pews pressed to the walls and piled around the room, covered in ash and debris and people who stared at our entrance. They chewed on hard bread and smoked meat. Some of them sported glasses of darker, thicker liquid; likely alcoholic. Each one of them featured the same complex neck tattoos.

In the center of the room, cleared of pews, layered concentric circles showed complex and intricate symbols. Spots of dried blood decorated the center of several of them. The entire room smelled of rot, ash, and iron, according to my sensors.

“Sir… This thing is…?” An adolescent intercepted our entry. He wasn’t a child, but it was hard to judge exact age of genetically altered humans. I scanned him as a potential threat. He appeared to possess a metal weapon hidden in his sleeve. My thermal vision detected it as a cold spot beneath his clothes. He stared at the gaunt man expectantly, one hand in his pocket.

“I succeeded in resurrecting one of the aliens. I was right. It was possible. The Templars are dead, Mathias.” The gaunt man said. “So is everyone who came to meet them with me.” He spat on the floor.

Mathias clenched his fists. I stepped between him and the gaunt man, but Mathias simply stared downward, biting his lip until it bled.

“I told you, you should have brought all of the undead.” Mathis said, his voice rising.

“And risk them coming into the town and burning what’s left of our library?” The gaunt man stepped past me. “They’re more valuable than any of us are. Some of them may be the last texts of their kinds, Mathias!” The gaunt man shouted.

Mathias raised a hand to slap the gaunt man. The tattoo on Mathias's collar glowed red, and his face contorted. He fell to the ground a second later, tears leaking out of his eyes.

The tattoos on their neck seemed to be some kind of embedded receiver for override commands, somehow wired to these organic natives. A device locking in their operating laws preventing them from harming others, or just my charge. That required additional testing.

“Can you — can you resurrect her?” Mathias asked from the floor.

“I can’t do anything for any of them, Mathias. The fucking church purged them.”

Mathias grabbed his own face with his hands.

“What’s all of this noise?” Another one of the gaunt man’s followers stepped out of a side room. He was dressed in white.

//ELIMINATING TARGET

My gun arm rose and locked on instantly, spooling energy to fire—

///WARNING: INSUFFICIENT ENERGY

///SHUTDOWN IMMINENT

/SENSOR DATA INTERRUPTED

“— can’t control that thing!”

Mathias was yelling for a second time. My sensor swept the room after being reactivated. The target in white was gone. My energy still hovered below 10%, however, so I didn’t move. The gaunt man stood above my chest again, sweating as he pumped more energy into my chest.

“Takes hundreds of mana just to charge it. And it can still only fire two shots. Shit.” The gaunt man said. “Why did you attempt to fire earlier?”

//TARGET DESIGNATED BASED ON PARAMETER— QUERY: ELIMINATE ALL TARGETS IN WHITE?

I played back a voice recording of my earlier instructions.

“Yes! Yes!” I finished, my speakers playing the gaunt man’s own voice in his original, panicked tone. He jerked back at the sound.

“Do not kill anyone who wears white. Maybe you aren’t more intelligent than a normal skeleton, after all. Also, don’t imitate my voice again. Seela’s light that’s creepy.”

//QUERY: THE SYSTEM INDICATES MY INTELLIGENCE IS SCORED AT 50. MY STATISTICAL BASELINE INDICATES THIS IS LIKELY AN ABOVE AVERAGE NUMBER. WHAT IS THE AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE SCORE?

“You have access to the system?” The gaunt man said, surprise in his voice.

“What the fuck did you make?” Mathias hissed. “This is beyond anything standard in our books. What fucking soul did you use to animate it? Did you summon a demon?”

The gaunt man smiled. “I used the soul that was still in it.”