Melder City, Kingdom of Ostland,

Planet Ventura

0900hrs

A young man with a hooded robe walks briskly in the catacombs of the ancient city. His face is concealed in a faceless mask with only slits for his sight. The tunnels were dark, but to him, it's enough to light. He walked forward till he felt his footstep on something odd. A misplaced skull could've been crushed by his boot. He took a knee and touched the skull, noting something odd as he grabbed it in his hands. He looked left and right but couldn't find the origin of this skull.

No hole nor oddly made shapes appeared on the wall. No precise place to stick this back in. To remove a bone from the walls, was blasphemy for the church. Ever since birth, he knew the price. But something lingered in his mind, this couldn't be someone's remains at all.

The texture was odd, the color wasn't right. He inspected it thoroughly and reached for his lighter when he heard something echo in the walls. He stood trying to open his ears for the slightest sound.

"Brother! You're late!" A youthful voice streamed from the dark tunnel to his left. "Hayako! Stop wasting your breath! You'll need it elsewhere." The robed man replied.

The youth from where the voice came from walked forward; revealing her well-made shoes, oddly decorated trench coat, black jeans, and well-combed long schwarzbraun hair. She stopped where the light intersects the darkness, she pulled something from his coat and passed it to his brother via throwing.

" Time is at the essence Dieter, lest we waste time on purpose!"

" Respect your elders, always Hayako. And that's big brother to you."

Hayako snorted as Dieter sighed. " Let's go, they're growing impatient with the last unfortunate disaster." She turned her head and walked forward as she spoke. She looked and found his brother searching his pants rather than following her. " Do you need a reprimand? Come on! Off with you!"

Dieter stopped and started following his sister. Despite the dark shadow, his hood casts on his face, the emotionless grin he casts as he walked; one could not help but notice something, an aura darker than a moonless sky surrounding him. 'Too long, too much yet too little.' A thought that lingered in his mind, as he walked for what seemed like mere minutes to him. His sister reached a point in the catacombs where the walls reached their end.

The tracks of bones, skulls, and pebbles ended. Leaving only a dark and filthy stretch of dirt as the path darkened and darkened into what seemed to be an endless abyss of dismal hope and dreams.

Dieter turned his head right, to face a huge boulder in the wall. The light shined and darkened in his head as he approached the big piece of rock in his sight.

Hayako turned and exclaimed playfully: "Brother, they're here. Not there!"

"I know. I always knew they weren't."

Hayako smirked and motioned him to follow her to his destination.

'Hayako Kempf! How foolish could you be, how dumb are the preposition you so desired, the lust you fulfilled, and the dream you made true. Too much, too long, and too little. Can you not understand a brother's call! This is ENOUGH!' Dieter thought scowling in his darkened hood as he cursed his luck.

Failed his mother, his father, sister, and brother. It seemed to him that his efforts only helped the pack of crooks he spied on. Still this, just this might fix it all. The reign of terror will end before it could even begin, though doubts filled his mind. The odd wooden doors launched themselves, as a smear of fog touched his feet. 'The chief chemist just blew up another concoction.' He thought as he passed the rambling madman in his laboratory whilst a murderous guard chokes at the fumes near the laboratory.

'The more, the merrier!' He thought as he passed.

He reached the room, with a calm head, despite an aching lung. And laid witness to the leader and his lover's near engagement of forbidden pleasure.

"Wow, bravo! The latex once again." He remarked with his hood unamazed at the latter's aggressive stance.

"Dieter! Do you truly call yourself a wise man by now?" The leader with his bouncing hair inquired.

Dieter dropped his hood and revealed his neatly trimmed head and blue coat. He gave an unamused gaze at the two, but later as he shifted his body to his right left a sharp grin.

" You mean the hood Borya?" He asked with a chuckle. " If only I could just come here and not witness you and Kseniya start copulating like Rabbits every time I arrive! Then I just might." He gave an embarrassed smile just as he ended.

" I suppose you might just want a minute with me, don't you?

Borya here won't mind if you do." Kseniya said slapping her butt cheeks, the latex made it more erotic with the distinctive sound it made.

" Well, with the offer and Borya's current genuine smile of approval. I might." Dietrich said in a deep soft baritone voice as he moved closer, barely touching her lips with his.

" But-" he removed a glove and shew silver ring in his right pinky. " You damn well know why not." He said with a sharp eye, sharp grin, and an uncompromising stare.

The ring was well crafted and beautiful but scarred and placed an impression of a lost dream. Its sides marred with scratches and the large diamond, its greatest feature was cracked with no clue as to how or why.

" That aside, is this all about the Acquisitors messing up in Korburg?" Dietrich asked, his gaze now fixed upon Borya's shameless face.

" No, this is all about our Avtomat Units acting strangely as of late."

" Must I remind you, dear leader, that they were programmed to be opportunists, not idiots. They know precisely when to act and when to not act according to instinct."

" They are avtomats, they're meant to follow orders not to think of orders." Kseniya asserted.

" You are making a hypocrite out of yourself Kseniya, the idea came from you remember." Dietrich replied back at his superior before continuing: " But it's what you people want, then it's what I will want. Consider it done, I'll reprogram the new batches to be more subservient but less capable of surviving in the Azanian tropics."

" Can't you keep them durable and subservient at the same time?" Asked the latex-wearing siren by the bed.

" Subservience and survivability don't mix. But if you intended me to make them mix, then expect a three-year delay. We know the price of such delays." He quipped with an extra ounce of skepticism.

" The young man, who made the very first independent and reliable Avtomat which can act like a woman, speak like a woman, and even seduce like one finds it hard to break the barriers between obedience and instinct! Where have you gone, Dietrich!" Borya mockingly stated after caressing Kseniya's bosom.

" May I remind you that despite being in the twenty-eighth century, our knowledge of the human mind is still very limited. Due to persisting oversight of its value. It's not the codes that I had trouble encoding, rather it's the concept that I find hard to interpret."

" Off with you then! Do what you can at the moment. I want this time for my special one to enjoy." She said in a very feline manner: Seductive and graceful.

' No wonder why my brother can't help but fall when you laid your eyes on him. But remember you wicked bitch! You better start using that dumb brain of yours when things get haywire. Cause you won't notice the next time this happens. I swear by my grandfather's name!' Dietrich thought before saying: "Very well, I'll see what I can do." And left as he wore the hood right after the doors closed, giving Kseniya a final glance of his concealed rebellion.

Kseniya left the bed and opened a drawer to her left.

" I wonder if he's still hasn't recovered from that breakup two years ago. I've been thinking of giving him a present." Borya said as he curiously looked at his lover's kinky way of ransacking the drawer silently.

" Well, what do you have in mind?" She asked.

" A sex doll, perhaps."

" What about a night with me instead."

" Good idea Kseniya! But he barely carries a condom, so it's a no-go."

She grabbed the object, it was a "cat-o-nine tails". And approached the bed, her hips swinging left and right whilst making a soft purring sound.

She got on the bed and held the whip on her mouth like a cat whilst crawling towards him. Starting from his crotch to his chest, placing the whip there and resting her head on his left shoulder.

" You're one hell of a teaser darling. Like a goddess!"

She looked at him with a smile and said:

" Now start whipping"

***

1520hrs

" The preparations are nearly ready." Stated a young man speaking in a dead language in his Commbead.

" Numerical representation Conrad. We need numbers." Another replied, raspy but youthful.

" 85 percent at the moment. If Dietrich manages to fix the programming in a week, it will be 90." The first speaker stated.

" Moy bozhe! Is there any other way to give us more time? The tunnels were heading nowhere." A female voice cursed in on the intercom. Panicky and shaken was her tune.

" I'd recommend initiating Operation Mudball. We still have the element of surprise at the moment." A ghostly voice stated in the midst of multiple transmissions.

" We're too few! I'd recommend Operation Prometheus to conserve lives and resources." A deep voice replied.

" You forgot that we'd only be scratching the surface through that Potemkin. Most of our units are found here, but most of the equipment is in Azuna and my unit is composed of only three people versus seventeen units of the Order's forces." The one with the raspy voice replied.

" Operation Bratwurst will commence in the next four months and ten days, lest we be given more time. And please can we just execute protocol Twelve, we nearly got compromised yesterday. We need extraction here." The female voice with the panicky tune asserted.

Dietrich along with three others listened to their rosary-beads but didn't bother to reply as of late. They lowered their heads and clinched their fists listening to their comrades.

" Dietrich are you there over. Dietrich do you hear us over." The ghostly voice inquired as Dietrich looked as his closest companion.

" Are you guys really sure about it?" He asked.

" What's the point, Dietrich! We tried, but couldn't stop the wheels from turning. We can only find assurance in the hopes of culling the ranks amid the chaos." A dirty-faced brown-skinned young man replied.

" If you've lost hope in the mission. Then remember you're taking us all with you, the entirety of unit eight is ready to lay down their lives for the cause." Another replied, his bald head and slanted eyes were serious to a point.

" Leper Protocol, the bane of all banes. We've spent too much time biting our backs without looking at our tracks.

If this is our last year together, then let's all die smiling for the better." Dietrich stated as he gave them a sorrowful smile.

" It doesn't have to end this way, guys. There are more ways than one in these kinds of situations."

" That is not your decision anymore Dietrich. This is unit eight's decision, we're ready to die no matter how wet our pants are today." Said the dirty-faced youth.

" You're more willing to die than you are to live, what's the catch?" Dietrich asked with a fake grin.

" Every single unit suffered more than you did, this is a decision made a few years ago and a pact made a long time ago." A square-jawed young adult stated, restless and eager with his eyes slightly drooping.

Dietrich turned his back and walked a distance away from his companions. He took a gearlike trinket from his coat as the grin dissipated from his face. He took a good look and sighed.

' Such are the memories of the time, innocent yet blissful.' He thought as he cursed his life.

"Dietrich? Are you there my friend?" The ghostly voice inquired in his rosary-bead.

" All units, execute Leper Protocol, achieve radio silence by the end of this transmission.

The Eagles flock

As the Night mocks

And Death throws his lucky rock.

All the Ghosts cried

As their Amber feathers dried

Their last Minutes aside

As their End draws nigh"

He turned his bead off and walked towards his companions. They took their beads off and stored them in their pockets.

" It is done!" They said in unison as they put on their hoods and proceeded towards the creaking door in a totally unsupervised and unprofessional manner.

" Nelson" He hailed at his brown-skinned companion.

" Would you spare a moment?"

Nelson looked at the entire room, his gaze is uncompromised and unfazed. He looked at the ceiling, its dark color of the darkest yet infertile of soil. The walls merely dug with a pickaxe and without polish.

" I have nothing to do, but I don't have all day." His reply to the noble's inquiry.

" I need you to send a secured message to Gretzel: Three." The noble stated.

" How secure do you mean, by the way?" Nelson asked.

" Most secure, Nelson." Calm, uninterested and with less vigor was the reply.

" Very well, Lord commander," Nelson said with a smile, though he knew it won't be a piece of cake at all.