“I am not sure about this,” Mom said, keeping a close watch on Nine who was sitting on the infirmary table alone, blankly looking at the service robots and security droids. As expected, both Bouncer and Brawn had their guns on her. “You say she has no memory?”

“That’s what she said. Something about it being corrupted,” Flow said. “I don’t think she’s bad.”

“I would agree,” Clive said. “Although I’m struggling to believe she is a millennium old. While military-grade technology, her design makes her more advanced than anything on this planet.”

“That’s why I’m uneasy about letting her stay,” Mon said. “Flow, she must have been locked in that vault for a reason.”

“She saved my life,” Flow retorted. Blinky, hovered at her side, letting out a series of beeps. “Not you too,” Flow scowled at him before turning back to Mom. “Come on. You got like this when we brought back Sarge, Bouncer, and Brawn into the Farm and they turned out okay.”

“But Nine is not an old security droid. None of us know who she is. Not even her,”

Flow pouted. She hated it when Mom’s overbearing nature kicked in. However, a part of her did agree with her regarding where she had found Nine. Was the vault made to protect her from the ‘fiends’ or to lock her away? And why were the soldiers looking for her?

“…. But think how much help she’d be to the farm.” Flow continued. “The beasts are getting closer each passing day and we don’t have the ammo to keep them back for long. You saw the footage; she can hold her own,”

The argument played on Mom's logic. It was in her programming to protect Flow so delivering some form of logic would usually shut down any argument with her- with the spaceport being the biggest exception.

“I can’t argue with that…” Clive said as Blinky let out a long whine. “It would be useful to have an advanced combat machine around,”

“Right?” Flow grinned seeing that her logic had won out. Mom, knowing she had been beaten by logic, let out a small whine that was the closest she could to a sigh. “I brought her, so I’ll be responsible for her.”

“That is not encouraging,” Mom said.

“Hey, I can be responsible when I want to,” Flow winked as she walked through the door.

*****

The three small droids crowded her, none posed any visible threat. Two combat droids were at the corner of the room with small firearms honed at her head. A quick scan showed the weapons wouldn’t even dent her synthetic skin, let alone her armor. If they posed such a threat, Nine would have destroyed them.

It was some comfort that her nanomachines were still functioning optimally despite being sealed for so long. The damage she had sustained in the battle with the matriarch had been repaired fully. She had factored her attack before the blast that rended her inoperable as a means to avoid any such damage in the future.

However, there were some causes of concern. The most immediate problem was her corrupted memory. Nine of course was her designation given to her by the scavenger, Flow. Yet any recollection of her actual name was gone. So too was what led to her being sealed. She could only recall some mission data about operations before her creation as well as a few from her first deployment yet nothing after that. She could only speculate as to why she was sealed. Whether it was due to operational damage, illicit actions that breached her protocols, or Code Scarlet was successful. The encounter with the fiends put doubts about the last one.

That doesn’t explain why her personality data was also corrupted. That data was mostly useless to her mission but its eraser was strange. If anything were to be damaged it would be most of her data and not a specific part of it.

Most concerning though was that over one millennium had passed since her last activation. This would change everything. It was highly likely the alliance had disbanded in her absence. Her mission was unchanged but without the resources of the Alliance military, it would prove somewhat difficult.

Nine had no idea what to do. This situation was never factored in.

“They seem to like you at least.”

Flow had just entered accompanied by the small droid she called Blinky.

“That’s Spanner, Bolt, and Wrench.” She pointed to each droid as she named them. “And those two over there are Bouncer and Brawn- who should be outside!”

The two security bots turned their weapons on Flow. She was calm despite it, annoyed. Nine assumed that this must be a regular occurrence as the two droids turned about and left.

“Guys, this is Nine.” Flow introduced. Each bot let out a small beep as a form of greeting.

“Nice to meet you,” Nine bowed her head. It seemed… appropriate. The bots all gave another small beep with the one called Bolt circling Nine.

“They’re just excited to see another human around.” Flow chuckled.

“But I am not a human. As I explained I am an android created to fight the fiends.”

“Y-yeah, but you look human to them,”

Nine looked back to the bots, all nodding.

“What are their purposes?”

“Matinence of the farm, mostly,” Flow explained. “But they help me out with the Icarus when we got the scrap for it.”

“The Icarus? Is that another machine?”

“Oh no, It’s my ship.” Flow took Nine by the hand. “Actually, what better place to start-” She tried to tug her and nearly fell over when Nine didn’t budge. “S-Sorry…” Flow let go of Nine, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

“It is all right.” Nine jumped off the table. “I assume you will be showing me the facility.”

“... By that you mean give you the tour then yeah,” Flow nodded pointing behind her. “We’ll start in the hanger-barn… We’ll start there.”

*****

Flow led Nine into a large building adjacent to the one they were in. Once there the scavenger flipped a switch. Light poured into the room, illuminating a large ship that took up much of the hanger.

“This is it. The Icarus.” Flow said with a lot of enthusiasm.

Nine proceed to scan the spacecraft. By its specs, it seemed to be some sort of commercial craft with no armaments. It was vastly different, more advanced than the human ships of her era. Then again, the patchwork repairs, open panels, and wear made the ship look so much older.

“What do you think?”

“It appears to be very poorly maintained.” Nine said bluntly.

Flow seemed hurt by the statement given her reaction. “Well, it’s not like I found it in pristine condition…” She pouted. “When I found it it was barely in one piece. It’s taken five years just to patch the hull.”

Nine approached the ship, activating her retinal scanners. She identify where work had been done on the exterior hull. It was certainly not a professional job. She could easily identify several areas where Flow had simply wielded a plate to patch a breach. As she went under the wing she found a small inscription close to the cargo bay. ICARUS. That was probably where the name came from.

She then examined the ship's engines on the wings. They too were in bad condition. “Have you been able to fly?”

Flow had followed behind her with Blinky hovering above her shoulder. “Uh… n-no,” She said awkwardly. “I-I mean I just got the engines and most of the core energy systems working yesterday. It’s hard to restore a ship with scrap alone.”

Nine continued her examination. It seemed the entire ship was put together with second-hand materials and components. From what she had scanned, Nine calculated that it was sealed enough to survive the vacuum of space, though she could predict how long.

“By its condition, I assume you discovered it as a wreck?” She asked Flow.

“Not… really a wreck. We think it belonged to one of the farmers before the outbreak. It was in a few pieces when we found it so our guess is the previous owner was fixing her up to escape. Lot of that stuff was unusable so I had to make due with what I can find in the colony.”

“Are you repairing it?”

“Not alone. Got the bots to help me.”

Nine finished her circle of the ship, stopping its nose. “What is its current status?”

“Well…” Flow rubbed the back of her head as she stood alongside Nine, “It’s missing a warp drive and a ship-grade energy crystal. Without them, we’ve not gone anywhere.”

“What is stopping you from finding them?”

“Mom for one…” Flow muttered.

“Mom?”

“Uh, never mind. Those two parts are very rare out in the main colony where I get most of this junk. The place that has those in abundance is the spaceport. Even without those… fiends, it’s the zombie's main nest. Even the beasts won't go near it.”

“The spaceport?”

“It’s at the edge of the colony. Actually, it’s where I found you. Well, underneath it.”

Nine blinked. She tried to access the logs for her vaults location yet nothing came up. Even that data was gone. She attempted a search for the AEGIS but nothing came up. The blocks were beginning to seem less of a bug or corrupted data as even mission-critical information appeared to be affected.

“Nine?” Flow spoke. The droid Blinky made a few beeps. “Something wrong?”

Nine shook her head. “It is of no concern.” She said. “I assume there is more to the farm.”

Flow smiled. “Sure is,” excited she grabbed Nine’s arm again. “Show you the work-” she nearly tripped again as Nine didn’t move. Embarrassed, Flow released her. “Right this way,”

*****

Flow continued in her tour of the farm. The first place was the workshop assent to the hanger. While Flow was enthusiastic about this aspect of the farm, Nine could identify that all of it was scrap. It would certainly explain the crude repairs she had seen on the Icarus and most of the farm's bots.

Next, Flow took her into an old office that was converted into an armory, overseen by a security droid of a similar chasse to the two Flow called Bouncer and Brawn.

“This is Sarge.” Flow introduced.

“Greetings! You must be the newest addition to our little family!” The bot Sarge spoke strangely. “Always happy to see another combat droid. Reckoned the outbreak destroyed most of us.”

Nine wasn’t sure how to respond, in the end opting for a simple “Greetings. Flow has given me the temporary designation of ‘Nine,’”

“…. Damn, you sound really robotic,” Sarge said. “And that’s coming from a damn robot.”

Nine looked to Flow. “I take it the machines that talk all have personality data?”

“Y-Yeah… sorta…” Flow stroked his cheek. “Honestly, only Mom, Clive, Doc, and my old teacher Index had a personality. In Sarge’s case, he was like Bouncer and Brawn when we found him. I kinda used him as an experiment in attaching a vocal unit. His first voice sounded pretty strange so I tried to overlay a personality data that I got from an FPS game.”

“Hence my rather fine speech,” Sarge said proudly while Flow let out an awkward chuckle.

“Uh… you don’t have a personality, don’t you?” Flow asked.

“No. That data was corrupted and purged in my reboot.”

“Oh… S-sorry…”

“I do not understand why you would need to apologize. You are not responsible, and the data had no bearings or significance to my mission.”

“R-Right…” Flow stroked the back of her head. Nine noticed that it seemed to be a habit she had whenever she felt unease. “Anyway, this is the armory. Guns, armor, and ammo. Everything I need to survive the colony.”

Nine examined the room, walking past Sarge as her sensors scanned the room. The weapon selection was very limited, with only a full auto-rifle, long-range single-shot rifle, a pistol, and a hand cannon. Only the full-auto and the hand cannon were in decent condition while the others were poorly maintained. To the side were three manicens with only two fully dressed in armor.

“We did have more,” Sarge spoke. “Unfortunately we lost some in Flow’s unauthorized sorty.”

“I said I was sorry…” Flow pouted while Blinky let out a series of beeps.

“Still, she did grab some good gear in those two,” Sarge pointed to the full-auto and hand cannon. “And not to mention.” The security droid moved to one of the lockers and opened it and brought out a familiar weapon; the sword Vagabond.

“Oh yeah! That was where I found you.” Flow said taking the weapon from Sarge. “I don’t know what it is, only that it saved my life.” Nine watched as Flow attempted to draw the weapon, falling to even budge it from its scabbard.

“It is ID locked. You lack the authorization to use it.”

Flows reaction seemed to indicate that she already knew she would be unable to draw it. “But…why could I draw it before?”

“That was due to the emergency at the time where the vaults AI gave you temporary access to Vagabond to fight the fiends during my awakening. As the threat has passed and I have been reactivated your authorization was revoked.”

Flow looked back at the sword. “So it’s… Vagabond?” She then held the weapon out to Nine. “Do you think you can remove that lock?”

“Yes.”

“…. Will you?”

“I have no reason to authorize you. You are not military and based on your weaponry you are not trained in using a blade.”

“W-well yeah but I can learn. Plus, having something like this close at hand would help us out here a lot against the zombies and beasts.”

“It is an anti-fiend weapon. It is not to be used as a commercial weapon for civilians.”

Flow frowned. “Okay… what if the fiends come here. I-I mean they’re after you.”

Nine began to consider it. It seemed the force that attacked her were actively hunting her. Whatever overmind was after her, she doubted it would be satisfied with a simple scout force failing. This pysiran had experience with fighting the fiends and had survived. It was worth considering that if Flow hadn’t slowed the fiends down she might have been destroyed before reactivation.

“Very well. I will temporarily authorize you to use Vagaband. But only temporary.”

Flow seemed excited as she held the weapon out to Nine. Nine hovered her hand over the scabbard, establishing a connection to the ID lock to-

“Odd?”

“Wh-what is?”

“I do not have the authorization code to open the lock.”

“Y-you can’t unlock it?”

It was baffling, but as she had a look at herself she realized that her armor had not fully materialized. She tried to materialize her armor to its maximum settings but the nanomachines didn’t respond. It seemed the awakening process was rushed due to the emergency with her nanomachines given the bare minimum to combat the threat. It seemed the full transfer of codes for both vagabond and the AEGIS was not achieved.

“It seems not all data was transferred. Several features were omitted to ensure my swift activation due to the current crisis, such as the authorization codes for Vagabond.”

“So you can’t remove the ID lock?” Sarge asked.

“Not at present.”

“Okay…” Disappointed, Flow handed the weapon back to Sarge. “Worth a shot...” Blinky let out a series of beeps behind her.

“If ya don’t mind me asking,” Sarge placed the weapon in one of the lockers. “You made both your weapons appear out of thin air? That some kinda old age mystic mumbo jumbo?”

“I assure you it is not magic.” Nine said. As though to demonstrate, she quickly materialized one of her swords. It at least was reassuring to know she could still use her weapons.

“Whoa…” Flow seemed impressed. “H-how did you-?”

“Nanomachines. Microscopic machines that inhabit my body. They both maintain it with self-repair protocols and replacements should I happen to lose a limb.” Nine twirled her katana in her hand. “My weapons and armor are created by a similar process.” Her weapon then vanished in red sparks.

“S-so these nanomachines can repair your body? Even if you lose your… your head?”

Nine nodded. “As long as my core is undamaged I can recover from such destruction. However, replacing the missing limbs would take a significant amount of time compared to cosmetic or grazing damage.”

Blinky let out a low whine as Flow scratched her head. “H-how is that even possible? I mean, I’m sure not even the Federation has that kinda tech, right?” She looked up at Sarge.

“It’s certainly not in my programming,” Sarge said as Blinky let out three beeps.

“I do not know the full specifics of the nanomachines within me. As I said, I was never given the schematics for my body due to the risk of it falling into enemy hands.” Nine said.

“Aren't you at all curious?” Flow asked.

“Why would I be? Knowing my make would not be of any benefit to my mission. If anything, such intel would hinder me as I would likely become a high priority target.” Nine replied.

“…. Dang, even I can’t argue with that logic,” Sarge said.

Nine looked back to Flow. “I believe you have shown me the armory? Is there any other location of interest?”

“Huh? Oh right!” Flow nodded. “Next…. Uh…. What’s next?” She looked at Blinky lost. It seemed that she hadn’t thoroughly thought out her tour. “Oh! Kitchen!”

****

Flow continued her unstructured tour through the facility. Nothing seemed noteworthy, just a seemingly random assortment of repurposed machinery. That said, Nine was certainly impressed that it worked at all given the obvious deficiency of the equipment. It seemed Flows engineering skills played a large part. With only one person and only a handful of maintenance machines present, it was certainly impressive, to say the least.

There wasn’t much to see of the interior. A kitchen, an animal pen repurposed into a medical bay (where she had reactivated), and a shower unit and toilet. When I’m the kitchen, Flow's tour was interrupted so she could eat. Apparently, she had yet to eat anything all day.

Nine was introduced to more of Flow’s ‘family.’ All of them were repurposed commercial droids with various modifications. The machine she called Chief used a vocal unit and personality matrix that was taken from a butler droid. Coincidently, the farm's butler unit, the one she called Clive, was extensively repurposed to a close-quarters combat droid.

The one who seemed to be relatively unmodded was a maternal unit designated as Mom, even though parts of her frame showed signs of extensive damage. Out of all the machines, she showed to be the most wiery, simply greeting Nine before moving away to another room.

“Uh, don’t mind her. She can be a little… stubborn.” Flow said once Mom had gone.

“I heard that,” Mom called, causing Flow to jump.

“Ah, she’s mad now,” Flow slumped before taking Nine outside the farm. She showed off her vehicle, a hoverbike (again extensively modded and repaired), and a small garden that grew plants that Nine assumed was for Flows consumption. As she was the only human present, she imagined Food was never much of an issue. The last few stops were a water tank and another workshop close to the hangar which had a large array of striped machinery. According to Flow, anything big would be taken there and stripped down for anything useful. Anything left was broken down into smaller parts that Nine assumed were for the maintenance of the machines.

At the boiler connected to the main building, Nine asked where Flow had learned engineering.

“Oh, I kinda taught myself,” She said, “I can’t rely on the bots all the time, especially if something goes wrong.”

“Does that happen often?”

“…. Lot more over the year,” She sighed before moving away from the boiler.

“Okay. Last stop,” Flow and Blinky lead Nine back into the main complex, through the kitchen, and up a ladder into the loft. “My room!”

The entire loft was repurposed into a bedroom, despite the low ceiling. There was another workshop, though one that was far smaller with a disk plate that Blinky hovered into. There was other discarded machinery scattered on the ground from tools to makeshift constructions like a monitor. What Nine assumed was a bed had been repurposed from something else. Despite the degradation and burn marks from possible planetary reentry, it seemed of a drastically different design.

“Was this an escape pod?” She said prodding the interior. The ‘mattress’ seemed to be made of a spongy material.

“It’s an old stasis pod,” Flow said sitting down on it. “This is actually where I’m from,”

“You came from a stasis pod?”

Flow nodded. “Crashed here nine years ago. That’s about all I know. I can’t remember anything else before that.”

“You have amnesia?”

“Yep. Doc said it was due to a prolonged stay in stasis affecting my brain or something like that. No matter how hard I try I can’t remember anything about who I was. Even the data from the onboard computer was unsalvageable so that’s a dead end.” Flow guided her hand over a worn nameplate. Only the letters F L O and W were left. “This is all I got to go on.”

It seemed the worn nameplate was where the name Flow came from.

“I made it a mission to find out who I am once I’ve left this planet.” Blinky let out a low whine as she rubbed her cheek. “Guess we got that in common right?”

“I suppose. Yet my memory is not of grave concern. As long as I can retrieve mission-sensitive data my corrupted memories are secondary.”

Flow giggled a little. “Okay, that we differ,” She then let out a loud yawn. “Welp…. I think I need a few more ZZZs. I’ve been up since… before sunrise,” That was the last thing she said before collapsing into the bed.

“Are we concluded with the tour?” Nine asked. Flow didn’t respond. It seemed she was fast asleep. She stared at Flow awaiting a response before determining that she would not awake. Nine decided it was best to leave her. Yet as she was about to leave, Blinky hovered in front of her beeping loudly.

“Is there something you require?”

The small droid hovered to Flow. At her foot was a blanket. It started with her.

“You wish me to cover her?”

Blinky beeped again.

“There is no cause for concern. As she is a psyren she will not succumb to disease. Even the virus that has afflicted this planet will not turn-”

Blinky flew straight to Nine letting out another string of furious beeps. It seemed he was insisting that Nine covered her. Concluding that the droid was not likely to leave her in peace Nine did as requested, taking the blanket and covering Flow to her shoulder. Blinky seemed satisfied by it. The small droid rushed off to the plate at the workshop where he powered down.

Nine descended the ladder back into the kitchen. The tour was over and now Nine was free to determine her next course of action. Her mission was still unchanged but in light of these new revelations about her location and her condition she was unsure as to how to proceed. Turning around she saw Mom standing in the center of the kitchen staring directly at her.

“Flow is currently sleeping.” She said.

“I know. I was waiting for her to sleep.” Despite her motherly voice, Nine felt she was being confrontational. A pointless gesture gave Nine’s combat parameters.

“Is there something you wish to discuss?” Nine asked. Avoiding a confrontation would be within her best interest. She saw Mom’s camera lens zooming in on her.

“Your resemblance to a human being is uncanny. I was even fooled until doc said you were like us,”

“I assure you it was never my intention to deceive. This body was fashioned after a member of the project used to create me.”

“You were created as a weapon, correct?” Mom took a step forward. “A weapon created to destroy.”

“That is correct. Though if you are concerned I will terminate you, I can assure you such an act would not be within my best interest.”

“I’m not concerned about that. What I am concerned about is the danger you could bring to Flow.”

“I do not see how I could bring her any danger.” Nine said. She could speculate several dangers given the data received about the planet but none seemed to relate to her interference.

“I’ll be frank,” Mom took a step closer. “You were buried in a facility that was unknown even to the early colonist of this planet, apparently buried for over a thousand years. Not only that, human soldiers from the Federation were on this planet searching the spaceport for something.”

“.... I see. You are concerned that my existence will endanger Flow?”

Mom didn’t say anything in response. Despite that, it was clear that was her intention.

“I cannot say anything that would put your mind at ease, but know that I will see no harm comes to Flow during my stay.”

“That does not put my mind at ease,” Mom said. “.... But I will take your word for now.” she was about to leave when Nine stopped her.

“May I ask a question?”

Mom looked back at Nine.

“If I am correct to assume, as a material droid you were programmed to protect a specific infant. On exchange with another family, you would be reprogramed to continue your programming. Yet logically, the infant you resided over is either dead or infected, and with no one to reprogram you, you should still have an attachment to said, infant.

“Yet you harbor strong maternal instincts to Flow despite not being an infant or even born on this planet.”

Mom seemed to understand what Nine was asking, yet the delay in her response indicated she was likely searching for the reason herself. “To be honest, I don’t know. It is as you said, I was never reallocated upon the outbreak. I simply remember years and years of standing in a corner never moving while the infected roamed unchecked.

“I do not know why but I eventually began to explore beyond the home I was assigned to. I met Clive, a butler droid with a similar position, and Doc.”

“Flow gave you those names, correct?”

“Yes. We simply greeted each other by our ID’s. The three of us simply wandered the colony ignored by the infected, and eventually we left the colony into the farms. We came across the farm when something crashed close by. When we investigated we met Flow.”

“That does not answer the question; why did you support Flow despite it not being in your programming to do so.”

Mom let out a low whirl. “I suppose we… chose to care for her.”

“You chose?”

“We never thought about it. We simply wanted to take care of her. We raised her as best we could and other like-minded machines joined us in raising this one human child. If I were to hypothesis, I believe our solitude allowed us to break our programming and create our personalities.”

Nine wasn’t sure how to process this information. The response was almost human. “You believe you became self-aware of your existence?”

Mom nodded. Her lens glanced upwards to the loft. “We haven't told Flow this but for us to become self-aware is a violation of Federation law and we must terminate ourselves. We agreed that once the Icarus is finished only Flow, Blinky, and the maintenance machines are to go with her as they will be able to mask their presence as self-aware AI. The rest of us will remain behind and terminate ourselves.”

“You intend to sacrifice yourself for Flow?” Nine summarised.

“She is… our reason for existing for all these years.” Mom lowered her head. “That is the best I can say it.”

“It is more than sufficient. Thank you for responding to my inquiry.” Nine nodded at her. “I understand you’re concern but rest assured I will see no harm comes to Flow during my stay.” She was about to leave when Mom stopped her.

“I have one more question for you,” Mom sounded serious once more. “What is your purpose?”

“My purpose?”

“As I stated, my purpose, all of your purpose is to look after Flow. You of course have a different purpose. What is it? Why do you exist?”

Nine slowly turned to face her. “I must destroy the fiends. That is the entire reason for my existence.”

****

The monolithic vault stood looming over the cave. Despite the doors being torn off by the power of the fiends most of it remained intact. The same was said of the bodies of the SFSR though some were disturbed by the onrush of the fiends. Even as light flooded the cave once more, not a single thing stirred.

Armed soldiers from the SFSR moved in, examining each body of their fallen comrades. Even for the Federation's finest, to say none of the hardened soldiers were unnerved by the massacre of their own would be a lie.

“This is not good…”

“Damn. Is this the entire advance force?”

“Looks like it. They found their griffin too. The fiends ripped apart.”

“Man, I’d rather be fighting the orcs than these… things…”

“Stall the chatter.” A commanding voice bellowed from the entrance.

A large dark-skinned man strolled through the carnage. Unlike the regulation gear that his men wore, Major Devlen de’Volv wore a specially tailored suit, more padded with detailed muscle plates on his chest and back with facets in his arms, legs, and feet. With short-cut dark hair and a scar running along the right side of his face, the major strolled towards the ruined vault doors. He stopped before the body of captain Salvator. From his posture, he was trying to fulfill the mission before the fiends got him.

“Sorry man,” The major said as he crouched down to the fallen man. “We’ll get you home.” He tapped him on the back. He looked at his posture. With the way his arm was stretched out, he was likely running towards the door with the Key in hand. Only, the key was gone. “Shit…”

The major stood up, placed a cigar in his mouth, brought his right hand up to it, and clicked his fingers. A flame erupted on his thumb which he used to light his cigar. He took a deep puff before turning to the rest of his men. “Do any of them have the key?”

“No major.” One of the men replied. “It’s… not on the captain?”

“Unfortunately…” Smoke blew out of his nose.

“Major!” The communications operator called. “Just got word from squad 3! They found the body of our missing man up top! He was being chewed on by zombies but it looked like the fiends got to him first.”

“I see.” That meant everyone was accountable. “Ask them if our guy had the Key.”

“Sir.” The operator spoke into his communicator. As they were so far underground, standard communicators wouldn’t work. They needed the relay system to communicate with the squads up top. “No major. He didn’t have the key.”

“Shhhitttt…” The major grumbled. He looked back to the ruined vault door. The target was supposed to be in there, but with the attack from the fiends, even he doubted the anti-fiend android could hold off against so many given what happened to their guys. Still, after coming all this way they needed something to show for it.

The major took out a pouch, threw his half-burnt cigar in it, then pulled out his weapon; a specialized flame thrower, connecting the tube to a faucet in his right arm. “Sweetwater! Lyn! Obraski! With me! Rest of you; bag the bodies. We’re not leaving them here.”

The three he called formed up on him, moving in formation towards the second door. According to the intel, the corridor connecting the main chamber could be flooded with powerful microwaves that could destroy ghouls and suppress the power of the matriarchs and warlocks. Given the damage, the fiends did burrow through in force. With a bit of luck, they didn’t breach the inner sanctuary.

The major took point, holding his flamethrower in one hand. While his men shuffled behind him. Unfortunately, the light at the end of the long tunnel meant the fiends were successful in breaching the sanctuary. The major stopped, raising his flamethrower, slowly walking towards the torn entrance.

The brightly lit sanctuary showed signs of a recent battle with two turrets ripped to shreds. Worse, the coffin at the far wall was destroyed.

“Alright, Sweetwater. Jack in and see what happened.”

“Major, without the key-”

“There should be some kinda log. Find those and see what’s happened to number 9.”

“Sir.”

“Rest of you fan out. If there’s any trace of it, holler.”

Sweetwater rushed up the stairs to the second floor by the destroyed coffin, unloading a portable PC and plugging it into the access socket. The others looked around, examining the full extent of the damage.

The major was about to examine the coffin when something caught his eye. By the right stairs was something shimmering, letting off a mist. It was odd, and very out of place. Fiend fragments dissolve after a set time so there shouldn’t be anything left. A closer look, it didn’t come from the fiends. It was a small chunk of Snow White crystals. Taking one in his hand, the major felt it freezing through his gloves. Lyn came up to him to see what had gotten his attention.

“…. Is that a crystal?”

“No. It’s ice,” The major crushed the fragment with his grip, using heat from his body to melt it. No water or vapor remained. “Ice from a psyren. I’d recognize it anywhere.”

“The Coronel?”

“….. Definitely not. She’s still on board the Horizon,” The major looked at the reception at the base of the second level. In the center should be the anti-fiend weapon vagabond, made with number 9’s combat data. It’s doubtful the fiends would take it, and if it was destroyed they should see the fragments.

“Major!” Sweetwater called.

“Find anything?” The major looked at the destroyed coffin. It seemed like a plasma blast wrecked a large portion of it, yet there was still no sign of number 9. Hopefully, it hadn’t been destroyed.

“Only the logs major. There was definitely a fiend attack but there are a few things that don’t add up.” Sweetwater said, leaning against the wall as he went through the log. “First was the opening of the outer door and a fiend attack. It’s around the same time we lost contact with the advanced force. Yet the second doors were also opened approximately five hours after the first.”

“Five?”

“There’s more. About twenty minutes later, the vault sealed itself in preparation for another fiend assault where number 9’s awakening was authorized.”

“It’s awake?” Oblaski said.

“Isn’t that bad? I mean, according to the briefing it was better if it was asleep.” Lyn commented.

“Gone on,” the major said.

“She awoke approximately…. Fifteen minutes with a majority of her combat data transferred. Number 9’s signal was lost just before the matriarch was destroyed.”

“They killed each other?” Lyn said.

“If they did we’d see number 9 laying here.” The major said.

“There’s one more thing sir.” Sweetwater continued. “During the attack, the vaults AI gave temporary access of Vagabond to an ‘auxiliary alliance personnel.’”

“Axiluary alliance personnel?” Oblaski repeated. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“….. It means someone was here,” the major said. He walked to the railing where he spied a large collection of bullet casings, and not from the turrents. Furrowing his brow he tapped his communicator. “Barred. Who do we have that’s unaccounted for from the advance force?”

“Sir, everyone's accounted for.”

The major grabbed one of the casings. It was one of theirs due to the UAI logo, yet picking up another saw the logo was absent. He remembered that one of the troopers from the tunnel had both his rifle and hand cannon absent. According to intel, Helos was a dead world with no one present. Zombies don’t have the intelligence to salvage this stuff, and neither do the wildlife.

Further to the left was another patch of Ice. It was breaking down but enough of it remained.

Someone was here and it wasn't Federation.

“Sweetwater. Anything else?”

“… No major. Without the Key I can’t get anything more and hacking’s out of the question.”

The major let out a low growl as he scooped up another fragment. This one was going back with him. “Alright. Barred, call for a Griffin to pick us up. We’re going back to the Horizon.” The major twirled the Ice in his hand. “Also, get some griffins in the air to do another recon sweep of the colony.”

“Major?”

“Our intel was off. There's someone else on this planet.”