In the complete darkness of night a building, dimly lit by the moon, could be seen in the distance. An American flag proudly waved about in the cold air without a care in the world, the same could not be said for its occupants as the generators for the building had been destroyed which caused this power outage for the past 2 days. It was mostly Dealer’s fault as she was placed in charge of taking care of it 2 months ago, as punishment for this she was tasked with guard duty for the rest of her lifetime.

“I told you to check on the generators multiple times now! And you kept saying you did it, are you literally trying to lose this war?” Sweeper grasped at her head, she was at her breaking point with Dealer.

“What? So if we lose this base then the entire US army will crumble? Wow, are we that important or is the US doing that badly?” Replied Dealer, not really thinking about the consequences.

“I’ll have you know we are doing fine! The US economy is in pretty good shape!”

“Hey! I think I’m being very environmentally friendly right now, and we have those little back-up generators powering all the important stuff like the command room.”

“Yes but I would like to SEE! Also the kitchen and the recreation room don’t have any power.”

Dealer went into a panic as soon as Sweeper pointed that out. “OH CRAP! The new episode of Phantastic Phantasmal is airing tomorrow. I now realize the situation I put us in.”

Just then the two could hear the sound of someone approaching them. The moon was bright enough that it allowed them to see 15 metres in front of them, they both spot a figure in the darkness. The two raised their weapons up; Dealer had the standard issued AM-62 electric rifle which was powered by a compact battery cell attached to the bottom that allowed it to fire 72 shots before needing to be reloaded. It was first introduced in 2062 during the latter half of World War 3 where it became a favourite amongst the soldiers, it still sees wide use in the present due to its reliability. Sweeper on the other hand carried a submachine gun called the Tav Model 7 which has a magazine size of 40 bullets. Produced in 2096, its compactness and ability to equip armor-piercing rounds made it popular for scouting parties.

“Hey stop right there or we’ll start blasting you!” Shouted Dealer as she shook her gun around in an attempt to look frightening.

Her voice made the lone figure stand still, there was a brief pause as both sides did nothing. Sweeper and Dealer turned to each other as if to decide on whether or not they should just shoot at the figure but a nervous voice managed to break through the dark.

“Uhh is this the Sector 3 US base in the region of Former North Dakota?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Dealer was the first to lower her weapon, while Sweeper keep her sights on the figure as it anxiously walked up to them. As the person got closer they could see that the figure was wearing a standard US army uniform. It was a girl with very short brown hair and amber coloured eyes.

“Sirs, ummm ma’am’s, I’m Private Guard-3759 reporting for duty!” The recruit’s back shot straight up as they performed the army salute, the nervous expression was still clear on their face. Sweeper turned her head slightly towards Dealer and saw a slight grin appear on her face.

“Great to have you rookie, my name is Dealer and this here is Sweeper!” She began to slowly approach the recruit. “And uhh just to let you know we don’t do unit names around here.”

“Excuse me ma’am?”

Sweeper hadn’t a clue on what Dealer was planning but she’s been truthful so far. “She’s right. To avoid confusion and saying out the whole number we just take the type part of our names and then the order we arrived here at this base.”

“See I would normally be called Dealer-1014 since I used to be a shopkeeper and I’m the 1014th unit made. But here I’m Dealer-1 or just Dealer, and that would make you Guard.”

“Oh I see, wow, so me and you are the first of our types to be stationed here.”

“Nope.”

“Wha-what?”

“To avoid further confusion, when someone of the same type as us dies we go down the list.” Said Sweeper.

“Yep about 6 days ago I would be called Dealer-5 but then everyone died so I went down the list and I’m now Dealer-1.”

“What… WHAT?!?”

Dealer wrapped her left arm around Guard’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it rookie. We’re doing fine, we’re actually winning here. So don’t get worked up about everyone being gone and enjoy yourself, its smooth sailing towards victory from here.”

The recruit was in a state of confusion, looking around in hopes of getting a better understanding of the situation that they walked in on.

“But don’t get too comfortable though, the remaining UCNA troops stationed here are savages. Do you know what they would do to a pretty thing like you?” Said Dealer with a concerned look on her face.

“N-no.”

“Haha oh boy, OH MAN. The things those UCNA guys do for fun, they’re a real evil bunch. Man oh man you do not want to be captured by those guys.”

“W-what do they do?”

“Just ignore her, everyone else here does.” Sweeper quickly grabbed Dealer’s arm and pulled it away from Guard. She shot Dealer a glance that made her back off and then turned over to Guard with a calming smile.

“So you were a Guard type back home right?”

“Y-yes I worked at a bank. The New Eagle Bank. The owner decided to give me up to the army as they were looking for Guard types at the time.”

“So how long did you work there?”

“Oh I worked there right after my production, uhh I was there for 8 months.”

“That’s two months before me and Dealer got stationed here.”

“You can call me Auntie Dealer, that goes for you too Sweeper.”

Annoyed at the remark, Sweeper stepped in and blocked Dealer from Guard’s view. “Shut up, we were produced at the same time.”

“Oh how old are you two?”

“We were produced 4 years ago making us pretty old, but if you want to see ancient you should see Capt.” Replied the orange haired android as she attempted to climb over Sweeper.

“Oh right I guess you would like to come in.” Sweeper led the trio as they headed into the base

The backup generators were clearly putting in some work as the room was actually lit compared to the halls of the base Sweeper thought to herself as they reached the command room where Savage and Reaper were at. The command room was state of the art, at least compared to the rest of the base, it allowed for the androids to store memories and create battle plans. It also has the useful and underused function of communicating with Command.

“Well, well. A fresh face at this here base, you must be one of the new recruits.” Said a short android as she approached the three of them.

“YES SIR! I’m Private Guard-37- ummm Guard reporting for duty!”

“That’s the spirit. I’m Captain Savage and this scary looking lass over there is Private First Class Reaper.”

“Hey.” Reaper slightly nodded her head towards Guard.

“So where’s the rest of your unit Private?”

Guard’s expression turned into a confused look. “Umm, the rest? It’s just me sir.”

The entire room turned silent, it was like time stood still. Guard was looking around with even more confusion and wondered why everyone looked so down. The silence was broken as Dealer spoke up.

“So I guess… we’ll still go forward with the plan and smash the UCNA base now?”

“You bet your ass we’ll still go through with this.” Savage pumped herself up as she climbed on top of a table to look at her soldiers. “And don’t worry I have a backup plan. Ladies get your gear ready, it’s time to show the enemy whose boss.”

As everyone left to get prepared a dark thought entered Guard’s mind, how dangerous are these UCNA soldiers?

“Hey I just found out about something really cool, ya wanna hear it?”

In another building a voice rang out from the hall as footsteps could be heard getting closer and closer. Miley opened her eyes, she knew that voice and knew that answering or ignoring that question wouldn’t matter, so she decided to get through it as quick as possible.

“What is it this time?” She shot an annoyed glance at Catherine as she approached.

“You know how those ocean researchers from the UK discovered that new fish species?”

“No.”

“Well get this.” Catherine paused for a moment to let Miley be prepared for what she was about to say. “Those fishes are a type of deep sea fish that had adapted to the temperature of shallow waters and decided to move on up! The researchers are calling them Saturn Lanterns because of the patterns of their scales. They also have these weird fin things that they used to grab stuff.”

“Why the hell does any of this matter?”

“Well here’s the thing right? So apparently these things hate black people.”

The atmosphere of the hallway changed to a mixture of uncomfortable silence and that feeling of shock you get when you accidentally take an extra step down the stairs, though Catherine was unable to read the room as she continued to smile at Miley. Miley’s face was expressionless as she tried to comprehend what her partner just said.

“Huh?” Was all Miley could muster to say.

“Scientist found out that this fish would target darker skin people.”

“It’s just a shitty fish, how much trouble could they cause?”

“Oh. I forgot to mention they’re around the same size as a Bull Shark.”

“What? Are you making this up Cath? If they were real shouldn’t we be doing something about it? Like exterminating the shit out of them?”

“Nope this is 100% real.” Said Catherine beaming with utmost confidence.

“W-well I don’t think these fishes are racist, they could be targeting darker coloured things because they think they’re easier prey or something.”

“Specifically attacking another race because of the perceive notion that they are easier to hunt. That’s a racism alright.”

“I don’t think they have the mental capacity to know what racism is, Cath. It’s probably an evolutionary trait.”

“Hmm don’t know about that one Miley. It seems that good ol’ racism is still persevering in nature.” Catherine shook her head as she said that. There was a pause for a bit before she looked directly at Miley again with a gleam in her eyes. “So that got me thinking.”

“I don’t want to hear any more of this…”

“Racist robots.”

“Why!? That is literally impossible, there is no settings for that type of personality. Who the fuck would program an android to be racist? For what purpose?!” At this point Miley had enough of this conversation and just wanted to leave she looked outside the window to see the sun shining in the sky.

“Do you know how many of us are out there? Just one is all I’m saying. It doesn’t even have to be strictly programmed in right? It could be the AI developing it overtime, they could be doing little things that no one would notice like giving out less fries in a combo if you’re Asian.”

Miley raised her hand in front of Catherine’s face. “I’ve had enough of these melanin seeking deep sea fish and hate crime androids. Why can’t we talk about something normal like-”

Before she could even finish that sentence the speakers in the hallway suddenly came to life and played out a message.

“NEW RECRUITS HAVE BEEN SENT TO FORT LONG ROAD BRAVO!”

The blonde hair android adjusts her glasses before expressing her surprise. “Holy shit we got new recruits?”

The two rushed immediately toward the monitoring to get more information on the surprise visits.

“Wow they’re coming right now. They should be here in a few minutes” Catherine pointed out.

“When did this happen, WHO is even left to talk to Command to get more soldier out here in this shithole?!”

“Well since you’re, like, the highest ranking person here I guess you did.”

“WHAT?!? Cath I’m Private friggin’ First Class, how the hell am I going to be able to command anything?”

Miley grabbed her head and started shaking her hair in frustration, she realized that she is technically in charge meaning that the UCNA base might be more screwed than they first thought, which is an achievement in and of itself. She wasn’t a devout believer in anything considering she wasn’t programmed to but for the first time she prayed that Command was sending in someone to replace the previous deceased Captain and take over as the head of the UCNA base.

“Hey Miley, do you think the recruits will be smokin’ hot?”

“Cath, can you stop? Can you stop thinking? We’d be better off with a scarecrow with a gun strapped to its hands. At least it wouldn’t try to sleep with any of our teammates or talk about random shit.”

“You wouldn’t know that, who’s to say that straw people can’t have a powerful libido?”

Loud knocking could be heard on the metal front door, the two looked at each other and then at the monitor to see two other figures standing there and both had the armband signifying that they were on the UCNA side.

“Hey do you think that they could be faking it and are actually enemy soldiers trying to trick us to open the door?” Asked Catherine nervously.

“There are literally 3 people in this base, they don’t need to trick us to beat us. All they need to do is walk up with 6 guys and we would surrender immediately.”

The duo headed to the front door and opened it, what they saw caught them off guard. One of the recruits was a giant, she clearly towered over them as her head almost reached the top of the door. As she entered they had a better view of her, her long black hair was tied in a ponytail, she had bright blue eyes and her grey and white military uniform looked very snug on her body. The other one looked tiny in comparison but was actually of an average height. She had grey and white metal shoulder pads with an insignia meaning that she was an engineer. Her long braided ash colored hair was swept to her left side and she had yellow eyes with noticeable eye bags.

“Uh hey there.” Miley weakly waved her hands at the new recruits.

“Hi I’m AN-7003, I’m 8 days old, I’m a heavy shock trooper and I use this big gun here.” The giant spoke up with a smile on her face as she lifted her equally giant weapon to the group.

“Well you sure are heavy.”

“Shut up Cath. So AN-7003… that doesn’t sound like any service android name I know of, you must be some type of military android right?”

“Idunno”

“Well we’ll just call you uhhh Annie cause AN-7003 is a bitch to say.”

The smaller recruit spoke up. “You’re giving her a human name?”

“Yeah, our Captain would give us actual names when we arrived here but since she’s a kinda dead I guess we have to. Also it’s cool.” Replied Catherine.

“Annie sounds nice, I like it!” Annie began jumping up and down in excitement which caused the base to tremble. The smaller recruit looked at Miley with a glimmer in her eyes.

“I’m the engineer sent here to help with repairs, they call me-”

“Alright so we’ll call you Engie.” Miley quickly replied.

“Huh but I’m-”

“Yeah since you’re an engineer, Engie works fine.”

“But I’m… but uhhh… I would like ummm… a new…… ok.” Engie disappointingly looks down while Annie finally stops jumping around.

“Alright things are starting to look up for Team UCNA. We got two babes on our side and that nearly doubles our number.” Catherine looked around the group with a confident smirk.

“Double?” Engie tilted her head slightly to the left.

“We would be 5 now, we have another member who is currently in the medical room since she got badly injured in the last battle.” Miley winced a bit. “God it feels so weird saying last battle since we only fought one battle. So Engie can you check up on her and do your repair thingy to fix her.”

“It’s uh it’s more complicated than that but yeah I can help out.”

“Oh and before you go, any of you guys here to take command of this base? Like that would be great.”

“No.” Both the recruited replied.

“Fuck.” She said in turn.

“Eh don’t worry about it, you’ll make a fine leader and it’s not like anything’s going to happen for a while I’m pretty sure both sides got rocked hard.” Catherine put her hand on Miley shoulders to reassure her.

“Yeah you know what, you’re right. I can probably hold down the fort until Command sends someone else to takeover. And hey this could be fun.”

“ENEMY VEHICLE APPROACHING FROM THE WEST!” A loud robotic voice suddenly blasted through the speakers

The UCNA members began grabbing there weapons and taking cover behind the windows on the first floor.

“I hate this already.” Sighed Miley before looking up at the smaller recruit. “Engie, go fix up Silver NOW. We’ll hold these assholes up.”