Fingers tightened as my dark gray metallic fist rose, stifling the subtle chatter. A brisk wind prickled the dark green leaves. Nothing, not even a barn owl blinked in our direction as we hid in the woods under a starry night sky. Goosebumps ran up my arms as I shifted my muscles in my thick tactical gray armor. Despite weighing 140 kg, it felt as light as a feather thanks to the thin, but unimaginably strong servos running through its exoskeleton. Blue and white words flashed before me as I peeked at the holographic projections running along the side of my dark visor.
11:55 pm.
Midnight was upon us. But that was always odd. Why was it always near midnight?
My foot shifted as I glanced at the sleek platinum laser rifle in my arms. It pulsed an eerie blue light and reflected off the armor of the unmoving 180 cm tall commandos of the Night Legion behind me. Who was the Night legion was beyond me; I already asked that bloody question to these numbskulls but all they do is talk about the new strategies "upper command" is implementing.
But that's just it. We don't have an upper command.
We just had this random line of blue text that appeared on our screens followed by the spookiest robotic voice that gave us our main task.
Like if that was easy.
My thoughts ran for a bit as I remembered how it was when I first came into existence.
In the beginning, we only responded to our unit's corporal who carried a silver crescent moon insignia on her chest. With a clunky twist, she turned her straight back against us, facing the source of the blue light rays that broke through the canopies and leaves before us. I was confused at first, just staring wide eyed at every little speck and even turning over the platinum rifle in my hands several times before pulling a little spring loaded trigger near the base of the powercell.
ZIINNNG
Jerking, I fell into the large arms of the commando behind me. A sharp chill ran down my arms as I stared wide eyed at the smoldering hole in the helmet of the commando next to me. Before I could even gasp for another breath, he dissipated into white particles that were carried off by the icy wind.
"Eeeeee?"
Dear god, I shook my head at the memory. I didn't even know what the hell just happened, much less how to speak. I had just come into existence and all I knew was how to breathe. Sighing, memories kept flooding back as to how I was forced to enter the heart of the forest into the dreaded battlefield. Never in my life had I seen so many blue and red lasers zipping over my head, so many white pixels flying through the air, and the large glowing blue wall in front of me.
I later came to know this was called a "forcefield" and, inside of it, sat that freakishly armed fortress that shone as bright as day with its bright white walls. Yet, I didn't even get a second to admire it before small crevices opened and spat out literal death with frantic railgun and gatling gun volleys.
And then there were the droids.
My skin crawled just at the sight of them. Standing 2 meters tall, these white shining skinny robots with one camera lodged in their heads feared nothing, not even death, as they engaged thousands of Night Legion commandos left and right. But that's not even the worst of it, no matter if the Night Legion also brought some four meter tall tanks, the dreaded maroon cannoneer droids stood firm at five meters tall while firing their dreaded 100 mm ballistic cannons. Many more dreaded and messed up machinery joined their ranks, but at least they were stupid enough to actually walk into the firing path of the main rail guns and gattling guns that somehow punched their volleys through the glowing forcefield surrounding the fortress.
So when I stood there gaping at all of this for the first time, I did what any reasonable recently born non-speaking individual would do.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"
And then I was zapped.
And then I was mauled.
And then I exploded.
After some unprecedented amount of life inducing pain and suffering, I began to question my existence.
And then I was obliterated.
Without a single second of respite, I churned my frantic fear of being torn into a million flimsy pixels into a maniacal desire to end every - single - damn - droid.
"AAAAAA!" I screamed, begging for mercy, begging for an end!
I never shot so many lasers in my life.
I never saw so many pixels before my eyes.
But I had to
But I needed to
But I wanted to
Destroy these relentless cold blooded machines!
Steading my arms, I sluggishly steadied my arms, improving my luck at scorching the metallic insides of every bot that ran into my sights. I fired petite laser after petite laser into the approaching cannoneers, but their thick hides refused to buckle under the constant onslaught. In a fit of rage, my hands danced across the dial on my rifle, forcing it to glow steaming hot in my arms as it went critical. With one pull of the trigger, a brilliant dash of light flooded my vision, causing me to dive behind an overturned log. When my eye sight finally returned, my brain could hardly process the shock. The monstrous giant stood still on its bulky four legs with a scorching hole barreling right through where the camera used to be in its skull.
With a large thunder, the ground quaked as I my paralized form finally had its shoulders slightly drop. My heart rate gingerly calmed down as I gazed down at the hizzing riffle in my hands and then at the brilliant firefights going on around me. A sense of peace enveloped my being as I felt the hardy earth beneath my feetā¦ I felt the crippled machine before me.
I feltā¦ mighty.
From that day onward, my cynical perspective shifted.
I built strategies.
I tamed more metallic beasts.
But still was not enough.
The blue text kept flashing on my screen at the beginning of every battle.
And I now believed that there was hope.
Nevertheless, the darn corporal that lead my unit wouldn't let us out of her sight. Red words would flash on my screen everytime I disobeyed a direct order.
"Don't push!" she would holler, to which I just ignored her.
"AAAA!" I screamed, but it was too late.
A cannoneer's foot squished me into paste.
Grumbling incoherent sounds, I stomped the ground the next time I re-spawned. I wanted to argue with how cautiously and dumbly my corporal ran us into the vowels of no-man's-land over and over again, but I couldn't speak. I never knew how to.
So I listened.
So I learned.
"Ztuup"
"Soop"
"Stop"
Gibberish, various sounds ran off my tongue as I lost count, as I lost track of how many times I was blasted into a million pixels by enemy fire due to my corporal's 'brilliant' leadership.
All that mattered to me now was learning words, learning commands, learning sentences.
"Luzen oo ee"
"Listen to me!"
Blue laser after blue laser, white droids would cripple, white droids would fall to my platinum laser rifle. But I still wasn't good enough. I couldn't prevent my idiot compatriots from running headlong into battle despite the glowing enormous rail guns that barred their teeth. That's until I noticed how all my fellow compatriots glanced at my unit corporal's silver crescent moon insignia whenever she gave an order.
And that's when I had a brilliant idea.
Mid-way towards assaulting the mighty fortress before us for the umpteenth time, an unyielding line of rail gun fire blasted dirt before us, ripping through half my unit in less than a second. Heart palpitating, hands sweating, I dived onto the dissipating corpse of my corporal, ripping off her prized silver crescent moon insignia before she was dusted out of existence.
<*@(# %/ ACCEPT?>
Furrowing my brow, another torrent of dirt flew over my head, forcing me to rapidly click "ACCEPT" until - darkness, ephemeral darkness descended.
The next time we came to, I still had the silver crescent moon insignia.
My breathing ceased as I poked at the crescent moon and admired how it reflected my laser rifle's humming blue light. Stomping my dark gray metal boot, I walked through the forest's shrubbery to the front of the unit of 16 soldiers. Their voices and whispers bounced off each other as they shared information about the last battle.
I blinked.
When did they become this smart?
Last I remember they couldn't even finish a sentence, but then againā¦
My thoughts wandered as I remembered that they too had begun to speak words as I spoke them, yet that's it. They lackedā¦ they lacked that special..
My fingers flew in the air as I grasped for the right feeling, yes feeling! It's as if they don't care! It's as if they don't actuallyā¦ think.
I glanced down at the crescent moon on my chest and back at them again as a slow wave of ice ran down my skin.
Maybe only I can think.
Maybe only I can be.
Shaking my head, I gritted my teeth as my eyes narrowed.
Don't think of that now.
"We are assaulting after the first round of artillery fire," I shouted, stomping my boot on the earthy forest floor. Everyone's eyes immediately faced me as a palpable silence descended over the unit. Smirking, I twisted on my heel and waited for our forces to punch forward. It was better than the former corporal's command of "storming the castle".
What are we? Meatshields?
I snorted, causing those in the front line to tilt their heads before rigidly staring ahead again. It was as if under all that servo-enhanced exoskeleton armor was a cold blooded killing machine.
But that was just it.
Besides exchanging battle results, they felt as dead as those damn droids we fought.
And I used to be one of them.
I sighed as I stopped reminiscing and, after the first rumble of explosions on the fortress' forcefield, we plowed forward.
Time flew. Battles raged.
My mind grew clearer.
My tactics grew sharper.
With every new life, my unit plowed forward until we finally crossed no-man's-land.
We finally set foot on the dreaded gray battlements of this god-forsaken fortress.
* * *
"#203, launch the EMPs."
Small white cylinders flew over the battlements in quick session, whizzing past white stick figure like droids on gatling guns. With subtle clinking, the cylinders landed, yet not a single droid turned to gaze down at the random objects. They hadn't been ordered to watch out for friendly fire, especially from their own armaments.
ZZZZZZAAAA
Rapid lightning bolts coursed over their unblemished frames, frying their internal core processing units. Multiple black grappling hooks flew over the battlements in rapid succession, falling and scraping against all the gatling guns, dissipating droid skeletons, and any equipment idly thrown about. All the cables grew taunt before several dark gray metal clad soldiers rushed over the wall in unison, stumbling as they vaulted over the last hurdle onto the fortress' outer walls. It was their first time performing this maneuver and it was a miracle that all 16 of them had even made it this far.
Not letting time go to waste, the first few soldiers secured the perimeter, firing at the straggling droids who were closing in on both sides. Once everyone steadied themselves, the lead scout's scratchy voice rang over the short ranged coms, "Mam, the closest entry point is 100 meters left."
A video whizzed up on my display depicting two large lumbering doors that gave way to two maroon cannoneers and several more unblemished droids.
Cursing, my rifle hummed as I pumped a full powerclip into it, energizing the plasma inside of it until an unrelenting concentrated ray of light melted a hole through a camera embedded in the cannoneer's wickedly armored skull.
"#201, overcharge the other cannoneer! #203, where are my EMPs?!" I hollered as I ripped the spent powercell off the red hot laser rifle. Not needing to be asked twice, a sweet sound of energized plasma pummeled one of the cannoneer's legs, sending it screeching against the hard plastic flooring while smashing its white flimsy droid compatriots in the process. White EMP cylinders quickly followed, stunning all the approaching droids with brilliant blue arcs of electricity.
"CHARGE!"
Boots stomping, floor shuttering, our dark gray bodies nimbly jumped over the dissipating bodies of the unfortunate droids. However, a deep siren wailed as the injured and massive beast of a cannoneer screeched to face us.
Ticking my tongue, I swung my rifle over my shoulder and snagged a short metallic cylinder from my waist. A crimson rod of light sparked out of my stick as I sprinted, vaulted over the struggling giant, grasped a menacing 100 mm canon, and sunk my light dagger deep into its protruding skull camera. The siren rapidly died, forcing me to jump off the beast and land with a clunk beside it. Getting up into a kneeling position, the machine slowly dissipated into bright white pixels behind my dark black tactical armor.
With a flick of my wrist, the crimson light was snuffed out as I stuffed the unassuming metal cylinder back into my belt before grasping my saving grace, my smoldering hot rifle, in my soot covered armored hands.
"Follow me."
Grunting, everyone ran head-long into the brightly lit hallways, firing bright blue lasers every time a darn droid was spotted. What were we looking for?
As if on cue, bright blue words flashed across my visor.
"For Pete's sake," I scoffed.
Can't the darn system just be glad I made it to this dump? Isn't this what we have been fighting for this whole time? I closed my eyes, and centered my mind.
Breathe. Keep pressing forward.
Pausing at another corner, I held up a fist.
Shit.
Before me stood line upon line of glistening droids hung from ceiling racks while maroon cannoneers dormantly rested on their four legged haunches in cubicles by the sides of the armory.
Well, that was oddly convenient.
My lips pressed into thin white lines as I fought the urge to give #204 the all clear.
#204 carried my jury rigged power cells. Sure, it wasn't the best idea to turn the only allies I had into walking suicide bombers, but what choice did I have?
They aren't "alive" anyway.