Multiple folders appeared on the monitor all labeled according to the encrypted information within them.
Screeching out of the speakers came the angry and distorted voice of a woman, "You bastard! I lost all my connections to the cauldron and a big part of my information was lost in those flames!"
Turning down the sound dial on the speakers, Matt coldly stared at the progressively forming face of a woman on the monitor.
Only its defining features were represented by symbols like points, dashes and math symbols.
Once the whole face was constructed, Matt was quite shocked to find that it was very similar to Astrid's with dark circles under her eyes and a few wrinkles making her look like an older version of Astrid.
It didn't take him long to calm down as he had been told about everything and knew that they were somehow related.
"First off, shut up, I'm the one that will do the talking, you just have to answer my questions. Second, I did as promised, you are still alive. I don't give a shit about what you have lost and what you couldn't do."
Matt was completely calm as he talked but behind that cold speech was a dam of anger and hate ready to burst.
"Why would I-"
"As I said before, SHUT THE HELL UP! First question you whore, why did you attack us?"
"You can't do anything to me anyways even if I don't want to answer, you promised to keep me alive." The face seemed smug.
"Aww, we made a pinky promise… how trustworthy. There are two things you forget here, one, you made that promise with Astrid and two, I CAN DO MUCH WORSE THAN KILL YOU." His ridiculing voice quickly became an angry one
"Eek! Wait, I got it. I attacked because my master ordered me to."
"And ?"
"And… to take revenge again my sister…"
"So you are a bitch that tried to kill thousands of innocents just because you wanted to kill one of them.
Next question, who is that master of yours? If he ordered you to destroy us he could ask the same of someone else."
"I-I can't."
"Then be ready to have your hard-drive get deep-fried."
"W-wait, wait ! I can't because talking about him would activate a self destruct program he hid inside my code… I can't do anything about it."
"Hm, then what can you tell me about him without it killing you? And while you're at it, tell me, why do you have a human sister if you are a machine?"
"I'm human you moron… well, I used to be. I worked at Scru enterprises as an engineer before being transferred into a special program where I met him… my teacher.
We… worked on a technology that would let us transfer our consciousness into computers… since we wouldn't be able to live much longer because of the cancer pandemic.
Then the robot plague broke out and we knew it was the end. So a few of us… downloaded ourselves into the prototype machine, and here I am , after waking up a few hundred years ago barely capable of thought and having to build myself up again.
Only for you to destroy a big chunk of my being and knowledge… "
"So, if I got this right you worked at Scru while your sister, Astrid's ancestor, was who exactly?"
"Well… first of… both of you aren't really descendants… you're just physical clones they wanted to inject their consciousness into… I lost to a fucking copy…
As for my bitch sister… She was a general in the army, she rose through the ranks within a few short years while I only progressed from a common engineer to a special unit engineer…
She's also the one that held the front against the robot plague in exchange for receiving a mutation transplant from the institute and having a chance to join your little Valhalla ark. "
"Who am I? Or who I used to be?"
"How the hell would I know? As I said before you basically cut me in half. I was only able to download my core memories along with my soul by using all my computing power to achieve it fast enough.
And even then, why the hell would I know a brat like you? "
"Then, do you know Matthew Ward?"
The face on the screen opened its fake eyes wide open and stared at him with a shocked face. Basically recreating the emoji.
"You're that bastard!? Wait no! I know nothing."
"So I'm part of your core memories huh? Doesn't matter, I just wanted to know on which side of all this 'he' stood…
Last question, or rather demand, tell me every damn thing about what you did to Astrid." His voice left to understand that there would be no place for any missing details.
"Oh right… Hhe, she will die in a few weeks. And if-"
"You are lying and don't even try to bluff using her life because this is my most important question and I'd do anything to make you pay."
"Ah… well you got me… So even a curious guy as truth and knowledge driven as you prefers my dead sister over his one true goal? That bitch really got everything she ever wanted. Are you sure you don't want to know more about the past?"
"Right now I don't give a damn about the truth. Now tell me."
"tch. I didn't completely lie when I said she would die in a few weeks. I replaced her entire blood and blood related organs with nanites that I made when I was still working as an engineer.
Basically it acts like a super soldier serum that increases the strength, resistance and healing of the subject but the nanites don't work perfectly… They need a big amount of resources to keep working and iron seems to be the best for them, which is why your girlfriend will die if she doesn't eat raw iron or iron products every few weeks.
There might be other things but I'm not so sure since she is my first human subject. "
"If it's so good, why was Astrid the first human?" Matt got suspicious
" Well… All my previous test subjects either killed themselves by refusing to eat iron or blew up like a balloon for an unknown reason… that's why I was never allowed to do human testing…
and I expected the same to happen to her…" The more she talked, the more she felt like Matt's furious eyes would poke holes in her soul and shred her to pieces.
"So you tried to kill her…" He went from an angry scowl to a cold smiling face, "You didn't tell me everything about these nanites, can you control them?"
"Please don't kill me! I-I don't control them anymore and neither can I control the cauldron or its robots! The emitter was burned down along with the rest of my computer."
"And would you be able to again?"
"Ye- No! N-no! I mean, yes, in theory I could if I either accessed the cauldrons reserve emitter or manually implanted an AI to control her nanites…b-but I'm stuck in here so I'm not a threat r-right?"
Matt walked closer to the computer with a broad smile on his face.
"Well it's time we recycle a gutless piece of trash to become something useful."
"Wait! What do you mean by that? I did all you asked! You promised!"
'Aiden, activate minor data control.'
[A big part of the data will be damaged along with its current storage space, proceed?]
'Yes, try to focus the damage to the data on the memory folder and then actively get rid of any sentience.'
[Transferring the data…]
The face started to disappear from the monitor as it once again shrieked in horror.
"What are you doing?! We had a deal! I curse you! I'll corrupt that fucking AI within you!"
1327 words
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Surprise, surprise ! Here's the bonus chapter :p
I only just noticed that I am still using the Faro entreprise as the tech company so I'll do a little sweep around my novel to change it to something with a little less ©.
If you have any suggestions please tell me in the comments ! I'm always happy to read what you have to say.
Edit : While I liked the idea of Sustech and Imposter, I went ahead and took a more "serious" name, Scru. Because they Screw over the humans, assemble machines with screws and because Gru.