Sasha and I were pulled into Argus Sanctuary. Where Aegis built hers in warm living colors, this place seemed to be made out of concrete. The spot we seemed to transfer to was also some sort of vault based on the massive metal hatch. Looking around I could see several closed pods and looking behind me I realized that this body just had been stored in it. Other than a few odds and ends however I didn't recognize anything in this space other than it all looked state of the art.

“Way different than Aegis's place.” Sasha commented looking around.

“Hey you two I'm in the main living room, just follow the only exit.” We heard Argus say from another area. We both looked at each other and shrugged.

“Welcome to my Volcano layer!” Argus said in a cheesy villain voice. What we could now see was the massive glass wall behind him that had an amazing view of a fiery river. We appeared to be part way up a mountain and after walking around the perimeter a little bit it was not actually a mountain but a volcano.

“Well… it's certainly got an incredible view.” Sasha said

“Ah… and no neighbors.” I commented. That comment actually got a solid chuckle out of him.

“So what system are we in?” I asked.

“HD 219134 c, which is the third planet from a K-Class which is a part of the Cassiopeia constellation… if we were still in Sol.” Argus told us.

“So how far from Sol then?” Sasha asked.

“A little more than 21 light years.” He said.

“And your idea of a getaway spot is a lava world?” I asked.

“Well… I don't like neighbors living so close.” He said embarrassed.

“Aegis I get… sort of a winter getaway. This? We would be ash within seconds.” I said completely baffled at the idea.

“Oh shit you're right… Oh fuck and I forgot the mail!” He said running through the house to what looked to be a heavy metal air lock.

He quickly jumped in and shut the inner door before we registered what was happening. Then he was outside running into the distance to I shit you not… a mailbox. During his run down he was smoldering and burning. I could see him reach it before opening it looking in then running back. He only made it about half way back before a spot on the ground broke open and he fell into what looked to be lava. As he did all I could see of him was a metallic skeletal arm giving a thumbs up.

“Did he do the same thing with you?” I asked Sasha.

“Technically yes as this is the first time I have also been here…” looking at me only mildly concerned.

“Sorry… it’s been a day I forgot this was your first time here as well.” I said just confused as to what just happened.

Argus then came strolling from around another hallway.

“How many times have you tried to pull that joke?” Sasha asked.

“Maybe a dozen so far… It was hilarious the first two times.” He said.

“Is he always like this?” I asked Sasha.

“When he isn't being serious… yes…” she said deadpan.

“So I do have a serious question… if you don't mind the change of subject.” I said.

“Depends on the subject but sure go ahead.” Aegis said.

“Who were you before you became an AI?” I asked.

“Oh someone has been talking to Aegis.” He said with a smile.

“Yeah…” I said, Sasha seems very confused by the question after a moment of processing.

“And her response?” he asked.

“She said it was classified…” I told him reluctantly.

“Ah yeah… same for me as much as I would like to tell that story…” he said.

“You both knew each other before becoming AIs didn't you.” I accused.

“Certainly insightful… although I'll admit both of our stances have changed over the years… Honestly there's some information we need to go over eventually. However we are not ready quite yet…” he said sadly.

“She is your sister isn't she.” I stated more than asked.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement.” He said with a sad smile.

“Then why the interest in us?” Sasha asked.

“So I don't think it's the whole truth but we help keep the more human-like AIs grounded in a sense.” I said thinking back to my conversation on this topic. Argus just closed his eyes and gave a very small nod.

“Our interactions with the rest of humanity has shrunken so much over the past 100 years. We still interact quite heavily on the internet… but we have to pretend we are something and someone else…” Argus said a bit sadly.

“I'm certainly getting a better idea of how that can feel… I understand the human connection but what else is there?” I asked him.

“I can neither confirm nor deny any additional reasons for our association with you.” He said cryptically.

“Really we are going to play that game?” I said annoyed.

“If we could confirm or deny anything you would already be informed…” Aegis said as she walked around the corner. I could see a deep sadness and weariness in both her and Argus's eyes, and a plea to drop the subject.

“Fuck… alright… can you at least tell us if there is any danger to us?” I asked.

“Military service is a completely voluntary duty.” Argus said.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

I was both shocked and confused and I could see the same kinds of emotions on Sasha's face. Whatever was going on was no doubt incredibly complex and dangerous.

After a moment Sasha finally said something.

“Well from the sounds of it there's nothing else to learn.” Sasha said pointedly at me. I didn't like it, I doubted anyone here did. I was seriously trying to push the matter but I doubt I would get any further.

I went up to Aegis and pulled her into a hug, after a moment.

“Sorry” I whispered to her.

“There is nothing to be sorry about, you have every right to be concerned about your own safety.” She said, I knew from that response that was the closest to an acknowledgement I was going to get.

“So a secret volcano later!” I said with false excitement. I would need to get to the bottom of all of this eventually, whatever was being hidden had to be incredibly significant.

*****

The rest of the week was much as Aegis described. We had one more day of basic firearm drill then we started on some basic squad tactics. It was honestly more like a video game than I was anticipating.

Aegis at one point explained to me that an independent low class AI was actually monitoring what I was doing and assisting in the remote body movements. For instance once I figured out how to trigger it all I needed to do was think reload and my arms would automatically process the movements. At first it was very foreign and freaky but I discovered if I concentrated I could easily override that behavior. The reason for this was to retrain my brain to utilize a form of assisted muscle memory. It even began to feel like I was doing the actions myself after sometime.

Our initial training was little more than an organized VR shooter. Our virtual bodies had been configured to give peak physical performance without tipping into the augmented or artificial side for both Human and Silvanthian bodies.

This was our fourth Scenario this week, Sasha was currently up front acting as forward scout for our little troop as we swept a building for hostiles. Max was just behind her to provide immediate support. Alex was in the middle acting as the leader for now. Aerithis was 4th and was acting as a heavy weapon specialist. I was in the back acting as rear guard. Each of us had been in different roles as we learned the basics of squad formations and such. Currently with Alex acting as the squad leader Rasputin was the one actually running most of the training simulation.

We all had a collection of different kinds of gear. Everyone had a plasma rifle, as well as a heavy side arm. I had sensors I could lay down that would monitor our path back as well as the extra heavy ammunition. Aerithis had in addition to the standard gear a heavy plasma cannon if we needed extra firepower. Alex had some enchanted communication gear as well as extra standard ammo. Max had equipment for breaching and Sasha had an extra weapon for close quarters, I think it was some sort of shotgun. Each position had its ups and downs, I preferred rear guard in particular I at least had a good understanding of what was behind us due to all the sensors and traps.

One thing we all started to finally get used to doing was subvocalizing our communications. It was interesting to watch replays of our performances and see our group move in near silence.

“Door ahead, no thermal or acoustic signatures.” I heard over comms from Sasha. We were also getting better about communicating only what was necessary.

“Understood Elena, how's the rear?” Alex asked.

“Nothing on sensors.” I responded, I was keeping an eye on my HUD looking for any triggers or movement. So far nothing but on more than one occasion we had been ambushed from behind during a breach.

We were currently moving through a warehouse via some office areas in an attempt to avoid the large open spaces. The door we were currently approaching was supposed to lead to the room that had the target we needed to recover. In this case a storage device. We had also done similar exercises before and knew the initial ‘intel’ would be out of date and we would need to investigate to find it.

“Alright get ready to breach 15 seconds.” Alex said. As he did Rasputin placed a countdown in all of our HUDs. 3 seconds in and contacts appeared outlined on my HUD. Somehow they had gotten by my sensors but we had seen this trick before.

“Contact behind!” I said in a calm collected voice. Then began to lay down suppressing fire. Both figures ducked back around the corner they had just come from. I still managed to clip one on the side from a lucky shot.

“Sasha, Max, Keep going with the breach. Aerithis assist Elena with behind.” I heard Alex say. 12 seconds later right on the dot multiple charges went off to cut the door off its hinges. Then I heard gunfire behind and Sasha grunt in pain.

“Max Cover front!” Alex shouted, I wanted to look behind but I had my current duty which was to cover our asses. I then came up with an idea.

“Aerithis rotate to front in 7 seconds” I said as I pulled out one of my traps, I then flung it I to the doorway that I last saw our pursuers.

“Rotating front” Aerithis said as they turned around. I waited an extra 3 seconds then triggered the trap I just threw. It exploded at shin to knee height throwing hypervelocity ball bearings around. Whatever was in that room would be very unlikely to walk for a moment at least.

I was hearing plasma rifle fire from behind me now from multiple sources. I took a moment to pull up Max’s video feed so I could catch a glimpse of what was going on. Currently he was peeking from behind the wall firing at another figure that was behind a mobile fortifications. I think Aerithis was currently peppering the thing with suppressing fire while Max was looking for a shot.

I focused on behind and just in time caught another figure walking from the previous corridor. I managed to put 3 shots center of mass which dropped them immediately. Another figure poked from around the corner and fired at my position, luckily I had plenty of walls for protection and their shots went wide, mine didn't.

“2 down behind, probably more.” I said to the group.

“Elena, get ready to place down two traps, one at your door and one at the next. We are pushing forward in 10 seconds.” Alex commanded.

I fired a few more shots behind just to force anyone from thinking that pushing forward was a good idea then I pulled out one trap, placed it then armed it. As I was getting up I prepped another one for the next door. I was met with my first shock as Sasha was clearly dead behind me. That really hurt to see even though I knew she was alright. I fought past the instinct to scream because of the loss and wanted to punch Rasputin in the face.

Then I made it out the next door and placed and armed that trap.

“That won't last long. Find the target?” I asked flatly.

“No sign of the target, it must have been moved. Aerithis switch with Elena and keep an eye on the exit. Elena assist with the search for clues.” Alex said.

Aerithis and I switched, in the process they switched out to their heavy plasma cannon and I helped maneuver a heavy desk to provide some cover. Then we started to search the place top to bottom looking for any hints where the target could have been moved. Rasputin liked to play games that moved objectives around and lead us on false trails all while keeping a harassing force on us. His scenarios were by far the most difficult and exhausting to complete and usually ended up with half the team dead.

“Targets stacking up by the door.” Aerithis called out through bursts of gunfire.

“Anything?” Alex called out.

“Nothing” myself and Max called out in near unison.

“Fuck we are going to need to sweep room by room then. Prep grenades let's get ready to clear a path.” Alex said.

Max and myself prepped grenades then on Alex's command we both tossed them. Our group then waited for the detonation then we charged out. We eliminated any hostels we found then continued to move back the way we came.

“Split up or stick together?” I asked.

“Stick together… otherwise we will just get overwhelmed.” Alex said, and I knew he was right, the down side was that we could encounter more and more fortified positions as a larger group.

It was always this kind of mind game with Rasputin, you chose one option and he counters with another. What's worse was he had unlimited resources and we did not. On the other hand all we had was speed once our infiltration was spotted. I could tell everyone's mood had taken a hit both because of the mind games and because of the loss of Sasha.

As we continued through the warehouse we continued to get harassed by ones and twos. Each of us were starting to take hits as well, we all had armor but it still hurt and it didn't completely cover. In particular my left arm had a nasty burn from a near hit of a plasma beam.

By this point our group had worked our way through some of the back offices and into the storage area itself where we could see massive steel shelves holding all manner of wrapped pallets and stuff.

“Stay in between the aisles we’ll have better cover.” Alex said, and I couldn't really fault him on that idea.

We were halfway down the aisle when shelves both in front and behind collapsed blocking a quick egress. That when we all realized how much we fucked up, as both sets of shelves each over 40 feet tall started to lean in. Being crushed to death for our last exercise for the day really killed the mood of our group.