Ria

I finished eating my katsu…whatever that Akari made for us which was pretty good even if it was printed. Well, semi-printed…regardless it was really good. I looked over at our new friend and sighed, she looked so alone sitting against the wall on her roller projector.

“Akari…you ok?” I asked, trying to find a neutral way to broach the subject.

Akari then looked up at me with the dead eyes of a salary burnout and I knew she was taking the situation hard…likely because its been given time to set in that she’s not where she’s supposed to be.

“...yes?” She replied, and it broke my heart to see her like that.

“You should probably get some sleep hun…you look exhausted.” I suggested trying to appeal to her human side.

“You’re right, I should…good night.” She moped before rolling out of the room with a forlorn sigh.

I looked at Xeriko and sighed looking at the closed door with a sort of longing.

“I hope she’s ok, I know her situation isn’t normal but she needs to be ok…her help in getting a foothold against the AIndroids has been invaluable, I know it sounds selfish but what can we really do since she holds her universe’s weapons.?” I said before slumping to the table while my teal hair went over my face.

“Malware will be fine, she’s probably just having an episode, its not exactly comforting knowing you’re practically the same as one of the things we’re fighting, especially if certain groups find out about us and our special equipment.” Xeriko explained with his trademark attitude.

“Still, it can’t be healthy for her, even if she’s basically an AI to all known paradigms, I’d even go so far as to say she still has a soul, and that soul is aching for help, what do you think that’s going to do to her mental state?” I snapped back, getting a little angry.

Xeriko raised his hands in surrender before going back to his dinner. I decided I was finished and left my dishes for the bus bots to clean up before I went to find Akari. I looked through the different rooms starting in the armory. I smiled as I entered the locker room of the armory and opened my locker to hold my perforator. A sleek teal barreled double barrel shotgun with a plasteel stock and phoam shock absorbing shoulder rest. Its familiar HUD readout popped into my mind. It truly was a fascinating weapon, and here I am holding something that shouldn’t even be in our universe. I chuckled at that fact before I loaded the drum with the shells that Akari printed for me.

“I’m glad she showed us how to do this, otherwise I probably would’ve hurt myself.” I mused as I finished loading the drum and tossed it back into the locker before placing the gun back on its frame.

I then walked to the foundry where I heard noises…of course she couldn’t get her mitts off of our molecular foundry…or deep fryer as she called it. Peaking my head in I saw her roller projector supervising the fabrication of another device. It was probably a gun of hers or something useful for the bunker. I cleared my throat and crossed my arms and she jumped before looking at me sheepishly.

“I don’t recall my suggestion included making a stop at the foundry young lady.” I said with a clipped tone, I tried nice so maybe she needed a harder tone to get my point.

“Sorry…just…had a bad feeling…so I’m making another gun…I also printed more ammunition for you and Xeriko.” She said making excuses for herself.

“I’ll supervise the foundry…go into standby.” I ordered before pointing out of the room.

“Yes ma’am…” Akari replied before rolling out of the room and started heading for the bedrooms.

Looking at the molecular deep fryer…gah! Now she had me doing it! I saw what she was fabricating rise out of the machine on a platform. I picked it up and examined it, it had a white chassis and a short barrel and the stock folded out so it could rest against the shoulder. The magazine was long and straight. Unhooking it from the receiver, I saw the bullets were smaller than Xeriko’s Ravager. They were 20 millimeters thinner in diameter, guess that was to allow the gun to fire more bullets instead of having a few more powerful shots you have a great many middling shots to damage crowds of enemies. It made sense from a design philosophy standpoint. The side of the gun had its name embossed on it.

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“AX-90 Sidewinder, interesting…” I mused as I read the name.

I shrugged and put it in the armory with my stuff just in case and I headed to bed myself. I took care of myself and fell into my sheets with a groan as I looked at the clock on the wall.

“Damn…it feels like its earlier than two AM.” I said before falling asleep.

Later on that day I’m jolted awake by my implant warning me of an emergency situation regarding a housing development and a robot invasion.

“Damn robots…can’t even get a day before they make a move.” I groaned as I got myself ready and Akari hopped into my vision.

“Morning, it seems we’ll be testing out your kit as a Medtech.” She observed seriously.

“Yes, let’s hope its useful.” I noted before suiting up and grabbing my pack, the extra drum mags, the sidewinder, and its magazines in its own pack.

“I hope its useful as well.” Akari stated before poofing into her high visibility gear.

“I’m sure it will be sweetie but we have to go.” I said before running out the door and hailing a taxi.

“I seriously need more materials to make a vehicle for the bunker.” Akari grumped.

“We’d have to be careful, unregistered veh-” I started

“Screw whatever law that is, this is a state of emergency!” She cut me off with a glare.

“Fine fine...whatever, just do not make it a hover vehicle, those are only for specially licensed personnel.” I explained.

“Yes ma’am.” Akari droned flatly.

Arriving at the housing complex, I saw a horde of robots rushing towards the building and the entrance was caved in. I also saw someone flying around firing a Lasmg into the robots ineffectually. After being under Akari’s umbrella of influence, seeing las fire was kind of jarring to me because we’ve been able to deal with the robots.

“Who’s the wings?” Akari asked as we were let out of the taxi and it raced off when I shut the door.

“A H.A.R.P.Y, Hyper Aerodynamic Response Personnel, Y squadron.” I explained.

“Well that’s a jank acronym that was clearly made backwards.” She snubbed with a huff.

“Hey, using Y in an acronym is hard, you try it.” I snubbed back.

“Irrelevant, let’s help the bird!” Akari shouted.

I nodded and we ran up to the area where she was and I started slamfiring my shotgun to try and clear a path to the Harpy because she definitely took notice of my actual progress hurting the robots.

“USE THIS!” I shouted before spinning around and hucking the sidewinder pack skyward and she took it before unzipping the pack and took out the gun. It clearly confused her for a moment because she looked at me like I was crazy. I just nodded at her and started making a path to the caved entrance of the building.

I then heard the gun firing behind me the harpy yelped before getting it back under control and she started peppering the robots with hot tungsteel bullets.

“We’ll definitely be seeing more of her.” Akari noted while I looked for an entry point.

“Agreed, can you help me out here sweetie?” I asked.

“Course, there’s a garage on the other side of the building, you can drill off the access door.” She noted before I started running back there.

Sure enough there was an access door on the garage side with a physical lock. I took out my drill and set it against the obstruction before boring through it in a flash and I wrenched open the door.

“Nice!” I grinned and put the drill back on my pack and I took out my shotgun and kept a hand on my hypo-gun before I opened the door into the common area and peeked inside. My heart sank as I saw people bleeding out and I saw more…workman type robots with modified hammers and blowtorches.

“Good thing they only have melee weapons and limited energy weapon access.” Akari noted before taking out her notepad and started scribbling down the robots’ descriptions.

“Take out the Hammerhead and the Welder on your right.” She gestured.

I nodded and sent two sprays of needles through the two bots and I grabbed my saw and cleaved through another welder that was looming over a scared child.

“Get into the garage!” I shouted while unloading another spray of needles at a plasma cutter robot.

I was glad Akari made this thing with limited spread otherwise this would’ve been very dangerous for the friendlies. I saw the able bodied ones fled into the garage behind me and I sweeped the area before I fired another shell into the last Hammerhead.

“Hang on sir, I’ll treat you!” I shouted before I pulled out the hypo-gun and injected staunching gel into his system to help stop the bleeding so the wound could heal and I sprayed some Quik-graft on him.

“Go!” I urged.

He limped to the garage and I patched up the rest of the injured so they could barricade the garage with the others. The Harpy then flew in and landed in front of me before crossing her arms while holding Akari’s gun and idly bounced it against her side.

“Explain.” She said simply.