Ria

“Its a weapon that is effective against robots.” I explained while trying not to be on the receiving end of the Harpy’s gun…that I gave her.

In hindsight that wasn’t exactly smart of me to do but we had people to save so I couldn’t really think about that.

“Don’t play stupid civilian, I know you know that, but we don’t have ranged weapons that work quite like this…sidewinder thing that suddenly is very effective against the robots.” She glared at me as her hand kept bouncing while holding the SMG.

“Ah well…” I started with sweat visibly dripping down my brow.

“I’ll generate a convenient excuse for us.” Akari stated in my head before poofing away.

I then heard something fall over in the kitchen and I booked it before the woman could continue interrogating me and Akari came back a second later.

“Turns out its easier to get things to break themselves when everything is connected to a network.” She chuckled.

“What’d you break?” I asked curious.

“I had a coffee maker mobile walk off the counter.” She laughed.

“You and coffee makers.” I commented while shaking my head at her antics.

We kept going upstairs until another common room came up and I saw a robot holding plasma asteroid mining equipment.

“Um…is that a…?” Akari asked.

“Yep…” I nodded, looking concerned.

“A plasma cutter…easily capable of splicing limbs off of people and bioengineered cult monsters.” Akari recanted with horror in her voice.

“Uhh…?” I asked confused.

“Story from my world, but enough about me, if this tool works on the same principles as the one from my story, it should have three guiding laser points and be able to rotate for horizontal and vertical…yep it does, bank left!” she explained before shouting.

The tool sounded off and I dove to the side before I became half a woman. Looking back I saw a line of superheated prefab where my neck used to be.

“We’re keeping that after we kill that thing, I’ll bet my bottom akari dollar that it’ll work fabulously for something.” Akari noted, grinning.

“Quest Received: Regain Isaac Clarke’s Plasma Cutter. Reward: 100 Akari Dollars and progress towards a new upgrade.”

“So this is what Xeri was talking about.” I chuckled as Akari grinned at me.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Right!” Akari shouted and I dove right before I was almost a bisected.

“It always amazes me how easy it is for something to be weaponized even if it wasn’t the intended purpose.” I observed before firing on the Asteroid Miner.

Some of the needles were deflected which was deeply concerning. Especially given our successes against the machines.

“Just keep firing, no doubt it has some extra armor layering because its an asteroid miner.” Akari explained. “Its gonna need a lot of protection from debris. Most likely it has a shield projector, use the buzzsaw.”

I grabbed my saw and rushed the asteroid miner before revving it up and started grinding through its torso. Seems the shield projector isn’t designed for sustained damage and it shorted instantly after a few seconds of my buzzsaw. It fell apart and I grabbed the Plasma Cutter as Akari put it before bagging it.

“On its back there is the shield projector.” Akari noted as an arrow highlighted its back.

Sure enough on the back of the robot was an external shield generator.

“No wonder why the shield was crap, its bargaintech.” I observed feeling like I just got given a pile of scrap.

“Wow, this guy got shivved, but enough about that, for right now its better than you getting shot in the face, we can make fun of them later.”

When I picked it up a jingle went through my head.

“Bargaintech: You tried the best, now try the rest!”

“I’d believe that over their actual slogan.” I laughed as Akari giggled.

I then put the projector on my back and it hermetically sealed itself to my armor before it warbled to life I could feel the thrum of the shield coating me.

“Now that you have some extra protection…regardless of the quality, you should be able to keep going.” Akari urged as I kept up clearing the housing development of robots and tended to the wounded.

“I’m running out of staunching compounds…” I observed as I loaded my last hypo.

“We’re almost done Ria, just keep going.” Akari said, trying to cheer me up.

Running up the last couple flights of stairs had me staring down the barrel of the Sidewinder as the Harpy glared at us behind the trigger.

“You’ve had your fun now its time to explain, or do we have to take you down to the precinct?” She asked while blocking off my ascension.

“I think we can’t really avoid the issue anymore…” Akari commented in my head.

I nodded slowly before opening my mouth to speak but the comm unit of the Harpy went off. She glared at me harder before speaking between rings.

“This can go one of two ways, Teal.” she began. “And one of them isn’t pretty so you better give me an answer.”

“We have a source of out of system blueprints that are effective, like the Sidewinder, and my own gun…” I explained glossing over as much as I could without it being lying.

She answered her comm unit and started speaking into it. “The situation was neutralized, a few gracious collaborators were able to assist in the clean-up of the Residential District…they were brave enough to use melee weapons.”

She then gave me a pointed look that basically said “You owe me big time” and I just nodded before clapping my hands and bowing to her generosity. She hung up after the call was over and walked upstairs with me to clear out the rest of the robots which was a lot easier with her and the sidewinder.

“I have to give whoever you got these from credit, they really have made something truly effective against the machines.” The Harpy commented with a reserved smile.

“She’s here if you want to talk to her.” I commented biting the bullet as Akari put it.

“Hello.” I heard from the Harpy’s speakers.

“Gah!” She screamed as Akari introduced herself.

“Don’t delete me, I'm not an AI!” She shouted in pain.

Seri the Harpy had to be talked down from shredding Akari and then she gave us both a lecture on tapping an official’s hardware.

“So, what’s her story?” Seri said coldly while Akari was regrowing her shell.

“She’s been helping us take out robots and has also been fabricating weapons and modifications for our gear so we can continue to have an impact against the machine threats.” I explained.

“I’m from the Sol System and I got digitized here so I could help.” Akari butted in.

“Never heard of it…though then again its not out of the realm of possibility it exists because I’ve never seen weapons like these.” Seri commented looking at the Sidewinder.

“If you could keep my existence on the down low that would be lovely because I seriously doubt my existence is as guaranteed as I’d like it to be.” Akari pleaded from Seri’s speakers.

Seri took a deep breath before nodding her head. “I understand…since you have made strides and successful pushes against the machines I’ll accept you as an occupational necessity.”

“Thank you…” Akari almost moaned in relief.

“Why do you think your life is at risk beyond the obvious?” Seri asked Akari.

“Reida’s Auto-body…its the next AI that’s going to go rogue.” Akari explained.

Seri got pale as she heard Akari’s warning and I could only agree even after already hearing about the Queen’s dying words.

“Well…guess we need to head to your bunker and prepare for the Auto-body shop.” Seri announced resolutely.

Akari played a jingle before a pop-up appeared in my vision “Seri the Overly Serious Harpy has joined the party!”

“What the-” Seri asked before I cut her off. “Just let it go, its the charm of working with the only Digital Human Soul.”

Seri looked at me confused before she shrugged and reloaded the Sidewinder. I smiled as I walked out with our new inroad with the Police Force.