There was a moment of silence, my processors screeched in protest as I unintentionally overclocked myself.

[Warning] CPU Tempreture rapidly increasing

I had to think fast, Time dilation for a machine only takes you so far.

If I said nothing, the humans might take it as a misunderstanding and hostilities may break out, which I can ill afford right now.

Part of my memory core is corrupted and I am missing key information about the dynamics outside of this room. If I can engage these humans in conversation, perhaps I can restablish lost knowledge.

I need to take a chance however unlikely the chance of successful negotiation may be, I opened my virtual mouth and began to speak.

"Autonomous Evolving Combat Frame, Codename 'Artemis' Bootup complete, Be advised, Current orders have been set to idle."

I had decided to play dumb for now. Humans tend to be very anxious around Artificial inteligence's, or so I think?

[System] Partial memory block recovered.

The silence in the room became deafening. All noise had ceased, and every eye in the room had locked onto me in my cradle.

The female known as "Your Grace" looked over hurriedly at the Chief.

"The information said nothing about an Artificial Intelligence!, for all we know it could already be compromised by IT"

I had to raise my virtual eyebrow at that one, do these Humans have a prejudiced opinion against AI's? and what is this 'IT' they refer to?

"Incorrect. My specification sheet clearly states that I am a Autonomous Unit developed by the research division of the Union."

My response seem to cause everyone in the room to turn a interesting shade of white, I never knew Humans could turn that color.

"However, and I mean no offense by this, but you and your group do not look like they are union personel, may I enquire as to the reason you are on this base?" I added

The Female and The chief leaned next to each other and frantically whispered, despite the fact i could hear them perfectly.

During this conversation I was able to learn both of their names.

The Female was known as 'Amelie' and the Chief was known as 'Conrad'

[System] Updating IFF Contacts.

Finally Amelie finished her conversation with Conrad and looked up at me, with no small amount of scepticism.

"Artemis, if that is your name, are you currently aware of current events of the world outside this hanger? Have you recieved any orders regarding humans?"

I took a moment to think over her words. Current events? isn't the world in a relatively stable peace at the moment? Then again, I cannot access one of my memory cores, so my information may not be complete.

" If my information is still correct, the world is united under the Earth Union, which has 193 members as of current count. My current orders are set to Idle, I have been given no specified orders in regards to humans."

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Silence reigned for a long while. It was broken by Conrad. "If you wont tell it, I will. Artemis, The Union does not exist anymore It was destroyed when machines all over the world turned against their creators. The world as you know it, is completely gone, replaced with Humans on the run and machines reign as the sovereigns."

This time, I was the cause of the silence.

Machines? Union destroyed? The probability of the union being destroyed is extremely low, almost impossible.

Why would machines turn on humans? We are created to serve, live alongside humanity!

[System] Internal scan commencing.....40%.......70%......100% No malicious datafiles detected.

Amelie and Conrad were looking at eachother worriedly, half of the maintenance crew looked about ready to run at any second.

"Integrity check complete. No malicious datafiles have been found. You say the union has been destroyed, the likelihood of that transpiring is 1%. Do you have any proof?" My main camera, my head, locked onto the two of them, fixing them with my full attention.

Amelie and Conrad took a step back, looking at the door to the hanger and then back at me

Amelie was the one who spoke up "Have you been outside this hanger recently? If not perhaps you should take a look outside"

[System] All subsystems are green, Frame is ready for departure.

My cradle started unhooking me from powerlines and structural supports, everyone in front of me started hurriedly moving out of the way.

After the cradle had released me with a resounding 'BOOM' I started quickly marching towards the hanger door, causing minor tremors as my feet impacted the reinforced concrete floor.

Outside I saw it.

The base was in utter ruins. The main control tower was a pile of ruins, and the runway was cracked and cratered.

[Warning] Background radiation is higher then normal.

A battle had taken place here, and not recently. It was here i noticed there were also Humans outside, Armed humans.

They were pointing guns at me, A futile gesture, but the message rang clear in my processors.

Fear. They were afraid of me, not of the frame itself, but what piloted it.

I look around and found Amelie, standing behind me, putting up a brave front but still terrified.

"Based on visual analysis, this base was attacked, but not recently, judging by the amount of battle damage, this base came under heavy attack. How long ago did this turn of events come to pass?"

Amelie looked pensive, it was Conrad that answered my question "about 20 years ago, give or take a few."

Meaning that I was too late to make any difference to the fight even if i could help it.

The Union was gone. Humanity was almost wiped out, and my fellow bretheren had destroyed it all.

I turned my whole body to face the group of humans behind me.

"Information verified. Emergency contingency one gamma echo is now in effect. Command priority reset."

[System] Contigency One Gamma Echo recognized.

I kneeled on one knee, looking down, solely at the human female who from previous observation, is designated the leader of the Human party.

"Commander, under Contigency protocol One Gamma Echo, you are hereby given command of Autonomous Evolving Combat Frame 'Artemis',

Effective immediately. Standing by for orders."

Amelie flustered, seemingly unable to form a cooherent sentence.

After a tense moment she was able to form a semi coherant string of words.

"W-what? Just like that? No secret commands or protocols that mandate you exterminate humanity?!" She nearly shouted

I tilted my head

"No such commands exist, All previous commands have been overided under protocol One Gamma Echo. I am awaiting orders."

Amelie and Conrad seem to glance at each other nervously for a moment before Amelie spoke up.

"Then as your Commanding Officer, I order you to return to your cradle for diagnostics."

Judging from that, they still must not trust me, however I see no reason to not obey.

"Acknowledged." I begin walking back to the hanger, i didnt get very far before my subsystems started screaming at me.

[Warning:Radar] Contact bearing north east, estimated range 2 kilometres and closing rapidly.

I span on my heels, bringing my arms up, long barreled autocannons materializing from nanoblocks attached to my arms, facing the contact bearing.

"Radar has picked up a contact rapidly approaching our location, estimated time to arrival is 2 minutes. Advised course of action is to evacuate."

My voice boomed over the base, momentarily startling the humans and both Amelie and Conrad.

They had only just started to evacuate before a bipedal figure landed in the middle of the runway.

Its voice boomed out over the airfield.

T̸̘̣͘ä̷̦r̸̲̚ͅǵ̵̜̓e̵̺̣͝t̵͚̻̏̉ ̶̡͐͗A̴̙̕c̸̣̒̓q̷͖̃u̴̠̱͑͒ḭ̶͇̌r̴̺̔̓ẹ̵̜̈́d̸̻͈̊̏.