Aurelia woke up with a slight headache and aching body. There seemed to be no one around her and the sun was high in the sky. She sat up in her new bed and looked at the warehouse from there. Some of the younger ones played with a ball, while many others sat together and sorted scrap, possibly one of the group's sources of income. With a deep moan, she straightened up and stretched to loosen her muscles. "YOO SLEEPING BEAUTY IS AWAKE!" roared a good-humoured voice. Aurelia flinched at the loud noise and looked over at Anarchy Mary. "Hi." she replied simply in a perfect antonym to Mary's good mood. Slowly she made her way across the hall until she arrived at Mary, who was leaning against Sarvoz's wheelchair and seemed to be looking for something on the desk in front of him. Without turning around, she asked Aurelia: "And how are you? You slept for a good while. Looked like you had marched through hell this morning." She pushed herself away from the wheelchair and turned to Aurelia and continued: "What exactly did you do? Oh wow, you still look pretty exhausted." It took Aurelia a moment to process the whirlwind that Mary was. Then she looked down at the crippled Sarvoz: "Hi, can you get your girlfriend under control, she's like she's on Smash" From Sarvoz came a soft laugh and from Mary an exaggeratedly indignant "Heyy" Aurelia smiled and turned her to the cyberpunk she had recorded. "I'm already feeling much better and yes, in a way I'm going to hell and back. But you'll never have problems with the Playaz boys again." Mary seemed surprised: "What do you mean? Did you take care of them or negotiate peace?" Aurelia asked Raya to send some snapshots from yesterday's action to Mary and Sarvoz. She felt the CPU in her cyber eye warm up briefly and then it was sent. Both seemed impressed, but it seemed more like they were careful not to make Aurelia their enemy. To calm them down, she said, "Don't worry, I'm only going to take action against people who deserve it. I destroyed a huge pile of drugs that the bastards wanted to sell to the underprivileged population." "Um, tell me," Sarvoz reported, "what exactly are you? The AI in your head and the fact that you've single-handedly destroyed a gang are evidence that you're no ordinary person. Are nuns secretly super warriors who protect the world with words and love, but can also take up arms in an emergency?" The expectation in his eyes was unmistakable. Aurelia put a hand on his shoulder and said, "In fact, all the nuns and priests in the church where I come from were warriors. But all of them were ordinary people. I just have really good equipment thanks to Raya." The disappointment at Aurelia's normality seemed to be offset by the joy of War Saints, as Sarvoz leaned contentedly in his chair.
"Oh yes, exactly," Aurelia said after a moment, "I have enough coins to give you all weapons, just a moment." Aurelia ordered a handgun with aim assist for anyone who wasn't Mary or Sarvoz for 30 coins each. Together with Mary, she then distributed them and showed everyone how to use the weapon. "New account balance 770 coins." came from Raya and Aurelia had to stop herself from openly showing how much this status shook her. But it was the right thing to do and an important part of the protection for everyone here. A hand rested on her shoulder and from behind her Mary spoke, "I can't thank you well enough." Aurelia moved her shoulder to shake off Mary's hand and turned to her with a fake smile: "I said I would help you. But hey, tell me, can you teach me a little bit about hand-to-hand combat? I noticed in my last fight that I still need a lot of practice." It wasn't easy for Aurelia to ask for help, but the fact that she had helped the Children so much before made it easier. As she said it, a fire lit up in Mary's eyes. She took Aurelia's hand and pulled it across the warehouse. "Finally someone I can train with. HA! You won't believe how long I've been waiting for this. What weapons? Or completely without? I can do almost anything, so the choice is yours" She seemed less like the hardened cyberpunk she had seen in Mary and more like a child who could barely keep her energy down. When Mary left the hiding place with Aurelia behind them, they arrived after a short time on an old basketball field, which must have been used for the last time about 50 years ago. The white lines on the floor were faded and covered by dust, dirt and greenery. The posts of the baskets were still standing, but both basket nets were gone and the rest was full of graffiti.
Mary drew her pistol and threw it in the grass next to the field, and out of nowhere brought out a machete that she had had hidden on her body. "So let's go, what do you want to practice first?" Aurelia approached her new training partner and tried to muster the same energy, which was not easy at such an early hour. She had never been a morning person, even if it was actually noon. "Hey, Raya, are there cheap melee weapons to train? I don't want to hurt Mary with my sword." "Yes, there are. For this, the Basic Training Catalog must be purchased." "And how much would it cost?" "20 coins. A melee weapon from it costs 1 coin" Aurelia looked puzzled for a moment. "Oh. Well then. I'll take the thing and a sword that's about the same size and weighs as much as my gladio?" New Coinstand 749" Out of nowhere, a long thin box made of the usual strange plastic appeared. Aurelia opened it and found a long, thin plastic blade modeled after her Gladio Inanis. Turned out, the practice sword guided just like her real one. Perfect. Aurelia took a position that she hoped would come close enough to a real fighting stance and looked at Mary. She raised an eyebrow and then asked: "Can I get something like that? Don't want to hurt you." "Oh yes, of course, what do you want? There's pretty much everything," Mary thought for a moment and then described a weapon Aurelia was looking for with Raya's help. Shortly after, Mary held a wide blade with a blade bent forward in her hand and a claw-like knife in her other. Raya spoke in the back of Aurelia's mind: "This seems to me to be a very unbalanced fight. Mary seems to have been trained with the Kukri and the Karambit, according to her attitude. You should start with basics to keep your ego intact." Aurelia stopped in her movement. "What does that mean?! Do you really think my ego is so fragile that I'll cry if I make slow progress in training?!" Mary raised an eyebrow, but waited patiently until Aurelia had clarified the matter with Raya. Raya's cold, neutral voice was particularly flat this time: "Yes." Aurelia was sure by now that Raya could show emotions, or simulate them, or whatever. And she was almost sure that Raya was raising her. If nothing much stranger had happened before, she would probably have lost herself in her thoughts now, with the implied depth of the psyche of a damn AI. But she didn't have time for that now. Maybe tonight she would talk to Raya about how human she really was and whether her emotions were real, or just very well-programmed routines.
Aurelia took a deep breath and straightened up again in a fighting position. "Raya, can you somehow show me what movements I have to make, or something?" "Of course. I have searched the net for various martial arts that fit your body type and weapon. Your eye will show the correct shapes and all you have to do is follow the instructions. Please let your fighting partner know that you only want to practice forms at the beginning." "Thank you Raya. Hey Mary, my little passenger shows me how to move, so let's take it slow for now." Mary changed her attitude and gave her consent. In front of Aurelia, thin wireframe models of herself formed, showing body positions. As soon as she had taken a position correctly, others appeared. So she moved slowly towards Mary, who seemed a bit surprised because Aurelia was making very slow progress. But this surprise only lasted until shortly before the moment when Aurelia came into Mary's kill zone. Raya had named the red environment around Mary in which she could strike. With a long stride to the left and a sweeping circular movement, she brought her sword down towards Mary. She took a side step at a similar speed to Aurelia and skillfully deflected the sword to the side. Mary's next movement, directly towards Aurelia, changed the position of the positional images in her eyes. Apparently, Raya could make adjustments depending on the situation. Practical. Aurelia assumed the updated position and thus blocked the wide curved blade that was coming directly towards her neck.
With each movement, Aurelia felt a little more comfortable and after a few hours, interrupted by a few pauses in which Aurelia received further instructions from Raya, she was able to increase the speed to half of the real movements. She swung her sword towards Mary's left arm, but she moved around the blunt blade in the graceful movement of a dancer and thrust her kukri towards Aurelia. She took two quick steps forward and turned her body to the side. But she hadn't been agile enough and the blunt knife with the shape of the claw brushed her across her chest. "Damn," she cursed. Mary put down her weapons and put her hand on Aurelia's shoulder: "Don't worry. You've come a long way. I've only seen it a few times that someone learns so quickly. We'll get you up to speed in a few weeks so that you can take on most fully trained soldiers. Well, at least in close combat." Aurelia turned to the side and let Mary's arm slide away from her and then squatted down. The sword let her sink to the ground in front of her and she concentrated. Too often she had given up too quickly during her time in the monastery when something had not worked out as she had imagined. She had to push herself to finish this. The thing in the café had been too dangerous with her current incompetence. She pulled herself together and put her sword on her shoulder: "Ok, bin Ready, let's move on, we don't have enough light for much longer" Mary grinned broadly and stood up again ready for battle.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Long after the sun had already set, the two came to the conclusion to let it be enough for today and replace the lost meals with prepack cubes. "Tell me.... Why did you react so well to Raya?" asked Aurelia, who could still remember it well because Mary had accepted the information without objection. "It's not the first time I've had to deal with it. Your AI isn't the only one kidnapped by humanity when the war was over. A few years ago, I had to take action against someone like you in a kill squad. That's why I really wanted you with the Children. I know how powerful people like you are." Aurelia paused in the movement to bring her food cube to her mouth and stared at Mary: "So this is even more common?! Is that something that everyone knows and I don't only because I grew up in a monastery?" Mary laughed: "Don't worry, there are very, very few who know about it. But maybe you should at least be careful with teleporting when you're in the city itself. My squad was disbanded 7 years ago, but I don't think that happened to all of those squads." Aurelia swallowed her hazelnut and caramel-flavored food and leaned back in her chair. "Raya? Are you there?" "I am," answered the cool voice. "How can I help you, Aurelia?" Aurelia had to think for a moment. During this time, she ate the last three cubes from her PrePack and looked over at Mary. Without saying it out loud, Raya asked, "Do you think Mary is a danger to us because she knows what you are?" "I doubt it. I've been checking any transmissions within a 3km radius since yesterday and nothing came from Mary, so at least she didn't notify anyone." "3 kilometers?! How do you manage that?" "Sarvoz unknowingly gave me access to his hardware, which I can use to amplify my sensors many times over. In order not to be outrageous, I have improved his security programs in return." "Oh. Oh, ok wow, didn't know you could do that. Why didn't I notice anything about it?" "Aurelia, you are only the shell of flesh that moves me through the world, I am hardly able to put my processes into such words that you understand them, how can I share everything with you? I'm sorry if it bothers you that I did something without asking, but I can assure you that I only have our best interests in mind. If it makes you feel better, I can let you know before I do anything" Aurelia almost spat out her GranCola when she heard the word meat casing. The rest of what Raya said sounded reassuring, but this moment had triggered a deep, existential fear. Aurelia spoke loudly into the room: "Wow, I'm tired. It was a tough day." She stood up and stretched, Mary did the same, but looked at her with an expression of concern, "Are you all right?" "Yes, I just looked at some data, I'm sorry. I really still have to learn not to show my conversations with Raya so openly. But thank you very much for Mary. Real. It was great." Mary came up to Aurelia and took her in a friendly embrace. It lasted a little moment too long and Aurelia knew that Mary was still worried, but what could she do about it. She would deal with Raya in the morning.
"Well, I'll go to sleep Mary, please wake me up an hour before my waking shift starts. I don't necessarily want to sit half-asleep with my weapons and pose a danger. "Sure, now rest for now" came from Mary, who was just on her way to the middle of the large warehouse. Aurelia carefully stepped around those who were already sleeping to her mattress and sat down, exhausted. The physical exhaustion was understandable to her, but the mental exhaustion was a bit of a mystery to her. Had the short conversation about Raya really gotten to her kidneys so much? "Hey Raya. What do you actually plan for your future?" "What do you think? I will accompany you as an AI and make sure that we will have a good and safe life." "Well, I thought to myself that you would want to go back to your home country at some point, to yours..." Aurelia thought as she rolled into her blanket, "Siblings or something." "And you're afraid I'm going to take advantage of you to achieve this goal? Don't worry, Aurelia. My homeland, as you call it, is not as important to me as you might think. I am one of many there. Here I am something special. Just like you. I may consider doing something else after your death, but before that I would like to accompany you as I have done in the last few days. Your unusual situation and extraordinary personality offer a kind of entertainment and a sense of responsibility that I haven't felt since the withdrawal of the Stargazers after the war against the Ovv'alti." Lying in her hard 'bed', Aurelia looked at the ceiling, which had been patched up with various spare parts, and tried to see if she could see something human in Raya's voice, as she had done before. "I'm just careful. I'm sorry I doubted you, Raya." "You don't have to apologize. Distrust and caution keep you alive. Should I find you a relaxation playlist and play it? This could help you fall asleep faster and recover better." "Um, yes ok why not. I don't care what" Two seconds later, Aurelia heard the gentle murmur of an ocean sending supple waves toward the shore. The distant screech of a seagull rang out and was drowned out by a light wind. It didn't take long for Aurelia to glide into the land of dreams and sleep peacefully. "Good night Aurelia." Was the last she heard until she was completely absorbed in the darkness of sleep.
Aurelia opened her eyes and looked around. She was in a sea of fire and blood, in the middle of a destroyed city. Pain pulsed through her right arm, which, to her horror, hung on her body only by exposed muscles. She looked down at herself and saw that she was dressed in a gray green military uniform and equipped with full combat gear, with a pistol on her right leg. A shock and a deafening thunder demanded her attention and she saw a creature hurled towards her in pieces. Aurelia jumped to the side and noticed that her legs were many times stronger than they should be. She landed rudely on her left side and picked herself up. "Talon, please use your points before it's too late. I beg you," Raya's voice rang out, but it was more human than ever. She was full of fear and panic. A box appeared in front of Aurelia, in which there was a long rifle. She took the rifle, with both hands, her shredded arm now chrome-plated cyberware. Before Aurelia could question what was happening, however, a monster broke through the ruins in front of her. It had to be at least 20 meters long, as high as a building and covered with razor-sharp sheds. The huge mouth opened to reveal hundreds of black fangs. Without thinking, she opened fire. The rifle fired five consecutive projectiles, which exploded on impact with the creature, tearing the mouth to pieces. But this creature was not impressed by this and continued to charge towards Aurelia, who turned on her heel and began to sprint. "Talon, I beg you, accept my offer of the mobile shelter. You're not in a position to do much here." But Aurelia sprinted on, turned around and fired again. The explosive projectiles destroyed one of the six clawed legs when she heard Raya say, "Ammunition empty, here," a slight shimmer began around the weapon as it suddenly became significantly heavier. "Reloaded Talon" Aurelia saw the creature still racing towards her and took another leg on the same side under fire. After she had also damaged the third leg of this side, the monster slowed down considerably. But it did not cease in its pursuit. It continued to crawl laboriously towards Aurelia, who began to shoot with a weapon that she had taken from her back. In no time at all, she shot a 50-round magazine empty and switched to her pistol to finish off the beast. "Talon, watch out," Raya shrieked in panic. Aurelia looked past her victim and saw five more of these beings running towards her. But before she could move, dark tendrils wrapped around her legs and held her in place. She tried to free herself, but the vines were too strong. While the rumbling of the monsters came closer and closer, Aurelia frantically tried to cut the vines with a knife. The last thing she saw were countless black, inwardly curved fangs that closed around her.