The city that sprung up in the ruined city the engineer had entered this world from had been the center of some of the more intense fighting that occurred during the ending of the machine war. Much of which had occurred not between android and machine, or even machine and machine, but as man had clashed against metal and torn it asunder. The city that had already been barely healed from the ravages of time and war had been brought even lower as the humans' machines and fury shook the land to its bedrock.
The city had also been home to two different types of reconstruction, the first had been to prepare the city into a battle ground that the war would be fought in. firing lines and trenches, massive fortifications and sprawling paths filled with traps. The city itself had been turned into a deathtrap that only those granted knowledge of the human’s defenses could pretend to traverse in safety. Resistance androids had been forced to live in cramped but defensible bunkers, only made tolerable by the humans' request and the ample entertainment. It had been built to fight a war.
The second reconstruction was to make it more than that, it was the first and so far only city to truly regain that name. Roads were made with ease of movement and efficiency being a greater concern than slowing an enemy's assault, trains and railways were reconstructed. Market places were built and linked by walkways, roads, and trains. The city was and would always be a defensively oriented place, gates and fortifications remained throughout, the city divided into separate districts so that enemies had to fight for control of each one rather than the city as a whole. But it was more than that now, machines and androids walked the streets day and night, conversing, trading, and living a life as free from violence as could be reached by mere mortals.
The city was a verdant paradise where plants grew, the peace was kept, and the people became more than simple fighters in a never ending war, and as word of this paradise spread more and more people began to arrive. Androids and machines gathered in the thousands, it was a pilgrimage in the most literal sense. Whether on a simple pendant around the neck or stitched into their clothing, or even carved onto their very flesh, every machine and android in the city, every single one, had a cog wheel somewhere on their body, a cog wheel with 8 teeth. The only consistent symbol on the factories buildings and equipment.
And it had been co-opted as a holy symbol. The minds were too late by far to stop the worship of their creator, by the time they had arrived it had already spread beyond anyone’s ability to stop. Once people have constructed over a dozen churches you are well past the point of no return. Human worship had always been prevalent among the androids, and worship of their old creators was a known thing.
A human returning and not only fighting alongside them but actually ending the war? Their messiah had come on a wave of flame and shellfire and freed them from a never ending war. It was never a matter of if they would worship him, it was only a matter of how. Fighting for him was a given, serving him was not a question, dying for him an honor some would kill for, nothing they had seemed to be enough to repay him for simply existing, much less saving each and every one of them from an inevitable death.
The androids did not worship the engineer as a god, they worshiped him as a human and to them that was greater than any god could hope to be.
The more devoted androids strived to live like him in every way they could, purchasing expensive power armors and rarely if ever leaving them, not stopping their work for rest or succor. They worked to spread his faith by building defenses and infrastructure out in the world beyond their city, where the minds had not yet reached. They brought his holy works with them to other androids and machines, works both in goods and deeds.
They fought, built, bled, cried, suffered, and died in his name. They knew he could not hear their prayers and they said them regardless, if they knew death was certain they would pray for salvation they had no expectation of arriving. They did not expect him to be more than he could be, he was simply a human with all the limitations that implied. He was not all powerful, he was not all knowing, there were things beyond his reach, things he could not do. The androids knew this, and they did not care. It helped that androids prayed on radios that the minds could usually hear, and that occasionally prayers would be answered.
The machines were different than the androids, for both obvious and subtle reasons. For one not all of them were even humanoid, and none of them could pass for one. For another they were on average less intelligent than their android counterparts, made of lower quality parts. They were larger, bulky and less agile, but they also outnumbered the androids by several orders of magnitude. Most of them were not in the city, in fact the majority of the machines just walked around aimlessly or gathered into herds to walk around aimlessly.
But the machines that did end up migrating to the city were a varied lot as well, Pascal’s group had been the first and still made up a fair portion of the city's machine population. The carnival machine had set up smaller theme parks and playgrounds throughout, and their home was connected by a festive train they had taken great pains to decorate. A few small groups of other machines were present, one ran a dojo, another had started a race league, both with vehicles and physically racing. Dozens of ‘unique’ machines made their lives in the city. But thousands of more generic machines lived no less important lives within as well, the network had made them as human as it could manage, even if it had used a flawed understanding of humans, and flawed methods to emulate them. They lived and they loved.
But not all machines were peaceful, and not all machines even wanted to live in the city. The kingdom of the forest and the cult of the factory were two such ‘nations’ both severely outnumbered and outgunned. The cult were furious as they saw the humans worship as sacrilege and heresy. And the kingdom of the forest? They were at least capable of seeing the writing on the wall.
One day, only a day after the human had recovered from his wounds, a procession came from outside the city. The minds had of course spotted it far before it arrived but the white flag meant they had made the decision of not obliterating the armed group of machines before they could even see the city. The kingdom of the forest was isolationist by nature, but they were both near the city and aware of the human who made it his home. The human who had done deeds similar to their king, restoring androids and machines to their minds and returning their emotions, at the cost of his own. Only he had managed to return to himself after his deeds. This was enough for them to finally leave their forest in small numbers, and to begin trade with the citizens of the city.
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This was just the first convoy of many, and the bulk of their goods were gifts to the human. Their ‘tribute’ joining a pile that formed just off the path into the factory.
Really the minds only had to interfere when crimes were committed, largely theft and assaults. It wasn’t like anyone could actually die within their borders.
This ‘lax’ security was what allowed A2 to ‘infiltrate’ the city. She couldn’t and didn’t know that every single person in the city was being tracked and monitored by the minds. So she just… walked into the city within the wave of android and machine pilgrims. Struggling all the while with her ingrained desire to kill each and every machine she saw, it was a wonder that conflicts hadn’t broken out but well, everyone was just tired of fighting.
Machines and androids might still hate one another, but no one wanted to risk even the possibility of the war beginning again when they had just begun to grasp peace.
So she bundled up her hate and spent days living in the city, scouting out the factory and plotting how she could get inside. Her pod hacked into the factory's security systems and prepared to open all the locks that bared her way. She was going to get to the bottom of this, and find if there really was a human.
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Three days spent doing nothing, which given my existance’s timeline was quite the length of time. It had taken me two months to get established and decode the ship’s data stores, then four months of rapid fortification and expansion, another four months to build a massive perimeter, and then a month and a half on this earth fighting machines and building a new base of operations. Then that last half of my eleventh month began with me losing my mind, and then regaining it just a few days after the month ended. And here we are wasting away a statistically significant portion of my life.
It’s not that I even like working, it’s just that not working is wasteful. We took a few day’s off so we’re good now.
Meaning that I was turning one in twenty eight days. Are we really that young? It doesn’t feel like it.
Hell most of the androids are older than us… by a lot.
This is why we don’t keep track of time, it’s unnerving.
Thankfully none of the androids actually know that, which means I should be able to avoid a party of any sort. Given that the mind won't be organizing one, they know it’d only make me uncomfortable and annoyed. Social situations are decidedly odd and grating. It's half the reason Balistraia even has diplomacy as one of her functions, so I don’t have to interact with people, and If I did end up having a celebration it’d end up public. Though I doubt any of them would gainsay me having a private celebration.
Still no, one on one interaction is about all I care to deal with.
It wasn’t my job to deal with people, and if I had anything to say about it it never would be. The minds could handle it and if they couldn’t then the androids and machines could figure it out on their own, I would at best make inventions or advancements to solve problems.
I had no desire to rule over these machines, I could it wouldn’t even be hard, but it did not appeal in any way shape or form. Pretty android’s in skirts notwithstanding of course. And we already had a bunch of maids and butlers apparently, they just showed up one day. Probably latent programming? Servant androids?
But my body was intact, my mind was as fractured as it has ever been and only growing more so as I wasted more time lounging about. The minds had been concerned about my mental state before I’d even known they had sentience, but well they were comparing me to human standards.
Even if I had been human, and it was an if, I had long left behind any claims to actually thinking, behaving, or acting like one. Hell we don’t even have the same hormone receptors anymore, we literally don’t feel like human’s do. And with all the built in programming my inherent goals in life haven’t ever lined up with humans. A different animal entirely. At this point comparing me to a human’s healthy mental state I was long gone, but I had never actually been at a ‘healthy human’ headspace. And spending time here doing nothing, while making the minds feel better, wasn’t helping me do anything.
So I was done waiting around, honestly a bit surprised it had taken me three days to get to this point. I had thought we’d cave within the day. I really had been in a bad headspace to even consider taking a break, much less actually taking one.
The mind’s didn’t even stop me as I headed to my workshop, they just sent a message for one of the YoRHa androids to stay in the room with me so I could socialize. Eventually they’d learn that I wasn’t wired to need or want friends, but I wasn’t opposed to the company as long as they stayed out of my way.
Time passed without meaning, hours passing like minutes and seconds feeling like days as I fell into my work, refining, optimizing, redesigning, and outright inventing new things. Androids came and went, YoRHa and cleaner both, most speaking to me for a bit and while I responded I paid them little mind. With how much information our brain processes a second even absent minded conversation still seems attentive. …. As long as they don’t mind the fact we never actually you know, look at them, that is. I had gone back into my element, and days could have passed before I felt the slightest wave of fatigue.
Sadly, as with every time I actually begin to enjoy myself something had to come along and ruin my day. The minds sent me a message that they were allowing someone to sneak into my workshop, apparently an asset greater than or equal to 2B. So I let out a sigh, kept working, and waited for the interruption to arrive. I'd been wondering why no one had come in after 16S left.
Really could an engineer not build without something bothering him these days?