I stepped back into the backstage area of the former auction room, mentally sighing to myself. I've given a few speeches in my life before dropping into remnant, but none of them were on the level of importance as this. I mean, riling up people to join a cause was something I never expected to do. I took a seat on one of the couches and leaned against the backrest. The part of my mind that just wanted to progress on tasks begged me to start planning our next step of action.

  The paranoid part of my mind, and the one who realised something was seriously wrong, told me to slow down and think for a second. I only had a short while to contemplate this back at Beacon, but now I should have more time.

  What am I talking about? The change in my attitude and personality, of course.

  Before I ended up in this robot body, I was a massive coward. I couldn't handle the horror genre at all. Even minor things can get me to flinch. I was especially afraid of death. If I had to choose to save myself or someone else, even a loved one, I would always choose myself.

  And then here I am in Remnant, leading a slave revolt and having just fought a huntsman. Both things I would definitely not want to do. And yet, I did this without a second thought, no real fear at all, just thrill. So that leaves the big question.

  What the hell happened to turn me into this? I wasn't anything like this before, so something had to have changed. Wait…

  What if my body and location wasn't the only thing that changed? What if whatever did this to me also changed my mindset? But why the need for this cha-

  I turned my head to a door as it opened, revealing a Ray of suspicion being beamed at me. (Geddit?) Ok, in all seriousness, the old faunus looked like he wanted to talk, and wasn't going to take no for an answer. I gestured to the couch opposite me and crossed my legs. "Ray, take a seat."

  The old lion faunus obliged. "Boss. We need to talk."

  "I can tell. Besides, I wanted to ask you some things as well."

  Ray took in a deep breath and let it rip. "Alright. I'm going to be upfront with you. Everyone says you're remote controlling this AK-130, but that doesn't sound right. You're replying too fast and too smoothly with how connected this place is to the CCT. Your combat moves aren't affected by lag, so you can't be physically far. But, you didn't come to us after we took the base, and the Grimm didn't show up in places that could have been your location. The search parties I sent didn't find you either."

  "And then, to top it all off, you come back after a trip to Vale, and show the ability to use aura. Which last I checked, required a soul. You act like you're physically both really close, and yet really far from here. So let me ask you this in the most plain way possible. Who are you?"

  Huh, it looks like he caught on to me. Well, sort of. He's close, but he's banking too much on the fact that I'm a living breathing person. I'm alive, but I'm sure as shit not breathing right now.

  "You seem really confident that controlling robots isn't my semblance, Ray." To my surprise, Ray just gave me a serious look.

  "So my suspicion was right."

  "It's not." I quickly interjected. "I just wanted to point out that you didn't consider everything. Although you just didn't say it in this case, so that's my mistake."

  I uncrossed my leg and leaned forwards. "As for what I am, I believe 'artificial intelligence' best describes me."

  "Bullshit." Ray called me out immediately. "Your mannerisms are too alive, too human. Who are you? Really."

  A groan left my frustrated speakers. I really didn't want people to know my real circumstances, but this guy was pushing hard. "Look. I just woke up like this. Alright? The only reason I can act human is because I have the memories of someone. That's all there is to it, honestly."

  Ray stared at me for a full minute. I could tell he was seriously debating something. After a period of silence, the old lion faunus finally groaned.

  "Alright, fine. I'll trust you on this."

  "Thank you, Ray." I mentally unclenched my ass at this. Now I don't have to worry about him probing for my secrets… I think. Just to be sure though, I'm gonna change the subject.

  "Thank you. Now, I've been wanting to ask. Are you related to Headmaster Lionheart of Haven Academy in Mistral?"

  "Hmm? Oh yeah. We're brothers."

  Damn really? I don't ever remember this being mentioned in the wiki. But then again, it's probably either some filler detail, or that he was never mentioned.

  "I see. That raises the question though, why are you in Vale? Not to mention, well" I waved my hand around "here."

  Ray visibly winced at that. "Well, I was, uh, travelling in Vale. I was in a village when it was attacked by Grimm. I tried to help, but well, I got knocked out. Next thing I knew, I was in a cage."

  "As for why I didn't escape… Well, I couldn't use my semblance or aura. Those slaver bastards always made sure my aura was broken. I was in the middle of planning another way to escape, but then you happened."

  "Good to know. Well, now that you're here. I assume you would want to go back to Mistral? I can try to contact Ozpin to arrange passage home."

  "Oh. No thank you. These people seem like they need our help. Besides, my brother and I aren't exactly on… talking terms right now."

  Well that's one reason why.

  "I see. Ok then, so, you've decided to stick with me then? Seeing as you stayed after I gave you the choice."

  "Yeah. I figured I should help these people."

  "I see. Thank you Ray. Well on that matter, let's get prepared for our future operations." I hope this will distract me well enough. If not, I'm not going to be operating at full capacity.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  We walked over to a meeting room, where several others were waiting for us. I quickly asked Ray.

  "Who are these people?"

  "I spoke to them earlier, when you were having your raging episode. They're the best in their fields that we have here."

  "Good. I suppose introductions are in order then?"

  A large goat faunus man spoke up first. "Axel Dawn. I'm a blacksmith." Yeah, looking at him, he definitely seems like an Axel. Hell, he looks like a cross between Leto Atredies' Actor and that blacksmith in Mondstat from Genshin.

  The next person to speak up was a martial looking human woman, she gives off the same energy as HSR Bronya, but looks like Kouzuki Yuuki from Muv Luv. "Viola Rand. Village militia captain. Er, former village militia captain. It got wiped by the grimm." Aaaand her surname is Rand, of freaking course.

  Moving on to an old bird faunus man. He was wearing an outfit that screamed old fashioned. "Harold Herbert. Doctor"

  Next, a cat faunus who seemed to wear some casual clothes. I didn't spot anything wrong, but a window on my hud popped up. A threat analysis of some kind, warning me that there's a 30% chance she was hiding a weapon in there.

  "Sarah Lilac. Information broker."

  The last person was another human woman. This one carried herself much more conservatively. Judging from looks, I'd say she's either an introvert, or that she developed issues from her time with the slavers. "...net Re…"

  God damn it, and she speaks softly. "I'm sorry, can you repeat? I couldnt hear you"

  "Garnet Reader… I'm good with computers."

  "I see." I turned away from Garnet and addressed the rest as well. "Welcome aboard everyone. We've got a lot to do. Starting off. How are things going with our new base?"

  Axel was the first to speak up. "Well, we have quite a bit of food and water, but we'll need to find a way to secure a constant supply. I assume medical supplies are the same?"

  Harold spoke up "Yes, about there."

  Axel picked up his part of the verbal report. "Weapons wise, we've got enough guns to give most of our fighters at least one from what Viola told me , which is pretty good in my book. Ammo is in short supply though. We'll be struggling to get more, especially the dust. As for our motor pool. A lot of the vehicles we received are either armoured or luxury models, and our one bullhead out there."

  "Ok. That's not ideal. But it's a start. Anything else about the base? Like production capabilities and all that?"

  "Not really. These guys had some minor chemical production and metal forging going on. That's all."

  "What kind?"

  "Stuff like fertilisers, nitrocellulose, ammonia. That sort of thing. It seemed to be a sort of side gig for the slavers. The metalworking was mostly for their melee weapons and ammo making, they still needed to get dust from outside though."

  "I see. How's our manpower situation?"

  Viola started. "We've got about a total of 400 people who signed up with us. RIght now, about half are being diverted to support roles, the rest are ready to head out into the field to do something. Training wise, the most we have are 24 former militiamen including myself."

  A thought hit me as Viola finished the sentence. "Ray. Didn't you mention that we had enough guns to equip everyone? Why the sudden shortage?"

  Upon hearing that, Ray snorted. "Well boss, your speech was really convincing."

  Ah. Good to know I have potential in politics then.

  "Ok. Viola. Anything else?"

  "No. Nothing else."

  The little meeting of what I would begin to call the council went on for a while more, filled with boring details I struggle to remember. Honestly, I was kinda bored. Yeah I'm supposed to be listening and all, but that doesn't change the fact that I get bored easily. I was actually about to space out.

  "..oss? Boss, are you there?"

  Until that happened, that is.

  "Hmm? What is it, Ray?"

  "We were asking if you had any ideas for what we were going to call ourselves."

  "Oh. I'm thinking maybe 'the emancipators'? Honestly I just pulled that out of my ass, I don't have any idea what to call us."

  "Emancipators huh. Well, I guess it fits."

  "Right. Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?"

  "No. Nothing else."

  "Ok good, so in summary, we need to find ourselves a source of supplies, Viola's gonna start training whatever combatants we have. Sarah's gonna be gathering info with Garnet. Axel's gonna be repairing our motor pool and the other AK-130s we have. Did I miss anything?"

  "No nothing else."

  "Good. In that case, let's get to work, dismissed."

  Everyone in the room began to file out. Leaving me to ponder on what to do. Right now, our plan was reaching out to other settlements in the area and trying to secure their cooperation. I combed through the current problems we were facing. Mainly, the weapons issue. Last I checked, recently freed slaves who used to be civilians do not make for good fighters, so I'd like them equipped with guns as soon as we can. But that runs into the problem with ammo. There's not a lot of dust out in this part of Vale.

  Hmm, I wonder, is there anything we can do about our… wait a minute.

  Axel said that this place had some minor chemical production right? Ammonia, and what else? Ah right, Nitrocellulose. Isn't that the main component in modern smokeless gunpowder back on earth? From my experiences with dust guns so far, dust ammo can be pretty inconsistent at times, some are average, some are better others are worse. But if we could make gunpowder, then damage output would become more consistent, and we wouldn't need to rely on dust rounds, wh

  ich means more dust to fuel our motor pool and the botboys (and myself of course).

  Great! I think I solved this problem. Now, where did Axel go?