"I do realize that this is a sudden change of plans, but the situation has undergone considerable change," Syuen's voice was bratty as ever. "Chatterbox has been spotted, for the first time in a long time. We have no idea how long the target will remain in the area, thus, it is better to try and take the risk of attempting to capture it."

  Yuni and Mihara nodded, though the latter seemed somewhat reluctant to do so, as I scowled. Yeah, throw the civilian straight into the firing line of what you keep calling 'alien machines', that would go well.

  "Any questions?" Syuen asked, likely just for protocol, but hell if I wasn't going to take my chance, so I raised my hand. "Any questions that aren't stupid."

  "Given that the target's codename is Chatterbox, would I be correct in guessing that it is capable of some form of speech? And if so, do you have any intelligence on whether or not that speech is mimicry or understanding?" I scowled, narrowing my eyes. Frankly, I didn't believe a single word of any of this.

  Seriously. They expect me to believe some alien version of Skynet comes down a space elevator, kicks humanity's ass to the point where we have to flee underground to avoid being wiped out entirely, and then just sits there? Firstly, there was no way the Raptures wouldn't know that the Ark existed, or its location. The construction efforts alone would have generated enough vibrations through the Earth's crust that picking up on it through a seismograph and many other geologic devices would have picked up on it with ease. Never mind the who knows how many people were allegedly down here.

  The most believable part of that was humanity getting its ass handed to it by an advanced Alien civilization.

  Never mind the biggest problem with this lunacy.

  The fact that this advanced AI just, didn't erase us from orbit? If someone or something had enough advanced technology to get to our planet, then they should have the technology to pound us into oblivion from space, while we could only do nothing but shake our fists at them in impotent rage. That they didn't is telling.

  Largely that these people are liars who lie. Never mind we didn't have a space elevator.

  Did I mention that they lied? That was the only reasonable explanation. There was no way an AI of all things would handle this situation in such a mind-numbing, counterintuitive way. They would have just blasted us to pieces, from orbit, and there wouldn't have been a single damn thing we could have done to stop them. Simple as that.

  What did they have to gain from lying? I had no idea, and frankly, I didn't care, nor desire, to find out. Probably gaslight people into signing away their basic human rights, or something equally stupid.

  "I don't exactly see how that's relevant," Syuen glared at me, clearly not happy with me.

  "If you don't understand the difference between the target being akin to a parrot, mimicking words without any understanding of their real meaning," I glared back, as I watched Yuni and Mihara whisper among themselves. "And the target being able to understand what exactly words mean, then I don't know what to tell you."

  I let the words hang in the air, waiting to see what Syuen's reaction would be. The implications of what I said were lacking subtly, but they were also true. While I didn't trust a single word she said, I wasn't above playing along and seeing what happened when I started to poke logic into things. If this thing was simply copying things it heard, and it just managed to catch people talking, great. Somewhat problematic, but at the end of the day, not the worst thing in the world.

  But if it understood what things meant? Understood basic linguistics?

  That was a problem, one spelled with all caps. Well, if this wasn't a lie, which the evidence as I could tell pointed it to be yes, it was a fairly large one.

  But provided this isn't some form of mass delusion? Which was unlikely, but if I had to be fighting alien machines that came from beyond the stars, I at least wanted to know what exactly we were facing on this supposed black ops mission. Especially if one was intelligent enough to communicate. If it was smart enough to understand.

  Then it was smart enough to plan. And while I may not be a soldier of any strip, there were a few things I knew. First, underestimating your opponent was just asking for trouble. Two, engaging an enemy on their terms was never a good idea unless you had an overwhelming advantage. Three, any plan never lasted when in contact with the enemy.

  Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up just being a snipe hunt. They haven't had any headway before now, after all. That much was clear.

  "To our knowledge, the target is only capable of mimicking things it hears," Syuen said, frowning as she did so. I kept quiet after that. That was as far as I was willing to push things at the moment. Still, most likely a snipe hunt, but after the same time, try and prepare something intelligent.

  "Otherwise, at the moment, the care package is not ready," Syuen's glare told me everything I needed to know about what the care package was, so I did my best to avoid letting out that big of a sigh of relief.

  Still enough to be noticed though. Got to bite my tongue at her somehow.

  "But make no mistake. Mess this up, and you'll be scrapped," I glared back at her, not particularly impressed by the threat. I let things hang in the air for a few moments.

  "Aren't we wasting time?" I asked in the most innocent voice I could muster. Which wasn't much, as my tongue was still laced with venom. But it proved my point well enough as Syuen scowled.

  "You have your orders."

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  I scowled, rubbing the pain in my neck as Yuni snickered. A dog tag equivalent, if I had to guess. Something that tells the "Ark" if I got completely plastered in combat. Getting me to one of the many elevators that were supposed to get used to the surface didn't take long, replication of the sky was impressive, if only how far they went with the illusion.

  "You were saying something about how we're technically operating under different mission parameters than what was said in the debriefing?" Mihara picked up the conversation that had been cut off from my yelp of surprise.

  "Clever, if Syuen dots her i's and crosses her t's," I frowned. "Though it might just be more effective to buy out one of those Commanders and have them fill out false mission reports."

  They both gave me a look.

  "You do realize that Commanders aren't allowed to work with the same squad until several missions later, right?" Yuni's words caused my eyebrows to twitch. Because why would I know that, first of all? Secondly, that was one of the most militarily incompetent things I'd heard in a hot minute.

  Sure, it got around corruption measures, but something told me a rule that stupid was not part of some anti-corruption effort.

  "Are you, okay?" Mihara was doing her level best to look somewhat concerned.

  "No! Because at first, I thought this was some sort of super illegal military black site. But it's becoming increasingly clear that this is some sort of super illegal military black site run by a bunch of people with lead poisoning," I felt my fingers twitch as I did everything I could to suppress my anger at the ever-growing pile of lies and incompetence. "Intentionally separating Commanders from their soldiers is supposed to what? Help them realize that each soldier is a person who cannot be spent recklessly against the opposition because of dwindling resources and manpower? Never mind everything else that has gone on over the past few days?"

  My chest rose and fell quickly, as Mihara took a half-step back.

  "Actually because they view us as completely expendable and would throw us to a Rapture if it meant they get to live. Not that most Rookies do," Yuni said, as I heard a faint shattering sound in the back of my mind, most likely the last bit of self-restraint I had. "And that's when they don't try to get us killed through incompetent orders or just wanting us to die!"

  "Yuni!" Mihara nearly shouted as the younger girl looked sheepish.

  "What? She's going to have to know at some point," Yuni, despite her expression, shrugged.

  "Are you kidding me!"

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  313N did not seem to be taking their trip across the surface, well. She had been practically ranting against the Ark's military incompetence, thus proving Yuni's point, up until they entered the aircraft. Once she saw the surface, 313N just stopped. Now she just sat, silently. Despondent, with only the clenching of her fists being the only sign of movement.

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  Silence filled the air. But more so than silence, was pressure. It was just like at breakfast, but even more so. Anger didn't just radiate off of 313N's body. It surged, like a rolling, crashing wave of water, barely constrained. And that saying anything, anything at all, would cause it to flood outwards, overcoming anything in her path.

  It sounded strange, for someone like her to almost be scared of a Mass Produced model, but 313N was starting to make her worried. As if saying a single thing would simply cause her to snap. Whether or not it was simply Elen having an emotional or mental breakdown or a full-on mind switch.

  Neither was good. Especially in the field when they were hunting Chatterbox, of all things. For once, she hoped that Chatterbox had long since vacated the area. If simply for the sake of not having to deal with 313N breaking before, during, or after the battle. Chatterbox could take advantage of any situation that developed.

  313N was right in one respect. While Raptures generally were to all rights largely mindless, relying on sheer weight of numbers, or in the case of Tyrant class Raptures, power, to kill their opponents, Chatterbox was, odd. They hadn't found it yet, despite all the effort they put into tracking and searching for the beast. As if it was trying to avoid them. Or it simply didn't care about their presence. Frankly, she wasn't sure which was likely, but 313N raised a good point in being suspicious of how intelligent Chatterbox was.

  Yes, it broke with convention, that Raptures were largely unintelligent. Nor was it a topic many wanted to consider, given the questions it would raise. But Mihara could see where 313N was coming from. She still didn't believe a word Syuen was saying, but at the same time, 313N was trying to gather information. And her outsider status made her willing to question what most people assumed as fact.

  There was promise in that, if risky. 313N was going to have to learn some measure of restraint in the future. Continuing to prod Syuen was not the smartest choice at the moment.

  But for now, making sure she lived through the mission was the priority. Everything else could be addressed later.

  There was a bit of a jolt as the craft came to the ground, breaking Mihara out of her thoughts, as 313N continued to sit there, twitching and stewing. The door began to open, and then 313N was gone. It was but a moment later when an almost inhuman scream came from outside, followed by the sound of several large explosions.

  Mihara bolted upright, heading towards the door. Please don't let her be killed in three seconds!

  She paused, looking at the scene before her.

  "Holy shit," Yuni said, standing beside her. Wordlessly, Mihara nodded. 313N was alive, and whatever injuries she was sustaining were largely self-inflicted. 313N was laying waste to everything, screaming with rage as she started breaking everything around her that she could get her hands on. The few brief glimpses of her face Mihara could see behind 313N's visor showed tears pouring down her face as she reduced the ruins of human civilization to powder with her bare hands.

  "Is this mind switch?" Yuni looked up at her, nervousness clear on her face, as Mihara heard the pilot whimper. Part of Mihara wanted to say yes. That yes it was, and the mission was already a failure. But 313N wasn't attacking them. She hadn't even pulled out her rifle, turning it against them, or even herself.

  313N was lashing out, yes, that was undeniable. But she was taking out her anger on the rubble before them, rather than targeting anyone or anything else. She was hurting things, and herself, but nobody else. Mind-Switch was a possibility still, but at the same time, she likely would have already started attacking them if it was.

  This was something else. 313N didn't believe a single word they'd said to her.

  Mihara frozen. 313N didn't believe what they were telling her. She never did. Even her question to Syuen during the briefing was some form of self-assurance. That she was being fed nothing but lies from the start, something 313N was adamant about. She called the Ark an illegal military black site. Sure, Mihara had no idea what a black site was, but it was yet another sign that 313N thought they were lying about her situation. That they were lying about Raptures. That they were lying about humanity being wiped clean from the Earth's surface.

  And now, the truth came screaming into what little walls of comfort 313N had built up around herself like a runaway freight train. Whether 313N believed what she had told herself simply out of lack of a welcoming alternative, or she reasoned her way into such a position, mattered very little. Reality had made itself known, and it was not being gentle.

  Sadly, they didn't have much of a choice. This was something that would happen. 313N was never going to believe them. She had to see things for herself. And the longer they put this off, the more painful this would be for her when they ripped off the bandage. With her reaction being like this just from merely a day, maybe not even that, then. Then tearing it off now was the better option.

  Because waiting would likely make things worse.

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  Stupid. Moron. Dumbass. Fucking idiot. Cope huffing fool. Thoughts swirled around in my head, blocking out everything around me, as they kept spiraling down, down, down, as if draining into a bottomless pit. What the hell had happened? What had I missed? What year even was this? What had happened to my family? Was this even my Earth in the first place?

  How was I so stupid? The answer was staring me in the face, and I couldn't take the damn answer. No, I had to invent bullshit. To be a paranoid lunatic. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst? Hypocritical nonsense. I didn't even take the slightest amount of time to consider what would be the worst-case scenario. Why the hell would I? It was obvious that the lies were too stupid to even consider for a moment that they might be the truth.

  After all. Fiction is what had to make sense. Reality? Reality was under no such obligation. It didn't have to, or frankly, never did, make sense.

  What had reality taken from me? My family? My friends? My work? It had taken that, and so much more. My basic human rights? Gone. My ability to consent? Tossed in the fucking trash. My humanity? Not even considered relevant. My body? Turned into some type of machine that only seemed to mimic the human form. My name? Replaced by a fucking serial number!

  Everything was taken from me. One way or another, reality managed to steal everything I had and replaced it with a plate of raw, unrefined, shit. Cave Johnson was a lunatic, but it was hard to make lemonade out of pure feces. Shit bombs, on the other hand, were much more manageable. Or, well, destroying things around you in an attempt to exhaust yourself into consciousness.

  But I couldn't. No matter how much I swung my fists, no matter how much I destroyed, I wasn't tired out. Mentally, maybe, but I had energy to burn. Because my body wasn't human anymore. I wasn't going to get physically exhausted.

  Wasn't I?

  One final scream of rage, and for the first time, I felt concrete disintegrate beneath my fists. I looked at my hands. They were bleeding, though it wasn't blood anymore, but I could still feel them, largely undamaged despite my fit of rage that had begun to flicker out. My knees hit the ground, my vision blurring with tears.

  I screamed into the ground, my voice going from a shout of defiance to a whaling sob. Why had this happened to me? Why me? What did I do to deserve this? What did I do to deserve to be shunted into an animatronic body! My vision began to blur, not just from the tears that streamed down my face. I could almost see it in my head, darkness surrounding my mind, my swirling thoughts leading to a bottomless pit. Something was in that pit, almost reaching out.

  What would it cost me, if I simply just let it? Do whatever it wanted to do to me? Would the pain go away? Would everything just, fade away, to slip away completely from my mind forever? I'd already lost so much.

  It reached out, almost like a fog. After all, I'd lost almost everything.

  Almost.

  Everything.

  I bit down. Hard. It recoiled as if shocked, as the inky blackness began to retreat. It lingered for a moment, as my eyes narrowed.

  I'd nearly lost everything. I refuse to lose anything else. These were mine! My pain! My humanity! And I wasn't going to let anyone take them from me!