Chapter 20

  Silicon Struggles

  “You requested me?” Arla asked in the squawking language of the Lostarians, her tone calm despite the imposing form of dozens of Geminoids now taking the moment to gather around her.

  The moving of a Geminoid who was posing as a statue was a big no-no. Anyone who watched and studied the statues would see their movements.

  While each had not left their perfectly supported platform, it was clear that all now faced towards the statue of Admiral Gibson, and more importantly Arla, the person who now stood in front of Admiral Gibson.

  Hearing the rumble, the silent grinding of stone against stone was often unsettling for most, especially those with superior hearing. Many claiming the sound was akin to hearing fingers on a chalkboard. Not that Geminoids knew what this was, but their movements were often a way to gauge both the power rating and general exposure level of a particular individual to Geminoids.

  Without so much as scrunching up her neck, or having other reactionary impulses, it was clear that the person before them was weak. Likely possessing Attributes that were well below the threshold needed to hear and register the sounds of their movements.

  Seeing this lack of reaction, exiled princess Sapphire only grimaced inwardly at the sight. For a moment she had dared to hope, dared to think that this creature could have been special. After all Arla had somehow learned the bartering language of the servant race, implying at least a passing interest in their culture. But in order for her to be truly needed, she would need to be able to assist in matters much greater than she was currently capable of.

  Still, there was the baseline for future assistance. The fact that she could speak to them, and could recognize subtle shifts in gestures spoke to their being more to this girl.

  “I did, I wanted to see the promising Freshman everyone spoke so highly about,” princess Sapphire began in her deep rumbling languages.

  “And?” Arla eventually squawked back in a long drawl that indicated annoyance.

  This annoyance struck a chord within princess Sapphire, she had to endure a lot in his time. Being exiled in a war she was too young to have started and contributed to. Having only a smattering of her personal guard left to attend to her while in exile. Having to hide in plain sight, lest she be attacked. All the while waiting to find species and resources that could assist her and her people’s rise back to power.

  It was all frustrating, worse, princess Sapphire had to endure the constant gawking and ridicules from those who were deemed lesser. From species who would be ripped apart by the smallest movements of their bodies.

  With the subjects defiance evident in her tone, and body posture, it was all too much to take in. Which was why princess Sapphire’s body began moving on its own. Before she could fully stop herself, she moved, her hand lashing out, and striking at the being.

  While she had been filled with rage, she was not so out of her mind as to blatantly kill a student. Which was why she only went for an open throat grab of the lesser being.

  What happened next was a blur to even to the princess’s enhanced senses.

  Where princess Sapphire’s bronze coated granite hand struck out was nothing. The area that had held a bag of flesh and blood a moment ago, now held only open air.

  Glow.

  At the same time a bright blue glow began to appear to the right. A bright glow that was both blinding in its sudden appearance in the cover of darkness that covered the park and violent in the way it erupted with seeming blue sparks, before being lunged into princess Sapphire’s now outstretched arm.

  Shatter.

  What happened next was something spoken about in memoirs of the fall. Her arm, made of the strongest materials was struck. Not just struck, but violently severed with forces unseen and unknown to her.

  The movement was quick.

  Had Sapphire herself not seen the attack in its entirety, she would have assumed a deep vibrio blade with a plasma cutting edge was used to make the precision strike.

  Instead, it was just a hand.

  A hand shaped like a knife that was coated in a layer of blue energy that burned and seemed to painfully vibrate its way through her arm.

  Then as if to emphasize the fact that it was just a hand, the girl, this bag of flesh, just stood there for a second. Her vertical glowing hand remained in the air, after the princess’s outstretched right stump of an arm.

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  It took a moment for her mind to process that everything below her elbow was now gone.

  Shatter.

  Of course, to further emphasize what had just happened, the sound of heavy stone falling and shattering could be heard.

  Sapphire did not need to look down to see what had happened, for she could already tell. Her arm had been severed clean off and fallen, where upon impact with her solid resting plate, had shattered.

  Shock.

  For a moment the world stood still, as Sapphire’s mind began to process the pain that was coursing through her. While the Geminoids had many advantages, like the ability to not bleed out, something that flesh-bags like the monster before her had to worry about.

  In fact, the idea that she lost an arm was not a game changer, for she could even regrow the lost arm. With enough resources and time to heal, her carbon form could once again be manipulated enough to have a fully functional appendage. There would always be a Faultline at the mark of the injury, akin to what flesh bags would call a scar, making that part easier to break in the future.

  All of these were signs that while damaging and extremely painful for princess Sapphire. Particularly painful was the way that pain seemed to resonate and vibrate up her right arm, as if even more of her carbon was being shaken loose from the one attack.

  No, the worst part was that she hadn’t seen the attack. Or rather, despite even seeing the blue glow, her mind and body were too slow to react to the sudden sense of danger.

  Even now, all she could do was look down at the mangled pile of debris that had once been her arm.

  Thud, moan, grind.

  The sound of movement could be heard all around. This was to be expected of her personal guard, as she, their princess, had just been accosted. While the flesh bags would likely rule the attack was made in self-defense, it was still an attack on their princess.

  Blue glow.

  Princess Sapphire saw the same blue glow, and a note of fear rose within her as she looked up and saw the blue glowing warrior seeming to stand still for a moment, even going so far as to move a few paces to the side to allow easier access to the princess.

  Rather than going to her, to princess Sapphire, her guards went to attack the interloper, the cause of Sapphire’s current distress.

  “Stop,” princess Sapphire wanted to cry out, but found her voice catch in her throat, as residual vibration pains still coursed through her. Whatever she had been hit with had lingering aftereffects that were still causing her body trouble with trying to overcome.

  Thud, slice.

  Her words never came.

  In the end, all princess Sapphire could do was stare in amazement as she watched what unfolded next.

  Flesh bags, the names given to most carbon-based lifeforms, were often considered to be faster. By comparison, silicon-based lifeforms while able to move quickly, particularly after years of hardening and smoothing out their joints had multiple advantages.

  The primary advantage of Geminoids was that they were stronger, more durable, and able to live on indefinitely. This longevity meant that so long as ample resources were available, they could constantly improve their forms and outer shells to be unstoppable.

  While princess Sapphire was young for her kind, having only lived a few centuries, she had the very best resources available to her. By comparison, her headguard had lived for millennia and while having some of the best materials available, still had room to grow. Despite not having the very best of materials, it was undeniable that Lazul should easily be able to handle the creature before it.

  This was why she was in shock when Lazul first swung its weapon at the flesh bag. The weapon of course was a further extension of Lazul’s own body. Just as princess Sapphire could regrow an arm past her now stump, Lazul had done something similar by crafting a permanent weapon at the end of his left arm. In this case, the growth was made into the shape of a stylized broadsword allegedly used by the flesh bag he was mimicking.

  Slice.

  Lazul hade a wide arcing slash that cut down and to the right. With reflexes that seemed to defy flesh bag convention, the girl dodged.

  Rolling low, spinning inward, the creature was feral. Moving like a squirrel would, or other small fleshy creature. Yet, unlike a squirrel, this fleshy creature was large, odder still, it had not one but two glowing hands now that slashed out.

  Once again, Sapphire was shocked to see the fact that the fleshy creature chose to attack with straightened hands. From her experience and knowledge of the people, straight hands were generally weaker and prone to breaking. Yet, the energy coating the hands must have protected them, as both hands dug in, at the inside of both of Lazul’s legs.

  Then with a quick precision like cut, the flesh bag slashed out and carved her way through the two legs. Not fully, as her hands were not long enough to fully cut through the legs of the massive warrior that Lazul was impersonating.

  Instead, what happened was, the cuts were so painful that they caused Lazul, the first protector of the princess to momentarily pause in pain.

  Had Princess Sapphire herself not feel the agony for herself, had she not felt jolts of pain that were even now shooting their way through her own body, she would have been angered by the sight. Instead, all she could do was look on with horror and sadness, as the flesh bag used that moment of forced pain to rise up, still inside the arc of the sword that now hung motionless in the sky. Then never stopping her rising motion, nor the glow from her hands she struck out and shattered the face of Lazul.

  His face was gone.

  Not cracked, not broken, but gone as if cut off somehow.

  Sapphire had heard tales of this, how Lazul himself used his sword to cut off the faces of flesh bags.

  While this was not a death blow to the Geminoids, for only true death came with the destruction of their cores that existed within their outer layers of silicon and carbon. The blow had been enough to effectively blind and cripple the first guard.

  There was a pause as time seemed to stand still.

  The other guards who had been running over to assist, now stood in shock.

  Then time seemed to start up, as the seemingly off balance Lazul began to rock backwards. With shock Sapphire noticed how Lazul began to fall.

  For a moment, it almost looked like the final act would be an inadvertent decapitation of the flesh bag, as the sword still stayed behind the creature, despite the falling of Lazul’s body. However, even this seemed to be but a trifle for the girl who seemed to take in the whole situation and with a now non-glowing right hand, just gently pushed Lazul’s left arm, the one holding the sword, away.

  That tiny motion, made by a flesh bag was enough to move falling stone away.

  Thud.

  With that, the mighty Lazul fell to the ground. Cracks and fissures formed from the sudden fall, but fortunately everything stayed attached.

  Even the legs, legs that had been cut through mid-thigh still remained in tact, if barely.

  “Get the sand,” Garnet, the second in command called out.

  There was a moment of tension as many of the guards came close to the flesh bag. However, it was clear that the flesh bag was done fighting, at least for now as she held up her two non-glowing hands and began to slowly walk backwards, away from everyone.

  Only now, after seeing that the flesh bag took down her most elite soldier, and managed to momentarily cripple her, did princess Sapphire realize that she might have underestimated the girl.

  The girl began to move away, as more guards came to tend to princess Sapphire, with only a few going over to immediately work on Lazul.

  “Wait,” princess Sapphire called out to the flesh bag, wanting to at least know the girl’s name. For it was clear that this flesh bag was special in some way.

  “Your carbon is too weak,” the girl hissed in the cawing language of the Lostarians, as she turned her back and began to walk away.

  Princess Sapphire had known that this was an ancient insult, but only now could she realize why.

  “Don’t worry princess, we should be able to help you get to some semblance of normalcy here in a bit,” Lithic began, as she poured cool sand over her open stub that send waves of calm throughout her body.

  Pour.

  Off in the distance, Sapphire could hear other bags of sand being poured over Lazul as well.

  How had it all gone so wrong?

  Worse, they couldn’t report this, as it would only show weakness on her part.

  “We should inform the school, they will find and punish her,” Lithic hissed as she began trying to attach broken pieces of her shattered arm back to her, using the sand to meld the broken pieces together.

  “We can’t, if it got out that a simple first year was able to abuse us, then imagine what the others would do.” Princess Sapphire began, then thinking about it for a moment, she continued her thoughts, “no, we will need to come up with other plans for her.”