CH. 03: 2B's Story/Contact
CH. 03: 2B’s Story/Contact
As 2B and 9S were exiting their flight units, they heard the commander address all YoRHa squadron troopers.
“We’ve detected alien signals, which have been dormant for several thousand years. As you know, the aliens are the commanders of the Machines. If we defeat the aliens, we’ll be able to end this long battle once and for all.”
The words “alien alert” that they had seen were neither a delusion nor a malfunction of the sensors. After all, the commander was broadcasting an announcement to all YoRHa squadron troopers.
“Currently, the technology department is analyzing their signals. All troopers stationed on Earth should prioritize the gathering of intelligence regarding this issue. We cannot waste this opportunity.”
Even after the message concluded with the words “Glory to mankind,” 2B kept silently descending the cliff, down toward the source of the alien signals.
After descending the cliff, she heard the splash of water near her feet.
“Pod, I’d like some light,” said 2B.
“Affirmative: Turning on the light.”
Pod’s light shimmered. The ground was covered in water, though whether it was underground water or rainwater was impossible to discern.
“It seems like this area used to be a cave. It wasn’t made when the ground caved in,” 9S’s voice echoed. It was hard to tell from Pod’s light, but the cave was pretty sizable.
“There’s a side tunnel here,” said 9S.
“This is…a passageway?” asked 2B.
Straining her eyes, she could see that the walls of the tunnel used sheet piles in various places to prevent collapse. Even if the side tunnel had occurred naturally, someone had modified it for use.
“There’s no information in the database that corresponds with it, so if it is a passageway…” began 9S.
“It’s one that the enemy made,” finished 2B.
If the aliens had been using the path, in hiding, for the past several hundred years, it was no wonder their side had no record of it.
As if to support her theory, some things emerged out of the darkness. There was the sound of clashing metal. Red lights made a trail in the darkness. They were walking-type Machines. There were alien signals nearby, so it was obvious that there was going to be quite a few of their minions around.
It was difficult to fight in a dark and confined area, and it would be a hassle to make sure that the passage didn’t collapse from combat.
But these drawbacks affected the enemy as well. It took them about as much time as it would’ve taken aboveground to dismantle the enemy. 9S kept muttering about his shoes being wet and nasty, but that was nothing new.
As they moved along further, the water level receded. The number of enemies decreased as well.
“The alien signals haven’t changed at all, have they,” said 9S.
“But there’s fewer Machines coming out…” said 2B.
“Is it a trap?” asked 9S.
“I don’t know. Let’s be cautious,” replied 2B.
It was quiet. Only the sound of their dry footsteps echoed along the narrow path. Then, 2B felt something hard beneath her foot.
“A Machine?!”
There were the remains of a walking type lying at the edge of the path. 9S carefully observed the body.
“It looks like this has been here for a long time…” said 9S.
“It’s not just here,” answered 2B.
2B looked farther along the path. At the end of Pod’s light were remains of spherical types and cylindrical types rolling around. It looked like the number increased the deeper they went.
“But why?” asked 2B.
What had destroyed all these Machines? It was definitely not the resistance or the YoRHa squadron. If it had been, there would have been some kind of record of the battle that took place.
“I wonder if this is what catacombs were like,” said 9S.
“Cata-what?”
“They were underground graves left behind by the human civilization. There were even some that used naturally occurring caves,” said 9S.
Darkness, silence, and cold air. Then the Machine corpses. There were no signs of life or enemy signals at all. A grave was indeed a good way to describe the location.
“What’s this?” asked 2B.
They both stopped at the same time. It was clearly different in shape and material from the cave’s naturally occurring walls. Somebody had created an entrance of some sort.
“There’s no information on this either,” said 9S.
That meant it was probably an alien facility. There were still no enemy signals. They braced themselves and passed through the entrance, but nothing happened. The only noticeable thing that changed was the sound of their footsteps. The flooring and height of the ceiling had changed.
Dim light poured in through the shutters that extended toward the ceiling. 2B looked around, wondering what light source was being used underground.
Within the room, there were several rows of chairlike objects. They each had something on the seats. 2B nonchalantly took a look at one and gasped.
It was the shriveled remains of a creature—a creature different from anything else she had seen on Earth.
“Is this an alien?”
Every chair had similar-looking remains on it. They were in an awkward position that made it look like they were about to slip and fall to the floor.
“2B! Look!” yelled 9S, who had been looking out the windows. 2B hadn’t realized the shutters had been opened. She saw what 9S was pointing at through them.
“A ship? Is it the aliens’?” asked 2B.
To put it properly, it was the remains of what could have been a ship.
“It’s been destroyed.” said 2B.
It was easy to tell that the damage was not from a rough landing. There were countless spears piercing the ship’s hull. The alien ship had fought, and lost, to someone or something. This place was probably not a facility, but also part of the ship. This section seemed like it had been spared, but all the aliens that had entered were dead.
2B looked around one more time. The orderly chairs that held the slumped remains of the aliens. She remembered how 9S had described the place as an “underground base.” This was almost like…
“Welcome. To our creators’ graveyard.”
Graveyard. 2B had been thinking of the same exact word. But it was an unfamiliar voice. She quickly tried to find the owner of the voice. She felt her gaze harden.
“You two!” shouted 2B.
Two men stood at the end of her glare—the Machines resembling androids that they had fought back in the Mammoth Complex.
There were no footsteps. Neither they nor the two pods had detected any signals. It was as if the Machines had appeared out of nowhere. No, that didn’t matter now. They had to destroy them before the enemy could use a sonic attack like before.
“Pod!” called 2B.
She made 042 cover her as she leapt. She drew her sword and attacked in one motion. She thought her blade made contact with the man. It should have made contact, but he was gone. The man had disappeared.
“You’re sooo violent,” smiled the man from behind. His expression and his speech were different and more fluent then before. Although they weren’t wearing anything on their upper bodies, they had learned to wear clothes from the waist down. One had trimmed his hair short, while the other had kept his long and clipped the ends, as if they were trying to differentiate themselves.
“Hey big brother. Can I kill these guys?”
The man with the short hair had a monotone compared to the man with the long hair.
“Eve, calm down. We haven’t finished talking,” argued the man with the long hair. He turned his attention toward 2B and 9S. His tone had a hint of amusement.
“My name is Adam.”
Adam? The man with the long hair was Adam, and the man with the short hair was Eve?
“The aliens you androids are searching for are gone. Hundreds of years ago. We Machines drove them to extinction.”
“Extinct? The Machines did that?” asked 2B.
The man called Adam smirked knowingly.
“This time, the ones that will go extinct…it might be you androids?”
2B replied with her sword. Conversation with them was meaningless. If what Pascal said was true, and the only way to gain mutual understanding was through communicating, none of that was necessary. She did not want to understand them, and she did not want them to understand her.
“2B! Please be careful!” said 9S.
Adam had once again disappeared from the path of her blade. This time taking Eve, who had been standing by his side, with him.
“Machines are weapons that constantly evolve and grow stronger.”
A voice mocked from behind. It seemed like they had teleportation capabilities. They were indeed evolving, and at a terrifying rate.
“It wasn’t long before the intelligence accumulated on the network surpassed that of our creators,” said Adam.
“That’s still no reason to overthrow your creators.” 9S found himself speechless. He found it hard to relate, as they had been risking their lives for their creators, humans, since their creation.
“It’s fine. These fools are as simple as plants and have a boring composition. They’re worthless,” Adam’s gaze was directed toward the aliens’ corpses. Was it her imagination that his stare held a piercing coldness and smoldering hatred that seemed like they would freeze and burn anything at a moment’s notice?
But those emotions quickly faded. They were again replaced by an indecipherable expression.
“We’re interested in the humans on the moon,” said Adam.
“Humans?!”
“That’s right, humans are fascinating,” he said.
He raised his arms in a dramatic fashion.
“According to records, this species had very complex behaviors: they would kill each other, and at times love each other. Their actions were startling. We want to uncover the mystery of their motivations.”
His enchanted expression was disgusting. He made it seem like he had emotions, even though he was merely a Machine. “Startling”? “Mystery”? What did a Machine know?
“That’s why we want you androids, who were modeled after humans, to help us with our investigation,” said Adam.
2B was appalled by his courteous way of talking. What a foolish thing for a Machine to do.
“Drag the humans down from the moon, and analyze them while they’re still alive. Analyze them—and expose all their secrets. There’s nothing quite like it, is there?”
Her anger swelled. Something inside her started to stir. But 9S was the first one that let his anger erupt.
“How could we let you do something like that!”
9S’s long sword shot out of his hand. It flew toward Adam, but again lost its target, and clattered against the wall in vain.
“So I guess this means our negotiations have failed.”
“I guess we’ll just have to obliterate you. Both of you. Just like these mundane aliens,” said Adam.
Eve loomed over 2B. 2B swung her military sword down. This time it made contact, but it wasn’t enough to even leave a scratch. There was a wall of some sort protecting Eve.
She slashed with her sword, harder and harder, aiming at the same point. Her rage colored everything she saw in red. A fracture appeared in the invisible wall protecting Eve. She twisted the tip of her sword through the opening. The blade reached the target.
But Eve just kicked 2B’s sword away. A shock ran through her hand on the hilt. It was a powerful kick. The edges of Eve’s mouth curled. He was smiling.
She swung her sword, it was batted away, and she swung it again. Her fury did not settle. Drag the humans down? Analyze them? They’re just Machines. They’re just Machines. They’re just Machines…
How long had that repeated? She heard the words “It’s almost time.” Eve’s smile changed. It looked like he mouthed the word “promise.” 2B was taken aback by his wholehearted grin.
Eve disappeared, smile and all. It was the teleportation again. Adam and Eve stood together, away from 9S and away from 2B, as if to say the fight was over.
“This was the fate of our creators,” said Adam.
He pointed to the alien corpses in an exaggerated motion. Eve shrugged his shoulders as if to scoff.
“What about the humans you believe in?” asked Adam.
The next moment, Adam and Eve disappeared. Looking back and looking around, they were nowhere to be found.
They returned to the Bunker using a newly installed transfer device. According to 9S, the engineering department had been developing the technology so that androids could travel between Earth and the Bunker without using a flight unit.
Leaving the current chassis on Earth, the device transferred the personal data to a new chassis on the Bunker. When it came time to return to Earth, the personal data was restored to the original chassis. It was a different concept from physically descending in a flight unit, as it only involved the transfer of data and the prior construction of a chassis. It cut down vastly on the time required for travel.
Above all, it prevented any assault from happening while they were descending. It gave Command a headache when the expensive flight units were damaged in descents. The transfer device was their solution.
2B was curious about how long it took the engineering department to develop a functional transfer device. Those Machines named Adam and Eve had been flawlessly using teleportation. To think that they had been born not too long ago.
“Machines are weapons that constantly evolve and grow stronger.”
What capabilities would they evolve in the future? There was no time to waste. It was crucial to defeat them before their evolution grew out of hand. There was no way a pair that had destroyed their own creators could be left alone…
However, these were only the sentiments of a single soldier. Command made the decisions, and at times decisions would require agreement from the human board.
“…That concludes the report on the alien ship.”
The commander, who heard 2B’s report, replied with a low-pitched “I see.” 2B speculated just how much weight those short words carried. The commander had overseen their operations for many years. His shock from the news that the aliens had been extinct for several thousands of years must have far exceeded that which 2B and 9S had experienced.
“I will treat this as top secret information until we get a response from the human board,” said the commander.
Neither the commander’s expression nor tone carried a hint of emotion. She advised them, in her usual tone of voice, to tell no one about the incident.
“I’d also like you two to find out more about the Machine named Pascal.”
“Whaat?!”
9S was clearly unhappy about the unexpected order.
“That creepy Machine?” complained 9S.
It was obvious that 9S wanted to reject the order. If they had not been in the presence of the commander, 2B would have scolded him for showing too much emotion. She had told him a number of times that such displays were prohibited to a YoRHa squadron trooper.
“It’s a direct order from the human board on the moon,” said the commander apathetically. “Information about unique individuals will provide valuable research materials for future missions.”
“Roger that.”
Although 2B had agreed, 9S still carried a look of disapproval on his face.
Another Side “A2”
I heard the voice of a Machine. “I will protect,” it said. Apparently this Machine had something to protect.
Fighting to protect something. It had been a while since I had fought like that. I had nothing to protect anymore. All my comrades had died. People I had believed in before were now enemies.
Destroy anything that wasn’t myself. There was only one reason to fight. To destroy. No thinking, just wrecking.
“For the king of the forest,” proclaimed the voice. To outsiders this area looked like a forest, but it was actually thought to be a forest kingdom that was ruled by a king. That’s what I pieced together from what the Machines said.
The Machines in this area were more aggressive and stubborn than their counterparts. Functionally they were no different from other Machines, but there was a clear disparity in how long it took from first contact to destruction. They were a tough bunch.
At first this was strange. But after hearing the word “protect,” it all made sense. I knew how much stronger soldiers became when they fought to protect. I had been one of them too.
YoRHa prototype, Attacker No. 2. Even though I was a model specialized for close-quarters combat, I was a mediocre soldier. To be honest, I didn’t like to fight.
The fact that I was even selected as a member for the Pearl Harbor Descent Attack was proof that it was an experimental mission. At the time I had naively believed that I was riding a wave of great expectations.
I was desperate. Desperate not to burden my comrades, desperate to answer the commander’s expectations, I desperately ran through the battlefield. It didn’t matter if I didn’t like it—I had no choice but to fight. I had comrades to protect: fellow YoRHa squadron troopers and the resistance that I had met on Earth. My mediocre self grew stronger by protecting these women.
The Machines charged while shouting the words, “Repay your debt to the king!” It was an organized movement. They were a formidable enemy compared to their counterparts in other areas.
The first time I had ever seen Machines practice military formation to advance and attack was when I set foot in the forest.
Honestly, I was surprised. I never expected Machines to train for battle. Training was something performed by individuals with a considerable amount of decisiveness, and the capacity to think. It was something that Machines, who blindly followed commands, should not have been able to do.
I was surprised, but I realized it was possible. After all, Command had thrown sentient androids into battle only to discard them after they had collected data. Cold-blooded androids like them existed. Well, in reality their blood and tears were just colored liquids made to mimic those of humans. The point was, it was within the realm of possibility to have Machines that trained for battle as well.
I heard some voices scream, “The king is in danger! Take him to safety!” The level of alarm was gradually rising. It meant this was the right way. The place they were trying so hard to protect was up ahead. Most likely the throne room of their king.
I broke up the formation, and started to attack the stray Machines. I crushed them steadily, one by one. It took time, but it couldn’t be helped. Had I comrades, I might have been able to fight more efficiently. There was no use in thinking about this, anyway.
Fighting alone was inefficient, but there were some benefits. Nobody could betray me. I couldn’t receive any intel, but I also wouldn’t be given false intel and sent on a wild goose chase. I wouldn’t have to suspect anyone. I wouldn’t have to decide who was an enemy and who was a comrade.
Depending on how you looked at it, it was liberating. It was easy to understand. The rest of the world was my enemy.
In the distance, I heard the words, “Intruder spotted!” I felt uneasy. Perhaps there was another intruder. And that android’s mission could be not to destroy the Machines in the forest, but to capture the rogue android Attacker No. 2.
That would be troublesome. I had planned to destroy Machines here and there while making my way to the throne, but that was out of the question now. My new plan was to minimize the fighting, and approach the throne with little or no trace. I could take care of the small fry after taking care of their leader. The more organized a group was, the more vulnerable it was after losing its top brass.
After that, I could play around with the pursuit force. Of course, not running into them was by far the best choice.
I heard someone say, “I can’t let you pass.” The words were not directed at me.
There was a bridge crossing a valley, with a castle on the other side. There were two androids fighting the Machine responsible for securing the bridge.
“Please don’t let your guard down!” said 9S.
“That’s my line. Be careful, 9S.”
Type S No. 9. A high-performance scanner model. That meant the other android with my face was an execution model.
So they were deployed again. How many times would I have to send them back before they gave up? I was fed up with them. I thought it was awfully distasteful to send an execution model that used my battle data, but perhaps Command was just stupid.
“Dodge, 2B!”
2B? Not a type E? Then they might not be captors, but simply androids that were deployed to destroy Machines.
I quietly crossed the bridge while they were fighting and headed toward the castle.
I climbed the castle wall and looked for the king from the upper floors. As expected, two sets of hands were faster in battle; the two androids had already penetrated the king’s throne room. I waited to see what they would do.
“This is the king?” They looked at each other and hesitated, neither one making a move. What were they dawdling about? It got too tedious, so I jumped down, aiming my sword at the puny body of the Machine.
My aim did not err. I tossed the impaled Machine to the side. My job was done.
“2B! That’s an android! And it’s a YoRHa type!”
As I thought, they were not my captors. They didn’t recognize my face. Their boxes kept announcing a recommendation to destroy me. On the other hand, their completely opposite reactions made the situation rather comical.
“Destroy? Why?”
“9S, let’s do it.”
“What? 2B!”
So No. 2 had the will to fight. Come fight. I would beat her down as many times as she wanted.
A voice I didn’t want to hear spoke from the box.
“A message to 2B and 9S from the Bunker. We’ve detected the signals of wanted criminal A2. The woman that stands in front of you is an enemy. She is a rogue soldier. She’s killed multiple troopers that were in pursuit of her. You will be killed if you’re careless!”
It’s true. I’ve killed both of you many times. Her highness the commander’s words were misleading, but they weren’t wrong. They held some truth.
I heard 9S weakly mutter, “But…” under his breath. His reaction was different from previous encounters. Now that I thought about it, 2E—no, 2B—was acting differently as well. Her expression was missing something. If I had to say, it was missing a certain vitality. As if she had given up, and was half-heartedly going through the motions…
Oh, that’s right. That’s me. No. 2, who had the same face as me, was just making the same expression as me. I stopped attacking. I told myself that this was enough. I distanced myself from the pair, and jumped toward the window. 9S’s voice trailed behind me.
“Why…why did you betray us?!”
I had no obligation to answer. But I couldn’t ignore it. With my back still facing them, I said, “Command is the one that betrayed us.”
I don’t know what kind of face 9S made. Nor did I want to know. I kicked the window and jumped down.