The bottom floor was even more frigid then the elevator hall, and smelled of rust and dust. While it wasn’t pitch-dark, the dim light required them to watch their feet when they walked.
“What’s that?”
Rose, who was leading the group, stopped. No. 2 strained her eyes to see what Rose was pointing at.
“Humans?”
Rose cautiously moved closer. As they approached the figures, it became clear from their silhouettes that they were indeed at least humanoid. They were small, and were wearing wide-hemmed clothing.
“Red clothes? Girls?”
Two girls wearing identical outfits—a short one-piece in a vivid red that was visible in the darkness.
No. 4 spoke in an unusually deep voice. “Those red girls … they don’t look like your average children.”
At the very least, they weren’t human. Their heat signatures didn’t match those of humans, and there weren’t any humans left on Earth in the first place.
“Welcome.”
“They talk,” exclaimed someone. It was surreal for them to look like humans, and also talk. Their voices were raspy and clearly artificial. The red girls were that strange.
“We are an extremity of Machines.”
“We were modeled after your form.”
It took a long moment to process what the girls had said. Machines. Extremities. It was hard to make the connection between those terms and these two girls.
“W-we need to contact Command …” No. 2’s voice got stuck in her throat. No. 4 yelled into her transmission device, in lieu of the struggling No. 2.
“Command! Please answer! Command?!”
The transmission device was dead. No. 4 tried different frequencies and even laser transmission, without a single answer.
“They won’t answer. We’re blocking transmissions.”
“Because we want to have a long conversation with you.”
The red girls spun around, as if they were dancing.
“We were waiting for you to come, this whole time.”
“We were watching you, this whole time.”
The two girls tilted their heads to the side in a mirrored fashion. The girl on the right tilted her head toward the right, and the girl on the left toward the left. The way they acted made No. 2 very uncomfortable.
“Why do you try so hard?”
“Why do you want to die so much?”
“Don’t be stupid!” screamed Rose. “It’s because of you fools, isn’t it?! You’re the ones that stole Earth away from humanity!”
The girls ignored the accusations, and instead started giggling.
“You were only created to die.”
“You were only sent to Earth to die.”
Wanting to drown out the girls, No. 2 raised her voice in a frenzy. “That’s wrong! We came to fight! We weren’t created to die!”
The girls scoffed at her reply.
“Even though humans abandoned you?”
“Even though you’re being used?”
No. 4 suddenly drew her sword and attacked. “Shut up!”
It was an uncharacteristically intense shriek from No. 4. She was swinging her sword as hard as she could. Perhaps that’s why the girls dodged her attacks so easily.
“We hacked into your servers and found some interesting information.”
“It’s very important, so listen closely.”
“The YoRHa squadron were deployed as experimental weapons.”
“The unexpectedly severe battles and conditions were anticipated by Command.”
“Command wants to use your battle data to create a more advanced autonomous soldier.”
“Command planned all of this.”
“You’re the only ones that survived.”
No. 2 was frozen, her sword half-drawn.
“These kids … what are they saying?”
Their request to scrub the mission was rejected. Their request for reinforcements was rejected. Command rejected them, repeatedly, without reason.
“And you still want to fight?”
“And you still want to resist?”
No. 2 was opposed to Command’s decision. She had thought it was strange. She kept trying to ignore it, but a doubt had sprouted in the back of her mind since the time Seed had died.
“From the beginning, Command was going to …”
From the beginning they had planned on abandoning the YoRHa squadron. Perhaps Seed was declared dead because she had too many attachments to YoRHa? Or did Seed know all along, and act nice toward No. 2 because she had felt guilty?
“No. 2! Don’t be fooled! We don’t know if it’s the truth or a lie!”
No. 4’s voice brought her back to reality.
“We didn’t survive for no reason!”
Rose’s voice gave No. 2 enough strength to grip her sword again. She was right. How many comrades had they lost on their journey to this subterranean level? Ending this mission would mean that the sacrifices of their comrades had been in vain.
For now, all they had to do was what they were told. They could ponder their existence after they completed the mission.
“Then fight.”
“With this boy.”
The girls beckoned with their hand. A silhouette appeared from an area that had been empty just a few moments ago. It was a Machine with a body slightly larger than any of the Machines they had fought before, with eight legs protruding out of it. An appearance that could only be described as repulsive.
“Where did it come from …”
There was no time to dwell on the question. The Machine started to move. It manipulated its legs, which were bent at right angles, to move around, giving it a freakish gait. But it was unexpectedly fast. No. 2 could sense danger in the back of her mind.
She promptly turned on her thermo sensor, but couldn’t perceive any temperature differentials. Just as they all feared their enemies would, the Machines had studied the resistance’s attacks and adapted.
Rose readied her sword.
“Let’s destroy it!”
Gerbera, Shion, and Erica all said, “Yes,” in unison, as they spread out. After flanking the machine, they began to attack at once. Three of them formed one group, and Rose and Sonia composed the second. On the third flank were No. 2 and No. 4.
They knew it would be a tough battle. Any Machine deployed on Earth was encased in extraordinarily resilient armor. They were far more formidable than any simulated foe androids might face during training. And to think they didn’t know what its weaknesses were.
That wasn’t all. The eight-legged foe suddenly rose up. Before they knew it, it was on its six hind limbs, and attacking them with the front two.
“Everyone, dodge it!”
The two legs crashed down, their tips leaving deep gouges in the ground. Had she been late to dodge, she would have been crushed, thought No. 2 with a shiver.
She hadn’t expected the enemy to use its legs, a means of motion, as a means of attack. And the enemy hadn’t slowed a bit since switching to six legs.
Erratic motion, hard armor, and an unexpectedly powerful attack—how were they going to destroy it? And more importantly, how long could they dodge those attacks …
The feeling of desperation, like that had accompanied her first battle on Earth, took ahold of No. 2.
“This one’s strong!” Erica cried hopelessly from behind No. 2. Gerbera and Shion were gasping for air. No. 2 panicked, because she knew they would have to end this as fast as possible. The longer they took, the more Rose and her group would struggle. She knew how fragile the chassis of a two-hundred-year-old model could be. Seed had been like that too. Every moment outside of field tests was spent repairing her chassis …
“Erica!” Shion screamed.
“No!”
No. 2 thought she heard the scream of someone nearby, but in reality it was herself. The same unsightly legs had crumpled Erica’s left side in one swipe. Red liquid gushed out. It was definitely an instant death.
Suddenly, the Machine crouched. Just as No. 2 processed the motion and braced herself for its next attack, the enemy disappeared from her line of sight.
“It jumped?”
It happened in a flash. The Machine leapt into the air as if it were weightless.
“Gerbera!”
There was no time to stop it. The Machine landed, twisting Gerbera’s neck in an impossible direction. At the same time, its front legs assaulted Shion.
Shion, who had been paralyzed in fear, was slammed to the ground. She had been pierced by legs as thick as her femur. She probably had no time to even feel pain.
That wasn’t all. The Machine spread its eight legs and splayed itself onto the bodies of Erica and the other troops, looking to crush them all.
“You shit!”
Rose whipped her sword over her head. No. 4 grabbed her arm.
“Wait! It’s behaving weirdly!”
Right as the Machine started to move, the bodies of Erica and the others took to their feet. They weren’t alive. There was no chance that anyone with a pulverized heart, snapped neck, or gaping hole in their torso could still be alive.
The three of them swayed as they walked. No. 2 had seen those movements before. Slight irregular swaying, as if they were being pushed around by wind.
“Were you … infected?”
It sounded like Rose was on the verge of crying. No. 2 was shocked that Rose could sound like this, and it brought with it a sense of despair. Erica, Shion, and Gerbera were all silent. They had no expression and said no words. They just kept walking.
Gerbera, who had sighed and confessed about being a bullied child. Erica, who had said, her expression dark, that all she could remember from her childhood was battle. Shion, who had said she went through the same experience. It had hardly been an hour since that conversation.
“Just stop!” Sonia screamed as her knees buckled. The infected trio started to move differently. Their leisurely gaits turned into agile leaps. The three of them were scrambling for Sonia, guns and knives drawn.
“Watch out!”
She wanted to stop them but couldn’t. There were now Machines engaging No. 2 and No. 4. Just a little while ago, it had been seven of them against one enemy. They didn’t stand a chance then. Now there were only three of them, surrounded by enemies …
Rose wailed. Sonia screamed. No. 2 glanced at them while dodging the Machine barrage.
Rose stood in front of Sonia, impaled by a knife still gripped tightly by Gerbera. The wound was clearly mortal. The little girls shrieked in laughter.