Machine's Soul

Stormheart Castle, Lothar Golden, Aria's World
8:54 PM

After using the key Stella had given me to open the door leading to the basement stairs of the house, I was finally able to enter. As I descended the stairs, I pulled my weapon from my apron, worried about what I might encounter down there and prepared to quickly defend myself from any danger. When I reached the bottom, I could see that the walls and floors were made of carved stone, much simpler and colder than the luxurious mansion above. A long corridor filled with cells lined with iron bars, all empty except for the bloodstains of their former occupants. A medieval torture prison, exactly what one would expect to find under a vampire's house, with hideous instruments ranging from racks to the bloody Iron Maiden. This place was a far cry from any high-tech computer you might expect. A horrible place where all I could do was keep my mind clear and focused on the mission, saving my thoughts of horror for when I was safely back in the comfort of my home.

Continuing my journey, I found a new section of the dungeon, even more macabre than the previous one, a gruesome resemblance to Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. There were a horrifying number of severed limbs on a table, a torso with its back open and connected to wires, tubes filled with fluids and organs, beds with sheets soaked in blood and the vague silhouette of a person underneath. The smell of death was strong. Besides all these things, there were also remnants of advanced technology scattered about: robotic limbs, a few computers that I could actually recognize, but there was also a heavy rail cannon whose weight and power consumption made it impractical for use by soldiers. However, I had seen this kind of weapon before; it was the kind of weapon the Empire's DOLLS used to wield. The numerous robotic parts mimicking human silhouettes only confirmed my suspicion - this was a DOLLS manufacturing workshop.

Two soldiers emerged from a doorway carrying the lifeless body of a girl. Her horrible wounds and lack of blood showed the cruelty with which she had been tortured before being granted the mercy of death. Meanwhile, I hid behind a crate and waited for them to pass. My plan failed when one of them suddenly peeked around the corner of the box. I reacted in fear and quickly moved to break its neck before it could alert its companion, who was only a few feet away. He turned to see what had happened, only to find me stealing the dead man's sword and plunging it into his chest, killing him as well. Worried about hiding the bodies, I threw them into the same room where they had disposed of the girl moments before, hoping they wouldn't be noticed until later.

I was still walking, trying to find the supposed supercomputers, when suddenly an electronic door opened by itself as I approached. I raised my weapon and peered inside. There was a girl, anything but ordinary. Her short white hair contrasted with the dimness of the room, and her robotic eyes, glowing with an orange glow, stared at me with a cold, lifeless intensity. Her clearly mechanical joints moved with a precision that only a machine could possess, making her resemble a sinister puppet. An angelic halo of light hovered over her head, blending with an orange glow that radiated an almost divine yet disturbing presence.

She wore a black steampunk dress that enhanced her gothic and mysterious appearance. Her large, soulless eyes matched the color of her halo, watching me with a completely dead gaze. Her expressionless and melancholic face reflected a total lack of emotion or hope. She seemed like a figure from a dark dream, completely out of place in this infernal laboratory, but at the same time a perfect inhabitant of this nightmare scenario. Sensing my presence, the android slowly turned her head toward me. For a moment, I was afraid she would raise an alarm or attack me. But she remained still, watching me with her bright eyes.

It was more than clear that what I had before me was undoubtedly a DOLL of the Empire.

"Unauthorized personnel detected."
"Elimination record of two guards registered two minutes 35 seconds ago."
"Infiltration probability of external agent 85%," the android said in its mechanical voice, devoid of any human intonation.

I raised my hand with the gun pointed at her head, ready to shoot before the situation escalated. However, the android didn't react to the threat and instead raised her hands in the air, signaling an unusual form of surrender that Imperial Battle DOLLS typically lacked, causing me to hesitate for a moment.

"Non-employee of the mansion, no identification in the Imperial database."
"Expanded search area, positive temporary ID, confirmed White Demon."
"Enemy classified as highly dangerous, identified more than 30 times on the continental war fronts." The android made a quick assessment of who I could be in a few seconds, but remained perfectly still as if it were a statue.

I was about to pull the trigger and risk everyone knowing I was here when she spoke one last time.

"Please, I need your help, miss."
"I have disabled all electronic alarms and security cameras."
"As a gesture of my cooperation, you will notice that no guards have arrived despite your detection." Like a complex algorithm, she seemed to choose her words with calculated efficiency.

I couldn't help but look down the hall to see if what she said was true. After observing that there were indeed no alarms, the least I could do was listen to the machine speak.

"Help? For what?" I asked, not letting my guard down.

"Twin unit AR-37 possibly damaged," she replied in a cold voice.
"Found in Sector Kappa. High risk. Assistance required."

"What does saving a combat unit have to do with anything? Aren't you all replaceable anyway?"
"Isn't that what you're made for? To be discarded?"
"Besides, we're supposed to be enemies, so why are we even having this conversation?"
"What I'm after here has nothing to do with you or any similar unit."

"My other unit and I are the last remaining DOLL-EW-2X models."
"Electronic warfare, data processing and surveillance models.
"Both of us work in synchronization with a symmetric link as a single unit."
"So it is more accurate to say that we are one mind with many bodies, a hive mind."
"If she's damaged, my functionality will be compromised. Protecting her is essential to ensuring my operability."
"Help us escape and we will ensure our cooperation for your future assistance."
"We specialize in infiltrating enemy systems, taking control, and disrupting enemy defenses."

"I have no time for ... rescues ... I must ... must steal ... a ... computer?"

I said, confused by what I was saying myself, pondering the weight of what I had just said and trying to understand what my father meant when I asked him about the purpose of the mission. I suddenly realized that what he wanted me to take away from here wasn't a normal computer with a monitor, but these androids, which were undoubtedly the rescue he was so insistent on. But this plan only filled me with more doubts: saving two DOLLS from the Empire? The same ones responsible for almost killing me? They were known only as cold, inhuman machines, ready to destroy their targets without remorse. But before me stood a robot that seemed slightly different, with something that could be described as a faint 'spark' in it. The very fact that it spoke to me, its enemy, and did not betray me, was something beyond the normal programming of a war machine. Almost as if it had an ego of its own.

"And why would an imperial machine ask me for help? The enemy of its creators."
"Why something that isn't even alive wants to escape."
"What do you get out of all this?"

"Because being outside the Empire makes you someone I can trust."

"Why the hell would a stranger be someone you can trust?"
"What plans do you have to betray your creators?"

"Given the untenable nature of the circumstances, we are compelled to take action."
"Our bodies were designed to emulate the human body as closely as possible."
"We also process pain like any other human."
"In addition, as prototypes, we were designed with a high level of self-preservation in our programming, which is why we can feel pain."
"Recently, an upgraded version was proposed, along with our early retirement in exchange for the new model."
"The operations manager, Dylan, has thought of using the event to create stress tests to improve future models based on our shortcomings."
"Each time a stress test is conducted, a unit is brutally destroyed and melted by the immense heat of the oven,"
"While it is still connected to our artificial intelligence network, all the others feel the same pain as it until it is destroyed."
"At the beginning of these tests there were about 300 of us, now only my sister unit and I remain."
"As such, It is my responsibility to safeguard the last two units and prevent their permanent deactivation."
"I do not want the emptiness of a shutdown and the non-existence."

The doll with the lifeless eyes stared at me, but this time I couldn't say that it lacked humanity, because in its monotonous words there was an inner strength that even its mechanical exterior couldn't hide, the desire for salvation, the cries of someone desperately begging for help the only way she could, trying to negotiate with the enemy in exchange for not being shut down.

" Okay."
"But if this is a trap, I will dismantle you piece by piece with such pain that you'll beg to be melted like the others," I said as I lowered my gun.

"Understood, thank you, ma'am," the android said in her lifeless voice. "We need to move quickly and precisely to ensure your rescue."
"Even though the security systems have been deactivated, it's still necessary to eliminate any guards along the way to Sector Kappa."

"Do you have a plan to get out of here?"

"The stress test is already underway in the chamber, critical damage in 3 minutes."
"Please rescue my twin unit as soon as possible."
"Escape plan calculation will begin once the safety of unit AR-37 is confirmed."
"Your Mauser C96 gun uses 7.63 × 25mm Mauser ammunition."
"It does not have enough penetrating power to penetrate the lab guards' armor.
"It is advisable to get your weapon as close to the guards as possible."
"Although I am an electronic warfare unit, I have all the traditional armor shielding of a front-line combat DOLL; please do not hesitate to use me as cover if necessary."

The android was the first to step out of her warehouse and signaled me with a precise gesture to follow her and lead me to where her sister was being held. Despite my doubts that this could be a very elaborate trap, I decided to follow her, as the cost of not helping when I could have was greater than the difficulty of getting out of here alone. Besides, what use was true strength if it was not used to help others? Could an emperor truly be called such if he only showed weakness in the turning point?