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Chapter 11 Back at the Home Front

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“Rise and shine Organic… I mean Joshua,” says Shasi as she stands over Joshua as he rests in his bed.

“Argh… what time is it?” groans Joshua as he squints as Shasi turns on the lights, which are made all the brighter by her shiny and clean reflective cobalt blue metal silver stripped skin.

“4:00 hrs,” responds Shasi.

“You know I went to sleep at midnight, right?” groans Joshua.

“I do.”

“Then why are you waking me up? People who need to sleep, like me need at least eight hours of sleep or we’re dead to the world.”

“You’re in charge of the facility till Mistress Crisis returns and she starts the new day early. We mustn’t fall behind her schedule. You can function on less sleep for at least a week or two.”

“You don’t need me for everything,” sighs Joshua resting his head against the pillow and pulling the covers over his head.

“It’s only the fourth day Mistress Crisis has been gone, you can handle it,” states Shasi as she yanks the covers off of Joshua, who gives a light growl and moan in response as his claws and tail twitch annoyingly.

“Fine, fine,” groans Joshua with a stretch and a yawn as he slips out of bed, his claws tapping the ground as he rubs his eyes before he stands up with a huge stretch. He then turns to Shasi and says, “Do you mind? I’d like to at least take a shower without you watching.”

“Bothered? Nothing there I haven’t seen already, I was there for your last physical,” she responds.

“You were always like this,” comments Joshua with a sigh as he goes to take a shower.

“Always like what?”

“Argh… you know what I mean. You were always the workaholic and always pressured me to work as much as you do,” he remarks as he starts his daily bathroom routine, taking a shower, brushing up, all the while Shasi stands in the bathroom, arms crossed, sickle claw tapping impatiently on the ground.

“You were always a bit too lax, time is of the essence.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.”

“You don’t sound or act like you know.”

“Shasi… if being a robot doesn’t change you, nothing well,” remarks Joshua.

“Moving on… we have a lot of things today.”

“What’s first on the itinerary?” asks Joshua as he slips out of the shower, grabbing a tower to dry off. “That is after I eat breakfast and have a big cup of coffee.”

“First you have to go to Rioas and scout out a few buildings to be converted into munitions factories, find which buildings will be repaired to increase the living quarters of the organics in the city, and lastly a maintenance facility for what information Mistress Crisis will bring to us,” explains Shasi as she pulls out an electronic clipboard interface to look down at and tap the screen to get the data she requires.

“Sounds like a full day.”

“At noon there is another shipment of elderly organics that you will need to help attend to and then…”

“Wait what?! Slow down, I’m not a machine,” he remarks.

“We can fix that if you want,” responds Shasi with a smirk with a soft blue glow from her eyes.

“No, I don’t want to fix that, I like being flesh and blood,” responds Joshua.

“Won’t know till you try.”

“Yeah… but once you try you don’t go back though,” remarks Joshua.

“Then you end up loving it, so I really don’t see the issue here,” says Shasi.

“I could never win a conversation with you ever.”

“That’s because you’re never right.”

“Argh…” sighs Joshua as he goes to the mess hall to eat before heading outside of the base to a jeep waiting there to pick him up with Shasi, Arissa and Sasha already in the jeep waiting.

“You take too long to eat,” comments Shasi as Joshua climbs into the shotgun seat while Shasi takes the driver’s seat.

“Sorry but I almost fell asleep in whatever they call breakfast at the cafeteria… the sun isn’t even out, why do we have to do this now? Just let me sleep for another hour or five,” groans Joshua.

“Do you always complain?” asks Sasha as she adjusts her sniper rifle in her lap as the jeep takes off towards the Rioas

“I don’t always complain, I just like to get some sleep after a hard day’s work that’s all.”

“How much sleep did you get?”

“Barely four hours.”

“Four hours? You weakling, getting that much sleep in a day on the front was a luxury that I rarely saw,” she remarks.

“I’m not some special ops raptor; I’m just a scientist, programmer and an engineer.”

“Damn it man, you’re just one of those super smart raptors aren’t you?”

“I wouldn’t say that, I just have a knack for a few things, that’s all.”

“Well then, didn’t you spend countless hours of studying, doing those projects that were due the next day, what about all those sleepless nights?” asks Sasha.

“A few but that was in my younger days when I was used to it, can’t do it so much now.”

“Younger years? You’re like what thirty?!”

“Thirty-two to be exact,” he replies.

“Argh, and you don’t spend all nighters on projects here, with Crisis?”

“Occasionally but not back to back to back like this,” he remarks.

“You make me sad to be a raptor, you know that?”

“He makes me sad to have been an organic raptor at one time,” comments Shasi.

“Come on, why are you two picking on me like this?”

“You know, Mistress Crisis did pick him for this job, you should show him some respect,” states Arissa.

“Thank you Arissa, you’re the only one on my side in this.”

“You all should also remember if Mistress Crisis gets captures, Joshua will be the new Crisis and you don’t want to start off on her bad side.”

“Never mind…”sighs Joshua. Eventually they reach Rioas where robotic raptors are working around the clock to improve the look of the city, remodeling and rebuilding parts of the city, steadily bringing it back to life.

“Early to rise, late to bed, eh Joshua?” says Phillip as he stands by the organic guarded entrance of the Crisis section of the city as the Jeep approaches him.

“Yeah, yeah, I have no choice but that. Why are you standing there anyway sir?”

“Waiting for you Joshua,” he replies.

“Why?”

“Command heard how you are looking for facilities in the city to convert to munitions production, and I’m here to assist you in scouting for appropriate facilities.”

“You mean to watch me since I’m technically in command,” remarks Joshua.

“You act like I don’t trust you. You’re one that hasn’t given me a reason not to, not yet at least.”

“Okay, but then why would you need to help? I’m sure Arissa and Shasi here are enough of a help. They downloaded requirements needed for converting a building to a munitions factory.”

“What you want and what we want may not be the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“Resources are a rare commodity; we need to do this efficiently and effectively.”

“Of course, this is why we have to do this.”

“We want you to not only make enough munitions for yourselves, but to assist to alleviate our own munitions problems.”

“No offense sir, but why? I’m all for helping, but that’s putting even more stress on our skim resources.”

“One, we need it, two it’s good PR.”

“Ah, I see, I see… well shall we begin then?”

“Lets, there are a few buildings over there we could start looking at. I’ve had some of my men do some scouting last night to make this go by faster.”

“Really? Hmm this step might go by fast enough I could catch a nap afterwards.”

“Don’t bet on it. Any time saved from this will be put to good use improving our overall forces,” remarks Shasi.

“Figures,” says Joshua with a sigh.

“Head over there, down Fern street and take a left at Lake drive, I’ll meet up with you in a few moments,” says Phillip as he points in the direction of where to go.

“Not coming right away?” asks Joshua.

“I need to talk to Sasha for a little bit.”

“I get it. I’ll leave you two to it then,” says Joshua as he, Arissa, Shasi walk off.

“General Raszer is growing concerned about the Crisis project.”

“He’s always concerned, not that I’ve had the personal pleasure of seeing this for myself,” she remarks.

“It’s never a pleasure to meet him, trust me,” replies Phillip as he flicks his tail before saying, “How’s Joshua handling his duties?”

“Not the best. I doubt he’d make a good second Crisis.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to it, I rather like the guy. I feel bad with what he is going through right now.”

“He’s weak. Now what is it do you want to ask me?”

“The General wants an updated report on Crisis’ army’s current strength and those in charge. You can never be too cautious when dealing with self aware machines.”

“Even after the relay being installed, he still wants other sources of what’s going on, a clever fellow.”

“I’ve noticed. How long will it take you to compile a report?”

“You’ll have it in a few hours.”

“Excellent. I’ll let you tend to that matter while I go and see how Joshua is holding up.”

“Yes sir,” responds Sasha with a salute as the two part ways.

Phillip makes his way into the old building complex where spiders and bugs have made this place their home long before the city was abandoned. Layers of dust cover the doors, as windows have broken from natural neglect. As Phillip makes his way in deeper he can see old equipment lying dormant covered in cobwebs and even more dust as he follows the foot prints left in the ground to locate the trio talking about this find.

“This is an old munitions factory, but I have no records that one has ever existed in Rioas,” says Joshua as he runs a claw along one of the machines making a small swirling tornado of dust, “All this stuff is fairly old too.”

“Approximately thirty-eight years old to be exact,” states Arissa.

“My records show that Rioas has had no such factory such as this over seventy-years, since the second disarmament peace treaty,” says Joshua.

“Do you really think we ever paid that much attention to the disarmament treaties?” asks Phillip.

“Well it was our lack of attention to the first one that led to the second.”

“Joshua I’m disappointed in you,” remarks Phillip.

“Why?”

“The fact you believe that’s why that war happened. I can understand why the other nations don’t like us, nay I might say a lot of them hate and despise us. You know we don’t even get the tenth of the aid that other nations do,” says Phillip.

“Yes I know, why do you think we even have a Crisis project? We have no other alternatives,” replies Joshua.

“Anyway, you think this shall do? I’m sure your machines could upgrade some of the equipment here to be of some kind of use.”

“I think it can work, what do you think Arissa? Shasi?”

“Can work, though only for the small arms fire, nothing here would be helpful for anything big, like tank shells or bombs,” replies Shasi.

“The next two buildings next to this one should provide for that,” sates Phillip.

“Just how many buildings here were used as ammunition factories?” asks Joshua.

“Officially? Zero. Unofficially? Classified.”

“Classified? How is it classified?”

“I don’t make the rules.”

“Yet you are pointing out some of these classified factories to us right now.”

“Doesn’t matter, you will refurbish them, and command can write it off as you converting these commercial factories to military use.”

“Meaning you are using us as an excuse to restart war factories here.”

“Yeah pretty much, there is no reason to lie to you about it, you’re not an idiot.”

“Tell me about it. So Shasi how’s our schedule looking now?”

“A little ahead of schedule, but with these factories, we will need material to update them, not to mention the materials to produce the ammunition, we also need someone who has knowledge of how to produce these things. We currently have no machine with such knowledge,” she replies.

“With any luck we might get some in our next shipment,” says Arissa.

“Do you have to call the people coming to be roboticized as shipments?” asks Joshua.

“Anything wrong with that?”

“They’re people, not materials, give them respect?”

“Sorry, I thought I was, they are lucky to be converted for Mistress Crisis, what would you recommend me calling them?”

“Just say volunteers? It sounds nicer.”

“And would be better PR for us, if others caught you speaking to them like equipments, it would not go well for us,” remarks Phillip.

“I hope you’re not just worried about PR.”

“My concern is the people I’ve been assigned to protect. Those people are my concern and if I must die for them, I will.”

“What about others around you?” asks Joshua with a glare, “We are people too.”

“I pray I am never put in that situation. Why do you think I volunteered to be the general’s watch dog and coordinator for this project?”

“I see… so how are we going to get this material? This city isn’t a one stop military production facility… or am I wrong on that again?”

“We can import scrap metal and salvage what else we need. The lack of food and high efficiency of a robotic army working around the clock should be helpful. Also high command told me if fifty percent of what is produced is shipped back to them; they will supply the war materials needed for full time production.”

“Only keeping fifty percent of what we produce will hinder our progress,” states Shasi.

“I agree.”

“It’s the most command is willing to let you keep for your work. It’s better than nothing.”

“It is better than nothing; I don’t see many other options. I recommend getting some of the newest converts over here to clean these places up. They’ll be the most able to handle the dust till the maintenance issue is settled,” comments Arissa.

“It appears our efficient pace is being rewarded,” says Shasi.

“Why do you say that?” asks Joshua.

“It appears the ship—volunteers have arrived early. We should go over there and see them.”

“Alright, but Shasi why don’t you stay here and focus organizing the other machines to clean this place up, Arissa and I can handle the shipment.”

“If you wish,” she responds as Joshua, Arissa and Phillip head out of the factory.

“You just wanted to be away from her,” says Arissa.

“How could you tell?”

“I have my ways, I’m rather good at telling emotions.”

“Really? Somehow I find that strange.”

“A machine able to read the predictable emotions of organics? I don’t find that strange at all,” she replies.

“Never mind,” remarks Joshua with a sigh as the three come to the sight of several trucks unloading elderly raptors with the help of organic soldiers, when something odd catches their attention.

A bright red car drives right along the convoy; her car dodges a jeep or two trying to stop her as she makes it into the city and car screeches to a halt. A black scaled silver striped raptor wearing a red shirt and blue jean shorts jumps out of the car, she doesn’t even spend a moment to close the car door behind her. She sprints up to an elderly black scaled raptor with red stripes that stands in line with a wooden cane and an air tank dragged along in his other hand.

Joshua looks at the scene before him as he blinks a few times as he stares at the young black scaled raptor for a moment before he mumbles “Maria?” Two organic guards grab Maria trying to hold her back as she struggles against them as she continues to try to make it towards the elder raptor.

“Release me!” screams Maria as Joshua rushes over to her.

“You are not allowed to be here,” says one of the guards.

“And I’m telling you to let me go you fucking idiots. That’s my great grandfather and there is no way I am going to let him become some machine!”

“And I told you this is my decision and I won’t have you, your mother or anyone else tell me otherwise. I gave my best years for this country and I am not going to sit around and let some robot take it over!” remarks elderly raptor in a raspy voice as he moves forward. “Move forward you slow pokes, I can’t wait forever,” he growls as he smacks one of the guard soldiers in the knee who barely flinches from the hit.

“Maria? What are you doing here?”

“Joshua? What are you doing here? I haven’t heard from you in years!” she exclaims as she continues struggles against the two guards. “Did one of your relatives get put here too? I can’t believe they are letting some crazy machine do this to our people. I don’t care if it’s volunteering, it’s just not right,” she says as her attention turns towards Phillip as she growls, “Hey you!”

“You talking to me Miss?” asks Phillip as he reaches the group.

“You look like the one in charge. Tell me where that robotic bitch is so I can beat some sense into her and not take my great grandfather.”

“And I told you I’m going!” he remarks with a growl then a cough.

“Great Grandfather? That would mean—,” says Phillip as he’s interrupted.

“Tell these drones here to let go of me. I promise not to do anything rash.”

“Let the woman go, I hate to talk to someone while they’re held up like that,” orders Phillip as the soldiers comply.

“Thank you,” she says as she tugs herself free from the two and sticks her tongue out at them before brushing herself off, “Now I know you’re just some pawn in this, show me the metal monstrosity in charge.”

“Actually… I’m the one currently in charge,” says Joshua as he then looks down at the ground.

“Huh… you? You’re in charge?”

“For the moment he’s in charge, Crisis isn’t available as she doing some specialized field testing which will be followed up by extensive maintenance,” explains Arissa.

“And who… or should I say what are you?”

“I’m Arissa, I’m one of the original designers of Crisis,” she responds.

“So I have you to thank for all this… if you weren’t a robot I’d slug you right now.”

“Would this be a bad time to mention I had more to do with the project than she did… and I’m the only still organic scientist from said project?”

“What did you just say?!” exclaims Maria as he gets into Joshua’s face. “I have YOU to blame for all of this?”

“In a way…”

“Joshua! How could you, I never thought you’d do something like this.”

“The roboticization wasn’t my idea, I just helped build Crisis, and I can assure you, she has a good moral background.”

“And how can you be so sure of that? Look at what the current robot lord of destruction has been doing.”

“I put it in myself?”

“Joshua…”

“Not to interrupt, but how do you know this… ahem, woman?” asks Phillip.

“Long story short… we dated back in college.”

“If you could call it that. You were always so focused on your school projects especially with that Karrie girl.”

“Maria, can we not go into that again?”

“Fine…” she groans and growls. “Where did great grandfather go?”

“You two have been arguing for sometime they should be at the roboticizes right now,” says Arissa.

“What? No we have to stop him!”

“Why would we do that? We need every person we can get.”

“You don’t get it…”

“I can tell you don’t like us for what we are, and I can understand you don’t. I would be hesitant too to trust us, after all we’re machines like the enemy, but we’re here to help not destroy,” states Arissa.

“No it’s not that… well it’s that but also… I hope I am not too late,” she says as she runs off towards the roboticizers.

“Is she always like that?” asks Phillip.

“Yeah… pretty much,” says Joshua as he leans over to Arissa. “Please tell me is going to be a male machine? I don’t want to explain the gender shift to her.”

“I already made sure of it once I saw she was here,” replies Arissa.

“Good,” says Joshua with a sigh before he goes after Maria who just makes it to the roboticizers facility’s entrance but right before she enters she runs into a sleek black metal raptor. His red stripes shining brightly as his blue eyes glow as he looks at Maria while on select spots on his body are Crisis’ markings.

“Oh Maria you have no idea how great this feels,” he says to her.

“Great Grandfather… How could you!” she says hitting his chest a few times as the raptor doesn’t even flinch or budge from the clanking hits.

“Oh this is great I can feel you hits but doesn’t hurt at all,” he says as he looks over his body. “I will have to thank Crisis for this second chance… now I hear you need someone good with making explosives and ammunition.”

“That we are,” says Joshua with a light pant as he catches up to the two.

“I see you have some experience in this matter,” says Arissa as she approaches.

“Great Grandfather has a lot of experience in that…” says Maria trailing off.

“What’s your name?” asks Phillip as he flicks his tail in interest.

“Francis Gerald, former special ops and former head of the fourth government’s internal safety forces,” replies Francis.

“Former head of the fourth government’s internal safety forces?” asks Joshua.

“He means he was head of the secret police of our country’s last dictatorship not to mention a veteran of both of our wars of aggression,” states Maria.

“My great granddaughter, you shouldn’t be ashamed of our family’s prestigious history,” says Francis.

“There is nothing great about what you did.”

“I did what I had to do for my country, and I kept the peace, I shall do the same for our nation and Crisis once again,” he replies.

“You should be most helpful; Shasi is setting up the factories now that we need to get in operation right away,” says Phillip.

“I’ll put my expertise to good use,” he says as she rushes off.

“I love my great grandfather… but I don’t think he’s one who should get a second chance at being young… or whatever he is now,” comments Maria with a sigh.

“We need all we can get in this war Maria. His sacrifice will aid us all in these difficult times.”

“We need to be going there is much work to be done,” says Arissa.

“There always is… Phillip sir, can make sure Maria is cared for? Maria once I get a free moment I’ll try to explain things better for you okay? I promise.”

“Is this going to be like that last promise you made to me?” she replies with a glare.

“Can we please not go into that again?”

“Yeah whatever, just go and do what you have to do,” grumbles Maria as she turns her back to Joshua.

“I’ll be back I promise,” sighs Joshua.

“I’ll see what I can do,” replies Phillip as he motions some soldiers over as Joshua is whisked away by Arissa.

“Hey don’t be so hasty, do we have to rush everywhere?” asks Joshua as Arissa is pulling him along by the hand towards the command headquarters of Crisis’ forces here at the city.

“We just got an important communication from Mistress Crisis. I wanted you to see it first.”

“Wait… what? Crisis contacted us? Is she coming back already? Oh that’s great news… or was she captured? Oh I don’t want to become her now…” replies Joshua with a moan as he’s pulled inside.

“We aren’t sure yet, it’s a massive file with an audio attachment. We won’t know for sure till it’s all in and analyzed,” explains Arissa as she and Joshua go into the command center where several machines work to compile the data that they are receiving.

“So what’s the message?” asks Joshua nervously.

“It’s encrypted so give it a bit,” replies Arissa after a few minutes the audio message comes up.

“I don’t have much time so I shall make this brief. I managed to get the information we needed and I am sending it to you now. I’ve already been able to update my own nanites to survive better in the city. I’m learning a lot about how Croc operates, which is why I am going to be staying here for an additional week so I can learn more. I’ve caught wind of a special project Croc is working on. I can’t let this opportunity slip by, so I must learn more. I should contact you again in ten days and activate my beacon for pick up. Use this information to get our repair facilities up and run—.”

“Crisis what are you doing?” asks soft foreign robotic voice.

“Nothing Hanna,” replies Crisis as the audio feed ends.

“Sounds like Mistress is doing well for herself.”

“I worry though…”

“You always worry,” replies Arissa.

“Mind if I get a moment to myself? I’ve been running around all day, and now I get this thrown at me… also please give me a few full nights of rest? I can’t operate with so little sleep over the next ten days.”

“You can take a fifteen minute break, there is a break room down the hall you can use. I’ll talk to Shasi about giving you some more time to sleep.”

“Thanks,” says Joshua as he heads out of the room and down the hallway where a familiar brown tail catches his eye. He stands there for a moment before glancing back down the hallway.

“Hmm… I wonder what she could be up to…” mumbles Joshua as he feels a strange desire to move slowly and steadily, what few natural instincts tugging at his mind as he moves rather stealthily down this new hallway. As Joshua draws closer he starts to hear Sasha talking to someone.

“You sure it’s a good idea to contact me in Crisis’ headquarters?” asks Ko.

“Relax, I know what I’m doing. Crisis barely has this whole facility up and running, especially with her over by you. I figured since I was ordered by ‘my’ command to compile a report on Crisis, that I forward this report to you first.”

“Excellent, I’m sure Croc will be pleased on the useful information you have given our forces.”

“Croc? Sasha is working for Croc?!” thinks Joshua as he stands next to the door.

Sasha flicks her tail as she takes a few sniffs in the air, “Sorry to cut this off but I have to go,” says Sasha as she quickly cuts the video feed before Ko could reply. Sasha slowly turns around and reaches for a pistol holstered to her thigh, her sniper rifle still trapped to her back as she smacks the door open and jumps out. “Gotcha!”

Sasha aims the gun at her target as she then growls to find that no one is there. She quickly looks down the hallways to see no one is there as she quickly holsters her weapon.

“Sasha! There you are, how’s that report coming along?” asks Phillip as he comes down the hallway.

“I just finished it sir, I was just on my way to deliver it to you.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Come have lunch with me in my quarters where it’s more secure so we can go over some of the finer details of your report.,” remarks Phillip.

“As you wish sir,” she replies as the two walk away as Joshua holds his muzzle shut with one hand and holds the door open with his sickle claw toe at the very bottom of the door, while hides himself between a small crevice created by the wall and the open door. His heart races as he waits till the tip tap of their claws on the tiled floor fades away before he peeks out and looks down both ways to see they are gone.

Joshua sighs in relief sliding himself down against the wall to the ground as he says to himself, “That was too close.”

“Breaks over, time to get back to work,” says Arissa as she finds Joshua sitting on the ground.

“Oh… okay… hey Arissa I have a question for you?”

“What is it?” she asks as he sees Sasha and Phillip pass by down at the end of the hallway, Sasha manages to sneak a quick glance over at Joshua before he replies. Sasha stops and after a quick comment to Phillip she and him head over to Joshua and Arissa.

“Do you think I could have another break or something?”

“Already? You just had one.”

“Yeah I didn’t think so,” says Joshua as he looks over at Sasha then back at Arissa. “Damn it… if I tell that she’s a spy they’d write off Crisis and then I’ll be the new Crisis but if I don’t tell she might not come back anyway… and it won’t look good if one of high command’s watch dogs was suddenly claimed to be a spy and taken care of by Crisis’ forces… and command won’t believe me if I say she’s a spy, they trust her more than me.”

“Alright now that that’s done, we have an important message from Crisis Phillip that we think you should hear.”

“Really now? Crisis has contacted us?”

“Yes, apparently she discovered something big but will need more time to decrypt it,” explains Arissa as she leads Phillip and Sasha into the command room to hear Crisis’ audio though as Joshua listens to it he notes it is slightly edited…