FSE

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"Step away from the cordon, ma'am" replied the officer gruffly.

Cybe folded her arms, gently leaning back. She narrowed her eyes as she peered at the translucent holo-field that hung in mid-air between herself and the security officer. She canted her head upwards, refusing to budge an inch backwards, examining the ruins behind the officer.

The truck truly had made a complete mess. The first city block that it had collided in had been reduced to rubble, with the second and third blocks all smashed into vast chunks of twisted metal, cracked masonry and twisted store-fronts.

Damn, thought Cybe, Luke really had done a number on this neighbourhood. "Let me through" she said, "I want to see."

The officer leered closer, the shine on his helmet reflecting the varied hues of multiple emergency lights "Back away" he warned, motioning with the barrel of his gun.

Cybe gave a light sigh and whirled back a few steps. She wondered where that silly boy had got to. She had hoped to catch sight of him somewhere around the crash site, but the expedition had yielded no result.

The soldier strode away, his heavy boots making crunching sounds. He motioned to another, and the pair walked a few strides further away. Together, the two began to chatter.

Cybe contemplated her next move. Her objective was to reunite with her colleagues and get them to safety - but how? Hopefully, she could recover her spare body as well, although with the mess that had resulted from the crash she was not sure that it wouldn't have sustained so much damage that it might not come online.

For a moment, she looked around. Not far from the officers, their vehicle waited - a small two-man mobile tank, mounted with a crowd-dispersal cannon. It sat by the side of the ruined buildings, almost twice as tall as her height.

As Cybe looked at it, her eyes widened. Slowly her mouth opened, agape. Unable to resist, she hurried forward.

"Hey!" called one of the officers.

The android ignored him, hurrying over to the vehicle. It was tall enough that her head tilted to look at it. She gazed in awe, looking at the vehicle's sturdy armoured casing, its taut caterpillar treads, it's heavy and powerful cannon. Somewhere, deep in her programming, she wanted it.

"Hey!" came another shout from the officer.

Cybe turned her eyes towards him, and canted her head. "Excuse me?"

Taking a few steps closer, the officer crossed through the cordon and approached her. "What are you wanting here?"

She effected a shrug. "Just a bit of a look."

"That's a law enforcement vehicle," snarked the officer as he gave a leery grin. "I guess that I could arrange for you to have a good close look at it" he said, the corner of his lip turning up. "In return for some fun."

She folded her arms. "What kind of fun?"

The officer stepped closer, lowering his gun. "Maybe a blowjob, little miss?"

Cybe looked at him, a wry grin forming over her lips. For a while, she had forgotten that she would have to deal with men differently now. She tapped her booted foot against the pavement, hoping that they were sturdy enough to deal with this guy.

"I see" she grinned. "The cannon, it's pretty big."

The officer's smirk managed to grow even more lustful. "Yeah" he replied, rolling the words. "And loves a good polish."

"Let's hope it doesn't go off prematurely" she retorted. Playfully, she flexed her shoulders, looking around. "Still" she said, effecting a free, lighty manner, "It is such a nice tank. I think I'll take it."

"What?" replied the officer.

* * *

Ashley rubbed the crotch of her new clone body, her mind trying to adjust to the feeling of the flesh that encircled her. "How do you walk like this?" she grumbled.

One of the half-dozen cloned bodies that housed the split consciousness of Graves rolled his eyes. "Stop touching my cock" he retorted, "just find your center of gravity and walk."

She snorted. If they had more time, the body that her mind now controlled like a somewhat overly muscled puppet could have been a copy of her own; one that she could control with comfortable ease. Inhabiting a body of a stranger felt increasingly uncomfortable for a while. The horse, Graves, was far too bulky for her. "Alright" she said, pushing the concerns from her mind, "let's get to work."

One of the Graves', the one designated as the third, folded his arms. "Alright missy, what is it you're wanting us to do?"

She narrowed the body's eyes. She disliked having one Graves around, much less five of them surrounding her. She exhaled. "We have two objectives. The first is Luke; a fox and former hacker. His software is offline following our capture and re-coding of his memory. We need to confirm termination of him."

The second Graves snorted, derisively.

Ashley ignored it. "Objective two is a prototype Cybe android. Records of this target's backgrounds are classified. We believe that it is currently inhabiting a damaged male chassis, which is in the possession of target one. We are to confirm termination and recover the unit's memory data. Any questions?"

"Yeah" replied Graves three, his brawny arms folded over his chest, "who put you in charge of this mission?"

A tinge of annoyance grew inside Ashley. She had known that Graves was going to be difficult to work with, but she had hoped that he wouldn't be quite so belligerent. "Your failure to complete the objectives successfully" she replied aggressively, "required that I take the helm."

Graves three stepped closer. Damn it, thought Ashley, she had hoped that a show of strength would put the stallion in his place; but it seemed that it had not had the desired effect. "Really?" he scoffed. "And you have exactly how many hours of field experience? Have you ever even handled a gun before, little girl?"

She pursed her lips. "Get back in line" she said. "We have a mission, and you'll follow my orders."

An angry flash crossed the stallion's eyes. "Oh yeah?" he asked. "I asked you a question, missy. Do you know how to handle a gun?"

She folded her arms. The man was standing too close to her now, trying to intimidate her. She instinctively wanted to step back, but her back was already against the wall. Two other of Grave's clones were standing, watching the conflict. She wondered how much of his conscious mind he had put into this one clone at that moment. "Yeah" she said, "I can handle one."

The stallion snorted. "I don't believe you."

"Get back in line" she said, her voice cold."I won't ask again."

With a meaty thud, Graves three slammed his palm against the wall. "How about" exhaled the stallion in a breezy breath, "you stay back at headquarters here and stay in that pretty-ass female body of yours? You can even get more familiar with that stallion cock you're having difficulty wi-"

The clone didn't have a chance to finish his sentence as a resounding, powerful explosion ripped through the air. The clone stumbled back, half of his head dissipating into a fine crimson mist. It tumbled to the ground.

Ashley lowered her pistol, and blew some of the smoke from the barrel. With a cold expression, she looked from each of Grave's fellow clone to the next, fixing each in the eyes in turn.

"You" she said, pointing to Graves four, "are now third. Five, you're the new forth, and so on. Anybody else want a field promotion?"

None of the other Graves clones spoke. Each one shook slightly, a quick shudder passing through them. Graves two exhaled heavily. Poor sod, thought Ashley, it was had to be difficult to recalibrate your mind after one of your clones suddenly died. A momentary blankness, a slight hint of a shared mortality flickering across the brainwaves. It should be enough to keep them in line.

"Anybody?" she repeated, locking eyes with Graves two.

The stallion shook his head.

"Good. I expect each of you to follow my orders. No back-talk, no disrespect. And seeing as you asked," she replied, holstering the pistol, "I have twelve years field experience in the Jovian colony uprising. Now get your boots on and get ready to move, soldiers."

She strode from the room, pausing in the hallway. Looking this way and that, she saw several of the Bioroid clones hurrying this way and that along the metal corridor. Ashley exhaled heavily. Lifting her wrist, she rolled up her sleeve to reveal her watch. "Newsfeed" she said.

A small holographic image sprung to life above her watch. "Attempts to recover the lost ocean-going vessel Odyssey have yet to yield any results. With time running out for the eighteen scientists missing in the Mariana Trench..."

"Relevant news" she snapped, impatiently. "Garbage truck crash, downtown Oldtown today."

Her watch recalibrated the inquiry. "Ongoing police activity following violent outbreak"

"What?" she demanded. "Further information."

Her wrist-mounted AI beeped. "Three new squads have been deployed around the cordon area following the theft of a police tank. One officer was injured in the theft. Suspect unknown."

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Probably just some random local punks" she replied. "Keep an eye on it."

* * *

Cybe gave a resounding cheer as the tank hit the police blockade, the caterpillar tracks crunching the wooden barriers neatly underneath them. Several robotic drones swerved and dodged out of the way.

The android leaned back in her seat, bouncing along as the tank propelled its way along the road. Kicking her boots down to rest in the space below the controls, she put her feet up and pushed the accelerator into full speed with her heel. "Onwards!" she cheered.

From a small holographic display at the side of the control unit, a small blue image of a mouse sat crackled into life. The mouse's goggles, with a large array of lenses and tools, bobbed lightly as she watched the android. "Cybe?" she called.

"That's my make and model" replied the wolf, "don't wear it out."

Rowan quickly adjusted her screen, a few small crackles crossing the holographic display. "Damn!" she muttered. "Did your old body get fried? Wait, no, of course it did. Okay, but you reloaded in your original. Perfect - that means that the backup generator I built into your cyber-brain worked. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure that the private server with the remote link for the data transfer would withstand the feedback from the death... what are you doing?"

Cybe adjusted a small set of fuzzy dice that hung above the control deck. "Having the time of my life!" she said, "I have a tank."

Rowan sighed. "Of course you have" she muttered. "I'm not remotely surprised. The moment that I made those alterations to your behavioural inhibitors, I knew that it would eventually wind up with you stealing a tank and going on a rampage. You're going to attract attention."

"How could I possibly" said Cybe, and jammed the radio up to a higher volume, "attract attention?"

Rowan folded her arms. The little mouse was proud of the work that she had done to remove as much of the behavioural inhibitors on the android's original form. But, at the same time, often found that she could only watch in awe at times like this. "Okay" said the mouse, cautiously, "I get what you're doing. Really, I do. You're causing as much disruption as possible in order to draw local law enforcement and media attention away from wherever Luke might be, so that he can make a getaway."

Cybe finished off a can of beer with a resounding belch, and threw the can up through the tank's open porthole. It clanked into the road behind her. "Sure" she replied. "Whatever. Hey, do you know anywhere I can get some paint? I kinda want to paint this thing."

Rowan rolled her eyes. "We're all going to die, aren't we?"

"You bet your ass!" cheered Cybe, grabbing ahold of the chair as the tank mounted and minced a parked car beneath its mammoth treads.

Pulling down a lens from her goggles to fit over her eyes, Rowan leaned down and resumed soldering a small offscreen object, which gave a crackling whine. "I don't remember 'bet your ass' being part of the CyberaTech android's in-built repertoire of dialogue options" she muttered. "And I'm pretty sure that I didn't add it to your catalog. Fascinating, fascinating... Wait" she stopped, glancing back up at the wolf. "Where did you get the fuzzy dice?"

Cybe shrugged.

Rowan rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll try to track down Luke. Just... just try not to get too badly damaged during your insane rampage, okay? I don't have enough spare parts to fully rebuild both yourself and your male chassis, not until we get paid."

A heavy, thudding sound echoed against the shell of the tank. Cybe looked up. "Ah, great!" she exclaimed. "Looks like the cops have sent in more automated machine gun drones. Hang on, I'll take care of them."

The wolf recovered a large baseball bat from behind the tank's chair and clambered up through the porthole, Rowan began to despair.

* * *

Cybe's apartment was empty.

Luke dropped the android's body down in the main bedroom, letting it's damaged limbs splay awkwardly over the floor.

The fox pulled a heavy blanket from where he had wrapped it across his shoulders, and took a moment to catch his breath. He wasn't certain what he had expected, though; he knew that he was carrying the android with him, and he knew that the apartment was only equipped for single occupancy. Nevertheless, the quiet that hung in the handful of rooms seemed sombre and pervading.

The fox looked down at the android. Leaning over, he unfolded the body, letting it rest in a more respectable manner on the tiled floor. He stood back upright, examining it once more. The damage was considerable - the head housed most of the CyberaTech model's power units and memory, but it could probably be replaced just like the missing arm.

More complicated, he thought, would be restoring the backup memory from storage. He recalled that backup was stored on a memory card, and he reached down to recover it. Then he stopped, pausing. The card, of course, wasn't there. Luke shook his head - no, the card had been placed in the spare body.

He closed his eyes, exhaling. He hadn't yet had time to stop and let the nervous anxiety of the day's events hit him. He pursed his lips, refusing to let himself stop. He knew that if he stopped, he would start to shake and start to cry, and probably wouldn't be able to stop. He forced his feet onwards towards the closet which held the spare body.

What, he wondered, would Cybe be like in the other body? Luke wondered if the wolf's personality would persist, remain constant from body to body. How much influence did the physical form have on the persona that inhabited it? He didn't know, and the thought rather scared him. He knew that he wanted Cybe back, but if he came back differently, Luke wasn't sure how he would feel.

Luke stepped into the hallway, and his eyes fell upon the open door to the closet. It was empty. The android within, gone.

He sighed. Of course - Cybe wouldn't have taken the risk of leaving his psyche, if it could be called it, being lost without a form to inhabit. He wondered how the android had done it. Perhaps a wireless trigger to power on and auto-load the backup in case of critical failure of the current one? He sighed. Damn it all, he thought.

Returning to the kitchen, he started to drag the damaged chassis into the closet. Leaving it propped in a kneeling position where the female body had been previously, he began to wonder just what he was meant to do next.

Adjusting the chassis into a position that Luke vaguely hoped would be considered comfortable, he wandered back into the sitting room, his mind reeling. He stepped in a semi-dazed state, before collapsing weakly onto the sofa.

He wondered if it were even safe to stay here. He didn't know. The question barely even seemed to have occurred to him until he arrived here. Maybe, he thought, he should try to find Rowan. Perhaps the mouse would be more help. He knew that she lived somewhere nearby, in the Oldtown region, but the exact location... he wasn't sure.

Luke slumped down, the strength leaving his muscles. He managed to rest his head up against the sofa cushions before sleep overtook him. His last thoughts were of Cybe, before his consciousness passed into a dreamless comforting slumber.

* * *

Rowan jammed her finger in against the telecoms unit. "Cybe? Respond."

Still no reply. The mouse chewed against her bottom lip. It had been almost an hour since the last word from the wolf.

She tried again, thumbing the transmit button vigorously. "Cybe, you clueless lupine, come in!"

A dim crackle snapped on the monitor. Then an image blinked into life, revealing the android. She reclined, seated in a comfortable position in the cockpit of her newly acquired tank. "Hey!" she replied, giving a playful salute. "What up?"

Rowan rolled her eyes. "I've been trying to contact you for ages! What have you been doing?"

"Atmospheric interference" replied the android. "I've lead most of Oldtown's police force out to the kibble. They're still rumbling around in the radioactive ruins."

Rowan leaned back on her desk-chair, rubbing her fingernails through her hair. "Sounds like you've been having fun" she mumbled.

The wolf held up a slightly scorched hot dog. "Stopped off for lunch, too" she commented, before taking a bite.

"Lovely, lovely" replied Rowan. "And I... wait, where did you get a hot dog from?"

Cybe shrugged. "Mutants."

Rowan blinked a few times. She lowered her gaze to peer intentedly through the display of her telecoms unit. "The radioactive mutants of the wasteland gave you a hot dog" she asked.

Cybe shook her head. "Stole it."

The mouse rubbed her eyes. "Listen hun, when you get back, remind me to have a quick check through your ethical subroutines. I think we may have a few bugs in there somewhere."

The wolf made a rude gesture.

"You know" said the mouse, "if I adjust the actuators in that finger, I could probably improve the durability on it by about thirty percent. Although, I would have to change the surface fibers. Hmm, maybe I could replace all of your fingers. Hold on, let me go draw up some plans."

"Can we do the adjustments later?" replied Cybe.

"Right" said the mouse, unsympathetically, "let's get back to business. What is the plan?"

Whistling softly, Cybe flexed her toes and gave a yawn. "Point one," she announced, perching a cigarette between her lips and fumbling around for a lighter, "blow up CyberaTech. Point two..."

"Whoa!" blinked Rowan. "Whoa, hang on. You can't do that!"

With a muffle to her voice as she ignited her smoke, the wolf replied "Why not? I have a tank."

Rowan inhaled. "You can't just roll up to the headquarters of CyberaTech and blow it up with a tank, Cybe."

"Why not?"

"You just..." stuttered Rowan, growing exasperated, "you just can't. For a start, they have more tanks. Fully autonomous ones. Ones that they sell to the likes of Logan Shriner Inc and their military industrial complex. That means that they're twelve times as big as yours, and make lots of things go 'boom' very fast. Just trust me on this."

"Fine, fine" replied Cybe. "I'll put that off until Thursday. For now, let's see if we can find Luke?"

Rowan nodded.