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Chapter 18 Tour of the Front

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A month and a half have passed since that fateful first battle and the tide of battle is still in Dromaeosa’s favor. The other nations save for the dragons, the northeastern boarder country to Dromaeosa have had not been as fortunate. The advance has been swift and brutal, Dromaeosa forces have been recapturing cities that were lost only weeks ago, then months, but as the combined forces approached territory that has been held by Chaos Croc for years which has had time to be influenced by Chaos Croc alongside with Chaos Croc’s recent reinforcements the advance has started to turn to a crawl, that is save for Crisis’ steadily growing armies.

A sleek black helicopter with Crisis’ blue sickle claw markings on the sides, speeds through the air, hugging the ground as Crisis leans back into her seat, her tail hidden within a tail compartment as Joshua and Sasha sit across from her. Crisis looks out the window looking over the war-torn landscape below as they approach the front lines.

“It will be good to see the frontline,” comments Crisis.

“I’m sure it will be. I miss being up on the front myself,” replies Sasha as her sniper rifle lays beside her strapped into an empty seat to prevent it from moving during the flight.

“It will be my first time actually,” remarks Joshua as he looks down at his claws then back at the window.

“Nervous?” asks Sasha with a sly smirk.

“N-no… I’m not nervous.”

“Sure you are. A civilian like you? The war front is a scary thing.”

“The front is scary for military personnel and civilian alike; just how one is able to handle that fear is what makes one helpful and the other a burden,” explains Crisis.

“Wasn’t expecting you to say something like that Crisis… almost sounds a bit like…” thinks Joshua as Crisis continue to say.

“Though the front can’t be as scary as those swarms of reports that have been hounding me the past couple weeks,” chuckles Crisis.

“Ever since you turned the tide of battle in our favor, you’ve been big news not only here but to the other nations fighting Croc,” says Joshua.

“They can’t believe I have some integrity and that I promised all my interviews with Maria.”

“Still doesn’t mean they won’t try.”

“They’re still annoying,” remarks Crisis.

“Look on the bright side. The other four nations are interested in you.”

“This is true… maybe I can set up similar agreements with them as I have here. Form my own armies in each of those notions. I’m sure they’d appreciate the help in exchange of increasing the strength of my forces,” replies Crisis with a smirk.

“That could work… we could push Croc on all sides, prevent him from getting any stronger.”

“Or could make him more dangerous, but bolstering your forces is never a bad idea Crisis,” comments Sasha

“The more bases of operation I can obtain for my army to grow the better, but for now one thing at a time, hmm?” says Crisis as she turns her attention towards Joshua and Sasha. “I have to inspect the forces here. We’re approaching the city of Veloci, the crossroads of our country.”

“Not to mention one of the hottest gambling spots anywhere,” chuckles Sasha.

“Quite… I’ll have to inform high command to avoid those casinos.”

“Why’s that?” asks Joshua.

“They’ve been made even more addictive than before, and make another certain robotic individual more desirable to serve, which is sadly not me,” remarks Crisis with a sly grin.

“Ah… didn’t have to put it so vague like,” replies Joshua.

“Oh and where’s the fun in saying, the casinos are filled with Croc’s hypnotism equipment?”

“Doesn’t matter right now, we’re here,” says Sasha as the helicopter pulls back, slowing down as an area of flat grassland cleared for marked for helicopter to land. Waiting for them is a mixed bag of Crisis’ robotic troops and the organics from the army assigned to work with them. They make a path for Crisis, the other two to walk through as they disembark chopper they see at the end of this path is a familiar face, Lieutenant Andres, his claws held behind his back as he stands proud and tall as they approach.

“Glad you could make it,” he states as Crisis reaches him.

“So this is what you’ve been doing Lieutenant when you went on ahead to see how our armies are doing,” comments Crisis.

“A few things, oh and its Captain now.”

“Captain is it? Congrats on the promotion,” compliments Crisis.

“Thanks, but first things first. Since you’re here we’re going to do a little PR building.”

“PR building? What for?”

“Some of the troops would like to see you, put a face to what they’ve heard. Not much is known about you, or what you look like, especially now. There are also a few soldiers that like to meet you, one special case in particular.”

“A special case?”

“You’ll see,” says Andres as he turns to walk besides Crisis.

“How have things been so far?” inquires Crisis.

“As to be expected, our troops our tired, yours are a bit worn out but still ready to go. Moral is high as to be expected.”

“That’s good… what is that?” asks Crisis as she sees a raptor with a video camera placed in front of his muzzle, the lens of the camera aimed right at her and Andreas.

“What is what?” he asks.

“That,” says Crisis as she points over towards the cameraman as she now notices a second smaller female raptor beside him holding a small portable sound boom stick kept just out of sight of the camera lens. The wires of the audio microphone are wrapped around the metal rod she is holding all the way down to a pouch on her left side where the recording equipment and power supply are kept. “I thought I made it clear that I won’t be interviewed by anyone except Maria. I am a machine of my word, and I will not have it broken so haphazardly.”

“Relax, they’re not newscasters but military documentary personnel.”

“Documentary?” asks Crisis as she looks over at Andres.

“You should know what a documentary is Crisis,” interjects Joshua.

“I know what it is,” she replies as she looks over her should towards Joshua.

“This is a historic moment in our country’s history, where we were on the brink of total destruction from a foreign invader; we manage to turn it around and now only months after the attack we’ve taken back land lost to us for years. Once we reach the crossroad city of Veloci it’s only two hundred more miles till we reach the capital. The loss of our capital has been a shameful event in this war, getting it back will raise spirits more than any battle we’ve won thus far. You don’t think we wouldn’t record this for the history books?” asks Andreas.

“I suppose, though I wish I was informed I was going to be filmed,” she remarks.

“Camera shy?” asks Andreas with a chuckle.

“No, not really. I just like to be informed of such things,” remarks Crisis as the two walk forward the small camera crew following them, keeping Crisis in near constant view.

“Small crew to film a war,” comments Joshua.

“We don’t have much manpower to spare. What I’ve been told those two are one of the last remaining original war documentary personnel. They’ve been filming since the start of the war,” explains Andreas as the group continues to move towards Crisis’ first duty a short distance away from the landing pad.

“They don’t say much do they,” says Crisis as she motions towards the camera crew.

“In war there is nothing we can say better than what we film. We film the good times… the bad, the quite times of endless boredom, and the times of rush and sheer terror of combat. We show how crazy war is,” explains the video camera man.

“As crazy as this war is the real crazy ones are us,” states the female audio operator.

“Why’s that?” asks Crisis.

“While others are shooting bullets, we’re shooting film,” she replies as Crisis’ group reaches their first destination, a group of organic soldiers lined up waiting as their commanding officer stands attention nearby. The camera crew takes a few steps back to get better shots and to give the group more room to move about.

“First up is a group of soldiers that wanted to meet you for the right reasons,” states Andreas.

“Right reasons?”

“You’ll see, the first one is most interesting,” he replies as they reach the front of the line. Before them is a black scaled, red striped male raptor, his green emerald eyes looks at Crisis as he gives a small head bob bow towards Crisis as he says.

“I assume you’re the Crisis we’ve heard so much about, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“A pleasure? That’s a different change of pace.”

“I’m Private Mark Hanson and I wanted to see and thank the person that help save our country and my life.”

“Your life? I doubt I’ve done that much. Saying I saved the country is a bit much as well. It’s all the soldiers fighting on the fields of battle and those at home helping those at the battlefront that have turned the tide of war. I only did my part to help that happen.”

“You helped give us new lease on life, created new divisions that have shocked Croc’s forces and pushed them in retreat. I’d admit… at first I was hesitant, to say against the idea of a machine in charge of anything. Let alone turning our elderly into mechanical soldiers even if they were volunteers, more so when my grandfather joined.”

“Sounds like something changed your mind,” comments Crisis.

“Y-yes. About three weeks ago, during a counterattack, I was snatched up by one of Croc’s mechanized spiders. You know the one that grabs soldiers, puts about four or six into roboticization pods. You know of them right? I was the fifth soldiers snatched, and they don’t roboticize till they’re full. And my grandfather helped take the spider down and rescue me before I became, no offense, like you.”

“None taken.”

“Since then I wanted to thank the person who gave my grandfather the opportunity to rescue me. So… thank you.”

“You shouldn’t thank me, but your grandfather. We all do what we must nothing more than that,” replies Crisis as Mark gives a head bob giving Crisis one more thanks before he is dismissed back to his duties. For the next hour this display of soldiers giving their gratitude to Crisis was done, all the while the video crew filmed and recorded what happens.

“It was nice to see organics supporting my work but what was that really necessary?” asks Crisis as they made their way to the next area as Crisis notices some other raptor soldiers eyeing her in the distance with more a predatory glare. “Then again… not all do, and it could be good to show I am doing something helpful,” she remarks.

“It’s to be expected; you got to meet the cream of the crop as it were… when it comes to those who understand.”

“It is obvious not everyone is as so enthusiastic as they are.”

“As you know there are reports of clashes between your troops and ours. But they’ve been minimal due to the success we’ve been having.”

“And the moment we do badly, they’ll jump on my forces and claim it’s entirely our fault for their trouble,” comments Crisis.

“Yeah, sad but true. Anyway we have other work to do.”

“What other kind of work?” asks Joshua.

“The hard kind, what else,” replies Sasha with a smirk.

“I totally forgot you two were here,” comments Andreas.

“I’m just silent and stealthy, he’s just forgettable,” she remarks with a chuckle.

“I resent that remark,” growls Joshua.

“Enough of that, now, since I wasn’t informed of any of my duties here, except inspect the front lines, I like to get these other duties done as quickly as possible. What’s next Captain Andreas.”

“We have some captured machines from Croc’s army. We are currently… reeducating them to help us advance and spot the troubles ahead, but progress is slow. Seeing how you’ve hacked some of their systems before, you might speed up the process on getting the information we need.”

“Oh this should be fun,” replies Crisis with a smirk as she is led to a grey tent guarded by several organic guards as their cold eyes glaring at Crisis as she walks inside with Andreas, shortly followed by Sasha and Joshua. Inside are half a dozen machines of various races, fox, avian, lizard, raptor, and dragon, each with the red Chaos Croc symbol on their metallic bodies. Each one bound heavily to a steel chair, legs tied to the legs, the arms bound to the arm rests, their necks tied to the back of the chair, as the chairs themselves are spiked into the black earth. Attached to the back of the heads of three of these machines are three wires that lead to a different computer console where a raptor computer engineer is busy trying to hack through the machine’s defenses.

The rattling of claws on keyboard is heard in the room as the nearby guards look at Crisis’ entry as do the bound machines who struggle even harder, as their red glowing robotic eyes glare at Crisis while the hackers don’t even flinch or look up to see that someone has even arrived.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here? The Master Croc wannabe,” growls a silver female draconic machine. The body length silver and black stripped metallic wings are tied around the back of the chair, as several chains are wrapped around them and his body to ensure they don’t break free. “Come to learn how real Croc minions act so you may make some vain attempt to copy?”

“I think I found my first subject,” comments Crisis as she walks over to the dragon.

“Careful now Crisis,” warns Joshua as Crisis moves up to the dragon, her hips slowly swaying side to side as her tail trails her movements step by step.

“Don’t worry, I know how to take care of myself, though seeing how you’ve been caught, you should be the one who should take note of how to take care of one’s self. I recommend you lose that attitude of yours… while it’s still an option of yours to make,” Crisis threatened.

“Don’t make me laugh, you couldn’t program a pong program let alone hack my systems,” she remarks.

“Oh… we’ll see about that,” replies Crisis as she gives a sly smirk, her claw tips trailing along the muzzle of the dragon who jerks her head away from Crisis’ touch. “I think I’ll enjoy reprogramming you.”

“If you can, the last two hackers couldn’t” she cackles.

“Oh, but I’m not them,” she says in an almost seductive tone of voice as she runs her claw tips along the access panel to the program port on the back of the machine’s head. With a flick of her wrist Crisis opens the panel and within moments, the tip of Crisis’ claws sprout open like flowers in bloom. Wires spring forth from the open metallic petals and latch themselves onto the access port that is behind a back head panel that was already open by the hackers sometime ago, as Crisis starts her penetration into opposing machine.

Joshua watches from the sidelines, his claws twitching along with a quicken place of his tails swish as he watches Crisis careful. He watches as Crisis’ eyes give a soft blue glow, a tinge of red just barely noticeable to the naked eye quickly following. “Careful Crisis.”

“Quite, I’m focusing here,” groaned Crisis. Crisis feels the connection being made with the other machine. She feels the 1’s and 0’s, of the program that runs through the machine’s head. The intricate details of his programming and the protection that goes along with it to make sure that no external forces could corrupt it.

“Here we go…” says Crisis as she starts to pull a thread of programming from the machine’s head. A rush of energy going through Crisis as her programming ‘pulls’ away at the defenses of the machine ensnared in reprogramming protocol. This felt different than the programs she’s hacked before, the ones at Croc’s communication facilities, different from AI who she programmed to her will in the very first moments of her activation. This felt… exciting, fun, enjoyable.

Those other programs feel stale and rigid compared to the one that Crisis is touching, the one that she’s breaking down to be remade. The dragon’s program is fluid like water, changing, growing; becoming better than it was microseconds ago, yet still bound to the essence, the core of its programming. It’s like how the ocean tosses and turns, changes with the winds destiny and the flow of time, ever changing, forever affecting the world around it, and affected by the world. Yet the core programming is the water itself which the ocean is bound to be, water, but now Crisis is altering that piece that core definitive part of the dragon’s mind.

“ __I_ ’ ve felt this before …_ but where…” thinks Crisis.

“Having trouble there Miss Croc?” chuckles the dragon.

“Just getting started,” she remarks as Crisis redoubles her effort on the dragon. Energy rushes through Crisis body as she works on the machine before her, slowly…steadily towards her goal. As Crisis works, Joshua worries. Andreas slowly walks around the pair, the silver dragon’s glowing red eyes start to flicker, the dragon endless insults finally stops as the dragon goes silent into the twentieth minute into the hack. Andreas holds his claws behind his back as he watches curiously. The work of the other three hackers is the only other sounds heard outside of the whines and hum of machinery bound inside the tent.

Meanwhile Sasha sits on the ground, her sniper rifle laid across her lap as she does some minor routine maintenance on her weapon.

The guard on the left eyes Sasha as she works on her oversized sniper rifle. He gives her a smile as she looks up and notices that she has drawn his attention.

“What is it?” asks Sasha.

“That is a mighty big gun you have there, you know I know how to handle big guns myself.”

“I don’t think you have any experience handling anything big in your life, and it looks like I am the only one around here that has and able to wield a big gun,” coldly replies Sasha as the guard sighs and lowers his head in rejection while Crisis’ increased focus on her task is shown by the dimming of her eyes and the increased glow of her crest gem.

Forty minutes go by before the glow in Crisis’ eyes start to turn to normal her head gem’s glow dimming down while the silver dragon below her eyes glow in the same blue color as Crisis’ own. Crisis’ wires pull away from the dragon’s access port, before Crisis moves her hand away. Crisis’ claw tips brush against the back panel, of the dragon’s head slowly pressing it down with a click before she says to the dragon like a dentist to the patient after dental work, “Now was that so bad, now was it?”

“N-no of course not Miss Crisis, how may I assist you today?” she asks with a soft purr. At that moment the typing of the three hacker’s stop dead in their tracks.

“How did she do that so bloody quick!” exclaims one of the raptors.

“It takes us hours, days if not a week or more to hack one, you did it in under an hour!” yells another hacker.

“Skill,” remarks Crisis as she looks over her claw tips on the hand that did the hack before giving it a soft blow. “Now, these guards here will be asking you some questions, and I want you to answer all truthfully and with the best of your knowledge.”

“As you wish Miss,” she replies with a smile.

“Took longer than I expected, but I am happy with the end result, so I can’t complain,” comments Andreas.

“Sorry, my first time hacking one of them,” replies Crisis with a soft purr.

“I thought it be faster than that myself,” states Joshua.

“Why do you say that?”

“Karrie… one of your programmers was a marvelous hacker. She had a knack for not only making programs but breaking them to. Matter of fact, she told me they found how good she was when she hacked into a few places she wasn’t supposed to back in her college days.”

“I see… maybe that’s why it’s been… difficult in locating her.”

“I am sure that’s one of many reasons Crisis,” replies Joshua.

“Doesn’t bother me how long you took, I used my time productively, unlike Joshua here who just stared at you with worry look in his eyes.”

“It’s my job to be concerned about Crisis’ well being,” replies Joshua.

“Not that much…” remarks Sasha as she replies with a hint of sarcasm as she raises her voice steadily during her sentence, hitting a high note at ‘much’.

“I’d love you to do more, but we have other duties to finish before the day ends, hopefully we’ll have more time for you to do some others,” explains Andreas.

“What’s next?” asks Crisis.

“Organic prisoners. Command wants to see how you’d interrogate a few of them.”

“This should be interesting,” chuckles Crisis with a smirk as Sasha stands up with a soft groan, as her gun slung back around her back. The group departs as one of the guards beings to interrogate the recently reprogrammed dragon The dragon responding in detail of what she knows, her words becoming muffled as the group walks out of tent On the far side of the tent there is a small glimmer of light from a camera lens poking through a small cut made into the canvas of the tent. On the other side are the camera crew and a guard standing nearby.

“Thank you for this, General Raszer wants a detailed documentation of Crisis,” explains the boom mic operator.

“My pleasure,” responds the guard as the camera crew pair moves to follow Crisis to the next spot.

The group approaches a spot of the encampment that seems to be a bit, out of the way of the rest. Foot traffic of the soldiers is minimal and the tent set up here is a dark grey, instead of the soft canvas like the others, in reality the tent covers up the prefabricated walls that are screwed together to form this makeshift interrogation center.

The hum of a generator provides the electricity for the lights inside since there are no windows to see on the inside. Standing at the entrance are two soldiers dressed in near solid black uniforms. Their weapons in their claws held tightly, and are of a bigger and better quality than of the other soldiers. They stand unmoving, as they eye the group’s approach.

“Sickle Claw troops… has to be Sickle Claw troops,” grumbles Andreas.

“What are Sickle Claw troops… seems I don’t have that in my memory banks.”

“Well when you were activated they were still a disbanded elite army of high command… after the assassination of president, General Raszer was able to reinstate the group to increase internal security and to help speed up the reclamation of our country. You can always tell who they are by their black uniforms and red sickle claw markings on their shoulders.”

“I was invited to join, they give a nice set of perks, but I turned them down though, they aren’t my style,” remarks Sasha.

“That’s far enough, only she may pass this point,” commands the guards as they motion towards Crisis.

“I’m Captain Andreas, and it’s my duty to escort Crisis through her duties, and the two behind us are to assist her in those duties.”

“I’m more observer than an assistant thank you very much,” remarks Sasha.

“I don’t care who you are, my orders come from above, only Crisis may enter,” responds the guard. “You can just wait outside while she does what she’s here to do. Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her,” states the raptor with a toothy grin.

“Don’t worry, I can handle myself,” says Crisis as she walks forward, the guards opening the sliding door into the house. The moment she walks all the way through they close it behind her. Before Crisis is another soldier dressed like those on the outside.

“You must be Crisis,” greets a raptor in a deep voice.

“I am,” replies Crisis as the fluorescent lights above her head flicker, the soft glow of her blue eyes adding only a little light to modestly lit room. Crisis’ eyes scan the room in a fraction of a second, and sees the room is barely a four feet wide and three feet in width before there is another door that blocks the way. Unlike the other structures this one has a hard metal floor, which Crisis’ feet clanks against as she walks.

“The prisoner you will interrogate is still being prepped, wait here for a moment,” commands the guard.

“My time is valuable. I can’t just stand here waiting all day.”

“You’ll wait and do as you’re told, military equipment shouldn’t complain about how valuable their time is. It’s only valuable when it’s used by us,” he retorts with a growl.

Crisis glares at the guard, her tail flicking behind her as she clenches her fist, her eyes glowing a little brighter as she says, “Why you…”

“Don’t think you’re special because you’re some top military project given in charge of your little robotic army. You’re still a military project only around to serve our great nation. If you weren’t a success, you’d be a pile of scrap metal for one of our tanks by now.”

“You have no idea who you’re talking to do you?” growls Crisis.

“Oh I don’t know who I am talking to, but I know what I’m talking to,” remarks the raptor with a toothy grin as Crisis’ claws twitch, her eyes glowing brighter as she takes a step towards the guard when suddenly the door opens revealing another, taller, buffer male raptor than the guard before Crisis.

“Your prisoner is ready. We prepared him for you to make it a bit easier,” he remarks with a smirk.

“Thanks,” replies Crisis as she walks by the first guard and says, “You’re a lucky one today.” The guard responds with a shrug and a smirk as Crisis is led down a short and narrow hallway where at the very end is a door on her left side, locked by two metal latches. The guard leading her unlocks the latches and slowly opens the door with a slow creak.

“Take your time. This one has been stubborn to our usual methods of persuasion.”

“You just need a woman’s touch,” remarks Crisis with a smirk as the guard laughs.

“Right, lets see how good you are then,” groans the guard as Crisis walks into a solid white room with a silver metal table in the middle. On one end is a matching silver chair with an upside down L shaped back to easily let one’s tail slip in and out of the seat. On the other side is a bound and battered black furred female Jackal. The jackal’s black fur is ruffled, and her left eye is so bruised she can barely open it. Her lips are fat and broken; her good eye glares at me as she takes the moment to spit some blood onto the ground. Her breasts move up and down with her labored breaths.

“I see they are using machines now to do the job,” growls the Jackal.

“I’m here to get information, nothing more,” replies Crisis in a calm voice as she takes note that the jackal is chained to the chair, her arms forced over the back and down and across, keeping not only her arms crossed and away from her body, but also forcing some of her body weight to rest on her armpits. This is also when Crisis also takes note of a mirror on the left side of the room that stretches nearly across the entire wall, kept about the same level as the table at the bottom and three feet up from there. Crisis spends a half a moment seeing the reflection of her robotic body in the mirror, as she checks to see if she can find anything… special about it, finding nothing in that moment she turns her attention back towards the jackal.

“That’s what the other three said, and I’ll tell you what I told them, you won’t get anything from me. I won’t betray Master Croc, no matter what the cost.”

“I’m sure we can come to some kind of agreement…” replies Crisis as she pulls up the chair, which scratches against the metal floor. She sits down with a light metallic thud as her tail swishes behind her, as she leans forward towards the Jackal, “You’ll find I’m not as… harsh as those brutes,” comments Crisis as she moves her hand over to her, Crisis’ claw tip gently touching the Jackal’s bruised maw which she jerks away from Crisis.

“Machine or not, I’m not going to tell you anything.”

“Come now, I think you can trust me. Wouldn’t it be best for everyone if this war was ended quickly, don’t you agree?” asks Crisis with a soft purr.

“Of course, that is why you all should stop fighting and see how great it is to serve under Master Croc. You’re only prolonging the inevitable at this point. Why continue suffering like this. Your lives will be so much better under him.”

“You’re views are… shall we call overly biased? Maybe you need to open your mind to just possibility… just the possibility that you could be… wrong?” asks Crisis with a soft glow in her eyes.

“I doubt that,” groans the Jackal.

“Just open yourself to the possibility, of the idea of it, is that so hard? Hypothetically speaking,” explains Crisis her voice steadily getting soft, soothing, and steady.

“Maybe… okay I’ll hear what you have to say, as stupid it is going to be. I could use a good laugh,” remarks the Jackal.

“ __Good_ … good, I shall get her slowly. I don ’ t trust that mirror over there, it ’ s too obvious they ’ re watching me. Best not to reveal my hypnotic ability readily to them, might as well have some fun with this since I have to take my time, ”_ thinks Crisis as her tail sways like a pendulum. As time passes, Crisis continues to talk to the Jackal, she slowly whittles down her defenses, drawing her deeper and deeper into a trance, but not a normal trance, a trance where she wouldn’t talk in a monotone voice like a mindless drone.

As Crisis draws her in deeper and deeper into the trance, more and more under her control, Crisis feels a rush of energy through her circuits. As time progresses, her systems feel the rush which Crisis quickly comes to realize is the same rush she was getting when she was hacking into that Croc machine earlier.

“ __I think I really enjoy doing this_ …”_ thinks Crisis as she takes down the Jackal’s defenses, the rush continues through Crisis’ systems, going through every wire, every inch of her metallic form. Nothing is visible from the outside but Crisis can feel the rush going through her and after forty or so minutes of working on the Jackal she was ready.

“Now why don’t you be a dear and tell us what we need to know, okay?” asks Crisis with a soft purr.

“O-okay,” stutters the Jackal in a soft voice. A moment later the door behind Crisis opens revealing the same guard that let her in.

“We’ll take it from here,” says the guard.

“Okay, now just tell the guards what they want to know with the best of your knowledge, truthfully and honestly, okay?” asks Crisis as she sits up from her chair, the metal and metal of the chair to the floor making an annoying grinding sound.

“Okay Crisis,” replies the Jackal as she doesn’t even react to the noise that is emitted from Crisis’ movements.

“Anything more you need me to do?” she asks the guard.

“No that should be fine, you can go,” responds the guard as Crisis’ suspicions of the mirror were right on the money, on the other side is the camera crew filming the entire scene that unfolded. The crew thanking the guard that was in there with them for their help as they leave out of a hidden back door.

“Thanks,” replies Crisis as she leaves the room, the door closing behind her as the guard from earlier is standing there.

“I see you’re finished. Took you long enough, thought machines should be all efficient at their job,” he remarks.

“I got the job done, something you couldn’t, so I wouldn’t complain about how fast I got it done.”

“Of course I can, machines are supposed to our jobs quicker and better. To make our lives easier and better, you taking so long is a problem. You should work on that. I don’t want to be standing around all day as you do what you’re built for,” he growls as he opens the door behind him. “Now go, you have other jobs to do machine.”

“You’re lucky we’re on the same side,” growls Crisis as she storms out of the building towards the group waiting outside. “I’m going to get some fresh air,” grumbles Crisis as she walks past the group and heads straight into the nearby forest.

“Wait some fresh air? What happened?” asks Joshua as he stands there in shock for a moment then follows.

“I have an idea…” remarks Andreas as he watches the two walk off into the forest. “Crisis did all the duties she had to do while she’s here. Why don’t you accompany those two make sure they don’t go too far off. We’re still fairly close to the front lines. I wouldn’t call the forest totally secure. I’m going to check on some troops that have had some complaints about Crisis’ troops. See if I can smooth over some issues with them.”

“No problem. Crisis is important to the war effort, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to her,” replies Sasha.

“I’ll leave it up to you then,” says Andreas as he departs and Sasha takes after the other two. It only takes Sasha a minute or two to catch up to the two, with Crisis still walking deeper into the forest and Joshua in toe.

“Crisis can you tell me what’s wrong? I can help.”

“It’s nothing. I just want to talk a walk after doing so much work, is that so bad?” remarks Crisis with a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.

“No that’s not so bad, but you do sound a bit annoyed and….”

“And is it wrong for me to have a feeling or two? Or should I be some mindless automaton?” she remarks with a soft growl.

“No, no, nothing like that. I am just concerned about why you’re feeling this way, and want to help. Nothing more than that. I’m here to assist you, and make your life a bit easier.”

“What did you just say?” asks Crisis as she stops and turns towards Joshua.

“Uh… that I am here to assist you?”

“The other thing.”

“To make your life easier?” asks Joshua as Crisis stands there for a moment before smiling, her eyes giving a soft blue glow.

“I knew there was a reason I kept you around as you were,” she sighs as she walks deeper into the forest but albeit bit slower now.

“I thought it was because I am willingly helping you,” replies Joshua.

“That too,” she remarks.

“So nice to see when a couple makes up,” chuckles as she walks over to them, her abnormally large black steel sniper riffle still strapped to her back.

“What?! C-couple? We’re not a couple,” responds Joshua defensively.

“Relax, just teasing, you get way too jumpy you know that,” says Sasha.

“He does, always worry about everything,” chuckles Crisis.

“I’m not worried about everything, just about things that deal with you,” he replies.

“And since you only do things that involve Crisis you worry about everything,” chortles Sasha.

“Why am I the one that’s always picked on by all of you girls.”

“That’s easy,” says Sasha.

“And?”

“It’s because you’re an easy target,” she laughs. Crisis remains silent as she flicks her tail, steadily calming down as the group moves a bit deeper into the forest, to a small clearing about five yards wide and eight across. A few dead trees lay around the clearing as grass that goes halfway up to your thighs has grown.

“Come on, give a guy a break will ya?” asks Joshua as the sound of whistling grass against their bodies is barely heard over the sound of chirping birds in the trees. A light breeze barely makes it through the forest into the clearing to make the grass lightly sway side to side. Just as they are about to get to the middle of the field Sasha stops and it takes about three more steps of Joshua and Crisis before the notice.

“What’s wrong?” asks Crisis

“Shh,” she responds as she slowly reaches for her rifle as she crotches down. “Get down we’re being watched,” whispers Sasha as she starts preps her gun with a soft click, Crisis and Joshua crouching down till only the tips of their heads can be seen over the grass. “I said get down, down doesn’t mean keep your heads above the grass,” growls Sasha as a low whiz is heard followed by a very loud ding.

Crisis feels a force against her head as her she feels slight damage to her right side of her head, the force of the blow causes Crisis’ head to jerk slightly with a ding sound but the sound is quickly followed by a loud screech from Sasha coupled with some choice swears as she barely holds onto her gun with one hand and grips her wounded arm in the other. Before she could make another move an electrical hiss emanates from Sasha as a loud growl is followed as the raptor drops to all fours, before collapsing to the ground with a thud, her body twitching as an electrical shock continue to go through her body.

“Sasha, what happened?!” yells Joshua as he gets lower to the ground, quickly followed by Crisis.

“Seems a bullet meant for me deflected off of me and hit her,” explains Crisis.

“We have to call for help.”

“We have to remain calm,” explains Crisis as she moves a few feet over to Sasha who is panting heavily, small streams of blood come from the wound in her left arm. She growls softly as she coughs a bit as she stretches her limbs slowly.

“Crisis is right, we have to remain calm,” growls Sasha as she spits off to the side, “Going to take weeks to get this taste out of my mouth,” she growls. As she reaches over to check her walkie-talkie, “Damn the shock fried.” The raptor’s body shakes as she struggles to get back up onto her feet, keeping her body low as she takes slow deep breaths through her nostrils. “She’s coming,” whispers Sasha.

“She? How do you know?” asks Joshua in a soft whisper.

“I can smell her, don’t you use your nose at all?” grumbles Sasha as Crisis then hears the quick whistling of bullets flying through the air and pounding of feet against the ground. Crisis crouches and gets ready to pounce when Sasha pushes herself up, holding her gun with one hand as she draws it up to her shoulder. She winces as she moves her hurt arm to rifle to help steady it as she takes aim at the assailant rushing over to them.

Crisis pokes her head above the grass to see an anthropomorphic female skunk, dressed in a skin tight blue jumpsuit with a silver metallic zipper that goes from her top all the way down the center to her waist. Her matching blue boots break through the grass as she sprints towards us. Her red fire hair waves in the wind behind her that if the hair was at rest would easily reach past halfway down her back. Her eyes match the redness of her hair as her white fur face is parted by a line of black fur that starts from her small black nose up between her eyes, disappearing underneath her red hair. A long navy blue trench coat flaps behind the skunk, giving brief moments of the gun she has strapped to her left side, attached to a brown belt that is wrapped around her waist. As the skunk leaps forward Crisis sees dark blue leather straps around her upper thighs and as Sasha takes aim at her the skunk pulls out a whip and as she swings it towards Sasha the whip goes from a dark brown to an electric red, the whip crackling in the air as it cracks through the air and wraps around Sasha’s left arm.

The same hissing and crackling sound before is heard but even now small sparks fly all over Sasha as she is pulled forward her gun dropping to the ground as the skunk pulls the raptor towards her.

As Sasha tumbles through the air screaming in pain, Crisis takes a step back and lets her electro-blades from her wrists come out. They crackling and spark through the air and between themselves. Sasha whips her tail at the Skunk hitting her in the face causing her to stumble back and fall over, while Sasha lands a few feet away with a thud, grass breaking underneath her body as she rolls another foot or two. A long weak growl is heard from the grass as they rattle for a few moments before another thud and silence.

“Damn it, that girl should have been out when that electro bullet hit her, but to still manage to hit me with the electro whip around her arm, that’s insane,” groans the skunk as she rubs her sore face before turning her attention towards Crisis.

“I see Croc has finally sent someone after me,” remarks Crisis with a growl her claws sparking as her sickle claws on her feet twitch, she crouches down and waits for her unnamed assailant to make the first move.

“Ha, Croc wouldn’t do something like this, not his style,” she remarks as she sprints towards Crisis she snaps the whip at Crisis who lifts her left arm in defense to block it. The red electro whip wraps around Crisis arm, sparks fly between Crisis’ electro blades and the whip. The red sparks turning to silver blue as they get close Crisis blades and vice versa as Crisis’ sparks get close to the whip. Electric energy rushes through Crisis’ body, causing her to let out a growl of pain as her vision fuzzes in and out as she attempts to keep her focus on the skunk who tugs her towards her. Crisis leans back as her feet grind against the ground. Error messages light up in her mind about the rush of energy through her before she uses her free hand to slice the whip, breaking the electric connection it had with her. The two enemies flying back by the sudden release of tension.

Crisis stumbles a few feet as she tenses and relaxes her claws, testing her systems, taking note of the damage that was caused by the attack.

“That was my favorite whip,” grunts the skunk as she pulls out two foot long daggers hidden within her trench coat. Moments after she pulls out the dark black metal daggers white sparks fly from the handle up and around the tip, like electric worms crawling up the blades. “No matter, I like getting close and personnel with my target,” she chuckles with a grin.

“You’ll find I’m not an easy target,” growls Crisis.

“That’s what they all say,” remarks the skunk as she sprints towards Crisis. The pair clash blades against one another. Crisis’ electric blades are either dodged or blocked by the skunk’s electrified daggers, while Crisis in turn does the same to her assailant’s attacks. Near misses causes some of the grass to smoke as it burns for a few moments before the water retained in the plant puts out the blaze before it can become problematic.

The daggers from the two fighters make the air crack and hiss as the two attempt to take the other down, each move blocked by the other, each attempt met with the same hiss of electrified metal against solidified energy blades.

“If Croc didn’t send you, who did?” asks Crisis in the middle of the fight.

“Like I tell you, not that it will matter, you’ll be a pile of scrap metal soon enough!” she exclaims as the Skunk manages to knock Crisis’ arms back with one quick move the skunk lands a firm hard kick dead center on the robotic raptor’s chest. Pushing her back several feet, and just before Crisis stops herself she trips over a tangle of grass causing her to fall down with a heavy thud. The skunk quickly moves over to the fallen Crisis and says as she holds the daggers in her hands, “Oh how the mighty have… well then again you were never mighty,” she chuckles as makes her move to finish Crisis off.

“Stop! Hold it right there or I’ll shoot!” yells Joshua as he holds a pistol in his claws, taken from Sasha. The raptor aims the weapon at the skunk, his claws shaking as he rests his claw tip on the trigger, his tail swishing behind him quickly.

“Oh I almost forgot you were here, after all you were hiding the entire time,” remarks the Skunk with a smirk.

“Back away from Crisis now, and drop your weapons,” he says as Joshua moves over towards Crisis standing a few feet behind her as he keeps his distance from the skunk.

“My, my pushy aren’t we?” asks the Skunk as she takes a few steps back.

“Drop the daggers.”

“I am, I am, no need to yell,” she responds as she tosses her daggers off to the side, the moment she releases them the electric energy around the blades dissipates within a second.

“Now who are you, and who sent you?” asks Joshua as Crisis leaps back onto her feet, her electro-blades withdrawn as she brushes some of the grass off of her body.

“I don’t have to answer that, especially to you,” responds the Skunk with a smirk upon her face.

“What? You’ll answer or I’ll…”

“You’ll what? Shoot me? I can tell just by looking at you, you don’t have the gall to shoot me. To shoot another person takes more than skill with a gun, it takes determination!” exclaims the skunk as she whips out a pistol hidden within her coat, and takes aim at Joshua. The whistle of a bullet and from the silence is barely audible, followed by a distinct sound of metal grinding against metal. Joshua having flinched at that moment opened his eyes to see Crisis standing in front of him, the raptor’s right arm sparking as it hangs limp. Crisis systems give out another set of warnings as electricity hidden within the bullet mess with her systems.

“Crisis you…” mumbles Joshua as Crisis doesn’t waste a moment and sprints towards the Skunk, knocking the gun from her hands before reaching for Skunk’s throat squeezing it just enough to hold her in place but not enough to impede her breathing.

“Now you will tell me everything I need to know,” demands Crisis as her eyes start to glow blue.

“I won’t tell you anything, and I won’t let you use that on me,” growls the Skunk as Crisis watches the skunk move something within her mouth and bite down hard on it. Specs of silver liquid are seen flowing in her mouth as Crisis comes to realization what that is.

“I won’t let you get away that easily,” says Crisis as her good hand begins to glow, blue electric sparks fly from her palms as the Skunk begins to scream and moan in pain as her neck starts to smooth out, becoming slick metal. Steadily as the Skunk struggled and kicked, swore at Crisis, Crisis’ roboticization energy washes over the Skunk, steadily turning warm soft flesh into cold hard steel. Her blue jumpsuit being transformed into her new robotic shell as the changes spread up to her head, quickly silencing her cries of pain, down to her feet. Within minutes the once organic skunk is no more, and is now a sleek robotic minion of Crisis. The Skunk’s eyes glow blue as her long flowing hair is forever stuck in a very stylish and sleek hairstyle. Her entire body matching the outfit she wore before, only her trench coat wasn’t roboticized along with her. The skunk’s segmented silver metal tail flicks behind her as Crisis pulls her hand away from her former enemy.

“Crisis you told me that those were…”

“Quite Joshua, now you will tell me who you are, and who sent you,” growls Crisis.

“My name is Ruby, Mistress Crisis. I was sent by the Empress who was foolish enough to think that she could destroy you before her tour of the front would take place,” responds Ruby.

“Tour of the front you say?”

“Yes, she wanted to secure the front lines for her trip, and wanted you to be destroyed if possible. She sent several scouts to try to locate you incase you decide to make any front line visits as well as to gather intel on enemy forces in the area.”

“Interesting, and do you happen to know where and when this trip was going to take place?”

“Yes Mistress, I was about to finish my rounds here and head back with my report. I am meant to be one of her close guards on the train she will be taking. She doesn’t like robotic guards all that much.”

“Really now? This is very interesting,” purrs Crisis as she looks over to Joshua. “You okay?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Check Sasha.”

“I did when I got her pistol, she’s alive and breathing, just knocked out.”

“I was surprised she remained conscious from the first bullet, more so she lasted as long as she did against my whip.”

“An interesting weapon you have there, that whip.”

“Had Mistress.”

“Don’t worry we’ll see about fixing that. Come let’s get Sasha some medical aid, and get myself repaired. After that we have some planning to do, not everyday you get to visit an Empress now,” comments Crisis with an evil smirk.

Meanwhile hidden within the trees that same camera crew is watching, having filmed the entire incident before them. “She can roboticize people with her hands… General Raszer will find this most interesting…” comments the female as they silently disappear into the brush.