Continue Online (Part 3, Realities) (46 page)

"Are they just, left out there, floating?" I couldn't bring myself to say dead. We had created a graveyard in space and it unsettled me.

"Space will preserve them far better than we can. Years may pass before any human stumbles across this spot again. It is far from their normal realms," the AI said.

"Oh," I said. That was kind of neat, and oddly sad to hear.

Three hours passed by in relative silence. By that point, we had managed to almost complete twelve of the lesser
[Mechanoid]
bodies. Iron was missing a
[Core]
, and Ruby didn't have an entire leg. Apparently that was close enough, and reconstructing the rest could be handled by a
[Repair]
process. Aqua knelt down and started the complex process of bringing a
[Mechanoid]
back online.

Its first target was a row of unnamed
[Mechanoid]
s. They seemed to have a random combination of
[Core]
s, which meant they weren't focused like Iron or Emerald had been. Each one had body plating with less character and details. Iron had grooves all over from his combat. Ruby's mostly assembled body had jagged lines like stitches. Being pieced back together left a fresh round of marks on all of us. Even Advanced Online didn't skip past the scars life brought us.

I wondered if my body had any. Fingers ran over the portion of my side where Auntie Backstab had caved in my chest. It felt rougher than the rest of my body. The musings of being scarred even in a digital world distracted me.

One of the nondescript
[Mechanoid]
bodies sat up and looked around. He looked dazed. I remembered feeling that way when being brought back from the brink of game death after our
[Levithan]
kill. I waved. It stood up and thanked Aqua before moving off to perform other tasks.

I studied the ship while Aqua performed an ability that was impossible for me to replicate without having a different
[Core]
. Theoretically only some blue and gold ones had the ability to revive deceased
[Mechanoid]
s. My spare time researching online had yielded remarkably few results for this race. There simply weren't enough players writing down information about playing a future robot.

Seven more passed and Aqua started in with bringing Ruby back. This one took considerable time, displaying a clear difference in program complexity. There, now I was starting to think like a
[Mechanoid]
, high stats and skills meant increased capability. She didn't stand up like the others. Her face flushed and the red glow brightened to an angry high. Everything poured out in waves across Ruby's face then into glaring eyes.

It made her look frightening. I could only imagine what the enemy fleet had felt as she zipped around the battlefield dealing death. If Iron was a large battering ram, Ruby was a sharpened sword. Both served their purpose aboard the
[Wayfarer Seven]
's crew. Aqua and Emerald were likely support. Treasure had been the brains. No one made a fuss about their ranks among the
[Mechanoid]
crew, instead everyone just followed orders for the greater good.

"User Legate." Jeeves' voice cut across my ARC interface. The butler and maid voices were both severely startled by something.

"What's wrong, Jeeves?" I turned and looked outside the ship. We had one large hole for ships to come in through. On the
[Wayfarer Seven]
, each vehicle got its own version of a garage. This ship wasn't nearly as sophisticated due to being recently built and not fully completed.

"I believe something went wrong with the Wayfarer Seven," It said.

"What? Why?" I focused on the tone of its dual voices. Whatever was going on it promised to be bad news in an already fragile situation.

"I was scouting the Jump Gate for remains, and a ship came in. The Wayfarer Eight's defenses did not react, therefore I concluded it was one of ours."

"Was it? Is it the Seven?" A message came up on my screen. Reading it made my stomach sink again. Today had been about recovering from the damage of this battle. Now things were taking a turn for the worse.

"No. It is Treasure's vessel." Jeeves was clearly stressed. Neither one of us needed more bad news. "There are signs of damage. It is barely functional."

I bit one lip and tried to think fast. "Worse than our escape from the Leviathan?"

"Three of her engines are missing. The shielding seems to have been stripped away. One moment, I am getting scans of the passengers-" Jeeves paused in its explanation. Aqua was looking at me and trying to get further information. I put up one hand and waited on my friend's details. "-confirmed, Units Emerald and Treasure are both within it. Their core functions are heavily damaged."

"Voices have mercy," I uttered. Ruby sat up and started walking over to me. My eyes were unfocused, but I couldn't miss the angry red markings on her body. They stood out distinctly against our ship's grays.

"User Legate. We must save them," Jeeves said.

"How do we, nevermind." Anything Jeeves explained wouldn't make sense to me. Online research had given me a few tips, but most of it didn't apply to me directly. The only thing I knew is that golden
[Core]
s could bring people back from near death. Actual damaged
[Core]
s were the
[Mechanoid]
equivalent of having our hearts removed. The damage persisted after death for players. "I'll talk to Aqua, you need to get them back here as soon as you can. Don't stop for any reason."

"I am returning as we speak," the AI confirmed.

I nodded and turned to the blue
[Mechanoid]
, It and Ruby stood there looking mildly alarmed. They must have heard my side of the conversation. Neither one had been privy to the party chat between Jeeves and me.

I bit my lip and decided to start with confirming the situation and said, "Do we have contact with the Wayfarer Seven?"

Ruby's head shook silently while Aqua said, "No. What is the problem?"

"There was a ship that warped in, one of ours, it was massively damaged with Treasure and Emerald in it. They aren't functioning." I didn't have time to affirm our ship's defense capabilities. We weren't like human vessels where a captain directed everything.
[Mechanoid]
starships essentially piloted themselves.

The light around Aqua faltered. Its perpetual smile twitched and dimmed to a flat line. Ruby's expression didn't change, instead her crimson colors brightened from somewhere deep inside. As if a bomb had gone off under the surface. They turned and looked at each other. Ruby nodded, Aqua shook its head gently.

"It would help if you talked out loud," I said. This must be how they felt during my conversation with Jeeves. Left out and trying to understand what was going on. Apparently even NPC
[Mechanoid]
s had communication issues.

"We have a method of recovering them all, but the cost is substantial," Aqua said. "We wish to seek out your willingness to assist with this venture, as it is a process that requires assistance from a Mechanoid possessing a past life core."

"What? Are you talking about a player?"

"A past life core is how we identify those of our race that hold on to memories of old earth," Aqua said and shrugged. Treasure had said something similar, only she talked about how our energy cores were different. All of it boiled down to players being outside the game's normal scripting, and they explained it away as an expected anomaly.

Neat. Aqua had a method to resurrect them that required players to perform. It didn't sound like the
[Mistborn]
process, however.
[Mechanoid]
s didn't need a
[Mistborn]
to recover their race. Dead robots went back to the homeworld and rebuilt with minor losses. By using this method of Aqua's, we could prevent Treasure, Iron, and Emerald from losing any portion of themselves.

"Okay. Whatever it is, I'll do it." If not for myself, then for this quest. It was bad enough that the
[Wayfarer Seven]
had been destroyed.

"Then we will need your cores," the blue
[Mechanoid]
said. All I could see was Aqua's faint smile. The tone of its voice could be identified as neither male or female. It sat between somewhere with soft undertones.

"My cores?" I had two. Losing either one probably had side effects that I didn't know about.

"Yes. By using a core of similar programming, it is possible to jumpstart a complex program, even if part of their physical body is missing."

"So I just, yank out the core Iron gave me, and we can bring him back?"

"Yes." The bright blue
[Mechanoid]
nodded. Ruby gazed at me without blinking. Her steady stance and sheer red coloring were scary enough. Add in the zigzag stitching pattern and she looked utterly disturbing.

"Then I can bring Emerald back with the green one?" I tried to confirm the possible results before weighing what would happen to me. Ripping out my
[Core]
s and presenting them to the two NPCs might cause me problems. Though my own skills were low, it was only with Jeeves and its explosives that anything beneficial had happened.

Ruby nodded in response to my question.

"Then Jeeves can bring back Treasure." I nodded as well. This sounded quite doable. The core portion of our crew was still recoverable. Having all five of these stronger NPCs would help the
[Wayfarer Eight]
with whatever happened next. Though jumping through to where the
[Wayfarer Seven]
had ended would be a poor idea.

"Yes. We feel the need to warn you, it is a process which hurts a great deal," Aqua said. The
[Mechanoid]'
s expression lost the faint smile that was always present.

I shrugged and spoke honestly, "A little pain won't deter me."

Session Fifty Eight - Stilled Hearts

Jeeves flew the
[Wayfarer's Hope]
straight in. I ran over to help lift out the two
[Mechanoid]
s it had saved. After hours with the puzzle piece pile of
[Mechanoid]
s I felt relieved. Treasure and Emerald were both thankfully whole. Their only issue was zero health and a ton of scorch marks.

"Let's get them over to Aqua," I told Jeeves. The AI didn't nod or respond at all.

"This one finds it interesting, how those with a past life core are contrary in nature," Aqua said as we set the bodies down next to Iron. The three of them formed an odd rainbow. I looked around for Ruby but the deep red
[Mechanoid]
had vanished.

"What do you mean?" I asked while looking at Jeeves. My friendly AI was on the verge of another breakdown. One hand lifted to rest on the smaller
[Mechanoid]
's shoulder. It barely blinked, but the gloom retreated a touch.

"We, those such as Iron, Ruby, or this one, design ourselves with specific goals in mind. Yet old world core units disregard their very nature. You chose to be a creature of battle and chose a biological companion." Aqua gestured one long arm toward Dusk.

The small
[Messenger's Pet]
was busy nosing around objects from the pile. The pieces he put together had absolutely nothing in common. There were a lot of leftovers that we hadn't been able to sort into bodies.

"Yet you find value in fighting and repairing," Aqua said.

"I know what it's like to be broken. Why wouldn't I try to help them?" I tried to stay calm. Aqua needed to hurry up. At least the
[Mechanoid]
managed to talk and work at the same time. It helped me hold back from shaking and rattling the metal man to get this moving along.

"Yet you are not a pacifist. You chose to fight the other ship, and indeed performed your role exceptionally well, crippling its crew and sending those remaining into retreat." Aqua nodded slightly. Its fingers ran over the lines of green and gold energy on their bodies. It appeared to be inspecting for possible problems.

"I needed to, or they would have killed us," I said. Jeeves hadn't moved. There were a few helpers still out there unloading additional broken bodies.

"You were not bothered by the action during it, you are bothered by the aftermath, of needing to hurt others to do what is right. Perhaps you are more of a healer than you know," the sky blue lined
[Mechanoid]
said.

"No. I'm just..." I couldn't say a bewildered human while pretending to be a robot. That felt weird. "I did what I thought was right, but I'm learning. Maybe there are better ways through."

I would talk to Jeeves about our options once Treasure, Emerald, and Iron were fixed. Part of me wanted to avoid a large scale battle against other people. Not out of fear, I was thankfully past that, but because these type of events left a sour taste in my mouth. The aftermath of war was the worst part.