Amber pushes the cart in silence for a while, the sounds of combat fading as she pushes you and 22 further along. She was moving at a fairly brisk pace, the path she was following was bumpy and you were jostled around the cart. Hopefully it stays intact long enough to get them there, it’s not like they were built to move along dirt roads in a warzone.
You heard the sound of whistling and recognized it. A bomb was being dropped, getting closer and closer. The massive BOOM! that followed was loud enough it almost busted your ears.
You stand still with the horrible ringing in your ears for a few seconds before realizing that Amber is waving a hand in front of your face. “…attention?” You could finally hear her as the ringing receded.
“Wait, what did you say? My ears are ringing.” You note and look back at Amber rolling her eyes.
“Baseline humans are SO fragile. Why any of you still rely on your natural parts I’ll never understand. My kingdom is full of people smart enough to get implants en masse.” She sighs.
“Forgive me for not living in a faction rich enough to afford that.” You snap back. “Now, what did you say?”
“I said, there goes the shopping center.” Amber said dryly.
“Damn, I was just getting attached to the place.” Your sarcasm is obvious.
“Oh? We could go back and pick among the ruins. I saw this nice snowglobe while I was in there, might make a nice souvenir.“ Amber chuckles and leans up to your ear. You can feel the cool breath and can just barely feel the soft artificial skin of her lips brush your ear. “Don’t try to outsass me young man.” Her voice sounded almost sensual to your ears, but maybe that was the blood loss.
You scoff. “Young man? You’re younger that me!” You shoot back.
“Really? You’re looking very good then for 76 years old.” she noted.
Your eyes bulge. “You’re 76 years old?!” A Valkyrie lasting this long is virtually unheard of.
“Not quite. 75 years, 10 months, 23 days online to be precise.” Amber corrected herself. “Is that enough, or would you like the hour, minute, and second? Most humans hate it when I’m that detailed.”
You turn away and look down the road. “Nah, I’m fine.” You say in passing and think back to your education at the academy.
75 years old… Amber had to be 12th generation then, maybe 13th, you aren’t sure. The Great Wars had been going on and off for about 300 years at this point. The Federation was probably one of the few places in the world that wasn’t a in conflict with someone or another, and you knew your neutrality couldn’t be kept forever.
12th generation had been vaguely humanoid from what you had read, their bodies and faces made of reinforced plastic. They looked like human sized dolls more than anything.
The new Valkyrie models built these days were indistinguishable from human women aside from some odd color differences and other signs designed to keep them from being mistaken for one.
Some factions - especially the ones with few resources - still used the old 12th generation models, as they were a lot cheaper to make so they made good cannon fodder despite how dumb they were.
“You look good for a 12th. How many times have you been retrofitted?” You ask.
“Ah, so you do have basic math skills. Yeah, I was a dumb-dumb. I’ve had a couple dozen refits, but who bothers to keep count?” Amber said while pushing you along. “I’ve been on more battlefields and survived intact than even I remember.” She continued. “I’ve only been rendered almost beyond repair about a half a dozen times, but I would always get fixed up. Valkyries with real combat experience and not memory overlays are rare so I guess they considered it worth it.” Amber noted.
Once again, you think back to the academy. Memory overlays were copies of the memories of other Valkyries and weren’t anywhere near as effective as actually experiencing it themselves.
Getting distracted by all the chatting, you almost didn't notice something odd in the dirt ahead.
“Hold up!” You snap, raising your hand. “Look, the dirt over there, it doesn’t look right.” There was a spot of dirt on the road that looked like it had been disturbed.
“Hmm… you’re right. Good eye. A mine probably. Now’s the question of if it’s an explosive mine or a Valkyrie mine.” Amber wondered.
You could swear you heard a tinge of fear in Amber’s voice despite the slight metallic sound of her voice. Small wonder, Valkyries were programmed with some self preservation programming, but a Valkyrie mine was a fate worse than being rendered nonfunctional. Enemies would put them down at places where Valkyries were known to patrol and when it went off, it would short out the Valkyrie’s systems, allowing the enemy to capture and reprogram them.
A reprogrammed Valkyrie would be aware they were changed from their original purpose, but unable to stop themselves as they betrayed and killed their former comrades. It took great expertise to do, but it was a possibility. That was enough to terrify them.
You sigh. “Let’s go around.” You were feeling a bit faint as she redirected around the mined road, the blood loss was making you woozy.
“Yo! You still alive in there?” Amber asked.
“Yeah…” You feel tired…
“HEY!” Amber gives you a smack. “Stay awake! We’ve crossed into the Alba zone. We should be at the camp in 10 minutes.” She sighs. “We’d be there already if you hadn’t insisted on bringing the dead weight along.”
“She’s not…” You began.
“It. We’re its. Just machines built to fulfill a purpose.” Amber said. Her tone tried to be light, but there was a bitterness under it.
“You’re not…” You tried again.
“Oh, I get it, you’re one of those.” Amber sounded annoyed, but you looked back and caught her blushing which she quickly hid. “Feel like banging a pile of metal and plastic.” She switched back to being more flippant. “Sorry kid, I’m too old for you and it is too young.” Amber said flippantly.
“That’s not it at all.” Your feeling of exhaustion was fading as the anger came up. “22 is a comrade and you don’t leave comrades behind. Why do you demean yourself so much?” You ask.
“I am what I am. A disposable weapon meant to fight and destroy the enemies of the Kingdom until I’m eventually destroyed myself. That’s all that I’ll ever be.” Amber said, but there was only the barest attempt to sound nonchalant about it.
“I don’t believe that. You don’t really believe… believe…” You trail off as you pass out.
“Kid! Ki….” The last thing you heard was Amber calling out to you.