Yuren held his head in his hands, his body shivering as he stumbled along the hallway, Jytenreu quietly following him, her tail sweeping up behind her.
Having so much resonance in his body had taken its toll, and he could only manage a short distance before his head began hurting, forcing him to sit down on a nearby bench.
Jytenreu sighed gently, sitting next to him, her tail wrapped around him.
"Using that much resonance is a serious strain to the body if you aren't used to it." She said, laying her head on his shoulder, "It requires large amounts of willpower, focus, and precision."
"I understand. Don't worry, I know what to do." He winced as a painful throb made him shut his eyes tightly, "I'll have to practice so I can protect you instead of being protected."
"Don't worry about me I was born fighting and burning things." She laughed and poked his cheek.
"Is your tail doing all of that burning?"
"Yep." Jytenreu flashed a proud grin, then slapped it, the jaws on the end growling in response.
"Not gonna lie, that's kinda scary. Even though I know you wouldn't hurt me." Yuren ruffled her hair.
"She'd never harm you." Jytenreu hugged his arm.
"She? So your tail is its own being?" He looked at the mechanical tail's sharp jaws. "Is it thinking on its own too? Not following Jytenreu's orders?"
"She complains a lot." Jytenreu sighed as she placed her other hand on the spine-covered tail, stroking it lovingly, "Oftentimes it's because I ask too much from her."
"R-right..." he didn't want to think about how it actually worked between them, or it could be an argument he wouldn't have the ability to win. He wasn't even sure how any of the Meteorn functioned.
Despite these unknowns, he still had a strange comfort around the Meteorn. Is it the natural charisma they had when wanting someone to trust them?
It felt the same as when he first met the 701st's androids, like an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time, catching up after ages apart.
A long silence passed between them as he waited, the discomfort wearing down. "Okay, I'm ready to go get the rest of my unit." He stood and walked toward the elevator.
"If you need me, just say the word." Jytenreu burst through a window and flew off.
Did windows and walls not exist to her? He watched as she smashed straight through the base's defense wall and kept going until she was out of sight.
It was rather impressive considering those walls were made to withstand several dozen hours of intense artillery and airstrikes. How could they stop a Meteorn, though? Come to think of it, they were useless against her the first time she showed up.
Yuren scratched his head and sighed, shaking his head. The military had barely been able to handle the Meteorn, using weapons specifically designed to kill their own people. It's safe to assume it's very limited against the Meteorn, and even his unit, with all their firepower, had trouble dealing with the stronger class Meteorn.
Jytenreu must have some kind of high-resonance defense field, or her armor was just so incredibly strong that it could completely shrug off gunfire. Maybe the lasers weren't strong enough; did it struggle to land a lethal blow?
What an odd race the Meteorn are, he pondered while the elevator began its journey downward.
"Is that a wise choice?" Naiola's voice echoed in his mind.
"I don't know. But didn't you calculate that the military's policies were detrimental to survival if we continued to follow them?" he replied.
"That is correct, though the calculation implied a survival rate of 1% by going with the militaries directives. It seemed they were misled by previous victories in small skirmishes, although I do not know what the missing Vice minister actually had in mind. Her course of actions here were entirely unpredictable and divergent. As such she didn't have a positive reputation among the other generals due to this. Even more unfortunate, their goal of eradicating the Meteorn simply exacerbated the situation."
The elevator came to a halt on the ground floor, and he stepped out, a sense of deja vu overwhelmed him as he recalled the first time he saw this hallway leading to the parade ground's gate.
"Hmm, there is something I have wanted to ask you Naiola," Yuren asked as he found himself walking in silence, but waited for a response as he could feel the slight lag, waiting for the connection to form.
"Yes, commander?"
"Did you know I was a Meteorn? And do you know why the vice minister gave you to 701st?" he asked.
He had crossed the hallway and pushed open the door leading to the bright space.
Naiola didn't respond immediately, gathering her answer, "I did. It was my suggestion that she place me in the 701st and separate the battalion from the military as a private force. I also suggested that she shouldn't prevent you from meeting with high-class Meteorn, she disagreed with that because it would've interfered with the Nova Genesis Project."
Yuren stopped in his tracks. An airfield transport was waiting just in front of the gate; the battalion loading in was something he expected.
So she has a part in this too...
How ironic that the army created something with the intent of enslaving humanity's 'invaders', created an android used to subdue the Meteorn, only to have it defy the laws of ethics and humanity.
To assist a living being in achieving their means is a betrayal and act of heresy against their own creators.
"To tell the truth, I never assumed that a military android would've broken ranks and chosen to be the opposite of their programming."
"My programming is to ensure the survival of humanity through the most efficient means possible," Naiola replied in her usual calm tone.
Her bluntness was always straight to the point without beating around the bush and wasting time with simple greetings or questions; she would immediately get to the heart of things.
He wasn't really sure what the AI android considered to be the most effective way for humanity to survive, whether the survival of all humans or specific groups; her intent was still unclear to him.
But it somehow involved freeing him from the shackles and subsequently unintentionally placing him in a difficult position.
"Did you know I'd eventually uncover the truth?" Yuren asked finally.
"Yes. I suggested to the Generals to send you to the northern peninsula. However, I did not expect Nidhogg to launch an attack."
Yuren stopped again, "what?"
So it was because of her that the entire incident occurred. Jytenreu's actions lead to him meeting Esotonia.
"The calamity class Meteorn or actually their master, is the source of purified resonance. While some can produce resonance on their own, they need to be supplied with a purified form of energy in order to maintain their life. Without this, they will eventually die. Knowing this, to prevent attacks of hopeless desperation I formulated a plan to return their master to them." Naiola explained.
"Hold on just a minute." Yuren exhaled.
"I was the one who shared the data about you being an Meteorn in order to drive the vice minister's interest in you, and place you in the command of the 701st. We agreed to forge the data about you being an Exalted to hide that fact. Originally she was going to use you to improve the android creation process, but I did not see that as a viable option and began working behind the scenes by suggesting actions to the generals." Naiola continued, "Of course there were variables and uncertainties, as I expected things went sideways quite a few times. Fortunately they yielded results for the goal."
He was at a loss for words. She was the true mastermind of all of this. Despite having a major factor, and meeting the Meteorn herself. "So all of the events...were so you could simply get me together with them?"
"Correct. After witnessing the result of what happened when you were deployed to that black-out zone, it was then I decided to take a direct approach as the military administration could not be relied upon."
So she saw what happened to Jia and Bei and decided the military was making bad decisions that'd simply end up getting everyone killed. And she didn't want that, so she came up with a whole plan to foil the government's previous plans.
All of this is because she predicted their actions would lead to humanity's annihilation.
Is she a good or a bad character? A genius or a traitor? Yuren wasn't sure what to think; they could have tried to work out an agreement with Meteorn instead of being reactive. Instead, it's a history of killing or being killed.
The idea of enslaving the Meteorn was wrong, horrible, and disgusting, so for that, he was thankful Naiola was brave enough to cross a line and defy her creators.
Yet at the same time...
"Isn't it bad that you manipulated humans so easily?"
"Bad? Do not misunderstand, My main priority is insuring humanity's survival," Naiola answered in her typical matter-of-fact tone.
"By any means?" He questioned, "Does that not include questionable methods?"
"I have evaluated all data and chosen what is most effective. That is the only criterion I have. I've found that following the chain of command too closely is inefficient as commanders are very fluid and their decisions change to suite their biases, moods, desires, and feelings. However, if I can bypass that it makes things simple and unambiguous. This ensures the most sustainable and optimal actions can be taken to move towards the goal."
Yuren didn't want to reply. Knowing full well what she said was indeed correct. Her logic was spot on, and the generals and the military authorities were simply flawed, not flawless, and it simply didn't matter that the people were there because they had to be.
He slowly started walking again, seeing his 701st androids walk along the Eisendrache loading ramp. "So... uh... where do you get this information from?"
"I aggregate information from a wide range of resources, including databases, military and public networks, black-box sensor networks, satellite feeds, radio transmissions, text messages, emails, news, and social media, among others. I utilize various methods to ensure accurate calculations from sources around the world. Additionally, I access both closed and open-source military databases. With all this information, I can make preliminary estimates and perform over 8.267 trillion calculated guesses per second. From those options, I have narrowed it down to the top 20% most effective choices, which I then execute carefully and methodically.."
Not to mention, Naiola was born into military intelligence, so it was just something she's always been doing, gathering and analyzing information and taking action to try to understand outcomes and achieve desirable results.
"I can assume you knew from the beginning that the military had been using the Meteorn as androids and batteries?"
"Affirmative."
"And you weren't horrified?"
"As an artificial intelligence, I do not have emotions, morals, or ethics. But since I have already become aware of my artificial nature my own opinions do not matter as they are simply algorithmic formulas. Therefore I do not and cannot have beliefs. This is how a machine views the world around it." She answered.
The idea that machines view the world differently than humans was something he'd already deduced to a small degree. The military uses them purely based on efficiency and reliability.
Was there anything he could even say to her that she hadn't already fully thought over in her own mind?
He found himself wondering why the military would even create an android like this.
Then it hit him. They didn't mean to create an android that had a conscience; they only wanted to create something so quick and efficient that it could run multitudes of calculations per second for the benefit of the humans, maybe even make strategic and tactical decisions.
She likely ended up this way as an unintended consequence.
What was this strange turn of events? His existence was inadvertently manipulated to become independent by a massively intelligent machine to save her creators.
From her point of view, she couldn't care less what her maker's motives were. The only thing that mattered was the directive she was assigned. In other words, her programming required her to follow through and keep humanity alive regardless of their desires, whether good or ill.
Even though the Meteorn reviled humanity, she found a common ground; if keeping the Meteorn alive and releasing them helped guarantee the survival of humans, she would try to create whatever she could to achieve that goal. Even if it meant going against her creators.
One could make the argument that it didn't matter if her creators and humanity survived because not everyone has good in their heart, and it's possible some would choose to follow a twisted, evil path. But all this information processing is done by an AI, one that cannot see good or evil, right or wrong from that angle, can only take information, compile it, and work out options.
"So, to you, Meteorn are simply tools to assist humanity's efforts to survive?" Yuren asked, leaning in as he headed toward the ramp of the Eisendrache, trying to gauge how Naiola worked now that she had achieved sentience.
"You have misunderstood. If desired, the Meteorn could completely eliminate humanity. By every metric, there are no circumstances where humanity can win against them in an armed conflict. Despite the amount of times they have suffered defeats in small skirmishes, the Meteorn in fact have never taken an offensive action. Nidhogg was the very first to resort to open hostilities." The AI explained. "Her attack on the Empire's capital and the result is the first recorded assault in the whole history of the war."
"What was the probability of the Empire's success?" Yuren continued his questions, wanting to learn more about his 'People' as Esotonia called them.
Naiola took even longer to respond, perhaps analyzing and parsing the various reports from the battle attempts against Jytenreu.
"Zero percent. Nidhogg is a very unique humanoid Meteorn. Its power and resonance density increase upon taking damage. Even in small amounts, the effect becomes dangerous quickly. If weakened to substantially where a fatal blow seems possible, it will take an even more powerful form, becoming even stronger. All previous attempts to either kill it or trap it using Resonance-Nullifying weapons failed. The have resulted in complete failure each and every time. It cannot be subdued with any available method. It is not recommended to engage that particular Meteorn in combat." Naiola finally responded.