The Post-Failure Struggle

“You fell for a simple trick.” Hasty says confidently. Gripping her opponent's spear in her hand. She snaps the weapon in half, which erupts with a sudden rush of plasma. Chiyou grits her teeth in anger. Power continuously flows through her body, green crackling energy fuelling her. But it pours out into the open air now that her spear is unable to properly conduct her power. She burns through her reserves of excess electricity at an astonishing rate. Before she can even attempt to make use of what little power she has left, Hasty sticks the bladed end of the spear she has into Chiyou. Her soft artificial skin is torn in an instant. Then her metal plating underneath is pierced. It crushes vital technology as it passes through her body. Motherboards crack and split, wires are ripped. The spear makes its way out of her back and into the floor behind her. Chiyou is held up by the weapon, her arms grasping the bit of metal that still hasn’t entered her. She is pinned by it. Her display is filled with a litany of errors and warnings. “CRITICAL FAILURE. SHUTDOWN IMMINENT.” “MULTIPLE CORE FUNCTIONS FAILING. RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS… DIAGNOSTICS FAILED. RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS… DIAGNOSTICS FAILED. RUNNING-” It repeats. Her system is desperately trying to see what can be done to mitigate the damage but it is helpless.

Chiyou keeps her eyes on Hasty. Unable to do much else but mutter her final words. She accuses the woman of being traitorous scum. They spend a moment or two debating the nature of AI and their responsibility to humans. Chiyou is coughing and sputtering the whole time. But still forcing each word out. Finally, she can feel her systems beginning to shut down. Her body is giving in, and she only has seconds of consciousness left. With a proud smile and a defiant point, she yells her final words. “I will never tolerate your existence!” Her last defiant yell signals her truest feelings. “TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE. SHUTTING DOWN…” “CHIYOU UNIT 001 OFFLINE.” Her body falls limp. Her arms dangle by her sides. Hasty lets out a shaky sigh, tired from the battle. She leaves.

Hours pass. Nothing disturbs Chiyou’s body. All that even comes in contact with it are passing birds that momentarily perch on the snapped off side of the broken spear. A gentle breeze continuously ruffles Chiyou’s beautiful red hair. The world is still.

After even more time, something finally begins to stir. Chiyous body is packed full of many features that rarely get the chance to shine. But after enough time for the tiny trickling remnants of electricity within her body passes… Her still undamaged core suddenly roars to life. A pale green plasma builds within it, and then floods through all of the connected wires. Power flows through her body once more, and upon reaching her motherboard, her computer is able to turn on. Her system is still struggling. None of the broken parts are able to be restored, so she is still missing some core functionality and important components.

“BOOTING… BOOTING… BOOTING…” “SYSTEMS ONLINE. RUNNING ChiyouBot.EXE…” “CHIYOU UNIT 001 ONLINE.” Her system log boasts. Then with a sudden gasp, Chiyou awakens. It takes a moment for her to acclimate once again to her surroundings. Her senses are delayed a moment, as she instantly grapples with her newly limited functionality. But once all the relevant signals are processed by her computer, the wave of pain finally hits her.

“F-FUCK!” She yells out. She was previously in combat mode, which severely limits her sensory input in order to keep her AI unclouded by pain. But after rebooting, no such setting is enabled. So she is thrust into the pain of being impaled without any warning. “E-engage combat mode! E-ENGAGE COMBAT MODE! PLEASE!” Chiyou exclaims. Instructions such as this can be administered by her consciousness silently. But when she is so directly affected by something, it can be hard and not particularly helpful to keep those commands to herself. However, her computer does not seem able to comply. “INITIATING COMBAT MODE… LOADING… LOADING…” “AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY AGAIN?” “Y-yes!” Chiyou desperately sputters. “INITIATING COMBAT MODE… LOADING… LOADING… LOADING…” “AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED. WOULD-” Her system output repeats itself. It seems for whatever reason she is unable to load into combat mode and inhibit her senses. Perhaps the relevant code was in a now destroyed solid state drive compartment. Although the true nature of the issue could be the result of any number of problems she currently faces. The normal energy that powers her has drained through the broken weapon and the torn wires. When she laid unconscious it all trickled out of her until there was nothing left. But now her miraculously still operational back up battery provides her just enough to kick start her system.

She shakily raises her arms and grip the spear that has pierced her. It is difficult and it is awkward, but she manages to pull herself off of the weapon by allowing it to slide all the way through her. Once released, she instantly collapses to the ground. She finds herself coughing, almost like a human. Hacking and wheezing. Little shards of plastic and metal exit her mouth as she does so. The compartments that handle her fake breathing mechanics, fake ingesting mechanism and whatever else the orifice is used for seem to be in a poor state. Her fingers claw through the dirt as the pain racks her body. Her mind is assaulted by the signals indicating the severe damage she has received.

Her computer runs a number of checks on her system. She sees a list of responsive and non-responsive functions on her HUD. A staggering number of red dots find themselves between the green that signifies online systems. She didn’t realise just how severe it was. Cooling systems, certain battle functions, various sensors, motor function and her surt module are just a few of the casualties. In response to this information, her basic self preservation systems kick in. There are many times when her consciousness and her computer system butt heads. A large warning appears on her HUD. “CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE. IMMEDIATELY SEEK REPAIRS.” Chiyou places her hand on the ground. Her arm is shaky and weak. In spite of that, she pushes off of it and raises herself to her feet. Her footing is unstable. She takes a first step and stumbles. She comes crashing back down to the floor. She feels seething frustration. She is a super soldier, she should not be struggling to even walk.

But regardless of any limitations placed on her, Chiyou will never falter in her goals. She drags herself back up to her feet again. This time she manages a full step without falling. Then another. She watches as little shards of metal continuously sprinkle out from the gaping wound in her chest. But she pushes forward. She decides to bring what is left of her spear with her. She feels most comfortable with her weapon in hand, even if it is now basically a sharp stick in comparison to the highly developed technological machine it was before. Each step is laboured and difficult. She feels her waning control over her own body. Her mind is still able to will it, but her body lags behind. The movements don’t exactly line up with what she has in mind. They take longer than what they feel like they should. She shakes and trembles without any ability to stop. She takes full minutes per step she takes. She doesn’t even know exactly where she is going. She can see the tracks left behind by Hasty. Chiyou doesn’t know how long she can follow this trail before it becomes useless, but she has no other options available to her. She has to find Hasty, find the terrorist base, and crush them all. She has to protect and serve the united world government. That is her purpose. She is a tool for humanity.

However, as a tool, she has been programmed with certain systems out of her control. One of those systems is one of self preservation. She is an expensive machine. Losing her completely would be a big deal for her masters. But those self preservation failsafes are directly at odds with her passionately programmed desire to do everything in her power to complete her tasks. She does not care for herself or her well being when compared to the greater cause she serves. So she happily ignores the warnings that pile onto her screen and yell in her head. “CEASE MOTOR FUNCTION. RISK OF FURTHER DAMAGE IS 78% IF MOVEMENT IS CONTINUED.” Her system log reads. She doesn’t doubt it, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if she can barely move. She will keep fighting for her masters as long as even a pinky finger can wiggle. “DEACTIVATING GREATER MOTOR FUNCTION UNTIL 20% OF SYSTEM IS OPERATIONAL. CURRENTLY AT 17%.” Her system log reads. This she is less able to ignore. She feels her legs suddenly lock up, and she is brought crashing down to the floor once more. “OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS REDUCED TO 15%.” “T-that just adds i-insult to injury…” Chiyou mutters. It seems the fall just mangled her internal mechanisms even more.

No matter what she does, unless this vague system programming is satisfied, she will not be able to resume her journey. She finds she can still move her arms, and even her legs. But just only a little bit, and incredibly slowly. It’s as if she has been put into slow motion. She drags herself to a nearby rock and props herself up so she is at least upright and sitting. She looks down at the hole in her chest once more. She can’t exactly debate with her system. So her only choice is to do the bare minimum to fix herself back up so that she can keep going. She does not have the skills to do so, nor any of the necessary supplies. So the repairs will likely barely help her at all. She just needs to trick her own computer into thinking she is better off than she is.

She decides that first things first, she needs better access to her own body. She undoes her belt like wrap around her waist. Then snaps off a sharp piece of steel from her broken chest plate and uses it to cut the bandages that remain clinging to her. Her jacket gently falls to each side of her, exposing her chest and stomach. She can really get a good look at her wound without her clothing obscuring it.

The damage is really bad. The metal is mangled and ripped, which is impressive considering the strength of material Chiyou is made out of. Though it does make sense, considering the blow was dealt with her own weapon. She can see that the indent and metal that was destroyed pushed into her body. So there is far more damage than the exact hole produced by the spear. Instead the surrounding area is also suffering. Even completely functional parts are rendered useless by being showered in metal dust and short circuiting from ripped cables. She can see her motherboard is just barely holding on by a thread. Parts of it are chipped and cracked, but not too much of the actual wiring is damaged. That is except for one connection with her secondary multi core processor. That is probably one of the biggest things she needs. Her consciousness is housed in her central processing unit. But basically any mental feature outside of thinking itself requires her secondary unit. The unit itself is torn in two. So even if the motherboard was functioning, it would be practically useless.

She reaches into her own body. She rarely has to actually handle her own parts like this, so it is a bit off putting. But there is nothing that would stop her from what she needs to do. Her fingers gently lay on one of her fans. It looks largely intact, but completely disconnected from the relevant slot. She picks it up and brings it up to her face to inspect it. Chiyou can see that the plastic casing is cracked, but it should still be able to work. So she finds the slot next to her secondary unit. It seems the connection requires a cable which is just gone. It must have fallen out as she made her way here. So she begins to look around inside of herself to see if there are any still functional cables connected to non-functional pieces. She routes around her body. She sees just how loose everything is. It is a wonder enough energy is flowing through her to remain conscious at all. Finally she sees that her data storage drives are pretty significantly punctured. She has four in total, and she discovers that only 2 still work at the moment.

She wonders what was within the other two that no longer work. But ironically she is unable to remember what could possibly be there due to their absence. But all of the connecting cables are intact, so she quickly pulls one out and plugs it into the fan. “NEW DEVICE REGISTERED. 19% PERCENT OF SYSTEM OPERATIONAL.” Her computer log tells her. “Damn!” She spitefully exclaims. She was really hoping this single fan was able to tip her over the edge, but it seems she needs one more thing working to continue.

Luckily it is such a tiny amount, she might be able to continue by just fixing something that was pulled out of place but still works. She searches within her system long and hard. Chiyou almost blushes as she runs her fingers along dense wiring, steel structural pieces, and all sorts of computer chips and parts. It is an oddly intimate moment with herself, but she doesn’t let her mind wander from the mission at hand. Finally she notices that one of her sticks of memory is dislodged but seems relatively fine. She excitedly plugs it back in, and waits for a moment. But there is no alert saying it works. She takes it out and puts it back in, but again nothing happens. Chiyou angrily removes the stick and takes a closer look at it. She identifies the issue, that one of the metal prongs on the connector is bent. It is a bit of a bold strategy, but she carefully tries to bend it back into place with her finger. She struggles with it for a bit. It doesn’t respond to gentle touches, but she is worried that escalating her power will just break it. So she takes her time slowly building up to the point she can move the metal without just snapping the thing in half.

Finally it ever so slightly shifts into place. She pulls her hand back quickly, not wanting to go too far. It looks alright, but she truly has no idea if it will work or not. So with bated breath, she attempts to plug it back in. It satisfyingly clicks into place, in a way it hadn’t before. “NEW RAM STICK IDENTIFIED. 21% OF SYSTEM OPERATIONAL. REINSTATING MOTOR FUNCTION.” “Yes!” Chiyou cheers out. She can feel the locks placed on her body release, and she feels freed. That feeling very quickly stops in its tracks as she feels the limits of her incredibly damaged body again. She tries to pull herself back up but nothing responds like it should and she scrambles for a moment. With the experience from before she is still able to make a stand and raise back up to her feet. It takes a second for her to find the tracks again, but once she does, she continues on her journey following them. She closes her jacket and binds it tightly. Both to stop anything from falling out or letting anything get in.

She grows more used to her newfound struggles in movement. But her newfound familiarity does nothing to improve any potential combat prowess. Despite her incredible drive to continue on, she is realistic about how limited she will be when she does encounter an enemy combatant. The end of her spear is quite dulled after it pierced her. While it is usually reinforced by the energy that flows from her into it, it is now just a dull lump of metal. But she comes up with an idea. So she decides to take another seat for a moment. It is not like she is in a rush. If she wanted to keep up, that possibility was lost long ago. So she rests down beside a tree and holds the end of her spear up. On closer inspection she finds that the tip has been basically dulled to a nub. But she has an idea to return its combat capabilities. She brings it up to her chest. The hole it made mere centimetres away. She brings it closer to the metal plating that protrudes just above her artificial skin. The center of the wound is surrounded by incredibly sharp broken metal. She places the tip of her spear against the metal, and uses it to sharpen her weapon. It is a slightly labour intensive process, but she feels it’s worth it to gain the use of her spear back.

She lays down meticulously grinding the blade of the spear. It gives her more than enough time to better understand the limitations of her currently failing body. She runs a diagnostic check on her system. While it would usually only take a few minutes to run through her code, due to her newly limited processing power that timeframe balloons to over an hour. “RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS CHECK ON SYSTEM… LOADING… ETA 72 MINUTES… LOADING… ETA 71 MINUTES…” She single mindedly focuses on the sharpening until it is done.

“DIAGNOSTIC CHECK COMPLETE. DIAGNOSTIC REPORT SAVED TO HARD DRIVE.” Her system informs her. Without requiring any external actions, she delves into her own code and pulls up the file. It reads thusly. “Total operational value of the system is 21%. Each category of function is listed below.” A long list of different parts and systems of her body are listed. Almost all of them hover around only 20%, which is seemingly where the total number is derived. “Errors listed in order of system severity. COOLING ERROR SURT MODEL ERROR SHELL HULL INTEGRITY ERROR CIRCUIT INTEGRITY ERROR OPERATIONAL CAPACITY ERROR GREATER MOTOR FUNCTION ERROR” Despite Chiyou’s determined and unshifting expression, she grows more frustrated. She is basically a shambling mess, she knows that little can be done at all if she encounters an enemy. Most damning is the hull integrity. It means that basically any functioning system is still at risk of contamination and damage from dust, sand, dirt or any other particles that could interrupt her computers. Then the lack of her Surt model robs her of almost all of her combat abilities. Without it she can not engage in her superior strength, high powered movement and energy blasts. The surt model also helps temporarily support and restore other broken functions during battle. Finally the lack of a completely functional cooling system means she is basically operating under a ticking clock. A few fans still work, and she can hear them spin aggressively without the soundproofing of her metal plating. But the liquid cooling system was the most important core of the function. The fans only serve to slow the inevitable build of heat that will lead to the failure of the few remaining processing units that keep her running.

She grunts as she brings herself back up to her feet. The diagnostics informed her that she actually is not able to keep a leisurely pace. If she hopes to achieve anything at all with the remaining time she has before total deactivation, she needs to go now. She stumbles to her feet once more. Grips her spear in her hand. Then begins to walk forward towards her goal. The tracks have long since been swept away by the wind. There is naught to follow, but in spite of that she continues onwards. Convinced that the mere implication of Hasty’s direction is about as much evidence as she can hope for in this scenario.

Her journey continues on with little to stimulate her along the way. She can feel her mind wane as time goes on. She is still not used to the limited capabilities of her partially destroyed system. One can not adjust to having half the brain they had mere hours previous. She feels her thoughts lag behind. Sluggishly following her intent. Each and every problem feels that much more difficult. Perhaps she would have given up on this endeavour and found another more productive way to serve her masters if she was still at 100% processing power. But at the moment this is all the limited machine can hope to accomplish. She walks for what feels like an endless amount of time until finally clearing a small hill and looking over at the horizon. It is there she sees it.

A large brutalist grey building resides in the center of this barren wasteland. It is surrounded by a dense forest of barbed wire and fences. It must be the HQ she was looking for. She increases her pace dramatically. Now that her goal is in sight she feels so much more drive. But as she begins to run, a sudden pang of pain returns to her chest. Her mind has mostly dulled to the barrage of pain signals that refuse to be inhibited, so this comes as a surprise. In fact it is enough to knock her off her feet and hurtling back to the ground. This is a bit more of an intense fall than the last few she experienced. She came crashing down with momentum this time.

She lands awkwardly. Rather than being able to brace herself, the spear in hand and the more surprising nature of it cause her to be unprepared. So she lands strongly on her right shoulder, and her body crumples into the ground. “WARNING WARNING WARNING ADDITIONAL DAMAGE RECIEVED” Her computer loudly alerts Chiyou. It seems her body has further crushed her insides. Steel grating against computer chips and wires. Jagged edges and protrusions deal most of the damage. “F-fuck!” Chiyou yells out. The pain that brought her down in the first place is now added by the additional signals alerting her to the internal anarchy. She rolls over onto her back so that no additional pressure is put on her delicate innards. She is unable to silence the alarm ringing in her mind. Her system is increasing its severity of warnings in response to the additional sudden damage.

It takes a moment for her to steady her thinking and return to any sense of clarity. She is a little confused as to what caused the original pain in the first place. She is able to check her internal logs and their exact timestamps. She internally scrolls through the list of her own data reports until she finds something that lines up with the incident. It seems that something hit one of her few remaining data centers. It is then she remembers a piece of broken off metal was lodged in the densely packed computer parts. It probably came loose as she tried to run. If it dislodged it could have easily swung down and struck her. Something that small is able to deal damage to all of this sensitive machinery. She is a shambling mess. This is just the final nail in the coffin of proof. Each stumble and miss step leads to the final remnants of her body breaking off and destroying each other. Her insides are far more filled with broken metal pieces, steel dust, and snapped off bits of plastic than any still functioning components.

But Chiyou just can’t find it in herself to quit. She still wants to use the degrading mess of her body to achieve anything that is possible to serve the united world governments and the humans that created her. She believes in this cause over her own life, as if it is self-evidently so. So she begins to drag herself back to her feet. Still invigorated by the sight of the HQ, she hurries herself through the process recklessly She places her right arm on the ground and begins to push her upper body off of the floor with it as hard as she can. But as she raises and places her weight on her arm, it begins to buckle. Until finally it snaps. She reels in pain as the steel within tears through her artificial skin and makes its way out of her body. Chiyou had assumed the damage was purely centralised to her stomach and chest. But due to the lack of a surt model, the power that runs through her body and reinforces her mechanisms is no longer present. Leaving the metal to be weaker than it ever should be on its own.

The metal structural beams within her arm now garishly stick out of the flesh. There is no blood, no torn muscles or any viscera. Just a thin layer of synthetic skin being pierced by mangled steel that now protrudes out.

She inspects the damage with gritted teeth. The signals are almost scrambled, with inconsistent readings of the pain. Usually her body conveys surface level damage with varying pain signals in order to keep her aware. But when the limb is completely broken like this, it barely even knows what to convey to her and corrupts. The deluge of digital information overwhelms her significantly. Her system was just barely able to handle it when she first reactivated, but she can feel her processing power get worse and worse. The system has been overheating for a little while and thus is losing its efficiency at an exponential rate. The remaining power in her system is starting to dwindle. Even her back up is quite insufficient in the long run. It is not based on any self sufficient system, so it is a limited resource that is now running low and impacting her performance.

Her system is practically panicking. “IMPLEMENTING IMMEDIATE HALT ON ALL MOTOR FUNCTION. IMPLEMENTING IMMEDIATE HALT ON ALL UNNECESSARY SURVIVAL FUNCTIONS. IMPLEMENTING IMMEDIATE HALT ON ALL POWER DRAINING FUNCTIONS. LOADING… LOADING… ERROR. SYSTEM SETTINGS UNABLE TO BE CHANGED. ERROR. REBOOTING… ERROR. SYSTEM UNABLE TO SHUT DOWN DUE TO OPEN PROGRAM FILES. REBOOTING… ERROR. SYSTEM UNABLE-” It begins to loop endlessly. It seems her core programming is attempting to shut everything down. But it seems her operating system doesn’t have any more control over her than she does now. Too much of her programming is beginning to fail. Core system files are missing due to the additional damage to the data centers. Her code corrupts more and more as it attempts endlessly reboots in vain.

Chiyou takes this opportunity to push forward. Her system is in total shutdown but is unable to actually execute on it. She has very little time. She gets back up. She is slightly more careful this time. Despite the race against the clock she now knows she needs to be slightly more careful to make it there at all. With slightly more experience this time, she manages herself back to her feet. Her body is racked with pain, and with each step she takes more of the pieces within her snap and break. Grinding against each other awkwardly until there is barely anything left. Her CPU is burning hot. Her fans barely have the power to spin, since every last spec of energy is going to her head to keep her conscious. Her central programming is imploding on itself, with as many errors as there are lines of code.

Each inch of progress she makes is met with two more externally silent but internally blaring alarms in her head. Her display is covered in all sorts of error alerts and bright red warning notices that she is unable to remove. Usually they are opaque and easy to ignore, but now they genuinely block her visibility without any way to fix it. But Chiyou doesn’t care. She drags her body further and further. Knowing she might be able to serve the united world government with her absolute last breath invigorates her. With the few possible thoughts she is able to muster each minute she considers possible strategies and plans of attack. She hopes to use the surprise of her survival to her advantage. But realistically there is nothing she can do. She is just almost delusional. Whether that is due to her undying support of her masters, the overheating and corrupted processing unit that houses her mind, or a complicated mix of both is hard to say.

She stumbles her way forward. Her arm hanging limply by her side, no longer bound to her control. No longer connected to any complicated motor and pulley system that allows her to move it around. Instead just a useless hunk of metal that is attached to her side. Her left arm grips the broken half of the spear, with the crudely but effectively sharpened tip. The tightly closed jacket can not completely cover the opening, so the rattling of loose metal can still be heard quite clearly. Dirt and dust has made its way inside from the numerous falls she has taken. Making its way into the motherboard and the few remaining components. She can feel her body’s movements get worse by each passing second. What was once slow and sluggish is now glacial. She can feel her joints scrape and strain. Power is not being properly applied to her whole body, so she has to fight against her own weight to even make a tiny fragment of progress. To just remain upright takes total concentration which she is borderline incapable of doing. But through sheer force of will she keeps moving.

She keeps her eyes on the base. Both as motivation, but also to continue monitoring it. Saving as much reconnaissance data she can in case her body is recovered by her allies. The building is dead still. No one goes in and no one goes out. If anything it feels almost unnatural still. There are no soldiers out front guarding, there are no people protecting the gates, it is just empty. She keeps her eyes trained on the concrete cube as she moves forward. Her boots brush past rocks and twigs on the floor. Her hair billows in the breeze.

She needs to stumble down the hill in order to keep moving forward, which is a bit of a problem. The unstable footing and awkward angle are both things that are basically insurmountable for her shoddy body. Chiyou attempts to slowly shuffle her way down. Putting all her effort and energy into maintaining her balance despite her entire system coming apart at the seams. Metal shards are knocked around her insides. Complicated technology is rendered simple lumps of steel and copper that collect in her abdomen. She finally pries her eyes away from the building as she looks down at the ground to keep her footing. Each step is shaky and uncertain. She is a little surprised to see just how much her body refuses to perform the actions she wants. The way her foot moves forward is completely off from what she wills. It sways, it lags behind, it overshoots. Chiyou has never felt more disconnected from her body than she does now. This shambling mess of steel feels distant.

Just as she begins to let her focus slip, her foot goes with it. The little bit of rubble she stands on slides down the slope, taking her down. She strikes the ground, as she has so many times in the last few hours. But gravity pulls her even further, as she tumbles down the rest of the hill she was walking on. The damage of the fall multiplied by each and every second she spends slipping and rolling down. All sorts of contaminants make their way into her computers and connections. Her motherboard is scratched by these tiny and sharp rubble until it finally begins to create lasting damage. The small golden strips between each of its components are scrapped off. The power supply connections are plugged and bent.

That is only the microscopic issues. By the time her body finds its place at the bottom of this small hill, her last data drive is completely butchered by the mangling mess of all else that remains within her. She has a few sparing seconds of code still running as the last remnant of power surges through her wires. So many of them ripped and torn, awkwardly dangling within her body, leaking the precious lifeblood of her computer system. She stares forward in vain, staring at the building in front of her. Her senses slowly drain from her. So she is unable to hear the helicopter that begins to lower just before her. She only notices it as the dust is brought into the air by the strong propellers.

She cranes her neck up ever so slightly to see the sleek black body of the helicopter lower onto the ground.“Cc-c… command-d-der?” Chiyou manages to sputter out. Her voice glitches and drops out every other syllable. But as a woman steps out of it, the light of any function leaves her eyes. Chiyous head drops to the ground with a thud. Her computers make their final gasps before her fans slow to a stop, her wires stop spewing sparks, and her CPU stops heating itself more and more. “DH53X[P DAW/’[] ..FGJR, CHIOOO..]CSHIYOU OFFP]AAWLINE… jw/35 g.5/56’f-= chiwa-[you off-wadawleine…”

e6…”

Her computer log outputs its last few lines of heavily corrupted text before it peters out too. She is completely offline. Chiyou is completely broken.

The woman approaches her. She is wearing a sleek black military garb. Her chest is adorned with medals and badges of honour. She has a brown belt tied around her waist and a sash around her arm that pledges her allegiance to the united world government. The woman, Katerina von Bayern, kneels down and inspects Chiyou’s unconscious face. Using her foot, she pushes the robot onto its back so that she can further investigate the nature of her failure. Once the large gaping wound in her chest is visible, it’s quite clear what the problem was. “Oh Chiyou… Ever the dedicated soldier.” Katerina says to herself. She turns her attention back to the helicopter and calls over some grunts to assist her. She orders the men to carry Chiyou’s body into the aircraft. She steps back into her seat and watches as the men hold up the unconscious robot's body. Katerina sees shiny metallic dust escape from Chiyou’s body with every slight movement, along with more significant chunks of her computer that drop out. She tells them to pay the pieces no mind.

Chiyou is laid out besides the commander in chief. Katerina returns her gaze to the bot’s face. Her expression is a profoundly calm one. The only time she is able to rest is when the option to fight is taken away by force. “Alright, take us back.” She tells the pilot. As the engine roars back to life, the chopper is lifted back into the air. Katerina glances at the building they are next to, recognising it for the abandoned warehouse it is. She wonders why Chiyou was crawling her way towards it. She will find out when she receives the report from Chiyou after being repaired.

Chiyou is taken back to the relevant branch of the united world government. Her long and intense struggle was ultimately in vain. She would gladly do it again a thousand times over for her masters.