Clone Girls

"That’s it for today, girls. You all did great." Ticia said, watching over twelve tired clone girls. When she announced that, all the girls just quietly left, like zombies. "Don’t forget to take a shower~."

""...Yes..."" She got a weak answer.

Two days had passed since Ticia started training the clone girls, and despite the spartan training they were going through under Ticia, they did not complain. Ticia had to get them credit, it’s not easy to keep up with her training, even Rika could not take the amount of training Ticia did in a day. Of course, Ticia had adapted it so that it would be feasible for the clone girls. But it must be noted that it would be impossible for a normal 8 year old kid to keep up with the training program Ticia had arranged for the girls. The fact that none of the clone girls had yet to throw a tantrum despite looking like zombies after training was a big proof of their motivation.

"Welp, time to do my training now~." Ticia hummed happily as she took the direction of the changing room. She was going to train with her armor on so that A-4 could collect more feedback data to improve it.

But then, A-4 called out.

"Report: Contact with patrol drone P-202 has been lost. Sending patrol drones P-209 and P-201 to patrol drone P-202’s last location to identify the reason."

Ticia stopped for a moment, she looked around her to see whether the clone girls heard A-4. When she spotted nobody, a sigh escaped her lips. Then, with a serious look on her face, she entered her personal changing room with A-4 following and closed the door.

"...A-4, what did I tell you about updates concerning what’s happening outside?"

The drone’s eyes blinked.

"Reciting order: Should anything change about the situation outside Clone installation 3, owner Ticia must be warned discreetly when Null class clone girls are present. If owner Ticia is alone, a report can be given immediately."

"Yeah, you remember it correctly." Ticia nodded her head, then crossed her arms. "Right now, the kids could have heard you, you know? Please be more careful."

Ticia did not want the clone girls to know what was happening outside. She thought it would stress them out to know that, just outside, a battle was going to break out in order to take control of the location where Clone installation 3 was. She did not want the girls to experience that fear everyday.

From the daily reports A-4 gave her, the accumulation of forces from both sides would lead to a conflict that might drag on for a while, something that Ticia was pretty frustrated about.

"...Owner Ticia’s preferences have been reassessed."

"Good." Ticia nodded. "How long has it been since you lost contact?"

"Report: Loss of contact with P-202 dated back to 9 minutes ago. P-209 and P-201 are approaching P-202’s last confirmed location."

"Stream their point of view, I’ll change in the meantime."

Ticia began to change into her skinsuit as A-4 displayed on a screen nearby what the patrol drones were seeing. The patrol drones were navigating in a dense forest, South-West of Clone installation 3. It was not far from the Southern entrance which was hidden under the thick vegetation.

"If it’s on that side, then it is most likely the republicans…" Ticia said, letting her thoughts known to A-4. the AI did not respond, but Ticia was used to this silent treatment now. Even though it did not respond, A-4 was still listening to what Ticia said, that was enough for her.

From the multiple reports she had received, she knew for sure that the Ionian Republic’s armed forces had established a camp to the North-West of Clone installation 3, while the Borkian Confederation had established their camp in the North-East. The two powers had begun to clash with each other on the plain to the North of Clone installation 3. Ticia thought they installed themselves there because both camps had only found the Northern entrance to the facility. And since this entrance was the most at risk, A-4, with the approval of Ticia, had deployed drones equipped with weapons. Those drones were only a temporary measure however, since they were not built to fight, clone installations did not have the required factories to build military drones.

Right now, the republicans controlled the area around the Northern entrance. They had already tried two times to enter into the facility but, following Ticia’s orders, the drones had opened fire on the coming troops, killing some and injuring others. The republicans had retreated both times.

The fact that only the Northern entrance was found did not mean however that the republic and the confederation did not know that other entrances existed. In fact, Ticia was sure they knew. Hence, when the patrolling drones had detected the presence of humans in this unpopulated area in the South, she was not surprised.

As the patrol drones reached the location, Ticia could see the carcass of a patrol drone on the ground from the stream to her left. The flying sphere with four arms had a hole in it.

"Notification: P-202 has been found by P-209. Beginning of retrieval."

A-4 announced this as P-209 began to approach the carcass of P-202. But then, the stream suddenly cut out, and not just P-209’s stream, but P-201’s stream as well.

"Warning: Signals with both P-201 and P-209 have been lost."

"Seems like you’ve been outmatched, A-4." Ticia said as she finished arranging her armor.

"Reminder: This unit has never been made to be used as a military unit."

"Fufu. If you say so, A-4." Ticia giggled, it seemed to her that the AI was pouting, dissatisfied with the comment she just made.

"... Requesting permission: This unit wants to send more drones."

"No need." Ticia denied A-4’s request, which confused the AI. It thought it was the most logical move to make.

"You told me our supplies were limited, right?" Ticia said, glancing at the drone’s reaction.

"Affirmation: Due to no access to a source of raw material, current resources are limited."

"That's exactly why we should not spend more ressources producing drones. They are not very effective against our enemy. Instead…" Ticia put on her helmet. "I’ll go there myself."

***

"Command center, this is Reco-1, do you receive?"

"Loud and clear Reco-1."

"We’ve just eliminated two more targets. We will inspect them before going to the next location."

"Roger that Reco-1. Continue the mission as planned."

"Roger, Reco-1, over."

Max sighed as he put away his communication device in his bag. His platoon had been walking for hours inside this dense forest, and he was tired of it.

"Max, what did HQ say?" His lieutenant, the chief of his platoon, walked over and asked him.

"Nothing’s changed, sir, HQ still wants us to continue." Max sighed again. If he did it before, he would have been reprimanded, however, the lieutenant was in the same state as him. "If only we knew why we are searching for some old ruins…"

Ever since his battalion had arrived in sector B7-46, their officers had ordered them to search the forest for what could look like a ruin. While it seemed an easy mission compared to the other battalions who were confronting Borkians, they had been ambushed multiple times by those drones.

At first, they thought they had been attacked by the Borkians, but HQ had denied this by affirming that those drones were linked to the objective of their mission. They were then ordered to continue their search as is. But as they did, similar drones began harassing them more frequently. This was the third day Max and his comrades had been searching for ruins in this forest, and in that time, he only slept around three hours.

"I understand your frustration, Max, but this mission has been classified both as top secret as well as urgent. Even I don't know why we’re searching for ruins in the middle of nowhere. But we are soldiers. All we can do is obey orders."

That was all they could do. Affirmed his lieutenant.

"Sir, we have finished inspecting the targets." One of the men said as he came closer to Max and his lieutenant. "They seem to be the same model as the one eliminated before. Mechanics said it is a drone modified to be equipped with a laser blaster."

"I see, so it’s not a military drone… Good work, keep an eye out, more could come out."

"Yes, sir."

The lieutenant seemed lost in his thoughts. It puzzled Max, who rarely saw his superior like that. “Lieutenant?” He asked.

"Hm? Oh sorry, I got lost in my thoughts for a moment." The lieutenant apologized.

"It’s fine lieutenant, but, if it's not too much to ask, why were you lost in your thoughts?"

"I was thinking about the reason why HQ would send us to search for some ruins." The lieutenant said as he scratched his head. He sat on a boulder next to a tree. Max sat down too. "You see, I first thought they sent us there because they found a weapon that could give us an advantage against the confederation. In this case, the ruins would be of an old arms factory, or a laboratory, something like that."

What the lieutenant said made sense to Max. If people were talking about secret weapons then yes, searching for some old ruins would be beneficial to their side. From the stories he heard when he was young, many incredible weapons and innovations were lost a thousand years ago, before the confederation and the republic were even founded. If the weapon could change the tide of the power struggle to the Ionian Republic’s side, then he would willingly give up his life for the republic to get it. Max was a soldier of career after all, unlike half of his platoon, who were young conscripts.

"But..." Max got out of his thoughts when he heard the lieutenant. "It seems I was wrong, those drones prove it."

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"If this were a military facility, do you think it would be protected by some civilian converted drones?"

The lieutenant had a point. If this was a military factory, the security would not be so light. But then what was it? Max did not know the answer.

"Besides that, those drones seem too.. shiny to me…" The lieutenant remarqued. "It’s like they just came out of the production line."

"That’s… True." Now that he thought about it, this didn’t make sense. Was the factory still functioning? How could it be true, it had been abandoned for years… "Could it be… Someone has managed to take control of the ruins?"

"That’s what I thought too. But it’s impossible, right? There’s just no way someone could sneak in an old ruin while the military is there and then reactivate its function somehow."

The lieutenant denied it, he then raised himself. "It’s about time a new drone comes out to inspect this location. We should move on." He looked at Max. "Max, contact HQ and tell them our discoveries."

"Yes sir." Max obeyed, he took out the communication device he had just put inside his bag, then turned it on. "Command center, this is Reco-1, do you receive?"

*pshhhhht*

"...Command center, this is Reco-1, do you receive?!"

"..."

His communication device only let out incomprehensible noises. Max then turned his head and shouted. "Lieutenant, something’s wro-"

As he was shouting that, the lieutenant's head suddenly exploded.  Splatters of brain bits were scattered as the soldiers froze for a second under a rain of blood.

""!!!""

All the soldiers immediately put themselves on alert, monitoring what was happening around them as the second in command shouted his orders. "Ambush! Defensive positions! We’re under attack! Soldiers!  I want you to loo-."

*Bang*

His head exploded, leading to the same gorry result as the lieutenant. Not good! Max thought. The enemy was targeting their officers! He watched in horror as the third on the line in command tried to give his orders with signs, only for his head to explode too. Still, the soldiers did not panic yet, they looked around, searching for the origin of the shots.

"There!" One of the soldiers pointed at a tree, before a laser beam pierced his chest, killing him. The other soldiers immediately began to shoot in that direction. Max could see a silhouette navigating through the dense forest at high speed, and he wasn’t the only one. A burst of laser beams were shot at it. In response, laser beams came back at them, each one killing someone.

"Stay calm everyone!" Someone shouted. "Keep firing at that position!" Max and the others did as they were told, but each time they shot at the silhouette, the silhouette would shoot back with a terrifying accuracy, killing more than two soldiers each time. Against such an opponent, some conscripts began to panic. Four deaths later, and one of them shouted.

"Agh! Fuck this! I don’t want to die here!" The conscript got up from his position and began to run in the opposite direction. Others, seeing that, did the same.

"Wait! Come back he-Gah!" One of the soldiers tried to call them back, but was shot in the process. As for those fleeing, they did not last long either. From his position, Max could only see laser beams above his head and the scream of those unfortunate enough to get hit. As their numbers decreased, Max tried to think of a way to survive. He looked at his closest comrade who nodded back, his comrade immediately got up, arms raised, and said.

"I surrend-" A laser beam pierced between his eyes, not letting him finish. Max paled. Th-this monster… Now they knew they had no way out, it was do or die.

Their numbers slowly dwindled until Max could count the ones remaining. They were now only five.

"Guh!" Another one of his comrades fell next to him, quickly followed by another one. Now only two of them were left.

"Aah!" His last comrade got shot in the shoulder and fell on the ground in pain. At that moment, Max had stopped shooting with his machine pistol. He knew there was no point. Instead, he hid himself the best he could between two roots.

Only the groans of the wounded could be heard now. After a while, he heard noise coming from the thick bushes to his right. He sneakily took a look, and he had a hard time believing what he was seeing.

There stood a woman in a fully armored suit, a white and shiny armor that did not seem to have known battle, nor did it seem to have any emblem. Max wondered for a moment how they did not notice her with such shiny gear. The woman approached the groaning man, who was looking at her with hateful eyes.

"..." The woman said nothing, instead, she just pulled out a pistol, and shot the man in the head.

"!!!" Max paled, the woman had no pity even for the wounded. He watched in horror as the woman approached each body, and shot each one with a laser beam in the chest.

Max slowly approached her, weapon in hand. He sneaked out behind her slowly while the woman continued her merciless actions. Slowly but surely. Then, he took a breath in, and came out, pointing his weapon at the head of the woman… Only for the woman to point the pistol at his head.

""..."" The both of them stared at each other for a while. Max did not know what face the woman made because of her helmet, but he could see his face’s reflection on the shiny helmet. He was terrified. When he realized that, he tried to pull the trigger, but the woman was faster. He felt his mind going blank as obscurity took over his vision…

***

Ticia sighed. "That last one sure made me tense…" She knew there was one survivor hiding, but trusted her instincts would help her survive. Ticia looked at the soldier one more time, before crouching. She checked his material.

"Oh, so he was the operator of the platoon, good thing I asked A-4 to jam their communications." She said as she took the dead man’s communication device. With it, she could listen on the enemy’s movement for a while.

"Now, I should collect some more ressources." She said as she collected the man’s machine pistol and grenades. She was collecting more weapons or gears to use. As for any other resources, A-4 would send drones to collect them.

Ticia had long learned that there was no use caring about a body on a battlefield. That’s why she looted the bodies without batting an eye. When on a battlefield, she was merciless, even to the wounded. Ticia had learned the hard way that even injured people could still attack her. Besides, if she let them go, they would release information about her and Clone installation 3. Something that she could not allow.

"Now then, since I’m here, let’s do some more cleaning…" She said as she got up after looting the last body. She turned on the communication device and listened in, before moving to a new location.

***

That day, the Ionian’s HQ was thrown into chaos. In a single day, they had lost contact with five platoons, they lost a total of 250 men without even knowing how. Because of that, HQ stopped its operations within the Southern forest for some days.

Meanwhile, Ticia had to find an excuse to tell the clone girls, for not being able to eat with them. Ticinia and Vinia’s pitiful gazes made Ticia feel guilty.