Chartreuse || ONC 2022

▪︎ Digi Log 14 ▪︎

The Red Palace
Neo-York
22:57

This night was particularly dark, almost as if the very elements of the planet knew of the battle that would soon take place. The lights from the Red Palace sparkled like the beacon of hope they would never be. The three Negotiators approached the ominous outside wall to the palace, all preparations for battle having been made.

The trio was accompanied by their reprogrammed android — its sole objective now to protect them.

Whitlock had installed a proximity data transfer unit inside Sparky's brain circuitry. It worked on an isolated signal that he deemed "hack-proof." Any android that came within five hundred meters of Sparky would receive the reassignment via their shared consciousness, and join the Negotiators' cause.

Ava-1 shot an electric pulse at the Winged Monkey that hovered above the palace gates, and the android guards — now under the influence of the proximity data transfer — opened the gates for the Negotiators, then joined their ranks in approaching the palace doors. The thirty androids guarding the entrance already stood at attention, awaiting orders from their new masters.

"Ava, work your science on the control panel by the door," Saito instructed. "No sense forcing our way in if we can accomplish the same feat silently."

"We shall take care of any mortal guards," Mina added.

"Got it! Come on, Sparky!" Ava-1 chirped, and she and Sparky took off at a run toward the large digital control panel imbedded in the wall beside the entrance. The androids posted around the area stepped out of their way, passive.

On their guard, Saito and Mina circled, their backs to each other, on the lookout for potential threats and hindrances. Saito's hands rested on the hilts of his swords. Mina's eyes began to glow an eerie blue.

Their wait was a short one. A dozen armed human guards approached at a sprint.

"Intruders!" shouted the guard in the lead. "Intruders on the grounds! This property belongs to Big Sister!"

The androids moved into an offensive formation around Saito and Mina. Saito unsheathed his katana.

"Stay your hand," Mina whispered to her samurai comrade.

The human guards came to a halt a few feet from them. "They've hacked the synthetics!" the commander exclaimed. "You are under arrest for trespassing and theft, intruders! Those androids also belong to Big Sister!"

The blue of Mina's eyes intensified until the glow became almost blinding. Several of the guards slacked their militant stances. A few stared, unblinking. One mouth fell open. The commander guard began to lower his stun gun.

"Nooo..." Mina cooed, waving her fingers before the guard's face. "These are not the droids you're looking for."

"They're...not..?" the commander asked. His voice had taken on a trancelike quality.

"No," Mina said. "Those droids have left the city limits and are conferring in the dunes outside the parameters of Neo-York surveillance. Go, seek them there. Take any human guards you come across with you."

"Yes... Yes, to the dunes," the commander droned. "Let's go, men."

The guards turned with lethargic tempo, their movements sluggish and unhurried. They trooped slowly toward the gate.

Saito sniffed a laugh. "Where did that line come from?"

"Oh, just a little something I picked up," Mina replied with a coy smile. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

“Nicely done,” Saito said.

“Thank y—”

Mina’s words were cut off. A guard, hidden in the darkness until now, grabbed her from behind. He shoved the nozzle of his gun against the side of her head.

“Stay back, Samurai filth,” the guard shouted. “And tell the droids you corrupted to stand down, too. One step, and I’ll blow her pretty head off. I can see she’s a vampire, but my body mods make me impervious to parlor tricks like glamoring. Don’t even try to save her.”

Saito was unconcerned. He sheathed his katana and lifted his empty palms. “As you wish.”

The guard scoffed in disgust. “Don’t you care about the life of your comrade?! You’re no warrior!”

“Idiot,” Mina muttered. “Do you honestly think I need someone to save me?”

In a single fluid motion of a deadly dance, Mina reached up, bent the barrel of the guard's gun ninty degrees, grabbed him around the neck, and plunged her now-protruding fangs into his throat.

She drank.

As the guard's strength failed him, the interlocked pair slowly sank to the ground. A moment later, Mina stood. The guard remained on the ground, mouth agape. Mina wiped her crimson lips.

“Were you thirsty?” Saito asked with a smile.

“Parched,” Mina replied. “And the evil ones always taste so much better.”

Ava-1 returned to them at a run. "We're in. No muss, no fuss, not a sound. And all surveillance devices on the property are offline.”

“It's likely Big Sister is aware of our presence regardless,” Saito said. "We must proceed under the assumption that we are expected."

“Agreed,” Ava-1 said. She smirked. "But if she's expecting us, we shouldn't make her wait."

"Indeed," Mina concurred. "After that disgraceful display with the factory foreman, it's quite clear how she feels about waiting."

"Let us go," Saito said. "Into the trenches."

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more," Mina recited.

"Who said that?" Ava-1 asked. "Darth Vader?"

"Certainly not," Mina scoffed. "Shakespeare. Henry V."

"Was he a captain?"

"After a fashion...yes."

With no hindrance, the Negotiators stepped through the entrance doors and into the palace foyer. A small army of androids followed at their back, and certain darkness lay before them.

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