Last [E]xecution

The Third Fall

There was a loud thud as a map was thrown onto the table, androids and machines alike surrounding it. It was a map of the castle, all the ways in and out, all the routes, ambush locations, defensive positions.

Forest Kingdom machines, resistance androids, YorHa androids, they all looked over the map.

"She's coming through the front gate," Artorias said, pointing at the location. "We're sending bipeds to intercept."

"They're going to get slaughtered," 91B said. "You don't have enough to finish her. Do we have any android weapons?"

"Yeah, plenty," Jackass said. "Got more than a couple or mortars and railguns on the walls...sorta"

"What do you mean sorta?" 4S questioned.

"Unfortunately the androids were afraid the machines would use the railguns against them...left the job half done." Jackass shot an annoyed glare at the androids in the room, all of whom didn't dare to make eye contact. While they had been working together, it was not true unity.

"How long would it take to get the guns online?" 91B asked.

"Five, ten minutes," one of the resistance androids said. "But even if the guns worked, we still have to hit her. No way we're hitting a YorHa android. And you guys said it's a copy of 2B right? Then we're even more screwed!"

"We will distract her," Artorias said. "Our forces will keep her in place. When the weapons are ready, fire."

That suggestion was enough to catch the attention of everyone in the room. Those weren't exactly sniper rifles they were wielding. Those were artillery units. Which meant...

"You're suggesting we bomb you?" 54B asked. "While you're fighting her? You know many machines will die if we do that."

"And we will all die if you don't," Artorias replied. "Destroy her, do not let the machine deaths be in vain."

54B heard the words but she was still hung up on what she heard before. This entire time she was working with the enemy simply for survival. She never viewed the machines as anything more than a...disease to put it best. To say the machines were the enemy was too simplistic. An enemy was another entity, a thinking entity. Sure the machines thought...of wanton destruction and murder. They were like locusts. But they fed off of misery and death rather than crop.

Yet here she was, coming face to face with honor.

Not only that, she had come face to face with the past. Past months where she treated the machines as locusts.

"We have some resistance snipers," Jackass pointed out. "They're damn accurate too. It'll help buy time. Much harder to fight you while dodging a hail of bullets."

"Wait," 4S said. "Let me join the machines at the front. This is a corrupted 2B model. 2B redesigned me for psychological warfare. I might be able to help distract her."

4S knew what he was saying. He was offering to get blown up with the machines. It was hard for him to tell, but the way their EM fields changed, he would swear he could feel admiration from the machines in the room.

"We don't want to put everything in one attempt," Artorias said. "Stay in the castle. You will be our secondary layer if our first fails."

"The machines will serve as a buffer while the androids set the heavy weapons," 91B ordered. "This is where the androids are going to make their last stand. But it doesn't have to be yours. There are more Forest Machines than androids. Some of you could flee while the rest buy time."