Soul under Circuits

Chapter 3

My tensors engaged, and my whole body leaned in preparation to launch a lunge attack. Face first, torso curved so that the head hovered at the same height of that the waist was, arms stretched out behind, both wielding their respective swords. Legs in sprint ready position, as racers do to begin running. Minutes passed and nothing but a small bug in a corner of the room moved, as if time was frozen.

Enemy reinforcement arrival estimated in T-12 minutes. Engage target.

Just as the computer instructed, the target crouched and turned to me. Human shaped lenses appeared to serve as eyes. The structure of the face had high resemblance of a human one. Odd. There seemed to be no purpose on sculpting facial features for a military grade robot.

A smooth voice invaded mi hearing devices. It seemed almost human, but it had a small vibration to it that not only confirmed that it was artificial, but also issued a sensation of calmness.

"I pardon for the interruption of this very interesting moment, as I was expecting you to make a move before me." My combat pose got loosened. There seemed to be low risk regarding the target. "I guess I must present myself. I would just hate to turn up as rude to your eyes." It said while it bowed in front of me. "I'm Marcus Coambu, Ex General, Marksman, and Assassin of the African Confederation and a recent addition to the Coalition Force Incursion Squad. The Coalition saved me. I guess it was a similar situation to what you went through."

Enemy reinforcement arrival estimated in T-11 minutes. Engage target immediately.

Marcus kept the speech. I wouldn't talk to the enemy. "Is it annoying you? The voice inside your head. Your CPU. I can listen to it too. It is... unpleasant... to say the least. Our free will was taken away from us, in a way."

The pauses in the target's talk were characteristic of those people have when no words come to mind. It seemed that he hadn't gotten his language and speaking brain parts replaced with machinery. Talking was no hard task before, but now words just came to mind just as I thought of them. 15 years after my activation and the Coalition hasn't gotten hand in artificial language implant for special operatives yet. I guess we are really winning the technology race.

System override imminent.

My joints bended and stretched in order to advance. In a singular movement, the target was in no distance. My left arm served as a distraction, as the acid covering Uraj would not work in this combat. I slashed in an attempt of distracting the enemy, but the blade just impacted in full force against the not-moving target. It just bounced. My right arm thrust forwards, Khalis aimed down to the target lower torso. Contact. A hand got hold of my right forearm, stopping it completely just as the tip of the sword scraped the polished surface that the enemy was covered in.

"I am going to be able to stop the voices. I will try to free you to. I desire in getting my humanity back. We should be free to choose to take our actions..." A brief pause increased the tension. "I'm getting my orders now. Good luck."

With that, Marcus pushed my body back a couple of centimeters. In a dash, he stood behind the table in which he had been standing and drew his rifle in the pose of a martial artist. The tip aimed at my ocular receptor. It seemed as if it weighted nothing as no sound was made in the entire action. A flash blinded me and a small explosion stunned my hearing receptors. A small and hard metal point flew in and through my metallic skull.