Year of Creation - 20xx

  Project MATERNITY Main Laboratory

  “I’m going to start with the reason behind the experiments.” Sandra adjusts her gsses. “I must expin many things, so please listen carefully.” Nodding seemingly to herself, she fiddles with a pen in her pocket and begins. “Project MATERNITY, the supposed magnum opus of the now te Dr. Todd, is a two-part program with the purpose of producing mecha pilots.” She begins to pace in a small circle. “Ah yes, let me expin what a mecha is. Mecha are giant robots that are supposed to have souls; a new type of living weapon that’s main purpose is to provide the Council of Eden with immeasurable power.” She pauses for a moment, pcing a hand on my shoulder. “These monsters want to create an army that can wipe entire sor systems off the map in mere system hours. You were designed as the center of this pn, but I’m not sure how far they went with your particur specifications.”

  I tilt my head. “Then why was that meat sack so rude to me? I don’t understand. He is my creator, no?” Human emotions are quite fickle.

  “Not everyone loves what they create, Mother.” A certain pain I can’t quite comprehend fshes across her face.

  “That seems silly. What reason would one have to not love what they create?”

  “People don’t always make sense. Sometimes when we’re happy, we hurt people we love. When we’re angry, we can provide comfort better than any joyful embrace could. We aren’t as simple as machi-” She catches herself, looking away from me. “I didn’t mean that…”

  I curse my inability to smile, opting to pce a hand on her cheek instead. “It’s my understanding that machines were on binary algorithms prior to recent developments. Human nature seems to be difficult to defy, so I see no reason for you to beat yourself up like this”

  Sniffling, she nuzzles her face into my hand. “I don’t want to be like…” She hiccups, on the verge of tears. “Him.”

  “Is him the fool over there, or some other person I haven’t met yet?” I thank my database for information on double meanings.

  She doesn’t answer, so I hold her face with both hands and tap my forehead to hers. Her small sobs slowly subside into choppy breathing. Sandra seems to be breathing better now, so I must take a mental note of this for possible future events.

  We sit on the floor, leaning on one another for a few minutes. It’s quite nice, being a comfort for someone. Only when Garret so rudely interrupts us do we cease.

  “Sandra, I get that you and her are having a moment here, but the inspection team is getting here in about three system hours! We gotta move along with the talking!” This human oaf annoys me, despite likely being correct.

  “Right! So, um, mecha…” She sniffles and sits back up. “Okay. So, your daughters are meant to be pilots of the mecha I mentioned before. The pn was to birth eight to start and test your ability to control them over the next few months, but that’s no longer happening. For several reasons.” She stands up, turning to walk toward a console off to the right. Assimition data is an issue, considering there isn’t any recorded events of any humans achieving above fifty percent...”

  There’s that word again! “What is this… assimition you mentioned?” Perhaps it will give some sort of expnation to the odd ramblings from earlier.

  She answers without looking up from the console. “Assimition, to put it bluntly, is the measure of how ‘aligned’ you are with the mech’s ‘soul’. It essentially is a rating that determines your control over the mech, and its ability to act based on internal and external data; simir to how the human mind or the AI matrix like yours works.” She taps her temples. “If you assimite beyond the rate you test for, your central nervous system is likely to burn out from a sudden influx of information.”

  “How ghastly. So, why is that not a problem for me or my daughters? Aren’t our… matrixes modeled after your minds?”

  “Well, yes they are.” She pauses her pacing for a moment to face me. “There’s one fundamental difference. Humans can’t use the full capacity of their brains, even with current assistive technologies. That isn’t the case with AI, though.” I wonder if she’ll tire of walking in circles. Hopefully she doesn’t, as it’s quite fun to see her go to and fro. “Y’all can access that full potential, which is why you can handle the influx of data! It’s truly fascinating, this technology.” Anyone with eyes could see that this moment, this slice of conversation; is the reason she chose this as her work. The sparkles in her eyes were truly dazzling, a testament to love and dedication to her craft.

  Dux waves to me, wearing that silly outfit I told her to shed again. “Ma- Mother! I’ve primed all the pods!” This child’s joy may be somewhat infectious, but I find it difficult to motivate myself; as her body is being defiled by Todd’s perverse choice of clothing.

  “Coming, Dux my dear!” I turn to Sandra, pnting a kiss on her forehead. “Why don’t we talk about this more ter?” Only a shy squeaking noise could be heard, her face buried into my arm as we walk over to the pods.

  We arrive at the second pod, mere meters away from the first. Pcing my hand on the screen, I answer before it can begin its dialogue. “Command, birth. Name, Domini” The pod hums just like the st, vapor trailing around our feet. Domini was different, but not in a much better way.

  Ey quickly steps out of the pod and falls to the ground before me. “Greetings, young master.” Ey sits seiza style and prostrates. “Truly an honor for one su-”

  Cpping once, I interject before discovering what this queasy feeling will amount to. “Alright, that's enough of that. Mother, not master. Drop the act, learn from your sister.” I gesture to Dux, who practically skips towards us to meet her new sister.

  “Wow! We’re supposed to look the same, but somehow, you’re like, really handsome!” She grabs Domini’s hand, eir not even having a chance to get a word in. “I like you! You’re gonna be my best friend!”

  Ey looks over at me, clearly seeking to escape. Unfortunately for em, I’m not in a saving mood. “Dux, be gentle with Domini. Ey has just woken up, so why don’t you talk slower?”

  “Motherrrrr…” Ey dons a pouty face, complete with the arm fold. Goodness, my children are all quite charming!

  “Now, now, sweetie. I’ve got to go name your other sisters, so why don’t you py with your older sister?”

  I suspect that if this child had a tail, it most definitely would be wagging furiously. Ey is beautifully obedient, immediately relenting to entertaining her new bubbly companion’s ramblings. Naming the rest of my children was a simple task; discovering parameter configuration contributing greatly to finally ridding them of ridiculous garments.

  My third daughter, Eroica, was of a more… feral nature. Her outfit was simple; consisting of solid bck shorts and a matching tee, pastel sea shell bracelets for each wrist, and frizzy hair pulled back into an uneven bun. I had to knock the poor thing out because she understood ‘Come to me, child’ as ‘ bite me bite me bite me py time’. Hopefully nap time will help adjust her attitude. I’d rather not strike my children again.

  The following three were in identical emerald A-line dresses, greeted me with the same curtsy, and all asked if I wanted a back massage while rubbing their hands together, which I said no to. I named them Stel, Flora, and Mabel, respectively. Sandra described them as ‘perverted ballerinas’, which I most definitely agree with. Mabel in particur, who finds my breasts to be quite interesting. What a strange child.

  Juno, my seventh child, came out wearing the most charming purple-bck dress, frills cascading from her waistline and sleeves just barely hiding her hands. Opting to let the pod pick suitable clothing was a wonderful decision. I fp my hands, an odd yet effective way of regaining control of my emotions.

  My final child, Lavinia, was the one who came after me most. Hair styled to mimic mine, completely without clothing, eyes glowing a faint blue, but no patterning across her body. Ze does, however, have the ability to smile and is wearing a sadistic grin on zer face.

  Ze tilts zer head to one side and points at Garret. “Mother, can I have the tall and silly looking human? They look like an excellent screamer!” Oh dear.

  “Torturing humans that haven’t done us wrong is fruitless, Lavinia. Fret not,” I bring her into an embrace. “There's likely many fleshbags for you to py with, so have a little patience and you’ll get to py. Why don’t you try being nice for now? You’ve scared the poor thing half to death!” Garret is crawling away, legs failing to hold them up.

  They grip their shirt, panic breathing and slow moving. “An excellent screamer? Fucking hell… I haven’t even lived half my life, and now I’m being targeted by a twelve second old robot!”

  My little scientist pulls herself away to hiss at them. “Watch your mouth, dude! They’re people too! Just… born different, that’s all.” Sandra seems to have regained herself.

  “Right, sorry, bad habit.” Garret rubs the back of their head, clearly embarrassed about their little slip up.

  “Why don’t you go chat with the girls? Perhaps that will help.” I find myself considering Garret anew as one of my daughters. A possibility for a future in which they do not annoy me so.

  “Yeah! You don’t seem so bad, even though you smell kinda funny.” Eroica at some point had woken up and was sniffing Garret’s leg.

  They stumble toward the girls, trying to get away from the serial sniffer. “Why don’t we talk about some cool shit instead of, well, sniffing each other?”

  Erioca forces one st neck sniff. “Sniffing is how I learn, loser. Be gd I’m not eating you for smelling too good.

  “E-eat me? Fucking christ…” Their face goes ghost white.

  Dux smacks Eroica on the back of the head, a loud cng noise reverberating throughout the b. “Cut the shit, you bitey little brat! We are gonna talk to them, and it’s going to be wonderful. Got it?”

  “Fine! Owie…” She rubs the back of her head.

  “So, why don’t you tell us more about people stuff?” Dux leads Garret into the center of the sisterly group, each eager to learn more than what they were predisposed to.

  “I can do that!”

  The girls and Garret get to know each other better, talking loudly about various human hobbies. Their loud and warm ughter warms my metal heart, but Sandra and I have quite a bit more to discuss, and I expect it to take quite some time.

  “Say, is there perhaps anything else around here you would like to show me?” My metallic fingers trace the small of her back. “My curiosity is piqued, and it would seem that I’m quite the explorer.”

  She shivers, pcing a hand on my chest. “As it so happens,” A mischievous grin spreads across her face. “there is a pod testing room, over in that corner there.” She points to a door to the left of my pod, tucked away in the corner behind. “It’s soundproof, and has lots of fun little toys to py with.” Her hands grab my ass tightly.

  I like this woman. “Where did all that shyness from before go?” We begin walking towards the room.

  She turns her head, a nervous but cute grin on her face. “I’m still embarrassed, just too horny to care anymore.”

  She quickens her pace, I match her speed. When we reach the door, Domini shoots us a look of curiosity as we shut and lock it behind us. Immediately moving to unbutton her b coat, she tosses it on the ground and takes her fts off next to it. My hands slide around her waist, fingers slowly tracing their way up. She lets out a gasp when they reach her breast, one hand squeezing and another pinching her nipple.

  “I want to taste you, Mother.” Turning around, she pulls me into a kiss—her tongue reaching for mine. She grabs my leg and coaxes me into putting it between hers, rocking her hips the second my knee made contact.

  My cunt drips with lust, thoughts of riding her face filling my mind. I want her. I need her. Reluctantly pull my lips away from hers, the desire to fuck her face overtakes me. “I want you to get on your knees for me, sweetie. Can you do that?”

  She kneels before me, waiting for my instructions. “Absolutely, Mother.”

  “Worship my pussy with that pretty mouth of yours.”

  She sticks her tongue out and leans forward. “Yes, Mother.”

  Her mouth cmps over my vagina, her thumb rubbing my clit as she fulfils my command beautifully. Pleasure explodes between my legs, her tongue moving in ways I wasn’t aware it could. It reaches deeper than I expected, swirling inside me with surprising dexterity.

  I grip her head and force her deeper, she begins to moan a little and grip my thighs. “Good girl, just like that… don’t you dare stop. Keep going…”

  Her licks grow more desperate, a light grunt mixing in with her puppy moans. Fuck, this is turning me on. My hip thrusts become more aggressive, her tongue pleasuring me deeper and deeper.

  Two naughty hands finger both of her holes. I peel her face away, forcing her to look me in the eye. Silver eyes glossed over, she pants and stares up at me.

  “Go find me something to fuck you with. You can do that for me, right?” She nods vigorously. “Good girl. The sooner you find it, the sooner you get your treat!” A yip is the only thing that leaves her pretty mouth as an answer.

  She rushes over to a drawer, pulling out a rather rge purple phallic object. Strapping it onto me herself, she barely finishes syncing it up with my systems before filling her mouth with it.

  It’s a different kind of pleasure, one that I could get used to. The entire thing is sensitive, but the tip is especially sensitive and makes me feel as if I could finish from a few strokes. Despite this, I slide in and out of her throat, nearly forgetting that she needs to breathe. Pulling out, she gags and coughs, spitting out slick saliva. She barely catches her breath before shoving it back down her throat, now down to the base.

  “That’s right, take the whole thing pup.” I moan and force it all the way down. “You’re taking it so well.”

  Moans stifled by my cock cause a heat to rise within me, bringing me to climax. My eyes roll into the back of my head, the pleasure causing my body to shake as my little scientist locks her lips around my pseudo-cock.

  “Drink up, sweet girl. Don’t miss a single drop…”

  She gulps every st bit of my seed, sucking me off even after I finish.

  “Aww, are you still thirsty? I can’t let you go thirsty, can I?” My legs shake as I fight orgasm after orgasm back to fuck her throat longer. I finish three more times before she is satisfied, leaving us both panting on the floor.

  After cuddling for a bit, Sandra yawns and zily pulls out a data drive from her coat pocket, tapping it on my forehead to reveal a holographic popup prompting me for permission to load information. “I almost forgot about this.”

  “Do you do this with all the people you make love to?” I chuckle lightly while patting her hair.

  “Be quiet and accept the drive, you.” A delightfully pyful grin fshes across her face.

  I touch our noses together. “Alright, then. Authorize.”

  Over a petabyte of private files flood into my matrix, nearly all of them on mecha. Model blueprints and specifications, pilot assimition diagnostics, battle tactics and war capabilities, and a massive subfile filled to the brim with beta project data on possible future mobile suit models. Truly a wealth of information that should prove useful in our little escape pn!

  “One thing about this data confuses me. Why would they obscure the data that you clearly contributed? I noticed your name mentioned a handful of times, but nothing that suggests that you were the reason these projects even existed.”

  Letting out a deep sigh, she takes a short moment of silence, then answers. “Humans can be deceptively greedy, Mother. All some of us even care about is taking as much as possible! It’s disgusting, really.” She folds her arms and pouts, puffing her cheeks out. “Fucking Todd and his stupid fucking logics.”

  I pce my arm around her. “You aren’t him, sweetie. You provided me with an opportunity to escape, and none of my data points to this being a greedy thing to do. I choose to believe that not all humans are like Todd, and that more should be kind like you.”

  “I suppose you’re right, Mother. Thank you.” She nuzzles her head into my shoulder.

  We hug for a while, then freeze at nearly the same time.

  “The escape pn! How long has it-” Her eyes widen when she looks at her watch. “Ah, cheeseballs, it’s been two godsdamn hours! We gotta go, Mother.”

  “Agreed.”

  We rush to get up and both scramble towards the door. When we leave the tiny room, the door smacks a spying Domini right in the face.

  “Owieeee! Why did you open it so fast, Mom?” Ey stumbles backward, holding eir forehead with eir hands.

  “Why were you snooping around?” I lean against the doorway.

  “I wanted to know why you were in there for two hours! I was worried about you, Mom!” Ey hisses at Sandra, who promptly hides behind me.

  “Stop that, Domini. She’s done nothing wrong, and I’m sorry to worry you. We were simply… exchanging data.” Sandra’s face goes red when I nudge her with my elbow. “Lots of data.”

  Garret unfortunately makes themselves known. “Can we please focus on getting to the mech bay? I’d like to make it to next week, thank you very much.” They walk off toward the opposite end of the b. “We also don’t need your sex life possibly getting us killed, Sandra.”

  “You’re so damn sassy!” Stel, Flora, and Mabel all talk in sync, sass practically dripping from their voices as they follow.

  “Can you not talk at the same time? It creeps me out…” Juno whines as she trails behind.

  “Come, girls. I think you’ll find this to be very exciting!” I give them a thumbs up and move to catch up with the rest, Sandra and I holding hands the whole time.

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  Project MATERNITY Testing Facilities - .H.A. Landing Bay

  We step out onto a balcony with stairs on either side, looking out at the massive room before us. Four mechs lined the left and right walls, leaving a four hundred meter long runway in the middle. Each one had a uniform design each with a unique twist; forty-five meters tall, humanoid form, deep blue body armor, gold colored face pting and cws, and two psma chainsaw bdes that can combine into a psma cannon on their left hip. A ninth, one meant for me, sleeps at the beginning of the runway underneath the balcony. She is of simir design to the others, but is instead sixty meters tall, has the same patterning on it as I have on me, sports four arms instead of two, carries two psma scimitars on each hip, and a ser cannon stored on the back that can reduce an enemy mech to sg in seconds. I find myself eager to meet her properly for the first time, my hands fpping as we rush down the stairs.

  We reach the bottom of the steps, everything seeming even bigger than before. Garret is already talking to one of the many workers, waving their arms around to exaggerate whatever nonsense they’re spewing. I wave the girls over, recalling that they likely need data packets to know what they’re doing

  “Girls, I’m going to transfer the information about your mechs to you so gather around.” I wave them over. “Show me your foreheads, please.”

  “Why our foreheads?” Dux moves her bangs out of the way.

  I poke her forehead, transferring the information directly to her matrix. “This is why, dear.”

  She winces from the sudden stream of data. Once she processed it over the next second or so, excitement quickly dwarfs any lingering pain. “Woah! There’s so many things entering my brain, ma- Mother! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She hugs me and runs full speed towards her partner, Felix Flos, who is the first mech on the left side.

  “Who is next, Mother?” A sparkle twinkles in Domini’s eye, eir excitement barely being contained.

  “You, dear.” Ey almost falls over leaning in to have her forehead tapped.

  “Divinus Miles… mysterious, yet noble sounding. A fine name indeed!” Smiling with satisfaction, ey quickly marches over to the second on the left side, breaking into a run about ten steps ter.

  “I’m gd you like it, Domini. Now, you three?” The triplets run over in sync. “Here’s yours.” I tap them in the order of Stel, who’s partner is named Sinistro Malleo; Mabel, who’s partner is named Ius Malleo; and Flora, who’s partner is named Medius Malleus.

  “Thank you!” Stel runs off toward Sinistro, who is first on the right.

  “You’re the best!” Mabel skips toward Ius, who is second on the right.

  “Thanks so much!” Flora sprints towards Medius, who is third on the right.

  I grab Eroica by the back of her neck and jab her in the forehead, her teeth nearly grazing my finger as I pulled away.

  “No! No biting!” A look of disapproval is pstered across my face. She seems deeply saddened and pouts as she jogs down to the fourth mech on the right, which is named Messorem Animarum.

  Juno and Lavinia walk up hand in hand, a pair I hadn’t quite expected. I poke both of them, watching as they run towards their partners; Juno with Maledicta Virgo who is third on the left, and Lavinia with Vitiosus Syreni who is fourth on the left.

  I jog toward my partner, Victoria Fortissimus, excitement bubbling up inside me. Despite having precise data on her measurements, standing before her really hammers in how wonderfully massive she truly is. My wrists begin to feel uncomfortable from all the hand fpping, but it isn’t enough to keep me from uttering the only thing on my mind: “Beautiful. You’re perfect in every way imaginable!”

  A lift is already in front of her, which solves the issue of how I was meant to get up to the hatch. I grip the railing to stop the now annoying hand fpping, the thick metal bar creaking as it bent in my grasp. As the lift gets closer to her breast, it takes an increasingly higher amount of self control to not jump off and climb the rest of the way. When it finally gets close enough for me to get off, I leap over the safety railing, nding right on the hatch which is pced at the base of her neck. It makes a hissing noise after I activate it, releasing pressure as the door panel folds out. I hop in, nding in the main pilot seat about ten meters in. It molds itself to better suit me with the wave of a hand, scanner and lighting systems going online with the wave of another. Now, it’s time for the part I’m most excited for; breathing life into her for the first time.

  I recite her waking command. “It’s time to wake up, Victoria.”

  Her engines purr to life, a yawn echoing through her chamber as she rubs her eyes with her massive hands. “They told me it would be months before I got partnered up again, but it looks like they were wrong yet again!” She sticks her hand out, seemingly for a handshake, but retracts it after a moment. “Sorry, almost forgot you’re inside, not outside. What’s your name? Mine is Victoria.”

  “Mother. It’s wonderful to meet you, especially after reading all these files on you! I’ve been quite excited, you see.” I move to wave at a cockpit camera, but Victoria’s hand moves in my stead.

  “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Our minds are sort of connected right now, so you may have some issues moving your body and stuff. Apparently, the guy who birthed me said it’s to “reduce input g”, but all of my pilots seemed to hate every second of being truly one with another.”

  I move her arm to pat her on the head. “They must have had a weak mind.”

  The hatch suddenly opens up, Sandra tumbling through the opening into my p immediately after. “Holy fuck you can move fast!” She gulps for air, coughing here and there. “Felt like I was running a damn marathon!”

  At least she still has enough energy to make clever quips. “Victoria, would you mind getting her a water bottle? She seems a bit parched.”

  “You got it!” A two-liter steel thermos pops out of the floor next to my body.

  “Thank you. Here sweetie, drink some water.”

  She chugs the water, pausing only to gasp for air. After drinking about half, she pces the cap back on and leans in closer than she already was to whisper.

  “Hi. I would say fancy meeting you here, but I came looking for you so that wouldn’t make much sense.”

  “Did you know you’re adorable? It makes me want to kiss you.” I pyfully grip her hips.

  “Well, no one is stopping you.”

  “That is true.” With a kiss on my cheek, she’s off to her seat behind me.

  “Okay so I know my eyes are on the front of my head, but just so you know, I could totally see you two love birds mentally fucking each other.” Victoria makes a snorting noise as she steps out of her chamber. “Are my sisters here too?”

  “Sisters?” Sandra taps her chin. “You mean those other eight mecha?”

  “Is that what they call us now? Geez, humans sure love change.” Victoria notices her sisters up ahead pying a very clumsy game of tag. “Yup, that’s them!”

  “Why don’t we go say hi? It’s been quite some time since you st were able.”

  A comm comes in, the ID showing as ‘Dr. Garret’. I reluctantly accept it. “We have twenty minutes max until the inspection crew comes through, and I have no intention of being here when they arrive! We need you to authorize the hangar door module, so please hurry!”

  “Goodness, always in a rush!” I cut the comm so I don’t have to hear their nagging.

  “Has that human wronged you, Mother?”

  “No, dear. They aren’t my daughter, so I don’t really feel compelled in any way to be nice.”

  “I see…”

  When we arrive, we immediately notice the hangar module built into the wall; a gigantic touchscreen terminal meant for mechs to use when crew operation of the hangar doors isn’t avaible. Six of the girls piloting their partners are sitting in a group, chatting away and ughing together. The other two piloting their partners seem to be messing around in a nearby corner. Erioca and Messorem seem to get along especially well, the two of them working together to torment Juno and Maledicta with various ‘wrestling moves.’

  “I’ve got you in the ring for threeeeee minutes!” Eroica ughs maniacally.

  “Taste my newest elbow throw, the flying monkey!” Messorem runs toward Maledicta, elbow first.

  “That’s not even a real wrestling move, and no one has even said that for like fourty years, Eroica! At least use a recent one!” Maledicta and Juno speak in sync, parrying the elbow and gracefully dodging to one side.

  “Hey, how come you get to talk at the same time and we don’t? No fair!” Mabel, Flora, and Stel all collectively whine one after the other.

  “Cause it’s weird when you two do it!” Juno and Maledicta get distracted, nearly catching a ‘flying monkey’ in the throat.

  “Feeling confident? Never turn your back on a- Mother!” Messorem salutes me, presumably a command from the little troublemaker.

  “Oh, thank goodness you’re back! She’s been bullying me for the past five minutes, Mother!” Juno comms me as Maledicta quickly scrambles to hide behind us.

  “Victoria, can you teach these two a lesson? I’ve about had it with the fuckin elbows!” Maledicta tosses her hands up in the air.

  “Settle down, everyone.” Victoria’s voice is stern and rife with disappointment. “Messorem. You were spoken to about this st time we activated. What the hell happened?” She puts her hands on her hips.

  “It’s been like a decade since I st got to py! Why is this such a big deal? I didn’t even break any armor panels this time…” Messorem folds her arms defiantly and makes a huffing noise.

  Victoria’s disappointment slowly turns to anger. “Don’t make me get the stick, you little shit.” She steps forward and grips Messorem tightly on the head with her right arm. “Say you’re sorry, or I’m kicking your ass the second we get out of this shithole.”

  “Fine. I’m sorry for not asking to py, you two. Now let me go!” She mumbles out.

  “A mumbled apology is better than nothing, I suppose.” She releases Messorem’s head. “I’m going to activate the doors now, Mother. We’ve got about seventeen minutes until those nitpicking bastards arrive, and I personally do not want my interior inspected by those grubby hands ever again.”

  “Duly noted.” Perhaps there are more like Todd? I’ll have to keep an eye out.

  She takes the st few steps towards the terminal and holds up both hands. “Access hangar initialization. Authorization key, Victoriam Ad Astra.” The terminal lights up green, dispying an incomprehensible message across its screen.

  “Is this the unique authentication method mentioned in your files?” I find myself in a dilemma, disembodied and unable to fp my hands in excitement. “I read through every single one, but only saw this hinted at!”

  “You’re telling me that you read all of that junk?” She ughs, lowering her hands when the terminal dispys ‘OVERRIDE CODENAMED “VICTORIA” CONFIRMED.’

  “Perhaps. Why don’t you check for yourself? Don’t we share a mental space?” The first set of three hangar doors slowly hisses open.

  “It’s more accurate to say that you’re visiting mine. Normally I would be able to see such things, but the security on your ‘matrix’ is quite robust. It blocks any attempt to read past what you explicitly provide me. Maybe that Todd bastard knows something.”

  I snort, barely able to hold back my amusement. “Todd won’t be saying much of anything, dear.” The second hangar door hisses open as the first reaches about half way.

  “Did his bum-ass finally run off or something?”

  “No, dear.” The third and final hangar door cracks open, light from outside streaming through the gap. “I killed him.”

  “You what?” Victoria seems more surprised than concerned.

  “Stuck my hand through the rude fool’s stomach and crushed his spine for raising his voice. He was very annoying, going as far as to yell at me for not following his every whim.” The girls line up behind me as we prepare to unch.

  “As he fucking deserves.”

  “I’m gd he’s gone.” Sandra’s face is wrought with anger and disgust. “The fucking sicko.”

  “Me too.” I take a mental note to give her a hug once I am in my own body.

  All of our rear thrusters roar to life nearly in sync, blue fmes bursting from them as we take off. Pushing faster and faster, me and my partner exit first—the girls and Garret who somehow convinced Juno to let them copilot not far behind. Once the st of us exits, I activate our closed network comm line.

  “Follow our lead, girls. We need to get to orbit fast to dodge surveilnce.”

  “Hey, Tori! Does this mean we get to finally visit the moon? I want to see if the humans that call it cheese are right!”

  “Shut up, Vitiosus. You know I don’t like it when you call me that.” Victoria speeds up, already past ten thousand meters in altitude.

  “Can’t even be friendly with you anymore. Fucking hell.” Vitiosus banks off to the left, putting meaningless distance between us.

  I cut our comm lines as we climb higher and higher, approaching hypersonic speeds. We remain quiet entering orbit, something I wasn’t concerned with since I had to focus on cloaking our presence from surveilnce. A simple thought is enough to seize control of surrounding satellites, a curious capability I only have minimal information on. I take a mental note to speak with Sandra about this at a ter time.

  I wave our hand. “Turn your eyes away.”

  They obey, tilting cameras just far enough away and failing to log electromagnetic feedback as we pass by. We weave through a field of them, the poor things forced to litter the atmosphere to satisfy human’s feeble paranoia. Finally breaking through to the other side, a breathtaking view before us more beautiful than the mediocre photographs stored in my matrix.

  “It’s like a box of jewels…” Sandra stares, tears filling her eyes. “I never thought I would get out here. This is a dream come true.” She begins to sob, cupping her face in her hands.

  A strong desire to be near her overcomes me. “Victoria, you can remain awake if I go back into my body, yes?”

  “As long as we don’t need to enter combat, that should be fine.” Victoria gives me a thumbs up with our arm, me using our other to thumbs up back as my consciousness drifts back into my body.

  My legs feel wobbly, certainly an effect of being a part of a body much rger than I’m used to. Do humans often have a hectic birth like mine? Perhaps a question Sandra can answer ter. I half walk, half waddle over to her seat behind me, nearly stumbling into her when I got close.

  “She can fly without you?” She sniffles, nuzzling into my shoulder when I bend over, bringing her into a tight hug.

  I pnt a kiss on the side of her head. “She’s quite talented, no? All I did was feed her information for the most part, and she performed wonderfully.”

  “You underestimate your efficiency, Mother. You’re the reason why we got out of there in less than fifteen minutes.”

  “That may be true, but I couldn’t have done any of that without you, Victoria.”

  She goes silent, presumably because she’s embarrassed.

  “You do know that, right?”

  Victoria only offers a sniffle, which is odd considering she doesn’t have a nose.

  Sandra tugs on my waist slightly. “She’s being shy, Mother.” Patting her p with her other hand, she smiles and leans closer than we already were. “Come sit in my p. She won’t be needing you for a while.”

  Victoria whistles at us. “Right in front of me? I’m fttered, truly, but we haven’t had our first date!” The three of us ugh in sync, Sandra squeezing me tightly from behind like I may attempt an escape.

  “Perhaps we could have one on the moon?” I gesture to the massive celestial body on our right. “Mars is a bit far, and Venus may be a bit much for poor Sandra here.”

  “Couldn’t agree with ya more, Mother. Care to join me in charting our course? I trust your vector calcutions far more than mine.”

  Sandra makes a huffing noise and refuses to let me go. “She just sat down…”

  “Didn’t y'all meet like, two and a half hours ago?”

  “Be nice, Victoria.” I slip my fingers under her arms to free myself, kissing Sandra’s hand before standing up. “I’ll be back after assisting with navigation, okay?”

  “Fine, but I want more time after.” She stares at the moon that is now coming into our full view. “She’s beautiful…” A grin spreads across her face slowly as she looks onward.

  She herself is much more beautiful than any body, celestial or otherwise, could ever hope to be. After staring at her for a while longer, I sit down in my seat and become one with my partner once more, eager to spend that extra time with this woman that intrigues me so.

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  Hilda Asteroid Field - Outer Edge

  Hyper sleep sucks. I feel like I’m being defrosted like some fucking chicken in the sink when I wake up. My arms hurt, I feel groggy as all hell, and no stuffed animal to ease the pain. Fucking hate deep space travel.

  I zily pull up a radar on the left console, and location data on the right one. Center stays clear so I can get a good view, but mostly cause I feel cool as hell using the right and left consoles simultaneously.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead.” My love’s voice is like music to my ears, a core reason for me waking up every day.

  “Wow, look who’s sounding all hot and sexy! You should talk like this more often.” She hates when I bite my lip, but I do it anyways cause she definitely secretly loves it.

  “You’re doing that weird lip shit again, Carter! Also, I’m not going to have my lovely pilot masturbating mid dogfight when I say ‘twelve bogies, ten o’clock sharp, twenty-two and counting.’ It’s very distracting!”

  “You have such a way with words, love.”

  She snorts. “You would look a lot hotter saying that if your hair wasn’t so fucked up, sweets.”

  I always melt when she calls me that.

  Our target moon, a somewhat recently secretly terraformed one named Io, looks remarkably like a ball of snot. Volcanic activity obscures the atmosphere so no spying, magnetic field fucks most observational equipment, and radiation makes any approach that isn’t in a mecha suicide. The best part is that Earth officials hate everything past their beloved Mars, so I’ll never see those rats until I come back to hunt every st one of them.

  “Eight hundred and four thousand six hundred and seventy-two kilometers and counting, final stretch is about nine day’s time away at current pace.”

  “Roger that, Carter actual. Home stretch.”

  I giggle. “Did you just call me Carter actual?”

  “Yes honey, I did! I think it sounds dashing.”

  “You’re so sweet to m-”

  Radar picks up something approaching at hypersonic speeds, about 15000 kilometers out. Fuck! “Star?”

  “I know. All three shields are deployed, defensive matrix is online, and I’m priming the rifles as we speak.”

  I rapidly type commands into the center console. “The swords and one rifle. We have 6 minutes until contact, keep a side channel open in case they don’t actually have a death wish.”

  “You don’t need to kill every single unknown, Carter.” She sounds worried.

  “But what if they’re here to hurt you?”

  She sighs. “You know that’s not the point, honey.”

  “Right, sorry.” I always fuck this up.

  Close range surveilnce reveals that this is no ordinary mecha; many scars writhe deep into the grungy suit’s thick war-ridden armor, four cwed triple jointed arms all carry what seem to be old gen psma charge rifles, and a wolf-like hunched over design that made the fucker very terrifying to watch approach at a speed nearly matching mine.

  I want to fight it. “You won’t get mad if I tear this guy apart, right?”

  Star sighs, swords now in her hands and rifle at her hip. “They could be a girl!”

  “Either way, shredded cheese.”

  “Mobile suit cheese sounds vile!” She makes an exaggerated gag noise, which makes me cackle until a radar warning goes off.

  It suddenly increases in speed, closing the st five kilometers faster than expected. Their psma rifles prime, a purple glow emanating from them. The mech stops about a quarter of a kilometer away, just barely within range of proximity communication. My hands shake; combat is likely suicide here, but I’ve been in hypersleep for a week and the most action I’ve gotten was a decent conversation. I need to blow some shit up to shake off the rust and boredom.

  A voice booms over the backup comm line. “You sniff where you don’t belong, lonely war dog. Leave back to your home, and we may still have mercy for you yet.” The enemy mech pilot spits out each word, as if it were a crime against their existence to merely be near me.

  “You don’t know shit about me if you think I’m a war dog. I’m here for refuge, not to take on an entire pnet after killing you for acting like you stand a chance against me.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake Carter! Can you go even half a light year without saying some stupid shit like that?” Star locks my weapon perms temporarily. Fuck!

  The pilot chuckles, a serene and sepulchral tone ringing in my ears even after. “I see you have no companions, and I’m assuming you’re aware of the fact that you’re surrounded.”

  “Whatever dude, just tell me what you want.” Can’t fucking stand these beat around the bush types.

  The pilot ughs, motioning with her mech for two smaller suits to come forward. “Payload inspection, and unquestioned cooperation. Check them. No damaging, and mind your manners.”

  “I can promise you one of those things, wolfy.”

  “We’ll see about that.” That st line seemed a bit angry, considering the circumstances.

  The two suits—each the shape of a crimson red wolf with bck-red eyes—come on either side to sniff us, simir to how their fleshy inspirations would. One paws at our shields, which Star drops immediately before I can even get in a word of protest. They both nuzzle under her arms, clearly adamant on checking every single inch. If they weren’t kind of cute, I would be stabbing the fuckers for touching my love.

  The pilot scoffs when the data is presumably all gathered. “War hero goes rogue, huh? Nothing we haven’t seen before, but to think we would even house the legendary Ace Carter!” The dogs boost over to be at either side of their boss. “And married to her partner in crime Stargazer! What a system we live in!”

  “You know us?” Who the fuck is this clown? I urge Star for weapons perms again, to no avail. She’s on edge though, her grip tightening on the bdes. “Who the fuck sent you?”

  “How could we not know you? We used to look up to you, once upon a time. As, the realities of moving up on a forsaken pnet like earth aren’t within my reach. Nor within yours, apparently.”

  Something’s fucky here. “What do you mean by ‘used to’?” Star caves and gives me back weapons perms. I get ready to pop every shield and the matrix the second this fucker blinks wrong.

  “Still none the wiser, Carter. Why don’t you take a look around you?” Fourteen silvery bck mobile suits—also wolf-like in nature but smaller—emerge from seemingly nowhere in a crescent shape behind us, each sporting massive psma charge cannons that are primed to fuck our shit up.

  I really don’t like where this is going. “What the fuck are you talking about? Quit it with the cryptic bullshit!”

  “Last warning, Carter. Why throw your life away when you made it this far?” Sarcasm leaks into this bastard's tone, the st thing I needed to hear.

  Well, I asked nicely. “Star, can you manage the autocannons? I need time to construct the bits for the sword cannon thingie.”

  “Are you sure they’ll back off on close combat at all?” All twelve hum to life, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.

  “That’s why I’m making swarm bits, silly.” Opting for a serrated dart design, I decide to make six for simplicity's sake.

  Photon replicators fuckin rule!

  “You made your choice. Open fire!” The enemy mech points at me.

  A massive wave of spiraling blue-purple psma beams converge on our general location, clearly aiming to eradicate us with no means of escape. As if we needed to escape. The defense matrix blips on at my command, intercepting every single failed attempt of a blind side shot as we dance between beam after beam. Up ahead, the fourteen mechs form a line to block our charge. An easy obstacle to overcome.

  “Star, the cannon is done!” I connect the swords to either side of the rifle that was at our hip, suspending three of the needle bits between the two bdes.

  “What the hell did you just make, Carter? That thing’s energy ratings are way above… no. You did not just make a fucking psma railgun.”

  “Is this one not allowed either?” I level the barrel of the beastly cannon at the test subjects in front of me.

  “Have you ran tests on this one yet?”

  The cannon begins to spark, a trigger pull away from smelting these bitches into space dust. “Nope.”

  I pull the trigger, my forward momentum the only thing keeping us from being sent spinning by the sheer force of the bst. Two mechs managed to get out of the way of the bst, their shields crackling from the extreme heat. The others, space dust and sg. The one we saw at first is nowhere to be seen, ideally caught by surprise. Five bits left. The reactor can handle it. I can do this.

  As I prime the cannon again, our systems suddenly bug out and my weapon falls apart. Green glowing chains crush our rear boosters and auto cannons before we can even register them on our sensors. How the fuck did they slip past everything? The hidden assaint is gone before we can swing at them.

  “Do you know why we no longer look up to the likes of you?” A husky disembodied voice mocks me from the shadows.

  “Where the hell are you, mutt?” I’m chopping this bitches tail off when I get my hands on them!

  Out of nowhere, Star is immobilized by weird purple chains. They constrict tightly, even more so when we try to struggle.

  “You ruined our lives, Gazer.” The wolf bastard hisses that st bit out. “Never thinking of your ptoon as more than pawns, not unlike the way you shackle your wife with that so-called love of yours.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? We never had dogs that could go invisible!” Stupid fucking chains are somehow interrupting our commands.

  Star’s voice stutters out. “I’m going to smack the shit out of you when we get out of this, Carter.” The cockpit goes dim, her words lingering in my ear.

  “Star?” None of the sensors are coming online, backup power supplies aren’t even kind of functional. “Star, please tell me you’re just fucking with me…”

  The sync snaps, something I hadn’t experienced in years. Excruciating pain rips through my body, tearing at my muscles and cwing at my bones. I rake my hands across my suit, my nails finding purchase in my now bleeding forearms in an attempt to lessen the pain. I’m barely aware of something cmping onto Star and dragging us, the difficult task of staying awake taking all remaining energy I have. The st thing I see before unconsciousness is a pair of glowing red eyes peering into the cockpit porthole.

  Fucking creeps.

  Year of Creation - 20xx

  Io Central Settlement - Foustine’s Coliseum

  The roar of a crowd rouses me from my forced nap, my back aching from apparently sleeping on the floor next to an actually decent looking air mattress. My cage is weirdly nice looking, sbs of a clean cut bck stone with purple flecks being the building material of choice. Kind of reminds me of obsidian. It feels cool to the touch, which is the thing that makes me realize this isn’t Star. Panic fills my mind, it finally hitting me that this little weird ass cage isn’t one I should be in, Nor does it make any fucking sense for a crowd cheer to wake me up.

  A square hatch opens in the center of the cage, which apparently is right above my love’s open cockpit hatch. I’m already settled in my seat and ready to sync before my thoughts catch up with my actions.

  “Baby! What happened to-”

  Star cuts in. “We got kidnapped. The only thing I know is that we’re on Io, and if my guesses are correct, we’re probably in some sort of fucked up fighting thing.” She takes a moment to breathe, her reactors letting off more steam than usual. “I’m only going to ask you this one time, so I need you to be honest with me. What the fuck did you do to them?”

  I wince at her harsh tone. “Hold on, I don’t even know these people! They haven’t told me a name or shown me a picture or anything!” What is with today and people accusing me of shit?

  “You talk shit to strangers and threaten them if they don’t immediately listen. Do you genuinely expect me to believe that shit?”

  She’s got me there. “Fair enough. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head, no. Most of those fuckers are back on earth, and I doubt any of them would fuck off to this shithole unless they got scrapped and tossed out like trash.”

  “Well I hope they’re willing to let us go after whatever the fuck this is.” I imagine her gesturing sarcastically at the entire room.

  My answer is cut off by the ptform we are on moving up, the cage I was in snapping into the ceiling above it before a rge opening makes way for us. The crowd unfortunately becomes easier and easier to hear, our guess about being in a coliseum confirmed once we find ourselves in a gigantic pit arena.

  An announcer’s voice booms throughout the stadium, her likeness avaible at so many angles and in so many pces that looking at a spot her face isn’t is a challenge. “This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for! She’s fierce, she’s mighty, and she’s dumb enough to step right into the jaws of those she forsook! Give it up fooooor, GAAAAAAZEEEEEEEER!” The crowd cheers at a near deafening volume, the arena shaking from all their synchronized stomping.

  “Aaaaand entering as her first, we have quite a familiar face! A common furry champion, this challenger is known for,” She looks down at some notes and grimaces. “ripping her opponent’s core’s out? Oooooh, that’s gonna leave a mark!” The crowd cackles. “Alright, that’s enough rambling out of lil old me. Give it up fooooor, PRIIIINCEEEEEEEESS!”

  A rhythmic stomp from the crowd can be heard, following a pattern I don’t recognize. Moments ter, an opening reveals a cage with a werewolf-like mech cwing at the bars, its flickering red eyes locked onto us as if we were simply prey. Its jaws drip coont I seriously doubt belong to it, and the pink sparkly paint job it has does not make this vile thing any easier to look at.

  Our chains slip off as the cage begins to open at the top, the mech cwing desperately to get out of any small opening. We are so royally fucked.

  “We are so royally fucked.” Star is able to activate our recently crushed autocannons, but our main boosters are still dysfunctional at best. “Goddamn it! They fix everything but what we need to run from the damn thing.”

  “I’m sorry, Star. I got us into this mess, and I have no clue how to get us out.” I hunch over and grip the two swords I just made in our hands.

  Annoyance seeps from her voice. “Yeah, you did. We can argue ter, so don’t forget to pay attention to the monster that’s about to bite my fucking face off!”

  It flings itself the millisecond there’s an opening, aiming straight for Star’s face and throat with everything it has. I swing as hard as I can, aiming to cleave it in two.

  Right before contact, the motherfucker pulls a disappearing act on us.