Prologue

After everything I’ve learned here, after everything that happened, it is almost too much to bear. Today was the last straw. I don’t know what to do anymore. So I decided to write it all down before figuring out my next actions. And do it as objectively as I can.

Now, where do I begin? I can’t outline my entire life, so…

Part I: Ignorance is bliss

Chapter 1

It was expected to be an ordinary mission. As in, we move in, do some fighting and shooting, dispose of the bad guys, that sort of thing.

And yet a curious coincidence made it stand out enough to start here.

What do I remember about this outing?

- Ever thought why they look so much like us? - she asked me out of the blue.

It wasn’t typical for Villa to ponder existential questions like this one. But then again, I didn’t know her all that well back then. Perhaps we’ve been teammates long enough for her to open up a bit.

- To blend in, I guess? - I started, rather wondering aloud than actually trying to answer. - Well, if we were in a typical rise of the machines story…

It was silly, of course. Syncons never really tried to pass as humans, even the most anthropomorphic units looked unmistakably like robots.
- You and your fiction, - sighed Villa - Where do you even get that stuff?
- Some parts of the net are still…
- I am serious, Kate, - she interrupted. - We are not in a story.

I had to contemplate for a moment. The answer I came up with was still something out of sci-fi novel, though: - You know what they say about all those interfaces and controls created by humans and for humans? And besides, not all of them are anthropomorphic.
- Quite a few are, - she pointed out. - Anyway, I don’t think that’s the reason. They just want us to see them as humans.
- To humanize them in our eyes? That’s and interesting point - I admitted.

We didn’t have time to discuss it any longer, as we’ve arrived. It was an abandoned city district where one of them has been sighted. And anthropomorphic one, too. So we took our positions - I perched on the roof of some building with relatively good view over surroundings, and Villa wandered on the ground level.

…

The syncon likely jumped from the uppermost tier and landed behind me, but it was too fast for me to see. When I turned… she was already there.

I said “she”, and I’ll elaborate on that later. Suffice to say I’ve never seen a unit like this before.

It didn’t matter anyway, this was an enemy. I pointed my sniper rifle at her,

but she grabbed it and jerked it out of my hands with one spinning motion.

I pulled the pistol then,

but by the time I did so, she completed her spin

and slapped the gun out of my hand with a backhand flip.

So I tried to take advantage of that angular momentum from her slap - because hey, two can play this game.

Thus I span around too, ending this motion with a kick - however, she just stepped backwards, and my kick missed.

She didn’t let me regain my balance afterwards.

She slid forward

and gently nudged me to the chest just at the right time -

which was enough to have me tumbling off from that roof…

I barely grabbed the edge and ended up hanging, unable to do anything to fend her off as she approached. She could easily step on my hands or shove me off or…

Yet I swear I saw her offering me a hand, as if to pull me up.

But then a burst of bullets hit her from behind.

She staggered, bumped into a wall and fell off the roof.

…

Of course, this was our actual plan. There was no chance for me to remain unnoticed crouching on that roof, but that was the whole point. I was the bait. Villa, however, was much better hidden below.

Sure, this was risky. The enemy could take her out first and then come for me. Or our intel could be wrong, and there could have been several units. Well, such was our line of work.

But I digress.

…

- What took you so long, Vee?
- You are welcome, - grinned Villa, helping me up.
- Do you see her down there? - I pointed to the general direction of the ground.
- I don’t see anything. Why “her”?
- Well, this unit was not only anthropomorphic, it had quite definitive feminine features.
- That’s what I meant earlier, - she sighed. - You are talking of it as if it was a human, and it almost killed you.
- You know, I’m not so sure about the killing part… - I objected.
- But I am quite sure you’ve got me worrying this time. You gotta be more careful.

We’ve checked the ground afterwards but didn’t find any traces of this syncon or any explosion that could point at its (her?) self-destruction.

Apparently this one slipped away.

…

What else do I remember? It was an ordinary mission in some sense. We came in, did some fighting and shooting, and survived unscathed (notwithstanding my self-esteem). But we didn’t accomplish our objectives. The syncon was not confirmed to be destroyed, so we were reprimanded for mission failure. As for the gynoid unit sighting, something I thought never happened before - the command didn’t care about it at all. They probably didn’t even know the word “gynoid”.