V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T
Chapter 150: Different Kind of Damage
"I'll have the details and official docunts sent through one of my ministers shortly." Reaper's voice carried its usual register, level, cold, unhurried.
"No rush at all, Mr. Reaper." President Qiché smiled from the other end of the call. "I'll admit, speaking with you directly has been more enjoyable than I anticipated. I'm beginning to regret the position I took at the last UNG eting. Seeing you in a private context has shifted so of my thinking about robotic life."
Reaper glanced toward the Elysium flag standing at the corner of his office. "I respect a willingness to revise a position. Most of the leadership that built Altea refused that entirely, that robots are equals in rights and exceed humans in certain capacities. The consequences of their position were not light."
Qiché laughed dryly. "Fair. Altea had its own complications. They poured resources into Kasparia and handed over technology at no cost, purely to signal that they were watching us. Two superpowers running in opposition to each other for that long drains both sides. The peace agreent gives us room to breathe."
Reaper stood. The screen adjusted to follow him. Qiché raised an eyebrow at the movent.
Reaper walked out of the office and moved through the castle corridors. His steps rang off the white ceramic walls and dark grey floors. Each ch he passed snapped a salute, a sharp tallic sound that followed him down the length of the hallway. He pushed through to the rooftop. The wind hit the microphone imdiately, a low constant pressure behind his voice.
"Mr. Qiché." His tone hadn't changed. "The peace agreent wasn't made to protect our economy. Our population doesn't tire, so our production doesn't slow. We didn't make it to end the war, we were managing the western front at the sa ti and it didn't strain us. We didn't make it out of any need for peace. Most of us were built for conflict and find it preferable to waiting."
His eyes shifted red.
"We made it because we found no productive outco in continuing to fight you. If we had found one, I would have co personally to show your country what the Western State experienced."
Qiché was on his feet. "That's a sharp change in tone, Mr. Reaper. You could have ended the call without the demonstration."
Reaper looked up at the clouds moving overhead. "53.4072° N, 2.9917° W. A concealed nuclear facility at the base of the mountains, currently enriching hydrogen atoms."
Qiché went pale.
"51.5072° N, 0.1276° W. A power plant in public operation that is, below ground, developing a thod of using hydrogen detonation to produce targeted seismic events."
Qiché looked around his office. His vice president, who had been standing, quietly located the nearest chair and sat down.
"53.4808° N, 2.2426° W, a facility for—"
"Enough." Qiché raised both hands. "I understand. The agreent was your choice, made without external pressure. I'm asking you to stop reading those coordinates on an open line."
"One final condition." Reaper stepped to the rooftop's edge. The salty wind pushed his cape back flat behind him.
Qiché exhaled. "What do you need."
"Defend Elysium at the next UNG eting."
A pause. "What are you planning to do?"
"That's not your concern." Reaper ended the call.
He stood at the edge and watched the sun pull the sky down with it, the blue shifting into deep orange in the ti it took to breathe, the light landing warm against his dark armor.
"Angry, mad bot."
He glanced back. The voice was warm and familiar before the face confird it.
"You ca earlier than I expected, sister."
Shelly crossed the rooftop and sat beside him. "Since when does my dark lord watch sunsets? That ans one of two things. Either sothing in you is shifting, or sothing went wrong and you need a nice backdrop to think in front of."
His eye turned green. A short, genuine laugh escaped him. "When did you get that sharp?"
"I've always been." She turned to look at him. "What's wrong, ‘Your majesty Lord Reaper’"
“Seriously?” He exhaled. “I built a revival system at the central hospital in Theria." He looked at the horizon. "Every mind connected to the Elysium server is being updated continuously, body model, hardware specs, everything. When a robot dies, the revival initiates with a ready body. No delay."
Shelly's eyes went wide. "Even ?"
"Especially you." A pause. "But there's a cost. If the death was violent or prolonged, the mind carries the experience forward into the new body. We're seeing it clearly in 11, she woke up in distress and couldn't stabilize for hours."
Shelly nodded slowly. "Humans have the sa problem. I watched father wake from nightmares, he'd refuse to accept where he was for a while afterward. But the revival is worse than a dream. The dream fades. A revival brings the mory with it, intact."
"tro Robotics is working on a solution. Results are a long way off." Reaper shifted to look at her. "But that's for later. You just ca from the border. How was it?"
Shelly's face went flat. "You enjoyed sending there by torturing your innocent little sister."
"Little sisters exist for exactly that purpose. And stop calling yourself innocent, you lobbied for a direct engagent because you wanted to watch gravity work up close." He held his chin. “I think I have another war that requires your intelligence.”
"I want nothing to do with another war." She stood. "I sent E-UNITs forward for weeks waiting for the other side to move first. The books make wars sound interesting. The reality is hours of online content because neither side will commit."
Reaper laughed, long and real.
Shelly crossed her arms. "I will cause problems if you send again."
"Do it." He stood to face her. "You might find what you're looking for that way." He tilted his head. "In other news, I resolved the eastern situation with Qiché. He's more rational than Gash, when it cos down to it. I finally understand how the Remidican Republic managed to absorb Kasparia during that long period of colonization.
"That's a terrible thing to say." Shelly smiled.
"Hmm?"
"But it's accurate, so I'll allow it." She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "I missed you. Staring at the sa E-UNIT faces every day made desperate to see that terrifying, mouthless, noseless, earless, barely-a-face of yours."
Reaper held her back. "The level of detail in that description tells you're angrier than you're letting on."
"You sent away."
"And I intend to make up for it." He lowered himself to her height. "I'm sending Obsidian on a special assignnt to the Veridian Coast. That ans I need soone with actual intelligence to hold the Pri Minister position while he's gone."
Shelly's eyes lit up. "Yes. I accept."
"Good. Tomorrow we start looking at candidates."
She stared at him, her spark stalling. "What."
"…To mark the occasion of your new appointnt."
She imdiately started hitting him on the arm, light, repeated, without stopping. "Stop doing that." Then she caught herself, straightened, and cleared her throat. "I will do my utmost to honor the trust you've placed in with this responsibility."
Reaper tapped the top of her head. "I don't need the formal version. I was already decided." He went quiet for a mont.
"Shelly."
"Yes?"
"You're an E-UNIT yourself." Sothing shifted in his voice, cold, but with sothing underneath it that wasn't quite cold. "What's the most effective way to cause lasting damage to your kind?"
She tilted her head. "Why the sudden question?"
"Our 'captain' has been playing gas." He looked at the orange sun one last ti. "So now we play along."
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