3. Debrief
Despite his limp, Major Kerendas carried himself with the dignity and composure of a man who had spent his entire adult life immersed in the regimented routine of the Planetary Defense Force. The deep gash in his calf was healing, however, every step was an exercise in facial discipline. His jaw locked, eyes forward, he suppressed the urge to grimace every time his weight came down on his left leg, despite the aid of his cane. As the door to the armory hangar slid open, his attention focused on the gently shaking figure seated, hunched over, on the base of charging station fourteen. Undoubtedly, it was Gelnorra who had triggered the entry sensors. Kerendas allowed some of the tension to leave his shoulders and limped toward the young woman.
Her face was already following him as he approached, and he could see hollow exhaustion in her eyes; they were trained on his face but were clearly seeing something else. Gelnorra was still holding the sealed ration bar in one hand, and the electrolyte tonic in the other. The tonic sloshed erratically in the container as her hands shook with post-battle shock, splashing small droplets onto the metal deck of the hangar. Kerendas pursed his lips for a moment, then spoke gently, his deep baritone echoing in the empty space.
“Leftenant Gelnorra, you are rather overdue and Sargent Mrikte was unable to reach you via n-wave. We were becoming concerned. Can you relate to me what has happened?”
Gelnorra mouthed wordlessly for a moment before mumbling out her reply.
“My suit… the armor was near empty. It was in low power mode…”
Kerendas spoke again, with a bit more steel.
"Leftenant, give your report.”
Gelnorra started, her eyes refocusing on Kerendas as she sat up. Her hands still shaking somewhat, she took a sip of the tonic before speaking again.
"Yes Major. I was on patrol over by the ancient tower ruins when I came upon a scout quadruped. Fortunately I was just outside its sensor horizon when I saw it, so I was able to dash out and dispatch the scout before it spotted me.
Kerendas raised an eyebrow.
“That is quite fortunate. I assume you did so at close range?”
Gelnorra nodded.
“My armor absorbed the blast, at the cost of a large portion of my reserve cells. The reaction of the scout's core to my plasma lance tore a rather large hole in the forest floor. Much of the foliage in the surrounding area caught alight as well.”
Gelnorra paused, taking another sip of her tonic. She hesitated for a moment, then continued.
“It was then that I realized that there was another machine nearby. I thought it was a human at first, but when I caught a better look at it I could tell from its gait that it was actually a bipedal machine.”
“A humanoid machine?"
“Yes. I quickly retreated to the treeline before it could attack, but it just went and hid behind some of the the ruins. It seemed to lose track of me so I observed it for a minute. It seemed disoriented, and its helmet was damaged from the blast from the scout. The way the bipedal machine was behaving was unusual; it didn't seem to have a direct connection to Burj, in fact, my armor's communications unit picked up a few bursts of encrypted shortwave radio signals between it and what I presume to be its dispatching unit.”
Kerendas, rubbed his chin, his face troubled.
“That is highly irregular. Shortwave communications are falling out of favor even among humans in favor of n-wave transmissions. I assume your suit recorded the transmissions?”
Gelnorra reached up into her armor's pilot cavity and pulled the data shard from the recording unit, handing it to Kerendas, who slipped it into his pocket.
“I watched it for a few more minutes before it seemed to start tracking me again. At that point I determined that it was probably wisest to eliminate it before it could attack. I executed a boost dash toward it and managed to clip it. As I came around for another run, it ejected its visor, presumably to see better. There was… something like a face underneath.”
Kerendas look of concern deepened, and deep furrows crossed his brow.
“A… face?”
“Like a face that someone who was drawing one from memory would create. There was damaged synthetic skin on all the normal features that you would expect to be there, but there were no eyes, just cameras. I eliminated the bipedal at close range as well, so there should be recording of it in the shard I gave you. It was extremely easy to dispatch, I could have used a quarter less power in my lance and it would have been finished.”
Kerendas shook his head, unsure what to make of what Gelnorra was telling him.
“This doesn't make any sense. I need to think about this for a time.”
Gelnorra nodded, unwrapping the ration bar and taking a bite. The bite of nutrients and proteins quicky turned to a blob of unpleasant tasting jelly in her mouth. She washed it down with some of the tonic, then stood up. The Major was already limping his way back toward the base proper.