As Real as Flesh

*Static*

[WHO ARE YOU, ANASTASIA? AN INNOCENT BEING OF NATURE?]

*Static*

Small toy robots waddled around the ground with a little Ana playfully tinkering with their components. Her small hands pulled apart the toy’s legs.

***

*CRACK*

The giant drone’s legs crashed against the lifeless husk of its fallen brethren. The sharp legs teared away at the chest, revealing the guts of cables, bloods of oil and a skeleton of steel.

*Static*

[YOU KNOW… WHAT! YOU! ARE! DON’T DENY THE TRUTH!]

*Static*

The little Ana kicks the toy, sending it tumbling across the room.

***

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”

Ana pointed her hands towards a fallen drone. Her red eye lit up with teeth that bared out full of unbridled rage.

The drone’s eyes lit up with crimson intensity as it moved along with her motion turning towards the next target.

*Whirrrrr*

The drone’s dual tri-barrel rail minigun began to spur to life, heating up to a burning bright orange. Pistons pulled backwards sending a pulse of electricity as brass bullets quickly feed into the chambers.

*Bang Bang Bang Bang*

The gun broke out with a barrage of superheated projectiles that luminated with a blue intensity piercing anything with ease. The guns scanned through the landscape hitting every target indiscriminately. Hordes of unmoving drones had their impressively thick plates of armour reduced quickly to nothing. Pieces of metal fell off one by one as each Drone crumbled to dust.

*Click*

*Click*

‘Out of Ammo!’

*Static*

[AND OUT OF LUCK… YOUR ENTIRE LIFE HAD BEEN A LIE… YOU WOULD THINK SOMEONE AS SMART AS YOU WOULD REALISE IT BY NOW!]

[MY ENTIRE LIFE IS A LIE!]

*Static*

Ana clicked her feet together in attention, adjusting her cap and saluting with a wide smile on her face. This was reflected on a drone’s shiny metal leg.

Ana dashed with a big windup punch.

*Crack*

Her fist connected with the metal plate shattering it completely. The Drone was unbalanced and fell face first on the ground.

Ana brought her hand palm up as it shook with tremors.  She reluctantly examined her pristine hands.

‘Not a single scratch. On this hand or anywhere else.’

*Static*

[CAN YOU DEDUCE WHAT IS REALITY OR WHAT IS FICTION?]

*Static*

Ana quickly grabbed a sharp piece of metal and began to stab her chest with it but no matter how hard she tries nothing happens.

“COME ON! BLEED! BLEED! BLEED GODDAMN YOU!”

The metal object simply deformed and bends with every strike.

Ana dropped the metal piece breathless, collapsing on her knees with tears that fell from the one eye that she has left.

Ana mockingly laughed.

“Realistic aren't I?”

Ana looked up towards the horizon to see the setting sun. The storm has subsided as the calm pink glow of dusk draws.

The red static of her eye faded as a calm bright blue shined in its place.

Ana reached out towards the falling sun with a sombre expression. Her hand slowly closed in time with the position of the sun. Her hand clasped the light, squeezing it until there was only darkness.

“What a wonder it is to live.”

***

Ana laid flat on top of her drone as it trudged slowly though the endless war torn tundra of dead trees and long fallen relics of grand cities. She had wrapped a white bandage around her damaged eye with the other staring towards the starry night sky. Reflected on the intricate pulsating lens and machinery were two worlds separated now aligned. A brooding ocean of vivid, blue, purple, yellow and white clashing with the chaotic storm of a ravenous hurricane of red pixels.

The aspect of creation and destruction now as one. Stars that twinkled with magical brilliance only to be quickly interrupted by the constant pollution of gunfire and explosions as echoes of distant conflicts can be heard.

Ana breathed out a puff of cloud that dissipated in the air. The winter night of Russia was cold and unforgiving with every breath feeling like a drink of ice cold daggers, but now it all feels distant and nostalgic.

Her fingers caressed the freezing cold metal of the drone with her hands. She felt an uneasy connection to the lifeless machine.

“You know we never directly talked before. I’ve sent countless numbers of your brothers into death controlled by your dead mother. They called it the ‘Nucleus’ the command structure that dictates every aspect of your cold worthless existence. Do you feel anger towards me? Resentment? Hate?... No, of course not, but even then I envy you. To live as your true self is a freedom that I will never have.”

Ana unlike the drone her skin was soft to the touch radiating with warmth like any other human. It would be one thing for her to be made out of pure metal but to witness an illusion of clear cut glass made her feel colder than any winter night.

*Wrrrr*

The drone comes to a dead stop and Ana sits up with full attention.

“Ambush?”

Ana scanned the empty landscape of pure darkness. There was nothing all around until a small glimmer of red slowly populated the surroundings. Tiny lights quickly increased in size.

*Tap*

Ana slammed the roof of the Drone.

“Quickly Run!”

*Wrrrr*

The drone bolted forward kicking up dust like a raging bull with the swarm of red lights following close behind.

Suddenly out of the dark one jumped into view. It was a flat cylindrical plate of green paint, eight sharp mechanical legs and a singular red eye. The drone’s many legs attempted to latch onto Ana but she swiftly swats it away.

*Boom*

The drone exploded in the air sending a heavy gust of wind.

“Ahhh… The city! We can lose them in the city!”

Ana and her drone desperately stormed towards an abandoned husk of a city. A nearby sign read: Yekaterinburg.

A trail of dust and rubble flowed outwards as Ana reached inside the city.

“UP! CLIMB!”

The drone jumped onto the shell of a cylindrical glass structure of a skyscraper that solely stood standing amongst the rubble.

The metal feet of the drone scampered through the glass like a stone skipping on water.

“HIGHER! GO! GO!”

Ana looked down to see the sea of moving minefields racing towards her.

“Uraa!!!”

Ana slid her hand through the waterfall of glass causing an avalanche to hail down below as she climbed upwards in a spiral motion.

The glass fragments would one by one knock off the mine drones.

“Hell Yeah get f–”

Ana paused as a bright yellow light bloomed in front of her.

***

A target reticle of static yellow focused on a drone climbing a tower.

“Target, Acquired fire!”

*Boom*

A silent explosion impacted near the drone shattering all remaining glass on the tower.

*Kaching*

*Clang*

A large shell casing slammed with a heavy thud on the ground. A massive howitzer cannon released a gust of smoke as the barrel cools down. It was a bulbous green mech shaped like a spider with a cannon strapped to its back.

Two human spotters looked through their binoculars as Ana and her mech fell out of view.

“Kill confirmed. Send in the clean up.”