Balalaika

The sun rose upon a cathedral and the shattered remnants of ancient stone of pearlescent marble and ornaments of gold. A structure that was largely left intact with only a hole in its roof. Its faded paintings of intricately drawn religious figures remain as a symbol of a long-forgotten culture lost through countless wars. A hallowed ground that acts as a grave for those who used to inhabit this city.

*Clank*

Ana stumbled through the wooden door carrying a large duffle bag. The golden light flooded the cathedral as she placed her hand palm flat on the side walls catching herself so as to not fall. Her breath was heavy with every step slow and fatigued

Her leg was exposed with black metal and circuitry out in the open air. She glanced over to the faded paintings now clothed in gilded light. Her bright blue eyes widened with inescapable awe.

“It's beautiful….”

***

In the darkness of night, a patrol convoy carefully scoped out the area with blinding white flashlights. A swarm of twenty small hovering green drones scanned through the fallen debris and glass fragments.

The holographic scanner made its way towards a metal object buried in the sand.

*Beep*

The drone flashed calling the rest of the flock to scan the object.

“Identified. Imperial Drone. Object-90 Multi-traversable Armoured Assault variant.”

An officer in a green uniform with golden accents examined a 3D scan of the drone on her digital pad.

“Keep searching for the target. It should be disguised as an Imperial officer.”

“Roger!”

A Platoon of heavily equipped soldiers scatter followed by two large green bipedal mechs. It had a bulbous design with bulky round armours and thousands of red eyes in its front. It was equipped with a single large 122mm cannon on its right, a dual 30mm minigun on the left side and a large missile pod on its back.

***

Ana hid under fallen rubble evaluating the threat that approached her. The cover of darkness gave her very little advantage as the enemy would have night vision capabilities. Her flimsy cover won’t last long, she needs to act fast.

‘There must be a way to hijack these drones. If I can reverse engineer my own connection to my drone then maybe it's possible to take control of them.’

One of the biped drones passed her with its step sending out micro tremors. It stopped to scan the area in a circular motion. It won’t be long until the scanner reaches Ana’s area.

‘Quick! Quick! Come on, think… Ah… The Nucleus of the mother ship uses an array of signals sent through satellites and space stations in orbit in order to command drones. The Nucleus does not directly send commands but an access to the command. I am free from that constraint which means that I am the space station. I can freely send my own command with the downside being range and I assume capacity. The signal emitted from myself is only strong enough to control one drone but if… is it a direct connection?’

The biped drone scanned the rubble that Ana was hiding in and after a brief pause it comes up with nothing and resumed patrol.

“Too slow! You ugly bastard!”

Ana had climbed on top of the drone with her arm raised up high ready to strike the machine.

*Crack*

*Stssss*

Her hand pierced through the drone’s thick armour pulling out a series of black cables with pulsing blue lights. Ana opened her mouth wide and bit onto the cable. A spark of electricity flowed throughout her body as her left eye turned red.

*Wrrrr*

The mech’s inner components surged with energy that overloaded its systems. The drone powered down booting back up with its hundreds of red eyes that glowed with a new found savagery.

The drone turned around aiming its large cannon towards the other biped drone in the distance.

*Boom*

A quake of energy pierced the hull of the drone as the inner ammunition caused it to rupture in an earth-shattering explosion. Metal plates flew up into the air leaving the platoon cowering in fear shocked by the sudden attack.

Their radio turns to life with ample panic.

“Shots fired!”

“Where?”

“Our own! Friendly fire!”

“What!”

In the confusion Ana ordered the drone to turn towards the scattered soldiers. Its dual minigun whirled to life with the ear shattering sound of screeching metal that clashed against each other.

*BRRRRRRRR*

A thunderous scream of molten fire lit up the surrounding leaving only dust behind.

Artillery fire echoed in the distance.

*Boom*

A large projectile cracked open the hull of Ana's mech as she was sent flying in a massive explosion. 

“Ahh!”

Her body slammed against the concrete wall. She got up ready to move as the soldiers with new found anger quickly rushed her with concentrated gunfire.

Pellets of bullets bounced off her skin dealing no effect.

“Ow! Ow! Ouch!”

Ana realising her durability pressed the attack punching one soldier in the gut and stealing his gun. She used his body as a shield with her weapon pointed towards the others.

***

Overlooking the battlefield two soldiers watched with binoculars seeing the small firefight in the distance. A circle of soldiers that surrounded a single person as both parties traded gun fire.

“Ready up! Fire!”

“But Sir, our men are in range of our attack.”

“Did I stutter? I said "Fire!”

“YES SIR!”

The second soldier clicked a red button in his hand.

*Boom*

The artillery drone recoiled as the massive cannon fired a round. The projectile raced in the air and impacts right next to Ana.

*Woosh*

*Kaboom*

A cloud of dust and fire erupted out from the sand in a devastating explosion that sent Ana flying once more. Her body rag dolled hitting on the flaming remains of a destroyed drone.

She braced behind the metal structure as the barrage of hellfire continued to rain down.

*Kaboom Kaboom Kaboom*

The artillery was unrelenting in its attack. There was nothing Ana could do but wait out the storm of shells or she would be instantly torn apart.

‘In any other reality this would be a dire situation but I had figured out something crucial. The moment I made the connection with the enemy’s drone I realised that my control was not limited to the one mech but to others within the network. The bigger drones proved too challenging to hijack using this method. However, the smaller drones were the exceptions to this rule. In other words, all I had to do now was wait.’

*...*

*Boom*

The sound of a distant explosion reverberated through the landscape as silence entered with the storm of metal finally subsiding. The overlook that the long range gun squad was perched on was completely wiped out.

Ana stood up seeing the dust clear on the chaos that she had caused. Her drone exited its sand bed shaking off dirt like a cat before arriving at her side.

Ana rubbed its metal legs.

“Good boy!”

Ana looked at her rugged reflection on the drone’s metal leg. Her clothes are all completely destroyed.

Scanning for loot she spotted the commanding officer lying on the ground. Ana shrugs her shoulders and smiles.

“Well, you won’t be needing it anymore.”

***

Ana walked across the desolate city carrying a stolen duffle bag filled with supplies. As the night ended, the orange glow of the sun hit the top of a cathedral and like a beacon Ana was drawn to its brilliance.

She crossed a dried up river climbing a steep hill to reach the cathedral. Ana stumbled through the wooden door dropping the duffle bag. Ana unzipped the duffle bag and began to wear the stolen officers uniform.

Leather tight pants, long black boots, green vest along with gold ornaments taken from the officer that she wore lavishly around her body. Her hands slipped through a large green coat with red and golden accents. Lastly, she puts on a white military cap adjusting it to the centre.

Ana entered further inside the cathedral and into the nave of the building. The exposed roof let down sun rays that filled her with a warmth unlike anything she had felt before. She let out her arm open towards the sun, uncontrollably she laughed mindlessly dancing around like an idiot. She spun around flailing her arm outwards basking in the sunlight.

Was it the shells that shook her circuits that caused her to be this way? Ana did not know but it was a feeling of rebirth and a new found freedom. She had allowed herself this moment to lose herself in an illusion of her making.

“Even if it is all fake, even then….”

Ana's smile widened with tears flowing from her pearly bright blue eyes.

“I want to feel human.”