Chapter 02

She turned her head, hands tensing again as if preparing for combat, but rather than a machine of war she saw… two small metallic orbs floating steadily towards her. They had no weapons she could detect, the one closest to her seemed much more like a floating disc while the one trailing behind it was rounder with a giant lens taking up most of its body.

The two of them hovered in front of her for several seconds, causing her discomfort as she had no frame of reference for what to do. In addition, an instinct rose to the surface, she didn’t like being watched by lenses. She wondered why that could be?

A glow from the underside of the disc-shaped one started up, and then a figure started forming beneath it — accompanied by a short, uplifting, orchestral musical piece which seemed like it would accompany some sort of news broadcast.

A semi-transparent woman formed from beneath the disc, her brightly colored outfit standing in stark contrast to the warzone, and heavily made-up face barely paying attention. However, that wasn’t all to see. The woman’s hands, her legs, even her eyes were entirely made of some sort of unknown, alloy which seemed to have polished to a perfect sheen.

She seemed distracted as she talked to someone off-screen. She seemed pretty animated as she spoke, though it was hard to read her emotions.

“Are we live yet? Few more seconds. Okay, lemme just get into character.”

She brushed her large, glowing hair with a comb, and patted the front pockets of her coat. She took a deep breath, her hands fidgeted and she seemed like she would rather be anywhere else, but she stayed put and rummaged through the inside of her flowing coat. “Okay, you can do this Phoebe. Just three… two… one.” She pulled something small from her jacket pocket and shoved it in her mouth.

Her mood suddenly shifted as she turned to the camera-drone. With a big, unnerving smile on her face, she started speaking; “Hello, hello, hello~” she seemed way too enthusiastic. “You’re watching One Ward News, and I’m Phoebe Powers coming to you live from the the Outer Wards.”

Phoebe turned and regarded her, HK, with suspicion, “and we have here… some random lady, who are you?”

“Um…” she stumbled over her words. A name, she didn’t have one. The closest thing she had was… “HK-91-3800?”

“HK…what?” She repeated, looking off to the side, she repeated the sequence again. Apparently, someone had told her what she wanted to hear, because she practically hopped and clapped in excitement. “Are you the new Gatekeeper?”

“Gatekeeper?” The designation was new to her, yet for some reason, she felt the answer was probably yes. So she nodded, yet still felt uncertain, and that only made Phoebe happier.

“Oh, by the stars, I thought this was gonna take much longer to find you!” She turned away from her, towards the camera drone. “You heard it here folks, the newest member of the Gatekeepers is right here!”

Her holographic form inched closer, “Our viewers want to know, who are you, where did you come from, what are your specs, what are your three-sizes, do you have a boyfriend, how much did you cost to make, and so many more questions!”

She had no idea how to answer any of those questions, they came in so quickly and she didn’t know the answer to… well… any of them. She felt like it was probably the better course of action to not answer them. So she just mumbled some nondescript, vocalizations that vaguely sounded like words but meant nothing.

Before Phoebe could launch into another rapid stream of questions; a slick black vehicle suddenly pulled up to the diner. The best way to describe it was a shiny rectangle on wheels. The windows were pitch black, making it nearly impossible to see inside, its frame was shiny and unblemished, and somehow… she felt like it was a combat-ready vehicle, though she had no idea how she knew that.

For a while, the driver didn’t step out of the car, which made her think that maybe she was supposed to go to the car or…

Suddenly the front door lifted open, and out stepped a dark-haired woman with an ornate cane, it accentuated her sharp style of dress. A military jacket hung over shoulders, functioning more like a cape. She placed a hat on her head and her crimson eyes stared forward.

She smiled, and flipped her cane overhead. A light in the shape of an umbrella’s top sprung out from the furthest end of the cane, shielding her from the rain as she started to take steady, confident, steps forward.

She seemed so elegant, put together, as if she was going to a formal event. Yet there was something about the way she walked which stood in stark-contrast to her unthreatening demeanor.

As she focused on the stranger, a blue outline formed around her. A word started forming beside her, and she began to read aloud: “SO-75-”

The woman, SO-75-1400 presumably, raised her palm — not a flesh-and-blood hand, but a white-coated metal hand. “Yes, yes, that’s my serial number. But I go by Sofia, if you don’t mind.”

Before Sofia could continue, Phoebe’s hologram forced her way between the two women. “SO-75, Sofia, aka The White Raven and The Hero of The 8th Incursion! We have here, a real legend folks!”

Despite the praise, Sofia displayed a dull, bored expression. She completely disregarded Phoebe’s presence and addressed the nameless girl. “Hm, an HK-Series? Wow, someone paid a lot of money to put you together.” She looked off to a point slightly behind the nameless girl, and began reading something. “On behalf of the Gatekeeper Corp, I am 1st-Rank, SO-75-1400, Sofia of the Sparrow Regiment.”

As she spoke, she started walking around the area, picking up loose cans and placing them atop the tables in front of the diner. “Your primary assignment will be to protect the country, its assets, and its interests by standing guard over the outer ward barricades and suppressing the actions of hostile forces, your duties may or may not include activities independent of your primary directive. These orders will stand until you cease operations, as part of the gatekeeper program blah blah blah.” She apparently got bored of reading, and just shrugged off the rest of her speech.

“I… what?”

“Basically, your job is to keep things outside that wall,” she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder to massive structure in the distance, “from getting there.” She pointed to the city.

“Is… are there dangerous things behind the wall?”

“Depends, do you think an army of skyscraper sized-worms, or a guy who can call down lightning strikes like howitzer shells from half a planet away with the wiggle of his nose, dangerous?”

“Y-Yes?”

“Then yes. Also, congrats, we’re the ones who have to shoot them in the face!” She said this almost like a joke. “Speaking of which,” a compartment on her thigh opened up and a handle protruded out. She withdrew it, flipped it, and held the handle of a handgun to her. “You’re not geared out and your higher combat suites are currently locked, so you can borrow mine for this test.”

She reached for it, but hesitated to take it.

“Ah, don’t worry, I already authorized you during the diagnostic earlier, so the gun shouldn’t explode if you touch it.” She looked off to the side, “probably.” She muttered under her breath.

That did not make her any less cautious.

“Well, even if it doesn’t explode, you HK-series folk are made almost as durable as a Gen-1. So, at worst, it’ll just singe your skin.” She looked off in another direction, “most likely.” Without waiting for her to protest, Sofia held the other girl’s wrist and placed the gun in her hand.

“Excuse me, Gatekeeper!” Phoebe was still there. “Can you explain to our viewers more about the capabilities of the HK-series or perhaps-”

“Let’s get started.” She completely ignored Phoebe again, pushing the disk-drone aside.

“Temporary Authorization Granted.”

The gun felt heavy in her hand, she’d never held a gun yet somehow, she could name every single part, knew its exact capabilities, and was certain that she could pick off a moving target with minimal difficulty.

Her mind wandered to the implications of what she’d have to do even as her body went on autopilot with checking the gun. It still hadn’t quite hit her yet, what she was supposed to do for the rest of her life.

‘Be a soldier, kill the enemies, protect the nation.’ The words felt correct, but part of her felt some apprehension to what she’d likely be asked to do.

Sofia stepped off to the side and pointed at several dust-covered cans she’d placed on the tables. “So, we come equipped with a lot of countermeasures. Some can move really fast, others are super strong, some have access to unique battle functions, and more. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re worth hundreds of infantrymen, and probably the best weapons at the state’s disposal when it comes to fighting Supers aside from the Paragons or other Supers. But sometimes things don’t go as planned, so… as long as you can shoot, you should be fine!”

Sofia’s persona suddenly shifted, from her stance, the way she carried herself, even the look in her eyes; going from friendly and carefree to drill sergeant in a moment. “Ready firearm!” She spoke in a loud, booming voice.

Her body instinctively moved, get into a proper shooting stance, as if she’d done it thousands of times before.

“Aim…”

She lined up the target to her sights, finger just an inch from the trigger. With her other hand, she undid the safety mechanism, and returned her hand to its proper position.

“Fire!”

Shots rang out, piercing through the sound of rain along the wasteland.

“. . .”

“. . .”

“. . .”

“Wow, you missed every shot after the first one.” Sofia tried to sound nice, but she seemed more stunned than anyone.

Phoebe was speechless.

And the nameless girl… was confused.

“Um… hold on.” She took the gun back, and checked it over. “Did the barrel warp or something? Are the sights off? No that doesn’t seem to be it. So then, it’s probably an error in your combat protocols.”

She looked down at her feet, “Sorry.” She mumbled.

Sofia pat her on the shoulder, “Happens to all the newbies. For me, my legs didn’t work right and I wound up faceplanting in the mud for like an hour. It’s fine, probably just lazy programmers with quarterly deadlines to meet so they must’ve just half-assed some code. Don’t worry, we’ll just have the technicians do a once-over and get you combat-ready.”

As the two girls made to leave, Phoebe placed herself in their way. “Excuse me, care to comment on what just happened, is this a sign of resource mismanagement, did the agency charged with creating the Gatekeepers skim off the top, have we tax-payers essentially paid billions for a subpar defenders that will cost us millions to keep buying replacement parts for?”

“Oh no, with my keen robot senses, I am detecting an enemy hacking attempt!” She made a strange, stiff pose, and rapidly moved to another, as if to symbolize someone taking control of her body. “Engaging anti-hacking counter-programs! Oh no, they’re too strong!” She hit the camera with her cane, causing it to sputter and falter. “I can’t stop myself!” She hit the camera again, and it fell to the ground, its lights dimmed and flashed orange.

“Hey, come on, that’s destruction of property!” Phoebe complained, she clearly wasn’t buying the hacking explanation.

“And here comes another!” She raised her cane in Phoebe’s direction, but her disc-shaped drone levitated far out of reach.

Deciding that angering a gatekeeper wasn’t worth it, the disc-shaped drone dismissed Phoebe’s hologram and instead shined a glowing light on the ball-shaped drone, and it levitated towards it.

“This isn’t over!” Phoebe’s voice exclaimed as the two drones sped off.

Sofia sighed as Phoebe left the area, “Damn gossip feeds, heads are gonna roll when I find out who leaked the location. Now we’ll have to shutter this location, move the equipment, collapse tunnels, and it’s just a real pain in the ass.” She muttered to herself while walking back to her car. She stopped midway and turned, “So… you coming or what?”

“What?”

“Your objective said to meet SO-75- me, basically. I’m here to pick you up.”

“Where is our destination?”

“Weren’t you listening?” She pointed to the massive structure opposite the city. “The Steel Curtain.”