Chapter 03

 The wasteland whizzed by the window as the car sped down the road. Sofia tried to hold a conversation with her, but the nameless girl, HK, could not offer any words longer than a few words. She’d sent an archive file with some basic information about her and while it was informative, she was a little… distracted by other curiosities. Seeing what people on the network were saying about her…

“And that’s the story about how I wound up being the highest ranking unit in the sector. Honestly I didn’t want the job either, but everyone else who could’ve taken the job was busy being reassembled and- hey are you listening?”

“Huh?”

“I’d ask if you were reading the archived files I sent you, but… I have a hunch that you were looking at the network feeds instead. Word of advice, they’ve got nothing of value to tell you about yourself. Best to just block it out, otherwise you’ll read so many stupid, frustrating, and downright insane comments about you that you’ll wonder if there’s a way to redirect a Starfall down on their-”

“What are we?” She interrupted, the thought had been on her mind and she’d been mulling it over but she still wasn’t quite sure if she knew exactly what she was.

“. . . . .” Sofia remained silent as she slowed the car to a stop on the side of the road. Her hands still on the wheel, she shut her eyes. She took one long, drawn-out sigh, and looked to HK from the corner of her eye. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“I’m… not sure.” She looked down at her hands, turning them over. “I look human but why do I not feel human?”

“It’s because you’re not.”

Her heart sank.

“Well, not technically. Look, can this wait? This conversation is the Gatekeeper equivalent of the talk and I’d rather someone else did this part.”

She shook her head, she knew she was being difficult but she felt as though she needed to hear the truth, rather than rely on assumptions and guesswork. “What am I?”

For a while, Sofia didn’t answer. Nearly a minute passed of Sofia just looking around, as if trying to find a way out of this conversation, but none presented itself.

With noticeable weariness, she stepped out of the car. “Come on then.” She said as she stepped forward, her cane taking the form of an umbrella.

HK did as she was told, following behind Sofia in lock-step until Sofia started to glow as a holographic halo appeared behind her for a brief moment before fading, but her glow persisted. Then Sofia started levitating in the air, rising up with each step as HK could only look on, perplexed.

Sofia turned to her, “is your Grav-Drive malfunctioning?”

‘Grav-Drive… the archive Sofia sent me mentioned that. It’s a mass-produced from salvaged tech, they allow Gatekeepers the ability to fly in a manner that defies the normal rules of air flight.’

She looked up at Sofia and asked, “It… is probably functioning, I just don’t know how to-”

“You’re overthinking it. Just… like, will yourself to activate it, and it’ll work. I don’t know how to really explain it, I’m not a technician.” She just shrugged as she waited.

“Just… will it?” She closed her eyes.

‘How do I just… will something to happen when I don’t even-’ She could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet. She opened her eyes and sure enough she was levitating off the ground. The words, “grav-drive active,” scrolled across her view.

The feeling of flight using the grav-drive felt like something similar to being in a zero-g environment but with control over an invisible force to propel herself in a direction of her choice. In a way, it reminded her of moving another limb. It was a bit awkward to get used to.

“Okay,” she steadied herself in the air, “what ne-”

In the blink of an eye, Sofia pulled out her gun and shot HK right in the abdomen! She hurtled to the ground, desperately trying to right herself, but it did no good. She cratered into the ground, pushing up rocks and debris as she skidded into the ground until she finally stopped.

Meanwhile, Sofia just casually floated down to her. “So, how do you feel?”

“You just shot me.” She felt like she should be mad, but once more, her emotions were out of reach. But different this time, like they were being actively suppressed or filtered in a controlled manner.

“Look down.”

HK’s eyes drifted to where she was shot, and her eyes widened as she saw her body wasn’t even seriously wounded nor did she feel pain as she should. She was aware of the damage, it didn’t feel pleasant, but she felt as though she could be shot several more times and it wouldn’t stop her. In addition, the way her body seemed to repair the damage was not what she’d expected. She’d been shot but all that was there was just some clothing damage and a minor dent. A minor dent which was already being repaired by her body’s systems; a liquid metal substance secreted from her skin was patching the dent.

“Gatekeepers,” Sofia began, “are living-dead automatons. Not quite human, not quite machine. Enhanced by forbidden technology that is held to the upmost secrecy.” Sofia floated down to help HK to her feet. “In our past lives, we were humans. But we didn’t stay dead, we came back, and were placed inside shells of metal, flesh, and other things.” She brushed the dust off HK’s shoulders.

“Who we were?” She wondered if this was the answer to her missing memories.

“Whoever we were, doesn’t matter to the state. Now, we’re just walking guns aimed at whoever threatens Soluna. And our retirement plan is to be powered down and gather dust in a warehouse somewhere if we don’t first get dismantled by a super-powered enemy, some giant monster, a lucky shot, or just getting on someone’s bad side.”

She felt even more confused now, and still had so many questions. “So, we’re cyborgs?”

“That’s one way to put it, though we’re probably closer to robots than humans. I can tell you still have questions though, unfortunately I’m not someone who can answer that. Basically, all you need to know is that the state will point us to shoot at someone eventually or it’ll shoot us instead.” Sofia started making her way back to the car after fixing HK’s messy hair.

“Couldn’t you have just told me that? Did you really need to shoot me?”

“Probably not, but two things. One, you’re gonna get hit with a lot worse. Two, I did say that they should’ve put someone else in charge, right?” She shut the door as she sat behind the wheel. She leaned over to HK and spoke through the open window; “By the way, you might want to change your clothes before getting to the base. Odds are there’s gonna be a circus when we get there.”