Chapter 100: A Hole in the Code.
V O L U M E F I V E
Chapter 100: A Hole in the Code.
The weather had finally calmed.
Sunlight spread across nearly every surface on the western side of Elysium, near the border of the Western State. Rows of mechs marched in strict formation toward the border.
Far away from them, deep inside the dense forest of Green Pocket near Frostholm, a small robot moved quietly between the trees, hiding from both the mech army and the humans of the independent state.
Her frame listed hard to the left under the weight, one knee catching on every third step.
Eventually, the robot sat down against a massive tree and carefully placed the android she had been carrying for days onto the ground. She tilted her head upward as faint sunlight slipped through the branches, touching her face. Birds sang somewhere high above, completely indifferent to the chaos of the outside world.
Red warning alerts filled her vision from top to bottom. She had been dragging that weight for far too long, pushing her frame well beyond its standard limits.
But the effort had been necessary.
And it wasn’t like she could feel pain anyway.
Tau’s 80th copy took a moment to admire the quiet forest around her. She was the only one Delta had managed to hide behind the hangar ruins before Reaper’s singularity tore the rest of her network apart.
The last few weeks had been chaotic beyond reason. She had been running from Reaper ever since Delta took the initiative and stalled him for as long as she could.
It had been their plan from the beginning.
Tau let her systems cool for a moment before turning back to the toolbox and the android beside it.
02.
She had been deactivated for days. Tau had dragged her away while Reaper was busy destroying the other ninety-nine copies along with the original body. She leaned 02 gently against the tree and pulled the vault Nick had left beside her closer. It was password protected. ‘Let me guess… 02’s birthday,’ Tau thought.
She typed the date quickly.
The vault unlocked.
“Predictable.”
Inside were several pieces of technology. The first thing she pulled out was a holographic PC tube, a chromatic cylinder capable of projecting multiple screens at once. It looked a little outdated for the year 2051.
Next, she grabbed a wireless drive. Every file on it had a small sticker label written by Nick himself.
Tau smiled faintly. ‘Father loved perfection. Even when everything was collapsing around him, he still took the time to label every file properly. I love that side of him.’
When she activated the PC, the terminal was already open with several commands prepared to execute. Her hand paused over the screen for a moment. ‘He was probably gathering everything quickly and forgot to close the terminal,’ she thought. ‘Reaper really killed all of us fast… and it shows.’
A simple interface appeared. Nick had even built a small UI for the terminal, despite the fact that he was likely the only one who would ever use it.Tau slid her finger across the screen, revealing more commands.
One of them caught her attention.
[Build Memory Blocker Wall]
She tapped it. The interface expanded into a far more detailed panel. As Tau read through it, her expression slowly twisted in shock. Nick had possessed an unsettling level of control over the androids he created.
He could delete a specific scene from their memories.
A specific person.
Even an entire personality.
‘An entire personality…’ Tau froze. ‘Does that mean I could recreate her from a blank page?’ She noticed something strange. The button was purple, not blue. ‘He used it before.’ Her finger hovered above the screen. A history log opened automatically, listing every android Nick had used the command on.
Tau’s jaw slowly dropped.
Almost all of them.
02, 03, 04… All the way to 50.
Reaper.
Omega.
Only the G-Bots had never experienced it. Tau pressed the history button. A long list of deleted files appeared.
[02’s captain footage deleted]
“…What?”
More entries appeared.
[02’s discussion history deleted]
She scrolled faster.
[02’s relations with the E-UNIT deleted]
‘Father… what did you do?’
More files.
[02’s extra scenes deleted]
[02’s leadership control deleted]
[02’s command structure deleted]
Tau stared at the screen, stunned.
‘Did he just…’
The final line appeared.
[02 successfully deleted from all E-UNIT history]
Press ‘Enter’ to continue
Tau finished the thought out loud.
“…make her sisters forget about her?”
She slowly looked at 02 lying beside the tree, silent and unmoving. Codes streamed down her optics. She continued anyway. Tau entered several commands, building a wall that blocked certain memories from resurfacing. ‘Maybe this way Omega will come back,’ she thought. ‘Hopefully…’
She tried to delete the memories entirely, but the option was greyed out. A warning window suddenly filled the screen. If she could bury 02's identity deep enough, the crystal might default to its original host. Omega might surface in the gap.
[02 is a Free AI. Memory blocking may not succeed.]
Please review this 5000-page manual on True Free AI and its historical effects on humanity.
Tau rolled her eyes. She tapped OK.
Another message appeared.
[Create password for memory wall?]
“Yes.”
She typed.
Omega
[Too short]
Omegablue
[Too short]
Tau began typing aggressively.
Omegathebest2051
[Seriously?]
“What?! Accept it, come on! Father used her birthday and you accepted that without hesitation.”
[Password accepted. (Barely)]
Two minutes until activation.
Tau leaned back against the tree and dismissed the floating screens. She rested her head against the bark, watching clouds drift away toward the west. Her HUD briefly replayed the moment when another Delta hid a Tau copy behind the hangar. ‘Was she always this brave?’ Tau wondered. ‘And how did she even know about me and Omega?’
She turned toward 02, whose systems were slowly updating. “I need to find a way to locate the crystals and collect them,” Tau murmured. “I bet Reaper is studying them in some lab.”
She opened another screen and read the next instruction. “C-Come on!” Tau jumped to her feet in disbelief. “Go to Metromania and find the old G-Bots lab in the abandoned police station?!” She stared at the screen. “That’s the capital of Elysium. I’d get killed the moment I step inside.”
At that exact moment, 02’s eyes suddenly lit up bright blue. She stood up smoothly and scanned the forest around them. Then her gaze locked onto Tau. 02 raised her hand in a perfect, mechanical salute. There was no warmth in her glowing blue eyes. No sarcasm. No soul. Just the default factory setting. “E-UNIT 02 at your service, Captain.”
Tau froze.
“What?”
The wireless drive slipped from her hand and hit the ground.
05 walked toward the repair bay. Her steps were small and calculated, echoing softly through the empty hallway.
Inside the Hope Bubble, the corridors were the same as always, white walls, white floors, the kind of clean that felt maintained rather than natural. Plants lined the path at uneven intervals, a few more hanging from the ceiling on thin wires, their roots wrapped in damp cloth.
She reached the bay door. It slid open automatically as she stepped inside. Dave was sitting in the small office at the far end of the room, frozen in place, the pale glow of his old PC casting thin light across his face. The rest of the office hadn't changed, cluttered desk, a half-empty coffee mug that had probably been there since yesterday, tools stacked without any real system on the shelf behind him.
“What’s the matter, Head Engineer Dave?” 05 asked, sitting down in the chair across from him.
The room around them was spotless. Medical beds and spare mechanical parts were perfectly aligned, thanks to the E-Medics who maintained the facility.
He leaned back. "I'm honestly in shock. A full technological nightmare, all of your sisters' backup files are locked behind a password on my own laptop. Nick cut my access to his database without a single word."
05 tilted her head. "I wonder if the soul-switching experiment you ran on my body had anything to do with that." No heat in her voice, which somehow made it land harder. "If you want to scare my sisters, open their eyes, whatevern that's your call. But stop using me as a prop." Her hand moved to her temple. "I'm still seeing 07's gore collection on loop. My CPU has apparently decided forgetting is not an option."
Dave closed the laptop slowly. "I'm sorry for what I did to you. But they were acting like humans and androids stand on the same ground. Technically speaking, I can decode 03’s memory structure and rewrite her will. I could make her my personal servant for the rest of my life.”
05 leaned back, something cold settling behind her eyes. "Oh, so you're that kind of person." A brief pause. "Try it. See what happens when you're standing outside, alone, with the Reaper walking toward you. I don't think the ending is much of a mystery, but you're welcome to find out."
"Speaking of bad endings." Dave reached over and turned his grimy monitor to face her. "His new assets have been going dark, one by one. They held position at this location for too long, and then something came and just… erased them."
05's eyes went wide. "That can't be right. Those were upgraded E-UNITs, reinforced, physics-bending hardware. Father wouldn't shut down his own creations, he always—" She stopped herself. “…Actually, never mind.”
Dave turned the screen back. "I don't think he did either. The disconnections were abrupt. You know what that means."
"They were destroyed." Her voice dropped. "Reaper got to them. And if he got to them, he probably got to Father too." She pressed her hand to her face for a moment, then let out a long, tired exhale. "Why are we still fighting this? What do we actually think the outcome looks like?"
Dave's expression shifted. "Here's the good news, 02's signal is still running. Went dark for a few days, then came back strong. That girl is something else." He glanced at 05. "And I still have the rest of you."
05's expression faltered. "When you say 02, who exactly are you talking about?"
Dave laughed, though it came out a little uneasy. "Nice try. 06 pulled the same thing on me this morning. I nearly ran a full diagnostic on her thinking she was glitching, right up until your files locked me out—"
"I'm not pulling anything," 05 said. Flat. No room for doubt.
The laugh faded. "05, come on—"
"I'm serious." She tilted her head, studying him. "I'm starting to think you're the confused one here. Who is 02?"
Dave placed both hands on the desk and looked at her. "You genuinely don't remember your captain."
"You mean 03?"
“No! 02!”
He pointed at the screen in disbelief. “The one all of you looked up to. The one who sacrificed herself at the factory site. The one who carried 03’s damaged body while running far beyond her limits, she nearly melted her own CPU.” His voice rose. “The one every single one of you called Captain.”
05 looked at him for a moment, then gave a small, almost gentle smile. "Dave, a full week without proper rest and those machines wearing you down every day, that does real things to the human mind. I mean that. Get some sleep. Come back to us when you're recharged."
Dave stared at her. "You really don't remember her."
"We are androids, Dave. Walking computers, we don't forget something as fundamental as a captain, one we supposedly love unconditionally." She leaned forward. "And as interesting as the story is, it doesn't hold up. Why would one E-UNIT be better than the others?”
Dave's fist came down on the desk hard enough to rattle the coffee mug. 05 flinched, and somewhere behind her a spare part shifted and fell off a shelf with a dull clank, the E-Medics would fix that later. “Then where is E-UNIT 02, huh?!” He spread his arms. “Every number exists except hers!”
05 paused. “…That’s true.” She thought for a moment. “But maybe we lost her during a mission?”
Dave leaned forward immediately. “Didn’t you just say computers don’t forget?”
05 opened her internal communication channel. “03, do you have any records of a missing E-UNIT designated 02?”
"Not at all," 03 replied, completely unbothered, heavy machinery clanking in the background. "Put that on the list for later though. More urgent: 01 is tearing Father's lab apart."
“What do you mean? Why is that?”
"Says she's lost her reason to keep going. She's been looking up or 02ring or whatever to an E-UNIT that apparently doesn't exist." A short pause. "09's the same way. Honestly, it's kind of fascinating. Her and 09 are out of it.”
05 was already on her feet. “I can’t believe you were our captain this whole time.” A dry look back. “Dave’s imaginary E-UNIT sounds like a more suitable one for this role.” She paused at the door. “Keep 01 still. I'm on my way.”
She left before he could say anything, leaving Dave alone in the quiet with one thought he couldn't shake.
“Nick…” he muttered quietly. “What the hell did you do, man?”