A New Frontier

Chapter Five

A month after the m******e Violet and Mason were sent on a mission together. She wasn’t used to being sent on missions with others. Especially not with someone so far below her in rank. Mason was just another ordinary foot soldier. Why had the Commander decided to team her up with someone so unqualified for the kind of tasks that she dealt with? It made her uneasy. Mason was now her responsibility. They were on their way to a location that one of Venator's interrogators had uncovered as an imperialist base. It was an old abandoned imperial factory of some kind that was fairly far away from anything at all resembling civilization. There weren’t even any small villages around. It had been a while since this factory had been searched and it wasn’t supposed to be operational.

The area around them was covered in wildlife. It was a field that went on and on for seemingly forever. There bushes everywhere with thorns and vines and various flowers. It was a mess that was difficult to travel through. Violet had spotted a few snakes here and there. She kept a weary eye on them. Hopefully they weren’t poisonous. And who knew what else was around here that she couldn’t see. At least she knew where the snakes were.

“I hate this place.” Mason said.

He was wearing the same kind of battlesuit that Violet had and was unused to it. He had only worn the inferior versions before. He should have gone through a few months on training before being sent out with it. He wasn’t ready for this. Not at all. Violet sighed.

“What?” Mason asked. “Don’t tell me you disagree.”

“It’s not that.” Violet said.

“What is it then?” Mason asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Violet said. “Don’t mind me, I’m being unprofessional. Concentrate on the mission.”

“We’re not there yet.” Mason said.

“That doesn’t matter.” Violet said. “We don’t know when we might encounter the enemy. Plus there’s all these damn snakes and who knows what else.”

“What snakes?” Mason asked, sounding worried.

He really was inexperienced.

“Are you serious?” Violet asked.

“Yes.” Mason replied. “I hate snakes.”

“Keep your eyes open.” Violet said. “Pay attention to what’s around you. The environment can be as much of an enemy as enemy soldiers.”

“I’ve never been deployed outside the city.” Mason said.

“This is insane.” Violet said. “You’re not ready for this. I’m going to get you killed.”

“Relax.” Mason said. “We’ll be fine. You’re the best there is. I’ll be safe with you.”

“I appreciate your confidence in my ability.” Violet said. “But I would also really appreciate it if you could pay attention to your surroundings and try to not die.”

“I didn’t know that you cared.” Mason said.

“Shut up.” Violet said. “Don’t make me punch you.”

It took them a while to reach the factory. From the outside it looked as abandoned as it was reported to be. A rusty behemoth of a structure that looked like it might collapse at any moment. Broken windows, graffiti and vines all over the building. Violet was hesitant to go inside but they couldn’t leave without checking the veracity of their information thoroughly.

“Do we have to go inside?” Mason asked.

“Yes.” Violet replied. “We can’t leave without looking inside to make sure that no one’s here.”

“I thought you might say that.” Mason said. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

Violet raised her rifle and placed her fingers near the trigger. Mason followed her example.

“Are you really expecting to encounter enemies here?” He asked.

“I’m not going to assume that we’re not.” Violet replied.

They entered the factor slowly, looking around for any enemy soldiers and staying close to each other. The place looked a lot nicer inside. It was much cleaner. Like the place had been cleaned recently. There was a lot of machinery. And it was operating. Violet inspected the automated assembly line making weapons and ammunition as well as explosives and the sleek robots walking around. The robots were completely ignoring them.

“No one else is supposed to have this kind of technology.” Violet said. “This is like one of our factories. Well like an inferior replica but still...”

“Well they clearly do.” Mason said. “Wonder what else we’re been told that isn’t true.”

“There are bound to be some people around.” Violet said. “At least a few engineers. And I find it difficult to imagine that they don’t have any security.”

“What about them?” Mason asked as he looked at the robots with distrust. “Don’t they know that we’re not supposed to be here.”

“Must be simple worker robots.” Violet said. “They don’t have any combat or security protocols. Probably don’t have any programming outside of what’s needed for them to do their work. It’s odd that they don’t have any combat units. Not very competent.”

“Or they’re waiting for us to lower our guard.” Mason said. “Trying to make us think that they’re harmless so that we won’t expect it when they decide to kill us.”

“Robots don’t do that.” Violet said. “They aren’t capable of deception.”

“Maybe that makes them better than us.” Mason said. “Assuming that’s true.”

He was still staring at the robots and pointing his gun at them. Apparently they had no programming to recognize the threat. No defense protocols then. They weren’t going to take action to neutralize a threat even to ensure their continued function. Maybe their engineers weren’t capable of programming them to do that. Technology like this didn’t belong in the hands of people this incompetent.

“That’s absurd.” Violet said. “They’re just machines following their programming. They don’t have freewill. You can’t be good or bad without the ability to make choices. You can’t be good if you can’t choose to be evil. There’s no point in comparing us to them.”

“I still don’t trust them.” Mason said.

“Trust isn’t relevant.” Violet. “That’s like saying that you don’t trust your toaster.”

They continued searching the building.