First Battle Part 1

Eve opened her Astral desk and began working on a new program. "Aiu, calculate the distance between our current position and the position on the map. I need to turn world coordinates into virtual 2D space. "

Eve stopped coding while she waited for the calculations from Aiu and went to search the computer for a jack to see if it had one. After searching for a while, she was able to find it on the right side, just under the monitor. As soon as she plugged herself in, a notification was heard.

[Astral Downloader now accessible.]

[Astral File Storage now accessible.]

Two new system operations were now available, which made Eve excited because she was, in truth, not even sure she could download anything into the Astral Desk, but now... She could run wild! She quickly found the external hard drive that was read from the computer and copied over the GPS data onto it storing it on the Astral desk before unplugging herself from the computer. By then, Aiu was already long done with the calculations. With a bit, more work and a few hundred lines more of code, Eve created her own personal GPS. The map she had was only for the current area, and she would need to know the location of her target destination. But for now, her personal GPS was made so she could keep track of her current location and her target destination, which was X-Cyber City.

"There, done." Eve looked at her small program and smiled. She tied the program into her eye so she could have it opened as a minimap. With just a thought, she could zoom in and out of the map to check her position. "We should get going before..."

Eve looked up in a certain direction as she stopped talking before quickly disconnecting everything and storing her battery and wire away. She ducked down and got her gun ready just in case. "Aiu, how many?"

"According to the footsteps I am hearing, it should be around five. They sound human." Aiu replied. Eve had picked up sounds coming in her direction. She had been sure to listen carefully to her surroundings. Luckily she was being cautious, or things could have turned out ugly real fast.

Eve frowned, hearing the numbers. She was not very good at figuring that stuff out yet. She used her heat detection to watch the outside closely. She couldn't see through the desk she was ducking behind, but her heat detection could see any heat signatures through objects. "Aiu, if I stay here, I will end up being caught if they are looking for heat sources. How far are they?"

"As best as I can tell, you may have a chance to make it up the stairs to the second floor or third floor if they continue coming this way. But that is only if you can find the stairwell. But I feel no matter where you go, they will be able to detect a heat source. So our best bet is to get a tactical advantage." Aiu replied.

"Ugh! I don't know tactics, especially if they can see me if they can detect heat sources." Eve habitually brought her fingers to her mouth to bite her fingernails but stopped when she realized she had nothing to bite. She looked around and saw a fire extinguisher lying on the floor not too far away. "Aiu, what if I sprayed my body with coolant?"

"Although this idea would work if you were human to lower your core temperature, your battery is like a beacon and would still be heated as it gives off heat to power your body," Aiu explained.

"Dammit. I guess there is no choice then. If they fire at me, I will fire back. I will try to get a better vantage point." As Eve said this, she went to get up only to look up and see a drone silently floating in the air above her, its cameras pointing right at her. "Shit!" Eve quickly jumped out and grabbed the drone, crushed it with her hands, and tossed it to the ground as she landed and ran down the hall.

Voices could be heard coming from outside. "That was it. The one who escaped the reclamation facility!"

"It's wearing my damn armor!"

"Haha, next time don't sleep so much, and maybe you won't be taken advantage of by a broken robot."

"Fuck you! I would like to see what you would do in my position. Opening the door, and suddenly a bot is standing there looking at you. I had no time to react!"

"Both of you shut it. We need to destroy that thing before HQ finds out, or we will never hear the end of it. Get your weapons ready! We are going in!"

"Yes, sir!"

Five men armed with assault rifles and full body armor moved as a group as they made their way to the entrance of the building Eve was in. Eve ran down the hall and was lucky enough to find a stairwell. "Aiu, any ideas?"

"If the wires in your chest were secure, I would suggest jumping out a window, but we can't risk them coming loose due to the impact. Nor can we risk part of your body breaking until we have completely tested its structure, not to mention how low your durability is. Our only option is to fight them head on… But Eve, will you be able to shoot?"

"I have no choice, right?" Eve quickly checked her gun and released the safety. "If they fire, I will fire. Like I said before, if humans attack me with the intent to kill, I will do the same to them. This is no different if it was an A.I. as well. Surviving is our only option right now, and I, for one, still have things I wish to find out." Eve burst through the door to the third floor, but instead of running down the hall, she pushed her back against the wall next to the door and watched. She wanted to see if these men had the ability to track her heat signature.

-- AN- Due to the rising popularity of this novel, I will now be offering voting rewards for extra chapters. You can find them in the author's note. --