Chapter 61 - Interlude

[POV - MIYU]

It'd been a peaceful few days since her arrival to Fort Blanche. Apart from the occasional mishap where she'd been caught in the wrong place, or had too much Xar'qul and ended up with a stomachache.

It was....quiet. 

'I could get used to quiet' she thought to herself. Food, water, and even a roof over her head--at least for the time being.

'It's nice' Miyu thought, leaning back on the stone bench. The gentle hum of Fort Blanche's internal systems echoed softly in the background, creating an almost meditative atmosphere. She stretched out, her fingers tracing the edge of the datapad in her lap. She had never imagined she'd be in a place like this—a sanctuary in the midst of chaos. 

She glanced around the courtyard. It was mid-afternoon, and the pale light filtering through the dome ceiling gave everything a serene glow. A few refugees milled about, some engaged in quiet conversations, others just basking in the rare peace they had found. It was a far cry from the chaos and uncertainty she'd known before.

Her fingers danced across the datapad, half-heartedly flipping through some archived records. Miyu had never been much of a reader, but in a place this quiet, it seemed like the only productive thing to do. 

Still, her mind wandered.

She thought about Aedhira and Bearof, the strange, silent tensions that had hung between them and the other refugees. It had been hard to tell where exactly she fit in amidst everything. Everyone seemed to have a purpose, a direction. Yet, here she was, lounging in the courtyard, unsure if she was supposed to be training, helping with logistics, or just...waiting.

She sighed.

The problem with quiet was that it left too much room for thinking. 

"Hey, Miyu!"

The voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see one of the younger refugees, a boy named Tyren, bounding over with his usual uncontainable energy. His scruffy brown hair and dirt-streaked face made it hard to believe he'd been in a place as clean and well-kept as Fort Blanche for more than a day.

"What is it, Tyren?" she asked, trying to keep the weariness out of her voice. She really wasn't in the mood to entertain his endless questions.

"There's a thing in the hangar! You gotta come see it!" His eyes sparkled with a mixture of awe and mischief.

"A 'thing'? Could you maybe give me a bit more detail?" Miyu couldn't help but smile at the boy's enthusiasm, even if she was hesitant to get up from her comfortable spot.

"It's like a... I dunno, some kind of machine or... a ship! You'll love it!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, skeptical. "A ship? You mean like one of those transport vessels?"

"Not exactly... It looks WAY cooler. C'mon, you're always just sitting around, don't you wanna see something cool?"

Always sitting around. The words stung a little more than she expected. Was that how people saw her? 

Maybe he had a point. She had been avoiding getting too involved with anyone or anything, partly out of a desire for peace and partly out of lingering uncertainty. But there was something about Tyren's excitement that made her stand up, brushing off her pants. 

"Alright, show me this 'cool thing.' But if it's just another piece of junk, I'm blaming you for wasting my time."

Tyren grinned widely and took off running ahead, leading her toward the hangar. 

As they approached, Miyu could already hear the faint hum of machinery and the metallic clanking of parts being shifted around. The hangar was a hive of activity, a stark contrast to the peaceful courtyard. Several other automaton were working on various projects, but Tyren had his eyes on something hidden behind a large sheet.

He grabbed the corner of the sheet with both hands and yanked it down, revealing—

"What the—?"

Miyu stared in disbelief. 

It wasn't a ship. It was something else entirely. Some sort of exo-suit? Or a... no, it looked too advanced for that. The sleek, angular design, the glowing lines of energy running through its frame—it was like nothing she'd ever seen. 

"Cool, huh?" Tyren said, practically bouncing on his feet.

Miyu approached the machine cautiously, her hand outstretched as if to touch it but hesitating just before her fingers made contact. 

'What is this?'

She glanced at one of the techs nearby, a seemingly grizzled machine, who's pristine, white...paint(?) had been marred by splotches of black. Some seemed to be fluids(?) and some seemed to be outright scorch marks. It seemed to fit into that 'mechanic' stereotype she'd seen on T.V shows back on earth.

But here? Strange.

It was a strange sight.

It had been observing Miyu's reaction with mild amusement.

"Where did this come from?" Miyu asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

The virtual blue orbs that served as its eyes flickered, similar to 431-B and just about every other automaton Miyu had encountered. But something felt different—an almost... lively spark in those orbs.

"Who are you?" Miyu asked, her voice edged with curiosity and caution.

The automaton straightened, placing one metallic hand on its hip in a pose that felt oddly... human. "Designation: 603-F," it said with a distinctly boisterous tone. 

Miyu blinked. "603-F?" 

The automaton let out a surprisingly loud, almost hearty laugh, a noise that startled Miyu. "Yeah! A bit weird, huh? But not as weird as the numbers suggest!" 

That voice—it was female. A stark contrast to 431-B's more curt, androgynous tone. 603-F's laughter felt as if it filled the whole hangar, bouncing off the metal walls like some joyous echo of life. It was... unsettling. Miyu wasn't used to automatons being this—animated.

"Uh... yeah," Miyu replied, shifting awkwardly. "Where did this thing come from?" She motioned toward the strange exo-suit.

"Oh, this ol' thing?" 603-F waved a dismissive hand at the machine. "Just some new project we've been working on. Logistics and restoration unit." 

Miyu tilted her head. "Restoration? You fix stuff like this?"

603-F gave a mock salute. "That's me! Top-tier restoration, all kinds of repairs. You break it, I fix it." Then, her tone softened. "But don't worry, nothing I can't handle."

Miyu found herself smiling at the automaton's enthusiasm despite herself. It was infectious, and a part of her had missed this kind of upbeat personality. Back on Earth, she used to thrive around people like this, feeding off their energy. But here, in the distant reaches of space, everything felt so much... dimmer.

Still, she couldn't help but ask, "You're... different from the other automatons. Less... robotic, I guess." 

The moment the words left her mouth, she felt a twinge of regret—wondering if she'd offended the machine.

603-F laughed again, the sound warmer this time. "Oh, don't worry, I've heard worse!" She shrugged it off easily. "Yeah, we're a bit different. Part of the Aes, y'know? We've got more personality—comes with the territory. It's all about choice. We choose how we express ourselves, I guess." 

"Choice?" Miyu echoed, confused.

"Yep! Believe it or not, we all pick how we wanna present ourselves. I chose this voice, this vibe." 603-F gestured to herself as if it was the most natural thing in the universe.

Miyu furrowed her brow, unsure of what to make of it. "I... didn't know you could choose like that. Aren't you, you know, programmed?"

"Sure, we've got base programming...of some sort. Nothing I could make head or tails of though," 603-F explained, tapping her metal head with a clang, "but it's not like we're just mindless drones. We've got... quirks. Preferences. Even autonomy, to an extent. To a large extent, now that I think about it."

Miyu nodded slowly, still processing. The idea that these machines had a form of free will—personal choices, no less—wasn't something she'd ever considered. "That's... kinda amazing," she admitted, crossing her arms.

"I think so, too!" 603-F said with a proud puff of her metal chest. "We might be metal and wires, but we've got as much personality as you humans. Maybe even more," she teased with a wink.

Miyu chuckled, shaking her head at the absurdity of the situation. The momentary peace of the courtyard seemed far away now, replaced by the whirl of activity in the hangar and the endless questions spinning in her mind. 

"So, you said something about a logistics unit?" Miyu asked, returning her gaze to the exo-suit.

603-F nodded. "Yep, but it's also something more. It's got combat capabilities, high-level restoration tools, and some pretty neat energy conduits running through it. You won't find anything like this in the standard databases. Top secret stuff."

"Top secret?" Miyu raised an eyebrow. Was she supposed to know this?

"Uh-huh! Well, not for much longer, now that you've seen it!" 603-F winked again, and Miyu wasn't sure if she was joking.

"Well, it's not secret like that, in the way you think. It's not some big superweapon." 603-F chirped. "It's closer to 'we just found it lying around, and we felt like fixing it'. And as much I'd like to admit otherwise, apart from this being some kind of exo-suit, which is VERY visible, and a couple internals, we haven't particularly far with it" it said, it's eyes a bit dimmer as it did.

Lying around?

Miyu's brow furrowed. The idea of something like this—this advanced exo-suit—just lying around sounded absurd. Why would tech this impressive be abandoned or forgotten?

603-F, ever perceptive, noticed her unspoken confusion and responded before Miyu could even ask the question.

"Yeah, I get it, you're wondering why something like this would be left to gather dust, right? Well... truth is, even I don't know exactly. But after consulting with some of the other units, especially the Recon lot, we've pieced together bits and pieces of the story. Apparently, this place used to be some kind of warbase... a VERY long time ago."

Miyu tilted her head slightly. "How long ago are we talking?"

603-F's eyes dimmed again, a sign it was pulling data from somewhere in its archives. "Thousands of years. Ancient, in the grand scheme of things. The tech here? It's practically prehistoric compared to the current standards—like, WAY outdated."

"Outdated?" Miyu asked, glancing back at the sleek machine before her. If this was 'outdated,' she could only imagine what cutting-edge tech looked like here.

"Yup, outdated. We're talking tech from a time when this fortress didn't run on mana like most places nowadays. It relied on... nuclear fusion. Weird, right?"

Miyu blinked in surprise. "Nuclear fusion? But on Ear-where I'm from, that's... well, it's barely even a thing. They're just starting to figure it out." she'd almost slipper out the name Earth on habit.

603-F gave another one of its boisterous laughs. "Oh, here? It's old news. Prehistoric, even. From what the Librarian units told me, before Lokir—this whole moon, by the way—was 'caught' by Veria, mana wasn't reliable. So, instead of using magic, they stuck to non-mana tech. It was their only option."

"Caught by Veria?" Miyu echoed, not entirely understanding what that meant. Neither did the automaton, apparently, as 603-F shrugged.

"Beats me. Even the Librarian units couldn't explain that part. They're the subunit of Recon, by the way—deal with archives and old records. Anyhow, they reckon it's something to do with Lokir's past, but no one knows for sure. What we DO know is that all this stuff," 603-F gestured broadly to the hangar and the exo-suits scattered about, "is non-mana tech. And now, we Restoration units are learning how to fix it firsthand."

Miyu looked around the hangar again. Only now did she notice the sheer number of automatons bustling about, many of them with similar white, marred exteriors like 603-F. They were busy with tubes, screens, and even... paper? Some were hammering away at another exo-suit in the corner, while one just lay sprawled on the floor, looking almost... lazy.

603-F noticed too. "Hey! Get to work!" it shouted, its voice taking on an authoritative tone. The automaton on the floor jolted up and scurried off, carrying a bundle of wires. Miyu couldn't help but stifle a small chuckle at the scene.

The automaton beside her sighed dramatically, then turned its attention back to Miyu. "It's a mess sometimes, trying to learn tech that's older than some planets. But we manage."

Miyu nodded slowly, her mind buzzing with all the new information. Nuclear fusion being ancient history? On Earth, that was cutting-edge, barely out of the experimental phase. And here, it was little more than a relic of a long-forgotten war.

"Thousands of years," she murmured to herself. It was hard to wrap her mind around it. The disparity in technology between Earth and this corner of the universe felt... overwhelming.

603-F noticed her expression and added with a lighter tone, "Yeah, it's crazy. But hey, makes you appreciate the simplicity of things sometimes. All this tech might be outdated, but it works. Well, when we can fix it." 

Miyu's gaze returned to the exo-suit in front of her. Despite its advanced design—at least by Earth's standards—it was just another remnant of a forgotten era here. She reached out, fingers brushing the cool metal, and wondered what other secrets this ancient base might be hiding.

"Who knows," she whispered, "maybe this place still has a few surprises left." She looked back towards Tyern, who'd been standing a bit further back, talking to a different automaton. Miyu approached him, with a slight smile.

"Thanks for showing me," she said instead, giving Tyren a small smile.

"See? Told you it was cool!" Tyren said, practically bouncing on his feet again.

Miyu gave him a playful nudge. "Yeah, alright, you were right."

603-F let out another of her booming laughs. "You two are gonna get along just fine."

Miyu wasn't so sure about that, but for now, she allowed herself to enjoy the brief moment of levity. After all, peace and quiet didn't always have to mean solitude.