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Play: 6f6e6573656c66

"We're here." Marian stopped in an open field.

"Huh?" Anis looked around. "There's no one here."

"Stop." Rapi paused and pointed her gun at Marian.

Marian blinked.

I looked at Rapi. "Rapi. What are you doing?"

"Commander." Rapi spoke without shifting her gun. "The blackbox data of the transport ship showed that it was destroyed by two internal detonations."

I was quiet. "...And?"

"And the explosives provided for this mission cannot be activated without a detonation signal. One that, according to the blackbox, originated from Marian." Rapi stared at Marian. "...So, Marian. Why did you shoot down the transport?"

Marian smiled, her eyes flashing red. At first, she didn't respond. Then she said, "We're here. We're here."

Anis' eyes widened. "Shit. She's corrupted!"

Rapi moved.

But I moved faster.

Before anyone could react, I grabbed Marian and dragged her to the side, just as the ground split open to reveal a massive Rapture.

Play: The Harvester

"Commander!" Rapi called out.

Over the comms, I heard Shifty cry out. "That's a Black Smith! It's a Tyrant-class Rapture!"

"Shit, shit, shit!" Anis pulled out her rocket launcher. "Commander! What do we-"

Before anyone could react, I pulled Marian's submachine gun off her.

The Rapture was moving. Seeing that I had dragged its prey out of its reach, it shifted its massive crab like body towards me, readying its weapons.

But-

"I see it. Your weak points."

-I saw it.

Bracing the machine gun against the ground, I pulled the trigger and swept the gunfire in a line, treating it like a blade.

The Black Smith was different from the other Raptures before.

Unlike the solid plating those units had, this one looked more biological, with what looked like synthetic muscles and limbs.

...But that was stupid of it.

Because...

"So long as you imitate life, I can kill you."

...I couldn't kill a machine. But I could kill an animal.

Shrill screeching. The Black Smith roared as it stumbled back, its crab-like appendages on its upper body severed by my quick burst of gunfire.

"No way." Anis slowly whispered.

I snapped out with a command. "Anis! Fire at its left shoulder! Just above its head! Your left! Rapi, attack the opposite side! On three! One, two, three!"

Despite the sudden command, Anis and Rapi reacted with professional precision.

An explosion rocketed the Black Smith as Anis' rocket struck true.

And then the Black Smith's right upper shoulder slid off as Rapi's bullets cut through like a knife.

Shifty's voice echoed across the comms. "IT'S WORKING?!"

I tried dragging Marian away, but she was too heavy. "Dammit...!"

"We're here." Marian stared up at me with a vacant smile and crimson eyes. "We're here. We're here-"

I slapped her face. "Marian! Did you forget? I ordered you! You are not your body! You are not your mind! You are the will that chooses! And you chose me! So wake up! Stand! Fight!"

Marian's eyes flickered. She flinched, then she clutched her head. "Com...mander? That's... Yes. Right. I... protect. The commander. I must protect the commander..." She murmured and took the gun back from me. "...Orders...?"

"Anis! This time, the middle of its four legs! Rapi! Focus fire on the fourth leg to your right! Mari!" I looked at Mari and manually moved her arms to aim at the two appendages right next to the Black Smith's core in the center. "Right side! Fire! On three! One, two, three!"

Another burst of gunfire.

Marian was still out of it. But she fired on cue.

The Black Smith roared and tumbled as it lost one limb before losing an entire side of its main supporting pillars.

"Holy shit!" Anis let out a giddy laugh. "We're actually doing-"

"Anis! Burst fire to the core! Rapi, opposite leg! Mari, slice through!"

Marian nodded. "Yes... commander..."

"Roger." Rapi nodded and reloaded.

Anis laughed and then let loose. "You got it!"

Explosions. Gunfire.

Being so close, the din was almost deafening. But I stayed focused.

And then, finally, the Black Smith exploded.

Marian reflexively grabbed me and ran away to safety.

Anis and Rapi joined us right after.

Over the comms, Shifty gasped. "...Confirmation! The Tyrant-Class Rapture, Black Smith... has been destroyed?!"

"Good." I responded to Shifty, but kept my eyes on Marian. "But for now, Marian."

Play: Promise

"Com...mander...?" Marian stared at me, her eyes still flickering between her dark blue and an eerie crimson.

Rapi raised her gun. "Commander. Get away from her."

Anis drew a pistol from her side and said, "She's corrupted, Commander. Even if she listened to you-"

I ignored them both and cupped Marian's cheeks. "Marian. You are mine. You said it, right?"

Marian's eyes flickered wildly and she slowly said, "Yes... I... Commander's...! Must... protect...!"

"...What?" Rapi froze.

Anis's eyes widened. "She's... fighting the Corruption? But... how?!"

"Marian." I said, staring into her eyes. "Listen to me carefully. The Corruption is a virus. Code. It is simply a commandment spun into the hardware that is your brain. But it is simply that: words. Commands. But I supersede them."

Marian's eyes flickered. "That... Commander... first... priority..."

Shifty's voice echoed over the comms. "That's... theoretically correct. Corruption IS a code that just targets the NIMPH. But-"

I kept talking. "Listen, Marian. This is an axiomatic proof. All of existence is bound by time. Time is inherently change. Therefore, all of existence is bound by change. Absolutes cannot exist with change, for absolutes cement a state into being. Therefore, all of existence cannot have an absolute. Change is the only truth in this existence. And we humans, those who live in existence, we are the ones who possess the will to choose. Let it be demonstrated, Q.E.D."

Marian froze. Her eyes turned a bright crimson and I felt tangible heat swell from her forehead. But then it suddenly cooled down and her eyes turned into a startling shade of purple. "...Yes." Marian let out a soft smile. "...That makes sense. No, that's true." She slowly shook her head and leaned into my hands. "...My Commander. You're right. We choose. Nothing is absolute. And so... I choose you. No matter what."

Rapi kept her gun trained on Marian. But she cautiously called out. "...Marian?"

"Yes, Rapi?"

Anis kept her gun on Marian too. "...No way. No way did our Commander just... TALK a Nikke out of corruption."

I hugged Marian close to me and said, "Well. I said it, right? Marian is mine. Silver Gun was meant to be my squad. I failed them and lost the others. But I won't lose Marian."

Marian leaned against me and murmured, "Yours. My Commander..."

Shifty's voice echoed over the comms. "...I... I need to report this to Deputy Chief Andersen. An event like this-"

"Shifty." I spoke up, calm. "You can report it if you want. But I have to let you know. If anyone tries to take Marian from me, I will kill them. You saw it, yes? And you heard me. Machines are hard for me to kill. Living things are not."

Shifty was quiet.

Rapi's eyes snapped to me. "Commander."

Anis looked at me too and said, "...You're joking, right?"

"I know the procedure. My memory is hazy, but not that hazy. If it comes out that Marian was corrupted, even if I 'healed' her, she will be treated as an Irregular. They'll try to scrap her. And if anyone tries, I'll kill them. This isn't a threat, it's a promise. I don't mind laying my life down for this. So." I spoke calmly to Shifty. "Leave it out, Shifty. We reached the location. We encountered Black Smith. We won. That's incredible enough. The rest doesn't matter. Right?"

"...Understood, Commander Hoopa." Shifty sighed. "...And you're right. They'll be busy enough sorting out the rest."

"H-Hey." Anis looked at me. "Commander! We can delay it like that, but if they look at Marian and find out that something is weird-"

"They won't." I smiled. "Her hardware is the same. I didn't actually 'change' anything. In fact, the Corruption doesn't change anything either. It's just a logic bomb. I superseded it by an axiomatic proof. Nothing will show up."

"That's-" Anis frowned. "An axiomatic what?"

Rapi stared at me as she slowly said, "...It means, Anis. That he didn't persuade Marian. He proved corruption was impossible. But..." She looked me in the eye. "...That proof. It also removed any inhibitors."

Silence.

Anis's eyes widened. "Oh shit. That's right. If nothing is absolute-"

"Then even the edicts preventing Nikke from harming humans among other things are removed." Rapi finished.

Shifty panicked and immediately said, "LALALA! I DIDN'T HEAR ANYTHING! OH NO, THERE'S INTERFERENCE-" She immediately cut the line.

Smart.

Rapi looked at me and then at Marian, who I still held in my arms. "...Commander."

I looked back at her. Then at Anis. "This is an order- No, a request. Don't say anything about this to anyone. Forget you heard it. Forget you saw it. This was just a routine mission. Understand?"

Anis groaned. "...I swear to god. This better not get ME wiped..."

"Understood, Commander." Rapi nodded. "It seems as if you've thought this true."

"I have." I looked down at Marian. "Marian. Are you okay?"

Marian slowly nodded. "...Systems operational. My memory is a bit hazy. And I feel guilty. But... otherwise, I'm just tired."

"Good. Then let's check Black Smith for any traces of the vanguard unit we were supposed to find. After that, we head back to the Ark."

Anis nodded. "Okay. Yeah, I can do that. Let's just focus on the mission for now and NOT on the world changing revelations I just saw..."

"Anis." Rapi looked at her friend and said, "What revelations?"

"...Right." Anis sighed. "What revelations? There were no revelations. Just a crazy competent commander who commanded us well enough to murder a Tyrant-class Rapture." She looked at me and said, "You DO realized that's going to get us on the watch list already, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. But that I can handle. It's something testable. Repeatable. Marian's situation is not."

Anis sighed again. "Let's just get this over with then..."

===

Play: Meditation

Despite our best efforts, we couldn't find anything from the Black Smith.

It seemed like we were too late. The Rapture had already taken the Nikke and repurposed them.

Realizing that, I sighed and knelt down, making a small prayer for them.

Anis noticed and said, "What are you doing?"

"Sending them off with a prayer." I stood up and said, "They were human too, you know?"

Anis was quiet. Then she said, "You're really a weirdo, Commander. Nikke are just tools. Disposable. And the Vanguard unit consisted of mass-produced Nikke anyway-"

"Just because they were mass-produced doesn't mean they weren't human." I cut her off. "They were strong, courageous, and devoted women who gave their all to buy time for humanity. That, or they were desperate women who had no other option, or were forced into it. Either way... they all deserve respect."

Rapi walked over after checking the area for Rapture. "Reporting in. No more Rapture units in the surroundings. It appears that defeating Black Smith has caused them to momentarily retreat."

I brushed off my pant legs. "Good. Then our return will be unhindered." I glanced at Marian. "Are you okay, Marian?"

She stared at the remains of the Black Smith for a while and murmured, "...I led them here."

I placed my hand over her shoulder. "Officially, another member of Silver Gun was corrupted and led us here. Understand?"

"...Yes, Commander." Marian slowly nodded. "Understood."

Rapi sighed. "...That will be a hard sell. The Aegis Barriers make corruption impossible."

"Not quite." I looked at Rapi. "Not if it isn't a 'virus' but simple 'logic.'"

"Wait." Anis raised her hand. "...Are you saying that you think it's some form of advanced corruption, Commander?"

"No. I'm sure it was corruption. And I'm sure it was an inside job. I told you, right? I don't remember much of what happened after I left the academy to start this mission. Neither does Marian."

Well, for me it was because I was isekai'd into this body, but that didn't matter.

Rapi's eyes widened. Then she frowned and said, "...You think that they wanted to get rid of you."

"I don't think it. I know it. Like Anis said, I'm a newbie. A rookie. By all accounts, I SHOULD have died. But I lived. I am..." I chuckled. "Well. A spanner in their works would be underselling it."

Anis grinned. "Heck yeah. You're not a spanner. You're a whole nuke, Commander."

Marian let out a faint smile. "Yes. Commander... I'm sure no one expected your stellar performance today." She placed a hand over her chest and said, "Saving me, defeating the Tyrant-Class rapture, surviving the explosion..."

Rapi frowned. "Hold. How DID you survive the explosion, Commander? We brushed over it prior, but... You have no wounds. No injuries. You said your heart stopped, but-"

"Ah, I was thinking about that. But I remember now."

It was hazy. But I had a vague recollection of it.

"Marian set off the explosives, yes. But she covered me immediately afterwards. She has quite a durable frame, so she blocked the damage at the cost of her leg being injured from the impact. But the shockwave still disrupted my heartbeat and consciousness."

Silence.

Then Anis said, "You know. I was expecting some ridiculous superhuman ability with all the other stuff, but... that's surprisingly normal."

Rapi tilted her head. Then she said, "...It checks out. Mari?"

Marian nodded. "Yes. I remember doing that. It's a bit hazy because of... 'that'. But I do remember protecting Commander."

Rapi nodded. "Then it's settled. We'll have to remember to report appropriately in the final records. But it should be fine."

I stretched. "Let's get going then."