Attack on Plants

Mai had found herself doing yet another reconnaissance job. It was something the unit was practically designed for, so it only made sense. But the actual reason for doing so was a bit… odd, to say the least. It was still just a few days since her awakening, finding herself in the care of Sabertooth and with her memory completely corrupted and inaccessible.

Naturally, the mages didn’t exactly expect her sudden appearance and did not quite have the facilities to accommodate for her. As a result, she was still in her bare form. Not that it was a problem, given the fact that her current body possessed no organs that human considered offensive to display in public.

But even then, plenty of people were afraid she would get called all sorts of things and get in more trouble than was anything would be worth if she just walked around everywhere looking like that.

And so for right now, she was restricted to the skies and rooftops of the different cities, scanning them from the secluded locations to get a good understanding of their structures and correct her GPS positioning. That was what the unit was doing right now, a simple scanner job that carried no dangers whatsoever.

However, as fate would have it, something had to change that. As the targeting reticles slowly spun in her eyes, the scanner suddenly caught a hostile signal. Directing her gaze toward it, the unit noted all but one signs of human life running away.

With only one person remaining, her protocols deemed it now possible to get down to the street. And her new duty as a member of the Sabertooth guild even required it, as she had to ensure the safety of whoever it was that attempted to face off this hostile by their lonesome.

The wings on her back illuminated again, the energy membrane filling out the mechanical frame and taking her to the skies. And once she was directly above the two signals, she would perform a direct head-down dive. At the same time, both of her wrists suddenly ‘popped’ and moved forward, revealing the machinery that filled her hands.

And from within the created gab on her arms, two long and segmented blades emerged, looking almost like the front legs of a praying mantis turned into proper weapons out of metal. Performing a spin right before landing, those very blades quite effectively cut through all the green tendrils crawling toward the protective ghost.

Their opponent, the plant, seemed to retreat a tiny bit with a shriek when that happened, giving Mai time to turn around and address the other girl.

“Please, answer this query: Are you injured anywhere?”

The unit could only tilt her head to the side on a curious manner, almost like an animal that wanted to investigate something. She had received a reply that she did not expect at all, so this was more than normal. But there was not even any semblance of answer to the question she had asked this woman.

“Error, subject not responsive.”

Though that didn’t seem to matter. Whoever the strange ghost lady was, she decided the fly off. Mai interpreted this as a bystander retreating from the area of immediate danger, so she would just turn around and face the monster. More of its tendrils shot out, aimed at the robot.

But her movements were far too fast and precise for a mere plant enemy. She managed to cut them all to shreds well before her physical form could be restrained in any way at all. This made the plant retreat some more and stop its action for a little bit in addition to getting mad from the other person ignoring it.

That said, Spectra returned pretty swiftly. Her actions appeared a tad bit hostile, but not to a capacity where Mai could possibly be damaged. So she just caught the clothes tossed at her and looked at them, her eyes analyzing the material. It appeared surprisingly high quality. But even that just made her look back up at Spectra with a questioning look.

“Failed to parse statement.”

Being gross didn’t exactly give her much detail as to what was wrong. But at last, her damaged logic circuits arrived at the conclusion that she had to wear the clothes she was given, as doing otherwise was somehow considered gross. Storing the correlation in her database, for now, she would try to put the parka on.

It fit her, for the most part. It was just a tad bit big for her, but that might have actually been better since it almost served as a dress now and covered her body all the way to her thighs. And some could even argue that the girl looked rather cute with the hood on, as it even boasted long rabbit ears.

Now all that was left was dealing with the plant. Though it seemed that it was capable of regenerating. Spectra had an idea, so Mai would try to walk closer to her and ask once more, hoping there would be an actual reply this time around.

“Please, answer this query: Should the unit initiate a long-distance scan for any magic users? Or should this unit deal with the enemy using fire?”

“Understood.”

Giving a rather simple answer, Mai’s pupils seemed to grow a tad bit larger as a spinning circle appeared around them, an indication of the area-wide scanner starting up. Since their opponent was almost definitely a mage, she only really had to narrow the search down to actual magic signatures.

Appearing on her internal map was one for herself, one for Spectra, one for the plant and a long trail leading from it to a dot some distance away. Any other magical signatures were much further away and clumped in bigger groups, indicating rune knight mages and guards of the city slowly heading to this place.

Naturally, they would deal with the problem at some point. But why wait for them when the entire situation could have been resolved much faster and thus mitigating the damage done to the city and any potential civilians. Though Spectra might have technically been a civilian in this case as well, fighting the plant on her own risk.

The entire search was completed in a manner of seconds from the look of outsiders, the metallic wings once more appearing behind Mai’s frame and their energy field lifting her into the air and speeding off at a fairly high speed. If her locating software worked at least somewhat correctly, then her target was high up.

And sure enough, the moment she got to the designated location, her short-range scanner picked up a suspicious-looking man on a large balcony that was part of a fancy building. Landing on the balcony next to him, the unit started following her new protocol created after she ‘joined’ Sabertooth, one that asked for diplomacy first.

“Subject plant mage, cease your actions immediately or face consequences.”

Her presence gave him quite a shock, which might, in turn, have weakened the plant as well as he did not focus on it nearly as much now. But as was the case with many criminals, he was not planning on just giving up. Reaching behind his back for a knife that Mai had already found during her scan also allowed her to determine that diplomacy had failed.

She broke into spring immediately, reaching him far before he was able to grasp the weapon. And even if he did, it would do little to a machine life-form such as herself. Though the parka actually did a good job at mostly concealing the exposed machinery, so he might have not realized what she actually was.

The unit’s fist swung with an excessive amount of mechanical force behind it, burying itself into the man’s stomach and sending him flying into the railing which bent quite a bit when they collided. Suffice to say, he was out after that one strike and probably lucky if his spine was still in one piece.

Taking hold of him, she would carry the man on her back, back to the location of the plant, as that was where the authorities would soon arrive. And if the need were to arise, she would help eliminate the plant. That was if it even still moved after the mage was completely and utterly defeated.

It seemed that in the end, everything went rather smoothly. The crazed mage was quickly taken off of Mai’s hands by the knights and both her and the strange bystander from before were thanked for taking action and defeating the threat to the city. It was worth at least something, even if the enemy was not exactly a strong one.

At the very least, some of the unit’s combat systems were calibrated during this whole ordeal. Exactly what she needed. The more combat she went through, the more she could repair whatever was wrong with her and return herself back to peak condition. After which she could start hunting down potential upgrades to her own self.

But that was nor here, nor there. Spectra had decided to drop by for one last comment and departed before the unit could even reply, so she merely stared down at what she was currently wearing. Clothes were something that she did not understand, as they could only get in her way when fighting. But she made the note to wear them, even if it was highly counter-productive.

The only actual ‘regret’ she had from this mission was the fact that she didn’t even get the name of the strange ghost-controlling individual. But she made a database entry for her anyway. It was just much shorter than any of the other ones she currently had. Perhaps she would indeed be able to meet her again in the future and properly add whatever information was missing then.

Extending her wings once more, she would take flight after no one required anything from her anymore, the destination of Sabertooth guildhall set for her navigation system. The whole event was rather unplanned, so she to report everything that happened to someone who was above her. Not hard to find, considering she occupied the lowest position of a member.