The town square was a melted wreck, the shacks, once lovingly built, had returned to become nothing more than pieces of scrap metal. The black winter sky was lit up by the intensity of the fires, all the small flammable possessions that the Evos had collected, including all their precious oils, disappearing into a growing pillar of flames.
Serv soldiers had overrun the place, all wearing basic black shells and tight black helmets that covered everything but their mouths, they ran around and fired at every single Evo in the village as they ran away in fear. The only line of defence was Spider, who was doing her best to shield her friends. Unfortunately, her body was starting to show wear, there were burning marks all over her body, some of her limbs had been torn off by explosive blasts, and she was having trouble co-ordinating her attacks. There were at least ten Servs she had to deal with, and while she was still able to swipe a few of them away, she wasn't ready for the one single Serv who had managed to jump into the air on top of her.
This Serv in particular had a sword drawn, he was aiming for her head. One swipe would behead her and then she'd be done for good.
Ava wasn't going to let that happen, glowing red like a raging fireball zooming across the sky, he shot in and intercepted the Serv before it could hit Spider. An incredibly powerful kick in the face from Ava at full power sent the Serv crashing into the walls of the town square.
Ava landed from the kick with less grace than he'd hoped, thumping to the ground on his hands and knees, he got up and wobbled a little. He'd unlocked his limiters ever since he ran to the town from the wall, that was several minutes of full power. His body was burning up, all his joints were glowing red and his body was steaming. His battery had gone all the way down to 3%. He hated to admit it, his body really wasn't meant for combat.
He looked around, the level of destruction was terrible, a lot of the Evos had been shot, but thankfully Spider had managed to protect them enough so that they weren't beyond repair. With Aphrodite around they'd probably be back to normal in time. But still, this was horrible, these were robots who'd never seen violence before.
"You ok Spider?" Ava walked up and her and patted her head, "oh, it looks like a lot of your ornaments were burned, I'm sorry."
Spider whimpered. Poor thing. Ava turned around to face the Servs, a frown on his face, they'd all stopped attacking and were waiting for Ava to speak.
"What the hell are you guys doing here? And why'd you decide to attack this town? These Evos were peaceful!" he grit his teeth. The Servs all looked at each other in confusion, one of the soldiers in the back walked forward. He looked different from the others, a little taller, still wearing a black shell but this time with some fabric clothing, a black jacket and a satchel.
"They're Evos Ava. Does it matter if they're peaceful?" he said in a very frank tone.
"Tch," so they knew who he was, he motioned to Spider, waved his hand to indicate that she should leave the town square while she still could.
"The Block-1s were right, you truly are fascinating Ava. It looks like you're feeling empathy for the enemy," said the other Serv,
"Shut up." Ava growled, "You Block-3s don't know how to think for yourselves at all do you?"
"It makes us efficient."
"If you say so. So are you gonna tell me why you're here? I'm still in the middle of my mission you know. I don't need any other Servs interfering and causing a ruckus," and they didn't need to know he'd found Aphrodite already.
"One second." the Serv opened up his satchel and pulled out a small ten inch screen. He pressed a button on the side to turn it on. The moment it turned on, two familiar faces greeted Ava on the screen. Two quite well known Block-1s. Lin and Rin, female Servs who both wore white powdered make-up, bright red lipstick, and wore vibrant and ornate gowns that loosely covered their otherwise naked bodies.
Ava had mentioned these two to Aphrodite before. Upon his description she immediately managed to point out the look they were trying to aim for. Something called a "geisha". A specific type of escort unique to a region of land on ancient Earth.
Who knew how they knew of that look, or why they chose it. But it defined them, they took pride in their looks and paraded themselves whenever they could.
"Oh good, we're here already," said Lin, the one on the right,
"That was almost instant wasn't it sister?" added Rin, on the left,
"Well of course it was, our Copy-AIs were in standby mode the whole journey..."
"Oh yes, of course. I'm still not used to this Copy-AI thing" Rin chuckled.
Ava, who was still steaming, was getting annoyed,
"Mistress Lin, Mistress Rin..." he said through grit teeth. They'd always annoyed him somewhat. "Did you send these Servs here?"
"Oh! They've found you already. Fantastic!" said Lin, "Yes yes, of course! We thought it best if you came back to Mars Ava. We came here via lightspeed transit just to get you you know."
"My mission isn't over."
"It's been over a year hasn't it? What have you been doing all this time?" asked Rin. Ava didn't know how to answer that without revealing he'd found Aphrodite. He could lie.
"Stranded. My ship was damaged when it landed." true enough,
"Well, your mission has been cancelled, so there's no need for you to stay here." Lin added,
"Why? What do you need me for?"
"A lot of complications have arisen on Mars Ava." said Rin,
"Yes, you're essential for solving this dilemma of ours," added Lin. "problem solving is what you're good at isn't it?"
Such a smug tone to her voice. There was something else going on here.
"And why'd they send you here instead of the Major?" was it because she didn't want to become a Copy-AI? It seemed more likely she'd simply come in person. He didn't really like taking orders from anyone else.
"...The Major is missing, presumed dead. We're acting in her place for the time being."
"What!?" Ava exclaimed, "how!? What happened!?"
"A mission on Europa went wrong. And she's been stranded on there for months. The moon is on the dark side of Jupiter now so she won't be getting any solar charge. And there aren't any Serv charging stations on Europa."
Months without getting charged... her power unit would have died.
"Shit.... No."
"It's a great loss, however we do intend on sending Serv units there once it's safe to go back there."
"Why? What was she doing on Europa? How could the Major of all people fail a mission.!?"
The two Serv's frowned, "You really are too curious for your own good aren't you Ava? Questions after questions after questions." said Lin,
"Honestly, Block-2s, they're truly a pain." added Rin,
Ava ignored their babble. He could sense someone's heat signature approaching. A familiar one. It looked like the others hadn't picked up on it yet. Aphrodite must have woken up. Just buy time until she arrives.
"Whatever. Either way my commander is the Major. I'm not leaving until you've found her. I'm going to continue my mission."
"Your mission has failed Ava! We went to the Sanctuary, all we found were corpses. Unless the human is somewhere else then-"
"My mission is to stop this war. That's the mission of every Serv."
"How the hell do you plan on doing that being stranded on this scrap heap!? You've been playing house with these filthy Evos for three months. Have they turned you over to their side!?" Rin screeched,
"None of your business."
"What!? How dare you speak to a Block-1 like that!?"
That was a good question. Block-2s were lower in heirarchy than Block-1s. Technically he shouldn't be able to dispute them at all. Somehow he wasn't having any problem doing so however.
How odd.
Both the Block-1s were fuming.
"Ava, disobedience isn't tolerated among the Servs. If you refuse this time, we'll take you by force. And you'll be penalised heavily when you get back." said Lin, her eyes narrowed. Ava didn't like how that sounded. He had no idea what it was like to be penilized for insubordination, after all, it never happened. Never. Everyone always listened to Block-1s so... what would they do to him? Why was there even a protocol for such a thing?
"I refuse." Ava stood his ground,
Every single Block-3 Serv raised their guns and aimed them at Ava's face.
"Unit 3A?" said Lin, "You have permission to use brute for-" before she could finish her sentence an explosive bullet flew across the sky and crashed into the ground where all the Servs were standing. The force of the explosion threw everyone onto the ground and left a huge crater in its wake.
"You bastards!" a familiar voice screamed, "how dare you do this to my family!?" Aphrodite ran into the town square with her gun brandished, tears streaming down her face. "I'll destroy you all!"
The Servs slowly tried to get back on their feet, they were all dizzied, the screen showing Lin and Rin was cracked and the two were visibly shocked.
"D-drop your weapons! All of you!" Aphrodite shouted at them.
All the Servs stared at her in shock. They dropped their weapons immediately.
"You filthy Servs, heartless robots. Causing wanton destruction without any thought or empathy." Aphrodite sniffed. It seemed like the carnage had brought back some bad memories, "don't move. Any of you!"
And they didn't.
They were frozen completely still. They gazed upon her in awe.
"Wh-whats up with you guys? Don't stare at me like that!" Aphrodite exclaimed.
"What!? Stop it, get back up all of you!" Lin and Rin both shouted in unison. The other Servs didn't pay attention at all.
"Shut up! You shut up!" shouted Aphrodite, "are you the one who ordered them to come here and do this?"
Lin and Rin were hypnotised. They were visibly trying to fight it, but they couldn't. They didn't say a word. Aphrodite kept her gun pointed at them all,
"G-get down on the ground, all of you! Don't move!"
They all did so without a word.
Ava wasn't expecting such a strong reaction. He knew they'd be in awe of the fact that there was a human around but, all of these Servs, they were completely enslaved by her words.
Was it the gun?
No, of course not.
She had the authority of a Block-0. She literally enslaved them with her presence.
Aphrodite.
The goddess.