Travelers From the UNSS

Five minutes felt like hours sitting there just watching the pod. I wanted to know what Mammon meant when she said this would be my first objective. With a deep breath, I took a step forward toward the pod. The crisp air from the surrounding fires made it hard to breathe. Mammon must have noticed my difficulties as she matched my pace beside me. As we moved, a bright, tiny light poked through the pod's side. Mammon grabbed my arm, stopping me in place.

The light disappeared, and the sound of an air depressurizing followed. Once the air inside the pod matched the outside, the bright light reappeared and moved swiftly around in a rectangular shape like butter. The light stopped just before connecting the entire line, leaving a small gap of metal holding the rectangle cut out in place.

"HMPF!!!!"

"Dumbass."

Two distinct voices were coming from inside the pod, one which belonged to a woman and the other to a man, both of which were muffled. The woman spoke quietly as if she was in pain but didn't want to make it obvious, while the man spoke in a patronizing way.

"You ought to learn that plasma is hot."

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever."

Without so much as a warning, the rectangle cut out was suddenly airborne, headed straight toward me. I was then met with a glint of silver and the reverberating crash of metal on metal. Before me was Mammon with her arm crossed in front of her face. A trail was left in the dirt, suggesting that the metal cutout she had blocked from hitting me had pushed her back.

"So this is Earth, a 100 long years later." The owner of the female voice walked out. She had a youthful appearance that fit her cheerful voice. Her cheeks blushed with a gentle hue as the breeze played with her long, red hair that was pulled back in a neat ponytail. She wore a skintight suit that showed off her petite body. The suit was black with red-plated armor covering her joints and private areas.

After taking in the fresh air, she scanned the area for a few moments. Well, the scan may be the wrong word to use because if she was really scanning, they would be dead within a heartbeat.

"The coast is clear, Tobias!" Oblivious to the fact that we were there, she called out to the man, who was still in the pod.

"Hmm…" A man walked out from behind her with a large rod on his back.

He was tall and muscular, with a youthful face to add to his charm. If his name was Tobias, as the lady had said, then it fits his appearance well. With his short blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and arrogant face, he looks like he plays the part of a spoiled rich kid. He wore a suit similar to his companion but had blue armor plates. As he stepped out of the pod, he blocked the sun from blinding him and stared straight at me. With our eyes locked, he stood on guard.

"Where the hell did you graduate from, Lia? The Space Novice Institute of being a disappointment? This is why I was against going with you." He let out a hefty sigh as Lia rolled her eyes. "Two uniforms, twelve o'clock." Lia looked straight at us with a relaxed posture as if we weren't as much of a threat to her as Tobias had made it out to be. Tobias reacted oppositely as he reached for the metal rod on his back. He spun the rod around himself in an attempt to be flashy as a blade of plasma in the form of a large halberd head appeared. "Who are you, and what's affiliation?"

Mammon sighed and walked towards the man.

"Stop!" Tobias shouted. "Any closer and I will…holy mama." His voice trailed off, and he dropped his weapon. The plasma blade burnt the surrounding ground. "No way, she's beautiful!"

"Huh?"

"Damn creep."

While Lia gave him a hopeless glare, I stood there in shock from his sudden switch in personality. Tobias then ran towards Mammon and began examining every nook and cranny of her with eyes shining with excitement.

"This is a beautiful artifact from the old world! An outlawed model of an android designed to mimic human behavior and bodily functions, besides giving birth, of course. While her body has been tainted with the curse of time, her beauty is still unrivaled by anything on that ship above." Tobias then gave Mammon a tight embrace while nuzzling her.

"Seriously, what is wrong with these people?" I sighed out loud.

"Don't worry about it. He's just a creepy man with a kink for androids."

"What a hopeless man…" After realizing that voice was close, my heart skipped a beat. To my left, I found Lia standing beside me with an annoyed expression painted on her face as she stared at her companion. I did not even see her move from her original spot, nor did I hear her get near me. I must be getting tired- "OUCH!!!" As I let out that sound, Mammon turned and glared at Lia, who paid her no mind. "Did you just prick me?" A small needle covered with thick dark red blood rested on her fingertips.

"I did." She said nonchalantly before dropping the needle into a small bag and grabbing a small band-aid from the same bag. It had a childish cat design on it. "I wanted to see if you were also a machine like her. The outlawed types look too similar to humans when in good repair." There was an odd way she delivered that line. It was as if she had another reason for doing it.

While I wanted to pick her brain about it, something else came to mind. How did they notice Mammon was a machine? I mean, she looks human to me? "How is that possible? The idea of an android like that is impossible, right? Maybe she has some metal implants."

"Huh?" Lia looked at me with curious eyes. Her gaze then shifted from my eye to my uniform. Without letting out a sound, she turned around.

"Everything alright?" I asked. She then waved her hand to dismiss something.

"Yeah…" Her voice lacked confidence. She then walked towards Tobias and rammed her elbow into his gut. With an exaggerated cry of pain, he fell to the ground, glaring at Lia. "Get yourself together, you creep. We have a job to complete." She then helped Tobias back up, and they both walked around the area looking for something.

Now free from Tobias' clutches, Mammon walked towards me and spoke in a hushed voice. "Just to let you know, you have the option of killing them. Doing so starts a battle, of course. This would be a tutorial fight. What do you say?" With an expressionless face, Mammon reached out her hand toward me. As she did, her blank expression grew sinister.