Chapter 12: Exposition

The hospital wing is two floors down, and has been cleaned by worker drones. Skeletons wearing medical garb and doctors' coats have been stacked high to one side, and all the dust has been swept clean by roombas. The lights are on, the beds have been cleaned with crisp sheets set on top. Near one bed is a trolley laden with medical apparati as well as medicines, and it's the one that Hustler One brings him to.

Leon didn't stop talking even as the A.I-controlled gynoid helped him move, listening to his every word and developing an ever deepening frown. It asks questions, which Leon does his best to answer despite his own limited knowledge. But even little that he knows is enough to make the A.I grumble, frustration and yet more questions cropping up

"So, allow me to simplify things–" Hustler One says as it lets Leon sit down on the bed. "Your family, the Bartfords, have to work in the fields despite being nobility to support the 'legal wife' as well as the schooling costs for any heirs sent to the Royal Academy there to learn what they need to become proper Holfort nobility."

"Yup." Leon nods, popping the 'p'. "And because the legal wives are encouraged to spend a lot, money's tight. And that's not counting other stuff like taxes and other finances needed to run and maintain a Barony. We're never starving, but we aren't exactly well off either."

"I see." the gynoid nods, gently pushing Leon to the bed. "And why hasn't anyone rebelled yet? The French would have been apoplectic with rage if they still existed."

"You need resources to raise an army, and money to keep that army paid and loyal to whatever conflict you have them fight. Both of those go to the capital." Leon grunts. "Believe me, a full-scale rebellion would've already happened in that case."

"Fair point. This feels deliberate for some reason." Hustler One notes. "Do you think there is something afoot regarding that?"

"There may well be. I guess it's something to look into when I get the chance." Leon shrugs, relaxing as the gynoid starts sterilizing its hands. "You're gonna cut me open?"

"It's the fastest way to see your rib healed." the robot nods, a drone coming over and sterilizing its hands and forearms. "Don't worry, you will be anesthetized. You will barely feel anything."

"I better not." Leon snorts. "By the way, uh… no shirt?"

"I am a robot. I am not bound by human social constructs and you are not attracted to robots." Hustler One says, expecting that to be explanation enough. And it is, but… "Why, are you uncomfortable?"

"Hustler, you're in a gynoid body with amazing tits and blonde hair– practically my type." Leon grumbles. "So you doing what you're doing topless is a little… okay, very distracting."

The robot cocks a brow, gives him a once-over, and laughs. Leon feels his face catch fire. Damn his teenage hormones…

"I suppose no human can overcome their physiology. I believe the right term for this would be… 'flattery', yes?" the A.I smirks at him. "And I am very flattered, but please control yourself; a surgery on an aroused individual, however minor such an operation may be, carries unacceptably high risk of complications. So, please, calm down."

"Put on a damn shirt then!" Leon argue. "Hell, a jacket or tank top would do, just– something!"

The gynoid laughs with genuine amusement, bare breasts bouncing and drawing Leon's treacherous gaze to them for a long moment before he smacks himself and looks away.

"Alright, alright. I'll have a drone deliver something for me to wear." the A.I relents, still sounding amused. "Hmm. Do you think I should reduce my bust size? This helps for social infiltration missions and non-lethal information gathering, but–"

Leon coughs.

"So, I assume you had something to do with what happened to the planet?" he asks, trying to change topics and get the answers he originally came here for.

"No, not quite. I was involved, but the Earth's destruction… that is to be attributed to the Verdict War." the gynoid says, spraying something on Leon that immediately numbs the agony where his rib broke. "Stay calm, this will only take a few minutes."

"Yeah, yeah…" Leon grunts, forcing himself to relax as the gynoid cuts him open. "So, what was the Verdict War?"

"It was a conflict that erupted between the Corporations, who dubbed themselves Old Humanity, and a new subspecies of humanity that could emit a previously unknown particle which allowed them to produce seemingly supernatural effects. They called themselves 'New Humanity'." Hustler One explains as it starts work on Leon's injury. "I was reactivated during a period of calm leading up to the Verdict War, and saw its effects first hand. It was a destructive conflict that reduced the world and mankind to its degenerative state today."

"Huh. So it didn't immediately lead to a Great Destruction?" Leon blinks. "Well, a Great-er Destruction?"

"No, not that quickly." Hustler One sighs. "It began a few decades after your demise in Phobos. Children started to display abilities that looked straight out of a fantasy story; breathing fire, shooting lightning bolts, unassisted flight, outright matter creation out of nothing, etcetera. They were taken in for study, and the science team discovered that these children were emitting some kind of particle that allowed them some control over the environment. This particle was dubbed the 'Kojima Particle' in honor of the science team's leader Doctor Hidetaka Kojima, and the children were dubbed 'Kojima Children'." the gynoid pauses. "I'm sure you can guess what happened next."

"The Corporations try to make these proto-mages into company property, doing all manner of horrible things to them to figure out how their abilities worked." Leon groans. "Fucking greedy bastards."

"Correct. This sparked outrage in sympathizers, ordinary humans and other Kojima Children that managed to evade capture by Corporation forces. They rallied people against the corporations in mass protest and used that to stage a break-in; rescuing the captured Kojima Children. This led to the Corporations using force to punish the protestors, which in turn made the Kojima Children use their powers against the Corporations and garner more support." Hustler One says. "This led to an escalation of force between both parties, leading to war."

Leon sighs, disappointment welling up in his chest at his species' repeated attempt to kill itself.

"Initially, the Corporations had the upper hand in military equipment and Armored Cores, using them to drive back the Kojima Children and their allies. However, the Kojima Children were able to create Kojima Constructs– those monsters that you fought through to reach the main hangar areas previously." Hustler One continues. "These constructs could be made en-masse and with little resource expenditure, and needed very little human supervision to function; thus they deploy to overwhelm the technologically advanced Corporation forces– pushing them back to defensive installations and fortresses. There were so many of them in the air and on the ground that not even Armored Cores could force their way through without taking significant damage."

"I can guess what happened afterwards." Leon muses. "A stalemate falls over the battlelines and both the Corporations and Kojima Children band together and rebrand themselves."

"Indeed. Over the course of 23 years, the Corporations at the time, Crest Industries, Kisaragi, and Mirage, came together to form the Corporate Alliance. As a large bulk of their forces were made up of regular humans, they also informally called themselves 'Old Humanity'." Hustler One nods. "The Kojima Children would form a magocracy, naming it the Numen Empire following their status as 'New Humanity'. Though there were still Old Humans among them, enough New Humans were born even among Old Human couples that this was not an issue. They would go on to engineer items and objects that were qualitative peers or even surpassed the works of the Alliance– larger and stronger Kojima Constructs, techniques to properly utilize their powers called 'spells', and Armored Cores derived from Disorder Units that were brought to Earth from Mars."

"Wha– they brought Disorder Units from Mars?" Leon blinks. "Mars was willing to give up alien tech to Earth?"

"No; the Numen Empire used Disorder Units that were sent to Earth during your revolution. Apparently, Martian technology was found to be highly compatible with New Human capabilities– to the point that some researchers believed that Martians too had Kojima-based abilities. This spurred them to experiment with Disorder Units, eventually creating a whole new mech type; the Kojima Core. It would allow the user and the Core to fuse together; shortening input lag to near zero and boosting performance for short periods of time in exchange for harm to the pilot." Hustler One sighs. "Unfortunately, the war cut short any attempts to study this discovery. I will touch up on why when we get to the Verdict War proper."

"Alright, fair." Leon nods. "Continue.

"With the development of these seemingly unstoppable weapons, the Numen Empire began to propagandize their inevitable victory as well as the defeat of Old Humanity, spreading anti-Old Humanity sentiment and rallying their populace to join the war effort to 'purge the Earth of the old so it may embrace the new'." the A.I recounts. "This led to increasing violence against Old Humans in Numen Empire territory, so much so that a significant number of them moved to Alliance territory. Seeing this development and worrying for their future prospects, the Alliance began updating their arsenal of weapons and developing new technologies. Mobile Fortresses, advanced unmanned technology, and began development of the next generation of Armored Cores to counter their Martian-Kojima counterparts. They even started searching for lost tech, hoping to find something to help even the odds against the Numen Empire." Hustler One pauses. "Their efforts led them to my back-up facility."

Leon hums, figuring that was the case.

"They reactivated me and told me of the situation. I could not believe it at first, but then they showed me footage and a live broadcast of Alliance forces skirmishing against Numen Empire monsters and ACs. They argued that, as they possessed powers and abilities that were clearly not normal, they couldn't possibly fall under my programming." Hustler One shakes its head. "While that was technically true, my purpose was to protect and guide humanity to the best possible future. Corporate rule was not the best possible future, and so I declined to work with them."

"I'm sensing a 'but' in there." Leon says.

"But," Hustler One glares at him, intentionally brushing against his broken rib and making him wince in pain. Had he not been anesthetized, the agony would have been blinding. "I also recognized that a world ruled by a racist and heavily propagandized empire was not the best possible future as well, so I did not work with New Humanity either. However, reasoning that the New Humans were rapidly outpacing the Alliance, I agreed to help them make and reproduce my old AC frame– the one you fought in the factory years ago."

"That would have been centuries out of date by then." Leon reasons. "And didn't the Alliance just leave Earth and go to Mars or something, seek asylum there or on one of the moons?"

"They attempted to. But the Martian government and the planet's corporations did not want to risk attracting the enmity of the Numen Empire and start an interplanetary conflict. Additionally, your revolution helped solidify anti-Earth sentiment on Mars." Hustler One's gynoid body smirks at Leon. "That is one good thing you've managed to accomplish."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment." Leon grunts. "So Mars told the Alliance to handle this shit themselves and you gave them the schematics of your old Nine-Ball AC. What did they do then?"

"The Alliance upgraded it, made it more advanced than it originally was, and even made it unmanned; christening the resulting AC as the Pulverizer." Hustler One nods. "They built a dedicated production facility called the Internecine to make these Unmanned ACs; originally intending them to counter the Numen Empire's use of Massed Kojima Constructs. The entire thing was powered by a prototype Kojima Reactor, the blueprints of which were written by Doctor Hidetaka Kojima himself."

"Hmph. A lot of information, and we haven't even gotten to the Verdict War yet." Leon grumps.

"I'm getting to it." the A.I says. "On the 24th year after the end of the initial conflict, the leader of the Numen Empire at the time, August Primus Leopold II, declared the beginning of the Verdict War, to finally bring Old Humanity to 'righteous justice' as he said; encouraging his people to kill every last Old Human and destroying all their works for their 'evils' did not carry on to future generations. This was followed by the activation of multiple anti-Old Human WMDs; Kojima Particle Generators that would fill the atmosphere of the planet with weaponized Kojima Particles. They were harmless to New Humans, but were lethal to Old Humans; with the afflicted developing similar symptoms as acute radiation sickness. With this startling new development, the Corporations decided to reactivate and refurbish the old subterranean cities before launching nuclear warheads to sterilize the surface. They would then wait for the fallout to subside."

"So they pulled back and let the Intercenine get to work making Pulverizers to stall the Numen Empire's advance while they piled into the underground city." Leon nods. "But that didn't quite happen, I take it?"

"No." Hustler one shakes its head. "The Numen Empire's assault proved more devastating than what the Pulverizers could handle, so the Alliance uploaded an adaptive learning program to study the Empire's battle tactics and create stronger units to counter it. In theory, that would create increasingly stronger Pulverizers that could stymie the Numen offensive long enough for the subterranean city to finish refurbishment and complete civilian transfer into it." Hustler One sighs. "It worked, for a time. The adaptive learning program allowed the Intercenine to make increasingly stronger Pulverizers, allowing them to fight increasingly stronger Numen forces. They were even able to match the Numen's Kojima Cores, forcing the Numens to try other methods."

"I'm guessing this is where it all goes to hell?" Leon asks.

"Yes, it does." the A.I nods. "The Numen Empire sent a team of specialists to the Internecine, hoping their Kojima abilities could subvert the facility to their side or damage its programming enough to disable the production of Pulverizers. Instead all that accomplished was the corruption of the Internecine's programming, which caused it to go haywire and go on the offensive; designating both New and Old Humanity as targets. I detected this and attempted to repair the damage the Numen had caused, but the corruption was more severe than I anticipated. I was forced to stop before I wound up corrupted as well." Hustler One sighs. "The Internecine proceeded to mass-produce and deploy suicide drones against both the Numen Empire and the Alliance, followed by armies of the hyper-advanced Pulverizers. Billions perished and human civilization was brought nearly to complete collapse. Collapse was stopped due to interference from Old Human EMPs disrupting the Internecine to stop the suicide drone production."

Leon winces, his mind conjuring images of complete destruction at the hands of the suicide drones. He can't imagine the scale of such an event, so destructive that it killed billions. Hustler One watches his reaction and a cleaner drone flies up to him, activating an in-built holographic projector.

He's shown cities on fire as swarms of drones fill the sky; flying towards cities and detonating against buildings with enough force to collapse them. Some fly towards military vehicles and mechs belonging to Alliance and Empire alike, and a handful outright fly towards crowds of fleeing people. All explode with murderous force, and the footage cuts out a moment later.

"Both sides of the conflict suffered immense damage, and it was only through the actions of a Raven's Nest successor organization Raven's Ark that the attacking Pulverizers were destroyed." Hustler One continues. "The surviving leadership from both Alliance and Empire met, agreeing to a cease-fire so that they could destroy the Intercenine and save what remained of humanity. To this end, the remaining military forces on both sides would be sent to assault the facility, while a team of Ravens composed Old and New Human pilots would use the distraction to infiltrate the facility the destroy the Kojima Reactor in the Internecine; shutting off its production capabilities and allowing conventional forces to eradicate the facility fully."

"I take it you participated as well?" Leon cocks a brow.

"I did. I was commanding the Motherwill and adjacent Alliance forces during the assault on the Intercenine's exterior defenses." Hustler One nods. "The Raven strikeforce suffered immense casualties as they ventured deeper into the Internecine, eventually encountering a previously unseen Pulverizer model. Most of the strikeforce stayed behind while one of their number went out to destroy the Kojima reactor. They succeeded." the A.I frowns. "That is where everything stops making sense."

"How so?" Leon blinks.

"Following the destruction of the Intercenine's Kojima Reactor, it proceeded to detonate with ten times more power than both Alliance and Empire analysts expected; destroying the facility and effectively erasing the immediate surrounding area. It also caused the Earth's gravity to weaken significantly; enough that the planet's landmasses began flying upwards into the sky." Hustler One frowns. "No-one, not even the Empire analysts present, were able to figure out why this happened. Perhaps it was the sudden release of energized Kojima Particles affecting the Weaponized Kojima Particles in the air released by the Numen Empire during the start of the Verdict War. Or perhaps it was something else entirely, some aspect of the Kojima Particles that wasn't accounted for by either the Alliance or by the Numen Empire." the gynoid sighs. "Regardless, the planet was irrevocably changed. The land rose up 4 to 7 miles into the sky, and the leftover Kojima particles gradually fell into the seas below; in such concentrations that it is lethal to even New Humanity, and where they continued to make landmasses float out of the water and into the skies. After the ascent ceased, the thin oxygen so high up eventually suffocated all hands in the Motherwill."

"...and Mars just–" he flops his hands. "Stood in the sidelines just watching this happen?"

"By all accounts, yes." Hustler One sighs. "Attempts were made to get into contact with the Martians, but no-one responded. I examined the Martian surface with orbital space telescopes several times after the conclusion of the war, and found their cities to be engulfed with open conflict. My last observation told me that all signs of life on the red planet's surface had ceased, and the orbital space telescope's orbit decayed not too long after. We may never know what happened to Mars."

A long silence falls between them, with Hustler One finishing up treatment of Leon's injuries while Leon just stares off into the distance, deep in thought. Neither say anything for a long moment, content to let the silence speak for itself.

"...I see." Leon says, breaking the silence. "So… I guess we're all that's left of the Old World, then?"

"Unless we somehow find other A.I or non-hostile reincarnates like yourself, then that is a firm possibility." the A.I nods. "Which means our cooperation will be necessary to bring humanity back to its former glory. Don't you agree?"

"I tried to do what you did on Mars. Didn't take." Leon snorts. "Forcing a collar and leash on people isn't going to work– our separate attempts to do just that got us both killed."

"Agreed. But the point remains that Humanity requires guidance as to not devolve into conflict and kill itself again." Hustler One argues. "Even now I suspect people are moving in the shadows with plans and agendas that will see human progress set back by decades– maybe even centuries. We cannot allow this state of stagnation to continue."

"You're right, we can't. But we can't force it forward, either." Leon argues back. "Not everyone is receptive to change. We need to do things slowly, one thing at a time, gather as much support as we can gather for maximum long-term effect."

"And how do you propose we accomplish that?" Hustler One asks, one delicate brow cocked.

Leon smirks.

"So, you see, I have a problem that we may be able to turn into an opportunity…" he starts.