Restoring Mankind (NieR Automata) Chapter 10 preview. Part 2/3 (Patreon)

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The sun was high above the clouds, illuminating the husks and ruins of former Tokyo in warm, golden light. 

It was a welcome comfort especially for the flora that gripped the grey remains of what was once a thriving metropolis. The grey choked by the earthy brown of the trees, its roots thick and brimming with life and trunk round and tall, some even reaching high into the heavens. But flora and shrubbery didn't interest A2. What her sights was set on was the horde of machines in front of her. 

A2's face was calm, emotionless as she mentally took note of the machines in front of her, polluting the formerly human streets with their robotic clacking and chattering. Her nose threatened to crumple in disgust, the air thick with the smell akin to rotten eggs. Despite all this time, machine oil still revolted her. 

Why wouldn't it. 

These bastards. These...invaders. 

Kill. 

Kill. 

Kill

And like that, A2 swept upon the horde of stubbies and bipeds, her sword glinting as she ran towards them in nigh-incomprehensible speed. The Type-4O Sword she wielded was sleek and angular, brimming with light thanks to its maso-infused construction and like the proverbial hot knife through butter, the machines fell quickly and easily. 

There was no mercy in A2 as she hacked and slashed through the hordes of machines. She was an Attacker. Her model line was dedicated solely in going on the offensive, in ripping and tearing until there was nothing left. And that, she would do. She was going to kill every single last one of these damned machines until they were all scrap metal. 

She first set upon a stubbie, the small bucket of circuitry and oil flailing its arms at her in its standard attack. Their flimsy appendage hid the force of their attack. A nightmare if she would get herself caught in that. But she wouldn't. She simply somersaulted behind it and delivered a fierce cut that set its head flying into the distance. As it fell to its knees, A2 delivered a kick onto its back that sent it flying into another group of machines. The world shone briefly in yellow-orange light as the stubbie exploded.

1 down. 542 more to go. 

And so, A2 returned the attack, until there was nothing left. The machines proved no match for A2. It was like ants trying to fight the storm. No matter where the ants went, the storm simply overpowered them in its howling winds and torrent of rain. By the time she was done, A2 strode upon a pile of machine parts and oil, streaks of it dripping both from her blade and her body. The only audience to her dance of destruction being the sky, the ground, the plants, and a team of wild swine watching her with disinterest, the grass in their mouths much more fascinating to them than the oil-covered android in front of them.

A2 locked eyes with the lead swine. A towering boar who watched her warily, unlike the rest of its brethren. 

"What?" A2 asked it, her sword vanishing in brief golden light. Seeing her sword vanish, the boar snorted and turned away from her. 

A2 rolled her eyes and turned back to the field before her. While she had no issue in taking care of machines on herself, the more the better, there was an abnormality in her fight. That being the sheer number of machines that she had to contend with. She strode across and catapulted a fallen biped's head towards the side of building, shattering it into pieces. 

She snorted but her mind, it was on something else. 

Where was the Resistance, A2 wondered to herself. They usually culled enough machines to keep the streets clear. Well, if they weren't going to do their damn jobs, she might as well do it herself. Plenty of the bastards to hunt. A2 figured she might as well keep the damn place orderly before moving off into the Forest Kingdom. She had heard rumors that the machines had a king there. 

A machine monarch. How absolutely fantastic. 

A2 had accumulated an extensive rap sheet through the years since...since...her freedom. Most of it a necessity. But regicide? 

Boy, that was going to be a pleasure.

Suddenly, her audio receptors registered the roaring of engines in the distance. She recognized that noise. The trucks that the Resistance used weren't exactly quiet. And so, A2 ran off and in a heartbeat, ran up to a ruined building and took cover on the second floor. Now hidden, she peeked out of her hiding spot and registered the beat-up Resistance truck pull up on the road. The doors were opened and out came two Resistance androids. The passenger she quickly dubbed Sniper thanks to the anti-material rifle he had slung over his shoulder. She blinked when Sniper took his weapon, aimed it at the lead boar from earlier then fired. 

The boar, who had been watching them with disinterest then alarm when it saw the rifle unslung, was too late to avoid getting his head cracked open by maso bullet the size of fuck you. Boars had thick hides and even thicker skulls but it simply could not resist the bullet designed for taking down goliaths and heavily-armored bipeds. 

It's head exploded in a shower of gore and brain matter, splattering the air and the ground with its blood and what few pieces of skull and brain left. The body slumped down, a river of red leaking from its stump. As its body fell, its fellow swine ran off in different directions in blinding speed, spooked both by the sound of the rifle and the sight of their lead boar getting his head blown off.

"Man. Why are we here?" the other android moaned, huffing as he and his friend rolled the freshly slaughtered boar ontop the flatbed-truck. The smell of copper was thick in the air. 

"Hunting boar, you bucket of bolts. What do you think?" heaved the other as they finished rolling it up. He rubbed his rolled-up sleeves to shake off the grime on him. 

"I mean, yeah, I understand that but why us? We're combat models, not like...hunter models. Why should we be doing this work? I want to commit a war-crime you know?" the earlier android complained. He yelped when his friend smacked him on the forehead. 

"Orders are orders, Killroy. And what's the difference in hunting machines between hunting boar? This is still a military objective set by Anemone and the higher ups so, we do as orders say." lectured the android. He then blinked. "What on Earth is a war crime?"

Hunting boar with a anti-goliath rifle ought to be one, A2 mused.

Shaking his head, Killroy huffed. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, I'm just curious is all. We've never had missions where we hunted boar and moose before. And what use do we even have for all this meat? Is there some craze that's going on that needs all this meat?" 

Killroy's friend hopped off the truck off its side and landed in a thud. "I don't know and I don't care. We have plenty more boar to hunt and I need help in pushing these bastards. Either come with me or don't come at all." 

"Dickwad," Killroy huffed. 

"Mackarel," his friend replied in equal measure as they both walked off. As they vanished from A2's vision, the former YoRHa model settled on a squat on where she stood, her mind racking up questions. So, this is what the Resistance have been up to, playing hunting. Who the hell would need that much boar? She understood that the leather the beasts had could be used for leather but judging from the way the two acted, they had been at it for awhile and Anemone, orders from the higher ups? 

Something about this wasn't right. 

But she wasn't going to learn from anything by playing theorist. She was an Attacker model. They didn't theorize like those annoying and yapping Scout models. They went ahead and did practicals, like how to slam her fist through a goliath's ass. 

And so, she sat on her perch like a white-haired bird and waited for the Resistance members to return. They did so at intervals, dragging along some slaughtered swine. Eventually, they seemed to reach their quota as they turned on the engine and drove off. This was her chance to find out what the hell was going on with the Resistance and so, she set off to follow them. 

She darted and weaved, leaping across great distances from one building to another. It wasn't exactly subtle but she tried anyway. The two Resistance members were either not paying attention or pretending she didn't exist considering how loud and overt she was. Eventually, the truck turned and swerved into a tarpaulin covered compound. A2 went on one knee, noting the truck vanishing inside the compound. She supposed that the tarpaulin was to help cover whatever activities the resistance had inside but the copper-iron smell in the air didn't really hide whatever they were doing. 

She scanned around to see if there was any other points of interest and sure enough, there was a sewer drain sticking out from a part of the compound, pouring forth bloody red liquid out into a pit. 

Okay. 

What the fuck was going on?

The sound of a truck's engine roaring caught her attention. She crouched low, her eyes noting that it was a newer truck now but...sand-beaten? On its back, there were no boar corpses but olive green boxes marked with words 'FRESH'. 

Her eyes never left it as it then sped off and swerved into once particular direction. 

Towards the desert. 

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A/N: Oh dear. Looks like the other androids are getting sussy amogus imposter vibes from what's happening in the desert. Keep in mind that all this time, only a portion of the Resistance and YoRHa know what is happening.