A couple of days later, the cyborgs were notified that the army had finally gotten the location of two of the Taucets’ colonies and that they would attack them as soon as they could.
“What about all the people they enslaved? Aren’t they in those colonies? What will happen to them in case of an attack?” Rafaroy asked, with a deep frown.
General Foster looked at him with so much hatred, Rafaroy was sure he would have killed him right there and then if he could.
“Like I said, a few days ago, some casualties are expected in a war. Destroying the Taucets’ colony is far more important than saving the lives of possible hostages. As far as we know, there shouldn’t be that many humans held prisoner in the colonies. We have no information on that,” the man replied, in a brittle tone.
Rafaroy knew the general had been fighting to have a chip implanted in the cyborgs that would suppress their compassion and sense of right and wrong, turning them into simple killing machines. But so far, he hadn't been able to convince the government that the cyborgs wouldn’t become too dangerous to handle if they did that.
Rafaroy shook his head, hating the whole situation, though he knew there wasn’t much he could do. He would have to attack the colony, following the general’s orders and all he could hope for was to have the least possible amount of casualties.
“We’ll be leaving for the area in the morning, and we’ll attack as soon as we can,” General Foster continued. “Your orders are to exterminate as many Taucets you can. Don’t take prisoners.”
The men assembled nodded, but Rafaroy knew none was too happy with the orders. They knew there were females and children in those colonies, but like always, they could leave those for the human soldiers to deal with. Unless they were attacked, no cyborg would kill an unarmed woman or child. General Foster should know better than that.
They were deployed that same day to an area near one of the colonies, located on the top of the Rocky Mountains.
It was very cold, but cyborgs were prepared to face extreme temperatures, so the cold didn’t affect them. The human soldiers didn’t have the same ability, and the cold had them ill-tempered and grumpy.
They were finally ordered to attack and using a few vessels and tanks they headed to the colony, destroying all on their way.
The Taucets were too careless. Though the colony was surrounded by tall, thick walls, they didn’t have that many guards outside the walls, to give the alert in case of an attack. They were too confident they wouldn’t be found in that location.
It was quite easy to enter the colony, destroying the thick walls and all of their security systems.
The minute they entered the colony, Rafaroy sensed the presence of Khajal. It made him happy to confirm his friend was alright, but he wished he was far from the battle happening in that place. The last thing he wanted was for his friend to be captured by the humans again.
Unlike what General Foster had said, the place was crowded with human prisoners, especially women. Rafaroy used the cyborgs’ secret channel to warn his friends about it, but the whole situation was a mess.
At some point, Khajal’s voice reached him through that same channel. “Raf, there are hundreds, if not thousands of human females, held prisoners here,” his friend warned him.
“Khajal, you old bastard, what the hell are you still doing here?” Rafaroy snarled at him.
“That’s not important. You need to blast all the Taucet’s systems, or you’ll kill the females when you try to take them out of here.” Khajal added. “They have implanted a system that will kill them if their exit is detected.”
“Very well, I’ll forward the information. Now, get out of here. There’s a high price on your head, and humans are fighting here with us,” he warned his friend worried he would be captured. Though he was announced dead, Rafaroy had heard some human soldiers talking about the price the government had put on Khajal’s head. They wanted him dead or alive.
“I’m leaving. Make sure to destroy this place to the ground. And if you can, try to escape. I’ll be around for a while, in case you make it. The codes still work,” Khajal advised him.
“Copied that. I’ll do all in my power, believe me.” He assured his friend, as he walked through the hallways of the colony killing as many Taucets as he could.
“Good luck my friend,” Khajal told him before he went silent.
Rafaroy informed his friends about Khajal’s presence in the colony and went on with his work, taking down as many Taucets as he could and freeing the human slaves incarcerated in the place, directing them off the premises, through the walls they had destroyed. There was a convoy there waiting to take care of them, or so he hoped. By then, he wasn’t sure of anything, regarding the humans’ interests.
At some point, he reached an area that seemed mainly occupied by humans, and he heard some human soldiers somewhere nearby gathering the women to take them out of there. Judging by the screams and yells, they weren’t acting very friendly, and Rafaroy headed that way, to put some order into it, when he saw a blonde woman, wearing some sort of jumpsuit sneaking out of the colony. She was heading the opposite direction, right into the middle of the conflict, judging by the sounds coming from outside.
With a sigh, he followed her and quickly grabbed her. “It’s not safe for you to get outside.” he snarled in her ear.
She struggled to escape his grip to no use before she turned to look at him. “I just want to get home. Let me go,” she said, struggling harder.
“It’s not safe,” he insisted, tightening his grip on her. Suddenly, a scent filled his nostrils, and he froze, flaring his nostrils and sniffing the air.
“I know this place better than you,” she assured him.
It was Khajal’s scent. The woman stank of his friend. “You’ve been with Khajal.” The woman froze in his arms, for a few moments.
“I have no idea what you are talking about. Let me go. I’m not the enemy,” she protested, struggling harder to get free.
“His scent is all over you, female. There’s no use lying to me.” He insisted, tightening his grip.
Another couple of blasts sounded near them, and the whole structure quivered under the attack.
“If you’re talking about the cyborg, then yes, I was given to him, while he was here. But he left the colony a couple of days ago,” she assured him, and if Rafaroy hadn’t talked to his friend just minutes ago, he would have believed her.
Astonished, he stared at her, having trouble to believe this woman was protecting his friend, a cyborg she was given to as a slave. “Are you sure, female? Because I can still sense him here,” he said with a mocking grin.
“Then your sensors are malfunctioning,” She insisted, in a defiantly, still trying to free herself from his grip.
Another blast sounded even closer, and she looked at him with a deep frown. “Don’t you think we should leave this conversation for some other time?” she grumbled. “I’m sure your friends need your help fighting the Taucets, and I really would like to get somewhere safe, if you don’t mind.” She added, her rage evident in every single word.
He had to make an effort to hide the wide smile struggling to crack his face. The little woman was fierce. “I can’t let you go. It’s too dangerous,” He insisted, nonetheless. If she was with Khajal, he needed to make sure she was safe.
“I’m sure there’s more danger for me with you guys than by myself. Now, let me go, damn it.” She yelled at him, tugging harder.
He pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear. “Are you going to meet Khajal?” he asked, printing every word with the urgency the situation merited.
“Even if I was, and I’m not saying I am, why the hell you think I would tell you that?” she replied, through gritted teeth.
Once more, he was amazed by the way she protected Khajal, even when he wasn’t around to see it. He had never seen any human act that way towards a cyborg. “Because he’s my friend and I want to be sure he’s alright,” he said, in a stern tone.
“And why should I believe you? I have no idea who the hell you are and I sure as hell won’t trust you,” she snarled at him, clearly unwilling to give him any information that might endanger Khajal.
“I’m your best chance at getting out of here,” he assured her.
Rafaroy realized he had bumped into the reason Khajal had stayed so long at the colony. For some reason, beyond his understanding, his friend had gotten involved with a human female. He sent a message out to his friend. “I believe I bumped into your woman,” he informed, in a mocking tone.
The snarl that came across their private channel almost deafened him. “Don’t you dare harm her.”
“Easy boy... I knew she was yours since the first moment. She stinks to you,” he mocked his friend. “She’s trying to get outside the facilities where we are.”
“Let her go, she’s following my instructions,” Khajal said, sounding a bit more calm.
“Should I go with her? This place is a maddening chaos.”
“It’s too dangerous, they could be tracking you, and I don’t want them close to me,” Khajal warned his friend.
A bomb exploded too close to where they were. Looking around, Rafaroy pulled her out of there, through the nearest door, looking for a safer place, as an idea started forming in his mind. “Khajal, this is my opportunity to escape. Can I trust your human? Do you think she can help me deactivate my control system?”
There was a silence on the line for a few seconds, before his friend replied. “Do you remember all of the codes?” he finally asked him.
“Of course I do.” Those codes were engraved in his memory.
“Then, ask her to help you access your control system. Tell her I’ll be waiting for her at the rendezvous point we agreed upon,” Khajal said.
“How she will know she can trust me?” Rafaroy asked, considering how suspicious and distrustful the woman was. He dragged her after him, still looking for a safe place amongst the chaos surrounding them.
“Tell her you know I’ve been licking her code bar to make it fade away. She will know you’ve been in touch with me,” he told his friend. “Get to it. I want to leave this place as soon as possible.”
“Sure thing,” he replied, frowning. What the hell did his friend mean by that? But it wasn’t the moment to think about that. He finally reached a small corner, hidden between two of the igloos. “Listen, I need your help. I’ve just spoken with Khajal, and he told me I could trust you to help me.”
“Yeah, sure, of course, you did,” she replied scornfully.
“We have private communication channels, that allow us to talk when we’re close enough,” Rafaroy explained. “But I was expecting your reaction, so I asked Khajal for something only he would know. He told me to tell you about the way he has been licking your code bar to make it fade away.”
Startled, she looked at him, for a few moments before she gave him an answer. “Very well, what do you need from me?” she asked.
He pulled a sharp knife from his armor and handed it to her. “I need you to access my control system. We’re programmed in a way that prevents us from accessing to it by ourselves,” he explained.
“You want me to cut you open?” she said, horrified.
“It’s the only way. With it open, I’ll be able to reprogram my system and free myself from the humans’ control,” he told her, urging her to do it.
She looked at him and at the knife still doubting, but another blast near them seemed to be enough for her to make a decision. “Very well, show me where, exactly.”
He pointed to the area, and a few moments later, she was running the knife across his skin, forming a frame and exposing a small control panel.
“That’s it, thank you,” he said, through gritted teeth, as pain rushed through his body. That area was extremely sensitive, another thing humans had developed to stop cyborgs from even trying to access it. It felt as if he had his guts out and not only a small square of skin.
She handed him the knife. “You’re welcome. I have to go now. Take care,” she said before she turned away.
“You too.”
Once she was gone, he leaned against the wall behind him, closing his eyes for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath. When he was finally able to deal with the searing pain he was experiencing, he took his hand to the control panel. Breathing hard, he pressed the numbers one by one and waited.
“Main programming system activated, please state your commands.” A robotic voice sounded, and he almost let out a shout of rejoicing.
“Deactivate command 7789 at once,” he stated, deactivating the command that forced him to fight the Taucets no matter what.
“This command requires a password to be executed. Please state the password.”
He stated the password and the response came back immediately.
“Command deactivated.”
With a huge smile on his face, he proceeded to deactivate all commands that subjugated his will to the humans. In a matter of minutes, he was a free cyborg. All he had to do now was to escape, using the reigning chaos to leave the colony unseen.
Placing the patch of skin in its place, he waited a few more seconds for his nanocybots to start working on the wound and straightened up.
He still heard blasts all over the place, so he figured it was the right moment to escape. I was about to leave when a message from Khajal reached him.
“These are the coordinates of a rendezvous place, not far from here. The free cyborgs will be picking me up there in a few days. If you manage to escape, try to meet us there.” He transmitted the GPS coordinates and ended the message.
Rafaroy smiled pleased and left his hideout.