The preparations for the trip took longer than Ticia expected.

There was the need to justify her departure from Borkian territory to Phillian, which, as you might expect, encountered a lot of opposition. This reminded Ticia how much she and her daughters were considered trophies rather than soldiers by the Borkian elite…

The problem was solved when the president of the Borkian Confederation held a press conference in which he announced the expedition in the name of ‘cooperation between our two powerful states’. This sounded a lot like an excuse and political bullshit to Ticia and Rika though. There was no doubt for them that the Phillians had pressured the Borkian government once she had accepted the empress's offer.

Not even their ‘secret leader’ objected, which proved to Ticia that they had agreed to that person’s proposition in the end too…

On their side, Ticia had pushed for Nathalia to act as her transport, which had been accepted. Ticia would reach her destination escorted by the newly promoted captain, who now commanded a flotilla of frigates at the head of her own destroyer.

The same number of clones as in the last clone installation exploration would accompany her. At first she had wanted to leave ten more clones behind as she had heard the difficulties encountered by the ECGs from Rika, but Atrax-ia convinced her otherwise. Her newly gained AI instead set up a security system to guard the place from any intrusion, which proved effective and relieved Rika's tension on the matter.

The trip to her destination would take more than a month even if they hastened their pace. Ticia once again felt sad about parting with her daughters, but decided to carry on. Her thirst for answers as well as the silent pressure from the two AIs forced her to move.

Her daughters also reassured her that everything would be fine. They worried a bit about the virus, but Nicia declared that she would do some research on the virus with the help of Atrax-ia. She even recruited the help of Mia in the process. Both girls seemed fired up, which made both Ticia and Rika smile at the time.

Other than that, some members of their factions had expressed some worries, but were quickly reassured to learn that Rika would stay at the academy and only the clones would go.

And so, Ticia embarked on her expedition accompanied by her daughters. For this expedition, Bronz, Fana and Jinxy would be part of the party. The two former had experience in exploring a clone installation, having explored CI26 with Ticia before, the latter on the other hand, joined the group as a result of her strong intent to join them as well as the fact that she had become Ticia’s bodyguard. Vinia pouted for a bit though, which had caused a bit of conflict for the ECG that was quickly solved once the Null CG wished her good luck, more happy than sad.

The trip towards their destination had been uneventful. Ticia spent most of her time with her daughters or with Nathalia. She enjoyed small talks with the latter, and joined her on drinks from time to time.

All in all, there was quite a laid back atmosphere, which eased Ticia's tension about this whole trip.

At the frontier between the confederation and the empire, they met with a small escort who accompanied them towards their destination. There wasn’t much talk between them but rather a small tension, but the escort delegation did not mistreat them or try to provoke them, which proved to Ticia that this cooperation was not a trap, but rather a true attempt at cooperation. In fact, had she been welcomed with open arms, Ticia would have been more suspicious…

As she waited in the landing craft, Ticia thought about her objective.

The message she had been given was supposedly written by the empress herself, in which she declared having recently found a structure of unprecedented size. From their own knowledge, they associated the structure with a clone installation: CI 2005…. This was confirmed by Atrax-ia, as well as A-4’s map. On the map of the latter though, the installation was represented with a red dot, which was never a good sign. Still, since Atrax-ia herself had been represented with a red dot, Ticia decided it was worth a try.

The empress also expressed her sadness over the fact that she would not be able to meet Ticia and explore the installation herself due to her duties, but reassured she had sent her most trustful confidant to accompany her. This in itself was no surprise to Ticia, who never expected to meet the empress in the first place. Still, if what she said was not lip service, it proved how much the empress was interested in Ticia…

The empress was a mysterious figure… Unlike previous monarchs, she did not show herself to the public and no photos of her existed. Ticia had absolutely no idea what she looked like, nor had Rika or the two AIs, for that matter…

Clone Installation 2005 was located not far from the Borkian frontier, on Bolsva 5 in the Bolsva system. According to the information she had been given and what Rebot-ia had verified for her, Bolsva 5 was a very cold planet. The location of the clone installation itself was within a freezing zone and from what Rebot-ia had reported, a blizzard was currently occurring.

The weather’s so cold over there that if not for my armored skinsuit’s temperature control, I wouldn’t even dare go outside…

Despite some worries over the weather, the landing occurred without any major issues. Ticia soon stepped down from the landing craft, followed by her daughters. The first thing they could see was… nothing much, the blizzard was so strong that they couldn’t see far even with their helmet on...

As Ticia was about to ask Rebot-ia for some information about where to meet the Phillian delegation, a silhouette appeared in her range of vision.

“Are you the clones?” The silhouette asked from afar in a voice that sounded like someone had taken helium, revealing its identity by doing so. It was an AI in control of a humanoid body.

Ticia was not surprised by the sight of the struggling AI, but frowned. She’d never seen this model before…

“That’s a UFG’s low level AI. How odd, even when I was still active, those were being decommissioned for being too dumb…” Rebot-ia commented from the side.

If so, then it’s an old model. Ticia thought to herself. Atrax-ia’s right, seems like the Techno-Empire of Phillio truly is the remnants of the AI faction…  

While raising their guard, Ticia and her daughters approached the robot.

“We are the clones.” She declared.

“Ah, good. for a moment I thought the commander was punishing me for commenting on her chest. It’s nonexistent compared to yours.” The robot sighed in relief, though his words only made Ticia look at the robot with a weirded out expression. What did that tin can just say?

“If so, that’s good! Welcome, clone force!” Completely unaware of the situation, the robot raised a hand for a handshake, though Ticia did not take it. The AI awkwardly removed its hand. “Uhm, no handshake, that’s kind of rude, but I get it.”

“Yeaaaah... That’s why they got retired from service...” Rebot-ia commented, sighing at the stupidity of those AIs, though only Ticia could hear her.

“Then, let’s move to where the commander is staying, she has a lot to say to you.” The robot turned, and began moving. “Uhm, I believe it’s in that direction? My orientation processors are a bit rusty…”

““...”” Ticia and her daughters stared at the robot with bafflement.

“Mother, are we supposed to follow…that thing?” Bronz asked, rejection towards the robot clear in her voice. Looking around, the rejection of the robot by the ECGs was clear from the body language of the clones. Ticia did not know whether this was due to the implanted knowledge or because the first impression the robot left was that bad…

“For now, we’ll follow him. Rebot-ia will notice us if something’s wrong.” Ticia decided, before following the robot. Her daughters nodded and followed soon after.

They walked for a while like this without anything appearing in sight. It was only once the ECGs were beginning to feel like the robot was leading them in circles that a structure finally appeared in the distance…

The robot hastened his pace once he saw the building, forcing Ticia and her daughters to run after it.

Are we being escorted or just tracking that stupid tin can!?

Once reaching the door, the robot slammed it open and declared.

“Commander! I have located the clones and brought them ba-ouch!”

The robot received a piece of metal to its face as it entered, a human voice yelling at him.

“You stupid idiot! Don’t just barge in like that after going missing for half an hour!”

“B-but commander! You told me it would only be a ten minute walk!” The robot protested.

“Because it was!” The woman yelled back, before sighing. “Let me guess, you got lost because your orientation modules are frozen…”

“I wasn’t lost. I merely took a longer path to, uhm, see how beautiful it was outside.”

“As if.” The woman rolled her eyes, well aware there was nothing to ‘sightsee’ outside. “Just go back to your post and wait for further orders.”

“Roger roger.” With those words, the robot saluted and joined up with other robots, who immediately joked at him. They began to quarrel in the background after that…

Ticia looked at the woman. She seemed around her age and had long red hair neatly arranged with two braids on the side joining at the back and one more alongside her flowing long red hair. She was also on the short side.

What caught Ticia’s attention however was not the woman’s hair, nor her nonexistent chest, like the robot had commented, but rather her eyes. They weren’t humans…

Star shaped pupils surrounded by a multicolored iris… Ticia had never seen eyes like that…

“Oh, pardon me for my rudeness, I should have come and welcomed you myself.” The woman made eye contact with Ticia and excused herself. She bowed.

“My name is  Baroness Laura Irm. I am the empress’s representative for this mission. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” As if the scene from before had never happened, Laura showed a refined ladylike attitude, smiling at Ticia.

“...I am Ticia.” Ticia replied shortly, still intrigued by the woman’s eyes. She knew the techno-empire of Phillio was renowned for its cybernetic implants, but this was the first time she saw one this special…

“Shall we discuss further inside?” Laura suggested with a smile. “As you can see, I am not currently wearing my battle gear, so the weather outside is affecting me.”

Ticia simply nodded once she saw the woman shivering. She made a sign to her daughters, and they all entered inside.

As she walked, Laura talked about the robots.

“I am truly sorry about that. Those robots are a bit… quirky sometimes... But other than that, they’re reliable. Those you see here are part of the ‘Empress’s Own’ division, which takes orders directly from her majesty.”

“I see.” Ticia simply said. Were those robots as 'trusty' as Laura claimed them to be? She had doubts about it, but the empress wouldn’t put them in her personal guard just because she liked their personalities… right?

Laura guided Ticia further into a second room that had an old fireplace lit up. The place appeared cozy with its couches and old decorations. Laura sat on one of the couches near the fireplace while a number of robots of the same model as the one she had met before worked in the background. Ticia sat on a couch opposite to her. Since the place was warm and she had received a warm welcome from the woman, she decided to remove her helmet as a side of goodwill. Fana and Bronz did the same.

“Oh my…” Laura froze for a moment, putting her hand in front of her mouth.

“Is something wrong?” Ticia asked, but Laura shook her head with a smile.

“No, nothing is wrong. I was just admiring the beauty of you and your daughters…” 

“...” Ticia did not know how to answer this.

I mean, is there a need to focus on this point? I know my daughters take after me and I’m proud of it.

Something else did catch her attention though. Laura hadn’t called her a clone. Not only that, she called the clones ‘her daughters’, which meant she knew Ticia herself was not a clone.

“...Is that so? Thank you for the compliment, you are quite beautiful yourself.” Ticia answered after a brief silence with a smile, paying lip service back with lip service.

“Ufufu, thank you.” Laura lightly giggled, before her face turned serious. “Then, let’s stop the pleasantries there and jump straight to the point.”

Ticia was a bit surprised by the sudden change. She had heard that Phillian officials liked to hear praises, but it seemed like the person in front of her wasn’t like that.

“Before talking about the installation, I would like to ask whether any incidents happened on your way here.” Laura asked.

“Why?” Ticia asked. “Don’t you trust your own side?”

“Well, it’s complicated.” Laura smiled bitterly. “Have you seen any other people here?”

“Aside from the tin cans? No.” Ticia shook her head. Her way of calling the robots made Laura laugh.

“That’s because I’m the only human here right now.” Laura confessed. “I believe you already know about her majesty’s siblings?”

“Yes.” Ticia nodded, her gaze sharpening as she remembered the pirate incident. Laura nodded back.

“Very good. As a sign of goodwill from our part, I’ll inform you of the current state of politics within our empire. Currently, the empress is facing strong opposition from her half siblings, and it’ll soon become an armed conflict.”

“...” Ticia’s eyebrows slightly raised at this. 

In other words, another civil war is about to break out?

“This conflict is due to two main reasons.” Laura continued. “You see, our empire’s monarchic system follows closely feudalistic ones with some slight differences. There is the right of blood when it comes to inheritance, but our ancestors insisted that what came first and foremost are skills and competences. To us who are obsessed over technology, that means achieving any sort of advancement in technology, or something equivalent, like having a certain set of skills in a specific domain.”

“I see.” Ticia nodded. “In other words, your system grants titles to those who achieve technological progress.”

“Yes.” Laura nodded. “You receive a title according to the achievement you’ve made. Only the ranks of duke and higher are reserved to members of the royal family. By the way, my achievement was putting those old robots back into service.” She said with a smile… that nearly faltered as she saw one robot with the head of another one in his hand, the one without head struggled to get back his head while the other laughed. He immediately panicked when he realized Laura was looking at him though, and hastily put the head back into place…facing the wrong side…

“W-well, as you can see, there’s still some progress to be made.” She said to Ticia with a somewhat forced smile. Ticia could see a vein popping up on her forehead, and she could easily guess why. The robots tried to befriend the ECGs behind her, but it seemed they had already pissed them off and received the cold treatment from them.

“Anyway, getting back on track. The empress is facing opposition from the ‘pure blood’ nobles.” Laura said with a serious look. “As time passed, the number of nobles who inherited their titles grew and they became obsessed with lineage. Now they’re pushing for the royal family to do the same.”

“By that, you mean?” Ticia tilted her head.

“The emperor's position has always been chosen from the best genius of the royal family, even if that person’s parent is a commoner with no inch of noble blood. The pure blood nobles are pushing for this law to be abolished in favor of a primogeniture system and limiting the number of women within the royal harem. Their cause has only been bolstered by the selection of the current empress.”

“Why?” Ticia asked. I don’t know much about the empire, but is causing a crisis within your state really the best way to achieve your goals?

“Well, their argument is the way the current empress was chosen. The previous emperor selected her without telling anyone why, which seemed like favoritism.” Laura continued. “It’s also true that the current empress has no special technological achievement to her name, that her mother was a simple commoner, and that she only likes women. Her only allies are loyal servants of the house, the people she gave rank to herself, as  well as much of the AIs who dwell in political and military matters. So all in all, the pure nobles are pissed off, and so are the other royal siblings. The recent civil war happened because of this, but since the opposition wasn't an organised movement, they were taken down one by one. It won't be the case this time...”

“I see…” Ticia closed her eyes for a moment. Much like the Borkian Confederation, the situation within the empire wasn’t as stable as it appeared. There was one question that was on her mind after she was told all this though.

“Then why does the empress have so much interest in me? She isn’t in a very good situation herself.” She asked.

“One reason would be personal interest.” Laura smiled. “The others are simply a matter of betting on you.”

“Personal interest?” Ticia asked again. Laura nodded with a meaningful smile.

“Didn’t I say that her majesty likes women? She’s single at the moment too.”

Did I just get invited into the royal harem? Hell no, let’s just ignore this point. 

“...What do you mean by betting on me?” Ticia asked, deciding to simply ignore what was just mentioned under the lines.

“Well, it has been a long time since a person with the correct genetic code for clones appeared, so of course her majesty would show back interest for a technology she herself had thought of as impossible to replicate.” Laura continued, still with a smile and as if nothing happened. “So it was simply interest in technology at first, but once we discovered this clone installation, some AIs strongly requested to reach out to you. They were searching for one person in particular…”

Ticia reacted to that, she had no doubts Rebot-ia did too. After all, they too were searching for someone…

Could it be… some -ia class AIs have joined the empire? 

“...what a coincidence, we too are searching for someone.” Ticia said with a smile.

“Is that so? Then I guess there truly was a point to our alliance.” Laura smiled back, though her tone revealed that she wasn’t surprised by what Ticia told her… 

“For any material or, well, clones we might meet within the clone installations, they’re yours, for one condition.” Laura added.

“Which is?” Ticia frowned, curious about this generosity.

“If the situation ever gets worse… We’d like to ask you to act as a mercenary force for us…” Laura asked seriously.

Ticia understood what this meant. In other words, should another civil war break out within the empire, the empress was requesting of Ticia to take up arms and join her side…

She did say it was a request rather than an offer. She’s not offering vassality or subjection either…  It’s worth considering. Ticia thought to herself. Even if it meant endangering her daughters, getting the empress’s eternal gratitude as a result would surely give her a strong aly in the future… 

Whether she’s an AI remnant or not, it’s a good offer. Besides, I don’t think the AIs would be happy if she persecuted us…

Thinking about the possibility of any -ia class AI, Ticia was quite positive they’d defend her cause from within the empire. Moreso if they did end up finding their ‘father’...

“Your request is worth considering. Depending of the state of the Borkian Confederation, I might help.'' Ticia said back with a smile.

“Of course, your own security comes first after all, and it’s not like the Borkian Confederation is stable either, in fact, troubles might pop up within less than a year…” Laura said back, smiling mysteriously.

“As for your first question, there was no problem with our escort.” Ticia said conclusively.

“Thanks for the information, we can consider those troops as favorable to our side then.” Laura concluded, sighing in relief. She then got up from her seat. “Now then, let me put my gear on and proceed with our mission.”

Ticia looked at the woman’s back as she left the room. A lot of things were currently on her mind from the discussion she had just now…

“Bronz, any opinion on the matter?” She asked her daughter in charge.

“It seems like this person knows as much about her empress as she knows about the situation within the Borkian Confederation, Mother.” Bronz commented.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too.” Ticia agreed. “The part about the empress might be understandable. Perhaps she’s one of the empress’s women?”

“That would be doubtful. she did mention that the empress was currently single, Mother.” Bronz correct.

“Hmmm…” Ticia remained thoughtful on the matter for a bit, before changing the subject. “Well, let’s forget about that for now. What’s more concerning is the Borkian situation…”

She did mention that ‘troubles’ would pop up in less than a year… What is she talking about exactly?

As Ticia continued to ponder on this, Laure came back. 

She wore an armored skinsuit this time, which had a green camouflage as well as some decorative appendages. If you ignored the decorative appendages, this was a rather simple model who appeared quite light on the armor side. 

It was a standard Phillian army armored skinsuit with some slight modifications. Ticia’s first thought upon seeing it was to compare it with hers, and a slight smile appeared on her face. 

As expected, my armor is superior stuff. She thought smugly as she glanced at her armor. If there was one thing that could be commented on though, it was the various drawings and chibi characters that had been added as time passed, like a cute chibi of Licia, or a chibi of Jinxy tripping over nothing…

Needless to say that her daughters had left their mark on her armor and while white was a good camouflage choice for a snow environment, her armor couldn’t be said to be one taken for battle, but simply an ornamental one like the current armor Laura was wearing.

The ECGs also had some stuff drawn upon their armored skinsuits, but those were simple and minimals compared to hers. Each ECG had her codename written on their right shoulder, as well as some slightly colorful symbol to identify the platoon they were part of. Jinxy’s platoon for example had a four-leaf green clover as their symbol, while Fana’s had a skull head with an eyepatch on.

“Then, if you’re ready, let’s move out.” Laura said, asking for a final confirmation. Ticia nodded and put her helmet on, being greeted by an enthusiast Rebot-ia.

“You heard her right? It’s probably my sisters! I knew they were alive! And if they also claim our father might be here, then he definitely is!” The AI said excitedly.

“Calm down Rebot-ia.” Ticia said in a low, commending voice. “For the next few hours, I want you to be serious and focus only on our mission.”

“Roger roger.” The AI said back, imitating the robots they had just met. Even though it sounded like she wasn’t listening to Ticia, she was, as she kept quiet after that.

Ticia looked at her daughters, they had taken protective formation around her. she knew well now how futile it would be to argue on the matter so she let them be and followed after Laura outside the building and back into the blizzard.

Let’s hope we find answers…

 

 

***

 

A distance from Ticia, a group of people wearing armored skinsuits observed Ticia and her group through binoculars.

“What are they doing?” One who was not observing asked.

“They’re moving out, Boss. Seems like they’re going for the clone installation.” One of the people with the binoculars answered. The person called boss nodded, before approaching him.

“Let me see.” He grabbed the pair of binoculars from his subordinate and looked at Ticia's group. “Yes, they’re moving towards the clone installation.”

“Really? Does that mean we’ll finally act?” One asked from behind.

“Yes.” The boss nodded, still looking through the binoculars as he talked to his subordinates. “Tell the others it’s time to move.”

“Finally!” One of them exclaimed as the other ran out. “Ugh, can’t believe we’ve been stuck in this blizzard for two days! If only we had captured them that day!”

“We followed orders.” The boss corrected. “Our orders were to retreat, not capture them.”

“But still…” The other insisted. “All our misfortune is due to ‘her’...”

“I agree.” Another one said from the side. “Though I must say, I’m quite surprised the Phillian would invite us themselves…”

“Don’t you know the political struggle between the nobles there?” The other one asked. “Honestly it’s kind of disgusting. I feel sorry for the current empress.”

“N-3, N-4, focus on the mission.” Their boss chided in.

““Yes boss…” Both stopped their discussion as other members joined up with them. the boss looked at them and said briefly.

“Our target is the Clone Mother and her clones. eliminate them first and foremost. Captre them if possible. Those orders that were given to us are simple, and I expect each and everyone of you to follow them.”

““Yes!”” The soldiers replied one last time before packing up their materials. Meanwhile the boss looked into the distance, where the clone installation was and mumbled to himself.

“Good soldiers follow orders…”